Players have reported issues with SWTOR space missions recently and Amber Green, Live Community Coordinator, came into the forums to make an official response on the issue: We’ve investigated your reports and wanted to let you know that Space Combat Missions are working as designed. However, the patch notes for 1.6.3 were not fully correct, and we understand that this may have caused some confusion. These have now been updated for clarification, and we apologize for the mistake. With Patch 1.6.3, all Space Combat Daily Missions were moved to be available 12 hours later. They will now reset each day at 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PM GMT/1PM CET/11PM AEDT), rather than at 6PM CST the day before. This includes the new missions, of which there are 6, and they are available as follows: Tuesday – Far Cradle Strike (Imp) / Regnant Station (Rep) Wednesday – Kabal Station Defense (Imp) / Ardis Outpost…
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Does Your Character’s Lightsaber Have a Name?
So here’s a fun question for SWTOR players: does your character’s lightsaber have a name? And why or why not? We want to hear your lightsaber names and if you don’t have one, tell us why. This comes from a fun thread on the SWTOR Community Forums called “What is the Name of Your Character’s Lightsaber?” where players are discussing whether or not lightsabers should be named and what theirs are named. Halinmonk starts it off: “My Jedi Consular called her first lightsaber “Dawn” and her second “Aero”, my Sith Warrior called her’s “False Friend””. Tahrl brings in an opinion of those who are opposed naming their sabers: Hate to be the boring one, but neither my Jedi Knight nor my Sith Warrior named their Lightsaber. It is a weapon, a tool. Like a really deadly spanner. It’s not befitting a name. It may be damaged, discarded, replaced or stolen….
News on the Oceanic Server Population Issues
It’s no secret that the Oceanic servers didn’t get a server merge. This means they are basically dead now. Most people on the servers have been asking for a merge or for free transfers, but with f2p coming out, Bioware have been hesitating giving players this option. This has off course been frustrating for players down under, but BioWare are now looking for a solution to the problem. Today Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez made a post on the official forums giving an update on the issue and starting to re-open the dialogue: Hi everyone, I know it’s been a while since we’ve updated this thread, and I wanted to let you know that we haven’t forgotten about our Oceanic players. Now that we’re at a more stable point in time (post Free-to-Play transition and post holidays), we wanted to re-examine this issue. We’re going to be completely honest with you: there…
Jonathan Crow Answers forum Questions
Last week, Gameplay Analyst Jonathan Crow received the spotlight stared in a meet the developers column over at the official website. Following up on this, he took questions form the community that is now up on the official forums. His answers includes interesting statistics regarding player behavior and performance, some of which you diden’t see comming… Check out the full Q&A below or the real forum thread over at the official forums. Q: Has the boss vs. player death ratio in EC changed much since 1.5 was released? Jonathan: It has changed a little bit since 1.5. In general it seems to have worsened a little, but that’s mainly because most level 50 players are busy playing around in Sector X and doing the HK-51 missions, which makes getting a full group harder. We all know that PUGs tend to not perform as well in Operations when compared to well-organized groups who have been farming the…
BioWare do listen – 4 quickbars for Preferred Status Players
Yesterday, Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez revealed that due to feedback ( huge an ongoing QQ’ing), Preferred Status Players will receive two extra Quickbars to use when playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. I honestly think they could have given only one extra bar and it would have made 90% of the people happy. The extra bar is just icing (yes, some will argue they never should have been restricted at all). I’m all for constructive criticism when it’s needed, but I hope people will stop and give credit when it’s due. They obviously are trying to appease the fans, while still maintaining a successful business model. As you know, we take player feedback very seriously and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for being a part of our Free-to-Play transition. When Game Update 1.5 was on PTS, we heard your feedback and increased Quickbars for Free-to-Play Players,…
Known Issues in Game Update 1.5 and Maintenance later today.
As it often happens after a new patch, BioWare will take down the servers for an unscheduled maintenance window starting at 2AM CDT. The team also made a forum post regarding issues that they are currently investigating. Edit: Servers are now back up. Here are the patch notes: 1.5.0a Patch Notes 11/16/2012 General The first level of Legacy experience boosts no longer grant more experience than intended. Resolved an issue that could allow consumables to not be consumed as intended. ———————- Below is a coopy/paste of all the issues. You can also follow it over at the official forums here. Hello everyone! We appreciate you joining us to play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, and we hope you enjoy the game. As MMORPGs are large and complex projects, inevitably we do discover issues that may affect gameplay. We’re working constantly to fix anything that will affect the player experience, but for now this…
Blaine Christine answers questions regarding Free To Play
Senior Producer Blaine Christine took on the forums today, to answer questions regarding the upcoming Free to Play system, implemented into Star Wars: The old republic. BioWare have neem coellecting questions from the community the last week and now we get some more answers. The full Q&A can be found at the official forums, or as a copy/ past below: Hi folks! Now that the Cartel Market has hit the Public Test Server, we wanted to open up this thread to give you the opportunity to ask any lingering Free-to-Play questions that you may have. After we’ve collected your questions, Sr. Producer Blaine Christine will try to answer as many as he can. Please be sure to be respectful and courteous and also remember to report any Cartel Market issues on the PTS thread. Thanks! Update: As promised, Sr. Producer Blaine Christine has taken time out of his crazy schedule to answer some of your Free-to-Play questions!…
Scheduled Maintenance October 30
This week’s scheduled maintenance will occur tomorrow on Tuesday, October 30 from 2AM CDT to 8AM CDT. SWTOR servers will be down during this period while a patch will be deployed. When the servers come back up, we’ll have the patch notes available here. Check out the original forum post here or below: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for eight hours on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/7AM GMT/8AM CET/6PM AEDT) until 10AM CDT (8AM PDT/11AM EDT/3PM GMT/4PM CET/2AM AEDT). All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.
Subscribers Not Charged Credits for Skill Point Re-specializations
In the news of what benefits subscribers will get, came some very exciting news about re-specializations. Amber Green, Live Community Coordinator, posted a thread on the SWTOR forums that lists the benefits to subscribers. Of this was the news that subscribers will not be charged credits for skill point re-specs. How many people do you think will subscribe just for this benefit alone? Chances are high that players will opt in just to know how many credits they can save from being able to re-spec when and how they need to. Here are some other details from that forum post: Highlights Travel to Section X on Belsavis and learn why the nefarious Dread Guard has seized control of this ravaged sector of the planet! Section X can be accessed on Belsavis and via the daily mission shuttles. HK-51 can now be acquired as a Companion Character! A shipment of the…
Introducing Preferred Player Status
Preferred Player status is incoming and many SWTOR fans are curious just what this means. Will certain parts of the game be unplayable without preferred player status? Will certain zones or features in the game not be in access? All great questions and BioWare took to the forums to clear it all up for us. So just what will preferred player status mean? Here’s the breakdown and explanation from the forums: As a Preferred Status Player, you will gain the following benefits compared to Free-to-Play Players: • The Sprint ability at Level 1 • Access to your Cargo Hold (an 80 item Player Bank) • Access to Secure Trade (starting at level 10) • The ability to send Mail, including one (1) attachment • Increased allowance for chat message frequencies in Public chat channels (such as /general) • An increased Credits Cap • Access to the Who List • Three…
Inserting, Removing, and REing Crafted Mods for Schems is “Unintended” but Not an Exploit
Reverse engineering mods is expensive, especially when you are trying to build up a nice stock of schematics to place on the GTN. When you’re a new player trying to gear up, this can be a real hassle. But there has been a new “trick” found that makes it a little bit easier by bypassing this altogether. The real question is: Is this an exploit? A forum user explains: SomeJagoff As is already known, when you try to RE other people’s crafted mods, it says no research available, however, as I pulled out a mod that I know I bought off the gtn a few months ago to replace with a better one, I noticed that it said 20% chance to research a schem available. Out of curiosity, I threw the new mod that I just bought off the GTN into my armor, then pulled it out, same thing, research…
Public Test Server Down Today, Scheduled Maintenance October 23
The BioWare team have a few forum updates today. First of all they remind us that this week’s scheduled maintenance will occur on Tuesday, October 23 from 2AM CDT to 6AM CDT. servers will be down during this period and when they come back up, players may have to download a patch. When the servers come back up, we will have the latest patch notes available right here at swtorstrategies.com Check out the official thread for more info. Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/6PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/10PM 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. Another interesting piece of news is, Public test server…
Jesse Sky Answers Questions From Community
Yesterday Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer Jesse Sky took on the forums and answered questions from the community. Jesse Sky was highlighted in the recent Meet the Developers post. Included in the topics answered are Flashpoints, Operations, and more. Hello everyone! Here are answers to some of the questions you had for Jesse! Thanks for participating in our first Meet the Developers feature – you can expect to see more of these in the future! Q: With an Art History degree, how did you get into the role of a gaming developer? Do you have an additional qualification which enabled you to get into that position or was it purely from interest? Jesse: When we interview a design candidate, college degrees are footnotes compared to your gaming pedigree, especially published games, mods, and independent projects that you’ve worked on. Looking around the studio, I can tell you that I work with many of the most…
Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance Tomorrow
This week’s scheduled maintenance will occur tomorrow on Tuesday, October 16 from 2AM CDT to 8AM CDT. SWTOR servers will be down during this period while a patch will be deployed. When the servers come back up, we’ll have the patch notes available here. Check out the original forum post here or below: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for six hours on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEDT) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEDT). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six 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…
Known Issues: Game Update 1.4
If you’ve been playing SWTOR after 1.4, then you already know there are some bugs and issues. Well, BioWare staff are aware of them as well. This is to be expected any time a large new game update comes out but if you’re wondering whether or not you should report a problem or if it is already a known bug, they released a thread today to help you. Here are the known bugs and issues in Game update 1.4 from Amber Green: Hello everyone! We appreciate you joining us to play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, and we hope you enjoy the game. As MMORPGs are large and complex projects, inevitably we do discover issues that may affect gameplay. We’re working constantly to fix anything that will affect the player experience, but for now this is our current list of high priority in-game known issues. Please note that this is not…
Individual Server Forums Coming today
AllisonBerryman posted an update on the forum regarding individual server forums. Finally they are arriving, so let the flame wars commence! Starting tomorrow, we’ll be opening individual server forums. This means that the old Server Group Forums will be closing, so if you have any posts you’d like to save (such as recruitment posts or other posts you’ve put effort into), please do so at this time! They had groups of servers in a forum before. Given 9 pve and 6 pvp groups and 2 RP groups, the number of groupings are going to outnumber the number of servers.
BioWare Responds to Questions on the latest Developer Blog
A few days ago, BioWare posted a blog update by Senior Designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic Austin Peckenpaugh. The blog post was mainly about class changes and balance in the comming major update: patch 1.4. With that, the forums went crazy with questions for BioWare and so far the mods have been good with a few examples on how the new system will work in the future. Read our copy/paste below, or check out the full thread on the official forum. Allison Berryman Consider the following examples under the new system:ex. A: Player A stuns the target for 4 seconds. 1 second after the stun is applied, player B stuns the same target for 4 seconds. The target is controlled for a total duration of 5 seconds. Player A stuns the enemy for 4 seconds | effective control duration = 4 seconds | enemy gains 800 Resolve 1 second later,…
The Dwindling Dev Tracker
Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez talks about the communication from BioWare on the Forum tracker. He also hints at new blogs incoming tomorrow? Check it out here, or read our copy pate below. Joveth Gonzalez While we appreciate all kinds of constructive feedback, as Allison pointed out, the forums are only one small measure of communication. Do keep in mind that while some days it seems that there isn’t any forum activity from us, we’re busy hopping around, taking a look at the SWTOR subreddit, Twitter, Facebook, and responding to PMs. Consider that our fanbase is large and spread across various social media sites, and you can see that we strive to make sure that they are covered, no matter where our fans are. We’re also working on some new community blogs that we’ll be posting in the upcoming week or so, in addition to our standard weekly blogs that…
Schematics Leaving the End Game of SWTOR
Have you been wondering why there are no end game schematics for your crafting skills in SWTOR? You are not alone and other people have brought this question to the forums where Allison Berryman, Senior Community Coordinator for SWTOR, gives us a little insight into why this is. I talked to Systems Designer David Hunt about this, and (related to this question), he told me that content in the near future generally won’t have schematics as drops in endgame content, and that those high-end schematics will come from reverse engineering. So, for content in the near future, schematics for all crafting skills won’t generally be part of those end game loot tables. It makes sense, when you think about it. But some players feel like crafting is just not balanced right now and that more needs to be done to even out the crew skills. Do you think it will…
The One Thread on SWTOR Forums you Should Read and Contribute To
It began on August 13th and already the thread is 12 pages long. This is the one thread on SWTOR forums you need to read and contribute to. It’s “A Thousand Papercuts” and some of you may already be familiar with the concept. The original poster gives the background of the concept, which began on the EVE Online forums. The explanation is long but interesting and worth the read if you’re not familiar with the idea. In late 2010, there was a thread created on the EVE Online forums with the same title. The players organized to civilly and thoughtfully outline their issues with the game, sticking almost exclusively to small, quality of life issues, or very simplistic suggestions to improve their gameplay experience. These small issues were referred to as “papercuts”; small problems or issues that do not affect the overall playability of the game but that can be…
A Message from the Community Manager
Community manager JovethGonzalez Took the stage yesterday as he posted a rather lengthy post on the official forum. The post updates the community on the future plans of the community team, without really saying much. He does go on promising more communication from the team in the future. The last few months have probably been crazy at Bioware and has been very hard on the staff. But at this point, all we want/need to hear is about the future of SWTOR for paying subscribers. We want to know what is in the works for Operations, flash points, space “secrets”, Warzones, class balances and designs, dual spec, world pvp, achievements, expansions?, pazzak and other mini-games, and a million other requests and possible upgrades that could come to the game. With respect and gratitude, we would love to hear about any of these as soon as possible!! We need to know that Bioware (and especially EA) hasn’t given…
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
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.
David Hunt answers a truck load of augment questions
David Hunt answers a ton of questions, regarding the new agument system, in a recent forum post. Personally I really like that I can R/E green items for the augment kit pieces. to summarize the important stuff: You can add an augment slot to any equip-able green item. Augments require a minimum Augment Slot level. There are 6 tiers. You can add any level Slot to any level item. You get the materials at a constant rate from RE’ing equippable items: 10 items -> 1 augment kit. The material tier corresponds to the tier of the gear RE’d. Extraction costs are reduced 30%. Adding an augment slot using a kit costs between 4.5k – 50k depending on the tier. Other information: Augment kits can be used by anyone. They are made by Armstechs, armortechs, and synthweavers. Now to find the cheapest one to do and stock up on mats. Check…