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,…
Intergalactic Intel: Making change
“Do you ever visit the official forums?” I laughed at my guild mate’s naiveté . “Why on earth would I visit the official forums?” “Well there are a lot of good ideas on it.” “And a bunch of whining babies…” “Well, how else do you get Bioware to pay attention to you?” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! Our topic this week is something that isn’t just limited to The Old Republic, but games in general. Being a veteran gamer I’ve seen games change, different communities evolve and adapt. I’ve also seen companies literally go to war with their customers sowing seeds of distrust and discontent. So this week we’re going to go over ways gamers can work with developers to create a better product. Step 1: Think before you post Before you start with a forum post raging about how they nerfed your class, or a fight…
Q &A for Friday May 28- Ranked Warzones is on track for 1.3!
This week’s Q&A is a special edition because we have great info on the upcoming 1.3 game update. One thing that many players are very excited about is the inclusion of ranked warzones. But that’s not all that we should expect for game update 1.3. Let’s see more of this special edition Q&A to find out. Here’s a snippet: >llesna: Can you please tell us why the upcoming Legacy additions for Game Update 1.3 are character-specific rather than Legacy-wide? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Legacy Perks have a different purpose than global unlocks and are specifically designed to enable players to customize each individual character. Since you may not care about Space XP or running the Bonus Series missions on one character it is important that you’re not paying a premium that is calculated at the expense of 8 or more characters all gaining this benefit. This also means the…
Will it Help SWTOR to Get Megaservers?
Big changes and additions are happening with SWTOR. In addition to the announcement of the new patch (1.3) coming soon, there was also a big exodus at the BioWare Austin studio. This was a huge disappointment to me because I went there, toured the studio with David Bass, saw employees hard and work and also saw how much all of the staff there seemed to care so much about their job. It really is a sad day to see so many people let go who really cared about the game and have put so many years of hard work into the game. Of course it is the nature of the game that staff gets let go from a video game project once the game is launched and less work is needed for it but letting community manager Stephen Reid go was a real blow. Why would a successful game let…
LucasArts to Reveal Secret Title at E3
E3 is coming up and we all know that this is often a great opportunity for surprises. One of the best surprises to come out of events like E3 is a new game title and that’s what LucasArts is rumored to have coming for us. As reported by 8Bit Envy: E3 is a great time for surprises, and wouldn’t it be great if LucasArts finally revealed Battlefront 3? Now I’m not saying they will, but when you get an invitation to come see an “unannounced game in development,” you can’t help but be optimistic. So, being the curious lad that I am, asked whether or not this unannounced title would have lightsabers in it. The answer wasn’t confirmed, but it wasn’t denied either. There has been numerous posts about Battlefront 3 being in the works, then being canceled, so anything is possible. LucasArts did confirm they were using the Unreal…
Population Estimates for the Top 20 US Servers
Just how many people are playing SWTOR in the US right now? We keep hearing the term “ghost town” being tossed around but is it really that bad? Here are the top 20 US servers: Top 20 US The Fatman (PvP US East) Population ≈ 2005.625 Jedi Covenant (PvE US East) Population ≈ 1140 Drooga’s Pleasure Barge (PvE US West) Population ≈ 860 The Harbinger (PvE US West) Population ≈ 840 Canderous Ordo (PvE US East) Population ≈ 690 The Swiftsure (PvP US West) Population ≈ 670 Lord Adraas (RP PvE US East) Population ≈ 620 The Ebon Hawk (RP PvE US East) Population ≈ 610 Ajunta Pall (RP PvP US West) Population ≈ 580 Jung Ma (RP PvP US East) Population ≈ 580 Mind Trick (PvE US East) Population ≈ 470 The Shadowlands (PvE US East) Population ≈ 440 Shadow Hand (PvE US East) Population ≈ 420 Zakkeg Beast…
SWTOR vs SWG Survey Results: Week 1
Remember that survey we told you about recently from Gemtrix? If you took part in the SWTOR vs SWG survey, you can now see the first week’s results. This survey will be ongoing so each week there will be updates to see how the survey continues to unfold. These results are as of May 24th, 2012 @ 9:18am EST. There are 1,096 responses in record here. Week 1 results are just the beginning. Each week this will continue. So if you didn’t participate in the survey yet, head back over and answer the questions. Your results will be part of week 2. Gemtrix.com said: There are a couple things that you should keep in mind: All questions, and responses are optional. As such, any voter is free to skips questions, vote for multiple line items, etc. This means that anyone is free to say that they prefer SWTOR, and SWG,…
TOR TV: Level 50 PvP Young Guns Music Video
This Video depicting current level 50 PvP gameplay in Star Wars The Old Republic on the Lord Ieldis server, is created by youtube user John James. The SWTOR community really needs more contributions like this. It’s a great and rally fun video – Body type 4 just makes it amazing :p Check it out: Interested in SWTOR Movies? We have new movies most weekdays here on swtorstrategies! Have suggestions for movie we ought to feature? Get in contact with us
Combat the Haters: Tell Us Why You Love SWTOR
Due to recent events, there have been many putting down the game of SWTOR and many who have lost faith in BioWare. When I tweet an update or a story, I get several responses telling me how “SWTOR has died” and the game sucks. I believe in freedom of expression and I respect the opinions of others and their rights to have such opinions but that doesn’t mean I agree with them. I’m not sure SWTOR is dead yet. I can understand the dissatisfaction some people are feeling. There are some things that I was really bummed at about the game, too. But there are also a lot of great things about the game. I feel like some people didn’t give it a fair enough chance. They tried it and thought ‘it doesn’t have everything I want’ and they quit. While some players were let down by the game, there…
‘Kinect: Star Wars’ Composers Share the Creative Process
Kinect Star Wars Composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster tell MTV more about what it’s like to create the music behind the game. Regardless of what some critics said of the game, the soundtrack gives Star Wars fans everything they want and more. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s moving and it all came thanks to two very talented composers. As gamers, we don’t always think about the work that goes into the soundtracks of games like this. Yet when we walk away from the game and go to school or work, the music stays with us. We hum it aloud or in our head and we look forward to when we get the chance to play again. MTV Multiplayer interviews the two composers about their work on the game: MTV Multiplayer: Was John Williams or George Lucas involved at all in the creation of the tracks for the game? How…
SWTOR Smuggler Gunslinger Leveling Build For 1.2
Today we have another build form the guys over at www.swtorsavior.com and continuing the trend of builds for 1.2 that will help you if you need a hand leveling up fast. This one is for the Smuggler and the Gunsliner advanced class. Here is the build: SWTOR Smuggler Gunslinger Leveling Build: Here are some rotations you can use with the build: Your best bet on a companion with this build is Corso Riggs or Bowdaar. Here is the rotation to use from level 10-20: Aimed Shot > Sabotage Charge > Vital Shot > Charged Burst > Flurry of Bolts At level 20 you will get a skill named Shock Charge and your rotation to use is: Aimed Shot > Sabotage Charge > Shock Charge > Vital Shot > Charged Burst > Flurry of Bolts Lastly at level 40 you will get a skill called Incendiary Grenade and at that point…