Jan 12, 2012

Posted by in News | 11 Comments

Rise Of The Rakghouls: Game Update 1.1 Launches January 17th (Video & Screenshots)

Massively’s Larry Everett got a nice scoop on the first content patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic called Rise Of The Rakghouls! Larry had a chance to chat with Gabe Amatangelo about the new content, as well as other fixes and improvements.

Dynamic lighting - YES PLEASE!

Dynamic lighting - YES PLEASE!

First is the new Flashpoint, Rise Of The Rakghouls. I have to say after reading this paragraph, it got me excited. Every player holds a flashlight so they can see their way around? I’ve been waiting for YEARS for an MMO to implement some sort of lighting into gameplay:

Amatangelo says it’s his personal favorite flashpoint: “The setting is awesome. It’s dark with huge shadows, and everyone has flashlights they’ve got use to see their way through it. One of the first boss encounters puts your back up against the wall, and things are coming out from all different directions. Rakghouls have all the different kinds of mechanics.

Further down the page, Amatangelo talks about the state of Ilum, and some of the problems that lead to some of the problems! BioWare was aware of the behavior that would emerge due to some broken timers, but you can read why they made the decision to go as they did:

“The objectives on Ilum were supposed to be on timers, and the timers were supposed to be locked down,” says Amatangelo. “But in the 11th hour, the timers weren’t working. So we knew what kind of behavior was going to evolve there. It’s not like we were going to delay launch to fix that. But with 1.1, we are going to be handling a lot of those issue with a bunch of improvements there, like focusing on killing players.

They go on to talk about the expanded Karagga’s Palace operation and other PvP such as outlaws den. Head on over to Massively for the full read, or enjoy the content trailer for Rise Of The Rakghouls below!


  1. <blockquote cite="we are going to be handling a lot of those issue with a bunch of improvements there, like focusing on killing players.”>

    O_o

  2. Looks good, would like to see them go back and beef up the story\cinematics in some of the flashpoints they have already released that were rushed out to make launch….

    Outside of BT\Esseles a lot of the other flashpoints are vert story lite IMO…

  3. Left 4 Dead: Star Wars Edition

  4. This…..makes me super excited….
    Its like a zombie survival movie for ToR…

    • Captain Roberts says:

      Have to agree about the zombie invasion in swtor. Sadly I’m not complaining; cant wait to kill me some zombies with a blaster.

      What truly excites me about this is the introduction of the flashlights, could be cool we will certainly see. Also, I think the heavy story telling in flash points really brings them to life.

  5. Planerunner says:

    ‘Dynamic lighting – YES PLEASE’

    Uh, NO. Not until Bioware fixes the graphics they already have, please. I’d rather they correct things like ability delay than anything else. Last thing I need is more unoptimized graphical settings when there are more important things to fix.

  6. Katherinne says:

    Lethality, both EQ and DAOC both had flashlights, that’s not something new, WoW just didn’t incorporate it. It never got really dark in Azeroth.

    • Like pitch dark, you can’t see 10 feet in front or behind you without one? Never knew.

      • Katherinne says:

        Yes, in EQ you could get a drop from a mob that gave light. Certain races were able to see better than others. I remember having to turn up my vid card so I could see better at night but it was still tough.
        DAOC was pretty much the same but you had a torch that you could turn on and off. Most players just kept it on unless they were pvping.

  7. This extra content is nothing short of a stupid move. Epic fail adding extra stuff when abilities are seriously delayed.
    But the biggest FAIL is them saying last night that they were postponing maintenance to enhance user experience so close to launch by having uptime. Then they shutdown servers on an unscheduled day where people had actually planned to run things. Guilds plan pvp, flashpoints, operations. People book in game time with their wives.
    Bioware it’s called MANAGING EXPECTATIONS. Think about haphazard release schedules in future.

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