Since this is a Q&A article (if you’re new here, I do this every 10th issue) and I have a personal story of my own, we’re going to leave Tarik, Yulel and the “MJ Fiction Players” alone this week and concentrate on your questions, especially since one of the questions involves the fiction that kicks off the column each week.
My story involves the near destruction of this column and my life in SWTOR. Ok, my wife would roll her eyes and call that the exaggeration that it is, but as a writer/producer/RPer I tend to lean toward the dramatic. The short form is this: This particular article may seem a bit like it was hastily thrown together. That’s because it was. In fact, if this wasn’t a Q&A week, there probably wouldn’t be an RP XP today.
For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter, you missed the dramatic story about my dead video card and loss of a couple day’s work on my pending novel and various editing projects – not to mention the loss of valuable MMO time. The short end is… I found a nice card (and highly recommend the GeForce GTX 550 Ti for anyone on a modest budget and, like me, don’t have what I’d call a “gaming rig”). The card is more than a match for Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as graphics grinders like Skyrim. If you’re shopping for a card, check it out. My old one, in case you’re curious, was a GTS 240 and came stock with my Dell Studio XPS, which is a great machine for creative types who aren’t run-gun-slash-kill gamers. There are gaming machines specifically for that.
RolePlayers don’t really need that kind of power though, do we? 😉
Now enough about me. Let’s talk about you. On to your questions.
The Day 2 Embargo on the Guild Summit has been lifted and a plethora of new information is now coming our way. PC Gamer has posted a really nice article that takes an in depth look at they star of the Guild Summit, the Legacy System. While this was an early version of the 1.2 changes, meaning everything is subject to change, it is still a great little in-depth look at some of the features we can expect to see when 1.2 finally hits the main stage.
Today we are excited to announce the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Weekend Pass Free* Trial. Now for a limited time, you will be able to live out your very own Star Wars™ saga with thousands of other players for free! With the Star Wars: The Old Republic Weekend Pass Free Trial, individuals who don’t already have a previously-active Star Wars: The Old Republic account will be allowed to see a portion of what the game has to offer, free of charge, with no payment method required, for up to four days!
Individuals who take part in the Weekend Pass will be able to experience the opening adventures of each of the eight character classes in the game, exploring both their Origin World and their faction’s Capital World. Additionally, Weekend Pass players will have the chance to face off against other players in PvP Warzones, or join up with friends and play through a couple of early faction-specific Flashpoints in the game, The Esseles and The Black Talon.
The Weekend Pass Free Trial opens Thursday, March 15th, 12:01AM CT / 5:01AM GMT and ends on Monday, March 19th at 2:00AM CT / 7:00AM GMT. To learn more, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/weekendpass and come back on March 15th to create your account, download the game, and begin your free trial! Have questions? Visit the Weekend Pass FAQ.
*TRIAL VALID ONLY FROM MARCH 15, 2012 12:01AM CDT/ 5:01AM GMT / 4:01PM EDT (AUSTRALIA) THROUGH MARCH 19, 2012 AT 2:00AM CDT/ 7:00AM GMT / 6:00 PM EDT (AUSTRALIA). ONLY VALID FOR NEW STAR WARS™: THE OLD REPUBLIC™ (“PRODUCT”) ACCOUNTS NOT ENROLLED IN A PROMOTIONAL TRIAL FOR PRODUCT. UNUSED TRIAL TIME IS FORFEITED UPON REDEMPTION OF PRODUCT REGISTRATION CODE, PURCHASE OF PRODUCT SUBSCRIPTION, OR REDEMPTION OF A GAME TIME CARD CODE. VALID ONLY IN TERRITORIES WHERE STAR WARS™: THE OLD REPUBLIC™ IS DISTRIBUTED. OFFER MAY NOT BE SUBSTITUTED, EXCHANGED, SOLD OR REDEEMED FOR CASH OR OTHER GOODS OR SERVICES. CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER OFFER, GIFT CARD, REBATE OR OTHER DISCOUNT. LIMIT ONE OFFER PER ACCOUNT HOLDER.
ACCEPTANCE OF END USER ACCESS AND LICENSE AGREEMENT (“EUALA”), PERSISTENT INTERNET CONNECTION, AND ACCOUNT REGISTRATION REQUIRED TO PLAY. MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER. AGREEMENT TO SHARE ACCOUNT INFORMATION WITH LUCASFILM ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LTD. IS REQUIRED TO ACCESS GAMEPLAY. SEE EUALA FOR DETAILS. PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE AVAILABLE AT WWW.SWTOR.COM. ALLTERMS AND CONDITIONS TO PLAY THE GAME APPLY AT ALL TIMES.
This week we have been overwhelmed with a cornucopia of various patch notes. We have literally been overwhelemed with patch note goodness.
Wait, did I say overwhelmed? Because I meant there were two notes this week. Yep, two patch notes.
The first fix this week was all about our favorite Wookiee, Bowdaar. Apparently some folks were not being granted Bowdaar when he should have joined your team, denying Smugglers everywhere to send a big, hairy tank straight into the middle of their foes. Bowdaar should no be joining your team as intended, and has been retroactively added to the squad of those players who did not get the Wookiee when they should have.
The second patch dealt with a glitch centered around the Imperial mission “Thus, Always, To Tyrants”. It seems that when players would use the Emergency Fleet Pass to leave the mission they would find a pair of bulkhead doors on the Security Deck to be locked, denying them the ability to complete the mission. This has been fixed so now players are free to leave the ship when they like without fear of being unable to finish the mission when they return.
That’s all for the Patch Notes this week folks, check back with us after next week’s server maintenance to get the run down on all the in gmae changes that come with the fix.
With all the information that came out of the recent Guild Summit it is only natural that players are looking for some clarification on all the various tidbits that have been released. Ever since the summit the SWTOR forums have been flooded with post from people looking for info, wanting more details, and the inevitable complaining about gameplay features they have not even experienced yet. Luckily for everyone the master of the forum posts, Mr. Georg Zoeller, has been laying down some of his famous yellow posts to squash some of the rumors and questions running across the boards. Continue Reading »
It’s time again for our weekly SWTOR server maintenance. The servers will be down from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/7AM GMT/8AM CET/6PM AEST) and are expected to be back up around 10AM CDT (8AM PDT/11AM EDT/3PM GMT/4PM CET/2AM AEST-Wednesday). All servers will be offline during this period as BioWare performs their weekly updates and bug fixes.
As always the servers could be down for longer than the intended 8 hours, and could very easily come back online before the 8 hours are up as well. If there are any major changes to the server downtime we will update this post accordingly.
Last week we took our first look at the life of the mysterious Sith Emperor from the time of his birth up to the point when he arrived at Dromund Kaas as the leader of the Sith. Today we will finish looking at what we know of this mysterious being and his life after arriving on Dromund Kaas. Like last week, this article will contain massive spoilers so turn back now if you want to avoid them. Otherwise, join me as we finish our journey looking at this immortal master of the Dark Side. Continue Reading »
Darth Tagious stood over the corpses of six Republic soldiers and sneered through a rasping exhale. A jutting steam pipe nearby added to his hiss, the sound echoing off the rusty tubular chambers of the Works deep within Coruscant.
He angled his head up, his piercing red-tinted eyes glaring miles through the heavy structures as if he could see his apprentice with the human Padawan they had left to die.
“So, Veetha… you mean to betray me to the Jedi,” Tagious breathed. “Let them come.”
Of course it didn’t really come as a surprise to the Sith Lord that his Rattataki apprentice would turn on him; it was every good apprentice’s challenge to eventually try. But the ebb of Force energy off the girl was different, clouded, masked in some way.
Tagious left Veetha with Tarik for a reason. He wanted to be done with her. He wanted to use her to lead him to the Jen’Hutis.
His sneer became a shallow laugh, then a roar of victory. Who better to lead him than the illegitimate daughter of a Jedi Knight?
There are moments in your gaming life when all you can say is “Epic”. That is what I muttered when I opened the box Razer was so kind to send us. It contained the gear seen on the image above; SWTOR themed, high quality, gaming peripherals. We already reviewed the SWTOR Mouse and I, personally, find it an invaluable tool for my PvP sessions. Thanks to Razer we are able to provide our visitors with a chance to get one of these great peripherals for free by entering our giveaway. We will not make you run through hoops or anything. You can enter the giveaway by logging in with your Facebook account or email in the form bellow and than using that very same form to follow us on Twitter or Like our SWTOR Spy Facebook page or you can post an image of your character from SWTOR on our SWTOR Spy forums. You can do one or all of these things, you will be eligible to win. Check out the full rules on our giveaway page and good luck to everyone.
Do you have a friend who is interested in playing SWTOR but just can’t decide if it is for them? How about a family member who you want to hop in game and spend some time with you? Well now you can can offer them a limited free trial, courtesy of the “Friends of Star Wars: The Old Republic” program. Anyone who currently has a paid subscription will have a chance to invite up to three friends to participate in a one week free trial, during which time they can explore any of the Origin worlds.
Players can invite their friends by heading to www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/myaccount and entering the name and e-mail address of the person they want to invite. That person will then receive an e-mail informing them of the process they need to go through in order to get in game. Your friends will have 14 days to start their trial period from the time they receive their e-mail, so make sure they don’t wait too long before ashing in on their free trial. Their character data will not be deleted when their trial is over, so if they decide they want to purchase the game they don’t need to worry about losing any progress they made during their trail run.
For all the details head over to the offical SWTOR site and read the official news article outlining all the details, and this handy FAQ to help answer any questions you might have.
