Today we received a second episode of the official SWTOR podcast. It comes complete with a glimpse of some behind-the-scenes philosophies on flashpoint and operation design, along with some previously-recorded footage about Game Update 1.3.

Hello everyone! My name is Eric Musco and I, along with Brooks Guthrie are happy to bring you episode two of the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ podcast, “Nightmare Mode”. You can listen by using the embedded player, by downloading and listening on your preferred MP3 player, by subscribing and listening on iTunes or check it out on our YouTube channel.

In episode two, we sit down with Jesse Sky and George Smith to talk about the design philosophy behind some of our existing Operations and what the future of Operations and Flashpoints looks like for SWTOR, including Nightmare mode. We also talk with William Wallace about some of the great new character perks that you can unlock through the Legacy system now that Game Update 1.3 is live. As always, if you have any questions or comments about the show, feel free to stop by this forum thread and let us know.

Thanks for listening!

Give the podcast a listen here. There’s even a transcription available!

SWTOR’s Game Update was unleashed yesterday (and there was much rejoicing!), but just in case you’ve been experiencing some odd bugs, we thought we’d post a current list of some known issues and bugs. BioWare has most of this information available on the forums, but some of it’s not simple to find. We’re here to help you out. Keep reading for the list!

Game Update 1.3 is coming June 26th.

06.22.2012
Scheduled Maintenance for Game Update 1.3: June 26th, 2012

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8 AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM AEST). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended.

Game Update 1.3: Allies introduces new features for all Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ players including a Group Finder tool, Legacy Perks, Ranked Warzones, and Adaptive Gear! Now you will be able to quickly find groups to take on Flashpoints, Operations, Warzones, and Planetary Heroic Missions. The Legacy System incorporates new bonuses including Advancement Perks which allows you to customize your leveling experience. With Adaptive Gear, social gear can now be used in combat, by fusing it with corresponding armor bonuses and creating slots for modifications. These are just a few of many exciting features of Allies! Learn more about Game Update 1.3 here!

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.3.

For more information follow this link.

Yesterday, BioWare posted a community blog article detailing some of the behind-the-scenes plans and goals for Team Ranked Warzones, which will hopefully reach live servers when Game Update 1.3 hits. You can check out the article here.

Here’s one of the most important bits of the article:

Before Season One begins with official rankings, we intend to rank and post the players and guilds with top Pre-Season ratings. Season One will begin with completely new ratings. Additionally, we do intend to have a Solo Queue Ranked Warzone option in the future.

We will not be pushing Team Ranked Warzones to the live game until we have significant PTS testing of the feature. Fortunately, those of you on the Public Test Server can now queue up for Team Ranked Warzones and test this feature out now. Be sure to submit any feedback to our PTS forum here.

Check out the community response to this community blog here, and keep reading to find out some responses straight from the community!

Currently on the PTS, Game Update 1.3′s new Legacy perks are available for player testing. Here is a preview of them, along with screenshots of tooltips, information about the different ranks, costs, and cooldowns for each of the abilities. There are four new types of perks: advancement, companion, travel, and convenience. Like other Legacy perks, they can be unlocked with Legacy levels or with credits. Most have multiple ranks.

Unless otherwise noted, all higher ranks require previous ranks to be unlocked. Every new Legacy perk added in 1.3 is only unlockable for one character at a time. These perks aren’t account-wide. Note: All information listed here and on the PTS is subject to change at any time. For each category, costs, etc. are listed in this manner: Rank 1, Rank 2, Rank 3.

On June 6th, BioWare posted a community blog about some of the class and balance changes coming our way in Game Update 1.3. You can read the full blog here. The in-progress PTS patch notes in reference can be viewed here. Some interesting information was revealed on the blog concerning the changes being made to tank classes and DPS classes.

The classes hit the hardest this round include the Assassin/Shadow, Juggernaut/Guardian, Sniper/Gunslinger, and both Bounty Hunter/Trooper trees. Austin Peckenpaugh, Senior Designer, goes into some detail about why changes were made, and what BioWare’s long term goals for various balance issues are. Major balance adjustments can often be frustrating no matter the side of the spectrum a player’s character may be on, and it isn’t often that the community sees the reasoning behind decisions made. It’s a very nice to see some of this reasoning.

As more and more MMOs’ release, it is evident that World of Warcraft’s success has been an anomaly. Remember when SWTOR was strutted as the next “WoW killer?” But ultimately a large exodus occurred, and layoffs followed. Many have since begun questioning the success of any subscription based MMO to follow. If Bioware is struggling with a subscription model when they have the biggest IP you can attach to an MMO, what hope is there for any other MMO that follows the same model? Essentially, Bioware needs to convert to the Free-to-Play model if they want to increase their profit and player base.

During last Friday’s Community Q&A session, one very good question regarding what happens after servers transfers was asked:

“What will you be doing to keep guilds and server communities together once server transfer is implemented?”

Here is the answer that was received:

Joveth Gonzalez (Online Community Manager): “Once server transfers are implemented, we will re-evaluate our server group forums and make any changes that are necessary. We also have Community Coordinator Eric Musco as the liaison to guilds and he has a lot of good ideas on how to work with them. Finally, we’re going to begin to highlight server community events on the Community Blog section of our site to make sure that they get proper attention. Rest assured that guilds and server communities are part of our overall focus within the community team.”

Not a terrible answer, but both the question and its answer avoided one of the largest questions on many SWTOR players’ minds right now regarding the upcoming server transfers: What if server transfers aren’t enough?

It’s speculation time again! One of the earliest sources of future SWTOR patch leaks stated that HK-47, the popular droid companion from the Knights of the Old Republic series, would be reborn, of sorts, into a new version– as HK-41, and would enter SWTOR as a new companion in Game Update 1.3. Here is the source of the original leak (view at your own risk, since spoilers may abound!).

How true are those leaks? Good question. Last year, there was some discussion of a quest series that some players thought may start the process to obtain HK-41. The thread was closed with a statement saying that the companion wasn’t currently in the game. And it wasn’t. Then. What about in the future?

At the London MCM Expo held on May 26th, there was a SWTOR panel with Emmanuel Lusinchi that focused on some highlights of Game Update 1.3. Some interesting points were revealed. The entire panel can be seen on Gamespot’s Twitch TV. A very awesome transcribe of the panel can also be found over at Dulfy’s site.

One of the most interesting bits, I found, was regarding the future implementation of ranked warzones. Click “continue reading” to find out what went on.