BioWare posted a new Developer Update yesterday. This time by Lead Designer Michael Backus, focusing on the new Heroic Space Missions coming with game update 1.6. For those people following this blog and Star Wars: The Old Republic closely, there won’t be much new info. Still it’s worth a read if you are interested in understanding what thoughts that have gone into the development. Many spacers enjoy the serenity of the stars, the peace of floating through the Unknown Regions, wondering if they’re seeing events and phenomena never before witnessed by intelligent life. But for others, space is just another battleground in the Great War. It can be used as a place to hide from enemies, but more often it’s where the greatest warriors of the stars prove their skill… and their loyalty. Our primary focus for the Space Missions in Star Wars™: The Old Republic has always been to make the player…
Developer Blog
Developer Update: Ancient Hypergate
Senior Designer Rob Hinkle, takes the stage, in today’s Developer Update. In this he introduce the new Warzone arriving with the upcoming Game Update 1.6 in Star Wars: The old republic. While this might not contain much new information for people following swtorstrategies, it’s still worth a read. Also remember to check out Lisa’s Ancient Hypergate Preview if you haven’t done so already. Today, I would like to introduce the public to our newest addition to Star Wars™: The Old Republic, the Warzone: Ancient Hypergate. This Warzone takes place in an ancient ruin built around a Gree hypergate. The Republic and Sith Empire are doing battle in an effort to control the area and claim the lost technology for themselves. Each of the factions have calibrated a gate that will allow reinforcements to be brought directly into the battle. These gates need to be charged up to full power in order to stabilize the connection and allow for safe passage. A nearby set…
Developer Update: Free-to-Play Option by Damion Schubert
With Free-to-Play going live later this month, Lead Designer
New Developer Blog: Jeff Hickman Discusses State of the Game
Executive Producer Jeff Hickman took the stage yesterday in a new developer blog titled: State of the Game. In this, and future blog posts he will be discussing concerns the community has with SWTOR. In this first blog he addresses issues such as the turning from a subscription based game to free to play model, aswell as staff leaving the company and bugs in game. Check out his full post on the official site or as a copy paste below: Jeff Hickman When we decided to go Free-to-Play earlier this year, we had weeks of discussion with everyone on the team about where we thought the game was going, what we thought was going right and what was going wrong. We uncovered a lot of issues, but three things really stood out: 1. Our game is awesome. People love it and want to play it. 2. The subscription requirement was driving away huge numbers of people who do not want to…
Developer Spotlight: Jesse Sky
BioWare just started a new series of developer blogs called Developer Spotlight. The idea is to interview members of the SWTOR development team letting the playerbase getting to know the faces behind the game. In this first interview, BioWare interviews Jesse Sky, Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer. Here’s a snip: What specifically attracts you about Flashpoints and Operation design? Flashpoint design is a lot like running a tabletop roleplaying game with a massive audience. You get to explore a lot of different kinds of storytelling that aren’t really feasible outside of a video game. I’ve always felt that our Flashpoints and Operations were aided by the fact that you have a very personal story. You actually form a bond with your character, and then you take him on these really wild and dangerous adventures. Every time my Dark Jedi pairs up with a bunch of do-gooders for a Flashpoint, I cackle when I win the…
Game Update 1.4: Terror from Beyond developer blog and launch trailer
With all the excitement around game update 1.4 , we forgot to update you about a new Developer Blog by James Ohlen and a new laucnhed trailer for Terror From Beyond just released. In the Developer Blog James Ohlen writesabout the release schedule for new content going forward for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This Game Update is also the start of a new release cadence. Our strategy so far has been to release big updates every few months. But this leaves long periods of time where you, our fans, don’t have anything new. So we’re moving to a model where we release Game Updates on a much more regular cadence. Our initial aim is for something as close to every six weeks as we can get. I’d promise an exact schedule, but in a live game we need some flexibility as the stability of the service trumps the release of an…
Developer Update – Terror from Beyond coming in 1.4
As mentioned by Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez in his forum post a few days ago, BioWare would have a new Developer update for us this week. This time Lead Operations & Flashpoint Designer Jesse Sky talks about the new Operation Terror from Beyond, that comes with patch 1.4 some time next month. Here is an interesting snip: Terror from Beyond offers five new major boss encounters that will challenge even the most highly-coordinated groups of players. In keeping with previous Operations, Terror from Beyond includes one “puzzle” encounter that really steps outside of the bounds of what you normally see in a boss fight. To defeat this new enemy, players will need to work together to repair a massive, ancient Gree computer from within the machine itself. Unlike previous puzzle encounters where the solutions were relatively easy to figure out, this one has players leveraging their particular group composition to control a chaotic situation. It’s very different…
BioWare Dev blog by William Wallace : Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3
Senior Game Designer William Wallace posted a developer blog post regarding Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3. Basically he breaks down own the Character Perks into four types of unlocks including Advancement Perks, Travel Perks, Companion Perks and Convenience Perks Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3 Hi, I’m Senior Game Designer William Wallace. In Game Update 1.2, we introduced Legacy Unlocks, a system in which characters across your Legacy could unlock special rewards for reaching different milestones. Since Game Update 1.2 went live, your Smuggler may have learned a new skill from their Sith Inquisitor father, or you might have unlocked new species options for your classes. No matter your personal choices, you have now started to build your very own Star Wars™ legacy. With Game Update 1.3, we are continuing to expand the Legacy system by introducing the new Character Perks system. Character Perks allow you to customize each character in your Legacy,…
SWTOR Developer Blog: Busting Bugs and Fixing Exploits
The developers of SWTOR announce they are in the business of busting bugs and fixing exploits to make the game more fun and fair for everyone. This is a big job in an MMO as large as The Old Republic but apparently, there’s a large team available to deal with these issues and to create new content for SWTOR. Rich Vogel, the Executive Producer of SWTOR talks about how servicing the “live game” comes first and that everything else such as creating new content comes later. He also explains how fixing some of these issues can be very tricky and how they go about determining which issues need to be fixed first. Here is some of what he has to say. “If an exploit is discovered that threatens players’ experience in the game or the in-game economy, we will usually try to create an Emergency Patch to fix that exploit….
Friday Update: Companion Character Dev Blog
In todays second Friday update Senior Game Designer William Wallace has written a blog entry that delves into the subject of companion AI and how it will affect the group dynamic. In particular he touches on the ability of the various companions to fill the role of a player character during more challenging quests. Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ features a large amount of group content, including Heroic Quests (challenging quests requiring 2 or 4 players to complete) and Flashpoints (highly engaging instanced story content for groups of 4 players). One benefit we’re seeing from our new, fully featured companions is additional flexibility about how players approach group content. A full group in The Old Republic always has four players. Any player leaving the group can be substituted by a companion of the group’s choice, with the party leader in control of which player gets to use their companion.
Learn More about SWTOR Companion Characters
Exciting news from the Developer Blog today- it’s time to learn more about companion characters. As we get closer and closer to the eventual launch of SWTOR, we learn more and more about different aspects of the game. Today’s update is all about the companion characters, something that many players have been asking questions about. This thorough blog post tells you just about everything you need to know about companion characters. Each character class unlocks unique companions throughout their storyline; companions that fight alongside players in battle against AI and other players in Open World PvP, aid in crafting and non-combat missions through Crew Skills, and provide commentary on environments and engage in conversations. The update goes on to tell us more about what we can expect from our companion characters. It’s the first of two blogs devoted to the topic and it’s pretty thorough covering info such as customization,…
Friday Update: Smuggler Progression, PAX Highlights, & Developer Blog
BioWare was late with the updates yesterday. witch means us Europeans don’t get to see it before the day after, but it was worth waiting for. This weeks update comes fully loaded with the Smuggler Progression Video, Pax Highlight, and a Developer Blog from senior writer Alexander Freed. The developer blog gives us a good look at what goes into creating relevant stories and characters for the game and comics/novels alike. There’s also a few good tips in there for anyone looking to take a shot at creating their own story in the Old Republic universe. Here is a snip: “The first thing that any potential tie-in to Star Wars™ and The Old Republic should do is answer a series of questions: What does this story contribute to mythology of The Old Republic? What does a reader get from this story that changes the way he or she experiences the…
Friday Update: Maps
In this weeks friday update Damion Schubert writes a Developer Blog update on Maps. The official forums are in total rage over this update, so if you’re interested in the drama check that out. The article is actually pretty decent, and outlines how much we as players rely on the map. What most players are looking for on their map are missions. We want to ensure players can find all of the cool stuff that our worldbuilders put into the world, so every mission has one or more icons on the map that show you where to go. Moving your mouse over an icon shows you which mission is satisfied in that area, your progress in that mission, and a rough area where mission objectives can be found. FTWBroadcasting also made an awesome video about the update, check it out below:
SW:TOR Updates: Writer Blog and Fan Friday
Writing is one of the key elements to crafting a living world and few understand that better than BioWare and the vision they have for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This week’s update is all about those guys that shape the world and keep it evolving to fit the lore – the writers. This week BioWare Writer Ian Ryan takes us through the writing process and how writers continue to shape the game world long after the final piece of the story has been written. The writers continue to play the game and examine each area for subtle details that need improving. One example given is the vast improvements made to the planet of Nar Shaddaa, which has been given quite a new glamorous look to better match the taste of the Hutts thanks to writer feedback. If you’re curious to see the impact that these talented writers have on…
Star Wars: The Old Republic Introduces the Codex
This week BioWare’s Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert introduced the Codex. If you’ve played some of BioWare’s other projects like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, you’re probably familiar with the Codex system, which allows players to discover key bits of lore throughout the game by exploring or accomplishing different tasks. This story can help enhance the lore of the world or offer additional narrative to a player’s chosen profession. This feature isn’t just about being another way to deliver story to the player. As Lead Systems Designer, I’m mostly concerned about bringing the fun. Delivering story and context isn’t enough for me – I also want to be sure that we add new activities for players to do and goals for him to achieve. In particular, we saw the codex as a way to reward exploration Here are some more of the highlights: The team had two design goals:…
The User Interface of The Old Republic Explained
A few days ago we wrote a small post about what we know so far about the User interface of Star Wars: The old republic. Little did we know that BioWare will post a major update to the official blog of SWTOR, with new details on how the interface of the upcoming MMO has evolved during development. This new essay, penned by lead UI artist Michael Voigt, delves into how the dream-weavers at BioWare Austin strived to keep screen clutter to a minimum. We used the analogy of the cockpit of a steam locomotive compared to a modern sports car. The locomotive had indicators and dials jumbled in all corners of the cockpit and the sports car had a sleek driver dash containing all the necessary indicators in an organized layout… Our game features beautiful scenic vistas and we wanted the user interface to complement those and not take away…
Friday update: SWTOR Dev Blog – Advanced Classes Update
Following last week’s April Fool’s joke, it looks like BioWare decided to make today’s dev blog entry on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site an in-depth and interesting read. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller has given players an update on the game’s Advanced Classes, and he covers everything from skill trees to improvements that have been implemented through game testing. Players will choose their advanced class at level 10, and each base class offers two advanced class choices (i.e., the Smuggler will need to select either the Gunslinger or Scoundrel as her advanced class). Each advanced class provides two exclusive skill trees and shares a third tree with the other (non-selected) advanced class. Zoeller also covers how the team makes these important class-changing decisions. He shows off a couple of images from their metrics system that feature death details and character movement on Ord Mantell. Of course, the…