Much of BioWare’s messaging in presenting Star Wars: The Old Republic is that it contains the depth and feel of a BioWare RPG. That is, it looks and feels like a Knights of the Old Republic game, but it just happens to take place online. While the dialogue and combat feel like KOTOR, today is when BioWare announces some MMO-specific features for the game.

Producer Blaine Christine summarizes the new features as ones that, “show ownership for players.” That is, they give players something to call their own and to show off and socialize with. The first of these ownership/MMO features is the fact that, in Christine’s words, “every player has his or her own personal starship.” He continues, “It’s your hub of operations; it’s your home within the game world. It’s where you come back to after a mission; it’s where you have deeper interactions with your companion characters; it’s where you store your gear or equip yourself out before adventuring again. But since this is a massively multiplayer game, it’s also a place where you can bring your friends.” Christine then shows a short video detailing examples of player ships: a Corellian transport for a Galactic Republic player, and a “Sith Interceptor” for Sith Empire players.

Christine also acknowledges that gear progression is a big part of MMOs, and to this effect, he demonstrates with a video showing off various bounty hunter armor sets. The initial set is pretty bare-bones, and as expected, as the player grows, so does the gear get more fanciful. The top-tier gear (the kind meant for Player-versus-Player combat, which comes a bit later) will be the sort of thing that resembles iconic character classes the most — for example, the top-tier bounty hunter gear is the stuff that looks like Mandalorian Battle Armor.

Christine then goes into announcing additional playable species for specific classes (previously, the Rattataki was announced as a species choice for Bounty Hunters). Without any additional details, he notes that Imperial Agents can play as Chiss, while the Smuggler can be a Twi’lek.

Finally, Christine provides some elementary details for TOR’s PvP. The PvP feature he introduces is called “warzones,” which are specific team-vs.-team scenarios that will, “fulfill that fantasy of the Imperial Soldier fighting against the Republic.” The first announced warzone will be on Alderaan, and we’re assuming more warzones and additional details might be coming forth during E3.

source: 1up.com

source: 1up.com

SITH INFILTRATORS.
WE ARE NOW CERTAIN THAT THE SITH EMPIRE BEGAN LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR ITS RETURN AS FAR BACK AS THE JEDI CIVIL WAR.
IN FACT, IT’S CLEAR THAT THE ORIGINS OF THE JEDI CIVIL WAR ITSELF WERE NOT AS SIMPLE AS WE ONCE BELIEVED.
THE SITH EMPEROR’S FIRST REPRESENTATIVES TO RETURN TO REPUBLIC SPACE ARE WELL-KNOWN NAMES: DARTH REVAN AND DARTH MALAK.
REVAN IS REMEMBERED NOW AS A LEGEND–A GREAT HERO OF THE JEDI ORDER…
BUT THAT WAS ONLY AFTER HIS REDEMPTION.
REVAN AND MALAK FIRST REBELLED AGAINST THE JEDI COUNCIL BY IGNORING ORDERS AND ASSISTING THE REPUBLIC DURING THE MANDALORIAN WARS.
REVAN’S SUCCESS IN DEFEATING THE MANDALORIANS CAUSED THE COUNCIL TO QUESTION IT’S ORDERS…
BUT NONE REALIZED HOW FAR REVAN HAD ALREADY FALLEN.
AFTER THEIR CRUSHING VICTORY ON MALACHOR FIVE, REVAN AND MALAK CHASED THE MANDALORIAN INTO DEEP SPACE.
IT WAS THERE ON DROMUND KAAS, THAT THEY ENCOUNTERED ANOTHER ENEMY ENTIRELY—THE SITH EMPIRE REBORN.
WE KNOW NOTHING OF WHAT TRANSPIRED WHEN REVAN AND MALAK MET THE SITH EMPEROR.
BUT ONE THING IS CERTAIN—WHEN THEY RETURNED, THEY DID SO ON BEHALF OF THEIR NEW DARK MASTER.
THE FALL OF REVAN AND MALAK TO THE DARK SIDE WAS COMPLETE.
THE EMPEROR SENT THEM BACK TO THE REPUBLIC TO MAKE PREPARATIONS FOR A FULL-SCALE SITH INVASION.
THEIR MISSION WAS TO RECOVER THE MAPS LEADING TO THE ANCIENT STAR FORGE, CONSTRUCTED BY THE RAKATA MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES AGO.
WITH THE STAR FORGE, THE EMPEROR PLANNED TO ACCELERATE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW SITH ARMADA.
HE WOULD EXACT HIS VENGEANCE AGAINST THE JEDI AND THE REPUBLIC CENTURIES AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.
THE AMBITIONS OF DARTH REVAN AND MALAK GREW QUICKLY, THOUGH.
AS THEY DREW CLOSER TO THE STAR FORGE, THE TWO SITH LORDS BEGAN TO HAVE VISIONS OF THEIR OWN EMPIRE.
FORTUNATELY FOR THE REPUBLIC, MALAK’S THIRST FOR POWER DROVE HIM TO BETRAY HIS MASTER.
HE ATTACKED REVAN’S SHIP, AND LEFT HIS FORMER MASTER FOR DEAD

THE JEDI FOUND REVAN WOUNDED AND UNCONSCIOUS.

AFTER MUCH DEBATE, THE COUNCIL MADE A CONTROVERSIAL DECISION—TO ERASE REVAN’S MEMORY AND RETRAIN HIM AS A JEDI.
WORKING WITH JEDI MASTER BASTILA SHAN, REVAN RECOVERED HIS STRENGTH. HE THEN RESCUED THE REPUBLIC, AND DEFEATED HIS FORMER APPRENTICE.
THE JEDI CIVIL WAR WAS OVER—THE STAR FORGE DESTROYED AND REVAN NOT ONLY REDEEMED, BUT CELEBRATED AS A HERO.
DEEP IN REVAN’S LOST MEMORIES, HOWEVER, HID THE KNOWLEDGE OF A LURKING MENACE FAR GREATER THAN DARTH MALAK.
INDEED THE EMPEROR’S PLAN TO ACCELERATE HIS RETURN WAS THWARTED, BUT THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SITH ARMADA CONTINUED…
IT WOULD ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME.
WITH THE WAR OVER, REVAN RETURNED TO DEEP SPACE IN SEARCH OF THE GREAT EVIL.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT IS UNKNOWN.
THOUGH REVAN’S ULTIMATE FATE REMAINS A MYSTERY, WE HAVE LEARNED MUCH ABOUT THE EVENTS THAT PRECEDED HIS FALL…
THE MANDALORIAN WARS WILL BE THE SUBJECT OF MY NEXT REPORT.

Game will be free to play but it will have some type of mico-transactions. They recently released announcement trailer that you may watch bellow:

In Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, a variety of these Companion Characters will join your cause. Some will join you for adventure, some for greed, and some for motivations that will remain hidden until much further along in your adventure. The Companions run the gamut from intelligent droids to bizarre aliens, from an honorable princess to a roguish pirate, and each class has a completely unique set to of Companions.

While traveling the galaxy, your Companion Characters will provide commentary, information on plots and directions to points of interest– all from their own unique perspectives. Companion Characters may act as your conscience, and try to influence your decisions. In turn, you will influence them, and change how they develop as the story progresses. Based on your choices, some Companions will become your closest friends, others may become your lovers, and a few may even become your enemies!

Last week saw the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and along with it came discussions about the best way to watch the film and what we can expect from future re-releases. Michael Kaminski wrote the exhaustively researched and illuminating book The Secret History of Star Wars, so he knows damn near everything there is to know about the film stock used to shoot the film. George Lucas famously said that the original film “doesn’t exist” anymore, but is that accurate?

How exactly does Star Wars exist now? What are the challenges and possibilities involved in re-releasing a perfected original cut? How do the bootlegs stack up? Let’s find out.

Many prints exist

We asked Kaminksi about the master copy of the original Star Wars. What does it look like now? “The term ‘master copy’ is slightly vague, because there are various kinds of print masters of different generations,” he told Ars. The original negative is conformed to the 1997 Special Edition, meaning the physical copy has been cut and edited with CGI “improvements.” With sections of the film being too damaged to work with, parts of that print were taken from other sources. “You never throw away your original negative, so I must assume that any pieces or shots that were removed are in storage somewhere at Lucasfilm or Fox,” he explained.

Kaminski points out that a duplication of the original negative—commonly printed for the sake of protection—doesn’t seem to exist for Star Wars. Something better was created, though: separation masters. “These are special silver-based copies that do not fade, and in theory should be almost identical in quality to the original negative itself, so even if the negative was destroyed you still have a perfect copy (which is the point of making the separation master).” Duplicates from these prints were used to replace damaged sections of the negative during the restoration before the release of the Special Edition.

That’s not all, however. “There are also Interpositives and master prints. Interpositives (and Internegatives) are the color-corrected masters that theatrical prints are duplicated from, and were used in the past to make the home video telecines from 1985-1995.” Another common practice is keeping print masters, which are high-quality, fine-grain prints kept in the eventuality that no other higher-quality copies or masters are available.

What this tells us is that Lucas wasn’t lying—the original copy of Star Wars is, in fact, gone. What exists in its place is a composite film that has been restored and spliced together with Special Edition scenes and sections from other, later prints. There exist enough film copies and back-ups to re-create the film, however, so nothing is impossible in terms of a more classical high definition re-release.

Why film? Shouldn’t this all be digital?

It’s unclear how the film exists digitally within Lucasfilm, but Kaminski does know one thing: the scanning done in the past has become obsolete. “The 1997 SE scans were done in 2K and the 2004 Special Edition was done in 1080p, but now the standard is 8K (4 times the 1997 SE and about 7 times the quality of the 2004 SE), and the color reproduction is better too,” he says.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, the original film remains important as the most robust way to store this information. Hard drives fail, and data is vulnerable to time. “This may seem silly because everyone always talks about how fragile film is, but film is the most robust, durable image technology we have ever invented. There are reels of film that date back to the 1920s that still look pretty good.” He claims that color Eastman Kodak film has a half-life of around 50 to 60 years. Oddly enough, the negative film used in the 1970s to shoot Star Wars is less stable than the film used before or after. We’ll get to a point where all we have left are digital copies, but technology has only recently allowed digital copies to rival the original celluloid in quality and detail.

Time to talk bootlegs!

In 2006, an official re-release of the original trilogy was brought to DVD without the annoying CGI updates seen in the Special Editions. The quality was impressive, but the film is shown in non-anamorphic widescreen, a major annoyance for fans of cinema. This is where the fans have stepped up to improve upon Lucas’ official releases with high-quality bootlegs.

“Any bootleg made before 2006 is lesser than the 2006 DVD because they were made from the Laserdisc, while the 2006 DVD was made from the master tape that the Laserdisc was derived from and thus is one generation higher in quality,” Kaminski tells Ars. “For a 20-year-old analog tape, it does look pretty decent.” Bootlegs created after 2006 have used the DVD transfer for better quality video.

“There is a new 2010 bootleg by a guy named Editdroid (who did two previous ones from 1999-2005) that hasn’t yet leaked onto the Internet that is quite astounding, and another version called LFL PWNAGE edition; both use the 2006 master,” he said. “These bootlegs reduce the amount of grain that came from the use of the duplicate film, smoothed out the aliasing issues, [and] used the original subtitle font from the theatrical release. The aspect ratio has been corrected for true anamorphic widescreen, and the sound mix has likewise been improved.”

“Unfortunately, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are not yet available in any of these. Empire is available in a theatrical reconstruction that is mostly accurate and made by the guy who did A New Hope Revisited (it was just released this week) and uses a color-corrected 2004 master with original shots re-composited in to very good effect.”

Is there hope for a definitive release of the original films?

Kaminski says that he’s fairly sure Lucas is done with large, sweeping changes, but we should expect a CGI Yoda in Episode 1 instead of the physical effect shot on the set. The inevitable Blu-ray copy of the movies will likely be safe from further meddling.

The thing he stresses is that a perfect, uncut version is possible with the film left from the edits, and there is money to be made there. “It’s certainly possible to do a new, high-quality transfer from original 35mm material. You could totally restore the original films from their original negatives for a few million dollars, and the 2004 release sold $100 million in a single day, so that pricetag is meaningless.”

We’re not asking for much, here. “Even films like Revenge of the Nerds have new transfers from 35mm prints. It costs nothing, and there are fine-grain masters and Interpositives that would only require mild clean-up to be presentable, even if the transfers were grainier and a bit damaged.”

Kaminski is not convinced that we’ll get a classic version of Star Wars on a high definition format, at least not for a while. “I’ve been trying to organize a letter writing campaign to Lucasfilm and get websites to promote the importance of having the original versions in high quality,” he said. “I really don’t have any need to pay money for another release of the films unless the originals are restored and available, and I don’t want to sound like a disgruntled fanboy. I just don’t think the 2004 master is something I would pay money for again; I would rather just watch the bootlegs of the original versions.”

What George Lucas does love is money, however, and the hunger and enthusiasm for the non-fussed-over releases is going to be impossible to ignore. “Which is a great—but callous—business practice on their part, because you get people to buy the same thing over and over again.”

Why is this important?

The story of Star Wars is the story of film, and of how we keep our past to share with the future. George Lucas does have the legal right to change and adjust his own work any way he’d like, but Star Wars existed in a very specific way for its original theatrical run. Those memories, and those scenes, have a very real value and meaning to fans. This isn’t just a science fiction film anymore—it’s an important piece of culture.

Star Wars is always going to be an ephemeral thing, changing and shifting as the film adapts to the technology of the time. As the film gets older, digital copies will become more important, but fans are always going to yearn for a version of the film that may exist mostly in their imaginations. Every time George Lucas or a fan takes another crack at the film, it’s a new interpretation of the past, and as the film ages and our viewing technology changes, it will continue to look different from how each of us remembers it.

source: arstechnica.com

As is well known in the MMORPG community, Age of Conan didn’t have the most prestigious of births onto the gaming scene. Sure it sold extremely well, but it couldn’t retain the subscriber base to match its weighty hype level. The game was written off as a letdown by many, but still retained a quite faithful bunch of fans that held on and hoped that Funcom would continue to shine and polish their version of Hyboria into a gem deserving of representing Howard’s legacy. It’s now two years later and Funcom has done just that. A slew of new additions, improvements to the base game, and new adventures crafted with the experience Funcom has gained from previous creations all come together to make Age of Conan one of the best games on the market. With Rise of the Godslayer, Funcom has put a much awaited crown on the King of Aquilonia.

Rise of the Godslayer is intelligently crafted to both fill in and round out the level one to eighty game and to create advancement beyond the level cap without the need of adding more pointless levels to the experience. At one time Age of Conan was distinctly lacking in content to help players get to the level cap, but returning players and newcomers alike will be heartened to know that said gaps have all been eradicated with patching over the past two years and Godslayer goes even further by giving players a whole new experience for the 20-40 range, as well as adding several new zones for players who have reached the cap already to explore. A lack of content is certainly not an issue for Age of Conan anymore.

The new zones themselves are also a glorious addition to the game. Where the old Hyborian adventures had you traipsing through rather crowded terrain, the first thing players will notice is just how open and sprawling places like the Gateway to Khitai are. And I’m not talking open and barren, but the designers have somehow managed to make the zones seem both massive and interesting by littering the landscape with plenty of interesting set pieces and landmarks by which to make your way. On top of it all, Funcom teamed with artists from Korea in order to capture the eastern look and feel, and capture it they did. The difference between the more barbaric vistas of the original game and the lands of Khitai is night and day. In fact I would say that the only downside of the marvelous work the artists did with the Khitan landscapes is that the prospect of leveling from 40-80 now seems a little less interesting and kind of a long wait to get back to the new stuff. Thank Crom for the off-line leveling system in that case.

Also new with this expansion is the Alternate Advancement system. Rather than tack on a bunch of new levels and offer new spells or ranks of existing spells, Funcom decided to introduce the AA system in order to give capped players a sense of progression. These things are often tricky to pull off, but luckily the AA system in Age of Conan seems to be well thought out and intricate enough to keep players enjoying the end-game for months. As stated in previous previews, AA’s are split into three types: some are general purpose, others are meant for PvE, and others are intended for PvP use. To gain points for the PvE perks, players must engage in PvE. To gain points in PvP, they must fight other players. And to gain the general purpose points, they can do either or. Additionally Funcom was wise enough to institute a “timed training” mechanism whereby players can train perks simply by queuing them up and waiting for the timer to run down. The faster method for most players will likely be by simply playing the game, but for busy folks who might only get to play a few nights a week the queue system will allow them to train perks even if not logged in. The only caveat is that players must be level 80 to train perks with time.

The perks themselves range from the simply upgrade of stats to actual new spells which can be used by the player. Your hot-bar is now outfitted with a “Perk Bar” and each type of perk has two slots to occupy. So while you may have spent the past three months training up fifty perks, you only have room for a maximum of six, and two from each path. I liken it to Guild Wars skill system, making players think about and choose which perks they need to have at their disposal at any given time. Additionally many of the new skills have a distinctly Asian theme applied to them, which leads me to believe that future expansions with different themes will likely further explore the different cultures of Howard’s creation and do so with appropriately themed perks of their own.

But new forms of character advancement wouldn’t matter a lick if there weren’t also a slew of new quests and encounters to explore. Rise of the Godslayer is an expansion which takes Age of Conan a bit off track from its original PvP focus, and firmly puts the game in league with other PvE heavy experiences where PvP is more a sideshow. Overall Godslayer seems more about fleshing out the original game and making sure there is plenty of content for all level ranges to enjoy, and to do that PvP seems to have taken a back seat. While this may be a little disappointing to some, the quality of the newly introduced content is of such a caliber that the lack of PvP focused additions should be forgiven.

To some, this may be off-putting, but I feel it’s as though Craig Morrison and his staff have identified their strengths and are (at least for now) focusing heavily on the story, solo-experience, and group play for Age of Conan. Perhaps in future expansions Age of Conan will flex its PvP muscle a bit more, but Rise of the Godslayer definitely excels in its ability to give players unique and interesting dungeon encounters as well as new solo quests. I don’t wish to spoil too many of the boss fights to be found in the new dungeons, but encounters such as those found in the Celestial Necropolis are exactly the kinds of things that make dungeons such a popular feature of these games. By being about more than just another “tank & spank” loot piñata, the new dungeons in Rise of the Godslayer have managed to become one of my favorite new features and I wonder just how the design of these encounters will show up in Funcom’s next project: The Secret World.

The new faction system that was added with Godslayer is also a boon of carrots on proverbial sticks for returning and existing players. I mean this in a good way. Usually when I see “Factions” making their way into a game, I expect massive grinds with no real substantial payout. But here Funcom has wisely made it so that there are seemingly plenty of quests to follow for players to gain notoriety within their chosen factions. There is also a great deal of lore put into each one, making the journey to revered standing that much more interesting. And of course once you’ve gained all you can gain from one faction, it’s as simple as betraying your chosen brethren in order to begin gaining standing with the other side. Each faction has their own “membership benefits” in the way of loot and other rewards. And in the case of two specific factions, you can obtain one of two very unique pets and mounts.

The tiger and wolf mount and pet are two of the much-touted additions to the game, and rightly so. Through a long quest line that starts in Shaulun, I was able to obtain my own tiger cub. The idea being that each player must raise their chosen cub (you can also get a wolf from the Wolves of the Steppes faction) into adulthood and then decide whether to keep the animal as a combat pet or as a mount. The tiger mount has the benefit of being the fastest sprinting mount in the game, while if you choose to keep it as a combat pet you’re likely to have a much easier time with some of the game’s higher level monsters. On top of its practical uses, the thing just looks cool which really, when we’re being honest is a big part of what these games are all about.

There are some downsides that come with the new expansion, but they seem slight in comparison to the triumphs of the overall experience. Load-times are still painfully long initially, for instance. And early on many of the mobs which are needed for various quests have a tendency to get bugged and become un-attackable. If there weren’t so many other quests to occupy myself with, it would have been more troubling, but for now the bug remains as a minor annoyance that will likely be fixed soon. The only other real complaint I can lob at the expansion is the seeming lack of PvP content. I do think that Funcom still loves its PvP players, but it’s clear that with this expansion the focus is on broadening the scope of the PvE experience and fleshing out the game as a whole. I’m sure that the recently released “Shrines of Bori” won’t be the last PvP addition the game’s competitive crowd sees.

All said and done, Rise of the Godslayer is exactly what Age of Conan needed. Rise of the Godslayer is the perfect dose of awesome to bring a mediocre game that once had a lot of potential into adulthood as one of the industry’s best. Much like Anarchy Online before it, Funcom has revived a game that struggled at launch. Hopefully players will take notice and give the Barbarian King’s MMO another chance. It certainly deserves it.

source: mmorpg.com

VideoGamer.com can exclusively reveal brand new Star Wars: The Old Republic details and lovely-looking screens.

Star Wars: The Old Republic, due out exclusively for the PC in spring 2011, is an MMORPG set over 3000 years before the events of the films and 300 years after developer BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic series.

It’s got eight classes, two rival factions (the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire), an unannounced number of humanoid playable races and single-player RPG style moral decision making.

Here we’ve got the first details on Hoth, one of the most remote and lifeless planets in the Star Wars galaxy.

Hoth, as keen Star Wars fans will know, was the setting of that cool bit in The Empire Strikes back when Luke Skywalker’s squadron of Snow Speeders ran rings around Imperial AT-ATs.

In The Old Republic, Hoth has no allegiance, no government, is contested by players from both factions, has frozen desolate wasteland terrain and is littered with wreckage from a major battle of what’s called the Great War.

According to Star Wars lore, Hoth was of no real interest to the Republic until it became the site of a devastating military defeat. At the height of the Great War, Republic and Imperial fleets clashed in the Hoth system in a decisive battle which saw the destruction of some of the most advanced and powerful starships in the galaxy.

In the aftermath of the battle, Hoth became a massive starship graveyard, littered with the wreckage of hundreds of warships from both sides, including several prototype ships the Republic had deployed in the hope of turning the tide of the war. As the war raged on, though, neither the Republic nor the Empire had the time and resources to mount a recovery operation.

Upon learning of the wealth of technology abandoned on Hoth, an ambitious pirate confederation started their own salvage operation. They brought an army of droids and mercenaries and began looting all useful remnants from the wreckage in an effort to piece together their own battle cruisers and create a pirate armada.

In the wake of the Treaty of Coruscant, however, both the Republic and Empire have returned to reclaim what’s left of their war machines, and Hoth has become a point of considerable contention. Despite the peace and the planet’s remote location, skirmishes have broken out, and now both superpowers have become entrenched – committed to fighting for Hoth until the cold, bitter end.

So there you have it. Hoth is in Star Wars: The Old Republic and you’ll be able to go there.

source: videogamer.com

Voss is a world that is mentioned only in the most basic terms in the LucasArts Holocron (a compendium of all things canon and non-canon in Star Wars), and so BioWare has selected it to fully expand on and create as a wholly original world for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Daniel’s developer blog goes in-depth on the history and lore they’ve created for the planet of Voss, as well as the design considerations that went into making it a reality:

Now to be clear, the first thing we do when we decide to add a “new” world to the vast Star Wars mythology is to do our research and see if there is a world that already exists and will fit our needs. Is it the right type of climate? The right place in the galaxy? Does it have next to nothing written about it? Awesome, it’s ours. Over the years hundreds of writers have tossed out names of worlds with a sentence or less to describe them. Why create more clutter when we can add to the depth of what’s there?

Voss is populated by the eponymous and mystical Voss race, who are few in number, and are occasionally privy to future events through infallible  visions, as well as the Gormak, who are technological geniuses and serve as a sharp contrast (and mortal enemy) to the mystic Voss.

Read all about Voss and the process of creating worlds in Star Wars: The Old Republic here.

source: mmorpg.com

The first Advanced Classes to be revealed are those for the Sith Warrior. Choosing Juggernaut will shape this warrior into a tough, damage-soaking tank class, while the Marauder is all about channelling rage and maximising damage output.

Looking at the first exclusive screens of the two, it looks like the Juggernaut will feature the heavy body-modifications of Darth Vader, while the Marauder will be able ape Darth Maul’s twin-lightsaber fighting style.

Choosing your Advanced Class is a pure gameplay decision rather than a story decision. Advanced Classes will share the same epic narrative, but have different combat styles and play different roles in a group.

Each Advanced Class will have its own skills and abilities that define its role on the battlefield, and in some cases grant access to new weapon and armour types. Choosing one means you won’t have any access to the skills of the other.

An example of the Sith Warrior’s Advanced Class chart. Disclaimer: number and type of skills may vary.

And each Advanced Class will have a further three branches of skills to specialise in (equivalent to World of Warcraft’s talent specialisation options on a single class). Unlike the Advanced Classes themselves, you can mix and match these if you like, although they’re all trained from the same pool of points.

The first two skill trees are particular to your Advanced Class, while the the third is a shared set of skills which expand on the core abilities of the main class.

There’s much we still don’t know about Advanced Classes: what the other classes will advance into, when you’ll make the choice, and whether you’ll be able to change your choice at a later date. But it’s already clear that the range of options they’ll offer the player is impressively large.

source:  eurogamer.net

*- update

Jon Blyth at eurogamer.net : Star Wars The Old Republic- Hands On – you may read all about it here.