BioWare Blog: Happiness is a Warm Gun

And then it was Friday. E3 is over (I'll see if I can post links and my thoughts over the weekend) and we're back to regular Friday updates.

First is the next issue of the Threat of Peace webcomic. Here's the official news:

The eighth issue of Threat of Peace™ catches up with Jedi Knight Satele Shan and Master Dar’Nala as they travel to the Outer Rim to ensure that Republic military withdrawals are conducted in accordance with the Treaty of Coruscant. They’re accompanied by the ever-observant Imperial protocol droid SP-99. As Republic and Imperial leaders are adapting to the new galactic landscape, a disturbing new alliance is developing behind-the-scenes in Nar Shaddaa’s criminal Underworld.

Check out the latest issue of Threat of Peace now.

Seems the Jedi aren't too happy about the forced peace and we see some plot brewing on Ord Mantel.

The other update continues the theme of the last couple of months and focuses on the Trooper class. This time we get a BioWare blog entry in which Principal Lead Combat Designer Damion Schubert talks about creating the Trooper class. Here's an excerpt:

When we start designing classes, we want to start with the experience–what should it feel like to play– what should it feel like to play as a Jedi or a Bounty Hunter? When doing so, we often touch upon character archetypes seen in the films: what would it be like to play the Han Solo experience, the Boba Fett experience or the Darth Vader experience? We were still concerned about how these classes would fit into an RPG advancement system and fulfill certain MMO needs, but first and foremost, our top concern as we were designing the Trooper was “Will playing this make me feel like I’m a Trooper?”

Most interesting is a statement near the end: "He’s got an array of morale-themed party buffs designed to strengthen himself and his party." Considering that Troopers already get heavy armor, heavy weapons and grenades I'm wondering if that isn't a bit much. Besides, I was expecting the fourth class to be more buffing-based. But we'll see.

Decent update at least. And we already know what we're getting next week as well (Smuggler reveal and E3 highlights).