One of my absolute favorite reveals of Pax Prime came from the Sunday presentation in the main theater. Of course Darth Hater was there and they did a outstanding job of covering it for us that could not attend, they brought us the scoop on what the Developers are referring to as open world pvp. It looks fun, it looks exciting for sure!
We’ve heard that it was demoed the first day of GamesCom 2011. Now we get to see the demo video by ourselves in glorious HD. The pit is the latest PvP warzone we are hearing about and it is the place where Huttball matches are being held. Hutball is a vicious sport played where two sides try to pass the ball across the opponents goal line. All moves are allowed including force lightning, stabbing and cheating. See for yourselves in this fun little video showcase of the Pit. I wonder if this is the PvP arena Daniel Erickson told us about in an interview at E3. He mentioned that it is so much fun punting your opponents into fire.
There are also two pieces of news you should all check out. First is a Q&A with Bioware’s good doctors Ray and Greg. They talk about beta weekends and raids and you can check it all out at Ask A Jedi.
There was apparently an impromptu Q&A session held on Twitter with Stephen Reid and Gabe Amatangelo straght from Germany. You can check out the full transcript at Tor Wars
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
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
Ah springtime, when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of… number crunching?
Gabe Amatangelo, SWTOR’s Lead PvP Designer and purveyor of mirth, stopped by the forums today mostly to quash the fun we might have otherwise had PvP’ing in the buff, but also to shed some rough insight into how Bolster may work in practice.
Those who dreamed of fighting bravely in their skivvies may want to take a few deep breaths before continuing… Continue Reading »
Today we got a big surprise, a Wednesday update! Today it was announced that Bioware has included a Pre Launch Program for Guilds in SWTOR.
Allison Berryman tells us the following:
Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the new Guild Headquarters (HQ) as well as the Pre-Launch Guild Program. Many members of the community have already been organizing guilds on the forums, and we’re now happy to provide the tools to officially register and reserve your guild’s name. In this new section of the website, you can search for an existing guild to join or you can create a new guild and begin recruiting members. When Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ launches, you may be able to import your guild directly into the game, subject to availability and meeting certain criteria*.
Every guild gets its own guild mini-site on www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com, complete with information about the guild, its recruitment status, and its own public and private forums. Create or join a guild now and you’ll have the opportunity to have your own space to socialize and organize before the game launches. Every guild is automatically entered into the searchable guild database, which makes it easy for players to find their ideal guild. Get your guild together early and get ready for The Old Republic!
To learn more about guilds in The Old Republic, check out the Guilds Game System page for details, and to search for or join a guild, visit the Guild HQ now! Also be sure to visit the Guilds FAQ for answers to commonly asked questions.
*Conditions and restrictions apply. See Guilds FAQ for full details.
To report bugs, please use this thread in the Website Feedback and Support forum. Please note that some words and phrases, particularly some relating directly to Star Wars, are restricted. If you feel your desired guild name is restricted in error, please contact us using the site support form.
The end result is guilds now have the capability to reserve their in game name, that can be huge for some guilds that have names that are contested. I see the possibility for griefing here, but hey what are you going to do as a game development company? You have to give players the chance to reserve some things.
The main thing I do not like about this process is this little nugget of uncertainty…..
*”We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that qualifying guilds are imported into a server that meets your specified preferences, but we cannot make any guarantees given the anticipated volume of guilds (among other factors). All server placements therefore remain in our sole discretion. We also cannot take responsibility for technical errors or glitches that prevent your guild from importing into the game as planned. See Terms of Service for more details.
When we begin placing guilds on servers, we will take into account all the information that has been provided, including the server type and the allies and adversaries you have selected. We will make reasonable efforts to place each guild according to their specified preferences but cannot make any guarantees given the anticipated volume of guilds (among other factors).“
So what this means is that Bioware will be placing your guild on a server at release, you dont pick they do, and if your lucky you will get to land on the server type you have chosen (pve,pvp,rp-pve)
I dont find this to be very cool at all. As a guild I should be able to choose the server I wish to play on. What if certain guilds want to be aligned in game but they get “placed” on different servers? I don’t think Bioware has put enough thought into this aspect of the system and frankly I am sad about that. I can understand the reasoning behind it such as server balancing and such but I dont like when my liberties that I have grown used too in past MMO’s are taken away.
There are other requirements or “criteria” that will need to be met if a guild can successfully use the pre-launch system in phase 3, for example:
1) At the beginning of Phase 3, the guild leader must log in to the website and verify that their guild remains active and wants to be imported; and
2) The guild has at least four members who have pre-ordered the game by the time we initiate the import.
3)Guilds will have no more than 500 members.
The pre-order requirement is fair i think. They could have made it higher but i think they chose to be fair and allow guilds that may be smaller the chance to still use the system. I plan to pre-order.
Also we got a look at what might be the final server play style designations?
“Why are there multiple server types?
Star Wars: The Old Republic will offer different server types that emphasize different styles of game play such as Player-vs-Environment, Player-vs-Player, and Role- Play. When your guild gets transferred into the game, it will be placed on the server type that most matches your selection.
Player-vs-Environment (PvE) servers can be considered representative of the standard play style and rule set. The focus on PvE servers is on experiencing the story and working with friends against the non-player enemies in the game world.
Player-vs-Player (PvP) servers have a slightly different rule set as PvE servers. On a PvP server, players may be attacked by other players from the opposing faction in more areas of the game world.
Role-Playing (RP) servers use the standard PvE rule set, but are identified as great places for players who enjoy acting out their characters in the game world to congregate and find other like-minded players.”
So no big deviation from the norm here, PVE, PVP, and RP are pretty much the standard server types and what most players have grown to expect. I think most of us expected just this type of classification.
All in all it is a pretty neat addition to the options a guild has in game and out of the game, and it helps them get organized pre-game. This is very important for most guilds that will have formed their member base before release.
I give it a thumbs up even though I am not too pleased with the server placement being out of my control.
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Swtorcrafter Bounty Hunter!
How can a guild best support their crafters in SWTOR, part 2
With the small amount of material available on the crew skills system it is really hard to speculate on what I think will be important for a guild to focus on when trying to support their crafting efforts. I am going to speculate anyway though because it can’t hurt to guess at this stage.
Read on!
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Machinima released a video interview with The Old Republic’s Lead PvP Designer, Gabe Amatangelo. They discussed in detail some of the PvP mechanics and what they’ll bring. Here are some highlights:
At the point of talking about whether there will be “seasonal updates” of PvP gear (so that it gets upgraded once first set of PvP gear gets “outdated”), Gabe Amatangelo mentioned that: “Yes there will be multiple level 50 PvP sets“. This leads us to believe that Level 50 is the max level we will be seeing in The Old Republic.
You can watch the interview below and the “multiple level 50 PvP sets” bit is around 2:22:
(Thanks @Adaram on Twitter for catching this)
In what is looking like one of the most epic Friday updates ever the new PvP Warzone Trailer got officially released by swtor.com. You can watch it bellow along with the screenshot gallery.
Officially a neutral world, Alderaan has become the focus of Republic and Imperial political maneuvering. Even as conflict between Alderaan’s noble houses threatens to turn into civil war, Republic and Imperial forces engage in a secret battle that could decide the planet’s fate. High in the mountains, both sides fight for control of Alderaan’s massive planetary defense cannon—a weapon powerful enough to devastate an enemy’s fleet and ensure domination over the planet’s skies.
The battle on Alderaan is our first detailed look at organized team Player vs Player (PvP) in The Old Republic™. To secure the planetary defense cannon, players must deplete the enemy transport ship’s shields, driving their forces to retreat or be annihilated. Players must work together to control the defense system’s artillery units if they are to protect their fleet and emerge victorious.
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There is an Electronics Arts event being held in London, and as we reported earlier a big announcement for The Old Republic was anticipated at the event. Bioware delivered in a big way on this promise and gave us details on both crafting and PvP warzones.
Crafting will have three major groups – Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. For now, we have been presented with two professions in each of the groups:
| Gathering | Crafting | Missions |
|---|---|---|
| Bio Analysis | Artifice | Diplomacy |
| Slicing | Biochem | Treasure Hunter |
Crafting system is completely innovated in comparison to what we are used to seeing in other MMOs. You will be able to use your companions for crafting! The “Crew Skill crafting system” means that you will be able to send your companions on crafting tasks and specialize them in certain crafting branches. Sending out your companion on a Treasure Hunt can bring you a rare item based on random number generator. Certain companions will excel better at certain professions than others (the example provided was Vette, Sith warrior companion, who will excel at Treasure Hunting). You will be able to send companions on crafting missions from anywhere in the world and you will be able to queue your tasks for them. It is still unclear whether different companions will be able to have different crafting tasks at the same time or you can have one task at a time (with multiple companions working on it), but I believe we will soon find out.
A very interesting mechanic was mentioned concerning gathering. If you have your companion with you adventuring; once you see something that you can gather, instead of moving your character there to gather, your companion will do it for you while you continue fighting or doing whatever you were doing.
For all you crafting buffs out there here’s a very interesting quote from the event:
It is a very robust system, and there are still some details that we haven’t revealed yet which I know players are going to be excited about. I will just say there are some mechanics to it that will allow players who are more involved in crafting to really get deeply involved in crafting and be appropriately rewarded for it.
We received details on Alderaan’s warzone that was previously announced at E3 but without going into too much depth. The most important points are:
The way this warzone will work is that each team starts at their drop ship in the skies. They have means of transportation to get to the ground. Once there they fight to get control over planetary’s defenses. Whoever controls the defenses starts firing on the other team’s drop ship. The winner is the team that destroys the other team’s dropship.
The other thing we learned is that each warzone will have different objectives and mechanics involved. For example, the next warzone that will be revealed will take place on a derelict starship and will have completely different mechanics than Alderan’s. Here’s a quote from Darth Hater’s original article that I found most interesting:
BioWare’s PvP designer Gabe Amatangelo said they wanted Warzones to fit in with the story element of the game. When they looked at PvP, they decided that banners, flags and points were “too game-y.”
These two reveals have once again changed our way of looking at this game once again. The crafting system is much more intricate than we initially though it will be. The warzones mechanics looks legit and fun from a PvP buff point of view. Everything is starting to fall right into place and we are now more excited about the game than ever before.
