A comlink is a small, hand-held personal communications transceiver. It consists of a receiver, a transmitter, and a small power source. Comlinks vary in size and configuration from hand-held cylindrical models to flat wrist-mounted units, to units incorporated into armored helmets. The comlink used by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn has a port built into its base for transmitting data gathered by other devices, such as a sampler used to examine midi-chlorian levels. A typical comlink has a range of 50 kilometers, though this range can be extended by tapping into expanded satellite communication networks. Some comlinks come equipped with encryption routines to prevent the interception of sensitive transmissions. In urban areas dense with electromagnetic activity, comlink range is greatly affected and usually supplemented by networks that help distribute the transmission to the intended recipient. Military and vehicle-mounted comlinks have greater range due to greater power sources. Starships come equipped with…
Intergalactic Intel: The Player Holocron
The Holocron of Players If I were to give you a short and simple synopsis of Star Wars I would tell you that it’s a science fiction story taking place in space. The two factions warring are the rebellion and the empire. Both groups are led by wizards wielding laser swords. While the statement above is a very rough experience of Star Wars, it is true. When I think of the Rebel Alliance I don’t think of tons of troops fighting for a galaxy The Empire doesn’t have any control over, but Luke, C3-PO, Leia and the other main characters. I feel the same exact way when I MMO’s. I don’t see a guild or a faction but the friends I play with. Everyone needs their own group to make their adventure. So this week I’ll be talking about different types of players you will encounter. Some you will want…
Species of Starwars: Tusken Raider
Tusken Raiders are a reclusive, xenophobic people, resentful of the centuries-long history of encroachment upon their homeworld of Tatooine by aliens. Like the Jawas, whom they hold in disdain and are often violent toward, they have a tradition of keeping their faces covered, such that no one really knows just what a Tusken Raider truly looks like under all those bandages, and those face masks made of scavenged scrap. Tusken Raiders, also known as Sandpeople, acquired their name by their first siege on Fort Tusken during the Old Republic era. Their language is throaty and raspy, and their voices made all the more terrible by the hand-crafted face masks they wear to shield them from the blasts of wind-borne sand, and to retain precious moisture, which is in scant supply in the desert. Their clashes have been many with the inhabitants of Tatooine, though they are not particularly brave…
There’s Something Not Quite Right About These Star Wars Action Figures
Back in 1977, Kenner Products made one of the most inspired rights acquisitions in the history of movie merchandise, taking advantage of Mego Corporations astounding decision to pass up on the rights to Star Wars, and releasing a line of action figures that are still worth their weight in gold to collectors. Mint, boxed Kenner figures fetch astonishing amounts of money if they’re of the rarer variety, and it has been said that the most avid of collectors would happily kill their grannies for the chance to pick up the Japanese variant Chewie with the originally intended cross-bow weapon (instead of the cheaper blaster that was included in Western editions). Something tells me they didn’t approve these Star Wars figures of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru though… Brilliant.
Friday Update: Studio Insider – Combat Animation
Today’s Friday updates features a Studio Insider on combat animation and details too Bioware’s plans for the Eurogamer Expo next week. In the Studio Inside, Principal Lead Animator Mark How, goes through the process of creating combat animations, from the idea stage to a finished product. The Studio insider also features Q and A were a number of community questions is being answered. The most interesting news we get here is that Dual Speccing is something BioWare wan’t to add soon after the launch of the game. Q: Since it has been clearly stated that there will not be dual specs for characters in the game, can you explain your philosophy behind the skill trees and how you are taking into account players that want to be able to play PvP and PvE content on the same character? – illumineart A: Dual Speccing is something we want to add soon after…
WhatCulture’s 52 Reasons Why Star Wars Is The Greatest Film Of All Time
This week has seen one of the most momentous events in the history of high-definition releases with the long-awaited release of the complete Star Wars Saga on blu-ray. And to celebrate, the net has gone wild with Star Wars activity, from deconstructions to flat-out criticisms, and one of the most comprehensively put together pieces came from WhatCulture, who offered 52 reasons why they think Star Wars: A New Hope just might be the greatest film of all time. You can see those reasons here, and whether you agree with them or not, the article stands as a wonderful celebration of the film and of the wider franchise. There are those who will immediately disagree, and suggest that The Empire Strikes Back is the superior of the two films, but A New Hope is a bona fide watershed moment in the history of sci-fi film making, and how ever you now…
September SWTOR Beta Weekend Testers Re-Invited
Last night Stephen Reid posted a very important statement regarding Beta testing on the official forum. The first group of beta weekend testers will be re-invited to the test the latest build of Star Wars: The old republic: Why are they being re-invited? Because we feel for a significant proportion of those invited to test during Beta Testing Weekend #1, they did not have an optimal testing experience. As I mentioned before, we had some issues, including some people not receiving an invite, and others being unable to get the client in time because of issues with their acceptance of their invite. With those factors in mind, we felt that because many people did not experience the game, it was worthwhile to re-invite everyone. So look after this in your mail:
Official statement on same gender romance arcs
Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager, made an official statement on the SWTOR forums about the previously debated issue of same gender romance arcs and relationships with companions. A lot of players or would-be players didn’t like the idea that the game only seemed to allow for male-female relationships and romantic encounters. Bioware seemingly listened to the feedback and have issued a statement on the matter. Official statement follows: “Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more…
Star Wars Fan Film: Chess Wars
You have to love Star Wars fan-film-makers: even when the Blu-ray collection has been released, they’re still plugging away making their own offerings to the wider franchise. This latest impressively high-quality addition comes from youtube users RespectThePact, who have replaced one strangely helmeted figure with another, slightly smaller foe with a light-saber… It’s a great one – to the extent that there have been rumours about it being a viral ad – but that wouldn’t discount it as a good Star Wars fan-film since intent shouldn’t really devalue any work of art.
Facebook Image of The Week #29
BioWare almost had us yesterday as they updated there Facebook profile with a new Screenshot. We diden’t get the week days wrong though, but BioWare treated us to a new screenshot as they hit 400.000 fans on the page. Today is a normal Wednesday though and a new screenshot awaits us. Todays screenshot is from inside an Imperial space station: A large space station in the midst of the Imperial Fleet serves as a hub for transportation and a trading center for Imperial forces as they travel the galaxy.
400,000 Facebook Likes Bonus Screenshot
BioWare treated us with some extra goodies yesterday, as their Facebook page hit 400.000 likes. To celebrate this, they added an extra screenshot, from the planet Voss! A large crystalline formation highlights the center of the Tower of Prophecy on the newly discovered planet of Voss.
SWTOR Draws in Non-Star Wars Fans
You’ve heard the buzz about SWTOR. I’ve heard the buzz about SWTOR. Games are talking about it in other MMORPGs. They’re talking about it on the news, on Twitter and even on their lunch breaks at work. But what you might not know is that SWTOR is even drawing in the non-Star Wars fans out there. A perfect case in point is this story from RipTen, “Star Wars: The Old Republic, You Have My Attention”. It’s a fun editorial from Jensen Walker, stating why the author was not previously a Star Wars fan but is intrigued by what SWTOR has to offer. The first reason is not a surprise- BioWare. Many RPG fans are BioWare fans so it’s no surprise that BioWare will bring in a lot of players for that fact alone. But this isn’t enough on its own to have the author playing SWTOR or we would have…
A New Season of the Clone Wars Approaches
USA Today covered the news of a new season of the Clone Wars in a piece called Admiral Ackbar stars in animated ‘Star Wars’ that gives us some really good info about the upcoming episodes and what it’s all about. Star Wars fans far and wide can get excited about this news. A snippet from the USA Today report: “The military amphibian from Return of the Jedi appears in the fourth-season premiere of Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Friday night (8 p.m. ET/PT), although he’s a bit younger than he has been seen before. He’s just Captain Ackbar during the Clone Wars, which happen decades before he leads the Rebel Alliance’s assault on the second Death Star.” The USA Today report mostly focuses on Admiral Ackbar and his return to the series but they also mention Bo-Katan who Katee Sackhoff will be voicing later in the season….
Your Favorite Advanced Class- from the Beta Forums
An image was released from the beta forums that depicts a poll of advanced classes. It shows 575 voters at the time the screenshot was taken, asking gamers what advanced class they preferred playing the most. Sith Sorcerer led with 13.39% of the votes followed by BH Mercenary with just over 10%. 6.43% of the responders said that they liked all the advanced classes they played evenly. The BH Powertech got the least votes in the poll with only 2.26% and Smuggler Scoundrel was only slightly above that with 2.78% of the votes. Of course this isn’t fully accurate of everyone who has played the classes because there were just under 600 votes. We also don’t know how many votes may have come in after the screenshot was taken. It’s still interesting and brings up good conversation about the advanced classes and which ones players will like the most. Of…
Good News for European Fans: SWTOR to attend GameFest
Chris Collins, European Community Manager had some good news for European SWTOR fans on the official forums today: “This year, Game will be holding their first public GAMEFest event at the Birmingham NEC on the 16th to 18th September. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be there, allowing players the chance to get their hands on the game, from Origin Worlds, to PvP events, there’s plenty of reasons to swing by the booth and check out what we have in store. Entry to the event itself requires a ‘GAME Reward Card’ prior to ordering tickets and currently only Friday tickets are left. So if you haven’t got yours yet, you might want to order them soon. Full details of the event itself can be found here: http://events.game.co.uk/ As ever, members of the BioWare team will be on hand to talk with players, so why not head on over to the…
The Guild Sphere: Parabellum
Today I had the chance to speak with Valkir. The guild leader of the Sith Guild Parabellum. Turned out to be an interesting speak as these guys are really crazy. Check it out: Where did your guilds name come from? Our Guild name came about from a discussion with friends when we decided to setup a progressive raiding guild for SWTOR, we had the usual run of the mill silly names proposed, We Eat Baby Ewoks, I Crit My Pants, Boba Fett!, Boba Fett Where? and so on, when the discussion got serious we decided we wanted something simple but with a military twist on it. That’s when Koulmia a close friend and member of our Guild suggested Parabellum. The word Parabellum was coined by German arms maker Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken and is derived from the Latin saying ‘si vis pacem, para bellum’, meaning ‘If you want peace, prepare…
SWTOR Facebook’s Official PAX Prime pictures
The official PAX Prime 2011 pictures are up on SWTOR’s Facebook wall and we were excited to see them. I didn’t get to go but I would have loved to have been there in person. I could have crashed with my sister who lives in the area. Are you in any of the pictures? Make sure to drop us a line and let us know if you were there and see your mug in there somewhere! The pictures are a lot of fun for those of us who were not there. We see the Imperial Guard on duty, nerdy gamers doing what we do best (wish I was there playing a demo), cosplayers, observers, storm troopers, Stephen Reid, David Bass and other BioWare staff, and more. The comments on some of them are as fun as the pics yourself so if you have yet to check them out, head on…
Drew Karpyshyn Interview: Expanding Star Wars and Mass Effect Universes
Newsarama has a great interview with Drew Karpyshyn expanding STAR WARS, MASS EFFECT Universes that gives us a little more info about Drew and the behind-the-scene happenings with the stories and how things work. This nearly 2,000-word interview is very thorough and well worth the time to read it. Drew Karpyshyn has written novels of the Star Wars universe and is now also writing for the upcoming SWTOR MMORPG. He also worked as lead writer on the first Mass Effect, co-lead on the second and was writer of three novels on ME. So you can see how he would be of interest to fans of either game or series. The interview covers a lot of fun stuff like the challenges or writing inside established worlds, the differences of good and evil, and what is to come for both of these major BioWare properties. Here is a snippet from the interview:…
Ultimate Starship Guide
Are you wanting to know more about starships? You’re not alone but now you can find a great rundown of everything you need to know about starships in SWTOR in the Ultimate Starship Guide video from TGN. In this video, Ned goes through all the features of Starships in the old republic in this Ultimate guide! He starts from the beginning with an explanation on how and when your hero gets a starship. He then goes into the purposes of your starship complete with screenshots from the game showing you exactly what the voiceover is talking about. Look at it like an inside tour of various starships you can see in the game. Next, he tells us how the starships are key for travel in the game (duh) but also tells us about hangars and where to find them as well as the basics of how you travel. Then he…
SWTOR Crafting Chart
If you’re wondering about crafting in SWTOR, you are not alone. but here is a nifty crafting chart that gives us all some insight into the crafting system, skills and what they can do for you in the game. As you see on the chart, there are two basic types of crafting skills- crafting and gathering. There are four gathering skills in all. These are scavenging, archaeology, bioanalysis, and slicing (droid armor, generators, special missions). There are also mission skills which include Diplomacy, Investigation, Treasure Hunting and Underworld Trading. The mission skills correspond directly with gathering and crafting skills. Crafting skills are Armortech, Armstech, Artifice, Synthweaving, Biochem and Cybertech. Diplomacy can have an impact on your dark/light side points. Investigation gives schematics for all of the professions/crafting skills as well as materials for medium armor. All mission skills will give you gifts for your companions. The chart maps it all out…
Intergalactic Intel: Being Competitive
Why be competitive? “God will you just freaking stun him!” “Dude chill it’s just a game! Aren’t we supposed to be having fun?” I bit down on my lip so hard I was pretty sure I was going to leave a puncture wound. “Yeah it is a game, but I don’t wanna play with tards like you! So shape up and stun the bastard next time he pats by!” “Dude what’s your problem?!?!” “Problem? I’m competitive.” This was a common scene when I played World of Warcraft, still is in Heroes of Newerth. Having a sense of competitiveness supposedly makes you a better player in trade for whatever fun you may have with the game. While this isn’t fully true it can defiantly give you a new experience with MMO’s and games in general. So what is “being competitive” and why would anyone want to be competitive? Being competitive in…
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…
SWTOR to Model WoW for Launch Strategy
The delay in SWTOR launch is based in part off of Blizzard’s launch of World of Warcraft. Gamasutra explains in an article with quotes from the Citi 2011 Tech Conference. SWTOR has an intended launch with a strong focus on the initial player base. They would rather limit this number and give better service to a smaller demographic than try to reach too many people at once, this diluting the experience overall for everyone. “”We’ve actually studied WoW pretty carefully,” CFO Eric Brown said at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference on Wednesday. “”We spent a lot of time studying the first twelve months or so of WoW, and just to be clear here, when they initially launched, they did not launch in dual geographies. They went North America only.”” Gamasutra covers more from Brown on the topic: “”We really want to make sure that the first group of users into…
The Guild Sphere: Immortals
This week I had the chance to speak with a fellow Scandinavian as the Guild leader of Immortals took some time to answer our questions. Check it out: Where did your guilds name come from? Well I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and ancient mythology, and the name “Immortals” is something I can connect with both parts, also to be honest, I have had the name Immortals stuck in my head since I was a little kid .. I think the name is fascinating. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? Immortals are a laid back, social and casual guild, suited for people with families, students or other reasons they may have for not be abel to spend so much time behind the computer, but want to experience the game to the fullest. How did your guild come about? Well, here it goes. The reason behind this…