Star Wars: The Old Republic - Part 1

[Hellion]

All four of us entered the flash point. But two of us couldn't click on the transport. In order to get inside everyone must click and a green check mark is above their heads. Well for some reason two of us got in and the other two were not able to get it in. So somehow the green checkmark thing didn't work correctly and two teammates were stranded.
So all three of my teammates just left the mission after being frustrated. I waited for others to join but they quickly left too. It then gave me the option to exit area which it only does at the end of the mission... so I was kind of confused why it gave me that option.. Something was buggy. So I hit exit area and returned to my previous location. So since the game let me exit area it didn't give me the timer.

I then just went ahead and abandoned the flashpoint in the mission window which deletes it, and went to search again but it gave me that error. I then realized I had to right click my picture on the bottom left and scroll over until I found reset flashpoint. Even when scrolled over to my picture nothing said "portrait menu" I originally kept looking at the top of the screen looking at all those menus. Instead of saying portrait menu it should say "right click your picture image". After I reset that it let me back into the finder.

If I may ask, which Flashpoint was it? Imp or Pub? I know for sure at least The Esseles has/had a bug on a transport.

 

[Apollo]

Yep that's what it was The Esseles. I played it a handful of times now and it only happened that once.

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : The Top 21 Locations in SWTOR

Posted Mar 17, 2015

Not every article has to be an in-depth discussion of gameplay, offering commentary on press releases, or speculating what big reveal BioWare might choose to unleash at Star Wars Celebration next month. While we're waiting on Community Manager Eric Musco to make good on the statement that they were going to make up canceling the Boston Cantina Tour stop with a livestream and announcements, I'm going to celebrate the artistry that is creating cool iconic places and lush scenery in Star Wars: the Old Republic.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Top 21 Locations.

Let's face it, I've given BioWare a ton of grief over what I see to be failings in the game, things such as the former disparity between skimpy female outfits and skimpy male outfits, the inflexibility and linear nature of the game, or even the verbiage they use when 'encouraging' free-to-play players to subscribe... the latter of which earned me a 'Jeff Hickman would like to talk to you' email from my lovely editor. However, there's a metric ton of things the game gets right, and one of the things that is rarely celebrated is the environmental art. We have the movies and the cartoons to tell us what many of these places look like, or in the case of BioWare-created locations, previous video games, but overall it could easily have gone very very wrong when the art team painted and animated the scenery in SWTOR. So, since I like lists because I'm a Letterman fan, I'm going to present to you my Top Twenty-One locations in Star Wars: the Old Republic, listed in alphabetical order. It doesn't cover every single location you can go to, otherwise we'd be here twice as long.
Alderaan

• Location: Castle Organa
• Faction: Both
• Level: 28-32

Why This?: Alderaan is an iconic location that hasn't seen much airtime in the revised canon, unless you count that whole exploding thing. The best visual reference BioWare had was the scene where Bail Organa brings baby Leia to Queen Breha at the end of Revenge of the Sith and you can see the majesty of the peaceful planet that apparently got rid of its weapons in the next 3000 years before it was destroyed.
Belsavis

• Location: Near the Tomb
• Faction: Both, Republic planet
• Level: 41-44

Why This?: I like to refer to Belsavis as the Genesis Planet due to its lava and snowy areas right near each other, but alas no Klingons here. One of the better skills the environmental art team had was the animation of lava in the game, and it really shows up in zones like this one. Of course, if a touch more realism were present, my character should theoretically have been fried being this close to lava.
Corellia

• Location: Coronet Zoo
• Faction: Both, Republic-leaning
• Level: 47-50

Why This?: I'll be honest, I thoroughly loathe Corellia's map. It frequently has pathways running to dead ends and you always have to go up and around and sideways and through this opposite-faction-infested tunnel to get where you're going. On the other hand, I thoroughly love the rocket tram. It reminds me of WoW's Deeprun Tram, which also reminds me of the minecart ride in Riven. However, in the Axial Park zone, you can find this lovely rancor to be your new best friend. If he kills you, you earn the title of 'The Unlucky'. If you (and your buddies) kill him, you get the title of 'The Lucky'.
Coruscant

• Location: Senate Tower
• Faction: Republic Only
• Level: 10-16

Why This?: The heart of the Republic, the Senate Tower is one of the iconic places visible on a planet that is otherwise all inside in terms of gamespace, and frankly, the Jedi Temple is too depressing to visit, even though the art team did a bang-up job creating its ruins. Due to limitations in the outdoor gamespace, it's hard to get a proper screenshot of the tower itself, but this will do.
Dromund Kaas

• Location: The Citadel
• Faction: Imperial Only
• Level: 10-16

Why This?: While the Dark Temple might have been a nice screenshot to have, I'll have to admit I see more of the Empire's power here at the Citadel, home of the Dark Council, Imperial Intelligence, and the Mandalorian Enclave. It might be the Star Destroyer looming overhead, or the clean and elegant but yet sharp and dangerous lines of this piece of architecture, but either way, it's a forbidding place to be even if you're a loyal servant to the Empire. And if you're a Jedi Knight...? Whoops, spoilers...
Hoth

• Location: Starship Graveyard
• Faction: Both
• Level: 37-41

Why This?: Let's face it, there isn't much to see on Hoth in general. Many players have complained that the white and blue glare of the snowfields gives them headaches. I was always intrigued by the lava vents in the great chasm, but a more iconic view of Hoth is here, at the frozen Starship Graveyard. Of course, in 3000 years' time, no one will remember this place, or else neither the Rebels nor the Imperials ever found it.
Hutta

• Location: Near the Muckworks
• Faction: Imperial Only
• Level: 1-10

Why This?: One might wonder what sort of beauty could be found on a polluted planet, but the environmental art team doesn't just get to paint pictures of pretty planets like Alderaan. Even here amongst the toxic air and seas of Nal Hutta, there are landscapes that have a look all their own. Just watch out for the chemilizards.
Ilum

• Location: Near the abandoned Republic base
• Faction: Both, vaguely Republic-leaning
• Level: 50+

Why This?: I'll be honest here. In terms of scenic beauty, Ilum is my favorite place in the game. That starscape, folks. I love it so much that all three of my computers sport Ilum screenies as their wallpaper. Whether you only visit during the recurring Gree event on the Western Ice Shelf, or you decide to do a few level 50 quests on the Eastern Ice Shelf before moving on to Makeb, the icy desolate nighttime beauty of this secretive planet is not to be missed. Don't forget to get the lore object in the Republic base far south of where Gray Secant appears, but you'll have to go through the free-for-all PVP zone in the middle to get to it.
Korriban

• Location: Valley of the Dark Lords
• Faction: Imperial Only
• Level: 1-10

Why This?: Much of Korriban's look and indeed much of the ancient lore of the Star Wars universe (Legends or not) is based on the old Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi comics and Knights of the Old Republic. One of the advantages of the Old Republic era is that much of it was created with an eye to keeping the lore more or less consistent, and thus our in-game Korriban is thematically in tune with previous incarnations of the planet.
Makeb

• Location: Volcanic Mesa
• Faction: Both, Republic-leaning
• Level: 50-55

 

[zenith16]

Almost done

Why This?: Makeb was created out of whole cloth by BioWare Austin, and while much of the planet is nice and sunny (albeit on the dangerous mesas), it also has this mesa that reminds me a great deal of Mustafar from Revenge of the Sith. Once again, the environmental art team did an amazing job of lighting and animation to create a cave that felt oppressive and hot. Once again, the lava flows and geysers are used to great effect.
Manaan

• Location: Spaceport
• Faction: Neutral
• Level: 55

Why This?: By contrast, the peaceful surface of the watery world Manaan is nice and airy, with a lightly cloudy day and pleasant weather all around. It's unfortunate that the game doesn't use Manaan more, currently only used for a Flashpoint in the Forged Alliances storyline, but this would be an excellent place to go jetskiing, wouldn't it?
Nar Shaddaa

• Location: Spaceport
• Faction: Hutt Cartel, but both government's people are welcome as long as they behave themselves.
• Level: 20-24

Why This?: The lurid neon signs hawking all kinds of wares is important for a Nar Shaddaa environment. Even though most of a player's questing will happen inside just like on Coruscant, there are a few outdoors locations that really show off the Smuggler's Moon to great effect. Here you can see the two casinos for either faction. Makes you kinda want to go gambling, doesn't it?
Ord Mantell

• Location: Lava Overlook
• Faction: Republic Only
• Level: 1-10

Why This?: The starting planet for Smugglers and Troopers, Ord Mantell is the earliest place where we can see the game's lava animations on a background of volcanic rock. This overlook is readily accessible near Fort Garnik by going behind some separatists, but it's also available by scaling a specific back wall in the fort itself.


Oricon

• Location: Imperial Landing Zone
• Faction: Dread Masters
• Level: 55

​

Why This?: Oricon was added to the game after Rise of the Hutt Cartel to give players something else to do while waiting for a new level cap and even more story. A volcanic and inhospitable planet, this place was clearly well-loved by the environmental art team. The difference in styles between the tower on the left and the tower on the right shows the breadth of creativity on the team.
Rakata Prime

• Location: On the beach
• Faction: Neither
• Level: 55

Why This?: The only location shot from within a Flashpoint, it's actually something of a shame that you can only solo the FP once, because you have to group up to complete it afterwards on regular or hard mode. It's devilishly hard to just stroll along the beach and watch lovely thunderstorms off in the distance when your group is demanding that you hurry up and kill the natives so you can get done with this instance already. This scene was pointed out to me by my guildmistress on The Shadowlands, so here's to Andri!
Rishi

• Location: Nova Blade Base
• Faction: Neither, but there's a lot of pirates here.
• Level: 55-57

Why This?: A beautiful pirate cove worthy of any Caribbean island, Rishi of course was first mentioned in canon by a friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Attack of the Clones. With the most gorgeous ship-landing loading screens in the game, Rishi also sports a well-crafted lush jungle. The animations of the waterfalls are exquisite, taking things up another level from the water animations on Makeb. If you squint really hard in the middle of the picture, you can spot a faint rainbow arcing over the waterfall toward the pirate base.
Taris

• Location: The Crash Site of the Endar Spire
• Faction: Contested, but Imperials 'win' it.
• Level: 16-20 (Republic), 32-36 (Imperial)

Why This?: Let's face it, the Republic got the artistic shaft on Taris. The Imperial version is much more creepy and beautiful with its nighttime starscape and lighting. This is the wreck of the Endar Spire, the ship you wake up on in the original Knights of the Old Republic. The devastated planet is difficult to look at during the Republic day lighting, but at night it's straight out of a horror movie with all the rakghouls around. Which have been exterminated from the rest of the galaxy, honest.
Tatooine

• Location: Sarlacc Pit
• Faction: Independent
• Level: 24-28

Why This?: Certainly one of the most iconic locations in all of the canon, the Sarlacc Pit is a point of interest for players. If you fall in (or willingly jump in), you'll hit an exhaustion zone first and then die, but the first time in, you'll earn the title 'Worm Food'. While the Pit is surrounded by heroic mobs for on-level players, it's still easily possible to run or ride between them to get to this point without aggroing them. Tatooine was done so right by the BioWare team, when a certain John Williams melody plays while you're cruising around the Dune Sea, it's so utterly perfectly Star Wars.

 

[zenith16]

Done

Tython

• Location: Jedi Temple
• Faction: Republic Only
• Level: 1-10

Why This?: While seemingly rather small for the secretive main base of the Jedi Order, this Temple shows off the aesthetic stylings of the prequel movies and the Order of 3000 years in the future. The filigree detailing of the flags and drapes outside, and the hovering polygon inside show off the calm and peaceful work of master craftsmen and women, surrounded by a beautiful natural setting.
Voss

• Location: Gormak Lands
• Faction: Neutral
• Level: 44-47

Why This?: When I first got to Voss, I immediately thought of the Azshara zone in World of Warcraft, both before and after the Cataclysm expansion came out. Using much of the same color palette, we can see autumn seemingly in full swing around here. This image was chosen due to the background planet and rings, a frequent trope used in many SWTOR locations when there is either known canon to support nearby planets or huge moons, or it's a planet like Voss here, which was created by BioWare wholesale so they can do whatever they want with it.
Yavin IV

• Location: Massassi Temples
• Faction: Revanite
• Level: 57-60

Why This?: Home of a certain secret Rebel base in 3000 years, Yavin IV also is home to some major dark side mojo thanks to Exar Kun and his gang of Sith. In this one, there's been so much EU material supplementing the New Hope footage, it actually limited the art team in what they could do here. I look at this image and half-expect to see X-Wings rising out of the jungle.
So those are my favorite locations in game, the ones I think showed off the environmental art team's best work. I know I skipped several places, many of which are in Flashpoints and Operations, but these are the ones I liked that are readily accessible to a solo player. What other places in the game do you think are exceptionally well-done in terms of the environmental art?

Permalink | 37 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/2#i2PpdS8m0EYyXhrv.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Balance Threads, v3.2 PTS Notes & Outfit Designer Posts

Posted Mar 23, 2015


Bioware has posted a series of forum threads for specific classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The threads are the beginning phases of class balancing throughout the game and are an effort on behalf of the development team to keep its thoughts on balance in the public eye. In addition, the PTS notes for v3.2 have been posted, as well as a short introduction to the Outfit Designer.
First, each class balance thread begins with the statement that three issues are of paramount importance with regard to future changes:

• Quality of Life - seeks to address the flow of skill rotation, resource management, abilities and making each class fun to play
• Unity - seeks to address functionality and synergy in the way classes perform against NPCs and to address changes to buffs, debuffs, AoE, control and more
• Combat Balance - how each class performs against other classes with changes coming to healing, defense, offense, DPS, and more

From here, each thread takes a look at the first issues developers wish to address with specific regard to each class.

Check out the forum threads for each class:

• Sith Warrior / Jedi Knight
• Imperial Agent / Smuggler
• Pyrotech / Plasmatech

Also of note on the SWTOR site is an article regarding the PTS update called "Rise of the Emperor" with a listing of changes coming to the game when the update goes live. Several key issues are addressed in the notes including various skill / ability changes to several classes, many mounts being changed to "Adaptive" that can be used at any Speeder Piloting rank, the Outfit Designer, new cosmetic items and more.

Find out more at any of the links above.

Permalink | 1 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#xCYQ6IKd9oRusIs6.99


source:MMORPG.com

 

[Hellion]

So, doing the Prelude/Forged Alliances/SoR Solo FP's, I'm getting the HK Customizations and I don't have HK...are those missions solo-able? I know there are some pieces that are mission drops and some I'll need to hunt (those are the ones I imagine being a pain), but are the mission ones solo-able?

I'm on the Bastion server with a 59 Marauder, a 50 Mercenary, a 24 Guardian, and a 23 Sorcerer, if anyones interested. (I still take it the hype group/guild never formed?)...

ETA: Keep up the good work zenith! I don't post too often, but you're my SWTOR news source!

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : The (B)Austin Cantina Tour Stop, Including Spoilers

Posted Apr 02, 2015


Fulfilling their promise to make up the canceled Boston Cantina Tour stop with a livestream on Twitch, BioWare Austin's team presented a rather meaty event that promises better, more fan-satisfying events in the future. In this one, jokingly referred to as the (B)Austin Cantina Tour, they went over many of the details of Game Update 3.2, which will include the Outfit Designer and new story on the Imperial homeworld of Ziost, and also revealed some plans for their upcoming event at Star Wars Celebration in mid-April. There will be story spoilers in this article.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic - The (B)Austin Cantina Tour Stop, Including Spoilers.

Facilitated by Community Manager Eric Musco and featuring Lead Designer Michael Backus and Senior Producer Bruce Maclean, the trio set about revealing some details about Game Update 3.2, formally titled Rise of the Emperor. For all you Jedi Knight players who thought you killed the Emperor on Dromund Kaas in Chapter 3, well, sorry, he's too powerful and survived your efforts. Both primary factions will be focusing on dealing with him after Revan had to go and wake him up, because he's gone home to roost on Ziost and is once more machinating his way through galactic politics.

Unlike a number of previous locations in the game with a fairly wide color palette, Ziost is straight up Imperial-grey. Strong in the dark side of the Force, actively being sucked dry by the influence of the Emperor, Ziost is a cold and rocky planet, so don't expect pretty tropical colors here. Apparently the Republic already had boots on the ground, because players will run across both Imperial and Republic NPCs when they get there. A cavernous city named after King Adas called New Adasta will be a questing hub for both groups, so once again BioWare dips into old Tales of the Sith Lords comic canon for names and ideas.
An enclave of Jedi will be found on Ziost called the Sixth Line. These militaristic Jedi added another line to the five-line Jedi Code, quoted by Michael Backus as 'There is no contemplation, only duty'. They will pose problems for players of both primary factions, because they might go too far and cross a few lines (pun not entirely intended), and also the Emperor gets his grubby mitts on their lady Jedi Master and her people and nothing good can ever come of that.
After some further story spoilers, the trio from BioWare started talking about non-story improvements to the game that will come with Update 3.2. Their first topic was travel, and Michael Backus noted that as soon as a player's first character hits the ground on a planet, all of the travel paths on that planet will unlock for all of their characters. Eric Musco added that it was something that a number of players had requested, particularly during Double XP weekends and when 12x class XP was a thing during the Shadow of Revan preorder phase last year. The next item mentioned was that Quick Travel would see some love as well, with Legacy perks helping to bring that cooldown number to zero. Backus added that the Quick Travel points will be altered so that players won't have to click on them to unlock them, they'll auto-unlock when a player comes in range.
The other big 3.2 feature mentioned in brief was the Outfit Designer, which has been swarmed over by all the usual fansites such as Dulfy and the SWTOR subreddit. While the stream only showed a screenshot of the new quality of life tool, the devs explained that the biggest feature of it would allow players to avoid having to shift mods around whenever they wanted to change their character's look. The mods would remain on their equipped gear, but once a piece of cosmetic gear was stamped to one of the tabs on the Outfit Designer, a player didn't have to haul it around. The biggest downside is that players with multiple statted sets of gear (i.e. raid set or PVP set) would still have to swap them like they do now, because the mods won't apply. While not announced in the stream, BioWare opened up the Outfit Designer on the Public Test Server this week so that armor restrictions were a thing of the past. It doesn't affect what kind of gear a character can equip (light armor wearers still can't equip heavy or medium armor), it adds a huge amount of flexibility in character style. Of course, one must note that what happens in PTS sometimes stays on PTS, so until they announce it for live, it may change or vanish entirely.

The other big topic for the livestream was the announcement of some of the activities planned for the Anaheim Cantina Tour stop, to be held in the Hilton next door to the Convention Center where Star Wars Celebration will be held in a couple of weeks. As usual, the Cantina Tour is not an official part of SWC, but then again, neither is the 501st Bash the night before, so we shouldn't be reading too much into this fact. I wouldn't expect any huge announcements at the stop, just something along the lines of the things they were already discussing in this stream and had done at the PAX South Cantina Tour stop.
However, Eric Musco told everyone that they'd heard those of us in the community who had griped about the stops being less than revelatory for attendees, and also about how the Taun Fawn and droid pet gifts were okay, but they weren't really awesome. They revealed a new speeder model that will only be obtainable by attending this and future Cantina Tour stops, each with differing color schemes. However, he also noted that these speeders will come with two features: a second random item in a pack and also a link to allow the recipient to give the same speeder to five people who couldn't attend. Those five could then give links to five other people and so on with no limit on iterations. So, while the new speeder model is unique, much like the rakghoul virus it can easily spread across the galaxy. Based on how they phrased it on the livestream, it seems that each iteration of the speeder will grant the user that second item as well.
They also said that there would be unique physical swag available at the Cantina Tour stop, and because they were nearby, the fine upstanding members of the 501st Legion would be present with a greenscreen and props for people to take photo ops with, and there would also be some special guests. Given the number of SWTOR voice actors attending Celebration, albeit all of them for their other Star Wars ties, I hope that a few of them would be stopping in to meet the players.
For those players who cannot attend the Celebration Cantina Tour, this one will be livestreamed for an hour thanks to BioWare partnering with ESL, so the bulk of the event will be available to the whole world. We don't know yet if that will be a regular feature of future Cantina Tours or if it's just for Anaheim. Again, I would caution against assuming this tour stop means something super-special just because it's Celebration, but personally, I hope for something better than normal because jeez, it's Celebration!

The stream also reviewed the subscriber rewards for the current Choose Your Path promotion and announced the M4-1S droid pet for May the Fourth, hinting there might be other goodies in store, but perhaps they'll say more about that in Anaheim. Of course we'll post the link for the ESL livestream when we find out what it is, so all fans of SWTOR can virtually attend this Cantina Tour. What do you think about BioWare's new efforts to be more forthcoming in their livestreams and presentations?
Jean Prior / Jean has been writing about MMOs on her blog and via fansites for several years now, taking over the MMORPG duty of writing the SWTOR column in 2014, as well as reviewing other games from time to time. She got into MMOs because of a song. Follow her on twitter @druidsfire. Watch out for horrible puns.

Permalink | 12 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/3#5ZqmLrwlzuTZDTFz.99


source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Anaheim Cantina Live Stream This Saturday

Posted Apr 17, 2015


Hot on the heels of all the big Star Wars news this week comes the Star Wars: The Old Republic Cantina Tour making its own stop in Anaheim, California. The team has big plans for Saturday, April 18th that you won't want to miss. Thanks to a special edition live stream, you won't have to.

The live stream event will take place on the SWTOR Twitch.tv channel for a special Developer's Panel at 8:00 pm Pacific / 11:00 pm Eastern.
Find out more about the Cantina Tour on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.

Permalink | 1 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#ywjrt3vgwJsmTjTK.99


source:MMORPG.com

VOD of this event will be put as soon as it's available

 

[zenith16]

First up the VOD





Star Wars: The Old Republic : 12x XP For Class Quests Returns May 4th

Posted Apr 19, 2015


As part of the livestream of the Anaheim Cantina event at Star Wars Celebration this week, Bioware devs announced something that'll make SWTOR fans very happy - the return of 12x XP for Class quests.

Bioware peeps Michael Backus, Charles Boyd, Jesse Sky and Eric Musco said that starting May 4th (and running indefinitely?), subscribers will enjoy this perk, which enables them to quickly level up alts or convince friends/new subscribers to join and catch up to them quickly.
For more information about what you can do with this 12x XP boost, visit the game's official website.
[YT]xXhUbM7sk20[/YT]

Permalink | 18 comments
Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#TTYZ0sSBg77h4Kp5.99



Star Wars: The Old Republic : The Daily Quest - Will SWTOR's 12X XP Bring You Back?

Posted Apr 20, 2015

Behind all the major Star Wars excitement last week, one little detail came out of the SWTOR camp: 12X experience gains on class quests is coming back for all subscribers starting May 4th. Will it be enough to get you playing, and more importantly, paying?
It's funny, because while I really enjoy SWTOR's storyline, I dread going through the collect and fetch quests. What's funny about that is that I don't seem to care about doing them in WoW, WildStar, Neverwinter, or countless other theme parks. Perhaps is the stark contrast between's SWTOR's excellent story-based questing and it's sub-par "filler content" that make this an issue.
In any case, even though I'll be knee deep into reviewing The Witcher 3 for the site, I do plan on subscribing to The Old Republic for a bit, as there are loads of class quests I wanted to finish before the 12X experience boost ended the last time. It's pretty great that they're bringing it back for subscribers, and I'm betting more than a fair few former subscribers will opt in to level up alt characters or finish leveling some older languishing ones.
What about you? That's today's quest... will the 12X XP gains bring you back, and get you to sub, even for a bit?

Permalink | 29 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#TTYZ0sSBg77h4Kp5.99













Star Wars: The Old Republic : Bioware Star Wars Games Not Canon

Posted Apr 20, 2015



Kotaku is reporting that Disney has admitted that all of Bioware's Star Wars games fall outside of the official canon for the intellectual property. Anything that is considered the 'extended universe' is now non-canonical to the overall Star Wars story.

Disney had announced several months back that most novels, comics, and video games would be considered part of the unofficial, unvisited part of Star Wars.
Disney further said that the Old Republic part of Star Wars will not be explored in any way. This means that Star Wars: The Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic are their own stories.
Read the full Q&A blog report at StarWars.com.

Via Kotaku

Permalink | 23 comments

Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#TTYZ0sSBg77h4Kp5.99



source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Rise of the Emperor Coming Tuesday, April 28th

Posted Apr 27, 2015


The latest Star Wars: The Old Republic update will be arriving on Tuesday, April 28th. Called "Rise of the Emperor", the update brings a new planet and storyline into the game. Players will need to have purchased the Shadow of Revan expansion and a character at level 60 to be able to access the new content.

Rise of the Emperor will see players continuing the battle against Revan. The story will give players a chance to confront the Sith Emperor; join forces with Lana Beniko, Minister of Sith Intelligence and Theron Shan, a Galactic Republic spy; and will be able to explore Ziost, the "Gateway to the Empire" in a state of chaos.
Read more about "Rise of the Emperor" on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.

Permalink | 5 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#xMl848AojzELjkCH.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Rise of the Emperor Arrives with New Trailer

Posted Apr 28, 2015


The latest Star Wars: The Old Republic update, Rise of the Emperor, will see players continuing the battle against Revan.

The story will give players a chance to confront the Sith Emperor; join forces with Lana Beniko, Minister of Sith Intelligence and Theron Shan, a Galactic Republic spy; and will be able to explore Ziost, the "Gateway to the Empire" in a state of chaos. Check out the video below to see what awaits.
[YT]DGuGw6V_p88[/YT]

Permalink | 5 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#CPj8GlmRotyPpz1P.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Epic Story XP Boost Arrives from Now Through Fall 2015

Posted May 05, 2015


The Star Wars: The Old Republic blog has been updated with the news that the "Epic Story XP Boost" has arrived for subscribers along with the news that the 12x boost will last through the Fall of 2015.

In order to make the journey from 1-55 faster and even more convenient, several changes have been implemented for the EPIC version as compared to last year's 12x event.

• All Class Missions now reward a lot more Basic Commendations than before, allowing you to stay geared as you level. Also, Modifications for your gear have had their Commendation costs reduced.
• All Taxi Destinations are unlocked for all players. Allowing you to get around on each planet much easier.
• Quick Travel Bind points are now automatically unlocked whenever you reveal that region. No longer will you miss a Bind point.
• The cooldown on the Quick Travel ability has been reduced. If you are a subscriber with all 3 Legacy unlocks, you can get the Quick Travel cooldown all the way to 0. We put the “Quick” back into Quick Travel.
• The cooldown on Emergency Fleet Pass and Transport: Personal Starship have also been reduced. Just like Quick Travel for subscribers, if you have all 3 levels of Legacy unlock you can get those cooldowns all the way down to 0.

Read more about the Epic Story XP Boost on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.

Permalink | 9 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#8frXk3as37udZl00.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Shadow of Revan - Short, Sweet, and to the Point

Posted May 21, 2015

It's been four and a half months since BioWare Austin released the second full expansion of Star Wars: The Old Republic, entitled Shadow of Revan. At the launch and since that time, the level cap increased to 60, everyone's skill trees were replaced by Disciplines, they've added story encompassing three new planets, we now have a better means of managing our characters' outfits, and there have been a few new Flashpoints and Operations. Today, we're going to take a look at how it all fits together and what's been going on with the game recently. Fair warning, there will be full spoilers on the story up to and including the end of events on Ziost in Game Update 3.2: Rise of the Emperor.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic - Shadow of Revan - Short, Sweet, & to the Point.

In out-of-game news, BioWare's been more active in catching and banning folks who willfully and repeatedly exploited certain content in the game. It's like the flavor of the month for game studios. Blizzard banned over 100,000 World of Warcraft accounts for botting, TrionWorlds went to town against cheaters in ArcheAge, and Daybreak Game Company president John Smedley recently took to Twitter to ask that H1Z1 exploiters who emailed him to apologize to video themselves apologizing instead to their fellow players for cheating. BioWare jumped on the ban-wagon by actioning accounts proven to have gone to a special locked-off area on Imperial homeworld of Ziost prior to its opening on May 4th and downing a new world boss.

​

In many ways, the Rishi/Yavin/Ziost trilogy of stories reminds me of running quests on starter and capital planets, doing them in in fairly short gaming sessions such as clearing the Galactic Market quests on Coruscant one night, then going for the Black Sun area the next, and then going to the Justicar area. Bite-sized chunks of gameplay were suited for a three or four hour session and then you come back for more another day, or you went to PVP or do a Flashpoint or two before signing off. That way, folks who played it more casually would wander their way through a planet's worth of quests in a few days or maybe a week if they had jobs, families, other demands upon their time.

Personally, I'm as casual as they come. Due to playing a number of games, I never got around to playing through the Shadow of Revan content until fairly recently. I took my Jedi Knight main to level 60 a couple of months ago by playing through Rishi and taking advantage of a double XP weekend to polish off the last level over the course of a couple of days. I loved the class story we were given, and the Jedi Knight one was utterly perfect for my distressingly light-side Jedi. Major kudos to Alexander Freed for keeping the same flavor for the class we've known since the days Hall Hood was the lead writer for it. It resonated. This past weekend, I played through all of the solo Yavin 4 content in about four hours including the fight with Revan and spending too much time hitting up the archaeology nodes for crafting mats. On Monday, I spent a few hours casually playing through the entire storyline on Ziost.
At no point was the story poor. It's Star Wars, and it's BioWare-flavored Star Wars. It was serendipity that I'd spent much of last week reading former BioWare writer Drew Karpyshyn's novel Revan, which tied in heavily with this expansion's story more than anything else in the game other than the Foundry and Maelstrom Prison Flashpoints that brought the character into modern day. The visuals on all three new planets were utterly stunning. The art department completely stepped up their game even beyond the scenery we've seen in the Forged Alliances Flashpoints, no mean feat. I remember remarking to my friends in Mumble how even the transit tunnels on Yavin 4 were gorgeous.

Playing through Yavin 4, we had all the visuals to trigger nostalgia for A New Hope, and the Massassi natives were there to hassle, and you can kill some jungle lurkers. You get to save some captives, fight a number of possessed Republic and Imperial troops, and eventually battle your way to Revan. His story is the basis for the BioWare Old Republic era, and the end fight was intriguing, but as with many things in the game since Rise of the Hutt Cartel, I'm always left wanting more. Finally rooting out the Revanites and settling Revan's story once and for all deserved as much content and foreshadowing as one of the earlier chapters of the game, but due to various constraints known and unknown, we at least get some kind of closure until BioWare trots him out again to see if he'll be a good witch or bad witch next time. It reminded me of the rescue of Warcraft's King Varian Wrynn from being a split personality in two bodies, except in Revan's case, he's now a whole ghost and his body seemingly went the way of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The Ziost story, on the other hand, is most personal to Jedi Knight players, since the Emperor is their ultimate nemesis. Of the other classes, the two Sith options and the Imperial Agent offer the most intense ties to the story itself. The other classes, it's just another mission against another big bad, although this is the biggest bad of the entire Old Republic era. It's simply not personal to them unless the player was doing some off the books roleplaying. Any players on the Imperial side who felt their character was a hardcore Emperor loyalist would get laughed at if you tried to join his side. On the Republic side, you get to watch politics happen during the mid-story cutscene featuring Supreme Chancellor Suresh and SIS Agent Theron Shan, and the story eventually winds up with a showdown with the Emperor that doesn't truly end well. Along the way through the trilogy, both genders have an opportunity to /flirt with both Lana Beniko and Theron Shan as well.

In terms of gameplay, all three new planets felt far too single-player than anything else in the game so far. I occasionally saw other players while I played, but the story shifted from location to location to location via speeders and packing crates and specific quests that it was hard to really connect with other players to do anything together. There were no real challenges even for players trying to relearn their classes after the Discipline system went into effect. As players were shuttled to Ziost, there was an opportunity to work in some proper cross-faction gameplay into things, but the closest we have is simply helping NPC agents get their jobs done. I was also expecting more out of the Sixth Line Jedi or getting to interact with them, something like doing quests with them at first and then watching them get possessed by the Emperor, but they were already toast by the time players show up and they had zero agency the whole time. We acquired barter items to trade with the local Quartermasters, but unless a player liked the look of the gear and wanted to use it in the Outfit Designer, there wasn't any point to buying it because you get a full set of level 60 armor with the same mods simply by questing, unless you want a second full set of armor's mods for an off-spec.
The end of the Ziost story is a tragedy, of course. Readers of Revan will know exactly what Vitiate did to the planet, and I think I would have liked all Force-using classes to get a couple of whispers or other textual clues that the planet was now a sepia-toned lifeless husk, much like Nathema from 300 years ago. Drew Karpyshyn made a point to emphasize in the book how being on a Force-null planet adversely affected Force-users even on short exposure, and it would have been a good tweak to put in the game to enhance reactions or give the roleplaying community a few more hooks to use without expecting them to have to read the book itself. By the way, the novel's very good, highly recommended, and very much felt like reading quest dialogue – no real surprise there, considering Karpyshyn's role on the writing team back in the day.
So where do we go from here? One of the biggest things I felt was missing out of this experience is the whole notion of open-world gameplay. This wasn't Tatooine, where you could just ride your speeder all over the place and click on a random skull out in the desert and everyone was all in the same overall map at the same time. Until now, I could easily forgive the design decisions that led to the game not being a true open-world experience like... wait for it... Star Wars Galaxies. Due to the gorgeous scenery (even on Imperial Ziost), I really wanted to explore the planets and poke into the nooks and crannies and just wander around, but the laser precision focus of the story kept pushing players away from sightseeing. I felt there was far more to each location than expediency and out-of-game necessities and limitations allowed us to see, and that was a real shame. That feeling had been building up since the Forged Alliances Flashpoints, by the way. The amazing work by the art and environmental teams has only been making this feeling get stronger. I particularly loved the thunderstorm effect in the Revan fight instance on Yavin 4 when the player is heading back to the shuttle. If that could happen anywhere else in the game, yes I'd like some more, please. Ultimately, I felt like I was playing a single-player game with a fraction of the depth and storytelling that BioWare is able to put into Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and until now, this is the first time I consciously felt like it needed that amount of detail. This story demanded more than just a Cliff's Notes version of it.

In terms of that actual story, I'm left to wonder where they can go next. We've got a redeemed Force spirit, a thoroughly malevolent Force monster, and a galaxy between them. The problem from a storytelling standpoint occurs when you invent a huge big bad and then topple them or give them a Kael'thas-style setback and then have them pop up again in the next game update, and the next, and so on. BioWare has seemingly painted themselves into a corner by escalating things to their era's ultimate enemy in just three years. You can't keep going back to take him down repeatedly like he's a raid boss you're farming for a specific piece of gear.
How does BioWare intend to top a villain who's over 1000 years old, has godlike power, and can chow down on a planet's life more casually than Galactus in Marvel comics? He's actually more of a badass than Palpatine in the movies, and he destroyed the Republic for an entire generation. Other games do it by introducing other villains from their lore, and BioWare has a bunch of thoroughly evil Sith Lords they can tap that we already know about, but none of them really have the horrific majesty of Vitiate. We don't know how logistically feasible it is for BioWare to rekindle the war between the two main factions (due to needing separate content for each faction), but I for one am quite done with the alliance era between Republic and Empire and would be happy if they go back to fighting each other good and proper. However, I don't think we'll ever see any other major shift in gameplay because it would destroy the same red versus blue two-factional system that is a staple of games like Warcraft or WildStar or EverQuest. It would take an entire overhaul of the game to throw that particular hydrospanner into the mix, and I think they'll be serving ice water in very warm climes before that happens. I'd say we're more likely to see pazaak being added to the game first, if only by a few minutes.
We'll see, I suppose. They still have another major game update to ship before the end of the year.
Jean Prior / Jean has been writing about MMOs on her blog and via fansites for several years now, taking over the MMORPG duty of writing the SWTOR column in 2014, as well as reviewing other games from time to time. She got into MMOs because of a song. Follow her on twitter @druidsfire. Watch out for horrible puns.

Permalink | 2 comments
Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#lIIGYGV4V7iAGdo6.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Knights of the Fallen Empire Expansion Announced

Posted Jun 12, 2015 by Suzie Ford


During EA's E3 2015 Press Conference scheduled for next week on June 15th, more information will be revealed to Star Wars: The Old Republic players and what they have to look forward to as the year progresses with the just announced Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion.

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ – The largest story-driven expansion to date, Knights of the Fallen Empire, marks a renewed focus on cinematic storytelling in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The expansion will deliver on the hallmarks of what makes a great BioWare™ game: new worlds to explore, new companions to recruit, and a dynamic story that players will be able to shape based on the choices they make.
​

At this time, no further information was released but we hope to hear more about Knights of the Fallen Empire during next week's E3 press conference on June 15th!
Read the full EA press release about next week's event here.

Permalink | 12 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#eZSiv0VHUYWfe9zU.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Knights of the Fallen Empire Expansion Site Reveals All

Posted Jun 13, 2015


It appears that the website for Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion has gone live early (now taken down). From what we can tell so far, Knights of the Fallen Empire marks a major return to story in SWTOR, with 16 new chapters (11 revealed so far) and new companions (including Nico Okarr, the smuggler from the "Return" cinematic trailer) to recruit.

Step into an epic story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinematic storytelling, that kicks off a new player-driven story arc that puts you at the center of a conflict where your choices have impact on outcomes including unexpected twists and betrayals. Choose your path…join or betray companions, old and new…and shape the future of the entire galaxy as well as your own. Best of all, this is only the beginning…

The website also reveals that players will be able to start at level 60 in the expansion and that additional story chapters will be released regularly.
Knights of the Fallen Empire is set to launch on October 27, 2015 and will be FREE to all subscribers. Those who subscribe between July 31 and October 19 will unlock seven days of Early Access to the expansion as well as a number of unique rewards, including the aforementioned Nico Okarr companion, Nico's blaster set and duster coat, and a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic inspired swoop bike.
More information pulled from the site:
Cast of Characters:

ARCANN The Dark Prince. "Destiny is a lie." Destiny is a lie. Fate is the falsest of hopes. I am beyond prophecy. I forge my own path by making the difficult choices. Now, it is your turn.
I am not without mercy. Surrender and you may live. Stand against me, and I will turn you into a monument for fools who believe their victory is preordained. Choose wisely.
VALKORION The Immortal Emperor. "I can make you powerful beyond reason…if you will only kneel." Everything until now has been the means to an end. I forged the Empire of Zakuul to surmount all of my previous works. It will span eternity.
Do not presume there are limits to my power. The Eternal Throne commands a fleet that will reshape the galaxy into any image I choose. Whatever you hope to achieve by opposing me, know that you will never succeed.
LANA BENIKO The Dark Advisor. "I deemed you a worthy ally once. I hope I wasn't wrong." The Sith Empire and Galactic Republic have fallen. The Jedi and Sith have retreated to their temples. No one remains to stand between the Eternal Throne and the utter destruction of all we hold dear.
It has to be you. Find the strength within yourself to persevere and sacrifice your own needs for those of the galaxy. You're our last hope.
VAYLIN The Remorseless Prodigy. "Rules are for people who lack the creativity to break them." I have always been held back. All my life, my power has been restrained for fear of the chaos and bloodshed that I might inflict on a whim.
But our whims represent our truest selves. And now that my power is fully my own, I intend to be very truthful.
KOTH VORTENA The Exiled General. "We're going to win this thing. I’m telling you, its destiny." I grew up on Zakuul, served in the military. I know its potential for greatness, but all I see is the bleak reality of what it's become.
Someone has to stand up to tyranny, right here and now. To make it clear that we reject this twisted vision for the galaxy. Someone has to own up to their destiny and fight.
SENYA The Vengeful Enforcer. "Even Emperors must answer to the law." I have served with honor. I have upheld the law and pursued offenders to the far corners of the galaxy. And I have lost everyone I ever held close.
The worst among us now rule over us. Their laws will never bring justice to the monsters who betray our ideals and murder our children. But I will.
HK-55 The Loyal Bodyguard. "Declaration: Meatbag defense protocols engaged." Lament: I am programmed for your maximum protection, but hostile meatbags continually demand I reactivate my termination subroutines.
Reassurance: I have no particular wish to harm the stupid meatbags. I was merely designed to be especially good at it.
Affirmation: Anything that threatens you will wish it had never existed, master.

Chapters:

Chapter 1 The Hunt
Chapter 2 A Dream of Empire
Chapter 3 Outlander
Chapter 4 The Gravestone
Chapter 5 From the Grave
Chapter 6 Asylum
Chapter 7 Lady of Sorrows
Chapter 8 Taking Flight
Chapter 9 The Alliance
Chapter 10 Anarchy In Paradise
Chapter 11 Disavowed
Chapter 12 Coming Soon
Chapter 13 Coming Soon
Chapter 14 Coming Soon
Chapter 15 Coming Soon
Chapter 16 Coming Soon
​

This is all we know for now, but we're expecting to learn more information when the expansion is officially unveiled at EA's E3 press conference on Monday.

Permalink | 48 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#vRWEMTLfmb2Fu3jh.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

sorry I had a mind flub there, I forgot this was an expansion


Knights of the Fallen Empire Expansion For Star Wars: The Old Republic Announced. June 15, 2015 . 1:19pm

Knights of the Fallen Empire will be available October 27th, 2015.

[YT]omvM7n6FLgI[/YT]
Knights of the Fallen Empire is an upcoming expansion to Stars Wars: The Old Republic. The expansion will be free to all of the game’s subscribers. Electronic Arts released a trailer for the game today, which you can view below.

EA promise more Bioware-style storytelling in Knights of the Fallen Empire, based on feedback they’ve received from players. Here’s a story summary:

Step into an epic story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinematic storytelling, that kicks off a new player-driven story arc that puts you at the center of a conflict where your choices have impact on outcomes including unexpected twists and betrayals. Choose your path…join or betray companions, old and new…and shape the future of the entire galaxy as well as your own. Best of all, this is only the beginning…
​

Knights of the Fallen Empire will be available October 27th, 2015.

Read more stories about E3 2015 & Knights of the Fallen Empire & PC & Star Wars: The Old Republic on Siliconera.

source:Siliconera

 

[Dark_Lord]

The full trailer.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire – “Sacrifice” Trailer

[YT]Nzq9epS2b1A[/YT]

 

[Lord]

It was an amazing trailer.

 

[Hellion]

I might have to sub again.

 

[Orba]

Anyone read anything about how this will blend into the existing content? From what I've read you start it in carbon freeze and that years have gone by since the original content. If that is the case you would think that all the old zones and content would be off limits once you start the new expansion.

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Changing the Face of the Galaxy

Posted Jun 18, 2015



On Monday at the Electronic Arts presser at E3, BioWare Austin announced that it was overturning the applecart that is Star Wars: the Old Republic. While we got a taste of the next iteration the previous Friday when a somewhat calculated leak of the new expansion's name and many of its details was hastily removed from the official website, sometimes it takes a trailer and a studio General Manager showing up to make it feel more real. For a game that has had issues with managing expectations, they seem to be trying to finally make The Old Republic feel more like a proper BioWare game with the promise of more story as the core of the new expansion.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic - Changing the Face of the Galaxy.

First, let's cover the hype. At the EA presser at E3, studio General Manager Jeff Hickman presented a shortened trailer of the new expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire, due to go live on October 27th. With such a packed schedule of other games to present, it's no surprise that EA devoted so little time to SWTOR versus the more mainstream (and pre-launch) Battlefront or the brand new mobile CCG Galaxy of Heroes. However, of the three Star Wars games mentioned at the presser, only The Old Republic truly brought new story to the party. The other two are simply rehashing the movie and cartoon era.
The big nugget of joy for lore nerds like me is the basic fact that this expansion is all about story, if you believe BioWare's current press releases. The trailer during the presser was pretty cool, but the full trailer available on YouTube does a much better job of explaining what's going on. The expansion will launch with 9 chapters of new content and several more releasing monthly starting next year. What's exciting for me is knowing that BioWare is apparently getting the band back together, with at least three original class writers returning to SWTOR join Lead Writer Charles Boyd, Courtney Woods Ackland, and Sean McKeever for some of those chapters.

Despite what a number of people first assumed, the two brothers in the promotional stills that look hilariously like SWTOR Community Manager Eric Musco don't represent players coming from the Sith Empire or Galactic Republic, they're the conquerors of both from a new planet called Zakuul and its Eternal Empire. I found it interesting that the white-dressed brother was the one who tackled the Republic and went all dark side. If you discount the many theories on sites such as Reddit that link their Eternal Emperor father named Valkorion to the recently-thumped Sith Emperor Vitiate, this would represent the first major addition to The Old Republic lore since the John Jackson Miller-penned Knights of the Old Republic comic, and certainly is a huge departure from the incessant and repeated returns of Revan. It truly strikes to the heart of the conversation I had with Jeff Hickman and James Ohlen at PAX South and their intent to shake the game up and to take the story in entirely new directions. However, I will point out that even though Zakuul and its Empire might be all-new lore to add to The Old Republic era, it doesn't change the fact that game is still not canon. Leland Chee and Pablo Hidalgo's replies to this FAQ at Star Wars Celebration in April are still in force, so SWTOR remains the only active Legends property.

On the official website, they lay out things such as timed subscriber rewards that relate to fan-favorite smuggler Nico Okarr but here's where they throw status quo out the airlock. While repeatedly pointing out that players will make 'choices that matter', BioWare also mentions starting out at level 60, which a number of players rightly questioned. These players lament the fact that they'll have to deal with grouping up in high-level Flashpoints and Operations with new players who haven't had 60 levels to learn how to play their class. BioWare will need to learn how to handle this community dynamic the same as Turbine, Daybreak, and Blizzard all had to do when they first instituted free or purchased high-levels.

The story hype is real, but naturally the E3 trailer and the information on the website do as intended, which is leave us with plenty of questions. The E3 presser didn't show any gameplay, and there's some confusion about this Outlander persona that players are intended to take on. Also, this is an MMO, but yet all the information talks about making it a personal story, how your choices will matter, and that's always been one of the bigger issues that was sort of slid under the carpet all the time with SWTOR. It sounds more like playing Dragon Age or Mass Effect: single-player games. This feels like it's only emphasizing that, so how can my choices determine the fate of the galaxy when every other player could choose the other options?
One of the more intriguing aspects of their announcement was how players would build a presumably new team of companions from both all-new compatriots, old friends, and there are rumors you could possibly even pick up companions from other classes, according to Charles Boyd's recent blog. However, the thing that tickled folks the most was the little bit where players could kill some of their companions. Social media promptly lit up with a number of players cheerfully citing which companion(s) they wanted to send out the airlock, but as with BioWare's usual penchant for setting expectations, I'd caution anyone against assuming this is what they actually meant. I believe what they've done is finally come up with a plan that would allow a player to get rid of companions without losing their combat capabilities, which is why airlocking Malavai Quinn was only available pre-launch despite his terrible transgressions.

We see brief descriptions for five new characters on the website such as fan-favorite Lana Beniko, including concept art that show she's really changed many things (including apparently her class). Charles Boyd made a point during his character blog to note that those characters listed aren't necessarily new companion characters and that there were many others not on the list. Obviously, given the unknown number of years our characters will be on ice, that leads to an interesting question: our flesh and blood companions had to have aged. Have some simply died of old age? It would make no sense at all to use the same models (except for Bowdaar), so has the art team been going back and aging the appearances of all these companions? What about companions players can acquire via legacy unlocks and the Cartel Market such as HK-51 and Treek? It would be very poor customer service on BioWare's part to suddenly take away a companion players spent in-game credits or real money for cartel coins to buy.

​

The story downside of aging our characters is that players who had built relationships with or even married certain companions will have to face the question of what happens if that old companion is no longer available or has died or suddenly aged. It's a very interesting question that pops up in various sci-fi novels and even in the non-canon Vector comic mini-series that spans the Old Republic to Legacy eras, but this will be more personal for our characters.
In all this talk about a personal storyline, this is still an MMO, so where's the new group content? They only mention revamping old Flashpoints and Operations to retune them for level 60+. What about PVP? No mention at all, same as with crafting, although Musco did note on the forums that a post on crafting was forthcoming at some point in the future. Also, here's a change of plan. At the Star Wars Celebration Cantina Tour in April, they announced that the Epic Story XP boost for subscribers would be around 'a long time' and added 'indefinitely'. However, the FAQ on swtor.com states that the boost expires on October 19th. This raises the question about how players who choose not to take on the instant level 60 character will go through classic content. BioWare included information in their releases that state they're going to be enhancing the elder content to make it smoother and more streamlined. This is at variance with every previous BioWare statement that it wasn't feasible to go back and revamp elder game content, that they were only focusing on future content. It's reminiscent of Blizzard swearing up and down there would never be flying in vanilla zones because it would be too much work and eventually releasing Cataclysm. Will it be worth it to level up a new alt or eight through classic content again to see what changed? With the ability to rejoin old companions in new story content, does this mean that players can finally elect to romance same-gender companions? Or... is it possible they might even include that as part of the classic story enhancements since they were already altering things?

We also have no information on monetization other than certain things are free for subscribers. What are the free-to-play or preferred price points for the expansion? We know thanks to Eric Musco's post on the forums that each subscriber will get one free instant-60 with the expansion and that the plan (not set in stone!) is to increase the per-server character slot limit to 24. Will non-subscribers have to buy episodic passes? The FAQ seems to indicate that's not even a possibility.

9. What if I unsubscribe from Star Wars: The Old Republic after October?
If you unsubscribe after October 27, 2015, you will keep the first 9 Chapters of Knights of the Fallen Empire, but will not receive any additional Chapters when they are released.

Another good question to wonder, considering how a number of game studios set release goals that seem to slip over time for various reasons (looking at you, Carbine), can BioWare maintain this schedule? How big are the chapters anyway? They're obviously not as complex as the first three chapters of a player's story that comprised levels 1-50. Even if they'd started working on this over a year ago, which is very likely, a few core writers and a couple of freelancers aren't enough to keep eight classes going for tons of quests per chapter. My guess is that we'll see something like how the Rishi content would be one chapter, and Yavin IV would be another, and Ziost another. They've had pretty good success with those, but if these chapters are meant to naturally come out once a month, that's pretty light for story but a lot of art and set design to work on. For example, I multitask frequently even when playing games, and it only took me a few hours to play through Ziost one afternoon. We also have to bear in mind that this expansion is supposed to cover five levels, up to 65, so how will the chapters work with leveling?
Turning back to the Blur-created trailer, it seems grim for both factions, but I was struck by a few things:

• Only one female character was shown the whole time.
• Only one non-trooper Republic character was shown.
• Other than the Twi'lek, all the characters whose faces you could see were white males.
• Most of the characters are pretty darned dark side.

In a Star Wars universe where it's canon that one of the leads of the new movie is a black guy and the actual MMO is pretty varied, you'd think they'd diversify the cast of characters in their up-front trailer a little bit more than 'one alien lady'. However, none of the Blur cinematics for the game ever really had anything other than 'white human' or 'alien' in the past, so I suppose they're just keeping this part of the experience a status quo.
In a separate post-presser interview with IGN, Jeff Hickman and Senior Producer Bruce Maclean revealed that level 60 characters entering into the expansion will be frozen in carbonite and wake up some years later and find their companions scattered and the Empire and Republic 'all but fallen'. It's a great story to read about, but when it comes to an MMO, how will that work for players who might want to help out their lower-level friends in elder game areas? Musco confirmed on the forums that players would be able to go back to the older planets. Obviously, there will be new planets to explore (Bothawui is confirmed via the leaked information from Friday), but if both major factions have fallen, what about Fleet? Clearly the SWTOR team gained back a number of their devs from the canceled Shadow Realms team, but it surely wasn't be enough to redo every 1-50 planet to account for the changed political landscape. The easiest solution was to pull a Warcraft-style handwaving of things (i.e. Schroedinger's Lich King) and take advantage of the game's sometimes-annoying instanced-planet space model. However, I'll admit to a bit of wishful thinking that they had the resources to code up post-Fall planets and let players visit them however they wanted. It would be totally surreal if they let Republic players wander around on night-time Taris or vice versa with the Imps on daytime Taris, for example.

How will this changed landscape and potential lockout affect things like Galactic Starfighter and your Stronghold? With the multiple new planets mentioned but not named by Maclean, will we finally ever get to see more of an open space system? Okay, maybe that's too much of an overturning of the applecart, but after seeing E3 trailers for games like No Man's Sky, I had a wistful moment there. Still, since we're talking about major game overhauls, let's drop the loaded question here, is this SWTOR's version of the infamous NGE? SOE (now Daybreak) pretty much alienated the majority of their SWG fans with their ill-considered overhaul, and there seem to be a huge number of changes in store for how we're going to be playing SWTOR from October onward. How BioWare answers these questions will determine whether the story will triumph over the fear of change or if we'll see players leaving in droves again despite it.
Either way, no matter how all of these questions are eventually answered, I'm convinced this represents SWTOR's 4.x iteration. We can assume there will be an NDA-driven closed beta like happened with previous expansions, and of course we'll find out more information as time passes. One thing that encourages me is that BioWare is holding 5 hours of story panels at the next Cantina Tour stop in San Diego even before the usual 3 hours of Cantina Tour goodness, and there is the promise of more information about game mechanics and companions at Gamescom in Germany. This is the sort of thing that would have been perfect to hold at Celebration in Anaheim two months ago, but conventions and game development cycles don't often meet up... and if you think about it, the sheer potential number of new players at SDCC and Gamescom is far greater than 'preaching to the choir' at a dedicated Star Wars convention. It's another calculated marketing choice in a cycle full of them.
Of course, as more information comes to light, keep your browser here at MMORPG.com, where we'll keep you up to date on all the latest news about The Old Republic.

Permalink | 29 comments









Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/2#RgItt2DULUsoJM72.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : E3 2015 – Knights of the Fallen Empire Preview

Posted Jun 19, 2015


It’s the year of Star Wars with the new movie, Battlefront, and now SWTOR’s next big expansion: Knights of the Fallen Empire. Announced officially during EA’s E3 press conference, the expansion marks a new major story initiative for BioWare’s MMORPG, and we got to see just what that means in a behind-closed-doors presentation at EA’s press booth.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Star Wars: The Old Republic - E3 2015 - Knights of the Fallen Empire Preview.

http://images.mmorpg.com/features/9796/images/KotFE1_t.jpgKnights of the Fallen Empire, as Jean described in this week’s column, takes place years after the events of Shadow of Revan. You’ll find yourself encased in carbonite, when Sith Lord Lana Beniko wakes you up and gives you the brief: both the Republic and the Empire have been decimated by new threat of the Eternal Empire. In short, you’re going to have to put some of your differences aside if you hope to survive. In short, you as the Outlander have to find some way to unite both sides against a common threat.




[YT]Nzq9epS2b1A[/YT]
It’s officially a huge continuation of the main story, with 9 chapters available at launch on October 27th (October 20th for subscribers) and it’s free to all subscribers, but what’s not clear is how non subscribers will access the content. BioWare did say that this isn’t something they want to segregate players with, as the hope is that the expansion’s content and the promise of monthly chapters will entice players to subscribe and spend money in the store.
Now some of you might have been hoping for more class stories, and BioWare knows that’s still something folks want, but let’s face it: doing individual stories for each class would take considerably more time, resources, and money to do correctly. I think we can expect that the class stories are forever going to be the original game’s focus, and that from here on out we’re going to see more game-spanning stories that recreate the feel and scope of the stories we get from the movies and TV shows.
Speaking of that kind of cinematic experience, we got a brief taste of the beginning experience in Knights of the Fallen Empire and the story really is taking center stage. BioWare knows that a lot of their players like SWTOR because it’s a continuation of Knights of the Old Republic as much as it is an MMO. So for Knights of the Fallen Empire they are focusing really hard on upping their cut-scene and story-telling game. Cameras move during story scenes, animations and overall direction are far more diverse than in the other story-focused contents and expansions. Watching the player, now known as The Outlander, escape from the carbonite prison with the help of Lana and Koth was an absolutely riveting experience.

Gameplay wise, BioWare promises lots more info to come on all the new class skills, but the main goal of the new powers is to increase the mobility and action of each class as they want the pace of combat to increase overall with KotFE. Watching the Skytroopers fly around, come in through windows, and make combat more movement heavy gave a good impression that we’ll be doing a lot more moving during fights in the expansion.
There are tons of perks to be a subscriber from now all the way up until the early access launch of October 20th, and the 12X XP rate for the class story quests are still going from now until October 19th. But even after that point, the whole 1-50 game’s leveling process will be re-defined so that the the 1-50 experience will be far more streamlined for all players in the future. You can take a look at all the perks over at the official site.
Now my personal opinion is that SWTOR’s strength has always been its story. It’s an MMORPG that has fun group content, but its best bits have been the more single-player stories. And that seems to be what BioWare has noticed as well. There’s nothing wrong with catering to your niche, and in the year of Star Wars, the best bits of non-movie story may indeed come from BioWare just as they always have. I’m re-subscribed as of today, and I can’t wait to see how this third faction of the Eternal Empire factors in.
William Murphy / Bill is the Managing Editor of MMORPG.com, RTSGuru.com, and lover of all things gaming. He's been playing and writing about MMOs and geekery since 2002.

Permalink | 39 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#BzH7H8xFiq44hzk9.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Cantina Meet & Greet At San Diego Comic Con

Posted Jul 06, 2015



Bioware will be on hand to meet and greet Star Wars: The Old Republic players during this weekend's San Diego Comic Con. The Community Cantina Panel will take place on Saturday, July 11th from 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Pacific.

The team is ready to spill some more information about the recently revealed Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion.

When: Saturday, July 11
Where: The Westin San Diego - Gaslamp Quarter – California Ballroom, 710 Broadway Circle - San Diego, CA 92101
​

Pre-register on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.


Permalink | 0 comments

Permalink | 0 comments


Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#6xfz0CZWc4FiEGc0.99

source:MMORPG.com

 

[zenith16]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Togruta Race to Become Playable with v3.3 Update

Posted Jul 16, 2015 by Suzie Ford


Bioware has confirmed that the Togruta race will become playable beginning with the v3.3 update that will be deployed on Tuesday, July 21st.

Interestingly, devs also revealed that headgear on Togruta, because of the appendages on their heads, will be hidden, opening the way, the post said, for "other species down the line who have 'head things going on'."
Participate in the conversation on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.

Permalink | 9 comments







Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/page/1#V5vKGXxADbLbbHSb.99


source:MMORPG.com