It seems like the cover Art for The Old Republic: Encyclopedia isn’t the only book news we get today. Random House has posted the jacket text for the upcoming The Old Republic: Annihilation, written by Drew Karpyshyn and due out November 13, 2012! Synopsis The Sith Empire is in flux. The Emperor is missing, presumed dead, and an ambitious Sith lord’s attempt to seize the throne has ended fatally. Still, Darth Karrid, commander of the fearsome Imperial battle cruiserAscendant Spear, continues her relentless efforts to achieve total Sith domination of the galaxy. But Karrid’s ruthless determination is more than matched in the steely resolve of Theron Shan, whose unfinished business with the Empire could change the course of the war for good. Though the son of a Jedi master, Theron does not wield the Force—but like his renowned mother, the spirit of rebellion is in his blood. As a top covert…
Author: Soeren Kamper
Cover Art for The Old Republic: Encyclopedia Revealed
The official cover art for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic: Encyclopedia has been revealed . The cover features Jedi Master Ven Zallow, and who I believe is Lord Vindican from the return trailer, or is it Lord Scourge ? Here is the summery for the book: 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 book is due out October 15, 2012!
TOR TV: 30+ Troopers in World PVP.
Alpha Company – the all Trooper guild we posted a video from a few weeks back back, is ad it again with some new all trooper action. This time get to see some PVP action. I had the chance to get talk to one of the soldiers who had the following statement to make: Alpha Company was the best decision I ever made. Why, just this week, I participated in the complete destruction of Imperial forces on the planet of Tatooine, and I even got paid for it! Plus, the medical benefits are totally worth it.
Commmunity Q&A June 12
This week’s Q&A went up yesterday, and includes interesting information regarding armor set development cycles, random loot tables, and more. Also an interesting piece of information is the fact we now get more character slots. Read the full thread at the official forums, or our Copy paste below: Posted by: Community Q&A: June 22nd, 2012rong> Pargon: I’m curious about the development cycle for something like an armor set. Could you elaborate on the process you guys go through when designing and implementing that equipment? Ryan Dening (Lead Concept Artist) and David Hunt (Systems Designer):This is a very good and timely question as we have recently been refining parts of our approach and inspiration in response to the feedback we have gotten from our players. The first thing we do when designing a new armor set is to look at which class it’s for and what level or tier it is going to be….
BioWare Dev blog by William Wallace : Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3
Senior Game Designer William Wallace posted a developer blog post regarding Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3. Basically he breaks down own the Character Perks into four types of unlocks including Advancement Perks, Travel Perks, Companion Perks and Convenience Perks Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3 Hi, I’m Senior Game Designer William Wallace. In Game Update 1.2, we introduced Legacy Unlocks, a system in which characters across your Legacy could unlock special rewards for reaching different milestones. Since Game Update 1.2 went live, your Smuggler may have learned a new skill from their Sith Inquisitor father, or you might have unlocked new species options for your classes. No matter your personal choices, you have now started to build your very own Star Wars™ legacy. With Game Update 1.3, we are continuing to expand the Legacy system by introducing the new Character Perks system. Character Perks allow you to customize each character in your Legacy,…
1.3 coming this Tuesday
We have waited and waited and waited, and finally it is here – Game Update 1.3: Allies will live this coming tuesday! Some people call this the “Jesus patch” as – together with the server merges, it should resurrect the game with it’s Aguement updates, ranked warzones and group finder! Let’s party! The patch is out same day as ME3 Extended Cut, so expect a lot of downloading that day. Posted by: CourtneyWoods Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing Scheduled Maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM AEST). 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. Game Update 1.3: Allies introduces new features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™…
TOR TV: FIGHT mass Suicide
PVP is fun. Open world PVP is even more fun. I recived this video in my inbox a few minutes ago. It shows what fun PVP is all about.. and how you kill 20 people in 10 seconds 🙂 This video was uploaded to youtube by Delznopes – guild leader of the PVP guild “Fight” on the Fatman. Enjoy:
Crew Skills and Items in Game Update 1.3
BioWare updated the community blog, with a new post, describing some of the upcoming changes, we can expect happening to items and crew skills when path 1.2 launches. While we have covered most of the the information here before, the blog provides a great summary of the relevant details. Prior to Game Update 1.3, it was only possible to create an Augmented item through a critical crafting success. Augmented items have an additional mod slot, conveniently called an augment. Some of the most valuable items in the game right now are orange shells that have been crafted with an augment slot unlocked, because they have exceptional stat potential with their full complement of mod slots. While these items are cool, they are indicative of a systemic inequity between different types of items. That’s where Augment Tables come in. That covers most of the changes you’ll see for items in Game…
Community Round-Up: Forums and Events June 20th, 2012
BioWare have a new Blog update focusing on the SWTOR Comunity. In this weeks Community Round-Up, BioWare highlight some of the most interesting discussions in the Star Wars The Old Republic community. Most of these discussions originate from the forums, but sometimes they look around at other fan sites. We have also added a new section to this blog highlighting some player-created events happening on certain servers in The Old Republic. If you have an event occurring next week, please feel free to let us know in the nomination thread so that we can highlight it in next week’s round up. Please feel free to nominate any discussions for next week’s Round-Up in this thread. Let’s begin! Read all about it HERE, and discuss it at the official forums HERE
James Ohlen want’s your Feedback on story
It’s been a while since James Ohlen been active on twitter, but today he asks Star Wars: The old republic players for feedback regarding the story elements the game. Here is the question: So I took a break from Twitter, but now I’m back with more questions. What is your favorite type of storytelling in #SWTOR? Flash points, class stories or world story arcs (i.e. Revanite story on Dromund Kaas). Interesting question really. Also remember to let us know in the comments below if you are plan on answering. YOu can Check out James Twitter profile here.
TOR TV: The Sith Code
Here is an older fanfilm made before SWTOR became mainstream. This video was made by DuduFilm, and uses material from the three cinimatic trailers combined with material from “force unleashed” and material from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Add to that the music from X-Men Origins (Magneto’s theme I believe? ), and you have a pretty decent way to present the Sith code: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me
Interview with Lead Operations & Flashpoint Designer – Jesse Sky
It has been a while since we last heard from Lead Operations & Flashpoint Designer Jesse Sky. Last time Lat time we posted any word from him was back in match, but now he have news from him again. The guild Methodica recently had the chance to meet with Jesse Sky, and gained some great insight into the details and thought-process that goes into designing the content that raiders enjoy so much. Here is a snippet We generally balance bosses to be progressively more difficult over the course of a single Operation. However, our balance sheets are not always the best indicator of difficulty, especially as we increase our focus on mechanics. Some bosses require strict coordination checks, and that may pose a greater challenge to certain players than gear checks. We were surprised, for example, at how long it took players to down Toth and Zorn on PTS. That said, we do want the…
Gabe Amatangelo updates us on Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.3
Gabe Amatangelo, Principal Lead PvP Designer on Star Wars: The old republic, have just posted a blog update on the Ranked Warzone feature wich is introduced with game update 1.3. It’s an interesting read, were Mr. Amatangelo explains how the system is going to work. In the current Game Update 1.3 PTS build, you’ll find a new button in the Warzone queue window: Queue Team Ranked. This button is available to any player that is in a group of eight level 50 players, and allows that group to queue up for Team Ranked Warzones with a single click. Team Ranked Warzones can only be participated in by a full team of eight players. If any player drops out of the queue before a match is made, the team will need to find a replacement and re-queue. It all sounds awesome, but in the end of the blog post, Gabe ask…
TOR TV: Into the Vault – Music Video
This video was mailed to me this morning by. Kelly Stark from the pandamonium guild. If that guild name rings a bell, i might be becourse we featured the movie Crimson Nova Girls by them back in april. Now they are back with a new movie called Into the Vault. The video is a parody video set within the Star Wars: The Old Republic universe. It uses music from Into the Woods and tells the story of Soa from the Eternity Vault operation zone. I had a short chat with Kelly about the movie and this was what she had to say about it: This project was great fun to put together. The video portion of it included a whole host of members from Pandamonium (a guild description is below). They were kind enough to wipe in Eternity Vault over and over and over again for the sake of getting “that perfect shot.” The musical performances…
1.2.7b Patch Notes 19-6-2012
Servers was down for a short maintenance today, and as always BioWare took the time to patch the game. Today is more a tweak then a real patch though, as BioWare only decreased the maximum number of simultaneous players on the Imperial and Republic Fleets. This is a pretty good move if you ask me as I notice my framerate drop from ~50fps to ~19fps while on fleet with 250+ people. I hope this just implies more instances though. Coming from having 4 people on my fleet at peak times, 100 people+ seem like a party! And if there were 6 instances of 100, thats 6 parties! Below are the patch notes: 1.2.7b Patch Notes 6/19/2012 General In order to improve overall performance, the maximum number of simultaneous players on the Imperial and Republic Fleets has been decreased —-
TOR TV: Broken Chains Guild Dance Party
This video is original a guild promo, but since I like dancing, I thought it would fit well in our TOR TV segment. Want to upgrade your swtor experience? Why not check out one of the guilds with the highest amount of sexy naked dance parties? If your interested check us out at: http://broken-chains.enjin.com/ Game: SWTOR Faction: Imperial Server: Ajunta Pall (US)
TOR TV: The Best of HK-47
Alle the talk about our new legacy companion HK-51 made me exited, so I thought it would be apropiate to relive some of the greate moments we had with his great grand farther HK-47. PC Games already had an article about our all time favorite “hunter killer” droid last week, and we did a “Know your lore” article about him back in 2009. You can check it out here, if you need to brush up on your lore. HK-47 was a Hunter-Killer assassin droid and Jedi hunter constructed by Revan towards the end of the Mandalorian Wars to kill those who Revan believed would destabilize the galaxy. Revan gave up the droid shortly before his redemption, and HK-47 went from owner to owner, many of whom he slew himself, before being unwittingly reunited with his master, but that’s all story. You can read much more about that your self here.
Community Q&A: June 15th, 2012
BioWare posted a new Q&A session yesterday. It’s always nice read as it gives us some insight on what the devs are working on. One of the answers that caught my eye this time, was the fact that you need high level toon of each faction to get the HK-51 companion. Yet another reason to get working on those Legacy characters. I also liked the explanation about stats on mods and enhancements. It’s easier to accept “this isn’t changing”, or “we don’t know when this might change” if they say why they did things a certain way. GarrickBlackSun: I understand he is a long way off, but could you please possibly give us any sort of clearer or better insight to the unlocking of HK-51? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): The only thing we’re saying today is its going to take a serious amount of work, involves a galaxy-wide mission, introduces some different ways of playing the game…
BioWare need your help. Come test Ranked Warzones this weekend
BioWare Live Community Coordinator Amber Green, posted a heads up on the official forum, asking people to come test the Ranked Warzones at the public test realms. For those people REALLY wanting Ranked Warzones, and there are a lot of us I think, we should really try to get on there and help get this ready. the more we can get it tested, the quicker it will come to the live servers. Hello everyone! This weekend we really want to focus on testing our Ranked Warzones and we need your help! We’d like for you to get together with 7 of your friends and queue up for as many Ranked and Normal Warzones as you can during the timeframes listed below. At the end of the each testing window, we’ll want your feedback! Please check this thread, where we’ll be posting a series of questions to gather information about your experiences with…
TOR TV: Dubstep and Dancing
It has been a while since we last posted a community created SWTOR movies, there for in honor of it’s Friday we give you not one, but two videos. The first movie is made by Youtube user antemb and is called “why I play the Old Republic”. The movie is a classic dancing video as enjoyable as the can get. The second movie is made by Edvard Huseby, and represent the cinematic E3 trailers cut together in a dubstep mix. Check it out: Why I play The Old Republic. Star Wars: The Old Republic – DUBSTEP
Current Available Transfers – Complete List June 13
Well, here we are on day 2 of server transfers and it seems some of the kinks are getting worked out. We brought you details of the server transfers yesterday but it does seem that more details are being worked out regarding server transfers. Some players were having issues with moving all 8 characters to a new server. On the last one, they would get a hangup and it would not transfer. BioWare kindly provided this workaround on the forums: We have a workaround for this issue: Log into the server where you have 7 successfully transferred characters Create a new character, species/profession are not important Once you are through the login intro, log back out to character select Delete the new character. Return to the character transfer page, and it should correctly list 7 characters on the destination server Should you require any further assistance, please post here. Reddit…
E3: James Ohlen Interview b y TorWars
I guess I was wrong when I wrote we were nearing the tales end of E3 interviews. Our friends over at TorWars got to interview James Ohlen about all the upcoming stuff we have discussed the last week. The interview is in two parts and you can read what TorWars had to say about it here and here and you can also check it out below. Good stuff ahead:
SWTOR Allies Update: E3 Interview with Daniel Erickson
Pico from curse gaming also had the chance to speak with SWTOR’s own ead designer Daniel Erickson. As in the other interview coming out from E3, they discuss the upcomming changes in patch 1.3 I think we might be near the tales end with e# interviews, but if we find any more, I’ll make sure we post them. Let us know in the comments, if we missed any
Current Available Transfers
Transfers are now up but limited. You need to log into your account on swtor.com and go to “Character Transfers” to start the process. BioWare updated us about the process of migrating server last week, but it is still not obvious what servers the company is betting on. Available transfers are currently: North America Keller’s Void to Jedi Covenant (PvE – East) Hedarr Soongh to The Fatman (PvP – East) Rakata Mind Prison to The Bastion (PvP – West) Soresu to The Harbinger (PvE – West) The Courageous –> Canderous Ordo Kath Hound –> The Ebon Hawk Ven Zallow –> Jung Ma Fa’athra –> Drooga’s Pleasure Barge Lord Ieldis –> Begeren Colony Europe Eye of Ashlanae to The Red Eclipse (PvE) Mecrosa Order to Darth Nihilus (PvP) Phateem Halls of Knowledge to Mantle of the Force (PvE) Stereb Cities to The Jedi Tower (PvE) The Restoration Zone to Jar’Kai Sword (PvP) The…