This week we Bioware put together a collection of some of very creative community members’ work.

In celebration of “May the 4th be with you” we’ve decided to create a special Fan Friday. For Star Wars™ Day, we are highlighting some of the most creative and talented members of our community by showcasing them in our Community Blog!

This week we have a community member spotlight, new forum emoticons, and to begin with, some amazing fan art.

Follow the link above and look at all the amazing artwork and other interesting things created by the community. The image above was done by RanvirBorealas.

Tattoine is the first planet where the majority of the planet is free-for-all PVP.  Most of the datacrons are also in these areas, so beware of gankings.

Originally posted by StephenReid (Source)

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Hello everyone! James Ohlen, Game Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is looking for your feedback on the game’s development once again. This week he’s looking out to the stars… and the planets of the Star Wars universe.

James takes feedback directly via his Twitter account (@JamesOhlen), but if you’re not on Twitter, his question is below and you can give your feedback here which will be passed on to him.

As always, we ask you to limit your feedback to the question at hand and keep your feedback constructive as well as on-topic!

Here is James’ question for this week:

"What planet in the Star Wars universe do you want to see in Star Wars: The Old Republic that is not currently in the game?"

You can name any planet you like, but remember, planets in The Old Republic can be fully explorable (like Coruscant, Tatooine, Hoth etc) and/or destinations that are seen as part of a Flashpoint or Operation (like Taral V, Denova, Kaon, etc).

As a reminder, you can follow James on Twitter @JamesOhlen. You can also follow our main account @SWTOR.

Originally posted by APeckenpaugh (Source)

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Originally Posted by Phasewalker
As of late I’ve been reading a lot of post on the forums on how the Devs. just wrecked Merc Bounty Hunters and to all those non believers out there its true. I ran some testing on the Arsenal spec’ed dps using the operation lvl testing dummy on the Imperial fleet here are the numbers as proof

Hi Phasewalker. I wanted to drop in to tell you that these abilities aren’t broken. Considering your small sample size, your numbers are actually quite accurate.

I’ll go step by step as to why that’s the case, but if you’re a TLDR kind of reader: operation training dummies have armor that gives them 35% kinetic and energy DR.

After canceling the release of Ranked Warzones a single day before players were expecting them, Bioware has yet to give us an update on their status. They haven’t even said the typical “we’re working on it but can’t set a deadline” and no one on the dev team has commented. Unfortunately, if they had good news I bet we would hear it, but right now all we get is silence.

Of course the fans aren’t being silent. There are rumors that thousand of players resubscribed to the game just for ranked warzones. From their perspective, Bioware waited to announce the delay of ranked warzones as a marketing and business plan to gain subscriptions.

New players and veterans, PvPers and PvEers alike, have room to improve their game by taking a step back and rethinking their controls. I continue to meet experienced players with the oddest of key binding habits. A poorly thought out control set-up is a huge hinderance to success. After the break we go over concepts that can help gamers of all levels improve their bindings.

This guide will cover what to take into consideration when deciding where to bind your abilities, as well as talk about a few optional modifications to your control set-up. Finally I try to convince you to revolt against the norm and make the biggest keybinding decision of your life. As a disclaimer, I commonly sacrifice convenience to maximize in-combat performance. Never waste a mouse button on your mount when you can put a combat ability there.

Classes and Combat

General

• Corrected an issue that prevented damage shields (such as Force Armor) from re-applying properly when activated before the current damage shield expired has been addressed.

Trooper

Commando

• Plasma Cell now correctly deals its damage 3 times per application.

After putting out a couple PvP Guardian Guides I hope they have been giving everyone some trouble lately. To bring balance back to the galaxy, and because you have a right to understand your enemy, I give you a guide to Guardian abilities. While the interweb is full of mediocre guides, there is no single place to go for concrete factual info about enemy abilities. Now everyone has easy access to the facts of how Jedi Knight + Guardian talents and abilities interact. Who knew that sages could dispel Force Exhaustion? And if they know, why don’t they do it? I’ve also included some screenshots of the abilities everyone should know so you can memorize their animations.

This list is by no means complete; it needs more cross-class interactions. I will be updating this guide as I learn about new interactions and I want to ask all you for your help. Got some info that could go in this guide? Wanna see something tested? Put it in the comments. Many abilities have unexpected interactions when used in sequence and, with your help, we can make this guide the go-to place. Specifically, we need more cross-class interactions and we can start similar guide’s for other classes.

BioWare likes to surprise us at times, and throw in random ways to get cool toys. The developers like to toss in semi-long quest chains and encourage us to stumble along cliff sides to grab stuff that isn’t always announced upon release. They also like to attach cool drops to bosses where they appear quite random, surprising players. This is rather cool, I think, because it rewards players for exploring, discovering, and sharing those discoverers with other players.

Vanity pets are one of the cool toys BioWare likes to add using this method. Vanity pets are good reward choices for random discoveries, because players of all levels and gear levels can benefit from them, and they’re a common item for serious collectors to drool over, yet even the most casual of players will admit to loving little critters following them around. I mean, really. Who doesn’t love little critters following them around?

In sharp contrast to the Jedi and Sith who exist separately from the militaries, the armies of the Republic and the Empire have no mystical force to rely on. Their prowess and cunning come from training, discipline, and oftentimes a willingness to do things that a Jedi would cringe at. These front line troops have far more to lose than their Force wielding counterparts, and they know it. Whether they enlist for patriotism or power, to walk onto a battlefield and know that facing down a Jedi or Sith is a possibility takes courage that many in the galaxy don’t have. To come out victorious is an even bigger task.

The men and women in the militaries of Star Wars find themselves facing Rakghouls, Sith and almost every terror the galaxy has. Jump past the cut to learn more about these incredibly soldiers.

We’re back with a selection of answers to your community questions! Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity.

As a reminder, we previously suggested a shift in focus in your questions. As development plans are always subject to change, questions about future features will often get vague answers which can be repetitive and sometimes annoying. With that in mind, the development team is more interested in questions about current in-game features or systems, or questions about why development decisions were made. You’re still welcome to ask questions about future features and we’ll continue to answer them where appropriate – just expect the occasional ‘soon.’

We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on May 1st, 2012 (12pm PDT/3pm EDT/8pm BST/9pm CEST/5am AEST). We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the answers below.

4/27/2012

General

• Corrected an item-related issue to prevent a serious economic exploit.

From Ryan Raplee, Junkies Nation Co-Founder:

I am participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life because I want to make a meaningful difference in the fight against cancer.

Almost everyone has been touched by cancer, either through their own personal battle or through someone they love.

Every day, the American Cancer Society is helping us stay well by preventing cancer or finding it at its earliest, most treatable stages. They assist families in finding the best resources to help their friend or loved one deal with a diagnosis and their journey to get well. The American Cancer Society is also rallying communities (like ours!) through events like Relay For Life, to fight back and find cures for this disease.

Please join my team or make a donation to help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together, we can help make sure that cancer never steals another year of anyone’s life!

Fuck Cancer.

Star Wars: the Old Republic has two trade networks, The Galactic Trade Network (GTN) and The Hutt Trade Network (HTN). The former is a faction specific trading network, while the latter is a cross faction one that connects buyers and sellers throughout the galaxy. While the GTN is easily accessible at the faction Fleet, the HTN requires players to travel to Nar Shaddaa to access it.

Players can unlock an HTN terminal for all their characters’ ship by reaching Legacy Level 25 and paying 5 million credits. This has caused a lot of controversy, and many players on the forums are upset, because the legacy unlock is part of the Hutt Trade Network, which is rarely used. However, in an interview with Mos Eisley Radio, Lead Game Designer, Daniel Erickson revealed that very shortly the Hutts’ will buy out all the GTNs and convert them into neutral trading networks; creating one blanket economy between both factions. He added, “…with the legacy system players play on both sides and it doesn’t make since to artificially separate the economy.” With this change in mind, it stands to reason that the Galactic Market Kiosk for 5 million credits will be a worthwhile investment.