Dev Diaries

Star Wars: The Old Republic's game update 1.5, HK-51 Activated, is looming ever-closer. To stir up some interest, the dev team has released information about the new HK-51 companion and the patch's graphical updates. Now it's time for a look at the big picture. A new developer dispatch gives the down-low on what players can expect the update to bring to PvE.

A big feature of HK-51 Activated will be Section X on Belsavis, the site of the Republic's first attempt at a prison colony. Now the area will play home to new Dread Master antics. The area is meant to be "darker" and "edgier" than other content players have encountered and is being touted as the "coolest-looking area" in the game. Players will also find the wreck of the Fatality, which sets them off on a very special venture. (Hint: You're going to track down a legion of HK-51 assassin droids, and this whole thing is called HK-51 Activated, and you know that at some point you get an HK-51 companion.)

Players will be introduced to multiplayer quests during which they have to work together to move through an area without setting off traps or activating alarms. A new world boss, Dreadtooth, will be introduced. When Dreadtooth is killed, he respawns with a stack of Dreadful Resurgence, which makes him harder to kill every time he respawns with players in the area. Those stacks will dwindle if players leave, or they can be deliberately increased to make encounters more interesting. If interesting is what you like, you'll also find nightmare mode available for Operation: Explosive Conflict.

Skip below the cut to hear the developers talk about the patch!

Have you been searching for a way to represent your favorite fantastical faction? Put down the stencils and spray paint: The fine folks behind The Elder Scrolls Online have seen fit to provide you with Twitter and Facebook avatars representing the Ebonheart Pact and its constituent races. Bear the crest of the Pact, Argonians, Dark Elves, or Nords with pride! While you're at it, you might ogle the fancy concept art that accompanies the avatars.

If the Ebonheart Pact isn't your fantasy consortium of choice, maybe you simply don't know enough about it. In that case, an upcoming Q&A about the Ebonheart Pact may be just the thing for you. The TESO dev team is starting a bi-weekly Ask Us Anything Q&A to address questions about the game and its development. Each of the Ask Us Anything sessions will focus on a specific topic, which the team requests you keep in mind while thinking up your "anything" to ask. For the inaugural Q&A, which will go up next week, you can ask whatever you like about the Ebonheart Pact. You can find more information on the official site or submit questions through the official Facebook page.

Aion's 4.0 patch has been getting more and more interesting ever since NCsoft hinted that it would bring three new classes into the game. We've since learned about the Troubadour and the Gunslinger, but 4.0 is about more than just classes. An official news post today introduced a new region that will be coming in 4.0. Katalam, a lush, verdant region will be awaiting players once the patch hits. In addition to the name, the news post showed off some concept art featuring a mountainside fortress, a plains fortress, some old temple-lookin' thing, and a flying fortress.

We don't know anything else about the region yet, but hit up Katalam's introduction to drool over the scenery for yourself.

It's time to start getting excited for Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming 1.5 update. In order to whet your appetite for change, Senior Technical Artist Ben Cloward has graced fans with a glimpse of one of the big graphical changes that'll be coming in with the patch.

Foliage is going to be a lot more beautiful and realistic. Instead of looking solid and therefore unnaturally dark when viewed against the sun, players with their Shader Complexity set to High will notice that leaves and grass will be moderately translucent, allowing sunlight to filter through them. While this may be but one small step for graphics, it's joined by "some even better improvements in the pipe," according to Cloward.

Head on over to the official post to preview the change.