Search Results for: DICE

Gabe Amatangelo updates us on Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.3

Soeren Kamper

Gabe Amatangelo, Principal Lead PvP Designer on Star Wars: The old republic, have just posted a blog update on the Ranked Warzone feature wich is introduced with game update 1.3. It’s an interesting read, were Mr. Amatangelo explains how the system is going to work. In the current Game Update 1.3 PTS build, you’ll find a new button in the Warzone queue window: Queue Team Ranked. This button is available to any player that is in a group of eight level 50 players, and allows that group to queue up for Team Ranked Warzones with a single click. Team Ranked Warzones can only be participated in by a full team of eight players. If any player drops out of the queue before a match is made, the team will need to find a replacement and re-queue. It all sounds awesome, but in the end of the blog post, Gabe ask…

Read More

BioWare Layoffs

Soeren Kamper

It’s not news that Electronic Arts was about to layoff a large amount of people in the future. It was mention at the EA conferance call. What we diden’t know though was going to affect BioWare and Star Wars: The old republic. Today we learned otherwise as the doctors posted on the official SWTOR Forums. Hey folks, since you’re reading this you may likely have heard that we’ve done some restructuring here on the SWTOR team. Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality. Impacting people’s lives this way is always very hard, but we’re ensuring the affected people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect. Looking back at launch, we all came together and did something historic. We executed one of the largest, most successful and stable launches of any MMO yet in industry history. That is not an easy…

Read More

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s 1.3 Patch Revealed

Lisa Clark

We finally have some more details about the next SWTOR game update. Patch 1.3 is coming this summer (soon) and we have a bit of information to get us started regarding what we can expect from the game. IGN has an interview with BioWare lead game designer Daniel Erickson that gives us some more detail about 1.3 and what it has coming with it. Here is a snippet of that interview: IGN: The recent Rakghoul Plague Outbreak was the first world event in The Old Republic. How did you expect players to react, and how did that compare with the actual reaction? What are your plans for future world events? Daniel Erickson: We were hoping for three things: to surprise the players, to create community interaction, and encourage open world PvP on the PvP servers. All three were far more successful than we had any right to hope for. The…

Read More

Future Upgrades to Space Combat

Lisa Clark

One thing that I was super excited about before the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic was the space combat. I was not the only person who felt quite let down by what we ended up with. I wasn’t expecting it to be EVE Online but I did expect something a bit more than what we got. The good news is that BioWare is listening to player complaints and they have many plans in mind to improve space combat and features in the future. Until recently, they have remained fairly tight-lipped about this portion of the game but recently, Lead Designer Daniel Erickson revealed some secrets in an interview with Now Gamer. ”Full 3D space battles’ topped a recent poll of new features that SWTOR players want to see in the MMO; when asked how many new features were  still due to hit the game Daniel Erickson told NowGamer…

Read More

SWTOR Official Podcast: Episode 1 – “Rocket Boots”

Lisa Clark

 Eric Musco and Brooks Guthrie are happy to bring you episode one of the official Star Wars: The Old Republic podcast, “Rocket Boots”“. This was really great fun and I can’t wait to see and hear more from these guys. Here is the description from the first episode: In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Erickson and Damion Schubert to talk about what we saw in Game Update 1.2 and what we can expect as we look forward to Game Update 1.3. Also, David Bass stops by to tell us about how things went at PAX East and some of our convention plans for the rest of the year. If you have any questions or comments about the show, feel free to let us know. It’s really a fun and interesting little podcast and the guys are fun and entertaining. I can’t wait to see what they will do…

Read More

Tauntaun Pets Are Here!

Lisa Clark

Why is everyone huddled around the mailbox (even more than usual) today in SWTOR? Well, the pets for the 1.2 Legacy promotion have now arrived. If you were eligible for the free 30 days play time, you should also be seeing that reflected on your account before midnight Central Standard time tonight. Today is, in fact, the 25th and many were expecting these free bonuses yesterday (as our emails stated) but BioWare actually pushed the date up by one day so today by 1 minute before midnight, everyone eligible should have them. Hold off until then before you start submitting help tickets or angry forum posts. David Bass came in with this message to try to clear up the confusion: Hi everyone, I apologize for the confusion surrounding this but the Legacy Promotion page is accurate. If your account met the Legacy Promotion requirements by April 22nd, you will receive…

Read More

Is BioWare Scrambling to Keep Players in the Game?

Lisa Clark

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…

Read More

Guardian Angel: 1.2 Updates

Editor

Now that patch 1.2 is out, we can start adjusting our Guardian Tank game play accordingly. This patch did not have a ton as far as Defense Guardians go, but it changed enough for us to re-examine a few elements in the Guardian’s build. Defense Guardian Changes: Guardian slash was the ability affected the most by this recent patch. Command took a nerf, which now makes it a worthless talent in PvE, and the tree as a whole got slimmed down. It now takes less skill points put into the Defense tree to get all of the relevant tank skills. Master Strike also received a buff in both damage and channel-ability. The attack can no longer be interrupted. This makes it more relevant in the Tank Guardian’s priority line, since more damage means more threat. Master Focus also adds to Master Strike damage and Single Saber Mastery now works in…

Read More

Interview: Gabe Amatangelo on PvP & Operations

Lisa Clark

Darth Hater interviewed Gabe Amatangelo on PvP & Operations and as usual, he had some interesting things to say. It is well worth the read if you haven’t already. Thanks Darth Hater! Why did you choose a quasi-Domination objective for the new Warzone? Gabe Amatangelo: Huttball comes at a close second, but overall Domination is the most popular one. Obviously we’re really proud and excited about Huttball being a close second because it is a new take on an existing type of mode. How does Novare Coast differ? I mean, how does Domination differ from game to game? Level design has something to do with it. I’m sure people that are on the PTS already know the specifics of mechanics. It is a majority one, so you have to have two out of three to at least start accruing some points or doing some damage to the enemy base. Also,…

Read More

Community Q&A: March 23rd 2012

Lisa Clark

It’s that time again- time of the week for the Community Q&A. Here are some updates on yesterday’s questions and the answers from BioWare Community. Mksaccount: Are there any plans on adjusting rage timers in hard mode Flashpoints? Gabe Amatangelo (Lead Endgame & PvP Designer): The team continues to tune Flashpoint bosses based on metrics and feedback. Bosses that are a ‘spike’ in the progression curve (e.g. when a second boss might be more difficult than the last) are being addressed in one way or another, be it increasing their enrage timer, decreasing their health, extending the cooldown of control abilities, etc.   Bendog: Are there any plans to make the lower level planet commendations ‘Bind to Account’? It would be nice to hand them off to another character. Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): We’ve talked about it, sure. It’s something we considered as we added in the Legacy…

Read More

SWTOR Shirts- Finally!

Lisa Clark

Ok, so I now know what I want for my birthday. Star Wars: The Old Republic shirts are available over on Jinx and I have to say, I really love the designs. There are simple “Light side” and “Dark side” designs as well as some really awesome class designs for each of the classes in the game. Shirts are available for men and woman and in a variety of sizes. Prices are decent with the men’s running $19.99-$22.99 and the women’s are $21.99-$22.99. Each t-shirt design is done on a solid black background, allowing the colors and design to show more clearly. I’m a huge fan of the classic black tee so I really love that they chose this for the base on every t-shirt. Each t-shirt design also has a fun description in theme to the class or design that it sports. It’s fun to click through them and…

Read More

SWTOR Community Q&A February 17th

Lisa Clark

It’s that time of the week again- time for the SWTOR Community Q&A. I think this is going to grow into a fun and interesting weekly event. BioWare staff planned to answer 10 questions in this week’s Q&A but actually managed to get in the answers to 12. They have also openedup an officialthread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CST onFebruary 21st (8pm GMT/9pm CET). So here’s a snippet of what this week’s Q&A covered: DarthBelkar:Can we look forward to server-wide special seasonal / short-term events? DanielErickson: Yes! Expect them to fit into the world andsetting, involve a fair bit of discovery, and offer special rewards that willbe there one day and then gone forever. And expect them soon. Darthinfimus: Doyou plan to implement a /roll or /random command for use in master lootersituations? DamionSchubert: Diceslingers of the world rejoice! /roll hasalready been implemented on our internal development…

Read More

Intergalactic Intel: Ilum

I stared at a lagging computer screen. I was averaging maybe 3 frames per second. I had been in operation groups before, but never this big or laggy. “So what are you doing?” My brother said as I stared at the screen hoping to make a difference in the ongoing battle. “Me personally?” I stared into the abyss of red names and lightning. “Every so often I run up, force pull someone into our group and then force speed away.” “But aren’t you a tank?” “Tanks still die when 30 people jump them.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel! This week we’re talking about that nasty old Ilum! For those of you who don’t know, Ilum is the “final planet” currently in SWTOR for all classes. While we’re not going to focus on the dailies or the story quest, we’re going to focus on the real elephant in…

Read More

SWTOR Mixtape “Cold Republic Episode I: The Empire Likes Rap” Released

Lisa Clark

Big SWTOR news out today- The world’s first SWTOR mixtape “Cold Republic Episode I: The Empire Likes Rap” has been released! Richie Branson proves to us all that rap music and Star Wars go together like no one ever could have imagined. He announced today the release of his mixtape, titled: ‘The Cold Republic: Episode 1 – The Empire Likes Rap‘ – the first ever SWTOR mixtape. You can download it for free here. On his website, he explains the origin of the album: Sometimes the business of music can be so stressful, so it’s good to be able to take breaks and have fun with my creativity. Since the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I’ve been glued to my computer levelling and kicking ass in huttball with my sith assassin “Branson” (check me out on the Ven Zallow RP-PVP server). When I heard the main theme music,…

Read More

The Guild Sphere: Imperial Security Bureau (ISB)

Soeren Kamper

Today we feature the republic guild ” Imperial Security Bureau ” ISB is a small guild (around 23 members including alts) looking to increase in size to get ready for heroics and operations. They are a close group of dedicated players that like to have fun and help each other out. Many of the members have experience from WoW and have played MMOs for quite some time. Right now they are looking for some cool people who want to run the end game material and have a good time. All classes/levels accepted! They are always helping each other out whether it’s sending gear, running someone through a flashpoint or leveling alts together. Where did your guilds name come from? The guild name stands for Imperial Security Bureau. It’s those Imperials you see in the movie wearing the uniforms. Our guild consists of many people who are very into the Star…

Read More

IGN Gives SWTOR a Second Look

Lisa Clark

You may remember reading a review on IGN a few weeks ago written by Nick Kolan on Star Wars: The Old Republic (we brought you the recap). Kolan had a lot of good things to say about the MMO but some of the commenters called him an idiot (commenters are prone to such things, ya know) so some of the other members of the staff decided to review it, too. They wanted to give readers a second opinion of the game. It’s a pretty fun read if you want to check it out for yourself. Here are a few of their comments. Anthony Gallegos – IGN PC Editor had this to say. “Maybe it was because I knew I’d be addicted, but I really was opposed to Star Wars: The Old Republic early on. So many of the early demos I saw of it made it seem like “just another…

Read More

Escapist Magazine Zero Punctuation Reviews SWTOR

Lisa Clark

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Star Wars: The Old Republic. Escapist Magazine did not have nice things to say about SWTOR. It’s a 5-minute, fast-paced rant about how much SWTOR sucks (in short) but self-admittedly is nothing more than a “preview” as he doesn’t spend enough time actually playing the game to give it a real review. Ben “YAHTZEE” Croshaw is notorious for not liking MMOs. In fact, his criticism was somewhat mild considering his distaste for the genre. It’s amusing, I’ll give him that, but I really don’t think he gave SWTOR enough of a chance. Since he doesn’t like MMOs, it feels like he just went into the game wanting to hate it and where do you get with an attitude like that, really? You get just what you ask for. Yahtzee chose a Smuggler as his class but doesn’t seem too impressed with it. My Smuggler is…

Read More

MMOMFG.com Reviews SWTOR after Level Cap

Lisa Clark

What happens when you reach the level cap in an MMO? This is what many refer to as the “endgame experience”. For many gamers, they never reach this level cap, especially if you’re not a big MMORPG fan. Some gamers pick up an MMO and grow bored of it before they reach this cap. Still others, accustomed to the WoW-style of play, will power level to the cap and then try to experience all the end game aspects before growing bored and moving on to a new game. One self-professed non-MMO fan has made it to the level cap in SWTOR and this just might be saying something about BioWare and their ability to create a game that all types of gamers can get into. A review over at MMOMFG.com explains: As I’ve mentioned time and again, MMOs are not my favorite genre. While I was a big, big fan…

Read More

Emmanuel Lusinchi Says Shame an Anger Aided Development of SWTOR

Lisa Clark

Speaking at the Vancouver Game Design Expo, the Associate Lead Designer of SWTOR Emmanuel Lusinchi had some interesting things to say about the development of the game. He described his experiences summarized from six years of development on Electronic Arts’ high-profile MMO, what many consider to be the most expensive MMO to date. Venture Beat shares the story: Lusinchi started his insightful and entertaining lecture off with the advice “You are not working enough on your development tools”. He emphasized the return on investment for tool optimization because of the development time-savings, especially in the MMO genre, where content creation continues long after the game launch The more I hear from this guy, the more I’m starting to like him. He went on to cover lessons two and three of communicating with the fan base: “Everything you say can – and will be – used against you” Yup, sounds like…

Read More

Is SWTOR Bringing Back Retro Sexism Issues for Women Gamers?

Lisa Clark

Is SWTOR bringing back retro sexism issues for women gamers? One self-professed female gamer thinks so but can she back up her accusations? L.A. Harte, of Yahoo! Contributor Network takes issue with how SWTOR portrays females in the game. When I first saw the title, I thought she was going to accuse BioWare of objectifying women or some such… it wouldn’t be the first time such accusations have been made on a video game. But what she was actually complaining about took me by surprise a bit. She says: “Female characters in most MMORPGs including World of Warcraft, (and even the spin off cellphone app game Order and Chaos), provide us with a beautiful but strong woman — Star Wars The Old Republic falls very short.” Um… so WoW has beautiful female characters and SWTOR doesn’t? I’m betting L.A. Harte plays a Night Elf. So anyway, just how does she…

Read More

Ohlen to Eurogamer: SWTOR More Innovative Than an FPS

Lisa Clark

Some people don’t believe that SWTOR is all that innovative in terms of the gaming industry but game director James Ohlen begs to differ. He says to Eurogamer that SWTOR is more innovative than an FPS and then discusses the ways they have made strides in the industry but also why as an MMORPG, SWTOR is not too different. “It’s been a little bit of an unfair characterisation,” Ohlen remarked to Eurogamer. “”Because if you look at other game genres, if you look at a Battlefield or a Call of Duty or a Gears of War or even a Half-Life – those games use the same tried and true interface and the same tried and true game mechanics of the first-person shooter genre that’s been around for 20 years. Again, all very valid points. So many comparisons have been made between SWTOR and WoW and some believe that SWTOR is…

Read More

BioWare Banning for Using Profanity in SWTOR?

Lisa Clark

There has been a buzz recently about BioWare dropping the ban-hammer with prejudice on SWTOR gamers for things such as profanity, going to Illum before level 50 and anything that appears like chat “spam”, even if accidental. This has a lot of players asking if BioWare is being too heavy-handed in their banning practices. While most of the threads on the official forums about it are quickly locked or deleted, there is a discussion going on about it at Reddit and one user also captured a screenshot of their ban warning email which was posted on the forums but that thread was later deleted. Basically, this user said he was sent an email warning after using profanity in private tells to friends in game. The email warns the user that he will be banned if he is caught using this language again. No one seems to be able to get…

Read More

Taris Datacron Locations

Soeren Kamper

Taris was an urban planet in the Outer Rim Territories. The term Tarisian was used to describe people and products from the planet. The planet’s ecumenopolis quickly developed over a century of prosperity, and as a result the planet suffered from massive overpopulation. Once a galactic nexus, Taris‘ importance declined with the introduction of improved trade routes, and the planet rapidly fell into decay. The remainder of the planet’s history was wrought with civil disorder and social unrest. As it turned to industry as a means of compensation for its economic troubles, its oceans became polluted, eliminating the planet’s main food source. Famine spread among the lower classes while the rich hoarded what few supplies remained. The resulting strife led to the Tarisian Civil War, the start of lasting prejudices between the Humanocentric Tarisian nobles and the largely alien underclass. The city became segmented, and the lower classes were banned…

Read More

BioWare founder updates us on the server Queue issues

Soeren Kamper

Dr. Gren Zeschuk – Co-founder of BioWare – Made a forum post today regarding what’s being done about the queue times on some servers.  BioWare is well aware of the problems and doing what ever they can to deal with it: Hey folks, as you may likely have seen in the last 24 hours, we’ve been redoubling our efforts in optimally managing the time it takes to get into Star Wars: The Old Republic. The BioWare Live Team has been carefully watching the influx of players into the game and is addressing with surgical precision the longer wait times on the small number of servers that were having longer wait times previously. We’ve also being doing our best to get every little bit of possible performance on our servers to increase capacity: we’ve “turned them up to 11” to do our very best to get you in and playing as quickly as…

Read More