BioWare posted a new video that makes us imagine living in the heart of the Republic capital in our own SWTOR Coruscant Skyrise Apartment! These are all features that I want and am actually looking forward to, though I’d have actually been fine with some of this functionality having simply been made available within the class ships. The strongholds themselves look kind of like fluff, but I’m willing to keep an open mind about it, and I’m not really a power gamer, anyway, so I don’t mind some fluff from time to time. For those not able to view the video or wanted to examine it deeper, below the video are some highlights Dulfy picked out.
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Galactic Strongholds – What we know so far
It’s coming soon and what do we know about it so far? As you may know, there was recently an update that tells us more about what we can expect from Galactic Strongholds and if you add this to the previous announcement and tidbits of info that have been passed on from Cantina tours and such, we have some pretty good info about what’s coming. I was going to write this up into a guide but Dulfy beat me to it! Here is a snippet of her post but please head on over to her site and read it in full. DATES May 4, Sunday – Subscribers get 1000 Cartel Coins if they subscribe as of May 4, 2014, at 11:59PM PDT / May 5, 2014, at 6:59AM GMT. These cartel coins will arrive to your account by May 5, 2014, at 11:59PM PDT / May 6, 2014, at 6:59AM GMT….
Boston Cantina Tour and Jack Wood Interview
MMORPG.com had the chance to interview Producer Jack Wood, at the BioWare cantina tour in Boston earlier this month. The full interview can be read here, but Reddit user bstr413 made A summary of the Q&A not relating to strongholds: Why is there a sabacc table on The Esseles when there isn’t any sabacc? “Good question.” (No mention of adding sabacc to the game.) Why was Op/Scoundrel knockdown now a root?: That and the assassin skills would keep the player stunned for 1 second if they used a stun breaker due to the animation. More Same Gender Romance: Yes in future content. No in past content due to it breaking a lot of things. In retrospect, they should have made it possible to add it to all romanceable characters. EA/BioWare will not remove any Same Gender Romance in the game and romance opportunities in the future will be Bisexual. Moraband vs Korriban:…
SWTOR’s early subscriber access to Galactic Strongholds delayed
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s early access to the upcoming expansion: Galactic Strongholds has been delayed for a few weeks. The news was just dropped in a letter from senior producer Bruce Maclean on the official website. According to Maclean, subscriber early access has been moved from June 24 to August 19 so the development team at Bioware can add more features such as a Tatooine Homestead stronghold, and more. The deadline for early access rewards has also been expanded to July 15. Producer Letter – Galactic Strongholds 04.23.2014 Hi everyone! For the past year, we’ve made it our goal to share updates and information on what’s happening in the studio and our upcoming plans for the game. We got the message that you appreciate transparency and want to know what we are working on. With that in mind, we wanted to share a change in plans to our most recently announced…
SWTOR Housing Speculation- What Can We Expect?
Some of us have been looking forward to SWTOR player housing since we first heard about SWTOR. Now that we know it will be coming soon, there is a lot of speculation about what we can expect to see in the actual final version of player housing. We know it’s coming this summer with the release of Galactic Strongholds but we don’t know a lot more about what this will bring. And since it’s coming soon, players have been doing a lot of speculation. We have learned to be cautious when it comes to news from Bioware about future features of the game but with one as highly anticipated as this, it’s hard not to be optimistic. We don’t want to get our hopes up and then bet let down but we are feeling good about some of the things we might see. We were told we would get “prestigious apartments” that…
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…
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.
SWTOR Leveling a Toon Entirely Through Galactic Starfighter!
If you have ever wondered if it is possible to level from 1-55 entirely through the Galactic Starfighter, then your answer is here. It can be done and someone has done it and told us all about it. According to this post on the official SWTOR forums: “I logged in at level 1 and immediately queued – flying the Star Guard for a while to earn my Flashfire. 1-8 were done standing next to the shuttle on Ord Mantell, and then I rode it over to the fleet, where I remained until level 15. Returning to Ord Mantell, I did the class questline up to the point where Corso joins you as a guest, in order to use him as my co-pilot. I hopped the shuttle back to the Republic Fleet, and have been there ever since – I’ve become somewhat of a fixture on the Ebon Hawk‘s fleet –…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter: Engine Components Comparisons Guide
Understanding the different engine components will help you understand your ship’s engines better. The more you know about the engines, the better you can prepare for battle because you know what your ship is capable of doing. This guide is designed to give you a basic idea of what each of the Galactic Starfighter Ships engines are capable of, to help you decide which ones suit your gaming style the best. It focuses on the default engine components. Engine Maneuvers Engines have different abilities that determine which maneuvers they’re capable of performing. In this section, you’ll learn which maneuvers each ship has and what it does along with the upgrade options for each one. The Rycer & Starguard, the Sting & Flashfire, the Ocula & Skybolt and the Gladiator & Enforcer all have Koiogran Turn as the default maneuver. This maneuver allows you to make a vertical 180-degree turn,…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter Ships Companion Guide
Companions play an important role in Star Wars: The Old Republic and they do make the game more enjoyable. This guide focuses on the default companions assigned specifically to fill the crew positions for the Galactic Starfighter ships. Each faction will start out with a set of four default companions that are exclusive to the ships but you’re not limited to only using these. The assigned positions for the default companions and their names are below: Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic Empire Offense- MZ-12 Tactical- Salana Rok Engineering- Aven Geth Defense- Writch Hurley Republic Offense- B-3G9 Tactical- Kendra Novar Engineering- Ashy Defense- Oro Wogawa After choosing your starfighter ship, you’ll pick out your crew. You’ll start by choosing your co-pilot from one of the four default companions listed above for your faction. After choosing your co-pilot, you can fill each…
SWTOR Quick Guide for Building the Sting & Flashfire and the Ocula & Skybolt Scout Ships
This SWTOR quick guide offers the basic information you need to build the Sting & Flashfire and the Ocula & Skybolt Galactic Scout Starfighter ships. We put them all together in one guide because they are all very similar to build and we’ll start with the engine maneuvers, thrusters and systems. Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic Engine Maneuvers There are four types of engine maneuvers to choose from. When activated, all of them require 15 seconds to recharge and they all have the ability to avoid lock-on missiles. These maneuvers will also increase your ability to avoid the enemy’s direct blaster fire up to 30 percent for 3 seconds. The Koiogran Turn is unlocked by default and all other maneuvers require 1,500 ship requisitions to unlock. The Koiogran Turn allows your ship to make a 180-degree turn vertically, even when…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter New Player Guide
This guide explains the basic information needed to choose and fly a Galactic Starfighter ship. After reading, you should have a general idea of what to expect before you play, so you can learn to use the controls a little faster and easier. Even if you’ve been playing for awhile, you may still find some of the information useful. We’ll start with a quick overview of the ships so you’ll have an idea of which one you would like to try first. Galactic Starfighter Ships The Scout, Strike Fighter, Gunships and Bombers are the four classes of ships available. You’ll find three ships listed under each class except for the gunships and you’ll start the game with two ships unlocked. As you play and earn Fleet Requisitions, you can unlock the remaining ships or you can buy them with Cartel Coins. You can view the components of any unlocked ship…
Galactic Starfighter Spotlight: The Gunship Trailer
Servers have been up for a while now after today’s maintenance. Patch 2.5.2 has been applied, and Preferred Status Players can now log in and play Galactic Starfighter. BioWare have released a small promo video with the new patch, spotlighting The Gunship. Check it out below:
Developer Update: Bomber Class Starfighter
BioWare have posted a new developer update. This time, senior game designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Jason Attard tell us about the first new ship being added to the game with game update 2.6. — The Bomber! This ship makes alot of new strategies possible. Personally I expect to see: Scout rushes to a cap a point super quick, defended by a strike fighter. Once they successfully cap the point, and the strike fighter is in place to properly defend the point, the scout intentionally crashes so they can respawn as a bomber. Then they get the bomber on the point they control and spawn mines on it to further entrench that point. You can read the original post in its full here, or our copy pate below: Developer Update: Bomber Class Starfighter 01.09.2014 Greetings Starfighters! I am Jason Attard, a senior game designer on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, and today I’m…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter Shield, Sensor and Armor Components Comparisons Guide
The components separate the different Starfighter ships from each other and affect how the ships perform during battles. When you know which components are available for each ship, it’ll help you determine which Starfighter will suit your style of play the best. Most components have between three to five upgrade tiers and you can use the requisitions you earn from competing in battles to purchase the upgrades. This components comparisons guide focuses on the shields, sensors and armor available for the Galactic Starfighter ships. Knowing a little about these components will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of each ship better. Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic Shield Components This section discusses the ships default components, the stats and the upgrades for the shields along with some basic information concerning the hull capacity for each Starfighter ships. Shields Default Stats…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter Components Comparisons Weapons Guide
The components are what separate the Starfighter from other types of ships. Each one of the ships will have five major components and four minor ones. Major components are responsible for providing the ships with their weapons and they determine how the ships perform during active combat. The minor components allow passive boosts that affect different statistic depending on which weapons the ship is equipped with. Each one of the Starfighter ships will have one default component in each one of the slot category. The type of ship will determine what type of components can be used and how many different options can be unlocked. All components have between three and five upgrade tiers from which you can purchase upgrades with requisition. You can earn requisition when you take part in and complete battles. This comparisons guide compares the weapons components. The shields, engines and sensors will be covered at…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter Overview Guide
The second digital expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic included four different classes of Galactic Starfighter ships. They are the Scout, Strike Fighters, Gunship and Bombers. This guide is designed to give you a quick overview of the Galactic Starfighter ships for each class, in order to give you a better idea of how each one operates. While it may not cover every aspect of the ships, it should provide you with enough information to help you choose the ship from each class that suits your particular style of play the best. The Scout Ships The Scout Starfighters all have strong maneuverability and speed combined with boost ability. They’re also equipped with blaster cannons and rocket pods. There are three types of scout ships for both factions. S-12 Blackbolt and NovaDive Ships The Empire S-12 Blackbolt Scout ships are fast and easy to maneuver. The sensors and communications systems…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter Guide to Flashfire / Sting
You will notice that there is a big difference between the Flashfire/Sting and the default scout such as how much damage you can do. You can usually live longer in them but you won’t be able to travel as fast. The Flashfire/ Sting variant is a cross between the default scout and the strike fighter. You may find the extra maneuverability will help you get the edge in a fight. Dulfy has a calculator you can use to see what you can get from your ship and to help you know what you need and what it does for you. Strategy to Succeed So now you know a little more about Flashfire, let’s look at strategies to succeed. These are general tips but they will help you make the most of your Flashfire/Sting. Face a Gunship properly- The key to winning against a gunship is speed. You won’t last long…
Additional Personnel Files and Four More Picks for You
From the developer blogs, we have some very useful personnel files that tell us a bit more about some of the SWTOR crew in upcoming operations. MESSAGE SOURCE: Lord Krovos RECIPIENT: Admiral Ranken REGARDING: Additional Recruitment MESSAGE READS: As you requested, our recruiters have secured four additional personnel to serve as flight crew in our forthcoming operations. I have collected their relevant data and my own notes below. They are an unorthodox lot, but I am confident we will find use for them all in time. NAME: Aven Geth SPECIES: Human AGE: 25 HOMEWORLD: Dromund Kaas RELEVANT SKILLS: Experienced shield technician. Has demonstrated admirable skill in combat situations. NOTES: Geth was officially discharged from the Imperial Navy under unclear circumstances unrelated to his mission performance – some kind of political maneuvering, no doubt, and nothing worthy of our concern. His eagerness to prove himself and return to official Imperial service will make him an enthusiastic asset….
SWTOR Guide: How to Build a Blackbolt/NovaDive Galactic Scout Starfighter
This SWTOR guide is designed to give you a general idea of how to build a Blackbolt/NovaDive Galactic Scout Starfighter. You can use different components when building your Scout but this will give you a general idea of how to get started. Each of the following components are discussed below: Engine, shields, sensors, thruster, systems, capacitor, armor, primary and secondary weapons. Engine Maneuvers You can choose between the four different engine maneuvers listed below. All of them have 15 second recharge on use and when activated, they will all evade lock-on missiles. They also help you elude direct blaster fire by up to 30 percent for three seconds. The Barrel Roll– Allows you to roll the ship 360-degrees forward, which helps move you forward a long distance but you do need enough space to execute the roll so you don’t hit anything during the move and self-destruct. This maneuver is…
SWTOR Guide: The Galactic Starfighter Pike/Quell Battle Strategies
The Pike/Quell starfighter is designed to do maximum damage when you use missiles and torpedoes. The starfighter can be equipped with two types of missiles or secondary weapons that make it possible for you to use a variety of strategies when in battle. Most of the strategies used with the Pike/Quell are long-range combat oriented with some dogfighting capabilities. You can equip the Pike/Quell with loadouts that will make it difficult for your enemies to counter your attacks and there is a missile for all types of situations. Since it’s hard to get requisition, it’s a good idea to know what type of components you want for your Pike/Quell in advance. Knowing a little about the ship and what it has to offer will help you make the best decisions and that is what this guide has to offer. Pike/Quell Basic Weapons Strategies As you get accustomed to flying your…
Master SWTOR Galactic Starfighter: A Guide
Now that we have the new expansion Galactic Starfighter, SWTOR players old and new are looking for ways to survive in this fast-paced and hectic game environment. You want to succeed in your challenging battles and progress forward so you might need a few tips. You don’t want to end up as that pilot who dies all the time so here are some tips to help you master SWTOR Galactic Starfighter: Know your ship- this is first and foremost one of the most important things you will be able to do. Your ship is your tool, inside GSF. You need to know it inside and out. A lot of this will come with practice and just playing a lot. But you need to know the basics of the ships. So take time to examine your ship for abilities and components. You need to know everything you can about your ship’s…
How to play Galactic Starfighter with an Xbox 360 Controller
Galactic Starfighter… we never could have seen that one coming back in 2011 when SWTOR first launched. But we found a fun little nugget at darthhater.com that suggests that maybe they can use The Force. This post they made about using an old Xbox gamepad with the old style rails space game is pretty interesting now that we have Galactic Starfighter. Many SWTOR players have been complaining about how the GSF doesn’t have a joystick capability. But this little trick the Darth Hater crew found out about years ago should work. Note: You will need the JoyToKey software, our config file (right click/save as), an Xbox 360 Controller, an Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver, and Windows for this to work. They even have a video for us: Text Tutorial from DarthHater: Download JoyToKey. Extract it somewhere you want it to live on your hard drive. Download our cfg file. Place it in the same directory as JoyToKey…
Galactic Starfighter Twitch Stream Friday, December 6th
BioWare will be streaming 3 hours of exciting SWTOR space PvP combat, tomorrow Friday December 6th. If you don’t have access to Galactic Starfighter yet, this is your chance to see the developers live making fools out of them self on the official SWTOR Twitch channel WHERE: twitch.tv/swtor WHEN: Friday, December 6th @ 2PM PDT / 10PM GMT WHAT: 3 hours of intense free flight dogfighting in space – now live for Subscribers in Galactic Starfighter If you can’t wait until tomorrow, you can go wathc drakedge2000 playing the expansion live right now