With the news that Curse has fired all the Darth Hater team, we see a spur of conversations taking place about the game, its players and the community that revolves around the game. Some are saying that this is a sign of the community falling apart, a reflection of the current state of the game and some are even saying it’s BioWare’s fault for not caring enough about their game and its community. There are lots of different opinions but one very strong opinion comes from someone who was once a very big player in the SWTOR community. The guy who runs SWTOR Extreme YouTube account had some pretty harsh critical words for the SWTOR community: “The game had a massive audience yet some of the best content on the web, whether it was videos like my own or a websites blog/article, they got so little support and none of…
Darth Hater Team Let Go by Curse – Is This the End of Darth Hater?
If you follow DartHater.com, you probably noticed they have not posted any new content since the end of December. The rest of the community definitely noticed and it seems we now have a reason. The whole staff has been let go by Curse and no one knows whether or not they are going to try to revamp it with new staff or One of the most active members of the DH team, Jaspor, admits on Reddit that he is no longer working for them but he doesn’t seem to have any additional info on what will happen to the site in the future. In fact, it seems no one really has any information at all other than- they were let go. It was just back in September 2011 that Curse bought Darth Hater and made them a part of the Curse network. Most of the community seemed happy about it…
BioWare are hiring playtesters for Rise of the Hutt Cartel!
Are you living in the Austin area? BioWare Austin is hiring temporary playtesters for the “Rise of the Hutt Cartel” digital expansion coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Current and former players of all experience levels are encouraged to apply. SKILLS/REQUIREMENTS Must be 18 years of age or older Must not have previous professional game development experience Strong verbal communication skills Comfortable giving objective feedback (positive and negative) in a group setting Passion for SWTOR or other massively-multiplayer online games Available to work weekends
Damion Schubert Speaks on Phantom and Spymaster Gear Changes
If you spend any time in the forums the past day or so, you probably know that the community was upset regarding some changes to gear bought from the Cartel Market. Many players want their money back after spending cash in the Cartel Market for Phantom and Spymaster gear based on how it looked, only to have the appearance changed later. They see it as a bait-and-switch and while BioWare claims it wasn’t intentional, we can definitely see the point these players are making. So we were holding on to see when BioWare would chime in with a solution to this problem. Lead Designer Damion Schubert piped in to this thread about the issue: Hey, guys — We care a lot about the fact that you care about the appearances of your characters. In fact, the Mod system is my baby, largely because it allows players to customize their appearance…
Purchase More Character Slots for SWTOR
As we discovered recently, you can now purchase more character slots for SWTOR from the Cartel Market. This is great for people like me who suffer from alt-it is and like to have lots of different characters in the game. Massively brought us to news: Star Wars: The Old Republic’s 1.6.2 patch notes are now live on the game’s website. Along with a laundry list of tweaks and bug fixes, there are a couple of blurbs that might interest free-to-play players concerned about character slots. First of all, slot restrictions are now being enforced, so free players should see a maximum of two per server. Preferred status players get six slots per shard, while subscribers get 12. If you must know, the global active character limit is 350! The Cartel Market is selling additional slots at a cost of 600 Cartel Coins. But there are some players who are having issues with different…
TOR TV: Colicoid War Games – Solo
DISCLAIMER: You can potentially get banned for doing this as it falls under a game exploit. There are forum posts of people claiming to have been banned for doing stuff like this. My personal opinion is that this is very unlikely. Sure, he is getting to areas that he might not be supposed to be in, but it doesn’t really get you anything tangible, a couple thousand credits for 20 minutes maby? Regardless of this being an exploit or not, it’s still pretty awesome,
1.6.2 Patch Notes 1/8/2013
Servers are back up after today’s maintenance, and BioWare to the chance to push a new patch. This time we get tons of bug fixes were the biggest seems to be “The “Unify to Chest” armor color option now works correctly for players and companions. Also Tinsel Bombs can now be used on both friendly and hostile targets (Oh, it is on)! This new patch also ads two new armor sets to the cartel market and they look awesome! Check them out: ( Patch notes below the images) Cartel Market New Items Players can now unlock additional character slots! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins. The Newcomer Bundle is now available! It contains a wide range of items to help new players expedite their travels. Cost: 405 Cartel Coins (discounted by 50% for a limited time!). Two new armor sets, the Interstellar Privateer Armor Set and Clandestine Officer Armor Set, can now be purchased. Each…
Darth Malgus Versus Count Dooku DEATHMATCH
by FrelsAreN, DeviantART by lelmer77, DeviantART Jensaarai1 aka the Nerd-Rage Ranter, a video blogger on YouTube, is probably one of the greatest experts on Star Wars I have seen in some time. He appears to be well versed in all the movies, both of the Clone Wars series and the comic book series (Dark Horse). I have not heard him mention the novels in his analyses, but I wouldn’t put it passed him. Rest assured he is an expert on the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, which pretty much trumps those who only know about the movies when it comes to general Star Wars knowledge. What really impresses me is his unique knowledge on everything that is the lightsaber, which is impeccable. He made a 10 episode series throughout 2012, called the “Versus Series” where he pits Jedi against Jedi, Sith against Sith and Jedi against Sith in “what…
Attack of the guild
I am Elrik of the Alpha Strike Force (ASF) guild on the Jedi Covenant server and this is the newest column of SWToRStrategies.com called Attack of the guild. This monthly column will cover, different aspects of running a guild, offer hints and tips on guild management as well as insights on all the things they didn’t tell you when you signed up to become a leader in the guild. I have been running guilds/clans for about 5 years now and I have certainly seen my fair share of very rewarding as well as challenging times.
Flashpoint Guide: The Black Talon
Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic The Black Talon is the first Empire flashpoint you’ll encounter and it has the longest dialogue chain of any instance in the game. Since this is your first flashpoint, you’ll find it to be very easy but after your character reaches level 50, you can return and run this instance again in Hard Mode for a real challenge. For the first run, you’ll need to find a partner that you can work well with because it requires at least two people. Shortly after entering this flashpoint, you’ll have to make a decision of whether to allow the captain and the general of the ship live or to kill them. If you kill them, you’ll receive 200 Dark Alignment points and if you let the live, you’ll receive 200 Light Alignment points. Black Talon has a…
George Lucas Engaged- Congratulations and May the Force Be With You!
Good news for Star Wars creator, George Lucas. His firm announced this week that he is official engaged to long-time girlfriend, investment firm president Mellody Hobson. This is great news for the “Star Wars” and “Indian Jones” creator who has been dating Hobson for more than six years and it seems he may finally be in a position where he can commit to marriage. Known as a man who has been married to his work, it will be nice to see him have time to fully settle down with someone special. Hobson serves as chairwoman of DreamWorks Animation and is a financial contributor to ABC’s “Good Morning America” so she is no stranger to the film industry either. We wish the both of them the best in their upcoming nuptials and for a long and happy life together! Congratulations Lucas and Hobson! “”Star Wars” creator George Lucas will marry his longtime…
Not Everyone Supports SGR in SWTOR
It’s no surprise that not everyone likes same gender romance in SWTOR. It’s been battled before in other games and it has been opposed in SWTOR previously as well. But with the recent update from BioWare about their intentions to add it to the game, there was one forum user who became exceptionally vocal about it Reddit, after being banned from the SWTOR forums for 7 days for “hate speech””. Missandei believes that being gay is an illness. Before we completely jump on the guy, he also says that doesn’t make them bad people; just sick people… His belief is that he doesn’t care if you’re gay if you keep it to yourself and not try to “infect others” but when you try to convince others your gay ways are right, he feels intruded upon. He says, “I am against any promotion and any advertising of the unhealthy behavior such…
TOR TV: Baby Got Bubble
Jason Barnett is back with a new swtor parody. This time Sith Sorcerers get a little dose of Sir Mix-A-Lot. I haven’t played Sith Sorcerer my self yet, but this video was still funny. “”I aint talkin about ranked games, caus those dont happen anyway” lol Keep up the good work Jason.
Flashpoint Guide: The Foundry
The Foundry is the Imperial equivalent to the Maelstrom Prison Flashpoint and you can access it after completing the Dorin’s Sky/Boarding Party Flashpoint. The Foundry is an ancient weapon with the ability to create mass destruction. After a high level Republic master Jedi prisoner escaped and made his way to the Foundry, it’s your job to track him down, defeat him and claim the Foundry for the Empire. It’s recommended that everyone in your group be at least a level 35 or above before tackling this flashpoint. You’ll encounter 3 bosses and 2 mini-bosses throughout this instance. First Boss: The Foundry Guardian The first boss fight happens right at the beginning of this instance when you encounter The Foundry Guardian. He is a large droid with 71K HP but don’t be intimidated by his size. This is the standard tank and spank battle. However, he does have a channeled ability…
The SWTOR Community Cantina Tour Arrives in Paris and London!
Finally BioWare is coming back to Europe. This time with the Community Cantina Tour were they will be visiting London and Paris. So if you are in Paris Friday, February 1st, or London Saturday, February 2nd, 2013, you should definitely stop by and say hello. Check out the full announcement below: We’re happy to announce that the next two stops in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Friday, February 1st in Paris and Saturday, February 2nd in London. This is your chance to join the European Star Wars™: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A (featuring Executive Producer Jeff Hickman) as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted Tauntaun Fawn code and a code for a rare item from the Cartel Market. Additionally, you are invited to join us before the events at the Louvre and the London Film Museum to check out…
Cartel Market Poll Results
Last week, DarthHater asked players to provide feedback about their experiences with the Cartel Market and now they have the results in for all of us to see. Some are not very surprising- for example, nearly 90% of those who answered the survey are subscribers but it still provided some interesting info. It’s safe to say that many who are fans that visit fansites on a regular basis are subscribers. So we didn’t learn a lot about the free to play market but there are some great stats from this. You can see the full Survey Results for yourself here from DarthHater but let’s take a brief look at some of the categories and facts. 89% of those who answered were subscribers. 8% held preferred states and 3% were free to play When asked if they had bought any Cartel Coins with real money, the answers were 50/50 yes and no. 87%…
Star Wars: The Old Republic – State of the Game #2
It’s been awhile but BioWare decided to give us another State of the Game report. Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic post an update today to let us all know what is happening with the game. One of the biggest and most anticipated pieces of news: an update on Same Gender Romance in the game! Hickman says: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. As we have said in…
Cool SWTOR Lego Build
We love SWTOR Legos. In fact, I love any type of Lego and these sets are really amazing. If you love Legos and you play SWTOR (or you are a Star Wars fan), you’re going to love the SWTOR sets. We’ve written about them before but here we found a guy sharing some pretty awesome photos of his build and the final project of one of the sets. It costs $90 if you want one for yourself and no, it’s not even the most expensive SWTOR Lego set out there right now. In the first few photos, he shares the process of building the body and the wings, then attaching the wings, Malgus and the troopers, and the finished project. He also has some great pictures of the Republic Striker and Sith Fury together. Check it out and let us know if you have this set yourself. Here are some…
TOR TV: Quintessential Conversations: “One of Us”
This video was mailed to us by the guys in the guild Pandamonium. It is a time of struggle. It is a time of rebellion. It is a time for vacation. Wait, what? A few of the galaxy’s greatest heroes are due a little R&R, but one of their number is in for a totally different Pandamonium is a guild dedicated to enjoying SWTOR and having fun. These media projects exemplify the creativity, the passion, and the camaraderie that they share. They have many traits in common with other SWTOR guilds with groups doing pvp warzones, flashpoints, and many dedicated eight-man operations teams (now 7 going on 8). But these machinima projects let them take it one step further and go beyond what the game designers envisioned. They create there own fun movie that they can enjoy crafting together and then, more importantly, share with their fellow SWTOR fans.”” The video below…
Flashpoint Guide: Hammer Station
The second Flashpoint to open up in Star Wars: The Old Republic is Hammer Station. You only have to be a level 15 to go through this Flashpoint and for the most part, it’s rather easy. You’ll encounter 3 bosses with the last one being the most challenging. The main thing that you need to know before getting started is that you will face lots of droids. For this reason, you must have someone on your team that can CC droids are you’ll run into a lot of problems. When you first begin your mission, you have the option of going into the room at the end of the first long hallway you come to, if a member of your team has Bioanalysis. Otherwise, it would be pointless to go here because you’ll need to use Bioanalysis on the barrels to acquire the Detoxifying Fiber. If you do acquire this…
SWTOR PvP Imbalance and Possible Solutions
There is a lot of talk about PvP imbalance in SWTOR and the truth of the matter is it does seem to exist. Despite how hard a developer tries to prevent it, there will almost always be some imbalance amongst the classes. The real trick is to reduce this imbalance as much as possible. Some players believe SWTOR is struggling with that. Depending on who you ask, certain classes need to be nerfed and others need to be buffed and it’s the age-old battle with PvP in an MMORPG. The difference being that in SWTOR, some players have some pretty solid evidence on imbalance. Check out this screen shot for example: The fact that anyone, especially AOE, can hit for that hard in pretty outrageous. There definitely need to be some adjustments to the classes and to the types of damage but just what those adjustments are will vary according…
New SWTOR Lego Set is Out – 2013 SW Lego Series
If you’ve been waiting to see the new Lego Star Wars series for 2013, you won’t have to wait much longer. One set is already out and there should be more to come. This one is now available at Toys R Us and other LEGO dealers. LEGO Star Wars – Republic Troopers vs Sith Troopers (75001) Available at Toys R Us for $15.99. I think I’ll be heading out today to try to get a couple of sets if they have them available in my local store. Product Description The Republic troopers are under attack! Fire their blasters as you battle the red and black Sith troopers and their hover speeder with dual flick missiles! Recreate epic battle scenes from the Knights of the Old Republic video game in your own living room! Collect the never-before-featured Republic trooper helmet! Includes 4 minifigures with assorted weapons: 2 Republic troopers and 2…
Razer SWTOR Mouse – Only $96! Get It While It Lasts
Yesterday there was a great sale on the Razer SWTOR Mouse and before we could even tell you about it- it was over! It was the daily ShellShocker deal at 50% off and only $65. But if you missed that, you still have a chance to get this mouse and save some money. Don’t worry- it’s still on sale! Here on NewEgg (but we don’t know for how long) you can get it for only $96. That is still $43 off the original price. You can get this awesome mouse from Razer with a SWTOR theme for a low, low price. For $100, any Razer mouse is worth it. I’m a big fan of Razer products for gaming and work. I currently use the DeathStalker keyboard and Naga mouse and they are fantastic! I am at the computer all day- both for gaming and work – and this equipment is…
Flashpoint Guide: Maelstrom Prison
Maelstrom Prison is a Flashpoint for Republic only and it’s a continuation of Taral V but expect the battles to be harder than the ones you fought in that one. This Flashpoint is the equivalent to the Imperial Flashpoint The Foundry. Maelstrom is an enormous green cloud, which is made of raw energy and charged space dust that interferes with navigation computers and coordinates. This was a very important place during the Great Galactic War because this is where the Sith Empire hid a space station where Revan was held prisoner. To be a part of this Flashpoint, you don’t need to complete the quest Jedi Prisoner but you do need to be on it. You’ll encounter 3 bosses, a couple of mini-bosses and you’ll have the opportunity to fight a bonus boss. First Boss: X-37 Oppressor Droid The first boss you come across is the X-37 Oppressor Droid. He’s…