Oh noes! You cannot access your SWTOR server! Can’t get on the forums, either? You’re not alone. Remember those maintenance windows I told you about last week? Well, we are officially in Maintenance Window #2 right now. This update will last until 12am GMT and officially ends the pre-launch period. Stephen Reid tweets (as he heads off to the Austin launch party): “#SWTOR servers will be back up at 11PM CST (9PM PST / 12AM EST / 5AM GMT / 6AM CET).” Reminder: Maintenance Window #2 Date: Evening of December 19th (CST) Time: 6PM CST (4PM PST/7PM EST/12AM GMT/1AM CET) All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to complete before 11PM CST, and will mark the end of Early Game Access for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. So… what are you going to do while the servers are down? UPDATE: all servers…
The Old Republic already has over 1 million players – analyst
Are you in SWTOR early access? If so, you could be part of 1.5 million gamers who are already experiencing what SWTOR has to offer. Pre-order customers like yours truly have been enjoying the early access offered by BioWare which served as a great incentive for people to lay down some cold hard cash on the game before it’s official launch. While the big day is not until tomorrow, reports say that 1.5 million people could already be in the game. We have been getting in by “waves” of people at a time, in the order in which our pre-order codes were put in after purchase. While this was intended to ease the access and spreadout login queues, there have still been some long queues for access, especially throughout the weekend. At its worst point on Saturday night, it took me two hours to get into the server that my…
Old Republic will ‘live or die’ on future content Says BioWare
BioWare recently admits to what most of us have already beensaying- SWTOR will live or die based on the future content. Because they knowthis, they also have a very “aggressive” plan to develop their future content. Theyunderstand the importance of their post-launch content and will be putting agreat deal into ensuring gamers get just what they paid for and what theyexpect. BioWarediscusses their “aggressive plans” for post-launch and senior writer AlexFreed says, “I can’t talk about specifics for post-release content. I cansay yes, there are many people working on that content – MMOs live or die basedon adding new content, refining old systems, adding new ones – all of that.”” He clarifies that they are not doing a single-player gamewhere you just put it out on the market and then you’re happy that it’s outthere. Instead, they want to continuously offer more through the game, addressplayer concerns and keep an…
The Guild Sphere: Honour Guard
This week I sat down with some of the leadership from Honour Guard, a PvE focused Republic guild playing on Basilisk Droid (EU-PVP) Hope you enjoy the Interview. Where did your guilds name come from? When creating the guild we discussed various options for the guild name, we eventually went with Honour Guard because we wanted an honourable guild that plays fairly and gets along with others. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentence description of your guild? We are a group of skilled members who have had a lot of experience in MMO’s. We play fair and we always win. We also play Garry’s Mod How did your guild come about? Shortly after the announcement of SWTOR myself and the other two guild leaders decided to create a guild with a friendly atmosphere, prior to creating the guild we were members of a guild in Star Wars:…
Intergalactic Intel: Crafting
“Okay so the quest is over here an-…Nigel?” “Yes?” “Where is Qyzen? We need him for this quest.” “Oh he’s off doing diplomacy.” “…” “I don’t care what you say. This crafting system is awesome.” Welcome back to another Intergalactic Intel! I hope everyone is enjoying early access as we begin to prepare for release! We’re working on getting Galactic transmission up, apparently there were some youtube no-nos we crossed we’ll have the audio at least up by the end of the day. Today we’re talking about crafting. Now as a long time MMO-Player, I loathe crafting. Various things piss me off, mostly the collecting of items that are needed for crafting, but as a hard core raider not going for the bonuses that crafting gave you would be gimping myself to the point of uselessness. (Not really but min-maxing is important!) With The Old Republic, crafting has taken a…
SWTOR Servers: Choose Your Server with TorStatus.Net
Have you been dealing with long SWTOR queues? The server my guild was auto-assigned to sports about an hour queue during peak hours and weekends. In the morning and the middle of the day, I have no problem getting right on but at peak times, you better pray you don’ t get booted or you’re waiting to get back in. However, we found a really neat tool to help you choose your server based on population and what you want. Some players like a nice cozy server with a low pop where they can feel like they have the in-game version of Cheers where “everybody knows your name.” Other players want a mid-to-high pop server where there is always someone to do something with, no matter what time of day you’re playing. There are advantages to each side and it really depends on what you want from your server. TorStatus.net…
First Level 50s in the United States Emerge
Still days before the official launch of SWTOR, we hear reports of people reach max level already. There are a few level 25+ in my guild already and they all have jobs and/or families and other responsibilities. At least a couple of them will reach 50 easily before December 20th. Jaxon reports on the forums early this morning: “Anyone beat this time? 2:10am CST 12/17/2011 Ding 50 Jaxon Server: Hedarr Soongh Republic Commando Some replies commented that he was not actually the first to 50, with one saying, “There is a level 50 on Lord Adraas (an RP server beat you!) that was max’d before this.” Either way, it’s safe to say Jaxon was probably in the top 10 to reach 50 in the United States. This does bring up a good point, however, as we read the comments and we see that some “haters” just don’t care much for…
Star Wars Galaxies Obituary: SWG is Dead
Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG 26 June 2003 – 15 December 2011 After more than eight long years (live playtime), it’s time to say goodbye to Star Wars Galaxies. The MMORPG from a galaxy far, far away is officially dead. But it wouldn’t go out without one last big bang from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SWG held a series of farewell events to help say goodbye to the MMO once and for all. While it seems it is being forced into an early grave by bigger and better things (SWTOR anyone?) this does not mean that SWG will go quietly into that dark night. Let’s take a look back on SWG, according to Wikipedia: “Star Wars Galaxies (abbv. SWG) was a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts. Its servers shut down on December 15, 2011.” And more facts: On 27 August…
Friday update – Choose Your Side: Choose Your Side: Smuggler vs. Sith Warrior
Yesterday Bioware released the fourth and final installment in the “Choose Your Side” series, pitting the Sith Warrior vs the Smuggler class. In the video, the developers give you details on the type of playstyle and story you can expect from each class and then pit them against each other in a one-on-one battle to the death. From the moment we announced the eight classes in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ fans have been pitting them against each other, arguing who would have the advantage in a one-on-one fight. The hallways of BioWare echo this debate, with the writers, combat designers and other developers all chiming in on which classes they feel will have the upper hand. In the fourth and final installment of “Choose Your Side,” writers and developers discuss the ins and outs of the Smuggler and Sith Warrior classes, highlighting some of the skills and abilities that…
SWTOR Extreme – Collectors Edition Lounge & Items
Ever wondered what the collectors edition grants you? Well in our latest video you can find out! CE holders have access to a special “lounge” area within their space fleet, and once there, they can purchase some unique items from vendors. Our latest commentator, Duke, gives his commentary on what he thinks of these items and shows off what they look like. Hope you enjoyed these videos and we have many more coming soon 🙂
Pictures from SWTOR Paris Launch Party
If you were not in Paris for the SWTOR launch party, you can at least feel a little bit like you were by checking out these awesome photos from the launch party. There were droids and storm troopers and guest speakers and more! Details of the Paris Launch Party: Virgin Megastore Champs-Élysées 52 avenue Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris With Emmanuel Lusinchi, Technical Design Director. See all of the photos here. Other launch events: Austin, TX- UPCOMING Monday, Dec. 19th at 10pm CST – Tuesday, Dec. 20th at 1am CST Best Buy – South Austin 4970 Us Hwy. 290 W South Town Square Austin, TX 78735 With Studio Creative Director James Ohlen and Executive Producer Rich Vogel, as well as other members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team. London Wednesday 14th December 9pm – Thursday 15th December 100 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL With Alex Freed – Senior Writer…
Warning on SWTOR Bans
What will get you banned from SWTOR? That’s a great question as we ease into the pre-launch and the eventual December 20th launch of the game. Some players are finding out that the ban-hammer just might be more sensitive than we thought. It seems that there are some things that are auto-flagged as bannable offenses and many of them are integrated into the chat. This user on Reddit warns other players that the ban-o-meter is pretty sensitive in SWTOR right now (which might not be a bad thing, really): “i was having a conversation in hutta about Aion, and the terrible time we had with RMT and botters. I said (and got an email verifying it) “i just hope we don’t see aion-style spammers ala ‘W W W . B U Y T H I S’ its annoying!” got an email saying I was permabanned for “Harassment – Advertising (mass…
The Sith Inquisition: Firsthand Obliteration
As all of us eagerly shove our heads into The Old Republic as deep as we possibly can, there are a few things we’d like to mention. First off, make sure to thank the Devs for their hard work. Both on twitter and email, a nice way to make sure Bioware knows they did a good job is by letting them know directly. The more they see positive energy from the community instead of questions or complaints, the more likely they are to keep at what they’re doing and give us a few solid expansions. In addition we’ve had a couple major news updates come through to share with you all. The first is that regular maintenance has gotten under way, and we have a pseudo schedule to go along with for them. You can find the full post detailing those times Here. They aren’t extreme, but the last few…
SWTOR Security Key Vendor Items Available
As if you needed one more reason to invest in the SWTOR Security Key device or app and keep your account safe, there are awesome vendor items available as added incentive to those who get the security key devices. Yesterday I told you how the Mobile Security Key app is available for iOS devices. This means you can get that extra bit of security for your SWTOR account right on your phone or other device. But what I didn’t know then (before I had tried it myself) is that it comes with a bonus when you use it. it grants you access to an in-game Security Key vendor who gives you certain digital items you cannot get without it. You will find this NPC vendor in Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock (depending on your faction) and he’s found in the inner circle near one of the cargo hold pods. There…
SWTOR Stats: Start Choosing Republic- Imbalance in the Force
Uh-oh! It seems there is an imbalance in the force, my friends. Or rather an imbalance in the factions of SWTOR. Over on Taugrim.com, they provide some stats into the game and the faction choices that are being made on PvP servers so far. This is especially interesting to me since my guild is on a PvP server. The overall stats show 137,732 players have gone Empire and only 66,586 have gone Republic. This means that the Empire has 2.1 times the total population. That is a significant difference for sure. This is based on stats from the entire world population. Here is a snippet of the post that discusses this: Let’s take a look at faction and class data mined from the Pre-Launch Guild Program (PLGP): http://swtorprogress.com/members.php. This not a comprehensive set of data, but it is statistically significant set of data: 450k players, or ~30% of the predicted…
Upcoming SWTOR Maintenance Windows Announced – Tuesdays You Get Fresh Air
If you’re wondering just when the game will be unplayable and servers down for maintenance so you can go outside and see a bit of that thing called sunshine, then you’re in luck. The upcoming SWTOR maintenance windows have now been announced. Tuesday is the big day. So whatever it is that you do when you’re not playing SWTOR, this will be the day to get it done. An Official Community Blog post was made in regards to the upcoming maintenance windows that will help you know what to expect in the very near future. Tuesday is the big day and will most likely be the weekly reset day for the game but in addition to this, there will be some other times that maintenance will take place. Here is the listing of maintenance windows that are coming up: Maintenance Window #1 Date: Early hours of Friday, December 16th (CST)…
SWTOR Pre-Launch Waves Daily Update Thread: 8 Waves Today
Are you still waiting for your pre-launch email? At least one went out already today and Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid is updating everyone on the status on today’s SWTOR Pre-Launch Waves Daily Update Thread on the official forums. His original post this morning: “Morning everyone! We’re starting to send out more invites for today. Here’s the good news: overnight we decided to send out more invites than we had originally planned. However, we’ll be spacing those invites out, which means we’ll have more ‘waves’ than the previous four-per-day. We are inviting more people today than we did during yesterday. I’ll update this thread as we send invites. As a reminder, we’re also updating our official Twitter accounts (@SWTOR, @SWTOR_FR and @SWTOR_DE) with the invites as they sent; that’ll be more up-to-the-minute than this post. For anyone who’s not yet been invited, remember to have the email address no-reply@bioware.swtor.com…
The Guild Sphere: World Renown Legion
It’s Thursday and time to look at a new SWTOR guild. This time the “World Renown Legion” took the time to answer our questions. If you want your guild featured on swtorstrategies.com drop us a line. Where did your guilds name come from? The creator of the clan gave the original name “world rich leaders”. A year or so later, we changed the name World Renown Legion as the best name that we could come up with to match the WRL acronym. We pretty much go by {WRL} now. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? We are a brotherhood. We are a group of friends who value loyalty and respect regardless of the game we are playing. How did your guild come about? A young man from the Netherlands started the clan in late 2005, originally as a player hosted server on Star Wars Battlefront II….
Mobile Authenticator for iDevices Now Available!
Attention iPhone and iPod users, you now have an option for an additional layer of protection for your SWTOR account and who doesn’t want that when the game is as popular as it already seems to be? Nothing is more frustrating that putting a lot of time and money into a game and having your account hacked. The authenticator gives you that extra layer of security so you can worry less about someone else being able to get into your account. But if you already use an iDevice, it makes it easier to keep your authenticator right on your device instead of having to keep up with that little keychain thingy. “Keep your Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ account protected with the official Star Wars: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app for your iPhone and iPod Touch! The Star Wars: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app is an…
Some More Statistics on Where You are in the SWTOR Pre-Launch List
Yesterday we brought you some info about pre-launch order status and how to tell where you are in the list. We commented that it was based on incomplete data but it was pretty much the only thing out there. Well, now we have some more stats for you- also likely incomplete but what the heck? You have nothing better to do while you’re waiting to get in anyway, right? This Reddit poster says: “Based on the responses in jscoppe’s Early Access Tracking Thread (take 2), I’ve created a graph to show the distribution of preorder registration and Early Access acceptance.” The stats are designed to help you get an idea of where you stand on the list and when you might be able to get your invite for early access to the game- something that everyone who preordered and is not in yet is waiting to find out. …
Warning! Cannot be Unseen: Francis Awaits SWTOR Access
It’s day two of pre-launch for SWTOR and while several waves have gone out already, not everyone who preordered has gotten in yet. In fact, a great number of players still have not gotten into the game and some are not too happy about that at all. If you’re feeling bummed out as you wait for your early access, here’s someone who can relate. Francis called in sick for work, prepped his lightsabers and probably stocked up on loads of gamer snackages as he awaited the early access he was “guaranteed” to get on day 1 of the pre-launch. See what happens as he waits to get in… But be warned: once you’ve seen this, it cannot be unseen. Watch at your own risk (don’t say we didn’t warn you!) Francis is Upset about No Early Access to Star Wars the Old Republic
748 Pages of Rage- Why You Are Not in the SWTOR Pre-Launch Yet
If you’re still anxiously awaiting your chance to get into the pre-launch Early Entry experience, you are not alone. Two of my friends who pre-ordered on the day the game was available for order got in on the first wave of the first day. A few other friends made it in later the same day and some others got in today but lots of people I talk to are still waiting. If you’re feeling like a straggler, don’t worry; your time is still coming. For some people, this isn’t good enough. There are some very angry SWTOR fans who shelled out a great deal of cash up front to be able to get into the game as quickly as possible and some are mad they are not in yet. We were told by community staff that we would receive daily updates as each wave goes out until all pre-launch waves…
Early Access Developer Chat with Best Buy
Best Buy is trying to connect with gamers more than ever before and SWTOR might bring them that opportunity. The big box electronics retailer is trying to outdo smaller operations and specialty stores like GameStop for some time now. Fans of SWTOR had a great opportunity today, thanks to Best Buy. To help celebrate the beginning of Early Game Access, Best Buy hosted a developer chat with Game Director James Ohlen, Writing Director Daniel Erickson and also Lead End-game Designer Gabe Amatangelo. It all happened at 7pm Austin time on the Best Buy site. If you missed it, the transcript is now available to help you catch up on the details. Here is a snippet: Guest-197: What is your deployment schedule for future content? Gaming-BBY: >>James: We’re going to have a regularly cadence with our content updates, but we’re not going into specifics. Updates will include Flashpoints, Operations, Warzones, Solo Content,…
Intergalactic Intel: Building A Community
Intergalactic Intel: Creating a community “So the class previews are done?” My brother asked me as I began typing out the next week’s article.“Yeah. We’ve gotta get ready for release.” His eyebrow raised.“Really? Like what?”“Podcast, reviewing the spread sheets on sithwarrior.com, recruiting the empire team for world bosses…” Even I was surprised about the amount of work we had to do. Welcome back to Intergalactic Intel! I apologize for another late blog post, but I do come bearing something else! The first ever Galactic Transmission! I hope those of you who are in early access are enjoying. This week we’re talking about how to create an awesome community. Thus far we’ve covered a ton. But this week I’d like to look at a project. A project that requires everyone’s help. I’m talking about building a community. One of the reasons World of Warcraft has lasted so long is it’s…