Alternatively, watch on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/ea/v/6211540?t=1h13m25

Jeff Hickman: Star Wars: The Old Republic offers RPG gamers the chance to step into the center of their own Star Wars saga. So if you love Star Wars and want a deep experience, then start playing now and get ready because something new is on the way. Our fans have told us exactly what they want in the future: More story, BioWare-style story with a player-driven arc where choices matter. And we've been listening.

Today, I'm proud to announce that we are taking Star Wars: The Old Republic back to the roots of BioWare-style storytelling with the release of our new expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire. This is your story, your way and it is coming October 27, 2015. Knights of the Fallen Empire puts you in the center of the battle against a dangerous new enemy faction. You will Choose Your Path. You will join or betray companions, old and new. And you will make choices that will shape the fate of the entire galaxy, as well as your own.

The expansion will deliver on the hallmarks of what makes a great BioWare game: New worlds to explore, new companions to recruit and a dynamic story that players will be able to shape based on the choices they make. And in appreciation of our players' support over the years, Knights of the Fallen Empire will be free to all of our subscribers. I'll leave you with a first look at the story of Knights of the Fallen Empire. Thank you and May the Force Be With You.

Valkorion: A man can have anything if he is willing to sacrifice.

"Heirs to an Empire"

"United by Ambition"

"Destined to Conquer"

Patrick Söderlund: That's a massive new expansion from BioWare. And the first Star Wars game we will show you today.

Alternatively, watch on IGN.com: http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/06/15/star-wars-the-old-republic-knights-of-the-fallen-empire-reactions-ign-live-e3-2015

Attendees:

• Daemon Hatfield (@DaemZero from IGN)
  
• Max Scoville (@MaxScoville from IGN)
  
• Jeff Hickman (General Manager, SWTOR)
  
• Bruce Maclean (Senior Producer, SWTOR)
  

Daemon: Whoo!

Max: Alright, what do we say there...

Daemon: That was EA's press conference and it was-- It was pretty awesome. I'm Daemon Hatfield, this is Max Scoville. Lots to talk about, we are going to talk about it but first, we are actually going to give you an extended look at that new trailer for SWTOR. Here to give us that look are Bruce and Jeff from BioWare. Gentleman, welcome to the show.

Jeff: Thank you very much.

Max: Thanks for joining us.

Jeff: Thanks for having us.

Daemon: Another awesome trailer there in a long line of awesome trailers for this game.

Jeff: Definitely.

Max: Now, you showed off like a two-and-a-half minute version in the press conference?

Bruce: Yes.

Max: And you've brought with you a big, proper four minute chunk?

Bruce: Right.

Jeff: Yes, the two minutes is like our teaser.

Bruce: It's just to wet your appetite. The four minute really shows you the full introduction to this story arc. This is slightly different from the other Blur videos that we've done in that it's actually part of the story of the expansion.

Max: Now one thing that jumped out to me during the press event was that you're saying that this is returning to the core of what BioWare is known for in terms of storytelling.

Bruce: BioWare storytelling roots.

Jeff: Choices that matter, you know. Impactful things that you do actually change the game as you move through it.

Max: And that can be kind of tricky to do in an MMO because it's massive.

Bruce: It is true. We have done four expansions since launch but we haven't really continued your personal story and really delved into the stories of your companions in the way that we are now doing.

Daemon: I don't know about you but I want to see this extended trailer.

Max: Yeah, let's take a look.

Daemon: Let's roll it, we are not going to talk over it, we'll just play the trailer for you.

Max: And then we can talk over it afterwards.

Daemon: Yeah.

TRAILER:

Valkorion: A man can have anything if he is willing to sacrifice. With your birth comes a solemn vow: You will have nothing.

Arcann: More troops, over there!

Valkorion: Your privilege is the dirt. In the darkness, only ambition will guide you. The oath you swear, the promises you make, they are yours alone. Your freedom will be the wars you wage. Your birthright the losses you suffer. Your entitlement the pain you endure. And when darkness finds you, you will face it, alone.

[long pause and fight in Throne Room]

Valkorion: Come with me, son.

Max: So that's pretty intense.

Jeff: Yeah. Emotionally driven.

Max: Yeah. Why couldn't the prequels have been like that? What, so how does this work? Where do players get into this?

Bruce: So, where do players get into that or where do players get into the expansion? So this is the story of some of the main characters in KotFE. Emperor Valkorion is the ruler of the Eternal Throne and it's this new faction which as you see in the video, he sends his sons out to basically conquer the factions that players have been playing in this whole time. And those are his sons, Arcann and Thexan, and you'll learn a lot more about them as you play through this expansion. They are main characters. Very early on in KotFE-- Is it alright if I do spoilers?

Max: Oh boy, careful...

Bruce: Okay, very early on in KotFE, you're frozen in carbonite, and when you awaken, years have passed and you quickly learn that the Empire and the Republic as you know them have all but fallen and you are the galaxy's last hope, you have to find your companions, they've scattered. You have to find your companions and you have to adventure with new companions in a very personal story. And you'll make choices all throughout this that are very impactful and consequential, and it is up to you to build an alliance to challenge the might of the Eternal Throne. And that is in a very broad way the story of this expansion. And this trailer really sets out the start of that story arc.

Jeff: You pick up as a player basically at the end of this trailer. So this really sets the tone for how exactly this expansion is going to look like.

Bruce: To them, you are the Outlander, you are this outside agent, and your level 60 character takes on this role. Or you can, if you wish, start at level 60. So with this expansion, we are giving players old and new, the ability to create a level 60 character and immediately jump right into the expansion. So there's no going through the core game to get to this incredible storyline.

Jeff: I find that in MMOs, it separates people after they have been out for a little while. You know, your friends can't come in and join you at that high level, so you can come and join your friends at level 60 if you want.

Max: And this is of course free for subscribers?

Jeff: Free for subscribers.

Max: That's pretty cool.

Jeff: Absolutely.

Max: Now I've got something I've got to ask, EA has a 10-year deal with Disney for the Star Wars rights, is that correct? And you guys have been attached to-- I mean, Old Republic has been around since before that.

Jeff: Correct, yeah correct.

Max: And, I mean, I think, coming in like we saw Lucasfilm, or LucasArts disappear, it seemed kind of unclear what happened to TOR, but that foundation had been built and clearly you guys are still around.

Jeff: Absolutely.

Max: So how much input has Disney had in terms of what you guys have been doing and the Expanded Universe?

Bruce: I'll-- go ahead.

Jeff: Disney-- Disney and Lucas are great partners of ours, and they have been for like you said, they've been our partners for nine-and-a-half year since we started working on this game. They're fantastic. We work hand in hand in everything that we do. They see everything we do, they give us creative input, they give us access to their creative people so that we have an awesome partnership.

Bruce: The short answer is: A huge part. Like we went to them "We have this idea for an expansion that is inspired by KotOR and Empire Strikes Back and Mass Effect. We want to take this idea and run with it. This is going to be the Year of Star Wars. We really want to lean into our game, we want to make a Blur video to go with this." And they were completely behind it and very supportive and helped us forge this awesome idea.

Max: Well, this is awesome. And you guys, obviously because the Expanded Universe has been, so much of it has been cleared out, you got a little more breathing room to work--

Jeff: Absolutely.

Bruce: Yeah.

Max: That's really exciting.

Jeff: Super exciting.

Max: What kind of new features can players expect to see in this?

Bruce: We are not going to a bulleted features list today but what we are really doing is make sure that we get out the message that this is a return to your personal story, this is a continuation of your personal story. There are some features that we are talking about, like new companions, there are all new companions and new companion storylines. And new interactions with your old companions as well, which is a feature we really haven't done since launch. This is something that we have held off on doing for too long, and we are really excited to be doing this this year. Start at level 60...

Jeff: Raise the level cap to 65.

Bruce: Of course, it comes with a level cap increase, you know, exciting, iconic new abilities for each class, along with everything that you'd expect from a BioWare RPG when you are leveling up.

Daemon: Awesome! I love the trailer, I am going to watch it a few more times. The KotFE expansion is out October 27th.

Jeff: Correct.

Bruce: That is correct.

Daemon: Free for all subscribers. Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming by our show!

Jeff: Thanks for having us.

Bruce: Thanks for having us. It's been great.

Star Wars: The Old Republic's next expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, is coming Oct. 27, armed with a broom.

Not literally a broom. There will be lightsabers. But figuratively. BioWare is using the expansion to have a big house-clearing of its MMO, which is now more than three years old and has been in development for nine years.

For a start, the expansion is free to subscribers. Also, anyone who engages with the expansion has the option to immediately jump to a Level 60 character. It's basically a personal role-playing saga starring the Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War whose task is nothing less than taking down the Emperor of the Eternal Throne.

EA is essentially saying that anyone who is interested in a big Star Wars RPG from BioWare can play one right now. But not only is this story an RPG and an MMO, it's also episodic. The expansion — which BioWare says is its biggest to date — offers up nine episodes with more coming month-by-month in the New Year.

According to BioWare Austin General Manager Jeff Hickman, all of TOR's stories are being "streamlined to make them more fun." He stressed at a recent press event that anyone who wants to engage in traditional MMO activities can do so, but that leveling up is now going to be a less time-consuming activity.

"At launch, a lot of people talked about how we had these eight storylines," said Senior Producer Bruce Maclean. "There are literally hundreds of hours of gameplay across these eight storylines. Now we're just honing in on each one of them. If you want to come in and play the story of the Jedi — probably the best video game Star Wars story ever written — you can now come in and just focus on that if you want to. You don't have to do the 'now go collect things' side stuff. In the past we've had you do that."

He's talking about grinding.

"We don't think of it as grinding," he said. "We think of it as 'the MMO bits.' But we're not taking it out, either. We're repurposing it for the alliance content. If you level a Jedi knight now, it doesn't take hundreds of hours. It takes a fraction of the time. It could be 50 or even 30 hours now, depending on who you are and how you play. But you're not going to be doing anything that's not your personal story."

EA has shifted the subscription pitch for this free-to-play game away from merely faster leveling, more bank space, more inventory slots toward more stories. Standing content is being streamlined for players who do not wish to grind, but do want to feel like they are part of a vast Star Wars story.

This shift in focus is almost entirely driven by observed player behavior patterns and by player feedback, according to Maclean. "We have three years of data on how people play the game and what they want. We know what our players want. They've told us. They've told us in person, on the forums. They've also told us through their play behaviors.

"We can look at this stuff and say, 'look, if you want to go and play the standard MMO game — PvP, doing a flashpoint, operation raiding — we have that. We've always had that. We continue to expand on that. But we also heard, loud and clear, this scream for story, for personal custom story.'"

Five new companions will be available throughout the quest, taken from a cast with very different allegiances.

"You're able to recruit help and additional companions from an expanded cast, including companions who were previously exclusive to other classes," said Maclean. "Building that alliance involves going to all the planets in the galaxy and doing activities and missions that build faction. If you want to recruit a character who's favorable to the Mandalorians, you'll be able to do missions for them. You want to recruit a character who hates the Hutts, you'll do missions to build your alliance standing against them."

Despite all these changes, BiowWare is clear on thing: The Old Republic is still very much an MMO, with all that genre entails. It's just been streamlined, with new options for the way each player approaches the game.

"I want to be really clear to our fans out there who are deep MMO fans. We're not forgetting about that part of the game either," said Hickman. "We just have a focus right now on the story. We're doing lots of stuff around flashpoints and operations and raid bosses and PvP and that stuff. But it's all about story this year.

"If you want to come and play eight really awesome BioWare Star Wars game, come to Star Wars: The Old Republic. We'll give you eight of them. You can level up your character through your story. Be deeply immersed in it. Come to cool romances and betrayals. Come to moments with the choice wheel where you choose between light and dark.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire will be released in October, as a benefit to subscribers.

Frank: What's going on, Internet? Frank Knight here with...

Bruce: Bruce Maclean, Senior Producer on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Frank: And we're here to take a look at your brand new trailer that you showed off. And what's the name of this cinematic trailer?

Bruce: This is the Sacrifice cinematic trailer for the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion.

Frank: Now this is the new expansion that is going to come out right in time for the new movie, when all of my Star Wars buzz is at its highest. I can play my Battlefront, and then watch my movie, and MMO right away.

Bruce: Right, October 27.

Frank: October 27, I'm going to have so much gameplay to do before that movie comes out. So this focuses mostly on two new twin characters.

Bruce: Yeah, so this is Arcann and Thexan. Arcann is in white and Thexan is in black. They're twins, they are the sons of Emperor Valkorion who you can see him walking away.

Frank: And Emperor Valkorion, we can actually see him at the beginning, we got a shot of him, and he is the new kind of super-protagonist, right? He is the leader of a new faction that we're introducing in this section, right?

Bruce: He is the leader of the Eternal Empire, he sits on the Eternal Throne and he and his Zakuul Knights and his sons go out and attack the Sith Empire and the Republic.

Frank: As the trailer progresses, we see them kind of going to war and all that stuff.

Bruce: Yeah.

Frank: So where do they come from, are they from beyond the Outer Rim, where the Sith Empire came from, or where are they?

Bruce: They are on the edges of the area that we've dealt with so far in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In fact--

Frank: So you said during our wonderful live show that for the continuity of your character in the game, you are going to have awoken from carbonite and there'll be this time jump that occurs.

Bruce: Right.

Frank: And you have awoken to a world that is war-torn.

Bruce: Right.

Frank: So this fall has all occured when your character wakes up, right?

Bruce: This occurs when you start the storyline of Knights of the Fallen Empire. So you step into the storyline, either with your existing character or with the new level 60 that you can create with the expansion.

Frank: That's really good, so you can just grab your friends and hop right in. So we see a lot of unique little upgrades and details in this, we see some robotic upgrades to one of the twins, we see some interesting lightsabers throughout this. Does this-- Is this giving us a tease of some new gear, of some new lightsaber skins that might be coming out?

Bruce: Absolutely. So the Zakuul Knights are the warriors of this new faction and there's a whole new-- there are multiple new planets, and there's a lot of new gear that comes along with that. We're a BioWare RPG at the heart of our game, and with a BioWare RPG you have all the things that you would expect, new gear which you are asking about, but also new levels--

Frank: Yeah, we have a higher level cap at 65 now coming at us.

Bruce: And a really personally engaging personal storyline where your choices matter.

Frank: So what we are looking at right here, we have this unraveling of the banner of both sides.

Bruce: So these are the banners, so you can see that they have been conquering both the Sith Empire on the left and the Republic on the right. They have been conquering worlds from both of them and these are lightsabers that they have taken from the mightiest of foes in their battles, and they are presenting them to their father, Emperor Valkorion. He has raised them to be these incredible warriors and they have been trying to seek his approval this entire time.

Frank: And this entire time, he will not approve, like he is not impressed.

Bruce: Arcann, through his pain and suffering, he has fallen to the dark side and this rejection is just too much for him to take.

Frank: So we know that they have powers, you know, that they are-- have attuned to the Force, but are they Jedi or are they Sith or are they a whole new thing?

Bruce: They are separate from the Jedi and the Sith. They don't ascribe to either of those direct philosophies.

Frank: So in the game, you have your light side points, you have your dark side points depending on the choices that you make in the game. Does this new kind of grey faction interact with that system at all?

Bruce: So we are very much making sure that every episodic chapter of this new expansion, there's nine, there's nine chapters. Each one is an episodic story with huge twists, betrayal, redemption and hard decisions. So your choices that you make go far beyond light side and dark side points. They determine who will join you and who will die. They are extremely impactful and some of the biggest decisions that we've ever had in our game.

Frank: Ah, that's amazing. And with that, I think that's a great point to leave out on. Everyone with the opportunity should really go give it a chance and see the new effects that choices are going to have. Some real decision changing, some real arcs that affect your character. This sounds a lot of fun. Thank you so much for joining me.

Bruce: It's been a pleasure.

Frank: And for all Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Battlefront, anything you guys need, and for all things E3, keep it locked on IGN.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Previews: E3 2015 – Knights of the Fallen Empire Preview

By William Murphy on June 19, 2015

It’s the year of Star Wars with the new movie, Battlefront, and now SWTOR’s next big expansion: Knights of the Fallen Empire. Announced officially during EA’s E3 press conference, the expansion marks a new major story initiative for BioWare’s MMORPG, and we got to see just what that means in a behind-closed-doors presentation at EA’s press booth.

Knights of the Fallen Empire, as Jean described in this week’s column, takes place years after the events of Shadow of Revan. You’ll find yourself encased in carbonite, when Sith Lord Lana Beniko wakes you up and gives you the brief: both the Republic and the Empire have been decimated by new threat of the Eternal Empire. In short, you’re going to have to put some of your differences aside if you hope to survive. In short, you as the Outlander have to find some way to unite both sides against a common threat.

It’s officially a huge continuation of the main story, with 9 chapters available at launch on October 27th (October 20th for subscribers) and it’s free to all subscribers, but what’s not clear is how non subscribers will access the content. BioWare did say that this isn’t something they want to segregate players with, as the hope is that the expansion’s content and the promise of monthly chapters will entice players to subscribe and spend money in the store.

Now some of you might have been hoping for more class stories, and BioWare knows that’s still something folks want, but let’s face it: doing individual stories for each class would take considerably more time, resources, and money to do correctly. I think we can expect that the class stories are forever going to be the original game’s focus, and that from here on out we’re going to see more game-spanning stories that recreate the feel and scope of the stories we get from the movies and TV shows.

Speaking of that kind of cinematic experience, we got a brief taste of the beginning experience in Knights of the Fallen Empire and the story really is taking center stage. BioWare knows that a lot of their players like SWTOR because it’s a continuation of Knights of the Old Republic as much as it is an MMO. So for Knights of the Fallen Empire they are focusing really hard on upping their cut-scene and story-telling game. Cameras move during story scenes, animations and overall direction are far more diverse than in the other story-focused contents and expansions. Watching the player, now known as The Outlander, escape from the carbonite prison with the help of Lana and Koth was an absolutely riveting experience.

Gameplay wise, BioWare promises lots more info to come on all the new class skills, but the main goal of the new powers is to increase the mobility and action of each class as they want the pace of combat to increase overall with KotFE. Watching the Skytroopers fly around, come in through windows, and make combat more movement heavy gave a good impression that we’ll be doing a lot more moving during fights in the expansion.

There are tons of perks to be a subscriber from now all the way up until the early access launch of October 20th, and the 12X XP rate for the class story quests are still going from now until October 19th. But even after that point, the whole 1-50 game’s leveling process will be re-defined so that the the 1-50 experience will be far more streamlined for all players in the future. You can take a look at all the perks over at the official site.

Now my personal opinion is that SWTOR’s strength has always been its story. It’s an MMORPG that has fun group content, but its best bits have been the more single-player stories. And that seems to be what BioWare has noticed as well. There’s nothing wrong with catering to your niche, and in the year of Star Wars, the best bits of non-movie story may indeed come from BioWare just as they always have. I’m re-subscribed as of today, and I can’t wait to see how this third faction of the Eternal Empire factors in.

What’s New in Star Wars: The Old Republic – Knights of the Fallen Empire?

EA announced a new expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3 this week, and we’ve got an early look with two of the senior developers.

Posted On: June 17, 2015 at 07:48am

Game Preview

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire

PC - Electronic Arts

Victor Lucas: I got Bruce Maclean and Jeff Hickman. They're both from Bioware Austin and they have been working on Knights of the Fallen Empire, the new expansion that's coming for The Old Republic. And you guys have been working on The Old Republic for how long now?

Bruce: Nine years.

Jeff: Well, I've been on it for six. The game's been in production for nine, live for 3-and-a-half.

Victor: Amazing.

Jeff: It's been a heck of a run.

Victor: It is a heck of a run. Does it feel as exciting and fresh as the day you signed up?

Bruce: Absoutely: Absolutely because this is the Year of Star Wars.

Jeff: LucasArts is such a great team to work with. We were working with them like I said for nine years and Disney's involved. It's bigger, it's better than ever and one of the opportunities that we have, any of us, we're working on Star Wars games for entertainment this year. I mean it's, as we said, the Year of Star Wars.

Victor: One things has been a big deal with the Star Wars mythology as Disney has kind of taken over is that they've sort of slid a lot of the canon, you know, and a lot of the Expanded Universe stuff out of the way. And I guess that includes your game, right, this is all stuff that doesn't really fit right within?

Bruce: The great thing about The Old Republic is that it's set thousands of years before the movie so we are kind of in our own BioWare space. And so it's really great, it doesn't affect us because we are not tangled up in the movie timeline at all. This expansion is a return to our roots as well. It is a return to our BioWare storytelling roots. And really focusing on the role-playing game, and the personal stories, and the companions and the choices that matter.

Jeff: We've done so much in the last 3-and-a-half years. If you look at Star Wars: The Old Republic, since we launched 3-and-a-half years, we've had, what, four expansions numbers?

Bruce: Yeah.

Jeff: Four expansions.

Bruce: Two each year for the last two years, yeah.

Jeff: An amazing amount of content that we've launched for free to our players. We took our game free-to-play about a year after it launched and so many things going on. And we've learned from our players in that time, so we look at what they have to say in person on the forums, we look at the way they play the game through our own data, and it's like: There's one thing that's super, super clear to us: The players want more story. They want us to go back to the roots of that solo BioWare deep-customizable, choices that matter, emotional, and that's what we're doing, that's the Fallen Empire.

Victor: So this feels a little bit KotOR-like? A little bit more in that direction?

Jeff: Absolutely.

Bruce: Yeah.

Jeff: That's exactly what's the vision in our heads.

Bruce: Yeah, in fact our game kind of has eight KotORs in it. It has the eight class stories in it it launched with, and those are personal stories and we're taking this opportunity with this expansion to actually go back to our core game and evolve it and really focus on a great story experience where you're not distracted by other things, you can really focus on that storyline.

Victor: So it sounds like it could be a singleplayer experience, then? Is that something important to players that they want to play it that way?

Bruce: Absolutely. Accessibility is important. With this expansion's launch, we're making sure that we're letting everybody getting to the expansion right away by giving them a level 60 character, so that they can immediately join their friends, they can immediately engage in the expansion content, or because we've streamlined and evolved the core game so that going those original eight class stories is much faster, you can also choose to not play your level 60 and choose to play your old characters or level up a new character.

ep daily

E3 2015: SWTOR’S UPCOMING EXPANSION BUILDS ON THE ‘LEGACY OF KOTOR’

June 22, 2015 MJ Guthrie

So what’s with Knights of the Fallen Empire? Inquiring Star Wars: The Old Republic fans want to know! That’s why we sat down with the BioWare devs at E3 to suss out some answers for you. We also got to see some of the expansion in action; Senior Producer Bruce MacLean and Studio Creative Director James Ohlen walked us through a demo of part of chapter three in the new story sequence. Afterward, Lead Designer Michael Backus fielded more our questions.

What is Fallen Empire? It’s more than just the biggest SWTOR expansion to date. MacLean summed it up succinctly by arguing that this expansion is “a return to BioWare’s cinematic storytelling — it is a Star Wars epic where you are the central hero.” He emphasized that this expansion is about going from heroic story moment to heroic story moment and described the game as “cinematic action-packed RPG experiences thick with plot twists, surprises, betrayal, redemption, and hard choices.”

Ohlen chimed in too: “This is more than just an expansion for us. This is really the culmination of making Star Wars: The Old Republic what we always wanted it to be, which is that endless Star Wars BioWare epic story.” The devs stressed it is a change in how they tell story, inspired by Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect.

And more than all that, Knights of the Fallen Empire is only the beginning. This expansion is called season one for a reason; there will be more seasons coming. And that means more story.

Choices matter

Hurry, player #1859237; you are our only hope! A phrase that gets tossed around a lot in MMOland is “making choices matter.” It’s almost a Holy Grail of features that MMORPGs have a hard time achieving, especially since so many others share the same world and make the same choices. Until now in SWTOR, we’ve had plenty of choices within our story lines, but not many have any real impact on the direction or ending of our personal stories or the world’s story. So what about this new expansion changes that?

Even though I experienced only a sliver of the story arc, it demonstrated major character choices that had some immediate consequences and apparently will have long-reaching ones as well with companions and other NPCs. What does a major choice look like? One was whether you save a city — and the countless lives in it — or save only yourself. Another choice in that same arc is whether or not the force-using cop Tanek dies at the hand of your newest companion, Sith Lord Lana Beniko (I was the only one who voted for him to live!). Do you really want to chance ticking Lana off to avoid being hunted down by the cop’s partner later? While I didn’t see the long-term consequences during the walk-through, I did see the immediate ones. Backus noted that big choices will affect gameplay: “Do you go down this path or do you go down that path? Is one path more difficult? What happens?” Other personal decisions, however, will have more indirect consequences, such as NPCs: “NPCs returning to confront you — how will they interact with you? Are they upset with you?”

One of the reasons the game can pull this off a little better is because the focus is different than the base game; fans who think that SWTOR sounds like it is moving away from its MMO beginnings would not be wrong. As MacLean said, this expansion is literally “building on the legacy of Knights of the Old Republic as well giving players that BioWare RPG experience that they’ve been asking for.” There are no class stories, just the epic story with a dash of class flavor tossed in. Ohlen noted that this makes SWTOR the destination for folks who want big, epic stories. He continued, “It’s a very big departure, but at the same time we’re not abandoning the online components — we still have a giant online universe, you just now have the most epic BioWare Star Wars stories.” Backus assures that it is still an MMO; devs know that players still enjoy grouping content, and it will be there.

Because the story is personal to you, playing with even one friend is restrictive. Unlike the base game, where friends could play together and follow different class storylines, Fallen Empire has just the one epic story, so it can only be played out one player at a time. That means friends have to either take turns doing the steps or take turns completing an arc for each other. That’s good in that friends can witness your epic story without affecting it but bad in that it will spoil it for any friend that hasn’t already played through.

Lastly, let’s talk about changes to the world: Will yours affect how others see the world? Will there be a phasing mechanic? Backus answered, “As of right now, no. We have no plans to do that.” So does that mean there will be no physical changes to the world through choices? Backus hesitated and said, “I am going to dodge that one. You need to wait for some more announcements before we start talking about some of that. There’s things that I think resemble some of what you are talking about, but we need to wait.”

SWTOR as canon?

Although SWTOR was confirmed as not strictly canon at the Star Wars Celebration, the game has still attempted to play within the bounds. So we asked Backus how well this new story, with the new planet and original epic story, fits within current or former canon. Backus reminds that “it is and it is not” because SWTOR is set thousands of years before actual canon; he doesn’t believe the new story departs too far away from the sphere of canon. “We have a very good relationship with Lucasfilm,” he explained, “where we submit basically everything we want to do — be it character or stories or whatever — and they give us feedback on it. They keep us honest and they keep us on point.”

Backus also spoke about Lucasfilms’ Keeper of the Holocron, the existence of the small council that maintains the lore of all aspects of the Star Wars Universe, and how BioWare has a high level of communication with this group. “Everything we do is vetted; everything we do is absolutely on the up and up with Star Wars as far as lore and stuff.” An interesting fact that Backus shared is that Director J.J. Abrams watched the KotFE blur trailer because he had carte blanche to decide whether what the BioWare team was doing contradicted the story he was telling in any way. He also added that Lucasfilm could draw on any of what BioWare writes for future Star Wars things.

So why was a new planet created instead of something already existing in the Star Wars universe? Backus told me it was because the unknown threat needed to come from somewhere unknown; to use an existing planet would have been messing with its story and history. Parts of the epic adventure do still happen in known space as the story weaves around the galaxy.

That’s not all, folks!

If you were worried that this is all the information that we gleaned from the devs, you can be assured that it is not! Join us for a second installment of this interview series tomorrow for more about the game, the Eternal Empire, and what you get with Fallen Empire.

Massively Overpowered was on the ground in Los Angeles, California, for E3 2015, bringing you expert MMO coverage from NCsoft, Blizzard, Ubisoft, BioWare, and everything else on display at the expo!

Welcome to Knights of the Fallen Empire, a wrap-up of a behind closed-doors demo I got to see in-person at E3. The gameplay footage to my knowledge hasn't been released just yet but this is everything, and I mean everything, that I remember from the demo. And to note, when I was with the developers, the playthrough mainly chose dark side decisions. Let me guide you through the first hours of choice and story in Knights of the Fallen Empire.

The story begins with you, the Outlander, released from your carbonite prison after many years, with the help of Sith Lord Lana Beniko. You learn in brief moments that your ship was attacked, your crew detained and you imprisoned. The Eternal Empire considers you a threat and liability that they want to keep under control. What you know or have will be unveiled and is a huge plot point that the developers did not even want to disclose just yet.

"Tanek Attack" dialogue choices

In the standard plea of "Help us, you are our only hope" you flee the chambers with Lana and encounter different troopers and soldiers. After fighting through waves, you encounter Tanek and his companion. Both are Zakuul Knights who want to stop you. The dialogue provides three choices. Two are standard responses to initiate battle immediately or to avoid it but the third is a Force persuade that tries to defuse the situation. However your Force persuade doesn't even work as both knights seem to be Force sensitive and stare at you in disbelief, saying something along the lines of "Is this guy kidding?" and then attack you.

At the end of the battle, the other Zakuul Knight retreats to a higher pipe structure, telling Tanek to leave. However, Lana grabs him into a Force choke and it's your decision to either let him go or allow the kill. It's important to note however that not only does she voice her pleasure or distaste in your decision, but also she stopped herself before the kill, as if she's asking for your permission. The developers chose the dark choice to kill this time with the Outlander saying something along the tonality of "Finish it already." With this decision, Tanek's companion will actually hound you in the future. When I asked the developers if the return will merely be a one-time encounter at a later time, the developers said that the repercussions, both positive and negative, will have an effect in how your journey proceeds throughout the main quest. If you let Tanek live, his companion will actually remember this in another encounter. Whether this action compounds other relations with companions or NPCs has yet to be seen.

"Sun Generator" dialogue choices

In any case, let's continue. There's a good back-and-forth between pilot Koth Vortena as he struggles to get his ship ready for your escape while you drive through enemies. As you fight through, you learn the world's sun generator is about to explode. Two visible paths stem from this situation, light and dark. In the light path, you can choose to save the sun generator, which will have gameplay up to about 30 minutes, where you fight to restore the sun. Afterwards, you can escape from the world. On the dark path, you can choose not to save the sun generator, saying along the lines of "There are more pressing matters", such as escaping. Lana Beniko agrees, though Koth is in visible disagreement. The dark path avoids the stabilisation quest of the sun generator and cuts to the escape. Whether you choose to save the sun generator or not will actually have outstanding consequences later on, especially since you can return to this area. And notably, you'll be able to visit the world, the surface and even certain swamp regions of this world as well. Unfortunately, when I asked whether the denizens of the regions will know what you did with the sun generator, there wasn't a clear-cut answer besides "People will know and your impact, or lack thereof, is definitely noticed."

Vaylin: Concept art, screenshot

In the final escape, you're confronted by Vaylin, who tries to stop you and Lana. More notably, Lana is familiarly with who Vaylin is, and also she is actually willing to sacrifice herself to fight Vaylin so she can cover your escape. But certain roleplay dialogues pop up here to say whether you want her to sacrifice herself or not. As the fight looks like it is about to start and more Sky Troopers join in, surprisingly enough, Vaylin puts away her lightsaber, saying she doesn't need it. In the next moment, Koth appears with the ship and shoots at Vaylin, where this screenshot appears. As you jump onto the ship and are pulled in by HK-55, a yellow-orange model of HK-47, your escape is where the demo ends.

When a developer believes in their game, passionately jumping to show off what makes the gameplay changes exemplary and worth to play, it makes me want to believe as well. After what I saw in the demo as well as the genuine care in how the devs represented their game to me, someone extremely close to other BioWare titles but not so much Old Republic, I think Knights of the Fallen Empire is what will steer gamers to playing this MMO, even those who had no interest before. By taking a firm hold of the narrative and reflecting on the end of Shadow of Revan, of current companions and of the new narrative, by thrusting the player into more conflicts and twists in lieu of straggling the same path, Fallen Empire has, I think, the drive to level the playing field of storytelling across all of BioWare's current IPs. And as someone who has recorded on Dragon Age and Mass Effect extensively for the past few years, I am taking the risk in saying Knights of the Fallen Empire, you may want to pay attention.

Knights of the Fallen Empire releases in October free for subscribers, with its multiple chapters releasing at an episodic pace. You can see more in the links below, don't forget to like and subcribe, better yet comment. Is this what you want, whether you are a current player or former player, or simply just curious? Is this the direction you want to see? Let me know in the comments below. More is to come and in full detail from my special time at E3. Take care and I'll see you next time.

E3 2015: YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE IN SWTOR’S FALLEN EMPIRE

June 23, 2015, MJ Guthrie

Star Wars: The Old Republic fans are still hungry for more Knights of the Fallen Empire information, and we can’t blame them. As we noted in yesterday’s part one of our BioWare interview with Lead Designer Michael Backus, Studio Creative Director James Ohlen, and Senior Producer Bruce MacLean, this new expansion will be quite a departure from how the game has developed up to this point. Today, we bring you part two, which focuses on companions, new content, some tidbits on the Eternal Empire, and what goodies players get when they grab the expansion. Oh, and did we mention the regular class stories are getting overhauled as well?

A whole new game

Since new players can be granted an instant level-60 toon to start straight into the expansion, it’s hard not to consider the SWTOR and Fallen Empire two completely different games instead of a game and its expansion. At this point you may wonder what they have in common, and those who have played the base game might question how the two will connect together. For instance, since you get five new companions, what happens to the old ones?

Backus said point blank that answering me would involve spoilers, so he wouldn’t share. However, he did note that while you were frozen in carbonite for five years, your companions still had to live through the passage of time. In your absence, their lives went on — but the choices you made involving them might have something to do with where their lives headed after you disappeared. Companions are, in Backus’ words, “super important.” He said the team focused on making the experience better, giving companions more content, and making your decisions impact your companions as much as their decisions/actions impact you.

From the walk-through, we learned this: Lana Beniko, your Sith Lord companion, tells you that your memories of all your previous companions all dying is probably just stasis-induced dreams, and I know for a fact at least one old droid companion was there to help you out of a tight spot. But what happens to the rest is something for players to find out. Backus did say this, however:

“We’re doing a lot of cool stuff with companions. Some of it I can’t tell you about, but the gameplay in this system reflects the fiction and vice versa. We built both together. We said, ‘What if there were an opportunity to interact with this companion in this way?’ I can’t give you too many specifics, but the answer is it is very possible that classes and the companions start to cross-pollinate.”

Backus also said which companions you end up with will be reflected in the choices you make! He explained, “With the fall of both the Republic and the Empire, effectively you are that chosen one. They feel you can help rebuild, and part of that rebuilding is you going out and finding your companions. And who those companions are is kind of part of the player choice.” We know that Lana can be one, and we also met a new HK55 droid that’s programmed to protect meatbags at all costs. But it sounds as if all players will not have the same options depending on those choices they have made and will still make.

New worlds to explore are also a part of the expansion. One such world is Zakuul. Although it appears to be an ecumenoplis like Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa, it is not; Backus notes that while the city itself is very vast, the world also has outlying swamps and other terrain. Although we don’t know to what degree Zakuul is explorable, McLean noted that players will be fighting through the scaffolding in city heights as well as visiting the surface and the underbelly of the world.

What about the new abilities for the five new levels? MacLean stated that specific information will be released in the upcoming months but that “the general philosophy is on increased mobility and action-packed combat.” As for more information on PvP and flashpoints, Backus deferred those questions until later, saying the studio wants to reveal that information at a later time. However, fans should be assured that devs will be announcing more and more content and features as the October 27th release draws closer. “We understand that our players still love [flashpoints, Galactic Civil War, etc] and we plan on addressing those things as we progress,” said Backus.

It isn’t just the expansion that’s bringing something different to the table. As MacLean put it, “We’re also going back to the original game and we’re evolving the eight base class stories so that leveling up takes a fraction of the time it once did, with an epic story guiding you the whole way. It is a Knights of the Old Republic-inspired BioWare RPG experience in each of those eight class stories without the ‘go kill eight womp rats’ side quests.”

The Eternal Empire

Backus delved a bit into the story about major players who were seen in the trailer as well as those in the walk-through. The Emperor of the Eternal Empire is Valkorian, who has twin sons — Thexan and Arkan — and a lightning-flinging daughter, Vaylin. Backus noted that there are a lot of politics going on with this family, but he wouldn’t share details saying that the background is part of the chapters of the epic story. He did, however, note that “some of the lore and some of the fiction that we are establishing actually starts with Shadow of Revan.” As he put it, “I guarantee that once you play through especially the first nine chapters if not the first 16 chapters of Fallen Empire, if you go back through Revan and play through Revan, you can start to see hints of what’s coming.”

What happened to the Empire and the Republic? That, too, is in the story, but suffice it to say that they were conquered and now folks from both those sides are working together to get you — the hero — to the point where you can save them all from the Eternal Empire. No, really: You are the chosen one. Literally. As Backus said, “You’re special, and you’re special for a reason!” You need to restore your power and be the figurehead to fight the Eternal Empire. The whole story revolves around you.

Getting the goods

So how will players get this new expansion/standalone game? Those who are subscribed when the first nine chapters are released in October will get all those chapters unlocked on their account, and they will remain unlocked even if a player unsubs after that point. Those who haven’t yet bought Shadows of Revan or Rise of the Hutt Cartel and can hold off might want to as Knights of the Fallen Empire will include all previous expansions. Those who are subscribed in the months leading up to the release (starting in July) will earn special in-game items as well, the first being the smuggler Niko as a companion. Other perks will be available for each month until the expansion releases. Players who are subscribed between July 31st and October 19th will also have access to Fallen Empire on October 20th, a week earlier than it will be available otherwise.

Those who feel they are aren’t ready for Fallen Empire right now can wait before subscribing to unlock it without missing out on any chapters. Whenever players subscribe, they will get all chapters of the story up to date to that point. That means if 25 chapters have been released, one month of subscription will net a player all 25 chapters.

Instead of doing two expansions a year, devs confirmed that SWTOR will have just one really big one, though it won’t all be released at the same time; the seasons of episodic story chapters that start with Fallen Empire will continue. Free-to-play and preferred players will not see any content unless they have subscribed sometime during the release of the chapters, at which point they will have access to everything up to that date of subscription.

Don’t forget to check out part one of our E3 interview with BioWare!

Massively Overpowered was on the ground in Los Angeles, California, for E3 2015, bringing you expert MMO coverage from NCsoft, Blizzard, Ubisoft, BioWare, and everything else on display at the expo!

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC / 23 JUN 2015

E3 2015: 11 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC’S KNIGHTS OF THE FALLEN EMPIRE EXPANSION

A return to form.

BY BRIAN ALBERT AND MITCH DYER. BioWare turned heads at E3 with yet another gorgeous trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Its new expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, introduced us to a pair of force-sensitive brothers, one dressed in black, the other in white, who lead a powerful new faction in galactic battles.

After watching the trailer on repeat a few times, we chatted with BioWare about how this new expansion will play, how much it costs, and whether we can play it with friends. These are the 11 things you need to know before jumping back into BioWare's Star Wars MMO.

1. Knights of the Fallen Empire is only for subscribers.

You must be a subscriber to Star Wars: The Old Republic to access the new expansion. If you subscribe early, you’ll gain early access to Knights of the Fallen Empire as well as in-game bonuses, including a new companion and vehicle. BioWare isn’t making this expansion accessible any other way -- not even as a standalone product. There’s a good reason for that...

2. It's free for subscribers.

BioWare is giving every subscriber access to the next expansion -- as well as every other one. Shadow of Revan, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, and the rest of SWTOR’s expansion packs come with Knights of the Fallen Empire. So, newcomers could join in on launch day, subscribe, and get access to everything.

3. You must be level 60 to play the expansion.

If you’re coming into Knights of the Fallen Empire from SWTOR and its previous expansions, you’ll need to be level 60 for your Agent, Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, or other class character to continue in the new story. The recently added level acceleration should help you get on your way before Knights of the Fallen Empire hits in October.

4. You can start out at level 60.

If you want to start fresh, whether you’re a SWTOR expert or a total newcomer, you can begin the Knights of the Fallen Empire story as a new character who begins at level 60. “The Outlander” is the star of this story, and you can jump right into the new hero's/villain’s boots if you don’t want to play through almost four years’ worth of Old Republic missions.

5. Newcomers shouldn't feel overwhelmed with a level 60 character.

BioWare’s tutorial for Knights of the Fallen Empire doles out abilities in pieces. Since this is a centric game, you’ll have time to soak in the cinematics and learn your way around your hero before continuing into the world. The developer aims for everyone to be able to jump in without fear of overwhelming MMO complexities.

6. The level cap has been raised to 65.

That pretty much says it all -- BioWare is adding five more levels to SWTOR, giving you room to level up any of your class story characters even more, in addition to the new Outlander.

7. Knights of the Fallen Empire is a single-player story.

While BioWare’s MMO certainly retains multiplayer elements, this is, first and foremost, a story about you. The Outlander’s tale is specific, and told in a different way than previous SWTOR stories. The main goal, BioWare told IGN, is to “achieve the dream people had with SWTOR in the beginning.” Basically, the team wants this to feel as close to the original Knights of the Old Republic as possible.

8. Knights of the Fallen Empire is episodic.

When Knights of Fallen Empire hits this October, you'll be able to play the first nine episodic chapters of the story. If you unsubscribe after October 27 this year, you'll keep the first nine chapters, but will not receive any additional chapters when they are released.

9. You won't have to wait very long between episodes.

The remaining chapters will be released monthly starting in early 2016. BioWare is taking a short break around the holidays -- don't worry, we'll all be too busy seeing The Force Awakens -- and will keep a regular release cadence in the new year.

10. Multiplayer is changing.

BioWare wasn't ready to share details about how MP will work in Knights of the Fallen Empire, but we do know it won't use the system we see in the game now -- two players sharing dialogue choices in cut scenes. BioWare told IGN, "We're not abandoning the MMO aspect. We'll be talking about that later on. There's a whole system that is introduced through nine episodes that hooks into all the MP aspect of the game."

11. Your new Level 60 character can't play old story missions.

If you create a shiny new level 60 character for Knights of the Fallen Empire, you won't be able to take that character back to the regular Old Republic game and play the class story. "The assumption is that you've already done it," BioWare told IGN. "You are a veteran. The reason is with all the romances and decisions you have to make, it would be too much to set all those variables for you."

Brian and Mitch are Editors at IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @albinoalbert and @MitchyD.

Joseph Bradford (@lotrlore) and an unknown journalist, with

Michael Backus and Ben Scott

Download link: http://www.starwarsbeyond.com/beyond/bts_episode39.mp3

Joe: Okay, so you mentioned that anyone can basically start at level 60. What does that entail? When you start at level 60, do you get gear towards that? Do you get, now obviously, skill points to use for you class?

Michael: You basically get everything and are ready to jump in. Not only do we give you equivalent gear but yeah, you do have some abilities. Actually, Ben [scott] being lead level designer is instrumental in. His team is designing episode one as a bit of a tutorial. Obviously, it is a huge barrier to come in as level 60, never having played the game. Or even if you took a break and stopped at level 35. So all of episode one has a bit of that built-in, pace the abilities out to you so you are ready, "Oh yeah, I get this" You can figure out what to do, figure out your roll, figure out your rotation, what your different abilities do. And by the end of that, we expect you to be up and running.

Ben: Yeah, that first chapter is a tutorial but it's still action packed.

Michael: The story, yeah.

Ben: So while you are playing the story you are engaged, you are getting a set of abilities as you progress, and you will be learning more about what your character can do, but it's still extremely story-focused.

Michael: Yeah.

Joe: Is there a cost or limit associated with that, or--

Michael: So, as far as level 60 characters?

Joe: Yeah.

Michael: So we are going to give everyone who subscribes for KotFE one free character. We are also going to give you an additional character slot so players who are long time fans don't have to delete characters or anything like that. They can come in and just create one. After that, we are going to allow you to purchase more additional level 60 characters.

French reporter: And can older players can they ticket to create instantly a level 60 character?

Michael: Yes.

Ben: So everyone who subs--

French reporter: The Cartel Market?

Ben: with this--

Michael: Exactly. Go ahead.

Ben: So everyone who subs will get a free one. Like one. When you start the game, as soon as you setup, you'll have one unlocked. And then there will be the option, if you want, to roll another one beyond that. There'll be an option to purchase that.

Michael: And it will be done through the Cartel Market, which is our in-game store.

French reporter: Okay.

Joe: But what if you're not a sub, what if you just buy the expansion?

Michael: Okay, so it is completely free to subscribers and the only way to get it is by subscribing.

French reporter: Okay, so there's no option to pay?

Michael: Exactly.

Ben: Free-to-play players don't have access to this but what free-to-play players will have access to is the core game revamp. So we're going to, like Michael said earlier, we've not just taken the XP curve and redone it but we've redone the itemisation, the quest rewards. Basically--

Michael: Crafting.

Ben: Crafting. Basically, we've redone almost the entire core game to focus on the story and on those specific class quests. And all that stuff will be for free-to-play.

Joe: So in order to access this--

Ben: You have to sub.

Michael: Exactly.

French reporter: Do those revamp will have an impact on the previous expansion?

Michael: Oh yeah, it's all been integrated into one thing. So as well as not only getting KotFE on becoming a subscriber, you are going to get all of the content we have released up until this point. So Shadow of Revan, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, Galactic Starfighter, all of our expansions, you'll get all of it. So yeah, that leveling curve extends all the way up to level 60.

Ben: Exactly.

Joe: Sorry, I have questions that are not done.

Michael: No. No, go for it. I think you guys have a lot--

Joe: Trying to find something that you guys haven't answered already.

Michael: Sure. Well since you are recording now, I will go over some of the highlights we touched on just earlier.

Joe: Okay.

Michael: October 27th is the day we are going to release. With the release, you are going to get nine chapters of Season One. We are going into a little bit of a break and allow employees to go on holiday. Then, you are getting a monthly cadence of an additional chapter. Season One is 16 chapters in total. Those of you, those players who subscribe early, also, there's additional rewards. So not only will early subscribers be able to login a week earlier on October 20th. If you subscribe as early as the end of July, July 31th, you'll get a new companion, Nico Okarr, which if you are familiar with our Blur cinematics, he's that smuggler guy kind of with the cowboy-looking head in the Republic one. He'll be one of your companions that you can adventure with. And again, we can't show how much, how excited we are about this next huge step as far as BioWare story-telling. Like, you guys saw, just in what you guys saw, it's very cinematic.

Joe: I was having flashbacks to when I played the KotOR games.

Ben: That's really what we are drawing on as designers and as writers and everybody in the studio. That's what-- We're like, "If we can make an expansion, you know, in the Year of Star Wars, what would it be like?" And everyone is like, "You want to basically get it as close to KotOR or Mass Effect, make it really feel like a true BioWare game." So that's why it's so personal story just driven to those cinematic moments. And, like I think I am probably the one person in the studio who has seen the most of it, and I can assure you that if you think that this is exciting, you won't believe some of the other chapters. Like it's--

Michael: Every chapter is that. It's, it's choice, it's redemption, it's betrayal, it's the introduction, plot twists.

Ben: Yeah.

Michael: It's very, very cool

Ben: It's very cool.

French reporter: Can you tell me more about the pure MMO mechanisms in this expansion?

Michael: Uh, yeah. We're definitely not ignoring it. Just for E3 is the focus on story. So you can come in and enjoy all of the story. All the MMO stuff is still there. The PvP and the warzones, the flashpoints, we haven't gotten rid of any of that stuff. We're going to announce more of that as we get closer to our release in October. We are right now just focusing on what we think is one of the best and coolest parts of it all, which is the story.

Joe: So picking back up on Nico Okarr. Is--

Michael: Yeah.

Joe: Is he going to essentially function like a traditional companion, romanceable and stuff like that?

Michael: So as far as story-wise, we are going to announce more of that, and there's some cool news coming up soon that touches exactly on that comment. But how do you interact with your companions, what is their role. So we have news coming about that that you'll have to wait for.

Joe: Okay, that's fine.

Michael: But personally, it's one of my favorite things about the entire expansion, so stay tuned for that.

Joe: That's good to hear. Okay, so that one. You said that the new chapters, you are going to start off with nine chapters right off the bat, and you are getting one each month until you hit 16 at the end of the holiday break.

Michael: Right.

Ben: There'll be a break after that, and then Season Two.

Joe: Can you elaborate on the Empire of Zakuul, I believe it is called.

Michael: oh, so. Let's see, how much of the lore can I tell you? Uhm, so mixing what you know from the Blur trailer plus what we showed you, Emperor Valkorion is the father figure Emperor that you saw. His son, the one who kills his brother, is Prince Arcann. The female Jedi that you saw towards the end-- the female Force user you saw toward the end of the demo, is Vaylin. She's the daughter of the emperor as well. And I don't want to give too much away because there's plot twists and reveals that I don't want to spoil. But basically, this threat comes out of nowhere, deep in Wild Space, and attacks both the Republic and the Sith Empire.

Joe: So would you say this is like the Star Wars version of the huns invading Europe?

Michael: You know what? I think the motivations and the background to it all, in my opinion are very, very, very cool. And it all ties into things that we've already established and been hinting at. But it's not unlike that. But yeah.

Joe: Just coming out of nowhere, from totally different events.

Michael: And when you get some of the reveals, yeah. It's very cool, it's very cool.

Ben: Like, you know, you jump in, this is chapter 3. And chapter 1 and 2 deal primarily with that. Like, I don't want to get too far into it, but it will all be explained in a sense.

Michael: Exactly. So it feels like it's out of nowhere but then you start to see pieces of what's going on.

French reporter: And can we expect new technologies, new weapons?

Michael: As far as actual tech for the game or in-game abilities and things like that? So, in-game obviously, with the level cap, new items, all of that good stuff, raising the cap for crafting, all of those things will happen. Even with the core world kind of transformation that we did, we are reitemizing all of the quests, so you're getting cool new rewards as you go. Recently, we've just released the Yavin 4 stronghold as well, so new decorations obviously for all of your different strongholds. All of those things will happen. Now to answer your question more from coming from the development side. What you see here is kind of a reflection of where we have been focusing a lot of our technology. Like if you remember this from The Old Republic, we now have moving cameras, we have better mocap (motion-capture), we have better animations, more VFX (visual effects). So we have really pushed a lot of what we can do, especially just from a storytelling standpoint. Even game mechanics, they make quests more interesting, things like that. Things we haven't talked about yet that we will in the future, to enhance that storytelling experience.

Joe: Now to pick it back at the tech question though, have you guys made a decision whether or not this will be DirectX 12, have any features that utilise that in the future or?

Michael: Uh, we really haven't even delved into it that I know. We're both designers, so I'm sure our Technical Directors probably have those discussions. I don't have an answer for you but it's probably better for an engineer to answer that.

Joe: I'm sure that's incredible hard.

Ben: We are always discussing optimisations and engine improvements, stuff like that. It's always a topic that comes up and whereever we can, we absolutely want to improve the engine, make it perform better, make it run better. But we don't have anything specifically to any engine improvements.

Michael: And after the last few patches actually we have seen tremendous performance improvements. We're always looking for ways to do those things.

Joe: Cool. Yeah, I think everything else has been answered that I had.

French reporter: Me too.

Michael: I think we touched on everything else that we need to touch on. So yeah, if you guys have no other questions, we really appreciate your time.

Joe: Awesome, well thank you so much, guys.

Michael: Of course, of course, our pleasure.

Empire and Republic have been *all but destroyed*