You are here: Home / Archives for David

About David

David Holloway has been involved with gaming since the early 1970′s and with virtual worlds since heavy use of a MOO in 1993 – he even admits to having owned a Vic 20 and used it heavily to play cassette-based roleplaying games. As far as Star Wars goes, he still owns his original set of Star Wars figures and can vouch for the fact that a 1978 Stormtrooper can be blown to bits by shooting it with a slug gun from a distance. He’s also played Star Wars games as far back as the Super Nintendo console and to this day is devastated by the accidental erasure of all his progress on Lego Star Wars on the Wii.

SWTOR 2.2 PTS Patch Notes

May 27, 2013 by

swtor-patch-incoming-banner

Game Update 2.2 has hit the PTS for a couple of weeks stay until it goes live on the 11th June. For those who are happy to test it out, here are the full patch notes as they currently stand:

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™
Game Update 2.2 PTS Patch Notes
Last Updated: 5/24/2013
The patch notes published for the Public Test Server are intended to guide testing. They are not final and are subject to change.

The Public Test Server Patch Notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.

 

General

  • Characters in a guild will receive an XP and Reputation bonus based on the number of characters from unique accounts in the guild. For every five active unique accounts in a guild, the XP and Reputation bonus increases by 1% (on top of the base 5%) for the entire guild, up to a maximum of 10%.

Classes and Combat
General

  • All stunbreaks (Determination, Escape, Unbreakable Will, Resolute, etc.) will have their cooldown reset after a character comes back from a defeated state.

Jedi Knight

Guardian
Vigilance

  • Shien Form now increases movement speed by 15%, in addition to its other effects.

Sith Warrior

Juggernaut
Vengeance

  • Shien Form now increases movement speed by 15%, in addition to its other effects.

Jedi Consular

Shadow
Infiltration

  • Breaching Shadows, granted by Shadow Technique, has a new visual effect that persists while 3 charges of Breaching Shadows are active.

Sith Inquisitor

Assassin
Darkness

  • Dark Ward has a new visual effect that persists while active.

Deception

  • Static Charge, granted by Surging Charge, has a new visual effect that persists while 3 charges of Static Charge are active.

Bounty Hunter

General

  • Made visual improvements to Flamethrower.

Crew Skills
Crafting Skills

  • Underworld gear can now be Reverse Engineered and learned as a schematic.

Operations
Terror From Beyond

  • Nightmare Mode is now available for Terror from Beyond!
  • Story Mode drops have been updated to include the following in addition to current rewards:
    • The Writhing Horror now drops the Arkanian Bracer Token
    • The Dread Guard now drops an additional random Black Market Item

Scum and Villainy

  • A PTS sneak preview of nightmare mode is now available for Legions of Scum and Villainy! This will be released as part of Game Update 2.2.2.
  • Story Mode drops have been updated to include the following in addition to current rewards:
    • Dash’Roode now drops the Arkanian Waist Token
    • Titan 6 now drops the Arkanian Implant Token
    • Thrasher now drops the Arkanian Earpiece Token

Items and Economy
Items

  • A new sub-tier of gear is available! Kell Dragon gear can be obtained from Nightmare Mode Operations at level 55.
  • A new vehicle, the Helix Hyperpod, is now dropped in Nightmare Mode Terror from Beyond.
  • A new vehicle, the Titan 6 Containment Vehicle, is now dropped in Nightmare Mode Scum and Villainy.

Vendors

  • New vendors have been added to the Gav Daragon and Ziost Shadow where players can exchange unassembled Kell Dragon tokens for gear.
  • New Rated PvP Weapons have been added to the PvP Ranked Gear Vendor. These new Weapons cost 400 Ranked Commendations, and require a pvp rating of 2400

PvP

WarzonesGeneral

  • Players that are backfilled into a Warzone will be awarded a Reinforcement Medal that will count toward their total medal count for the match. This also means that backfilled players will no longer be put into a situation where they get backfilled into a match and don’t have enough time to get one medal and thus miss out on the warzone rewards at the end of the match.

Alderaan

  • Turret (Objective Control Points) will no longer be interactable while changing ownership.
  • Players will no longer be backfilled into Alderaan Civil War Warzone when one team has twice as many points as the enemy team.

Ancient Hypergates

  • Players will no longer be backfilled into Ancient Hypergate after the 4th explosion.

Denova

  • Players will no longer be backfilled into Novare Coast Warzone when one team has less than 25% remaining on their shields and the other team has 75% or greater remaining on theirs.

Huttball

  • Players will no longer be backfilled into Huttball Warzone after 10 minutes have elapsed in the match.

Filed Under: Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With:

Flash Point 57: The Curse of Lumpy

May 26, 2013 by

flashpoint-podcastKristy is moving house so it’s a biblical foursome of Simon, Mark, Matthew and David. In addition to our usual discussion points we devote some time to Neverwinter, World of Tanks, Star Wars Rebels and a whole lot more.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– 2.1 Update: Dyes, Appearance, Name Changes
– Gree event
– Timing of local server closures

TSW
– Tokyo missions

Other
– Neverwinter: Mark’s review
– World of Tanks 8.5
– Xbox One discussion
– Star Wars Rebels TV show with a detour into the Star Wars Holiday Special
– Star Trek movie
– You by Austin Grossman
– Raymond E. Feist hits Australia
– You can change the SWTOR loading screen!

Please send us a question for discussion on the next episode!

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Twitter account.

Please review or rate the podcast on iTunes if you can – it makes a huge difference!

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:06 — 27.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With:

Gree Event Returns To SWTOR

May 19, 2013 by

ilum2May 21 to 28 sees  the Relics of the Gree event return to SWTOR for those after some different gear. I’m very tempted to do the reputation grind with the Gree for the Blue Sphere Transport Enclosure Vehicle which is one of the cooler vehicles I’ve seen in-game.

For those who have forgotten the background story behind the event:

An ancient and powerful Gree starship has suddenly appeared and touched down in the midst of the frozen battlegrounds of the planet Ilum. Launched by the Gree’s ancestors long ago to explore and study the furthest reaches of the galaxy, the fully-automated vessel has been hyper-jumping from one star system to the next for uncounted centuries, examining the planets it discovers and analyzing how their native species respond to various stimuli, from mild atmospheric alterations to direct attacks.

For the modern Gree, the starship has come to be known as ‘Gray Secant,’ and carries an almost religious significance. Having long forgotten the techniques and intentions of their ancient predecessors, the Gree can only look back on their ancestors’ works with deeply-felt reverence and do their best to keep them functional. The reappearance of this unfathomably sophisticated starship is incredibly exciting for the Gree, and they want to do anything they can to further Gray Secant’s now-mythic purpose. Since the starship seems to have taken an interest in Ilum’s battles between the Republic and the Empire, the Gree have reached out to exceptional individuals from both factions, offering lavish rewards for those who travel to Ilum’s battlegrounds to fight and provide data for the Secant’s grand mission of galactic analysis.

You can find out more about the event and the gear on offer by reading the announcement from BioWare.

Will you be giving it a go this time around?

Filed Under: Events, General News, SWTOR Tagged With:

SWTOR 2.1.0 Full Patch Notes

May 15, 2013 by

swtor-patch-incoming-banner

SWTOR Patch 2.1.0 is with us, and what a bundle of goodies it contains. And here are those goodies in full for you to read through. Enjoy:

 

Game Update 2.1: Customization

5/14/2013

Highlights

  • New Feature! The new 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 Feature! Dye Modules are now available via Artifice Crafting, some vendors, and the Cartel Market. They function similar to other item modifications. More details under Items and Economy.
  • New Feature! Collections provides a one–stop interface which is accessible from the Inventory Window or Cartel Market and tracks many items available from the Cartel Market, Packs (Cartel and Contraband alike), Cartel Reputation, and even Friends of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, Pre–order, Collectors Edition, live fan events and more. More details under General.
  • New Unlockable Species! Players of any Faction, Class, or gender can now play as the Cathar Species! Cathar can be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk on the Republic and Imperial Fleets and Capital Worlds.
  • Renames Available! Players now have the ability to purchase a Name Change for Character, Legacy, and Guild from the Cartel Market.

Cartel Market

General

      • All Cartel Market Toy items are now Bind on Use. Previously, some of these items did not bind to the player.

New Items

      • The Eradicator’s Mask is now available on the Cartel Market. Cost: 480 Cartel Coins
      • The Huttsbane’s Garments are now available on the Cartel Market. This collection of adaptive gear with no modifications is available to any Class at level 1. Cost: 900 Cartel Coins
      • The Cathar Species is now available for all Classes! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins
      • Escrow Credit Transfers are now available for Free–to–Play and Preferred Status Players. Package denominations are available for 50K, 150K, and 600K . Each Package is a consumable that will immediately transfer the Package’s set amount of credits from the existing Escrow Balance as listed in the Currency tab of the Inventory Window to the Inventory credit balance. This transfer does not affect Inventory Credit Caps. Therefore, newly acquired credits will go into the Escrow Balance as normal. For example, if the player has a Credit Cap is 250,000 / The player has 100,000 in their Inventory. The player purchases a 600K escrow package bringing their Inventory credit total to 700,000. Until the credits in the player’s Inventory drop below 250,000 (the Credit Cap), the newly acquired credits will be funneled into Escrow. Cost:
        • Small Package – 40 Cartel Coins
        • Medium Package – 80 Cartel Coins
        • Large Package – 240 Cartel Coins
      • Players are now able to purchase a Name Change from the Cartel Market. Cost:
        • Character – 1,000 Cartel Coins
        • Legacy – 1,000 Cartel Coins
        • Guild – 3,000 Cartel Coins
      • New Appearance Options are now available in the Cartel Market. Cost:
        • Human Hairstyles 1 – 240 Cartel Coins
        • Human Hair Colors 1 – 180 Cartel Coins
        • Mirialan Tattoos 1 – 90 Cartel Coins
        • Chiss Customizations 1 – 240 Cartel Coins
        • Human White Eyes – 100 Cartel Coins

New Discounts

Permanent Reductions
        • The Carbonite Chamber is now permanently discounted. Cost: 480 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Titles is now permanently discounted. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Titles (Account) is now permanently discounted. Cost: 150 Cartel Coins
        • The Gamorrean Axe is now permanently discounted. Cost: 300 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Experience Boost consumable is now permanently discounted. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins
        • 5–Pack: Major Experience Boost consumables are now permanently discounted. Cost: 360 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Valor Boost consumable is now permanently discounted. Cost: 40 Cartel Coins
Temporary Reductions
        • Access Authorization: Section X is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 375 Cartel Coins
        • Access Authorization: Section X (Account) is now discounted by 10%. Cost: 900 Cartel Coins
        • The Fleet Pass (Single Use) consumable is now discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins
        • The Gamorrean Axe is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 225 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Experience Boost consumable is now discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins
        • 5–Pack: Major Experience Boost consumables are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 288 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Valor Boost consumable is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 30 Cartel Coins
        • The Covert Pilot Suit is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 720 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Guild Bank Access is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 450 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Guild Bank Access (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 1080 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Galactic Trade Network Sale Slots are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Galactic Trade Network Sale Slots (Account) are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 224 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Additional Quickbar is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 200 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Additional Quickbar (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 432 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Hide Head Slot is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 280 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Hide Head Slot (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 620 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Legacy Name and Titles is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 50 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Legacy Name and Titles (Account) is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Unify Colors is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 210 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Unify Colors (Account) is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 465 Cartel Coins
        • Orange–Yellow Crystals are now discounted by 33%. Cost: 600 Cartel Coins
        • All Level 15 Chestpieces are now discounted by 33%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins

Bug Fixes

    • Silver–blue crystals sold on the Cartel Market now have appropriate translations in French and German.
    • Cartel Market Species Unlocks will now properly apply to accounts who have not yet unlocked their Legacy.
    • The Life Day Holo–Tree now displays the correct icon on the player’s status bar when in use.
    • The Music Therapy Probe now correctly affects group members.

General

  • New Unlockable Species! Players of any Faction, Class, or gender can now play as the Cathar Species! Cathar can be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk on the Republic and Imperial Fleets and Capital Worlds.
  • New Feature! The new 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!
  • New Character Customization options are now available! Players who wish to create a new character using a newly added customization will first need to purchase and unlock the Appearance Option on an existing character via the Cartel Market or Appearance Designer Kiosk.
  • New Feature Collections is a new feature which provides a one–stop interface accessible from the Inventory Window or Cartel Market:
    • Collections will track most items available from the Cartel Market, Packs (Cartel, Contraband, and beyond!), Cartel Reputation, and even Friends of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Pre–order, Collectors Edition, live fan events and more.
    • Rather than being limited to one character or Legacy, items tracked with Collections share across the entire account – all characters, all servers.
    • Once an item or gear set has been acquired on a single character, the player can use Cartel Coins to unlock that item or gear set for all characters on the account, with the exception of level 15, 31, and 43 Adaptable gear and Cartel Reputation items.
  • Decreased the instance population cap on Imperial and Republic Fleet Stations as well as several planets.
  • Removed the 13th Scar Character Customization Option for Female Rattataki Sith Inquisitors, as it was identical to Scar 12.

Classes and Combat

General

      • Players who are killed or rooted while using dive–based abilities (such as Scamper or Covered Escape) will no longer become indefinitely stuck in place.

Smuggler

    • The tooltip for Illegal Mods now properly indicates the Accuracy boost in the German version.

Crew Skills

General

      • Adjusted level 400+ mission rewards to provide Standard Quality crafting materials at a rate more comparable with lower level missions.
      • Failed Crew Skill missions will no longer return a blank Mission Reward Window in some circumstances.

Crafting Skills

General
        • Successful Reverse Engineering attempts will now grant the resulting Schematic and will no longer display the error “Insufficient Skill Level” if the Schematic is above the player’s current Crafting skill level.
Armormech
        • Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality Schematics to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.
Artifice
        • Players with Artifice can now craft Dye Modules.
Biochem
        • Adjusted all level 401+ Schematics to better balance the use of Artificial Microbe, Metabolic, Enhancement Agent, and Biological Compounding Chemical crafting materials.
        • Viral Residue is now a required material for some Biochem Schematics.
Cybertech
        • Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality earpieces to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.
Synthweaving
        • Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality Schematics to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.

Gathering Skills

Archaeology
        • Removed Perfect Corbonic Crystals as a mission reward, and the vendor value has been increased for the crystals currently in distribution.
Scavenging
        • Removed Hollinium as a mission reward, and the vendor value has been increased for the Hollinium currently in distribution.
Slicing
      • Slicing missions will now correctly populate the level 25–32 mission level drop down when reaching skill level 125.
      • Increased the number of Bio–Mechanical Interface Chips and Thermal Regulators provided as rewards for level 400+ Slicing missions.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Cademimu
        • Players will now be able to free group members who are affected by General Ortol’s Magnetic Shackles in Hard Mode.

Operations

    • Players below level 50 are no longer able to enter Operations.

Galactic Solutions Industries

Seeker Droid

    • Players are now able to obtain all parts for the GSI HMF–03 Exploiter, GSI EMP–02 Explorer and GSI PMP–06 Pleasure Speeder vehicles.

Items and Economy

General

      • New Feature! Dye Modules are now available via Artifice, some vendors, and the Cartel Market. They function similar to other item modifications:
        • It is highly recommended that all colors be previewed before the Dye Modules are applied to any piece of gear.
        • To add Dye to a piece of gear, simply open the Item Modification Window and place the Module into the new Dye Module slot.
        • Once slotted in gear, Dye Modules cannot be recovered, and removing a Dye Module will destroy it.
        • Gear that has been slotted with Dye Modules will still update when using the “Unify to Chest Color Theme” option, so only one Module (slotted into the chestpiece) is needed to maintain consistent coloration for an entire set of gear.
      • The Exceptional Powered Exoskeleton Body Armor and Environmental Asylum Body Armor now have the correct icon and appearance when equipped.
      • The Tionese Duranium Faceguard and the Prototype Balmorran Duranium Faceguard will now display properly when equipped.

Vendors

    • The Collector’s Edition and Security Key Vendors now sell Dye Modules.
    • Players can now obtain Dye Module Schematics from Galactic Reputation Vendors.

Legacy

General

      • The description for the Legacy Global Convenience Unlock “Improved Priority Transport: Personal Starship” have been updated to better reflect their effect:
        • Level I and Level II Unlocks now state that they reduce the cooldown on Priority Transport: Personal Starship by 8 hours each to a minimum of 1 hour.
        • Level III Unlock now states that it will reduce the cooldown on Priority Transport: Personal Starship by 7 hours to a minimum of 1 hour.
      • Legacy unlocks that are purchased using Credits will now provide a confirmation window.
      • The Legacy Global Ship Unlock “Galactic Market Kiosk” is now titled “Galactic Trade Network Terminal” and the description has been updated.

Achievements

    • Players will now be properly granted PvP Achievements for Solo Kills, Killing Blows, Total Kills, Damage, and Healing.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

    • Players who are in a group will no longer be prevented from advancing missions which require the use of their ship’s holoterminal.

PvP

Warzones

General
        • Augments are no longer taken into account when calculating bolster.
Voidstar
      • Players will no longer be able to use movement speed increasing abilities to get over the shield wall in the Cargo (final) room.

UI

  • Added new tutorials for Collections and Dye Modules.
  • The tutorial indicator will now sort above some UI windows when a tutorial is available.
  • Subscribers will now see proper Unlocked indicators at Character Creation for Species that they have access to.
  • Whispers sent to an offline character will no longer be forwarded to an online character on the same account.
  • Companions with an active Customization Kit will now display properly in the Preview Window.
  • A background image has been added to the Character Sheet, Legacy Family Tree, and Preview Window.
  • Hovering over the Guilds button will now display the correct text.
  • Dark Side Corruption will now display properly in the Preview Window.

 

Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With:

SWTOR Server Maintenance 14th May: Game Update 2.1.0.

May 13, 2013 by

swtor-server-down

A five hour maintenance tomorrow night for SWTOR services, but it’s for a hell of a good reason – Game Update 2.1.0 goes live. Here’s the local time conversions for your convenience:

AEST: 8pm-1am

AWST: 6pm-11pm

NZST: 10pm-3am

The BioWare blurb:

On Tuesday May 14th, all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.1.0 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday May 14th, 2013
Duration: 5 hours
Time: 3AM PDT (10AM UTC) to 8AM PDT (3PM UTC)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: General News, Maintenance and Downtime, SWTOR Tagged With:

Starcraft 2.08 Full Patch Notes

May 8, 2013 by

Starcraft 2.07 Patch Notes

Quite a few bug fixes this patch, read on for the full 2.08 patch notes:

STARCRAFT II PATCH 2.0.8

GENERAL

  • The “Damaged Units Only” status bar option now applies only to life, shields, and energy. All other status bars behave as if “Always” is selected.
  • Custom observer interface files are now read from the “My Documents/StarCraft II/Interfaces” location rather than account specific locations.
  • The Idle Worker button now plays a subtle glow animation while active.
  • The Regions button on the Login Screen is now visible at the password entry step. Upon selecting a region, players will be logged out to account entry with the proper region selected.
  • A confirmation dialog now displays for players attempting to login to regions running a newer version of StarCraft II than their current version, rather than automatically closing the game client and patching up to the newest version.
  • Replay files now contain additional game information and statistics for data analysis. (Stay tuned for further instructions on how to utilize this data in an upcoming blog post on the StarCraft II Community Site.)

BATTLE.NET

  • Recover Game UI no longer shows any events after the “Game Ended” event. For 1v1 matches, it is no longer possible to accidentally recover the game after one of the players has already been defeated.
  • “Internet Cafe” has been added to the list of Group categories.
  • Lobby countdown timers have been reduced from 10 seconds to 3 seconds for “Recover Game” and “Watch with Others” game lobbies.
  • The order for “Most Recent” and “Highest Rank” in the “Sort by” dropdown menu on the Profile > Ladder > Career Summary page has been switched.
  • The “Career” heading on the Profile Summary page has been renamed to “Statistics”, and “Total Career Games” has been renamed to “Games Played This Season” to more accurately reflect the data being displayed.

EDITOR

  • A new “Show Game Start Countdown” option has been added to the Game Options window in the Map>Map Options menu. Enabling this option will display the 3-2-1 countdown timer that was added in Patch 2.0.4 for the Take Command and Recover Game features. This option is disabled by default.

BUG FIXES

  • General
    • Fixed many text and sound localization issues throughout the game for all languages.
    • Fixed many keyboard layout and hotkey issues across all languages.
    • Fixed multiple crashes that could occur when utilizing the Take Command feature.
    • Fixed an issue in which multiplayer replays could not be re-paused if a player left the game while it was paused.
    • The Watch Replay Solo button is now properly disabled upon completing a game of StarCraft Master.
    • Replays no longer always play Terran music. Music for observers will now always match the race of the last player in the lobby. (In a future patch, this will be further addressed to play a random selection of music from all races for observers.)
    • Fixed an issue that affected the accuracy of APM calculation. Additional changes to APM calculations will be coming in a future patch.
    • Cloud saves are now properly created when exiting completely out of the client from Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm campaigns.
    • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when launching a Challenge mission after playing an Arcade game with an unusual dependency configuration.
    • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when closing StarCraft II.
    • Fixed an issue in which the “Waiting for Players” dialog could occasionally appear on the loading screen and drop players from the game.
    • The “Pauses Remaining” counter is now consistent with how many Pauses are available.
    • Fixed a number of streaming failures that could occur when streaming and repairing certain game archives.
    • Video subtitles use the locale found in the Text Language field rather than the Speech and Movie Language field in the Options > Language menu.
    • Training Mode maps are now properly categorized in the Match History page as Versus AI games rather than 1v1.
    • Stage 1 Training Mode Help Menu now properly states that Reapers can be trained from the Barracks.
    • Fixed multiple issues which caused Reduced Violence mode to display red blood.
    • Fixed an issue which caused text glow to display improperly.
    • Fixed a number of outdated loading screen tips.
    • Lighting now behaves consistently for the Razer Marauder keyboard, Spectre mouse, and Banshee headset.
    • Fixed a rare crash that could occur with particles made using the StarCraft II Art Tools Beta.
  • Heart of the Swarm Campaign
    • The following achievements no longer restart their tracking progress when playing across multiple missions: Smoking Corpses, Leaping Death, Get a Grip, Unchained, Shifted Priorities, Where the Wild Things Are, So Many Banelings!, Worker Rush, and Surprise!, FFA Gladiator, and Free-for-All Crusher.
    • The Monster Smash achievement progress bar is no longer set to zero when loading a save or checkpoint.
    • Fixed a graphical issue that could occur during the control room cutscene for the “Back in the Saddle” mission.
    • Fixed a graphical issue that could occur when alt-tabbing out of StarCraft II from the Travel screen.
    • Fixed a number of animation issues for Kerrigan and Raynor “Lab Rat” mission debriefing scene.
    • Fixed a number of streaming failures that could occur when traveling to Skygeirr Station before the “Infested” mission.
    • Fixed a number of icon image display issues on the Kerrigan upgrades screen.
    • The correct campaign progress is now displayed on the Heart of the Swarm campaign select screen after beating the campaign and logging in from a different machine.
  • Battle.net
    • Fixed and clarified multiple unfriendly strings, error messages, and text input bugs that could occur when performing various operations on Battle.net.
    • Fixed many display and navigation issues that could occur when performing various operations on Battle.net.
    • The “Watch with Others” and “Recover Game” features are now properly disabled for Offline Mode.
    • Fixed an issue which occasionally caused players to enter a locked state if they were dropped from a match and selected “Watch Replay as Party”.
    • Fixed an issue in which the Save Replay button appeared active but was non-functional after navigating back to the Score Screen from the Map Info page.
    • Fixed a number of sound issues that could occur when repeatedly interacting with a replay timeline.
    • Clan entries are now properly removed from the Groups list when a player is removed from a clan while in-game.
    • The Create, Edit, and Delete buttons now display properly when navigating directly to a clan’s News tab.
    • It is now possible to invite non-friends from the “Players Near You” list to a Group or Clan.
    • Spam clicking the Leave Clan button no longer opens multiple confirmation windows.
    • Fixed a display issue that could occur when banning and unbanning a player from a Group.
    • A scrollbar is now created in the Edit Info window for a Group or Clan populated with enough text that scrolling is required.
    • Maximized Group windows are now properly unmaximized upon double-clicking on the window header.
    • The Groups list is now sorted alphabetically rather than by online member count.
    • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when the maximum number of player slots were filled for certain Arcade games.
    • Fixed an issue in which review text for Arcade games could become distorted.
    • The review screen for Arcade games now properly displays character portraits rather than the default SC2 logo.
    • Closing the Game Info screen for Arcade games can no longer cause closed chat windows to reopen.
    • Fixed an issue in which the dropdown menu on the Profile > Ladder > Friends page always defaulted to 4v4 Arranged.
    • Bonus pools no longer display negative values if the system clock is set to a time in the past.
    • Chat window sizes are now preserved when closed and reopened.
    • Fixed a display issue that could occur for players who are ranked in 15 or more teams.
    • Fixed an issue in which creating an offline custom game occasionally caused players to  enter a locked state.
    • Fixed an issue that could cause dropdown menus to become disabled on the Custom Games, Browse, and Open Games tabs.
    • Fixed an issue in which 3vAI placement matches could occasionally become stuck at 2 matches remaining.
    • Active Live Event banners no longer cause the Kerrigan or Planets backgrounds to pop in and out when transitioning to and from the Home Page.
    • Fixed an issue in which the Rewards screen could occasionally show incorrect information for the selected tab.
    • The Social bar can no longer overlap UI buttons during the Credits.
    • Players can no longer become stuck in an infinite loop when launching and quitting out of the Tutorial.
    • Rank frames now display around non-friend character portraits.
    • Frame rate performance has been improved when mousing over or scrolling through a populated Match History.
  • Gameplay and Races
    • General
      • Fixed a display issue in which Worker Status UI could cover town hall status bars in very high resolutions.
      • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when attacking an AI base.
    • Terran
      • It is no longer possible for SCVs to be left inside of a vespene geyser after canceling an under-construction Refinery.
      • The Collector’s Edition Thor wireframe is now displays properly.
    • Protoss
      • The Void Ray’s Prismatic Alignment ability now plays a sound effect when activated.
      • The Mothership’s Time Warp ability now plays a dissipation sound effect.
    • Zerg
      • Fixed an issue that caused uprooted Spine Crawlers to occasionally appear rooted.
      • Creep Tumors being created from an existing Creep Tumor can no longer be attacked before they are visible.
      • Zerg eggs no longer play extraneous sound effects when units hatch.
  • Graphics
    • Impact effects can no longer change location when units are turned quickly.
    • The Oracle’s Pulsar Beam can no longer extend behind the Oracle when attacking large targets.
    • Fixed a graphics crash that could occur in a variety of map loading scenarios.
    • Fixed a rare graphics crash that could occur when playing certain Arcade games.
  • Editor
    • General
      • Fixed many localization issues across all languages.
      • Publishing a 1-player map with the “Hide Battle.net Lobby” option enabled no longer prevents users from playing that map in the Arcade.
    • Terrain Module
      • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when using the Undo/Redo operations while modifying water cells.
    • Data Module
      • Simultaneously modifying the cost of multiple units no longer causes a crash.
      • Switching between Categories (such as Units or Combat) in a Behaviors (Buff type) Modification table now occurs more quickly.
  • Mac
    • General
      • Macs using Nvidia GTX 680MX graphics cards now default to max resolution and Ultra graphic settings rather than low resolution and Medium graphic settings.
      • Anti-aliasing now works correctly.
    • Editor
      • Changing Language and Text settings in the Mac editor no longer causes a crash.

 

Filed Under: Other Games, Starcraft 2 Tagged With:

SWTOR Server Maintenance 7th May: It’s A Quickie!

May 7, 2013 by

swtor-server-down

A quick, non-patch maintenance this week. Time conversions:

AEST: 6pm-7pm

AWST: 4pm-5pm

NZST: 8pm-9pm

And don’t forget, an hour is a perfect time to catch our latest podcast.

The BioWare blurb:

On Tuesday, May 7th we will be restarting all game servers to maintain and improve stability. After maintenance, there will not be a new patch to download. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, May 7th
Duration: 1 hour
Time: 12AM PDT (7AM GMT) – 1AM PDT (8AM GMT)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: General News, Servers, SWTOR

Flash Point 56: Barbed Wire Reserve With Dial-Up

May 5, 2013 by

flashpoint-podcastWe cover some wider ground this week although there’s a very healthy slice of SWTOR in there as always.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
– Game Update 2.1
– Customisation
– 2.1 communication via ‘fansites’
– breezing through Flash Points
– the grinding debate

Other
– Camelot Unchained
– the evergreen ‘Is WoW declining’ argument
– Neverwinter
– Kristy revisits Rift
– Shroud of the Avatar
– Marvel Heroes
– World of Tanks 8.5 Patch
– Dr Who has jumped the shark
– Iron Man 3
– next Star Trek movie

Please send us a question for discussion on the next episode!

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Twitter account.

Please review or rate the podcast on iTunes if you can – it makes a huge difference!

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:31 — 25.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With:

Paying For Cathar: BioWare Clarify

May 1, 2013 by

Cathar SWTOR updateAhhh the long standing promise of Cathar in SWTOR. It’s finally coming, but not in a way a lot of people expected i.e. we’ll all have to pay for it. This has caused quite some angst, to the point that BioWare’s Eric Musco has jumped in to provide a little update:

There is clearly some frustration around this but I believe there are also some misconceptions about Cathar and our intent for subscribers so I wanted to hopefully clarify some of that for you. One thing we have stressed before and one thing we will continue to do with the Cartel Market is to use it for customization and convenience options. Another goal we have stressed for the Cartel Market is to not use it as a method for pay to win.

Game Update 2.1 does introduce entirely new customization options, like the Cathar, which will require Cartel Coins in order to gain access to. Although I understand your frustration around this, we always take into consideration when pricing Cartel Market items that all subscribers receive a monthly grant of Cartel Coins. For example, if you are currently a subscriber who has a security key active on your account, you will be able to outright purchase Cathar with just one month’s worth of Cartel Coins. We also try to give you as much notice as possible around new features like this so that if it is your desire to purchase these unlocks, you will be able to do so solely through saving your monthly Cartel Coin grant.

What I think is a misconception is that this is setting a precedence that we are going to take things away from subscribers. I cannot stress enough that this is simply not something we ever intend to do. The features and functions that you pay for right now as a subscriber will remain in place. We would not, for example, suddenly require you to pay for an unlock to run more Flashpoints. On the flipside of this though, the intent of the Cartel Market is to continually add new and fun cosmetic and convenience features and in some circumstances, subscribers will have to pay Cartel Coins to access these as well. I just want to specifically call out that we will keep these cosmetic as we would certainly not want to place any of our players at a disadvantage for not spending money, AKA not implementing pay-to-win.

One thing I do want to call out for Game Update 2.1, which you will see more details on in the future (from both us and from fan sites) is that subscribers will see a substantial discount on some of the features being implemented in Game Update 2.1, such as Appearance Designer. Not only was your monthly grant kept in mind when pricing the items themselves, but overall things are far cheaper for you as a subscriber than a free-to-play or preferred status player.

I know that just the principle that subscribers are being charged for Cathar is causing some of your frustrations, but I hope that I could at least explain a bit about why and to help alleviate any concerns that we would ever take something away from subscribers.

As a subscriber I’m not too fazed by this, depending on the cost of the customisation when it’s released. What about you?

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR Tagged With:

Oceanic Soap Box: MMO Winter Roll Call

April 26, 2013 by

oceanic-soap-boxIt’s that time of year locally where we move into winter and the likelihood of increased gaming time increases without all that damn nice weather to lure you outdoors. For some it may mean more time on the game they love, for others the opportunity to explore something new. I know I’m going through a re-discovery of SWTOR and looking forward to Marvel Heroes launching. I’m also damn tempted to check out Neverwinter after Wayne’s great overview of what it has to offer.

So jump in an tell us: will you be trying anything different over the winter months and if so what?

 

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed Tagged With:

Neverwinter: First Impressions

April 24, 2013 by

Neverwinter reviewA big welcome to guest writer Wayne Hewitt, who has penned a detailed review of the soon to be launched Neverwinter MMO.

As a pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons player from the early 80s, I have always had a soft spot for games set in the Wizards of the Coast gaming worlds. Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate, both set in the Forgotten Realms are arguably the best in a long list of games.

When a closed beta for the up and coming Neverwinter MMO was announced, my Visa card jumped into my hand and begged to be unleashed – who am I to knock back a request like that. So with a small fanfare I was granted access to the closed beta. Yes, you had to pay to be in a beta for a game that is going to be completely free to play. Go figure.

As with all betas there has been an amazing amount of changes from one version to the next, and now that the final closed beta has finished up we can look forward to the open beta (which is really a soft launch as there will be no character resets from this point on and anyone can play). The game will launch as a free to play title and if the closed beta is anything to go by, only boosts and cosmetic items will be sold in the cash shop. With all cash shops there is always the fear of Pay to Win, but I think Cryptic have been very conscious of this and have gone with the cash for convenience model.

Neverwinter lore is set in the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms universe. The game has been created by Cryptic Studios in partnership with Wizards of the Coast. It is an action based fantasy MMORPG that uses the Dungeon and Dragon 4th Edition rules as the inspiration behind its game play.

Creating a character in Neverwinter starts as it does with virtually every MMO. First select a race and gender. Neverwinter has 7 races to choose from based on the 4E DnD core rules. There is a choice between Human, Elf, Half Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, Half Orc and Tiefling.  For me selecting a race was pretty easy – how could I pass up the chance to play a Tiefling (A humanoid with a tail and Horns).

Next, select a class. As the game stands in beta there are only 5 classes to play. Cryptic has stated that there are more on the way, but for the moment this is probably the most limiting feature I experienced. The classes stick to the Holy Trinity with a Guardian Fighter (tank), Devout Cleric (heals), Control Wizard (controller – CC specialist / ranged DPS), Great Weapon Fighter (striker – 2 handed melee AOE DPS) and a Trickster Rogue (striker – single target melee DPS).

The character customisation was enjoyable. There are an adequate amount of default looks to choose from with sliders to adjust features in the advanced menu. All up I was able to make a character I was happy to play and it had a feeling of individuality that I would expect from an MMO.

Neverwinter is of course steeped in lore. A lot of this lore originates from the DnD pen and paper game material, previous computer games as well as a swag of novels (more than 70).  The game takes place 100 years after the spell plague and volcanic eruption that destroyed the city of Neverwinter. There is a real feel of depth to the game from the moment you arrive shipwrecked off the coast of Neverwinter city.

The first thing that stood out was a golden sparkly trail leading from my character to the first quest giver. Just like the yellow brick road this wonderful trail would lead me from quest area to quest NPC. No more looking at my map staring blindly in an attempt to figure out where I need to go next. This feature can be turned off for the more adventurous player. The tutorial missions introducing you to the story, explain the movement and combat system taking you from the beginning area through to the city gates, leading up to a boss fight on the bridge entering Neverwinter city.

nwn2Combat in Neverwinter is a lot of fun and the action based combat is a breath of fresh air in the MMO world. As your character advances in level you gain more and more skills. These skills are made up of ‘At-Will’ powers that are automatically mapped to the left and right mouse button, these are your main abilities and as the name suggests you can use these at will. You also receive ‘Encounter’ powers. These are more powerful abilities that have a short cool down. You can have 3 active ‘Encounter’ Powers mapped to your ability bar. Lastly you have daily powers. Daily powers require action points which are earned through using your other abilities. When you have enough action points you are able to use your daily power. You may map two daily powers to your action bar.

After finishing the tutorial you enter into the Protectors Enclave. Here you find all of your merchants, banks, auction houses and other game necessities. I love the views from the Protectors Enclave – they give the game a real sense of the size and grandeur. On first entering the Protectors enclave I did have one of those wow moments when I saw my first player mounted on a rearing horse. This would have to have been one of the best rearing animations for a horse mount I have seen. And yes, when I got my first mount at level 20 I spent a good five minutes making it rear in front of other lower level characters.

At level 16 you get a companion. The game has a huge variety of companions that you can acquire from the standard races and classes to animals, magic weapons ghosts and demons. Companions earn experience while they are questing with you and need to be sent off to training to level up.

Questing really displays Neverwinter‘s Dungeons and Dragons side, with many of the quests taking place inside instanced dungeons that can be ran either solo or in a party. As you would expect, from a Dungeons and Dragons based game, dungeons come fully equipped with all the things we have come to love. There are monsters to fight, traps to disarm or avoid, puzzles to puzzle over, chests full of treasure, and of course Bosses to kill.

Where the questing in Neverwinter really sets itself apart is in the style of quests. The typical ‘go grind X of these’ type quests are rare, with most quests feeling like part of a story, often with multiple parts in different scenarios. The other interesting concept for quests is the foundry. The foundry allows players to created content that is available to all players. By the end of beta hundreds of player created quests and quest chains existed, some as good if not better than the main quest lines. Ultimately the foundry provides an interesting way for anyone to be able to tell their story.

Although I only had the opportunity to run a couple of the 5-man dungeons over the beta week ends, I would have to say the first dungeon, ‘the clockwork tower’ was my favourite. As a healer I did at first find the idea of relying heavily on splash healing from my attacks rather than direct heals an odd concept. But as I got into healing with the devout cleric, I came to enjoy the liberty of being able to both heal and attack at the same time. And don’t worry healers, there are some direct heals as well as AoE heals.

Questing and dungeons are not the only things to do. There is PvP – both 5 v 5 Arena style matches and 20 v 20 matches. Unfortunately I am not much of a PvP’er so I spent a lot of time dead. Another game mechanic that I found to be enjoyable was the skirmishes. These are quick PvE encounters where a group would protect an area from wave after wave of enemies. I must admit I spent a large portion of my game time playing in these encounters. Even with the mad combat caused by large waves of enemies, the combat system never leaves you feeling overwhelmed.

Overall, for a completely free to play game Neverwinter really hit the mark with its questing. Although a lot of the quests are instanced, this is not at all detrimental to the game play. If anything it enhances the feeling of a Dungeons and Dragons game. I did spend a lot of time running around with friends and we were able to do all the instances together and having an absolute blast doing it. There are plenty of large open areas for questing as well, with great opportunities to run into other players.

I must admit I would have liked to see a larger variety of classes at launch, but I am sure they will not be far away. The classes presently available are a lot of fun to play.

See you all at launch on the 30th April!

Wayne Hewitt (http://www.terinu.com)

Filed Under: General News, Neverwinter Tagged With: ,

SWTOR Server Maintenance 23rd April 2013

April 22, 2013 by

swtor-server-down

A six-hour server downtime to put Patch 2.0.1 live.

Time conversions for you:

AEST: 7pm-1am

AWST: 5pm-11pm

NZST: 9pm-3am

And if you get bored, why not listen to the very latest episode of our podcast?

The original blurb from BioWare:

 

On April 23rd, all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.0.1 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday April 23rd, 2013
Duration: 6 hours
Time: 2AM PDT (9AM GMT) to 8AM PDT (3PM GMT)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: Maintenance and Downtime, SWTOR Tagged With:
« Previous Page
Next Page »