All the servers are coming back online and BioWare released the patch notes. BioWare removed the Bolster trick people were using to power level characters doing the double XP weekend. Patch Notes 1.7.2b General Bolster has been temporarily removed on The Western Ice Shelf of Ilum so that lower level players can no longer use the area to level up more quickly than intended.
Author: Soeren Kamper
Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance: March 22nd, 2013
Just a quick reminder that BioWare will be taking the servers down tomorrow for Scheduled Maintenance. This Might be to fix some of the PRO leveling tricks Lisa Wrote about earlier today unfortunately, but we will keep you updated with the patch notes a s the surface. Rad the statement below: AmberGreen | 03.21.2013, 12:30 PM We will be performing scheduled maintenance on Friday, March 22nd, 2013 from 3AM PDT (10AM GMT) until 5AM PDT (12PM GMT). All game servers will be offline during this period. Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Maintenance Date: Friday, March 22nd, 2013 Time: 3AM PDT (12PM GMT) until 5AM PDT (2PM GMT) Patch Note Bolster has been temporarily removed on The Western Ice Shelf of Ilum so that lower level players can no longer use the area to level up more quickly than intended.
SWTOR State of the Game #3
BioWare executive producer Jeff Hickman posted a new state-of-the-game update for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In it, he talks about many topics, including: upcoming features and the fact that SWTOR have had over 2 million new accounts created and have thousands of new players jumping in every single day since free to play was launched. Check it here below! Hi everyone, With the launch of the Relics of the Gree event behind us, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the general state of the game and the launch of our Free-to-Play option. Judging by the conversation in the forums and elsewhere, there appears to be a level of curiosity among many players to learn how things are going at the studio since the launch of the Free-to-Play option. Of course, that’s natural. We’re now about 120 days post-launch and more than 5 months into our new series of content…
Cross Promotional Pets: Clarification
Many people have been confused about the Cross Promotional Pets we mentioned a few days ago. Yesterday Eric Musco made a post on the official forums clarifying how, exactly, these pets might be obtained: I have the answer to these two questions which I think is what most people are looking for (especially B) A. In order to get the pet you will have to have received the email mentioning the pet promotion. Then you would need to create a new SWTOR account with that email address. That account will then, at a later date, receive the pet. B. At this moment subscribers cannot get the items, no. This was intended as a cross-promotion to other EA free-2-play games. However, I can tell you that subscribers will have access to these items in the future. We are still working out both the when and the how. I will share any details as…
John Riccitiello Resigns From Electronic Arts
EA CEO John Riccitiello submitted his resignation, effective March 30, the video game company announced Monday. In a blog post on the company’s website, executive chairman Larry Probst said the Board of Directors will immediately begin a search inside and outside the company for Riccitiello’s successor. Check out the Press release below. Electronic Arts Announces Change in Executive Leadership Larry Probst Appointed Executive Chairman, Effective Immediately Company Updates 2013 Fiscal Outlook REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced that John Riccitiello will step down as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective March 30. The Board has appointed Larry Probst as Executive Chairman to ensure a smooth transition and to lead EA’s executive team while the Board conducts a search for a permanent CEO. The Board will consider internal and external candidates with the assistance of a leading executive search firm. Mr. Probst has played a leadership role…
Patch Notes – 1.7.2a (3/14/2013)
BioWare took down the servers for scheduled maintenance today. The servers were down for 2 hours, and was done in order to make general improvements and to check performance of the game so that they can continue to provide a consistent, quality experience. At the same time BioWare applied a new patch. Below are the patch notes: 1.7.2a Patch Notes General Character gift packages will now contain the correct items when granted to Digital Deluxe and Collector’s Edition players. Characters who were granted incomplete gift packages after Patch 1.7.2 can contact Customer Support to have the missing items restored. I’m glad this was fixed. I happened to create a new character last night to get the most out of the double XP weekends, and only received my Holocamera, 2x Flare Guns, and my Black-Yellow Crystal.
200% XP Weekends
BioWare have news today were they introduce upcoming double XP Weekends. You heard that right, 2x XP weekends … and they will stack with all current in game XP buffs. For nowt, there are four sets of Double XP weekends planed: March 15, 2013 at 1:00PM CDT / 6:00PM GMT to March 18, 2013 at 2:00AM CDT / 7:00AM GMT March 22, 2013 at 1:00PM CDT / 6:00PM GMT to March 25, 2013 at 2:00AM CDT / 7:00AM GMT March 29, 2013 at 1:00PM CDT / 6:00PM GMT to April 1, 2013 at 2:00AM CDT / 7:00AM GMT April 5, 2013 at 1:00PM CDT / 6:00PM to April 8, 2013 at 2:00AM CDT / 7:00AM GMT This could mean that we’ll see Rise of the Hutt Cartel drop for early access the week of April 8th already! Now back to the double XP weekends. Eric Musco posted in the official forums how double experience will work with…
Patch 1.7.2 Notes 3/12/2013
Patch day! Below are the patch notes for this weeks server maintenance. Lot’s of bug fixes and many new updates to the cartel market. The new rep track, via Cartel Pack items only, is interesting. If they’ll be re-sellable via the GTN it’ll be a very steady method to convert CCs into Credits, I imagine. Check out the full patch notes below: 1.7.2 Patch Notes – 3/12/2013 Highlights The first Packs of Shipment Two are now available for sale on the Cartel Market! Most items in the Regulator and Enforcer’s Contraband packs are not found in the Shipment One Cartel Packs. Players may now gain reputation with the Contraband Resale Corporation, a group loosely affiliated with the Hutt Cartel! Reputation Trophies for this organization are now available in new Contraband Packs, and a new vendor has been added to allow players to capitalize on this reputation. Additional rewards have been added to many missions…
Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance 3/12/13
Just a quick heads up that BioWare will be taking down the servers for maintenance on Tuesday March 12th for four hours. Eric Musco took the forums to inform the hordes: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing Scheduled Maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 from 5AM CST (3AM PST/6AM EST/10AM GMT/11AM CET/8PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/10AM EST/2PM GMT/3PM CET/12AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended. This maintenance is done in order to make general improvements and to check performance of the game so that we can continue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but not always) after a maintenance period there will be a patch to download. After the maintenance, please login via the launcher to download the latest…
Developer Update: Overview of the Planet Makeb
BioWare posted a new Star Wars: The Old Republic developer blog yesterday, that detailed the process of creating the planet Makeb, an all-original addition to the Star Wars universe coming in the Rise of the Hutt Cartel digital expansion. Makeb will be a beautiful world peppered by towering geological formations, but it has been ravaged by ecological disaster and is a hostile environment. The Hutt Cartel are the main antagonists on Makeb, and the story takes in a rare instance of the Republic overcoming the Empire. For the official blog post, please visit this link or check out a snip below: Early on, we seized on the idea of a beautiful planet that’s being ravaged by ecological disasters. A place that would normally seem serene and welcoming, transformed into an environment that feels like it could fall out from under you at any second. With that goal in mind, we designed the entire…
PTS update notes – March 6
BioWare deployed a new update to the public test servers yesterday with a new patch to Game Update 2.0. check out the full patch notes below. Annoyingly, many of these changes (Sniper changes, Missile Salvo change, etc.) aren’t new today but were put in a couple days ago. I don’t know why they listed them again. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Alacrity no longer reduces the channel duration of Force Stasis. Sith Warrior Alacrity no longer reduces the channel duration of Force Choke. Jedi Consular Sage Empowered Throw now also increases the damage dealt by Sever Force. Shadow Force Breach’s accuracy debuff now lasts 30 seconds (up from 18) when Combat Technique is active. Kinetic Combat Bombardment now makes Project generate 15% more threat per point and cost 15% less Force per point while Combat Technique is active. Slow Time now has a 9second cooldown and costs 20 Force. Damage remains…
Display Name Only Log In – Coming April 2, 2013
BioWare posted a new article earlier today regarding future login detalis. More security is always a welcome change. Too many people reuse passwords against the same email account. A few years ago BioWare’s Never winthers night website got hacked an all user data was stolen. When there is a new website that gets hacked, and loses a massive list of email addresses and hashed passwords (that get cracked) enterprising people from certain geographic locations take those and run them across multiple logon services, generally games, and see if people are stupid enough to use the same password on multiple services. They are. So, switching to to Display name makes this a little harder. I may or may not know a little about this particular situation and it DOES make things more secure, they should never have used email as the unique identifier in the first place. Anyways. Check out the article below or over at the…
Ready Check Slated for 1.7.3
One of the features that have been asked most about for a while, it the feature “Ready Check”. If your not used to mmorpg’s, ready check is a common feature used in most game of this sort. A ready check is an automatic survey that can initiated by a party or raid leader. Anyone promoted to raid assistant by the leader is also able to use the command. The command is initiated by typing /readycheck, or by clicking the “Ready Check” button in the raid ui panel. All members of the Operaton will receive a popup window that asks if the player is ready. If all players click “yes”, the person who initiated the check will receive a message indicating so. If a player clicks “no” or does not respond within the prescribed time limit a message will be sent to the leader indicating that they are either not ready or…
New Locations for the Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour
BioWare just announced that whey will continue with there Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour. Today 8 new Cities was revealed covering covering seven places around the United States, and one place in Europe – Cologne, Germany when the video game conference is on. Today we are excited to announce that the Community Cantina Tour will be visiting eight more cities in 2013! Starting with Dallas, TX in May, we will be continuing our series of Community Meet & Greets. If you haven’t been able to attend an event before, these meet & greets are a chance for fans to meet, drink, and talk with our community team and developers. Before each event, we will be publishing a community blog and forum post with detailed information about the location, date, times, and how you can RSVP for the event. Please take a look at the list below to see if a Community Cantina Tour is coming to…
Public test realm: Game Update 2.0 PTS Update Patch Notes Last Updated: 2/28/2013
BioWare have updated the Public test realm with a new patch to game update 2.0. Below are the patch notes: Game Update 2.0 PTS Update Patch Notes These notes detail changes made to the PTS server on 2/26/2013. These changes may only apply to the PTS server. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Guardian Guardian Slash will now correctly deal damage to nearby enemies when it deals the killing blow to a target affected by your armor reduction. Vigilance Plasma Brand no longer requires an enemy target to be affected by the Guardian’s Sunder Armor. Defense Guardians will now receive the correct stat bonus from Blade Barrier. Sith Warrior Juggernaut Crushing Blow will now correctly deal damage to nearby enemies when it deals the killing blow to a target affected by your armor reduction. Vengeance Shatter no longer requires an enemy target to be affected by the Juggernaut’s Sunder Armor. Immortal Juggernauts…
1.7.1 Patch Notes 2/27/2013
Servers are not up yet as downtime has been extended until 10am CST. Below are the patch notes – without the Cartel market changes. We covered that in another post earlier today, so if you want to read up on that, check out this post. Check out the patch notes below: General Players will no longer be prevented from logging into the game if they had a large number of “Classic” version items refunded with Game Update 1.7. Players will now correctly be taken to the character selection or server selection screen upon disconnect rather than becoming stuck at the loading screen. Group Finder Group Finder role selections will no longer work incorrectly if a player in your vicinity gains their Advanced Class. Items and Economy Repair costs for modifiable gear will now calculate based only on the equipped mods. All repair costs have been reduced by 50% until Game…
Cartel Market Update: February 26th, 2013
BioWare posted a new blog post regarding what updates to the cartel market we can expect after today’s maintenance. Looks like they are discounting everything to get people to use their Coins, so that when 2.0 drops with a whole bunch of new stuff they will have to buy more. Check it out on the officiel website, or or check out our copy paste below: New Items Hi everyone! This week, the Cartel Market will be updated to add the new items below. Gold Scalene Armor Set (1,440 Cartel Coins) Built from ancient Gree schematics, the Gold Scalene Armor Set is a collection of adaptive gear with no modifications. This armor set is available to any Class. Hypercrate: Crime Lord’s Cartel Packs (7,344 Cartel Coins, Limited Time 15% Discount!) Players can now purchase a Hypercrate containing 24 Crime Lord’s Cartel Packs. Hypercrate: Blockade Runner’s Cartel Packs (7,344 Cartel Coins, Limited Time 15%…
Joveth Gonzalez leaves BioWare
Bioware Community Manager for Star Wars: The old republic, Joveth Gonzalez took the forums last night with a farewell speech. We do’t know who will take his place yet, or what it will mean for the SWTOR Community, but this is the 3rd community manager Star Wars: The old republic have had since it was first announced. We don’t know either if more BioWare layoffs is on the way, but Joveth Gonzalez tweets he is leaving his position at BioWare to follow new opportunities. And for those of you asking, I’m moving on to a new opportunity. More details, as always, SOON (TM) — Joveth Gonzalez (@Joveth) February 25, 2013
New world boss spotted on Corellia in 2.0
It looks like a new world boss have been added to Corellia in patch 2.0. The big guy goes by the name of Lucky and is a “Dread-Seeded Rancor”. Not much is known about him yet, but it’s apparently a pretty straight up tank-and-spank fight. So far there is no reports of any good loot. A few greens and level 9 mats. Hopefully they’ll fix that when 2.0 drops. Below is his stats: It looks like maybe 8 competent raiders could kill it in 63-66 gear? If so, it might be just a fun thing for casuals to be able to experience without having to gear grind. I find it strange though that it’s out on Corellia, when there’s no new content out there and nothing else for level 50-55 players on the planet. Maybe be course he is a “Dread-Seeded Rancor” and there is a bunch of evil growth, around the area were he…
UPDATE: SWTOR 2.0 Armor sets
With game update 2.0 – Rise of the Hutt Cartel live on the public test servers, we finally get the chance to see all the awesome new armor and weapon artwork. The Smuggler armor is sweet. The agent is cool, but I LOVE that Bounty Hunter helmet. Looks like the helmet from old Boba Fett concept art. If you haven’t already done so, you can read all about yesterdays update on Rise of the Hutt Cartel here, and check out the NEW 55 level Class Abilities Video here Update: Lightsaber from the-old-republic.ru mailed us a new video showing all the Arkanian gear sets in action. This is live demonstration:
SWTOR-RP Interviews Damion Schubert and Charles Boyd
They guys over at swtor-rp.com got a chance to do an Exclusive Q&A with Damion Schubert and Charles Boyd. The interview is of course about the upcoming Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion, and being a Star Wars: The old Republic Role playing community, the interview covers mostly story and RP questions. Reading through the interview Interveiw we get the feeling the developers answered answered the questions prior to patch 1.7 as they speak about a major new system coming “sooner than you think””. The Q&A Also get’s around Makeb and the new Cathar race. Below is a snippet: SWTOR-RP: Is the planet Makeb a pre-existing planet in Star Wars canon, or is this a completely new planet in lore to be uncovered by players as they travel through it for the first time? Charles Boyd: Makeb is a completely new invention of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team, and personally as a writer, I can’t tell you what an honor it is to have a chance to add something…
SWTOR 2.0 level 55 Class Abilities Video
The guys from the-old-republic.ru mailed us a bad ass movie showing off the new level 55 class abilities. There is no denying that the Russian guys have been quick capturing this video, so kudos for their work! Electro Net, Force Barrier and Double Saber throw look pretty awesome, and its great that agents and smugglers finally get real mobility. The sith sorcerer defensive bubble animation is also exactly how I’d imagine it–as the sith sorcerer uses all their energy to repel all attacks. Good stuff! Check it out below:
Sith Talk Episode 48: Wait were recording Oh we are
Sith Talk Episode 48 is now live with the title: “Wait were recording Oh we are””. This time they talk about what they have been doing while out of commission. their in game time as well as a bit of the news you may have missed out on. Sudo is back with a new episode. This time they covered so much we just can not list it all here. Check it out below: Also remember to folow them on Youtube, Facebook , Twitter and podomatic
BioWare Says Repair Costs Being Recalculated Due To Community Concerns
Online Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez made a post on the official swtor forums about the raise in repair cost we saw with Game Update 1.7. Many players were frustrated about this issue, as it was increasing repair costs by at least 33%. Before game update 1.7, repair costs were based on the shell of the item, and didn’t account for the level of the mods inside. Now they fixed it to properly account for all components. This made running operations very expensive for people with high end gear, and some people including some of my guild mates had to stop doing this content due to this. Clearly there is room for improvement, and it needed re-evaluated. Good on them for that. Hi everyone, Thank you all for your feedback on the changes to repair costs introduced with Game Update 1.7. Upon review, we agree with you that repair costs did become too high with this…