E3 2011 – Daniel Erickson Gameplay Demo + Q&A

Earlier today, BioWare conducted a very cool live gameplay demo and Q&A session to make sure that the TOR faithful at home could experience the same goodness that E3 attendees do.

During the session, Daniel Erickson piloted a level 26 Bounty Hunter (Powertech Advanced Class) through the deserts of Tattooine. This really helped show off just how big and just how open these worlds will be!

Stephen Reid helped to answer about 20 questions from the community during the demo, and there was quite a bit of interesting information contained in the answers! Here’s a quick bullet list of the topics discussed:

• Tattooine level range 24-28 currently
• Cannot level and play solely through PvP, since story would be a gate
• Jawa companion for the Bounty Hunter named Blizz
• No Ewoks confirmed!
• Many kinds of speeders – some are faction specific, but you have a chance to obtain other factions vehicles
• Mounts at level 25 currently
• Different speed mounts will be available
• No “autoloot”, but you can right click to take all
• There is a Sarlaac you can visit – and yes, even throw people in!
• No bag system, just one big inventory – separate tab for quest items
• At least one more Warzone to announce (On Corellia perhaps?)
• Special companions like Jaws have “sets” and appearances, but more human companions can use any armor
• Droid companions get unique items and armor
• Tattooine is and open world, all classes go there
• Companion system going through at least one more iteration – stay tuned!
• There are some Force using companions
• You cannot sell your companion :)
• There is a medical probe option to resurrect your character in-place instead of running back – puts you in stealth so you can go re-buff nearby
• There is a respawn timer if you die in quick succession
• There will be world bosses
• Warp to bind point ability is available
• Starships cannot be summoned anywhere.
• Everything is the actual size it needed to be (i.e. ships designed outside to accommodate inside)
• Companions can resurrect players and other companions

If you watched the stream, you know that the quality was turned down a bit both in the settings and bandwidth to assure good performance. But Stephen Reid remarked that there will be HD Tattooine footage on SWTOR.com later in the week.

You can find an archived recording of the event here.