What we have here is the eternity vault video. We are getting a live experience here where eight players play as Sith and try to raid the eternity vault. What are known as operations–the first operation in the game–is a creation for those that reach level 50 to keep their end of game content exciting.

The video looks really great. The eight players work together against a lot of really strong NPCs and when they beat the first wave, a second wave comes and that time, they get their asses handed to them.

Operations, as they say, are for up to 16 players. It’s got varying challenges for casual players as well as seasoned players. I won’t keep typing. Instead, just watch the video and chime in below with what you think.

I recently signed up for Google+ and one of the cool features on there is what is called “sparks.” And these sparks allow me to track specific search phrases such as, oh I don’t know, “SWTOR.” It’s Google Alerts, except it’s built into my G+ account.

One the articles that appeared was with the title “cheap swtor credits, Hot Home Staging Tips « Buy WOW Gold » WOW Gold Blog.” I decided to click it because I thought it was funny that they were selling credits before the game was even out.

It’s a garbage article. But, some of the links in it did pique my curiosity and I decided to go through. I was amazed at how professional some of these websites were that were selling credits and power-leveling.

It made me think, though.

What was BioWare going to do about this? I mean, it’s obviously something that happens, but it does add a certain level of annoyance to the game. There’s this random dude who has $100 to blow running around with a level 60 character while everyone else is working on their dude.

But, it’s pretty inevitable, isn’t it?

I just don’t get why people do it. Half the enjoyment for me in this game will be me building up my character and making the choices I want along the road. If someone offers power leveling, I have no say in the choices that were made.

See, when I give my account over to be power leveled, suddenly the character is going through the quests to get me stronger and stronger. And, considering BioWare said there wouldn’t be mundane tasks, I can’t think of any other way for my player to get leveled faster than to go through the game.

That defeats the purpose of playing TOR. So, perhaps that’s how BioWare is combating it. You miss out on a great story by power leveling. But, that still doesn’t get rid of those selling credits.

I guess it’s just something we’ll have to deal with. All in all, though, it does make me laugh how people are already preparing for the sale of their SWTOR credits. Man, you gotta love it.

According to some reports, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be released right around Christmas. That would be its last chance to get it released by 2011 which, according to my friend who was at PAX, was the answer he got from one of the producers.

Paul Darrow was one of the voice actors that BioWare used for the numerous different NPCs in the game. He’s known for his work in Blake’s 7. About a year ago, he finished up voicing one of the NPC guides for the Sith warrior.

Paul said that he was privy to sensitive information including the anticipated release date. According to him, BioWare plans to release Star Wars: The Old Republic at Christmas.

If that really is the case, they’ve got a lot of work to make sure that they get the game released in time because, let’s be honest, they haven’t even had an open beta yet; unless, of course, they’ve been testing hardcore with a secret group of people.

I know that BioWare has some announcements to make in San Diego, so that may be their way of announcing beta. If they announce beta now, it’ll be perfect for a Christmas launch.

Are you wishing for a white–I mean–a Star Wars Christmas?

My fellow number junkies and streakers,

If you are ‘naked’ in a bracketed match then you will be up to a 90% combat stats disadvantage.

If you are in an open match then the bolster mitigates the difference, not the whole. In other words, you will be at about a ((your level/max level) * 80%) + 10% combat stats disadvantage.

Note that formula is an oversimplification for illustrative purposes.

-Gabe

Sounds good to me. Basically what this is saying is that, if you decide to go into combat without your gear, you’re going to get pwned.

Now, I remember writing back a couple years ago about how I would’ve loved if it was more than JUST gear that made up how good you were. I wanted skill to be a significant part of the overall experience. And I still think that’d be nice.

But, we have to be realistic here. If you’re running around completely naked, are you really going to be able to beat someone in full armor, especially if he has a gun?

The opposite that can be said is that Jedi, in reality, fight in robes. At least, they fight in robes in the movies. So, does that mean that gear could be overused in this case (90%)? I think there had to be some sort of a compromise. Someone who has played the game and got some powerful gear is going to be in a better position than someone who didn’t get it.

But, then again, perhaps BioWare has some plan for the robes. Maybe wearing the right robes gives you a force boost or something. I don’t know. Regardless, gear is obviously going to be important in the game which really isn’t all that bad.

It’ll make finding new pieces all the more exciting. Any opinions on it?

Last night, GameSpot exclusively released another flashpoint on a previously unknown planet, Taral V. While little is known about this planet, so far, what we do know is that it is a planet deep in Republic territory. And, you and your team have to go to the planet to get information about saving an important Jedi.

The description is as follows:

The emperor is holding a powerful Jedi captive in his personal prison–a massive space station at the heart of the Maelstrom Nebula. Only a Gree computer is capable of navigating the treacherous cosmic storms that surround the prison. Fortunately, the Republic has learned that the Empire guards just such a device on the remote jungle world of Taral V.Your mission is to infiltrate the hidden Imperial fortress on Taral V and recover this computer. Success will mean that the Republic fleet can launch an assault on the prison where you can, perhaps, rescue the Jedi prisoner.

That sounds pretty exciting to me. However, if that was the only information we had, this would be a decent update. What we’ve got is even more information about this flashpoint, but more importantly, about flashpoints in general.

First, we know that this flashpoint should take about ninety minutes to complete. However, if you’re like me, you spent a lot of time playing Mass Effect looking for every single box to open. I’m known as a completionist. Jesse Smith, world designer, had this to say about that:

Taral V can be played in roughly 90 minutes, which is about the average length for a flashpoint. A completionist play-through would probably take more than two hours. If you have any stealthy friends, you might find them particularly useful on this mission.

What he wouldn’t reveal was how many flashpoints there are. All he’d say is, “flashpoints are a core part of the game experience and will challenge you from a relatively early level all the way to endgame. You could spend a large chunk of your time playing them, for sure, and there are plenty of incentives to do so.”

I’ve included a video at the bottom of the post. I have to admit, that makes the flashpoint sound really exciting. However, if you think you’ll be able to play the mission at level 1, think again. It is intended for players at level 32 and above.

That, though, begs an interesting question. What is level 32? Is that half? Is that 80% of the way there? I might be wrong, but I don’t think there is any idea about rank in the game.

I’m really looking forward to this. This cooperative play with some of my friends is really going to prove exciting and will make for some awesome experiences. Anyway…Enjoy the video!

In the excerpt I read on the website, I got a bit more of a taste about the way things are going to work in regard to space combat. Ohlen said, “We modelled the gameplay after classic Star Wars games like Rogue Squadron. You’re not just flying around in three-dimensional space not knowing what to do. You’re given a specific mission and you fly along a set path.” Now, we obviously know that. It created a lot of frustration amongst players–me included.

He went on to say, “This part of the game involves aiming with your mouse and more hand-eye coordination. We have different levels of difficulty, so if you’re not the greatest space shooter, you’re still going to be able to have fun. You’ll just have to stick to the hot spots that are more [for] your skill set. If you’re an expert, you’ll eventually graduate to the most difficult of the space battle zones.”

At this point, I am starting to warm up to the idea of this type of space combat. While I’d obviously love free roaming, I really did love the Rogue Squadron games and since this aspect of the game is built on being more about skill than anything else, it’ll allow some of us to really excel. One of my complaints with MMOs is how if you push a button, you attack. With this, you’ll actually have to be somewhat tactical and know how to do it.

The one other thing I really liked were the descriptions he gave about the different moves each class could do. He only gave one per, but they were still fun. “A Jedi Knight can leap through the air and attack an enemy. A Jedi Consular can lift an enemy up in the air using his telekinetics and slam them into the ground. A Sith Warrior can lift an enemy up and choke them. A bounty hunter can fly into the air and fire missiles down on an enemy. Those are just examples of one ability for each class. Each class has dozens of different abilities.”

Other than that, the article just talks about things we already know. I don’t get Star Wars Insider, so I only got to read the excerpts. However, if anyone here read it, leave a comment with anything you liked. I’d love to hear from you.

According to a supposed ex-EA/Mythic employee, it is his opinion that Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to be a failure. In his own words, he argues that, ” Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too.”

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but he’s just out there. By reading through his post, it’s obvious that he’s writing from his emotion rather than his logic. Yeah, so he wasn’t needed anymore. Yeah, so EA is outsourcing their art. I won’t get into a political conversation, but if it’s cheaper to do it elsewhere (and it is not cheap to do any business in America), then that’s just the way it is. I feel for anyone who loses their job, but this is obviously emotion he’s writing from.

EA is cutting back on the number of Mythic employees and shipping them over to the Austin office to work on TOR because Warhammer just isn’t doing good.

Now, what is interesting–and if he is a real EA employee, it’ll be even more interesting–is the fact that he puts a $300 million price tag on Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’ve heard numbers tossed around, but now that we know a ballpark of what they’ve spent, suddenly you realize that this game is going to be massive. And, at the same time, we appreciate why EA is so desperate to get the game out. If the game succeeds and can bring in the kind of money that WoW does, it’ll make EA a boatload of money.

Now, I have not had the pleasure of testing the game or trying finished products at trade shows, but for those of you out there who have, please tell us: does the game suck? And, most importantly, is the most amazing aspect of the game the sound? Because, I’ve checked out every video out there and from what I can see, everything and I mean EVERYTHING looks amazing. But, I’m biased.

Regardless, we’re getting closer and closer to release. I cannot wait for Star Wars: The Old Republic to be released. And, I apologize for not writing much. School started and I had so much to do. But, I’m in a flow and it won’t be happening again. Thanks for sticking around!

They talked about a lot of different things in the video. First, space combat won’t be entirely optional which makes sense. I always think of Obi Wan Kenobi saying, “Flying is for droids.” He hates flying, but sometimes he has to do it. That’s what the game will be like–or, that’s what Erickson thinks it’ll be like. However, he does explain that it won’t be as tactical and strategic as normal space combat game play because he doesn’t want anyone getting stuck there.

Another thing that was interesting was that he did say, “you can upgrade your ship.” I know it’s been confirmed, but then at the same time, confirmation was always shady. Hearing him say “upgrade your ship” is pretty confirming to me.

With less than a year before the game comes out, it sounds like they’re rounding things up nicely and are now in the stages of tweaking. They need to balance the characters out and Erickson admits that they’re no where near close to that. That’s fine because that’s probably one of the latter parts of development. I just hope they do it right because there’s nothing more frustrating than an obvious super character.

The companions were discussed a bit and how they can act any way you want them to based on what kits you give them. That means any companion can become a healer if you choose for them to. That makes for an interesting way of getting healers when you don’t want to play as one.

Overall, it was a cool interview. I’m looking forward to seeing other interviews pop up as GamesCom 2010 continues. Any comments about what was discussed?

As you might recall, each class has two advanced classes. These are meant to create a total of sixteen different classes. It allows for you to really customize how you want your character to be and more importantly, allows you to enter the universe in the way that you always fantasized you would. So, here are the advanced classes.

• Jedi Knight: The Jedi Sentinel and the Jedi Guardian as mentioned in the previous post. The Sentinel is more of a DPS while the Guardian is more of a tank.
• Imperial Agent: Operative which relies on blaster rifles, energy blades, stealth and burst ranged damage. The other is Sniper which relies on sniper rifle, dps and this is the counterpart to the Gunslinger class of the smuggler.
• Bounty Hunter: All we know is that they’re called Mercenary and Powertech.
• Jedi Consular: Shadow which relies on the double bladed and the Wizard which uses a single blade and healing.
• Trooper: Commando which uses heavy armor and is a tank and then the Vanguard which relies on DPS.
• Smuggler: Gunslinger which is dual pistols, quick draw and ranged DPS. The other is Scoundrel which is healing, burst ranged damage and stealth.

My only real problem with all of this was the Jedi Consular. Wizard? Seriously? I wouldn’t consider Yoda a wizard in any respect. I don’t know. I just think that BioWare ran out of names for the different advanced classes and the Jedi Consular suffered. I would rather see something else, but even I can’t come up with something.

With these advanced classes released, do you know which one you plan on playing as? I am tempted to go with the Jedi Knight Guardian, but the Trooper keeps looking more and more appealing.

The first thing he talked about that I really liked was about the quests. First, there are the class quests that you, as say a Jedi Knight will get to experience. Then, there are the world quests. So, if you are on Hutta, you are going to have to deal with quests that are on the planet. What stood out for me was this extensive quote:

While the class content tends to be about very specific things. In the movies, Han’s story is about the Hutts, his morality, and learning to be a good guy. In the midst of that, he’s in this grand story about the Rebellion. As you go on in time, the percentage of class content goes down, and the percentage of world content goes up. Not because you have less class content numerically, but because you have far more world quests. The world gets bigger and bigger.

This is interesting because it makes sense. There is going to be a heck of a lot more in regard to the worlds than there can possibly be for the individual class quest. The reason being is simple. As you achieve a quest on your personal journey, more people hear about you and therefore, are willing to offer you quests. So, the percentage of quests that become available as time goes on becomes greater because you are doing more with your personal class. It was definitely an interesting back and forth.

The next thing that I love is the discussion about morality. I wrote an article a while back about the Sith being humanized. The reason I love the discussion about morality is because of what Erickson said.

You can be a Sith that ends up being entirely light side. There is as much flexibility to every class story as what you’d see in any of our full products.

Pretty much, while you are playing on the Empire side, if you are a Sith, you could be on the light side. It’s a lot more work, Erickson warned, but it is an interesting idea. Perhaps the Sith don’t have to be evil. Perhaps they are perceived as evil, but instead, it is simply their situation. Sure, they do things in one particular fashion, but does that mean they HAVE to be evil? The fact that Erickson confirms that a Sith can be entirely light sided is very interesting and will be something worth fleshing out in the future.

This is an important twist because it gives you the chance to really play the way you want. I am really interested in the Sith storyline–which is why at some point, I will roll as a Sith–but the fact that I can play any way I want rather than just evil makes the game just a bit more interesting. So, I am definitely looking forward to it.

Revan

However, it is the little tidbit about Revan that everyone is really excited about. I know that when I saw it, I was like, “Finally!” What the heck happened when Revan went back into Deep Space after the Sith Emperor? What happened when the Jedi Exile went after him? We’ve heard nothing about them since the time of the games. Because of that, I am so freaking excited about the reveal. In Daniel Erickson’s own words, he said:

All of your KoTOR 1 and 2 questions will be answered.

This is where I open it up to you guys! What questions are you hoping will be answered? Go ahead and post a comment with your questions. If any of the readers know the answer, they’ll post them. So, let me know what’s up. Are you excited for the stuff revealed in this interview or are you just bored waiting for the game?