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GameSpot Exclusive Pre-Friday Developer Dispatch U...

GameSpot posted an interview with Game Director James Ohlen about companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Mr. Ohlen revealed that companions will function similar to other classes in the game, leveling up alongside the player and unlocking skills as they progress. He also talks about a new system that will allow players to set up companion behaviors (AI) in combat beforehand, managing which abilities they do and do not use.

Along with the James Ohlen interview comes a Developer Dispatch video on companions  featuring Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, Principle Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller and Art Director Jeff Dobson.  The developers talk about hitting the cornerstones of Star Wars with companions such as droids and aliens, how companions level-up and unlock new abilities just like players and the affection system, where gifts can be given to companions opening up new conversations and quests.

Update @ 3:39PM EST: BioWare also released a Developers Blog on Companion Characters – Part 1

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A Path to Success: Maps, and their Making

As our game testers play The Old Republicâ„¢ and we track their characters, they produce a lot of data – on everything from how long it takes them to move across a planet, to where they stop and look at the scenery. We bundle all this data together into what we call ‘metrics’.

Our design team loves metrics.

We love them because when designing a game, it’s one thing to say how things should be, but it’s quite another to see how things actually are. When we see metrics, we see exactly how the game is being played in pure numerical form. Getting this level of insight into what you’ve designed is often vindicating, invigorating and sometimes even humbling. Of course it can also be panic-inducing at times, too!

Let me give you an example. Some time ago, resident metrics enthusiast (and Lead Combat Designer) Georg Zoeller posed a simple question to the design team: “Which part of the user interface is opened more than any other when playing Star Warsâ„¢: The Old Republicâ„¢?” It was a simple question, but the answer wasn’t any of the UI parts you might expect: not our character sheet, inventory or the Crew Skills window. No, the winner was the World Map. And it won easily – by more than an order of magnitude. Let me tell you why.

To read the full article click on the Read More button below.

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Friday Update: E3 Details and The Lost Suns Comic

This week’s Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is E3 Details and on The Lost Suns with an interview by Senior Writer and Managing Editor Alexander Freed. As BioWare Austin’s Community Manager Stephen Reid hinted at this morning, there are three updates today about SWTOR. This is all in preparation for the Electronic Entertainment Expo that starts June 6 and expectations are massive on the news coming out of the event.

As part of this week’s Friday update, MMORPG.com interviewed Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller about the Advanced Classes we will see in Star Wars: The Old Republic. He covers abilities from almost every class including the Jedi Knight’s Force Leap, the different stances of the Sith Warrior, the Bounty Hunter’s helpful Kolto Missile, and the Smuggler’s explosive Shrapnel Bomb.

E3 Sneak Peaks

New Cinematic Trailer

You may recall the dramatic cinematic trailers we’ve released at previous E3 shows. First, “Deceived” showed the dark triumph the Sith Empire achieved by sacking Coruscant and destroying the Jedi Temple. Then “Hope” took us back a few years in Old Republic history to the courageous stand made by Republic heroes in the Battle of Alderaan. These are critical points in the history of The Old Republic, but there’s another moment that we’ve yet to share.

Raid Reveal(?) – 8-Man(?)

The planet of Belsavis holds a terrible secret; a secret unknown to both the Empire and Republic for thousands of years. Now, groups of elite heroes must fight to prevent this ancient threat from escaping and causing massive destruction. Prepare yourself for your first encounter with the Eternity Vault.

Raid Reveal(?)

You’ve seen Alderaan’s beautiful vistas; you’ve seen the action-packed Warzone. Now you’ll see a showdown with an army of zealous soldiers, protecting a military general who has seized control of the throne. Removing this usurper is not going to be easy, but someone has to do it…

New Flashpoint(?)

Sandpeople are easily startled, but they’ll come back soon, and in greater numbers… and that might just be the beginning. E3 attendees will get to battle Sandpeople and experience something that’s never been seen before on Tatooine…

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MMORPG.com –...

It what might be the first of two “external” updates for TOR fans, gaming site MMORPG.com has a nice, detailed interview with Principle Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller.

The piece touches on virtually every Advanced Class, as well as how each faction might stack up against the other:

MMORPG.com: In terms of the two factions how do the Advanced Classes stack up? Does every class have its equal? How are you handling class balance?

Georg Zoeller: To ensure faction balance, each Republic class has it’s ‘nemesis’ on the Empire side, balanced for equal access in utility, mitigation and damage potential, etc.

Head on over to MMORPG.com for the full interview!

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Fan Site Summit: Question & Answer Session (A...

Our friends at Darthhater were one of the fan sites in attendance at the Fan Site Summit.  The question and answer sessions covered a range of topics relevant to the developer answering questions at the time. After the session concluded and the summit ended, BioWare made the audio of the sessions available to fan sites.  Below is the audio from the Q&A sessions with Blaine Christine, Daniel Erickson, Damion Schubert and Georg Zoeller.