You are here: Home / Archives for SWTOR

Rise of the Rakghouls server downtime is back on

January 18, 2012 by

It’s back on after the postponement on Tuesday – the 1.1 patch that sees Rise of the Rakghouls become reality:

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) to 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET)

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

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

So that means no access for Australians between 7pm Wednesday 18th January through to 3am Thursday 19th January.

For New Zealanders, you’re locked out between 9pm Wednesday 18th and 5am Thursday 19th.

In the meantime, be sure to have a listen to our latest podcast dissecting the patch, or have a read through the patch notes.

Filed Under: Maintenance and Downtime, News Tagged With:

SWTOR post-mortem: it’s more innovative than an FPS

January 17, 2012 by

Labelling Star Wars: The Old Republic competent but not innovative is “unfair”, BioWare told Eurogamer – the MMO does more than today’s FPS and action games to push its respective genre forward.

“It’s been a little bit of an unfair characterisation,” SWTOR game director James Ohlen remarked to Eurogamer. “Because if you look at other game genres, if you look at a Battlefield or a Call of Duty or a Gears of War or even a Half-Life – those games use the same tried and true interface and the same tried and true game mechanics of the first-person shooter genre that’s been around for 20 years.

“If you look at real-time strategy games, they kept the same tried and true interface and the same tried and true mechanics that existed for 20 years. Same with adventure games, same with platformers, same with fighting games, sports games.

“I don’t know why the MMORPG genre is not considered to be a genre,” Ohlen shrugged. “It could be that World of Warcraft has dominated for so long that people just think of it as just a single game genre.

“But it is a genre, and we wanted to appeal to fans of that genre – we don’t want to turn them away by making something that’s radically different. And we wanted to take the lessons that have been developed in that genre over years and years and years and basically refine them, much like other companies do with other genres.
Via www.eurogamer.net

Filed Under: From the internets!

First oceanic clear of all SWTOR hard modes?

January 16, 2012 by

The hard-core folks at Oceanic guild Redemption have achieved a full clear of SWTOR hard modes. You can tell that after presumably quite a few attempts on Eternity Vault’s SOA in hard mode, there was some relief at getting the job done:

Here’s the kill shot itself:

It’s an impressive achievement, whether it’s an oceanic first or not. It’s also a short-lived achievement as in a little over 24 hours there’s four more bosses in Karagga’s Palace to down. And like any guild I’m sure that’s just the way they like it!

Any other guilds that have nailed this, feel free to post your claims in comments!

Filed Under: Guilds, News Tagged With:

UPDATED: Server downtime this postponed: bring on Rise of the Rakghouls

January 16, 2012 by

UPDATE: due to glitches with the 1.1 update, the downtime has been pushed out a ‘few days’. Thanks for the heads-up Ben!

The usual server downtime is on Tuesday evening, but it’s an extended one due to the 1.1 update being put live. Here’s the announcement and the time-zone conversions after that.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) to 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET)

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

So that means no access for Australians between 7pm Tuesday 17th January through to 3am Wednesday 18th January.

For New Zealanders, you’re locked out between 9pm Tuesday 17th and 5am Wednesday 18th.

In the meantime, be sure to have a listen to our latest podcast dissecting the patch, or have a read through the patch notes.

Filed Under: Maintenance and Downtime, News, Patch Notes Tagged With:

Flash Point 24: Rise of the Schlongs

January 15, 2012 by

A historic episode personnel-wise, with our first four-way podcast as Simon Potter becomes one of the regular panel – welcome Simon! Rise of the Rakghouls is the focus but there’s lots more than that dissected.

Points of discussion:
– Patch 1.1 update and class changes
– Slicing changes
– End-game gear customisation
– EB Games stocking SWTOR locally in Australia
– Anti-aliasing improvements and pretty places in SWTOR
– Collector’s Edition digital content
– Different terms for the penis (yes, seriously) – and here’s the link to the Bloodhound Gang song mentioned (warning: contains gratuitous shots of bikini glad women)
– Movie recommendation and Stan Lee’s appearance Down Under
– Two upcoming special guests
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, Google Plus page and Twitter account

Also after the show is Episode 2 of Star Wars Addicts Anonymous, Ed and his flatmate Collyn’s laid back look at everything SWTOR.

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:49 — 78.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: News, Podcast Tagged With:

Heavy Damage: Jedi Shadow overview

January 15, 2012 by

This week we’ve got the Jedi Shadow, Kinetic Combat specced Tank. The Jedi Shadow uses the Force as its pacing mechanic, starting with a constant 100. I find that the Shadow pacing mechanic is easier to maintain than the Jedi Guardian or the Trooper Vanguard.

From a glance, the Jedi Shadow with its light armor and stealth looks like it should be a Avoidance tank, but it’s actually a third mitigation tank, although its armor rating isn’t as high as the Vanguard or Guardian. It has some tools that help even up the playing field. One thing that I feel helps make up for its lower armor class is the ability to mitigate more elemental and internal damage such as bleeds and fire. The ability to do this may not seem like a lot but for a Tank, damage that bypasses your armor can be extra deadly and the Shadow is more resilient to these type of abilities.

The Jedi Shadow has a lot of builds and rotations that can be used for everything from AoE add tanking (probably the Shadow’s true weak point) to single target raid tanking, and even PvP Tanking.

The two main builds for the Shadow tank are the 31/0/10 single target Tank and the 25/0/16 AoE Tank.

My Shadow follows the 31/0/10 build and does very well at tanking single mobs and even up to two or three mobs.

A good rotation for your single target 31/0/10 build is going to be:

1) Kinetic Ward with no current charges up – Kinetic Ward is off the GCD.

2) Force Breach if debuff is not applied or debuff time < 1.5 sec

3) Slow Time if debuff is not applied or debuff time < 1.5 sec

4) Telekinetic Throw with 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows

5) Project if Particle Acceleration is up

6) Double Strike

7) Saber Strike if you are out of energy, or need energy to refresh an upcoming debuff

and then for AoE with the 31/0/10 build:

1) Kinetic Ward with no current charges up – Kinetic Ward is off the GCD.

2) Slow Time

3) Force Breach

4) Whirling Blow

5) Saber Strike if you are out of energy

Single Target for the 25/0/16: 

1)Kinetic Ward with no current charges up – Kinetic Ward is off the GCD

2) Force Breach if debuff is not applied or debuff time < 1.5 sec

3) Project if Particle Acceleration is up

4) Mind Crush if DoT is not applied

5) Double Strike

6) Saber Strike if you are out of energy, or need energy to refresh an upcoming debuff

AoE with the 25/0/16:

1)Kinetic Ward with no current charges up – Kinetic Ward is off the GCD

2) Force in Balance

3) Force Breach

4) Whirling Blow

5) Mind Crush if you are out of energy

6) Saber Strike if you are out of energy

The Jedi Shadow can be just as effective as any other tank as long as you keep your head in the game. This Tank is very involved in lots of re-applying buffs and watching debuffs applied, but it’s also very fun for the same reasons.

May the Force be with you.

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

SWTOR: Rise of the Rakghouls announced

January 14, 2012 by

One month. That’s all it’s been since those with early game access on Day 1 started playing. It’s not a long time by any standards, but as shown with the two large patches already announced or implemented, Bioware aren’t backward in coming forward with updates.

That’s all chicken feed compared to the announcement that game update 1.1, called Rise of the Rakghouls, will be going live after next Tuesday’s maintenance downtime. The full patch notes are given below, but the bug ticket items are:

– a new level 50 Flashpoint called Kaon Under Siege
– the promised expansion to the Karagga’s Palace Operation, with four new bosses
– significant PvP changes with Ilum

We have some pics of Kaon Under Siege for you as well:

If you want a taste of Kaon Under Siege in action, have a look at this:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: News, Patch Notes Tagged With: ,

Suggestion Box: Make Your Own Warzone

January 13, 2012 by

Another semi-summer weekend in the paradise that is the Oceanic region of the globe. It’s time for your input on the issues that matter in SWTOR and this week I thought I’d open up the suggestion box for dedicated and casual PvP’ers alike.

More specifically, let’s creative on Warzones: if you could create a Warzone for inclusion in the game, where would it be set and what would the gameplay mechanic be?

I personally want a speeder battle in an Endor-like forest, probably 5v5 or 10v10. Over to you – as always, the sky’s the limit so post away!

Filed Under: News, PvP, Suggestion Box

Slicing: no more Magic Money Machine

January 13, 2012 by

Bioware’s Damion Schubert has jumped into the debate over the Slicing skill and it’s financial returns. He’s pretty succinctly nailed the issue to the wall and unapologetically states things needed to change:

Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way – slicing was giving too much money, and this needed to be corrected. A bug snuck through launch that resulted in some lockboxes giving out far more cash than our magic spreadsheets said they were supposed to give. The end result was that our economy was getting flooded with credits, which risks causing massive inflation in the economy. Players were abandoning other crafting skills for slicing which was causing the problem to feed on itself. Economic issues are tricky – once you let the horse out of the barn, it’s pretty hard to coax it back in – and it’s important that the dev team jump on these issues as quickly as we can.

Once we corrected the issue, the math started to fall into line, which is to say the metrics of our economy started to match what we expected slicers to have. It’s important to note that, while slicing was always meant to be a little more casual, and less wedded to the other crafting skills than the other gathering skills, it was never meant to be a Magic Money Machine. Slicing is still profitable, I promise – the metrics are showing that slicers still do quite well – but it’s no longer profitable to the degree where you were a moron if you chose any other Crew Skill.

Are we done balancing? This being an MMO, you’re never done balancing, and we will continue to monitor Slicing and the other endgame skills to ensure they are fulfilling their stated purpose inside the game mechanics, useful to the players who choose them, and healthy contributors to the economy as a whole. It is not unlikely that all Crew Skills will get further adjustments once the game and economy has matured and metrics points out a strong need. Once this happens, I promise we’ll make a better effort to let players know the rationale of the changes we’re making as we’re making them.

It’s a bit hard to disagree with the approach if the data was showing an exodus to slicing as a skill. Do you agree?

Filed Under: Companions, News Tagged With: ,

A view from the ignoramus: the first 25 levels of SWTOR

January 12, 2012 by

Last night I hit Level 25 on my primary toon, a Jedi Sage. Although it’s just a number, it is the half-way point of my levelling (yes I know not time-wise but you know what I mean!). It got me to thinking about what I’ve found confusing or hard to understand over that time.

Even though I’ve lived and breathed SWTOR for the past couple of years, I’ve had a very purposeful approach when actually playing: I’ve taken the ‘ignoramus’ angle. What I mean by that is, I’ve not read up extensively on how other people play, nor have I read and tips guides etc. I’ve gone into the game to play it like any first timer would, albeit with an extensive WoW-playing history. It’s one of the reasons it’s taken me a lot longer than some to get to Level 25, with the others being that I’ve regularly stopping and admiring the scenery and I’m also listening to all dialogue.

So, it’s with this mindset that I’ve compiled a list of stuff that didn’t make sense to me initially. Hardcore players may laugh – that’s obviously your right, but this is for the more casual or newer SWTOR player with less MMO experience. And yes – I know there’s a codex, in-game help and the keyboard shortcuts guide if you bought a box copy – I ended up referring to these when I needed to. However, I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to mimise the time I spent reading text on how to play the game I should be playing.

And for the record: I can honestly say levelling up my Consular / Sage has been the most fun I’ve ever had in an MMO by far, so don’t see this as a negative attack on SWTOR more broadly.

With all that, onto my gripes:

Item modification

I’m not sure I’ll get a lot of agreement here but I find this as confusing as hell. You receive modification options dropped by enemies, others are provided as quest rewards and you can also buy them. So far that makes sense. It’s the actual process of making a modification that I found painful – right clicking on the modification just gives you the error message that the item can’t be equipped. I then realised you need to CTRL-right click on the item you want to modify, and select the mod from your inventory and drag it to the slot you want it in. It’s all a bit clunky really.

The other thing that continues to baffle me are modification stations. I’ve done zero homework on them, but they further muddy the modification waters and I’ve used them once I think.

Suggestions for improvement:
– right clicking on a modification opens your main window to start the process
– once this window is open, right clicking on the modification auto-installs it in the right slot

The Map

Overall I LOVE the SWTOR map that comes up when you press ‘M’ on your keyboard. It trashes the hell out of the WoW map. That said, I still find SWTOR a little confusing to get around. It took me at least a week after getting my ship at Level 18 to work out how to get back to it if I’d used my Fleet pass (each class has it’s own hangar where your ship is waiting, even if you didn’t use it to get there). I only realised by when I moused over a non-green Elevator icon on the Republic Fleet map. Also, working out where you are in the overall context of things is really only possible by using the Galaxy Map on your ship.

The other main gripe is the fact that you can only have one thing selected at any time on the map for viewing. I’m constantly switching between options, mostly between trainer, crew skills trainers and Quick Travel Points.

Suggestions for improvement:
– let me zoom out the map to see where I am in the wider scheme of things
– a portable galaxy map for those who get ships perhaps?
– a permanent Quick Travel option back to your ship
– allow multiple types of NPCs to be viewed on the map

Galactic Trade Market

This gripe is simple and related to the map issues described above. Finding a Galactic Trade Market kiosk isn’t obvious by any stretch of the imagination. In the first 25 levels I stumbled across a GTN once. If you switch on that view option in the map it’s easier but otherwise you really need to keep your eyes peeled. Sorry to mention WoW again, but the Auction Houses there stand out much better and tend to be the central feature of the large cities. Surely the only real option to engage in trade should be front and centre?

Suggestions for improvement:
– make the GTN more prominent
– allow GTN access from your ship

Run Like Hell

This one isn’t a huge gripe for me, but I know it is for a lot of other people. Because the worlds are so huge, I’ve seemed to spend a great deal of time walking and then running backwards and forwards. As a relatively experienced MMO player I was smart enough to understand the importance of picking up all the quests in an area and being as efficient as possible in handing them back in. Even so, I seemed to spend a lot of time running over the same territory. For me that was an opportunity to explore and I’m guessing that’s the intention. Once you have a vehicle it certainly get’s easier. The Quick Travel points are a godsend at times, although the 30-minute cool down prevents too much reliance on them for levelling.

Suggestions for improvement:
– allow vehicle access a little earlier than Level 25
– reduce cooldown on using Quick Travel points to 15 minutes

The Wrap-Up

After 25 levels of gameplay, I obviously have some whinges but none of them have stopped me enjoying the process a very great deal. Some harsher critics say SWTOR is half-baked – I couldn’t disagree more. For every time I’ve been frustrated by the issues above or even smaller stuff, there have been ten times I’ve been wowed by the look or feel of the game. That doesn’t mean things can’t improve and I have no doubt they will. Making those improvements will take a very good MMO to a potentially great one, and that can only make everyone happy.

Join The Gripe

Ok it’s your turn: what has annoyed you levelling and why? Post away in comments, it could make for an interesting discussion.

Filed Under: News, Opinion Tagged With: ,

Oceanic Guild Spotlight: Reverence

January 12, 2012 by

If you’d like your guild spotlighted, just use our contact form to let us know. Or if you like, respond to the questions shown below and send them in – we love to profile guilds and the work they’re doing. The only requirement is that you’re an active oceanic guild. Please be patient if you don’t hear back from us immediately – we will only be spotlighting a guild every week or so.

Name of guild

Reverence

Guild website 

www.reverence.co

History of your guild’s name

Reverence was launched early 2012 as an Oceanic Guild for Australians and New Zealanders. We launched on the Wall of Light Server however have the intention of expanding the guild onto several other servers in the future.

The guild’s leadership team are all experienced MMO gamers with previous guild leadership experience and an aligned vision for the guild’s future!

Reverence is a people focused guild created to provide an environment where members can interact, share knowledge and work together on quests.

Just 2 weeks after launch the guild has sky-rocketed to over 200 active members and growing fast with an average of 30 members online at any one time.

What sort of guild do you intend on being?

Reverence is a guild aimed at steady progression through to end-game content. We are a tight-knit team that enjoys challenging ourselves, and pushing the boundaries to meet our goals and objectives.

The guild is not one person, or the officers, but rather the team of members as a whole. Members should conduct themselves with maturity and respect both inside and outside of guild affairs, as the actions reflect on the entire guild.

Every member is important, and helps to shape the future of the guild, and its success.

Why did you choose to be a part of the Republic? 

After careful consideration we decided that your typical republic member in general seemed to be more active and mature than the Sith. In essence we wanted the core membership base to be experienced gamers who are regularly online. This gives us a better opportunity to deliver on our long-term goals.

You have one minute to convince someone they should be in your guild – what would you say to them?

Reverence offers a friendly and social environment for members to share items, group together and achieve common goals. Being involved in our guild provides a greater level of emersion in the game and will be particularly useful when players require assistance completing some of the more challenging quests.

We have a high caliber of mature members that are always willing to lend a hand and a great leadership structure to ensure our standards and values are maintained and the guild’s community reputation remains strong.

What are your predictions for the first 6 months of the guild’s existence post-launch?

Initially we intend on establishing a cohesive and tight-knit membership base providing our core members an opportunity to get to know each other through our Mumble server and website.

Once the core guild foundations have been established we want to share our experience with the wider community by developing video and audio resources stored on our website. These resources will be designed to assist new players or guilds work through the different elements of SWTOR gameplay.

Our intention is to establish a strong reputation in the wider community and stand out as a recognised guild, which attracts like-minded individuals from outside the servers in which the guild resides.

Filed Under: Guilds, News Tagged With:

End-game gear: changes on the horizon

January 11, 2012 by

Boy George - Sith(ish) Style

Emmanuel Lusinchi, SWTOR’s Technical Design Director, has provided some hope for those unhappy with the current state of end-game gear and item modifications:

The current situation with end game gear and item modifications isn’t final and, in fact, many community members like yourself have correctly guessed at what our plans to correct the current design are.

Since this is a fairly important issue to many players, let me disclose more details about what is currently in the work regarding purple items and mods:

– All partially moddable purple items will be made fully moddable again, allowing the removal of the armoring, hilt and barrel.

– The set bonus of end gear purples (PVP and PVE) will be transferable to custom items.

– Some item modifications will be restricted to a certain item type. For example, some item modifications will only fit on helmets, while other will only fit on chests, etc.

As usual, the caveats about unfinished work apply, but this should give you and the community a very good idea of our intentions. We are serious about making custom gear an entirely valid alternative to end game gear and we support the players’ ability to customize their appearance all the way to (and including) end game.

Being a certifiable fashion disaster myself, I’m not qualified to comment on how good/bad the gear looks, but it’s good to know increased customisation is on the way. Would love to hear from those already donning their end-game gear: what do you love/hate about it currently?

[Pic via Cheezburger.com]

Filed Under: Dev Tracker, News
« Previous Page
Next Page »