Slashdot Mirror
LucasArts and BioWare to Develop New Star Wars RPG
Ant was the first of a number of folks to write about the press release that came out from LucasArts and Bioware. Bioware, you probably remember, has done Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate with their Infinity Engine. Pretty cool stuff - the setting of the game is going to be prior to the Star Wars movies. I don't know whether that means prior to Episode I or Episode IV, but the real-world ship date is supposed to be 2002. So, donna hold your breath.
Thank you, that's good input. If I had mod points today I would give you some ... oh wait you're an AC, anyway.
Since most of /. audience is American, a sly anti-American post can snag a few suckers. Nothing blatant, of course.
You haven't been following me too closely, I basically do it all the time. Maybe I'm too blatant, though. Well actually, given how the slightest irony manages to get over the head of a dozen posters usually, I'm not sure subtlety would be such a good idea.
Drop in a line about the ungrateful Americans, without LaFayette we'd be speaking English instead of American.
Now that's mind reading or something, as on another forum I used almost this line already. Actually it was quite a good flame, you know I got the usual "if it was'nt for us you'd be speaking German", the post was ridden with spelling errors so I replied saying that if we had'nt help them get rid of the brits, maybe they would spell properly.
And what is it with America's fear of body scents and hair. You might as well fuck a silicon Barbie doll, hairless and descented, if you're going to fuck a dispassionate American woman, moot point for an American geek, though.
I don't know, after all I'd rather fuck a real doll than an american chicks those days, at least they would'nt play the victim all day long and start crying for mummy every time they don't get what they want.
OK, your party of six characters (the Jedi, the Wookiee, the Smuggler, the Princess, the Yappy Droid, and the Short Droid) walks into a 10" x 10" room.
How on Earth (or Alderran) would six characters fit into a 10" by 10" room? The thing's less than a cubic foot!
Then again, I guess it makes sense if the game is being played on (in?) a G4 cube (or a Cobalt qube, if they port it to linux).
Suddenly my mind is full of analogies from the G4 cube to the Borg cube to the death star to... a perfectly spherical desktop computer, with a divot on one side for stability?
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
What is the matter with On the Origin of Species? Darwin was actually a Christian man. I assume that you are speaking from the stand point of a Christian person. There seems to be two factions of Christians these days. Those like me who say that evolution might have happened (in fact I believe that it did) and that it doesn't matter anyway as long as you believe that it was God's hand that directed the creation. And then there are those who stick to a strict adherence to the Genesis account of creation even though many of the leading Christian scholars feel that it is not historically accurate(I suggest getting a hold of some of Dr. Tasjian's work). In fact Darwin only proposed micro evolution not mega. Do you even know anything about evolution? That is one thing that really concerns me is that if more Christians actually learned about what they were criticizing that they would be less likely to do so. I suggest that you study some of the current theologians out there today and see what their thoughts are on this. By the way, don't read anything by Dobson. He is a moron and many in the more learned of the Christian community feel that his teachings are not based on the Bible but his own opinions.
Again sorry to everyone else for the religious discussion here but I wanted to clear something up.
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
The thought also occures, is it going to be Jedi v. Sith, or will it be many races and the ability to explore many worlds and space. You could do a space sim and a world-based system. Sound cool? lets lobby Lucasarts to do this.
If people can connect to one another even the smallest of voices will grow loud.
--Serial Experiments Lain
Has there been any historical mention of what was happening 4000 years before the films? How long did the Old Republic last?
-B
maybe if hemos would read the articles before commenting on them ...
For the game, LucasArts and BioWare are creating an entirely original storyline set some four thousand years before Star Wars: Episode I.
-Sigs are for losers.
Will the game use the AD&D rules like Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, etc.? That would be extremely cool if it does. I want a +2 Lightsaber!
-Antipop
---
...and boned up one your reading skills...
---
'one'?
The irony is killing me.
- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)
- Jeff
I thought that Verant, makers of EverCamp, were supposed to make the Startwars MMRPG?
This RPG is entirlely sepearte from the MMORPG in development with Verant, you can see the LucasArts press release here (since they don't seem to link to it themselves anymore), you can find more info about it on my webpage about SW On-line.
Meanwhile the Star Wars Combine is creating a totally free Star Wars on-line RPG, it's well worth a look.
As such, if indeed BioWare is responsible for a SW RPG, I would be willing to bet that it will make Lucas' own storytelling endeavors suck in comparison. Screw SW Ep. 2... THIS is the SW fix we have been waiting for.
Plus, we can hope they put Jar Jar in the game, cause in that case, we'll probably be able to chop his head off and cackle in glee.
I guess the good part would be playing as Jar-Jar and then finding new ways to commit suicide.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
loev,
Axel
mhm23x3, alt.fan.karl-malden.nose
Well I've fucked a few american chicks lately and they were really fucked up, in a consistent way: victimized, and they expected to deserve everything.
Qel-Droma will win
Death from a +3 saber
RPGs are cool
It's actually somewhat irrelevant. Episode I and II are about 30 - 50 years apart. So it's either 4000 years before Episode I or 4030 - 4050 years before. Nitpick all you want, but I don't distinguish much between 2000 BC and 1950 BC.
No, the question was: is it before both episodes, or is it only before Episode IV (i.e. between I and IV). As you say, the difference between 4000 and 4350 years is pretty irrelevant, so it clearly is before both episodes, so Hemos (not Ant, my apologies) obviously hadn't read the press release before posting that question.
Sailing over the event horizon
Well, they sure have enough time to work on it... Hopefully they'll work on the Mac/"other" OS ports concurrently. It'd be nice if they were all released at the same time.
Hopefully they'll take a lot of the story/lore from the Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game books... those were very cool, and were excellent reading.
The Tales Of The Jedi stories were cool, I liked the comics... that will make for some excellent game play.
A Star Wars timeline
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
Read David Brin's Uplift books to see how something like this might work.
Freedom: "I won't!"
Now THERE's a conspiracy theory. And look, you made the 'karma mafia' junk stop, too.
If you read the other posts, you might have noticed the wise person stating Lucas Arts' deal with Verant was to create a MMORPG - like Everquest. This deal is with BioWare - the folks who produced Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.
Um... I'm sorry you don't like EQ, and you had bad experiences with their Guides / GMs. I've had nothing but good interaction between them. And frankly, I think EQ is one of the best games out there. Lucas Arts - and probably George Lucas - agrees with me enough that they are allowing Verant to develop under the rather closely guarded Star Wars liscense.
As for 'ruining his good name', I guess you don't remember Episode I, or the tens of thousands dissapointed Star Wars fans.
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
IANASWF - I am not a star wars fanatic, however, your assumption on timelines and technological development is flawed. One of the tenets of the star wars universe is that the Old Republic has been around for several millenia. It has faded from its golden age and is rotting from within. This is what enables Senator Palpatine to manipulate the senate. Considering that this is a decaying culture, they would not be discovering new technologies or growing. In fact, this republic very well may have had more advanced technology as it was expanding around the galaxy than what exists during ep 1. 4 millenium previous may in fact have been the Republics Golden Age.
This is not the sig you are looking for...
Heh. Nevermind.
Rumor has it that John Romero is helping with the story line. Apparently, Jar Jar starts out as a member of your party, and if he dies, you lose the game.
The cake is a pie
"So, donna hold your breath."
Isn't it obvious? Hemos is scottish, and is using voice recognition software!
--
Communication is only possible between equals
Don't you actually read the articles you post about? It spells out as clear as day that the new game will be set before Episode 1.
/. -- lack of attention from the senior people. You can't expect quality journalism from your staff if you don't even take the time to do it yourself. :(
I would expect this sort of goof from a junior staffer, not one of the senior people. Shame on you! I don't think it's too much to ask that you read and really understand an article before you post a synopsis/blurb about it.
This isn't a major crime, but it is sloppy as hell and symptomatic of what is ailing
Thanks for clearing this up. If BioWare's storytelling talents are to be judged on the strength of Baldur's Gate alone, then I still have faith in whatever they intend to put out. Black Isle, however, takes the crown for being the most innovative design studio out there.
Paying $10 a month to log on to over-taxed and buggy servers is a joke as it is, but then when they finally made a tiny expansion to the game world like they promised back during the initial release, they had the gall to charge their regular customers, who already shelled out $60 plus monthly fees for what is really just a MUD with pictures.
Screw EQ. Go Worldforge team!
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Of course they have ships and technology that far back. Anyone that has seen Star Wars or read any of the books would know that. The jedi have been gaurdians of the galaxy for thousands of generations. Just because we have only been around for around 6 thousand years doesn't mean that the races in Star Wars haven't. They could of been around for millions of years. Remember, this is fiction it has nothin to do with the real world.
The Eagle's Talon shale rule the Galaxy.
...posted by Gamespot. It supposedly will be using a brand new 3D engine and will be designed for the PC with possible conversions for the Mac, the Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2. It's also supposed to be, at least as it stands now, a single-player game.
----------
Even as you read this, your pants are strangling your loins! Aaa!
Just thought I'd clear up some confusion amongst a lot of people. Icewind Dale is not a Bioware game. It, and Planescape: Torment, were produced by Black Isle Studios with the Bioware Infinity engine. However, Baldur's Gate 1-2, and NeverWinter Nights are indeed games produced under the now famous label. Sorry about the tangent, just wanted to clear that up.
Them: For the game, LucasArts and BioWare are creating an entirely original storyline set some four thousand years before Star Wars: Episode I. The ancient era is dominated by an epic struggle between the Jedi and the evil Sith.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say they're talking way before the current batch of movies, unless ol Darth of the original trilogy is really old...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
OK, your party of six characters (the Jedi, the Wookiee, the Smuggler, the Princess, the Yappy Droid, and the Short Droid) walks into a 10" x 10" room. In the room are six Stormtroopers. Roll for initiative.
Ten minutes later...
Through clever strategy and a great deal of space-bar-pausing, you have defeated the Stormtroopers. After searching the bodies, you find a Blaster +1, a Green Key, and 87 gold pieces. Your party turns the corner and are surprised by two Wampas. Roll for initiative.
--
www.kitchengeek.com -- Nosh for
Hey I agree with that, it's so fucking boring. On top of that, they justify all their bugs in the funniest/saddest way. Though Microsoft invented "it's not a bug it's a feature"? Well, wait for this one: if you hit ALT TAB while inside that fucking game, you get back to the Winblows desktop, but you don't have any mouse or keyboard control ... and you can't get back to the game either! So you have to kill the Everquest process with a three fingers salute.
So you think it's bloody bug, right? Wait!!! They claim it's done on purpose to forbid the use of third party cheating progs! ROFL! And needless to say, there's countless of trainers out there which accomodate this "feature" without any kind of problem ....
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
Jeez.. aside from the last 2 paragraphs, the whole thing was ripped almost directly from a real review of Episode I by an extremely conservative religious group.
I'm not sure where the rest of it came from, or if he just made it up, but since this is obviously either an attempt at humor or an attempt at trolling, we should all just read it, and either snicker or shake our heads and be on our way.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
..perhaps the Neverwinter Nights -engine.
If so, the chances of a Linuxport would be rather
high, as Neverwinter Nights is developed for Linux as well as windows.
It has always seemed to me that a lot of work go
to waste creating 3d-engines. Only a few gets
reused.
I forgive you for being confused, Siggy.
I am not an idiot. Please use my name to email me.
"That's right, I'm quoting myself."
-Upsilon
I didn't post that comment :). Hemos did.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The Neverwinter Nights engine is nothing like
the infinity engine.
The infinity engine is 2d, while the engine
for NN is fully 3d. It is as I've managed to figure out based on the MDK2 engine,
which is about as far from the infinity engine as possible.
Ummm, Ant asks: "the setting of the game is going to be prior to the Star Wars movies. I don't know whether that means prior to Episode I or Episode IV". Its not hard, Ant. According to the press release that you linked to:
LucasArts and BioWare are creating an entirely original storyline set some four thousand years before Star Wars: Episode I.
I think that answers your question.
Is it really too much to expect people who submit stories to actually read the links they are submitting? I guess it is...
Sailing over the event horizon
The press release states that the game will take place some 4,000 years before Episode 1, in an era dominated by Jedi vs. Sith warfare.
This Gamespot report also has some more info, and Bioware has stated that it will use a modified version of the Neverwinter Nights engine.
The MMORPG that Verant is developing is certain to be very different from Bioware's game. They'll probably be about as different as... Everquest and Baldur's Gate.
"I live in a world of make-believe, with faeries and leprechauns and tiny little frogs with funny hats."