BioWare will be celebrating the second anniversary of Star Wars: The old republic on Tuesday December 17th. With this they will be rewarding all players with players with exclusive Scout Starfighter Paint Jobs and 25 stacks of faction-based fireworks. Pretty boring rewards if you ask me. I still have last years fireworks sitting in a cargo hold on 95%(+-5%) of my toons. I’m guessing that I’m not the only one here that still hve it. The paint job is kinda cool but it only applies to my least used ship. Am I mad about it? No. Disappointed? Sure. It’s hard to get mad about a freebie. Not so hard to be disappointed about feeling slightly under-appreciated as a customer. Below is the announcement: We are excited to celebrate two years of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™! As our thanks to you, we’ll be rewarding all players with exclusive Scout Starfighter…
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SWTOR Bounty Contract Week Is Back!
If you missed your chance last month to participate in the SWTOR Bounty Contract Event, it’s making a return! All classes level 15 and up will be able to participate in this event. You will get rewards and exclusive items for completing these contracts. You also get a certificate you can use at the Cartel Bazaar vendor. Here’s some info on how to get started in case you have not done it before. SWTOR.com has some tips: The Bounty Brokers Association needs you! The BBA have posted too many contracts for their regular membership to handle and are asking anyone Level 15 and above to answer the call of bounty hunting between December 10 – 17, 2013. Interested? We thought so! Here’s how to get started: 1. First, travel to the Imperial or Republic Fleet, which is reachable by your ship’s galaxy map, transit shuttles, or the Emergency Fleet Pass….
BioWare calls for your screenshots!
BioWare is celebrating the second anniversary for Star Wars: The Old Republic and ask players to send in screenshots that make the game unique for them. These screenshots can be from your fondest memories to your best moments in the game and include your favorite places and characters. Check out the announcement below: SEND US YOUR “My SWTOR Saga” SCREENSHOTS! Between now and December 15th, 11:59PM PST / December 16th, 7:59AM GMT, send us your screenshots for a chance to be featured on our official Facebook page! It’s easy to participate: Screenshots should not be retouched or enhanced Screenshots must solely utilize in-game environments and objects Screenshots must be at least 800×600 We recommend turning off your User Interface All submissions are subject to the Electronic Arts Terms of Service. EMAIL YOUR SCREENSHOTS ALONG WITH YOUR CHARACTER NAME AND SERVER TO SUBMISSIONS_EN@SWTOR.COMBEFORE DECEMBER 15TH, 11:59PM PST / DECEMBER 16TH 7:59AM GMT.
Star Wars Episode 7 Rumor Roundup December 1
It’s that time again… time to bring you another rumor roundup of Star Wars Episode 7. We’re getting even closer to the release of the first of the new films and we still don’t know a lot about them. But new facts are being released or confirmed every so often. As always, take these rumors with a grain of salt because we don’t know if there is any true to them. But here are some interesting new tidbits going around. Jedi Master SQL of Jedi News has some speculation about Episode VII: – Lucasfilm has a great deal of news about Ep 7 that they could release at any time they choose – On returning actors, he has only seen evidence of one of the “Big 3” possibly returning – Dark Horse is likely to keep the comic license and “you can expect to see their logo on a lot…
BioWare Austin is Hiring!
You know we like to keep you updated on BioWare news and since I live here in Austin, I’ve written a few times about when the company is hiring, or when they are taking on beta testers in the area. I’ve had the great fortune of visiting BioWare’s Austin studio and also meeting many staff members and I gotta say, they are a fun group and it looks like a great, friendly place to work. So with that in mind, we bring you the news that BioWare Austin is now hiring certain positions. If you’re interested and in the area, or willing to relocate, check it out. Eric Musco made this post: Hey everyone! I am sure I cannot be alone in being a person who wanted to work at BioWare. I was lucky enough to land a job at the company a few years ago. I wanted to pass…
EA’s Star Wars Game Deal will be 10 Years Long
A lot can happen in 10 years and for Star Wars gamer fans, we’re hoping this means good things in the way of some new games from EA. Remember that deal they made with Disney that gave them exclusivity to Star Wars games? Well, we have found out now it’s actually for the next decade. Eurogamer tells us a bit more about this: Fortunately it sounds like none of EA’s new Star Wars games will be movie tie-ins aping the new Star Wars films, the first of which appears December 2015, directed by JJ Abrams. “We’ve done movie games over the years and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing a movie game – i.e. a game based on the movie,” EA’s chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said at a UBS conference (transcript by Seeking Alpha). “The beauty of the Star Wars franchise is that it’s so broad and…
Galactic Starfighter Changes SWTOR PvP [Plus Domination Video]
12-vs-12 dogfights in space are coming in December. Are you ready? Now that sites are free to talk about and publish stories on the Galactic Starfighter content, we’re seeing more and more info release each day to help us prepare. This is how space battles should have been from the start if you ask me. Gamespot speaks about Galactic Starfighter in SWTOR: Considering the importance of space battles in the Star Wars universe, it was disappointing that ship combat was given such a cursory role in Star Wars: The Old Republic. After all, I can’t imagine A New Hope without the Battle of Yavin, which led to the destruction of the Death Star. (A useless gesture? I think not!) The Old Republic’s single-player on-rails battles looked the part, but they didn’t capture the essence of galactic warfare. With Galactic Starfighter, that’s set to change. And that’s just the beginning of the positive feedback…
TorTools – SWTOR Translator
We love bringing you news of cool SWTOR tools and gadgets so here’s a neat little find: TorTools Ability Translator This tool created by a SWTOR player and fan was created to find the equivalent texts of the game between the English, French and German clients. He used dataminingn with the help of /u/swtor_miner and XeNTaX’s swtor fan. The tool has abilities names, descriptions, talents and maybe a few other generic texts for now and is growing. As explained on the website: This tool allows you to predict the impact of any stat change on your character, or determine what stats are currently the best to stack on your character. First select your class and level, then input your stats. If you wish, you may also use the “Possible change” column to enter possible gain/loss of a stat to compare the results. When you are done, hit the CALCULATE button…
Discussion: Improving SWTOR PvP
PvP in SWTOR has long been a controversial topic. There are some who love it, there are some who hate it and everything in between. A recent post in the forums talked about how to improve PvP and it was written by a self-confessed old WoW PvPer. As someone who has also played hardcore World of Warcraft PvP, I can see a lot of their points as valid. However, SWTOR is a different game and I try to avoid any comparisons between two different games since it’s really different playing fields here. It’s apples and oranges- so comparing WoW PvP to SWTOR PvP just doesn’t stack up for me. However… there are some things that you can learn from doing PvP in another MMORPG, such as WoW that you can take with you into new games that you play like SWTOR. So with the spirit of that in mind, let’s…
New Starship Pet from Amazon Cartel Coin Cards
As of today, there is now a new pet being issued with you buy Cartel Coin Cards. It’s confirmed with Amazon card purchases to US customers and some players are reporting the same thing from Best Buy cards but I have not tested this yet. 11/12/2013 UPDATE: The SWTOR Cartel Coins bundle now features an Imperial Scout “S-12 Blackbolt Starship mini-ship. All redemptions on SWTOR.com made after 11/12/2013 at 10AM PST will get the new mini-ship rather than the old pet. You can see this yourself at Amazon: 11/12/2013 Important Note: SWTOR Cartel Coins bundle now features an Amazon exclusive Imperial Scout “S-12 Blackbolt Starship mini-ship. KEY INFORMATION: The Amazon 2400 Cartel Coins Card comes with a unique rotating in-game item. Key Redemptions after 11/12/2013 receive an Amazon exclusive in-game mini-ship, Imperial Scout “S-12 Blackbolt Starship To activate your 2400 Cartel Coins Card, follow these instructions: Go to www.swtor.com/redeem-code and follow the…
Name Renewal details from the dev tracker
community manager Eric Musco posted some clarification regarding the Name Renewal program that starts november 12, 2013. Bascially if you have a 30+ character you don’t really need to do anything, but if you have toons below that level, it will be a good idea to read the details below. Character names poll for prefered and f2p | 11.06.2013, 12:39 PM Hey Liron! I wanted to clear up how the Name Renewal will work to alleviate any concerns that you have. You are obviously a subscriber right now, this means that even if you unsubscribe today, you will be completely unaffected. The reason is that you would then become a preferred status player. Preferred players are completely unaffected as long as they logged in to those specific characters within the last 90 days. Being how the name renewal is next week, that is far less than 90 days 🙂 Here…
PSA: Dormant character names to be released back into the character name pool in november
BioWare mailed this out to the player base yesterday. Just as Bruce Maclean wrote in his SWTOR Holiday Update, dormant character names to be released back into the character name pool in november. Good thing I saved my free rename! I’ve been waiting to change my names. I was really lazy the first 6 months of launch and just made names the same but changed the ending like ee, ou, ei etc Hello, We wanted to let you know that in November we will be initiating a “Character Name Renewal” program for all of our Free-to-Play and Preferred Status players. As a Subscriber, this offers you the benefit of more character names available in the pool! We are currently in the process of identifying accounts that have been inactive for prolonged periods. If those accounts do not login to each of the potentially impacted characters within the required timeframe the…
News from BioWare – Mercenary and Shadow Top Three Answers
We’ve been in a bit of a slow phase when it comes to new news from Bioware about SWTOR but now we have some good stories coming from the devs as we rev up for 2.4. These are long, detailed and interesting posts to the official forums from the Bioware staff that help us know a little more about why they are doing some things that they are doing and what we can expect in the future. Here are some threads you need to check out if you have not already. STAR WARS: The Old Republic – Mercenary Top 3 Answers! Here is a snippet of this post: Overall, we feel that Mercenary/Commando DPS is in a fairly good place; however, we also feel that Mercenaries/Commandos could bring more to an operation as far as utility goes and that the classes pulling higher DPS than Mercenaries/Commandos are doing a bit…
The SWTOR Movement- What It Is All About?
I love to see gamers getting involved and invested into their communities and sometimes this means standing up and speaking out when you’re not happy with the way things are going. Game developers today know that the consumer rules all and they need to listen to the voice of the community to keep the cash flowing. So most game developers are very good about listening to what their audience has to say. In the end, everyone wins. But what if the demands of the gamers go too far? And who gets to determine what is “too far”? There are some members of the SWTOR community who have a bone or two to pick with Bioware and I have to admit, they have some pretty good points. However, some people think they’re being a tad too demanding and a little bit condescending in how they bring these desires to Bioware’s attention….
Scheduled Maintenance: October 1st, 2013 – Patch 2.4
It’s official. BioWare will be taking down the servers on Tuesday to upload Game update 2.4. Personally I’m pretty shocked that a major game update is only scheduled to have 4 hours downtime. What’s also impressive is that these estimates are almost always accurate. There have been a few exceptions, but Bioware has been pretty great with the patching process. No patch notes yet, but remember to check back later. We will post them as soon as they become available. Here is the official post by AmberGreen: AmberGreen Scheduled Maintenance: October 1st, 2013 | 09.28.2013, 10:06 PM On October 1st, all game servers, SWTOR.com and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.4 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday October 1st, 2013 Time: 3AM PDT (10AM UTC) – 7AM PDT (2PM UTC) Duration: 4 hours During maintenance, all updates and additional information…
Lucasfilm Will Start Using Video Game Engine for Post Production Video
Video game engines have come a long way over the years. They’ve come so far that movie producers are wanting to use them to completely replace post production techniques. If you’ve see any popular video game trailer, you can see why this technology could be used in movies. Many video games today have such high quality that you can see the pores in a character’s skin.
Star Wars Episode VII Rumors
Here we are with some more Star Wars VII rumors and the first good point to bring up is that the number of these rumors that are actually proven to be true are few and far between. However, since all we are doing is waiting for the movies to release anyway, what harm is there in following along with some potential rumors? First up we have a tidbit from Cinema Blend that Saoirse Ronan might be coming on for a “mystery role” in the film: Virtually none of the rumors about Star Wars: Episode VII have been confirmed, but a few have been repeated so many times they’re starting to feel more true, like buzz that the original cast will return or that a teenage girl will be among the main new characters. It’s that second rumor that seems most interesting on the heels of a new rumor from Latino…
Free to Play Isn’t Play for Free
Many industry experts said that SWTOR could be setting the stage for a new F2P model for MMORPGs. Other said it would be the last subscription-based MMORPG and that they expect future games of the same caliber to be based around F2P models. That hasn’t exactly happened yet. While there are more free to play MMORPGs than ever before, there are still games coming out with subs, at least for now. And this brings up a great conversation about free to play MMOs. While a game may be labeled “free to play”, this doesn’t make it play for free. You still may end up needing to pay for certain features or items you want in the game. And you might have to pay for features that subscribing members don’t have to pay for. The upside is that you only have to pay for the features you want and you can…
Cool New Star Wars Game: iOS Card Battling Game
There’s a new Star Wars game on the way and this one sounds pretty interesting for those who like card battling games. Konami just announced a brand new Star Wars-centric card battling game called Star Wars: Force Collection for iOS. “It will have more than 230 heroes, villains, and vehicles from all six episodes” which will be used to build decks to complete quests, participate in “massive battle events,” and more. They said there will even be a light and dark side system. Details are still vague at this time but there is a bullet list with some details on the game’s website. It will be interesting to see how this game will develop over time. iPhone users have been asking for a new Star Wars game for some time now. What do you think- does this sound like a game you would want to try or will you leave…
Star Wars Insider Features 10th KOTOR Anniversary
The newest issue of the Star Wars Insider has an article on the 10th anniversary of Knights of the Old Republic and the Star Wars and SWTOR community is buzzing about it this week. It’s actually a really good read and as always, it’s great to see some of our favorite games getting recognition that they deserve. Unless you purchase the digital download, there is no online copy of the article but someone did post some screenshots to an imgur album so you can read it and see the images so big thanks for that! If you look closely at the images, diehard KOTOR fans will notice a slight discrepancy with one of them. It’s on the last page- can you spot what it is? So in honor of this story and recognition of the anniversary of KOTOR, shout out in the comments and let us know what you love…
THE DREAD WAR and interview with Baron Deathmark
BioWare posted a new update regarding the upcoming game update 2.4. The release date for this upcoming patch is still not yet available, but the infomation on what to expect is starting to come in. The new patch will feature new death match arenas, a new mission areas, and new level 55 Operations. In the first operation named The Dread Fortress, we get to fight one of the Dread Masters in person. In the other operation named The Dread Palace, the epic story of the Dread Masters’ saga concludes. The news update also includes news about the upcoming arenas, including a funny interview with Baron Deathmark – the commentator on the new arenas. The guy actually posting in the thread with a swanky animated avatar even. The read the full story here and the interview with Mr. Deathmark here GATHER YOUR ALLIES FOR NEW OPERATIONS, STORY MISSIONS, AND WARZONE ARENAS CONFRONT THE DREAD MASTERS AND COMPETE IN THE WARZONE…
Majestic Planets of SWTOR- Cool Art
There are few things I love more than fan art. Here we have art made around the 20 planets that currently exist in SWTOR. And we just might see it grow when there are more planets added! It’s really a cool concept and I love how he chose to implement it. From LordXidiin on Deviant Art, we have the Majestic Planets of SWTOR. Here is the description telling us more about this design: Inspired by a similar League of Legends montage of the champion profile pictures: kamekpwns.deviantart.com/art/L…, I present to you the cavalcade of planets in Star Wars The Old Republic. These are the worlds of our lives in TOR. From left to right, the 20 planets are: Balmorra, Hutta, Corellia, Coruscant, Quesh, Tython, CZ-198, Ord Mantell, Belsavis, Dromund Kaas Oricon, Nar Shaddaa, Makeb, Tatooine, Korriban, Ilum, Taris, Voss, Alderaan, Hoth “Go then, there are other worlds than these…” “”You must…
Germany Cantina Tour Thumbdrive Assets
The latest Cantina Tour just happened in Germany and like the others, they gave out some awesome thumbdrive assets once again. The great thing about following these events is that we seen things at one event that might not have been revealed at another so it’s an extra little sneak peek into what is coming up soon.
Oricon on PTS
Lots of good stuff still to come in the Summer of SWTOR. For example, Oricon is now on the PTS. This means we all get to see a touch of what this new area is going to be like. This will be an actual zone, with quests and new story. This is a welcome surprise for many players who may have been growing a little bored with the current game content. Fresh content is always a good thing, right? Oricon is where you confront the Dread Masters at the end of the planet story/weekly. The two operations “Dread Fortress” and “Dread Palace” are based here. In the first operation, you kill Dread Master Brontes. Second operation, you kill the other four Dread Masters and Dread Council. It’s supposed to be coming with 2.4, probably in October but we don’t know for sure exactly when this game update will launch. Here…