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Hyperspace Beacon: Timeline
When I started the Holocron Files last week, it slipped my mind that I have been doing this column for a year and a half and that not everyone has been following every issue. When I wrote about the Pureblood Sith, it was really meant to be a refresher course, not a comprehensive chronicle. It's extremely difficult to capture the full history of a species in about a thousand words. That being said, I understand that not everyone has a perspective on the Star Wars timeline, especially the time leading up to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I don't think it's any secret that BioWare stories are extremely deep, and Lead Writer Daniel Erickson has a nerdgasm every time someone interviews him about Star Wars history. The established history leading up to TOR will play a major role in the story that unfolds in the game, otherwise the development team would not have had the wherewithal to create the timeline videos for the website. Following the break, I would like to set you up for future, more comprehensive articles about the Star Wars lore. Although this column is certainly not exclusively about lore, when I bring up another Holocron File, I want reader to have a decent understanding of when these events fall in Star Wars history. So rev up your time machine to 88 miles per hour! This Hyperspace Beacon is about to go back in time -- way back!
Hyperspace Beacon: Wall of light
As promised, today I will finish the story of Nomi Sunrider. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote the Hyperspace Beacon: Unsung about a key figure left out of the Star Wars: The Old Republic timeline video about Exar Kun. I felt Nomi Sunrider was a great character and should not be left out of the story. So I have included her here. Nomi's story actually leads right up to Knights of the Old Republic, but part of it has not been written (I will explain that in a bit). Today, I intend to highlight the greatest accomplishments of Nomi in the Force and clue you into how this character's story may influence your character's story in SWTOR. Follow me after to break to complete the story of this unsung heroine.
Hyperspace Beacon: Unsung
I love the timeline videos. I actually wish there were going to be more of them than are scheduled. I don't believe any other game has illuminated its backstory in quite the same way Star Wars: The Old Republic has. But (you were expecting a "but" there, weren't you?) last week's video was slightly disappointing. I believe the story of the central figure, Exar Kun, was told very well. Granted, some things were skipped, but overall his story was complete, save for one thing: A very pivotal character was left out of the story entirely, thus my disappointment. This unsung hero (or rather, heroine) was Nomi Sunrider. Ironically, the Dark Horse comic that introduces Nomi -- Tales of the Jedi: The Saga of Nomi Sunrider -- has an opening crawl that reads: "Another Jedi Warrior, whose skill in the art of Battle Meditation will never be forgotten, is Nomi Sunrider." There is speculation that she was left out because of the legal issues that surround her last name, but no BioWare developer has confirmed this. But that's not what I'm going to present here today. Over the next couple of issues of the Hyperspace Beacon, I will provide a synopsis of Nomi Sunrider's story. And just so I get everything as correctly as I can, I dug up all the comic books Mrs. Sunrider appeared in. Continue after the break to read the first part of this exceptional woman's story.
Sith ancients support Exar Kun, not the SWTOR Emperor
We just learned some breaking news from the archive of Jedi Master Gnost-Dural. For those who do not know, Master Gnost-Dural has been researching and reporting on the the threat of the Sith Empire on The Old Republic. His hopes are to understand the Empire so that one day the Republic might defeat them and save the galaxy. In his latest report, Master Gnost-Dural discovered the secrets behind Exar Kun and his empire. Kun was indoctrinated by the spirit of Freedon Nadd, was trained by the ghosts of ancient Sith, and was named lord of the Massassi warriors. He was powerful enough to bring the Krath to his service and destroy the Jedi archive at Ossus. However, this Sith marvel had no connection to the current Empire threatening the Republic. Master Gnost-Dural is under the impression that the Emperor does not have the blessings of the Sith ancients and is in fact working against them. If you recall in one of his earlier reports, a Sith agent trespassed on the tomb of Naga Sadow, and the ancient Sith Lord's spirit attacked the agent. Perhaps this is the Empire's weakness. More research is required. View the full report after the break.
Exploring SWG heroic encounters pt. 2
The 'Tusken Army' encounter was originally intended to be the 'middle-of-the-road' instance, between IG-88 and Axkva. Instead, players kept losing to the onslaught of raiders because too many citizens would die. "Essentially we'd created the world's most obnoxious escort quest." Still, it was very popular because it allowed players a lot of choice. Even if they didn't have the 'right' classes, having enough players to cover the city sufficiently meant you could successfully complete the encounter. Despite the challenge, it was a very well-received experience. The map used in the Encounter is actually a streamlined version of Mos Espa, with many elements taken out to ensure NPCs would path well through the area. From a technical perspective, Tusken Army was the most advanced of any of the Encounters. They really pushed their tools to the limit getting the experience together, and it was a great use of the quest manager in a new and unique way. It's something they really like as a tool to aid player understanding of what's going on – they expect to use it more in the future.Hoth is modeled very closely after the Tusken Army – small teams will be running around taking on encounters individually, rather than 'tank and spank' boss fights. The quest manager will be used in Echo Base much as it's used in the Tusken encounter, to keep players all 'on the same page.' Many components of the "ISD", or Imperial Star Destroyer, were completed some time ago. It was created at the maximum size of the instance, but the original creator never noted that anywhere. The result is that a lot of their work on the instance to begin with was figuring out why things just weren't working. Camera issues plagued hallway encounters, and so most of the action is restricted to larger rooms. Krix, the first encounter, is the most challenging boss in the Encounter. Once you're past him, the rest of the event is comparatively easy – this was on purpose, but resulted in a lot of frustration when the event first came out. To somewhat placate frustrated players, they added a badge for defeating Krix in a specific circumstance. Imperial Grenadiers, a mob that participates in the encounter, throw their charges faster as the event goes on. The fewer Grenadiers there are, the lower Krix's health, the faster they throw. The developers joked that "there should be a badge" for defeating Krix with just one Grenadier standing, because they estimate that devoted solider is throwing about ten grenades a second. Questions from the audience touched on various bugs and quirks about the encounter. The team is always open to this information, they stated, and it was obvious someone was taking notes as these issues were raised. Exar Kun, the most recent and advanced of the Heroic Encounters, was obviously a point of pride for the attending developers. The dev team had a better understanding of what the players could accomplish, and very deliberately created a space where they could showcase several different bosses in evocative lairs. The goal was to create an encounter that 'felt' unbeatable but was still something that could be completed. New technology was implemented for the Encounter as well, that allowed NPCs to attack players through surrogate objects. This tech comes into play in the final encounter with Kun himself. It was completed more quickly than other encounters as well, due to experience with past encounters and development of Encounter tools. << Back to Part 1 Head to the Hoth Preview >>
The Digital Continuum: Five KOTOR MMO Jedi counter-measures
With the less-than-grandiose announcement that Electronic Arts, BioWare and Lucas Arts are working together on a KOTOR MMO, I've found myself pondering the game that until now was nothing but a rumor. Granted, I already thought about the game quite a lot even before it was the now more official affair.There are no two ways about it. Star Wars as an MMO presents developers with a tough issue: how to deal with the Jedi class. I still think that one of the many mistakes with Star Wars Galaxies was setting it during the original trilogy, where Jedi were almost non-existent. I got the draw of the setting, but for an MMO it really didn't cater to the fervent desire to roll a Obi-wanna be character. Yet I also feel like it's a mistake making Jedi readily available without presenting players with other options that are equally appealing. Neo-futuristic-magical-samurai with energy swords aren't a hard sale for most players choosing which class they want to play. Thankfully, BioWare seems to have chosen itself a wonderfully powerful loop-hole: Knights of the Old Republic.
Exploring the Force with Star Wars Galaxies
Both this week and last week the Friday Features on the official Star Wars Galaxies site have been all about the Jedi and their legacy. Last week team artist Christine Chugon walked us through the process of creating the amazing new heroic instance, the Tomb of Exar Kun. Kun was just recently added to the game in the Chapter 9 content patch. Chugon offers up the simple pencil drawing on lined paper that was her starting point, and takes us through the various steps required to bring the maze to life. This week's Feature is also all about the Jedi's world - this time a walkthrough of the new Expertise tree coming to the class in Game Update 3. The tree is split into two parts, representing the Light and Dark sides of the force. The Light side offers improvements in saber technique, a simple snare or two, and the 'mind trick' ability to confuse/de-aggro an enemy. The Dark side is much more straightforward, offering crit enhancements, the ability to drain life, the force choke snare ability, and the power to throw deadly force lightning. For further discussion of the new Jedi powers, check out the vigorous thread on the official forums.
Peer inside Star Wars Galaxies' newest tomb, Exar Kun's lair
We've been following the progress of the Star Wars Galaxies team on the upcoming Chapter 9 content update for some time, and patch day shouldn't be too far off now. We've talked about the new PvP collections, discussed fan reaction to the content on the Test server, and it all sounds pretty good. How about a look, though?All the way back at the beginning of the month we discussed preview information for Chapter 9's setpiece addition: the Exar Kun heroic instance. Today we're going to give you a look inside. Check out the four exclusive screenshots we have of this imposing facility, deep in the heart of a Yavin 4 temple. Built originally by the Massassi race, Kun has now twisted the old stones to his dark will. Looks like a great place for a fight!%Gallery-19344%