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SWTOR News
4/23/10 10:05 AM -
Friday Update: Blood of the Empire Webcomic Debuts & More 
by emlaeh
, posted April 23rd, 2010 at 10:05 AM
BioWare offered a really packed Friday Update this week, and included several announcements. First up, they announced the premiere issue of Blood of the Empire, the new webcomic:

The first issue of Blood of the Empire takes us to a galaxy engaged in war. The Sith Empire strikes blow after blow against a Republic reeling from the return of its ancient enemies, and the Jedi scramble to defend their holdings. But Imperial victory is far from certain...

Teneb Kel, a fiercely clever young man apprenticed as a Sith, is selected by his masters for a secret mission--a mission concerning the Emperor himself and a threat to the Dark Lords thousand-year plan. Doomed if he fails, expendable if he succeeds, Teneb must unravel the schemes at work around him if he is to seize control of his destiny and alter the course of history.

Check out the first issue written by Alexander Freed, illustrated by Dave Ross, inked by Mark McKenna, colored by Michael Atiyeh, and lettered by Michael Heisler!

And the latest Video Documentary, Combat in The Old Republic, is now available on the official site:

Whether you dream of beating the odds with just your luck and a blaster, or imagine restoring order to the galaxy with Force powers and a Lightsaber, you'll have your chance in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Weve talked a lot about how The Old Republic is innovating on storytelling in MMOs, and now we want to share with you how combat in The Old Republic will deliver a new level of excitement for fans. Check out our latest Video Documentary that focuses on Combat to get an inside look at how were bringing dynamic Star Wars action to life in Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Watch Combat in The Old Republic now!

BioWare's Sean Dahlberg was also busy putting up some new polls on the official site, and announced a Fan Friday. This one included a ton of fan-created art, new forum avatars, a Developer Corner featuring a screenshot of a taxi and a video of Belsavis(?) focusing on environmental design with ZOMG WATER EFFECTS:

We're kicking off this Fan Friday by featuring some outstanding work by various members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community. We also have some great stuff to show off in the Developer Corner, along with new polls and avatars! Make sure to catch it all!

More after the jump.
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Feature
4/22/10 9:53 PM -
Video Documentary 4: Combat Dissection 
by sado
, posted April 22nd, 2010 at 9:53 PM
Here is Darth Hater's dissection of the latest Video Documentary from Star Wars: The Old Republic, which focuses largely on Combat. As in our prior dissections, we will add new content in as we find it, so keep checking back. Feel free to let us know if you notice something we missed, and we will be happy to add it to our dissection with credit. Note: if something is mentioned in a prior dissection, then we do not reiterate it again here. Low bandwidth users should note there are numerous images contained in this article.


Last Updated: April 26, 2010 @ 3:00 PM EDT
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SWTOR News
3/12/10 8:30 AM -
GDC: BioWare's Walton on Adding Space Combat to Star Wars Galaxies & Customer Retention 
by emlaeh
, posted March 12th, 2010 at 8:30 AM
One of larger portions of BioWare Austin's Co-Studio Director Gordon Walton and consultant Scott Hartsman's GDC session, "MMO Retention -- Learning From The First 25 Years," highlighted some of the game change management issues MMO developers encountered trying to retain existing customers. Although we plan on issuing a more comprehensive article on how some of the topics discussed in this session may relate to Star Wars: The Old Republic, we decided to release this very telling quote about Walton's experience with introducing space combat in an expansion for Star Wars Galaxies.
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SWTOR News
12/25/09 2:36 PM -
Developer Dispatch: Designing the Dark Side 
by Sleeper
, posted December 25th, 2009 at 2:36 PM
Today is quite a Holiday Present We get another Developer Dispatch showing how BioWare came up with the Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor, and we also get to see some PvP

Sean posted:

Inspired by notorious characters such as Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior take different approaches to their rise to power. The Sith Warrior achieves victory through pure aggression and might while the Sith Inquisitor excels by cunning ambition and Force manipulation.

From storyline, to art style, to combat tactics, each design decision was made to support the dark side themes of power, domination, and destruction.

Watch Developer Dispatch: Designing the Dark Side, and learn how Star Wars: The Old Republic developers created this dominating force.

Happy Holidays everyone
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Speculation
12/18/09 6:45 AM -
Charting a Path to Class Customization 
by emlaeh
, posted December 18th, 2009 at 6:45 AM
As the news coming out of Austin continues to pick up speed, mining information is becoming much more exciting. The response to our recent speculation articles inspired us to delve deeper into what we were previously told about Star Wars: The Old Republic with surprising results. We used our recently acquired knowledge to give context to older news items, and realized BioWare was giving us hard facts all along.
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Feature
12/3/09 4:28 AM -
General Information Learned 
by Dover
, posted December 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 AM
During our time in San Francisco we gathered a lot of information that, while pertinent, was not deep enough to warrant an entire post. This article will deal with the general abilities and information that which does not pertain to any one class garnered during the hands-on demo. To keep the information separate this article utilizes a bullet-point format; discussing only the information being highlighted at the time. The bullet-points follow no particular order of importance.
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Feature
12/3/09 4:17 AM -
The Jedi Consular 
by Dover
, posted December 3rd, 2009 at 4:17 AM
The final class for the Galactic Republic is the Jedi Consular. Based off of Yoda and Obi-wan Kenobi, this force user is skilled in the use of a lightsaber, but focuses on force powers to help defeat his foes. The Jedi Consular is a master of telekinesis and telepathy, wielding the force like puppeteer strings attached to his enemies.
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Feature
12/3/09 4:12 AM -
Smuggler Class Trees 
by Dover
, posted December 3rd, 2009 at 4:12 AM
Character advancement and customization are integral parts of all RPGs and many titles have succeeded or failed solely because of their approach to these mechanics. For over a year now, we have waited patiently for the first hints of how we will customize our characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic and now the first official clues are being revealed. During our time at LucasArts we were able to see a small example of how advancement and customization will be handled in TOR.
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Feature
12/3/09 4:08 AM -
Companion Characters 
by Dover
, posted December 3rd, 2009 at 4:08 AM
Over the years, MMOs have replicated many aspects of single player RPGs, and BioWare is continuing that trend with the addition of companion characters. A hallmark of BioWares previous titles, these characters are designed to develop story lines and assist in combat. During the presentation in San Francisco we were given two examples of the type of companions we will see in The Old Republic.
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Feature
12/3/09 4:05 AM -
Jake Neri Interview Part Two 
by Dover
, posted December 3rd, 2009 at 4:05 AM
A couple weeks ago we released the first part of our interview with Jake Neri and now we can finally bring you the second half. We used many different sections of this interview in our other articles, but this is the complete transcript for context.
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Editorial
11/21/09 11:04 PM -
Getting to the Second Pillar 
by Dover
, posted November 21st, 2009 at 11:04 PM
One of the mantras of the marketing team behind Star Wars: The Old Republic has been "the four pillars" that make up an MMO: exploration, advancement, combat and story. TOR has made a splash in the MMO community with a marketing emphasis on story, however the recent change in direction, hinted at by Jake Neri, is what we should be paying attention to. With many months of narrative buzz words behind us, we may be entering a new phase in the news coming out of Austin. Could it be that we are finally approaching the second pillar?
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Feature
11/14/09 4:40 AM -
Imperial Agent Demo Walkthrough 
by Dover
, posted November 14th, 2009 at 4:40 AM
Darth Hater was recently invited out to LucasArts' home base in San Francisco to get a look at the newest class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Imperial Agent. During our time at the studio we got to ask Jake Neri a few questions and we also saw a live demo focusing on some of the combat abilities utilized by this Sith sniper. Throughout the event we hastily scribbled notes, attempting to get a real understanding of how the Imperial Agent works, and we came away with some interesting discoveries.
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