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 05 – PAX 2009

PAX 2009 served up a huge pile of new SWTOR news. Everything from Coruscant, to Trooper gameplay, to player housing, and more. Give it a listen and join the discussion!

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News From the Galactic Republic
PAX – Penny Arcade Expo
-Coruscant confirmed as a playable planet (Video @ YouTube)
-Trooper class demo
-Death system
-Use of phasing system for personal stories

Stories From the Outer Rim
-Player housing
-Morality System
-Sith Infiltrator Class

Listener Questions
@sirdesmond – Do you think SWTOR will have character customization to the level of Champions Online or Star Trek Online?

@TonySama22 – The finishing moves in some vids, will those come about from talent trees or trainers, etc?

@NpXDinO – The landscape was beautiful in the demos!! How high are the land expectations after that sexyness!?!?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments and the forums!

Player Housing in SWTOR

With GamesCom over, and the drool from the developer walkthrough video finally being mopped up, a number of news sites and fans have started to break down every last detail of what was mentioned during the conference. While a many frame-by-frame breakdowns of the video have sprung up, a number of folks have latched on to a particular statement made about “typical MMO features”. More specifically, amongst the vague talk about PvP, auction houses, and crafting…housing was VERY briefly mentioned.

Housing has been a topic of great discussion ever since the game had been announced. Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) players had it, Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) players had it, World of Warcraft players YEARNED for it, but how would it be implemented, if at all? It is no doubt that if the developers over at Bioware Austin are going to give players a place to hang their trophies, they’re going to look at how the other games have solved the problem of placing thousands, if not hundreds-of-thousands, of houses.

There are two basic approaches to player housing: open world and instanced, each of which can be seen in SWG and LOTRO, respectively. One would think that an open-world solution like that in SWG is simple: buy a house, find a lot, and boom your character has a place to live, right? Wrong. Between player-based cities, taxes, house-type planet limitations, utilities (yeah, you pay utilities hourly), and voting for mayor every three weeks, the system in SWG is incredibly complicated. But it’s hard to argue that this amount of detail provides a certain level of immersion that could not be captured any other way. I invite you to check out the SWG Wiki for all the gritty details.

LOTRO, on the other hand, uses an instanced neighborhood system. Similar to player cities, there are four racially styled homesteads (Men, Hobbit, Dwarven, and Elven) which appear in the open world, with 250 instanced neighborhoods per homestead. Each neighborhood has 30 homes, 4 kinship houses, 10 deluxe personal houses, and 16 standard personal houses, which can then be customized upon purchase. The result? A highly organized, pre-planned place for players or groups of players to hang their wares. (All information about LOTRO homes was found HERE)

So which of these methods will we see in SWTOR? The speculation and hopes from the player-base have been far and wide. This forum thread covers just about every possibility from open-world, to instanced, to ships acting as homes (similar to the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR). As with every other detail of the game, the developers are waiting for a finished product before confirming anything, but there’s no doubt that they are keeping a close eye on the community.

What do you think of player housing in SWTOR? Vote in the poll and give us the details the comments!

[poll id="4"]