I hoard raid footage. Prior to cleaning out my hard drive I found clips going back to the first Eternity Vault HM clear and some stuff from when we were running flashpoints every day for Columi drops.

A look through my files revealed raid videos of every operation in SWTOR and multiple files of just about every boss.

There were tons of wipes, several boss kills, and a long list of really good people who I’ve since lost contact with.

Why, though, did I have so many videos? I tend to record most of my raids for both boss kill videos and for a critical look at how I did, regardless of the end result.

BioWare and LucasArts hosted SWTOR’s first official LiveStream event last Friday, September 21st. The stream hasn’t been put up on BioWare’s official Youtube channel at the time of writing this article, but it is going to be made available. For those who would like to see the stream now, check out Dulfy’s video. If you’d like the super-condensed version, keep reading for some of the most interesting highlights and my personal opinions on the material that was covered during the event.

Jesse Sky, SWTOR Lead Operations and Flashpoint Designer, gave us a shiny, new Developer’s Blog update yesterday with some interesting information and hints about Terror from Beyond, the new Operation heading our way in Game Update 1.4. Here’s a snippet:

Terror from Beyond offers five new major boss encounters that will challenge even the most highly-coordinated groups of players. In keeping with previous Operations, Terror from Beyond includes one “puzzle” encounter that really steps outside of the bounds of what you normally see in a boss fight. To defeat this new enemy, players will need to work together to repair a massive, ancient Gree computer from within the machine itself. Unlike previous puzzle encounters where the solutions were relatively easy to figure out, this one has players leveraging their particular group composition to control a chaotic situation. It’s very different from the things that we’ve done in the past, and I’m excited to see what players think.

In addition to strange creatures and agents of the Dread Masters, players will run into a familiar face on Asation. No spoilers, but here’s a hint: he’s not going to be very happy to see you.

It’s nice to know we have another Operation puzzle to look forward to, and one that sounds a little complicated. Now all we need is some type of date on 1.4, or at least an announcement regarding its appearance on the Public Test Server.

Read the full blog article here.

Yesterday we got a dev tracker reply from Jason Attard, Senior Game Balance Designer, courtesy of Allison Berryman. It was regarding modifications in endgame loot and how stats are distributed:

Originally posted by AllisonBerryman (Source)

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I talked to Jason Attard (Senior Game Balance Designer) and he was able to shed some light on modifications in endgame items and how stats are distributed.

Our goal is that a highly-skilled player can complete content without needing to swap mods on their gear, but spending the time and credits necessary to optimize the mods should still make a noticeable difference.

When we generate mods for endgame gear, we generate all the mod variants at a given item level and then run a process that combines the mods with endgame shell items to create the items needed for an Operation. This process helps us ensure that the stats are useful for Advanced Classes and roles, but it doesn’t generate gear that is completely optimal for every spec. We always manually check the results and tweak items where necessary.

We have had some problems in the past with gear that stacks a single rating too much and with incorrect armorings being assigned to some items (high Endurance gear should go to tanking items, Aim/Cunning/Strength/Willpower should go into DPS and healing items), and we’re continuing to refine the processes we use to make more useful gear. In future tiers, you’ll see many issues with mod allocation corrected!

The last bit is especially interesting, and may explain some of the current stat ratios we’re seeing on our Operation loot tables.

It’s no secret that many guilds across multiple servers have been experiencing lag-related issues during Operations. Groups have also been experiencing random “Access Denied” in-game errors that force them to repeatedly try and enter the instance. Some servers are experiencing this issue more than others, of course, but one server where it seems to be the most noticeable is on Canderous Ordo.

Joveth Gonzalez issued a response yesterday to one player-created thread about this issue in the Customer Service forum:

Originally posted by JovethGonzalez (Source)

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Hi folks, we’ve been seeing some reports about this specific issue and Sr. Server Programmer Jennifer Harkness wanted to elaborate a bit on what’s been going on:

As many of you have noticed, we have been playing with the population settings for the raid areas, and in particular for Explosive Conflict. The main change is that we’ve lowered the overall population for those zones. We’ve been really happy with the reports of lowered lag that folks have been posting, so it looks like that side of the change has been a great success.

However, we have run into one unexpected effect. Normally when you zone to a new area, we try to put you in the same instance as your guild mates and friends. Unfortunately, it’s doing the same thing when you zone into raid instances, which means that with the lowered population numbers, you can be the last one who fits in the instance, and there won’t be room for the rest of your Operations group. This is why a few people have been getting the dreaded “Server Admin” error and end up unable to zone into Denova.

When this happens to you in a group that has just started, the best thing to do is to have everyone exit the area, then reset the group’s active phases. Then you can have someone who is either unguilded or who knows their guild members aren’t in a raid instance zone in first so that they get a emptier instance.

If this happens to your group when you have made progress and would have to kill your way back in, you can wait a few minutes and hope that the population drops, or you can reset your phase immediately and you should be able to enter a new instance immediately.

We did make a configuration change yesterday afternoon to help with the problem and we’re monitoring the servers very closely to evaluate whether that lowers the error rate enough. We’re also working as quickly as possible to get a regular fix ready to deploy.

During Gamescom on Tuesday, EA revealed that next month, we’ll be seeing a new Operation called Terror from Beyond, which takes place on Belsavis. We also discovered that Ancient Hypergates, the new Warzone in development, will be released sometime at a later date, but before fall’s F2P launch.

Since that announcement, many players have wondered how these new content releases will affect the current gear ladder. Will we see another tier of Operation gear? What about an additional PvP tier? David Hunt, SWTOR’s Systems Designer, addressed these gear-related concerns thanks to Allison Berryman, who has been diligently seeking answers to many questions the community has had since BioWare’s recent community refocus.

Originally posted by AllisonBerryman (Source)

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I talked to David Hunt (Systems Designer), and he shed some light upcoming gear. He said that (for PvE), Terror from Beyond’s Hard Mode will include a new set of gear that is a sub-tier of the larger tier that started with Campaign gear. It will also have non-slot restricted armornings. Nightmare Explosive Conflict will speed up the acquisition of the new set and provides new challenges for Operation groups.

For PvP, new mainhand and offhand items will become available from the PvP vendors when Terror from Beyond is released. These will be included so PvP players don’t feel the need to get the hilts and barrels from PvE items to get the highest weapon damage in some cases. The rest of the set will release when Ancient Hypergates becomes available. We also have plans to release a new Recruit MK-2 set.

This is good info, and it’s also nice to see some hints about Nightmare Explosive Conflict in there, too.

Also, this is a good start to BioWare’s goal of interacting more often with the community. These are exactly the types of responses players are looking for on the forums.

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.

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s presentation just concluded at EA’s E3 show and Dr. Ray Muzyka had some pretty exciting things to say. With a video everyone will likely be able to see soon, the good Doctor gave us a ton of new things coming down the pipe for all SWTOR fans.

• Ranked Warzones and PVP
• Level Cap Increase
• New Planet: Makeb which deals with the Hutts
• New playable species: Cathar
• New Companion for everyone: HK Series Assassin Droid
• New Nightmare Hardmodes
• New Operation
• Server Transfers
• New Space Missions – Think Lando attacking the Deathstar in Jedi
• Free to play up through level 15

Stay tuned for more details as we find them out.

Video after the break.

Day one of the Guild Summit was all about Game Update 1.2 and the future of the Old Republic. The majority of the event was live streamed over the internet so those who did not have a chance to attend in person got to see and hear all of the great information coming out of the Summit.

Game Update 1.2 is the first major content patch for SWTOR and it’s bringing some amazing features. In fact four hours of day two are reserved for play testing 1.2. Additionally day two will feature a panel from the marketing group, and a panel on quality of life features for the game.

Overall those in attendance were pleased and excited about what was presented. Is everything getting fixed in added in Game Update 1.2? No. Game Update 1.2 is definitely a game changer, and there are more features in the pipline for 1.3 and 1.4. This game is continuing to grow and grow.

So you’re ready for operations in SW:TOR?  Eternity Vault is generally the first operation the average player experiences in the game.  It’s got some fun encounters with a few unique characteristics and mechanics to learn. The 8 man version on normal difficulty is tuned for pretty fresh 50′s.  Gear is not really a huge factor to defeat this version.  It’s more to learn the mechanics of the encounters and to get players geared for later, more difficult, operations.  All the bosses have enrage timers, so efficiency is very important.