TORWars Podcast #153: Thoughts On The “Summer Of SWTOR”

Hello TORWarriors! It’s been a pretty eventful week in SWTORland and we were able to grasp some of that news for this episode of the TORWars Podcast.  This week we have another special guest host who has been a friend of our site since the before the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic but why tell you about her here when you can listen to her in the cast…..and read about her below.

Now this is a Summer of SWTOR!

[Editor's Note: There seems to be some problems with volume for some folks using the default player embedded at the top of the post. If the volume is too low, hit the "Download" tab right below the player, and a new player in a new window will pop up. That one seems to work fine. In the meantime, we've got our Ugnauts working on fixing the default player, but right now, they're baffled.]

Intro:

Please welcome Carla from Corellian Run Radio. We brought Carla here to discuss the future of SWTOR and to help us speculate on all the things we can be expecting this summer with the release of the player test server patch notes and mentions of the “Summer of SWTOR”. For those that are new listeners to the podcast, I was honored to co-host with Carla at Corellian Run Radio where we had nothing but fun and laughs gabbing about a game we love and I’m equally honored to welcome her here on this weeks TORWars podcast where I guarantee there will be much of the same.

News:

• ● Server Transfers planned around update 2.2 (and before 2.2 for Asian Pacific servers)
• ● Patch 2.1.1 is scheduled for Wednesday, May 29 and “hot on the heels” of the Gree event.
• ● Why armor is listed as “sets” only in the Collections UI; Damion gives us the reasons why we can’t get “pieces only” in response to a petition that was started on the forums. According to Damion, that function is actually much more complicated than we think and came with some nasty side effects.

This week in SWTOR:

• ● Right now (at the time of the cast) we’re in the midst of the Gree event – What do you guys think? Did you like it? Did you get all that you hoped for? Rumor is the next one will be at 55+ so if you’re not there yet, you better get there!

Discussion Topic:

• ● This week we got some intel from Senior Producer, Bruce MacLean about what this Summer will bring for us:
  • ● Game Update 2.2 set targeted for June 11th
    • ● Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond
    • ● New Appearance System which uses ‘Scrolling UVs”
    • ● New Guild Bonuses – Players in guilds currently receive a +5% experience bonus, but now every 5 active players in the guild will add an additional 1% bonus to XP and reputation, up to a maximum bonus of 10% each.
    • ● Unified fleet chat channel for each faction, for easier group finding without having to hop between instances.
    • ● Double XP weekends – Three weekends starting June 22nd and continuing through July 7th. The third and last weekend will actually start early on Thursday the 4th of July, in case you are enjoying a long Independence Day weekend.
    • ● Nightmare Mode Scum and Villainy as a part of Game Update 2.2.2 – New mechanics and unique loot for you.
    • ● Return of the Relics of the Gree Event – Starts July 23rd for a nice two week long run. Per community request the Event will scale up to level 55 on this next run!
    • ● August 6th is the target date for Game Update 2.3, which BioWare is working on right now and will be the biggest update since 2.0. Some of the bigger parts of this update are:
      • ● New Flashpoints
      • ● New Daily Area
      • ● New Recurring Event
      • ● Significant graphical upgrades

• ● Big dust up about the lack of new PvP content after it was hinted at by Cory Butler that we would be seeing more PvP content in a couple of patches but we’re not seeing much being mentioned in the patch notes and “Summer of SWTOR” talks.

ShoutOuts:

• ● Enjin.com
• ● TORWars Guild – Shadowlands, Empire
• ● PayPal Donors! Many thanks to those who gave this week. Your contributions go a long way to keeping the site up and running.
• ● Corellian Run Radio
• ● TORWars Featured Articles:
  • ● SWTOR Power Leveling: Get The Most XP For Your Effort by Aaron Frede: Aaron gives us the latest tips and tricks to maxing out your XP leveling experience
  • ● Guild Spotlight by Alice Wilkes: This week Alice shines her light on one of the oldest guilds in-game, Jen’jidai. If you would like to get your guild in the spotlight, contact Alice directly at Alice [at] TORWars [dot] com.
  • ● Carnage Gaming takes down Thrasher and Titan 6 in 16-man HM
  • ● Werit, our data-mining expert has a giveaway on his own blog. Go and get your own personal in-game Taun Fawn.
  • ● Command Decisions by Major Snarl: The Major gives us the skinny on the ebb and flow of guild member participation during those “vacation months”.
  • ● Around The Galaxy by Rob Henriquez: This week Rob gave us not one, but two features of general Star Wars related content. If you love Star Wars and you want to know what cool things are happening then check out Robs feature as he gives us the real world Star Wars scoop.
  • ● SWTOR Loading Screen by Jean Prior: Jean touches on what’s hot and what’s not within the SWTOR Community and player-base.

That ends this weeks episode. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.