Episode 24 Update

Listeners! Star Wars fans! Bothan spies! We wanted to give everyone an update on the status of episode 24, since we would have normally put out a new show by now. As much as we try to stick to our bi-weekly schedule, every once in a while a bunch of events pile up together and force us (heh!) to delay the show by a couple days or even a week. Between the lack of hefty updates from the Bioware camp and schedules being thrown into disarray (college returns, once again), both of us felt the right decision was to push episode 24 to next week. However, it’s not all bad news…

By delaying the show a week, we get to talk about PAX immediately after it all goes down this coming weekend! We desperately wanted to attend the show, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us. Even then, both Zach and myself will be ravenously following all of the updates and interviews, and we are incredibly excited to discuss all of the new updates on the next podcast. There’s a thread going on the forums about what everyone is looking forward to from the show…everything from Warzones to crafting. We’re really curious to see if our community can predict exactly what the dev team plans to show off.

As for details on SWTOR at PAX, we know two things for sure. The first, is that there will be public hands-on of the game all three days of the convention at the LucasArts booth (Booth #152). These will run from 10AM to 7PM on Friday and 10AM to 6PM on Saturday and Sunday. For anyone attending the show, you’ll want to be sure to line up as early as possible. If we learned anything from our experience at PAX East, it’s that lines fill up extremely quickly, and waits for games or panels are often over an hour. Secondly, the main event for SWTOR will take place Saturday the 4th in the Benaroya Hall Main Theater from 5:00PM to 6:15PM. We’ll be following everything as best we can, so keep an eye on our twitter page for updates. We’re expecting a live blog from the Darth Hater crew as well, and we’ll be sure to pass on that link.

In the meantime, be sure to hit up the PAX forum thread, and don’t forget to chime in on the community discussion topic for episode 24, which we can promise will be out early next week!

MER Episode 24 Community Discussion: Space Stories

It’s that time again for a community discussion topic! The week before each episode we put up a short audio clip detailing the new topic. We then want you to send us your thoughts either through the forums, email, or in the form of an mp3. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. So, now for this week’s question…

There has been a lot of recent news regarding Bioware’s direction for space combat in The Old Republic. With the PC Gamer article and the short trailer shown off at GamesCom, we’ve been given a small insight into the very guided, yet highly cinematic experiences the team has planned. There are many details yet to come, but the biggest one we’re looking forward to is how space is going to fit into our personal stories, as well as the larger world arcs. Will space be a completely set apart side experience that bears no meaning on how characters develop or will the missions provide important context for the quest lines we will find ourselves following? Of course, the development team has yet to show us, but we’re incredibly curious to hear YOUR expectations for how space will fit into your experience.
Discuss this topic on the forums!

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MER Episode 23 – Form V

This week we get back to the classic style of MER, breaking down the latest news and getting to the heart of community conversations. We get caught up on all the details for Space Combat and the new Jedi Knight advanced classes, and take a good look at the four new playable species. The community really brought their A-game for this week’s discussion topic, and they helped us dissect the concerns surrounding class restrictions. Also the mail bag has gotten significantly lighter, and we’ll continue to answer our backlog of emails in the next couple of shows.

We want to offer a big thanks to Rel82aStarkiller, Mesirav Darkcrest, Kathy from Corellian Run Radio, camensmasher, Robhellboy, Lordhammer from Guild Umbra, Timsobuff, Xavier, and Sebastian0 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
8/17 – PC Gamer article covering space combat in The Old Republic
-Space combat is NOT going to be a sim like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
-Buzz word used at the press junket was “Tunnel Shooter”
-Combat will be accessed via unlockable “hot-spots” that you interact with similar to the glaxy map in ME.
-Combat is single-player at first, plans to implement PVP and Co-op in the future

8/13 – Jedi Knight Advanced Classes
-Advanced Classes update at SWTOR.com
-New video with in-game footage of Jedi combat
-Advanced Classes: Guardian and Sentinel
-Also introduced to the first companion for the Knight, the T7-01 Astromech
-Lightsaber forms at Wookiepedia

8/6 – New Timeline Holorecord covering the Mandalorian War
-Timeline Video at SWTOR.com
-Focuses on the Republic’s struggle and how Revan and Malak turned the tide
-Their acts ended the war, but also lead to their fall to the dark side
-Next Timeline will investigate even more dark side influence over the war, specifically Exar Khun

8/6 – Four new playable species announced
-Species update at SWTOR.com
-Sith Pureblood confirmed for Sith Warrior (Wookiepedia)
-Miraluka confirmed for Jedi Knight (Wookiepedia)
-Mirialans confirmed for Jedi Consular (Wookiepedia)
-Zabrak confirmed for Sith Inquisitor (Wookiepedia)
-“There are combinations we haven’t confirmed. James recently talked on this subject at Comic-Con International, though, and announced that there will be some restrictions. For the time being, the combinations we have announced you can count on. What other combinations will there be? That’s an update for another day…” – Sean Dahlberg

Stories From the Outer Rim
Community Discussion – Class Restrictions

Listener Questions
GoodRevan – Do you think there will be expansion packs released to keep things with TOR new and up to date, or do you think that this is a one off deal? And if there are expansion packs, do you think that they will add new planets, or weapons, etc?
Couldn’t find an official word from Bioware, but it’s very likely there will be expansions

Mads from Denmark – I’ve been wondering for a while now, how much of a role the companion characters will play in the end game play of swtor. I loved them in both Kotor and Mass Effect and I wonder how much different they are going to be in this game. Specifically if you lose a character, lets say a healer-type, because they don’t like the way you do things, does that mean that you have a disadvantage in endgame? Are more than one of your companions capable of filling a certain role?

Sergio – Do you guys plan on making a guild in SWTOR?

Tygran – One major theme in most SW movies/books/games is redemption and the fall from grace. Do you think they will allow players to switch sides? Such as a Jedi losing his way and switching to Sith. Not sure how that would work for the other classes. If they did this, I would hope it would come with a cost such as a long quest chain and loss of abilities while you learned new ones.
No faction swaps. Ever. – James Ohlen, Lead Designer

KondorHawx – Once the game comes out and we’re all enjoying the wonderful universe of Star Wars, what are your plans on the occurrence of the show? Weekly, bi-weekly?

MER Episode 23 Community Discussion: Class Restrictions

It’s that time again for a community discussion topic! We’re both incredibly excited to get back to the gritty details of the most recent news, some rumors, and most importantly, what you guys and gals are thinking about The Old Republic. For anyone new to MER (or in case you have forgotten), here’s how the community discussion topic works: The week before each episode we will put up a short audio clip detailing the new topic. We then want you to send us your thoughts either through the forums, email, or in the form of an mp3. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. So, now for this week’s question…

The recent announcement of the four new playable species for The Old Republic has brought to a head the conversation about non-human species being limited to specific classes. For example, this past week we learned that the Zabrak will be able to force-lightning their way through the game as Sith Inquisitors, and the blind Miraluka can force-feel their way through the world as Jedi Knight. While it has been announced that there are many details missing, including more race/class combinations, two primary schools of thought have come to light on this subject: Those who want a completely open system to create and customize their character exactly as they see fit, and those who defer to Bioware’s judgment. A strong argument for the latter is the possibility of some very detailed class stories based specifically on the history of a given species.
Discuss this topic on the forums!

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MER Episode 22 – Extra Lives

Continuing with our summer of amazing guests, this week Scott Johnson of The Instance and the FrogPants network of shows joins us to discuss all things SWTOR! We take another step back to discuss what makes a great gaming podcast, whether or not Bioware has the formula in place to make a fantastic game (hint: they do!), parenting and MMOs, and in general completely geek out on our most anticipated game of the next year. We also hit the recent news, including the announcement of ship combat at Comic-Con 2010 and the newest playable planet (which is actually a moon), Nar Shaddaa.

Also, stick around after the show is over to hear us geek out even more on what we’ve been playing (mostly Starcraft II) and some of the games we’re looking forward to in the coming months.

We want to offer a big thanks to Rel82aStarkiller, Mesirav Darkcrest, Kathy from Corellian Run Radio, camensmasher, Robhellboy, and Lordhammer from Guild Umbra 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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Discuss this episode on the FORUMS

News from the Galactic Republic
7/23 – Beyond Solo panel at Comic-Con 2010
-Video of the panel at GameSpot
-Space Combat announced!
-Ship customization confirmed (to what extent we have no idea)
-Darth Hater interview with Drew Karphyshyn touched on the difficulty for writing stories about established groups
-Re-emphasized race/class restrictions

7/30 – Nar Shaddaa Announced as the 14th playable planet (but actually a moon!)
-Nar Shaddaa at the Holonet
-Nar Shaddaa at Wookiepedia
-A moon of Nal Hutta
-Hutts displaced the Evocii when they settled Hutta in 15,000BBY. Evocii were not free until 4,000BBY
-Ecumenopolis (city-planet) similar to Coruscant, but dominated by crime cartels
-Upper levels filled with palaces and every indulgence one could think of
-Lower levels a place for slavery and crime
-Hutts and the Exchange syndicate (the Hutt’s only true rival) made a killing by profiteering during the Great Galactic War,
-The Exchange at Wookiepiedia (Calo Nord worked for them in KOTOR)