As a new feature in Game Update 4.7, BioWare is adding a new way to open cartel packs in SWTOR. New Pack Opening Experience With the launch of Game Update 4.7 we are introducing a new feature which will enhance the pack opening experience for all packs. This improves the visual experience of opening packs while ensuring that the process remains a quick one. There are two components of this new feature, the Pack Viewer and the Item Stash. Pack Viewer The Pack Viewer serves two purposes. First, it creates a much simpler way for you to see what packs your character currently has (including Grand Chance Cubes and Dark Vs. Light Event packs), without having to search through your inventory for them. Second, it introduces a new visually enhanced pack opening experience. Let’s look at each section individually. Inside of the pack viewer, it will display all packs which…
SWTOR
SWTOR Chapter 16 The Battle of Odessen Teaser
Bioware Austine just posted the first teaser for Chapter 16 The Battle of Odessen coming August 11 (or 9 for subscribers). BioWare™ and Lucasfilm today announced details of its climactic chapter in the storyline of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ – Knights of the Fallen Empire. Early Access to The Battle of Odessen will be available for qualified Star Wars: The Old Republic subscribers on August 9* and to all active Star Wars: The Old Republic subscribers starting August 11. In The Battle of Odessen, Arcann launches an all-out assault against the Outlander’s base. Still recovering from a shattering betrayal of the now-renegade droid, SCORPIO, the Outlander’s Alliance must rally to defeat Arcann’s forces in a desperate battle to determine the fate of the galaxy once and for all. Play and be a part of the concluding chapter as you fight your way to Knights of the Eternal Throne, the…
SWTOR: The Treasure Hunting Mission Imbalance
Over at SWTOR Economics, you will find some interesting conversations. We are especially interested in his Crafting Ideas series that is currently undergoing. He’s been telling us his ideas for improving the crafting portion of the game and also explaining how this would improve the overall economy of SWTOR. With that said, the latest edition talks about Treasure Hunting Lockboxes. Many people feel like they are causing problems in the game and he addresses that in this blog post. As usual, he breaks in down in three sections: The Game Design The Solutions Summary If you haven’t read his first post in the series, Crafting Ideas: Component Conversion, then you should go and do that first. Now come back take a look at his take on the Treasure Hunting mission imbalance. Here is a snippet: “There were a number of game design choices that have led to the current state of concern…
The Academy – “How to Transition to Preferred and Tips for Playing Preferred”
You know how we like The Academy around here if you’re a regular visitor. We’ve been writing about episodes since the series began. Swtorista is doing a great job of teaching new people about the game and even bringing more interest into the game for existing players. It’s very well done and we love that each episode is available on YouTube to make it very easy to view and listen. If you’re not familiar with The Academy, it’s basically a series of videos that started with a podcast that all explain aspects of SWTOR, with new players in mind. Although it has new players in mind, all of the videos are good review for people who have been playing for some time and they’re also great if you are a veteran player who wants to help a new friend, or invite a friend or family member to play. If someone…
SWTOR 5-YEAR COLLAGE PROJECT
The team over at Bioware Austin want players to submit a close-up headshot of your in-game character: To celebrate over 87 MILLION unique characters created by all of you, we’ll be creating our first ever SWTOR Character Collage! Sample Headshot Join the celebration by emailing us a close-up headshot of your in-game character: Recommended resolution is 1920×1080 Turn off all user interface and text Focus on the waist up Remain in your default pose We can’t wait to share the collage with you. Stay tuned for more details!
SWTOR Celebrating Our Five Year Saga
Director of Design at Bioware, James Ohlen, has posted a new blogpost containing an infographic celebrating 5 years of SWTOR. Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ celebrates its fifth year, December 20, 2016 – thanks to you, our fans. We started on this journey ten years ago. Our vision was to build a game that would give gamers, who are Star Wars™ fans, the experience of stepping into the Star Wars universe at the center of their own saga. And it did. We built the largest Star Wars universe ever and then brought it to life online. We wanted to give fans the chance to become a Jedi, a dark and deadly Sith Lord or a snarky Smuggler. We wanted to bring our love of this great IP to life in a way that let players shape their own story making meaningful choices along the way that made the experience your…
Mynock Gets an In Game Character
How would you feel if you got a character named after you in SWTOR? This is one of the highest honors for a video game fan and it happens from time to time in some games, with someone who has done something special or recognizable with the game or the community. This is awesome but we’ll let Mynock tell you about it himself in his own words: The folks at BioWare have bestowed a huge honour on me by naming a character in Star Wars the Old Republic after me! “”Mynock” is a mando warrior NPC who can be found guarding the entrance to Shae Vizla’s camp on the planet Darvannis in the latest STWOR expansion “Mandalore‘s Revenge””. I had a little bit of say in the armor type, colour scheme and weapon he’s sporting, so now I have no excuse for not finishing my Shae Armor set! It shall be…
SWTOR New Expansion Revealed: Knights of the Eternal Throne!
We have been down for a few days due to new server host, but this is a story we don’t want you to miss out on. The next SWTOR expansion will be named Knights of the Eternal Throne (KotET) and is coming in Fall 2016. More info from Bioware Today, during an EA Star Wars™ “Meet the Makers” panel at Star Wars Celebration in London, James Ohlen, Director of Design for BioWare helped celebrate the game’s upcoming 5-year anniversary, revealing a brand new digital expansion coming this fall, Knights of the Eternal Throne. The all new expansion adds more of BioWare’s trademark cinematic storytelling, as well as exciting new game features in one of the largest updates the team has made since the game launched 5 years ago in 2011! BioWare also announced that beginning today, all players can prepare for the new expansion by playing Chapter 1 of the…
SWTORApps – Character API now live!
SWTORApps has some info about their Character API which is now live. You can find all of the details below and check it out for yourself. We gotta say, it looks pretty cool. For a regular player. it really doesn’t do all that much but you can check it out too, if you feel so inclined. The character manager side might be interesting to you. The people who will really benefit from this are the developers. It’s designed as a developer tool. While they are still growing with it, there does seem to be a few things useful you could do with this. They also have ideas planned for the future that would make it more useful to the everyday player, and not just for developers. So stay tuned and we will also keep you updated as things progress. Have you tried it for yourself? Let us know what you think!…
SWTOR Chapter XVI Release Date Change: Moving from July 28 to August 11
The release date of Chapter 16 in the SWTOR soap opera will be moved to August 11 instead of the original July 28. Chapter XVI Release Date Change: Moving from July 28 to August 11 | 07.13.2016, 06:39 PM Hey everyone, During our last Producer Livestream we announced that Chapter XVI: The Battle of Odessen would go live on July 28th (early access on the 26th); as of today we have decided to move the release to August 11th (early access on the 9th). This Chapter reveals the climactic ending to the Fallen Empire story and we want to make sure it delivers the emotional impact that the story deserves. We are going to take this time to push it further in an effort to bring the Knights of the Fallen Empire’s final Chapter to a fitting ending – one that, in the tradition of all great Star Wars stories,…
SWTOR Dark vs Light Packs in the Cartel Market
BioWare’s Eric Musco posted some clarification on the official forums regarding the Dark vs Light packs in the cartel market vs the ones you get from the event. Hey folks, I wanted to let you know that later on today we will be introducing the Cartel Market version of the Dark Vs. Light packs, on sale for 250 Cartel Coins. These packs are very similar to the Dark Vs. Light event rewards, except for a few differences. Here is a comparison of each pack: Dark Vs. Light Event Packs Packs and items are Bind on Pickup All items unlock in collections Each pack contains one pack item and one misc. item No chance cubes Dark Vs. Light CM Packs Packs and items are Bind on Equip (following normal lockout timer) All items unlock in collections Each pack contains one pack item, one grand chance cube, one companion gift, and Jawa Junk Thanks…
SWTOR Next Expansion Could be Named KOTET?
We love hearing about new SWTOR content and while we’re waiting on BioWare to release any new updates and info, we have to busy ourselves taking little clues wherever we might see them. This is one such case. According to a panel list from Star Wars Celebration, the next expansion could be named SWTOR: KOTET. This could mean Knights of the Eternal Throne. What are some other theories of what it might stand for? Redditor Sakowenteta saw this little gem on the Star Wars Celebration exhibitor list. It listed SWTOR as Star Wars the Old Republic KOTET. Could be a misspelling of KOTFE or the abbreviation of the next expansion. So what do you think? What could it mean? You can see it yourself here: http://www.starwarscelebration.com/en/Exhibitors/1792379/EA-Star-Wars (Edit: it’s now been updated and doesn’t show this anymore.) Here’s a screen capture of what it did look like: Does the fact that it…
The Hidden Truth of the Fate of Darth Malgus [Video]
The ultimate fate of Malgus uncovered as we explore that ultimately the Sith may still be alive and hiding somewhere within the vast galaxy. Is Malgus still around or has he been killed permanently? Have you ever wanted to know what actually happened to Darth Malgus? This video by The Stupendous Wave is going to help you answer these questions. We don’t actually know for sure what happened to Malgus and he’s not technically canon, but as the video will explain, his story isn’t over yet. There are a lot of theories about what happened to Malgus and where he might be now and these are covered in the video as well. Is he out there alive somewhere and just gathering dust? Did he really die or could he be hidden someplace or waiting for a big comeback? We may never know for sure. In fact, some say the entire point was…
What Are Your PvP Peeves?
Pet peeves – we all have them in one shape or form. I have this thing about people who smack their gums while eating and people who don’t use turn signals when they’re driving. But our pet peeves don’t just end in the “real world”“. We have them in game, too. What about those players who constantly talk about themselves in the 3rd person, or who try to hit on every female character unsolicited? So what about PvP peeves? Are there certain things about SWTOR PvP that just really irk you? Are there some common annoyances that always seem to ruffle your feathers? PvP in its very nature is set to create situations where people might feel annoyed and SWTOR is no exception. We came across this post that discusses this very topic and thought we’d encourage you to check it out because it’s interesting. Chances are, you can probably…
SWTOR Game Update 4.6a Patch Notes
With a new game update comes new bugs, so BioWare will rolling out a patch next week to fix some of the issues brought on by Patch 4.6. 4.6a Patch – Tuesday, July 5th 2016 | 07.01.2016, 09:24 PM Hey everyone, As Eric mentioned on the stream yesterday, we are putting together a patch to go live next week that will address a few issues that we’ve seen since the release of 4.6. We are currently planning a maintenance on Tuesday, July 5th from 7AM PDT (1500 BST) – 9AM PDT (1700 BST), and here are the tentative notes for the patch: Players can no longer become unable to progress in Chapter 15 due to making certain conversation choices. The Bogstalker Handler’s License can now be used by players who have a Ginx Companion. Increased the maximum available number of Character Slots per server. Free-To-Play, Preferred, and Subscriber Players have had their…
SWTOR June Producer Livestream Wrap-up
Here are the wrap-up from yesterdays producer livestream. Agenda State of the Galaxy Chapter 15 Subscriber Rewards Star Wars Celebration Dark vs Light event Chapter 16: Battle of Odessen June Producer Livestream Wrap-up (6/30) | 06.30.2016, 10:04 PM Hey folks, We covered a lot in this livestream, here is the wrap-up if you weren’t able to tune in! State of the Galaxy Cartel Market Update – You can read all about the changes that were made in the GEMINI Pack,here. Guss Tuno Recruitment – It is our goal to deliver this with Chapter XVI but we are still working through the issue. Heroic Missions – They were rewarding a lot of credits, it was definitely having an impact. Still, we realize that with this being missed in the patch notes and the overall timing of the change, we are going to be reverting the rewards back to their pre-4.6 values….
SWTOR Was 4th Highest Worldwide in Pay-to-Play Games
SWTOR ranked in the top five of the highest worldwide pay-to-play MMOs for the month of May. This is not surprising if you’ve been following the revenue and the stats but it might be surprising for people who don’t realize that SWTOR is still doing quite well. While it’s true that the popularity of the new Star Wars films may have increased the number of people looking to play the game, SWTOR still fared pretty well before. The new Star Wars craze is likely only going to increase that even more. I don’t think anyone is really surprised to see World of Warcraft still holding the top spot there. Blizzard has a real winner there and following it up with Overwatch that took the top spot in overall digital game earnings with $269 million across PC and console platforms but SWTOR is clearly holding its own in the industry. The…
SWTOR: Game Update 4.6 Patch Notes
Patch Notes for tomorrows Game Update 4.6 has arrived. Check them out below: Game Update 4.6: The GEMINI Deception Highlights Chapter XV: The GEMINI Deception! Lead a daring assault on one of Arcann’s warships in a bid to seize control of the entire Eternal Fleet! Players subscribed on June 1st have immediate access to this new Chapter, and it will be available for all other Subscribers on June 30th. New Event: Dark vs. Light! Join a galactic event and choose between the dark side and the light side to earn epic rewards in celebration of SWTOR’s 5-year anniversary! New Character Perks! Portable Cargo Hold, Portable Legacy Cargo Hold, and Companion Gift use time reduction – see below for full details! Relics of the Gree is back! The Gray Secant has been spotted on Ilum, which means only one thing: The Relics of the Gree Event is back! From June 28th at…
SWTOR Dark vs. Light Event Angers Some Vets
Star Wars: The Old Republic is getting ready to introduce their biggest event yet. The Dark vs. Light Event will unite the galaxy in one way or another, or it will tick off vets and confuse new players. There seems to be a little bit of all that going around. So we brought you the news of the latest (and seemingly biggest) event of SWTOR, the Dark vs. Light event and if you’ve been reading the forums, Reddit, and other places where SWTOR fans lurk, you may have noticed that there are some very disgruntled veteran players. So what is that all about? It’s a new event, right? This should be a good thing, right? Well, the short of it is that this huge event was clearly designed to entice new players only. There’s nothing wrong with enticing new players. This means we keep the game live, there are more…
Glitch in SWTOR That Will Trigger Your OCD
Out of the vault of “You Had ONE Job, Bioware”, we have more game glitches. Sometimes the glitch is just a physical issue and it doesn’t really affect the play of the game, but merely the appearance. Some people can overlook this or even laugh at it, while others find it so distracting they can’t even play. Whichever side of the fence you fall on, it’s safe to say you can appreciate on some level what this player has captured. yodacoder posted the images to imgur so you can see for yourself but be warned, once you see it, you can’t unsee it: You had ONE job! (SWTOR) Seriously, what is happening here? It’s in the Republic Fleet space station and if you’re not noticing it right away, here’s a hint: take a look at the flooring. Do you know of other glitches like this in the game? Are you the…
SWTOR Maintenance: 28 June 2016
Bioware will be taking the servers offline on June 28th in order to apply Game Update 4.6. The website will also be unavailable during this time. Details: DATE: June 28, 2016 TIME: 5:00AM PDT – 9:00AM PDT (1PM – 5PM BST) VERSION: 4.6 Patch Notes will be available on Monday, June 27th. Timezone(s) Start Time End Time UTC Offset Wellington June 29, 2016 12:00 am June 29, 2016 04:00 am +12:00 Australia/Brisbane, Australia/Sydney June 28, 2016 10:00 pm June 29, 2016 02:00 am +10:00 Australia/Adelaide June 28, 2016 09:30 pm June 29, 2016 01:30 am +09:30 Tokyo June 28, 2016 09:00 pm June 29, 2016 01:00 am +09:00 Australia/Perth, Hong Kong June 28, 2016 08:00 pm June 29, 2016 12:00 am +08:00 Mumbai June 28, 2016 05:30 pm June 28, 2016 09:30 pm +05:30 EET, Moscow June 28, 2016 03:00 pm June 28, 2016 07:00 pm +03:00 CET, Paris June 28,…
SWTOR DARK vs. LIGHT EVENT
A new event is coming to SWTOR so get ready! Starting on June 28, there will be a Dark vs. Light event. You will need to start brand new characters for this event. Previous characters and their milestones or achievements will not count for this event. There will be rewards based on each reward level you can reach: Heroic Legacy Valiant Champion Eternal Legendary The event ends this fall and you do not have to keep the character to achieve the requirements. Once you have completed the objective by receiving the achievement, that character no longer needs to be active. So you could level to 50 on a character, and then delete it. This may work for people who just want to win the awards for the event but don’t have 8 free character slots on their primary legacy server. Some other options are: Complete the objectives on a different server…
Advice To Those Thinking Of Raid Leading in SWTOR [Video]
I had my fair share of raid leading in World of Warcraft so by the time SWTOR came out, I was looking for an alternative MMORPG and of course, I loved the Star Wars theme but I wasn’t really looking to raid lead anymore. I know many of my friends were, even friends who had led raids in hardcore guilds in WoW but for me, I wanted a game where I could sit back and relax, soak in the new story and content, and not feel rushed for progression. There’s nothing wrong with raiding or leading, or progression. I was just at a point in my gaming life where I wanted something different. That said, there were and still are, people who love raid leading in SWTOR. If you’re thinking about becoming one of those people, mirta000 has some advice for you. It’s all compiled here in this video of about 11…
How Gamers Consume MMO Content
It comes as no surprise to most regular MMO gamers that players consume content at a rapid rate. Just how fast that is might surprise some, however. It certainly caught Bioware off guard back in 2011 when SWTOR first launched. They put a lot of work into the game but had no idea just how quickly gamers would actually be able to consume the content. Some players blasted through the content very quickly and once they reached end game, there was nothing for them to do. They were bored. The game was old. They needed a new challenge. This leaves developers like Bioware needing to constantly be three steps ahead of the gamers or they just might lose them. An old PC Gamer article dated March 28, 2013 entitled GDC 2013: BioWare expected players to take three to five months to hit SWTOR’s level cap lays out James Ohlen‘s confession…