Darth Hater

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.

When Star Wars first hit theaters in 1977, the early fan's knowledge was limited to what they saw on the screen. Questions plagued their minds: "Is Darth Vader an alien or a droid?" "Are stormtroopers humans?" "Do any Earth animals exist in that galaxy far, far away?" They had to wait three years to learn that Vader was Luke's human father and 22 years to find out that stormtroopers were (at least partially) made up of clones. Thankfully, they were able to find out the answer to their third and most important question when Luke asked, "What's a duck?" in response to one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's teachings in the movie novelization. However, readers didn't realize that this was the beginning of the Expanded Universe(EU), and the start of a never ending debate between Star Wars fans about what should count as canon.

BioWare is quite matter-of-fact this week, releasing tidbits of information in some short and concise posts in this week's DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller talks lightsaber colors and energy blades. Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert answers questions about the appearance of younglings, dueling, species and class combinations, and the soul of a class and their armor. Senior Game Designer William Wallace also talks about the Imperial Agent and the evolution of their energy blade abilities. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.

BioWare winds down from PAX East 2011 in this week's DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller discusses the color of blaster shots, the Taral V Developer Walkthrough video, day and night cycles, the extent of companion use, and the goal of heroic combat. Senior Writer Alexander Freed explains the evolution of Satele Shan in different Star Wars media. Lead Writer Daniel Erickson expands the classes that the Miraluka species can play as. Community Manager Stephen Reid talks pre-orders and Master Otegs voice according to LucasFilm. Hit the jump for the highlights.

Many of the alien species in Star Wars: The Old Republic are familiar to fans, both casual and hardcore. Creatures like the Hutts and Twi-leks are common in Star Wars fiction, stretching all the way back to the original trilogy. While it is always nice to learn more about these mainstay species, SWTOR pulls from a wider net and the lesser known players may be just as important. Join us as we take a closer look at a species that could be new for many of you: the Rattataki.

A few months back we compiled a list of creatures seen in the Star Wars: The Old Republic marketing. As more information was released, this list became out of date and in need of a drastic overhaul. With the addition of the Inhabitants section to the HoloNet, we felt now was a good time to take a second look at who or what we may encounter in TOR.



Updated: June 1, 2011 2:33 PM EST

BioWare's Sean Dahlberg soothed some community worries about class-restricted species, wrapped up the reveals of the week, and waxed poetic about the ups and downs of E3:

Hey guys,

I got up at 4am this morning to get back to Austin so I'll make this short and sweet instead of rambling on as I tend to.

Gamespot posted an exclusive hands-on article of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The link to the article is located below.

Highlights after the jump.

A UK Press event took place during this week revealed quite a bit about the game's classes, trees, and more. Along with the hands on is information about the Advanced Classes, Species, and more. Listed below are links to the various outlets that attended:

Eurogamer: Advanced Classes, Hands on, Video
The Galactic Struggle: Hands on, Interview with Jake Neri
Strategy Informer: Interview with Daniel Erickson
Gamespot: Hands on, Interview with Daniel Erickson
VG247: Interview with Jake Neri
Edge Online: Interview with Daniel Erickson

As a caveat, you might want to read our class speculation article and the chart we made back in December.

Update: New high quality version of the Advanced Classes:

...each Advanced Class will have a further three branches of skills to specialise in (equivalent to World of Warcraft's talent specialisation options on a single class). The first two skill trees are particular to your Advanced Class, while the the third is a shared set of skills which expand on the core abilities of the main class. (Eurogamer)

Note: We will add other articles about the press event as we find them.

BioWare recently revealed a new section of the HoloNet titled Inhabitants. This section of the Star Wars: The Old Republic official site is dedicated to the NPCs and mobs we will encounter in-game, broken up into three subcategories: Creatures, Droids, and Humanoids. In addition to new screenshots and animations, each entry contains few paragraphs dedicated to the mob's defining traits and features. We took a closer look at the writing on these pages (both English and Aurebesh), picking specific statements that inspired gameplay speculation.

The official Star Wars website posted an original short story today by Rob Chestney entitled Smuggler's Vanguard. Rob Chestney previously brought us the Threat of Peace webcomic. The story focuses on Hylo Visz, a Mirialan smuggler known to us from the timeline series as the leader of the smuggler fleet that broke the Mandalorian Blockade.

There are many interesting references in the story. Planets referenced include Corellia, Talus, and Nal Hutta, as well as Hutta's moon, Nar Shaddaa. Hylo's ship is called the Crimson Fleece, and the supporting characters include a Nikto named Musk, Barrga the Hutt, and an unnamed Weequay.

The story contains a mix of action and subterfuge and fits the concept of the Smuggler to a tee. For more details, follow the link to the full story below. Hat tip to Jedidsm on the heads up.

This week's update is a Fan Friday. As Sean Sean Dahlberg said:

In this Fan Friday, we are highlighting various items from the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, dishing out exciting content from the Development Team, following up on GDC 2010, and confirming our presence at this years E3.

If you're looking for more opportunities to voice your opinion, you'll be interested in the new polls we posted up. Also, we added new avatars to the forums, so try them out.


The Developer Corner section includes is an amazing video of the Sith Inquisitor showing off some of his lightning abilities with booming sound effects.

Also included is some fan art by Hazaz and some by Daennika, some fan fiction by terminalpleasure, a Sith History Guide for Noobies by Danik_Kreldin, a few new pictures of customizable female faces, new avatars, new polls, and a wrap-up on GDC 2010.

In addition to Fan Friday, Daniel Erickson posted a few comments on the official forums this week. Details on his posts after the jump.

A thread on the official forums highlights a lecture by Ben Cloward, Senior Technical Artist at BioWare. The session, entitled Automated Emotion: Facial Animation in Star Wars: The Old Republic, goes into detail about the methods used by BioWare to generate facial animations for the huge amount of dialogue in The Old Republic. Calithlin, who attended the session, shared his experience with the community.

There were a lot of topics discussed, but the main focus was on getting all the facial animation for the dialogue to be generated by software, rather than completely hand-keyed. (If done by hand, it would take four animators TEN YEARS of work around the clock, 24/7, no breaks, solid work to get it all done for every bit of dialogue.)

More after the jump.

Everyone following Star Wars: The Old Republic has all heard about this planet, now it is time to dive deeper into the lore. I will start with the obvious, Bothawui is the home of the Bothans and the capital of the Bothan sector. We first heard about the Bothan species in Return of the Jedi when many spies died to bring the Rebellion leaked news about the second Death Star. It is this spy network that interests us, because the Bothans have been spies since the Republic has been a republic.

There are two main factions in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. This article will focus on the former of the two. By examining the history of the Galactic Republic, we can understand how it works and how its past might dictate your character's future.

Every planet is different. Each planet has its own architecture, geography, native peoples, as well as native plants and animals. While viewing each of the planets, we can see the few creatures that have been released to the general public. Since we will all be on these planets for an extensive amount of time, hopefully, it is probably best to get to know the native creatures we will be dealing with on a regular basis.

Korriban was the original homeworld of the Sith species. It houses many of the tombs for the ancient and powerful Dark Lords of the Sith, thus it is a haven for the dark side of the Force. It is the place where the Sith Academy lies and where you will start out if you decide to play as a Sith Warrior. Let us get to know this planet that I am sure many of you will be starting on.

After months of speculating this would happen, Sean has now spilled the beans:

Human Only - You will be able to play other species, we just have not announced those other species yet.

There will be other species to play besides humans. Now we get to continue to speculate on what they are. Sean was also kind enough to provide pictures of his trip as well as clear up some confusion over some of the news. He also reconfirmed Friday's update will be putting the Sith Warrior on the HoloNet.

Now that I have your attention with a title such as that I will now lose your attention. Midi-chlorians. Now that half of you have stopped reading I will continue with the main topic of the article. Will fat Jedi be stronger in the force than slim Jedi?



As some of you may know, Vader lost some of his connection to the force when he lost some body parts in Mustafar, making him weaker than Palpatine. That is because each cell contains midi-chlorians, increasing force sensitivity. By using the logic in reverse, a morbidly obese Vader would have more cells in his body, resulting in a higher midi-chlorian count. I could explain the Hutt Jedi, Beldorian.

Will being overweight be a benefit for us in Star Wars: The Old Republic? By being larger we will be slower, but would the force sensitivity cancel that out? Would it be the excuse Bioware gives us so we don't have to think about it? (By "we" it is likely just "me") Will it be possible for us to even make overweight characters? I'm mostly bringing this up because I made an overweight, male, Sullustan entertainer during my SWG trial. It didn't get me better tips, even when I danced without a shirt on.

It's now time for everyone's favorite Mon Calamari.....ADMIRAL ACKBAR (The boogers on his chin are called barbels, all males have them) For everyone out there that wants to be a squid it is now time to talk about it.

Hailing from the planet Dac, Mon Calamari are an amphibious race that evolved alongside the Quarren, as well as others. These sentient neighbors caused trouble for the Mon Calamari as the two cultures are near opposites. There was even a war between the two. The Calamari won by taking some young Quarren and reeducating them before releasing them back to their own side. (Enough of the Quarren, we dont care about them right now because we have not seen any screenshots)



Mon Calamari are natural explorers and are well cultured. These creatures also are known for military feats and strategy. (After all, Ackbar was the Admiral of the Rebel Fleet) As for the chances of them being in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the odds are high. Their planet was discovered about the time of Revan so they are in the timeframe. The Supreme Chancellor at time of coruscant attack was even a squid. But as always, the best evidence is screenshots. The only one so far is of what appears to be a companion, but that is better than no Mon Calamari at all.

Of course we cant forget the Admiral Ackbar brand of cereal.