SWTOR: Choreographed Combat

Ok firstly I'm sorry for the lack of SWFB blogs over the past few weeks but the Christmas holiday season really sapped my time, not to mention the PC ban that was impossed on me by Mrs Star Wars Fanboy! Forget the past, it's a new year and time to start blogging again!

You're going to have to forgive me regarding todays blog subject as I'm unable to provide quotes, references or names.  This isnt because I'm lazy, it's down to tha fact that I got this info from an epesode of Playr (Shown on Bravo TV) which just happened to be on whilst we were entertaining some guests.  Unfortuntely even though I managed to record the show on Sky+, Mrs Star Wars Fanboy subsequently deleted it in error (or so she tells me!).

So enough about my epic failness!  Let me talk about the choreographed combat in Star Wars The Old Republic which was confirmed in that, um, epiosode of Playr.  What's the big deal you might ask?

Well let me explain briefly.  When I unlocked my Jedi Character in Star Wars Galaxies before the abhorrent NGE, the combat and lightsaber animations were motion captured and great for their time.  Dueling with other Jedi was a truly immersive experience and, well I was happy.  

Pre NGE Jedi Combat

Then came the NGE (see my NGE blog here) which stripped out the lovely animations and replaced them with what became widely known as poke poke, slash slash.  This wasn't an exaduration either, it leiterally was two pokes with the saber followed by two swings. The pretty saber trails were removed and movement was so fast your character looked like he was on drugs.

The Pathetic NGE Poke Poke, Swing Swing animations that followed

Ok before I go all anti NGE on you again, I'll point out that even post NGE combat animations in SWG had their flaws.  Though more apparent with the NGE, pre NGE animations also suffered from what I call the 'Thin Air Effect'.  This is were characters fight each other, inflict damage but dont actually make any phisical contact.  I guess this is a problem with melee combat in all MMO's and down to many factors including latency.  Having two accounts running on seperate machines, it was clear that the position of a character on one screen was always different on the other so getting melee combat to look real is always going to be a challenge in MMOs.

Of course this isnt a problem in single player games becase lag's not a factor and you're not having to represent the same environment on multiple computers.  KOTOR I & II had some lovely lightsaber annimations albeit a little limited. The question is, how are Bioware going to pull this off in SWTOR?

What was confirmed in that episiode of playr is that lightsaber combat is indeed going to be choreographed.  This means that attacts, counterattacks and general movements will be syncronised in such a way that it should look like a proper fight. Lightsabers will make contact with each other realistically and there'd be no 'Thin Air Effect'.  This can be seen in biorwares latest gameplay video released last month.  Personally I don't know how they'll manage this during player vs player combat, but I assume players will not see the exact same movements as each other on their screens in sync. I'm guessing that although damage / heals etc. will be syncronised, animations and movment won't. I really cant say.

Regardless, I'm really happy they're going down this road. Lightsaber combat to me should be realistic unlike the poke poke slash slash shit SWG rammed down our unwilling necks.  Now if only they'd sort ot the spandex.......