Okay, I am a huge SW fan, but I don't follow the XBox games or DH comics. I thus don't know anything about the KOTOR era. I understand that it's set thousands of years prior to the SW films, but the designs of ships, lightsabers, and droids in the SW:TOR game look like they could easily fit in with the timeline of the films/CW series/etc. So what's the deal? Can someone explain this to me, or was this ever addressed in the games/comics?
In-Universe, Technology and deisgn moves slowly and is somewhat cyclical in the Star Wars universe. An example would be that pointy ships have always proven to be the most effective in combat, hence ship design always gravitates towards them during eras of extended conflict. In real life - Stuff that looks a bit like the movies is easier to sell to the casual audience, the folks that make it like to hit all the visual cues that the franchise is known for and theres a huge chunk of the Star Wars fanbase that whine like babies whenever things deviate too far from the holy Lucas vision.
I suspected the designs were familiar because for "brand recognition." Still, seeing lightsabers, starships, droids, and even trooper armor thousands of years removed from the films that looks like it could fit right in with them is distracting and even disappointing. Oh well...I'll definitely be playing this game regardless.
But it's been that way for almost a decade. When the first Old Republic game they had the same designs. And, the Star Wars universe doesn't really change much, they ships are very similar from the Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi. Ah well, I'm still hopinug for an Old Republic 3 : (
Then you're missing out on some of the best Star Wars storys out there. As to you're question, up until about two hundred years ago human technology was not vastly different from one era to another. Hell compare Roman Republic technology to tech from the High Middle Ages and it's not that different, ant that is a span of over a thousand years right there.
I'd always chocked it up to the Star Wars universe hitting an apex of development, and that what works, works. Throw in a dark age or two and everything stays virtually the same.
I wondered the same thing when I played the first KOTOR, but I just ascribed it to the aforementioned "Apex" theory that technology might reach a point where advancements are incremental rather than monumental. In the comics there is a time in the Old Republic where light sabers are attached to a power supply by a cable, and hyperspace travel is a risky affair. However, in the games (which are admittedly generations after the aforementioned comics) the tech appears to be exactly the same as in the movies. There is some attempt to show that there are differences, like the 'vibro-blades' that can block a light saber but, really, the tech of the Old Republic seems very much the same as the tech of the New Republic.
Also worth noting that the Republic pretty much de-militerised 1000 years before the prequel trilogy and that there is very little in the way of reference for the 1500ish years between that and this game.
The comics you are thinking of (Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith and Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire) take place a thousand years before KoTOR.
Well, I guess this is the best place to post this, and I'm surprised there hasnt been any mention (unless I failed) of what I'm about to show. Anywho, IGN.com got Bioware to talk about the gameplay of Stars Wars: The Old Republic. This whole thing will take about 20 minutes of your life, divided into 4 videos, 5 minutes each. Enjoy. Linky! Video 1: IGN Video: Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Walkthrough - GC 2009: Walkthrough Pt.1 Video 2: IGN Video: Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Walkthrough - GC 2009: Walkthrough Pt.2 Video 3: IGN Video: Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Walkthrough - GC 2009: Walkthrough Pt.3 Video 4: IGN Video: Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Walkthrough - GC 2009: Walkthrough Pt.4
Thanks for the vids Dagger ... this pretty much seals it for me. I will be playing this from the beta.
