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PTS 2.4 Update 4 – Patch Notes and Known Issues [Updated: September 5th]

Here are the newest patch notes + known issues form the Public test servers. Personally I find the GTN upgrades to be very good. I have been missing these features. I am also glad to see the armor sets are just placeholders. They are boring and the same for all classes both side. Still hope to see some balance before release, tho. Game Update 2.4: The Dread War – PTS Update 4 Patch Notes – September 5th, 2013 The patch notes published for the Public Test Server are intended to guide testing. They are not final and are subject to change. The new Obroan and Dread Forged armor sets are currently using placeholder art that will be updated before the release to the Live Servers; the sets themselves are incomplete on the PTS and are subject to change. The Public Test Server Patch Notes will be provided in English. The…

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The Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour Arrives in New York

BioWare is still on tour. Next time the caravan arrives in New York. This will give attendees the chance to quiz the developers and share a drink or two. Check out the announcement below: We’re happy to announce that the next stop in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Saturday, October 12th, in New York! This is your chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted Tauntaun Fawn code. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by and hang out with us! Venue: Stitch Bar and Lounge Date: Saturday, October 12th, 2013 Time: 8-11PM EDT Address: 247 West 37th Street. New York, NY 10018 Space will be limited, so be sure to arrive early! You can RSVP on Facebook here (Facebook RSVP is not required for…

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PTS Server Known Issues

Amber Green posted to the official PTS forums the current list of known issues on the public test server. If you currently have characters on the test realms or plan to in the future, you’ll benefit from giving this a read over or at least bookmarking it so that you know what the known issues are. This update came after problems with the servers that also caused the servers to be brought down for a time. There is no reason to continue to report these known issues but if you encounter any bugs or problems other that are not on this list while on PTS, then you should report those. Public Test Server Known IssuesThe following are those issues known to exist on the current 2.4 build on the PTS:  Operations General Players are unable to join an Operations Group that is in progress if the group has defeated a…

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Patch Notes – 2.3.2 – 9/4/2013

Here are todays patch notes. One of the most noticeable one is this: The base cooldown for the Fleet Pass ability is now 9 hours for subscribers. Legacy Fleet Pass I, II, and III now reduce the ability cooldown by 3 hours each. This means that being a sub and having all three levels would give no-cooldown on  fleet passes! It’s also nice to see some Codex updates, though from what I can tell Loremaster and Beastmaster are still unobtainable if these are the only changes. Game Update 2.3.2 Patch Notes 9/4/2013 Highlights New Vehicle! The Desler Nomad is a new rare drop from the final boss of all level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints. New Feature! Players can now purchase Cartel Coins in-game through the “Add Coins” interface within the Cartel Market. (details under Cartel Market) Vendor Update! Emergency Medical Table and Mood: Outraged have been added to the Bounty Supply Company…

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EA Wants to Create Jaw Dropping Star Wars Games

According to recent stories, EA wants to refresh the Star Wars game license and create games that will make “your jaw drop”. For Star Wars game fans, this is good news but will they really pull off this hefty goal? One can only hope, right? “The most important thing for me is that we take the Star Wars license and come up with games where peoples’ jaws drop,” said Patrick Soderlund of EA games to Polygon. “We need to do with this what [Batman: Arkham Asylum] did for the Batman license.” The first game they are set to work with is Star Wars: Battlefront, a game that many fans have been waiting a very long time to see happen.  Soderlund says the DICE team will have access to this work. While they could not tell Polygon much about the game, it’s still great news to know it is in development and…

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Data Dump Patch 2.3.1

More good stuff from swtor_miner today and here’s a forewarning: It might contain spoilers. We have another Data Dump of details from Patch 2.3.1. As always, there is no guarantee that these things will end up in the live game. We also don’t know completely what all this data means when we see it. Well I wasn’t really expecting this, and I can’t separate some of the 2.4 stuff out of my stored files. But, I ran some straight dumps of 2.3 and 2.3.1 and compared them. This is what got changed or added: GOM Dump – Includes ids for items, abilities, phases, etc. Note the Rakghoul event entries. Item Name and Description Dump – If an existing item appears here, they added a new variant or applied a bugfix. And, all the Cartel stuff that they put on the PTS last week. Edit: I’ll see about doing a more complete teardown later…

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Knights of the Old Republic 3 Was Being Worked On

KOTOR 3

Knights of the Old Republic could have had a part 3 and how excited would fans everywhere have been? We’ve been talking about a KOTOR 3 for some time now and it has been revealed that it was in pre-production. Creative director Chris Avellone says the 3rd installment of the popular series was in development at Obsidian and that it would have featured Revan a lot more than the second game did. Eurogamer tells us: Yes, a Knights of the Old Republic 3 game existed in pre-production at Obsidian Entertainment. To this day one decision still plagues Chris Avellone’s mind: should Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords have had more Revan in it? BioWare and LucasArts hadn’t forbidden it – instead, Obsidian had decided to focus on new characters to allow more creative breathing room. “”But I don’t know if that was the best decision,” Avellone ponders, speaking…

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Top 50 Star Wars Games from What Culture

If you’re a fan, or even a regular reader of our blog, you know that there are MANY Star Wars games out there and even more new ones coming out regularly. So how do you know which ones are really worth your time to play? What Culture has a real treat for us with 50 Essential Star Wars Games You Must Play This lengthy piece lists the best of the best in Star Wars games and gives you a bit of info about each game and why it made the list. I’m seeing some of my favorites on there for sure. I’m going to let you head on over to What Culture and read it all for yourself but here’s the 50 games that made their list: 50.  Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) – Windows, PlayStation 49. Star Wars (1983) – Atari 2600 48. Star Wars: The…

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Official Blog: A Letter from Special Executive Rasmus Blys

A BioWare corporation PR person was RP’ing a corporation PR person in yesterdays blog post. I guess that’s something they can write convincingly!  They really nailed the sugarcoated corporate jargon at least, as Special Executive Rasmus Blys from the Czerka Corporation took on the official website yesterday.  Check out the full “blog post ” over at the official site, our our copy paste below. Also remember to check our faction lore guide on Czerka Corporation if you are into the lore behind them. 07.08.2013 A Letter from Special Executive Rasmus Blys Greetings! My name is Rasmus Blys, and I have the great honor of serving as a Special Executive for the Czerka Corporation: the most dynamic business entity in the entirety of known space. Czerka’s history is a long and storied one; we have centuries of innovation and success to look back on, with entire worlds owing their economic and social development to our valuable…

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The “That’s So SWTOR!” Screenshot Contest – 2400 Cartel Coin Card Giveaway!

What do you see when you first think of SWTOR? What if you had a chance to win 2400 Cartel Coins by sharing a screenshot that makes you think “That’s so SWTOR!” You can learn more from the Community post here on Reddit: Community Post | The “That’s So SWTOR!” Screenshot Contest – 2400 Cartel Coin Card Giveaway! | 7/5/13 Howdy guys! As mentioned last Friday, I’m starting a contest today to find the single most SWTOR screenshot. What does that mean? Well, it means that I want to see what SWTOR means to you! What screenshot have you taken that really remind you of everything that SWTOR is to you. Here are the rules: You can submit up to 3 pictures, but please only make one post. You can vote on submissions, but I will be choosing the winner, so don’t bother trying to downvote other peoples’ submissions. I…

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DICE Working on Battlefront Almost Didn’t Happen

We’re excited about DICE working on Star Wars: Battlefront, as we wrote about recently but can you believe it almost didn’t happen? While they seem like the perfect choice for this project, it’s a deal that almost didn’t happen. We’re glad to see DICE on the job because they are meticulous and great at what they do. We definitely have high hopes they will do very well with Battlefront. In Computer and Video Games, we have a great interview with EA’s Patrick Sderlund. Here is the really interesting part: So one of your big surprises was DICE working on the new Star Wars: Battlefront. As you said, that’s pretty much a match made in heaven for fans… but those sorts of dream collaborations don’t happen often. I’m glad you say that because it was almost not happening. It was just something as boring as resources and availability. The DICE guys…

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2.2.1 Datamined Info SWTOR

Alright, here we go again. You know we’re waiting on more details from 2.2.1 so if you’re looking for the scoop, this data mine might help you out. As always, take what you read here with a grain of salt. We don’t work for Bioware and even if we did, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t even know what’s going to make it into a final version of the game update. But it’s sure fun to speculate. WARNING: May contain spoilers. swtor_miner has some more data mined info for us. I don’t have a whole lot of free time right now, so this isn’t going to be a full exposé. I see that Werit already datamined the new abilities. But he didn’t really datamine the items. Vehicles: Aratech Verdant Aratech Ghost Aratech Red Spirit Aratech Techno Red Sphere   Emotes: Emote: Stylish Dance – Use this item to learn the /Style…

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Al Pacino In ‘Star Wars’ As Han Solo? It Almost Happened

Al Pacino In ‘Star Wars’ As Han Solo? Well, that sure would have made for an interesting movie, no? Before you get all excited, it’s not happening but Al Pacino says it almost did. According to Al, Al Pacino almost played Han Solo in “Star Wars.” “”It was mine for the taking but I didn’t understand the script,” Pacino said in London over the weekend during an event called “An Evening With Al Pacino.” Harrison Ford apparently did understand the script; he, of course, played Solo in three “Star Wars” films and is expected to reprise his role in the 2015 sequel directed by J.J. Abrams. And apparently he’s not the only one who was offered the role but has turned it down before Harrison Ford was picked up. And there were other women in line to play Princess Leia back then too. Sissy Spacek, Jodie Foster, Cindy Williams and Amy Irving…

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Full-Size LEGO X-Wing Is the Largest Lego Model Ever Built

The impressive life-size model was unveiled in New York City’s Times Square and contains an astonishing 5,335,200 bricks, making it the largest Lego model ever made. The model, which was made to promote new animation series The Yoda Chronicles, towers above at a lofty 11ft (3.35m) and is 43ft (13.1m) in length. It is 42 times the size of the original Lego toy it was based on and took 32 people four months to build. Unsurprisingly fans of the hit movie have been impressed by the creation It was assembled by a team of 32 people over the course of 17,000 man-hours in Kladno, Czech Republic, on what one assumes was the world’s largest living-room floor. The X-Wing comprises 5.3 million Lego bricks, some 2 million more than the previous title-holder, a robot at Minnesota’s Mall of America. At 43 feet from front to back, it’s actually two feet longer than…

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1981 Prequel Meeting to the Prequels

Huffington post in honor of the coming 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi on May 25th, published an excerpt from the soon to be released (October), “The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” by J.W. Rinzler. It was from a meeting held in the summer of 1981 which describes the prequels from the mind of George Lucas. It’s interesting to see how ideas changed and evolved between 1981 and 2005, in particular the birth and first two years of the twins including Yoda’s lightsaber skills. Also notice the keen eye on writer Lawrence Kasdan whose imagination helped Lucas evolve the vision right here in this meeting. He is also confirmed as a consultant for the upcoming 2015 Star Wars films. The preview of the book is direct from Huffington Post, the film images are added by me to coincide with the 1981 meeting. REVENGE OF THE JEDI…

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Star Wars Rebels, the animated series

Rebel Intel Officer by The First Angel, DeviantArt The animators of Star Wars: Clone Wars are back with a brand new project, Star Wars Rebels, to air Fall of 2014!!! Like most of us, I was pretty upset about the Disney cancellation of the final 6th season of Star Wars Clones Wars especially since I knew it was already in production wondering how many episodes were ready to be released but will never see the light of day. After all, it is the true ending of that story, which will now never be told. At the end of season 5, an anti-war element was being introduced into the story which excited me immensely being that I was a real life anti-war activist myself, not just a Star Wars fan and a fan of Joseph Campbell. From the moment Bush Jr dropped his first bombs, I was at the very first…

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Star Wars at Comic Con: Stormtroopers on a Mission

Star Wars was featured at Dallas Comic Con this weekend and local members of the 501st Legion—“The world’s definitive imperial costuming organization,”—set up with a very surprising mission: to do good. Star Wars was featured at Dallas Comic Con this weekend and local members of the 501st Legion—“The world’s definitive imperial costuming organization,”—set up with a very surprising mission: to do good. As shocking as it might be considering they’re … well… Stormtroopers, the 501st are actually some pretty cool guys and gals. We had the pleasure of meeting some of them last year and my son has a collectible trading card as a souvenir.  But they had a very specific mission at Dallas Comic Con Saturday. Led by the Star Garrison, which covers three states, and the North Texas Squad, they sponsored “Blast-a-Stormtrooper for Charity.” It was all in honor of Kari Giles, in treatment for stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,…

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Star Wars: Episode VII to be filmed in the UK, confirms LucasFilm

Every development in the production of Star Wars: Episode VII is big news around Hollywood and the latest announcement from Disney and Lucasfilm is that the production will be based in the U.K. In an announcement on the official Star Wars site, Licasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that all future feature films will be made at Elstree, Shepperton, Leavesden, Ealing and Pinewood Studios in the U.K. These are the same studios that George Lucas and crew used for the previous six Star Wars films. “We’ve devoted serious time and attention to revisiting the origins of Star Wars as inspiration for our process on the new movie, and I’m thrilled that returning to the UK for production and utilizing the incredible talent there can be a part of that,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Speaking from my own longstanding connection to the UK with films like Raiders of the Lost Ark,…

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Game Update 2.1: Customization Preview

Yesterday via the official Star Wars: The old Republic website, and via a mail  Emails sent out by BioWare  to all players, we learned about a new web page that gives a few bits of information regarding the customization options coming out in Game Update 2.1. Summary of the new page are as following: Cathars are happening in 2.1. Appearance customization kiosks are happening on fleet, capitol worlds, and cartel market in 2.1. Subscribers get an unspecified discount on appearance stuff in 2.1. Stay tuned for more 2.1 info. Nothing new, really, but we do get a few new screenshots. Check them out below:

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SWTOR Free to Play Experiment: Is F2P Worth It?

Have you ever wondered whether SWTOR is any good on free to play versus a subscription? Do you currently play f2p? There are a lot of people out there who say Bioware has made the game where free to play is just not any fun and that if you truly want to experience what the game has to offer, then you have to pay for it. Then again, there are some who say there is plenty to enjoy about the game even as a free player. I guess it depends on what you want from the game and how you choose to play it. There are some limitations to free players but there are also workarounds. We’ve done some basic comparisons here but one man is about to take on the experiment in its entirety. Larry Everett takes on this challenge and sets out to prove which side is right,…

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Writing Star Wars w/ Michael Arndt

Michael Arndt was announced as the screenwriter for “Star Wars: Episode VII” back in November 2012, so what has he been doing since then? According to a hilarious new Funny or Die video of his alleged first day writing the upcoming movie’s screenplay, he’s been having a whole lot of writer’s block. Of course, this is all a joke, but Arndt does have some priceless terrible lines to show off here. From “Sir, we’ve identified the nerf herder. He has a herd of nerfs” to “‘Yoda’s alive! How?’ Explain later, I will,” Arndt’s fake lack of inspiration is a pleasure to watch. The video has become increasingly popular since it was released, and hopefully it will lead to more Funny or Die “Star Wars” videos going forward. It is the first time Arndt has commented in a big way on his involvement in “Episode VII,” even if the clip does…

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EA Didn’t Ruin BioWare Games, Says Dr. Zeschuk

We have all heard the rumors: EA ruined SWTOR, EA ruined BioWare, EA destroyed BioWare games. But one of the Doctors is speaking out against these rumors. BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk says he had a hand and a voice in how things operated at EA/Bioware. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the doctor says: Zeschuk also rejects any notion of Electronic Arts being a negative influence on BioWare. “They don’t second-guess you, they don’t say you shouldn’t do that,” he explains. “We had complete creative control over a lot of it; some fans didn’t like some of it and some of it was experimental, quite frankly.” Well, it’s a sign of honor to own up to your own mistakes, right? It’d be easy for BioWare to blame EA for their lackluster year(or two) but instead he admits that they had too much money and possible too much free reign and they made…

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EA’s Survival Has Been “A Rare Feat”

We’ve talked before here about the ups and downs of EA. They’ve had a rough couple of years and those shareholders who are still holding on saw stock drop from around $25 back in the winter of 2011 to just about $11 last August. Now they’re back up to around $18 a share. So those who have stayed in it for the long haul are seeing their efforts pay off. At last week’s Game Developer’s Conference, GamesIndustry International talked to EA president Frank Gibeau (a possible replacement for Riccitiello) about the state of EA: “It’s a dynamic industry. At one moment social is the hottest thing in the history of man, and the next minute it’s not. One minute console is dead, the next minute console is incredible. There’s no market in Russia, Brazil, China, and now we’re seeing some of the largest markets in the world in the emerging market. The…

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