Gameplay

SWTOR Now available in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong

Star Wars the Old Republic has already over a million players currently. The good news for those of you in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, or in the regions nearby, is that SWTOR is now finally available for Purchase and online play.

While several stores have copies and Regular Box editions are just fine, people are heading over to Amazon (see the right side of this page for the original copy link) to buy their copy. Since no shipping is really needed and you can download your copy all you need are the “Keys”. RIght, just select the link on the right of this page for SWTOR original copy, which takes you to Amazon page for the game. Sign up , purchase and download. You will be playing in 10 minutes.

I have considered the idea of collector’s edition but not only are the in-game stuff extra vague, from what I found out it’s just so-so. Again grab from Amazon for better deals and save yourself some cash for the game time cards.

Well I hope to see a lot of friends in SWTOR from Singapore and Australia for sure. Time to show off my Green light saber.

P.S. For those who can’t grab a copy from Amazon ask your friends in US to grab it for you.

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Developers unable to prevent SWTOR hacks.

Recent additions to the popular gamer program Cheat Engine have enabled its usage throughout SWTOR, much to the dismay of the developers at bioware.

Cheat Engine allows players to speed up individual processes on their computer, in this case Star Wars The Old Republic. Doing so increases the speed at which ALL clientside computations are done, so characters move faster, abilities are cast more quickly, and you can power through boring encounters that once took all day.

As far as use in PvE environments goes, Speedhacks such as this are virtually harmless, a victimless crime some would say. It allows players to go through the (many) boring parts of the game without wasting time, and thereby move on to more exciting missions.

However, in PvP cheat engine and other equivalents provide a serious problem that the Bioware team for SWTOR must iron out as soon as possible. As of now, it is very simply for even computationally-illiterate players to enable these hacks, thereby making them much better than anyone else in a battleground. Imagine how much of an advantage being able to move five times as fast and use five times as many abilities would be.

Although the current cheatengine is undetectable by the game itself, GMs are now banning players that employ it on site. This has worked as a satisfactory deterrent to its use in PvP, as reports from disgruntled opponents are quickly answered. Although there is no current conceivable solution for players using these exploits in solo raids, many would argue it is not worth Bioware’s time to bother trying to prevent such events occurring. After all, shouldn’t it be the players choice where they spend their hours in game? At least the sped up gameplay can make boring missions quick, even if they are still not particularly entertaining.

The following short video details all steps in the process to using the cheatengine program, one of the many alternatives. Whilst doing so around other players will get you banned before long, using it to speed up boring raids and instances is virtually undetectable and will not result in any form of punishment.

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Family Tree of SWTOR

Family trees now possible in SWTOR!

With a puzzling new Video and Update, Bioware has announced their new Family Tree system, which has left players across the galaxy confused and perplexed.

As it looks at the moment, the Family Tree is something  of a reward for making ungodly numbers of characters, then clicking on linking options in game to create your own ‘family tree’. How a single human can ‘produce’ five chiss offspring is both perplexing and even, some would say, unrealistic, but this has not stopped Bioware from making it possible for yours truly.

Not only do you make this fictional family tree, but being part of a developed one grants each character buffs and special abilities. Things to make them stronger in combat, and able to earn more money, if early reports are to be believed.

Valid concerns have been raised on the official forums by players who have instantly seen through to the core of what these updates represent, and that being rewards for players that spend copious amounts of time grinding up character after character.

As far as we know here at SWTOR Republic, this is really the first time any MMORPG has awarded players credit for how many characters they have. At least in others things are kept blissfully separate. It doesn’t matter if you are a level 90 Elder Jedi on one character, when you are on a low level you are a low level (and that is it!).

Since the exact potency and details of what being a member of such a family tree might grant a player, we are only speculating at this point as to how much of an effect to the game at large it will have, but players across the boards are hoping that Bioware will not go overboard with this blatant encouragement for players to invest even more time to remain competative.

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PvP To be fixed!

Great PVP Updates are Planned for SWTOR

Although there have recently been a plethora of complaints from players on the way developers have recently changed the PvP system, this is set to be (if Bioware can be believed) brought back into line with the next update.

Recently updates had the opposite affect when compared to Bioware’s noble goals for Star Wars The Old Republic a few months ago, as they saw things become more linear, unbalanced and in general ass backward.

Hopefully during the significant amount of Data analysis Bioware has done over the last month, which much to players dismay slowed down the game considerably, they will now have the information they require to fix exactly the problems that exist, no more, and no less.

This is often a problem with the MMORPG industry, so It is no surprise it has reared its ugly head in SWTOR. Quite often developers try to fix something, but over do it, meaning something else must then be adjusted. A popular example of this was basically every update in Star Wars Galaxies long 8 year history, as almost all involved some change to a profession that (until the next update) made it excessively powerful.

For the next few weeks no updates are planned, we assume this is because for this period Bioware will be working on cementing their current player base, in order to bring a plethora of new features with the public holidays in the later half of February.

For now, we can wait with open minds, as Bioware IS quite a reliable company, and Star Wars The Old Republic has been in good hands so far. The only worry is that if the constant updating of SWTOR gets out of control, we may see EA step in and do what has made them the bane of the gaming industry, but that is only a last resort!!

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Rakghouls Rise Again

Your friendly neighborhood Rakghoul.

Recently announced on the SWTOR website was the fact that the Rise of the Rakghouls saga, recently revealed to players, has not been finished with by the developers yet!

Although part one has now been released and enjoyed by players across servers, a Part two (which has apparently been in the works for more than a year) is now on the way, and should find its way onto live servers in a few months.

Although the first encounter seemed to have a definitive ending, the developers have revealed that they left clues throughout the instance hinting and what can be expected when they return. This has prompted a resurgence of interest in the encounter, as players play through slowly and methodically, in search of the small items, or sounds, or hidden passages, which are promised to be somewhere within the haunted corridors.

The second Rise of the Rakghouls instance is also set to be one of the largest and longest ever yet made. It should take a phenomenal amount of coordination from The Old Republic players, and the developers say this will be worthwhile, as the rewards should be some of the best yet.

Although armour and weapons used by the majority of players are not ones looted from encounter bosses, this is set to change in the future with the developers deciding to take a more WoW-like approach to such matters. Rather than allow players to play through a raid once, they have decided to make more rare drops, so that players are encouraged to come back for seconds, thirds and tenths in order to completely kit their character/s out with the new gear. Although this tactic has proven unpopular with some players in the past, it is a tried and tested feature of the MMORPG industry, as it provides maximum content for minimal development time and expendature.

Lets hope when the RakGhouls rise again the players of SWTOR will find this latest Star Warsy threat a worthy and entertaining one.

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Momentum of SWTOR Surges Forward

Recent subscriber numbers for SWTOR show the current player base at well over one million, making it easily the second largest MMO by subscriber base on the market, and by quite a long way.

Also released were numbers relating to player activities, which revealed more than 9 billion non-player-characters had been defeated during the holiday season. This heinous loss of life, rather than humbling players, seems to only have forced them to be more violent with their future ambitions. In fact, we have seen in the game large packs of low-level players roaming the countryside in search of the most innocent and unassuming animals, only to assault them as viciously as possible, even though there is no reward what so ever.

EVE Online in dire straits.

Games like EvE online, long time leader of the science-fiction MMO market share have taken this news hard, as many of these players have been directly extracted from their own money-earning player base. Perhaps in the future games such as EVE will once again return to dominance, however with the current success of SWTOR, and the Bioware developer team which has at no point looked like faltering severely, this seems increasingly unlikely.

With  a lot to look forward to in the coming year, the one million players now devoting copious amounts of their lives to Star Wars The Old Republic will be on the lookout for many new updates, which should prevent them from losing interest in the short term.

However, there is still something of a problem with SWTOR’s end game content, as even only a couple of months into the live game, players are increasingly finding combat getting to be repetitive and bland. Many solutions have been presented on the official forums, however as of yet none look like being added in the short term. Let us hope Bioware comes up with something to plug the gap, and before too many of their players leak away.

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Update Brings Fans news of Troubling SWTOR Trend.

With the latest Game Update (1.1) Bioware has brought in a wide variety of changes and upgrades for Star Wars The Old Republic, which has left some fans recoiling In horror, as they recall past MMO trials by fire of a similar variety.

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We are of course, talking about Star Wars Galaxies, and the swathe of updates which completely changed (in the players’ opinion for the worse) the way the game functioned on a fundamental level.
Although Bioware is far from implementing a Combat Upgrade for SWTOR, the precursors for an Upgrade, or New Game Enhancements as we saw in SWG are already in the works. With the latest update came a host of small changes, which have (although not entirely obviously) changed the state of player combat forever. This can be done by even the smallest changes, which may not be noticed in short fights. However, as time goes bye players will soon come to see the far reaching Implications of small upgrades and downgrades here and there, and begin pushing for different changes to be made.

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Now remember, this is exactly how most games in the past have floundered. After the fact, players are universally disgusted by major game changing updates, but before the fact records show that a vast majority were in fact wishing for something of the sort. Everyone has some form of allegiance to their play style, so when they feel hard done by there is no shortage of letters to developers and forum moderators asking for changes that will return them to dominance.

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As we see this beginning with a vengeance on the SWTOR official forums, many are hoping that other calming voices will be able to keep the team behind Star Wars The Old Republic level headed, so there is no chance of future game updates getting out of hand.

SWG players were less than impressed with their updates.

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Gifting of SWTOR to continue post-christmas

2012's newest weapon of mass destruction.

With the Christmas cheer (Or Holiday Spirit for you mindless Politically Correct buffoons) truly done and dusted, it seems there has been no let up in the volume of SWTOR discs given as gifts between friends and confidants.

Recent research by the Harvard School of Psychology into negative gifting, i.e. giving gifts you expected and intend to have some detrimental affect on the receiver, may be able to shed some light on this and just why things are still rolling along so quickly at Bioware.

For years it has been recognised that (for reasonably competitive people) you can either have a) A subscription to an Online Game or b) Far reaching Achievements in life. Perhaps then this is why so many copies have walked out the door, because as shown by the Brown et Al research from the aforementioned Harvard school of Psychology, giving a game such as SWTOR to a budding enemy, or just non-cared-for acquaintance may be the ideal way to ensure he/she never again interferes with your life!

Professional rivalry? No problem. Romantic Rivalry? Not any more. The list of possible feuds that can be fixed by gluing your opponent to a computer is endless, so after all why should the end of the festive season be any reason not to make that last ditch effort to triumph over evil, once and for all?

Popular news services have commented on this as well over the last week, with quotes such as:

• “Avoid the rush and buy for the Sith Lord or Jedi Master on your extended holiday shopping list.” – CNN
• “I can recommend it for both Star Wars fans, online gamers and anyone with an addictive personality.” – New York Times
• “Perfect for the recovering PC Gamer on your list.” – Complex.com

So it would seem there is little potential buyers can do, SWTOR is your number one entertainment venue or weapon for 2012!

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New Players Guide

Just Yesteryear, our friendly Bioware writers released a New Players ‘Guide’ to straighten out the clinically retarded players that aspire to have a crack at SWTOR.

Rather than contribute a useful and well though out guide, helping new players to get past their first few missions, what we have landed with is a thinly veiled advertisement, saying nothing that should not appear immediately obvious upon new players entering the game and watching the introduction cinematic.

Apparently there are two factions, the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. Really??? I could see that remaining a mystery for some time had I not been so thoroughly educated.

Another interesting thing mentioned by the Guide is Role Playing. Now this is truly only mentioned by the guide, as it appears as one of the titles. The preceding paragraph has absolutely nothing to do with Roleplaying, the ever present scourge of serious gamers, so hopefully this is a subtle hint from Bioware that such Care Bears will not be welcome among the players of The Old Republic. If only.

So with the beginning quest and instructional system of the game being the only feature so far to be aggressively panned, it is surprising that the writers should come out with such an ass-backwards guide, but perhaps this was to be expected. With all severs being brought down over the  next few days in order to apply updates to the beginner tutorials, hopefully we will see the woeful experience that clueless players have been subjected to so far be gone for good. May the force be with them in their blind wanderings of the game world.

An Instructional Diagram from the Guide. Please Buy our game and you will be chopping ships in half with your lightsaber and floating through outer space in no time!

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SWTOR Off to Flying Start

SWTOR Off to Good Start

So only ten days after release, the initial numbers are in for the current standing of the game.

And so far, the result is GREAT!

With more than a Million accounts being used since the early opening of the game, SWTOR has instantly rocketed to second place in the MMO world, behind the ever present World of Warcraft.

New sales records have been set right around the globe, after the most rapid subscriber increase the Industry has ever seen taking place just after Christmas.
This has been helped by the overwhelmingly positive ratings the game has received, with few if any giving any less than 9/10. With reviewers so quick to find the faults of just about any hyped product in the online market, after magnificent let-downs such as Age of Conan, SWTOR has held up amazingly well under fire.

However, some of these have raised suspicions, such as the game being awarded the 2010 Game Critics award for best PC game. Funny, seeing as not even testing had begun until 2011.

We are currently seeing the first large batch of players reach max level, which will put the second major test to the Developers, that being is there enough content to sustain a continued interest like we see in other Major MMORPGs. This has often been the failing point of other games, where players reach the maximum development of their character they realise there is nothing left to do. Usually this is countered by PvP Systems, which are thankfully present, but other end-game features such as trading and exploring found in the previous Star Wars game Galaxies are no where in sight.

In fact, without these added time-sinks, and companion characters doing simple tasks that occupy players in other games, we may find the gaming elite becoming positively bored in short order.

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