[SWTOR] A new chapter is out

Cambiata

Guild information: the server with the most dense PA population at the moment is Jedi Covenant. There are no official PA guilds here, but I am an officer in the active Republic guild <Dominus Nihil> and will invite if asked.

The PA guilds at launch were on Shadowlands, <Rigorous Scholarship> for Republic, <Remarkable Circumference> for Imperial, however these guilds are mostly inactive. Ask in thread for specifics on an invite.

For either Jedi Covenant or Shadowlands server, type /cjoin PennyArcade to chat with other PA folks (not available to free to play, sadly)

Classes

Jedi Knight, Republic/Sith Warrior, Imperial: Sentinel/Marauder: Melee DPS, Medium Armor.
Jedi Knight, Republic/Sith Warrior, Imperial: Guardian/Juggernaut: Tank or Melee DPS, Heavy Armor.
Jedi Consular, Republic/Sith Inquisitor, Imperial: Sage/Sorcerer: Ranged DPS, Healer, Light Armor.
Jedi Consular, Republic/Sith Inquisitor, Imperial: Shadow/Assassin: Melee DPS, Tank, Light Armor.
Smuggler, Republic/Imperial Agent, Imperial: Scoundrel/Operative: Melee DPS, Healer, Medium Armor.
Smuggler, Republic/Imperial Agent, Imperial: Gunslinger/Sniper: Ranged DPS, Medium Armor.
Trooper, Republic/Bounty Hunter, Imperial: Commando/Mercenary: Ranged DPS, Healer, Heavy Armor.
b]Trooper, Republic/Bounty Hunter, Imperial[/b]: Vanguard/Powertech: Melee DPS, Tank, Heavy Armor

Many convenience features have been added to the game recently, notably:

• All taxis now automatically unlock when you first land on a planet
• Quick travel points no longer need to be clicked, they unlock when you come near them
• Armor vendors from 1 - 65 have been redesigned to be more useful, so Cybertech crafting is no longer required to help keep a leveling toon in the correct gear.
• Skills no longer cost credits
• Outfit designer permits you to keep outfit designs as skins, regardless of what mismatched/ugly armor you might be wearing. Though if you like your gear's look, you can make that the default or create an outfit for it.

Galactic Command
Update: With 5.0, and anti-convenience feature was added for endgame: endgame gearing is now based on "Command Level", which is a level grind you start after you get to the current max level of 70. Each Command level you get provides you with a random box of loot, in which may be contained a piece of set bonus raiding gear.

- Levels 2-90 provide story mode level gear, which is 230.
- Levels 91-180 provide veteran mode level gear which is 234/236.
- Levels 181-300 provide master level gear which is 240/242.

The not all XP applies to Command level. For example if you just go to a planet and start killing low level mobs you aren't going to be leveling your Command level. If you kill only gold mobs you will earn 2 command XP per mob. Instead the game at this point encourages you to run group content. Dulfy has a full rundown of CXP and how to get it here. Content that will get you CXP is:

- Flashpoints
- Weekly Heroics and bonus missions
- Planetary missions
- PVP
- Galactic Starfighter
- Operations
- Daily area missions
- Uprisings
- DvL bosses

Note that because of the randomization of gear, you could get every storymode piece you need within 20 levels, or (like me for example) you could be at level 28 and have only one 230 set bonus piece. Crafting 228 gear or buying crafted gear at that level is recommended.

Also of note is that operation bosses drop schematics for things like hilts and barrels, mods and enhancements, making at least some of the gearing a bit easier if you have a full set of crafting alts. It's especially helpful if you can do veteran mode since the schematics that drop from those bosses are 234 level.

An unexpected good change they did was removing pvp gear from the game, which makes pvp a lot more skill based and therefore fun. PVP is also a somewhat fast method of leveling cxp, but of course it's dependent on your preferences. What I normally do is set myself in the PVP queue and then do the heroics, taking the queue as it pops.

One suggested method for gearing faster is having multiple alts of the same class. For example, Guardian is my main, but I have two juggernauts and two other guardians. I could do my daily pvp on my main, then switch between all my guardian and jugg alts until I'd done the daily on all of them. That could be enough to get me one command loot bag per each character, increasing my odds of at least getting one needed set bonus piece. This technique could be considered a bit much though.

Grove

I keep meaning to play chapter X, but at this point I think I'll just wait for XI since it's so close. Are there any additional sub freebies for this upcoming month?

Crippl3

Grove wrote: »

I keep meaning to play chapter X, but at this point I think I'll just wait for XI since it's so close. Are there any additional sub freebies for this upcoming month?

HK-55 helmet and 2-day early access to chapter XI for being subbed on the 1st.

Cambiata

Grove wrote: »

I keep meaning to play chapter X, but at this point I think I'll just wait for XI since it's so close. Are there any additional sub freebies for this upcoming month?

I think just an HK-shaped hat, so your head looks like HK's head.

Strikor

You get a helmet that looks like HK-55(?)'s face. That's it.

Commodore75

More data mined info (PvP related)

https://twitter.com/swtor_miner/status/702302542814777344

Sadest uppdate (OK, maybe not too bad.)

https://twitter.com/swtor_miner/status/702321916200116224

Sorry for the tease/misinformation @Cambiata

Lucid_Seraph

right okay back in

advice for someone who is mostly interested in bumming around story mode with an Imperial Agent and not much else

Crippl3

Lucid_Seraph wrote: »

right okay back in

advice for someone who is mostly interested in bumming around story mode with an Imperial Agent and not much else

• There's two stories per planet, class stories and planetary stories. Class are unique to, well, your class, while planetary are the same for each faction. You'll probably need to do both on each planet to hit level cap, if you want that.
• Heroic missions are available on a terminal on the fleet and on each planet, these are weekly repeatable missions that give tons of XP and currency. You can use these to level fast if you don't care about the planetary stuff so much.
• It's a good idea to grab all the heroic missions you can, because each heroic mission comes with a free teleporter that goes right to the mission area, so you can use those to get around the planet quick if your next story mission is near one.
• The "side missions" (called discovery or exploration missions, can't remember which) aren't actually marked on your map or in the world unless you check a box in your map. They're generic MMO side quests with some light story and dialog. Totally optional, but they can be a decent source of cash.

Which subclass are you gonna pick/have you picked?

Lucid_Seraph

Crippl3 wrote: »

Lucid_Seraph wrote: »

right okay back in

advice for someone who is mostly interested in bumming around story mode with an Imperial Agent and not much else

• There's two stories per planet, class stories and planetary stories. Class are unique to, well, your class, while planetary are the same for each faction. You'll probably need to do both on each planet to hit level cap, if you want that.
• Heroic missions are available on a terminal on the fleet and on each planet, these are weekly repeatable missions that give tons of XP and currency. You can use these to level fast if you don't care about the planetary stuff so much.
• It's a good idea to grab all the heroic missions you can, because each heroic mission comes with a free teleporter that goes right to the mission area, so you can use those to get around the planet quick if your next story mission is near one.
• The "side missions" (called discovery or exploration missions, can't remember which) aren't actually marked on your map or in the world unless you check a box in your map. They're generic MMO side quests with some light story and dialog. Totally optional, but they can be a decent source of cash.

Which subclass are you gonna pick/have you picked?

oh lord the last time I played was so long ago that my account doesn't exist anymore because a server migration happened

I think I was a sniper but lord if I know. I do enjoy shootan thangs from far away.

Commodore75

The start of some bits of info regarding the new WZ.

https://twitter.com/swtor_miner/status/702315987186483200

I'm really looking forward to this WZ.

Quiotu

Lucid_Seraph wrote: »

Crippl3 wrote: »

Lucid_Seraph wrote: »

right okay back in

advice for someone who is mostly interested in bumming around story mode with an Imperial Agent and not much else

• There's two stories per planet, class stories and planetary stories. Class are unique to, well, your class, while planetary are the same for each faction. You'll probably need to do both on each planet to hit level cap, if you want that.
• Heroic missions are available on a terminal on the fleet and on each planet, these are weekly repeatable missions that give tons of XP and currency. You can use these to level fast if you don't care about the planetary stuff so much.
• It's a good idea to grab all the heroic missions you can, because each heroic mission comes with a free teleporter that goes right to the mission area, so you can use those to get around the planet quick if your next story mission is near one.
• The "side missions" (called discovery or exploration missions, can't remember which) aren't actually marked on your map or in the world unless you check a box in your map. They're generic MMO side quests with some light story and dialog. Totally optional, but they can be a decent source of cash.

Which subclass are you gonna pick/have you picked?

oh lord the last time I played was so long ago that my account doesn't exist anymore because a server migration happened

I think I was a sniper but lord if I know. I do enjoy shootan thangs from far away.

One immediate change you will like is that all companions can be any role you want. Meaning Kaliyo, the only companion you're stuck with for a VERY long time can serve as a healer opposite your sniper. It saves you the gigantic headache of having to play things safer than you'd like while getting your healer at fucking lvl 35.

Cambiata

Regarding the most recent chapter, I have thoughts regarding Zakuul

Kaliyo talks a lot about what life is life in Zakuul, and why she hates it - specifically that droids handle everything, and that there are no laws (because nothing you do actually matters). That specific line about the laws put me in mind of another sci fi series - I think Zakuul is The Culture, from the books by Iain M. Banks if you've never heard of it. Except of course, in those books, the culture is a utopia. The people at the center of the stories are sometimes people who have a profound sense of enuui, but most of the time the Culture is presented in contrast to a much less ideal society and the stories are about those clashes.

Specifically what reminds me of the culture are: AI handles everything. The reason there are no laws is because there's nothing you can really do to harm others any more. If you tried to cut someone's head off, for example, a medical droid would be alerted in seconds and the head reattached. The only consequence anymore is social (people not wanting to be around you because you've got that head cutting eccentricity going on). Star Wars has presented this society as at least partially negative - people are so bored they're excited by Firebrand destroying things, for example, though Valkorian says he would allow someone like Firebrand to stick around just feed people's appetites for chaos. The main thing about Zakuul that is unlike the Culture is that the Culture doesn't have some superpowered emperor over the whole thing. Nor does it seem any part of Valkorian's plan to completely remove governance from Zakuul, but rather to replace a poor emperor with a good one.

Other than that though, if we take Zakuul to be as ideal as the Culture is, it makes more sense to me why maybe Koth finds it easy to forget the deaths potentially caused by Valkorian or even just dismiss them as a mistake or misunderstanding. His world (if we assume it's basically the Culture) was one of a ridiculous amount of equality, freedom from want, the ability to do basically anything that you want. No homeless, no crime, no hunger, no disease. If you want to change genders to have a child with someone, you can, and then change back in a few months (as an example of what the Culture can do). I'm not saying Koth is right, just that this view makes it easier for me to understand why he'd have a hard time imagining Valkorian as anything other than a saint.

The main problem with this theory, of course, is that if you're putting the Culture into the middle of Star Wars, Star Wars does not come out looking like the winner.

Edit: further thinking on this convinces me that they aren't quite like the Culture, despite the way Kaliyo describes them as having "no laws." If there were truly no law, then people like Senya and the other knights would not be in place, and no one would care that Koth "betrayed" anyone.

Shadowen

The other problem with the idea is that

while I haven't read the books, I'm pretty sure the Culture is a post-scarcity society, like the Federation but without having to worry about appeasing TV producers' whims, and it wouldn't have places like Oldtown, and certainly not Breaktown. There are plenty of people who are homeless, who are hungry, who are sick, who are criminals on Zakuul.

In the end Zakuul is just another empire with a ridiculously privileged elite and an oppressed underclass. In some ways it might even be worse than the normal Sith Empire. Zakuul the empire is, well, focused on Zakuul the planet. The people not on Zakuul the planet don't fucking matter to Zakuul the empire, and even on Zakuul the planet you have entire slum-cities. At least in the Sith Empire you could find powerful people on virtually every planet.

Cambiata

Shadowen wrote: »

The other problem with the idea is that

while I haven't read the books, I'm pretty sure the Culture is a post-scarcity society, like the Federation but without having to worry about appeasing TV producers' whims, and it wouldn't have places like Oldtown, and certainly not Breaktown. There are plenty of people who are homeless, who are hungry, who are sick, who are criminals on Zakuul.

In the end Zakuul is just another empire with a ridiculously privileged elite and an oppressed underclass. In some ways it might even be worse than the normal Sith Empire. Zakuul the empire is, well, focused on Zakuul the planet. The people not on Zakuul the planet don't fucking matter to Zakuul the empire, and even on Zakuul the planet you have entire slum-cities. At least in the Sith Empire you could find powerful people on virtually every planet.

My impression, from the dialog, is that certain areas are no longer "Zakuul Proper", they've been essentially given up as areas the emperor was no longer interested in (Senya says as much, and the lady of sorrows seems to confirm it, or at least confirm that she's completely in charge there and knights never show up.)

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Commodore75

Blog post about harassment in SWtOR, by Xam Xam

Cambiata

I guess the other thing making it not the culture is that people have actually died in a permanent way.

Daimar

Comparing it to the Culture is a bit of a stretch, one portion of the populace is ruled by an AI, but the big string pulling is still in the Emperor and other force users. They have proven that they are the black top-hat mustache twirlers type of rules and not the warm and mostly-not-psychotic AIs who are just interested in watching over their biological pets and all their foibles...and protecting what is theirs with an intensity and focus that is frightening.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

to handle harassment and such properly they'd have to actually pay people to moderate the game, answer tickets etc and it seems quite clear that isn't on the agenda. Even tickets from subscribers about relatively serious things go unanswered, get boilerplate responses, or whatever (as that post demonstrates.)

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Commodore75

Game Update 4.3 PTS

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we are going to be working to bring the 4.3 PTS online today. We are aiming for around 11AM CST, but that could change depending on a few different variables. Right now, I don't imagine it will change. Character Copy is currently offline, but will be available once the PTS is.

Keep an eye on the PTS Forums, as any further news and updates will go there.

Thanks, and see you out there!

-Tait

Cross your fingers

Crippl3

How did it take them this long to add a Nerf Herder title?

Commodore75

Nothings confirmed yet, so don't make room on your wall for those decorations just yet.
My bet is on Bioware Austin not prioritizing achievements and titles.
But it's nice to see a lot of these things that we've been waiting for a couple of years suddenly making it to live.

Commodore75

Yay!!!!!!
Game Update 4.3 PTS Patch Notes (Note: This is only for the Public Test Server (PTS).)

Highlights
New Warzone: Odessen Proving Ground! Train with other mixed-faction Alliance teams by vying for control of multiple capture points in this new Odessen-based Warzone! Use power ups to turn the battle in your favor! (PTS Note: Only Odessen Proving Ground and Rishi Cove Arena are available in the PvP Queue).

New Warzone Arena: Rishi Cove Arena! This new Warzone Arena hosts 4v4 Deathmatches in both Ranked and Unranked queues. (PTS Note: Only Odessen Proving Ground and Rishi Cove Arena are available in the PvP Queue).

New Gameplay Focus Areas! Both PvP and PvE instances are now available on any server, allowing friends who prefer any gameplay type to play together on the same server. Players can toggle their focus via their Character Portrait or the mini-map icon.

Unlock additional Strongholds! You can now activate all 5 Strongholds for use by your Legacy!

More Flagship Decorations! Players can now place up to 300 Decorations (+50%) on their Guild Flagship!

General

• PvP-oriented Missions now have red text in the Mission Log.
• Common Decoration limits have been increased to 999 (up from 50). Limited Decorations have not been changed.
• Guilds can now have up to 1000 members (up from 500).
• Players can now add a single space in their character name, e.g. "Satele Shan."
• Maximum Character name length has been increased to 20 (up from 16).
• When using the "/who" command, if there are less than 10 results, the results are returned to the chat window instead of opening the "/who" interface. This behavior can be changed in Preferences.

So grab your PvP gear, so you have something to queue for while you decorate your 5th stronghold.


Note

Hey everyone,

If you are using PTS to test high-level content, use the Character Transfer option found in your Account on swtor.com.

DO NOT USE START @ 60 TOKENS ON PTS. The PTS is a live server and it will deduct from your account's Start @ 60 uses. Customer Support will not be able to restore any tokens used on the PTS, and characters that are created on PTS will be wiped at the end of the testing cycle.

-Tait

With regard to 'MegaServers'

Hey folks,

By the term "Megaservers" I presume you think we are collapsing multiple servers together into "megaservers." Especially with many of the quality of life features you highlighted. These changes were only designed to allow friends to play together, regardless of their personal playstyle. Now someone who wants to play on a PvP server can play on the same server as their friends who don't want to.

Hope that clears up any confusion.

-eric

So ... PvP:ers on PvE servers, and vice versa?

PTS 4.3 Known Issues

Odessen Proving Grounds

• Lana doesn’t announce a winner at the end of the match. We assure you she is pleased with the Alliance, but just doesn’t know how to put it into words yet.
• Control Point signs above the doors are facing the wrong way.
• The loading screen does not have rules or a map shown.
• Vendors are missing from the spawn points.
• Daily and Weekly PvP Missions do not complete at the end of the match.
• There are currently no Achievements listed.
• There is no backfill deactivation, so players might get a pop for a match that is close to completion.
• Players do not gain Objective medals while capturing or defending a Control Point.
• Attempting to use a Battle Mod Slice while it can’t be used gives a debug error.

Rishi Cove Arena

• The loading screen is missing some visual elements.

- Tait "pariahloki" Watson

Dr_Keenbean

I got a code for the free chapter 1 thingy.

D2T5-HUHF-PNKX-BCG9

Cambiata

Hey all, if anyone who's still playing on Jedi Covenant is interested in hardmode raiding, the guild I raid with needs to fill some spots. Chosen Order is the guild and despite the generic name they have always had some chill folks who know their classes really well. We're at a point that so many hardmode raiders have left the game that we're definitely OK with training new people on the mechanics, as long as you already understand your class and/or are willing to train and improve on your class skills. @Orca has raided with us sometimes and Orca I also wanted to let you know that if you can show up regularly on Sundays we'd be glad to have you for that day only.

Our regular raid days are Wed and Sunday at 9pm, but if like Orca you can only show on Sunday that would still be better than nothing, as long as have plans to stay raiding with us.

Commodore75

Another post by Xam Xam, this one's a Odessen Proving Grounds Warzone Guide.

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Strikor

If you can show up most of the time, that's good enough. It's pretty easy to shovel gear at people at this point.

Commodore75

Bw Austin want to give us their best, so Eternal Championship delayed

Hey folks,

We have been doing a lot of internal playtesting on the Eternal Championship and it is currently not at a level that we believe our players deserve. In keeping with our commitment to offer the highest quality experience possible with our latest expansion, we have decided to delay the launch of the Eternal Championship. We are focusing on overall balance, ensuring each boss fight is challenging, endeavoring to exceed quality expectations, and most of all, making sure it is a fun experience. Please note Bowdaar will also be delayed, but will continue to launch alongside the Eternal Championship.

To help ensure we deliver on the deeper experience we promised, we have decided to make the Eternal Championship available on our Public Test Server (PTS) prior to releasing it. We are eager to make this feature as high quality as possible and would love to get your feedback as we work to strengthen it. Once we nail down the release schedule we will let you know how to get access on PTS.

I will provide more information as I have it; our goal is to have more information in the next 4-6 weeks. Thank you.

-eric

[mumble...]

[edit] there will not be a new Alliance alert with Chapter XI.

Strikor

Ugh. I was counting on that to keep my interest going. It's really looking like cancelling for awhile, subscribing for one to play the new chapters, and then repeating is the way to go these days. Things are just too stagnant otherwise and it's pretty clear EA didn't allow them enough resources to keep the quality of chapters 1-9 going. Too bad, I really enjoyed the emphasis on quality story.

Morkath

Heads up on people swapping between subscriber and preferred as they release content;

When my subscription ran out a few weeks ago, it nuked most of my companion cosmetic items and gear. Support is refusing to do anything about it, since I am not currently a subscriber.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Nuked meaning what?

companion customization is an account unlock, I thought

Morkath

All the items are gone.

Unknown

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Strikor

Nico Okarr is now unsummonable and unassignable. Guess who my main uses for his companion!

Shadowen

Well thaaaat was not the best early access launch. It'd be nice if early access were actually a reward for subscribing, not unpaid beta testing.

First off, in cutscenes, for me Jorgan was nekkid. Well, aside from his boxer-briefs. (Note, even if you want complete insulation from spoilers, I suggest opening the spoiler tag, because it describes a fairly major bug.)

His team is all in uniform, but he's not, and his weapon is invisible. ...no, his literal weapon.

Then the conversation ends, and he's dressed in actual gear like the rest of his team.

Then when you talk to him after the ensuing fight, he's an underwear model again.

After that, he doesn't appear as your companion, even though he should.

Then when you get to the vantage point where you're supposed to talk with him, he doesn't appear.

Apparently if he is sans weapon and pants when you first talk to him, it means the mission borked and you have to reset the mission. Thankfully it "only" happened the first time; after one reset it worked fine.

Fuck's sake Bioware, releasing something in this state. Fuck's sake EA, not allocating enough resources to catch this in advance after a splendid launch.

That said, once you're past those bugs it was pretty good. Much better than chapter 10.

Veagle

The companions using invisible weapons in cutscenes bug has been around for a long time.



That pic is from 2012.

Strikor

So it is possible to make Koth leave without going dark-sidey yet? I hate that guy.

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EnclaveofGnomes

wow...that was it?

At least there wasn't as much samey mobs to wade through I guess...