On March 13th, TORHead launched an awesome new feature as described on their official forums: “”Today we launched a new feature here on Torhead, our SWTOR Model Viewer is now available and can be viewed on any weapon page! Here’s a couple to check out: Modified DTB-27 Bolt Pistol, Centurion Enforcer’s Sniper Rifle, The Debilitator, The Heart of Ragnos and Prototype N-30 Battle Techblade” Since the game does not currently a ctrl+left click feature for weapons, this is an amazing feature. All you have to do is go to the page/listing of the item and click on “view in 3D” and you will get a pop-up window to show you the 3D model version of just what the item looks like in-game. This is just one more tool to make their database awesome and the coolest on SWTOR to date. Send a big thanks to the guys over at TORHead…
Author: Lisa Clark
SWTOR Numbers Continue to Grow after Very Smooth Launch
Do we know if SWTOR had a smooth launch or not? While some will speculate and others will claim otherwise, you can see the evidence in the game forums, as well as by playing the game itself and you will learn if it had a smooth launch. The same can be said for any MMO, as Gamasutra reminds us. They spoke with Dallas Dickinson, production director at Star Wars: The Old Republic developer BioWare Austin at GDC earlier this month and learned a few more things about SWTOR launch and how the numbers continue to grow. “The launch went really, really well. I think sort of surprisingly smoothly,” Dickinson said, with hint of real actual surprise. But it’s true: the biggest MMO to launch in years might not be perfect, but it went off with no major hitches. “A smooth launch was one of our goals,” he added. “”We had…
SWTOR Strategies Gets a New Look!
In order to serve you, our readers, even better we have gotten a makeover. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to make the site look better for you and to give you more of what you want- great SWTOR and Star Wars related content. We appreciate you, especially those of you who have been with us for years now and we hope to continue to be your source for news, guides, fun and more. As with any transition of this grand scale, there might be a few bugs here and there. Please be patient and know that we are working diligently to ensure the makeover is a huge success. If there are features you want to see here, stories you want us to cover or if you have general feedback, remember that we welcome your input and feel free to contact us. Thank you again for reading and welcome…
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Doing Better after SWTOR’s Launch
There is another Star Wars game people are talking about. It’s not SWTOR this time but Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. “Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, an online gaming world aimed at younger (eight- to 12-year old) fans of the animated TV show, has crossed more than 10 million registered users.” The free to play game is actually seeing an increase in subscribers since SWTOR came out. Could this be people who cannot afford SWTOR playing Clone Wars Adventures instead or maybe it’s the children of parents who are playing SWTOR who want to enjoy a Star Wars game of their own? Maybe everyone’s just gotten Star Wars fever right now, making it good timing for anyone with a game on the subject. “Focused on creating a fun and safe online environment for kids and families, Clone Wars Adventures offers exciting minigames, dynamic activities, lively social events and thousands of…
Raising Affection Tip: How to Get Rid of 30 Sec Timer
Are you looking to max out affection with your companions? Have a companion or two that is not full on affection yet? If you’re looking for a way to gain that affection more quickly, here’s how you can get rid of the 30 second timer when giving gifts. Zdlite posts: “Dunno if this is common knowledge yet, but i thought i’d drop this gem. When giving companions gifts espec when you first start (cause you can buy a gang of rank 5 greens from vendor, across form GTN). You can negate the 30 sec wait time, with a loading screen. I use the first instance zone, stand outside hand gift, run in hand gift, lather, rinse, repeat. My load time is usually under 10 secs, plus it’ll also cycle crewskill missions for ya =)” Is it an exploit? Here’s the big question that people have before using this trick. Will…
How to Find the Right Guild in SWTOR
Are you a new player or previously unguilded player looking for the right guild in SWTOR? Well, this game, like any MMO, is designed to have social aspects. While you can play solo and you certainly don’t have to have a guild in order to enjoy parts of the game, it does bring a lot to the table when you find a good one. Some players were part of multi-gaming guilds that moved over to SWTOR from previous games they were playing. But for others, the search for a guild can be daunting. Here are some tips on how to find and get into a good guild: Play the game: First, play the game for awhile first. This will give you the very important opportunity to first see what it is you like about the game and how you want to play and then find a guild that meets your…
The Old Republic Encyclopedia Coming This Fall
SWTOR fans have something new to add to their collection. TheForce.net brings us the story of the upcoming The Old Republic Encyclopedia. Here’s what they had to say: DK supplied some more information regarding their upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia in their Fall 2012 catalog: Since its release in 2011, the massively multiplayer online role playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic has captivated thousands of gamers and Star Wars fans alike. Now comes the ultimate in-depth guide to the turbulent and fascinating world featured in the game—The Old Republic. Created in full collaboration with LucasArts, this in-depth companion covers the spectrum of characters, weapons, vehicles, events, and planets of Star Wars: The Old Republic. More than just an encyclopedia, it is the ultimate guided tour of the dangerous and mysterious universe found in a galaxy far, far away. The hardcover book (352 pages, $ 40.00) will be available from October 2012….
Star Wars Kinect Dropped the Ball with Dance-Dance Revolution A-la Storm Troopers
My son is drying to get Star Wars Kinect. He’s probably the only person who will still feel that way after seeing this video. In his defense, my son is 5 and dancing with Storm Troopers is probably just the right level of fun for him. He’s too young to remember the Village People and I’m not sure he’s ever even heard “YMCA”. To the rest of us, the gameplay video is laughable. While the game features pod races, lightsaber battles and more, there’s also the Galactic Dance Off session which is well… lacking to say the least. The gameplay trailer gives us two semi-bored looking children trying to keep up with Storm Troopers dancing to the Empire version of “YMCA”… “It’s great to be in the Empire today… It’s great to be in the Empire today!” Ok, maybe not. While there are many other portions of the game, the…
SWTOR Guild Summit RP, Guilds, UI, and All the Rest
Another interesting part of the Summit was panels on Roleplaying, Guilds and the UI changes. We concluded with the “all the rest” section that was whatever hadn’t already been covered in another panel. More than 18,000 people were watching along by the end of the livestream and some livestream questions were also asked in the Q&A session. RP discussion Legacy features: RP emotes, family tree, social unlocks, alignment unlocks Chat bubbles – we had a performance issue so we had to remove it previously. More orange gear with viability at end-game – wear what you want, wherever you want Dynamic events: NOT TALKING ABOUT IT – serverwide limited time events Improving spawning techs – NPCs that you can’t click on – they will increase or decrease depending on your system – we will populated the more empty areas. More ambient creatures Legacy: how does it affect roleplayers? What you like…
Georg Zoeller, you show dem Forums!
Georg Zoeller is a funny guy. We’re not laughing at him, we’re laughing with him on this post in the official forums where some players seem to have complaints about the guild summit, 1.2 and what is and is not coming in the future of the game. Originally Posted by Coldin One thing that I was really hoping would come out of the Guild Summit was more information on what class balances would be taking place in 1.2. There’s been some hints here and there that changes are coming. IGN even reported that Jedi Knights will be receiving some new skills, while Bounty Hunters will be receiving a nerf. In fact, entire skill trees are changing so greatly they’re actually refunding our skill points for free. However we have yet to see any details about this. With 1.2 being pushed out to early April, it’s becoming more difficult for me…
Patch 1.1.5 PvP Commendation Infographic
Hey everyone, I was recently asked to make a guide for new 50s or those who havn’t pvp’ed a while about the current PvP currency system. As many of you may be aware – as of patch 1.1.5 they streamlined the route to obtain battlemaster and champion commendations – it is no longer dependent on RNG anymore since you can now directly purchase these commendations. Anyways, I thought I would get creative and make an inforgraphic rather than a wall of text 😛 Hope you find it useful! Imgur mirror:http://imgur.com/WkEIs Oh yes, this is only valid until patch 1.2.
Fansite Coverage of Guild Summit and Hands On with The Lost Island
Interviews and photo-taking at Guild Summit It would seem that websites invited as the “official press” got different coverage from those of us who were there as guild leaders. They had special seating in the back of the room and rules on when they were allowed to film and report (and I think also on when they could report on certain things). I wasn’t in any of those secret press meetings so I cannot tell you all the scoop but all of the staff and members of those sites that I met while “mingling” were super nice and awesome to be around. You can tell that it really takes a certain level of “nerd factor” to attend these things (and also to write for a fansite) and we all left our shame at home when we left for the Guild Summit. 🙂 Seriously, there was a common ground we shared…
SWTOR Guild Summit Economy/Crew Skills Discussion
Economy and crew skills were one discussion panel I waspersonally interested in. This is probably because one of the things I lovemost about playing MMOs is playing the economy and making money/credits. I likewatching the numbers grow. It’s a weird fascination I have… to each his own,right? So anyway, there were some pretty useful things to come outof this panel at the Summit. First, they said the economy is doing very welldespite the hard to use Galactic Trade Network (GTN). We could all agree thatcould use a little more work. This panel was very much about stats and figures so I lovedit (others seemed to be falling asleep during it- but then again, it was a longday). Here are some highlights: Crewskill distribution: BioChem is not the most used skill – archeology andscavenging skill are most skilled. most popular crafting skill is artificefollowed by BioChem. Underworld trading dominates mission skills…
SWTOR Guild Summit Legacy Presentation
The Legacy Presentation was one of the most important parts of the Guild Summit. This is because we learned that what is currently just a pretty bar was actually intended to be the very lifeforce of the entire game! The Legacy System will be intertwined in everything else that happens in the game. It will affect each system of the game and the wait is almost over! The devs explain that they were sad to have to launch SWTOR without the fully working Legacy System in place but they had to pull it back to get the finishing touches on it. Now it’s finally nearing completion and ready for us all to experience. It’s a labor of love and they are hoping we will love it! Here are the highlights of what the full Legacy System will bring us: Family tree: decide your allies, kids, wives/husbands – its super cool…
SWTOR Patch 1.2 Changes Confirmed by Devs: Guild Summit Update
Patch 1.2 (coming in March/April) will be huge! This is the largest free game update likely in MMO history. This is the kind of stuff you’d see in a paid expansion from Blizzard. The talk is that this was originally how the game was supposed to be launched but that BioWare was pressured by EA to get the game out by a certain release date. The result- a game that was not quite ready yet and a HUGE patch incoming soon. When reading and listening to info from the Guild Summit, you will hear a lot of rumors. Much of the information is mixed up or just not be relayed properly. If you’re a guild leader or an officer in your guild, make sure you take the time to ensure the right info is being spread in your guild. First, there were changes, additions and updates that were confirmed by…
Announcing The Old Republic Weekend Pass
Are you ready to invite a friend to play SWTOR? I know a lot of people who want to check it out but we only got three friend trials and at least one of those was reserved for my mom (yes, my mother) so imagine how happy I was to hear about the upcoming weekend pass? Now all my friends who are not already playing can try it for the weekend and get hooked just like the rest of us. :p Here’s the official news announcement: Today we are excited to announce the Star Wars™: The OldRepublic™ Weekend Pass Free* Trial. Now for a limited time, you will be able tolive out your very own Star Wars™ saga with thousands of other players forfree! With the StarWars: The Old Republic Weekend Pass Free Trial, individuals whodon’t already have a previously-active Star Wars: The Old Republic account will be allowed tosee…
SWTOR Guild Summit 2012 Operations/Flashpoints Discussion
For those who enjoy PvE, the Operations/Flashpoints discussion was one of the most interesting. 38% of level 50 players have played in an operation We know there are lots of bugs – particularly in Eternity Vault With game testing and feedback, things go a lot smoother Looting system in normal needs improvements – we wanted to make it PuG-friendly so you don’t have to yield to masterloot – we will deviate from this a bit in the next update. Another thing we want to do is allow you to trade destined loot. Existing operations are pretty easy – we want Hardmodes and Nightmare to be more challenging than they are right now. Explosive conflict: harder than current operations. Needs a whole new level of coordinate rather than more gear and more stats. We want to focus on coordination and execution. Takes place on Denova, it will be tier 2 raid…
SWTOR Companion Romance Guide
Nikole from g4tv.com has a new column that proves to be interesting to those who like their gaming news and gossip with a side of fun. First, she brings us this SWTOR Companion Romance Guide which is a great way to see what your romance options are. Nikole says: “Star Wars: The Old Republic can be a tough place to find love; that’s why we made this SWTOR Companion Romance Guide. Your next quest, 10 force-sensitive rakghouls, the perfect armor mods; there are plenty of missions in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and there are just as many potential hook-ups. I have some advice for navigating your way through romantic space. This will be the first, in a series I like to call Rated-Teen Beat: Everything you need to know about gaming’s latest gossip. Let’s dish! Today we’re going to focus, not just on finding love, but on finding that…
SWTOR SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE: MARCH 13TH, 2012
For those who may haveforgotten, here’s a quick reminder than the servers will go down latetonight/early tomorrow. If you’re looking for something to do while the servers are down, remember you can browse our site. :p From the SWTORforums: “Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will beperforming scheduled maintenance for eight hours on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/7AM GMT/8AM CET/6PM AEST) until 10AM CDT (8AMPDT/11AM EDT/3PM GMT/4PM CET/2AM AEST). All game servers and SWTOR.com will beoffline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more thaneight hours, but could be extended. For our new players, this weekly maintenance is done in order tomake general improvements and to check performance of the game so that we cancontinue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but notalways) after a maintenance period there will be a patch to download. After themaintenance, please…
Behind the Scenes of Star Wars: The Old Republic from PC Gamer
There was a lot of great information coming out of GDC this year and much of it was in regards to SWTOR. A talk given by director of production, Dallas Dickinson and BioWare executive producer Richard Vogel brings us some interesting information about the game. First, building it was hard. There’s no real surprise there, right? Making a game of this size and caliber is certainly difficult with many, many hours put in by various team members. That’s just to launch- there is still behind the scenes workers every day to keep it running as intended. PC Gamer brings us the full story on this talk at GDC: In an hour long session, the pair took us through the production and lessons from a long and gruelling development process that saw Bioware Austin hire huge numbers of developers, outsource much of their art, completely rebuild how their team was integrated,…
Guild Summit 2012 PvP Discussion and Overview
One of the most exciting portions of the guild summit for many players was the talk of PvP. Here is an overview of the discussion as well as the follow-up Q&A. Player vs. Player Discussion medal system- not balanced across classes right now. No specific queues for warzones Novare Coast: majority control objective – 3 point objective. You need least 2 out of 3 to do damage to fortification. Character warzone ratings for both solo and group player New warzone dailies – based on medal system as opposed to wins. We didn’t finish all the medals – we are introducing a lot more medals for objectives, catching a ball, scoring in huttball, be the first to plant a bomb 18 new medals “We want to discourage medal farming” – medal rewards are capped. We are doubling the amount of medals but cap it at ~8. If you finish a…
SWTOR Reverse Engineering Visual Guide
Are you frustrated that you don’t know what your items will break down into with Reverse Engineering? Are you looking to learn more about SWTOR Reverse Engineering and how it all works? You are in luck because we found this super handy visual guide by Lone Stranger that is a must for any players doing Reverse Engineering. The visual guide is done in flow chart fashion and color coded which allows you to see what is trainable, what artifacts can break down into and differ tier levels as well.We are absolutely thrilled when other players just like us take the time to create charts, guides and visuals like this to help others succeed in the game. Have you created a visual guide for something in SWTOR? Have you stumbled across a really great one and you’re not sure if we’ve featured it on our site? Be sure to shoot us…
Live CSR Agent on Korriban
BioWare is upping the ante on their customer service department. In the early days of launch of SWTOR, there were complaints about the CSR team. Complaints and issues generally took awhile to get answered and many players did not feel satisfied with the level of response they were getting. However, I have to give BioWare props because when they see a problem, they attempt to correct it. Just the other day I had a ticket responded to in less than 3 hours and it was not even an urgent message. They sent me an email about it and when I replied with some additional info, I got a response in 5 minutes. But I’m not the only one experiencing better customer service. This Reddit user had an encounter with a live CSR agent on Korriban and he screencapped the conversation to share. He even got permission to post it on…
SWTOR Subs Stabilize at 1.7 Million
If you’re wondering how many people are actively still playing SWTOR, then recent numbers will interest you. While it’s a been a great month for BioWare with the launch of Mass Effect 3 and the continued success of SWTOR, the numbers show that SWTOR subscriptions have stabilized at 1.7 million. Massively reports: It’s also worth noting that, according to EA’s John Riccitello, the “vast majority” of these active subscribers have already used their 30-day trials, which means most of those 1.7 million subscribers are shelling out $15 per month to play the game. It’ll be interesting to see how these numbers change (or don’t) in the coming months, but for the time being The Old Republic seems to be doing BioWare proud. After the recently released news about patch 1.2 and Game Update 2 for SWTOR, I’m expecting we will see those numbers increase more. There is also the tell-a-friend…