Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Note: these Twi'leks are NOT actualy SWTOR developers
Well, folks, it looks like our little baby podcast is all grown up now. In fact, it’s beyond grown up, it’s downright middle aged. Yes, yes, our podcast is now 40.
What does one do to celebrate their 40th podcast? Well here at TORWars, we talk about our favorite topic, Star Wars: The Old Republic. More specifically, we delve into the slew of developer comments this past week, and what they reveal about the game. This has been an exceptionally good week for dev comments, as they’ve not only been very chatty, they’ve been chatting up the forums about topics in which we are very interested, indeed. “Like what?” I hear you asking. Well, let’s have a peak at this week’s show, and all will be revealed
NEWS
- The Esselles flashpoint walkthrough
- The Facebook image of the week
- Georg Zoeller: Companion kits are now out of the game
- The TORWars book giveaway
- EA execs confirm holiday 2011 launch, gives clues to a harder launch date
DISCUSSION
- All About Raids – In our discussion segment, we dissect everything we know about “operations” in the Old Republic, including the number of players in a raid, their varying difficulty levels, and the “individualized containers of loot” that every player receives after bosses and mini-bosses
- We also discuss the surprisingly juicy developer comments this week, including such topics as companion killing, an entire planet for solo players, pre-installed mods on loot drops, the features of rare drops, and the dying of player armor.
POINT – COUNTERPOINT
- Should players be allowed to perma-kill their own companions, even if it gimps them down the road? (Jeff says “Hell yes,” while David thinks this is a big no-no.)
WAY OFF TOPIC TOPIC
- Are collector’s editions of games, including the SWTOR CE, becoming far too expensive?
As you can see, this is yet another overstuffed show, full of fascinating SWTOR tidbits, witty commentary, insightful banter, and featuring two full grown men that both had a 3 martini lunch before they recorded the show. Yeah, it’s a good one. 
TORWars Podcast #77: The Big Subscribers Discussion
Galaxy of Guilds - Stellar Corsairs
Jedi Knight Weekly: Slaying the Dragon
James Ohlen Dishes Out Specific Expertise and PvP Damage Formulas
SWTOR Comic Strip: Fail Hunter Episode 35
Another Great Podcast guys! Happy 40th ^_^
TYVM Atlona! We need to think of something cool for our 50th.
The solo planet is confirmed to be Ilum. They confirmed that in one of the community q&a sessions at comic-con.
I agree that it was a good move taking out the companion death system at this current time. Now in the future, when the player possibly gets more companions through expansions or patches, they should revisit this subject to see if it viable again.
The big issue with it is, we only get five useable (and one crafting drone) companions and you can have a total of five companions crafting at any one time (even with the drone, not six, only five). Killing one means the player would either have to sacrifice one of their open world companions or suffer a crafting penalty in the long term. Now, once they start adding companions to the game, they can revisit the topic as the player already has a companion that can fill every role and killing an additional companion won’t hurt your crafting operation.
Can you imagine thousands of little kids asking why they can’t have Mr. Snuggles the rabbit back after they hugged him so hard it suffocated or crushed it to death? Now can you imagine having to explain to those thousands of kids that Mr. Snuggles can’t come back because he’s dead? Now imagine those thousand little kids are mmo players with the ability to rage against your game spreading bad publicity all over the interwebs just because they killed Mr. Snuggles and daddy won’t fix it because daddy is a meany head. You start to see that Bioware would have on their hands.
Just posting my support to the awesome show you keep up.
Hi guys, congrats on 40! You are definitely my favorite podcast out there. You have energy that the other podcasts just don’t have.
Now that you’re 40, can you get a new intro? Its… stupid. Thanks guys. I appreciate you guys listening to your favorite listener. I look forward to the new intro.
You guys deserve an uber bag of loot!!Gratz!
50 that would put you in the second week of November and it just happens to be my b-day on Nov 11th so how about this:
“50th Podcast to Rememberance”
o0[ For all the Jedi's who have died for the cause! ]0o
And in Jeff fashion don’t for get the BAG PIPES! :p
Heheh, yeah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o
I could go either way on the companion death, since I didn’t plan to kill any of my companions, anyway. A always got the sense this wasn’t something you were going to accidentally do at level 10 before you knew how to play the game. If you made the decision, it would probably be late in the game at a point where you’ve decided, “Yeah, I really hate having this guy around and I’m willing to accept the consequences. I’m not much of a crafter and I never use him in PvE, so it’s no big deal to me.”
Then again, I probably give MMORPG players more credit than they deserve for forethought.
Also, I hope that by doing away with kits, it means that they’ve implemented something a little more complex, more like companion training in Dragon Age: Origins.
I think that measured at the right moment in the arc of the game a companion death selection could be a powerful moment for you. Not early, why early? It should be way later in the game. Invested time in a companion, developed a sense of their personality, recognize their relative value to you, then someone will know the consequences. Imagine going 40 levels with one character, they betray you, of course you have to kill them.
Sith are all about vengeance and even a Smuggler would think about doing this sort of thing.
With replacement companions available it should definitely find a way into the game eventually.