Responding to a post on the Star Wars: The Old Republic Official Forums, writer Drew Karpyshyn addressed the connection, or lack thereof, between the planet Hoth and the Expanded Universe character known as General Hoth.
Hate to say it, but as far as I know there is no connection between the planet Hoth and General Hoth. Source material indicates that the planet was known and named thousands of years before the General was born, so it obviously wasn't named for him. I suppose he could have been named for the planet, but there is nothing in his history to indicate any kind of connection.
Of course, I didn't create the General Hoth character he first appeared in a series of Dark Horse comics. All I did was flesh him out a bit. However, I suspect the name was originally chosen to be symbolic of his demeanor: cold, grim and harsh.
Interestingly, there *is* a celestial body that was named after the heroic General. The central star in the Ruusan system was renamed Hoth's Brand in honor of his victories and sacrifices in the war against Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness. As to the planet that had its ecosystem changed, that was the world of Ruusan, which is a totally separate world from the famous ice planet of Hoth. And Ruusan's climate was altered, but it didn't become an uninhabitable ball of ice. And even though the central star in the Ruusan system was renamed, the planet itself was not.
I realize this doesn't do much to settle the question at hand, but it's a moderately relevant segue.
However, one thing I can confirm: the planet Hoth was already called Hoth during the timeline of SWTOR. Hope this helps.
Episode 36 - 'Autotune the SW:TOR News' of the Darth Hater podcast is now up for stream and download. Check the bottom of the post for the stream and download links. Podcast notes after the jump.
We will be launching our new forum soon and would like to invite you to join us in testing it. Starting now we have opened up the forum for everyone who is currently registered on the main website. You can find the Beta forum at beta.darthhater.com. Use the contact form, or the (Beta) forum to report any bugs or give us suggestions.
After the testing period is over we will be pushing it to the main website.
As previewed yesterday, BioWare's Sean Dahlberg announced Hoth as the thirteenth playable planet for Star Wars: The Old Republic:
Along time ago in a galaxy far away...
Thirty years ago to the day, Star Wars: Episode IV The Empire Strikes Back opened in movie theaters, forever changing the cinematic landscape. Bursting with action-packed battles, fast paced dialogue, and characters faced with complex choices, the echoes of this landmark film are still felt today. From toys, to fashion, to punk rock, its influence is everywhere. The Empire Strikes Back has not only changed how we relate to our favorite movies, but has made a lasting contribution to our very culture.
To commemorate this monumental continuation of the Star Wars story, we are proud to reveal the ice world of Hoth -- the latest explorable planet in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Access the HoloNet to learn more about the pivotal battles in the history of Hoth -- and to understand why both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire are interested in the planet. Check out this video to see Hoth's brutal blizzards and unique wildlife. Don't forget to visit the Media Section for never-before-seen screenshots, wallpaper, and concept art showing this barren, desolate landscape.
Plus, the third issue of Blood of the Empire webcomic is available, which contains a first glimpse of the Emperor (or possibly something else):
The third issue of Blood of the Empire chronicles two formidable confrontations--one between Teneb Kel and his former master, Lord Calypho, and another between Teneb Kel and the Dark Council! And what plans do the Emperor and his mysterious apprentice have in store for Teneb? The mission to determine the future of the galaxy begins here.
UPDATE: A late Fan Friday was added to this week's update. It includes the usual community artwork, as well as the Bounty Hunter screenshots from the recent European press event. This week's Developer Corner is a short dialogue video showing the depth-of-field effect in action. There are also a few new avatars to choose from on the official forums.
Welcome to Fan Friday! Today we're giving you a look at some inspiring creations from the Star Wars: The Old Republic community and sharing an inside look at some work-in-progress content from the Development Team.
In addition, we'll be following up on the Electronic Arts European Press Showcase held in London last week, as well as releasing the latest series of official polls and avatars.
Aurebesh translations for Hoth's HoloNet page after the jump.
In the latest issue of Game Developer Magazine, Star Wars: The Old Republic's Damion Schubert opines on win expectancy, and gives plenty of examples of what works and what doesn't when it comes to game difficulty.
However, Schubert complained he only received three emails about the column. We think you should email him (damion at zenofdesign dot com) and let him know you enjoyed this line in the article (though you should spring for at least the PDF copy of the article, as it is a good read):
Already, games are starting to notice that players are failing more often than expected and asking them if they want to adjust their game's difficulty on the fly. In the future, more will start doing this behind the scenes -- to have AI determine the worthiness of the foe and adjust automatically.
Don't forget to mention to Damion Schubert that Darth Hater sent you, and hopefully we can assist in breaking his article feedback record.
According to Videogamer, Hoth is a playable planet in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Head over there to check out some exclusive screenshots.
UPDATE: Sean Dahlberg confirmed part of tomorrow's update will be the planet Hoth.
Yes, this is part of tomorrow's update and in celebration of the fact that thirty years ago to the day (tomorrow), Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back opened in movie theaters.
You'll learn a little more about Hoth (in the Old Republic era) tomorrow so stay tuned!
In the last few weeks we speculated about multiple locations that may appear in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Dantooine, Yavin IV, and Geonosis are all well represented in the marketing but today we are focusing on one of the more subtly referenced planetoids. When the Biography section debuted we noticed that Brentaal, Satele Shan's home world, sounded familiar. We quickly realized fans were first introduced to this planet as the namesake of the Republic cruiser the Brentaal Star during the Kill the Captain/Save the Captain flashpoint demo. With two hints on the table, we thought this planet deserved a closer look.
Episode 35 - 'The William Wallace Advanced Class' of the Darth Hater podcast is now up for stream and download. Check the bottom of the post for the stream and download links. Podcast notes after the jump.
The big Star Wars: The Old Republic buzz last week was Advanced Classes, Skill Sets, and a Developer Blog from Daniel Erickson, but we did get a real interesting opinion about skill-based leveling systems from BioWare's Damion Schubert that we all should pay attention to:
Not to go into the details of what advancement systems we will have or not have inside the game but... this doesn't always work out this rosily, without great designer care. I worked on Meridian 59, which was a wholly skill-based game, and learned a lot about the strengths and pitfalls of systems like it. One of my great pet peeves of pure skill-based systems is that they claim that they are more realistic, but they in fact can create extremely unrealistic situations inside the world.
In the original Everquest, it was not uncommon to see a player throwing himself off a cliff over and over again to improve his safe falling skill, or to see a person macroing some random text gibberish in order to improve his languages. In Meridian 59, players used to park themselves in front of low level monsters and leave the keyboard - they were unlikely to die, and could accumulate defense points in a slow, steady and totally risk-free manor. In Oblivion, the best way to build an assassin character is to hop through fields picking flowers. Jumping improves your Acrobatics (I believe), and the player needs enough flowers to grind up his Poisoning skill.
Sure, each of these could be destupidified with enough designer/programmer time and focus, but then you're coding, QAing and exploit-proofing a different advancement mechanism for every skill in the game. And you'll probably still end up with some silliness somewhere.
I know some people are offended by the idea of do stuff->gain experience->gain level->somehow get better at something completely unrelated. - I know I was too, young in my career when I designed M59. But one of the most important thing for advancement systems is that you get the behavior you incentivize. In a classic XP/Level based system, you are incentivizing your XP-granting behaviors (which in SWTOR is tilted strongly towards questing). In skill-based systems, it is trivially easy to accidentally incentivize really stupid and boring behaviors.
More from BioWare's Randy Begel, Charles Boyd, and Brian Arndt after the jump.
Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson talks about creating the world of Voss in Star Wars: The Old Republic!
In the latest developer blog, "Creating Worlds," Daniel Erickson goes into detail about the process behind creating Voss. He includes some of his notes collected during the process and expands on the sheer amount of documentation that is generated for each of the worlds created for the game.
In addition to the new developer blog, the Game Systems section of the official website has been launched. The Advanced Class System is the first entry in this new section.
Today we are revealing a new area of the website called Game Systems. This area talks about various features from a gamer's perspective. Our first section in this new area discusses the Advanced Class System.
The Advanced Class System grants you access to unique skills and abilities, and is designed to allow you the flexibility to customize your characters to fit your play style. For example, all Smugglers are lucky, opportunistic swindlers. But, do you want to be the kind of Smuggler that sneaks into the middle of a firefight and quickly blasts away at an opponent from point-blank range? Or do you want to be the kind that keeps to the outskirts of the battle, strategically picking your targets from a distance?
These are just some of the meaningful choices that the Advanced Class System offers you to personalize and advance your character in Star Wars: The Old Republic!
This new section gives a summary of the concept behind the Advanced Classes and emphasizes how important choosing an Advanced Class will be in defining a player's character.
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