In the news of what benefits subscribers will get, came some very exciting news about re-specializations. Amber Green, Live Community Coordinator, posted a thread on the SWTOR forums that lists the benefits to subscribers. Of this was the news that subscribers will not be charged credits for skill point re-specs. How many people do you think will subscribe just for this benefit alone? Chances are high that players will opt in just to know how many credits they can save from being able to re-spec when and how they need to. Here are some other details from that forum post: Highlights Travel to Section X on Belsavis and learn why the nefarious Dread Guard has seized control of this ravaged sector of the planet! Section X can be accessed on Belsavis and via the daily mission shuttles. HK-51 can now be acquired as a Companion Character! A shipment of the…
Developer Update 10/25: FTP Changes Coming Soon
For those of you on the PTS who have been reporting bugs and giving feedback on the game, your voices are being heard. A recent developer update tells us that there will be some important and interesting changes coming very soon. The forum thread will tell you the full changes and updates but here are some highlights. Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar. Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3. The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers. They added that they found some crucial bugs that needed stomping, which is good. These changes will make their way to the PTS by early next week. Here is some more from that post: There are a couple of key concepts that should be kept in mind…
Guide to HK 51
The HK-51 companion is finally here and this guide will explain what you need to do to acquire one. Some of the tasks are fairly easy but others will be very difficult so be prepared to spend some time on this quest. Before you can acquire your HK-51 companion, you’ll need to gather up a few components and there are seven of them altogether. Scanning for Components You’ll have to scan for four of the seven components. These are the HK Chassis, HK AI Regulator, HK Power Core and the HK Motivator. In Taris, look for the downed Endar Spire. Just north of it, you’ll find the HK Chassis. As you approach the area near the end of the Endar Spire, you’ll notice it starts to gradually close in. This is where you need to start scanning until you find the component. In Hoth, search for the HK Power Core…
Introducing Preferred Player Status
Preferred Player status is incoming and many SWTOR fans are curious just what this means. Will certain parts of the game be unplayable without preferred player status? Will certain zones or features in the game not be in access? All great questions and BioWare took to the forums to clear it all up for us. So just what will preferred player status mean? Here’s the breakdown and explanation from the forums: As a Preferred Status Player, you will gain the following benefits compared to Free-to-Play Players: • The Sprint ability at Level 1 • Access to your Cargo Hold (an 80 item Player Bank) • Access to Secure Trade (starting at level 10) • The ability to send Mail, including one (1) attachment • Increased allowance for chat message frequencies in Public chat channels (such as /general) • An increased Credits Cap • Access to the Who List • Three…
Inserting, Removing, and REing Crafted Mods for Schems is “Unintended” but Not an Exploit
Reverse engineering mods is expensive, especially when you are trying to build up a nice stock of schematics to place on the GTN. When you’re a new player trying to gear up, this can be a real hassle. But there has been a new “trick” found that makes it a little bit easier by bypassing this altogether. The real question is: Is this an exploit? A forum user explains: SomeJagoff As is already known, when you try to RE other people’s crafted mods, it says no research available, however, as I pulled out a mod that I know I bought off the gtn a few months ago to replace with a better one, I noticed that it said 20% chance to research a schem available. Out of curiosity, I threw the new mod that I just bought off the GTN into my armor, then pulled it out, same thing, research…
DarthHater Data-mined Wookie Life Day! Yes it’s Coming!
Lots of exciting news coming out about 1.5 and upcoming SWTOR news, free to play and the Cartel Market. With all of this, the crew over at DarthHater found something else cool. DarthHater discovered something pretty interesting when updating their database yesterday with all the new items included in the PTS patch. They found evidence of a Star Wars-centric holiday event called Wookiee Life Day. How cool is that? This could be a new World Event for the Christmas holiday season. Since the original Star Wars Holiday Special centered around the Wookiee celebration of Life-Day, this gives a lot of opportunity to work this into the game. Here’s the stuff that DarthHater found: Items Life Day Orb Life Day Holiday Holo-Tree Life Day Vestments Life Day Lower Robe Life Day Boots So what do you think? Would you participate in a world event like this? Do you want to see…
BioWare Speaks on the Cartel Market
Do you have questions about the Cartel Market? After the update to the public test server (PTS) yesterday, there were many questions coming from the community about the free-to-play cartel market and how this will work. Will items disappear? What does the timer mean? Can you still trade an item if it is modified? Lots of great questions are arising! BioWare answered these questions and provided info on some other areas of the cartel market and how it will work. See below: Allison Berryman I can clarify that the item will not disappear after the timer is over – after that time period, the item is no longer bound to you and can be traded! Allison Berryman The items do not disappear after 5 days; after the timer expires, they are no longer bound to the player and can be traded. Please also remember that we are currently testing the…
SWTOR Nominated for Ultimate Game of Year + Best MMO
Where other MMORPGs have text boxes, SWTOR has lavish cut-scenes and full voice acting. Join either the Sith or the Republic and carve out your own amazing Star Wars legend. Do you love SWTOR? Want to see it recognized with a gaming award? This might be your chance. SWTOR is nominated for Ultimate Game of the Year and Best MMO over at Golden Joystick. It’d be great for SWTOR fans to see the game take a golden gong in either category this year. And now you can literally see it because it’s all going to be streamed live on their site and synced on YouTube. The Gamemaster Golden Joystick Awards are turning 30 this year (just like me) and this year the celebrations are going even bigger. In addition to SWTOR, you will see other fun and popular games named at the awards such as Angry Birds and Skyrim. VOTING…
Cartel Market SNEAK PEAK!
We here at SWTOR Strategies thought it would be nice to bring you a sneak peak of the Cartel Market for those who will have Cartel Coins. Personally, I was pretty impressed. It’s still not available in game, but you can see it for yourself in the Public Test Server before the next update – where we will all probably be seeing the first F2P gamers joining us in this epic war across the Galaxy. First, I had to download 11gigs to enter the Public Test Server. Then I had to ease my security settings into trusting it. My rig hates changes. But after all that, I got to enter a world and make this guy. And then I got to see this. The Cartel Market! [Click on the images to see them in full detail] Welcome to the Cartel, they got fun ‘n’ games. They got everything you want….
TOR TV: SWTOR triple monitor setup
Ever wonder how SWTOR plays on 3 monitors? If you don’t do it your self, or have any friends who does it, here is your chance. In this video, the player have 3 24″ 1920X1080 Displays running SWTOR at an average of about 45fps in populated and battle scenarios. This features two of his characters found ( both RP’ers) Belak is the Trooper Perv, the other is Nathe his Jedi healer. While you may already be running two displays (every graphics card provides at least two outputs, with most motherboards also providing display output and cheap access to a second graphics card), it’s now easy for everyone to enjoy three, four, six or even 10 displays. While many people might think it’s simply unnecessary to have this many screens, triple-panel gaming and a host of demanding jobs require an amount of digital desktop space only a multi-monitor setup can provide. You…
Companions 101: Kira Carsen
Here we are for a new installment of Companions 101 and this week it’s all about Kira! Courtney Woods is our guide into the world of Kira Carsen and everything you need to know about her backstory, emotional attachments and understanding Kira. Be warned that all of these Companion segments could contain story spoilers. Here is a snippet: The best kind of padawan should challenge their master… or at least, that is what Kira Carsen believes. Kira is not your typical Jedi, raised on Korriban in the Sith Academy, she has witnessed the brutality of the Empire first hand. After escaping from Imperial Space, Kira had to look out for herself until Master Bela Kiwiiks found her and brought her to into the Jedi Order. It isn’t surprising that Kira and Kiwiiks share a special bond, but Kira was afraid to share her past until she could prove herself as…
Razer Creates Customized Star Wars SWTOR Blade Gaming Laptop
I like Razer. I currently use one of their gaming mice and I have used their products several times over the years. Well, now they have something new which is totally awesome for SWTOR fans- a limited edition SWTOR Blade gaming laptop. This isn’t the traditional Blade with some new SWTOR graphics slapped on it, however. Razer says they are pulling no punches with this laptop and that it has been built from the ground up with SWTOR gamers in mind. Razer’s Blade is a lightweight but well-built laptop for playing high-end games and the SWTOR version is painted in matte silver with laser etching all over. It’s fully customized with a backlit keyboard and SWTOR logo on the lid. Specifications include a 17.3-inch display, Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, 8GB of dual-channel DDR3 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M 2GB GDDR5 and SSD drives. If you want it, it’s going…
F2P vs Sub: The ‘Real’ Price Players Will Have To Pay
Deirdre Hollis, world renowned TORWARS pod-caster wrote an awesome article, that I wish I could of written myself. I’m so jealous! Deirdre basically predicts with the coming of SWTOR’s F2P (Free to Play) option this fall, a divide that is already surfacing between subscribers (the haves) and f2p gamers (the have nots), akin to class warfare in ancient Rome, will arise. She puts it all together much more “diplomatically” than I would have. She kept the correlations of the US government to these politically divisive affairs as insinuations. She takes it a step further and predicts that EA will see the profits of SWTOR/F2P and eventually even make subscribers try to pay for extra features like the F2P gamers. She also reminds us how the Bioware we all remember and love is long gone, and that EA is more directly in charge of the path SWTOR will take in the…
Public Test Server Down Today, Scheduled Maintenance October 23
The BioWare team have a few forum updates today. First of all they remind us that this week’s scheduled maintenance will occur on Tuesday, October 23 from 2AM CDT to 6AM CDT. servers will be down during this period and when they come back up, players may have to download a patch. When the servers come back up, we will have the latest patch notes available right here at swtorstrategies.com Check out the official thread for more info. Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/6PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/10PM AEST). 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. Another interesting piece of news is, Public test server…
How Much Do You Love SWTOR: Enough to Get a Tattoo?
How much do you love your game? Star Wars fans are notorious for going to extremes to show their love and support for Star Wars and SWTOR is no exception. While some will call the game a failure, there are others who put their heart and soul into building and creating the game and still others who were just really big fans. Some loved the game so much they got SWTOR tattoos. While a video game might not be permanent, a tattoo is so what will become of these people who love the game so much, they got a permanent reminder of it on their bodies? Let’s explore this thought for a minute. We know the BioWare doctors got launch tattoos for SWTOR and there were many other members of the BioWare Austin team who did the same. They worked hard on this project and it’s not surprising that they…
Star Wars Slots
IGT’s Star Wars slots manage to incorporate the excitement of this iconic space- themed series with some of the best graphics and rewards seen in a casino slot game. If ever there was a time to reach for the stars with a great slot game, this is it. The iconic sci-fi Movies Star Wars comes alive on the casino floor with the game of slots. The game has become a huge hit for players in Vegas and across the world where IGT’s slot games star, and manages to attract hordes of fans who enjoy combining their love of slots with this legendary space opera series which has spawned a media franchise incorporating books, films, TV shows, computer games, comic books and now, casino games. Star Wars slots features all the favorite characters that fans of this series know and love, including Chewbacca, Yoda and Hans Solo. The graphics, as can be expected from a software giant such as IGT, are…
Playing Pazaak on your Android Mobile and one day in SWTOR
Pazaak is an ancient card game from the Star Wars Universe. It’s believed by many controversial Coruscant researchers and historians that this is the origin of Sabacc or Jhabacc, a notorious gambling game frequently played by scoundrels like Lando Calrissian, Mara Jade and Han Solo. Ancient Pazaak was played for the first time, by Star Wars gamers in Knights of the Old Republic I and II. And now, is extremely popular by the deep desire of Star Wars gamers wanting to see it as part of their Massive Multi-Player Online experience, in the game Star Wars the Old Republic – which takes place not too long after Knights of the Old Republic. If you do a search for “Pazaak” in the forums of SWTOR.com you will find 4 pages of threads all asking for Pazaak to be added to the game. We’re talking about 92 unique threads all demanding Pazaak….
Subscription vs Free-to-Play Features
With the free to play model added to SWTOR, more fans get to enjoy the game. You can play as much or as little as you want without worrying about having to pay a monthly subscription or trying to “get your money’s worth”. However, the subscription model still exists which brings up the very important question of “What’s the difference?” To encourage those who want to continue paying for a subscription, there are some additional features to thank you for your time and for playing. Learn more about the differences between the two types of play. Subscription vs. Free-to-Play Features A Galaxy of Possibilities for Every Player. Preferred Status – Making a purchase will unlock access to the following features: The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1. Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority. Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading. NOTE: Characters must…
MTSBWY: Star Wars orchestra flash-mob
Now here is something you don’t’ see every day: An orchestra flash mob in the Wallrafplatz, in the center of Cologne in Germany. I have always been a huge fan of flashmobs, but I have never seen a full out orchestral flash mobs — that play the Star Wars Theme. I also love that they brought both harp and timpani. That’s dedication. We can only hope they show up at next July’s Celebration Europe II oh… And as a bonus video, I give you the newest Star Wars spoof from our old friend OneMinuteGalactica – The Awkward Awards. Yes, Everything is so less regal and majestic when the music cuts out:
Want to Play Pazaak for Yourself?
Want to learn more about Pazak and how you can play it for yourself from your computer any time you want? Are you a Star Wars fan or former KOTOR player? In the era of the Old Republic, Pazaak was the most popular card game of an enormous number of sentiently creatures and most Star Wars fans know all about it. While it has yet to make it into SWTOR, you can play the game online at: http://www.pazaak.org/play You don’t need to download any software, as Pazaak Cantina Online runs directly in the browser. If you haven’t played it, are you wondering what Pazaak is? Let’s explore. Pazaak, an ancient game dating back to Old Republic times, was a popular card game in which the goal was to reach 20 without going over, or at least come closer to it than the opponent. (Sounds a little like Blackjack, no?) The player with…
Cartel Coins Ledger
BioWare have news regarding the upcoming Cartel Coin system that hits together with the game going free to play. Head over to the When the game goes free to play. Now you are able to check out how many Cartel Coins you will get next month. Check it out here. BioWare and LucasArts are excited to announce a new Cartel Coin Ledger page on www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com. This new web page is located on the left hand navigation bar within the “My Account” section. It gives you a detailed list of all the Complimentary Cartel Coins you could potentially receive at the launch of the Free-to-Play option! You will receive Complimentary Cartel Coins for all your previous and current subscription months. There are additional grants for the purchase of a Collector’s Edition or a Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as a one-time reward at the launch of the Free-to-Play option. You’ll only receive your…
Jesse Sky Answers Questions From Community
Yesterday Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer Jesse Sky took on the forums and answered questions from the community. Jesse Sky was highlighted in the recent Meet the Developers post. Included in the topics answered are Flashpoints, Operations, and more. Hello everyone! Here are answers to some of the questions you had for Jesse! Thanks for participating in our first Meet the Developers feature – you can expect to see more of these in the future! Q: With an Art History degree, how did you get into the role of a gaming developer? Do you have an additional qualification which enabled you to get into that position or was it purely from interest? Jesse: When we interview a design candidate, college degrees are footnotes compared to your gaming pedigree, especially published games, mods, and independent projects that you’ve worked on. Looking around the studio, I can tell you that I work with many of the most…
SWTOR 1.4.2 Patch Notes 10/16/2012
Servers are back up after almost 12 hours of maintenance today. Not sure what took so long yet, but hopefully the fixed the memory leak some of us suffers from. Below are the patch notes. Classes and Combat Bounty Hunter Mercenary Sweeping Blasters now correctly causes the player to face the ability’s target. Smuggler Gunslinger Sweeping Gunfire now correctly causes the player to face the ability’s target. Companion Characters General Some companion abilities now show more descriptive failure error messages. Flashpoints and Operations General The UI for lockout tabs (for groups and lockout timers) now displays correctly. Operations Explosive Conflict Some terrain has been adjusted to prevent players from skipping some encounters in this Operation. The Defected Imperial Commander no longer occasionally becomes untargetable. Items Consumables that have an activation time are no longer consumed on a subsequent activation even when that activation is canceled. Missions and NPCs Class Missions…
Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance Tomorrow
This week’s scheduled maintenance will occur tomorrow on Tuesday, October 16 from 2AM CDT to 8AM CDT. SWTOR servers will be down during this period while a patch will be deployed. When the servers come back up, we’ll have the patch notes available here. Check out the original forum post here or below: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for six hours on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEDT) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEDT). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six hours, but could be extended. This weekly maintenance is done in order to make general improvements and to check performance of the game so that we can continue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but…