Lit Star Wars: The Old Republic (Bioware MMO) [Spoilers Allowed]

Agreed. There is definitely a lot of untapped potential there. ME is similar, introducing us to some exciting planets and ideas as early as ME1 that we might only now be seeing in ME3.

 

Was there anything interesting buried in yesterday's updates?

I haven't bothered to read the audio update...

 

Nothing... I didn't even think of checking the site or remember to be hyped for TOR until you reminded me now..

guess TOR is overdue and lots its hype... mine anyway

 

Heh, remember when they were talking about a spring 2011 release? At this rate September looks more likely. Still not sure if that site a while ago which mentioned a September release really did have access to something official or it was just a lucky guess.

Wonder how long until the next Timeline video. Its nice that the site is updated every week, but not sure these Fan Fridays and other random behind the scenes stuff is worth an update. I skimmed through it, and while I appreciate all the hard work they put into sound, not sure most people care about it either, at least compared to say a new trailer or something. At first I was afraid they'd release the game before getting through all the Timeline stuff, but that's almost definitely going to happen now. Actually, I'm wondering if they'll have anything special for this year's E3. At the last two they had those really cinematic trailers, but guess that depends on how much time they had to prepare an E3 presentation (whether they expected to finish before or after E3). Oh well, the game will be out sometime this year... probably, hopefully, especially with ME3 pushed back to next year.

 

ME3 has been pushed back???

I blame you TOR! YOU!!!

Seriously though, you're actually probably right: they've made no secret of how they don't want the two big releases to clash, as they want them to both get the full media spotlight and not be competing which each other, so if ME is delayed, that suggests TOR is still set for this year.

Well, unless in two months time they swap them around and end up launching ME first and further delaying TOR.

And I agree about the timelines. We've still got a lot to get through, and I'd rather we had them all before launch. I don't see why they don't just release one each Fan Friday. The gameboys whine every time "all there is is a timeline" so it'd kill two birds with one stone.

 

I think the intention is to release the game before the timeline is completed, as the final entries may be spoilery.

Remember that Gnost-Dural is conducting a historical investigation. So far, he's taken a logical route. We've had the battles of the war, the immediate historical context of the war, and then the origins of the Sith Empire and their defeat in the Great Hyperspace war.

But it's getting to the point where his rationale for investigating significantly earlier periods of SW history (and he's going all the way back to the discovery of the Force, no less) will require revelations about the nature of the presumed "over-arching threat", and they may want to save that till release at least.

 

That depends on how much Gnost-Dural is supposed to know. The stuff he said about the Sith Empire's strategy is knowledge put together after decades of analysis, so that's one thing. The Timeline has already reached the Great Hyperspace War, which is sorta the direct cause of the TOR war, that being these Sith's last big defeat. So arguably there's more than enough knowledge there to launch TOR already (assuming they were heading for a spring release originally).

There's always more ancient history, like this Schism, ancient Republic history which could be spoiler-ish, but I also doubt the Jedi would really know all that much. After all, the Jedi Council will be a bunch of closeminded, stagnant idiots until your player-character goes out there and rediscovers all the old history and shows them what for and all that. Honestly, I'm expecting no one in the Republic to know what the Sith Emperor is after, until its almost too late, so Gnost-Dural going into any big spoiler-ish details about ancient history seems... unlikely. Possible, but that depends on if the Timeline is finished before or after the game is released, and at the rate development seems to be going, its possible the Timeline might be finished before. Although it has been a long while since the last one, unfortunately.

By the way, I was looking at the TFN news page and it showed the TOR site now has a list of events at which they'll be present. The big, obvious ones like E3 and PAX, but the list also goes up to November... so does that mean even after the game is released they'll still be talking it up at the big shows? Possible and likely. The more pessimistic interpretation is that the game still won't be out at least until November, which I hope not (although a holiday release always makes for a big event, although it'll be too long after the Star Wars Blu-rays are released, not to mention from October on there are going to be plenty of big releases, although at least there's no WoW expansion this year, I think, unless Blizzard somehow finishes Diablo 3 really fast). Or I'm probably just overthinking all this too. Although the Lost Suns will probably be finishing up by the end of the year too, not to mention the Revan book, so it seems like bigger and bigger tie-in works will converge by the end of this year.

Although I think EA officials have even said 2012 is possible, but I'm hoping they're just hedging their statements in the worst case scenario of TOR taking a really long time to finish up.

 

Could TOR be the new Duke Nukem Forever

 

While I've considered that myself from time to time, the main reason I'm dubious is because if the game's already out, is anyone going to care about the timeline videos any more?

Once my Sith Inquisitor strolls into the Citadel of Dromund Kaas and learns the truth for himself, I'm not really going to need Gnost-Dural's guess work anymore. Certainly, there may be some specifically Emperor-related spoilers, but then... they'd still be spoilers until people were max level and had defeated the final boss... making the video even more useless? (Or STILL spoilers for those who weren't 24/7 junkies.)

I am, however, half wondering if they'll release them after the Revan novel. They'll want to maximise sales for that and I'm expecting the Emperor's identity to be the big revelation. But once we learn the Emperor's true nature through the eyes of Revan? Then I can possibly see them rolling out the last few videos... as they'll be no more secrets about what's keeping the Emperor alive. (Which, yeah, I assume is some ancient forgotten Sith/Bogan/Rakatan sorcery.)

 

It's actually good news, great even. ME3 getting more development time is just what I wanted to hear after Dragon Age 2 (a game I love, yet was undeniably rushed). Although there are now whispers of a portable version of ME3, which is worrying to say the least. I just can't imagine playing a game like that out and about, and if it interferes with the development time of the standard version I would be rather annoyed.

Oh and TOR, yeah it's E3 soon guys they always slow info down to a trickle just before a big event. TOR is still getting massive hype, if not for the game itself then for it's potential impact on Star Wars, BioWare and the games industry in general. GW2 meanwhile isn't going to be at E3, which tells me all I need to know about when I can expect that to be coming out (hint: not for quite some time).

 

Wouldnt make much sense to me for them to show the videos post-game launch since I think few people would be watching them and more would just jump straight into the game. Ideally, I think the rest of the timeline videos should be out really and I doubt there would be anything particularly spoilerish about them beyond placing the setting. I mean whats left anyway timeline video wise? The Hundred Year Darkness and Force Wars along with the creation of the Jedi Order? Thats setting which wouldnt really impact TOR itself much.

 

Do we even know that they're going to release the blank slots on the timeline area? I fail to see how going back 30,000 years to the discovery of the force will really help to explain the current conflict, as was Master Dural's original intention

 

At most, Dural will just reference the original Exiles and maybe introduce some new members of their ranks. I mean we have Ajunta Pall, Karness Muur and XoXaan being the only known Exiles. So, potentially, we might get a few more names hopefully but if not at least reference Pall. So, Dural will probably talk about the Jedi's error in simply exiling the original darksiders from the Order which caused the rise of the Sith Empire along with the Great Hyperspace War and the Great Galactic War.

 

Well, I'm still expecting either the Emperor's longevity and/or his currently unknown ultimate masterplan to have its/their roots in some ancient source.

If nothing else, we know the schism that led to this conflict was the Hundred-Year Darkness, so for your average joe gameboy who has no clue about the EU, they need to be shown that the Sith Lords are not Sith themselves but Dark Jedi who conquered the Sith. That's the story of the Hundred-Year Darkness, which the average gameboy is likely completely ignorant of.

We also know the Emperor's excavating... something from all these strategically worthless worlds that he got in exchange for handing Coruscant back. Throw in the vague stuff about the Emperor having discovered something super secret on Dromund Kaas that even the Dark Council aren't allowed to know about. And chances are what's going to happen is that the Bogan monks probably were the first to dig up whatever it is that the Emperor is after. So if buried on Dromund Kaas is something linked to all the worlds the Emperor wanted, then my money is on the Bogan having unearthed the very first piece of the jigsaw puzzle on Tython.

Likewise, I won't be surprised if BioWare try and tie everything back to the Force War, with the Exiles having wanted to complete whatever the Bogan had tried - and now, at long last, the Emperor will finally succeed where all his predecessors failed.

 

Indeed, its why I kind of hope they introduce a new Exile who knew of this information and the Sith Emperor uncovered his notes. Plus, it helps expand the story and there would be quite a few Exiles... at least, those that remained behind like Ajunta Pall whilst the others decided to try their initial attempt at conquering the Republic.

 

Just wanted to say that we already know for sure all the timeline will be known when the game is finally released as some of u already deduced.
I have to admit they're taking their time! I think will have one before E3 'cause I think I remember the Jedi Civil War timeline was out juste before last E3 and Hope
If I'm not mistaking it means we got only.. what.. 4 timelines in a year? Definitely not much!
Especially considering there are 7 left!
Concerning the soon to come E3 I'm hoping we'll get another amazing trailer plus the date where the game will finally be released!

 

A timeline before E3 definitely seems possible, as while the typical gameboys always bemoan "just another stinking timeline? lame" they'll know that they've got flashy things coming the next week, so can't really complain if the week before E3 is "just a timeline".

 

What impact would you expect them to have?

One of the things I really liked about the KotOR comics was how Zayne and co. could have very easily been the characters of a gaming group playing in the KotOR era. They were vitally important to their story... but not so much to the era as a whole.

I mean, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to further adventures from the comic cast -- I love them -- but as things currently stand... all I really want to know is whether or not they lived through the Mandalorian and Jedi Civil Wars and what role Zayne may have played in the reconstitution of the Jedi Order. *shrug*

Oh, and if he and Jarael are Fay's parents.

So... little references, I guess. Nothing major. And, I suppose, GoodValor's. For Zor's sake.

 

Truthfully? I don't think there's a lot in the comics that really warrants mention.

The entire Crucible arc post-Vindication was a very personal venture on Jarael and Demagol's parts, so I don't expect to learn anything there. It would be totally awesome to see the Crucible at least mentioned, but I'm assuming it probably wasn't connected to this Sith remnant, so is unlikely to play a part. (If it still exists at all... personally, I'd like to think it does, as I've always doubted Chantique's death would be enough to completely bring it down... but it seemed to have grown beyond its Sith roots anyway... more of a Frankenstein's monster that would probably turn on the Empire as quickly as anyone else, since it had ceased to be about providing Ieldis and the Sith in particular with an army.)

As for the Covenant and Haazen? Again, a wonderful story, but is it necessarily that pertinent here? After Revan and Malak went Sith, Krynda's vision was proved right, but by that point her warning no longer really mattered: they'd ignored her anyway, the damage was done, the Civil War is the true lasting legacy. Like the Crucible, it'd be a nice easter egg if they happened to include a mention of how the Revanchist's crusade had nearly been prevented by a rogue sect of Jedi Seers, but it's not something that needs to be mentioned.

At the end of the day, I look at it like the OT: Luke's story didn't need to know about the Clone Wars, so I doubt we're going to get much background on the Mandalorian Wars beyond the fact it led a faction of Jedi to turn to the dark side.

Having said all that...

This, of course, is a prerequirement for TOR to qualify for praise.

 

I'd like to see some references to the KotOR comics in the MMO. Nothing too huge, since part of Zayne's appeal was that he wasn't no Revan or Exile. He played an important role in the Covenant Crisis, but he also left the Order after that. It'd be awesome if Zayne was involved in rebuilding (since he wasn't a Jedi anymore, he wouldn't be involved in the Purge maybe, or at least wouldn't impact the whole "last Jedi" thing going on with the Exile), or perhaps even Lucien's own hidden enclave could contribute to the rebuilding.

More realistically, the best I would expect is if some NPCs referenced the Draays or there was a sidequest that involved Crucible-related slavers or something like that. Maybe an off-hand reference by someone or in a Codex, but not much else (especially with how much background they're probably building up for the 300 year gap, so for events from a non-Bioware comic set before/during the Mandalorian Wars would be a low priority).

We know they're aware of the comics at least a little, with how they had an Inexpugnable in one of the Timeline videos (or maybe they just saw the picture of a Republic and redrew it, the Timeline videos has had quite a bit nice artwork, but also a lot of recycled/unoriginal/copied stuff too). The original KotOR game referenced TotJ quite a bit, and the KotOR comics are related even closer to their own game, so it'd be nice, but not sure if the 300 year gap will crowd out any comic references, not to mention they're going to stuff in tons of references to KotOR, and KotOR II is already slightly in doubt, so the KOtOR comic is probably a lower priority beneath those two.

 

I'm a big fan of KotOR comics even if I was more than disappointed that they didn't relaunch it as : KotOR : Mandalorian Wars but I strongly disagree with u nobody.
TotJ was far more related to KotOR than KotOR comics are to TOR! For staters there isn't half a century between TotJ and KotOR the game but there are 3 centuries between the KotOR comics and TOR!
TotJ was all about the big war and very important in galactic history while KotOR comics was in fact pretty inintersting if u look at it from a galactic point of view.
There is absolutely no reason they refer it in the game. I mean I'm already not too sure there will be a lot of references to the KotOR games especially the second one and it would already be far more important than the KotOR comics.

Howewer, I'm hoping they will be references to the KotOR comics in other media where it would be more important to see them. I'm thinking about the Revan and Sunrider novel. In the Revan novel I would like to know what happens to Zayne or at least to the True Covenant. I'm still wishing Lucien Draay may prove to be Darth Sion after all but nevertheless. That's the only thing I think we may see in TOR : If the True Covenant and Zayne helped rebuilt the Order after KotOR II but I highly doubt it... Look at the timeline where Revan is fighting Mandalore without his Mandalorian helmet and with a blue lightsaber instead of a purple one while Mandalore doesn't use his famous Axe... They don't seem to give a lot of credit to the comics and I fear Revan's mask will turn of to be sith after all.
For the Sunrider novel it would be great if we could see Nomi creating the first Jedi Council of history and deciding not to blame Jolee Bindo. It would be great to see Krynda and other Jedi from the comics and the video game too in order to fortify the links between the TotJ and KotOR era.

Anyways we'll see...

 

See, I really hope they use elements of the era in this game. I would love to be a Jedi associated with the new Jedi Covenant who are split between the puritan stance in combating the Sith and those attempting to not fall down the dark path that they had done so previously. So, I would like to see the Jedi Covenant as a black ops intelligence division for the Jedi Order on Tython with the option of secretly serving as a Jedi Shadow in their operations against the Sith like retrieving dangerous Sith relics before the Sith Empire can and eliminating dangerous figures.

Similarly, I would enjoy seeing the Crucible in the game and become an antagonist to both the Sith Empire and the Republic since its taken a life of its own. So, can have the Crucible deal with the Empire but also against it at the same time. Plus, I like the element of acts conducted by the ancient Sith/Exiles coming to haunt the Sith now. So, things like awakened Leviathans, Crucible slaving operations and Sith spirits being a problem for the Sith Emperor.

 

Trooper Progression.

That was a lot cooler than I expected.

 

Looks quite nice, especially since I will be using the Trooper class when I get the chance to play the game. SpecOps Trooper attached to Republic Intelligence

I quite like the Trooper armour designs. One looked like the Clone Commandos and another looked like the Phase 2 armour used by Clone Commanders. I know one can say that they are copying the prequel armours but I don't mind in some respect as I would like to think the clone troopers borrowed from ancient Republic armour. I particularly enjoyed him knifing the Sith in the video. The Trooper calling in those droids to help heal an injured comrade and to detect the cloaked Sith was nice as well.

Also, were those rakghouls that the vanguard was fighting? First I thought they were gundarks but close up, they looked like rakghouls.