BioWare is quite matter-of-fact this week, releasing tidbits of information in some short and concise posts in this week’s DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller talks lightsaber colors and energy blades. Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert answers questions about the appearance of younglings, dueling, species and class combinations, and the soul of a class and their armor. Senior Game Designer William Wallace also talks about the Imperial Agent and the evolution of their energy blade abilities. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.
Two days ago SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid twittered that a special, London specific, announcement was coming. A bit later this was revealed to be a surprise community event in London next week (full post on the official forums):
On Tuesday, April 5th at gamerbase, inside HMV at the Trocadero (near Piccadilly Circus, London – here’s a Google Map) we’ll be doing a ONE NIGHT ONLY community event where a limited number of Forum members will be able to play Star Wars: The Old Republic!
Entrance is free, but INVITES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED on a first-come, first-serve basis.
While such events are very cool, I normally wouldn’t separately report them like this (and instead catch them in the developer quotes post or reporting on any general events news posts from BioWare). This one is different though, because it seems I’ve managed to get myself invited. Earlier today I got this PM from Stephen Reid on the official forums:
You’re attending the 7pm gamerbase session
THIS IS NOT YOUR OFFICIAL INVITE – just a notification to ease the pain of waiting.
Your official invite will arrive in your email tomorrow (Thursday).
I’ll see you in London.
So it seems that next Tuesday I’ll get a chance to play Star Wars: The Old Republic for an hour. And of course afterwards (either immediately or in the days after, depending on how fast I can type) I’ll post a report here (assuming that’s allowed, which I’m fairly certain that it will be).
I work fairly close to the Trocadero too (cycling past it every day on my way home), so is easy to find. Can’t wait.
Continuing in the tradition of releasing a Facebook Image of the Week, BioWare unveiled a new screenshot of Belsavis today. The image shows off what can best be described as the Belsavis “Habitable Zones.”
The verdant beauty of Belsavis volcanic craters can almost make one forget the galactic horrors imprisoned on the planet.
For future ease of reference we have setup a Facebook Image of the Week Media Gallery which can be seen below for a collection of all of the images.
Whether you are new to the MMO genre or an MMO veteran, most players have some familiarity with people being referred to as ninja looters, or ninjas for short. This term is thrown around often because of players feeling cheated out of gear and other drops. Loot is at the center of all MMO gameplay and loot etiquette should be as well.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived author Paul S. Kemp is hosting a live chat tonight at 6:30p ET / 9:30p PT on Star Wars Books’ Facebook page. Get your Malgus on by liking Star Wars Books and ask him about the motivation behind the epic moment in the novel.
The latest round of The Escapist Magazine’s March Mayhem Developer Showdown has our favorite MMORPG developer pitted against Blizzard in the contest’s Final Four. Previous match ups included BioWare defeating Bethseda, Bungie, DICE, and TellTale Games. Do we really need to tell you to be a true Hater and go vote for BioWare already? Get your mother, your ex-girlfriend, and your cat to vote too.
When someone thinks of a Dark Lord of the Sith, one of the first few characteristics that comes to mind is a thirst for control and power. The key to any good antagonist (or in the case of The Old Republic, your possible protagonist) is character depth. It is not enough for Sith Lords to be evil and ruthless. The character must consider these vile acts necessary or rationalize his actions to be for a greater good.
London specific actually. Cue wailing from those ‘oop North’. (I kid because I love. Many good times in northern parts of the UK.)
UPDATE: UK residents can come play the game — details incoming.
Stephen Reid said:
On Tuesday, April 5th at gamerbase, inside HMV at the Trocadero (near Piccadilly Circus, London) we’ll be doing a ONE NIGHT ONLY community event where a limited number of Forum members will be able to play Star Wars: The Old Republic!
Entrance is free, but INVITES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED on a first-come, first-serve basis.
This weeks episode of the TOROcast Samm and Musco are joined by Kimi. The three cover this week’s from BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic. The topic of discussion of the week was the new Jedi Knight video shocasing its progression through the game.
Bah, Mozilla officially released Firefox 4 (which I installed yesterday), but there’s definitely some kinks to work out still. Ctrl-tab doesn’t work properly and sometimes I get open tab spaces when it think a tab is still open, but it really isn’t (though that might be one of my add-ons messing with things).
Anyway, got a relatively short Friday update for you today. It seems that all the PAX East stuff has been done and most of the developers seem to be cooling their typing fingers in buckets of ice as there’s definitely far less dev posts this week (or rather, they’re probably all back to work full steam).
For the Friday update itself they’ve got a new video for us, showing the Jedi Knight character progression. In two minutes the video shows an Obi-Wan Kenobi wannabe Jedi Knight at six stages of progression; starting as a padawan with a training blade, on to becoming a full knight and getting his first lightsaber. And then two stages for each of the two advanced classes. Here’s the official news:
As you progress in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, your character grows more powerful, gains experience, discovers new skills, and acquires more advanced gear.
In this video, you’ll get a sneak peek at how the Jedi Knight can evolve in The Old Republic. This is just a small sampling of the armors and skills available, but we hope this gives you a taste of how the Jedi Knight will look as he develops through the course of the game.
Leave a comment below, or let us know what you think in the Forums!
It’s a nice video, particularly if you’re interested in playing a Knight. Personally I’ll wait for the Consular and Agent videos. I do like the look of those armors though (the sentinel more so than the Guardian). And the character graphics don’t get on my nerves as much as they used to; maybe I’m getting used to it.
