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PAX East 2011: BioWare Panel Participation

Last night, BioWare Senior Community Coordinator Stephen Read posted late notice that although there are no panels or events dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic at PAX East, several BioWare employees will be taking part in some more broad panels:

With PAX East 2011 just a day away – well, give or take about eight hours, given my late post – I’m very pleased to tell you about a few guest appearances BioWare staff members will be making on various panels over the weekend.

The panels run the gamut:

• Rob Chestney: Video Game Comics: Lifting the Curse, Wyvern Theater, Friday @ 10:30am
• Daniel Erickson: Interactive Drama: Dialogue as Gameplay, Cat Theater, Saturday @ 5:00pm
• James Ohlen: MMORPG.com: The Future of Online Gaming, Naga Theater, Saturday @ 5:00pm

There’s a conflict between two of the panels Saturday at 5:00pm , which makes it a very tough choice!

Click on over to SWTOR.com for the full details, or you can check it out on the official PAX East schedule here.

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Posted by Lethality | 1 Comment

Daniel Erickson Crew Skills: TOROCast Video Interview

The gang over at TOROCast posted a short video interview with Daniel Erickson regarding the recently revealed Crew Skills. There isn’t a lot of new information, but it’s nice to get a visual while some of the information is described:

There is also a shorter, second video in which its revealed that crafters will be able to (somehow) obtain very rare recipes, so that there may only be one or two folks per server who maybe able to make the item. This would be the method where really dedicated crafters could really make a name for themselves. Daniel also revealed that crafted items created by master craftsmen would be near the very top-tier of items found anywhere else in the game.

Of course, this is the tried and true method of prestige used by some other popular MMO crafting systems. But I can’t help but wonder if there’s also going to be an opportunity at prestige by quality, not just obscurity. Will creating higher quality versions of the same item, with better or additional resources be possible?

Head over to TOROcast and check out the other video!

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Darth Hater talks to Daniel Erickson on Crew Skills

The Darth Hater crew had some time with Daniel Erickson at last week’s EA Winter Showcase, and they asked him to describe the Crew Skill system in his own words:

The crafting system in Star Wars: The Old Republic we call Crew Skills is something we worked on literally for years trying to solve some of the big puzzles. There are a lot of us who are big crafting fans, including myself, but we really wanted to make sure we preserved some of the core concepts around SWTOR such as you play a hero of Star Wars.

Daniel goes on to confirm 3 styles of Gathering:

• You can be right there physically and pick something up
• Have your companion pick something up while you do other things
• Send a companion who’s not with you physically on a gathering mission

And they go on to cover the other Crew Skills: Crafting and Missions.

Though there’s not a lot of new detail here, we hope that we’ll get a Game Systems page soon to supplement all of the news!

Needless to say, you need to head over to DH and give the article a full read!

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Posted by Lethality | 6 Comments

Daniel Erickson Chronic Reload Interview

Chronic Reload has posted an audio podcast of their time spent with Daniel Erickson at last week’s EA Winter Showcase.

Similar to the now-removed JeuxVideo.com piece, this interviewer also indicates he got to play the game “all-day,” so it really appears that BioWare is making progress and letting more and more external play and testing take place. He even mentioned a separate session of playing Flashpoints. Could we expect an expanded Game Testing phase soon? All speculation, but that would be a nice surprise.

While there was a lot of general ground covered, some time was spent on the recently revealed crafting system, which is currently abuzz in the community. There is some new information that can be gained here, even if not directly stated.

“There’s gathering, there’s crafting, but you don’t do any of it. Because you’re Darth Vader. And Darth Vader does not make boots. The companion characters do all of that.”

So this is one area of discussion in the community right now. Just how much will your character be involed in the crafting or gathering activities? Here’s further comments that may give us a better idea:

“You can also call the people back on your ship and say “Hey, go find me some of these ingredients because later I’m gonna want somebody to make me some boots. So the big innovation for it is you don’t do it. Your crew does it. You don’t have to be there while they do it. You can just call them back on the ship, and you don’t even have to be online. You can send everybody their marching orders, log off for the night, log on the next day, and find out what everybody brought you.”

Diplomacy missions seem to be in place to contribute to your alignment (Dark Side/Light Side points:)

“The mission system allows you to send companions that are not with you on missions themselves. There is a cost to do it, and there is a time to do it. The missions run from 5 minutes to 24 hours. And then there is a reward from it. The two missions we talked about so far (and there are far more) are Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting.”

Look for further discussion of what Daniel discussed here soon, and if you’re following TOR, the full interview is a must-listen. You can hear the full interview over at Chronic Reload!

Thanks to ShavedEwok for the tip off!

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Yellow Post: Daniel Erickson talks Sith Pureblood

Daniel Erickson took the time this morning to chime in on a thread on the official forums, where forum member Hawnk had asked about the Sith Pureblood species:

So… if the Sith species was extinct during the first KOTOR (or so says the loading screen that I just saw) then how are they justifying Sith Pureblood as a playable race in SWTOR?

Daniel responded with a great explanation:

Hey folks,

Happy to clarify.

In the time of KOTOR, the Republic believed all of the original Sith Empire had been destroyed. Those who had not been killed were chased far into deep space where nobody had ever returned from. Thus Revan’s surprise when coming upon them and his dedication to going back to stop the threat when his memory returned.

That said, the Sith “Pureblood” in SWTOR are anything but pure Sith (from a species point of view). The name is a vanity. In the last 1000 years it has become clear that there is a direct correlation between those with enough of the old Sith blood in them to still be born with original Sith species traits (red skin, etc) and Force Sensitivity. While not any stronger in the Force than the more human Sith, it is extremely rare to find a “Pureblood” who is completely without Force Sensitivity. Thus those with the marks of the old Sith have come to call themselves “Purebloods” with the obvious insinuation that they are superior to those without. The more Sith species features (face tendrils, etc) one has, the more superior they can claim to be.

All of this is, of course, purely the realm of fashion and societal politics. While no non-Pureblood would stand up and say the entire claim was foolish (the Pureblood rate of Force Sensitivity is exponentially higher than those without and besides many of the Emperor’s inner circle bear the red skin) the majority of the Dark Council are not Purebloods. Showing that, in the end, talent and a lightsaber win out over bloodlines and a haughty pedigree.

Hope that helps!

Stop on over to the official thread and join the discussion!

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