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!

BioWare posted a new video today showing off it’s brand new Warzone, Novare Coast.

For those that do not already know, Novare Coast will be a three-point domination style map, with a tug of war mechanic that comes in play when trying to capture objectives. It will also allow for same faction vs faction combat, giving people a much needed break from Huttball. BioWare will be showing off this warzone as the attend PAX East this weekend, a perfect opportunity for any who are lucky enough to be in attendance to give it a try.

There was also a little addition to Bioware’s post when they first uploaded, it announced that 1.2 would be released on April 10th. The was quickly edited out of the post, and BioWare has since denied that April 10th will for sure be the release date for 1.2. Still, this little slip up should give player hope that the new content will be released soon.

What do you think about the new Warzone? What do you think about the idea of getting our hands on a live version of 1.2 soon? Let us know in the comments below!

Today SWTOR’s Lead Interface Artist, Michael Voigt, guided players though what options will be available to players when they can begin customizing their UI when we finally get our hands on game update 1.2. In the video Mr. Voigt shows off how players can open up the customization window, some of the default layouts available to them, and the options for full customization if they choose to employ them.  Players will even be able to save the customization they perform for one character, making it easy to set up all your characters after you are done. You will even be able to share your customizations with your friends, which is perfect for showing what you like as well as helping any MMO newbies who may not understand how they can optimize their experience.

Check out the video and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Are you one of the lucky few who will able to attend PAX East this weekend? If so you can expect to see the SWTOR Developers there talking about, and showing off, game update 1.2.

Attendees will have a chance to meet and chat with the Developers, play some of the new 1.2 content (using the Razer peripherals developed for The Old republic no less), and will even be able to grab exclusive Black and White Tauntaun Mini-Pets, which can only be obtained by coming to one of the events SWTOR will be at this year. James Ohlen will also be part of a panel put together by MMORPG.com titled: The Future of Online Gaming. this panel will be discussing where the MMO genre is going in the next 10 years, and attendees are welcome to bring questions to ask members of the panel.

Check after the jump for a full list of events this weekend, and if you are one of the lucky few who will be in attendance we hope you have a ton of fun! Continue Reading »

If there is one thing we can say about the past four server updates it is this; the patch notes are pretty slim. This week the downtime was extended from five hours to seven hours, but only a single patch note graced the patch notes page.

After a break from the regular schedule last week we are back to our normal weekly maintenance time for SWTOR. Both servers and swtor.com will be down on April 3rd from  2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM GMT/9AM CET/7PM AEDT) until 7AM CDT (5AM PDT/8AM EDT/1PM GMT/2PM CET/12AM AEDT).

Though the maintenance time is only scheduled for 5 hours there is always a chance it will be extended if the situation requires it. At the same time there is always a chance the maintenance will finish early, so keep an eye on the server status if this falls during your usual play time.

Update: BiowWare reported today that this week’s maintenance period is going to take longer than originally reported. It is not scheduled to take around 7 hours instead of 5, and is expected to end at 9AM CDT (7AM PDT/10AM EDT/3PM BST/4PM CEST/12AM AEST).

BioWare released the first two videos of the Guild Summit panel today. Both the Operations and PvP videos were released, making these excellent views for any end game player who is wondering what they can expect from update 1.2 and beyond. BioWare will be releasing more of the videos next week. Keep an eye on swtor-life for the videos as soon as they are released.

BioWare had a nice full day of surprises in store for players yesterday, and this one may have been the most unexpected of them all. The Developers have decided to start their very own podcast, with developer interviews and news straight from BioWare.

The first episode launched yesterday and is focused around the combat changes players will be experiencing in 1.2. Combat designers Austin Peckenpaugh and Cameron Winston sat down with show hosts Eric Musco and Brooks Guthrie to talk class balance, the new Warzone Novare Coast, and even gave a little hint to a new Heroic World Boss we can expect to see on Voss, the Nightmare Pilgrim. One of the most interesting little tidbits of info out of the show was concerning forum posts, specifically what kind of posts get the most attention from the developers (here’s a hint: Whining about your individual assumptions and experience is less likely to get noticed. Instead offer expanations about the overall game experience that are affecting the community as a whole without making unproven assumptions.).

Head on over to the official site and check out the new podcast. This first episode clocks in at just under 20 minutes long, hopefully the shows length will be extended a bit in the future. in the mean time be sure to let us know what you think of the new show in our comments section below!

PvP is going to be changing in 1.2. Now this is no surprise for most players, BioWare has be very vocal about their desire to improve on PvP with the launch of their newest game update. But some players (myself included) may be wondering exactly what that means. Sure, some info has been made public through various sources, but there has not been a nice long post from a developer talking about all the changes we can expect to see.

Gabe Amatangelo made it his mission to change that.

Gabe went the distance and made a huge blog post about what players can expect to see on the PvP horizon. While he does emphasize that when the new update launches the ranked PvP will be considered in “Pre-Session”, with more improvements coming the the future,  he still does a fantastic job on outlining what we all can expect to see in our PvP future. Gabe talkes about Ranked Warzones, the new rewards system, the AFK Vote Kick option, and some new ststs players can expect to see at the end of the match. Even if you just dable in PvP now and again it is well worth a read, and guilds who plan on grouping up for some Ranked Warzone madness need to head over and give it a read asap!

You can find the full post over on the SWTOR site, and we welcome your thoughts on the issue in our comments section below!

This week’s Community Q&A was all about the developers bringing players the answers to some of the most burning 1.2 questions they have come across, and boy did they deliver. This week’s article is chock full of all kinds of 1.2 goodness, including what has been my favorite response to a question since the Q&A articles began:

Aymi: You guys are including a whole bunch of things to motivate us to reroll and unlock stuff through Legacy, but if I’m playing on one server because the community is great, I’ll be limited to eight characters. You said during the Guild Summit you were going to think about it at some point, any update on that?

Daniel Erickson: We are 100% committed to providing more character slots per server in the future but unfortunately we’re not ready to talk about how that will work.

This is great news for players like me who have already used up all 8 character slots but have no interest in switching servers. Outside of that little gem there is still a metric ton of great info in the article, including a huge answer from Georg Zoeller about how gear and reverse engineering is going to work in 1.2.

Head on over to the official SWTOR site and read the article at your earliest opportunity. You will not regret it. And as always feel free to share your thoughts on everything with us in the comments section below!