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Not too much news this week, though we do have the Rise of the Hutt Cartel digital expansion now being available for free to subscribers! Redna is also back, and provides yet more tidbits from the Community Cantina in Seattle.

1. Introduction

Here is the screenshot that Red mentioned, where his team won The Civil War without the middle turret ever being captured:

Red is also now streaming regularly on Twitch.

2. Tip of the week

Congratulations to this week’s winner, ChazLobo! Please send your tips to ootinicast@gmail.com by next Wednesday for a chance to win a Tawnfaun code, courtesy of BioWare, and an OotiniCast-provided Cartel Market pack from the latest shipment.

3. Holofeed

• The minor patch 2.3.2a was deployed on Friday morning (US time), to remove references to the as yet unavailable function that allows Cartel Coins to be purchased in-game.
• Another minor patch, 2.3.2b, was deployed on Wednesday morning (US time) to fix an issue that was kicking players to the character selection screen.
• Some organisational news from EA: Matthew Bromberg, who became General Manager of BioWare Austin shortly before the announcement of free-to-play, has been promoted to lead BioWare. Jeff Hickman, SWTOR’s Executive Producer, replaces him as GM. Does this mean that SWTOR will have a new Executive Producer (such as Bruce Maclean), or will Jeff wear both hats?
• Bounty Contract Week is here again, running through until 5am CDT next Tuesday (17 September). That’s the usual start of maintenance, when Game Update 2.3.3 may be deployed. Note that (as of Game Update 2.3.2) each specific Kingpin contract (that is, for a given planet) can only be done once per week per character, though now rewards a purple reputation item.
• For those Jedi Knights and Consular who have unlocked the GTN on their personal starships, you may notice that the GTN terminal has moved! It is now located next to the Cargo Bay access upstairs.
• There was a UI issue that was causing some achievements (such as those associated with space missions) to be incorrectly shown as completed, giving the impression they were stuck in the achievement tracker. This is now fixed, and Amber assures us that no one’s achievements were revoked!
• The White/White and Black/Black dye modules, which were mentioned as being available in Game Update 2.3.2 (costing 1000 and 2000 Cartel Coins respectively) apparently appeared over the weekend on the Cartel Market, and then disappeared. While it was intended that players would be informed prior to their sale, this didn’t happen. The moral of this story is to check for Cartel Market additions and specials every day, particularly on weekends!
• The testing of Game Update 2.4 continues, with another PTS update. This includes some most awesome improvements to the GTN interface!
• From Thursday 12 September, subscribers will be granted free access to the Rise of the Hutt Cartel digital expansion (this access is retained if the subscription subsequently lapses); anyone with an active subscription who had purchased the expansion prior to that will be granted a title (“The Risen”). Any subscriber who had purchased the expansion between 11 August and 12 September will be granted 1050 Cartel Coins (the amount purchasable for $US9.99, the cost of the expansion for subscribers).

4. Community

Special thanks to our guildmate PJ for providing the funds needed to purchase the fourth Guild Bank tab for Ootini Knights! It has been named the “HRT Closet” in honour of his favourite V8 Supercar racing team, the Holden Racing Team. For those interested in joining Ootini Fight Club for some endgame PvP, please contact Chong by email (empiredivider@gmail.com).

5. Force Feedback

Thanks to Oxi-jin for his most generous comment provided for episode 97. It really brightened our days! In this Reddit post, it’s suggested that the following image in CZ-198’s Czerka Corporate Labs flashpoint is actually a reference to the Super Secret Space Project:

We discuss tweets from @Swtorfamily (be sure to follow him back to join the #swtorfamily!), @ForceChuckle, @bytorsnowdog (Snowy), @Enyonix, @Telenroidswtor, @FerrousTerran, @eG_acefisher1 (Danny), @AckaanTalgala (Akaan Darasuum), @jeffyjaws, @GregCarter78 and @EmpireDivider (Moff Chong), emails from Awesome Sellars (happy birthday, mate!), Spero and Oryan’s Belt, and comments from The Malgadar, Masterbearjedi and Tim (Gasguy192). Snowy’s Trooper is back and ready to rumble!

@FerrousTerran recommends The Muppets – Bobo’s Star Wars Auditions on YouTube. Chong sent us this screenshot indicating “Corellia has a lot of droid-interpretive-dancing going on”:

Chong also found a charming scene involving a SWTOR NPC making a snow wookie. Oryan’s Belt recommends that SWTOR introduces the “Pimp” class to incentivise playing the Cathar species:

6. Sarlacc Digest

Redna regales us with his own informational nuggets gleaned from the Community Cantina in Seattle, adding to Chill’s detailed coverage.

7. Outro

Thanks to Redna (@R3DN4) and Hyp (@Hypknotoad) for joining us this week.

Information about our guilds on The Harbinger, Ootini Knights (Republic) and Ootini Rage (Empire), can be found here.

You can email questions and comments about the show to ootinicast@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter via @OotiniCast. Check out our website, ootinicast.com, which has links to our presence on Google+ and Facebook. We are a proud member of the TOR Syndicate! You can subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune, and listen to us on Stitcher and Radio4Gamers.