DICE Working on Battlefront Almost Didn’t Happen

We’re excited about DICE working on Star Wars: Battlefront, as we wrote about recently but can you believe it almost didn’t happen? While they seem like the perfect choice for this project, it’s a deal that almost didn’t happen. We’re glad to see DICE on the job because they are meticulous and great at what they do. We definitely have high hopes they will do very well with Battlefront. In Computer and Video Games, we have a great interview with EA’s Patrick Sderlund. Here is the really interesting part: So one of your big surprises was DICE working on the new Star Wars: Battlefront. As you said, that’s pretty much a match made in heaven for fans… but those sorts of dream collaborations don’t happen often. I’m glad you say that because it was almost not happening. It was just something as boring as resources and availability. The DICE guys…

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Preliminary Datamining for SWTOR 2.3PTS

Datamines, datamines! What is upcoming for SWTOR in 2.3PTS? Well, swtor_miner is back with some new info that might give us a few clues. First, note that there might be SPOILERS in some of this data. Secondly, remember that datamined info is just a guess at what might be coming in the future of the game. There are no guarantees this even means what we think it means and even if it does, BioWare still have the right to change everything on us before the official release of the game update. In the meantime, it’s fun to speculate! So here is the info SWTOR Miner has for us this time: Hey guys, I got a little bit of free time and tore into the 2.3PTS files. My most interesting find was this: Czerka Executive Cruiser – Activates the Czerk Executive Cruiser, increasing movement speed by 110% and offering excellent protection against…

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More info on Treek, The Healing Ewok Companion Coming in 2.3

This cute little guy comes with patch 2.3 and personally I cannot wait because he’s adorable. Who doesn’t want a little healing Ewok companion? Ok, maybe some of your wouldn’t but I’m willing to bet he’s going to be pretty popular which, of course, is why BioWare made him. We mentioned it briefly in this post but now we have more information, including some great videos on what he will look like. A new Legacy-wide Ewok companion named Treek is coming as part of patch 2.3! Treek is an Aim using Tank/Healer with awesome combat animations. madsithassassin has uploaded this video about the guy: Here is another video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CuFS_e_j-U4%5B After looking at the videos, I think I like him even more. What do you think? Is this a companion you would want to have?

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Game Update 2.3: Czerka Virtual Tour

Yesterday  BioWare opened a new  page on the official SWTOR website  for Game Update 2.3: “Titans of Industry””.  This “virtual tour” tells  players some background information on both the Czerka Corporation , the game update itself, and hints at things to come.  You can find the link to the update page here, and the virtual tour can be found here. Below are all the cool new screenshots:

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Massively Reminisces on Star Wars Galaxies’ 10th Anniversary

It’s hard to believe it’s been that long but the 10 year anniversary of Star Wars Galaxies just passed. Are you feeling old yet, because I am! If you’re reminiscing about the good times you had then join the club because Massively was doing the same thing and they were kind enough to share it with us. Has it really been 10 years? Yep, Star Wars Galaxies did indeed launch on June 26th, 2003. And yep, this is indeed an anniversary post for an MMORPG that closed down in December of 2011. Why the reminiscing about a game that we can’t — ahem — play any longer? Simply put, SWG deserves it. If you’re reading this article, you already know why it deserves it, so we’ll skip the sandbox proselytizing and get right to the part where Massively’s Starsider veterans raise a glass and share a few of their favorite launch-era memories.  You can…

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SWTOR Double XP Weekend Quick Tips

If you want to make the most of the double XP weekends and stims, then here is a little trick to help you when you need to run AFK for some food or a bathroom break or … whatever. A lot of people don’t realize that when you are in a conversation with NPCs or a cutscene, your timers are paused. This means your class buffs, stims and other experience boosts will not be running down on you and you can save the time if you need to step away. Your timers will also pause when looking at the Galaxy map so this is a good way to stop everything for a few minutes when you have to AFK. This works great when you’re solo but of course if you are running with a group, it will be a bit more difficult since they can holo call into the conversation….

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Game Update 2.3 PTS Patch Notes

BioWare hve reopend the public test servers. This time with Game Update 2-3.  Right now on the test servers, the reputation vendor has an item for 1 million credits that rewards Treek, a healing ewok companion … And a  kick-ass IG-88 style HK customisation skin: Also included is  New titles from the BH event – Death mark if five systems, Wanted dead or alive, and cartel security. Check out the full patch notes below: Public Test Server Open! | 06.28.2013, 10:14 AM Greetings PTS Testers! The Public Test Server is now available for testing Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry! You can read about the new content and changes in the Patch Notes. We’re excited to read everyone’s feedback! Please post your thoughts and/or any issues you find here in the PTS Forums. Also, please don’t forget to use /bug for any issues you encounter, as these are sent directly to our…

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KOTOR and SWTOR Combine for 10th Anniversary

Those who know me know that I love social media, and for good reason, as it connects us in ways that could never be possible before. It’s a great tool for extending your gaming connections as well. And it also helps us remain in contact with our favorite game updates and staff. Which brings us to a little tidbit from Twitter and Cory Butler this week. A couple of days ago a conversation happened that many might have missed. It’s such a small thing, yet says so much, especially for fans of SWTOR and KotOR. @AlexDGeslin asked @BlazeofCory Hey, I was wonder, are there any plans celebrate KotOR 1’s 10th anniversary on the #cartelmarket ? #swtorfamily BioWare Producer Cory Butler answered Alex Geslin’s question on Twitter and this would spark more questions about just what his answer meant and what we might all expect to see from SWTOR for the 10th anniversary….

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2.2.1 Datamined Info SWTOR

Alright, here we go again. You know we’re waiting on more details from 2.2.1 so if you’re looking for the scoop, this data mine might help you out. As always, take what you read here with a grain of salt. We don’t work for Bioware and even if we did, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t even know what’s going to make it into a final version of the game update. But it’s sure fun to speculate. WARNING: May contain spoilers. swtor_miner has some more data mined info for us. I don’t have a whole lot of free time right now, so this isn’t going to be a full exposé. I see that Werit already datamined the new abilities. But he didn’t really datamine the items. Vehicles: Aratech Verdant Aratech Ghost Aratech Red Spirit Aratech Techno Red Sphere   Emotes: Emote: Stylish Dance – Use this item to learn the /Style…

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Encrypted Datacube: Story content in the cartel market? — Not going to happen

People have been discussion whether or not the Encrypted Datacube was a good thing to have on the CM or not. After lot’s of feedback the devs have been changing their stance and no Datacubes will be available in the Cartel Market in the future. Hey everyone, Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future. Thanks! -eric I’m curious if that means the next four are gone too. While I’m glad they are ditching it I’d still like the ones…

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PTS Closing for 2.3 Testing Prep

  The public test servers are coming down todayto begin the preperation for Game update 2.3. I must admit that this come as a surprise as  it was a very short duration on the PTS. Personally me and my guild did not have   time to test it with Nightmare TFB on live and such. We only really tested the bosses up the Thrasher but couldn’t process further due to the high damage output.   Greetings Testers, The Public Test Server will be coming down tomorrow, June 27th, to begin preparation for Game Update 2.3 testing! Thanks very much for your participation and assistance in testing Nightmare Mode Scum and Villainy. We’re excited to bring the new content to you in Game Update 2.2.2. Please watch this forum for more information and prepare yourself for some great new stuff to test in the very near future (possibly this week)!

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SWTOR Imperial Agent Operative Leveling Build

Imperial Agents in SWTOR can become one of two advanced classes at level 10, an Operative (DPS / Healing Class) or a Sniper (Ranged DPS). The Operative is a ranged DPS/Healing class with light armor. Operatives have three trees to choose talents from: Medicine (Healing tree), Concealment (DPS tree) and Lethality (a shared DPS tree shared with the Sniper Class). Below Is a new build  from www.swtorsavior.com as well as some rotations that you can use while leveling. First off here is how you allocate the points for the build: 3/3 Lethality 2/2 Deadly Directive 2/2 Hit and Run 2/2 Slip Away 1/1 Lethal Injectors 2/2 Corrosive Microbes 2/2 Combat Stims 1/1 Corrosive Grenade 2/2 Cut Down 2/2 Escape Plan 1/1 Lethal Dose 2/2 Lethal Purpose 1/1 Cull 2/2 License To Kill 2/2 Counter Strike 3/3 Devouring Microbes 1/1 Toxic Regulators 1/1 Lingering Toxics 3/3 Fatality 1/1 Weakening Blast 3/3 Imperial Brew 2/2…

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Issues regarding the Revan Armor

Eric Musco took on the official SWTOR forums today explaining players that nothing is wrong with the Revan armor. While this pretty dull news, I’m amazed at the comments on the official forums; the aggressivity and disrespect are mind-boggling. What is wrong with these people? Check it out here: Hey guys, I wanted to add a bit of clarity to the post in this thread, and my update from this morning. This is all of the information I have about Revan’s armor, what was or wasn’t changed, and why. When we originally saw the double hood issue we also noted that it appeared there was a color difference in the armor between the player and NPC. Our plan was to mirror the NPC exactly for the player for consistency. When we fixed the double hood and we looked at the color palette, the armor sets were already identical in color so…

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Aratech Rose and Cathar Warstaff – New SWTOR Cartel Items

Here are two of the great new pieces available in SWTOR. First is the Aratech Rose speeder which I personally think looks pretty awesome. Second is the Cathar Warstaff which extends when drawn in combat and looks pretty freaking awesome. Both are available in the Cartel market for 1500CC and 400CC respectively. Aratech Rose- 1500 CC I really like this one. Personally, I’m also a fan of pink but many are saying it’s more of a dull pink and that it’s really just a Blur/lux reskin. Looking from Dulfy’s pics and video, I think they are right. For 1500 CC it would have been nice to get a little more than the same speeder in a different color. But I’d still probably get it, seeing as how there aren’t many alternatives. Video showing off the Aratech Rose speeder from the cartel market. Cathar Warstaff – 400 CC – Blade extends when…

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George Lucas Marries Longtime Girlfriend Mellody Hobson In Skywalker Ranch Ceremony

George Lucas married his longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson in an intimate ceremony attended by close friends and relatives at the Skywalker Ranch in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, June 22. This is 69-year-old Lucas’ second marriage and a first for Hobson, 44, who is a contributor to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and the president of Ariel Investments. Earlier, Lucas was married to film editor Marcia Lou Griffin, with whom he has one adopted daughter. Lucas adopted two others soon after his divorce, and all his three children were in attendance at the wedding. The Huffington Post reported that Lucas’ son served as the best man, and his daughters were the bridesmaids. Hobson was given away by New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, and journalist Bill Moyers officiated the wedding. “It was a gathering of people who have known George and Mellody for a very long time. It was an extraordinary day…

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2.2.1 Patch Notes 6/25/2013

Today is patch day and here are the patch notes. This is a 74 mb. patch with many great bug fixes. The mount/companion issue was highly annoying, and I thought it was me loosing my mind with the The quickbar lock button bug. Check it all out below: Cartel Market General Revan’s Armor has been modified to consistently match the NPC in-game appearance. New Items A new vehicle is available in the Cartel Market! The Aratech Rose is an adaptive speeder that requires level 10. A consumable granting Speeder Piloting I is included with purchase. Cost: 1,500 Cartel Coins A new weapon is available in the Cartel Market! The Cathar Warstaff, designed by Cathar bladesmiths, requires Electrostaff weapon proficiency. Cost: 400 Cartel Coins A new bundle is available in the Cartel Market! The Starter Bundle offers items to assist players who are just beginning to explore the universe. The bundle contains items…

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Amazing SWTOR Collection

If you thought your SWTOR collection was impressive, you have to see this guy’s. Sharing his images here, you can see some fantastic shots of his amazing collection which includes: Havoc Squad armor Havoc Squad action figures Collector’s Edition Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue Voice actor framed signatures and photos SWTOR team signature (like mine from the 1st Guild Summit) Commemorative coin from the Guild Summit (also in my collection) SWTOR decals on his car windows Loads of awesome SWTOR shirts Employee only launch custom eFX Lightsaber all the SWTOR comics Lego SWTOR He was part of the 501st/Rebel Legion and has a page of his stuff here http://www.tk9479.com It’s an office full of awesome. So what items do you like the best from his collection? Do you have any SWTOR goodies of your own?

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Scheduled Maintenance tomorrow

Just a friendly heads up letting you know that BioWare will be taking down the servers tomorrow June 25. This also means the deployment of Game Update 2.2.1 and hopefully the possibility of server transfers. Check back as we will post the patch notes as soon as they become available.   Check out the official word below: On June 25th, all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.2.1 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday, June 25th Duration: 6 hours Time: 2:30AM PDT (9:30AM UTC) – 8:30AM PDT (3:30PM UTC) Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™

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The Clone Wars and David Tennant Win an Emmy

The Clone Wars brought home an award at the Daytime Emmy’s and David Tennant gets recognized for his hard work as the voice of Huyang, the droid that mentors young Jedis in how to build their own lightsabers. We’re fans and have written about the series here in the past. We were very happy to see The Clone Wars recognized at a very wacky Daytime Emmy ceremony that also included Carrie Fisher and George Lucas and many, many gaffes you have to see and hear to believe. If you’re a Doctor Who fan then you’re probably very familiar with Tennant and I’m sure it’s no surprise at all to you that he got this recognition. So all in all, The Clone Wars took home two Emmys- Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, and Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for David Tennant. The Emmy for Performer in an Animated Program goes to–…

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Further Clarification on the Use of Macros in SWTOR

Do you use macros for SWTOR? Do you want to use them? Do you have questions about whether or not you can use macros and still follow the TOS for the game? Well you are not alone as others have been asking the same questions and we now have some clarification. Phillip_BW (Phillip Holmes, SWTOR Head of Security) came on to the forums to clear up some questions about macros, specifically certain types of macros. So here is what he had to say: So a number of people have asked about text macros. A couple of others (even on reddit!) have mentioned ‘colour detection to determine which action to take’ systems. I even saw a questions about sequence clicking… I even saw claims that we can’t detect anything and won’t do a thing about this issue. I’ll address all four… Text Macros Strictly speaking, text macro’s are against the ToS….

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SWTOR Cartel Coin Card Availability Update from Damion Schubert

Have you tried to buy any SWTOR Cartel Coin cards yet? Have you ran into any problems? DamionSchubert, SWTOR Lead Designer came into the forums yesterday to give us an update on the Cartel Coin card availability. This is actually a very useful post for anyone who plans on purchasing these since there has been a lot of confusion surrounding them both now and before they even launched. The post from Damion in the official forums reads: Current Status: Walmart. Physical cards are available in many Wal*marts. You may want to call ahead, they’ apparently sell out very quickly. Best Buy. You need to find a Best Buy with a Pre-order Kiosk. On that Kiosk, search for “Star Wars Old Republic” and you should see a 2400 cartel coin offering. Print a receipt, take it to the register, and they will print out a code for you. There are no…

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SWTOR Bonus Experience Weekend is Back – Quick Tips for Leveling

Now SWTOR bonus experience weekends have returned (yay!) and if you want to be sure you get the most time and experience in for leveling an alt, or maybe for a friend who is new to the game and wants to get caught up to you, here is a little mini guide to help you get the most from the weekends. First, you need to understand the different ways that you can gain experience and level your alts. So here are two great options you have within the game: Do your main planet quest line and your class quest line. This can actually get you to 55 with double experience weekends without having to do any side questions. You will need to use experience boosts and the class quest experience boosts along with it. You can blow right through on an alt this way in a weekend if you have…

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Public Test Servers Update june 6/21

Amber Green posted an update regarding updates to the Public Test Servers. BioWare will be patching them up to the weekend, so it’s possible to play and test the servers all weekend long. Now go have fun and report in them bugs. Hello PTS Testers, Happy Friday! We are currently releasing a small patch to the Public Test Server to correct a couple of issues for you before weekend testing. The server will be made available again as soon as possible, and we appreciate your patience. The Patch Notes for this update are both for Nightmare Mode Scum & Villainy: The area of effect missiles used bye Mercenary Demolitionists now damage players appropriately. During the encounter with Titan 6 in 16-Player Mode, the “Huge Grenade” ability now always uses two grenades. Thanks for your assistance in improving our new content and don’t forget to please use /bug to report any…

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