• Developer Blog: Technical Changes Coming in Game Update 1.5

    BioWare Technical Artist Ben Cloward, posted a Developer Update intending to inform the community at large about technical changes coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic in Game Update 1.5.

    Ben Cloward

    As a tech artist, I create tools to help the artists get their work into the game, and I work with the programmers to make the game run more efficiently. One of my favorite things to do is write shaders. Shaders are small programs that run on the graphics chip that describe the appearance of surfaces. For example, shaders define if an object looks shiny or dull, reflective or matte, and they also help us define the visual style of the game in terms of how lighting works.

    While it may not be the most exciting Developer Update, it's good to see the team continuing to optimize and update the engine.

  • William Wallace on Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3

    Earlier today, Senior Game Designer William Wallace detailed some of the upcoming legacy perks unlocked in Game Update 1.3 in a community blog post. In it, he breaks down the Character Perks into four types of unlocks including Advancement Perks, Travel Perks, Companion Perks and Convenience Perks. Along with that, William offers clarity on how these Character Perks differ from the Legacy Unlocks already available:

    William Wallace
    The most obvious difference is that while Legacy Unlocks apply to all characters in your Legacy, Character Perks only apply to a single character, allowing you to customize that particular character. Also, while most Global Unlocks can be earned through normal play or can alternately be purchased for credits, Character Perks can only be purchased using in-game credits. As Character Perks apply only to a single character, their credit costs are significantly lower than most Global Unlocks. Some Character Perks are also restricted by Legacy level and character level in addition to having a credit cost.

    For the article in full, head on over to the blog post.

  • Gabe Amatangelo Talks Ranked Warzones

    Following today's maintenance, Principal Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo posted a short blog posting regarding the Ranked Warzone feature being introduced in update 1.3. In the blog, Gabe explains how the system is setup, how the rankings operate, and goes on to talk a bit about the future of Ranked Warzones.

    Gabe Amatangelo
    In the current Game Update 1.3 PTS build, you’ll find a new button in the Warzone queue window: Queue Team Ranked. This button is available to any player that is in a group of eight level 50 players, and allows that group to queue up for Team Ranked Warzones with a single click.

    Check out the blog post for his comments in full and if you're interested in seeing Ranked Warzones before the patch goes live, be sure to check out the PTS.

  • PVP In Game Update 1.2 Developer Blog

    Lead End-Game and PVP Designer Gabe Ametangelo released a new developer blog to give players some insight into the upcoming changes to PvP in patch 1.2. Specific areas of discussion include the exact mechanics of the Ranked Warzones system, Warzone rewards, the AFK kick system and a brief introduction to the Novare Coast Warzone.

    Gabe Ametangelo
    We believe competitive measure is an important part of a complete PvP experience. As such we are excited to be introducing the first phase of that to Star Wars™: The Old Republic™’s PvP gameplay in Game Update 1.2: Legacy, with Pre-Season of Ranked Warzones. We want to emphasize this is Pre-Season while the community and development teams collect data and refine the system in preparation for Season One, which will begin with the inclusion of cross-server Warzone queuing. The Pre-Season ratings will be reset when Season One officially begins.

    You can see the developer blog in its entirety.

  • Georg Zoeller on Economic Changes in 1.1.5

    Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller posted a blog today about the upcoming changes to both patch 1.2 and the weekly patch 1.1.5 which is now on the Public Test Server. Zoeller explains that the upcoming changes are to embrace the player economy and introduce new items for both PvP and PvE gameplay in end-game situations. Additionally, the blog contains in-game rumors for halted production on certain types of speeders, vehicle cost reductions, cross-faction color crystals, and the introduction of a limited-run white crystal. You can read the blog in full past the jump.

  • Rich Vogel Discusses Bugs and Exploits

    A new Developer Blog entry has been posted on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website. BioWare Executive Producer Rich Vogel gives a detailed look into how bugs and exploits are identified, triaged, prioritized, fixed, and patched to the live servers.

    Rich Vogel
    Not every bug is created equal. Some bugs – even ones that might look simple – take a long time to deal with and some might not be able to be reproduced (as they may be random occurrences under special circumstances). With that in mind, we use a triage process to prioritize our bug lists. This helps us determine which bugs we fix first based on the bug’s severity (which is how many people it affects). We estimate the severity of bugs by looking at volume of tickets sent to our Customer Service team, Forum posts, and using our telemetry data from the game, amongst other things.

     Full post after the jump.

  • No Mass Rollback of Valor for Ilum Issues

    Executive Producer of Live Servers Jeff Hickman posted an update concerning the Ilum issues that have taken place over the last several days since patch 1.1, Rise of the Rakghouls. Hickman explains that contrary to the belief of many players, they will not be implemented a mass rollback for those who took advantage of the valor gains. Instead, they will be reviewing each case and take action if deemed necessary to those might have gained an unfair advantage. You can read the full blog post below.

    Jeff Hickman

    After Game Update 1.1 went live, we discovered that the Open World PvP area on Ilum was not working as our PvP design team intended. As many of you know, large groups of players began capturing the Ilum control points, then 'camping' at the enemy's base. This led to a very frustrating experience for a number of players who were unable to leave their base and fight back against their attackers. It was not a fair gameplay experience. In addition, some players on the attacking side gained more Valor points than designed for the time they spent in PvP.

    The amount of Valor granted from these activities was significantly more than intended and we are now carefully investigating players who were on Ilum during this period, and present at some of these 'camping' events. I can reassure you that those who were involved and who gained an unfair advantage over other players inappropriately will be carefully reviewed and action will be taken to restore game balance. This could include Valor adjustments or account actions in accordance with the severity of the issue.

    We have made the decision not to enact a mass 'rollback' of Valor points for all players in the game, or even on Ilum. This would unfairly penalize some players who may not have been present during this event. Rest assured though, anyone and everyone who is found to have exploited the situation to an unreasonable degree will be investigated and actions taken as needed. Our in-game metrics are able to give us precise details on where players were, what they were doing and what rewards they gained.

    We take any sort of situation where one group of players gains an unexpected or unintended advantage over other players very seriously and will act to ensure that all players can have a fair and fun game experience.

    Thanks for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue. Our team worked diligently to get a patch ready to address this and other issues, and we're already seeing the results in improved battles on Ilum. As always we welcome your feedback and will continue to improve moving forward!

    Jeff Hickman,
    Executive Producer – Live Services

     

  • Character Ability Delay Fixes Coming to Public Test Server

    Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller posted an update today about the character ability delay issue that players have experienced since the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a blog post, Georg thanks the community for their feedback to help track down the cause of the issue, and notes that a fix is scheduled for the public test server in the next update. He also mentions other fixes that should help PvP combat with both player responsiveness and hardware configuration. You can read the full blog post below.

    Georg Zoeller

    Hi everyone; I wanted to give you all an update on the ability delay situation.

    Thanks to constructive feedback from the community, including some great videos, we were able to identify an issue that could cause abilities on global cooldown to appear available to the player, resulting in unresponsive/ignored player input. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

    Additionally, we have located an issue that would cause player input for certain instant abilities to fail in frantic combat situations, resulting in unpredictable and frustrating gameplay issues for the affected player. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

    Finally, our engineers have identified an issue introducing a significant delay between player input and ability execution in certain game situations, most notably (but not limited to) fast paced PvP. The magnitude of the delay varies with a number of factors, including processor hardware, but can, especially on dual core CPUs, result in a very perceivable reduction in game responsiveness. We are in the later stages of testing a fix for the problem and hope to be able to roll it out to the servers very soon.

    We're still investigating a number of additional issues, along with some usability and quality of life improvements for responsiveness regarding player input, but the above mentioned developments should provide a very measurable improvement in combat responsiveness.

    Thanks again for your patience and support and we hope to see you on the public test server to help us validate these improvements before pushing them to the live servers.

    Georg Zoeller
    Principal Lead Combat Designer

     

  • Friday Update: Companions Update

    This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is a Developer Blog about companions from Senior Game Designer William Wallace. This feature will be presented in two parts, with this first part discussing companion customization. The piece explains the thought process and implementation behind customizing the physical appearance of companions. It also discusses how the abilities of companions evolve during progression within the game and includes some videos that demonstrate this in action.

    As a side-bar to this update, Gamespot interviewed Game Director James Ohlen. Included with the interview was a Developer Dispatch video focusing on companions. A dissection of the video is available.

    Official DevTracker post follows the jump.

    Update: The developer dispatch is now online at the official site. Embed is available after the jump.

    Gallery: Friday Update 9.23.11 Images

    Mako Customization
    Khem Val Customization

  • Friday Update: Fan Friday, E3 Awards, and Developer Blog



    This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update starts out with new polls. First up is "What did you enjoy most from our E3 coverage?," and next is "What is your favorite piece of extended universe content relating to The Old Republic?" We've also got a Fan Friday, featuring a neat new selection of UI-themed icons, new concept art, and of course some great fan art. Fan site Ask A Jedi receives the light in this week's Fan Site Spotlight, and answers some questions from BioWare.

    Coupled with the update was an article on the awards that Star Wars: The Old Republic won at this year's E3. Unfortunately, this year we were unable to don our elaborate post-it note Best Game at E3 award but that award still stands for this year's attendance.

    Last but certainly not least, we hear from Ian Ryan, one of Star Wars: The Old Republic's writing team, about what the writing team is doing for this final stage of the game's development. The official DevTracker posts follow the jump. The media gallery below contains all of the images from this week's update.

    Gallery: 6.16.11 Fan Friday Images

    Fan Friday Image 5
    Fan Friday Image 4
    Fan Friday Image 3
    Fan Friday Image 2

  • Friday Update: Sith Warrior Progression and Developer Blog



    Today's Friday Update features the Sith Warrior as he develops and amasses power in The Old Republic. While there are many paths to choose from, this example gives you a small glimpse of the armor and abilities a Sith Warrior can claim as he pursues his own destiny. An embed of the video is now available below.



    Additionally, Bioware has released a developer blog with Lead UI Artist Michael Voigt detailing the work that goes into creating the user interface in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Michael Voigt also provided a screenshot of how the new UI looks in game. Official DevTracker posts follow the jump. Working Dissection is in the media gallery below. As with all of our dissections we will ignore past items mentioned in earlier dissections. Feel free to point things out that you see in the comments section this post. Make sure to check back throughout the day and weekend for more.

    Gallery: 4.29.11 Friday Update Working Dissection

    4.29.11 Friday Update Dissection 10
    4.29.11 Friday Update Dissection 9
    4.29.11 Friday Update Dissection 5
    4.29.11 Friday Update Dissection 4

  • Friday Update: Advanced Classes Update



    This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is the Advanced Classes Update Developer Blog by Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller. The update includes a deep dive from Georg Zoeller on the Advanced Classes in general, talent trees, abilities, and a few interesting tidbits from the testing program. Developer Blogs normally are not huge updates but this one is definitely not a normal Developer Blog.

    Two choice quotes from the update:

    Georg Zoeller

    Jedi Shadow (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)
    Sith Assassin (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)


    Plenty more is covered in the Advanced Classes Update. Be sure to check it out and let us know your feedback on it in the comment section of this post. The Official DevTracker post follows after the jump.

  • Friday Update: 'Living the Life of a Live Producer' Developer Blog



    Today's Friday update features a Developer Blog from Live Producer Blaine Christine. He discusses what his job entails and his role in the Star Wars: The Old Republic game testing process. He also included some quotes from various game testers.

    Blaine Christine

    I work with the development team to ensure that anything released to our fans (read you!) meets the quality standards that are so important to any BioWare product. That means any time a new build of the game makes it into our Game Testing Program, I need to ensure that any content or features that we specifically want to have tested meet the designers needs and don't contain any major bugs.


    Update: Stephen Reid explains the reason for the Developer Blog showing up this week and hints at a heroic update incoming next week leading into PAX.

    Stephen Reid

    A little peek behind the curtain.

    This week's blog was originally intended to be part of next Friday's update. We ran into some unexpected issues finalizing this Friday's originally scheduled content, and so chose to move that content out to next Friday. As a result, next week, you'll get an update-and-a-half... and then after that, you'll soon see the cool stuff we've all been hard at work on for PAX East.

    Part of the reasoning for this blog was to give you a peek into some of the feedback we got from our Game Testers; on the whole, feedback has been very positive and we're excited to see the response. We also wanted to remind everyone about our Game Testing Program, as feedback from our community so far has been extremely valuable to the development of The Old Republic.

    We realize we can't please 'all of the people, all of the time' but we remain committed to giving you regular updates on the development and features of The Old Republic.


    More excerpts from the Developer Blog and official yellow post follows after the jump.

  • Friday Update: Building Flashpoints



    This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is a Developer Blog with World Designer Jesse Sky on the building of Flashpoints. In the developer blog Jesse Sky covers what a flashpoint is, the designing of a flashpoint, building of flashpoints, combat in flashpoints, and what sets flashpoints apart. As always you can find the Official Post after the jump.

    Update: Community members have pointed out new screenshots that appeared on Gamespot in their "Most Anticipated of 2011" feature.

  • Friday Update: Cinematic Design

    This week's update is a Developer Blog with Lead Cinematic Designer Paul Marino on the subject of Cinematic Design. In the Devloper Blog, Paul Marino explains how scenes are crafted in Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as gives insight on story aspects. New Screenshots and Videos help the Developer Blog convey what Paul Marino is speaking on. For those interested in the way scenes are crafted in The Old Republic, this is the update for you. DevTracker Post after the jump.

  • Friday Update: Crew Skills Dev Blog



    Systems Designer Patrick Malott spends time sharing details about Crew Skills with the community in this week's Friday update. Patrick Malott's Developer Blog touches on the design, companions involvement in crafting, and the newly revealed Armstech Crew Skill. Along with the major points covered in the Developer Blog are subtle details like blaster rarities that should leave players with a better understanding of how Crew Skills work in general. Also included in the Friday Update this week is the new official Jedi Wizard title, Jedi Sage, which was selected after a long community polling process. Congratulations to those who voted Jedi Sage in the poll. Catch the Official Forum posts on the Crew Skills Developer Blog and Jedi Sage after the jump.

  • Friday Update: Advanced Classes Developer Blog

    Georg Zoeller, Principal Lead Systems Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, authored a Developer Blog explaining Advanced Classes a bit more in depth and used the Smuggler as an example.



    As you can see from the small set of skills mentioned above, players will be able to customize their personal Smuggler experience dramatically by distributing skill points across the three available skill-sets, defining their characters role as Smuggler as they see fit: Within the Scoundrel Advanced Class, a player preferring the traditional MMO healer role may spend the majority of their skill points training in the Sawbones skill-set with additional improvements to their core abilities from the Luck skill tree, or they could decide that a Stealth Healer role with points distributed between the Scrapper and Sawbones trees might be the role they want to play in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

    Back in December 2009, we speculated pretty close to what Zoeller describes in this article.

  • Friday Update: Creating Worlds and Advanced Classes

    Sean Dahlberg sends word of this week's updates:

    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.

    Images and things of note after the jump.

  • Friday Update Preview

    Today, Sean Dahlberg confirmed that the next issue of Blood of the Empire will be released on Friday, May 7th, as well as a new blog on the 14th.

    This week, we're going to be publishing Blood of the Empire #2. We have a few things in store for all of you before we head off to E3 2010 but this week's update will be the webcomic. And check back next week for our latest Developer Blog.

  • Friday Update: Damion Schubert on Community

    Sean Dahlberg sends word of today's Star Wars: The Old Republic friday update:

    Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert talks about designing systems for a MMORPG!

    Massively multiplayer games are not new. The first true massively multiplayer game was a text-only virtual world called MUD, put together by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw in 1978. This little window of dizzying text descriptions was a far cry visually from the seductively lush 3D virtual worlds of today, but it was enough. Enough to get the genre started, and enough to get armchair designers across the world to imagine the possibilities, and debate philosophical matters of game design. One of these questions, still asked today, is whether or not massively multiplayer environments should strive to be games or to be worlds.

    Highlights of the Developer Blog after the jump.