Eric Musco and PvP Designer Alex Modny will be on Twitch later today, playing Warzones on Prophecy of the Five at 1:30PM PDT. As with most of the BioWare streams, they get quite a few questions which are commonly asked by PvPers. Therefor Eric talked with the combat team about many of our questions and got answers to many of the commonly asked questions. Below you will find those questions/answers. Will we ever be able to choose a specific Warzone to queue for? From the design side, we do like the idea of allowing our players to be able to impact which Warzone they want to queue for, but it is not as simple as letting everyone select which Warzone they want and call it a day. Because of a few reasons (queue population, preventing ‘de facto’ best Warzone, making sure all Warzones are being played, etc.) it would require…
Author: Soeren Kamper
Galactic Strongholds forums updates
With the announcement of the new upcoming Star Wars: The old Republic expansion, it was only expected that the official forums would go nuts. So many questions needs answering, and Eric Musco is trying to keep up. Here is a rundown of all the yellow posts on the official forum: Post #1 EricMusco Watch New Galactic Strongholds Announcement Trailer | 03.19.2014, 10:01 AM Quote: Originally Posted by ninjonxb Woo! So if Subscribers are getting early access on June 24th can we assume that this will not be the focus of 2.8? 2.8 was originally said to come on June 10th and “is going to be the biggest update up to this point”http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140203 Good catch Ninjonxb, Subscriber Early Access to Galactic Strongholds is coming as a part of 2.8. As you can see the decision has been made to move the 2.8 date out two weeks from its original target. We wanted…
New Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion “Galactic Strongholds” announced
You heard that right folk’s. BioWare just announced the next expansion for SWTOR titled “Galactic Strongholds”. This new expansion brings customizable player housing known as strongholds to the game, as well as Guild capital ships! You will be able to acquire multiple Strongholds on different planets and customize them yourself. To start you’ll have options to set up on your faction’s capital world, the gambling planet Nar Shaddaa, or both. Decorating your crib can get you Prestige score, which can rise you to the top of the Stronghold Directory. Aside from the benefits of living stylishly, having a stronghold will let you transport friends directly to it so you can kick back and socialize. Guilds will also be able to launch Flagships when the expansion officially releases, though that functionality won’t be enabled for the early access. Here’s the official blurb: In Galactic Strongholds, players can live on multiple planets…
Community Cantina Tour Arrives in Boston, Massachusetts on April 11th, 2014
BioWare posted news regarding the Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina. The next event will still be this Saturday, March 22nd, in Boulder. BUt the next after that will be happening on Friday, April 11th, in Boston. This is your chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted M8-3R Astromech code. Space is limited so be sure to come early. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by and hang out with the BioWare team. Check out details below: Venue: The Hyatt Regency Boston Date: Friday, April 11th, 2014 Time: 8:00PM – 11:00PM EDT Address: 1 Avenue De Lafayette, Boston, MA 02111 Space will be limited, so be sure to arrive early! You can RSVP on Facebook here (Facebook RSVP is not required for attendance).
Patch 2.6.2 Notes – 3/18/14
Patch notes for tomorrow’s servers maintenance is up. Check it out below: 2.6.2 Patch Notes General Players who activated the Makeb datacrons prior to 2.6.1 will have the Codex entries retroactively granted. Cartel Market The Charcoal Dewback can now be unlocked through the Collection. Corrected the appearance of the Wastelander’s Gloves so that the metal attachments appear on all body types. The Indomitable Vanquisher’s Saberstaff no longer has a gap between the hilt and the blade. The Scrublander’s Gloves and Wastelander’s Gloves now correctly display on all body types, and their icons have been updated to reflect the correct appearance. The “Emote: Chair 1” unlock available from the Rare Reputation Vendor in the Cartel Bazaar (an ICE Reputation item) now correctly unlocks the emote. The Infiltrator’s Compact Sniper Rifle and the Vindicator’s Lightsaber are no longer missing weapon proficiency requirements in their Cartel Market descriptions. The Korrealis Duke has returned…
Scheduled Maintenance: March 18th, 2014 – Patch 2.6.2
On March 18th, 2014, all game servers and SWTOR.com will be unavailable as BioWare perform maintenance. Patch 2.6.2 will be implemented during this downtime. We don’t have the patch notes yet, but be sure to check back, and we will post them when they become available. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 Duration: 7.5 hours Time: 11:30PM PST on 3/17 (6:30AM GMT) – 7AM PST (3PM GMT) During maintenance, all updates and additional information will be posted on our Twitter account. Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Time Zone Start Time Scheduled End Time UTC Offset HST March 18th, 2014 01:00 AM March 18th, 2014 03:00 AM -10 hours AKST March 18th, 2014 02:00 AM March 18th, 2014 04:00 AM -9 hours PST March 18th, 2014 03:00 AM March 18th, 2014 05:00 AM -8 hours MST March 18th,…
Swtor-mined: 2.7 PTS Patch #5 | 3/13/2014
Here is the newest datamined info from swtor_miner. We are going to jump over the raw output and go right to the juicy stuff. Unannounced Class Changes Operative/Scoundrel Jarring Strike/K.O. – Old PTS – “…and make your Backstab/Back Blast no longer require you to be behind the target to activate for 5 seconds.” New PTS – “…and allow your next Backstab/Back Blast to be activated while face-to-face with your enemy target.” Quickening/Scurry – Old PTS – “..In addition, when you activate Exfiltrate/Scamper, you have a 15/30% chance to gain Quickening/Scurry..” New PTS – “..In addition, when you activate Exfiltrate/Scamper, you have a 50/100% chance to gain Quickening/Scurry..” Surgical Precision/Emergent Emergencies – Old PTS – “…In addition, Surgical Probe/Emergency Medpac immediately re-grants Tactical Advantage/Upper Hand when used on targets below 30% max health. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.” New PTS – “…In addition, Surgical Probe/Emergency Medpac immediately re-grants…
PTS Update – March 13th, 2014
The public tester servers were down for a few hours today. During that Time, BioWare added a new patch. The changes are listed below: General Season 1 rewards will be sent out to players who qualified with a Group rating. Classes +Combat Jedi Knight Guardian Focused Defense has been redesigned: It now empowers you with 10 charges of Focused Defense, lasting up to 30 seconds. Whenever you take damage a charge of Focused Defense is consumed to heal you for a moderate amount. This ability can be used while stunned or otherwise controlled but cannot be used while above 70% health. Cooldown increased from 45 seconds to 2 minutes. Sith Warrior Juggernaut Enraged Defense has been redesigned: It now empowers you with 10 charges of Enraged Defense, lasting up to 30 seconds. Whenever you take damage a charge of Enraged Defense is consumed to heal you for a moderate amount….
Star Wars: The Old Republic Insider — March 2014
BioWare posted a new SWTOR Insider Video. In this video They show off the new Denon GSF map, Quesh Huttball map and the Tython / Korriban Flashpoints. The Cartel market will also get a lot of updates in the future. Later this month we will get access to the Space Jockey Starfighter pack and new direct sell dye modules. In April The Cartel market will have Hot Shots Starfighter Pack up for sale as well the First Grand Acquisitions Pack in late April / early May.. The video also talks about New type of pack based on user feedback, Features armor sets from the first three shipments and that One slot of the pack will drop the entire armor set in a lockbox. Last but not least, the video reminds us of Double XP event 3/14 – 3/17 and the Lucky-77 subscriber reward speeder, check it out below: )
2.6.1a Patch Notes
Servers are back up, and here today’s patch notes: 2.6.1a Patch Notes General Resolved an issue so that the Bounty Contract Week and Double XP Weekend events will begin correctly. Bounty Contract Week will run March 11th-18th, and the Double XP Weekend will run March 14th-17th. Missions + NPCs The Bounty Hunter Class mission “Albea’s Bounty” now properly resets when the mission “My Sponsorship” is reset. Apparently People were exploiting the The Bounty Hunter Class mission “Albea’s Bounty” to get tons of XP. I have no clue how it worked, but I am thinking of an exp exploit where you can keep on resetting “My Sponsorship” to do it over and over. My guess “My Sponsorship” is something that gives a lot of exp for the time needed to complete it while “Albea’s Bounty” doesn’t (they are in a logic loop of some sort).
Lucky-77 Swoop Video
Remember we told you about the new Lucky-77 Swoop? If you are a subscriber on on March 18, 2014, you will be gifted this new mount. Now BioWare have posted a new video showing off this exclusive new mount. I prefer the larger engine pods on this speeder (and the GSI Exploiter) to the crafted speeders, and I think the overall style makes for one of the better speeder designs in the game, and, hey, free dummy. Personally I don’t need subscriber appreciation gifts/bribes, but some subs have gone ballistic without BW tucking them in and telling them they love them from time to time so I’m just as glad they don’t waste effort on stuff like this.
Developer Update: Quesh Huttball Pit
SWTOR Associate Designer, Alex Modny posted a Developer Update regarding Quesh Huttball Pit today. The blog post was followed up by a forum post were he talks about player concerns regarding the map. People that have played the map once on the Public Test Server, says it is hard to play but a pretty fun map. There are a lot of places to get lost in, but it seems like that whoever can keep a slinger/sniper on the ball spawn will win most of the time. Alex Modney’s reply to this is below the blog post: Developer Update: Quesh Huttball Pit The most brutal game in the Galaxy is back! The magnanimous Giradda the Hutt has graciously opened up his latest Huttball Pit on the noxious planet Quesh and is currently looking for deaths participants to entertain him! The new Pit, built especially for Giradda, is a different layout than…
New Unique mount from Nightmare Dread Fortress
PVP’ers are not the only once getting a new awesome mount. SnipeAlott from the guild Reckoning on The Red Eclipse server, got this awesome mount, from Nightmare Dread Fortress on the public test servers last night. The boss that drops it is Brontes, and the mount is named Wings of the Architect. It’s a regular mount that flies like a jetpack without the ability to fly inside certain structures (like a jetpack can). Still amazing looking though. Check it out:
Scheduled Maintenance: March 11th, 2014 – Patch 2.6.1a
On March 11th, 2014, all game servers and SWTOR.com will be unavailable as BioWare perform maintenance. Patch 2.6.1a will be implemented during this downtime. We don’t have the patch notes yet, but be sure to check back, and we will post them when they become available. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday March 11th, 2014 Duration: 3 hours Time: 2AM PDT (9AM GMT) – 5AM PDT (12PM GMT) Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic Time Zone Start Time Scheduled End Time UTC Offset HST March 11th, 2014 01:00 AM March 11th, 2014 03:00 AM -10 hours AKST March 11th, 2014 02:00 AM March 11th, 2014 04:00 AM -9 hours PST March 11th, 2014 03:00 AM March 11th, 2014 05:00 AM -8 hours MST March 11th, 2014 04:00 AM March 11th, 2014 06:00 AM -7 hours CST March 11th, 2014 05:00 AM…
Next Community Cantina takes place in Boulder this month
We kind of overlooked this story, but the next SWTOR Community Cantina Tour stop takes place in Boulder, Colorado later this month. I would imagine that we will get tons of new details regarding the SWTOR player Housing Announcement at this event, but who knows. Below are the details: We’re happy to announce that the next stop in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Saturday, March 22nd, in Boulder! This is your chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted M8-3R Astromech code. Space is limited so be sure to come early. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by and hang out with us! Venue: St. Julien Hotel and Spa Date: Saturday, March 22nd, 2014 Time: 7:00-10:00PM…
Housing Location on Coruscant?
Here is something interesting. Reddit user Darth_Wicked has quite a sharp eye! When he logged into the game after watching the Player housing announcement trailer, he was able to pinpoint were the apartment in the video is located. Taking into account the Capital Ship, the Senate and the like, plus the buildings being rebuilt in the background and it would seem this building… Further evidence… Edit. Below image was just data mined. We are close to something guys: Edit. Below image was just data mined. We are close to something guys:
Screenshots of the new Giradda’s Rancor PvP Mount
Patchwork from Bastion server uploaded some pretty bad-ass screenshots of the new Giradda’s Rancor PvP Mount. The mount is one of the Season 1 PvP rewards, and only players at the very top of the pile who manage a rating of 1500 or higher will get this. The end of Season 1 will come with Game Update 2.7 The full list of PVP rewards are as following: (Based on your tier at the end of Season 1) Tier 5 – Rating 0001-1149 Unique Inaugural Tier 5 Title Tier 4 – Rating 1150-1224 Unique Inaugural Tier 4 Title A Mini-Pet Tier 3 – Rating 1225-1299 Unique Inaugural Tier 3 Title A Mini-Pet Ranked 1 Ranked Armor Set Tier 2 – Rating 1300-1499 Unique Inaugural Tier 2 Title A Mini-Pet Season 1 Ranked Armor Set Season 1 Ranked Weapon Set Tier 1 – Rating 1500+ Unique Inaugural Tier 5 Title A Mini-Pet…
Atlanta Cantina Tour News and Info
mmorpg.com have an article on what went on on last weekends Atlanta Cantina Tour: Last week, BioWare sent Star Wars: the Old Republic’s Community Specialist Courtney Woods, Community Manager Eric Musco, Producer Andrew Horowitz, and Lead Engineer Johan Allanson to Atlanta with swag and drink tickets in hand for the latest Cantina Tour stop. The now-traditional flashdrive that was handed out contained a series of images from upcoming content, and as expected, there was a Q&A session with Courtney Woods moderating the party. Many thanks to Dulfy of for the flashdrive assets, and Youtube user Mike Goeppner for capturing video of the event from which I culled the basic questions and answers. As is fairly standard at these things, players asked a lot of really good questions that we all want to know the answers to, but the BioWare folks weren’t going to reveal anything before its time. New playable species…
PTS Update – March 6th, 2014
A new patch was applied to the PTS on 3/6/2014. The new changes are below, and have been merged into the existing patch notes. You can check out the existing patch notes here. General New options for the Ground Target Area of Effect reticle: Sticky Ground Target Reticule – When active, this option makes it so your Ground Target Reticule doesn’t disappear if the cast fails. Example: Bounty Hunter attempts to activate Death From Above, but their target location is out of range. With this option active, the GTAoE reticule should persist and allow the Player to instantly attempt to recast. If this option isn’t active, then the reticule should disappear and the Player will have to click to cast again. Quick Ground Target Activation – When active, pressing a hotkey that belongs to a GTAoE twice should cast the ability at the feet of the Player’s target. Example: Player has…
Watch Galactic Starfighter Spotlight: The Scout & Strike Fighter
BioWare posted a new trailer, on how you can take control of the frontline with the fast and evasive Scout or the powerful and agile Strike Fighter in intense space PvP battles. Your not missing out on much but here it is: Watch the latest trailer and see how you can take control of the frontline with the fast and evasive Scout or the powerful and agile Strike Fighter in intense space PvP battles in the new Free-to-Play Digital Expansion, Galactic Starfighter! Also discover now the new Starfighter variants including the “Scout: Spearpoint” and the “Strike Fighter: FT-3C Imperium” coming in Game Update 2.7 Invasion this April! Jump into Galactic Starfighter today and receive two Pilot Suits! No minimum character level required.
TOR TV: PTS 2.7 stuff ( Warning: Spoilers)
SWTOR Patch 2.7 is available on the public test servers now, and video footage is coming in. These videos have tons of spoilers, so watch this on your own risk. The videos below include everything from flashpoint playthrough, rare loot drops to pre-chat with Theron Shan. I played both Republic Variants earlier. They were more challenging than KDY and Czerka, but not that much more. Both flashpoints featured heavily demolished versions of the starter planet. Korriban especially featured some areas where the path through the rubble wasn’t immediately clear. The only difference is the story and npc skins though. Lana Beniko was definitely more intriguing to me than Theron. Very interesting to see a story like this from both sides. Excited to see where it’s going. Korriban Incursion, Empire Theron Shan Patch 2.7 PTS – Assault on Tython (Imp) Assault on Tython Full Run [Solo Marauder] Assault on Tython & Korriban Incursion…
PTS Game Update 2.7: Invasion Patch Notes
Game Update 2.7: Invasion is now available on the Public Test Servers. You can find the patch notes for the current build below. If you haven’t done so already, check out our post on the data mining of the patch. You can check them out here and here. Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ PTS Game Update 2.7: Invasion Patch Notes Last Updated: March 3rd, 2014 All content and features on the Public Test Server are not final and are subject to change. Highlights Ranked Arena Season 1 has ended! Characters that had a qualifying rating will be mailed their rewards. Giradda congratulates the winners and looks forward to the bloodshed in Season 2! Ranked Arenas are still active for you and your team to prepare for the next season, which will begin in 2.7.1. Matches played between Seasons will not affect your ratings. Quesh Huttball Pit, a new Warzone, is available…
Swtor-mined: 2.7PTS New Maps | 3/1/2014
swtor_miner have been playing around with the new patch on the Public test servers and found some more goodies. First image is the Quesh Huttball map. The next two are the departure hangars for the new Flashpoints. (I wonder why there are 5 shuttles…) The rest are of the Tython and Korriban Flashpoints. Check it out below: My best assumption is that they copy pasted the old flashpoint rooms, and so they have 6 total rooms. and can fillup the other 2 when they feel like it. Personally I wouldn’t mind them pushing the rakata prime flashpoint a bit and have a flashpoint where we race against each other to find the Star Maps (multi planet flashpoint) I.e. Start at Korriban. Fight a boss, clicka shuttle takes us to Kysshyyk(pardon spelling) fight the 2nd boss there, jump to Dantooine. etc.
Moraband new official name of sith homeworld?
Here is something strange. In Star Wars Insider #148 that the name of the Sith homeworld is called Moraband. This kind of puts an end to the Expanded Universe-derived Korriban planet name. Unless Moraband is referring to the homeworld of ancient Sith Lords, and not the Sith species (Korriban). This will be kind of strange though since the ancient Sith Lords who discovered and enslaved the Sith species were fallen Jedi who caused the Hundred-Year Darkness around 7000 BBY. They weren’t born on one planet (Moraband). They were many Jedi from many walks of life who followed Ajunta Pall in his quest to use the dark side. Of course this is just all EU stuff, so as far as TCW is concerned it’s irrelevant. But if you’re trying to somehow keep the old EU alive with that sort of rationalizing, it doesn’t really work.. The Sith Lords of old were…