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I admit, I expected a smuggler update last Friday and I was wrong. I admit, I did not expect the smuggler update this Friday and that is exactly what happened. And what an update it is!
We have the Smuggler page in the Holonet updated with his specializations and new videos and screenshots.
There is also a page on the smuggler’s bad-ass Wookie associate (companion character), Bowdaar, also known as “The Killer from Kashyyyk”. The winner of 10,000 death matches in the arena got his own holonet page in the biographies section.
Just to make things as interesting as possible we are also introduced to smuggler’s spaceship – Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter. There is a brand new video showcasing the spaceship and we can see several NPCs occupying it. Presumably these are the other smuggler companion characters and one of them seems to be a Mon Calamari! You can watch the video bellow or in our YouTube channel or on the official starship page.
If you thought that is all you were wrong. We also learn that you will be able to make a Twi’lek smuggler and because of that we are presented with an official Twi’lek inhabitants page on the Holonet. Visit it to learn about their natural beauty and charm and what are ‘lekku’ (those head tails they have), and also you can find out why there are so many slave Twi’leks around.

Smuggler Gallery

Smuggler Starship – Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter

Smuggler Starship – Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter Concept Art

Twi’lek Gallery

I have a lot of convention news withdrawal. I was spoiled by the convention season and the constant stream of news coming our way. It fed the hole created by not being in the SWTOR beta. Luckily, SWTOR fansites are plentiful and have great articles and content for you to browse through on a dreaded Monday and we are here to list it all for you.

Fansite Mentions

Lets get all the PAX info out of the way first.

TOROCast has released several quality articles created based on info they gathered at PAX. They took notes on Stats and what they do and shared it in a very informative article.

Darth Hater has its own PAX article that sums up all the General info they learned from the hands on experience. Two page article covers all the General Notes, Stat Modifiers, Character Sheets, Equipment and Loot they were able to record.

To round up the convention related news we have a bit of late news from SWTOR Station and their Gamescom coverage. They just released a new video from Gamescom that shows Daniela & Hergen (French/German Community Manager) and some speeders in action as well as Hutta’s spaceport video footage. Visit SWTOR Station for the full article and you can watch the video bellow:

Blog Mentions

Our Friends at Scary Booster have a great blog post “Let’s talk planets”, discussing how multiple planets and travel and story between them will work in a MMO environment. Check out their article and join the discussion in the comments here.

Podcast Mentions

Galactic Holofeed has entered its 1 year of SWTOR podcasts. Suzina and Kalvod guide us through their impressions of the Designing the Light Side Developer Dispatch and speculate in their knowledgeable and informed way about the Smuggler abilities. Clicking here will take you to their site and the Transmission 52 article.

Corellian Run Radio discusses PAX and all the info we got from there.

TOROCast just released their Episode 69 “Jedi do it with the Lights on”

Despite what was expected, this Friday update was not the Smuggler trailer video released earlier yesterday by Machinima.com. Instead we got a huge update containing a great “Designing the Light Side” Developer Dispatch video and a huge Fan Friday article containing a huge amount of fan created content.

The video is full of information on what decisions were made during the design process of the Jedi classes. We find out that you can choose to be a heroic type of Jedi like Luke or darker, more avenging Jedi like Anakin. There is a bunch of video footage of Tython (still one of the most serene environments I’ve seen in any game so far) along with discussion on why choosing earth tones for Jedi and “robed monk” look. Jedi Knight is all about action and adventure. Consular’s story will be more about diplomacy and you will be able to play a sneaky (stealth) role, or a more supportive (healing) role or even do some force damage (magic dps). The problem I have with each of these videos is that every time they release a new one I have to rethink what class I’m going to play as my main. I just have a need to live through all these stories and not miss out and that is going to be hard with 8 classes available. Anyone with a cloning machine wanna help me out? You can find the official video page here or just watch it below.

Along with the Developer Dispatch article we were also presented with this month’s Fan Friday. I recommend everyone visits the official news post, because it has loads of great Fan made art along with some great looking capital ship concept art presented in another Developer Corner. New wallpapers and official forum avatars are presented as well.

Guys at Machinima.com just released a Smuggler class trailer video as part of their new show called Machinima Realm. They got the privilege to release this video a day ahead of everyone else, which probably means that this video was going to be this Friday’s update. The question is: now that the Friday update has been released on a Thursday, what news will I post tomorrow? Despite my editorial troubles, you should enjoy the video. the video shows some smuggler gameplay and I think first shots of how stealth will work and what it will look like. Oh, and there’s a Wookie involved (do I smell a companion character for our Han Solo prototype?). There is a nice dissection of the video over at JediArchiveOnline.com for all you detail loving fans out there. One more thing before the video, there seems to be no “kick in the groin” action in the smuggler trailer, which kind of sucks. We all know its the best move by a video game character, like, EVAR!!!!1one11eleven!

Smuggler trailer leaked

It has been speculated for some time that Corellia is going to be one of the planets players will be able to play through and this Friday’s update confirmed those suspicions. In the first Friday update that was not posted by long time community manager Sean Dahlberg (he left Bioware a few days ago) we get a brand new Corellia Holonet page with all the basic information about the planet we could want. Things you should know about the planet:

• A founding member of the Galactic Republic
• Symbol of personal and economic freedom
• Birthplace of Han Solo (3000 years in the future from TOR)
• Main Starship production planet
• Contact has been lost with the planet. Some images show destruction from bombardment but no solid info is available.

Check out the official news item here and you can see the screenshots and concept art of the new planet in our galleries below..

Corellia Screenshots

Corellia Concept Art

The biggest event for The Old Republic fans was SWTOR panel. We got loads of new media and information and AskAJedi.com was there to cover the whole event and provide us with a video showing all the great stuff revealed. Here are some of the things you can see in the videos below:

• Jedi gameplay and backstory on Tython (Part 2 video)
• Awesome footage of your Jedi character’s lightsaber being created (reminiscent of the deleted scene shown at this year’s Celebration V) (Part 2 video)
• More Republic group gameplay and dialogue footage (Part 2 video)
• Empire group gameplay and dialogue (Part 3 video)
• Companions seen in group action (Part 3 video)
• PvP(vE)? There is some Empire group footage that ends with Empire group meeting up with Republic group after some PvE content (Part 3 video)
• Live multiplayer demo with members of the SWTOR fan site community controlling the characters. Darth Hater, TOROCast and LordHammer representing Guild Umbra and TORSyndicate were the ones involved (Part 3 video)

I would like to point you to Ask A Jedi’s article on the whole thing here. They deserve a visit.

Doors of the Penny Arcade Expo have officially opened and North American gamers can finally sink their teeth into Star Wars: The Old Republic. Covering the event are several SWTOR fansites. Darth Hater continues with their excellent coverage where they update their PAX dedicated page constantly throughout the day with new info. These are some of the more interesting things they noticed with their hands on experience:

• All classes except the two Jedi ones are playable to the public at low level for approximately 15m.
• The line to play is at least an hour.
• Sith Warrior was a human female with cybernetics on face.

You can read the rest of their updates here.

Ask a Jedi is also covering the event live with a constantly updated page. They had a chance to do a quick Q&A with Senior Producer Blaine Christine and Lead Writer Daniel Erickson. They covered advanced classes, companions, “is it an MMO?” and more. We’ll let you know as soon as they post this on their site. In the meantime you can read some highlights here. The same page also holds some hands on impressions and good screenshots. Also, they tweeted that:

Nothing new revealed today, but the inside word is that tomorrow will bring some GREAT news.

Within the next few hours Penny Arcade Expo, one of the biggest gaming conventions in the North America is about to begin. It is a very big convention for all the Star Wars: The Old Republic fans because, traditionally, it is the place where big reveals happen. Last year we got some gameplay footage and all attendees of the SWTOR panel got a copy of Knights of the Old Republic game. This year we’ll be having the first hands on event in the North America and all the PAX visitors will get what is called the SWTOR virus that can only be cured by more “gameplaytimis”. Some gamers will be lucky enough to get the elusive “betainvitis”, but for all of you out there that lack any of these rare and expensive medicine, we bring you the last of our gameplay videos we shot at this year’s GamesCom. This is the longest video we have and it features gameplay from most of the classes. You can see some cool Inquisitor action where he one shots some enemies with force lightning (at around 1:50). Present are also cutscenes and some more combat.

We’ll continue to monitor all the information pouring in from PAX and we’ll keep you updated with the most important news and footage. For now I would like to draw your attention to Jedi Archive Online, that have their man Lordhammer, from Guild Umbra, on the spot. They have the first images from PAX available here. Also covering the event are Darth Hater and ToroCast.

Today’s Friday update is not among the most informative ones. It, basically, told us about the special page on the official site that is dedicated to the space combat feature. The page contains the space combat trailer and a few screenshots, along with a description of what we can expect from this feature. There has also been an update to the screenshot and concept art sections of the site including new images for player ships. You can find the space combat page here and here’s the excerpt from the official news item:

Blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, and a variety of other obstacles as you encounter fast-paced Space Combat missions in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. In these occurrences, you’ll fly your personal starship to various “hot spots” on the galaxy map and experience gameplay that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars™ space battles …
… Also check out the media section to see screenshots, concept art, and wallpapers portraying these heroic battles in space.