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SWTOR News
1/22/10 11:08 AM -
Friday Update: Onslaught of the Empire Timeline Video 
by emlaeh
, posted January 22nd, 2010 at 11:08 AM
Today's update is the latest timeline entry, Onslaught of the Empire:

A new holorecord in the Jedi Archive tells the story of the Sith Empire's surprise attack at the start of the Great War over 28 years before the Sacking of Coruscant. Master Gnost-Dural notes the brilliance of the Imperial military's carefully orchestrated assault which put the Republic at a disadvantage for the duration of the conflict.

BTC 28 Centuries after being driven into exile, the Sith Empire returned from deep space to launch the most calculated military assault in Republic history. Strategically revealing its attack in a menacing manner, the Sith struck fear into the hearts of the Republic's defenders even while orchestrating surprise attacks at carefully targeted locations across the galaxy. When the Republic fleet rushed to respond, they discovered the Sith had established puppet governments on several planets in the Outer Rim. Surrounded by enemies and traitors, the Republic fleet was forced to scatter, allowing the Sith Empire to sweep through most of the Outer Rim without further challenge. The Empire's initial victories put the Republic at a disadvantage for the duration of the Great War.

Watch the sixth Timeline holorecord, Onslaught of the Sith Empire, narrated by actor Lance Henriksen.

NOTE: All download options will be available later today.

We noticed a few more planets mentioned, specifically in the Tingel Arm sector: Belkadan, Sernpidal, and Ruuria. A green planet is shown, referred to as located in the Sluis sector of the Outer Rim. We think this is Sluis Van (find credit: bigbaldpapa).

 
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75 Comments
Comment by Elkesai made on January 25th, 2010 at 2:54am
Lance Henriksen continues his quest to pronounce location names as far from logical (or even cool) as possible. Bothawui = Botha-woo-eee? Sluis = Sloo-ee? Minos = My-nose? Satele = Sa-teal? Oh wait, that last one one from a Darth Hater podcast...;)
 
Comment by MeSquared made on January 25th, 2010 at 4:38am
Those are the correct pronunciations :p
 
Comment by Elkesai made on January 25th, 2010 at 10:14pm
According to you? Or the authors who originated the names? I mean, until I hear from them, I will attempt to pronounce them as my brain sees them, I suppose, as others do. But the way he's pronouncing them is (yes, in my opinion) the worst possible way. I hope they gave him the freedom to do it his way, regardless of the way they will be pronounce in-game, because...wow.

I mean, it's like Sluis is French. Nope, SLOO-iss. MEE-nos. BOTH-a-wee (most common among my friends) or Bah-THOW-ee (the way I like it.

Anyway, this post is all in good fun, since everyone has their own way. The problem with having an "official" pronunciation guide is that it will be the way the writer(s) hear(s) it. I suppose, though, that having the same pronunciation across the board in one game is probably a good idea. I just don't look forward to all the cringing I'll be doing. :)

Oh, by the way...it's Suh-TELL. ;)
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 25th, 2010 at 12:13pm
I thought they were........ "Baahth-a-wee", "Sloo-iss", "Mee-nos", and "Suh-teh-leh". I could excuse Satele though, since I doubt BW has given an official pronunciation of her name. I pronounce "Bothawui" like Mon Mothma pronounced "Bothans" in RotJ. Some official SW author needs to post proper pronunciations for all of these.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on January 25th, 2010 at 3:55pm
Bioware was talking about that somewhere, (I think it was the voiceover documentary) where they have little cheat sheets on how to keep a constant pronunciation across the board for the names, places and other Star Warsy words. Still, some aliens may have a funny accent just like in reality where they say things different.
 
Comment by snafu made on January 25th, 2010 at 2:36am
"Trouble in the Outer Rim" also happens to be the name of a gay porn movie I may or may not have been involved with
 
Comment by kingduck13 made on January 25th, 2010 at 12:14pm
Hey! Me too. I played as Hand Solo.
 
Comment by Elkesai made on January 25th, 2010 at 10:17pm
And I was Obi-Wand Kenobi. Too bad Princess Lay-ya couldn't be in it.
 
Comment by Bzrk made on January 24th, 2010 at 5:47am
Because Bioware puts a lot of hints in about everything they show us, I'm thinking spacecombat here! :D
 
Comment by Matt made on January 24th, 2010 at 5:55pm
It would certainly be strange if they teased us with all these space battles in the timeline and then gave us nothing in the game.
 
Comment by Agonny made on January 22nd, 2010 at 11:19pm
Anyone else thinking the "Sith Warrior" in the video might be the emperor, and who knows....he looks like exar kun (and for some reason BW has a timeline dedicated to Exar)
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 23rd, 2010 at 12:06pm
Actully I was thinking that exact thing Agonny.
 
Comment by MKDLAW made on January 24th, 2010 at 2:33am
The Sith Lord you speak of is SHAR DAKHAN

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shar_Dakhan
 
Comment by Agonny made on January 24th, 2010 at 12:20am
it does surprise me noone else seems to notice that sith on korriban, everyone is concerned about the planets...
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 11:43pm
It would be interesting if the Sith Emperor was someone familiar like that, like Exar Kun. We already know he manages to survive to some 10 years ABY, so surviving 350 years to TOR wouldn't be out of the question.
 
Comment by keroko made on January 24th, 2010 at 1:11pm
Doubtful though, Exar Kun was already past history in the first KotoR, and died on Yavin IV more than 300 years before the Great War started.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 24th, 2010 at 2:44pm
Death didn't stop him from surviving 3500 years to terrorize Luke's Jedi Academy. Imagine if he came back as a disembodied Emperor 300 years after his death. It wouldn't be the worst retcon SW has had.
 
Comment by Remlish made on January 22nd, 2010 at 6:49pm
That doesnt look like Sluis Van at all , and i cannot find anything to sugest that the planet was ever green. But there is one planet in the Sluis sector that looks exactly like that...Dagobah
 
Comment by Tudana made on January 23rd, 2010 at 1:42pm
yea, they sure got lazy on that planet involvement in the video, guess they didnt think we would catch that.

sad sad...what else will they try on something more important and gorund breaking.
 
Comment by Altyrell made on January 23rd, 2010 at 1:19am
I agree, it looks more like the Kuat Drive Yards: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/4d/Eaw_Kuat.jpg
 
DH Team
Comment by emlaeh made on January 22nd, 2010 at 7:40pm
We suspect Sluis Van because of the shipyard references, but of course, we could be wrong. If you check the Wookieepedia page for Sluis Van, you'll see some docking stations that look very similar to the ones that are attacked in the timeline video.
 
Comment by hobowan made on January 24th, 2010 at 2:53pm
I hope it is Kuat. We know that many imperial ships from the movie's era were produced by Kuat Drive Yards. Taking Kuat instead of Sluis Van would many people feel somewhat "closer" to the movies. The desings of the trooper and the bounty hunter proof that they definitely want to stick to that era in some ways, despite TOR being set centuries before the movies.

Other than that I do not see why Bioware should
a) think that the fans do not recognize the screenshot of Kuat
b) be too lazy to design some picture for Sluis Van if they intended to have no hint that the planet is probably Kuat.

This is not Bioware's style. Darth Hater always says: "nothing is placed on the website without reason". Do you really think this is a slip of the pen only? In no way in they would take the Kuat image out of EAW and say "let's save the trouble of designing a new artwork for Sluis Van, the fans won't recognize this picture anyway". That would be totally unlike their present style of releasing tidbit-packed infos which seem to have little value at the first glance but then turn out to be much more versatile. You yourself here on Darth Hater proved and stated that many times.
 
Comment by ProdigaLLL made on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:02pm
If you listen close enough, you can hear Master Gnost Dural say the lost of the planet cut off the Rimma Trade Route. If you look at the image below of the Rimma Trade Route, not only is Kuat not apart of it but, Sluis Van a planet in the outer rim which is also mentioned to be where the sith are attacking.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/0e/Rimma_Trade_Route.jpg
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:34pm
I might be grabbing at nothing here, but in the webcomic, in act 1 page 22 theres the same ship as the diplomatic one in the timeline video today. On that page it also says "Core worlds: Kuat sector" so now we know that Bioware diddn't screw up. But anything in the Sluis system has yet to be mentioned with the exception of today. Kuat has.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:08pm
I don't see Kuat on that map....
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:17pm
It says it does not show all the planets along the trade route. I just dont understand why Bioware would use the kuat planet prop for Sluis Van. It just doesn't make sense. The terrain type on wookieepedia for Sluis Van is rocky and industrial, not green at all.
 
Comment by Bruce made on January 22nd, 2010 at 6:06pm
Anyone else happy to see Star Destroyers this early in the SW timeline?
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:11pm
I kind of am. Down with those arrowhead ships!!!
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:14pm
Aren't Star Destroyers shaped like arrowheads? Or am I missing something? I need to watch more Timeline videos I think.
 
Comment by Roflmywaffles made on January 22nd, 2010 at 5:49pm
Thankyou bioware for this timeline vid I've been waiting 3months!!!
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 4:46pm
I thought it was Kuat

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kuat
 
Comment by Ascendant made on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:16pm
The image is indeed of Kuat, but it is likely an art guy's error.

http://images.darkhorse.com/darkhorse/downloads/desktops/swgalaxymap/swgalaxymap_lg.jpg

Kuat is nowhere near the events being related when the image is shown. The whole timeline is about the Sith hitting the outer rim. The beginning of their onslaught. They don't reach the Core worlds for some time.
 
Comment by DirectX made on January 22nd, 2010 at 5:40pm
It certainly does look like Kuat. The dialogue and the image shown don't seem to match up. Gnost-Dural says Sluis sector and Outer Rim, but Kuat is located near the deep core in the Kuat sector.
 
Comment by DirectX made on January 22nd, 2010 at 5:44pm
The dialogue is probably meant to be vague. Short version: the Empire destroyed a lot of Republic property at the start of the war :)
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 4:54pm
Yup, its definetly Kuat. That is same planet as Kuat in Empire at War. They are EXACTLY the same. Look at the clouds and oceans. Compare them side by side.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/4d/Eaw_Kuat.jpg
http://yfrog.com/5dbtc28sluisvan012210p
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:57am
Well to me that’s spot on Kuat, notice how in the picture from the timeline video its ship yards look the exact same as the ones from the Kuat in empire at war. The Sluis Van may have ship yards as well, but these are ringed shaped, and exactly like Kuat’s shipyard.
 
Comment by Lethality made on January 22nd, 2010 at 7:47pm
Wow... I am actually shocked. Unless BioWare produced that first, larger image at some point in the past (is it from a past BioWare game?)... they're stealing images from Wookieepedia for their timeline videos?
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:03pm
As the homestar said(and the Eaw_Kuat.jpg part of the name), it's from the Star Wars RTS game, "Star Wars: Empire at War". It's not ripping from Wookieepedia. LucasArts probably gave them permission to reuse the look. Plus it IS how Kuat looks, so they would want to at least come close to how it looked. :)
 
Comment by Lethality made on January 23rd, 2010 at 8:06am
Well, either way I'm also shocked and amazed that they wouldn't have their own concept art at least for the planet by now, whatever it is...
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:09pm
Thats what I was thinking. I did some more research, and this is what I found: "The PC game Star Wars: Rebellion mistakenly places the Sluis sector and, consequently, Sluis Van, in the Core Worlds." -Wookieepedia. Considering this, it is possible that Bioware could mistake Kuat, located in the core worlds, to be in the outer rim in the sluis sector. Maybe that's what Bioware wants us to think. Maybe it really is Sluis Van. Or maybe I'm just thinking about this too much. Who knows.
 
Comment by hobowan made on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:58pm
I'm sorry, but I hardly consider this an update at all. Lore is nice, but at the end of the day nobody will judge the game based on what is told about the period before the game actually happens. I'm extremely dissapointed that BW serves us nothing but something more or less non-related to the gameplay of the game they want us to buy
 
Comment by Xavier made on January 22nd, 2010 at 4:24pm
The timeline vids have told us things about the actual game, Imperial Agent anyone?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We aren't getting anything "big" for the next few weeks becasue, Mass Effect 2 comes out next week. If you were a company, would you divert hype away from a game who's launch is imminent, by releasing headline stealing information for another game that isn't due for over a year? I wouldn't.

Look at January and February this way, it's giving the devs a chance to catch there breaths after the info released in December and the Holidays. It allows BioWare as a company to turn there attention to Mass Effect for a bit. Then when the convention season gets here, they'll be ready to hit their stride.

GDC and PAX East are in March. PAX East is expecting 30,000 - 50,000 people. All of the major industry news outlets will be there and it's almost two full months after Mass Effect 2's release. Sounds like a great time to refocus people on TOR, don't you think?
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 22nd, 2010 at 3:54pm
i agree with you...i also want something of the game shown,....but you have to admit...this was one of the better timeline vid's .....this was the week for the timeline dude's....next week will be our week.....gameplay....(I HOPE XD)
 
Comment by The BBP made on January 22nd, 2010 at 3:25pm
The timeline has plenty to do with the game we will play. This is going to be hard to believe... but guess what they build a story-based MMO out of?


Story.
 
Comment by Ascendant made on January 22nd, 2010 at 3:20pm
Sorry chief, but we were in dire need of a timeline. Sorry that they don't release a 20 minute gameplay video every week, but some of us are actually interested in this stuff.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 3:15pm
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. A lot of people here were asking for a Timeline update since we hadn't had one in months. Then BioWare does a Timeline update, and they still get complaints. They can't win no matter what they do, can they?
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:50am
Haha, I was going to comment on Hobos post, but you guys pretty well cleared it up for me. ;)
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:14pm
i didnt expect myself to be happy with this....but i am...the vid looked pretty nice.....now the next problem is....how biga re the planets going to be....i dont wanna end up with 20 small planets instead of 10 big planets....they defenetly need to be big.....
 
Comment by Somerled made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:52pm
This video makes my think there will be a lot more planets then I originaly thought! Looking back at the map near the end of the first timeline video, there are 16 planet icons marked on the map. 8 for each faction.
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:48am
Yeah, I think were beginning to see that there’s going to be a lot more planets than fist anticipated.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:08pm
This is barely related, but a friend saw this and thought they should put these timeline videos in-game when it launches. I pondered and pushed this to a greater extent. BioWare should definitely copy the Codex system from ME for TOR. Have a Codex with lots of background info, perhaps even fully voiced(like ME's Primary Codex entries). It would be a mighty useful way to catch up on the game and its backstory for those who didn't follow the pre-launch hype and jumped in without any knowledge from all these timeline videos and Holonet entries.

I fully endorse this and I see no reason BioWare shouldn't do it. It wouldn't hurt, and in fact it could help. With Codex entries in-game, newbies would be able to jump right in and get their knowledge there without being required to read 50 pages on the official site. Making the game more newbie-friendly wouldn't be bad at all.
 
Comment by Somerled made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:56pm
I am really hoping for a codex system like Dragon Age had. Where you can collect entries/ knowledge. Having the timelines in there would be cool too. But it would also be cool if there were easter egg timeline movies that were in the world that could be unlocked or Recovered from lost holocrons and what not.
 
Comment by Faynor made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:06pm
I also wonder if there reference to the resource heavy minos cluster might be an indication of an EvE type resource gathering system. Where you gather with your ship from asteroids.
 
Comment by jedi.grak made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:33pm
on the top of the video u can see that there are 13 timeline videos still not revealed
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:46am
Yes, as well as the names of all them, and a short description of each.
 
Comment by Sleyo made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:31pm
Wow, there is LOTS of space combat talked about in this video, and I noticed there was a lot more detail and variety in the ships they had drawn in there as well. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. This could be hinting toward an announcement on space soon. Similar to how they announced the Imperial Agent after mentioning them heavily in a timeline video. Going to watch it a few more times and see if I can gather what they are trying to tell us with it.
 
Comment by homestar made on January 22nd, 2010 at 10:37pm
I was thinking of that too. I hope you are right.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:04pm
E3'10 with a big bombastic Republic space victory? That'd be a nice two-fer, both showing a Republic win and our first taste of space.
 
Comment by Xpawn made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:25pm
Have you noticed that we have all titles available for all timeline by simply clicking on them? Even those who have not yet been announced, have title and description
 
Comment by ProdigaLLL made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:22pm
Sí, somos muy conscientes de esto, aquí en Darth Hater nos enorgullecemos de no sólo la exactitud de la información que presente, sino también la avidez de descubrimiento. Hay también un artículo wookiepedia sobre el tema, me han proporcionado un enlace de abajo si usted está interesado.:)
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_galactic_history
 
Comment by kingduck13 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 10:15pm
Translation_ Yes, we are very aware of that, here in Darth Hater we pride ourselves on not only the accuracy of the information they present but also the eagerness of discovery. Wookiepedia There is also an article on the subject, I have provided a link below if you are interested
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_galactic_history
 
Comment by kingduck13 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:03pm
Thanks for catching that. Looking at the other tabs seems like this is one of the last bits of information on this particular war. The rest have to do with previous periods of time that as far as i know have been covered in the EU. So while bioware may give us some little tidbits to round out the stories I don't thing the rest of the tabs can give us much but lore. The exception might be the next tab due. Its about the peace and proisperity the republic had before this war. It mentions technological advances so it might give us some glimpses on gear/transports/tecnology that might be in the game.
 
Comment by Xpawn made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:25pm
¿Os habeis dado cuenta de que tenemos disponibles todos los titulos de todos los timeline simplemente haciendo click en ellos? Incluso los que todavia no se han anunciado, tienen titulo y una descripcion
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:24pm
I wish I knew what y'all were saying......
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:40am
(Yu-gi-oh abriged series reference alert!):
Try speaking american, Its the only language I know. In america.
 
Comment by Stignos made on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:19pm
Xpawn really just rewrote his previous post in Spanish, nothing that we weren't all already aware of.
 
Comment by kingduck13 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 9:54pm
Google translate works for me.
Traductor Google trabaja para mí.
 
Comment by Xpawn made on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:44pm
Yep :D
 
Comment by kingduck13 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:21pm
Gracias por la captura de eso. En cuanto a las otras pestañas parece que este es uno de los últimos fragmentos de información sobre esta guerra en particular. El resto tiene que ver con los anteriores períodos de tiempo que, en lo que conozco han sido cubiertos en la UE. Así, mientras que BioWare puede darnos algunas cositas poco para redondear las historias que no lo que el resto de las pestañas nos puede dar mucho, pero la tradición. La excepción podría ser la siguiente ficha de vencimiento. Su acerca de la paz y la proisperity la república había antes de esta guerra. Se menciona los avances tecnológicos por lo que podría darnos algunas visiones sobre las artes / transporte / tecnología que podría ser en el juego.
 
Comment by Chris made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:10pm
Nice find!
 
Comment by Churchkpq made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:08pm
W00T! Timeline!
 
Comment by Xavier made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:07pm
Of course, Sernpindal is famous or, should I say imfamous for being the place where Chewbacca died.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 22nd, 2010 at 1:02pm
Nothing less than dropping a moon onto a planet would capable of taking down the mighty Chewbacca.
 
Comment by Jatlantis made on January 22nd, 2010 at 12:04pm
Still think those planets will be viable playable planets after all these years?
 
Comment by Xilln made on January 22nd, 2010 at 11:51am
Hurrah, been looking foward to another timeline video!