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.

New Players Guide to SWTOR

As you find your feet in SWTOR, it's handy to have some inside information.

This guide covers getting set up with the game including:

• the right hardware
• a look at the background story
• how to choose a server and guild
• key terms and roles for characters like DPS, tank and healer
• the options for setting up a character
• Advanced Class options
• Complete lists of information about Companions
• preferred gifts
• Crafting with Companions
• upgrading equipment and mods
• keyboard and mouse controls
• navigation
• general tips on Missions, combat, targeting
• using Companions in combat
• setting up Quick Shots
• full Maps to planets

This eBook is available on Amazon which means that with the appropriate free app or utility you can look at it on your phone, second monitor, laptop or tablet while you game.

If anything that SWTORFace has posted has ever been useful to you, purchasing the guide is a great way to say thanks ... and ensure I get fed!

Thanks everyone ... and let me know if there is a burning topic you'd like me to put a guide together on.

Flashpoints: Do's and Don'ts

Hey guys and gals, just thought I'd list a few of the basic rules when looking for Flashpoints and getting into a group to do them.

First of all what are Flashpoints?  For the most part Flashpoints are important story line sequences which offer a social and entertaining side line away from your normal missions. Flashpoint couriers usually take the form of Droids on the Imperial or Republic Space stations and are also scattered around various planets as well.

Flashpoints are level based. The first one is found as you leave your starting planet where you have learned the basics of combat and how to play your character.

Do's

1) Try to get into a balanced group, for example a tank, healer and a couple of dps. The beginning one is reasonably easy and will give you a basic understanding of group encounters.

2) Try to be understanding of new players and be as helpful as possible.  These encounters are not the standard "dungeons" that most WoW players are used to and the roles required by each player can change during a Flashpoint. Sometimes a player will be needed to off-tank or interrupt special abilities; other times they might just need to do as much dps as possible.

3) Listen to the story lines and enjoy them.  Obviously repeated occurrences of the same Flashpoint will make you want to skip through options but be courteous to players who haven't done the Flashpoint before and want to listen to the story line.

4) Asking people if they would like to join should never be a problem. Most likely you will notice in the general chat multiple people asking for members to specific encounters. Sometimes people tend to ignore this chat and sometimes getting asked to come do a Flashpoint can be a nice breather from missions etc.

5) Enjoy yourself.

[Editor's addition 6) don't go AFK without at least informing the group if an emergency comes up.]

Dont's

1) Be rude or overbearing. Obvious reasons.

2) Actually most people should know how to behave so I won't go into these issues of etiquette.

3) Don't be scared to ask questions on how to better play your character in an encounter. Some people will no doubt not expect this and may act rude or unaccommodating but the majority of people will see this as an opportunity to try and work together.

4) Don't be afraid to try new things.

[Editor's addition: 5) don't start a Flashpoint if you know you won't have the time to finish it, unless you've cleared it with the group first]

These listings are pretty much commonsense but one important thing I've noticed about all of the Flashpoints I've done so far is that they are far more geared towards the social aspect of the game with gaining social points and unique pieces of gear, than that of gaining or farming experience. Quite frankly some of these encounters are very long and you should only do them if you have the time and want some unique entertainment and social activity. [Editor's addition: be prepared to set aside up to two hours]

SWTOR 1.0.1 Patch Notes The Big Slicers Nerf Of 2011

Nothing real big in this one except ...
Slicing
- Rewards from Slicing have been reduced to bring them into balance with other skills.
- Adjusted incorrect values for medium slicing boxes.
... this might upset some people. Damn, I didn't get on that free ride!. And slacking off in Warzones got the nerf too ...
- Rewards for winning Warzones have been increased.
- Warzone completion rewards have been decreased.

Patch Notes for Patch 1.0.1

Hello everyone!
With this update, the first of many for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we have addressed several high-priority bugs. We've implemented fixes for those players affected by performance issues on Taris and have corrected the problem preventing some pending mission rewards from being accepted. Additionally, the issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear unharvestable has been addressed, and you'll notice several bug fixes relating to Flashpoint and Operation content.
We're committed providing the best possible MMO experience, and will continue releasing fixes and updates on a regular basis.
Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic!


Classes and Combat



Combat Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that could cause the global cooldown to display incorrectly in the UI. 
- Abilities that require Companion Characters now always correctly require a companion.
- NPCs no longer attempt to engage vanity pets in combat.


Imperial Agent


Operative
- The tooltip for Acid Blade now displays the correct information.


Companion Characters


Companions
Kira Carsen
- Fixed an issue that could cause Kira’s affection progression to become blocked.


Bug Fixes
- Companion Character dialogue now plays at the correct volume.


Crew Skills

Gathering Skills
Slicing
- Rewards from Slicing have been reduced to bring them into balance with other skills.
- Adjusted incorrect values for medium slicing boxes.


Bug Fixes
- Corrected an issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear as unharvestable.


Flashpoints and Operations


Flashpoints
Mandalorian Raiders
- Crowd control immunity has been removed from several members of the Enemy Boarding Party.


Colicoid War Game
- An issue that prevented some players from mounting turrets in this Flashpoint has been corrected.


The Red Reaper
- Darth Ikoral now uses his abilities correctly.


Directive 7
- Mentor now resets correctly if he defeats the player group.


Bug Fixes
- All players in a group who have a daily Flashpoint mission now get credit for completing that Flashpoint.


Operations
Eternity Vault
- Fixed an issue that could cause players to instantly die when affected by Soa’s knockback.
- Turrets in Normal Mode no longer behave as turrets from Hard Mode.
- Players are now able to properly obtain loot from chests.
- The Ancient Pylons now spawn enemies at the correct intervals.


Karagga’s Palace
- Players no longer need to reset this Operation if they do not defeat Bonethrasher.
- Corrected an issue that caused some players to become stuck at the throne room door.


Items


Bug Fixes
- PvP lockboxes can no longer be sold for credits.
- Fixed incorrect item rewards from PvP leveling lockboxes.


Missions and NPCs


Missions
Imperial
- A New Master: Defeating Teeno no longer causes him to surrender on top of Phyne, making him difficult to interact with.
- General Faraire: All of Khourlet’s Elite Guards are now accessible by the player.


Bug Fixes
- Fixed a mission-related issue that could cause poor performance and client crashes on Taris for some players.


NPCs
Bug Fixes
- Corrected several instances of non-interactive NPCs appearing and disappearing from the player’s view.


PvP


Warzones
General
- Rewards for winning Warzones have been increased.
- Warzone completion rewards have been decreased.


Bug Fixes
Voidstar
- Corrected an issue that could prevent some players from entering the Voidstar.
- Made adjustments to prevent attacking players from reaching the doors in the reactor core before bridges are extended.


UI


Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that could prevent players from accepting pending mission rewards.
- Targeting a friendly player no longer occasionally displays incorrect text for the character’s name.
- Corrected an issue that could cause some auction expirations to behave incorrectly.
- The splash screen no longer displays longer than the “accept changes” dialogue when changing resolutions on some computers.
- Master Looter now works correctly for items being looted from chests.
- The server select screen no longer displays over the character select after being disconnected for being away.
- Corrected an issue that could cause mission mapnotes to disappear when a new mission is obtained.


Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
- Special characters no longer display incorrectly in the French credits.
- Remaining baby names have been added to the credits.
- Corrected a link that displayed in French and German versions when the servers are unavailable.

World PVP in SWTOR With a Twist: Tatooine PVP Zone

The word PVP zone in Tatooine brings a twist to PVP as it's not a faction PVP zone at all; it's a Lawless zone. You can attack anyone in there at all: same faction, same guild, best friend! It's a zone that you will find high end mats in and you can farm them all you want as long as you can stay alive! Is it wrong to kill someone in your faction to stop him/her getting a node you want to harvest? I got to spend a bit of time in there and got lots of level 6 gems and other mats. There was a smuggler in there that I didn't touch. If it was a Sith  and he was after the same things I was, I would not think twice. Don't think I would attack my same faction,  but if the player was taking stuff I wanted to harvest I would show him the light :)

This map shows you where to find the PVP zone on Tatooine.

The Old Republic Toys for Christmas

So we know all you geeks have got a Collector's Edition or the Digital Deluxe, so what does that leave Santa to get you for Christmas? Me, being the lucky guy I am, married a Star Wars fan and my legendary wife found this Star Wars geek the perfect gift for the Old Republic fan that has everything ...

My very own Bastilla Shan figure! Now I will have Battle Meditation with me all the time!

For those of you who don't know, Bastilla Shan was in The Knights of the Old Republic and is the perfect gift for any Star Wars fan who is into the expanded universe. I had no idea that this figure was available until my wife pointed her out and although she let me take photos of it for this post, Bastilla Shan is now giving Batle Meditation to all of our Christmas decorations.

While we're on the topic of Christmas, I know that it's really exciting to spend a lot of time in your new found home in the Galactic Republic, but don't forget about those other people in your life over this festive time. Put reality first for a Merry Christmas!

The SWTOR Leveling Experience, Levels 1 - 10

My first experiences in SWTOR began in the beta 2 weeks prior to launch.  I had initially been invited to join earlier but thought I would wait for launch and avoid any disappointment. Whilst I had faith in Bioware, I had bad experiences with other MMOs and decided I would just wait and see what would happen.  I finally decided to take up the option for the open beta after hearing a lot of discontent with the WoW die hards saying what a poor game SWTOR was looking to be. To me this could mean only that it was looking to be a decent game and this encouraged me to take advantage of the open beta and take a look for myself.

I decided very early that I wouldn't try to rush through and level as fast as I could as a lot of people in betas are inclined to. So instead I would take a look at every class and look at the dynamics and gameplay of each class. 

The first 10 levels of every character are extremely diverse and the story content of all 8 character classes was extremely unique and very well thought out. The play style of each of the 4 characters in each faction is also quite interesting and whilst a lot of people will say this is a WoW clone in the combat arena, I couldn't disagree more heartily. I feel that the differences are amazing and the only way you will learn these is playing for yourself.  I didn't want to make this a guide on how to play, guides like these have been posted all over YouTube and if you want a step by step guide then you are losing the experiences and surprises in the game. This is more about what information is important, and what you might like to know without any spoilers.

Hotkeys
Combat very early on is, as you would expect, limited to a couple of hotkeys, but knowing exactly the function of each ability is invaluable. Making certain you understand what each hotkey is for should be the very first thing you do and as you level, read and invest a little time in looking at your abilities to know what they can do. Whether or not you chain keys for higher damage or just spam a single button, early combat is really quite easy and does not make it a difficult game for the novice player. This gives you the ability to become immersed in the story and develop your skills as you go.  By about level 4 or 5 you will have 6-7 abilities which you can use to your own play style.

Missions
Questing [editor's note: it's called Missions in SWTOR you old WoW player!] is amazingly simplified in SWTOR. Your objectives are placed straight onto your minimap and the primary zones are slightly linear to allow the learning experience to progress. What a lot of experienced MMO players fail to realize is that with each new game release there is an over-abundance of new players who really have no idea what they are doing. The beginning quests for each class begins with, why your character is where they are and their immediate goals.  This leads on to a primary class quest beginning with ACT 1 and leads you into an immersing story line which is both interactive and entertaining.  Side quests are abundant and are pretty much the meat and vegies for leveling.  Not once have I had to grind or worry about not being too low to do my quests.  

Dark side vs light side
One of the first things I noticed, while getting engaged in each story line, were the light and dark side options. As a general rule I decided that if I wanted to be dark I would play dark.  I was playing light then I chose light side options.  There were no exceptions and I found by level 10 I was easily past the first tier of dark or light side points. Choosing a combination did not seem very important as it seemed to balance you closer back to a neutral option.  This may be tempting for the role players out there who are not swayed by the choices they make. 

Companions
People have heard all about companions and these in my view are a game-changing asset whether you like to play solo or with friends. Group partys are limited to 4 members which includes the use of  companions. Since beginning the actual game I have leveled with my close friend Jean (ingame name) and the 2 of us with our companions have been, for lack of a better term, "tearing it up".  I cannot stress this enough.  LEARN how to use your companions. This is vital. 

Social points
This brings up another extremely important facet of the game that a lot of people are not taking so much notice of yet, "Social Points".  Whilst you are grouped with a friend or any other person and you do quests not related to your private class quest, you will gain social points for each interaction within quest dialogue. for example, whenever you are talking to a quest giver and make a choice within this conversation you will receive points which accrue and give you access to superior (both looking and functional) equipment. 

Finally as the beginning zone draws to a close, your primary class quest becomes more prominent and those initial desires seem to be coming to fruition, for example, if you're Jedi / Sith type character your lightsaber looks to be closer at hand.

What I would dearly love to recommend is that you try to do every quest and explore these beginning zones thoroughly. This will make for a much more enriching experience and will allow you whether you are an experienced MMO player or a complete beginner, a fantastic experience which you will thoroughly enjoy. 

Star Wars: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key

I can't express the importance of a secure account. With MMO games there is a lot more at stake than just a character file. If you lose your account you lose years of work and not only that, but your friends can also be affected, especially if you're involved in a guild. 

In WoW, we saw hackers time and time again logging into people's accounts and clearing out everything they could get access to. In one circumstance the hacker even decided that he would start removing people from the guild that the account was on, as it happened to be an officer's account. 

It's obvious that SWTOR is going to be a hot target for hackers these holidays. I have a tough enough job keeping their horrible spam from the comments section of this site! I highly recommend that if you have not purchased the Collector's Edition of the game, which comes bundled with a security key, to download the free app from iTunes for your iPhone if you have one (full guide below). Hopefully they release an app for other platforms like Android soon as well. 

The other option is to purchase the security key key chain from BioWare. I can't remember the exact price, and the site is down for pre-launch maintenance so I can't check, but I think it was around $2-4. That's a small price to pay to know that your avatar is not vulnerable to hackers.

There seems to be some confusion about how the app works. You can use the app if you have an account (even if you don't have your hard copy yet). Here's how to use it:

Log into your SWTOR account on your PC.

Go to Security Key.

Click Mobile Version.

This will provide you with a 7 digit key and a 20 digit key.

Then open the app and enter the 7 digit key in the 'Serial number' section.

It will then ask for the 20 digit key. Enter it.

The app will then provide you with a code (sample above).

Go back to your SWTOR account on your PC and type in that code.

If you start using this app then make sure that you keep a copy of the Serial number that is generated, just in case you ever loose your phone, or have to reset it. Every time you go to log into the game from then on you'll have to fire up the app on your phone and enter the serial number, get the security key and then enter it on your SWTOR login on your PC.

Description:

Keep your STAR WARS: The Old Republic account protected with the official STAR WARS: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app for your iPhone and iPod Touch! The STAR WARS: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app is an optional program that will allow you to apply an additional layer of protection to your STAR WARS: The Old Republic account by generating a unique, one-time passcode that you can use in addition to your regular password. By using the STAR WARS: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app, you can rest assured that your account is secured from hackers, Trojans and other unauthorized users.

How To Use: How To Use: Once you have installed the app on your iOS device you’ll need to visit www.starwarstheoldrepublic.com to associate the Mobile Security Key with your account. Log in to the STAR WARS: The Old Republic web site and go to the My Account page (link on the upper right of the page). From the menu on the right side of the page choose Security Key and then follow the instructions to set up your Mobile Security Key.

Airtime or Wi-Fi connection required for use.
For more information on how to register the STAR WARS: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app to your starwarstheoldrepublic.com account, please visit www.swtor.com/support.
Languages Supported:
• English

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/star-wars-the-old-republic/id488420295?mt=8

Getting the Most out of Crafting

I've got to the stage where I have most of my crafting and Missions up to the mid-200 level.

I'm really seeing the necessity of sticking tot he triangles when crafting. I picked up artifact, treasure hunting and archaeology. Artifice is the crafting portion of my three skills, archaeology is the gathering/Mission combination and treasure hunting is the pure Mission portion.

What I discovered is that archaeology provides me with all the basics mats I need to craft a lot of the  artifice  items. If I want to craft any special items like yellow high quality lightsaber crystals, I need to collect those using treasure hunting. Without having the triangle skills I wouldn't be able to craft all the items I want. Plus, treasure hunting is providing me with the high demand items that people want.

I've also received a few purple quality Krayt Dragon pearls which will allow me to make epic level lightsaber crystals once I discover the pattern. You discover new patterns by reverse engineering items you've crafted.

So if you want to take crafting seriously, I highly recommend you to stick a triangle of skills.

If you're looking for more information on crafting, check out our guide to crafting basics video.

Sith Warrior Trainer Locations

We’ve all been there; for the first couple of levels there’s a class trainer right next to your class mission and we get lulled into a false sense of security. Then we gain a few levels, hop to a couple of new worlds and next thing we know we can’t find the trainer. You may ask countless times in General chat and get vague instructions and become convinced that you’re being directed by republic spies. So here, from a fellow Sith Warrior, are the locations of the trainers.

Korriban
Level 1-3
Your first trainer, Veshta is directly inside the building for your first quest. Follow the path from where you arrive in the planet and you will see her on the left hand side before you have to defeat slugs.

Level 3-10
This trainer is one of the easiest to find since you will be directed to him by a quest. He resides on the second floor of the Sith academy. Take the left side stairs and walk straight through the hallway. The trainer (Overseer Rance) is straight ahead of you.

Dromund Kaas
Level 10-15
You will need to travel to Kaas city ( north central part of the map) in order to find this trainer. He is in the Sith sanctum which you take a taxi to from the main part of Kaas city. The Sith sanctum is the building in
the middle. Once you enter the building, the trainer is straight and to the right of the glowing green center. The trainer, Ajaan is directly to the left of the story phase for your class quest.

Balmorra
Level 15-20
This trainer is in the main city, Sobrik. From the spaceport, walk down several steps and he is in the first gated area on your left hand side. Once you pass through the opening of this area, he is on your right. This area is the same area as your class quest, he stands to the right of this door. If you look at your map however, this trainer,Ramesh Kon is on the right/east side of the map.

Nar Shaddaa
Level 20-24
This trainer was the hardest for me to find. He resides in the Promenade sector which you will have to take a taxi to. From the taxi, get to the lower floor and he will be standing to the northwest of the Promenade
Market. Derish is the left most trainer.

There is no trainer in the Orbital Monitoring Station

Tatooine
Level 23-28
This trainer resides in the Mos Ila Market right outside the middle building on the second floor. From the spaceport head down and you’ll see a pathway to your right. Pass the cantina on the right and head down the hill. Move to the right of the center market area and you’ll see the icon pictured below on the second level of a nearby circular building straight and to the right. Head up the spiral stairs and the trainer Lord Undaara is right there.

Alderaan
Level 27-32
This trainer is fairly easy to find. From the spaceport take the right path and continue straight. Once you get to the heart of the market, don’t turn to follow the path. You will see the House of Thul palace in front of you. The trainer is to the left of the palace entrance. On your map, he is located near the House of Thul Taxi on the right side of the market.

These are all of the trainers you will need to find for Chapter 1 of your Sith Warrior journey. May the force be with you in your endevors for the Empire!

SWTOR Servers Busting at the Seams

Are you finding that your server is VERY HEAVY or FULL? Here's what I am experiencing ...

Although Oceanic players got their very own Beta test a few week ago, they were never officially assigned an Oceanic server. This did surprise a lot of players located in the Oceanic region. Although the game isn't officially launched in countries in the Oceanic region, like Australia and New Zealand, thousands Australians pre-ordered from Amazon.

To protect themselves, to ensure they get to play with other people in the same time zones, a lot of large Oceanic guilds have banded together using SWTOR's guild association network, and as soon as servers were assigned to their guilds it became very clear that the majority of the PVE guilds were placed on the one server, The Harbinger. What happened then was that any PVE guild that had not been assigned to the Harbinger quickly moved there.

So now, us Aussies are on a server that is extremely crowded and at any given time there is a half an hour (plus) wait to log on. This morning the wait is close to an hour! There also seems to be a lot of other servers that are full.

My biggest concern is that it's still three days until the game officially comes out. There are still a lot of players who signed up for the pre-launch guild program that are not ingame yet. We're missing about 50% of our members and we know some of them pre-ordered way too late to get access before the 20th. When all these players finally do get to log in and try and join their guild, how will these servers, which are already full and over-populated cope?

Keep in mind that ingame it does not feel over-populated due to the phasing technology which spreads players out. The phasing technology takes a zone and splits it up into several instances. For example, you could have a thousand players on Tatooine but only see a few players around you. What the game does is to create Tatooine instances. I have seen up to ten instances in cities so far and you can swap from one Tatooine instance to the other through your map. This instance technology will automatically give you the option to move to the instance that your guild is in.

Server allocation and server queues are the make or break of any game launch and to be honest, due to the guild association and pre-launch options, it may backfire. If you weren't allocated to a server you would have a choice to choose a less-populated server. As it is now, regardless of population, if you join the game today or tomorrow, you'll be assigned to the server with your guild flag next to it, whether or not it's full already.

Giving a grace period for STAR WARS: The Old Republic

This will save me! Thank you BioWare!

Gold Post:

Hello everyone,

While we've worked closely with our retailers in the launch territories to ensure copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic are available from our launch date of December 20th, we understand that for those of you who’ve pre-ordered, there may be a concern about getting your copy on time. We’ve heard you want a 'grace period' where you can continue to play without having to enter a final product registration code (AKA 'game code').

We've been listening, and after doing another deep review of our platform infrastructure, we're taking action. Today, we're announcing a two day grace period for Star Wars: The Old Republic customers.

This means that everyone who pre-ordered and is in the Early Game Access program has forty-eight hours from launch in which to enter their product registration code, which will be found inside the physical Standard and Collector's Editions of the game; for digital editions of the game from Origin.com, the registration code will have been emailed to you after December 16th and will arrive before December 19th at 11:59PM EST. After December 22nd 12:01AM EST, you will be required to have a valid payment method and a product registration code registered to your account to continue to play. We strongly recommend that you register your product code as soon as you are able to do so (rather than waiting until the last minute) to ensure a seamless entry into the game, a smooth experience on the account website and to collect any special gifts and items you may be entitled to based on the version of the game you purchased.

We understand that for some, your copy of the game may still arrive on or after December 22nd. Unfortunately, we cannot extend the grace period any further. We suggest you contact your retailer to discuss shipping options, if this is a concern.

You may be wondering if your 30 days of game time (included with your purchase of the game) will be affected by the grace period. The answer is no. If you redeem your product registration code during the grace period, and add a valid payment method to your account, you will begin your billing cycle from then, and you will be entitled to 30 days of game time. If you redeem your product registration code before December 20th, your billing cycle will begin on December 20th at 12:01AM EST (the official launch date and time of the game).

We know this has been an issue for some of you, and we apologize for the concerns. We're looking forward to welcoming all of you to the official launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Thanks,

Ray and Greg

Leveling Guide to SWTOR

I know a lot of people are asking about leveling guides and the fastest way to level in SWTOR but unlike older games SWTOR doesn't need a leveling guide. The Missions tells you where to go. If you compare it to World of Warcraft, in WoW you needed a specific third party mod to find quest objectives on a map. It took Blizzard four years to add these convenient tools into their actual game. It was the lack of these tools that made leveling guides necessary. With SWTOR, you are about to learn the easiest, fastest, and fun way to level ...

Do it with a friend!

For the last two days I have been leveling with a good friend of mine, Rammy (ingame name). Now although he's a dude in a dress, his avatar has saved my ass more than once. I would say that comparing it to my last leveling experience in SWTOR Beta where I was playing alone, leveling grouped with a friend has been three times faster and even more fun. 

There is no disadvantage of doing Missions in a group. You both get full experience. You both get to bring your Companions, and you end up killing stuff really fast, completing bonus Missions where you need to kill thirty of this mob and thirty of that mob, are done in minutes.

Not only that, but you also get social points for grouping with a friend. These social points unlock unique outfits like the slave girl outfit that Princess Leia wears in Return of the Jedi, or the beautiful white dress that you can see the healer Rammy wearing int he background of this screenshot. These social outfits are orange items, so they can be modified and utilized all the way up to end game.

So get a friend and go kill some stuff!

New Players Guide to SWTOR eBook Out Now

So for some of you you're already in the game and probably not reading this! For others you are checking to see if you've been granted access in one of the random waves, just waiting to get your feet wet in the game! While you're waiting, or while you're learning the ropes, might I suggest you download this eBook I put together to help new SWTOR players understand the core elements of the game.

Whether you are a veteran MMO player or completely new to this genre of PC gaming, this guide will help you get started and understand the key concept of Companions and their role in the SWTOR galaxy. This guide covers getting set up with the game including the right hardware, a look at the background story and how to choose a server and guild. Key terms and roles for characters like DPS, tank and healer are introduced and inside information gained from over 250 hours of gaming in Beta is set out. The eBook then goes through the options for setting up a character before explaining and detailing the Advanced Class options. Complete lists of information about Companions available to each class is provided including their preferred gifts, which will help you build reputation, unlocking new and exciting Missions. Crafting with Companions, upgrading equipment and mods, keyboard and mouse controls, navigation, tips on Missions, combat, targeting, using Companions in combat and setting up Quick Shots is all explained, plus information on Datacrons and full Maps to planets is included.

Get set for your Galactic adventure! On sale for $2.99 now ... and besides, if you've been enjoying this site pre-launch, this is a great way to support us and in return get some useful advice for yourself.

The eBook is available on Amazon right now and can be read on iPad, iPhones, other smartphones, Kindle, Kobo, Nook and other eReaders.