It's another Fan Friday this week for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Forum member Greighson's Sith-themed propaganda posters act as a throwback to World War II. User Crypticgrrl created portraits of several characters, including a Twi'lek dancing girl. Kharmis wrote a fan fiction about the Republic Troopers. Also, the forums added new smilies and avatars. For more interaction, participate in the two new polls: Whats your favorite part of being in a guild? and What Fan Site is your favorite to regularly visit? Also included in this week's update is a new Studio Insider with Senior Concept Artist Ryan Dening and Senior Environment Artist Christopher Reeves on Starship Creation and a Community Q&A with Senior Producer Blaine Christine.
In addition, BioWare officially announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be present at PAX East in March.
BioWare also released concept art of Dromund Kass, Tatooine, and Belsavis.
UPDATE: Stephen Reid revealed in a conversation post the amount of classes in each faction that can fulfill a healing role increased from two to three:
Stephen Reid
BioWare Austin's policy on info release (which is not, in case you were wondering, a cast iron, legally binding, break-this-rule-and-you're-getting-fired sort of thing*) is to not talk about aspects of the game until we're ready to talk about them. Generally that means when they are, to some degree, finished - but, game development is a constant process and things change.
For instance, until this week, like most of you, I understood that two Advanced Classes (for Republic and Empire) would be able to act as healers. Thanks to the Game Testing program and numerous other factors, Georg Zoeller and his team upped the number to three on each side. They did that because ultimately they felt it was better for the game.
DevTracker posts continue after the jump.
Joanne Laroche
Members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community constantly inspire us with their enthusiasm. We have tons of creative, talented community members, and we'll continue our tradition of highlighting some of our favorites in this week's article. Enjoy the excellent fan art and fiction!
We've also created some great new smilies and avatars for everyone to use on our forums, and have a special event announcement to share.
Read More...
Joanne Laroche
In every Studio Insider, we take you behind the scenes to give you an exclusive close look at the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. This week, Senior Concept Artist Ryan Dening and Senior Environment Artist Christopher Reeves give us a detailed look at the design process for the Agent Starship, the X-70B Phantom.
We also gathered up the questions the community posted in the most recent Community Q&A thread and sent some of them to Senior Producer Blaine Christine. We hope you'll enjoy this month's answers. Have a burning question about The Old Republic? Don't miss out on this month's brand new Community Q&A thread!
Stephen Reid
So! As part of today's update we've announced that we'll be exhibiting at PAX East this year. PAX East takes place in Boston, MA between March 11 and 13.
Now, it's too early for us to talk about what we'll be showing and talking about, but planning's underway.
What I want to discuss with you guys, though, is what kind of things you'd like to see that aren't related to gameplay or announcements. Oh, what cruel conditions.
With that in mind, what we're happy to hear ideas on are things like:
- What sort of activities we might have on our booth, eg demo suggestions, guests you'd like to see...
- What sort of activities we might have off our booth - including whether, for example, you'd like a community meet 'n' greet
- What sort of things you might like to see on the web to compliment and expand on PAX East - particularly if you're not able to make the show in person
Now, a few caveats. First - we don't promise to do anything, but I like to crowd-source. Second - we have a budget, and it's not 'unlimited'. Third - be constructive.
That's it. Now let's chat.
Image submitted by Chronium
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Posted 1/17/2011 9:51:43 PMWhich means people were whining in beta that there wasn't enough healing available in groups. Apparently, there weren't enough healing capable companions as well, or they weren't good enough at healing to be viable.
Possibly this may be a condition of having 4 person groups.
Note: I am not in beta or game testing.
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Posted 1/17/2011 9:08:47 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 1/15/2011 3:55:36 AMHOLY WAFFLES, I SAY! HOLY WAFFLES MAN!
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Posted 1/15/2011 11:56:30 AMThat should have been one of Robin's lines :P
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Posted 1/15/2011 8:22:22 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 1/15/2011 9:08:02 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 1/15/2011 12:07:20 AMDidn't think I'd do that when I woke up this morning. Sigh, now where's my coffee cup from then?
Pax East here I come!
Darth Hater has to win the voting round, honestly no other podcast goes anywhere near in-depth with the game as y'all do. Though I will say that Torocast has to come in an immediate second Samm is rather funny and makes some good points on their podcasts.
SWTOR Character Names:
Wound in the Force:: Avinoam (Lvl 50 DS Assassin), Gurion (Lvl 20 LS Sith Juggernaught), Adomin (LVL 33 DS Sentinel),Achinoam (Lvl 10 Grey Consular), Tzahala (LVL 14 DS Trooper),Juliraus (LVL 9 Grey/Dark BH)
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Posted 1/14/2011 11:04:13 PMI have to say I'm enjoying TORSyndicate and Corellian Run podcasts. But there's no competition in thorough coverage.
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Posted 1/14/2011 9:25:05 PMAnd which currently non-heal class gets heals? Trooper/BH or JK/SW? Either way, you're looking at a character that now has the possibility of fulfilling any trinity role. This might cause class imbalance problems for the role-undecided community - it would bias those that don't know what role they want to play yet into picking the one that can do them all. That's one of the reasons I ended up as a paladin in World of Warcraft, and I'd imagine I'm not alone.
I am the light that brings the dawn.
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Posted 1/14/2011 10:55:38 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 1/15/2011 1:52:14 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 1/14/2011 9:55:00 PM