Posted by Lethality | 9 Comments

Patch Notes: 1.1 (Public Test Server) – New Flashpoint, Kira Carsen And Anti-Aliasing

BioWare has just pushed a new build of Star Wars: The Old Republic to the Public Test Server for players to get their hands on. They’ve been doing quick and furious patches all this week, but this one is a bit more meaty!

Some of the highlights are a new Flashpoint, the Kira Carsen bug fix, and the re-addition of the anti-aliasing preference!

The patch notes can be found below.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Patch 1.1

General

• Anti-aliasing is now available and can be enabled in the preferences menu.

Classes and Combat

General

• Healing caused by crowd control abilities no longer generates threat.
• Tooltips for abilities modified by skill points now display correct damage values.

Guard

• This ability now transfers to a new friendly target without requiring deactivation on the previous target.
• Activating this ability while targeting a guarded or invalid target will still toggle the Guard ability off.
• A distinct visual effect is now present on characters using Guard on another character, and another effect is now present on the guarded character if they leave Guard’s range.

Taunt

• A new visual effect has been added to the user and the target of the Taunt ability for the duration of its effect.

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Posted by Lethality | 9 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: So, Are You Gonna Play Some TOR This Weekend?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

The day has arrived! Literally millions of players have been waiting to get their hands on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and beginning today they will get their chance – from the comfort of their own home!

The massive beta weekend, known as an “open beta” in other MMO circles begins later today and while it’s technically invite-only, everyone who has signed up on SWTOR.com has been invited, in addition to hundreds of thousands of others via beta key giveaways from various gaming sites. It’s safe to say this will likely be the largest MMO beta test in history.

What remains to be seen, however, is if this is the last beta weekend – or for that matter, the end of the entire Game Testing program. Will BioWare continue testing right up until launch?

So today’s question is pretty simple! Are you going to be playing this weekend? Do you have time set aside? Or are you going to fight the urge and hold out for the official release?

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Posted by Kray | 4 Comments

Fully Operational: The First Steps To Max DPS

“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!” — There is no better example of damage in the Star Wars galaxy than the scene attached to that quote. Each week in Fully Operational, join Kray as he takes a look at the damage dealing role in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And yes, we’ll blow up a planet if we get the chance.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good night Ask A Jedi readers! Kray here with another episode of Fully Operational. I’ll be honest with you, there’s not a whole lot of really pertinent DPS-related information that got released this week, despite the AAJ team spending a ton of time with BioWare at the Fan Site Summit. Over the next few weeks before launch expect a lot of specifics around classes and gameplay to be revealed, but as for right now let’s take a look at things from a more general standpoint. No listening music today, but take a look at this absolutely stupid and awesome video from one of the guys at R2-DB for your entertainment needs.

The Old Republic isn’t quite out yet (less than 40 days!), and the beta is unfortunately still under NDA for most of the people who got their hands on it. What does this mean for you? Well, simply put, when you fire up the game for the first time and start playing your class of choice, it’s going to be an extremely fresh, new experience. Games like Everquest, Warhammer, World of Warcraft, Rift, etc have the advantage of millions of subscribers who have played the game for years, compiling all their experiences into guide posts on forums and theorycrafting websites. With TOR, on the other hand, it’s going to take a while for people to get to max level and start crunching numbers. So let’s take a look at what you can do to maximize your own effectiveness before the spreadsheets and simulators start popping up.

Step One: How Hard Does it Hit?

The first and probably most important step to figuring out what abilities you’ll want to prioritize is determining exactly how much damage it’s going to do. In order to calculate this relatively complex amount, there’s a few things you’ll want to consider.

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Posted by Shockum | 8 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Are You A Star Wars Lore Nerd?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

I have a confession to make. I know very little in regards to the history of the Star Wars universe. My knowledge for the most part was limited nearly exclusively to the movies. I didn’t check out any books, comics, or anything of the like. So to me, it was like none of that existed.

Was I in for a rude pleasant awakening. Since I became focused on Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have put my self through a virtual crash course on Star Wars. Let’s just say, I’ve stepped my game up.

Notably, I’ve read books the recent books in the Star Wars: The Old Republic series like, “Decieved,” and “Fatal Alliance.” Additionally, I’ve had my hands on the Darth Bane trilogy, and now the Thrawn series. I’ll be adding “Revan,” to that list when it comes out in just a few weeks.

But, even with expanding my knowledge as I have, I feel I’m still behind the curve. If you move through the chaos that is the Official Forums, you’ll see there are people who know their stuff. Our very own Professor Walsh can hang with the best of them, having read every single Star Wars novel but two.

So why would I want to do something like this? Well, when it comes down to it, it turns out I’m a lore junkie. I like finding out the odds-and ends-on a particular subject. You never know it may come in hand, to fill in a blank. People have their own reasons why they do it, that’s just mine.

How about you? Would you call yourself a lore buff, or not? Is the backstory to the game world you’re playing in even important to you? Has following TOR made you more interested?

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Posted by Shockum | 15 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Will You Be The Tortise Or The Hare?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In nearly everything people do, it comes down to who did it first. Who won the race? Who made the first movie? Who was the first to walk on the moon? Questions like these always spark debate and draw the attention of the average, everyday person. You almost never hear the person who finished second. All the glory is reserved for number one.

When Star Wars: The Old Republic launches, we are all going to be level 1, and all starting from scratch. People are going to have the chance to shoot for the first level 50 of their server, class and perhaps even the world.

So, that raises the question: Will you be the tortoise or the hare?

I’m sure many people will plan a vacation around launch time, or at the very least call in sick to get their hands on the game, and hit the ground running. To them, it almost becomes a competition with others – either literal or figurative – to be that first player walking around with Level 50 by their name. To do this, they’ll most likely be hitting the space bar to get through the dialogue faster, ignoring a majority of the voice acting.

On the other hand, there will be others who want to enjoy The Old Republic’s universe and be immersed in it. They are not trying to be the road runner and max their character. They want to take it easy and explore the nooks and crannies of each planet. The idea is to find all the secrets a planet may hold, see how high you can get on a distant peak, find all the datacrons, and enjoy the game as a whole. They may even play multiple characters, trying to get them all to Level 50 at the same relative time. To them, speed matters not.

At the end of the day, it comes down to how do you want to play SW:TOR. No matter if you have energy drinks prepared and order a couple pizzas for an all-nighter, or are actually planning a full night of sleep the day the game releases, you’ll be able to play however you like.

So, how are you planning to play your first character? More like the tortoise, or hare?

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