SWTOR lead spills the beans about the Eternity Vault raid

At Gamescom this past week, Star Wars: The Old Republic concentrated on showing off endgame to prove to players that it is indeed an MMO. At the press conference just prior to the convention, Lead Designer Gabe Amatangelo demonstrated the very first part of the Eternity Vault raid content you will find in TOR. The demonstration group wiped on the second encounter, but we were assured that there was more. But how much more?

Thanks to The-Force.eu, we now know. Amatangelo explained the encounters to the German fansite as follows: "The Eternity Vault has five. It has five encounters. 'Bosses' is such a loose term. One of them, you have to hack this puzzle. You've got to split up the group, and you've got to fight back a bunch of different waves while people are trying to solve a puzzle in tandem." This information should comfort some fans of the game; there is more to this dungeon than a simple tank-and-spank.

More SWTOR information is headed our way as we gear up for PAX. Stay tuned this weekend as we give you the latest information from our reporters on the show floor in Seattle.

Reader Comments (55)

@Rayko

I think you're mistaken. WoW launched with two major raids: Molten Core & Onyxia's Lair. Granted, Blizzard didn't do a good job of making these instances accessible in the beginning to the vast majority of players. However, at launch people could raid the smaller instances (such as Blackrock Spire, Stratholme, etc.

Regardless, the market is not the same as it was 7 years ago. Much more competition imposes tigher demands on new titles.

@Cluedo

Okay, well maybe I'm wrong. I was told they were new when I was asking guildmates about them but still was not much and Onyxia was a half raid. if you get my meaning. I am very certain that Bioware is not going to let this game die because of a perceived lack of end game. I am willing to wager they have plans for adding more within 3 to 5 mo after release. I find the lack of faith disturbing...

@Cluedo

If I remember right, max level for WoW was lvl 40 at launch, which then got expanded to 60 when MC and Onyxia was introduced.

Haha, fair enough. I agree that Bioware must have plans for more content. They seem committed to provided a quality game.

However, the issue is whether or not sufficient end-game content will be available right away. Because the market is so saturated with more mature games with much more content, there will be a switching cost for many players. Although Bioware may snatch up millions of accounts at launch, the critical question is if they can maintain those numbers over a more sustained period of time.

Of course my own bias may be giving undue weight to "end-game." Perhaps people are looking for something else, although I find that somewhat hard to believe. When raiding is implemented properly, I find it very fun.

The whole game, outside of the story and voiceovers, seems very lazy and generic.

Bioware acts like their dialogue wheel is going to spark a wild-fire in the gaming community and suck in the milllions of people who were a little leery of jumping into mmos because there wasn't enough story. I have yet to meet one person like that, but apparently there are so many of them out there Bioware is willing to bet the success of their game on them.

The reality is most mmo players will be annoyed with the cutscenes/choices because they'll slown down group play and obviously won't have a real impact on your character at endgame anyway. Everyone else will just be pissed they aren't playing KoToR 3.

@Mtor

I'd say the combat animations are something to look out for since there's some new tech going into that but it might be too subtle for some folk. Beyond that though I think I might have to agree about the game seeming lazy (so far).

Good to see that the game will have a meaty amount of content at the start for end game pve players that are into the raiding scene. It's definitely a little more than any other traditional mmo in the past that's come out with recently that's for sure.

I'll admit I'm not excited about the end game as I'm not going to participate in it but it's good to see the team really hammering the point home of just exactly what their plans and intentions are.

It's amazing to see how every time there's a SWTOR article, the GW2 fanboys come pouring out of the woodwork. I think it's even funnier when they come to bash about "lack of end-game content". The irony there is palpable.

@Ren54

As an obvious GW2 fanboy, why don't you feel free to explain in great detail to us how GW2 will keep us entertained at 'endgame'.

So I get to just randomly run around waiting for an event to happen? I seem to be missing what everyone thinks will keep my attention in GW2. Both games seem strikingly lacking in that area.

@rayko LOL plz open your mouth more and make ignorant comments.
WOW had multiple instances and raids at launch
scholo / strat live / strat dead / brd / ubrs / lrbs / mc / ony and they were actually challenging and required people to not just bang thier heads on keyboards to win. Also over 6 years ago...
SWTOR has 5 total instances 3 of which are lvl 30 and below and all 5 are absolutely a joke when it comes to challenge.
So far this company has proved one thing, that they know how to take a 6 year old themepark game and turn it into a 6 year old carnival. The voice acting gets SUPER old fast once you realize that at the end of every little VO series it goes right back to kill X mobs and collect X items and there is no phasing so your impact on the environment is as consequential as a fly tipping a a boat over.
I can't wait till the public gets thier hands on this game and sees what an utter overhypejob bioware has done with it.

@(Unverified)

We were talking about raids, not instances. You don't get to change the discussion topic so you can make your point. =)

@(Unverified)

...and call me crazy, but a fly tipping a boat over would be both amazing and consequential.

The game is fucking amazing, and it will only get better.

I am concerned about a perceived lack of non-story content in this game.

200+ hours of VO's story per class is amazing...

But a half dozen dungeons, one raid, and three battleground's is curiously light...

Perhaps more are in the works and will be announced or released very soon after launch, but right now.... seems lacking.

That being said, 200+ hour story line, even playing a ridiculous 40 hours a week, would still last you over a month of content, enough to get the rest of the "end-game" out the door? Probably not.

They are likely banking on people playing a little slower then 40 hours a week and doing more then just the story content so let's give them 2 months before players blow through all the content on their first/main toon.

Firefly was cancelled so I guess anything is possible but guys, come on, these guys are going to add more content and it will be in a timely manner, wait and see.

SWTOR lead spills the beans about the Eternity Vault raid

Reader Comments (55)

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 12:04AM Cluedo said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 12:14AM Rayko said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 9:26AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 12:23AM Cluedo said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 1:03AM Mtor said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 6:41AM Protoavis said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 3:15AM Seldra said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 9:51AM Link064 said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 2:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 10:41AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 5:01PM Rayko said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 5:10PM Rayko said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 11:41AM Triskelion said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 1:35PM heerobya said

Posted: Aug 25th 2011 5:03PM Rayko said

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