Comments on: Time gentlemen, please.

By: foolsage

foolsage — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:32:24 +0000

The Old Republic setting is fairly well laid out in print (especially comics/graphic novels) and has been for over a decade now, well before KotOR. One of the basic concepts is that some technology more or less peaked centuries before even the Old Republic timeline, and so lightsabers, droids, and hyperdrives haven’t appreciably evolved since then. It’s quite possible, even likely, that this was done solely to make readers comfortable with the “new” (old) setting, but it is at least internally consistent. Anyhow, the game’s deliberately making use of the pre-existing setting (as KotOR did), not creating the rules anew.

Voice synth chips do in fact exist for almost any droid, incidentally. A lot of droids don’t have voice chips because the ability to talk isn’t necessary for their functions. Remember, Artoo is an astromech droid who’s ended up acquiring a lot of unplanned skills from a combination of wild adventures and failure to properly wipe his memory. As an astromech, he doesn’t really need to be able to talk. As a general companion/adventurer, sure, it’d be nice if he could talk. I always thought the little guy must have had a REALLY foul mouth, judging from the beeps and whistles. :D

By: Shadow-war

Shadow-war — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:35:05 +0000

As Syp said, I see the Star Wars universe as having stagnated for the most part in a technological sense. They’ve had collabarations from uncounted planets and systems all increasing the overall knowledge pool for technology. At some point, doesn’t advancement reach a practical stopping point. Sure, we could make that voice synthicizer for the droids, but the cost would increase astronomically, the production would be cut, and sales would drop. Some refinements can be done, but new technology is few and far between. A good example of limited techonology can be read in the Jedi Academy series where you find out about the origins of the Death Star, and another nastier weapon produced by the Empire.

By: Stabs

Stabs — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:52:53 +0000

Well Earth during the dinosaur age didn’t very change much.

That does of course depend on your research scientists having their brains A) pea-sized and B) located in their arses. Not unfeasible tbh.

Today’s antispam word is Spantle. When TOR comes out I will give a free droid to whoever comes up with the best definition of this word.

By: Melmoth

Melmoth — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:34:47 +0000

You know, I thought this was kind of dumb in KOTOR.

Oh bum, good point; I knew I was missing something out. And in fact some of the launch blurb said:

“Set 300 years after the events in Knights of the Old Republic (and featuring some familiar faces)”

Can you imagine a universe with zero progress in 3000 years?

I find it hard to imagine it for a single planet let alone a galaxy/universe, in fact I’m thinking it would actually make for an interesting novel: The Planet That Never Changed.

By: spinks

spinks — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:32:23 +0000

You know, I thought this was kind of dumb in KOTOR. They had the same droids, the same armour, the same lightsaber, similar looking ships. NOTHING changed in that universe except for which bunch were in power and how many jedis there were. Absolutely nothing.

Can you imagine a universe with zero progress in 3000 years? Man. It was just a handwavey to say, ‘hey this is totally the star wars you know, we’ll just pretend its a different era’.

By: Melmoth

Melmoth — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:48:01 +0000

Apparently there will be a ‘Three and a Half Millennium Falcon’ in TOR.

The lucky player who manages to find it will get to play a cameo as the pilot of the ship when it appears in Star Wars Episode 7: Jar Jar Binks Goes to Ewok Town, coming to a theatre as soon as Lucas next needs some more cash.