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…
Bounty Contract Week Event – Now Live for all Classes Level 15 and up!
Bounty Contract Week is back. This time it will run from November 12 – 19, 2013. The basic premise for this SWTOR event centers around the Bounty Brokers Association. This organization, is overrun with the number contracts that it needs fulfilled and is willing to pay anyone for completing the bounties. If you need help to finish up any of these, have no fear. We got guides to help you out for some of them. The rest should be up before the event is over. : Guide to SWTOR Bounty Contract Week Voss Kingpin Bounty Contract Guide Tatooine Kingpin Bounty Contract Guide Coruscant Kingpin Bounty Contract Guide Below is the official announcement from BioWare: The Bounty Brokers Association needs you! The BBA has taken in too many contracts for their regular membership to handle and is asking anyone Level 15 and above to answer the call of bounty hunting between November…
SWTOR Art- Photoshopped Chiss and Mirialan
We love seeing Star Wars and SWTOR art of all types and we also love sharing it with you because we know our readers appreciate it as much as us. We stumbled across these really cool Photoshop tiles shared to Reddit by Florixia and wanted to bring them to you. She also explains a little about how she did the photos: “That jacket was just a white jacket I had that I photoshopped the colors on. Most of it is photoshopped besides the actual clothing. I had some makeup on by not this heavy” We’re impressed. They’re great photos and we’d love to see her do more. What about you? Do you have any similar SWTOR-inspired art? Have you seen some great SWTOR or Star Wars Photoshops or cosplay, or any type of art you want to share with us? Lay it on us!
Patch Notes – 2.4.3 – 11/15/2013
Here are the patch notes for tomorrows maintenance: Game Update 2.4.3 Patch Notes Highlights PvP Season One! Ratings have been reset to mark the beginning of the Ranked PvP Season One. Get in there and go berserk! Ranked PvP Leaderboards! Players can now visit the website to compare Solo and Group Rankings. Details under PvP Character Name Renewal Program! Many previously held names have been released! Subscribers are unaffected by the Name Renewal Program. Preferred Status: Characters below level 10 that have not been played in the last 60 days are flagged for rename. Characters below level 30 that have not been played in the last 120 days are flagged for rename. Characters level 30 and above are unaffected. Free-to-Play: Characters below level 10 that have not been played in the last 90 days are flagged for rename. Characters below level 30 that have not been played in the last 180 days are…
Documentaries: Mars, All aboard for the red planet
Today I will post a recap of all the documentaries found on youtube regarding Colonization of Mars. There is a lot of speculation, reports and planning for Mars Colonies in the near future, this seems to come out of nowhere in the last few years. Not only by NASA who have always been luke warm ,but several groups and consortiums. Russia, China and now India are planning various missions to the red planet. The Dutch are planning a Big Bros House, and there was an article encouraging older people to apply for first, for possible one way trips in case they cannot come back. Colonizing Mars [HD] Robert Zubrin, author and aerospace engineer, has the blueprints to build a colony on Mars. He and NASA Ames researcher Margarita Marinova explain how and why humans will one day turn the Red Planet green, establishing the next frontier of technological innovation and seeding the universe with…
Dewbacks in Collections next week
It looks like players finally will be able to get their hands on the Dewback mount. From the next patch comming this Tuesday, these mounts will be obtainable via packs on the cartel market. Eric Musco posted two teasers on the forum last week: Slow and steady wins the race! I heard a rumor that a Dewback mount is in the next pack, which is coming next week. That could just be a rumor though. Rumor has it that it will be in Collections on Tuesday with 2.4.3. These animal mounts are really the only thing these days, that people seem to really go crazy for. Give it time, they’ll throw in more. There is still one Varactyl and three (I think) Tauntaun mounts to be released. They’ll stretch out those Dewbacks for a very long time to sell packs. It’s going to look strange though, if they make the Dewbacks outrun speeder…
Scheduled Maintenance: November 12th, 2013 – Patch 2.4.3
Just a heads up to let you know that BioWare will be taking down the servers on Tuesday November 12th, to preform scheduled maintenance. At the same time, the developers will be adding patch 2.4.3. No patch notes are up yet, but be sure to check back, as we will post them when they are available. Don’t expect and event, as Gree event is in December and double xp weekend over Thanksgiving weekend. Below is the forum post be Eric: EricMusco Scheduled Maintenance: November 12th, 2013 | 11.08.2013, 11:46 AM On November 12th, all game servers and SWTOR.com will be unavailable while we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.4.3 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday November 12th, 2013 Duration: 5.5 hours Time: 2:30AM PST (10:30AM GMT) – 8AM PST (4PM GMT) Time Zone Start Time Scheduled End Time UTC Offset HST Tue Nov 12, 2013 12:30 AM Tue Nov 12,…
Developer Blogs: PvP Season One Blog
Senior System Designer Rob Hinkle posted a blog regarding the upcoming season 1 of ranked warzones. The blog post doesn’t contain a ton of new info, but it’s nice to see the 6 month timeframe officially stated. It does feel like they’re doing a lot of stuff on the fly which seems scary but hopefully it provides them latitude to adapt as they go instead of screwing up season 1 and having to wait until season 2 to make changes. You can read the full blog post on the official website right here, or our copy paste below: Developer Blogs: PvP Season One Blog 11.07.2013 Greetings PvPers! I’m happy to say that a long awaited and promised time is finally upon us! With the launch of Game Update 2.4.3, the longest pre-season will be over and the inaugural Ranked PvP season will begin. We know it has been a long haul and…
Star Wars: Episode VII Release Date!!!
It took a while, but we finally have a date: Star Wars: Episode VII is coming December 18th, 2015. The date was announced in a blog post on the official Star Wars website. With pre-production in full-swing, a confirmed release date of December 18, 2015, has been set for Lucasfilm’s highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII. “We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture,” said Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Star Wars: Episode VII will be directed by J.J. Abrams (Super 8, Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek) and is being scripted by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi). Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are…
Community Cantina Tour Arrives in Austin, Texas – 11/22
BioWare Community Cantina will stop by Austine later this month. As always we should get information about upcoming content from this event. Hopefully the last peaces of information we want to know about upcoming expansion Galactic Starfighter. There is no mention about getting some hands on time with Galactic Starfighter though. If you are in the Austin area when this is going down, let us know. THIS IS AN ADULT EVENT AND ALL ATTENDEES MUST BE OF LEGAL DRINKING AGE TO PARTICIPATE. PLEASE BE PREPARED TO SHOW ID. Important details for the less-than-savvy minors amongst us 😛 The Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour Arrives in Austin, Texas! 11.07.2013 We’re happy to announce that the next stop in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Friday, November 22nd, in Austin! This is your chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A…
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…
TORParse and TORCommunity are looking for more developers!
The new owners of TORParse are making a lot of changes and improvements and now they need help. TORParse is looking for additional developers! They made a post on Reddit to point back to their own blog which requests help in the future development of the website as well as the in-game client. So if you have developing or coding skills and you’re a fan of SWTOR and want an opportunity to help out the community, this might be perfect for you. Here is the info from that blog post: Hey everyone! The owners here at TORParse are currently looking for several individuals interested in helping with the future development of both the TORParse website and the TORParse in-game client. To be a part of the TORParse website development team, you will need to be highly proficient in the following areas: HTML 5 CSS 3 PHP 5 MySQL Additional experience…
Star Wars Total Franchise Revenue and Stats
Have you ever wondered just how much Star Wars really earns? Have you wondered about which parts of the franchise actually make the most money? Where is Lucasfilms reeling in the cash? Some newly releases statistics show us all this and more about the Star Wars franchise revenue and earnings. While the films themselves are big time earners (of course), there are also other areas of revenue, as shown by the charts below. This shows where the franchise has brought in money over the past 37 years. Statistic Verification Source: Forbes, Lucasfilms Research Date: 10.27.2012 Total Star Wars Franchise Revenue $27,000,000,000 Movies Revenue Star Wars : Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace $924,317,558 Star Wars : Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones $649,398,328 Star Wars : Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith $848,754,768 Star Wars : Episode 4 – A New Hope $775,398,007 Star Wars : Episode 5…
Patch Notes – New Feature – 11/5/2013
Servers are back up, and a new feature has been added. As we mentioned last week, it’s now possible to buy cartel coins ingame. As we also mention last week, Subscribers receive a 50% discount on the first purchase made using the in-game feature, so hurry up and get your 5500 Cartel Coin’s with a 50% discount! – Just a heads up though. The system don’t support Paypal yet… New Feature Patch Notes Highlight New Feature! Players can now purchase Cartel Coins through the “Add Coins” interface within the in-game Cartel Market: * Players must enable this feature for their account before it can be accessed. For additional details, please refer to this News Article. All major credit and debit cards are supported payment methods for in-game Cartel Coin purchases. PayPal and other payment methods are not supported at this time. Subscribers receive a 50% discount on the first purchase made…
Jawajames Reads Star Wars: The old republic Annihilation
If you haven’t read Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn yet, your are missing out. The book have been out for about year now, and reviews have been positive. Annihilation with the possible exception of Revan also written by Drew Karpyshyn is quite possibly the best novel based around Star Wars: the Old Republic video game franchise. While it is not free of it’s flaws it is very enjoyable to read and easy to do so. It was one of the few Star Wars books that I have read recently that kept me turning pages. The best part about the novel is its characters. Theron Shan, first introduced in a the Old Republic comic series, is an intriguing character considering his background, lineage, and the fact that he is not a Jedi. However, I thought that his character lacked a measure of conflict. He seemed too at ease with his position in…
Speculative Documentary: Space Wars
Last week I wrote about our plans to put up a weekly column on more nerdy stuff, that is not really part of the Star Wars universe. We still don’t know what to call it, but the plan is to post documentaries, images or articles, on space and speculative discussion on future technology. Last week i promised we will post something new each Saturday, and already I broke my promise. I have been out almost all weekend, but now I am here, and here is a new documentary from National Geographic. This one is called Space Wars, and is part of the “the universe” series. This one was aired back in 2009 and has scientist speculate on future space weaponry and battle tactics. So far no country has put weapons into space but they can shoot down satellites. If weapons do become part of space, how will they work, how effective will…
Ingame cartel coin purchase coming Nov 5
It looks like it will be possible to buy cartel coin ingame, starting Tuesday November 5. At least that’s what Amber Green writes in her forum post yesterday: On November 5th, all game servers will be unavailable while we perform maintenance. The In-Game Cartel Coin Purchase feature will be implemented during this downtime, and there will not be a new patch to download. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday November 5th, 2013 Duration: 2 hours Time: 3AM PST (10AM GMT) – 5AM PST (12PM GMT) Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Amber also confirms via Twitter, that subscribers wil get 50% off their first ingame CC purchase as BioWare promised. Personally I am going to buy 5500 coins and save them for when I need them. I’m hoping they add a higher quantity to maximize the 50% savings. Also remember that…
TOR TV: Best emote ever to hit Star Wars: The Old Republic
Youtube user crabby654 made this small videos showing what he think is the best emote ever to hit Star Wars: The Old Republic. Mixing it up with Haddaway – What is love, I kind of understand were he is coming from. All he needs is some guy next to him that tips his hat…. like this. And then yell out “EMILIOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”. Check it out:
Ranked Season 1 Details via Customer Service
Still not sure what Ranked Warzones is all about? The in-game help center might clear a few things up. It sates: Ranked Leaderboards and PVP Season 1 What are Ranked Arena Leaderboards? Our Leaderboards are where players can go to compare themselves against all other players in STAR WARS: The old Republic. Comparisons are based on a Players’s Rank. How are Leaderboards categorized? SWTOR Leaderboards are defined by Advanced Classes, and each Advanced Class across the two Factions shares a Leaderboard. How is Rank determined? A player can generate two types of Rank: Solo & Group Rank. When a player plays a Ranked Warzone in either of these categories, their respective Rank will be affected depending on the outcome of the match. The higher a player’s Rank, the higher they will be categorized on a Leaderboard, relative to all other players’ Ranks. What is Season 1? Season 1 is a…
Swtor Data mined patch 2.4.2
SWTOR_Miner made a small updated with data mined game information found in the latest patch. The info comes in XML- format, so there is not much use if you don’t know how to read that. These are the new cartel items I spotted in the list: AD-14 Heavy Blaster JM-30 Assault Cannon MR-39 Sniper Rifle Advanced Yellow Blue Hawkeye Crystal Advanced Yellow Blue Indestructible Crystal Advanced Yellow Blue War Hero Crystal Balmorran Arms Corporate Shirt Camp Fire: Set up a camp site. You regenerate health and your class energy pool while submerged. CD-36 Blaster Rifle Czerka Corporate Shirt Dark Purple and White Dye Module Deep Brown and Black Dye Module White and Dark Green Dye Module Emote: Funky Emote: Nod Off Emote: Pbj Time Emote: Toe Touch¨ Mount: Gurian Rose Mount: Ikas Flamethrower mount: Ikas Shark Mount: Ikas Spear Mount: Morlinger Imperator Mount: Rendili Shadow Mount: Swamp Tauntaun Infected Treek…
Patch Notes – 2.4.2 – 10/29/2013
As we told you a few days ago, the servers are going down for maintenance tomorrow. Patch update 2.4.2 will implemented during this downtime, and below are the patch notes. “The mysterious floating box on the Imperial Fleet is no longer mysterious, because it is no longer floating. ” It’s smartass notes like these that make me love the devs that much more “A new item, Kick the Huttball, is available in the Cartel Market! This item modifies the “Throw the Huttball” ability, allowing players to kick the ball, thus breaking the number one rule in Huttball. Cost: 400 Cartel Coins.”This is awesome. Game Update 2.4.2 Patch Notes General Quick Travel terminals throughout the galaxy now display proper indication when they have not yet been discovered. All Oricon Quick Travel terminals remain unlocked after being discovered. Cartel Market General The description for Cartel Market Certificates has been updated to clarify…
Star Wars Episode VII Rumor Roundup: Han Solo is back!
What’s happening in the development of Star Wars Episode VII? There are some new rumors heading around the rumor mill right now and you know how we love to bring you rumors. So here’s a roundup. Keep in mind that we never know for sure if these are true- at least not until the movie actually releases. Anything can change between now and then. But one rumor tells us that Harrison Ford has deal for Episode VII as moves made towards fifth Indiana Jones film. There’s something fans of Ford and Star Wars can enjoy. Jedi News tells us more about this rumor: Now THIS is how you start the new week. The news we’ve all been hoping for has reached us from the mysterious Jedi Master SQL. Han Solo, Harrison Ford, is back and onboard for Episode Seven, but that’s not all. As part of the deal, steps have…
Speculative Documentary: Evacuate Earth
Last week we posted a story about the images carried by the spacecraft Voyager. This was so well received by you – our readers – getting more then 300 likes on Facebook. Therefor we thought we will follow up on it, and start a new column on this more nerdy stuff, that is not really part of the Star Wars universe. We don’t know what to call it yet, but the plan is to post documentaries, images or articles, on space and speculative discussion on future technology. This first video we are posting is named “Evacuate Earth”. It is a National Geographic Channel documentary, that tells the what-if story of the evacuation of the planet Earth which is due to be destroyed by a rogue neutron star. The documentary goes into the technical and social complications of building an Ark to save humanity and other Earth life, and moving them…