Star Wars the Old Republic, Information gathered so far!

This post will be a conglomeration of all the information on Bioware’s latest MMORPG. This information was taken from the forum post. You can read that post here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=300223 . I also suggest signing up to the official site if you haven’t already for the latest information and a potential invite to the SWTOR beta.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ takes place more than 3,500 years before the movies/Clone Wars™ and approximately three hundred years after the events of Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™. For more detailed information covering the period visit here

For a better idea for the setting of the game watch these historical trailers

• When you play TOR your characters timeline starts approx 10 – 12 years after the treaty of Coruscant, which was signed after the battle of Coruscant – Bioware
• Quote: We want to make sure that when people play ToR they feel like they never run out of content… that it’s an epic story –CVG
• Quote from Ray Muzyka: “We want people to feel like they’re playing their own personal non-linear fiction” – Total PC Gaming Issue 28
• Only being released for PC, No Consoles or MAC (Except Boot mode). – IGN
• TOR to be made in English, French and German – Eurogamer
• Naming Filters include not being able to have numbers, special characters or Star Wars names – StarWarsMMO
• They are trying to make TOR available to People with a mix of PC quality Old and New- StarWarsMMO
• The class design has been made so that we will not get forced to group with specific other professions- Gamespot

 PLANETS 

 Republic Planets 

Coruscant

• Capital of the Republic.
• Only Republic players can visit Coruscant, Sith Players can’t visit this world – Bioware
• Coruscant seems to be split into levels such as Senate, Works, Gang areas
• Lots to explore on Coruscant, you can see for miles and miles
• Social areas on Coruscant such as the Spaceport and Galactic Senate
• Quote: Coruscant is significantly larger than Tython, and quite beautiful – Darth Hater

Tython

• Tython is a planet of forests and ancient ruins
• Starter Planet for Jedi Knight & Jedi Consular
  

  Starting Zone creatures you will see on Tython shown by Torocast

Ord Mantell

• Starter Planet for Smuggler & Trooper
• The planet is embroiled in civil war
• The planet contains mainly Saltwater seas and Islands

Belsavis

• Operation/Raid planet: Eternity Vault (is a prison where a powerful force user is detained)
• The ancient prison was constructed by the Rakatan Empire
• Ice Covered with Small Pockets of Volcanic Temperate Zones

Corellia

• A founding member of the Galactic Republic
• Corellia is also the birthplace of many Republic economic, political, and military leaders.
• Communication between Corellia and the Republic have recently been suddenly and mysteriously shut down.

Quesh

• Primarily Toxic Swampland and Marshes
• The Empire has moved in to hijack Republic mining operations

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 Sith Planets 

Dromund Kaas

• Capital of the Sith Empire.
• Only Sith players can visit Dromund Kaas, Republic Players can’t visit this world – Bioware
• Home to the Emperor and his Dark Council, is a planet consumed with dark side energy.

Korriban

• Starter Planet for Sith Warrior & Sith Inquisitor
• Red, rocky desert planet
• Original home world of the Sith

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Independent Planets

Hutta

• Starter Planet for Bounty Hunter & Imperial Agent
• Swamps and Industrial wasteland

Balmorra

• Republic forces are supporting the local resistance on this planet.
• The planet is Occupied by the Empire

Nar Shaddaa

• This is the first planet where both Sith and Republic can mingle and not fight in certain areas (Neutral territory) 25.10 – Darth Hater
• Vast cityscape, ranging from neon towers to squalid dens
• Many corporations conduct testing on Nar Shaddaa.

Alderaan – Warzone area on Planet (PvP)

Gameplay footage on Alderaan Pt 1 – Gameplay footage on Alderaan Pt 2

• Looks like Alderaan is a level 30s planet based on E3 Stage demo footage – Gamespot
• Alderaan is a mix of landscapes from Snow capped peaks to rolling plains to Forests
• Several of Alderaan’s noble houses are battling for the throne in a brutal civil war

Tatooine

Tatooine Demo footage

• Planet level range is approx 24 – 28 currently – Ask A Jedi
• Anchorhead is the largest settlement on Tatooine
• The planet’s surface consists mainly of Seas of Sand and Rock
• Ex Czerka Corp mined planet. Imperial presence on planet

Taris

• Taris is a post-apocalyptic planet with plague infested swamps
• Mention of ‘vertical’ enviroment aspects that maybe similar to Coruscant where you have different levels of the planet to explore

Voss

• Covered in golden forests, Voss is home to both the Voss, a peaceful mystic species, and the Gormak, a species with an amazing affinity for technology.
• Nightmare Lands & Forbidden Space are areas on or around Voss.

Hoth

Hoth Video

• Frozen desolate wasteland terrain
• Littered with wreckage from a major battle of what’s called the Great War.

Ilum

• Mountainous Ice World with Subterranean Crystals
• A treasure trove of resources lay untapped in the most unexpected of places–a small, frigid world at the edge of the galaxy
• The Sith Empire has sent a covert team to Ilum to harvest crystals for a dangerous new project
• The planet’s wealth of subterranean Adegan crystals proved to be perfectly attuned for use in Lightsabers

• Possible dozens of planets in game – Gamespot TOR 2008

CLASSES

Roles Classes can perform:

Please note that all classes have various crowd control abilities and they all have personal healing.
The list below is for guidance only and how you spec your advanced class may vary
your functionality and gameplay experience.

Jedi Knight – Melee DPS or Tank
Jedi Consular – Burst Melee DPS, Ranged DPS,Tank or Healer
Smuggler – Ranged DPS, Burst Ranged DPS or Healer
Trooper – Ranged DPS, Ranged Tank or Healer

Sith Warrior – Melee DPS or Tank
Sith Inquisitor – Burst Melee DPS, Ranged DPS,Tank or Healer
Imperial Agent – Ranged DPS, Burst Ranged DPS or Healer
Bounty Hunter – Ranged DPS, Ranged Tank or Healer

 Republic Classes 

Designing the Lightside Video

 Jedi Knight: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – Jedi Knight Gameplay Video – Known Jedi Knight’s Abilities

• Advanced Classes: – Jedi Knight Armour Progression Video
• Guardian: Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing, Tanking. Wields a single LightsaberSkill Trees for Guardian :: Vigilance – Defence
• Defiance, a Vigilance tree passive ability that grants the Guardian additional focus whenever an opponent manages to stun him. – MMORPG
• Hilt Strike, a Defense tree active attack that involves smashing their opponent’s face with their lightsaber hilt for a stun. –MMORPG
• Sentinel: Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing. Wields dual Lightsabers
  

  Skill Trees for Sentinel :: Watchman – Combat

• Blurred Speed, a Watchman tree passive ability that reduces the cooldown on the Force Leap ability – MMORPG
• Force Camouflage, a trained Sentinel Advanced Class ability that enables the use of a short duration combat stealth with additional threat reduction upon defeating an enemy – MMORPG
  

  Shared Skill Tree for Jedi Knight :: Focus

• Based on ‘Mace Windu’ and ‘Anakin Skywalker’. Lightsaber focused with some Force powers – Bioware/Holonet
• After games testing the Jedi Knight now has at least one viable DPS option that involves a single lightsaber – Bioware
• Quote: Georg Zoeller: While the Jedi Guardian can become a fully capable Tank (in terms of the trinity), they can also be specced to be competitive damage dealers, even with a single saber – Torocast
• Jedi Knight uses force points similar to that of the Sith Warrior to charge up the special moves – PC Gamer Jan 2010
• Ability: “Destruction”, The Knight can take advantage of explosive containers in the environment with a Destruction ability, which detonates them – IGN
• Ability: “Saber Ward”: to deflect incoming attacks for a short while – IGN
• Ability: “Force jump”, When triggered the Knight soars through the air and slams into the target, stunning it and building focus –IGN
• Ability: “Sweep” ability, as well as causing damage to multiple opponent it also slows the their movements – Darth Hater
• Ability: “Introspection” ability, passive healing that can be activated after fights – Darth Hater
• Quote: The Jedi knight can fill a couple of roles in combat. In one-on-one combat, the Jedi knight is practically unmatched in melee power – Gamespot
• Players who enjoy fast melee combat will identify with this class – Gamespot
• Quote: At its core, the Jedi knight is about getting into battle as quickly as possible, dominating the fight and protecting allies –Gamespot

 Jedi Consular: – Class Thread Info. – Jedi Consular Gameplay Video – Known Jedi Consular’s Abilities

• Advanced Classes:
• Shadow: Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, TankingSkill Trees for Shadow :: Infiltration – Kinetic Combat
• Sage: Roles: Mid-Long Range Damage Dealing, HealingSkill Trees for Sage :: Telekinetics – Seer
  

  Shared Skill Tree for Jedi Consular :: Balance

• Quote: The Shadow Advanced Class now has a skill tree that allows them to fill the role of a tank effectively, using Lightsaber defense and Force powers. – Bioware
• When asked if a Consular would be pigeonhold into a support healing class the reply was: 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 – Bioware
• Telekenetics: Ranged Damage using Force attacks, such as ‘Telekenetic Blast’ which does high damage in an ‘area-of-effect’
• Seer: Healing and buffs using the Force, with abilities like Serenity to boost Force regeneration and reduce damage taken.
• The shared advance class is Balance: Overall survivability and utility, with abilities that enhance both melee and Force attacks
• Ability: “Project” — the power to telekinetically lift a chunk of rock from the earth below and hurl it at an enemy – Gamespot
• Ability: “Force valor” ability, which, just like in Knights of the old republic, increases the target’s resistance to various types of damage for the duration of the ability – Gamespot
• Ability: “Meditation” ability, which lets your character quickly regenerate lost health and spent Force power – Gamespot
• Ability: “Telekinetic throw” power, which lets the character mystically raise shards of earth and pelt the enemy with a continuous stream – Gamespot
• Ability: “Force wave” ability, a powerful skill that takes place in a circular area of effect around the character and deals damage to any enemies in range and also knocks them clean off their feet – Gamespot
• Ability: “Force potency” skill, a passive improvement which, until it expires, gives your consular the chance for any other Force power you use to have a “critical” effect – Gamespot
• Ability: “Stasis field” ability, which–just like in Knights of the Old Republic–temporarily paralyzes an enemy, removing it from battle as a way to control crowds of foes – Gamespot
• Force cloak/stealth seen during Developer Video –Developer Video
• If you play a Consular as a healer your companions get stronger – Developer Video
• Quote: “The key element of the Consular’s story is mystery, using intelligence and courage to seek the truth.” – Developer Blog
• James Ohlen: Visual reason for lightsaber restriction; Jedi Consulars with double bladed lightsabers are DPS. – Gamespot
• Quote: “We wanted to capture the journey of Obi-Wan Kenobi – someone who begins with unusual insight and talent, but who is still growing into those powers” – Developer Blog
• Quote: A Jedi Consular must sometimes accept the grayer path, the less perfect choice – Developer Blog
• Quote: From what we were shown, this class is far from being a simple caster. Part melee, part puppeteer, part healer; the Jedi Consular could end up filling multiple play styles – Darth Hater
• Quote: “The Jedi consular is more based in telekinetics” – Gamespot
• Consular is a rear line support fighter not a front line melee. – PC Games

 Smuggler: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – Smuggler Gameplay Video – Known Smuggler Abilities

• Advanced Classes:
  • Gunslinger: Roles: Mid – Long Range Damage Dealing, wields dual pistolsSkill Trees for Scoundrel :: Saboteur – Sharpshooter
  • Scoundrel:: Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, Healing, wields scatter gunSkill Trees for Scoundrel :: Sawbones – Scrapper
  • Terminate, a scattergun ability that deals extreme damage to wounded enemies, usually finishing them off.
  • Shrapnel Bomb, a crude, thrown explosive device causing explosion damage and bleeding wounds to all targets.
    Slow Release Medpack, an over-time medical pack applicable to smuggler and allies alike.
  • Decloaking Screen, a modification to the stealth field generator that projects a temporary protective screen around the Scoundrel whenever they exit stealthShared Skill Tree for Smuggler :: Dirty Fighting
• You do not have to just play a smart alec Smuggler like Han. You can be good, bad or a down right evil master mind. (4.20) –Mos Eisley Radio
• Sharpshooter skill-set includes many abilities geared at improving their personal damage, improving the performance of their groups, and gaining additional benefits from cover – Developer Blog
• Dirty Fighting skill-set is all about getting an edge over people who prefer a straight fight – Developer Blog
• Scrapper skill-set has an off-hand Scatter Gun, a number of powerful (but not necessarily fair) melee moves and access to a Stealth Field Generator – Developer Blog
• Sawbones is designed to enchance the Smugglers Healing and Support abilities – Developer Blog
• The shared ability is called Luck this skill-set focuses on improving many of the Smuggler’s base class abilities such as increasing energy regeneration – Developer Blog
• The Smugglers start their story line after their Ship has been stolen. – Gamespot
• During the Smuggler Class video stealth is shown in use – Darth Hater
• The smuggler requires cover to survive, when people tried a direct attack they normally ended up dead – Gamespot
• Abilities seen during the live demo at Pax include: Groin kick, Headshot, Triple Rocket, Flash Grenade, Cover shot and Barrage – GamesSpot
• New abilities seen include: Flurry of Bolts, Charged Burst, Active recovery and ‘Show cover locations’ – Darth Hater
• Scoundrel: Short Ranged, Stealth based Damage and Medicine – Darth Hater
• Gunslinger: Long Range, Dual Pistols and Persuade – Darth Hater
• Cover system shown working, Smuggler can select from a Silhouette of the PC or arrows to move to cover- Developer Video
• When using cover the Smuggler gains a defence bonus, this is show on the mob that he is hiding from by a green symbol above the targets head – Bioware/Holonet

 Trooper: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – Trooper Gameplay Video – Known Trooper Abilities

• Advanced Classes – Trooper Armour Progression Video
• Commando: Roles: Mid – Long Range Damage Dealing, HealingSkill Trees for Commando :: Gunnery – Combat Medic
• Vanguard: Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, Ranged TankingSkill Trees for Vanguard :: Tatics – Shield Specialist
• ‘Storm’ – A Vanguard trained rush ability similar to the one seen in the ‘Hope’ cinematic trailer. – MMORPG
• ‘Harpoon’ – a Vanguard trained attack that involves a rocket propelled projectile that strikes through the distant target and allows the trooper to rapidly pull them into close combat range. – MMORPG
• Cryo Freeze, a passive skill from the Tactics tree that decreases the cooldown and improves the duration of the trooper’s Cryo Grenade ability. – MMORPG
  

  Shared Skill Tree for Trooper :: Assault Specialist

• Confirmed that like the Bounty Hunter they are trying to make the Trooper have the ability to main heal – Darth Hater
• The DPS on the Trooper is amazing, being able to take on so many while staying alive was brilliant – TheDarkKnight Handson PAX
• The Trooper Story starts as he is carried in to battle in a Troop Walker – Gamespot
• Most of the trooper’s combat abilities operate based on ammo, this seems to have changed since the last time media played it where it was based on points – Gamespot
• Hinted that the two paths a Trooper can take are either a Crowd Control or all out DPS branch – Destructoid
• Trooper is the Heavy Weapons specialist as well as using Heavy Armour, The big gun is his friend – Bioware/Holonet
• Updated Trooper Abilities: Hammer Shot, Rifle Grenade, Full Auto, Sticky Grenade and Stock Strike – Darth Hater
• Recharge & Reload ability is the Troopers Out of Combat self heal – Darth Hater
• New abilities seen include: Fast reload, Hammershot and Rifle grenade – E3 Darth Hater
• Mentioned by a Dev during the Q&A that the Trooper is a Ranged Tanking class – Darth Hater

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 Sith Classes 

Designing the Darkside Video

 Sith Warrior: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – Sith Warrior Gameplay Video – Known Sith Warrior Abilities

• Advanced Classes: – Sith Warrior Armour Progression Video
• Juggernaut: Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing, Tanking. Wields a single LightsaberSkill Trees for Juggernaut :: Vengeance – Immortal
• Soresu Form (a tanking stance)
• Sundering Assault (a passive that adds a stacking armor debuff to the Assault ability)
• Force Push (a force attack that throws enemies in a ballistic arc – perfectly for throwing enemies over ledges or push a pesky kiting player in PvP out of the melee dead zone into Force Charge range) – MMORPG
• Marauder: Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing. Wields dual Lightsabers
  

  Skill Trees for Marauder :: Annihilation – Carnage

• Juyo Form (a DPS stance)
• Rupture (a dual saber attack causing a powerful bleed for additional damage over time)
• Force Cloak (a very short duration combat stealth that can be activated upon killing an enemy) – MMORPG
  

  Shared Skill Tree for Sith Warrior :: Rage

• Quote: As with the Jedi Guardian, we have given the Juggernaut Advanced Class access to a skill tree that focuses on damage dealing using a single Lightsaber – Bioware
• Based on Darth Vader. Lightsaber focused with some Force powers – Bioware
• The Sith warrior starts his career as an acolyte serving a bitter, angry overseer who leads the training of you and your fellow acolytes – Gamespot
• The SW abilities are based on Rage points, do basic attacks to gain points for more powerful attacks. – Gamespot
• Lightsaber knockback ability seen during Video, similar to force push but with a LS – Bioware/Holonet
• Can use a Single, 2 Handed or Dual wield Lightsabers – Bioware/Holonet
• Sith Warrior can spec in to either DPS or deflecting front line fire – GamesSpot
• Sith Ability of ‘Channelled Hatred’ Shown as a Out of Combat self heal – EuroGamer
• More powers seen for Warrior such as Force Push and Lightsaber throw – Class Video

 Sith Inquisitor: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – SI Gameplay Video – Known Sith Inquisitor Abilities

• Advanced Classes:
• Sorcerer: Single Saber / Force Lightning / Force Drain / Ranged DPS or HealerSkill Trees for Sorcerer :: Corruption – Lightning
• Assassin: Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, TankingSkill Trees for Assassin :: Deception – Darkness
  

  Shared Skill Tree for Sith Inquisitor :: Madness

• Based on Palpatine. Forced ranged class with some melee – Bioware/Holonet
• Quote: The inquisitor does start in the darkest place of all our classes, but the path to redemption is always there. On their best behavior, inquisitors are what Palpatine appeared to be: powerful, charismatic, and willing to make the tough decisions to defend their people[/COLOR] – Gamespot
• Quote: The inquisitor is a very versatile class. Through advanced class and skill selection, the player can mold this class to fill any of the traditional roles of characters in massively multiplayer games[/COLOR] – Gamespot
• Quote: Characters with the assassin advanced class get to wield a double-bladed lightsaber like Darth Maul, and they can also cloak themselves with the Force and use various powerful lightsaber and Force attacks.[/COLOR] – Gamespot
• Quote: Characters that choose the sorcerer class will find a strong array of Force-based abilities at their disposal. There are, of course, the ever-popular Force lightning attacks, such as lightning strike; overload (a powerful area-of-effect attack that throws enemies into a ballistic arc); or the powerful Force storm ability, which can blanket entire areas with deadly lightning strikes –Gamespot
• Quote: in principle, the game mechanics for healing of the Inquisitor is similar to the Jedi Consular, purely for reasons of balance – Bioware
• Quote: Similar to the Jedi Shadow, an Inquisitor trained in the Assassin Advanced Class now are able to fill the role of a tank –Bioware
• The Shared Skill set is called ‘Madness’ – Bioware
• The Sith inquisitor reports to a Sith overseer as part of the slave caste–a group of low-born wannabes who are not of proper Sith bloodlines – Gamespot
• The SI Force powers seem to be tied to a Force power meter – Gamespot
• They can use at least either Doublebladed or Two Handed Lightsabers – Holonet
• Quote: The Sith Inquisitor’s ability to manipulate electricity is unmatched among force users – Darth Hater
• Quote: “lightly armoured, acrobatic, and uses lots of lightning abilities and telekinetics” – Gamespot
• New abilities seen include: Saber Strike, Dark Meditation, Lightning Drain and Shock – Darth Hater

 Bounty Hunter: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – BH Gameplay Video – Known Bounty Hunter Abilities

• Advanced Classes – Bounty Hunter Armour Progression Video – Bounty Hunter Armour Progression Video Two
• Powertech: Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, TankingSkill Trees for Powertech :: Shield Tech – Advanced Prototype
• Prototype – This tree offers gadgetry and attacks for the close range minded player, including a retractable armor blade modification for vicious melee attacks. – MMORPG
• The Shieldtech – ‘Shield Tech’, has abilities centered on survivability and damage absorption – MMORPG
• Mercenary: Roles: Mid – Long Range Damage Dealing, HealingSkill Trees for Mercenary :: Arsenal – Bodyguard
• Bodyguard – This skill tree contains technology to support, bolster and triage the Mercenary and his allies, including experimental goodies such as the Kolto Missile, a modified short range missile that explodes above the dedicated area, dispersing a fine mist of the popular restorative agent among allies – MMORPG
• Arsenal – This skill tree for instance offers access to powerful missile technology and blaster modifications, transforming the class into a formidable long range damage dealer. – MMORPG
  Shared Skill Tree for Bounty Hunter :: Firebug
• Firebug Discipline – The Firebug tree, shared between both Advanced Classes, deals mainly with improvements and additions to the Bounty Hunter’s flame thrower – MMORPG
• Quote: We have no plans currently for jetpacks as a mode of fast travel outside of combat – Bioware
• Confirmed that you can NOT place a bounty on another player at Launch – Bioware
• Regarding collecting Bounties the responce was: Quote: “You will be doing plenty of bounty hunting as part of the story and the quests in the game.” – Bioware
• Quote: The Mercenary Bounty Hunter focuses on missiles and staying at range from enemies. Devastating attacks like Heatseeker and Fusion Missile and Rail Shot make the Mercenary a sight to behold on the Battlefield – IGN
• Quote: The Powertech Bounty Hunter specializes in flamethrowers and close range attacks. Attacks like Flame Burst, Flame Sweep as well as the jetpack-assisted Rocket Punch are some of the signature moves of this advanced class – IGN
• Quote: A recent addition to the Bounty Hunter is the Bodyguard skillset which adds a healing and support role to the class [and] the addition of talent choices to create synergy between blasters and tech attacks – IGN
• Bounty Hunters Story Arc is called ‘The Great Hunt’ – SiFiWire
• The BH weapons all build up heat as they are used. To combat this you must vent heat to continue to fight. – Gamespot
• Can duel weild pistols as seen in video – Developer Video
• A harpoon and drag ability seen, pulls enemy from distance to close range – Developer Video
• BH can Carbonite freeze targets – Developer Video
• Can fire a rocket from his backpack to attack enemies – Developer Video
• BH has an ability where he can jet pack from distance to close range and attack an enemy – Developer Video
• Technology is the main weapon for the Bounty Hunter, using all the latest gadgets to catch his mark – Bioware/Holonet
• Abilities seen include: Standard shot, Wrist rocket, Flamethrower and Vent heat – Darth Hater

 Imperial Agent: – Class Thread Info. – Class Video – Imperial Agent Gameplay Video – Known Agent Abilities

• Advanced Classes
• Operative: Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, HealingSkill Trees for Operative :: Concealment – Medic
• Quote:The Operative has received a number of updates aimed at providing an alternative, less cover dependent gameplay option if skilled accordingly. – Bioware
• Sniper: Roles: Mid – Long Range Damage Dealing
  

  Skill Trees for Sniper :: Marksmanship – Engineering

• Quote: The Sniper is now able to entrench himself, providing a viable initial counter against attacks that would previously knock him out of cover – Bioware
  

  Shared Skill Tree for Imperial Agent :: Lethality

• When you start there are three combat abilities for use while out of cover (Rifle Shot, Shiv, and Overload Shot) and three for use in cover (Rifle Shot, Snipe, and Overload Shot – Darth Hater
• By level 6 you gain the extra abilities of Flash Bang (AOE Crowd Control), Suppressing Fire (Cover channeled ability that does damage and slows target),Toxic Dart (Single Target DOT), and Explosive Probe (debuff that causes additional damage when the target is injured) – Darth Hater
• Portable cover gained at level 8 – Darth Hater
• While playing the IA at PAX I was suprised to find I actually liked this class. The cover system I actually liked and combine this with the Sniper rifle all I can say is wow. – TheDarkKnight Handson PAX
• Imperial Agents can use energy blades as a weapon but can not spec as a primary melee class fighter – Bioware
• Quote: The Imperial Agent does have an ability at a high level that uses two blades as a visual effect, but that doesn’t mean the class gets to dual wield. – Bioware
• The agent is, like the smuggler, a cover class, though this profession seems like less of a scout and more of an assassin –Gamespot
• The agent accrues and expends energy points with different attacks – Gamespot
• Abilities include Toxic Dart, Shiv, Laze Target (air strikes) and Explosive Probe Droid – Darth Hater
• New abilities seen: Rifle shot, Snipe and ‘Show cover locations’ – Darth Hater
• Agents can use cover also they can stealth – Darth Hater
• ‘Shiv’ is close range Vibroblade attack. – Darth Hater
• IA is more of a tatical class than an all guns blazing one – Darth Hater

General Class Information

• Each Advanced Class is absolutely recognized as a full class and as such have the flexibility of 3 skill trees and multiple possible “specs.” – Ask A Jedi
• Tank characters have access to a “Guard” ability. Currently, this ability lets a tank class select a specific ally and absorb 50% of that ally’s damage so long as they remain within 15m. This was added to give the last side of the trinity a place within PVP –Darth Hater
• PvP spec for every class – No class will be left without a PvP spec within 2% effectiveness of any other – Ask A Jedi
• There are long duration buffs that are specific to Advanced Classes and these do not replace the basic class buffs. For example Sniper Imperial Agents can cast both Coordination and a special Sniper buff on themselves and their fellow party members –Darth Hater
• Confirmed that at the moment level 50 is the max Level – Bioware
• Quote: In a twist from other MMOs, choosing the right companion in Star Wars: The Old Republic enables the player to retain much of their healing centered play-style while playing solo – Bioware
• Saber forms known to be in game are Soresu, Ataru and Juyo – Darth Hater
• Quote:We cannot tell you definitively that a group without a healer will do just fine in ‘most all’ encounters. However, groups without healers will be able to play the majority of the game’s content and not feel like they are at a significant disadvantage, especially if they are careful in how they play. – Bioware
• When asked “So we can have a hybrid, healing or DPS build in the same Scoundrel Adv class tree? (depending on the path we chose)” the reply was Quote: “Yes, you can” – Bioware
• Quote: Georg Zoeller: All classes with access to healing abilities (and there are more than you think) are completely viable as primary healers in The Old Republic. – Torocast
• Quote: Georg Zoeller: Jedi Characters can wield certain non-lightsaber weapons, but blasters? No. Who brings a gun to a lightsaber fight anyway? – Torocast
• There will be three viable primary healers per side if you spec an advanced class tree to heal, currently we know of two per side – Bioware
• Quote: Exploration yields XP, as you can progress from Level 1 to Level 2 without completing a single quest – Darth Hater
• Quote: We are offering two classes that can develop into fully capable healers for each faction via one of their Advanced Classes – Developer Blog
• Quote: Blaine Christine: There are definitely story ties to your abilities. – Darth Hater
• Of the 8 classes each splits into 2 Sub or Advance classes, each of which has 2 specific talent trees per sub class plus one more which is a shared tree between the two Advance Classes- Eurogamer
• Quote from James Ohlen: “There are certain powers that you can unlock or have locked away from you as you level up” – PC Gamer UK April 2010
• Quote: “commitment to deliver an enjoyable Star Wars experience above all else and suggested that this outlook also influenced the game’s character design” – Gamespot
• Realistic looking robes, with and without hoods seen – Developer Video
• There is an END to each classes Story with new content to extend each story- MMOGAMER

Advanced Classes, Abilities & Skills

Advanced Class OverviewAdvanced Class Update Blog

Class Abilities

• As you level up, your character will gain abilities from three sources:
• Through trainers, from their base class (e.g. Sith Warrior)
• Through trainers, from their advanced class (e.g. Marauder)
• Through skill points spent in the skill trees of their Advanced Class

• Quote: Skill Trees: players must assign a certain amount of points in a lower tier in order to move up to the next tier. Certain skills have prerequisite skills in order to assign points. There is no dependency between trees, so a player will never have to assign point in one tree in order to use them in another tree. – Corellian Run Radio
• Quote: Players should be able to use the same spec for both PvE and PvP. The game is designed so that the emphasis gives greater weight to actual skill than to the distribution of skill points – Corellian Run Radio
• Currently Bioware are looking at allowing you to switch Advanced Classes in game but its something that will have heavy cost to it. 2.20 – Tor-Talk
• You will NOT be able to have the ability to have two Advanced classes stored and be able to switch between them at will (Dual Spec) 3.10 – Tor-Talk
• Quote: It is important to note that the choices you make in your skill tree never subtract from your base class abilities; they instead improve and add to the character’s arsenal – Bioware
• If your an explorer you may find Datacrons which are an exploration reward. These give permanent stat boosts like +1 cunning – Bioware
• At the moment you can respec your Advance trees but not your Advance Class. So if your a Jedi Shadow you can respec that tree but not change to another advanced class – Bioware
• The majority of class abilities come from the core class and the Advanced classes enchance them as you level. – Bioware
• Quote: We haven’t made up our mind yet about the availability of an Advanced Class respec. We are evaluating all options (no Advanced Class respec, fixed cost respec, respec cost increasing with level, etc.). – Bioware
• Once you choose your Advanced Class at level 10 you do not loose your abilities you gained prior to level 10. In fact all abilities improve as you level up. Quote: Yes, you keep all abilities from your base class, we do not believe in removing abilities due to Advanced Class choices. – Bioware
• Quote: Advanced Classes do not have a direct impact on quests or storyline – Bioware
• Quote: You don’t receive your personal ship or pick your Advanced Class on your origin world – Darth Hater
• Quote Daniel: Each of the advanced classes is a full, flexible class with various trees that allow specialization. So although the Juggernaut is perhaps best suited to play a ‘tanking’ role, a player could specialize in other roles – Bioware
• Reviewer Quote: At each new level gained you can purchase a new skill or improve on those you already have. – AskAjedi
• Quote by James Ohlen: The Advanced Class system actually allows you — once you reach level 10 — to choose between two different roles. – Darth Hater
• Quote: Access to specialized equipment such as special Lightsaber types, heavy weapons, gadgets and armor is unlocked via Advanced Class selections – Developer Blog
• Choosing an Advance Class is a mandatory; not picking an Advanced Class is not an option – Developer Blog
• Once you choose your advance class its not like selecting a talent tree, it changes whats at the core of your class. – AskaJedi
• Quote: ‘Any Jedi or Sith can have a single lightsaber’. Once you get to Advance classes thats when you can use Doublebladed or Duel (ie: you can use a single blade all the time instead of duel blade etc) –Wiki
• While such class defining abilities like ‘Force Choke’ would not be available to a Darkside Jedi other more neutral abilities maybe – Darth Hater
• Quote regarding Adv. Classes: “Right now the choice is permanent, but after play testing, we might allow players to change this at a high cost.” – AskaJedi
• All classes have a “Revive” ability, a 5s cast time, 10m range, no cooldown ability which can be used on a player or companion – Darth Hater

Class Stats & Modifiers

• Aim stat added; modifies critical chance and damage – Darth Hater
• Agility modifies Critical Chance, Bonus Healing is modified by Presence, Cunning modifies Bonus Damage – Darth Hater
• Damage Reduction percentages given versus current level, and are broken down into four categories: Energy, Kinetic, Internal, and Elemental – Darth Hater
• Armor Bonus formula displayed as (EN/KIN)+0.4, Willpower Bonus formula displayed as (ELE/INT)+0.3, Armor Bonus seems to negate Energy and Kinetic damage. – Darth Hater
• Hardiness Rating is a PvP stat, and seems to modify critical chance, critical damage, and damage reduction similar to Resilience. – Darth Hater
• Current Stats seen in game are – Cunning, Presence, Willpower, Strength, Agility, Accuracy, Absorb percentage (Armor Value), and Armor Rating –Darth Hater
• If your in too Min/Maxing visit this good breakdown from the people at Torocast

FACTION & ALIGNMENT

• When asked if being a Lightside Sith has restrictions: Quote: It will keep you from specific paths or chains within quests but never from a quest itself – Tor-Talk
• At present there are no restrictions on having multiple characters from different factions on the same server (2.26) – TGS
• Alignment can effect your standing with your companions. Also some equipment requires certain alignments to wear. – Darth Hater
• Various starting alignments seen during PAX – Darth Hater
• James Ohlen: ‘No faction swaps – ever’ – Gamespot
• Only two playable factions revealed in TOR Republic and Sith – Bioware/Holonet
• There are other factions in game such as the Mandalorians & Hutts etc – Gamespot
• Darkside/Lightside points are allocated by your own Dialogue choice even if the outcome does not match what you wanted. –Gamespot
• They are looking into adjusting characters looks based on their Light/Darkside alignment – Sean Interview GDC
• The more Dark/Light Side you go you gain access to more abilities that lean towards that calling that going the other way denies you. – GameSutra
• You can play as a Neutral character such as a Grey Jedi, Confirmed – Bioware/Holonet

GAMEPLAY

General

• There is NO auto facing in PvP only PvE – Torocast
• If during a conversation you have a DC and you can’t complete the conversation when you log back in it will reset the dialogue as if nothing had happened. Any choices you had made to that point are erased. It is only when you complete the dialogue do your choices get recorded. – Bioware
• At any time during a dialogue sequence you can press ESCAPE to stop it and so you can restart the cut scene/dialogue. No changed will be saved until the conversation has ended. It’s a good back door if the cat jumps on your keyboard and makes a selection you never meant to, just reset it.. – Bioware
• Quote: The main story line continues very close to max level. Even after that, we have quests, group quests, Flashpoints, PvP to level up with. Random mob grinding is not a preferred progression feature in our game. In fact, it’s inefficient. – Bioware
• Quote: Players gravitate towards the fastest/most efficient way to level and will repeat the most mind numbing boring activities over and over if they think it’s the most efficient way (to level). On the way, most will bore themselves to tears and ultimately quit the game. Hence the decision to make grinding mobs for XP much less efficient than the other ways to gain XP – Bioware
• Quote: If you play very completist (all quests, all group quests, PvP, space missions, etc.) you will in fact end up above level. However, since your class story ends before a lot of the world arc and other missions on a planet, you can then, at your choice, skip parts of the planet and move on. I’ve tried and it’s almost impossible to outlevel your class quest completely, because it’s just an inefficient way to play. – Bioware
• Once you get your ship, from your factions capital world, you are NOT restricted to which planets you can fly too except for the opposing factions starter and capitals. So if you are a level 12 and want to go to Tatooine which is around level 25 you can, but you will most likely die. – Bioware
• As well as being able to rez at a medical center, after dying, as seen before, you also get the option to use a self rez medical probe. This rezs you wherever you are and gives you a short immuity buff/stealth to get to safety. Penalties applied if over used – Ask A Jedi
• When talking about chances to miss vs hit: Quote: The Old Republic is a ‘hit heavy’ game – the base chance to miss is fairly low. Level difference and some other considerations can change that and the player can improve their hit rate if they desire to do so as well – Bioware
• Quote: Right now, we do not allow players to change gear or weaponry in combat. We just didn’t think that kind of gear juggling added a lot to the combat – Bioware
• In Warzones, there will be a “Bolster” ability applied that will bring everyone in the battle to within 20% of each other. So it will be possible to play with friends regardless of level – Ask A Jedi
• Story choices will NOT effect your gameplay choices for Endgame – Darth Hater
• The game is not designed to be played without companions especially when your not in groups – Darth Hater
• Levels 1 – 10 is an introduction to TOR and the Bioware experience. Levels 10 – 20 gets more complex as in you get your ship, crafting skills, enter your capital world etc – Ask A Jedi
• Your choices in Advanced Class and the areas you spend your skill points become more obvious the higher in level you get. A Trooper DPS and a Trooper Healer would be closer in DPS at lower levels but once you get higher the Trooper DPS pulls away –Darth Hater
• When asked if there are benefits to getting light/darkside points or being grey: Quote: Absolutely. Content paths, gear paths and some surprises we’re holding back. There are also rewards for the disciplined grey players who can hold to the middle –Tor-Talk
• A player will need on average 200 hours to get to level 50 – Darth Hater
• Quote: They want massive, huge worlds, where they don’t feel constrained, where they feel they’re immersed in the universe. They need to have lots of systems where they can socialize – guilds and chat and raids and the ability to engage in PvP, all sorts of activities that are social in nature. We’ve given all those – Corellian Run Radio
• There will be rest XP – UK Comminity night
• While some aspects of the game are optional some are considered not the examples are Quote: The primary example, of course, being story. It’s very hard to ignore, definitely not something we consider optional. Exploration is another example. Exploration is an optional activity, but it is encouraged. – Bioware
• Without exploring the world and stumbling on unique treasures, hidden quests, codex entries, the occasional world boss or encampment of rebels, you will be missing out not only on equipment rewards, XP, chances to further affection with your companion or build your alignment – Bioware
• The story writers have to be flexible. If story writing does not fit the gameplay then it has/will be changed. (8.00) – Corellian Run Radio
• Quote: Repairs and mounts are gold sinks – Darth Hater
• While at a Q & A at Pax East James Ohlen mentioned: That player retention in SWTOR is based on elder game content and re-rolling – Darth Hater
• There will be world bosses that will require more than a 4 man team to take down. – Public
• Confirmed that you can NOT place a bounty on another player at Launch – Bioware
• Downtime between fights or even during fights is not how TOR is designed. Quote: There are abilities available for most classes to grant them a ‘second wind’ in combat. – Bioware
• Your bank/vault or personal storage area is on board your space ship – Bioware
• Currently if you kill mobs 10 levels lower than yourself you will not get XP. If you are grouped with someone lower than you and the mobs are higher than them but lower than you the lower leveled player will get a lot less XP becuase of the advantage gained from grouping with a higher leveled player. – Bioware
• Quote: There are definitely penalties to death, but they do not involve ‘undoing’ a player’s previous achievements (e.g. negative XP), hampering future progress (e.g. XP debt) or forcing the player to sit by unable to play the game they have paid for (e.g. forced timeouts). – Bioware
• Hints from Damion Schubert that the Legacy system will be in TOR (Rewards for a character play through) – Darth Hater
• When asked about rushing to endgame: Quote: We’re less interested in doing a Dark Age of Camelot “hey bypass all the content” in order to get to max level to do the endgame content – Darth Hater
• Quote from Daniel: Multiplayer quests can still be played solo! Though a few really challenging ones are really better with friends or you’ll have to wait a few levels – Dev. Post
• Quote: 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 – Bioware
• 4:47 – Hall: We’re never going to force you to roll an alt. We’re going to provide you with more to do no matter if you reached max level. – Darth Hater
• Quote: You’re never going to get bored with that original (main) character – Darth Hater
• Quote James Ohlen: We are using instances, which we’re calling phasing, to do a lot of our storytelling, but it’s a massively multiplayer game. That’s what people are signing up for and that’s what we’re giving them – TenTonHammer
• There is currently nothing in place where you have to wear special gear for certain planets – AskaJedi
• Quote: The general gist is that we want to reward grouping, but not so much that grouping is the only way to play the game –XP Damion Schubert
• No Permadeath – Confirmed by Dev Damion Schubert
• The game is not aimed at the Hardcore player but the Star Wars, RPG and Bioware Fans- GamesRadar
• When asked about who this game is aimed at: Quote: Everybody really. There are some disparate groups we got to bring together and we knew at the beginning. – TenTonHammer
• 200+ Hours of game play per character – Gamespot
• The aim is to remove Grinding – Bioware/Holonet

Combat

Video compilation of currently seen ability animations by Logun24x7

• No Auto Attack – Bioware/Holonet
• If you play melee based characters your main combat skill has multiple animations, so hitting the ability multiple times does not repeat the same move sequence, but gives the same possible result. But for ranged class, well there are only so many ways to shoot a gun – Bioware
• In stealth combat targets will detect you quickly unless you engage them immediately, can’t stay near a mob while in stealth –Darth Hater
• When asked about if attacking from behind give an advantage: Quote: Attacking a Force user from behind doesn’t give you any advantage. Their superior awareness and Lightsaber training gives them 360 degree melee and blaster bolt deflection capability. For standard creatures, you’re not going to do more damage (unless you use a positional ability), but you may reduce their chance to defend a bit. – Bioware
• Mobs in TOR have a variey of AI. They do not just stand there waiting to be shot but Patrol and Overwatch areas. When engaging in combat they act depending on the situation. Like taking cover, trying to counter the player being in cover etc –Bioware
• Quote: Many enemies encountered in the game will have access to special attacks, defense or other abilities, many of which are staples of the Star Wars universe – Bioware
• Quote: When engaged, blaster wielding humanoids often attempt to disperse and find cover, which can mix things up. Humanoids that perceive friendly targets engage enemies will often join the fight as well – Bioware
• There is a CC-immunitybar which will fill up through suffered CC until you’re completely immune to CC – Darth Hater
• Quote: Scoundrels, Operatives, Shadows and Assassins currently cannot enter stealth while in combat. – Bioware
• Dueling in game is confirmed – Bioware
• Quote: Ranged and Melee DPS roles are balanced to the same target numbers. – Bioware
• There is no friendly fire in The Old Republic. For example an aoe you cast will not hurt your fellow group members. – Bioware
• Even though only the Smuggler and Imperial Agent have the cover system all classes can break line of sight to hide from being attacked. –
  Darth Hater
• Confirmed that the ability to queue actions is in game – Bioware
• The current standard ranged attack is 30m – Bioware
• Quote: Since I mentioned you can shoot on the run, I should clarify that you can also perform melee attacks on the run. –Bioware
• Quote: All classes have the ability to manipulate certain objects in the environment – usually to the detriment of said objects –Bioware
• Quote: Ability ranks replace previous version, so if you get Benevolence II, it replaces Benevolence I. – Bioware
• Quote: Earlier builds of the game were unchallenging in the extreme, but a lot of tuning work has clearly been done, and it’s now involving enough to require an alert mind. – EuroGamer
• The AI has improved and overall difficulty increases significantly on mobs over level 8. Its as if the first few levels were just a tutorial – Darth Hater
• Quote: It’s a rule-based system, so you don’t have to have good hand-eye coordination or anything like that – AskAJedi
• The combat is fast compared to other MMOs I have played, while at PAX I tried out Aion and Rift they both felt slow after playing TOR – TheDarkKnight Handson PAX
• Lightsaber forms are in TOR. Depending on the Advance Class you take allows you certain forms to be trained. – SWTOR-Station
• Quote from James Olhen: “Fighting and questing is going to be 90+% of what you will be doing” – PC Gamer UK April 2010
• Combat abilities can be used while moving, Sith Inquisitor seen using force Lightning in PvP while moving – Developer Video
• NPC AI does seem to be aware of its surroundings, They take cover and the move away from other NPCs that may cause them harm etc – Developer Video
• Combat has been designed towards PvP – IGN
• TOR is more an action based Combat system rather than the standard MMO style in other games – IGN
• All classes will also have their ranged as well as close combat skills – MMORPG
• Synchronized combat. Lightsabers actually clash etc – GamesRadar
• When engaging NPCs the NPC switched from Ranged to Melee as the Players got closer – StarWarsMMO
• Combat was more fluid not stiff like KOTOR – StarWarsMMO
• Cooldowns on the skills were very short, and the skills themselves were swift, immediate- EuroGamer
• Short cooldowns and Channeling of abilities shown – Developer Video

Story

• Quote: Don’t expect to avoid the main story completely. You can’t. If you never finish your story on the capital planet, you never get a ship and won’t ever see any other planets. Which means you will end up unable to level up further as you’ll outlevel your planet. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that players who think they want to skip the main story will quickly realize that they’re not going to be ever competitive. – Bioware
• Your choice of advanced class while mentioned does not significantly impact your story – Bioware
• Some clarification on story choices: On your personal class story quests only your dialogue choices matter, even if grouped. Outside of Class Story instances, we have World Quests, Flashpoints and Heroic Quests. In those, if grouped, your choices will be dictated by the decision the group makes. – Bioware
• Quote: There will be restrictions on your late game choices based on your early choices – Darth Hater
• If you are either Sith or Republic you will see content, from your factions point of view, regarding what happened to Revan –Torocast
• Quote: “the game is actually separated into chapters”. This seems to be like all the stories you play for each class are episodic. Broken down in to smaller chunks to be managed giving you time, if you wish, to play other classes and stories at will. – VG247
• Quote: ” We do have a class story that drives you through the world and that class story is personal to you’ – TenTonHammer
• Quote: Yes, compared to other MMOs, we give you more XP for completing quests and less for killing creatures. – XP Damion Schubert
• Quote: If you want to take a break from your class story and want to do some world quests that are not a part of your class, you can definitely do that. In fact, the majority of the content is that in the game. – TenTonHammer
• Quote: So, it’s not like you’re just going along you class quest like a solo quest throughout the entire game, there’s a lot of room to go off and do whatever you want whenever you want. – TenTonHammer
• Quote: Within your own class quest, you can make choices and those choices impact on how your class quest unfolds. There’s a lot of room for choice; it’s not a linear game by any measure. – TenTonHammer

Controlling

• There is NO swimming in TOR – Bioware
• Quote: “all characters in the game will universally have some kind of fast-healing, meditative skill to use when out of combat” –Gamespot
• When a weapon is powered up for a stronger ability it glows, various colours – Developer Video
• Characters can Jump!- StarWarsMMO
• Quote: While players can use some pieces of cover no matter what class they play, some are better at it than others. –MMORPG
• Certain abilities require certain weapons to be equiped as seen in the recent Dev. Video- Developer Video
• When you die you get the option to Revive at a ‘Med Center’ – TheNoNews.com
• Healing: Several classes can heal, Healing is NOT a requirement of TOR and healing has been done with a twist in TOR – IGN

Customization

• Currently the colour of Lightsabers is limited to alignment. While a Jedi maybe able to get a Red Crystal they will not be able to use it in a Lightsaber unless they follow the darkside and obtain a vertain Darkside Rank. – Bioware
• The optional color matching uses the primary color of your chest piece as the color to apply elsewhere. – Darth Hater
• Character titles can be gained by your character. Some of these titles appear to be class dependent (Agent x) while others appear to be universal – Darth Hater
• Titles such as Darth etc are gained by completing story lines but: Quote: ‘What may come as a surprise is that not everyone who completes a Sith or Jedi story will achieve them’ – Bioware
• Quote: We have a large number of armor appearances for all classes, including robes and capes, so it will be possible to achieve many different looks even for heavily armored classes. Some might even look not that heavily armored at all –Bioware
• There are titles like Darth & Lord in game- Bioware
• Lightsaber colour is defined by the crystal in the weapon and not what class you play – Bioware
• When wearing mis-matching armour there is a system in place called “Colour matching” where it will try to make everything you have on look simliar. (3.30) – Public
• Darkside disfiguration is optional. – Darth Hater
• Scripting and Macros are listed high on Bioware’s feature list but its still being worked on. – AskAJedi
• Implants do not change your apperance but you can customise your look – Darth Hater
• When talking about in game aesthetics: Quote: Not talking about it but will have something. The Return of the Jedi Slave Leia Outfit is in the game in some form. – Darth Hater
• Quote: The color of a blaster’s bolts (and their sound, btw) is defined by the weapon model, not by faction. There’s a bunch of them you’ll be able to recognize from the appearance of their blaster bolts or sound alone. – Bioware
• So far you can include hyphens and apostrophes when creating your character names. – Bioware
• Quote: Georg Zoeller: There is a good variety of outfits available for Consular characters, including some non-robe outfits, but a Consular is not able to wear the armored outfits available to the Jedi Knight, so they will never be able to achieve the exact same look. – Torocast
• You can toggle your helmet/hat on and off. – Bioware
• Quote: Because you will see your character’s face so frequently during conversations in the game, it’s absolutely critical that you can look awesome and unique. We have plenty of face/head/body customization options just in character creation –Bioware
• Just like the movies if your character gets corrupted by the Darkside you will age and your look will move towards that of Palpatine – AskAJedi
• More examples of Facial hair, age, hair colour and body types shown during Dev. Video – Developer Video
• Each class seem to have multiple armour/cloth sets. At least 20+ per class noted in the recent Dev Dispatch (1.30) –Developer Video
• Facial Tatoos and hair available on Player Characters – Developer Video
• Full Body and Facial expressions while speaking – StarWarsMMO
• There is no customisation Tab for apperance in TOR at this present time (2.50) – MMORPG

User Interface

Working on the UI Blog

• Player map guides are so deatailed that they show up tables, chairs and everyday objects – Bioware
• The maps get broken down in to sections when you enter a questing zone, such as inside building, where you will get a smaller map indicating your quest objectives. You also get what is called breadcrumbs. If you have a quest outside of the map you are viewing an indicator on the side of the map shows you where to go and also wheat quest is that way. – Bioware
• If you are in a group and you check your map it will show you quests that you and your group have in common and the location. – Bioware
• No bag system, just one big inventory (You can purchase more inventory space) – separate tab for quest items – Ask A Jedi
• Quote: There will be no macros at launch. After that, we’d love to do them, but obviously that’s not our primary concern at this point. – Bioware
• Current version of TOR’s UI seen in Dev Blog – Bioware
• Quote: What we’ve said is, regarding the question ‘Will there be addons at launch’ is “no, not at launch”. – Bioware
• Quote: Keybindings are in, and they support modifier keys like ALT and SHIFT – Bioware
• Quote: Ability icons can be dragged around to different quick slots; the bar can also be ‘locked’ to prevent accidental dragging –Bioware
• Quote: something we can’t convey in screens is that we have subtle but (IMO) pleasing sound effects associated with the UI that really make the game experience feel more Star Wars-y – Bioware
• Currently you can have two Toolbars at the bottom of the screen and one on the left and right – Bioware
• The first look at an early Companion UI seen (Check out the image, not the videos) – Bioware
• The UI we are currently seeing is not the final product, there are big changes coming – AskAJedi
• Some settings seen while at PAX: Enable Color Blind Mode, Map fade while moving, map flashes red when attacked. – Darth Hater
• When you hover over yourself on the minimap you are given X, Y, and Z coordinate location. – Darth Hater
• If the map is open and you’re moving, it becomes translucent – SWTOR-Station
• There is no customisation Tab for apperance in TOR at this present time (2.50) – MMORPG
• Quote from Darth Hater: The character creation screen was very similar to Dragon Age: Origins – Darth Hater
• Basic 12 Button UI with built in Radar, XP Bar, Player and Target Portraits – Developer Video
• During the recent Dev. Dispatch you could see extra toolbars being used by the game testers on top of the standard 12 (4.14) –Developer Video
• Buffs and current applied abilities show above the Health Bar of the Player – Developer Video
• Current available equipment slots are: Ear, Implant, two Relic slots, Waist, Wrists, Head, Chest, Legs, Feet, Main Weapon, and Secondary Weapon – Darth Hater
• Quote: There are two tabs of inventory space; the first item tab yields 48 slots, and the second item tab has 32 inventory slots plus one slot that is placed outside the grid without a label – Darth Hater
• Built in Quest Helper System, similar to Warhammer, in game. Points you in right direction for quests and indicates progress. –Darth Hater

Social/Interaction

• Cross-faction communication is currently enabled, but a final decision has yet to be made. If it leads to too much griefing, they will be switching it off for launch – Torocast
• There is no limit to the amount of time you can play per day, but as SWTOR will support rested XP, you are rewarded for the time you spend not playing – Torocast
• Holocrons (Items that you find while exploring and give you stats) are not restricted by being in temporary locations, Flashpoints or phased areas – Bioware
• Valor (a PvP reward) is tracked like social points. Your Valor level supplies additional titles and other prestigious privileges (i.e. within a Warzone players with the highest Valor are the party leaders, can mark targets, etc). – Darth Hater
• There is no in-game feature for player to player marriage but player to companion is still being considered – Corellian Run Radio
• Currently side games like Pazzak are not in the version being tested but they are something that would like to be added 9.10 –Darth Hater
• There will be no references within TOR that are not Star Wars related. So no references to other media such as TV, Radio, Cartoons etc like you get in WoW for example – Darth Hater
• Banking terminals on capital worlds – Darth Hater
• Mailboxes seen in game. Can send items, credits, COD, text message – Darth Hater
• Lore Objects are throughout the world and give you a codex entry when clicked on. These also yield a small amount of experience upon gathering. – Darth Hater
• When you partake in multiplayer dialogue you accrue social points. These points can be spent on social items – Bioware
• Quote: Republic and Imperial players cannot meaningfully group or play with each other. For the most part, they have entirely different content and progression paths through their planets – Bioware
• If your an explorer you may find Datacrons which are an exploration reward. These give permanent stat boosts like +1 cunning – Bioware
• When talking about achivements: Quote: They’re a big part of MMOs. We are going to have achievements in the game, but the types will depend upon how many we can get in for launch. – AskAJedi
• Quote: To address your concerns, here’s a small list of reasons for you to return to a social hub in TOR, and as a bonus, how we view each reason from a player perspective – Bioware
• Various vendors. Positive: I get to buy stuff.
• Crafting benches. Positive: I get to make stuff.
• Banking access. Positive: I don’t pay bills there?
• Trainers. Positive: I get to learn new stuff.
• Quests / Follow-up quests. Positive: I get rewards.
• Meeting friends (much easier at a known location than randomly in a snowstorm on Hoth). Positive: I meet friends.
• Spaceport access. Neutral.
• Medcenters. Neutral, arguably negative (I failed).
• Speeder Transportation Service. Neutral.
• Your inventory still fills up with items, so it’s not like you never have to return to town. Probably Neutral: since I get a lot of credits for the non gray stuff.
• Confirmed that planets will have multiple social hubs – Bioware
• Quote: Each planet has chat channels that allows you to communicate with other players on the same planet. Yes, we have different channels for general, pvp, trade, etc. You will be able to turn off the channel – Bioware
• Chat is available even when your making group dialog choices, if you need to you can discuss as a group what your going to reply – Bioware
• Quote: We currently don’t have any global channels that cover the whole game. General rule of thumb in an MMO is that if your chat channel has more than a certain number of participants, it becomes spammy and unusable – Bioware
• Just like in other MMOs you can help friends with a lower level, but you get less experience since the enemies will probably be weaker. – SWTOR-Station
• Each class gets their own ship to be used as a hub, store items and to get between planets – IGN
• Quote :”There is exploration, there is combat, it is a wide-open world” – MMOGamer
• Quote: “Going to have crafting and harvesting, going to have guilds and social activities” – MMOGamer
• Quote:” “Hey, if I’m really into more the crafting, harvesting, auction house type of gameplay, are you going to support that?” “Absolutely” – MMOGamer

Guilds

Guild FAQ

Pre- Launch Guild Program
To find yourself a Guild or start a new one go to the
Guild Headquaters Page

• Most likely there will NOT be a Guild Progression system at launch 18.05 – Darth Hater
• The Guild system in TOR is the traditional type you see in other MMOs, not something revolutionary. (7.28) – Mos Eisley
• There is now an in-game guild creator, which was introduced in that latest build – AskAJedi
• Guild capital ships is a hot topic amongst the designers if it’s not in at launch it will be at some point down the line – AskAJedi
• You are able to create one guild at a time per account. If you abdicate your leadership and leave the guild, you may create another guild. – Guild FAQ
• A guild in Star Wars: The Old Republic can have 500 individual characters enlisted at a time. – Guild FAQ
• You can join one guild per each Star Wars: The Old Republic website account using the Pre-Launch facility – Guild FAQ
• Guild members are organized into three ranks: member, officer, and guild leader. – Guild FAQ

LIFEFORMS

Playable Species

The Playable Species known in game so far are listed here (Click the race for information) followed by the classes the race can play.

Note: Classes vs Species will be updated as more information is released.

Legend:

TR – Trooper, SM – Smuggler, JK – Jedi Knight, JC – Jedi Consular
BH – Bount Hunter, IA – Imperial Agent, SW – Sith Warrior, SI – Sith Inquisitor.

• Human – ALL
• Mirialans – JC SM
• Miraluka – JK JC – Confirmed by DE Here
• Twi’lek – SM JC SI – Possible Twilek SI as seen in this video @ 3.30.
• Sith Pureblood – SW
• Zabraks – TR JK SI BH – BH Zabrak in current build but not confirmed by Bioware
• Rattataki – BH SI
• Chiss – IA
• There are Twi’leks on the Imperial/Sith side just that we do not know the classes they can play yet. – Bioware
• Evocii Model seen in game for the first time – Darth Hater
• There will probably be a system, which allows to transfer some of the playable species to other classes, which were not available for those species before. – SWTOR-Station
• James Ohlen: Not every class can play every race. Each class has a selection of races to choose from. – Gamespot
• Quote: When I ask about others (Races), I’m given an entertainingly evasive answer that they’d only be using humanoid races because love scenes get weird with blobs. – Eurogamer
  Inhabitants and Backgrounds
• HK-47 is in the game. Not confirmed if he is a companion yet. – Here
• To see who or what you could meet in TOR click: HERE!
• To Learn about some of the background of the key players in the game click: HERE!

———————————————

 COMPANIONS 

Companions Overview

The following is a known list of the companions, some of these are yet to be shown on the offical fourm list but have been mentioned in interviews and hands on by media:

• Jedi Knight
• T7-01 – Droid – Surveillance, cartography and data slicing
  Ability: Electric jolt that helps generate threat for the Knight
• Kira Carsen – Human (possible Jedi Knight companion)
• Jedi Consular
• Qyzen Fess – Trandoshan – Melee DPS
  Ability: Charge:: Ignites his jet pack and flys fist first to target – Torocast

• Smuggler
• Bowdaar – Wookiee – DPS/Tank
• Corso Riggs – N/A – N/A
• Trooper
• M1-4X – Assault Droid – Melee DPS
• Tanno-Vik – Weequay – DPS (Demolitions)

• Sith Warrior
• Vette – Twi’lek – DPS/Support
  Lieutenant Pierce – Human – Imperial Trooper – Darth Hater
• Sith Inquisitor
• Khem Val – Dashade – Tank
  Ability: Khem Val seen has a charge ability
• Xalek – Kaleesh – DPS
• Bounty Hunter
• Mako – Human – Mako starts with a Healing Mode and Concussion Round Kit (deals damage, knocks down lower tier enemies). – Darth Hater
  Mako has a minor bonus to Cybertech and significant bonus to Slicing – Darth Hater
• Skadge – Houk – N/A
• 2V-R8 – Droid – N/A
• PO-12 – Droid – Mentioned as another companion for BH
• Blizz – Jawa – DPS – Ask A Jedi
• Imperial Agent
•  VEHICLES AND SHIPS 

Space

Space combat video by TorocastImage of the Galaxy Map

Galaxy Map zones seen, so far:

• Hutt Space
  

  Nar Shaddaa, Quesh & Voss

• Distant Outer Rim
  

  Belsavis, Hoth & Tattooine

• Coreward Worlds
  

  Alderaan, Balmorra, Corellia, Coruscant, Ord Mantell, Tyhon & Transit Outpost.

• Seat of the Empire
  

  Taris & The Telos

• At launch you can add weapons and rockets as mods to your ship but you will NOT be able to customise the interior of the ship with items like paintings etc. – Ask A Jedi
• Player ship hangars are separated by class. For example, there’s one for Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, etc. It should also be noted that the hangars appear on Dromund Kaas – Darth Hater
• You will get your own spaceship on you factions capital world after the end of a storyline (quest) and be able to travel freely through the galaxy, via the galaxy map on your ship – Darth Hater
• Quote: Even though it doesn’t make any sense, your starship follows you around. So if I fly with you over to Corellia, I’m not stranded – Bioware
• There is, currently, a fuel cost to move around the galaxy map. (1.49min) – Darth Hater
• Space combat missions are along the lines of Escort missions, Attacking space stations or just trying to survive – Darth Hater
• Your companions on board your ship will make comments, be sarcastic about your flying and give advice while playing space combat. – Darth Hater
• By playing space combat you can gain XP, Credits and get upgrades for your ship – Darth Hater
• Movement around space such as planet to planet is done via a Galaxy map, similar to other games such as Mass Effect and Kotor – Darth Hater
• Space combat missions take place in “Hotspots,” and you will gain space combat-related rewards for completing the missions –Darth Hater
• Another use for your ship is travelling from planet to planet: Quote: So, when he gets on his starship, he can choose which planets he wants to go to using a beautiful galaxy map that allows him to travel from star system to star system – Darth Hater
• Space Combat is NOT a simulator with free form flight – PC Gamer
• Space Combat is a guided fight. You are lead along your path but you still have limited control over movement – PC Gamer
• Quote Jake Neri: “We never set out to make a full go anywhere Space Game” – PC Gamer
• Each Space Battle lasts between two and five mins – PC Gamer
• You do not get a ship from the start: Quote: ‘You know, you think of the ships as something you have to earn. It’s a tent pole moment; a key moment of achievement inside each class.’ – VideoGamerPersonal Class Ships are:
• Jedi – Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette
• Smuggler – Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter
• Trooper – Rendili Hyperworks BT-7 Thunderclap
• Sith – Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor
• Imperial Agent – X-70b-Phantom Prototype
• Bounty Hunter – D5-Mantis

  For more information visit the Starship holopage: Here

  Transport
• There are no Multi-Passenger Personal Vehicles (mounts) in TOR – Ask A Jedi
• Currently there is no customization for personal vehicles – Ask A Jedi
• There are no Atmospheric vehicles in TOR only the normal hover types – Ask A Jedi
• Currently you obtain your first vehicle mount around level 25 – Ask A Jedi
• Quote: Initially, we’re just going with vehicles instead of animal mounts, although we definitely hope to get to the animals post-launch – Gamespot
• There are multiple versions of the vehicle mounts and they are not solely faction spesific – Ask A Jedi
• There are various speeds and looks to personal vehicle mounts – Ask A Jedi
• Speeder bike transport system confirmed and used by Member of Tor-Aid during a hands on (not personal mounts) – Torocast
• The taxi system was similar to World of Warcraft’s gryphons. You pay a small fee and are transported from Station A to Station B. – Darth Hater
• One of the ways to cover large distances in Cities is by using a Taxi – Fan Friday 23rd April
• Quick Travel, similar to other MMOs return to home abilities, replaced Call Shuttle; the casting time remains 10s and the cooldown is still 30m – Darth Hater
• It seems you need to perform certain tasks before you can leave the starter world. When trying to access one early on the Darth Hater team kept getting “The Shuttle is not currently in service” – Darth Hater

 CRAFTING 

General Crafting Information – Crafting Skills Video

• Quote: ‘We go to a lot of work to be sure that at times crafted gear is the best stuff’. – Mos Eisley Radio
• You can break down items found to use as resources to make other items – Ask A Jedi
• Quote: As a general rule recipes are not class or faction bound – Ask A Jedi
• You do not need special workbenches to make items but resources maybe hard to aquire – Ask A Jedi
• Lightsaber Enhancement, Armor Enhancement, and other Stations/Benches seen on Hutta – Darth Hater
• Quote: I will confirm that crafting crits are in the game right now. We’re still working on exactly how powerful they are balance-wise, and we’ll talk more about them once we feel comfortable with our answer. – Bioware
• The perception of many that social aspects like crafting and banking are limited only to your ship is wrong. There are a very small number of things that are ship based only activities. –Bioware
• Quote: A crafting bench isn’t just on your ship, but also in various areas on Tython – Darth Hater
• Currently any crafted items/resources just get placed in your standard inventory – AskAJedi
• Only Jedi/Sith craft Ligtsabers, not the companions – Bioware
• Quote Daniel: The general approach is that once you learn a recipe, you know it. There may be exceptions – Darth Hater
• Some resources may be only available on certain planets – Darth Hater
• Quote Daniel: The part that is not terribly exciting is standing in one spot and watching a progress bar over and over and over again. And that’s literally all that we removed – Massively
• If you are either a Solo’er or in a large guild you can become a top Master Crafter, but of course the person in the large guild has a lot of help – Massively
• Crafting is based on time invested more than XP level. Do not expect to decide to become a Master Crafter over a weekend, it will not happen – Torocast
• Master Crafters will be able to craft some of the best items in game – Torocast
• Some recipes will be limited per server to make them rare – Torocast
• You will be able to brand your crafted items so people know who made it. – Torocast
• Quote: “No, you the player cannot craft currently – which is to say you cannot choose to watch the progress bar fill up yourself”. You tell your companions to do it and they will – Dev Comment
• Quote from Damion: “It’s worth noting that we really want the system to support the casual crafter (the guy who is taking crafting largely to outfit himself while levelling up) and the devoted crafter (the guy who wants to be known as the best Armormech in the galaxy)” – Dev Comment
• You, via your crew skills, can have a maximum of three skills only one of which can be crafting. So you could have a mission skill, gathering and crafting or two gathering and one crafting etc – Dev Comment
• If you wish to do the harvesting/gathering yourself you can. Its not limited to your companions – Crafting Video
• The skills your companions will have will be split into three groups: Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. – Darth Hater
• Crafting missons can take between 5mins to 24hrs long there is a cost to do each misson. – ChronicReload
• Quote: I will just say there are some mechanics to it that will allow players who are more involved in crafting to really get deeply involved in crafting and be appropriately rewarded for it.” – Darth Hater
• Quote Blaine: It doesn’t make sense for Darth Vader to skin womp rats for a new pair of boots in between conquering worlds “You are the hero,” says Christine. “You make your crew work for you.” – Gamespot

Crafting Crew Abilities/Function – Crew Skills Overview Page

• Crafting in TOR will use a Crew, Companion, Skill crafting system. Using their ship as a base of operations, players will be able to send their companions on crafting tasks – Darth Hater
• All crew skill trainers are available at the Capital worlds. – AskAJedi
• The majority of crew skill missions are accessed from a pool of random missions but some are unlocked when you find rare items which give better rewards. – AskAJedi
• There are no limitations on what class does what type of crafting – AskAJedi
• Each companion has a minor crafting skill bonus based on their background, but its not enough to warrant you leaving them only to do crafting – AskAJedi
• Companions can not die while on Crafting missions but they can fail. If it fails the lost incured is the credits it cost you to send your companion on the mission – AskAJedi
• For a companion to go on a resource collection mission you the player do not have to visit the area first. – AskAJedi
• Quote: We want crafters to be primarily playing a social game, not spending hours doing stuff they don’t want to do – AskAJedi
• If you found two gathering nodes near each other you could harvest one and your companion could do the other at the same time – Darth Hater
• Your crew does not have skills themselves. The crew skills they can use are based on the crafting skills your main character has. – Darth Hater
• The maximum number of crew that can perform any crafting skill, at one time, is 5. Any others spare could be doing missons, gathering or travelling with the main character – Darth Hater
• Certain companions will be better at some crafting group than others, for example Vette, a pirate and companion to the Sith Warrior, will excel at Treasure Hunting. – Darth Hater
• Your companions can also be given missions on the fly, and even while players are away from their ship. They can also operate while your offline – Darth Hater
• Only companions you have left on board your ship can perform any crafting actions. The ones you group with to fight etc can only perform gathering tasks – Darth Hater
• While out adventuring if you see a crafting node instead of player character going to mine it you can send your companion to do it for you – Darth Hater
• Quote: Currently, you can recall your companion at any time from a mission. You lose any progress he has made, as well as any upfront costs, but he returns immediately – Bioware
• Quote: You can also have a companion stop crafting an item at any time. In that case, you lose no materials (but all progress will be lost). – Bioware
• Quote: Players who choose Armstech as their crafting skill will be able to create a wide range of blaster pistols, blaster rifles, sniper rifles, and assault cannons. – Bioware
• Quote: Players can issue crafting orders to up to five companions at a time, and each companion can add up to five crafting tasks to their queue. – Bioware
• Quote: Companions with high affection will have their ability to perform crafting tasks greatly improved. For example, a companion with high affection can craft items faster – Bioware
• Quote: “Though companions are vital to The Old Republic and the Crew Skills system, we do know that some players want to be the primary crafter for all their crafted items”, “It is worth noting players will definitely need to be directly involved in the process when learning rare schematics – Bioware

The following crafting types are the ones revealed so far:

• Gathering Skills include:
  

  Bioanalysis – The practice of collecting genetic material from creatures and plants
  Scavenging – The art of recovering useful materials and parts from old or damaged technology
  Slicing – A skill in accessing secured computer systems and lockboxes to acquire valuable data and rare schematics
  Archeology – Mining crystal nodes Darth Hater

• Crafting Skills include:
  

  Armormech – the ability to work with hard metals and electronic shielding to construct all types of personal armor
  Armstech – Armstech is the ability to work with hard metals, alloys, and synthetic materials to craft blasters.
  Cybertech – Reverse Engineering Tech which leads to creating Tech – Darth Hater
  Synthweaving – Darth Hater

  There are three quality levels for crafted blasters:

  • Quality – Crafting Requirements Premium Gathered resources and common items sold on vendors
  • Prototype – Rare gathered resources and other valuable items
  • Artifact – Rare resources (gathered or otherwise) and other valuable items – possibly acquired from other players.
  • Artifice is not limited to just Force users – AskAJedi

Artifice – the delicate work of constructing Jedi and Sith artifacts
Biochem – The engineering of performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants

• Mission Skills include:
  

  Diplomacy – The art of conducting and managing negotiations
  Treasure Hunting – The ability to track down and recover valuable items by investigating a series of clues.
  Underworld Trading – Darth Hater
  Investigation Mission – Darth Hater

• Quote Richard Vogel: It will not be to the extent of some of the games out there, like [Star Wars] Galaxies. It will be very similar to what WoW has. – Massively
• Quote: We are going to have crafting, because that’s a big part of MMOs. We’re going to implement crafting in a way that ‘feels’ right for Star Wars. – Massively
• Quote: We’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing how to ensure that crafters – true dedicated crafters – can make a name for themselves and be important in their community. – Developer Blog

 ENDGAME 

 PVP 

Revealed Warzones:

• Alderaan – Warzone Video for Alderaan
  

  Type: Objective based 8 vs 8
  Goal:To control the planetary defences and destroy the other teams drop ship.

• Voidstar
  

  Type: Conquest
  Goal: One team plays as a boarding party attempting to make their way to the bridge of the ship finding a way from room to room. The other team defends the ship, attempting to prevent the invaders from progressing. – StatePress

• There is NO auto facing in PvP only PvE – Torocast
• There is at least one more Warzone that has not been announced yet – Corellian Run Radio
• On PvP servers, there is nothing to stop higher-level players from returning to lower-level planets (except starter/capital) and ganking lower-level players. The guards in the various safe areas on all planets are universally high level, to provide at least some protection for those levelling – Torocast
• Quote: Players of opposing factions can almost always fight each other out in the open world, so long as they toggle their PVP flag. This flag will automatically be toggled “on” in designated PVP areas on a PVE server and in most areas on a PVP server –Gamespot
• Quote: The one thing that stood out to me more than any other is the pacing of combat. For anyone who hated WoW’s “I 3-shot you” PvP, I introduce you to SWTOR. The PvP in this game has a much slower pace than any WoW player may be used to yet what is great is that it still felt very action packed – Torocast
• Do not expect TOR PvP to be short one shot kills. Its more tatical and requires multiple shot/hits as well as planning. If you make a mistake you have time to correct – Ask A Jedi
• If you fulfill a role type in a Warzone such as Healer or Tank your abilities actually benefit your side. You gain Badges such as absorbing damage etc, Taunt abilities from a Tank are useful as you pull damage off others. The more badges you earn by filling a role the more tokens you get to spend – IGN
• Currently access to PvP Start after the origin worlds around level 10 – IGN
• Even on PvE servers there will be open world zones of conflict (PvP) that you can enter 5.30 – Gamespot
• There is a matchmaking system that pits similar groups against each other. Premades vs Premades, class to class etc 4.20 –Ask A Jedi
• The way PvP has been designed is that gear has its place but the better skilled player will have the edge. 4.12 – Ask A Jedi
• Each player is allowed to assign one commendation at the end of the match to any teammate. These commendations increase the rewards acquired by that player – Darth Hater
• All classes gain Resolve bars while in PvP. These bars are a visual representation of diminishing returns that show a characters susceptibility to crowd control – Darth Hater
• You can receive at least four different rewards for PvP: Valor, Tokens, Experience, and Credits – Darth Hater
• You can earn bdages that have specific names relating to the accomplishment (i.e. guardian badge). You get them for things like absorbing 10k damage with guard without dying, reaching 100k damage overall, defending three objectives, etc – Darth Hater
• Depending on the type of Warzone the battle maps will not always be symmetrical – Darth Hater
• Some planets will have contested areas where both factions will fight for control – Darth Hater
• Quote: For players who wish to play a cover dependent spec in PVP, there are abilities that give them some pretty significant bonuses to mitigate the fact that they are stationary. There are also abilities that help keep enemies out of melee range while in cover – Bioware
• Quote: every Advanced Class has at least one spec that has its place in competitive PvP. – Bioware
• When asked if a group can queue for a Warzone the reply was: Quote: “Yes! You can queue solo or in an existing group and our dynamic matchmaking system will do its best to find suitable opponents accordingly” – Bioware
• Quote: You can level up just by doing PvP – Bioware
• Quote from Gabe: “As far as whether or not companions will be in PvP — honestly, we’re going through testing and we’ll determine that later” – Darth Hater
• When asked if companions count towards 8vs8 Warzones the reply was quote: “No. They don’t count towards that 8v8.” – Darth Hater
• The 8 players in a warzone could be, as with other MMOs, a mix of premade, premade + individuals or 8 individuals – Darth Hater
• You will not see a HP bar as the objective is attacked but you will see flames, debris and smoke to indicate damage. If you die you respawn on the ship and you will see damage and hear klaxxons inside as well. – Massively
• Quote: No, you can’t heal your ship back up. It’s an effective timer. Those guns start firing and you just want to make sure they’re firing the right direction most of the time for your side to win. – Massively
• You can gain XP rewards while PvP’ing – Darth Hater
• The other Warzone they are working on is based on a Starship – Darth Hater
• Each Warzone will have different mechanics – Darth Hater
• Quote from Gabe Amatangelo: They wanted Warzones to fit in with the story element of the game. When they looked at PvP, they decided that banners, flags and points were “too game-y. – Darth Hater
• Quote: There will be “Open World PvP” in terms of meeting members of other factions on planets as Tatooine being able to decide if you want to attack them or not. –SWTOR-Station
• Confirmed by Greg Zeschuk that there will be Open World PvP in appropriate areas within TOR – Interview
• The designers from Warhammer are working on the PvP for TOR. – SWTOR-Station
• While there is no Space Combat PvP at launch it, and Co-Op, will be added at a later date – PC Gamer
• Warzones were presented as distinct zones that are separate from the persistent Alderaan world map. – Darth Hater
• Quote: We’ve explored a lot of those endgame PvP mechanics and that is another area where I think people will be excited –VG247
• Quote: Yes, we have anti-twink measures. Yes, high level players get shut out if they kill creatures too far below them. – XP Damion Schubert
• Quote: We don’t support the high level character killing the low level player, but it’s safe to say that we’re going to make sure that that does not happen. – VG247
• Quote from James Olhen: “We’re going to have open world PvP, As for the more structured PvP, I can’t going into details but we will have it” – PC Gamer UK April 2010
• Small amount of PvP action shown between 3 players during Dev. Video (4.00) – Developer Video
• Confirmed that you do NOT have to PvP in TOR, its an option if you want too – IGN
• Loot sets also seem to be in game, possible mutliple PvP sets mentioned – Gamespot

Operations (AkA Raiding)

Revealed Operations:

• Eternity Vault – A Prison where a powerful force user is detained – Video Link
• The Eternity Vault operation begins outside in a Hoth-like environment and transitions indoors as you progress through the instance/
• Enemies include automated defense turrets, very large battle droids, as well as humanoids wielding a variety of weapons

• Quote: Operations will be epic, multi-group events with settings and immersive gameplay inspired by scenes in the Star Wars movies – Gamespot
• Quote: No you will not be having raid-group sized multiplayer conversations. That would be terrible, terrible terrible – Darth Hater
• Quote: We know there are eight-mans, and we know there are more than eight-man raids. We do not know the max size yet; it is really a thing of testing and checks – Darth Hater
• The story aspects in regards to Operations is normally contained outside, before or after, the raid and not during so as not to slow down the gameplay – Darth Hater
• Confirmed that Compaions are not in raids as the AI for raiding can’t match a human – Darth Hater
• Operations can be formed at any time but before level 50 it is only normally to take down World bosses. – Torocast
• Instanced Operations becomes available once you hit current level cap of 50 – Gamespot
• Quote: There will be varying difficulty modes, much like what is found in other BioWare games. The challenge, mechanics, and rewards will vary with the modes – Gamespot
• Dev blog shows ‘Raid Lockouts’ in game (2nd picture) – Bioware
• Quote: “We’re looking at classic [endgame] systems, but we’re also doing something brand new that hasn’t been done in an MMO before – CVG
• There will be raiding but no details have been released – Bioware/Holonet
• End Game Content like Raiding is available if players do not want to re roll- MMOGAMER

Quests

• Looks like there will be repeatable, maybe daily, quests which are related to the war effort. – Torocast
• Quote: You can experience your whole class story entirely solo, as well as many of the world arcs. – Bioware
• If you just focus on your main quest line, not doing side quests, you can leave Tython (with your lightsaber), at around level 7 to go to your next destination but if you do other quests you leave at around 10 – Torocast
• Quote: It shouldn’t take an average player more than five to seven hours to finish the origin stories on Tython and continue to the next planet – Darth Hater
• Like in other MMOs quest givers are indicated by symbols over their heads. A broken triangle equals a new quest and solid triangle equals a quest to be handed in – Darth Hater
• Quote: Heroic quests are of higher difficulty than normal quests, potentially require a group, and might be phased areas –Darth Hater
• Quote: While in a group and entering a green portal, it designates which group member owns the story – Darth Hater
• Quote from Daniel regarding class quests on planets: On the Origin worlds it’s about 60% Class Quests, dropping to about 40% on the Capital worlds and then even lower for the rest of the game. – Dev. Post
• Quote: So the game very purposefully starts with more single player content and then moves strongly towards content that can be played multiplayer. – Dev. Post
• If your grouped and on a quest, in an instance, with another person, who is not on the same quest, once the quest holder enters the instance it allows the none quest person to enter – TorocastQuest Info from – Gamespot
• Class Quests – Fully solo able but can still be grouped if wished. Only your decisions count. Enough to get you to level cap if you do not want to do anything else.
• World Quests – These are your standard MMO/RPG quests that you can pick up as you perform other tasks either in group or solo.
• World Arcs – These are grand far reaching quests designed to be done in a group but can also be solo’d.
• Flashpoints (or dungeons) – Designed to be done as a group.
• Bonus Quests – You do not ask/find these they happen automatically. For example if you kill a certain creature you may get a quest to say kill 10 of them, it gives various rewards. – Torocast
• Group Quests: Group Quests are quests of higher difficulty that provide a challenge to groups, There 2+ group quests which can be done with 2 players and their companions and group quests with 4 players in mind. – Bioware
• Group Quests can be located in the open world or instances (or both), it depends on the quest. – Bioware

FlashpointsFor more information visit the Flashpoint page here

Revealed Flashpoints:

Early/Lower Level Flashpoints

• The Esseles – Republic Only
• Goal: Defend the ship from attacking/boarding Imperials
• The Black Talon – Empire Only
• Goal: When a Captain of an Imperial Transport refuses an order you must take command and follow it through.

—————————–

Mid Level Flashpoints

• Taral V – Approx length 90 to 120mins – Level 32+ – Republic Only
• Goal:To infiltrate the hidden Imperial fortress on Taral V and help a important captured Jedi Escape.
• Boarding Party – Empire Only
• Goal: When a high-level Republic prisoner escapes from an Imperial prison, your team must track down the target and prevent an attack on the Empire.

—————————–High/End Level Flashpoints

• Directive 7 – Both Republic & Empire
• Goal: Mutinous droids on a remote moon develop a technology that could lead to massive destruction for both the Republic and the Empire

—————————–

• When asked if Flashpoints are repeatable and can you farm Lightside/Darkside points the answer was probably 4.20 . – Darth Hater
• Quote: You’ll encounter your first Flashpoint after your Origin World – Bioware
• Quote: Depending on the flashpoint there are often two or more endings or wrinkles that terribly complicate those endings. You will absolutely see different bosses on different paths – Bioware
• When asked if you can use less than four players in a Flaspoint the answer: Quote: For early Flashpoints, you can certainly try, but as you get deeper into the game, you will need a full group of four players to have a reasonable chance of surviving the challenges – Bioware
• When asked on class roles in Flashpoints: Quote: While boss fights often require traditional tank and healer roles, some sections of Flashpoints are paced in such a way that healers can switch into damage roles and tanks can get a bit more reckless. – Bioware
• Once you kill something in a Flashpoint it stays dead, no respawns – Bioware
• If your group wipes in a Flashpoint you do not loose any progress made, just run back to where you died. Unless you leave the Flashpoint where there is a reset timer. – Bioware
• Optional/Bonus mobs/bosses in Flashpoints are not just there for show. They will give bonus XP as well as extra loot drops. –Darth Hater
• Confirmation again that Flashpoints are designed, currently, to be only group based instances – Bioware
• Flashpoints are not always linear. Dialogue choices and performing bonus objectives open up other aspects of the instance such as more bosses and more ways to achive Victory – Bioware
• Quote: We try to avoid the design pitfall of filling areas with ‘yard trash.’ Fighting through legions of enemies is part of what makes the cooperative gameplay feel heroic, but we find it helps if your enemies do more than just stand around waiting to be attacked – Bioware
• Quote: We aim to tightly integrate the story with the types of enemies the Flashpoint calls for, their AI behavior and their abilities, creating unique scenarios seen nowhere else in the game – Bioware
• Quote: : Flashpoints are repeatable by design, and we strive to include elements that keep them fresh for multiple play-throughs – Gamespot
• To keep repeating Flashpoints fresh ‘you might explore the area and discover a secret that changes the mechanics of a boss fight. Or you might make a story decision that alters the course of the gameplay’. – Gamespot
• The higher level flashpoint regarding Revan is called ‘Darth Revan’s Complex’ – Darth Hater
• If you repeat a flashpoint, your last story decision will count for later events. Former decisions of yours in that flashpoint will be “erased”. – SWTOR-Station
• There are repeatable Flashpoints and General Content in game – Darth Hater
• Choices in Flashpoints can change the course of the instance. Kill a NPC and ‘A’ happens.. do not kill and ‘B’ happens. –Bioware/Holonet
• Mentioned that during a solo Flashpoint (dungeons) friends can be invited at anypoint while doing quests- GamesRadar
• When grouping the only time someone else can alter your dialogue choice is when performing a World quest. If you are on your own personal class quest only your Dialogue choices count, even when grouped – Gamespot
• Quote from Daniel Erickson: Subject Solo’ing: “There will be content you never see, but you can play from first level to last level solo.” – G4TV
• Map doesn’t show Flashpoint goals initially, but then shows a goal in the form of a green arrow – Darth Hater

Loot & Gear

• No “autoloot”, but you can right click to take all – Ask A Jedi
• Quote: We have thousands of different armor/outfit combinations planned for the players and are currently still building this list and will continue to do so even after we launch. That being said, there will be millions of players, so there will be some crossover in their looks. – Bioware
• Quote: Our main concern is that each player looks specific to their chosen class and has enough variation to allow the player to feel as unique as possible – Bioware
• PVP gear will come with a “PVP Stat.” This stat will increase a character’s damage, damage absorption, and healing effectiveness specifically in PVP – Darth Hater
• It was stated that PVP gear will be, at most, 10% better for PVP then comparable PVE gear. This limit is in place to give PVP focused players a boost while still letting non-PVPers compete. – Darth Hater
• Lightsaber Enhancement, Armor Enhancement, and other Stations/Benches seen on Hutta – Darth Hater
• Quote: About the quality of the objects we have so far shown the following: Low quality (gray), standard (bronze, a sort of dull orange), premium (green), prototype (blue) and artifact (purple) – Bioware
• Quote: Our gear now is settling in a pretty good state, in my opinion. We’ve taken the coolest and most emblematic armor, first off, and made it class only. For the rest of the armor, we are following a reasonably standard RPG model of heavy, medium and light. – Bioware
• Quote: Knights and Troopers both chase heavy, for example, but care about different stats. Armor with Knight-favored stats looks a closer to the Jedi ideal, whereas armor with Trooper stats looks more like the Troopers we know and love. – Bioware
• When asked if dialogue choices etc effect loot the answer was: We avoid associating key rewards with story choices. We want you to be free to roleplay. – Bioware
• Quote: Loot is distributed according to need/greed rules with a quality threshold set by the group leader. Players will also accumulate commendations that can be traded for special gear – Bioware
• Quote: Armor takes damage during gameplay, but still offers full benefits until such time that it is completely broken. Armor can be repaired for credits. No, we are not looking at permanently destroying items. – Bioware
• Quote: We have more class specific gear than most MMOs have loot total (3.18) – GirlGamer
• Multiple quests and strong mobs drop adrenals. These are single use items that will increase a single stat for one hour. Only one adrenal buff can be used at a single time. – Darth Hater
• You can acquire Commendations as random drops from mobs or as quest rewards. These function as badge currency for the Artifact and Quartermaster vendors – Darth Hater
• Inplants are not a visible item and function just like Rings and Amulets work in fantasy style games – Bioware
• Possible cybernetics in game:: When talking about implants vs Cybernetics in game Daniel said: ‘They are not the same as the visible cybernetics you’re occasionally seeing on player characters. Being a cyborg is different and a very specific choice –Bioware
• Light armor seems to have 75 durability, Medium Armor 100, and Heavy Armor 200 maximum. – Darth Hater
• Examples of some loot seen during PAX 2010 – Darth Hater
• During the Pax 2010 Star Wars presentation Daniel mentioned that ‘Lightsabers will be offered a broad spectrum of colours’ –Darth Hater
• There will be a wide variety of higher level armour so that not everyone will look the same, but it is possible. – Massively
• There will be different loot depending on if you PvP, Raid or just quest. You will be able to tell a PvP player from a Raider just based on what they wear – Massively
• Currently there is no option to use a Apperance Tab in game but its something they make look at later on – MMORPG
• Unlike games such as WoW where classes can start to look the same TOR has been designed so that from 1 to level cap you will always look correct for your class – Darth Hater
• Quote: in our game, when you are a Smuggler, you will in one form or another look like a Smuggler all the way through your game unless you purposely mismatch or go off the beaten track. – Darth Hater
• Quote:There is plenty of gear, we can be the same level and look totally different, but we’re both Troopers. – Darth Hater
• Possible Durability in game: Quote: I noticed at one point in my character sheet there was a green bar that displayed my armor was 90%.. not sure what that means though, Samm thinks it could be durability – Torocast
• Even though gear/loot is modular the advantage to trying to get sets is both look and stat bonues – Angry Joe
• Quote: The top-tier bounty hunter gear is the stuff that looks like Mandalorian Battle Armor – 1up
• The game is based on standard MMO loot collection. In regards to Lightsabers it seems that you will gain new lightsabers rather than improving an exisiting one – Massively
• TOR does seem to be item/stat based game, LightSaber picked up in game shown with Stats on – Developer Video
• Loot seems to be based on Light/Darkside as well as class. – Bioware/Holonet

GAME DYNAMICS

Graphics, Music and Sounds

• Quote: Each planet has localized weather conditions. Depending on the world the weather you will encounter will include rain, snow, sandstorms and many other unfavorable conditions; it just happens to be a constant for those worlds – Bioware
• Quote: View distance will be configurable in the options. If you have a computer that can take a bit more, you’ll be able to take advantage of that. – Bioware
• Improved facial animations seen during the April fools videos including blinking, shock and happiness. Confirmed by Stephenthat facial animations had been worked on – Bioware
• While talking about Physics and the use of Ballistic arcs Georg said: We have control over angle, magnitude, etc. of the impacting force and it’s used in quite a few scenarios, most notably, of course, Force powers. It’s not full body physics (like e.g. GTA IV) by any means, in case you were hoping for that, but it does the job quite nicely for us – Bioware
• Quote: “Jedi Knight moves and fights with a smoothness and grace I honestly haven’t seen before in an MMORPG” / “SWTOR characters have the easy, well-oiled motion of Olympian decathletes out for a fun run” – TenTonHammer
• Each class gets its own set of combat animations but they all share default movements – Darth Hater
• Graphics settings seen at PAX were: ‘Texture Quality settings: Best, Good, Medium, Fair, and Low’ & all standard and widescreen resolutions (16:9 and 16:10) are here. – Darth Hater
• On Ord Mantell, environmental effects from the war were added; bombs hit craters, ships fly overhead, and blaster bolts are fired from every direction. – Darth Hater
• When talking to James Ohlen he mentioned that the graphics and animation are always being tweaked and that changes are being made in the coming months – SWTOR-Station
• There is 5 1/2 hours of original music in TOR plus the music from KOTOR 1 & 2 plus some from the movies – Developer Video
• A full orchestra and choir is used to produce the new Music – Developer Video
• The graphics in game are that of ‘Stylised Realism’, this was to give TOR a unique feel. It also allows a wide range of gaming systems to be used to play TOR – Bioware/Holonet
• Quote: The audio in the game sounds awesome, classic blaster fire, great explosions, the dialogue, all of it was very clear and crisp. – Torocast
• Good examples of PhysX movement shown on Jedi clothing. Realistic flowing capes and robes in the Video – Developer Video
• Weather effects, lightning and rain, seen on Dromund Kaas – Planet
• Improved visuals: Realistic smoke effects seen during video – Developer Video

Voices & Dialogue

Video compilation of various dialogue in TOR

• As it stands when grouped and an important choice is to be made it does not go on the majority but its based on the roll score. So if three players choose the same dialogue option but roll 20, 31 & 5 (total 56) and one guy rolls 96 the one guy gets his selection (8.20) – Mos Eisley
• The option to activate subtitles is in the game. – Bioware
• Quote: Gender/race effects dialogue options and results – Darth Hater
• After saying that you can skip dialogue choices in Flashpoints Georg went on to say: Quote: You cannot skip entire dialogs in Flashpoints – they are an integral part of the experience and the choices made in them define the way the Flashpoint unfolds. –Bioware
• A green circle appears around any NPC where dialog would take place. Any grouped player that wants to take part in the conversation needs to be inside that circle –
  Developer Video
• While grouped it seems that the people who can select a dialog option are indicated by a chat bubble over their Characters Image – Developer Video
• Multiplayer dialog system allowes each player to choose their own response, and an automatic dice roll decides the winning choice. – Torocast
• Equipment and Stats can effect your die rolling during dialog options (14.20) – Angry Joe
• Some of the possible actors lending their voices to TOR are the likes of Jennifer Hale and Laura Bailey *please note not all the actors on the link have all been confirmed* – IMDB
• Alien Dialogue has Subtitles – Developer Video
• Quote: all of the player characters will speak basic. Inc the Non Human – Darth Hater
• Dialog selection via a Mass Effect Style Dialog wheel – Developer Video
• Dialogue can change depending on what other player classes you bring with you during quests – Developer Video
• Full Voice overs for all NPC, Companions and Player Characters – Developer Video
• There are Persuade options for certain dialogue – Developer Video
• The option to skip dialogue is in game by pressing the space bar- Darth Hater
• There is one Male and One Female voice per Class – Bioware

OTHER INFORMATION

Release Information

• Release in 2011 reaffirmed during an EA Media & Communication Conf. by Eric Brown CFO – Darth Hater
• Quote: EA confirms that Star Wars: The Old Republic won’t hit the market until after March 31, 2011 – Toms Hardware
• Quote: When we release the game, it’s high quality, very polished – that’s the key to MMO success and that’s why you see so many MMOs come out and stumble – Digital Spy
• Quote: We want to make sure that when people play the game, that people don’t run out of content – Digital Spy

Accounts/Payments

• For people thinking that you will have to install Origin and run TOR through it, you do not have to. The Keys you get to activate the game are entered through the SWTOR website not Origin. Origin is to ONLY buy the game. Once installed you run the game via the client you installed on your PC. All patches and updates once the game is installed is done via client and direct to servers. – Bioware
• TOR will be available exclusively for Digital Download from Origin. It is a new digital initiative from EA. You will still be able to buy a retail, boxed, copy of the game from your retailer if you wish as well as buying a boxed copy online. – Bioware
• Confirmed during Electronic Arts CFO Eric Brown’s presentation that TOR “…will generate revenue through monthly subscriptions” – Darth Hater
• Its looking more likely that TOR will be a subscription based game than a Microtransaction one based on the recent interview with Greg Zeschuk – Softpedia
• Quote: We’re thinking of all of our games now as a platform, and once we launch them and whether we’re supporting them through subscriptions like an MMO like Star Wars The Old Republic – Industry Gamers
• All payment and Subscription methods are still being looked into – Games Industry

Server/Hardware

• The final location of European servers has not been decided yet. – Bioware
• Confirmed: Quote: “There will be several different types of server, including PvP servers and PvE servers” – Bioware
• The Old Republic is using the ‘Hero Engine’ as the core of its world building but they have modified it to suit their needs –MassivelyServer types confirmed so far: Here
  • Player-vs-Environment (PvE) servers can be considered representative of the standard play style and rule set. The focus on PvE servers is on experiencing the story and working with friends against the non-player enemies in the game world.
  • Player-vs-Player (PvP) servers have a slightly different rule set as PvE servers. On a PvP server, players may be attacked by other players from the opposing faction in more areas of the game world.
  • Role-Playing (RP) servers use the standard PvE rule set, but are identified as great places for players who enjoy acting out their characters in the game world to congregate and find other like-minded players.

  Hero Engine Promo Video
  Hero Engine Website

• Quote from James Olhen: “The number of players per server will be comparable to WoW” – PC Gamer
• Mentioned by Sean in an Interview that they are considering that if your in Europe and want to play on a US server they will allow it – SWTOR-Station

I will try to keep this post as up to date as possible. For the latest version, be sure to visit the forum post (link at the top of the page) Hope everyone finds this information useful.