Darth Hater

Star Wars: The Old Republic News, Interviews, Media & Podcast

  • Guide: Loot Systems

    Imagine this familiar scene: An oversized carcass lays strewn across the snow, a purple light emanating gently from its corpse. A group of players run hurriedly over, frantically clicking before bothering to resurrect fallen comrades or paying any mind to that strange puddle of goo beneath their feet. A chorus of elation and vulgarity-laced groans can be heard throughout Ventrilo and the chat log floods with “brb bio.” What happens next is the reason many players engage in endgame PVE in the first place. You rub your eyes, carefully open your bags and sure enough, find that singular piece of loot that has eluded you for oh-so-long.

    At some point in his or her MMO career, every player has experienced this moment of euphoria. At this same junction between effort and payoff however exists a lurking, fragile thing that can otherwise ruin the experience for nearly the entire group: loot distribution politics. A majority of the angst and disagreements often found within a guild, or even a pick-up group, is caused by perceived discrepancies regarding loot distribution. MMO players as a rule have very little to no tolerance for the mismanagement of loot assignments, so how can you be certain to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with raid looting? The answer is simple: you need a system.

    Read on below the jump for highlights and explanations of a number of commonly used MMO loot systems, one of which might just be right for you.

  • Operation Size and Loot Distribution



    In recent months, BioWare developers finally began sharing information about their take on raids, which they call Operations. BioWare announced details about the different group sizes and the loot distribution system for normal-mode operations, both of which will have great impact on what raiding will be like in Star Wars: The Old Republic. What do these details mean for those of us who plan on raiding in TOR?

  • DevTracker Highlights For The Week of April 28, 2011

    This week's DevTracker Highlights covers everything from skill trees to keyboards. Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert dips behind the scenes and explains a normal day for him at the BioWare Austin studio. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller discusses dual specs and their place in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi answers questions from the French community about item colorization, dark-side healing, and the fate of the Sith soldier class. All of this and more after the break.

  • PAX: General Information Learned

    This post includes details of what we were able to learn from our hands-on time at the Penny Arcade Expo, which included six of the eight classes, and three of the four origin worlds. We invite you to add your own notes to the comments section of if you were at PAX and would like to share about your hands-on experience. As a reminder, we will not be covering things mentioned in prior 'General Information Learned' posts from E3 and Gamescom. Beware: bantha-sized post after the jump.

  • GDC: Trooper Hands-On & TOR Game Play Impressions

    Last week, LucasArts & BioWare extended an invitation to Darth Hater for another round of Star Wars: The Old Republic hands-on game play at the beautiful Presidio campus in San Francisco. Eager to take another look, Meg and I left GDC and made our way to Lucasfilm where we were treated to playing Level 6 Troopers on Ord Mantell, and also spoke in depth with Jake Neri of LucasArts and Daniel Erickson of BioWare.

  • PHAT LEWTZ

    I am the kind of person who will analyze everything. When I watched the walkthrough video I was looking at every element on the screen and comparing it to other MMOs that I have already played. The most prominent in my mind would of course be World of Warcraft which I am currently still playing. In the walkthrough video I noticed that a Jedi dropped (you guessed it) loot that a Sith could actually carry.

  • Armor? What's that?

    We all know what armor is for in reality, but how will it function here? If you go by the Star Wars movies, the original Trilogy especially, you will find that it is more for looks than for function. After all, if a Stormtrooper's armor cant defend against a pointed rock tied to a stick, what good is it for? (I should watch Return of the Jedi more for fun rather than to poke at all the details, oh well)

    ca3_1600x1031


    This is one problem presented by Star Wars: The Old Republic. It has been stated many times that Bioware is trying to make our characters similar to iconic heroes (and villains) from the movies. Will we inherit the same weaknesses as the movies, or was the fact that the armor made the stormtroopers anonymous henchmen the thing that killed them, rather than the weakness of the armor itself?

    Another problem I can see form with armor is the continuation of the trilogy with a "Tank" to get the most armor on and just stand still while a Rancor will crush him into the ground for ten minutes. Along with the extra mitigation it provides, it will also make balancing for pvp more difficult. Will it make the wearer slower than if he wore cloth, because it would be a huge burden on the classes that need armor to function while making an advantage for faster people. Who knows the answers to all of these, perhaps we may get answers next week from Germany. As far as where my bets are going, it will likely be similar to the armor classes in KotOR as well as WoW, yet with more focus on trying not to get hit in the first place.

  • Customization

    So we have been told that we will be able to customize our character, our armor, and our weapons. Great news for RPers and those who do not wish to look like everyone else.

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    Colors, scopes, and other gadgets that you wish to apply to your weapons, looks quite promising from the concept art. How are you planning to use this feature?

    Do you like a certain color scheme? Maybe changing by your mood? If you character is light, would you choose a lighter color, like light blue? Or if you are evil, the darker colors? PersonallyI like dark colors, be it black, dark red, maybe a touch of yellow for that "wasp" look. Or does it matter to you?

    We have been shown, not told, but shown in the concept art, of weapons with extra doodads on them, scopes on one, shorter over alllength on another. Would you like to see total customization of weapons and gear? From the barrel to the buttons on your robe? Or do you accept what they give you?

    1436yerb


    The picture above shows what appears to be a very close look at customization, barrel size, the hammer, and the color.

    Full customization leads to greater immersion, I don't think everyone wants to looks the same, and adding this feature would spice it up a bit. So I am just wondering, what do you, would you, customize your character like?
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