BioWare conducted an unscheduled maintenance window this morning on the Star Wars: The Old Republic servers. The patch notes mention one important fix for characters who were having issues equipping purple crafted gear.
Today's scheduled maintenance period included a new patch that introduced some welcome changes and bug-fixes. It also added another new item to the Cartel Market, the Covert Pilot Suit. As mentioned in last week's Livestream Q&A, it looks like we can expect to see new items added on a weekly basis. Among the changes are fixes for Cartel Market item tooltips, adjustments to several buff/debuff icons, tweaks to the difficulty of Nightmare Mode Explosive Content, and some welcome changes to the preview window.
Unfortunately, it looks like some servers have crashed and currently remain offline. BioWare has confirmed that they are investigating. There is no ETA for those servers to return. The servers effected by this downtime are: The Ebon Hawk, The Harbinger, and The Bastion.
UPDATE: All servers are now available again.
The full patch notes can be found after the jump.
With Game Update 1.5 live, BioWare held another of their Livestream Q&A sessions earlier today starting at 3pm CST.
For those unable to watch the stream live, full notes can be found after the jump. Video of the stream is available above.
Update: Livestream over, notes from the Q&A are available after the jump. Video embed is available above.
Yesterday's 1.5.1 patch saw the return of the bug where equipment stats do not apply properly to companions when summoned. During maintenance today a patch was applied to fix the issue. The layout to the Cartel Market appears to be placing the newly added Experimental Flight Suit to the front page of the market.
Servers are back up after today's scheduled maintenance period. Today's patch includes some fixes to the CS system and level 10 restrictions, puts a few items on sale on the Cartel Market, and adds a new armor set to the Cartel Market.
Full patch notes and sceenshots of the new armor can be found after the jump.
UPDATE: Apparently today's patch has reintroduced the bug where companions are not getting stat benefits from their equipped gear any time they spawn. (ie, when logging into the game, after dismounting, or when switching companions.) Unequipping their gear and re-equipping it appears to be a workaround for now, as the stats do then get applied. BioWare has commented that they're looking into the issue:
There is currently an issue with companion stats not working properly with their equipped gear. This occurs whenever a companion is summoned after being dismissed. As a workaround to this, please unequip all gear on your companion, and then re-equip all of their gear again in order to get their proper stats back. You will need to do this whenever you summon your companion.
Please know that this is a priority issue for us and that we are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
With Game Update 1.5 and the F2P conversion upon us, many people have spent the last few weeks dissecting and analyzing all of BioWare’s decisions regarding how they have structured the conversion and the new Cartel Shop. Some have been received positively, others with disdain and dislike. However, there is one aspect that immediately gets my blood boiling -- Cartel Packs. Read on after the jump as I lay out just why I think these lottery boxes are possibly the worst thing to happen to The Old Republic, and MMOs in general.
Now that Game Update 1.5 is on the live servers, we've taken some time to aggregate all of our coverage into an easy-access compendium for your referencing pleasure. Below the jump you'll find a convenient table of contents linking to all of the related content and more we've produced here at Darth Hater. This guide will be continually updated as new content is added to the site, so take a second to bookmark it and tell your friends. You can also look for the handy link in the "Feature" box to the top right of your web browser for easy navigation in the future from our homepage. Keep reading to check it out!
Update: All servers are back online!
With the Star Wars: The Old Republic launch of Free to Play and Game Update 1.5 today, also comes the launch of the new SWTOR online store. Located at buy.swtor.com, players can now purchase Cartel Coin packages of various size and cost:
For the full list head over to buy.swtor.com. For additional information on items available for purchase with Cartel Coins, check out our piece listing all available items and their costs as well as our article examining the real money costs of these items.
Update: Additional details regarding the bonuses players receive for subscribing, using security keys, and more are available now as well.
With the Star Wars: The Old Republic Free to Play model launching tomorrow, players have several decisions to make. Former subscribers are considering coming back to the game. Current subscribers are debating whether or not to cancel their subscription and continue playing as Preferred status. New players of all backgrounds and various levels of MMO experience will be coming to the game for the first time. Recently we took a look at how many Cartel Coins it would cost Preferred and F2P players to unlock the same features available to a subscriber. At that time, we did not know how much Cartel Coins will cost in real money. BioWare gave us some price points during last week’s Press Q&A session. Today we do some math and present some real money numbers with the various Cartel Market unlocks.
Game Update 1.5 will be live in a matter of hours. In anticipation of the launch, a new developer blog has been posted by BioWare. In this edition, Lead Designer Jesse Sky and Missions Designer Matthew Pucevich take a look at some of the new content included with the 1.5 update. The article gives some insight into the new Section X daily area as well as the missions involved in obtaining the new HK-51 companion.
ection X introduces a new set of daily repeatable missions for both Imperial and Republic players, including two new Heroics. These missions offer more rewards than any previous daily area; more Daily Commendations than before, more Credits overall, and an additional source for Black Hole Commendations.
Head over to the official SWTOR site for the full post.
As announced during last week's press call, Game Update 1.5 will launch on November 15. Up until now, we did not know the specific schedule. Thankfully, BioWare announced the maintenance window for the patch deployment. This one is going to be a long one.
Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for twelve hours on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 from 12AM CST (10PM PST/1AM EST/6AM GMT/7AM CET/5PM AEDT) until 12PM CST (10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT/7PM CST/5AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than twelve hours, but could be extended.
Explore Section X, a brand new area on the prison world of Belsavis, where you will not only embark on a galaxy-wide mission to recruit the legendary HK-51 Assassin Droid as your companion, but also confront agents of the Dread Masters in their attempt to activate a powerful ancient Rakata weapon.
In Game Update 1.5, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™:
- Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. Subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the gameplay experience.
- Free-to-Play – The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with some restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.
After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.5.
Scheduled Maintenance
Date: Thursday, November 15th, 2012
Time: 12AM CST (10PM PST/1AM EST/6AM GMT/7AM CET/5PM AEDT) until 12PM CST (10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT/7PM CST/5AM AEDT)
For the thread in full, hit the official forum.
When the Free to Play model for Star Wars: The Old Republic was first announced, a November timeframe was given. Now we have the exact date. On a conference call with members of the media yesterday, BioWare confirmed that Free to Play and Game Update 1.5 will go live on Thursday, November 15th. Luckily enough for us, we were selected as part of the group of sites to take part in the call and were able to ask questions of our own of the developers.
Several other details came out of the call, including the pricing for Cartel Coins. Packages for Cartel Coins will start at $4.99 for 450 Cartel Coins and go up to $39.99 for 5500 Cartel Coins. Several additional packages will be available in between with the value players get for their dollar increasing as the size of the package increases. Also noted was that subscribers who pay for several months at a time will receive more than 500 Cartel Coins as their monthly reward though BioWare gave no example on the amount that players would receive in exchange for the extra months.
Additional notes from the call can be found after the jump.
Update: Free to Play Preview Part 2 added to the bottom of the post. Podcast where we discuss the incoming features is available now as well.
With the release of Game Update 1.5 and the new Free To Play model right around the corner, a new developer dispatch video was released by BioWare today. In the video BioWare Senior Development Director Bruce Maclean and Associate Designer Matt Pucevich talk about the new Section X daily mission area, the new world boss, and Explosive Conflict Nightmare Mode and the rewards found within.
Check out the latest Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Developer Dispatch to get a first look at the story behind Game Update 1.5: HK-51 Activated.
Watch as they discuss the dangerous missions that await you in the new Section X area on Belsavis. Discover how you can embark on a galaxy-spanning hunt for clues on how to unlock one of the most deadly Assassin Droids, the HK-51 Companion! Take a sneak peak at the final pieces of the Dread Guard gear set and see a rare new mount that your team can earn by taking on Operation: Explosive Conflict in Nightmare Mode!
Watch now
The video is available after the jump.
BioWare took down the Public Test Server earlier today to deploy a new patch to Game Update 1.5. The patch includes changes to the Cartel Market, items, HK-51, and a few bug fixes. The notes in full are contained after the jump.
Today's Star Wars: The Old Republic patch to Game Update 1.5 on the Public Test Server is live! With it came several changes to Cartel Coin costs, Cartel Market items, Crew Skills, PvP, and more. The full list of changes is after the jump.
Update:
The Public Test Server is now available for testing with Preferred Status and more Cartel Coins!
BioWare deployed a new patch to Game Update 1.5 to the Public Test Server which includes an acknowledgement of a list of known issues. While we still don't have notes of the recent update, we'll update you when we do. For now, hit the jump for the new update to the Known Issues list.
BioWare Technical Artist Ben Cloward, posted a Developer Update intending to inform the community at large about technical changes coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic in Game Update 1.5.
As a tech artist, I create tools to help the artists get their work into the game, and I work with the programmers to make the game run more efficiently. One of my favorite things to do is write shaders. Shaders are small programs that run on the graphics chip that describe the appearance of surfaces. For example, shaders define if an object looks shiny or dull, reflective or matte, and they also help us define the visual style of the game in terms of how lighting works.
While it may not be the most exciting Developer Update, it's good to see the team continuing to optimize and update the engine.
Game Update 1.5 for Star Wars: The Old Republic is on the PTS this week and with it came the inclusion of HK-51. Fans of the Knights of the Old Republic series are sure to want HK-51 due to the resemblance and lore of HK-47. To assist in players acquiring this new companion, we created a guide. To see the guide in full, hit the jump.
Note: This guide contains potential spoilers. If you do not wish to have the quests spoiled, do not hit the jump.
Update: A portion of this quest is currently bugged but there is a workaround for it.
Just wanted to confirm that there is indeed an issue here - When someone uses the Foundry / Maelstrom Prison component (depending on faction), you will likely see the "Recover HK Components" task's counter tick up by 2-4, instead of just 1. Even with the bug, though, each player in the group should still be getting proper credit for finding the Loyalty Chip when someone clicks on it.
In practical terms, this actually winds up being more of a display issue than anything else. You should be able to continue to gather the other components, and your quest will advance when you have them all. Alternatively, if you save the HK Loyalty Chip component for last (as others have suggested here), you can circumvent the issue entirely.
This issue will be addressed, and I apologize for any inconvenience experienced in the meanwhile.
Game Update 1.5 for Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to expand on the Dread Masters story line. Included in the update is a new hub for daily missions. Located on the planet Belsavis, the area known as Section X is seeing unusual activity as it has drawn the attention of the Dread Masters. The missions located there will help understand what is going on in this area as you attempt to thwart their nefarious plans.
After the jump is a detailed guide for the Imperial versions of the new Section X quests.
Game Update 1.5 is up on the Public Test Server and with it came a new set of armoring for the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor. All pieces are available at the Campaign vendor on the fleets. For those that have been clamoring for Campaign armoring outside of the armor, this one’s for you! Hit the link below for the full-size version.
