With this week's Friday Update being a Fan Friday you might think this would be a dull week for the DevTracker. Well, you would be wrong if you guessed that. This week's DevTracker Highlights include a wealth of information on crew skills, implants, character customization, forum improvements, and more. Hit the jump for the Highlights in full detail.
Star Wars: The Old Republic debuted a new Friday Update feature today titled Studio Insider and demonstrates systematic concept art creation from Diego Almazan of a Flesh Raider and a Community Q&A section. BioWare's Daniel Erickson answers questions about group questing mechanics, helmet toggle options, Advanced Class roles, and returning to origin planets. If you would like to ask the developers a question and possibly be featured in a future update, BioWare is soliciting participation from the community to post their questions in a thread dedicated to the function.
The update also included this month's Fan Friday, and includes artwork by Yssta, lightsaber graphics from WovenKash, paintings from Xanfel, fan fiction, emoticons, wallpapers, costumes and avatars. Community members also showcased their Halloween costumes, and new polls are available.
Read the Friday Update forum posts from Joanne Laroche after the jump.
The second part of our interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic's Daniel Erickson on Crew Skills delves a bit deeper into companion integration and recipe mechanics. We also gained insight into how the system deals with avoiding intense grinding. We also include a video of Erickson's overview of the unique Crew Skills system after the jump.
At a recent press event we caught up with Stephen Reid, BioWare Austin's brand new Online Community Manager, and asked him a few questions about his past, present, and future. We invite everyone to welcome Mr. Reid to the community. Hit the jump for the full video interview.
In the same week as the Crew Skills update and the announcement of a new Community Manager, you would expect the DevTracker to be abound with entries. Surprisingly enough there were quite a few this week in response. This week's DevTracker Highlights include the introduction of a new Community Manager, details on Crew Skills, and a response to speculation on a possible uptick in community communication from the developers.
With the release of the new Crew Skills video unsurprisingly comes the release of a new Darth Hater dissection. While not nearly as full of interesting oddities as previous tidbits, we still found some not-so-obvious reveals. As always, things revealed in previous dissections will not be included. Make sure to check back throughout the day as more will be added as we progress through the video.
This week's Friday Update spills the beans on Star Wars: The Old Republic's Crew Skills system. A new video is up on the official site with an in depth explanation by BioWare's Dallas Dickinson. The game systems section is also updated with a substantial amount of information regarding the different facets of the system. As we already know, Crew Skills are divided into three different areas: Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. These are then each divided up into their own subsets. Not all of the subsets have been revealed as of yet, but currently we know about Bioanalysis, Scavenging and Slicing within the Gathering skillset, Armormech, Artifice and Biochem within the Crafting skillset, and finally Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting within the Mission skillset. For more, you can read our recent interview with BioWare Austin's Lead Writer, Daniel Erickson.
Additionally, we received the official introduction of Stephen Reid, the new Community Manager for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We were lucky enough to meet Stephen last Wednesday and hope everyone will join us in welcoming him to the community.
You can read Stephen's official introduction, official video, and the Friday Update forum post after the jump.
We caught up with Star Wars: The Old Republic's Lead Writer Daniel Erickson after last week's EA Winter Showcase and asked him to explain in his own words what the Crew Skills system is. He was gracious enough to provide us with expanded insight regarding the unique crafting system that BioWare Austin's Lead System Designer, Damion Schubert, hinted at during our interview in October.
Electronic Arts and LucasArts issued a press release yesterday which announced the consolidation of some global marketing duties for Star Wars: The Old Republic into Electronic Arts. EA largely handled publishing duties for European markets since the game's initial announcement. These sales and marketing responsibilities could encompass everything from retail sales marketing to call center management and possibly global media buys for increased cost efficiency, but the release didn't explain such details nor disclose the financial terms of the agreement. The press release re-affirmed Lucasfilm as the owner of the Star Wars IP, and this means they have pretty much the final say on anything that is in the game or represents the IP in any EA marketing efforts planned for SWTOR, as well as any third party licensing agreements.
Today we're treated with an action packed Alderaan Warzone video, previously unveiled yesterday at EA's Winter Showcase. The warzone on Alderaan was first revealed at E3 2010, but little information was provided at that time. For a better description of the warzone's game mechanics and some elaboration by BioWare's Blaine Christine, look no further than our recent Winter Showcase Coverage.
The original forum post from Joanne Laroche as well as the embedded video are after the break. A dissection and analysis of the update can be found here.
Also posted with this update is a community poll to replace the Jedi Consular Wizard's name as well as new information on the Jedi Consular's class tree. Currently Jedi Sage appears to be the front runner, so if you haven't seen the poll yet and would like to weigh in, cast your vote now.
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