Narboon, an eagle-eyed Aussie SWTOR fan spotted this little gem in a Queensland EB Games store today:
Update from David B at Bioware:
No date is official unless you hear it from us. Retailers use placeholder dates all the time, this isn’t news.
2012 Release Date for Star Wars: The Old Republic? Someone thinks so
July 15, 2011 by
Flash Point 11: Boba Fett Was A Bad Guy
July 11, 2011 by
A fun-packed episode covering everything from the danger of firearms through to a discussion on adding a third amigo/amigoette to the Flash Point Team.
Points of discussion:
– Bounty Hunter character progression
– Maps in SWTOR
– San Diego Comic Con and potential announcements
– Oceanic release update
– Oceanic servers
– Discussion on adding someone else to the podcast team
– Google Plus
– An ad hoc Skype video chat to determine what we each look like!
– Thanks to our iTunes Store podcast reviewers
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, and Twitter account.
Listen via iTunes or right here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:33 — 59.8MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
I’m the Map, I’m the Map!
July 10, 2011 by
Georg Zoeller posed a simple question to the design team: “Which part of the user interface is opened more than any other when playing Star Wars™: The Old Republic™?” It was a simple question, but the answer wasn’t any of the UI parts you might expect: not our character sheet, inventory or the Crew Skills window. No, the winner was the World Map. And it won easily – by more than an order of magnitude.
– Damion Schubert
This week Damion Schubert, Principal Lead System Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic™ takes us through the tremendous task of building, functionality, and utility of maps for SWTOR. Maps are extremely important in any game, even more so in a MMO. Thousands of players on planets up to six times larger than any “Zone” on other MMO’s all trying to find their way across new and familiar worlds alike is a daunting task for a map maker.
The map process starts with a designer drawing a “Trigger Box” that allows the designer to render only the objects inside the trigger box, then this basic map image goes through revision and enhancement several times to remove any objects that are misleading or were accidentally rendered that shouldn’t be there:
The end result is that we have maps that can show astonishing details about the game world. Chairs, crates, statues – all manner of items show up on the map from a birds-eye view, giving the player a real sense of where they are in the world.
– Schubert
Everyone hates searching for a quest objective for hours only to realize you’re in the wrong section of the zone, and I personally don’t like a giant exclamation mark telling me the exact location – it kinda takes the point out of the quest. In SWTOR it looks like they’ve found a good balance by utilizing a semi-transparent circle around an area of the map that your quest objective can be found, so it still takes some searching but not aimless wandering.
The Breadcrumb system is another mechanism the designers at Bioware have added to make the traversing of massive planets a little less arduous. The Breadcrumb system works by showing the fastest routes to your active quest, which on most MMOs would be a nice add-on but on SWTOR it looks like this will be a extremely helpful tool. SWTOR has much larger “Zones” or “Worlds” than other MMOs, many with a lot of indoor complexes and entire planets that are cities. Schubert compares these to other MMO “Dungeons”, so navigating these could turn into a tedious task. The Breadcrumb system shows you which exits, tunnels, doors, and transit systems to take to get you into the action and back to your quest.
The last thing Schubert talks about is the ability to see your party members quests on your map and any shared quests (when hovered over with your mouse) shows all party mebers who currently have that quest. Combine this with the Breadcrumb system and the fact that your map goes partially transparent when your moving, makes it very easy to streamline chains of quests and side missions for grinding/static grouping.
May the Force be with you.
Oceanic release dates: no news is what news?
July 5, 2011 by
In the few weeks since the rumours surfaced of a delayed oceanic release for SWTOR, there’s been no shortage of debate, with some lengthy threads still discussing the issue on the official forums.
Unfortunately things are no clearer than when the issue arose and although I remain semi-confident the rumours may not translate into reality, that confidence has waned a little over the last fortnight. We’re still trying to get some more clarity so stay tuned.
In the meantime, here’s a story I’ve written for the ABC’s Technology site – there’s nothing exciting in it for the avid SWTOR follower but it’s a useful overview of the issue for a beginner.
Image courtesy of Dead Cow Girl.
Bounty Hunter Progression – ugly killing
July 2, 2011 by
Feared and respected throughout the galaxy for the unrivaled ability to track their targets, Bounty Hunters must learn new skills to compliment the powerful armor and weapons they will acquire on their missions
– SWTOR
This week Bioware brings us the Bounty Hunter progression video. The progression videos are always some of my favorite updates, they let you get a glimpse at your favorite character or nemesis, and usually a glimpse at some abilities we haven’t seen or have only seen very little of.
Ths progression video starts just like all of the previous ones, showing a Bounty Hunter on his starting planet in his basic starter gear. The low level bounty hunter shows off some of his skills such as a stun dart and a jet pack uppercut. The second set of armor shown in the progression video is very cool, resembling an assassin complete with a face covering turban – reminds me of an Immortal from 300 without the mask. The masked bounty hunter shows off some more skills including a wrist rocket and his iconic flamethrower.
The video then branches into the Advanced Classes the first being the Powertech. The Powertech’s first set of gear looks like it was inspired by the Mandalorian Crusader gear. The Powertech shows off his carbonite spray, Grappling Hook, and spinning Flamethrower. The second Powertech shown is a more heavily armored character, easily identifiable as a “Tank”. The second Powertech uses the jetpack to get airborne then rains down blaster bolts followed by a wrist rocket before floating back to the ground. He then shows how the bounty hunter can close the range gap to utilize his flamethrower and carbonite freeze by way of a jetpack powered punch. After the Bounty Hunter gets into close range in this segment of the video he dodges some swings from a lightsaber then uses a melee weapon on his wrist to dispatch the Jedi.
The progression video then switches to the Bounty Hunters second advanced class – the Mercenary. A damage dealer who can also walk the path of healing, the first Mercenary gear looks like an armored Calo Nord, with the goggles and duel blaster pistols. The abilities the lower level Mercenary shows off are a damage shield and the Jetpack rocket. The second gear set shown for the Mercenary is very Madalorian looking, personally I think the best Bounty Hunter gear so far. The Mercenary shows off some pretty cool abilities including a short range explosion skill, some sort of altered fire on his blaster pistol causing them to fire green blaster bolts that looked as though they were homing bolts, a dual wrist rocket and again using the flying uppercut.
This progression video is one of the better ones released – a very cool update. The Bounty Hunter should be a great character to play or a deadly enemy for us Republic players, Either way I am excited to meet the Bounty Hunter on the battlefield, be it a Tanking PowerTech or a DD Mercenary.
As always may the Force be with you.
Star Wars Galaxies: users try to go legal
June 30, 2011 by
An interesting story over at VentureBeat on a cohort of remaining Star Wars Galaxies have considered legal action in a final attempt to prevent the December 2011 shutdown of the game.
As the article says, it’s a futile attempt given they’ve all signed a EULA that protects Sony Online Entertainment pretty solidly, but it certainly shows the passion of the players still involved with the game.
Others like our own Ed are pleased to see the demise of the game after its controversial change in tack. If you’re really keen, Ed gives his take in detail in our most recent podcast.
Over to you: do you care about the issue or is it just another old game biting the dust?
Flash Point 10: Nerf Hammers and Spitting on Peripherals
June 25, 2011 by
A man-flu infused David and an always entertaining Ed talk about recent SWTOR news, with special guest Mercy from the Star Wars Artists’ Guild.
Points of discussion:
– Battle for Alderaan video
– Is it possible to over-hype SWTOR?
– SWTOR peripherals
– Star Wars Galaxies closing in December (thanks to Sert for the heads-up!)
– Oceanic release delay discussion
– Bridging the generation gap with SWTOR (thanks to Ax for the heads-up on this great post)
– A bunch of interesting facts about Star Wars: A New Hope and Raiders of the Lost Ark
– Star Wars Artists’ Guild
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, and Twitter account.
Listen via iTunes or right here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:37 — 68.1MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Kicking ass in Alderaan
June 25, 2011 by
This week Bioware gives us two highlight videos for the Friday Update. The first video is a highlight of E3 which shows the length of the ridiculous line and interviews people who played the game. It also showed some in-game footage including some companions. The thing that stood out was when the agent went stealth, his companion followed into stealth immediately after – very cool. A few people praised the story in the video, but at this point that’s sort of redundant, we know it’s got the story. Then people just named off the classes they played and I noticed no-one said Trooper, although I saw one or two being played in the background. The E3 highlight video was pretty cool but nothing we haven’t seen or heard before. Check it out here for the full video
The second video is a group mission on Alderaan for Republic players. The mission on Alderaan is to dethrone a militaristic war hero who misguidedly seized the throne to protect the people. The mission starts with Princess Katay instructing you to kill this “King Ulgo” and her family will support a republic appointed leader. The four party members (looks to be one of each Republic class) charge across the war torn streets of Alderaan towards the King’s throne room to some pretty intense battle music. Once the team battles their way up the stairs they make it to King Ulgo who refuses to step down. He must be killed, but before the team gets a chance a shield is generated around his throne. This leads to what looks like a ‘destroy the generators then the boss’ fight scenario, but King Ulgo isn’t going to just let the team claim victory.
Ulgo sends in his bodyguards and droids to try and stop the team. The battle rages on until the trooper fires a rocket into the generator shutting down his shielding. The video ends with the Jedi of the group force leaping at Ulgo. This was a much better highlight reel and definitely worth a watch so check it out here!
As always – May the Force be with you
It’s about the writing, stupid
June 19, 2011 by
This week I’m back from my hiatus with some more news. This week it;s ‘post-writing polish’, the excitement Star Wars: The Old Republic stirred up at E3, as well as a Fan Friday Update.
SWTOR writer Ian Ryan walks us through the process that the writers use after the actual dialog and story are finished. The main thing the writers are doing is going through and actually playing the game making sure that the environment and landscapes match the story.
As writers, we know the stories and the worlds they play out in. Armed with that knowledge, we set out to provide feedback on each planet’s art as it relates to story. While other teams continue working hard to finish The Old Republic, the writers log in to play the game. A tough life, but someone has to do it.
– Ian Ryan
The two main examples Ryan uses in his update for SWTOR is that of “The Promenade” on Nar Shaddaa and “Blastfield Shipyards” Coronet City.
If Nar Shaddaa is the Hutt version of 1970s Las Vegas, the Promenade represents the grand extravagance of the Vegas Strip. The first incarnation of the Promenade was impressive but subtle, a far cry from the glitzy and exorbitant tastes of the Hutts.
Nar Shaddaa’s Promenade was originally almost a skeleton on of what it became after the writers did there art pass and had the designers kick it up a few notches.
After the designers ran through and revamped the Promenade it looks the part of a Hutt’s Vegas strip. Blastfield was originally created as a downtown block of office buildings, though the writing team had envisioned full scale ships being built they never actually said that to the designers. After the art pass on this Corellian shipyard the designers completely rehashed the original area into the full scale shipyard the writers had pictured.
One of the things that I got from Ian Ryan’s article was that he said the games writing is now finished, and that there is NO less than 17 planets. These two off remarks kinda lead towards the game being close to completion, and that there is probably a couple of planets we haven’t seen yet!
Star Wars: The Old Republic hit Big at E3 this year winning a slew of awards and lining up fans for hours and hours just to get a glimpse of this power house MMO. Nominated for 20 awards and winning 15 of those twenty is a pretty great outcome for E3 anyway you look at it. Winning several “Best MMO” and “Best Trailer” the developers, Designers and Writers should be proud of their creation. Here’s the list of awards from E3
Electric Playground – Best of E3 2011
- GamePro – Best MMO
- GameSpy – MMO Game of Show
- Machinima – Best PC Game
- Massively – Best MMO of E3 2011
- Massively – Best Trailer of E3 2011
- Meristation – Best MMO
- Meristation – Best Trailer
- MMOCrunch – Most Anticipated MMO
- MMORPG – Most Anticipated MMO of E3 2011
- MSNBC – Best Multiplayer
- MSNBC – Best Sound Design
- MSNBC – Best Trailer
- PC Gamer – Most Valuable Game
- VGChartz – Best Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game
The Fan Friday added new Forum Icons and showed off some of the communities art work. Check it out here on SWTOR’s website.
The writer update and the E3 review are also worth a look, Hopefully we get a release date later this month. I know everyone is excited for SWTOR but, we don’t want a broken game!
May the Force be with you!
Flash Point 9: Jawa Fury and a Kick in the ‘nads
June 15, 2011 by
With E3 in the recent past and release delay rumour running rampant on the SWTOR forums, there’s been no shortage of things to talk about for Episode 9.
Points of discussion:
– Return trailer (including insurance in the Star Wars era and a debate on turret gunfire as a throwback to WWII!)
– Eternity Vault Operation (including KOTOR and David’s gobsmacking lack of experience with previous Star Wars games)
– Tatooine Walkthrough
– Rumours of a delay in SWTOR’s release for Oceanic players
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, and Twitter account.
Listen via iTunes or right here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:09 — 84.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
SWTOR in Australia and NZ: delay rumours (updated)
June 13, 2011 by
As we’ve discussed quite a bit, the speculation on Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s release date continues to increase in intensity. In that respect it’s been a very interesting recent few days, all thanks to one tweet. It came from Good Game co-host Hex:
Within an hour or so of that the enquiries started coming in to TOROZ, asking if it was true. Hex did tweet two more pieces of info – the first in reponse to a thread on the SWTOR forums discussing her original tweet:
and then:
After the initial tweet, TOROZ contacted David Bass at Bioware to get some clarification, with David responding that Bioware don’t comment on rumours and that “launch regions” haven’t been announced yet. We’ve sought clarification on the launch regions aspect but haven’t received a response to that as yet (and given it’s the weekend it’s not fair to expect one either).
So what does this all mean? Not a lot that can be verified really. There’s really a number of combinations, and one of them will be likely be the reality:
Worst case: delayed oceanic release with lockdown on game purchases and server access
I just can’t see this happening as it would be an overt indication of contempt for oceanic players. It makes no business sense and would create a whole lot of bad feeling that’s not required. I’d be gobsmacked if this came to pass. The truly dedicated could potentially work around it by using a US credit card and a proxy service for playing, but it’d be a mighty pain on a day-to-day basis.
Next worst case: delayed oceanic release with ability to buy from the US
Although this to would garner (rightfully) some significant backlash, it would be partially offset by the ability to purchase online from the US. There’d be complaints around lag and it would still be seen as a bad start for the region, but at least there’d be some access.
Bearable case: short delay then full access
This would arise whereby Bioware, for infrastructure / load balancing issues announce a staggered release schedule with oceanic areas able to access the game a month or two after launch. There would still be plenty of frustration but it wouldn’t be the PR disaster the two worse options would create.
Rightful case: simultaneous worldwide launch
This is what most people have assumed would be the reality until it has been called into question over recent days. This approach provides a smoother start to proceedings and although the potential for lag issues / server queues are increased, even that can garner some good PR from the viewpoint that the game is popular. As much as I still hope this is the planned approach, the fact that launch regions are even being mentioned places some doubt on it.
Best case: Oceanic launches first
I had to put this in as an option even though I’d argue it’s as silly as the worst case option.
The Sum Up
I tend to take the view that the tweets that have caused the debate are at least partially misinformed. If an Electronic Arts PR rep from Australia is the source, then I tend to assume they’re not really in the know. If the information is correct and Bioware have been caught on the hop, it’s a fairly stark illumination of how the EA / Bioware relationship works.
I think a simultaneous release is still on the cards but I don’t think it’s guaranteed by any stretch. There’s been nothing to date to suggest Oceanic areas have been given a great deal of thought in context of the large European and US markets. It’s a flawed strategy though: World of Warcraft is partially where it is today through it’s support of a worldwide audience. Bioware is already behind the eight-ball in that with its PC-only approach. Geographic segregation would be a further retrograde step, but it’s not something set in stone. Three tweets do not a company policy make.
You can discuss it more in the comments here, on our forums or on the SWTOR forum thread (which has now been closed with no response from Bioware except to say there’s an Aussie Guild listing thread already – a furphy of a rationale IMO).
Over to you: are you angry, bemused or indifferent?
UPDATE: Jason Wood James Dominguez over at The Age has also made a mention of a potential delay:
The bad news is that the Australian release looks like it will be pushed back, but I’ll get more news from EA when they know more.
James also alludes to EA PR being the source of the information. It’s now just a matter of whether the EA PR contact is on the money. A big thanks to Cameron for the heads-up.
Tatooine Walkthrough: evil zombies!!
June 10, 2011 by
The release of information on SWTOR continues unabated out of E3. Today’s spoon feeding is an eleven-minute walkthrough of a Level 25/26 quest on Tatooine. It’s another good opportunity to see the full game mechanics in some detail, including personal vehicles (Speeder Bike), companions in combat and the specific capabilities of the Sith Sorceror and Imperial Operative.
Don’t just take my word for it, have a look:
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