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…
SWTOR
How to Calculate Companion Gift Affections
Here is another fantastic lesson on SWTOR. We really appreciate the time and attention to detail she puts into helping others understand the game and get more from their experience in it. This week she brought us a great guide on calculating affection with your companions from gifts and conversations. Thanks Dulfy! “Calculating Companion gift affections Many of you have probably seen a chart like this that list all the affection a certain gift will give. Have you ever wondered how that is calculated? If you are curious, those numbers are fairly easily generated via a simple formula! It is simply (gift rank – companion affection rank) * type of gift (green, blue, purple) * Likeness (indifferent, like, favourite, love) Rank Difference There are 5 ranks of companion affection and 5 ranks of companion gifts Rank 1: -1000 to 1999 Rank 2: 2000 to 3999 Rank 3: 4000 to 5999…
BioWare releases answers to SWTOR Community Q&A
This last community Q&A, BioWare had to put off posting the answers to the questions. Now they have finally released them along with this statement: Two weeks ago, we asked for your questions and unfortunately, we had to delay posting the answers to the Q&A until today. Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity. We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on April 24th, 2012 (12pm PDT/3pm EDT/8pm BST/9pm CEST/5am AEST). We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the answers below. If you want to discuss any of the answers given, please use this Forum thread! So here is a snippet of the Q&A. To read the full list of questions, visit the official post from SWTOR.com. BlackMink: Could you please explain SWTOR’s threat mechanics?…
Fresh out of a PvP Team Meeting from Georg Zoeller
Are you happy with SWTOR PvP or like many of us, do you still feel like there are some things missing or lacking? Here’s what Georg Zoeller had to say about a team meeting over PvP at the BioWare headquarters: Hey guys, A few additional notes on this topic, fresh from a meeting with Gabe and the PvP team. (a) Expertise difference between combatants is the single most important factor in time to kill in PvP. Having zero or little expertise on your gear (e.g. pure PvE gear) is the primary reason for people to experience a sped-up time to death in Game Update 1.2. While it was quite viable pre-1.2 to bring your Rakata or Columi gear without any added expertise into PvP, the increased focus on expertise in the PvP track of gear has made it much harder to compete with that equipment compared to even the entry…
Zombies in Space- Coffin Comics Fun
What is BioWare trying to tell us with this recent (the first) world event? Rakghouls are trying to infect everyone and they take a striking resemblance to zombies, as many have pointed out. Zombies in space? It wouldn’t be the first time a video game had done this. Coffinshaker from Coffin Comics has a real funny cartoon about SWTOR and the current world event going on- the Rakghoul Invasion. He also used this as an opportunity to talk about a current theme in games today- zombies: Heh, didn’t mean for a double swtor posting this week, but I wanted to get this out there before the rakghoul invasion event ended. Pretty cool stuff though! Reminds me of the lich plague in wowcrafts just before WOTLK came out. But what’s the deal with zombies anyways? They seemed to have gained quite a bit of momentum in the last few decades. Hell,…
The Lost Island Flashpoint Guide
The Lost Island is the new Flashpoint in the Game Update 1.2. If you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, try to get yourself in a group after you read this guide (so you know what you’re doing). It’s open to both factions and it also has a normal and Hard Mode for level 50 players. It’s a lot of fun and I really like the story that is involved as well. In the story of the Lost Island, we are taken to a hidden island on Ord Mantell where we are called to end experiments by Mad Doctor. So anyway… what’s this Flashpoint all about and how do you succeed in it? First, be aware that this is a Flashpoint full of encounters that require you to move a lot. You want to be ready to move in any instant and don’t just stand around staring…
Inheritance Legacy Gear found from 340 Investigation Missions
Are you looking to build and collect your Legacy Gear? Do you want to give some items to an alt to get leveled up with good gear? There are several ways to do this and crafting missions are a good start. Some players have found that running 340 Investigation missions give pieces of Inheritance Construction Kits. But that’s not all… it’s pretty safe to say that all 340 companion missions from all skills have a chance to drop Legacy tokens. Birthright can drop from 340 missions as well as standard missions and standard missions can drop Legacy Gear. Gathering missions will also drop Legacy Gear. You can also kits as drops from mobs which are considered rare drops but I’ve gotten one already myself. It does seem they are trying to give us several ways to get this gear and Inheritance Construction Kits. One beef some players have with the…
Healer Survey from ForceHeal for 1.2
Game update 1.2 brought many changes to SWTOR. It also brought changes that would affect healers. Would these changes be a good thing or would they just make things worse? This is definitely the big question among healers. I’m a healer myself (mainly in PvP) and I know that I don’t think the way some healers do because we don’t all play the same way. For example, all the complaints over names and titles making it hard to heal in PvP- never a problem for me. I just use my UI raid/warzone windows for healing and never have problems. Anyway, you can never be sure just what a community is thinking or feeling unless you ask them and that is exactly what Force Heal decided to do. They put up a healer survey about SWTOR 1.2 to find out who is happy with healing in 1.2 and who thinks the…
Awesome UI Customization with 1.2
1.2 lets you completely customize your UI like never before. This was one of the most anticipating upgrades to this game update. However, there might be some things about the UI customization that you didn’t know. For example, one of my biggest peeves was one window closing out when you open another. Let’s say you want to compare an item that you have to one that you see on the GTN but when you try to open your character window, it closes out your GTN window. Frustrating! Or let’s say that you want to send your companion on a mission while you are browsing the GTN or have other windows open. Something is going to close out and then you have to open it back and find where you were before. Well, now with 1.2, this is not a problem. All you have to do is go to the UI…
Server Merges Still Possible as BioWare Responds to Criticism
“Are server merges a possible solution? Absolutely. Are character transfers a possible solution? They’re a definite solution and we’re going after that first. But all things are on the table. Our entire goal is to make sure that players are playing in the environment they want to, with the type of community and the size of population they want, and we are driving towards all of that,” says Lead Designer Daniel Erickson to Now Gamer. BioWare has been working hard to boost the game, bring in new content and bring back old players with game update 1.2, yet players are still complaining that server population is dropping. So now BioWare is looking at ways that they can combat the low server populations in SWTOR. Being part of a low pop server is no fun at all when you want to do something with other players (and this is an MMO,…
Devs Admit Players were Right on Warzone Scoring and Rewards
Players have been complaining since the launch of 1.2 that some things just didn’t seem right in PvP. At first, BioWare denied any problem but now, the devs have come forward to address the issue after more investigation. BioWare says they are aware of some of the problems with warzones and that they appreciate the feedback. As usual, they said they are working on a solution to complaints. But is there proposed solution going to be the kind of fix most players are looking for? Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson had this to say on the forums: Hey folks, Some follow up news from observations of play and feedback over the weekend. In the next couple of days we will be deploying a small patch that will address the following issues: As discussed, minimum medals to gain rewards will go from 3 to 1 to better reward those who are…
Brand New SWTOR Website!
BioWare has been hard at work the new game update to SWTOR, rolling out the Legacy System, listening to player feedback and revamping things to keep us all interested and enjoying their game. Today they revealed one more piece of fun and interesting news- a new website design! This just in from SWTOR.com news: We are excited to unveil the brand new Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ website! We’ve completely rebuilt the website from the ground-up, with the intention of providing you with the latest game updates in an easy to navigate way. In addition to all of the latest news and information that is released, we’re also going to give you much more information about in-game content. Right now, you can check out our updated Flashpoints page on the Holonet, which includes information for each of the seventeen Flashpoints currently in the game. In addition to information on every…
Former Players: Play the LEGACY update at no charge until Friday
In yet another step in the Legacy Promotion by BioWare, former players now get to try the Legacy update at no charge until Friday. As I mentioned briefly in another article, BioWare released the following statement about free play for prior players: Former Players Come Back And Play Now On Us: April 13 – April 20 In honor of Game Update 1.2: Legacy, we are offering former subscribers the chance to come back and play on us. Just load the game and log back in to your account– no credit card required. Play at no charge*** beginning Friday, April 13, 2012, 12:01AM CDT, 5:01AM GMT through Friday, April 20, 2012, 11:59PM CDT/ Saturday, April 21, 2012, 4:59AM GMT. To qualify for the play period you must have formerly had an active subscription. Really it’s an ingenious idea. BioWare has the opportunity to offer some free play time to gamers who…
SWTOR World Events are Happening: Rakghoul Plague
As if we hadn’t all had enough of the Rakghouls leveling up, a new secret event is here with game update 1.2- The Rakghoul plague, which BioWare invented for the original Knights of the Old Republic is somewhat like a zombie apocalypse in a Star Wars world. Becoming infected can happen with a simple scratch and it will turn you into a hungry, hulking monster of a being. Trust me, you don’t want to be a Rakghoul. The Rakghoul plague has been a part of the SWTOR for some time now but this world event (the first of many to come) puts a new twist on it. There is a event going on right now, with UGTAH – (Infected by Rakghoul virus) level 50 world boss wandering the Outlaws Den. Just north of the Republic outpost in the Dune Sea on Tatooine you will find a crashed ship that is…
Wish Granted, Tycho
In a fun Easter Egg from BioWare, here’s the new NPC on Corellia, Ty-Ko. Did you catch it before?
SWTOR Proves better than Most when Servicing their Customers
I have been playing MMOs for a very long time now. Recently, a game that I previously beta’d and later left when the content was lacking went to free-to-play. No surprise really, as this seems to be the direction most MMORPGs are now taking. I heard they had greatly expanded and updated the content since I last played so I wanted to check it out. I tried to log in my account and was unable to due to a password problem. I tried to recover my password or reset it and this also failed. So I decided to contact customer service to help me. As it turns out, you needed to login your account to put in a CS ticket. Really? /facepalm So I look for an email to contact the company. No such luck. All I find is a contact form that again requires me to fill in my…
Win a Life-Sized Figure of Darth Malgus
Remember when we told you about that really cool life sized Lord Malgus figure? Who wouldn’t want to have something awesome like that? I’d put mine by the front door to greet visitors who come over. Well, now you have a chance to get one of your very own- for free! This from SWTOR.com News: Throughout the Great Galactic War, the ruthless Sith Lord Malgus spread chaos and destruction across the galaxy. With his hulking figure and piercing gaze, Darth Malgus struck fear in the hearts of even the most hardened of Republic troopers. Now you will have the chance to stand before the legendary Sith Lord within your very own home. We are proud to announce that Sideshow Collectibles, in partnership with BioWare and LucasArts, is giving away one seven-foot figure of Darth Malgus, to one lucky fan of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™! Starting today and continuing until…
How to Build Affection with Your Ship Droid
While you’re out battling and collecting and trudging away at storyline, it’s easier to remember the companion you have at your side, taking for you, healing for you or providing much-needed DPS. They’ve got your back! But it’s not until you are greeted by that ever-annoying voice at the ship’s entrance that you remember your ship droid. He does so much hard work, even adding extra padding to the seats in your ship yet so many forget to build affection with the lonely ship droid. He lives to serve and please his master and you can say thank you easier than ever before now that the 30-second cool down to give companion gifts has been lifted. So what gifts does he want? It’s easy as pie! Cultural Artifacts: Rank 1 Polished Meteorite (200 Credits) Rank 2 Dubrillion Lizard Egg (600 Credits) These are available at your local companion gift vendor…
Legacy Promotion Expanded-One More Chance for a Free Month
BioWare is listening to its players and after their initial Legacy promotion, feedback from the community told them that many were not happy with the free 30-day subscription only being given to level 50s. Some players have been playing since launch and don’t quite have a 50 yet. Most of them are probably those who suffer from alt-it-is. I can completely understand since I love to make one of everything and check it out. Well Bioware has an answer to those players: Hello everyone! At BioWare we’re always listening to our fans and we’ve heard our community’s comments around players with Level 50 characters being the only group awarded 30 days of play time. We appreciate the feedback and are pleased to announce that we are expanding our Legacy Promotion, also awarding 30 days of play time at no charge to players that have reached Legacy Level 6 (who may…
Friday Feature: SWTOR May Reach 1 Million Subs after Game Update 1.2
Now that Game Update 1.2 is here, the big question that everyone is asking is “Was it worth the wait?” I suppose a good secondary question would also be “Will it bring subscribers back?” Gaming Target said prior to the release of 1.2 that they thought the big game update might cause SWTOR to reach one million paying subscriptions. With 1.2 and future update promises, will it be enough to keep that many players hooked? SWTOR, like Blizzard’s dominate World of WarCraft, has the potential to be “a successful long-term online subscription PC game,” according to the report. This is due in part to the high-profile Star Wars name, the game’s massive budget and the regular DLC drops including next month’s SWTOR Game Update 1.2. This has been the right mixture to hook subscribers, who are paying upwards of $15 a month for access to the game. “The current trend…
Top 10 SWTOR Companions as Voted by the Players
Who are your favorite companions in SWTOR? Who’s the most annoying? I read that it was Corso but personally, he doesn’t bother me so much. He’s kind of charming in a farm boy sort of way… Anyway, my favorite so far is Vette but Bowdaar is probably a close second. IGN had poll recently asking readers to vote on their favorite companions and they turned that data into a handy visual of the top 10. Did you participate in the voting? Did your favorite make the list? The results are in and it’s time to see the winners.
Operation: Explosive Conflict
Game Update 1.2 is here and with it comes a new Operation, Explosive Conflict. From BioWare: In Explosive Conflict, the legendary warlord Kephess has united two warring armies under his flag, declaring Denova’s independence and proclaiming himself its ruler. Now the Republic and the Empire, each battling for control over the planet’s vital resources, send their most powerful heroes to battle through the warlord’s army of soldiers and mercenaries before facing off against Kephess himself for control of Denova. Check out the video:
Begin Your Legacy with Game Update 1.2!
The big day is here! Game Update 1.2, also called the Legacy Update is here. It’s live today and while the center focal point of the update is the Legacy System, that is not the only thing new you will find in the game as of today. Here’s an overview from SWTOR.com news: In addition to the many new gameplay systems, Game Update 1.2 adds a brand new Operation Explosive Conflict and Warzone Novare Coast, both of which take place on the never-before seen planet of Denova. Furthermore, players will be able to experience the new Flashpoint The Lost Island, the second part of the Rise of the Rakghouls storyline introduced with the Kaon Under Siege Flashpoint. Game Update 1.2: Legacy also includes new in-game items, such as new armor sets for every character class, and a number of game fixes. You can learn about all of the new content…
Celebrate Game Update 1.2: Legacy with a Cute Pet
It’s here, it’s here! Game Update 1.2 officially launched today and while everyone is eagerly logging on to check it all out, BioWare had some fun and interesting updates for us. It’s seems they are not going to let 1.2 launch as if it was any ordinary patch. Instead, they have some thank you gifts for those of us who have been around the game until now. One is a very adorable pet! This from SWTOR News: Game Update 1.2: Legacy is finally here, bringing a wide range of new game features and playable content to Star Wars™: The Old Republic™! With Legacy, you can now create your very own Legacy family tree, sharing the skills mastered by one character with everyone in your family tree. You will also be able to experience new adventures, including the new Operation, Explosive Conflict, the Novare Coast PvP Warzone, and much, much more!…