EDIT. If you are looking for trail accounts, or you have one to give away, go to our forum and share/request I was super excited to hear we were going to get friend invites for SWTOR. Then once I saw it was limited to three, I was a bit bummed. There were so many people I wanted to give invites to- my mother wanted to try it, my sister, some gamer friends online, other relatives… how would I choose who would get my three? Well, BioWare really wants people to try out this game because they have now released the news that they will up that count to 25. Are you ready? Start inviting friends! Electronic Arts is awfully keen for you to try Star Wars: The Old Republic. After holding several free trial weekends, BioWare’s midichlorian-powered MMORPG has now doled out heaps more friend trial invites to every…
SWTOR
Star Wars: The Old Republic user-interface customization explained in new video
Have you been wondering about the upcoming new UI customization in SWTOR and how it will work? This is by far one of the more exciting parts of game update 1.2 and we’re excited about it as well. If you’re not on PTS and you haven’t been able to see it for yourself yet then you’re going to love this video the news team put out today. On the Official news feed, they tell us a little more about it today. Game Update 1.2: Legacy for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ introduces several new systems to the game, including the option for you to customize your User Interface. You’ll be able to alter the placement and size of each UI element to suit your own personal preference. In this new video, Lead Interface Artist Michael Voigt shows us how it all works. Watch Now User Interface customization is just one…
Combs the Sands of Tatooine: BioWare Made a Funny?
In what is a bit like finding an Easter egg, BioWare has a Spaceballs reference in the Bounty Hunter storyline. See the pic: While the phrase has actually been around for a very long time, it was Spaceballs that made it well known (and funny) when taken in a literal sense. Was this a little way for someone from BioWare to pay tribute to a Star Wars classic spoof? I bet even Lucas himself would be amused.
TORmeter – DPS-parser for SWTOR 1.2 (GUI)
MMO Norge has a really cool find for all SWTOR players- an app that parses game data for you so you can see stats and other important details. Players have been waiting for something like this since SWTOR came out. Here are the details direct from their site (the app is in English): TORmeter! – A Parser for Star Wars: The Old Republic. A user here at MMO Norge, calling himself ‘Skygge’ has put his skills with Python to good use. He has created a fully functional combat-parser (DPS-Meter, Recount … many names for the fat ugly baby) that does exactly what you want it to do. And that is to give you the hard math behind your latest fight. You can get final proof that you not only beat your friend in that duel, you raped him digitally. Or maybe you want to review your latest raid. Check out…
1.2 Smuggler Gear Makes you Say “What?!”
Most classes are excited and anxious to see the new gear that will come with game update 1.2. For those of us playing Smuggler, your excitement levels may change when you see the pictures of what we get to wear. Many players have already set out to the official forums to complain about the gear. LongGui says, “I agree, Way to much art and not enough design. Practical wins over artisitic/showy any day. I cant get over that helmet.” Jarwan says: “I’m praying that the gear I saw in that trailer around 1:41 mins mark is not a Smuggler but the fact that they were doing the resting animation has destroyed all hope. The hat looks like one of those you see people wearing in ball games which holds a bear can on each side of the hat. That gear is wrong, who ever designed that gear from Bioware should…
BioWare’s New Official SWTOR Podcast
Friday brought some more interesting news from BioWare about SWTOR. This is actually really cool. You can listen to the first of many to come of the official SWTOR podcast. Based on the pilot episode, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun! This is just one more way that as a company, BioWare is going above and beyond to stay in contact with the players. It really feels like they are taking a vested interest in the people who play their games and what we all want from the games. So check out the podcast and let us know what you think! From SWTOR Community News: Hello everyone! My name is Eric Musco and I, along with Brooks Guthrie are happy to bring you a sneak peek of the official STAR WARS: The Old Republic podcast. You can listen to our pilot episode here by using the…
Live the Ship Droid Experience! New SWTOR Minigame
You thought BioWare had already given you just about everything you could do in a game but there was one more thing we were missing- BioWare posts: Cruising around the galaxy in your own personal starship is an important aspect of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. The player’s starship is like a home, and the player’s companions are like a family. No one knows this better than the dedicated Ship Droids who maintain the vessels: C2-N2 for Republic characters and 2V-R8 for Imperial characters. Jedi Knights, Smugglers, Bounty Hunters and the other class characters may be the heroes in the wider galaxy, but on board the starship, the Ship Droids are the heroes. That’s why, as part of Game Update 1.2, you will soon be able to assume direct control over your Droid’s actions with Ship Droid™, a brand new mini-game coming to The Old Republic! Features of this mini-game…
James Ohlen Wants Your Ideas on Open World PvP
My guild is all about PvP in SWTOR and most members are not happy with the current state of open world PvP. Ilum was broken and they have to go back to the drawing board and while leveling on a PvP server, I think I came across someone I could kill a total of 3 times. It’s very boring, honestly. There don’t seem to be many open world PvP elements in the game at this time and there is a large player base that would like to see this remedied. In this post, Stephen Reid asks players what we want to see from open world PvP: Hello everyone. James Ohlen, Game Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is asking for feedback once again – getting into more detail regarding PvP. Once again, he’s going to be taking feedback directly via his Twitter account, but if you’re not on Twitter,…
Special Events in SWTOR: Coming Soon!
At Guild Stummit earlier this month, the dev team revealed to us there would be special events coming to SWTOR. However, they were very tight-lipped about the whole thing. We wanted to know what type of events, when they would be coming and of course, anything else they could tell us. All they could tell us was “we can’t say anything else about special events at this time.” Well, now Stephen Reid has decided to reveal just a little bit more to us. This post in the official forums reveals slightly more details than we were previously told about these special world events coming soon to the game. A snippet: Thanks for the questions, everyone. I chatted with the events team and got a few more details for you. Quote: Originally Posted by dosadnik1. Are you going to announce like “Today we are having the [insert name here] event” or…
Your Legacy Begins: SWTOR Dev Blog
The time is here- well, almost. If you’ve been waiting months for your Legacy to mean more than just an experience bar, it’s nearly time to launch it all. Game Update 1.2 means the Legacy system will grant you the newly expanded Legacy Panel and many great new features. Yow will access these my pressing the “Y” shortcut key. We’ve been writing about this a lot lately and trying to bring you all the news and coverage we can find since Guild Summit but the dev team has brought us all a very informative blog post covering the Legacy System. It’s a must-read, even if you don’t normally follow all of the dev posts. “Where would you start if you were constructing the Skywalker family tree? Let’s start with Anakin. If you ask me, Anakin is a level 50 Sith Warrior anchoring the top of the family tree. He’s married…
SWTOR Tips: Which Crew Skills Should I Choose?
If you are new to the game of SWTOR or just made a new character and you want to know which crew skills to choose, here are some guidelines to help you. First, you can choose any crew skills you want. However, just like crafting in any MMO, there are certain skills that make more sense to certain classes. There are also companion bonuses that come with certain crew skills. Here’s an overview to help you make your decision. Just keep in mind, it’s not set in stone and ultimately, you can choose anything you feel like doing. Play the game your way and have fun! Class / Skill Recommendations Smuggler / Imperial Agent Armor: Armormech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading Weapons: Armstech, Scavenging, Investigation Trooper / Bounty Hunter Armor: Armormech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading Weapons: Armstech, Scavenging, Investigation Sentinel / Marauder Armor: Synthweaving, Archaeology, Investigation Weapons: Artifice, Archaeology, Treasure Hunting Guardian /…
Preparing for 1.2: A How- to
We’ve been talking a lot here about Game Update 1.2. BioWare is excited, the community is excited and we are all ready for the launch that was moved from March to an estimated time of mid-April. So in the meantime, what can you do to get ready for this game-changing event? If you quit playing to wait for 1.2, you might want to come on back because there are some things that those who are still playing are doing to prepare and you will be behind the curve if you wait. Here Dulfy brings us another great guide on preparing for patch 1.2. Hey everyone, there has being quite a few Reddit posts over the past couple days on how to prepare for the arrival of patch 1.2 (estimated ETA early-mid April). So I compiled this little guide here outlining some of the things that I thought might…
SWTOR Tips: Understanding Reverse Engineering
In SWTOR, there are actually several ways to get higher quality schematics but one of the easiest and most common is reverse engineering (RE). Basically how it works is you dismantle an item that you have so you can learn how to make an improved version of it. The process also gives you some materials back. It’s fairly simple but players still benefit from taking time to learn what RE can give them and how to benefit from it. For example, if you RE a green item, it can give you a chance at one of three types of schematics. These types are known by the prefix given to them and they determine what stat will be given to the item. These are: Critical – increases the Critical Rating Overkill – increases the Power Redoubt- increases the Defense Rating How much the increase is depends on the overall level of…
Mr. Robot Gives Away Free Digital Copies of Your Character
Mr. Robot has just launched their character API so players working on SWTOR tools or spreadsheets can import character information from the site, including character information, all of their gear, datacrons, skill tree points, and more. Mr. Robot says “We believe that opening this information up to other developers will mean more cool tools for all of us to use” and we couldn’t agree more. More info from Mr. Robot: See an example character, Zoopercat The Simulationcraft project is already working on some uses for it, as well as some of the guys over at SithWarrior.com. I know a lot of people are looking to compare gear stats from the current release to 1.2. You can take a look at Dulfy’s article, which has links to Mr. Robot Characters. And that means, you can use those characters with our API to import into any tools or spreadsheets you’re using. You…
BioWare Wants You Back
If it’s been awhile since you logged into SWTOR then you probably have seen one of the creative emails they send asking you to come bad. CAD Comic had a little something to say about that very topic today. In addition to a hilarious cartoon, they also bring up a very important point about the game- why so many players left after 50. The post below the comic says: I applaud the extra mile they went to tug at my heartstrings, but if they’d put as much effort into SWTOR’s endgame they wouldn’t need to be sending me this email in the first place. Don’t get me wrong… Level 1-50 is absolutely the most fun I’ve ever had leveling up in an MMO. Bioware set the bar pretty high for questing and leveling in that regard, and I’m spoiled for every other MMO. Unfortunately all of that enjoyment hit a…
Florida Family vs SWTOR on LGBT Characters and Storyline
While many fans of SWTOR are anticipating the upcoming changes to the storyline that allow for some same-sex relationship arcs, there are others who are not so pleased with the decision BioWare has made to add these options to the game. (<- THIS is an action figure…) Florida Family says, “Will the makers of Star Wars video games create Darth VaPaula, a (mock) transgender version of Darth Vader – RuPaul, for kids to choose as their action player?” That title alone is offensive and does not show the tolerance that this same organization often preaches about. However, this is just the beginning of the ignorance and bigotry in this article. While I fully respect everyone’s opinion and right to those opinions, Florida Family are trying to petition and encourage others to boycott and petition something they know nothing about, based on what they presume to understand. I take many issues…
International Star Wars Fan Groups Now Accepting The Old Republic as Costume Canon
The Star Wars costuming organizations are very strict when it comes to the costumes they allow to represent them. A game isn’t really a Star Wars game until the fans accept it as an official costume. The announcement to let costumers submit designs based on the characters in the game, The Old Republic means SWTOR is officially being accepted by the community, even those who do not play the game. Kotaku.com says: “While it may seem like an insignificant development to the outsider, the fact that The Jedi Assembly and The Dark Empire are both accepting applications from costumers decked out in the latest The Old Republic gear is a huge step in legitimizing the game in the eyes of the more fervent fans. These are groups that are incredibly strict about the costumes they allow to represent their organizations (the Jedi more so than the Dark Side, appropriately enough).”…
1.2 Legacy Upgrade Screenshots
Here are some 1.2 Legacy Upgrade screenshots as of 3/23, likely to change some before 1.2 hits live. Still, it gives you a real good idea of what you can expect coming up. Will you be working towards Legacy upgrades? Have you already been saving up points and working on your legacy for when 1.2 gets here? Tell us what your favorite part of the upcoming Legacy features are so far!
Community Q&A: March 23rd 2012
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…
Legacy armor in 1.2 + High Res Renders: Are You Ready for Legacy?
The Legacy System and vendors are coming soon and thanks to Dulfy.net we have a better insight as to what we can expect when it gets here. In the article, you’ll find detailed information about how to find your faction’s legacy armor vendors once 1.2 drops for play regardless of whether you are in Dromund Kaas or Coruscant. The detailed high-resolution map shots are great and something you need to check out. It will make it a lot easier to find the vendors when they are available. Duffy tells us that all of the gear that you can get from the vendors will be Bind to Legacy (BTL). It goes on to say, “They each sell 2 sets of orange gear (including orange belts and bracers) that require legacy level 10/20 and also gear in the range of 14-16 and 29-33 that you can trade via tokens obtained as drops.”…
Developer Dispatch: The Legacy System
Are you as excited about the Legacy System as we are? I know we keep talking about it in my guild. A lot of players have a renewed interest in the game now that the improved Legacy System is coming with Game Update 1.2 and my guess is that’s really what BioWare wants. The Legacy System will be entwined in each and every aspect of the game. It really is the heart of SWTOR and the dev team was sad they had to launch without it. Since it’s coming soon, now is the time to prepare and to learn what you can about it. This just in from Official SWTOR News feed: “The Legacy System is coming in Game Update 1.2, and with it, a new dimension to The Old Republic™ experience. Like the Skywalkers, you’ll build your own family tree in the Star Wars™ galaxy, linking your characters on…
Crew Skills in Game Update 1.2
Game Update 1.2 is big- we know this. In fact, it’s huge! It’s quite possibly one of the largest free game updates in MMO history. Many are saying this is really the way SWTOR was supposed to be launched but that EA pushed the release date on BioWare and they were unable to finish everything properly in time. One important update in 1.2 will be to the Crew Skills. There have been lots of complaints about screw skills and while there are some good aspects to the program, it’s clearly “unfinished” and unbalanced when you compare the various crew skills to one another. This is one thing that Devs mentioned at the Guild Summit they would be updating. There is now an official SWTOR blog post to tell us what we can expect for Crew Skills in 1.2: “Since the launch of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, the Crew Skill…
Free SWTOR Trial Weekend… Again!
Do you believe in second chances? If you missed the free trial weekend of SWTOR, or if you didn’t get a lot of chance to play due to too many people on the servers, now you get a chance once again. The next Weekend Pass Free Trial period begins this Thursday, March 22nd, at 1:01 a.m EDT and ends on Monday, March 26th at 3:00 a.m. EDT. Over the last weekend, people had the opportunity to take part in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Weekend Pass Free* Trial. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who took part. However, we also understand that not everyone has had the opportunity to play the game. To that end, we are excited to announce that individuals who did not take part in the first Weekend Pass Free Trial will have another opportunity to live out their very…
SWTOR was Built to Compete with WoW
Dallas Dickinson, director of production for Electronic Arts’ BioWare division had a lot to say about SWTOR at GDC recently. The initial plan with the creation of the game was always to become a leader in the genre. Well, anyone who plays MMOs or even knows a little about them knows that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has had the top spot in the MMORPG scene for some time now. Many others have tried and failed to capture that spot and when SWTOR appeared closer to launch, many would speculate about whether or not it would steal the spotlight from WoW. Now that we are post-launch, has it succeeded? VentureBeat brings us the story: In fact, the public relations folks promoting the company’s Star Wars: The Old Republic game were told — only half jokingly — to announce the game onstage as, “Star Wars, MMO (massively multiplayer online), BioWare,” and then…