The galaxy is in turmoil. War rages across countless worlds as Republic and Imperial forces struggle for control of critical resources. Amidst the chaos, threats emerge from all sides. The planet Denova, known for its extensive deposits of baradium ore, has been seized by a band of mercenaries and veteran Imperial defectors with mysterious motives. If they are not dislodged, the explosive arsenal they can create will give them the power to destroy any armed force – Republic or Imperial. On Corellia, a corrupt councilor attempts to maximize hypermatter profits by playing both sides of the conflict, and the crazed mastermind behind the Rakghoul outbreak, discovered on Ord Mantell, continues to threaten the lives of all sentient beings in the galaxy…

Game Update 1.2 – Legacy introduces exciting new content and features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players. Dig deeper into your personal Star Wars saga with the expanded Legacy system! Construct your family tree and unlock new rewards, abilities, and perks for all the characters in your Legacy as you advance your characters.

Visit the Black Hole area on Corellia to complete new level 50 daily missions, experience the finale of the Rakghoul outbreak storyline in the Lost Island Flashpoint, and get ready to challenge the mercenary warlord Kephess and his deadly allies for control of Denova’s critical resources in the all-new Operation: Explosive Conflict. You’ll also have the chance to face off against your foes or participate in a same-faction training mission in the all-new Novare Coast Warzone, a 3-point domination battle!

Game Update 1.2 brings even more new features to Star Wars: The Old Republic. UI Customization has been added to the game! Detach, move, resize, and arrange UI elements to suit your personal playstyle in the new Interface Editor. Guild Banks are also available – store and share resources with your guild! Additions and changes have been made to Crew Skills, classes, and more – read the full patch notes to discover all the changes!

In all MMO’s there are sets of armor that give a specific “feel” to the class.  But when dealing with Star Wars you have to consider not only artistic intent, but the entire history of the Star Wars IP.  Whereas other MMO’s may find that flashy is better, in SWTOR simple robes could actually be the best choice.

Originally posted by Daniel Erickson (Source)

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We have heard the community loud and clear when it comes to armor sets. What we’ve heard the players say is, “I don’t care how high level I get, I still want my core sets to look and feel like Star Wars and like my class – cooler but not crazy. Keep the crazy to optional gear.

Want to hear more about BioWare’s stance with upcoming armor sets and how they plan to cater to the desires of the player?  Click Continue Reading like a boss!

Originally posted in Community News (Source)

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Hey everybody,

It is with great reluctance that I have to announce Ranked Warzones are not going live with Game Update 1.2: Legacy. We had a fantastic run of testing on the Public Test Server and I can’t begin to thank the community enough for their tireless advocacy for this feature and the time people took to file bugs and voice their concerns.

After careful consideration, it is clear that to make Ranked Warzones the feature we all want it to be is going to take a bit more time. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause and ask for your patience as we work to make sure the Ranked Warzone Preseason launch is polished and fun. With Legacy, the new Warzone, Operation, and Flashpoint, as well as many other amazing features of Game Update 1.2 ready to go, we’re very excited for tomorrow’s additions.

In the future we’ll be rolling the Ranked Warzone Preseason out in phases, listening carefully to player feedback and making adjustments as we go. The first phase will be full team, eight-player queuing only and from there we’ll look at next steps as Preseason progresses. In the meantime we have provided an alternate purchase route for War Hero gear so you can start building your set while figuring out your teams.

Daniel Erickson
Lead Game Designer

Originally posted by GeorgZoeller (Source)

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A few other notes that escaped the initial post:

Augments stay at their current effective level (49) and we are not planning to add a new tier of augments in the near future.

Augments also had their stats adjusted/split (as discussed in other threads) to account for their wider availability in the system. The overall effect of the change is a net increase in survival time for players due to increased health from endurance.

There are also a large number of changes (and fixes) to creature abilities in 1.2 as well (too many to list individually as single abilities can affects hundreds of creatures), so you may see different results running PvE content after 1.2.

Hey! Watch some The Secret World footage from PAXEast 2012 with the debut of our newly branded Junkies Nation TV.

At Pax East BioWare took the time to answer many player questions.  Here are some of the more relevant and interesting answers that we heard.

Dark Side Jedi & Light Side Sith

A player brought up the idea of ability animations being chosen by the character’s Light or Dark Side.  So a Light Side Sith Warrior could use Force Stasis instead of Force Choke, or a Dark Side Jedi Consular could use Force Lightning instead of Telekinesis.  They said “that’s a really cool idea and I will take that under advisement and bring it back to the team”.

Want to know more of the answers given by BioWare at Pax East?  Click Continue Reading!

At Pax East BioWare took the time to answer many player questions.  And here are some of the more relevant and interesting answers that we heard.

Space Combat

“We have big, big plans” for space combat, but they can’t speak about it yet.  When asked about capitol ships “It’s definitely something you’re going to see in the future…and it’s actually going to link into another game system which I can’t talk about”.  Is it possible they may be planning Eve style ship battles?!?

Want to know more of the answers given by BioWare at Pax East?  Click Continue Reading!

Originally posted by GeorgZoeller (Source)

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Hi,

There have been quite a few threads where you have voiced confusion regarding the end game itemization in 1.2 and I want to take the opportunity to clarify what you are going to see in the game when Game Update 1.2 goes live on Thursday.

One of the issues we are dealing with on the PTS Forums is that we are not only introducing changes from the current state of the game (1.1.5x), but also several changes a week. Without wiping our Forums weekly, it is inevitable that these updates cause significant confusion about what it is in the game, what is intended to be in the game, etc.

So, without further ado….

Hello everyone!

We will be bringing down servers for eight hours on April 12th, 2012 from 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST) in order to deploy Game Update 1.2 – Legacy. All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.

Please note the timing on this maintenance period, which is beginning earlier than usual.

Game Update 1.2 – Legacy introduces new content and features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players. Earn new rewards and build your family tree with the expanded Legacy System, explore Lost Island, a new Flashpoint, challenge the new Operation: Explosive Conflict, and face off against your foes (or your allies) in Novare Coast, a new Warzone. You can also experience new daily missions on Corellia, customize your User Interface, create a new Guild Bank for your guild, and more! Learn more about Game Update 1.2 here!

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.2. This patch will be up to approximately 1Gb in size, depending on when you last updated the game.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Thursday, April 12th, 2012 (See PDT timing below)

Time: 12:01AM CDT (April 11th, 10:01PM PDT/1:01AM EDT/6:01AM BST/7:01AM CEST/3:01PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST)

All game servers will be offline during this period. SWTOR.com will be available. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours.

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

SWTOR’s in-game universe is intentionally vast. This vastness adds to the whole Star Wars experience, but it also leaves players a little out in the cold when paired with low server populations. Riding through the open, empty snowfields of Hoth seems desolate enough, but add in a quest session complete with two other Hoth players total, low chances of completing Heroic 4+ quests, and little chance of even seeing those two players… an empty, desolate planet becomes almost painful. No world– even Hoth– should be that empty in an MMO.

One of the most hotly-debated topics on the SWTOR official forums is the issue of server population, and what exactly should be done about it. It’s no secret that while most servers started out with queues, a large portion of those servers is now struggling to stay above the “light” population range. Both sides, Republic and Empire, feel the effects of low population numbers, and for months, the only advice most players have been given is one word– reroll. Rerolling on a new server isn’t necessarily a challenge, but it isn’t a real solution. We deserve better.