No Level Restrictions on Companions

I'm constantly getting asked to include a level indicator for companions. People want to know approximately what level they will get their companions at. As an experiment I got together with a friend who was already level 50 while I played my level 15 Smuggler and we thought we'd try and get my 2nd companion, Bowdaar while I was still at level 15. Bowdaar ordinarily joins you at approximately level 21, or at least 21 is the level you need to be to complete the mission solo. But, we wondered, what happens if you have a level 50 drag you through all your class missions? To do this you will need to get your own spaceship first. Now, of course, you can get somebody to drag you through class missions to get your ship as well, but I already had mine. After that ...

The first hurdle was actually getting to my class missions while I was at such a low level. As you can see in the above screenshot, the mobs in the areas leading up to my missions were 7 levels higher than I was. This makes it impossible to solo. You can't hit opponents that are that much higher than your level. Every shot was a miss. But I had a level 50 gladiator dragging me along, so one-shotting these level 22 mobs was no issue.

Then obviously the missions themselves involved fighting elite level 21 mobs. If you're level 15 and alone then this in itself is absolutely impossible. Even if you work out a way to get to the mission, whether it be via stealthing or clone zerging, you'll have no chance to kill the level 21 elite at level 15. But there is nothing stopping you from bringing a friend. Rammy, my gaurdian, got one or two shots off; before this bounty hunter had a chance to blink he was dead.

I levelled from 15 to 16 in just a couple of missions, so our experiment to see if I could get Bowdaar at level 15 became moot anyway.

To complete all my class missions on Nar Shaddaa it took the two of us working together about 45 minutes. I leveled from 15-16 and Bowdaar became my companion at the end of the quest line on that planet. I was also pleased to see that Bowdaar's equipment was rated much higher than any standard level 16 equipment; in fact the mods in his weapon are level 21, even though he is only level 16. 

I have since gone back and completed all the missions on Corellia and Taris (both of which I had skipped for the experiment of teaming up with a level 50) and having an over-equipped tank has made the missions extremely easy.

There is absolutely nothing stopping you from powering through your class missions with the assistance of other players, even if your class missions are on space stations or space ships. Your group members can land and join you on those stations and ships to assist you in any fight. 

Obviously, as you complete your class missions, you not only get the benefit of higher level companions joining you, but you also get access to higher level equipment that is a class reward and usually has no level restriction. 

Although I don't recommend you do this for your first or even your second experience in SWTOR, once you have a few alts leveled up, this could be a quick and easy way to level an extra alt for crafting or different experiences.

SWTOR: It's All About the Look

A real important part of any MMO is how you can customize your character. SWTOR does a great job of providing a variety of different outfits, to allow your character to have a very unique look. The only issue at this stage is the PvP gear. Unfortunately the PvP gear is the best stuff you can get for most players, but it forces you to have a certain look. You can only take two of the three mods out and equip them in other orange items. For me though, I actually really do like the look of the Jedi Knight PvP armor. 

There's a long thread in the forums with massive complaints about the look of this armor. Now, although I have to agree that the helmet is absolutely dreadful, the rest of the armor, in my eyes, looks really good. Unfortunately the image linked in the thread is of very low quality and you really can't tell what it looks like. The images below are high quality of the Jedi Knight PvP armor in the silver and brown combo and the gold variety.

One thing I'm personally very vain about is the look of my lightsaber. I've been running through lower level flash points in search of the look I want and I've found two lightsaber hilts (shown in the image above) that I believe suit my character's style perfectly. At level 50 there are a variety of different flash points you can solo. I've found this to be a really great way to find unique orange items for yourself and your companions too. Although the mods in the orange items you pick up might be too low, they are easily upgraded with mods from the Galactic Kiosk or even through tokens and vendors on places like Corellia.

More images of the controversial Jedi Knight PvP armor.

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.

PVP Medal Rundown. What the Hell are Medals For?

There is more to PVP than just experience. You also get valor, commendations and credits. There are ways to maximize how much you get in any PVP match, regardless of your spec. There are lots of achievements you can get that will boost your valor. Your valor will allow you to unlock higher end purchases on PVP items. Your PVP commendations will allow you to purchase said PVP items from vendors and your XP, or experience, will obviously increase your character's level ... and if you don't know what credits are then go watch Star Wars IV and listen to Han, he explains it properly!

Players participating and achieving goals within a PVP warzone are rewarded with medals. Every medal you get will increase your valor by 50 and also give you +5 warzone commendations. Knowing what gives you medals is extremely important to maximizing what you get out of a warzone. At this stage, this is what we've worked out, with thanks to the guys in the forums who have filled in lots of gaps. As you can see from the image below, when you know what you have to achieve, it's easy to get a lot out of PVP, really fast.

I'm having a blast with my Jedi Gaurdian, Jean, in warzones and I'd like to apologize to all of the players that I killed multiple times ... nah, not really!

Medals Accumulated Earn 50 Valor and 5 Warzone commendations each.

Medal Ranking:

• The Gold ranking is awarded for earning 6 or more medals during a match
• The Silver ranking is awarded for 3-5 medals
• The Bronze ranking is awarded for 1-2 medals

Announcements (thanks Ayestes):

• Unbeatable announcement is unlocked if you earn 4 medals without dying.
• Invincible announcement is unlocked if you earn 7 medals without dying.
• Immortal announcement is unlocked if you earn 9 medals without dying.

Medals:

1. Medic – 2.5k healing from a single heal
2. Demolisher – 2.5k damage from a single attack
3. Trauma Surgeon – 5k healing from a single heal
4. Anihilator - 5K damage from a single attack
5. Quick Draw – Getting a killing blow on one player
6. Combatant – Dealing 75k damage
7. Destroyer - Dealing 300K damage
8. Healer - Healing 75K
9. Savior - Healing 300K
10. Defender – Earning 1k Defender Points
11. Warden - Earning 3k Defender Points
12. Assassin – Killing a player in a one-on-one fight
13. Shield – 5k Protection
14. Protector - 50K Protection (thanks meatballz/adlarn)
15. Guardian – 2k Protection since last death
16. Paladin – 10k Protection since last death
17. Commando – Killing 10 enemy players
18. Soldier – Killing 25 enemy players

Valor Titles: Every 10 ranks in valor will give you a new title -

Note: Valor Rank 60 is required to open Battlemaster Bags

1. Skirmisher – Valor Rank 10
2. Duelist – Valor Rank 20
3. Gladiator – Valor Rank 30
4. Centurion – Valor Rank 40
5. Champion – Valor Rank 50
6. Battlemaster – Valor Rank 60
7. War Hero – Valor Rank 70
8. Conqueror – Valor Rank 80
9. Warlord – Valor Rank 90
10. Elite Warlord – Valor Rank 100

SWTOR 1.0.2 Now Live Patch Notes Farmers Fracking Players Again

Thank you credit farmers!

"- Removed some high-level harvesting nodes from Tatooine, Corellia, and Ilum."

To all you ass hats thinking your cool by camping a node and saying well its in game so I will take all I can have fracked it for the rest of us. This is why you suck balls your actions take from all players. I'm not pissed  at BioWare for this it was the farmers that forced them to do it.

lot's of nice bug fixes and some odd ones too... It's good to see patched getting rolled out so fast.

General

- Guilds that are currently leaderless will have an Officer chosen and promoted to Guild Leader.

Classes and Combat

Sith Inquisitor

General

- The Darth title is now properly granted to Sith Inquisitors.

Bug Fixes

- Corrected an issue that could prevent players from taking cover when targeting large NPCs.

- Fixed a bug that caused some abilities with activation times to be interrupted when used from cover.

Crew Skills

Gathering

- Removed some high-level harvesting nodes from Tatooine, Corellia, and Ilum.

Flashpoints and Operations

Cademimu

- General Ortol can no longer be pulled out of his room.

Maelstrom Prison

- Corrected an issue that could cause Kilran to behave incorrectly when defeated in cover.

Taral V

- General Edikar now has the correct loot in Hard Mode and no longer enrages in Normal Mode.

Operations

Eternity Vault

- Gharj can no longer be pulled out of his encounter room.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed an issue that could cause choosing Nightmare Mode to not set enemies to Nightmare difficulty.

Items

General

- PvP lockboxes now cost 70 commendations, contain more consumables, and always contain an item.

Bug Fixes

- Corrected several PvP items that were Bind on Equip. They are now Bind on Pickup.

- PvP vendors on Capital Planets now offer the correct PvP items.

- Commendations received via in-game mail are now correctly added to the Currency tab.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Imperial

- Number One with a Bullet: Players who choose dark side options now correctly receive the mission First Strike after completing this mission.

- First Strike: Players who did not receive this mission will now receive it upon entering their personal starships.

Republic

- Death Cloud: Players can now complete the “Toxic Waste” bonus objective regardless of how quickly they complete this mission.

Bug Fixes

- Corrected mission steps on several planets that could cause client instability.

- Fixed issues with some missions that could prevent pending rewards from being accepted.

Space Combat

Bug Fixes

- Fixed an issue that caused a client crash if a space station was destroyed in Space Combat.

UI

Maps

- Group members no longer appear on all planets on the Galaxy Map.

- Corrected an issue that could cause map notes to disappear after logging out and back into the game.

- Corrected some map notes that referenced the incorrect map.

- Updated map notes for “travel to planet” steps in class missions on Nar Shaddaa, Hoth, and Belsavis to indicate the planet’s space station.

Bug Fixes

- Group members outside of a player’s phase are no longer prompted to roll on items.

- The In-Game Customer Service Portal no longer appears to hang while the “updating” message is displayed.

- The Guild interface now properly displays the guild member list when it is sorted.

- The “Show Sith Corruption” option no longer toggles off when transitioning between areas.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

- Taxi rides are no longer occasionally interrupted, causing the player to be dropped from the taxi.

- Using the /dismiss command now correctly dismisses a vanity pet.

- Corrected some issues that could cause players to become stuck on the loading screen when logging into a character.

- Players can now use emotes while riding a vehicle.

- Fixed a bug that prevented some text-only mail messages from being received.

- Graphics preferences in settings files are now consistent with actual settings in use.

- Being in Do Not Disturb mode no longer prevents characters from being logged out for being away.

- Corrected an issue that caused poor performance on some machines in indoor areas with shadows enabled.

- Fixed an issue that could prevent players from being logged out for inactivity.

Customer Service in SWTOR. What to Expect

About a week ago I had a very lovely pair of Champion Vindicator's Greaves disappear out of my bag. To be honest, I don't know if I sold them to a vendor or deleted them somehow, all I know is that when I went to equip them they were gone. BioWare allow up to three items every six months to be restored if you accidentally delete or sell them.

So I put an ingame service ticket in. In the ticket I included the date that I got the pants, how I got the pants, the fact that I purchased them using a token, which I had received from a PVP bag, and the last date that I saw them. To my surprise, I didn't get a response to my ticket for over five days.


After five days, with no response, I added a little bit more information, with the exact name of the Greaves and the name of the vendor I got them from. I also posted a message in the customer service section of the forums. I was very polite, asking if it was normal for a wait of five days on getting a response to a ticket. Lo and behold, within five minutes, I had a gamemaster contact me. It started off with the quirky role-playing droid introduction, but within half an hour, I was able to logout and then log back in and find my lost item in my mailbox.

I've been gaming for a long time and I can guarantee you that insulting an employee's grammar, getting angry at them, or giving them a hard time, will not get you better service. I've read other people's posts in the SWTOR forums doing these things and seriously guys .... who is that going to help?  Even if you find that you've been let down by the service procedure, always stay calm and remember, this person probably has a lot on their plate and they're all just getting used to new jobs. You can't expect them to be a game expert yet. Help them to help you. Give them as much information as possible when putting in a ticket.

Rammy's Quick Look at Huttball PVP Battles in SWTOR

Firstly, I would just like to say the terminology used for this PVP warzone will be from the Republic side. Any abilities used can be directly related to the Imperial side, with the relevant skill.

Huttball is for all intents and purposes a very easy warzone to interpret. And if BOTH sides are capable it involves an extreme amount of fun.

Huttball teams can be made up of Sith vs Republic, Sith vs Sith, or Republic vs Republic.

The goal of Huttball is simply to grab the small metal ball in the middle and get to your opposing team's end and over the line to score. The opposing side is marked with hexagon purple lights.

The methods and tactics for getting this done require teamwork.  These can be varied by using class skills such as the (charge/leap) abilities by Jedi Knights or Troopers, or the (rescue) abilities by Jedi Consulars and Jedi Guardians.


We strongly advise anybody with leap or intercept abilities to utilize them to get around the flame pits which block your path on the way to the goal.

Another method which is vitally important is an understanding on how to pass the ball to another team member. This can be done by clicking on an ability which is automatically loaded onto your toolbar when you enter Huttball.  Simply click the button and a large luminescent area will highlight on the ground and click again with the highlighted area placed over a team mate. Be very careful though ... an inaccurate throw can go to the other team !!

Communication with your other team members is crucial and if you aren't communicating properly then prepare to get beaten.

There are more advanced tactics that can be taken advantage of but I suggest you get in there and try it.

Good Luck and May the Force be with you.

Bots Farming SWTOR get Arms Ripped Off

... well they got their accounts disabled anyway! Farmers, and some players, thought it was a good idea to venture into high level zones and camp high level reward chests for hours on end. On some servers, it got to the stage where there were four or five level 15 toons camped around one level 50 reward spawn. The clever little farmers thought they had outsmarted BioWare by venturing into zones that were neutral to their faction; so Republic toons would go into the Sith Heroic area and stand and farm among all the Republic NPCs that would not attacked them. The perfect spot for the farmer was in a safe place away from aggressive mobs, but close enough to be able to collect the respawn of the high level chest or crystal.

BioWare have taken the Wookie approach and have figuratively ripped the appendages off these farmers by first suspending and then banning any accounts that have been involved in credit trading.


To be honest, I am surprised at how little spam I'm getting in the game. I think I have had just two whispers offering me credits over the last three weeks. Unless the farmers find another loop hole that's hard for BioWare to track, it looks like BioWare have gotten it under control pretty quickly.

Some players have kicked up a fuss on Reddit and other social networking sites, complaining that they should be allowed to stand there all day and farm the chests, because the game allows them to and they're just collecting credits for their own use. What these players don't realize is that BioWare are not just cracking down on this because of farmers, they are also protecting the economy balance in the game. Anybody who believes their account has been unjustly banned can submit a petition to BioWare. Stephen Reid has replied, in detail, in the forums about this issue (see below).

If something in the game seems too good to be true, for example, being able to farm a level 50 chest every 10 minutes for 4000-5000 credits a pop, when you are only a level 14 character, I would suggest that you just don't do it, or you might get your arms ripped off ... ask any bot who has played against a Wookie :)




Stephen Reid said:

Our Terms of Service team recently took action against some accounts playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we wanted to give you some insight into what happened and why.


First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what's commonly known as 'gold farming' - or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.


Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced. 


None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.


It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken.


While we will not discuss the details of any individual action, whenever we take action against an account we believe they have clearly broken our Terms of Service. Any action taken against an account can be appealed and in some cases actions have been rescinded. 


While we understand people's concern about actions taken against accounts, please remember the Terms of Service team exists to help ensure a balanced and fair game experience for all. When you see reports of actions taken against someone's account, remember they are choosing to tell their version of the story - and there are two sides to every story.


In summary, our Terms of Service team took action against a number of accounts that were 'credit farming' to remove them permanently from the game. They also warned and temporarily suspended - but did not ban - a smaller number of accounts for activities on Ilum that were decided to be game exploits.


Some adjustments will be made to Ilum in the near future to discourage future exploits. However, the planet is still open to anyone who wishes to travel there.


The goal of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team is to maintain a service for our customers that is fun to play and equitable for everyone. Critical to this goal is making sure that gameplay is fair and reasonable and we are constantly on the lookout for anything that would prove to be a detriment to your gameplay experiences.


Thanks for reading, and we hope this gave you some insights.

Bonus Series Missions tips

What a lot of people don't realize as they're advancing through the levels is that some planets offer a bonus series of missions. At Alderaan for instance, there are a level 40 series of missions that provide some sweet epic loot upon completion. Hoth has a series of missions that are unlocked at around level 47 and Belsavis has a level 50 bonus series mission line that gives you daily commendations. Although some of these missions to go back to the planet are based on your fleet space station, the Hoth one for instance, is only found by travelling back back to the planet once you've reached level 46/7. If someone hadn't told me about the Alderaan and Hoth bonus missions, I would have never known they were there!

What these bonus missions did was to put me ahead of the base level required on the advanced planets. for
example, although Corellia is a level 47-50 planet, I was actually level 49 by the time I got there. I am now level 50 and still have a tonne of missions to complete, which all provide commendations and much needed credits. As all these missions are green to me, they are very easy to complete. I under a week, I've got my 110 speed speeder and I'm well on my way to decking out all my companions. I've also got all my crafting skills maxed and able to craft a number of epic items. My experience on Beta was very different; I had no credits at level 50 and my gear was no where near as good as it is this time and things were a lot harder.

I strongly advise that you take the time to do the Alderaan bonus missions at level 40 and Hoth at level 47.

SWTOR Slicing: Post Nerf

Just in from our underground network:

As we all know, slicing was a great money maker before patch 1.0.1 on December 27. Now the big question, is it still worth it to make money. To find out, we did every lockbox crew mission 10 times and came up with the following. On average, the return per mission is only about 10 credits per minute. So with all 4 companions, you are only making around 40 credits a minute. You can get more from a mob at higher levels than from this skill. But there is still a silver lining. If you gather lockboxes and safes as you quests, there is a lot of money to be made. On average from the planet Voss, we were pulling in around 2K per minute just by flying around a loop and gathering the nodes. If I was to start a new character and not worry about my crafting skill till later, this would be a great way to make money by just gathering. So, from a crew mission point of view, this is no longer worth doing, but from a questing point of view, go for it.

Enjoy and happy hunting.

Data from test. All figures are averages. PPM is Profit Per Min. X is the average additional items we got.

A big thanks to our man in the underground Taao for this data.