With the implementation of Group Finder and the recent release of Free-to-Play, we've decided to make some Flashpoint guides. Over the next couple weeks, we will be adding new Flashpoint guides until we have them all. Hit the jump for our thoughts on how to approach the various bosses seen in this Flashpoint.
Red Reaper is a weird Flashpoint and players rarely run it. It is a high level Flashpoint, but is not a Hard Mode so even players with capped characters find themselves with no experience doing Red Reaper. Many at this level see that finish line of level 50 nearby and decide to just grind out quests rather than run a Flashpoint. It is because of this that many Group Finder groups are clueless about how to do the boss fights, of which many require prior knowledge to do without wiping. Luckily, in our attempt to backfill all of the old Flashpoints with new guides for returning and Free to Play players, we made one for players to follow along with. The following should get you through Red Reaper without a problem.
With the implementation of Group Finder and the recent release of Free-to-Play, we've decided to make some Flashpoint guides. Either that, or maybe I’m just sick of having to furiously type “KILL THE DROID” during boss fights. Over the next couple weeks, we will be adding new Flashpoint guides until we have them all. Hit the jump for our thoughts on how to approach the various bosses seen in this Flashpoint.
Despite its unprecedented focus on story and character development, Star Wars: The Old Republic is at its heart, still an MMORPG. That means, beyond all the storytelling, decisions and emotional moments there are stats to push higher, equipment to enforce, and weapons to make more deadly. Following in the mold of more traditional MMO titles, SWTOR puts the most straightforward path to this goal through large group encounters, but that is not the only way to achieve the goal of gearing up at endgame. Read on as we discuss the various methods of acquiring “the best” gear available to players who, for whatever reason, cannot participate in Operations.
Here at Darth Hater we’ve gone over Revan’s past in the Knights of the Old Republic series. Now it’s time to go over what Revan has been up to since he left for parts unknown, apparently never to return. Hit the jump to join us on the journey.
Warning! Spoilers ahead!
We're now more than six months past the launch of BioWare's highly anticipated MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we feel like it’s time to look back at the game and reflect. You’ll get our opinions on just about everything, including what we think BioWare did right with the game, what hasn't worked at all, and what they can potentially modify to improve the game we’ve all grown to love.
This is the second part in a four-part series. As always, feel free to comment and leave your thoughts in the section below.
Now that BioWare has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free to play, we can expect an influx of new players to the game. For some, it will be their first time playing. For others, this will be their first time playing an MMO. As it is a vast and complex title, playing can be daunting for any first timer. Therefore, instead of spending hours trying to explain the game’s various systems and intricacies and getting frustrated to the point of head butting your best friend, we have put together a primer for beginners detailing just that. If this is your first time traveling to a galaxy far, far away, hit the jump.
As we move closer to the release of the 1.2 game update and the introduction of the Lost Island Flashpoint, players may want to make sure they're fully prepared to experience everything 1.2 has to offer. In 1.1 BioWare introduced the Rise of the Rakghouls patch, which chronicled the story of a mad scientist's experiments and the dangers they posed to the Republic and Empire. Kaon Under Siege is the first part of a multi-instance storyline, similar to the Boarding Party/Foundry Flashpoint chain found earlier in the game. Hit the jump for a rundown of what you can expect from this Flashpoint.
During the second day of the Guild Summit, we were lucky enough to get hands-on time with the new Flashpoint – Lost Island. In the Flashpoint, players will have to make their way through Doctor Lorrick’s base on Ord Mantell and defeat his creations along the way for the opportunity to defeat him. Lost Island will be available to the fans when patch 1.2 hits the Public Test Server. However, if you do not have time to check it out on the PTS ahead of its deployment on the live servers, we have information about the Flashpoint packed to the brim after the jump.
In an exclusive interview at Massively, Larry Everett sat down with Lead Game Designer Gabe Amatangelo to discuss the new level 50 flashpoint for the upcoming 1.1 patch release – Rise of the Rakghouls. Included as part of the interview are screenshots and a video trailer of the flashpoint along with details regarding its denizens. As a side converstion, Gabe also went into detail on Ilum, BioWare's plans for Open World PVP for future releases and the release date for patch 1.1 as January 17th.
"The objectives on Ilum were supposed to be on timers, and the timers were supposed to be locked down," says Amatangelo. "But in the 11th hour, the timers weren't working. So we knew what kind of behavior was going to evolve there. It's not like we were going to delay launch to fix that. But with 1.1, we are going to be handling a lot of those issue with a bunch of improvements there, like focusing on killing players. The objectives give you buffs, but ultimately you have to kill the players to get the rewards. We've included new spawn points as well as some optimization with the turrets.
"We do have longer-term plans for open-world PvP. It is open-world PvP; it's not an RvR system. I kept trying to throw that out there. I'm not saying that it's not something we don't want to do."
Due to the spoiler territory nature of the information, we hid the pull quote and trailer after the jump. For the interview and screenshots in full, visit Massively.
Update: In an interview with GameSpot, Creative Director James Ohlen revealed some interesting options about what the Legacy system will enable in the future, including the ability to add relationships between alternate characters on the same server, such as brother and sister, or father and son.
So the legacy system, it's kind of inspired by the fact that the family dynamic is so important in the Star Wars movies. You have Luke being Anakin's son, the most famous father-son relationship in movies. We wanted to have a system that encouraged players to create alts and to play the game through the different story paths. So the legacy system is meant to do that. It essentially allows you to, instead of just having a bunch of alts that have no relation to each other, you can actually create a family tree where your alts can be related to your main character, either as, you know, a sibling, a son, a father, a family friend, or a husband and wife.
You can actually choose the relationship your characters will have with each other. And then you gain legacy experience points and legacy levels, and with legacy experience points and levels, that gives you--that allows you to unlock abilities, perks, a whole slew of different advantages, essentially, that all the members of your legacy tree will be able to enjoy.
So it's pretty tight, I think people are going to really like it, and it's something we want to push towards players who enjoy the level-up game. It'll also be beneficial to the end game, but it really is going to have a lot of abilities that make leveling up even more enjoyable and allow you to customize your leveling experience.
With Star Wars: The Old Republic past its initial launch day, James Ohlen took the opportunity to tease upcomming post-launch content in the form of a new Flashpoint and an expansion to an existing Operation (Kragga's Palace). Ohlen relayed his comments through the new community news feature that has seen a spree of posts today stating the following:
Next month we're going to be releasing a new Flashpoint and an expanded Operation. The new Flashpoint involves a plague that could have significant repercussions across the galaxy. It takes place on a brand new world and involves some pretty epic battles. I can’t go into much detail, but be prepared for something different. The expanded Operation takes the existing Karagga’s palace scenario and more than triples it in size. It includes three new boss monsters and some pretty epic set pieces.
Ohlen also included a little teaser image of one of the bosses which can be viewed after the jump. For the community news feature in full, visit the official SWTOR site.
Mandalorian Raiders is a level 25 Flashpoint for both the Empire and Republic. While it's not the first Flashpoint for both factions, it does present a significant challenge not found in any earlier Flashpoints. Many of the enemies you'll face in the Mandalorian Raiders Flashpoint will use knockback mechanics and be immune to most forms of crowd-control. After the jump you will find a video guide explaining each of the bosses you'll face in the Flashpoint, as well as a working list of items dropped by each.
Tuesday will mark day one of Early Access for many players in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In preparation for heading out into this expansive new world, Darth Hater compiled a list of all of TOR's available Flashpoints. Whether you're a regular visitor that knows this stuff already or a newcomer looking for resources as you begin your early access, this guide will get you acquainted with the game's Flashpoints in time for launch. In the future, this post will serve as a gathering point for guides, videos, boss kills, loot and more. Make sure to bookmark this page as more information will become available over time.
Warning: Possible spoilers ahead on minor story points involving the Flashpoints.
UPDATE: We recently added images showcasing the Republic faction's Operations gear. You will find these images on their respective class pages.
Three tiers of Level 50 PVE gear appeared in the 11/26 patch: Tionese, Columi, and Rakata. Darth Hater spent some time poking around in-game and analyzing client data to attempt to determine how one could acquire some of the highest item level gear sets. All items included two- and four-piece set bonuses that curiously displayed only when the item is equipped; these set bonuses were mainly buffs to existing abilities and not unique to a particular tier.
So far, set names remain consistent to combat role through item progression, and carry a unified look throughout so you don’t look mismatched or out of place. Armor set names were the same for both factions, and we do provide some low-res preview images of both the Imperial and Republic versions of the sets on each class pairing page. It is confirmed that the Republic versions of the armor sets look different, and keep in mind Imperial Agents use knives while Smugglers use shotguns.
We would like share what we found, and encourage comments if you believe anything is inaccurate or have any additions, as we’re happy to credit you for any legitimate finds.
This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is a huge one highlighting the new Hammer Station Flashpoint and Art and Making of The Old Republic. Be sure to read our Fan Site Summit Impressions of Hammer Station for more information regarding the Flashpoint.
James Ohlen also revealed details regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Legacy System. Upon completing the first chapter of their class story, players will be allowed to choose a surname that will carry over to all of their other characters across all servers. Beyond that, they will also begin to accumulate experience toward their legacy level, with all active characters contributing. However, details regarding what players receive upon reaching subsequent legacy levels has yet to be revealed.
BioWare dropped something of a bombshell on the TOR community: the Non-Disclosure portion of the Tester Agreement is no longer in effect. In short, those who have participated in testing can finally say to all those inquiring minds more than just “I’m in testing”. Dr. Greg Zeschuk took to the boards a short time ago to give us the news.
Folks,
As of now, the non disclosure portion of our Game Testing Agreement is officially lifted. While all players must still accept the Game Testing Agreement, from this point on testers may now freely talk about their experiences this past weekend in the game, as well as post screenshots and gameplay videos of their testing experiences. We encourage you to come join us on the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Forums to share your experiences!
The Star Wars: The Old Republic community site will have a copy of this message on the forums and it will also appear in the Patcher. Players may not talk about nor reprint posts from our testing forums as they are still fully covered by the confidentiality portions of our Game Testing Agreement. And all players who want to participate in the upcoming Beta Test Weekends still have to accept all terms of the Game Testing Agreement. So, other than that, free feel to talk about and share your experiences in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
My thanks go out to everyone who has beta tested and continues to beta test the game. It has been with your help and feedback that Star Wars: The Old Republic is where it is today. We really appreciate your efforts.
May the Force be with you!
Greg Zeschuk
VP, Electronic Arts, BioWare Austin, General Manager
Full Dev Tracker posts and video embed after the jump.
At last week’s Fan Site Summit, we were lucky enough to get our hands on some Flashpoints in Star Wars: The Old Republic. One of the Flashpoints we played through was new, entitled Directive 7. In this level 47 Flashpoint, players of both factions fight to destroy a group of renegade droids that threaten to exterminate all forms of biological life in the galaxy. For the story behind this Flashpoint, boss strategies and our impressions of the Flashpoint overall, follow the jump.
Caution: This article contains spoilers. If that offends you, do not continue.
At last week’s Fan Site Summit, we were lucky enough to get our hands on some of the game’s flashpoints. One of the new Flashpoints we spent time with is Hammer Station, associated with the quest named “Bring down the Hammer.” In this level 16-18 Flashpoint, players of both factions find themselves inside a fully operational battle station that could be a key to winning the coming war. For the story behind this Flashpoint, boss strategies and our impressions overall, follow the jump.
Caution: This article contains spoilers. If that offends you, do not continue.
