The Little Things {SWTOR}

[Alatian]

When people talk about SWTOR, they often mention the massive storylines, the voiceover and the tight combat. These are large selling points, and will probably be branded on the back of the box. However, many people forget about a video game's little features. These small details or conveniences are what really make a game go from "good" to "great". When you say a game is polished, you generally mean that it has many little details that all work seamlessly in order to achieve a great experience.

What are the little things you enjoy about SWTOR? What are the small touches that make you smile whenever you see them?

Personally, I enjoy the fact that voices echo in long hallways, Battlefield style. Depth of sound is a large plus for me, and shows a lot of polish. I also like how when you respawn in PvP, you fly in on a speeder bike.

The GW2 version of this thread for those interested: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...7#post13573377

[Kaninchen]

I think the gear design is fantastic, especially how the cloak moves smoothly in combat.

[StationaryHawk]

Jawa companions.

[vian]

I enjoy the fact that foot-prints stick in the sand for a few minutes.

[Trollsbane]

Oh don't get me started!

The subtle things make this game, and there are so many.

(I'm only listing things I've seen in conventions. It's still under the NDA, so many things can't be said.)

-The look. You haven't been able to see it yet cause of bad quality videos, but it's a gorgeous game.
-The detail. No clipping when running. The fabric moves like it should.
-Physics. Cloaks and dresses, etc have realistic movement when you move, and is especially impressive to watch when you jump from various heights.
-Slower PvP combat. Hot damn! None of that 2 hit kill crap.
-Companions giving info. When you get to certain places on the map and have your companion out, they will say a little something (with their biases and personality) about the place you are at.
-The music. Holy shit.
-Heroic feeling combat. Just try playing an older game after this. It's hard.
-Choices. Immersion is now complete!
-Questing layout. Call it "linear" if you want to jump on the bandwagon, but it works, and it works very well.
-Polished and easy to pickup game. It looks and feels right.
-Flashpoint being meaningful. Yeah, it's a major thing I guess, but having story and in-game reasons to do things is awesome.
-Lightning and shadow. It looks rad and as characters pass under trees, the light reflects or dims as it should.
-Combat animations. All are different, and blocks, parries, dodges (Especially with lightsabers) are awesome.
-Falling. Jumping from high places causes you to roll when you land if you are moving, or do a cool "pose" if not moving.
-Weapon sounds. Different models make different sounds.
-Scaled environment. buildings aren't shacks on the outside, but have 3 stories and basketball courts in them when you go inside. It's all correct scale.

I guess I'll stop there and let others actually contribute...

[Alatian]

-Falling. Jumping from high places causes you to roll when you land if you are moving, or do a cool "pose" if not moving.

See, things like this are what I'm talking about. Holy crap, that just sounds cool.

[Karteli]

I love the multiple directions dungeons can take. No more toothpaste squirter dungeons.

Choreographed graphics. A parry or deflect is graphically shown as such.

As said earlier - Music! .. can't say this enough. It seems that every movie or game I liked also had awesome music, and you remember the music long after you forget everything else.

The engine can handle very impressive special effects.

Unfortunately, the little things can't be talked about much because of the NDA - but there are lots of little things to love.

[Gallahadd]

wanna know one thing which REALLY struck me about Swtor, and it's a little wierd but it's actually probably one of the top things that makes me want this game...

the shear god damned SCALE of it all.

what do I mean by scale? Simple. Take a look at a flashpoint, for instance the Black Talon flashpoint (I think that's what it's called.. the early republic one where you have to fight off the Sith bording parties, ya know the one they've shown us about 1000000x in various developer blogs ) when they're running through the big halls it seem BIG, not like in WoW, where you go into say Shadowfang Keep, and the whole place feels small, cramped, even places like Vortex Pinnacle, which are supposed to feel big and open feel cramped to be, too many tiny twisting tunnels, and paths looping back on themselves. Compare that to what we've seen of stuff like Black Talon, or even the vveerryy first Flashpoint Taral V, and they seem HUGE, open, it seems like you're in a real WORLD, as opposed to just some tiny little fragment of it, locked away for you to farm loot in. tbh what they remind me of most, more so than the dungeons in WoW is the instanced quests in DDO, places like Red Willow Ruins, where you get to explore a frakkin forest, and it actually feels like you're in there, hacking through vines and really expoloring, you're there for the joy of descovery, you're there to find out what's in there, and solve the mysteries within, loot is a seconday consideration (mostly because there IS no loot in RWR ). Okay they've not shown us much in the way of Flashpoints, but from what they have shown us, and just as importantly what they've shown us of the questing areas, I got a real sense of the scale of the game, it really made me feel like there where WORLDS to explore, not 4/5 zones each with there own theme, but real living breathing planets, each with their own story to live through, their own mysteries to explore.

so yeah... little thing... BIG explanation, but it does make me a giddy lil Padawan

[Shardik]

that a trooper's voice changes when he wears a helmet, from the taral V dev video

also, that line from the bounty hunter as the jedi trys a mind trick on him, is hilarious.

EDIT: also that zones are actually planets, so the themes feel natural, I remember in wow it always felt dissegmented like elwynn to westfall, or grizzly hills to dragonblight. It makes sense to see massive differences from planet to planet.

[Alatian]

wanna know one thing which REALLY struck me about Swtor, and it's a little wierd but it's actually probably one of the top things that makes me want this game...

the shear god damned SCALE of it all.

what do I mean by scale? Simple. Take a look at a flashpoint, for instance the Black Talon flashpoint (I think that's what it's called.. the early republic one where you have to fight off the Sith bording parties, ya know the one they've shown us about 1000000x in various developer blogs ) when they're running through the big halls it seem BIG, not like in WoW, where you go into say Shadowfang Keep, and the whole place feels small, cramped, even places like Vortex Pinnacle, which are supposed to feel big and open feel cramped to be, too many tiny twisting tunnels, and paths looping back on themselves. Compare that to what we've seen of stuff like Black Talon, or even the vveerryy first Flashpoint Taral V, and they seem HUGE, open, it seems like you're in a real WORLD, as opposed to just some tiny little fragment of it, locked away for you to farm loot in. tbh what they remind me of most, more so than the dungeons in WoW is the instanced quests in DDO, places like Red Willow Ruins, where you get to explore a frakkin forest, and it actually feels like you're in there, hacking through vines and really expoloring, you're there for the joy of descovery, you're there to find out what's in there, and solve the mysteries within, loot is a seconday consideration (mostly because there IS no loot in RWR ). Okay they've not shown us much in the way of Flashpoints, but from what they have shown us, and just as importantly what they've shown us of the questing areas, I got a real sense of the scale of the game, it really made me feel like there where WORLDS to explore, not 4/5 zones each with there own theme, but real living breathing planets, each with their own story to live through, their own mysteries to explore.

so yeah... little thing... BIG explanation, but it does make me a giddy lil Padawan

I agree with this. The only MMOs I'm interested in are the ones with a good art direction and sense of scale. Every time I see screenshots of environments in either game (don't want to mention the G-word on the Swtor forum ;P), I take a deep breath. I think we're past sticks in the mud and tiny "castles" the size of forts. Give me massive starships to explore from bridge to engine room, and give me massive castle-cities that span from seedy alleyways to massive mansions.

[Trollsbane]

I agree with this. The only MMOs I'm interested in are the ones with a good art direction and sense of scale. Every time I see screenshots of environments in either game (don't want to mention the G-word on the Swtor forum ;P), I take a deep breath. I think we're past sticks in the mud and tiny "castles" the size of forts. Give me massive starships to explore from bridge to engine room, and give me massive castle-cities that span from seedy alleyways to massive mansions.

Bah. If anyone here doeant think GW2's environment isn't gorgeous as well, they're just silly.

[Alatian]

Bah. If anyone here doeant think GW2's environment isn't gorgeous as well, they're just silly.

Opinions are opinions. That said, it would be the same as saying ToR has bad writing: a silly, misinformed opinion. But an opinion nonetheless.

[Wyrmrider]

Space combat minigame.

Riding speeder bikes down to the Alderaan warfront when respawning.

Stepping into "instanced" areas without a load screen.

[Gallahadd]

I agree with this. The only MMOs I'm interested in are the ones with a good art direction and sense of scale. Every time I see screenshots of environments in either game (don't want to mention the G-word on the Swtor forum ;P), I take a deep breath. I think we're past sticks in the mud and tiny "castles" the size of forts. Give me massive starships to explore from bridge to engine room, and give me massive castle-cities that span from seedy alleyways to massive mansions.

aye take something like Stormwind for example, it's supposed to be the biggest city in the human empire, yet it's smaller than your average shopping mall... And the castle is like one room, compare that to what we've seen of planets like Coruscant, or Dromund Kaas... Well it's no comparison really is it?

god I need beta...

[Maleagant]

I like the companions and how you can get them to craft things for you and even get them to go on missions.
The music and sound effects really sets the mood and reminds you how awesome Star Wars is.
I mean come on...you get your own Starship!!!
Planets,planets and more planets.So much to see.

[Tore]

I'm not sure if this is NDA breaking, but the first time I saw a Taxi speeder in Coruscant and it looked like an actual taxi I smiled inwardly for about 10 minutes. Little things like that are great fun.

[torftw]

I'm not sure if this is NDA breaking, but the first time I saw a Taxi speeder in Coruscant and it looked like an actual taxi I smiled inwardly for about 10 minutes. Little things like that are great fun.

I couldn't find the picture you are talking about but here is a different one:
http://www.swtor.com/media/concepts/fan-friday
Love that is says taxi right on there.

That being said to add to the post,
-Aurebesh writing everywhere. As a SW fan this is great running up to a bunch of signs and translating them.
-Telling my companion to go and pickup gathering nodes in the world. So many times I get agroed and interrupted at the last fraction of a second in other mmos. Now I can kill while he is over in the corner picking stuff up.

[NyghtFox]

One of the biggest things for me is the shear polished look on the graphics. The people saying they are not nice dont realize that its the video quality not the in game graphics.

That and the little different ways people move and act like they are actually real and not robomatronic like other mmos.

still /stoked for Dec lol

[wrists]

i dont expect it to be like wow... they are actually pollishing tons of the little things... but still for me gamplay trumps graphics

[vizzle]

Being able to decorate the interior of my ship with little things that I can buy with credits or unlock with achievements.

Oh wait


But seriously, I think one of the nice little things about this game is how you can develop relationships with your companions and how you can gear them up. I like the fact that you have to gear your companions up, it makes it feel more real.