BioWare have confirmed that they will be implementing space combat in their upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. The news arrived at Comic Con and more details are promised to come in a full length feature published in the October issue of PC Gamer. The company is now only saying that the space combat elements will not be mandatory and that players will be able to choose which adversaries to engage.

An official post on The Old Republic forums adds that, “Space combat is an alternative gameplay experience to the primary game of storytelling, questing, and ground-based combat. In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map. From there, you will blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, frigates, destroyers, and a variety of other obstacles that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars space battles.”

It's not clear whether players will be able to customize their space ships or whether different models will be offered for the various character classes that appear in Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare also needs to say whether the space battles will provide the player with rewards which can then be used in the narrative or whether the space aspect is self contained and will not influence the rest of the MMO.

BioWare has previously created starships like the Normandy, for the Mass Effect series, and the Ebon Hawk, for Knights of the Old Republic, but they were mostly used to get from one missions hub to another and actual battles were only show in cutscenes. The developers seem to have bigger ambitions for their first MMO. BioWare has already confirmed that The Old Republic will have an unique narrative for each class and that full voice work will be offered for all characters.