Author: Soeren Kamper

1.3.5 Patch Notes, August 7, 2012

Servers are back up so it’s time to enjoy your new pet + 25 black hole commendations for server transfer rewards. Below are this weeks patch notes. No news on upcoming events, but I would not expect much before the game goes Free to play either. I find the  Legacy nerfs quite ridiculous in the patch. I guess BioWare is catering to the casual crowd and the people who just want to play the 8 stories without having to grind levels. And I guess that’s understandable. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Sentinel Combat Saber Storm: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, as Combat Sentinels are performing within expectations. This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill. Sith Warrior Marauder Carnage Sever: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning…

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Swtor collectors edition now 30 bucks at Kmart

Star Wars: The old republic collectors edition is now at sale for 30 bucks at Kmart. This is might be somewhat depressing considering what we paid for it at release, but this could also be an especially good deal for players when the Free to play version launches. Think of all the  cartel coins you will get.  A BioWare CSR has confirmed that it is indeed  possible to upgrade your account to the  collectors edition. You also get access to the Collector’s Edition Store if you upgrade it now, and of course the Darth Malgus statue!

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TOR TV: VENDORS – EPISODE 1

Vendors is a new animated series based in the era of Star Wars: The Old Republic made by TheWarpZone. The guys thought it would be fun to explore the lives of the unsung heroes of galaxy, the Vendors. Hope you like this one and stick around for more. At first I was a bit put off…and then the guy got stabbed with the lightsaber. Well done fellas

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The Guild Sphere: Harbinger

It’s time for another guild interview. Today I had the chance to speak to Tomppa from my own server Tomb of Freedon Nadd. Tomppa is guild leader of the guild Harbinger, a Finnish republic guild currently looking for active players of any class. Where did your guilds name come from? To be honest i dont know the origins of the name since i am not the original GM, but i would imagine that someone had played Mass Effect 2 a lot 🙂 Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? Harbinger is somewhere between hardcore and casual, when the game launched we were pretty much an hardcore guild but since that we don’t play that much anymore. Overall we are a very relaxed guild, probably 20-30% of our mumble talk is someone laughing. How did your guild come about? Most Finnish guilds are playing on the empire side, so it was the people who wanted to play as…

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Community Q&A: July 27th, 2012

This weeks Questions and answers are up. Nothing really interesting this time. Servers having trouble since 1.3 with chat lag, warzone lags and unscheduled maintenance every three or four days, but the last question makes it sound like server perfomance has actually been improved. So when you’re stuck in the login screen next time or you’re chatting 10 minutes into the future than don’t worry, the server itself is reliable! Check it all out below: Skendra: Question about Legacy! Under Character Perks -> Travel, at 1.2 there was buff for Sprint Speed but locked and now in 1.3 it was changed to Priority Transport. Why? Will Wallace (Senior Designer): There were both internal and external balance concerns about allowing players to purchase upgrades to Sprint speed, especially as it related to advantages in Warzones. We don’t want someone to feel like they have to have an optional purchase to be competitive in PvP….

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TOR TV: Assassin Kills Darth Malgus on Hard mode (Solo)

Darkness Assassin taking down Darth Malgus in HM The False Emporer. Well done for accomplishing such a feat but I can’t shake this feeling of this sort of stuff being unwanted amongst the devs. Being able to solo a HM boss, plus last through enrage with only a companion healer seems a bit too much for a single tank to do. I’m guessing when this news spreads out more, they’ll either do something about soloing HM’s or nerf assassin’s, because I doubt other tanks could accomplish this feat, since Vanguards/PT and JG/SJ have no passive self healing for their stance So after roughly 6 combined hours over 3 days of attempts I finally managed to solo Darth Malgus in HM FE on my Assassin. I just feel I have to show people ;D this is one of the hardest challenges I’ve had on my tank yet (it’s relatively easy though…

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TOR TV: SWTOR Explained: Sith Triumvirate (Pre-Kotor 2)

ZeroTolerence55 returns to make another SWTOR Explained video, this time focusing on the Sith Triumvirate and the state of the galaxy leading up to Knights of the Old Republic 2. We have posted quite a few video from ZeroTolerence55  before, so if you haven’t seem the already you should deffetnly do so. Yout might even learn some lore 🙂 SWTOR Explained: Sith Emperor Backstory SWTOR Explained – Revan’s Backstory (Pre-Kotor) and his involvement in the Mandalorian Wars SWTOR Explained: Revan Part 2 (Jedi Civil War) SWTOR Explained: Knights of the Old Republic Story (Revan Part 3)

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1.3.4 Patch Notes July 24, 2012

Servers are back up after some Scheduled Maintenance today. The most important fix must be the Warzone group frames bug.   Playing with friends became an exercise in someone counting down in vent, “Ok, click in 3…2…1…”. Another interesting “fix ” is this:  Soa’s orbs, lightning balls, and mind traps no longer grant social points. And this is what happens when you abuse a mechanic, people. 1.3.4 Patch Notes General Players can now use vehicles on Coruscant in the large areas of the Black Sun, Old Galactic Market, The Works, and the Jedi Temple districts. Classes and Combat > General All class “stun break” abilities now properly remove blind effects. For example, the blind effect caused by a Sorcerer’s Backlash skill can now be broken with each class’s “stun break” ability. Companion Characters > General Centurion Weaponmaster’s head gear no longer causes non-human companion heads to disappear. Crew Skills > General The crafting…

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SWTOR Community Q&A: July 23rd, 2012

Last Fridays Community Q&A were postponed and released yesterday. This time the BioWare devs answers questions about Campaign gear,class balance and other PVP issues. Chimerashot: The way Campaign gear is set up, some DPS classes have the Armoring with more Endurance instead of their main stat. Can we expect this to change /what was the reasoning behind this? David Hunt (Systems Designer): It’s an undesired interaction between the distribution of the mods and the move to set bonuses on the armoring. Future gear provides set mods will use the primary stat over Endurance for all DPS classes. Achyllis: Why don’t cool downs all reset on death in PvP? Austin Peckenpaugh (Senior Designer): Doing this would encourage a couple of things that, so far, we don’t necessarily want to encourage. When you take a position from another player or group of players in a Warzone, holding that position is harder when…

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TOR TV: My Sith is a Jerk 8 Correlia’s Reckoning

My apologies my lord, But I forgot all about this “show”. It most be months since we last posted any of  TheDrunkAndThePwned videos, but they are still funny as ever. Here is the latest video, and if you haven’t played the Sith inquisitor yet, you might come across some spoilers. Watching all his videos today, I’m starting to believe this one might be the best of all the “My Sith is a Jerk” videos. The crowd scene edit produced audible laughter.

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Scheduled Maintenance: July 24

As usual, BioWare will take down the servers for scheduled maintenance on this upcoming Tuesday July 24. The servers will be down from 2AM CDT to 6AM CDT, and when they come back up, players will have to download a patch. CourtneyWoodsHello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM 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. This weekly 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….

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Individual Server Forums Coming soon(tm)

With the reduction of servers, it seems inevitable that server forums is incomming. To day we got a confirmation from Allison Berryman who posted the following on the official forums:  Allison BerrymanIndividual server forums will be implemented later this summer once we have completed automatic transfers! So there you have it. A much sort after service is now coming to a galaxy far far away. Just a heads up though. If you can’t wait, you can use the subreddits already created for each server in Star Wars: The old republic

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TOR TV: Key Binding Guide For All Classes

Having trouble setting up your key binds? Have no fear, elpoetaenmiuq  is hear to help. This guys has made a great video guide on how to setup your abilites effectively. Keybinding things to keys on your keyboard instead of clicking them increases your ability to react to certain situations faster than manually moving your mouse to click on abilities. Some people don’t mind clicking and are faster that way others like myself it is easier to keybind your abilites.

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Patch notes: 1.3.3 7/17/2012

As always BioWare took this Tuesday to path the servers. Not much to report other then some server stabilityupdates, that hopefully will reduce the lag we have experienced lately. With the HK trailer released yesterday I was really hoping they might surprise us with a world event or even the quest chain for the HK companion, but ohh well. Check out the patch notes below: 1.3.3 Patch Notes 7/17/2012 General Implemented optimizations to improve overall server stability. During this maintenance, we are implementing new functionality that will be used later this summer to support automatic character transfers from remaining origin servers to designated destination servers. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Sentinel Combat Opportune Attack: This skill now specifically affects Blade Storm, Slash, and Blade Rush. Please note that these changes are not reflected in the ability text. Sith Warrior Marauder Carnage Execute: This skill now specifically affects Force Scream, Vicious Slash, and Massacre….

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Community Q&A: 7/13/12

BioWare have a new Community Q&A for us, and this time it delves into deception Assassins, Operatives, and the new planet of Makeb. Lik elast week it’s pretty short but indeed a worth a read. Check it out below:  Posted by: Community Q&A: July 13th, 2012 Anzel: Credit Sinks appear to be one of the hot topics in the community right now. Are there any chances of severely lowering or possibly removing some of these at this early stage in the game? Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): Now that 1.3 has been out and legacy perks have been in the system for a while now, we will be looking at our credits sinks, particularly the perks, to see how they are performing. It is quite likely we will make some adjustments based on what we’ve learned. BobertCole: Could you elaborate please on what role you see deception Assassins playing? Are they close…

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KOTOR and other Star Wars games is on the The Steam Summer Sale

The steam summer sale is on, and as expected, the servers are crashing.   There are tons of great games on the list, but due to the nature of this blog, we will only list the Star Wars games. For a complete list of all games available, check out  Greg Voakes article over at Forbes. I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were instantly spent. Star Wars Collection: $49.99 (-50% off) Star Wars Battlefront II Star Wars Jedi Knight Series Star Wars Republic Commando Star Wars Starfighter Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes Star Wars The Force Unleashed Series Star Wars: Dark Forces Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars: Empire at War: Gold Pack. Just a friendly heads up to people contemplating buying a game. If it is not one of the daily deals, do not buy it until the last day of the sale….

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Maintenance: Friday the 13th

BioWare is taken down the servers tomorrow for an unscheduled maintenance (hmmmm…) Am I  smelling a new event here? For the official announcement, head on over to the SWTOR forums. BioWareWe will be performing an unscheduled maintenance this Friday, July 13th, 2012. This maintenance is for restarting the servers to maintain and improve stability. After the maintenance, there will not be a new patch to download.On Friday, July 13th, 2012 we will be bringing down the game servers and SWTOR.com for a brief maintenance period for two hours from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 4AM CDT (2AM PDT/5AM EDT/10AM BST/11AM CEST/7PM AEST). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours, but could be extended.

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1.3.2 Patch Notes 7/10/2012

Servers are back up after this weeks maintenance, and BioWare have deployed a new patch. The best news of all is that the refer-a-friend mount is in and retrospective. On top of that, I’ve just picked it up on my lv10 Marauder who has the first rank of legacy vehicles (i.e. can ride a rank 1 speeder at lv10) and not only can he use the Kurtob Alliance, it actually gives him 110% speed. So, 40k credits for an epic speeder if you can convince your friends to subscribe! Also remember that the Play free to level 15 starts today. Patch notes below the new refer-a-friend mount screenshot. 1.3.2 Patch Notes 7/9/2012 General The new free trial allows anyone to create a Star Wars: The Old Republic account and play up to level 15 free of charge with no time limit. Classes and Combat General Stat bonuses derived from buffs that increase attributes and ratings are now…

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Georg Zoeller leaves BioWare

Georg Zoeller just updated his google+ about him departing BioWare It’s time to say goodbye…. Friday marked my last day in the office at BioWare. After almost a decade and spending almost quarter of our lives in Canada and the US, my wife and I have decided to take on an exciting new adventure on the other side of the world – Singapore. It’s been an honor to work on so many amazing games with so many talented people and good friends, you will be greatly missed. If you’ve circled me because of my involvement with SWTOR, please understand that I will not be providing any more information regarding the game from this point forward and uncircle appropriately. If you stay, don’t complain about getting hit with pictures from the other part of the world from time to time. To Adventure! I kinda guessed this was coming, Georg Zoeller was one…

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The Guild Sphere: Alpha Strike Force

It’s been a while since our last Guild feature, but I hope we can start it up again. Get in contact with us if you are interested in getting featured on our website. We have interviews all kinds of guilds in the pasts, big and small, so don’t hesitate to contact us. Today  Elrike the guildmaster of – Alpha Strike Force on the Jedi Covenant Server sat in the hot chair answering all our questions. Enjoy! Where did your guilds name come from? The guild was named Alpha Strike Force by our founder, ASF Zebra a retired NASA engineer and military veteran with tours of duty in Vietnam and Afghanistan. The selection of the name was influenced by his extensive military experience since an Alpha Strike Force represents an elite military unit. The name also fits well with the Star Wars mythos since Strike Force Alpha was an Imperial brigade during the Krantian Civil War.. Can you give me…

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The Old Republic is Coming to Comic-Con!

Yesterday Lisa wrote about Course of the Force, an Olympic torch style relay run with lightsabers, where participants will make a journey from Santa Monica to San Diego while benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The vent is leading up to San Diego Comic Con that starts later this week. BioWare is co sponsors of this event,. and will also be at Comic-Con, having a few events. Check out the press release below: ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- San Diego Comic-Con, the single largest pop culture event in North America, is only a week away! With hundreds of thousands of passionate comic book, movie, and video game fans converging on the San Diego Convention Center, BioWare and LucasArts will be there to represent Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ in a big way! Throughout the four-day show, attendees will be able to come by the Star Wars: The Old Republic booth located inside the Star Wars™ Pavilion (booth #2913). Throughout…

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