In this episode of MER, we are excited to introduce a special guest joining us from sunny California for a time of Q&A. The wonderful & talented Catherine Taber was kind enough to come on our show & explain what it was like to be a part of the recording process of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Catherine, who is the voice behind the Sith Warrior companion Vette, is most know for her role on the Clone Wars animated series as the actress who plays Padme.

In this episode she gives us an idea of her experiences with such a massive video game project & shares a little insight on how things work behind the scenes. She also takes time to tell us about founding Games for Soldiers, which we highly encourage MER listeners to check out. Don’t forget to thank her via Twitter for coming onto our show!

As always, feel free to head over to the forums for the latest MER discussion!

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Discussion Topics
- Catherine Taber Interview

In this episode Zach is joined by Carla of Corellian Run Radio, Larry of Massively and Dover of Darth Hater. The four of us look at SWTOR in it’s current state and discuss what we like and dislike about it.

Want to give us your thoughts? Jump over to our forums and join in on the discussion.

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Discussion Topics
- Discuss the current state of SWTOR

Don’t worry, all you Jedi Knights and Consulars: the Troopers won’t attack you, but that does not make this episode any less exciting! SWTOR gets its first major content update with patch 1.1, “Rise of the Rakghouls.” Alan, Evan, and Zach tackle all the tweaks and changes the game will see once the patch hits and also look at some previews of future possible changes. The crew dives into MER-Q’s and then welcome back MMO Loser, now with SWTOR losers!

Put in your two creds at the forums and find some new squadmates while you’re at it!

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Discussion Topics
- Patch 1.1 “Rise of the Rakghouls”
- Future Changes Previewed
- Razer Peripherals Delayed
- Your MER-Q’s
- MMO Loser

We may call them Flashpoints these days, but we’ll always remember our first instance. With that, MER welcomes back, after a too-long absence, Mr. Scott Johnson of Frog Pants Studios, host of The Instance: TOR Edition! Scott and the crew share some of their stories from playing SWTOR over the past several weeks, they tackle the news, and still make time for your MER-Q’s. Evan also shares details on the newest podcast from the MER studios, the Ossus Academy!

Join the rest of the MER community over at our forums and weigh-in on this week’s topics!

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Discussion Topics
- Stories From the Outer Rim Returns
- Big Changes to PvP
- SWTOR Sets Another Record
- Your MER-Q’s
- Details on The Ossus Academy

With SWTOR in full swing, we are joined by Bill from Ask A Jedi to discuss the latest post-launch updates. Is Bioware working on a Mac compatible version? What other platforms are they considering? How is the latest patch affecting your income? What changes might we see forthcoming in the current test server’s 1.0.2 patch? We discuss all this and more in the latest episode.

Have a thought? Feel free to weigh in on the discussion over on our forums.

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Discussion Topics
- SWTOR playable on Macs?
- Patch Update: 1.0.1 and Beyond
- Your MER-Q’s
- MERC Guild Update

The first official week of The Old Republic is in the books and the MER crew has gathered to see how it’s going and look ahead to upcoming patches. Besides the recent patch 1.0.1, they also take a look at James Ohlen’s developer preview of the first big patch of 2012. Alan, Leo, Zach, and Evan lay down their thoughts, predictions, and only a few gripes regarding their experiences and what they’d like to see happen in the coming months. Also, they answer a whole lot of your questions and give us another update on the activities of MER’s official guild.

Quick note: iTunes did not show all of our recent 5-star reviews at the time of recording, but we do thank all that have left us 5-stars and we will give you the proper shout-out next week! Thanks again!

Weigh-in with your own thoughts at this episode’s forum thread.

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Discussion Topics
- Week One: Queues and Server Status
- SWTOR Population: Over 1 Million!
- Patch Update: 1.0.1 and Beyond
- Your MER-Q’s
- MERC Guild Update

Show Art Submitted By: Joel

Happy SWTOR launch eve! With the servers down in preparation for the big day, MER was still at work, taking a look at the past week’s Early Game Access and mulling over what changes the community is likely to see after the hard launch. Zach, Alan, and Evan welcome back the long-absent Dover of Darth Hater to discuss the resolution of the supposedly late deliveries and take a look at the first active week of the official MER guild, MERC. Oh, and the winners of the Razer peripheral contest are announced. Pay attention, listen for your name, and contact the crew as soon as you hear it!

Discuss these topics and more over at this episode’s forum thread!

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Discussion Topics
- Week Zero: Early Game Access
- Collector’s Editions Delivered Early
- Mos Eisley Radio Community Guild is Live!
- Countdown to Launch
- Razer Contest Winners Announced

Remember what Old Republic news and the community were like a year ago? The times have certainly changed! With Early Access about to launch, Zach, Alan, and Evan sit down to take a look back at all the developments from December 2010 till today. Before they get to that, however, the crew tackle the details of Early Access, launch day, and go over your responses to the Community Discussion topic: the Grace Period.

Join the conversation on these and many more topics over at the forums! You might even find brand new people to play with!

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Discussion Topics
- Early Access Launch!
- One Week Till Hard Launch
- Community Discussion: Grace Period
- SWTOR Year in Review

Community Discussions are back! One of the things that makes MER so special is the awesome group of listeners that is apart of our community. We want you guys to be a part of our podcast. After listening to this weeks community discussion topic head over to our forums and join in on the conversation. We will discuss this topic in our next episode of MER and include your thoughts and opinions in it as much as possible.

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It’s a big one, folks! Sunny and Alan join Zach, Leo, and Evan to quickly go over the last week’s news and then tackle the recently released Old Republic novel Revan by Drew Karpyshyn, author of the Darth Bane Trilogy. Included is the final recap of the original Knights of the Old Republic video game, your MERQ’s, and reader responses to the novel. Also, the winner of the give-away of the digital version of Revan is announced!

Warning! The second half of this episode contains both book and game spoilers! The first half is a standard episode and is fully enjoyable by itself. If you haven’t read the book yet, you can come back later and it’ll be like getting two for the price of one!

Whether you’ve finished the book or not, join the community discussion at the forum thread!

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Discussion Topics
- SWTOR Razer Products Officially Announced
- Guilds Finalized
- Your MERQ’s
- KOTOR Recap Finale
- Revan Roundtable

Since we are about to have our discussion / review or the recent SWTOR Novel “Revan” we are having a little contest. We want to give away a digital copy of Revan through iTunes. Listen to this very short podcast to figure out how to enter. After that head on over to the forums to sign up. Contest submission deadline is 9pmEST December 5th.

One quick note, sorry for telling you about this contest on such short notice. We like to think that it will give our loyal dedicated listeners a slight edge.

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In tonight’s episode, Zach, Leo, and Evan do not make you wait to hear their thoughts on waiting to play over the very full beta holiday weekend. Server stats, final guild deployment, and the fashion sense, or lack thereof, of the Jedi Consular are just a few of tonight’s topics. Also, the KOTOR roundtable returns as we approach the MER team’s upcoming Revan novel discussion.

Congratulations Derek Rohrer on winning a copy of Dungeon Defenders!

Jump over to the forums to hash over this episode. No queue required.

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Discussion Topics
- Thanksgiving Beta Weekend Evaluation
- Final Guild Deployment Readiness
- Jedi Consular Progression Video
- Your MERQ’s
- KOTOR Roundtable, Part Three

Zach and Evan return to form joined this week by not one, but two special guests! Sunny and Radicool from Sunny’s Diner join the fray for this landmark episode where the crew can finally break their silence on beta impressions. With the NDA having dropped, they mull over their initial reactions, gush, nitpick, and also go over some aspects of the Legacy system. Then they get carried away talking about every nerdy thing possible, yet still find time to answer a LOT of your MERQ’s.

Get nerdy with the rest of the team at this episode’s forum thread. Oh, yeah, it’s right here.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- The NDA Is No More! Well… Mostly
- Legacy System Hints
- MER and Sunny’s Talk Beta
- Your MERQ’s

Fearless leader Zach returns after a long, hard weekend at the BioWare Austin offices. Guild Master Alan also joins the fray to share with Evan all the happenings at the second SWTOR Fansite Summit. Although this event was not meant to be so much about new game material, they sure came back with a lot of it! New flashpoints, new PvP, new hands-on with classes, and more. Plus, they touched the Collector’s Edition box! That big one in the picture!

Share the love over at this episode’s forum thread, found right about… here.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Fansite Summit 2 Recap
- New Flashpoints and PvP
- Collector’s Edition Up Close
- Your MERQ’s

Mos Eisley Radio is very pleased and honored to have joining us today Mr. David Bass, Senior Community Coordinator at BioWare Austin. This is a much shorter podcast than usual, but Zach and Evan make the most of their time with David, always trying to get that little bit of special info to share with the community. As always, we thank him for joining us and team MER will be paying HIM a visit next week following the announcement of the next Fansite Summit!

Come on over to the forums and give us your “visceral reactions” to this episode here.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Special Guest: David Bass
- Con Life
- More Blizzcon reactions
- Team MER gets ready for the next Fansite Summit
- The gang tries to find the definition of “visceral”

On tonight’s exciting episode, we have a full house for our latest roundtable in which we discuss the recently-concluded TOR comic book series, The Lost Suns. Zach, Leo, Alan, and Evan give their varying impressions on the entire story arc, along with what we might be seeing in future Old Republic comics. A slow news week it may have been, but our loyal listeners keep it lively with plenty of MERQ’s!

Join in the lively debate with everyone else over at this episode’s forums thread!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- SWTOR.COM Video: A Look Inside The Collector’s Edition
- Deceived Author Releases New Star Wars Novel
- New Star Wars Comics From Dark Horse
- Alan Shot First & MERQ
- The Lost Suns Roundtable

Comic-Con came and gone but was there any news? Kathy and Roxanne from Corellian Run Radio were at the event and join us this week to inform us on what we missed. We also manage to respond to some of your questions too.

Head on over to the forums to discuss tonight’s exciting episode!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Post Comic-Con Recap
- Operation Details
- Your MERQ’s

Zach, Evan, and Alan are honored to bring you a very special interview with web celeb Veronica Belmont from Sword and Laser, Tekzilla, and PSN’s digital talk magazine Qore. As a founding member of one of the biggest MMO guilds in the world, she brings a unique perspective to the discussion of what the MER community can look forward to in December and beyond. The guys also dish on the latest updates from the official SWTOR news sources, including guilds, betas, and galaxies (oh, my!).

Head on over to the forums to discuss tonight’s exciting episode!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- MER Interview with Veronica Belmont
- New Guild Info
- Beta Weekend Update
- 3-D Galaxy Map at SWTOR.com
- Your MERQ’s

On this week’s episode, Zach and Evan welcome back MER forum guru and guild master Alan of Alan Shot First and Larry from Gamebreaker TV’s The Republic and Massively.com. Coming off a week of updates that seemingly came out of nowhere, this episode has enough news to fill a space freighter! They talk guilds, companions, and… the release date! As always, the crew makes time to answer several questions from the great MER community.

Join the rest of the MER community at this episode’s forum thread.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- SWTOR Release Date: 12/20/2011
- Guild Phase 2: Alignment
- Developer Dispatch: Companions
- MERQ’s

After a week of battling “real life,” MER returns with a four-man battle royale of SWTOR beatdowns! In this episode, our heroes, Zach and Evan, are joined once again by Leo as they welcome the new PvP expert of MER, Trevor McCool from McCool News. They cover the Beta Weekend longer than it actually lasted, school some fools on PvP, answer your tweets, and dive back into the KOTOR Roundtable with a look at two SWTOR-absent planets Dantooine and Kashyyyk (three y’s).

Join in on the discussion for this episode at the forums.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- SWTOR September Beta Weekend(s)
- PVP 101
- MERQ’s
- KOTOR Roundtable: Dantooine & Kashyyyk

Another PAX has come and gone, but we are still here! MER dings at 50 with Josh “Mr. Crayon Eater” returning to the show to share, along with Zach, some thoughts, impressions, and contagion fears after the con. Evan asks them about TOR news, some Warzone and Operation questions, and then we hear about EVERYTHING else they got to play, including more League of Legends and some cool new contenders like Firefall.

Feel free to discuss this podcast on our forums as well.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Penny Arcade Expo
- Huttball Live
- Return to Alderaan Warzone
- Bioware Interviews
- Non-TOR Games and News

Its that time of the week to listen to your favorite podcast for SWTOR news and goofiness. Evan has returned and is back on the podcast this week. MER writer Leo Andrie also joins us as well. We recap all of the big news from Gamescom and the swtor website. We also discuss the KOTOR story arc and relate it to TOR for those (like Zach) who can’t remember all of the details or simply never played the game.

Feel free to discuss this podcast on our forums as well.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Gamescom
- Huttball
- Crew Skills
- KOTOR Storyline

MER is back in action this week and once again we are joined by two special guests from over at Torsyndicate, Lord Hammer and Baraslan. We get a lesson in what it means to RP, speculate on upcoming conventions and talk about what we would like to see in the game (that hasn’t been revealed). As always you can head over to our forums to discuss this podcast in more detail.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Guild Beta Invites
- PAX Prime Speculation
- State of Tor

After taking a brief week off of podcast we are back this week to discuss the latest buzz with SWTOR. In this episode Steiny makes his return to the show as well as another good friend Josh. We discuss a lot of things revolving around Operations and Flashpoints. We also talk about how excited we are to be attending PAX Prime in the coming weeks.

So sit back and enjoy another episode of MER. As always you can head over to our forums to discuss the latest episode in more detail.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Jedi Consular Video
- Operation Details
- MMO Loser

San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend brought out SWTOR in full force. In this episode we are joined by Bill (Lethality) from Ask A Jedi as we recap Pre-orders, box sets and much more news from this past weekend. In fact, there is so much news we devote an entire episode to News From The Galactic Republic. So sit back and enjoy as you listen to our comments and speculation from this past SDCC.

As always you can head over to our forums to discuss the latest episode in more detail.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- SDCC Warp up
- Pre-Orders
- Advance Class Respecing Confirmed
- Join the Fight

We are joined by the ladies of Corellian Run Radio this week as we talk about this upcoming San Diego Comic Con. In this episode we discuss the latest news revolving around SWTOR and answer your questions as well. We even squeeze in time to do another entertaining MMO Loser segment.

As always you can head over to our forums to discuss the latest episode in more detail.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- SDCC Preview
- Your Questions
- MMO Loser

We are joined by fan favorite from the forums Alan on the this episode of MER. In it we discuss a number of things ranging from the Bounty Hunter progression video to TOR being free to play, similar to the new systems used in MMO games like Warhammer and WoW. We also introduce a new segment with Alan which can be found on our forums as well.

Last but not least we pick a winner from the most recent short story contest. We will be posting the stories from the finalist in the coming days. Thank you to everyone who submitted a story for this contest. They were all very good which made it very difficult to choose. We really enjoyed reading them.

Feel free to discuss this episode in our forums.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Bounty Hunter Progression Video
- WoW free to play until level 20
- Your Questions

This week we are joined by a SWTOR community fan favorite, Musco. As you may recall recently he departed from his gig over at Torocast, so in this episode we catch up with Musco to see how he is doing. In addition we talk about all the latest news from The Old Republic. We even take time to respond to a growing concern in our community about TOR and its comparisons to WoW as well.

In addition we announced a new contest in this episode as well. The prize you ask? Two passes to the upcoming Pax Prime. All of the details are on this episode as well. As always, head over to our forums for all of the latest discussion going on related to this episode.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Latest video about the liberation of Alderaan
- SWG shutting down for good
- Your Questions

It is time for another episode of MER and this week we are joined by Dover from Darth Hater. We recap his adventures at E3 and take a few minutes to speculate (oh ok…. at least a half hour) on what is to come.

In addition, we answer your email questions and debate on whether or not players’ actions are acceptable in our beloved segment, MMO Loser.

As always, join in on the discussion in this episode on our forums. Also, we have announced our upcoming MER game night, which will be June 25, 2011 8pm EST.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- E3 Class Specifics with Dover
- Your Questions
- MMO Loser

Joining us in the second half of the show is my good friend Brett Steinbrink aka Steiny. We reminisce about the raiding days of old in WoW and look ahead at Operations in TOR. If you still play WoW and are looking for a great 10 man raiding group check them out.

As always join in on the discussion in this episode on our forums. Also we have announce our upcoming MER game night, which will be June 25th 8pm EST.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Return Trailer
- Tatooine Walk-through
- Release Date
- Operations
- Razer Peripherals

Also we have a contest that we are starting in this episode as well. The winner will get a copy of deceived that has been signed by Daniel Erickson and the rest of the SWTOR writing team. Even if you already own Deceived you still will want to tune to hear the details on the contest. If you are afraid of listening to the podcast because of spoilers but want the contest info we will post it shortly. Join in the discussion about this episode on our forums.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- SWTOR Novel: Deceived
- Contest

Lots of news and other updates to talk about on this episode. Big topic of this week? Lightning! We discuss the latest Sith Inquisitor video in detail and speculate on the class story. We also talk about what we would like to see Bioware reveal at the upcoming E3 this summer.

In addition we answer your questions in the community discussion segment. We wrap the show up with a new segment called MMO Loser, where we discuss actions certain MMO players make while playing MMOs and debate if they are acceptable or not. Discuss this episode in our forums.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Sith Inquisitor Update
- E3 2011
- Your Questions
- MMO Loser

PvP details are here! In this episode we discuss, at length, what we experienced during our second day at BioWare Austin’s FanSite Summit last week. We were able to participate in several rounds of the Alderaan Warzone in SW:TOR and we’ll give you every gory and tantalizing detail. Also, we discuss the latest breaking information on the next Warzone in SW:TOR.

Before we even get to the PvP, we’ll share our personal experiences with the Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent classes in more detail. Believe it or not, we have even more to share on top of Alderaan, Nal Hutta, and killing our fellows across the room. So, get a snack, sit back, and enjoy as we bring you 90 minutes of SW:TOR… and kittens. Our first regular episode with the new duo is a big one! Join in on the discussion in our forums! If you haven’t read Evan’s detailed breakdown of Day 2, you can do so here.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Bounty Hunter and Agent story and mechanics
- Alderaan Warzones
- PvP Combat

Recently Bioware invited several fansites to participate in day dedicated to playing SWTOR. If you have been hearing about #SWTOUR…..well….this was that event. During this time we were able to get several of the fansites together to record an episode of MER. Also because we lacked the audio equipment needed to record this podcast the audio levels are a little weird at times. We apologize in advance. We still think you will love it. Join in on the discussion in our forums.

Joining us in this episode is the following guests.
Kathy and Carla from Corellian Run Radio
Dover and Sado from Darth Hater
Vall and Lord Hammer from TOR Syndicate
Tom and Tim of Tor-Talk
Musco of Torocast
Stephen of FUREUR

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Bounty Hunter and Agent story and mechanics
-The Black Talon Flashpoint
- Companion Characters

Everyone say hello to Evan Lewis and give him a warm welcome. Evan joins us this week as the new co-host for MER. If you haven’t heard the latest news by now, Brooks was recently hired by BioWare and is unable to continue being a part of the website. You can read all about that here.

Since this is Evan’s first episode, we decided to do something special. As you may recall from last year, we did a SWTOR Class Bracket because Zach loves March Madness. We decided to do the same thing again this year, only step up the bracket size to 16 from 8. The main reason for this is to include the new advanced classes which weren’t announced last year during this time.

We have had a great time breaking down our thoughts on who would match up the best in a fair or “unfair” fight. If you want to discuss this episode, please feel free to head over to our forums and do so.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- Evan joining the show
- What to expect in the coming months
- SWTOR Bracket Challenge

In this this week’s episode of Mos Eisley Radio we are joined by Stephen Reid (Senior Online Community Manager) and David Bass (Senior Community Coordinator) to discuss the ins and outs of planning a massive conference presence like PAX East. From booth design to queuing to why Bioware probably wouldn’t announce a release date at PAX, Stephen and David share some great insight into the community team.

Also, the time has come that I (Brooks) can announce this will be my last show with Mos Eisley Radio. Many of you know that I’ve been on the job search recently, and through a fantastic series of events, I’m joining Bioware as an audio editor on the creative services team. The best thing though? Mos Eisley Radio and Open Bounty aren’t going anywhere! Zach has some great plans in place to continue to bring the community top notch discussions about SWTOR. I’ve spelled out many more details and thanks on the show and on my “goodbye thread”.

Of course, we really want to hear your thoughts on the PAX East discussions, and there’s no better place to do that than on our FORUMS!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz.

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Discussion Topics
- The Taral V playthrough
- Booth design and Queues
- Is PAX the place to announce a release date?
- Top PAX East Moments
- Brooks’ Departure from MER, and new job at Bioware

In this extremely special episode of Mos Eisley Radio, we manage to wrangle as many fansites as possible into our hotel room to discuss the goings on at this year’s PAX East in Boston. Joined by Darth Hater, TOROCast, AskAJedi, Corellian Run Radio, and TOR Syndicate, we share impressions of the weekend … everything from the booth layout, to Taral V, to antics at the fansite meet and greet! We of course want to offer a huge thanks for everyone making time in their already busy schedules to join us. As always, we want to hear your thoughts by joining the discussion of this episode on the FORUMS!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz and Cornbeast.

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Fansites Present:
- Pete and Dover from Darth Hater
- Samm and Musco from TOROCast
- Bill (Lethality) from AskAJedi
- Kathy and Roxanne from Corellian Run Radio
- LordHammer and Vall from TOR Syndicate

As we post this update, we are quite literally headed out the door, bound for Boston. We’re incredibly looking forward to getting our first hands-on with SWTOR, and much more so, meeting the developers and fans! On this week’s show, the ladies of Corellian Run Radio join us to discuss the Bounty Hunter class update, as well as everything the community would ever need to know about PAX East. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts by joining the discussion of this episode on the FORUMS!

We want to offer a big thanks to StarWarsFan421, Niczo Obisk from TIG, Seth Glenn, Republic Killer, Nathaniel Wolfolk, Paydirt76, balpho1, Kevin Martin, Masaimune, and Lance Baumgard for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News From the Galactic Republic
3/4 – Bounty Hunter Update
- Class Video
- New Companion: Mako the Slicer
- D5 Matis Ship
- No player bounties at launch
- Bounty Hunter to have healing spec

PAX East Update
- SWTOR will be shown at BOOTH 912, which on the PAX Map is part of EA’s booth
- Community Fantina – 7PM Friday night at the Times Irish Bar in downtown Boston
- SWTOR Meet and Greet – 6PM in the Westin Boston Waterfront (the connected hotel)
- VERY IMPORTANT: M&G is by invitation only. Must pick up an invitation from Booth 912 on Friday or Saturday
- 45 minutes of play time with the Republic Flashpoint, Taral V
- All homeworlds, including Tython, will be playable

PAX East is just around the corner! This week we take a look at the state of the community, and attempt to find the source of all the negative posts on the comments and forums. We also discuss Bioware’s plans for PAX East, and how the lack of a main stage show changes our expectations for the conference. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts by joining the discussion of this episode on the FORUMS!

We want to offer a big thanks to Darth Skirata and Ted Childers for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News From the Galactic Republic
2/18 – Fan Friday and Studio Insider
- Fan Site Spotlight
- New fan art, concept art
- Discussion topic: Growing amount of negative comments on the Friday updates

PAX East Update
2/18 – New info on PAX East
- Community Meet and Greet on Saturday
- Huge emphasis on the expo floor: “Booth stage” with presentations running all weekend
- Still more specific announcements to come
- Discussion topic: Thoughts on not having a big stage show (i.e. How would they handle a big reveal, if they even plan on having one at all)
- Discussion topic: Epic trailers. Do they serve a purpose beyond building hype?

Flashpoints! Release rumors! The past two weeks have SWTOR have been packed to the brim with news of game mechanics and speculation about the release of The Old Republic. We sit down and discuss the video for Taral V, as well as both of the blogs featuring world designer Jesse Sky. We also dive into the release rumor fiasco that crept up shortly after episode 30, and try and figure out if any of it matters at all. The show finishes up with comment from listener Matt Gregory about support roles. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts by joining the discussion of this episode on the FORUMS!

We want to offer a big thanks to Alan, Toxix89, Blackferne, Galindran, Kyle Kramek, The Fish76, NBFDLunitik, and TBills for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News From the Galactic Republic
Flashpoint Update
- Brand new Game Systems page
- Taral V Video
- Developer Blog with World Designer Jesse Sky
- Jesse Sky’s Gamespot Interview

Stories From the Outer Rim
September Release Rumor
- Brean, Murray, Carret, & Co. downgrade EA from “buy” to “hold”, pending an announcement about SWTOR. Tell their investors EA stock will be best around launch, which they “predict” to be Q4CY2011 at best.
- MCV “unnamed source”
- Summary of what we know from Larry Everett of Massively

Community Discussion
Support Classes
- Audio comment from Matt Gregory in defense of support classes

The past couple of weeks have been extremely exciting for Mos Eisley Radio. We’ve launched two new series, Podcasting in Basic and Open Bounty, and have received some fantastic response from the community thus far. That said, the podcast is still our bread and butter, and this week we sit down to discuss the news and hot topics from the past two weeks. Bioware has confirmed SWTOR’s presence at this year’s PAX East in Boston, and we dig into the possibility of a release date announcement, as well as other expectations for the conference. Also, story keeps rolling in with the addition of the 17th planet, Quesh. This triggers a discussion on planet size, and whether or not it actually matters to most players. Finally, we round everything out with the current status of playable species, and some comments from Lead Writer Daniel Erickson on why we haven’t seen more. Of course, we want you to give us your thoughts by joining the discussion of this episode on the FORUMS!

We want to offer a big thanks to R Y for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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Discussion Topics
1/14 – PAX East Announcement
- Update at SWTOR.com
- Suggestion thread on the Official Forums
- Xavier’s estimated timeline on the MER Forums
- Stephen Reid’s comments about release schedule on the Official Forums

1/21 – Quesh added as 17th playable planet
- Quesh on the Holonet
- Daniel Erickson discussing planet size at E3 2010

Status of Playable Species
- Original question from Twitter
- Daniel Erickson on designing species on the Official Forums

Happy TOR Year! Outside of some catastrophic delay to 2012, in mere months it’s very likely that we’ll each be rolling our very first toons in The Old Republic. We start the year off right by diving into some questions from listeners about servers, advanced classes, the official forums, and even the lore-heavy world of lightsaber crystals.

The advantages of PVP versus PVE servers were laid out right alongside the decision we would have to make at level 10 if the advanced class choices remain permanent. Based on replies from questions sent out via Twitter, we also take a hard look at the state of the official forums and why most of our listeners tend to avoid them. While we didn’t have it in time for the official show, be sure to check the notes below for an official word from the Senior Online Community Manager, Stephen Reid. The podcast is rounded out this week with some observations about lightsaber crystals and whether or not Jedi or Sith players should be able to choose any color of the rainbow. As always, we would love for you to join the discussion of this episode on the FORUMS

We want to offer a big thanks to Solitare1112 and Morphose X for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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Discussion Topics
PVE versus PVP Servers
- Confirmation of various server types at SWTOR.com
- Could niche server types be a viable choice for SWTOR?
- Discussion of preference for PVP or PVE servers

Trooper Dossier
- Class update at SWTOR.com
- Do these updates appeal to fans who only want to play a Force-based class?
- How a permanent advanced class choice affects new players and MMO veterans

Do You Use the Official Forums?
- Official forum thread that sparked the discussion at SWTOR.com
- Are the forums too intimidating or frustrating?
- Discussion of “Best Podcast” thread and the bashing that resulted
- Official thoughts from Stephen Reid, “We don’t expect every fan of Star Wars: The Old Republic to visit the official forums, and never will. That’s why we try to ensure there are a variety of places a fan can visit or keep track of – like Facebook and Twitter – so they can keep up to date with the game. With such an active pre-launch community the forums are very busy, but we’re working hard to make them an informative and useful place to visit for those who want to really immerse themselves in the community.”

Should lightsaber colors be limited by class?
- Forum thread from the MER Forums
- Info about lightsaber crystals at Wookiepedia
- Does the marketing for the game so far support the lore established by KOTOR?
- Distinction of class by armor instead of lightsaber/blaster color

Publishing a podcast two weeks in a row? Unprecedented! But given the holiday spirit (and the finale of Brooks’ collegiate career), it seemed fitting to put out a brand new episode. This week we’re joined by the SWTOR Editor over at Massively, Larry Everett. He’s been following The Old Republic just as long as we have (most of you should be familiar with his “Hyperspace Beacon” column), and for some reason it took us this long to have him as a guest.

Of course, this week was also saw the lifting of the embargo on information regarding the Jedi Knight, Consular, and the Jedi homeworld of Tython, dubbed Jedi Immersion day, that a few members of the press were shown back in November. Keeping with our recent trend, we used some of the bigger topics as basis for discussion about the current state of SWTOR and what the new info means for folks following the game. For some of the finer details, we’ve added links below. Amidst the new Jedi info we also cover everything from the control schemes used for DC Universe Online to the Sidekicking system in City of Heroes. Needless to say, we wandered a bit, but we think you’ll love the discussion Don’t forget to join us on the forums as well to give us your thoughts!

We want to offer a big thanks to Publius Varrus, Sergio Romero, and TheOutlandr for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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Discussion Topics
- DC Universe Online
- Jedi Immersion Day at Massively, 1UP.com, and Darth Hater
- City of Heroes “Sidekick” system

We asked for details about game mechanics, and Bioware answered with almost an entire month dedicated to The Old Republic’s crafting system, which will henceforth be referred to as “Crew Skills”. While on the surface the solution may seem simple, this is actually a very deep system that took us, well, mostly Brooks, a fair amount of time to wrap our heads around. Once we had things figured out, though, we ventured into some great discussions about what it means to be a crafter and the impacts that this system will have on how players interact not only with the crafting system, but with their companions as well. Also, since the both of us have just recently starting playing World of Warcraft again, we talk a bit about this week’s launch of Cataclysm and what Bioware stands to learn from the work Blizzard has done.

We want to offer a big thanks to Wraithgate428, Honey Dijon, mminer, and Steiny for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
11/12 Crew Skills Announced as SWTOR’s Crafting System
- Crew Skills on SWTOR.com
- Crew Skills Developer Blog from Systems Designer Patrick Malott
- Interview with Daniel Erickson at Darth Hater
- Collection of Damion Schubert’s forum posts at Darth Hater: Nov. 15 and Nov. 22

We’re back! The past month has given us some much-needed time to get caught up on our lives outside of the podcast, as well as make some decisions about the future direction of Mos Eisley Radio. Helping implement the first round of changes are very special guests, Kathy and Carla of Corellian Run Radio. The four of us had an absolute blast discussing the past month’s updates, including the most recent announcements regarding Warzones and Bioware’s decision to revisit the Jedi Wizard name. We also take a look into what all the fuss was about EA Louse, and the effects the situation has had on the community at large. Listen in and join us on the forums to discuss your thoughts!

We want to offer a big thanks to poopgrinder for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
10/29 – Imperial Agent Class Update
- Update at SWTOR.com
- Imperial Agent trailer

10/08 – Ilum announced as 16th playable planet
- Ilum on the HoloNet

10/15 – The Exar Kun War Timeline Video
- Timeline update with full text at SWTOR.com

11/05 – Warzone Update and Video
- Official update at SWTOR.com
- EA Winter Showcase details at Darth Hater
- Dissection of the video at Darth Hater

11/05 – Vote to rename the Jedi Wizard
- Official update at SWTOR.com
- Voting is open until December 2nd!

Community Discussion
The response to the EA Louse debacle
- Matt “Fo Diggity”‘s response at TOROcast.com
- Larry Everett’s response at Massively.com

DISCUSS THIS ON THE FORUMS

I know it’s taken us a little bit longer than we had originally intended to get this out to everyone, but given the subject matter, we wanted to make sure we were approaching the topic with as much knowledge as possible. Of course, I’m talking about the EA Louse debacle that popped up a couple of weeks ago. Well, that’s sort of what I’m talking about.

Anyone who has been following the community goings-on as of late will know that most of what was said in the rant in regards to TOR is pure conjecture with absolutely no basis in fact. What sparked my attention, and also the attention of TOROcast’s Fodigg in his most recent “Don’t Be Surprised If…” column, is the inability for fans to defend our MMO of choice against the naysayers that came creeping out of the dark depths of the internet. Now is a very popular time to predict that The Old Republic is going to be a massive failure because of the lack of firm announcements regarding core game mechanics beyond the Fourth Pillar. The “Bioware, I’m rooting for you, but you’re shooting yourself in the foot” thread has about 2000 replies and over 45,000 views. This is obviously a hot button issue.

Our question to you this week is a bit more general than it has been previously, but I feel that this topic warrants more of a 30,000 foot discussion rather than nit-picking certain issues. We want to know where you stand on the amount of information released beyond story and lore. A lot of people would love to see more about combat systems or crafting, but we’re curious to know why you’ve developed that viewpoint. Would knowing how PVP is going to work now affect your choice to play the game at launch 6 months from now? Or are you simply frustrated that you can’t come up with an answer for “Why should I play The Old Republic?” from friends and guildmates? Of course, any viewpoints in between are also extremely welcome.

As always, we would LOVE for you to join us on the forums, but you can also send an email or an MP3 reply to moseisleyradio@gmail.com. Thanks to everyone who’s continued to give us Twitter and Website plugs in our absence, and I can assure you we’re both incredibly excited to record the new show! Keep an eye out for it soon, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

It’s been a great month of post-conference updates from Bioware, and we were incredibly excited to sit down and get to the heart of the Smuggler overhaul and trailer, the Light Side developer dispatch, a deeper look into the Advanced Class system, and the addition of Corellia as the fifteenth playable planet. We also had another great response from the community on the discussion topic of racial abilities. Thanks to everyone who sent us your thoughts, especially since the stance most everyone took was very unexpected. If you haven’t yet seen it, Zach posted an update about what to expect for the next month of MER, and we also touch on it at the end of the episode. We’re very excited to take some time and implement some of the new ideas we’ve had rolling around for some time now.

We want to offer a big thanks to MrGutts and John Spicer for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
9/10 – Corellia announced as 15th playable planet
- Corellia at SWTOR.com
- Corellia at Wookiepedia

9/17 – Designing the Light Side developer dispatch
- Dispatch at SWTOR.com
- Darth Hater’s Dissection
- “A lot of the effects … look as if they’re coming from the character, instead of making magic between their hands.” – Bryan Erck, Lead Visual Effects Artist
- “If you want to get the complete Jedi experience from TOR … you need to go through both classes and experience different pieces of the puzzle. If you’ve been playing classes on the same side and go through and play them again, you may make some different decisions.” – Jo Berry, Writer

9/24 – Smuggler Holonet update and trailer
- Update at SWTOR.com
- Darth Hater’s Dissection of the trailer

10/1 – Designing the Advanced Class System dev blog
Dev Blog at SWTOR.com
-Written by Georg Zoeller, Principal Lead Systems Designer

Community Discussion
Racial abilities
-Majority of folks were extremely weary of racials. Either felt that they imbalanced the game or were completely useless.

I remember in WoW that the troll and tauren were the ‘best’ for warriors because of their racial abilities. I hated that. If they give racial abilities, it better not sway towards which is race/species is better for class ‘x’. – Acaulescent (from The Imperial Guard)

Rodians and Mon Calamari were given bonuses to crafting and penalties to toughness or something along that line. Zabrak had combat and endurance … While there still were a lot of humans, it was more typical to see Zabrak Teras Kasi masters and Rodian Weaponsmiths. Now playing as a human Weaponsmith, I never had the success as my non-human competition. I constantly had to lower prices because my merchandise just wasn’t as good, and never could be because I was human. – Ben Nighthawk
(Adaram brought up a possible situation almost just like this, but Ben’s point about the inability for Humans to be viable top-end crafters seems to go against Bioware’s previous decisions)

Blackferne has a GREAT breakdown from a theorycrafting standpoint as to why racials are a bad idea. “So overall I’m against racials because I’d prefer racial diversity based on player preference, not because of theorycraft.”

-Some interesting ideas…
Perhaps there can be racials that are attached to your companions. Assuming players generally have access to several races as companions, this would be a way of implementing the concept without inspiring a player to choose a race based on racial alone. – Adaram
(Mixtrate also brought this up, specifically in regards to KOTORII companions. For example, Visas Marr, the Miraluka, had “Force Sight”, and eventually passed that ability on to you. Also, the Wookie Hanharr had a “Rage” ability that would make him more powerful every time he killed an enemy.)

Kalak had a great way to evolve the Biographies system based off what was done with Neverwinter Nights 2
-After you choose your race and class, pick a ‘package’ of stat bonuses that increase a stat in one area, and detract from another
-Related to what your character’s early days/childhood was like.
-If your character was Rowdy as a child, he might have increased Strength and Constitution, but a negative of the same value to Intelligence and Wisdom.
-Depending on how crafting and professions are done, you could pick a second package that would give you a bonus to a specific profession because, as a child or in your early years, you showed skill in that field

AxeFaktor had a great point that racials could be implemented in different ways for each specific class.
“For example let’s say as a trooper you can play as a human, a zabrak, a mon calamari, or a trandoshan. As a Zabrak you get better ranged damage. As a mon cal you get bonuses to crafting/upgrading weapons, armor, grenades, etc, like you get an additional upgrade slot to every weapon/armor or something. As a trando you get strictly better damage absorbtion/resistance abilities (due to your natural scaly armor) making you a much more effective tank. As a human, you get more skills/abilities to start, and more frequent opportunities to rank them up.”

DISCUSS THIS ON THE FORUMS

Before we actually get to the question for episode 25, I want to let you all know that we’re hard at work on the new show, as well as bringing some new segments to MER to keep things lively after the con season. And keep in mind there’s a suggestion thread stickied on the forums, and we would love to hear ideas from everyone on how we can continue to improve the show to be exactly what the community is looking for.

Now, the past couple of weeks have given us some fantastic updates: Corellia has been announced as the 15th playable planet, looks at the Jedi classes with the “Designing the Light Side” developer video, and especially the EPIC Smuggler video posted by Machinima.com. We recommend every check these out, as well as the detailed break-downs from Darth Hater and others, before the next show. We’re incredibly excited to discuss what these will mean for the TOR community. However, for this week’s community discussion topic, we want to tackle a subject that we have been sitting on for a while now: Racial benefits, also known as Racials.

Bioware has previously approached this topic from, no surprise, a story-based standpoint in the form of player backgrounds. In Mass Effect, you could have been the sole survivor of a battle or a ruthless soldier, and overall these had little impact on your game. In Dragon Age, your origin story played a much stronger role in your progression as a Warden. However, rarely has Bioware ever incorporated these backgrounds into specific in-game abilities. There are a number of MMOs who have used racials as a way to differentiate between the races or species beyond cosmetics. For example, in LOTRO, each race has an ability to quickly to return to their race’s home city. In WoW, humans have a special ability to escape all movement impairment effects. So our question to you is, how should The Old Republic implement racials? Would you like Bioware to build upon the biography model as a way to incorporate special abilities, or should they include the systems already in place in other MMOs?

We want you guys to be as detailed as you want on this one: everything from general ideas to which racial abilities a Chiss should have and why. As always, we want you to send us your thoughts either through the forums, email, or in the form of an mp3. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. Like I said, get detailed guys. This is also a great time to check out the forums if you haven’t already…there are some seriously great discussions going on over there, and I would invite everyone to check them out.

After taking an extra week to get used to new schedules and make sure we can talk about PAX as soon as possible, we’re back with a brand new episode of Mos Eisley Radio! This week we get caught up on all the details about space combat, the reveal of the previously unknown advanced classes, and all of the juicy bits so far revealed from last weekend in Seattle. We also get to discuss the community discussion topic about how space will fit into story, and we greatly appreciate everyone who took the time to share their thoughts. There is still a lot of information from PAX Prime to be revealed, so you can be sure it will be a major topic in episode 25!

We want to offer a big thanks to Zabalth, Reddog DL, Sgt Invincible, and Almighty Cow for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
8/17 – Space Combat Trailer
-Trailer at SWTOR.com
-Dissection of the video at Darth Hater
-Glimpse at the unannounced space ships
-Described as “tube-shooter” at PAX

8/20 – Starships added to the Holonet
-Starships at SWTOR.com

8/20 – Advanced Classes Revealed
-Fan Friday update at SWTOR.com
-Controversy over a few of the names, particularly the “Jedi Wizard”, addressed by Blaine Christine

9/4 – Pax Prime 2010
-Revan backstory introduced via a new trailer at SWTOR.com
-HK-47 returns to grace all of us meatbags with his presence
-Zabrak Trooper shown off both at GamesCom and PAX
-Possible “PvPvE” instances / warzones shown off in presentation video (starts about 6:50)

Stories From the Outer Rim
Community Discussion – Space Storytelling
RaginKage – “I think space missions and combat is a needed spice for the main dish. I am not a pilot nut with gaming but I have and can have fun with it.”

Steiny – “I just can’t see this game having a required space line because I imagine the graphics to handle some space exploration and when a battle takes place to be intense. Its going to be pretty hard for a computer not up to par to run it. Bioware I’m sure has thought of this and doesn’t want to frustrate a paying customer because at launch they need that person. “

Adaram – “Dragon Age Origins is another Bioware game that uses “random encounters” while traveling from place to place. I am not necessarily a huge fan of these, and would love an option to bypass them should they exist, however, it seems “possible” that Bioware could do something like this in SWTOR. Of the three, I think this one is the least likely (I hope it is, anyway).”

Limess – “I believe that Space will fit into our story arcs, but not in the way most people are thinking. What I want, and what I really hope they’ll implement, is Space Combat being a bridge between quests/flashpoints/large group encounters etc.”

Politely – Audio clip about “show vs. tell”

It’s that time again for a community discussion topic! The week before each episode we put up a short audio clip detailing the new topic. We then want you to send us your thoughts either through the forums, email, or in the form of an mp3. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. So, now for this week’s question…

There has been a lot of recent news regarding Bioware’s direction for space combat in The Old Republic. With the PC Gamer article and the short trailer shown off at GamesCom, we’ve been given a small insight into the very guided, yet highly cinematic experiences the team has planned. There are many details yet to come, but the biggest one we’re looking forward to is how space is going to fit into our personal stories, as well as the larger world arcs. Will space be a completely set apart side experience that bears no meaning on how characters develop or will the missions provide important context for the quest lines we will find ourselves following? Of course, the development team has yet to show us, but we’re incredibly curious to hear YOUR expectations for how space will fit into your experience.
Discuss this topic on the forums!

This week we get back to the classic style of MER, breaking down the latest news and getting to the heart of community conversations. We get caught up on all the details for Space Combat and the new Jedi Knight advanced classes, and take a good look at the four new playable species. The community really brought their A-game for this week’s discussion topic, and they helped us dissect the concerns surrounding class restrictions. Also the mail bag has gotten significantly lighter, and we’ll continue to answer our backlog of emails in the next couple of shows.

We want to offer a big thanks to Rel82aStarkiller, Mesirav Darkcrest, Kathy from Corellian Run Radio, camensmasher, Robhellboy, Lordhammer from Guild Umbra, Timsobuff, Xavier, and Sebastian0 for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
8/17 – PC Gamer article covering space combat in The Old Republic
-Space combat is NOT going to be a sim like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
-Buzz word used at the press junket was “Tunnel Shooter”
-Combat will be accessed via unlockable “hot-spots” that you interact with similar to the glaxy map in ME.
-Combat is single-player at first, plans to implement PVP and Co-op in the future

8/13 – Jedi Knight Advanced Classes
-Advanced Classes update at SWTOR.com
-New video with in-game footage of Jedi combat
-Advanced Classes: Guardian and Sentinel
-Also introduced to the first companion for the Knight, the T7-01 Astromech
-Lightsaber forms at Wookiepedia

8/6 – New Timeline Holorecord covering the Mandalorian War
-Timeline Video at SWTOR.com
-Focuses on the Republic’s struggle and how Revan and Malak turned the tide
-Their acts ended the war, but also lead to their fall to the dark side
-Next Timeline will investigate even more dark side influence over the war, specifically Exar Khun

8/6 – Four new playable species announced
-Species update at SWTOR.com
-Sith Pureblood confirmed for Sith Warrior (Wookiepedia)
-Miraluka confirmed for Jedi Knight (Wookiepedia)
-Mirialans confirmed for Jedi Consular (Wookiepedia)
-Zabrak confirmed for Sith Inquisitor (Wookiepedia)
-“There are combinations we haven’t confirmed. James recently talked on this subject at Comic-Con International, though, and announced that there will be some restrictions. For the time being, the combinations we have announced you can count on. What other combinations will there be? That’s an update for another day…” – Sean Dahlberg

Stories From the Outer Rim
Community Discussion – Class Restrictions

Listener Questions
GoodRevan – Do you think there will be expansion packs released to keep things with TOR new and up to date, or do you think that this is a one off deal? And if there are expansion packs, do you think that they will add new planets, or weapons, etc?
Couldn’t find an official word from Bioware, but it’s very likely there will be expansions

Mads from Denmark – I’ve been wondering for a while now, how much of a role the companion characters will play in the end game play of swtor. I loved them in both Kotor and Mass Effect and I wonder how much different they are going to be in this game. Specifically if you lose a character, lets say a healer-type, because they don’t like the way you do things, does that mean that you have a disadvantage in endgame? Are more than one of your companions capable of filling a certain role?

Sergio – Do you guys plan on making a guild in SWTOR?

Tygran – One major theme in most SW movies/books/games is redemption and the fall from grace. Do you think they will allow players to switch sides? Such as a Jedi losing his way and switching to Sith. Not sure how that would work for the other classes. If they did this, I would hope it would come with a cost such as a long quest chain and loss of abilities while you learned new ones.
No faction swaps. Ever. – James Ohlen, Lead Designer

KondorHawx – Once the game comes out and we’re all enjoying the wonderful universe of Star Wars, what are your plans on the occurrence of the show? Weekly, bi-weekly?

It’s that time again for a community discussion topic! We’re both incredibly excited to get back to the gritty details of the most recent news, some rumors, and most importantly, what you guys and gals are thinking about The Old Republic. For anyone new to MER (or in case you have forgotten), here’s how the community discussion topic works: The week before each episode we will put up a short audio clip detailing the new topic. We then want you to send us your thoughts either through the forums, email, or in the form of an mp3. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. So, now for this week’s question…

The recent announcement of the four new playable species for The Old Republic has brought to a head the conversation about non-human species being limited to specific classes. For example, this past week we learned that the Zabrak will be able to force-lightning their way through the game as Sith Inquisitors, and the blind Miraluka can force-feel their way through the world as Jedi Knight. While it has been announced that there are many details missing, including more race/class combinations, two primary schools of thought have come to light on this subject: Those who want a completely open system to create and customize their character exactly as they see fit, and those who defer to Bioware’s judgment. A strong argument for the latter is the possibility of some very detailed class stories based specifically on the history of a given species.
Discuss this topic on the forums!

Continuing with our summer of amazing guests, this week Scott Johnson of The Instance and the FrogPants network of shows joins us to discuss all things SWTOR! We take another step back to discuss what makes a great gaming podcast, whether or not Bioware has the formula in place to make a fantastic game (hint: they do!), parenting and MMOs, and in general completely geek out on our most anticipated game of the next year. We also hit the recent news, including the announcement of ship combat at Comic-Con 2010 and the newest playable planet (which is actually a moon), Nar Shaddaa.

Also, stick around after the show is over to hear us geek out even more on what we’ve been playing (mostly Starcraft II) and some of the games we’re looking forward to in the coming months.

We want to offer a big thanks to Rel82aStarkiller, Mesirav Darkcrest, Kathy from Corellian Run Radio, camensmasher, Robhellboy, and Lordhammer from Guild Umbra for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
7/23 – Beyond Solo panel at Comic-Con 2010
-Video of the panel at GameSpot
-Space Combat announced!
-Ship customization confirmed (to what extent we have no idea)
-Darth Hater interview with Drew Karphyshyn touched on the difficulty for writing stories about established groups
-Re-emphasized race/class restrictions

7/30 – Nar Shaddaa Announced as the 14th playable planet (but actually a moon!)
-Nar Shaddaa at the Holonet
-Nar Shaddaa at Wookiepedia
-A moon of Nal Hutta
-Hutts displaced the Evocii when they settled Hutta in 15,000BBY. Evocii were not free until 4,000BBY
-Ecumenopolis (city-planet) similar to Coruscant, but dominated by crime cartels
-Upper levels filled with palaces and every indulgence one could think of
-Lower levels a place for slavery and crime
-Hutts and the Exchange syndicate (the Hutt’s only true rival) made a killing by profiteering during the Great Galactic War,
-The Exchange at Wookiepiedia (Calo Nord worked for them in KOTOR)

After taking an extended break to recover from the post-E3 blues, we’re joined this week by Totally Rad Show and Weekend Confirmed host Jeff Cannata! Jeff helps us to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Mos Eisley Radio by taking a step back to look at Bioware’s place in the MMO genre and what steps they need to take for The Old Republic to appeal to gamers of all backgrounds.

We also cover the most recent news, including the very popular music and sound updates which take a look at the original music being composed specifically for SWTOR. All that and more inside!

We want to offer a big thanks to Stoufers, Gnome Comsky, Greghummel, Tekjedi, Yulis, Yoday, Force Almighty, Redtear, RedEightyNine, DacobaTar, Eduardo B., CRR_Carla, Machin Shin, Cade Rahl, Tangero 2325, Communist Robot, and RTS_Austin for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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Stories From the Outer Rim
Did Bioware deliver at E3 2010?
“I think much of the disappointment that many people were feeling was due to miss communication between Sean Dahlberg and some of the forum goers. Not so much the actual quality, or amount of the released content.” -Xavier

“What I don’t want them to do is what Blizzard has done with Cataclysm and point out a whole list of features that they later can from game due to it not working or possible abuse, etc etc. Which so far they’ve done.. but has also been the curse for us all since we want more details.” – RokaImo

News from the Galactic Republic
Music of the Old Republic
-Developer Dispatch at SWTOR.com
-Conductor interview at Gamespot
-Fantastic new shots of almost all the planets, particularly Dromund Kaas, Tatooine, and Hoth
-Inquisitor (possibly of a new race) shown meeting with a Dashade
-Trooper seen with a Tauntaun
-Dewback, landspeeders, and speeder bikes
-Dispatch finishes with a Bounty Hunter speeding past a small home on Tatooine
-Gamespot video shows a closeup of the background score of Corellia

Conference Season 2010
-Comic-Con details at SWTOR.com
-Don’t forget to participate in the social network special reveal!
-SWTOR on Facebook
-SWTOR on Twitter

Game Testing Officially Underway
-Announcement at SWTOR.com
-Game Testing Portal
-Official stance on leaks at Darth Hater

You’re probably asking yourself, “It’s been two weeks, where is the new show??”. Well, with con season in full swing, the news cycle from Bioware starts to slow down and instead of putting out a show where we only discuss a few topics, we feel it’s better to let the news pile up a bit and then really tackle it with some great, in-depth discussion.

Speaking of discussion, we want to bring back the polls we did for a while in the form of community discussions. So here’s how it’s going to work: The week before each episode we will put up a short audio clip detailing the new topic. This could range anywhere from a piece of news released from Bioware or some ridiculous rumor we heard floating around the web. We then want you to send us your thoughts either through email or, preferably, on the forums. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. Simple enough, right? Here’s the question for this week…

The overall reaction from Bioware’s showing at E3 has been mixed. Some people, like us, were incredibly excited by the Hope trailer, player ships, and the small bits we saw of warzones. On the other hand, a lot of folks were disappointed with the conference. We want to know what your impressions were. Did Bioware do a good job showing off their work or could they have done much more. We’re also curious to know what you are looking forward to hearing at conferences like Comic-Con, GamesCom, and PAX in a couple of months.
Discuss this topic on the forums!

E3 2010 has come and gone, and with it we have received a number of updates and details covering everything from player ships to crafting. The two of us break down everything inside, along with a collection of interview clips to make sure we’re getting the best information right from the source. Give it a listen and pass it on to your friends!

We want to offer a big thanks to Good Revan and RobHellBoy for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
Bioware reveals new CGI Cinematic Trailer “Hope”
-Hope trailer at SWTOR.com
-Interview at Ask A Jedi with Bryan Arndt

Player Ships Announced
-Player Ships at SWTOR.com
-Interview with Daniel Erickson at Darth Hater
-Interview with Daniel Erickson at GameTrailers.com

Warzones Announced (PVP battlegrounds)
-Interview with James Ohlen at Darth Hater
-Interview with Rich Vogel at Massively

Bounty Hunter Armor Progression
-Armor Progression video at SWTOR.com

Combat Video from G4
-Game Demo with Dallas Dickinson at G4

General Info Learned
-Group dialog cleared up and quest mechanics cleared up
-The majority of everything we’ve seen so far is based on the origin worlds and has been focused primarily on individual class stories. Large Imperial vs. Republic story arcs will be introduced later on.
-Twi’lek and Chiss revealed to be playable species
-Class stories and play styles differ GREATLY

Stories From the Outer Rim
A lot of people were hoping to hear about starships and crafting at E3 but so far we’ve only got starship/home annoucements. If crafting isnt revealed in the next few days what do you guys expect from crafting?
-Sergio

Hey guys,
I have recently become a fan of your podcast, and it’s totally amazing! As I have never played an MMO before, but am a huge fan of the original KOTOR, so I think that I am willing to give this game a try. But I have a couple of questions (actually only one at the moment):
Does it cost extra to create different accounts? Or like, could I play as a Smuggler, and then switch to a Bounty Hunter, and then to a Jedi, and then a Sith Warrior, on the same account, but be able to keep all of my characters? Like in KOTOR you could have several different characters and they were all separate. Is that possible in an MMO? Or do you need to pay the subscription fee for every single character that you have?
Thanks for your time.
-Stephen

I’d just like to tell you that it’s really fun listening to your radio show and i hope ya’ll keep them up. It’s very informing because for some people, like me, dont get to hear the interviews and know the backgrounds of the designers and characters on the other games. I know a lot about Star Wars but not the ancient lore as a lot of people do, but i really enjoy any type of lore from other fictional world. Especially warcraft, starcraft, lord of the rings, and star wars. Thanks again for the service and keep it up!
-Hunter

Love your podcast. Been listening to it since I stumbled across it last fall. I like your old outro music, but really love the outtakes. I have a few more podcast question then for SW:ToR.
1) how do you get on the zune store (ie I am itunes but looking to expand).
2) how do you play audio for both of you to listen to in Skype.
-Jason

Do you think SWTOR will have closed servers like WoW? Where if you pick a realm you will be anchored to it? Discuss.
-Colin

With the development team knee-deep in E3 prep, the news cycle for the past few weeks has slowed down just a bit, but not completely! In the episode we discuss the new info on Companions, the updates to the Sith Warrior, and what famed Galaxies developer Matt Boudreaux might bring to the SWTOR team. With E3 coming up next week, be sure to keep an eye out for our wrap-up episode at the end of the week. We’re extremely excited to see what Bioware has in store for us!

We want to offer a big thanks to Laryk and Bronzephisy for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(5/28) Companions Updated
-Dedicated page in the Game Systems section
-Original article w/ James Ohlen at IGN
-Vette added as first companion for the Sith Warrior. Vette in the Biographies section
-Vette’s Aurebesh hints of Lord Baras and the Star of Kala’uun

(5/28) Sith Warrior Updated on the HoloNet
-Epic new video set on Korriban
-New layout of the class page
-Preliminary video dissection at Darth Hater

Stories from the Outer Rim
(6/4) Star Wars Galaxies developer Matt Boudreaux, aka AdeptStrain, joins the SWTOR team
-Original article at Massively
-”Welcome” thread on the Official Forums

(5/26) Bioware opens new Customer Service office in Ireland
-Jobs listing page at Bioware.com

New Segment – We still need a name!
(6/1) Sony Online Entertainment announces Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
-Marketed by Sony as a “virtual world” moreso than an MMO
-Primarily mini-game based (space battles, tower defense, speeder bike racing, etc.)
-Includes things like pets and player housing
-Launches free in the fall, optional payment scheme for extra features
-Detailed post at Massively
-Interview with SOE at Massively

Advanced Class System before E3? We weren’t expecting that at all. The two of us venture into the details of the system, and speculate on what it could mean for the other classes. We also cover the newly added planet of Hoth, as well as the Inhabitants section of the Holonet. Like we mention in episode 17, there was a huge backlog of listener questions so we take the time to get caught up, touching on everything from land mounts to whatever happened to Revan and Bastila. And don’t forget to check out the new segment covering general Star Wars news. All that and more inside!!

We want to offer a big thanks to Farscape29, Twintwisters, and Darth_Entropius for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(4/30) Inhabitants added to the Holonet
-Inhabitants in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Breakdown of info at Darth Hater

(5/21) Fan Friday Reveals Bioware’s Use of Depth of Field
-Fan Friday update at SWTOR.com

(5/21) Hoth announced as The Old Republic’s 13th Playable Planet
-Hoth in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Umbaran race at Wookiepedia
-Chiss race at Wookiepedia

(5/14) Game Systems Section added to the site – Advanced Class System
-Advanced Class System in the Game Systems
-Exclusive coverage from Eurogamer

(5/14) European Press Event: Bounty Hunter Hands-On
–First official non-human playable race: The Rattataki (Pronounced: Rat-Attack-Eee)
-Hands-on coverage from GameSpot
-Hands-on coverage from Eurogamer
-Video interview from GameSpot with Daniel Erickson

Stories from the Outer Rim / Listener Questions
Hi guys, I was wondering if there will be weather effects in the game, such as rain, sand storms, snow, blowing robes?
-Eloxar
-Lightning effects on Dromund Kaas
-Snow falling on Alderaan in Video Documentary #4 (5:07)

Hey guys! Well my question today is about land mounts. I know or am pretty sure that SWG had land mounts such as speeders, but do you think that Tor will implement this similarly?
-Jord
-Touched on this in episode 8 with Christian (59:30)
-No confirmation on land mounts, but the inclusion of the Taxi’s from the Fan Friday more or less confirms that there will be some form of on-planet travel.
-Whether or not this is fast-travel or user-controlled is up for debate. KOTOR and other Bioware titles have fast travel, but land mounts have become a staple of MMO’s.

What happened to Revan and Bastila?
-Jason
-Breakdown of Revan’s story from Daniel Erickson found on the forums
-Bottom line: the events that occur post-KOTOR are still up in the air

After watching a bunch of videos on the SWTOR website, a thought came to me: Will the opposing factions be able to communicate to each other? In games like WoW they can’t, but I think it would make sense in this game because in all the Star Wars movies, the factions speak the same language. I would love for this to be an added feature because I’ve always liked the ability to taunt my opponent before killing them.
-Sam
-Discussed this in episode 13 (60:00)

New Segment – Help us name it!!
Master Gnost-Dural Does Droid (Ad seen during LOST finale)
-Verizon Droid ad at YouTube

Darth Vader to Voice Tom Tom
-Mock studio session clip at YouTube
-Update on voices from TomTom

It has been much too long since we’ve been able to record a new show…and the ridiculous amount of news we cover in episode 17 reflects that! Going all the way back to Voss, we touch on all of the updates through the new Developer Video #4 on Combat. In an effort to give new features like the “Inhabitants” section and the new webcomic the attention they deserve, we’ll be discussing those on episode 18. But there’s more here than just official updates! Based on the recent news around Blizzard’s Celestial Steed mount, we dive headfirst into a great discussion on micro-transactions and how Bioware will likely include them in The Old Republic.

We want to offer a big thanks to jg1001 and flippa299 for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Also don’t forget to check out the great community we meantioned at the end of the show, The Imperial Guard, over at www.tigforums.org

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(4/9) New Planet Added: Voss
-Voss in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Breakdown of info at Wookiepedia

(4/16) New Timeline: “Peace for the Republic?”
-”Peace for the Republic?” at SWTOR.com
-Lore Update and breakdown of the events from Darth Hater

(4/23) The Old Republic in Print
-Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance
-Threat of Peace Webcomic
-Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived

(4/23) Combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic
-Video Documentary #4 at SWTOR.com
-Orange box dissection from Darth Hater

Stories from the Outer Rim / Community Poll
Do real-money transactions for in-game items hurt your game experience?
* Yes. Bioware should only allow items to be obtained through the game itself (69%, 61 Votes)
* No. It is okay to pay real money for items in game (31%, 28 Votes)

If Bioware were to accept real-money transactions, what items should you be able to purchase?
* Non-combat / Vanity items (Pets, clothes, hats, etc.) (97%, 74 Votes)
* On-planet mounts (Speeders, Tauntauns, etc.) (34%, 26 Votes)
* Ships (If included in the game…) (17%, 13 Votes)
* Armor and Weapons (7%, 5 Votes)

See where this whole discussion started over at 1UP.com

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Look for the new episode to come out early next week.

Holy crap PAX East was a blast! Between playing new games, sitting in on some great panels, and listening to the best in nerd music, we had our weekend cut out for us. The conference was a resounding success, and we’ve chosen to highlight some of the best games and panels we saw. But don’t fret! There’s also a solid amount of The Old Republic news to get caught up on, including discovery of the game testing portal, the addition of the Biographies tab, and a word from Damion Schubert on group XP versus solo XP. All that and more! Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net
Transition music for this show was provided by Metroid Metal. You can hear more of them at metroidmetal.com

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News from the Galactic Republic
Genocide and Jedi: Why the Sith may be right in The Old Republic (via Ars Technica)

Game Testing Portal Discovered (via Darth Hater)
-Found by forum members Ianril and Zechio
-Confirmed shortly thereafter by Sean Dahlberg

Damion Schubert on Balancing Group & Solo XP (via Darth Hater)

Friday Update for March 26th (via SWTOR.com)
-Added new Biographies tab to the Holonet
-Short story “Smuggler’s Vanguard” by Threat of Peace writer Robert Chestney at StarWars.com

April Fools!
-Sarlacc Enforcer Class
-Hilarious class interview with Daniel Erickson and Damion Schubert (via GameSpot)

PAX East Panels
Journalists vs. Developers: The Ultimate Grudge Match
Panelists Include: Chris Kohler [Editor, Games, Wired.com], John Drake [Publicist, Harmonix Music Systems], Patrick Klepek [News Editor, G4], Jeff Green [Editor-in-Chief, EA]

The Death of Print
Panelists Include: Russ Pitts [Editor-in-Chief, The Escapist], Julian Murdoch [journalist, freelance], Jeff Green [EA], Chris Dahlen [Managing Editor , Kill Screen], John Davison [Editor-in-Chief, Gamepro]

The Future of PC Gaming (Yes, there is one!)
Panelists Include: Joe Kreiner [Terminal Reality], Jeff Kalles [Penny Arcade], John Abercrombie [Lead Programmer, Irrational Games], Mitchell Shuster [Co-owner, LanSlide Gaming PCs]

NVIDIA Unveils the Next Generation of PC Gaming
Panelists Include: Drew Henry [General Manager, GeForce – NVIDIA]

PAX East Games
Red Dead Redemption
Developer: Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Release: May 18, 2010

Breach
Developer: Atomic Games
Platform: XBLA, PSN, PC
Release: Early Summer 2010
Some guy attempted to steal the source code…
Update: Turned himself in…

Shank
Developer: Klei Entertainment (published by EA)
Platform: XBLA, PSN
Release: TBA

Mafia II
Developer: 2K Games (Czech)
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Release: August 24, 2010

After taking a month off, we knew you guys would want a packed show…and we’ve delivered! Beyond catching up on all the recent news like Belsavis and the Consular developer blog, Darth Hater’s Emlaeh joined us to talk about her hands-on experience with the Trooper last week at LucasArts. We also get to the listener questions that have been sitting in the inbox for a while, and our pal JD joins us for an Old Republic class March Madness! Hope you all enjoy the long format, and we look forward to bringing you our experience at PAX East next week.

Also, we want to extend a huge thanks to Jaysen71581 for taking the time to leave us a review on iTunes!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
Fan Friday Update: Fan Site Kit, Trooper Animation, Rancor Render

Developer Video: Returning to Taris

Developer Blog: Finding Balance in the Force

New Webcomic with Dark Horse: Blood of the Empire

New Playable Planet: Belsavis
-Info from Wookiepedia

Stories from the Outer Rim
Trooper Gameplay @ Darth Hater

Be sure to check out the rest of the GDC coverage from Darth Hater!

Pre-Episode Poll
Which Unannounced KOTOR planet should be added to the game?
-Kashyyyk (36%, 24 Votes)
-Dantooine (27%, 18 Votes)
-Yavin System (19%, 13 Votes)
-Manaan (13%, 9 Votes)
-Rakata Prime (Lehon) (5%, 3 Votes)

“I’d love to see them explore Dantooine where it says “Buried beneath the deserted Enclave was a hidden facility in which the ancient Jedi Knights carried on mysterious cloning experiments.” in the wiki link. I love the idea of the serene planet surface, but beneath the surface are either jedi ghosts or decayed jedi walking around doing immoral experiments for warped and skewed reasons that were at one time good. And hell, if the Empire could somehow be behind this corruption… all the better.”
-Lazenca

“I’d like it to be a time when the wookiees are “free” from outside influence, and have fallen into a civil war.”
-Axe Faktor

Listener Questions
What are your opinions on flyable ships as opposed to the system in KOTOR where you were automatically taken to another planet?
-Sith Tyro Revan
Check out Gordon Walton’s thoughts on space combat

So I have played (and will play again) the Star Wars pencil and paper D20 RPG game. It plays really similarly to D&D and both KOTORs adapt a bunch of their play styles from it. The big difference between it and D&D is the weapon damage. You would have similar HP, but the weapons just shell out tons of damage, both for the heroes and mobs. Do you think this would be an appropriate play style for SWTOR? Having tons of damage dealt from you and to you, speeding up the game play. Or do you think it should be slowed down to match other MMORPG’s?
-Peter Corey

Hi guys great cast been listening for a few months now. Just wondered what you guys think the planet areas are going to be like and what you will be hoping for in respect to size and exploration. Obviously there will be a lot of instances within open areas for solo and different size groups/raids but what would you like from the open areas? You talked a little about exploration with regards to SWG and Krayt dragons and a little on easter eggs which will be cool to come across but what would you really like from the open areas with respect to size/ random spawns/ gated areas or not?/ random,scripted,GM events/ cool things/ crafting nodes and drops…….etc.
-Kojack

March Madness!!!!

The poll this week revisits the idea from episode 9 with a slightly different twist. With the recent annoucement of Taris and the newest developer video outlining the team’s approach to this destroyed planet, we want to know which, if any, of the planets from KOTOR you would love to see in the game.

Here’s the catch, we’re going to provide links to the Wookipedia entry for each planet to refresh your minds, and in the comments we want to hear your ideas for how Bioware can take a familiar landscape and craft a new and interesting story in it. Get creative! Have some crazy idea about a Wookie uprising on Kashyyyk? Want to rebuild pieces of the Star Forge floating around Rakata Prime? Sketch it out, and we’ll discuss your storylines on episode 15.

Brush up on each planet’s history…
-Dantooine
-Kashyyyk
-Manaan
-Rakata Prime
-Yavin System

With Con season right around the corner, the news from Bioware has just barely been trickling out. But that’s okay! With a month break from the show, we’ve had plenty of news pile up to talk about including a new Holonet entry, a Dev Blog on the Sith Inquisitor, and the newly announced playable planet, Taris! It’s not all news either, as we launch into an epic speculation rabbit hole about the nature of the Spring 2011 release announcement. You won’t want to miss it!

Also, we want to extend a huge thanks to JThompson6577, DEDMON5811 (who left a seriously hilarious review and has been active in the forums as well), and Peterisjustok for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Holorecord Entry: Onslaught of the Sith Empire

Developer Blog: Composing the Sith Inquisitor
-For those of you who missed the Trooper dev blog (like us) you can find it here

Taris Added as Newest Playable Planet
-Background info from Wookiepedia
-Aurebesh translation from Holonet Project
-Originally speculated as a planet back in July by forum poster MFavila
-Lore Update from Darth Hater

Stories from the Outer Rim
What the 2011 Release Date Means for the Community and EA
-Original release target post is now over 200 pages
-Recent entitlement post with an official response from ErickAdams
-Zach’s crackpot idea of a large media company purchasing EA in the next year
-The negative effect the entitled minority can have on the greater community (The Ghostcrawler Incident)

Fansites from around the web
-Holonet Project: Dedicated to translating all of the Aurebesh found on the Holonet pages. http://www.holonetproject.net/
-Shock N Awesome: Sith Inquisitor class blog. http://shocknawesome.com/

Pre-Episode Poll
Are You Going to PAX East?
-Nope. (87%, 47 Votes)
-Yes! I’ll see you guys there. (13%, 7 Votes)

Flights booked. Reservations made….we’re going to PAX East! And we’re incredibly excited to be able to take in all the event will offer. So we want to know, are you going too? Vote in the poll below and let us know in the comments!

If you want to order your pass, or are just curious about what the conference is going to offer, be sure to head on over to the official PAX East Site. Tickets ARE going to sell out, so be sure to get them as soon as possible if you plan on attending.

Hear that sound? That’s the gentle sigh of relief from a community that finally knows when to expect The Old Republic to be released. A release date, we might add, that is going to mean more features, more content, and ample time to deal with bugs PRIOR to launch. Along with the new release target, we get caught up on the rest of SWTOR news with the Imperial Agent developer blog, the new Sith planet, Dromund Kaas, and more. We also respond to one of our best polls yet (thanks to you listeners!) and yield a few questions on everything from group roles to cross-faction conversation.

Thanks again to everyone who sent us a question, participated in the poll, or has left us reviews on iTunes and other places around the web…we truly appreciate it!!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Release Rumor Round 3: Bioware confirms Spring 2011 as the “release target”
-Confirmation on the official forums
-Original rumor from EA meeting on Darth Hater

Developer Blog – Top Secret Dossier on the Imperial Agent

Dromund Kaas added to the Holonet

Fan Friday Update features a new Developer Corner section

Pre-Episode Poll
How many hours a week do you game?
-Hardcore! (25+ hours) (38%)
-Moderate (15-25 hours) (38%)
-Casual (5-15 hours) (19%)
-Very Casual (0-5 hours) (5%)

Listener Questions
Do you think typical mmo players like having well defined group roles for their class, or do you think they will adapt well to being able to change their combat role through changing traits/talents or by summoning a companion?
-Reliant

With all the stun and sleep moves I just dont think the pvp is going to be very action packed more like everyone stun everyone. How do you guys think the pvp will work? Also do you think that all the classes should have a stun ability?
-Mitchal Whiting

- Audio Question from Slartibartfast (Axel)

Are you hardcore? We know that each of you comes from a different gaming background, with a number of different experiences. Are you the casual player who logs a few hours a week, or a dedicated raider putting in five hours a night? Vote in the poll and let us know in the comments!

Episode 13 will come out early next week. We’ll be discsussing the newly announced “target release” of SWTOR, the Imperial Agent developer blog, Dromund Kaas, and more!

This week we’re joined by Darth Hater‘s Sleeper, as well as Deacon, who guested previously in episode 6. The four of us get caught up on all the recent TOR news, including the two new planets added to the Holonet and the new Developer Dispatch video on creating the Dark Side. We also dive into a great discussion about what news from 2009 had us most excited about the game, and what we’re looking forward to most in the next year. Give it a listen for all the details!

Again, huge thanks to both Deacon and Sleeper for joining us this week. The two of us had a blast recording this one.

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News from the Galactic Republic
Two new planets added to the Holonet
Alderaan – http://swtor.com/info/holonet/planets/alderaan
Tatooine – http://swtor.com/info/holonet/planets/tatooine

Developer Dispatch – Designing the Dark Side
Video – http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/developer-dispatch-5
Dissection at Darth Hater – http://darthhater.com/2009/12/30/dissected-designing-the-dark-side-video/

Stories from the Outer Rim
Year End Review
-Favorite SWTOR announcement from the past year
-What we’re looking forward to most next year
-Game and movie of the year

Pre-Episode Poll
What playable races do you want to see in TOR?
Other – See Comment (25%, 26 Votes)
Twi’lek (24%, 24 Votes)
Rodian (22%, 22 Votes)
Wookie (15%, 15 Votes)
Mon Calamari (10%, 10 Votes)
Bothan (4%, 5 Votes)

Races from the comments:
Kel Dor – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kel_Dor
Ithorian – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ithorian
Twi’lek – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Twi%27lek
Wookie – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookie
Cerean – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cerean
Zabrak – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zabrak
Iridonian – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Iridonian
Gand – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gand
Nautolan – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nautolan
Miraluka – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Miraluka
Togruta – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Togruta

Now that we know all of the playable classes for The Old Republic, what kinds of playable species do you want to see? We chose five of the more common ones for you to choose from. If we missed your favorite species, leave us a note in the comment about which one you want to play!

We also want to remind everyone that episode 12 will come out just after Christmas. Zach and I are working on putting together a great year-end wrap up, hopefully joined by a couple of the Darth Hater guys, and maybe some other members of the community.

*P.S. …forgive me for whispering in the audio, I was hanging out in the lobby of a hotel and couldn’t speak very loud.

To say the last couple of weeks has media blitz of new TOR news would be the understatement of the century. We break down both of the new classes, get some new info about companions and class trees, and look at how Bioware is going to approach the MMO “Trinity”. There’s also a brand new release rumor, and some great listener questions.

Check it out and join us in the forums for discussion!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Final two classes revealed to be Force users
-Jedi Consular at the Holonet and Darth Hater
-Sith Inquisitor at Darth Hater
-Bioware’s choice to address “healing” as CC and damage-mitigation instead of outright “heals”

Smuggler Class Trees

Insight into Companion Characters

General Information Confirmed

Stories from the Outer Rim
Release Rumor Round 2: Could a compiling of the Threat of Peace and a new short story accompany a release of the game?
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=94823

Pre-Episode Poll
What faction will you be playing once TOR launches?
-Sith Empire (38%)
-Galactic Republic (35%)
-I plan to have characters on both sides (27%)

Listener Questions
Since the last two classes aren’t droid/pet classes, do you still think we’ll get to have customizable droid pets, or do you see them maybe offering a companion character like the dog in dragon age, which by the way I agree, that game is amazing. I hope they don’t just stick us with a single option like that. I’d like to be able to switch between my Strill and my Wampa, rather than being stuck with the same boring Kowakian monkey lizard from the beginning.
-Axe Faktor

Audio question from Sunny Ravencourt about the “Trinity”.

Wow, the Imperial Agent!! We knew the community was buzzing about the next class for the Sith Empire, but we certainly weren’t expecting an announcement this soon. The two of us cover the ins and outs of the new class, as well as Bioware’s approach to preventing gold farmers and botters from ruining our game experience before the game is even out! We also received some great listener questions about classes and how the Austin team is going to pull off all this story business!

Again, huge shoutout to the officers over at http://iugaming.com! They put on a fantastic LAN last weekend.

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News from the Galactic Republic
Imperial Agent announced as the third Sith Empire class
-Picked up first by Now Gamer, then Darth Hater, then the official forum post by Sean Dahlberg
-Added to the Holonet
-Inspiration for story / combat
-Darth Hater invited to LucasArts for a demo

Writing the Jedi Knight
http://swtor.com/news/blog/20091106_001

No native support for Mac
http://darthhater.com/2009/11/05/bad-news-mac/

Stories from the Outer Rim
Gold Sellers, Power Levelers Beware….Bioware knows you’re there!!
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1889073#edit1889073

Listener Questions
How am I supposed to pick a class!!
http://twitter.com/Silv3r_Rav3n

We’ve heard it time and time again, Bioware is taking the story very serious in this MMO. Each character class is supposed to have it’s own quests with zero repetition when you roll another. This sounds really amazing on paper. But can they actually pull this thing off? Did they set the a bar a bit too high for themself?
-Llane

Bioware finally added the Jedi to the Holonet! Zach and I break down what to expect from combat and story for one of SWTOR’s most anticipated classes. We also touch on the announcement leak, Bioware’s design direction, and answer a great pile of listener questions. Give it a listen and send us your feedback!

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News from the Galactic Republic
-Jedi Knight added to the Holonet
Quotes in the episode from GameSpot article

Stories from the Outer Rim
-Jedi Knight leaked early (Thanks to Axe Faktor for the heads up)
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=56275
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=83590

Design thoughts – Sparked by the tapered lightsaber discussion on our forums

Poll of the week discussion
What unconfirmed planet do you want to see the most in TOR?
-Tatooine 29%
-Other 21%
-Dantooine 14%
-Mon Calimari 14%
-Telos 10%
-Kashyyyk 10%
-Bothawui 2%
-Other planets from the comments: Obroa-Skai, Ilum, Corellia, Dagobah

Listener Questions
Hey guys awesome show!! Just wanted to know how (if you were one of the developers) you would personally distinguish the jedi class from the sith class. I mean obviously the sith uses abilities exclusive to the dark side of the force and jedi from the light, and the sith is a melee /tank but what would you do to make the jedi seem and feel like a different class gameplay-wise.
-Jedi Master Brishia

Hey Mos Eisley crew i was wondering in star wars do they have eny holidays for example christmas?
-Darth Sciros
Star Wars Holidays

@moseisleyradio I’m of the mind that this is a major blow to the argument for 4 Force-using classes. Can you talk about that this ep?
-http://twitter.com/cjthrasher

@moseisleyradio Great episode. In regards to the Hunter class, Slave Trader? That class brings up certain moral issues, but could work.
-http://twitter.com/JakeRoc

@moseisleyradio What do you think about classes like Jedi and Sith being announced so late instead of being first?
-http://twitter.com/MasterAndrew15

Bioware dropped the making of Coruscant and the new planet, Balmorra, on us, and Zach points out a mention of the Black Sun Syndicate! Christian Sorrell joins us from FourStoryGamer.com to discuss the news and the possibility of creature handlers in SWTOR, as well as some listener questions about Bioware points, mounts, and more. We top off the episode with a special segment about the Star Wars franchise. Check it out and let us know what you think!

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News from the Galactic Republic
-The Making of Coruscant
-Balmorra revealed as the newest playable planet location in SWTOR

Stories from the Outer Rim
-Is Creature Handler going to be revealed as a playable class?

Listener Questions
I Think the points system that you guys was talking about in episode 7 could be something like World Of Warcraft’s DKP system. Where you gain points for raiding and then when you gain enough of these points you could use these points to gain epics from drops in the raid. Join the dark side we have cookies.
-Darth Sciros

One of the things I’ve been most concerned about is this: What incentive will there be for characters to group together for quests? I mean socialization and companionship are one thing, but what about furthering your story line, and what do you do when all your friends and guildmates are busy on another planet and don’t have time to come do your “Flashpoint?” And what if the people who DO have time turn out to be jerks? I posted this a while ago, on the TOR forums, and I’m interested to hear what you think.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=25187 Thanks!
-Billy Uno