SWTOR news

SWTOR Celebration Cantina Live Stream Recap and Overview (Star Wars Celebration 2015)

This Saturday a special Panel aired live for ~52 minutes on Twitch. Bioware live streamed the SWTOR Community Cantina event from Celebration Anaheim 2015.The video linked below is Vulkk’s recap of the SWTOR Community Cantina Event from Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2015. Did Bioware drop the ball with lack of new information or we got the awesome news we were dreaming for? Alongside the event notes, you will hear also his personal opinion and overview of the event.

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SWTOR: Patch 3.1.1 Jedi Sentinel and Sith Marauder Changes Analytical Video Preview

In this video Vulkk introduces the upcoming changes for Jedi Sentinel and Sith Marauder with Patch 3.1.1, which was recently released on PTS. He shares his opinion and analysis on the impact of these changes. There is a new Utility added and one was removed, a couple abilities were altered. Whether this fix is good for the class and in what situations  will Sentinels and Marauders feel stronger and more viable? If you are interested to hear Vulkk’s opinion, the video is attached down below. Don’t forget toshare your own expectations! Quick reminder of the Sentinel / Marauder patch notes for 3.1.1: Sentinel Just Pursuit has been redesigned: Leg Slash immobilizes the target for 3 seconds. This immobilizing effect cannot be applied to the same target more than once every 10 seconds. Removed the Stagger Skillful Utility. New Skillful Utility: Reining Reach. Reining Reach increases the range of Leg Slash to 10 meters and…

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SWTOR: Complete KEYBINDING Guide and UI Tips

Keyboard keybinding is very personal and every player should edit and adjust their abilities to their own taste. With that said, in the linked video Vulkk shows us his personal bindings for both keyboard and mouse as well as various tips, tricks and reasons why certain skills should be located in certain spots and what is the logic behind each and every bound ability. The video examples the Jedi Sentinel keybinds, but the guide is made to be valid for all advanced classes. The ideal system is when all keybinds are the same or very similar for all of our alts, which makes remembering key press combinations a lot easier and saves us time.

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Celebrate May the Fourth with a new Astromech Droid™ and Double XP!

We forgot all about this story yesterday, but May 4 is rapidly approaching and that means it’s almost time to celebrate Star Wars Day. It’s only appropriate that BioWare get in on the fun, too, so the studio is planning a Star Wars Day celebration for Star Wars: The Old Republic with a double XP weekend and a free droid mini-pet. SWTOR is offering double XP from 11:00AM PDT May 2 through 12:00AM PDT May 5. If you have no need for XP there’s a more concrete reward on offer. Here is the details: We’re excited to announce that in honor of Star Wars™ Day and as a thank you to you, our players, we’re giving away the new MT-4T Astromech Droid™ Mini-Pet to the entire Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ community!* Your adventurous Astromech Droid is ready to courageously follow you as you join with friends to fight for…

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BIoWare is doing voice recording for upcoming content

Charles Boyd made an interesting tweet yesterday regarding voice recording for upcoming content swtor content. If you don’t know who Charles Boyd is, I can tell you he is credited as the lead writer for the trooper class on IMDB. We don’t know what the new content is yet, but it’s properly for the upcoming expansion, or maybe something coming down later down the pipeline. Another interesting thing about all this, is  Charles Boyd’s twitter description is ” Lead Writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Trooper lover, and historical arms-and-armor nerd. All opinions expressed are my own! “ Personally I was not aware that had become lead writer, but apparently BioWare got a few for the game, since Hall Hood also uses this title. LA-bound to sit in on voice recording for upcoming #SWTOR releases. Always awesome to see such talented actors at work in the booth! — Charles Boyd (@Charles_Boyd)…

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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.

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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.

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Stat Scaling for 2.0- Are Your Stats Lower on the PTS?

If you’ve logged into the PTS recently, you probably have already seen that the scaling is different from what is live in the game. Stats are usually around 50-70% of the character sheet value in live. Everyone on the PTS was aware that BioWare would be changing the scaling formula but we didn’t know exactly what that would be. Now with 2.0, you can tell what these changes are going to look like. One user on the forum has taken the time to work from the old formula and try to build new co-efficients that will govern the stat scaling (yes, lots of math involved but it’s really interesting.) Here are some of his breakdowns: Defensive Defense Rating – Now scales roughly 118% slower Shield Rating – Now scales roughly 50% slower Absorb Rating – Now scales roughly 127% slower Armor – Now scales 2.5% slower, but remains on a linear progression HP – Buffed…

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Free Quick Travel to Your Ship Every Hour, Until They Patch It

Whenever there is a game update, there is the chance that things will go wrong. Sometimes those little bugs work in our favor, even if only for a little while until they get patched. This happened with the most recent update nad you can now get a free quick travel to your ship every hour until it is patched. As Online Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez says in the forums: Hi everyone, With Game Update 1.7, we introduced the new Legacy Character Perk, Priority Transport: Personal Starship. This allows players to quickly shuttle to their personal starships. This ability normally has a 24 hr cooldown, and players have the option to purchase Legacy Global Unlocks to reduce this cooldown. Unfortunately, with Game Update 1.7, there is a bug which automatically unlocks the three levels of Legacy Global Unlocks for any players that is level 20 or above. This is not intended…

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Game Update 1.7 Brings Galactic Reputation to Players

The official SWTOR blog has some interesting info about Game Update 1.7 today. There are going to be many new additions such as new legacy titles, reputation and more but the biggest news is the addition of Galactic Reputation to players. Check out this explanation from the SWTOR blog: Game Update 1.7 will introduce Galactic Reputation to all players. This is a new way for your character to advance in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. In a time of widespread conflict and political strife, disparate organizations throughout the galaxy seek allies in the struggle for peace… or conquest. Reputation measures how your character is perceived by these organizations it reflects the prestige you’ve earned through your heroic contributions to each cause. The Reputation track for each organization is divided into six ranks – Outsider, Newcomer, Friend, Hero, Champion, and Legend. You will start with no rank at all, but as you…

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SWTOR Lead Designer Damion Schubert Talks Cartel Packs

Players have been doing a lot of talking about Cartel Packs and there is a thread on the SWTOR community forums that has some very important questions in it. Well, SWTOR Lead Designer Damion Schubert has now popped into answer some of those questions and give us some great info and stats. You can read the full thread for yourself but here’s a snippet: Do items put in the Galactic Trade Network sell? Yes. We have metrics, as well, on what sells, and for what price, which we compare to their drop rates. This gives us a great idea on adjustments we should make for future packs (the drop rates and the pack contents themselves) – which means that our next round of packs will be better, and the ones after that will be better again. Here are some fun stats * The White indestructible crystal Median Buyout price =…

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Damion Schubert Speaks on Phantom and Spymaster Gear Changes

If you spend any time in the forums the past day or so, you probably know that the community was upset regarding some changes to gear bought from the Cartel Market. Many players want their money back after spending cash in the Cartel Market for Phantom and Spymaster gear based on how it looked, only to have the appearance changed later. They see it as a bait-and-switch and while BioWare claims it wasn’t intentional, we can definitely see the point these players are making. So we were holding on to see when BioWare would chime in with a solution to this problem. Lead Designer Damion Schubert piped in to this thread about the issue: Hey, guys — We care a lot about the fact that you care about the appearances of your characters. In fact, the Mod system is my baby, largely because it allows players to customize their appearance…

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BioWare LiveStream Q&A November 29th

BioWare hosted their second LiveStream Q&A November 29 at 3PM CST as we told you about yesterday. They took questions about the upcoming game update 1.6 and it lasted around a half hour. Those who were able to get their questions in early possibly saw them answered live at the event. They have Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez hosting with Damion Schubert (Lead Designer) and Jeff Hickman (Producer) available to answer questions that came in from Twitter, Facebook, the forums and more. Erik Muska was also available offscreen to take live questions during the event. Some very good questions were asked including how the transition to the new free to play model is going as well as what new things we can expect to see in 1.6. When asked how the numbers look for F2P, Schubert says “Almost every conceivable metric is better. The numbers have blown away our expectations, which means…

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Subscribers Not Charged Credits for Skill Point Re-specializations

In the news of what benefits subscribers will get, came some very exciting news about re-specializations. Amber Green, Live Community Coordinator, posted a thread on the SWTOR forums that lists the benefits to subscribers. Of this was the news that subscribers will not be charged credits for skill point re-specs. How many people do you think will subscribe just for this benefit alone? Chances are high that players will opt in just to know how many credits they can save from being able to re-spec when and how they need to. Here are some other details from that forum post: Highlights Travel to Section X on Belsavis and learn why the nefarious Dread Guard has seized control of this ravaged sector of the planet! Section X can be accessed on Belsavis and via the daily mission shuttles. HK-51 can now be acquired as a Companion Character! A shipment of the…

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Developer Update 10/25: FTP Changes Coming Soon

For those of you on the PTS who have been reporting bugs and giving feedback on the game, your voices are being heard. A recent developer update tells us that there will be some important and interesting changes coming very soon. The forum thread will tell you the full changes and updates but here are some highlights. Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar. Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3. The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers. They added that they found some crucial bugs that needed stomping, which is good. These changes will make their way to the PTS by early next week. Here is some more from that post: There are a couple of key concepts that should be kept in mind…

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Alexander Freed Leaves BioWare

And now another BioWare staff member bites the dust… Alexander Freed (my favorite BioWare writer) as officially announced on his Twitter (yes, he’s on Twitter now) feed that he is leaving BioWare and joining me in the ranks of freelance writers. It’s kind of a bittersweet announcement, really. While I love freelancing and I encourage other writers to do the same and explore the freedom of being able to work on different projects at once, try new things and do what you want, instead of what you are contracted to do. So as a friend, I’m really happy for Alex. He’s incredibly talented and I believe he’s going to love the opportunities that come his way now that he is not on BioWare’s payroll anymore. Big news! As of today, I’m departing BioWare to go freelance. It’s been a wonderful six years, but time to move on. More next tweet….

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SWTOR Game Update 1.4 is Coming!

The time is almost here. Everyone has been waiting and waiting for SWTOR game update 1.4. Now the time is nearly here. The servers are going to be down for around six hours but the good news is there will be something great coming after those hours have passed. This means 1.4 is finally coming and with such a big update, it’s going to take a few hours to get the content loaded and ready to go. And of course, expect that you will see some bugs and problems from the first day or so that the new content is up. But let’s see more than BioWare has to say about it and the downtime. BioWare has this update to offer tonight: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for six hours on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM…

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Interviews from the SWTORspere

With Game Update 1.4 on the way, we are seeing more information coming out about the new features, free to play model and other changes happening within SWTOR and the community. One of the highlights of this information is the great interviews that usually come out from BioWare staff. This is our chance to learn more about what’s really going on and sometimes, to get the very questions we want asked, asked. We have a nice roundup this week of interviews with Gabe Amantangelo, Joveth Gonzalez and Lead System Designer, Damion Schubert. Chris and Anexxia interview SWTOR Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez and get  the scoop on what his first few months on the job have been like, find out what his team has in store for us over the next couple of months as we lead up to the launch of the free-to-play option and more. You can listen to…

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Developer Dispatch — Terror From Beyond

Game Update 1.4 is coming soon and with it one of the most dynamic and difficult Operations in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. SWTOR is changing for the better and with free to play on the way, we are also seeing updates that are slowly bringing out things the game will end up with in F2P mode. Game update 1.4 is highly anticipated and the time is nearly here. Are you wondering more about what you can expect? We have a great video/trailer with a sneak peak of Terror from Beyond straight from the developers themselves. BioWare tells us more about it in this official news post: In “Terror from Beyond”, you will be called upon to face a mysterious new threat that has emerged from one of the most obscure places in the galaxy: the Gree planet of Asation. The Gree have been safeguarding ancient technologies on the planet…

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The Fan Favorite Reward is “The Party Jawa”

If you’ve been waiting to hear what the Fan Favorite would be, the info has finally been released. Not so shocking to me personally, it was the Party Jawa. I had a really good feeling when I saw the choices this would be the one to come out on top. SWTOR/BioWare let us know in this official post: BioWare and LucasArts are excited to announce that “The Party Jawa” has won our Fan Favorite voting contest. Over the past month, our Facebook Fans have had the opportunity to choose a favorite item to receive as a reward when Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ launches its new Free-to-Play option this Fall. Although it was hard to pick a favorite, The Party Jawa won by an overwhelming majority! The Party Jawa celebrates a player’s status as a veteran of the galaxy with a unique and fun animation. The Party Jawa will be rewarded…

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Developer Update: Class Changes and Balance in Game Update 1.4

Austin Peckenpaugh, Senior Designer on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ has an interesting update today about the future of the game, class changes and balance that will come in game update 1.4. He explains in full detail on the community news page: For Game Update 1.4, we wanted to address several key issues with class gameplay usability and balance. Foremost among these are adjustments to crowd control and the Resolve system, the subsequent class changes made to harmonize with those control adjustments, and a reevaluation of stealth spec gameplay. He then goes on to talk about what some of these specific changes will be. Crowd control and resolve changes are first on the list. He explains further: In Game Update 1.4, we’ve made adjustments to the range of control abilities under a new philosophy. We want control to be something more readable, more predictable, and less chaotic in effect. To achieve…

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SWTOR New Operation Terror from Beyond

There’s a lot of great news coming out of Gamescom today, including exciting news from EA. SWTOR is getting some great new features, including a new operation called Terror from Beyond. In an EA press conference this morning, we learned about the new changes and additions to SWTOR. Matthew Bromberg, new head of BioWare Austin, confirmed a number of new changes for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Challenge of the Chevin, the new SWTOR live event, was launched today. But then there is more (coming next month): Terror from Beyond – a new Operation on Belsavis. Ancient Hypergate – a new PvP Warzone New Flying Missions – aimed at level 50 players There was also a sneak peek at a new live action trailer for the next phase in SWTOR as the Free to Play change draws nearer. It looks really exciting. Stay tuned as we will keep you updated on any new info coming out of Gamescom about…

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CNN Money Discusses SWTOR’s Free to Play Model

Star Wars: The Old Republic made big news when it announced that it would go free to play very soon. After all, it was just released in December of 2011, so it’s still a fairly new game. It’s also one of the most expensive MMOs ever made and it took years to put it all together. While some predicted the change in the model, others thought it might hand on a little longer before making the change. So, why is one of the most expensive video games ever made making such a drastic change? Here’s what CNN Money had to say about the decision:  “It’s a straightforward economics problem. The subscription business model cuts off casual players, who can’t justify paying $15 a month (particularly in this tough economy) for a game they only touch on occasion. That leaves the hard-core players, who are often reluctant to split their time…

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