Episode 50 “Chocodiles and Insurance Rates” of the Darth Hater Podcast is now live. Check the bottom of the post for the stream and download links. Podcast notes after the jump.
For our normal visitors: in case you’re not aware, the Order 66 Podcast is pretty much the place to go for Star Wars Saga Edition themed news, discussions, tips, interviews… you name it. For those who didn’t tune in to Order 66′s pod…
In this weeks episode of the TOROcast Musco and Samm are joined by the wonderful Kimiko. The three take on this weeks news from Star Wars The Old Republic, unfortunately it was very little with only a comic release. The three instead go into a discussion on the basics of MMO’s and a small discussion on transitioning from Console Gaming to MMO’s.
Check out the second issue of Blood of the Empire: Act 3: Burn the Future. The Star Wars: The Old Republic online comic. BioWare and LucasArts have once again teamed up with Dark Horse to create this original comic series published entirely online. Blood of the Empire features a new perspective and strong character-driven story written by BioWare’s Senior Writer Alexander Freed and published by Dark Horse. In the second issue of Act 3, a battle between Republic and Imperial fleets rages over Korriban as Teneb Kel chases down his foe. The fate of the Sith homeworld and the Children of the Emperor is in the hands of one young acolyte and his slave–but duty and patriotism aren’t the only forces guiding them…
Check out this clip of the second issue:
We have added this issue to our galleries, you can read it here, or read the official release here.
Today’s official update consists of another issue of Blood of the Empire… and that seems to be it. Luckily I’ve also still got the Gamescom wrap-up to do, so I’ll add that as well to spice things up. But first the comic; here’s the official news:
In the tenth issue of Blood of the Empire™, a battle between Republic and Imperial fleets rages over Korriban as Teneb Kel chases down his foe. The fate of the Sith homeworld and the Children of the Emperor is in the hands of one young acolyte and his slave–but duty and patriotism aren’t the only forces guiding them…
As for Gamescom, I felt that The Old Republic didn’t have quite as strong a presence as I was expecting. Maybe it didn’t stand out as much anymore after its E3 presence, but to me they (and every other MMO, not to say every other game) seemed to be rather steamrolled by Guild Wars 2′s exceptionally strong presence at the expo (not that surprising considering that GW2 was showing gameplay for the very first time). Either way, there were a number of things here and there.
[link] to interview with James Ohlen at Darth Hater.
The always excellent Darth Hater had an interview with James Ohlen during Gamescom. I thought that they had more Gamescom interviews, but seems I was wrong. Anyway, here’s an excerpt:
Can you explain the philosophy behind how the skill sets in each advanced class work? Is it to give you further options to extend the ways you play one role in groups, does it open up additional roles, or is it best described as a combination?
James: Each of the advanced classes does allow you to modify the role you play as a group. For example, if you are a Sith Warrior and you decide to go down the Juggernaut path then you will be wearing heavy armor and wielding a single lightsaber. You are much more of a tank character. However, if you decide to go with the Marauder path, then you get to wield two lightsabers and you are dealing a lot of damage. You are much more of a dps character; you are gonna be the guy dealing the damage instead of taking it. So those are two very different classes, but you are still a Sith Warrior; you are just playing a different role in the group.
[link] to Space Combat reveal video interview at GameSpot.
GameSpot has a video interview with Daniel Erickson about the recenty revealed space combat. it’s a nice interview that goes beyond just space combat onto a few other things. The most interesting thing for me was where they talked about giving your companions ‘kits’ to help specify what role you want them to play. I don’t think I’d heard that before. Anyway, here’s the video:
[link] to Sith Inquisitor hands on article at IGN.
Over at IGN they played the demo at Gamescom as a Sith Inquisitor and they wrote a relatively short article about their experience. Here’s an excerpt:
Back to my Inquisitor character, he was initially tasked with proving his worth by finding a certain NPC located nearby the starting area on Korriban. By roaming outside I found myself in a red rock valley along the sides of which were carved huge, ominous figures. I trotted around and checked out the skill bar. It wasn’t very full yet, the character was very low level, but could still pull off a few useful attacks. Saber strike could be triggered at close range for a boost in melee damage played out across a flurry of strikes. Shock functioned as a simple ranged electrical attack, and lighting drain was a channeled ability that damaged, restored force, and slowed targets. If a fight proved to be especially tough, there’s also the option to meditate to quickly restore health and force over time. With a cooldown of one minute, it seems like this ability is meant to be used pretty often, keeping downtime between battles to a minimum.
Ten Ton Hammer has a fairly short article about a press demonstration that BioWare gave, talking about advanced classes and space combat. Here’s an excerpt:
If the player wants to be a character like Darth Maul, they would select the Sith Assassin specialization from the Inquisitor class. This would allow them to wield a double bladed sword and provide a stealth element to their gameplay. The contrasting specialization for the Inquisitor is the Sorcerer. As a Sith Sorcerer the player would be more like the Emperor and have ranged abilities like force lightning.
[link] to off screen gameplay video at GameTrailers.
GameTrailers also played the demo, if I’m not mistaken as a Trooper, and they pointed a camera at the screen as they did. The resulting video is below:
MMORPG.com didn’t go to Gamescom (as I understand), but they did look at all the information that’s been released and wrote an article considering their thoughts. The article is mainly about the advanced classes, but also mentions space combat. Here’s an excerpt (I might’ve missed it, but I don’t recall hearing anywhere that the Jedi Shadow can use stealth so I wonder what their source for that is):
The Jedi Consular’s Advanced Classes stirred the SW:TOR community into a tizzy over the past few days. Options for the Jedi Consular include the hybrid controlling/healing/damage dealing “Jedi Wizard” Advanced Class, as well as the saber staff wielding MDPS Jedi Shadow. Fan reaction to the Consulars “Jedi Wizard” class name was understandably negative, I’m not sure what Bioware’s thinking was here and I suspect that this may be changed. Yes, Ben Kenobi was referred to as an “old wizard” by Owen Lars in Episode IV, but that is pretty obscure and there are plenty of other possible names that could have been used here. This just seems like a lazy attempt to attach a familiar fantasy class name to one of SW:TOR’s “mage” classes. The Jedi Shadow, as its name would imply, interestingly makes use of stealth mechanics.
IGn also has a (very short and soundless) off screen gameplay video with what looks to be a Sith Warrior. For a while I thought that the character’s lightsaber was horribly bugged as it looks like a normal stick, but I think now that that’s supposed to be a training weapon or such. Can’t really fault them for not trusting acolytes with lightsabers (and it’s fun for players to earn them). Here’s the video:
[link] to video interview with James Ohlen at SWTOR-Station.
The German site SWTOR-Station also has a video interview, this one with James Ohlen where they cover a variety of topics (and some interesting answers). The link above has, next to the video, also a summary of points (be sure to click the English flash in the top-right if you’re getting it in German and prefer English). I’m glad to have confirmation that twi’leks can be more than just Smugglers (I’m still hopeful that it’s a species that can be every class, considering how iconic to Star Wars the species is). Anyway, here’s the video (via YouTube):
[link] to off screen gameplay videos at Leakerz. [link] to more off screen gameplay videos at Leakerz. [link] to even more off screen gameplay videos at Leakerz.
I’m not going to embed all the videos, but the gaming blog Leakerz has a whole load of off screen videos showing (well over an hour of) TOR gameplay. Unfortunately most of them are without sound (ostensibly because of the noise on the show floor), but they still give a detailed view of the gameplay. If you can’t get enough off screen demo footage then it’s certainly worth a watch.
And that’s about it. I’m sure that there are sites and articles and such that I’ve missed, but that should give a fairly decent view of TOR’s presence at Gamescom this year.
This week’s Friday Update for Star Wars: The Old Republic brings us the continuing adventures of Teneb Kel, Maggot, and Exal Kressh in Blood of the Empire #10. With a strong focus on companion characters, this issue continues to expand on the dynamics between the Sith and his slave.
For those of you looking for more information on the game, be sure to check out our forums for active discussions on all things TOR; including great debate on space combat, referenced planets, class abilities, and nearly any other relevant topic.
Friday hath cometh, and with it we’re given a new Blood of the Empire comic! Apparently, as of yet, that’s all the treat we’re to be given this fine day…but stay tuned, as if there is something else to find: You’ll happen upon it here! Read on for the summary of the Webcomic.
Blood of the Empire – Issue #10
Summary
*SPOILERS*
We once again follow Teneb Kel into the trenches of trouble as he jumps straight into (and through) the onslaught brought forth by his illusive target, Exal Kressh. After some touching words to his companion, Maggot, he jumps off his ship after breaking the atmosphere of Korriban to a cliff over-looking the battle occurring on ground. Noticing that the main entrance to the academy is blocked by battling Jedi and Sith, Teneb takes an alternate route into the academy assuming Kressh made for the same path.
Our rankles Sith finds the remains of Exal’s destructive wake, and in turn follows them toward her wide-eyed frenzy of destruction occurring under the academy. After an exchange of words as well as saber blows, she notices that he understands just what she is doing…but there’s more to it than just destroying her former master’s “children”. Teneb intends to find out.
Meanwhile, Maggot grows impatient and upset with his master. He had no intention of no longer being a slave, should Teneb Kel fall. After taking an eye of the battle, he gruntingly disembarks from the ship, and prepares to unleash the warrior of his past in order to assist his Sith friend, and hopefully prevent his inevitable death for the time being.
*END SPOILERS*
More will be posted should there be any further updates throughout the day, as of this time they haven’t posted the update on Twitter or Facebook, so it’s possible to expect more! Keep tuned!
Human speech evolved using a specific set of apparatus that allow us to make the sounds that we do. Even our closest primate cousins cannot physically generate human-like speech. And yet BioWare seems to have no problem with normal-sounding speech from Trandoshans, Gamorreans, or even the double-mouthed Ithorians in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Aliens sounded “alien” in the films, but I think they’ll sound like any old human in SWTOR. I worry that this will break immersion for some players.
The ability to generate human speech requires specific biological features that make us unique among the animal kingdom:
—looking back at human evolution, it’s evident that after humans diverged from an early ape ancestor, the shape of the vocal tract changed. Over 100,000 years ago, the human mouth started getting smaller and protruding less. We developed a more flexible tongue that could be controlled more precisely, and a longer neck.
…
These changes didn’t evolve overnight, but it’s hard to pinpoint when we moved beyond primitive grunts and started talking. Fossils can only tell us so much about the shape of the vocal tract because much of it is soft tissue. But we can see what the human vocal tract shape has allowed us to do that our primate relatives can’t.
Star Wars lore includes a number of alien races—some more humanoid than others—with wildly different biology. Sure, when something like a Chiss talks it’s no different than a human talking. Even when the slightly more alien Arconan speaks like a human there are enough visual similarities that it doesn’t seem entirely outlandish. Such is not the case more exotic aliens. Gaping maws, protruding tusks, long snouts, and a myriad of other odd facial structures should be impediments to speech. Sure, it might be overlooked in a comic book with a funky chat bubble and a hand-wave—
—but it’s a harder sell in a video game where we can actually hear these unusual creatures talking.
Ben Burtt, the Foley artist for the Star Wars films, had a daunting task when presented with this issue. Aliens have to sound alien for the viewer to accept them. If their speech doesn’t satisfy, the viewer’s immersion is broken. Burtt’s solution was to not attempt human speech and instead use subtitles or context to transmit meaning. Greedo, Jabba, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and the rest of the jabbering masses of aliens in Star Wars feature alien “languages” that, while perhaps not scientifically feasible, at least maintain verisimilitude for the viewer. Where human speech—or “galactic basic“—was required of an alien, audio distortions, distinctive accents, and non-standard speech patterns were used instead. In every example, effort was made to set these characters apart from the human element in an audible way.
BioWare doesn’t seem to care as much. It appears that most alien SWTOR characters—players and non-players—will sound human. Witness the facial animations video for aliens that includes audio:
The above video presents human-sounding speech for Trandoshans, Gamorreans, Arcona, Weequay, and Ithorians. Of those, I would have expected it only from Arcona and Weequay, and even then Arcona are rather non-human in appearance and Weequay are supposed to communicate primarily through pheromones, not speech. Another example is the Mon Calamari NPC trooper Narlock from the E3 Multiplayer Demo, who also sounds human. In the films, Admiral Ackbar was distinctly nasal-sounding with heavy intakes of air between phrases. It was a “watery” sort of speech that one would expect from a fish-man. In the films, Bossk the Trandoshan hissed, Jabba’s Gamorrean guards oinked and squealed, and Ithorians grunted. It made for a far more interesting and immersive experience, so why is BioWare moving away from it?
Possibly because Star Wars has been heading in that direction for a while. The novels have sought ways around speech limitations for alien characters—such as with the WookieeLowbacca’s portable translator droid or with the Gamorrean Voort “Piggy” saBinring’s vocal attachment that automatically translates his grunts into speech. The comics have used funky chat boxes or have simply ignored the issue entirely—such as in the Knights of the Old Republic comic with the Trandoshan Slyssk and the Ithorians Del and Dob Moomo. Video games have overlooked the issue—such as Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy where the Kel Dor version of Jaden Korrdisappointed me by lacking any breathing mask-related voice distortion. Even in audio books aliens have sounded like baseline humans—such as the Kel Dor Baran Do sages that appeared in the audio book for Outcast. However, the most prolific offender in this departure from Burtt’s high standards in the films is the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series.
TCW has made little effort to reflect the impact of alien biology on speech. Sure, they love including accented characters and some villains—Cad Bane for example—get cool audio distortions, but everyone basically sounds human. Right from the beginning Ziro the Hutt was a departure from the deep, resonating tones of Jabba, and since then we’ve had an ebulliently talkative Weequay, a were-spider voiced by the same actor as the clones, and a human-sounding Rodian senator to name a few examples. Even the usual Neimoidian accent was dropped in favor of George Takei’s distinctive tones for the character of Lok Durd. (One would hope they would go ahead and make Jar Jar less annoying, but no luck there.) Of course they still include some aliens who don’t speak basic at all—such as the bounty hunter Kyuzo who appeared in the homage episode to Akira Kurosawa’sSeven Samurai—but if an alien is going to speak basic, you can expect it to sound human. BioWare appears to be following their example, for better or for worse.
In my opinion, for the better. I appreciate Burtt’s fine work in the films, and I certainly don’t mind a realistic take on alien life in “serious” science fiction, but Star Wars is not that type of science fiction. Star Wars is classic science-fiction—a “space opera,” “space western,” or “space fantasy“—but it’s certainly not what someone would consider “hard” sci-fi. If viewers can suspend their disbelief for laser-swords, magic, and sound in space, they can get over missing speech impediments for aliens. Heck, it’s not like other well-known franchises haven’t gotten away with ignoring effectively the same issue:
There are benefits to making aliens talk “human.” First and foremost, every alien that speaks basic is one less alien we have growling in the players’ faces or spouting the same gibberish over and over again like they did in Knights of the Old Republicand Knights of the Old Republic II. When each member of an alien species—Duros, Twi’lek, Rodian, Ithorian, Hutt—has the same voice and only two or three “phrases,” it gets outright painful to talk to non-humans. There’s a reason why Mission Vao speaks perfect, unaccented basic, and it’s not the reason she gives you in the game. It’s because anything else would make you want to kill her. Even Yoda started to annoy me during the prequels when he carried way too much of the dialogue. Burtt’s quality-focused approach worked—in part—because he didn’t have to worry about the vast quantity of voice-over that BioWare has to. What sounds awesome in a three second clip will become irksome after hearing it repeated again and again as you mow down a crowd of alien NPCs.
Avoiding odd speech patterns, alien languages, and funny accents also allows each alien to stand out as an individual character instead of the “default” personality for their species. Not every “yoda” needs to actually be Yoda. Why can’t Vandar speak normally and have his own personality? They shouldn’t tie the actors’ hands by demanding that every member of a species sound the same. When every Gungan sounds like Jar Jar, they all wind up being just as annoying as Jar Jar. Speaking of Binks, there’s also the issue of unfortunate implications when using stereotypical (or what is perceived as stereotypical) mannerisms and accents to distinguish an alien species. There were accusations that The Phantom Menace featured racist stereotypes:
“There was something about [Jar Jar Binks'] demeanor that suggested blackness and that suggested, more specifically, stereotypical blackness,” says Michael Dyson, professor of African-American studies at Columbia University.
…
—Bruce Gottlieb discussed Watto, the hooked-nosed, winged creature who owns the young slave, Anakin Skywalker.
“Even in a galaxy far, far away,” he writes, “the Jews are apparently behind the slave trade.”
…
Steve Murray, a film reviewer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, writes: “It’s questionable that Lucas has two of the shadier alien species sounding Chinese and Middle Eastern.”
BioWare seems to be sidestepping these concerns by going with human speech for all—or at least many—aliens. Sure, it might strain immersion a bit, but by making plain-spoken basic more ubiquitous they reduce the reading load for alien-language subtitles, avoid grating repetition of alien phrases, and dodge any unfortunate implications of using accents for aliens. They also encourage more nuanced performances from their voice actors, allowing them to focus on the personality of a character, not its species.
Should there be some limits? Of course. Wookiees have long been established as incapable of basic, making them impractical for human speech, but almost any other race is open to it. After all, Gamorreans were supposed to have the same physical limitation and yet we hear one speaking normally in the video above. We should be prepared to see alien but hear human in SWTOR, and we should recognize that there are benefits of BioWare taking this approach.
Great thread from the community about the size of Ord Mantell detailed with maps, 3D models, and more. Worthy of checking out for those interested in learning more about the size of Ord Mantell.
Translated German interviews that highlight companions, quests, and space combat. Many of these aspects are fleshed out more than we have heard up until now.
Check out the second issue of Blood of the Empire: Act 3: Burn the Future. The Star Wars: The Old Republic online comic. BioWare and LucasArts have once again teamed up with Dark Horse to create this original comic series published entirely online. Blood of the Empire features a new perspective and strong character-driven story written by BioWare’s Senior Writer Alexander Freed and published by Dark Horse. In the second issue of Act 3, a battle between Republic and Imperial fleets rages over Korriban as Teneb Kel chases down his foe. The fate of the Sith homeworld and the Children of the Emperor is in the hands of one young acolyte and his slave–but duty and patriotism aren’t the only forces guiding them…
