HoloNet Links #81
We have more news to discuss and any news is typically a good thing. On January, 23rd, the latest patch, 1.6.3 was added to the game. Many of the items found in the patch notes, have to do with some changes on the Cartel Market, as far as new discounts and new items…including a new speeder you can buy without buying a Cartel Pack. We also learned that there will be bonus items given to anyone pre-ordering the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion. Speaking of the expansion, we also got our first sneak peek at the planet Makeb in a new trailer!
Pre-order items, the RotHC trailer, PTS Character copy & more after the Jump…
Before we get to the new trailer, here is a look at the new speeder included in Patch 1.6.3.
image via dulfy.net
For more images of the new gear sets and video of new speeder in action, read Dulfy’s article on Patch 1.6.3.
- Rise of the Hutt Cartel video
As I mentioned, BioWare released a trailer with our sneak peek from the expansion Rise of the Hutt Cartel, and the planet, Makeb. In the trailer, we hear how the Hutt Cartel is looking out for the best interests of the citizens of Makeb. We also get to see how those that go against the new authority are treated. The ones helping the Hutt Cartel to watch over Makeb’s population, seems to be a group known as the Regulators.
The Regulators are here to “take care” of you
Take a moment to watch the video here and then let us know what you think about this first glimpse of the planned expansion in the comment section below.
- Pre-order items for Rise of the Hutt Cartel
Besides getting our first sneak peek at Makeb, in the newest video for the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion, we also learned that anyone who pre-orders the digital expansion will receive three in-game items. Listed below are the items and description from the news article on the official SWTOR website.
The Dr. Oggurobb Hutt Holostatue: Train under the illustrious Hutt scientist Dr. Oggurobb with this portable training device that he created in his own image.
“Scourge of the Hutts” Title: Republic and Imperial forces that adorn this title will be revered across the galaxy.
The Makrin Seedling Mini-Pet: Get your very own Makrin Seedling to follow you around and creep out your enemies! Possessing bark-like skin and grass-like nerve-rich tissues that blend in perfectly with Makeb’s environment, the Makrin Seedling has a distinguishing and eerie look!
I think this is a good move on BioWare’s part to give out a title and in-game items. Now that being said, I think BioWare missed a great PR opportunity by not having this information ready when they first announced the pre-orders for the expansion. I’m sure that by this announcement, there will be a spike in the number of orders for the expansion, but how many more would have already made the purchase…no one can know for sure. I do not want to complain in regards to the news about the gifts from BioWare, but I do think the communication between marketing, development and management departments needs improvement to help the continued growth of this game.
- PTS Character Copy ready?
It seems like the long awaited Character copy option for the Public Test Server is ready to go whenever testing resumes. According to a post by Joveth Gonzalez, the Character Copy option already appears on your account page on SWTOR.com. This is great news for testing. It means more high level testing can be done without having to level a new character all the way to 50. The character copy feature will hopefully have more max level PVE, PVP and players of all sorts testing more endgame content to help look for bugs that need fixing. Below is the post by Joveth. I do hope this will encourage more of you out there to get on the PTS and help “bust” any bugs.
JovethGonzalez Re: PTS Character Copy On Your Account Page | 01.23.2013, 01:29 PM
As many of you may notice when you log into your account page on swtor.com, there is a new section for “PTS Character Copy”. We’ll be opening up Public Test Server for play testing soon and this link is open in preparation for this. For now, although it will appear to perform all of the actions required to copy a character, the system will not be functional until the Public Test Server is opened. That is, you cannot copy your characters onto PTS until PTS is opened up. Thanks!
Star Wars Community News & Events
- Corellian Run Radio’s Weekly Nav Coordinates
This week we had another Writers’ Roundtable podcast. It was a great show and we learned certain features are new content, if you never noticed them lol…just kidding Carla 🙂 It was fun as always, but bittersweet being it is Deirdre’s last podcast with the soon arrival of a new youngling. Lots of love sent to you and your family, from all of us here at Corellian Run Radio.
We also had this past week, an updated article by Ghoztt on gearing for Operations and Maer gave us her take on some of the new content coming our way in Patch 1.7. As you read through our writers’ articles and listen to the podcast, take a moment and submit your feedback and suggestions in the comment sections. We love to hear from you. Thanks and enjoy the links below.
01/18 Operation: Information – Beginner’s Guide to Gearing for Operations 2013 by Ghoztt
01/21 Community Checkpoint featuring the WOOK Guild by Jason Taylor
01/22 Episode 88: January Writers’ Roundtable – podcast
01/22 My Two Credits: New Content in 1.7 by Maer
Corellian Run Radio’s Youtube channel featuring SWTOR videos by Gaddock Teeg
Corellian Run Radio’s Facebook group
- Want to have your server event or guild highlighted on CRR website?
Do you have a server event or guild you would like to have mentioned or highlighted? Please send us an email at corellianrun@gmail.com or email me at jason@corellianrun.com. In the emails, please include the details for the event and/or guild, any possible links where people can sign up or get out more information. We would love to highlight your event or guild on Community Checkpoint!
- SWTOR Fan Fiction
This week we have some more fan fiction. SWTOR forum member Moormur started a thread titled “The Adventures of the Gunslinging Granny.” I had to check out a thread with that kind of title. The post explains how a 76 year old decides to start a new career as a starship captain, rather than “go to the Home” her son picked out. The post has you head over to the WordPress site called Across the Expanded Universe. It is a site dedicated to one person’s adventure reading through the Star Wars Universe, “One Book at a Time.” Below is a small excerpt from part one of this story. Make sure you head over to the site and read all of part one of “The Adventures of the Gunslinging Granny.”
Ord Mantell was really my first mission…boy, I hadn’t been to space in ages! It was a thrill seeing a different planet for once. Too bad it’s a warzone…
When I landed, a firefight broke out between Republic Troops and the Separatists just outside my hangar. I was a WAC back in the last war, so I knew how to handle myself. I grabbed a gun and helped the young men fight back.
Now I might be a bit optimistic, but I think that “Granny” is going to do just fine making friends in her new career, or at the very least, she does know what to do with a blaster if there are troubles.
Granny has a definite “way” with people
- SWTOR Music video
It was a little over three weeks ago, I wrote about a Bounty Hunter in a “Spaghetti Western” themed video. This week we have another one with a similar theme and by the same Youtube channel owner, Tirnan1887. This one pits the “Gunman” (a Bounty Hunter) against most everyone’s favorite droid assassin, HK-47 from the original Knights of the Old Republic games. Find out who will walks away when a shootout happens at the “HK Corral.”
That’s it for this week’s HoloNet Links. If you have a particular link, story, video, or topic related to SWTOR we would love to hear about it! You can send those to us here at Corellian Run Radio and we can place it in a future article. Just email us the links and/or the details for the event at corellianrun@gmail.com, or you can also leave any link suggestions in the comments below, or in Corellian Run Radio’s Facebook group. Thanks and see you all next week!