Are you living in the Austin area? BioWare Austin is hiring temporary playtesters for the “Rise of the Hutt Cartel” digital expansion coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Current and former players of all experience levels are encouraged to apply. SKILLS/REQUIREMENTS Must be 18 years of age or older Must not have previous professional game development experience Strong verbal communication skills Comfortable giving objective feedback (positive and negative) in a group setting Passion for SWTOR or other massively-multiplayer online games Available to work weekends
Author: Soeren Kamper
TOR TV: Colicoid War Games – Solo
DISCLAIMER: You can potentially get banned for doing this as it falls under a game exploit. There are forum posts of people claiming to have been banned for doing stuff like this. My personal opinion is that this is very unlikely. Sure, he is getting to areas that he might not be supposed to be in, but it doesn’t really get you anything tangible, a couple thousand credits for 20 minutes maby? Regardless of this being an exploit or not, it’s still pretty awesome,
1.6.2 Patch Notes 1/8/2013
Servers are back up after today’s maintenance, and BioWare to the chance to push a new patch. This time we get tons of bug fixes were the biggest seems to be “The “Unify to Chest” armor color option now works correctly for players and companions. Also Tinsel Bombs can now be used on both friendly and hostile targets (Oh, it is on)! This new patch also ads two new armor sets to the cartel market and they look awesome! Check them out: ( Patch notes below the images) Cartel Market New Items Players can now unlock additional character slots! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins. The Newcomer Bundle is now available! It contains a wide range of items to help new players expedite their travels. Cost: 405 Cartel Coins (discounted by 50% for a limited time!). Two new armor sets, the Interstellar Privateer Armor Set and Clandestine Officer Armor Set, can now be purchased. Each…
TOR TV: Baby Got Bubble
Jason Barnett is back with a new swtor parody. This time Sith Sorcerers get a little dose of Sir Mix-A-Lot. I haven’t played Sith Sorcerer my self yet, but this video was still funny. “”I aint talkin about ranked games, caus those dont happen anyway” lol Keep up the good work Jason.
The SWTOR Community Cantina Tour Arrives in Paris and London!
Finally BioWare is coming back to Europe. This time with the Community Cantina Tour were they will be visiting London and Paris. So if you are in Paris Friday, February 1st, or London Saturday, February 2nd, 2013, you should definitely stop by and say hello. Check out the full announcement below: We’re happy to announce that the next two stops in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Friday, February 1st in Paris and Saturday, February 2nd in London. This is your chance to join the European Star Wars™: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A (featuring Executive Producer Jeff Hickman) as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted Tauntaun Fawn code and a code for a rare item from the Cartel Market. Additionally, you are invited to join us before the events at the Louvre and the London Film Museum to check out…
TOR TV: Quintessential Conversations: “One of Us”
This video was mailed to us by the guys in the guild Pandamonium. It is a time of struggle. It is a time of rebellion. It is a time for vacation. Wait, what? A few of the galaxy’s greatest heroes are due a little R&R, but one of their number is in for a totally different Pandamonium is a guild dedicated to enjoying SWTOR and having fun. These media projects exemplify the creativity, the passion, and the camaraderie that they share. They have many traits in common with other SWTOR guilds with groups doing pvp warzones, flashpoints, and many dedicated eight-man operations teams (now 7 going on 8). But these machinima projects let them take it one step further and go beyond what the game designers envisioned. They create there own fun movie that they can enjoy crafting together and then, more importantly, share with their fellow SWTOR fans.”” The video below…
TOR TV: “Sex Bomb” parody – Smash Bomb
Jason Barnett made this comedic view of the post 1.4 “smash” spec: focus for sentinels and guardians, and rage for marauders and juggernauts. This pokes fun at the simplicity of the spec as well as the community’s overreaction to it. If you haven’t been around his youtube page before, hurry up! H really got some golden SWTOR Vidoes there for you to enjoy. We will definitely be posting more of his stuff in the cumming weeks. Enjoy the video below:
Star Wars Comics License Returning To Marvel?
The guys over at Blue Sky Disney reports that it’s all but that Disney won’t be renewing Dark Horse’s contract to publish Star Wars comics, and that the Star Wars comics will return to their original home: Fellow Disney brand Marvel. “”The Suits in the know have determined that no new contracts will be given to Dark Horse after the current ones expire. So all new projects after 2013 will be handled internally by Marvel.” The report continues: “”It’s not known yet if titles will be worked into the regular line up, or will Marvel create a special branch of the company that deals with Star Wars. It’ll take a couple of years for the old deals to work there course, but the stories that Dark Horse have coming down the pipeline will be the last. And you can expect anything new from Marvel dealing with Star Wars to arrive around 2015.”” When you think of…
TOR TV: Exploring Hutta / Uninstanced Jiguuna Airport Hangar
Youtube user guyfromostrava found an interesting mechanic in Star Wars: The old Republic. As you can see from the video below; he is able to pivot the camera upwards when he jumps. This Seems funny as it somehow influences the position of his hitbox making him jump higher. Also when you use “sprint” you actually jump higher. If you are are interested in exploration like this, I recoment you to check out owncore. They have a growing community for Exploration in Star Wars: The old republic.
Harrison Ford Star Wars Episode 7 Contract Negotiations
These sketches are made by my good friend David Ward and his team over at HUMORdy.com HUMORdy are a collection of comedians, actors, and filmmakers from Austin, TX. and they have quite a bit of funny material on youtube already. Check out there youtube channel here if you want a good laugh. Disney bought Lucasfilm for over 4 billion dollars. They immediately announced plans to do a new trilogy of Star Wars films. This is the story of the heroic Disney executives assigned the task of getting Harrison Ford to sign on as Han Solo in the new Star Wars movies. It took they guys about 5 days to write the scripts, one day to shoot all three, then probably two weeks to edit them. They don’t currently have any more Star Wars parodies planned, but I’m sure we’ll do more in the future. Remember to follow these guys on Facebook.
TOR TV: Civil Unrest RP Event by GFC
Empire guild The Galactic 5th Colum of The Ebon Hawk server is arranging role playing event happening on Friday the 28th. SO if your up to some rioting between xmas and new years eve, come to Dromund Kaas, Kaas City, the Spires of Victory at 9pm EST on Friday 12/28/12 . Check out the video below: A significant number of Dromund Kaas citizens are protesting Sith infighting and incompetent military commanders causing the death’s of many loyal servants of the Empire. Behind the scenes, the GFC has been inciting the protest. Naturally, there will be a massive crackdown and chaos will ensue. Just how we like it. So here’s more of the OOC stuff. Two groups will gather opposite each other. One group is the protesters, the other is law enforcement. Those RPing law enforcement should wear Imperial Trooper armor to get in the spirit of things. And the protesters should be unarmed and dressed in…
Jeff Hickman Interview
The guys and girls over at TORWars got an Exclusive Interview with Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s, Jeff Hickman. In the interview mr. Hickman answers questions from the readers of TORWars and while he do dodge a few questions, he also answers some questions so well, that it get’s me very confident in the future of the game we all love so much. TW: The studio has seen some staffing changes over the past year. Do you feel you are at a good staffing level now? JH: Absolutely. The core of what makes the game and studio great are still here; quality in our game and in our workplace, people that are passionate about both, a camaraderie with each other that helps us support one another, and people who continue to help us carry the banner of BioWare and who are dedicated to help evolve and improve…
Free-to-Play Preview Episode 3
In a new video from BioWare, Cory Butler delivers an overview of Star Wars: The old republic’s free to play preferred status program. In the video he explains details regarding “Preferred” status, and highlights several options available for players a the Cartel Market. At the end of the video he briefly speaks about the limited time Life Day items available. We’re always listening to player feedback and we’ve already made some substantial changes,” Butler says before going on to mention an increase in the number of available hotbars and character slots. View the vid below:
TOR TV: SWTOR 1-50 in 60 seconds
Now that’s what I call power leveling! Watch all the level ups for the imperial agent Pe’ter Pan. Here is his Youtube profile: heltidsluffare· Takes dedication to do this. Well done. Now… Can you spot which one he messed up and had to fix in post production?
SithTalk Episode 43: 1.6 Life Day Tinsel BOMB
Sith talk is back with a new episode, this time titled 1.6 Life Day Tinsel BOMB. This week they debate the success of the Life day Celebration and the community feedback that came with it. Bru’tis stops by with his latest trip through Star wars Lore. Sudo is in with another Chapter in Lost tribe of the Sith Saga. They also talk about their feelings about the latest content in the game. they even glance at the Next Chapter of the SW:TOR Saga. Lastly they announce the official Launch date of Sith Talk 2.0 Beyond SW:TOR – and what you can expect from that show. As always so much more watch it below or download it from podomatic. Remember also to follow the guys on Facebook
TOR TV: Sometimes you get wipes at 1%. And sometimes THIS happens!!
This video was recorded on 17th December at 2:00am GMT. When the guild “Binary Sunset” battled Kephess. I guess your just lucky some times 🙂 Binary Sunset is named after the iconic scene from Star Wars IV – A New Hope, and we’re based on the Progenitor (EU), an RP-PVE server. they are a multi-national European Guild; the raid in question including players from England, Iceland, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Belgium and Spain. This was their 13th try that evening, on a boss they hadn’t attempted before, and at 2:00am GMT. Given their timezone differences everyone was getting a little tired, but they couldn’t just call it – they are a mature Guild of working age, and likely to be spread far and wide for Christmas with families. This week was the last chance to get an attempt in on completing Terror from Beyond in 2012. As a Guild they had ups and downs, their previous GM disbanded…
First Digital Expansion Announced for SWTOR: Rise of the Hutt Cartel
BioWare updated their webise this morning with a new addition to the swtor.com/buy page. It’s now possible to pre-order the first ever expansion for Star Wars: The old republic, named Rise of the Hutt Cartel. The sales page also reveals new details regarding price, content and of course, how to pre-order. The drop date listed is Spring 2013. Here is the run down: Continue your Star Wars™ saga with a new level cap of 55. Experience new epic story content with fully-voiced cinematic conversations. New Planet: Makeb – Explore a vibrant alien landscape. Subscribers save 50% off the Regular Price – Only £5.99 (£11.99 Regular Price). Receive five (5) days of Early Access* if you Pre-Order by January 7, 2013 11:59PM CT // 5:59AM GMT! The page also includes a new FAQ about the new expansion. In it, there is a pretty lengthy description of what players can expect with the release of Rise of the…
Patch Notes 1.6.1 – 12/18/2013
BioWare have finished this week’s scheduled maintenance and the servers are now back up and running. Apart form a few bug fixes to Speeder Piloting and versus test bugs, this patch sees some new additions to the Cartel Market. Jedis and Warriors should be happy about this, as they get new armor: Below are the complete patch notes: Cartel Market New Items The Valiant Jedi and Sith Raider armor sets are now available for 1,440 Cartel Coins each. Discounts 10% discount on Black Market Cartel Packs. Cost: 162 Cartel Coins. 10% discount on Crime Lord Cartel Packs. Cost: 324 Cartel Coins. 10% discount on all Weekly Passes. Cost: 216 Cartel Coins per Weekly Pass. 50% discount on the Rancor Holo-Replica. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins. Bugfixes The Improved Speeder Piloting I item included with the LD-1 Celebrator speeder now correctly reflects that the unlock is player-only and not account-wide. Some item…
Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance tomorrow
Just a heads up to remind you that this week’s scheduled maintenance will take place tomorrow on Tuesday and will last from 2AM to 6AM CST. In this case, Star Wars: The Old Republic will receive a patch update. Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PM GMT/1PM CET/11PM AEDT). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended. We will have the patch notes available in full asap. Check out the original announcement over at the official forum thread.
What is this…. Life Day thing
Many people who haven’t played Star Wars: Galaxies, or are not much into the whole Star Wars lore, might have a hard time understanding what this whole Life Day business is all about. People who played Star Wars: Galaxies already knows all about this, but if you haven’t played SWG, I can tell you that Life Day was an ingame event. It was the SWG version of Christmas. Every year 2 gifts were given out by the Developers to everybody in-game. One gift is for people to open themselves, and the other gift is for you to trade with a friend. Before Star Wars: Galaxies, Wookiee Life Day made its first appearance in The Star Wars Holiday Special. Unlike most aspects of the normally well-crafted Star Wars universe, Life Day is utterly expedient, inserted into the show to provide a very basic goal for the heroes, and lend a bit of topical…
BioWare on Grade 7 Ship parts costs
With Game update 1.6 new Heroic Space Missions saw the light of the day, and with that also new tier 7 ship parts. These are of course supposed to help players complete these new challenging missions. To get these new upgrades you need to spend hundreds of Daily and Fleet Commendations or just purchase them on the Cartel Market. This have off course sparked a huge debate with players crying “Pay 2 win”. Today Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez made a forum post with feedback from Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert indicating that BioWare is looking for solutions to reduce the gap between the two paths: Hi everyone, I’ve spoken to the design team about the issue of Grade 7 ship upgrades and the cost in game (resources and time) versus the cost on the Cartel Market, since this concern was raised by a number of people on our forums. Our Lead Designer for the game, Damion Schubert, has this to say: Unfortunately, there…
The big list of free SWTOR guides
Sine the launch of Star Wars: The old republic almost one year ago, we have steadily updated our website with new game guides. Now one year later, it has become increasingly hard to find the the guide you might be looking for. There for are we creating this list for a better overview. This will be a work in progress and we will do our best to keep the list updates. If there is something you feel you need a guide on, let us know in the comments below, and we will see if we can help out. Raiding/Flashpoints Guides: The False Emperor The Esseles The Streets of Cademimu The Colicoid War Game Directive 7 Taral V Mandalorian Raiders Athiss Boarding Party Dorin’s Sky Maelstrom Prison Hammer Station The Foundry The Black Talon The Lost Island Flashpoint Guide Battle of Ilum Kaon Under Siege Scum and Villainy SWTOR World Boss Guides…
TOR TV: Jedi Samurai
Nowadays, Samurai-dom is less about kicking butt with a giant Katana and more about honor and justice, in other words, bushido without a giant knife at your side. This kind of sucks really, so some dude from France created his own “samudi” code in Star Wars: The old republic. This new way of life combines the way of the jedi, with the way of the Samurai. Sounds hard to understand? Worry not; the creator of this noble way of life also made an instructional video about it. Check it out:
Corellian Run Radio Interviews Rob Hinkle
The good people over at Corellian Run Radio had the chance to interview Senior Systems Designer, Rob Hinkle. In the interview Mr. Hinkle answers questions regarding upcoming and current mechanics in PVP. What struck me the most about his answers to the questions, regarding gear. He personally felt gear had mattered too much up to this point. He spoke of having progression without having such a large gear gap, i.e. tightening up the gear gap. This seems like a good way to go. Here is a snip: Question 4: Are there any plans to ever change from the vertical progression of PvP gear to horizontal, especially with free-to-play? (i.e. will gear in the future still be a large factor in performance?) Rob: As we move forward, we want to tighten up the minimal gear level and maximum gear level power gap while inside PvP. ToR is an MMORPG, so we feel that players need some…