New SWTOR Companion System (the Alliance System)

10.20.2015
Introducing the Alliance System
Be it the cheeky Astromech Droid, the stalwart Wookiee partner-in-crime, the ambitious upstart apprentice that is yours alone to mold, or any of the other 40-odd characters found in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ to-date; we all know and love our Companions (especially the chronically under-appreciated ship droids!). Companion characters have always been a big part of our personal stories, and with the upcoming release of the new Digital Expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, comes an even deeper focus on characters and storytelling. For this reason it only makes sense that we would seek to include our beloved friends (especially the ship droids!!) in that experience.

Knights of the Fallen Empire has given us an excellent opportunity to take stock of the role of Companions within Star Wars: The Old Republic (from both a gameplay and storytelling standpoint), and to enhance their behavior and mechanics, which have remained largely unchanged since the original launch of the game. I'd therefore like to take some time to share with you some details about the changes and new features related to Companions that will be coming with the launch of Game Update 4.0, as well as some of our thoughts behind these changes.

The Goal of Our Companion System Improvements
Before we dive into the details, allow me to go just a bit into the "why", to provide some context for the reasoning that was guiding many of the choices we made.

Removing Companion Usage Barriers

Here's a familiar scenario: Over the course of your adventures, you meet a new Companion character. They seem like an interesting, fun, or cool character, and you might like to run around the galaxy with them for a bit... but it turns out that their abilities just aren't a good match for your combat style... so you never use them. Ever.

One of our biggest design goals is to try and eliminate as much as possible the artificial barriers that prevent you from playing with the Companions you want, when you want, and how you want.<br />
<!--more-->Rewards for Spending Time with Your Companions, Rather than Flattering Them

Another familiar scenario: You're presented with a story choice in a conversation. You know in your mind how your character wants to answer... but the Companion you've got with you will hate that answer, and you don't want to lose Affection with them, so you instead pick the answer that the Companion wants to hear.

As much as possible, we want you to be able to participate in the story and make the decisions that you feel are true to your character.

Expandability and Versatility

Simply put, we need to make sure the Companion system has both the versatility, and expandability necessary to keep up with your desires to have bolder, more meaningful choice options, as well as to fully utilize the incredible storytelling potential of Knights of the Fallen Empire’s episodic narrative.

Companion System Changes:

With the release of Game Update 4.0, all Companion characters will now be able to switch between all three primary combat roles. When summoned, a Companion's portrait will display an icon signifying their current combat role. The combat role can be changed at any time (provided you are not currently in combat) by right clicking on their portrait, and selecting a new role.

When a Companion's combat role is changed, their ability bar will fully swap out for their updated role's abilities.

This change is huge in terms of addressing our first goal of removing Companion usage barriers. Are you a Jedi Consular who dreams of nothing but galactic adventures with Qyzen Fess, only to be foiled by the fact that you want a healer Companion? Your longing has come to an end!

Beyond lowering barriers, though, this change is also extremely important for the storytelling purposes of our third goal. Now that any Companion can fill any role, we will no longer have situations where we can't allow "serious consequences" to befall certain Companions, just because it might leave a player with no other Companion that can fill a given role.

Companion Gear Now Purely Aesthetic, Companion Combat Stats Scale With Level

This was one of the tougher decisions we had to make, and while we anticipate it being one of the more controversial, we're still confident that this is the right call to make based on comments from players.

The simple reality is that, more often than not, the need to gear Companions has wound up being more of a cumbersome hindrance -- not to mention a significant barrier to Companion use -- than a source of meaningful or satisfying Companionship and progression. The recent 12xp experience promotion and the Epic Story Boost have only brought this issue into sharper relief.

Therefore, with the release of Game Update 4.0 in October, Companions will no longer gain combat stats from their gear; Companion gear will become purely aesthetic. This change also means that players can now freely use non-modable gear pieces to dress Companions, without having to worry about subpar stats! This separates style and function giving you the maximum in options for how you dress your Companions.

As far as Companion combat performance goes, all Companions will now have baseline combat stats that automatically scale with your character level. This means that no matter which Companion you summon, no matter how long it has been since you last summoned them, they will always be able to at least perform at an adequate baseline level.

Note: Even though Companions don't gain stats from gear, there are still ways to develop their power: This is now accomplished by building Influence, which we will get to shortly.

We're going to be removing gear slots from Companions that do not impact that Companion's appearance, as those slots no longer serve any function. (Any gear equipped in slots that have been removed will be mailed back to players via in-game mail). Here are two examples of what this looks like in the Companion character sheet:
First, on the left, we have the lovable ship droid Companion 2V-R8. As a droid, none of 2V-R8's gear aside from his weapon ever changed his appearance, thus he only retains his weapon slot and his Customization slot (which all Companions will retain).

Announcing Knights of the Fallen Empire

Knights of the Fallen Empire marks a renewed focus on BioWare-style cinematic storytelling in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Your character will become the Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War who comes face-to-face with a new threat to the galaxy: the Emperor of the Eternal Throne.

 This expansion also raises the Level cap to 65, and includes the option to create a Level 60 character! This allows you to start fresh in Knights of the Fallen Empire and jump right into the new story content. We are also delivering this story content in a way never before done in Star Wars: The Old Republic: Chapters. The first nine Chapters will be available at launch on October 27th, with new Chapters delivered regularly following that. With the launch of Knights of the Fallen Empire, all of the original eight Class stories will be enhanced, allowing for a faster and more engaging playthrough for new and veteran players. Additionally, many of our existing Flashpoints and Operations are being scaled to 60+, giving you many more Elder Game options at Level 65. All Subscribers will received the digital expansion for free. We are also excited to announce the Knights of the Fallen Empire Rewards Program. Between today and October 19th, Subscribers can earn collectible rewards for each month that they maintain their Subscriber status. This reward program is in addition to the fact that ALL subscribers receive Knights of the Fallen Empire for free! To learn more about the Rewards Program and the digital expansion, please visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/fallen-empire. We look forward to bringing you this exciting new chapter for Star Wars: The Old Republic!

A man can have anything... If he's willing to sacrifice everything.

Step into an epic story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinematic storytelling, that kicks off a new player-driven story arc that puts you at the center of a conflict where your choices have impact on outcomes including unexpected twists and betrayals. Choose your path…join or betray companions, old and new…and shape the future of the entire galaxy as well as your own. Best of all, this is only the beginning… THE ADVENTURE BEGINS ON OCTOBER 27TH, FREE FOR ALL SUBSCRIBERS!PREPARE TO FACE YOUR DESTINY. Continuous Storyline. Choices that matter. BioWare Storytelling. And MORE.

CHOICES THAT MATTER

Be at the center of a personal Star Wars™ story where choices matter and impact outcomes.

START AT LEVEL 60

You will become The Outlander, a Level 60 veteran of the Great Galactic War.

BUILD AN ALLIANCE

Build a team of hand-picked allies to join your alliance; meet new companions and reunite with existing companions ready to offer you their loyalty.

YOUR PERSONAL SAGA

Play one of eight class stories enhanced to offer a deeper, more accessible experience purely focused on immersing you in a personal Star Wars story.

CONTINUOUS STORY

This is only the beginning of an evolving Star Wars story, new chapters released on a regular basis.

SUBSCRIBER REWARDS PROGRAM.

Nico Okarr Companion

JUL 31 When you travel with Nico Okarr, the legendary gunslinger from Star Wars: The Old Republic's "Return" cinematic trailer, you can be sure that he will always have your back.  

Nico Okarr Blaster Set

AUG 31 A stylish weapon set for the enthusiastic gunslinger; keep it for yourself or give to your Companion.

 

Nico Okarr Duster Coat

SEP 30 Impressive is the only word that describes Nico’s swashbuckling duster; you can be sure that wearing this duster sets you apart from other heroes.  

Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™ - Inspired Swoop Bike

OCT 19 Escape your enemies in epic style on your custom Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™-inspired Swoop Bike

Early Access

JUL 31 – OCT 19 Choose to be a Subscriber from July 31 to October 19 to receive the Early Access Bonus Reward! Be one of the first to jump in and get access to Knights of the Fallen Empire seven days prior to live launch.

 

 ALL SUBSCRIBERS RECEIVE THE ADVANTAGE OF THE EPIC STORY XP BOOST THROUGH OCTOBER 19, 2015!** The Epic Story XP Boost allows all subscribers to level from 1 – 50 by playing only the Class Story Missions and offers just over 12x XP boost to your leveling progress.

  

Source: Announcing Knights of the Fallen Empire

I want your name beatch!

With all the character transfers to and from different servers over the last year in Star Wars The old Republic, most of us, myself included, have lost our original names. I remember waiting frantically on the day of launch to hit that create button to ensure that I got the character names that I wanted. Then when they moved us to Australian servers I managed to save those same names. Unfortunately they closed they servers, like they did lots of others, and when I transferred back to my original server my name was already taken up by some alt that never logs in ... ever! And it was not just one name that I wanted to use, seven of my eight name choices were already in use! The only level 55 that I didn't have to re-name was Methos. He was safely at home on the Harbinger the whole time, and being one of my first characters, and on that server, he was able to keep it. I've added all of my names to friends lists to see if anybody else is using them and I never see them log in on Sith or Republic side.

Coming in November, Bioware are releasing all the held names by accounts that are not subscribed. If your character is not in use and you are not a subscriber there is a chance that you will lose your name. To be honest, if you're not playing and haven't played for months then I see no reason why you level one alt should be holding a name you may never use. I guess I will be using my Cartel coins over the next few months to change my names back to what they were when I first started playing once this clean out happens.

"That's So SWTOR!" screenshot contest! 2400 Cartel Coin Card prize!

Just go to this post and submit up to 3 screenshots that you think define SWTOR. Submissions will be taken until the winner is announced on Friday's community post, so show them what you got, guys! Go here 

This is my 3:

The Many Looks of Andronikos Revel

Customizations for Andronikos Revel

This one is for the ladies! Andronikos is definitely the most eligible bachelor for female Sith Inquisitors. He’s not a bad bloke to hang out with for all your male Sith Inquisitors as well. There’s no doubt that Andronikos is a bad boy, so bad that even the Republic didn’t want to deal with him. He boasts dual gun-slinger style pistols with a killer attitude. Andronikos doesn’t mess around when it comes to disposing of your enemies. Just for the fun of it, I dressed Andronikos up in the relaxed jumpsuit and his six pack made we want to go on a diet. The facial tattoos also give him a look that screams ‘don’t mess with me’.

Andronikos has eight different looks to choose from, including the default look. Most of them have facial tattoos of some sort but no matter what look you choose for him he always has that cool bad boy vibe.

Read on

Are you Goofy For SWTOR? New on GamingFace

We get some real cool items in this pack! And I am dieing to get my hands on some of them!  

Vice Commandant’s Contraband Pack The Vice Commandant’s Contraband Pack features ten new gear sets worn by iconic figures from The Old Republic™ universe, including those of Bastila Shan, Thana Vesh, Jolee Bindo, House Thul, and The Red Blade. Four newly introduced mounts include the holo-canopied Cartel Decadent Skiff and the holo-stabilized Gurian Lightning. However, the gems of the pack are two new toys, each with abilities not found anywhere else in the game! The first is the Revan Holostatue, which acts as a summonable Commendations vendor. The second is the Music Therapy Probe, which triggers a fantastic group rest ability. Put on your Relaxed Uniform and get your move on with surrounding characters! You’ll also find all the other types of rare goods you’d expect: weapons, minipets, emotes, color crystals, and, for the very lucky, a return of the Rascal’s Toothpick. Sold individually or at a bulk discount in convenient Hypercrate packaging.

Read on

Let's get naked for PvP

A common sight in PvP warzones since patch 2.0 has been naked players. An oversight in the bolster system has meant that a lot of players have been better off not having any item equipped. This is about to be fixed, with changes being made to War hero and Elite War hero gear. What will the changes mean?

The lack of clothing on PvP has included players who had War Hero or even Elite War Hero gear. Simply unequipping items like the relics could give you thousands of extra health and dramatically increase your overall damage or healing. This has been recorded as a known bug and in a lot of player's books, an exploit. 

BioWar will be fixing this bug tonight in patch 2.0.0b. The patch notes remark:

The effect of Bolster on empty item slots has been decreased.

Due to itemization changes, Expertise has been removed from all War Hero and Elite War Hero pieces except for weapon crystals.

When I first saw the patch notes I was a little bit concerned - will my War Hero and Elite War Hero gear be gimped? Well, according to Alex Modny, this will not be the case at all. Your War Hero and Elite War Hero stats will be brought up to equivalent PvE gear and going into a warzone with them equipped, they will receive the appropriate bolster, making that gear comparable to wearing high end level 50 PvE gear. The way in which the bolster works is that it only grants a bonus to non-PvP items and the bolster is equivalent to entry level, level 55 PvP gear, which is better than Elite War Hero. By changing Elite War Hero to a PvE item, it means that it will receive the bolster and will be better, not only in PvP but PvE as well.

These changes have all come about because of the realization that players prefer a skill-base competition than a gear-based competition. It gets disheartening really fast if you're dominated by players who have superior gear. BioWare wants to still be able to reward avid PvPers with cool gear, but they don't want to take that to the stage where that gear provides unfair advantages in competitions. 

I love this change and as a PvP enthusiast I'm looking forward to real competitions on not only with my main character but my lower level characters as well.

The Many Looks of Khem Val

Khem Val customizations

What follows is some basic information about Khem Val, but not much more than you'll find out when you first unlock him. Then I'll go on to show you the vast amount of customizations available for him - more than any other companion. Plus, I'll tel you where you can get them from.

About Khem Val

Khem Val is your own personal bodyguard as the first companion for Sith Inquisitors. One of the last few remaining Dashades, he is unique among assassins, thanks to his specie's force resistance. Khem Val's legacy goes back thousands of years as, like most of his species, he was suspended on Korriban for future generations to find. Khem Val is ruthless, to put it bluntly. He doesn't like being soft, but that doesn't mean that all of his decisions are Dark Side in nature. He hates slavery. Khem Val's storyline is closely tied to your class story and his personal story is not complete until after your class story has concluded at level 50. I found Khem Val's story to be quite entertaining and different to other companion's - almost comical in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer type way, which plugs in nicely to the Sith Inquisitor class story, which has a similar feel.

Khem Val Customizations

When you first unlock Khem Val you will get a choice of looks, customizations 1, 2 and 3, plus the default look, giving you a total of 4 looks to chose from immediately. There are 15 total looks for Khem Val, although only 5 different skins; the other 10 looks are clothing and armor variations on those 5 skins.

Rise of the Hut Cartel: What to Expect (no spoilers)

The Rise of the Hut Cartel is Star Wars The Old Republic's first digital expansion. If you were really keen and pre-ordered back in January then you'll have access on April 9th, everybody else (who pre-order between 7th January and 13th April) will get access on April 13th. But what is this expansion? What will you get with it? Well, I had access to it for about a month so read on and I'll tell you what to expect, without revealing any story line spoilers.

What you get for $10

Just like all things in this world, you get what you pay for. This is a $10 expansion (or $20 if you are not a subscriber) and you really do get $10 worth of content. This digital expansion is more like a bloated major patch. It doesn't come with all the regular things we're used to receiving in our MMO expansions, like new player races, fifty hours worth of play time in missions, and new classes. The Rise of the Hut Cartel expansion is one new planet, two separate story lines - one for Imperial and one for Republic - and a bunch of new missions.  I was able to finish the story arc in two casual days of playing. If you are expecting this to compete with the expansions you may have experienced in WoW, Rift, and other MMOs, you will be disappointed. If you are expecting $10 worth of content, you will be satisfied.

Story lines

All eight classes have their own unique introduction to the main story line on the new plant, Makeb. After these introductory video cut scenes though, the story and missions are then the same for all Republic players and for all Imperial players. The re-play-ability is limited for players with multiple alts. BioWare tried to disguise the lack of variety by telling players that all their characters will have a unique experience but really, that is an overstatement. The only difference after that initial cut scene is what the NPCs refer to you as. The story on Makeb is not a continuation of your classes' main story.

The story also doesn't use your companions - they have nothing to say on any of the missions. Your companions do comment on things like the scenery though, but they have nothing more than a superficial role. It has been said in multiple interviews that class missions in SWTOR finish at 50 and that it is not cost effective for BioWare to extend with the same level of detail as in the first three Acts. So after playing through the first story on Makeb I tried it again on a second character. I found myself tabbing through identical blocks of voice acting to speed it up.

Leveling

The Makeb story arc and adjacent missions don't provide enough experience to level from 50 to 55. If you start the new story in the expansion at level 50 then you will finish at around 53 or just above. The missions can be a challenge if your level of gear is basic. My full war hero geared Gaurdian had no problems for the first few levels but also didn't get any new gear until level 55. Players in recruit gear or story mode operations level gear will find it a little bit harder and might find the occasional upgrades at around level 53. I found the missions easier the second time around by first going out and doing a whole heap of dailies and getting to level 54 before even starting the missions on Makeb.

Mini games

Outside of Makeb there is a variety of new content in the way of microbinocular and seeker droid missions. These missions will excite people who like travelling all over the Galaxy on exploration style journeys. Using microbinoculars to reveal hidden items, or seeker droids to track down missions objectives - similar to tracking for Bounty Hunters in Star Wars Galaxies or mining in WoW - these new missions will be loathe by some and loved by others.

But what about my alts?

Playing through the story line in Makeb seemed very fluid as it moved from island to island and the story itself is very well written and enjoyable. Because the story is the same for all Republic or Imperial  players I think that many players will focus on playing one or two characters rather than a legacy of characters.

Same Sex Romance - The Gay Planet

This is an overstatement! There was an uproar all over the Internet about same sex romances being introduced in this expansion. People are still upset, but for a different reason. The story arcs only have ONE flirt option for each faction. Republic players will get to flirt with one female NPC, regardless of their gender and Imperial players will get to flirt with one male NPC, regardless of their gender. Players were expecting multiple romance options but this is simply not the case. The characters I played through on were both male, Republic and this new romance option was just no different to the options I'd had before the expansion. What a load of hooha for nothing.

In conclusion

So all in all I am disappointed that my character's story is not continued by this expansion but hey, let's get real - it's $10, it's new content, it's fun and it's worth every penny. End game really hasn't changed a lot, with one new operation and no new warzones. Expect to be doing exactly the same thing you're doing at level 50 when you reach level 55.

Let the lag wars begin Asia-Pacific servers close down!

BioWare are closing down Asia-Pacific servers of SWTOR. I just found this news on Google+ and I must say, I think it's shocking that BioWare would not listen to the suggestions made and would instead opt to close down the Australian servers completely. This will force me, and other Australian and New Zealand players, back to the laggy experience we put up with when the game first came out in the US and did not yet have Oceanic servers.

To make it even worse, names that we had secured on original servers are now gone, forcing us all to now change our SWTOR identities. I understand that other players had to change their names as well when the server merges took place, but older veteran players at least had the opportunity to keep their identities if they had active accounts. We are now going to be limited to hyphenated weird names because of the massive populations on the US servers.

Being an avid PvP player, the 200+ ping is going to be completely unacceptable and won't allow me to be competitive.

This is one massive nail in the coffin for Oceanic players.

One of the three Asia-Pacific servers has a more than satisfactory population and a simple merge of all Oceanic players to that most populated server would solve the issues that BioWare have.

Fans suggested several ways to address the problem, with BioWare eventually opting to remove the servers altogether. Musco says the studio will need to update the Free Character Transfer System in order to cater for recent game updates, as well as the forthcoming 2.0 update and Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion pack, so it may be some time before the transfer is completed.

Once those issues are addressed, players on APAC servers will be offered Free Character Transfers to the buzzing North American servers of the same gameplay type. “Mastar Dar’Nala (PvP) will transfer to The Bastion (PvP), Gav Daragon (RP-PvE) will transfer to Begeren Colony (RP-PvE), and Dalborra (PvE) will transfer to The Harbinger (PvE),” the community post reads.

Making the most of Double XP

The first weekend of Double XP was definitely a success for most players. I personally got 2 of my level 40-odd characters through to level 50, giving me a total of 6 completed level 50s.

One of the characters I leveled from 43 to 50 in about 7 or 8 hours. I did this by:
1) using the Double XP
2) combined with the 25% bonus buff and
3) I played through the class story line and the planet story main mission line only.
I found that by doing this, by the time I reached Corellia, I was level 50. By the time I finished the planet I was on at level 43, Belsavis, I was way ahead of the level requirements for all missions, making it very easy gameplay.

By sticking to just the class story line and planet story main missions, it was almost like being involved in a movie. Gone were the distracting side missions that I've already done four times by now on other characters. I generally find that leveling characters, especially alts, can be a little bit confusing when it comes to stories, especially if you have a gap of weeks between major chapters. Throw in one or two other alts stories and it can be quite confusing.

With my second character, my Comanndo, I used a different tactic. I was invited to join a group in my guild that was power-grinding on Ilum. A full raid of 30 players were all leveling at lightening speeds. So I took my level 43 Commando out there and within 2 hours he was level 50.

Bioware will be fixing this play style on Ilum before this weekend's Double XP by removing the boost in stats for sub-level 50 players. To be honest, I don't think that leveling in this way is as big an advantage as people thought. Yes, you get to 50, but you have no credits, no companions and you haven't unlocked any of the story line bonuses to do with your legacy. So even though it only took 2 hours to get from 43 to 50, I still had to spend the following day finishing off my character's story line. If anything, all this did was to make it a little bit easier to play through the class missions - not that they are hard, especially if they're green (playing above the level requirements). Having spoken to other guild members who also leveled in this way, they also agree that it wasn't the best tactic after all, as they now have had to spend this week farming credits to pay for training and gear.

This coming weekend I have a level 14 Inquisitor to level. In preparation I have maxed out warzone experience and class mission experience bonuses in my legacy for this character. I also have boosters in the character's inventory. I intend on playing through her class story line and PvP only, skipping all other side missions. This will give me more than enough experience and credits to have an enjoyable leveling experience, whilst still achieving my goal of getting to level 50 by the weekend's end.

In my quest to provide detailed companion information, by the end of this Double XP weekend I will have all eight classes with completed class story lines - and also all companion story lines completed to maximum affection.

SWTOR Face needs your Help!

OK we need help! With all the news and content out there we are swamped! We are looking for people that can help out with the site in any way. If your a SWTOR fan and want to get involved please email me

Gree event Back March 12th with a new cool mount!

I don't know if I like it being back so soon, I still have a stockpile of rep tokens in my bag will the event be ass cool if we see it every 2 weeks? I think if its an event make it that keep it away for 1/2 months or keep it live all the time and just make it new content!

 From Eric Here are the details! Game update 1.7.2 is going live with tomorrow morning's maintenance! That's right, you will be playing the Gree Event once again within 24 hours. Also since I know this will come up, the Gree Event will be running from March 12th - March 26th.

There are some other things I wanted to keep all of you apprised of as well. Aside from the Golden Scalene Armor being embargoed from the Cartel Market, so are a few other items. They are:
Dire Taskmaster's Robe
Dire Overlord's Vestments
Dire Warmaster's Body Armor
Dire Eliminator's Chestguard
Guard Captain's Chestplate
CZ-27k Stealth Ops Suit
CZ-18x Avalanche Chestplate
Honored Master's Vestments
Honored Champion's Robe
Honored Sabarist's Harness
Honored Adept's Shroud
MA-52 Med-tech Chestplate
Emergency Responder's Overcoat
MA-53 Overwatch Chestplate
Jawagram "I Love You"
Jawagram "It's A Surprise"

One last thing I wanted to tease... Make sure you check out the Gree Event vendor. You will see what I think is the coolest looking mount in our game to date. Like, seriously it is amazing.

The Many Looks of Jaesa Willsaam Light & Dark

Companion customizations: Jaesa Willsaam Light & Dark

Jaesa is a unique companion as she has a split personality. Depending on your decisions prior to unlocking her, her persona will be either Light based (as in a Jedi Consular) or Dark (as in a Sith Assassin). The difference between the two personas effect her looks, personality, skill set, missions and the story line.

Light Jaesa is the type of girl you'd be proud to take home to your Mom for dinner. Dark Jaesa is the type of girl to take home if you wanted to really upset your parents. These are the two default looks (Light on the left and Dark on the right). It's mainly her makeup and eye color that is different with the default looks. When it comes to customizations though, there are four extra looks for each and they involve different skin colors, hairstyles and makeup.

It's not only her looks that change but it's her complete story. The conversations that you have with the Light Jaesa are completely different to the ones you have with a Dark Jaesa. Her gift preferences are different and the way in which she responds to conversations is also different. Light Jaesa likes compassionate Light side decisions. Dark Jaesa is evil to the core and will not approve of you being soft in any way. To fully experience the Sith Warrior story line you'll need to play it through as both Light and Dark. Even different missions are unlocked. The only way to experience them both is to play Sith Warrior as Light side and then play it again as a Dark warrior. I personally felt that the Light side story line was more intriguing.

Gree reputation requirement guide

Gree gear is highly sort after, so I thought I'd put all of the information I've found into one post so that you can figure out how many missions you need to do to get the gear you want.

Two of the armor sets, the black with red highlights and black with blue highlights, only require friend reputation, a total of 7500 to unlock Friend.

Here are all of the different ranks and the required amount of reputation to unlock each one:
Outsider = 2500
Newcomer = 5000
Friend = 7500
Hero = 10000
Champion = 15000
Legend = 30000

So to work out how much reputation you need to get to Champion, add Outsider, Newcomer, Friend and Hero together.

The weekly reputation cap is 12000 but you can squeeze in a little bit more. So if you use 44 green tokens (11880) and one purple (1440) you end up with 13320. You can min./max/ these amounts by taking off two green, throwing in a blue and then a purple to get the most out of it. Needless to say, if you have at least one purple token you can get at least 13000 reputation in a week just by using the purple token just before you hit the cap of 12000.

Green (g): 270 rep
Blue (b): 630 rep
Purple (p): 1440 rep

The amount of reputation available per day per character by only doing PvE quests, before Newcomer rank, is 1440. The amount of reputation available  per day per character  by only doing PvE quests, after Newcomer rank, is 2070. 

To unlock extra missions you will need to purchase the token off the main Gree vendor who has the weapons for 1000 credits. This token must be purchased for every character.

Thanks to a post i found in the forums, here's a breakdown of daily PvE mission rewards:
Day 1: 270 (one-time rep for introduction quest) + 1440 rep from PvE dailies = 1710 total rep.
Day 2: +1440 = 3150 total rep
Day 3: +1440 = 4590 total rep
Day 4: +1440 = 6030 total rep
Day 5: +1440 = 7470 total rep
Day 6: +1440 + 1440 from one-time newcomer quest + 630 from new daily = 10980 total rep
Day 7: +2070 rep = 13050 total rep (1050 over cap)

It has been confirmed by Bioware that the Gree vendors will remain after the event. Since you have to manually activate the tokens this means, you can't have too many tokens and it is very possible to reach Champion in the two weeks that we have in the event.

Another thing that some players haven't realized is that every time you kill the Boss in the center of PvP area, next to where you drop off the orbs, he drops a green token. I have personally picked up 10+ tokens off him over the last week. This in itself is one of the main reasons that my guild has spent so much time PvPing in the zone. Killing this droid every couple of minutes was a lot easier and more fun than doing all the missions on four different characters. World Bosses in the zone drop mutiple tokens too. Only players in the first few groups of an operation group actually get to loot the token. It is quite easy to kill these world Bosses with 8 or 16 players. With all the extra tokens acquired by world Bosses, area elites and the operation to kill Xendanalyst II drops mutiple tokens on both story and hard modes.

Hope this helps you get the gear you want. a big thanks to the reddit community for help on this.

The Many Looks of Blizz

Blizz customizations

I am now working my way through the story line of my seventh character on SWTOR, a Bounty Hunter. Although I played a Bounter Hunter character on a different server last year, to around level 30, I decided I'd start again and play it this time as tank. To say that Bounty Hunter's have a colorful array of companions is an understatement. Not only do they have the cutest female companion in the game, Mako (check out all her looks here), they also get what I consider to be the coolest companion in the game, Blizz.

Blizz is a Jawa and his personality is brilliant. He's very accepting and helpful and just an all around likable guy. He's not the best companion for a tank but I find myself taking him out and putting DPS gear on him anyway, simply because his comments, his look, and the way he sounds, are such a blast. What's not to like about a Jawa who can not only fix things but tank elites with ease?

Like Bowdaar, the wookie companion that Smugglers get, you can't change the appearance of Blizz's clothing through armor. The clothing look can only be changed through customizations. So changing Blizz's customizations is just like changing his clothes. Blizz is one of the few companions where having a variety of customizations makes sense if you use him a lot (for other companions, the customizations are more of a way to change their look for the long term whereas with Blizz's customizations it's just a wardrobe maneuver).

Gree: Will you sing for your Galactic Reputation?

With Patch 1.7 bringing Galactic Reputation into SWTOR, how will it change our play styles? 

If you have played any MMO you will know that reputation grinds can be both rewarding and monotonous  SWTOR has survived over a year of popular existence without it but now it's coming to the game. Could this be the missing elements for end game players? Have you found the daily quest rewards to be lackluster? How will this reputation grind change how we perceive end game?

From the screenshots of the preview of this new feature, it looks like we'll be provided with four unique reputations:
The Gree Enclave
Imperial First Mobile Fleet
Imperial Guard on Belsavis
The Voss

Now these may branch out to be six across your legacy because the Imperial and Republic are separate. It has not been made clear yet whether you will have separate reputation for your character's faction, even though reputation will be shared across your legacy.

Reputation has six unique levels which will (obviously) unlock new rewards as you level up. This will provide a unique way for subscribers to acquire cool new gear to brag about. But will Bioware make us sing for our rewards? How many months will it take to become a Legend and how awesome will the rewards actually be for our efforts?

I actually enjoyed reputation leveling in other games like WoW. It provided an extra level of achievement that you were rewarded with, apart from credits.BUT - the rewards can make or break the reputation grind. I can see reputation bonuses being a hot seller on the Cartel Market for people who prefer to hand over cash to speed up the grind.

What type of things do you want to see from your reputation and how long do you think it should take?

Star Wars: The Old Republic – State of the Game #2

A nice way to tell us a lot without giving away anything thanks Jeff! Wait What?????

Hello again everyone!

It has been an amazing couple of months since my last State of the Game blog. It feels like a good time to jump in again and give you a brief rundown on how we are doing, what is coming up next, and to tackle some issues head on. Let’s start with some comments about now and the future:

As you can probably imagine, the launch of the Free-to-Play option with our new Cartel Market has been an amazing event for our game. The game is incredibly healthy with an ever increasing number of players who are actively playing (the servers are rocking!). Having said that, we know we haven’t gotten everything perfect, and we are still working hard to make The Old Republic everything you guys desire. More than anything we wanted to get folks back in and playing the game, and bring back the excitement and camaraderie - we feel like we've made great strides over the last 6 months towards these goals. All signs point to a very bright future for our game!

Speaking of the future – we have two excellent updates coming your way in the upcoming months. In our Game Update 1.7 you should look forward to some interesting changes to a special PvP area that you have all been asking about (sorry for being cryptic, but this is technically not announced yet), as well as a visit from some old friends, The Gree Enclave (though maybe not in a way you would expect). And later in the spring, our Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel! The team has been working for a long time on this, and is very excited to get it out to you. We have greatly expanded on the original concept with several new systems, 5 new levels, a big new planet, new storylines, new skills and abilities and more beyond that. Keep your eyes open for more information over the next several months.

Now for everyone’s favorite section – Hot Topics. I will try to be as frank and open as possible.

Topic #1: Elder Game Content – What is our intent for keeping level 50’s occupied? Answer: Introducing new content and activities for the elder game is a top priority in the coming year. We’ve got new Operations, new Flashpoints, new difficulty modes, new PvP areas, and of course, the entire Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel (which is targeted at our high level players). We have a plan mapped out for the upcoming year that will keep the elder game fresh and interesting for players of all types. Overall, we’re aiming to introduce a more diverse array of activities – more stuff to do with your Companion, more challenges to tackle with groups, and more reasons for guilds to recruit. We’ll also be improving our itemization, introducing new incentives to revisit existing areas, and a lot of other exciting things that will be revealed as we move through the upcoming year.

Topic #2: World PvP – What happened to making Ilum better? What is going on with Open World PvP? Answer: We have not forgotten Ilum! I think you will see (fairly soon) the answer to this question in the game itself - something big is coming to the Western Ice Shelf, but it’s quite a departure from what was there before. As for pure Open World PvP…well, that’s a more difficult proposition. We are dedicated to providing excellent PvP experiences to our players, but we intend to focus our energy on PvP Seasons and new Warzones. We will be experimenting with a different approach to Open World PvP, something that encourages organic PvP in contested areas in a new and interesting way, but do not look for massive new Open World PvP this year (outside of what I mentioned above). It is still on our design wall, but is taking a back seat to other forms of PvP.

Topic #3: Character Copy to Public Test Server (PTS) – What is taking so long? Answer: As of the writing of this letter, we are in focused, internal testing on character copies for PTS. You should expect to see this come within the first part of this year. It will provide free character copies to PTS at any time (with possible restrictions dependent upon our testing needs at any given time). This will also lay the foundation for our new live character transfer system that will be coming later this year.

Topic #4: Same Gender Romance: Any news on this front would be great… Answer: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. As we have said in the past, allowing same gender romance is something we are very supportive of.

Secondly, I want to reveal today that we are adding SGR with some NPCs on Makeb and do intend on pursuing more SGR options in the future. More details to come!

Whew! I think we got through this State of the Game pretty well. The team and I will continue to scan the forums, read the boards, and listen to feedback. We’re dedicated to giving you the game that YOU want to play and are making changes and improvements at a rapid pace to keep up with your desires. Please keep posting and keep talking about The Old Republic. Together we will continue to care for and expand this fantastic game.

Until next time,

-Jeff Hickman

-Executive Producer, Star Wars: The Old Republic


So Sorry you didn't want to let the Aussies know what is going on with the Dead servers over that side of the world :( but thanks for all the things you didn't tell us! :)

How to get the most value out of your Cartel Coins

With the Cartel Market embedded in our game, I thought I'd better work out what is the best value for your coins. Read on, because I can save you 5 million credits worth! The first thing I did, like everybody else, was to blow all the coins I earned via my subscription on Cartel bags. I ended up with a whole heap of crap that nobody wants. Unlike the bags I opened on the test server, the frequency of good stuff in the bags was low. I ended up with lots of very similar mounts and lots of worthless titles.

The value for almost all of these items - that were meant be rare items from Cartel packs - have dropped to about 10k each because SWTOR is flooded with them now. You can see here from the screenshot of the Galactic Trade Market from my server the mounts are desperately being sold for as little as 10k.

So, what do you spend your 500 coins on each month if you're a subscriber? Well, if you have multiple alts, I found that the best value is in Unlocks. The Cartel Market gives you the option to use credits or Cartel Coins to unlock things like extra bank slots. If you purchase the low level bank slots using credits you can save millions of credits by using Cartel Coins to unlock the extra bank slots on all your characters on your account!

Another thing I did was to use all my Cartel coins like the target dummies, mail box and Galactic Trade Market on my ships. These unlocks, paid for by Cartel Coins, are account wide and extremely good value for money when compared to paying for it in credits. For less than the cost of a set of armor you get to unlock the Galactic Trade Market on your ship. If you were to use credits it would cost 5 million! For 5 million credits you could purchase almost every item available in Cartel packs off the Galactic Market including exclusive mounts like the Emporer's chair.

So at this stage I would highly recommend that you don't spend your Cartel Coins on the random packs - especially  if you're looking for individual items. Due to the massive volume of initial packs that were sold it is far cheaper to get this stuff from the Galactic Trade Market now.