One of the big problems that I think a lot of people have been worried about with TOR is that everyone will want to play Jedi and/or Sith rather than any of the other classes. Such a reality would ruin the game play as it'd just be a massive Jedi-Sith lightsaber hacking game.

However, after reading various Developer Blogs and watching videos on swtor.com, I feel that such a danger is no longer present. You see, I think Bioware has figured out how to balance the content of the characters so that none of them are superior to each other.

Evidence:

1) Smuggler dialog - According to the recent Developer Blog, the smuggler will be the wittiest class in the game. This is a clear advantage over the Jedi ("OMG! YOUR FALLING TO THE DARKSIDE!"), the Sith ("BOW BEFORE ME WORM!"), and the Bounty Hunter ("Yada yada, I'm just here for the bounty.") classes. Bioware games are often about story and dialog, so the smuggler class will definitely have a major advantage in terms of the dialog. In fact, the Developer Blog states that having a smuggler in your team is good for negotiations, meaning that if you want to form a successful party you need variety.

2) Combat - As we've learned in TSL, there are lots of good techniques for killing Jedi. Bounty Hunters and Smugglers will likely have some of those techniques: mines, targeting allies, cover system, reflexes, and explosives rather than just blaster bolts. Having a lightsaber does not make one invincible any more.

3) Class Depth - Now that each class has a unique story, these stories will have to compete for interest from the players. Kill the Sith Lord and save the Galaxy from the Empire's been done already, so hunting down bounties, smuggling artifacts, or quelling insurrections on Ord Mantell will now have their own unique appeal.

All in all, I think the Jedi and Sith class are going to be balanced out against the others.

On a personal note, I do hope the next class revealed will be an empire one.

Any Problems I have with the game are the "Other People" part, I have have no worries about Quality, story and gameplay... I just dont trust people to not ruin My experience.

OT: I believe the Terrible mistakes SWG made have pushed a lot of Players, (Especially MMO players) Away from the Force Sensitive classes. Your observations are right though bud, I think Bioware have done there best to make all the classes equally intriguing.

I'll probably go smuggler, but we'll see once the game is getting closer to launch.

@ adamqd: It might be possible for Bioware to create a server for more mature players where the moderators can kick out players who use l33t or t3xt speak. :D If this where to happen, would you be more willing to play?

You have any idea how much moderators they would need to do that? theres a few thousand people per server they would needs tons of moderators.

It depends on what you feel would "ruin your experience" to be honest. I mean, If it's other player's chat, In almost every MMO I've played there's a way to eliminate that text. You can have the text window up that only shows "Quest Dialog" so they can't ruin it that way. You can turn off "Text bubbles" and player names in the UI. About the only thing you couldn't turn off would be the guy running around Tatooine in his undies... And honestly you could simply chalk that up to it's a bloody hot planet, and someone's gone sun crazy.

If this where to happen, would you be more willing to play?

I will play for sure, I was just pointing out that any reservations I had about this not being SP, were the negative aspects of community, and the often found watered down content that MMO's Provide... But I can Obviously only say for sure that the community problems will be there, because the game isn't out and Bioware have sold a good story so far.

Again, Any Problems I ever had with an MMO have been client side :), Overpopulation, Griefing, Profession specific grouping/exile, Developer bashing (Leading to undesirable Game changes and updates) kids... you get the point hehe, I guess I'm just saying an MMO represents an infinite... yet watered down Kotor experience (With Kids).

I hope it will be good, I think it will be Great, I just have reservations, and dont wanna get my hopes too high... I've been stung before.

Observing the SWTOR community, it does seem like a lot of people are choosing the Bounty Hunter and Smuggler classes, so there's definitely an appeal to it for many people. With combat balanced and each class having a separate story, I'm not worried about an overpopulation of Jedi and Sith.

Myself, I'm always going to try out a Jedi, but the other classes do appeal to me, and I'm not sure what my main will be.

I will play for sure, I was just pointing out that any reservations I had about this not being SP, were the negative aspects of community, and the often found watered down content that MMO's Provide... But I can Obviously only say for sure that the community problems will be there, because the game isn't out and Bioware have sold a good story so far.

Again, Any Problems I ever had with an MMO have been client side :), Overpopulation, Griefing, Profession specific grouping/exile, Developer bashing (Leading to undesirable Game changes and updates) kids... you get the point hehe, I guess I'm just saying an MMO represents an infinite... yet watered down Kotor experience (With Kids).

I hope it will be good, I think it will be Great, I just have reservations, and dont wanna get my hopes too high... I've been stung before.

I think the real trick will be for the developers not to get caught up in the Forum Game™. Many people go on the forums saying that the game needs item X to improve the game. or that they'll quit unless X is made better. What they need to do is be able to glean the real useful ideas while ignoring the forum whiners(Every one of which is a "game developer" that could recode the whole game in a night with a TRS 80 LOL). They need to remember that the Forum Goers are never happy with the game. Many of them complain of being bored with the game but stand in the cantina with a /dance macro running.

The best advice I have for the devs.... avoid the forums like the plague. Wait not good enough... Avoid them like a lightsaber weilding Lorenna Bobbit.

I think the forum moderators have stated that they're looking at the quality, not quantity, when it comes to criticism by members. As it should be, of course.

They should focus on what they want to do, if necessary with some adjustments that members have asked for, and not try to please everyone. It would endanger the experience and feel more like a bundle of member requests.

Observing the SWTOR community, it does seem like a lot of people are choosing the Bounty Hunter and Smuggler classes, so there's definitely an appeal to it for many people.
I bet that the main reason for that is because those two classes are the most fleshed out so far. And I doubt that these classes' current popularity will be out of the ordinary when the game releases, since forums are almost always the more hardcore players.

I also have a feeling that immature behavior from other players will be a little less difficult. For one, the entire set up of TOR is different from traditional MMO games like WOW, as the focus is story and role play. Also, actions will have consequences. At first, some "n00b" will log on and go "187z r@16d @11 ur b@2282!!!1!" (translation: let's raid all ur basses!!!1!), then discover that its not that simple. You'll actually have to make choices with true mental and spiritual meaning. Many will be turned off by this, while others will cope and probably evolve to a point where they don't speak in 1337 or text.

In other words, the very structure of TOR is very pro-maturity.

With any MMO, there will always be people that complain. Sometimes it is a legitimate concern. Ability X goes into cooldown without effect. Or Profession Y doesn't work in PVP/PVE/whatever. But most times it's that some person has been beaten by a better player and thinks Profession Z is overpowered. Balance it the single pont of failure when "fixing" games. Of course THAT should be a topic in and of itself....

It is at least refreshing that there seems to be a focus more on making other classes more enjoyable. Having played Galaxies and seen how full it was of Jedi I have to admit I was a bit nervous about TOR and the volume of Jedi to other professions. For a time in Galaxies, you could hardly find anyone that wasn't playing Jedi. The rarest thing in that game was finding someone playin a smuggler... My chosen prof.

I'm not too worried about seeing lots of Jedis.

Besides, it won't have a special way to get to create a Jedi in this game, you can simple create one from day one. So there's nothing special about aquiring it like it was in Galaxies.

As for the experience, there's not a huge chance for lots of Jedi to ruin the illussion that you are living in a Star Wars world like Galaxies did. Atleast there are ment to be Jedi's in this timeperiod. Galaxies should never have introduced it.

It's not the only reason I quit Galaxies. Jump to Lightspeed Expansion: Who the hell thought it was a good idea to hire a Wing Commander developer to do a Star Wars space expansion?!? It certaintly showed!! :swear:

It's not the only reason I quit Galaxies. Jump to Lightspeed Expansion: Who the hell thought it was a good idea to hire a Wing Commander developer to do a Star Wars space expansion?!? It certaintly showed!! :swear:


Did you really just quote JTL as a flaw for SWG? I always found that to be one of SWG's strong points. It felt like space, it was huge, and the system there was unchanged throughout all of SWG's controversial ground combat revamps.

I'm actually hoping TOR copies SWG's space experience, since it was sure better than KotOR's crappy space turret segments.

Did you really just quote JTL as a flaw for SWG? I always found that to be one of SWG's strong points. It felt like space, it was huge, and the system there was unchanged throughout all of SWG's controversial ground combat revamps.

I'm actually hoping TOR copies SWG's space experience, since it was sure better than KotOR's crappy space turret segments.

Gotta agree with you here... After the NGE, the only reason to play for me was space... Not to mention that the game was STAR Wars, not BEAST Wars or BUFF Wars or MY TEMPLATE IS BETTER THAN YOURS Wars.

Though I hope they don't COPY SWG's space experience. I do hope they capture the fun and excitement without being Star Wars Wing Commander.

I gotta admit I'm not too worried about a zillion Jedi. I'm sure there will be a billion to start off the game, but once things settle down and Jedis start getting taken down by smugglers in PvP because of somethingorother people will realize the value of other classes. I know I'm not going to start Jedi.

As for Space, I don't know how I want them to handle it too much. Space is such a huge element in SW. I do like the fact that it seems they are embracing it to a point with the recent voice trailer being placed in space. It's a very Star Wars take on instance dungeons that I definitely like. As for ad-hoc combat in space/trade via space, I'd like it, but at the same time I'm not sure how it'd be accomplished without taking away from the character interaction.

I'm not sure how well this will work out, but I'm planning on playing the game as if it were a 1-player RPG as much as possible. I know that some missions will require multiple players, and I'm willing to accept that, but I want to do as much as I can just by myself and ignore the MMO reality of the game.

That being said I don't care if everyone else is a Jedi. I have my NPCs to interact with and I don't care so much about what other people are doing in the game.

I'm not worried about too many Jedi. The mature players won't bother me, and I can just use flamethrowers and grenades on the n00bish ones who get on my nerves with their l33t and t3xt speak.

Did you really just quote JTL as a flaw for SWG? I always found that to be one of SWG's strong points. It felt like space, it was huge, and the system there was unchanged throughout all of SWG's controversial ground combat revamps.

I'm actually hoping TOR copies SWG's space experience, since it was sure better than KotOR's crappy space turret segments.

It was Wing Commander with Star Wars skin, there's no getting around that.

What ever happened to the HUD from X-Wing and TIE Fighter?
Tactical Map?
Bambi On Ice effect?!? The hell!?!

Why on earth did Sony feel they had to reinvent the wheel here?

I liked the ability to change engines, guns, power, paint your ship, and I loved how you could walk inside the larger ships while a pilot was flying it around.

But those are features that add to the experience, not radically changing the established dynamics and functions.

In my opinion, and I'm sure many feels the same way as I, the Star Wars radar screens are one of the best. So why did we get the crappy Wing Commander one?!?

So far for the 4 classes that we know of I will probably be a Bounty Hunter, good money and alot of fun. And a very good and strong class!

I hope there will be some more intresting classes though!