BioWare has posted two updates on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site today: a Fan Friday segment and a Studio Insider article that contains a developer Q&A and an in-depth look at the creation of the X70B-Phantom starship.

The Studio Insider article contains the meat of today's update. Senior Concept Artist Ryan Dening and Senior Environment Artist Christopher Reeves provides a ton of detail on how an in-game ship is created, and the Q&A with Senior Producer Blaine Christine answers some interesting questions that were submitted by fans on the official forums. You can read the full Q&A after the jump.

As always, the Fan Friday segment contains fan art, fan fiction, forum avatars and concept art. The most noteworthy portion is the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be present at PAX East this year. The convention will be held from March 11-13 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Community Q&A

We took some of your questions from the last Community Q&A thread to Senior Producer Blaine Christine to get answers, and here they are!

Q: How diverse can I expect the enemies to be? (asked by mattjorgdbb)

A: Our Design team and Artists have been putting a lot of time and effort into ensuring that each world has a very distinct look and feel; even specific areas within each world receive this attention. A big part of this is the diversity of the enemies you will encounter as players. We’re confident that as you move through the game, you will be pleased with the progression of enemies – not only from a visual standpoint, but also in the variety of attacks and challenges that they offer.

Q: Will players of one allegiance be able to visit the opposite allegiance’s planets? (asked by DarkLots)

A: There are certain planets within the galaxy that are only available to one allegiance or the other, but the majority of planets are open to the Republic and the Empire, allowing opportunities to - ahem - ‘encounter’ the other side should you so desire.

Q: Will there be specific quests and/or chains within the class quests for Advanced Classes? (asked by ROFLBATLECOPTER)

Advanced Classes do not have a direct impact on quests or storyline. They obviously have a huge impact on your character’s progression and abilities in addition to the weapons and armor you are allowed to use. Rest assured that, this being a BioWare game, there will be plenty of opportunities to make significant and impactful decisions throughout the course of each Class story. So much so that I suspect many of you will want to play individual classes more than once.

Q: What will BW/EA do in combating cheating in-game with the use of Bots/hacking? (asked by Draigon)

A: Everything within our power.

Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome? (asked by valkyor)

A: Oh, YES! As someone who has had the privilege of seeing the armor progression for each class in the game, I can say without hesitation that you will be blown away by the high level goodies for all of the classes. LucasArts has been great at allowing us to really push the envelope here to make sure that the players that put in significant effort will be amply rewarded. I can’t wait to see the diversity of characters in the game after we have a full server that is live for a while. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words…

Q: Can you miss acquiring a companion without realizing it during the game? (asked by DarthPrecious)

A: Generally speaking, these opportunities are all pretty obvious to the player, as they occur along the main path of your Class Quests. We do, however, reserve the right to put some goodies out there for the particularly ambitious player to find.

Q: Will characters from Knights of the Old Republic be mentioned and will events from Knights of the Old Republic II have an impact on the game? (asked by Forcemachine)

A: All I can say for the KOTOR and KOTOR II fans out there is you will not be disappointed. The Old Republic has been written from Day One of development with the idea that it was a true sequel to the original Knights of the Old Republic games. For folks that have not played those games, you will certainly feel right at home as well, but to get the full backstory we do encourage players to play KOTOR I and II. Or maybe at least read the Wookieepedia entries!

Q: Will we be able to queue an entire group for Warzones? (asked by kbrury)

A: Yes! You can queue solo or in an existing group and our dynamic matchmaking system will do its best to find suitable opponents accordingly.

Q: Will you be able to receive special quests via conversations with your companions? (asked by twistern)

A: Yes; as in previous BioWare games, Companion Characters do indeed have quests of their own. Completing these quests can result in changes to the affection level of that Companion and can uncover rewards for both you and your party that may not be found anywhere else in the game. Each companion also has a distinct personality as they interact with you and other characters you encounter throughout your personal Star Wars saga. We have some great personalities that have been designed and written for The Old Republic!