This week’s Most Wanted comes to us from the Dark Side. A long-time WoW player who traded swords for lightsabers and bows for blasters, Drusylla will be a great member of the SWTOR community. Continue Reading »

@Saravi_ to @dawnsrose Ever tried to navigate the swtor Fan Art forum? So much hard work/talent, lost under new posts. There’s got to be a better way!

This is a good point. I have posted in that forum, and I read a couple of people’s work. But, my word, there is a ton of very good products in this forum. Is there truly a better way to organize it? Continue Reading »

I would like to thank Mr. Daniel Erickson for his time and giving us this great interview. We were honored to bring the community questions to him and are happy that we were able to get most of them answered. You can check out this thread on the official forums to see what were all the questions that were asked and which ones did get answers.
 

 
Click here to read the full transcript of this interview

We had a pleasure of sitting down with Daniel Erickson, lead writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and he was nice enough to answer us some burning questions that the SWTOR community suggested us to ask. Here’s a recap of the most important information and you can view the video bellow.

• It is highly unlikely that there will be a pre-release character creator like the one that was present in Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
• There will be different size raids for different difficulties. It is not yet fully defined what those sizes will be for the bigger raid, but smaller raid will be 8 man
• No dynamic content in the same sense as in Rift
• Number of characters per server not defined yet. Guess is that you can have enough to play each class per server, but not yet sure.
• Kicking people off a cliff in PvP matches – YES
• Changing character look after you create it (barber shop) – probably not at ship
• You can have 5 companions on your main character and 5 companions on all your alts and they will all be able to craft at the same time (offline queue) (please watch the interview for better explanation)
• Crafted equipment is what you will need to go into a raid to get the best equipment ever on the server (please watch the interview for better explanation)
• Vanity pets (sly smile – no comment – watch the interview – you will know)

Here’s the Audio version of the interview. The video file is taking forever to upload and we will have full video version as soon as we can get that edited. Thank you for your patience.

During our last month’s visit to Bioware’s studio in Austin, Texas there was one moment I personally enjoyed almost more than playing the game. It was the Q&A session with the writing team of the Old Republic. Seeing all those people creating the awesome stories we’ll be experiencing in the game and hearing them talk about it openly and with clearly visible enthusiasm was just a perfect moment in time. I mean, I am a fan, there is no doubt of that, but, to see these people be just as enthusiastic about the game they are helping create was priceless. With hopes you will get to experience at least a small portion of what was felt in that room we bring you a video of the Q&A session with the writers and all of them talking about the favorite thing they’ve written for the game.
 

As part of our Fan Site Summit experience at Bioware offices in Austin, Texas, we got a chance to participate in two Q&A sessions that were organized with Damion Schubert, Lead Systems Designer, Daniel Erickson, Lead writer and Blaine Christine, Live Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We managed to ask one question to each of them and I am providing you with a transcripts of these questions and answers along with complete audio recording of the Q&A sessions so you can hear what other sites asked and got answers for.

I would also like to mention that the impression you get when asking these developers questions is that they are really smart and approachable. I thought that the Imperial Agent question (that we actually got asked by one of the community members on the official forums) was going to catch them off-guard, but they had an answer right off the bat. They want to tell you everything about the game that they have been building for so long and it always take an effort for them to constrain themselves to not spilling the beans on not-yet-released information.

Click here to read and listen to the questions and answers we got

Our visit to this year’s GamesCom gaming convention has been crowned by a very special meeting that we didn’t even hope for. We had the pleasure and honor to sit down with Mr. James Ohlen, Creative Director and Lead Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and ask him a few questions. The short chat we had about the game was focused around space combat, player ships and advanced classes.

The spaceships are going to be used for a type of housing. They are a kind of a community feature. They are used for traveling and for space combat. There are many features incorporated into the player ships.

James Ohlen: That’s correct. We felt that in the movies, that is what you see them used as. It’s kind of a home base for some of the main characters, (especially the Millenium Falcon in the whole original trilogy), than it’s used, obviously, to travel from planet to planet (that is its main use), but also, you have space combats that are famous from the movies, like the one from the Return of the Jedi, or the asteroid one in the Empire Strikes Back.

We just got a hold of the computer after the most exciting few hours ever! Advanced classes have been revealed! We got to play the game along with other members of the general public. We have gameplay videos. And we had a special treat. We met a lot of people from Bioware and even have an interview with mr. James Ohlen, Creative Director and Lead Designer of SWTOR . We are in SWTOR heaven!

First up some HQ screenshots of space combat:

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk gave an interview to BBC’s Daniel Emery discussing the past of Bioware as well as its Star Wars future. Also mentioned in the interview was that:

The massive multiplayer online role-play game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic is nearing completion.

While the Canadian developer BioWare would not be drawn on an exact date, it said that spring 2011 “was not unrealistic”.

“It’s getting closer, it’s coming down the pipe,” the firm’s founder Greg Zeschuk told BBC News.

You can see the video interview below or read the whole article on the BBC’s web site. (thanks to CorrelianRun that shared this news on their Twitter account)

In other news, Dark Horse is starting to ship Threat of Peace Part #2. You can follow the new adventures of Jedi Satele Shan, Master Orgus, and Lieutenant Tavus if you order the comic on this page. News spotted at swtorstrategies.

Videogamer.com has an interview with Bioware co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk published on their site. They cover a range of topics concerning Bioware games. What cought our eye is the following statement:

Well, we need to sell 10 million units. That’s actually the new target, right? We do Top 10 games, our stuff is quite successful.
…
We always joke that if we only do half as well as Blizzard on Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’ll be quite satisfied. We’ve been very fortunate. I always joke about that, but…

You can read the full interview here.