With game update 1.2 now in the past, the community is already looking forward to 1.3. IGN brings us a preview of the update along with an interview with James Ohlen. Here are a few highlights of that interview:

IGN: The group finder has been a requested feature since The Old Republic’s launch, though there seemed to be some initial resistance against the idea because it would disrupt the flow of exploration. Why is now the right time to implement it? And does it support cross-server play?

Daniel Erickson: In the early days post-launch we wanted players to be discovering the game for the first time and forming natural social groups. A huge wave of players come in all at once in the beginning and finding a group is never really a problem for the bulk of players. Now players have spread all across the leveling curve and the Legacy system is causing players to roll new characters like never before which means we need a simple, flexible system to put players together with other players in their level band. We still want to respect the communities that have developed on servers so it does not support cross-server play.

While I think many players would disagree with Daniel’s statement for waiting on a dungeon finder, it is a most welcome addition to the game. From my point of view, I couldn’t find one dungeon group easily while leveling up at launch. Hopefully this helps new and old players alike.

Read the rest of the interview over at IGN and watch the included video. One of the other major features of the game update is crafting and augment slots.

IGN recently got a chance to listen to James Ohlen discuss the beta process and the future of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The topics ranged from looking for group features to the future expansion of the game. Here are a few interesting excerpts.

On a Dungeon Finder:

IGN: Moving forward might there be something like a group finder or something like that? An auto-finder implemented into the game?

James Ohlen: Some people ask for a dungeon finder system but the thing about those systems is they’re really for more of a mature online game. If you put a system in early on it really takes away from the exploration of the level up game. If you have people all just basically waiting around their dungeon finder and all being grouped up together, they’re going to actually take the time to explore all the worlds that are available in the Old Republic galaxy. So it’s definitely a feature that we want to put in, we just want to put it in at the right time. However, the looking for group feature is something that we continue to work on, we want to make that more robust and more powerful.

So we’ll eventually see a dungeon finder but at the right time. This is the first time we’re learning the reason why they are holding off on this system.

For many crafting enthusiasts, the biggest announcement arrived on October 26th from IGN: Crafting professions will have options in Flashpoints to help out the group by opening up new paths. Some may cheer, and others will give a “So what?”. For those naysayer’s this article is for you, because this design choice may be more important than you might realize.

In past theme-park MMO’s leading up to SWTOR, we find crafting to be a combat oriented deal. For anyone who may not know, a theme park MMO is one that keeps you on-rails through quests and a specific story rather than a sandbox environment in the style of SWG. In terms of style and gameplay, SWTOR is joining the ranks of World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online in how it is designed. This choice to make crafting have a place in dungeons could be the beginning of something wonderful. Join me after the cut to read more.

IGN has published another article, and this time they touched on Light Side and Dark Side points that you gain through the story. The author focused on the effects of the Light Side and Dark side has on your character.

I was extremely successful. By the time my Knight had acquired his starship I had exactly 1000 Light side points and 1000 Dark side points, leaving me perfectly centered, perfectly grey. But this was to my detriment. In Coruscant I first began to see powerful new items that would greatly benefit my character, but I could use none of them. They all had alignment requirements — “Lightside I” or “Darkside II.” There were no items built with a condition of neutrality. In fact, the only good items I could acquire outside of random drops and quest rewards were from the PvP vendors, making most of my Coruscant Commendations, a special currency for powerful gear, virtually useless.

It appears that there will be different “Tiers” of Darkside alignment as gear requirements, which is something we have yet to see. Also it appears that there is no “grey” alignment or middle of the road rewards yet. I believe James Ohlen at NYCC 2011 said that there will be something, but it’s just not in the game yet.

Make sure you check out the full article linked above.

Another great article from IGN, this time giving their impression of Flashpoints. They go over The Hammer and The Esseles, which are the Empire and Republic only flashpoints respectively.

The Hammer:

The Hammer introduces the idea of using player’s crafting abilities to create quicker, less dangerous paths through the Flashpoint. Towards the start of the instance, we came across a drill pointed at a wall and a control panel that could only be operated by someone with a certain level of salvaging ability. One of our party members just happened to be able to salvage the drill. It switched on, drilled a hole through the adjacent wall, and made a path directly to the first boss.

The Esseles:

The Esseles builds tension not through its encounters — many of which are simple to suit the beginner-status of the Flashpoint — but through choices. At two particular points, players are given story-bending options, and through the dice-rolling conversation system, only one player’s choice will decide the outcome. This can make the group story sequences quite tense, because unless you’re constantly communicating with your party members you have no way of knowing what those players will choose.

Make sure you get over to IGN and read the rest of their impressions.

Articles continue to fly off the keyboards of the press, and today we get another one from IGN where they preview the combat of SWTOR.

I know that the intention behind the system is to make you consider whether you would rather use a special skill right that second or build up more of your class resource in order to pile on the damage a little later. The issue I take, I think, is that my basic attack didn’t have damage anywhere near comparable to even some of my weaker resource-using skills. It didn’t seem to scale very well, and it made swinging my Lightsaber at a group of droids feel more like wagging a twig.

The author goes on to explain the lack of auto attack and the feeling of that while playing. Instead of sitting there doing nothing and watching some numbers crawl up the screen, players are expected to use a keypress every time they expect to do something. The author then goes on to explain a quick observation of the Trooper vs. the Jedi Knight.

It didn’t help that the Knight has so few area-of-effect attack options, at least before level 20. In The Old Republic, most of the enemies you fight come in small groups. This is a design choice intended to make your character feel powerful from the get-go, but it ended up having the opposite effect after I saw what classes like the Trooper were capable of. My Jedi Knight had a single ability that damaged multiple targets, and the damage wasn’t particularly high. If so much of the combat didn’t emphasize multiple targets so heavily this wouldn’t have been an issue. The Knight also didn’t get any powerful crowd control, which made questing alone somewhat frustrating at times, and made me more reliant on my companion for mass killing power. Yes, the Knight (and especially the Guardian advanced class I chose) is meant for tanking in group situations, but BioWare may need to introduce skills that are more viable for solo-play or may risk discouraging low-level dedicated tanks.

It looks like Bioware has some balancing to do, at least from the perspective of this IGN Staff Writer. However, as we found out at NYCC, the developers are still putting out new builds and don’t seem to be slowing down!

The media embargo was lifted last week and many of the media sites have been posting new articles every day that talk about individual media player’s experience with the game. Today IGN published an article titled, “Story Matters in the Old Repbulic”. In the article the author comments on the effect the story has on his desire to continue playing the game regardless of the typical MMO grind.

It was the story presentation that pulled me along. I knew exactly who I was fighting for, I knew my foes, and I could make decisions about how to proceed. I was, in fact, role-playing. It’s something I’m well accustomed to in single-player games like The Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect, but something I don’t expect to find in online games. In the past I’ve taken on roles like Protection Paladin in World of Warcraft, but nothing related directly to personality. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, I wasn’t merely a Commando Trooper, but a Commando Trooper with Dark tendencies, fighting for the Republic no less –the alleged good guys.

The rest of the article relates his time as a Republic Trooper and only one or two extremely minor spoilers.

UPDATE: Here is another review published by Gamespy, a site owned by IGN. This article gives you a broad over view of the author’s experience with his opinions, good and bad, of the game as a whole.

IGN has put together a full media hub for all of their impressions now that the press embargo has been lifted. Currently there are three articles posted each detailing something different. Currently we can read about:

• Companions and Crafting
• The Trooper Class
• PVP Warzones

These articles have got tons of new information ready for your consumption! The Trooper article is fantastic as the author really gives you some insight in the different abilities and play style of the trooper all the way up to level 18. The Companion article gives us a really awesome first hand impression of the crafting system using your companions and a few details about the Jedi Knight. The PVP articles gives us a rundown on a few Warzones.