OotiniCast – A Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) podcast

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After covering the light news from this week, we revisit what to expect in Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry, which is due to arrive on Tuesday!

1. Introduction

2. Tip of the week

Congratulations to this week’s winner, Ki’el Over! (Yes, we know.)

3. Holofeed

• While we had no patch to the game, the launcher has been significantly updated to support a streaming model for downloading content.
• The polls to select the class representatives were made available late last week, and after the voting we have our winners!
  • Each class representative will serve a single term, and their sole responsibility is to come up with the three top issues for their Advanced Class (one PvE, one PvP and one wildcard).
  • Every two weeks, based on this schedule, two class representatives will be asked to present their issues, first up being Sniper and Sentinel, who will each present their three issues by the end of this week (2 August).
  • Note that each mirror Advanced Class (e.g., Sniper and Gunslinger) have separate representatives and will have their own opportunity to put forward their issues.
  • Eric Musco set the expectation that while this program is intended to establish a dialog on current issues for each Advanced Class, it doesn’t guarantee that things will necessarily change.
• While an email sent to all players with characters on any of the three APAC servers indicated that their was only a week until those servers would be shut down, the actual shutdown (also as stated in the email) is confirmed to be on 13 August.
• While BioWare intended a second expression of subscriber appreciation for the end of July (following on from the Cartel Coin grant early in the month), it turned out not to be ready in time.
• The times and locations for the next two Community Cantinas have been confirmed:
  • Friday 23 August, 7-11pm CEST: Radisson Blu Hotel, Cologne, Germany
  • Saturday 31 August, 8-11pm PDT: Garage Billiards, Seattle, WA, USA
• While the Gold Scalene Armor (sold over the weekend only) is not currently added to the Collections UI, it seems that this was not intended and will be fixed.
• Alex Modny’s blog about the mechanics of warzone arenas coming in Game Update 2.4, which he teased last week, is scheduled to be published in the week beginning 12 August (week after next).
• It seems that not only can new items be added to the Cartel Market without the need of server downtime, but specials can change daily! While some changes may be notified via Twitter, the recommendation is to login each day to see what’s changed. Dulfy is tracking the discounts daily, as Njessi (of Hawt Pants Republic) pointed out on her blog.
• Eric Musco mentioned that there’s a good chance the Gold Scalene armor and Solus Secant speeder will be back again this weekend!
• Amber Green responded to concerns about the changes made to the Seeker Droid mechanics, in terms of what can be dug up. Some fixes are in the works for those situations where undesirable loot is still being found.
• David Demaree clarified when Force Barrier can be used, clarifying that it’s not available when Hindered, an effect created by the Commando/Mercenary’s Electro Net. It is a bug (and should be reported) if Force Barrier goes on cooldown (rather than simply being forbidden) when attempting to it when Hindered.

4. Community

George Lindsesay (@wannabePhD) is hoping to get ranked warzones happening again on The Harbinger on a regular basis. See his thread on the official forums for more information.

Dan O’Brien (@DsanOB) has updated his @SWTORTracker to respond to dev posts more quickly.

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 Pathlight for his kind words about the show!

We discuss tweets from @Swtorfamily (be sure to follow him back to join the #swtorfamily!), @Kooz5 (Mark K), @EmpireDivider (Moff Chong), @Casmas_, @GregCarter78, @JediKal, @terencemyers, @banyo1984, @ben_b55, @ForceChuckle, @JediElkatt (Theekatt), @O_JohnnyBravo_O (JB), @HamSammich509, @Kodo (Anthony Harris), @AckaanTalgala (Akaan) and @ChazLobo.

The new Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse is here, including a left-handed version!

The scoreboard from the warzone in which Moff Chong demonstrated his unquestionable prowess:

Also, his video, Chong’s Thoughts: Voidstar.

6. Sarlacc Digest

Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry is due to be deployed next Tuesday 6 August. We discuss what it will bring, including:

• Change to The Civil War (removal of the speeders that connect directly to snow and grass).
• Our first Ewok companion, Treek. Post-recording update: we now know that Treek will cost 2100 CC (with no legacy level requirement) to obtain, as an alternative to legacy level 40 and 1 million credits. In both cases, item obtained can be sold on the GTN (though latter item still requires legacy level 40). Once obtained either way, Treek can be unlocked account-wide via Collections for 700 CC, or per character via legacy for 300,000 credits.
• The new daily area on CZ-198, offering new reputation rewards. See Gaddock Teeg‘s latest PTS videos covering the dailies on his YouTube channel.
• Two new level 55 Flashpoints (each supporting hard mode and role-neutral story mode) on CZ-198, Czerka Corporate Labs and Czerka Core Meltdown.

You can find the PTS patch notes here.

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.

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We cover the latest news, including the deployment of Game Update 2.2.2. Our discussion this week is about subscriber appreciation, prompted by the initial expression of that appreciation in the form of a one-off payment of 500 Cartel Coins.

1. Introduction

To use Ask Mr Robot to track your datacrons and work out which ones you need, create an account on the site (via the [Register] button at the top of the page), then use their Character Builder to create a profile for each character you want to track. You can then click on the [Datacrons] button (to the right, with a solid blue square icon), which brings up the sortable Datacron checklist.

2. Trivia question

Congratulations to this week’s winner, Chris J!

3. Holofeed

• Game Update 2.2.2 was deployed on Wednesday, delayed by a day because of the July 4th long weekend. Thanks to Amber Green for once again getting the patch notes out a day early!
• It includes the Supreme Mogul’s Contraband Pack, the last in Shipment Two. You can see images of what’s in this pack on Facebook, and in Dulfy’s guide.
• KOTOR’s 10th anniversary will be celebrated by the SWTOR team on 15 July. The title, purchasable for 24 hours (from Monday 15 July 2am CDT, 5pm AEST, 8am BST) for 10 Cartel Coins can (once purchased) be unlocked for all characters for another 5 Cartel Coins.
• The Old Republic Insider for July is now available, featuring Bruce Maclean and Cory Butler discussing the new live event (Bounty Contract Week), CZ-198 and new items soon arriving in the Cartel Market.
• In a thread on the forum about how XP boosts apparently only granted 20% instead of the advertised 25%, we received an explanation of why it looks this way (but is actually correct!).
• The PTS, which currently has Game Update 2.3 available for testing, has been updated to fix the problem with travelling to the new daily area in CZ-198. Note that character copy to the PTS remains unavailable, but is planned to be provided soon.
• A little more background story was provided for Czerka Corporation’s CZ-198 Labs via a letter from its Special Executive, Rasmus Blys.
• Eric Musco revisited the topic of why Free and Preferred players cannot post on the official forums, providing an explanation of the original decision and why it remains the right one.
• More information was provided about Bounty Contract Week, the new recurring event.

4. Community

Thanks to Terg, Barf Stick and Neiro for their contributions that helped inform the discussion revisiting Defense in last week’s Sarlacc Digest.

We recommend the Unnamed SWTOR Podcast, hosted by Gaddock Teeg (@GTeeg), with some great interviews and strong opinions. Check out his Patch 2.3 PTS Coverage – Republic CZ 198 Daily Area with Rewards on YouTube.

While @ChazLobo works on his new guides for 50+ space missions, a useful resource that we mentioned back in Episode 70 is Nefash’s Pilot Training School.

For those interested in joining Ootini Fight Club for some endgame PvP, please contact Chong by email (empiredivider@gmail.com).

5. Force Feedback

We discuss tweets from @swtorfamily (be sure to follow him back to join the #swtorfamily!), @EmpireDivider (Moff Chong), @FerrousTerran, @Casmas_, @tweetieowl (Brightstar), @PedroLopezJr, @kmadsen, @fretfury, @Geldarion (co-host of Corellian Run Radio), @GTeeg (Gaddock Teeg, host of the Unnamed SWTOR Podcast), @Thoroughmas, @HamSammich509, @GregCarter78, @rbleamon (Ray Leamon), @voyak, @DarthPops (Marshall Carr), @GrahamMSellars, @SkipJerk (Jared), @DanCremer, emails from Axkvamin, Hansgruber, Dracko and Terg, and comments from The Malgadar and Codex.

The #swtorfamily has earned the following achievement:

Moff Chong located a companion who is being a little too obvious:

Dracko provided the following comparison to show the effect of the graphical upgrades in Game Update 2.3:

6. Sarlacc Digest

The first expression of subscriber appreciation appeared in the form of a one-off 500 Cartel Coin grant. Something else has been promised for the end of July. Bruce MacLean responded to some of the feedback from the community.

The following lists the information found in the feature comparison on the official site, presenting the information directly rather than as pop-ups.

• Story Content
  • Subscriber: All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.
  • Preferred: All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.
  • Free: All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.
• Sprint
  • Subscriber: Sprint starting at Level 1.
  • Preferred: Sprint starting at Level 1.
  • Free: Sprint starting at Level 15.
• Crew Skills
  • Subscriber: Up to three (3) Crew Skills and Level Crew Skills at a faster rate.
  • Preferred: Two (2) Crew Skills or, purchase an additional Crew Skill slot with Cartel Coins.
  • Free: One (1) Crew Skill or, purchase additional Crew Skill slots with Cartel Coins.
• Game Login
  • Subscriber: Priority status in the Login Queue.
  • Preferred: Medium priority status in Login Queue.
  • Free: No priority status in the Login Queue.
• Bank/Cargo Hold
  • Subscriber: May expand bank with either in-game credits or Cartel Coins.
  • Preferred: Access to bank granted with Preferred status. Additional bank storage purchasable with Cartel Coins only.
  • Free: Bank storage accessible with Cartel Coin purchase or via the Galactic Trade Network.
• Credit Cap
  • Subscriber: Maximum Credit cap.
  • Preferred: Credits are capped at 350,000.
  • Free: Credits are capped at 200,000.
• Chat
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to all Chat functions.
  • Preferred: Full General Chat functions and /who list is unlocked.
  • Free: Restricted tells and General Chat use only on Origin Worlds.
• Mail
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to sending and receiving in-game mail.
  • Preferred: Access to sending and receiving in-game mail with one attachment, but unable to send Credits.
  • Free: Can only receive in-game mail, not send it.
• Secure Trading
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to Secure Trading between other players.
  • Preferred: Can use Secure Trading with other players from Level ten (10) onwards.
  • Free: Cannot participate in Secure Trading.
• Galactic Trade Network
  • Subscriber: List up to fifty (50) items on the Galactic Trade Network (GTN).
  • Preferred: Five (5) simultaneous item listings on the Galactic Trade Network (GTN).
  • Free: Two (2) simultaneous listings on the Galactic Trade Network (GTN).
• Respecialization
  • Subscriber: Respecialize any character without using Credits.
  • Preferred: Respecialization costs lower than cost to a Free-to-Play player.
  • Free: Respecialization costs higher than those paid by a Preferred Status and Subscription players.
• Character Creation
  • Subscriber: Full access to all Character Creation Choices (excluding Species options available for purchase in the Cartel Market).
  • Preferred: Six (6) Character Slots and three (3) Species options (excluding Species options available for purchase in the Cartel Market).
  • Free: Two (2) Character Slots and three (3) Species options (excluding Species options available for purchase in the Cartel Market).
• Operations
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to Operations.
  • Preferred: A weekly pass to unlock Operation access is required.
  • Free: A weekly pass to unlock Operation access is required.
• Warzones
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to Warzones and Ranked Warzones.
  • Preferred: Five (5) Warzones per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction. Cannot access Ranked Warzones.
  • Free: Five (5) Warzones per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction. Cannot access Ranked Warzones.
• Flashpoints
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to Flashpoints and rewards.
  • Preferred: Full rewards from three (3) Flashpoints per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.
  • Free: Full rewards from three (3) Flashpoints per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.
• Space Missions
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to Space Missions.
  • Preferred: Three (3) Space Missions per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.
  • Free: Three (3) Space Missions per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.
• Inventory
  • Subscriber: Purchase additional inventory space with either in-game Credits or Cartel Coins.
  • Preferred: Purchase the ability to expand inventory slots with Cartel Coins from the Cartel Market.
  • Free: Purchase the ability to expand inventory slots with Cartel Coins from the Cartel Market.
• Quick Travel
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to the Quick Travel ability with a reduced cool-down.
  • Preferred: Longer Quick Travel cool-down period or purchase an authorization to permanently reduce the cool-down for Quick Travel.
  • Free: Longer Quick Travel cool-down period or purchase an authorization to permanently reduce the cool-down for Quick Travel.
• Emergency Fleet Pass
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to the Emergency Fleet Pass. Bypass the cool-down by purchasing a consumable item with Cartel Coins.
  • Preferred: No access to Emergency Fleet Pass. Purchase an authorization to unlock quick travel to the Fleet.
  • Free: No access to Emergency Fleet Pass. Purchase an authorization to unlock quick travel to the Fleet.
• Mounts
  • Subscriber: Use a Mount approximately five (5) levels earlier.
  • Preferred: Use a Mount approximately five to ten (5-10) levels later.
  • Free: Use a Mount approximately five to ten (5-10) levels later.
• Revive
  • Subscriber: Revive at the nearest Med Center or in the field with a cool-down.
  • Preferred: Revive at the nearest Med Center or a total of five (5) times in the field per character. Unlock additional Field Revives with Cartel Coins from the Cartel Market.
  • Free: Revive at the nearest Med Center or a total of five (5) times in the field per character. Unlock additional Field Revives with Cartel Coins from the Cartel Market.
• Item Equipping
  • Subscriber: Equip all purple items acquired; assuming in-game requirements (class, level, etc) are met.
  • Preferred: Cannot equip most purple items unless an authorization is purchased from the Cartel Market.
  • Free: Cannot equip most purple items unless an authorization is purchased from the Cartel Market.
• Commendations Cap
  • Subscriber: Receive a higher amount of Commendations per week.
  • Preferred: Earn a reduced amount of Commendations per week.
  • Free: Earn a reduced amount of Commendations per week.
• Guilds
  • Subscriber: Join a Guild or become a Guild Leader for any type of Guild.
  • Preferred: Can join any Guild, but can only become a Guild Leader of a Free-to-Play Guild.
  • Free: Can join any Guild, but can only become a Guild Leader of a Free-to-Play Guild.
• Vendors
  • Subscriber: Receive a discount on all vendor items.
  • Preferred: Regular price on vendor items.
  • Free: Regular price on vendor items.
• Experience Rate
  • Subscriber: Gain Experience Points (XP) faster than Preferred Status and Free-to-Play players.
  • Preferred: Takes longer to gain Experience Points (XP).
  • Free: Takes longer to gain Experience Points (XP).
• Experience Rate: Rest XP
  • Subscriber: Gain Rest Experience Points (XP).
  • Preferred: Cannot gain Rest Experience Points (XP).
  • Free: Cannot gain Rest Experience Points (XP).
• Valor Rate
  • Subscriber: Gain Valor Levels faster than Preferred Status and Free-to-Play players.
  • Preferred: Takes longer to raise Valor Levels.
  • Free: Takes longer to raise Valor Levels.
• GUI: Quickbars
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to UI customization and can have up to six (6) Quickbars.
  • Preferred: Access to four (4) Quickbars.
  • Free: Access to two (2) Quickbars.
• Items: Event Rewards
  • Subscriber: Unlimited access to item rewards from in-game events.
  • Preferred: Cannot equip event awards unless an authorization is purchased from the Cartel Market.
  • Free: Cannot equip event awards unless an authorization is purchased from the Cartel Market.
• Items: Mod Removal
  • Subscriber: Can remove item mods for a lower amount of Credits than Preferred Status and Free-to-Play players.
  • Preferred: Can remove item mods for a higher amount of Credits than a Subscriber.
  • Free: Can remove item mods for a higher amount of Credits than a Subscriber.
• Items: Augment Slots
  • Subscriber: Can augment items for a lower amount of Credits than Preferred Status and Free-to-Play players.
  • Preferred: Can augment items for a higher amount of Credits than a Subscriber.
  • Free: Can augment items for a higher amount of Credits than a Subscriber.
• Customer Service Support
  • Subscriber: Full Customer Service support, both in-game and through the web.
  • Preferred: Web Customer Service support (FAQ’s) and access to Knowledge Base articles.
  • Free: Web Customer Service support (FAQ’s) and access to Knowledge Base articles.

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.

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We go over this week’s news, which includes the deployment of Game Update 2.2.1. In our discussion, Redna talks defensive stats.

1. Introduction

Chill’s DPS Operative being transformed into the Joker:

Before

After

2. Trivia question

Congratulations to this week’s winner, Edward F!

We’re again looking for game tips. Please send them to ootinicast@gmail.com; if we use yours we’ll send you a $5 Cartel Coin code, plus a Taun Fawn (both courtesy of BioWare) if you don’t have one.

3. Holofeed

• Game Update 2.2.1 was deployed during a longish maintenance on Tuesday. A fix for ensuring that companions were re-summoned after dismounting had the unintended side effect of cancelling any crew skill mission your current companion was on. Also, the elimination of one of the bolster bugs may not be working as intended.
• Paid character transfers are now available. The free character rename (one per account) may also be claimed by specifying which character is to receive it via the official site.
• Revan’s armor has been updated, and now is deemed to be in its final state, matching how he appeared in KOTOR (though some are disputing this).
• The issue which delayed paid character transfers until Game Update 2.2.1 involved some achievements being broken during the transfer. That was resolved for new paid character transfers. For APAC players affected during their free transfers, a partial fix went into 2.2.1, with the remaining issues addressed in 2.2.2.
• Space combat achievements are still not fixed in Game Update 2.2.1, but instead should be addressed in 2.2.2.
• A question about nightmare mode Terror from Beyond raised an interesting issue with Resilience/Force Shroud, that confirmed that regardless of defense, there’s always a 5% chance of being hit.
• Likewise the fix for the issue that occasionally requires you to reset your UI (using ctrl-U twice) to enable the warzone button on the minimap has been delayed until Game Update 2.2.2.
• The Encrypted Datacubes that were added in the latest pack won’t be appearing again, based on community feedback.
• Some good news for those experiencing a slow delivery of their one-time passwords.
• Cartel Coin cards from retailers are now available!
• Phillip, BioWare’s security manager, clarified how text macros, implemented via third party software and hardware, were considered by the game’s Terms of Service. He also judged three use cases provided by a forum user. The bottom line is that any automation beyond one click being equivalent to one action isn’t permitted.

4. Community

Dan O’Brien (@DsanOB) has created a Twitter feed for SWTOR developer posts, which is a great way to keep track of posts without having to check the site. Please subscribe to @SWTORTracker to take advantage of this most excellent resource!

We’ve also got a homegrown tool (ootinicast.com/mods) for helping you to decide which mods (particularly enhancements!) would best suit the particular stat priority you’re looking for.

For those interested in joining Ootini Fight Club for some endgame PvP, please contact Chong by email (empiredivider@gmail.com).

5. Force Feedback

We discuss tweets from @madmar_sith (be sure to follow him back to join the #swtorfamily!), @JediKrackr, @Casmas, @DsanOB, @ThePummeler, @ArrTeaBee, @GrahamMSellars, @mad0racle, @rbleamon (Ray Leamon), @Da_Dirty_Spoons, @voyak, @HawtRepublic (Njessi), @EmpireDivider (Moff Chong), @terencemyers, @Lawilc01, @_Baffle, @joseph_foran, @AfterburnerX, @Geldarion (Drew, co-host of Corellian Run Radio), @masterbearjedi (Raz), @GregCarter78, @oldrepradio, @GrandOldPodcast, @GrahamMSellars and @nigelkersten, emails from Jeshaji and Minn, and a comment from The Malgadar.

A reminder that Njessi’s site (hawtpantsrepublic.com) is a most excellent resource for PvE Sentinels and Marauders. She also hosts the Fashion Hall of Shame!

There’s also Old Republic Radio, one of the longest-running SWTOR podcasts, now over on MOG Nation(subscribe via iTunes or RSS).

Minn is interested in forming an Empire-side ops group that runs around 8pm EST on Monday nights. If you’d like to participate, please contact Vy’aal (name changed from Minn’Serel, which is what we mentioned on the show) via in-game mail or whisper.

Voyak recommends SWTOR Hell, a YouTube video that is a compilation of in-game footage with appropriate music clips. Out of this seeming chaos emerges something surprisingly funny!

The somewhat unexpected spawn point encountered by @JediKrackr when things were going a little strange on The Harbinger over the double XP weekend:

6. Sarlacc Digest

This week, Redna discusses defensive stats.

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.

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We discuss the latest news, including some more tantalizing hints about what’s coming in the Summer of SWTOR, and a few tidbits from the last Community Cantina. Redna then rounds out his coverage of offensive stats with accuracy and alacrity.

1. Introduction

Redna recommends the achievement guides on SWTOR Spy, such as the SWTOR Tyrant of Dromund Kaas Achievement Guide.

2. Tip of the week

Congratulations to this week’s winners, Izaak and Thross!

Our guildmate Socordia provides the following elaboration on last week’s tip, having overthought the gifts. He believes that stackable companion gifts were the best feature that BioWare have added.

1. Not only are level 1 gifts cheaper than 2s from 2000-4000, they are cheaper from 4000-6000 (19/200 > 48/600)
2. Dulfy also lists the affection which will trigger a conversation
3. When to give gifts is a tradeoff:  A level one gift to a companion with 0 gives the same 96 affection that a level 5 gift to a 8100 companion, so if you are going to max out a companion with 6000 in gifts and 4000 in conversation, 0-6000 might be a third the price as 4000-10000 with gifts.  The downside is every 2000 affection adds 1% to crit chance.  The extreme case is if a max level slicing mission crit is worth 100,000 extra, then 2000 companion affectation raises the expected value of each slicing mission by 1,000 credits (.01*100000)  It depends on how much you send out your companions while leveling.
4. Don’t forget your ship droid’s affection since he should be running for profit missions non-stop as you level.
5. Love ’em early – courting gifts are the cheapest gifts so the sooner you get that trigger, the sooner you can give them the cheap stuff.
6. The gree rep trick works – give your best gift at the end of a level. I.e. if you have a blue 4, give it at 7999 not 6000.
7. At least the first legacy unlock is cost-effective – if you give all your companions over 100,000 credits worth of gifts combined, then a 10% or so discount is worth 10,000 credits.
8. People don’t understand the math, you tend to better off selling any purple, non-courting gifts you get even if you then buy cheaper.grades
9. I use to try to send all gifts to the alt that will need it: say I know BH will get gault who takes luxury.  But it was easier to just send all gifts to a single toon so I don’t have to think about who needs what on my leveling toon. I tend to have diplo on alts these days since I can make the conversation choice I want without worrying about LS/DS so that means a lot of gifts while leveling.
10. My guess is fewer level 5 companion gifts are being generated in ROTHC since the max level 51-55 UT, TH, Diplo, Inv don’t offer  companion gift missions the way previous max level gifts did.

3. Trivia question

This week’s question is in regards to that most famous opening sentence—so much a part of Star Wars that it precedes EVERY episode, and is so iconic that it is thoroughly associated with it: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Well, as it turns out, to borrow an idea from Hannibal Lecter and from Shakespeare, when you have someone put forward a fact so boldly without even being asked, perhaps that person is lying. Perhaps Star Wars is not so long ago, nor so far away. The question is: What movie did George Lucas work on but later drop, which was made later by another filmmaker—and what does that have to do with the famous Star Wars opening phrase?

Please send your answer to ootinicast@gmail.com by next Wednesday. Winners will be put in a draw to win a Taun Fawn code courtesy of BioWare and one of the latest full-size Cartel Packs (or if you’re on The Harbinger, the second of Moff Chong’s Hutt Skiffs!).

4. Holofeed

• Patch 2.2.0a was deployed during regular maintenance on Tuesday, with the only change being an exploit fix.
• There is a known issue with story mode Terror from Beyond’s last encounter, which will be fixed in Game Update 2.2.1.
• Coming in Game Update 2.2.1, which is still on track for next Tuesday (25 June):
  • paid character transfers
  • training dummies will scale to your level (again!)
  • crafted Arkanian and Underworld relics should not be BoP, will be changed to be BoE
  • fix for a bug (Tantrum at 33%) in story mode Terror from Beyond’s last encounter
• The first double XP weekend in the Summer of SWTOR is nearly here!
• Bruce Maclean, Senior Producer, has once again taken to the forums to provide some more detail (though not much!) about what else is coming up for us in the next few months:
  • It was confirmed that the new Flashpoints would not cost extra, and are entirely new.
  • The new live event coming in Game Update 2.3 is called Bounty Contract Week. Images for the event were given to participants in last week’s Community Cantina, summarised by Dulfy.
  • The graphical upgrades coming in Game Update 2.3 are a “game-wide colour vibrancy improvement”, though we were subsequently assured that the game’s art style will remain the same.
  • While he wasn’t saying much about what’s coming in the PvP-focussed Game Update 2.4, he gave us the following key phrases to ponder: “Oricon. Warzone Arenas. Dread Masters.” Oricon may refer to an adventure idea (or “hook”) described in Behind the Threat: The Sith (Part 5), a roleplaying supplement from Wizards of the Coast for their now defunct Star Wars RPG (the license was taken over by Fantasy Flight Games).
• Our guildmate Terg attended the Community Cantina last week, and provided us with a recording of the Q&A that was held.
  • PvP bolster issues (2 known) fixed in Game Update 2.2.1
  • No guild calendar coming anytime soon (though it’s in the plan, as part of their version of guild progression), described by Damion Schubert as a “GUI nightmare”, attempting to reproduce the functionality of Microsoft Outlook in the game.
  • Neutral alignment rewards: not imminent, but coming.
  • Damion: Cross-server queuing is really (really!) hard (Jeff: we’re not going to do that). Different solutions to solve the same problem in Game Update 2.4 (primarily oriented to hardcore PvPers). Servers hold four times the number players as WoW realms. Ranked queue times are on average shorter at all times of day compared to non-ranked queue times.
  • Open world PvP: hard to do rewards that aren’t exploitable. Instead more achievements and bragging rights. Jeff: Never going to be PvP primary, good balanced PvP, some open world stuff (rewards, accolades, achievements). Most PvP will be in warzones.
  • Warhero gear change with 2.0: had to choose between working in open world PvP and working in warzones, so they chose warzones.
  • No plans for a “legendary” mission series to get a rare weapon, but they liked the idea and are going to think about doing it.
  • Asked about free players ninjaing loot in Flashpoints. Damion: they want to ensure free players can’t disrupt preferred/subscribers. They haven’t heard much, but if it’s happening to players, they encourage them to report it.
  • Increase guild cap beyond 500 characters. Damion: limit based on number of players that can co-exist in a guild chat channel (more than that causes server performance issues).
• Terg also had the opportunity to put some questions directly to Damion Schubert and Eric Musco:
  • Account-wide legacy: would be nice, but technical difficulties make it really hard.
  • Healer Specific UI improvements: Wall of Crazy, like to incorporate
  • Guild list whisper: Wall of Crazy, like to incorporate
  • Priority mission terminals to fleet: Wall of Crazy, like to incorporate (not sure why this would be wall of crazy so he may have just been using that to mean not ruled out, but not coming soon)
  • Cross-faction chat channels: Only for guild chat, No ETA (this was the closest to an affirmative. He stressed no ETA, but said you can credit him saying this is something coming)
• Terg also provided the following:

Waiting to get into the Community Cantina

The USB drive received by all participants

• The Friends of SWTOR program is being temporarily suspended, coming back in August in a new form.
• Player housing in any form isn’t coming soon.
• Cory Butler has confirmed that the Primordial Blaster from the new Archon’s Contraband Pack, which is currently useable in the main hand only, will be changed in Game Update 2.2.1 to be dual-wieldable.

5. Community

If you are looking for some serious Star Wars roleplaying, we once again recommend Clan Epsis, a Mandalorian bounty hunter guild on the Jung Ma server (RP-PvP, US east coast).

For those interested in joining Ootini Fight Club for some endgame PvP, please contact Chong by email (empiredivider@gmail.com).

6. Force Feedback

We discuss tweets from @madmar_sith (be sure to follow him back to join the #swtorfamily!), @Ben_b55, @joseph_foran, @ForceChuckle, @Justin_the_Nerd, @HawtRepublic (Njessi), @DarthPops (Marshall Carr Jr.), @Jayconnell, @EmpireDivider (Moff Chong), @bytorsnowdog (Snowy), @DaynarofSWTOR (Daynar), @GregCarter78, @rbleamon (Ray Leamon), @Geldarion (Drew of Corellian Run Radio), @voyak and @Lawilc0 (Laurie M), an email from Quaza Impsbane, and a comment from Hagu.

Here’s Chong’s Cathar, who snipes like a boss:

Snowy provided the following for our amusement:

Snowy’s tattoo, a glorious mixture of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings:

7. Sarlacc Digest

This week, Redna continues his discussion on offensive stats, covering accuracy and alacrity.

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 Radio Paragon.