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!