An update on Republic Trooper and a massive thank you to all of our readers!

Written By: Andy Muchmore

This past week, July 2nd to be exact, Republic Trooper turned 1 – happy birthday RT! Although it is our birthday week, I felt it was appropriate to update all of you with the status of RT as a whole. Obviously over the past several months things have slowed to a crawl and I would like to personally address the situation.

Three years ago a very good friend of mine, Dave, approached me with the idea of RepublicTrooper.com. At the time I was neck deep in other projects and I was unavailable to help out, even though I was eagerly following the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Over the years I would get phone calls, emails, texts, and the like asking if and when I would be available to “make it happen.” Around May of last year I was finally in a place where I could offer my services to Dave and help build Republic Trooper from the ground up. After several months of planning and development RT saw its first public reader and we were off to the races!

Since that time RT has seen tremendous growth and acceptance within the overall Star Wars: The Old Republic community – and I have to say, all of us cannot thank you enough for being readers, listeners, fans, and for not only playing the Trooper class in game, but being believers in BioWare and SWTOR to begin with. When RT went live we were woefully late to the game, in terms of established fan sites, but we did this for the love of the game, the love of the class, and to be honest – the love of the company that made it all happen. As long time gamers we had faith that a company like BioWare would, without a doubt, blow our minds with their new MMO.

Tags: Andy Muchmore, Ask A Jedi, beta, Bioware, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, community, David Bass, David Souza, EA, Early Game Access, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, LucasArts, Mike Kern, MMOs, Patch 1.1, Project Titan, R2-DB, Republic Trooper, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Stephen Reid, SWTOR, Titan Everything, TOR, TOR Syndicate, TORWars, Trooper

Cover My Six is a column where Republic Troopers can get the latest and greatest intel on working with companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic. From crafting, to combat, to companion affection and more, Cover My Six will send you into battle with a better understanding of how your Companion Characters work and how together, you can rule the galaxy in in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I remember the days and weeks leading up to The Old Republic’s release. Websites, forums and water coolers everywhere were abuzz with chatter surrounding BioWare’s first MMO with everyone opining about one aspect of the game or another. No matter where I turned, however, people seemed to be more interested in one aspect of the game over everything else—Companions.

While there’s no question that TOR’s Companion system is far and away the current leader in NPC sidekicks there is still quite a bit of room for improvement. Room that I think BioWare will be very keen on taking advantage of.

Tags: Aric Jorgan, Bioware, C2-N2, Companions, Crafting, Crew Skills, David Souza, EA, Elara Dorne, Electronic Arts, Georg Zoeller, Havoc Squad, Legacy System, LucasArts, M1-4X, MMOs, Operations, Republic Trooper, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Tanno Vik, TOR, Trooper, Yuun

Not to disparage Han Solo’s skills with a blaster, but perhaps what he should have said during that memorable moment aboard the Millennium Falcon was, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good Wookie at your side kid.” Throughout Star Wars lore we see sidekicks and droids, apprentices and mercenaries all serving the same purpose of supporting the heroes and villains in all they do as the story unfolds.

Tags: Bioware, classes, Commando, Companions, developers, healer, Millennium Falcon, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, The Old Republic, TOR, Vanguard, Wookie