OotiniCast Episode 102
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The Super Secret Space Project is unveiled at last! We discuss the announcement of SWTOR’s free-to-play digital expansion, “Galactic Starfighter”. We also talk about an idea to require a player to have only PvP gear when solo queuing for ranked arenas, and briefly cover the Elo-based rating system utilised by SWTOR.
1. Introduction
2. Trivia question
Congratulations to this week’s winner, JediKrackr!
3. Tip of the week
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.
4. Holofeed
- Patch 2.4.0a was deployed on Thursday morning, and Patch 2.4.0b arrived during regular maintenance on Tuesday. They fixed the majority of the omissions and the nastiest bugs that had arrived with Game Update 2.4.
- Bounty Contract Week returns next Tuesday (15 October), presumably once the servers are back up after maintenance (during which Game Update 2.4.1 should be deployed).
- There is a bug when starting Maelstrom Prison (mistakenly referred to as Mandalorian Raiders in the show), such that if you spacebar through the opening cinematic, you’re effectively locked in place, with the only option being a complete client restart. The workaround is to let the cinematic play out normally.
- There are some issues with Quick Travel Terminals that have emerged since Game Update 2.4 was released, particularly those on Oricon.
- It appears that anyone using the Eset NOD32 anti-virus software was having problems updating the game; the workaround is to disable the anti-virus software to allow the Launcher to update.
- The SSSP (Super Secret Space Project) has finally been unveiled! BioWare has announced their next “free-to-play digital expansion”, Galactic Starfighter. They also released the “Conflict Rising” trailer (also on YouTube). The expansion will be free for all, unlocking for subscribers on 3 December, Preferred on 14 January, and Free on 4 February. Galactic Starfighter will include 12v12 PvP (not PvE) space battles, but no increase in the level cap, no new planet, and no space-based PvE content. However, it does include what sounds like an alternative advancement path specific to Galactic Starfighter, separate from regular character progression.
5. Community
6. Force Feedback
We discuss tweets from @Swtorfamily (be sure to follow him back to join the #swtorfamily!), @MatTaylor22, @GregCarter78, @ZenOfDesign, @masterbearjedi (Raz), @ForceChuckle, @Freakin_Ninja (Oni), @ChazLobo, @RPGbeatsRL (Simon from the Flashpoint podcast at The Oceanic Gamer), @bytorsnowdog (Snowy), @DurtaDurta (Slade), @TheTurg, @swtorLFGdevs (Davidb) and @IzaakTheMad, emails from Jesus, Neiro, Tarkko, Darth Khalidin and AwesomeSellars, and comments from Oxi-Jin and NecktieFighter.
Snowy’s trooper with the glowing gloves on Oricon:
Izaak’s most awesome background, featuring the artwork of Adam Schumpert:
7. Sarlacc Digest
Our topic this week was discussing the proposal that solo ranked arenas matches should require participants to have an Expertise rating of 2018, thus ensuring they have only PvP gear (Partisan, Conqueror, Obroan). We had some great community feedback on the proposal, which very much informed the debate. Thanks to Spero, @JediKrackr, @GregCarter78, @Geldarion (Drew from Corellian Run Radio), @Lawilc01 (Laurie M), @TheTurg and @therealHausman (Jacob).
We also covered the Elo rating system, which apparently forms the basis of the solo and group rating used for ranked warzone arenas.
Notes
- Rob Hinkle on handling the disconnection of a team member during a ranked match.
- For unranked queuing, arenas are considered a type (with three maps), equivalent to the other warzones (Huttball, Voidstar, Civil War, Novarre Coast and Ancient Hypergate); this means there should be a 1/6 chance of getting into an arena when you queue.
- We recommend Geldarion’s latest article in his Tactical Strike column, “Arenas – A First Look”.
8. 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.
A Thousand Apologies Teo….Throw me into the Sarlacc Pit. My episode 100 comment should have said Teo, not Chill, for the audition work.
Oxi-jin
No worries, mate! We took it in stride. 🙂
probably sending a tip of the week the wrong way again… but here’s my post http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=688449
… drunkenly written but what ever…
The TIP is you can quit a unranked WZ by left or right clicking the warzone Q(queue) button by your mini map and selecting leave WZ. If you quit before the match starts you don’t get a punishment. Nor should you as we should be able to pick. may this tip lead to no more HB or VS ever. All 4vs4 – love it so much… space is gonne beee awwweeessssooooooome!
Right click, just checked.
If you quit after the match starts, you don’t get punishment either! There are zero penalties for leaving early; the only downside is you get nothing for however much time you were in there (no XP, valor or comms are awarded until the final scoreboard come up).
For a ranked match, if you abandon, you lose 15 rating (equivalent to losing).
Hi there,
I have just hit lvl 55 And could really use some help on operations. I am a sorcerer and am currently in black hole/campaign gear and brand new to end game content. I was wondering what gear is recommended for operations? Should I wait until I have the armor from the basic comms vendor? Also should I do the operations one by one or can I jump into any operation? Thanks for your help. Also want to say I love the show, its the highlight of my week and certainly makes the hour and a half long journey to college much more fun. Keep up the great work.
For story mode operations 55 level 69 mods/enhancements/armorings should be your target. 72 for HM TFB (Terror from Beyond) and S & V (Scum and Villany).
HM flash points farming elite coms will get you a full set of 69s quickly. I would do dalies for basic coms and save them to get arkanian relics.
Doing S & V and TFB the first time, then turning in the story quest will give you a mass manipulation generator that you could use to have a top tier hilt or underworld relic crafted. As a sorc I would get a serendipitous assault relic as it is great for healing or dps. If you like the look of your current shells, I would also suggest that you start to augment yourself in purple 28 resolve augments. A full set of purple 28 augments can often make up the difference for a piece or two of gear.
Okay thanks dude. I’ll start on that immediately 🙂
If you see me on, would be happy to heal/run some HM flashpoints to help you gear.
Good hunting
Morríah
Ootinicast Quote of the Week 102: ‘Is it Jar Jar Binks?’ – Hyp taking a guess at the trivia question.
Unfortunately for us all Jar Jar was in more than one movie sir. Maybe there’s a premise here for a new Back to the Future movie where they stop Jar Jar from being put in any of the movies; or maybe he just dies after his first line 🙂
Oh yes please oh please let this happen:D
Reminds me of one of the best Ootini Cast intros.
“A podcast that wonders if Jar Jar Binks ancestors can be found in game, and if they are targetable…”
Or something very close to that. Made me laugh out loud at work.
Kudos to Bioware for the new Operations
Teo is correct. Healing the encounter against the giant, armored, bi-pedal flea — the first boss of dread palace on HM — is a challenge.
We were fortunate to have a gunnery commando help with the cleansing. There are some defensive cool downs that can drop the dot, but were only up every other time the debuff goes out.
All said, the HM encounters are tuned very well and will offer a challenge to most operation groups.
Morríah