We are excited about sharing new work-in-progress art, special screenshots, animations, and other insights from the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ team. In this Studio Insider, World Designer Eric Young walks us through the process of building the city world of Coruscant. Also, we have picked some questions to answer in the Community Q&A section!

Be sure to check December’s Fan Friday to see the great fan creations we’re highlighting this month!

Designing Coruscant

They call me Eric Young. I’ve been a World Designer at BioWare for almost four years now; my job is to design the layout of planets, place buildings and mold terrain into mountains, valleys and roads. I work from the writers’ storylines to make sure the environment makes sense, and plan out roads and landmarks so that players can figure out where they are and where they need to go. It is a job that gives me the opportunity to interact with lots of talented people across multiple departments, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In my time working on The Old Republic I’ve had my hand in designing and building a number of planets, from the majestic peaks of Tython to the vile swamps of Hutta. However, one planet stands out from the rest as the most challenging and the most rewarding: the Republic capital of Coruscant. The political center of the galaxy and home to a trillion beings from a million worlds, Coruscant is an ecumenopolis or planet covered entirely in a single massive city, with towers that stretch miles into the sky. This blog aims to offer some insight into how we created Coruscant in The Old Republic.

The project started with research. We looked at how Coruscant was constructed in the movies, cartoons, comics, and games. Our concept team provided amazing work that gave us a vision of where the planet could go. We studied how large cities had been built in other online games, but we could find nothing so ambitious that had even been attempted, let alone successfully executed. We would be starting largely from scratch, there were numerous technical and artistic concerns to account for, and the schedule did not allow for wasted time. It was without a doubt a daunting task, but being both a lifelong Star Wars™ fan and an intrepid explorer of online worlds I was determined to capture the grand size and scale of the city that the movies portrayed.

Our initial designs for Coruscant were relatively conservative, and ultimately unsatisfying. We quickly decided that we did not want to settle for a mere facade that only hinted at a metropolis in the background, we wanted to offer players a seamless and immersive experience, so that players could take a transport from the shining towers of the senate district down into the canyons of the market and criminal sectors, and finally beneath the layers of metal and glass into the rusted industrial structures deep below.

The design became more and more ambitious, with art assets grander in scale than anything we had attempted before. Skyscrapers that reached kilometers into the sky, immense metal panels that would cover entire zones from other games, and endless canyons of steel vanishing into the distance. Walkways connected to entrances along the outside of these buildings, leading to a city within a city; each large structure containing a maze of streets and building fronts, with automated factories, abandoned research facilities and criminal headquarters to be explored.

Once we were satisfied with the design we handed it off to the other teams. The Environment Art team took our ambitious design and transformed it from humble grey cubes into a sprawling city of darkness and light, and every passing day makes the planet more impressive. The scripting team forged the writers’ stories into fully functional quests that let you interact with the city’s people and places, while the spawning team brought the city to life with politicians, droids, and a plethora of nefarious foes.

Once everyone has done their part it is ready to be seen and tested. And then we get feedback, and go back and iterate again and again until it approaches perfection.

I still have some time left, so I will leave you with a narrated tour. Someday you will be able to experience Coruscant for yourself, until then I hope I’ve given you something to look forward to. Perhaps our paths will cross again, in the City of Spires.

When you land at the spaceport on Coruscant you are greeted with a view of the Senate Tower, lavish gardens flanking its historic entrance. In all directions shimmering glass towers stretch out to the horizon; only the wealthy and powerful can afford to live on the surface, and see the sun and stars. Walkways connect the spaceport to the Senate Tower, decorated with statues and monuments commemorating the Republic’s heroes. In between the two massive structures sits the district’s transport hub, active at all hours with the thriving traffic of politics and commerce.

Boarding a transport takes you from the Senate District down to the dangerous Black Sun Territory, quickly descending away from the light and into the narrow canyons between the city’s megablocks. The flat metal surfaces stretch for kilometers in both directions, dotted with countless windows and landing platforms. Far above you can still see a sliver of sky, but as the transport continues descending it soon passes beneath the foundations of the city’s surface level. Now metal surrounds on all sides, creating an endless artificial night in which untold billions spend their entire lives. Traffic becomes erratic and dangerous; few security patrols venture this far into criminal territory. Unregistered freighters and illegally modified aircars fly freely in these lawless depths.

The transport lands on the outskirts of the Black Sun territory; from here the journey must be made on foot. A small and besieged squad of Republic security officers is doing all they can to hold the landing platform, and would be grateful for any help that might be offered.

Across the crowded platforms of the docks is a building the Black Sun gang has claimed as its own. The narrow walkways hang in a void; emptiness stretches for hundred of meters above and below, offering a long journey into darkness for anyone unfortunate enough to fall from the edge.

At the other side of the docks there is an entrance that leads into the heart of the Black Sun-controlled structure. The interior of the building is dimly lit, the narrow streets are strewn with debris while decrepit apartment blocks loom in on all sides. Rows of walkways climb into the darkness above, a testament to the countless beings living in these conditions. Here, the Black Sun gang rules without question, taking what they want while frightened citizens cower in doorways, hoping to be overlooked. The comparison is stark between the lives of these poverty stricken wretches and the extravagant elite living far above.

From the brightest lights to the darkest depths; such is the glory and tragedy of Coruscant.

Community Q & A

The Old Republic community has a lot of questions and we want to answer as many as we can! Each month we are going to start a new thread on the forums focused on gathering questions from the community. Please post your questions in the Community Q & A Thread #2. We’ll be reviewing them as they come in, and answer some in our next Studio Insider.

We ask that you please keep your questions courteous and professional, and avoid duplicating questions that have already been asked in the current thread. Keep in mind, as well, there are some questions that we’re not able to answer right now, so not all of the questions will be answered.

This month Dallas Dickinson, Director of Production for BioWare Austin, takes on your questions. Please note that some of the questions have been edited for clarity. Enjoy!

1. Will a player be able to level up just playing PvP? (asked by metaspy)
   Yes you will. We’re big fans of multiple gameplay paths – we don’t want to force you to do one thing to advance. That means you’ll level up whether you’re playing PvE or PvP.
    
2. Will there be subtitles in the dialogues? (asked by DarthDrakes)
   While by default we don’t show subtitles for dialogue scenes, you are able to toggle subtitles on and off as an option. And of course, we will show subtitles for NPCs who speak an alien language. We don't expect our players to run out and learn conversational Shyriiwook just to play the game.
    
3. Are testers still being picked? (asked by screally)
   Absolutely! The selection of testers is an ongoing process, and will continue as long as we need testers.
    
4. Will there be different server types, as in PvE servers and PvP servers? (asked by Fruskov)
   There will be several different types of server, including PvP servers and PvE servers.
    
5. Will we have a lot of customization options for making our characters? (asked by Galivos)
   Because you will see your character's face so frequently during conversations in the game, it's absolutely critical that you can look awesome and unique. We have plenty of face/head/body customization options just in character creation, not to mention all of the amazing-looking equipment and gear you will find in the world.
    
6. What is The Old Republic focused on the entire journey from the first level to last level - being a complete experience, or is it a rush to the end level to do all the 'good' stuff? (asked by Destrucshot)
   The Old Republic is an end-to-end high-quality BioWare RPG experience. We don't want players to feel a lull, to feel a grind, or to think "gosh, if only I could get to max level where the real fun begins." We want to support all types of gameplay, but these are two good (and often cited) examples to elaborate on. Some players only care about the ‘end game’; for them, we are making sure to have Raids, Warzones, repeatable Flashpoints and all of the endgame features one expects from an MMORPG. Along the way, though, we want even the power-gamer to really enjoy the end-to-end journey and story. We also know that some players will want to experience every class story, and a core element of the game’s design is focused on making sure that the end-to-end experience for every class is amazing.
    
7. Will the battlegrounds be story driven to the same extent as questing and character progression in PvE will be? (asked by Svarteryttaren)
   Not quite as much. We want Warzones both to make sense and to be repeatable, which means that they can't be as deep as the class and world missions in the PvE game. That said, they each tell their own exciting Star Wars story. We want them to feel like movie moments, like the best battle sequences of the movies - and to do that, you have to have compelling story.
    
8. What if I don’t want to kill the Captain, but my groupmate decides to kill him? Do I have to suffer the consequences of his choice? (asked by monorico)
   As our own Daniel Erickson told the folks at PAX in Seattle earlier this year, Light Side and Dark Side are about intention. If you really *wanted* (and chose) to save the Captain, and the Sith Warrior in your party cut his throat, the universe knows what you wanted to do. You'll still get your Light Side points. Bottom line is that we don't want other players to grief your progression or the fantasy of who your character is.
    
9. I’m a massive roleplayer and my tiny question is: Will there be beautiful areas where I can sit and watch the world go by, like watching the birds and listening to the in-game music? (asked by Raimun)
   There already are. All of our planets have iconic musical themes as well as beautiful environmental art and effects, and even if a dirty cantina on Hutta isn't beautiful, it sure feels like Star Wars to sit in one, listening to music and watching a creepy Rodian hit on a Twi'lek dancer.
    
10. Are we going to hear about the direction of endgame before launch? (asked by Crazy_Person)
    Definitely - I can give you the high-level direction already, but the details will have to wait a little longer. For those who want to continue to play their main character, we’ll have Raids, Warzones and other PvP choices, as well as heroic Flashpoints. For those who enjoyed the journey to maximum level, we have one of the most compelling class replayability in the history of MMORPGs.

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