Those of us anxiously awaiting the release of SWTOR have many questions about gameplay and tactics. One issue that has come up after videos of the gameplay have been released is in relation to the apparent tank n’ spank nature of some of the bosses. Some worry that the game will be too easy or that there does not seem to be any mechanic involved in tanking the bosses. Georg Zeoller, Principal Lead Combat Designer, explains how this is not true and why more information cannot be released at this time on the topic: “This has been discussed before, but to re-iterate: The Old Republic uses a wide palette of mechanics for the harder boss fights, it is not just ‘tank ‘n’ spank”. When it comes to videos, there’s a number of reasons why you haven’t seen anything more complex: (a) Throwing people who have never played the game at…
Month: June 2011
Gear swapping in mid-combat? – No Says Georg Zoeller
While many MMOs have gear-swapping or weapon-swapping in combat, Georg Zoeller says that SWTOR will not. This has some fans unhappy but Zoeller explains the reasoning behind it: “Switching weapons to maximize stats is not the kind of gameplay we want to encourage. It’s tedious and not fun for the overwhelming majority of players, and since some players would feel compelled to engage in the behavior if it offered a benefit, regardless how tedious and unfun it was, we just disallow it, period.” Some are worried about what would happen if say, you were caught in combat without a weapon. Zoeller answers this as well: “It’s pretty much impossible to not have a weapon equipped. You’d have to work for that. Sure, you can unequip a weapon and not equip a new one, but there’s no compelling reason to do so .. even less outside in the wilderness…
How Stuff Works: Gaderffii
The Gaderffii, or Gaffi stick, was the traditional melee weapon of the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine. Crafted out of whatever salvage was at hand, they were very effective in close combat. Nearly every Tusken was proficient in the use of these weapons and more Tuskens chose the gaffi over the Tusken Cycler. The weapon was of the staff-variety, on average about four feet long, with a weapon-head on each end. The first resembled an archaic flanged mace, with each of the four or more flanges sharpened like an axe-edge. Upon the tip was a spearpoint. The opposite end of the gaffi stick usually was bent into an L-shape, with a large and heavy club head tipped by a hook or second spearpoint (which itself was often tipped with sandbat venom) which would inflict maximum pain to an enemy. The dual weapon-heads gave a gaderffii-wielder a wide and versatile amount of…
Fan Art: Szoki’s Princess Leia Trilogy
Today sees the discovery (via GeekTyrant) of more excellent fan art, this time by a Hungarian artist called Szoki (whose Behance page features all of his Star Wars related work), who has created a Princess Leia themed triptych of posters for the original Star Wars trilogy. You should all now by know that I’m something of a fan-made/alternative poster junkie, and it’s little discoveries like this one that make my geeky heart beat faster. If it was possible, I’d buy pretty much all of this guy’s work, though at the minute he seems to only be posting it for his own personal enjoyment, which is fair enough – but what about the addicts like me who want to immediately own a print?! Someone give him the power to sell. Feast your eyes on these… Szoki is obviously a man of some talent, and I’d urge everyone to visit his page…