Friday Update: Studio Insider and Fan Friday
Studio Insider is a new feature update on the official website where the developers give fans quick looks at work-in-progress art and other assets. This week we’re given a look at the progress on Flesh Raiders.
Check out what the devs have to say here.
A community Q & A session with Daniel Erickson is also featured:
Q: What happens when a group member leaves during a quest, or even in the middle of a dialog *disconnects*? Will any AI take over?
A: No AI takeovers, the quest or conversation continues without them. You can hit escape and leave a conversation (multiplayer or otherwise) whenever you like.
Q: When getting a group quest, can you get 4 Bounty Hunters or do you have a specific class requirement to start the quest? How will we know which quest we need?
A: You can make a group of any mix of classes, including four of the same. There are several play groups here that enjoy doing just that. Full Trooper groups seem to be the most popular and look pretty amazing coming over a hill.
Q: Can I turn my helmet on/off?
A: Helmets will be on a toggle so you can show or not as you like. The cinematic team has an additional override control they can use to turn it off in conversation (in case you like to keep your Trooper helmet on with the awesome voice processing). That way they can override it occasionally to keep you from wearing your helmet during your romantic kiss scene (bonk!).
Q: Will the Advanced Classes be locked into a particular role, for example: Will a Juggernaut be locked to only a tank, or if he could fulfill other roles as well?
A: Each of the advanced classes is a full, flexible class with various trees that allow specialization. So although the Juggernaut is perhaps best suited to play a ‘tanking’ role, a player could specialize in other roles depending on what skills they choose and the tactics they use with their companions.
Q: Are the origin planets simply starting grounds, or will we come back to them past level 10?
A: You definitely have reasons to come back. Korriban, for instance, is where the Dark Council often meets. There are also reasons later for all of the classes to go to some of the other classes’ origin worlds. It’s important to us that lower level characters get to see some high level players strutting their stuff early on.
There is also a fan friday post this week with lots of great community-made art, fan fiction, and even costumes to check out. In addition there are new wallpapers and forum avatars, as well as this amazing smilie:
Fan Friday: Community Creations, Developer Corner, Events, and More
There is a lot of new media shared with us this week, both from fans and developers.
Community Creations
Community member Tanq is developing a new comic and has shared some of the initial art. Check it out below:
Community member Vitellius has made a CG video showing a Sith infiltrating a Republic base.
Another community member, Oxyjin, has made a painting of what he wants his character to look like. Check it below:
Developer Corner
Events
Yesterday marked the start of San Diego Comic Con 2010. Get connected with Star Wars: The Old Republic at several booths as well as the “Beyond Solo” panel taking place today at 1PM PST. Check the Events page for more information.
Curious to know what events The Old Republic might be attending? We’re excited to announce that you’ll get your chance to see The Old Republic at this year’s Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, FL from August 12th to the 15th, GamesCom in Cologne, Germany from August 18th to the 22nd, as well as the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle, WA from September 3rd to the 5th. As we get closer to these shows we’ll be updating the Events page with more information.
There were also new wallpapers released, new avatars, and an update to the fansite kit. Check it all out at the official site!
SW:TOR Confirmed for E3, Plus Fan Friday
This week’s update is a fan friday, spotlighting a few forum members’ artwork: Hazaz and Daennika, as well as a work of fan fiction by terminalpleasure. Forum member Danik Kreldin has also written a neat guide detailing the history of the Sith, called Short History of the Sith for Newbies. Check it out!
In this Fan Friday, we are highlighting various items from the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ community, dishing out exciting content from the Development Team, following up on GDC 2010, and confirming our presence at this year’s E3.
If you’re looking for more opportunities to voice your opinion, you’ll be interested in the new polls we posted up. Also, we added new avatars to the forums, so try them out!
Developer Corner
We are treated to a quick look at a work-in-progress of the Sith Inquisitor using his Force Lightning ability in the Developer Corner video this week. You can check that out here.
Also, we get to take a look at some customization options for human females when creating your character in The Old Republic. This is really the first time we have seen different options laid out side by side like this and it looks pretty impressive!
Lastly, Star Wars: The Old Republic has been confirmed to be at E3 this year. This was basically already known from a SWTOR Tweet, but the events page has been updated listing it. StarWarsMMO.net will be present at E3 this year so look forward to some great info and exclusives like we were able to deliver last year.
TOR Summer Events Schedule (and Fan Friday)
This week’s update is another content-less one, with BioWare releasing the schedule for which events TOR will be hitting up this summer. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be at both GamesCon in Cologne, Germany on August 19-24 as well as Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington on September 4–6. Each of these conventions will feature the first public gameply demos as well as free Star Wars swag. The demo footage is promised to be added to the official website shortly after.
The rest of this week’s update focuses on fanart, a new poll question, and new avatars released on the community site. Check out the full update at the official site.
