galactic-starfighter
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Galactic Starfighter's going to be less grindy after SWTOR's 3.0 update
Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to make headlines, this time as a result of some changes slated for Galactic Starfighter in the 3.0 patch. The game's space PvP component isn't getting any new maps or ships, but the requisition reward curve is "getting a permanent boost," according to BioWare designer Alex Modny. Modny says BioWare's going this route because of data that shows "new and moderate" GSF players having difficulty matching up against veteran pilots. You can read more about the changes on the SWTOR forums.
The Daily Grind: What untried portion of an MMO have you been playing lately?
So it's double XP week in Star Wars: The Old Republic right now, and I'm pretty sick of the Kuat Drive Yards flashpoint. I popped into a Galactic Starfighter queue out of sheer boredom, and while it's a far cry from the space sims I love, it was a pleasant diversion. What about you, Massively readers? What previously uninteresting or untried portion of an MMO have you discovered of late? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
'Summer of SWTOR' plans updated
BioWare Senior Producer Bruce Maclean took to the forums today to give an updated plan for the "Summer of SWTOR" that's coming to an MMO near you and to a galaxy far, far away. The updated schedule for the next few months of the game are as follows: June 10th: Game Update 2.8 arrives with a playable Nar Shaddaa Casino, double PvP currency events, a double Starfighter currency event, an overhaul to groupfinder operations, a nightmare mode for Dread Palace, an update to the nightmare mode for Dread Fortress, two new starfighters, and various tweaks. June through August: BioWare will cycle through all of its major in-game events, one after another, between the launch of 2.8 and the arrival of 2.9. August 19th: Game Update 2.9, also known as the Galactic Strongholds expansion, will unlock for subscribers. This will include the Forged Alliances storyline. Maclean also teased that his team has "a lot of folks working on something very big for later this year that [he has] yet to give details on."
New SWTOR space combat vid highlights the Scout Fighter and Strike Fighter
Still deciding on your preferred ship type for Star Wars: The Old Republic's Galactic Starfighter expansion? Or maybe you're still deciding whether or not to check out said expansion in the first place. Either way, you should take a look at BioWare's latest gameplay trailer, which features the Scout and Strike Fighters alongside plenty of space-based destruction and mayhem. Both craft types feature "advanced speed" as well as "devastating firepower" designed to give pilots the ability to control the battle at the front lines. Click past the cut to see for yourself!
Star Wars: The Old Republic 2.7 patch promises big guns and fast ships
The public test notes are out for Star Wars: The Old Republic's Patch 2.7, and if one thing's for certain, this update is going to be a meaty one indeed. On the Galactic Starfighter front, BioWare is adding two new scout ships and two new strike fighters to the roster. There will also be an additional map, Denon Exosphere, to be that hotshot flyboy or flygirl you know you are in your heart. This map takes place in and around a wreckage field and a space station. Patch 2.7 has plenty for the ground game as well. It will conclude the first season of ranked arena PvP, add a Quesh Huttball warzone, give the Dread Fortress a nightmare mode, and jumpstart the next portion of the story with two flashpoints: Korriban Incursion and Assault on Tython.
Hyperspace Beacon: The 2014 spring roadmap for Star Wars: The Old Republic
Late is better than never. The producers of Star Wars: The Old Republic have finally let players know what their plans are for the next couple of months. Senior Producer Bruce Maclean jumped onto the producer's blog and dropped some tidbits just before Update 2.6 launched. Although it would have been nice to have this info last month when everyone was making new year's resolutions, Maclean did give us some really nice items to look forward to. Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether it's enough to change my resolution to play less of SWTOR. I recently started a series of articles about roleplaying a Sith, and I promise that I will get back to that, but this producer's letter gave us too much timely news to pass up. The biggest piece, of course, was buried at the bottom in a paragraph that would likely be skipped if a person just skimmed the article. "We are moving to a 9 week cadence for the major content updates," Maclean says. He explains that this cadence will be more beneficial to the game because it gives the team more time to squash the bugs, but I suspect it's more that his team just cannot produce what it wants to this year without a bit of extra time. With SWTOR earning $139 million last year, you'd think that EA could toss in an extra developer or two to help keep up the current six-to-eight-week cadence. Where is that six weeks or more of extra time going this year? For that, we turn back to Maclean's roadmap.
Star Wars: The Old Republic highlights the strengths of strike fighters
With all of the other ship classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic's latest addition, you can be forgiven for thinking that Galactic Starfighter kind of gives the eponymous fighters short shrift. After all, gunships can snipe with railguns, scouts are darting and disabling beasts, and bombers are tanks with wings. What can the strike fighter do that all of its contemporaries can't? Oh, right. It can eat other ships alive by blowing past shields and ripping enemy hulls apart. The new development blog highlighting the strike fighter discusses how strike fighters are generally the targets of all the other defensive mechanisms -- sure, a gunship can snipe things, but if it gets caught within weapons range of a strike fighter, it's in big trouble. The strike fighter might not have the speed of the scout or the armor of gunships and bombers, but it's maneuverable, nimble, and built for dogfighting. Check out the full development blog for more details on the lynchpin of the fighter squadrons.
Star Wars: The Old Republic takes you to the gun(ship) show
Space is not the final frontier in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Frankly, space is pretty mundane. There's plenty of it, and both the Republic and the Empire have spent a lot of time flying around in it with machines meant to blow the snot out of other machines. The Gunship is the target of the latest development blog, and it's not just designed to blow up other space machines (or "starfighters," if you will) -- it's designed to do so from long range and with extreme prejudice. Gunships all possess a Railgun of some kind, characterized as a long-range sniping weapon with an emphasis on charge time and careful aim. They also feature engines that allow pilots to close distance with a target quickly and others that allow gunships to dart away whilst crippling enemy thrusters. Take a look at the development blog for more details, and if you missed it yesterday, check out the the trailer for Galactic Starfighter just past the cut.
Hyperspace Beacon: The official launch of SWTOR's second expansion
Today, Galactic Starfighter officially launches in conjunction with Star Wars: The Old Republic Update 2.6. Free-to-play players as well as preferred and subscribed players can now jump into 12v12 freeform space battles. All players can choose to pilot one of four Starfighter archetypes: scout, strike fighter, gunship, or bomber. Two team deathmatch maps joined the pre-launch domination maps, giving pilots four possible arenas to dogfight. But if space isn't your thing, BioWare also introduced a new dynamic flashpoint called Kuat Drive Yards that changes every time you run it. It's not often that the Hyperspace Beacon coincides with the launch of a SWTOR update let alone the official launch of an expansion. This week, I intend to give you all the juicy details of the new type of starfighter, the new Starfighter PvP maps, and the brand-new flashpoint. I also had a moment to ask a few of questions of Producer Blaine Christine and GSF Lead Designer Michael Backus. But first, let me show you a few screenshots from the new content below and a launch trailer after the break.
SWTOR lays out 2014 roadmap including two digital expansions
Star Wars: The Old Republic Senior Producer Bruce Maclean delivered a roadmap today for 2014 in the game including a promise of two more digital expansions before the year is out. "Expect to see two digital expansions in 2014 just like you did last year," Maclean said, "with one similar to Galactic Starfighter in scope and one more closely resembling Rise of the Hutt Cartel." Maclean also gave out a few specific dates for the near future. Tomorrow, February 4th, Galactic Starfighter will open up to the free-to-play crowd with additional content for all. Game Update 2.7 is scheduled for April 8th and includes two new flashpoints, a nightmare mode Dread Fortress operation, a Quesh Huttball warzone, and an additional space battle zone. Then on June 10th Game Update 2.8 will arrive with a nightmare mode Dread Palace operation and more ships for the Galactic Starfighter battles. One thing to note is that the team will be moving to a nine-week cycle between major content releases to allow for more minor patches and bug fixes.
New vid shows off SWTOR's gunship
Here's a new Star Wars: The Old Republic Galactic Starfighter video designed to get your space PvP juices flowing. Space PvP juices? Yeah, I guess that's the best I can do on this one, sorry. Anyway, the gunship is the star of this particular show. The one-minute clip shows it in action and it also shows off some of the available customization options. Gunships are designed to be "heavy hitters" and they also feature the ability to snipe enemy ships from long range. See for yourself after the cut.
Hyperspace Beacon: Entering the SWTOR Kuati Drive Yards
You all remember the very first scene from Star Wars. A tiny ship carrying very important cargo was fleeing an imposing mammoth of a battle cruiser. The gigantic ship eventually swallows up the smaller one. We eventually learn that the Empire owns fleets of these Star Destroyers, but we never learn where they all came from. In the Expanded Universe, we find out that the Empire-loyal planet of Kuat manufactures these behemoths in the Kuati Drive Yards. During the time of Star Wars: The Old Republic, we really haven't heard much about this planet or its starship manufacturing. We know that Grand Moff Vaiken created the first dreadnaughts the Sith Empire uses now on Dromund Kaas. We could only assume that Kuat was a member of the Galactic Republic. And we had no indication whether the Drive Yards existed at all until the latest expansion and the flashpoints that hit the SWTOR test center this week.
Star Wars: The Old Republic highlights bomb(er) ships
Bombers are not the sort of ships that dart hither and yon in Star Wars: The Old Republic. They don't skitter about in elaborate dogfights. No, they are the ships that approach their targets, use heavy shields to weather some incoming fire, and then watch as a field of mines explodes around all those ships with the darting and the skittering. The latest development blog on the official site discusses more about how bombers play in Galactic Starfighter. Various mines are available to bombers, ranging from straightforward damage mines to shield-and-power draining Ion Mines to seek-and-destroy Seeker Mines. Bombers can also field stationary Drones for both offensive and defensive purposes, with Sentry Drones taking shots at enemy ships and Repair Drones fixing up the hull of allied craft. Take a look at the full entry for more details, especially if you think you're the sort of player who might want to drop a bomb on someone.
Hyperspace Beacon: Star Wars: The Old Republic predictions for 2014
Knowing my luck, when I finish writing this, the marketing team for Star Wars: The Old Republic will release a huge announcement about 2014 that no one saw coming. And it wouldn't be hard for BioWare to release something unknown to the community at large because it's said next to zero about what we should expect for 2014. Normally, BioWare promotes the upcoming features to death. We knew about the Cathar coming at least a year before they actually hit the live servers. Players and fans (and enemies) of SWTOR have speculated wildly as to why the developers have remained silent on the subject, my favorite being that BioWare has run out of content to produce, which kind of reneges on the 10-year plan it touted before launch. Whether or not BioWare has new content in the works, we do know a few things that will be coming, and we also have some super-secret things we can speculate on thanks to some intrepid SWTOR fans. So let's talk about what we do know, what we don't know, and what we think will happen.
SWTOR's 2.6 patch adding new ships, boosting Operative/Scoundrel DPS
BioWare community manager Eric Musco took to Star Wars: The Old Republic's forums earlier today to deliver a preview of the game's next major patch. The 2.6 update will unlock the Galactic Starfighter expansion for F2P players as well as introduce a new gunship variant and two new bomber variants. The patch will also feature "a few class changes" including significant DPS boosts for Operatives/Scoundrels. You can read the full post on the SWTOR boards.
Hyperspace Beacon: The rest of SWTOR's year-end report
The end of the year is nigh, and as I promised, I will give you my final thoughts on Star Wars: The Old Republic and its achievements for 2013. I wanted my assessment to be based on something other than squishy feelings. Of course, opinions are extremely subjective, but that doesn't mean they cannot be based on something a bit more substantial. In July, I created a mid-term report card for SWTOR using Dr. Richard Battle's studies as the starting point. Bartle's study allowed me to step out of my normal playstyle and observe the game from the standpoint of different types of MMO players. Some players find discovery and exploration to be the most important part of an MMO. Others want to achieve the highest scores or defeat the biggest bosses. Some want to prove that they are better than other players in direct combat, and yet other players want to use the game as an interactive chatroom or work with a group to achieve a goal. Few people fall neatly into one category or other, but nearly everyone will have a dominant motivation. A couple of weeks ago, I graded the game based on the perspective of Bartle's Killer type, giving SWTOR a C- in the category. Because of Galactic Starfighter and 4v4 arenas, I raised the grade from the F I gave it during the mid-term report. I gave the game an A- for Achievers, B for Explorers, and C for the Socializer earlier this year. Has SWTOR been able to raise its grade in these other categories?
SWTOR gives Galactic Starfighter crew member bios
Whether you fight for the Republic or the Empire as a space jockey, you're going to need a good crew member at your side in Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Starfighter. BioWare's lined up two pages detailing the bios of eight crew members you can pick up for your adventures. The Empire crew members include Aven Geth, a human shield tech; MZ-12, a proud astromech; Salana Rok, a Chiss underworld enforcer; and Writch Hurley, a talented if incomprehensible engineer. Over on the Republic side, there's Kendra Novar, a good-hearted slicer; B-3G9, a mixed-up protocol droid; Oro Wogawa, an Ithorian engineering wiz; and Ashy, a Rattataki with a hair trigger. Check out their full bios and let us know which crew member you prefer!
SWTOR on its second anniversary: Winning an uphill battle
At the beginning of the year, Star Wars: The Old Republic was struggling to find its place in the MMO world. As you are likely aware, 2012 was a rough year for SWTOR, but because of the free-to-play launch in November, the tide began to turn, at least financially. Players began flooding back to the game because BioWare tore down the paywall, but that was really the beginning of battle. If SWTOR really wanted to see success, it was going to have to keep those players around. Thus began the uphill battle of making the game successful in 2013. The game began the year with a few flops, and although not everyone was completely satisfied with all the decisions this year, SWTOR certainly upped its game. The game we saw at the end of 2012 morphed into something different and more satisfying by the end of this year. It started with the reopening of the western shelf on Ilum, continued to the launch of the game's first expansion, and ended with a second expansion.
Hyperspace Beacon: The SWTOR year-end report on PvP
In July, I took the famous Bartle Test and pitted it against the state of Star Wars: The Old Republic at the time. The test, based on the research of Dr. Richard Bartle, measures the types of activities within an MMO that players find fun. Of course, there is plenty of crossover, and very few people fit neatly into one category, but I believe that if an MMO hits all the categories well, it will be highly successful, at least from a player's point of view. In the research, player motivation is divided into four categories: Achiever, Explorer, Killer, and Socializer. I have never been a fan of the term Killer as used to describe the type of player who likes to compete directly with other players, but then, I didn't earn a PhD from the University of Essex, either. The Killer category has always been described as more than someone who likes to PvP in the sense that most MMOs provide PvP. A Killer likes to compete, plain and simple. He wants his skills pitted against the skills of other players, and he wants to be recognized for it. In SWTOR, many Killer-types will hang out on the steps of the Sith Academy on Korriban dueling, partially because they find dueling enjoyable, but also because it is in sight of many other players. (That's where recognition comes in.) In July, I gave SWTOR very poor marks in the Killer category. I wrote, "Later this year, BioWare plans on introducing a content specifically focused on PvP, but given the team's track record, I have my concerns," and then I gave the team an F in this category. Has BioWare been able to raise that grade? And how have things changed since mid-year?
BioWare devs streaming SWTOR's Galactic Starfighter on Dec. 6
If you're curious about Galactic Starfighter but you're not inclined to pay a Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription to access it before 2014, you might want to check out BioWare's Twitch channel on Friday, December 6th at 5:00 p.m. EDT. The announcement post bills the event as "three hours of intense free-flight dogfighting in space," and as a bonus it will be hosted and commented upon by developers.
