yeah I never understood why you'd want to play a storm trooper instead of a sith or a jedi. Just doesn't make sense

Unless stormtroopers get the "call in unlimited clones with better aim" ability...
1 Jedi vs 1 ST... 5 seconds later it's 1 Jedi vs 3546986546847987 STs.

Man, I need to start developing games (hoping that I get paid before I start working )!

We'll see I guess. The KtOR system (d20 based) would actually be pretty good in keeping things balanced (excepting god-powers) but I doubt it carries over to the MMO sadly.

brief rant -- d20 is stupid, you need percentile

explain plz.

I have no idea what percentile is (I think, might be using another name in my head) but the thing I like about d20 is that with player character health of 50-100ish, it's hard for anyone to be grossly overpowered as most people can kill at roughly the same speed.

percentile is d100 -- allows for a finer gradient in ac/tohit/whatever. Just something that has always bugged me. In Rolemaster (extension of MERP, basically Tolkien D&D), for example, you used 2x D10. A game before its time really, and unfortunately way too grognardy. A computer game adaption would be good, though having your pimp character unluckily die to a single arrow probably isn't for everyone.

As for balance, weren't dual sabers OP in KTOR? It's been a bit, I don't remember exactly.

I'm sure like ever other MMO they are going to have major balance issues -- hopefully they can at least handle DD vs AOE which has been the bane of like every MMO at one time or another. Ah, arcane explosion in the battlegrounds, fond memories of spam.

sorry for the rambling, hung over

Oh ok, rock on.

Whatever system they use, they just need to find a way to minimize all the issues, some of which you mentioned, that plague every MMO. Who knows, but I guess we can hope.

As for Duel wielding, yeah, there really wasn't enough of a penalty for using two as compared to one. Let's hope they address that too.

The one thing this game should have going for it is that they've spent the proper amount of time developing content for the game which should stall the amount of time until the game becomes a total time sink.

that trailer was sick. would like to see game footage tho

I am now officially totally excited about this game.

I'm playing Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 for the first time right now. Why did I never play these before?! Great games.

Watched some gameplay videos etc. on the official site http://www.swtor.com

Fingers crossed. God I hope it's everything SW:Galaxies could have been.

the beta has started (1, 2 weeks ago?), though I think it is very limited. I did not get an email.

didn't know it started either. No emails for me or GF. =(

the gameplay vid on the official website looks decent

I may have spoken too soon, guess it isn't beta, just 'game testing'
http://swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=165830
glad they have time to argue semantics

from watching the gameplay video recently posted, I can't say I'm thrilled with how the breach-droid looks. Something more mass effect style would be nice, but the taint of Lucas is strong. ROGER ROGER!

That said, I'm checking the email every minute. I need to setup t-bird for that account.

ahaha
http://ealouse.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/hello-world/
this is a rant by a disgruntled employee about why Warhammer failed, but it includes the tidbit above. I actually lend some credence to it given that he expounds upon the whiff of turd stink I myself picked up on.

"baw baw baw im gonna lose my job"