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00:30We had to decide which planets we were going to put in that were from Star Wars and Knights of
00:34the Old Republic.
00:35Taras would be a really cool planet to put in there because it was totally destroyed in the first game.
00:39When we decided to destroy Taras in Knights of the Old Republic, we did so because we felt we really
00:44needed an impactful moment from the main villain of the game.
00:48So Malak had to come across as someone despicable.
00:53We cannot risk her escaping Taras. Destroy the entire planet.
00:59We thought the best way to do that was to give you this world that you had experienced and discovered
01:04and come to love and then have him destroy it right in front of you.
01:18We're bringing it back in Star Wars The Old Republic. It's one of the major worlds in the game and
01:22it hasn't been reconstructed so it's still in ruins.
01:25And it's really cool because you finally get to see what happened hundreds of years after you left Taras, after
01:31it got blown up by Darth Malak.
01:33When we first heard about Taras, it was definitely one of the coolest things we'd heard.
01:38Because in my opinion, Taras is possibly the most iconic planet on the original KOTOR.
01:43It's definitely the most memorable. Everybody knows what happened to Taras. It doesn't end very well.
01:47How do we sell the fact that Taras was a city planet and then all these thousands of years later,
01:53what does it look like then?
01:54We're kind of bouncing, city planet destroyed, along with, you know, it's kind of a swampy, what would it look
01:59like now?
02:00Because it's not just a bunch of ruins out there. It's actually a city planet that people are familiar with.
02:05The general story of Taras right now is it's been in ruins for hundreds of years.
02:09You know, the Rat Ghouls, which are one of the big enemies in the sewers of the original Taras in
02:14the Nice Old Republic, are rampant around the planet.
02:17So the Rat Ghouls, they've evolved over the past 300 years just in ways where their ferociousness, just the kind
02:24of attacks and the kind of things that they're going to do, just seem that much more vicious.
02:28They're particularly challenging because they came from what were humans, so bipedal creatures, but because they're encompassed with this disease,
02:37you know, they're sort of bent over and twisted.
02:38And that was something that we had in the original KOTOR, and we wanted to bring that forward into TOR
02:44as well.
02:44You know, where our animators really shine is where they can use different references to various different kinds of animals
02:50and creatures.
02:51So the Rat Ghouls, you know, stem from kind of ape-like movements, almost like a big giant, you know,
02:56gorilla or something like that.
02:58And then, you know, how you'd mix that with a human and how it would move.
03:02The story of Taras in the Old Republic is a very interesting one.
03:05It's a very symbolic world.
03:07The Republic wants to rebuild it to show that even with all the devastation wrought by Malak and the Sith,
03:13they can rebuild, they can survive, they can come back from this kind of thing.
03:18Conversely, of course, the Imperials don't want them to rebuild.
03:23They don't want to have this evidence that the Republic is strong enough to come back from this kind of
03:28devastation.
03:28The original plan for Taras was to have a, you know, a giant swamp.
03:34But once we actually started blocking Taras out, we really started to push what we could do with the vertical
03:40nest.
03:40And then everybody saw it, like, oh my God, it looks great.
03:43And so we just kept going and going and more and more.
03:46And eventually we got to where everybody saw it and like, wow, that's definitely Taras.
03:51Taras is one of the more interesting worlds in the Old Republic.
03:54Not just because it's, you know, an old world from Knights of the Old Republic,
03:57but also because it's a type of world that hasn't been explored in video games very often,
04:01which is this huge Coruscant-like or, you know, metropolitan-like city that's been completely wiped out.
04:06So you have all these huge skyscrapers that have been destroyed and toppled
04:10and have these incredible vistas.
04:11You have these incredibly unique areas to explore.
04:14It's just a very unique looking planet.
04:16And I think people are going to be impressed with it.
04:18I know that it's one of our favorite planets here on the team.
04:21One of the great things about the original Knights of the Old Republic games
04:24was players were able to make an impact on the Star Wars galaxy.
04:27They were able to leave their mark on this wonderful setting.
04:31And in the Old Republic MMO, we're trying to make sure we recapture that spirit,
04:36that importance of the player.
04:39So whether you're a Republic faction or an Imperial player,
04:44you are going to get a chance to make a real difference.
04:46You get to determine what is going to happen to this world,
04:50and it will be reflected in what happens in the game.
04:54Your choices actually make a difference.
05:01Thank you.
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