Huttball is my favorite PvP Warzone in SWTOR. Despite what others might say, I really enjoy it. Is it annoying when you get in a group of pugs that don’t know what they’re doing? Sure it is! But I don’t care so much because I still enjoy the game. It’s also a great deal of fun when you tell new players how to win, they listen and you win! So anyway, I noticed something interesting when thinking about Huttball and how it has a big resemblance to another game I play (and coach) offline- soccer. This brought me back to an old post we did here on the site in the summer of 2010. It was from our column “The Guild” and we had a reader write in with a real good idea for a PvP zone in SWTOR (not yet released): This week I’ll be paying attention to some…
1.2.6 Patch Notes – 6/4/2012
BioWare took today’s server downtime to apply a small patch. Compared to the info given to us at yesterdays E3 warm up, this patch doesn’t include any game breaking updates. Check it out below: Companion Characters General Companion Characters no longer appear headless when wearing certain headgear. Flashpoints and Operations Operations Explosive Conflict The optional chest before the minefield encounter can now be looted again. Missions and NPCs General Class mission items now drop from appropriate enemies even if a groupmate deals the killing blow. Audio for cinematics no longer begins before the cinematic starts. The UI is now hidden before a conversation begins (instead of after it starts). Missions Voss The mission “Primary Target” will be automatically completed for players who finished The Dark Hollow without completing Primary Target first. Turning in The Dark Hollow first could make Primary Target impossible to complete. It is no longer possible to start The Dark Hollow before…
How To Get End Game Color Crystals in SWTOR
Do you enjoy collecting color crystals? Or are you looking for a certain color and you want to find the fast- track way to get it as quickly as possible without wasting a lot of your time? Lucky for you, we’ve got just what you need today. Dulfy brings us yet another fantastic guide. I would have loved to do one like this but she’s done a fantastic job so why mess with perfection? She’s put her hard work into this guide so I’m just going to pass it along to you for today’s “How To” of the week. Hey everyone, color crystals in SWTOR are popular vanity items ever since the game’s launch. With the arrival of patch 1.2, we saw the introduction of several new crystal colors (Black-Orange, Black-Purple) as well as upgrades for several existing colors to their endgame stats (+41 crit/power/endurance/expertise). Unfortunately, the method to obtain…
BIG SWTOR News out of E3 Today!
If you were waiting for new updates from E3 on SWTOR, then the wait is over. There were some very exciting things just announced at E3. Here’s an overview: New Space Mission: Space Station Assault New Operation: Terror from Beyond New Companion: HK-51 New playable species: Cathar New Level cap and combat abilities New Warzone: Ancient Hypergates New planet to explore: Makeb Free to Play to Level 15 (that should get most players to their ship and main storyline of Act 1) New abilities for classes Here’s the trailer: Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ – Preview Exciting New Reveals from E3! Pretty exciting news. I wonder if this will entice some players back who have left the game or gotten bored with the content. And with free to play to level 15, I think a lot more people will try out the game to see if they feel it’s worth…
Official Q&A Thread for June 8th, 2012 Q&A Blog Post
For our Question of the Week, we want to ask you what you would ask BioWare about SWTOR. The official Q&A thread for questions to be answered for the June 8th, 2012 Q&A blog post is up and now is your chance to get your questions in but BioWare has a few guidelines before you post your question. If you want to have a higher chance of getting your question answered, then consider these guidelines. From BioWare: In order to increase the chances of having your specific question answered and to help us keep the thread manageable, here are some guidelines on asking questions: Keep your question relatively short. Background details are welcome, but don’t go overboard. Please actually ask a question. We want to hear constructive feedback elsewhere in the Forums. Use common sense – we cannot answer everything, especially on far-reaching content. This should go without saying, but…
TOR TV: SWTOR Explained: Knights of the Old Republic Story (Revan Part 3)
xZeroTolerence55x have been busy with exams and work, so it have been a while since his last update. But now he is back, with his highest requested video yet. In this video, he explains the story of Knights of the Old Republic. If you missed out, you can see part one here, were he goes over the back story of Revan pre KOTOR and Revans involvement in the Mandalorian wars. In part two he explains the jedi civil war. Both awesome videos if you are a lore freak like me 🙂
Intergalactic Intel: How to be a raid leader part 1
“I could do a better job than you ever did!” I couldn’t believe I was arguing with an ex-raider on facebook. I was even more disturbed that I was being attacked by someone I considered a friend. “Trust me, you couldn’t. It was complex.” “There’s nothing complex about it!” I decided to step away from the situation at this point. I have known for quite some time, raid leading is not for everyone. Welcome back to another exciting issue of Intergalactic Intel! I’m currently explaining the finer points of raiding in detail. Last week we looked at how to analyze a fight, from strategy to team make up. This week we’re looking at one of the hardest duties in a raid being the raid leader. I’m going to split this particular one into two parts, what you need to be a raid leader and tips that I was never told…
SWTOR Server Merges and BioWare Austin Layoffs Bring Out the “I Told You So’s”
With SWTOR server mergers imminent and the big layoffs at BioWare Austin, many SWTOR haters are coming out to say “I told you so!” This really has me thinking, is SWTOR really that bad or are some people just bored or vindictive and looking for something new to troll? While some circumstances do seem to show SWTOR on a decline, there is no solid evidence at this time that the game is sinking, going under or failing. There are still many active players and subscriptions and with all the new promised content, there’s no reason many more players won’t join or come back on board. BioWare responded to the layoffs but as Massively reports, the response was a little weak: Despite the layoffs, Lusinchi said that the development team is still “one of the biggest” in the industry and has detailed plans for SWTOR’s future. Still, that didn’t make dealing…
Community Q&A: June 1st, 2012
As always, BioWare had a Community question and answer session this Friday were BioWare developers, and other team members, answers player questions. This week questoins and answers focus mainly on Update 1.3: Allies , ranging from server transfers to Legacy questions etc. Check it out below, or over at the official thread. Hi everyone, We’re back with a selection of answers to your community questions! Please note that in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we that have edited some questions for clarity. As a reminder, we previously suggested a shift in focus in your questions. As development plans are always subject to change, questions about future features will often get vague answers which can be repetitive and sometimes annoying. With that in mind, the development team is more interested in questions about current in-game features or systems or questions about why development decisions were made. You’re still welcome to ask questions…
A Quick Update about SWTOR Server Transfers
If you’re like most of us, you’ve been waiting anxiously for an update about server transfers. You’ve probably been feeling a little lonely on your server (or maybe it’s just mine) and you’re really ready for some more players to interact with on a regular basis. It’s coming, according to BioWare. Joveth Gonzalez, SWTOR Online Community Manager gave this update about server transfers: “I know you are all eager for information regarding character transfers and I just wanted to let you all know that this is definitely a studio wide priority. We’ve just about finished up on the development side of things, but in order to ensure a high quality service, the system needs to undergo extensive testing. The testing cycle, as some of you may know, is variable and highly dependent on a number of things. With that being said, as soon as this process is complete and we…
Unlimited Free Trial and 1.3 Patch Info Released
SWTOR game update 1.3 is coming. Are you ready? The latest patch will hit the test servers very soon and lead designer Daniel Erickson and technical design director Emmanuel Lusinchi have some info for us to help us get prepared. The peeps over at ZAM have a really great article and interview that tells us many of the things we can look forward to such as unlimited free trial (for certain levels) and a new weekly world boss with missions coming in 1.3. Here’s more: Game Update 1.3 – Allies – introduces a strong blend of tools intended to make forming groups much easier, along with even more ways to customize how we play. Currently undergoing internal testing, the update should be available on the public test server soon and live later this summer. Here are some things the update will have: Game Update 1.3 includes a group finder to…
Star Wars 1313 Announced
After much anticipation, Lucas Arts finally announced the name of their new Star Wars game- Star Wars 1313. This is a mature-themed game which is set in a dark, vast subterranean metropolis that is found beneath the surface of Coruscant. You play a bounty hunter (which is think is really cool) but I’m a little curious about where this storyline is going to go and why it’s rated mature. They say this game is definitely created for the adult set. So I want to see more but I guess we have to wait for E3 for that. It’s a third-person action game built with Unreal Engine 3 as a base, and Lucas Arts has mentioned that the production values are quite high with, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. and Skywalker Sound all working on the game. LucasArts president Paul Meegan said, “Star Wars 1313 dives into a part…
BioWare Announces New Community Team Members and Position Changes
There are some changes happening at BioWare after certain staff members were let go and the BioWare SWTOR team want to let us know about these new team members, new positions and other changes we have to look forward to. In this Community Blog Post they shared a general update as well as introductions of different members: As many of you may already know, Community Coordinator Eric Musco will be taking over for Sr. Community Coordinator David Bass as the community liaison to fan sites and guilds. Eric and David have been working closely together over the past few weeks to ensure a smooth hand off. While we’re sad to see David leave, we wish him all the best in his new endeavor. They go to share some introductions: My name is Joveth Gonzalez and I’m the Online Community Manager. I’m currently overseeing the development of our new community initiatives,…
LucasArts to Announce New Star Wars Game Tomorrow on Spike TV
Earlier this month, LucasArts registered the trademark for a certain “Star Wars 1313”. This had fans everywhere excited to see what this new game would be and the idea of a new Star Wars game has many fans super excited. A new Star Wars game, you say? Hmmm… many might be skeptical but for Star Wars gamer fans, this is a big announcement. While the full details will be unveiled at E3, we can expect to learn a little more tomorrow night. LucasArts revealed on the Star Wars Facebook page that an announcement of the game will be made on Spike TV this 31st of May at 10pm PST, with the full announcement and presumably the details to be revealed at E3 later on next week. “Riddle: What is something that will be announced by Spike, fully unveiled at the E3 Expo, and has to do with Star Wars gaming?…
SWTOR: Deceived Now Available In Paperback
Today, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp is out for its mass market paperback release. The book was original released in hardcover last year, and you can read our review of the book here. The book follows Darth Malgus who is one of our main characters in SWTOR. Here’s a little plot description refresher courtesy of Amazon: “A Sith warrior to rival the most sinister of the Order’s Dark Lords, Darth Malgus brought down the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in a brutal assault that shocked the galaxy. But if war crowned him the darkest of Sith heroes, peace will transform him into something far more heinous—something Malgus would never want to be but cannot stop becoming, any more than he can stop the rogue Jedi fast approaching. Her name is Aryn Leneer—and the lone Jedi Knight that Malgus cut down in the fierce battle for the Jedi Temple was her Master….
1.2.5 Patch Notes – 5/30/2012
BioWare have taken the servers down for scheduled maintenance. The servers are still not up, and the maintenance have been extended a few times already. Do I smell patch 1.3 coming up on the public test servers? General Optimizations have been implemented that decrease instances of crashing to desktop. Any players required to change a character’s name due to Customer Support request must now make all name changes before logging in with any characters on a server. Classes and Combat General “”Heroic Moment” abilities no longer persist after players log out or transition areas. Companion Characters General Corrected an issue that could cause Companion Characters to appear without a head when wearing certain headgear. Flashpoints and Operations General Boss encounters no longer drop rewards until the entire encounter has been cleared of enemies. Flashpoints Corrected an issue that could prevent Flashpoint mission steps from updating properly if players were disconnected…
Massive RP-PVP Event On The Progenitor EU Server
Some gamers still know how to have a good time and this Massive RP-PVP Event held on the Progenitor EU Server is a great example of that. The last game that I played where people did role-playing events was World of Warcraft. I was not on an RP server but (often out of boredom), players would get together to do something fun or silly. We raided Hogger, we met in Elywnn Forest to goof around or we went to gank the lowbies if Elwynn (if we were on the other side). Once we made a huge batch of gnomes and had a naked dance party in the snow. I was never a huge RP-er but I always thought it was fun and interesting and I love to see what others come up with while roleplaying in a game. While my experiences were short and silly, what these guilds did over…
New Star Wars: The Old Republic Novel Cover Revealed!
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation from New York Times bestselling author (and Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ writer) Drew Karpyshyn was revealed at last year’s New York Comic-Con and scheduled to be released in November 2012. It’s his second novel and now the cover has been officially revealed. In addition to the cover image reveal, SWTOR.com brought us a great interview with Karpyshyn about the new book. *SPOILERS AHEAD* Here’s a snippet of the interview: Do you recommend that people finish their storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic before picking up the book? Annihilation is set after the events of the class stories in Star Wars: The Old Republic, so there are things that I reference and mention that may serve as spoilers to people who haven’t finished the storylines. The balance of power between the Empire and the Republic has changed quite a bit by the time…
Want to Playtest Game Update 1.3?
Are you interested in what’s coming to SWTOR in game update 1.3? Your chance to playtest the new features to the game are coming up soon and BioWare is asking for testers. SWTOR.com put out this call for testers: Game Update 1.3 is almost ready for deployment onto the Public Test Server. We still need to finalize a few things, but we wanted to let you know that the Public Test Server will be coming down soon so that we can prep Game Update 1.3 for PTS deployment. You can expect the Public Test Server to come back up with Game Update 1.3 in the next few weeks. They said that 1.3 will be focused around the Group Finder function that helps you get other players to group up with for Flashpoints and Operations more easily. There will also be more updates and content added to the Legacy System. For…
BioWare CS Agent Might Get Canned – Threats Made to PvPers
If you saw the drama unfolding live, you know how funny it was that a BioWare GM apparently threatened action against world PvPers on the Fatman (a PvP server). The alleged threats were done in general chat channels which these appalled players took screenshots of (good going guys!). When they first brought the matter to the forums, they were accused of making it up and their accounts were yet again threatened. Joveth Gonzalez, Associate Online Community Manager said the investigation showed no proof of their claims against this BioWare staff member. At first it seemed like yet another troll attempt on the game and at this point, with subs and popularity dropping, is there really any need for that? But then… The drama was not yet over because Gonzalez came back to report that a further investigation proved the accusations against the BioWare GM to be true! Ouch, BioWare… that’s…
MCM Expo features SWTOR Presentation
This Star Wars: The Old Republic presentation took place recently in London at the MCM Expo. There was a Q&A session to provide more info about the game and upcoming updates and patches as well as new features we can expect to see soon. The discussion had the following topics: General Presentation of the Game Previous Updates Game Update 1.2 Legacy Presentation The Old Republic said this: This information was gathered from the available livestream provided by Gamespot and it summarizes the topics discussed in that hour, along with the Q&A. Keep in mind that at the Q&A the answers capture the essence of what was spoken. The host of this presentation was Emanuel Lusinchi, Technical Design Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The discussion included Game Update 1.3 Allies Presentation which tells us more about what we can expect from this update, including: Group Finder: • Bonus…
Species of Starwars: Geonosian
An insectoid species divided into castes, the Geonosians are native to the harsh rocky world of Geonosis. Geonosians construct immense, organic-looking spires within which reside their hive colonies. There are two main types of Geonosians: the wingless drones that mostly work as laborers, and the winged aristocrat, which includes royal warriors serving as scouts and providing security to the hive. All Geonosians have a hard, chitinous exoskeleton, elongated faces, multi-jointed limbs, and speak in a strange clicking language. Though labeled “warriors,” Geonosians do not have a standing military. They instead use their droid foundries to build armies for corporate interests wealthy enough to afford them—entities such as the Trade Federation and the Techno Union. Despite relatively simple minds, the Geonosians are adept at mechanical construction, and are contractors to many of the galaxy’s biggest manufacturing concerns. They are responsible for the construction of some of the largest feats of engineering…
TOR TV: Bug’s and Linedance
Searching through Youtube for SWTOR goodies I cam across these two videos. First one is another dancing video, this time by WNxJokazWild. It’s called “Bored in SWTOR: WN Style” and shows half naked aliens dancing. Not quite sure what races to be hornets, but check it out: The other video by ViralPerfection hangs out Khem Val as a pervert. I can’t stop thinking about what my companions do when I log out the game. I don’t know if it is the heat, ot the fact that we are nearing summer, but today’s videos was a little naughty. Anyways, If you Have suggestions for movie we ought to feature – other then “let’s play SWTOR” Get in contact with us.
Happy Birthday, “STAR WARS”! When did you first see it?
We got so caught up in all of the Mega server news and BioWare Layoffs, that I almost forgot that last Friday was the 35th anniversary of the premiere of Star Wars. On May 25, 1977, George Lucas premiered “Episode IV: A New Hope” and changed the lives of kids like me (I don’t think I saw the movie until later in the summer, when word spread about how good the movie was). In fact, the anniversary has spawned another “holiday”, known as “Geek Pride Day.” Here’s one of my favorite scenes from the film, the attack on the Death Star (aka the “trench run”). I still get chills watching this: The effects of Star Wars on the world are too numerous to list here on this blog post. From movie-making techniques to the explosion of science-fiction in books, movies and TV and even YouTube, to video games and beyond,…
