I would buy this guy a beer.

Originally posted by Eric Musco(Source)

2.1 page update. Is this all? Nothing there for subscribers? |
05.07.2013, 07:44 AM

Hey everyone,

I wanted to specifically address the concern of “what is a subscriber getting in an all Cartel Market update?” Game Update 2.1 brings a whole lot of customization and convenience features to the game which have been requested for quite some time, such as character name changes etc. As we have stated in the past, we always design systems like this knowing that subscribers will be receiving Cartel Coins each month, and certainly more options for your monthly Cartel Coin grant can’t be a bad thing!

I think the core of some of your frustrations is that you feel like Game Update 2.1 is “eating up a slot” for our regular content cadence, and because of that, you won’t actually be receiving any new content in this “cycle.” I figure the best way to address that is to lay out a bit of a road map of what the next few weeks looks like! This will help especially if you are only looking at what you are getting within one “content cycle.” As I have done in the past, I need to make it clear that everything I am about to say is our current plan and that it is subject to change, but I want to give you as many details as I can! Here is our current plan:

• Game Update 2.1 will release on Tuesday, May 14th
• Game Update 2.2 will release on Tuesday, June 11th

If you are keeping track and we hit those dates, Game Update 2.2 will releasing 8 weeks and 2 days from the time we released Rise of the Hutt Cartel (so basically around our 8 week cadence that is often referenced). What that means is that even though I can’t yet tell you what is in Game Update 2.2, you are getting two Game Updates within that period. I will say this: Game Update 2.2 has no new Cartel Market features… Also, both of these Game Updates will come with the usual bug fixes, quality of life improvements, etc. which you have come to expect (reference the patch notes for more info).

I know many of you will reserve full judgment until you see what happens over the next few weeks. I hope getting a little bit more information on our timeline will help alleviate your concerns. I have stated before that our Cartel Market and content teams are two very different things internally, which is why we can have these two Game Updates release so close together. Hopefully that provides some insight into our plans!

TLDR – If you’re concerned that Game Update 2.1 is taking up space in our content cadence and only contains Cartel Market stuff, fear not, Game Update 2.2 is coming sooner than you would expect!

-eric

PS – The Gree Enclave wanted me to pass on that they will be returning soon…

I’ll miss the Dallas Cantina meet-up, but I’ll make the next southern US venue. Back to New Orleans anytime soon?

The Devs are busy today throwing around tid-bits of info about upcoming features and current in-game issues. What caught my eye were the specific timeline announcements of player requested features.

Originally posted by Amber Green(Source)

Companions Cannot Wear Gree Armor | 03.05.2013, 06:08 PM

Hi there,

I wanted to stop in and give you an update about this issue. We have a fix implemented to be deployed with the next patch (1.7.2) that will allow your companions to wear gear earned via Galactic Reputation.

As with any fix, testing could provide us with information that requires a delay, so please know that time frames are always intended but never promised. Thanks for your patience on this!

Originally posted by Eric Musco(Source)

[Request] Ready Check? | 03.05.2013, 05:24 PM

I know ready check is something that you folks have been looking forward to for a while and so I wanted to give an update.

Currently, development is near complete on ready check for SWTOR! Right now, it is slated for Game Update 1.7.3 but know that it still has to pass QA along with some other things so it is entirely possible it could come out after 1.7.3.

I am going to do my best to give actual timing on features like this when I can just please be understanding that timing, as in the example above, is entirely subject to change. As long as you can all remain understanding of this, I can give more specifics than we have in the past.

Reading between the lines of these updates, we can reliably say that patch 2.0 is weeks away from release. We are sitting on patch 1.7.1, they have scheduled at least two more patches to come out before Scum and Villainy go live.

I have personally been playing the PTS, and it’s worth waiting for. The changes made to combat and the overall feel are top-notch. It just can’t get here soon enough.

A few nuggets of info coming form the Devs today about patch 2.O, like…

What’s going to happen to the commendations in patch 2.0?

Originally posted by Ahmad Zabarah(Source)

Hi all, just thought I would provide some clarifications for what we are doing with the old commendations.

When 2.0 is released Tionese, Columi, Daily, and Black Hole commendations will be versioned into Classic Commendations with the following ratios:

Tionese Commendations – 6:1
Columi Commendations – 4:1
Daily Commendations – 4:1
Black Hole Commendations – 1:1

Please note we are still undergoing testing, so these ratios could change.

Originally posted by Ahmad Zabarah(Source)

There will be a special overflow cap for Classic Commendations once 2.0 is released to accommodate those with large amounts of commendations. At this time, we have this cap at 800 commendations. Any commendations that exceed this amount will unfortunately be lost.

We encourage everyone to spend their commendations to ensure they do not exceed this overflow cap.

Answers about the Black/Red and Black/Blue Saber Crystals

Originally posted by Ahmad Zabarah(Source)

Hi all, thanks for bringing this up!

You can rest assured we are currently planning to have these crystals drop from the Scum & Villainy Operation, both difficulty modes.

Alex Modny, one of our Bioware Devs, posted a tid bit of info about Scoundrels/Operatives.  It was started yesterday evening by Thexremstar, asking about the long gone sound proc from the cunning classes.  It got a few responses, either for or against, it coming back.  Alex chimed in with this response and solution.

Originally Posted by Alex Modny (Source)

---

Good news everyone! Upper Hand and Tactical Advantage proc laugh/giggle is coming back in 2.0! Your Scoundrel or Operative will now chuckle most heartily when they gain their first UP/TA when they previously had zero. Before we took it out completely the sound was playing every time you gained an UP/TA and was really spamming everyone with their infectious chortles. I really miss the giggle so I’m glad we are bringing it back, hope yall enjoy it as well!

Cheers!

It’s great to see Dev responses concerning the little things that weave the tapestry of our chosen MMO. Poster Cycao said it best “Holy cow they do check these forums still.”

Game Update 1.7 is fresh off the shelves today, and along with the new galactic reputation feature and the Relics of the Gree event, there were a couple of changes and side effects to changes that did not make the original Patch Notes. These changes were announced on the forums today in the form of dev tracker posts:

Originally posted by JovethGonzalez (Source)

---

With Game Update 1.7, we introduced the new Legacy Character Perk, Priority Transport: Personal Starship. This allows players to quickly shuttle to their personal starships. This ability normally has a 24 hr cooldown, and players have the option to purchase Legacy Global Unlocks to reduce this cooldown.

Unfortunately, with Game Update 1.7, there is a bug which automatically unlocks the three levels of Legacy Global Unlocks for any players that is level 20 or above.

This is not intended and will be fixed in an upcoming patch. What this means is that, for those of you who have unlocked the Personal Starship as a Character Perk, you will no longer have 1 hr cooldowns for this ability, and you will have to unlock Legacy Global Unlocks to reduce the standard 24 hr cooldown. This will happen after the aforementioned patch.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but we hope that you enjoy this “trial” period for Improved Priority Transport: Personal Starship levels I, II, and III.

Keep reading to see a dev tracker response on changes made to the GTN in Game Update 1.7.

For the month of January, some subscribing SWTOR players have not received their allotted amount of monthly complimentary Cartel Coins. BioWare finally addressed those players last Friday with the following statement:

Originally posted by JovethGonzalez (Source)

---

Thanks everyone for letting us know that you have not yet received your Complimentary Cartel Coins.

We are aware that some players did not receive their subscriber reward Cartel Coins as expected this month, we’ve escalated this to our development team who are currently investigating the issue and who will make corrections to all affected accounts.

We’ve been advised that all players awaiting their grant should receive the coins due to them in the next 7 to 10 days.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in receiving your coins.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

If you are one of the players affected by this issue, this thread is where most information has been posted.

After Game Update 1.6, BioWare made changes to both the Phantom and Spymaster gear sets that can be purchased through the Cartel Market. The in-game graphics in the shop didn’t correctly match with the gear that was obtained through the packs. This error was then corrected, which left players a little confused when their gear sets changed overnight. BioWare then made a post stating the changes that were made in the update and told the community that the team will find a way to make up for the confusion.

Joveth Gonzalez had an update for players affected by the gear changes yesterday, which will take place in Game Update 1.7. Keep reading to see the dev tracker post.

Patch 1.6.2 hit live servers yesterday, and with it came one addition to the Cartel Market that’s been requested since SWTOR’s free-to-play announcement was first made. Players are finally able to purchase additional character slots! They cost 600 Cartel Coins each and work across multiple servers once purchased. BioWare also increased the total character amount allowed across servers, raising that number to 350 characters total. Players of all subscription types can raise their cap in this manner. For example, a Free-to-Play player could have 8 character slots instead of the restricted 2 after purchasing 6 slots.

Later in the day, we also received a dev tracker post explaining one important detail– all players can gain up to 10 additional character slots in this manner, but this doesn’t extend the total amount of 350 characters between every server. Here’s the announcement, which was posted by Joveth Gonzalez:

Originally posted by JovethGonzalez (Source)

---

Just wanted to correct something I said earlier. The information I received earlier was incorrect. Players may have their base character slots and up to ten extra character slots. For example, a subscriber with 12 character slots may increase their character slots up to 22. You can still have 350 characters overall. Apologies for the confusion.

For all of yesterday’s Patch Notes, check here.

Over the weekend, some players noticed a bug with the weekly mission for completing Heroic Space Missions. This issue doesn’t seem to be affecting all players, nor every set of missions, but for those who have experienced the bug, the repeatable missions simply stop becoming available. BioWare issued a response on the official forums yesterday afternoon:

Originally posted by AmberGreen (Source)

---

Hello there folks! We are aware of issues with the new Heroic Space Combat missions, and we are currently researching the problem. Because we’re still collecting information, it’s not yet been included on the Known Issues list. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

With any luck, the issue will be fixed quickly.

Also, if you haven’t checked it out yet, BioWare released a new Free-to-Play video on Friday, in which the team showed off the Cartel Market’s Life Day goodies, and discussed recent changes being made thanks to player feedback.

After this week’s exciting news about the first SWTOR expansion headed our way in Spring 2013, the official forums were abuzz yesterday with questions, concerns, and a fair bit of fun speculation. Allison Berryman took the time to respond to various threads, adding a bit of developer insight on matters such as the lore and content awaiting players on Makeb, the method that new gear and stats will be introduced in Rise of the Hutt Cartel, and how many new class skills we’ll be seeing.

First, some hints as to how gear progression will work:

Originally posted by AllisonBerryman (Source)

---

Hi everyone! While we can’t address every concern raised in this thread right now, we can reassure you that the gear you’ve obtained in our current endgame will continue to be relevant after the expansion is released, and it will provide a great bootstrap into the higher-level content offered by Rise of the Hutt Cartel. You won’t be replacing your Dread Guard gear with gear you pick up as you level, and thanks to improvements in the way item power is calculated, we won’t be handing out any entry-level gear at the new level cap. You’ll hear more about RotHC as we approach its launch, and we’ll continue to answer questions and provide more details!

For the rest of these dev tracker updates, hit “Continue Reading.”