Georg Zoeller spoke to SWTOR players today about various Ability issues that player have been reporting lately.

Players have been reporting recently that they are experiencing a glitch where abilities that are on a global cooldown and appear available for use, which result in unresponsive or ignored player input. They are are reporting a glitch that is causing certain instant abilities to fail in combat, causing massive amounts of frustration. Zoeller assured players that they have identified fixes for these issues and they can expect these patches in the next game update, currently scheduled for January 24th at 2am central standard time.

Zoller also addressed an issue which introduced a delay between between player input and ability execution in certain situations, apparently being most prominent in fast paced PvP combat. There are a variety of influencing factors, but the delay is a very perceivable slow down in the responsiveness of the game.  BioWare is currently in the later stages of a fix for the problem. They hope, but do not promise, that they will be able to include it in the upcoming patch.

BioWare is still in the process of testing these and other issues. They encourage players to hop on the test server and help them test these fixes as well as help them identify any other bugs and glitches in the game. It is great to see that player who are devoting their time on the Test Server helping to improve the game. Hopefully BioWare continues their  speedy response on issues as they arise.

You can read the article in it’s entirety here.

Jeff Hickman spoke out today on the actions BioWare plans to take against players who were taking advantage of an exploit on Ilum when their recent update went live on Wednesday.

Instead of just doing a mass Valor rollback they plan on looking at player’s actions and dealing with them individually. Players who were deemed to be taking advantage of the exploit could possibly be seeing their Valor rolled back or may even have actions taken against their account, depending on the severity of their behavior.

The reason BioWare has decided to to enact a mass rollback is because they do not want to unfairly punish any player who may not have even been present during the event. They claim the metric system they have in place was effective in reporting where players were during that time, and whether or not they gained an unfair advantage. They did encourage players to continue giving them feedback so they can continue to improve the open world PvP on Ilum.

You can read the article in it’s entirety here.

In an effort to continue improving the community BioWare has implemented a couple new forum features that went live today.

The first feature is a Server Group Forums. While players have been calling for server specific forums from day one this is the closest BioWare has made available to players at this time. Servers are sorted by region (North America or Europe), type (PvE, PvP, RP, and RP-PvP), and then sorted alphabetically. BioWare also configured the Server Group Forums to require you to select a forum name tag for each thread, you just select your server name from the drop-down menu when creating a new thread. Players can use these forums to bring server specific issues to the developers attention as well as socialize with those players inhabiting their server.

The second feature BioWare made live today is a suggestion box. This forum can be found as a sub-forum in the General Discussion thread. Players can use this forum to discuss suggestions players have for the game, just keep in mind that your suggestion will carry much more weight if you present it in a calm and constructive manner.

((The RP XP with MJ #22))

Ord Mantell was generally no place for a crazy Twi’lek girl, especially with all the territorial squabbling between the Republic and the unpredictably superior separatists, but that’s where Yulel ended up.

She waved to the Gand pilot and ducked out from under the hot vents of his ship’s repulsors just as the small vessel lifted off and banked up into the clouds.

“Hey! Idiot! You almost took my head off!” She called up to the receding dot of a ship as it vanished. She pulled the straps of her pack so that it rested snugly against her shoulder blades and muttered, “I know you were in a hurry to leave, but that’s no reason to–“

The blaster bolt whizzed by Yulel’s head and stung her tchun as she twisted and dove behind a large rock nestled in an overgrowth of brush. Bolts continued to thump into the ground around her, crack at her stone cover and blaze through the air as she rolled off her back and scrambled to dig the blaster out of her pack.

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Tags: Roleplay, roleplaying, RP, RP XP with MJ

BioWare released a new video today which features James Ohlen talking about some of the various new features players can expect to see in the near future. He focuses on four major aspects of future content; new warzones and PvP content, Legacy system upgrades, guild features, and UI customization. All of these features are things that the developers have talked about before, but it is awesome to get to see these features in action.

One thing that caught my eye in particular was a Miraluka who appeared to be using Force Charge. That’s right, a Republic Only species using a Sith only ability. Does this mean the legacy system will allow you to roll a previously unusable species on new characters? Only time will tell.

What do you think of the new features we have coming our way? What would you like to see that has not been discussed? Let us know in the comment section below.

Tags: guilds, legacy system, ui, warzones

Rakghouls are getting a lot of spotlight in The Old Republic. Not only do they dominate the landscape of Taris, but the recent update gives us a brand new rakghoul infested flashpoint to run through.  Many people are calling rakghouls the zombies of TOR (though there have been actual zombies in the Star Wars universe, but that’s an article for another day) and it is easy to see why. They are bloodthirsty beasts who attack everything in sight, and their disease is spread through bites and scratches on their victims. But how did these creatures come to be, and why do they plague the planet Taris so? Today we will look at these things as we strive to understand more about these beasts.

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Tags: lore, rise of the rakghouls, sith, Taris

It is no secret that BioWare has had one of the most successful MMO launches of all time and they want to thank the players for helping to make this happen.

Players who have either been billed for an active subscription or redeemed a Pre-Paid Game Time Code by March 19^th will have a shinny new title and medal to show for it. Players will be notified by e-mail if they met the requirements and will receive an in-game mail with the medal attached. Upon adding the medal to their inventory they will unlock the “Founder” title for their character. This title is permanently bound to the player’s account and will be available to all the characters ever made on the account.

As stated above the offer will expire on the 19^th of March, so if you want the title make sure you have a paid and active subscription by then.

Players just can’t stop finding ways to exploit on Ilum despite the changes made with BioWare’s first big game update. Luckily BioWare’s PvP man, Gabe Amatangelo, hopped on the forums to give everyone the rundown on the issue at hand.

It seems that players would capture the control points and then camp in the opposing faction’s medcenters in order to keep enemies from leaving their base in order to recapture control points. The original game design had enemy players instantly dying when they entered the enemy’s base, much like in warzones, but this feature was not working properly after the 1.1 update. Bioware is pushing out an Emergency Patch to fix this issue and is scheduled to begin at 8AM CST (6AM PST/ 9AM EST/ 2PM GMT/ 3PM CET) on 1/19 and end at 12PM (noon) CST (10AM PST/ 1PM EST/ 6PM GMT/ 7PM CET). Until then the population cap on Ilum has been reduced,  taxis that lead into the area have been disabled, and the developers are encouraging players to avoid Ilum until the patch is released.

Associate Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez also made it clear that BioWare was well aware of the individuals who to advantage of this exploit and will be evaluating the situation and taking action as necessary. We will be keeping an eye on this situation as it develops and will bring you any updates as they unfold.

UPDATE: This maintenance period is now scheduled to begin at approximately 9:30AM CST (7:30AM PST/ 10:30AM EST/ 3:30PM GMT/ 4:30PM CET) on 1/19 and end at 1:30PM CST (11:30AM PST/ 3:30PM EST/ 7:30PM GMT/ 8:30PM CET).

Tags: Ilum, open world pvp

I can mount a gun to shoot Zombies!

Today we saw the something that marks a milestone for SWTOR, Bioware released what they are touting as the first major game content update 1.1  which comes in at just over 200mb and adds a new flashpoint named “Kaon Under Siege” triples the size of the “Karaggas Palace” operation,  and a slew of other features and game fixes.  One of the major things this game content update does however is that it introduces new lore with that flashpoint and creatures (rakghouls) content to the game world and for a MMO that is technically a couple of days under a month after launch that sets a precedent that I hope they plan on continuing.

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Tags: content update patch 1.1, kaon under siege, MMO, rise of the rakghouls, star wars mmo, swtor

After being delayed for a day to finish working out some bugs SWTOR’s forsi content patch, Rise of the Rakghouls, is up and ready for everyone to dive into. Big updates include a brand new flashpoint, “Kaon Under Siege”, as well as expanded content for the Karagga’s Palace Operation. The new operation content promises new bosses, new loot, and a chance to confront the Hutt himself. The patch also includes a slew of bug fixes to help make the game even smoother.

It’s important to note that this is only part one of “Rise of the Rakghouls”. Developers have stated that we can expect the second installment in March which should include, among other things, a new planet, a new warzone, a new operation, Legacy System updates, and the much anticipated Guild Banks.

What do you think of the new content? Let us know in the comment section below!

Tags: content patch 1.1, flashpoint, Karagga's Palace