Relics Of The Gree Preview Video

In the lead up to tonight’s move over to Game Update 1.7, BioWare have release a preview video for the Relics of the Gree content. Enjoy:

Jump into comments below to give us your thoughts!

Server Downtime for SWTOR Game Update 1.7: 12th February

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It’s time for the next SWTOR content update: Return of the Gree. This means a slightly longer than usual server downtime of 5.5 hours.

Time conversions:

AEDT: 8.30pm – 2am

AWST: 5.30pm-11pm

NZDT: 10.30pm-4am

The full explanatory blurb from BioWare:

 

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for five and a half hours on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 from 3:30AM CST (1:30AM PST/4:30AM EST/9:30AM GMT/10:30AM CET/8:30PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/10AM EST/3PM GMT/3PM CET/2AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than five and a half hours, but could be extended.

Game Update 1.7: Return of the Gree unveils a new in-game event, Relics of the Gree. Travel to Ilum to investigate the appearance of an ancient Gree starships, called “the Gray Secant.” The Reputation System is also introduced in this game update, which allows you to earn Reputation points by completing missions for organizations such as the Gree or the Voss, or for military divisions within the Republic and the Empire for great rewards.

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.7: Return of the Gree.

Events are available to Free-to-Play Players and Subscribers at no additional cost. Visit the Free-to-Play Features Chart for more information.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Time: 3:30AM CST (1:30AM PST/4:30AM EST/9:30AM GMT/10:30AM CET/8:30PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/10AM EST/3PM GMT/3PM CET/2AM AEDT)

All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than five and a half hours.

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

SWTOR Heroic Space Missions: Schedule

SWTOR Heroic Space Mission unlock scheduleFor those who love a heroic space mission, BioWare have provided some clarification on when each mission unlocks so it can be re-played:

We have confirmed that the following is the current schedule for Heroic Space Combat missions:

 

  • Tuesday – Far Cradle Strike (Imp) / Regnant Station (Rep)
  • Wednesday – Kabal Station Defense (Imp) / Ardis Outpost Fortification (Rep)
  • Thursday – Kanz Minefield (Imp) / New Covar Ice Field (Rep)
  • Friday – Duma Strike (Imp) / Baros Ambush (Rep)
  • Saturday – Lorta Escort (Imp) / Hypori Escort (Rep)
  • Sunday – Cha Raaba Assault (Imp) / Thanium Disruption (Rep)
  • Sunday – Operation Foe Smasher (Imp) / Operation Clean Sweep (Rep)

For balance, we have decided to move one of the Sunday unlocks to Monday in a future patch.

So there you have it – and note the plans for a shift to a Monday unlock for either Cha Raaba Assault / Thanium Disruption or Operation Foe Smasher / Clean Sweep in a future patch.

Rise Of The Hutt Cartel: First Look Trailer

A combination of factors means I totally missed the release of a ‘first look’ trailer for SWTOR’s initial expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel. At one minute and fourteen seconds it’s certainly no more than a first look but there’s some great scenic shots plus a decent storyline hint.

Have a look for yourself:

So, what’s your take? Anything in there that’s particularly piqued your interest?

SWTOR 1.6.3 Patch Notes

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As you probably already know, SWTOR patch 1.6.3 has hit and it’s a fair-sized one. Check out the full patch notes for yourself:

1.6.3 Patch Notes

1/23/2013

Cartel Market

New Items

      • The Czerka CR-17 Incendia, is now available. The protection provided from being knocked off this vehicle is greater than Speeder Piloting III. Cost: 1,800 Cartel Coins.
      • Three new armor sets, the Sand People Pillager Set, The Sanctified Caretaker Set, and the Malevolent Interrogator Set can now be purchased. These sets of adaptive armor can be worn by any Class at level 1. Cost: 1,440 Cartel Coins each.
      • The Preferred Access Bundle is now available! This bundle offers the player a selection of popular unlocks and customization options. Cost: 972 Cartel Coins (Discounted by 40% for a limited time!)

New Discounts

      • Access Authorization: Section X (Character) is discounted by 10%. Cost: 540 Cartel Coins.
      • Access Authorization: Section X (Account) is discounted by 10%. Cost: 1,215 Cartel Coins.
      • Unlock: Cargo Hold Access (Character) is discounted by 20%. Cost: 380 Cartel Coins.
      • Unlock: Cargo Hold Access (Account) is discounted by 20%. Cost: 840 Cartel Coins.
      • Unlock: Additional Cargo Bay (Character) is discounted by 20%. Cost: 380 Cartel Coins.
      • Unlock: Additional Cargo Bay (Account) is discounted by 20%. Cost: 840 Cartel Coins.
      • The Newcomer Bundle is discounted by 50%. Cost: 405 Cartel Coins.
      • Medical Probes are discounted by 50%. Cost: 250 Cartel Coins.

Expiring Discounts

      • The Gamorrean Axe is no longer 30% off. Cost: 350 Cartel Coins.
      • Fleet Pass (Single Use) is no longer 33% off. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins.

Items Removed From the Cartel Market

      • Czerka LD-1 Celebrator
      • Life Day Robes
      • Life Day Holo-Tree
      • Life Day Orb
      • Life Day Tinsel Bomb
      • Life Day Bundle
      • Imperial Fireworks x10
      • Republic Fireworks x10
      • Fountain Fireworks x10
      • Finale Fireworks x10
      • Fireworks Bundle x12

Bug Fixes

    • Players who have purchased vehicles via the Cartel Market will now find that their protection against being knocked off has been scaled up to Speeder Piloting III regardless of current Speeder Piloting level.
    • All color crystals from the Cartel Market and Cartel Packs can now be placed on the Galactic Trade Network.
    • The Fancy Reveler’s Outfit pieces now correctly display an icon.
    • Players will no longer be able to use unlocks such “Unlock: Additional Quickbar” if they already have the maximum allotment of that unlock.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Colicoid War Game

        • Friendly Colicoids in Colicoid War Game are now immune to gap-closing abilities such as Intercede.

Taral V

        • Players are now required to defeat General Edikar in order to complete the [FLASHPOINT] Taral V mission.

Operations

Eternity Vault

        • Players can no longer pull Gharj to the entrance of the room.

Karagga’s Palace

            • Players are no longer able to reach the top of the pillars during the Foreman Crusher encounter.

PvP

Warzones

Ancient Hypergate
            • Alacrity will no longer speed up the capture of Energy Orbs.
            • New tiebreaker mechanic: If both teams have an identical score after reaching 600 the match enters a sudden death mode where the first team to capture a pylon wins the game.
            • Gaining defensive objective points will no longer incorrectly display an invalid effect icon.
            • Engaging in combat near a defensive objective will now correctly reset the vote kick timer.
Voidstar
            • Players can no longer leave the spawn area prior to the match starting.
Space Combat
            • Heroic Space Combat missions will now be available on the correct day.
            • Space Combat Daily Missions will now be available 12 hours earlier. They will now reset each day at 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PM GMT/1PM CET/11PM AEDT).
            • Players will no longer receive an “Ineligible” system message when accepting Daily Space Combat Missions.

UI

        • Corrected an issue where logging out would cause the UI to not be displayed at character select.
        • The Quickbar lock/unlock graphic has been reverted back to its original icon.

Miscellaneous

      • Added missing text to the Cartel Market for the French and German versions.

SWTOR Server Maintenance: 23rd January 2013

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(While the servers are down, why not listen to the latest episode of our podcast?)

A four hour downtime this Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, but slightly later in the evening than usually occurs.

The local time conversions:

AEDT: 10pm-2am

AWST: 7pm-11pm

NZDT: Midnight – 4am

BioWare’s notification in full:

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013 from 5AM CST (3AM PST/5AM EST/11AM GMT/12PM CET/10PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/9AM EST/3PM GMT/4PM CET/2AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended.

This maintenance is done in order to make general improvements and to check performance of the game so that we can continue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but not always) after a maintenance period there will be a patch to download. After the maintenance, please login via the launcher to download the latest patch. If your launcher was open during the maintenance, you must close and reopen it for a fresh login.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

Time: 5AM CST (3AM PST/5AM EST/11AM GMT/12PM CET/10PM AEDT) until 9AM CST (7AM PST/9AM EST/3PM GMT/4PM CET/2AM AEDT)

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

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

SWTOR Maintenance 15th January 2013

swtor-server-down

Only a two-hour SWTOR server downtime this week, although a patch will still be deployed. The usual time conversions for you:

AEDT: 10pm-Midnight

AWST: 7pm-9pm

NZDT: Midnight – 2am

The official explanation:

 

We will be deploying a patch and performing scheduled maintenance this Tuesday, January 15th, 2013. Patch notes will be made available shortly after the servers come back up.

The servers will be down for two hours on Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 from 5AM CST (3AM PST/5AM EST/11AM GMT/12PM CET/10PM AEDT) until 7AM CST (5AM PST/8AM EST/1PM GMT/2PM CET/12AM AEDT). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours, but could be extended.

After the maintenance, please login via the launcher to download the latest patch. If your launcher was open during the maintenance, you must close and reopen it for a fresh login.

Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Time: 5AM CST (3AM PST/5AM EST/11AM GMT/12PM CET/10PM AEDT) until 7AM CST (5AM PST/8AM EST/1PM GMT/2PM CET/12AM AEDT)

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

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

SWTOR 1.6.2 Patch Notes

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The servers are up and running again, and we now have SWTOR Patch 1.6.2 live. There’s quite a batch of fixes and changes, so read on for the full list:

1.6.2 Patch Notes

1/8/2013

Cartel Market

New Items

      • Players can now unlock additional character slots! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins.
      • The Newcomer Bundle is now available! It contains a wide range of items to help new players expedite their travels. Cost: 405 Cartel Coins (discounted by 50% for a limited time!).
      • Two new armor sets, the Interstellar Privateer Armor Set and Clandestine Officer Armor Set, can now be purchased. Each armor set costs 1,440 Cartel Coins.
      • A new Cartel Pack, the Skip Tracer Cartel Pack, is now on the Market. Cost: 360 Cartel Coins.

New Discounts

      • The Gamorrean Axe is discounted by 30%. Cost: 245 Cartel Coins.
      • Fleet Passes (single use) are discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins.
      • The Life Day Bundle is discounted by 35%. Cost: 2,400 Cartel Coins.
      • The Newcomer Bundle is discounted by 50%. Cost: 405 Cartel Coins.

Bug Fixes

    • Unlock items no longer stack in the inventory.
    • Revan’s Mask no longer clips through hoods on some body types.
    • The textures for the Forward Recon chestpiece now display properly.
    • The appearance of the Phantom and Perceptor’s armor now matches the appearance seen in the Cartel Market.
    • The Stylish Dancer’s Top no longer binds on pickup.
    • The Statele Shan Holo-Statue and Darth Malgus Holo-Statue no longer allow the use of Heroic Moment abilities.
    • The Cyan-blue War Hero’s Color Crystal now binds on equip.
    • Using Imperial and Republic Firework items now causes the player to kneel down.
    • Tinsel Bombs can now be used on both friendly and hostile targets.
    • Players no longer move when using Fountain Fireworks.
    • Tooltips for equipment that requires the Event Equipment Requisition Authorization now update when the player unlocks the requirement.
    • The Carbonite Chamber and Life Day Orb now properly regenerate Ammo for Troopers.
    • The Remote Control Starship now regenerates a player’s health and energy pool when channeled.

General

  • Character slot restrictions are now being enforced:
    • By default, Free-to-Play players are restricted to 2 characters per server.
    • By default, Preferred Status players are restricted to 6 characters per server.
    • By default, Subscribers are limited to 12 Characters per servers.
    • All players have a Global Active Character Limit of 350 Characters.
  • Additional Character Slots may now be purchased from the Cartel Market. Each Character Slot will increase the number of Characters a player may have across all servers by 1 (players can go beyond their default character slot restrictions). Each purchase will increase the number characters that a player may mark as Active across all servers.
  • Subscribers and Preferred Status Players who have more than the current character limits will be allowed to keep and play all characters. No new characters may be created on the account until the number of characters on the account falls under the Global Active Character Limit for the account type, even if additional character slots are purchased.

Classes and Combat

Smuggler

Scoundrel
Scrapper
          • Flechette Round’s damage over time effect no longer interrupts players attempting to capture an objective.

Imperial Agent

Operative
Concealment
        • Acid Blade’s damage over time effect no longer interrupts players attempting to capture an objective.

Companion Characters

HK-51

    • HK-51’s dagger, “Dicer,” is now available in his combat outfit container.
    • Warning: Rivals Detected: Players are no longer prevented from restarting this mission if they abandoned it. Players that were unable to re-obtain this mission can speak to Bren in Section X to continue.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Kaon Under Siege
        • Optimizations have been implemented to improve performance inside this Flashpoint.
        • The Infected Screamer’s Brutalize attack now respects player immunities to knockback.
Maelstrom Prison
        • The Fifth Fleet Footmen and Fifth Fleet Gunners now spawn correctly during the Grand Moff Kilran encounter.
        • X-37 Oppressor’s Power Punch now respects player immunities to knockback.

Operations

Eternity Vault
        • Enrage timers have been increased by 1 minute for bosses (excluding the Ancient Pylons encounter) in this Operation in 16-player Story and Hard Modes.
Explosive Conflict
        • Warlord Kephess’ enrage timer has been increased to 5 minutes, 30 seconds in 16-player Nightmare Mode.
        • The Defected Imperial Commander now spawns correctly in the Colonel Vorgath encounter.
Karagga’s Palace
        • Enrage timers have been increased by 1 minute for bosses in this Operation in 16-player Story and Hard Modes.
Terror from Beyond
      • The Gargantuan Lobel mini-boss now spawns correctly.
      • In the Terror from Beyond encounter, the Unstable Larva, Hypergate Beacons (in the first phase of Hard Mode), and Hypergate Irregularities now spawn correctly.

Items

  • The Dread Guard’s Corrupted Mask now uses appropriate voice sound effects during cinematics.
  • The Devastator’s Double-Bladed Lightsaber now correctly displays two blades.

Legacy

  • Legacy of Combat abilities can no longer be used inside Warzones.
  • Using Priority Transport: Capital World now properly advances mission steps that require players to travel to Coruscant or Dromund Kaas.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Belsavis
        • Section X Weekly missions no longer autocomplete if the player has previously completed the component missions.
        • The Section X daily mission area has had some encounters removed and others relocated to provide easier travel between mission objectives.
        • March of the Dread Guard: Players now use the remote device recovered from nearby enemy NPCs to free all prisoners. Only 5 prisoners now need to be freed (down from 12), and leader NPCs count towards this goal.
        • Imminent Threat: Only 8 escaped prisoners are now required for this mission’s objective (down from 16).

Class Missions

Jedi Consular
        • Find the Ancient Weapon: Players can now complete this optional mission after recovering the item from the chest.
Trooper
        • Justice: An issue that could cause players to become stuck in the floor on The Justice has been corrected.

NPCs

    • After Dreadtooth is defeated, Dreadful Resurgence no longer persists. Dreadful Essence must be used to increase Dreadtooth’s difficulty.
    • Dreadtooth’s difficulty when he is affected by 3 or more applications of Dreadful Resurgence has been decreased.
    • Dreadtooth no longer drops crafting materials when affected by less than 3 applications of Dreadful Resurgence.
    • The anti-griefing “Dread” debuff applied by Dreadtooth now uses a shorter range.
    • The Shriek attack used by Dreadtooth no longer causes too many visual effects to be played each tick.

PvP

Warzones

Ancient Hypergate
      • Players defending a pylon their team controls now gain defensive credit over time.
      • Transmissions inside this Warzone now use appropriate voice effects.
      • Players no longer gain attacker objective credit for finishing a capture attempt on an energy orb that has already been captured by another player.

Space Combat

  • The costs for Grade 7 ship upgrades available from the Fleet vendor, Daily vendor, and Starship Upgrades credit vendor have been reduced.
  • The credit reward from [Heroic] Space Combat missions has been reduced from 12,500 to 1,616.

UI

General

      • The “Unify to Chest” armor color option now works correctly for players and companions.

Galactic Trade Network

    • Preferred Players can now post 5 sales at a time on the GTN. Previously, Preferred Players were incorrectly limited to 2 sales.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • Several items that were missing correct translations in French and German have been updated.

  • A rare issue that could cause a Premium or Preferred Player to function as a Free-to-Play Player temporarily has been addressed.

  • Using /stuck now kills the player without penalty when used on a Personal Starship.

SWTOR Maintenance: January 8th 2013

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A patch deployment maintenance downtime tonight of eight hours.

Local time conversions for you:

AEDT:  7pm-3am

AWST: 4pm-Midnight

NZDT: 9pm-5am

The full blurb from BioWare:

 

Hello!

This is a reminder that we will be bringing down servers for eight hours on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET/3AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.

For more information, please see our previous scheduled maintenance post.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET/3AM AEDT)

All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher 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™.

SWTOR Parody: Baby Got Bubble

Some serious work has gone into this SWTOR Parody by Jason Barnett. Based on this little ditty by Sir Mix-A-Lot from the 1990s, Sith Sorcerers are the subject and whether you play one or not, you’ll be likely to find this funny:

Great work Jason!

SWTOR: State Of The Game Update

balmorra11SWTOR’s Executive Producer, Jeff Hickman, has posted a ‘State Of The Game’ update on the official website to cover off a range of issues. You can read the whole shebang here, but the synopsis is:

1. End-game content: more stuff on the way, with Rise of The Hutt Cartel a significant component but with new content released around it.

We have a plan mapped out for the upcoming year that will keep the elder game fresh and interesting for players of all types. Overall, we’re aiming to introduce a more diverse array of activities – more stuff to do with your Companion, more challenges to tackle with groups, and more reasons for guilds to recruit. We’ll also be improving our itemization, introducing new incentives to revisit existing areas, and a lot of other exciting things that will be revealed as we move through the upcoming year.

2. PvP: Ilum is to be fixed/changed, with no new world PvP outside of Ilum coming this year.

As for pure Open World PvP…well, that’s a more difficult proposition. We are dedicated to providing excellent PvP experiences to our players, but we intend to focus our energy on PvP Seasons and new Warzones. We will be experimenting with a different approach to Open World PvP, something that encourages organic PvP in contested areas in a new and interesting way, but do not look for massive new Open World PvP this year

3. Character transfers: ability to transfer your characters to the PTS is coming soon, live character transfers across the board coming this year.

You should expect to see this come within the first part of this year. It will provide free character copies to PTS at any time (with possible restrictions dependent upon our testing needs at any given time). This will also lay the foundation for our new live character transfer system that will be coming later this year.

4. Same gender romance: it’s turned out harder to implement than expected but Rise Of The Hutt Cartel / Makeb will contain some same gender options.

Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. As we have said in the past, allowing same gender romance is something we are very supportive of.

Secondly, I want to reveal today that we are adding SGR with some NPCs on Makeb and do intend on pursuing more SGR options in the future. More details to come!

What’s your take on Jeff Hickman’s update? A solid roadmap for the next few months or a more fragile wish list?

 

 

 

SWTOR Fan Vid: Quintessential Conversations

Kreep, from Pandamonium Guild, has made this rather funny vid showing how everyone may not be treated equal at times:

It is a time of struggle, it a time of rebellion, it is a time for vacation. Wait, what? A few of the galaxy’s greatest heroes are due a little R&R, but one of their number is in for a totally different experience, Star Wars style.

Enjoy:

Thanks to Kaisa for the heads-up!