Friday Update:- Chocolate Rivers Comfirmed!!!

Developer Blog
This time its Blaine Christine up, talking about his day to day life in BW.
I'm not going to cover it all here, just shoot yourself over to the SWTOR site and check it out.


Normally I would be up in arms right now, what with a Fan Friday and a Dev blog in quick succession, but the way I see it, the less we get now, the more will be revealed at Pax.


Next week, we may have something a little better, but really I'm not holding my breath for anything on a grander scale. I'm hoping for more of the same on Friday, lets just keep all  the good stuff for Pax again, and have the info overload.

Its all worth it in the end, having a few quiet weeks before the show hits.

Fans Are Doing It For Themselves

Ok so I kind of skipped the Friday update, as the Q & A section was, well limp. All of these answers I knew already. I guess some now peeps coming to the fold may not have known these type of things, but the latest bout of Dev posts did more than these pointless Q & A sections.

With Pax coming up, I'm not overly surprised at the weakness of it. Though my take is, why have it at all, if the Dev's are just going over old info, that any 4th grade kid could find in a few moments ?

As for the Studio Insider, give me a break.
You'll be hard pushed in find a more uninteresting topic than some passage in 1 of many temples, why not replace that with some landscape. I know I may be a little hard, and sure it will indeed set the mood.
But a passage ?
Really ?
Is thats the best they could drum up ?

Re-Spec Or Not To Re-Spec

Many like me have had a few thoughts on if an adv re-spec should make it in game.
And as always those folks over at BW have also been pondering on this thought also.

GeorgZoeller General Discussion -> Should we be able to respec Advanced Class choice? (Part 3)

Plenty of interesting discussion here.

A few things from our point of view:

• Your Advanced Class choice very much defines how your character plays from the moment you choose it. Their impact is more akin to that of a different class in other MMOs than that of a different 'spec'. A Sith Sorcerer is very, very different from a Sith Assassin.
• As mentioned before, the ability to respec your skills is definitely in the game. At this point, it costs credits but has no other requirements or limitations. The exact cost will be fine tuned, probably until ship, in conjunction with the rest of the economy - so giving precise numbers at this point isn't helpful.
• We haven't made up our mind yet about the availability of an Advanced Class respec. We are evaluating all options (no Advanced Class respec, fixed cost respec, respec cost increasing with level, etc.).
• A lot of thought currently goes into the consequences of Advanced Class respec - if we allow it, it will require players to relearn their entire approach to combat (which they learned over many many hours before) and replace the majority of their equipment, so it's not a thing we would want the player to do lightly, or just out of curiosity.

Ultimately, testing will tell us what we'll go with for launch, but even then - MMOs change, new content is added, player preferences emerge and change, so this is likely one of those topics we will be frequently discussing even after launch to ensure the design matches the expectations of our players and does not introduce unwelcome side effects.

With all this said - thank you very much for your continued feedback and thoughts on the topic. We are actively reading and discussing the topic frequently.

Whats With The Shakles BioWare ?

There is a story doing the circuit, in and around SWTOR related fan sites atm. Where BW have sent out a number of E-Mails to fan sites that have D/L the TOR fan site kit.

This story seems to have come from TOROZ, if you are unfamiliar with the story, do take the time to head over there and see whats, what.

I hope you took the time to read this article, though I did not get such an E-Mail I'm not sure how I feel about this. Should I be happy not to get it, or a little disappointed not to be considered worthy of being classed as a legit fan site.

Sure web fame is not important to me, but there are a few that come here, so I'm doing something right :)

I like many, see TOR as the best thing that has happened to the MMO world since the days of Ultima Online. And as such we follow every bit of news no matter how small.
Sure not all the info is well received, but the bigger picture is looking good.

But I can not see a good side to taking the few fan sites, that depend on an income, off the official fan site list. I'm sure this blog will never be in a position to get anything close to an exclusive from BW, like many of the bigger sites.
But some sites do depend on the income that comes in, and this little bit of info will hamper there efforts to greater extent, in bringing a high quality service that they now provide.

All this mean little to nothing to this blog, but I do feel sympathy for the other fan sites that this effect's. Lets hope BW come to a happy medium, as this will only hurt the fans and followers of TOR.  

Getting Fit For TOR

The time is almost here, that this spring target window is upon us.

So you may want to get yourself fine tuned just in case TOR release announced date is quickly followed by the games release.

Well good the thing is that TOR will not be hear before April. So you have a window up until then to get yourself and your PC in top working order.
 I don't want to dive into getting your PC ready, as other site have done this to a greater extent i.e Darth Hater and ToroCast.
Without knowing the min spec for TOR its hard to say what system will work well. Only thing I would say is, if you got a low end spec PC like 5 years ago, you may wish to hunt down some upgrades to play this game.

What I would like to focus on is you, as a player, getting into the right mind frame to get you up and running, and ready for TOR.

Friday Update -Timeline - The Great Hyperspace War

This Friday brings us a new timeline video.

It seems ages since the last timeline, and these are always well received.

Over the millennia, the Galactic Republic has faced no greater threat to its existence than the brutal invasion instigated by Sith Lord Naga Sadow. It was a time in history when the original Sith Empire had reached the height of its power, and the Republic was poorly prepared for a conflict of such magnitude. Master Gnost-Dural looks back at the Great Hyperspace War and identifies the controversial decision that drove the Sith into exile and set the stage for the Empire’s campaign of vengeance against the Republic.
BTC 1347 – When two hyperspace explorers stumbled onto the remote world of Korriban, they never could have guessed the chain of events they were setting into motion. Over the previous centuries, the Sith Empire had grown in size and strength, and Korriban was the very heart of its dominion. The reigning Sith Lord, Marka Ragnos, had just died, sparking a brutal power struggle between rivals Ludo Kressh and Naga Sadow. The explorers’ arrival marked the first contact between the Republic and the Sith Empire, and it created at an opportunity to end the power struggle. Naga Sadow seized the moment and rallied the Sith for a pre-emptive strike against the Republic under his leadership. The ensuing series of battles saw the Republic nearly destroyed, but Naga Sadow’s machinations ultimately backfired, and the Republic drove the Sith back to Korriban. The Supreme Chancellor then directed Republic forces to ensure the Sith never returned… by annihilating their civilization entirely—a move which would ultimately come back to haunt the Republic centuries later…
Watch the latest Timeline holorecord, The Great Hyperspace War , narrated by actor Lance Henriksen.

GameSpots - SWTOR Interview - Doctoring the Story

The thing I like about this video, is the pure passion they have for TOR. Not much info, but it still gets you stocked for the game :)

TOR News Shorts 11 Feb

Its really nice to start this weeks news shorts, on a good and positive note.

Of course I'm referring to the long awaited return of The Galactic Holofeed 
Well known in  among avid TOR postcast followers as having the longest (in time) pods around.
It just warms the cockles to see them back, with now co-hosts and show format.
Welcome back peeps.

Now to the Dev Tracker -

Sand Box V Theme Park

This will be my 3rd attempt this week, to write something.

I've been having some kind of writers block, ok I'm no writer, as many who freak-went this blog well and truly know :)
It was more of trying to stay on topic, so lets hope this time I don't jump around to much.

Well lets get started.

Loguns - SWTOR Combat Animations Compilation

For those that have a YouTube account, I would suggest you head over to Loguns account and sub.

I've followed him for some time now, and have to say he always brings out very nice videos. This latest offering, shows us just how many skills we have seen so far.
Which kind of took me back a bit, as I had no idea just how many we have seen over the years. They do tend to get lost within the mix of the constant update.

I've played many games, and on the hole TOR just has some of the sweetest combat I've ever come across.
So with out further ado heres the video enjoy.

Friday Update- Dev Snooze Point.

Now I'm not going to lie here, I kind of skimmed over this Dev Blog. But like the cat above could not get to the end.

Which is kind of strange for me, as normally I like these Dev Blogs. It should of read, Story, FlashPoint,Story and more Story, dungeon, multi-player with Story.

Kind of unimpressed by the hole thing, though I understand why with Pax just around the corner. So keep bring the snooze, till we can (fingers crossed) get some real info.

Oh yeh find the full thing here.

EA Q3 2011 Roundup

  

 Because I'm not the most attentive person in the world, I did not take everything down, as I know someone would do that anyway.

So a Big UPS to Ask A Jedi for doing all the hard work :)

The following is a round up of what went down :-

[5:01pm] – John Riccitiello – continue to concentrate on fewer, bigger, better games
[5:04pm] – Focus on digital – growth 39% year over year
[5:05pm] – Announce a $600 million share buyback
Note: there is no mention of TOR or FY12 in any of the released documentation.
[5:19pm] – TOR will ship in Calendar 2011, after Fiscal 2011 – in Fiscal 2012
[5:20pm] – Will not share more detail until next quarter. They
Note: So basically, nothing has changed but we’ve got no new information. The release is still on track for FY12, CY 11. The window is a little bigger than most TOR fans may want to hear though :)
[5:22pm] – Just ran through a list of releases, which didn’t include TOR
Note: They seem to be keeping specific TOR info close to the chest for competitive reasons.
Note: So, look for TOR release info when they talk about Q4 earnings, sometime in May.
[5:28pm] – Q&A Starting, we are queued up for one.
[5:34pm] – Question About TOR business model
[5:35pm] – “Another north of a million is a substantially profitable business”
[5:36pm] – “Don’t refer to gamer blogs for guidance” (re: EA Louse $300 million budget crap.)
[5:38pm] – “Game is looking very good – beta scale testing over the coming months”
[5:49pm] –  Mike Hickey from Janco just asked a question… non TOR-related.
[5:52pm] – Piper Jaffray – Asked “How big is the opportunity for Star Wars, in terms of # of users?”
[5:53pm] – EA Comments on their “chief competitor” having 12 million subscriptions, but doesn’t have to challenge the market leader. But also have no intention to remain a “distant” #2
[5:56pm] – “The market will be receptive to light sabers vs. swords.”
[6:00pm] – Q&A and Call is wrapping up.

Biggest thing I got from all this in respect to TOR, is that game testing seems to be getting filled out some what in the next few months. Not sure how many more will get a taste, or how many there is testing atm. But anything that give us a little hope is alway good :)

Sadly no clear cut release date has come in, though on the bright side, TOR could still ship in the spring.
Lets hope PaxEast sheds more light on this subject, as every follower is itching to get there hands on this game.

TOR's Latest News Snips

First off a massive Gratz to Brandon Miletta, who has secured a place on the BW team working on SWTOR.
As an avid fan of the game, this will be a dream job for him. I would like to wish him the best of luck.

Sadly this also means that TOROCast will loose him as a 1 of the team, but I'm sure they are as stocked as anyone, that 1 of there own has made good  :)

 

EA has this little thing on today, the Electronic Arts Q3 2011 Earnings Conference Call. 

We may get a little more info on the expected release date on TOR. Well maybe not an exact date, most likely which quarter TOR is heading for.

LeveL Cap 50

We may have had a strong feeling that the lvl cap would indeed be lvl 50, but for the 1st time it has been conformed. 

DamionSchubert 

As of this moment, max level is 50. This is unlikely to change before we ship, but you know, the usual qualifiers apply.