SWTOR webcomic

[VT-16]

I don't think you understood my analogy. The body armor of the Mandalorians centuries past could have been a model for future Republic developments, same as the older STG-44 was a partial inspiration for the AK-47.

[Darth Hoth]

And on the topic of not actually seeing Star Wars, do these people realize that not every single Jedi is an uber badass that can take on platoons of soldiers at once? Seriously, every time a new piece of shit like this comes out, it just further trivializes what Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda could do.

Since when is Ben supposed to be uber special? As for the others, Yoda is not a fighter by inclination, and Annie is young and untrained. There is no reason they should necessarily represent the high ends.

Otherwise, I pretty much agree: Awful, contrived, stupidly derivative bullshit that favours L00KZ K3WL over taste or common sense.

[Thanas]

Since when is Ben supposed to be uber special?

Since the episode 3 novel said so, and he certainly is one of the more competent jedi in clone wars.

[Havok]

Since when is Ben supposed to be uber special? As for the others, Yoda is not a fighter by inclination, and Annie is young and untrained. There is no reason they should necessarily represent the high ends.

Ben was the only Jedi that was able to defeat Grievous, and he did it completely alone. He is also the only other Jedi alive at the time to defeat a Sith Lord besides Mace Windu, and people debate that victory and Anakin, and he defeated arguably the best martially trained of them, and as only a Padawan. (Yoda was only able to fight Dooku to a draw.)

Obi Wan straight up tells Anakin that Yoda is a far better swordsman that Anakin thinks himself to be, and we actually SEE Yoda and Obi-Wan take on the entirety of the soldiers guarding the Jedi Temple in the middle of Palpatine controlled Coruscant.

The ROTS novel explicitly states that Yoda was the greatest warrior of the Light and the Jedi, IIRC, ever.

Anakin defeated Dooku, who twice mopped up Obi-Wan and fought Yoda to a stand still.

You can argue who is the top dog amongst Anakin, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Dooku, Mace and Palpatine, but you can not argue that they absolutely represent the "high end". They are the culmination of thousands of years of training and knowledge.

[VT-16]

In addition to the on-going webcomic, there's a new moving-image "timeline" going. It reveals more of the dynamics of the Great War, and produces some hilarious moments, like this Pellaeon-class ripoff picture of a Sith warship. The timeline goes down to the events of the game, not the Battle of Yavin, so it takes away 3,500 years or so.

[Ohma]

Oh man, those walkers....they look so bad.

Like one of those old Kenner toys that was similar to a vehicle from the movies but was like, too short, or had fold out wings or some other weird difference that just ended up making it look wrong.

[Havok]

Fucking... does any one connected with Star Wars have an original thought in their heads?

[Coiler]

Fucking... does any one connected with Star Wars have an original thought in their heads?

Even if we give the artists the benefit of the doubt and assume that they're not just lazy, it must be hard to come up with something totally original in a franchise running for decades.

[DesertFly]

Fucking... does any one connected with Star Wars have an original thought in their heads?

Even if we give the artists the benefit of the doubt and assume that they're not just lazy, it must be hard to come up with something totally original in a franchise running for decades.

I wouldn't chalk it up to laziness or unoriginality as much as fumbling, clumsy attempts to reference existing Star Wars concepts and images to make casual fans "feel at home".

[Havok]

Fucking... does any one connected with Star Wars have an original thought in their heads?

Even if we give the artists the benefit of the doubt and assume that they're not just lazy, it must be hard to come up with something totally original in a franchise running for decades.

Nonsense. I can come up with a hundred new ideas and designs and say they are Star Wars and if the story is good and accepted the art will be too. However, you are right. It isn't laziness, it is thinking that the fans are stupid. Thinking that we will not recognize it as Star Wars if we don't see the same rehashed design over and over and over and over again. Just like the writers think that we won't recognize Star Wars without the same characters doing the same thing over and over and over again.

I wouldn't chalk it up to laziness or unoriginality as much as fumbling, clumsy attempts to reference existing Star Wars concepts and images to make casual fans "feel at home".

I think this is closer to the truth. I also think that part of the problem is that every time some new artist gets involved in Star Wars, they don't understand the scope of the universe and they want what they do to be reminiscent of what they know Star Wars to be. So what happens is you constantly get designs that are just a few steps away from the movies.

[VT-16]

I remember someone on this board complained about the lack of Imperator-class ships in service for millennia before the movies, due to technological stagnation. I guess he got his wish now, kinda.

[Havok]

It's hard to believe, but this is actually getting worse. The art in the new update positively sucks and the flow is horrible. Is this going to be an ongoing series or is it a lead up to the game.

P.S. They are still surprised the Sith betrayed them.

[Darth Hoth]

Well, look on the bright side . . . that issue brought us no awful surprises like those Vadertrooper helmets!

[VT-16]

If you're gonna bash it, at least pay attention. There's no mention of the Jedi being surprised in this week's issue, just more droning on about "attachments" and "feelings" and "being mindful". God forbid they actually come up with more dialog that's not from any of the movies.

[Havok]

They as in the Republic. And I'm trying not to pay attention, but a nagging pull in the far recesses of my mind keep forcing me to look at it.

[VT-16]

Well, the timeline video on the site actually adds a bit more credibility to the whole "Can't believe they betrayed us!" debacle (narrated by Lance "Bishop" Henriksen). Basically, the war was so hard on both sides, they were getting desperate. I assume the Republic just thought they could bluff their way through everything and regroup, which is why they were caught off-guard.

The "dead-eye"-syndrome is still running through the art on the comic, though.

[Seydlitz_k]

Well, the timeline video on the site actually adds a bit more credibility to the whole "Can't believe they betrayed us!" debacle (narrated by Lance "Bishop" Henriksen). Basically, the war was so hard on both sides, they were getting desperate. I assume the Republic just thought they could bluff their way through everything and regroup, which is why they were caught off-guard.

The "dead-eye"-syndrome is still running through the art on the comic, though.

Yeah, the idea behind it isn't bad, just the execution of the story itself is terrible. If we could see some sort of actual struggle to defend Courascant or some sort of actual talks going on, it would have been a lot more interesting. Like if the talks had been going on for weeks/months, and the Sith launched the raid to desperately try and force a settlement. The story lacks "meat", and seems to be trying to be all action.

It's more of the EU malady of reducing Intergalactic Politics, strategy, tactics and the fate of the entire galaxy to the decisions and actions of 2-3 people over the course of about twenty minutes...Coupled with the general idea that modern entertainment seems to have that people aren't interested in stories with more depth and intricacies than a puddle, and all they want is ridiculous over-the-top action, flashy lights, loud noises, explosions and a wanked off super-bad ass-one liner-ultra hero for a main character.

Havok, the comic is a lead up to the game (to give us "essential backstory", and to help set the scene and atmosphere), and I'm pretty sure they are being deliberately un-original to try and avoid another Star Wars: Galaxies, where the game couldn't have been further away from Star Wars if it tried. Like Desert-Fly said, it's to make the fans feel at home.

As a game as well, you can see they are deliberately making it as derivative as possible, to try and take some of the WoW market. They are going the Warhammer Online route, where they copy Wow to the tee (Art style, world style, gameplay mechanics), except for one minor difference. In WAR it's a greater focus on Realm vs. Realm and grouping, and in SWTOR it's more of a focus on story and pets - sorry, "companions".

If you look at KOTOR for example, you can see BioWare are capable of creating relativley original Star Wars content that still looks like Star Wars (Perhaps some of the few serious Star Wars content creators who can).

Plus, i'm also sure they are coasting on the Karen Traviss popularity train. Some of the Dev team are confessed KT lovers, and half the forum either has a clone-...errr...'republic-commando' avatar/bounty hunter avatar, or they spunk all over Mando'a culture and KT's books. It's a bit disturbing actually. Might as well make Star Wars: Mandalore Online...actually, I should pitch that, it would probably sell

New comic is up btw, where we get to see a separatist wookie on Dantooine, and what with all probability is a "Mando'a" bounty hunter working for the Republic Military. Art still looks terrible, and the comic is still un-inspired.

[Darksider]

If you look at KOTOR for example, you can see BioWare are capable of creating relativley original Star Wars content that still looks like Star Wars (Perhaps some of the few serious Star Wars content creators who can).

I'm sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this. Applying a Star Wars paint scheme to generic D&D storyline #2234351 is neither original nor does it "feel" like Star Wars. The only three points in KOTOR where I felt like I was playing a Star Wars game were the initial attack on the Endar Spire, the Leviathin, and the final assault on the Star Forge.

[Satori]

If you look at KOTOR for example, you can see BioWare are capable of creating relativley original Star Wars content that still looks like Star Wars (Perhaps some of the few serious Star Wars content creators who can).

I'm sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this. Applying a Star Wars paint scheme to generic D&D storyline #2234351 is neither original nor does it "feel" like Star Wars. The only three points in KOTOR where I felt like I was playing a Star Wars game were the initial attack on the Endar Spire, the Leviathin, and the final assault on the Star Forge.

Erm, Kotor is hardly a generic D&D storyline.

I haven't seen any "hey guess what, you are the villian" D&D modules.

[VT-16]

New comic is up. Spoiler

Sith battle droids with AT-AT heads?

Whee.

[Darth Hoth]

Nah, I thought they looked more like the PokéMon version of ED-209 . . .

[Ohma]

Whoever came up with the technical designs sure likes boxes.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I just read through the comic.

And I almost thought the Calamarian was going to say "It's a trap!"

They can't get too creative with their text can they?

[Seydlitz_k]

I'm sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this. Applying a Star Wars paint scheme to generic D&D storyline #2234351 is neither original nor does it "feel" like Star Wars. The only three points in KOTOR where I felt like I was playing a Star Wars game were the initial attack on the Endar Spire, the Leviathin, and the final assault on the Star Forge.

I was talking more about the art direction in KOTOR. They created some relatively decent new locations, characters, costumes, and equipment from scratch in KOTOR. I'd say it's easily the only decent SW game since JKII. Yes, it is affected by D&D in SPACE syndrome, but no more than any other Sci Fi RPG.

The SWTOR art direction makes it seem like the art team traced over some stills from the PT after watching too much Cartoon Network.

How big were those AT-AT robots in the webcomic supposed to be? I had no idea what the hell was happening in this issue, it was fucking random.

They announced a new class as well, the 'Trooper'. Who isn't really a trooper, but more of a sort of special forces commando. I dislike the retro/modern clone-trooper armour , and that animation of the trooper spinning the rifle. It's really screaming "I'm being marketed to 13 year olds and mando-wankers".

The environments are actually looking pretty good though. I'm curious to see more of Nal Hutta and Ord Mantel. Tython on the other hand, looks a bit pants. Generic mystic ancient ruined world bs.

[Cykeisme]

I don't think you understood my analogy. The body armor of the Mandalorians centuries past could have been a model for future Republic developments, same as the older STG-44 was a partial inspiration for the AK-47.

The armor itself is okay.. it's just the black T-visor that really screams Mandalorian. In the movies, it's pretty obvious that the clones' T visors are modelled on Jango's helmet.

For this game, since the rationale for that aesthetic is absent, I think they should've changed the design just a little bit (perhaps just a horizontal bar).