Patch Notes

[Lantyssa]

Combat flowed significantly better on my Sith Warrior last night.

[ajax34i]

You guys are probably familiar with RAM-Disks and symlinks, but this thread is talking about exactly which files SWTOR uses as caches and buffers, and about loading them into RAM in order to get rid of a lot of the hiccups and freezes the game typically does. 

Apparently, the game caches asset files from the hard drive TO the hard drive, then from the (2nd location on the) hard drive to RAM for use, and placing the 3 caches into RAM makes things amazingly.

[DraconianOne]

It's 8:30am on a Saturday here in the good old UK and yes, they've taken the servers down for a patch. No details on what, exactly, that patch is but presumably it's a biggie and fixes some serious exploits because seriously? On a Saturday?

Guess I should do something productive with myself before the kids come back.

[Outlawedprod]

presumably it's a biggie and fixes some serious exploits because seriously? On a Saturday?

Wonder if it has something to do with the rumors spreading about an EA forum hack.
http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654489584901318/

[Phred]

I once had a friend summarize video cards to me this way: ATI makes better hardware, nVidia makes more compatible drivers.

Any truth to that statement?

More like nVidia pays developers more to test on their cards.

[Fabricated]

I once had a friend summarize video cards to me this way: ATI makes better hardware, nVidia makes more compatible drivers.

Any truth to that statement?

More like nVidia pays developers more to test on their cards.

This pretty much. Both manufacturers also play kinda dirty with the most popular benchmarking titles and write in basically hacks to boost their FPS on them. Basically watch when the next system crusher comes out (Crysis 3, Guild Wars 2, etc), and pay close attention to driver notes. Suddenly you'll go from 1/2 driver updates a month to like 1/2 a week while Nvidia/AMD frantically try to impress Tom's Hardware.

[Threash]

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - 1.1.2 Patch Notes

[Nevermore]

Circling Shadows: Now requires the purchase of the Shadow Technique skill. Shadow Technique must be active in order to trigger the Circling Shadows buff. This skill now also triggers from Spinning Strike.

This completely and utterly destroys my favorite Kinetic hybrid spec.  They seem to be going out of their way to fuck over any Shadow hybrid with those changes.

[Furiously]

Im sure they are.

[tmp]

This completely and utterly destroys my favorite Kinetic hybrid spec.  They seem to be going out of their way to fuck over any Shadow hybrid with those changes.

Yeah it is rather... ugh. I suppose that's one way to react to realization that infiltration is underused -- pull the other specs down to its shitty level.

But ah well. I guess i can now swith to one of these cookie-cutter "put all your points in either tank or kinetic tree and then whatever remains in the other" and be done with it. Until another well thought out rebalance effort, at least.

[Shatter]

Just waiting for the Sorc nerf...and I play one :)

[tmp]

Btw, there's another nerf to the hybrid shadows of similar nature in the notes

Force Strike: Now triggers from activating melee attacks that hit a target affected by Force Technique’s Breach effect. This effect now triggers more easily but cannot trigger as frequently.

What the notes don't spell out is, this effectively means the Force Strike ability will now trigger only for characters using Force Technique 'stance', instead for anyone as it's currently.

[Bandit]

    General

        If Sprint was active when a player died, it now remains active when the player is revived.
        Abilities on cooldown are now more easily distinguished from abilities that can be used.

    Vendors

        It is no longer possible to purchase items while holding down the Shift, Alt, or Ctrl keys.

Small but welcomed changes/fixes! All 3 of these were bugging me last night.  The sprint has always irritated me - mostly from a PvP standpoint.  

[Nebu]

Now if they could give us sprint at level 1 instead of 14, that would be a nice change. 

[Lantyssa]

And passive.

Assassins and Shadows really don't need being made more difficult.  They need boosts, at least not up to the mid-levels, if not further.

[Nebu]

And passive.

Assassins and Shadows really don't need being made more difficult.  They need boosts, at least not up to the mid-levels, if not further.

I find my shadow to be much easier to play/level than my Guardian.  Some of that has to do with gear dependence though. 

Seems that the recent move in the patch notes is to force people higher in a single tree and discourage hybrid builds.  Shame as that was a fun mini game to min/max abilities.

[tmp]

Seems that the recent move in the patch notes is to force people higher in a single tree and discourage hybrid builds.  Shame as that was a fun mini game to min/max abilities.

Addiionally it's likely to make the gameplay more dull as a side-effect -- one of things i like about my hybrid is having access to a few similarly efficient abilites, but each somewhat situational and better to use depending on which procs are up and/or positioning. When these abilities get locked down within separate talent trees that means instead i get to press the same 3 keys over and over with little to no thought involved.

[Threash]

It's obvious from comments here that the patch note is not specific enough, so we'll get it updated before the patch goes to the live servers. Here are some specifics:

Champion Bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations AND 7Champion Commendations. Battlemaster Bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations. So Centurion gearing up progression for new level 50s is increased significantly and Champion gearing up progression will be steady.

We do still intend on adding more intro level 50 PvP items as well as change how Battlemaster Commendations operate toward the same 'steady' goal. It's just the scope of that change was more than could be done in a weekly patch as it included vendor changes, conversions to existing commendations on players already, etc.

That being said, the current interim 'gearing up' system will change significantly when we introduce Ranked Warzones (aiming for Game Update 1.2). Stay tuned for more details on that.

- Gabe

[Sky]

Cue the geared 50's QQfest.

[Threash]

Why? it's very easy to gear as it is.

[01101010]

It's obvious from comments here that the patch note is not specific enough, so we'll get it updated before the patch goes to the live servers. Here are some specifics:

Champion Bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations AND 7Champion Commendations. Battlemaster Bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations. So Centurion gearing up progression for new level 50s is increased significantly and Champion gearing up progression will be steady.

We do still intend on adding more intro level 50 PvP items as well as change how Battlemaster Commendations operate toward the same 'steady' goal. It's just the scope of that change was more than could be done in a weekly patch as it included vendor changes, conversions to existing commendations on players already, etc.

That being said, the current interim 'gearing up' system will change significantly when we introduce Ranked Warzones (aiming for Game Update 1.2). Stay tuned for more details on that.

- Gabe

Begun, the Gear War has!

[Lakov_Sanite]

I was just thinking "More games need to add wow's ranked battleground system" 

[Furiously]

That's five times the number per bag. You will be geared in no time.

[01101010]

That's five times the number per bag. You will be geared in no time.

Unless you abhor MMORPG PvP. Then it's a moot point unless I need that gear in PvE. Then there will be words. 

[Sky]

Why? it's very easy to gear as it is.

Right. Tell that to my lvl 50 BH in shitty level 40 gear.

[Ingmar]

It is pretty easy, really. Do dailies, get mods, put in orange gear. Also you get a lot of money from said dailies which you can use to fill in your earpiece, implants, etc., from the GTN.

Hate dailies? Then it gets a little rougher yes, but you can figure out another way to make money (GTN crafting something something probably) and buy gear off the GTN.

And all that's without even trying group stuff or PVP. It is certainly enough to get you into gear to do said group stuff.

[Threash]

Why? it's very easy to gear as it is.

Right. Tell that to my lvl 50 BH in shitty level 40 gear.

Its easy if you actually try to get it, it's not just going to magically appear on your character.

[Sky]

It is pretty easy, really. Do dailies, get mods, put in orange gear. Also you get a lot of money from said dailies which you can use to fill in your earpiece, implants, etc., from the GTN.

Hate dailies? Then it gets a little rougher yes, but you can figure out another way to make money (GTN crafting something something probably) and buy gear off the GTN.

And all that's without even trying group stuff or PVP. It is certainly enough to get you into gear to do said group stuff.

Well, yeah. Why would I grind dailies so I have enough gear to do hard modes when I can just roll and alt and enjoy a whole new class and storyline? I'll finish off the Ilum stuff at some point, but just grinding dailies to get gear is a horrible idea. First introduced to it in Rift and it was horrid then, too.

It would be nice to get into the end game FPs once in a while, but really no path of entry is any fun at all. So I guess it's "easy", same as peeling a thousand potatoes is easy.

[Modern Angel]

What were you expecting? Everyone in the world told you this wasn't innovative at the top end. You're basically saying "why is this game I'm playing not a completely different game?"

[Ingmar]

You can kit out a 6 piece set of oranges with mods in a week, so the number of potatoes that you have to peel isn't really anywhere near a thousand.

If you don't want to do the dailies you can get mods almost comparable via crafting but you'll have to figure out a way to pay for them.

[Fordel]

Now that the Impossible Sector apparently gives 2 daily comms (a space mission), all you need to do is the heroic 2 on Illum, the heroic 2 on Belsavis and the Impossible Sector and you'll get a Armoring, Mod and Enhancement every day. You'll fill out an orange suit in a week (or less if you don't have orange belt and bracers) and have money for buying my super affordable implants on the GTN.  

The actual questing would take you like 30 minutes tops (and like 5-10 of those minutes is just flying between Belsavis and Illum), not counting the space mission which you can do at your leisure (the space mission is 8 minutes).

[caladein]

You can kit out a 6 piece set of oranges with mods in a week, so the number of potatoes that you have to peel isn't really anywhere near a thousand.

If you don't want to do the dailies you can get mods almost comparable via crafting but you'll have to figure out a way to pay for them.

You can cut into that number of dailies by just finishing up Corellia and the Voss/Belsavis bonuses (I guess Hoth too, never done it).  Loads of mods and commendations that you can buy mods with.

Unless you abhor MMORPG PvP. Then it's a moot point unless I need that gear in PvE. Then there will be words. 

The weapons are useful just like they are in WoW as most of what matters from your weapon slots is the damage or the tech/force power.  Relics are kind of similar as the on-use is the same, but the base stats are End/Expertise instead of just End.

[Threash]

It is pretty easy, really. Do dailies, get mods, put in orange gear. Also you get a lot of money from said dailies which you can use to fill in your earpiece, implants, etc., from the GTN.

Hate dailies? Then it gets a little rougher yes, but you can figure out another way to make money (GTN crafting something something probably) and buy gear off the GTN.

And all that's without even trying group stuff or PVP. It is certainly enough to get you into gear to do said group stuff.

Well, yeah. Why would I grind dailies so I have enough gear to do hard modes when I can just roll and alt and enjoy a whole new class and storyline? I'll finish off the Ilum stuff at some point, but just grinding dailies to get gear is a horrible idea. First introduced to it in Rift and it was horrid then, too.

It would be nice to get into the end game FPs once in a while, but really no path of entry is any fun at all. So I guess it's "easy", same as peeling a thousand potatoes is easy.

You don't even NEED to grind dailies, both ilum and belsavis have a storyline and if you do all the quests including the heroics ONCE you get more than enough daily commendations to gear up.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, one time through will get you most of what you need for the armoring/hilt/barrel sort of stuff. You'll still have to repeat the Heroic 2s to get enhancements and modifications.

[Zetor]

Liking the pvp bag change. The crafting changes are nice too, good stuff!

That said, non-pvp/dungeon daily quests can die in a fire. I'll do them once on one character, and that's it.