MER Episode 20 – SWTOR at E3 2010

E3 2010 has come and gone, and with it we have received a number of updates and details covering everything from player ships to crafting. The two of us break down everything inside, along with a collection of interview clips to make sure we’re getting the best information right from the source. Give it a listen and pass it on to your friends!

We want to offer a big thanks to Good Revan and RobHellBoy for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
Bioware reveals new CGI Cinematic Trailer “Hope”
-Hope trailer at SWTOR.com
-Interview at Ask A Jedi with Bryan Arndt

Player Ships Announced
-Player Ships at SWTOR.com
-Interview with Daniel Erickson at Darth Hater
-Interview with Daniel Erickson at GameTrailers.com

Warzones Announced (PVP battlegrounds)
-Interview with James Ohlen at Darth Hater
-Interview with Rich Vogel at Massively

Bounty Hunter Armor Progression
-Armor Progression video at SWTOR.com

Combat Video from G4
-Game Demo with Dallas Dickinson at G4

General Info Learned
-Group dialog cleared up and quest mechanics cleared up
-The majority of everything we’ve seen so far is based on the origin worlds and has been focused primarily on individual class stories. Large Imperial vs. Republic story arcs will be introduced later on.
-Twi’lek and Chiss revealed to be playable species
-Class stories and play styles differ GREATLY

Stories From the Outer Rim
A lot of people were hoping to hear about starships and crafting at E3 but so far we’ve only got starship/home annoucements. If crafting isnt revealed in the next few days what do you guys expect from crafting?
-Sergio

Hey guys,
I have recently become a fan of your podcast, and it’s totally amazing! As I have never played an MMO before, but am a huge fan of the original KOTOR, so I think that I am willing to give this game a try. But I have a couple of questions (actually only one at the moment):
Does it cost extra to create different accounts? Or like, could I play as a Smuggler, and then switch to a Bounty Hunter, and then to a Jedi, and then a Sith Warrior, on the same account, but be able to keep all of my characters? Like in KOTOR you could have several different characters and they were all separate. Is that possible in an MMO? Or do you need to pay the subscription fee for every single character that you have?
Thanks for your time.
-Stephen

I’d just like to tell you that it’s really fun listening to your radio show and i hope ya’ll keep them up. It’s very informing because for some people, like me, dont get to hear the interviews and know the backgrounds of the designers and characters on the other games. I know a lot about Star Wars but not the ancient lore as a lot of people do, but i really enjoy any type of lore from other fictional world. Especially warcraft, starcraft, lord of the rings, and star wars. Thanks again for the service and keep it up!
-Hunter

Love your podcast. Been listening to it since I stumbled across it last fall. I like your old outro music, but really love the outtakes. I have a few more podcast question then for SW:ToR.
1) how do you get on the zune store (ie I am itunes but looking to expand).
2) how do you play audio for both of you to listen to in Skype.
-Jason

Do you think SWTOR will have closed servers like WoW? Where if you pick a realm you will be anchored to it? Discuss.
-Colin

MER Episode 18 – Master Gnost-Dural Does

Advanced Class System before E3? We weren’t expecting that at all. The two of us venture into the details of the system, and speculate on what it could mean for the other classes. We also cover the newly added planet of Hoth, as well as the Inhabitants section of the Holonet. Like we mention in episode 17, there was a huge backlog of listener questions so we take the time to get caught up, touching on everything from land mounts to whatever happened to Revan and Bastila. And don’t forget to check out the new segment covering general Star Wars news. All that and more inside!!

We want to offer a big thanks to Farscape29, Twintwisters, and Darth_Entropius for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(4/30) Inhabitants added to the Holonet
-Inhabitants in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Breakdown of info at Darth Hater

(5/21) Fan Friday Reveals Bioware’s Use of Depth of Field
-Fan Friday update at SWTOR.com

(5/21) Hoth announced as The Old Republic’s 13th Playable Planet
-Hoth in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Umbaran race at Wookiepedia
-Chiss race at Wookiepedia

(5/14) Game Systems Section added to the site – Advanced Class System
-Advanced Class System in the Game Systems
-Exclusive coverage from Eurogamer

(5/14) European Press Event: Bounty Hunter Hands-On
–First official non-human playable race: The Rattataki (Pronounced: Rat-Attack-Eee)
-Hands-on coverage from GameSpot
-Hands-on coverage from Eurogamer
-Video interview from GameSpot with Daniel Erickson

Stories from the Outer Rim / Listener Questions
Hi guys, I was wondering if there will be weather effects in the game, such as rain, sand storms, snow, blowing robes?
-Eloxar
-Lightning effects on Dromund Kaas
-Snow falling on Alderaan in Video Documentary #4 (5:07)

Hey guys! Well my question today is about land mounts. I know or am pretty sure that SWG had land mounts such as speeders, but do you think that Tor will implement this similarly?
-Jord
-Touched on this in episode 8 with Christian (59:30)
-No confirmation on land mounts, but the inclusion of the Taxi’s from the Fan Friday more or less confirms that there will be some form of on-planet travel.
-Whether or not this is fast-travel or user-controlled is up for debate. KOTOR and other Bioware titles have fast travel, but land mounts have become a staple of MMO’s.

What happened to Revan and Bastila?
-Jason
-Breakdown of Revan’s story from Daniel Erickson found on the forums
-Bottom line: the events that occur post-KOTOR are still up in the air

After watching a bunch of videos on the SWTOR website, a thought came to me: Will the opposing factions be able to communicate to each other? In games like WoW they can’t, but I think it would make sense in this game because in all the Star Wars movies, the factions speak the same language. I would love for this to be an added feature because I’ve always liked the ability to taunt my opponent before killing them.
-Sam
-Discussed this in episode 13 (60:00)

New Segment – Help us name it!!
Master Gnost-Dural Does Droid (Ad seen during LOST finale)
-Verizon Droid ad at YouTube

Darth Vader to Voice Tom Tom
-Mock studio session clip at YouTube
-Update on voices from TomTom

MER Episode 04 – Basterds of the Old Republic

The past two weeks have served up a heaping helping of news and rumors. We break down everything from the developer walkthrough to some interesting community creations. Details are in the notes below…give it a listen and let us know what you think!

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News From the Galactic Republic
GamesCom Developer Walkthrough
- Bounty Hunter
- Smuggler
- Korriban / Sith Warrior
- Flashpoint: “Highly customized story and gameplay experience”
- Detailed breakdown at Darth Hater

SWTOR Localized to French and German
- French and German versions of the website AND game
- Includes forums, Holonet, timeline videos, etc
- Very important to building a global community

Stories From the Outer Rim
SWTOR Release Rumor
- How we’re going to treat these rumors
- French site reports reliable source says October of 2010
- Poll Results

Community Highlight
Heroes of the Old Republic
- Old-style radio drama created by community member DeaconX
- Prelude tells the story of the Deception trailer from the perspective of
- Episode I picks up with a swoop race on Ord Mantell, follows the story of young Falco Danner

Twitter Questions
@COMMUNISTROBOT – Should gear color schemes auto-adjust/change depending on your environment. i.e. snow cammo, jungle cammo, etc. /discuss

@gem1138 – My hype has definitely raised after watching the walkthrough! The kick to the nuts followed by the headshot was fantastic!

@sirdesmond – In the multiplayer dialogue cutscenes, could playing with people u dont know screw stuff up if they say something u wouldnt? (DIALOG CLIP – Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer)

MER Episode 02 – Attack!!!

Zach and Brooks break down the past two weeks of SWTOR news, from the voiceover work outlined in Developer Blog #10 to the UI design shown in Video Documentary #3. All that and more in this week’s episode of Mos Eisley Radio!

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News From the Galactic Republic
Return of the Mandalorians
-Overview of the video
-Mandalorians as a “faction” and how factions would work in SWTOR

Development Blog #10 / Video Documentary #3
-Visual appearance of the SWTOR engine
-Voicing of both NPCs and your player’s character
-All aspects of the scale and level of production going in to the voice over work.
-Brooks’ post about audio from an engineer’s perspective
-SWTOR’s UI and the need for a mod community

Stories from the Outer Rim
PC Gamer UK Interview with Rich Vogel
-PVP, Raids, Economy

Discussion of the Week
Trooper and Bounty Hunter Classes
-What roles Trooper and Bounty Hunter will play within both party and solo settings
-Class abilities
-Possible ability focus based on armor (for Troopers) and weapons (for Bounty Hunters)

Podcast Directories
We’ve uploaded our feed to a few different directories to make sure that whererever you are, you can hear us! Listed below are the links to our pages on various sites.
-PodBean.com (claim-my-podcast-in-podbean{scid-bW9zZWlzbGV5cmFkaW8=-ecid})
-Podfeed.net
-Podcast Alley

To Each His Own (Planet)

We spoke briefly on last week’s podcast about the concept of “starting planets”. As with most MMO’s, each class or race is given a specific area from which to start. For example, the Orcs and Trolls in World of Warcraft both start their journeys in Durotar, Kalimdor. Well, it would seem that our speculation holds some weight.

In a number of interviews and reviews, Bioware employees have roughly confirmed that each planet will play specific host to one (or possibly two) classes as they enter the galaxy. So far it appears as if the Trooper and Smuggler classes will start on Ord Mantell, while the Bounty Hunter class will begin on Hutta. These are all logical choices as to how each fits in with the overall lore of Star Wars. For example, its widely known that most Bounty Hunters have a very strong business relationship with the Hutt crime lords. And in the case of Ord Mantell, given the planet’s volatile political state, it makes sense that Troopers are needed to enforce the Galactic Republic’s rule, while the Smugglers do everything in their power to undermine them and move their goods.

This leaves an open slot on Hutta, and nothing for Korriban and Tython. Obviously, the most likely choices for the latter planets are going to be Sith Lord and Jedi Master, respectively. Yet since the other classes have yet to be announced, the options for Hutta are still wide open.

What do you think of having the classes separated so far from each other? Which planet are you looking forward to adventuring the most?