Sometimes there are times when a company representative just needs to come forward and admit that they goofed. BioWare did that today in regards to collections set restrictions. In this official developer post, Schubert explained the situation.
SWTOR
SWTOR Game Update 2.1: Customization coming tomorrow
Game update 2.1 is expected on May 14 and update 2.2 is set to roll out on June 11. So tomorrow is the big day- the new customization game update is coming. As of tomorrow, players of SWTOR will finally have the chance to customize how their characters look. The highly anticipated 2.1 game update will be here which allows players the chance to change the colors of selected armor, as well as to give their character a complete makeover, if wanted. You can change the looks and features of your character from a simple hair dye to a full makeover with a new look. It’s all up to you. So if you’ve grown tired of looking at the same character all this time, this is your chance to mix it up a bit. Additionally, the Cathar species (yay!) will be available through the Cartel Market. It’s going to cost…
SWTOR Monthly Revenue More than Doubled with F2P Model
If anyone’s wondering if BioWare has increased their revenues with SWTOR since going free to play, we now have evidence that it has “more than doubled”. This is not a surprise to many who have been following the game but it’s probably good news for investors. Polygon reports on today’s earnings call: Gibeau said the game has grown significantly. “Since it was induced in November, we’ve added more than 1.7 million new players on the free model to the service,” Gibeau said. “”And the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under half a million. “The really interesting thing that’s happening inside the service right now is monthly average revenue for the game has more than doubled since we introduced the free-to-play option. And as we look forward, we’re going to continually invest in new content for the service and for players every six weeks or so.” As we can…
SWTOR Patch 2.1 Dyes modules Q&A with Bioware
Do you have questions or concerns about the new dye modules coming to SWTOR in patch 2.1? Well, you’re not alone because there is a lot of confusion about the new features, how they will work, how much they will cost, what items will be dyeable and more. So Dulfy did us all a huge favor and got with Bioware for a question and answer session that tells us all we need to know about these dye modules and the new game update. You can read the full Q&A here on Dulfy’s site. Here is a snippet: Patch 2.1 Armor dyes Q&A with Bioware to clarify on some of the questions and concerns players had with the introduction of armor dyes in patch 2.1. 1. How many different dye modules can we expect at release? Will these dyes give off different colors based on the property of the armor? (i.e….
SWTOR Game Update 2.1 Brings Name Updates
We know that SWTOR game update 2.1 is bringing many new customizations. With this comes the name changes we have been promised for quite some time. SWTOR-RP had an exclusive interview with Cory Butler that reveals some interesting info about the name changes: Game Update 2.1: Customization brings us a lot of new goodies to play with, among them being the Appearance Designer Kiosks which allows you to change your character’s eye color, scars, hairstyle, and even species. We had the chance to chat with BioWare Producer Cory Bulter about these Appearance Designer Kiosks and ask him a few questions about this particular feature. Read on below for this SWTOR-RP exclusive! Will the Designer’s features extend beyond the obvious to greater options like character’s name or maybe gender? Character Renames will also be coming in Game Update 2.1 and can be found in the unlock section of the Cartel Market. Gender changes…
SWTOR 2.0.1 Data Dump
New updates on potential future SWTOR content from this SWTOR 2.0.1 data dump by Werit. As with any data dump, it’s important to remember that the data mined may not end up in the final version of the patch or update. It’s like playing on the test realms or in a game beta; you know that much of what you see does not make it into the final version of the game, or at least not in the same format. So take these data dumps with a grain of salt but they are fun and often, a lot of what is found actually comes out in the future patch. Another SWTOR patch, another data dump! I’ve expanded my data mining tools a bit, so I am grabbing even more changes than before. There are a couple of interesting entries in this patch. It looks like there are two new achievements…
Appearance Designer Kiosks and Armor Dyes in SWTOR
If you saw the latest insider video from Bioware, you might have caught your eye on the new appearance design kiosk and armor dyes they are adding to the game. This will be available in patch 2.1, titled Customization. If you’ve been wanting more customization in SWTOR or are growing tired of your toon’s look, you’re in luck. The appearance design kiosk will give you the chance to change your hairstyle, hair color, eye color, scars and tattoos and even your species. If you’re character needs a makeover, the time is now! It will cost cartel coins but there is also a permanent discount for subscribers so you can save 50% on all actions at the appearance designer kiosk if you sub. You can also choose features that you want and it works on a slider basis, meaning you don’t have to pay full price for a makeover if you’re…
Gear Progression Flowchart
If you’re trying to gear up in SWTOR and you’re not sure what gear sets are better or which you should be going for next, this simple flow chart will help you out. Sure, there’s not much to it but it gives the perfect visual of the order of progression within the game, as far as gear goes. You should also keep in mind that some levels can be skipped, based on what current gearset you are wearing and how you want to work on gearing up. Are you all about PvP or PvE? Do you want to do both and be properly geared for both? Are you the type of player who is just looking to have what you need to skim by or get into a zone or Flashpoint or are you looking to have the best possible gear there is for your class? It’s all about playstyle,…
Cathars Coming in SWTOR Patch 2.1!
We’ve been waiting on a new race and we’ve talked about the Cathar here before. Now we finally have the news that Cathars are coming in SWTOR Patch 2.1! Bioware teased previously that the Cathar were coming but then they left us hanging and wondering. A second post filled in more of the mystery for us and now finally, we know they are coming with Patch 2.1.While they officially announced the new playable species last year, we now know that they will be coming to the game and available for purchase with Cartel Coins (no surprise there, right?) The Cathar will be unlockable via the Cartel Market for 600 coins and you can either reroll a new character or you have the option to convert an existing character to the new species. One bonus is that the unlock is account-wide and not just legacy-wide, meaning you can apply it to…
Tales from the Republic Fleet
“That’s amazing… you look just like me!” “Yeah, the doc did a great job. Your looks and charm got us in, now I should be able to get to the Senator’s computer. So, let’s get ready for the big date tomorrow night.” “Right. First thing – DON’T mention anything about the Senator’s hairpiece, he’s very self-conscious about it!…” “The slaver said they were on a ship bound for Lonos Prime.” “Lonos? Keval, that’s in Sith space!” “I know, but I have a plan – there’s a slicer that can get us some fake ident chips and a transponder. That’ll get us onto the planet, at least.” *sighs* “Alright, brother. I should be able to meet up with you in a few days.” “Sounds good. I promise you, Jorda, we’ll find Mother and Father.” Oh yes, here we have Tales from the Republic Fleet. Previously we brought you the story of…
How ROtHC Makes SWTOR Better
Most MMORPPGs can only hope that their expansions will make a game better. That is the idea afterall, to add more to the game, bring in new players and keep the current players interested. But when it comes to SWTOR, it’s a great game and we have Rise of the Hutt Cartel on the way to hopefully make it better. So what’s so great about ROtHC that is going to improve SWTOR? It’s not because of the waterfalls (hehe) so what is it? Well the one thing we need to remember about ROtHC is that it’s not just about Makeb. There is so much more to the game now. There are many additions to the core game play itself such as new armor and new quest lines. This will add a great deal of new content to explore and master for both new and old players alike. Here are some…
Gamestop/Best Buy SWTOR now sells Cartel Coin Cards
A few months back, we heard rumors about Gamestop and Best Buy selling Cartel Coin cards in their stores that would also get you an exclusive mount. So what did I do? I ran out to my local Best Buy to check it out. Admittedly, I had something else to go for that night anyway, but this just made me more motivated to get in my car and head down to the shopping center. So there I am in Best Buy when not one, but two, friendly employees came over and offered to help me but alas, there were no cartel coin cards. In fact, they didn’t even have a clue what I was talking about. That’s because the information was leaked early and they were not available yet. But these cards were in the works… And the story is that they are finally live! But there are a few…
SWTOR Climbing Since Going Free to Play
So has changing their game model to free to play had any impact on SWTOR for BioWare? , creative director on Star Wars: The Old Republic says yes at GDC. He revealed that the number of players has now increased to 4.5 million, up from 2 million, which makes it a rate of 10,000 new players each day. This switch to F2P has been a real game-changer for SWTOR, that was losing its player base. Ohlen goes on to explain how SWTOR had more problems on launch than just its subscription model (ya, think?) He explains that the lack of a group finder was a major downside to the game and also the poor implementation of the Public Test Realm (PTS). No group finder meant it was hard to players to get together to experience much of the content in the game and the poor PTS meant there were a…
James Ohlen at Game Developers Conference 2013: TOR is one of the largest micro-transaction money-makers for EA
Following our recent post about Bioware’s Creative Director James Ohlen and his speech on the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), additional details have emerged over at Massively. Bioware’s Creative Director James Ohlen The site has posted a detailed account of Ohlen’s presentation at the event where the latter covered the challenges Bioware faced during launch, its conversion to Free to Play (F2P) and the concerns the Austin-based developer had about Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Panderia. He also went into details about what the studio went through when the game started losing subscribers and how they managed to turn it around with F2P.
How non-paying players can positively impact a game’s success
Since Star Wars The Old Republic (SWToR) changed its subscription model to Free-to-Play (F2P), a lot of opinions were raised about whether it was the right thing to do or not. Some quickly labeled SWToR as a failure that didn’t live up to the hype , while others saw this as a necesary change that helps the game’s long-term growth. Whether this change was successful or not remains to be seen, however first indications as reported by James Ohlen and the recent EA investor’s call are positive. Free-to-play might not be such a bad thing after all! A new article over at Gamasutra.com, argues that non-paying players, actually help the growth of such games. The author of the article cites three major reasons for opening up a game to freeloaders. Among other things F2P players help bring in other new players that eventually will turn into subscribers, they show their appreciation…
Game Developers Conference 2013: James Ohlen talks about SWToR’s woes during launch
Bioware’s creative director James Ohlen recently spoke at the Game Developer’s Convention about SWToR’s launch and provided a plethora of details about the game’s launch. Among other things, he mentioned that Bioware significantly underestimated how quickly players can burn through content and found itself in a difficult spot. The development team originally expected that story lines would keep gamers engaged for at least five months – an expectation that as we all know didn’t prove to be true. Bioware’s creative director James Ohlen During launch, subscribers spent an average of 40 hours per week playing SWToR, while in some cases they would reach 80-120 hours on average per week. These extended gaming sessions lead to having close to half a million players at endgame content within a month’s period since launch.
Making of Rise of the Hutt Cartel: Part 2
With the big announcement today that Rise of The Hutt Cartel digital expansion will be available on April 14, Bioware also released an interesting video providing more details on the expansion. Among other things, Bioware developers gave out additional information on the continuation of your personal story line as it relates to Karraga the Hutt and the new planet on the expansion called Makeb. The video also provides hints on villains we will face on the new planet and their impact on our game play.
Aggregated 2.0 Fan Site Interviews & Information for ROTHC
There’s an official date for ROTHC and the BioWare PR team has also been in full swing doing interviews with a number of fan sites about SWTOR and ROTHC. To help ensure all the hard work from these interviews is seen, we’re going to try to aggregate all the links here. We’ll be updating this often as more information and posts come out but if you see an interview we’ve missed, feel free to add it to the comments so we can update the list!
So you hit level 50….now what? Gearing up at level 50 (Part 2)
Guide was written by Fantine of the Alpha Strike Force SWToR Guild – Part One can be found here Rolling into Rakata The step above Columi is known as Rakata and when the game was released was the highest level of gear. This level of gear requires a player earn the appropriate tokens. It’s nearly identical to the Columi system above, however, you must take on a higher level of challenge to earn them. Rakata tokens are mostly earned from Operations. The one exception to this rule of the chest token which is dropped from the final boss of the only Tier 2 hard mode flashpoint, Lost Island. The link at the bottom shows the specific drops by boss, but in general you’ll need to complete hard mode tier one operations (Eternity Vault and Kagara’s Palace) and / or story mode tier two operations (Explosive Content and Terror from Beyond). Rakata’s gear has a…
Electronic Arts launches new cross-game pet promotion!
In an effort to draw more attention to other Free-to-play (F2P) titles, Electronic Arts (EA) recently started a new cross-game pet promotion for Star Wars The Old Republic (SWToR). EA’s catalogue of free games is quite extensive and using a popular game like SWToR certainly makes sense. To get these pets, all you need to do is register with the games listed below by April 1st and you will receive an in-game pet. The mini-droid pet you get for Battlefield It’s worth noting that this listing is incomplete since only the following games have been confirmed. This doesn’t mean that other EA F2P titles aren’t eligible. (In parenthesis is the name of the pet) Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances (2C-TA Commander) Battlefield Heroes (J9-BH Mercenary) Battlefield Play4Free (BF-4F Warrior) Need for Speed World (N4-SW Runner) Lord of Ultima (LU-20 Builder) Does this mean that SWToR’s conversion to F2P is yielding the expected for EA results? If…
Can’t Get What You Want on the Cartel Market?
The Cartel Market seems to be a winner for BioWare because just recently, they issued another game update with yet another change to the Cartel Market. The problem is not all players are happy with this system. Before we get to that, it’s important to note that nearly every update since November of 2012 has brought updates to the Cartel Market. The Spry Minds says best what a lot of players are already thinking: Why can’t I buy what I want? Here’s a snippet from a post they did on this very topic: In the latest game update, Bioware has released some of the best gear creation the team has done to date and of course it’s only available for purchase outside of the game. ot surprisingly, they are only available via Cartel Packs, which is nothing short of playing slot machines at your local casino. Put your money in…
What is Your Plan for SWTOR Double XP Weekend?
It’s Friday! And this weekend, that means double XP in SWTOR. It’s here to kick off the Relics of Gree event and if you have been away from SWTOR for awhile, it’s also an opportunity to come back with preferred status AND the double XP. This is the first of four double XP weekends coming up as follows. Double XP weekends will be held at the following times: March 15, 2013 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET to March 18, 2013 at 3:00 a.m. ET March 22, 2013 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET to March 25, 2013 at 3:00 a.m. ET March 29, 2013 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET to April 1, 2013 at 3:00 a.m. ET April 5, 2013 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET to April 8, 2013 at 3:00 a.m. ET These double XP weekends are lining up with the Relics of Gree event in game and gives you…
SWTOR Developer Blog March 13: Cartel Reputation
03.13.2013 – We have some updates on Cartel Reputation from the Developer Blog this week. See a snippet below: Developer Blog: Cartel Reputation In Game Update 1.7: Return of the Gree, we released our exciting Legacy Reputation System, allowing players various rewards for their interactions with many different organizations across the galaxy. Now, with Game Update 1.7.2, the nefarious Hutt Cartel wants a cut of the action. The Contraband Resale Corporation Representatives from the Contraband Resale Corporation have convinced officials from both Republic and Imperial Fleets to allow them to set-up business. The Cartel’s blockade of Makeb has created some exceptional business opportunities for everyone, including a brand new Shipment from the Cartel – the Contraband Packs. The Contraband Resale Corporation is looking for ways to reward its most frequent customers by tracking the Reputation they gain. Players increase their Reputation with the Corporation through the acquisition of the new…
SWTOR PVP Changes in Patch 2.0
As you may already know, Patch 2.0 is going to bring a variety of changes and additions to SWTOR, all meant to improve the game overall and how we as players experience it. PvP and gear are two things we expect to see some changes in. In fact, there seems to be an overall trend of new gear stats, minus the pants, and a reduction in the stats provided by mods to gear. Some secondary stats are seeing changes or tweaks and War Hero gear critical rating has been replaced with power for some classes. There are new set bonuses for level 55 gear which we can see here: Marauder/ Sentinel DPS Weaponmaster’s Gear 2pc: Reduced the cooldown of Guarded by the Force or Undying Rage by 15 seconds, also increased its duration by 1 second. Weaponmaster’s Gear 4pc: Increased all damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds after using…