Since the recent release of photos depicting the Mass Effect development team as a part of the annual N7 Day Celebrations, gamers haven’t stopped talking about the upcoming game. The game itself is still in the development stage and there isn’t very much definitive information about it yet, but that hasn’t stopped these photos from sparking excitement and speculation all over the internet. People are analyzing and attempting to enhance the photos in order to learn more information, pouring over the tweets that accompanied the photos for hidden clues, and are searching through any information they can find in order to create an accurate picture of what is to come. But the fact is, there’s just not a lot of confirmed information at this point. Little can be seen in the shots that were tweeted; they were shots that were meant to tease, meant to make people speculate. And they…
Second Anniversary Rewards Coming December 17th
BioWare will be celebrating the second anniversary of Star Wars: The old republic on Tuesday December 17th. With this they will be rewarding all players with players with exclusive Scout Starfighter Paint Jobs and 25 stacks of faction-based fireworks. Pretty boring rewards if you ask me. I still have last years fireworks sitting in a cargo hold on 95%(+-5%) of my toons. I’m guessing that I’m not the only one here that still hve it. The paint job is kinda cool but it only applies to my least used ship. Am I mad about it? No. Disappointed? Sure. It’s hard to get mad about a freebie. Not so hard to be disappointed about feeling slightly under-appreciated as a customer. Below is the announcement: We are excited to celebrate two years of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™! As our thanks to you, we’ll be rewarding all players with exclusive Scout Starfighter…
New option to buy 14,500 Cartel Coins for $99.99
BioWare have added an option to the Cartel market for the big spenders. It’s now possible to purchase 14,500 Cartel Coins for $99.99 – ingame. It comes out at just about 145 Cartel Coins per dollar – roughly an extra 7.5 CC/$ compared to the 5,500 Coin package. Sadly, it’s not as great a deal if you compare what the 5,550 Coin denomination offers over the 2,400 (you get an extra 17.5 coins per dollar there), but it you’re looking to purchase an enormous amount of coins, it’s now the best value. The increase in “bonus” coins that you get for simply spending more on one purchase is not as great as it is between the $20 and $40 tiers. You could make one $100 purchase or a $20 and two $40 purchases. The $100 one would get you an extra 1,100 coins. Still a lot to spend on Star Wars fun bux,…
Life Day Gear to be Embargoed After Current Run
BioWare have been under fire for a while, for their decision on letting embargoed items reaper on the Cartel market. Eric Musco answered an angry player on the official forums yesterday concerning this issue: EricMusco Life Day gear recycled from last year?! LAZY | 12.11.2013, 02:01 PM Quote: Originally Posted by Rileysoph A few weeks ago life day stuff from last year were selling on the GTN for millions because they were SUPER RARE and UNOBTAINABLE and the people who had them could show everyone that they were there, that they were in the game since that time, that they participated in the event. And now you’ve brought back the exact same stuff from last year? Complete and utter laziness. There is no excuse. Bioware had a full year to come up with something new for it. I’m sorry but this game has just turned into a cash grab. I wouldn’t…
Patch Notes – 12/11/2013 – 2.5b Patch Notes
Sorry we didn’t post this yesterday, but I was out of town. BioWare have pushed a patch that should help out players with AMD video cards. I have had alot of trouble my self since I changed to windows 8, and so far, this patch seem to have fixed all issues. I don’t see a big increase in frame rate though, but I don’t have any random crashes anymore. What about you guys? Have the new patch helped out? Here are the patch notes: General Improved stability for players with AMD video cards. Players should be sure their driver is the most current video driver available from the official AMD website.
SWTOR Guide: The Galactic Starfighter Pike/Quell Battle Strategies
The Pike/Quell starfighter is designed to do maximum damage when you use missiles and torpedoes. The starfighter can be equipped with two types of missiles or secondary weapons that make it possible for you to use a variety of strategies when in battle. Most of the strategies used with the Pike/Quell are long-range combat oriented with some dogfighting capabilities. You can equip the Pike/Quell with loadouts that will make it difficult for your enemies to counter your attacks and there is a missile for all types of situations. Since it’s hard to get requisition, it’s a good idea to know what type of components you want for your Pike/Quell in advance. Knowing a little about the ship and what it has to offer will help you make the best decisions and that is what this guide has to offer. Pike/Quell Basic Weapons Strategies As you get accustomed to flying your…
SWTOR Bounty Contract Week Is Back!
If you missed your chance last month to participate in the SWTOR Bounty Contract Event, it’s making a return! All classes level 15 and up will be able to participate in this event. You will get rewards and exclusive items for completing these contracts. You also get a certificate you can use at the Cartel Bazaar vendor. Here’s some info on how to get started in case you have not done it before. SWTOR.com has some tips: The Bounty Brokers Association needs you! The BBA have posted too many contracts for their regular membership to handle and are asking anyone Level 15 and above to answer the call of bounty hunting between December 10 – 17, 2013. Interested? We thought so! Here’s how to get started: 1. First, travel to the Imperial or Republic Fleet, which is reachable by your ship’s galaxy map, transit shuttles, or the Emergency Fleet Pass….
Scheduled Maintenance: December 10th, 2013 – Patch 2.5.0a
Just a heads up that BioWare will be taking down the servers tomorrow December 10th, to preform maintenance. During the downtime, BioWare will implement a small patch. Patch notes are not up yet, but be sure to check back, as we will post them as soon as they become available. Maintenance: December 10th, 2013 | 12.06.2013 , 03:38 PM On December 10th, all game servers will be unavailable as we perform maintenance. Patch 2.5a will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday December 10th, 2013 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 Dec 10, 2013 01:00 AM Tue Dec 10, 2013 03:00 AM -10 hours AKST Tue Dec 10, 2013 02:00 AM Tue Dec…
Master SWTOR Galactic Starfighter: A Guide
Now that we have the new expansion Galactic Starfighter, SWTOR players old and new are looking for ways to survive in this fast-paced and hectic game environment. You want to succeed in your challenging battles and progress forward so you might need a few tips. You don’t want to end up as that pilot who dies all the time so here are some tips to help you master SWTOR Galactic Starfighter: Know your ship- this is first and foremost one of the most important things you will be able to do. Your ship is your tool, inside GSF. You need to know it inside and out. A lot of this will come with practice and just playing a lot. But you need to know the basics of the ships. So take time to examine your ship for abilities and components. You need to know everything you can about your ship’s…
Star Wars Retro games: Rebel Assault
Since we try to cover all starwars gaming news here on SWTORStrateies, I thought it was about time I started a new column covering all the old classics. I don’t know how often I will make posts like this, but the point is I will play thought my old collection of Star Wars games and write about the experience. I will also post videos as often as it is possible. The first game I will play again is Star Wars: Rebel Assault. This is a Sega CD review, so you probably know what to expect. Really good audio, shit video. And you’d be right. The majority of the footage in here consists of moving computer renders. These give you the important stuff, like your levels and environments. They are pixelated crap. The other small portion of screen time goes to animated characters, which hold up pretty well. Unfortunately, you don’t…
Documentary: When Aliens Attack
To be honest, I’m not sure I will call this a documentary, but it fits nice in our weekend column on speculative space documentaries, and I have always liked this show. So today I present you When Aliens Attack. This was a television show that aired on the National Geographic Channel a few years back. I use to only see alien ET UFO type shows on the History Channel. Now, we have more documentaries based on truth and experiences that allow us to share in logic and inspiration for our imaginations. I enjoyed seeing the “What If” factor that the writers came up with and researched what was available to us on this planet as far as possible defense. We have military assimilations as what we call war games and this allows us to begin working models in scenarios with the various levels of our intelligence communities around the world….
Things you wish you knew when starting out in SWTOR
This is just a helping hand for new players. It might also be usefull if you are a returning player, since most of this will be obvious. When doing group content tell people if it’s your first time. People will often expect you to know quite indirect paths to follow which avoids combat and will therefore run ahead. You’ll end up pulling, getting killed and (more often than not) wiping the group. Try to establish how quickly your group wants to do a flashpoint – people will start raging if you’re not pressing spacebar (to skip cutscenes) at the same rate as them. The default price you get when you put something on the GTN (auction house) is often ridiculous – I think the price it suggests for molecular stabilisers is 5% or less of the usual selling price. Similarly, the price you can get from selling to vendors is…
PVP Enhancements Chart
As you now, we’re all about bringing you cool SWTOR to make things easier. We love it when players and fans create some really cool charts, graphs or tools to help us all enjoy the game a little better. We found a little something that is similar to this PvP enhancement chart we brought you a little while back, also made by a SWTOR player. If you’re looking for a great list of PVP enhancement and modification stats to help you figure it all out quickly and easily. The name of the PvP Enhancement is on the left, with columns for: Endurance Power Critical Surge Accuracy Absorb Defense Shield Alacrity Expertise If you’re tired of scrolling around so much trying to figure out which stats go with which enhancement, you can use this chart to help you find out quickly. You might want to bookmark or save it to your…
MTSBWY: Bohemian Rhapsody: Star Wars Edition
Based on Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and Star Wars created by George Lucas. The students and faculty of the Digital Video Program at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona released a great new Star Wars themed parody. They aren’t the best singers in the world, but they’ve put together a great video, filled with some pretty impressive cosplay. There is also some decent wordplay in this, though I’ve no idea why Satanic Spock is part of it. Not complaining about the Samurai Mandalorians, or random bikini women in masks. Remember to turn on the captions.
How to play Galactic Starfighter with an Xbox 360 Controller
Galactic Starfighter… we never could have seen that one coming back in 2011 when SWTOR first launched. But we found a fun little nugget at darthhater.com that suggests that maybe they can use The Force. This post they made about using an old Xbox gamepad with the old style rails space game is pretty interesting now that we have Galactic Starfighter. Many SWTOR players have been complaining about how the GSF doesn’t have a joystick capability. But this little trick the Darth Hater crew found out about years ago should work. Note: You will need the JoyToKey software, our config file (right click/save as), an Xbox 360 Controller, an Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver, and Windows for this to work. They even have a video for us: Text Tutorial from DarthHater: Download JoyToKey. Extract it somewhere you want it to live on your hard drive. Download our cfg file. Place it in the same directory as JoyToKey…
Galactic Starfighter Twitch Stream Friday, December 6th
BioWare will be streaming 3 hours of exciting SWTOR space PvP combat, tomorrow Friday December 6th. If you don’t have access to Galactic Starfighter yet, this is your chance to see the developers live making fools out of them self on the official SWTOR Twitch channel WHERE: twitch.tv/swtor WHEN: Friday, December 6th @ 2PM PDT / 10PM GMT WHAT: 3 hours of intense free flight dogfighting in space – now live for Subscribers in Galactic Starfighter If you can’t wait until tomorrow, you can go wathc drakedge2000 playing the expansion live right now
Star Wars: Battlefront development has been temporarily put on hold
Apparently Electronic Arts have stopped all future projects by developer DICE, until they sort out all the issues with Battlefield 4. Apparently there is an issue with BF4, which have been leading to numerous game crashes. The developer’s decision to stop all other work to fix the problematic Battlefield 4 also extends to all future game development. Here is what IGN have on the story: “First, we want to thank the fans out there that are playing and supporting us with Battlefield 4,” they said. “We know we still have a ways to go with fixing the game — it is absolutely our No. 1 priority. “The team at DICE is working non-stop to update the game. Since Battlefield 4 China Rising expansion pack was already in the final stages of development by the time issues began with Battlefield 4, we decided to fulfill our promise to deliver it this week, but we’re…
SWTOR Crafting Bonuses Chart
If you’re the kind of player who loves to learn with visuals, then you’re really going to like this Crafting Bonuses chart for SWTOR, made by HoHawl (Reddit name). This great chart lists each class on the left-hand side, along with ship droid and optional companions. Then across the top we have the crafting skills and you can see the crit and skill bonuses you can receive for each class. You can see the full image here and download or save to your computer, or even print it out so you can refer to it often.
BioWare calls for your screenshots!
BioWare is celebrating the second anniversary for Star Wars: The Old Republic and ask players to send in screenshots that make the game unique for them. These screenshots can be from your fondest memories to your best moments in the game and include your favorite places and characters. Check out the announcement below: SEND US YOUR “My SWTOR Saga” SCREENSHOTS! Between now and December 15th, 11:59PM PST / December 16th, 7:59AM GMT, send us your screenshots for a chance to be featured on our official Facebook page! It’s easy to participate: Screenshots should not be retouched or enhanced Screenshots must solely utilize in-game environments and objects Screenshots must be at least 800×600 We recommend turning off your User Interface All submissions are subject to the Electronic Arts Terms of Service. EMAIL YOUR SCREENSHOTS ALONG WITH YOUR CHARACTER NAME AND SERVER TO SUBMISSIONS_EN@SWTOR.COMBEFORE DECEMBER 15TH, 11:59PM PST / DECEMBER 16TH 7:59AM GMT.
Companion affection explained
For people that have been in the game since day one, this might not be interesting read. But for newer people, or people WHO haven’t really thought much into companions, this might be interesting. I present to you, my guide to Companion affection. Conversation The most common way to gain (or lose!) affection with companions is to have them with you during cut scenes, or speak with them directly when they offer you missions in cantinas or your ship. The base affection gain for a dialogue option they approve of is +15, and the base loss for one they disapprove of is -1. Those values are modified by a multiplier that reflects how late in the storyline the companion joined up with you. Less commonly, there will be choices they strongly approve of, which have a base +40 gain, or strongly disapprove of, for a base loss of -30. In very…
Known In-Game Issues: Updated December 4th, 2013
Only 1 of these GS bugs is seriously affecting gameplay on a mechanical level. The rest are tooltips or cosmetic. Galactic Starfighter General When in Galactic Starfighter all audio can completely turn off, the issue is resolved as soon as you leave Galactic Starfighter. Attempting to change graphic settings while dead may prevent players from being able to queue for respawn successfully. The Cinematics button on the Character Selection screen does not function at this time. All Sensor Dampening upgrades are currently limited to 15k meters. Ship Mastery icons do not explicitly state the amount of Requisition bonus gained by their use. (10%) Chat Players of the same faction may occasionally see chat messages from other Battles. Cosmetics/Cartel Market After unlocking any “Gas Canister” or “Chemical Reactant”, the player can no longer re-select the standard (e.g. “None”) cosmetic options. Some cosmetics options, when previewed for purchase, will display a different…
Developer Blog: Welcome to Galactic Starfighter Subscriber Early Access
Early access to Star Wars: The old Republic – Galactic Starfighter is on, and the space battle have begun. With the new patch, comes a new developer blog post, and a short Starfighter Customization Trailer. The blog post is made by Senior Producer Blaine Christine and is pretty much just a welcome message. Below is a copy/paste of the blog post for you who can’t acces swtor.com from work. Also remember to check out the video in the bottom of this post: Welcome to Galactic Starfighter Subscriber Early Access 12.03.2013 Hello, Starfighters! It is with great pleasure that we swing open the doors to our second Digital Expansion of 2013. This one has been a long time coming and we are incredibly proud of the experience we have in store for you. What is it? Galactic Starfighter is a 12v12 PvP free flight space shooter. At its core, it is all…
Patch Notes – Game Update 2.5: Galactic Starfighter Early Access
Patch notes for Galactic Starfighter is up! No nerfs, buffs or balance changes at all to any of the GSF ships. So all stats that were on the PTS last weekend are moving forward with launch. I like this because I felt GSF was pretty balanced. I can’t wait to climb into my cockpit again! Also: The Black Market and Crime Lord’s Cartel Packs are back in the Cartel Market for only two weeks, they will be once again embargoed on December 17th. Time to get my Revan Mask! See you all in space! Galactic Starfighter Early Access Game Update 2.5: Galactic Starfighter Early Access Highlights Galactic Starfighter Subscriber Early Access is here! Starting today, all subscribers have early access to 12 vs 12, free flight, player vs player dogfighting. Players from level 1-55 will be able to pilot their very own starship and customize it to match their playstyle. With…
TOR TV: Team Poison (8 Lethality Agents)
So Tauntauns had this really stupid idea to run 8 lethality agents and this is the result. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard about SWTOR as I did when I watched this – the DoT’s and the 8-person Orbital Strikes were epic In total there were up to 16 dots on one person at any point. The 8 simultaneous orbital strikes… Holy shit. I wanna see 8 smashers next. I would also love to see the team go up against a 8 man team of shadows! It would be epic! Team Poison: Psikhotic Double’O (Flexy) Nekrona (Nekron) Galdor (Jayblaze) Catspit (Vullesh) Luigii Nezlok Markeen Music- 1. Toxic by Britany Spears 2. Poison by Bell Biv Devoe 3. Poison by Alice Cooper