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Oct 22, 2008 2:24 am PT
On the 30th Anniversary of the MMO, LucasArts announced Star Wars: The Old Republic. Here, we present you with all the details on the game from around the internet. Make sure to check out GameSpot's great video interview! Features:
Interesting Things from the Press Conference:
Star Wars: The Old Republic Novel Coming! EUC readers may recall a little while back reports of an "Untitled SW Game Novel" page being up at Del Rey and Random House. Well, it seems it may be a tie-in novel to the recently announced "Star Wars: The Old Republic" video game. When asked, "Is there any chance that the Untitled Game Novel is somehow connected with the just announced The Old Republic?," Sue Rostoni replied, "There is some chance of that, yes. There's also some chance it's connected with some other secret game title." Now, it's interesting to note that the only other Star Wars MMO, "Galaxies," had a tie-in novel as well. We'll keep you updated! Source: SW Books
Speculation of Planets in the game by Nav Auron:
Alderaan Onderon and Mon Gazza are a possibility
Edited on May 8, 2009 10:55 am PT Edited 5 total times.
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Oct 22, 2008 2:25 am PT
The biggest advantage to working in the Old Republic timeline, according to Jeff, is that the artists can be a bit freer in their artistic approach. This isn't like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings where gamers already have established expectations for the way things look. Still, it's important for the artists to be faithful to the few assets that do exist, and to maintain a consistent style when adding new elements.
Story
Mood Attitude
Progression
Big Details The visuals seem to elicit strong opinions both for and against this more stylized approach, but the artists have a couple of reasons for staying away from photo-realistic graphics. For one thing, it doesn't require them to interpret or translate the concept art when they create game models. They're happy enough with the mood and StyIe of the concepts they've done for the game, and want to preserve the overall effect as much as possible in the finished product. While in Austin, we were able to see side-by-side comparisons of concept art and finished game scenes, and it really is difficult to tell the difference between the hand-painted scenes and those that are generated by the game's engine. The second big benefit to the stylized look is that it allows the artists to hit a "sweet spot" in terms of visuals and performance. This not only ensures a consistent visual quality across a wider range of hardware, but it also insulates the game from the constantly expanding (and quickly degrading) quality of photo-realistic games. Rob Pardo of Blizzard has cited stylized graphics as one of the key factors in the longevity of World of Warcraft and it seems clear that the developers of The Old Republic have similar ideas in mind.
Painted Textures
Contrast and Scale
Heroic Proportions
Giant Slugs!
Connected Combat
Revisions That just about wraps up our week of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Be sure to come back tomorrow when we discuss the future of LucasArts' other Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies. Edited on Oct 24, 2008 10:25 am PT Edited 2 total times.
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Oct 22, 2008 2:25 am PT
Source: EUcantina.net Star Wars: The Old Republic The Story
We kicked off our week of coverage by first looking at the way BioWare hopes to use story to drive the action, both in terms of the individual player narratives and the shared experiences driven by the game's social nature. Today, we're going to spend some time examining the overall history of the galaxy, exploring the two factions and the moral issues that players will face. For over twenty thousand years the Galactic Republic has been the force for peace and civilization in a sometimes savage and hostile galaxy. Governed by a Galactic Senate and defended by the powerful Jedi Order, the hundreds of worlds and systems enjoyed thousands of years of relative peace and security. That is, until the appearance of the Sith Empire 1500 years ago. The Sith Empire had been growing for thousands of years, well beyond the sight of the Republic. It had originally been established by a group of exiled Dark Jedi, who had settled on the Sith world of Korriban. As their power and territory grew, the Dark Jedi began to integrate with the Sith until the two groups were virtually indistinguishable from each other. With a whole planet of Dark Force users at the center of their empire, the Sith expanded into new territories throughout the galaxy. Eventually, the expansion of the Sith Empire brought them to the edges of the Galactic Republic and the Great Hyperspace War began. The Dark Lord of the Sith, Naga Sadow, led the Empire to victory after victory against the Republic. The Jedi soon turned the tide, however, and took the fight all the way back to Korriban where they utterly destroyed Sith civilization. Sadow and many other Dark Lords went into hiding beyond the boundaries of known space. There, in secret, they began to rebuild their power and nurse their dreams of revenge. The Dark Lord, having prolonged his life with many dark rituals, personally directed the establishment of a new fleet and a powerful Imperial army. As his military forces were gathering strength, he started infiltrating systems in the Galactic Republic's Outer Rim, fomenting dissent among the people and making secret alliances with numerous crime bosses and warlords.  The Republic capital of Coruscant is still suffering the effects of war. With his fleets ready and his fifth columnists in place in the Outer Rim, Sadow finally launched his attack. The Republic and the Jedi Order, who thought Sith power had been destroyed, were taken completely by surprise. In a very short time, the Sith captured dozens of worlds along the Outer Rim and crippled the Republic by destroying the shipyards in the Sluis sector and choking off the vital Rimma Trade Route. The Republic and the Jedi fought back as best as they could, but world after world fell to the Sith advance. The long war waged across the frozen wastes of Ilum and the desert plains of Dathomir. The Sith Empire destroyed everything they came into contact with, even attacking the neutral planets like Manaan. There they destroyed the entire surface of the planet, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their underwater strongholds. The Sith Empire's onslaught seemed unstoppable. But then, with the Republic reeling from dozens of defeats, Naga Sadow did something else that wasn't expected; he offered peace terms. The Republic had already lost thousands of Jedi and numerous worlds to the Sith so, rather than risk further losses, the Supreme Chancellor agreed to enter negotiations for a settlement. The Sith used the peace negotiations as a diversion for a strike on Coruscant, the capital of the Republic. Imperial Forces sacked the planet, destroying the Jedi Temple and killing six Jedi Masters. With Coruscant held hostage, the Sith Lord again offered peace terms. But this time, they were even less favorable than before. He demanded that the Republic surrender key systems in the Outer Rim and withdraw their support for several allies, including their most faithful friends, the Bothans. Facing a supply crisis and a hostile occupation in the heart of the Republic, the Supreme Chancellor had no choice but to agree. The Treaty of Coruscant established an uneasy truce between the Republic and the Empire, and gave the Republic a little time to rebuild and prepare for the resumption of hostilities, which seemed inevitable given the Republic's weakened might and morale and the Sith's lust for power. Unfortunately the Treaty has created a crisis of confidence in the Republic, leading to the departure of many allies and political division among the Core Worlds. As the economy worsened and the Senate lost authority, chaos spread in the streets of the Republic's capital. In this moral predicament, the Republic distanced itself from the Jedi Order, prompting the Jedi to move their Council from Coruscant to the Jedi homeworld of Tython. Nevertheless, the Jedi remained committed to protecting the Republic and preserving order and balance in the galaxy. With the Jedi on Tython, the Republic began training their own elite Special Forces to serve as the front line of defense in the coming war with the Sith.  With the Jedi removed to Tython, the Republic looked to others for defense. Meanwhile, the Sith worked just as hard to ready themselves for the next round of fighting. Naga Sadow disappeared on an unknown mission, but he left behind a Dark Council to rule in his absence. Comprised of twelve Dark Lords, the Dark Council began to recruit Force-sensitive children and train them up to become Dark Jedi warriors. Then the Treaty began to fall apart as border skirmishes and proxy wars started to break out between Republican and Imperial forces. As we arrive at the setting of The Old Republic, even the peaceful planet of Alderaan isn't safe from the hostilities that quickly spread throughout the galaxy. The Republic needs new leaders and warriors to defend its interests and regain its former prestige. The Empire is seeking to maintain its advantage, as members of the Dark Council and the Imperial leadership vie for power in the Sith Lord's absence. This is where the game starts. Players are free to choose to serve either the Republic or the Empire and the game will purposefully drive players from either side into conflict with each other. This is Star Wars, after all, explains the team, so it makes sense that The Old Republic will put a priority on letting players take a large role in driving that action. We're not sure yet if we can expect actual quests that encourage players to cross paths, or full PvP scenarios like we're seeing in Warhammer Online. At the very least, most of the people we spoke with at BioWare seem to be fans of Warhammer Online and enjoy the PvP format of that game. We mentioned yesterday that each ****will begin on its own origin world designed specifically to introduce players to the attitudes and motivations that will put your actions into a consistent context and add relevance to the big moments in your story. Today we'll be taking a look at the two starting worlds for the Jedi and the Sith, Tython and Korriban.  The Jedi homeworld looks serene but danger lurks in the ancient ruins. Scholars first came to the jungle world of Tython millennia ago in order to study the strange phenomenon of the Force. Though they learned much in those early days, a controversy arose among them and unleashed a cataclysm that nearly destroyed the planet. These earliest scholars fled Tython and established the Jedi Order throughout the galaxy. Tython was lost for some time but, early during the war with the Sith Empire, the Jedi rediscovered it. After the Treaty of Coruscant, the Jedi have come back and started uncovering the mysteries of their past, grappling with an eldritch dark energy swirling around Tython's ancient ruins. They've also rebuilt the Jedi Temple here and begun training new Padawans to replace the thousands of Jedi who died fighting the Sith. As if they didn't already have enough to deal with, the Jedi are now coping with a recently arrived Twi'lek pilgrim clan that has settled on the planet in violation of Republic law. Korriban, like Tython, was lost for some time. The inhospitable planet bred strong people, and when the native Sith were subjugated and absorbed by Dark Jedi exiles, it became the center of a mighty empire. After the devastation of Korriban at the end of the Great Hyperspace War and the flight of the Sith from their homeworld, the red planet was forgotten. That is, until two Jedi veterans of the Mandalorian Wars happened to arrive while searching for a powerful weapon. Now the Sith have reclaimed the planet and, like the Jedi on Tython, have set up their own training program. Set among the dusty tombs of generations of long-dead Dark Lords, the trials of the Sith Academy are deadly and unforgiving. Even those acolytes who pass the test must contend with the Sith notion of survival of the strongest in its most literal sense. Korriban is, from a dramatic standpoint at least, probably more compelling than Tython because it depicts the real lives of ordinary citizens living under this threatening and oppressive regime. There are real people here, with real homes and real jobs and the writers intend that you believe all of that, in spire of the scary and painful nature of the world. In fact, it's ultimately essential for you to believe in the real value of the ordinary subjects of the Empire if you're going to have a believable context for the seemingly evil things you'll be doing in the wider world. That raises an important question of motivation for the Sith. The developers have told us that NPCs will respond appropriately to your CIass and overall orientation. So if a particular NPC needs someone to intercede on a mission of mercy, he or she's not likely to ask a Sith for help. We're not sure if that means that Sith citizens have to find ways to present their requests in a way that highlights the player's own self-interest or if players will receive their missions and directives from higher up in the Sith's political hierarchy. Either way, it's refreshing that the writers are trying to make the NPCs' interactions relate to who the player is. With that in mind, the team has promised us that the NPCs will be aware of the weight of the player's responsibilities and won't send them on a spree of trivial tasks.  The Sith are trained to show no mercy. It's important to note that a character's Light Side or Dark Side orientation is completely independent of their alliance with the Republic or the Empire and can even change during the course of the game. So it's possible to be a Light Side Jedi working within the Sith Empire, just as it's possible to be a Dark Side Jedi working within the Republic. In fact, the designers hope to highlight the notion of being a good person in a bad environment or a bad person in a good environment. The point is that the decision to commit good acts will be made more meaningful because of the near and present opportunity to be rewarded for committing evil. Based on our discussions with BioWare, it seems like they're approaching a more complicated view of morality than we've found in their previous projects. Prior BioWare roleplaying games offered the greatest rewards to the players who committed wholly to one side or the other, morally speaking. Here, the middle ground is much more appealing, though much more difficult to walk. The writers used Luke as an example to explain the balance they want to achieve. Yoda is so in touch with the spiritual side of the Force that he's distanced himself from the affairs of the world and other people's self-interested motives. The Emperor is at the other extreme, ruled solely by his passions and with no regard for the well-being or feelings of others. Luke walks the line between the two, being ruled by a combination of spiritual passivity and aggressive loyalty to his friends and their causesThe trick is that Luke's ethics still permit his actions to be dictated by circumstances. The standard Jedi or Sith codes don't allow for this kind of situational flexibility, but that's exactly where the real drama and opportunity for roleplaying are. And in order for those variations in ethics to have meaning, there has to be equal opportunity to head down the right or wrong path.  The Valley of the Tombs on Korriban is the center of Sith civilization. Bastila from the original Knights of the Old Republic is a great example. She's an incredibly powerful companion who you need to have by your side in order to meet the challenges of the game. She's also a romantic love interest who, as a Jedi, you're supposed to resist. The challenge there is to stay true to the Jedi code in the face of a constant temptation. Or if you decide to go down the Sith path, to manipulate and exploit her in the face of her sincere devotion. As we said at the beginning, BioWare isn't ready to reveal the specifics of how these elements actually work in practice. Still, the combination of the personal stories for each character, the social framework for the larger story of the war, and the concept of meaningful moral choices has got us eager to hear more. And if anyone can pull it all off, we're hoping BioWare can. We'll be talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic again tomorrow, when we offer up a look at the game's art StyIe and share art director Jeff Dobson's commentary on the screenshots and concept art we've posted so far. . Source: IGN.com Edited on Oct 24, 2008 2:22 am PT
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Oct 22, 2008 3:09 am PT
a-w-s-o-m-e when it comes out, im sure i wount be the only person of the JCU to buy it, and we could all meet up in game and do crazy stuff... looks like SCPX's RPG is gonna have a hard time being better than this, i saw the gamespot trailer, and i liked the idea of "being the good guy in the sith empire" and "the bad guy in the republic" Star Wars: The Old Republic - What We Know So Far Posted by AJ Glasser at 12:00 AM on October 23, 2008
So here's what we don't know: As for what we do know, you'll have to hit the jump to find out. 1) The lightsabers in the screenshots will shrink - but not by much.
Art Director Jeff Dobson says that Old Republic will not have a totally realistic art **** but neither will it be too cartoon-y. The idea here, he says, is that they want a distinct look for the MMO that sets it apart from all others - one that will run on as many machines as possible without sacrificing the quality of the graphics. 2) They really, really, really mean it when they say that there is story in this game and it is what sets Old Republic apart from every MMO out there. I'm skeptical about this - how many times have we heard it before? Argue Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, or Age of Conan until you're blue in the face; it didn't do it for me as far as "story" went and BioWare doesn't think it did it at all. The difference in Old Republic that I can see so far is we're hearing it from BioWare, a heavy-hitter in the story department. According to Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, there will be no "Darth Vader saves someone's cat" quests or "go collect 18 rat butts," and other stuff you associate with the paper-thin plots in other MMOs that tout their "stories." The stories in Old Republic are set by C|asses Each C|ass will have its own unique story that can play out in tons of different ways (they don't want any two people to have the exact same experience, although they weren't entirely confident that this would be 100% true). The idea is that you could roll a Jedi, play the whole way through and then go back and play a Sith and never see the same content/cutscene/choices. Everything will be epic all of the time, says Erickson. The K'lor slug you see below - you fight that thing at level one on the path of the Sith. Things don't get any smaller, in scope, size or difficulty than that. Erickson says that all of the choices your character makes are on the grand scale of saving the galaxy. You can't just go into a cantina and poke some guy to give you some task so you can earn money. You're supposed to be asking yourself: I'm out saving/destroying the galaxy; do I really have time for this?
Also, your companion character will matter in a big way. You can collect more than one, but you can only keep one with you at a time. This character will grow based on the choices you make - you might even form a romance with them (or maybe kill them...?). They'll react to your choices, either encouraging a behaviour or freaking out when you do something bad like force-choking someone. They'll also have companion-specific quests that you can play out to strengthen (or destroy) your bond to your companion. Oh, and we will see stuff in Old Republic that ties up loose KOTOR ends from the game - if we look for it. BioWare doesn't want to rub these plot points in the face of MMO gamers and Star Wars fans who never got around to playing it. And maybe we'll see some influences from the comics and stuff...? I'd totally dig having a Nomi Sunrider NPC... 3) You don't pick good or evil right off the bat I was so happy to hear this - they were having a hard time explaining it. But somewhere between Erickson and Designers Jake Neri, Gordon Walton, Rich Vogel and James Ohlen's Q&A, it was made clear that you choose a faction from the get-go (Sith or Republic). Your good or evil status evolves through the choices you make, which is true to the KOTOR standard. Mind you, choosing Sith means something in this galaxy. The timeline is set only 300 years after the events in KOTOR, so it's still very upsetting and somewhat "bad" to be a Sith. However, Old Republic is out to challenge what "Sith" means. The story goes that after KOTOR, two Jedi got exiled into deep space, ran into the Sith, S**t hit the fan, and then they were sent back to the Republic as Sith emissaries. The Sith then kicked the F*K out of the Republic, abruptly backed off and said "Give us these random worlds for no specific reason, and we'll call it even." And the Republic says "Deal," so now we've got these two factions sitting uneasily in a divided galaxy. Erickson went on some huge tangent about the evolution of the Sith from a real race (like with a different skin colour and stuff) breeding with humans and influencing the philosophy of the Jedi such that a new thinking arose. This new thinking took on the name of the race (Sith), and then apparently S**T hit the fan (that happens a lot in the galaxy far, far away), so "Sith" started to mean "evil." This made me squee inside because I'm a fangirl who's read all the fanfiction Expanded Universe books and the best thing I took away from them was Vergere's challenge to Luke Skywalker that there is no Dark or Light Side. There was also something in those books about Sith not defaulting to evil. I think this point got totally ret-conned in the last Legacy book... 4) There will be crafting, there will probably be guilds, there will definitely be PvP and there won't be a whole lot of instancing The bottom line is that BioWare knows what makes an MMO good - they've played World of Warcraft, they've at least heard of Warhammer (y'know, being a new EA partner and all). They want to put the stuff in there that will attract MMO gamers. But they also want to keep KOTOR fans interested and maintain the integrity of the "epic-ness" of the game. So that means that they won't necessarily rely on instancing (not everyone can blow up the Death Star, I guess), and the crafting won't be some mundane thing where you find some thread and some crystals and viola - you have shoes! Of course they won't say what the crafting will be, how the guilds will work or what PvP will play like (yet). I asked about moisture farming and they said no. But in that trailer, we saw a Jedi putting together a lightsaber, and Ohlen did come out and say you wouldn't end the game with the lightsaber you started with, so...
5) Star Wars: Galaxies is not getting shut down As for what will happen to it, no one seemed ready to say. Clearly, BioWare used it as a learning experience for crafting the KOTOR MMO - which means I might get to play a Sith Twi'lek stripper if I play my cards right. But I have to ask myself if LucasArts really needs (or wants) to run two Star Wars MMOs at once. If I had to guess, I think LucasArts will wait and see how well Old Republic does. If it sells like hotcakes the cost of maintaining Galaxies is too high, logically, they'd phase it out and concentrate all their resources on Old Republic content. 6) "You can't ruin Star Wars." This is what Daniel Erickson declared at the end of the night after "adult refreshments" were served. I had to think real hard about it (and consider the question of whether or not Jar Jar Binks counts as "ruining" or "irritating"); but then I saw what Erickson was getting at. Star Wars is a franchise that has survived everything from Jar Jar to the Christmas Special which shall not be seen again on network television. There are toys, toothpastes, Lego sets, and yet another animated series running on Cartoon Network. How can an MMO - made by BioWare, no less - possibly make anything worse? If anything, we can have reasonable hope that Old Republic will make Star Wars better - because the BioWare folks understand the meaning of canon (even if I can't spell the word consistently :p), and have done their homework. So, love MMOs or hate them, love KOTOR, or hate it, LucasArts is going balls-out on this. And it'll be interesting to see what happens. P.S. Another revelation of Erickson: Modesto, CA = Tatooine; Tatooine = the cradle of galactic civilization, ergo Modest = the cradle of civilization...? I don't think he had it all quite worked out, but he had a point about Tatooine and Modesto sharing some similarities. Namely being boring, says Erickson. Edited on Oct 24, 2008 4:59 am PT
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After the "big reveal" at the San Francisco LucasArts office, we were given the chance for Q&A with BioWare and LucasArts on details for the KOTOR MMO. Which was kind of silly, since they largely refused to answer any of the questions with anything besides "We can't talk about that yet."
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Oct 22, 2008 3:29 am PT
[Incredibly long, humorless, pointlessly self-indulgent signature block in progress.]
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