Eric Musco just informed the SWTOR community that the Bronze Silver and Gold Packs will be returning for a limited time from Jan 12 to Jan 19. Bronze/Silver/Gold (BSG) Packs Returning for a Limited Time | 01.08.2016, 07:10 PM Hey folks, In early December we took the BSG packs off of the Cartel Market to coincide with the launch of the Strategy Alliance Pack. This certainly raised some questions on when they would be returning. We are going to be bringing the BSG packs back to the Market next Tuesday, January 12th, for a limited time. The BSG packs will remain on the Cartel Market for one week, before being embargoed on Tuesday, January 19th. BSG packs will be treated similarly to other previous grand packs, we will be embargoing them but they are likely to return for limited periods in the future. If you want to get yourself some BSG…
Eric Musco
SWTOR: News on the Item Stack Resale Exploit
Eric Musco has some updates from the swtor devs over at Bioware,regarding the Item Stack exploit. Apparently more than 500 accounts have being perm banned for now. Make me wonder if you can sue BioWare for a banning? Anyways. Below are the news: Here is another update on the exploit, and the action we have taken. We are continuing to investigate accounts and action is on-going. Here are the actions we have taken against accounts: Suspension time, up to and including a permanent ban (more than 500 accounts have been permanently banned so far) Removal of all Credits Removal of all Currencies Removal of all items which could be gotten from the exploit, including recurring Event Currencies and Companion gifts Resetting of all Companion Influence to 0 Resetting progress of all Alliance Commanders to 0 The nature of this exploit is that players could use it to gain a wide array…
SWTOR NiM Loot Issue / Update
Eric Musco took on the official forums, to report that Nightmare loot are not a guaranteed drop from nightmare operations. I have a few updates to pass on regarding the current issues with Nightmare Loot Drops. First, we discovered there is a bug with the percentage chance of a 224 rated item dropping in any of our Nightmare Operations. We plan to address this when we release Chapter 10 (Game Update 4.1) scheduled in February. If we are able to address it sooner, I’ll pass along an update. Aside from that, we realized that we need to make a correction to our Operations and Flashpoints in Fallen Empire blog. Currently it states the following: Nightmare Mode will also be available for all the Operations that had it previously, and will reward the same as the highlighted Hard Mode, as well as the unique mounts and titles available currently. This statement is in…
SWTOR concerns regarding accessing future Companions
Eric Musco posted some answers to some of the growing player concerns on companion recruitment. These 4 threads all ask the same questions,can we get answers? | 11.11.2015, 09:53 PM I talked to Matt about Alliance, Companions, and your questions specifically related to accessing future Companions. Between this thread and the ones linked in the OP, I think there are two main questions you are looking to have addressed. Will I need to complete currently available alert Missions to unlock future alert Missions? As of right now, the answer to this is yes. Inside of each Alliance Companion type (Military, Underworld, etc), the Companion recruitment alerts are very much looked at like a Mission chain. Generally, you must complete one alert Mission before you will receive the next. Note that you only need to complete the Mission itself, not necessarily recruit any Companion associated with it. There may be exceptions to…
SWTOR Dev Story Roundtable – Valkorion, Family Ties, Star Wars Influences and More
Bioware recently held another roundtable and swtorista was there to cover the event in full detail. She explains the event here: I was invited to attend a press and influencers roundtable online with members of the Bioware team. After a presentation about the Star Fortresses (content available after you finish the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion storyline) they allowed us to ask non-spoiler questions. The team answering included: Charles Boyd, Lead Writer Michael Ammer, Senior Designer Eric Musco, Community Manager And then goes on to tell us about some really awesome stuff from the roundtable. We learn more about Valkorion, Vaylin, Arcann and Thexan who were introduced to us in the trailer for KotFE. You can really feel the passion from the devs as they describe, ” It kind of just gets at what the heart of Star Wars is – it’s all family drama, and families struggling against each…
SWTOR Instant Level 60 Tokens now working
Eric Musco just informed the SWTOR community, that issues with Instant level 60 tokens have been resolved, and they will be back at the cartel market shortly. Hey folks, The issues that many of you were experiencing when making a start at 60 character should now be resolved. We will be restoring the start at 60 token to the Cartel Market shortly. There are multiple different scenarios that your character and start at 60 tokens could be in, I want to cover each of them and what it means for you. I made a start at 60 character, but instead it created a level 1 character and put me on the fleet. I then deleted that character, but my start at 60 token was not restored. You should now see your tokens restored to you when you are at Character select. You can create a level 60 normally now. I…
KOTFE Level 60 character creation is bugged
it’s no secret that many players have experienced problems, when trying to create a level 60 character. Players have been reporting this on the forums for some days now, and Eric Musco took the forums explaining what the developers are doing about it. Check it out: KOTFE Level 60 character creation is bugged | 11.04.2015, 03:44 PM Hey folks, We wanted to get some information out about the issue you are experiencing. First off, there is a bug that can occur when you make a level 60 character, it instead creates it as a level 1 and places you on the fleet. Without going too technical, basically the game is moving faster than your account is, which is creating the issue. Here are a few important notes to be aware of: Go slow – When going through the character creation process take your time, watch the Sacrifice trailer that starts…
Update on SWTOR Season 5 PvP Nexu
Players who accidentally received the Season 5 Nexu will be able to keep them. BioWare Bioware is planning to add something exclusive for gold tier in patch 3.3.1. though. Check it out: The Season 5 Nexu | 07.31.2015, 03:10 PM Hey folks, Good news! We have granted Nexu to all of the remaining Gold tier characters who had not yet received it. If you were missing the Nexu, we isolated the issue to characters who had transferred or changed their names during the course of the season. I know there are questions about what will happen now, so here’s our current plans: Mistakenly Granted Nexu – Anyone who was granted a Nexu, will be allowed to keep it. This was our error and we are not inclined to take it away from everyone. Gold Tier Exclusive Reward – We know letting those extra players keep the Nexu, it takes away the exclusivity…
SWTOR: Update on Win Trading from Season 5
Eric Musco took on the forums to tell players about the actions BioWare have taken against win trading in the past PvP season. Check it out: Update on Win Trading from Season 5 | 07.23.2015, 06:07 PM Hey folks, With Season 5 recently ending, I thought I would give an update on what we have been doing to curb players who continue to win-trade. To recap from before, players who were caught win-trading were receiving actions ranging from a warning, up to having their character’s rating reset. Specifically, the character who we caught doing the win-trading itself. Depending on the character’s history, this can also include suspension time as well. Over the course of the last few Seasons, we have seen an overall decline in win-trading action, and we hope that you have seen that as well. However, in a handful of cases, there are players who continue to win-trade…
New Dev Post – Update on Win-Trading in Season 5
Eric Musco just posted on the official SWTOR forums regarding Season 5 PvP Win Trading. Apparently this practice saw a 90% decrease in win trading activity and 50% decrease in trolls. Update on Win-Trading in Season 5 | 05.21.2015, 07:22 PM Hey folks, I am here to give an update on win-trading and ranked “trolls” for Season 5. As of earlier this week we sent out another round of warnings and action against players who were participating in win-trading or being trolly in ranked play. I did want to provide some additional information besides just letting you know timing of action going out. Many of you requested that we be more up front about the action we were taking against players, and you were right in asking for that! Our aggressive action against these players along with being up front and transparent about has led to a fairly substantial change, let…
SWTOR Taking Down a Credit Selling Ring
In a joint operation across the world, Police BioWare investigators have tracked down hundreds of accounts and confiscated their total assets of more 9 billion credits. All accounts are now in jail, and awaiting the death penalty. Good work boys! Here is the official news from Eric Musco: Taking Down a Credit Selling Ring | 05.06.2015, 06:12 PM Hey folks, Over the past few months there have been many issues with Credit sellers and Advertisers. As you have noticed lately, we’re communicating more about what’s going on behind the scenes, so this is another area where we plan to keep you informed. Last week, we took action against an entire selling ring. Over multiple weeks, we investigated and compiled evidence about a large Credit selling ring which spanned across hundreds of accounts and a variety of servers. To help thwart any possible reactions from this group, we simultaneously actioned every account…
SWTOR Developer Blog – The Epic Story XP Boost
Community Manager for Star Wars: The old Republic Eric Musco, posted a developer blog about the new The Epic Story XP Boost. This XP boost is a subscriber only bonus, that will let you run through level 1-50 doing only your class quests. Check it out: Hello everyone, let’s talk about the Epic Story XP Boost and how it’s an improvement over our 12x boost that we gave prior to Shadow of Revan. Our Epic Story XP Boost allows all subscribers to level from 1-50 by playing only their Class Missions and from 50-55 on Makeb by playing only the Rise of the Hutt Cartel main storyline. This Boost does not affect Shadow of Revan as it was already designed to be a more streamlined leveling experience. If you have never played the original 8 Class stories, there has never been a better time to dive in! With the Epic…
BioWare is taken action against players exploiting Ziost Bug
SWTOR Game update 3.2 came with an unfortunate bug yesterday, letting players have access to the Ziost operation boss via what apparently is an exploit. I must admid that this surprised me, as I have been using the “exploit” my self. I personally thought it was just another new secret area. The whole point of hunting for datacrons, especially Makeb, is to train us to be good at accessing areas that are not genearally easily accessed – but apparently I was wrong. Here is the news from Eric: So Bioware, about people bypassing the locked part on Ziost to fight the OP Boss etc. | 04.29.2015, 03:15 PM One of the things we tried to be clear about with the Ravagers is that we are serious about handling exploits. With that exploit, the Ravagers we were open about our process and the action we were taking. For this issue with Ziost, we are going to…
Rest of SWTOR Ziost story Coming May 4th
The rest of the Ziost story line, in Star Wars: The Old Republic, will be live from may 4th, and does apparently not require a new patch update. Perhaps it opens up as a new daily area with world bosses? What do you guys think? Here is the update from Eric Musco: Planetary Status Monitor | Still no progression in Ziost story available ? | 04.28.2015, 06:30 PM Hey folks, Without spoiling anything, there have been some questions about the end of Ziost currently and whether this is intended or not. It is 100% intended, it is not a bug, and there is definitely more coming… And it is coming soon. The finale event for this story will happen Monday, May 4th and it will not require a patch. Evacuate Ziost while you have the chance!
SWTOR Developer Livestream on March 20 on Patch 3.2
The SWTOR developers over at BioWare will be holding a livestream on March 20 to discuss the upcoming Patch 3.2 and Ziost. SWTOR Developer Live Stream – March 20th | 03.17.2015, 03:01 PM Hey folks! I wanted to give you the details of our next live stream: When: Friday, March 20th from 3PM-4PM CDT Where: www.twitch.tv/swtor Who: Bruce Maclean, Michael Backus, and myself What: We are going to to talk about the story coming to Ziost and what is coming in Game Update 3.2. (no spoilers!) I hope to see you there! -eric
Update on SWTOR Win-Trading and Griefing in Season 4
Yesterday Eric Musco addressed the PvP forums, and updated players on Bioware’s action towards win-traders and trolls in ranked PvP. Check it out below: Update on Win-Trading and Griefing in Season 4 | 03.10.2015, 06:45 PM Hey folks, As promised, we want to keep you informed on what we are doing about those win-traders and trolls in Ranked PvP. Here is what is happening right now: Win-traders – We have been reviewing multiple sets of data, along with the private reports that many of you have been sending to the team. Any player who, through validating data, is win-trading is receiving will be receiving at a minimum, a warning. Not only are we warning these users to stop what they are doing, continued win-trading will lead to greater actions including resetting their ratings and suspension time. Griefer – Those players that seem to have that one singular purpose, to ruin…
SWTOR Operation Victory Tournament
BioWare will be hosting an Operation Victory Tournament with ESL gaming for 8m storymode operation speed runs for Shadow of Revan. Operation Victory Tournament – Coming Soon | 02.23.2015, 04:30 PM Hey folks, BioWare is partnering with ESL to host our first ever “Operation Victory” tournament. It is a contest to “speedrun” our 8-man story mode Operations from Shadow of Revan. We wanted to give you about a week’s notice so you have time to get your teams together and establish your strategies. We will announce all of the details within the next week but here are some of the key pieces of information: The competition will be team based and all Operations run will be 8-man story mode The qualifying heat will be one week – starting next Tuesday The entire tournament will run over a few weeks with you submitting your timed runs to ESL The best teams of…
SWTOR Apprentice’s Shadow Pack Rarities
Eric Musco updated the forum community about the upcoming Apprentice’s Shadow Pack rarities, that comes with tomorrows game update. Some of them are not labeled correctly. Apprentice’s Shadow Pack Rarities | 02.11.2015, 09:14 PM Hey folks, For those of you looking forward to the Apprentice’s Shadow Pack coming out tomorrow, I want to let you know of a discrepancy you will find in the rarities listed in Collections. First, the most important thing, all drop rates that are in the pack are working as intended. You will be receiving the items at the intended rarities. The only thing that is not correct currently is what the rarity is listed as in Collections in both the text and/or the rarity icons. Here is a full list of the items, what is listed, and the correct rarity. Items showing as Super Rare, but are only Rare Emote: Sinister All Pink Red Color…
SWTOR Win Trading in PvP Season 4 and Beyond
Eric Musco too on the forum today, enlightening the community what BioWare have in mind to to counter Win Trading in PvP Season 4 and Beyond: Win-Trading In Season 4 and Beyond | 02.03.2015, 08:07 PM Hey folks, Season 4 for PvP is about to start and we wanted everyone to understand the Rules of Engagement and how we plan to keep it fair and fun for everyone who participates in Ranked Warzones: In The Past Throughout the Season we would track data around games being played by each character. At the end of the Season we compare data to look for possible win-traders. Anyone whom we are 100% sure has win-traded received action against their account. The action we took was to completely reset their rating to zero. This would mean they would receive no end of season rewards and would have no credit for taking part in that season. What…
SWTOR: The Contraband Slot Machine issues
Eric posted an update on the official forums regarding The Contraband Slot Machine. Apparently there is no bugs with this item, but how it would effect the economy on some servers took BioWare by surprise. Check it out below: The Contraband Slot Machine | 01.16.2015, 09:41 AM Hey folks, We know that there have been many questions about the Contraband Slot Machine and its intent. Here are a few notes on it: The Contraband Slot Machine is not bugged. It is 100% not an exploit to use the Slot Machine. If you feel the desire to sell access to your Stronghold, that’s totally up to you. As a reminder, do not scam people as that is against ToS. We added the Slot Machine as a fun idea based on the positive feedback from the Nightlife event, so spend those credits to your heart’s content! With that being said, we do…
BioWare responds to the current exploit “going around”
Eric Musco has taken on the forums, and explained that BioWare are aware of an exploit taking place in game, and that they will be taking appropriate action against those who have abused it. It is BioWares current plan to implement a fix for this issue next Tuesday, January 13, 2015. The Current Exploit “Going Around” | 01.07.2015, 07:28 PM Hey folks, Normally when an exploit exists, it is our policy to remain quiet until the issue is fixed. The reasoning behind that policy is that if we talk about or acknowledge an exploit, it can create a situation where we draw more attention to it. This can include people who didn’t previously know about it and can unintentionally make the issue more widespread. Without being specific, there is an exploit which has been present for a couple of weeks, that unfortunately has become more widespread than we typically see. It is being…
SWTOR: Ability Delay Update
Eric Musco took on the forums to speak about the ability delay issue, that many players are facing after game update 3.0. Check it out: EricMusco 01.02.2015, 08:35 PM Ability delay and the wearing thin of patience | 01.02.2015, 02:35 PM First off, Happy New Years everyone! I apologize if you feel a lack of communication around this issue. Unfortunately, I haven’t provided much since I do not have a status update as of yet. Here is what I can tell you. We definitely have not forgotten about this and the team is still assessing what the cause is, and how we can begin to address it. What I am going to do is to work with the team to get a status update with as much detail as I can, by next Friday (although hopefully before then!). Thank you again for your continued patience. We know that dealing with…
Goals for Addressing Server Concerns
Eric took the forum earlier to share some insights on BioWares plans to address server concerns for next year. You can read the full post here, or below: Hey folks, At our fan event in Las Vegas, one of the things we stated is that we are working to address the concerns of things like queue times and uneven server populations and that we would provide an update before the end of the year. As you might expect we’re not ready to tell you exactly what we are working on yet, but we did want to go into what our goals are for next year. To address issues of queue times across all types of content, both PvP and PvE. To rethink how we approach “server separation.” Remain sensitive to things like character identity. The continued ability to define your chosen server playstyle, PvE, PvP, RP, RP-PvP. We also would…
Bioware posts stream schedule for upcoming advanced class changes
Bioware’s community manager Eric Musco, was once more at the forums today posting information about upcoming community team streams. With patch 3.0 just around the corner, Eric highlighted some of the topics his team will be covering. In specific: As many of you know, we will be streaming around each individual Advanced Class and the changes coming to their Disciplines in 3.0. We will be starting those streams this week and do one set of base Class mirrors each week for the three weeks thereafter. Here is our currently planned schedule. As always this could change, but here is our plan as of right now! Friday, November 7th – Bounty Hunter and Trooper Thursday, November 13th – Inquisitor and Consular Friday, November 21st – Warrior and Knight Wednesday, November 26th – Agent and Smuggler Thanks everyone! We’ll see you on stream to talk about all of the changes coming to…