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.

The overall purpose of the game is to bring your Star Wars fantasy to life. Now you can play as a Jedi Knight. Or, you can play as Darth Vader–I’ll admit, seeing a bunch of heavy breathing robotic Sith Warriors is going to irk me. And, you can shoot lightning. It would be incredibly limiting if I had to play the Sith Warrior role as only one or two alien species.

Therefore, I don’t see them making that a possibility. That doesn’t mean, though, that there won’t be faction-specific species.

First off, as mentioned in the article, Daniel Erickson specifically stated that, “The Chiss are actually the only aliens we’ve shown that are fully allied with the Empire, the Empire tends to actually be very anti-alien.” This is very much a grab from the Empire from the movies. It makes no sense for the Empire to be very anti-alien because the Emperor fought alongside the likes of original Sith such as Naga Sadow who was a Sith/Human hybrid.

But, I get that the Chiss are a faction based species. But, that’s about as far as that can go. If BioWare tries to take the Chiss and say, “Well, since Admiral Thrawn was a Chiss and he was similar to the Imperial Agent, we’re going to make the Chiss all that,” it defeats the overall experience. There have been Chiss force users. For example, Sev’Rance Tann was a Chiss who learned the Dark Side. So, there’s no reason why a simple switch could allow a Chiss user to be also a Force user.

Now, I can understand where Matt is coming from. Little evidence currently presented to us suggests that alien races are open to everything. But, there is also little evidence to suggest that BioWare is trying to create a game that goes with the archetypes. Its classes were archetypal–if you want to play as a smuggler, chances are, it’s because you love Han Solo–but there’s no evidence to suggest the same for the species. As mentioned above, Thrawn is the favorite Chiss. So, when talking about archetypes, he is the Imperial Agent. But, since there isn’t any evidence to suggest that species has to be connected to an archetype, I see no reason why it is going to appear.

As his evidence goes on to show in a lot of the work there after, it appears as if the aliens won’t be class specific. Sure, the media has shown some instances of class specific aliens, but in reality, it’s shown only single instances. So, it’s not likely that the class will be the deciding factor for the alien.

Instead, what you will see are classes only available as NPCs. For example, you won’t be able to play as a Hutt. You won’t be able to play as a Wookiee. The Hutt will be too difficult to play because you’d have to create entirely new armor for it and the Wookiee because everyone would play as a Wookiee then. If I am wrong and there are Wookiees, you at least have your smuggler or bounty hunter role because there won’t be any force sensitive Wookiees.

I am with Matt when I say that I really hope BioWare doesn’t make class specific aliens. They will limit the aliens to bipedal ones because that’s the easy to suit in armor. But, they won’t do much to limit who can play as what species. A Jedi Knight Rattataki won’t be impossible even if everything suggests that they are always dark side. Unless BioWare says otherwise, I see them being free to everyone. So, while the Gormak does look a bit evil, there’s nothing stopping him from being a Trooper–if he is even released as a playing species.

But, you can expect to see some faction specific aliens. The Chiss have to be Empire because they are in the Empire territory. It doesn’t mean you might not see a Chiss NPC who is Republic, though. Players just won’t have the opportunity to play that.

With such little information available right now about aliens, it’s hard to make a choice on what is going to happen. But, because BioWare has talked about fulfilling that Star Wars fantasy and, more importantly, allowing customization where ever they can, I don’t see them infringing on people’s playing by limiting aliens to different classes. So, it is with great enthusiasm that I say aliens won’t be class specific.

What does all this mean?  Well it means that the game is coming along well.  However, as we begin closing in on what seems to be the final stretch of the development cycle, I am not without my concerns.  Playing an MMORPG means being a single character in a massive world with thousands of other players, all the while maintaining enough of a sense of individuality to prevent from blending in perfectly with everyone else.  My main concern is that Bioware, with their history of making fantastic single player titles, may not be addressing that sense of individuality that makes your character in an MMO worth more than anyone else.

With the beautiful looking ships, it makes me wonder, are they all going to be absolutely identical?  How much customization will we be able to implement to make our ships, and our characters our own.  Also, I understand that there is going to be a lot of armor customization options for each class, but will the options be distinguishable enough.

Regardless of this concern, I am still confident that Bioware will be able to make our several-hundreds-of-hours adventure into Star Wars:  The Old Republic more than worth the wait, I just pray that it doesn’t go the route of World of Warcraft, where at the higher levels, everyone has the same armor, the same weapons, the same mount, the same everything.

What do YOU think?

Drop us a comment and let us know.

We learned a lot of great things, but that was last year. A lot has changed in one year. Specifically, the release date for TOR has been narrowed down. Because we now know that the release date is targeted for Spring of 2011, this could be the last E3 that TOR gets to have. While the game might not come out then and they might have another E3, since the target is Spring, we can imagine that this will be their big display of what the game has to offer. Therefore, we can expect to see some great footage of the game. However, there will also be things that, despite people’s hopes, will not be seen.

What to Expect at E3

To begin with, we know that there will be a trailer. Chances are, that trailer will appear later today–specifically around 7:00 PM EST–because of that timer on the SWTOR.com homepage. The reason we can conclude this–and it’s not confirmed, but it’s pretty obvious I’d say–is because of the logo. That logo is of Havoc Squad, the confirmed squad that all of the trooper class starts out in. Since this trailer shows some hefty trooper action, we can hopefully connect the dots that the trailer is today. If not, and I’m wrong, then we’re going to get something else today at 7:00 PM. Regardless, what we will see in this trailer is how Darth Malgus got his mask. We’ll see troopers in action. As you remember from last year’s Deceived trailer, Blur makes an amazing trailer.

We can expect to see extended game play footage. While they’ve shown some footage in the past, now that the game has been in development for so many years, they’re bound to have a lot of available footage to show what the game is going to be like. Chances are, they’ll allow people to play the game for some time to get used to the controls. It wouldn’t surprise me if they set up a series of computers so that multiple people could try it.

Some of the game play footage that we can expect to see is how the companions interact with the player. More importantly, we can expect to see how the different classes fight each other. I know how a Jedi vs. a Sith will fight. But, how will a smuggler fight against a Sith Warrior? We can expect to see a lot of that type of footage. Some are even suggesting that they might show footage of all eight classes grouped together fighting each other. That’ll prove to be rather interesting, I’d say.

Races will finally be explained. They’ve been slipping out bits and pieces of information about different races in the game. We know that there will be Chiss. We know there will be Twi’lek. We know these things. Chances are, BioWare will explain their rationale for the races that they’ve chosen and, more importantly, what future races will be there. No, you will not be allowed to play as a Wookiee. George Lucas has already made it clear that no Wookiee will ever be a Jedi, so that erases the chances of playing as one. But, there will be races.

Going hand in hand with game play footage, one of the things we might see is some of what the PvP will look like. While it’s not a guarantee, many people are dying to understand the PvP of the game. Therefore, we might see some footage and game play of what PvP might look like. This, though, I can’t say for certain. It’d be nice, but it might not make it in there.

Travel, though, does have a possibility of appearing at E3. In a Gamespot exclusive, a particular quote stands out. Gamespot had the privilige of playing some pre-E3 game play. The quote suggests firmly that there will be space travel in The Old Republic.

This one was a Han Solo-like ship captain who lands her Millennium Falcon-esque ship on Ord Mantell to drop off a weapon shipment to the Republic fort. Gamespot.

Because this is actual game play footage, I feel that this firmly backs up the idea that there will be space travel. And it makes sense. This is Star Wars! Hello!

What Not to Expect at E3

Unfortunately, there are going to be things that we’re unable to get access to at E3. And, while many people will really want to know about it, it’s just not likely to pop up. While it would be cool if I was wrong, there’s little reason for them to reveal this information.

To begin with, there will be no discussion of beta other than a “we’re hoping to have a beta around fall” in some passing interview. There’s never been a “Beta Announcement” before at E3; at least, not to my knowledge. And there’s no reason to. BioWare is going to get a whole bunch of new people to their site. They only want those that are actually committed to do beta. Therefore, when they do announce a beta, it’s going to be to the community, not to the entire world. I’ve been a member on the SWTOR forum since December of 2008. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask me to do a beta than some random person? I’ve been invested in the game for a while. While I might not get picked personally, that’s a pretty simple to understand mentality to have.

Another thing we might not see is end of game content. While they have a good idea of what’s going to happen, I just don’t think it’s done. With a year to go before the game comes out and E3 here now, chances are they worked hard on middle of the game content and beginning of the game content. They get all of that out of the way now so they can focus on the end of the game content leading up to beta. So, as much as people want to know what’s going to happen at the end of the game or after, I don’t see that being revealed just yet.

Finally, don’t expect to find out what type of payment system they’re going to have. While I’ve heard whispers of micro-transactions, that’s not likely. Regardless, that’ll probably be a press release at some point in the future or at a separate EA conference. I can’t imagine BioWare or EA taking the time to talk about the payment structure, especially with the game still so far away.

In the end, there is a lot to expect at E3 and a lot that probably won’t make it. This list isn’t extensive and it might not even be true. But, I can see no reason why the things not to expect would pop up. If I’m wrong, that’s cool. But, with so many things more important, we can anticipate a great E3 and some awesome Star Wars: The Old Republic news.

Stay tuned to TORUniverse.com as we update as news come out from E3. Subscribe to our newsletter on the right sidebar to get emails sent to you when there is something new. Consider following us on Twitter. And as always, please feel free to chime in with an opinion right in our comments.

Jedi and Sith

To start with, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what appears to be some incredible things planned for the Jedi and the Sith. To begin with, the lightsabers. They look a heck of a lot better than they did when BioWare began releasing their art and images of what the lightsabers looked like. When looking at the video, take a quick look at them. They don’t look bulky. They don’t look cartoonish. They look…A lot more real than they used to.

Now onto the actual fighting. The one thing that really looks good is how smooth things are. You could be deflecting lasers and in a movement as smooth as a real Jedi or Sith might do it, you’ll do a force push, sending the enemy flying back. It appears as if there is no hesitation. You’re really there it feels like.

While talking about the deflecting lasers, you have to really appreciate what they’ve done here. One of the things I remember was so cool about Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the video game, was how real the Jedi felt. They were really deflecting; they were really doing force pushes. The same can be said about the Force Unleashed. You were a legitimately bad ass force user who was able to do so much. Apparently, BioWare has taken that and really worked with it because the scene in the documentary where the two Jedi Consulars are walking toward their enemies while deflecting laser bolts is just awesome.

Lightsaber on lightsaber combat is what is really looking cool. At first, I was skeptical of the whole MMO because since the game is so large, they can’t make it look that great. But, as one of the developers of the game said, there is lightsaber choreography. They’ve taken actual people, made them do different combat moves and then the animators went in and made that into the game. In other words, it’s not going to be chop, chop, chop and that’s it. There are going to be a huge slew of different attacks that really look awesome.

Finally, for those that love the Sith, appreciate the force lightning. They’ve made it look really cool. It’s bigger than what we remember from the Star Wars movies, but it looks really awesome and is going to be an incredible tool to use when wanting to get rid of multiple enemies.

Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, Agent and Troopers

The thing that really looks great for these guys is how diverse they are. Yeah, the bounty hunter and the trooper are both that heavy class that is supposed to balance each other out, but they are still so different. The trooper is hardcore the run in and blow everything up guy. The bounty hunter is more of a jack of all trades in regard to the different weaponry. But, what can be seen from the video is that they both rely heavily on…well…heavy weapons. Rockets, heavy guns and grenades are all great. They are so great actually that you can use a sticky grenade.

What is revealed in this video for these four roles are the many different types of weapons there are. You can hide behind a shield and then rise up and start shooting at your enemies. Or, you can charge up your rifle and then send a large blast at the enemy. Want to pull the enemy toward you? Go ahead. Want to freeze them? Go ahead. In other words, there are a ton of different ways that you can really fight in this game and I think that was the big thing BioWare was going for. They have this great story, but how do they make game play awesome? This seems like how they’ve done just that.

Repetition

As I’ve said already, one of the big problems with combat in a lot of MMOs is that it becomes button mashing. Okay, now I’ll hit 2. Then 3. Let’s go back to 2. They’ve decided to get away from the “step and repeat type of combat” as one of their animators explained. It’s more than just attack, attack, attack. There is actually more to it.

For me, this is a big thing. I don’t want to sit there and just keeping hit 2 because that’s my favorite attack. I want the attacks to be a multitude of ones where I can really mix and match. I want to be able to make decisions that will affect me when playing because if I make a wrong attack, I might lose. I want it to be tough and repetition takes away from that. According to what the BioWare developers are saying, that’s not going to be something to worry about.

Combat in Conclusion

I know that this was a shorter feature than most others have been, but I can’t do as much credit as the video. In the end, the single most important thing that I got from this documentary is that all classes are equals. As they said, it won’t just be Jedi fighting Sith. A trooper might very well beat the crap out of a Sith. An agent might really beat a Jedi. It all depends on the different attacks and, more importantly, how each player plays the game.

In the end, the only way to really appreciate and gauge how the combat is going to be is to play the game. When the game is released, I am sure people are going to hate it, but I am sure many are going to love the combat. BioWare really is a great game developer and I have a feeling this game is going to be amazing.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a definite answer for you because the game is not out. However, I went digging and I think I might have come across a little information that might make it “likely” that The Old Republic will have space travel. It’s not a definite and BioWare could pull back at the last minute saying, “it just doesn’t work.” But, I think there is some evidence to suggest that space travel is very likely.

The first bit of information, albeit the lesser of the two, was found in an interview Dan Erickson – lead writer of TOR – said to Edge Online. In it, he specifically said, “We are building many many worlds and you can travel between them, but what happens then we’re not talking about.” He goes on to say, when he was pushed on space travel, that “we’re not talking about anything to do with space today.” I can handle that. I dig it. No need to reveal information too early.

But, that had me wondering…There has to be a way to get from planet A to planet B. More importantly, there needs to be some sort of combat in space. It’s Star Wars for Pete’s sake. It’s not Planet Wars. We take to space, baby!

The second bit of evidence I happened across was a little peaking around in the Holonet. When you look at the entry on the Jedi Knight, you see a page that is full of information. But, what is most important to see is that the holonet has a background designed for it. Now, with that in mind, consider this next link. It leads to a blank page, but has the holonet background. The keyword in URL is space. Check it out here. Please pay careful attention to the background and what it looks like.

The argument that was presented to me when I first found this was: “So what?” Well, I decided to do a little looking around. With the look of the holonet background in mind, visit this page with the keyword in the URL being shirt. Check it out here. That takes you to an error page that was created in case someone makes a mistake in the URL and there is nothing there. It’s a redirect. Compare it to TOR Universe’s “this doesn’t exist page.”

In other words, this might be some sort of a suggestion that they plan on adding space travel to the game. They created a folder specifically for it because if they hadn’t, typing in space after the holonet section of the URL would simply lead to the error page. Therefore, it is my honest belief – with what Dan Erickson said and this information about the URLs – that there will be space travel in Star Wars: The Old Republic. I am confident of this.

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think about space travel, think it’ll be probably and most importantly, what aspects of it you’re most interested in.

History of Tython

In 36,453 BBY, scientists, philosophers, warriors and others came together to discuss what they had found out about the mystical Ashla. Ashla was and still is the force as seen through a Jedi’s eyes. It was here that they developed their ideas and really worked on what sorts of things one could do with this power. Around 25,793 BBY, those who subscribed to a different version of Ashla, known as Bogan, began to pop up. This resulted in serious issues because both groups were developing, but there was really only room for one.

Soon, there was a war. This was a war between those that believed in Ashla and those that believed in Bogan. The Ashla were successful in defeating the Bogan and, from this came the appearance of the Jedi Order. The first Jedi appeared after this with the belief of protecting the galaxy. At first, they believed that only Tython had force sensitive individuals, but soon enough, they realized that was not the case. So, warriors went off to liberate planets and they became known as the Jedi Knights.

While the Jedi left Tython to form more important temples on other planets such as Ossus. However, after the destruction of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, it became necessary for them to disappear and rebuild their ranks. Their way of doing that was to go back to Tython, the original place, in the deep core, where they had first learned about the force.

Tython in the Old Republic

When looking at Tython, I see the perfect place for the Jedi classes in SWTOR to develop. It is a beautiful planet (see holonet for images) and is something that the Jedi would like. When I think about Sith, I think dry and hot. But, when I think about Jedi, I see warm and very luscious. That’s what I gather when I look at Tython. In one hand, I see it being one of those mainly Jedi planets and not having much other interaction there but with other Jedi.

However, then I look at images (such as this one) and I get the feeling that, while it is going to be heavily focused on the Jedi of the game because they are the ones that would use the planet the most, we can expect to see Sith there. They might be there for the same reason the Jedi are there: all force users can trace their roots back to Tython. Therefore, there might be information there would be beneficial to the Sith and their quest for power.

Tython is going to be that planet that is very much a “learn the ropes of the game” type of scenario to it. However, I don’t think that means it’ll be easy. I can see BioWare creating a few beginner missions that try the player, but still give them the advantage because they are learning. Once they get past those first few quest missions, though, expect to see the missions suddenly get harder. They are going to have to create the game to increase in difficulty or there won’t be a reason for us to feel as if we’re “epic and amazing.”

While Tython was released a long time ago, here is a little video on how the developers went about developing the game. It might provide a little more insight on how Tython is going to fit into the whole realm of things. It might be very useful information. What do you think about Tython, though? Leave a comment and let us know.

So without further a due, let’s get started.

Here is a screen grab that I pulled from Bioware’s third video documentary on TOR.

As you can see, I have narrowed the H.U.D into ten distinct elements, all highlighted and numbered left to right.  As far as appearance, this H.U.D looks very similar to the one from World of Warcraft, in that it seems to contain many similar elements.

Let’s get started!

Element 1:  The Chat Box

In the top left corner of the screen resides this box, which should look fairly familiar to any seasoned MMO player.  By the looks of it, this is your standard chat box.  As of now, all that is residing in this chat box is quest data, however in most MMORPGs, the chat box is your conduit to the rest of the world.  For those players who are interested in exactly what is happening in the game, the chat box frequently comes with a function that will display all combat data, which includes damage dealt, damage received, and critical strike damage.

In addition to information, the chat box is also where one would input commands and “emotes.”  As you can see at the top of the box is the command “/quest. removeall.” By preceding certain words with a slash, the game will react in different ways.  A popular example of this demonstrated in the ability to make your character dance by typing in the command “/dance” in the chat bar.

Element 2:  The Party

Throughout many parts of any MMORPG, it is necessary to “party up” with other players in order to overcome a challenging quest.  Element 2 represents the party bar, where the members of your party are listed.  The party bar also displays some important information that is necessary to keeping track of your party’s well being.

As of now, it appears as if the party bar will include:

• The portrait of the party member
• His/her health bar (the red bar represents the player’s health)
• His/her action bar (the blue bar likely represents the capacity to perform special moves.  Different classes may have different action bars)
• His/her level
• It will most likely include any buffs or debuffs affecting the player

The party bar also works well to provide you with a quick access point for all the information about your party members.  Though it doesn’t spell out every bit of data, it gives you easy access to click on their portrait.  By clicking on their portrait, you will make them your “target” per say, and all of their data will show up in the Target Status Bar (Element 7, listed below).

Element 3:  The Target Ring

This element is very simple, if you see a red ring around the feet of of a player or NPC, you are targeting them and they are your enemy.  Often times it is good to determine your target before entering into combat.  That way you can prioritize who needs to drop first.

Whoever you are targeting will appear in the Target Status Bar (Element 7, listed below)

Now the ring will not necessarily always be red.  In this instance, because the Sith Warrior is in combat and targeting a Republic soldier, the red means enemy.  There could also be a blue (or different colored) ring around the feet of your target, which will likely signify that he/she is friendly.

Element 4:  Player Status Bar

This element shows detailed information about you, the player (or in this case, the Sith Warrior cleverly named DARTHEVIL).  During a combat situation, it is important to be continually glancing at your status to check up on your health and action points.

As of now, the known elements included in the Player Action Bar are:

• The Player’s portrait
• The Player’s health bar (represented by the red bar)
• The Player’s action bar (the yellow bar likely represents the player’s ability to perform special moves.  Different classes may have different action bars)
• The Player’s name and level (Also the [Sith] may represent clan tag)
• It is likely that it will also include any buffs or debuffs that are currently affecting the Player

Element 5:  The Experience Bar

The experience bar is another fairly self-explanatory element of the TOR H.U.D.  In essence, as you defeat enemies and complete quests, the blue bar will begin to fill with yellow from left to right.  Once the bar is completely full, the Player will advance a single level.

Traditionally in MMORPGs, quests are the most efficient and rewarding way of obtaining experience, each one giving a large boost to your experience bar.  The alternative to doing quests is defeating enemies.  When done in excess, this is referred to as “Grinding,” which, from personal experience, tends to get tedious and annoying after a little while.

My recommendation is to pick up a bunch of quests, and on the way to the quest, defeat every enemy in your path.  That way it streamlines the leveling process, which traditionally tends to get a bit tedious towards the final levels.

Element 6:  The “Spell Bar”

Here we have the “Spell Bar.”  In essence, each number is defined by the player and correlates to a number (or symbol) on the keyboard.  Inside each square lies a special attack or “Spell” that can be used, usually depleting some action points from the action bar.  In Combat, the player will rely on their “Spell Bar” to best their opponent by employing strategy in the execution of their attacks.

As you can see, the number three has a partial square drawn around it.  What this represents is a global cooldown.  A global cooldown is the default cooldown between attacks.  Because not all special moves have a pre-defined cooldown period before they can be used again, every move has to first go through a global cooldown before it can be used again.  In World of Warcraft, the global cooldown lasts about one and a half seconds.  This is put in place to prevent the spamming of attacks.

Also, on the “Spell Bar,” it will display the cooldown period necessary for each attack if previously used.  The cooldown period depends on the individual attack and can be anything from a couple of seconds to several hours.

More experienced players will utilize “hotkeys” which can be defined in the option menu.  “Hotkeys” streamline combat and make for more simple access of the harder to reach “Spells.”  Also, there may be the option to spawn more “Spell Bars” on the screen for further customization.

Element 7:  Target Status Bar

This element is very similar to the Player’s Status Bar and it contains much of the same information.  It appears that because the Sith Warrior is targeting a Republic Soldier NPC (Non-Playable Character), there is no portrait, however just the Republic insignia to show the Soldier’s allegiance.

This bar correlates directly to Element 3, the Target Ring.  Whatever player or NPC has the colored ring beneath them is the one that you are targeting, and their information will appear here.  Traditionally, you can target anyone, friend or foe, but you can only attack enemies.

As of now, the apparent elements listed in the Target Status Bar are:

• Target’s portrait (or allegiance)
• Target’s health bar (the red bar represents health)
• Target’s action bar (the blue bar likely represents the player’s ability to perform special moves.  Different classes may have different action bars)
• Target’s name and level (The [fodder] could refer to the Target’s class)
• It will likely include any buffs or debuffs affecting the Target
• The distance from the target

Element 8:  The Menu Bar

This little guy down here looks to be the Menu Bar.

Although it is difficult to make out all of the elements, my guess is that the Menu Bar will include:

• Quest Log
• “Spell Book”
• Options Menu
• Game Map
• Talent Trees (If this game uses them)
• Possibly Inventory

Though the Menu Bar doesn’t have much place in the heat of battle, it is incredibly necessary when trying to strategically build your plan of attack.  From the options menu, you can customize the hotkeys on your “Spell Bar,”  Also, from the “Spell Book,” you can drag and drop your special attacks into place on the bar.

Element 9:  The Mini Map

The Mini Map is the condensed version of the full map that shows only your immediate surroundings.  On the Mini Map, your character is displayed at the center, and any party members are displayed in their relative position.  The Mini Map can also include a number of other important bits of information such as quest locations, or positions of enemies.

It also appears like the function to zoom in and out on the map are available.

Element 10:  The Quest Tracker

The final element is where the game displays your current quest and the objectives required to complete it.  It is likely that you will be able to put more than just one quest on the bar, so that you can have an idea of your main focuses when out in the world questing.  In order to make a quest appear on the quest tracker, you must activate it from your quest log.

Conclusion

So there you have it, as of now those are all of the elements of the SWTOR H.U.D.  It is important to mention however, that although the provided H.U.D. looks to be very competent, the creation of user made interfaces is almost an inevitability.  And once the game is roughly six months in, it will be difficult to find someone using the provided interface.

Also, I found it odd that there is no visible “Inventory” aspect of the H.U.D, perhaps that has yet to be added, or the inventory will be handled in a more unconventional way.  Unfortunately there is no way of knowing until getting some hands on time, which I can’t wait to do as soon as possible!

What do you think about the new H.U.D?  Do you like it?  Could it use improvement?

Let us know, leave a comment.

History of Balmorra

Balmorra was settled during the infancy of the Republic. While it spoke Galactic Basic as its language, it was determined and headstrong about keeping its independence from the Republic. They did not want to become a part of it. However, they ensured that they continued to sell their weapons and battle droids to the Republic as well as other systems in the galaxy. They wanted to ally with the Republic, but not be a part of it.

Because of this, when the Sith Empire invaded the Republic, they targeted Balmorra. If they were able to take Balmorra, they’d be taking a heavy weapons manufacturing planet away from the Republic, they’d gain access to all the weapons being produced, and finally, they’d be much closer to the core worlds.

After tons of fighting, the Republic was forced to pull their forces off Balmorra which led the people of Balmorra to feel betrayed by the Republic. Even though there was a contingency of Republic forces underground helping the people fight against the Empire, they still felt that they were betrayed. As the treaty went on and the Republic recovered, they began to send soldiers back to Balmorra; however, while the people were receptive to it, they still felt and voiced their anger at being abandoned.

Balmorra in The Old Republic

Balmorra is going to be an incredibly interesting planet to be on when playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Looking at the Holonet and all of the pictures, one of the big things that we see is that the planet is heavily industrialized. There are laser turrets all over the place, probably with the intentions of defending the areas from attack. Since these factories produce incredibly advanced weapons, it would be bad for them to fall into someone’s hands.

I can imagine each class having a significant impact on Balmorra. For example, a Sith Warrior could come and try to “convince” a leader of one of the Balmorran cities to give in to the Empire’s demand. And by convince, I mean force choke the heck out of the person. Or, a Republic Trooper could be one of those that are returning to Balmorra to help them get their planet back from the Empire. Each class is bound to have an impact on Balmorra which adds to BioWare’s intention of creating a game that is epic to all players.

Balmorra might have the capability of becoming a strong PvP battlefield; however, looking at all the screen shots, I don’t see how it would work out with the terrain of the planet. In the end, though, I could be horribly wrong and it might be one of those contested planets that is going to be fought on both PvE and PvP.

What do you think, though? What sort of a role is Balmorra going to play in the overall story of the game? Is it one of those very pivotal planets or is one of the smaller, lesser needed planets that provides a little more Extended Universe for the Star Wars gamer that is addicted to the story? Leave a comment and let us know.