The 1.2 discussion in the Community Q&A from last week was so huge a single week could’t fit it all in. This week’s post built on the premise from last week, having the BioWare developers take some time to answer all of our burning 1.2 questions. This week the developers talk about some changes in PvP armor and what players can do with their commendations once 1.2 goes live, answer some crafting questions about reverse engineering and augments, and the chance of new items being added to the VIP fleet vendors. There is also talk of a few bugs people are seeing on the PTS getting fixed, ability and class tweeks, and the titles those who spent the time helping to test update 1.2 can expect to receive.

BioWare also reminded players that to get the most out of these Community Q&A threads they should focus on asking questions about current game mechanics, not those that may be in development. Asking questions about future content is allowed of course, but more often than not they will not be able to release many details about these features other than “you will see them in the future.”

You can check out all of this week’s questions and answers after the jump, and if you have a question for the developers you can post it here on the official forums. Maybe you will see you question in next week’s post! As always please feel free o let us know what you think of this week’s Q&A session in the comments section below. Continue Reading »

After a week of hiatus due to me moving into a new place TOR Lore is back! This week I’m walking you through the history of Nal Hutta, capital of Hutt space and starting world for the Bounty Hunter and the Imperial Agent. Though it was not the original home planet of the Hutts, it is now the one they call home to their species and where the Hutt Cartel hold their meetings. Its swampy, bloated terrain matches the form of its masters, and it is part three in our look at the origin worlds in SWTOR. Continue Reading »

((The RP XP With MJ #7))

Darth Tagious found the abandoned Czerka garage with the Force, zeroing in on the bounty hunter and agent who captured the Twi’lek smuggler. He waved his hand at the door and it swooshed aside at his bidding.

“My lord,” Agent Jenla Ruf said, and snapped to attention as the oppressive Sith entered the back room. Boarsch simply looked up from where he crouched before the beaten Twi’lek, a cold smirk dividing his face.

Both of them appeared slightly more haggard than Tagious would have imagined, and the agent’s uniform was partially unzipped. His nose wrinkled at the distaste, knowing the Mandalorian and Chiss had been… intimate.

Tagious looked at the Twi’lek woman bound to the chair and frowned. “Report.”

Jenla said, “The Jedi she was meeting is named Kendris, my lord. He is here at the spaceport, aboard a ship called the Regail. It is just him, his Zabrak Padawan and a small crew.”

The Sith Lord’s patience was as boundless as a Jedi Consular’s. Still, it took every ounce of his being to keep from snapping the agent’s neck for such a useless report. He waited, his yellow eyes boring into the Chiss agent’s like lasers in the dark.

“Darth Tagious,” the bounty hunter interrupted, standing. “My lord, I believe the intelligence supplied by the fleet was in error. This ain’t the tailhead we’re lookin’ for.”

Tagious turned to Boarsch with a deep scowl. “Indeed.”

Jenla seemed to stand taller. “Perhaps nearby, my lord, in a neighboring syst–.”

Tagious turned on the agent and reached out with the Force.

Jenla felt her throat close. She couldn’t breathe or speak. The invisible pressure lifted her to her toes.

Boarsch stepped forward boldly. “My lord, I have a suggestion!”

Tagious hissed, ignoring the Mandalorian, “If you dare to lead me down the wrong path again, Agent Ruf, I will kill you with a thought.” He released her from the Force choke and Jenla collapsed against a wall, rubbing the ache from her neck. The dark lord turned on the bounty hunter.

Boarsch held up his hands. “The Jedi trail you as you trail them, my lord. Let Jenla–Agent Ruf–and I pursue these leads alone, separate from your efforts, sir. We can find the Twi’lek easier without all the Jedi you attract.”

Tagious looked down at Yulel. He seemed to consider this.

Jenla regained some of her composure and looked on hopefully.

Finally, Tagious sneered and said, “I’ll give you one chance. Find me what I seek… or I’ll turn my whims to you.” He glared at Boarsch and Jenla before turning to leave.

Boarsch released a breath after a long moment. “You know, if he came in here just five minute earlier–“

“Shut up,” Jenla snapped. “I’m thinking.”

Continue Reading »

Su cuy’gar, ner vode.  Ibi’tuur copaani miit’gaanar be kebi meg vut’yc par ni, bal balyc par an beroyase – Mando’ade bal val joha, Mando’a.  Still with me?  Fret not, for it shall all be made clear momentarily!

Class is most definitely in session...

Those of you familiar with Karen Traviss’  “Republic Commando” series may have already had some exposure to the Mandalorian language, Mando’a.  Originally, I planned on merely crafting a lengthy treatise about Mando’a and its grammar, but in the end I thought this would be a great opportunity instead to speak with a member of the larger Star Wars community whom I have followed for awhile, Natasha Morea, AKA “Mandalorian Girl.”  I recently had the great pleasure of sitting down with her at a dusty cantina, where she graciously allowed me to ask all manner of questions.  Below is an excerpt from our conversation.

Read on for more!

Call me Serge the Hutt and be warned that SWTOR Life is my little criminal cartel. After all, I now have three Bounty Hunters present, shooting their articles at the world. That is right, the latest addition to our writer lineup is Dalqak, the Bounty Hunter. He will make a great addition to SWTORCrafter and BorukBH’s Bounty Hunter gang. Judging by his first article he is also a writing force to be reckoned with. We are very honored and humbled he decided to join the gang and I recommend you watch out for this guy, I am expecting great things coming from him.
Here’s a bit of information about Dalqak:
 
“No stranger to the Lucas’ beloved universe, Dalqak spent the formative years of his life mucking about with Star Wars action figures in his parents’ basement. One of his earliest cinematic memories was seeing Return of the Jedi in the theaters, and after that, the rest was history. Thankfully, it’s only slightly less socially acceptable these days to do the same thing as an adult.
 
Dalqak comes to us on loan from the loveable scamps over at Mongbat, where he has been a proud member for over 3 years, and where he currently heads up the SWTOR wing of their gaming enterprise. When not gaming or slaving away behind a desk, you might find him concocting all manner of strange dishes in his kitchen, or polishing his bacta tanks. ”
 
Welcome aboard! (the slave pens are that way and you will be getting your serving or stale bread later in the evening)
 
P.S. If you really want to see what Serge the Hutt would look like click here.
 

Ah springtime, when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of… number crunching?

Gabe Amatangelo, SWTOR’s Lead PvP Designer and purveyor of mirth, stopped by the forums today mostly to quash the fun we might have otherwise had PvP’ing in the buff, but also to shed some rough insight into how Bolster may work in practice.

Those who dreamed of fighting bravely in their skivvies may want to take a few deep breaths before continuing… Continue Reading »

So as we make our way closer to that fateful date where we can all log into the The Old Republic and make a character to finally play, I start thinking of things that go along with Character Creation. Sure, the initial part of this process is choosing a race, sex, appearance and finally class, but there is also another part of this and that is HOW you choose to play that character. With the story part of the game and the effects of the choices we make, how you play your character is a bigger part of the direction you want your character to be.

One thing to think about is that this probably isn’t going to be as easy as you think. Light/Neutral/Dark as a Bounty Hunter takes different roles compared to the other classes. I see the role of Bounty Hunters (BH) as something out of the box in regards to what they do in each setting. Let’s take a look at how I see the roles playing out.

• Light (good) I know, you are thinking “How can a Bounty Hunter be good?” I look at this in the mechanic of the Healing role. If you mainly run as a healer, then you might play the role of a support BH that is specialized in protection a person for the right amount of money. How many criminals in the Star Wars Universe do you think would pay for a top level BH that is specialized in protecting their target? This might involve having to go out and eliminate any suspects that pose a threat before they take action. You aren’t killing innocents unless they need to die and you don’t target indiscriminately. So being “good” while being “Bad” has an easier take in the class.

• Neutral (balanced) Being a BH gives you a lot of leverage in this play-style. You take on jobs to either kill or capture. There is always a price when people want this type of service. Your employers might like it if you just went in blasters blazing but this is your show, not theirs. Just because you were sent to kill a person doesn’t necessarily mean YOU have to be the person that kills the target. You might capture them and take them back for your employer to do the dirty work themselves. You could turn down jobs that involve killing those that do not need to be killed. There are so many ways of playing a BH that is just there for the money it isn’t funny.

• Dark (evil) Evil as a BH isn’t the same as being evil as a Sith Warrior, per say. As a BH, you are just plain bad. You take no crap from anyone. You don’t play by any rules but your own. Your only goal is money and self preservation and you will do whatever it takes, kill anyone you want and take or destroy as you see fit.

Now you see how I look at the paths we walk through the story element of the game. It’s up to you to decide what you want to make your Bounty Hunter. I actually plan on playing a balanced role as the Bounty Hunter. I’ll kill as the situation sees fit. I may take out an annoying NPC, when available, due to their chatter or inability to accomplish things gets on my nerves.

Granted, these are my interpretations of how I think each role could be played, but it is up to you to define how you play your Bounty Hunter. Have fun with your character and play the role you choose to the fullest of your potential.

Going through all the blog posts and tweets and everything else has left me exhausted. The amount of information given in this last Friday Update is staggering if you think about it, as it is something actual about our classes we are playing at launch. In the bigger picture, if you look at it like I do, it really breaks down class roles, and that leads to the reality of how close we actually are to finally playing this game. With all of this, I am going to try to dissect some of this information in relation to the Bounty Hunter.

Diving straight in, I am going to start with this quote below:

Choosing an Advanced Class is very important in The Old Republic, as within your Advanced Class, your character will reach their full potential. Your Advanced Class choice dramatically alters the gameplay experience of your base class by providing access to two exclusive skill trees per Advanced Class, with a third being shared between both Advanced Classes.

So how I take this is that this plays out like any other MMO so far, even the venerable Warcraft and how their Talent trees used to be when it wasn’t so restricted. This basically say “Hey, pick the AC you want, you still get the base class abilities of the class itself, thus this being the Bounty Hunter. You can even place some points in the other AC. So, just like WOW, we get 3 talent tress to mess with to fine tune the type of player we want to be and how we play.

Now, as much as I hate “cookie-cutter” builds on classes, I don’t see a way Bioware can stop this. Some abilities are going to be better than others and there will be those that will probably force those upon you depending on the role you pick. With this in mind, I hope that Bioware gives us the “Dual Spec” option so that we can have 2 builds based on what we are doing (Soloing/Group).

Something else I picked up on is this:

As you level up, your character will gain abilities from three sources:

• Through trainers, from their base class (e.g. Sith Warrior)
• Through trainers, from their advanced class (e.g. Marauder)
• Through skill points spent in the skill trees of their Advanced Class

So no longer is it the run to one trainer and you’re done. We now have to hit up the Base Class (Bounty Hunter) but we also have to fine the AC trainer that we are playing, in my case which will be the Mercenary. This is interesting as unless these are always grouped up, you have to make sure to remember where each are to make sure all of your abilities are up to par.

Now the fine folks over at Bioware even gave us the break-down on the roles for the Bounty Hunters:

Bounty Hunter Advanced Classes

Mercenary (Roles: Mid – Long Range Damage Dealing, Healing)

PowerTech (Roles: Close – Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)

• As previously announced, the Bounty Hunter’s Mercenary Advanced Class now features the ‘Bodyguard’ skill tree, allowing this iconic class to fill the role of a medic if desired.
• The ‘Advanced Prototype’ skill tree, shared between both Bounty Hunter ACs, now features an upgrade to the base class flamethrower, which allows the player to rotate while using the ability.

We now see how the Bounty Hunter breaks down. Mercenary breaks down into a DPS/Healer role and the Powertech breaks down into a DPS/Tank role. Now for all you WOW’ers out there, Bounty Hunters look to have the possibility of being Paladins of Swtor.

Those that are going the Tank Bounty Hunter will also have that DPS chance of speeding up their leveling without sacrificing the Tank aspect of it. It also plays

I, like many, think this last update was a great one. it really moves use one step closer to that fateful date where we all get to jump in game and put all this information we have been hoarding for so long to the test. In regards to the Bounty Hunter, playing a main healer and knowing I have DPS choices to help in the leveling process make me very happy as well.

IGN got another exclusive coverage of The Old Republic by releasing a video for the Bounty Hunter class on a Thursday, one day before the official site releases the information. Just like all the previous class videos this one does not dissapoint and we can see some cool action and voiceover work. Some abilities we never saw before can be seen as well and that scene where the Bounty Hunter is delivering a carbonite frozen victim is just too cool. I am seeing a lot of AoE action and stuns, but in short – explosions, explosions , explosions. You can check out the video bellow: