Going to a convention for a game you are following is always a magical time, especially if it is Star Wars The Old Republic MMO by Bioware! Join me, SwtorCrafter, as I get ready to go to E3 in Los Angeles on the 6th!
Bring the awesome Bioware, I double dog dare you! 😛
Su cuy’gar, ner vode. Ibi’tuur copaani miit’gaanar be kebi meg vut’yc par ni, bal balyc par an beroyase – Mando’ade bal val joha, Mando’a. Still with me? Fret not, for it shall all be made clear momentarily!
Class is most definitely in session...
Those of you familiar with Karen Traviss’ “Republic Commando” series may have already had some exposure to the Mandalorian language, Mando’a. Originally, I planned on merely crafting a lengthy treatise about Mando’a and its grammar, but in the end I thought this would be a great opportunity instead to speak with a member of the larger Star Wars community whom I have followed for awhile, Natasha Morea, AKA “Mandalorian Girl.” I recently had the great pleasure of sitting down with her at a dusty cantina, where she graciously allowed me to ask all manner of questions. Below is an excerpt from our conversation.
Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid dropped by the forums this week to discuss SWTOR servers and languages. Would it bother you if your server did have a fair number of people on it who spoke something other than your primary tongue?
Dangit, I knew I should have paid more attention in class...
Read on for Stephen’s thoughts on the matter:
My first hands on experience with The Old Republic was playing the trooper for 15 minutes at GamesCom 2010. Ever since then I have been leaning towards choosing to play this class once the game comes out. This is why today’s update, that shows us the Trooper class progressions video trailer, is very exciting (beside being totally cool and managing to hype me about the game yet again). One thing I’ve noticed is that they seem to have used the same Sith Inquisitor we’ve seen in the “Unlimited Power” Sith Inquisitor class trailer. Has Bioware decided to create a mini story through their promotional trailers? In the Inquisitor trailer we see her using stealth to overcome her enemies. We now see how this can be countered by a Trooper class. Can we expect in some future Empire class trailer to have them counter Trooper’s moves? I sure hope so, because these small “easter eggs” sure are exciting to report on.
With the hands on time in Austin it went a long way to settle many of the nagging concerns that I have about TOR. I’ve also got to the point that I no longer threat about space combat. Sure it’s not what I was hoping for, but I do not see with the utter contempt that I once used to view it with.
Though the crafting system still has me very worried. This may be due to the fact that I’m somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to crafting. I cut my teeth in Ulitima, then continued on in SWG and Eve.
Think what you will of these games, but I’m sure everyone will agree that these had and continue to have the best crafting you can still find out there atm.
TOR is heading from taking the player out of the crafting. You get to have a say at what you want then pass it on to your minions.
Many will see this as a great leap forward. Crafting after all is not for everyone. It takes real-time to gain your skills, and as such you forgo some of the other activities. You will have to cut back on raids and scale down on PvP when you want to be the best crafters.
This in turn sees many a player having to choose what they like to do more.
Continuing his streak of highly informative posts on the main SWTOR forums, Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller, voted most likely in his class to scream out “Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist voller Aale!” at inappropriate times, stopped by once more to enlighten us about Smugglers and their Cover mechanics.
Georg Zoeller - The Wookiee Whisperer
One of our favorite forum do-gooders, Georg Zoeller, dropped by the main forums today to wish us a Happy Rapt… no, my apologies! He wanted to clear up a few things about auto-attacking, and whether or not there would be macro functionality in SWTOR at launch:
Macros are a pretty broad term for certain convenience and advanced user functions at this time. Some of those features are present as possible key binds in the game, others are not.
We’re not opposed to macros, we don’t hate them, in fact we will probably add them, but probably not for launch.
So what does this mean for us?
This Friday update is Fan Friday and, for us, it is the most exciting update thus far. It is because SWTOR Life is featured in Fan Site Spotlight section and we got to answer a few questions in it. Feel free to check it out in the official news article.
For all of you great SWTOR fans visiting us for the first time I would like to recommend our:
– Fan Site Summit game hands-on and event impressions
– Crafting and Crew Skills articles by SWTORCrafter
– Forum Friday and other articles by BorukBH
– Editorials by Mr.Warlock of SWTOR UK fame
– Humorous articles by Flagg
– Our infamous webcomic and demotivational posters sections
– We also have a super-fast, searchable developer tracker you might want to check out
Make sure you also keep a look out for our upcoming SWTOR E3 coverage straight from the show floor.
You can find all of us on Twitter. @SwtorLife, @SWTORCrafter, @Grant__D, @BorukBH, @MrWarlock_, @Dalqak, @ForceMeridian
Click here to read about all the other great stuff this Friday update has
It’s Friday once again and while we all wait to see what kind of information is given out on golden platters of awesomeness, i bring to you another post from the bowels of the Swtor forums. This week I jump on ship to tackle one of the bigger questions that EVERYONE is dying to know, the release date and the possible outcomes of what that might be. You can find one of the many official forum posts located here if you wish to choose through everyone’s thoughts, dreams and hopes of when it might be.
DISCLAIMER: Everything said in this article is the personal opinion of its author and does not represent any official information from Bioware. This is a speculative article and please treat it as such.
Lets jump right in on what I think. For me, I see the release coming in a September time-frame. Why? Well, I look at it like this. E3 happens in June and I expect some good information regarding aspects of the game to come out. I do not expect the release date to be given but I do think that a time frame for more beta invites to start happening to come up. The amount of time they stay in these beta phases will also play into realizing when the game really does launch.
Click here to continue reading about the logic behind September release speculation
During the first Fan Site Summit Bioware organized for members of the Fan Sites that write about their upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, we had a chance to sit down for 2 days and play the game. These are impressions from our hands on experience and they are divided into the following segments:
You should also check out Swtorcrafter’s Bounty Hunter and General Gameplay Impressions for another view of the hands on experience.
Within the first 15 minutes of playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, even in its beta state, you know this is a game made by the same people that made KOTOR, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Everything in it screams: “Hi, my name is James Ohlen, I am the lead designer of this game and yes, I made Knights of the Old Republic as well”. There is that familiar feeling you get when you start talking to NPCs and start doing quests that makes you think that this is the game sequel you’ve been waiting for.
Click Here to Continue Reading Our General Impressions About Star Wars: The Old Republic
