Smuggler Archive
Thread: Friendly Reminder. E3 this week = Less Devs.
Ok, made it back alive from E3....spoke with Gary Gattis, Haden Blackman, Thunderheart, Q-3PO, and Pex about space. I even got to play around with it a little tiny bit (when no one was looking, and TH let me shoot down an X-Wing!! /cheer Veela!!)
I have to say, any faith I have lost in this game over the past year was completely reinstilled after talking to the devs. They love this game just as much as we do, and are doing everything in their power to make it the best MMO out there. SE is the coolest thing ever. There are lots of ships, and things like flying through nebulas will cause the space aroundyou to crack lightning and damage your ship. I watched Haden Blackman get into Pex's ship, walk over to his turrets, and fire at other ships while Pex piloted and shot down other people. Amazing, simply put. I walked out of my first day there with a huge smile on my face and a big giant beam of hope about SE...now all I had to do was ask about the rest of the game, and see what the devs told me.
1. Smuggler - Everyone should be very happy they pushed us back, as they are really going to give us a LOT of love in Pub 11. Everyone I spoke to about it said that they really didn't wanna put us to the side, and I really feel that, even though I was sad they pushed it back, I'm happy now because we're going to get much more attention and much more time. They have some really cool ideas for smuggler, I asked about dual guns and they said they had it motion captured, but couldn't say whether it was going to smuggler. They also said they were going to really try and make smuggler a profession where we felt like we were doing something illegal. I recall them talking about working on a way for a smuggler to escape large mobs, of 10 or more, but weren't sure how to quite implement it yet, as they realized there would be people lagging up a place if we had something like smoke boms or something along those lines. I asked for a pocket full of sand to throw in someone's face to get away, so if we get that, it was here first!! All in all, they are really excited about the smuggler revamp, and it made me excited too. They made a good point and said that smuggler was really a space based profession to them, and that they were going to really work hard to make smugglers the scoundrels they should be!
2. Space - Asked about JtL, there's going to be 4 new profs, Rebel Pilot, Imp Pilot, Neutral Pilot, and Shipwright. Also 2 new species, and TH said some website guessed one correctly, but he wouldn't tell me!! I made sure to ask about skill points, and if we had to use our existing skill pool to be pilots. That is not the case, although shipwrights, being a ground prof, will use skill points to learn. Also, something really cool I liked a lot was that pilot professions didn't go by experience points, it was by skill and quest-like accomplishments. You got boxes as you got better at being a pilot, which was really cool and really ingenious, imho. There were a lot of ships planned, TH said something about 15 ships at launch, but that things can change. I saw quite a few ships, Y Wing, numerous TIE fighters, etc. I don't remember if they said that you'd get better ships as you rose in faction rank or in experience rank, but one of those got you better stuff for your ship. When you took down a ship, the explosion was incredible, with some beautiful wreckage floating around the screen that was pretty amazing. After you take down a ship, there's an auto loot function, and you can loot components for your ship. What was really cool (I thought) was that if you had a bunch of stuff you couldn't use on your ship that was the same piece, you could possibly take it to a shipwright and they can make you better engines, shields, etc. Your R2 Droid plays a really integral part in your space experience too, and auto transfers power to shields and such when you're getting hit.I can't even say how freaking amazing the Space Expansion is!!! I can't wait!!
3. Jedi - Man, Jedi are really getting changed. Most of the stuff I learned this week is in the outline of the 9 and 10 revamp, but I still can't get over how cool it's going to be that Dark Jedi are going to have to PvP to be a Master, and continue to PvP to be a Master. I recall one dev's position on this: "We want it so that when a player sees another player with a Dark Jedi Master title up, they think..."that guy's a badass!"" I thought that was really cool that they're thinking about all that stuff. The trials are going to be so awesome too, and I can't wait to try them out, I didn't get to hear any particulars on it, but was assured that they were going to be incredibly challenging, and really test a player's limits in every way. I was also told Jedi and Dark Jedi are going to have their own "Jedi Only" caves in which to host their PvP challenges, vote on Jedi Council (light Jedi,) and everything else. Freaking awesome.
4. Combat - We're all getting leveled when Combat Balance comes out. Period. They are going to change it all, damage, armor, HAM, EVERYTHING. The new HAM system is going to be really amazing, I heard from almost everyone that they want combat to not be a "spam your profession's best special" and actually take tactics and make you really think if you want to use one ability over another. This was really exciting for me, and I think that combat is going to really change because of it. And all I can say is CMs, watch out, cause you're not going to own in PvP anymore after Pub 10...although I wish it was sooner.
Other stuff - Heard a really cool idea from TH (not set in stone, don't get hopes up) of having Hoth a while after space expansion comes out, and making it a really bad ass PvP battlefield...ATSTs, ATATs, Snow Speeders, the whole nine yards...but that's waaaaay in the future. Something else to note is that there will not be new planets when space comes out, but 10 new space zones, which I'm ok with.
All in all, I had a really great time, TH, Shug, Q, JustG, Pex, if you're reading this, I had sooo much fun with you all in the LucasArts booth. Thanks for putting up with the billion questions I asked and all my mouthing off. I'm sure I talked everyone's ear off, but for me, it was so worth it.
And I asked the million dollar question to all the devs, and this is the answer I got from everyone:
"Nope, not all the devs are Rebels!! There's quite a few Imperial devs, in fact JustG is one!!"
So there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I had fun writing it. 
All questions or criticism please forward to my PM box...cause I usually just check in to see if I have a PM or two during the day....!
MISTagent01 wrote:
[too much to quote, but a ton on Galaxies from E3.]
So... frickin... awsome....
Thanks for the info ! You rock! I can't wait till the combat balance and the JTL. I hope pistoleer gets the dual pistols.
/ducks incoming stones
Message Edited by Mizraal on 05-17-2004 12:24 PM
Hey smugglers!
I'm back from E3 and itching to get our unified smuggler proposal together. I'll be leaving soon today, but I'll be back on my ultra long hours tomorrow 
...heh...need to recover 
I wanted to thank Veela and her brother and the rest of the fans for stopping by.
I'm outta here today, but I wanted to thank you for stopping by!
Be well
TH-
I'm glad to see you survived.... I heard there was a bounty on your head, and a public appearance like E3.
Man, you maybe a true Rogue after all
Veela....Great work. You've brought hope to this old Smuggler
/grin
/nod
Message Edited by JWing on 05-17-2004 01:54 PM
LooMacklin wrote:
BAH! E3 totally shizucked this year.
Couldn't find a single game to get excited about.
Er, ok. If you say so.
I'm excited about the Star Wars: Jump to Lightspeed, Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, The Chronicles of Riddick, Guild Wars, Worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft: Ghost, Everquest 2, Burnout3, and several others that I can't remember right now. Battlefront looks absolutely like it ought to on the PC. The Endor scene I played was fantastic. That is going to be Star Wars PvP gold. Of course so will Jump to Lightspeed. I can't wait. So many cool Star Wars games coming up.
DeQuosaek wrote:
Er, ok. If you say so.
I'm excited about the Star Wars: Jump to Lightspeed, Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, The Chronicles of Riddick, Guild Wars, Worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft: Ghost, Everquest 2, Burnout3, and several others that I can't remember right now. Battlefront looks absolutely like it ought to on the PC. The Endor scene I played was fantastic. That is going to be Star Wars PvP gold. Of course so will Jump to Lightspeed. I can't wait. So many cool Star Wars games coming up.
Haven't paid much attention lately. What're Battlefront and Republic Commando like?
Orcajum wrote: Haven't paid much attention lately. What're Battlefront and Republic Commando like?
Battlefront is a First Person Shooter like Battlefield 1942 except in a Star Wars setting. The graphics and sounds are awesome and fit perfectly. I've only played the Endor setting, but you can choose different classes of troops on wither side and the jungles on Endor have plenty of foliage to hide in and you can hop in an AT-ST or onto a speederbike. The speederbikes go very fast, and if you run into a tree it blows up and you die. It's pretty cool. It will be my second addiction next to SWG. There will be other settings, like Naboo, Geonosis, Yavin IV among others. Check out the official site. It looksgood on PS2, great on XBox and amazing on the PC.
Republic Commando is more of a single player FPS where you are aClone Trooper Squad Leader and you oder your squad to help you out different ways in different situations. It looks pretty cool too.
DeQuosaek wrote:
Battlefront is a First Person Shooter like Battlefield 1942 except in a Star Wars setting.
Republic Commando is more of a single player FPS where you are aClone Trooper Squad Leader and you oder your squad to help you out different ways in different situations. It looks pretty cool too.
Ok, one's like Battlefield 1942, and the other sounds more like a Rainbow 6 game. Excellent.