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Along with the latest news, we discuss the Q&A from the Boston Community Cantina, and the developer blog outlining how Ranked PvP Season 2 is going to work.

1. Introduction

2. Tip of the week

Congratulations to this week’s winner, Ferrous Terran! Thanks to BenB, Bara-dur, Jay Connell, Raymond W and Darth Malvictus for entering.

Please send your tips to ootinicast@gmail.com by next Wednesday for a chance to win a M8-R3 code, courtesy of BioWare, and an OotiniCast-provided Cartel Market pack from the latest shipment.

3. Holofeed

• The first Grand Acquisitions Pack was made available for roughly four days (from 4pm CDT on Thursday 10 April to 11am on Monday 14 April). The always entertaining Kranitoko (@Kranitoko) has created another pack opening video for them, though he’s only purchased three of them (not unreasonable given each pack costs 900 Cartel Coins and there’s no Hypercrate available).
• Alex Modny (Associate Designer) announced that in Game Update 2.7.1, “turn-in” terminals would be added next to the Mission terminals that were added to all warzones in Game Update 2.7.
• An in-game item, a health regenerator provided by Cartel Associate 0U-1FY, has been added to the game to recognise the efforts of Dulfy.
• It seems that physical Security Keys (key fobs) are no longer being sold as of 7 January 2014.
• If you’re a little over the new Quesh Huttball warzone, its frequency (currently 25%, based on Rob Hinkle stating it would be twice as likely to pop as any other warzone) will return to normal (8%, based on 1 in 6 chance of Huttball, with a 50/50 chance of getting Quesh) in Game Update 2.7.1.
• On Friday night the Community Cantina was held in Boston. Heather (@Heather_PLS) of the Pretty Little Sith blog was in attendance, live-tweeting the Q&A and later writing up answers obtained via direct discussion with the BioWare developers. Dulfy has a post containing the images from the flash drive that was given to attendees.

4. Community

The second episode of the Galactic Gamers Coalition, featuring the hosts of TOROCast, SWTORReforged and our own OotiniCast, will be recorded Sunday 20 April at 7:30pm EDT. You can participate live via TwonkHammer’s Twitch channel.

5. Force Feedback

We discuss tweets, emails and comments from @RainbowConnRPG, Sean, Graham (Awesome) Sellars, @TheTurg, DroidDreamer, Raymond, jadilly, @AkaanDarasuum, @GregCarter78, Chong (@EmpireDivider), @JediKrackr, @block_kevin, Oxi-jin, Andreas, Russ (@Manciferous) and Ferrous Terran.

The Freddy Mercury Vine (short video) that symbolises for Chong why he loves SWTOR.

Shown below is the scoreboard from Raymond’s first PvP match playing a Mercenary:

6. Sarlacc Digest

Alex Modny (Associate Designer) has written a “What’s New in Season Two” blog post, summarising BioWare’s current thinking on how Ranked PvP Season 2 will work. Alex subsequently clarified that the three (instead of five) tier boundaries would be announced after Season 2 begins in Game Update 2.7.1.

If you have ideas for the what the rewards for those three tiers should be, you’re encouraged to contribute to this thread on the official forums.

He also confirmed that the “top 3” per faction of each Advanced Class were determined for the solo and group populations across the entire game, not per server. We believe this may not be such a good idea. The graphs and tables shown below are referenced during our discussion.

Ranked population and ratings per server (solo)

Server	Population	Highest rating	Average rating	Median rating
Vanjervalis Chain	506	1803	1189	1168
Battle Meditation	522	1604	1183	1163
Mantle of the Force	729	2267	1183	1166
Begeren Colony	779	1788	1175	1156
The Progenitor	1108	1854	1174	1158
Jar’Kai Sword	1284	2190	1173	1155
The Ebon Hawk	1309	2202	1178	1157
Jung Ma	1539	2479	1168	1152
T3-M4	1738	2445	1177	1153
Jedi Covenant	1837	2202	1170	1152
Darth Nihilus	1972	2509	1172	1156
The Shadowlands	2082	1860	1176	1154
The Red Eclipse	2152	2405	1168	1154
The Harbinger	3066	2014	1172	1154
The Bastion	4425	2366	1155	1151
Prophecy of the Five	6295	3005	1155	1150
Tomb of Freedon Nadd	6329	3103	1147	1147

Ranked population and tiers per server (group)

Server	Population	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Vanjervalis Chain	506	2.6%	10.7%	20.6%	28.7%	37.5%
Battle Meditation	522	2.3%	12.3%	19.0%	26.2%	40.2%
Mantle of the Force	729	1.9%	9.3%	21.0%	27.7%	40.1%
Begeren Colony	779	2.1%	9.5%	18.6%	30.8%	39.0%
The Progenitor	1108	3.3%	8.8%	21.8%	25.2%	40.9%
Jar’Kai Sword	1284	2.5%	9.5%	17.4%	29.4%	41.3%
The Ebon Hawk	1309	3.0%	10.2%	17.3%	29.6%	39.9%
Jung Ma	1539	4.2%	8.4%	14.8%	26.0%	46.6%
T3-M4	1738	4.1%	9.6%	14.5%	27.2%	44.6%
Jedi Covenant	1837	4.4%	7.9%	13.7%	28.6%	45.4%
Darth Nihilus	1972	3.0%	9.3%	17.1%	27.7%	42.8%
The Shadowlands	2082	4.1%	9.6%	15.6%	27.8%	42.9%
The Red Eclipse	2152	4.2%	7.6%	14.5%	28.7%	44.9%
The Harbinger	3066	3.7%	8.2%	16.5%	28.3%	43.3%
The Bastion	4425	3.8%	8.0%	12.9%	26.6%	48.7%
Prophecy of the Five	6295	4.7%	7.6%	12.1%	25.8%	49.8%
Tomb of Freedon Nadd	6329	3.8%	7.6%	11.6%	24.9%	52.0%

Ranked population and ratings per server (group)

Server	Population	Highest rating	Average rating	Median rating
Vanjervalis Chain	516	1815	1179	1152
The Ebon Hawk	677	2014	1184	1157
Battle Meditation	680	2603	1168	1154
Jar’Kai Sword	814	2044	1173	1151
Mantle of the Force	835	2384	1171	1154
The Progenitor	911	1992	1181	1158
Jedi Covenant	918	2029	1181	1150
Begeren Colony	1023	1822	1181	1158
The Shadowlands	1053	1801	1178	1154
Jung Ma	1189	2032	1180	1157
T3-M4	1213	2661	1173	1151
Darth Nihilus	1236	2307	1159	1147
The Red Eclipse	1418	1893	1171	1152
The Harbinger	1500	2118	1175	1153
The Bastion	2111	2171	1170	1151
Prophecy of the Five	2171	2388	1169	1150
Tomb of Freedon Nadd	2491	2942	1156	1144

Ranked population and tiers per server (group)

Server	Population	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Vanjervalis Chain	516	6.8%	15.1%	14.3%	17.2%	46.5%
The Ebon Hawk	677	3.0%	13.6%	16.5%	25.7%	41.2%
Battle Meditation	680	4.3%	10.6%	15.1%	22.9%	47.1%
Jar’Kai Sword	814	5.5%	11.8%	10.8%	23.7%	48.2%
Mantle of the Force	835	3.6%	10.3%	15.6%	27.4%	43.1%
The Progenitor	911	4.1%	12.4%	17.1%	25.1%	41.3%
Jedi Covenant	918	5.9%	12.0%	11.4%	22.8%	47.9%
Begeren Colony	1023	3.2%	13.3%	14.7%	27.3%	41.5%
The Shadowlands	1053	3.4%	14.9%	13.4%	26.1%	42.2%
Jung Ma	1189	4.6%	12.4%	12.5%	25.6%	44.8%
T3-M4	1213	5.3%	12.4%	12.0%	22.9%	47.5%
Darth Nihilus	1236	4.0%	9.5%	10.8%	24.4%	51.4%
The Red Eclipse	1418	5.1%	12.6%	12.6%	22.6%	47.1%
The Harbinger	1500	2.7%	8.5%	14.9%	30.2%	43.7%
The Bastion	2111	4.6%	9.3%	13.1%	25.0%	48.0%
Prophecy of the Five	2171	5.0%	8.2%	9.6%	27.4%	49.8%
Tomb of Freedon Nadd	2491	5.0%	6.9%	9.0%	25.7%	53.4%

7. Outro

Thanks to Chong (@EmpireDivider) and Redna (@R3DN4, twitch.tv/r3dn4) 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. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, and listen to us on Stitcher.