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 12 – Jet Pack Rancors!

This week we’re joined by Darth Hater’s Sleeper, as well as Deacon, who guested previously in episode 6. The four of us get caught up on all the recent TOR news, including the two new planets added to the Holonet and the new Developer Dispatch video on creating the Dark Side. We also dive into a great discussion about what news from 2009 had us most excited about the game, and what we’re looking forward to most in the next year. Give it a listen for all the details!

Again, huge thanks to both Deacon and Sleeper for joining us this week. The two of us had a blast recording this one.

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News from the Galactic Republic
Two new planets added to the Holonet
Alderaan – http://swtor.com/info/holonet/planets/alderaan
Tatooine – http://swtor.com/info/holonet/planets/tatooine

Developer Dispatch – Designing the Dark Side
Video – http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/developer-dispatch-5
Dissection at Darth Hater – http://darthhater.com/2009/12/30/dissected-designing-the-dark-side-video/

Stories from the Outer Rim
Year End Review
-Favorite SWTOR announcement from the past year
-What we’re looking forward to most next year
-Game and movie of the year

Pre-Episode Poll
What playable races do you want to see in TOR?
Other – See Comment (25%, 26 Votes)
Twi’lek (24%, 24 Votes)
Rodian (22%, 22 Votes)
Wookie (15%, 15 Votes)
Mon Calamari (10%, 10 Votes)
Bothan (4%, 5 Votes)

Races from the comments:
Kel Dor – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kel_Dor
Ithorian – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ithorian
Twi’lek – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Twi%27lek
Wookie – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookie
Cerean – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cerean
Zabrak – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zabrak
Iridonian – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Iridonian
Gand – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gand
Nautolan – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nautolan
Miraluka – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Miraluka
Togruta – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Togruta

MER Episode 12 Pre-Poll: What races do you want to see in TOR?

Now that we know all of the playable classes for The Old Republic, what kinds of playable species do you want to see? We chose five of the more common ones for you to choose from. If we missed your favorite species, leave us a note in the comment about which one you want to play!

We also want to remind everyone that episode 12 will come out just after Christmas. Zach and I are working on putting together a great year-end wrap up, hopefully joined by a couple of the Darth Hater guys, and maybe some other members of the community.

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[poll id="9"]

*P.S. …forgive me for whispering in the audio, I was hanging out in the lobby of a hotel and couldn’t speak very loud.

MER Episode 11 – Now Begins the (Sith) Inquisition!

To say the last couple of weeks has media blitz of new TOR news would be the understatement of the century. We break down both of the new classes, get some new info about companions and class trees, and look at how Bioware is going to approach the MMO “Trinity”. There’s also a brand new release rumor, and some great listener questions.

Check it out and join us in the forums for discussion!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Final two classes revealed to be Force users
-Jedi Consular at the Holonet and Darth Hater
-Sith Inquisitor at Darth Hater
-Bioware’s choice to address “healing” as CC and damage-mitigation instead of outright “heals”

Smuggler Class Trees

Insight into Companion Characters

General Information Confirmed

Stories from the Outer Rim
Release Rumor Round 2: Could a compiling of the Threat of Peace and a new short story accompany a release of the game?
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=94823

Pre-Episode Poll
What faction will you be playing once TOR launches?
-Sith Empire (38%)
-Galactic Republic (35%)
-I plan to have characters on both sides (27%)

Listener Questions
Since the last two classes aren’t droid/pet classes, do you still think we’ll get to have customizable droid pets, or do you see them maybe offering a companion character like the dog in dragon age, which by the way I agree, that game is amazing. I hope they don’t just stick us with a single option like that. I’d like to be able to switch between my Strill and my Wampa, rather than being stuck with the same boring Kowakian monkey lizard from the beginning.
-Axe Faktor

Audio question from Sunny Ravencourt about the “Trinity”.