New Dev Tools Will Eliminate Server Downtime in Star Wars MMO

Star Wars geeks, Jedi wannabes, and even perverted shut-ins (whose only connection to that beloved galaxy far, far away is thinking Twi’leks are super hot) all have a reason to celebrate.

Bioware recently announced its upcoming Star Wars MMO extravaganza The Old Republic will be designed using Simutronics’ HeroEngine. Simutronics claims the HeroEngine, an MMO development tool, will cut down on the time needed to craft a quality MMO by as much as two years.

HeroEngine’s fluid design tools allow developers to communicate and update the game environment in real-time, even if they’re all in different geographic locations. Those instantaneous updates will allow Bioware to tinker with The Old Republic’s universe without shutting servers down. This could mean MMO-players may never again come face-to-face with the dreaded “Servers Down for Maintenance” message, which inevitably plunges them headlong into the cruelties of the real world, i.e. sunlight, responsibility, and bears.

Additionally, Simutronics suggested the HeroEngine can be used to “introduce content to players at key moments rather than giving it to them ahead of time, allowing for surprise events,” which just sounds damn cool. And atmospheric polish (clouds, lightning, etc) and particle effects come standard with the dev kit.

This listless looking creature from Hero's Journey, called a Lightless, should give you a good idea of the level of detail the HeroEngine is capable of. SCREENSHOT FROM: play.net/hj

“Our goal was to partner with a platform developer that knows online gaming and virtual world development, and the team at Simutronics has an excellent track record in that respect,” said Gordon Walton, co-studio director at BioWare, according to an article on 1up.com.

And Simutronics’ reputation is nothing to scoff at. Its game CyberStrike, a futuristic space shooter set in a capitalistic dystopia, won Computer Gaming World magazine’s first ever “Online Game of the Year” award. Plus, the company’s own HeroEngine-manufactured MMO Hero’s Journey doesn’t look too shabby either.

With the grunt work of creating a virtual world taken care of, Bioware finds itself free to focus on content and lore. The Old Republic is slated to contain enough dialog, quests, and other plot elements to make Knights of the Old Republic 3, 4, and 5, with none of the content recycled between classes, according to a fact sheet on Joystiq.com.

“This game has got more content than any BioWare game we’ve created,” said James Ohlen, Old Republic creative director and lead designer in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz