This ain't like dusting crops, boy: The Old Republic expounds on crafting and PvP

This is honestly the most interesting news I've heard from this game in a long time.

I'd like to hear more on crafting than that, but I like the general idea. Hopefully our PC can also participate in some crafting - sometimes it's nice to have a skill on a character other than just killing.

I agree with Fel. This has piqued my interest now.

While news on something other than story is welcome... I am pretty much sickened at how much you are required to use companions in this game. It's an MMO and social interaction should be the preferred method of engaging and progressing.

I don't like what I'm hearing.

Instanced pvp only? You can keep it.

I'm intrigued that the companions will be more than facilitators of the story line. The more that others become disallusioned about the game, the more interested I become and the more it reveals just how different my play style is over old school MMO gamers. I've been waiting for a game like SWTOR for a long time. It sounds deliciously casual without being mind numbingly dull. Thank you for the new tidbits of information and keep it flowing : )

It sounds like someone on the systems team was confused about the difference between a craft system and an offline leveling system using companions.

Quite strange.

To me the crafting sound's a little like EVE's skill system; you choose what you want a particular companion to gather, and then you wait a specific amount of time until they finish. It's an interesting twist on crafting. Doesn't sound like it requires much effort on the player's behalf though...

@Rebel: I think/hope we'll find that it's just as 'massively multiplayer' as any other big MMO, but with the BioWare staple of companion characters. I may be wrong, but that's how they've tried to sell it so far. If that's the case, I like the idea, as long as companions don't feel like 'pets'.

It does feel like there's been a lull in info recently. I've got to admit news on PvP doesn't excite me very much. Especially when we're hearing about small scale 8vs8 'battleground' PvP. I'm into large scale world PvP, if anything.

I personally want to hear info about 'end-game', even though I don't think that term is very appropriate; I like to play characters for years, so the 'level-cap' is definitely not the 'end' in my eyes.

As a result of my mentality on that, I haven't been impressed with comments about 'betting heavily on the level-up game'. I don't want to play more than the two classes I'm interested in, thanks.

Also, it was disconcerting t'other day when one of the co-directors of BioWare said 'I don't think we've talked about a release window for TOR'. How could he not be aware of the Spring 2011 target and the furore surrounding it's announcement? Unless it's pure denial... meaning an even longer wait.

To me it seems a bit like crafting in FE. Aside from the player having to gather the mats, in FE you can queue up a certain number of crafts and even log out if you like. The crafts will continue and when you log back in you can get your items. I think my ATV took something like 8 hours realtime to craft, then the Motorcycle was something like 12. I don't recall but it was a nice twist on crafting. I didn't have to stop lvling to craft. Simply queue up my items and go out and quest. Hopefully my thats kind of how this will work.