PvP in SWTOR has long been a controversial topic. There are some who love it, there are some who hate it and everything in between. A recent post in the forums talked about how to improve PvP and it was written by a self-confessed old WoW PvPer. As someone who has also played hardcore World of Warcraft PvP, I can see a lot of their points as valid. However, SWTOR is a different game and I try to avoid any comparisons between two different games since it’s really different playing fields here. It’s apples and oranges- so comparing WoW PvP to SWTOR PvP just doesn’t stack up for me. However… there are some things that you can learn from doing PvP in another MMORPG, such as WoW that you can take with you into new games that you play like SWTOR. So with the spirit of that in mind, let’s…
SWTOR
New Starship Pet from Amazon Cartel Coin Cards
As of today, there is now a new pet being issued with you buy Cartel Coin Cards. It’s confirmed with Amazon card purchases to US customers and some players are reporting the same thing from Best Buy cards but I have not tested this yet. 11/12/2013 UPDATE: The SWTOR Cartel Coins bundle now features an Imperial Scout “S-12 Blackbolt Starship mini-ship. All redemptions on SWTOR.com made after 11/12/2013 at 10AM PST will get the new mini-ship rather than the old pet. You can see this yourself at Amazon: 11/12/2013 Important Note: SWTOR Cartel Coins bundle now features an Amazon exclusive Imperial Scout “S-12 Blackbolt Starship mini-ship. KEY INFORMATION: The Amazon 2400 Cartel Coins Card comes with a unique rotating in-game item. Key Redemptions after 11/12/2013 receive an Amazon exclusive in-game mini-ship, Imperial Scout “S-12 Blackbolt Starship To activate your 2400 Cartel Coins Card, follow these instructions: Go to www.swtor.com/redeem-code and follow the…
News from BioWare – Mercenary and Shadow Top Three Answers
We’ve been in a bit of a slow phase when it comes to new news from Bioware about SWTOR but now we have some good stories coming from the devs as we rev up for 2.4. These are long, detailed and interesting posts to the official forums from the Bioware staff that help us know a little more about why they are doing some things that they are doing and what we can expect in the future. Here are some threads you need to check out if you have not already. STAR WARS: The Old Republic – Mercenary Top 3 Answers! Here is a snippet of this post: Overall, we feel that Mercenary/Commando DPS is in a fairly good place; however, we also feel that Mercenaries/Commandos could bring more to an operation as far as utility goes and that the classes pulling higher DPS than Mercenaries/Commandos are doing a bit…
SWTOR Voss Kingpin Bounty Contract Guide
To do the SWTOR Voss Kingpin Bounty Contract you are going to need to head to the planet Voss where you will be hunting Eryn Talosa. In this bounty you will be given information from your contract, probes to track your target and information on where to release those probes. Eryn Talosa will either need to be killed or captured to complete the contract. You will find your contact, Sama Zo, on the bridge in Voss-Ka. Talk with Sama and then you will receive your mail containing the bounty target. You will want to release your probes near the bridge (there are a lot of trees so it’s going to be difficult to track) as this is the best chance of getting a clear shot. You will need to get the Priceless Voss Cultural Artifact from inside the Tower of Prophecy. To “borrow” the artifact you will need to interact…
Free to Play Isn’t Play for Free
Many industry experts said that SWTOR could be setting the stage for a new F2P model for MMORPGs. Other said it would be the last subscription-based MMORPG and that they expect future games of the same caliber to be based around F2P models. That hasn’t exactly happened yet. While there are more free to play MMORPGs than ever before, there are still games coming out with subs, at least for now. And this brings up a great conversation about free to play MMOs. While a game may be labeled “free to play”, this doesn’t make it play for free. You still may end up needing to pay for certain features or items you want in the game. And you might have to pay for features that subscribing members don’t have to pay for. The upside is that you only have to pay for the features you want and you can…
Majestic Planets of SWTOR- Cool Art
There are few things I love more than fan art. Here we have art made around the 20 planets that currently exist in SWTOR. And we just might see it grow when there are more planets added! It’s really a cool concept and I love how he chose to implement it. From LordXidiin on Deviant Art, we have the Majestic Planets of SWTOR. Here is the description telling us more about this design: Inspired by a similar League of Legends montage of the champion profile pictures: kamekpwns.deviantart.com/art/L…, I present to you the cavalcade of planets in Star Wars The Old Republic. These are the worlds of our lives in TOR. From left to right, the 20 planets are: Balmorra, Hutta, Corellia, Coruscant, Quesh, Tython, CZ-198, Ord Mantell, Belsavis, Dromund Kaas Oricon, Nar Shaddaa, Makeb, Tatooine, Korriban, Ilum, Taris, Voss, Alderaan, Hoth “Go then, there are other worlds than these…” “”You must…
Germany Cantina Tour Thumbdrive Assets
The latest Cantina Tour just happened in Germany and like the others, they gave out some awesome thumbdrive assets once again. The great thing about following these events is that we seen things at one event that might not have been revealed at another so it’s an extra little sneak peek into what is coming up soon.
Oricon on PTS
Lots of good stuff still to come in the Summer of SWTOR. For example, Oricon is now on the PTS. This means we all get to see a touch of what this new area is going to be like. This will be an actual zone, with quests and new story. This is a welcome surprise for many players who may have been growing a little bored with the current game content. Fresh content is always a good thing, right? Oricon is where you confront the Dread Masters at the end of the planet story/weekly. The two operations “Dread Fortress” and “Dread Palace” are based here. In the first operation, you kill Dread Master Brontes. Second operation, you kill the other four Dread Masters and Dread Council. It’s supposed to be coming with 2.4, probably in October but we don’t know for sure exactly when this game update will launch. Here…
Republic CZ-198 Jump Guide
Are you looking for instructions on how to do the new daily area CZ-198? Well, ask and you shall receive! I never cease to be amazed by how awesome SWTOR players and fans are. Here we have an excellent guide on imgur that walks us through this area. The game has several platforming puzzles where you do get a reward and then others like this that are just for fun. But for many players, the reward is just completing it.
THE OFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL SWTOR PLAYER SURVEY
Do you want the opportunity to share how you really feel about SWTOR, the classes and the storyline? Would you like to see stats on what real players think of the game versus the stats that BioWare gives out? Well, now is your chance! From the post on Reddit: PLEASE UPVOTE FOR VISIBILITY, SELF POSTS YIELD NO KARMA, RESULTS MUST BE THOROUGH FOR IT TO BE A PROPER SURVEY https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-h14ZOP1vEPO-3G-SNqnCNm1T521qaTShAUB-AcM_fQ/viewform PLEASE FILL OUT ALL QUESTIONS, AND WHEN SPEAKING OF SPEC E.G. DARKNESS OR MADNESS, USE EMPIRE VERSION, SO NO RESULTS ARE DUPLICATES. Results will be posted next sunday. This survey is set up via Google Docs so it’s really easy to complete and submit the questions. You can take your time and answer at your own pace but be sure to get it in before the deadline if you want it to count torward the results that will be read…
SWTOR Developer Update: Warzone Arenas
There was a BIG update from the SWTOR developer blog today. It’s all about PvP- and we’re excited to share this with you today. Here are the highlights: Arena PvP play is coming with deathmatch-style gameplay, where the only objective is to defeat the enemy players first. The setup will feature 4v4 where the best out of three rounds wins. Three Arenas currently exist: Corellia, Tatooine, and an Orbital Station There will be a deterrent for those who try to stalemate a match in the form of a poison gas cloud. Ranked Arenas will feature both a Solo and Group queue in Game Update 2.4. They’re getting rid of 8v8 Warzone The target testing date for PTS is August 16th so those on the test realms won’t have to wait long to see it. And while all of this is pretty exciting, here’s the real highlight of the update: But…
SWTOR Community Cantina Chicago Details Emerge
IIt’s another SWTOR Community Cantina and we are finding details from the new thumb drive and exclusive info being released to those who were present. Lucky for us, the fansites and news sites who are there are releasing some exciting sneak peeks of what we can see to come soon in SWTOR. I really love that Bioware continues to hold these Community Cantinas and get the community and fans involved. TORWars has some great details from the Chicago Community Cantina and exclusive thumb drive assets. Their gal at the event, Jean, shared some pics from the thumbnail which you can see over on their site and also some info about a new Operation or Flashpoint with all the palace concepts, bad guys and it appears, a new boss. And what about a new mount? That’s something that gets players pretty excited. Well, it sounds like we’re getting one of those,…
SWTOR Companion Guide: Treek
We are super excited about the new SWTOR companion, Treek. We’ve written about her here before and we’re super excited to tell you now how you can get her for yourself! This cute little female Ewok is the companion that everyone wants and lucky for us, BioWare has given us several ways to obtain her. In this blog post from staff, we learn of the different ways to get Treek companion: Our first new Companion Character since HK-51, Treek, arrives with Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry. This mysterious alien mercenary is available for all character classes, and can be earned in-game or purchased directly from the Cartel Market. To help clarify these different options, here is an explanation of the different means to acquire Treek. All methods begin with acquiring Treek for a single character: From the Cartel Market: The first step to gaining Treek is to purchase the…
Some SWTOR Players Not Happy about Ewok on Cartel Market
Recently BioWare revealed to us that Treek, the new Ewok companion from Game Update 2.3, will be coming to the Cartel Market in August. But as the word spread, it sounds like some players are not as thrilled with the news as BioWare may have thought. Just Push Start tells us about how some SWTOR players are not happy with BioWare’s decision to put the Ewok on the Cartel Market: When the Ewok companion was originally revealed on the Public Test Server, many found out that one of the ways to get the new companion is by having the legacy level of 40 and be able to pay one million credits. A lot of people were pleased to that decision as it gave players motivation to play and level their legacy level up to get the cute companion. However, when the news broke out that Treek will be making its…
Relics of the Gree Achievement Guide
Relics of the Gree event is back and Dulfy, in her typical awesomeness, took some time to put together an achievement guide so rather than write my own, I decided to bring you hers since she beat me to the punch and it’s already thorough. With the return of the event, there are also some newly added achievements.
PTS Character Copy Available Again
Are you on the SWTOR public test realms yet? Did you transfer over any of your existing characters in order to see how they will change with the new content? PTS character copies were available again, as Amber Green explained on the forums. Amber Green, SWTOR Live Services Specialist posted to the official forums: Hello everyone, We’re excited to announce that you can now copy your Live Server characters over to the Public Test Server for Game Update 2.3 testing! To copy your character, please visit the following page: https://account.swtor.com/user/account/transfer/pts Our developers are looking forward to hearing your feedback about the new Bounty Contract Week Event, as well what you have to say about the Alderaan Civil War speeder change and Czerka Flashpoints and Daily Area. Please don’t forget to use the in-game /bug to report any issues that you encounter while testing. Have fun out there, and thanks for…
SWTOR Datamining the Lastest 2.3PTS Build
Are you curious about what’s coming in 2.3 and how the game will change? What new additions will there be? Tauntaun mounts are coming and what else? As always with a datamine, we can only speculate about what this info means and what it will mean for the game. There may also be spoilers. So with that in mind, let’s look at what’s new. swtor_miner brings us another great datamine update on Reddit about 2.3 PTS So, I got a little free time, and I was going to reveal that they finally added the CZR-9001 weapons. But, it looks like someone beat me to the punch. First off they renamed the Redfur Tauntaun Mount, and they’ve added a second Tauntaun Mount: Mountain Tauntaun – Unlocks the Mountain Tauntaun creature mount. Movement speed increases based on the rank of your Speeder Piloting skill. The Mountain Tauntaun is a reptomammal indigenous to icy…
New SWTOR Arenas Coming Soon
In addition to the new Tauntaun mount that was revealed for SWTOR, Bioware also tells us we will be getting three new PvP arenas when Game Update 2.4 launches on October 1st. The three arenas will be found at Makeb, Tatooine and the new Space Garage. We don’t know a whole lot about them at this time but we do have some great pictures to serve as an example of what’s coming soon. At their San Diego Cantina Tour event they released some great screenshots of the new arenas (and Tauntaun mounts) so we all know what we have to look forward to. Just Push Start has shared some great images. Dulfy also shared some images and info from her flash drive. Alex Modny, Assistant Designer for SWTOR came in the forums to explain a little more about these new PVP arena zones: In such a small, intimate area, LoS…
Summer of SWTOR Update
Bruce Maclean, Senior Producer of SWTOR, came into the forums today to give another update on the Summer of SWTOR content as well as an outline of what is coming and when it’s projected. Everything is pretty much still on target for when and how they described it before only now we get a few extra details. If you haven’t yet, take some time to read over it all and see what”s coming. Here is an outline of this post: Here is a fresh update on where we are at in terms of hitting our schedules for the Summer of SWTOR, and a recap of all the exciting things we have in the works for the months ahead. The usual disclaimer applies that all of the below dates are the dates the teams are shooting for. As you saw with Game Update 2.2.2 which had to be moved back by one…
TORPARSE to Close 27 July
TORPARSE had one simple mission: to provide the best and easiest to use combat log parser for Star Wars: The Old Republic. But now, they will be closing their doors forever. In an announcement made July 10th, TORPARSE explained that they will soon be shutting down the site. It is a sad and bittersweet announcement as the site has been such a useful tool for SWTOR players for all of this time. Here s a snippet of that End of Service Announcement: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 End of Service Announcement Hey everybody, I’ve got some bad news today. I’ve been struggling with this decision for a few months now, but have made a decision to end the TORParse project effective 27 July 2013. I’ve had a lot of fun developing this project and working with the community the last year and a half, but have ultimately made the decision to…
Amazon Now Selling Cartel Coins and “Umbral Blurrg” Pet
Don’t you wish you could just buy your SWTOR Cartel Coin cards online instead of having to head out to the store? Well, now you can. Maybe… As some others on the SWTOR forums have realized, Amazon is now offering the Cartel Coins with “Umbral Blurrg” pet. However, there are some stipulations. For example, Amazon does not ship them outside of the US. But some players have found a workaround. For example, if you are in Canada, you can use this service (http://www.cbiusa.com/) to have your items shipped to their address or to purchase digital items like this one. Players in Europe are using a workaround with a gift card and US address to purchase it. Here it is on Amazon: And here is the official product description: The Star Wars: The Old Republic 2400 Cartel Coins Card allows gamers to purchase 2400 Cartel Coins via the convenience of their favorite…
Celebrate KOTOR’s 10 Year Anniversary in SWTOR
It was hinted at more than once previously that we would have the chance to celebrate KOTOR’s 10th Anniversary in some way in SWTOR. Well today we have an official announcement of what this will include. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me and I’m actually glad to see Bioware using this opportunity to celebrate KOTOR in SWTOR. However, these planned events are one-day-only so it sucks if you’re going to be away on summer vacation or something. Take a look at the timelines for the celebration and see if you can check in. Maybe fire up your laptop on the hotel WiFi and grab your brand new title. Or hop on over to Facebook page and try to snag some free Cartel Coins in the giveaway. This news article was shared this evening: Celebrate KOTOR’s 10 Year Anniversary We are happy to announce that on July 15th we…
500 CC Reward for SWTOR Subscribers
We’ve known for quite some time now that faithful SWTOR subscribers would receive some type of appreciate reward. But now we finally know what it is as Eric Musco confirmed in the forums with this post: Hey folks, As some of you have already begun to figure out, every subscriber is receiving a bonus of 500 Cartel Coins. Some of you may not have gotten them yet but don’t worry, the process takes a few hours. All of you should be receiving your 500 coins today. As an additional tease, we have something coming to the Cartel Market later this month that is going to be super, super cheap and available for one day only! All I will say for now is hang on to 10 Cartel Coins and look for details soon™. -eric Hey! Pretty cool, right? He also mentions that you should hold on to at least 10…
2.3 Graphical Color Improvements to SWTOR
SWTOR is getting something of a makeover in terms of colors. Most will agree that it’s an improvement but for those who have grown accustomed to seeing it in its darker fashion might not approve. Personally, I like it. I really think some zones were just a bit too dreary and drab with all the grey/brown. I like the improved colors and crispness of it all. It also seems to have more of a real feel and texture rather than the cartoony feel in some zones. I like this. One user shared some before and after pics on Reddit to help us see what the color changes look like: What’ll strike you first is the sheer colour in the game. These screenshots were taken in the exact same locations, with the same gamma/brightness/graphics settings. Before: After: Before: After: To be honest, while I think this is a good move, I…