Noteworthy Threads – September 30, 2010 originally appeared on Darth Hater on Thursday, September 30th, 2010 at 17:27:51 EST. Please read our terms of use of feeds.

It is podcast time this week, and as always, we’re looking for questions from the community. If you have any Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ or website related questions you would like to have answered on the podcast, then feel free to ask them in the comment section of this post. Along with questions about SWTOR, we are taking questions for our podcast with Kyle McCarthy from J!NX. Make sure to get them in before it’s too late.

This week’s community poll/discussion after the jump.

Continue reading “Community Questions/Poll for This Week’s Podcast”

Community Questions/Poll for This Week’s Podcast originally appeared on Darth Hater on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 13:26:49 EST. Please read our terms of use of feeds.

Although most will keep an eye on BioWare developers at GDC Online panels next week, there is some good news for Star Wars fans in the NYC area. At New York Comic Con, Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Blood of The Empire artist Dave Ross and inker Mark Mckenna will participate in Dark Horse’s panel on Sunday, October 10 (2:30 PM – 3:30 PM EST in Room 1A22). Official description reads:

As the lines of pop culture blur video games and comics, a slew of popular characters and franchises cross platforms. Join representatives from Dark Horse Comics, as we explore this growing comics phenomenon. Guests include Mass Effect lead writer, Mac Walters, artist Omar Francia, as well as Star Wars The Old Republic “Blood of the Empire” artist Dave Ross, as well as inker, Mark Mckenna.

Don’t forget Star Wars: The Old Republic Issue #4 – Blood of the Empire Part 1 is scheduled for release on October 6. And if you are attending NYCC, you must go to the Robot Chicken screening at the Adult Swim panel on Friday, October 8 from 6:45 PM to 7:45 PM EST to get a preview of the new Robot Chicken — Star Wars: Episode III from creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich — because we said to.

Blood of The Empire at New York Comic Con originally appeared on Darth Hater on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 4:45:40 EST. Please read our terms of use of feeds.

Continue reading “Darth Hater Episode 54 – Banana Phone”

Darth Hater Episode 54 – Banana Phone originally appeared on Darth Hater on Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 23:40:37 EST. Please read our terms of use of feeds.

The Starwars: The Old Republic official site has released a brand new article entitled: New Smuggler Secrets. Learn more about this dashing rogue’s skills, associates, and what may be the fastest starship in the galaxy! No two Smugglers are exactly alike, and you’ll be able to customize your character to fit your play style. You’ll face many choices in how your Smuggler develops as you explore the Old Republic galaxy. One of the most important decisions will be which Advanced Class to pursue—whether you want to become the fastest draw in the Outer Rim as a Gunslinger, or whether you prefer to specialize in some of the Smuggler’s more cunning tactics as a Scoundrel.

read more

The Final issue of Blood of the Empire has been released. Check out the foruth and final 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. Blood of the Empire™ reaches its final issue, and Teneb Kel must face the aftermath of his actions. Exal Kressh is defeated, but the Emperor and the Dark Council will have further plans for their servant. What fate is Teneb prepared to carve for himself? And what will he do about Maggot?

read more

The big news this weekend, MMO-wise, was World of Darkness. Ever since CCP (developers of EVE Online) and White Wolf (creators of the various World of Darkness tabletop roleplaying games and such) merged it was pretty much known that CCP was working on a World of Darkness MMO. And that was pretty much all everyone knew. But this weekend during The Grand Masquerade, which is as I understand White Wolf’s official conference, CCP officially announced their next MMO: World of Darkness (though some sources report it as “World of Darkness Online”).

Read more details after the break (as well as an off-screen video).

Here’s an off-screen video of the teaser trailer shown during the event (UPDATE: I replaced the original video with one supporting HD):

Details on the MMO are still sparse, but a few notable points have been revealed so far:

• Released 2012 at the earliest.
  We’ll start off with the bad news; they’ve revealed that the MMO will be released in 2012 at the earliest (and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it released later). Though two years wait from an official release isn’t that strange (we’ve been waiting for SWTOR almost as long already and still have at least six more months to go), but it does still feel as a long time away. Luckily 2011 looks like it’ll be packed with MMOs, so that should tie us over until then.

• Based on Vampire: The Masquerade.
  In case you’re not aware there are two version of the World of Darkness tabletop game; on old edition and a new edition (think of it perhaps as D&D 3E versus D&D 4E). Each edition has a set of related games (a Vampire game, a Werewolf game, a Mage game, etc). “Vampire: The Masquerade” is the vampire game for the old edition and “Vampire: The Requiem” is the vampire game for the new edition. People tend to be pretty divided on the two editions, some like The masquerade a lot better and others like The Requiem a lot better. But considering that the two single player computer RPGs, “Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption” and “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines” (as well as the trading card game “Vampire: The Eternal Struggle“, which I played when it was still called Jyhad, and even the short-lived television series “Kindred: The Embraced“), are based on the older setting it is much better known. Since I never really played any of the Pen and Paper versions of the game I’ve only really experienced The Masquerade and as such am glad that the MMO is going with that version. Hope in the community is though, particularly among those who liked The Requiem better, that they’ll take lessons from both. Which does indeed seem likely.
• Will have a focus on player politics and social interaction.
  Based on EVE Online, as well as the nature of Vampire in particular, this shouldn’t really be surprising. But it is still nice to hear this confirmed. Of course the question remains exactly how they’re going to do this.
• Will be vampire-only to start.
  I know that this is going to be a disappointment to those that prefer the Werewolf, Mage or Changeling games and such. But they’ve confirmed that the only supernatural beings that we’ll be able to play at launch are going to be vampires. Though there was also some mention of playable human characters in one place. And it’s looking quite likely that they might add the other supernatural beings as playable characters in expansions (and either way they’ll likely be represented by NPCs and such in the game from the start as well).
• Three inter-connected playstyles: “Sandbox,” “Themepark,” and “Coffee Shop.”
  Apparently these three playstyles will all exist and connect to each other. “Sandbox” tends to refer to open-ended and non-linear games where players provide content for each other (general examples are Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies and EVE Online). “Themepark” games tend to be a lot more linear and guided experiences, named because a lot of players (particularly those who prefer sandbox games) tend to consider the content a bunch of ‘rides’. Thempark games tend to revolve around quests and dungeons and such (general examples are World of Warcraft and pretty much most of the modern MMOs). I had no idea what a “Coffee Shop” game is, but according to one source it’s a Second Life-type chatroom game, which I guess makes sense. “From what they said, these three spheres should be closely tied and interconnected together, essentially running the economy of blood in the game.”
• In development for 3 years (plus 1.5 years planning
  Just to say that they’ve been workign on it for a long time already. With at least two more years to go that’s a fairly normal development time for an MMO.
• Advanced character customization
  Apparently they’re developing a ‘carbon technology’ framework that should provide state-of-the-art character customizations. Yeah, I have no idea what ‘carbon technology’ is either. It also seems that they’ve hired a fashion consultant to help make the system more realistic and stylish. Which seems as good a time as any to point to the Cloth Simulation Video they released a while back again. Though that is supposedly for EVE’s Incarna (“walking in stations”) expansion, World of Darkness is very likely to use the same technology. I know I’m sold.
• As accessible as possible.
  Apparently they want to get women involved in the game, as well as be friendly to the LGBT community (they’ve confirmed gay and lesbian bars in the game). They want to maximize the amount of human interaction and the game will not be combat intensive (unless you choose it to be) where knowing and influencing the correct people is arguably more important. And though they don’t want immaturity in the game they prefer for the community to police this.
• One server world.
  Though not 100% confirmed it seems almost certain that, just like EVE Online, World of Darkness will be a one server world. Though I can see how one could do that with space (as emptiness is easy to generate), I’m really wondering how they’re going to pull that off in a land based avatar game as it would require a huge amount of land. Particularly if this is going to be a lot more successful than EVE (which, let’s face it, is still a very niche game). I seriously hope that they’ll not underestimate the popularity this game could have.
• Full PvP
  Again just like EVE the game will be a full PvP game with no flagging or such. Though there might be (relatively) safe areas (I expect something similar to high-sec and low-sec areas in EVE), it’ll be a full PvP game. I’m really wondering how they’ll fit this together with being more accessible. And I must admit that this is one thing that scares me as I’m in no way, shape or form a PvP player. Though my experiences with PvP are limited to games like Age of Conan (which might not be the best example for PvP) I fear that people who are more into the PvP combat part of the game will be able to dominate my play experience. Some of the stories that come out of EVE are truly frightening and I’m not sure if I could be able to stand playing a game under those circumstances (such as Hulkageddon and groups of players with ill intent ruining the hard work of others by stealing their stuff and destroying their corporations due to long-term infiltration and such). I do fear that such a game might breed that kind of anti-social behavior; players who like that kind of stuff are more likely to seek it out while those who don’t like that kind of stuff are more likely to avoid it, skewing the overall playerbase in favor of the harshest playstyle. but I know that it’s unfair of me to judge without giving it a try and though space isn’t really my cup of tea, I’m willing to give World of Darkness a shot. Will have to see how they do it.

There’s probably a lot more to say on this game (even despite knowing still so little about it). For one I dug up my Vampire (both The Masquerade and The Requiem) books again to have a reread of certain bits of background lore. And despite wanting to know everything about the game now, considering how far away the release is I’m actually kind of hoping that we don’t hear much more of the game (beyond seeing a decent quality version of the teaser video) for at least another year or so. They should probably wait out the storm of MMOs being released in 2011 and start hyping World of Darkness after that. Until then I think I’ll go into Torpor for a year or two and wait for this game. (Okay, not really, I still have at least SWTOR and GW2 to play as well.)

[link] to World of Darkness Online news at Ardwulf’s Lair (via Massively).
[link] to World of Darkness blog post at Kill Ten Rats.
[link] to The Grand Masquerade Q&A info at RPGnet Forums.
[link] to Russell Bailey (White Wolf developer) post at White Wolf forums.

One of the best things about any well established genre is the satire developed by its community. The best stuff comes when two iconic movies are mixed together. Take last year’s Full Metal Star Wars – Gunnery Sgt Vader for example. If you’ve seen Full Metal Jacket, you’ll remember the character of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. [...]

This week’s Friday update gives us a number of “smuggler secrets”, though I’m not sure if a Wookiee as one of the Smuggler’s companion NPCs really counts as a secret. We also get the last issue of Blood of the Empire, wrapping up the storyline (but in such a way that it’s bound to come back up again in various ways in the game itself). Here is the official news for the comic:

Blood of the Empire™ reaches its twelfth and final issue, and Teneb Kel must face the aftermath of his actions. Exal Kressh is defeated, but the Emperor and the Dark Council will have further plans for their servant. What fate is Teneb prepared to carve for himself? And what will he do about Maggot?

Check out the latest issue of Blood of the Empire now.

With Blood of the Empire finished it makes one wonder… how are they going to fill every other Friday now?

Maybe they’ll fill it with more updates like the Smuggler update we got this week. With some details on the advanced classes for the Smuggler, information on the Twi’lek species that you can play as a Smuggler, details on the Smuggler’s Wookiee companion (to make the Han Solo fantasy complete), details on the Smuggler’s starship and even the Smuggler video (which was already released exclusively by Machinima last week) it’s definitely some heavy-duty Smuggler information that they smuggled in. Here is the official news:

No two Smugglers are exactly alike, and you’ll be able to customize your character to fit your play style. You’ll face many choices in how your Smuggler develops as you explore the Old Republic galaxy. One of the most important decisions will be which Advanced Class to pursue—whether you want to become the fastest draw in the Outer Rim as a Gunslinger, or whether you prefer to specialize in some of the Smuggler’s more cunning tactics as a Scoundrel. Both paths have their own rewards and more choices within their various disciplines, but you’ll have to choose what style suits you best—or better yet, maybe you’ll want to try them both!

If you’re interested in playing something just a little more exotic than human, you might want create a Twi’lek Smuggler. Learn more about this species and get a closer look on the Twi’lek Inhabitants page.

No Smuggler would be complete without a Wookiee companion, so we’d like to introduce you to Bowdaar, the mighty Wookiee warrior. You can learn more about this known associate on the Smuggler page or by accessing Bowdaar’s biography.

A Wookiee’s not the only necessity. A Smuggler wouldn’t be able to do much smuggling without a personal starship. Check out the new Starship section of the HoloNet, and make sure to look at the Smuggler’s Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter. It’s the ship that can make the “Balmorra run” in just a handful of parsecs, and if you choose to play the Smuggler, it will be yours.

Finally, if you love the Smuggler as much as we do, we can guarantee you’ll enjoy the new Smuggler Class Gameplay Video. This video captures the spirit of how the Smuggler plays in the game, and if you look carefully, you might even see something you’ve never seen before.

Enjoy!

Finally, on a slightly different note, Massively reports that Hasbro is apparently making a line of The Old Republic action figures. As the article puts it: “To have action figures made meant that you had ‘arrived’ in Star Wars fame”. Here’s the full text:

If you’re anything like the other billion Star Wars fans in the world, then you most likely harbor a deep-rooted affection for the action figures (NOT dolls!) that became synonymous with the film experience. Ever since Kenner started the toy line in 1977 (and Hasbro after that), kids and grownups alike have decorated their bedrooms, offices and private sanctuaries with hard plastic likenesses of Luke, Leia and Chewie.

Star Wars action figures have not been confined to just the movies; sets such as Evolutions, Clone Wars, and Shadows of the Empire have all received their own lines. To have action figures made meant that you had “arrived” in Star Wars fame, which is why The Old Republic fans should rejoice to know that their as-of-yet unreleased MMO will become immortalized in Hasbro’s lineup.

TTH reports that Hasbro’s Derryl DePriest confirmed TOR action figures are in the works for the 2012 roster. DePriest said on ForceCast.net, “We’re going to have to work in some of those great characters.” Just which TOR characters will be made into dolls, er, ACTION FIGURES is anyone’s guess at the moment, but there are already several possibilities in the characters we know from the cinematic trailers and the Holonet.

I have to agree with that last line; it is indeed likely that they’ll include characters such as Darth Malgus and Satele Shan. I’m also kind of expecting Hylo Visz (the Smuggler who broke through the Mandalorian blokade as per the Timeline) because she has such a distinct appearance. But we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s the entirety of today’s post. She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.

[link] to action figures news at Massively.