Sith Temple Art, Podcast Spotlight and Fan Q&A

 
Today’s update to the Star Wars: The Old Republic site is a package deal that contains new Studio Insider and Fan Friday segments. Both of the articles are packed with content and are worth a look for SW:TOR fans.
 
As always, the Fan Friday segment contains fan art, concept art and forum avatars. In addition, this issue contains the first installment of the new Fan Site Spotlight series. The team talks with the hosts of Mos Eisley Radio to learn more about the podcast. BioWare also announced that it will be hosting a Community Meet and Greet at PAX East on March 12.
 
In this week’s Studio Insider segment, Concept Artist Diego Almaza explains how he created the concept for the Sith Temple (seen above). Rich Vogel, Executive Producer of The Old Republic and Vice President of Production at BioWare Austin, also answers six questions from the community. 
 
Check out his answers below!


Community Q&A

Q: I’m worried that Force powers may be overpowered in comparison to non-Force users… Will this be a problem? (asked by Luke)
A: Every character class in The Old Republic will feel heroic. No matter what part of the game you’re playing, from Warzones to Flashpoints, there will be good reasons to play every class – it’s our intent that no one feels punished for playing the class they love.
Q: So far the Consular seems to be coming across as more of a support/healing role. I’m worried that the class will take the boring back seat in group battles. Will Consulars be pigeonholed into one role? (asked by Brian)
A: Consulars, like our other classes, will have more than one viable role to play. One of our goals is to provide players multiple options within their classes – you’ll be able to take your Consular in several directions, and you’ll be able to be useful in each role the class can play. We’ll have more information about the Consular (and the other classes) coming online soon!
Q: How friendly will this game be for solo players in the endgame? (asked by Benjamin)
A: The Old Republic has a lot to offer to players with many different playstyles, and we want to make sure there’s something fun in the game for everyone. Even if you don’t want to join a guild or participate in Flashpoints or other multiplayer content, we’ll have plenty in store to keep you entertained!
Q: Will players ever be able to make storyline decisions so radical that it changes their Faction alignment? (asked by Aaron)
A: At this time, we don’t plan on allowing characters to change faction as part of the class story. One of the main reasons for this is that it would interfere with your class story’s continuity. Every class has a detailed story that they progress through from level one until the level cap, and players will want to see how those stories unfold. That said, there is quite a bit of room for players to make dark and light side decisions throughout the game that affect your experience.
Q: Will TOR be designed to run on a broad range of hardware? (asked by Kes)
A: It’s important to us that The Old Republic can look great and run well on a wide variety of hardware configurations. To that effect, we’ve done as much as we can to create a compelling, detailed world that can scale easily based on your hardware’s abilities.
Q: Is there a jump button? (asked by Phillip)
A: Absolutely! Exploration and basic movement in the world definitely have to be fun on their own. Obviously, we expect players to be engaged in Combat and Story for most of their game time, but you will still need to get around and figure out how to get places. If you can’t jump, that takes away a lot of the “realism” of exploration.