Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The official Friday Update is the new Flashpoints section under Game Systems on www.swtor.com.  It contains several examples of Flashpoints in SW:TOR including early game, mid game and end game for both Republic and Imperial classes.

At last we are blessed with gameplay footage of Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Gamespot revealed a new flashpoint trailer for Taral V, intended for players level 32 and higher.  World designer at BioWare, Jesse Sky offers a great overview of the flashpoint:

“The emperor is holding a powerful Jedi captive in his personal prison–a massive space station at the heart of the Maelstrom Nebula. Only a Gree computer is capable of navigating the treacherous cosmic storms that surround the prison. Fortunately, the Republic has learned that the Empire guards just such a device on the remote jungle world of Taral V.

Your mission is to infiltrate the hidden Imperial fortress on Taral V and recover this computer. Success will mean that the Republic fleet can launch an assault on the prison where you can, perhaps, rescue the Jedi prisoner.”

For a working dissection of the video, please visit our friends over at Darthhater.com!

PvP Warzones – Alderaan

Joanne Laroche said:

Officially a neutral world, Alderaan has become the focus of Republic and Imperial political maneuvering. Even as conflict between Alderaans noble houses threatens to turn into civil war, Republic and Imperial forces engage in a secret battle that could decide the planets fate. High in the mountains, both sides fight for control of Alderaans massive planetary defense cannona weapon powerful enough to devastate an enemys fleet and ensure domination over the planets skies.

The battle on Alderaan is our first detailed look at organized team Player vs Player (PvP) in The Old Republic. To secure the planetary defense cannon, players must deplete the enemy transport ships shields, driving their forces to retreat or be annihilated. Players must work together to control the defense systems artillery units if they are to protect their fleet and emerge victorious.

Well be offering more insight into how Warzones work in the near future, but for now, we hope this video will give you a good sense of the Warzone experience in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™! Also, be sure to check the screenshot section to see how this battle is heating up.

At E3 we learned SWTOR will incorporate Warzones (ala Battlegrounds) as just one of the forms of player versus player combat, and a brief mention the planet Alderaan would feature a Warzone without any significant details. Yesterday, we learned that Alderaan’s Warzone will be an 8 vs. 8, objective-based PvP with a goal of controlling planetary defenses, and provides rewards in the form of tokens and XP.

BioWare’s Blaine Christine describes the Warzone as, ”There is this mechanic of two drop ships. Your objective as a team is to go down and control anti-aircraft artillery pieces that you literally see turn and fire on the other ships,”  he explained. Once a team controls these defenses, they direct a massive cannon at the other faction’s capital ship, and the first team to destroy the other team’s ship is the victor. “You are destroying the ship which is inherently kind of a timer, because once that destruction occurs, the match is over,” continued Christine. “The winner is the winner, and the loser is the loser based on whose ship is still alive.”

The developers teased the next Warzone will take place on a derelict starship and its mechanics will be completely different from Alderaan’s. “If you say what kind of scenarios could happen on a derelict starship, you can kind of formulate scenarios to see what we mean,” Christine hinted. “It is going to be a different experience; you’ll have different objectives, different things going on, and different mechanics. Still immersive — but different.”

BioWare’s PvP designer Gabe Amatangelo said they wanted Warzones to fit in with the story element of the game. When they looked at PvP, they decided that banners, flags and points were “too game-y.”

“I think that the biggest thing is we have to look at where these pieces fit into the story, because we still want them to tie to the story,” Christine replied when asked about the challenge developing unique Warzones that made sense to the planet’s background. “We sort of looked at it like what is the action that is occurring at that point in time… whatever level the player is at, so it is partially based on the player’s level and what abilities they have. We also considered what events are occurring within context on that particular planet, and how it would make sense to fit in those mechanics and/or area that you would be fighting over.”

Source: Darthhater.com

Crafting – Crew Skill Crafting System

The developers also presented an overview of The Old Republic’s crafting system. BioWare announced they will use a Crew Skill crafting system were players using their ship as a base of operations, will be able to send their companions on crafting tasks, and particular companions excelling at specific duties.

This Crew Skill system will be divided into three majors groups: Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. We were given two examples for each major group: Gathering will be comprised of jobs like Bio Analysis and Slicing, Crafting includes Artificer and Bio Chem, and lastly Missions will involve activities such as Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting.

Companions utilizing Diplomacy can spread influence and change morality alignment points, while those seeking Treasure may find rare items based on a random number generator. The Bio Analysis example illustrated a logical dependence of gathered material to create a crafted item; using the skill on a dead creature produces components for use in creating stimpaks as a crafted item in Biochem. They also mentioned in passing that crafting would be a key part of their yet unannounced Auction House system.

In addition to the stimpak example, the presenters stated other crafted items include weapons, and when asked if this provided for creation of weapon modifications, Christine couldn’t provide details but commented “it is a very robust system, and there are still some details that we haven’t revealed yet which I know players are going to be excited about. I will just say there are some mechanics to it that will allow players who are more involved in crafting to really get deeply involved in crafting and be appropriately rewarded for it.”

As mentioned above, specific companions will be better at certain mission types. For example, Vette, a pirate and companion to the Sith Warrior, will excel at Treasure Hunting. Your companions can also be given missions on the fly, and even while players are away from their ship. All of these crafting activities can be queued up and can continue when players are offline. We did see a screenshot of two companions on one ship performing crafting duties at the same time. However, it should be noted that we don’t yet know if they are working on the same activity or separate ones.

“Only passive companions would assist in crafting,” explained Christine. “Pretty much all your active companion can do while out adventuring with you crafting-related is gathering activities. Even though I can send them out on missions and gather items, when they are adventuring with me and I see a gathering node in the world, I can right click on that. Rather than my character going over to that node and performing that gathering action, you’ll see what you saw in our screenshot today that the companion character performs that action.”

Source: Darthhater.com

Vote for the Jedi Consular Advanced Class

Earlier this year, we (BioWare) announced the Advanced Classes System which allows you to customize your character according to your play style. We also revealed the advanced classes for the Jedi Consular: Jedi Shadow and the Jedi Wizard. Since then, we’ve been working on a new name for the ‘Jedi Wizard’ Advanced Class and have come up with three new possibilities.

Now we (BioWare) want to open it up to you, the fans. There’s been some great feedback on class names in the past, so we’re offering you the chance to help us make the final decision!

The chart below presents a high-level overview for the Jedi Consular’s advanced classes:

• Telekenetics: Ranged Damage using Force attacks, such as ‘Telekenetic Blast’ which does high damage in an ‘area-of-effect’
• Balance: Overall survivability and utility, with abilities that enhance both melee and Force attacks
• Seer: Healing and buffs using the Force, with abilities like Serenity to boost Force regeneration and reduce damage taken

There are four names to choose from: Jedi Sage, Jedi Seer, and Jedi Adept – along with the option to keep it Jedi Wizard. This poll will determine the final title that appears in game. We’ll be tallying the results from the English, French, and German communities to determine the winner. Voting ends at 5:00PM CST on Thursday, December 2nd so vote now!

BTC 347 – Decades before the outbreak of the Mandalorian Wars, a promising Jedi named Exar Kun began exploring the secrets of the Force. Despite the warnings of his Masters, Kun didn’t hesitate to experiment with the dark powers of the ancient Sith. After being confronted by the spirit of the fallen Sith Lord Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun harnessed the power of the Sith Temples on Yavin 4 and embarked on a campaign to destroy the Republic and the Jedi Order. After aligning with the Krath Cult and fellow fallen Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma, Exar Kun’s armies managed to destroy the Jedi library on Ossus, but that was to be his final victory before being betrayed and defeated. Centuries later, the Jedi have learned that Exar Kun’s campaign took place even while the ancient Sith Empire remained in exile on Dromund Kaas. Jedi Master Gnost-Dural now asks, if Exar Kun’s rise to power was encouraged by the spirits of the ancient Sith, what might this suggest about their support for the resurrected Sith Empire?

Watch the latest Timeline holorecord, The Exar Kun War narrated by actor Lance Henriksen.