Star Wars: The Old Republic Developer Blog Update

In a new developer blog entry on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website, senior designer Rob Hinkle gives us an introduction to the upcoming Ancient Hypergate warzone. A bit of what to expect:
From a gameplay standpoint, Ancient Hypergate plays like a combination of a 2 point objective map, team death match, and a multi-flag game of capture-the-flag. Each of the two energy pylons is synchronized on a power cycle. At the end of this cycle, each pylon discharges energy into the gate of the faction that controls its objective point. Holding one or both of the pylons directly leads to gaining points at the end of each cycle. The amount of energy discharged is based on the amount of enemies defeated during that specific power cycle. The more players defeated, the more energy discharged into a gate! Additionally, the generators in the central structure of the Warzone release suspended energy orbs into the atmosphere. Players are able to collect these orbs and run them directly to an energy pylon. Getting near a friendly controlled pylon with an orb will immediately discharge a small amount of power directly into the gate.

Strategically, it is important for each faction to hold at least one of the energy pylons when each power cycle comes to a climax, as they are direct multipliers to how much power is discharged into the gate. Holding both pylons results in double the power, while holding neither results in no power discharged at all. After each cycle, each pylon sets off a large explosion that forces the players to either seek shelter in the failsafe shelter or be defeated. Once the explosion has finished, control of each of the pylons is reset and the power cycle begins anew. At the start of each new power cycle, the current count of players killed for each faction is reset and the amount of power gained for each kill and each orb capture is increased. This gives teams who are behind in the early cycles a way to get back into the game by performing exceptionally well in the later cycles when the stakes are higher.