Regardless of your opinion on the medal system, you need to know how it works. There have been a lot of changes lately and there are many more old guides than new ones floating around the web. We’re going to cover just the facts so you can get up to speed. I will be coming out with a separate article about the game design intentions and consequences of the medal system where we can discuss our opinions.

Medals are awarded for completing specific feats while in a war zone. All players must earn at least 1 medal during the match to receive rewards for completing the war zone. For each of the first 8 medals that a player does earn, they are awarded an extra 250 Valor and 5 Commendations. Any additional medals are purely for vanity. You can see how many medals you currently have earned by checking your debuffs.

No MMO is complete without mini games. SWTOR is no different. Many people were excited about BioWare’s April’s fool joke of playing virtual janitor. During the Guild Convention, they did confirm that mini games would be coming, but they have yet to announce any. While we wait, in no particular order, here are 4 mini game ideas: Swoop Racing, Gambling, Holochess and Companion PVP. More on mini games after the break. 

Earlier this week, we showed you the first part of our interview with Emmanuel Luscinchi, Technical Design Director for SWTOR, where we talked all about the changes coming in 1.2 and beyond for PVE. Now we wrap up the interview with our discussion on PVP!

Keep reading for the full interview!

Please note: Emmanuel wasn’t exactly sure on some of the more finer points on the disconnecting rules of ranked Warzones. During the interview, not shown here, he stated that there were some points that he would have to look up to specifically see how players interacted with each other.

Pax East 2012 was an amazing event, not only did we get to hang out with the devs on the show floor we got to hang out with them after hours as the Bioware Party. On Saturday we got a chance to sit down with Emmanuel Lusinchi, Technical Design Director for Star Wars the Old Republic. We talked all about 1.2 and some of the challenges they faced as well as all of their successes. We even got a few tidbits of what the future may hold. Addons? Maybe. Future PVE rankings? A possibility!

Later on this week, we’ll post our second part of the interview. This first part is all about PVE. Part two will be all about PVP! Keep reading for the full interview!

Among the coming game update 1.2 changes, we’re getting a new addition to our character nameplates– class icons. The icons themselves are based off the class icons seen elsewhere in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and all have easily-distinguished colors to help players identify enemy and friendly players without having to zoom in or mouse over them. The colors transpire across factions, each mirror class sharing a color. The class symbols themselves are unique.

These icons can be toggled on and off in the Preferences menu, under Nameplates, and will only appear if a player has nameplates enabled. For players who have not selected an advanced class yet, there are even icons for the basic classes, colored grey.

To many Star Wars: The Old Republic players, the details on patch 1.2 came as a breath of fresh air in an endgame that seems to already be getting a bit stagnant. In case you didn’t catch the update, here’s a link to BioWare’s video announcement. 1.2 promises a lot of cool additions and features we’ve been waiting a while for. New content across the board, some majorly-needed UI adjustments, some class balance adjustments, new gear, guild banks, PvP adjustments, crafting additions, and finally, a complete legacy system.

The legacy system is something that created a lot of varied fan feedback from early on. Most players loved the idea of a surname, but many didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of a family tree imposed upon all of their characters on a given server. Most of us decided that the idea of rewards for such a system created a sense of uniqueness among players and would give the game a fun spin. It was a disappointment when the rewards didn’t make it into TOR’s launch, but now we’re able to take a look at them and figure out just how they stack up to our expectations.

Day one of the Guild Summit was all about Game Update 1.2 and the future of the Old Republic. The majority of the event was live streamed over the internet so those who did not have a chance to attend in person got to see and hear all of the great information coming out of the Summit.

Game Update 1.2 is the first major content patch for SWTOR and it’s bringing some amazing features. In fact four hours of day two are reserved for play testing 1.2. Additionally day two will feature a panel from the marketing group, and a panel on quality of life features for the game.

Overall those in attendance were pleased and excited about what was presented. Is everything getting fixed in added in Game Update 1.2? No. Game Update 1.2 is definitely a game changer, and there are more features in the pipline for 1.3 and 1.4. This game is continuing to grow and grow.

Now that you’ve hit level 50, starting furiously farming your dailies, hit up the GTN for some cheap gear, and finally gotten around to steamrolling that Alderaan Bonus Series, you might be wondering: what’s next? Sure, gear is great…but where do you put all those shiny Artifacts to good use?

Hard Modes. Classic flashpoints reimagined with the level 50 health pool and damage capacity in mind. Hard Mode Flashpoints are where you stop hiding behind your healing companion and put yourself to the test. As a reward you can earn various commendations, Tionese (or Energized) gear, and a chance at a Columi token. That’s right folks, Hard Modes drop comparable loot to Normal Operations, so let’s get cracking.

A good place to start for both Republic and Empire is also the last place you’ll be as a fresh 50: Darth Malgus’ Space Station and The False Emperor flashpoint. In order to start the flashpoint in Hard Mode, simply speak to the quest giver right outside the instance portal and select the Hard Mode option. Unlike some Hard Modes, having completed the flashpoint on normal isn’t a requirement.

So you’re ready for operations in SW:TOR?  Eternity Vault is generally the first operation the average player experiences in the game.  It’s got some fun encounters with a few unique characteristics and mechanics to learn. The 8 man version on normal difficulty is tuned for pretty fresh 50′s.  Gear is not really a huge factor to defeat this version.  It’s more to learn the mechanics of the encounters and to get players geared for later, more difficult, operations.  All the bosses have enrage timers, so efficiency is very important.

Check out the FORCE Junkies Ancient Pylons Puzzle tool that help you and your raid to efficiently and quickly defeat this encounter. Follow this Link for the full page.

Midway through the Eternity Vault operation you are going to come across a lush jungle. That lush jungle is blocked at one end by a blast door with a chest in front of it.

Multiple animals roam around the jungle waiting to devour the unlucky operation that is not on their toes. Once you clear your way down to the middle you will see a path north and south and a pylon there. You must unlock these pylons in order to proceed past these doors for your last two encounters of this operation.
You will split up into two teams, you will take one north and one south, as you most likely already guessed. You will have to solve these independently of each other.

There are 3 blocks from left to right, and 4 of those rows from bottom to top. You will have two consoles at the bottom of the pylons to control which way to turn the center wheel. This wheel will go full circle back to the color it started but once it does match the two outside blocks it will automatically stop and you will then be able to solve the next row. It goes from bottom to top.

Welcome to SWTOR Mechanics 102.  Previously we discussed Primary and Secondary Attributes with SWTOR Mechanics 101: Attributes.  But what about the backbone of the game itself?  The things that make SWTOR tick.  For many newbies these are simply open ended questions.  However for the veteran MMO player many preconceived notions that have carried over into SWTOR need to be dispelled.  These are your new “laws of reality”.

Welcome to SWTOR Mechanics 101.  This is the first of an ongoing series to help you better understand the basic mechanics of the game.  The purpose is to expose players to their new “laws of reality” so that preconceived notions from other games can be dispelled, while also familiarizing you with the behind the scenes mechanics that put those pretty numbers up on your screen.

As I stepped off the ship on Korriban, I could feel the energy in the air, like small bolts of lightning dancing across my flesh. In my past life I was a slave. I was used to being ordered around and I harbored a hatred for every master I served, I would embrace this new challenge and fully accept my life as part of the Sith program. The man standing before me did not hesitate to berate and verbally abuse me, claiming I was nothing and another of the trainees was to be the new Apprentice to the mysterious Lord he served. A smile crept across my face and I felt a wave of cold darkness run up my spine and over my head, like a hood of pure hatred for this man. He told me his name was Harkun and he would make sure I would never make it beyond the trials. His paltry attempt to scare me would lead to the death of his precious favorite, I would make sure of it! I could feel the Dark Side taking hold.

FORCE Junkie Basics Series is an effort to help you decide and decipher between all the different Classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic. This series of video guides describes the eight basic classes in the game to help give you an idea of the classes mechanics and root abilities. Each of the eight different classes are broke up into mirrors; for example the Jedi Knight and the Sith Warrior are the two equivalent Imperial and Republic classes. Each of the eight basic classes are divided up into two separate Advanced Classes which are not covered in these guides.

So if you are new to the game and want to see a brief intro into each class, make sure you watch each video to get an idea of what you’re getting yourself into!