“How do you keep queuing up with all those level 50s?” My guild master was fearful of my sanity. “Well I have a lot of friends.” Which was true. Half of my list of friends with 42+. “Don’t you think it’s unfair?” Another guildie asked me. “Without a doubt. But I at least want to be valor rank 30 before I hit max level.” “You’re crazy.” “YUP.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! I apologize for the late post, a lot of work has been happening with the Great Hunt and our other articles. But no more excuses let’s begin our topic this week…PvP in patch 1.0. While reading please take this with a grain of salt. It’s very different than pvp in other games. Every class has a stun, an interrupt, an escape mechanic. So everyone has access to the same tools, it just depends on how…
Correct Frame Rate Issues in SWTOR for Smoother Play
Are you struggling with frame rate issues trying to play SWTOR? I have a pretty decent gaming system and I experienced some troubles myself when I had the game at max graphics. The good news is there is an option. You don’t have to struggle through the game with slow frame rates and choppy play. If these problems get worse when you enter interior locations, then you are not alone. Players complained about these issues and BioWare has an official answer in the Star Wars: The Old Republic forum. Community representative “Arrthen” explains: “”Our development team and our production team have been investigating this issue and we want to thank everyone who has posted constructively on this thread. You’ve provided the development team with a basis for investigation into the low FPS issues, and with your help they have identified and are in the process of resolving the indoor framerate…
TOR TV: My Sith is a Jerk
Youtube user TheDrunkAndThePwned have uploaded two hilarious movies about the dark side to the Force. It’s funny how well crafted and deserving insults can be extremely funny, but please don’t direct this towards other players 😉
BioWare Says No Plans for Cross-server PVP Queuing in Near Future of SWTOR
We told you recently how BioWare plans to implement a separate level 50 warzone into the PvP queue, and while it sounds like a great idea, it’s not without its cons- just like anything. A downside to this new plan that many players have pointed out is that queue times for warzones can now become even longer than they already are to level 50s. So some have brought up the idea of cross-server PvP queues like other games have (think WoW). However, BioWare says they won’t be implementing this tactic, at least not any time in the near future of SWTOR. So instead, it looks like level 50s will just have to wait for other level 50s to catch up to them so queue times could be very long- at least at first and while the game is still new. “Cross-server queuing for PvP is something that the development team…
How to enable Anti-Aliasing in SWTOR
SWTOR looks great, that is a fact that all of us playing it know. However, did you know you can make it look even better by just tweaking a few things here and there? You don’t have to be a computer pro to learn how to enable anti-aliasing in SWTOR and get a better look in the game. This write-up from PC Gamer tells you exactly how to do it- easy peasy! For Nvidia cards, the live version of TOR doesn’t allow forced AA via the Nvidia control panel, so here’s what you need to do. Locate the following file path: (C) > Users > (user name) > AppData > Local > Swtor > swtor > Settings > client_settings Make a copy of the “client_settings.ini” file, just in case, then open it up for editing. Find the line that says [Renderer] and add this line beneath it: AntiAliasingLevel = x…
How to Find a Magenta Adegan Crystal: BioWare Explains
Adegan crystals were commonly used by Jedi as a main component of a lightsaber. Also known as “Ilum crystals””. BioWare tells us How to Find a Magenta Adegan Crystal for yourself, if you can figure it out, that is. Georg “Observer” Zoeller posts on the official forums: It’s actually not difficult at all. There is no RNG element involved, nor do you need to be running around in endgame gear to obtain it, nor do you need an Operation to do so. You may need a bit of time, but not a crazy amount either. All classes are capable of obtaining it. Think of it as something like a datacron. Of course you also need to find an Artifice capable crafter with the recipe to turn the raw crystal it into a Lightsaber crystal, but for the right price, I’m sure they’ll help you out. Honestly, I was a bit…
Gamespot Video Review of SWTOR
Kevin VanOrd (Senior Editor) dispenses Lightsaber justice in this video review for Star War: The Old Republic from GameSpot. It’s 7 ½ minutes of review of SWTOR from the guys who get to review games for a living over at GameSpot. It’s fun, it’s thorough and it’s visual. If you don’t like reading though pages of opinion from a reviewer or skimming over snippets without feeling like you’ve learned anything new, then this video review might be perfect for you. They mention story, dark side and light side points and the one annoying feature that the rest of us have noticed already- there is no real mechanical benefit to staying neutral. Since the gear is all for light side or dark side points, you pretty much end up going one way or the other in order to get the gear you want. Anyway, check out the video yourself for the…
Old Republic update 1.1 being tested, adds New Bosses and a Raid
Last week BioWare released this week’s patch notes for the Old Republic test servers, which shows several exciting features in update 1.1 like a new Flashpoint and anti-aliasing. The new Flashpoint, “Koan Under Siege,” is designed for your standard four players at level 50. In addition to the new instance, four more bosses are being added to “Operation: Karagga’s Palace.” Other cool new features in 1.1 is anti-aliasing added to the game, an option previously unavailable, PVP has been adjusted, as well. Level 50 players now get their own, exclusive, warzone bracket. Fear not, however, level 49 players will still be available to murder you horribly. “”High priority” bug fixes are also being looked at, spanning various skills, companions, and that incredibly annoying healing aura. Check the official site for the complete list. Star Wars: The Old Republic – Game Update 1.1 General Anti-aliasing is now available and can be…
New Player Progression Guides in SWTOR
We wrote just last week about the emails going out from BioWare at level 10 and some reported getting them at other intervals throughout their leveling process as well. Now we know a bit more about what BioWare is calling “Progression Guides” and what their intended purpose is. They seem to be to help mark the first milestone of reaching level 10 in the game. This is when you first choose your Advanced Class so it’s a very important milestone. If players get confused at this point, it could also hurt their ability to enjoy the game going forward. BioWare is helping the player and also themselves by showing good customer service with the new player progression guides. Personally, I’ve taken three characters past level 10 so far and have not gotten one so I’m not sure who’s getting the emails or how that works but you can use the…
SWTOR Early ‘End Game’ Review
The TORWARS team has been playing SWTOR quite a bit and they are now ready to reveal some of their “end game” insight into the game. After nearly a month since release (for early access players) this has been more than enough time for many players to find their way to level 50 and even to experience a bit of what that post-50 content has to offer. This review is going to tell you about Ilum and daily questing, hard mode flashpoints, an overview of Operations and just general info about end game SWTOR. It’s definitely worth taking the time to read over unless you’ve already been 50 yourself for some time now (in which case, maybe you should be writing a review :p). *Spoiler Warning: Republic-based End Game content revealed below.* A snippet: “So how do I rate the end game? Well, it’s important to acknowledge that the game…
SWTOR Makes the Record Books
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been officially recognized by Guinness World Records which is a very cool honor indeed. Just shortly after its launch on December 20, 2011, the popular MMO was awarded a spot in the latest Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition. The big title? the Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project ever. More than 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue were performed by several hundred voice actors, making it a far more ambitious recording project than any undertaking for a feature film. (via MMOSite.com) Because the record is such an awesome one, it received a full 2-page spread in the book, which I try to get every year because it’s great fun to read and have around. Here you will find a tribute to 30 years of Star Wars gaming with fun facts, new records, figures and more – all about Star Wars. The new Guinness World Records…
IGN’s Final Verdict on SWTOR
A gigantic MMO deserves a gigantic review and that’s just what IGN has given us for their “final verdict” detailed review of SWTOR. This review comes after 160+ hours of game playing time and IGN leaves SWTOR with a 9 out of 10 stars. This is a very thorough descriptive write-up of SWTOR from the IGN reviewers. They talk about the cinematics, the character creation and storyline, quest givers and other NPCs and much more. The review takes us deeper in to the game than many other “overviews” that claim to be reviews. Here’s a snippet: The classic scrolling yellow text of the films begins immediately after you’ve created your character, accompanied by the Star Wars theme. There is, in my mind, no better way BioWare could have kicked off your adventure. The text briefly explains who you are and in what context you’re entering the galaxy. It’s unique to…
The great hunt: Annihilation Droid XRR-3 (Eternity Vault 8man HM)
Ready to start raiding in SWTOR? Well you’ll want to check out this guide to the entry boss in the first available “operation” (raid) in the game. It covers both the normal and hardmode versions for a 8man set-up. There are three levels of difficulty available, normal, hard and nightmare. You can also go as a 8man group or 16man. Right now the difficulty shifts the damage done, the health of the boss and the speed/danger of some of his abilities. Swtorextreme will be bringing you guides on all the bosses through the next few weeks so make sure you don’t miss them. We hope to also bring you nightmare mode guides as well, but even we need some time to get them down! 😛 It’s also worth mentioning that we are now Live Streaming our raids (as well as other things such as pre-mades in PVP) over on Twitch….
SWTOR Introductory E-mail Upon Reaching Level 10 and Other Increments
Have you gotten an email from BioWare when you reached level 10 in the game? Have you gotten one at any other increments such as 20, 30, etc? While I personally did not get one at level 10 nor at level 20 and so on, some players are reporting introductory emails like this one. The email titled “Helpful tips and advice for level 10 and beyond” comes with a congratulations from BioWare about your new accomplishment and then reminds you of some things in the game that your character can now achieve or acquire at this level. It’s a nice little addition for a player and it’s a sign that BioWare wants to go the extra mile to help players and also to make them feel more welcome to the game. While some players (like myself) are not getting the emails, it is believed that they only go out to…
SWTOR Bonus Quests: BioWare Brilliance or the Ultimate Troll?
If you’ve played SWTOR past around level 20 or so, you’ve probably already encountered these “bonus quests” in the game. Touted as just another example of BioWare’s signature RPG storytelling, some gamers find it more like a massive annoyance. SWTOR is very much about the story and these different story arcs usually take place on the different planets or “zones” in which you play the game. These world arcs include stories that all tie in to said planet and finish up with a conclusion when you reach the end of the planet and are then sent to another planet. There’s just one little catch… the bonus quests. They hit you out of nowhere, right when you think you are good and done with the planet. MMORPG.com calls it more of an “ambush”, which is exactly what it feels like to most gamers. You think it’s just one more quest and…
Trolling Along SWTOR: Are You Annoyed Yet?
You just cannot have a game as big as SWTOR without having some trolls here and there. If you’re in any in-game chat channels, you’ve probably encountered a couple or more at this point. You’ve probably also seen them on the forums. We also have them on fan sites and well, basically anywhere in the SWTOR community. However, there is a trend going on in the official forums that is starting to grow very annoying for many people. At risk of sounding a bit conspiracy-theorist-ish, there seems to be a trend of making BioWare look bad going on. While I’m not quite sure what the intention behind it is, I am definitely not the first person to notice it. My own friends have brought it up and there are multiple forum threads and also posts on Reddit about the topic. First is the issue of people claiming they have been…
False Bans Reported in SWTOR Community
There seems to be a trend happening in the SWTOR community for the past week or two and I have to say that in all my years of gaming, I’ve never seen one quite like this before. For some reason, there is a relatively large number of players claiming to have been banned from SWTOR- some even with email “proof” – who were not actually banned at all. Most of the reports claim to be bans over silly things that get the community and other players in an outrage because they worry whether or not it can happen to them. Accusations are flying and gamers are getting paranoid, wondering if they will really be banned for such things or if they are supporting a game company that is a little too ready with the banhammer. But is any of it really true? Like this from the official forums: Originally Posted…
The Empire is Winning in The Old Republic’s PvP
Do you PvP in SWTOR? If you’re not part of the Empire, you might be getting owned. While it varies according to server, just like in any game, overall the Empire is winning PvP in The Old Republic. An article over at IGN.com tells us more about why and how the Empire is leading the warzones in SWTOR. IGN tells us: According to Gabe Amatangelo, lead PvP designer, Empire players beat Republic players in 53 percent of Voidstar and Alderaan Civil War contests across all servers combined. He said a same faction versus same faction version of Huttball, The Old Republic’s most played Warzone, will also be included. At some point in the future, BioWare will let players select which Warzone they want to play, though a timeline isn’t yet set. As it is now, when you queue up to enter a Warzone, you could be potentially dropped in any…
Server Maintenance yet again.
BioWare have closed down there servers to patch the dupe exploit that has been around for a few days. While I’m pretty bummed about not getting to play as much as I would like on my day off, I’m happy that BioWare fix these exploits as fast as possible. So what was the exploit about anyways? Well basically you fool vendors to think that they bought a stack of 99 items while they actually only bought one item. readers have mailed us how they made millions of credits before the server went down, but we have no screen shots to prove it. Funny thing about this bug is not the bug it self (shit happens and then you fix it) but the fact that Reddit and 4chan users tried rallying the masses to “take down TOR”. I’m not sure what’s up with these people, but you can read more about “Operation Occupy SW: ToR” here.
Outrage over SWTOR: Vette Makes the News
So apparently Vette has made the news (if you consider the Daily Mail news, that is). Today they ran a story about the outrage of SWTOR which allows players to ‘own’ and torment female slaves with electric shock collars. Bold subheadings declare that the game has “scripted lines such as ‘obey my every command’ and options to beat and torture a female slave. The article then adds that gamers “boast about how badly they treat her” but it hardly says one thing about the fact that you can choose to be nice to Vette. I, for one, took her collar off as soon as you proved herself by completing the task I gave her. Anyway, the Daily Mail seems to want to make everyone think that the game is evil with this horrible plot to demean women and promote slavery. It’s hardly that bad at all. First, we are talking…
SWTOR Race Issues Explained
Many SWTOR gamers have questions about the race choices in the game and why we can only play certain races. One of the biggest questions “Why can’t I play a Wookie?” Well, good for us, VideoGamer.com has a telling interview with BioWare writer Alexander Freed (a personal fave of mine since I had the chance to meet him this summer). In this interview, Freed tells us a little more about the races in SWTOR and why many of them are so human-looking. Basically, it all comes down to relatability. Freed says: “You know, the reason for our humanoid range of species, it’s a matter of relatability to a large degree. The further you get from human the more difficult it is for players to get into their mindset, the more difficult it is for all the other characters in the game to relate to them the same way. There are…
Social Armor Sets – Sith
Social armor sets are another one of those things about SWTOR that helps set it apart from other MMORPGs and makes it a little more fun. Here is a image that shows us what the social armor sets for the Sith look like. While the quality is not the best, the creator still took the time to get all those shots of the armor for us in one location so you can see them. If you want to travel all over the planets and see them all for yourself or see exactly what they will look like on your character, you can do so. Viewing with the companion view gives a higher resolution view on the sets. So here is just one more reason to be social in SWTOR and group up while playing the game. What do you think? Do you like the sets? Were you disappointed? Will you be saving…
PC Gamer Review SWTOR- Lengthy Observations
You know that we’re always looking out for you and bringing you great reviews and previews of SWTOR when we find them. While you’ve probably had a chance to check out the game for yourself by now and if you don’t own it yet, you probably know plenty of friends who do, we still like to pass on good reviews when we find them. This very lengthy write-up by PC Gamer is worth taking a read (or at least a skim) over because it has so much great info on the game from a reputable source like PC Gamer. The review is based on 85 hours of playtime in the game so you will get a lot more from your typical blogger preview out there. They played as an Imperial Agent to level 35 at the time the review was written so it does not contain information on certain endgame…
Unscheduled maintenance (1.0.2b Patch Notes 1/5/2012)
The SWTOR Servers just went down for an unscheduled maintenance. Here is the what why and when: We are working on getting a patch deployed to address the issues that some players are still experiencing after 1.0.2 including: Fixing an issue that causes in-game chat channels to stop functioning for some players. Preventing social emotes (like /getdown) from interfering with combat. We’re currently testing this patch, and we hope to have it deploy sometime in the early hours of the morning tomorrow (CST), but if we experience any issues with this patch, we may hold off its deployment until tomorrow night. The combat bug with social emotes we talked about yesterday was pretty game breaking, and so is the chat channel bug, so it’s nice to know that BioWare are ready to resolve problems fast rather then wait till next scheduled update. Random image is random. Nice Rancore though 🙂