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Star Wars: The Old Republic Update 2.7 invading on April 8th
The invasion is coming! The invasion is coming! Break out your lightsabers and rev up your starfighter because Star Wars: The Old Republic is releasing Update 2.7: Invasion on Tuesday, April 8th. The title of Update 2.7 comes from two "invasion" flashpoints on Tython and Korriban, as well as the events in a new level 55 story arc. Players will be invading the Jedi and Sith home worlds while investigating mysteries in enemy territory. The update also contains some PvP action, including a new Quesh Huttball experience and the Denon Exosphere space battle. The excitement for 2.7 now comes in video form, so check it out.
Star Wars denied, creativity permitted: a crucial moment in LucasArts history
Founded in 1982 as a new division of George Lucas' entertainment empire, LucasFilm Games intended to hinge its products on cutting-edge technology. David Fox, also known as LucasArts Employee #2, envisioned a visually rich first-person spaceship game for Atari 8-bit systems – and doesn't that just sound perfect for Star Wars? "I wanted it to be a Star Wars game originally," Fox said, "and we were told right up front, when we asked, that we were not allowed to do Star Wars titles. "And I was really upset," he said, laughing. "I joined the company because I wanted to be in Star Wars and that was the closest way I could do it, to create a game and do it that way." Though LucasFilm Games would eventually align with Star Wars as it became the LucasArts we knew, it was this initial denial that set a course for long-lasting collaboration and unique design approaches. Speaking at the Game Developers Conference, in the first postmortem panel dedicated to a company, former figureheads spoke of an atmosphere in which creators were permitted to do anything but Star Wars. [Image: Guybrush Threepwood in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 / Disney]
SWTOR's Galactic Strongholds expansion coming in August
Ready for Star Wars: The Old Republic's next expansion? Ready or not, it's called Galactic Strongholds, and it's coming some time in August of 2014. If you're a subscriber you'll get early access beginning on June 24th, and you'll also get a handful of exclusives including a Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace Stronghold. Expansion features include customizable player housing known as strongholds, the ability to live on multiple planets, and guild flagships. BioWare says that housing decor will be available in a number of ways. "Many decorations will be available on existing vendors throughout the game as new rewards for Reputations, PvP, Crew Skills, and more," according to the SWTOR website. "While some of these decorations will be available for credits and other currencies, many will require components created by crafters. Decorations can also be obtained as loot drops from Flashpoints and Operations. Finally, a variety of unique decorations can be purchased with Cartel Coins on the Cartel Market. " Click past the cut for the trailer!
SWTOR introduces update 2.7's brand-new Huttball pit
The Star Wars: The Old Republic site has today updated with a dev blog penned by Associate Designer Alex Modny, who outlines the new Huttball mode coming with update 2.7. The pit is located on Quesh and features more traps and a more vertical layout than the pit on Nar Shaddaa: Where the original Huttball Pit was setup in a rectangle with the end zones at each of the longer ends, the Quesh Pit is setup more as an upside down pyramid with the Huttball stand at the apex and the end zones at the base. [...] Toxic sludge pipes will rain down acidic pain upon anyone unlucky enough to get caught in the downpour. In addition to dealing damage, the toxic sludge also slows down its victims as the goo sticks to their booties! The new map also incorporates "magnetic grapple blaster tables," which allow players not carrying the Huttball to scale the structure and gain access to its second level.
Breaking down Star Wars: The Old Republic's housing reveal
Are you still reeling from the revelation that Star Wars: The Old Republic will have player housing? So is Massively's Larry Everett, who took the time to break down the short video reveal on Hyperspace Beacon in order to extract as many details as possible for the game's faithful. Larry notes a few of the possibilities for player apartments, including an appearance designer kiosk, a cargo hold, a mailbox, a faction banner, a repair droid, a mission terminal, and a moonroof. Give the video a watch after the break and sound off: What features and decorations would you want in your SWTOR apartment?
Player housing is en route to Star Wars: The Old Republic
During a livestream on Twitch today, BioWare Community Manager Eric Musco teased players with what appears to be a video of player housing in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Massively's Larry Everett snapped the above screenshot during the video, showing a character inside what appears to be a Coruscant apartment with the words "Welcome Home" appearing on-screen. A bed, mailboxes, and other housing items populate the room. The tease might confirm what dataminers have been publishing on Reddit in recent weeks. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. [Update: BioWare has released the trailer; we've embedded it below.]
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 end of a SWTOR season
Uncle Owen talked about Luke staying on for another season, but when you're on a desert planet, what does that mean exactly? More importantly, can you imagine what would have happened if Lars had allowed Luke to leave for the Academy -- the Imperial Academy, I might add -- with his friend Biggs Darklighter? We would have a completely different story and certainly a far different Luke Skywalker. BioWare developers slated the end of Star Wars: The Old Republic PvP season one to coincide with the launch of Update 2.7, which hits servers on April 8th. With that, the SWTOR leaderboards will reset and bring a few other changes. I think the biggest surprise for everyone is the ranked rewards for the end of season one. These rewards have hit extremely late in the season, which could give some players an unfair advantage in ranked warzones, sparking the question, "Should I stay on the moisture farm or try to jump into PvP to nab these rewards?" Or maybe there's another option -- a Ben Kenobi out in the Dune Sea, if you will.
SWTOR ranked PvP rewards revealed
The end of Season 1 PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming with Game Update 2.7. Why should you care? Well, because that means you don't have a lot of time left to rank up and partake of the various tier rewards. BioWare has outlined them in a new post on its official website, and we're pretty sure you're going to want the ranked weapon set as well as the Rancor mount! [Thanks Dengar!]
Hyperspace Beacon: The SWTOR Sith beliefs
Peace is a lie; there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me. Although this statement is considered the Sith Code, the guide by which all Sith live their lives, it's more a counter to the Jedi Code than anything. Because the first Sith Lords as we know them in Star Wars: The Old Republic were former Jedi, it only makes sense that they would create a code intended to be the antithesis of the Jedi's central theme. Not all Sith follow the Sith code, but most believe in its credence. If the Sith Code isn't central to the Sith beliefs, what is? That's the interesting thing: There doesn't seem to be a central theme other than to be the opposite of the Jedi. Some Sith believe in an Empire. Some Sith believe there can be only two. Yet the Sith existed long before there was a Sith Code. Before there was a Sith Order, there was the Sith Empire on Ziost and Korriban, and that is where the SWTOR Sith come from. That is where my Sith characters come from. I don't believe I have all the philosophical answers, and clearly, my way is not the only way to roleplay a Sith, but perhaps I can give you a launchpad to start your own storylines.
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.
Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play a Sith in SWTOR?
This is another one of those questions that I get asked a lot: How do I play a Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic? I hope I'm asked because people like what they see and that I am also a good player as well as roleplayer, but I don't by any means believe that I have a grasp on everything that it takes to play a Sith. And I also believe that other people have a great -- if not better -- gasp on the nuances of the Sith personality. On top of that, many people don't play a Sith the way I do, so I don't want to discount that either. When I play SWTOR, I intend to have fun, and what I consider fun isn't the same as what other people call fun. I should give fair warning before diving into this outline: I'm not going to teach you the basics of roleplay; I'm going to hope that you already know that or that you've hopped over to Storyboard a few times. Secondly, I will use terms like "proper" or "best." Understand that I use those words from my perspective and that other players have a different and equally legitimate perspective, too. Lastly, this is far from exhaustive, and if you have any questions, I will spend some time in the comments answering them, or you can feel free to hit me up on Twitter.
Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play my SWTOR class?
I understand what some Star Wars: The Old Republic players are seeking when they ask how I play my class. They want to play the game better! If they ask me, specifically, then they want to play a Marauder better. I like these guys, and I welcome any questions they have. The other kind of SWTOR player who asks how I play my class looks for the faults in my playstyle. Well, there are many of them, but that doesn't mean that some of my choices are completely bad. And like most players, I didn't learn how to play my class completely on my own. I am, like most of you, an amalgam of several different teachers. Today, I'd like to take a moment not to look at the specific ways I play a Marauder (although I might use the Marauder as an example) but to examine methods for learning and elicit tips from players who are damn good at playing MMOs.
SWTOR suffers from the Rakghoul plague again
Last week, we began to see the warnings from Alderaan of wild beasts attacking random citizens in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Today, Massively has discovered that it is in fact a new outbreak of the Rakghoul plague that hit Tatooine nearly two years ago. Addalar Hyland, the director of Galactic Solutions Industries, confirms these reports after sending multiple teams to investigate the attacks. Governments of both the Empire and the Republic are asking citizens to be wary when traveling as the plague is highly contagious. Based on the image above, we discovered that it could be spreading off the origin planet of Alderaan and might have made it to the Imperial fleet. If you have skills that might assist in ridding the galaxy of this lethal plague, we urge you to watch this video below then report to the nearest GSI representative immediately.
Disney abandons 'Star Wars 1313' trademark
Family-friendly megacorporation Disney has allowed its trademark on Star Wars 1313 to lapse, likely driving the final nail into the coffin of the promising action game once described by developers as "Star Wars hell." Initially revealed just prior to E3 2012, Star Wars 1313 was to be a darker take on George Lucas' beloved space epic. Instead of cutesy ewoks and characters who clearly fit into either "good" or "evil" roles, Star Wars 1313 would have cast players as a bounty hunter stalking the crime-ridden alleyways of Coruscant. Little was revealed of the game before its development was suspended following Disney's purchase of LucasArts, but Star Wars 1313 was repeatedly described as "dark and mature" by its developers at LucasArts. Now, a visit to the United States Patent And Trademark Office website reveals that Disney's trademark has lapsed. "Abandoned because no Statement of Use or Extension Request timely filed after Notice of Allowance was issued," reads the trademark status section, indicating that Disney made no effort to maintain its ownership of the title. While it is possible that some of the concepts seen in those early glimpses might make their way into future Star Wars games, it seems unlikely that we'll ever see Star Wars 1313 on store shelves.
