Thread: Build your own Lightsabre

The Jedi class must be able to do this. Do you think that building your lightsabre will be an easy crafting piece, or something more epic and rare?

Unfortunately, according to what's been released you won't be able to create a fully customized lightsaber like you could in previous KoTOR games. I haven't seen anything in terms of making additional weaponry, but that was one of the things they said wasn't going to be put it. If anyone has any new information, feel free to correct me, this is just what the last update on the topic I read was.

I think it would be a great final tier crafting quest for a Jedi, to make their own. Maybe we should petition Bioware to include it.

Not that I don't completely agree, but you have to think, what about the other classes? I'm sure if they make some sort of weapontech tradeskill to balance things out it could work, but it would take a very convincing argument to rally up the fans and get the staff's attention enough to make the dev's notice.

I don't know why they wouldn't add this feature, it was awesome in kotor!

After looking around, apparently I have good news for you.

Originally Posted by Ki Adi Mundi @ forumoftheoldrepublic.com

TOROcast was honored to be selected among the few to attend the Jedi Immersion event at LucasArts in San Fransisco last month. I did my best to cover everything I could, I got to play the game for 6 hours straight, got further than anyone else there, and can finally talk about it! So, lets get to it!

The big question on many people’s mind after every hands on experience they have with the game seems be “This was a great 15 minutes, but this is an MMO, a game that is supposed to take hours. Does it hold up under some serious play time?” I believe that, for me, this event finally has answered that question with a big fat yes!

The first important choice I had to make wasn’t which captain to save or kill, but which of the two Jedi classes I was going to play. Being the only person from TOROcast meant we were only going to get to touch half of what was going on between the Jedi Knight and the Jedi Consular, which were both playable for the first time. Considering I was the first person in the known Galaxy to play any Jedi, as a Jedi Knight at PAX on stage in September (There should be an achievement for that by the way BioWare), I knew that the Jedi Knight class was close enough to how the Sith Warrior plays, and knew a few of its abilities to where I was satisfied with what kind of class it would be. But the Consular was still a bit of a mystery, which is why I ran in and sat down at one the Jedi Consular machines and I never looked back!

Starting out as a Female Twi’lek Consular it was my task to dig into the secrets of the force on Tython, I will avoid spoilers, you can listen to the spoiler section of the special report podcast for that. But let me just say that this was the most epic levels 1-7 I have experience in an MMO. From the get go as the Consular you are dealing with deep stuff, none of this “once upon a time there was a farmer, then 20 levels later he got his leather cloak and a sword!” bullcrap. It was very clear in the time I had that the darkside is really a viable option in this game as a Consular. If you want to find an elusive darkside master and go behind the back of the Jedi Council to train in the dark side of the force I think you can make that happen. You may or may not have to watch someone burn alive in front of you to get there though.





While playing I was really sucked into what was going on with Tython and the relationships between the Jedi, the Twi’lek inhabitants and the Flesh Raiders. All three factions had different motives and reasons for what they were doing, and they all had an effect on each other. It is something you very quickly find yourself in the middle of and it is something that you can affect in very drastic ways. The 1, 2 and 3 keys on your keyboard have never had so much of an impact on the journey of your character, usually they just sit there so you can repeat the same keystrokes over and over again to kill stuff; which is something I don’t think I ever had to do in The Old Republic.

In many MMO’s death only tends to happen when you accidentally aggro another mob while your leveling up. In TOR you have no choice but to take on multiple enemies at a time, so you can’t just sit there with one target, pressing a pattern of keys. You have to adapt and think on your feet, otherwise you will be as good as a pile of steaming bantha poodoo.

Let me highlight a combat scenario that stuck out and you will get a better feel for how important using the right abilities at the right time is in The Old Republic. I remember seeing two Seeker Droids near an entrance I wanted to go through. I thought to myself “heh.. these guys don’t stand a chance!” pulled out my training blade and charged in. I used “Stasis Field” on the enemy on the right, which lifted him into the air (ala mass effect) and unable to do anything. Then I switched my gaze to the other one who was already blasting away at me. I started using my Telekenetic Throw ability on him as he was putting away his blaster to slow him down while he tried getting to me with his sword (like when the Consular uses it on Lord Malgus in the hope trailer to pin him to the boulders). Before I could do anything else, three more Seeker droids turned off their cloaking devices and suddenly I found myself dealing, not with two targets, but five.

That was the “uh oh, time to spit out the coffee and lift myself off my chair” moment. They surrounded me quickly and as the droid who I was holding back with rocks and debris finally closed in on me, that’s when I decided to use “Force Wave,” which threw all of them away and down to the ground in separate directions. This massive shockwave was enough to weaken them all and even kill the droid who had been enduring the rubble I was tossing at him with Telekenetic Throw. While they were getting off the ground I realized the droid who I had sent floating up in the air earlier was probably about to get back into the mix. I knew that using Project (which is an ability that lifts up and hurls a boulder out of the ground and at a target) does twice as much damage on a target who is in stasis. So I hurled the boulder at him as he floated in the air, doing enough damage to nearly kill him off. From that point on I used my saber to clean up the mess and kept them at bay with my Telekenetic Throw ability when needed.




That encounter was not any form of a special raid encounter, that was just me as a Jedi in the wilderness coming across what you might call “the common mob,” at level five. These kinds of things happened all the time, and I have never been so tense in an MMO at this low of a level. I caught myself saying “phew” several times out loud after barely surviving a difficult moment. I will detail another one of those moments in a bit, but first I need to talk about companions!

Qyzen was the first companion you get as a Consular. I had been encountering him several times on my missions on Tython. He is a Trandoshan with a little bit of a “hokey tradition thing” and bounty hunter thrown into one. My master had great relations with him, despite him being (what some Jedi believe) an outsider. Some events unfolded that freed Qyzen from some obligations relating to his “hokey traditions.” I took him under my wing and got this feeling that I could really go a few ways with this guy, do I prey upon his traditions, and make a mockery out of it to gain a loyal servant? Or do I respect the Trandoshan way and learn something of my own and help him make things right with the “Scorekeeper”?

Since this was the first time anyone was able to use companions and talk about it, let’s go over the mechanics so far. Right now they start with three abilities, which appear in their own separate command bar. It looks like all companions have Attack and follow abilities/commands, as well as a special ability unique to that companion. Qyzen’s special ability was Charge, where he would crouch down while facing his target, ignite his jetpack (which Daniel Erickson upon seeing this noted that it might be a good idea for them to actually add a jetpack to Qyzen..) and hurl himself, fist first towards the target, generating a lot of threat. Basically his ability for me was “hey you go do some damage to this guy and try and pull him off me ASAP!” The way I played my class changed the second I had Qyzen. He could take a lot of hits and could pull aggro off of me, which made him a great tank. So that’s how I used him, I would sick him on a group of baddies and then swoop in out of no where to save the day, kind of like that chick in the Hope trailer.




At this point I was well on my way to constructing my lightsaber, I skipped all kinds of side quests just to focus on my main questline, to see how far I could get. A circle of Bioware and LucasArts staff started to surround my desk, and the pressure was on. There was one last obstacle in my way before arriving at the forge, a big Flesh Raider boss. He was no push over, and the odds were stacked against me. It was me, my companion and him. I sent my companion in for the first strike and though he was temporarily distracted by that, it didn’t take long for aggro to transfer over to me. I had to walk a tight line of keeping him at bay and keeping him from killing my companion who was trailing behind him doing damage as I slowed him down with Telekenetic Throw. It was not an easy fight, and it really proved to me that they can make the one on one battles feel heroic too. At one point I charged towards him and used my “Force Wave” ability in the hopes of pushing him back and down to the ground, but at the same time he stomped on the ground! The result was my companion, him, and I, all hurling back in opposite directions just like Obi-Wan and Anakin in their duel on Mustafar. I eventually took him out, but not before getting down to around five percent health even after using a stim pack during the fight.

The next moment which really stood out to me was when I finally constructed my lightsaber. I was the only one there to get to that point on this day so it was a great feeling. The staff around me was almost a little bit more excited than I was. I have to say I have never witnessed a group of people so excited about the game they are creating than the BioWare Austin team. Through the whole day they were so giddy to have us play the game and find cool new surprises. If this game has kept them going for so long, I can’t imagine what it will do to the common folk like us.




Jedi Building a Lightsaber in SWTOR from Brandon Miletta on Vimeo.

After constructing my lightsaber it was all down hill from there before I was in front of the Jedi Council, talking to Satele Shan and on my way to Coruscant! I took a transport from the Jedi Temple to a mid-point space station, from there I caught another shuttle straight down to Coruscant. I should note that, it is on this space station before Coruscant that you can participate in the first Republic Flashpoint, which we all got to play later in the evening. I will cover that part of the event in more detail tomorrow.

I arrived on Coruscant as a level 7, which is about three levels lower than expected for Coruscant, but again I skipped every single side quest. The very first thing I did, since I was the first person to get to ride on a speeder bike from the press back at E3, was try to continue that legacy by hopping onto a Taxi! I took the Taxi from a station located in front of the Senate Building. From there I went down into the propaganda central of Coruscant, where the Justicars held power (there were several other locations I could have gone to instead). This was a “They are on to something here” moment, because the Taxi ride into that part of Coruscant gave me similar feelings I had during the first moments of Half Life 2 and Bioshock, seeing all the propaganda posters on the wall in your way in really sets the tone, it was only missing some musical ques and it would have been dead on. It was here that I dared to get through the first blockade into the heart of the Justicar’s territory. This was a bad mistake, I finally died the first time here, and even after getting some assistance and being pumped up to level thirteen to be more on an even playing field with them, they still took me out. Rest assured the next time I come across them, they will not be so lucky.




Time was running out on our big play session, so I decided to make the most of it... by flying back to the Senate Building and just playing around. It was revealed to me by Daniel Erickson, that early on they made the choice to build everything in real scale. This means no walking into a small shack where the inside of it is larger than could actually fit into that building and vise versa. It was inside the massive Senate building that I danced ontop of a senator (who shares the same race as Yoda), pranced around the hallways, and enjoyed an overall sense of awe at the amazing and beautiful interior hall ways and rooms. Everything really felt hand crafted, and unique inside. I can not emphasis just how massive this building was, and the overwhelming sense of “This is what being able to actually go into an entire building in a game feels like, without being pinned down and locked off to one tiny room” was great. You will just have to see and feel it for yourself. After strolling by some temporary PvP vendors, my time was coming to an end. There I was, looking off the side of the massive structure I was standing on, watching the cars fly around. I knew what had to be done. “Times up!” was heard, and there was no going back... my life as a Jedi Consular was over for the day. I made the faithful leap down to my characters death off of the cliff falling hundreds of stories, and to the bottom of Coruscant.


So whats the take away in all of this? I was immersed and the game was great. In my short (but long) time with the game my character had already grown on me, going into this the class I least wanted to play in The Old Republic was the Consular. Now here I am in love with the class, and I think that speaks volumes towards the real importance of story and the classic Bioware way. I was someone playing a female character, which I never do, playing an alien race, which I never do, and as a class I wasn’t interested in, again which I never do. Despite all of that I was blown away and didn’t want to let go. We still have a lot to learn about The Old Republic, especially in the “end game” department, but one thing I think we can all rest easy about is going to be the journey to that point. Finally an MMO where the fun starts at level 1 and not 60.

Source

And I was so looking forward to creating a new lightsaber! That is one piece of weaponry that you like to have customized and unique.... Darn!

Check the large post right above you, Poppins

http://vimeo.com/17752487 <- The video of them creating a lightsaber in TOR.

Nice! You shouldn't be able to play as a Jedi or a Sith if you can't create and customize your own lightsaber. Now where would the fun in that be with that?

I agree, and was really upset when I read that you couldn't. Reading the Torocast update proving that in reality you could was a breath of fresh air for me.

This sounds so awesome. I can't wait to see what all people can come up with!

Originally Posted by DistortedVision

This sounds so awesome. I can't wait to see what all people can come up with!

Same here. It should be very interesting.

I believe you don't get your lightsaber until around level 15. I discovered this from an interview I watched a while back. Theres meant to be some sort of long quest to get your lightsaber and it's supposed to be very challenging.

I can't wait!

Honestly, I'd prefer it to be like that. It would definitely make your lightsaber seem a lot more irreplaceable.

Agreed. However, if they use the same system they use in kotor, there's no reason to replace your lightsaber, as you can simply replace the crystal for a different color, and the fixtures / power crystals for different abilities / upgrades.