When it comes to Star Wars, I’m always much more fascinated with the technology of the universe than the Force, which is why owning a player starship seems like a dream come true. I love that it’s partially player housing that moves, transportation between planets, a crafting HQ, and your vehicle for space combat. I started looking (and drooling) through the SWTOR starship pages and thought I’d come back and rate the ships that are currently on display:
D-5 Mantis
This is the bounty hunter ship, and while it’s not as instantly iconic as Boba Fett’s Slave-1, it has a certain… predatory appeal to it, I suppose. I’m not that partial to the interior, which is a lot of grates and yellow lights and triangles. I’m sort of hoping that a bounty hunter ship will come equipped with holding cells, but I haven’t seen anything like that in the video and pictures.
Rating: B-
Fury
Obviously, the Fury is meant to evoke similarities to the classic trilogy’s TIE Fighters and Interceptors, and I’ll admit that it does a good job doing so. Here we have the Sith Warrior/Inquisitor ship, the interior of which reminds me a lot of the Death Star corridors, particularly with the red lights (which would give me a headache if I had to actually work in this thing).
Rating: A-
BT-7 Thunderclap
Ugh, me no likey. The Trooper’s ship is somewhat reminiscent of the B-wing and the Imperial shuttle, but also a circa-1987 Volvo. It’s boxy, is what I’m saying. A little too boxy. While the interior is decent and welcoming in a military fashion, I can’t get over how blech the outside is.
Rating: C
X-70B Phantom
Oof, I’m seriously torn on this one. The Agent’s ship is certainly reflective of the class’ unique qualities and has a svelte design that’s not seen much elsewhere, but it’s also reminding me a little too much of the X-Men’s Blackbird and Princess Amidala’s spaceship. Yet I’m probably going to be playing this class (or the Smuggler, depending on what guild I join), and the interior is pretty sweet in a slick tech way, so I’ll be lenient on it.
Rating: B
XS Freighter
Uninspired name aside, here’s your Ebon Hawk/Millenium Falcon stand-in for the Smuggler, and it’s certainly hitting all the right feature points to make one feel at home. I like the unconventional ugliness of it and the off-center side-thing. The interior is, yup, the Falcon more or less, so let’s not pretend it’s anything radically different. That’s okay, since it fits the Smuggler well.
Rating: A+
Defender
As the Fury does double-duty for both the Warrior and Inquisitor, so too the Defender will be playing host to both brands of Jedi. It’s got my absolute favorite interior, doubtless drawn from the lighter Star Wars designs, as it’s comfortable, airy and brightly colored. I’m not sure whether or not the hammerhead exterior is going to grow on me, but it’s not repulsing me, so that’s a start.
Rating: A
Special Note: Only Six Ships?
I guess I didn’t realize before today that BioWare decided to stop at six player starships instead of going for the full eight. Yeah, I guess it sort of makes sense to have the Jedi and Sith share a common ship, but it certainly feels as though those classes are being forced to double-bunk while the others get more preferential treatment. Considering that many players love to roll alts and that their choices are limited to four on each faction, having to reuse a starship you’ve already been in for a couple hundred hours might be a small letdown.
Grasping for straws here but I hope the double duty starships have at least different default interiors until they get to ship customization on their wall of crazing.
Still undecided on what class I want to play as but as far as ship influence I’d have to say the Imperial Agent. I need a bar when I’m not sniping/shanking people
Considering what a central part of the game they’ve made the starships I’m disappointed there are only 6, and that each class is stuck with a particular one, rather than getting to choose. Choices are a good thing. Why can’t a Jedi have a freighter, or a Trooper the defender?
I will probably be playing a Jedi, so I guess I should be grateful than I like their Corellian Corvette/A-Wing mashup.
I think most everyone is disappointed by the tiny number of ships. I get the feeling that they were a fairly last minute addition though so I suppose I can forgive it. (Though I feel that the fact that Bioware thought they could put out a Star Wars MMO in 20-bloody-11 without including player ships and space combat speaks volumes about their developers.)
Personally I like the Mantis the best. It’s very obviously designed to take after the Slave-1 but it has enough unique elements that it doesn’t feel like a copy. Unlike say the Unit-of-Time Bird or the TIE-Sith.
I agree about the limited number, but I’d bet they have a plan to expand shops with following expansions, kind of like adding planets, and levels, etc.
“I think most everyone is disappointed by the tiny number of ships. I get the feeling that they were a fairly last minute addition though so I suppose I can forgive it.”
I think this is my mindset too. But I feel more that it comes from the fact that most games don’t allow players a personal space, customizable or not. It’s like they are throwing the players who are used to MMORPGs that release without anything resembling player housing a bone. It’s not much, and until they add more I most likely will not be impressed, but the fact that it is in the game is a huge step up from the usual promise of “it’s on our to-do list.”
I remember reading somewhere in the expanded universe (I think it was Star Wars: Incredible-Cross Sections) that ships colored red, like the Jedi Defender, were used exclusively for diplomatic affairs. I guess the concept was not yet adopted back then.
I like both the Defender and the Fury. What I am trying to figure out is how you gave the Thunderclap a C and the Freighter an A+. Talk about ugly and, as was said above, overcopied. If the Gunslinger weren’t so *frickin’ awesome*, I’d skip Smuggler entirely.
I think there are holding cells in the Mantis, or at least that is what it looked like in this video http://youtu.be/HrmETzrb3NE at about 0:36 on the bottom left. I sincerely hope there are, as a bounty-hunter ship that doesn’t have holding cells would be ridiculous. “Now you sit quietly right here…”
Pingback: MMO Reporter Episode 40
I like the Fury. It resembles something like in the Star Wars movies. I also want more starships!