Tatooine is free from the encroaching rakghoul plague, and players have had a lot to say about the event and how it all went down. Most players were pretty satisfied with Star Wars: The Old Republic’s first major in-game event, and many had some excellent feedback for James Ohlen. He asked for our player feedback on the official forums. Could aspects be improved for the next big in-game event? That answer’s easy: Of course.

The first thing to remember when looking at the event through an objective lens is the fact that, yes, this was BioWare’s first attempt at an in-game event. That doesn’t mean the developers were delving through unfamiliar territory, however. Similar events are popular in most MMORPGs currently, although each developer tends to take different routes when it comes to the details, approach, and overall style of in-game events.

Some people love them and some people hate. But what does Bioware think? They revamped the medal system a lot recently, and while my previous article covered the facts, here we will examine the reasoning behind the design, how it might affect rated warzones, and possible improvements.

The medal system attempts to reward players based on their individual performance, presumably while trying to win the warzone. The rewards are great enough that players often farm these medal at the cost of proper strategic play and at a detriment to their team. So the question is: do medals improve the warzone experience? Other games have successfully added individual player scoring while keeping players focused solely on winning. League of Legends Dominion map comes to mind. It may be considerably harder to design such a system in SWTOR but this is the goal. Unless of course Bioware intends players to choose between two different objectives while in warzones.

The Tatooine open-world PvP area saw a lot of action during the Rakghoul Plague event but I expect things to be quieting down now that it’s over. Ilum has pretty much shut down, so hopefully this recent event raised interest in the Outlaw’s Den. I still spend most of my time between queues there and have learned a few things since my previous article. Fortunately, I can say that I have found no new spawn locations since that guide so it appears to be complete. And check out this upgraded map of the box locations after the break:

1.2.1 Patch Notes
4/24/2012

With the Asia Pacific Character Transfers being initiated 4/24/12 a lot of players have been asking about when Character Transfers will be available for everyone else.  At Pax East when the Devs were asked about which 1.3 features would they have liked to make it into 1.2, they responded with “Group Finder and Character Transfer”.

Also, the recent Twitter request by James Ohlen indicates a strong movement towards finalizing the Group Finder tools coming soon.  Combined with the statement that they want Content Patch cycles to go quicker than 1.2 did, it’s solid speculation that 1.3 will bring these features to the players around June to early July at latest.

Twitter: @SkeletonJack_
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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.

Originally posted by GeorgZoeller (Source)

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Hey guys,

A few additional notes on this topic, fresh from a meeting with Gabe and the PvP team.

(a) Expertise difference between combatants is the single most important factor in time to kill in PvP.

Having zero or little expertise on your gear (e.g. pure PvE gear) is the primary reason for people to experience a sped-up time to death in Game Update 1.2. While it was quite viable pre-1.2 to bring your Rakata or Columi gear without any added expertise into PvP, the increased focus on expertise in the PvP track of gear has made it much harder to compete with that equipment compared to even the entry level Recruit set.

Consequently, the single most effective step you can take to decrease time to death (i.e. increase time to kill of your opponent) is to gear for increased expertise. Coming from PvE, obtaining at least some pieces of Recruit gear is definitely recommended.

Two weeks ago, we asked for your questions and unfortunately, we had to delay posting the answers to the Q&A until today. Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity.

We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on April 24th, 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.

If you want to discuss any of the answers given, please use this Forum thread!

Just in case you haven’t done the quest yet to grab the Crimson Rakling– your very own red rakghoul vanity pet– now’s your chance to find out how! The Rakghoul event will continue until Monday night, so there’s still plenty of time to complete the quest chain.

First things first, let’s head to Tatooine. The quest requires you to discover a few things in either Mos Illa or Anchorhead, whichever perspective side you’re a part of. Make sure and do these first few discovery parts together, because afterwards, you’ll get a buff that allows you to grab the actual quest needed. Once that quest is received, however, you’re free to take your time collecting the fragments. Let’s begin, shall we?

Now that 1.2 has been released and we’re currently in the middle of uh, tossing around rakgoul infections, it’s time to gaze up at the horizon and wonder what BioWare has in store for its fans next. Some players were happy with game update 1.2, and others found it lacking, but both types of players know that SWTOR still needs a few major fixes and additional features. It’s a young game, and still has room to grow.

Everyone has their own personal list of what they feel the game needs to focus on. For many players, some kind of group finder feature (also known as looking for group, or LFG) is becoming increasingly important, and takes up that number one spot. This past week, James Ohlen, Game Director of SWTOR, asked for our player feedback regarding the group activities we’d most like to see such a system developed for. The poll on the official forums can be found here.

But just how big are these explosions after the 1.2 nerf? And how can you avoid them?

1.2 only nerfed the actual burst damage a little. The big nerf is in the cool downs. If you want to make people explode with your Guardian (Juggernaut), or want to learn how to beat us, click to continue reading after the break.

Even after a 10% reduction to Force Sweep‘s (Smash) damage the 5k medal is still easy to come by, and I frequently break 6k on under-geared goofballs. Sadly, however, the cool down of our glorious explosions has been increased by a whopping 33%, from 9 sec to 12 sec. This goes for both Force Sweep and Blade Storm (Force Scream). With smaller explosions and longer cool downs, its tough to tell where the Focus tree stands.

My best advice for countering us Guardians is to learn when we are going to Sweep and get away so it misses. This is easier said that done against a good Guardian but sometimes server lag will help you. Everyone should keep in mind that Sentinels (Marauders) can now hit just as big as Guardians with Sweep/Smash but I’ll leave their analysis to someone else.

Visit the in-game News Terminal, located on Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock, to discover the mystery behind the spreading plague and begin the mission to earn a Rakghoul Pet.

General

• Corrected an audio issue that could cause a loud, perpetual “jet engine” sound that is most noticeable on the Republic and Imperial Fleets.
• Corrected a rare issue that could cause players to be unable to access their guild.

Classes and Combat

Bounty Hunter

Mercenary

• Heatseeker Missile: This ability will now only gain extra damage from your additional stacks of Heat Signatures and will not incorrectly detect debuffs from other players.

Trooper

Commando
• Demolition Round: This ability will now only gain extra damage from your additional stacks of Gravity Vortex and will not incorrectly detect debuffs from other players.

World Event

• Jeelvic the Jawa will no longer take more DNA samples than intended for purchases.
• Players who were not properly granted final event codex entry and title for defeating Infected Trapjaw, Zama Brak, and Urtagh will be granted both the title and codex entry.

PvP

• Increased rewards for players on the losing side of Warzone matches.
• Players will now receive rewards for Warzones if they have earned at least one medal.

What use is it calling yourself the “Protectors of the Galaxy” if you keep yourself from fighting? How can a galaxy at war train a Jedi to learn of peace and knowledge with the threat of impending doom over their heads? While the Jedi Order portrayed in The Phantom Menace and the beginning of Attack of the Clones was one that had flourished in peace, the Great Galactic War breeds an entirely different mindset for these paragons of the Force.

Jump past the cut to read how war can turn a philosopher into a warrior, and if the Order can really uphold its standards while fighting a brutal war.

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.