Sometimes a spa day, even on Kashyyyk is necessary for every good Wookie to feel less angry about getting Customized….

What, pray tell, do I mean?  Well have a look at our show notes (and listen to the podcast!) and the TORWars team will tell you all about it!

~~~

Meta News:

● This week our fearless leader, Jeff, had a birthday, so a big happy birthday to him (which means Deirdre served as this week’s guest moderator)!

News:

● The building of a better Reddit community?  Goldegl – SWTOR Reddit Moderator — started a Community Q&A post to bring all of the common questions about SWTOR into one place on Reddit, and to try and turn Reddit into a much friendlier, open place. So, if you have any questions, please hit this post or look for future posts by the /r/swtor moderators.

● New Gree event slated for May 21-28, 2013 – Just a reminder the event is level 45+ this time around and the next time the event comes to the servers, we are told it will be level 55.

● Game Update 2.1 now live and has been met with both accolades and controversy.

● Initial impressions were extremely positive in regards to all the customization and convenience features in the game.
● Later in the week, complaints about content (particularly free content for Subscribers) began to surface. We talk more about this in our discussion topic later in the show.

● Community Cantina – Festivities were in full force in Dallas for the Community Cantina where we got some inside information as to what our future may hold.

● According to Damion Schubert, the next big patch after this upcoming patch will be huge for you PvPr’s out there. More details will surface and we can promise you that as we get the info, so will you.
● There was a question about flying mounts and what we have heard direct from Damion’s mouth is an absolute NO.
● Thank you to our guildmate and friend, Ox, for attending and bringing us the inside skinny on what the future holds for us in the world of SWTOR.

● Upcoming Star Wars Film – Much excitement orbits around this addition to the long line of Star Wars lore and JJ Abrams, the films chosen director drops a few hints (and hears from fans) this last week.

Discussion Topic:

This week’s hottest thread on the official forums became a news story itself, and the the thread became very, very hot indeed.  The questions that were asked was certainly pointed ones.

● Are BioWare’s F2P promises just a “bait and swtich”? Have the Subscribers been “lied to all along”?  Or is this just trolls trolling?

● Conversely, has BioWare substantively lived up to their commitments to both the F2P and Subscriber communities?

● Is this level of vitriol really necessary?  Is the naming of names (as well as the name calling) of BioWare personnel at all warranted?

● We also make mention of Musco’s bravery, Butler’s honesty, and the perilous perils of community management (which is pretty perilous).

Mind you, this is a lively discussion amongst our hosts, and we jump right into the deep end on this topic.  Of course, we also welcome your input in the comments section below.

Shout Outs:

●Enjin.com
●TORWars Guild
●Corellian Run Radio
●TORWars Columns and Columnists:

● Alice Wilkes with Guild Spotlight – This week Alice shines her spotlight on The Incredible’s. If you would like your guild featured on TORWars, please contact Alice at alice [at] torwars [dot] com and she will get back to you with a questionaire.
● Major Snarl with Command Decisions – A weekly column dedicated to giving great tips and advice on the many intricacies of guild leadership
● Aaron Frede with SWTOR Flyby – A great weekly feature giving you all the latest questing tips and bonus series intel for each planet in Galactic space.
● SWTOR Loading Screen by Jean Prior – Jean hits on topics that center around the social and community aspects of Star Wars: The Old Republic and opens our minds to new and different thoughts about the society we share.

PayPal Donors:

● Francisco
● My own personal Dane, WowDane
● Thank you so much, we love you guys!!!

~~~

And that, dear friends, is all we have for this week.  Please, please please leave us a comment, below, and tell us what you think.  The show isn’t over until we’ve heard from you!

So enough playing coy: what have we got in our podcast this week? Let’s jump right on in and I’ll tell you!

~~~

News:

~ Cory Butler says that Character Transfers are “Hot on the Heels” of update 2.1

~ “Scheduled Maintenance” is set for the morning of May 14th

~ EA Earnings Call:  SWTOR Subscriptions are under half a million, FTP accounts at 1.7 million, and revenue is doubled

~ Physical security key is now available in parts of the EU

~ Game update 2.2 is set of June 11th

Discussion:

Your Quality of Life:  New and Improved with 2.1!

1.  Appearance Designer by AestheTech has been added to Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, and the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This kiosk will allow players to modify any feature of their physical appearance, except gender, including taking on a whole new Species. Players can also use the kiosk to access and unlock brand new character customization options. Subscribers get a substantial discount on all Appearance Designer changes.

New options at the kiosk include two new human hairstyles (for 180 and 240 Cartel Coins), a new Mirialan tattoo option (90 Cartel Coins), a new Chiss customization (240 Cartel Coins), and white eyes for Humans (100 Cartel Coins)

2.  Dye Modules are now available via Artifice Crafting, some vendors (including Collector’s Edition and Security Key vendors), and the Cartel Market.

3.  You can now play the game as a talking cat.  Congratulations!    Brand new shiny Cathar can now be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk for a mere 600 Cartel Coins.

Yeah, the Jedi kitty. You know you’ve been waiting for this.

4.  Name Changes for Characters, Legacies, and Guilds are now available from the Cartel Market for 1k, 1k, and 3k each, respectively.

5.  Escrow Credit Transfers are now available for FTP and Preferred Status Players. Package denominations are available for 50K, 150K, and 600K, for 40, 80, and 240 Cartel Coins each, respectively.

6.  Collections will track most non-dropped items:  those available from the Cartel Market, Packs, Cartel Reputation, pre-orders, Collectors Editions, and even live fan events.

There are also numerous minor bug fixes and other upgrades!

Shout Outs:

Enjin.com

The TORWars Guild

Corellian Run Radio

Our Donors

~~~

And that’s all, folks!  Of course, our podcast isn’t over until we’ve heard from you – so leave us a comment below, and tell us what you think of all the changes that 2.1 has brought to SWTOR.  We want to hear from you!

Here’s the rundown on this week’s show:

[WARNING: This show has some inappropriate statements for young ears. Not horrible, but for those that listen with their kids, maybe want to cover their ears. THANKS!]

~~~

Meta News: 

~ Saying au revoir to Brian Wagonner, who’s headed back to school!

~ The TORWars Guild – growing stronger every day!

News Stories:

~ May the Fourth Be With You!  In this segment, we cover some of the things that came out of this year’s Star Wars day, including not one, but two SWTOR-related contests with some impressive prizes.

~ Mark Hamill dishes on his involvement (and Carrie Fisher’s, and Harrison Ford’s) with Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and the upcoming Star Wars films.  Of course, we discuss all the details.

~ EA has signed an exclusive contract with Disney and LucasFilm to produce most upcoming Star Wars games.  Fan reaction to this news has been….well, mixed.

~ Armor Dyes:  we’re seeing some rather interesting preview pics of what armor dyes will be looking like, and it’s far more impressive than we’d ever hoped for.  Here are a few examples:

No matter what color you choose, that’s one sweet hat!

Hey there, space cowboy…

I think #3 is channeling Iron Man

From left to right we have a young Jedi’s transformation from plain Jane wallflower to deep-blue attention grabber!

The deadliest skinny person in all of known space…

In Depth: 

~ Our very own exclusive interview with BioWare’s Cory Butler, who gave us some very significant insight into BioWare’s plan for name changes, and for the upcoming escrow  transfers.

Shout Outs:

~ Enjin.com

~ Corellian Run Radio

~ Our Epic Donors

And that’s it for this week’s show, friends!  We hope you enjoyed it!  Of course, the show’s not really over until we hear your insights, thoughts, and concerns.  Leave us a comment, below, and tell us what YOU think.  We want to hear from you!

Intro

1).  Welcome back Brian! We missed you and are glad for your return!

2).  DD did an interview with Peruvian video game blog Central-VGB about the life of an EIC.

News

1).  New Cathar species announced!  The cost is 600 cartel coins to unlock them account-wide.  In video and various official pics, we’ve gotten to see several of their looks.

Cathar HOOOOOOO!

2).  Barber Shops coming in SWTOR Update 2.1!   New appearance kiosks will appear on the fleet, and players can alter literally everything about their character’s appearance.  This includes species (for $800), including Cathar.  No mention of sex changes, however.  Is this intentional?

3). Armor color is coming!  Items will now have color modules, one for a major and minor color.  This will enable players to mix and match their armor coloring to make it truly distinctive.

Discussion Topic #1: Cathar

Is this a harbinger of things to come?  How are fans reacting?  Do you (hosts) like them?  When will we see another new species?  What are your predictions for what the new species will be?

Discussion Topic #2: Listener Question

From Rune

Hutt Cartel and F2P and other features have me interested in coming back, but there have been so many changes I don’t know where to start. After the introduction of F2P there have even been alterations to those features. I have no idea what’s what anymore. How should I play? What are the XP bonuses and penalties currently? Should I sub or play the free model? Should I sub a month and buy Hutt Cartel, or just pay the 20$ instead?

Shout Outs: CorellianRun.com, Our supporters, TORWars guild

Thanks for listening! Give us your thoughts in the comments section below!

I’ve never seen a wampa looking quite so….cute.

Let’s get into the show notes, shall we?

News:

1. Update 2.0.1 should be either live, or about to go live, on the servers about the time you hear this podcast. The details are that it was just about to drop, when BioWare discovered a “rather nasty bug” according to Eric Musco, and decided to delay the patch.
2. There are also a slew of bug fixes, essentially fixing all the things that a patch the size of 2.0 broke, as well as addressing new abilities, areas, NPCs, etc.
3. With the 2.0.1 patch, there are also a whole slew of discounts to items on the cartel market, including access to specific exclusive areas, armor sets, items, and other whatnot. Truly, it’s too long of a list to cover, but there are simply a Huttload of price cuts.
4. New stuff on the Cartel Market:

• ~ A new Contraband Pack, the Vice Commandant’s Contraband Pack, is now available on the Cartel Market. Cost: 320 Cartel Coins
  ~ Players can now purchase Hypercrates containing 24 Vice Commandant’s Contraband Packs. (Discounted by 10% for a limited time!) Cost: 6,912 Cartel Coins
  ~ The Stalwart Protector’s Armor Set is now available! This adaptive gear can be worn by any Class at level 1. (Discounted by 20% for a limited time!) Cost: 1,152 Cartel Coins

Discussion:

Is the new Vice Commander’s Pack a good idea for BioWare? Does this pack address the problems with previous packs? What are your favorite items (or simply items that interest you) in the pack?

Listener Questions:

James:

“Still has a flame that burns for SWTOR, though he’s moved on to GW2. He often thinks of coming back to SWTOR, though he confesses a bitterness for EA/BioWare management. “My ultimate question for all of you is do you believe we may see the lifting of such omnipresent F2P restrictions in the future? Most restrictions I can understand when considering them INDIVIDUALLY, but trying to get back into this game is like walking through spiderwebs. I have no medical probes, I can’t get my PVP weekly done, I had to spend a lot of real world money just to play my toon again, I have no fleet pass, quick travel recharge is over an hour, and everything above 350k credits on the GTN is off limits to me. The fact that I can’t actually buy the full version of this game when I’ve already spent so much money and time invested in this game is really infuriating.”

Craig:

“Do you think SWTOR will lower the experience points required to level 1-50 now that the level cap is 55?  Similar to how WoW always did when an expansion came out where they would reduce the experience points required for the previous content.”

Shout Outs:

Enjin.com, Corellian Run Radio, Our Generous Donors and The TORWars Guild

[pic]

“It’s allllll good sweetheart.”

With that in mind, we give you a nicely edited, horrible sound quality podcast done by Jeff and  yours truly. In our meager effort to make sure you at least got to get a laugh or two in at our expense, we loaded the wee sithling into the car, hit the road (because that’s how we get her to sleep at this point) and created for your listening pleasure, this mobile cast!

Here’s what we chat about:

Intro

While Brian’s away the mice will play….or attempt to do a really lame podcast by themselves.

News

Rise of the Hutt Cartel is live, live, live and going well. Reviews are coming in and they’re mostly positive. Some people feel end games is artificially hard and we discuss.

Dr. Greg’s Interview with Games Industry International:

Back in the day: Dr. Greg excitedly talks about SWTOR

• ● No plans on returning to VG industry
• ● Happily making beer
• ● Doesn’t blame EA for his departure at all and in fact, compliments the power house publisher.
  • ● “…I really enjoyed my time at EA. It’s interesting, people make a lot of assumptions about us and our feelings and how they treat people, but honestly we were treated really well. I made a lot of friends there, and I respect the people there are ton.”

Commendations cap is being removed

The Dev Post Weekly Roundup

• ● Introducing Makeb
• ● New Level Cap
• ● Legacy Achievements
• ● Macrobinoculars and Seeker Droid
• ● New “Scum and Villainy” trailer

Discussion Topic

• ● The Subscription Model Article – “Why The Subscription MMO Has To Make It” – via MMOOpinion

Listener Question

JJ Writes In -

“RotHC is live and I’ve already hit 55. Is there more to the expansion, or am I missing something?”

Shout Outs

• ● Corellian Run Radio
• ● Enjin.com
• ● TORWars Guild – New Guild Recruitment tab in the navigation bar! Click it for more details!
• ● PayPal Donations – You keep us up and running so many thanks to you!!!

Thank you for lending us your ears now we only ask for your thoughts. Place them in the comments section below. Cheers!

“We want YOU for the evil empire because…well…we have cookies.”

News

● Level Cap to 55
● New Planet – Makeb
● Achievements
● Microbinocular/Seeker Droid Missions
● New FPs/Operations and new Gear
● Guilded players now get 5% more XP

Patch Notes That Stood Out
● The Kaas City Central Taxi is now connected to the Kaas City Entrance Speeder.
● Travel costs on the galaxy map are now based on the destination selected instead of the distance travelled. As a result, higher level areas now cost more to travel to than lower level areas.
● Alacrity has been redesigned to be a more universally useful stat. Now Alacrity reduces the activation time of all abilities, including instant abilities.
● Expertise will now grant a consistent percentage of bonus until the hard cap is reached.
● Companion Affection gained from mission conversations has been redesigned. Companions will still give more or less affection based on their personality preference, but the affection amounts are now scaled based on the level of the mission, and the dialogue options are scaled the same for all Companion Characters.
● Companion reaction tooltips have been added to companion gifts to illustrate how a companion will react when receiving the gift.
● All lvl 50 Heroic Mode FP’s drop black hole gear
● Raid Gear progression:  EV/KP/EC drop BH in SM, Hazmat in HM/NM
● Explosive Conflict is now available in the Group Finder
● Terror From Beyond is available in group finder at lvl 55 and all 3 modes retuned for lvl 55
● All set bonuses are now stored exclusively on Armoring mods instead of equipment shells.
● Bolster is now based on item rating rather than character level. Recruit-level gear is no longer available, as players will be automatically bolstered to this level of item power if they do not meet it naturally.
● Many more notes as you can imagine, head over to TORWars.com to read them all!

Community Cantina Comes To Dallas

Wyndham Las Colinas

Friday, May 17th, 2013

8-11PM CDT

110 West John Carpenter Freeway, Irving, TX 75039

● Part of the Disney restructure of Lucasarts since takeover
● Lucasarts hasnt put out a solo game since Lucidity in 2009, Majority of Lucasarts games are licensed products developed by other developers

● Thank You To All Our Loyal Listeners/Readers
● Corellian Run Radio
● Paypal Donations
● Enjin.com – Thanks for the Guild/Mumble hosting for the TORWars guild!
● TORWars.enjin.com – Shadowlands – Imperial Side

That about does it for this episode. If you have time and can break yourselves away from endless hours of SWTOR fun, please do so and say ‘hi’ in the comments section below.

“Now Leia, I want you to go play quietly in your room while I level up by blowing Alderaan to bits, m’kaaay.”

Listener Jeff S. contacted us with this email:

From: jeff s
Date: Thursday, March 28, 2013
Subject: Guilt from playing…and dont know why

Hey guys, first off I love the podcast.  I’ve been listening to you each week since I was in beta.  I’ve been having a problem and know you guys are the perfect people to help me out.

I love this game.  Absolutely love it.  The problem is that I’m a hardcore gamer and heart, but in reality, my life only allows me to be casual.  My gaming time is limited and playing this game makes me feel so guilty sometimes and I cant figure out why.

I am married, have 2 kids, and a full time job.  With that, I usually get about an hour a day to play, if I’m lucky, maybe and hours and a half.  I know I will never raid or see all the end game stuff, which is fine, but I would love to level all my alts to 50.  I currently have one 50 and my other alts are all at 10 with the exception of my 32 BH.

I’m trying to figure out why spending an hour playing this game feels like such a waste but playing an hour of a single player game doesnt.  I just cant get over the feeling that i’m wasting my time playing this.  Maybe its because of the long grind involved.  It took me over 120 hours to get my first 50 and I’m currently at 32 hours on my 32 BH.  I think the guilt is because it takes so damn long to do things in an MMO.  An hour of playtime in SWTOR will net me roughly .5-1% completion where an hour in a single player game can net me roughly 10% completion.  It took me 3.5 months to take my first toon to 50 at launch and that was really pushing and exceeding the boundaries of play time.

Seriously, it feels like I play this game 10 plus hours a day, but in reality i’m lucky to get 10 hours in a week.  I cant figure out why i have the guilt of playing.  Maybe its because it takes so long.  When I tell myself I will quit, I feel a huge weight off my shoulders….but then the next day I just want to play.  I know part of it is my hardcore mentality and my casual playing time.  Thats a conflict of epic proportions right there and is a huge reason why I feel like i’m wasting time since I will never have the epic gear or do raids.  Anyways just wanted to here your thoughts and ask how you handle playing an MMO when you dont have the time to do so.

Thanks for the great work and keep it up

Brian, Jeff and I pipe in with our thoughts on this all too common problem among many a player but we want to hear your thoughts and ask how you handle playing an MMO when you simply don’t have the time to do so. Leave those thoughts, suggestions and comments in the section below.

James Ohlen, the man behind SWTOR gets honest.

Hello TORWarrior’s! Here we are with another podcast covering everything from the upcoming update 2.0 to James Ohlen’s thoughts on the journey of Star Wars: The Old Republic, how far it’s come and where it’s going. Obviously James’ candid discussion surprised us and we simply have to talk about some of the surprising information he gave us about the game we all love.

We hope you enjoy this episode and be sure to give us some feedback in the comments section below. But first, the breakdown:

Intro

• - One week until ROTHC Early Access and 2.0!  Are you ready?

• - New ROTHC Beta Screenshot every day until the release!

News

Game Update 1.7.3a

• - Fixed a significant memory leak, which will result in lowered memory usage over time.

Game Update 2.1 – April Fools Content

• - PVP AREA: TOBORRO’S SHAKEDOWN

• - EARN AN EXCLUSIVE “HUTTESE TRANSPORTER” MOUNT!

James Ohlen Talk at GDC – Larry Everett @ Massively Coverage

• - Candid Talk About The First Year of SWTOR

• - Dispelled rumors – “[Voice acting] was a known entity, and cost was quite low in comparison to the cost of the rest of the project.”  The real cost was in designing an MMO with branching choices and creating a new engine for SWTOR

• - Development team was unprecedentedly large – over 300 people, caused communication issues across the project

• - Dispelled rumors that SWTOR development was overly long – compared 5 years development to Guild Wars 2 and TESO

• - Astonished how fast players chewed through content – “Within four and five weeks, we suddenly had close to a half a million people at the endgame. It was something we didn’t expect at all.”

• - The team expected players to get through the content in three or four months. This assessment might seem obviously wrong to an experienced MMO player, but we are talking about a game with extensive voiceover and literally thousands of cinematic cutscenes adding up to about 170 to 180 hours of content.

• - Players were tearing through the content an average of 40 hours a week; some players spent more than 120 hours a week in the game.

• - Called July and August a low point for the studio because many coworkers were laid off, subs were still going down, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk left BioWare, Guild Wars 2 was being “hailed as the be-all-end-all of MMOs,” and he expected that Mists of Pandaria “was going to kick [BioWare] in the crotch.”

• - F2P launch “blew all expectations out of the water” Subscriptions started going up again. Concurrent players went up. Both of those statistics continue to rise.

• - TOR is still the second biggest subscription MMO in the western world

• - Has had two million new accounts since the F2P launch, thousands of new players try out the game everyday

• - TOR is one of the largest microtransaction money-makers EA.

• - 4.5 million players have played TOR since launch

• - The future – “new expansion content doing things unseen in MMO’s before thanks to the Star Wars license”

• - BioWare is now the studio that will lead the charge for EA MMORPGs in the future, ones that aren’t just Star Wars but other IPs as well.

Shout Outs

• - Thank You To All Our Loyal Listeners/Readers

• - Corellian Run Radio

• - Paypal Donations

• - Enjin.com – Thanks for the Guild/Mumble hosting for the TORWars guild!

• - TORWars.enjin.com – Shadowlands – Imperial Side

This was Brian every night testing Rise of the Hutt Cartel…

Here are the show notes per usual for you to take a look at!

Intro

• Brian Audette Interview on Rise of the Hutt Cartel
• New ROTHC Info coming every day this week, stay tuned each day for the best coverage around!

News

Game Update 1.7.3 Drops Today

• Ready Check!  Maybe?

Rise of the Hutt Cartel Release Date Announced

• Tues, April 9th for Early Access
• Sunday, April 14th for all others

Rise of the Hutt Cartel Features and Beta NDA

• Story
• Macrobinoculars and Seeker Droids
• Group Content – Dailies/weeklies/Flashpoints/Ops
• Crew Skills
• Achievements
• New Talent Tree Stuff
• SGRA
• Space
• What is level 55 like?

Shout Outs

• Thank You To All Our Loyal Listeners/Readers
• Corellian Run Radio
• Paypal Donations
• Enjin.com – Thanks for the Guild/Mumble hosting for the TORWars guild!
• TORWars.enjin.com – Shadowlands – Imperial Side