A/V The Old Republic MMO: The New Official Thread

Don't forget about the dragons' tail. Korriban to the core

 

Well the Sith were attacking Kuat after Illium. So perhaps they have rediscovered it.

 

Spoiler

If you mean companions like Torian or Vette, no I haven't seen any dialogues with them.

Spoiler

From what I have seen, you will have sabotage options on all planets (Onderon, Mek-Sha and Corellia). I am not yet sure about final choice regarding saboteurs. You meet with your contact (Jonas or droid) and he/it summarises your actions on each planet being happy or unhappy about your results. I saw an option to stop being saboteur permanently but the meeting seems incomplete at the moment.

Jedipedia is the best place but it does not have dialogues. Conversations used to be on TORCommunity but the database is no longer updated.

 

Here is a look around an unfinished Onderon



the lore comes from the buildings!

 

Thank you for the replies.

Spoiler

I suppose getting to sabotage on the three planets is something, even if nothing major might come of it, good to know there's more Jonas (and droid) interactions.

Any Malgus stuff? I'm curious as to how the Warrior can reclaim their title as Emperor's Wrath if Malgus is currently holding that title, or at least a similar one, unless it's a temporary thing for him. I'd be somewhat disappointed if they killed him off again (at least on Imperial side) so quickly.

 

Reading these posts makes me want to get back into SWTOR, especially with the new stuff that will be coming out.

 

Now is the time to get back in. The natuolan race will be free if you subscribe between sep and oct.

 

Sorry for the double post



First look at customisation.

 

I would love Mon Cal people next (would be cool to see them on the side of the Sith for once).

Also Falleen.

 

Huh, I'm a bit intrigued by these spoilers.

Spoiler

Something like the Agent becoming Keeper feels logical, after a very long detour with the Outlander thing. And nice to see the Trooper finally promoted to Colonel (not counting that posthumous promotion).

I had forgotten Nautolans hadn't been one of the launch species. My memory is probably playing tricks on me, but I think they were one of the few NPC species in game that weren't available for players (compared to Twi'leks, Sith, Cathar, Rattataki, etc.). Maybe I'll resubscribe for a month (just have to dig up my authenticator app, I think I switched phones since then).

 

Spoiler

The ending choice of rejoining your faction really is an interesting one. There's a lot to consider.

The Inquisitor and Warrior are easily the most interesting pieces of that puzzle. While the other classes can fit snugly back into their positions, the two Sith classes have been replaced in their original factions. Will we see Malgus and the new Dark Councilor killed or forcibly removed?Maybe as a choice or just naturally through the story?

And what about story content moving forward? Will there now be 9 separate introductions for each significant story update (8 class specific intros + 1 alliance intro)? And will saboteurs just be Alliancers in anticipation of a proper defection?

Also wondering if choosing to give up the Alliance will come at a cost to any companions. Lana and Theron were happy to follow you under the Alliance's banner, but would they still stick with you if you give that all up to serve one of the big factions? I have a hard time believing that Theron would just gladly become an Imperial citizen and work for this new "Emperor's Hand". Or maybe they'll just stick around on your ship as if they were just part of your crew.

All very interesting things to consider.

 

Behind The Scenes Of World Design

With key non-playable-characters (NPCs) like Darth Malgus, Tau Idair, and others leading the charge in the upcoming ‘Onslaught’ Expansion, it’s no surprise that a lot of thought goes into their creation, but what about other less known NPCs? What about that arrogant guy at the cantina, or the vendor down that dark alley? To get some insight into what goes into creating the miscellaneous characters that populate the universe of Star Wars: The Old Republic, we sat down with our Lead World Designer, Dave Shramek. During this behind the scenes look, we’ll dig into creating one of the ruling gangs of the upcoming planet, Mek-Sha.

For starters, would you like to introduce yourself and explain a little bit about what you do on the team?

Sure, I'm Dave Shramek and I'm the Lead World Designer. On SWTOR, that means I'm responsible for all of the narrative portions of the game that aren't cinematics, writing, and world art. I do area layout. I hook up the writing into our Mission editing tool, so that if the Mission is to talk to a person, that person exists in the world to be talked to. If the Mission calls for a fight, I hook up the character to fight, assign abilities, even assign combat music. If the Mission calls for an item to be looted, I make sure the character or object in the game has the item and that item has all the data you'd expect: an icon, text description, a usage ability if it calls for it. If you're clicking on an object, I assemble the various art pieces into an interactive object called a "dynamic placeable" which mostly means it can be clicked on and go into different states, like crates open when you click on them and there's stuff in there when you loot them, but the stuff is gone when you've looted the object.

There are some elements you mentioned that players would expect, such as creation of Missions, placing of NPCs etc. Is there anything unexpected about what a world designer does?

What any one of us does in World Design has changed over the years, but because we're BioWare, the thing that never changes is that storytelling is central to what we do. When we populate an area with ambient NPCs or enemies, they're interacting with that world. As you move deeper into an instance, the enemies spawned in the world go from "chatting with each other" or "using a computer" to "pointing guns down the hallway" because by then, they're expecting you. If the world changes because of something in the story, like explosions going off as you escape or alarm klaxons, that's a thing we do. If notes from a writer says that a character is an "arrogant, underworld businessman" we create an appearance for that NPC that hopefully reveals those aspects of the character. One of my favorite things I did was for the Smuggler Mission chain on Coruscant. The Smuggler is invading a gang HQ to rescue a slicer named Kixi and when they get to the door she's behind, the door is locked. When I created the door panel, I made a custom use ability where the Smuggler pulls out their gun, gives it a twirl, and shoots the panel. Then I named the ability "Unlocking" so that's what it says on the cast bar.

You mentioned creating the appearance of NPCs. Could you elaborate on that? Is that the same as dressing a player character or are there differences?

We have access to some options that players don't when dressing our NPCs. For example, some of our outfits are made with embellishments that we can attach or leave off, depending on how fancy we want the character to be, and in that way we can get more variety out of the character outfits we have. I can make a less dangerous enemy in underworld armor not have the heavy pauldrons or elbow armor. Or I can leave off a helmet's goggles so players can see the eyes in cinematics. Or I can leave off some of the elaborate elements of boots because your average vendor might not have heavy armor greaves, but would wear a sturdy pair of synth-leather boots. The wider color palette we have access to makes it easier to mix and match armor pieces without needing to burden character art with a lot of requests. Especially the newer pieces have slightly different material properties that may saturate a color more, or appear brighter, so I need to use a slightly different shade of red to make the whole set match.

For the upcoming planet Mek-Sha, one of the powerful gangs is a group of ex-Mandalorians who work for a man named Indigo. Indigo had to get his name from somewhere, so I assembled a lot of various heavy armor pieces and tried to get them all the same shade of, well, indigo. But some pieces are a shinier metal, while some have the flat plastic surface you expect from Trooper armor.



The rest of Indigo’s gang doesn’t play a direct role in the storyline, but one of the most fun parts of the Star Wars galaxy is the way every background character implies a fascinating story happening just around the corner – that’s the kind of feeling we want to create with the NPCs populating the Old Republic. That’s what I mean when I talk about using costumes to tell story. We can tell a lot of story just with how they’re dressed. When it comes to Indigo's gang, being ex-Mandalorians, that means I get to mix and match pieces. Being no longer Mandos, they probably have to scrounge to get the armor they want. Indigo, because he's the boss, gets the best bits. And Gizka, who's the "kid" of the group has the most mismatched pieces. She looks the most cobbled together. But it was important for me, when dressing Mandalorians, or even ex-Mandalorians, that they all look similar, recognizably Mando, while also having that kind of individualism I expect.

Hypothetically, would the way these Mandalorians are dressed also correlate to how they'd behave in a combat scenario?

Absolutely. Take Beskad for example. She's named for the famous Mandalorian sword, because she's the deadliest on the team with one. If she were in combat, she'd have melee abilities. Her outfit has a spiked pauldron, so she'd definitely get a good shoulder charge. Her gauntlets have spikes, so we'd try and give her a nice back hand or some punching attacks. And she's got a knife tucked into her boot, so we might give her something like the Agent's shiv attacks. It's all about character, the story tells us some things about the character. The appearance tells us more or allows us to express that character in a specific way. And that tells us what they'll be like in combat. We try to make every part of what we do inform the story. Indigo has a kind of cape on his armor, because he's the leader and he's kind of taking a bit of a cue from Shae's "Mandalore the Avenger" look. But that also makes him look like a heavy-armored Clint Eastwood, so if he were to fight, he'd be more gunslinger than your typical Mandalorian.



Can you walk us through the color palette decision process for Indigo’s gang? Was there a specific reason/theme the team was going for in choosing those color combinations, equipment, etc.?

When I made the Mandalorians for the Darvannis chapter in Knights of the Fallen Empire, I created twenty-seven unique appearances. I created a medic-specific Mando armor and color scheme, then created 3 groups, each group was sorted by weapon (one large blaster, two smaller blasters, or a rifle) and then each group had 8 different looks, one for each body type. Again, I think Mandalorians would express their individuality, so I just tried to pick two complementary colors that I hadn't used before.

For Indigo's gang, I had to be more specific. Indigo was the only one that needed a specific color palette. After that, I wanted to make everyone kind of vibrant and unique, like on Darvannis, but also steering away from the kind of colors that could be mistaken for Indigo. I figured they'd give him a wide berth on that. One of the characters who goes by Forge, uses the chest piece and helmet for the Charismatic Mandalorian because she's the one who makes sure the gear they cobble together has the personality and flair they're looking for, and keeps it all in working order. Even though we have more color options when making character appearances, we can still only change two of the colors on the outfit, just like players using dye packs. The Charismatic Mandalorian armor has a splash of orange on it that cannot be changed, so that meant that I was definitely giving one character a lot of orange in their armor.

The twins, Talon and Ranger, are both snipers and so I made them hunters. Their armor has a lot of trophies, fangs, fur, claws, but also has a natural look of leathers, or colors that might blend in well with stone and natural environments. Sometimes, I chose a particular kind of leg armor whose texture matched the chest armor I was using, but one of those textures only comes in charcoal gray, so I have to try to match that gray using one of the two color options I have for the other piece. Maybe a set has a baked in accent color, and I'll try to find pieces that let me duplicate that accent color in the other pieces to try to unify the look. So sometimes I make decisions based on what's available. Slice, who is the group's slicer, has techier armor than most Mandalorians and it has these red wires running through the chest piece. So, when I chose legs, I chose ones where I could duplicate that red accent and unify her look.

Last question, what aspect of Indigo's gang are you excited for players to see or experience once they hit Mek-Sha?

Indigo is one of several criminal gangs on Mek-Sha and one that you interact with differently depending on your past. Since they're all ex-Mandalorians, they don't necessarily like it if you bring Shae or Torian to meet them. And they definitely don't like it if you're Mandalorian yourself.

 

Spoiler

• Agent: Covert operations would be split out of Darth Xarion's intelligence organization and placed under Player's direct supervision--as Keeper.
• Hunter: More or less an Empire's hitman independent from the Dark Council.
• Warrior: Basically the old job.
  
• Inquisitor: I think (I am not sure) that Players might kill Anathel (or at least threaten him).

Still, it seems that the Dark Council is deemed ineffective during the war and it seems that its role might change in the future: "It has become clear that the Dark Council is best suited to functions of management, and cannot be fully entrusted with matters of war"

Spoiler

Hard to say, I guess it will remain mostly the same but with some unique dialogue depending on your choices.

Spoiler

It does not happen in the expansion but there would be no surprise if some companions will leave when they will not like when we will chose to return to Republic or Empire. Some companions has already expressed their concerns via messages - for example Jorgan has said that he will leave if we rejoin the Empire.

Spoiler

It seems that saboteur route might result in losing the battle of Corellia and Republic retaking the shipyard. Vowrawn/Acina mention that (after defeat) they will have to cede Imperial territories. Empire might also deplete all of their Isotope-5 reserves and lose fleet of Silencers.

Spoiler

Malgus survives both endings. However it should be noted that he will be wounded in action and his injuries will be so severe that he will be indisposed for some time.

Some quotes about his status during the ending:

• Where is Malgus now?
• Never you fear, he lives on. Though his recovery may take some time.

• Where is Malgus now? (possible saboteur route?)
• He was retrieved before the Republic retook the shipyard. His... reconstruction will take time.

 

I think some of you might be interested in Kira/Scourge mission.

Spoiler

As expected both Kira and Scourge were hunting Tenebrae's original body. They have succeeded and thanks to this Player was able to kill Valkorion (Vitiate would have surivied if his original body had not been destroyed by Kira and Scourge). In their mission they were helped by Satele and her followers. When Valkorion was killed and his original body destroyed, his "ultimate weapon" was released - Sith ritual "carved into his flesh" was unleashed. "An ancient plague from every molecule of his decaying corpse" knocked Kira and Scourge unconcious and they remained comatose for a year. Satele pulled them out from their "slumber" but unlike Kira and Scourge she never had a portion of Tenebrae's power (which acted as a sort of vaccine). So, within days Satele and her followers were trapped in plague. Minds of affected people are connecting and communicating. Kira and Scourge are afraid that they might be merging somehow. There might be a possibility that they are merging into another Valkorion. They have loaded Satele and all of her followers onto a transport to keep them quarantined. The mission would be to purge this entiny. At the moment the mission is not in files.

Spoiler

We might also win the battle of Corellia. I assume that Empire will lose the battle (when we play as Imperials) if we are saboteurs or make wrong choices. The former is more probable.

 

Spoiler

I'm glad it seems Malgus survives even if he's indisposed for some time. Hopefully they won't just write him out and we can see him again after his recovery. (Unlike Lord Cytharat who if you save him you never see him again after his recovery.)

As for the saboteur stuff, it's not a full defection but being able to make the Empire possibly lose the battle and have the Republic retake the shipyards is quite interesting. That said, my only Loyalist is an Inquisitor and whilst I want him to get his seat back, I hope we don't have to kill Anathel to get it (or at least, that there's a non murderous option to get it back also.)

The Kira and Scourge mission sounds a little terrifying, some Valkorian/Vitiate plague, hive-mind involving Satele and her people? *Shudder.* Though I hope we can put a stop to it quickly, I've had enough of Valkorian/Vitiate at this point and my Knight would question how many more times he had to kick the dude's ass before he stayed dead for good.

 

so can I ask about the reverse?

Spoiler

Can the Empire WIN on Corellia? either if we play them as loyal or Republic Sabotage?

 

So the Republic Epilogue you speak with Darth Xarion and for the Imperial Epilogue you speak with a Jedi Master. Do we have access to this dialogue?

 

Spoiler

Yes, the Empire can win Corellia. The same goes for the Republic - it is possible for them to win or lose the battle.

Spoiler

Hmm, where did you get this? IIRC (at the moment I cannot check it) in the epilogue you speak with:

• Imperial: Acina/Vowrawn, Anri, NR-02, Jonas Balkar (if saboteur), Kira, Scourge, Lana, Theron, probably some Dark Council members.
• Republic: New Chancellor (Rans or his wife IIRC), Jonas Balkar, NR-02 (if saboteur), Tau, Arn. Gnost-Dural, Kira, Scourge, Lana, Theron, and if IIRC Narlock (Mon Calamari from Essels, now a Vice-Admiral) and Daerunn.

I might be missing someone but I don't remember any "Jedi Master" on Imperial side.

 

Spoiler

So what does that look like, the Empire winning on Corellia. Do they hold the system? Is the republic declining?

 

It's on Jedipedia https://swtor.jedipedia.net/en/npc/master-sal-deron
https://swtor.jedipedia.net/en/npc/darth-xarion-3