The force works in very mysterious ways since I was drawn to look at Drew’s site the day his book was released.

Despite that, I bought it and tore through it. On my train rides home and in to work—very hard for me since I have been gluttonous with 24 on my phone every morning and afternoon—I read. And I read.

I thought that a review of the book and not just a blind, fan orgasm of the book was appropriate considering Drew has and remains one of the favorite authors. Anything Star Wars he’s written, I’ve read. I’ve done his Mass Effect stuff and when he joined the Star Wars: The Old Republic team, I was completely on board.

That being said, I have my reservations about Revan. Let me start off by saying that the book is tremendous. It’s well written, it’s exciting and, most importantly, it has action the way that I love it.

My main reservation about it is the fact that it ended so abruptly. I bought the Kindle version because, well, I have the Kindle. I should have noticed something was wrong when Revan decided to attack the Emperor and I was only 62% of the way through the document. Even after everything that happened, I thought, “Well, that’s okay…Maybe there’s other stuff he wants to reveal.”

But, then it turned into a big “publicity adventure” for LucasArt’s books. So, I suppose that is where and why I was so disappointed. It ended so abruptly.

Moving on, though, the story was great. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I’ll try and review it as honestly as I can.

In the first half of the book, I was frustrated because I felt there was so much more emphasis on Lord Scourge than there was on Revan and, let’s be honest, we’re reading about Revan. I knew he’d come into play somehow, but I just didn’t understand why there had to be that much of Scourge and so much less of Revan.

However, once the two came together and it became 95% Revan/Scourge and 5% Meetra, I suddenly realize how much the story had needed that sort of “split.” The only way to make the final scene work was for us to understand Scourge and to understand how, by coming together, this final confrontation with the Emperor would play out.

One of the things that Karpyshyn is good at is effectively describing the combat in a way that plays in your head. You don’t realize when watching the movies, but the combat is significantly faster. In the movies, it’s two lightsaber wielding warriors fighting each other, swinging at human speeds, battling and ducking. In the book, though, it’s described how it should be: a flurry. It’s not slow; it’s fast and the Force really is powerful.

The biggest thing that the book does, though, is explain that quest that we’ll have to do in game in regards to Revan. I won’t reveal it, but let’s just say that it doesn’t look like Revan is totally done just yet.

Drew, once again, you’ve done wonderful. While there are parts in the book that I felt were rushed—and I hate how your publisher set the book up with it ending and there being over a third remaining in the document—I loved it.

So, get writing on that other one. Can’t wait to keep reading your Star Wars stories.

“What we’ve seen repeatedly is that people will pay subscriptions for top tier, best of show quality products (The Economist, HBO, World of Warcraft) but they will not pay for many of them at once,” he explained in the interview.

He’s very right with that. I was considering getting the Economist because it really is tremendous writing; but, I decided against it because I knew I wouldn’t read it enough and because I already get the New York Times on my phone. For those that play WoW, they may leave it and go play SWTOR.

Erickson went on to say,  ”in that market the best ones will stay around and the less exciting entries will fall off fairly quickly. I’m excited to see what’s coming next!”

A lot of F2P games come out and they’ll try and gain some revenue through microtransactions. If the game is really amazing, people are going to stick around and play it. If that microtransaction money allows them to then evolve into a subscription MMO because they developed the game that much, the players will follow. If the game rocks, they’ll pay.

This is interesting because the developers and producers of SWTOR have been hinting at the game existing for years…and years…and years, so they better hope that subscription MMOs last.

Do you agree? If a game is that good, are you willing to pay a monthly bill to enjoy that game? I know that I am.

What is different about this comic from the others is that it opens right where players will get to play when they load up the game. So, characters we might meet in this series are also characters we’ll definitely see in the game, we would assume,

Dave Marshall, the editor, had this to say:

Welcome to the first comics series set concurrently with the events of the Star Wars: The Old Republic video game! While we’ve done two previous stories (Threat of Peace and Blood of the Empire) that take place during this era, The Lost Suns is the first one to unfold alongside players’ in-game stories. Being a Senior Writer on the game, Alexander Freed has packed this series full of clues for gamers to appreciate once they dive into their characters online.

Dissection

The comic opens with a flashback describing a battle between Imperials and Republic forces to try and take control of Rhen Var. We’re introduced to a series of characters right from the beginning including:
• Syo Bakarn: Correlian Jedi who is predominately a healer.
• Kela Kiwiiks: Togruta Jedi who is a thinker and a poet.
• Jaric Kaedan: Human Jedi Master, master warrior and excellent in the Juyo-Kos method
• Satele Shan: Guardian of the Republic
• And as one unit…They are invincible.

The one telling this story is a mysterious Jedi exile who saved Kaedan once. Naturally, we don’t know who this is yet, but his identity is released later in the story.

We see all sorts of combat with dual-wielded lightsabers in defensive positions, Force shields, lightsaber throw attacks and mech units. As a Jedi, I anticipate I’ll be destroying these Sith mech units myself.

We move forward to where Darth Mekhis is confronted by Satele Shan after she puts the Necroswarm colonies online. Not sure what these are, but moving forward, I’m sure we’ll learn all about them.

Skipping forward, we learn about Theron Shan, who is the son of Satele, on Coruscant. He overhears one of the advertisements on Coruscant about an Imperial assault on the Esseles transport. This is one of the early flashpoints in the game.

Theron works for the Republic Strategic Information Service which is currently investigating a slave ring run by the Black Sun.

Using a paralytic dart, he is able to knock out a smuggler so that he is able to get all of the information that he needs from her.

Soon enough, Theron is flying with the director of the ISI through Coruscant which just makes me think personal mount over and over again. We learn that the mysterious Jedi Exile is Jedi Master Ngani Zho who was “the greatest warrior of his generation.” He was thought to be lost in the war, but in reality, just disappeared and is now a vagrant.

Theron is tasked with tracking Zho down. He was last seen in the Imperial “black sector” known as the Vesla System. It’s here that we learn that Theron is Shan’s son and that he was raised, in part, by Zho.

Once again, we see Darth Mekhis who is now on a ship called “Ror’Jhan.” This translate, according to her, to “She-Whose-Leaves-Sweat-Poison.” This ship is actually a Javelin Dreadnought that might have some modifications. The ship can “sanitize” planets from space, whatever that means. She wants to give it to Darth Marr as a gift.

Mekhis becomes aware of the presence of Ngani Zho behind Imperial lines. She wants to find him first considering what happened to her—Shan beat her up, I’m guess, in the flashback. Or maybe Zho did.

She dispatches her Sith Knight creations which appear in several canisters aboard the ship.

Wow…

All in all, this comic is looking good and I am definitely looking forward to pick up the next one. I’ll be sure to let you know all about it when that one is available for me to read as well.

But, one of the things that was really interesting and important was their involvement across the entire game. Were they going to be allowed in raids and things of that nature?

According to James Ohlen, they’re not involved. Here’s his quote:

Right now, we’re aiming to not allow companions into end game raids and Flashpoints. We’re also currently not allowing them into Warzones. One of the big reasons is that these kinds of activities, raids, Flashpoints and Warzones, they’re all very much about player skill. And the difference between losing and victory is so slim that when something goes wrong you want it to be the player’s fault, not the fact that the companion character’s AI is two seconds too slow.

I don’t disagree with him, but at the same time, I don’t agree with him. While they really aren’t necessary in raids, I’ve consistently felt that they do play a part. Perhaps not a big one, but if you’re a trooper and you’ve got another trooper as your companion, having another one there to offer covering fire does make sense.

But, then his argument is valid…If I win a raid, I want it to be because I kicked ass; not because the other player’s AI got in the way when he was about to throw a grenade.

That doesn’t change the fact, though, that if a raid is between the Republic and Empire–who else would it be between–that there should be more than just the main characters. There should be other soldiers.

So, I’m hoping for some sort of a compromise. Yes, having the companions there when there is another real person to fill a role is totally important. But, not having a bunch of random soldiers running around seems bizarre.

What I’d like to see in raids, instances, PvP, and other things is the inclusion of random NPCs. If I’m a Jedi going head to head against a Sith, wouldn’t it make it more exciting if there were Republic and Sith soldiers fighting against each other as well as making life a bit more difficult for me? It adds to the skill, I think.

Regardless, I know there are many die hard MMOers who would disagree with me. They would think it is blasphemous to include NPCs in anything MMO. But, I think in a big war like scenario that TOR has taken, it fits.

What’s your opinion? Want to see companions in other parts of the game that aren’t strictly solo? Want to see random NPCs? Chime in!

One of the things that is very obvious is the objective side of things. It’s not so much “kill everyone” as “let’s beat this mission.” If I am playing the Republic, I might have to work with the other Republic players to take over some gun battery so that I can destroy Imperial ships. This is the scenario as seen in the movie below. This idea of beating the mission really gives it more of an epic feel because it’s not just the grind of killing, but having to play some tactics so that we can complete an objective that gives it the feeling of helping the war effort.

The next thing that stood out for me was the number of people that are going to be part of the PvP experience. I remember when they said that we would be allowed to bring one of our companions in there with us. So, naturally, if you look at the image below, you automatically count eight characters. That would suggest that there are four people and then four companions. But, does that suggest that there can only be four people on one side of the PvP warzone? That might be somewhat limiting and, instead, it might depend on the size of the overall fight.

However, one of the things that would be exciting is the idea of other NPCs in the game. For example, if there were a bunch of Republic soldiers participating in the fight on top of my character and companion, that’d be exciting. The fight would be more epic and, as a Jedi, I could go from cutting down a Sith soldier to fighting a Sith Inquisitor in the same breath. It’ll add an element of excitement and I don’t see why that wouldn’t be added.

There are so many exciting things about this warzone. I am typically a story type of guy, but this sort of PvP information is really exciting and something that I’m definitely going to have to get involved in. Do you have any opinion about the warzone set up? I’d love to hear about it. Post a comment before about what you are excited about and, more importantly, if you see anything that I didn’t catch.

However, space combat is in The Old Republic. I purchased a copy of PC Gamer and went through it, tearing it apart, finding all the little details. And then, BioWare released a short little clip that showed what space combat was like. So, I wanted to give a run down of what it’s going to be like. While I haven’t played it yet–obviously–we can get a better idea of what game play will be like.

Space Combat in The Old Republic

It should be noted from the absolute beginning that space combat, as mentioned in PC Gamer, will not be “a revival of the class X-Wing s TIE Fighter space-combat games.” Much to my own frustration, this is the case. Jake Neri, LucasArts Producer told PC Gamer that, “we didn’t set out to make a full ‘go anywhere’ space game. It’s important for us to be true to the core of this game, and we didn’t feel that was the right decision based on our experience with other games we’ve built around here.”

That means that space combat is going to be a tunnel shooter. For those that don’t know, a tunnel shooter means that you travel along a predetermined track. However, you can move your ship up and down the Y axis and left and right on the X axis and you might be able to move diagonal, but that might just be a movement of the X and Y. Neri explained the gameplay as “the most cinematic moments that we can create. We want players to get in and feel like they’re in the movies. It’s about highly cinematic controlled combat moments…very heroic, action packed, exciting, visceral and dangerous encounters that’ll make you pee your pants.” You decide.

That’s great and I’ll be honest…Watching that really was an exciting experience. It does leave a few questions in my mind, but I’ll save that for another post when more is confirmed. It’s just questions on PvP and other people being a part of it.

Looking at that clip, though, we can all agree that there is a lot going on. And that’s the point. BioWare wasn’t going to make a full on flight simulator, but they still wanted you to feel heroic. And they still wanted you to die if you failed. Kevin Barrett, the executive producer at BioWare Edmonton told PC Gamer that they wanted players to die. They want it to be really hard to beat the mission.

So, you fly through an asteroid field–but you’re not actually flying because the tunnel is doing it for you–and then you target different ships. You might have to destroy a series of fighters and at the same time, blow up a capital ship. So, you shoot your lasers–which sound very familiar to the movie sounds–and destroy fighters. Then, you use your missiles and destroy the capital ship. That’s what we know so far. Will more be revealed? One can hope.

Now, one last thing does stand out in this clip. There are six different ships shown. Now, I can comfortably gauge which one is which. We know the Jedi and Sith ship, but then there are four others. The sleek silver one that looks similar to the Naboo ship is probably the Imperial Agents. The one with the green boosters is probably the Bounty Hunter. The one that looks very similar to the Ebon Hawk is for the smuggler. Finally, the ship that has the two wings coming off the main body look to it is for the Trooper.

Are these confirmed? No. But, there’s a very good chance, just by thinking about who the characters are, that this will be the way it is structured. Space combat is an interesting thing. I hoped for it to be one way, but perhaps my frustrations won’t go unheard. Maybe it will be amazing? But, for now, I am a little let down. Any opinions?

The Smuggler’s Union

The Smuggler’s Union is a Republic guild that is open to all four classes. While their name sake is the Smuggler’s Union, they are looking for Jedi and Troopers to fill the ranks. I interviewed Sgt_Nob today who is the Trooper Commander for the guild. We talked about a bunch of different things  that I think are really exciting. Their guild is a mixture of everything–PvP, PvE, RP, Raiding–so they offer a bunch of different stuff to members.

Definitely check out the interview and maybe you’ll want to join the guild. If not, that’s alright. We’ll be having more interviews over the coming weeks and months to gear us for the release of the game. If you want to be interviewed, please feel free to drop me an email. Without further waiting, here is the interview.

Author insert a music with WS Audio Player.
Download (Interview).

Because of this, I felt that it would be a good resource to the readers to hear about the different guilds that are available to join in the TOR universe. While the game has obviously not been released yet, there have been many guilds created. Or, there are guilds that were created for other games and are now porting over to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Regardless, there are a lot of places for players who are preparing for TOR to join up with like minded individuals.

Animosity-Guild.Net

The first guild I decided to interview was animosity-guild.net. They are an Empire leaning guild that is open to all four ranks. They are a PvP guild and specifically, they are into raiding. However, as one of the members explained in the interview, they do focus somewhat on PvE which is exciting.

In the interview, they talked about what they are looking for in a member, what makes their guild great and what they are most looking forward to in the game. Be sure to check out the interview. If you own a guild and want to be featured in an interview, send me an email. If you’re chosen, we’ll let you know.

Enjoy the interview!

Author insert a music with WS Audio Player.
Download (Interview).

But, the problem I find is that PC Gamer won’t have their October issue our for another few weeks. This means I have to wait to find out what type of space combat there is going to be. And I just couldn’t have that. So, I began to speculate. I’ve come up with my own speculation on what space combat is going to look like. To begin with, though, we have to consider what space flight might be like. To have combat, one must first have flight.

The space flight, in my opinion, is going to be free to an extent. One of the things people talk about is flying around the galaxy freely. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible. The galaxy is massive, so to fly around freely would take forever. Legitimately, it would take many life times. Therefore, space travel will be free flying around the planet. If you want to fly around the planet and see other people flying around as well, all the better. But, if you are on Coruscant and you want to go to Alderaan, you’ll have to enter hyperspace. This will be similar to how travel was done in KOTOR and in Mass Effect.

So, what happens when there is a space battle going on? Good question.

Sean, the community manager at SWTOR, mentioned in the thread that you “fly” to the combat hot spot. “In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map,” Sean said. That would suggest control over the ship on your way to combat. So, you leave hyper space and then you fly to the hot spot on the map, enter it and voila, combat begins. But, what will combat look like?

Space combat will be a mouse and keyboard operation. While many people have been hoping and praying for a joystick game, the truth is, this is a MMO, not a flight simulator. We’re going to be getting space combat to begin with, so I think that’s plenty. Maybe in future expansions BioWare will make it with a joystick, but right now, it won’t be.

Combat will probably be similar to what it looked like in Star Wars Galaxies. You’ll fly around in your ship and you’ll do damage to ships bigger than yours and smaller. It might not be as good–I’ve heard great things about it–but the space combat, overall, will probably be like that. They can’t do something more basic because people are hardcore expecting to enjoy the space combat. If they do something simple like an asteroids game, people will be very upset. I know I would be.

Because ship customization is going to be added to the game, this is where you’ll be able to make your ship stronger. While you will be able to make it look cool, you’ll also be able to add stronger shields, better weapons, and other things to make you a more formidable opponent in space. So, if you have the credits, you might be able to buy a stronger shield generator.

This is speculative. While I think the above might be what they do–it just seems like a basic, but still enjoyable experience–BioWare can really surprise us sometimes. I don’t think it’ll be a stupid mini-game, but it might not be as extravagant as I described. We’ll have to wait until PC Gamer releases their next issue so we can be better learned on what space combat is going to be all about.

Because I had little knowledge on it–and still don’t–I asked one of the Apple employees. “Is there a growing market for gaming on Macs?” He was unable to give me an answer. So, I went and did a little research to determine if TOR would ever be made available for the Mac OS. I have an opinion, but first, let me flesh it out a bit.

To begin with, in 2009, Apple sold 3.9 million Mac machines during the holiday season. This includes the laptops as well as the desktops, but it poses an interesting point. More people are looking at the Mac as an alternative–albeit, an expensive one–to a Windows run PC. If people can wrap their heads around how expensive it is, chances are, people are going to choose a Mac. Is it a superior product? Many would say so; I can’t.

The Mac market share is growing. It’s growing slowly, but there are more people using Macs each year which should suggest something to gaming developers: more people who like to play games are still moving over to Mac. If these developers want to profit off them, they need to make their games compatible with the Mac OS.

But, it then leaves a question. Linux is slowly growing as well–much slower than Mac OS and Windows. So, should the gaming community make the games work on Linux as well? That’s the conundrum. No. Linux is such a tiny market share–not even two percent–that it doesn’t constitute making the games work for them.

The next big of information that suggests TOR might be coming to the Mac is a short bit of questioning at E3. James Ohlen, when asked about TOR coming to the Mac, said, “Um, currently I can’t talk about Mac… can’t talk about that. The only thing I can say is we’re coming out on the PC.” Thanks, AskAJedi, for the transcript.

Does anyone else see the hesitation? Why hesitate? Just say no.

Here’s my opinion on the whole thing. BioWare is going to release it on Mac. Whether it is released right when the game is available, though, is still a toss up. Here’s why. Chances are, EA is breathing down BioWare’s neck to get this game earning money. So, if it is too difficult to port the game over to Mac, EA will tell BioWare to hold off.

The reason James Ohlen can’t say anything about Mac is because they haven’t determined whether they are going to port it over at release or at a later time. There’s no reason not to, but they just need to determine if they can do it by release date.

I say they should. I want the game, but for my Mac brethren, I’d like for them to be able to play the game without having to reboot in Windows. Release the game in Mac. The market share is growing. More users want it over a PC. And if it means another 5% of users for BioWare, that’s the difference between a lot of potential profit.