Unfuturistic. I guess this is not just relatable to SWTOR but to the movies as well. Everything just seems fake and not inspired by anything that is extremely high-tech. I know for the most part things *seem* futuristic, with coruscant, droids, space travel. But they don't (atleast for me) *feel* futuristic. I'll point some stuff out to help illustrate my point.

 

- Speeders: Why do these go painstakingly slow? I remember getting my first speeder, I was so excited to finally be able to travel at high speeds. That is until I actually saw the movement speed.

 

-Dead worlds: Anyone else feel as if the outer rim worlds are a little bare and empty? I just can't put my finger on it.

 

-Weapons: For a civilization that has colonized almost the entire galaxy, why are we still using weapons that look like we just got them out of a world war 2 museum? I mean come one... where are the haze beams, or disintegration rays?

 

-Lack of ground shields-: You would think that every personnel carrying a fire arm at least would have some basic form of shielding tech that protects them from enemy fire. Something like Mass Effect.

 

-Ships: Bland, bland and more bland. I feel like the ships are just places that take you from point A to point B. Wheres the customizable options? Surely with all the corporations and businesses on Corellia have designed adding and taking apart ship parts. Not to mention color hues and weapon designs.

 

I'm sure I can think of more but I'll stop for now. I mean this as by no means an attack on Star wars, I think it's a great game, I just feel like its missing a lot of stuff that you would think a civilization that has almost conquered the entire galaxy would have.

 

I guess it just doesn't have that *feel* like Im in the future warding off high-tech enemies. Things like Star trek, or Mass Effect really do the job well done in this aspect imo. And that is to say that in the Mass Effect universe, the time is only like a century and a half from where we are at now.

 

Anyone else share this?

Well, it is, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

 

Doesn't really spell out futuristic to me in the first place, at least not going along with synonyms to my definition of futuristic.

Well, it is, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

 

Doesn't really spell out futuristic to me in the first place, at least not going along with synonyms to my definition of futuristic.

 

Haha, Touche.

Well, most of the things you listed have much to do with SWTOR specifically and not all the Star Wars movies/books/shows etc...

 

As for Star Wars as a universe; i agree. it doesn't feel too high-tech or futuristic (Like Mass Effect). It does feel a lot different, in a way.

 

I'd disagree on planets and ships being bland in the universe as a whole. There's plenty of variety there (Though again, you're probably mostly addressing the game's bland representation of said ships/mounts, rather than the entire collective universe of SW).

Edited January 23, 2013 by GhostDrone

Well, most of the things you listed have much to do with SWTOR specifically and not all the Star Wars movies/books/shows etc...

 

As for Star Wars as a universe; i agree. it doesn't feel too high-tech or futuristic (Like Mass Effect). It does feel a lot different, in a way.

 

I'd disagree on planets and ships being bland in the universe as a whole. There's plenty of variety there (Though again, you're probably mostly addressing the game's bland representation of said ships/mounts, rather than the entire collective universe of SW).

 

No yea, you're absolutely right. I guess my quarrels are mostly with the star wars universe itself not just swtor.

 

I guess (to me) the mass effect universe seems more futuristic in a sense of the "techyness" and how it was mostly based around real life physics. Like if you ever wanted to know how the normandy got around in FTL travel, you could go to the codex and learn about element-zero. They gave you an actual sci-fi explanation of how the physics and everything worked.

 

In star wars, "O how do lightsabers work." Well, you put a crystal in the hilt, use the force, and bam! I know that's probably not entirely how it works but I'm sure you see the difference .

Edited January 23, 2013 by Jedirep

No yea, you're absolutely right. I guess my quarrels are mostly with the star wars universe itself not just swtor.

 

I guess (to me) the mass effect universe seems more futuristic in a sense of the "techyness" and how it was mostly based around real life physics. Like if you ever wanted to know how the normandy got around in FTL travel, you could go to the codex and learn about element-zero. They gave you an actual sci-fi explanation of how the physics and everything worked.

 

In star wars, "O how do lightsabers work." Well, you put a crystal in the hilt, use the force, and bam! I know that's probably not entirely how it works but I'm sure you see the difference .

 

Yeah. Star Wars has always been a lot more... mythical. Very mysterious and almost magical, in a way. It's a nice blend.

Your 1st two points are pretty much game related things, land speeders in SW travel between 100 to 250 kilometers.

 

Luke's X-34 Landspeeder for instance went 250 kilometers an hour which is 155 mph. So that is fast, besides you don't really need to be doing anything over 100 in speeders anyway otherwise you could end up crashing your speeder.

 

For weapons...there are disruptor rifles which are disintergrators. Some are based off of WW 2 weapons, however there are weapons that look completely different from them. The DC-17m Interchangeable Weapons System for example, the WESTAR-M5 blaster rifle, the TC-22 blaster rifle, DC-15s side arm blaster, etc

 

Personal shield tech? Well looking at that its quite simple, and actually there is a reason for it which is this.

 

While never widespread during the Jedi Civil War (usually being issued to small, elite strike teams) the technology eventually disappeared almost entirely. Little information exists as to why, but Admiral Carth Onasi was heard to speculate that in the future blaster technology might "catch up" to shield technology. As blasters became increasingly effective against shields, producing effective shields would most likely become increasingly difficult and expensive, until it was no longer feasible to build shields for everyday use.

 

The ship bit, again is more of a game thing then anything else. Looking at the different ships in SWU, they actually do look different from the rest.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Wolfninjajedi

If this was our future, we have to remember that that future will be lived in. These advances have been around for TENS of thousands of years. What are we using today, that was also used 10,000 years ago? Even the most modern version of that is quite antiquated. So yea, once technology gets to the point of being ancient, it's going to look old, no matter how you wanna spice it up.

 

In space, there is ALWAYS a frontier. There are always more worlds to explore, more cultures to encounter, more far out of the way places where the margins of society dwell.

 

As for tech, there is always more tech to counter the new tech that comes out. We developed steel swords, then invented chain armor to counter it. We developed chain piercing arrow to get through the chain, so they made plate armor. We developed spiked maces to open up the steel can, and they fluted the armor to make it more resistant to both piercing and bludgeoning. Then we brought over gunpowder from the East to make guns...

 

Star Trek is a future utopia, which Star Wars never became. The same with Mass Effect, shield were nothing more than rationalizing a game mechanic so that you don't die quickly.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Thylbanus

Star Wars is more "space fantasy" than "science fiction". The overwhelming majority of the characters and themes are derived from Ancient Greek literature and theater. Watch "Clash of the Titans" (the original not the remake) and the SW: OT side by side and you'll see what I mean.

 

The whole concept of the lightsaber is a dead giveaway . The "Knights in shining armor" of the European middle ages did not use bows and crossbows; those weapons were for commoners. The same thing can be said of the Jedi; Obi-Wan said it himself in E3, "Blasters, so uncivilized." The Jedi philosophy is also very Shaolin from Ancient Asia

 

As to your specific complaints about the game:

 

Speeders - speeders allow you to travel twice as fast as normal running. the Sprinting ability increases your running speed by 30%. So yes, the speeder speed increase can seem a little underwhelming. You are probably used to WOW flying mounts that travel 320% normal speed which is a huge increase. But remember in WoW legacy/vanilla the fastest mount was only a 100% speed increase. same as SWTOR is now And maybe with the expansion we will get a new rank of piloting and faster speeders.

 

Dead Worlds - find a SW galactic map online and you will see that "in reality" (based on the EU) what in game appears to be sparse is not really sparse at all. But that is what expansions are for . If they put the thousands of worlds in game right from the start there would be no where to grow. And if they put the worlds in and did not "populate" them then players would complain. Best to leave space open and fill in later. (here's a google link: https://www.google.com/search?q=map+of+the+star+wars+galaxy&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=F0U&tbo=u&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=i2YAUfqzK4POqAH5p4HABg&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1414&bih=827)

 

Weapons - that is probably due to the costume design modeling and the total lack of budget in the 1970's when ANH was filmed (they had $6 million when the average film budget was over $20 million at that time). And for the sake of consistency, the modeling has continued. And in game, we are playing in a time thousands of years prior to the movies so there has to be some sort of "regression" to make the timeline fit. That being said, all the technology in game is remarkably similar to the movies so that players are "reminded" this is in the Star Wars universe (one of my early comments as I was watching the intro scenes was that technology hasn't advanced much in 3000 years .)

 

ground shields - in the star wars universe maybe individual shielding is cost prohibitive. You can make up any "excuse" you want...it's fantasy after all .

 

Ships - in this game ships are intended as transport from point A to B, not much more. customization might come eventually and again that is what expansions are for .

Edited January 23, 2013 by psandak

You have to remember the Star Wars franchise started in the seventies, for the seventies the film was very futuristic, and subsequent films couldn't displace the look too much, which set the Star Wars look. Books and comics fitted in with the look, and while the look changed it did so in minor ways, because you didn't want really advanced weapons 5000 years before the weapons in the films.

 

This is why we have chunky blasters, and no shields on every character. The speeders are relatively slow because it's a game, bioware don't want people zooming about at 300 MPH and then complaining that the planets are too small, or they missed something.

yeah for a movie that came out in the 70s the tech has held up pretty well.

 

But remember that Star Wars is a Fantasy movie not a sci fi movie.

The technology in Star Wars is extremely high tech compared to our technology. That doesn't mean it has to look sleek and futuristic by our terms. When Lucas created ANH, he was not only limited by the budget but he also wanted to make everything old and worn looking, like it's been used for decades. He succeeded in the original trilogy very well for everyone except the Empire. Then in the PT he made the tech look sleeker, shinier, and newer while still keeping the design the same.

Haha, Touche.

 

The serious side of the point being made though is that Star Wars was purposely set in the past. So it's not trying to be futuristic at all. The fantasy aspect people keep bringing up is pretty much summed up by the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" bit.

Unfuturistic. I guess this is not just relatable to SWTOR but to the movies as well. Everything just seems fake and not inspired by anything that is extremely high-tech. I know for the most part things *seem* futuristic, with coruscant, droids, space travel. But they don't (atleast for me) *feel* futuristic. I'll point some stuff out to help illustrate my point.

 

I always hate getting into this argument, but Star Wars is not classical science fiction. I know people grew up with it and see shiny space ships and space battles and assume it is but it is actually quite aberrant from most science fiction.

 

You may be better served by viewing it as part of the fantasy genre. And honestly, their are countless of reasons why but the best illustration is force = magic.

 

And if you think about it in more depth, how does a hyper drive operate? How do droids possess intelligence? Answer = magic.

 

How does this differ from classical science fiction? Because it attempts -- sometimes badly -- to back up technology with hard science. For example, we know the mass and size of Ringworld and how fast it spins around the star and the gravity within, we know how HAL is supposedly programmed and how power is generated on the Discovery and ALL of this is actually extrapolations from 1960s physics that is now feasible, we know how holodecks supposedly work and the mechanics of warp drive....

 

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but Star Wars is VERY unique within science-fiction. At least it was when it came out. It was definitely something different, before Lucas the greats of science fiction (e.g. A.C.C.) were actually worried how their novels would be perceived in scientific communities.

 

Whedon and Lucas couldn't care less because they didn't create their stories to write a thesis on technology.

 

- Arcada

Edited January 24, 2013 by Nydus

Thank you guys for your input. Interesting reads.

No yea, you're absolutely right. I guess my quarrels are mostly with the star wars universe itself not just swtor.

 

I guess (to me) the mass effect universe seems more futuristic in a sense of the "techyness" and how it was mostly based around real life physics. Like if you ever wanted to know how the normandy got around in FTL travel, you could go to the codex and learn about element-zero. They gave you an actual sci-fi explanation of how the physics and everything worked.

 

In star wars, "O how do lightsabers work." Well, you put a crystal in the hilt, use the force, and bam! I know that's probably not entirely how it works but I'm sure you see the difference .

 

A lightsaber is essentially a battery thats focused through mutiple lenses, turning the energy into a plasma. Then the plasma is focus by the crystals (since plasma would destroy focus lenses), after that the high density plasma is sent through a emitter matrix (magnetic field generator) to keep the high energy from exploding and creating a bus size hole in the ground where you once stood. The emitter matrix is what also makes the plasma into the blade form. As the plasma is sent up for about a meter it heads back to the hilt towards the negative charged outer ring, which sends the energy back into the battery creating a circuit.

 

-if you didnt follow that explanation, picture a lightsaber as a water fountain in the middle of a park. Positive plasma goes up the middle and cascades down on the outside back into the battery.

 

(and yes that does mean lightsabers do run out of power eventually, and they have to be replaced with a new battery just like a blaster needs new energy packs)

 

so nothing to do with the force or magic, just basic physics that even we can replicate now a days. Only problem is we don't have enough energy to plasma at will let alone handheld, and we don't have magnets strong enough to contain the energy.

That's what makes starwars stand out

 

It not the future it's like an old western with space travel

 

The millineum falcon is a space ship but its a piece of junk and its fixed by chewy hitting it with a hydro spanner

 

The clothing is practical and modest and its all very basic

 

Just look at the troopers and boba fetts armor dented and dusty

 

This is what set starwars part from other scifi franchises its not futuristic and sleak it's dirty and dark

Edited January 26, 2013 by kirorx