BioWare Dev blog by William Wallace : Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3

Senior Game Designer William Wallace posted a developer blog post regarding Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3.  Basically he breaks down own the Character Perks into four types of unlocks including Advancement Perks, Travel Perks, Companion Perks and Convenience Perks Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3 Hi, I’m Senior Game Designer William Wallace. In Game Update 1.2, we introduced Legacy Unlocks, a system in which characters across your Legacy could unlock special rewards for reaching different milestones. Since Game Update 1.2 went live, your Smuggler may have learned a new skill from their Sith Inquisitor father, or you might have unlocked new species options for your classes. No matter your personal choices, you have now started to build your very own Star Wars™ legacy. With Game Update 1.3, we are continuing to expand the Legacy system by introducing the new Character Perks system. Character Perks allow you to customize each character in your Legacy,…

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1.3 coming this Tuesday

We have waited and waited and waited, and finally it is here – Game Update 1.3: Allies will live this coming tuesday! Some people call this the “Jesus patch” as – together with the server merges, it should resurrect the game with it’s Aguement updates, ranked warzones and group finder! Let’s party! The patch is out same  day as ME3 Extended Cut, so expect a lot of downloading that day.  Posted by: CourtneyWoods Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing Scheduled Maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM 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. Game Update 1.3: Allies introduces new features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™…

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Crew Skills and Items in Game Update 1.3

BioWare updated the community blog, with a new post, describing some of the upcoming changes, we can expect happening to items and crew skills when path 1.2 launches. While we have covered most of the the information here before, the blog provides a great summary of the relevant details. Prior to Game Update 1.3, it was only possible to create an Augmented item through a critical crafting success. Augmented items have an additional mod slot, conveniently called an augment. Some of the most valuable items in the game right now are orange shells that have been crafted with an augment slot unlocked, because they have exceptional stat potential with their full complement of mod slots. While these items are cool, they are indicative of a systemic inequity between different types of items. That’s where Augment Tables come in. That covers most of the changes you’ll see for items in Game…

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Fans Fix Up Luke Skywalker’s Home

A group of very dedicated Star Wars fans took it upon themselves to recreate and build the “Lars Homestead,” which was featured as hero Luke Skywalker’s home in the first-released installment of the series, “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” in 1977, again in the 2002 release of “Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones,” and finally in the last movie theatrically released, 2005’s “Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.”” The igloo-shaped home, was a venture that fan Mark Dermul of Belgium began dating back to April 2001, noted on the fan’s official website, where he traveled to the African nation of Tunisia to locate where filming for the “Star Wars” series was done. Dermul and a group of other “Star Wars” fans from around the world ventured back to the Tunisian desert over the years, as part of their “Tatooine Reunion,” noted the website, and…

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Community Round-Up: Forums and Events June 20th, 2012

BioWare have a new Blog update focusing on the SWTOR Comunity. In this weeks Community Round-Up, BioWare  highlight some of the most interesting discussions in the Star Wars The Old Republic community.  Most of these discussions originate from the forums, but sometimes they look around at other fan sites. We have also added a new section to this blog highlighting some player-created events happening on certain servers in The Old Republic. If you have an event occurring next week, please feel free to let us know in the nomination thread so that we can highlight it in next week’s round up. Please feel free to nominate any discussions for next week’s Round-Up in this thread. Let’s begin! Read all about it HERE, and discuss it at the official forums HERE

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James Ohlen want’s your Feedback on story

It’s been a while since James Ohlen been active on twitter, but today he asks  Star Wars: The old republic players  for feedback regarding the story elements the game. Here is the question: So I took a break from Twitter, but now I’m back with more questions. What is your favorite type of storytelling in #SWTOR? Flash points, class stories or world story arcs (i.e. Revanite story on Dromund Kaas). Interesting question really. Also remember to let us know in the comments below if you are plan on answering. YOu can Check out James Twitter profile here.

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TOR TV: The Sith Code

Here is an older fanfilm made before SWTOR became mainstream. This video was made by DuduFilm, and uses material from the three cinimatic trailers combined with material from “force unleashed” and material from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Add to that the music from X-Men Origins (Magneto’s theme I believe? ), and you have a pretty decent way to present the Sith code: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me

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Interview with Lead Operations & Flashpoint Designer – Jesse Sky

It has been a while since we last heard from Lead Operations & Flashpoint Designer Jesse Sky. Last time Lat time we posted any word from him was back in match, but now he have news from him again. The guild Methodica recently had the chance to meet with Jesse Sky, and  gained some great insight into the details and thought-process that goes into designing the content that raiders enjoy so much. Here is a snippet We generally balance bosses to be progressively more difficult over the course of a single Operation. However, our balance sheets are not always the best indicator of difficulty, especially as we increase our focus on mechanics. Some bosses require strict coordination checks, and that may pose a greater challenge to certain players than gear checks. We were surprised, for example, at how long it took players to down Toth and Zorn on PTS. That said, we do want the…

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Gabe Amatangelo updates us on Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.3

Gabe Amatangelo, Principal Lead PvP Designer on Star Wars: The old republic, have just posted a blog update on the Ranked Warzone feature wich is introduced with game update 1.3. It’s an interesting read, were Mr. Amatangelo explains how the system is going to work. In the current Game Update 1.3 PTS build, you’ll find a new button in the Warzone queue window: Queue Team Ranked. This button is available to any player that is in a group of eight level 50 players, and allows that group to queue up for Team Ranked Warzones with a single click. Team Ranked Warzones can only be participated in by a full team of eight players. If any player drops out of the queue before a match is made, the team will need to find a replacement and re-queue. It all sounds awesome, but in the end of the blog post, Gabe ask…

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TOR TV: Into the Vault – Music Video

This video was mailed to me this morning by.  Kelly Stark from the  pandamonium guild. If that guild name rings a bell, i might be becourse we featured the movie Crimson Nova Girls by them back in april. Now they are back with a new movie called Into the Vault.  The video is a parody video set within the Star Wars: The Old Republic universe. It uses music from Into the Woods and tells the story of Soa from the Eternity Vault operation zone. I had a short chat with Kelly about the movie and this was what she had to say about it: This project was great fun to put together. The video portion of it included a whole host of members from Pandamonium (a guild description is below). They were kind enough to wipe in Eternity Vault over and over and over again for the sake of getting “that perfect shot.” The musical performances…

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1.2.7b Patch Notes 19-6-2012

Servers was down for a short maintenance today,  and as always BioWare took the time to patch the game. Today is more a tweak then a real patch though, as BioWare only decreased  the maximum number of simultaneous players on the Imperial and Republic Fleets. This is a pretty good move if you ask me as I notice my framerate drop from ~50fps to ~19fps while on fleet with 250+ people.  I hope this just implies more instances though.  Coming from having 4 people on my fleet at peak times,  100 people+  seem like a party! And if there were 6 instances of 100, thats 6 parties! Below are the patch notes: 1.2.7b Patch Notes 6/19/2012 General In order to improve overall performance, the maximum number of simultaneous players on the Imperial and Republic Fleets has been decreased —-

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Can You Level as a Pair in SWTOR?

For many years now, my husband and I have played games together as a couple. Many games are designed to be played this way but even those that are not, we find a way to enjoy the experience together. In SWTOR, we leveled several characters as a team and in some ways, it was more difficult than in other games. It seems many aspects of SWTOR are designed for solo RPG-like play. However, there are many great ways to enjoy leveling as a pair in SWTOR. If you have a spouse, partner or friend you want to play with, you can begin from level 1 and go to 50 together. Here’s a mini-guide on how to do it. First, consider your class pairings. Some will work better than others because you start on the same planet or because your skills pair up well. For some your companion skills will work…

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TOR TV: Broken Chains Guild Dance Party

This video is original a guild promo, but since I like dancing, I thought it would fit well in our TOR TV segment. Want to upgrade your swtor experience? Why not check out one of the guilds with the highest amount of sexy naked dance parties? If your interested check us out at: http://broken-chains.enjin.com/ Game: SWTOR Faction: Imperial Server: Ajunta Pall (US)

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SWTOR Scheduled Maintenance June 19th

Reminder: Tuesday scheduled maintenance is coming so here’s your chance to get some play time in before the servers go down. Scheduled time is only 4 hours and most of us will  be sleeping during this period anyway. Last week’s update brought us server transfers and this update will bring us one step closer to 1.3. Learn more about what’s coming with game update 1.3. What do you do during maintenance? From the SWTOR Community News team: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, June 19th , 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM 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. This weekly maintenance is…

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EA plan on being in the SWTOR business “for a long time”

With all the talk about server merges and the possibility of a free to play format in the future, some are getting the impression that SWTOR is a sinking ship but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Honestly, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense for a company like EA to put that much work and effort into a game like this and then just scrap it when things don’t seem to be going as well as they would like. My guess is that they will continue changing, adding and reworking things to keep the interest in SWTOR alive. No game ever sees a perfect launch and while some are more rocky than others, SWTOR wasn’t that bad at all. In fact, it was met with a successful launch but the problem came in when players loved the game so much they seemed to blow right through…

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TOR TV: The Best of HK-47

Alle the talk about our new legacy companion HK-51 made me exited, so I thought it would be apropiate to relive some of the greate moments we had with his great grand farther HK-47. PC Games already had an article about our all time favorite “hunter killer” droid last week, and we did a “Know your lore” article about him back in 2009. You can check it out here, if you need to brush up on your lore. HK-47 was a Hunter-Killer assassin droid and Jedi hunter constructed by Revan towards the end of the Mandalorian Wars to kill those who Revan believed would destabilize the galaxy. Revan gave up the droid shortly before his redemption, and HK-47 went from owner to owner, many of whom he slew himself, before being unwittingly reunited with his master, but that’s all story. You can read much more about that your self here.

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Community Q&A: June 15th, 2012

BioWare posted a new Q&A session yesterday. It’s always nice read as it gives us some insight on what the devs are working on.  One of the answers that caught my eye this time, was the fact that you need high level toon of each faction to get the HK-51 companion. Yet another reason to get working on those Legacy characters. I also liked the explanation about stats on mods and enhancements. It’s easier to accept “this isn’t changing”, or “we don’t know when this might change” if they say why they did things a certain way. GarrickBlackSun: I understand he is a long way off, but could you please possibly give us any sort of clearer or better insight to the unlocking of HK-51? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): The only thing we’re saying today is its going to take a serious amount of work, involves a galaxy-wide mission, introduces some different ways of playing the game…

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How Awesome Would it be if SWTOR Goes F2P?

There have been rumors about it from the start and some experts even predicted that SWTOR might be the last pay-to-play MMORPG. Now that they are offering a free 15 levels of play and have hinted at the possibility of microtransactions, there is a new rumor on the scene- will SWTOR go free to play? Thanks to a story from UK magazine GamesTM, the rumor mill is abuzz again. In the article, BioWare’s associate lead designer, Emmanuel Lusinchi said: “The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well,” he says. “Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on.” So this has players wondering if they are going to switch to…

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BioWare need your help. Come test Ranked Warzones this weekend

BioWare Live Community Coordinator Amber Green, posted a heads up on the official forum, asking people to come test the Ranked Warzones at the public test realms. For those people REALLY wanting Ranked Warzones, and there are a lot of us I think, we should really try to get on there and help get this ready. the more we can get it tested, the quicker it will come to the live servers. Hello everyone! This weekend we really want to focus on testing our Ranked Warzones and we need your help! We’d like for you to get together with 7 of your friends and queue up for as many Ranked and Normal Warzones as you can during the timeframes listed below. At the end of the each testing window, we’ll want your feedback! Please check this thread, where we’ll be posting a series of questions to gather information about your experiences with…

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TOR TV: Dubstep and Dancing

It has been a while since we last posted a community created SWTOR movies, there for in honor of it’s Friday we give you not one, but two videos. The first movie is made by Youtube user  antemb and is called “why I play the Old Republic”. The movie is a classic dancing video as enjoyable as the can get. The second movie is made by Edvard Huseby, and represent the cinematic E3 trailers cut together in a dubstep mix.  Check it out: Why I play The Old Republic. Star Wars: The Old Republic – DUBSTEP

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RMT Coming to SWTOR

EA is trying to diversify their gaming experience and increase their earnings potential. This is not really a surprise as they want to keep up with the growing gaming world and give the customers/players what they want. Since SWTOR launched, many have been saying it just might be the last pay-to-play MMO to come out and it’s hard to disagree when you see the direction that games are going in. While SWTOR is not F2P, they are going to give you a free 15 levels to try to entice new players into the game. I think this is a pretty smart move as it gives you a real good taste of the game and helps you decide whether or not you want to purchase the game for yourself. It’s also a smart move on the part of EA/BioWare because it cuts off just as the story is getting good for…

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Current Available Transfers – Complete List June 13

Well, here we are on day 2 of server transfers and it seems some of the kinks are getting worked out. We brought you details of the server transfers yesterday but it does seem that more details are being worked out regarding server transfers. Some players were having issues with moving all 8 characters to a new server. On the last one, they would get a hangup and it would not transfer. BioWare kindly provided this workaround on the forums: We have a workaround for this issue: Log into the server where you have 7 successfully transferred characters Create a new character, species/profession are not important Once you are through the login intro, log back out to character select Delete the new character. Return to the character transfer page, and it should correctly list 7 characters on the destination server Should you require any further assistance, please post here. Reddit…

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SWTOR Patch 1.3 Preview – What’s Coming Soon?

Patch 1.3 is definitely going to be one of the most influential game updates to SWTOR and any MMORPG free update. It packs a big punch with loads of new features that players have been waiting on for a very long time. Here are some of the main features coming with Game Update 1.3 and what you need to know about each. Patch 1.3 Preview -SWTOR Group Finder The long awaited group finder is finally coming. Some players have even stated previously that the lack of a group finder was a deal breaker for the end-game. It made it too difficult to find other players to do a Flashpoint or Operation with. You could spend hours (literally) sitting around spamming chat channels and begging someone to join a group with you. Then if you do get a group, there is no guarantee that any one in it really knows what…

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