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Thread: Where does LA stand on the traditional look of Kashyyyk?
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BobaSing
Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:45 pm
#1
Hey, this is actually my first post on here, though I have played SWG since it's launch in the UK 
I am a big EU fan, and have been a fan of the planet Kashyyyk from the first time I saw it in the comic adaption of Heir to the Empire. This wasn't the first time Kashyyyk has been visualised of course, but I just loved how the artist had shown it.
There are now manysources for the look of Kashyyyk -
The Star Wars Holiday Special
A story in the Marvel Star Wars comic series
The Wookiee Storybook
Heir to the Empire(amongst other books)
RPG sourcebooks
The ebook, "A Forest Apart"
A story in the Marvel Star Wars comic series
The Wookiee Storybook
Heir to the Empire(amongst other books)
RPG sourcebooks
The ebook, "A Forest Apart"
LA games such as - KOTOR, Galactic Battlegrounds, Battlefront and now Republic Commando.
To date, the most authorative article was a planet guide in WOTC's Star Wars Gamer magazine, issue 4.
Now I know in Ep III we will see Kashyyyk, and in that film we will see a costal city on Kashyyyk - you can get an idea from playing the Kashyyyk levels in Battlefront. However, the more traditional view of Kashyyyk appears in KOTOR I - the idea that the Wookiees built their cities around the higher levels of the gigantic wroshyr trees that covered Kashyyyk, and that the lower levels of Kashyyyk were dark, gloomy, and extremely dangerous places to travel. In fact Wookiees only ventured there as part of a rite of passage into adulthood. The earliest depictions of Kashyyyk (the SW Holiday Special, the Wookiee Storybook and the Marvel comics) were based on a design given by George Lucas himself. This isn't just EU based, the idea came from the creator to how the Wookiee homeworld looked and how Wookiees' lived.
It is understandable that somewhere on Kashyyyk there must be large expanses of water for the huge forests to keep growing and alive. These expanses will meet land on a shore line, and the will probably Wookiees living there. That's all fine and well, and so are the two levels in SW Battlefront, which fit with the Ep III look.
But after scanning through the images for this new planet in SWG, I didn't see any of the established EU look, more it seemed that Kashyyyk was quite flat and the wookiees and other species (Rodians and Tradoshans) seem quite happy on the lower levels of the Wookiee planet- I understand that the Ep III look must be there too, but where is the established Wookiee civilisation far up in the trees? Will it be there at all? Remember that at the time of SWG setting, Chewie's hometown of Rwookrrorro will be more important that the costal city to be seen in Ep III. All the main sources state this.
I hope that the Kashyyyk in SWG will give a nod to what has already been done before, I understand it will be hard task to do, but I love the Kashyyyk look of the EU, and I really would love to see that as much as any new look Ep III gives. Or is it that Kashyyyk look is now very much different from what was originally conceived?
This is the entry on the official site for Kashyyyk, the established EU version- http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/kashyyyk/eu.html
Thanks for reading 
nawchir
Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:57 pm
#2
Trust me since Lucas himself is over seeing this project it will look and feel just like the kashyyk you first learned about. Lucas hasnt let us down yet
tizodd
Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:08 pm
#3
Well, like so many other (minor) continuity "hiccups" in the SW universe, I've decided to resolve this one in my own mind and be happy with it. I'm a huge SW fan, and also a stickler for continuity (what am I doing playing SWG? LoL). Way I figure, the areas spoken about in times past that were VERY dangerous the lower down you went, are still there, and that is where most of Wookiee culture developed and remains...now as far as us getting to see that in swG? I can see the logistic problems of having a planet with no ground-level play....similar problems would pop up if they introduced Coruscant, but I really wish they would...
maybe for Kashyyyk (and Imperial Center in the future) we should just have had one gigantic CITY available (with things and npc's to hunt within it).
Ah well. I'm still tickled to go there!
Rodian-Bob
Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:22 pm
#4
Ever read the book Midworld by Alan Dean Foster? Kashyyyk is like that, in my mind.Top level is dominated by huge, mean,hungry flying creatures, while the lowest level containssome of the nastiest creatures known in the Galaxy. The safezone is in the middle, where the Wookies build theirsuspended villages and cities.
KOTOR did a pretty decent job of giving the wet, dark, sun-never-shines, fungus-ridden, dank-forest-bottom waste that are the lower Hells of the perma-forest.
We'll just have to figure that we formerly were onlyfamiliar with just a small part of the Wookie Homeworld. Kinda like the "Forest Moon of Endor",which looked like a rain forest all over the place inRotJ,then in the Ewok TV Movies it's all varied terrain... kinda like the SWG Endor in fact.
I think they'll do a decent job with it. Just have to expand our minds to take in the new revelations. 
Zeon_Zaku
Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:34 pm
#5
By the pictures, it looks like Kashyyyk will be pretty much ground-based, no houses in trees or walking up amongst the trees.
Of course, these could be in another part of the planet, who knows. But in the pictures, everything is on the ground. Really, it looks like the planet Endor in the pictures, with a lot of Wookiees and more housing.
Of course, these could be in another part of the planet, who knows. But in the pictures, everything is on the ground. Really, it looks like the planet Endor in the pictures, with a lot of Wookiees and more housing.
MattDaComputerGuy
Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:17 pm
#6
It'd be cool to be able to place player houses in trees with staircases that wind up around the trees.
Zeon_Zaku
Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:32 pm
#7
MattDaComputerGuy wrote:
It'd be cool to be able to place player houses in trees with staircases that wind up around the trees.
That would be pretty cool, actually. But I have a feeling Kashyyyk wont be "liveable". So you wont be able to place houses on it.
Kitoth
Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:52 pm
#8
KOTOR did a great job with Kashyyyk. The problem is Kashyyyk, done right, would have to be done like Coruscant or Nar Shadda- where the whole planet is just structures high above the ground. But since they obviously can't do either of the latter 2 planets with the current game engine, I don't expect they can do it for Kashyyyk either.
What I think we can expect from SWG will be along the lines of Endor. Go visit one of the ewok tree villages and I think that's about the best they can do when it comes to the wookiee tree villages.
Sifer2
Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:45 pm
#10
A whole Planet that was nothing but tree villages would'nt be that fun. Obviously all the Villages could'nt connect either. Instead they will probably include some deep forest areas that look like the KOTOR area as well as the beach areas an fields from Episode III. If I were you guys I would be more concerned with creatures an making them as powerful an dangerous as they are supposed to be. In any case I doubt there is anything down there strong enough to beat an AT-AT so it makes sense for some installations to be on the ground level.
BobaSing
Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:24 am
#11
To understand the immense size of the forests, and how they get from city to city without much difficulty, let's just say the SW Gamer article established that there were a Kashyyyk varient of the Bantha, and these Banthas had no trouble on the branches leading between cities. The branches are that big in the upper levels.
Also, Wookiee has claws for a reason, they use them in mobility between the trees. I think you'd have to read "Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn or the Han Solo trilogy by AC Crispen (I am going from memory here sorry) because both of them describe how wookiees travel on their planet (I think Han lost his lunch the first time Chewie showed him around). The basics - Humans would have plenty of trouble, Wookiees were born to traverse this environment.
It's a shame we will get a more "Endor-like" Kashyyyk, but I understand the game engine has limits. I know SWG differs from the "real" SW Galaxy in some points (like hundreds of Jedi running around during the Galactic Civil War) but that is more a player choice / freedom whereas the planets are defined in stone by LA, and it would have been good to see at least a nod to the EU (and not just abigger tree than elsewhere in SWG - which is the way it will go more likely - Wookiee trees weren't just bigger, they uber-bigger lol).
Anyways, thanks for replying guys 
Have to say, I am not a regular (daily)player, but I love SWG as it is.
Message Edited by BobaSing on 03-11-2005 07:25 AM
Rogue135
Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:06 am
#12
All I can say about it is, if they don't have the tree top cities on a large scale, I will be beyond disappointed. If they are going to add a world as complex as Kashyyyk by their choice, they should at least do it right.
DarthGorilla
Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:45 am
#13
As far as I understand Kashyyyk is going to be in Episode 3 and it will likely be somewhat different than the EU version. As in all things Star Wars nothing is set until "The George" says so.
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