Also the game is more than a year away.

 

Yeah, given the time period here, the info will come out over the next couple of months or so, like will it use the D20 system in the current swrpg made by wotc.

But as for Bg1 &2, played them both and the expansions, I love them because you can take your character from bg1 ad import it into bg2, so you can keep the one character for roughly four games if you include the expansions

 

w00t!

First (concept) KOR artwork?

[link=http://www.gamekult.com/tout/actus/articles/A0000011163.html]http://www.gamekult.com/tout/actus/articles/A0000011163.html[/link]

[image=http://a333.g.akamai.net/f/333/2572/10j/213.41.118.33/acmedia/ga/images/photos/00/00/10/34/ME0000103489_2.jpg]

[image=http://a333.g.akamai.net/f/333/2572/10j/213.41.118.33/acmedia/ga/images/photos/00/00/10/34/ME0000103490_2.jpg]

[image=http://a333.g.akamai.net/f/333/2572/10j/213.41.118.33/acmedia/ga/images/photos/00/00/10/34/ME0000103488_2.jpg]

[image=http://a333.g.akamai.net/f/333/2572/10j/213.41.118.33/acmedia/ga/images/photos/00/00/10/34/ME0000103487_2.jpg]

The page text translates from French to English (using babelfish.altavista.com) as;

Knights of the Old Republic, set of roles in the great tradition and the universe of Wars Star, can be awaited with great interest as well by the amateurs of the kind as by the fans of the cinematographic saga. With BioWare in the commands and LucasArts which chapeaute, the result can be largely on the level of the hopes. Immediately, four whole first artworks of the play

 

Yeah those are sweet concepts. They are from SW Gamer#7

 

How come no-one's mentioned them before?

And an even bigger "how come" is why they aren't on the Bioware KOR page, or on lucasarts.com?

 

I thought about saying something when I got the mag. But since I don't have a scaner to show the pics I thought it would be pointless
As for your other two questions... I have no idea. Maybe when the mag hits newsstands they will.

 

Those screens look nothing at all like the Baldur's Gate engine.

Also, that is a lovely translation

 

So what's in the pics?

Fairly obvious, Female Jedi and a Sith Trooper.

But the location shots! Wow. That one with the Bespin style landing pad and the circular buildings is amazing.

The thing that doesn't sit so well with me is that the locations, and in all likelyhood spaceship and weapon technology, seems on a par with OT. You'd not know this was 4000 years before Battle of Yavin.

Do the EU comics set in a similar time period seem to have advanced technology (equal to the movies) too?

 

No. Everything has a kind of vintage, old and dusty feel to it in the Tales of the Jedi series. This game takes place I think 400 years after that a lot could happen with the technology. Also take into account that everything in the PT looks more advanced than the OT. My theroy is that everything we see in the OT is due to the fallout of the Clone Wars. I mean the rebels have a bunch of hand me down fighters,Solo' hunk of junk,then you have the Empire with a fleet that has an industrial feel to it as a result of begining to rebuild ship technology. With that and probly a tight grip on trade by the Empire it might have regressed the technology back that far.

 

Those screens must be cutscenes or character portraits you see when you muck with your character. Baldur's Gate has a 3/4 view in-game

SW tech thousands of years ago seems roughly the same, just 'looks' a little older. They always had hyperdrives and blasters. I remember at one point, lightsabers had to be hooked up to power plants that are hooked on the belt.

Who knows, maybe once a culture hits that level of technology, you can't progress anymore? Just because Star Trek can time travel whenever they want doesn't mean its possible

 

None of those images are in-game. They're all concept art.

From what I understand the camera is 3rd person, behind shoulder (I guess like in JK).

 

How are you going to control a party of 6 via 3rd person?

 

The same way as in Baldur's Gate...

 

The camera view and general game is using the same engine as Neverwinter nights.
For more info on the game goto...
www.jedichronicles.com

 

New mini site up at bioware;

[link=http://www.bioware.com/games/knights_old_republic/]http://www.bioware.com/games/knights_old_republic/[/link]

There's a link there to this article;

[link=http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2001-05-30]Penny Arcade on KOTOR[/link]

[blockquote]When I heard that BioWare was making an RPG based on the Star Wars license, I always wondered deep down if they would be using the new system, and it turns out I was right. More on that later: every chance I got, I told someone from BioWare that they should take the engine from Neverwinter Nights and make a version you could play the new Star Wars with. I want to play D&D with Neverwinter, don't get me wrong, but I'd choose Space Opera over fantasy given the chance, especially when I could be at the reins of the narrative. I don't think we'll see that product, as I can understand how a reasonable person would determine that it was in competition with other licensed games. It turns out that we're still in good hands, and might even have something better.

Knights of the Old Republic is a single player role-playing game set four-thousand years before Episode One, which means Sith and Jedi aplenty. The look is, to my eye, very clever - you can see how these shapes and designs would change over time to become the devices (and so forth) that we are familiar with. Because I'm not very smart, I always assumed that this game would somehow be made with BioWare's venerable Infinity engine - the software behind such titles as Baldur's Gate 2 or Planescape: Torment. As it happens, the game marshals a powerful, fully 3D engine to depict scenes as enormous - if not more so - than anything you've seen in the films. You'll have a small party overall, consisting of as many as three characters at a given time. These characters will be pulled from a variety of races (including droids!) and classes (like Scoundrel, or Jedi Guardian) which should keep the group dynamics interesting. Just as in BG, you will be able to make decisions which peg you as either a better or worse individual, morally speaking, and this will of course open (or close!) potential plot threads as you go. The game will have completely spoken dialogue, and highly articulate character models with truckloads of animation. They showed some concept art of the area inside your ship, which will apparently play a large role in your adventure - they also relayed that you'd be able to fly the craft yourself in action sequences, as opposed to relinquishing control of the fun stuff to a pre-rendered cinema. The game is set far enough before canon to let them have a lot of fun in the setting without breaking somebody else's stuff, so things like forgotten force powers, brand new planets, and unique enemies can all be expected to flesh out this period. I'm not sure when they'll start to show the wonders I saw in the demo, so I think I'll keep some of cooler bits under wraps (unless it is beaten out of me in my inbox, or something). I can't keep the Tatooine bit I saw to myself, though: it was a sizeable chunk of city streets, full of citizenry, droids, and vehicle traffic. It even looked hot, and the scale it conveyed really showed how big your character wasn't, compared to that sand-swept burg. As we ran from one side to the other, a huge freighter began to lift slowly off the ground - and the craft gleamed with a reflection of the city. I'm not ****ing kidding. It was the God damned town, right there on the side of the ship. As it began to accelerate away, you could see the town moving away in it. Spiritual. [/blockquote]

Still no screenshots though...

 

Those Pictures are So GREAT, Jp-30!

I CAN'T WAIT for this game... MY GOD

[image=http://a333.g.akamai.net/f/333/2572/10j/213.41.118.33/acmedia/ga/images/photos/00/00/10/34/ME0000103488_2.jpg]

Beautiful face too!!!

 

Boy, I'm sure getting a comp at the right time. My parents promised my bro and I a new comp (for which we are wisely choosing the specs) for JO. But, with RL coming to PC, and KOTOR too, it looks like this is the perfect time for a new comp!

My video card is fine, it kicks the butt out of this comp. But I REALLY need an upgrade from this 350 MHZ Pentium II!

 

with RL coming to PC,

Are you still believeing yourself here Sithy? Can you please post a link to back up your claim?

 

My faith will stand! You shall see!

Alas no link!......


YET.

 

Old news report, but stuff in it I'd not read before;

[link=http://firingsquad.gamers.com/features/2001e3part2/page6.asp]http://firingsquad.gamers.com/features/2001e3part2/page6.asp[/link]

The current plans for the game are a singleplayer, 3rd-person isometric RPG. The isometric view isn't locked like in Diablo II, and is more adjustable than NeverWinter Nights, letting players level the camera with the ground to get a full view of the horizon.

Your character will adventure with two others, to make a party of three. The NPCs will be fleshed out like never before and have a great deal of scripting to give the feeling that they grow throughout the game. Romances, rivalries and private quests will likely be the typical fare offered up by Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR).

Characters can choose from six classes and three races. The classes are standard Star Wars fare - scoundrel, soldier, scout, etc. Human is obviously one race option, and Twi'leks were mentioned as a second possible race (an example of a Twi'lek is the pale-skinned alien with two long fleshy tails coming out of his head, who let Luke into Jabba's chamber in RotJ.) Naturally, players can be Jedi, but it's not a class choice. Your character will eventually gain Jedi training at some point along the game. Of course, whether he becomes a Light or Dark Jedi is up to you, or if you bother developing your Jedi powers at all.

Rebel Assault?
Since Star Wars is typically a mish-mash of all sorts of action, ranging from lightsabre duels and blaster fights, through asteroid field chases to space combat, BioWare and LucasArts are trying to give players that feeling through the minigames planned for Knights of the Old Republic. Ideas being thrown around obviously include asteroid field scenes and manning a turret for the minigames, while the blaster and lightsabre combat will be part of the main game.
Both Baldur's Gate games and NeverWinter are real-time, but KOTOR takes real-time combat in RPGs to a new level. We saw a short sequence with two Jedi battling with lightsabres. Not only did their swordplay look realistic, but they also had the awesome Jedi powers associated with Star Wars games. One moment that stood out was a Jedi taking a big backflip to avoid an incoming strike. All this happens in, I remind you, an RPG game, and the event was not scripted - at least not to the level of determining what moves the AI should make.

Other Jedi powers (both old and new), as well as feats and skills native to the Star Wars universe come into play during the game. Characters gain experience and levels the traditional way, but their class selection doesn't force them down a certain path. You can focus on abilities and feats not typical to your character's class, and you do not have to pump points into your Jedi powers unless you really want to become a full-fledged Jedi. The system sounds somewhat akin to 3rd Edition D&D.

The current plan is for the player to get around on 8 different worlds using a freighter of his own. The game will be quite open and open-ended, with somewhat more freedom than was available in the Baldur's Gate series. The worlds will be littered with hundreds of unique NPCs who react to player and world developments. If you become known for saving someone important, NPCs may know that and react to it accordingly. There will also be many well-developed subplots to embark upon, on the various worlds. Some opportunities will open up or be locked down as you gain notoriety for being Light or Dark, or if you do this person a favor, etc.
BioWare is planning for the player to encounter over one hundred kinds of unique creatures and items, and have the ability to choose to invest more than one hundred skills, powers and feats.


Plotting the fate of the Republic
The game occurs way, way before the movies. It will be approximately 4000 years before Luke Skywalker is born! However, one must keep in mind that the Star Wars universe is ancient and thus, space travel, the Republic, and the Jedi were old and accepted facts even 400

 

and stuff I will never read

JP - you seem to have a great intrest in this game. Any particular reason?

 

It's a PC game, requires no monthly fee, and it sounds INTERESTING and FUN and BEAUTIFULLY PUT TOGETHER.

Considering Battlegrounds and Starfighter don't really interest me a whole lot, it's just this and Outcast to get excited about.

And as there's been such a lack of info about this game to date, it makes finding more stuff out that much more interesting.

So there.

 

understood

 

I have to say I'm excited about this game too. More than Jedi Knight 2 even. I love RPGs paper and video alike. Thanks for the info JP. The plot looks tasty. A mention of Exar Kun is great. Another reason I am interested in this game is because of the the timeframe. Lots of interesting areas to explore. Also as JP said no monthly fee. One of the things turning me off from SW:Galaxies.