From a design perspective, Coruscant is a planet with zero percent terrain, which poses its own challenge. The city also has an enormous vertical dimension to incorporate, with skyscrapers soaring overhead, and unruly, bombed-out subterranean areas underneath.

The Making of Corsuscant [swtor.com]

That would be very embarrassing. We can feel our faces flush red hot right now.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game for PC from developer BioWare and LucasArts. Release date is currently unannounced.

Of course, what would be a Star Wars universe without bounty hunters, whose presence have been felt in all of the movies going back to the original. Pick this class and you'll likely get assignments to take out Jedi. The write-up sheds a little light on the Sith Empire's policy of death markers and the quilted quicker-picker-uppers who collect on them.

Of course, if you want to be the Boba with a heart of gold, SW:TOR should accommodate you. In describing bounty hunter capabilities, they mention their overall efficacy against "force-users," which probably goes for Sith and other baddies.

The site gives you an overview and writeups of "field recon," "outfitting" and "combat tactics" applicable to this class.

Bounty Hunter at Star Wars: The Old Republic - Classes [thanks, David K. SinfulKnight, Marc P., Dustin and Brendan C. and anyone else who sent this in.]

The writers and the producers discuss the TOR universe, which they hope will create a "personal Star Wars saga," for everyone who plays it.

Video Documentary #2 [SWTOR.com]

The webcomic covers "the three decades from the pivotal signing of the Treaty of Coruscant to critical events at the beginning of the game." An announcement Friday said BioWare's Rob Chestney will write the episodes of the webcomic; Dark Horse will handle its publication, and it will appear at www.swtor.com "every other Friday."

I won't even attempt to rewrite their backstory. Here it is quoted from the announcement:

War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire has gripped the galaxy for generations, but the sacking of Coruscant and a subsequent peace treaty are changing everything. As the Republic scrambles to re-establish order, the Sith Empire moves quickly to consolidate power within its new dominion. Behind closed doors, however, individual Sith Lords engage in a quiet but deadly power struggle, and discord breaks out among the Jedi as they wrestle with the moral implications of the new galactic balance. During these chaotic days, the stories of several critical characters interweave as they pursue their passions, stand up for their convictions and ultimately lead the galaxy back to the brink of a catastrophic conflict.

Chestney promises that the webcomic will preview for readers both the game and "some of its most compelling characters." Alex Sanchez, whose credits include Marvel Age, Hulk, X-Men and other Dark Horse titles, will be the artist for "Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Threat of Peace."

"The comic offers a unique perspective on an era in the Star Wars™ galaxy unseen outside the game," said the Dark Horse series editor Dave Marshall. "It will be an integral companion to the online experience, and a compelling adventure on its own, accessible to every Star Wars fan."

Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Threat of Peace Announced [SWTOR.com]

“Star Wars is choreographed, it’s elegant; it’s big, powerful moves and lightning bolts flashing, but in a way that makes sense visually and aesthetically," Zeschuk told videogaming247. "One of the goals we have it to create this choreographed type of combat that looks as though it could be taking place in a Star Wars movie.”

I think one of the weaknesses of Episodes I through III, frankly, was the overchoreographed saber combat, especially when they spent zillions on it and a dollar-ninety-five writing the script. The whole point of the movie seemed to be about driving things to that moment. But in an MMO, yeah, I could get behind it. The Star Wars games have been great about taking the best of what's left in that franchise — the visuals — and letting us put our own story behind it, and certainly an MMO is a much broader canvas for such things. I'm just worried about facing off against a bunch of super serious role playing Jedi who are all cognizant of hitting their marks and getting things just right. It could end up like like a comics convention duel — or worse.

The Old Republic Melee Combat Will be "Choreographed" [Videogaming247 via Gamersreports]

An MMO where you get NPC party members? Good grief, yes. A thousand times yes. I get the extra hands I require to tackle a stronger foe, but without them bitching and whining at me because I didn’t use my double-cloaking no-hit AOE poison buff at exactly the point they would have used it if they were playing on their own. See? SEE? Every single bugger in these games just wants the others in their parties to be the over-qualified AI companions that perform the tasks they don’t have time for. If you don’t play like they would have done it, you’ve failed them, you’ve let them down, you’ve spoiled their game. ... But if my party members are NPCs, they’ll do what they’re programmed to do, or when I tell them to do it. That’s great for any of the above frustrations I might experience. But more importantly, when I don’t do what they might want when they might demand it, they’re not going to storm off in a giant pissy huff and block me on IM.

John deflects the "then you don't want an MMO," argument — "I really do want an MMO of KotOR’s world, because then I’ll have myself a KotOR game that doesn’t end! And Bioware, mightiest at the RPG, utterly suck at endings."

This does make a lot of sense, and BioWare's shrewd for implementing the NPC party member option. I haven't gamed MMOs ever partly because — well I don't even own a PC, but that's beside the point — I'm just not that into what other people are doing with their game experience. I have enough on my hands just managing my own. And holy shit, Walker's right when he talks about people playing Team Fortress 2, "screaming - and I mean SCREAMING - in anger at a Medic’s failure to uber-charge them the very instant they wanted it." Go through that, or anything close, and you start to question whether multiplayer really is fun.

Anyway, you can tell I'm in something of a pissed mood this AM, so the argument resonates. Check it out.

The Trouble With Other People [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

“When World of Warcraft came out, everybody thought, ‘No, the market is only this big, because that’s as big as EverQuest was.’ Blizzard showed that it could be much larger. Our goal is to show that by bringing storytelling to the genre that we can attract an even wider audience. Plus, we have the benefit of this huge brand, which has done very, very well for nearly 30 years.”

Nichols also said there's great potential here with Bioware behind the project and the use of the ever-popular Star Wars license. Still, that's a pretty steep mountain to climb. Good luck, sirs.

WoW is the target for The Old Republic, says LucasArts and EA (VG247)