With exactly 60 days until the Star Wars: The Old Republic release date, and the press embargo partially lifted as of today, we are bound to get a ton of new details about the game in the coming days. But, after a major convention I usually like to take a look back and talk about my favorite reveals as well as peek at what the community thinks about some of them as well.

Even Daniel Erickson let his hair down after NYCC. (Pic: TOR-Talk video)

I’m certain, that if I had ever had the opportunity to attend a major convention, the event itself would probably top my list. I hope to attend San Diego Comic-Con next year, and maybe in the distant future when my children are a bit more independent, I’ll be able to take my starship to the East Coast and hit New York Comic Con.

Fortunately, we had our amazing TORWarriors-in-the-field to bring us all the big SWTOR happenings as they unfolded at NYCC. After the meet-n-greet and the TOR panels, although BioWare said there would be no huge reveals, the almost subtle reveals from the panels and fansite interviews were plenty to chew on.

There were three NYCC reveals that nearly made me give a cheesy Anakin-style “Yipee!” when I heard about them. In no particular order let’s get to it.

15

Those of us who follow TOR closely know that during the first NYCC panel last Friday, the BioWare devs played a number game with the audience. They’d put a number on the screen, and ask a dev to elaborate what that number means for TOR at launch. Some numbers revealed new information, while others simply solidified information we’ve been speculating about for some time.

A while back, Stephen Reid said in an interview that when TOR drops in December, the number of Flashpoints would be in the double digits. As a speculative community we brilliantly deduced the number would be anywhere from 10-30. Turns out, we were right…sort of. 15 is the magic flashpoint number at launch, and I couldn’t be more excited.

15 of these? Yes, please!

In the past, I’ve always played MMOs with my wife. Some of our fondest pre-children memories are mobbin’ around EverQuest II schooling mobs in some random instanced dungeon, only to die horribly because there were only the of us. We hated PUGs, and usually played at odd hours for odd intervals, so grouping didn’t really work for us.

Now that we have children, although the wife isn’t as jazzed up about TOR as I am, she’s enough of a Star Wars fan, and an MMO fan in general, that I hope to get her as addicted as I know I will be. All that said, if having a family keeps me from playing at realistic times, I hope that my wife and I will be able to grab our companions and relive our old dungeon crawling days in EQII, by getting lost in the vast number of Flashpoints in TOR.

One of my favorite things about this announcement, is that there will always be a Flashpoint to play at any level. My afore mentioned butt-kicking in EQII dungeons was the direct result of never encountering the dungeons at an appropriate level. We were either too low for it to be fun, too high to have a chance, or it was too heroic for just the two of us to run. I’m pumped that in TOR, not only will there always be a Flashpoint to run appropriate to my level, but that if I’m playing with my wife, our companions can fill the other two player slots, and we can hop right in. Granted, BioWare has stated many times that it will nearly impossible to complete certain Flashpoints without a full player group, but having the option to fill a group with companions is still better than trying to duo an entire dungeon.

Let's grab another dynamic duo and do us a Flashpoint!

As an extra bonus to the huge number of Flashpoints at launch, I was also excited to hear that at level 50, all previous Flashpoints will have a hard mode unlocked, so that max level characters can run through them again. Not that I’m in a rush to reach max level, but being a player who doesn’t mind repeating content for extra loot, or a different experience altogether, this is welcome news.

Appearance Corruption

Also revealed during NYCC, was that the farther down the path to the Dark Side you go, your character’s appearance will be corrupted accordingly. This was more than just one of my favorite features in KOTOR. To me, this makes sense for the Star Wars Universe in general. You may not be a fan of the Star Wars prequels, but as a player that loves to take the darker path in BioWare games, I loved seeing Anakin’s appearance change as he fell to the Dark Side.

The consequences to Dark Side choices.

As usual, a thread was started on the official forums that, shockingly, got a little heated as the community speculated on how they thought the system would work. Naturally, before Allison Berryman posted an official response to the thread, many players wanted it to be a mandatory feature, while others demanded the feature be optional or restricted to Force users only.

Forum-goer Zhurun,had a decent argument on the mandatory side:

I hope it is mandatory, that way action comes with consequences as promised. Stay on the narrow path?

Why should everything be so generic as humanly possible to not scare anyone. You end up being boring instead. And that never works for sure.

Here’s Tricky-Ha getting right to the point on the other side:

It better be optional & it better not affect the looks of non-force using classes.

After 60 pages of comments on the thread, Ms. Berryman posted this:

Hey everyone! We’re glad to see that you’re all so enthusiastic about dark side corruption, but wanted to clarify just a little bit about it. At this time, dark side corruption is an option that you’re able to toggle on and off yourself. We’re excited to have the feature in the game, but currently the plan is to allow you to use it if you want to.

I’m really excited to see how corrupted I can get my future Sith Assassin to look when I finally get my hands on the game. Although she didn’t specify, I’m guessing that Dark Side choices will affect all classes who choose the darker path.

While I would rather see it as a mandatory feature, as Zhurun suggested, I can see why BioWare choose to make it a hide head covering-like toggle. If it was mandatory, BioWare would get even more flak than they receive now. Sometimes is just better to have the best of both worlds.

Social Hubs

I was really surprised at how excited I was to hear about the faction specific fleet that will act as a social hub for players. In addition to being the place for players to congregate and be social, the fleets will also be an access point for Operations and Flashpoints, a one stop shopping spot, and the place for possessors of the Collector’s Edition to access their exclusive VIP cantina/lounge.

No VIP pass needed for /dance!

Whether you are for or against its implementation, this in not an underwhelming feature. There is simply a lot to do on your faction’s fleet. So why was I surprised to like this feature? Quite simply, because I usually run quickly away from online ‘strangers.’ I usually only played with my wife in EQII because I hate random pick-up groups. I usually game with people I know, as strangers in online games are more often than not little kids singing in my ear, the hardcore guy who gets all pissed off at me because, to him, I’m a noob, or some combination of the two. There is a reason I’ve been over XBOX Live for years, and the reason I’d rather just game with people I know in MMOs.

Fortunately, thanks to my involvement with TORWars, and the rest of the TOR community, I’ve met a ton of like minded people that I look forward to gaming with. That’s the reason I’m excited to have a spot to easily meet up with friends to run Ops or Flashpoints, get some shopping done, or laugh at all the people who will futilely attempt to enter the VIP room elevator. Now if the VIP Cantina has dark, foaming beverages to purchase and consume, I’ll be a happy Sith. That’s somewhat of an oxymoron but you get my point.

Well, TORWarriors, what say you? What were you most excited to hear the devs confirm during NYCC? Stoked for the ‘global’ release date? Did you get a little giddy when the devs were playing the numbers game? Have a new favorite number? Leave a comment below and let us know. Happy Thursday!

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