Anyone visiting the fleet today should hear a little message about how there is a planetary alert on Tatooine. Rakghouls have been spotted on the planet and citizens are recommended to stay away for the time being, but what is the fun in that?

The announcement is to inform players of the first ever in-game event of SWTOR, occurring on Tatooine. A ship carrying the Rakghoul plague has crashed on Tatooine, releasing a large amount of these monsters north-east of Outpost Therazan.  Players will be able to tackle some new dailies there that reward “Rakghould DNA”, which can then be turned in to vendors in the same area for some event related items. These include black-green color crystals, and infected companion kit that will let you tun a companion into a Rakghoul, and even a Rakghoul mini-pet. There are also some new infected world bosses for player to take down as well. If the fleet announcement is to be believed then there should be new planets added to this event as time goes on.

No word yet on how long this event will be taking place, but keep you eyes on swtor-life.com as we bring you all the info as the event progresses.

Edit: Some new info I have discovered since posting this. The world bosses on Tatooine are located at the Sarlacc Pit, in Outlaws Den, and the other is an infected version of Trapjaw which can be found in his same location out in the Dune Sea.

BioWare announced today that the Ranked Warzones feature will not be included in tomorrow’s 1.2 update.

Despite some wonderful testing from volunteers on the Public Test Server it was decided that Ranked warzones is a feature that just needs a little more polish before it is released to the live servers. This was not a decision made lightly, but in order to make sure this feature is everything the developers, and players, hope it will be it will be postponed for the time being. Daniel Erickson, lead game designer for SWTOR, had this to say:

Hey everybody,

It is with great reluctance that I have to announce Ranked Warzones are not going live with Game Update 1.2: Legacy. We had a fantastic run of testing on the Public Test Server and I can’t begin to thank the community enough for their tireless advocacy for this feature and the time people took to file bugs and voice their concerns.

After careful consideration, it is clear that to make Ranked Warzones the feature we all want it to be is going to take a bit more time. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause and ask for your patience as we work to make sure the Ranked Warzone Preseason launch is polished and fun. With Legacy, the new Warzone, Operation, and Flashpoint, as well as many other amazing features of Game Update 1.2 ready to go, we’re very excited for tomorrow’s additions.

In the future we’ll be rolling the Ranked Warzone Preseason out in phases, listening carefully to player feedback and making adjustments as we go. The first phase will be full team, eight-player queuing only and from there we’ll look at next steps as Preseason progresses. In the meantime we have provided an alternate purchase route for War Hero gear so you can start building your set while figuring out your teams.

Daniel Erickson
Lead Game Designer

This is, without a doubt, a big disappointment to a lot of players out there. Hopefully the team at BioWare will be able to get any issues they have with the feature fixed as soon as possible so it can be rolled out to the live servers.

BioWare updated the SWTOR site today to announce that we will be seeing game update 1.2 go live this Thursday, April 12th. After hinting several times that we would be seeing the update this week we are finally getting a release date, which coincidentally has the number 12 in in. 1.2 being released on the 12th, coincidence? Probably, but either way the servers will be down for 8 hours on Thursday in order to deploy the patch. Here is the official announcement from BioWare:

Hello everyone!

We will be bringing down servers for eight hours on April 12th, 2012 from 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST) in order to deploy Game Update 1.2 – Legacy. All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.

Please note the timing on this maintenance period, which is beginning earlier than usual.

Game Update 1.2 – Legacy introduces new content and features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players. Earn new rewards and build your family tree with the expanded Legacy System, explore Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, challenge the new Operation: Explosive Conflict, and face off against your foes (or your allies) in Novare Coast, a new Warzone. You can also experience new daily missions on Corellia, customize your User Interface, create a new Guild Bank for your guild, and more! Learn more about Game Update 1.2 here!

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.2. This patch will be up to approximately 1Gb in size, depending on when you last updated the game.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Thursday, April 12th, 2012 (See PDT timing below)

Time: 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST)

All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours.

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

So who else is anticipating a sick day on Thursday?

While SWTOR is at PAX East this weekend showing off some 1.2 features, it really has not been a big event for new SWTOR information. Well, until James Ohlen was taking questions during the MMORPG.com panel discussion yesterday afternoon. The entire pannel was asked by an audience member “Why are we excited about your game?” Here’s James’ response:

“You’re going to see so many changes and additions to the Star Wars Universe. It’s going to be impressive. We have our Update 1.2 coming in the next week and then after that it’s going to continue to roll out month after month. It’s exciting.”

Does this mean  that we will for sure be seeing 1.2 coming in this next week? Hopefully, though it could just mean we will be able to download the patch next week with the official update going live some time after that. Either way SWTOR players have reason to rejoice, 1.2 is coming our way very soon!

The first official SWTOR GUild Summit officially kicks off today! As a special treat BioWare is going to be doing a livestream of today’s festivities starting at 10 am CST. Can’t catch the stream as it goes live? Don’t worry! We will be providing up to the minute details about the various reveals and facts announced by the developers as the day progresses.

Just check after the jump for all the reveals. This post will be updated all day long with all the facts, so keep checking back for more info! For a schedule of today’s events check out our previous post.

Update: The livestream is over. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the updates and a big thanks to BioWare for streaming today’s events for us! Continue Reading »

When Tuesday’s patch was downloaded some players quickly discovered that their PvP kills on Ilum were not counting towards their daily or weekly mission totals, and at times were not receiving the valor they should have for making a kill. Associate Online Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez posted earlier today that they will be rolling out an emergency patch in order to fix these issues. Starting at 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) BioWare will be bringing all servers down in order to fix these problems, and hope to have the servers back up and running by 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PM GMT/1PM CET).

Hopefully we will all be back to earning our promised rewards for our actions on Ilum soon.

Since last Tuesday’s patch there have been a large amount of issues concerning hitching and freezing being reported by players. BioWare has decided to do an emergency update starting at 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) and report that it will last until 4AM CST (2AM PST/5AM EST/10AM GMT/11AMPM CET).

This is a server side only update so players will not have to download anything once the servers are back up. While the maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours there remains the possibly that the time frame will be adjusted if the need arises.

Are you the leader of a guild in SWTOR? Well then you may get a chance to head to Austin, Texas in March to speak with BioWare developers. BioWare is inviting guild leaders (or a designated officer in the case the leader cannot attend) to join them in roundtable discussions, Q&A sessions, and give leaders a chance to see some upcoming game features.

The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the game design team. This event will provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their feedback directly to the teams responsible for the design of Star Wars: The Old Republic, hear the team’s thoughts and reasons behind design decisions, and discuss the current direction of the game. Guild from all over the world are more than welcome to attend, though BioWare reminds everyone that the meeting will be in English.

There apparently have already been guild leaders invited but there are still some spots open for non-invited guild leaders to attend. all you need to do is head to this page and fill out an application. All those attending must be 21 or older and will be responsible for their own travel, food, and lodging expenses.  If you are interested in attending make sure to get your application in by midnight on February 10th (central standard time).

In a recent blog post BioWare announced that they will be taking the servers down early tomorrow morning (CST) in order to deploy a patch to deal with recent issues that some players have been experiencing. No word on what particular issues will be getting patched, or exactly what time the patch will be released, but BioWare promises updates and notices when more details are able to be released.

We will update this post as more details are released, check back for more information as it becomes available.

Update: The servers will go down from 2AM CST (12 AM PST/3 AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) until 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PM GMT/1PM CET). As always there is a chance the servers come up earlier or be down longer as the situation warrants.

Players who try and log into their accounts today could be met with an unfortunate surprise. There have been reports of players being unable to log into their accounts, seeing the “No Active Subscription” message when they attempt to log on.

Right now there is no word on what is causing the problem. On player I spoke to informed me that after confirming that all his account info was correct, which it was, he noticed that his account was showing the amount of days they have remaining and even the next billing period (2/20/12). Despite this he is still unable to log into his account, and attempting to delete his subscription and set it up again provided no fix. He did state that no charges had yet to show up in his payment history, but other players on the forums are claiming that they have been charged and still cannot log in.Customer support lines are tasked to capacity at the moment so be sure to remain patient if you are attempting to contact them regarding this issue.

BioWare has yet to make any sort of public statements about the issue but we will be watching the official site and will give you an update as soon as we are able.

Update: Players who were unable to log in are now reporting that they are able to access their accounts once again. Still no word on what was causing the issue, but for now everything seems to be fixed at least temporarily.

Update: At 1:50 pm central standard time Allison Berryman had this to say about players being unable to log in; “Hi everyone – we are currently investigating your reports and will work to resolve any issues as quickly as possible for those who continue to experience a problem. Thank you for your patience!”

Update: BioWare is now announcing that  the issue has been resolved for “many” individuals and they are continuing their investigation into the potential cause of this issue. They promise more updates as the situation unfolds but it seems as though it is still possible that players could see a temporary lockout.