SWTOR Comic-Con panel discusses personalized classes, light speed
During a Star Wars: The Old Republic Comic-Con panel, game director James Ohlen, executive producer Rich Vogel, and community manager Stephen Reid, with senior content producer Dallas Dickinson chatted with attendees about character classes. personal story, exploration, and confirmed the slated release window of holiday 2011 for the MMO.
Making it personal
One of the ways the team at BioWare plan to make each experience more personal, is when after creating a character, players will see a text crawl just like in the Star Wars films. This is also a way for the teams to help players relive the “magic of the movies,” especially during their class introduction and through the several hundred hours of “unique story content.”
‘“[Players] will not see one duplicate mission,” between classes when it comes to the personal story missions said. Dickinson.
Also, when in a group with other players, characters will be awarded points based a choice makk when a group decision is up for vote. Points will be awarded to the player whether or not their suggestion was chosen by the group in the end.
Exploring the galaxy
Players will be able to use their ship's galactic map and light speed to travel around various planets. Vogel said that originally, light speed travel a few minutes to complete just to show the player how large the distance between areas was. But after focus testing, the teams decided light speed needs to be similar to quick travel option you have in MMOs.
While roaming about the actual planet you’ve landed on, players will be able to use speeder bikes and landspeeders each with a variety of different designs.
Yesterday, it was announced that pre-orders for the various editions of the game were being taken, but each is a bit limited in availability. BioWare wants to stagger the game’s launch, letting in a select few players in at first before opening.
It was also announced yesterday that open beta weekends will start in September.
Thanks, Gamespot.