Jan 19, 2012

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World First By Condemned: All 16-man Nightmare Mode Operations Cleared

Yesterday will forever be remembered in the annals of TOR history. Not only was the game’s first content update, Rise of the Rakghouls, delivered to players but all of the most difficult raid content was been cleared in what will be known in the future as Vanilla TOR.

Our buds in Condemned, a competitive progression guild in Star Wars: The Old Republic raided through the night (literally) with the impending maintenance window bearing down on them. That effort has paid off as they not only motored through the newly expanded Karagga’s Palace, they sent us the final kill shot of Soa, the final boss in The Eternity Vault, in the wee hours this morning.

Soa down by Condemned - Nightmare mode.

We asked Condemed what they thought about raiding in Star Wars: The Old Republic so far:

All of us at Condemned had a great time over the past weeks progressing through the 1.0 and 1.1 operations content that BioWare created. Our guild has been around for over five years now, and aside from some of the initial bugs and silly RNG mechanics that were present in the Eternity Vault, we believe that BioWare has crafted some of the more creative and fun boss encounters in MMOs. We’re particularly impressed by the responsiveness and timeliness of Gabe, Georg, and the rest of the developers at fixing bugs or broken mechanics, as well as in producing new content – having four new boss fights before the game had been out a month was a welcome surprise.

In addition, the new fights of Karagga’s Palace were both much more polished, as well as having more interesting mechanics than those of the Eternity Vault – proof that BioWare is employing increasingly sophisticated mechanics-design into their operation creation, and that’s a sign that bodes very well for the future.

We’re eager to learn more about new PVE content in March, but until that time, you’ll find us on the PVP battlefields of Port Nowhere (US/EST PVP).

Condemned is actively recruiting at this time, and welcomes exceptional players to learn more at http://areyoucondemned.com

Of course this begs the question: too soon? Raiding in other games has run the gamut from way too difficult (unkillable, really) to far too easy (the most recent World of Warcraft content patch The Hour of Twilight comes to mind.) Further, is competitive progression raiding even on the minds of BioWare right now?

This information has been verified to the best of their (and our) ability, but if you’re in a guild (or know of one) that has done it sooner, let us know!

Anyway, congrats again to Condemned! I’d say they’ve earned their place in TOR history!

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Jan 4, 2012

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United We Stand: Happiness Is Anyone Or Anything At All

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi series focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

Happy New Years! I’ve decided my new year’s resolution is to become friends with all the other level 50’s on server.

Yeah, I know that’s ambitious and kind of ridiculous, but right now it’s not that hard because there’s only like fifty of us (even so, I’d say I’m only friends with about fifteen). But for me the point is the effort and the progress that I will make along the way, the people that I will meet, the experiences that I will have, and the joys that we will be able to create for each other.

This is really what brings us back to the point of online gaming: the people that we meet here are what make the game real and important. I think particularly at the beginning of a game’s life, a.k.a. the last few weeks for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is especially clear. Less people, less content, a less clear understanding of the game all make it more important that we meet others and build community.

Somehow this is the only photo I have from the fight, although the 3rd and 5th phases give great opportunities for the ambitious photographer.

Several nights ago I had my first TOR raiding experience. We went into Eternity Vault and Kragga’s Palace and cleared them both on normal. While half of this example is just to brag, the other half is to serve as an illustration about how important to is to build relationships with other people on one’s server. As much as I would like for this to be an accomplishment of my guild, it wasn’t.

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Dec 28, 2011

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The Eternity Vault Has Been Condemned! World First 16 Man Cleared – Normal Mode

At about 9:30PM Eastern Standard Time this evening, we got word from Condemned that they’ve pulled off a world first: a full clear of the 16-man version of the Eternity Vault Operation on Normal mode! It’s clear from their screenshot, but of course we have no way to verify the world-first-ness itself. But we sure haven’t heard anyone else cleaning it yet.

Condemned - World First 16 Man Eternity Vault Clear (Normal)

Condemned - World First 16 Man Eternity Vault Clear (Normal)

These guys were some of the first to the table with videos showing world boss kills, and it looks like they’re going to be at the forefront of the Star Wars: The Old Republic PvE scene for a long time to come.

Grats guys! Now make a video for us scrubs down here ;)

The Vehicle that drops from final boss

The Vehicle that drops from final boss

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Nov 16, 2011

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Facebook Image of the Week #38!

And this Wednesday we have an image of the outside of the Eternity Vault!

The Eternity Vault, a remnant of a once powerful empire, is believed to house ‘The Infernal One,’ an ancient and deadly evil that poses a risk to the entire galaxy.

This is probably whetting your whistle ahead of some more information that’s sure to come out about the end-game soon!

Make sure you head on over to Facebook and “Like” Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ so you get these great images posted directly onto your wall!

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Nov 10, 2011

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Are You Excited For A Hutt-based Operation?

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!

BioWare has been showing off the Eternity Vault – the first Operation (raid) in Star Wars: The Old Republic – for some time now, and it looks amazing. It seems to have all of the gameplay and teamwork that you’d expect from  high-level end-game PvE content. You can check out a 10-minute walkthrough of the first boss with BioWare’s Dallas Dickinson right here!

Of course, just one Operation wouldn’t be the beginning and the end of it. We knew that BioWare would have more raid content available to players at some point. Recently, they began teasing the idea of a new Operation, this time involving the Hutts. As a matter of fact, you can see the tease on the recently revealed Operations game systems page over at SWTOR.com

The shadowy image of peering through a grate into an unknown Hutt’s inner-sanctum certainly paints a picture for what we might expect! Now, I may not know everything about Star Wars lore, but I can’t recall a Hutt being very agile – or even just mobile. It will be interesting to see what a raid inside of a Hutt palace might look like!

So, are you excited at the possibilities for a Hutt-based raid? Why or why not? Perhaps you have an idea for a different raid setting entirely! Let us know!

Are you excited at the possibility of a Hutt Operation?

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