Darth Hater

As more and more players approach level 50, concerns amongst the community have grown regarding the viability of moddable gear in the face of clearly superior end-game drops.  Perhaps to help curb some of this concern Emmanuel Lusinchi took to the forums to share some information about upcoming changes to end-game gear.

Emmanuel LusinchiThe current situation with end game gear and item modifications isn’t final and, in fact, many community members like yourself have correctly guessed at what our plans to correct the current design are.

Since this is a fairly important issue to many players, let me disclose more details about what is currently in the work regarding purple items and mods:

- All partially moddable purple items will be made fully moddable again, allowing the removal of the armoring, hilt and barrel. 

- The set bonus of end gear purples (PVP and PVE) will be transferable to custom items. 

- Some item modifications will be restricted to a certain item type. For example, some item modifications will only fit on helmets, while other will only fit on chests, etc.

As usual, the caveats about unfinished work apply, but this should give you and the community a very good idea of our intentions. We are serious about making custom gear an entirely valid alternative to end game gear and we support the players’ ability to customize their appearance all the way to (and including) end game.

While obviously none of these changes are set in stone, they are a good first step towards putting to rest the concerns of many of the players who are invested in the modding system.

If you were in general game testing for any length of time, then you probably heard of the clear of Eternity Vault by Republic Justice, or encountered them in Star Wars: The Old Republic's Warzones. Known as Shards of Alderaan (guild site) for release, the Republic guild originally formed in Star Wars Galaxies and today's membership comprises of various MMO backgrounds. Darth Hater continues its Guild Interview Series (Ensidia, Afterlife) with Republic Justice / Shards of Alderaan members Air, CJ, Rookie, and Nyan to disccuss their overall impressions of testing endgame, and PVP class balance.

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While talking with Jake Neri about the Trooper, we decided to use the opportunity to gather more information about Star Wars: The Old Republic. The LucasArts producer offered what limited insight he could into BioWare's James Ohlen and his recent comments on endgame.

First, we have to address James Ohlen. First off -- he is a total badass. He probably did more really amazing RPGs than anyone around, so he is allowed to say things like that. He is allowed to think outside of what us, the rest of us normal humans, are allowed to think about.

A PC Gamer interview came out today that highlights what BioWare's thoughts are when it comes to endgame:

"We're looking at classic [endgame] systems, but we're also doing something brand new that hasn't been done in an MMO before. So we're going to mix those two together."

Olhen [sic] then got hushed by the game's product manager, but added that Bioware was keen for players to continue questing after hitting maximum.

"We want to make sure the endgame isn't completely different to what you have been doing," he said. "So there will be a natural progression... We want to make sure that when people play ToR they feel like they never run out of content... that it's an epic story."

Those familiar with high end World of Warcraft raiding will recognize the guild name Ensidia. As a result of a 2008 merger of two raiding powerhouse guilds, SK-Gaming and Nihilum, the majority of Ensidia's raid team holds claim to almost every major world first boss kill since the 2005 European release of the game. Their website, which features a community of forums and strategic player guides, sometimes gets overwhelmed by high traffic when players hear the news of Ensidia's latest kill.

And now they have their eyes on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

We spoke with Ensidia guild members Mek and Buzzkill for over an hour, and we discussed a broad range of topics including their thoughts on PvE raiding, and how it might be implemented in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

incgamers has a new interview with BioWare's James Ohlen on story and endgame raiding:

"Obviously the endgame of our game is very important and something we've put a lot of thought into, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of different ways to do endgames," said Ohlen.

"I can't go into detail on how we're doing it, or if we're doing those things [battlegrounds, endgame raids] or in what form they're going to be coming, because we're still working on that and developing it, but in no way does us focusing on story in any way challenge us in that area."

Hat tip to chillinvillain.