As always, members of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ community continually inspire us. We have so many talented community members, and we’ll continue our tradition of highlighting some of our favorites in this week’s article. Enjoy the excellent fan art!

We’re excited to present our very first Fan Site Spotlight this month featuring Mos Eisley Radio, and we also have more details about The Old Republic at PAX East.

That’s not all! There are also some beautiful pieces of concept art from several planets, and some great new smilies and avatars for everyone to use on the forums.

Don’t miss this month’s Studio Insider for a step-by-step walkthrough for the creation of Sith Temple concept art and answers to community questions.

Community Creations

Over the last three decades Star Wars™ has inspired amazing fan creations across the globe, and our community has played a role by making many incredible contributions!

Don’t hesitate to share your talents with us on the community forums! In each Fan Friday, we feature impressive creations directly from the community.

Fan Art

Community member KipDuron has a whole gallery of Star Wars art. We loved his vibrant, detailed work!

Neitsabes, from our French community, created this charming, dynamic Sith named Darth Warme.

 

Fan Site Spotlight

Mos Eisley Radio is one of the most well-known Star Wars: The Old Republic podcasts today. In addition to their weekly show, they’ve recently started up two excellent video series: One that teaches about podcasting, and another specific to The Old Republic, “Open Bounty.” Both are extremely entertaining, and well worth your time. We caught up with Brooks Guthrie and Zach Brown, the hosts, to discuss their show.

How did MER get started?

Ever since our previous podcast ran out of steam, we were throwing ideas around to start a new show. After going back and forth for a couple of months, we both realized the obvious choice was to start a podcast and fan site dedicated to The Old Republic. The community was growing at a record pace, and when the Deceived trailer was shown at E3 2009, we were hooked. A month later, we released the first episode of Mos Eisley Radio!

What do you enjoy most about running MER?

While we both enjoy the entire process of running Mos Eisley Radio, the best part is publishing a new episode and receiving that very first comment about the topics covered on the show. Seeing the community build around the podcast has been incredibly rewarding. We’ve said it a number of times on the show, but without such an awesome group of listeners, the podcast wouldn’t at all be what it is today.

Do you have any advice for someone looking to start a podcast?

The best advice we could give for someone interested in starting a podcast would be to ask yourself, “How is my show different than the ones already out there?” For the most part, all of the The Old Republic podcasts are covering similar material, but what has made each show a success is the ability to present those topics in a different way that engages their audience. This leads to the second best piece of advice: form relationships with your listeners. Communicate with the people listening to the podcast and be willing to change your show to meet their needs.

Any big plans we should look forward to in the future?

Over the past few months we have been developing a new, documentary- style video podcast titled Open Bounty. The 10-15 minute show will be released every two weeks, and each will feature discussions about a specific topic that relates to The Old Republic. There are a few other things in the mix as well, but to quote BioWare, “We’re not ready to talk about that yet.”

What are you most excited about in SWTOR?

Zach: It’s hard to say, but it’s a toss-up between the story and simply having a new Star Wars MMO. I am really excited to see how the story will affect my leveling experience. I don't think I have ever played an MMO where I could even tell you about the storyline, and I’m looking forward to seeing if The Old Republic can change that.

Brooks: Easily the most exciting part of The Old Republic, for me, is the cinematic dialog. I rarely read quest text, and because of that the stories that developers spend hundreds of hours crafting are usually lost on me. With The Old Republic, I want to be able to look back on quests, Flashpoints, and Warzones and remember them the same way I remember scenes in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Will we see you at PAX East this year?

Definitely! We’re very excited to head back to Boston and get our first hands-on with The Old Republic. Also, it seems as if just about every The Old Republic podcast and fan site is going to be in attendance, so we’re looking forward to finally meeting the community in person.

What makes MER unique?

What makes Mos Eisley Radio unique is the atmosphere of the show. The feel of the podcast always stays casual, as if you were listening in on a conversation between two friends. We do our best to avoid bogging down in the tiny details of each update, and instead use the news coming from BioWare as a basis for larger discussions about The Old Republic.

What’s one of your favorite episodes of MER?

Zach: Either Episode 21 or 22 of MER. We had Jeff Cannata and Scott Johnson on our podcast. It was cool to discuss this stuff with people we admired so much. The Instance probably had the most influence on our podcast when we first started doing it.

Brooks: Episode 22 with Scott Johnson of The Instance is hands-down my favorite episode of Mos Eisley Radio. Sitting for almost three hours to talk shop about The Old Republic with someone I’ve looked up to for so long was really rewarding. However, honorable mention goes to episode 26, where we were joined by Kathy and Carla of Corellian Run Radio. I had an absolute blast talking everything from Warzones to dating.

That’s it for this Fan Site Spotlight! Thanks to Mos Eisley Radio for participating in this first installment. Do you know or operate a fan site we should feature? Send us a link and we’ll check it out. Please note that only fan sites that adhere to our Fan Site Agreement can be featured in the Fan Site Spotlight.

PAX East Update

More details are now available about The Old Republic at PAX East this year. You’ll be able to see us at Booth 912 during the convention – make sure to stop by!

We’ll also be hosting a Community Meet and Greet on the evening of Saturday, March 12, where we look forward to meeting you all! Please stay tuned to the Events page for more details as they become available.

Concept Art

We have more great planet concept art to share with you. Check out these environment images of Alderaan, Hutta, Taris, Voss, and Nar Shaddaa.

Smilies

This week we have some terrific Sullustan smilies to share with you. We hope you’ll enjoy them! To use a smiley, click “More” in the Smilies section off to the right when creating a post. From there simply click on the smiley of your choice.

Forum Avatars

We braved some of the most dangerous locales in the galaxy to bring you this week’s creature avatars. Handle with care – they’re known to bite! To use one of these new avatars, log in, go to My Account, and click Avatar. From there, navigate through the pages until you find the avatar of your choice.

Polls

We want to know! You can find these polls in the Surveys and Polls section of the website.

• Where do you spend most of your time on the forums?
• Which Flashpoint are you most interested in so far?

 

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Introduction

In every Studio Insider, we take you behind the scenes to give you an exclusive close look at the development of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and answer your questions about the game. This week, Concept Artist Diego Almazan tells us how he created the concept for this imposing Sith burial ground. Don’t miss the Community Q&A! This month, ask us your questions on Facebook, Twitter, and on the forums.

Make sure you don’t miss this week’s Fan Friday for fan creations, new smilies and avatars, and more!

Sith Temple Concept Design

For this concept, I wanted to keep in mind that this temple is as much an ancient prison for the dead as it is a tomb or necropolis. It's dark, eerie, and foreboding, so I started with some basic shapes and colors that work in those ideas. I used big, strong shapes to signify power and resilience.

From there, I moved onto the breaks between those big shapes to feel out the type of details I wanted to include. The organic, sculpted patterns along the walls should portray something like a wicked incantation that would play a part in sealing away unlucky prisoners for eternity.

After touching up the details a bit more, I added other patterns on the floor and overhang. I also adjusted the overall color to simplify the process as I continued, and to provide a more readable version for the environment team once the piece is complete.

Up to this point the material had been a bit ambiguous, so I proceeded to add chips, cracks and discoloration to show how the stone has aged over time. I made the sculpture at the top a bit more faceted to push the stone look, while the pattern on the overhang was changed to be more decorative. The pillars add a nice aggressive touch, and function as a lock for tombs that should not be opened.

After the overall concept was finished, I moved onto the mood lighting. I brought that darkness back from before, but this time I dropped in a lamp to light the foreground. I also added in some different webs; some are old and dusty to help show age, while others are fairly new to show there are still some critters around. I bumped up some of the smudges and overall contrast and continued tweaking the color until I have what you see here! It's dark, gritty, and menacing. I love it, and hope you do, too!

Community Q&A

Each month we’re taking time to answer some of the community’s questions about Star Wars: The Old Republic. Today, Rich Vogel, Executive Producer of The Old Republic and Vice President of Production, BioWare Austin, has answers to some of your questions:

Q: I'm worried that Force powers may be overpowered in comparison to non-Force users... Will this be a problem? (asked by Luke)

A: Every character class in The Old Republic will feel heroic. No matter what part of the game you’re playing, from Warzones to Flashpoints, there will be good reasons to play every class – it’s our intent that no one feels punished for playing the class they love.

Q: So far the Consular seems to be coming across as more of a support/healing role. I'm worried that the class will take the boring back seat in group battles. Will Consulars be pigeonholed into one role? (asked by Brian)

A: Consulars, like our other classes, will have more than one viable role to play. One of our goals is to provide players multiple options within their classes – you’ll be able to take your Consular in several directions, and you’ll be able to be useful in each role the class can play. We’ll have more information about the Consular (and the other classes) coming online soon!

Q: How friendly will this game be for solo players in the endgame? (asked by Benjamin)

A: The Old Republic has a lot to offer to players with many different playstyles, and we want to make sure there’s something fun in the game for everyone. Even if you don’t want to join a guild or participate in Flashpoints or other multiplayer content, we’ll have plenty in store to keep you entertained!

Q: Will players ever be able to make storyline decisions so radical that it changes their Faction alignment? (asked by Aaron)

A: At this time, we don’t plan on allowing characters to change faction as part of the class story. One of the main reasons for this is that it would interfere with your class story’s continuity. Every class has a detailed story that they progress through from level one until the level cap, and players will want to see how those stories unfold. That said, there is quite a bit of room for players to make dark and light side decisions throughout the game that affect your experience.

Q: Will TOR be designed to run on a broad range of hardware? (asked by Kes)

A: It’s important to us that The Old Republic can look great and run well on a wide variety of hardware configurations. To that effect, we’ve done as much as we can to create a compelling, detailed world that can scale easily based on your hardware’s abilities.

Q: Is there a jump button? (asked by Phillip)

A: Absolutely! Exploration and basic movement in the world definitely have to be fun on their own. Obviously, we expect players to be engaged in Combat and Story for most of their game time, but you will still need to get around and figure out how to get places. If you can’t jump, that takes away a lot of the “realism” of exploration.

Thanks for joining us for this month’s Studio Insider! We know you have many questions about The Old Republic, so this month, you can ask us your questions on our Facebook page, via Twitter, and in this forum thread. Please keep your questions courteous, and try not to ask questions that have already been asked by others. Keep in mind that we can’t talk about everything just yet, so don’t be offended if we don’t select your question. As soon as we can talk about something, we will!

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Hey everybody! My name is Blaine Christine and I’m proud to say that I am the Live Producer on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. I’ve been on the BioWare team for three and a half years now and I’m happy to report that all of the mental images you have of us working at a world class RPG development studio are true. Yes, we have rivers of chocolate running down the hallway, yes, a live animatronic ogre lives in the basement and of course, yes, we have LARPing parties from 5PM to midnight every weeknight. (I usually dress up as Queen Amidala and practice my diplomacy skills on Daniel Erickson, who pulls off a very convincing Gungan ambassador.)

Okay – at least two of those things are not really true. So what the heck does the "Live Producer" really do on a day-to-day basis?

As Live Producer, I work with the development team to ensure that anything released to our fans (read – you!) meets the quality standards that are so important to any BioWare product. That means any time a new build of the game makes it into our Game Testing Program, I need to ensure that any content or features that we specifically want to have tested meet the designers’ needs and don’t contain any major bugs. When that build is deployed for people to play, I need to ensure the design group is getting the feedback they need from Game Testing (AKA, real players) to balance and iterate on the game itself.

This probably raises a few questions for you, so let me attempt to answer a few of the things on your mind right now. First of all, yes, we officially started external Game Testing a while ago, as some of you are able to confirm by your participation. (Yes, you are allowed to say that you have been in testing, but NOTHING ELSE. I will find you…!) We have received valuable and actionable feedback from the players that have participated thus far. Much of this feedback has already been incorporated into the game and we’re going to continue testing to validate the changes that have been made.

What sort of feedback, you say? Rather than bore you with details of the bugs that were found and the fixes that were made, we guessed that you’d rather hear about what The Old Republic is like to play, right? So we asked our Game Testers to share a few of their thoughts with you. Please note, their names have been changed to protect their NDA compliance!

“The questing experience in TOR was amazing! The voiceovers and cinematics actually make me wonder how I ever survived the 'grind' without them.” – GP

“As one of those people who didn't really care about story in an MMO, after playing TOR I can't imagine playing another MMO unless it has as much focus on story as TOR does.” - PA

“I've been waiting years and years and years for an MMORPG experience like this. The combat is incredible and never gets old. The grind is gone. I am so happy the grind is gone (so, so very happy). The stories are fantastic, well written, well acted, well animated, incredibly immersive, and the inclusion of choice takes it into territory that other MMOs have only dreamed of. Lastly, this game makes you feel like a bad***. The entire time. And I love that.” – JA

“I suppose my only major complaint was that when I jumped into the sarlaac's belly on Tatooine, I did not find a new definition of pain and suffering from being slowly digested over a thousand years. It is still early though. I'm sure they will fix that before release.” - CL

“This is the Jedi game to end all Jedi games. If you're a gamer and you don't throw your hands up in triumph when you get your first lightsaber, you're not really alive. This game is, bar none, the best interactive Star Wars experience ever.” – VI

As you can see from the feedback, we’ve been encouraged by the widespread affirmation of our goal to bring BioWare storytelling to the MMO genre. We’ve also been running periodic focus testing groups, and the results have been exactly the same. We love to see consistency like this in testing because it allows the development team to have a clear understanding of the areas for improvement while validating the core principles that we’ve used to construct the foundation for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Beyond Game Testing, I work with the rest of the Live Services group to make sure that we have the proper team and technology in place to ensure a successful launch. I’m sure you are all aware how important the launch period is for an MMO, but beyond the obvious, we are committed to delivering a BioWare quality level of service and support. MMOs have the added layer of 24/7 service and we want to make sure we knock that aspect out of the park. Our customers are extremely important to us – you guys are the ones who made BioWare what it is today. Thank you!

I know you’re all extremely excited to get your hands on the game. All I can suggest is to make sure you’re signed up for testing at swtor.com/tester. As we get closer to launch, the number of players invited to our tests will continue to increase - so if you haven’t made it in yet, don’t lose hope!

Well, that’s about it. I’ve been in the industry for exactly 11 years now and I truly love my job. It’s an honor to work with the caliber of folks on our team and despite the fact that we Producers don’t have many real talents other than the “Gift of Gab”, it’s nice to know that intelligent and creative folks are still willing to put up with us when they’re forced to!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you in Game Testing!

Blaine Christine
Live Producer