I remember at Guild Summit when we first all noticed GTN access from your ship. A friend sitting near me said “But I noticed it’s neutral. Is there not going to be a regular one on our ship?” It was a legitimate question because on my server and the servers of nearly anyone I have asked, the neutral GTNs are mostly dead. There’s hardly anyone who uses them and little point of putting anything on them because they never sell. We suspected at that time that maybe BioWare had plans of doing something different with the GTNs in the future. About 20 minutes into this conversation with Daniel Erickson, it is revealed that they plan to merge all GTNs to neutral access at some time in the near future. Players are discussing this on the forums already and one has laid out the good and bad points of this decision…
TOR TV: Bloodvein’s SWTOR Space Crib
I has come to my attention that we forgot to post about this video. This video was made by BloodveinMovies back in december, just after the game launched. Episode 04: Welcome to my kabooki space palace! Be sure and wipe your feet before entering my love space! Also, this is my first attempt at a SWTOR Machinima. Let me know what you think in the comments below! =]
Do MMORPGs Create Serial Killers and Mass Murderers?
We’ve probably all heard the stories of horrible things happening to gamers or to the loved ones of gamers- a kid who binged for so long he died at his computer playing his favorite game or maybe the mother who neglected her children and forgets to feed her baby because she is so consumed with a video game. Of all the games that get a bad rap, MMORPGs often rank near the top. I’ve always believed this is due to the nature of the game and not the genre itself. MMORPGs require a certain amount of time and energy investment. Non-gamers have a hard time understanding how someone could want to sit there for hours running around an imaginary world with the avatars of other people. But for those of us who play, it’s more than just a game. The communities that form around an MMORPG are like little subcultures….
1.2.1 Patch Notes 4/24/2012
As always BioWare used today’s server maintenance to patch up. This time with the largest patch since 1.2. If you me, the most important issue corrected, is the issue that prevented players from adding offline players to their friends list. This makes it much easier to mail stuff to your alts. Unfortunately still doesn’t seem to work for our own cross faction alts. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Sentinel Zen (with Ataru Form) now correctly reduces the global cooldown of Cyclone Slash. Smuggler General Charged Burst’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%. Gunslinger Damage for Aimed Shot, Speed Shot, and Quickdraw has been increased by approximately 5%. Sharpshooter Trickshot’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%. Imperial Agent General Snipe’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%. Sniper Damage for Ambush, Series of Shots, and Takedown has been increased by approximately 5%. Marksmanship Followthrough’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%. Trooper Commando Gunnery Havoc Rounds…
Is BioWare Scrambling to Keep Players in the Game?
This was a discussion I was just having with some gamer friends the other day. BioWare is doing all of these awesome promotions for SWTOR like free play time for those who come back, pets and in game events like the Rakghoul Plague event and more. They are being very open with their Q&A sessions, trying to reveal future content so we all know what we want to hang on for and trying to hear the player concerns and make adjustments as necessary. My friend says, “Yea, they know they are a sinking ship and they’re trying to stay afloat.” At first I thought he was just bitter because he’s let down by the game but when I really thought about it and looked at the facts, it’s possible he was closer to the truth than I thought. PC Gamer says “BioWare doing “anything and everything” to keep players logging…
How to Calculate Companion Gift Affections
Here is another fantastic lesson on SWTOR. We really appreciate the time and attention to detail she puts into helping others understand the game and get more from their experience in it. This week she brought us a great guide on calculating affection with your companions from gifts and conversations. Thanks Dulfy! “Calculating Companion gift affections Many of you have probably seen a chart like this that list all the affection a certain gift will give. Have you ever wondered how that is calculated? If you are curious, those numbers are fairly easily generated via a simple formula! It is simply (gift rank – companion affection rank) * type of gift (green, blue, purple) * Likeness (indifferent, like, favourite, love) Rank Difference There are 5 ranks of companion affection and 5 ranks of companion gifts Rank 1: -1000 to 1999 Rank 2: 2000 to 3999 Rank 3: 4000 to 5999…
Cross genre knowledge
“Why do you play MOBAs?” I was taken back by the question. “They’re fun I guess…” I didn’t know how to reply to my friend. “What’s so fun about a bunch of kids nerd raging at you?” I can honestly say that part of MOBAs was not fun.” “You learn a lot…About game design, about player reaction, and a lot of the skills are interchangeable.” As many of you know I’m a big fan of the MOBA genre of games. MOBAs, or Massive Online Battle Arenas, are games such as Defense of the Ancients 2, DotA 2, League of Legends, LoL, and Heroes of Newerth, HoN. Each time has five players, with teach player controlling their own hero. The basic goal of all three games is to destroy the enemy team’s “throne” to win. It’s more complex, but that’s the basic idea behind MOBA games. While MOBAs and MMOs are very different they both…
TOR TV: Dont GO !
Last week we featured the movie a movie Moves like Twilek from the German artist groundhouse. Today we have another music video from this guy featuring a guy dancing in a robot suite 😉
BioWare releases answers to SWTOR Community Q&A
This last community Q&A, BioWare had to put off posting the answers to the questions. Now they have finally released them along with this statement: Two weeks ago, we asked for your questions and unfortunately, we had to delay posting the answers to the Q&A until today. Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity. We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on April 24th, 2012 (12pm PDT/3pm EDT/8pm BST/9pm CEST/5am AEST). We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the answers below. If you want to discuss any of the answers given, please use this Forum thread! So here is a snippet of the Q&A. To read the full list of questions, visit the official post from SWTOR.com. BlackMink: Could you please explain SWTOR’s threat mechanics?…
Fresh out of a PvP Team Meeting from Georg Zoeller
Are you happy with SWTOR PvP or like many of us, do you still feel like there are some things missing or lacking? Here’s what Georg Zoeller had to say about a team meeting over PvP at the BioWare headquarters: Hey guys, A few additional notes on this topic, fresh from a meeting with Gabe and the PvP team. (a) Expertise difference between combatants is the single most important factor in time to kill in PvP. Having zero or little expertise on your gear (e.g. pure PvE gear) is the primary reason for people to experience a sped-up time to death in Game Update 1.2. While it was quite viable pre-1.2 to bring your Rakata or Columi gear without any added expertise into PvP, the increased focus on expertise in the PvP track of gear has made it much harder to compete with that equipment compared to even the entry…
Zombies in Space- Coffin Comics Fun
What is BioWare trying to tell us with this recent (the first) world event? Rakghouls are trying to infect everyone and they take a striking resemblance to zombies, as many have pointed out. Zombies in space? It wouldn’t be the first time a video game had done this. Coffinshaker from Coffin Comics has a real funny cartoon about SWTOR and the current world event going on- the Rakghoul Invasion. He also used this as an opportunity to talk about a current theme in games today- zombies: Heh, didn’t mean for a double swtor posting this week, but I wanted to get this out there before the rakghoul invasion event ended. Pretty cool stuff though! Reminds me of the lich plague in wowcrafts just before WOTLK came out. But what’s the deal with zombies anyways? They seemed to have gained quite a bit of momentum in the last few decades. Hell,…
The Lost Island Flashpoint Guide
The Lost Island is the new Flashpoint in the Game Update 1.2. If you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, try to get yourself in a group after you read this guide (so you know what you’re doing). It’s open to both factions and it also has a normal and Hard Mode for level 50 players. It’s a lot of fun and I really like the story that is involved as well. In the story of the Lost Island, we are taken to a hidden island on Ord Mantell where we are called to end experiments by Mad Doctor. So anyway… what’s this Flashpoint all about and how do you succeed in it? First, be aware that this is a Flashpoint full of encounters that require you to move a lot. You want to be ready to move in any instant and don’t just stand around staring…
Defender 410, A Sweet Star Wars: The Old Republic Case Mod
tomshardware.com is showcasing a phenomenal case mod inspired by Star Wars: The Old Republic. The casemod Was Showcased at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas by iBuyPower. The inspiration for this case mod was the Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette from Star Wars: The Old Republic. Check it our over at tomshardware, and let us know what you think below.
TOR TV: Be a Hero
I have known about this videos for month now, but I never knew what to write about it. So today, I drank 6 Carlsberg to make sure I had the “inspiration” I needed to make a cool story about it…. I still have no clue what to write though. The video is strangely cool but I’m not 100% sure what is is about. Let me know if you get it…
Mass Effect 3 Controversy Could Be Good for the Game Industry
Mass Effect 3 was highly anticipated and it’s no surprise that some fans called in sick to work or school to stay home and enjoy playfests. It’s also no surprise that many would beat the game quickly. Luckily most fans are respectful enough to avoid spoilers (or at least without an alert first) but still, you have to be careful the story isn’t ruined for you with so many racing to the finish line. So imagine how I felt when I started to see the Tweets, FB messages, blog posts and other video game news complaining about the ending of ME3? I didn’t want to click on anything that talked about the ending. I didn’t want to see any spoilers. And yet… it was everywhere! In what would become one of the biggest video game controversies of all time, the fans were angry at the ending of ME3 (or at…
The Rakghoul Outbreak is Here
We told you about the in-game event going on in SWTOR right now. If you have yet to try it out yourself, it’s a lot of fun. And there is an additional bonus- you get an in-game pet. There is a mission to earn a Rakghoul pet on completion. This is fantastic for anyone who loves collecting non-combat pets (like myself). There is also a fun video to go along with it. This from SWTOR news today: “Visit the in-game News Terminal, located on Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock, to discover the mystery behind the spreading plague and begin the mission to earn a Rakghoul Pet!”
Inheritance Legacy Gear found from 340 Investigation Missions
Are you looking to build and collect your Legacy Gear? Do you want to give some items to an alt to get leveled up with good gear? There are several ways to do this and crafting missions are a good start. Some players have found that running 340 Investigation missions give pieces of Inheritance Construction Kits. But that’s not all… it’s pretty safe to say that all 340 companion missions from all skills have a chance to drop Legacy tokens. Birthright can drop from 340 missions as well as standard missions and standard missions can drop Legacy Gear. Gathering missions will also drop Legacy Gear. You can also kits as drops from mobs which are considered rare drops but I’ve gotten one already myself. It does seem they are trying to give us several ways to get this gear and Inheritance Construction Kits. One beef some players have with the…
TOR TV: SWTOR Explained – Revan’s Backstory (Pre-Kotor) and his involvement in the Mandalorian Wars
xZeroTolerence55x is back with a new SWTOR backstory, and this 9 min video is worth a watch/listen. This time he tells the story of one of my all time favorite force user – Revan. This will be the first part of a series of videos covering the guy. In this first one ZeroTolerence55 covers the details of Revan’s early life, his involvement in the Mandalorian Wars, and the beginning of his descent to the darkside. Check it out below:
Healer Survey from ForceHeal for 1.2
Game update 1.2 brought many changes to SWTOR. It also brought changes that would affect healers. Would these changes be a good thing or would they just make things worse? This is definitely the big question among healers. I’m a healer myself (mainly in PvP) and I know that I don’t think the way some healers do because we don’t all play the same way. For example, all the complaints over names and titles making it hard to heal in PvP- never a problem for me. I just use my UI raid/warzone windows for healing and never have problems. Anyway, you can never be sure just what a community is thinking or feeling unless you ask them and that is exactly what Force Heal decided to do. They put up a healer survey about SWTOR 1.2 to find out who is happy with healing in 1.2 and who thinks the…
1.2.0c Patch Notes 4/19/2012
Servers are now back up after some Unscheduled Maintenance. Considering that this patch was more or less done for the event fixes alone I’m glad they tossed in a pile of extra fixes. As we talked about a few days ago, BioWare did some fixes to the Warzone also this time. The warzone commendations are significantly increased. Even for a win. I just won a Voidstar, Novare Coast and an Alderaan. Got 154, 141 and 120 warzone commendations. Check out the patch notes below: 1.2.0c Patch Notes 4/19/2012 General Corrected an audio issue that could cause a loud, perpetual “jet engine” sound that is most noticeable on the Republic and Imperial Fleets. Corrected a rare issue that could cause players to be unable to access their guild. Classes and Combat Bounty Hunter Mercenary Heatseeker Missile: This ability will now only gain extra damage from your additional stacks of Heat Signatures and…
EA Denies SWTOR Job Cut Rumors
If you heard the news this week about Electronic Arts, then you may have heard they are laying off a lot of people. While it is true that the company is making some cuts, they are not “layoffs” in the traditional sense and they are not downsizing because SWTOR has failed. Actually, EA, like many gaming companies, has a huge variety of projects going on at different times. They may increase staff while they finish up a game project and then let those people go to other departments or let them go completely once the game is completed. This is how the industry works. Most game designers, writers and artists are hired on a project-by-project basis, not as actually company staff members. EA itself has basically said as much when the rumors spread about the layoffs: “There are no lay-offs as such, we always have projects growing and morphing,” EA…
Awesome UI Customization with 1.2
1.2 lets you completely customize your UI like never before. This was one of the most anticipating upgrades to this game update. However, there might be some things about the UI customization that you didn’t know. For example, one of my biggest peeves was one window closing out when you open another. Let’s say you want to compare an item that you have to one that you see on the GTN but when you try to open your character window, it closes out your GTN window. Frustrating! Or let’s say that you want to send your companion on a mission while you are browsing the GTN or have other windows open. Something is going to close out and then you have to open it back and find where you were before. Well, now with 1.2, this is not a problem. All you have to do is go to the UI…
Server Merges Still Possible as BioWare Responds to Criticism
“Are server merges a possible solution? Absolutely. Are character transfers a possible solution? They’re a definite solution and we’re going after that first. But all things are on the table. Our entire goal is to make sure that players are playing in the environment they want to, with the type of community and the size of population they want, and we are driving towards all of that,” says Lead Designer Daniel Erickson to Now Gamer. BioWare has been working hard to boost the game, bring in new content and bring back old players with game update 1.2, yet players are still complaining that server population is dropping. So now BioWare is looking at ways that they can combat the low server populations in SWTOR. Being part of a low pop server is no fun at all when you want to do something with other players (and this is an MMO,…
Devs Admit Players were Right on Warzone Scoring and Rewards
Players have been complaining since the launch of 1.2 that some things just didn’t seem right in PvP. At first, BioWare denied any problem but now, the devs have come forward to address the issue after more investigation. BioWare says they are aware of some of the problems with warzones and that they appreciate the feedback. As usual, they said they are working on a solution to complaints. But is there proposed solution going to be the kind of fix most players are looking for? Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson had this to say on the forums: Hey folks, Some follow up news from observations of play and feedback over the weekend. In the next couple of days we will be deploying a small patch that will address the following issues: As discussed, minimum medals to gain rewards will go from 3 to 1 to better reward those who are…