Update on Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.2

I kinda feel like this droid right now :( 

Hey everybody,


It is with great reluctance that I have to announce Ranked Warzones are not going live with Game Update 1.2: Legacy. We had a fantastic run of testing on the Public Test Server and I can’t begin to thank the community enough for their tireless advocacy for this feature and the time people took to file bugs and voice their concerns.


After careful consideration, it is clear that to make Ranked Warzones the feature we all want it to be is going to take a bit more time. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause and ask for your patience as we work to make sure the Ranked Warzone Preseason launch is polished and fun. With Legacy, the new Warzone, Operation, and Flashpoint, as well as many other amazing features of Game Update 1.2 ready to go, we're very excited for tomorrow's additions.


In the future we'll be rolling the Ranked Warzone Preseason out in phases, listening carefully to player feedback and making adjustments as we go. The first phase will be full team, eight-player queuing only and from there we'll look at next steps as Preseason progresses. In the meantime we have provided an alternate purchase route for War Hero gear so you can start building your set while figuring out your teams.


Daniel Erickson
Lead Game Designer

Get ready for game update 1.2 with user interface options

Big changes coming this Thursday are with the user interface options. I found myself in awe at what you can do with them in the editor. for example, I play on a 27" screen and I've always found  the HUD to be too big. using an option in the new update I was able to shrink it all down to 0.8 and I moved all the buttons closer together, as you can see in this screenshot below.

I know I'll change it more as I start to PvP and do Ops but I saved this interface I created ready to go for Game Update 1.2. Here's the snitch from Bioware, with a video guide:

Game Update 1.2: Legacy for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ introduces several new systems to the game, including the option for you to customize your User Interface. You'll be able to alter the placement and size of each UI element to suit your own personal preference.

Game Update 1.2 locked in for April 12, 2012

Bioware just announced the impending release of Game Update 1.2. This is one of the largest free patches ever released for an MMO, and Bioware are extremely excited to finally have a date for it. Check out this blog for all the info about maintenance tomorrow night.

David Bass from Bioware wanted to point out that the maintenance period is intentionally earlier tomorrow night. "This deploy is a very large patch, and Bioware wanted to shift it earlier to ensure SWTOR can be back up in plenty of time for the majority of our players to be able to play on Thursday night without issue."

Hello everyone!


We will be bringing down servers for eight hours on April 12th, 2012 from 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST) in order to deploy Game Update 1.2 - Legacy. All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.



Please note the timing on this maintenance period, which is beginning earlier than usual.


Game Update 1.2 – Legacy introduces new content and features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players. Earn new rewards and build your family tree with the expanded Legacy System, explore Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, challenge the new Operation: Explosive Conflict, and face off against your foes (or your allies) in Novare Coast, a new Warzone. You can also experience new daily missions on Corellia, customize your User Interface, create a new Guild Bank for your guild, and more! Learn more about Game Update 1.2 here!


After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.2. This patch will be up to approximately 1Gb in size, depending on when you last updated the game.


Scheduled Maintenance


Date: Thursday, April 12th, 2012 (See PDT timing below)


Time: 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST)


All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. 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 Legacy Companion Unlocks in patch 1.2

Bioware is giving us a real reason to get in the good books with our companions. As of patch 1.2 increasing your companions' affection to 10 000 unlocks a unique enhancement for that specific class of companion. There are a total of five different companion classes and they are healer, melee damage, ranged damage, melee tank and ranged tank. Also, every single companion you cap affection with grants you 10 bonus Presence with all your characters under your Legacy name. So theoretically you can eventually have a default 400 bonus Presence on all your characters, if you play all eight classes and max out affection with all the (40) companions.


Somehow I think people are going to be spending a lot more time chasing companion gifts!


After doing some testing I discovered that the bonus I unlocked by maxing out Kira's affection on my Jedi Knight was applied to every other character I created, on both Republic and Sith sides. For Kira it was a bonus to surge and although it applies to all characters, the bonus surge can only be unlocked once. The Presence, on the other hand, can be unlocked on every companion and every class.

In the notes about what is unlocked is says "You may only receive this bonus for one healer/melee tank (etc) companion". It took me a bit of research to figure out that what this means is that if you unlock a healer companion on your Jedi Knight, you get the bonus for all the characters you create. It is not stacked or re-applied when you unlock another healer companion though on a separate character.

Here you can see the bonus surge applied to a naked level one Trooper. It is clearly not present in patch 1.1. Interestingly, base DPS with no weapon equipped seems to be higher in 1.1.

So, let's look at the bonuses that you get with each class of companion.

Achieving maximum affection with a healer grants you a bonus to the total healing you receive, increases your heroic moment by 12 seconds and reduces the cooldown by 1 minute. (Also grants 10 bonus Presence to all characters)

Surge rating goes up. Heroic moment goes up by 12 seconds and cooldown goes down by 1 minute.

Critical Hit Chance gets a boost for ranged damage companions as well as the usual increase of heroic moment by 12 seconds and reduction of cooldown by 1 minute.

With the melee tank companions you get a bonus to your accuracy (plus the usual).

With ranged tank it's the usual plus a Max Health bonus.

Here's a summary:

Campion class	Bonus*	Heroic Moment*	Cooldown*	Presence
Healer	Healing Received	Increased by 12 seconds	Reduced by 1 minute	+10 bonus
Melee Damage	Surge rating
Ranged Damage	Critical Hit Chance
Melee Tank	Accuracy
Ranged Tank	Max Health

* Is only unlocked once

All this means that getting on your companions' good sides is even more important than ever. To review the gift preferences of companions, check out our information pages.

Hot off the Press for 1.2: Become Your Ship Droid

"Note posted on April Fool's"

Have you ever fantasied about getting down and dirty with Scorpio, the hot Imperial Agent droid companion?! Or are you looking for cool old Star Wars games like Super Star Wars? Bioware have answered all your pleas with this hot update.

The ability to be able to jump into first person mode in your droid character and play Super Star Wars is a big enough draw card for the monthly subscription for me. After unlocking this feature, I can't see myself doing anything else ingame ...

... apart from maybe sexing it up with Scorpio that is! What's not to like about this evil woman? Read on the see the other fabulous features coming in game update 1.2.

Four New Achievement Missions in Patch 1.2

Found next to your trusty vendor sales rep on your fleet station is a set of new achievement missions. Unlike other achievements in the game, these babies have unique rewards. For your efforts you'll be able to show off to the galaxy your shinny new speeder, knowing that only people who have completed these missions will have access to these new mounts.

Aratech Ice speeder: This ice cold slick mount is awarded for completing all of the following Flashpoints in hard mode: Esseles, Taral V, Maelstrom Prison, Directive 7, The Battle of Ilum, The False Emperor, Kaon Under Siege and Lost Island.

The vehicle listed here is the Aratech Nightscythe but the reward is listed as Praxon Firaxa. Not sure if that's a bug, but either way, the reqrd is given for defeating these Operation bosses in Hard mode: Droid XRR-3, Gharj, Soa, Bonethrasher, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator, Karagga, Zorn and Toth, Colonel Vorgath, and Kephess.

As I am going through these screenshots I collected to share I am noticing that a lot of them list a vehicle name and then a different reward. In this case it's a Aratech Fire vehicle and the reward is Praxon Trackmaster, which also sounds like a vehicle name to me. Mayb ethe Praxon Trackmaster is commonly known as an Aratech Fire, or vice versa? I am just hoping it's bright red with flames! This reward id given for defeating these Operation bosses in Story mode: Droid XRR-3, Gharj, Soa, Bonethrasher, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator, Karagga, Zorn and Toth, Colonel Vorgath, and Kephess.

This one lists the same vehicle name and reward name: Aratech Coral. Snowblind, Gargath, Primal destroyer and Nightmare Pilgrim world bosses all have to be defeated for this one.

I can see these achievements driving more people to operations and world bosses. General chat is going to be abuzz with people trying to get groups together for these. With the right group leader most of the story operations and world bosses are easy to achieve at level 50. My level 50 character on the new Australian server has only been level 50 for a week and I've completed all of the operations listed above in Story mode. Our guild will start Hard modes in the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see if these achievement missions are backwards compatible with kills that your character has already done when the patch goes live (or will you have to do the operations again in order to get these achievements?).

Taunta: Close up with the new Collector's Edition pet in patch 1.2

One of the most exciting things about patch 1.2 is the introduction of Taunta. Tauna is an awesome new pet for those of you who forked out the extra credits for the Collector's Edition, unlike that little droid that looks like a vacume cleaner and goes beep ... and not much else. Now you must admit that just the look of Taunta is very well done, right down to the little horns on his head and his cute little tauntaun sounds.  

You can purchase Taunta if you have access tot he Collector's Edition vendor. He will set you back 200 000 credits, but me being a sucker for pets, I didn't think twice about dropping that type of cash for a new buddy.

The second you pull Taunta out he will focus on you with admiring eyes and follow you everywhere.

Unlike your other companions, Taunta won't abandon you as soon as you pull out your mount. Taunta can keep up with you, even when you're riding a 110 speed mount.

Taunta is also a chick magnet! Kira seemed to be fascinated with him; or is that jealousy?

You'll find yourself starring at Taunta, watching his cute little yawns. He also seems to constantly scratch at the ground, kind of like a chicken.

Taunta will be available in patch 1.2.

Combat Log Update and Details Game Update 1.2

At the Guild Summit in early March, Bioware announced that SWTOR was finally getting combat logs. There have been all sorts of heated debates across the forums about whether this will be good or bad for the game. I am not a huge fan of combat logs because they are often miss-used. Combat logs are a brilliant tool for optimizing a player's personal DPS or healing abilities. Having access to this information will allow you to choose the right sequence of attack for any given situation. Unfortunately, I've seen players sit out of raids and kicked from dungeons for having chosen to play a class that is at the time sub-par at a given task, a judgement made from information gleaned from combat logs. Most of the time, players making decisions based on combat logs, actually have no idea what they're looking at. As an MMO player who raided religiously for over three years, I often found that some of our most valuable raid members where players who were not at the top of the DPS meters. DPS meters have a problem of not showing group-wide buff advantages and they don't show a players' ability to attack the right target or be in the right place at the right time, or interupt a crucial critical hit from a boss. Often you will find players playing the DPS meters and not worrying about how they can truly benefit the group and the given situation.

At this stage, the information that Bioware has provided indicates that combat logs will be client-side only. This means that you can only you will see how well you are doing. I hope this stays true. being able to better yourself is one thing. Being able to judge others on their performance is another. I am just hoping no classes get judged once the combat logs become available.

Georg Zoeller provided us with a breakdown of what the combat log is. As you can see, with this combat log we will be able to calculate DPS (damage per second), healing per second and threat generated. A threat meter is something that may help a lot of players in raid scenarios. Bioware have released this information to the media community to allow them to start work on mods for SWTOR.

Iotasquared created a simple combat log parser that parses the combat logs and prints out damage/heals/threat stats here.

Read on to see a full example of what an exported combat log looks like, supplied by Bioware. Warning: this looks like scrambled text to the uninitiated.




[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Lucky Shots {1781496599806223}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Fortification {1781496599806227}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Might {1781496599805952}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Valor {1781496599806219}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:14] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:15] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Sprint {810670782152704}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Sprint {810670782152704}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:15] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Shien Form {1280806492307456}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Shien Form {1280806492307456}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:28] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Lucky Shots {1781496599806223}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Fortification {1781496599806227}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Might {1781496599805952}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Force Might {1781496599805952}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Force Valor {1781496599806219}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:55] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:56] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Sprint {810670782152704}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Sprint {810670782152704}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:19:56] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Shien Form {1280806492307456}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Shien Form {1280806492307456}] ()
[03/01/2012 14:20:05] [@Idrurrez] [@Idrurrez] [Safe Login {973870949466112}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Safe Login Immunity {973870949466372}] () 

New Crystals Available on a Space Station Near You!

The most exciting new content from today's patch is a slew of new crystals which you can simply purchase off a vendor at your fleet station. Due to popular demand Bioware have added two new vendors to the Republic and Imperial fleets. Both vendors have a variety of level 47 and 50 high end crystals in a rainbow of colors including blue, green, purple, red, white and yellow. The vendors also sell schematics for players to craft the Magenta crystals. The starting price for these babies is 125 000 credits and prices go all the way up to 2.5 million for a white crystal. 

[The crafted Magenta crystal looks awesome in Kira's muscular yet feminine grasp of her twin lightsaber.]

Also with this patch the restrictions on specific colored crystals have been removed. You can be light side, ranked five and equip a red crystal. Unfortunately, until they allow players to dismantle their epic sabers from PVe and PvP most players will not be able to even use these crystals. My lightsaber, which I got from PvP, is a purple item that can't be changed with any mods. According to the developers, this is being addressed in the next major patch. 

Let's have a look at the prices and variety available:

Click to see the list of crystals and prices

The purple saber crystal, seen for the first time in Republic players' hands since beta, looks awesome when combined with the blue/black saber available from end game raiding.

So, where can you find the vendors to go and make your purchase?

For Republic players, head to Carrick Station and talk to Geologist Breshin who is in the Galactic Trade Market sector.

For Imperial players, head to Vaiken Spacedock and talk to Geologist Pajro who is in the Galactic Trade Market sector.

If you pre-ordered the game Bioware have also included upgraded versions of the black/yellow crystal that you were awarded in the mail when you first created your character. For 100k you will get the level 47 yellow/black in a variety of different bonuses. For 250k you can get the level 50 equivalent.

The vendor has four different varieties of each level/cost to choose from.

SWTOR Developer Q&A Highlights

In the community news this week the developers published a Q&A which took place in the forums. Although a lot of the news had already been covered via the dev tracker, there were a couple of little highlights that you may find interesting. 

First of all, Daniel Erickson talked about game update 1.2 and the legacy system, and then there were some gems from Gabe about future changes to the PvP system, which include a new warzone that is capable of same-faction matches. Gabe also talked about cross-server warzones coming soon. By the sounds of it, we're going to get a hell of a lot of changes to this game in patch 1.2. 

Here are some highlights from the chat. For the full Q&A, follow the link below.

Daniel Erickson: Game Update 1.2 will bring you the first big step in the Legacy System but it’s important to understand that the Legacy System will continue to grow, bringing new options to new characters (alts) and some fun options for elder game players as well. Legacy is definitely not just for new characters! The species that will be unlocked in Game Update 1.2 are species currently in the game that will become available to classes and factions where you haven’t seen them before. New species are in consideration for the future but we don’t have any details to share right now. Look for more specific details in the near future as we head toward Game Update 1.2.

Daniel Erickson: We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how popular PvP is in The Old Republic and we’ve been doubling down on our efforts to bring exciting new content and systems to the PvP community. Right now there’s a new Warzone planned for Game Update 1.2 which we’re already testing internally and really enjoying. We can say it’s enabled for same faction vs. same faction play, so if you’ve been playing a lot of Huttball, expect some variety soon! Also coming in 1.2 is the pre-season of our Warzone ranking system, bringing better matchmaking which means better PvP. In the future expect a ton more PvP news as we expand and polish what has proven to be one of the most popular aspects of The Old Republic. We’ve got big plans.

Gabe Amatangelo: Not until we introduce cross server queuing. If we were to allow players to choose their Warzone before they could queue across servers, then it would negatively affect how often every player would see a Warzone – and for every player that loves a certain Warzone there is another player that hates it. The population would end up divided by their Warzone choice, negatively affecting the time it would take for a specific Warzone to become available for anyone. With cross server queuing we will still have a preference to match players of the same server, but those players who choose specific preferences such as these will likely end up in a match with players in the larger Wargroup.

Read on

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - 1.1.3 Patch Notes

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - 1.1.3 Patch Notes

Note: Because development is ongoing during testing, it should be noted that all changes and updates listed in the patch notes should be considered incomplete and are subject to change or removal before release to the live servers.The Public Test Server patch notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.


Classes and Combat


General
Surge rating has been re-balanced. It now reaches diminishing returns the same way as other damage ratings, and its per point damage contribution has been reduced by approximately 10%.


Bounty Hunter


Mercenary


Arsenal
Stabilizers: Correctly adds pushback resistance to Unload.
Trooper



Commando


Gunnery
Steadied Aim: Correctly adds pushback resistance to Full Auto.


Companion Characters


General
Some taxis that failed to re-summon companions upon reaching their destination now properly re-summon them.
Companions no longer indicate they wish to speak with you when you are not yet eligible for their next conversation.
If a player is invited to a nearly full group and declines, that player is no longer prevented from summoning a companion.


Crew Skills


Crafting Skills
Non-stackable crafting materials are now refunded if the crafting assignment is canceled.
The number of non-stackable crafting materials a player has is now correctly reflected in the crafting UI.


Biochem
Exotech schematics will now function properly. - Updated 2/10
Crafting Exotech consumables now results in three items with a chance of one additional item on a crafting critical.


Flashpoints and Operations


General
Conversation rewards like Social and Alignment Points and Companion Affection are gained more consistently during Hard Mode Flashpoints.


Flashpoints


Boarding Party
In Hard Mode, players are no longer blocked from re-entering the Flashpoint in some circumstances when the group is defeated during the encounter with Jorland.


Kaon Under Siege
Expulsor Droid now drops the correct loot.
Operations


Karagga’s Palace
The chest in 8-man Nightmare Mode now spawns properly after defeating Karagga.


Items


General
Unique items can no longer be traded to a player that has the maximum number of that item in their inventory.
A confirmation dialog is now displayed when purchasing items with commendations or tokens and when purchasing expensive items.


Legacy
A confirmation dialog is now displayed when choosing a Legacy name. The UI has been updated to better communicate Legacy name decisions.




Missions and NPCs


General
Small amounts of Social Points are no longer lost in some circumstances (rarely at the beginning of a Flashpoint or in some mission conversations).
Bonus Series missions on Tatooine (Republic and Imperial) can now be abandoned.


Missions


Imperial
Eve of Destruction: This mission progresses properly even if the player does not immediately travel to Corellia.


Republic
Need to Impress: Resolved a dialogue issue with Ambassador Jannik that blocked progress in this mission.
Rapid Response: This mission can now be failed if the player leaves the mission phase while attempting to destroy the Bomb-Carrying Droids.
Taris Bonus Series: The cinematic for the objective "Return to Storm" now completes properly even if the player has not finished Reconstruction Efforts.


PvP
General
Fixed an issue causing players to not receive Warzone Win mission credit upon winning a Warzone match when the first player to enter the zone leaves the zone before the match concludes.


World PvP


Ilum
Players are now notified when they kill a player but do not receive credit due to rate limits.


Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
Players are no longer occasionally disconnected from the game when interacting with a mailbox.
Players no longer lose mouse click functionality in some circumstances after pressing multiple mouse buttons.

A Hundred Seagulls Swoop down to Kill a Jedi

With patch 1.1.2 live on the servers, after two whole days of testing on the beta server (cough, cough) everything is running smooth as silk (cough). Players are delighted to find that they are no longer getting credit for some of the kills they are making in Ilum! Not only that, warzones are randomly not giving credit for wins. As you can imagine, when you add issues like players being able to stealth cap objectives in warzones, and the drop rate of tokens in PvP bags seemingly diminished, players are really excited to get out there and PvP (cough,  cough).

I didn't bother handing in my weekly last week so I went out to Ilum to get my daily completed this morning and the above screenshot is what I experienced. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a pelican anywhere to save my ass (Finding Nemo fans will understand my comment).

I was able to get a couple of kills out by our base by tricking some unsuspecting Imperials into the range of the new turrets. Aside from that though, even after assembling a full operation group we were still outnumbered. Ilum at this stage involves the dominating faction holding center, farming the random spawns of armaments and destroying any groups that try to complete their dailies, and patch 1.1.2 has done nothing to fix it. If anything it's made it worse because the lag has increased. Even with a high end PC I was experiencing frame rates of as low as 4-5 fps during combat. Any time anything happened to do with the Ilum quest, the server would almost croak it. 

Despite all this I was able to complete my weekly Ilum mission as I had it 3/4 of the way completed from last week. I was also able to complete my weekly warzone missions along with my dailies. This took the better part of 4.5-5 hours. All that effort rewarded me with a total of 9 PvP bags. Every single bag gave me 15 Centurion Commendations, 7 Champion Commendations and a random amount of credits. Out of the 9 bags I received no tokens at all. The commendations, after completing both weeklies and two dailies, allow me to get no armor upgrades at all.

I might have just been unlucky this week and devs are swearing black and blue that the drop rate is still 25%. I guess time will tell but it seems like a lot of people in the SWTOR forums, myself included, are seeing zero drops of tokens.

The lag in itself, in my opinion, is enough reason to close the PvP section of Ilum down. The server is obviously not handling it and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As far as PvP awards go, every day this PvP zone remains open, the dominating faction gains an unfair advantage in gear against the opposite faction. This affects all PvP, not only in Ilum. Once the damage is done it will be hard to fix.

Let us know how you went with PvP bags this week. have you found a decreased drop rate of tokens? Leave your comments below. We will be taking this feedback to the devs directly.

Analyzing SWTOR Game Update 1.1

I thought I'd have a closer look at what we should all expect with the patch 1.1 going live tonight. I'm actually really surprised that we've got a content update so early in the piece. On the first month anniversary, BioWare are ready to release new end game content. And what could be more fun than the Star Wars version of zombies, Rakghouls!

We're also getting a much needed fix to the farm-fest that is Ilum. The last couple of Tuesday nights have been a little bit like scenes from Brave Heart, with piles of Sith and Republic troops standing on opposite sides of each other, trading caps while also firing off the occassional pot-shot or insult at the oppossing faction. Too bad we don't have a /lift kilt!

The patch notes are below in gold, with my comments throughout.

General

Anti-aliasing is now available and can be enabled in the preferences menu.
First up, for anybody with a decent enough PC, you are now going to be able to turn on anti-aliasing. Keep in mind though that if you notice performance dropping a bit too much, trading off things like shadows might enable you to keep anti-aliasing on while keeping the performance level up.

Classes and Combat

General
Healers will rejoice at the reduction of threat. This will also make it easier for Gaurdians or Jedi tanks to keep threat on general mobs, tanking flashpoints has been an utter nightmare as a Jedi Knight Gaurdian. I have literally had to tab target to keep threat. I've also had a few healers curse me out. Thank you for this fix!
Healing caused by crowd control abilities no longer generates threat.
Tooltips for abilities modified by skill points now display correct damage values.


Guard
This ability now transfers to a new friendly target without requiring deactivation on the previous target.
Activating this ability while targeting a guarded or invalid target will still toggle the Guard ability off.
A distinct visual effect is now present on characters using Guard on another character, and another effect is now present on the guarded character if they leave Guard’s range.
This has been another issue I've had with my Jedi Gaurdian, especially in PvP. Trying to gaurd the dude who picked up the Hutt Ball was a right pain in the rear end. Hopefully this fixes that issue.

Taunt
A new visual effect has been added to the user and the target of the Taunt ability for the duration of its effect.


Jedi Consular
Project: This ability no longer shakes the screen of onlookers.
So all you Jedi Consulars shaking up the space station ... your fun has ended!

Shadow
Battle Readiness: Now allows Combat Technique to trigger once every 3 seconds.
Combat Technique: Healing received through Combat Technique has been increased, scales properly at higher levels, and can only be triggered once every 4.5 seconds.
Slow Time: This ability’s damage has been increased by 15% and it now slows the movement speed of all affected targets.


Jedi Knight
Force Leap: This ability no longer functions on Portable Holo Dancers.
But oh ... that was fun!

Sith Inquisitor

Assassin
Dark Charge: Healing received through Dark Charge has been increased, scales properly at higher levels, and can only be triggered once every 4.5 seconds.
Overcharge Saber: Now allows Dark Charge to trigger once every 3 seconds.
Wither: Damage has been increased by 15% and it now slows the movement speed of all affected targets.
These are nice little buffs for our Assassin buddies. You might have a chance of killing me now ... wait, do they need these fixes?


Sith Warrior
Intercede: This ability no longer functions on Portable Holo Dancers.
Shatter: this ability’s tooltip now correctly reflects its damage; damage from this ability has not been adjusted.

Imperial Agent

Bug Fixes
Corrected an issue where activating cover, using Explosive Probe, and then using Snipe could cause Snipe to be interrupted.


Bounty Hunter

General
Incendiary Missile: This ability is no longer misclassified as an Area of Effect ability.


Companion Characters

General
C2-N2 and 2V-R8 no longer vocalize crafting commentary during combat.
Oh, thank God! Now is there any way to stop them from jabbering on every time I walk around my ship?! Even C3-P0 had an off switch for when he got too annoying!
The Carbonized Stream companion ability no longer breaks prematurely.
This has been a major gimp on most healing companions. It will be interesting to see how effective Doc is now as his CC effect has been absolutely useless.Companions

Kira Carsen
Fixed an issue that caused players to be unable to progress in Kira’s affection conversations. Players previously affected by this issue can now speak to Kira and progress normally.
All I can say to all you evil Jedi that went to the Dark Side to get a bit of coitus with Kira, serve yourself right! You see us light Jedi that were good boys and didn't try to hit on her just after they killed somebody important to her, never had a problem. Call this bug karma.


Bug Fixes
Companions will now sell trash items when requested, regardless of group size.
Companion healing abilities no longer apply a permanent green effect on the character.
My dude has looked like a Christmas tree since beta. The fact that I'll be able to see my guy's armor again rather than the goofy green holonet over my entire body, is a major relief.
Fixed an issue that caused Companion Characters to sometimes have the incorrect appearance in cinematics.
What, no more naked companions?! I thought it was entertaining seeing Lore Scourge in his jocks right after killing a major Sith competitor (sorry no spoilers here).


Crew Skills

Bug Fixes
Corrected an issue that prevented recently completed Crew Skill missions from showing up in the next list of available missions.
Fixed a bug that could cause Crew Skills a character didn’t have to appear in the Crew Skills window.
Players can no longer loot harvesting nodes they do not have the appropriate Crew Skill for after a group member harvests (but does not loot) a node.


Flashpoints and Operations

General
A new level 50 Flashpoint, Kaon Under Siege, is now available for play in Normal and Hard Modes!
The Gav Daragon and the Ziost Shadow have been expanded to accommodate the Kaon Under Siege gateway.
The difficulty of some non-boss enemies in Flashpoints has been adjusted.
Enemies now drop credits more frequently in Flashpoints.
This is the big add-on provided in this patch. I'd recommend that players get a couple of runs at normal before going head-strong into hard mode.

Flashpoints

Cademimu
General Ortol’s rocket fire damage no longer occurs when the rocket is not active.
The Black Talon
Some enemies in this Flashpoint are no longer invisible.
The Foundry
Corrected an issue that could cause the final boss to become stuck at 10% health.
The Battle of Ilum
Krel Thak’s Allied Weequay Pirates have had their toughness reduced in Hard Mode.
The False Emperor
The Sith Entity’s affliction ability now properly deals damage in Hard Mode.
HK-47 now has the correct amount of health in Normal Mode.
Some fixes to some very frustrating bugs on that list!

Operations

Eternity Vault
Players are now able to successfully loot the chest after defeating the Infernal Council.
Perimeter Defense Cannons have been re-tuned and have improved targeting behaviors.
Soa’s Mind Trap and Force Throw abilities no longer target the same player multiple times; they now target every player in the group once.
Ball lightning enemies summoned by Soa deal damage in a smaller radius.
The Annihilation Droid’s rocket burst attack no longer deals double damage in 16-player Operations.
Soa now summons fewer ball lightning enemies during the final round in 16-player Operations.
Karagga’s Palace
Four new bosses can now be battled by players in Karagga’s Palace!
Players no longer get stuck attempting to exit the Karagga’s Palace phase.
Bug Fixes

Flashpoints
Corrected an issue that prevented some enemy NPCs from spawning in Flashpoints.
The correct error message now displays when a player attempts to enter a different Flashpoint than the rest of the group.
Flashpoint gateways no longer display as orange in incorrect circumstances.
Fixed an issue that prevented Flashpoint difficulty from being set properly.
Fixed an issue that caused mapnotes directing players to some Flashpoints to not appear correctly.
Corrected map issues that made locating mission objectives on the Gav Daragon difficult.
Fixed an issue preventing some players from opening a chest after a boss fight if the group was previously defeated by the boss.
Items

General
An Item Modification Table has been added to the Supplies areas of the Republic and Imperial Fleets.


PvP

Battlemaster Gear Tokens have been converted into Battlemaster Commendations, which can be used to purchase any Battlemaster gear. This allows players to purchase any piece of gear instead of requiring them to purchase the piece indicated by the token.
Battlemaster Bags now contain Battlemaster Commendations instead of Battlemaster Gear Tokens. They still also contain Champion Commendations.
Although I haven't had many issues with double of tokens, I can see how this could be an issue with some players. It's hard enough to get these tokens in the first place and as I need two separate sets, one DPS and one tank, this is a welcome change.


Missions and NPCs

General
All Bonus Series missions and their required missions can now be abandoned.
You mean I can get rid of that level 16 mission now?!. Thank the maker!
Certain Wampas on Hoth that were preying on lower-level characters have had their level reduced.
Oh come on; why change this? Wampas are meant to be feared. They took out Luke for Pete's sake.


Missions

Imperial
Pressure Points: The Lerantha Lurker no longer engages players in combat before completing its spawn sequence.
Geroya be Haran: Objectives related to this mission now glow when selected.
In Cold Blood: Enemies that use Armor Piercing Cell during this mission no longer each stack a debuff on the player.
Shadow Spawn: The Sith Spawn no longer knocks players down for longer than intended.
Thuggish Behavior: Corrected an issue that could cause the player to remain stuck in combat during this mission. The required kills to complete this mission have been reduced.
Republic
Climbing the Ladder: A conversation related to this mission no longer ends prematurely.
Droid Clean Up: Corrected an issue that caused the bonus mission to persist in the player’s mission log.
The Summit: The difficulty of the encounter with Sidone has been reduced.
Vivicar Awaits: Lowered the amount of enemies that attack the player during the step “Find a Way Past the Force Field.”


NPCs

Bug Fixes
Jilcoln Cadera’s abilities now correctly take into account whether a player is immune from knockbacks.
The “Primal Destroyer” World Boss on Belsavis is now “Overwhelming” as intended.
The World Boss “The First” on Dromund Kaas no longer inhibits Bounty Hunter’s Rapid Shots, and Imperial Agents will no longer be knocked out of cover during combat with it.PvP

General
The shuttle room in Dorn Base Command Center on Hoth is no longer considered contested territory.
Ka on Voss is now a PvP Sanctuary.


Warzones


Level 50 players now participate in their own Warzone bracket and will not be matched with lower-level players.
It's going to be interesting to see how this effects queue times. Although I find it frustrating to have multiple level 10s in my group, waiting half an hour for a match might be just as frustrating. The good thing is that I don't think I'll see as many AFK players trying to get experience in my level 50 groups.
Ilum
The daily and weekly mission objectives in Ilum now require defeating enemy players and/or collecting armaments from the center objective.
Players now gain increased Valor from player kills in Ilum.
Players now gain increased bonus Valor for kills based on the number of objectives controlled by their faction.
Increased bonus Valor is now granted for player kills when defending an objective your faction owns.
A notification is now displayed when a player gains Valor.
Three new respawn points have been added for each faction.
Companions are now restricted from the PvP objective area on Ilum.
Notifications are now displayed when enemy players are close to an objective.
I am curious to see how this effects the overall PvP experience in this zone. on the server I'm on it's pretty obvious that the Sith out-number the Republic. Will the Sith bother going to Ilum considering there will not be enough Republic players to compete, or will it be a massive onslaught every time I enter the zone?


Bug Fixes

General
The scoreboard value for “Highest Protection Per Single Life” now functions correctly.
Players who have left a Warzone can no longer receive an MVP vote from teammates.
Your PvP status will now be toggled automatically upon leaving a PvP region.
Additional feedback is now provided when a player attempts to toggle their PvP flag.
The Bolster tooltip now more accurately represents the buff’s effects.
Huttball
Corrected a rare issue that could cause the Frogdogs to be declared the winner in a 0-0 match even if the Rotworms held the ball last.
Ilum
Mountable turrets in Ilum no longer deal damage to targets behind them or outside their range.
Turrets no longer immediately dismount the player after use.
UI

Maps
Fixed a bug that prevented the minimap title from displaying when loading into the game or refreshing the UI.
Corrected an issue that caused some mapnotes to disappear from the minimap when other mapnotes were updated.


Items
Item hyperlinks now display stats for crafted research items properly.
Item hyperlinks no longer display erroneous additional information relating to schematics when examined.
Attempting to place a non-mission item into the mission inventory now displays an error message.
Dragging equipment onto the character paper doll no longer prompts an item deletion notice. Items dragged to the paper doll are now equipped if possible.
Item set bonuses now appear on the tooltip when viewing an item on a vendor.
Items that can be modified now display with the correct loot color in the loot roll window.
Comparative tooltips now correctly display stat differences when mousing over items in the Crew Skills window.


Bug Fixes
Fixed the tooltip display for ability cooldowns over one hour in length.
The interface for splitting stacks of items now displays correctly.
Servers that are online now always display on top of servers that are offline in the Server Select screen.
Corrected a typographical error in the “Additional Commands” context menu option.
Players nearby a player who achieves a new Legacy level no longer receive the Legacy level-up notification.
Legacy name display preferences now persist when travelling between planets.
A new confirmation dialogue now appears when submitting spam reports in game.
Sorting now works correctly in the Guilds tab.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

The owner of a holocall conversation is no longer shown in the last frame of the cinematic.
The spacebar button is now recognized when a player presses it to progress after a loading screen even if the spacebar button has been re-bound.
Additional issues that could impact performance on Taris have been addressed.
Vanity pets can no longer be considered targets for any abilities.
Corrected an issue that could cause some preferences to reset to defaults upon area transitions.
An Aim Datacron on Ilum is now accessible and no longer repeats its initial cinematic once used.
A Datacron on Coruscant is no longer blocked by unintentional collision.


There are lot of other useful bug fixes and I'm sure players will still have new bugs to report or old ones that aren't fixed int he patch. I for one truly hope the red error text messages get a toggle on and off switch in the options. I even find the text notification that pops up in the middle of space missions, to be extremely annoying. The text notifications in the center of the screen take away some of the immersion for me, but Like all other patches, the patch will include changes that are not documented publicly.

Eworks Evolved from Ilum! Proof Found! (and PvP fixes in patch 1.1)

I've been having a lot of fun in PvP over the last couple of weeks, but yesterday was a doozy! I ended up in about twelve warzones in a row, with either no other, or only one other, level 50. Entire groups were made up of low level characters who didn't even have their faster run speed yet. This made for a very frustrating Sunday afternoon as I attempted to finish my daily. Although I was able to get eight or nine medals for most warzones, what I needed was some wins.

Everybody knows that level 50 characters have a distinct advantage over lower level characters and when you're fully decked out in PvP gear this advantage increases dramatically. I have no problems handling two and sometimes even three low level characters in a warzone. The problem is that the system isn't balancing matches by player level, players are chosen randomly. At this stage, on my server, we seem to have more level 50 Sith doing PvP than we do Republic.

The other issue is Ilum. Over the last week I've been able to do my daily missions and even complete my weeklyrelatively easily. I've engaged in PVP a couple of times, and even had my rear end handed to me by trying to capture a point in the battlefield, but last night I discovered the true issue with the Ilum missions. As I approached one of the control points I noticed two Republic players attempting to capture the point and a third player under attack from a Sith. The player was about the die, so I knew I had to do something. Without thinking twice, I jumped in and attacked. I was able to kill the fully PvP-geared Sith Warrior, although he did try and make a run for it to his companions on the other side of the battlefield; but I wasn't going to let him go. To my shock and amazement, after I had killed him, I got a series of abusive whispers from the Rebels who were capturing the spawn point, telling me off for killing the Imperial who had been flipping the spot for them.

For one, he was doing nothing to flip an objective. Two, he was attacking a Republic player. Three, the Imperials that were flipping the point had already done so and were gone. Four, it's a battlefield PvP zone so I was only doing what is surely expected.


The Republic players referred to me as a moron for engaging in PvP in a PvP zone! This guild of players will surely devolve into Ewoks within the next three thousand years. I've never seen so many Care Bears in a PvP zone!

Obviously I don't expect players to do stupid things in PvP zones like trying to attack five Sith when you're by yourself. Nobody likes a trip to the cloner, but open world PvP zones are designed for PvP. If you think that you have the right to go in there and not be attacked, you're kidding yourself. If you think you deserve the right to farm daily missions in a PvP zone and not be attacked, you are truly trying to exploit the system. I have been able to complete all my dailies and weeklies and also engage in PvP. Yes, I have run from large groups of Imperials, but I have no problems taking on two Sith by myself, because I like a challenge!

Should these players and guilds be allowed in these PvP zones? Am I wrong by saying that red = dead?

Thankfully, BioWare are taking moves in patch 1.1 to stop this Care Bear farming. They will also be introducing level 50-only warzones. Guilds like Kyro might need to find new ways to get their gear.


PvP changes in patch 1.1:

Battlemaster Gear Tokens have been converted into Battlemaster Commendations, which can be used to purchase any Battlemaster gear. This allows players to purchase any piece of gear instead of requiring them to purchase the piece indicated by the token.


Battlemaster Bags now contain Battlemaster Commendations instead of Battlemaster Gear Tokens. They still also contain Champion Commendations.

General
The shuttle room in Dorn Base Command Center on Hoth is no longer considered contested territory.
Ka on Voss is now a PvP Sanctuary.

Warzones
Level 50 players now participate in their own Warzone bracket and will not be matched with lower-level players.

Ilum
The daily and weekly mission objectives in Ilum now require defeating enemy players and/or collecting armaments from the center objective.
Players now gain increased Valor from player kills in Ilum.
Players now gain increased bonus Valor for kills based on the number of objectives controlled by their faction.
Increased bonus Valor is now granted for player kills when defending an objective your faction owns.
A notification is now displayed when a player gains Valor.
Three new respawn points have been added for each faction.
Companions are now restricted from the PvP objective area on Ilum.
Notifications are now displayed when enemy players are close to an objective.