So you hit level 10 and you feel like you could take on the whole Empire (or Republic) yourself? Star Wars: The Old Republic allows you to take the fight to the opposite faction via PvP battlegrounds called warzones. There are currently three warzones in the game, all with varying objectives required for victory.

Not only are warzones a fun experience, they also provide good rewards in the form of commendations which can be used to purchase equipment, weapons and consumables. Of course, if you want to get your hands on these goodies you’ll need to get amongst some blaster fire and earn your keep!

Here to assist you on your path to galactic domination and help you and your team to victory is a brief guide to each warzone and some basic strategies.

First up is The Voidstar.

The Voidstar is a derelict Imperial starship containing data that could be used in the war effort by either faction. Attacking players must gain access to the ships data core and download the information before time runs out.

The map is made up of three sections, each requiring one of two sealed doors to be destroyed with explosives before progress is possible. In addition to this, attackers must also activate various control panels to deactivate energy barriers or extend bridges along the way. The map is played over two rounds with players each taking a turn at attacking and defending.

Basic strategies for any defensive team include calling out incoming threats to either door, and using AoE abilities to interrupt players planting explosives. Games can be won and lost on people calling out enemies so keep your team aware of what is happening at all times. Inform incoming allies if the area has been cleared of threat for example, allowing them to apply pressure in other areas instead. A fluid team that balances players between objectives with good communication is a hard team to beat, even with a premade group.

AoE abilities are also very useful for the attacking team. Spreading damage out amongst as many enemies as possible gives the defending healers too much to handle, allowing attackers to thin out the crowd. The classic “bait and switch” tactic can also work to great effect in Voidstar and is often the only way past a good defensive team. Applying constant heavy pressure to only one door can sometimes draw all the defenders to one side to help teammates, leaving the second door unguarded for someone to stealthily take without drawing attention. Be ready for a large surge of enemy players once they realise what has happened however and defend the explosive, or use the opportunity to plant explosives on the other door if possible.

There are also plenty of terrain obstacles around the map that can be used by both teams to break line of sight and health pickups in various locations that can help turn the tables in a tricky fight.

Next up is Huttball. If you play Empire, be prepared to see a lot of this warzone depending on your server population.

Huttball is a capture the flag game mode with a twist. The ball carrier can pass the ball to any team mate within range, and the enemy team can intercept passes or kill the ball carrier to take possession. The team in possession of the ball has to make their way to the enemy goal line to score. Along the way are various environmental hazards such as acid pools and flame vents that can be used to hinder the enemy, or be used as an advantage in some situations.

The ball is obtained from the center of the map and is reset if a pass misses or a team scores a goal. The map features raised areas and walkways that need to be crossed in order to score a goal, but the walkways sport timed flame vents preventing progress for a short amount of time. Underneath the walkways is a pit area that players can be dragged or thrown in to that is time consuming to exit.

Passing is one of the most important things to remember here. The second is to pass wisely. Passing works via targeting an area to throw the ball, the player being passed to must be standing inside the marked area on the ground to receive it. When passing, try to be aware that moving players may not see the pass and run by it, so try to anticipate where a moving player is going and throw the ball in their path.

Using the terrain to your advantage is also of high priority. Punting/dragging players into the acid pools or flame vents is a quick way of dispatching them with minimum effort, and applying crowd control to players navigating flame vents can also be used to force players to take environmental damage. If you have any grapple abilities these can be used to drag the ball carrier into the pit area, forcing a pass or a lengthy exit from the area.

If all else fails, name calling is encouraged…

Lastly we have the Alderaan warzone.

A battle is taking place above Alderaan, yet the key to victory lies on the planet. Secure and hold ground-to-air laser turrets to provide offensive support to your faction and blast the enemy out of the sky!

Alderaan is a control point map that requires at least two of three laser turrets to be captured and held to win. Teams are flown into opposite sides of the map (north & south) via speeder bike and can immediately access two of three turrets from the start location. The northern start point can access the west and center nodes, while the southern start point can access east and center. Connecting the east and west nodes is an underground tunnel, located within are speed boost pickups enabling quick access to either side of the map.

As with The Voidstar warzone, calling out incoming threats is the key to a good defense and should be done at every opportunity. A successful strategy is to send a few players to the east or west (depending on your start point) control point, while the rest of the team assault the middle node. Once this has been achieved, split the team between the two nodes and call for support whenever needed, however always try and keep at least one person at a node to inform the team of capture attempts.

Once again AoE abilities can be used to create a large amount of work for healers, and also to interrupt players attempting to capture a node. With this in mind, be aware of your positioning when capturing nodes as you can often use line of sight to achieve a successful capture. Once again, the ‘bait and switch’ tactic can be used to great effect here. Providing heavy pressure to a node will often draw more enemy players in to defend it, leaving other nodes less guarded and available for capture.

Have fun, and stay tuned for my follow up guide dealing with some basic strategies for tanking warzones and effectively providing valuable support to teammates.

Less than an hour ago, along with thousands of other people, I was booted off of Star Wars: The Old Republic for preparation for the big launch. Horrible timing too as my group was at the end of the Mandalorian Raiders Flashpoint and in our rush to finish it before we got kicked, we ended up wiping at the final boss fight with not enough time for a second shot.

The servers are currently inaccessible and will be until 12:01 EST when the game will official launch. For players that pre-ordered the game, but have not yet entered their game code, BioWare announced a few days ago that there will be a two day grace period incase you didn’t received your physical copy yet.

Also BioWare will be adding addition servers for the midnight launch in preparations for the influx of new players, so hopefully the queues won’t be too bad tomorrow.

Many Star Wars fans are up in arms at the discovery that despite being told in August there’d be a grace period for those who order physical copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic, there will, in fact, be no grace period. While any pre-order code will allow players entry into the early access, in order to keep playing come launch, you must have your actual game code. Many people made their purchasing decisions based upon the declaration of a grace period, and are understandably upset by this sudden change. There have been thousands of posts this evening on the subject, as angered fans vent their wrath upon the forums.

Although some good news, however meager it may be, has been revealed – after several hours of the posting frenzy, Stephen Reid, the Senior Online Community Manager, posted to say that sales and marketing are working to ensure that copies will be sent out prior to launch. European retailers will have the game on the 15th of December, US retailers on the 20th, and those who ordered digitally via Origin will have their game codes emailed to them on the 16th. There is still question as to how this affects those who ordered the Collector’s Edition and US customers who ordered online, but at least Reid is continuing to communicate as best he can to address concerns. He has even apologized twice – first for the ‘misunderstanding’ and then for calling this fiasco a misunderstanding.

It’s a shame, really. My guess is this was done by EA, and not Bioware, but the end result is the same for me – the trust Bioware has built over the past years has been rather badly shaken. Even if Bioware fully meant to have a grace period, and was forced by EA to renege on that intention, it’s difficult to continue to trust them when they can at any time be forced into altering their public statements like this.

The first thing I should mention is that I am not a Star Wars fan. I’ve seen the movies of course – over 2 decades ago when I was a kid. I never had any of the action figures, I’ve never played a Star Wars game, and unless I hit Google I couldn’t tell you which movie features the Ewoks or which one has Luke losing his hand. You can call me an ignorant savage if you like (my fiance does), but I prefer old classic movies like The Lion in Winter or The Maltese Falcon, and as a kid I preferred Schmendrick to Luke. When it comes to MMOs, I don’t like story-driven games, I want to just go out into the wilderness and kill and kill and kill my way up the leveling ladder. Companions? If I want company, I’ll group or play a single player game like Dragon Age. Space combat? I’d rather go crawling through a deep mazelike dungeon. Jedis? Lasers are cool, but I’d prefer a nice dagger to stick into my enemy’s back after I’ve robbed him blind (I just love MMOs with pickpocketing, I get to loot my enemies TWICE!).

I thought the game was being overhyped simply because it has lightsabers, Jedis, spaceships, and Sith. So when I had the opportunity to sit down and play Star Wars: The Old Republic this weekend, I expected to have a few hours of ok fun, uninstall the game and walk away.

I was wrong. Not only did I not walk away, I preordered two copies.

Cutscenes
The first thing that you see after the logos and server selection is a brilliant cut scene. It just blew me away. Usually I skip through MMO cut scenes, but I watched this one straight through and hoped that there’d be a way for me to watch it again. I was bummed by the certainty that the game itself wouldn’t be this cool, but that first cut scene was just amazing. Then I picked my faction, and watched another cut scene. It was still pretty cool, though not as amazing as that first one. Then I made my character, and watched yet another cutscene. This game is the land of cutscenes. Every single quest I
found had at least two cutscenes and I see no reason to believe the rest of the game is any different.

I’m of mixed minds about many things regarding this game, and the barrage of cutscenes is one of them. On the one hand – the voice acting and the scripting is actually good. I laughed out loud, I muttered many times about wanting to kill particular NPCs, I laughed some more; the story was just so excellent that I wanted to keep playing to see more. On the other hand, that’s a lot of cutscenes! I probably spent more time watching cutscenes than I did killing things.

When I first started playing, after the first one, I was very impatient. Just let me play the game already! It cuts down on replayability also, I couldn’t find any way of skipping the cutscenes that didn’t prevent me from taking the quest, and after running through most of the quests once I won’t want to see them again. Although I’ve been told since playing that spacebar will skip right to the dialogue options. But the story was well written! So I really can’t come to a decision as to whether I like the cutscenes or whether I wish they’d be just a little more sparse.

UI

It’s both good and bad. There’s no annoying swirls, scrolls, or decorative crap blocking my view of the actual game. My first impression upon seeing the UI was ‘YES! Finally a dev team that understands I want to see the game and not the UI!’ Then I noticed you can’t customize your UI. Everything is stuck where it is, there’s no moving panels around, no resizing, and no addons. You can choose whether to have a few more hotbars displayed, but that’s it. So while it does get a thumbs up for simplicity, I ultimately give the UI a failing grade because a non customizable UI is just antiquated design. Bad move on that one, Bioware. Hopefully they’ll add some UI customization options by launch time.

Characters

Character generation is pretty easy. You pick your alliance, your faction, your class, your race, and then customize your appearance. My first impression of it was positive, there were quite a few options to make my character unique. Then I flipped through a few other races and discovered that this is race dependent. Some races have quite a few options, and others just don’t. I’m hoping this is changed before launch and many more options are provided. Still, for an MMO, it’s pretty solid. I’ve played plenty of games where you have a choice of 4 faces and 4 hairstyles and that’s it. This one allows you to customize a bunch of things. You have a choice of skin colors, makeup and everyone can have scars. Depending on race you might have a choice of tattoos, jewelry, horns or face ridges. Some of it is pretty cool looking.

Sadly I didn’t have time to play all the classes. The ones I did play were pretty fun, and I’m curious about the rest. I didn’t find them to be standard schlock MMO classes, which to this jaded gamer is a pretty impressive feat. The smuggler is particularly fun, it was cool to zip around in combat, hiding behind ledges, barrels and walls. Just like the movies, blaster fights were moving affairs, popping your head out of cover for a few shots then hiding again; I only stood in place and let the enemies shoot me head on when they were so much lower level than I was that there was no risk of dying. Although admittedly, if there was a death penalty I never noticed it. Perhaps there is one once you leave the newbie stages, but as I only had a few hours, I didn’t get that far.

I found the force users to be pretty boring, although I will give the choices that determine light and dark side of the force an excellent grade. There are times when the light and dark side choices are pretty standard good vs. evil; like a choice between giving the starving kids money so they can get food and water, or driving them off to starve to death, but sometimes there’s a real tough choice to be made if you want to remain aligned with the light side. That bastard insulted me! And was trying to kill my friends! Did I mention he insulted me?! What do you mean I should forgive him and resolve this peacefully?

Story

I don’t have much to say about the story of the game other than it is brilliant. I’ve always told people that I don’t like story in my MMOs simply because you can always count on it to be a pile of crap. Star Wars: the Old Republic is the shining exception. I don’t want to spoil it for those who want to experience it for themselves, so all I will say is for you story folks, this game does it well. The voice acting is actually good, the story really draws you in, and to top it all off there are dialogue options so you can have some shaping of your character’s personality. The story more than makes up for the UI’s failure.

If you need more convincing, you don’t start the game with a series of killing 10 Womp rats.

Companions

A very fun element of the game. Companions have their own stories, their own likes and dislikes, and you can even give them gifts to make them like you better. You can send them on little quests to gather resources for you, and they’ll craft. You can customize their appearances, and give them gear to improve their fighting.

It takes a bit of time before you can acquire your first companion, so sadly that’s about all I have to say about them – on first blush they’re pretty cool. And most importantly, you can toggle their AI on and off depending on how much control you’d like. Also – they’ll sell your inventory junk while you’re in the field. What’s not to love about an obedient minion who will take your vendor trash and bring you cash?

Crafting

Sadly I wasn’t able to play around with crafting and harvesting too much. Usually this is one of the areas I explore first when I begin a new game, but so far as I was able to tell, it’s done via your companion. So the bulk of my playtime I was unable to do so. When I did get my companion, I had no idea how to get him to harvest or craft for me. By the time I figured out how to teach him, it was far too late and I was only able to look at the UI window and wonder how it worked.

Grouping

Another unfortunate gap in my knowledge. I was enjoying my story so much that’s what I did. I didn’t group at all during my play, although I did see enough group content to know it’s there for those who want it. Grouping is also limited in the initial stages of the game since there are different starting areas for the classes. Also, the class quests only allow one player of that particular class – so while you can group to complete the quest, you can’t have another person of the same class as you, and the classes are split into different newbie areas.

It did look pretty interesting, so I’ll be checking that out after launch.

Conclusion

I didn’t play this game as long as I’d like for the purposes of writing about it, so this is really just a quick first impression. But after a few short hours of playing it, I went from knowing absolutely nothing about the game and completely uninterested to preordering it. I can’t say for certain how long I’ll remain subscribed, but I walked away with an overall good impression. The game runs like silk – seriously, I’d have to say hands down it’s the best running game I’ve played in years. It was a stress test weekend, with long queues of several thousand (yes, several thousand – most were between 1 and 2 thousand, although I tried one server where I was 5,347th in line), but once I was in the game it played beautifully. I maxed out the graphics options, and experienced no lag, no hitching, no abnormally long loading times, and I never crashed. That’s right – a beta stress test with servers so jam packed there were queues that took hours to get through – and I didn’t even experience a single crash. I did see an odd flickering once during a cutscene, and there were a few times where the voice didn’t sync with the video, but overall, I am very impressed with how well it ran.

Can I recommend it? Yes – provisionally.

I began frustrated, and wanting to get to the action rather than sit here watching cutscene after cutscene, but after a while, I suddenly realized – this MMO is a single player game that you can play with lots of people. The story is the whole point of playing. The cutscenes became less annoying after that hit me, so while I can recommend this game wholeheartedly, I do have to say that you should skip this game if you don’t want story. If you want the kind of game that I normally look for – more sandbox than themepark, with challenging gameplay – and if you don’t want story and cutscenes interrupting your play, you’re better off giving this game a pass.

But if you like a game with a good story, I can recommend it wholeheartedly. If you like Dragon Age, I can recommend this game hands down. It’s already been said, but it really is a lot like Dragon Age: Origins with lightsabers.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, BioWare heads Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, stated that the possibility of a Mass Effect MMO game is very much alive. Dr. Zeschuk said the following when asked about a Mass Effect MMO,

You never know.  I think once The Old Republic is done, we’ll take a fresh look at the market. And we’ll have learned a lot. While making it, you learn an enormous amount. It’s one of the nice things about having these properties in our back pocket… If we want to use something we own as a source for a game, it’s easy to do. So yeah, you never know. We’ve got this giant product to launch, but once that’s done we’ll consider next steps.

Muzyka added,

We’re focused very much on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and [our free-to-play game] Wrath of Heroes, and all the other things we’ve announced, and haven’t announced, but we also have the opportunity to look at our franchises in a way we haven’t ever before. There are lots of new platforms and lots of new business models.

It seems BioWare is taking the wait and see approach with Star Wars: The Old Republic to see how it does before making any decisions about another MMO game. But if the hype surrounding SWTOR is any indication of its success, I’m sure BioWare will jump at the chance to create another MMORPG out of a beloved series like Mass Effect.

Ah, the Bounty Hunter class, the only other class in the Star Wars universe that’s just as cool as the Jedi.  Made popular by the most famous bounty hunter, Boba Fett, who not only captured Hon Solo, but was quite a ladies man in Jabbas cantina.

Today, Bioware released their latest video featuring the Bounty Hunter class as they progress and level through Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The videos shows off two of the advanced sub-classes, the Powertech and Mercenary, and shows a Bounty Hunter putting the hurt on a Jedi. Enjoy.

Having played exclusively tank classes in MMO’s for some time now, I’m extremely interested to see that Star Wars: The Old Republic is planning a similar approach to Warhammer Online in regards to PvP tanking. An interview with BioWare’s lead PvP designer over at Darthhater.com has some great information on what tanks can expect their role to be in PvP.

One of the more interesting features to me is the ‘Guard’ mechanic. Tanks will be able to reduce incoming damage to friendly characters by ‘guarding’ them, sharing the tanks defensive stats with the guarded player. This encourages the tanks to play a heavy support role, guarding healers and weaker armoured characters keeping them in the fight longer, or storming the frontlines alongside a damage class and providing them the extra defense required to take out some key enemy players. Any damage absorbed by the tank through guarding players is tracked and counts towards their final score providing a solid incentive to switch guard targets around frequently for maximum benefit.

Warhammer Online’s approach to taunts also appears to be making an appearance in The Old Republic. Mythic Entertainment essentially dealt with PvE abilities such as taunts by making them work differently within PvP. Instead of forcing a target switch it would reduce the taunted characters damage output till they attacked the tank a set amount of times. This taunt system, in combination with the guard mechanic means that a tank can provide excellent support to healers and hopefully draw enemy fire away from weaker characters. I really enjoyed this feature in Warhammer and I can’t wait to try it out in The Old Republic.

Back when I played World of Warcraft, before the dual spec and item stat changes, tanking in PvP wasn’t really viable due to most tanking abilities being focused around PvE. Although a hunter could force you to change target to his pet through the use of a hunter skill, a tanks taunt was useless and would not perform the same function. Frustrating.

I’m not saying it was impossible of course, I used to tank in PvP a lot, although mainly in Alterac Valley where tanks could actually be useful. Alterac Valley is a PvP battleground that could be won simply by killing enemy players, or you could also push up to the enemy base and take out a named NPC for an instant win. This naturally provided a solid use for tanks although still mainly in a PvE capacity, any PvP relied heavily on backup from teammates.

During my time playing the Alterac map, I learnt to approach PvP tanking a little differently. As tank damage was low and PvE styled taunts and NPC aggro mechanics do not really translate to playing against real players, tanks found their useful abilities cut back significantly. To most PvP players, a tank was simply a punching bag with high health rather than a threat to be dealt with. The only way to draw focus on yourself as a tank would be to attempt to disrupt the enemy support classes as much as possible. With careful target selection, good use of slowing abilities, interrupts, stuns, and whatever other tricks you had up your sleeve, you could somewhat pressure healers and disrupt the support they give to the DPS players.

Whilst the addition of dual specialisation brought in the ability to swap between two different talent specifications with the click of a button, enabling players to switch from a PvE style to a PvP focused one easily, this didn’t actually make tanking any more required in a PvP environment. It was nice that I could switch to a more damage focused build and take part in PvP, but I still wanted to play my tank with all his abilities rather than a damage dealer with a different set of skills.

By the time Warhammer Online came along I was ready for a change. The fact they were treating tanks as equally viable in PvP as the damage classes was the icing on the cake, and so it was that I reluctantly hung up my shield in World of Warcraft to take up arms as an Ironbreaker in Warhammer Online.

The Ironbreaker tank was able to perform knockbacks, snares, crowd control, and could provide great damage reduction to teammates through the guard mechanic. The tools at your disposal meant that despite lowish damage output (which could actually be very reasonable at times), an unchecked tank was a strong threat to a team due to their ability to lock down healers and prevent support reaching the damage classes. Many times I’ve seen scenarios and Keep battles (Warhammer Online’s version of Player vs Player) turned around by the actions of a few well played and well placed tanks. Watching a line of enemy characters running from your advancing team is a satisfying sight as a tank leading the charge!

This was some of the most fun I’ve had playing tank classes in MMO’s and thankfully seems to be a model more and more titles are following. As someone who picks the tank classes first in most MMO’s this is music to my ears. Flicking between two separate specs, maintaining two separate sets of gear with entirely different stats, sometimes even using completely different abilities to those you know well from PvE tanking – this is not something that encourages people to play tank classes in my opinion.

Hopefully Star Wars: The Old Republic will get the balance right and I can once again enjoy PvE and still be a useful addition to the PvP battlefield as a tank.

During this years E3, Bioware showed off one of the missions players can expect when they reach the planet Alderaan in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

It’s a group mission where the players must confront a Republic war hero-turned-power hungry King who has seized control of the throne in a misguided bid to protect his people from an impending Sith invasion. The gameplay showed during E3 has been edited into a highlights reel and since this was not one of the videos official released on the SWtoR website during E3, we decided to post it here incase you missed it.  Enjoy.

Drew Karpyshyn is living proof of how a strong narrative can be the heart and soul of role-playing games. He’s been bringing us unforgettable tales since he first joined BioWare at the turn of the century to help finish Baldur’s Gate: Shadows of Amn. Quickly recognized for his abilities, Karpyshyn was picked to work on Throne of Bhaal, Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire, later being promoted to lead writer for KOTOR and the Mass Effect series. Yes, this man is a seemingly inexhaustible fountain from which our most memorable moments in gaming have flowed.

Today, BioWare has revealed the title to Karpyshyn’s newest work, which ties certain events of the KOTOR series to the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. Officially announced, “Revan” explores the events surrounding the mystical Sith lord after the conclusion of KOTOR,  following his path to the time period in which SWTOR takes place. How has this legendary figure managed to hold on to power for so long?

Karpyshyn recently sat down for a quick Q&A session at the BioWare website; here are a few things that he had to say:

Q: How much time do the events of Revan span? And where does it sit in relation to the other Star Wars: The Old Republic novels?

A: The story picks up right after the end of the first Knights of the Old Republic and continues through and beyond KOTOR II — a span of roughly five years. There are allusions to the events of KOTOR II, but my focus was on the story taking place before, between and after the games — I didn’t want to rehash a story fans already knew.

Because we’re set in the same time period as the KOTOR games, we’re roughly 300 years earlier than the other The Old Republic novels… though the events of this book have a major impact on shaping The Old Republic universe.

Q: What other characters from Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II might we expect to see?

A: You can’t tell a story about Revan without also exploring his companions; they were such a key element of the KOTOR experience that it wouldn’t feel right without bringing some of them back. Of course it would be impossible to include all of them in a novel in a way that would make a cohesive and fulfilling story, so I focused on those who felt most directly relevant to what happened to Revan after the KOTOR games. I don’t want to give too much away, but Canderous, T3-M4, the Exile and Bastila Shan all have significant roles to play in the novel (along with some significant characters who appear in Star Wars: The Old Republic).

Check out the full post for more remarks from Drew Karpyshyn and further details on the upcoming Revan Star Wars novel.

Bioware was nice enough to put together a nice video compilation of the activities down at their PAX East SWTOR booth last month. Immediately after the doors opened, fans raced to line up at the demo area and secure a chance to try the highly anticipated MMO with their own hands. The demo centered around the Taral V Flashpoint, which was revealed along with a developer walkthrough a few weeks ago.

Join the denizens of fans as they share their experiences at the Star Wars: The Old Republic booth. For those of us who couldn’t be there, this is as good as it gets. And the getting is good!