The guys and girls over at TORWars got an Exclusive Interview with Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s, Jeff Hickman. In the interview mr. Hickman answers questions from the readers of TORWars and while he do dodge a few questions, he also answers some questions so well, that it get’s me very confident in the future of the game we all love so much. TW: The studio has seen some staffing changes over the past year. Do you feel you are at a good staffing level now? JH: Absolutely. The core of what makes the game and studio great are still here; quality in our game and in our workplace, people that are passionate about both, a camaraderie with each other that helps us support one another, and people who continue to help us carry the banner of BioWare and who are dedicated to help evolve and improve…
Top 5 Star Wars Games for Holiday 2012
If you have a Star Wars fan in your life, the holiday season is a great time to show them you appreciate them and a great Star Wars game is a fantastic way to do that. The difficult part, however, is that there are so many Star Wars games to choose from. If you have not looked before, you might be surprised at how many titles actually come up. So how can you choose which games are best? Well, it’s a hard call since all fans tend to have their own opinions about what makes a great Star Wars game and which ones were flops and when ones were successes. But here is a pretty safe list that nearly all the Star Wars gamer community can agree upon. Star Wars: The Old Republic Of course, there’s SWTOR – and with the free to play option now that wasn’t available last…
SWTOR Bug Causes Some Players to Cap Out on Pets and Mounts
I have a longtime history with collecting pets in MMORPGs. I’m not sure why but I just love them. When I play a game with pets, I want to have them all. I do this some with mounts but nothing at all like I do with non-combat pets. I love the fun of collecting them, having pets that few other players have and the variety of being able to pull out different pets whenever I want. If you’re a pet collection, too, you need to be aware of a current bug in SWTOR that makes it where some players cannot get more mounts or pets. I have seen several users post in the forums, in the game or on Reddit about a cap on pets and/or mounts but others do not have this problem. So why is it affecting some and not others? Well, no one actually knows. I have…
Free-to-Play Preview Episode 3
In a new video from BioWare, Cory Butler delivers an overview of Star Wars: The old republic’s free to play preferred status program. In the video he explains details regarding “Preferred” status, and highlights several options available for players a the Cartel Market. At the end of the video he briefly speaks about the limited time Life Day items available. We’re always listening to player feedback and we’ve already made some substantial changes,” Butler says before going on to mention an increase in the number of available hotbars and character slots. View the vid below:
BioWare Leaves Fans in the Dark about Same Gender Relationships
Since before SWTOR even launched, we have discussed the topic of same gender relationships (SGRs) in the game. There are some who were for it, those who were against it and others who just didn’t care. The one thing that remained consistent throughout is that the topic causes a lot of controversy. While BioWare first said there would not be SGRs in the game, they later listened to fan reaction and changed their minds, promising that there would be – only not at launch. The reasoning made perfect sense- they just didn’t have time to change the story arcs properly. They didn’t want to simply go in and add the option for romantic encounters with either/or sex of character in the game. Rather, they wanted to do it right, in true BioWare-story fashion and make some characters open to SGRs based on their personalities and previous story line. Fans of…
TOR TV: SWTOR 1-50 in 60 seconds
Now that’s what I call power leveling! Watch all the level ups for the imperial agent Pe’ter Pan. Here is his Youtube profile: heltidsluffare· Takes dedication to do this. Well done. Now… Can you spot which one he messed up and had to fix in post production?
Forum Updates Regarding Makeb
The first expansion for SWTOR is coming soon- just after the one-year anniversary. While the size of the dev team has shrunk considerably since launch, BioWare is still devoted to adding new planets, just as they had said when the game was new. Players have a lot of questions about Makeb and while we don’t have all the answers yet, there is some info starting to appear on the forums. Scope of Makeb Here is some info from the forums about Makeb: To give you all a better idea of Makeb’s scope, it’s a planet of equal size to our larger planets and it contains a variety of areas – sprawling mesas, underground caverns, garden estates, and more. It introduces faction-specific storylines, new Heroic missions and bosses, repeatable mission series, and new Datacrons! The 5 new levels will occupy players for a fair amount of time, and there’s plenty of…
Happy Birthday SWTOR!
Dec 20, 2011 was the official launch of SWTOR and one year later, here we are! Happy Birthday to SWTOR, all the SWTOR dev/staff, and all the SWTOR players! Can you believe it’s been a year already? It seems like it was just yesterday that we were anxiously awaiting the game and while a lot has changed over the past year, we’re happy the game is still around, happy the community is still here and happy to have all of our loyal readers still here as well. Let’s recap a few articles and news pieces over the past year: Our Big List of SWTOR Guides Really Cool Fan Art Stories How Stuff Works column There’s also a cool SWTOR t-shirt giveaway here so check it out for your chance to win! Dulfy also has a giveaway: Items that are part of the giveaway includes 40 SWTOR JINX shirts, 5 Cartel…
SithTalk Episode 43: 1.6 Life Day Tinsel BOMB
Sith talk is back with a new episode, this time titled 1.6 Life Day Tinsel BOMB. This week they debate the success of the Life day Celebration and the community feedback that came with it. Bru’tis stops by with his latest trip through Star wars Lore. Sudo is in with another Chapter in Lost tribe of the Sith Saga. They also talk about their feelings about the latest content in the game. they even glance at the Next Chapter of the SW:TOR Saga. Lastly they announce the official Launch date of Sith Talk 2.0 Beyond SW:TOR – and what you can expect from that show. As always so much more watch it below or download it from podomatic. Remember also to follow the guys on Facebook
SWTOR Legacy Perks Guide
Star Wars: The Old Republic introduced players to the Legacy System when the Patch 1.2 went live. The Legacy system opened up a variety of upgrades on a global scale that you can unlock simply by playing more. For example, you can unlock a character’s race when you reach level 50 and it affects all characters on that particular account and server. This helped to make the game even more interesting. To unlock the Legacy System you need to complete Act one of your first characters storyline. This usually happens somewhere around levels 32 to 34. Once you accomplish this, you’ll be prompted to create a legacy or Star Wars Surname. You’ll also gain access to the Legacy UI, which is found on the top toolbar. This gives you access to your family tree and it will show you which class, race, and purchasable unlocks are available to you. The…
TOR TV: Sometimes you get wipes at 1%. And sometimes THIS happens!!
This video was recorded on 17th December at 2:00am GMT. When the guild “Binary Sunset” battled Kephess. I guess your just lucky some times 🙂 Binary Sunset is named after the iconic scene from Star Wars IV – A New Hope, and we’re based on the Progenitor (EU), an RP-PVE server. they are a multi-national European Guild; the raid in question including players from England, Iceland, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Belgium and Spain. This was their 13th try that evening, on a boss they hadn’t attempted before, and at 2:00am GMT. Given their timezone differences everyone was getting a little tired, but they couldn’t just call it – they are a mature Guild of working age, and likely to be spread far and wide for Christmas with families. This week was the last chance to get an attempt in on completing Terror from Beyond in 2012. As a Guild they had ups and downs, their previous GM disbanded…
First Digital Expansion Announced for SWTOR: Rise of the Hutt Cartel
BioWare updated their webise this morning with a new addition to the swtor.com/buy page. It’s now possible to pre-order the first ever expansion for Star Wars: The old republic, named Rise of the Hutt Cartel. The sales page also reveals new details regarding price, content and of course, how to pre-order. The drop date listed is Spring 2013. Here is the run down: Continue your Star Wars™ saga with a new level cap of 55. Experience new epic story content with fully-voiced cinematic conversations. New Planet: Makeb – Explore a vibrant alien landscape. Subscribers save 50% off the Regular Price – Only £5.99 (£11.99 Regular Price). Receive five (5) days of Early Access* if you Pre-Order by January 7, 2013 11:59PM CT // 5:59AM GMT! The page also includes a new FAQ about the new expansion. In it, there is a pretty lengthy description of what players can expect with the release of Rise of the…
Patch Notes 1.6.1 – 12/18/2013
BioWare have finished this week’s scheduled maintenance and the servers are now back up and running. Apart form a few bug fixes to Speeder Piloting and versus test bugs, this patch sees some new additions to the Cartel Market. Jedis and Warriors should be happy about this, as they get new armor: Below are the complete patch notes: Cartel Market New Items The Valiant Jedi and Sith Raider armor sets are now available for 1,440 Cartel Coins each. Discounts 10% discount on Black Market Cartel Packs. Cost: 162 Cartel Coins. 10% discount on Crime Lord Cartel Packs. Cost: 324 Cartel Coins. 10% discount on all Weekly Passes. Cost: 216 Cartel Coins per Weekly Pass. 50% discount on the Rancor Holo-Replica. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins. Bugfixes The Improved Speeder Piloting I item included with the LD-1 Celebrator speeder now correctly reflects that the unlock is player-only and not account-wide. Some item…
Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance tomorrow
Just a heads up to remind you that this week’s scheduled maintenance will take place tomorrow on Tuesday and will last from 2AM to 6AM CST. In this case, Star Wars: The Old Republic will receive a patch update. Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PM GMT/1PM CET/11PM AEDT). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended. We will have the patch notes available in full asap. Check out the original announcement over at the official forum thread.
Flashpoint Guide: Mandalorian Raiders
Allusis, the Republic warship was stolen by a rogue faction of Mandalorian Raiders under the Clan Varad banner. They are attacking and inflicting mayhem on the defenseless Outer Rim worlds. Strike teams have been assembled and sent out to seize control of the Allusis and end these brutal and senseless attacks. It’s recommended that each member of your team, whether Empire or Republic, be at least a level 25 before undertaking this mission. After choosing your team, prepare to face off with 3 bosses and gain control of that warship. Upon Arrival When you first arrive on board the Allusis, you’ll be greeted by a challenge from Mavrix Varad. He will make this announcement using the ships loudspeaker system. “This is the chieftain of Clan Varad. Whoever you are, you’ve challenged the wrong ship.” For now, just ignore him and move on to the first room of the ship. You’ll…
What is this…. Life Day thing
Many people who haven’t played Star Wars: Galaxies, or are not much into the whole Star Wars lore, might have a hard time understanding what this whole Life Day business is all about. People who played Star Wars: Galaxies already knows all about this, but if you haven’t played SWG, I can tell you that Life Day was an ingame event. It was the SWG version of Christmas. Every year 2 gifts were given out by the Developers to everybody in-game. One gift is for people to open themselves, and the other gift is for you to trade with a friend. Before Star Wars: Galaxies, Wookiee Life Day made its first appearance in The Star Wars Holiday Special. Unlike most aspects of the normally well-crafted Star Wars universe, Life Day is utterly expedient, inserted into the show to provide a very basic goal for the heroes, and lend a bit of topical…
SWTOR’s Life Day Holiday Event Angers Gamers
SWTOR gamers were hyped up and ready for Life Day. Unfortunately, many were disappointed at what was offered in lieu of an event. BioWare said, “The stuff we are doing for Life Day are absolutely amazing … I am super excited about it. You guys are going to die when you see it.” So you can just imagine the reaction from the fans when the ‘big events’ fell, well… flat. As one player said “I’m a little disappointed that there isn’t a Wookiee Life Day customization for Bowdaar.” It makes sense- it’s Wookiee Life Day- why not even allow players to equip their Life Day items on Bowdaar. Why not have anything in the area to show respect for the date like NPCs in the area in Life Day robes? There wasn’t really any role-playing of it at all. It was pretty disappointing all around and seemed to serve no…
Very Cool SWTOR PC Case
If you’re into case-modding or if you just love cool stuff, then you will be very pleased with what we found. Here are some great pictures of an awesome computer case mod with SWTOR theme. Brian “Boddaker” Carter is the mastermind behind the design and he shows more about this over at The Best Case Scenario. There are some common themes in these cases- each has a mural with a lightsaber extension on one side of the case and they also have a 3-D mask built on the other side. There’s a fantastic holographic display on the front and honestly, even if you don’t like SWTOR, this is all very impressive. Boddaker has some really great projects going on, including this SWTOR PC case. See more here at Bod’s Mods. Check out some of the great images he shared of his modded cases.
SWTOR Augment Slot Guide
One thing that most Star Wars: The Old Republic players have in common is a desire to have the very best gear possible. Building up your character is part of the fun and there are several items available to help you reach your goal. You have the option of modifying gear by using Augments but before you can use them, your gear must have Augment Slots. This Augment Slot guide will show you how to acquire Augmentation Kits, so you can upgrade your character’s gear. Understanding Augments Augments increase the stats of your character to maximize your gear. You can get Augments by using the “slicing crew skill” or you can buy them at the Galactic Trade Network. The type of Augment you use will determine which stats are increased. Here are some examples: Defense – redoubt augments Aim – Reflex augments Strength – might augments Endurance – fortitude augments…
BioWare on Grade 7 Ship parts costs
With Game update 1.6 new Heroic Space Missions saw the light of the day, and with that also new tier 7 ship parts. These are of course supposed to help players complete these new challenging missions. To get these new upgrades you need to spend hundreds of Daily and Fleet Commendations or just purchase them on the Cartel Market. This have off course sparked a huge debate with players crying “Pay 2 win”. Today Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez made a forum post with feedback from Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert indicating that BioWare is looking for solutions to reduce the gap between the two paths: Hi everyone, I’ve spoken to the design team about the issue of Grade 7 ship upgrades and the cost in game (resources and time) versus the cost on the Cartel Market, since this concern was raised by a number of people on our forums. Our Lead Designer for the game, Damion Schubert, has this to say: Unfortunately, there…
The big list of free SWTOR guides
Sine the launch of Star Wars: The old republic almost one year ago, we have steadily updated our website with new game guides. Now one year later, it has become increasingly hard to find the the guide you might be looking for. There for are we creating this list for a better overview. This will be a work in progress and we will do our best to keep the list updates. If there is something you feel you need a guide on, let us know in the comments below, and we will see if we can help out. Raiding/Flashpoints Guides: The False Emperor The Esseles The Streets of Cademimu The Colicoid War Game Directive 7 Taral V Mandalorian Raiders Athiss Boarding Party Dorin’s Sky Maelstrom Prison Hammer Station The Foundry The Black Talon The Lost Island Flashpoint Guide Battle of Ilum Kaon Under Siege Scum and Villainy SWTOR World Boss Guides…
TOR TV: Jedi Samurai
Nowadays, Samurai-dom is less about kicking butt with a giant Katana and more about honor and justice, in other words, bushido without a giant knife at your side. This kind of sucks really, so some dude from France created his own “samudi” code in Star Wars: The old republic. This new way of life combines the way of the jedi, with the way of the Samurai. Sounds hard to understand? Worry not; the creator of this noble way of life also made an instructional video about it. Check it out:
Corellian Run Radio Interviews Rob Hinkle
The good people over at Corellian Run Radio had the chance to interview Senior Systems Designer, Rob Hinkle. In the interview Mr. Hinkle answers questions regarding upcoming and current mechanics in PVP. What struck me the most about his answers to the questions, regarding gear. He personally felt gear had mattered too much up to this point. He spoke of having progression without having such a large gear gap, i.e. tightening up the gear gap. This seems like a good way to go. Here is a snip: Question 4: Are there any plans to ever change from the vertical progression of PvP gear to horizontal, especially with free-to-play? (i.e. will gear in the future still be a large factor in performance?) Rob: As we move forward, we want to tighten up the minimal gear level and maximum gear level power gap while inside PvP. ToR is an MMORPG, so we feel that players need some…
Game Update 1.6: “Ancient Hypergate” Launch Trailer
With the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate, BioWare posted a promotion trailer. This video is showing off the new content in the usually BioWare way we know from the other updates. The video itself do not reveal anything big to the fans following the game here on swtorstrategies, but it’s still a damn nice watch. Check it out below: