Will we soon be seeing a new alien species in SWTOR? Data-mined info says it’s possible, although little more is known at this time. Here are some images of a potential new race (playable?) that we might see coming with a future content update that is also supposed to bring a new SWTOR event. swtor_miner explains some of what the data shows about the model, “”These new aliens fall into the Bothan semi-custom model category, and not the full-custom model Wookiee one. This means they share animations with regular humanoid species.” I agree that I don’t think this will be a playable race based on what the datamining found. Probably they will be NPC models but perhaps this shows us what the new event or some of the new content will be about. Of course, this early in the process, the whole thing could be scrapped. We can never depend…
News
Wookieepedia Issues Official Canon Policy
Wookieepedia has posted their new canon policy for us to see. Most of this is not very surprising at all but it is very important to Star Wars fans and to anyone who uses the site as a resource. From the official policy page: Wookieepedia strives to be the Internet’s foremost comprehensive resource for Star Wars canon information. To this end, Wookieepedia adheres to the canon doctrines set forth by Lucasfilm Ltd. and its subsidiaries. On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm announced that all Expanded Universe material is now reorganized under the non-canon “Legends” banner to make way for the “new canon” to take place. The new canonbegan on screen with the Star Wars Rebels animated television series and in print with the novel A New Dawn. Under the direction of theLucasfilm Story Group, all elements of Star Wars canon now operate in a unified and collaborative storytelling setting. They go on to explain “new canon” which is the Lucasfilm Story Group connected universe as of April 25, 2014. They explain…
Are Double XP Weekends Helpful to SWTOR Community?
So we talk about SWTOR Double XP weekends a lot here, for obvious reasons. But let’s consider for a moment if they are not really as good for the community as they may seem. Just for the sake of discussion, let’s look at it from another perspective. What happens during a double XP weekend? Generally, more players flock back to the game who never got around to leveling up alts. Some might bring their friends as well. Or you might even get some brand new players to the game who just want to take advantage of the opportunity to level up fast. Double XP from the event combined with any other Cartel Market boosters or guild bonuses and you can get level 20 before leaving the planet you’re on. You could get to max level in one solid weekend of playing, even if you just created the character. So this…
Former LucasArts President Joins Dungeon Defenders as CEO
Independent developer Trendy Entertainment has hired former LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez as its new CEO. Trendy Entertainment, best known for its action-RPG Dungeon Defenders, is hoping the former LucasArts president will help lead their company to future success. Rodriguez tells Game Industry Biz: “When I first visited here I saw tremendous potential–both in Dungeon Defenders II and their cross platform backend and technology, Playverse, and needed to be a part of it. Working with talented, passionate people and putting them and customers first to help unlock Trendy Entertainment’s potential is why I’m here,” Rodriguez said. “I have been extremely fortunate to work with some of the most talented and passionate people across various creative industries and at some of the most renowned companies in the world. I am equally impressed and blessed to work with the passion and skill that exist at Trendy.” He also discussed that Trendy Entertainment will…
Developer Blog: What’s New in Season Two?
Hello PVP fans! If you enjoyed Season One, you might be excited to know Season 2 is coming. This most recently Developer’s Blog has some great info for us about what to expect in Season Two:
Game Update 2.7 – The Invasion is Here!
CALLING ALL FORCES TO THE SITH ACADEMY AND JEDI TEMPLE! Welcome to Game Update 2.7: Invasion We are very excited to see the release of Game Update 2.7: Invasion today. In addition to many bug fixes and other updates, we also get to experience some great new content. We get a new story arc: Forged Alliances, new Flashpoints, Nightmare Mode for the Dread Fortress, Ranked Warzone Season 1 ends and you can start pre season for season 2, and we see Quesh Huttball Put, a new warzone that looks to be a lot of fun. Bounty Contract Week will be making a comeback and there is a new Galactic Starfighter Domination Map: Denon Exosphere. Developer Blogs explains: We believe this game update captures some of the key elements that make Star Wars™ special: the struggle between galactic factions; engaging in dangerous and difficult trials that push you to the limits of…
Bioware Austin is Hiring
SWTOR Community Manager Eric Musco also shared it on the SWTOR forums. Their web team is looking for a Front End Web Developer to work on SWTOR in the Austin studio. They say they are looking for someone who is passionate about SWTOR and wanting to work on some cool new things. The job listing says you’d be working on “the customer-facing web applications and the web site” for SWTOR.
SWTOR Double XP Weekend Coming Up! 4/11 – 4/13
It’s that time again! Time for another double XP weekend in SWTOR. You may remember that there were some issues surrounding the last double XP weekend and Bioware promised us they would “make good” with another one soon. So here it is: 4/11 – 4/13 That’s next weekend so get your Mountain Dew and Hot Pockets ready because this is a great time for a gaming fest. SWTOR Community Manager Eric Musco took to the SWTOR forums to announce this and also to explain a little about the confusion that happened at the last weekend event. Here’s part of that post: You may remember back when we ran our last double XP weekend that there were a lot of forum reports around that Kuat Drive Yards was not issuing double XP. Once we realized that, as a “make good” to the issue, we would do another double XP weekend so you can…
Darth Vader for President: Ukraine
Darth Vader for president! Nope, it’s not a joke. Darth Vader is now running for president in Ukraine. The official announcement of his candidacy was made my Vader this weekend, where he was supported by Stormtroopers as he declared, “I alone can make an empire out of a republic, to restore former glory, to return lost territories and pride for this country.”
We Hit 35K Followers on Facebook!
We have some very exciting news to celebrate this week- we have 35,000 fans/followers on Facebook now. We know a good number of those are you so we wanted to take the time to tell you all a very big, genuine THANK YOU. It has given us a great deal of pleasure to bring you Star Wars and SWTOR news for all of these years and our Facebook page is one more place where we bring you our updated blog posts plus other tidbits, news and cool stuff. If you have not spent time on our Facebook page yet, you might not know that we share more there than just our blog posts. Not only can you stay updated on all of the news and info we share daily but you’ll also connect with other SWTOR and Star Wars fans. You can communicate with us directly, send us messages or…
SWTOR is now OFFICIALLY on Instagram
If you are a SWTOR fan who also loves Instagram, then you’ll be happy to hear this news. SWTOR is now officially on Instagram!
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII to Start Filming in May 2014
Have you been as anxious about Star Wars: Episode VII as we have? We have been waiting to share with you some good news and it’s finally here. Disney and Lucasfilm are excited to announce that principal photography on Star Wars: Episode VII, directed by J.J. Abrams will begin filming in May 2014 (just 2 months away) in London’s historic Pinewood Studios.
Eric Musco Addresses Double XP Weekend Bugs
If you tried to play SWTOR this weekend for the double XP event, you may have encountered some bugs and not gotten your double experience like you should have. Don’t worry- you are not alone and Bioware is aware of the issue. Eric Musco addresses it in the forums: I know that there was definitely some unhappiness that came out of this past double XP weekend and I wanted to address a little bit about what happened, and we are doing about it. There are two main issues which plagued the weekend: In certain group compositions, no experience is granted during a Flashpoint. The Kuat Drive Yards Flashpoint was awarding only normal experience for NPC kills, it was not being doubled. Understandably, many players look to Flashpoints to level during our double XP weekends and so there is quite a bit of frustration that these bugs were present. Let’s take…
Double XP Weekend starts today!
It’s that time again! Time for a double XP weekend. As Tait Watson | Community Production Coordinator tells us on the SWTOR forums, “Advance at double the speed this weekend as you fight for the Empire or the Republic in exciting story missions, PvP Warzones and more!”
SWTOR Player Housing Announcement Trailer: BIG News
Yes! It’s here -SWTOR Player Housing Announcement Trailer. We have been waiting for this announcement for a very, very long time. Fans have been asking for player housing in SWTOR since before the game even came out. It has been one of the most requested features for the game so far.
The Clone Wars Season 6 Trailer Released
Here it is- what we’ve been waiting on for some time now, especially since The Clone Wars is no more. The Clone Wars Season 6 trailer is released and we now finally have answers about the bonus content we were promised. When and where would this bonus content come? Well now we have answers! Lucasfilm announced today on StarWars.com that the final season of The Clone Wars (called “The Lost Missions”) is finally on the way. This is the bonus content we were promised and we’re super excited about it. March 7th on Netflix is the ‘when’ and ‘where’ and the trailer will let you see a bit of what we have to look forward to. According to StarWars.com, “Exclusive Licensing Agreement with The Disney/ABC Television Group Brings Star Wars Content to Netflix Streaming Members for the First Time The Galactic Republic, Disney/ABC Television Group, Lucasfilm, and Netflix Inc. today announced…
TORWars.com Will Be No More
TORWars fans, it’s time to say goodbye. Today they made their last blog post and bid us all farewell. While they will not be producing any new content- blog posts or podcasts – they will leave the site up as it exists now so you will be able to read old posts. Jeff will also continue to make Twitter updates.
Get your own Lucky-77 Swoop Speeder for being a Subscriber!
BioWare is in a good mood, and is giving away bonus stuff for it’s subscribers! If you are a subscriber on on March 18, 2014, you will be gifted a new mount. That’s right! BioWare is giving away the new Lucky-77 Swoop speeder with a unique gold and green color combination and a chance to pop a new animation that tosses holographic coins everywhere – if you are a subscriber that is. Check out the announcement below: Here is the announcement: Get your own Lucky-77 Swoop Speeder for being a Subscriber! 02.12.2014 We’re giving away the new Lucky-77 Swoop speeder to all of our Subscribers on March 18, 2014! With a unique gold and green color combination, the exclusive Lucky-77 has a chance to hit the jackpot when summoned, kicking off a fun animation that tosses holographic coins everywhere. Speed into the galaxy and be a Subscriber by March 17,…
Community Update on the Future of SWTOR
If you’re wondering what’s going to happen with SWTOR in the future, we have an update from Bruce Maclean, Senior Producer today. It’s a roadmap for 2014, including everything we can except to be coming up this year.
Lucasfilm Look for Change Star Wars Expanded Universe with Star Wars Story Group
When it comes to Star Wars story, there are two sects: the original Star Wars Universe created by George Lucas himself. And then there is the version that others are allowed to change; the expanded universe. Lucasfilm now threatens to challenge all of this as we know it. As Bleeding Cool tells us: “George Lucas said that the Star Wars universe exists, essentially, in two versions. There’s his one, and then there’s the one everybody else can play with. In effect, this meant that anybody writing Star Wars outside of the six main movies (to date) was expected to adhere to one another’s work and create story lines that were consistent with one another. And then, whenever Lucas himself went on to create a new “core” story for the Saga, he had permission to overwrite or ignore anything from that “Expanded Universe.” But now, Lucasfilm are looking to rework the system and destroy this…
SWTOR’s Cartel Market Rakes in $139 Million Dollars in 2013
Here we are in 2014 and Super Data Research has the 2013 stats for US digital games. The numbers are in and you might be a little surprised at some of the results. For example, there are many out there who call SWTOR a failure or say the game flopped. And one reason for this is that many people mistakenly associate a game going from sub to F2P as a sign that it is failing. But that’s not always the case. It really just means that a different pay model was needed and now that they have it, BioWare seems to be doing very well with SWTOR financially.
The TORParse In-Game Client Service is Back Online
Alright gang, we’ve been bringing you news and updates about TORParse, including the new owners and their call for developers to help out. Well now we are very happy to tell you that they are back ONLINE! You can download the TORParse client or just learn more here. There are many different ingame overlay windows available, tons of customization and a dropdown menu to help you personalize how you want your info to parse. Companions are also fully supported. Take the experience of the TORParse website into your game with the TORParse In-Game Client! Getting setup is fast and easy. Below, you will find a list of features, screenshots and other information about the ingame client. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and highly valued. Head over to the TORParse forums and let us know what you think. Thanks and enjoy! Server status information can be located on the Help! page. Features The TORParse Ingame…
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….
Happy SWTOR Two Year Anniversary from the Community Team
We just passed the two-year anniversary of SWTOR. The funny part is today is my son’s birthday and I remember two years ago wondering which was coming first- my baby, or launch. For those of you who have been with us since the early days, you know we spent years prepping for this. It’s hard to believe sometimes that the game has been out two years already. Anyway, the SWTOR Community Team had some things to share with us all to commemorate the occasion. You can read the whole thing on their blog here. But let’s look at some snippets. From Courtney “The three things come to mind when I think back two years ago to the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Blood, sweat, and tears. Okay, maybe more like coffee, that tingly feeling behind the eyeballs, and adrenaline. But it is safe to say that I will never…