BioWare deployed a new update to the public test servers yesterday with a new patch to Game Update 2.0. check out the full patch notes below. Annoyingly, many of these changes (Sniper changes, Missile Salvo change, etc.) aren’t new today but were put in a couple days ago. I don’t know why they listed them again. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Alacrity no longer reduces the channel duration of Force Stasis. Sith Warrior Alacrity no longer reduces the channel duration of Force Choke. Jedi Consular Sage Empowered Throw now also increases the damage dealt by Sever Force. Shadow Force Breach’s accuracy debuff now lasts 30 seconds (up from 18) when Combat Technique is active. Kinetic Combat Bombardment now makes Project generate 15% more threat per point and cost 15% less Force per point while Combat Technique is active. Slow Time now has a 9second cooldown and costs 20 Force. Damage remains…
Carrie Fisher to be in New Star Wars Film
The Internet world has been buzzing about whether or not Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill (which confirmed there are talks) and Harrison Ford will return to the big screen for the next installment in the Star Wars story. In an interview with Palm Beach Illustrated, Carrie puts some of those questions to rest. When asked if she could confirm whether or not she would play the role of Princess Leia, she said “Yes.” The interview was fun (in typical Carrie fashion) and went something like this: What do you think Princess Leia is like today? Elderly. She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home [laughs]. I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle. And still wearing the bagel buns? The bagel buns and the bikini, because probably she has sundowners syndrome. At sundown, she thinks that she’s 20-something….
Star Wars: 1313 Development on Hold?
We’ve told you about Star Wars:1313 here in the past and have been following the production of the game to give you updates whenever possible. Well, it now seems like the development has stalled out. Will this be a temporary pause or is the whole game on shutdown? We don’t actually know right now. As Eucantina explains: The very impressive looking and possibly next-generation video game Star Wars: 1313 hasn’t been heard about since its last major showing at Star Wars Celebration VI in August. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and thus LucasArts, word started to spread that Disney’s video game focus would be more on casual games than AAA console titles like 1313 was shaping up to be. Some fans started to get nervous. What did this mean for 1313? Would development shift to a different developer as Disney decided how to best use LucasArts? Would the game be cancelled? It wouldn’t be the first time an anticipated Star…
BioWare Co-founder Ray Muzyka Seeking a Quieter Life
We know that Ray Muzyka, BioWare co-found and one of the “doctors” left BioWare back in September, along with Greg Zeschuk. Both said they were leaving to pursue other passions but we really didn’t have a lot of information at the time about where they were going or what they were doing. Muzyka told the Edmonton Journal that he was seeking a job that would allow him more time at home with his family and less travel. A parent myself, I can fully understand this. It really can take a toll on you and the family when you’re constantly traveling. “I was in the air probably 250 to 280 days the last couple of years,” Muzyka said. “”That was part of the reason why, after five years spent running the division of a public company, I just knew I needed to seek a new beginning and try and do something…
Display Name Only Log In – Coming April 2, 2013
BioWare posted a new article earlier today regarding future login detalis. More security is always a welcome change. Too many people reuse passwords against the same email account. A few years ago BioWare’s Never winthers night website got hacked an all user data was stolen. When there is a new website that gets hacked, and loses a massive list of email addresses and hashed passwords (that get cracked) enterprising people from certain geographic locations take those and run them across multiple logon services, generally games, and see if people are stupid enough to use the same password on multiple services. They are. So, switching to to Display name makes this a little harder. I may or may not know a little about this particular situation and it DOES make things more secure, they should never have used email as the unique identifier in the first place. Anyways. Check out the article below or over at the…
Ready Check Slated for 1.7.3
One of the features that have been asked most about for a while, it the feature “Ready Check”. If your not used to mmorpg’s, ready check is a common feature used in most game of this sort. A ready check is an automatic survey that can initiated by a party or raid leader. Anyone promoted to raid assistant by the leader is also able to use the command. The command is initiated by typing /readycheck, or by clicking the “Ready Check” button in the raid ui panel. All members of the Operaton will receive a popup window that asks if the player is ready. If all players click “yes”, the person who initiated the check will receive a message indicating so. If a player clicks “no” or does not respond within the prescribed time limit a message will be sent to the leader indicating that they are either not ready or…
New Locations for the Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour
BioWare just announced that whey will continue with there Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour. Today 8 new Cities was revealed covering covering seven places around the United States, and one place in Europe – Cologne, Germany when the video game conference is on. Today we are excited to announce that the Community Cantina Tour will be visiting eight more cities in 2013! Starting with Dallas, TX in May, we will be continuing our series of Community Meet & Greets. If you haven’t been able to attend an event before, these meet & greets are a chance for fans to meet, drink, and talk with our community team and developers. Before each event, we will be publishing a community blog and forum post with detailed information about the location, date, times, and how you can RSVP for the event. Please take a look at the list below to see if a Community Cantina Tour is coming to…
Community Cantina: San Francisco
Marshall Carr from TorWars attended the Community Cantina meetup in San Francisco (super cool!) and was kind enough to share the events and news with all of us. You can get the full story, along with pictures, at his blog post on TorWars but here are some highlights: It was his first Community Cantina but not his first meet and greet with BioWare There were some rockin’ costumes and prizes handed out Everyone looks like they had awesome fun without us! *sadface* The developers in attendance were the newly promoted Community Manger Eric Musco, Senior Producer Blaine Christine, and Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert. They received Tauntaun Fawn and Kowakian Monkey Lizard pets And the most important part to those of us at home- the Q&A event If you head over to Marshall’s blog and full write-up, you can see all the questions and answers that were discussed at this…
So you hit level 50….now what? Gearing up at level 50.
As with most games, reaching max level (lvl 50) is only the beginning. Once there, players can begin the journey to gain the best gear this game has to offer to take on new challenges and harder operations. This guide is meant to provide an explanation to how this is accomplished and hopeful clear up some of the confusion.
Eric Musco Explains Differences between ROTHC and 2.0
Many players are asking what the difference between Rise of the Hutt Cartel and game update 2.0 are. Changes are coming to SWTOR, which is always a good thing, but some of this is confusing to players. Do you need to purchase ROTHC? Where is the clarification on this issue? Here, Eric Musco explains the difference: Here is a bit more clarification on the differences between Rise of the Hutt Cartel and 2.0 put as simply as I can! What subscribers will get without purchasing Rise of the Hutt Cartel: Class changes and balancing levels 1-50 Any itemization/world changes which affect levels 1-50 Legacy Achievements What subscribers will get if they do purchase Rise of the Hutt Cartel: New Operation: Scum and Villainy Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond Upgraded level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints Level cap increase to 55 All new Makeb storyline The new Operation and Hard Mode Flashpoints in Game Update 2.0…
Possible fix for failed character copy to SWTOR PTS
Are you having issues with doing a character copy to the PTS in SWTOR? You’re not alone if you’ve been experiencing a bug with this process but some SWTOR players have found a fix that seems to be working for everyone who tries it. Take off all of your companions’ gear and put them in cargo bay, then transfer your character. Quick and easy fix! Some players are reporting that taking off the ship’s parts may also work. If you’re getting the message “We were unable to process your requested move of characters to Public Test Server. This account has reached the 12 character maximum on the server.” Then this fix will not help you. The probably with this is when you already have characters on both the open and the closed test servers. BioWare should be fixing this one but if we come across a fix, we’ll update to…
German and French CMs for SWTOR Follow Joveth Out of BioWare
What’s happening at BioWare? We can’t be certain but it definitely doesn’t make you feel good when first Joveth left and now both Lars Malcharek and Tony Moreno, the German and French community managers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. All the SWTOR Community Managers are leaving the scene. It’s unknown at this time whether any of these mean left on their own or were let go by BioWare but we’ll probably never known since the conditions of their exit probably also included a gag order of some type. So what does it mean for the SWTOR communities in the US, Germany and France? Will this open the door to new staff members or will the already-small staff of BioWare SWTOR just continue to dwindle? If you’re curious about what all of this means, Eric Musco did stop by the forums today to leave some type of feedback: Hello JPryde, You…
Public test realm: Game Update 2.0 PTS Update Patch Notes Last Updated: 2/28/2013
BioWare have updated the Public test realm with a new patch to game update 2.0. Below are the patch notes: Game Update 2.0 PTS Update Patch Notes These notes detail changes made to the PTS server on 2/26/2013. These changes may only apply to the PTS server. Classes and Combat Jedi Knight Guardian Guardian Slash will now correctly deal damage to nearby enemies when it deals the killing blow to a target affected by your armor reduction. Vigilance Plasma Brand no longer requires an enemy target to be affected by the Guardian’s Sunder Armor. Defense Guardians will now receive the correct stat bonus from Blade Barrier. Sith Warrior Juggernaut Crushing Blow will now correctly deal damage to nearby enemies when it deals the killing blow to a target affected by your armor reduction. Vengeance Shatter no longer requires an enemy target to be affected by the Juggernaut’s Sunder Armor. Immortal Juggernauts…
SWTOR Legacy Achievement Guide
Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic One exciting feature coming to SWTOR in patch 2.0 is the Legacy Achievements. MMORPGs are especially prone to building these new achievements to add more to the game. It’s a popular feature, especially in games in the past 5 years or so. It’s no surprise that SWTOR has them, too but the new update will have Legacy Achievements, meaning you don’t get them on just one character but on all of your characters who share a legacy. The interface for the Legacy Achievements is found in your legacy panel right below the reputation tab. This will allow you to see your progress as you complete tasks. There are seven major categories in which you gain achievements: Companions – Each companion has three achievements to unlock that lets you gain certain amounts of affection with them….
1.7.1 Patch Notes 2/27/2013
Servers are not up yet as downtime has been extended until 10am CST. Below are the patch notes – without the Cartel market changes. We covered that in another post earlier today, so if you want to read up on that, check out this post. Check out the patch notes below: General Players will no longer be prevented from logging into the game if they had a large number of “Classic” version items refunded with Game Update 1.7. Players will now correctly be taken to the character selection or server selection screen upon disconnect rather than becoming stuck at the loading screen. Group Finder Group Finder role selections will no longer work incorrectly if a player in your vicinity gains their Advanced Class. Items and Economy Repair costs for modifiable gear will now calculate based only on the equipped mods. All repair costs have been reduced by 50% until Game…
Cartel Market Update: February 26th, 2013
BioWare posted a new blog post regarding what updates to the cartel market we can expect after today’s maintenance. Looks like they are discounting everything to get people to use their Coins, so that when 2.0 drops with a whole bunch of new stuff they will have to buy more. Check it out on the officiel website, or or check out our copy paste below: New Items Hi everyone! This week, the Cartel Market will be updated to add the new items below. Gold Scalene Armor Set (1,440 Cartel Coins) Built from ancient Gree schematics, the Gold Scalene Armor Set is a collection of adaptive gear with no modifications. This armor set is available to any Class. Hypercrate: Crime Lord’s Cartel Packs (7,344 Cartel Coins, Limited Time 15% Discount!) Players can now purchase a Hypercrate containing 24 Crime Lord’s Cartel Packs. Hypercrate: Blockade Runner’s Cartel Packs (7,344 Cartel Coins, Limited Time 15%…
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Movie?
Will there be a Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic movie? Many fans would be ecstatic to hear this is true but we can’t find any evidence that it’s valid. With Star Wars spinoff rumors in the mix, it’s easy to see how some could quickly believe this one might be true but Karpyshyn himself said on Twitter that he knows nothing about it. @agentjaspor @headgeek666 this would be awesome, but I haven’t heard anything about a #KOTOR movie. But I’m not at #bioware anymore so… — Drew Karpyshyn (@DrewKarpyshyn) February 23, 2013 Ain’t It Cool News, cited sources at BioWare and said that Karpyshyn was secretly working on a screenplay for a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic feature film being developed by Lucasfilm. It’s a nice thought but doesn’t seem to be true. However, this wouldn’t be the first time a rumor was denied when it was leaked too…
Joveth Gonzalez leaves BioWare
Bioware Community Manager for Star Wars: The old republic, Joveth Gonzalez took the forums last night with a farewell speech. We do’t know who will take his place yet, or what it will mean for the SWTOR Community, but this is the 3rd community manager Star Wars: The old republic have had since it was first announced. We don’t know either if more BioWare layoffs is on the way, but Joveth Gonzalez tweets he is leaving his position at BioWare to follow new opportunities. And for those of you asking, I’m moving on to a new opportunity. More details, as always, SOON (TM) — Joveth Gonzalez (@Joveth) February 25, 2013
SWTOR Voice Actors Video
Do you want to learn more about the voice actors who play in SWTOR? Want to see who plays what and the other previous roles they have held? You might be surprised to see some of the people taking part in SWTOR. Here’s an awesome video (you may have seen before) that shows the voice actors for each playable class. Trooper – Jennifer Hale, Brian Bloom Smuggler – Kath Soucie, Maury Sterling Jedi Consular – Athena Karkanis, Nolan North Jedi Knight – Kari Wahlgren, David Hayter Bounty Hunter – Grey DeLisle, Tom Spackman Imperial agent – Jo Wyatt, Bertie Carvel Sith Inquisitor – Xanthe Elbrick, Euan Morton Sith Warrior – Natasha Little, Mark Bazeley music used in the video: Faster Does It from Kevin MacLeod’s
New world boss spotted on Corellia in 2.0
It looks like a new world boss have been added to Corellia in patch 2.0. The big guy goes by the name of Lucky and is a “Dread-Seeded Rancor”. Not much is known about him yet, but it’s apparently a pretty straight up tank-and-spank fight. So far there is no reports of any good loot. A few greens and level 9 mats. Hopefully they’ll fix that when 2.0 drops. Below is his stats: It looks like maybe 8 competent raiders could kill it in 63-66 gear? If so, it might be just a fun thing for casuals to be able to experience without having to gear grind. I find it strange though that it’s out on Corellia, when there’s no new content out there and nothing else for level 50-55 players on the planet. Maybe be course he is a “Dread-Seeded Rancor” and there is a bunch of evil growth, around the area were he…
BioWare Doctors to Speak on Sex and Video Games at GDC
BioWare writer David Gaider plans to tackle the issues of sex in video games at this year’s Games Developers Conference (GDC). He will be holding a talk called “Sex in Video Games”, which is explained below: Games have reached the point where realistic portrayals of sex and adult relationships are possible, but what does this mean to us as developers? How much responsibility do we have in addressing issues of sexism and sexuality, and are we inadvertently making statements about what is acceptable, even when we don’t mean to say anything at all? Our industry is struggling with a conflict between the desire to be taken seriously as an art form, and the desire to avoid addressing social issues because what we make are “just games.” These things have implications on our sales, and while they can be addressed, it can only happen if we are willing to acknowledge that…
The Gree Event and Star Wars Canon
If you’ve been enjoying the Relics of the Gree event, you’re not alone. However, this event has sprung some great conversation about the Gree and whether or not they are portrayed correctly within the game and the storyline in SWTOR. Is it accurate and keeping with the story and the timeline of events? Some players have questions about the legitimacy of the story and the rewards that come from these events. For example, we know that the Gree as a people are supposed to be far advanced but many of the galactic weapons and quest rewards don’t’ see all that amazing. It looks nice, yes, but it doesn’t seem to fall under the very rare and powerful that the Gree are best known for. And then there is the issue of the droids. In story, the Gree are known for disliking droids. In fact, it can almost be called a…
BioWare Doctors to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC
GDC 2013 is coming up soon and word has it the BioWare founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk are getting a very special recognition- the lifetime achievement award. Personally, I’m happy to see them be recognized since the docs have really contributed a great deal to the gaming world, including SWTOR. BioWare founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk have been responsible for the formation of one of the top RPG studios in the world. That creation has led to some truly fantastic games such as Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect series, Baldur’s Gate, the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, and many more. Suffice to say, BioWare has crafted some of the greatest RPGs in gaming history, and at this year’s Game Developer’s Choice Awards at GDC, the founding doctors will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to the art and…
UPDATE: SWTOR 2.0 Armor sets
With game update 2.0 – Rise of the Hutt Cartel live on the public test servers, we finally get the chance to see all the awesome new armor and weapon artwork. The Smuggler armor is sweet. The agent is cool, but I LOVE that Bounty Hunter helmet. Looks like the helmet from old Boba Fett concept art. If you haven’t already done so, you can read all about yesterdays update on Rise of the Hutt Cartel here, and check out the NEW 55 level Class Abilities Video here Update: Lightsaber from the-old-republic.ru mailed us a new video showing all the Arkanian gear sets in action. This is live demonstration: