Archives for 2012

Pimp Your UI: Call for Submissions

April 26, 2012 by David

It’s hard to believe it’s been over a fortnight since 1.2 hit, and one of the things that keeps popping up in discussion regularly is the new SWTOR user interface options.

Which is why we’re looking at launching a regular feature called ‘Pimp Your UI’, where you the dedicated SWTOR player get to display your UI for others to admire and emulate.

Hell, we’ll even happily share your interface for others to use.

Here’s how to get involved:

1. Go to our contact form

2. Provide your details and attach a screen shot of your UI (yes our form accepts attachments – up to a maximum size of 5MB).

Important: We need the screen shot to be at least 500 pixels wide but prefer anything up to 1500-2000 pixels width

3. Feel free to send us your exported layout as well and we can allow people to download it (or provide a URL to your own server if you want it sitting there)

4. Wait for us to get back to you to confirm publication or otherwise.

So get cracking – if you like what you’ve done, why not share it?

Filed Under: Community, News Tagged With: user interface

Server transfers: has your toon made the jump?

April 25, 2012 by David

We’re into the first 24 hours (of a roughly 7-day period) of the server transfer window for eligible SWTOR players.

The reports have started coming in of those who’ve had successful transfers, so things are well and truly underway.

If you’ve had your character transfererd, let us know how it went! As per the picture on the post, I’m still waiting. Ahh well.

Most importantly: Lest We Forget

Filed Under: News Tagged With: server transfers

SWTOR Patch 1.2.1: full notes

April 25, 2012 by David

The servers have been up for a couple of hours now, so if you’re after a break, check out the full notes for 1.2.1:

Classes and Combat

Jedi Knight

Sentinel

Zen (with Ataru Form) now correctly reduces the global cooldown of Cyclone Slash.

Smuggler

General

Charged Burst’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%.

Gunslinger

Damage for Aimed Shot, Speed Shot, and Quickdraw has been increased by approximately 5%.

Sharpshooter

Trickshot’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%.

Imperial Agent

General

Snipe’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%.

Sniper

Damage for Ambush, Series of Shots, and Takedown has been increased by approximately 5%.

Marksmanship

Followthrough’s damage has been increased by approximately 5%.

Trooper

Commando

Gunnery

Havoc Rounds now applies the correct healing increase to Kolto Bomb. It previously applied a smaller increase than intended.

Companion Characters

General

Companion quickslots now update correctly when a new companion is summoned, correcting an issue that could cause the previous companion’s abilities to continue displaying on the new companion’s hotbar.

Earpieces and implants now properly apply their stat bonuses when equipped on companions.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Lost Island

Resolved an issue that could cause Doctor Lorrick’s lab door to become stuck while closed when the fight was not active.

Players now appear on Project Sav’Rak’s platform after the encounter. This addresses an issue that could prevent players from completing the Flashpoint if all group members exited the area before using the bridge controls.

Operations

Explosive Conflict

The range of Stormcaller’s Electric Discharge and Firebrand’s Missile Barrage has been increased to 35 meters.

A total of 4 mines must now be successfully defused in order to complete the minefield encounter.

Chests in Hard Mode no longer drop Black Hole gear.

Items

General

The cost for PvP consumables has been reduced to 10 commendations.

Corrected an issue that prevented item rolling prompts from appearing for Custom (orange) items.

The cost for Rated War Hero PvP gear has been reduced. This does not impact the time required to obtain base War Hero gear.

Legacy

The Rocket Boost ability can now be used inside and isn’t restricted by areas that do not permit vehicles. It cannot be used in combat or in Warzones.

PvP

Warzones

Alderaan Civil War

Players can no longer be knocked off of speeders while traveling to the battlefield.

Voidstar

Players no longer earn defender credit for defending a previously destroyed objective.

Space Combat

Corrected an issue that could cause Space Combat audio to fade out or pan inappropriately from the left to right speaker.

Drexel Sweep: Corrected an issue that caused the first several enemies ships to disappear upon loading into this mission.

Makem Te Assault: An issue that could cause the Smuggler player ship to clip through enemies at the beginning of this mission has been corrected.

UI

General

Helmets now work correctly when unifying colors on the character sheet.

An issue that caused stackable items to display incorrect stack numbers when replaced on the hotbar with another stackable item has been corrected.

The dialog for setting keybindings is now canceled properly if the player presses the “X” button to close it.

Corrected an issue that prevented the mail window from opening after refreshing the UI with the mail window open.

The World Map will now properly update as missions complete and/or progress.

Corrected an issue that sometimes prevented “new mail” notifications from functioning.

Character Creation

During character creation, Legacy Cyborg appearance options are now labeled.

The display of selected options in character creation has been improved.

Groups and Targeting

Group frames now appear correctly when the option “Use Operation Frames as Group Frames” is toggled off.

Guilds

Corrected an issue that could cause insufficient Guild Bank funds for repairs or respecs to appear even if sufficient credits were available.

Players will no longer become “stuck” and unable to receive a guild invite if they were sent an invite just before entering a cinematic or while the loading screen is present.

Social

Corrected an issue that prevented players from adding offline players to their friends list.

Players now correctly see a red phase gate (and are appropriately blocked from entering) if they are not permitted to join a group member’s class phase.

Chat tabs now preserve the selected font size if they are detached from the main chat window.

The list in /who now automatically updates when the window is opened with the /who command.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

An issue that prevented players from logging out of the game if the ESC button was used to close the logout window has been addressed.

Corrected a sound issue that caused a loud, unintended sound on the Republic and Imperial Fleets (and potentially other areas with many characters present).

Corrected some issues with French and German in-game text/dialogue.

Corrected an issue that could cause characters in cinematics to appear grey in color.

Objects that can be interacted with will no longer stop glowing if players get too far away from them and then return..

Filed Under: News, Patch Notes

What To Do While The Servers Are Down: 24th April Edition

April 24, 2012 by David

With tonight’s four-hour server downtime coming smack bang in the middle of most people’s playing time, you’ll definitely need some alternate SWTOR activities to keep you going.

As it happens, we’re here to provide just that (we’re very altruistic people here), so here goes:

1. Have a listen to our latest podcast, recorded Sunday night. And if you’re super keen, rate and review it on iTunes!

2. Check out some drool-worthy Star Wars memorabilia.

3. Read BioWare’s latest Community Q&A responses

4. Check out the latest edition of Fleet Pass, which rounds up the official forums and more.

5. Watch local guild Remnants knock over Warlord Kephess in Hard Mode:

Filed Under: News Tagged With: server downtime

The Casual SWTORian: Post Patch 1.2

April 24, 2012 by Ken Clark

The Casual SWTORian is dedicated each week to those who don’t have the time to immerse themselves in game developments but instead want a very simple roundup of things happening and stuff on the horizon. If you like what you read, tell our casual guru Ken.

With the Asia-Pacific Server Transfer Details Released and the SWTOR.com website receiving a facelift some could be deceived into thinking Bioware had delivered all they could this week. But ye be wrong. They also threw at us, like a giant brick, the mostly weekly Q&A and a page telling us they redesigned the website. And so I give you, your gold:

Keldain: Love the stuff for 1.2! I think you guys are doing a great job on addressing the issues of the community. Just one thing I would really like an update on: is there any movement on getting an option to toggle hoods on and off?

Damion Schubert: (Principal Lead Systems Designer):This is totally in the plan, but we are unsure at this time when it will get to you.

Pierre-olivier: Will it be possible to create a guild uniform or get a distinctive sign. I mean other than the name displayed above the character?

Damion: At some point, this will be possible. No ETA yet, but we have a design fleshed out.

TheCritter: If I delete a character with Legacy unlocks do I lose those unlocks? For example, if I have a human female Sniper at level 50 with Act 3 completed will I lose the race unlock, Heroic Ability, and class emote for my other characters if I delete her?

Damion: You will keep all unlocks that you have managed to unlock so far.

This week I would like to give a shout out to the National Transport and Toy Museum in New Zealand and to the TOROZ podcast. As always, If you feel I missed anything feel free to comment below or you can start a religious debate – your choice.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: casual, q&a, swtorian

Fleet Pass: SWTOR weekly roundup

April 23, 2012 by David

Fleet Pass is a weekly review of the SWTOR community, a small and non-comprehensive collection of the funny, the insightful, the controversial and any other interesting picks found anywhere but generally in the SWTOR Forums. Have a suggestion? Send it in to us with a source link if available, and the name you’d like to be credited with.

Warning: Article may or may not contain spoilers relating to SWTOR, or any of its variants.

Threads

Almar – General Discussion

Rakghoul World Event
So currently at the minute there is a world event that just started in swtor involving Tatooine and Rakghouls. There are a bunch of dailies that start in the Dune Sea and continue to the southeastern portion of Tatooine and we will see where else they go after that. So far it seems like the main reward is Orange gear that looks pretty and other things but I am sure there is much more. I will post a guide on all this stuff later but right now I am still working on figuring things out (Torhead doesn’t even have any updates yet).

It appears that the main currency for these dailies is Rakghoul DNA Samples. It says on the item “This Rakghoul DNa sample would probably be valuable on the open market, if you can find a buyer somewhere on Tatooine.” So far I have heard the vendor is in Anchorhead but I can’t confirm as I am still working on the Outbreak daily which had me collect Infected Wrappings, find the escape pod and now recover Samples from Infected Livestock.

…

Ancen – PvP

Warzone comms are too high now for losing
Where’s the reward for winning, now? You get 80-90 comms for a loss with proper medals, and 120-130 for a win… may as well not really care about the objectives again anymore ? I liked that 1.2 originally was making people TRY to play better because they got little reward otherwise. Back to no-skill headless-chicken circles now if I’m not in a preformed group at any given time.

Darth_Vampirius – PvP

Don’t penalize quitters…
I’m serious. The community needs to move away from the idea that quitting should be penalized. Instead, BW needs to incentiv-ize staying to the end of a match. I propose that for every 3 matches you finish, you get a bonus reward instead… a boost to comms and valor. Reward the behaviors you want to see in the game, and watch how fast things change.

Cassynova – Story & Lore

When you make darkside choices for a character, like the major ones of killing a good npc and such, do you feel bad about it any?

Do you feel gleeful, detatched, or what?

Quotes

IAmYourGod – Story & Lore

Where is Lord Vader?
I’ve been searching all over the galaxy, but i just can’t find him!

((This whole thread is a mine of hilarity))

Other

TheColtCrazy – Fan Art

Well since I had finished all my homework tonight, I made this in a little less that one hour. I didn’t really try my best, I just wanted to get this done as a piece leading up to my next work.

This is more of a preview of my next work. I’m going to make a montage for this game. However, you see, I’m only level 23. I can’t record any of my own footage dominating PVP. I need some players above level 30 who can really go berserk in PVP to record some footage for me to edit into this montage. So if you can, please send me a message if you’re up for it

Song: Requiem for a Dream – composed by Clint Marshall/Hanz Zimmer

Ixum – Fan Art

As we all know male characters have no skimpy/sexy gear showing skin like the females do so I played around a bit in Photoshop skimpyfying various chest pieces etc. Enjoy

…

Filed Under: News Tagged With: fleet pass

Server Downtime: 24th April

April 23, 2012 by David

A four hour pre-ANZAC day downtime this week – the full details below from BioWare but the time conversions are:

AEST: 5pm-9pm Tuesday 24th April
AWST: 3pm-7pm
NZST: 7pm-11pm

Pretty civilised all round really. The full blurb:

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Time: 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM 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.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: server downtime

And the winners of the Tauntaun Fawn are……

April 23, 2012 by David

It’s time to announce the winners of the ten Tauntaun Fawn codes.

We asked everyone to tell us what they’d name their Fawn if they won, and there’s some superb answers. Read the website ones here or the Facebook ones here.

The winners were selected using a random number generator, after weeding out those that posted both a comment and on Facebook, with the following results:

5 winners who liked our Facebook Page

1. Abraham Barry: “I’d name my tauntaun “fodder”, in memory of the many tauntauns that died outside EV to pass the time :'( ”

2. Matt Noble: “I would call him Killer! It makes me laugh”

3. Thomas Midena: “I would name my Tauntaun ‘Yawn-taun’, ‘cos he’s so powerful that nothing in The Old Republic interests him much.”

4. Theresa Kassler: “I would name mine Khaleesi because she would be a little queen in her own because she is so cute! Plus thats my legacy on the game!”

5. Shava Nerad: “I’d name my tauntaun “cozy” since they’re warm inside…;)”

Winners who posted a comment

1. Fearlesskitty: “I would name it Tawny! cause its a Tauntaun Fawn and whats better than combining the names? xD”

2. Chem_toy00: “Willie Wompa, Because he is from the taun-taun factory. (seeing how there are 10 of em.)”

3. tele2musica: “I would name it the moaningduckling. It’s constantly moans for no apparent reason and it looks like an ugly duckling. random shot!”

4. Illiaster: “I would name it Pavlova because it looks crunch yet soft in the inside and full of yummies. That and I’d probably eat it when starving in the Tattooine.”

5. Annette Smith: “I’d call mine Anchovies, since I have characters named Pizza, Cheese and Danger with the Legacy name Supreme.”

We’ll be contacting each person individually to provide their codes, which are redeemed under your account details at SWTOR.com. Thanks to everyone who posted a comment or liked our Facebook Page. Also thanks to David Bass at BioWare for providing the codes!

Filed Under: Community, News, TOG News Tagged With: giveaway, tauntaun

Flash Point 31: Gene Roddenberry, Physics Failure

April 22, 2012 by David

Lots of post 1.2 chat in this episode on top of another great lore update from Ed and lots of NZ holiday reminiscences from David. All Star Wars related of course.

Points of discussion:

– 1.2 goes live
– new SWTOR website
– Legacy rewards
– Asia-pacific server transfers (link to Stephen Reid’s explanation of your toon name and placeholder characters)
– low population servers
– Tauntaun Fawn giveaway
– Lore Update: Hyperspace
– Star Wars memorabilia (link to pics as promised)
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, Google Plus page and Twitter account

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:31 — 24.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: News, Podcast Tagged With: podcast

Community Q&A: A Bit ‘O Everything

April 22, 2012 by David

A belated post with all the details from yesterday’s community Q&A. The last few have been very 1.2 dominated but now that it’s water under the bridge, this week’s covers a broad number of issues. The highlight for me is the potential for a guild uniform / ‘tabard’ in the future.

The full kahuna:

BlackMink: Could you please explain SWTOR’s threat mechanics? What exactly do the de-taunt abilities do, and how exactly is threat generated? Is threat directly related point for point to the damage you do, or does each individual ability generate a pre-set amount of threat?

Cameron Winston (Combat Designer): Threat is calculated based on damage done, plus or minus certain modifiers, with one damage translating directly into one point of threat. These modifiers are always called out in the abilities which adjust them. For example, Soresu Form increases your threat generation globally, while Crushing Blow or Hilt Strike specifically generates extra bonus threat when activated.

De-taunt abilities reduce your threat level by a flat percentage of its current value. Healing generates less threat than damage and is split evenly among all enemies you are currently fighting.

Keldain: Love the stuff for 1.2! I think you guys are doing a great job on addressing the issues of the community. Just one thing I would really like an update on: is there any movement on getting an option to toggle hoods on and off?

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): This is totally in the plan, but we are unsure at this time when it will get to you.

Pierre-olivier: Will it be possible to create a guild uniform or get a distinctive sign. I mean other than the name displayed above the character?

Damion: At some point, this will be possible. No ETA yet, but we have a design fleshed out.

Irouven: What is the idea behind the selection at the equipment vendor for planetary commendations? Sometimes you get boots, sometimes chest-armor, never a potential “full” outfit.

Damion: We don’t want you to get all of the pieces of an armor set from any one source of gear. We want you to do multiple activities in the game to build out a full set of gear. This is a conscious decision on our part to encourage and reward playing multiple facets of the game. So you should do other things — heroics, check the GTN, etc — the full set of gear is out there.

TheCritter: If I delete a character with Legacy unlocks do I lose those unlocks? For example, if I have a human female Sniper at level 50 with Act 3 completed will I lose the race unlock, Heroic Ability, and class emote for my other characters if I delete her?

Damion: You will keep all unlocks that you have managed to unlock so far.

Zawny: Any chance there will be an effort to develop account storage somewhat similar in nature to guild banks so that characters on an account can access items rather than mailing them under what the current plan appears to be?

Damion: We have a plan for this. However, since there is currently a workaround for this (mailing items to your alt), this is a lower priority than some of the other improvements we have earmarked for the legacy system.

DarthBloodloss: Why doesn’t ranked War Hero armor (or the new tier of PvE armor) have augment slots?

Georg Zoeller (Principal Lead Combat Designer): It is possible to obtain ranked War Hero appearance with augment slots from crafters on the GTN. The schematics for the those items can be found on the PvP vendor and a critical success while crafting them will result, as with other armor, in an additional augment slot.

It is also worth noting that we will be adding a way to add an augment slots to existing modifiable armor in a future game update.

Aikiyc: Can we get a clarification on how interceptions in Huttball work? Currently, it seems to be mostly random, with a somewhat increased chance of intercepting if all the allied receivers are stunned. Does the number of allies VS enemies factor in? Closest to the center of or edge of the passing zone?

Gabe Amatangelo (PvP & Endgame Designer): The player closest to the center of the landing spot circle who is not stunned or mezzed will receive the ball, regardless of what team they are on.

Grandmthethird: It seems to me like some companions have a hard time when it comes to gear. I’m sure there is more but I’m thinking specifically of Torian and Skadge. It seems impossible to get aim melee weapons. Is this an oversight? Or am I simply missing something?

David White (Systems Designer): Aim melee weapons are used by a very small subset of companions. For this reason we tend to distribute those items through either vendors or class specific quest rewards. Our goal is to make these items reasonably available without constantly putting essentially “worthless” items in front of players who do not care about them. We also make the items customizable (orange) when possible to make it easier to keep them up-to-date by swapping out the Mods and Enhancements. Ultimately it’s a delicate balance to make sure they can be reasonably found and maintained by the players who care about them without them becoming a nuisance to players who might not even understand why they exist.

Filed Under: Community, News Tagged With: community q&a

Star Wars Memorabilia: Drool Here

April 21, 2012 by David

Having just spent two weeks in the superb country of New Zealand, I was rather pleased to have Star Wars ‘intrude’ on my break in a rather large way. On New Zealand’s South island, just outside the very picturesque town of Wanaka, lies the National Transport and Toy Museum.

It’s a ramshackle sort of place with masses of toys and sheds full of old vehicles. In the middle of it all is half a dozen or more cabinets full of Star Wars toys, books and records. It covers all the stuff from the original movies through to stuff released in recent years. Anyway, click on the thumbnails and have a look for yourself!

Apologies for the varying quality of pics – dark sheds with glass cabinets aren’t the best combination for ad-hoc photography.