The Republic 97: Update 1.3

Written by: Ryan Verniere (@Shaddoe) | June 26, 2012 7:30 am

63 Comments

With Update 1.3, Star War: The Old Republic finally starts to look like the MMO that it should have at launch. Ed Park even says that now that BioWare has the major things out of the way and it can start concentrating on making content.

However, the introduction of Update 1.3 does bring some balance issues to light — not in combat but economics. The design of the game has polarized the different segments of the population. A player only interested in PvP could PvP his way to level 50 without really touching the PvE game at all. However, if someone does that, then financially the player would be stunted when things like augments are introduced to PvP gear. This change is said to cost player an approximate 4 to 5 million credits — a number that Ed admits he just doesn’t have.

But the economic changes aren’t the only things Update 1.3 brings to SWTOR. Our intrepid panel of media experts dissect the details of Update 1.3. Taugrim‘s Ed Park, Darth Hater‘s Justin Lowe, and Massively‘s Larry Everett join Gary Gannon in this week’s The Republic!

45:20

World of Warcraft

Patch 5.3: Blizzard’s First Ever Live Video Interview!

Legendary is joined by Blizzard's Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and Brian Holinka for a live video interview!Read more »

20 comments
1:00:49

MMO News

This Week in MMO Ep 144:
WildStar, Rift, Dust 514

WildStar details finally coming out!Read more »

25 comments
1:22:33

World of Warcraft

Legendary Ep126:
Raiding Ra-Den Revelations!

This week the Legendary crew are talking patch 5.3, raiding, and more with World First raider Treckie!Read more »

25 comments

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

it was good seeing the Republic hosts enjoying themselves again. They did seem a little down over the past few months.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Filip-Buhov/1379207683 Filip Buhov

Wait ? The Republic is still on GB… well they can allso make a Star Trek and DCU show and get Rift back from teh grave
http://www.facebook.com/jason.jenkins.73 Jason Jenkins

wow…what a pathetic geek am I that it took me almost three mintues of looking at that picture before I even noticed the one luke cosplayer in the middle
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr
  
  OK, so at least it wasn’t just me.
- 7BitBrian
  
  There was a Luke cosplayer? >_>
- http://twitter.com/OpenSourceBill Bill Lia
  
  Yeah…. took me awhile to find him as well lol
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  There is a what……
- HarmonBlues
  
  Once you see him, you can’t unsee him. His gaze is unsettling.
- http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
  
  Your not alone
David Alcon

The pic reminds me of Kids in the Hall skit, “30 Helen’s Agree”…but like “30 Slave Leia’s Agree”.
http://j.mp/shagral Shagral

Something wrong with Gary’s mic, volume jums up and down.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

ugh I clicked for the pic. Must you guys vlog about everything?
- http://twitter.com/Coldsnap187 James Vermilling
  
  Its their weekly ToR show O.o
http://twitter.com/chumppi chumppi, Riku M.

GENERAL CONTEST RULES
Eligibility: The Contest is open to legal residents of the continental
U.S. who are 13 years of age or older, valid date of birth is required. :/
http://twitter.com/SSindog Sindog

Look at all the undersexed ladies in the slave suits.
http://twitter.com/JoshfromRaleigh Josh

Isn’t the cost of slotting down by 30%?
http://twitter.com/MagicDeckLists Doug Lynch

Ed is RIDICULOUSLY out of touch with the game. The man hasn’t streamed in weeks, probably hasn’t even played since then, yet he’s still your ‘pvp expert’. He’s even giving out bad information saying it will take 4-5 million credits to augment out your gear. Dulfy said it would be 2-3 million per ‘FULL’ gear set to be augmented. This includes the kit, the fee, mod extraction, the works. And most will not remove the mods from their gear, they’ll just add the augment kit to their existing gear, which will make it around 1 million for your full gear set
- indecay
  
  hes just showing his pvp colors, like all pvpers all they do is whine
  
  dailies are fun, killing things is fun and playing with friends is fun. either grind warzones for credits or grind dailies for credits. it should not be instant.
  
  and of course people who pvp, pve, and craft will have more credits than someone who just does pvp or just does dailies. the people who have millions do all 3 and put in effort, not just casualy play one thing and expect to have things handed to them. you get credits for warzones and there are pvp dailies do those and have patience, do you want it to be more carebear and have everything handed to you with out time put in.
  
  pvp babies
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/1353890372 Michael Johnson
    
    Did you just say dailies are fun?
    Wow, no wonder the MMO genre is in the shitter.
    Why bother with something creative and different when people will throw money at your for letting you do the same shit over and over.
    - indecay
      
      yes. combat in swtor and playing with friends is fun regardless if its dailies, pvp, questing, raids, or world bosses
      
      suprise I like the game, so yeah its fun
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        Dailies are only a problem if you have to do them.
        
        Not sure if its still true, but Ed problem was he was losing credits for each match he played. He was spending more in consumables that he was making in the game.
  - Jay
    
    Eh, it’s easy to talk like that in a comment section… I think Ed rather PVP and have challenging combat for rewards instead of grinding, which makes sense… Why not have a broader choice in how you achieve your max end game status? Other games are trying it, so let’s not ignore how old SWTOR’s system is. If you like dailies and grinding, SWTOR is for you, but don’t try to put others down because they prefer something with a bit more substance.
    - indecay
      
      how is only playing pvp not the same as grinding
      
      regardless of what he wants he is a complainer… like most pvpers
      - Jay
        
        In PVP you fight against humans, not A.I., so each battle is somewhat unique. Daily grinds lack the human element, therefore they often lack strategic challenge.
        
        U mad bro?
      - indecay
        
        yeah my response is so mad, thats the kind of disillusion I would expect from a GW2 fan
        
        anyway it still does not change the fact that all he does is whine about the changes after 1.2 wahhh nerfs, class balance, credit sinks, direction of the game. like all the pvp whiners
        
        my guild still does fine in pvp after the class changes and both my 50s have been nerfed.
        
        you can play and have fun or you can whine, I am just calling him out on his pvp elitist attitude. the game is so face roll easy, but I whine about having to play the game to get credits. it makes me laugh when elitist pvp complainers cry and ask for carebear features especialy when its for gear
        
        I like ed and used to watch when he streamed and use some of his builds but his pvp colors are showing and it is typical of a “pvper” who thinks the game should be all pvp
      - InvaderMig
        
        The fact that you said dailies are fun makes anything you say completely irrelevant. It doesn’t help that everything you said actually was completely irrelevant. There’s nothing elitist about wanted to be able to progress with your given play style. Having to grind dailies as the main source of income does suck major balls considering doing the same freaking quest every freaking day sucks major balls. Dailies are not fun to the VAST!!! majority of the player base, and if you like them then you’d fit right into the asian mmo archetype.
      - Jay
        
        You like SWTOR, you defend SWTOR, I get it… Personally attacking Ed says more about you than him though. He has an opinion, just like you, so what makes you so right, and any critiques he has simple “whining”.
        
        So yes, I think you’re mad, by the way you’re acting… I’m a GW2 fan, I’m a Demon’s Souls fan, I’m a Porsche fan, I’m a fan of a lot of things, but that has little to do with the maturity level you’ve shown here in this comment section.
        
        Good day, sir.
  - pc11
    
    As soon as you say dailies are fun the rest of your commentary can be disregarded.
CCLemon77

Yes, they designed this game IMO as they were expecting the majority of people to re-roll alts until they could put out new stuff.
What they didn’t take enough into account was that a lot of people get attached to their character and want to continue their character’s story. To have to re-roll other characters takes focus away on one’s main character.
PLUS, besides the class quest on your character ALT(if you re-roll), having to go through MUCH of the same content again (linear, linear…. pffft) is not appealing at all to most.
http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm

The Servers are actually alive, EU is packed and US isn’t far behind hopefully this continues and I may actually re sub again, Everything is looking great.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/1353890372 Michael Johnson
  
  It’s not hard to get high pop servers when you consolidate 88% of them.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac
    
    You say this like it’s a bad thing. In the long run, it absolutely isn’t.
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/1353890372 Michael Johnson
      
      Yeah, I don’t think basically closing off over 80% of your server in the first 6 months is indicative of growth.
      
      CRAZY LOGIC I KNOW!
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac
        
        I KNOW, RIGHT?! HAHA.
        
        Yet, strong concurrent numbers of players is still good for the game and those playing it. The fact is that there was always an excess of servers. It was a rash decision meant to avoid queues at launch and it was a poor way of addressing the problem.
        
        Now you have servers with the numbers to support the actual playing of the content in the game, however. Before, you didn’t. If you want to tell me that PvP queues over 20 minutes are somehow more desirable than those that only take two maximum, you have a long road ahead of you. Likewise if you want to try and say that more servers, when you spent hours trying to find someone to replace a guildie who dropped your ops group is better than those more densely populated where you can, if needed, pretty much pull one out of the air without looking.
        
        Just because I was curious, I logged in. It’s around 3:30AM. There’s 121 people on the Fleet. I know, you’re right…the game was in so much better shape when it used to only be 15.
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        GROWTH!
        
        To quote Jim Mora, “Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs? You kidding me! Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game! Another game!”
        
        BW is simply trying to stop the bleeding and stay above 1m subs. Server mergers was a need step.
Kodachikuno

why are we talking about anything other than the zillion Slave Leia’s pic?!?!
- pc11
  
  Because they are all ugly and dont even have nice bodies to compensate for that.
Jay

You can see the effects of GW2 on Ed… Swtor feels “2007″ these days compared to other MMOs. I’ve been saying that for awhile, but I was willing to give it a try since I like Star Wars.

Too bad there isn’t an MMO that doesn’t depend on gear grinds and doing daily quests to stay competitive… Oh wait, there is…

Bioware get back to work on single player games, thanks. Add co-op to DA3, and I’ll be happy.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Not aware of any MMO out today that doesn’t have gear progression and dailies, that is competitive in the over 1m sub market.
  
  While GW2 is going to be successful and sell several million boxes, its not going to hold the interest of the vast majority of the player base, past 6 months. They will have their small hardcore player base and everyone else will wander off to the next MMO.
  - Jay
    
    I said “depends” on gear progression and dailies to stay competitive (in game, not in sales)… Try not to take it out of context. I stand behind what I said, and although you may be a fortune teller and able to see the future, I rather just wait and see how things turn out 6 months after GW2 launches. I think it’s a kool game, I’ll play it for definitely more than 6 months. Over time, games change and some progress, some don’t, but just saying, “They’re all doing it, so it’s okay.”… Just isn’t cutting it for me.
    
    Time is valuable, so I demand more than what SWTOR offers, that’s all. I wish it had more, but it doesn’t.
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      Talk about being a fortune teller. You were comparing a disaster that is SWTOR level 50 gameplay to a game that hasn’t been released yet. You used the term competitive. What do you think it will take to be competitive in sPVP six months after GW2 release. I think six months (or less) sPVP will be loaded with such hard core teams, that the only winning stratagy for new GW2 players will be (appologies to the movie Wargames) not to play. The hardcore teams will be playing both tourny play and regular sPVP matches. If you are new to an MMO, you will probably have alot more fun playing SWTOR level 10-49 Warezones than banging your head agenst GW2 sPVP.
      
      For equality matched sPVP teams, it may not be gear or dailies that decide games, it may simply be random chance. I suspect you will see many evenly skilled teams, both within a few points of a win and the match will be based on who has a luck crit and steals the final boss kill. Wow, to lose a match because of a random number generator vs an npc boss.
      
      But you are the one that wants to compare the level 50 game play that is TORTANIC to a game that is not released, has horrible balance issues and may end up with the only way to win is to have the perfect team componsition that follow the exact same strat every match.
      
      Who knows, GW2 still needs lots of work and isnt out yet.
      - Jay
        
        You do realize you’re commenting on a video about SWTOR, right?
        
        What game doesn’t have random crits that you are referring to? Basically you’re saying that skilled team with good strategy will win most of the time. I don’t see the problem with that… Would you rather that the person who spent the most time grinding gear win?
        
        I fail to see your logic in general. I do agree with one thing; GW2 isn’t out yet.
Kaynn

I hate dailies as much as the next person but I disagree that pvp’ers are at a disadvantage. I mainly run ops and that is my focus. In no way does playing the PVE aspect of the game benefit me in getting credits for augment kits and other money sinks. Every aspect of the game is playable within it’s niche. If you don’t want to min/max, you don’t have to. You will be at a slight disadvantage but the game is still playable. If you want the best gear then you have to do extra work, don’t expect to have the best gear and not have to put some type of work for it.
http://twitter.com/ItsatrapLOL itsatrapLOL

They have localized French and German servers because .. derp … the other two languages TOR is VO’d in is French and German. *gasp* The more you know …
- Shaddoe
  
  The languages are client-side. It has nothing to do with the server the players are on.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000804921688 Michael Z Lively

If they really didn’t know by this point, that the player base was going to blow through that content this game is doomed. Because they have no idea what their target audience is like.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  BW really didnt know about MMOs. Without patch 1.2 at launch and patch 1.3 shortly after, BW made a big mess. Great from 10-49, but falls apart at 50. Seems BW always wanted to go after the player base who love leveling character after characters. That seems fine, the legacy system is designed for them.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac

Larry needs to breath.
- http://twitter.com/lifensoul Steven Whiting
  
  And spit out what he’s trying to say instead of getting half way through it, then stopping, correcting himself, saying it again, correcting himself, saying it again. All through fear of saying the wrong thing and annoying people. It just becomes painful instead.
http://twitter.com/AndyMLC Andrew Caballes

I just got back into the game and I have to say, I am having a lot of fun. After a long hiatus (mostly due to Diablo 3), the game feels…new and refreshing. The constantly full server just makes the world (or galaxy) feel alive again and I even enjoyed watching trolls in general chat.

Its not the best game around by a long shot and yes, server merges does say a lot about a declining playerbase, but the bottom line is that I am having fun when I play and I want to keep playing. Even if the game has far less than 1 million overall subscribers, as long as they are kept in fewer, but larger groups, the bigger picture is not a big deal. The world has 6 billion people in it, but it is the few hundred/thousand in your own community that typically has the larger impact.

Yes, maybe I like mediocre games, but bottom line is I do what is fun for me. I am actually looking forward to playing more SWTOR when I can even when GW2 releases…which, to be honest, bored me after 1 weekend of playing.
http://www.facebook.com/VagrantChrisX Christopher B. Velez

I’m coming back, seems my server Prophecy of the Five is Wickedly Full!
Took a looooong break, I’ll come back for a month just to see what’s new. I hope my Imperial Agent is looking good.
http://www.facebook.com/radamont.zeal Radamont Zeal

I’m with Ed on this one. Dailies are NOT fun, they’re interesting the first time but they’re not fun after the 25th time. You do them because you HAVE TO, not because you WANT to. SWTOR is sub based and subs have to find a way t keep you in that game as long as possible, this means repetative carrot on a stick scenarios. They’re not fun tho.

Can’t hate on a guy for pointing out a pretty universal truth here.
- tehixe
  
  Obviously you’ve never heard of a man named Socrates.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Why, do you think requiring dailies to fund PVP, would make a game more satisfying?
Jediwolf

A bit too little too lateTolerable for a F2P….. but as a sub game ?…gimme a break whos gonna put up with this shit for long
midx

You can do you dailies while your in que for pvp, you don’t have to do them all. I can make 150-200k a day just while waiting in que. they don’t take 4 hours, I have finished the dailies in Coralia in 7 min with a friend 7-10min for 100k is not painfull
jon Tang

On the topic of avoidance Tanks, 1 MMO did make a very good one. FFXI Ninja/War
Deacon1979

If Ed cant make enough money from crafting since the transfers he is doing something wrong, and now that the gtn is cross faction its even easier to sell stuff
http://twitter.com/AFK_Alex Alexander Todorovski

There are so many countries in Europe that speak bad english or dont speak english at all. You have the French, the German, the Polish, the Spanish… it is really hard to filter all that in general chat for example. You just have to have language specific servers in a language rich environment like that.

I mean it’s not just for us english speakers, it’s for the non english speakers as well.
Europe is not the US. The language problem is very real here.
http://twitter.com/spaacez spaace

They keep nerfing PVP rewards for credits, so BioWare is basically telling us to farm dailies =(
http://twitter.com/lifensoul Steven Whiting

Given up on listening to Larry now. He’ll defend the game to death. The increase XP with perks when working it out, really isn’t much of an XP boost and is just a credit sink. If it was “Buy this perk OR if you’re Legacy Level such and such you can get it free” it would be fine. But the Legacy System has become a joke and a simple credit sink, nothing more.
jgelling

So now we have it: August 28 is the official release date for GW2. The comparisons have been building for a while and I guess now we’ll see which game maker is going to be the main WoW alternative.

I kind of enjoyed SWTOR as a single player RPG, but I don’t think they have a strategy to thrive as an MMO. They might have given up with the layoffs back in May and just decided to ride the Star Wars name for what they could get out of it, releasing small updates here and there. The box is down to $19.99 and they’re talking F2P, so they already seem way more desperate at 6 months than WoW does after 8 years.
http://twitter.com/MrSunrock Sunrock

Ed. You can earn 5 million by selling companion gifts during a month of game play.

The Republic 97: Update 1.3 - Allies

Patch 5.3: Blizzard’s First Ever Live Video Interview!

This Week in MMO Ep 144:
WildStar, Rift, Dust 514

Legendary Ep126:
Raiding Ra-Den Revelations!

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