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Star Wars: The Old Republic transmits free-to-play video
The race toward free-to-play is gaining momentum for Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare's been talking the transition up quite a bit lately, and has just released a new video giving players an overview of the differences once the change is made. While most of it is old news to those following the game, there are a few new tidbits worth noting here. One of these is clarification on character creation restrictions; BioWare revealed that the three free-to-play races are Human, Cyborg, and Zabrak. Previous subscribers are targeted for hugs and love with the F2P transition, as BioWare is not only granting them instant preferred status but also handing them currency to spend in the Cartel Market. Speaking of which, the market is briefly shown in the video with the following categories: featured, newly added, packs, cosmetic, unlocks, equipment, and consumables. Check out the video after the jump and let us know -- are you going back to SWTOR for F2P?
Wakfu rolls out the Foggernaut
We can always count on Wakfu to come up with classes that are far beyond the tired norm of Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Priest. Case in point, Square-Enix has just revealed the game's 14th playable class, the Foggernaut. The Foggernaut is a mechanical man who can unleash a number of gadgets and gizmos to save the day. It specializes in fire, earth, and statsis attacks, and can fight from both short- and long-range. This new class is now available for play, and all interested parties can check out the Foggernaut video reveal after the jump.
SWTOR delineates restrictions on F2P players
Inevitably, the first question anyone asks in the wake of a free-to-play conversion is about how much a person can get for the price of nothing. Previously, Star Wars: The Old Republic had posted an explanation of the many ways free players would get only limited access, but an updated chart makes the exact limitations clear. As a general rule, the restrictions are in threes: three Flashpoints per week, three Warzones per week, three Space Missions per week. Players will also be able to buy weekly passes for these features to get unlimited access. There will also be restrictions on inventory expansions and cargo hold storage for free players, and field revivals on death will be limited. Taking a look at the full chart should make the breakdown obvious (although there's a believed typo under the restrictions on equipping items). Meanwhile, current subscribers can take advantage of a new account feature to see just how many bonus coins they'll get if they're subscribed when the conversion takes place. [Thanks to Marc for the tip!]
SWTOR's Game Update 1.5 hits the public test server
After recently winning four GDC Online awards earlier this week, BioWare rides the enthusiasm train a bit longer by releasing new content on the public test server today. Game Update 1.5 introduces us to Section X, a fresh area to explore on the prison world of Belsavis. You can also earn the final pieces of the Dread Guard gear set in the new Operation: Explosive Conflict. And of course, what update wouldn't be complete without the addition of a new buddy? HK-51 is an assassination droid companion available to those who explore the derelict ship wreckage beneath the icy surface of Belsavis. Take note that character cloning and full support are not available with this update, so BioWare encourages all players to use the Public Test Server forum with any questions or concerns you may have with the new content.
GDC Online 2012: SWTOR, Diablo III, Koster honored in GDC Online awards
Wednesday night saw the Game Developers Choice Online awards being handed out to MMO, social, mobile, and free-to-play games. Star Wars: The Old Republic came away with the awards for best online game design, best online visual arts, best online technology, and best new online game. Riot Games won for best live game, the audience award, and best community relations for League of Legends. Raph Koster was officially recognized with an online game legend award, and World of Warcraft received a hall of fame award. Blizzard also scored with Diablo III, receiving an award for having the best audio for an online game. The award for best social network game went to Draw Something, and thatgamecompany won an online innovation award for Journey. Massively sent two plucky game journalists -- Beau Hindman and Karen Bryan -- to Austin, Texas, for this year's GDC Online, where they'll be reporting back on MMO trends, community theory, old favorites, and new classics. Stay tuned for even more highlights from the show!
Star Wars: The Old Republic kicks off meeting the developers with Jesse Sky
Like every MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic is not a game produced by a single person. The community team behind the game has kicked off what promises to be a series of articles introducing the developers, starting with the lead Flashpoint and Operations designer Jesse Sky. Like BioWare's similar articles for other franchises, the interview is a mix of questions about Star Wars: The Old Republic and questions about who Sky is as a person. Sky goes on record as mentioning that he sees designing Flashpoints as similar to designing an adventure for a tabletop game, with the story choices having a major impact on how the instance is paced out. There's also a science to making sure that the encounters are designed to be challenging while at the same time not insurmountable. If you'd like to know more about one of the minds behind the game's content, check out the full interview, and perhaps throw a few more questions into the official discussion thread.
Daniel Erickson leaves BioWare
A few weeks ago Star Wars: The Old Republic's lead designer, Daniel Erickson, sparked some rumors by adding the phrase "actively looking for new opportunities" to his LinkedIn profile. A tweet today made his split with the company official, bringing seven years of being at BioWare to a close. Erickson joins former executive producer Rich Vogel and BioWare founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk as big names leaving the company in the last handful of months. Of course, that's just people leaving voluntarily -- the company saw substantial layoffs in summer due to refining and restructuring. [Thanks to alert reader Jay for the tip.]
SWTOR community tour announced
Do you like free food, free drinks, Tauntauns, and a chance to talk with your favorite Star Wars: The Old Republic devs? Then the SWTOR team has fabulous news for you. A new string of community meet 'n' greet events has been announced! Starting with the New York Comic Con, the SWTOR Community Cantina Tour will be visiting different parts of the US to eat, drink, and be merry with fans. A blog post before each event will have all detailed information about then meetup, so be sure keep an eye peeled so as not to miss out! For a full list of the four planned tour cities and their estimated timeframe, hit up the official blog post. If you're more concerned about what's going on in-game than a chance to meet up with devs, you might be happy to know that community manager Joveth Gonzalez has made a post on the official forums responding to complaints about issues in update 1.4.
BioWare's Companions 101 series looks at SWTOR's Djannis
BioWare's shining the spotlight on Star Wars: The Old Republic's NPC companions via a new blog series appropriately named Companions 101. Today's entry features Kaliyo Djannis, who serves as something of a femme fatale for Imperial Agent players. The dev blog paints Djannis as a complex character who loves to work for the Empire and manipulate her superiors. "When bringing Kaliyo along on missions, keep this in mind. She loves anarchy and respect –- but she will always have an ulterior motive," BioWare says. "Play her at her own game and keep her guessing. The minute Kaliyo becomes bored is the minute she either stabs you in the back or disappears from the ship... with most of your credits."
Star Wars: The Old Republic Galactic Encyclopedia due out October 12th
Those of you who want a more detailed look at the story behind Star Wars: The Old Republic are going to get your wish on October 15th with the Star Wars: The Old Republic Galactic Encyclopedia. The book contains a full rundown of the game's historical events, classes, persons of interests, ships, hardware, races, and so on. And it has a new trailer as of today because apparently books now get video trailers. Clocking in at 352 pages, the hardcover volume is penned by several members of the SWTOR writing team and explores the nuances behind the universe as presented in the game. The book is set to feature a full timeline and a number of pages on important events, useful for piecing together the full story from somewhat fragmented in-game lore. It can be pre-ordered now on Amazon and should be more than worth the value for roleplayers or dedicated lore hounds. Take a look at the trailer just past the cut.
Ex-BioWare dev: Negativity too much for Zeschuk, Muzyka
Former BioWare dev Trent Oster thinks that fan negativity probably contributed to the recent exit strategy for BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. "The last time I met up with [Greg], I felt his exhaustion," Oster told Now Gamer. 'Punch out, eject, get the hell out,' was my suggestion to him and it hit closer to the mark than I had realized. I also think the Mass Effect 3 fan reaction and the Old Republic fans' negativity was just too much." Oster goes on to express surprise at Muzyka's departure, saying that he had him "pegged as an EA lifer." "I'm sure the internal culture at EA had pinned the Old Republic conversion to free-to-play as a failure and hung that completely on Ray, so that would have hurt his upward climb. But, I figured he would fight harder. EA upper management must have been even worse than I thought," Oster explained.
Star Wars: The Old Republic launches update 1.4 and takes aim at faster patches
The fourth major update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is live right now, but some players may find patch 1.4 a bit lighter than previous updates. According to a new development blog, this isn't by accident but by design. Creative director James Ohlen explains that the development team's previous strategy of launching a single big update every few months did result in big patches but at the cost of long stretches without anything new for players. Starting with 1.4 and moving onward, the team is moving to prioritize more frequent updates. Ohlen places a rough estimate of every six weeks but notes that it's only an estimate and a target rather than a firm schedule. He goes on to state that the team is planning on three more patches by the end of the year in addition to the free-to-play conversion, with more large-scale improvements and updates due in 2013. If you're mostly just interested in cutting through 1.4's new raid mode, of course, most of this is immaterial, but you can still check out the trailer for the patch just after the break.
SWTOR's 1.4 patch is live
It's patch day in a galaxy far, far away. BioWare has officially unleashed Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.4 update to the masses, and there's a summary of all the changes up on the game's official website. There's a new operation (Terror from Beyond) on the remote world of Asation. There are new weapons and armor courtesy of Dread Guard gear. Finally, the group finder has been tweaked, as have moods, emotes, and companion color choices. Check out more details on 1.4 in our weekly SWTOR column.
Star Wars: The Old Republic livestream discusses free-to-play, HK-51, and scaling
The community team behind Star Wars: The Old Republic hosted a livestream, and as you can probably imagine, the whole session has been recorded already by the team from Darth Hater for your viewing pleasure. But if you want to know the highlights and you can't wait for a more detailed take (say, from next week's Hyperspace Beacon), you can always get the rundown of some of the bigger points from the half-hour session. For those currently playing, HK-51 can be expected before the end of the year, with Cathar getting a somewhat more ambiguous release of whenever the species is ready. There will also be other species to be unlocked when the free-to-play conversion goes live, along with moddable gear (without endgame stats), mounts, and pets. The team is also looking into implementing a hood toggle for the Force-using classes of the game and scaling content down in difficulty for smaller groups of players. Check out the full recording past the break, or just take a look at the highlights.
SWTOR's 1.4 patch adding moods, delayed binding, and more
MMOs sometimes skimp on quality-of-life features in favor of combat. Fortunately Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.4 patch is looking at the little things, according to a new post on the game's website. The update adds a new group finder teleport back function as well as delayed binding for those times when you accidentally roll greed or spend your hard-earned commendations on the wrong item. BioWare is also gifting players with some new avatar mood options (think /alarmed or /cheery). Finally, the patch brings companion customization tweaks to the table as well. You can hide helmets and "unify colors to chest" to avoid those godawful mismatched outfits.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's Gabe Amatangelo on 1.4 and free-to-play
It's not usual for the Hyperspace Beacon to feature two interviews in a row, but Star Wars: The Old Republic has some major changes coming. Update 1.4 promises to give us new and exciting content like a new operation and a new warzone, and after the EA earnings call, we learned that SWTOR will tackle the free-to-play market. Readers and fans voiced both concerns and excitement over this move. I couldn't just let that stand; I had to pose some questions to the BioWare developers. SWTOR's Principal Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo picked up the call. Our conversation focused on these two major changes to the game and the concerns fans have for the game's immediate future. Read on!
BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk announce retirement
The doctors... are out. BioWare announced that Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, co-founders of the studio, are retiring from the gaming biz. The two have been instrumental in the creation of many hit RPGs, from Baldur's Gate to Mass Effect. For us MMO fans, they're best-known for helming the ship that brought us Star Wars: The Old Republic. The two are taking a break, perhaps indefinitely, from game creation and management. Muzyka is looking to engage in charities and social work, while Zeschuk is going to dive into projects involving craft beer. "This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make; after thinking about it for many months, I made the decision to retire from videogames back in early April 2012 -- at that time I provided six months' notice to EA, to help enable a solid transition for my teams at BioWare," Muzyka wrote in his farewell letter. "This decision isn't without significant pain and regret, but it's also something I know I need to do, for myself and my family. I've reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation," Zeschuk said in his. The two maintain that BioWare is in good hands and will continue to excel going forward.
Irish BioWare support center for SWTOR converting to general EA use
Initially opened last year as a support center for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the BioWare facility in Galway, Ireland, is expanding and converting to house EA's European customer support needs for all of its major titles. With this move, an additional 300 employees will be hired over the next few months. The facility has also dropped its BioWare Ireland name. EA COO Peter Moore explained some benefits of the move by pointing out that Ireland has both a good pool of talent available and the technology infrastructure needed. The Irish Government, which is focusing on video games in its plan for job growth, is supporting the move.
Star Wars: The Old Republic rolls out consolidation of locked servers [Updated]
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been making a move toward fewer servers with higher populations for a while, but tomorrow's maintenance is the final step. After character transfers earlier in the year and the higher-population technology rollout, the server lists are being fully merged as of tomorrow. If you still have characters on a locked server, they will be transferred over to their new home tomorrow whether you like it or not. For those players curious about their new destination or the ever-present naming issue, the team has created an FAQ to answer any obvious questions. The character limit on the destination servers has also been raised to 12. Players who have more than 12 total characters after consolidation will still have access to all of their characters but cannot create any new characters until they delete a few (although all of the characters will be available for play). As with any sort of transfer, there's still some ambiguity about how smoothly everything will run, so players will have to keep their eyes peeled, log in tomorrow, and see what happens after the dust settles. [Update: The team also just released a miniature dev blog that explains how shadows will soon be prettified.]
One Shots: Go directly to jail
You have to love a culture that thinks jail should be a breathtaking experience for the prisoner... literally! Today's One Shots from reader Lovander (Tarnished Coast represent!) shows how Guild Wars 2's Sylvari race mixes glowing sparkles with deadly detention cells. Lovander wrote, I came upon this jail in the Sylvari capital, The Grove. Every cell is a Venus Fly Trap. Loved the design! Follow on for the color screenie plus a few more One Shots beyond the break.
