Developer Blog

Developer Blogs: IMPERIAL EDICT GR-1NC4

BioWare have posted a new role-playing developer blog on the Life Day event. I got a good laugh out of this, so Props to whomever wrote this. Really looking forward to Life Day/Return of the Gree later today! You can read the full post here, or if you are blocked by a firewall, you can read our copy paste below: BTW: GR-1NC4 = Grinch. IMPERIAL EDICT GR-1NC4 12.16.2013 Immediate Notice and Compliance Demanded. It has come to the Empire’s attention that dissident elements engaging in a tawdry and potentially dangerous seasonal event are planning to infect Imperial space with their insipid notions. This so-called “Life Day” encourages activities unbecoming of an Imperial citizen, including but not limited to: Dancing in inclement weather Singing unpatriotic carols Nonviolent physical contact with Wookiees This disgraceful menace of a “holiday”, during which time you are expected to comply fully with this edict, will last approximately…

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Developer Blogs: PvP Season One Blog

Senior System Designer Rob Hinkle posted a blog regarding the upcoming season 1 of ranked warzones. The blog post doesn’t contain  a ton of new info, but it’s nice to see the 6 month timeframe officially stated. It does feel like they’re doing a lot of stuff on the fly which seems scary but hopefully it provides them latitude to adapt as they go instead of screwing up season 1 and having to wait until season 2 to make changes. You can read the full blog post on the official website right here, or our copy paste below: Developer Blogs: PvP Season One Blog 11.07.2013 Greetings PvPers! I’m happy to say that a long awaited and promised time is finally upon us! With the launch of Game Update 2.4.3, the longest pre-season will be over and the inaugural Ranked PvP season will begin. We know it has been a long haul and…

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Developer Blog – Welcome to Game Update 2.4: The Dread War

As with all major game patches, A BioWare dev posted a Developer Blog welcoming all players to the new game update.  This time Senior Producer Bruce Maclean takes it on, explaining some of the new big additions to the game. Awesome stuff I have to add. Check it out below: Welcome to Game Update 2.4: The Dread War Hi there! We are very excited to release Game Update 2.4: The Dread War today. This is our biggest Game Update since 2.0 and includes a story mission area with new missions on a new moon, two entirely new Operations, all new 4v4 Warzone gameplay and Arenas, class balance changes, three new sets of gear comprising some of the most powerful equipment in the galaxy, and new vehicles and mount rewards! Of course this all comes along with the normal assortment of bug fixes, game tweaks, and continued under the hood optimization tweaks. Located in…

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Game Update 2.4: The Dread War and A Record of the Dread Masters

With game update 2.4 we finally get to see the conclusion on the epic  Dread War and what will happen to the Dread Masters. BioWare posted a new Developer Blog about what we can expect plus a new Journal entry by Master Gnost Dural, were he accounts of the Dread Masters. Unfortunately this is not a recorded video like the old Galactic Timeline Records we saw before the game was launched. It’s still a great read though. Check out the Developer Blog here and the   Journal entry by Master Gnost Dural here. CONFRONT THE DREAD MASTERS AND COMPETE IN THE WARZONE ARENAS OF DEATH! Get ready to team up with allies to confront the powerful and terrifying Dread Masters, and prepare to compete in new arenas of death coming in Game Update 2.4: The Dread War! – Withstand the fires of Oricon, a new story mission area where the Dread Masters plot to…

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Developer Blog: Color Palette Update

BioWare posted a new developer blog on the subject of the recent changes made to the game’s color palette. Game update 2.3 Features more vibrant colors, as well as a palette that suits the various settings, the game is looking more amazing than ever if you ask me. The blog post outlines the culmination of hundreds of manhours from extremely talented industry professionals. Artists, graphic designers, software engineers and production staff. He outlines how this team developed a custom set of tools and then used those tools to modify the game. This is an extremely challenging project, that was well managed and performed by some of the best in the industry. You can read the full developer blog, over at the official site and check out the .GIF animations that show the differences from before the update and after, or check out snippet below: Several months ago, our engineers added a…

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Developer Blog: PvP in Game Update 2.0: Scum and Villainy

Assistant Designer Alex Modny made a developer blog Friday,  about the upcoming PvP changes coming with Game Update 2.0. SWTOR’s current bolster system is receiving a complete overhaul as part of the 2.0 update. It should fix issues of fairness which are encountered when players turn from level 49 to 50. Now, rather than a universal buff to their abilities, players will receive a boost determined by the equipment they have attiring their character. With Bolster, the most important change is that the stats are no longer granted on an assumption of stat power based on character level. Rather we look at each one of the Item Ratings (including the Mods, Augments, Armorings, etc. that go into the armor/weapon) of the current equipped gear and base the amount of stats given based on these values. The worse your items are the more stats you are given to get you to the base value we want…

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New Developer Blog: Jeff Hickman Discusses State of the Game

Executive Producer Jeff Hickman took the stage yesterday in a new developer blog titled: State of the Game.  In this, and future blog posts he will be discussing concerns the community has with SWTOR. In this first blog he addresses issues such as the turning from a subscription based game to free to play model, aswell as staff leaving the company and bugs in game. Check out his full post on the official site or as a copy paste below: Jeff Hickman When we decided to go Free-to-Play earlier this year, we had weeks of discussion with everyone on the team about where we thought the game was going, what we thought was going right and what was going wrong. We uncovered a lot of issues, but three things really stood out: 1. Our game is awesome. People love it and want to play it. 2. The subscription requirement was driving away huge numbers of people who do not want to…

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Game Update 1.4: Terror from Beyond developer blog and launch trailer

With all the excitement around game update 1.4 , we forgot to update you about a new Developer Blog by James Ohlen and a new laucnhed trailer for  Terror From Beyond just released. In the Developer Blog James Ohlen writesabout the release schedule for new content going forward for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This Game Update is also the start of a new release cadence. Our strategy so far has been to release big updates every few months. But this leaves long periods of time where you, our fans, don’t have anything new. So we’re moving to a model where we release Game Updates on a much more regular cadence. Our initial aim is for something as close to every six weeks as we can get. I’d promise an exact schedule, but in a live game we need some flexibility as the stability of the service trumps the release of an…

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BioWare Dev blog by William Wallace : Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3

Senior Game Designer William Wallace posted a developer blog post regarding Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3.  Basically he breaks down own the Character Perks into four types of unlocks including Advancement Perks, Travel Perks, Companion Perks and Convenience Perks Legacy Perks in Game Update 1.3 Hi, I’m Senior Game Designer William Wallace. In Game Update 1.2, we introduced Legacy Unlocks, a system in which characters across your Legacy could unlock special rewards for reaching different milestones. Since Game Update 1.2 went live, your Smuggler may have learned a new skill from their Sith Inquisitor father, or you might have unlocked new species options for your classes. No matter your personal choices, you have now started to build your very own Star Wars™ legacy. With Game Update 1.3, we are continuing to expand the Legacy system by introducing the new Character Perks system. Character Perks allow you to customize each character in your Legacy,…

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