SWTOR lifts NDA and reveals Legacy system, new flashpoint, art book

Do you hear that? That's the sound of a million voices who were silenced suddenly freed to share their experiences with Star Wars: The Old Republic. That's because BioWare has officially lifted the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) allowing testers to talk about the game.

BioWare VP Greg Zeschuk posted the announcement just minutes ago on the forums:

As of now, the non-disclosure portion of our Game Testing Agreement is officially lifted. While all players must still accept the Game Testing Agreement, from this point on testers may now freely talk about their experiences this past weekend in the game, as well as post screenshots and gameplay videos of their testing experiences. We encourage you to come join us on the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Forums to share your experiences!

The Star Wars: The Old Republic community site will have a copy of this message on the forums and it will also appear in the Patcher. Players may not talk about nor reprint posts from our testing forums as they are still fully covered by the confidentiality portions of our Game Testing Agreement. And all players who want to participate in the upcoming Beta Test Weekends still have to accept all terms of the Game Testing Agreement. So, other than that, free feel to talk about and share your experiences in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

If all that wasn't exciting enough, the dev team also released articles covering the flashpoint Bringing Down the Hammer, the book, The Art and Making of The Old Republic, and the Legacy system, which allows for a family last name shared across characters.

Reader Comments (239)

@Lucidus

ahh bummer, thanks for answering.

@Lucidus
Did you get to 50 with the same character twice once going as light and once as dark to prove that nothing matters?

@Kalex716
Yes and no, you gain LS/DS and companion approval points based on both story and flashpoint choices you make. While there are other ways to gain those points in the end you'll get access to personal gear and companion progression based on the two of them.

@Kalex716

In the first real instance you play through at low levels(can't remember the name) there is a dark side choice that will kill the entire engineering crew or give you an option to save them if you go light side. This would of course depend entirely on who wins the roll in the group but I went through twice with a pick up group and we went all light side one time and all dark side the other and it played differently story-wise. Story-wise light side or dark side choices CAN make a significant difference in that particular MOMENT but I can't speak for consistent light or dark side choices and how they ultimately impact the larger story arc of a character.

As for accumulating light or dark side points for the purpose of getting into gear that has a light or dark side pre-requirement? You can get the Diplomacy "gathering" skill that can get those for you without having to swing one way or the other in mission choices if you wanted to do that. Can't vouch for the efficacy of going that route though.

Hits:
-Music and sound
-Class quests
-The best "unstuck" I've seen

Misses:
-Avatar art style
-Character animations
-2006 mmorpg game mechanics

This game truly is World of KotOR. I'll play it and love it for 2-3 months but my 1st impression is single player game first and foremost.

@jimr9999us

"This game truly is World of KotOR. I'll play it and love it for 2-3 months but my 1st impression is single player game first and foremost. "

This is how I've been selling it to my friends too. "Let's play KotOR Online! Together!"

I loved the time I was able to spend in the last Beta Weekend. I cant wait till release.

@Clemalum07

Yeah we kind of got that from your "spirited" responses to Lucidus's posts.

Personally, I don't like being sheparded through a game. More sandbox, less themepark. /shrug I'm sure some people will like it, though.

@(Unverified)

The problem is is that you can have an open ended themepark. Disney doesnt shuffle you from one ride to the next, you can chose where to go. You just need a lot of optional (redundant) content/zones to make it work.

A while ago I said the game would be WoW in space. I eat my words. I like it a lot.

@Lateris

Hmmm...that sounds promising.

Theres a post on the TOR forums about whether beta testers will buy the game or not. So far, it's 95.79% yes with 309 votes.

Obviously, it is the TOR website so there is a bias, but I thought the results interesting.

Of course, no game will appeal to all people, but I believe Bioware aimed for mass appeal and seems to have pulled it off. Then again, I was stoked for Rift after beta weekend, too... So I've been known to be wrong.

@KvanCetre A more important metric is will people sub beyond 4-6 months.

@Lucidus
I agree completely. It would be one of the very few mmos I subbed to after my free month. Heck, I didnt even sub to WoW until 7 months after playing the first.

@KvanCetre
Granted, any MMO these days is truly judged more on its first year of game play and content updates now rather than if it's a complete package from day one ship.
I'm ok with this, as we all (should) know that BioWare is obviously going to keep making new content for this game and what is released on the 15th/20th will be much different from the game it will end up in December of next year.

With WoW, I played the first month and thought "Man! This is really buggy and the servers crash a lot! Boy am I sick of loot lag! Let's go back to FFXI!" (which had been out for a year already) Sure enough though, 4 months later I was back in Azeroth for the next 6 years...

Rift doing well after 9 months since Trion didn't sit on their heels and has continued to release content. By comparison, Rift has as many major content patches as WoW's Wrath and Cats cycle combined.

The longevity of SWTOR will be determined by how Bioware continues to support the game after it's released. We all know it's going to sell well come Dec 20th.

@(Unverified)

It will have the same very low retention rate of 20-25% just like every other mmorpg being launched since 2006.

Why ? These games are not so good to keep a subscription up for more than a few months.

Times changed. We live no longer in 2005-2006-2008.

We now have I Pads, casual games, Facebook and other internet junk...

But at least the junk is so called free to p(l)ay.

Watch my words: SW TOR will mark the end of the subscription based era.

Everyone is just waiting for Blizzard to introduce the free to play game mechanics (probably with the real money auction house show).

And when Wow launches as free to play with a real money auction house it simply will be "goodbye" to subscriptions in all other games too.

SW TOR won't survive 2013 as a subscription based game with D3 free to play, GW2 free to play and WOW free to play.

Not a minute.

I played the beta since the Beginning of the year, I can honestly say it is the best MMO I have played to date I find the quest compelling the combat fun and the overall design is rock solid.

However
If you are a
Sandbox lover
A Raid or Die Hardcore gamer
A Rush to level cap gamer
or a Grind until you eyes bleed gamer.

This isn't the game for you period. People who like substance, story, solving puzzles, crafting and PVP (I said PVP not grief ganking) You are in for one hell of a Ride.

Those that hate this game will hate it with a passion and will do anything to see it fail, those who love it will defend Bioware decisions until the end.

Regardless this game is going to have millions of players and will make a metric shit ton of money,

Love or hate it.....you won't be able to stop it.

@Dunraven

o/
I like sandbox. so I'm out?

@Archintyeron

Well, I like sandbox, too, but I don't like all the other points. Beta'ed it and like it fine for those points.

Granted, it may seem a bit single-player-ish in some areas, particularly cinematic cut-scenes and so forth, but meh, I like it!

But yeah, we need another great sandbox out there, so I can play both.

Previous 20 Comments | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

SWTOR lifts NDA and reveals Legacy system, new flashpoint, art book

Reader Comments (239)

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:24PM Kalex716 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 6:36PM Beltyra said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 7:18PM DiscordSK said

Posted: Nov 19th 2011 4:32AM EuchridEucrow said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 3:58PM jimr9999us said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:02PM Clemalum07 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 5:20PM Mikx said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:04PM Lateris said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 10:51PM Utakata said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:10PM KvanCetre said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:12PM Lucidus said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:41PM KvanCetre said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 6:41PM Beltyra said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 22nd 2011 6:47PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 4:36PM Dunraven said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 5:26PM Archintyeron said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 5:53PM Space Cobra said

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