Posts Tagged ‘sith’

Military and Political Rankins

As of yet the developers of SWTOR have only been very vague about what ranks in the Military and Parliaments of their respective sides players will be able to attain. Previous games such as Star Wars Galaxies allowed players to work up ranks over time by participating in the Galactic civil war (in many nefarious ways). However, this system did have its draw backs, as it was possible for every single player on the server to simultaneously be a general or otherwise high rank.

Of course this doesn’t seem particularly realistic, but is there any other way in a MMORPG?

Every player pays the same rate, so in theory every player should be able to enjoy equal aspects of the game. This is the problem with having realistic officer ranks, as only a few will be able to fill them.

As a major part of SWTOR will be the story line each player goes through, it would make sense for at least in this regard that players will be able to hold some sort of rank within the military or government. Professions such as Inquisitor seem to almost revolve around political subterfuge, so denying them some sort of political power is almost out of the question.

One solution that may well be implemented is some kind of informal rank system for single player, such as that we found in Mass effect. Some kind of private organisation that can offer ranks, such as the spectres would be ideal, as it allows everyone to wield some power without there being too many cowboys and not enough Indians.

It seems somewhat strange that we might see imperial agents ranking as high as Sith Warriors, but this again seems to be what Bioware has planned. Although they may be as intellectually experience, Star Wars tradition has it that Jedi and Sith tend to lead any army, even if they are padwans or knights. Lets just hope that choosing a non-force sensitive rank will not hamper the player’s chance of holding some power.

Chiss

The Chiss will be a race that many will be familiar from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. They have been portrayed as characters such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was voted one of the top 10 characters from the entire Star Wars Universe.

Chiss are completely humanoid in physique, differing only in their bright blue skin and blood red eyes. This gives them a very fearsome look to the un-initiated, which is un surprising as the species became decades ago the first official allies of the emperor. In exchange for their military might and exorbitant taxes the Sith agreed to leave them alone, which marks them as the first race in the history of the galaxy which has managed so strike such a fair deal. Sith annals show a history of violent destruction of newly discovered races, not military agreements.

The Chiss species plays a dominant role in governing what the republic calls the ‘Unknown Regions’, which is perhaps why the race is so unknown to the outside galaxy. In fact, aside from the highest military generals and politicians in the republic, and their front line forces, most do not even know this extra-galactic race exists.

Chiss are likely to make Ideal Imperial agents and bounty hunters in SWTOR. It is unknown whether they will be able to access force sensitive classes, however the lack of any Chiss jedi or Sith in the expanded universe makes this somewhat unlikely.

Regardless, they will be a popular class, and one who’s traditions and battle prowess every republic player will have to be constantly aware of. To underestimate one of these knifing opponents is likely to be the last mistake many will make.

Rattataki

The Rattataki, like the Twi’Leks, were another species left to ferment on their home-world for thousands of years before the Galaxy of The Old Republic showed any interest.

Due to the near inhospitable nature of their planet, Rattataki lived beneath the surface, and were only able to venture out when a warrior king Rattatak united the many tribes to work together against the hostile environment. Although they did not survive above the surface for long until in-fighting started, it was long enough to be found by the other intelligent species of the galaxy, and so the Rattataki made their big break onto the galactic stage.

Although many still live on their home-world, a large number escaped and now work in the galaxies broad industries centred around violence.

The Rattataki were always a violent species. Gladiatorial combat was the major entertainment at home, and in fighting between tribes went on for thousands of years, and still does. As such, they are expert combatants, and a number of them have discovered force abilities within themselves over the past centuries. This spiked the interest of a number of Sith, who ventured to the home-world in The Old Republic and recruited their own personal armies, as well as dozens of force sensitive Acolytes to serve as their apprentices.

The Rattataki are a very violent race, which will make them ideally suited for approximately all of the classes in SWTOR, as each predominantly revolves around combat. It will be difficult for them to curb their anger as Jedi Knights or Consulars, but as can be seen from the brief unity in their people’s history, when push comes the shove the Rattataki can occassionally work together.

They are almost identical to humans in the appearance, apart from unusual skin colours and markings. This means they will be able to use the same armour, equip the same weapons and for all intents and purposes fill the roles of the more important humans, which will make them a popular class in SWTOR.

Although the Rattataki is not a vastly alien class, they will provide a good option for players who want to be just that little bit different from the every day human, without going as far a field as something like Twi’lek.

Voss

Voss is a planet inhabited in SWTOR by sentient, but largely un-advanced beings. The Gormak, like our Human race, they are a pre-space civilisation, so were not members of the Republic for quite a long time.

This species was thought to be the only one on the surface of Voss when the Republic first landed, but after many months they caught word of another, more dangerous species, that live solely on the peak of a single mountain. This species call themselves the Voss, and by all accounts are highly skilled in a number of force disciplines, iin particular prediction of the future.

Their war with the Gormak has gone for centuries, but the Voss have managed to survive by knowing where the Gormak even before they do. They utilised this skill when the Sith and Republic first tried to make contact with them, and the resultant was an entire Sith fleet lost, and Republic emissaries turned away.

Perhaps for the best, neither of the major factions tried to inflict themselves on the Voss after this, instead both attempted to open diplomatic relations with this strange race.

Sith and Jedi alike agree that the Voss are an extremely gifted race in the ways of the force, which is why so much interest is showed in them. There is also evidence of ancient Jedi and Sith ruins on the planet, perhaps meaning one or both of the factions once inhabited the planet.

Voss is likely to be a high level adventure world, with many missions for and against the Voss. It will be a good location for the Consulars and Inquisitors to work their political trades, and perhaps a training ground for force users all across the spectrum. With both sides vieing for allegiance with the Voss, there is sure to be high tension between them, and we may even see an outbreak of all out war on the surface.

Whether the Voss will stand for this, or even any occupation by the Jedi and Sith remains to be seen, but it appears that regardless, both factions will have to learn the hard way.

Taris

Taris in the time of The Old Republic is a world sought by for the Republic, for nothing more than a symbolic victory. With their forces stretched thin across the galaxy it is surprising that such a costly endeavour was undertaken, but evidently re-colonising yet another world is worth the many Jedi and technicians working on the job.

Three hundred years before the events of SWTOR, Taris was laid waste to by the Sith, and they conducted genetic experiments on the planets wild life.

This is where we find Taris today. There are mutant critters running around, which are still highly contagious. This has meant the demise of many jedi, and will surely continue to do so in The Old Republic. Republic bases and military outposts account for all of the civilised life on the planet, although if the planet has its way this will change quickly.

There are rumoured to be deadly viruses, which in the past were contained in the lower levels of the surface’s run down metropolis. However, with recent rebuilding and discovery efforts there have been occasional outbreaks, and the ever present threat of the virus escaping in a transport ship off planet is always in the back of the settlers’ minds.

Taris will be a predominantly Republic controlled adventure world. Players will have a chance to gleam some experience against the diverse yet deadly wild life. Perhaps Taris was only added due to its featuring role in the KOTOR games, which explains the lack of content on its surface. Regardless, we expect so see many references to the older games, and perhaps opportunities to visit many sites players will remember.

Korriban

Korriban has long been the ancient home world of the Sith order. Generations lived in the hot and arid environment, as they pondered the ways of the force, and gradually grew stronger, generation by generation, until they were ready to challenge the Republic in what would be come the Great Hyperspace War.

Most players of SWTOR will recognise Korriban from KOTOR one and two, as it was the planet on which Revan and Malak turned to the dark side. This was helped greatly by the planets great Sith heritage, which makes it an incredibly focused location of dark side energy.

At a number of points in time Korriban was completely deserted by the Sith order as the conducted inquests out into the Galaxy. However, for every time they left there has been a return, and the wayward Sith always seem to be able to stumble back again to the planet which nurtured their ancestors.

Korriban is a world incredibly important to any Sith, so as such it is one of the most heavily aligned and fortified in the galaxy. Although it holds minimal strategic value, the Republic would love to possess it no other reason than to crush their opponents morally.

Korriban will be the starting planet for Sith Warriors and Inquisitors. It is located in the Outer Rim, so it is by no means a great galactic crossroads. As it is so tightly in the grasp of the Sith there would be minimal petty crime on the surface, however the number of political and honour-bound assassinations is surely astronomical.

Players that have played Bioware’s previous games set in The Old Republic will be familiar with the planet, and we can expect to see many of the features from those games. This will mean a grand Sith Academy along with Ancient tombs, and perhaps if we are lucky some invisible lizards waiting at every turn…

Sith Warrior

The Sith Warrior class in The Old Republic will be the pinnacle of combat prowess throughout the galaxy.  Masters of the dark side of the force, they have no qualms taking advantage of their anger to bring to bear powers that Jedi do not dare utilise.

Sith Warriors focus on close combat, using aggressive lightsaber negotiations as well as force powers like lightning and choke to take care of enemies.

There are two branches of the Sith Warrior profession at this stage, Marauder and juggernaut.

Marauders are damage oriented Warriors, wielding two sabers and equipping themselves with only light armour in order to maximise their agility. Marauders use primarily lightsaber combat, rather than the force, to steam roll their way through hoards of enemies. Their lightning fast strikes and sweeps account for great DPS, which will be useful in Flashpoints and particularly deadly in PVP.

The Juggernaut spec’d Sith Warrior is in most ways the Opposite of the Marauder. Instead of using primarily lightsaber attacks, they are masters of the dark side of the force. One of the most powerful tanks in the game, they are sport heavy armour and a vast array of force shielding and aura abilities, making them able to withstand unparalleled amounts of damage (at least compared to the other Imperial classes).

The Sith Warrior’s companion is a Twilek pirate named Vette. Although pairing the height of Sith power and authority with a non-human slave turned criminal may seem a little odd, this is how the developers of Bioware feel the profession should play out. To go with this companion, Sith Warriors have access to their very own Fury star ship.

The Fury is a very versatile star ship, with military class hyperdrive technology, making locations as far as the other side of The Old Republic’s galaxy seem close. It also sports quite a wide array of weaponry, so it should be more than a match for any Jedi scum encountered in deep space.

Sith warrior will without a doubt be a very popular class in SWTOR. They are the archetype Dark Jedi, which is of course what every 12 year old kid in love with Darth Vader will wan’t to play. However, they do lack a major team role (as Jedi did in Star Wars Galaxies) so if groups want to succeed in flashpoints and PvP, groups consisting solely of Sith will not give them a very promising chance.

Fate of the Galaxy

Just today the developers at The Old Republic released a new trailer, Fate of the Galaxy, for SWTOR. It highlights the incredibly high tensions in galactic politics, which have been threatening to tear the whole galaxy apart and create full scale war.

The trailer has been made using in game footage, so it shows just how far the developers have come with the animations of the game. In the early days many players disliked the cartoonified graphics, and felt that they would ruin the game. Thankfully the developers took this constructive criticism to heart, and we now have a game which looks as good as it is sure to play.

Although the content of the trailer is not noteworthy, the way it was made shows us that players will have a great degree of freedom in TOR. Many players enjoy making films in their games of choice, as it is an easy way to make a computer generated animation without actually knowing how to animate.

This genre of content is often refereed to as Machinima, and has grown exponentially in popularity along with the MMORPG industry over the past decade. It now captures the imagination of many players, and there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousand fan made videos floating around internet video sites such as youtube.

These films are generally made using screen recording software, such as Fraps. Fraps is a paid-for software suite that records everything happening on the screen, so players can have a video of their play time with virtually identical quality to actually playing the game. Usually to make Machinima players will have one player film, whilst the others will act out what ever scene is being worked on.

This is a tried and true technique, which has produced many popular videos, many of which have viewer numbers well into the millions. We hope that many of the features demonstrated in the Fate of the Galaxy video will be available to players in SWTOR, as this will make the community of budding film makers very happy.

Dromund Kaas

Dromund Kaas in Star Wars The Old Republic is one of the ancient home worlds of the Sith. For centuries the planet has incubated the Sith Empire, until they were finally ready to venture back into the Galaxy and wage war on the Republic.

In the Great Hyperspace War, after their defeat at the hands of the old Republic, they searched for decades for an appropriate world to land and re-establish their civilisation on. After many random hyperspace jumps they happened upon the planet which had been originally found by their ancestors decades before, then had been completely forgotten.

Dromund Kaas in SWTOR is the epitome of everything Sith, and it houses the high council and Emperor of the order along with many of the Empire’s highest up officials and Moffs. This makes it an ideal location for Imperial officers and Sith alike to work on their political careers, and strive for advancement and reward.

The Republic has no known presence on this Sith stronghold, un-surprising due to the amazing concentration of Dark side energy and supporters all across the planet. It is unlikely then that any Republic players will ever actually get to see the world, unless Bioware implements some kind of game-wide story arcs which may allow things such as an invasion to happen.

For as far as we know Dromund Kaas will be a place for Sith players to be trained in the dark arts, and stage incursions into the rest of the Galaxy. It will also be the target of Republic attacks, as if Dromund Kaas were to fall, the Sith Empire will take a considerable and perhaps fatal blow.

Corellia

Corellia has always been one of the galactic centres of commerce, trade and humanity. It was one of the founders of The Galactic Republic, and continues to play a major part in galactic affairs during the events of SWTOR.

Many Corellians have gone on to achieve galactic fame during The Old Republic, as well as in later eras such as the Galactic Civil War where the Corellian Han Solo played a major role.

The capital of Corellia is Coronet City, which is one of the few galactic centres able to rival the grandeur of the Coruscant skyline. Additionally, it is a more refined and organised city, with park lands and public spaces in space of the rotting sub levels and basements which make up the Coruscant underworld.

Although Corellia is supposed to have unswerving loyalty to the Republic, during SWTOR it appears that something has happened to cut off a majority of it’s communications with the outside galaxy. Prior to the communications blank many unsubstantiated rumours circulated detailing increasing Imperial presence on the planet, as well as the possibility of corrupt Sith influence in the highest levels of government.

Recently Holo-vids from the planet’s surface have shown violent riots and skirmishes across the capital Coronet. Although they are not obviously caused by Imperial forces, terrorism is rather the apparent protagonist, the sly hand of the Sith is suspected to be pulling many of the strings.

As Corellia is a major player in intergalactic politics, the Republic will stop at nothing to protect its interest there, and we can expect an impending occupation by their forces.

In SWTOR Corellia will present an interesting battleground between Republic and Imperial forces, as well as whatever terrorist organisations may be present. It is a world famous for its disregard for the law, so we will undoubtedly see the Han Solos of the old republic plying their trade there.