No no, you misunderstand the issue. The Empire is ALREADY losing. From a story perspective, the Empire should currently be winning? Currently it's pretty much a case of the Empire retreating- I think the only planet where Imps "won" was Taris.

 

Imagine, for instance, that the Emperor and Darth Vader were aboard the first Death Star, thus ending the war in a single film. That's what playing the Empire feels like. Yes, the Empire will obviously lose in the end (or not, since some of their tech looks like Clone Wars era Republic tech, so maybe the two groups merge somehow?) but the point is people want to feel like there's a war going on. The Republic is essentially cleaning up what's left of the Empire atm.

 

Time for Satele Shan or Jace Malcom to be killed off imo.

 

Okay... why should it be? They'd had a string of crushing victories in the backstory, and the tide turned over the course of the game.

 

So now the Republic are set up to become over-confident before getting pushed back. So on and so on - how else will an ongoing two-faction story work?

But please stop making up planets; plenty already exist.

 

This. I'm sure it's a great thrill for the writers and designers to create new things, but to be brutally honest I don't really care about how they feel about it.

The problem with using existing planets is that they're limited in what they can write about them while trying to keep in line with existing lore. I'm not saying they shouldn't try, but it does give them a lot more creative freedom and less risk of enraging SW nerds.

The problem with using existing planets is that they're limited in what they can write about them while trying to keep in line with existing lore. I'm not saying they shouldn't try, but it does give them a lot more creative freedom and less risk of enraging SW nerds.

 

Shows an incredible lack of creativity on their part then.

 

I'm sure there's a reason why this whole timescale was set 3000 years before the films after all.

Wanting a clean slate that they can do whatever they want with doesn't show a lack of creativity at all. Quite the opposite. Slavishly sticking to established worlds for framework is far less creative. Edited March 9, 2013 by LadyDrusilla

Coming up with something new and interesting within existing boundaries requires a lot more thought.

 

Besides there are absolutely shedloads of planets that "exist" as it is. Here is the list of complied planets that begin with the letter A:

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_planets_A

 

That's one letter of the alphabet. One.

It doesn't require a greater *quantity* of thought.. Obviously starting from from nothing means you have no foundation to start from. It's like putting an adding an extension to a house verses laying an entirely new foundation. It does take more work researching current established lore, though. It's particularly more difficult when we're talking about a time that takes place long before most of Star Wars official canon. Last thing you want to do is write something that will conflict with the story that has already been set to happen in the future.

 

If they make more expansions, they'll probably go with more already established planets at some point. At some point they need to consider what canonically happens in galaxy with this war.

Coming up with something new and interesting within existing boundaries requires a lot more thought.

 

Besides there are absolutely shedloads of planets that "exist" as it is. Here is the list of complied planets that begin with the letter A:

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_planets_A

 

That's one letter of the alphabet. One.

It requires a lot more effort for minimal gain, not the same thing as being more creative at all. Creating a whole new world that still fits in the Star Wars universe aesthetically and thematically is are more creative.

 

So someone edits Makeb into the M section and jobs done.

Okay... why should it be? They'd had a string of crushing victories in the backstory, and the tide turned over the course of the game.

 

So now the Republic are set up to become over-confident before getting pushed back. So on and so on - how else will an ongoing two-faction story work?

 

If they get pushed back. The game has- in terms of story- just started. The end of the war should not be in sight already :/

Whatever, I can't be bothered to argue sematics on the internet. I don't have the time, patience or motivation for it.

 

I'd like to see them use existing planets. End of.

Whatever, I can't be bothered to argue sematics on the internet. I don't have the time, patience or motivation for it.

 

I'd like to see them use existing planets. End of.

 

Rakata Prime (Lehon, if you prefer), was datamined a while back. So there's hope

If they get pushed back. The game has- in terms of story- just started. The end of the war should not be in sight already :/

 

The end of the war has never been in sight, it's a war that goes back and forth, the Empire will eventually push them back and the Republic will do the same.

The end of the war has never been in sight, it's a war that goes back and forth, the Empire will eventually push them back and the Republic will do the same.

 

That's speculation really. I hope you're right though. Playing as an Imperial will feel more worthwhile when the Empire stops looking like it's doomed.

That's speculation really. I hope you're right though. Playing as an Imperial will feel more worthwhile when the Empire stops looking like it's doomed.

 

Nope, that's true of every major war based MMORPG in the market, I have not played a single one where it hasn't simply yoyo'd back and forth.

Nope, that's true of every major war based MMORPG in the market, I have not played a single one where it hasn't simply yoyo'd back and forth.

 

It's speculation. This game hasn't yoyo'd at all. The Empire has slowly started losing. It may turn around, and I hope it does, but the Republic hasn't been on the losing end yet.

Whatever, I can't be bothered to argue sematics on the internet. I don't have the time, patience or motivation for it.

 

I'd like to see them use existing planets. End of.

It isn't semantics.

 

Existing planets:

Coruscant

Taris

Nal Hutta

Nar Shadaa

Corellia

Ord Mantell

Korriban

Dromund Kaas (I think)

Balmorra

Tatooine

Belsavis

Ilum

 

Possibly missing some.

 

New planets:

Voss

Makeb

Quesh

 

Usage of existing planets is well ahead in other words. Complaining about the ratio of old to new planets being 4-1 seems rather petty.

Am I the only one perturbed that the "Lead Writer" position has been passed around this many times already?

No no, you misunderstand the issue. The Empire is ALREADY losing. From a story perspective, the Empire should currently be winning? Currently it's pretty much a case of the Empire retreating- I think the only planet where Imps "won" was Taris.

 

Imagine, for instance, that the Emperor and Darth Vader were aboard the first Death Star, thus ending the war in a single film. That's what playing the Empire feels like. Yes, the Empire will obviously lose in the end (or not, since some of their tech looks like Clone Wars era Republic tech, so maybe the two groups merge somehow?) but the point is people want to feel like there's a war going on. The Republic is essentially cleaning up what's left of the Empire atm.

 

Time for Satele Shan or Jace Malcom to be killed off imo.

 

Spot on.

 

If Makeb goes the same way of the Story so far we will find:

 

The Republic Story involves defeating a powerful army that threaterns the galaxy, with each of the different areas one of the pillars of Hutt army will be defeated. This will lead them to being declared heroes and gaining the love of the people and support for the war effort.

 

The Empire Story will involve in pointlessly travelling from place to place battling incredibly powerful droid or guardians in a search for some mysterious power. Only each place will be a bust till you get to the last one where you will find its not there or its not what the sith and the hutt thought and its all a waste of time.

 

At which point the war will once again devolve into same faction PvP warzones.

Spot on.

 

If Makeb goes the same way of the Story so far we will find:

 

The Republic Story involves defeating a powerful army that threaterns the galaxy, with each of the different areas one of the pillars of Hutt army will be defeated. This will lead them to being declared heroes and gaining the love of the people and support for the war effort.

 

The Empire Story will involve in pointlessly travelling from place to place battling incredibly powerful droid or guardians in a search for some mysterious power. Only each place will be a bust till you get to the last one where you will find its not there or its not what the sith and the hutt thought and its all a waste of time.

 

At which point the war will once again devolve into same faction PvP warzones.

 

Tbh I think a good plot would be Satele Shan gets involved in something and perhaps the Inquisitor fights and kills her, then the Jedi Knight or Consular could become the new Grand Master.

 

If Rakata Prime is still coming (which I suspect it is), this would be an ideal place for such a plot, as the planet would be worth Shan's time (the planet is historically significant both for the wider Galaxy and Shan herself, not to mention the fact that the homeworld of the Rakata is bound to be of great interest to the Sith and Jedi alike).

i have an operational question

 

due to the republic upper hand and the hutt cartel expansion, will we see a galaxy MAP changes to what we know from the galaxy map?

This sounds very awesome..glad that I preordered. Just wish that it would hurry up and go live already lol.

Sounds good and intriguing so far.

 

Appreciate the overview format... some insights (without giving too much away of course) and no Soon, It's Exciting, etc. vanilla.

 

Interesting that it's a new addition rather than existing staples. I like that idea, and look forward to enjoying the results of this creative opportunity. Wouldn't mind seeing Kashyyk or however it's spelled down the road.

 

MFW I think about the Shadowlands potential in this game.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Joesixxpack

i would like to know if we will see world pvp on makeb. can you please tell us something about it?

 

Hey Lucotas,

 

If you are on a PvP server, Makeb is like any other shared Faction planet where you can participate in open world pvp.

Hey Lucotas,

 

If you are on a PvP server, Makeb is like any other shared Faction planet where you can participate in open world pvp.

 

Being able to "participate" isn't the issue Courtney....we can participate now virtually anywhere. Is it going to be promoted or encouraged in any form (via quests)? In order for world PvP to happen naturally, we need overlapping objectives and incentive that competes with WZ's - this is a gear progression game and without the ability to progress via world PvP, it won't happen with frequency. Does Makeb address this lack of any reward from PvP in any form?

I'd think that if there was something like that, they would have said it by now, so I'm guessing no.