Archives for 2012

From The Holonet: Why the Empire Can and Must Win


From the Holonet is a series of articles, opinion pieces and features taken from the Old Republic and printed here on TOROZ.

In Imperial society, power is truth.  Sith principles guide the Empire to new heights with every passing hour.  It is a simple and proud example of our principles, to watch those with ability break their chains and achieve what others could never do.  Recognition of power and authority is one of the cornerstones of the Empire, and why the Empire is destined to win.

As we all know, the Republic unrelentingly gorges upon its citizens’ tax credits and wastes them on woeful projects such as the doomed Taris reconstruction.  Such endless expenditures drive good Human citizens into poverty, so that Ithorians and other aliens might live in luxury on a getaway planet, fulfilling their whimsical dream of growing plants.  Such an institutionalised tragedy is not matched in the Empire.  Money is spent on the military, which brings more wealth to its people as well as protects what wealth it does have.  Those individuals most worthy and most able invariably obtain the wealth that they deserve.

The sprawling seat of power that is Kaas city; home to many of the Empire’s finest

The Imperial political system is also superior.  In it, those most capable and most powerful obtain more power.  This is a system where promotion is granted on merit, not on mercy.  In the Republic, a so-called democracy, the brutal rule of the unintelligent masses shackles and weighs down the brilliant few.  While capable Republic people are stuck fulfilling the demands of the incapable masses, Imperial brilliance is rewarded and promoted within the system.  The incapable minorities are driven to achieve well above their station, as directed by the most capable.  In almost all cases, that is the Sith.  Within the Empire, the actions of a Sith Lord who steps into command of a military affair and subsequently succeeds is not only permitted, but encouraged.  In the Republic, it would be looked down upon, perhaps even punished.

In the Republic, the Senate is the primary political force.  Senate committees, subcommittees, debates and votes take an incredibly long time to get anything done.  They are also so complex as to be hidden from sight.  Corruption within the Senate, like the Republic, is common and ugly.  The Empire has the Dark Council.  The most powerful and most worthy Sith are empowered to make decisions.  Without the delays and the intrigue of the broken Republic political system, the Empire is able to make decisions quickly and implement them effectively.  The Senate is caught floundering and failing to keep up with the Dark Council.  One merely has to look at their mishandling of the Treaty of Coruscant.  Distinctly unpopular with the Republic’s most able individuals, Master Satele Shan and General Garza among them, Senate grumblings and Alien votes prevent its overturning. Instead, the Republic continues to bow in deference to a humiliating treaty, surrendering huge amounts of territory and enforcing complex conditions upon themselves.  The Empire would never have subjected itself to such a thing, for they are powerful, independent and free.

It is for these reasons that victory must go to the Empire.  Every planet claimed for the Republic, is another planet to be weighed down by democracy, by alien rule and by wasteful spending.  Every planet liberated under the Emperor will find its potential unleashed, and its most capable citizens will soon flourish under the glorious banner of the Imperial forces.  The galaxy cannot afford Republic rule.  Its people cannot afford it.  There is too much talent, too much power and too much potential wasted within its borders.  Only the Empire can bring the worthy to power, and only the Empire can liberate the people of the galaxy.

Jacena Azana is a Human with a strong background in the Empire.  Though she cannot discuss her former employment, she now works as a journalist and writer for the Hutt-owned, completely neutral ‘Evening Star News Network’.  Azana routinely publishes pieces on intergalactic politics, the Empire, and the Republic.  Her hard hitting firebrand journalism is widely read in all corners of space.

 

SWTOR 1.3 Patch Notes

 

UPDATE: The final 1.3 patch notes for the live servers can be found right here.

The Public Test Server is open for 1.3 business! If you’re not on the PTS or you want to have a browse through the patch notes, then we’re here for you. The full 1.3 patch notes reflecting the current PTS build are replicated for you below. These notes are likely to change before 1.3 hits the live servers, and we’ll update these as appropriate.

Like the 1.2 update, there are a huge amount of changes so you make want to grab a drink while you go through the lot!

Enjoy:

Highlights

  • The Group Finder is now available! Players can use this feature to find groups for Flashpoints, Operations, and to find group members for missions on planets from anywhere in the galaxy!
  • New Legacy perks are now available! Perks offer bonuses for your character and can be purchased with credits after reaching specific Legacy levels.
  • The Alderaan Civil War Warzone can now be played by two teams of the same faction.
  • Players can now add augment slots to items at modification tables by using an augmentation kit and paying a credit cost.
  • Pre-Season One Team Ranked Warzones are now available! Teams of 8 level 50 players can now compete with other Warzone teams to earn Ranked Warzone Commendations and receive their Team Rating!

 

General

  • The game now notifies players when changes to preferences that might improve performance have been made. Players now have the option to reset graphics preferences to the recommended default upon logging in when new options or settings have been implemented.
  • Several performance optimizations for lower- and mid-spec processors and graphics cards have been implemented.
  • Improved the performance of the Galaxy Map on player starships.
  • Added a unique icon to the Legacy Window to better distinguish the Warzone Training Dummy from the Operations Training Dummy.
  • The Hutt Cartel has seized control of the Galactic Trade Network! All Galactic Trade Network kiosks now connect to the neutral GTN, allowing players to purchase items listed by players of the opposite faction.

Classes and Combat

General

  • Some erroneous French and German ability tooltips have been corrected and now accurately describe ability functionality.
  • Some optimizations on ability visual effects have been implemented to improve client performance, particularly when many player ability effects are displayed simultaneously.
  • Group members that are defeated can no longer receive buffs.
  • Ground-targeted area of effect targeting reticules now appear green if they are friendly (and won’t cause player damage) and red if the player will be damaged.
  • Tab targeting no longer cycles through Mini-pets.
  • Ground-targeted reticules no longer light up if a player receives a “Too Close” error.
  • If a player uses a Damage over Time ability on a target and then deselects that target (and has no target), the target is no longer automatically re-selected after the ability applies damage again.
  • The combat log now includes a unique ID for NPCs so it is possible to differentiate between NPCs with the same name.
  • Target cast bars no longer occasionally fail to display when the target is repeatedly activating abilities back-to-back.
  • An issue that could cause the global cooldown to incorrectly occur when rapidly attempting to use multiple abilities has been corrected.
  • The cost for purchasing the third through sixth skill point respecializations per week has been reduced. The third has been reduced by approximately 25%, the fourth by approximately 38%, the fifth by approximately 45%, and the sixth by approximately 50%. Actual values vary slightly by level.
  • An issue has been corrected that could allow triggered effects (such as the effect from Lightning Barrage) to affect the next two abilities used instead of only affecting the next one used.
  • Players now receive a confirmation dialog upon selecting their Advanced Class.

Jedi Knight

Sentinel

  • The tooltip for Cauterize now displays the correct damage amount. Functionality for this ability has not changed.
  • Corrected an issue that prevented Ataru Form’s triggered attacks from displaying visual effects in some circumstances.
  • The responsiveness of Riposte and Precision Slash has been increased.Combat
    • Opportune Attack: This skill’s tooltip now displays the correct chance for its effect to trigger (15%/30%). The skill’s functionality has not changed.
    • Precision Slash: This ability now costs 1 Focus and is no longer limited by the global cooldown. Its damage has been reduced, and the duration of its armor penetration debuff has been reduced by 1.5 seconds to ensure the effective duration is the same.

Guardian

  • Due to changes to the Guardian skill trees, Guardians have had their skill points refunded.
  • The amount absorbed by Blade Barrier now scales properly based on character stats.
  • Soresu Form now generates 100% additional threat while active.Vigilance
    • Single Saber Mastery now applies different effects based on your current Form. Shii-Cho Form now increases all Force damage dealt by 2% per point. Shien Form now increases all melee damage dealt by 2% per point. Soresu Form now increases melee and ranged defense by 1% per point and increases the threat generated by Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash by 10% per point.

    Defense

    • Dust Storm: Cyclone Slash now additionally applies this accuracy debuff to affected targets.
    • Blade Barricade: Riposte now increases melee and ranged defense by 1% per point and lasts 12 seconds.
    • Profound Resolution has been replaced by Purifying Sweep, which causes Force Sweep to apply 2 stacks of armor reduction per point to all affected targets.
    • The damage dealt by Hilt Strike has been reduced, but this ability no longer costs Focus to activate.
    • Guardian Slash has been slightly altered. The ability still applies 3 stacks of armor reduction. Damage dealt by this ability has been reduced, but when the target is affected by 5 stacks of armor reduction, Guardian Slash now deals damage to up to 2 nearby enemies, spreading 3 stacks of armor reduction to those enemies and knocking down Standard and Weak targets. It does not deal damage to sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies, and continues to generate a high amount of additional threat.

Sith Warrior

General

  • Rare instances where Unleash would not activate if the player wasn’t facing the target have been corrected.

Marauder

  • The responsiveness of Retaliation and Gore has been increased.
    Carnage

    • Gore: This ability now costs 1 Rage and is no longer limited by the global cooldown. Its damage has been reduced, and the duration of its armor penetration debuff has been reduced by 1.5 seconds to ensure the effective duration is the same.

Juggernaut

  • Due to changes in the Juggernaut skill tree, Juggernauts have had their skill points refunded.
  • The amount absorbed by Sonic Barrier now scales properly based on character stats.
  • Soresu Form now generates 100% additional threat while active.Vengeance
    • Single Saber Mastery now applies different effects based on your current Form. Shii-Cho Form now increases all Force damage dealt by 2% per point. Shien Form now increases all melee damage dealt by 2% per point. Soresu Form now increases melee and ranged defense by 1% per point and increases the threat generated by Smash and Sweeping Slash by 10% per point.

    Immortal

    • Quake: Sweeping Slash now additionally applies this accuracy debuff to affected targets.
    • Blade Barricade: Retaliation now increases melee and ranged defense by 1% per point and lasts 12 seconds.
    • Unleashed has been replaced by Crushing Fist, which causes Smash to apply 2 stacks of armor reduction per point to all affected targets.
    • The damage dealt by Backhand has been reduced, but this ability no longer costs Rage to activate.
    • Crushing Blow has been slightly altered. The ability still applies 3 stacks of armor reduction. Damage dealt by this ability has been reduced, but when the target is affected by 5 stacks of armor reduction, Crushing Blow now deals damage to up to 2 nearby enemies, spreading 3 stacks of armor reduction to those enemies and knocking down Standard and Weak targets. It does not deal damage to sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies, and continues to generate a high amount of additional threat.

Jedi Consular

General

  • Project has an updated visual effect and now deals its damage earlier to bring it in line with the Inquisitor’s “Shock” ability.

Shadow

  • Shadow Strike now displays the correct error message if this ability is used while player is not behind the target.
  • Combat Technique now generates 100% additional threat while active. The healing generated by this ability has been reduced by approximately 50%. Its armor bonus has been reduced to 115% (down from 150%).
  • Force Breach (Combat Technique) now generates a high amount of threat.
  • Spinning Kick now costs 20 Force.
  • Battle Readiness now increases the damage and healing dealt by all Techniques by 100% for 15 seconds.Kinetic Combat
    • Slow Time no longer damages a sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemy unless it is the primary target.
    • Harnessed Shadows: The healing generated by Telekinetic Throw has been reduced to 8% total (down from 12%).

Sith Inquisitor

General

  • The light being cast from the Inquisitor’s Lightning Strike Ability now fades away when the visuals have stopped and no longer lingers for a few seconds.
  • Corrected an issue that caused Jolt to play its visual effects later than intended.
  • Rare instances where Unbreakable Will would not activate if the player wasn’t facing the target have been corrected.

Assassin

  • Maul now displays the correct error message if this ability is used while the player is not behind the target.
  • Dark Charge now generates 100% additional threat while active. The healing generated from this ability has been reduced by approximately 50%. Its armor bonus has been reduced to 115% (down from 150%).
  • Discharge (Dark Charge) now generates a high amount of threat.
  • Spike now costs 20 Force.
  • Overcharge Saber now increases the damage and healing dealt by all Charges by 100% for 15 seconds.Darkness
    • Wither no longer damages a sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemy unless it is the primary target.
    • Harnessed Darkness: The healing generated by Force Lightning has been reduced to 8% total (down from 12%).

Smuggler

Gunslinger

  • Due to changes in the Gunslinger skill trees, Gunslingers have had their skill points refunded.
  • The damage absorbed by Defense Screen now scales properly based on character stats.
  • Hunker Down’s buff tooltip no longer incorrectly mentions damage reduction.
  • Illegal Mods now increases Accuracy by 30% and Armor Penetration by 15% instead of increasing Alacrity.
  • Charged Burst’s visual effects now work correctly with color crystals. It now uses the correct visual effects when dual wielding.
  • An issue that prevented Leg Shot from displaying visual effects has been corrected.
  • The visual effect of Smuggler’s Luck now lasts the full 20 seconds.
  • Quickdraw has a new sound and visual appearance.Saboteur
    • Contingency Charges now lasts 20 seconds (up from 10). Contingency Charges can now be detonated once every second (down from once every 1.5 seconds).
    • Insurrection now provides 2 additional Contingency Charges (up from 1).

    Sharpshooter

    • Rapid Fire and Burst Volley have swapped positions in the skill tree.
    • Rapid Fire is now a 3-point passive skill that reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot and Speed Shot by 1 second per point.
    • Burst Volley now finishes the cooldown of Speed Shot and increases Alacrity by 10% and Energy regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds. It has a 45-second cooldown.
    • Trickshot has a new sound and visual appearance, and now changes color based on the equipped color crystal.

Scoundrel

Scrapper

  • Survivor’s Scars now increases healing received by 1% per point (down from 3% per point).

Imperial Agent

Sniper

  • Due to changes in the Sniper skill trees, Snipers have had their skill points refunded.
  • The amount absorbed by Shield Probe now scales properly based on character stats.
  • Entrench’s buff tooltip no longer incorrectly mentions damage reduction.
  • Target Acquired now increases Accuracy by 30% and Armor Penetration by 15% instead of increasing Alacrity.
  • An issue that prevented Shatter Shot from displaying visual effects has been corrected.
  • Series of Shots’ visual effects now fire 4 times over the 3-second activation. Its projectile now changes color based on the equipped color crystal.
  • Takedown has a new sound and visual appearance.Marksmanship
    • Rapid Fire and Sniper Volley have swapped positions in the skill tree.
    • Rapid Fire is now a 3-point passive skill that reduces the cooldown of Ambush and Series of Shots by 1 second per point.
    • Sniper Volley now finishes the cooldown of Series of Shots and increases Alacrity by 10% and Energy regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds. It has a 45-second cooldown.
    • Followthrough has a new sound and visual appearance, and its visual effects now change color based on the equipped color crystal.

    Engineering

    • Cluster Bombs now lasts 20 seconds (up from 10). Cluster Bombs can now be detonated once every second (down from once every 1.5 seconds).
    • Imperial Methodology now provides 2 additional Cluster Bombs (up from 1).

Operative

Concealment

  • The animations for Laceration and Collateral Strike have been improved.
  • Survival Training now increases healing received by 1% per point (down from 3% per point).

Trooper

Vanguard

  • Pulse Generator now only affects Pulse Cannon, as described.
  • Ion Cell now generates 100% additional threat while active.Shield Specialist
    • Supercharged Ion Cell now increases Ion Overload damage by 25%. While Ion Cell is active, High Impact Bolt triggers your Ion Cell on the target and up to 4 additional nearby targets. This damage does not affect sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies. This generates a high amount of threat.
    • Static Shield: The critical chance bonus applied to Stockstrike and Explosive Surge has been reduced to 8% per point.
    • Static Surge now increases the damage dealt by Explosive Surge by 6% per point and causes Storm to grant 1 charge of Static Surge per point, which makes the next Explosive Surge free of cost. This skill now requires Storm instead of Static Shield.

Commando

Gunnery

  • Cell Charger has been redesigned. While Armor-Piercing Cell is active, there is a 50% chance to generate 1 Energy Cell every 6 seconds.
  • Charged Barrel and Gravity Surge have swapped positions in the Skill Tree. Charged Barrel now requires Grav Round and Gravity Surge now requires Charged Barrel.
  • Gravity Surge now additionally grants an extra stack of Charged Barrel and Charged Barrier, if applicable, with each Grav Round fired.
  • Heavy Trooper now increases healing received by 1% per point (down from 3%).

Assault Specialist (Commando)

  • Target Lock has been redesigned and now gives Full Auto and High Impact Bolt 10% of armor penetration per point.

Bounty Hunter

Powertech

  • Ion Gas Cylinder now generates 100% additional threat while active.Shield Tech
    • Supercharged Ion Gas now increases Ion Overload damage by 25%. While Ion Gas Cylinder is active, Rail Shot triggers your Ion Gas Cylinder on the target and up to 4 additional nearby targets. This damage does not affect sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies. This generates a high amount of threat.
    • Flame Shield: The critical chance bonus applied to Rocket Punch and Flame Sweep has been reduced to 8% per point.
    • Flame Surge now increases the damage dealt by Flame Sweep by 6% per point and causes Jet Charge to grant 1 charge of Flame Surge per point, which makes the next Flame Sweep free of cost. This skill now requires Jet Charge instead of Flame Shield.

Mercenary

Arsenal

  • Barrage now properly affects Unload while wielding a single blaster pistol.
  • Terminal Velocity has been redesigned. While High-Velocity Gas Cylinder is active, there is a 50% chance per point to vent 1 Heat every 6 seconds.
  • Tracer Lock and Light ‘Em Up have swapped positions in the Skill Tree. Tracer Lock now requires Tracer Missile and Light ‘Em Up now requires Tracer Lock.
  • Light ‘Em Up now additionally grants an extra stack of Tracer Lock and Power Barrier, if applicable, with each Tracer Missile fired.
  • Custom Enviro Suit now increases healing received by 1% per point (down from 3%).

Pyrotech (Mercenary)

  • Advanced Targeting has been redesigned and now gives Unload and Rail Shot 10% of armor penetration per point.

 

Companion Characters

General

  • Companion Characters now remember if they were set to Passive when the player dismounts from a vehicle.
  • A message is now displayed when companions are dismissed as the player enters a PvP Objective Area.
  • Corrected an issue that would cause companions to appear as invisible when equipped with a Rakghoul Companion Kit.

Companions

Ashara Zavros

  • An issue that caused parts of this companion to become invisible when equipped with the dancer outfit has been corrected.

Bowdaar

  • Bowdaar’s “Wookiee Roar” ability now properly scales from Strength.

Ensign Temple

  • Affection is no longer awarded inappropriately during the mission “Crew Relations.”

Crew Skills

Crafting Skills

  • Players can now receive a critical success when crafting Relics, which results in the addition of an Augment slot to the crafted item.
  • New Custom (orange) waist, wrist, hand, and foot slot schematics have been added to Armormech and Synthweaving. These schematics can be obtained via Underworld Trading missions.Armstech
    • Elegant Modified Blaster Pistols now require 400 Armstech to learn and craft. Players who already learned this schematic but are below 400 Armstech retain the schematic, but will not be able to craft it until they reach 400 Armstech.

    Biochem

    • Adrenals that were craftable by Biochemists before 1.3 can no longer be used in PvP Areas.
    • Biochemists can now craft a version of Warzone Adrenals. The grade 6 crafting PvP box provides enough materials to craft 20-40 of these adrenals.
    • Attack Adrenals now reduce healing done by 20% when active.
    • The damage penalty of Triage Adrenals has been reduced from 50% to 20%.
    • Level 48 Biochem consumables no longer require Grade 5 materials to craft.
    • Level 45-46 “Mind-bending” implants now require Parasitic Microorganisms instead of Red Goo to craft.

Gathering Skills

  • Players can now scavenge materials from corpses in combat. Taking damage will push back or cancel the action.
  • Companions can no longer harvest materials while in combat.

Flashpoints and Operations

General

  • The number of enemy encounters has been reduced in The False Emperor, Taral V, Boarding Party, and Directive 7 to bring them in line with other Flashpoints.
  • Loot rewards in level 50 Flashpoints have been improved significantly. Bosses now drop equipment that prepares players for Hard Mode Flashpoints.
  • Daily Commendations can now be acquired from some bosses in level 50 and Hard Mode Flashpoints.
  • Players now earn social points for defeating Flashpoint and Operation bosses of appropriate challenge. No social points are gained for defeating bosses more than three levels below the player.

Flashpoints

  • Loot drops in many endgame Flashpoints have changed:
    • Affected bosses drop items directly instead of dropping tradable tokens. Every boss now has at least one valid item per gear role. Many bosses now drop a variety of items (instead of items for a single slot). Commendation and ingredient drops have also received minor updates.
    • Story Mode endgame Flashpoint loot has been upgraded across the board to contain a mixture of Artifact items. Artifact items include the head, chest, feet, hands, and leg pieces of sets that were previously only given out as waist and wrist pieces from Heroic World Bosses and Xenotech and Tionese pieces that do not contain a set bonus.
    • Hard Mode endgame Flashpoint loot has been upgraded to contain higher-quality Artifact items, including Tionese pieces with set bonuses and Columi pieces. Hard Mode final bosses are largely unaffected.

Boarding Party

  • Players no longer need to complete or have the mission “Call to Arms” in order to receive the Story or Hard Mode version of this Flashpoint.
  • Storm Squad’s enrage timer has been increased to 5 minutes in Hard Mode.
  • Chief Engineer Kel’s Reactor Pulse now respects immunity to knockback effects.
  • HXI-54 Juggernaut no longer targets players in cover with Electro Tether.
  • Commander Jorland fires his explosive round less often and now varies targets.
  • Medical Officer Alon has been moved closer to Chief Massey.
  • Sakan Do’nair no longer has an invulnerability aura, and his healers no longer get stuck in an invulnerable state.
  • Jedi Healers now have more health, and their healing abilities are now more effective.
  • Sakan now breaks his healers out of incapacitating effects throughout the encounter.
  • The number of non-boss encounters in this Flashpoint has been reduced.

Cademimu

  • General Ortol no longer fires rockets faster than once every 15 seconds.

Colicoid War Game

  • New tutorials now introduce players to plasma cannon mechanics.
  • Players on plasma cannons are now healed slightly over time.
  • Annihilator 6K-A2’s health has been increased significantly. Its Missile Bombardment has improved visual effects, does less damage at once, and adds a fire debuff to affected players.
  • The patrolling droid in the hazard course now respawns less frequently.
  • The Simulation Mode effect can now be interrupted.

Directive 7

  • Bulwark’s enrage timer has been increased to 5 minutes, 30 seconds in Hard Mode. The difficulty of the Bulwark encounter has been decreased in Story and Hard Modes.
  • Mentor’s Assassins now deal less damage in both difficulty modes.
  • Mentor’s Turboblaster Capacitors are now uninterruptable while using Capacitor Blast, and they now alternate between Capacitor Blast and Super Charge.
  • Mentor’s area of effect missiles now use a damage radius that more closely matches their visual effect.
  • Mentor’s Automated Defense Turrets now deal less damage in Hard Mode.
  • A new checkpoint has been added to the Mentor Assassin encounter. Groups that are defeated will respawn much closer to the encounter.
  • Players no longer get stuck behind Interrogator if they skip the encounter.
  • A new checkpoint has been added after the encounter with Bulwark. Groups defeated by Replicator and Mentor will have a much shorter return time.

Hammer Station

  • The light bridge now continues to function after the Flashpoint has been completed.

Kaon Under Siege

  • A tooltip has been added to the Festering Bite debuff inflicted by Rakghoul Supersoldiers.

Lost Island

  • Maps for this Flashpoint have been improved.
  • The ice effect on The Vorantikus now displays properly.

Maelstrom Prison

  • Players no longer need to complete or have the mission “The Jedi Prisoner” in order to receive the Story or Hard Mode version of this Flashpoint.
  • Players no longer need to complete the Flashpoint “Taral V” to access this Flashpoint.
  • Colonel Daksh’s enrage timer has been increased by 1 minute. His eye laser ability damage has been reduced in Hard and Story Mode, and the duration of the eye laser has been reduced by 10 seconds. A visible interrupt immunity for all abilities has been added.

Red Reaper

  • Lord Kherus no longer respawns after players reach the bridge of the ship.

Taral V

  • Players no longer need to complete or have the mission “The Jedi Prisoner” in order to receive the Story or Hard Mode version of this Flashpoint.
  • General Edikar’s enrage timer has been increased to 5 minutes in Hard Mode.
  • General Edikar’s Hail of Bolts is now avoidable as intended.
  • Analyze Weakness used by the Outpost Experimental Droid now increases damage taken by its target by a smaller amount.
  • Lord Hasper’s Force Storm now deals less damage. He is also immune to interrupts, and takes longer to enrage.
  • Handler Gattan and his Trained Vine Cats now have less health.
  • Gattan’s Trained Vine Cats are now more easily managed by the tank.
  • The number of non-boss encounters in this Flashpoint has been reduced.

The Battle of Ilum

  • Krel Thak now alerts players when proximity probe has been activated. Krel Thak now knocks players back before activating proximity probes.
  • Krel Thak’s Allied Weequay Pirates now deal less damage in Hard Mode.
  • Proximity Probes now deal less damage.
  • Players now correctly earn social and light or dark side points for completing this Flashpoint.

The Black Talon

  • Yadira Ban’s Cyclone Nova now respects immunity to knockback effects.

The Esseles

  • Collision has been added to the Hangar to prevent players from falling out of the area.
  • Ironfist’s difficulty in Hard Mode has been reduced.
  • Increased the delay after the reticule appears before the lightning strike when fighting Vokk in Hard Mode.

The False Emperor

  • The Sith Entity’s enrage timer has been increased to 5 minutes in Hard Mode.
  • HK-47 no longer re-enters stealth after using his Backhand ability and is now visible while channeling his stab attack.
  • HK-47’s turrets no longer have shields.
  • The time that Darth Malgus is vulnerable to being knocked off the ledge after being hit by the first knockback effect has been increased.
  • A new mission step has been added to this Flashpoint after defeating Darth Malgus. Players who fall to their deaths now have time to recover and receive loot.
  • The number of non-boss encounters in this Flashpoint has been reduced.
  • Players now correctly earn social and light or dark side points for completing this Flashpoint.

The Foundry

  • Players no longer need to complete or have the mission “Call to Arms” in order to receive the Story or Hard Mode version of this Flashpoint.
  • Players no longer need to complete the Flashpoint “Boarding Party” to access this Flashpoint.

Operations

General

  • Story Mode Operations no longer automatically assign loot to individual participants.

Eternity Vault

  • Corrected an issue that could cause Gharj to occasionally knock players out of the world.
  • A message is now broadcast when the Infernal Disciples encounter is reset.
  • Soa’s Ball Lightning and Mind Traps are now destroyed when Soa is defeated.

Explosive Conflict

  • Corrected an issue that caused players to be teleported out of the phase if they reached some remote areas of the minefield.
  • During the encounter with Firebrand and Stormcaller, the Shield Generators will no longer be susceptible to procs from Relics.

Group Finder

  • The Group Finder is now available for all players! It can be accessed via the Group Finder button located next to the minimap once a character reaches level 10. The Group Finder allows players to be automatically grouped with other players looking to participate in Flashpoints and Operations, or to find groups on specific planets.
  • Players can specify roles they wish to play (Tank, Healer, or Damage) and can choose which Flashpoint or Operation they would like to find a group for. When a group is found, the players can choose to teleport directly to the Flashpoint or Operation.
  • Players can receive bonus rewards for using the Group Finder by allowing it to randomly select a Flashpoint or Operation. Players receive bonus rewards the first time each day they complete a random Story Mode Flashpoint, Hard Mode Flashpoint, and Story Mode Operation. Rewards are received upon completing the content.
  • Group Finder groups are slightly different than normal groups: the leader cannot kick players or change loot rules, but the group has access to the vote kick system. Players can elect to remove another player from the group.
  • In a Group Finder group, the group or operation frames display an icon indicating each member’s chosen role (healing, tank, or damage).

Items

General

  • Mini-pets have been added to the PvP items vendor.
  • Baradium Flux can now be traded between players.
  • The Collector’s Edition Holocamera has been repositioned to properly fit the player’s hand.
  • Some gear (Custom social gear, in most cases) has been flagged as “Adaptive.” This gear determines its armor type based on the best armor the player or companion wearing it can equip. Tooltips for adaptive gear have been reworked to make it easier to compare armor values (given that it may have different armor values for you and your companion).
  • Many descriptions for Unassembled gear pieces have been updated to describe where players should go to redeem them.
  • PvP lockboxes are no longer unique and now have a required purchase level.
  • Rakata Enforcer’s Gear no longer incorrectly indicates that there are 6 items in its set.
  • Three War Hero items (Field Tech’s Belt, Field Tech’s Bracers, Eliminator’s Generator) now require an appropriate Battlemaster item as part of their purchase cost.
  • Premium PvP lockboxes have been reduced in price from 120 Warzone Commendations to 80 Warzone Commendations.
  • Voice processing for some head slot items has been corrected. It has been added to some items that lacked processing and removed from some items that should not have had it.
  • Additional spawn locations for the Orokeet Mini-pet egg have been added to Alderaan. Eggs can now also be found on Balmorra (Imperial) and Taris (Republic).
  • Three green color crystal schematics have been added to the Daily Commendation vendor.
  • War Hero Mender’s MK-1 System has been added to the Smuggler and Imperial Agent War Hero PvP vendors.
  • The names of five schematics that grant the Exotech Weaponmaster’s armor have been corrected. They were erroneously named “Exotech Battlemaster’s.”
  • Rakata Freeze Bombs can now be sold on the Galactic Trade Network.
  • The M3-O1 Matrix cube now grants 28 Strength and 14 Endurance (instead of 19 Strength and 24 Endurance).
  • The Party Instigator and Galactic Party Bomb now function correctly and are available on the appropriate Social vendors.
  • The passive stats on all top-level Matrix Cubes have been increased.
  • The “on use” abilities on relics have been altered. The magnitude of their stat buffs has been decreased, but the duration of the buff has been increased. This reduces burst damage, but sustained damage is unchanged.
  • The Rhythm Augmentation Droid now lasts for 5 minutes (up from 30 seconds).
  • Some headpieces that previously displayed severe graphical issues with Miralukan facemasks have been made invisible on Miralukan characters.
  • Modifications with four stats will now display properly when viewed from the Item Modification Table.
  • Relics can no longer provide extra damage or healing to a dead target.
  • Corrected an issue with relics that could allow for them to damage friendly and heal hostile enemies.

Augmentation Slots

  • Item Modification Tables in the game world now provide players with the ability to add augmentation slots to armor (head, chest, wrists, legs, feet, waist), earpieces, implants, relics, main and off hand items (knives, shotguns, generators, shields, foci), and droid armor (sensors, cores, motors, and parts).
  • To install or upgrade an augmentation slot, the following requirements must be met:
    • The target item must be Premium (green) in quality or better.
    • The player must have enough credits to cover the installation fee, which varies based on item level, quality, and equipment type.
    • The player must have an augmentation kit of the appropriate rank which will be consumed in the process.
  • Installing an augmentation slot binds the target item to the player.
  • Augmentation slots are tiered in rank, and can only accept augments up to their rank. Augmentation slots can be upgraded to a higher tier through the Item Modification Table.
  • Mod extraction costs have been reduced by 30%.

Itemization

  • A wider variety of item modifications are now available as loot drops. For grouped players, these modification drops are almost always tailored to party composition.
  • Loot drops on Origin Worlds, especially rare items, are now more appropriate for the classes that obtain them.
  • Players now see specialized class and role item drops throughout the game that are more appropriate for the player or group.
  • Medpacs dropped throughout the course of playing on a planet are now more appropriate to that planet’s level range.
  • Some heavy armor drops have been removed from Tython and Korriban to make loot more appropriate.
  • Many Prototype quality Barrels and Hilts have been added to random loot as rare drops.
  • Several level 56 items that had level 48 color crystals instead of level 56 have been corrected.

Vendors

  • A Republic Crew Skills vendor in the Dune Sea no longer appears on Imperial characters’ maps.

Legacy

  • Character Perks are now available! These are bonuses that a player can purchase with credits upon reaching a minimum Legacy level that apply only to the character that purchased them. The Perks available in Game Update 1.3 include:
    • Increased experience from Flashpoints, Warzones, Space Missions, Class Missions, and Exploration
    • Increased companion affection gains from gifts and conversations
    • Increased chance for a companion to craft Exceptional gear
    • Reduce the time it takes for a companion to sell junk items
    • Summon a Droid in the field to repair gear and buy and sell items.
    • Reset your skill point specialization in the field
    • Unlock the ability to use some speeders at lower levels
    • Priority Transport Passes that allow for fast transit back to your capital world, the Outlaw’s Den on Tatooine, the Black Hole on Corellia, and the Gav Daragon (Republic) or the Ziost Shadow (Imperial). And more!
  • The PvP Training Dummy unlocked via Legacy is now named “Warzone Training Dummy” to avoid confusion.
  • The Legacy abilities Heroic Orbital Strike, Lightning Storm, Dirty Kick, Sticky Grenade, Force Sweep, Project, and Force Choke now deal increased damage.

Missions and NPCs

General

  • New weekly missions to defeat various Heroic World Bosses are now available on the Fleets.
  • Cinematics throughout the game have been polished. Many visual issues during cinematics have been corrected, and updates have been made to consistency (such as ensuring that characters killed in cinematics are no longer alive in the phase afterward). Some instances where audio and subtitles did not match have been corrected.
  • Many minor changes and bug fixes have been made to missions. Examples include: several missing map notes have been added (and many erroneous map notes have been corrected), some mission usables that weren’t appearing in the tracker now appear, and several conversations that would automatically start even after being canceled have been corrected. Not every minor fix has received an individual note.
  • Many instances where mission phases could be entered before passing through the phase gate have been corrected.
  • Corrected instances where mission indicators would appear over NPCs when not intended.
  • Players can now use shift-click in the mission log to create a chat hyperlink for a mission.
  • Interacting with the Armstech Trainer now completes the Imperial mission “Crafting Trainers.”
  • Killing bosses in Nightmare Mode now gives credit for the [VEHICLE] Aratech Nightscythe and the [VEHICLE] Praxon Firaxa missions.
  • A very rare issue that could cause players who completed a mission and exceeded its goals by an extremely large amount (by continuing to kill the mission’s targets, for instance) to be returned to character select has been addressed.
  • Mission completion experience is no longer displayed twice in the chat window.
  • Several instances of incorrect loading screen summaries being displayed have been corrected.

World Missions

Alderaan

  • A Woman Scorned: Rehanna Rist no longer becomes invisible.

Belsavis

  • Freeing the Fallen: The “Clear the Way” bonus objective now requires only 20 kills (down from 30).
  • Jungle Flight: This mission is now properly balanced for two players.

Corellia

  • The shuttle to and from the Black Hole area can now be used to transport players directly to their personal starships.
  • Bomb Disposal: The first bomb removed by the player no longer disappears from the player’s mission inventory.
  • Supply Confiscation: Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents are no longer addressed as Sith Lords during this mission.

Ilum

  • The Challenge of War: The encounter with two Kaleesh Supplymasters has been redesigned and is now less difficult.

Nar Shaddaa

  • Diversion: The behavior of NPCs related to this mission now matches the mission description.
  • The Exchange Enhancement Facility: The Incubator no longer respawns without the Ukabi Super Soldier floating in it.

Taris

  • The Archive: Wintag’s voiceover no longer has an inappropriate voice effect.
  • The Corpse Counters: Cera now uses the correct conversation lines in this mission.

Tatooine

  • Search and Rescue: Single prisoners no longer grant credit more than once for the objective “Rescue Prisoners.”

Voss

  • Fishing Façade: Corrected an issue where the subtitles for T5-BD were not displaying long enough.
  • Gormak Sabotage: The Gormak Tech Shaman is now balanced appropriately for solo players.
  • Let’s See Some Aggression: This mission no longer fails if the player uses a stealth ability during Gormak Ambushes.
  • The First Commando’s Call: NPCs associated with this mission no longer automatically attack the player.
  • Trial of the First: This mission is no longer automatically completed for all group members when one player turns it in.

Class Missions

General

  • Travel Passes granted at the end of Chapters no longer share a cooldown with the Emergency Fleet Pass.

Jedi Knight

  • Catching up with Watcher One: Removed a mission that erroneously appeared in the mission log after speaking to RE-M0.
  • New Intelligence: The “Ship Entrance” map note now displays on the Jedi Knight Airlock map as intended. Lieutenant Marcovic’s spawn for the step “Defeat Lieutenant Macovic” is no longer delayed by several minutes.
  • Tactical Advantages: Players will now receive proper credit when groupmates defeat Imperial Conquest Droids.

Jedi Consular

  • A Return Home: This mission now offers a lockbox reward of the appropriate level (the lockbox previously offered was lower level than intended).
  • Rajivari’s Legacy: Rajivari no longer respawns.

Sith Inquisitor

  • Andronikos Revel: Players can no longer become stuck inside this mission’s phase if they enter a Warzone while inside it.
  • Legacy: The map now correctly leads the player back to the Inner Chamber if the player left during the boss fight.

Smuggler

  • Brotherhood: Players assisting a Smuggler on this mission can now exit the mission phase and will not become stuck.
  • Deals and Double Deals: The conversation for the step “Confront Gus Tuno” now begins correctly when the player enters the mission phase.
  • You Can’t Spend Infamy: Using an Emergency Fleet Pass now correctly progresses this mission.

Trooper

  • Justice: The Republic troopers standing near General Garza are now properly armed with their rifles.
  • Mannett Point: Corrected an issue that could cause NPCs associated with this mission to evade and exit combat.
  • The Separatists’ Stronghold: This mission no longer resets to its first step if the player is defeated on the “Talk to Commander Tavus” step.

Bounty Hunter

  • A Musty Trail: This mission’s reward no longer asks the player to choose from rewards that list only one item.
  • Hostile Takeover: Players can now complete the conversation with General Krau if 2V-R8 is the current active companion.
  • Last One Standing: Coral’s level now matches the level of this mission.

NPCs

  • Several World Boss abilities and attacks now have appropriate sound effects.
  • The Holowan Labs Security Overseer’s level has been increased to provide an appropriate challenge.
  • Removed one of two Mandalorian Equalizers that patrolled the same area in the Jungle Valley on Dromund Kaas.
  • Jace Malcom no longer wears armor with the Havoc Squad emblem.
  • Imperial Service Droids on Balmorra are now combat Droids instead of healing Droids.
  • Jedi Champions on Ilum can no longer see through the stealth granted by being revived by a medical probe.

PvP

General

  • Players are no longer flagged for PvP if they use their class buff on a player that is flagged.
  • New introductory level 50 PvP missions that reward a choice of lockboxes that contain Recruit PvP gear have been added to the game. Players who already have Recruit gear can elect to receive a Recruit Credit Redemption Token, which can be sold for the purchase price of a set of Recruit gear.
  • Players are no longer removed from their current group when they join a Warzone. While a player is in a Warzone, all functions affect the Warzone group. Players that are not in the Warzone will see the original group normally, and when the Warzone is over, players in the Warzone will be able to interact with their original group.
  • Players who are stunned or immobilized no longer appear to teleport a short distance to a new location on other players’ screens.
  • Medical probe revivals can no longer be called in PvP regions belonging to the opposing faction.
  • Relics that have effects activated “on hit” no longer cause players to remain in combat longer than expected during PvP.
  • The “on use” abilities on relics can no longer be used inside Warzones. PvP relics (such as the Recruit, Battlemaster, and War hero relics) now have passive boosts to the same stats that the “on use” ability affected.
  • New relics that offer “on hit” triggered abilities are now available from PvP vendors.
  • Warzone Expertise Adrenals have been renamed to Warzone Adrenals. The item now only provides PvP Damage Reduction and does not boost healing or damage.
  • Adrenals that were craftable by Biochemists before 1.3 can no longer be used in PvP areas. Biochemists can now craft a version of the Warzone Adrenal.
  • The duration of the Warzone Adrenal has been reduced to 15 seconds (down from 25) to match the duration of other Adrenals.

Warzones

General

  • Players who receive an in-combat revival no longer receive healing scoreboard credit for the revival.

Pre-Season One Team Ranked Warzones

  • Pre-Season One Team Ranked Warzones are now available! Teams of 8 level 50 players can use the “Queue Team Ranked” button in the Warzone queue window to queue for a Ranked Warzone match.
  • Ranked Warzones reward Ranked Warzone Commendations.
  • Teams receive their Team Rating after participating in 10 Ranked Warzone matches. This rating is adjusted at the end of every Team Ranked Warzone match based on win or loss and the ratings of all other matched players.
  • Leaving a Ranked Warzone before it ends counts as a loss. Declining an invitation once a match is made counts as a loss.
  • Players in the queue for a Ranked Warzone can queue for a normal Warzone at the same time. Entering a normal Warzone does not remove players from the Ranked Warzone queue. If a Ranked Warzone match is found while a player is in a normal Warzone, the match is reserved until the player finishes the normal Warzone, and other players in the reserved match will not be asked to join normal Warzones.

Alderaan Civil War

  • This Warzone can now be played by two teams of the same faction. Additionally, each objective marker now appears in a color relative to the player’s team – green indicates objectives controlled by your team, and red indicates objectives controlled by the other team. These colors match the colors on the scorecard and map.
  • Corrected a terrain issue that allowed players to reach the middle objective from the other objectives faster than intended.
  • Corrected a region placement error that caused Imperial players to be instantly defeated in an unintended area near the Republic spawn area.
  • The Warzone Scorecard now properly displays the pre-match countdown.
  • Performance optimizations have been implemented to improve the framerate inside this Warzone.
  • Corrected an issue that could prevent tooltips from minimizing properly.

Huttball

  • The acid trap debuff now expires correctly if a player is disconnected while in the acid trap.

Novare Coast

  • The message that an enemy bunker is taking damage now plays less frequently.
  • The areas around each capture point that provide credit for defense have been adjusted and now include more area.

Voidstar

  • The layout of the first room has been changed slightly to increase travel time between objectives.
  • Objective markers in this Warzone now appear in a color relative to the player’s team. When the bomb is waiting to be armed, the attacking team will see a red marker and the defending team sees a green marker. This marker is green for the attacking team (and red for the defending team) when the bomb has been planted.
  • Players now receive notification when they receive defender points for guarding doors.
  • Voidstar scoring now factors in time spent both on offense and defense. This means a team that started on defense and prevented most of the objectives from being taken can get maximum score by making further progress in round 2 and winning early.
  • Corrected an issue that could prevent the bomb from displaying correctly when planted on doors.
  • A very rare case that could prevent a Voidstar match from ending early if the second attacking team exceeded the progress of the first attacking team has been corrected.
  • The Voidstar features new voiceover transmissions that support matches between players of the same faction.

World PvP

The Outlaws’ Den (Tatooine)

  • Companion Characters are no longer permitted within the Outlaw’s Den.

Space Combat

  • Players can now receive additional Space Combat Missions after completing their first without having to leave and return to their personal starship.
  • An issue that prevented player ships from being visually destroyed upon mission failure has been corrected.
  • Using /stuck during a Space Combat Mission no longer kills the player.
  • Ship item tooltips now distinguish between bonuses that set your ship to a specific value and those that add the value to your total.

UI

General

  • Corrected an issue that could cause profession abilities to disappear from quickslots occasionally.
  • Vehicles now display unique buff icons that list the vehicles name, icon, and movement speed description.
  • Players no longer see mission loot beams on corpses that have a mission item for another group member.
  • Spending points in Skill Trees no longer causes players to be dismounted.
  • If players attempt to reverse engineer an item that is being modified, the Modify Item window will now close.
  • Added a tooltip to the untrain button (designated by “x”) in the Crew Skills window.
  • Added a tooltip to schematics when viewed in the Crew Skills trainer window.
  • Adding or removing item modifications will update the modification count appropriately in the modification window.

Galactic Trade Network

  • Droids now use “Droid Armor” instead of Heavy Armor. This change corrects issues with the Usable By filter on the Galactic Trade Network. This is a categorization change and has no impact on item use.

Groups and Targeting

  • Players can now choose to enable a predictive tab targeting indicator, which will display an icon next to the enemy next in line for tab targeting.
  • The predictive targeting indicator is now available even if the player has nameplates disabled.

Guild Banks

  • Guild members can now view their own ledger data, and the guildmaster’s transactions now accurately appear in the log.
  • The ledger now defaults to show all members, and the guildmaster can disable ledger viewing based on rank.
  • The Guild Bank will now show players the correct error message if they try to deposit more credits than they currently have.

Maps

  • Many areas where the map would incorrectly change and show another area have been corrected.

Social

  • Font size can now be adjusted in detached chat windows.
  • The social emote /ironfist is now available for use. It cannot be used while in combat.

Tutorials

  • In-game tutorials have been polished significantly:
    • The tutorial window is larger, and all tutorials have more images and information available.
    • Players can browse through all tutorials via an index on the tutorial page. All tutorials can be accessed via the main menu.
    • Tutorials can now be turned off directly from the tutorial screen.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • Several grammatical and localization text and voice over errors have been corrected throughout the game.
  • Several locations where players could become stuck in terrain throughout the game have been corrected.
  • Many minor art bugs have been addressed. Examples include visible terrain seams, incorrect collision in some areas, misplaced environmental assets, some pieces of gear that displayed incorrectly, and improper animations for NPCs. Not every minor art change has received an individual note.
  • Some minor audio bugs, such as missing lines of ambient dialogue and incorrect volume for some effects, have been corrected.
  • The emote /overthere now properly references the player’s target in the chat window.
  • The female /taunt emote now animates properly while the player is moving.
  • Player weapons during looping emote animations are now stowed away more consistently.
  • Trails behind speeder bikes no longer stretch inappropriately when in first-person view.
  • An area of Nem’ro’s Palace that was mistakenly flagged as a Rest XP area has been corrected.
  • The bind point at the Republic Wilderness Outpost on Belsavis no longer incorrectly binds players to Meltwater Outpost.
  • Corrected an extremely rare client freeze.
  • Custom chat channel commands (moderate, kick, and mute) now work more reliably.
  • The “success” chat message is no longer displayed before actually joining a custom chat channel.
  • A new “Very High” graphics options setting is now available, and existing settings (Very Low, Low, Medium, and High) have been re-factored to cover the wider spread of options.
  • Character eyes now appear brighter when using “Very Low” shader complexity.
  • Players that begin a taxi ride while in a jumping or falling animation no longer see visual errors or take falling damage.
  • The camera no longer zooms to a distance beyond the player’s maximum camera distance while on taxis.
  • The Miraluka social ability, Sense Force Alignment, now properly reflects only the target’s Force alignment.
  • If an item is equipped to an invalid slot, it is now moved to the player’s inventory after logging in. This corrects some edge case issues with incorrectly categorized items.
  • The Chiss and Mirialan social abilities now correctly do not break on damage unless the player is in combat.
  • The correct message is now displayed when a player gains experience by discovering a new area.
  • Anti-Aliasing has been re-enabled for ATI 6900 series video cards.
  • Using Ctrl-A and Ctrl-M no longer reports to the chat window that ambient sounds or music has been toggled.
  • Players that are defeated in areas not controlled by their faction on Alderaan now respawn closer to the hostile area where they were defeated.

SWTOR 1.3 to hit PTS in hours


BioWare have confirmed that SWTOR 1.3 will hit the Public Test Server any hour now once you factor in time changes. Read on below for the details and links to sign up for PTS testing if you’re keen:

Game Update 1.3 is coming to our Public Test Server Tomorrow and we want you to be prepared! You may now download and update to the latest version of the Public Test Server.

Check out this blog for more information on how to set up for testing on PTS and this blog for how to sign up for character copying.

We’ll see you on PTS tomorrow!

Will you be jumping on the PTS to check out 1.3?

UPDATE: 1.3 has hit the PTS and you can view the full patch notes here.

SWTOR 1.2.6 Patch Notes


The servers are up, and they reveal the latest patch, 1.2.6. It’s a fairly small patch this time, but browse on below for the details:

1.2.6 Patch Notes

6/4/2012

Companion Characters

General

    • Companion Characters no longer appear headless when wearing certain headgear.

Flashpoints and Operations

Operations

Explosive Conflict
      • The optional chest before the minefield encounter can now be looted again.

Missions and NPCs

General

      • Class mission items now drop from appropriate enemies even if a groupmate deals the killing blow.
      • Audio for cinematics no longer begins before the cinematic starts. The UI is now hidden before a conversation begins (instead of after it starts).

Missions

Voss
      • The mission “Primary Target” will be automatically completed for players who finished The Dark Hollow without completing Primary Target first. Turning in The Dark Hollow first could make Primary Target impossible to complete. It is no longer possible to start The Dark Hollow before turning in Primary Target.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • The Fleet shuttles to Coruscant and Dromund Kaas now properly update several class mission travel steps that they previously did not.

Star Wars: 1313 Preview

I’m not even going to attempt to compare what you see below to SWTOR – it’d be a totally unfair comparison. That said, am I the only person that dreams of playing an MMO one day that’s of this level of graphic quality?

Have a look for yourself:

So I’ll say it again: would you pay big money for an MMO that looked like Star Wars: 1313?

BioWare unveil new planet and content in SWTOR

With E3 underway, BioWare have unveiled a nice video showing off a new space mission (Space Station Assault), new Operation (Terror from Beyond), new companion (HK-51 Assassin Droid), a new level cap (details unconfirmed), a new Warzone (Ancient Hypergates) and arguably most exciting of all, a whole new world to explore, Makeb.

Have a look at the video for yourself here.

Seeing all this content is encouraging, in that it puts some meat on the bones of BioWare’s claims post-layoffs that there’s heaps more content to come.

On the downside for me, there doesn’t seem to be a great story emphasis on the new content. What I mean by that is that this update doesn’t seem to fall within an overall story arc. It doesn’t even have a name as such, probably because the previewed information isn’t a bundle that’ll be released as a single update. Even so, if there’s a new level cap, there’s obviously a new storyline, and I find it interesting that that’s not the focus. It could be because of the criticisms around end-game content, but surely story should still be the driver?

Of course, there’ll be lots more information drip-fed in coming months, and story may become central to that. In the meantime, it’s good to see what’s up ahead.

Over to you: of the new content revealed, what excites you or leaves you a bit cold?

All we know about this content is that it’s coming in the ‘next year’

Server Downtime: 5th June 2012

Another standard four-hour maintenance this week. The full post from BioWare below, but the local time conversions are:

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

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, June 5th , 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM AEST). All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended.

This weekly maintenance is done in order to make general improvements and to check performance of the game so that we can continue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but not always) after a maintenance period there will be a patch to download. After the maintenance, please login via the launcher to download the latest patch. If your launcher was open during the maintenance, you must close and reopen it for a fresh login.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

Time: 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM AEST).

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

SWTOR Video News: MCM Expo and Layoffs

Asher’s back with another quality roundup of the week that was! Notes below the vid as always. Enjoy!

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/lenc0rp

—– THIS WEEKS NEWS —–

MCM Expo Stream
http://www.twitch.tv/gamespot/b/319398572

Bioware Response on Lay Offs
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/28/swtor-lead-designer-on-bioware-austin-lay-o…

Community Q&A
http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-june-1st-2012

Next Weeks Q&A
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=469736

Patch Notes 1.2.5
http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/1.2.5/5302012

Patch Notes 1.2.5 Addendum
http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/1.2.5/5302012

Maintenance June 5th
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4516896#edit4516896

Server Transfer Testing
http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/20542-bioware-preps-for-server-…

Community Team Update
http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-team-general-update-may-31st-2012

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-The-Republic-Deceived/dp/0345511395/ref=sr_1_…

Speeders
http://dulfy.net/2012/05/29/complete-high-res-catalog-of-all-swtor-speeders/

Double Ended Lightsaber Hilts
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=466696

FAN ART
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/153/5/2/swtor___malavai_quinn_dist…

http://www.forcejunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bountyhunter.jpg

http://swtor.gamingfeeds.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/5/files/HLIC/f70b4b1df190ad…

http://i56.tinypic.com/2nbedg4.png

Community Q&A 1st June: Augments, Downtime and PvP

BioWare are back with a bunch more answers to SWTOR community questions.

After last week’s 1.3-fest, it’s onto a more wider ranging discussion including an answer on what actually happens during that 4-hour downtime we experience each Tuesday.

The full Q&A is here for you below, enjoy:

Lymain: You announced that Ranked Warzones are still on track for Game Update 1.3 in the May 25th Q&A. Is the plan still to implement this feature incrementally, starting with only pre-made teams of eight? Will queues be cross-server initially? Or will cross-server queues be implemented at some point after the first stage of Ranked Warzones makes it live?

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): That is correct. First implementation (pre-season) will be pre-made teams of eight and will not be cross-server.

JimG: For the new augment slots for Game Update 1.3, will the tier of augment slot raise the level required to equip the gear? For example, if I have a level 11 piece of orange gear and add the highest tier augment slot to it, can I still equip it at level 11 assuming I don’t put an augment in it that exceeds my level?

Daniel: You can still equip the item so long as you don’t put mods that exceed your level into the augment slot. In addition, the high tier augment slot can use any augment of a lower tier as well so you can steadily upgrade with level-appropriate augments without having to worry about upgrading the slot itself since you put the highest tier slot on to start.

Dzeiger: With the changes to make social gear “adaptive” and augmentable and thus more desirable, are there any plans to revise the social points system? For example, making it per-Legacy rather than per-character, and/or expanding options for social point gathering at endgame that doesn’t involve endless Esseles and Black Talon runs.

Daniel: Yes, the social point system will be getting a major revamp in the future and many of our systems will be going Legacy-wide, though whether social is one of them is still under discussion. In the meantime, Game Update 1.3 will bring social points to all Flashpoint and Operation boss kills, meaning far more social points just for being social and playing with friends.

Iracaelestis: Currently, crafting missions have a chance to drop schematics from the opposite faction. Given the uselessness of these schematics for the crafting player’s faction, combined with a cumbersome and intentionally difficult means of trading with the opposite faction that’s not being used, what is the justification for this and are there any planned changes for the future?

Daniel: They are an intended part of the system and are there to cause cross-faction interaction which will soon be much easier as we finish out the last few steps and the Hutts formally take over all of the GTN terminals in the galaxy.

Anastre: The Legacy system currently allows you to create ties with perks and unlocks using your own characters on the same server. The thought crossed my mind that it would be cool if you could add the characters of another player to a ‘joined’ Legacy. This way, you could gain Legacy levels a bit faster if you work together. It also gives you a reason to befriend other players. Did this idea cross the mind of the developers?

Daniel: It definitely has. People want to marry other players officially, build family groups, share histories and last names, and much more and it’s all in the queue for the future of Legacy.

LKaras: What will you be doing to keep guilds and server communities together once server transfer is implemented?

Joveth Gonzalez (Online Community Manager): Once server transfers are implemented, we will re-evaluate our server group forums and make any changes that are necessary. We also have Community Coordinator Eric Musco as the liaison to guilds and he has a lot of good ideas on how to work with them. Finally, we’re going to begin to highlight server community events on the Community Blog section of our site to make sure that they get proper attention. Rest assured that guilds and server communities are part of our overall focus within the community team.

Tuk-Teufti : Endgame crafted items are bind on pick up. It’s alright when they come from a drop, but when they come from crafting the system feels limited. What’s the point of crafting armor you can’t sell? Biochem seems once again the way to go for PvP players, along with a little of Cybertech for grenades. Are you going to give other crew skills exclusive features to rival Biochem?

David Hunt (Systems Designer): While the initial endgame schematics were all bound, that hasn’t carried over to some of the newer endgame crafted items. In Game Update 1.2, there are many reverse engineering schematics that are not bound. In general, we’re opening the restrictions on some of these kinds of distribution channels. There are some changes in Game Update 1.3 that impact the interactions between Biochem and PvP, and you can expect more general changes to level out crafting skill viability in future game updates.

Murshawursha: What was the logic behind choosing which Crew Skills get to craft Augment Kits? In Game Update 1.2 and before, if a player wanted, for example, an augmented Lightsaber, they HAD to buy it from an Artifice. Post-Game Update 1.3, if a player wants an augmented Lightsaber, they choose a Lightsaber that they already own (probably acquired through raiding or questing), and buy an Augment Kit from an Armstech, Armormech, or Synthweaver. This effectively cuts out the Artificer completely out of the market for augmented Lightsabers. Why was it done this way, rather than simply allowing Artificers to make Augment Kits that could only be applied to Lightsabers or Relics, Synthweavers to make Augment Kits that can only be used on force armor, Cybertech on earpieces, etc?

David: There are two primary reasons that Augment Kits are limited to Armstech, Armormech and Synthweaving: 1) They are the augment crafters, and Augment Kits extend that service. 2) Prior to crafted augments, they did not have a substantial input into the item mod game and we want to open that up to more players.

We did not want to have lots different Augment Kits, because that would make finding the right item and kit combination substantially more difficult. Augment tables are intended to make it relatively simple to get any item to the same power cap, and lots of kit variation introduces the possibility that it would be hard to get some items to hit the same potential. While this is how augment tables work now, all Crew Skills will continue to evolve based on player feedback and game data.

Insomniel: Is it possible to make tiny adjustments to crafting dialog? Namely, could you save schematics filter settings per character or even per account – I like my schematics sorted by level and it is rather irritating to sort them this way almost every time I open the dialog after changing locations or relogging. It would also be nice to start with collapsed schematics trees .

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer):  This is a good idea.  I will pass it on to the GUI team.

Monkgryphon: Can you break down the Random Flashpoint daily and explain how it will work and what sort of rewards it will grant?

Damion: With the Group Finder, we will be adding the concept of a Random Flashpoint. If you do the Random Flashpoint with a Group Finder assembled group, you will earn a reward. Currently, this reward is in the form of level-appropriate commendations which may be exchanged for equipment at a vendor. At level 50, there are there are separate daily rewards for normal and hard mode Flashpoints, as well as story mode Operations. These rewards escalate with the difficulty of the content.

Ashivauto: There are quite a few threads on wanting open world PvP and a lot of good ideas on open world PvP content. My question is: are there any plans to implement something that would encourage open world PvP such as faction points for factional items, or planetary control. Maybe even rewards or commendations for open world kills?

Gabe Amantangelo (PvP & Endgame Designer): Yes.  We have open world PvP content and incentive systems in the works.  We will update you as soon as we can.  They will likely come in parts, as opposed to all at once.  For example, a proper incentive system for defeating players in open world PvP may come in first.

Lord_Franklin: This may be a bit off-topic, but oh well: I have recently been wondering what actually happens during that 4 hour or so window once a week when you take the servers down for maintenance. What’s happening typically on your side when I’m sitting there refreshing the server status page?

Blaine Christine (Sr. Producer, Live Services): Many things happen in that precious four hour window and it varies from week to week.  Typically, we have a patch deployment for the game along with possible web, network, infrastructure, hardware, and/or platform maintenance, just to name a few possibilities.  Taking the game patch as an individual item, the full process takes several hours, beginning with that lovely in-game message that you all get fifteen minutes prior to the actual kick from the game.  At the T-15 mark, we start in-game messaging and put the servers in Maintenance Mode so that no one else can enter the game.  At 2:00 AM CDT, we kick everyone out and start the shutdown process for all of the servers which takes another ~15 minutes.  Then there are several steps to the actual deployment of the patch which can take an hour or more, depending on complexity.  After the deploy, we have to start the servers back up and have CS perform spot checks of the servers while they are in Maintenance Mode (so they still appear offline to the players).  In some cases, we may detect issues with the spot checks that need to be resolved or at least double-checked before we open to the public.  After all of that, we finally open the gates again and notify all of you via the Forums and Launcher that the game is once again ready for play.

We certainly strive very hard to ensure that we condense this process down as much as possible to reduce the impact on playtime for you, our customers.  Most of the time, we manage to get the game back up earlier than we projected, but occasionally an unforeseen issue with the maintenance causes us to go over the projected timing.  As we get closer to the end of the maintenance, there is a lot of hectic activity if things aren’t going well, because everyone here takes their responsibility seriously and wants to ensure the best possible experience for all of you.  If we go over time, it constitutes a hair on fire emergency that requires all hands on deck to resolve as quickly as possible.

BioWare announce Community Team changes

SWTOR’s Online Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez has posted an update introducing the revamped Community Team. That full post is recreated for you below, but the obvious change aside from allocation of specific responsibilities is the lack of a stated role for David Bass.

We have an unconfirmed report that David has decided to leave the team of his own accord. If that’s the case, then like Stephen Reid we wish him mightily well and thank him for the friendly approach he’s taken with us throughout!

The full post:

Hi everyone,

Last week, we mentioned that changes were coming to the Community Team and I wanted to take some time to go over them. I’m going to briefly outline one of our new initiatives, discuss a new shift in responsibilities for one of our main team members, and introduce the rest of the team.

The aforementioned initiative is intended to improve communication between the fans, the Community Team, and the development team by creating focused specializations. In short, going forward, each Community Team member will be specifically focused on a particular aspect of our game (PvP, Crew Skills, Operations, etc) and paired up with the appropriate developer so that they can respond to players more efficiently. We’re still finalizing details internally, but as soon as every aspect of this project is in place, we will let you all know. We’re all very excited about this and can’t wait to share more.

As many of you may already know, Community Coordinator Eric Musco will be taking over for Sr. Community Coordinator David Bass as the community liaison to fan sites and guilds. Eric and David have been working closely together over the past few weeks to ensure a smooth hand off. While we’re sad to see David leave, we wish him all the best in his new endeavor.

Finally, one of the very first things that we wanted to do with these new changes was to introduce ourselves. We’ll be giving you a very brief introduction this week, but you’ll be seeing more in-depth profiles from each of us in the upcoming weeks.

I’ll go ahead and start. My name is Joveth Gonzalez and I’m the Online Community Manager. I’m currently overseeing the development of our new community initiatives, wrangling up blog posts for the community blog, and handling various general day to day community issues. Oh, and I play as a Scoundrel because I love sneaking around.

Sr. Community Coordinator Allison Berryman is heavily involved in writing all of the Patch Notes and in managing the Community Representatives on our forum (they’re the people that help moderate our forums and keep them clean—we’ll be introducing you to them soon). Allison is also active in the forums, so you may have already seen her pop up in various threads. She currently switches between playing a Sage, Operative, and a Juggernaut.

Community Production Coordinator Alyson Bridge, along with Assistant Community Production Coordinator Courtney Woods, prepares and publishes content on SWTOR.com, and coordinates the localization of the website in French and German. Courtney also assists with writing and developing blogs for the Community Blog section of our site. Alyson plays as a Marauder while Courtney plays as a Sniper and Commando.

Community Coordinator Eric Musco, as mentioned above, will act as the community liaison to fan sites and guilds. In addition to that, he will be coordinating our presence at any upcoming shows. He is currently playing as a Trooper.

Community Coordinator Eric Campbell helps Allison with managing our Community Representatives. In addition to that, he handles our social media presence and manages our Social Media Representatives. Eric plays on the dark side as a Sith Inquisitor.

Live Community Coordinator Amber Green makes sure that any issues that develop get escalated to the Live Services team and gets messages out to the community accordingly. She is also on point for handling any community messaging for each maintenance window. Amber currently plays a Jedi Sage.

Finally, we have our European Community Manager Chris Collins and his incredible Community Team over in Ireland. I’ll let them introduce themselves properly in a future post, but they take care of the European community, including the German and French communities. They also help us with the localization of community blogs and other various documents.

And there you go. That’s a very brief intro to our team, and as I mentioned earlier, we’re going to be going more in-depth with each Community Team member in the upcoming weeks.

We’re excited about these new changes, and we hope that you are as well. We are committed to working with the community and we will continue to do so through Game Update 1.3, Character Transfers, and beyond.

Thank you,
The SWTOR Community Team

 

Over to you: do these changes make you feel more confident in regards to the SWTOR community?

Suggestion Box: Predicting Subscriber Numbers

With winter officially hitting Oz and NZ today, it means we’re officially allowed to spend more time indoors playing SWTOR. That means there may be a bump in local subscribers numbers, although with the US and Europe hitting their summer there will be the usual seasonal drop off in playing time which could affect subscriber numbers.

So on that basis, let’s play Nostradamus. By the end of our winter on September 1st, what do you think SWTOR’s subscriber numbers will be?

SWTOR 1.2.5 Patch Notes

Patch 1.2.5 is now the official version we all play on, and theres plenty of bug-fixes and some changes to commendations and the like. So for your edification, here’s the full patch notes as taken from SWTOR.com:

1.2.5 Patch Notes

5/30/2012

General

  • Optimizations have been implemented that decrease instances of crashing to desktop.
  • Any players required to change a character’s name due to Customer Support request must now make all name changes before logging in with any characters on a server.

Classes and Combat

General

    • “Heroic Moment” abilities no longer persist after players log out or transition areas.

Companion Characters

General

    • Corrected an issue that could cause Companion Characters to appear without a head when wearing certain headgear.

Flashpoints and Operations

General

      • Boss encounters no longer drop rewards until the entire encounter has been cleared of enemies.

Flashpoints

      • Corrected an issue that could prevent Flashpoint mission steps from updating properly if players were disconnected during a Flashpoint.

Operations

      • Players can no longer bypass the lockout timer for some boss encounters.
      • Corrected an issue that could cause “Timed Run” buffs to end prematurely.
Eternity Vault
        • Corrected an issue that could prevent players from receiving mission credit upon defeating Soa.
        • The “Eternity Vault Timed Run” buff no longer displays during Hard Mode.
Explosive Conflict
      • After defeating Firebrand and Stormcaller, players now collect rewards from the Firebrand Battle Tank rather than a loot chest.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

General
        • Level 50 PvP missions now grant 100 Warzone Commendations for daily missions and 300 Warzone Commendations for weekly missions.
World Missions
Belsavis
          • Breakthrough: Corrected an issue that prevented mission objectives from being completed in a group unless the group leader was the first to interact with the objective object at each point .
          • Wrong Savior: The Solitary Confinement area is no longer plagued by a level 50 Malfunctioning Guardian Droid.
Corellia
          • The Lucky Lancer: The mission step “Secure the Landing Site” will now update as intended when players enter the Corellian Museum of Starships.
Ilum
          • First Strike: Players who abandoned this mission after Game Update 1.2 can now speak to T9-M6 on the Imperial Fleet to regain it.
          • Crystal Ball: Players who abandoned this mission after Game Update 1.2 can now speak to Lieutenant Ha’laa on the Republic Fleet to regain it.
Nar Shaddaa
          • Tempting Fate: Players on the step “Access the Security Terminal” are no longer able to repeat part of the conversation.
Tatooine
          • The Thing Czerka Found: Corrected an issue that prevented players from completing or abandoning this mission.
Class Missions
Jedi Knight
          • An Unthinkable Alliance: Players on this mission have had their progress reset, and abandoning the mission during the step “The Emperor’s Fortress” will no longer prevent players from completing the mission after it is reacquired.
          • Fallen: Group members will no longer become stuck on the Korriban Flame station and can leave via starships.
Smuggler
          • Heist of the Millennium: Players are now able to use their starship to travel to the Imperial Treasury Ship during this mission after traveling there one time via the Nar Shaddaa shuttle.
          • The Final Score: Players are now able to use their starship to travel to the Regnant during this mission after traveling there one time via the Corellia shuttle.
Imperial Agent
          • The Star Chamber: Players who destroy the codex and fight the Sith Lords aboard the station can now enter the Tenebrous to complete this mission. Those who were unable to enter the Tenebrous before patch 1.2.5 must reset this mission before completing it.
Trooper
          • A New Player: Exiting the initial conversation by using ESC no longer blocks players from using their holoterminal.
          • Welcome Party: Exiting the initial conversation by using ESC no longer blocks players from using their holoterminal.
Bounty Hunter
        • Number One With a Bullet: Players on this mission have had their progress reset and can now complete the mission if they use their player ship to leave the Founder.

PvP

Warzones

General
        • Corrected a server-side issue that could prevent Warzone matches from being created.
        • Warzones now end early if team populations become too imbalanced.
Novare Coast
      • Fixed an issue that could allow players to become stuck on the Bunker Control Console.
      • Players can no longer become untargetable by entering bunkers while capturing bases.

Space Combat

  • Corrected an issue that could cause blaster shot damage to be delayed or ignored.

UI

  • Corrected an issue that could cause the main UI quickbar to overlap with player portraits.
  • Players can no longer assign keybindings to toggle off music (ctrl+M) and ambient sounds (ctrl+A) . These can still be adjusted using the sliders in the Preferences Window and all sound can still be toggled using ctrl+S.
  • Players can now purchase both Cargo Hold expansions back-to-back if eligible to do so.
  • Players who leave a full Operations Group will no longer appear on the UI to be in a regular group with some members of the Operations Group.
  • Sending companions on Crew Skill missions or accepting mission rewards now prevents the player from being treated as AFK.
  • When a companion is unavailable due to a player’s class story, other Companion Characters will no longer become unavailable in the Crew Skills Window.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • Republic players are now transported to their ships when selecting the option from the Space Station Shuttle on Belsavis.

As always it’s over to you: any big fixes for you personally in here? I’m guessing this could be the last patch before 1.3, so exciting times really.