Archives for 2012

SWTOR: 1.4 Final Patch Notes

The servers are about to come back up, and with them SWTOR patch 1.4: Terror From Beyond. For your viewing pleasure we have the full and final patch notes. Have a read through and see what you’re in for:

Game Update 1.4: Terror From Beyond

9/26/2012

Highlights

  • Terror from Beyond, a new Operation, is now available! Travel to the remote planet of Asation, where the Dread Masters have commandeered an ancient Gree Hypergate in order to unleash untold horrors upon the galaxy. Terror from Beyond features 5 powerful new boss encounters that can be challenged in 8- and 16- player Story or Hard Mode, offering some of the most challenging group content yet!
  • A new set of PvE gear is available! Dread Guard gear is now the most powerful PvE equipment in the galaxy. It can be acquired from deep within Terror from Beyond (Hard Mode).
  • Significant changes have been made to crowd control to address the amount of control a player can be subject to at once. See the Classes and Combat section for details.

Classes and Combat

General

      • The crowd control gameplay has been adjusted to address the amount of control a player can be subject to at once. The majority of this change comes from reduced ranges on a number of crowd control abilities, as well as some adjustments to area of effect knockback abilities. To complement these changes, some small Resolve system tweaks (found in the PvP section) have been put in place to polish the system as a whole.
      • The ground targeting reticule for an ability queued during another ability’s channel is no longer cleared when the channeled ability has finished.
      • Players no longer receive the error message “You cannot cast while moving” when moving, stopping, and then immediately using a ground-targeted ability.
      • When a player is defeated immediately after applying a damage over time effect to another character, the player is no longer occasionally put back into combat after being revived.

Jedi Knight

General
        • Force Sweep’s timing has been adjusted; the ability now executes faster.
        • Force Stasis has a new animation.
Sentinel
        • Guarded by the Force now lasts 4 seconds (down from 5 seconds).
        • Zen (Shii-Cho Form) has been redesigned. Now, while Shii-Cho Form is active, using Zen consumes 1 charge every .5 seconds, generating 2 Focus for each charge consumed.
        • Valorous Call can no longer be activated when you already have 30 stacks of Centering.
Focus (Sentinel)
          • Zephyrean Slash has been redesigned. It now gives Strike, Zealous Strike, Slash, Blade Storm, and Dispatch a 50% chance per point to reduce the active cooldown of Force Sweep and Zealous Leap by .5 seconds per point.
          • Swift Slash now additionally affects Dispatch.
          • Saber Strength now additionally affects Dispatch.
          • Singularity: Stacks of Singularity now additionally reduce the Focus cost of Force Sweep by 12.5% per point per stack.
          • Shii-Cho Mastery’s armor penetration has been increased to 15% per point.
Guardian
Vigilance
          • Gather Strength: The bonus damage provided by each stack has been reduced to 2% per point.
Focus (Guardian)
          • Zephyrean Slash has been redesigned. It now gives Strike, Zealous Strike, Slash, Blade Storm, and Dispatch a 50% chance per point to reduce the active cooldown of Force Sweep and Zealous Leap by .5 seconds per point.
          • Swift Slash now additionally affects Dispatch.
          • Saber Strength now additionally affects Dispatch.
          • Singularity: Stacks of Singularity now additionally reduce the Focus cost of Force Sweep by 12.5% per point per stack.
          • Inner Focus now causes Combat Focus to generate 2 additional Focus per point.
          • Shii-Cho Mastery: Armor penetration has been increased to 15% per point.

Sith Warrior

General
        • Smash’s timing has been adjusted; the ability now executes faster.
        • Ravage’s audio now plays reliably when the ability is used.
Marauder
        • Undying Rage now lasts 4 seconds (down from 5 seconds).
        • Berserk (Shii-Cho Form) has been redesigned. Now, while Shii-Cho Form is active, using Berserk consumes 1 charge every .5 seconds, generating 2 Rage for each charge consumed.
        • Frenzy can no longer be activated when you already have 30 stacks of Fury.
Rage (Marauder)
          • Overpower has been redesigned. It now gives Assault, Battering Assault, Vicious Slash, Force Scream, and Vicious Throw a 50% chance per point to reduce the active cooldown of Smash and Obliterate by .5 seconds per point.
          • Brutality now additionally affects Vicious Throw.
          • Saber Strength now additionally affects Vicious Throw.
          • Shockwave: Stacks of Shockwave now additionally reduce the Rage cost of Smash by 12.5% per point per stack.
          • Shii-Cho Mastery’s armor penetration has been increased to 15% per point.
Juggernaut
        • Pooled Hatred: The bonus damage provided by each stack has been reduced to 2% per point.
Rage (Juggernaut)
          • Overpower has been redesigned. It now gives Assault, Sundering Assault, Vicious Slash, Force Scream, and Vicious Throw a 50% chance per point to reduce the active cooldown of Smash and Obliterate by .5 seconds per point.
          • Brutality now additionally affects Vicious Throw.
          • Saber Strength now additionally affects Vicious Throw.
          • Shockwave: Stacks of Shockwave now additionally reduce the Rage cost of Smash by 12.5% per point per stack.
          • Empowering Rage now causes Enrage to generate 2 additional Rage per point.
          • Shii-Cho Mastery: Armor penetration has been increased to 15% per point.

Jedi Consular

General
        • Force Stun now costs no Force and has a 10-meter range.
        • Force Speed now has a 20-second cooldown (down from 30).
        • Force Wave now costs no Force and affects targets in a 15-meter cone in front of you. This ability now executes faster.
Sage
        • Force Mend: This new ability allows you to heal yourself for a moderate amount. It costs no Force, is instant, and has a 30-second cooldown.
Seer
          • Valiance now additionally increases the healing of Force Mend by 15% per point.
          • Egress has been redesigned. It now causes Force Speed to remove roots and snares and grants immunity to roots and snares for its duration.
Telekinetics
          • Mental Alacrity now additionally provides immunity to interrupts for its duration. It has improved visual effects to demonstrate this effect.
          • Telekinetic Effusion no longer reduces the cooldown of Force Speed.
          • Telekinetic Wave has a new animation.
          • Kinetic Collapse: The Incapacitation effect caused by this skill no longer breaks on damage.
Shadow
        • Force Cloak now has a 2 minute cooldown.
Kinetic Combat
          • Elusiveness has been redesigned. It now requires Double-Bladed Saber Defense and increases the Force recovered by Double-Bladed Saber Defense. Successful shielding, parries, and deflects now reduce the active cooldown of Resilience by .5 second per point. This effect cannot occur more than once every second.
Infiltration
          • Infiltration Tactics: When Find Weakness activates, your next Shadow Strike deals 30% more damage and costs 75% less Force. This cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds, but each rank after the first reduces this rate limit by 3 seconds.
          • Celerity now additionally reduces the cooldown of Force Speed by 2.5 seconds per point.
          • Masked Assault now additionally finishes the cooldown of Blackout when you exit stealth. In addition, Masked Assault causes Shadow’s Respite to reduce all damage taken by 25% while active.
          • Fade now additionally reduces the damage taken from area effects by 15% per point and reduces the cooldown of Force Cloak by 15 seconds per point (down from 30 seconds per point). Kinetic Field no longer provides this effect.
          • Kinetic Field has been redesigned. Critical hits now cause you to build a Kinetic Field, increasing damage reduction by 1% per point per stack. This effect stacks up to 3 times. This skill is now located in tier 5 of the skill tree.
          • Situational Awareness is now located in tier 6 of the skill tree.
          • Deep Impact is now a 2-point skill with the same overall effect.
          • Humbling Strike is a new 1-point skill in tier 6 of the skill tree. It causes the target of your Spinning Kick to be slowed by 70% for 3 seconds when the knockdown effect ends. It requires Subduing Techniques.
          • Clairvoyant Strike: Using Project no longer consumes the buff provided by this ability. This change was made to better synergize with Spinning Strike during execute phases.
          • Clairvoyant Strike now correctly increases Project’s damage with 1 stack.

Sith Inquisitor

General
        • Electrocute now costs no Force and has a 10-meter range.
        • Force Speed now has a 20-second cooldown (down from 30).
        • Overload now costs no Force and affects targets in a 15-meter cone in front of you. This ability now executes faster.
Sorcerer
        • Unnatural Preservation: This new ability allows you to heal yourself for a moderate amount. It costs no Force, is instant, and has a 30-second cooldown.
Corruption
          • Dark Resilience now additionally increases the healing of Unnatural Preservation by 15% per point.
          • Fadeout has been redesigned. It now causes Force Speed to remove roots and snares and grants immunity to roots and snares for its duration.
Lightning
          • Polarity Shift now additionally provides immunity to interrupts for its duration. It has improved visual effects to demonstrate this effect.
          • Lightning Effusion no longer reduces the cooldown of Force Speed.
          • Backlash: The blindness effect caused by this skill no longer breaks on damage. The visual explosion effect now plays on the correct target.
Assassin
        • Force Cloak now has a 2 minute cooldown.
Darkness
          • Lightning Recovery has been redesigned. It now requires Lightning Reflexes and increases the Force recovered by Lightning Reflexes. Successful shielding, parries, and deflects now reduce the active cooldown of Force Shroud by .5 second per point. This effect cannot occur more than once every second.
Deception
          • Duplicity: When Exploit Weakness activates, your next Maul deals 30% more damage and costs 75% less Force. This cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds, but each rank after the first reduces this rate limit by 3 seconds.
          • Avoidance now additionally reduces the cooldown of Force Speed by 2.5 seconds per point.
          • Darkswell now additionally finishes the cooldown of Blackout when you exit stealth. In addition, Darkswell causes Dark Embrace to reduce all damage taken by 25% while active.
          • Fade now additionally reduces the damage taken from area effects by 15% per point and reduces the cooldown of Force Cloak by 15 seconds per point (down from 30 seconds per point). Entropic Field no longer provides this effect.
          • Entropic Field has been redesigned. Critical hits now cause you to build an Entropic Field, increasing damage reduction by 1% per point per stack. This effect stacks up to 3 times. This skill is now located in tier 5 of the skill tree.
          • Resourcefulness is now located in tier 6 of the skill tree.
          • Cracking Blasts is now a 2-point skill with the same overall effect.
          • Magnetism is a new 1-point skill in tier 6 of the skill tree. It causes the target of your Spike to be slowed by 70% for 3 seconds when the knockdown effect ends. It requires Static Cling.
          • Voltaic Slash: Using Shock no longer consumes the buff provided by this ability. This change was made to better synergize with Assassinate during execute phases.
          • Static Charges now correctly refers to the damage dealt by your next Surging Charge’s Discharge.
          • Voltaic Slash now correctly increases Shock’s damage with 1 stack.

Smuggler

General
        • Defense Screen: This ability’s tooltip now mentions that it absorbs damage up to a moderate limit and that it does not break stealth.
        • Flash Grenade no longer has an Energy cost.
        • An issue that could prevent players from taking cover properly has been corrected. This issue could cause the error “Unknown Effect Result” to display.
Gunslinger
        • Scrambling Field has a new icon.
        • Pulse Detonator’s timing has been adjusted; it now executes faster.
Saboteur
          • Hot Pursuit: This ability can now only be triggered once every 20 seconds.
          • Incendiary Grenade’s appearance no longer incorrectly displays 2 grenades in the air. Some timing issues with the throwing animation have been addressed.
Sharpshooter
          • Trickshot is now usable within the 5 seconds immediately following Charged Burst, Aimed Shot, or Quickdraw.
Dirty Fighting (Gunslinger)
          • Wounding Shots has a new animation.
Scoundrel
        • Disappearing Act now has a 2 minute cooldown.
Scrapper
          • Fight or Flight has been redesigned. It finishes the cooldown on Sneak when you exit stealth and allows Sneak to be used out of stealth, increasing movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. It still removes the penalty to healing done and received caused by Disappearing Act.
          • Flee the Scene now additionally reduces the cooldown of Sneak by 7.5 seconds per point. It also now reduces the cooldown of Disappearing Act by 15 seconds per point (down from 30 seconds per point).

Imperial Agent

General
        • Flash Bang no longer has an Energy cost.
        • An issue that could prevent players from taking cover properly has been corrected. This issue could cause the error “Unknown Effect Result” to display.
Sniper
        • Ballistic Shield has a new icon.
        • Cover Pulse’s timing has been adjusted; it now executes faster.
Marksmanship
          • Followthrough is now usable within the 5 seconds immediately following Snipe, Ambush, or Takedown.
Engineering
          • Calculated Pursuit: This ability can now only be triggered once every 20 seconds.
Operative
        • Cloaking Screen now has a 2 minute cooldown.
Concealment
          • Energy Screen has been redesigned. It is now called “Ghost.” It finishes the cooldown on Sneak when you exit stealth and allows Sneak to be used out of stealth, increasing movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. It still removes the penalty to healing done and received caused by Cloaking Screen.
          • Advanced Cloaking now additionally reduces the cooldown of Sneak by 7.5 seconds per point. It also now reduces the cooldown of Cloaking Screen by 15 seconds per point (down from 30 seconds per point).

Trooper

General
        • Hold the Line now has more noticeable visual effects.
        • Cryo Grenade’s range has been decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters.
Commando
        • Due to changes in the Commando skill trees, all Commandos have had their skill points refunded.
        • Disabling Shot is a new ability that interrupts the target’s current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds.
Gunnery
          • Concussive Force: Stockstrike now immobilizes the target for 4 seconds instead of knocking it back.
          • Cover Fire: This ability’s snare has been increased to 70%.
          • Charged Barrel: Each stack of Charged Barrel now additionally reduces the activation time of your next Advanced Medical Probe by 20% per stack.
Combat Medic
          • Kolto Residue now additionally snares enemies struck by your Kolto Bomb by 50% for 3 seconds.
          • Potent Medicine is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect.
          • Frontline Medic is a new 2-point skill. While protected by your own Trauma Probe, firing Hammer Shot at an enemy now triggers your Trauma Probe (this can only happen once every 3 seconds). This does not trigger if your health is full.
Vanguard
Tactics
          • Pulse Generator: Each stack now causes 20% additional damage. This can stack up to 3 times.
          • Shock Absorbers now additionally reduces damage taken from area effects by 15% per point. Damage reduction while stunned has been increased to 15% per point.
Assault Specialist (Vanguard)
          • Sweltering Heat’s snare has been reduced to 30%.
          • Incendiary Round’s range has been reduced to 10 meters.
          • Assault Plastique’s range has been reduced to 10 meters.
Assault Specialist (Commando)
          • Sweltering Heat’s snare has been reduced to 30%.

Bounty Hunter

General
        • Electro Dart’s range has been decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters.
        • Unload has a new animation when used with a single blaster pistol.
Mercenary
        • Due to changes in the Mercenary skill trees, all Mercenaries have had their skill points refunded.
        • Disabling Shot is a new ability that interrupts the target’s current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds.
Arsenal
          • Afterburners: Rocket Punch now immobilizes the target for 4 seconds instead of knocking it back.
          • Pinning Fire: This ability’s snare has been increased to 70%.
          • Tracer Lock: Each stack of Tracer Lock now additionally reduces the activation time of your next Healing Scan by 20% per stack.
Bodyguard
          • Kolto Residue now additionally snares enemies struck by your Kolto Missile by 50% for 3 seconds.
          • Warden is now a 3-point skill with the same overall effect.
          • Peacekeeper is a new 2-point skill. While protected by your own Kolto Shell, firing Rapid Shots at an enemy now triggers your Kolto Shell (this can only happen once every 3 seconds). This does not trigger if your health is full.
Pyrotech (Mercenary)
          • Sweltering Heat’s snare has been reduced to 30%.
Powertech
Advanced Prototype
          • Prototype Flame Thrower: Each stack now causes 20% additional damage. This can stack up to 3 times.
          • Stabilized Armor now additionally reduces damage taken from area effects by 15% per point. Damage reduction while stunned has been increased to 15% per point.
Pyrotech (Powertech)
        • Sweltering Heat’s snare has been reduced to 30%.
        • Incendiary Missile’s range has been reduced to 10 meters.
        • Thermal Detonator’s range has been reduced to 10 meters.

Companion Characters

General

      • Players can now use “match color to chest” for their companions, and can choose to show or hide companion head gear.
      • Companions no longer have their weapons drawn on the player’s starship.

Companions

Gault
        • Memento Marketing: This conversation is now only available on the player’s ship.
Lord Scourge
        • Legends: Affection gained during this conversation is now properly granted to Lord Scourge (instead of Rusk).
Tallos Drellik
        • The conversation for “Failure” now grants affection gains and losses correctly.
Vector
      • Agents on the conversation “The Lost Colony” now properly receive affection rewards for the dialogue.

Crew Skills

Gathering

    • Several gathering nodes that were previously inaccessible (for instance, some that were underneath terrain) can now be harvested.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

General
        • While participating in a Flashpoint conversation, using Esc to cancel a conversation and then pressing the “x” button to close the window no longer causes the player to exit the Flashpoint instance.
Kaon Under Siege
        • Players can no longer stand on a wall in order to trivialize encounter mechanics.
        • Floating lights in this Flashpoint now render correctly in low-detail mode.
Lost Island
        • Transgenic Sample Eleven’s overall damage has been decreased in Story Mode.
        • Project Sav-Rak no longer spits Rak Rot in Story Mode.
        • In Story Mode, Doctor Lorrick no longer casts Satchel Charge, and Corrosive Smash’s cooldown has been increased.
        • Doctor Simlo and Doctor Proxinus are now easier to defeat.
        • The Putrid Shaclaw’s Infectious Bite no longer causes Festering Rot in Story Mode.
        • LR-5 Sentinel Droid’s Discharge now gives players a 4.5-second warning in Story Mode (and a 3-second warning in Hard Mode) before activating its ground effect. Players can now move the impending effect away from the group or tank. Plasma Arc no longer has an activation time and is executed while moving, and Incinerate is correctly marked as area of effect damage.
        • In Story Mode, LR-5 Sentinel Droid’s Discharge ground effects have a longer duration before growing in size, and it is limited to 3 active effects at one time. Incinerate’s damage has been reduced, its damage over time effect can be dispelled, and it is now only applied to its primary target (instead of nearby targets).
The Esseles
        • Players who fall into the Power Core are now defeated more reliably.

Operations

General
        • [WEEKLY] Deadly Operations now awards 30 Daily Commendations.
        • [WEEKLY] Galactic Operations now awards 10 Daily Commendations and 8 Black Hole Commendations.
        • [WEEKLY] Galactic Crisis Points now awards 10 Daily Commendations and 8 Black Hole Commendations.
        • Explosive Conflict now awards 10 Black Hole Commendations and crafting materials.
Eternity Vault
        • Annihilator Droid XRR-3 can now be attacked more reliably with abilities that require standing behind the target.
        • Characters no longer occasionally become invisible when moving through the lava tunnels.
        • Corrected the location of a misplaced Ancient Power Source during the Soa encounter.
Explosive Conflict
        • Ugnaut Engineers’ “Firebomb” now correctly displays visual effects on the ground for the full duration of the effect.
        • The console that deactivates Colonel Vorgath’s minefield is now positioned in a more accessible location.
        • Damaging Toth and Zorn too quickly no longer causes their health threshold mechanics to overlap (in all difficulty modes).
        • Chests in Explosive Conflict no longer contain Black Hole Commendations. They now have increased amounts of credits and crafting materials.
        • Bosses in Hard Mode Explosive Conflict now drop 5 Black Hole Commendations each.
        • Players can no longer use certain abilities to avoid an exhaustion zone in this Operation.
        • A number of changes have been made to Explosive Conflict’s Story Mode in order to make it more accessible for pick-up groups.
Toth and Zorn
            • Frenzy now increases damage less per stack.
            • Toth now waits longer before using area of effect abilities after jumping.
            • Fearful now increases damage taken by a lower amount.
            • The amount of time before Toth and Zorn enrage when one dies has been increased.
            • The enrage timer for the encounter has been increased to 6 minutes 30 seconds.
Firebrand and Stormcaller
            • The activation time of Incinerate Armor, Double Destruction, and Defensive Systems has been increased.
            • Incinerate Armor no longer increases damage taken in addition to its armor debuff.
            • Shield generators can no longer be damaged by players.
Colonel Vorgath
            • Probe Droids no longer use Cleave.
            • The enrage timer for the encounter has been increased to 4 minutes 30 seconds.
Warlord Kephess
            • The time before Baradium Bombers explode has been increased.
            • The damage for the Pulsar Power Droids’ rail shot has been decreased.
            • Kephess’ damage in the final phase has been decreased.
            • The damage from the Trandoshan Warrior’s reflective shields has been decreased.
            • The enrage timer for the encounter has been increased.
Karagga’s Palace
          • Bonethrasher can now be attacked more reliably with abilities that require standing behind the target.
          • Proximity Pulse Mines no longer spawn during the G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator encounter in Story Mode.

Group Finder

      • Players participating in a Group Finder group now have the ability to teleport to the Group Finder instance at any point.
      • Players who leave an active Group Finder instance can now be returned to the location they were in when they used the “travel now” dialog option to travel to the instance.
      • Once players reach a checkpoint or defeat an Operation boss, they may choose to exit at the normal area entrance when leaving.
      • Players no longer receive more than one “Travel Now” dialog if one is open when the group finds a new member.
      • Completing the Group Finder mission for Operations now rewards a lockbox that contains 5 Black Hole Commendations and 30 Columi Commendations.

Items

      • The majority of offhand items can now be modified. Shields, Generators, and Foci accept Armoring modifications, and Vibroknives and Shotguns accept Barrels. Additionally, they can contain Color Crystal, Mod, and Enhancement slots (though the Color Crystal slot does not currently impact the visuals of the item). Note that there are some exceptions – not all offhands can be modified. Due to this change, previously damaged offhand items will be fully repaired, but items on the GTN or in the mail will have their durability reduced to 0 and will need repairs.
      • Bind on pickup and Bind on Legacy items can now be traded for up to 2 hours between players that were eligible to loot the item.
      • Items purchased from a vendor can now be sold to any vendor for full purchase price (in commendations) for up to 2 hours. Stackable items and mission items cannot be traded or sold back for full value. The 2 hour time is terminated if a mod is added or removed or an augment slot is added. Bind on Equip items cannot be refunded (in commendations) if they are traded, mailed, put in a guild bank, or listed on the GTN.
      • Lockboxes’ 2 hour timer terminates when the lockbox is opened.
      • The formula that determines extraction costs for modifications has been adjusted. Costs to remove Premium and Artifact quality modifications have been reduced substantially. The cost to remove Prototype modifications has been decreased slightly.
      • The Heavy Sonic Disruptor can now be drawn correctly by characters.
      • Legacy items now drop more frequently.
      • New offhand items are now available on Black Hole vendors.
      • The Czerka Crate-o-Matic no longer causes players to become invisible.

Missions and NPCs

General

        • Shuttles on Corellia, Belsavis, and Ilum now allow direct travel between areas with daily missions.
        • Several cinematics throughout the game have been improved. In many cases, animations have been cleaned up and missing or extraneous characters have been addressed.
        • Some instances where the player would enter or leave a mission phase unexpectedly have been corrected. This could, in some cases, cause a player to become stuck.
        • An issue that could cause a glow effect to be applied to a player’s starship holoterminal several times has been corrected.

World Missions

Alderaan
          • Hive Mined: Imperial Mine Inspectors now run away and despawn correctly when freed.
          • Paladins: Players can no longer accidentally attack Duke Charle Organa while fighting the Wolf Baron.
          • Revenge Served Cold: Line of sight issues with the Thul Cryo Dragoon have been corrected.
          • Thwarting House Thul: Looting Deral Thul’s Cybernetic Implant now works properly when the player is in a group.
Balmorra
          • Big Guns: Mission indicators now direct players to the correct locations.
          • Coms Away: The post-mission ambient dialogue from Fixer 66 now properly relates to the player’s choices.
          • Data Corruption: This mission no longer progresses if the player cancels the action while uploading the virus.
          • Flush out the Snipers: Enemies for this mission’s objective now have an appropriate name (“Resistance Sharpshooter” instead of “Gold Neerbray Commando”).
          • Salting the Fields: Each player in a group must now use the Soil Devastators separately.
          • Storming the Front: The medical supplies item is now displayed in the mission tracker during the step “Heal the Wounded Republic Defenders.
          • Wild Fire: The mission log text now correctly instructs players to return to the Troida Military Workshop Hangar.
Corellia
          • The item “Anti-rad Injector” associated with Glow and Counter Eco-Terrorism now properly removes stacks of radiation poisoning from a character over time.
          • Asset Liquidation: Usable objective items and enemy NPCs related to this mission now respawn more quickly.
          • Coronet Shipping Invasion: More Imperial forces in the Coronet Shipping Docks now count towards completion of this bonus mission.
          • Counter Eco-Terrorism: Objective items related to this mission now respawn more quickly.
          • Criminal Crackdown: Usable objective items and enemy NPCs related to this mission now respawn more quickly.
          • Forced Labor: A Drall Engineer no longer runs through the force field when rescued. Usable objects related to this mission now respawn faster.
Hoth
          • Imperial Interference: This bonus mission is now the appropriate level (previously, it was lower level than its main mission).
          • Razing the Ice Fortress: The step “Speak to Seeker Kabath” now directs the player to the correct location.
Ilum
          • Darkness on Ilum: multiple encounters related to this mission can no longer be activated at the same time.
Korriban
          • Allegiance: Players can now consistently complete this mission while in a group.
Nar Shaddaa
          • Back Alley: This mission now correctly provides a lockbox in its reward choice.
          • Recruitment: The Jedi Master now spawns reliably.
          • Zero Protocol: The step “Return to Commandor Stron” now has an appropriate map link.
Ord Mantell
          • Take Back Drelliad Village: Separatist Defenders and Separatist Heavy Gunners now grant credit towards the objective “Dispatch the Separatist Forces.
Quesh
          • The Republic Commando and Medical Officer on Quesh now properly show mission indicators if a player is the appropriate level for Quesh.
Taris
          • Bashun’s Bodyguards: This bonus mission now activates correctly for Imperial Agents. It is a bonus mission for the mission Cathar Assassination.
Tatooine
          • Shields Down: Players now receive kill credit for Shielded Mark V Junk Droids if their companion deals the killing blow.
Voss
          • A Selfless Act: Log entries for this mission now reflect the proper mission steps.
          • Dark Rites: Dark Mastery: This mission now correctly awards affection points for Companion Characters.
          • March of Time: Monument text now remains on screen for a longer period of time.
          • Signal Fires: Gormak Tower Guards no longer pre-emptively despawn during this mission.

Class Missions

Jedi Knight
          • Vault of the Gormak King: Players can no longer re-enter the Gormak Vault phase once this mission has been completed.
          • Weapon of the Jedi: Players who did not properly receive the “Jedi Weapons” Codex entry will find it unlocked.
Sith Warrior
          • Ambush: A Republic Strike Droid in Darth Vengean’s Flagship no longer becomes invisible.
          • An Army of One: Players can no longer destroy Commander Naughlen’s barricade before they reach the mission step to do so.
          • Bringing up the Rear: The map note for the task “Defeat the Imperial Rear Guards” now displays correctly.
          • Choke Point: The map note related to the mission step “Rendezvous with Lieutenant Dargus” now displays correctly.
          • Distress Call: Halidrell Setsyn now has a mission indicator on the appropriate mission step.
          • General Durant: The conversation with General Durant is no longer forced upon completion of the mission step “Confront General Durant.” Lieutenant Pierce no longer enters combat during this mission.
          • Power Play: The fight with Darth Vengean now only resets if Lord Draahg is killed.
Jedi Consular
          • Deep Cradle, Dark Heart: The conversation with Sophia Farash now triggers correctly.
          • Nightmares: The step “Find Doctor Kerrian” now directs players to the correct location.
          • Old Blood: The mission step “Enter Bekvalen Hall” now has an appropriate map note. Hollow Voice now uses the correct language.
Sith Inquisitor
          • The Dark Council: The step “Defeat Darth Thanaton” now points the player to the correct location.
Smuggler
          • Eco-Terrorists: This mission now correctly provides a Premium Skill Barrel 8 in addition to the reward choice.
          • Heist of the Millennium: The Droid head now has the appropriate model, and it is now more obvious that players are removing a piece of it.
          • Into the Fire: The conversation with Lokir-Ka no longer auto-triggers again if the player uses Esc to end the conversation.
          • The Endless Abyss: This mission now correctly provides a Prototype Artful Mod 14 if you do not keep the blaster.
Imperial Agent
          • Imperial Agents who are simultaneously on the “Travel to Nar Shaddaa” step of Kaliyo’s mission “What You Do for a Partner” and the “Closing the Deal” class mission can now satisfy both mission steps by traveling to Nar Shaddaa.
          • The Assassin’s Prize: Players can no longer accidentally leave Denri Ayl’s mission area.
          • The Sky Burns: Players no longer see this mission progress until the beacons are fully planted.
Trooper
          • Public Relations: Sergeant Jaxo can no longer die during one of the steps requiring the player to speak with her. Re-opening the door after closing it during the bomb sequence can no longer cause this mission to become blocked. Players can no longer infiltrate Port Raga until they have spoken to Jaxo.
          • Welcome Party: Colonel Gaff’s conversation no longer begins automatically when the player approaches.
Bounty Hunter
          • Electrocution: Jicoln’s electric floor now properly stuns players, and its debuff has an appropriate icon.
          • Honor or Glory: The conversation with Toran is no longer forced if the player uses Esc to cancel the conversation.
          • Meeting the Admiral: The last step of this mission no longer directs you back to Hangar Bay 59 if you helped the Admiral.
          • The Alderaan Target: All companion affection changes during this mission are now properly applied at the end of the mission.

NPCs

        • The Nightmare Pilgrim can now be respawned every 30 minutes (down from 2 hours).
        • Intelligence Officer Breerdin no longer treats all alien characters as Chiss.
        • Corsec Blaster Droids on Corellia are no longer invisible.
        • Members of the Black Sun and Coruscant Security now engage in combat appropriately in several areas on Coruscant.
        • Several common NPC Boss encounters have had their loot adjusted to be more in line with their rarity.
        • Conquest Droids on Balmorra no longer attack other Imperial NPCs that enter their range.
        • Lowered the volume of some vociferous training droids on Korriban.
        • The Released Rancor on Belsavis now animates properly when moving.

PvP

General

        • Level 50 daily Warzone missions (No Quarter and March Them Down) now only require 4 Warzone completions (down from 6). Winning a Warzone still counts as an extra completion.
        • The Resolve system has been adjusted in the following ways.
          • When a player becomes immune to control due to Resolve, his Resolve meter will not start decaying until after all the current controlling effects expire (instead of decaying immediately after the immunity begins).
          • Players under the effects of a control ability now build less Resolve for other control abilities that target them. The exact amount of Resolve the player builds is based on the time remaining on the ability currently controlling the player and the relative strength of that ability’s effect. If two stuns of similar strength (such as Electrocute and Debilitate) target a single player at the same time, the second ability would generate very little Resolve. However, if the two effects were applied so that the duration of their effects overlapped very little, each effect would grant its full (or nearly full) Resolve to the target.
          • A new Codex entry can be found in the Game Rules section to help players who are unfamiliar with the details of the Resolve system.
        • New Recruit MK-2 gear is now available. This gear replaces the Recruit set, which is no longer available.
        • Unranked Warzones now backfill empty player slots more frequently.
        • Elite War Hero weapons and offhands have been added to the PvP vendors.
        • The cost of War Hero weapons and offhands has been reduced.
        • 3 Warzone Commendations can now be traded for 1 Ranked Warzone Commendation.
        • Non-flagged players will no longer be flagged for PvP when a hostile player users beneficial abilities on an NPC the non-flagged player’s companion is in combat with.

Warzones

General
          • Leaving a Warzone queue from the queue window now properly closes the “join Warzone” dialog.
Huttball
          • Arena crowd visual effects have been added.
          • Frogdogs now hear voiceover when they score their second point.
          • The maximum time limit in Huttball has been reduced from 15 minutes to 13 minutes.
          • Some locations that would erroneously remove the AFK debuff when the player was not in a combat area have been corrected.
Novare Coast
          • The fire rate for each of the turrets has been increased from 8 seconds to 9 seconds.
          • Players are no longer required to press Spacebar to exit the loading screen before this Warzone.
Voidstar
          • In the event that neither team breaches the first set of doors, the winner of the match is now the team that scored the most kills.
          • Players can no longer target area of effect abilities through the forcefield in the third room.
          • Some locations that would erroneously remove the AFK debuff when the player was not in a combat area have been corrected.

Space Combat

      • Items that grant repeated upgrades of the same type are now correctly accounted for.
      • Power Conversion Module abilities now appear in the correct quickslot during Space Combat Missions for Imperial Agents.

UI

General

        • The title row in panels such as the Guild Roster and Who List no longer occasionally disappear.
        • The “inspect” window now closes when the inspected character is too far away.
        • The “promote” and “demote” buttons are now more visible in the guild UI.
        • Players can now set their moods, altering their character’s facial expression. Moods can be found in the emote browser near the chat window.
        • Activating multiple UI panels in very rapid succession no longer causes the game to become unresponsive.
        • Players can now use shift+right click to equip an item directly on their active companion.

Chat

        • PvP messages (such as becoming flagged) can now be toggled off in chat tabs.
        • The description of the chat preference “Group Awareness Ping” now more accurately describes its effect. The tooltip now reads: “Plays an audible tone when your name is said in a Group chat channel. If you have heard an audible tone in the last 30 seconds, you won’t hear one.

Maps

        • The accuracy of the Promenade map on Nar Shaddaa has been improved.
        • The map for the Dark Temple Approach on Dromund Kaas now better reflects the world.
        • Several areas where the map would incorrectly transition to a new map have been corrected.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

    • Jedi Consulars arriving on Balmorra are no longer facing their ship door upon entering the spaceport.
    • The Dromund Kaas Nexus Cantina rest zone has been slightly adjusted.
    • The Fernell Research Facility on Balmorra now displays the correct name.
    • Trees and large moving objects now cast animated shadows in the game world. Shadows are smoother, and players will notice improved self-shadowing. Additionally, the shadow system has been optimized to increase performance. Players utilizing AMD Crossfire or Nvidia SLI options will see a boost in performance. To see these changes, the shader settings and shadow settings must be set to “high.”
    • Several minor art issues, like floating objects, seams in the terrain, and issues with disappearing geometry have been corrected.
    • Many places in the world where players could get stuck have been fixed.
    • Several typographical errors have been corrected.
    • An issue that could cause display problems after changing a video card out has been addressed.
    • Players can no longer use some abilities near ledges to avoid taking falling damage.
    • Players performing certain emotes while riding the Jawa Balloon on Tatooine are no longer teleported back to the balloon’s start position.
    • Changes to the Grass Quality slider in the options now apply immediately when the player presses “OK” or “Apply.”

SWTOR: Maintenance Downtime Tonight – 1.4 Deployed

UPDATE: Maintenance has been extended a further 2 hours until 1am AEST.

Sorry for the late notice, but BioWare have sprung an unexpected 6-hour maintenance in order to deploy Patch 1.4. We’ll post the full and final 1.4 patch notes when they’re available later tonight. In the meantime…

Time conversions:

AEST: 5pm-11pm
AWST: 3pm-9pm
NZST: 7pm-1am

The full blurb:

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 EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST). All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six hours, but could be extended.

Travel to the Gree controlled planet of Asation, where you’ll join others in an intense series of battles leading up to a final face-off against an unyielding enemy. It’s up to your team to close the Ancient Hypergate, opened by the deadly and malicious Dread Masters, and destroy a galactic goliath before it destroys the galaxy! Learn more about Game Update 1.4 here!

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.4.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Time: 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST)

All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six hours.

Guild Wars 2 Patch Notes: 25th September 2012

Guild Wars 2 Patch NotesAnother big update from ArenaNet – kudos to them for the speed in which they’re getting a lot of these fixes in.

The full patch notes for you:

General
• Fixes to LOD on numerous objects in the world.
• Fixes to maps to prevent players from moving outside of the playable area.
• Fixed a bug that made pet footsteps excessively loud, especially in water.
• Fixed a bug with assists not working in keg brawl.
• Fixed numerous blocked events.
• Updated text and functionality when purchasing bank slots.
• Fixed loud sounds on portals to the Underworld in Godslost Swamp.
• Fixed several bugs that were preventing some skill challenges from resetting properly.
• All recipe items are now account bound. Many were previously soulbound.
• Updated Superior Rune of the Ogre Rock Dog so that it doesn’t summon when the player is underwater.
• Updated Sigil of Demon Summoning so that it doesn’t summon when the player is underwater.
• Summoned rock dogs and fleshreavers die when they enter water.
• Removed the lone 1 copper from city map completion rewards.
• Removed Mystic Forge recipes that were being used to reduce surplus supplies.
• Enemies in tutorial areas will no long drop loot. Instead, an award of 72 copper has been added to the rewards for completing the tutorial. This is to dissuade players from lingering in tutorial instances to farm the creatures in them.
• Obsidian Shards are now account bound.
• Box of Berserker’s Draconian Armor and Box of Rampager’s Draconian Armor now reward the proper items.
• Fixed various crash bugs.
• Added the rank 30-39 wolf finishing move.
• Fixed recipes for the Mystic Artifact, Mystic Barricade, and Mystic Trident.
• Fixed visible map completion percentage errors and the achievement not completing.
• Applied 10-second cooldown to Bowl of Saffron-scented Poultry Soup buff. This was done to keep elementalists from spamming condition removal with Signet of Restoration.

Black Lion Trading Company
• Added functionality and improvements to the Black Lion Chests, including a chance to receive new items like a permanent version of the Black Lion Trader Express.
• Black Lion Salvage Kits now properly display the correct percentages for rare materials.

Story
• Adjusted difficulty for the following story steps: “A Fragile Peace,” “Breaking the Bone Ship,” “Killing Fields,” “Political Homicide,” “Sabotage,” “Set to Blow,” “Stand By Your Krewe,” “The Ringmaster,” “The Stone Sheath,” “Track the Seraph,” “Unscheduled Delay,” “Unwelcome Visitors,” and “Welcome Home.”
• Fixed bugs in the following story steps: “A Fragile Peace,” “Against the Corruption,” “Bad Blood,” “Forging the Pact,” “Stand By Your Krewe,” and “Tower Down.”
• Fixed exploits in “The Sound of Psi-Lance.”
• End of Story Loot Bags:
o These have been improved to only give green or better gear of level 78 or higher.
o The number of bags received has been reduced from 5 to 3.
o More improvements will be made in coming weeks. Players who complete the story before the final update will be equally compensated once the new rewards are in.

Dungeons
General
• Updated vendors in the Ascalonian Catacombs and Caudecus’s Manor to sell level 80 versions of their unique skins rather than level 60 and 70. Players who purchased the level 60 and 70 versions will soon be given the opportunity to upgrade those to level 80 without having to use transmutation stones.
Citadel of Flame
• Fixed an exploit in Magg’s chain that was allowing players to skip the entire dungeon and still be rewarded.
• In Magg’s chain, if Magg happens to die in the lava field, he’ll teleport himself to the start of the area just outside it.
• In Magg’s chain, Magg must be much closer to things to draw their initial aggro. This only affects the escort to the magmacyte rock.
Caudecus’s Manor
• Fixed an exploit that was allowing players to skip content.
Honor of the Waves
• Fixed a bug in the Butcher’s chain that prevented a boss from spawning.
Arah
• Fixed a blocking issue.
Ascalonian Catacombs
• Fixed blocking bugs in Detha’s chain.

Dungeon Rewards
We’ve made some significant updates to dungeon rewards. I wanted to try and clarify them here. All of these changes have been the result of an original exploit which was letting players receive upwards of 20 levels by completing a single dungeon run. We initially closed this exploit, which caused some new problems. The result is this new system which should increase dungeon rewards for players who play though them normally but help curb inflation of rewards for those who are using exploitative methods to farm them.

1) Dungeon tokens are now rewarded at the end of an explorable chain. This was done to stop players from repeatedly entering a chain and farming the first boss that dropped tokens rather than playing the entire chain. At some point in the near future, we will make up for this by making dungeon tokens a rare drop so that even players who are not completing a chain can make partial progress toward the rewards.
2) Dungeons reward 20 tokens for completion and now reward an additional 40 tokens for the first time they are completed each day. This means that if players can complete all 3 chains of a dungeon in a day, they’ll receive a total of 180 tokens, which is enough to purchase some of the smaller rewards.
3) Dungeon tokens should be account bound. This will allow players to have a single character farm tokens for their other characters.
4) Last week, to limit the most extreme cases of dungeon speed-clearing, we introduced a system to limit rewards for rapidly repeating dungeon clears. However, a bug in that system caused it to impact more players than intended. This week, we’re updating the system to not impact clearing different chains of the same dungeon. We’ll continue to evaluate this system in coming weeks.

Professions
General
• Implemented a fix to make Heartseeker, Lightning Leap, Flame Leap, and Monarch’s Leap hit more reliably.

Elementalist
• Fixed bugs with Flamestrike and Ice Shards so they can’t be fired behind the player.
• Quick Glyphs: This Air Magic trait has been updated to apply 20% recharge reduction to the elite skill Glyph of Elementals.

Engineer
• Grenade Barrage: This Grenade Kit skill should now be usable underwater.
• Short Fuse: This trait is no longer overwritten by the Grenadier trait. Also, this trait now works with underwater grenades.
• Speedy Kits: Added a 5-second recharge to the trigger for this trait. This was to prevent players from exploiting it to gain vigor buffs of extreme duration.
• Invigorating Speed: Added a 5-second recharge to the trigger for this trait. This was to prevent players from exploiting it to gain vigor buffs of extreme duration.

Guardian
• Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to work with the Meditation Mastery trait. The tooltip for this skill has also been updated to display the healing amount when affected by traits.
• Elusive Power: This trait has been updated to not grant might when aegis was blocked.

Mesmer
• Fixed text on “readied” mantra buffs.
• Veil: This glamour skill has been updated to show the appropriate active duration when not affected by traits.

Necromancer
• Taste of Death: This skill’s healing fact has been updated.
• Spectral Wall: This skill has been updated to apply the correct amount of vulnerability (10).
• Vampiric: Fixed a bug with this trait so that it now functions with projectiles.
• Close to Death: This trait has been updated to provide its listed 20% boost instead of the previous (unlisted) 10% boost.
• Banshee’s Wail: This Curses trait has been updated to apply extra swiftness.
• Spectral Walk: This skill has been updated to be more active and to work properly with its recharge trait. Also, Sever Spectral Bond has been changed to Spectral Recall.
• Minion Master: This Death Magic trait has been updated to properly affect the elite skill Summon Flesh Golem.
• Putrid Mark: This skill has been fixed to make it properly unblockable with the Greater Marks trait.
• Mark of Evasion: This trait can now trigger the Soul Marks trait.
• Reaper’s Protection: This trait has been updated to properly work with a variety of crowd-control effects.
Thief
• Bountiful Theft: This strait has been fixed so that it doesn’t apply 15 seconds of vigor twice.

Races
Norn
• Call Wurm: Autocasting has been removed from this skill to prevent an exploit. Additionally, the skill may now be cast on the move.

Player versus Player
• Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed an exploit that was allowing players to teleport past one of the gates.

World versus World
• Experimental Rifle: This item is no longer usable in World versus World.

My Attempt At A WoW Realm-First

Mists of Pandaria is now a reality, and being my third expansion playing the game (I started during Burning Crusade), I wanted to do something a little different this time.

I thought about trying for a realm-first achievement rather than wading through the huge crowds of toons in the starting areas. I settled on trying to be the first person on my server to level Fishing to 600. I perused the Bible of WoW fishing, spend quite a while making sure I had empty bags and my fishing gear ready to fire off – I had an Arcanite Fishing Rod from winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza so I felt I was in with a fighting chance. After some investigation of locations to park myself near a Fishing Trainer, I chose the dock at Menethil Harbor because it was quiet and the trainer was nice and close to the water.

I was banking on Stormwind being a laggy mess, so I didn’t have a daily fishing quest ready to hand in to get a 2-point head-start, instead gambling on getting cracking on casting straight away. I was logged in and waiting to start 15 minutes early, which was a good thing as Blizzard flicked the switch to Mists of Pandaria at 4 minutes to 5pm local time. I trained up, blinked to the spot I wanted to fish at, and…. pressed the wrong key and put myself in an Ice Block. I lost 5 or 6 seconds there cancelling it but otherwise started on time.

There started 1 hour and 50 minutes of tedium although I found it surprisingly enjoyable knowing the prize at the end (plus my GM had offered 10K gold to the first guildy who got a realm-first). As had been predicted, the average casts per skill point was around the 5 mark. Only once did my skill points go up 2 points, the rest were singles. I stuffed up two casts by clicking too early but otherwise had a smooth run. I also used lures half a dozen times but they don’t take more than a few seconds to attach. All up I would have lost one minute max on a perfect run.

I got from 525 to 592 when the dreaded realm-first notice went out – that person obviously had some good luck with the cast ratios and had probably handed in a daily as well. About ten minutes later I pinged 600, at least getting a guild-first. Here’s what I had fished up (I had fished up 3 fish before launch, hence the discrepancy in total numbers):

So there it was – it was disappointing not to pull off the realm-first but not being close made it easier in some ways. And hell, if anyone needs 258 Rainbow Fin Albacore, I’m the guy to see.

What I’ve learnt for next time (if there is one!):

1. Do have an old fishing daily ready to hand in to get a head-start
2. Don’t bother adding a lure to your rod unless you care about the fish you’re catching – it just adds time
3. The whole thing is luck of the draw – if you have a bunch of 2 or 3 cast per skill points you are in with a chance, otherwise you’re pushing it up-hill.

Over to you: did you attempt any realm-firsts and if so, how did you go?

Mists Of Pandaria Is Go

Just a few minutes ago, the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, went live.  There was a slightly different approach this time, with no logout required to access the new content. Blizzard have wrangled the servers in a way that allows the transition to occur so that the new content ‘appears’, including the new quest to start the journey to Pandaria. (If you’re after all the info on how to get going with the expansion, this is a good start)

So far it appears that things have gone smoothly although some servers are likely to be experiencing queues. Unlike Cataclysm, I’m not planning on starting my Pandaria questing quite yet. I’m actually going to attempt a ‘server first’. The one I’m attempting matches my lack of ability in end-game: I’m going to try and be the first person on my server to level up my fishing to the cap. I have a quiet spot next to one of the lesser known fishing trainers, and for the first 2-3 hours of MoP I’ll be doing nothing but casting a fishing line. Wish me luck!

More importantly though, how have YOU found the MoP experience so far in these early hours and days? Will you be rolling a Pandaren and/or a Monk early on? What’s got you particularly excited about the new content?

Also don’t forget our own WoW guru Luke has written a nice retrospective on Cataclysm and he’ll be bringing plenty of his impressions of MoP over the coming weeks and months.

SWTOR: No Server Maintenance Tonight

It’s a maintenance-free Tuesday evening, so enjoy some quality game-time while your fellow MMO-players over at WoW battle the huge crowds trying to complete a quest!
While we have you – we’d love it if you could rate our podcast!

Joel Bylos Appointed TSW’s Game Director

Hot off the Funcom PR presses is the announcement that The Secret World‘s Lead Content Designer has taken a step up to be Game Director.

Here’s the full announcement:

Funcom is excited to announce that Joel Bylos has taken the new position as Game Director on ‘The Secret World’,the company’s recently launched massively multiplayer online game (MMO). Mr. Bylos will work together with Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquist on expanding and enhancing the game through quality post-launch content. The team has already launched two major content updates in just over two months following launch, and focus going forward will be to expand the storyline, introduce entire new areas such as the upcoming New York raid, and much more.

Ragnar Tørnquist will continue in his role as Creative Director with even more focus on the overall setting and story for the game.

Mr. Bylos, who has been instrumental in shaping ‘The Secret World’ as Lead Content Designer’ throughout development, has extensive experience with developing post-launch content for MMOs. This includes serving as Lead Designer on the critically acclaimed ‘Rise of the Godslayer’ expansion pack for Funcom’s previous MMO launch ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’. Mr. Bylos will manage the development team together with Scott Junior, who continues in his position as Producer on the game.

“Being given the opportunity to lead the game into a bold, new future is definitely a dream come true for me,” says Joel Bylos, Game Director on ‘The Secret World’. “I am very proud of what we as a team have created with ‘The Secret World’, and it is truly a brilliant canvas that will allow us to create more groundbreaking MMO experiences for many years to come. ‘The Secret World’ is only really getting started, and with a game world that draws upon our own,real world, there is no limit to what sort of amazing stories we can tell and fantastic locations we can visit in the upcoming content updates.”

“Joel and I have worked together for many years, and I cannot think of anyone more suited to maintain the vision and lead the game going forward than him,” says Ragnar Tørnquist, Creative Director on ‘The Secret World’. “I look forward to continue working with Joel on bringing the game forward through many, exciting post-launch updates, and I especially look forward to spending more time expanding on what I truly enjoy the most about ‘The Secret World’: the story, characters and the setting itself.”

The development team is currently working on wrapping up ‘Issue #3: The Cat God’, the latest content update for ‘The Secret World’, and production on‘Issue #4’ is also well under way. This update puts players in the middle of a devastated New York City where they have to battle an enormous monster crawling up from the depths of the New York subway system and onto the streets of Times Square.

Aside from the news of the promotion, which seems a positive thing, the other interesting aspect is the Issue #3 and #4 mentions, although with no timelines. It’s always good to see the future updates laid out and hopefully we’re seeing a more settled team that will grow the game.

What’s your take on the announcement?

SWTOR: Oceanic Servers To Be Consolidated?

As you probably already know, the last update to SWTOR saw all servers get 12 character slots – except the three oceanic servers. It’s obviously a problem, and one that BioWare have fully acknowledged:

Folks, I wanted to take some time to let you know that we are listening to your concerns and that they’re important to us. Oceanic servers WILL be getting 12 slots, just like the other servers and we’re going to implement this change the next opportunity that we have.

Additionally, we’ve seen your concerns about Oceanic server populations and we’re going to be evaluating this in the next few days.

We’re listening, and I know you’ve all been patient with us, and for that, I thank you. As soon as I get any update to this, I will let you know here.

Thanks again.

 

The more interesting part for me is the additional acknowledgement of the issue of server populations locally. They’re going to evaluate and I’d be surprised if the decision wasn’t to knock the three servers down to 2, or even a single server. That said, I’d imagine they’d wait until F2P hits fully before deciding.

It also flags an ongoing issue locally in that there to date has been bugger-all promotion of SWTOR and that’s not likely to improve. Go into your local games store and see if you can find a copy of SWTOR still on the shelves – I know I’ve tried with two stores in the past week and have come up blank. It’s hard to see anything but a decline in local servers, F2P or not, unless something changes in that regard.

Hell, the pessimistic side of me thinks the call may be made to close all oceanic servers and let people take their chances on the US or EU ones. I’d like to think that’s definitely very pessismistic though.

What’s your take – do you want to see the larger server populations and if so how do you think it should be done?

Mists of Pandaria Help Guide: Assorted Bits

Below are some simple solutions to issues I encountered on my journey from Level 85 to Level 90. Hope some of it helps you!

Where is the First Aid Trainer in Pandaria? – it’s Mishka the SI:7 agent standing near the fountain in the middle of Paw’don Village.

The Fall of Ga’trul – how do I hand in the quest? – after killing Ga’trul you need to read the red book on the altar then Rell Nightwind will appear at the door to hand it in. It took me two goes i.e. the first time Rell didn’t appear so had to try again by abandoning the quest.

Where is the Inscription Trainer in Pandaria? It’s Inkmaster Wei at the Arboretum on the east coast about half-way up on the map.

Jaded Heart Quest – where are the celestial jade chunks? They’re lying on the groun in amongst the Sha Echoes – just collect them and right click on one to weaken the Remnant.

Where is Jogu The Drunk? He’s sitting by the pond at the southern end of Halfhill

Where is the Flight Trainer in Pandaria? If you’re Alliance, it’s Cloudrunner Leng at the Shrine of Seven Stars in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. He’s right next to the Flight Master there, sitting on a cloud serpent. If Horde, you’re after Skydancer Shun in the Shrine of Two Moons.

Find Han Stormstout quest – how do I get past the streams? If you’re a windwalker then you can go over them, otherwise just go to the left or right down the ramp far enough you can get under the stream then walk back up the ramp – do that a second time and you’ll find Han encased in amber just opposite Chen Stormstout.

Where is the Motherseed Pit in Rikkitun Village? This one drove me mad for a few minutes – it’s actually just down the hill from where you pick up the quest. Head downhill toward the water and you’ll see a bunch of the seeds where you drop it off.

Guild Wars 2 and Hackers: How To Secure Your Account

Mike O’Brien, who is GW2’s Executive Producer and who is also President of ArenaNet, has posted a nifty overview of account security.

It covers everything from:

– two-factor authentication (they were working on a mobile app but have chosen to change direction and go with Google Authenticator instead)
– password strength (surprise, surprise, people still set lame passwords)
– fighting hackers (they have 20+ million passwords on a blacklist that hackers have attempted to use with particular email addresses – you won’t be able to use these passwords if they are linked to an email that a hacker has tried. It’s reduced hacked acocunts from 1.5% to 0.1%)
– database breaches (they haven’t had any – yet)
– hitting the hackers where it hurts by not buying gold from third-party gold sellers

You can read the full post here – it’s not just for the noobs and has some interesting insights.

The Secret World: Free 3-Day Trial On Offer

Funcom have continued their run of offering free trials of TSW.

The latest option is a 3-day trial, with an extension to 5 days if you complete 30 missions. Here’s the details:

 

You can play as much as you want for three days and experience anything you like in the game.

Immerse yourself in the deep story and unravel the mysteries in The Secret World. Choose a Secret Society and take part in the brutal war between the Templars, the Illuminati and the Dragon. Team up with your friends and take on the challangening and exciting Dungeons in the game, such as a wrecked cargo ship off the coast of New England, called The Polaris or venture into Hell itself.

  • Complete 30 Missions to get two extra free days of playing time. Any new player which completes this challenge also gets 1200 Bonus Points (equal to 10 USD/EUR) which can be used in our in-game store.
  • Defeat the fearsome Ur-Draug boss and complete the first dungeon in The Secret World, The Polaris, to get a unique reward – The Whispering Demon Ring. Equip this powerful ring to increase your stats and get an XP bonus in the early parts of the game.

Just sign up for the trial on www.thesecretworld.com and fill in your information on the lower right side of the page.

 

We’ve said it before in our review of TSW, and we’ll say it again: this is one of the best MMOs out there. Now  you can check it out for free – so get cracking!

Oceanic Soap Box: First Hour in WoW

It’s T-Minus 5 days until Mists of Pandaria drops, and whether you’re a WoW player or not, there’s no doubt this release will shape the MMO industry just like previous ones have. Beyond that though, there’s some great fun over the coming week for those who do play.

Hence the topic of this week’s soap box: what will you do for your first hour in WoW after the servers go live – and you can successfully log in? (Click here for all the details of local launch times)

Will you be jumping straight to Pandaria or will you be going for a realm-first in some other area? As I’ve bored my fellow WoW players to death with, I’m attempted a realm first in… fishing.

Jump in: what’s in store for you those first 60 minutes?