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CharlesBoyd

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  1. Hello there! As we close in on our tenth anniversary celebration for SWTOR, we thought it'd be fun to provide a quick catch-up overview of the epic journey your characters have taken thus far. You can check out the video narrated by yours truly (and a text transcript) right here! May the Force be with you!
  2. Hey everyone! As you’re all starting to dive into the next part of our storyline with Secrets of the Enclave, I thought I’d provide an update around the in-game timeline of events. In my last post on the topic, I included a few caveats and clarifying points about time in Star Wars and SWTOR, the main one being that the specific timing of events is almost never described with any degree of detail. This is purposeful, and I’m still not looking to change that aspect of our storytelling (unless it directly serves a plot to do so at some point). However, I also said that our general guideline for the SWTOR timeline is that events taking place in updates released in the same year IRL are generally meant to take place in the same year in-universe; in this case, we’re not following that guideline, so that’s why I wanted to post about it. When I last posted on the subject, I wrote that the events depicted in Update 6.2 (Echoes of Oblivion and Spirit of Vengeance) would be set a couple of weeks after Task at Hand, in the early part of 27 ATC/3626 BBY. It’s clear that the events of Secrets of the Enclave are meant to follow Echoes of Oblivion pretty closely, too, so I’m confirming that is the case: Secrets of the Enclave takes place in early 27 ATC/3626 BBY as well. In my head, it’s another two weeks or so, but I don't recall the dialogue mentioning it so it should be open to interpretation Most likely, all of our story updates this calendar year will fall within that same in-game year, but we’ll post an update later to confirm either way. Enjoy your return to Dantooine!
  3. Some more quick answers here, but it looks like folks are generally feeling good with what we’ve put together – we’ll stick with this going forward and look for opportunities to present it more “formally” sometime down the road. Huge thanks to all of you for joining in the discussion! I don’t like to give any “canon” age for the player characters; that should be left up to the player themselves as much as possible IMO Oof… I’m actually not sure what everyone’s intent was when we put that together. There were numerous authors on the encyclopedia, and all class writers were consulted, but I forget if we made this specific distinction when presenting the information. Giving it a quick look, I’m going to say that the companion ages in the encyclopedia are probably intended as their ages when they’re recruited, not at 13 ATC. For example, I don’t think Kira is intended to be younger than Nadia, but Nadia is listed in the encyclopedia as 22 while Kira is listed as 20. Since Drew said pretty explicitly that he intended it for 13 ATC, I’d prefer not to override that if there isn't some glaring conflict to resolve (it doesn't seem like it currently). I can’t recall – do any characters in Annihilation mention Malgus’s uprising? I’ve seen people here and elsewhere saying that it feels wrong in both directions – some, like you, feel it’s too fast; others feel like it couldn’t possibly take that long based on how the chapters themselves feel. I suspect the timing here will never please everyone, but in your specific case I would personally look to the fact that the Alliance is made up of staggeringly powerful and skilled people who (until it was formed) were unable to combine their efforts. Once they could, it doesn’t seem like such a stretch to me that things took a turn within a year, IMO. Again, for simplicity’s sake, I use the IRL year rollover (December->January) to mark the in-game year rollover. I admit this is arbitrary, but IMO it’s just one more area where the vagueness of time in Star Wars doesn’t actually hold up to scrutiny because it was never meant to. What month was the Treaty of Coruscant signed? Was it coincidentally the same exact month as the Battle of Yavin, thousands of years later? Wouldn’t there be times where Event A could be in 13 ATC, and Event B is in 14 ATC, but they’re both in 3640 BBY? Or vice versa? That way lies madness, so let’s just all pretend Malgus was crashing the Jedi’s new year’s party in Deceived and not dig any deeper into this hole I think that would totally make sense, but I’d personally prefer not to introduce even more complexity into all of this. Furthermore, a new calendar system would constitute new lore, and therefore be something to discuss with our LFL partners; it’s not something I could simply declare in a forum post. So I wholeheartedly support roleplayers using that idea, but I can’t make it an official “thing” at this time And as long as I'm here, there were a few questions that aren’t really on the topic of the thread, but I’ll indulge real quick I was under the impression that HK-51 was only in deleted content for KOTOR II? As for HK-55, our intent was that he’s his own new and improved model created by the Empire, but only produced in very limited quantities (which is why we haven’t run into any others yet). I chose her precisely because she was unmemorable in her first appearance. I wanted a character that players were likely to have fought, but unlikely to remember, so that they could experience that feeling of having a huge impact on a character’s life without ever having considered it at the time. I’d hesitate to get into too much “official” detail on stuff like that, since leaving it open a bit leaves room for a cool short story or something in the future. But what you go on to suggest is more or less what’s in my head at the moment – they were focused on their own thing in obscure corners of the galaxy, and not all that connected to galactic events. But consider that unofficial for now.
  4. Love the discussion so far! Some quick responses: That’s how I’m parsing it, yep! Though I’d want to emphasize that I see that as a general timeline for all of the class stories collectively, and not as a written-in-stone interpretation of each and every one specifically. What I mean by that is some chapters of some class stories definitely wouldn’t have taken exactly 1 year; some perhaps a bit more, others significantly less. Since I didn’t write them all, I’m loathe to go back and assign more specific timing to them unless something comes up that requires that specificity. But if we look at them as a collective group of stories, it seems reasonable to say that they all generally start and end around the same time. Right – she says the last time she fought anyone directly was a decade ago, which isn’t the same thing as saying the last time she fought the player was exactly ten years ago Ben’s on a roll! That’s how it’s intended. Kira and Scourge didn’t immediately go to Odessen; and even when they did, they spent some time observing the player character (seen in Hearts and Minds) before making contact in Onslaught. My copy of Annihilation is stuck in the office, so I don’t have it handy to refer to. But if there is a conflict between that and the encyclopedia with regard to dates, I’d go with the encyclopedia’s version, because: They were published very close together, so if there are any conflicts, they were likely just a result of miscommunication or simple typos, not an intentional clarification/revision. The encyclopedia was written specifically to serve as a reference for details like this; Annihilation is written to be an awesome story first and foremost (seriously, read it if you haven’t, it’s great!) with dates serving as extra detail. Drew Karpyshyn is way too nice and talented and successful, and clearly needs to be taken down a peg or two if the opportunity presents itself Drew’s tweet about Annihilation following the class stories in 3640 BBY fits with the encyclopedia putting Ilum in that year, so that already lines up. As one last point of extra clarification with regard to the in-game releases roughly following IRL time – I really do mean roughly. So everything released in the same IRL year is generally meant to have happened in the same in-game year, almost always in the order they were released. But just because one patch was released in April and another was in July, doesn’t mean that the events they depict are exactly 3 months apart. There is plenty of room for interpretation based on what's actually happening in each story The highest possible praise Thanks! Really enjoying the conversations, please keep your thoughts coming!
  5. Hey folks! Apologies for not getting in here sooner. Before we delve into the topic, I think it's important to reiterate what some of y'all have already pointed out - Star Wars is rarely if ever specific about the passage of time. In many cases, stories don't even mention it, and even if they do, it's generally very vague. As a result, it's pretty common for timelines to be assigned retroactively in later reference material, rather than the stories themselves. All that being said, the passion that roleplayers, fan artists, and writers bring to SWTOR is one of the coolest things about this project, and timelines are super helpful in weaving your own works through the greater narrative. So, while we'll never get super specific on time, we can certainly work out the current in-game year, and at least put things in a relative order and proximity to each other time-wise. But before we do that! Two up-front caveats: Remembering dates never went well for me in history class. Plus, working on the game so long, I have every different version of everything we ever considered somewhere in my head, so I'm very much capable of error Everywhere I look online, I see "the Battle of Ilum/end of class story chapter 3s from launch" listed as being 12 ATC/3641 BBY. This appears to me to conflict with the official SWTOR Encyclopedia, which places the resumption of war (and thus, the beginning of class chapter 3s) in 13 ATC/ 3640 BBY. I'm going to go with the Encyclopedia date below, but feel free to let me know if there is another source somewhere in-game or elsewhere that specifies the 12 ATC date for Ilum and causes this apparent conflict. With the above in mind, I would say Onslaught takes place near the end of 26 ATC/3627 BBY. Here's how I get to that number: Class stories begin in 10 ATC. Given the Ilum date from the encyclopedia combined with the generally acknowledged "class stories collectively occur over the course of about 3 years", I'm going to say that SWTOR begins near the end of 10 ATC, and that the battle of Ilum occurs near the end of 13 ATC. I like to have the in-game years roughly match IRL years, as it makes keeping track much simpler, and is generally (though not always) in keeping with the intent of the content flow as written. So if Ilum is near the end of 13 ATC, that lines up nicely with the launch of SWTOR being near the end of 2011 IRL. Following these premises, we get the general flow of events and years I've outlined below. Note that I consider this a rough draft for a more official release for the future, so stuff might change or get a bit more detail later. But for now, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts so far and in giving everyone something tentative to work from until that more “official” piece can be hashed out and the correct venue for it identified (In-game somehow? On our website? Picture of me looking crazy in front of a crazy dry-erase board drawing of it all?) In any event, I think a visual representation will certainly be preferable down the road Here we go! Battle of Ilum/Conclusion of Class Storylines occurs by the end of 13 ATC/3640 BBY. Black Hole, Terror from Beyond, Section X, and everything else released in 2012 IRL occurs in 14 ATC/3639 BBY Rise of the Hutt Cartel occurs in early/mid 15 ATC/3638 BBY, and Oricon in the latter half of that year. (2013 IRL) Tython/Korriban invasion in early/mid 16 ATC/3637 BBY, and Shadow of Revan near the the end of that year. (2014 IRL) Ziost is early/middle 17 ATC/3636 BBY, followed within a few months by the events of Sacrifice and the first chapter of KotFE. (2015 IRL, part one) Carbonite nap from middle/end of 17 ATC/3636 BBY until late 22 ATC/3631 BBY. (2015 IRL, part 2) The events of KotFE chapter 9 and first wave of Alliance Alerts take us into the beginning of 23 ATC/3630 BBY, followed by the rest of KotFE and KOTET by the middle/end of that year. (2015 IRL part 3, 2016 IRL) The battle for Iokath is in the first half of 24 ATC/3629 BBY, while Umbara and Copero occur in the latter half of that year. (2017 IRL) The Nathema Conspiracy is wrapped up in early 25 ATC/3628 BBY, with the attack on Ossus occurring near the end of that year and kicking off the renewed war between Republic and Sith Empire. Hearts and Minds follows a few months later, in early/mid 26 ATC/3627 BBY, with Onslaught in the latter half of the same year. Task at Hand is at the very beginning of 27 ATC/3626 BBY. Although our next story release will be following it by several months IRL, it will be intended to occur within a couple of weeks of Task at Hand; more of a shift than I would normally like, but real life has intervened as we all know Hope this is helpful! And again, let me know if y'all find any specific callouts for years that I'm missing, particularly around that end of class stories/Battle of Ilum timeframe.
  6. Since there are some questions around how double XP works, I'll give a bit more detail: a patch is required to update the in-game event schedule that activates and deactivates double XP on specified dates. So if double XP isn't already scheduled, a patch is required to add it to the schedule, at which point it then activates on whatever date we specify - in this case, the same day the patch goes live, because we want it to kick on as soon as possible for y'all
  7. Hi folks! I hope everyone is doing well, taking care of themselves, and keeping up the social distancing As Keith alluded to a few weeks back, EA, Bioware, and the SWTOR team have shifted to working entirely from home to ensure the ongoing safety of our team members. Like us, the voiceover studios where we record dialogue around the world are also eager to ensure the health and safety of their staff and actors, and have postponed all in-studio recording activities. As y'all know, our cast is pretty huge; some actors do have in-home recording capability, but unfortunately, many others understandably do not. In order to adapt to these unexpected changes and challenges, we've made some updates to our upcoming releases. I've put together a run-down of the changes as we see them currently below. Naturally, this is very much subject to change as circumstances unfold; we will keep you all updated in the coming weeks if any additional changes become necessary. Update 6.1.1 is moving out one week to Tuesday, April 21: 6.1.1 will include a number of improvements to Conquests, adjustments to class balance and end-game items, and other quality-of-life improvements. We will also begin a Double XP event with this update, running from April 21st until May 19th. However, we have made the difficult decision to delay Master Mode of the Dxun operation out of this update. Based on our testing on PTS, we believe that holding this portion of the content back for further iteration and improvement will lead to a higher quality experience for all of you to enjoy a bit later, in update 6.1.2 (see below). Update 6.2, currently targeting June, has become Update 6.1.2: Update 6.1.2 will introduce a unique new in-game event that will join the weekly rotating schedule alongside Dantooine, Gree, etc. The event will be themed around the ultimate Swoop biker rally spread across multiple planets in the SWTOR galaxy. We'll share more info about the insane obstacle courses these daredevil riders are setting up very soon As mentioned above, Master Mode of the Dxun operation will also be released with this update! In addition to more quality-of-life updates, we're also targeting some fun additions to Nar Shaddaa Night Life, which will return this summer! So why is this update changing numbers? Because it was originally intended to include the conclusion of the Kira/Scourge/Satele storyline introduced in Onslaught's finale. Unfortunately, the dialogue has not yet been recorded for that storyline, so we will have to wait to release it until recording operations are back in full swing. Rest assured, getting that story out is our top priority, so as soon as we can get it back on the schedule we will. Based on our current information, our (very) tentative release target for that is late summer/early fall - that patch will become the "new" 6.2. We really appreciate everyone's patience as we work through these challenging times, and look forward to sharing more concrete details as we get them. Stay safe out there!
  8. Yes, and for a couple of other characters too
  9. Thanks for bringing that up! For those of you with Jedi Knight characters affected by the Scourge romance bug (that is, characters who started a romance with Lord Scourge after the launch of 6.0, but whose companion interactions incorrectly indicate that they’ve broken up with him) it is our current belief based on testing that the bug will not affect the content in 6.1. In other words, while the interaction in the Companions & Contacts window will still display incorrectly, the actual storyline should be unaffected. Specifically, the cinematic scene for the mission "Signal from Noise" will end with... That said, our investigations into the exact cause of the bug are still ongoing, so we don't feel comfortable calling this a fully "fixed" issue. As it currently seems unlikely that we will get such confirmation in time for the release, we wanted to share these details for those among you who are justifiably cautious where your romances are involved. If you’re concerned about potentially missing the cinematic lines referencing this romance, you may want to hold off on starting “Signal from Noise” when it becomes available in update 6.1. No other missions in the update reference the romance, so they can be played without concern. We know how important romance storylines are for our players (they're important to us, too!) and will work hard to ensure that the issue is fully resolved in our next patch. As soon as we know the release date and have the fix confirmed, we’ll let you know.
  10. Hey folks! Thought I’d hop in and add a bit about the story elements in our upcoming releases. I’ll spoiler tag anything that I think might be too specific, but if you want to know absolutely nothing, maybe just skip this post entirely Game Update 6.1 will include a small story beat around the size of Hearts and Minds. Specifically, this will be about checking in with the newly-formed factional groups – Task Force Nova for Republic players, and the Hand for Imperials – and making some initial decisions to guide them as they’re getting ramped up (including Saboteur options for those so inclined). For Imperials, this also means meeting your new liaison, Darth Rivix – he was a lot of fun to write, so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s reactions. The update will also include a few other small scenes, including: A check-in with Kira and Scourge, setting up the story for Game Update 6.2 (more on that below) Troopers will have a 1-on-1 with Elara Dorne Agents will have a 1-on-1 with Vector And lastly… As Keith mentioned, 6.1 will be followed by 6.1.1 and 6.1.2. After that, our next story beat will come in Game Update 6.2: The One Where Crazy Stuff Happens*. Since it’s still in the works and a bit further out, I won’t go into nearly as much detail, and I’m going to put just about everything in spoiler tags just in case. But the TL;DR is that 6.2 will deal directly with the situation Kira and Scourge bring to light at the end of Onslaught. *Definitely the final, confirmed update name. Beyond that, in addition to the content, features, and quality-of-life improvements Keith mentioned that we’re looking to add past 6.1.2 and 6.2, you can expect the storyline that started with Jedi Under Siege and Onslaught to continue through our updates the rest of this year and beyond. After all, we’re in our ninth year, and our tenth anniversary is just around the corner--a very exciting time for SWTOR to be sure!
  11. Hey everyone! Thanks for calling attention to this - we're aware of the issue and investigating. Please, if you haven't already, submit in-game tickets on the affected characters - this gets our team the info they need to investigate effectively. Thank you!
  12. Hey folks! Apologies! This was on my plate and I just didn't have time to put one together. I think the most pertinent update since Jedi Under Siege would be that Darth Savik has taken over Darth Malora's role as head of Imperial Scientific Advancement in the aftermath of the events on Ossus. Both Republic and Imperial players will get to know her better in Onslaught. Everything else you need to know should be pretty well covered in the Onslaught storyline itself. TBH, with all of the branching we're introducing in this story, I have no idea how we'll cleanly present a State of the Galaxy article later on, but that's a good question... for another time
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