Star Wars: The Old Republic (dev posts, news items, fan sites etc.)

[Asharak]

They've announced anyone with Legacy level 6 will get 30 free days too. So you dont need a 50 anymore.

They also gave an extension to the L50 requirement: you now have until April 22nd to get a character to L50. Since my top character is L48.3 at this point, I should be able to do that easily.

- Ash

[rshetts2]

Say what you want about the game but at least Bioware is listening.  They made a nice gesture of giving 30 days to those who reached 50 and people who didnt get it complained.  They made adjustments to give others the opportunity to earn that extra month as well.  I understand that the game may not please everybody ( especially pvpers, as the game seems more focused on PVE aspects ) but it seems that Bioware is doing what they can to improve the experience.

[Blackjack]

*Sprint is now available at L1! You can use vehicles within orbital space stations and spaceports! You can catch a surface shuttle directly to your ship if the planet has an orbital station. The little things do sound happy-making.

Here's the 1.2 patch notes:
http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/1.2.0/legacy
*It's certainly too crazy long to patch in entirety here. Here's their summary highlights:

Game Update 1.2 - Legacy introduces exciting new content and features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players. Dig deeper into your personal Star Wars saga with the expanded Legacy system! Construct your family tree and unlock new rewards, abilities, and perks for all the characters in your Legacy as you advance your characters.

Visit the Black Hole area on Corellia to complete new level 50 daily missions, experience the finale of the Rakghoul outbreak storyline in the Lost Island Flashpoint, and get ready to challenge the mercenary warlord Kephess and his deadly allies for control of Denova's critical resources in the all-new Operation: Explosive Conflict. You'll also have the chance to face off against your foes or participate in a same-faction training mission in the all-new Novare Coast Warzone, a 3-point domination battle!

Game Update 1.2 brings even more new features to Star Wars: The Old Republic. UI Customization has been added to the game! Detach, move, resize, and arrange UI elements to suit your personal playstyle in the new Interface Editor. Guild Banks are also available – store and share resources with your guild! Additions and changes have been made to Crew Skills, classes, and more - read the full patch notes to discover all the changes!

Highlights
    Players can now unlock a wide variety of rewards by leveling characters and reaching new Legacy levels, including buffs for your characters, unlocking additional Species choices for every class, and upgrades for your personal Starship. Build your own Legacy with the new Family Tree!
    Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, is available for play! Having uncovered the sources of the Rakghoul plague outbreak in the Tion Hegemony, players must travel to Ord Mantell and confront Dr. Lorrick, the mad scientist who engineered this horrific biological weapon.
    Explosive Conflict, a new Operation, is available for play! The Trandoshan mercenary warlord Kephess has seized the planet Denova, a world rich in resources valuable to the war effort. Players must assault his war camp, situated atop a mountain in densely-wooded terrain, fighting Imperial defectors and heavy war machines along the way. 8- and 16-player Story and Hard Modes are currently available for this Operation.
    Novare Coast, a new objective-oriented Warzone on the planet Denova, has been added to the game. This Warzone, like Huttball, supports same-faction matches if there are not enough members of the opposing faction to be found.
   - New repeatable high-level daily missions are available in a new area on Corellia, the Black Hole!
   - Guilds now have access to a shared Guild Bank, accessible on the Fleets, with expandable storage.
   - A new tier of gear has been added for both PvP and PvE.
    - Players can now customize their User Interface by moving and resizing UI elements!
    A new level 50 World Boss with a challenge for a well-coordinated 16-player Operation Group has been sighted in the Gormak Lands region on Voss.

General
   *The Imperial Transportation Authority and the Galactic Republic Safety Council have authorized the use of vehicles in Orbital Space Stations and Spaceports.
    In-game rewards will be available to players who participate on the Public Test Server. Players will receive a title if they attain level 10 on PTS, and another if they complete Chapter 1.
    -A new preference, "Character Texture Atlasing," is now available. Enabling this option increases the texture quality used when rendering character models.
    -A new "Customize" option now appears on the character sheet. One of the features this button enables is the ability to color coordinate any individual piece of armor with the equipped chestpiece.
    -A new preference, "Awareness Radius," allows players to adjust the number of characters displayed on-screen. Reducing this setting can improve performance in crowded areas on low-end machines.
    -On planets with an Orbital Station, players can now travel directly from the planet shuttle on the surface to their ship.
    -The Sprint ability is now available at level 1.

[Blackjack]

From ArsTechnica report on EA's financial earnings stuff:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/05/ea-the-old-republic-has-lost-nearly-one-quarter-of-its-subscribers-since-march.ars

It looks like the analysts were right in their suspicions that EA and Bioware's The Old Republic MMO is already losing subscribers just a few months after its late 2011 launch. In an earnings report issued today, EA announced that the game currently has 1.3 million active subscribers, down nearly 25 percent from the 1.7 million active subscribers reported in March.

In a conference call accompanying the earnings report, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said the drop was in line with the company's "original assumptions" about how the game would fare after launch. Nonetheless, he added that the company "intends to increase subscribers" with continual upgrades, including new guild features, player vs. player improvements, and "elder gameplay" that keeps the game appealing to high-level players.

Gibeau also stressed that "core MMO users" are sticking with the game in good numbers, and suggested that the subscriber drop comes mainly from the expanded audience of non-MMO-obsessed Star Wars fans attracted by a title like The Old Republic. "As the service evolves, some of those initial casual customers have gone through a billing cycle and decided not to subscribe," Gibeau said.

Even with the subscriber drops, players shouldn't be worried about the game becoming a drag on EA's bottom line. CEO John Riccitiello has previously suggested that The Old Republic could remain profitable with as little as 500,000 subscribers.

According to Blue's (http://www.bluesnews.com/s/132101/the-old-republic-losing-subs-gaining-add-ons):

EA also announces two new content packs, "Legacy" and "Allies," will be coming to the game this quarter.

Can you smell the DOOMMMMMMM?   I don't know about "profitable," I'm just pretty sure EA wouldn't be happy if it sank millions into a game that launched spectacularly and deteriorated to 500,000 subscribers.

For my part, I'm still subscribing even though I've barely played in months. I was going to cancel last week but realized my 3-month subscription renewal had kicked in. Clearly I'll probably be playing mostly Diablo 3 in the coming months, but at some point I'll try to get back into this.

[The Grue]

For my part, I'm still subscribing even though I've barely played in months. I was going to cancel last week but realized my 3-month subscription renewal had kicked in. Clearly I'll probably be playing mostly Diablo 3 in the coming months, but at some point I'll try to get back into this.

If you cancel, you can still play the rest of the subscription time and if you just really aren't playing anymore, you can then not be charged automatically.  If you do find yourself playing, even if it cancels, you can always resub with no ill effects.  I'd just hate to see you miss the date three months from now and pay again when you just don't play.

[Teggy]

I quite like the game, I had just had my 200 hours or so worth for the moment and most others had stopped playing. Kind of shame, I probably won't use any of the free month. I have a 60 day card set aside for when I feel like going back.

If you don't like that style of PVP and don't have people to raid with, there's not much incentive to keep up a monthly sub. I'm kind of amazed that WoW has managed what they have. People who would stick with SWTOR are probably the same that stick with WoW, and with so much invested in WoW, it's not surprising they would go back even after giving SWTOR a chance.

[Blackjack]

Can you feel... the DOOOMMMMM... toniiiight....

SWTOR upgrades classes and starts merging servers
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/06/swtor-upgrades-classes-and-starts-merging-servers/

Secondly, BioWare is well aware of the population issues on a large portion of servers. That is why on June 12th, the team will begin the free character transfer service. In a soft server merge system similar to the one implemented by Star Wars Galaxies, BioWare will open up specific servers as origin servers and others as destination servers. To help BioWare maintain a bit of control over the situation, the transfer precess will be "gradual and staged," according the developer blog post.

The specific details regarding which servers will be affected have not be released yet, but rest assured that Massively will let you in on the latest details when they become available.

[Update: Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez gave more detail on the official forums about how the origin and destination servers will work: "In order to ensure an optimal playing experience for every server, we'll be offering direct transfers from one origin server to a pre-selected destination server."]

[Blackjack]

Star Wars: The Old Republic: “we are looking at free-to-play,” says lead designer
http://www.gamestm.co.uk/discuss/star-wars-the-old-republic-we-are-looking-at-free-to-play-says-lead-designer/

BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic has faced some hard times since launching at the tail-end of 2011. Lead designer Emmanuel Lusinchi discusses the effects of losing over 400,000 subscribers earlier in the year and facing off increasingly stiff competition from free-to-play competitors.
...
“The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well,” he says. “Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on.”

In case you're having a "Who the Bleep is Emmanuel Lusinchi?" moment, James Ohlen is still around but his title has always been "Game Director."

Just remember nothing is really FREE free. If it goes F2P, I suspect various aspects of customizing might become For-A-Fee for F2P players, perhaps even some Flashpoints might become paid content. I guess it's just a question of what F2P models they want to... model themselves after.

[Roguetad]

I would think after watching the quick decline of swtor that most investors and studios would approach the idea of a new subscription based mmorgp with extreme caution.  It's not a guaranteed cash cow...and it's an investment that could sink a business (or two).  The monthly subscription model is really unnattractive, regardless of the game, when there are so many good alternatives out there that don't require a monthly sub.  I think WoW may be a dinosaur in that regard, the best and potentially last of its kind.           

[Lockdown]

Makes you wonder if Funcom is already shitting bricks over Secret World - and it hasn't even released yet.

[Teggy]

Rift seems to be humming a long pretty well. I don't subscribe anymore, but I still get their emails and it seems like they are constantly adding nice new content. They've announced their expansion as well.

[Blackadar]

Rift seems to be humming a long pretty well. I don't subscribe anymore, but I still get their emails and it seems like they are constantly adding nice new content. They've announced their expansion as well.

RIFT is doing well.  I just stopped playing recently and it has a pretty lively community.  LOTRO is another very good MMO.  As far as MMOs go, right now I think RIFT is probably the best of the bunch.  That is until Guild Wars 2 is released.

Yeah, and that expansion is huge.  They're tripling the size of the world.  

[Fez]

Well, I'm still playing and just got transferred over to the PvP Fatman server frmo Hedarr Soongh (sp?).  All I can say is--the game is fun again!  The declining populations were terrible, but Fatman has TONS of players, playing across all the levels.  You'll actually find new players and old players on alts in the early zones again to group with.

As far as MMORPGs goes, SWTOR does offer some of the best PvE stories to run through with friends, so I heartily recommend playing it if you have other family members or friends to play with as you level.

[metallicorphan]

CVG

EA will purge its Star Wars: The Old Republic Asia-Pacific servers and migrate all players to the North America network, a company representative has announced.

A considerable amount of work lies ahead in order to enact the migration, EA said, so no timelines were offered. It is believed that the activity on the three existing Asia Pacific servers has been lower than initial estimations.
Old Republic community manager Eric Musco said the decision was guided by community feedback.

"One common theme from suggestions, which we heard clearly, is that everyone wants the opportunity to play on higher populated servers," he said.

"With this in mind, we have evaluated all of the options and determined that the best solution, that will offer the best long term play experience, is to merge the APAC servers with higher populated North American servers."

[Crawley]

Started replaying this again recently. When I had to choose a server the population status on each of them either displayed High or whatever was above that (Full?). So wondering how they are going to hold up with a new influx of players. It is nice having a bunch of players running around in the game (at least in the starting areas).

[Roguetad]

I just started up again during the first of the double xp weekends and was able to finish my Bounty Hunter (powertech) storyline and hit 50.  I'm playing preferred status with a few unlocks that I bought.  I liked the bounty hunter class story experience.  It was better than the GW2 story that I completed for my 80 Charr engineer a few weeks ago.  GW2 has TOR beat in every other gameplay category that matters though.  That said, I'm going to play my level 26 assassin this weekend to take advantage of the xp boost, and to get further in the story.  The female VO for Sith Inquisitors is really good, with some very funny evil villian dialogue. 

I wish there was less grindy mmo aspects in swtor, and more of the class story or group stories.  Grouping with friends in swtor can be really fun, especially watching your characters compete for dialogue screentime.  But all of the mmo sidequests are a downer, and just weren't needed.           

[Arclight]

I've been playing the new expansion to ToR. The Rise and Fall of the Hutt Empire...something like that..

Took my limp noodle of a PvP character, 50 commando to Makeb, or is it Makeme?? I dunno.

The planet looks fine, but its a cheesy layout that is trying to make you feel the world is bigger than it is. Chunks of land with a void in between them. Getting around Make-me is a mess if you ask me.
When you take a taxi you get the lift of sequence but then, zap you're at the destination. Again I think this is to keep how small it is from our view.

I really don't get that new-content, lots to do again feeling from it. People blew through the 5 new levels in a couple of days, some less than a day. I know there are always the one's doing the "I finished first" thing, but even a casual player will be capped in no time.

For all the time they put into this expansion it feels more like an update than an ex-pac.
For me the score I would give it  would be a sloppy 3 out of 10. Unless they packed all the fun and exciting stuff into the last level I feel pretty much assured that I've seen what Make-me is all about.

And here's a real kicker of a bug that's cropped up since the update. Going into a WZ I notice a fellow commando @lv 35. I check out his HP and he's at something like 24,000. I looked at mine, and I'm geared really well;
my HP's were 19000. I started a chat about it, and I guess I was the last to get the memo. Everyone is experiencing it. One way to get more HP's is to take of all your armor. I tried it on advice from another player. Looked at my HP's and I was up to about 22,000 hit points.
I would have thought that bug would be priority one for a fix. Its still there today.

I get the feeling this is SW:ToR's swan song. Even with FTP, this game is just marking time. Once people get a taste of what they waited ages for is a yawn fest, all confidence in ToR rising from the ashes like a Phoenix will be hosed.

[Gratch]

Whelp, that answers my "should I give it another look" question.

[Roguetad]

I have 2 level 50s now courtesy of the double xp weekends, but I'm not really interested in doing the Makeb expansion yet.  I just wanted to experience the main storyline for those characters as a preferred status player.  

I don't know about the game going away anytime soon, it depends on how much $ they are making from subs+the Cartel Store.  It would be interesting to see what those #s looked like after switching to the ftp model.    

[skystride]

As a Star Wars fan, this game depresses me.  It turned out to be less Star Warsy than SWG.  At least in SWG I felt somewhat in character in what felt like an evolving world.  All that money they spent in TOR should have been spent on establishing a great Star Wars single player RPG franchise because it just doesn't work as a MMO.

[Gratch]

For some reason, I decided to give SWTOR a look this weekend.  I know it's cool to hate on, but I'll be damned if the story elements aren't the most compelling (by far) in the MMO genre.  As someone who plays almost entirely solo and couldn't give a rip about end-game, high level, grouped content, SWTOR is still pretty fun.  Started up an Imperial Agent, and it's been pretty awesome.  I'm also playing a stealthy ranged character for the first time ever (I'm typically a sword & board melee), so maybe it's just the change of pace that's appealing.  Regardless, I'm strongly considering subbing for a month or two to get around the F2P restrictions.

I'll agree, however, that I wish we could have just had a single player Star Wars KOTOR RPG.  

[ericb]

For some reason, I decided to give SWTOR a look this weekend.  I know it's cool to hate on, but I'll be damned if the story elements aren't the most compelling (by far) in the MMO genre.  As someone who plays almost entirely solo and couldn't give a rip about end-game, high level, grouped content, SWTOR is still pretty fun.  Started up an Imperial Agent, and it's been pretty awesome.  I'm also playing a stealthy ranged character for the first time ever (I'm typically a sword & board melee), so maybe it's just the change of pace that's appealing.  Regardless, I'm strongly considering subbing for a month or two to get around the F2P restrictions.

I'll agree, however, that I wish we could have just had a single player Star Wars KOTOR RPG.  

It has a lot of faults but if you play it as a single player story based RPG that just happens to have other people playing you'll probably love it.  Each of the stories are great, most of the game can be solo'd, other people are around to help if you need it and just about everything too hard to solo can be skipped if you want.  You could easily get a couple hundred hours out of it playing each of the main classes to 50 even if you never touched end game.  The biggest problem I had is the game is slightly linear once you get off the starting planet.  You have a little choice but nothing like...well WoW...where you could literally level two alliance characters to 60 and never hit the same zones due to the huge amount of zones, quests and different continents available.

They have made a huge number of changes in the past year though and it's in far better shape then it used to be.  I think the F2P is way too restrictive compared to others right now and the cash shop doesn't hide pay to win but it's the only star wars fix available

[skystride]

Multiplayer just kills the immersion since you have other people doing the same quest as you competing for the same drops/kills and dragging around clones of story characters that are supposed to be unique to the world.