WoW Patch 4.3 Raid Preview: Dragon Soul

Official News on patch 4.3 and Dragon Soul

World of Warcraft patch 4.3 will offer players the opportunity to take the fight to Wyrmrest Temple and beyond, assisting Thrall and the Dragon Aspects as they seek to bring an end to the Black Dragonflight once and for all. 10- and 25-person raids will get to take on Deathwing himself, with three levels of difficulty to consider and epic gear to claim.

Forged by Deathwing during the War of the Ancients, the Dragon Soul harnessed the power of the other dragonflights, until it was ultimately destroyed. After recovering a version of the artifact from the Caverns of Time, Thrall and the allied dragonflights now rally at Wyrmrest Temple in a desperate bid to use its might to defeat Deathwing.

Created by the titans as a sanctuary for all Dragonkind, the crumbling Wyrmrest Temple is now the final hope for the forces allied against the black dragon Neltharion, once the Earth-Warder and protector of Azeroth, now Deathwing the Destroyer. It is here that the remaining aspects -- Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, Kalecgos, and Thrall -- have gathered to empower the Dragon Soul -- Azeroth's last chance to stop the great behemoth. As they begin to charge the Dragon Soul with energy, Deathwing and his entire army assault Wyrmrest Temple. Players must thwart the attacking forces long enough for Thrall to charge the Dragon Soul.

Before you face Deathwing the Destroyer, you must prevail against six mighty bosses.

The most powerful elemental still under Deathwing's sway, Morchok -- once a passive guardian -- is now convinced that his only respite will come with Azeroth's demise. Morchok rages against the foundation of Wyrmrest Temple, Azeroth's last beacon of hope in the Hour of Twilight.

Countless ages ago, Warlord Zon'ozz and his soldiers waged endless war against the forces of C'Thun and Yogg-Saron. Millennia have passed, but the warlord still serves the chaotic might of the Old God N'Zoth. Deathwing has now unleashed this legendary faceless one to crush the defenders of Wyrmrest Temple.

Read on!

Use the Force for good!

My kids, my wife and I have have spent some quality time over the last week watching the new Star Wars Blu-ray set. Even though people where having hissy-fits about some of the changes, it's been a popular release. If you have not got a copy yet you need to!

Lucasfilm has done a lot for charity in the past and are at it again, this time by using the Force to fight Cancer!

To kick things off, SU2C celebrity ambassadors Aziz Ansari, Zach Galifianakis, Bill Hader, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Jaime King, Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg and Emma Stone – along with Star Wars alum Samuel L. Jackson – have come together to raise awareness for cancer research in a Star Wars inspired all-star video tribute.

In celebration of the September launch of Star Wars TM: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray, Lucasfilm is collaborating with Stand Up To Cancer to Use The Force For Good.

1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. Stand Up To Cancer’s mission is to deliver new treatments to patients faster, and save lives now.

Help “blast cancer” by sporting the new Stand Up To Cancer line of Star Wars t-shirts. The exclusive t-shirts are available now and can be purchased through to the end of the year. Purchase yours today!

SWTOR Face: Same Sex Romances in SWTOR

SWTOR Face Your News Now!: Same Sex Romances in SWTOR: 

No idea how I missed this last week ... it's a whopper! First let's look at this post on STWOR.com forums by StephenReid: Official statement follows: Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options. Read on

Same Sex Romances in SWTOR

No idea how I missed this last week ... it's a whopper! First let's look at this post on STWOR.com forums by StephenReid:
Official statement follows: Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

So let's recap, there will be same sex romance allowed in STWOR, but not when it's first released, it will come out in an expansion. This raises a whole lot of questions, like what role will romance (same sex or opposite sex) play in the game? SWTOR is being released rated T for teens, but will this change with an upcoming expansion?

People got so mad about the decision to not include same gender romances until post-launch that BioWare had to delete/lock the first 300 posts. Now it's not just bi-sexual and gay people that are pissed off, it's anti-gay people and some parents and the religious conservatives who are getting mad that the content will ever be allowed in the game.

But on the flip side, what if there was no inter-species romance? Would people get as upset? I know a lot of guys in real life that have gone nuts when they see girls dressed up as Twi'Lek's for example. So are we all that desperate that we must have Twi'Lek romance in the release and not patched at a later date?!  

BioWare have gone to great lengths to include romance in RPG games in the past and I even stumbled into a gay love scene in Dragon Age II  that kinda threw me because it was so unexpected!

In case you haven't played Dragon Age II and are not familiar with what I am talking about, let me explain. In Dragon Age II, to unlock certain abilities with your companions, you need to establish relations with them. You do this in the form of conversations. You have choices in what you say to them when you talk about choices and personal issues. Choices you make during quests effect the way your companions feel about your character. The more the companion likes your character and its choices, the more abilities are unlocked, making your companions more effective during gameplay.

During my gameplay in Dragon Age II I was attempting to build up my male warrior's relationship with Anders, who is a male companion character. Anders was my main healer and I thought he was a pretty cool dude. But in my attempts to build up a rapport between the two, Anders took it the wrong way and before I knew it there was a lengthy kissing scene between the two (male) characters. In Dragon Age II the same end result can happen between opposite sex characters as well. In another scenario, my character was talking to a male elf in a brothel while I was following a quest line and before I knew it, they were in bed together ... not what I had intended. My two female companions were very upset!

Surely there should me more control over whether your character pursues a hetero or a gay relationship? In Dragon Age II, which is a BioWare game, the plot line leading to a romance encounter was a bit unpredictable. What would Chewie do if Han took his big hugs the wrong way?

Would he rip his head off ? If Han went for the grab?

Is this same sex romance option not in SWTOR on release due to time constraints or is LucasArts blocking it? Are BioWare just holding off until the game is out and has 5 million players before telling George sorry ... we are putting it in, you can't stop us now! 

But my final question is, will this be an epic Star Wars adventure or a cliche romance novel?

and will my smuggler have that same sex appeal as Han solo?

Mike How, Studio Insider: Combat Animation

Having pretty trees and landscapes is just part of making a game look good. The Star Wars Galaxies game looked good but this was let down by the way your character moved. I felt SWG looked  better than WoW but WoW had far superior animation. To give you more of an idea on how you will move and fight in SWTOR, Mark How gave us this update ... from SWTOR.com:

Introduction


With each Studio Insider, members of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ development team take you behind the scenes to give you an inside look at the work that goes in to making the game. This week, Principal Lead Animator Mark How discusses the work that goes in to creating the animations for combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic.


Combat Animation in The Old Republic


Hi. My name is Mark How and I am the Principal Lead Animator at BioWare Austin. Many ideas have been dreamt up since the inception of this extraordinary game and the animation team has been hard at work since the very beginning. While we see each project as a challenge, we have a lot of fun imagining all sorts of unique, action-packed scenarios that can play out in The Old Republic. Of course, the main purpose of animation is to produce characters that adhere to the basic laws of physics, but good animation also ties into many other facets of game design. Today, I’ll tell you about our experiences and techniques that go in to our creating the animations that compliment the exciting and visceral combat in The Old Republic!



We start out like any other game that has big ideas for combat: at first we thought about the classic battle between Jedi and Sith. When you picture these powerful Force users meeting, you think of how they Force Leap into battle! You think of their Lightsabers clashing, and how they use the Force to push and pull each other around the battlefield. We wanted to be able to replicate this sense of action and exhilaration in the way we capture the combat animations. We wanted to show Force Lightning exploding from your fingertips and have your character show their raw mastery of the Force by hurling large objects at your enemies. We also had many ideas about ranged combat; about ducking behind cover and blasting your way through a pack of enemy troops. Knowing that many of you who will play the game are going to be playing as non-Force users, we wanted to capture that feeling as well.


Lightsaber Clashing


One of the most iconic images in the Star Wars™ universe is the Lightsaber. Making the Lightsaber come to life in The Old Republic requires a collection of all the correct elements falling into place at the same time through visual effects, sound design and animation. Our challenge was to make the iconic Lightsaber battles from the movies come to life within the design confines of an MMO. We worked closely with the combat programmers and designers to ensure that the combat visuals do not detract from the gameplay experience. A key aspect we learned early in development was that players do not enjoy having character control taken away from them because of an action or animation. Similarly, we realized that any action a player takes in the game needs to be visually represented in a way that is consistent with the player’s expectations. Combining these two things, it was particularly challenging to develop animations that allowed for visually appealing combat while still allowing the players complete control over their characters.

Here is a progression clip of just a few of the animations in our game, from the initial design to its implementation in-game.

Once we knew what our rules were for combat, the programmers and animators were able to create a Lightsaber clashing system that could predict the volleys of weapons fire and other attacks being thrown at the player from all directions, and have the player dynamically react to ‘block’ these attacks. Not only that, but we were able to keep this system active while players were deflecting directed attacks, engaged in melee combat or even running. Players may not even realize all the factors that are coming into play to visually represent the combat experience, but we believe it’s critical for making the player really feel fully engaged in the fight. Without these dynamics, the players would wind up locked in certain animations when they go to engage in a “Stock strike” or “Project,” and then the combat would really be failing to capture the feel of Star Wars; it would give the player the impression that they are watching the action rather than taking part in it for themselves.


We’ve iterated on the mechanics for a long time, and I think the Lightsaber combat system that the programmers and animators ultimately devised has really gone beyond expectations. Even in a battle scene with multiple players and multiple targets, each Lightsaber wielder can be seen attacking opponents with varied tactics while deflecting, parrying or dodging the attacks of the other enemies. It gives the whole experience a really dynamic, visceral feel, making the player feel like they’re taking part in an intense battle where their character has the heroic qualities expected of a Star Wars icon.
Combat Cover


“How could Han Solo possibly compete directly with Darth Vader?”


This was one of the situations our designers found themselves thinking about when balancing the character classes. Though armed with many brilliant blaster attacks, tactical abilities and cheap tricks, one of the most challenging tasks for the entire team was in designing a cover system that was useful to the player while keeping them feeling like they were part of the action. Some might argue that you don’t even need a cover system in an MMO, but the benefits provided to the classes and the overall visual dynamic of the combat system is incredible. This all comes back to the expectation that the player has. If you were a Smuggler in the Star Wars universe and there was a crate available for you to roll behind to deflect enemy fire, wouldn't you want to do that? Of course you would. The cover element has provided a tactical way for the Smuggler and Imperial Agent classes to be competitive against their Force wielding and gadget-toting opponents. Deciding we were going to create a cover system was one thing; creating it was something else. It took many hours of research, play-acting and experimentation to nail down the animations for ducking into, rolling into, or just dodging into cover. As you can imagine, with the variety of places where these characters can take cover in the game, that created an additional layer of complexity which had to be addressed. In the end however, cover looks, feels and functions like the real thing, and we think it bring an entirely new dynamic to ranged combat in the MMO genre.

Once it was established that melee-based player characters wouldn’t be locked into doing certain animations, we wanted to make sure that ranged classes worked the same way. The unique challenge with the ranged classes was that we wanted them to always keep their blasters pointed at their target until they were damaged, downed, or until the player chose to manually change targets. This needed to be true while standing still as well as when the player was moving. In an MMO, players don’t usually stand still and fight mobs of static NPCs. Consider PVP: as smart as NPC AI can be, it cannot compare to the intelligence, skill and intuitive reactions of a real human player. This means that when two human players duel each other, they can adeptly circle one another and jump to get in and out of range. They can’t be stuck in long, static animations when they attack. We had to work closely with the programmers to devise an aiming system that could account for numerous gameplay possibilities. I think what we achieved allows players to play the way they want and does not lock them into a combat system that only obeys a limited set of rules. As pretty as it could look, who wants to play a game where you run and then have to stop each time you want to fire your blaster? "Not I," says the Smuggler.


For The Old Republic, we are committed to giving you a great combat experience through aesthetic movement, strong character and great design. These elements come together thanks to the efforts of many different departments that are all working hard and working together to reach a common goal. Our combat has unique concepts that set it apart from other MMOs and help deliver another BioWare-quality Star Wars™ experience that we hope fans will find incredibly enjoyable and will want to continue as they progress in their stories and create new experiences of their own.

We'll see you online!

STAR WARS: The Old Republic - Video Documentary #4 - Combat

Ray Muzyka and other developers guide us through combat in SWTOR. I'm looking forward to getting some sweet screenshots of my guy in action.  Some of the stuff you get to see in this video is very cool! It's about 6 minutes, so sit back and enjoy!

SWTOR Community Q&A on PvP

I for one am looking forward to getting into HutBall! What's not to like about shooting the dude that just took your ball? :P Today, Principal Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo answers a few of your questions about Player-vs-Player Combat in The Old Republic.

From swtor.com:

Q: How important is the PvP community to BioWare? – Kryptorchid

A: Very important. The Old Republic’s PvP developers are avid gamers and active, long-time members of the MMO PvP community. We hold preservation and growth of the The Old Republic PvP community near and dear to our hearts.

Q: Will there be any kind of arena system? If so, which brackets will it support? - Inquiescent

A: ‘Arena System’ has come to mean two different things depending on the context: Single Elimination PvP game mode and Ranking/Tournament Systems. Whether or not we add that game mode to The Old Republic’s current lineup (domination, assault and bombing run) is TBD. However, one of the top things on our list for post launch is a rated Warzone system where players can form teams, earn team ratings, earn individual ratings, as well as participate in tournaments, etc.

Q: Are there any plans for non-combat forms of PvP, such as Pazaak or Swoop Racing? - RizzoRatchet

A: We are considering, testing and/or developing several things like that. We’ll let you know as soon as we are sure about what we’re going to add.

Q: Will we see a “Criminal” or “Bounty” mechanic so that we can persistently hunt down and torment those who hinder our progression? – Gryffin

A: Haha. Nice way of phrasing ‘how do you guys plan to deal with griefers!’ We are currently testing and iterating on a system to ensure player progression cannot be blocked by griefers on a PvP server, while still allowing for the thrill of spontaneous open world PvP conflicts.

Q: Will there be safe zones on PvP servers outside of faction-specific planets? – Zepplin

A: There are very few, but some do exist. For example, the promenade on the neutral planet of Nar’Shadda is a sanctuary.

Q: What incentives will there be for players to focus on targets outside of the typical “gank the healer” strategy; and how will factors such as burst damage, crowd control and “PvP tanking” play a role in accomplishing this? – Marsobot

A: Winning will be the incentive. Attacking the healer will be the right decision sometimes, but not always. A key contributor in ensuring this is the tanks’ Guard and Taunt abilities. Guard will redirect half of the damage through the Tank’s mitigation and avoidance. A taunted target will deliver less damage to everyone but the tauntee. Players will be able to easily visualize which Tanks are guarding and taunting, who their targets are, and when damage is deflected through clear animations and effects. This adds to the dynamics of a skirmish as players of varying skill levels can easily react to and be on their toes about who the real targets of opportunity are and when. Additionally, Tanks will be recognized and rewarded for how much damage they deflect in this fashion on Warzone scoreboards.

We have a fairly large health pool to burst damage potential ratio. This allows for burst damage to be useful when the time is right, while not letting it dictate the outcome of all skirmishes.

And as far as crowd control goes, there is ‘Resolve.’ Every time a player is crowd controlled they build up Resolve, which is pictured as a bar over the characters head (below the health bar). Once a player’s Resolve Bar is full it changes colors and starts to decay over time, during this they are immune to crowd control. The visual element helps with PvP accessibility, and tuning the Resolve values allows us to achieve a fun tempo ensuring crowd control as its place but isn’t the end all be all of PvP.

Q: Since it has been clearly stated that there will not be dual specs for characters in the game, can you explain your philosophy behind the skill trees and how you are taking into account players that want to be able to play PvP and PvE content on the same character? - illumineart

A: Dual Speccing is something we want to add soon after launch. Also, features like Guard, PvP Taunt, Resolve, etc. work to narrow the gap between PvP and PvE specialized skills (i.e. a +Block skill would be helpful in both PvE and PvP).

Q: Are waiting queues cross-server and, if so, also cross-language? - Kisskill

A: No. We believe that fostering rivalries and memorable encounters with recognizable players are important in building a good PvP community on a server. We suspect cross-server queuing compromises these key tenets. Additionally, systems like bolster and same faction vs same faction Warzones (like Hutball) help matches pop frequently and regularly.

That being said we will be keeping a close eye on the communities and re-examine the system as necessary.

Q: Are there rewards for PvP, such as Titles, Badges, Grades, etc.? – Xenthor

A: Yes. Players will earn currency for PvP Gear, Valor Ranks, titles and other privileges through PvP accomplishments, such as winning Warzone matches, claiming Open World PvP objectives, finding hidden caches in PvP areas, etc.

Q: How will the Bolster system work? – Kelremar

A: If after a time the Warzone matchmaking system has not found a match of players of the same level range, then it will start up a ‘bolstered match’ where players of varying levels will have their stats bolstered to within 20% of each other. Therefore, player skill disparity withstanding, the lowest level player will be 80% as effective as the highest level player in the match.

Thanks for checking out this month’s Studio Insider. We hope you enjoyed taking a look at what goes into creating animations in The Old Republic, as well as our Q&A on PvP. We know you have a lot of questions, so we’ve opened new Community Q&A threads in the forums and onFacebook which center on the topic of socializing in The Old Republic. Post your questions before September 30th and they may get answered in our next Studio Insider!

PC gaming coming full circle

I had the opportunity to go out to Southwood Boys Grammar today, which is an all boys school in Melbourne's outer suburbs. For the last ten years they have had a dedicated class about building PCs and I have gone out there to do a talk on PC hardware several times over the years.

I remember that in one of my visits about eight years ago, although the boys were kind of interested in PCs, they had little to no interest in current PC hardware. All the buys were definitely more interested in console gaming. I got to witness a whole generation of kids totally abandon PC gaming in favor of console gaming. It wasn't until this year's visit today that I saw a complete turn around.

A lot of the kids had true knowledge of current chipsets, processors, and the ability to totally build PCs from scratch. Rather than describing the basics of how PCs work, we were getting into the details of overclocking and PC RAM technology. We discussed the benefits of integrating memory controllers and PCI controllers into CPUs, as opposed to having them in the North Bridge. The boys spent their lunch break in the computer room playing on their PCs and all of them were discussing their latest activities in World of Warcraft and Crysis 2. When I asked one of the boys about console games, they referred to their Playstation 3 as a good "filler" but that the majority of their gaming was now done on their PC.

This is a great sign for PC gaming. Although I never really made the console jump myself, I did see a whole generation put consoles before PCs for a time. I believe that everybody gets far more out of building and creating their on PCs than they could ever get from consoles.

Smuggler progression video, out now

Smugglers seem to be sneaky, dirty fighting scoundrels ... hang on a second, that's what they're meant to be!

Leia: Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder.
Han Solo: Who'sscruffy-looking?

Actually, in this latest official video, this smuggler character is not all that scruffy looking! This video gives us a brief look at the character progression of a smuggler class character in SWTOR. Will you be a gunslinger or a scoundrel? The video also gives a nice kudos to Harrison Ford in that classic scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where he fights a sword wielding Arab. The video is well put together and if you're considering the smuggler class, it's definitely worth a look.



Don't forget to check out our Smuggler information page, for all the down and dirty information on this underworld class.

SWTOR FACE: Dragon Con 2011 - Slave Leia Photoshoot

If your male, like Star Wars, and like the opposite sex, then like me you will love this photo shoot! I found my wife at a Star Wars fan club 17 years ago and looking at the girls at Dragon Con 2011 I bet some geeks found true love too! What's not to like about a hot geek chick in a slave Leia outfit?