Marvel Heroes 1.10.0.186 Patch Notes

June 13, 2013 by David

The folks at Gazillion are beavering away with ongoing patches and this one has a bundle of additions and bug fixes. Browse at your leisure! Give us your thoughts in comments on the patch – any big things you’re excited about?

Patch Notes: Game Update Notes 6/13/2013 – 1.10.0.186

Content Additions

Supergroups (AKA guilds) are now available in Marvel Heroes. This is the first iteration of supergroups, with more features coming in the future.

To create a supergroup, purchase a supergroup sanction from War Machine in Avengers Tower. A supergroup is a way to create a persistent social group with other players. Most supergroup commands are currently accessed via / commands with the ‘guild’ prefix – this will be updated in the future.

Supergroup sanctions (the ability to create a supergroup) cost 10,001 credits. This grants you an item that can be traded with other players if you wish. Right click the item to unlock supergroup commands. To create your supergroup, type /guildcreate [name]

Supergroup names may only contain the letters A-Z, one apostrophe, one hyphen, and have a limited number of spaces. Certain words are restricted from use in supergroup names.

Supergroups are limited to 100 members in total.

Upon creating a supergroup you will gain access to a supergroup chat channel for your supergroup. To access it, type /guild or /g in the chat channel.

Other supergroup related commands are as follows – type these into the chat channel, substituting [username] or [name]:

/guildcreate – Create your supergroup. You can only create one supergroup per account.

/guildinvite [username] – Invite a player to your supergroup. You can also right-click their name in the Social panel (press U) if they are a friend or nearby.

/guildpromote [username] – As a leader or office, promote a member of your supergroup to the rank of officer. Officers can invite other players to join the supergroup.

/guilddemote [username] – As a leader or officer, demote an officer of your supergroup to the rank of member, or remove a member from the supergroup.

/guildleader – This command is currently non-functional, but will eventually allow a supergroup leader to be changed.

/guildrename [supergroup name] – Rename your supergroup. All guild renames are logged for Customer Support purposes.

/guildleave – Leave your current supergroup.

Content Changes

The overall chance for heroes to drop as loot throughout Marvel Heroes has been increased.

As a reminder, heroes can drop as loot from:

Standard enemies (Any enemy in the game)
Elite enemies (Enemies with a blue/yellow aura)
Bosses (Supervillains found inside instances (eg Shocker, Doctor Octopus, The Hood, etc), and in Public Combat Zone Event Missions (eg Venom, Rhino, Green Goblin etc))
Endgame bosses (Found at the end of in Daily Missions, Group Challenges and Survival Challenges)

The highest chance to get heroes or costumes is from Survival Challenge endgame bosses, who have a significantly higher drop rate. You also will have a better chance of getting heroes and costumes as drops from enemies that have a green or orange ‘threat level’ (see the nameplate above an enemy’s head to check). Green-level enemies will be slightly below or slightly above your hero’s level; orange level enemies will be even further above your hero’s level.

Endgame bosses now have a bonus chance to drop a hero token for the character you are currently playing, in addition to a random hero token. These can be used to upgrade your Ultimate Power.

Gameplay Changes: Defense

We’ve heard community feedback on defense, and have begun making changes with this patch. Defense has not been helping tanks enough, especially against higher level content.

With this patch we are improving defense for all heroes, but heroes that do not have dodge and/or do not have any ranged attacks will benefit more from the change.

To improve defense further, we will be adjusting powers and items and tweaking how defense works slightly in the future. This first step buffs items that provide defense:

Defense has been increased on items for all heroes by +30%.
Defense on items for Deadpool, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, Ms Marvel and Thor has been doubled (x2).
Defense on items for Thing, Hulk and Colossus has been quadrupled (x4).
Defense on artifacts and medals has been significantly increased.

UI Changes

In an effort to make it clearer that additional S.T.A.S.H. tabs cost Gs, the size of the G symbol and button have been increased to make them more readable.

Administrative announcements (talking about game servers going offline, for the most part) have been made more noticeable in chat.

Item Changes

Artifacts: Some artifacts have been renamed:

· Bannertech Force Field is now called Fantastic Force Field
· Flames of the Faltine is now called Flames of Zarathos
· Cyttorak Torch is now called Flames of the Faltine
· Personal Arc Reactor is now called Mark of the Odinborn
· Smoke of Zarathos is now called Fog of Wundagore

S.H.I.E.L.D. Motion Tracker: The bonus damage given by this artifact has been slightly reduced.

Tombstone Medal/Medallion: Armor bonus has been increased. Added health bonus.

Balance Changes

The overall range at which players get experience from enemies has been increased.

Endgame Changes

Auto-Party is now turned on for Green Daily Missions if you have auto-party enabled in your Options (it is on by default).

Endgame bosses now have a bonus chance to drop a hero token for the character you are currently playing, in addition to a random hero token. These can be used to upgrade your Ultimate Power.

Cosmic Cube Shards now drop once per boss, per day, per account.

’Base’ costumes (which are equipped on a character when they are purchased) will no longer drop as loot in the game.

Boss Changes

Magneto: Magnetic Blast – damage reduced.

Magneto: Metal Storm – damage reduced.

Enemy Changes

Maggia Gangsters now attack faster.

Maggia Thugs now attack faster.

Mission Changes

Chapter 1, Hell’s Kitchen: The number of enemies you must defeat in the ‘Save the Police’ and ‘Arson’ Discovery missions has been reduced. However, all enemies are now elite.

Chapter 2, Jersey Docks: The number of A.I.M. robots you must defeat in the ‘Unfriendly Cargo’ event has been reduced. However, all robots are now elite.

Hero Changes

Cable Changes:

Cable’s statistics progression has been updated.

Bold Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers.

Concussion Blast: Now gains duration synergy from Vortex Grenade.

Devastating Beam: Increased damage. Increased cost from 20 to 25.

Dynamic Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers.

Eye For Weakness: Reduced cost from 17 to 15.

Kinetic Repulsion: Now gains duration synergy from Telekinetic Shield and Psychokinetic Barrier.

Plasma Barrage: Increased damage.

Psychic Trap: Reduced cost from 40 to 36.

Psychokinetic Barrier: Reduced damage. Now gains duration synergy from Kinetic Repulsion and Telekinetic Shield. Reduced cost from 30 to 27. Now unlocks at level 8.

Quick Bodyslide: Slightly increased starting range. Reduced cost from 25 to 21.

Telekinetic Shield: Now gains duration synergy from Kinetic Repulsion and Psychokinetic Barrier. Now unlocks at level 18.

Vigilant Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers. Slightly increased cost reduction scaling with ranks.

Vortex Grenade: Now gains duration synergy from Concussion Blast.

Colossus Changes:

Battle Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers.

Bulwark of Steel: Now gains defense synergy from Metallic Warrior.

Colossal Punch: Lowered damage synergy from Crushing Smite and Osmium Champion from 2.5% to 2%.

Crushing Smite: Lowered damage synergy from Colossal Punch and Osmium Champion from 2.5% to 2%.

Metallic Warrior: Now gains damage synergy from Bulwark of Steel.

Osmium Champion: Now gains duration synergy from Crushing Smite and Colossal Punch.

Osmium Charge: Lowered damage synergy from Steel Splash and Spinning Fists from 2.5% to 2%.

Osmium Punch: Lowered damage synergy from other basic powers from 2.5% to 2%.

Protective Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers.

Reeling Punch: Lowered damage synergy from other basic powers from 2.5% to 2%.

Spinning Fists: Lowered damage synergy from Steel Splash and Osmium Charge from 2.5% to 2%.

Stalwart Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers.

Steel Punch: Lowered damage synergy from other basic powers from 2.5% to 2%.

Steel Splash: Lowered damage synergy from Spinning Fists and Osmium Charge from 2.5% to 2%.

Sustaining Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers. Slightly increased regen scaling with ranks.

Deadpool Changes:

Shoot All the Bullets: Now properly deals extra damage with synergy.

Hulk Changes:

Meteor Strike (Ultimate Power): Now costs 25 spirit.

Jean Grey Changes:

Bolstering Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers.

Dark Phoenix Wrath: Explosion now hits full 360 around the player and causes enemies to burn, taking damage over time. Also grants +2 bonus ranks in all powers at power rank 1.

Kinetic Bolt: Slightly increased projectile speed.

Kinetic Tempest: Now gains duration synergy from Kinetic Wave and Psychokinetic Implosion.

Kinetic Wave: Lowered damage synergy from Psychokinetic Implosion and Kinetic Tempest from 2.5% to 2%.

Kinetic Wave: Slightly increased area size.

Mind Crush: slightly increased starting damage. lowered damage synergy from Psychic Lethargy and Neural Panic from 2.5% to 2%. Decreased cost from 25 to 21.

Neural Panic: Now gains duration synergy from Psychic Lethargy and Mind Crush. Now unlocks at level 22.

Phoenix Transformation: Phoenix Force no longer depletes on defeat.

Psychic Hammer: Slightly increased projectile speed.

Psychic Lethargy: Now deals damage over time instead of making enemies more vulnerable to damage. Now gains damage synergy from Mind Crush and Neural Panic. Increased cost from 13 to 20.

Psychokinetic Implosion: Reduced cost from 33 to 31. Lowered damage synergy from Kinetic Wave and Kinetic Tempest from 2.5% to 2%. Now unlocks at level 14.

Reinforcing Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers. Now unlocks at level 18.

Rejuvenating Aura: Now gains an increased effect from other aura powers. Slightly increased regeneration scaling with ranks.

Telekinetic Flight: Now unlocks at level 20.

Telepathic Detection: Now also adds bonus damage to all Mental powers when not in Phoenix Form. Now unlocks at level 12.

Punisher Changes:

Deadly Barrage: Increased damage.

Rocket Raccoon Changes:

Big Flarkin’ Gun: Increased tick rate. Fixed a bug that caused the power to tick more often per second than intended.

Spider-Man Changes:

Spider-Man’s fighting and strength statistics progression has been updated.

Corrosive Web Fluid: Now gains duration synergy from Web Spray.

Evasive Websling: Now gains duration synergy from Sensational Escape.

Sensational Escape: Now gains duration synergy from Evasive Websling.

Web Spray: Now gains duration synergy from Corrosive Web Fluid.

Storm Changes:

Storm’s fighting statistic progression has been updated.

Sirocco Rush: Now gains stun duration synergy from Lightning Rush.

Thundering Tempest: Screen darkening effect now only occurs on Storm player’s screen.

Bug Fixes

Endgame Fixes

The Red Daily Mission against Doctor Doom now spawns and completes correctly.

Moondragon, Rogue and Invisible Woman will now accept Cosmic Cube Shards in exchange for Fortune Cards.

Rhino will no longer have a sliver of infinite health in PvE endgame modes.

The Red Daily Mission Terminal now correctly takes you to Hydra Island.

The Green Daily Mission Terminal on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier will no longer deposit you outside the boss room.

Only missions that require Cosmic Keys should have the ‘Requires item: Cosmic Key’ tooltip displayed now.

Enemy Fixes

Elite (Blue/Yellow) enemies now have their correct, as designed, health.

Enemies will no longer attack summoned crafters and vendors.

Fixed an issue where enemies would switch targets unnecessarily.

Fixed an issue where affixes prevented some enemies from using their normal powers.

The ‘Freezing’ enemy affix’s effects no longer fire prematurely during certain powers.

Fixed some enemies that spawned within an area of effect not being affected until they left the AoE’s radius and returned.

Boss Fixes

Bullseye: Fixed an issue where Marked for Death could still target entities summoned by players.

Doctor Doom: Fixed an issue where he would become invisible and untargetable.

Doctor Doom: Fixed an issue where ricocheting shots would not work in his final battle.

Doctor Doom: Fixed an issue with medal and medallion that was allowing an inaccurately long duration increase on heroes’ powers.

Mr Sinister: Energy storm power now correctly does damage repeatedly throughout its duration.

Shocker: Fixed an issue where Shocker would switch targets too frequently.

Venom: Fixed an issue where Venom would leave battles early.

Hero/Power Fixes

Black Panther’s Savage Strike, Black Widow’s Elusive Kick, and Daredevil’s Evasive Kick can no longer knock turrets (and certain other resistant enemies) into the air.

Tumbling powers such as Black Widows Tumbling Assault and Spider-Man’s Agile Attack will more accurately place you behind targets.

Cable: Fixed a visual bug with new duration synergies on Kinetic Repulsion.

Cable: Fixed an issue with Plasma Barrage that caused the damage synergy to not apply.

Cable: Fixed an issue with Psychic Haze that caused the damage synergy to not apply.

Cable: Removed the ‘Fighting Power’ keyword from Veteran Warrior as it was confusing on a passive power.

Cable: Removed the fire rate tooltip on Vortex Grenade’s tooltip, as the cooldown on the power made it confusing.

Captain America: Buffs from Fighting Spirit no longer stack from other players using the same power in the same area.

Captain America: Fixed an issue with Quick Block which could make Cap invulnerable when repeatedly using the power.

Captain America: Shield Bounce and other bouncing powers should no longer target invisible entities in Doctor Doom’s battle area.

Captain America: Shield Swipe can no longer be used while shield is thrown.

Colossus: Fixed an issue with Stalwart Aura where the knock resistance was not being correctly calculated.

Colossus: Osmium Punch no longer disables spirit regeneration when used.

Hawkeye: Ronin Assault (24) and Ronin Lunge (30) should now unlock at the intended levels.

Iron Man: Fixed an issue with Reflective Shield where the tooltip did not display the percentage of damage reflected.

Jean Grey: Fixed a minor animation hitch when repeatedly using Psychic Lethargy.

Jean Grey: Interplay voiceover will now trigger correctly.

Punisher: Movement is no longer interrupted when he gains Vengeance.

Rocket Raccoon: Clarified duration tooltip on Burrow.

Rocket Raccoon: Increased the tick rate of Big Flarkin’ Gun. Fixed an issue that caused the power to tick more often per second than intended.

Spider-Man: Clarified description on Stick Around to indicate that the enemies need to be currently under the effect of a web power to be stunned.

Spider-Man: Fixed an issue where bonus damage was not being applied to Amazing Smash. Added missing cooldown tooltip.

Spider-Man: Fixed an issue with Web ‘Em All that caused the damage synergy to not apply.

Spider-Man: Fixed an issue with Web Spray where the slow effect would fall off early when the ground webs disappeared.

Thing: Fixed an issue with Jagged Defender where the tooltip did not display the percentage of damage reflected.

Wolverine: Adrenaline Rush should now display the standard haste trail VFX for the duration of the buff.

Crafting Fixes

Some artifacts with visual effects were not allowed in crafting recipes that wanted an artifact with visuals. This has been fixed.

Clarified effect of Transfer Costume Affixes recipe – destination costume loses existing affixes.

Clarified effect of Transform Epic Item recipe – can’t use it on items already useable by your hero.

UI/VFX Fixes

Hero tokens can now be stored in the appropriate S.T.A.S.H. tab for that hero, if that tab has been purchased.

Fixed an issue where /reply in chat was behaving strangely in some circumstances.

Fixed an issue that caused Storm’s powers to be too transparent when graphics settings were set to ‘low’.

Toggled powers that are slotted in the left/right mouse button slots will now show their toggle state properly.

Certain Iron Man costumes in lower graphic settings will no longer show incorrect thruster VFX while flying.

Fixed an issue where power tooltips would not display the damage bonuses from buff powers (Colossus’ auras, etc.)

Base defense values (white text) including bonuses given by defense affixes will now display correctly in item tooltips.

Fixed an issue where players have completed missions, but they show the “in progress” stripes in the mission log, not the expected “completed” check mark.

Fixed an issue with the ‘Show Party Member Arrows’ option. When turned on, this will now correctly show arrows for all party members in your zone.

Fixed an issue where newly added entries in the Social Panel would take a long time to show up.

Items for sale at a Vendor which cannot fit their entire name in the list will now be truncated with a “…”. The full name is always visible in the tooltip.

Clea’s door now has a minimap icon.

Correct VFX/SFX will now play when gaining a Boost buff from a Fortune Card.

When switching between characters your character sheet will now show the correct equipment for the character.

Options Fixes

Keybindings should now persist between patches.

Cancelling out of the keybindings menu with pending changes will now cancel all changes.

Changing an existing keybinding will now be properly displayed.

Miscellaneous Fixes

Marvel Heroes will now correctly refuse to run on all graphics cards that don’t fully support Shader Model 3.0. Previously, the game was trying to run on these cards and crashing.

Bodysliders will now immediately be usable after their cooldown expires.

Rested experience will now be deducted correctly.

Fixed an issue that could cause Retcon Devices to fail to refund mission-awarded Power Points until you next logged in to the game.

Many fixes for erroneous collisions when flying over environmental objects.

Items that increase the duration of powers now do not affect consumables.

When being revived in Hydra Island, you will now appear in the correct location.

Players can no longer use flight to leave the level in the Subway.

Artifact Yukio’s Charm now boosts ranged attacks instead of melee attacks.

Fixed an issue that made the travel confirmation dialog from NPCs stay on-screen forever.

Fixed an issue that caused players to be stuck ‘behind the world’ in Mutate Caves.

Known Major Issues

French and German localization is almost, but not entirely complete; some English text may be found.

Store icon for Spider-Man displays an incorrect costume; Spider-Man comes equipped with his Modern costume, not the Classic costume shown.

Powers that deal damage over time currently cannot score critical hits.

After being defeated by Pyro, there is a chance that players will be brought back to Xavier’s School rather than the beginning of the instance where Pyro is found.

Cars may not respawn in city environments.

Audio

Sound may be lost intermittently after changing locations.

Missions

Find Agent Baker: Agent Baker does not spawn, so mission cannot be completed.

Some ‘Discovery’ missions may not trigger correctly.

The Army Base sewer Treasure Room has no Treasure Chest.

Some of the Missile Silo Treasure Rooms have no enemies.

Some versions of the Cliffwalker Shrine Treasure Rooms have no enemies.

UI and In-Game Store

Red Mission Arrows do not trigger until getting extremely close to the appropriate mission objective.

When buying Gs, the United States state selection list cannot be scrolled past ‘Tennessee’ without using the keyboard.

Endgame

Avenger’s Mansion:

o Green Daily – Castle Doom – Mini Map appears to be unpopulated and shows nothing.
o Red Daily – Abandoned Subway – Shocker’s AI intermittently stops working. He won’t attack, but he’ll turn to face you.

Xavier’s School/SHIELD Helicarrier:

o Green Daily – Castle Doom – Doctor Doom’s number of affixes change depending on his form rather than staying constant as intended.
o Green Daily – Castle Doom – Doctor Doom’s number of affixes change depending on his form rather than staying constant as intended.

Limbo: If Sabretooth spawns as the end boss in Limbo, he sometimes stops moving and attacking half way through the battle.

Limbo: Players may sometimes be placed upon entry you in an instance that’s almost completed, toward the end of the waves or at the boss.

Items/Artifacts:

Phoenix Feather: There is no UI indication on cooldown timer.

Vita-Ray Projector: There is no dodge chance bonus given on critical hit.

Darkhold Scroll: Does not give bonus damage versus taunted enemy.

Latverian Regalia: Pets do not do extra damage when artifact is equipped, as intended.

Green Goblin Medal: Green Goblin Medal poison cloud is invisible.

Characters:

Some emotes are not working for Cable and Deadpool.

Flight powers can get locked when flying over food trucks.

Black Widow

Acrobatic Assault: This power can miss if the enemy is running towards you.

Black Panther

Some gear icons are black silhouettes – gear can still be equipped.
Captain America

Aggressive Shout: The power has both a 10 second buff and an ongoing (lasts until turned off) buff. Only one of them is shown.

Invigorating Shout: The power has a 10-second buff and an ongoing (lasts until turned off) effect, but it does not show either of them. Health regeneration does not show up on character sheet.

Cable

Searing Shot: Visual Effects when hitting enemy are not seen.

Colossus

Lingering Boon: Tooltip is incorrect. Each rank actually extends aura duration by 2 seconds.

Rocket Raccoon

Forceful Shot: Power unlocks at level 12 and should unlock at level 10.

Tactical Destruction: Tooltip does not correctly display bonus damage from shield cost.

Spider-Man

Evasive Websling: If there is no enemy targeted, power will land in incorrect location.

Wolverine

Regeneration Boost: Tooltip is incorrect. Power does not spend Fury to gain health faster as described.

Smell Weakness: Damage vulnerability is causing the enemy to take less damage rather than more.

Character sheet does not reflect health regeneration from Healing Factor (but displays resistances from passive powers).

Filed Under: General News, Marvel Heroes Tagged With: marvel heroes patch 1.10

SWTOR 2.2 Full Patch Notes

June 12, 2013 by David

SWTOR Patch 2.2: Operation Nightmare has dropped, so here are the full patch notes to peruse at your leisure!

Game Update 2.2: Operation Nightmare

6/12/2013

Highlights

Nightmare Mode is now available for Terror from Beyond!
New Vehicle! The Helix Hyperpod is now dropped in Nightmare Mode Terror from Beyond.
New Rewards! New items have been added to several Story Mode encounters for the Terror from Beyond and Scum and Villainy Operations. (Additional Details under Operations.)
New Feature! Characters in a guild will receive an XP and Reputation bonus based on the number of characters from unique accounts in the guild. (Additional details under General.)
New sub-tier of Gear! The Kell Dragon gear can be obtained from Nightmare Mode Operations at level 55.

Cartel Market

New Items

A new Contraband Pack, the Archon’s Contraband Pack is now available on the Cartel Market. Cost: 320 Cartel Coins
Players can now purchase Hypercrates containing 24 Archon’s Contraband Packs and a bonus Fortuitous Dye Module Kit that contains an increased chance to receive the rarest dyes. (Discounted by 10% for a limited time!) Cost: 6,912 Cartel Coins

New Discounts

Appearance Options: Mirialan Tattoos 1 is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 45 Cartel Coins
Appearance Options: Human Hair Colors 1 is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 135 Cartel Coins
The Valiant Jedi Armor Set is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 1080 Cartel Coins
The Sith Raider Armor Set is now discounted by 80%. Cost: 288 Cartel Coins
The Noble Commander’s Armor Set is now discounted by 75%. Cost: 300 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Inventory Module is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 105 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Inventory Module (Account) is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 234 Cartel Coins

Items Removed

An Embargo has been placed on all Shipment 1 Cartel Packs. The following packs (and any corresponding Hypercrates) are no longer available in the Cartel Market:
- Black Market Cartel Pack
- Crime Lord’s Cartel Pack
- Blockade Runner’s Cartel Pack
- Skip Tracer’s Cartel Pack
- Space Pirate’s Cartel Pack
The Gree Solus Secant vehicle is no longer available.
The Gold Scalene Armor Set is no longer available.

General

New Feature! Characters in a guild will receive an XP and Reputation bonus based on the number of characters from unique accounts in the guild:
- For every five active unique accounts in a guild, the XP bonus increases by 1% (on top of the base 5%) for the entire guild, up to a maximum of 10%.
- For every five active unique accounts in a guild, the Reputation bonus increases by 1% for the entire guild, up to a maximum of 10%.
- An active unique account is defined as a Preferred or Subscriber account that has logged in within the last 720 hours (30 days), and only one character per account will be applied to the guild’s member count.
- The qualifying member number will only count accounts that log in after Game Update 2.2; the system will not recognize accounts that logged in in the 30 days prior to the update.

Classes and Combat

Jedi Knight

General

Introspection’s tooltip no longer incorrectly indicates that taking damage causes the effect to end prematurely. The ability’s functionality has not changed.

Guardian

Vigilance

Shien Form now increases movement speed by 15%, in addition to its other effects.

Sith Warrior

General

Channel Hatred’s tooltip no longer incorrectly indicates that taking damage causes the effect to end prematurely. The ability’s functionality has not changed.

Juggernaut

Vengeance

Shien Form now increases movement speed by 15%, in addition to its other effects.

Jedi Consular

General

Meditation’s tooltip no longer incorrectly indicates that taking damage causes the effect to end prematurely. The ability’s functionality has not changed.

Shadow

Infiltration

Breaching Shadows, granted by Shadow Technique, has a new visual effect that persists while 3 charges of Breaching Shadows are active.

Sith Inquisitor

General

Seethe’s tooltip no longer incorrectly indicates that taking damage causes the effect to end prematurely. The ability’s functionality has not changed.

Assassin

Darkness

Dark Ward has a new visual effect that persists while active.

Deception

Static Charge, granted by Surging Charge, has a new visual effect that persists while three charges of Static Charge are active.

Smuggler

Gunslinger

Hightail It’s tooltip has been reworded to properly indicate that the ability only frees from movement-slowing effects, rather than all movement-impairing effects (such as immobilize).
Hightail It can no longer be used while exposed by the Diversion ability that removes Gunslingers from cover.

Imperial Agent

Sniper

Covered Escape’s tooltip has been reworded to properly indicate that the ability only frees from movement-slowing effects, rather than all movement-impairing effects (such as immobilize).
Covered Escape can no longer be used while exposed by the Diversion ability that removes Snipers from cover.

Trooper

General

Hold the Line now properly grants immunity to follow-up movement-impairing effects. (Example: Leg Shot in combination with the Debilitating Shots skill)
Recharge and Reload’s tooltip no longer incorrectly indicates that taking damage causes the effect to end prematurely. The ability’s functionality has not changed.

Commando/Vanguard

Assault Specialist

Sweltering Heat now slows properly when Plasma Cell is refreshed on a target.

Bounty Hunter

General

Made visual improvements to Flamethrower.
Hydraulic Overrides now properly grants immunity to follow-up movement-impairing effects.(Example: Leg Shot in combination with the Debilitating Shots skill)
Stealth Scan now requires the Bounty Hunter to have line-of-sight to the target’s location.

Mercenary/Powertech

Pyrotech

Sweltering Heat now slows properly when Combustible Gas Cylinder is refreshed on a target.

Companion Characters

Jaesa Willsaam’s Leap ability now displays the correct animation.

Crew Skills

General

Players who go from Subscriber to Preferred and then back to Subscriber status now have their Crew Skills automatically reinstated without needing to speak to a trainer.

Crafting Skills

General

Underworld gear and rating-equivalent Armorings, Mods, and Enhancements can now be Reverse Engineered and learned as a schematic.

Biochem

The Rakata Medpac has been rebalanced; this reusable medpac no longer increases health by 15%.

Flashpoints and Operations

Operations

Terror From Beyond

Nightmare Mode is now available!
Story Mode drops have been updated to include the following in addition to current rewards:
- The Writhing Horror now drops the Arkanian Bracer Token
- The Dread Guard now drops an additional random Black Market Item
[WEEKLY] Terror From Beyond now correctly grants 12 Ultimate and 20 Elite Commendations for both Factions.

Scum and Villainy

Story Mode drops have been updated to include the following in addition to current rewards:
- Dash’Roode now drops the Arkanian Waist Token
- Titan 6 now drops the Arkanian Implant Token
- Thrasher now drops the Arkanian Earpiece Token
[WEEKLY] Scum and Villainy now correctly grants 12 Ultimate and 20 Elite Commendations for both Factions.

Items and Economy

Items

A new sub-tier of gear is available! Kell Dragon gear can be obtained from Nightmare Mode Operations at level 55.
New vehicle! The Helix Hyperpod, is now dropped in Nightmare Mode Terror from Beyond.
The Weaponmaster and Vindicator set bonuses are no longer incorrectly named.
The Dr. Oggurobb Holostatue once again laughs when used.

Vendors

New vendors have been added to the Gav Daragon and Ziost Shadow where players can exchange unassembled Kell Dragon tokens for gear.
New Rated PvP Weapons have been added to the PvP Ranked Gear vendor. These new Weapons cost 400 Ranked Commendations, and require a PvP rating of 2400
Twist, the Republic PvP Warzone Gear vendor, has been granted legs.
The Primeval Artifact Storage box located on the Makeb Commendations vendor has been replaced with a Makeb Storage Lockbox. This lockbox provides a randomly generated rating 144 Prototype Quality item. The cost has not changed.

Legacy

The Achievement for Defeating Titan 6 (16- Person Story Mode) no longer incorrectly displays as 8-Person.
Alderaan Achievements for “Organa Forces Defeated” and “Thul Forces Defeated” no longer have inconsistencies between the titles and descriptions.
Legacy Name Changes now succeed as intended, rather than fail and prompt again perpetually in some instances.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Macrobinoculars and Seeker Droid Missions

Seeker Droid: Dig sites are no longer deplete when players find Dreadseed or Star Forager armor pieces.
Macrobinoculars: IR-77 will now properly draw his weapon when attacking.

Class Missions

Jedi Consular

Find the Ancient Artifact: This mission on Voss is no longer incorrectly listed as optional and now provides a greater credit reward.

Imperial Agent

The Chronicles: This mission on Taris is no longer incorrectly listed as optional and now provides a greater credit reward.

Smuggler

A Brother’s Request: This mission on Voss is no longer incorrectly listed as optional and now provides a greater credit reward.
Playing Your Debts: This mission on Voss is no longer incorrectly listed as optional and now provides a greater credit reward.

Trooper

A Cultured Approach: This mission on Voss is no longer incorrectly listed as optional and now provides a greater credit reward.

World Missions

Alderaan

Alderaan Bonus Series: “A Spy in House Organa” and “Shipment of Weapons” now progress as intended if players log off while completing one of the two missions.

Belsavis – Section X

Alert: Hostiles Imminent (Republic)/Warning: Rivals Detected (Imperial): Players who log out inside of The Fatality after completing the last mission step will no longer be stuck and required to use a Fleet Pass or travel ability to leave.

Corellia

Corellia Bonus Series: The holostatues in Axial Park used in the Republic bonus objective “Restore the Statues” now display their holograms.

Makeb

Reallocation: Medical Supplies collected for this mission will now stack appropriately in the Inventory Window.

PvP

Warzones

General

Players that are backfilled into a Warzone are now awarded a Reinforcement Medal that will count toward their total medal count for the match. This prevents backfilled players from being placed into a match without enough time to get one medal, thus missing out on the Warzone rewards at the end of the match.
Crit rating, accuracy rating, absorb rating, defense rating, and surge rating now respect diminishing returns for low level Bolstered characters.
The base damage and armor value granted by Bolster have been slightly increased to account to the most recent item power available to players

Alderaan

Turrets (Objective Control Points) are no longer interactable while changing ownership.
Players are no longer backfilled into Alderaan Civil War Warzone when one team has twice as many points as the enemy team.

Ancient Hypergates

Players are no longer backfilled into Ancient Hypergates after the 4th explosion.

Huttball

Players are no longer backfilled into Huttball Warzone after 10 minutes have elapsed in the match.

Novare Coast

Players are no longer backfilled into Novare Coast when one team has less than 25% remaining on their shields and the other team has 75% or greater remaining on theirs.
Characters with body type 1 can no longer hide in the corners of bunkers to prevent others from seeing their nameplates.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Female Bounty Hunters and Smugglers with Body Type 2 will no longer have incorrect leg animation when near other players or NPCs.

Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With: swtor patch 2.2

Flash Point 58: Leaving No Something Unturned

June 9, 2013 by David

A nice laid-back podcast with just Simon and David, covering off SWTOR and Marvel Heroes in particular given its launch last week.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– Server transfers
– plug for the SWTOR Gamers Of The World Facebook Group
– brief general news update

Marvel Heroes
– Our joint review! (written review from David here)

Others

– Oz ComicCon giveaway
– is there any real reason to be excited about the upcoming PS and Xbox releases?
– calling all SWTOR (or other MMO) oceanic guilds: we want to get you on the podcast

Please send us a question for discussion on the next episode!

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Twitter account.

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

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:49 — 18.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With: podcast

WoW 5.4: Flexible Raiding Announced

June 7, 2013 by David

Anyone under the impression that the folks at Blizzard are easing up in regard to World of Warcraft should have a closer look at today’s announcement of a new feature coming in the WoW 5.4 update.

Called flexible raiding, it will be a new option for different sized groups of PUG’ers or smaller guilds:

…. we’re in the process of developing a new Flexible Raid system, which includes a new difficulty that sits between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty, while still allowing friends, family, or pick-up groups to play together. This difficulty will be available for premade groups of 10–25 players, including any number in between. That means whether you have 11, 14, or 23 friends available for a Raid, they’ll all be able to participate.

The Flexible Raid system is designed so that the challenge level will scale depending on how many players you have in the Raid. So if you switch between 14 players one week and 22 the next, the difficulty will adjust automatically. Keep in mind that unlike Raid Finder, no matchmaking is available, so you’ll need to make sure you invite people to attend—but if some can’t make it, it’s not the end of the world (or the Raid). You’ll also still be able to invite Real ID or Battle.net friends cross-realm. Who you choose to bring and what Item Level gear they’ll need to join your merry band is up to you, too—there’s no Item Level requirement for this Raid difficulty.

You can read the full explanation of flexible raiding over at the official site but in the meantime, what’s your take. Is this going to increase the likelihood of you raiding in WoW and do you think it’ll have effects on current raiding tiers?

Filed Under: General News, WoW Tagged With: wow patch 5.4

Flash Point 57: The Curse of Lumpy

May 26, 2013 by David

Kristy is moving house so it’s a biblical foursome of Simon, Mark, Matthew and David. In addition to our usual discussion points we devote some time to Neverwinter, World of Tanks, Star Wars Rebels and a whole lot more.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– 2.1 Update: Dyes, Appearance, Name Changes
– Gree event
– Timing of local server closures

TSW
– Tokyo missions

Other
– Neverwinter: Mark’s review
– World of Tanks 8.5
– Xbox One discussion
– Star Wars Rebels TV show with a detour into the Star Wars Holiday Special
– Star Trek movie
– You by Austin Grossman
– Raymond E. Feist hits Australia
– You can change the SWTOR loading screen!

Please send us a question for discussion on the next episode!

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Twitter account.

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

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:06 — 27.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With: podcast

Gree Event Returns To SWTOR

May 19, 2013 by David

May 21 to 28 sees the Relics of the Gree event return to SWTOR for those after some different gear. I’m very tempted to do the reputation grind with the Gree for the Blue Sphere Transport Enclosure Vehicle which is one of the cooler vehicles I’ve seen in-game.

For those who have forgotten the background story behind the event:

An ancient and powerful Gree starship has suddenly appeared and touched down in the midst of the frozen battlegrounds of the planet Ilum. Launched by the Gree’s ancestors long ago to explore and study the furthest reaches of the galaxy, the fully-automated vessel has been hyper-jumping from one star system to the next for uncounted centuries, examining the planets it discovers and analyzing how their native species respond to various stimuli, from mild atmospheric alterations to direct attacks.

For the modern Gree, the starship has come to be known as ‘Gray Secant,’ and carries an almost religious significance. Having long forgotten the techniques and intentions of their ancient predecessors, the Gree can only look back on their ancestors’ works with deeply-felt reverence and do their best to keep them functional. The reappearance of this unfathomably sophisticated starship is incredibly exciting for the Gree, and they want to do anything they can to further Gray Secant’s now-mythic purpose. Since the starship seems to have taken an interest in Ilum’s battles between the Republic and the Empire, the Gree have reached out to exceptional individuals from both factions, offering lavish rewards for those who travel to Ilum’s battlegrounds to fight and provide data for the Secant’s grand mission of galactic analysis.

You can find out more about the event and the gear on offer by reading the announcement from BioWare.

Will you be giving it a go this time around?

Filed Under: Events, General News, SWTOR Tagged With: gree

SWTOR 2.1.0 Full Patch Notes

May 15, 2013 by David

SWTOR Patch 2.1.0 is with us, and what a bundle of goodies it contains. And here are those goodies in full for you to read through. Enjoy:

Game Update 2.1: Customization

5/14/2013

Highlights

New Feature! The new Appearance Designer by AestheTech has been added to Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, and the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This kiosk will allow players to modify any feature of their physical appearance, except gender, including taking on a whole new Species. Players can also use the kiosk to access and unlock brand new character customization options. Subscribers get a substantial discount on all Appearance Designer changes.
New Feature! Dye Modules are now available via Artifice Crafting, some vendors, and the Cartel Market. They function similar to other item modifications. More details under Items and Economy.
New Feature! Collections provides a one–stop interface which is accessible from the Inventory Window or Cartel Market and tracks many items available from the Cartel Market, Packs (Cartel and Contraband alike), Cartel Reputation, and even Friends of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, Pre–order, Collectors Edition, live fan events and more. More details under General.
New Unlockable Species! Players of any Faction, Class, or gender can now play as the Cathar Species! Cathar can be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk on the Republic and Imperial Fleets and Capital Worlds.
Renames Available! Players now have the ability to purchase a Name Change for Character, Legacy, and Guild from the Cartel Market.

Cartel Market

General

All Cartel Market Toy items are now Bind on Use. Previously, some of these items did not bind to the player.

New Items

The Eradicator’s Mask is now available on the Cartel Market. Cost: 480 Cartel Coins
The Huttsbane’s Garments are now available on the Cartel Market. This collection of adaptive gear with no modifications is available to any Class at level 1. Cost: 900 Cartel Coins
The Cathar Species is now available for all Classes! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins
Escrow Credit Transfers are now available for Free–to–Play and Preferred Status Players. Package denominations are available for 50K, 150K, and 600K . Each Package is a consumable that will immediately transfer the Package’s set amount of credits from the existing Escrow Balance as listed in the Currency tab of the Inventory Window to the Inventory credit balance. This transfer does not affect Inventory Credit Caps. Therefore, newly acquired credits will go into the Escrow Balance as normal. For example, if the player has a Credit Cap is 250,000 / The player has 100,000 in their Inventory. The player purchases a 600K escrow package bringing their Inventory credit total to 700,000. Until the credits in the player’s Inventory drop below 250,000 (the Credit Cap), the newly acquired credits will be funneled into Escrow. Cost:
- Small Package – 40 Cartel Coins
- Medium Package – 80 Cartel Coins
- Large Package – 240 Cartel Coins
Players are now able to purchase a Name Change from the Cartel Market. Cost:
- Character – 1,000 Cartel Coins
- Legacy – 1,000 Cartel Coins
- Guild – 3,000 Cartel Coins
New Appearance Options are now available in the Cartel Market. Cost:
- Human Hairstyles 1 – 240 Cartel Coins
- Human Hair Colors 1 – 180 Cartel Coins
- Mirialan Tattoos 1 – 90 Cartel Coins
- Chiss Customizations 1 – 240 Cartel Coins
- Human White Eyes – 100 Cartel Coins

New Discounts

Permanent Reductions

The Carbonite Chamber is now permanently discounted. Cost: 480 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Display Titles is now permanently discounted. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Display Titles (Account) is now permanently discounted. Cost: 150 Cartel Coins
The Gamorrean Axe is now permanently discounted. Cost: 300 Cartel Coins
The Major Experience Boost consumable is now permanently discounted. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins
5–Pack: Major Experience Boost consumables are now permanently discounted. Cost: 360 Cartel Coins
The Major Valor Boost consumable is now permanently discounted. Cost: 40 Cartel Coins

Temporary Reductions

Access Authorization: Section X is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 375 Cartel Coins
Access Authorization: Section X (Account) is now discounted by 10%. Cost: 900 Cartel Coins
The Fleet Pass (Single Use) consumable is now discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins
The Gamorrean Axe is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 225 Cartel Coins
The Major Experience Boost consumable is now discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins
5–Pack: Major Experience Boost consumables are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 288 Cartel Coins
The Major Valor Boost consumable is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 30 Cartel Coins
The Covert Pilot Suit is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 720 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Guild Bank Access is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 450 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Guild Bank Access (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 1080 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Galactic Trade Network Sale Slots are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Galactic Trade Network Sale Slots (Account) are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 224 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Additional Quickbar is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 200 Cartel Coins
Unlock: Additional Quickbar (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 432 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Hide Head Slot is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 280 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Hide Head Slot (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 620 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Display Legacy Name and Titles is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 50 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Display Legacy Name and Titles (Account) is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Unify Colors is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 210 Cartel Coins
Customization Control: Unify Colors (Account) is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 465 Cartel Coins
Orange–Yellow Crystals are now discounted by 33%. Cost: 600 Cartel Coins
All Level 15 Chestpieces are now discounted by 33%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins

Bug Fixes

Silver–blue crystals sold on the Cartel Market now have appropriate translations in French and German.
Cartel Market Species Unlocks will now properly apply to accounts who have not yet unlocked their Legacy.
The Life Day Holo–Tree now displays the correct icon on the player’s status bar when in use.
The Music Therapy Probe now correctly affects group members.

General

New Unlockable Species! Players of any Faction, Class, or gender can now play as the Cathar Species! Cathar can be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk on the Republic and Imperial Fleets and Capital Worlds.
New Feature! The new Appearance Designer by AestheTech has been added to Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, and the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This kiosk will allow players to modify any feature of their physical appearance except gender, including taking on a whole new Species!
New Character Customization options are now available! Players who wish to create a new character using a newly added customization will first need to purchase and unlock the Appearance Option on an existing character via the Cartel Market or Appearance Designer Kiosk.
New Feature Collections is a new feature which provides a one–stop interface accessible from the Inventory Window or Cartel Market:
- Collections will track most items available from the Cartel Market, Packs (Cartel, Contraband, and beyond!), Cartel Reputation, and even Friends of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Pre–order, Collectors Edition, live fan events and more.
- Rather than being limited to one character or Legacy, items tracked with Collections share across the entire account – all characters, all servers.
- Once an item or gear set has been acquired on a single character, the player can use Cartel Coins to unlock that item or gear set for all characters on the account, with the exception of level 15, 31, and 43 Adaptable gear and Cartel Reputation items.
Decreased the instance population cap on Imperial and Republic Fleet Stations as well as several planets.
Removed the 13th Scar Character Customization Option for Female Rattataki Sith Inquisitors, as it was identical to Scar 12.

Classes and Combat

General

Players who are killed or rooted while using dive–based abilities (such as Scamper or Covered Escape) will no longer become indefinitely stuck in place.

Smuggler

The tooltip for Illegal Mods now properly indicates the Accuracy boost in the German version.

Crew Skills

General

Adjusted level 400+ mission rewards to provide Standard Quality crafting materials at a rate more comparable with lower level missions.
Failed Crew Skill missions will no longer return a blank Mission Reward Window in some circumstances.

Crafting Skills

General

Successful Reverse Engineering attempts will now grant the resulting Schematic and will no longer display the error “Insufficient Skill Level” if the Schematic is above the player’s current Crafting skill level.

Armormech

Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality Schematics to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.

Artifice

Players with Artifice can now craft Dye Modules.

Biochem

Adjusted all level 401+ Schematics to better balance the use of Artificial Microbe, Metabolic, Enhancement Agent, and Biological Compounding Chemical crafting materials.
Viral Residue is now a required material for some Biochem Schematics.

Cybertech

Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality earpieces to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.

Synthweaving

Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality Schematics to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.

Gathering Skills

Archaeology

Removed Perfect Corbonic Crystals as a mission reward, and the vendor value has been increased for the crystals currently in distribution.

Scavenging

Removed Hollinium as a mission reward, and the vendor value has been increased for the Hollinium currently in distribution.

Slicing

Slicing missions will now correctly populate the level 25–32 mission level drop down when reaching skill level 125.
Increased the number of Bio–Mechanical Interface Chips and Thermal Regulators provided as rewards for level 400+ Slicing missions.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Cademimu

Players will now be able to free group members who are affected by General Ortol’s Magnetic Shackles in Hard Mode.

Operations

Players below level 50 are no longer able to enter Operations.

Galactic Solutions Industries

Seeker Droid

Players are now able to obtain all parts for the GSI HMF–03 Exploiter, GSI EMP–02 Explorer and GSI PMP–06 Pleasure Speeder vehicles.

Items and Economy

General

New Feature! Dye Modules are now available via Artifice, some vendors, and the Cartel Market. They function similar to other item modifications:
- It is highly recommended that all colors be previewed before the Dye Modules are applied to any piece of gear.
- To add Dye to a piece of gear, simply open the Item Modification Window and place the Module into the new Dye Module slot.
- Once slotted in gear, Dye Modules cannot be recovered, and removing a Dye Module will destroy it.
- Gear that has been slotted with Dye Modules will still update when using the “Unify to Chest Color Theme” option, so only one Module (slotted into the chestpiece) is needed to maintain consistent coloration for an entire set of gear.
The Exceptional Powered Exoskeleton Body Armor and Environmental Asylum Body Armor now have the correct icon and appearance when equipped.
The Tionese Duranium Faceguard and the Prototype Balmorran Duranium Faceguard will now display properly when equipped.

Vendors

The Collector’s Edition and Security Key Vendors now sell Dye Modules.
Players can now obtain Dye Module Schematics from Galactic Reputation Vendors.

Legacy

General

The description for the Legacy Global Convenience Unlock “Improved Priority Transport: Personal Starship” have been updated to better reflect their effect:
- Level I and Level II Unlocks now state that they reduce the cooldown on Priority Transport: Personal Starship by 8 hours each to a minimum of 1 hour.
- Level III Unlock now states that it will reduce the cooldown on Priority Transport: Personal Starship by 7 hours to a minimum of 1 hour.
Legacy unlocks that are purchased using Credits will now provide a confirmation window.
The Legacy Global Ship Unlock “Galactic Market Kiosk” is now titled “Galactic Trade Network Terminal” and the description has been updated.

Achievements

Players will now be properly granted PvP Achievements for Solo Kills, Killing Blows, Total Kills, Damage, and Healing.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Players who are in a group will no longer be prevented from advancing missions which require the use of their ship’s holoterminal.

PvP

Warzones

General

Augments are no longer taken into account when calculating bolster.

Voidstar

Players will no longer be able to use movement speed increasing abilities to get over the shield wall in the Cargo (final) room.

UI

Added new tutorials for Collections and Dye Modules.
The tutorial indicator will now sort above some UI windows when a tutorial is available.
Subscribers will now see proper Unlocked indicators at Character Creation for Species that they have access to.
Whispers sent to an offline character will no longer be forwarded to an online character on the same account.
Companions with an active Customization Kit will now display properly in the Preview Window.
A background image has been added to the Character Sheet, Legacy Family Tree, and Preview Window.
Hovering over the Guilds button will now display the correct text.
Dark Side Corruption will now display properly in the Preview Window.

Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With: swtor patch 2.1.0

SWTOR Server Maintenance 14th May: Game Update 2.1.0.

May 13, 2013 by David

A five hour maintenance tomorrow night for SWTOR services, but it’s for a hell of a good reason – Game Update 2.1.0 goes live. Here’s the local time conversions for your convenience:

AEST: 8pm-1am

AWST: 6pm-11pm

NZST: 10pm-3am

The BioWare blurb:

On Tuesday May 14th, all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.1.0 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday May 14th, 2013
Duration: 5 hours
Time: 3AM PDT (10AM UTC) to 8AM PDT (3PM UTC)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: General News, Maintenance and Downtime, SWTOR Tagged With: server downtime

My First Week in Neverwinter Online.

May 8, 2013 by Luke Le Page

I came to Neverwinter with no preconceptions, or indeed any idea, as to what the game would be like. All I knew about the forgotten realms came from reading a handful of books more than a decade ago. So what drew me into this game?

Initially it was definitely the fact that it is free to play. Entirely free to play. You do not have to spend a cent of your hard earned money to play this game. In games like SWTOR, players have to shell out Cartel Coins to run Flashpoints and the like, or they can pay a subscription. So far in Neverwinter I am level 29 and I have run multiple dungeons, skirmishes and foundry missions all for the low, low price of $0.

Buying Zen will certainly help you in this game – it will make profession levelling much, much easier and convenient and there are debates on the official forums and within the community about the effect it will have on end game PvP as the game ages. Neverwinter offers us the advantage of being able to buy Zen with in-game currency (astral diamonds), while at this stage the pricing is inflated it will (hopefully) begin to even out and settle into a manageable conversion rate as the game progresses. Though I have not seen specific proof of this I believe Zen is also hard capped on how much can be charged for it in regards to in-game currency.

So if F2P is what drew me into the game, what is it that is keeping me here? I can sum it up in one word: Foundry. The Foundry is an amazing resource, by which players can create their own content. This ranges from simple kill ‘X things’ quests to elaborately designed multi-stage group questing.

When I first started playing I was enjoying the game, though I didn’t feel that it would hold me for very long. The main quest line is rather linear and I couldn’t see where the replay value was and then I found it in the Foundry. The first quest I did was I am Slayer and I was hooked. I still primarily play the main quests but when I get a little tired of them I switch to the foundry for an added level of enjoyment.

If like me you have ever thought about looking in to what it takes to design a game, you will love the Foundry. It enables players to create intricate and rewarding content and publish it themselves. I have spent a little bit of time learning its systems and I have to say it is not overly complicated. It may take the novice (such as myself) time to come to terms with the initial learning curve but once you have the foundations it is really quite simple to use.

There are plenty of gameplay reviews of the game so I won’t go into that here. I will conclude with a recommendation for everyone to have a look at the game, I am confident that like me you will be pleasantly surprised.

Filed Under: General News, Neverwinter, Other Games Tagged With: neverwinter

SWTOR Server Maintenance 7th May: It’s A Quickie!

May 7, 2013 by David

A quick, non-patch maintenance this week. Time conversions:

AEST: 6pm-7pm

AWST: 4pm-5pm

NZST: 8pm-9pm

And don’t forget, an hour is a perfect time to catch our latest podcast.

The BioWare blurb:

On Tuesday, May 7th we will be restarting all game servers to maintain and improve stability. After maintenance, there will not be a new patch to download. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, May 7th
Duration: 1 hour
Time: 12AM PDT (7AM GMT) – 1AM PDT (8AM GMT)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: General News, Servers, SWTOR

Flash Point 56: Barbed Wire Reserve With Dial-Up

May 5, 2013 by David

We cover some wider ground this week although there’s a very healthy slice of SWTOR in there as always.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– Game Update 2.1
– Customisation
– 2.1 communication via ‘fansites’
– breezing through Flash Points
– the grinding debate

Other
– Camelot Unchained
– the evergreen ‘Is WoW declining’ argument
– Neverwinter
– Kristy revisits Rift
– Shroud of the Avatar
– Marvel Heroes
– World of Tanks 8.5 Patch
– Dr Who has jumped the shark
– Iron Man 3
– next Star Trek movie

Please send us a question for discussion on the next episode!

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Twitter account.

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

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:31 — 25.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With: podcast

World of Tanks Patch 8.5: The Leopard 1 Is Here!

May 4, 2013 by Matthew "Scope" Pearce

Blitzkrieg is a regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!

G’day readers. First of all I would like to apologise for my absence over these last couple of months – real life decided someone needed a good kick up the butt and the boot just happened to land on my ass. Moving house, another family member being placed in hospital in critical condition as well as full-time study has put a lot of pressure on myself and my family these last few months.

Real life aside, Patch 8.5 of World of Tanks saw the launch of the new German medium line which includes the tier 8 Indien-Pz the tier 9 Leopard PT A and finishing off with the amazing tier 10 Leopard 1.

The Leopard 1 Isn’t she a beauty?

So why have I been looking forward to driving the Leopard 1 for so long? well the short answer would be that the tank was the first Modern era Main Battle Tank. The long answer will be an in-depth look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Leopard 1 during this article.

So how good is the Leopard 1?

I’m going to go through the three main areas of tank warfare and grade each area out of 10.

Firepower: 9/10

The Leopard 1 comes equipped with the German modified British L7A3 105mm, which has 268mm of penetration with 0.3 accuracy at 100m an aim time of 1.9 seconds 390 damage a hit with a rate of fire of 6.67 rounds a minute. This gives the Leopard 1 2601.3 DPM stock. Equip vents and a rammer and you are looking at 2992.3 DPM. Max out the Brothers in Arms perk on all of the crew and you have a total of 3121.56 DPM

The Leopard 1 is amazingly accurate at shooting on the move and even better at sniping at very long range and the aim time allows you to switch targets on the fly without having to worry too much about waiting for the gun to focus before firing.

Maneuverability: 9/10

The Leopard 1 is currently unmatched in maneuverability in World of Tanks – it has a top speed of 65kmph which it can reach in just seconds and it also has amazing off-road performance and terrain negotiation, meaning it retains the most of its speed when going bush. It has a traverse speed of 54 degrees a second while its turret has a traverse of 36 degrees a second. The high amount of traverse and speed allows you to flank and make sharp turns very quickly while maintaining your speed and allowing you to avoid incoming fire or move from one side of the map to the other if support is needed.

Survivability: 6/10

The Leopard 1 has no armour to speak of, to the point that a tier 3 tank could penetrate it. You only have 70mm of frontal hull armour, 35mm of side hull armour and 25mm of rear hull armour – the turret is just as bad with only 52mm of frontal turret armour and 60mm of side and rear turret armour.

With the low armour in mind, the one redeeming quality of survivability for the Leopard 1 is the fact that it can use its speed to survive.

Overall score and thoughts

The Leopard 1 gets a very solid score of 24/30

Train sixth sense as soon as possible so that if you are spotted you can react and stay artillery safe as much as possible, because artillery can one-hit you if you are not careful.

If you are looking for a fast and mobile sniper platform with an amazing rate of fire with great accuracy, aim time, view range and DPM you are going to enjoy playing the Leopard 1.

Filed Under: General News, World of Tanks Tagged With: Leopard 1