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Friday Update: Introducing The Codex – Dev Blog By Damion Schubert

In another awesome developer blog in the scope of the user interface, Damion Schubert walks player through the in-game Codex, which is sure to please many fans:

Overall, the codex system has been successful at meeting our two design goals of providing more fictional context to the player, and providing an explorer mini-game with meaningful rewards.

He goes on to talk about rewards for exploration, and how the Datacrons feed into that:

While most codex entries can be obtained with the players stretching their legs (searching the whole map, killing obvious targets you don’t normally need to kill), finding datacrons typically requires a little extra exploration and a even little ingenuity. While some are hidden, many are in plain sight – the trick is often in figuring out how to get to that datacron that you see on a ledge off in the distance.

While these systems exist in other gaming genres, they take on a bit of a different tone in an MMO where it really helps to develop the believability of the persistent world we’re all playing in.

Hop on over to the official site for the full read on this most awesome topic!

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Facebook Image Of The Week #11

May the Fourth be with you!

And also another screenshot.

BioWare today released the latest in their series of Facebook images, this time we get a screenshot of some Imperial Troops in trouble on Tattooine:

 

Make sure you head on over to Facebook and “Like” Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ so you get these great images posted directly onto your wall!

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Friday Update: Sith Warrior Progression + User Interface Blog

Earlier this week at the Fan Site Summit in Austin, all of the sites were lucky enough to get a sneak peak at part of this Friday’s update. Even though we saw this new Sith Warrior progression video 2 or 3 times on a big screen, it is still equally awesome to watch now. It almost makes me want to play a Sith Warrior. Almost. If this doesn’t make Empire fans happy, I don’t know what will!

Also today, and in my opinion just as impressive, is a new developer blog by Lead UI Artist Michael Voigt.

In the piece, Michael takes us through the thought process behind the original vision for the UI all the way through design iterations:

During the early phases of prototyping we determined that we wanted a user interface that was more streamlined than most standard MMORPG interfaces.

Michael provided us with a mockup based on the current evolution and iteration, and it’s quite a bit different from all of the screenshots we’ve seen (and played) recently:

Hop on over to the official site to check it out!

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FSS 2011: Exclusive Screenshot

Even after the Fan Site Summit has wound down, BioWare Senior Community Coordinator David Bass keeps the good times rolling by sending us an exclusive Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ screenshot!

In this shot, we see what appears to be Master Chief and Justin Bieber taking on some Imperials just off-screen.

We’re guessing that the other fan sites in attendance also got an exclusive shot of their own, be sure so take some time and do some site hopping to check them all out!

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Facebook Image of The Week #10

Through rain, snow, sleet, hail or Fan Site Summit, the BioWare community team never fails to deliver!

Today we get a new screen shot of a Jedi Knight on Ord Mantell slicing through a security droid. Wait a minute… a Jedi Knight on Ord Mantell?

Make sure you head on over to Facebook and “Like” Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ so you get these great images posted directly onto your wall!

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