The Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour Arrives in New York

BioWare is still on tour. Next time the caravan arrives in New York. This will give attendees the chance to quiz the developers and share a drink or two. Check out the announcement below: We’re happy to announce that the next stop in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Saturday, October 12th, in New York! This is your chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted Tauntaun Fawn code. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by and hang out with us! Venue: Stitch Bar and Lounge Date: Saturday, October 12th, 2013 Time: 8-11PM EDT Address: 247 West 37th Street. New York, NY 10018 Space will be limited, so be sure to arrive early! You can RSVP on Facebook here (Facebook RSVP is not required for…

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PTS Server Known Issues

Amber Green posted to the official PTS forums the current list of known issues on the public test server. If you currently have characters on the test realms or plan to in the future, you’ll benefit from giving this a read over or at least bookmarking it so that you know what the known issues are. This update came after problems with the servers that also caused the servers to be brought down for a time. There is no reason to continue to report these known issues but if you encounter any bugs or problems other that are not on this list while on PTS, then you should report those. Public Test Server Known IssuesThe following are those issues known to exist on the current 2.4 build on the PTS:  Operations General Players are unable to join an Operations Group that is in progress if the group has defeated a…

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Patch Notes – 2.3.2 – 9/4/2013

Here are todays patch notes. One of the most noticeable one is this: The base cooldown for the Fleet Pass ability is now 9 hours for subscribers. Legacy Fleet Pass I, II, and III now reduce the ability cooldown by 3 hours each. This means that being a sub and having all three levels would give no-cooldown on  fleet passes! It’s also nice to see some Codex updates, though from what I can tell Loremaster and Beastmaster are still unobtainable if these are the only changes. Game Update 2.3.2 Patch Notes 9/4/2013 Highlights New Vehicle! The Desler Nomad is a new rare drop from the final boss of all level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints. New Feature! Players can now purchase Cartel Coins in-game through the “Add Coins” interface within the Cartel Market. (details under Cartel Market) Vendor Update! Emergency Medical Table and Mood: Outraged have been added to the Bounty Supply Company…

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Original Darth Vader Doesn’t Like Recent Star Wars Prequels

It seems there are many who don’t like the recent Star Wars prequels but would you be surprised to learn that you can add one of the most iconic figures of the original films to the list? Dave Prowse, who played the original Darth Vader, says the Star Wars prequels are “really bad movies”. Ouch! Dave Prowse was a British actor, and any Star Wars nerds who have heard the unedited audio from the original films will know that he also sounded quite British. But you wouldn’t have known it when he donned his Vader mask to become the ultimate movie bad guy. Prowse played the deadly Sith Lord onscreen for Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) but it seems he was not a bit impressed with the latter movies in the series. He told the Hull Daily Mail, “I didn’t like…

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More Datatmining 2.4PTS – Modeldump

As we await Game Update 2.4, we now have some more datamined updates from swtor_miner to share. Here’s a link to my latest Datamining post on 2.4PTS I’m still working on a method for automatically reconstructing ingame models. It’s going to be a long road for that though. But, this morning I went through the weapon/vehicle models from the last few PTS builds and matched them up with their textures. Now, this is by no means exactly how they will appear ingame. As, most models have a bump/displacement map that adds most of the detail to an item, and I’m not loading that. Then, there’s the scrolling UVs which are present on some of these items, that again I couldn’t load. I’m also ignoring the material (how shiny/matte a texture is). Which led to me turning of shading in some models that were too dark, and led to slightly comical…

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TOR TV: Heal to Full

The creator of Smash Bomb,  and Baby Got Bubble bring you “Just Heal to Full“, a SWTOR parody of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. I you don’t get this song, here is some background: In the top 3 answers that the developer’s gave sorcerors/sages, in an answer to dps complaints and questions regarding if they would be buffed, the developers told them 2 things: 1) Sorcs are an “easy to learn, hard to master class” and everyone should just “be better” instead of giving them buffs. (Despite the devs actually being pretty horrible at the game and not big on PvP) 2) Since sorceror’s possessed healing abilities they should stay the lowest tier dps, and that they could “heal to full” so they actually had an edge on the competition. (Which the sorc community considers stupid because you can’t heal to full if you’re being attacked as a dps sage and…

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Q&A session from community Cantina – Seattle, August 31

Redna and chill from  ootinicast.com went to the Community Cantina held in Seattle on Saturday evening, 31 August 2013. There they had the chance to sit in on the Q&A session featuring Amber Green (Live Services Specialist) and Eric Musco (Community Manager)  and Lead Designer Damion Schubert. The Community Cantina in Seattle might have been the  biggest cantina ever, with more then 300 people in attendance. Therefor they had to  split up the whole thing, including Q&A, into two parts, and the second round barely got everyone in who was still in line.  The Q&A transcript also includes some questions that was asked afterwards that weren’t part of the formal Q&A. Check ot the snippet below, and read the whole ting over at  ootinicast.com  Q: Why not more playable species, like Nautilans? A: Each species takes tons of time to develop for all the options, moves, and so on. Because Cathar sold well, they are in…

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FREEBIE WARS: Free CD Key Giveaway from Allkeyshop and SWTORSTRATEGIES is over

The FREEBIE WARS: Free CD Key Giveaway from Allkeyshop and SWTORSTRATEGIES is now over. The smoke has lifted and the winner has been choose. The winner is Fiuciuc Andrei-Nicolas, and he choose the game “Remember Me” Congratulations mate. Hope you will enjoy it. Thanks to Allkeyshop for hosting the giveaway, and thanks to all that participated in our little game. Below is the trailer for the game Fiuciuc choose:

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The Super Secret Space Project is revealed… or at least teased!

During the Seattle Community Cantina last night, BioWare reveal what looks like the “Super Secret Space Project”. Not much is known about it yet, but it looks like  mouse based star fighter combat! Not on rails! It’s been hinted at for ages at events and on the forums. Devs had said they’d like to see proper PvP ship combat off rails and guild capital ships at some point. Bioware only referred to the project as the Super Secret Space Project (hence the title of this post). We knew it was in the works. The question is when, and what are all the details. But it is nice to see this might be sooner than later now. Swtor_miner have been sitting on some mined info for a while. Here is what he thinks it is from his mining: It’s freeflight. You get a choice of 3 fighter varieties for PvP: Heavy, Medium,…

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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…

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Game Update 2.4: The Dread War – PTS Update 3 Patch Notes – August 30th, 2013

The new patch notes for the public test servers are up. Lot’s of new fixes and new New HK-51 Customization from Oricon reputation. Check out the image of it above. Game Update 2.4: The Dread War – PTS Update 3 Patch Notes – August 30th, 2013 The patch notes published for the Public Test Server are intended to guide testing. They are not final and are subject to change. The new Obroan PvP armor set is currently using placeholder art that will be updated before the release to the Live Servers; the sets themselves are incomplete on the PTS and are subject to change. The Public Test Server Patch Notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers. Classes and Combat Bounty Hunter General Kolto Overload now triggers at 35% health and may heal…

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Datadump 2.4PTS 8/28/13

“Here we have it friends, another datadump from the ever-loyal swtor_miner who regularly takes to Reddit to give us details of SWTOR so we can speculate on what might be coming in a future update. We really have a lot of fun with these data dumps and it’s a good pastime to try to figure out what it all means. Before you start reading, keep in mind always that this is not official from Bioware and we don’t even know if any of this stuff will end up in a live version of the game. So take it with a grain of salt. This recent datadump brings us the follow info (warning: spoilers ahead): “Removed GOM entries compared to last pts build Added GOM entries compared to last pts build The class ability changes appear to be bugfixes, I dumped out the entire tree for the Consular Telekinetic Throw, and…

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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…

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Game Update 2.4 PTS featuring Oricon

BioWare updated the public test servers with the latest from game update 2.4. This time the testers get to check out the new story area, Oricon, featuring 2 new Operations, as well as a Level 55 story chain. The begining quest is bugged on both factions so you cannot advance but you can check out the planet! LightSaber from The-Old-Republic.ru have filmed the whole place, so you can check it all out below, if you haven’t tried it out before. Below the videos, you can check out the patch notes. Highlights New Content! Oricon is a new small story content area now available via Galaxy Map and the Priority Transport Terminal. This area includes 2 new Operations and a level 55 mission series with a story that will put you face-to-face with the Dread Masters. Advancing the story will unlock access to a [DAILY] mission series. (The Dread Palace Operation is…

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Courtney Woods explains (again) that the Class Representative system is just a simple Q&A and nothing more

BioWare said this from the beginning, but some players didn’t understand it — They should have made it clearer i guess. Apparently some people were under the impression that the class representatives would have some kind of larger role, yet their sole purpose was to collate the mass number of questions into the 3 that would be given to Bioware for answering… and nothing more! It doesn’t take a genius to see how this have now turned into a shit storm on the forums…. First DevPost by Courtney Woods Hey everyone, I think the expectations for the Class Representative program kind of got lost along the way this week. While I totally understand and expect that there will be a multitude of opinions towards the responses we post, I do want to reiterate what we originally posted when we started this program: “Our number one goal is to get your…

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MMO Boys Heat Up SWTOR and Other MMOs

If you’re looking for some spice to your night, or just some good-natured adult fun, you might want to check out MMO Boys. But first be warned: This site is NOT safe for work. Don’t open it with children in the room either. This Tumblr features male MMO characters in skimpy armor, undies and sometimes nothing at all. The featured picture here with this post is one of the tamer images on the blog. They have many SWTOR characters but also screenies from other MMOs like Saints Row, Skyrim, There’s also a Guild Boy Calendar. Nope, I’m not kidding… These photo manipulations are actually pretty darn good quality and some of them are downright funny (I mean, if you can’t have a giggle at cartoon video game penises, you’re not human, right?) but I have to applaud the talent and creativity involved as well. He also takes requests and there…

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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…

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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…

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Star Wars: Episode VII To Shoot On 35mm

J.J Abrams has decided to shoot “Star Wars Episode VII” on film. Cinematographer Dan Mindel revealed that the new film would be shot on 35 mm film instead of the digital format often utilized to film major blockbusters in the modern era. He added that the the film would shot on Kodak stock color negative 5219. With the past two “Star Wars” films shot digitally, the news certainly came as a surprise. George Lucas introduced the digital age with “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” the first major film to be shot using the digital format, and “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” followed the trend. However, the decision could have been made because Abrams has yet to shoot a film on digital. His “Star Trek” films, “Super 8” and “Mission Impossible 3” were all shot on film. The decision could have also been a result of…

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Star Wars: Battlefront is likely to come out in 2015

Star Wars: Battlefront 3 release date news has been hard to come by lately. This is off course mainly because the game is still in heavy development. According to Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, speaking at EA’s investors meeting the other day, the targeted release date for Star Wars: Battlefront is “most likely” in summer 2015 for the most obvious reason that it’s when Star Wars: Episode VII will be hitting theaters and relaunching the film franchise. Star Wars: Battlefront is DICE LA‘s very first big project, following some light work on polishing up Battlefield 4. It’s also the first step in a multi-year deal recently sealed between EA and Disney, giving the publisher exclusive rights to develop games for the Star Wars franchise. DICE’s ‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ marks the first entry in the series since 2009′s ‘Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron’, and the first console release in…

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SWTOR Sith Warrior Juggernaut PVP Build

Here we are again with a build from www.swtorsavior.com and this time they have bought us an Sith Warrior Juggernaut PVP Build. The Sith Warrior Juggernaut PVP builds listed below, focus on talents and abilities with potential for either sustained or burst DPS in combination with utility and adaptability. These Sith Juggernaut builds perform best in a Warzone or other group PVP setting. Build 3/3 Malice 2/2 Decimate 2/2 Battle Cry 2/2 Strangulate 2/2 Overpower 1/1 Brutality 2/2 Saber Strength 2/2 Oppressor 1/1 Obliterate 2/2 Dominate 3/3 Shockwave 1/1 Force Jump 2/2 Shi-Cho Mastery 1/1 Force Lash 1/1 Gravity Manipulation 3/3 Dark Resonance 2/2 Force Resistance 3/3 Cascading Power 1/1 Force Crush 3/3 Single Saber Mastery 2/2 Improved Sundering Assault 2/2 Enraged Sunder 2/2 Ravanger 1/2 Dreadnaught Stat Priority Expertise > Strength >  Power > Surge  > Crit

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TOR TV: Tundra Tauntaun (Black Beauty Parody)

Here is another video from ResidentPenguin. If you don’t know who he is, he is the guy who gave us He-Man,Tribute to the relaxed Jumpsuit and lately Treek is gothams reckoning. This time he is here with a Black Beauty Parody. I remember the repeats of this show in the early 90’s on a Sunday morning. Music always plays in my head when I’m riding my Tauntaun in game, so this is excellent.  I really love the part where he aggroed the Territorial Tauntauns to make them run after him. Great stuff. Check it out below:

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