While they are difficult to see for the obvious reason that they give off no light, we now know that they exist because there are circumstances in which they can be located by their effect on other stars. Although it is difficult to to give a precise estimate of the number of black holes that exist because not enough is known about the number of stars that become black holes, astronmers estimate that there is about one black hole for every 10,000 stars, which means that the Milky Way contains at least 100 million black holes. At the very center of the galaxy lurks the darth-vader rock star, the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A aka Sgr A*. Looming beyond the horizon of Sgr A*, if we assume Einstein’s theory of relativity that predicts what happens when a star collapses is correct, is a singularity. But it is a singularity that…
Star Wars Occupation Flow Chart [Infographic]
Have you ever been sitting there watching Star Wars and wondering what to do with your life and cursing your guidance counselor for not telling you about Jedi School? With this handy infographic you will find out what your calling would be if you lived in a galaxy far, far away. by bobbybernethy. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Building the LEGO Death Star
This amazing death star has over 26 minifigures, three floors, and a whole lot of rooms! I really love how much detail went into this thing. The minifigures are well done and finally Lego gives us enough minifigures to really enjoy the set. It has everything from the meeting room to the emperor’s throne room and the detention cell to the trash compactor. Really, really, really, really, really great set! You get all the classic characters, even a few versions of the important ones. The trash compactor is just all right, but most of the other moving parts have the impressive marks of Lego ingenuity. I also love that it takes a long time to build. That helps a little in terms of coming to grips with the fact that you just dropped $400 on a big toy. The fact that it’s 90% gray can get a little tedious. The…
Blog: EMERGENCY ALERT: Rakghoul Plague Outbreak on Alderaan
BioWare posted a short role playing blog post about the Rakghoul Plague Outbreak yesterday. The event is live and kicking in SWTOR now, and another highly contagious outbreak seems to be spreading from Alderaan and has possibly made it top the Imperial fleet. Both the Empire and the Republic governments are seeking assistance so be sure and visit you local GSI representative. EMERGENCY ALERT: Rakghoul Plague Outbreak on Alderaan – AVOID ALDERAAN! 01.22.2014 The Hyland Organization for Rakghoul Neutralization (T.H.O.R.N.) has issued an official level-2 emergency alert concerning an outbreak of the Rakghoul plague on Alderaan. Wide-spread infections have been reported near both House Organa and House Thul, while scattered reports of infection traceable to Alderaan are now flooding in from across the galaxy. Quarantines have been put in place to restrict traffic of the plague off-world, but exceptions will be made for individuals with priority clearance. T.H.O.R.N. is recruiting qualified…
Bounty Contract Event Returns – 2/11 thru 2/14
The bounty contract event will return on February 11 and run for 4 days until the weekend. If you are new to Star Wars: The old Republic, I can tell you that the Bounty Contact Week is a monthly recurring event that runs one week of every month. The basic premise for this SWTOR event centers around the Bounty Brokers Association. This organization, totally made up by BioWare, is overrun with the number contracts that it needs fulfilled and is willing to pay anyone for completing the bounties. (To be fair, that’s not too much different than a normal bounty contract, but let’s just run with it.) Participants can complete one standard contract and one kingpin contract a day per character level 15 or higher. Players travel to one of eight planets (two Republic-only planets, two Empire-only planets, and four shared planets), hunting down eight different henchmen and eight different…
Swtor-mined: 2.6 PTS Patch | 1/21/13
SWTOR-miner have been playing around with game update 2.6 witch is currently being test on the public tests servers. There’s a bug with some of the ship component listings, but there’s some good stuff in there. One of them looks like being a Manaan flashpoint! New/Changed/Removed Abilities New/Changed/Removed Achievements New/Changed/Removed Areas New/Changed/Removed Codex Entries New/Changed/Removed Collections New/Changed/Removed Companions New/Changed/Removed GOM Items New/Changed/Removed Items New/Changed/Removed MtxStoreFront Entries New/Changed/Removed Npcs New/Changed/Removed Quests New/Changed/Removed Ships New/Changed/Removed Talents Looks like the NovaDive/S-12 Blackbolt got some love with the new EMP Field Component: Causes and electromagnetic pulse around your ship that will damage and disable all hostile mines and drones in a 3000m radius for 15 seconds. Hostile ships caught in the pulse will have their accuracy reduced by 10%, their sensor and communication range reduced by 5000m, and their system ability disabled for 15 seconds. Some nice upgrades to it as well that can…
Alderaan Rakghoul Event Runs – 1/21 through 1/28
I hope everyone is having a good time with the Rakghoul Event. here is just a headsup that the event will be running from 1/21 through 1/28. So that give us one week to farm all the Rakghoul achievements. Source NOW LIVE: RAKGHOUL PLAGUE OUTBREAK ON ALDERAAN (JANUARY 21 – 28, 2014: BEGINS AND ENDS AT 2AM PST/10AM GMT) LEVEL: Levels 25+ MISSION: Wide-spread infections have been reported near both House Organa and House Thul, while scattered reports of infection traceable to Alderaan are now flooding in from across the galaxy. Quarantines have been put in place to restrict traffic of the plague off-world, but exceptions will be made for individuals with priority clearance. T.H.O.R.N. is recruiting qualified volunteer emergency responders to travel to affected areas to combat the spread of the Rakghoul plague. More information about the outbreak can be found by checking the News Terminals on the Fleet!
SWTOR Players can be Great Casino Players
Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is a huge global multiplayer role-playing game based on the Star Wars universe. Players connect together online from all over the globe to compete against each other. The game was developed by BioWare and launched in 2011. Players join in the game as either of two main factions: the Sith Empire or the Galactic Republic. The leader of each faction could be good or bad and the game is structured so that each player can have a morality set anywhere along the spectrum. In order to be successful in the game, players must make the right decision at the right time, and they must manage their resources efficiently. Players only have a certain amount of weapons and money and must use them in the most effective way to level up and gain power. Many of the characteristics of a good SWTOR player can actually…
SWTOR THORN Rakghoul event guide
A guide to the Rakghoul Resurgence event and the THORN reputation in SWTOR. The event will run from Jan 12 to 26 on Tatooine. How to Start & Planet Dallies Rakghoul event now runs monthly on a different planet each time. From Jan 12 –26 2016 it will be on Tatooine. 1) Starter Quest from Fleet Players level 20 and above can participate in this event as the mobs in the tunnel scale to your level. If you attempt The Eyeless operation boss, you will be bolstered (on storymode) You will find new terminals on the fleet. Interacting with it will give you a small cutscene and a quest. You will also receive the codex entry for THORN. You will complete this quest once you arrive inside the Rakghoul tunnels on the planets which will reward you with 10410 credits, 1 Glowing Data Crystal and THORN Booster Pin (green rep…
Disney Lets Stars Wars 1313 Trademarks Expire
Now that they have officially decided to cease production of Star Wars 1313, Disney has let the trademark expire. This is the final nail in the coffin and signifies the time to give up hope if you were thinking that maybe, just maybe, they might change their mind about producing this game. It’s official: trademark’s status on the US Patent and Trademark Office had changed to “Abandoned” as of the end of last year. Back in 2012 when the game was initial shown during E3, we were all excited. It was to be developed on a modified Unreal Engine 3 and you could play as Boba Fett. Fans were enamored. But sadly, the game was not meant to be. It’s really a shame that Disney let this one go because as recently as just last year, it seemed to have a lot of hope and promise. It’s not really clear why this…
Patch Notes 2.5.2a
Servers are back up, and the Rakghoul event has started! Todays patch notes says nothing about the event, but if you head to Alderaan there is a new codex entry in the space port. There will be plaguebearer mobs at house Thul and already I’m infected with stage 1 of the virus. Enjoy the even! Below are the official patch notes: Patch Notes 2.5.2a Cartel Market Premium Redeemer and Mailoc Gunships can be directly purchased with Cartel Coins in the Cartel Market or the Hangar, providing an alternate look for the Quarrel/Mangler. In Collections, the Firmament Tauntaun now properly states that it is found in the Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack. Republic Strike Fighter Paint Job 03 will now properly show its name in French and German, and is now able to be listed on the Galactic Trade Network in all languages.
SWTOR’s Cartel Market Rakes in $139 Million Dollars in 2013
Here we are in 2014 and Super Data Research has the 2013 stats for US digital games. The numbers are in and you might be a little surprised at some of the results. For example, there are many out there who call SWTOR a failure or say the game flopped. And one reason for this is that many people mistakenly associate a game going from sub to F2P as a sign that it is failing. But that’s not always the case. It really just means that a different pay model was needed and now that they have it, BioWare seems to be doing very well with SWTOR financially.
Documentary: Titan – A Place Like Home?
The Greeks believed the titan Prometheus gave humanity the great gift of fire. Throughout history, a select group of humans (from Thales to Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Maxwell and Einstein, among many others), have given the rest of humanity an even greater gift: science and the scientific method. No other discipline is as self-critical as science, and no other discipline is able to deliver the goods so consistently. If you don’t already love it, you’ll fall in love with it after watching this documentary. When the Voyager One Deep Space Probe (famous for carrying the golden record assembled by Carl Sagan and his team) flew by Saturn in the early 1980’s, it took the first set of detailed pictures of the ringed planet and its moons, and one moon clearly stood out: Titan. It then became obvious we had to go back. Roughly half the diameter of Earth, with its chemistry, thick…
SWTOR Galactic Starfighter New Player Guide
This guide explains the basic information needed to choose and fly a Galactic Starfighter ship. After reading, you should have a general idea of what to expect before you play, so you can learn to use the controls a little faster and easier. Even if you’ve been playing for awhile, you may still find some of the information useful. We’ll start with a quick overview of the ships so you’ll have an idea of which one you would like to try first. Galactic Starfighter Ships The Scout, Strike Fighter, Gunships and Bombers are the four classes of ships available. You’ll find three ships listed under each class except for the gunships and you’ll start the game with two ships unlocked. As you play and earn Fleet Requisitions, you can unlock the remaining ships or you can buy them with Cartel Coins. You can view the components of any unlocked ship…
Developer Blogs – RE: Kuat Drive Yards
Here is a new role playing Developer Blog from the BioWare crew. This one is journal entries were logged by Shroud SF-4 in advance of the mounting situation concerning Kuat Drive Yards, and he seems to be quite concerned which side will win the battle of Kuat. Makes me wonder if the Shroud is possibly working with the Star Cabal, as they are notoriously known for putting the republic and empire at each other. For those who may not know who the Star Cabal is, play the agent’s story 😉 The original blog post can be read here or you can read our copy paste below: Developer Blogs – RE: Kuat Drive Yards 01.17.2014 ### 21.7 // Kuat City // Observation of embedded Imperial asset K-33 continues. Recent marriage into the Kuat family further integrates K-33 into the planet’s political power structure. Appointment to Kuat Drive Yards oversight panel imminent. Analysis:…
Scheduled Maintenance – January 21st – Patch 2.5.2a
Just a heads up letting you know that BioWare will take down the servers on Tuesday for some scheduled maintenance. We will post the patch notes as soon as the become available, so be sure to check back. ServerDroid Maintenance: January 21st | 01.17.2014, 05:45 PM On January 21st, all game servers and swtor.com will be unavailable while we perform maintenance. Patch 2.5.2a will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday January 21st, 2014 Duration: 2 hours Time: 3AM PST (11AM GMT) – 5AM PST (1PM GMT) Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Time Zone Start Time Scheduled End Time UTC Offset HST Tue Jan 21, 2014 01:00 AM Tue Jan 21, 2014 03:00 AM -10 hours AKST Tue Jan 21, 2014 02:00 AM Tue Jan 21, 2014 04:00 AM -9 hours PST Tue Jan 21, 2014…
BioWare Austin working on “several unannounced projects”
According to a job listing posted by BioWare Austin this week, we now know that the company is working on several new unannounced projects. This is pretty interesting news, since BioWare Austin was born to make SWTOR. Original the staff were brought together in 2006 explicitly to make that game, and since its release five years later they’ve done nothing else but run its operations, reconfigure its systems for free-to-play, and develop its expansions… Or so we thought… According the the new job listing, BioWare’s call for a Senior Software Engineer. The job listing says: BioWare Austin is home to the critically acclaimed and award winning Star Wars®: The Old Republic™ MMO. After the hugely successful addition of its Free 2 Play option and the highly praised launch of space PVP with the Galactic Starfighter expansion, the Austin team continues driving forward with SW:TOR and is also hard at work on…
TOR TV: Opening 24x Dogfighter’s Starfighter Packs
KranitokoGames made an interesting experiment. Basically he purchased a hypercrate of the new Starfighter Packs released in Patch 2.5.2. and filmed what goodies he found inside? When I clicked the video, I figured there was no way I would watch the whole 20 mins. I skipped him running around Tatooine, but thoroughly enjoyed watching him get giddy over the pack items. Seeing previews like we posted earlier today is nice, but it’s always nice to see exactly how many cool things (and lame things) you would get in a single hypercrate. Check it out below:
Videos with Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack goods
Both Dulfy and TheOldRepublic.Ru have been active posting videos of what we can expect to find in the upcoming Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack. The new pack includes both weapons, armor, speeders, emotes and what have we not. Check out below videos to get see what’s coming: Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Pets (Model GSS 5C Dustmaker & Model Blue Hutt Barge) Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Kalakar Strike Fighter Simulator Speeder Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Interstellar Regulator’s Assault Cannon Aurek Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Interstellar Regulator’s Blaster Aurek Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Interstellar Regulator’s Blaster Rifle Aurek Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Interstellar Regulator’s Sniper Rifle Aurek Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Fearless Retaliator Lightsaber Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Battleworn Triumvirate Armor Set (Male&Female) Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Badlands Explorer Armor Set (Male&Female) Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Frenzied Zealot Armor Set (Male&Female) Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Dramatic Extrovert’s Armor Set (Male&Female) Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Starfighter Battle Camera (Regen) Dogfighter’s Starfighter Pack: Emotes (Recline, Dejarik) & Mood Crying…
Star Wars Infographic Maps Where Colonies Were Found
There are hundreds of planets and galaxies in the Star Wars universe. This graph looks at the entire Star Wars galaxy and shows where different colonies lie in the land. Check it out and may the force be with you. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Galactic Starfighter Spotlight: The Gunship Trailer
Servers have been up for a while now after today’s maintenance. Patch 2.5.2 has been applied, and Preferred Status Players can now log in and play Galactic Starfighter. BioWare have released a small promo video with the new patch, spotlighting The Gunship. Check it out below:
Patch Notes – 2.5.2
Patch notes are up. One thing to notice is Bounty Contract Week Returns – 1/14 through 1/21. No info on any rhakghoul event yet. 2.5.2 Patch Notes Highlights Preferred status players may now access and play Galactic Starfighter! New Ship Variants: Gunship – The Gunship role has been expanded, with 4 new ships available for Galactic Starfighter: New Comet Breaker and Dustmaker Gunships are flexible long-range fighters, able to equip heavy laser cannons and torpedoes in addition to their railgun. The existing Quarrel and Mangler Gunships are available for purchase in the Hangar using Fleet Requisition. Premium Strongarm and Demolisher Gunships can be found in Dogfighter’s packs, providing an alternate look for the Comet Breaker/Dustmaker. Bounty Contract Week will be returning on January 14th and will run through January 21st. Cartel Market A new Starfighter Pack, the Wingman’s Starfighter Pack, is now available on the Cartel Market. Cost: 160 Cartel…
More Patch 2.6 PTS video footage
If you haven’t had the time to play around the official swtor public test servers, we got you covered. Here is a bunch of videos showing the updates you can expect when game update 2.6 goes live. First off, here is an animate Crew Preview (Republic&Empire). Crew members now animate within the hangar preview window. I just wish they would match my customization. Empire Bombers Visual Upgrade Battle Record Preview Gaddock Teeg takes a look at the new Battle Record feature added to Galactic Starfighter on the Patch 2.6 PTS. Gaddock Teeg takes a look at the new Kuat Drive Yards Tactical Flashpoint and experiences the Anti-air gun and Ship Assembly scenarios.
The Old Republic Insider – January 2014
BioWare posted a new Insider Video, were the producers offer an inside look at exciting Galactic Starfighter updates, new Kuat Drive Yard Flashpoint missions, the next round of Cartel Market items and more coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic! It’s interesting to watch, and you are interested in learning more about Kuat Drive Yard Flashpoint, check out our update about it here. Notice Andrew Horwitz confirmed that Rakghoul Event is coming mid-january (go to 02:25 to see the event teaser).