Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate

12/11/2012

Highlights

• Ancient Hypergate, a new Warzone, is available for play! Travel to an ancient ruin built around a Gree Hypergate and battle to control the precious technology for your faction.
• New incredibly challenging Weekly [HEROIC] Space Combat Missions are now available!
• All-new Grade 7 Artifact Quality Starship Upgrades are now available from the Fleet and Mission Support vendors!

Cartel Market

New Items

• A new collection of rare goods, freshly smuggled in by the Hutt Cartel is now available! The Blockade Runner Cartel Pack can contain Rare bonus items not found in any other Cartel Market Pack! Cost: 360 Cartel Coins.
• The Grade 7 Starship Defensive Bundle contains defensive upgrades that will protect your ship during the most difficult missions! Cost: 400 Cartel Coins.
• Purchase the Grade 7 Starship Offensive Bundle to give your ship enhanced firepower! Cost: 550 Cartel Coins.
• The Grade 7 Starship Tactical Bundle contains powerful upgrades for your personal starship. Cost: 350 Cartel Coins.

Life Day Items

• The following items are available for a limited time only!
  • Purchase the Life Day Robes, an adaptive armor set containing Life Day Vestments, Lower Robe, and Boots, to show your Life Day spirit! Cost: 960 Cartel Coins.
  • The Czerka LD-1 Celebrator, an adaptive speeder, combines the convenience of travel with the joy of the Life Day celebration! Cost: 1800 Cartel Coins.
  • Use the Life Day Tinsel Bomb to spread cheer to anyone it hits with a blast of shiny tinsel. Cost: 300 Cartel Coins.
  • The Life Day Orb is a commemorative orb used to celebrate Life Day. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins.
  • The Life Day Holo-Tree brings the joy of Life Day anywhere in the galaxy! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins.
  • Get the most Life Day cheer with the Life Day Bundle, which includes the Life Day Orb, Life Day Holo-Tree, Life Day Tinsel Bomb, Czerka LD-1 Celebrator, and the Life Day Vestments, Lower Robe, and Boots for the discounted price of 2400 Cartel Coins.

Fireworks

• The following items are available for a limited time only!
  • Celebrate the conquests of the Empire with Imperial Fireworks! Each box contains 10 Fireworks. Cost: 125 Cartel Coins.
  • Celebrate the victories of the Republic with Republic Fireworks! Each box contains 10 Fireworks. Cost: 125 Cartel Coins.
  • Create a dazzling display of colorful sparks with Fountain Fireworks. Each box contains 10 Fountain Fireworks. Cost: 75 Cartel Coins.
  • Complete your Fireworks display with impressive Finale Fireworks and send a series of large, colorful explosions high into the air! Each box contains 10 Finale Fireworks. Cost: 50 Cartel Coins.
  • Celebrate in style with the Fireworks Bundle! This bundle contains all four Fireworks boxes with an additional 2 Fireworks per box at a discounted price! Cost: 300 Cartel Coins.

Bugfixes

• One-handed blasters and Lightsabers found in Cartel Packs can now be used in both the main hand and off-hand equipment slots.

Crew Skills

• Players who previously unlearned a Crew Skill no longer lose schematics when learning new schematics from reverse engineering.

Group Finder

• A new “Introduction to Group Finder” mission has been added to the Daily Mission Terminal on the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This mission is granted when players complete the Advanced Gear mission.
• Group Finder categories have been updated with tooltips that provide a recommended gear rating and an outline of the rewards available from the content.
• 10 Black Hole Commendations are now awarded by Story Mode Operations in Group Finder (up from 5).

Items

• Elite War Hero Items are now available on the new Elite War Hero vendor. These items can be purchased using Ranked Commendations.
• War Hero Items can now be purchased with Warzone Commendations.
• Battlemaster Items are no longer available for purchase.
• Ancient Artifact Storage Boxes can now be purchased for 25 Tionese Crystals from all Tionese vendors.
• Tionese items available from the Tionese vendor no longer require Tionese Crystals, and most of their commendation costs have been reduced.
• Companion gear no longer alters player character stats when modified.
• A tooltip issue that caused identical items in the inventory to appear to count towards a set bonus (even when not equipped) has been corrected.

Missions and NPCs

• A new “Advanced Gear” mission for each class has been added to the Daily Mission Terminal on the Imperial and Republic Fleets.

PvP

• The requirements for offense and defense bronze medals have been lowered. Players now receive each medal the first time they receive associated objective points, regardless of the value.
• New Rated bracers and belts are now available on the War Hero vendor. These items are unmodded items similar to other Rated items. The old bracers and belt are no longer available.
• Bolster now appears as a positive effect that cannot be removed by the player (instead of as a negative effect).

Space Combat

• The ammo count for missiles and proton torpedoes now includes the missile or torpedo in the chamber.
• Imperial Agents, Sith Inquisitors, and Jedi Consulars can now swap Power Conversion Modules by right-clicking them.

UI

• The tooltips for several currencies now explain how they can be acquired and what they can be used to purchase. These currencies include: Tionese Commendations, Columi Commendations, Black Hole Commendations, Daily Commendations, and Tionese Crystals.
• The Flashpoint Commendations category in the currency window is now named “Elder Game Commendations.” Daily commendations now appear in this category.
• The friends list no longer occasionally shows some friends as always offline.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Players no longer occasionally see other players on their personal starship.

So.

By the fact that I’ve posted once update, this week, over the entire month of September, you already knew something was up.

And that something is: I’m not really playing SWTOR at the moment.

There are a variety of reasons, including guild implosions, friends who’ve stopped playing, and RL not giving me much time to do anything let alone play SWTOR and blog and podcast about it.

Thus, it’s time for me to take a break. I just gave a heads up to listeners who joined us live for recording this week’s podcast (which will be up on the site in a few days) that this is my last one for a while. So that makes it official.

I’ve had an amazing time being part of such a vibrant and engaged fan community. I appreciate all the access and information the SWTOR community managers have given little ‘ol me. But most of all I’ve enjoyed debating the finer points of this game with all of you. It’s meant a lot.

This domain is paid up for some time, so if I pick the game back up, you may see some new posts here. So we won’t say this is goodbye, just so long for now.

xo your roadhouse proprietress, Anexxia

P.S. I’ll still be up to no good on twitter, so be sure to follow @anexxia there.

That’s because with less than a day’s notice, SWTOR did another server consolidation, moving all the origina server folks to a new server, but in some cases, additionally moving destination servers from the round 1 consolidation to a new server as well.

The 3 that specifically affected me were:

Jedi Covenant Destination
Includes: Jedi Covenant, Canderous Ordo, The Constant, Krayiss Obelisk, Kathol Rift, Whitebeam Run, Khoonda Militia, Ki-Ta Kren, Kaas City, Fort Garnik, Hanharr, Sedyn Kyne, Keetael, The Corsair, Nathema, Zez-Kai Ell, Shii-Cho, The Courageous, Assassins of Sion, Eidolon Security, Axial Park, Keller’s Void, Master Dorak, Juyo, The Defenestrator, Telos Restoration Project.

The Ebon Hawk
The Ebon Hawk, Kath Hound, Rubat Crystal, Lord Adraas, Sanctum of the Exalted, Shien.

The Bastion
The Bastion, The Crucible Pits, The Maw, Rakata Mind Prison, Nadd’s Sarcophagus, Infinite Empire, Daragon Trail, Warriors of the Shadow, Black Vulkars, Shadowtown, The Swiftsure, Dark Reaper, Wound in the Force, Mandalore the Indomitable.

Wait, no I’m wrong I also have characters consolidated over onto The Harbinger too, from Space Slug…

The Harbinger
The Harbinger, Drooga’s Pleasure Barge, Fa’athra, Veeboo Lunx, Master Gnost-Dural, Darth Xedrix, Gauntlet of Kressh, Zakkeg Beast, Perlemian Trade Route, Zaalbar, Empress Teta, Namadii Corridor, Kaiburr Crystal, Krath, Wall of Light, Vornskr, Soresu, Lord Praven, Master Zhar Lestin, Space Slug, Darth Sion, Hyperspace Cannon, Mask of Nihilus, The Jekk’Jekk Tarr.

I had an OK time of it in that I didn’t lose any of my level 47+ names. I lost a number of my placeholder names, and on Jedi Covenant, I now have 3 characters with the same name times 3 if I recall, which means having to figure out a slew of new names, or, more likely just deleting some of those alts after checking their bags for shiny crafted gear made by Anexxia.

I still need to log in and actually rechoose my legacy name and clean things up. It was just too overwhelming last night, after seeing all the characters crammed together on Canderous Ordo, to get it together and sort it all out.

I’m hoping that now that we went through this additional consolidation, paid server transfers will be on the horizon so I can finally do my own reunification and consolidation and no longer have my favorite character on a PvP server as I am just not feeling that environment.

How’d you fair?

Here were a few things that tripped me up:

• “Bonus” quests weren’t actually optional. They were, in fact, how you obtained the item. I thought the items were in fixed locations, and the bonus quests just were an alternate way to get them at first, and thus I ran off after getting a bonus quest in an area swarming with others attempting to do it.
• Other players could sabotage your quest. I found this out on DK, while fighting off 4 baddies, when some jerk came up and repaired my droid, thus FUBAR’ing my quest. As I learned later, I could have abandoned the entire Race quest chain, backtracked to Nar Shadda and gotten it again without losing my progress to reset it. But at the time, how to go about resetting it (I abandoned it and went back to the area I picked up the droid hoping that would do it to no avail) was not obvious.
• Some quests required using an item, and a dozen people were already waiting to use the item. The droid race area was swarming with people battling it out to get the fastest click. The standing around and waiting got old after about 5 minutes for me.
• Looking for and looting boxes to procure random items was not appealing for me on a PvP server, alone. I had 2 or so guildies on at any given time, and friends who were interested in doing the Race had already done so at this point, leaving me to group up with strangers, which I did some. But for random items to loot, that would not have been a good strategy. And at some point it just seemed like a lot of time/effort/work and not so much fun. Which is why I didn’t just start over and try doing it on my PvE server. At the end of the day, I just don’t think that would have boosted my enjoyment.

And this is why despite having sunk a few hours into it, I logged out yesterday afternoon, without having completed the Race. And I’ll admit it: I was bummed out about it. I’m not a quitter. Or a slacker. But at the end of the day, I play these games to have fun. And this event just…wasn’t fun for me.

Was it just me? Was this some sort of post-vacation inability to get back into the swing of the game?

Let me know your thoughts on the event in the comments!

Oh my. I think I see an opportunity to make a few credits in my new future…

I’m headed out now to meet with the Chevin Conglomerate Grand Acquisition Race representative at the Nar Shadda Promenade. If you don’t hear from me in a few hours, send out the Empire bloodhound droids.

When Master Yuon introduced us, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. After all, she seemed to think you were a loyal valuable ally, who was interested in supporting our cause.

After you lost all of your points, and dishonored yourself in the eyes of the Scorekeeper, even then I had faith in your support and perseverance, and considered you to be a valued member of my crew, and even a friend.  After all, me beloved Master Yuon thought so highly of you, and entrusted me to you in her time of sickness. And thus I took your surly attitude and constant complaining with a grain of salt. Even my cousin Anexxia’s warnings about the true nature of Trandoshans didn’t sway me in my support of you — I just took it as more dark side tainted villainy.

But then we traveled to Voss, and everything changed. It was like you lost your mojo. Despite complaining often about “weak opponents” that were unworthy of your time and attention, I found myself having to revive you, often. Time and time again, I turned down armoring that could have helped me bolster my own defenses to take upgraded gear for you, in the hopes it would help you sustain our tougher battles. But it was not to be.

After our third setback in as many days, which required us to have to backtrack through the entire dark heart to re-engage with a strong foe, who once again bested you, I could see the writing on the wall: our time together had to come to an end in order for me to fulfill my destiny.

I’m reassigning you to the ship, on holocomm duty. And effective immediately, Tharan shall accompany me on all off-ship excursions. I’m sorry that it had to come to this, but you have become somewhat of a liability.

Cheers,

Nexxi

There is one small catch however– you must be level 20 to unlock the box and claim your rewards. So start leveling those baby alts you transferred!

Filed under: pets ]]> http://inquisitorsroadhouse.com/2012/08/07/swtor-server-transfer-loyalty-rewards-now-in-a-mailbox-near-you/feed/ 1 anexxia Me and my Gannifari http://inquisitorsroadhouse.com/2012/08/07/swtor-patch-1-3-5-patch-notes/ http://inquisitorsroadhouse.com/2012/08/07/swtor-patch-1-3-5-patch-notes/#comments Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:08:50 +0000 anexxia http://inquisitorsroadhouse.com/?p=1321 Continue reading »

Another Tuesday and another set of patch notes!

Most notably, we’re seeing a decrease in legacy level requirements for obtaining XP increase perks:

• The Legacy Levels required for experience modifier perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 2/3/5/7/10 (changed from 5/10/15/20/25).
• The Legacy Levels required for companion modifier perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 2/5/8 (changed from 5/10/15).
• The Capital World and Outlaw’s Den priority transit perks now require Legacy Level 2 (previously 10).
• The Fleet Vanguard and Black Hole priority transit perks now require Legacy Level 5 (previously 10).
• The Legacy Levels required for the repair droid perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 5/8/12 (changed from 10/15/25).
• The field respec perk now require Legacy Level 5 (previously 10).

I am happy to see this. I was so disappointed when I realized I couldn’t access the ship droid crafting upgrades, thanks to having leveled legacy on 3 servers instead of just one. Now to tally up how much I want to spend on Legacy perks…

Full patch notes after the jump!

1.3.5 Patch Notes

08/07/2012

Classes and Combat

Jedi Knight

Sentinel

Combat

• Saber Storm: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, as Combat Sentinels are performing within expectations. This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill.

Sith Warrior

Marauder

Carnage

• Sever: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, as Carnage Marauders are performing within expectations. This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill.

Smuggler

General

• XS Freighter Flyby: This ability can no longer cause other players who are not flagged for PvP to become flagged.

Imperial Agent

General

• Orbital Strike: This ability can no longer cause other players who are not flagged for PvP to become flagged.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Kaon Under Siege

• The Floating Light will now glow as intended when the Shader Complexity preference is set below High.

The Esseles

• In the German client, the conversation option when choosing Hard Mode for this Flashpoint has been corrected.

Operations

Explosive Conflict

• Using the probe launcher in Denova Minefield now reveals probes more consistently.

Group Finder

• Group leaders are now notified if they cannot queue the group for a replacement due to group members being offline.

Items

General

• Player heads no longer clip through the Battlemaster Vindicator’s Headgear or [Prototype] Primeval Vindicator’s Chestguard.
• Warstalker’s Headgear’s texture no longer stretches upon character death.

Legacy

• The Legacy Levels required for experience modifier perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 2/3/5/7/10 (changed from 5/10/15/20/25).
• The Legacy Levels required for companion modifier perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 2/5/8 (changed from 5/10/15).
• The Capital World and Outlaw’s Den priority transit perks now require Legacy Level 2 (previously 10).
• The Fleet Vanguard and Black Hole priority transit perks now require Legacy Level 5 (previously 10).
• The Legacy Levels required for the repair droid perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 5/8/12 (changed from 10/15/25).
• The field respec perk now require Legacy Level 5 (previously 10).

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Balmorra

• Colicoid Massacre: This mission is no longer repeatable immediately after completion.

Taris

• Prized Possessions: Players in a group no longer need to wait for the Colony Data Repository or Toolbox to respawn before being able to loot it.

PvP

Warzones

Novare Coast

• Players no longer land on top of the buildings that surround the consoles when using abilities that charge an enemy (such as Force Charge).

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• The /ironfist emote now works correctly in the German client (as /eisenfaust).
• The performance of the Bloom visual effect option has been improved.
• Corrected some minor text errors.

Filed under: legacy system, patch notes ]]>

The past 12 months have seen us feverishly anticipating the launch of the game, then going through 8 months of ups and downs and the game — and its players– got their footing, moving from subscription only to announcing a free-to-play option.

Over the past year, I’ve written a couple of posts that have gotten a lot of attention from my fellow players, most notably:

• Patch 1.3 Crew Skills Changes: Q&A with SWTOR Systems Designers David Hunt and Patrick Malott
• On the Hunt for SWTOR Companion Pets

I think that thus far, however, my favorite post was this interview:

• SWTOR Vanity Pets Q&A with Damion Schubert

I’ve also given myself the giggles a number of times reading over the list of amusing guild names in my collection of clever guild names post.

As a direct result of all the fun I’ve had writing about my adventures in SWTOR, I joined the TOR Reporter podcast at the end of last year as a co-host, giving me even more opportunities to talk with other SWTOR enthusiasts. It’s been an amazing ride thus far, and I hope the next year brings even more interesting adventures to share with you…

cheers!

Anexxia

P.S. This also marks my 101st post on the blog! Not bad for only one year…

The official press release said:

Starting this fall, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars: The Old Republic:

• Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, Subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins*, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.
• Free-to-Play –The first 50 levels will be free-to-play, with some restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

For additional context, and in light of the 300k plus subscriber decline last quarter, today’s developer blog on this topic notes:

Since launch, our team has spent a lot of time trying to find new ways to be able to bring the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ experience to as many potential players as possible. We quickly became aware that our subscription only model was a major barrier for a lot people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic universe. In fact, many players who have left the game said they would happily come back if they could play without the commitment of a monthly fee.

We feel that flexibility and choice in playing our game is important for all current and future players. For that reason, we began the exploration of expanding the game to include a Free-to-Play option.

Free-to-Play Restrictions

• Character Creation Choices
  Some character creation options, such as species, are limited to subscribers.
• Warzones
  Free players are limited in terms of how many Warzones they can play per week.
• Flashpoints
  Free players are limited in terms of how many Flashpoints they can play per week.
• Space Missions
  Free players are limited in terms of how many Space Missions they can play per week.
• Operations
  Only Subscribers may complete Operations.
• Travel and Transportation
  Subscribers have access to all travel functionality, making getting around the world easier, while free-to-play players have limited access.
• Game Login
  Subscribers will always be in login queues ahead of free players.

Although the coverage has stated that there will still be a subscription option with full access to everything, that’s may not exactly the case if you read the Subscription versus Free-to-Play comparison chart:

UPDATE: I’ve gotten confirmation that it is indeed the same 50 GTN auctions per character limit we have in place now, not a new restriction. Huzzah! Color me happy as a clam!

Unlike certain other games that caused subscribers to have to deal with the in game currency as a condition of their subscription, it seems like it will on the whole be more or less business as usual for subscribers. Which is exactly how I’d like to see it. Because managing tokens for game play is not how I want to spend my MMO play time.

Share Your Thoughts

How does this news affect your SWTOR playing? Leave a comment and take part in the poll:

A few other blogosphere reactions to the SWTOR F2P news

• Aggronaut
• Hawtpants of the Old Republic
• Fynralyl’s Pen
• Siha Games!
• Psynister’s Notebook

P.S. Comments are screened so if you just post a “Free-to-play=SWTOR has failed” comment it’s not going to show up here.

P.P.S. I also highly encourage you to leave a voicemail at 616-666-6778 with your POV on these changes– we just might include it on the next Tor Reporter podcast.