Warlords of Draenor Cinematic and Launch Date

Warlords_of_Draenor_Unleashed__Watch_the_Live_Stream_Now__-_World_of_Warcraft 2A big day today in World of Warcraft land, with a live stream provided by Blizzard to launch the Warlords of Draenor cinematic and to announce the launch date of the expansion, which has been set down for the 13th November 2014 – two days after Blizzcon.

There’d been some rumblings that an earlier than expected launch date would be announced, but it’s turned out to be a standard late year expansion launch. The livestream did a decent tour of the new zones:

And then unveiled the Lord of War lore mini-series and finished up with the cinematic:

Over to you: what did you think?

Star Wars Force For Change: Get Involved!

We’ve talked about it a couple of times on our podcast, but I wanted to do a quick post to remind our enormous and dedicated readers that there’s a great Star Wars related fundraiser going on that could get you a walk on role in Star Wars Episode VII.

Here’s where to find out more – but trust me this is a great thing to get involved with.

Please consider donating some dollars, and hell you might fluke the big kahuna of an appearance in the movie! Plus, you get some pretty spiffy weekly badges to recognise your efforts. Here’s a couple I’ve received:

 

StarWarsF4C_Reward_DigitalBadge_BobaFett

 

StarWarsF4C_Reward_DigitalBadge_millenium_052214_1.1

What’s not to like?

 

Starcraft 2 South East Asia Region: Casual Player Graveyard?

I’m getting a little frustrated with my Starcraft playing experience. I’ve been playing on the South East Asia the past couple of years, and have noticed it’s harder and harder to get a ranked match or versus AI game via the Matchmaking option. Then, over the past three months, I’ve been unable to get a single match pop for me.

I initially didn’t think much of it and got into custom games versus AI, but in my SC2 achievement hunt I’ve been trying to play more ranked or unranked matches. I’ve tried different times, different days, all with the same result:

StarCraft_II 2

StarCraft_II

A couple of times I’ve left matchmaking running and gotten involved in doing something else, come back to my computer and seen search times of 100 minutes plus. Sure, I’m not in a clan, but surely it’s not that unusual for a casual player to be after some games via the Matchmaking interface? I looked at transferring regions, but all progress and achieves are lost.

Would love SEA region players to comment: why the lack of activity?

EVE Online – So You Want To Be A Healer?

Good news! You can be!

In EVE Online there are various ships that essentially allow you to heal your fleet mates. Pilots of these ships are most wanted and rarely get turned down from any fleet activity.

What ship class can fill this role :-
Frigate
Cruiser
Carrier

Mostly used in :-
Fleet operations
Large scale PvP
Large scale PvE (Level 4, Wormhole Sites, Incursions)

What basic skills to focus on (Depending what race you fly) :-
Mechanics Science
Targeting
Power Grid
Capacitor
Drones

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Caldari carrier: Chimera

Healers are known as Logistic pilots, and they fly ships that are set-up purely for remotely fixing up their fleet mates and so aren’t useful for solo flying. For this reason it would be unwise to focus on training/fitting a Logistic ship unless you have a Corporation that is willing to help you out. Most players focus on combat and train up their Logistics on the side.

Healing in EVE Online works by remotely fixing up other ships’ shield or armour. As a Logistic pilot, you will need to lock onto your fleet mates and then activate your remote armour repair or remote shield transporters to keep them alive, sometimes transferring capacitor to keep them firing. This allows your fleet mates to focus on locking up the enemy targets being called to them by the fleet commander.

Every race has Logistic ships but they focus on different roles. For example Amarr and Gallente have remote armour repair, while the Caldari and Minmatar focus on shields. I would recommend flying either Amarr (if you fly in armour fleets) or Caldari (if you fly in shield fleets) as they also have energy transfer that keep people from running out of capacitor. If you prefer to boost the damage output then you might want to consider Gallente or Minmatar instead.

There are also Logistic drones that will fly out to your fleet mates and circle them while they do repairs to their armour or shields.  These drones are very handy and drone skills should be trained up along with other Logistic skills. Drones can either be micro-managed to fly to different fleet mates or kept on a single target if they are getting a bit too much love.

The main focus for training up to flying Logistics is to get to tech 2 cruiser level. There are frigate class ships that can remotely help but it will be more common for your fleet to use something bigger. If you want to go higher, you can also train up to fly a carrier.

Carriers are larger support ships and come with lots more goodies than a simple cruiser. This will be a long term goal and not something you want to try to jump to immediately. Since carriers are such massive ships, there are restrictions on where they can be used.

Being a Logistic pilot isn’t without its dangers. If you remote repair someone, there is a chance you might get aggression towards you, so be careful if you decide to be all loving and supportive of random pilots. Also make sure that the fleet has engaged the enemy before starting to fix people up, otherwise there’s a chance the enemy might focus on you instead.

Being a Logistic pilot in EVE is as rewarding as being a healer in any other MMO. It might not play exactly the same way, but is as important in a fleet as any other pilot.

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Amarr tech 2 cruiser: Guardian

[Make sure you check out Kris’ gaming blog]

New Investigation Missions for The Secret World

further_analysisFuncom have announced a new pack of investigation missions for The Secret World. The nitty gritties from Funcom on what the missions involve:

We are introducing a new type of downloadable content pack for The Secret World called Sidestories. These packs offer new content outside of our regular Issue structure, and is available for everyone in the in-game Item Shop.

Sidestories: Further Analysis gives you the chance to delve into four brand new Investigation Missions! Hone your puzzle solving skills and play through four fresh stories spread throughout the game world.

An epic reward, The Inspector’s Gadget and a Deep Mystery Box, awaits those who complete all four missions! You get the Investigation Mission called Immersion from Lisa Hui in the Scorched Desert, where you investigate Orochi comms equipment in Egypt to try and get a signal from Tokyo HQ.

In The Animate Clay you return to Dr Anton Aldini in New York and follow the trail of one of his lost creations as it struggles to find its purpose.

Trials of the Dragon starts you off in the Shadowy Forest and lets you explore the monster hunting prowess of your old friends, Tibor and Luminita. Here you get the opportunity to undergo the Draculesti trials to become a true monster hunter.

The fourth Investigation Mission, The Abandoned, marks a return to the mysterious  Mosul and sweeps you  into the back stories of the fairytale creatures of the Shadowy Forest.

Over to you – anything in there that get’s you excited?

Flash Point 74: Qyzen Fess and a Ball Gag

flashpoint-podcastIt’s a veritable storm of MMO news over the past few weeks, and we jump boots and all into a bunch of it.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– Player housing
– Double XP weekend

Jawa Junk Pile
– TESO beta
– Wildstar
– Star Citizen
– Warlords of Draenor
– Titanfall

– Shout outs for our Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account, Kristy’s Twitter account and ODS-1’s Twitter Account. – And don’t forget to buy an Oceanic Gamer T-Shirt or thirty!

Please review or rate the podcast on iTunes if you can – it makes a huge difference!

Listen via iTunes, on Stitcher or right here:

SWTOR Player Housing: Like A Boss!

Now there's a nice place for a house.

Now there’s a nice place for a house.

Most of us need a place to call our own. Whether it’s decorated with works of art or discarded pizza boxes, a personal space is something many people are willing to spend time and money on. Player housing is no exception.

SWTOR has been missing such an amenity ever since its launch. For those of you who are yelling ‘your ship is player housing!’, let me just tell you why you are completely wrong, not to mention how you have completely misunderstood the concept.For a start, the game devs have admitted that any time a change on the player ships is required it makes them ‘cry’. Like a number of things in BW’s heavily modified (and in some respects broken) version of the Hero engine, making changes is tricky. The player ships are a particular issue because they have so many hooks for conversations and other aspects of progression. Changes cannot be made without risking the whole rat’s nest falling down around your ears. In fact you can only sit in chairs on your ship because it’s a frequently reset instance. If it wasn’t, you’d break the game and this is why sitting in the persistant world still can’t happen except as an emote.

‘But you can customise your ship,’ I hear the stupid cry out. No. No you can’t. You cannot truly customise your ship in any way – placing a training dummy does not count, so don’t waste your breath. In fact if that is what you understand ‘player housing’ to mean, you need to look at Rift, Wildstar and any number of games to educate yourself. Just as an example, in DCUO the player housing includes an ‘Armory’ that allows you to save and quickly switch between gear builds. Sound enticing?

With the introduction of SWTOR player housing, the team has wisely started fresh. No pre-existing knots to work through, no muss, no fuss. Finally the RP community gets a little love, finally (I hope) players get somewhere to meet up on Raid Thursday, or whatever your schedule is.

Also, everyone needs to remember that we DO NOT KNOW what the expansion will be, only that it will INCLUDE player housing. It’s highly unlikely that half a dozen apartment options is going to be the totality of it.

Sure, we could always complain that the SSHP (Super Secret Housing Project) uses resources that could otherwise be utilised to create more Ops, Flashpoints etc. But this is an MMO, which means its players have broad and divergent interests. You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try. What you should do is pick your battles. I, for one, think this battle is worth fighting.

Simon is a long-time senior contributor to The Oceanic Gamer and also has his own blog

Hearthstone Patch Notes – 1.0.0.4944

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General

  • Golden Heroes have been added and now can be unlocked after winning 500 Ranked games with a Hero! Track your progress on the deck selection screen in Ranked Mode.
  • New card backs have been added.  Collect these by doing awesome things such as participating in each Ranked Season!
  • The Hearthsteed mount reward has been added and can now be obtained for your World of Warcraft account! Win 3 games in Play or Arena mode to acquire one of your own!
  • You can now connect to other regions (Americas, Europe, Korea, Taiwan) of Hearthstone regardless of the region that is set on your Battle.net account. Account progress and card collections are saved separately per region. This feature will become available once the patch is live in all regions.
  • The “Players Near Me” feature is now enabled by default.  You can disable this feature in the Options Menu.
  • The queue timer now only shows up after you’ve been waiting a while.
  • The total amount of gold that an account can hold at any given time has been set at 20,000 gold; gold cannot be earned on accounts with 20,000 or more gold until some gold has been spent.  This cap is intended to combat certain methods of gold acquisition that violate our Terms of Service. The spirit of fair play is extremely important to us, and we will continue to monitor gold acquisition activity closely to ensure a fun and enjoyable game environment for everyone.
  • Certain Expert cards have been changed and the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting these cards have been temporarily increased such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft those cards. Affected cards are:
    • Nat Pagle
    • Tinkmaster Overspark

 

Ranked Play

  • During each Ranked Season change, players may now start the new season at a rank higher than the default Angry Chicken rank, depending on the rank that was obtained at the end of the previous season. You’ll receive one bonus star for every rank you achieved in the previous season.
  • The Angry Chicken rank now starts with 0 stars, instead of 1. Bawk!?

 

Arena

  • Arena rewards at 10, 11, and 12 wins no longer reward common non-golden cards.

 

Visuals

  • Many new card effects have been added. +3 Sparkles/+5 Shinies.
  • Minions who have Taunt and Stealth now have an effect that more clearly indicates that Taunt is temporarily disabled during Stealth.
  • Mass disenchanting now has new and improved graphics. Now you can mass disenchant in style!
  • The UI that pops up when challenging a friend to a duel has been improved. Wow, so challenge.
  • Minions that have been blessed by Blessing of Wisdom now show the trigger “lightning bolt”. Talk about a bright idea!

 

Gameplay

  • If you disconnect from a game, you now have 60 seconds to try and reconnect and pick up from where you left off.
  • The Expert AI has been sent to Hearthstone training camp and should now be more challenging.
  • If a player’s deck contains all Golden cards, a Golden Coin will compliment your deck if you happen to go second.
  • Unlocking a hero now plays that Hero’s emote. Well met!
  • Secrets can now only activate on your opponent’s turn.
    • Activating your own secrets feels a little strange, but mostly, the ability to do this was preventing us from creating new and powerful secrets that trigger off of events you can easily control (like a minion dying).  They end up functioning just like spells, instead of trying to bait your opponent into a bad play.  This change keeps secrets working like traps you lay for your opponent, instead of spells that you cast and use on your own turn.

 

Card Changes

  • Nat Pagle now reads: At the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card.
    • Nat Pagle will now draw a card at the start of your turn rather than at the end. Nat had too much draw power for a card that is fairly hard to counter so early in the game, making it almost an auto-include for many decks.  This change reduces the power of the card and gives players more time to counter the card before it starts.
  • Tinkmaster Overspark is now a 3/3 (up from 2/2) and now reads: Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel.
    • Tinkmaster is a neutral card that silences and often shrinks big creatures. This reduces the amount of big, fun creatures in the environment. We think this change will increase the amount fun creatures in the environment, and bring him more in-line with his cost and overall power. Tinkmaster should still show up in certain types of decks, but will no longer be appearing in every high level deck.

 

Bug Fixes

  • Water Elemental (Mage) will now properly freeze armored heroes as intended.
  • Ancestral Healing (Shaman) will now always attempt to heal a minion for its full Health regardless of its current Health.
  • The issue where minions randomly swap battle positions with other minions is a result of many factors and issues. All known circumstances and issues that result in minions dancing randomly around have been resolved.
  • Cards now better respect personal space while in a player’s hand. Similar to the minion swapping issue, all known circumstances and issues that result in cards overlapping with other cards in a player’s hand have been resolved.
  • The New Deck button in the Collection Manager no longer stays highlighted if you quickly click the Done and No buttons after selecting a hero.
  • The Hearthstone client will no longer remain in the foreground when you click on another program.
  • You can now select a friend in the friends list by clicking on their medal in Play mode.
  • If you were playing a friendly game when daily quests were granted, you are now correctly notified after the game.
  • The Repair Bot’s healing ability now generates an entry in the game history.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the buttons to stop working for a short moment when transitioning back to the main hub.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented some accounts from properly receiving friendly challenges.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented some accounts from joining Play, Practice or Friendly games if they have a custom deck in their collection.
  • Fixed an issue where entering a new Arena run while getting a new daily quest can cause the Arena purchase and the back buttons to be unresponsive.
  • Fixed an issue where you will receive a toast stating your friend has just come online if you log into Hearthstone and that friend was already online.
  • Fixed an issue where attempting to create a new deck would cause the game to time out after about a minute.
  • Fixed an issue where backing out of a deck list while its deck tile is animating to the top of the list will cause the deck list buttons to become unresponsive.
  • Fixed an issue where cards opened in packs or earned from defeating heroes may not appear in your collection after restarting the client.
  • Fixed an issue where clicking on the Last Played player area in friends list opens up the Add a Friend prompt without automatically filling in the player’s BattleTag.
  • Fixed an issue where the credits can be played while in the Today’s Quests screen.
  • Fixed an issue where the quest Level Up! is completed upon reaching a total level of 10 instead of level 10 on one Hero.
  • Improved many graphical effects and fixed various graphical and game behavior issues.
  • Fixed a number of audio and sound issues.

 

Mac

  • Toggling full screen mode on some resolutions and monitors will no longer cause the window borders to be visible.
  • Fixed a graphical issue that could occur when changing resolutions.
  • Loading into a game will no longer cause graphical issues while on high graphics settings.
  • The system menu bar will no longer display over the client in full screen mode.
  • Using Alt + Tab to switch focus while in full screen mode will no longer cause the dock to appear over the client.

Massively: Are They F2P Snobs?

and-another-thing

This post originally appeared over at Simon’s blog – do yourself a favour and check it out.

As a serious journalist, such questions are anathema. However since I’m not a journalist or even entirely sane, let me respond to this post’s title by saying “Yes. Yes they are.”

So what do I mean by ‘snob’? Basically it’s someone who wants to hang out with society’s cream, while diminishing those they feel are inferior. In this case Massively appears to think that any game that is not subscription based is inferior because none of its feature columns are established F2P hybrids. There are two exceptions, but they don’t really count. One is a sporadic column on LotRO, penned by a staff writer. The other is Star Citizen (yes it has a form of subscription) which still has enough anticipation buzz to warrant the cost of coverage.

So why has the talented and always amiable Larry Everett had to put the Hyperspace Beacon in a brown cardboard box and move it to a new home? Well in my poorly researched opinion it is either a case of too few people clicking to it or (more likely) that they don’t want to give SWTOR the elevated level of coverage.

I can only, and will only, speculate on the reasons behind that, but as the title of this asserts I believe it to be snobbery. Somehow Massively feel it drags their site’s prestige and credibility down by covering a game that many feel (incorrectly) is a failed enterprise. Better to cover games that haven’t failed (because they haven’t been released) or games of modest success but possess great kudos in the community (EVE Online).

In the meantime the Hyperspace Beacon is alive and well at http://www.hyperspacebeacon.com/ – or follow everyones favorite wookie on twitter @shaddoe​

The good news is Larry still pens a column for Massively about the upcoming (sub based) Elder Scrolls Online.

The Elder Scrolls Online: A First Hour Mini-Review

The_Elder_Scrolls_OnlineI thought I’d deliver an initial verdict on The Elder Scrolls Online. Its been a hectic weekend so I’ve only played the TESO beta for a little over an hour, hence the title of the review. So no flaming with ‘but you barely checked out the game!!’ comments. I have no doubt the bigger and better quests are further down the track, but all MMOs live or die on their initial areas, so but here’s my impressions for what they’re worth:

Character creation:  Love it, lots of customisation options (although some don’t appear to be working quite yet), but you can skip them if you want to get set up quickly. I like the number of classes on offer too.

Graphics: TESO copped a hammering from the gaming community based on early leaked footage. Like many others have already said, TESO has come a long way from then and I liked the graphics a lot. Some of the facial features on NPCs are a little bit bland but that may improve further by launch. Loading times for screens seemed very good and I did enjoy the lighting and atmospherics I saw.

Sound: Kudos for both the soundtrack and atmospheric sounds – lots to like here.

Interface: Making a judgement on this is a hard one as I’m guessing a lot of people will like it, but I for one HATE the ‘point your mouse / reticule in the direction you want to go’ style of gameplay. I find it hard on the eyes even with a decent mouse and it doesn’t allow the level of free movement that I like. That said, it does making visual scanning of your surrounds a lot easier. As I said, I think I’m in the minority here, but this is one of the main reasons I won’t be playing TESO ongoing.

Gameplay: this isn’t a criticism, just a fact – TESO is another bog standard questing MMO. For Elder Scrolls fans, I have no doubt you’ll be enjoying the storyline. For me as a first-timer to the franchise, it neither disappointed or impressed me. I like the speed of conversations with NPCs and although the map looks terribly generic in the beta, I’m sure that’ll improve. The mouse-aiming interface annoyed me for combat but again I’m guessing I’m in the minority. Nothing particularly innovative in the quests, but again that’s standard MMO fare.

Performance: I’m impressed with the frame rate and speed of the game overall – I was using the Mac version and it seemed to run much better than WoW for me, and streets ahead of SWTOR and The Secret World, though given I run them on a virtual box it’s not a fair comparison.

Overall impressions: This is a solid MMO, but for me there’s nowhere near enough interesting stuff in it for me to pay a subscription. For our New Zealand readers, you’re being scalped on the subscription price as well. Even if my unreasonable hatred of the reticule / mouse pointing  system weren’t an issue, I can’t see me playing this game ongoing – there’s just nothing unique for me to get excited about. For someone new to MMOs or a long time fan of the franchise – you should have a close look at TESO.

More impressions from the whole team next week on the podcast.

Did you play the open beta? What did you think?

 

 

The Elder Scrolls Online: New Zealanders Beware of Currency SNAFU

The evil Euro monster

The evil Euro monster

Today we had an interesting email come in from a New Zealand based gamer, who like a lot of people is gearing up for the launch of The Elder Scrolls Online.  It seems that New Zealanders are being billed in Euros:

After some back and forth with Customer Support at Zenimax I have found it’s now their policy to charge all New Zealand people their subscription fees and cost of game as well, in EUROS rather than in our own currency or in USD (both would be much cheaper for us).

Obviously it’s odd to charge us in EUROS anyway, we’re nowhere near Europe, plus it not converting very nicely for us to our own currency.

Here’s what we’re getting overcharged –

Subscription fees each month (we’ll be getting charged in EUROS) –

12.99 EUR = 21.422623 NZD

14.99 USD= 17.991116 NZD

So that’s a difference of almost $4 a month we’re being overcharged.

The cost of the game for me was 79.99 EUR = 131.920763 NZD whereas I should’ve paid – 79.99 USD = 96.006686 NZD – so I got overcharged around $36 NZD as well.

Customer Service has told me this is absolute and they are not planning on changing it any time soon (if ever).

Tried getting some attention in the beta forums and while a ZOS staff member passed by the post and edited out the @names of ZOS staff members I has added into the OP (she edited them out so they didn’t trigger notifications to other ZOS staff members) she did not bother answering the thread, so all out of avenues for getting help/getting this sorted for New Zealand people.

Need someone to draw attention to this situation for the New Zealand people. We are obviously a small country and probably not worth paying attention to on a financial level…so yeah, basically this is why we need some help and support. We’re going to be horribly overcharged every month and nobody cares to fix it.

In addition, the NZ gamer received a formal response from Zenimax Customer Support:

Greetings XXXX
Thanks you very much for your patience with this issue.
Due to NZ$ not being supported for now we can not give you an different option then to pay the game and the subscription fee in Euros. I’m aware that this is not the answer you were hoping for and I’m very sorry not to be able to help you with this.
Should we support New Zealand dollars at some point in the future we’ll update the storefront at
https://account.elderscrollsonline.com for the appropriate regions.
I would be happy to help you with any further questions.
See you in Tamriel
[name of support staff member was here]
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

So it sounds like it’s going to take a bigger groundswell of support to get any consideration of a change. We’d be interested in hearing from any other New Zealanders – is this decision going to be a deal-breaker for you?

SWTOR 2.6 Full Patch Notes

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SWTOR 2.6 is bedded down a couple of days now, but for the dedicated, here’s the full patch notes:

Highlights

Galactic Starfighter Now Available For All Players! – Galactic Starfighter is now available for Free-To-Play, Preferred, and Subscription players! Choose your ship role and help your fellow pilots in 12 vs.12 Battles. Click the Hangar icon next to your minimap to jump into the cockpit now!

New Galactic Starfighter Ship Role: Bomber – The Bomber ship role has been added to Galactic Starfighter, with six new ships available for unlock/purchase!

  • Bombers are tough support ships that drop mines and drones throughout the battlefield.
  • Mines detonate when enemies get into proximity, inflicting damage or crippling debuffs to all nearby foes.
  • Drones attack nearby enemies with a variety of weapons, while Repair Drones restore the hull of nearby allies.
  • Bombers can also place Hyperspace Beacons which function as mobile respawn points for their allies.

New Galactic Starfighter Game Mode: Team Deathmatch – Team Deathmatch is a new game mode which pits teams of players against each other. The team with the highest player kill score when either time expires or the score limit is reached wins the match. Team Deathmatch maps also contain a new feature: Power-ups.

Power–ups are spawned in the map at the start of a match, and once picked up will respawn at a random point in an area after a random amount of time. Power–ups provide boosts to the player depending on which is picked up, which currently last 45 seconds. The available Power-ups are as follows:

  • Engine Overcharge – Doubles engine power regen rate, increases ship speed by 30%, increases ship defense by 15%, refills engine power to full on pickup.
  • Weapon Overcharge – Doubles blaster power regen rate, refills blaster power to full on pickup.
  • Shield Overcharge– Doubles shield power regen rate, eliminates shield recently consumed regen delay, refills shields to full on pickup.
  • Damage Overcharge– Doubles damage from all primary and secondary non–drone weapons.

All power–ups are indicated on the minimap. The Damage Overcharge power–up is a rare spawn, however there is typically at least one up on the map at any point in time. Players that grab this power–up are identified to all players via a broadcast message and are indicated on the minimap.

New Flashpoint: Kuat Drive Yards – Both factions are interested in securing a formidable space armada and fighting over one of the largest starship construction sites. This Flashpoint is designed to be modular, with each “scenario” representing a different part of the expanding plot. This is also the first “tactical” flashpoint, providing bolstered and role-neutral gameplay, and is available to players starting at level 15.

New Reputations have been added to the Galactic Reputation page:

  • Republic First Fleet – The Republic First Fleet serves as a beacon of hope across the galaxy, protecting the Galactic Republic’s member worlds and corporate partners from the dark designs of the Sith Empire.
  • Imperial Forward Command – The Imperial Forward Command is focused on high-risk offensive strikes against the Galactic Republic and its allies, making it one of the Empire’s deadliest fleets.

New Starfighter Pack coming to the Cartel Market – The Galactic Ace’s Starfighter Pack will be available for purchase on February 11th. Cost: 320 Cartel Coins

General

  • New Mount: The KDY Orbital Lifter! This personal heavy construction vehicle was specially designed by Kuat Drive Yards for orbital engineering work deemed too delicate to be automated. It requires Legend rank with the new Imperial Forward Command / Republic First Fleet reputation.
  • A new category is available in Group Finder starting at level 15: Tactical Flashpoints. Tactical Flashpoints are role-neutral, meaning group finder will match the first four players it finds. The new Kuat Drive Yards Flashpoint is available in this category in two level brackets: 15-54 and 55. Czerka Corporate Labs and Czerka Core Meltdown are now included in this category at level 55.
  • Dread Forces in Oricon are more distracted by the madness of the Dread Masters, reducing the range of their attention.
  • Bolster now properly modifies the aggro radius of enemy NPCs and properly displays the difficulty color of enemy NPC levels.
  • Group Finder now displays the level range of players it will match for Flashpoints and Operations.
  • Players may now queue for Starfighter Battles at the same time as Warzones.

Cartel Market

New Items

  • The Galactic Ace’s Starfighter Pack will be available on February 11th. Cost: 320 Cartel Coins
  • Hypercrates containing 24 Galactic Ace’s Starfighter Packs will be available on February 11th. (Discounted by 10% for a limited time!) Cost: 6,912 Cartel Coins
  • The Galactic Ace’s Starfighter Pack items can now be previewed in Collections.

Classes + Combat

Bounty Hunter

Powertech

Advanced Prototype

  • Prototype Flame Thrower now requires High Energy Gas Cylinder to be active.

Mercenary

General

  • Mercenaries with the Combat Support Cylinder loaded will now be able to use Rapid Shots to heal themselves.

Arsenal

  • Stabilizers now reduces the pushback suffered while activating Tracer Missile and Power Shot by 50/100% (up from 35/70%)

Bodyguard

  • Kolto Shell may now be deployed on more than one target at a time, but a target still may not have more than one active Kolto Shell. Additionally, Kolto Shell now generates 10 heat (down from 16), has 6 charges (down from 10), lasts up to 3 minutes (down from 5), and heals for slightly more per charge.
  • The tooltip for the Bodyguard skill has been updated to indicate that it also reduces the rate limit of Peacekeeper, and the Bodyguard skill now requires Kolto Shell instead of Peacekeeper.
  • Peacekeeper has been moved from tier 6 down to tier 5 in the Bodyguard skill tree.
  • Cure Mind has been moved from tier 5 down to tier 4 in the Bodyguard skill tree.
  • Protective Field has been moved from tier 4 up to tier 6 in the Bodyguard skill tree.

Trooper

Vanguard

Tactics

  • Pulse Generator now requires High Energy Cell to be active.

Commando

General

  • Commandos with Combat Support Cell loaded will now be able to use Hammer Shot to heal themselves.

Gunnery

  • Steadied Aim now reduces the pushback suffered while activating Grav Round and Charged Bolts by 50/100% (up from 35/70%)

Combat Medic

  • Trauma Probe may now be deployed on more than one target at a time, but a target still may not have more than one active Trauma Probe. Additionally, Trauma Probe now costs 10 energy cells (down from 16), has 6 charges (down from 10), lasts up to 3 minutes (down from 5), and heals for slightly more per charge.
  • The tooltip for Probe Medic has been updated to indicate that it also reduces the rate limit of Frontline Medic, and Probe Medic now requires Trauma Probe instead of Frontline Medic.
  • Frontline Medic has been moved from tier 6 down to tier 5 in the Combat Medic skill tree.
  • Psych Aid has been moved from tier 5 down to tier 4 in the Combat Medic skill tree.
  • Med Zone has been moved from tier 4 up to tier 6 in the Combat Medic skill tree.

Sith Warrior

Juggernaut

Vengeance

  • Slightly increased the damage dealt by Shatter.
  • Shatter now deals Internal Damage instead of Elemental Damage, as the tooltip indicates.
  • Rampage has been redesigned: Impale and Shatter have a 33.3/66.7/100% chance to produce a stack of Rampage. At 2 stacks, Rampage finishes the cooldown on Ravage and generates 3 Rage.

Jedi Knight

Jedi Guardian

Vigilance

  • Slightly increased the damage dealt by Plasma Brand.
  • Zen Strike has been redesigned: Overhead Slash and Plasma Brand have a 33.3/66.7/100% chance to produce a stack of Zen Strike. At 2 stacks, Zen Strike finishes the cooldown on Master Strike and generates 3 Focus.

Sith Inquisitor

Sorcerer

Lightning

  • Subversion now reduces the pushback suffered while activating Lightning Strike by 50/100% (up from 35/70%). The rest of the benefits provided by Subversion remain unchanged.

Madness

  • Sith Efficacy now reduces the pushback suffered while activating Force Lightning by 33.3/66.7/100% (up from 25/50/75%). The rest of the benefits provided by Sith Efficacy remain unchanged.

Jedi Consular

Sage

Telekinetics

  • Concentration now reduces the pushback suffered while activating Disturbance by 50/100% (up from 35/70%). The rest of the benefits provided by Concentration remain unchanged.

Balance

  • Psychic Barrier now reduces the pushback suffered while activating Telekinetic Throw by 33.3/66.7/100% (up from 25/50/75%). The rest of the benefits provided by Psychic Barrier remain unchanged.

Imperial Agent

General

  • Reduced the activation time, cooldown, energy cost, and damage done by Orbital Strike.

Operative

General

  • Lowered the cost of Hidden Strike to 15 energy (down from 17 energy), increased its cooldown to 9 seconds (up from 7.5 seconds), and increased the damage it deals
  • Increased the duration of Tactical Advantage by 5 seconds (now 15, up from 10)

Concealment

  • Surgical Strikes now increases the damage dealt by Shiv, Overload Shot, and Backstab by 5% (up from 4%)
  • Collateral Strike now has a 50/100% chance to trigger when Laceration is used (up from 35/70%)
  • Culling now increases the damage dealt by Laceration and Collateral Strike by 3/6% (up from 2/4%) and recovers 4/8 energy whenever Collateral Strike damages an enemy target (down from 5/10)
  • Waylay now increases the damage dealt by Backstab by 5% (up from 4%)
  • Meticulously Kept Blades now additionally increases the critical damage dealt by Laceration by 10/20/30%, but no longer increases the critical damage dealt by Sever Tendon
  • Calculated Frenzy no longer increases alacrity when triggered, but now increases ranged and tech critical chance by 2/4/6% instead

Lethality

  • Corrosive Microbes is now a single-point skill (down from 2) but still increases the chance for Corrosive Dart to tick twice when it deals damage by 25%
  • Lethal Injectors is now a 2-point skill (up from 1), but each point still increases the duration of Corrosive Dart by 3 seconds (so 2 points in the skill now increase the duration of Corrosive Dart by a total of 6 seconds, granting 2 additional ticks of damage)

Sniper

Lethality

  • Corrosive Microbes is now a single-point skill (down from 2) but still increases the chance for Corrosive Dart to tick twice when it deals damage by 25%
  • Lethal Injectors is now a 2-point skill (up from 1), but each point still increases the duration of Corrosive Dart by 3 seconds (so 2 points in the skill now increase the duration of Corrosive Dart by a total of 6 seconds, granting 2 additional ticks of damage)

Smuggler

General

  • Reduced the activation time, cooldown, energy cost, and damage done by XS Freighter Flyby.

Scoundrel

General

  • Lowered the cost of Shoot First to 15 energy (down from 17 energy), increased its cooldown to 9 seconds (up from 7.5 seconds), and increased the damage it deals
  • Increased the duration of Upper Hand by 5 seconds (now 15, up from 10)

Scrapper

General

  • Scrappy now increases the damage dealt by Blaster Whip, Quick Shot, and Back Blast by 5% (up from 4%)
  • Flying Fists now has a 50/100% chance to trigger when Sucker Punch is used (up from 35/70%)
  • Turn the Tables now increases the damage dealt by Sucker Punch and Flying Fists by 3/6% (up from 2/4%) and recovers 4/8 energy whenever Flying Fists damages an enemy target (down from 5/10)
  • Sawed Off now increases the damage dealt by Back Blast by 5% (up from 4%)
  • Underdog now additionally increases the critical damage dealt by Sucker Punch by 10/20/30%, but no longer increases the critical damage dealt by Tendon Blast
  • Rolling Punches no longer increases alacrity when triggered, but now increases ranged and tech critical chance by 2/4/6% instead

Dirty Fighting

  • Mortal Wound is now a single-point skill (down from 2) but still increases the chance for Vital Shot to tick twice when it deals damage by 25%
  • Open Wound is now a 2-point skill (up from 1), but each point still increases the duration of Vital Shot by 3 seconds (so 2 points in the skill now increase the duration of Vital Shot by a total of 6 seconds, granting 2 additional ticks of damage)

Gunslinger

Dirty Fighting

  • Mortal Wound is now a single-point skill (down from 2) but still increases the chance for Vital Shot to tick twice when it deals damage by 25%
  • Open Wound is now a 2-point skill (up from 1), but each point still increases the duration of Vital Shot by 3 seconds (so 2 points in the skill now increase the duration of Vital Shot by a total of 6 seconds, granting 2 additional ticks of damage)

Galactic Starfighter

General

  • New Feature: Battle Record – Your personal Galactic Starfighter Battle Record can now be accessed via a button in the upper right corner of the Hangar. Features include detailed lifetime battle stats, and the ability to link each stat to chat.
  • New Feature: Detailed Scoreboard –Galactic Starfighter’s scoreboard will now feature new tabs containing information on:
    • Performance – Track stats including kills, deaths, damaged dealt/received, hit %, objective captures, and more!
    • Earning – A detailed breakdown of the Requisition you’ve earned during a battle and how it was earned.
  • Starfighter Battles no longer lower durability of player equipment.
  • A new non-contributor system has been added, replacing our previous AFK system. You may now initiate a kick against non-contributing players via the Map screen.
  • Addressed an issue where low population checks happened prior to initial spawn, which caused some Battles to fail to start successfully.
  • The new Starfighter Launch Deck floor on the Fleet can be accessed from the Mission Departures elevator.
  • Typing “/squad” will allow you to chat with players in your Squad and/or Group.
  • Quick Look functionality has been added. Players may use their keyboard’s number pad to quickly shift their camera’s view without affecting ship movement.
  • Players who only inflict shield damage to a target now receive appropriate Requisition for the assist when the target is destroyed.
  • Targeted enemies are now highlighted on the Map and Minimap screens.
  • Queuing for Galactic Starfighter battles no longer blocks character changes.
  • If you have an enemy selected it will now show their target’s name in the Targeting Computer.
  • Debuffs can no longer be applied to targets after their death.
  • A confirmation dialog has been added before travelling to the tutorial level.
  • Combat HUD tutorial information on Enemy and Objective Indicators has been expanded.
  • Combat Controls tutorial has been updated to feature targeted defense drones.
  • Added a tutorial for Galactic Starfighter Battle Type: Team Deathmatch.
  • Addressed an issue where tutorial notifications could not be properly dismissed.
  • Players will now be invulnerable to all hull damage while in the Galactic Starfighter tutorial.
  • Several forcefields have been removed from the Abandoned Shipyards level in Domination mode.
  • Team Deathmatch features new map layouts for the existing Lost Shipyards and Kuat Mesas environments.

Ships + Hangar

  • Gunships now get an additional 5 requisition for kills and assists where a secondary weapon is used to deal damage.
  • Putting power to weapons now boosts damage by 10% (down from 20%) and putting power to shields or engines now reduces weapon damage by 5% (down from 10%)
  • The dialog for new purchases within the Hangar has been enhanced to show the exact breakdown of Fleet and Ship Requisition to be used.
  • Auto Roll functionality has been added. Press “V” (by default) to rotate your Starfighter to the default orientation.
  • Selected ships can now be removed from the Readied Ships menu.

Components + Crew

  • A new EMP Missile secondary weapon is now available on the Pike/Quell Strike Fighter.
    • The EMP Missile is a counter to clustered enemies, mines and drones.
    • On impact, it emits a 3000m radius pulse which damages and disables mines and drones.
    • Any player ship caught in the blast will suffer minor damage, and render their system ability unusable.
    • A new EMP Field System is now available on the NovaDive/Blackbolt Scouts.

 

    • The EMP Field is a counter to clustered enemies, mines, and drones.
    • It emits a 3000m radius pulse around the scout which damage and disables mines and drones.
    • Any player ship caught in the blast will have their sensor range and blaster accuracy reduced, and their System Ability rendered unusable.
  • Directional Shield is now available on the Comet Breaker/Dustmaker and Premium Strongarm/Demolisher Gunships.
  • The “Increased Range” upgrade for Sabotage Probe, Cluster Missiles, Concussion Missiles, and Ion Missiles now features a 10% increase.
  • Thermite Torpedoes have had their range increased to 10000m
  • Ion Missiles have had their range increased to 7000m
  • Upgrades purchased for an individual drone no longer improperly affect other drone types.
  • Crew members now animate within the Hangar preview window.
  • Crew abilities “Running Interference” and “Wingman” have had their area of effect ranges increased from 1000m to 3000m.
  • Bowdaar no longer wears a hoodie within the Hangar.
  • Description for the “Rotational Thrusters” engine component has been changed to accurately show the range as 15,000m, not 150,000m.
  • The “Lockdown” Crew Ability may now only be fired on enemy players and no longer drones or defense turret.
  • Charged Plating now allows 40% of the damage done to it to bleed through to the hull, down from 50%. Its shield capacity has been lowered from 150% to 130%.
  • Interdiction Drive has had a balance pass, and its tooltip now details its effects:
    • Boosts player speed by 20% for 6 seconds
    • Reduces speed and turning rate of all enemies within 3000m by 10% for 6 seconds
  • Shield Piercing upgrades have been reduced in power, and weapons with native Shield Piercing have had their damage reduced slightly.
  • Bypass crew ability now grants 16% shield piercing to both primary and secondary weapons (down from 35%).
  • Evasion has been reduced in power:
    • Response Tuning and Lightweight Armor have had their passive evasion bonuses reduced by 1%
    • Distortion Field now grants 9% passive evasion, down from 15%, but has had its shield capacity increased from 70% to 80%
    • Distortion Field’s active ability now grants only 27% evasion, but has had its duration extended to 6 seconds. The tier 1 upgrade now grants 8% evasion, down from 10%.
  • Railgun weapons now require a minimum charge of 25% before firing.
  • Mines and drones no longer display the name of the player who deployed them, only their type.

Items + Economy

  • The 2-piece Field Tech’s PvP set bonus now increases the range of Distraction and Takedown or Quickdraw by 5 meters.
  • The 4-piece Field Tech’s PvP set bonus now increases the duration of Orbital Strike or XS Freighter Flyby by 3 seconds.