This year’s Gamescom is sure to bring us a couple interesting updates about Star Wars: The Old Republic. The events kicked off yesterday, when EA held a press conference and talked about numerous games, including SWTOR. Most of what was said during the conference was information we already knew about, but one thing was confirmed– new content is on the way before the launch of the game’s new hybrid F2P model.

Specifically, we found out about three new additions: Terror from Beyond, which is a new Operation on Belsavis, Ancient Hypergate, a new PvP Warzone, and new space missions for level 50 players. Attendees of Gamescom will be able to test out Ancient Hypergate for themselves, in fact, which was previously announced on SWTOR’s official site.

Yesterday on the forums, we also received a confirmation of what kind of release schedule we’re looking at, at least as far as Terror from Beyond goes:

Originally posted by AllisonBerryman (Source)

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Hey everyone, just to be clear on what was said during the presentation – Terror from Beyond, a new Operation, is on its way next month, and we have more content updates coming after it, including the new Warzone and Space Combat Missions. We have lots of exciting new content coming!

From the sounds of it, the new content will be released in a staggered manner.

For the full EA Press Conference, check out this video. The SWTOR-specific part starts at around 51:35.

SWTOR fans were treated yesterday with a video teaser hinting of a new world event headed our way. Late last night, that event, which is being called The Grand Acquisition Race, went live on the servers. Similar to the Rakghoul event, The Grand Acquisition Race was added very suddenly and discreetly, which is a world event approach quite unique to SWTOR. The event is a scavenger hunt, requiring players to do a little old-fashioned item hunting to please the goofy-looking members of the Chevin Conglomerate.

Here is this week’s Q&A Community Response, where we take some of last week’s questions and corresponding answers, and provide some of the feedback straight from the community. Make sure and check out the full Q&A posts for all of the questions, because we’re only going to be covering some of the highlights.

This week’s Q&A, which can be found here, had a special free-to-play focus, and will be the last weekly Community Q&A BioWare will hold. In it, a few answers generated some heavy feedback. It seems that some questions raised more additional questions than answers, which is understandable given the fact that BioWare is releasing more F2P information in the months ahead. Keep reading to find out more, and make sure and check out the complete community thread where this feedback is taken from.

Yesterday’s Q&A was a special edition that focuced on many of the questions players had in regards to the recently-announced free-to-play business model switch coming to SWTOR in fall 2012. BioWare also announced that this is the last weekly Q&A we’ll see, and that the team will be discontinuing the community series. This announcement is posted at the end of the article.

The team reassured the community that we’ll be seeing frequent updates and community interactions in place of the Q&A, and that on occasion, BioWare will hold focused Q&A sessions similar to this free-to-play edition, where specific features will be discussed. The team also said they will be updating the BioWare news blog more often.

So far, BioWare’s Community Team seems to sticking to Joveth Gonzalez’s Message to the Community that was posted two days ago. The team has interacted with the forum community more than they have in previous months, and even taken the time to answer some questions and respond to bug reports. The list of General Forum topics, overall, is more constructive than purely negative, and it’s a nice change to see the yellow staff icons lighting up the list of threads.

One subject that received a staff member response was regarding the lack of a ready check system in SWTOR. Ready check systems are very helpful in numerous games for raiding and PUG situations, and it seems like adding one into SWTOR wouldn’t be overly difficult on behalf of the developers. Here is what Matt Boudreaux, Gameplay Programer, replied with:

Originally posted by MattBoudreaux (Source)

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Many people in the studio are looking forward to a Ready Check system as well. We have one in the works, but unfortunately, I can’t give an ETA. Rest assured we hear you and things are in motion.

Yeah, it’s kind of a Soon™ response, but hey– at least it’s a response. As well as a sign that, yes, features are being worked on.

Yesterday we saw something we’re rather unaccustomed to these days– official SWTOR forum dev tracker activity! Joveth Gonzalez, Community Manager, issued a message to the community and proceeded to stick around and chat with some of the forum community members a bit.

Here’s an excerpt from the message, which can be read in full here:

Originally posted by JovethGonzalez (Source)

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As most of you know, over the past few months, our team, our studio, and our game have undergone quite a few changes. Through it all, we’ve remained committed to the community and have worked with the development team to make sure that your voices were heard.

I wanted to take some time to reassure you all that my team, the community team, is still committed to you folks. As part of this commitment, we’re excited to let you know that we have been developing a brand new strategy for our team that focuses on developing new ways to bring you more information about the game and the people involved with SWTOR’s development.

As we progress towards the recently announced Free-to-Play experience, you can expect more frequent updates to the game (which means more information coming to you) and more developer interactions.

Joveth Gonzalez then went on to say that him and his team will be becoming more active on the forums, and refocusing their attention to SWTOR’s community as a whole.

Classes and Combat

Jedi Knight

Sentinel

Combat

• Saber Storm: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, as Combat Sentinels are performing within expectations. This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill.

An interesting tease of sorts founds its way on Twitter yesterday morning, courtesy of Hall Hood, Lead Writer of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The tweet stated the following:

SIS Intel Report: Rumors indicate Czerka research vessel “Theoretika” has been located by deep-space salvage team. Investigating.

Most players speculated the message had to do with SWTOR’s next in-game event, one that is rumored to be some type of scavenger hunt event. This message, along with the mention of Czerka, seemed to fit. Players began to search around in-game for signs of a released event, but it seems the tweet was merely a preview of a future update. Hood gave an updated tweet:

Just to clarify: I was only giving a little preview of future content. I would never announce an in-game event on Twitter.

Later in the day, when players asked Hall Hood on Twitter if the message had to do with a new flashpoint, Hood replied with, “Not exactly. You’ll see very soon, I hope.”

Very soon. Sounds familiar. What does the writing team have in store for us?

In MMORPG.com’s free-to-play interview held last week with Jeff Hickman, one very interesting question was touched on– how will the free-to-play model switch affect the already-announced Game Updates, including the introduction of HK-51? Here is what the article stated on the matter:

I asked if HK51 would then be free for everyone, if he came before the F2P launch, and Jeff said they really haven’t decided because they’re not even sure when he’s going to launch just yet. The goal is to work on the content and get it out as soon as they can, and if some comes after the F2P transition, then they’ll evaluate what is free and what is paid.

First of all, we know that SWTOR’s free-to-play model will be launching this fall. In November, in fact, if we are to believe the last EA Earnings Conference Call. This means that HK-51 may or may not make it to live servers before then. If HK-51 isn’t released before November, then what? The answer provided above doesn’t give us much information to work off, of course, but in one thread on the official SWTOR forums, players have began speculating about what we may see happen.

Last week, MMORPG.com interviewed BioWare’s Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of SWTOR and Matthew Bromberg, Studio General Manager on some of the company’s plans and philosophies behind the move to free to play. In the interview, the duo were asked to discuss their plans for aggressive content updates and Cartel Coin items as well as some of the reasoning behind recent staffing adjustments. They were also asked about their outlook on the F2P MMO scene in general, and whether or not other games influenced this highly-debated business model switch.

Here’s an excerpt, regarding BioWare’s stance on “pay-to-win” items and if Cartel Coins (CC) can be used to buy anything that might be seen as headed down that path:

I asked the guys what sorts of stuff CC will buy, knowing just how terrified we all are of Pay-to-Win models, and they assured me they have been paying close attention to what’s okay business practice with RMT and what’s not. Essentially, Cartel Coins will buy a few things: actual in-game content (beyond the 1-50 experience that comes with the game now), vanity items, and convenience items (bank slots, bag slots, character slots, etc). There will be nothing you can buy with CC that will give you an advantage over other players in a competitive arena.

For players who might be worried about the future of Cartel Coin items, this bit of information and the full MMORPG.com article may provide some answers.