Oct 31, 2011

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Austin Here We Come: Fan Site Summit 2 Announced!

You may have thought that convention season was over. And for the most part, it is. But with no conventions remaining, where will the big info drops come from between now until launch of the game on December 20th? Well, we’re happy to tell you BioWare has saved the best for last.

Ask A Jedi is proud to announce that BioWare has extended an invitation to us for the second time this year to attend the Star Wars: The Old Republic Fan Site Summit held at the studio where the game is being developed in Austin, Texas!

Last April, we were honored to be a part of the first-ever Fan Site Summit, in which about 15 sites from around the globe descended upon Austin to get 2 days worth of hands-on time with the game and up-close access to the developers. Given the attendees, the content that came out of that event was easily some of the most detailed and complete.

The 2nd Fan Site Summit takes place next week, November 6-8, 2011 and AAJ will be there in full-Force to bring rock solid coverage, interviews, furniture and anything else BioWare let’s us take home!

Also, keep your eyes peeled around the web, because the other invitees will be announcing their attendance soon. When they do, we’ll add them to the list here so you can make sure you’re following everyone and getting every last nugget that comes out of the Summit!

Attendees, in addition to us of course!:

If you have any questions or requests, let us know in the comments below or better yet, stop by the all-new Ask A Jedi Cantina and ask!

Let the countdown to Austin begin…

 

The Fan Site Summit in April. Get ready for round #2!

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May 20, 2011

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Friday Update Triple Threat – Fan Friday, Studio Insider & Fan Site Summit

Yes, we’re late with this week’s update! Turns out I can’t do _everything_ from the iPhone :)  Anyway, hopefully better late then never, right?

Today’s Friday Update is a three-parter: First up is a Fan Friday.

As with every Fan Friday, this one is stcked full with lots of goodies for the TOR faithful:

The Fan Site Spotlight features the excellent SWTOR Life, and if you’re not visitng that site regularly, you need to put it in your rotation. They have the most awesome interactive Dev Tracker search, not to mention other great features! I got to meet Serge and Derek at the Fan Site Summit, and there really couldn’t be two nicer guys! Bookmark ’em!

This Fan Friday also includes the mother lode of events at which you can catch Star Wars: The Old Republic this year:

We’re also treated to a new piece of concept art of Hutta:

A Bounty Hunter stalks his prey in the muddy marshlands of Hutta.

Also, as usual, there is some great fan artwork to check out, a new smattering of forum avatars and smilies are available, and last but not least two new polls.

Next up, we have a brand new edition of Studio Insider where Audio Designer Scott Morton talks about creating the mix of music and sound effects that help make the combat sequences in The Old Republic so engaging:

One of the first things we do when beginning audio production on combat abilities is to give each class a distinctive aural character. We’ve discovered that a great way to establish a sonic palette for each class is to come up with one or two descriptive terms that capture the essence of what we’re trying to convey, and attempt to tune every sound to those terms.

Scott includes some awesome “before and after” video/audio examples, so you really owe it to yourself to go check out the entire blog!

Also part of the Studio Insider is the Community Q&A. This month’s topic is about art, and is handled by Senior Concept Artist Clint Young (Editor’s Note: You can catch our interview with Clint from Star Wars Celebration V right here!) Here’s a small sample from the Community Q&A:

Q: Are there weather condition changes on planets? – Fyror

A: Each planet has localized weather conditions. Depending on the world the weather you will encounter will include rain, snow, sandstorms and many other unfavorable conditions; it just happens to be a constant for those worlds. For example, if you’re on Hoth you can expect moderate to heavy snowfall with the occasional blizzard.

Next month’s Community Q&A is all about sound and music… so go post your question now!

Finally, today’s update gives everyone a look back at the Fan Site Summit! BioWare put together a great video that summarizes the entire weekend (minus late-night podcasting and too much food.) You can see most of your favorite fan sites in action here, so go check out the video!

 

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May 5, 2011

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FSS 2011: Hands-On the Alderaan Civil War Warzone; Marauder & Gunslinger

Let me start out by saying this right away: I’m not an organized PvPer. I love open-world, chance encounters however I rarely participate in structured matches of any kind. So I don’t find it necessary to work on specializing my gear or character build for this purpose.

With that said, after having gotten my first taste of PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I can’t wait to dive into it when the live game finally comes launches.

It could just be the fact that its freaking’ Star Wars, and there are lightsabers swinging and blaster bolts firing in all directions. Or maybe it’s the fact that it felt so different from what I’ve experienced in the past. This wasn’t one-shot, stun-lock bunny-hop combat. There was strategy you could use and tactics you could apply. And the fights lasted longer than 30 seconds!

Read on to find out why I might be spending a lot more time PvPing when TOR finally ships.

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May 5, 2011

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FSS 2011: PvP Q&A With Gabe Amatangelo

As part of the Group Q&A series during last week’s Fan Site Summit, Gabe Amatangelo (or, Senator Amatangelo as he’s referred to by his colleagues,) took some time after our play session in the Alderaan Civil War Warzone, to answer some questions about what we’d just seen.

Gabe is a really laid-back guy and seemed like exactly who you’d want calling the shots for the design of the PvP game for The Old Republic™.

Some of the topics he covers, thanks to questions from your favorite fan sites, include:

  • Pace of combat (no 1-shot kills!)
  • PvP balance with PvE
  • PvP spec for every class – No class will be left without a PvP spec within 2% effectiveness of any other
  • Gear vs. skill
  • Matchmaking system – Take players, specs, premades an other factors into consideration
  • Bolster system – brings all players within the Warzone to within 20% of each other (including level!)
  • Player commendations – give someone you played with in a Warzone props for doing well
  • Guard – tank ability to mitigate damage from other players
  • Badges – Taking cues from FPS games, rewards for good play – i.e. “Unstoppable!”
  • Warzone size – anything bigger than 8v8 coming?
  • Turtling – There is none!
  • … and more!

Thanks once again to Brooks for handling the audio duties!

Enjoy!

Gabe Amatangelo

Gabe Amatangelo, Lead PvP Designer

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May 5, 2011

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FSS 2011: Player Vs. Player In The Old Republic

Day two of the Fan Site Summit started off with a bang, as Gabe Amatangelo, BioWare Lead PvP Designer gave a presentation on player versus player gameplay in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The talk mostly covered Warzones, although some of the features were talked about in the context of working anywhere and everywhere – open world or otherwise.

Below are some of the highlights of the talk, which will most certainly provide some more fodder to fuel the forums:

  • Each Advanced Class is absolutely recognized as a full class and as such have the flexibility of 3 skill trees and multiple possible “specs.”
  • The difference in PvP gear and PvE gear should only produce about a 10% advantage in PvP – in other words, something that can be overcome by skilled play.
  • In Warzones, there will be a “Bolster” ability applied that will bring everyone in the battle to within 20% of each other. So it will be possible to play with friends regardless of level.
  • Tanks have a purpose! Through and ability called Guard, they can mitigate the incoming damage by 50% on an ally within 15 meters by redirecting some of it to themselves. This also works in open-world PvP situations, but not on NPCs/PvE content.
  • Another ability for tank-specced characters (the name of which is intelligible on my notes) allows for a sort of AoE “taunt” that soaks up damage from allies within a 15 meter radius.
  • A Resolve Bar is added to your character’s UI that essentially visualizes diminishing returns. It shows when your character would be immune to further crowd control such as stuns.
  • There will be PvP zones on PvE servers, apparently other than Warzones. No more detail was given.
  • There are some FPS influences like Badges that provide benefits and foster good play. Think “You’re Unstoppable!”
  • Similarly, there were “power-ups” available throughout the zone.
  • Valor is essentially a separate PvP experience progression bar (although it seems you get regular experience points from PvP as well.)
  • There are many Valor Ranks along the way.
  • Valor tokens are received as well, to function as currency where applicable
  • Commendation system where you can nominate another player in the Warzone for good play. They’re then rewarded accordingly.
  • The scoreboard has more detail due to the expanded effectiveness of multiple roles in the battle

In addition to those highlights, Gabe also revealed a new Warzone: The Voidstar.  The Voidstar is apparently a derelict starship that has technology that both the Empire and Republic would like to get their hands on. It was described as being a conquest-style battle, meaning that one team attacks and one team defends, and then the roles are reversed later in the battle. We saw a few screenshots, and it definitely has a different than the Alderaan Civil War, since it’s on board a massive ship.

Even though we didn’t get to learn anything about open-world PvP, it seems that the vision for the Warzones to integrate with the story as well as provide varied gameplay experiences will pay off. Combined with the style of the PvP combat itself, it has the makings of a pretty epic system… and this is coming from someone who isn’t traditionally a PvPer!

There will undoubtedly be some more in-depth and technical posts from some of the other fan site writers who may be more PvP focused, and we’ll keep a list of those and links to them right here as well.

Other Sites with Updates so far:

Darth Hater

TORWars

Corellian Run Radio

TORTalk

Gamona

MMORPG.com

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