• Keyboard Heroes – Sith Empire Guild

Last night we celebrated the heroes of the National Football League during the Superbowl. On this week’s Guild Checkpoint, we have another group of “heroes,” the guild Keyboard Heroes. Although having some Canadian ties, perhaps I should have used a Stanley Cup Finals analogy, but I digress. This guild has a couple great guys, Kalan and Sydor, leading the way in-game and also being a well known part of the SWTOR community with their podcast. KBH was featured on an earlier article, and now we find out how the guild is doing and how they are making their way in the Star Wars: The Old Republic Universe.

More about Keyboard Heroes from their leaders, Kalan & Sydor after the Jump…

• Guild Q&A

Can you refresh our reader about the guild, Keyboard Heroes?

Kalan: Keyboard Heroes is an Empire guild for adult players who are looking to take end game content seriously, without the time commitment required by “hardcore” guilds.

Sydor: We created the guild for the launch of this game from the ground up building on a community of like minded adult gamers generally gathered through our podcast, Keyboard Heroes.

What server your guild is located? How has the server community been like? Do you think that balance issues should be addressed or do you think it will eventually those issues will naturally work themselves out?

Sydor: Through the pre-launch guild program we were placed on the Vulgar Vulkar Highway with the rest of the “Scum and Villainy” guilds from Bootleg Radio (SWATH Radio’s Brotherhood of SWATH, Bootleg’s Unconqured, Nothing Gaming’s Nothing Gaming, and Tormonger’s Wrath). The community as a whole has been pretty good so far, I’m not really sure what they could do about the population imbalance between factions. There isn’t really anything they can do to make the Republic scum “cooler” to play.

KBH "chillin" before taking on the Eternity Vault

Since we last meet your guild, we now have a live game. How has KBH found Star Wars: The Old Republic post-launch? Are there any major issues with game mechanics etc. that your guild has come across?

Sydor: For the most part I think the guild has found the game – from a stability standpoint – to be quite a smooth launch. That being said I know some of our level 50 members have had issues with the daily and weekly PVP quests being credited properly for wins. For me, I’ve found an issue that we covered in an episode called ‘Blue Balls of Healing’, about my healing abilities don’t quite fire like they’re supposed to.

How has things, as a guild, been in SWTOR? Besides guild banks, what are some changes or fixes needed for guilds?

Sydor: Wait, this game doesn’t have guild banks?! I think most of what I would like to see for starters is an overall improvement in the guild UI. As its stands the guild UI is just a list of people who are online in your guild. There isn’t a way to interact with them aside from setting their member note. How about being able to send a whisper or a group invite to the members of your guild? You know, being able to socially interact with the people you’ve formed an in game social group with sounds like a pretty awesome idea to me.

Kalan: (See above) Yeah, what he said. Not being able to invite someone to my group FROM MY GUILD is frustrating for sure

How have you guys found leveling to be? It is interesting how you can get XP for a variety of different in-game activities, do you think XP and levels come too easy or is about right?

Sydor: I’ve found leveling to be pretty great so far. I really enjoy that there are multiple streams of XP gain and I’m a big fan of using most, or all of them. We’ve been really enjoying the PVP game so far and love that we can get some XP while doing it.

What are some of your guild’s highlights or achievements so far in the game?

Sydor: As a relatively young guild our biggest achievement and certainly a highlight for Kalan and I, is probably the fact that we’re still a guild and that we’re gaining members and momentum as the game gets older.

Kalan: For sure, when we started this guild we weren’t sure how we’d be received or if we’d get people to join, let alone hang around after launch. The brightest days for KBH are certainly ahead of us and we’re looking forward to Operation and Warzone highlights and achievements in the future!

KBH taking down World Boss 'The First' on Dromund Kaas

KBH is another SWTOR podcast. How is your podcast going and where can folks listen or download your podcast?

Sydor: You can find our show on Bootleg Radio every Thursday at 6PM EST.

Kalan: You can also find us on iTunes where you can subscribe to the podcast and get the latest episode every week, right to your desktop!

What classes/advance classes and levels are Kalan and Sydor? As far as classes, do you think there are any major balance issues? What are some class ideas or fixes you guys would like to see happen?

Sydor: I’ve been playing the Imperial Agent Operative as a healer and really enjoying it. I’m currently (as of Jan 31) level 48. For the most part I feel like I can keep any single target alive (so long as it’s not like 1v5 in a warzone!) no problem. My biggest gripe is probably our class’ “bubble” mechanic since we can only cast it on our selves (as opposed to the sorcerer’s targetable bubble) and it’s on a cool down that is about twice as long as other classes. I’d love to be able to bubble Kalan in Warzones when he’s making a push for the goal in Huttball! Right now it’s hard to ‘save’ someone who is close to death when I arrive to a fight and they’re getting pounded on. (Sydor has reached level 50 now…congrats!*)

Kalan: I have played ONLY the Powertech Bounty Hunter as a tank. (this is a big deal because usually in other games I would have had switched between 3 different ‘main’ chars). I love the Bounty Hunter for its Gameplay and mechanics of tanking (not the story)

Has it been a mad dash to level cap or have you been taking it a bit slower?

Sydor: Well we’ve been dashing as much as RL has allowed us to. I’m pretty sure Stock has a self imposed “slow burn” in his class story!

Kalan: Im only 2 levels behind you Sydor… god **** god ****

What part of the game (warzones, story/leveling or Flashpoints/Operations) have you found the guild participating in the most?

Sydor: Much to the dismay of a couple of our members that have been level 50 for a couple weeks we haven’t raided anything other than a couple world bosses. Our focus has been playing as much together in warzones and flashpoints but in the next week or so should shift towards Operations as well.

Kalan: Surprisingly (as i am not a PvP’er) Warzones… Mostly because I am an absolute beast in a warzone…Fear me (insert evil laugh)

Is Keyboard Heroes currently recruiting? If so what classes/advance classes is the guild needing? What steps do potential applicants need to follow to join?

Sydor: Despite what Kalan may tell you, Keyboard Heroes is recruiting! We’re looking for more DPS and healers as we go forward in building our operations group(s). While we’re not necessarily ‘full’ on tanks, we’re definitely a little more selective and a consistent raid spot might be a little hard to come by until we get a second group up and running.

Kalan: The best thing for anyone who wants to join the guild to do is to head over to the guild’s website (www.keyboardheroes.ca) and click the “Fight for the Sith Empire” link on the left hand side then follow that up by sending an in-game tell to Sydor, Deluco or myself.

How can players find out more about the KBH guild? What form of communication works best in-game, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.?

The best ways to find out more about KBH is to head over to our website or to send an in-game message to Kalan, Sydor or Deluco on the Vulkar Highway server.

Thanks again to everyone at Keyboard Heroes, and especially to Kalan and Sydor for helping with this article. I know they are busy enough with work, school, family and finding time to play the game, not to mention running a guild. So, I appreciate them taking time to share more about KBH. If you are looking for a guild and want to have a good time in Warzones, PVP and just some crazy fun…look no further. Give these guys an in-game tell or contact them through their website.

Now are you in a guild or a leader in a guild? If you are why not contact me and see if we can tell the community about what you all are doing. Just submit your guild’s website and some basic information in an email to me at, jason@corellianrun.com. Look forward to highlighting more guilds here at Corellian Run Radio. Thanks and see you next week!

Greeting spacers!  Another week has arrived and I hope you’re not suffering the Monday Blues.  Every once in a while I’ll be releasing a Force Lore Intelligence Report.  The information contained within the report will hopefully be of use to you, the reader, as an extension of the In-game Codex, clarification of bits of lore that are released by BioWare or LucasArts, or some of the jargon I use in the column on a regular basis.  Beware:  Force Lore Intelligence Reports may contain spoilers for in-game events, so readers use caution.  Now, stand by for receipt of Intelligence transmission.

Initiate Transmission

37:1:4/IHV/NER3/JTA.5.REY/MIL

Operation: Commence Download of Datafile

"This card entitles you to the utmost security clearance!"

As you read Force Lore, you’re going to come across some terms and abbreviations that I use frequently.  If you are not familiar with content from other Star Wars sources, other than the movies and Star Wars: The Old Republic, these may be strange and confusing to you.  Hopefully, I can clear up any questions that may arise from this crazy lingo.

1. BBY – This stands for Before the Battle of Yavin.  All the fans of the original trilogy will remember the fateful moments of the Rebel Alliance attacking the Death Star in a valiant attempt to destroy the space station and save the Rebel Alliance from annihilation.  This is known as the Battle of Yavin.  The Star Wars galaxy uses this event as the epoch of the current Universe’s timeline, viewed from the movie era, to dates both before and after events that occurred in the first movie.  I’ll be using this almost exclusively over any other methods of date reference.

2. ABY – This stands for After the Battle of Yavin.  This doesn’t apply to the events occurring in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I will be making reference to events that apply to the stories that keep going after SWTOR.  Outside of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, this date applies heavily to New Republic, New Jedi Order, and Legacy eras.  Most of the stories are covered in the novels, video games, RPG supplements, and comics that focus on Star Wars events that occurred after all the movies.

3. SWTOR/TOR – This is a simple acronym for Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Sometimes it’s shortened to The Old Republic.

4. Imperials – For almost three decades, the term Imperial applied to the bad guys from Star Wars Episode IV, V, and VI.  Now that the Sith Empire has come along in TOR, there are Imperials before “Papa Palpatine” takes over the known galaxy.  Any referrals to the Galactic Empire Imperials will be noted as such. (Note: Check out “Robot Chicken” on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim to see where the “Papa Palpatine” comes from, if you don’t recognize it.  You can find it on Youtube.)

5. Eras – I make heavy use of the different eras that both George Lucas-Canon and Expanded Universe-Canon follow throughout most Star Wars sources.  These Eras are:

• Pre-Republic – This consists of events occurring before the formation of the Galactic Republic.
• Old Republic – This stretches from about 25,000 BBY up to 1,000 BBY.  This is also the era the SWTOR takes place.
• Rise of the Empire – From 999 BBY to 19 BBY.  This is when the Sith “Rule of Two” is in effect and the Sith are secretly and patiently working to take the Galactic Republic down.  This covers events that occur in Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III.
• Rebellion – This era marks the birth of the Skywalker twins, the lead-up to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and the movies that followed.  Taking place from 19 BBY to 4 ABY, ending with the Galactic Empire’s defeat at Endor and the start of the New Republic.
• New Republic – This era marks the rise of the New Republic as the new galactic government and the decline of the Galactic Empire.  This runs from 5 ABY to 25 ABY.
• The New Jedi Order – Starting with the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY and running through 40 ABY.
• Legacy – This new era is still largely in development in novels, comics, and other media.  This runs from 40 ABY through approximately 140 ABY.

If you come across anything that you have a question about, please ask in the Comments section.  I’ll be more than happy to answer the best that I can.  If you want to read more on any topics that I address, check out Wookieepedia, the largest searchable Star Wars database/wiki there is.  There are also a number of truly great novels out for almost every era of the Star Wars Universe.  They’re a great read, even when they don’t involve the main characters from the movies.

I hope this helps.  Look for a regular installment of FORCE LORE very soon!  Until next time, spacers!  May the Force be with you, always.

Star Wars™ is a trademark of George Lucas and Lucasfilms/LucasArts.  Star Wars: The Old Republic™ is a trademark of BioWare/EA Games.  All content referenced in this article (Characters, locations, story, etc.) are property of abovementioned parties.  All rights reserved.

by Thom

We, gamers especially and computer users in general, are always depicted as giant nerds. A few weeks back during SOPAgate, The Daily Show showed footage of Congress saying that the representatives did not know much so they asked some nerds. More and more though, we ‘nerds’ are getting in the news beyond the negative and/or sad stories, like claiming that video games are the cause of a shooting (which in most cases they are not, but that’s another debate). Recently, I saw 2 news items relating to Star Wars The Old Republic and MMO’s, one a bit negative if you ask me, the other quite positive. Here’s the scoop, and my personal flavor of opinion on top of it!

Cannot get enough of Thom’s Thought Transmission? It continues after this break.

The Conservatives Strike Back

First, let me be very clear. I am Dutch, and in general we are a very liberal country. Not the USA’s bad kind of liberal, but Europe’s meaning of liberal. So if you get any sense of offense over my following opinion, take it with a grain of salt. Also, I am not religious but anyone who is has the right to practice whatever they believe. The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in essence.

We did not know... yet...

The first bit of news comes from the United States, where a group called The Family Research Center has uttered some very negative comments directed at Star Wars The Old Republic. They are saying that the proposed inclusion of gay and lesbian relations with companion characters will expose kids to a “warped way of thinking,” basically saying that it should either not be implemented or the game should be forbidden. Adhering to biblical scriptures that being a homosexual is a bad thing and the sanctity of marriage.

First of all, we are talking about a video game. Which is rated T for Teen. Kids nowadays are already sexually active before that age (a little bit concerning) and are bombarded with all kinds of unsavory images on television and other parts of the media spectrum besides a single video game. So placing your focus on a single medium is grasping at straws in my opinion. Secondly, it is a game with a lot more religion speed bumps to fall over. The whole idea of the Dark Side and being evil is definitely not condoned in many scriptures, not to mention player versus player and ‘love thy neighbor’ philosophies. In earnest, it just really grinds my gears.

Return of the Judge-i

The second article is not really positive in and of itself, but it foreshadows a good feature. In a Dutch court, two kids were convicted to public service sentences after found guilty of bullying a third kid into giving them his items he earned in RuneScape. Stealing in a online game is being compared to stealing in real life, and sentenced just as its ‘physical’ counterpart.

Scoundrel for life

This shows that government is able to take the online community more serious, not just ignoring it or dismissing it but instead comparing the time spent in these games as serious engaging activity akin to working for money, and when committing offense in them warrants reprimand just the same. It bodes well, so lets hope that the current ineptitude certain governments show towards the online community by staying ignorant and unknowing about how the internet really works, and starts implementing smarter and better legislation to protect gamers and other people online from abuse by others.

New Hope

In a Battle Royale between the Coruscant Patriots and the Alderaan Giants, who will win the Galactic Bowl this year? Leave your comment below! And as always, may the Force be with you

CRR HoloScan

Each week we will spotlight a member of the SWTOR community and get him or her to answer ten slightly off-the-beaten-path questions. Feel free to answer the questions yourself in the Comments section!

This week we highlight, Sunny Ravencourt of Sunny’s Diner.  We find that Sunny puts oysters on almost everything and is a fanatic about “The Deadliest Catch” reality show.

Comments and more after the jump…

Q: What was your first video game obsession?

A: I think I put a TON of time into a game called “baseball” on the Sega Master System.  I remember that I had to wait until I was going to my grandmothers house in Winnipeg to get it.  We were going on a Wednesday.  I waited forever for that Wednesday.  To this day, when I think of Wednesday I get bizarrely excited.  I guess that’s the most excited I’ve ever been for a game prior to SWTOR.

Q: What is your guilty pleasure, snack-wise?

A:  I’ll put seafood on anything, and my wife absolutely hates that I do it.  I buy these little cans of oysters, and I’ll throw them into all sorts of junk.  It drives her crazy.

Q: Describe what you did last Sunday afternoon.

A:  I cut down 3 trees with a chainsaw and then played hockey.  Seriously.  You just happened to catch me on the most manly of Sundays in recent memory.

Q: What video game have you not yet played that you know you should?

A: Skyrim.  Just a terrible release schedule on top of TOR.  A guy at work is going to lend me his copy, and I’m having an internal battle as to how much TOR time it’s going to occupy.

Q: What game did you most recently play? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

A: Other than the obvious?  I played Shogun 2 and Civ V quite a bit.  Like any self-respecting nerd, I’m obsessed with Japan and Samurai stuff.  Shogun 2 is just awesome.  And Civ is … well… Civ.  I’m like a heroin addict with Civ, which makes me pretty much like any persons that’s ever loaded up that game.

Q: What TV show do you watch faithfully and why?

A:  The Deadliest Catch.  I’m an absolute fanatic about it.  It’s the best reality show ever made.  I see every episode the night it comes out and (this is true) have a crab feast with my wife on the season opening episode.  It’s just so honest and real.  These guys don’t give a crap that they’re on television.  Other than the paycheck, they probably hate it.  Oh, and guys DIE.  Some of these guys on this show literally do not come back.  It’s freaking insane.  Greatest show ever.

Q: What was the last song you listened to on your iPod?

A:  I have trained my 19 month old son to react like a Pavlovian dog to the opening theme of Clone Wars.  I have it on my iphone and he asks for it all the time.  He gets very excited.

Q: What bad habit do you have that you hope no one notices?

A:  I chew my nails and crack my knuckles.  Been doing it since I was born.  I’ll never break it.  It drives me crazy, but I’m locked into it for life now.

Q: Describe your first Star Wars experience.

A:  This is really a tough question. 2 things come to mind.  I had a Chewie figure that I lost in the couch for something like 5 years.  I was so stoked when Mom pulled it out and said, “We Found Chewie!!”.  I also knew this Egyptian guy named Chiraz Fouad (coolest name ever) who had EVERY star wars figure.  My mind exploded when I saw his collection.  It was nuts.  The toys were definitely my first experiences with Star Wars

Q: Finish the sentence: My first character in SWTOR will be__________ because _________.

A: A Soundrel because I think they’re going to be wildly underpopulated and I have to be different for some reason.

Q: Bonus Question: What is your catch phrase?

A:  “Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today.  This is never ending.” Yamamoto Tsunetomo (from Hagakure)

We want to thank Sunny Ravencourt of Sunny’s Diner for participating and being such a great sport!   Don’t forget to listen to Sunny’s Diner podcast!

Sunny Ravencourt

HoloNet Links #31

We start off this week’s article with a bit of news from yesterday on the official game press release, after just about six weeks post-launch Star Wars: The Old Republic has sold over 2 million copies, with nearly 1.7 million of them as subscribers! That is just amazing to me. The article goes on to break down some of the “shocking” numbers reached at just past the one month marker:

• Over 239 million in-game hours, this equals 332,000 months or roughly 27,000 years in-game time.
• Over 20 billion NPCs killed (This includes the docile animals my nephew enjoys to target)
• Over 148 billion credits spent (Most of my help in this was spending them on crew skills)

I don’t know about you, but to me those numbers are pretty hard to comprehend. All I know is that this game is beyond addictive and I just love it!

More links from the past week & of course some fun after the Jump…

• SWTOR Video Tip

This week we are going to get schooled on playing Voidstar. We will see how not only learning the map, and teamwork are not just helpful hints, but the best way to start coming away with wins in this Warzone. Pokket from MMORPG.com provides us with this helpful guide. If you liked this video head over to MMORPG.com for her video column “Game Face” and also check her out on her TwitchTV.com channel streaming her SWTOR adventures and PVP matches.

Dev notes

• Georg talks about changes to Drops in Patch 1.1.2

GeorgZoeller Public Test Server -> 1.1.2 PvP bag changes.

Let me just point this out, since there’s confusion about it.
The 1.1.2. bag changes have reduced the RNG element on drops DRAMATICALLY. Exactly what you guys asked for.
Instead of hoping to get specific item tokens, you now get (more) commendations that you can turn into an item of your choice. That is a lot more deterministic and reliable than opening bags and hoping for a token.
— Georg

• Rich Vogel talks to us about how they deal with Bugs and Exploits

In the new Developer Blog, we hear from Rich Vogel. He talks first about the differences between bugs and exploits in games and then how they approach at taking care of them. Exploits, of course are ways a player uses a bug or bad code an as unfair advantage. This is basically using something in-game that was never intended to be done. These threaten game balance between classes and balance in the economy within the game. As Rich explains these are usually dealt with immediately once they are confirmed.

He goes into more depth on how they deal with bugs and how it is not as easy just to fix one thing. It comes down to maintaining a balance of a stable game. I urge all of you to read the rest of this article and find out what all goes on in the never ending battle with bugs.

“Our most important goal is to make sure you continue to have fun playing our game and we will do everything in our power to make you feel that you are getting your money’s worth every month. Thank you very much for playing!”

Rich Vogel
Executive Producer

• Stephen Reid answers concerns about the Guild Summit

StephenReid General Discussion -> Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiachsidhe

How are you not excluding people, if only a tiny sliver of your player base can even apply, and then you have to be selected? You’re excluding most of your players before applications even begin!

We’re not excluding people because, as we’ve suggested several times in a number of threads today, we’ll be open to feedback and interaction during the summit from everyone – not just those attending. We’re not ready to announce further details on how that will work yet, but we will be soon.
Naturally, we can’t host a summit and invite the entire population of the game to attend; it’s physically not possible. I can understand your feelings that those ‘in the room’ have a stronger voice than those out of it, but we’re taking that into account in our planning.

Quote: Originally Posted by Bregah

Also, like someone else said, this announcement gives the impression they’ll start ASKING what people want in March, and then start coding/implementing it.

There are plenty of guild-centric features already planned and many are in development – for example guild banks, which we’ve talked about for Game Update 1.2.
We are certainly not holding back on development of these features until the summit happens, although we do hope that during the summit when we talk about future development, we’ll get some validation from the community as a whole (and not just those attending) that we’re on the right track. (And why are we waiting until the summit? Well, the development team isn’t quite ready to talk about many of these features yet, but we’ve challenged them to ensure they are by the summit.)
Finally, I appreciate the feedback in this thread, but I’d ask you to remain constructive in your comments.

• A fix to a heal that was never suppose to be for Sages/Sorcs

CameronWinston Classes -> Salvation/Revivification Discrepency (Sage/Sorc AOE Heal)

The extra ‘large’ heal at the beginning of Salvation was always unintended, and was removed as part of this fix. The ‘double’ tick at the beginning was corrected but still appears visually. This issue will be further corrected in an upcoming patch which should make the ticks read much more clearly and be more evenly spaced out.

The design intent of this ability is 11 ticks of healing over a 10 second period to all applicable taregts within the area (Which is also how Revivification works). Hope this helps clarify!

• Georg fills us in on changes to Crafting & how it will impact the Galactic Economy

GeorgZoeller Public Test Server -> Crafting Profession Changes in patch 1.1.2

Hi,
I wanted to drop some notes on the changes made to the BioChem profession in the patch (1.1.2) that just went onto the Public Test Server, how they fit in the big picture and how we are proceeding forward with crafting professions in endgame in general.
First off, we removed the requirement to have the BioChem profession to use Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals. This was done to (a) remove pressure of players to pick up BioChem for optimal combat performance and (b) to open up the sale of BioChem products to a larger audience on the Galactic Trade Network.

Additionally, we’ve reduced the effectiveness of the BioChem exclusive Rakata Stimpacks to be equal to Energized stimpacks. Their intended benefit is the cost savings they provide over time, not an increase in power. We are also in progress of reviewing the creation costs of many consumables in the game against the economic realities (acquisition cost of purple mission materials on our live servers) and will likely make adjustments to these in the future.

It is our intention to gradually, over multiple patches, reduce the impact of situational consumables on endgame combat resolution and shift the factors which determine the outcome of combat more towards personal skill. As part of this effort, specifically for PvP, we are also working on changes that will reduce the gear related power difference between new characters at level 50 and players in full PvP gear. We feel that at the current time, this difference is too high.

On a more general note about crafting, our changes to make BioChem consumables freely tradeable are just a small first step as part of a larger scale effort to extend our crafting gameplay, for all professions, into the endgame.
Major changes are currently on schedule for the next major content patch, such as extractable basemods (armoring, barrel, etc.) from purple items, critical crafting successes on orange outfits, more bind-on-equip schematic drops for artifice and other professions, increased relevance of augments, better reverse engineering chance, and other improvements. We want to create significant incentive for players to engage in the crafting economy – as provider of goods or supplier – without requiring players to take up a specific profession as a ticket into endgame.

Long term, our plan is to evolve Star Wars: The Old Republic’s game economy to a more player driven model, strengthen and improve the GTN and embrace the game’s extensive appearance customization throughout the game. We have a long list of improvements planned for that but we’re also anxious to hear from you. Feel free to use this thread to give us your feedback on the topic!
Regards
Georg

GeorgZoeller Public Test Server -> Crafting Profession Changes in patch 1.1.2

As stated, we are working on making all crafting professions fully endgame viable. We’ll talk more about specifics, like Armstech or Synthweaving when we have specifics to announce.

The reason BioChem is called out specifically in this note is because this patch changes how it works and we want players to understand why that is the case.

I am happy to hear these changes are coming to the crafting professions. Making all the crafting professions viable rather than one or two being must have for endgame is a much better system. Let’s just hope that the Public Testing will go well and it will move to the live game soon.

• Stephen Reid clears up the fabled White Crystal that shouldn’t have been…yet?!

StephenReid Crew Skills -> Artifice – Where to Find a White Lightsaber Crystal (And other rares)

Hello all – you’ve obviously already seen my other post regarding the appearance of the White Lightsaber Crystal.
I’m sorry the end result of this ‘red herring’ has disappointed a lot of people; all we can do is apologize here and set the record straight.
I talked to the development team regarding this and I wanted to reassure all of you who are looking for this crystal that it will be available in the game eventually. At this time we can’t give you any more information on when that will happen or how the crystal will ultimately be obtained, but rest assured when it’s able to be found, we’ll let you know (but depending on the method of obtaining it, we might not give you a road map!).
To WraithAscendant: thanks for starting and maintaining this thread, as a lot of people have gotten enjoyment out of it! I appreciate you updated the original post – you might also want to change the thread title. (If you have issues with that, let us know.)

Star Wars Community News & Events

• Corellian Run Radio’s Weekly Nav Coordinates

A Happy Groundhog Day to everyone. I am hoping that the groundhog did not see his shadow and brings us closer to Spring! This week we welcome a new writer to Corellian Run Radio. Daniel Sperelli will be bringing us his weekly article, Force Lore. He will be helping us all learn more about the history of that Galaxy far, far away…that we all love. Check out his and all the other articles from the past week. For your benefit we have the articles listed below.

01/27 CRR HoloScan: “Jeffrey” of TOROCast by Carla

01/30 Guild Checkpoint – revisit with The Brotherhood of SWATH by Jason Taylor

01/31 My Two Credits: My First TOR Ops by Maer

02/01 Bioware to host Old Republic Guild Summit by Jason Taylor

02/01 Force Lore: Where It All Started by Daniel Sperelli

02/02 Episode 45: January Writers’ Roundtable – podcast

• SWTOR Video Fun

Now most weeks I have been showcasing music videos using in-game footage or the cinematic trailers. All of those have been very well done and creative, but this week I came across something a bit different. It is video utilizing in-game footage, but a bit more than piecing together footage to a popular song…this one is a movie short or a “filmette” if you will. I don’t want to give much away, but huge kudos to Lektrobuzi for this creative SWTOR video. Let us know what you think of this video in the comments below.

Still asking for anyone to submit your original work related to SWTOR. This is your chance to get published. Your submission could include in-game footage, music video, video parody, game tips, fan fiction, creative artwork… As long as it’s related to SWTOR the possibilities are endless – NO SPOILERS, Please.

Send any of these my way to get highlighted in future HoloNet Links articles. You can email me at jason@corellianrun.com, or you can leave link suggestions in the comments below, or in the Facebook group. See you all next week!