Darth Hater

MMOs are by definition dynamic creatures. There is no such thing as a perfectly balanced, perfectly functional game. That means sometime, somewhere there will be classes, abilities or encounters that need improvement. Right now in The Old Republic the popular choice for "needs improvement" is the Jedi Knight / Sith Warrior class. Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller took to the forums not long ago to share some details about changes coming to these classes to give them a helping hand, and further took the time to lay out his team's philosophy when dealing with class balancing.

Georg ZoellerWe make our balancing decisions based on a combination of internal and external testing and metrics. We don't make decisions based on who is the loudest on the forums. Community feedback is valuable in bringing issues to our attention and even to highlight possible solutions, which means that well written, constructive posts are the most effective way to communicate your wishes and feedback to us, rather than petitions and calls to nerf specific classes.

 For the full text of Georg's statement, read past the jump.

UPDATE: We recently added images showcasing the Republic faction's Operations gear. You will find these images on their respective class pages.

Three tiers of Level 50 PVE gear appeared in the 11/26 patch: Tionese, Columi, and Rakata. Darth Hater spent some time poking around in-game and analyzing client data to attempt to determine how one could acquire some of the highest item level gear sets. All items included two- and four-piece set bonuses that curiously displayed only when the item is equipped; these set bonuses were mainly buffs to existing abilities and not unique to a particular tier.

So far, set names remain consistent to combat role through item progression, and carry a unified look throughout so you don’t look mismatched or out of place. Armor set names were the same for both factions, and we do provide some low-res preview images of both the Imperial and Republic versions of the sets on each class pairing page. It is confirmed that the Republic versions of the armor sets look different, and keep in mind Imperial Agents use knives while Smugglers use shotguns.

We would like share what we found, and encourage comments if you believe anything is inaccurate or have any additions, as we’re happy to credit you for any legitimate finds.

If Jedi Consulars are the mind and shield of the Old Republic, Jedi Knights are the sword. They have long served on the front lines, dealing damage to opposing forces with speed and efficiency. They serve as guardians of peace and enforcers of Republic law, seeking out those who need aid and giving them justice without vengeance. This particular class of Jedi is often times seen as representative of all members of the Jedi Order, even though their techniques are quite different from their Jedi Consular brothers. Join us after the jump as we look at the iconic class of the Jedi Knight.

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.

This week's Facebook Image of the Week is a new image of a Jedi Knight battling a security Droid on Ord Mantell.

This Jedi Knight silences yet another security Droid as he approaches a Separatist stronghold on Ord Mantell.

For ease of reference, we compiled a Facebook Image of the Week Media Gallery containing all the images which you can view below.

Update: It appears the list PC Gamer UK saw in the latest build is inaccurate.

Daniel Erickson
Hey Folks,

The species/class combo list you're referencing is not accurate. If it does appear in the magazine, that's unfortunate.

My guess is that an enthusiastic member of the press wrote down everything he saw in the character creation screen which, as we've stated often, is nowhere near final. Occasionally we'll have species in odd classes or in all classes because of a bug or testing.

Hope that helps!

Daniel

As with any game in development, everything in any current or past build is subject to change. It is important to note that no species/class combination is final until BioWare announces it. Thanks to Gerbo and Meglivorn for pointing out Daniel Erickson's comment in the Dev Tracker.

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.

Today's Friday update is all about Jedi Character Progression, as it details both skills and gear in a video. The trailer demonstrates how both the Jedi Knight's Advanced Classes perform, and we get a good look at single saber Guardian moves and double-saber Sentinel action.



The Dev Tracker post and a small working dissection is available after the jump. We say small because Sado is busy at Miami's Ultra seeing some kind of dead mouse perform (we're all jealous), and he'll yell at us for whatever we point out when he gets back.

Darth Hater had a conversation about conversation with Hall Hood, Senior Writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, at this year's PAX East in Boston. Hood is one of the writers involved in the story of the Jedi Knight as well as the Smuggler, and he also wrote the story for the Taral V Flashpoint available for play at the convention.



As always, the transcript is available after the jump.

The last time we spoke to James Ohlen, Star Wars: The Old Republic Creative Director, it was back at last summer's Gamescom in Germany. He granted us an opportunity to catch up with him at PAX East, and we discussed a bunch of topics ranging from Game Testing and Space Combat to Advanced Classes... and blowing up Alderaan.

Hit the jump for more.

Darth Hater's playthrough of the Star Wars: The Old Republic Taral V Flashpoint is online and embedded below. In the video Misenus (Pete Trerice) representing Darth Hater plays the Jedi Knight (Guardian), Eric Musco from TOROCast plays the Smuggler (Scoundrel), Lethality from Ask A Jedi plays the Trooper (Vanguard), and Zach from Mos Eisley Radio plays Jedi Consular (Sage). We hope you guys and gals enjoy Taral V as much as the team did at PAX East.

More incoming stuff incoming soon from PAX East. Make sure to keep an eye on the roundup post.

Update: Lethality from Ask a Jedi posted the video of his perspective during this same session as the Trooper. Mos Eisley Radio posted their perspective of the playthrough video as the Jedi Sage.

As promised by Stephen Reid, BioWare released a new video today showcasing the Taral V Flashpoint. The 16 minute video features Director of Production Dallas Dickinson as he walks us through the flashpoint from the point of view of the Trooper, Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, and Smuggler.

Working Dissection of the walkthrough is in the Media Gallery below. As with all dissections, we will not comment on stuff seen in prior videos. Make sure to keep checking out throughout the weekend for more content for the Dissection as we will add new content as we go. Check after the jump for the official developer post regarding it.

Last Updated: 6:45 PM EST

Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, took some time at PAX East to speak with us about what players can experience playing through Taral V and other Flashpoints. He also graciously shed some light on a few debated topics like healing classes.

Hit the jump for the full interview, and enjoy the read as we prepare for our second day of full PAX East coverage.

Live from PAX East 2011, BioWare announces this week's Friday Update - New In-game Trailer. The Trailer recaps the high level story -- Peace in the Republic, Empire Returned, War, all set to clips of in-game footage. We're bringing this content live so watch this post for the Friday Update news.

UPDATE 11a PT: We had a chance to chat with Stephen Reid and we will have the full interview up relatively soon, but we wanted to let you know about something you will see tomorrow:

Stephen Reid
We're having a Saturday update; we got something going up tomorrow. I'm not going to spoil it but it is related to Taral V. I think people are going to like it; you're not going to have to work too hard to figure it out but it is something people have been asking for consistently for quite a long time.

No, it isn't a release date. But yeah, we're having an update tomorrow.

Working Dissection of the trailer is in the Media Gallery below. As with all dissections, we will not comment on stuff seen in prior videos. Make sure to keep checking out throughout the weekend for more content for the Dissection as we will add new content as we go. Official DevTracker post follows after the jump.

In the Star Wars universe, its hard to find a more venerable archetype than the Jedi Knight. One of the species set to appear in this role within Star Wars: The Old Republic is the Miraluka. Although they may be on different sides of the conflict, the Miraluka's mysterious beginnings, mixed human genetics and connection to the Force give them many things in common with the previously discussed Sith Pureblood species. In this article, we delve deeper into the Miraluka species and their impact on The Old Republic.

We gathered a great deal of information about the Jedi Classes at last month's Jedi Immersion Day for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In addition to playing both the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular, we were allotted interview time with a couple of the developers. We shared the first of these interviews last month and now we can finally show you the rest. Without further ado, here is our interview with BioWare's Daniel Erickson on the Jedi Classes.

LucasArts treated us last month to a full day of Star Wars: The Old Republic at their headquarters in San Francisco. Sado and Orionark leveled a Jedi Knight through Level 10. Read on for an in-depth account of our play session, including our impressions of the class' combat, storyline and companion mechanics.

Warning: We've separated the story section of this article into its own page as it contains spoilers for the entire Tython quest line, so skip it if you'd rather stay in the dark.

Carefully examining and dissecting content for Star Wars: The Old Republic is the keystone of our work at Darth Hater. This meticulous approach is seen throughout our articles, but it becomes even more pronounced when we are actually playing the game. At both E3 and PAX this year we examined many of the nuts and bolts of SWTOR, but there is always more to find. The following is our list of new general notes from our multiple hours of gameplay at last month's Jedi Immersion Day.

• Page 1: Group Flashpoint, Republic Class Notes, General Tython/Coruscant Impressions


• Page 2: User Interface, Codex System, Quest system


• Page 3: World Quests, Emotes, Itemization, Companions, Audio, AI

Update: A correction was made regarding our notes about Multiplayer Dialog Party Chat after notification from Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller.

A correction to their notes regarding party chat.

Party chat is in fact available during multiplayer dialog (or any dialog), so you can coordinate with your group on what choices to pick. This is an MMO after all, so even during cutscenes and dialogs you will retain the ability to communicate in chat.

We apologize for the error in that segment.

On November 10th we were lucky enough to visit the LucasArts campus for a special Jedi Immersion Day. After being excluded from the entire 2010 convention season, it was time for the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular to show what they had to offer. During this event we received a great deal of information on the Crew Skill system and the Alderaan Warzone, but the real fun came from over six hours of hands on time with the two classes. Be sure to check out all of our extensive coverage of this event!

DH Jedi Immersion Day Content

• General Information Learned


• Jedi Knight Impressions


• Jedi Consular Impressions


• Daniel Erickson Interview


• Gabe Amatangelo Interview


• Jedi Immersion Day Live Q&A Audio

There is a list of external sources for Jedi Immersion Day related content after the jump. Along with that list you also find two videos and a collection of new images for your consumption.

Last Friday, Star Wars: The Old Republic's Principal Lead Systems Designer Georg Zoeller provided some insight regarding how BioWare and LucasArts designed the combat aspects of the Advanced Class system. We decided it was time to take a look back at the roles we speculated about prior to the Developer Blog and update our charts with the information gathered.