Darth Hater

In an interview with Dual Shockers, BioWare Live Producer Cory Butler talks about the present and future of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Among the topics discussed are prioritizing development work, Easter eggs in the game, the appearance of hooded armor, faction balance, and new features coming in the near future.

Dual ShockersDual Shockers: Some servers have a faction balance that seems quite skewed one side or another. Is there any future plan to give local advantages to the outnumbered faction in order to encourage them to come out and fight against the odds?

Cory Butler: We are hyper aware of server populations and faction balances on the servers. As far as what we’re going to do about that, it’s something we’re keeping up our sleeve right now, but I can tell you for sure that we are looking at that very seriously and we’re coming up with a plan of action there.

Be sure to head over to Dual Shockers to check out the full interview.

In an interview with Castles and Cooks, BioWare Senior Writer Drew Karpyshyn talks about what it's like to write in the Old Republic setting. Among the items discussed are developing Revan as a fully defined character, the differences between writing for video games and novels and what Star Wars stories he would love to be able to write if given the chance.

Castles And CooksCnC: With Revan, you were really going to be establishing the character for the first time. All of the personality, inflection ,mannerisms – the real soul of the character had been created by thousands of gamers. How hard was it to craft the canon of a character that existed in thousands of different permutations? What influences did you drawn on and what was your process like? The same was true, though to a lesser extent, for the character of the Exile.

Karpyshyn: Obviously tackling a character as beloved yet undefined, as Revan or the Exile is an incredible challenge. It would be impossible to create a version of Revan or the Exile that felt “right” to every gamer, so instead of going down that road I had to work with the version of each character that I felt worked best with previously established canon for their respective stories story. Using that as a foundation I was able to mold and shape Revan and the Exile as they appeared in the novel into what I felt were interesting and compelling characters that embodied the spirit of the original games.

 For more be sure to check out the full interview at Castles and Cooks.

Last night, doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk of BioWare attended a Star Wars: The Old Republic launch party at the Union Square Best Buy. At the event, the staff answered questions from the audience, gave out t-shirts, raffled off copies of the game, and signed Star Wars: The Old Republic NYC Launch Event lithographs for fans picking up their copies of the game. As always, Darth Hater was there to take in the festivities and bring a slice of the fun to our readers at home. Dr. Ray Muzyka was gracious enough to conduct a short interview with us as fans picked up their long awaited copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic

Ray Muzyka"Today represents an amazing milestone for BioWare, EA and Star Wars fans everywhere and we are confident it has been worth the wait," said Dr.Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder, BioWare and General Manager, EA's BioWare Label. "The support and resources going into Star Wars: The Old Republic are not ending today. The innovations we're bringing to the category are just the start of a journey and ongoing investment in our players that will grow, evolve and transform based on player feedback over the weeks, months and years ahead."

Photos from the event are available in the media gallery below. Hit the jump for our interview in full.

Note: Make sure to check out the launch festivities on the floor of the NASDAQ.

In the midst of the excitement of early access beginning tomorrow, Curse had an opportunity to speak with James Ohlen, Creative Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Among the topics discussed are queue times during early access, the launch events around the world, some of the high priority items for post-launch enhancements to the game and a teaser about improvements to the space game.

Video embed is after the jump. 

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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In an interview with Republic Trooper, BioWare Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller discusses the Trooper class in great detail. Among the items discussed are differences between the Trooper's different skill trees, how ranged tanking works, and unique aspects of the Trooper as a healer.


Republic Trooper: What were some of the challenges of developing ranged tanking for the Vanguard Advanced Class?

Georg Zoeller: Since this is a Star Wars game, and most enemies in Star Wars utilize ranged weapons such as blaster rifles, cannons or grenade launchers, the Vanguards ability to draw attention from range also emerged as a distinct advantage over melee bound classes like the Jedi Guardian, who have to close from range to create initial threat.


For more be sure to check out the full interview at Republic Trooper.

Alexander Freed is probably best known for his writing duties on the Imperial Agent class story, but he also authored the Blood of The Empire and The Lost Suns comics as well as Flashpoints, side quests, and other in-game experiences players will encounter in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Darth Hater caught up with him at Paris Games Week to delve a little deeper about what it takes to write engaging interactive dialogue for the game and across different media.

What advice would you give someone who actually wants to make interactive storytelling their career?

Alexander Freed: Obviously learning the basics of storytelling, and more than the basics, because that is the foundation you're working from. So if there isn't a way for you to work in a very strong, very critical environment on game writing, then work in prose, work in film, work in something else where you are going to get feedback and criticism. If you can get that sort of feedback and criticism in a game environment, fantastic! But honing the storytelling basics is huge. Learn how to write dialogue. It doesn't matter what medium you're in. If you can do snappy dialogue, then you can probably adjust to writing snappy dialogue in a different medium.

Hit the jump for the interview in full.

During the first day of Paris Games Week, we had a chance to speak with Chris Collins, European Community Manager for BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Have you thought of extending the guild testing program to Europe?

Chris Collins: Definitely. It is something we're looking at doing. Stay tuned to swtor.com for more.

UPDATE: David Bass clarified the above answer from Chris Collins on the forums.

David Bass

According to Chris Collins you haven't invited EU guilds yet:

Darth Hater: Have you thought of extending the guild testing program to Europe?

Chris: Definitely. It is something we're looking at doing. Stay tuned to swtor.com for more.

Source: PGW 2011: Chris Collins Interview


So have you or have you not invited EU guilds? Considering we are getting inaccurate information from either David Bass or Chris Collins.

When Chris was asked that question in Paris, he wasn't aware that I had been inviting guilds from all regions in the Guild Headquarters. This was due to a miscommunication on my part, and I apologize for any confusion it's caused.

To be completely clear: There are already a significant number of guilds in the Guild Testing program who have marked themselves as EU guilds on the Guild Headquarters. We no longer restrict our guild testing invites based on the region the guild selects in the Guild HQ.

Hit the jump for the interview in full.

During the fourth and final day of New York Comic Con, we had a chance to speak with Cory Butler, Live Producer at BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic. In the interview, we discuss the team's preparations for launch, goals for testing in targeted regions, the lack of central US servers, approach to dynamic spawning, and more.

As we are a little over 9 weeks away from launch, what's the mood like among the development team?

Cory Butler: Everybody is really excited. We are just kind of heads down, looking to finish things up, tie off some loose ends, and everybody is really pumped to get the game out there and have people start to play it for real.

Hit the jump for the interview in full.

After catching up with Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid (twice) at Eurogamer Expo, it dawned on us that we never formally interviewed Chris Collins, Star Wars: The Old Republic's head community honcho in Europe. Since the game hits certain European regions on December 22, 2011, we couldn't avoid him any longer and it was time to talk getting Haters overseas involved in game testing.

For people that missed your introduction, can you elaborate on your hiring, your position at BioWare, and your past experience?

Chris Collins: I am the European Community Manager, so I am based in BioWare Ireland. And over in the Ireland studio we are building a team of European community representatives. Some may already know Tony Marino, who works on the French boards. We just hired Lars Malcharek, and I am sure you met if you are on the forums for the German side of things. They are sort of building the teams to help support the local language players to make sure that they get everything that they need.

Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic, was kind enough to grace us with a moment of his time for an interview. Along with stunning us with his striking personal appearance customization, the man of action gave us heaps details on writing for PvP, challenges when creating content around established characters, designing around story variables, and more.

Story telling in computer games seems to have a number of possibilities that more traditional story telling doesn't, like letting the player dictate the action. What new constraints does it have, if any?

Daniel Erickson: There are some constraints in an MMO specifically that we do not have in a single player RPG. The number one thing is I can't trap you. You might be off to play Hutt Ball or wanting to do the space game or whatever. I can't say, "Oh and now the evil Sith stuck you in prison, and until you figure out this puzzle, you can't go out." So you're like, "Oh yeah? Quick travel! Goodbye! Broke your game." So it actually challenges us a lot as writers to make sure that the content is appealing and players want to be going after it. And it makes us have to avoid some of the cheap outs we would use.

Is it hard not having those outs?

Sometimes when you're doing the sheer amount of content that we do. We had to do more Star Wars stories than basically all other BioWare stories put together. Sometimes, yeah, you'd like to just stick somebody in a jail cell. But no can do.

Hit the jump to read the interview in full.

Darth Hater spoke with Star Wars: The Old Republic's Stephen Reid shortly after the doors opened to Eurogamer Expo in London, UK. We gleaned valuable intel during our interrogation of BioWare's Senior Online Community Manager regarding the status of future testing weekends, the team's current focus, and details on what BioWare has in store for fans at the expo.

Hit the jump for the interview in full.

Back at PAX Prime 2011, we had the opportunity to catch up with Star Wars: The Old Republic's James Ohlen to talk about the task of balancing combat between different game systems, end game design decisions, and the home stretch of game testing.

You had some time for testers to sink their teeth into the game since we last caught up with you. How far along is the game at this point, and are there any big features that are still yet to be implemented in testing?

James Ohlen: At this point you can play from level 1-50. You can play the end-game Operations, and the end-game Flashpoints. We have the whole game in place. We are focused on polishing the experience right now; making all the worlds as high-polished as the beginning worlds and ensuring all the features like Warzones are very well balanced. We're also continuing to balance the big group content like the Flashpoints and the Operations. It is very important those are our most balanced content, because they are going to be used over and over again. Players will obviously play a Warzone dozens and dozens or hundreds of times during the course of the game, so it needs to be really well done. The Flashpoints are also something that a group is going to do multiple times.

Hit the jump for more...

Senior Video Editor Brian Arndt and Media Designer Robin Khamsi took some time during PAX to answer some questions about the creative process for the video trailers and armor progression videos used in Friday Updates. Read on after the jump to find out how what is involved in getting these fan favorite videos made.

Senior Community Coordinator David Bass took some time during PAX to answer some questions about Beta Testing Weekends. Read on after the jump to find out when you can expect them to start and what you can expect to experience during the month of September as BioWare ramps up in preparation for launch. In addition, Mr. Bass has a few positive comments about the lucky fans who got to play the game on stage at the BioWare panel on Sunday.

In an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, James Ohlen discusses cross-faction communication, BioWare's approach to having hundreds of the same companions running around in the world, shifting alignment at max level, what exactly players can do on their own ships, neutral alignment items, and more.


TenTonHammer: We are also curious about the banking system. Will players be able to share items between their own characters through the bank on the same server, or even across factions so long as it's on the same account?

James Ohlen: Currently no, you have to do it the old fashioned way through the mailbox, but only if they're the same faction. There are multiple reasons why we don't want the different factions to communicate with each other.

We had the big argument that this isn't like Horde and Alliance, we all speak Galactic Standard so we should just allow it. So we actually did allow it for a little while. The argument against it was that, what happens is people start saying inappropriate things to the other side. That's just the way it is when you're on a different side and you gank each other, people tend to say inappropriate things.


For more be sure to check out the full interview at Ten Ton Hammer.

UPDATE: Georg Zoeller clarified James Ohlen's statements regarding cross-faction communication on the forums. Hit the jump for more details.

San Diego Comic-Con is officially over but there is plenty of content rolling out over the next week. In one of those pieces that is now available for consumption, we had the pleasure to interview Alexander Freed, Senior Writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic and writer on The Lost Suns. In the interview, Alexander Freed discusses the differences in writing for games versus comics, writing character stories, developing worlds in an established property, where the comics fit in relation to the game's timeline, and more. Hit the jump for the interview in full.

Star Wars: The Old Republic's Dallas Dickinson, Director of Production, took time out of his San Diego Comic-Con schedule to speak with Darth Hater earlier today. Dickinson clarified and expanded some statements made during the panel and Q&A sessions so far, including aspects of personal transportation and companion customization.

What prompted the class design change from choosing a permanent Advanced Class to having the ability to switch?

Dallas Dickinson: I think we just decided that it is just such a significant choice that you make. We try to give you as much information as possible so you make a good one, but we know that there are some people who choose to play as a Juggernaut, play for three levels, and are like "aww man!" We want to make it so that the first time you choose to respec your Advanced Class, it is relatively painless; it is going to cost some credits, but it is not going to cost a ton. Though after that, we want to make it very difficult. We don't want people to hot swap their Advanced Class willy-nilly; we want to make sure it is something you don't do all the time.

How does your Light and Dark side points affect your combat and can you give some examples of this?

I can't give you examples. However, something we talked about all along is that as you progress very far down the light side path or very far down the Dark side path, you're actually going to unlock some abilities that are only available to that side of the Force.

When we found out we were interviewing Star Wars: The Old Republic's Daniel Erickson at this year's E3, we decided to switch up our typical interview format and instead perform a group interview with several members of the Darth Hater staff. Hit the jump for the video and the transcript.

This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is E3 Details, new Advanced Classes Page, and on The Lost Suns with an interview Alexander Freed. As BioWare Austin's Community Manager Stephen Reid hinted at this morning, there are three updates today about SWTOR. This is all in preparation for the Electronic Entertainment Expo that starts June 6 and expectations are massive on the news coming out of the event. Stated in the E3 details post is a tidbit about what fans can expect from E3:

• More to share regarding the stories from the CG trailers


• Belsavis raid content


• Alderaan political intrigue


• Tatooine -- sandpeople and something unknown

As part of this week's Friday Update, MMORPG.com interviewed Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller about the Advanced Classes we will see in Star Wars: The Old Republic. He covers abilities from almost every class including the Jedi Knight's Force Leap, the different stances of the Sith Warrior, the Bounty Hunter's helpful Kolto Missile, and the Smuggler's explosive Shrapnel Bomb.

The Old Republic: The Lost Suns previewed earlier this week on StarWars.com, and today an interview with Senior Writer and Managing Editor Alexander Freed. He covers a brief overview of the comic that follows Theron Shan, a Republic spy set out to discover what the Sith Empire's plans are for the planets newly acquired in the Treaty of Coruscant. The comic canonically at the start of the game, about 10 years after Threat of Peace and 40 years after Blood of the Empire.

Included a bit after the rest of the updates went up was a new Advanced Classes page. The page is a newly redesigned page to fit the place of the older updates. It contains new information about the trees and abilities of the Advanced Classes.

Official Dev Tracker posts follow the jump. Images from today's Friday Update are contained in the Media Gallery below. If higher resolution versions of the images become available, we will update them. Aurebesh Working translation follows the jump as well as in the Media Gallery.