Category Archives: The Old Republic

My posts about Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO made by Bioware and published by EA Games

Livix Can Breathe Again!

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So in the most recent patch, Sith Purebloods finally got their rebreather masks back, which is great. There’s still a ton of headgear still missing for Sith Purebloods, but at least we got our masks back…

A Sith Pureblood with a Rebreather Mask on

Livix is picky about the air she breathes...

Meanwhile, on the Republic Fleet

My Twi’lek Smuggler Tails still has no ability to wear his headgear, so he’s resorted to taking his PvP gear and unslotting the mods from the hat (and it was a pretty penny) and sticking it into his Civilian Pilot Hat. The only hat he can still wear! :D

Wow… insert captain Picard Facepalm… Yeah I know it’s Star Trek, don’t you judge me!

Captain Picard from Star Trek Doing a Facepalm

I’m still optimistic that one day BioWare will realize all this and sort it out. But let’s all agree on one thing: Hats, masks and helmets are a status symbol of your character’s achievements. If you don’t want to show your hat, hide it. It doesn’t make sense to make it mandatory (fancy word for ‘everyone’) to hide it.

Sith Purebloods and Twi’leks = Hatless

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Yet another patch, yet another hatless week for my two characters Tails (Twi’lek) and Livix (Sith Pureblood). This is my first rant to BioWare, I’ve been playing nonstop since the game came out and I am not in any way “going back to WoW” or any other MMO. I want to play a Star Wars MMO, period.

Picture of a Smuggler Twi'lek in SWTOR

I look like a red bowling ball... With red striped tentacles...

I have reported this bug several times in conjunction with reporting important bugs, you know when the CSR asks if “is there anything else I can help you with today?”. So I went to the forum to check out the latest patch notes for today’s patch (Tuesday May 08, 2012) and there were no updates on any hat related issues, so I went to the forums to check out the “Known Issues thread” because clearly BioWare and their people must know about this issue, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t even listed. I searched the forums page after page until I found a fellow customer who took the time to post on the forums about the issue.

Berserkmode Wrote:

It’s been a month or more now I think, and my Sith Pureblood’s mouth-breathing helms, as well as a lot of other helms, don’t show up at all on my character. A couple of other helms are glitched to where the top, sides, and bottom of my head clip through.

This is REALLY getting annoying. I’m playing my storyline, and I either sound like a robot with no helm showing, or I look ridiculous with my bald head sticking through my masks. Can we PLEASE look into this soon like the JK issue was? TY

This is where it gets interesting, a customer service “droid” replied to the thread and wrote the following:

Conveeyor Wrote:

Hello Berserkmode,

we are sorry to inform you that the rebreather and some similar looking helmets for the Sith Pureblood not showing up is working as intended. We know that it is a disturbing factor for some of our customers and would like to point you to the Suggestion Box. There all concerns and ideas will be collected and forwarded to the development team.

Thank you for your understanding.

Now, when people usually point people to a suggestion box, it’s said in a way of “sure go ahead and report it if you’d like, we empty that suggestion box every 4 years… and it usually goes straight into the trash” but let’s look past that and forget that was ever written and focus on the main area of interest, “Working as Intended”.

Working as Intended

Livix, my sith pureblood character in SWTOR having a giggle

No breathing mask for a Sith Pureblood is no laughing matter.

What the Customer Service Representative wrote were famous words that in this case don’t make any sense at all. “Working as intended”, how can a helmet / hood / mask that you equip and choose to show, that was already showing before 1.2, but now no longer shows up (although the crackly radio-voice is still around when you’re in a cutscene), be working as intended?

Digging through the responses of other players I find one player that goes “You know how hard it is to make a game…”, Maybe for you, but you didn’t code this game’s engine with a full team of people knowing what they were doing, they have a full team of game designers paid to do their jobs at their disposal, shut up. It’s an easy fix for them just to give us back our hoods and hats without the need of any creative solution solving for the “clipping issues” or whatever else they deem to be wrong.

Clipping Issue

Without any logical response from BioWare, people are quick to blame clipping to be the reason the helmets, hoods and masks were permanently taken off these species’ heads, permanently. Well, if you have clipping with your character’s face, and you’re so bothered about it, why don’t you just hide your helmet? My Pureblood’s face clipped into the rebreather mask a little bit, I did not care at all, I still liked it! Heck I’ve played my Twi’lek from 1-50 with hats that had clipping issues with the head-tails or “Lekku” clipping completely through the helmet or hat, that’s fine! I really didn’t mind a single bit! I still showed my headgear with pride, now my poor twi’lek has nothing to show and he just looks like a sad bunny with giant ears.

Legacy System?

How can I enjoy and take part of the legacy system when my future Sith Pureblood  and Twi’lek alts won’t be able to wear any hats? Where’s the fun in that? Leave it be, let the hat clip for now, let players have their individual opinions if they want to show it or not! Once you come up with a creative solution to the problem, apply it then. And give my Twi’lek jedi her hood!

DEY TERK MER HERT!

Silly Hats Only Animated Gif

Cross Server PVP and why I am against the idea

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Some people have been asking BioWare for Cross Server PvP, while true that this option shortens people queues and more than likely improves the ability to play a Warzone repeatedly without wait in SWTOR it would take away what I think is the most important feature in an MMO; a server’s community between players.

I have gained a few friends in SWTOR just because of the fact that I’ve been in Warzones so many times and seen familiar faces day after day. Granted, most of these people wouldn’t take a bullet for me but they know who I am and I know who they are and they are what keeps me coming back and playing more.

A picture of a twi'lek on a speeder bike in the Voidstar Warzone

My Twi'lek Tails on his way into the Voidstar Warzone

I started out on the Republic side for PvP and after a while even got recognized by the Empire players, just like my character hates certain Imperial players–they too hate most of my characters–but it’s more of a love-hate relationship as we’re all just humans playing a game.

Introducing cross server PvP (Same with Flashpoints and/or Operations) would ruin the sense of community between players on that same server. Playing warzone after warzone with random strangers constantly only with a minor chance of meeting them again would make every warzone feel “stale” and disposable, at least to me.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is only going on it’s six month, I’m counting on more players that will come around with every patch they’ll release. I’m feeling optimistic about how the game will be like in another six months.

Please, let me know your thoughts!

Cover Users: What do these green things mean?

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So I’ve been wondering about this since the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta, what the heck do these green things above the enemy NPCs mean?

They only appear when you use, what I call “Natural Cover” meaning, boxes, rocks, pipes and anything else that belongs to the game environment. These icons never pop up if you use your portable cover.

What do they do?

I would like to imagine it means, you have a clear steady shot, accuracy and critical hit chances have been improved by X amounts of percent. But I’d like to have confirmation on this. What do they mean?

Green cover symbols over NPCs man, how do they work?
Leave me a comment if you know!

Tails Plays it Chiss

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I uploaded yet another SWTOR Video, this one is from the Smuggler Quest Line (From the Heist of the Millennium quest). Now with minimum spoilers. Decided to try adding a laugh track (aka Canned Laughter) to the jokes, just to see how it affects me and the viewers.

This is my Smuggler “Tails”, working his smuggler magic to try and get past Imperial Security.

Read “Planning My Legacy” by Psynister

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I stumbled across this excellent post by Psynister via Twitter and it’s one of the most well put posts I’ve seen about the new Legacy Patch for Star Wars the Old Republic. His post highlights the species unlocks and the class feature unlocks, and it’s an excellent overall read from another fellow altoholic. You can find it at http://psynister.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/planning-my-legacy/

I have to say as an avid Twi’lek fan, I almost dropped my jaw at the first line sentence:

Twi’lek: I’m not gonna lie, I hate this species. If I could wrap my little head tentacles around my neck or something so that they didn’t swing around like I have two giant gummy worms on my head all the time then it might be different. Since I have no choice but to deal with stupid looking head thingies, I don’t need this race. I do really like the look of them when they’re standing still, but the second the gummy worms start to move it just looks bad. Animations have them move around like clothing (nearly weightless) and it just looks completely off to me.

But I totally have to agree about the Lekku floating after your character like they carry next to no substance, that was one of my tickets in the Beta in fact, my request was to had some more “fleshiness” to the consistency of the Lekku (or Twi’lek Headtails) something with some more weight. Heck, even gummyworms would have a better consistency than the current “next to silk” flowing.

I asked my wife about the way the lekku was moving and she said she liked it the way it was, she explained that it made it feel more fluid. I can’t say I agree, bring on the heavier consistency.

Recap of Species:
Looking at what I just said there, we end up with the following results

Definitely: Cyborg
Probably: Chiss, Rattataki
Maybe: Sith Pure Blood
Not Interested: Miraluka, Mirialan, Twi’lek

As I play primarily Republic (with about 3 imperial alts vs 5 republic alts) I’d say my list of species unlocks would be:

Definitely: Sith, Chiss
Already Unlocked: Twi’lek, Zabrak
Not Interested: Miraluka, Mirialan, Cyborg

I really want a Sith Zabrak who is not red and have Darth maul tattoos all over their face. Zoryal is actually really good looking and having her (well, someone that looks like her) on the Empire side would be interesting.

Give Psynister’s post a read at: http://psynister.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/planning-my-legacy/

Star Wars The Old Republic Guild Summit Underway

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[Feed is over]

Today is the Austin SWTOR Guild Summit, check it out live and find out the juiciest news straight from Bioware. It just goes to show how Bioware and EA wants to make the best MMO in history!

This is a schedule of all the items they’ll discuss, feature and showcase:

  • 10:00AM CST (4PM GMT) – Welcome and Introductions
  • 10:30AM CST (4:30PM GMT) – State of the Game and Game Update 1.2 Presentation
  • Break (Livestream offline from 11:00am to 2:00pm)
  • 2:00PM CST (8:00PM GMT) – Operations and Flashpoints Discussion
  • 2:45PM CST (8:45PM GMT) – Player vs. Player Discussion
  • 3:30PM CST (9:30PM GMT) – Legacy Presentation (I’m really looking forward to this one!)
  • 4:00PM CST (10:00PM GMT) – Economy and Crew Skills Discussion
  • 4:30PM CST (10:30PM GMT) – Roleplayer’s Discussion
  • 5:00PM CST (11:00PM GMT) – Guild Features Discussion
  • 5:30PM CST (11:30PM GMT) – User Interface Presentation
  • 6:00PM CST (12:00AM GMT) – …And The Rest

 

Star Wars The Old Republic 1.2 Trailer!

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I just found this trailer via twitter, it was uploaded today by Stopcastnews by Machinima by Bioware. It’s a low resolution video unfortunately but it’s better than nothing. I will update with a better video as soon as I can find one!

I am loving that legacy tree!

List of Features

For those at work or for those who just want a rundown of the features I noticed in the trailer:

  • Legacy Tree
    Really detailed from the looks of it, drag a portrait around to set the relationship (maybe?) a la Sims style? I could make out words like “Global Unlocks” and “Character Perks” on the left side of the Legacy Tree and stats like level, location etc. to the bottom right of the tree under a character preview window.
  • Legacy Abilities
    Yes, that was a sith warrior with a FLAME THROWER in the trailer! A smuggler with FORCE CHOKE
  • Legacy Unlocks
    Mailbox in your ship, anyone?
  • Legacy Species Unlocks
    Looked like there was a Sith Pureblood Jedi Knight and a Chiss smuggler in the video!
  • New Warzone
    Novare Coast
  • A new Flashpoint
    The Lost Island
  • Advanced Options
    Finally UI Customization! Although it doesn’t look like Addon support, it will allow us to move elements around on the screen and resize them.
  • Improved Character Textures
    Hi-res textures!? D:
  • Appearance Customization
    Looks like they made something like they had in Lord of the Rings Online, an extra slot for “cosmetic” items!
  • Mission Tracker Usables
    From the looks of it, mission items will now be accessible on the quest tracker, so we don’t have to dig through our bags in order to find that quest item!
  • New operation
    Explosive Conflict
  • Guild Banks
  • New Vehicles
  • New Crafting Schematics
  • Extractable Tier 2 Mods
  • New Lightsaber Colors
  • Ship Droids Gain Affection
    What? Does this mean C2N2 will not speak to me if I give him a cold shoulder? Oh please let it happen!
  • Craftable Augments
  • Legacy Item Drops
  • New Armor / Gear
  • Mini Pets
    D’aww, did you see the baby Tauntaun?
  • Warzone Rankings
    Looks like really detailed warzone statistics, including who’s the baddest of asses.
  • New “RP” Emotes
    *cheers*
  • New Corellia Daily Missions

Release Date

Patch 1.2 will be out in April 2012 according to the news released today at the Austin Guild Summit! Click here to watch the guild summit live [March 05, 2012]!

 

Companion Gifts Guide

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So I’ve had some time to better my relationships with my companions on my Star Wars the Old Republic characters, and I made this list for myself to better search the Galactic Trade Network for the proper gifts for my companions. When I ended up buying the last of one item, I didn’t know what the other item in the same category was called, which is the main reason I wanted a list I could check.

Protips

  • Green (Premium) quality gifts (rank 1 and 2) may be purchased from the “Companion Gift Vendor” on both the Republic and Imperial space stations.
  • Blue (Prototype) quality gifts (rank 5) may be purchased from the “Curator” next to the “Companion Gift Vendor” on both the Republic and Imperial space stations with the exchange of six Prototype Gift Fragments.
  • Purple (Artifact) quality gifts (rank 5) may be purchased from the “Curator” next to the “Companion Gift Vendor” on both the Republic and Imperial space stations with the exchange of eight Artifact Gift Fragments.

Each category has three grades of gifts: Green, Blue and Purple. Ranging from rank 1 to rank 5. This list is first ordered by the class of the gift, then by the color of the gift and lastly the rank of the gift.

Companion Gift Ranks

You’ll notice that each Companion Gift has a rank (from 1-5) in their tool tip, it means that the higher the rank is, the more the payback in affection will be. But, there is more to it though: When you started out becoming buddies with your companion, you noticed that they were really easily impressed with your gifts and seemed to jump for joy every time you gave them something, but as their affection level grew so did their taste in gifts.

Companions and Affection Ranks

Companions have the ability to be have a total of 10,000 affection points, these are divided into ranks and there are five in total, which means these increment in sets of 2,000. At the first level they will practically love you for any rank gift you give them, as they gain affection level, the lower level gifts you give them will reduce the score rewarded for each gift. As an example: something that used to give them 179 points will now only give 120.

  • Affection Level 1 (0 – 1,999)
  • Affection level 2 (2,000 – 3,999)
  • Affection level 3 (4,000 – 5,999)
  • Affection Level 4 (6,000 – 7,999)
  • Affection Level 5 (8000 – 10,000)

Please note: The list of all the companion gifts is not complete, so please feel free to help me complete it by leaving any additions, corrections or suggestions in the comments below!

This page may contain spoilers

Please read this first - I’ve included information about what gift gives you the most affection gain for each companion in the game. A blue companion belongs to the Republic and a red companion belongs to the Sith Empire. I’ve only listed them by their names and faction, not what class they belong to. Chances are that you (like me) do not want to know what class gets which companion until you’ve actually played that class.

Courting

Most Gain
Ashara Zavros, Mako and Vette
Elara Dorne (Note: After Act 1), Doc, Nadia Grell and Lieutenant Iresso

Premium Grade Courting Gifts

Gold Necklace
Rank 1

Hutt Affection Token
Rank 2

Authentic Tionese Cuisine
Rank 3

Formal Clothing
Rank 4

Prototype Grade Courting Gifts

Hand-Carved Voss Courting Jewelry
Rank 1

Inlaid Corellian Love Stones
Rank 2

Coin of Good Fortune
Rank 3

Zeltron Personal Aroma Set
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Courting Gifts

Electrum Commitment Ring
Rank 3

Gree Temporary Mind-Link Device
Rank 5

Cultural Artifact

Most Gain
Khem Val, Talos Drellik and Vector Hyllis
Bowdaar, Nadia Grell and Yunn

Premium Grade Cultural Artifacts

Polished Meteorite
Rank 1

Dubrillion Lizard Egg
Rank 2

Primitive Staff
Rank 3

Hutt Banner
Rank 4

Carved Runestone
Rank 5

Prototype Grade Cultural Artifacts

Alderaanian Noble Heirloom
Rank 4

Signet Ring of Ancient Tion
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Cultural Artifacts

Memoir of the Unification Wars
Rank 5

Imperial Memorabilia

Most Gain
Ensign Raina Temple
Lord Scourge, Zenith

Premium Grade Imperial Memorabilia

Imperial History Holo
Rank 1

Imperial Battalion Flag
Rank 2

Imperial Military Records
Rank 3

Philosophy of the Sith Code
Rank 4

Sith Opera Collection
Rank 5

Prototype Grade Imperial Memorabilia

Imperial General’s Dog Tags
Rank 4

Banned Imperial History Document
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Imperial Memorabilia

Account of the Discovery of Korriban
Rank 5

Luxury

Most Gain
Gault, Jaesa Willsaam and Kaliyo Djannis
Bowdaar, Doc, Kira Carsen, Risha and Tharan Cedrax

Premium Grade Luxury

Small Gemstone
Rank 1

Polished Carapace
Rank 2

Tarul Wine
Rank 4

Prototype Grade Luxury

Comet-Stone Drinking Glass
Rank 2

Exquisite Cooking Spices
Rank 4

First Edition Galactic Encyclopedia
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Luxury

Intricate Corellian Speeder Model
Rank 5

Military Gear

Most Gain
Lieutenant Pierce and Xalek
Corso Riggs and Sergeant Rusk

Premium Grade Military Gear

Survival Gear
Rank 1

Complete Camping Set
Rank 2

Homing Device
Rank 3

Armor Maintenance Kit
Rank 4

Premium Field Rations
Rank 5

Prototype Grade Military Gear

Gourmet Ration Pack
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Military Gear

Omni-Vision Battlefield Relay
Rank 5

Republic Memorabilia

Most Gain
Ashara Zavros
Lieutenant Iresso, M1-4X and Sergeant Rusk

Premium Grade Republic Memorabilia

Republic History Holo
Rank 1

Republic Planetary Flag
Rank 2

Replica of the Galactic Constitution
Rank 4

Canister of Coruscanti Soil
Rank 5

Prototype Grade Imperial Memorabilia

Republic Senatorial Oath
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Imperial Memorabilia

Holorecord of the Republic Founding
Rank 5

Trophy

Most Gain
Broonmark and Torian Cadera
Bowdaar, Sergeant Rusk

Premium Grade Trophy

Vrblther Skull
Rank 1

Sleen Tail
Rank 2

Nexu Claw
Rank 3

Humanoid Skull
Rank 4

Prototype Grade Trophy

Assassin Droid Hand
Rank 1

Greater Cthon Brain
Rank 4

Galactic Crime Lord’s ID Card
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Trophy

Mutant Rancor Tooth
Rank 2

Perfect Krayt Dragon Pearl
Rank 3

Splinter of a Rakata Stronghold
Rank 5

Technology

Most Gain
Blizz, Doctor Loking, Mako and Scorpio
T7-01 and Yunn

Premium Grade Technology

Holoviewer
Rank 1

Hutt Data Library
Rank 2

Prototype Grade Technology

Kal-Reyon Experimental Implant
Rank 3

VergeCorps Destabilized Power Matrix
Rank 4

Aratech Reconstruction Toolkit
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Technology

Unlimited Access Security Breaker
Rank 1

Vial of Gree Nanite Paste
Rank 5

Underworld Good

Most Gain
Skadge and Vette
Guss Tuno, Risha and Tanno Vik

Premium Grade Underworld Good

Underworld Rumor Sheet
Rank 1

Hutt Hit List
Rank 2

Incriminating Evidence
Rank 4

Fake Identity Documents
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Underworld Good

Slicer Contact List
Rank 1

Experimental SIS Listening Device
Rank 2

Drayen Hyperspace Smuggling Routes
Rank 5

Weapon

Most Gain
Andronikos Reval, Broonmark, Jaesa Willsaam, Kaliyo Djannis, Lieutenant Pierce, Skadge and Xalek
Akaavi Sparr, Aric Jorgan, Corso Riggs and Qyzen Fess

Premium Grade Weapon

Ammunition Belt
Rank 1

Padded Weapon Case
Rank 2

Personal Armory Locker
Rank 4

High Resolution Combat Recorder
Rank 5

Prototype Grade Weapon

Star Core Overloaded Power Cell
Rank 4

Energy Blade Bayonet
Rank 5

Artifact Grade Weapon

Unique Rakata Grenade
Rank 5