Ever since I returned from the Fan Site Summit in Austin I’ve spent little time in Rift. This was the game that I chose to tide me over until SWTOR release. As effective of last night my sub with Rift ended. With almost 2 months until it runs out I’m not really going to play much, and atm it’s lucky if I can muster up 1 hour play over a full day. This is from someone who played no less than 6 hours + per-day every day to almost nothing.

It’s not like I have not tried to rekindle the joy of playing the game but after getting around 8 hours on TOR, Rift is now so lackluster I cant seem to get that buzz I once used to feel.

Now with TOR I was ready as always to roll out on a PvP server. Just like every other game. With PvP being quite high on my list of things that keep me playing, and you can only really get that good PvP fix on a PvP server.,

Now, I’m a little puzzled to what server to roll out on with the news that PvE servers will have PvP zones that will auto flag anyone that enters at will.

This article will be for those like me that now find themselves pondering which type of server to go play. I hope reading back through when I’m done helps me to decide also. 🙂

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From the interview that me and Serge had with Damion Schubert and the Developer Q&A we attended with him, I got wind of something that has my ears perked for sure.  The mention or hinting at a new mechanic on the horizon for crew skills in SWTOR.

I was hit by the realization of what I think I understand them to be planning immediately.  In the Q&A with Damion Schubert when the first question of the session was asked to him, he replied with a response that included this little gem about a mystery “research system”

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Probably one of the more talked about subjects in regards to playing Swtor has been what it takes to actually play Swtor. Right now, no one really knows. There has been discussions covering the topic though. So far the only real input we have on this is what was said before, which is:

Although no official system requirements have been released for STAR WARS: The Old Republic, one of the most popular topics relating to the game is discussion of system requirements. To keep all these discussions consolidated, we have created this thread to speculate and discuss possible The Old Republic system requirements on Windows PC.

While no official requirements have been published, this E3 2009 interview with BioWare’s Gordon Walton gives some insight into the basic level of system requirements that BioWare is aiming for:

Quote:

Gordon Walton: We are definitely not intending it to be extremely high.   Gophn.com: That’s great. I would like to be able to play it on my 3 year old gaming notebook. Gordon Walton: It’s going to more modest to let more people into the game because not every gamer changes out their machine for super hardcore machines.

Also, to clarify:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanDahlberg Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently being developed for the personal computer (PC) using the Microsoft® Windows® operating system. While we recognize that there are other operating systems and platforms available for games today, our development is specific to the personal computer using the Windows operating system at this time.

Please use this thread to speculate on the requirements, discuss whether your Windows personal computer will be able to handle the game, and other topics directly related to TOR’s system requirements.

As always, any discussion or responses found within is pure speculation; please do not take any requirement suggestions as official unless they come from BioWare themselves.

 

So it looks like Swtor may be pretty forgiving in what it takes to play the game. It seems that if you have a system that can currently run Warcraft, then you should be fine in regards to running this once it releases. Nobody has a clue what settings (low, mid, high) that might run the game, but hey, for now you are actually playing it aren’t you?

So in regards to this, I’d like to present something that even a novice Gamer Geek or budding PC Builder wannabe can use to upgrade on their current system, if they are really think they need one. The PC Gamer 2011 PC Builder’s Bible

With this handy magazine, building a new system (what I am doing) or even looking for upgrades to your current system become a little easier to manage with what information they give you. Add in places like Newegg and Fry’s, and you may find some of these items cheaper than is what suggested in the magazine.

With a little work, you shouldn’t even have to worry about IF you can play the game, as now you KNOW you can, and even possibly, run it at it’s most glorious setting of FULL so that you can enjoy every mouth-watering pixel coming at you full force on your face.

On day 2 of the Fan Site Summit in Austin a PvP presentation was scheduled. Unfortunately, Derek and me had to leave early to catch our flights back home so we missed most of the action. We did attend the Q&A with Gabe Amatangelo, but never got to actually participate in PvP. I’ll lay out the most important stuff we heard at the Q&A and link to coverage from other sites that were present and got to fight it out.

• You will be able to cast Crowd Control abilities on an enemy character only a set amount of times before they become immune to CC. There is a thing called resolve bar, that will be visible below each character’s HP bar, that fills up each time a CC ability lands on that character. When the resolve bar is full – character is immune.
• Score in PvP battlegrounds is divided among several categories: Healing done, Damage done and Defending done. Defending is related to the ammount of damage tank characters absorb on behalf of their allies this is done through the “Guard” ability every tank character has
• Guard ability lets you select an ally and cast this ability on him. This will “link” their health to the tank’s and 50% of all damage the “guarded” character receives is damaging the tank instead.
• There will be special PvP zones that once you enter you are automatically flagged for PvP. Even on PvE serves!
• As reward from PvP You get Valor points which are an alternative leveling system that lets you purchase PvP rewards once you reach certain Valor level. These rewards will not be too powerful when compared to PvE gear of similar class; 10-20% at most. This is more of a way of providing players with means to distinguish themselves as PvP players to the general population.
• Once the battleground is over you can actually vote for (commend) one player you think contributed the most. Person that was elected the most useful will get more rewards.
• Players that go on special streaks (like kill 10 enemies in a row without dying) get “badges” and their achievement is announced to everyone in the battleground so you know who is doing well/to avoid.
• Another battleground was revealed and it is called the Voidstar. The objective of this battleground is for one team to attack the enemy’s base objective by objective until they captured them all. At the end teams switch sides and the match continues.

Click here to see all the Fansite coverage we collected so far

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Yesterday was Star Wars day (May the Fourth be with you…) and beside the Blue Ray version of all Star Wars films being announced we had a lot of TOR related news. European version of game testing has been announced. Conference call between EA financial management and the investors has been held and SWTOR was mentioned. This also produced an official release window for the game to be moved to the second half of 2011.
Click here to read about these news items in more detail

During the first Fan Site Summit Bioware organized for members of the Fan Sites that write about their upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, we had a chance to sit down for 2 days and play the game. These are impressions from our hands on experience and they are divided into the following segments:

1. Combat
2. Story
3. Exploration
4. General

You should also check out Swtorcrafter’s Bounty Hunter and General Gameplay Impressions for another view of the hands on experience.
 
DISCLAIMER: Everything discussed here is subject to change. The version of the game we played was not even the latest build that was about to hit the beta servers around the time we visited Austin. Please, take all of the things said here with a grain of salt. Through testing and player feedback things drastically change.
 
I will be covering exploration in The Old Republic in this part of my Imperial Agent hands on series of articles. Why exploration? It has become a lost art of MMO design. As developers moved towards creating more accessible games in order to reach the widest audience possible they chose to hold the players’ hand every step of the way and take them down a predefined path. This made exploration a moot point since there was nothing outside that laid out path. Massive Multiplayer games are, however, a perfect setting for exploration. With its massive lands that take hours to walk across you should be able to find things that none else saw before. Little gems of lore and land that game designers left for those inquisitive types of players. Does Bioware provide something like that in The Old Republic?
Click here to read more about my exploring adventures with the Imperial Agent

First off let me start off this little article with the props so due to SWTORCRAFTER and SERGE for the awesome interviews and hands-on reports from the fan summit.   I was as happy as a Sarlacc full of Boba when I got all those articles and reports.  Well done guys. Remind me to send you both a nice can of nuts, and a $50 space hooker for Festivus this year.

Today’s topic of whine:   Game systems.   That’s right. You read it right. I’m gonna go off on a tangent about something I have absolutely no clue about, have never heard about, and have never seen.   Why you ask in a perplexed and angry tone?  Simple: I have way to much time on my hands and very little to do.  I also enjoy bitching about crap for no good reason.

 
Need moar epic SWTOR rant? Click here to read the full article

During the first Fan Site Summit Bioware organized for members of the Fan Sites that write about their upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, we had a chance to sit down for 2 days and play the game. These are impressions from our hands on experience and they are divided into the following segments:

1. Combat
2. Story
3. Exploration
4. General

You should also check out Swtorcrafter’s Bounty Hunter and General Gameplay Impressions for another view of the hands on experience.
 

In this article I will talk about the famous Story component BioWare has been focusing on as a main pillar of this MMORPG. If you know Bioware you know their strongest asset is great story. That is why I wanted to fight “The Man” and try and break that aspect of the game. I am an ex World of Warcraft player. Your story does not concern me. Give me quests and point me to where I can shoot stuff. There will be some spoilers in this article, but I will try and spare you as much as I can and warn you upfront when spoiler is incoming.

Click here to read why I think this is the best Bioware game ever made

So as we make our way closer to that fateful date where we can all log into the The Old Republic and make a character to finally play, I start thinking of things that go along with Character Creation. Sure, the initial part of this process is choosing a race, sex, appearance and finally class, but there is also another part of this and that is HOW you choose to play that character. With the story part of the game and the effects of the choices we make, how you play your character is a bigger part of the direction you want your character to be.

One thing to think about is that this probably isn’t going to be as easy as you think. Light/Neutral/Dark as a Bounty Hunter takes different roles compared to the other classes. I see the role of Bounty Hunters (BH) as something out of the box in regards to what they do in each setting. Let’s take a look at how I see the roles playing out.

• Light (good) I know, you are thinking “How can a Bounty Hunter be good?” I look at this in the mechanic of the Healing role. If you mainly run as a healer, then you might play the role of a support BH that is specialized in protection a person for the right amount of money. How many criminals in the Star Wars Universe do you think would pay for a top level BH that is specialized in protecting their target? This might involve having to go out and eliminate any suspects that pose a threat before they take action. You aren’t killing innocents unless they need to die and you don’t target indiscriminately. So being “good” while being “Bad” has an easier take in the class.

• Neutral (balanced) Being a BH gives you a lot of leverage in this play-style. You take on jobs to either kill or capture. There is always a price when people want this type of service. Your employers might like it if you just went in blasters blazing but this is your show, not theirs. Just because you were sent to kill a person doesn’t necessarily mean YOU have to be the person that kills the target. You might capture them and take them back for your employer to do the dirty work themselves. You could turn down jobs that involve killing those that do not need to be killed. There are so many ways of playing a BH that is just there for the money it isn’t funny.

• Dark (evil) Evil as a BH isn’t the same as being evil as a Sith Warrior, per say. As a BH, you are just plain bad. You take no crap from anyone. You don’t play by any rules but your own. Your only goal is money and self preservation and you will do whatever it takes, kill anyone you want and take or destroy as you see fit.

Now you see how I look at the paths we walk through the story element of the game. It’s up to you to decide what you want to make your Bounty Hunter. I actually plan on playing a balanced role as the Bounty Hunter. I’ll kill as the situation sees fit. I may take out an annoying NPC, when available, due to their chatter or inability to accomplish things gets on my nerves.

Granted, these are my interpretations of how I think each role could be played, but it is up to you to define how you play your Bounty Hunter. Have fun with your character and play the role you choose to the fullest of your potential.

During the first Fan Site Summit Bioware organized for members of the Fan Sites that write about their upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, we had a chance to sit down for 2 days and play the game. These are impressions from our hands on experience and they are divided into the following segments:

1. Combat
2. Story
3. Exploration
4. General

You should also check out Swtorcrafter’s Bounty Hunter and General Gameplay Impressions for another view of the hands on experience.
 
In this article I will talk about the way combat works in SWTOR. I want to talk in detail about the skills my character had at its disposal during my gameplay and what it felt like to fight different types of enemies. I managed to get to level 6 on my own and I played a flashpoint with a level 9 character.
 
I’ve set a goal on playing the game outside of my usual gaming patterns. I usually read the quest text and do every quest I can find and I really hate to grind. I spend hours exploring and finding groups to do some cool stuff. In this case, I approached the game a bit different. I wanted to skip as much dialogue as I could to see if the game is still fun when I “break” the story element and I went off hunting mobs at random and outside my level range to see what it felt like. With all that in mind I sat at my designated computer and faced my scrawny imperial agent character. I felt sorry for the poor guy, he was in for some pain.
 
Click here to read more about the Imperial Agent and his combat skills