Tag Archives: Star Wars: The Old Republic

November Fansite Tour Highlights

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

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While most of us Star Wars: the Old Republic fans were sitting at home watching the Imperial Agent (not Smuggler as pre coffee me wrote) progression video you see at the top of the page, a number of lucky fansite publishers were packing for a trip to Austin for Bioware’s second SWTOUR fansite tour.

Thanks to Darth Hater’s SWTOUR link roundup, I was able to live vicariously through these other bloggers, and gleaned a few interesting tidbits on PvP (which seems to have been the current content sharing focus):

  • Guild versus Guild operations are limited to 24 players. But it seems that # may not be set in stone.
  • In unbalanced open world PvP zones, such as 100v20, the smaller group will receive some sort of buff to assist them.
  • Warzones are always 8v8, and pull from your own server, and you can not go in with a full premade team.
  • Operations (raids) are expected to take about 3 hours.

The TORWARS team has a couple of videos from the fansite event, including this CE unboxing. It’s a good thing I can’t upgrade to a CE without losing my spot in the early access line… Enjoy!

We’re Entering the Final SWTOR Stretch — the Wait is Nearly Over!

04 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in guilds, official announcements

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As I keep telling folks, Star Wars: the Old Republic launches next month. Next month. Can you believe it? I mentioned that to someone who was on the fence about if they were planning to play at launch or wait until there was a free trial they could dip into risk-free, and I got that giddy “it’s almost Christmas” feeling again.

The movement of Guilds into Phase 3 only amplifies that we are in the home stretch of the game. At this point, guilds that have four members who have pre-ordered the game and redeemed their Pre-Order Code at the Code Redemption Center. I am pretty sure our guild met that requirement a few dozen times over… 🙂

Have you decided on your guild yet? Are you ready for launch?

Clever SWTOR Guild Names

23 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in guilds

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Every so often, as you are traveling about in a game world, you come upon a guild name that makes you giggle, or even laugh out loud. Inevitably, if I am able to quickly stop and do so, I tweet out the cool guild name and then go about my business. But since tweets are ephemeral, I thought why not start a running list of all the cool/funny/awesome Star Wars: the Old Republic Guild Names I come across?

This will be that running list. Please feel free to share the guild names you spot in the comments, and keep this list growing!

Republic

  • Bantha Poodoo
  • Blue Shirt Mafia
  • Corellian Coalition
  • Curb Your Imperialism
  • Ewok Dance Studio
  • Ewok Massage Parlor
  • Jawas Ate My Baby
  • Jawa Insurance Co
  • Jedi Meme Tricks
  • Love in Alderaan Places
  • Merely a Setback
  • Mos Eisley Cantina Crew
  • No Sleep Till Kessel
  • Pigs in Space
  • Sith Happens
  • Starfleet Dental*
  • The Antarian Rangers
  • The Snark Side
  • There is no Try
  • We Ain’t Found Sith
  • Wookie Love Machines
  • Wookiee Tango Foxtrot

Empire

  • Accurate Sand People
  • Aliens Ate My Lightsaber
  • Boba Fetish
  • Dead Rebel Society
  • Death Star Vent Designers
  • Dukes of Durasteel
  • Ewokalypse Now
  • Hoth Beach Club
  • Imperial Margarine
  • Incurable Sithilis
  • Intergalactic Planetary
  • IT IS KNOWN
  • It’s a Trap
  • It’s Getting Hoth in Here
  • Jawa Trading Co
  • Juicy KOTOR
  • Lazy Peon Tavern
  • Let the Wookie Win
  • My Wookie Steak is Chewy
  • No Country for Old Ben
  • OldSpice for Wookies
  • Pew pew lazerguns
  • Pirates of the Korriban
  • Pretty Pink Pwnies
  • Sector Forty Seven
  • Sith and Twisted
  • Sith Out of Luck
  • Son of a Bith
  • Super Silly Sith Squad
  • The One Percent
  • The Spice Must Flow
  • Utini
  • Wookie Cookies
  • Wookie Crisps

As an aside, it’s interesting to see how many guild names are Game of Thrones references…

* A guild moving on to SWTOR from STO. I suspect we’ll see a number of World of Warcraft Guilds that pack up their guilds, moniker and all, for playing Star Wars the Old Republic.

Tantalizing SWTOR Tidbits from New York Comic Con (NYCC)

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in Comic Con, previews, video

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We’re starting to get spoiled as far as Star Wars: the Old Republic news goes these days. We kicked off the weekend with the above “Signs of War” video and a new Operations overview added to the Game Systems page on the community site, and then all the NYCC SWTOR coverage started to kick in!

Live coverage of the Main Panel and the Q&A panel was shared via:

Here are some of the prime info nuggets I saw thanks to the many intrepid live bloggers/tweeters…

Modification System
As the game currently stands, you can modify a high % of items. Lets you keep old stuff longer, especially iconic anesthetic armor. Keep your favorite look. High level mods difficult to get. More details later, mods and how they work are still being worked on to make it less complex.

Morality and How Romance Can Affect Dark/Light Side Affinity
Q: Is romance a problem with the Jedi Knight?
A: Erickson: Choices have to be hard. If you’re dark side, your commitment will be tested. A huge amount of Jedi fall to dark side because of romance. Three levers influence morality – social pressure, companions, your morals.

Sith Pureblood Inquisitor confirmed as a race/class combo.

Contract, Please!
Voice actors locked into long term contracts, will not change. Why is this a big deal? If you were a vanilla WoW horde player, and had to eventually live through the WotLK transformation of Lady Sylvanas from strong leader to bubbly cheerleader due to a change in voice actor, you will understand.

15 Flashpoints Available at Launch
Devs state there will always be a Flashpoint available to you as you move through the leveling experience. And promise more details at launch. Conflicting reports as to max level versions of flashpoints available to you at max level (level 50.)

Can Shuttle to Other Origin Worlds
If you and your buddies choose different races, it is possible to take a shuttle to another origin world after a short time of playing (30 mins) to help them quest. Thus no need to agree on starting race combos in order to play together.

Have You Started Planning Your #SWTOR Alts Yet?

11 Tuesday Oct 2011

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So far, I’ve definitely identified a couple of classes I want to play through after my Inquisitor hits max level. And I am definitely one of those alt people who likes to have a self-contained crafting army of her own, so I inevitably continue to level up alts until I feel I have all my necessary crafting bases covered.

As of right now, I am thinking I’ll want to level a Jedi Consular and a Bounty Hunter (because I want my own Jawa companion). The rest remain to be seen, since I haven’t actively delved into all the classes yet.

Right now, while we’re playing the waiting game, it’s fun to sit and imagine our bright and shiny alt future…what are you thinking you’ll be doing alt-wise?

Choosing Your Class, RP-PvP realms confirmed, and a TotalBiscuit look at Huttball

02 Sunday Oct 2011

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Don't be sad Lord Vader-- even though launch is a few months away, there's still plenty of interesting postsin the SWTOR blogosphere!
Don’t be sad Lord Vader– even though launch is a few months away, there’s still plenty of interesting posts in the SWTOR blogosphere!

Now that the majority of the Interwebs has gotten over their dismay regarding last week’s BETA survey email snafu, the blogosphere is back to giving us interesting content to read. A few of my favorite reads over the past few days:

  • Torwars shared some thoughts about the announcement of RP-PvP realms, but without CM-enforcement of naming standards or behavior.
  • SW:TOR Strategies pointed us to TotalBiscuit’s Huttball video, shot at EuroGamer expo, and had a short post on choosing the class/role that’s the right fit for your play style.
  • Massively had a Hyperspace Beacon overview of the Star Wars story timeline leading up to SWTOR.
  • PC Gamer shared a really nicely written SWTOR preview article. Not a lot of News, but a great piece to remind you why we’re all so excited about this game, and to share with any of your friends who haven’t quite decided to take the plunge with you at launch.

I should note that I shared links out to the above content via my twitter account, so if you want a more timely report out on what I’m reading and recommending in the SWTOR blogosphere, follow me on twitter (@anexxia) or subscribe to my paper.li daily.

Return to the Old Republic Sooner…

29 Thursday Sep 2011

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Don't Let the Adventure End

I was *sooo excited* to see email in my mailbox from the Old Republic Community mailbox…alas, it was not the much hoped for BETA invite. Instead, it was the above email, encouraging me, as a former BETA tester, to preorder SWTOR. Except, of course that I’ve never been granted the opportunity to BETA test.

And then I saw another email from the SWTOR gang…maybe this time it was an invite?

SWTOR BETA testers post-testing survey email

Oh, no, not an invite. Just a request to take a post-BETA completion survey.

*sniffle*

Ah well, maybe next time!

UPDATE: From the outcry on twitter tonight, I think a ton of folks got the email…like every gamer I follow it seems 🙂 The community managers are looking into it and have promised to report back soon.

9:40 p.m. UPDATE: Still no official word on what caused the email malfunction. Interesting to see how many folks jumped to 1) crazy speculation and accusations or 2) hurled profanity-laced emails and forum posts at Bioware. Yes, it sucks that we got our hopes up for a second, but seriously– it’s not the end of the world!

9:48 p.m. UPDATE: Official response up on the community forums now:

Earlier today, two e-mails were sent to members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community. These e-mails were sent to a larger group than intended, and have caused some confusion in the community. We can confirm that these e-mails were from EA and BioWare and apologize for any confusion they have caused. Please note that receiving these e-mails does not affect your chances to be invited to test the game. Thank you all for your understanding!

Allison Berryman | Senior Community Coordinator

Star Wars: the Old Republic Release Date Announced!

24 Saturday Sep 2011

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It’s the big news we’ve been waiting for — Bioware and EA have announced that we’ll have SWTOR in our hands right before Christmas! During their keynote address at the Eurogamer Expo, Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, co-founders of BioWareâ„¢, announced that Star Warsâ„¢: The Old Republicâ„¢ will launch in North America on December 20, 2011 and in Europe on December 22, 2011.

Also announced were the monthly subscription fees that kick in after the 30 days of play time that come with the game:

  • 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
  • 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
  • 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

Now, the waiting begins…I suggest you kill some time by leaving your feedback on yesterday’s Companion update blog post.

😉

UPDATE: Darth Hater has a brief audio interview with Stephen Reid at EuroGamer right after the team announced the release date. Read the transcript or listen to the audio here.

UPDATE 2: Eurogamer has the video clip of the announcement up. View it here.

SWTOR Companion Spotlight

23 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in companions, developer blog, previews, video

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Gamespot got a scoop on the latest Star Wars: the Old Republic news with the release of a Companion Q&A article and the above Star Wars: the Old Republic — Developers Dispatch video yesterday. As with every recent video release, this one left me anxious to find out more and get into the game and start customizing my character experience. It will definitely be interesting to see how one’s actions will influence the companion’s affection levels and resulting behaviors and story.

This video gave us a nice look at how Inquisitors will be making the best use of their companions in battle– letting them run on in ahead of us and take a beating, as we stand in the back, looking cool and shooting purpley lightning at our enemies. Mwahahahaha.

Ahem.

Their Q&A was with Game Director James Ohlen, who gave some insight into how players will be able to customize their companions:

Players are able to customize the appearance of their companions in two ways. Because companions are full characters with inventory slots, players can change the equipment their companions are wearing. You can give your tough-as-nails Mandalorian warrior companion some badass Mandalorian armor. Or you can put her in clothes reminiscent of Princess Leia’s famous gold bikini. Players can also change the skin color, hair, and facial features of their companion characters.

Ohlen went on to confirm that companions will have their own class, and will level up as players do, and will gain additional skills as they progress. However, players will not be able to choose advanced professions for their companions.

Today’s SWTOR.com community updates also focused on companions, with a Developer blog on Companions as well. I appreciated the examples they showed of how we will be able to customize the appearance of our companions, as often *my* idea of customization doesn’t mesh with the limited amount of options available in many games for customization. The Mako example had a pretty wide range. Unfortunately, I don’t think there will be a ton of variation available for the Khem Val, but I think I can live with it.

After this big Companion update, I hope this means we’ll soon have a Jawa addition to the Companion pages on SWTOR.com…

One Size Does Not Fit All: What’s Your Ideal #SWTOR Guild Fit

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

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I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to what I want to be doing guild-wise when Star Wars: the Old Republic comes out. There are so many options — join a guild that’s forming now, play with one of my World of Warcraft guilds that’s planning to start a SWTOR guild, or even start my own guild.

I’ve given them all a serious amount of thought since I put up the guild poll here a while back. And I think that alt creation capabilities willing, I’ll be doing a little of each of those.

In a perfect world where I had unlimited free time, I would have gone with starting up my own guild. But this year has been anything but that. So although I do have plans to create a little alt guild with some of my favorite gaming people, I am not going to try to do that as a serious full-time endeavor. I simply do not have the time I would want to allot to it (which I think is also the case for most of my buddies, truth be told.)

Instead, keeping in mind my favorite WoW guild of all time, I decided to look for a nice big, boisterous guild that would hopefully be teaming with folks who want to be out and about and raising hell for the launch. I also wanted to think about doing something a little different from my usual PvE raiding focused recent past. And thus, I sought out Coconut Monkeys, the PC Gamer SWTOR guild.

We’ll see how I do in a PvP environment. It’s a big change, but PvP, and specifically world PvP, was a key part of what I really enjoyed about my favorite WoW guild. I’ve already raised my hand to help out with whatever needs doing in building the guild for launch. As a bonus, something about having an active guild forum to go and chat in has gotten me just that much more revved up about the game.