MMOs, Console Games and anything else with buttons
Good news – with the two maintenance downtimes last week, BioWare have decided to go without one tonight. It could happen later in the week but at this stage it looks like it could be a maintenance free week.
So no excuse to not play some SWTOR this evening – or at least watch the video on the upcoming world event.
If you’re feeling really kind, we’re still seeking the feedback of our podcast listeners – please take 2 minutes if you can to let us know what you think!
In case you hadn’t heard, Blizzard has had a security breach:
Players and Friends,
Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.
At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.
Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.
We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.
In the coming days, we’ll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we’ll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.
We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.
Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime
So although it seems the risk is low, if you play WoW, D3, Starcraft 2 etc, get those password changes happening….
[via numerous sources – thanks for the emails / tweets etc!]
Another unexpected maintenance period tonight:
AEST: 5pm-9pm
AWST: 3pm-7pm
NZST: 7pm-11pm
So if you were planning on playing this evening, maybe plan on a later night!
The full blurb from BioWare:
We will be performing an unscheduled maintenance this Thursday, July 26th, 2012. After the maintenance, there will not be a new patch to download.
The servers and SWTOR.com will be down for four hours on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 from 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, but could be extended.
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.
Maintenance
Date: Thursday, July 26th, 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 and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This game maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours.
Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
Just a quick heads-up on an article over at Gamasutra, stating that SWTOR’s executive producer, Rich Vogel, has left BioWare. There are also reports of other layoffs but it’s unclear if it’s part of the original layoff announcement back in late May:
Amid reports that BioWare Austin is laying off staff today, Gamasutra can confirm that Star Wars: The Old Republic’s executive producer Rich Vogel is no longer with the company.
Vogel was instrumental in the development of SWTOR, overseeing all aspects of the MMO before and after its launch in December. The online game, though, has lost around 400,000 paid subscribers in recent months, and BioWare Austin recently said it’s considering free-to-play options for the title.
Reports also emerged on Tuesday morning that the Austin office is laying off workers, but it’s unclear if this headcount reduction is part of the restructuring plan BioWare announced in May. Though its parent company Electronic Arts didn’t specify then how many employees would be affected, the publisher said those layoffs were necessary in order for the team to maintain and grow SWTOR.
There’s nothing much to be upbeat about in regard to this announcement and we’ve had no official communication from BioWare on the changes at this stage.
We’ll have more as we find out ourselves, what’s your take on the situation?
Unfortunately there’s another extra maintenance tonight to improve server stability. The good news is that at this stage it’s only scheduled for 2 hours:
AEST: 5pm-7pm
AWST: 3pm-5pm
NZST: 7pm-9pm
We will be performing an unscheduled maintenance this Wednesday, July 4th, 2012. This maintenance will increase server stability. After the maintenance, there will be not be a new patch to download.
This evening, we will be bringing down the servers and SWTOR.com for a brief maintenance period for two hours from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 4AM CDT (2AM PDT/5AM EDT/10AM BST/11AM CEST/7PM AEST). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours, but could be extended.
Maintenance
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
Time: 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 4AM CDT (2AM PDT/5AM EDT/10AM BST/11AM CEST/7PM AEST)
All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This game maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours.
Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
We’ve not reported extensively on this the past week, mainly because the majority of Oceanic players had the first free transfers a couple of months back. That said, it’s worth posting the list of server transfers as they stand now, to give an idea of the scale of things.
Not surprisingly, two of the server casualties were The Jekk’Jekk Tarr and Swiftsure, which were two of the three unofficial Oceanic servers prior to us getting our own. The third unofficial server, The Harbinger, is one of the destination servers so will have no shortage of players for the first time in a while since the Oceanic exodus.
Here’s the full list:
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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.
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.
Unfortunately there’s an unexpected server downtime tonight, to fix some issues that have arisen since patch 1.2.3. It’s a four hour downtime, affecting us at the usual time:
AEST: 5pm-9pm
AWST: 3pm-7pm
NZST: 7pm-11pm
BioWare’s blurb:
Maintenance
Date: Thursday, May 10th, 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 game maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours.
Over to you – have you experienced issues since 1.2.3 went live?
We’ve got an unexpected server downtime tonight folks – to put in a patch to fix some issues that have arisen (one being companion stats). The local time conversions:
AEST: 5pm-9pm
AWST: 3pm-7pm
NZST: 7pm-11pm
So at least for the Aussies, it doesn’t muck up the whole night’s play. The full details from BioWare:
We will be deploying a patch and performing an unscheduled maintenance this Friday, April 27th, 2012. Patch notes will be made available shortly after the servers come back up.
The servers will be down for four hours on Friday, April 27th, 2012 from 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, but could be extended.
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.
Maintenance
Date: Friday, April 27th, 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 game maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours.
This week’s maintenance is a biggie, coming in at 8 hours, which makes me get excited about 1.2 going live, but given it hasn’t hit the PTR yet it’s not going to happen. So let’s assume it’s just an extended maintenance and deal with the time conversions.
AEDT: 6pm-2am Tuesday evening / Wednesday morning
AWST: 3pm-11pm Tuesday evening
NZDT: 8pm-4am Tuesday evening / Wednesday morning
The announcement from BioWare:
For our new players, 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, March 13th, 2012
Time: 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/7AM GMT/8AM CET/6PM AEST) until 10AM CDT (8AM PDT/11AM EDT/3PM GMT/4PM CET/2AM AEST)
All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours.
Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
Daniel Erickson covers off the final session where it’s open slather on anything not covered previously:
The details disclosed:
– 1.2: new daily missions on Corellia
– “Unify to Chest’ option is back i.e. makes gear look more integrated with chest to a voice ‘Power Rangers’ look
– higher resolution textures
– duel / multi-spec: coming in two parts
– first part: switch between skill tree builds
– when do we got more story? “This year”
Q&A
– Ilum bonus quests: turn XP into some other type of reward at 50? Unsure at this stage due to cash flow impact into economy
– TOROZ (David’s) interview with Gabe last week gets a mention as far as realm versus realm PvP: something BioWare wants to do but no ETA
– Additional mechanics and rewards in Nightmare modes
– Cross-faction communication cross-server: infrastructure not there now but something BioWare wants to do. “Down the road a bit”.
– Cross-faction communication could be tied into Legacy setup
– Battle res for Troopers and Bounty Hunters: no plans
– Pod racing / Swoop racing: would love to do it but lots of other priorities. That said, full designed already done for a bunch of SWTOR mini-games
– Balancing factions on servers: Legacy part of resolving that. also cooler outfits for endgame Republic progression
– impact of legacy on encouraging single-faction guilds to play outside guilds: “good feedback”, may need to prioritise work on adversary guild features, want to ensure legacy system doesn’t impact guilds
– Ability to change rank of guild leader from default: “noted”
– PvP backfilling people who leave a Warzone – being worked on for 1.2 plus further incentivisation of staying in a match
– Same gender romance: it’s coming, with story updates. Relies of writer lead times, want to do it right. Always wanted to do these romance arcs but was a budget decision. It’s coming this year with large story update.
– Going back to origin planets: will be putting daily hubs there where appropriate.
– Ability to turn off environment effects to make game run better on lower-end machines: yes a team working on making the game run better. 1.1.5 going live tomorrow should also assist with this. That team is being kept alive to deliver further improvements. Also includes optimisation for higher-end machines where issues exist.
– Still no official plan for a Mac port
– Epic weapon/gear quests: not in 1.2 but something we want to do, some surprises to come, including interesting legacy related quests
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