A few months back we compiled a list of creatures seen in the Star Wars: The Old Republic marketing. As more information was released, this list became out of date and in need of a drastic overhaul. With the addition of the Inhabitants section to the HoloNet, we felt now was a good time to take a second look at who or what we may encounter in TOR.


Updated: July 22, 2010 6:50 PM EST

BioWare's Sean Dahlberg soothed some community worries about class-restricted species, wrapped up the reveals of the week, and waxed poetic about the ups and downs of E3:

Gamespot posted an exclusive hands-on article of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The link to the article is located below.

Highlights after the jump.

A UK Press event took place during this week revealed quite a bit about the game's classes, trees, and more. Along with the hands on is information about the Advanced Classes, Species, and more. Listed below are links to the various outlets that attended:

Eurogamer: Advanced Classes, Hands on, Video
The Galactic Struggle: Hands on, Interview with Jake Neri
Strategy Informer: Interview with Daniel Erickson
Gamespot: Hands on, Interview with Daniel Erickson
VG247: Interview with Jake Neri
Edge Online: Interview with Daniel Erickson

As a caveat, you might want to read our class speculation article and the chart we made back in December.

Update: New high quality version of the Advanced Classes:



Note: We will add other articles about the press event as we find them.

BioWare recently revealed a new section of the HoloNet titled Inhabitants. This section of the Star Wars: The Old Republic official site is dedicated to the NPCs and mobs we will encounter in-game, broken up into three subcategories: Creatures, Droids, and Humanoids. In addition to new screenshots and animations, each entry contains few paragraphs dedicated to the mob's defining traits and features. We took a closer look at the writing on these pages (both English and Aurebesh), picking specific statements that inspired gameplay speculation.

The official Star Wars website posted an original short story today by Rob Chestney entitled Smuggler's Vanguard. Rob Chestney previously brought us the Threat of Peace webcomic. The story focuses on Hylo Visz, a Mirialan smuggler known to us from the timeline series as the leader of the smuggler fleet that broke the Mandalorian Blockade.

There are many interesting references in the story. Planets referenced include Corellia, Talus, and Nal Hutta, as well as Hutta's moon, Nar Shaddaa. Hylo's ship is called the Crimson Fleece, and the supporting characters include a Nikto named Musk, Barrga the Hutt, and an unnamed Weequay.

The story contains a mix of action and subterfuge and fits the concept of the Smuggler to a tee. For more details, follow the link to the full story below. Hat tip to Jedidsm on the heads up.

This week's update is a Fan Friday. As Sean Sean Dahlberg said:


The Developer Corner section includes is an amazing video of the Sith Inquisitor showing off some of his lightning abilities with booming sound effects.

Also included is some fan art by Hazaz and some by Daennika, some fan fiction by terminalpleasure, a Sith History Guide for Noobies by Danik_Kreldin, a few new pictures of customizable female faces, new avatars, new polls, and a wrap-up on GDC 2010.

In addition to Fan Friday, Daniel Erickson posted a few comments on the official forums this week. Details on his posts after the jump.

A thread on the official forums highlights a lecture by Ben Cloward, Senior Technical Artist at BioWare. The session, entitled Automated Emotion: Facial Animation in Star Wars: The Old Republic, goes into detail about the methods used by BioWare to generate facial animations for the huge amount of dialogue in The Old Republic. Calithlin, who attended the session, shared his experience with the community.


More after the jump.

Everyone following Star Wars: The Old Republic has all heard about this planet, now it is time to dive deeper into the lore. I will start with the obvious, Bothawui is the home of the Bothans and the capital of the Bothan sector. We first heard about the Bothan species in Return of the Jedi when many spies died to bring the Rebellion leaked news about the second Death Star. It is this spy network that interests us, because the Bothans have been spies since the Republic has been a republic.

There are two main factions in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. This article will focus on the former of the two. By examining the history of the Galactic Republic, we can understand how it works and how its past might dictate your character's future.

Every planet is different. Each planet has its own architecture, geography, native peoples, as well as native plants and animals. While viewing each of the planets, we can see the few creatures that have been released to the general public. Since we will all be on these planets for an extensive amount of time, hopefully, it is probably best to get to know the native creatures we will be dealing with on a regular basis.

Korriban was the original homeworld of the Sith species. It houses many of the tombs for the ancient and powerful Dark Lords of the Sith, thus it is a haven for the dark side of the Force. It is the place where the Sith Academy lies and where you will start out if you decide to play as a Sith Warrior. Let us get to know this planet that I am sure many of you will be starting on.