Faction Talk AKA Faction Trash Talk



Cross Faction Pointing is out...Trash Talkin IN!

Ever wanted to have that nice friendly chat with the Sith you where about to kill?  Or maybe as a Bounty Hunter you wanted to get to know that Smuggler that was about to go down.  Well the guys at BioWare feel you should have such an opportunity.  And why not.... we all speak english 'Basic'.

Nothing has changed since San Diego Comic Con.

As discussed at SDCC, the decision was made to separate the general chat channels by faction. However, this decision ONLY affects the planet-wide chat channels such as "General Chat." If you're standing next to another player (local chat), you can talk to them regardless of what faction you're part of.

The only thing we removed, as already mentioned at Comic-Con, was the ability to communicate with the opposing faction across the entirety of a planet to avoid the issues (like griefing, abuse, and other factors which led to a very unpleasant experience) which we saw way too often in testing.

We discussed the option of hiding the global chat and defaulting it off, but ultimately the ratio of negative incidents was too high to justify that. The reasoning here is simple: We really didn’t want to create a game option that essentially says "[x] Give me an 80% chance of having an infuriating and annoying chat experience," and putting the onus on the user ("you can just /ignore them") is not our idea of a quality game experience.

Removing planet-wide cross-faction chat radically reduces the amount of reach a misbehaving player has before account action can be taken. We’ll likely add the ability to filter local cross faction chat as well.

Hopefully that clears it up a bit.

Thanks Z-man aka Georg Zoeller aka The Newly Installed King of Trash Talking!  As always you can find more on this topic in the forums.

Dromund Kas Wednesday

Our dislike for facebook.com continues.  But once again like all prior Wednesday's BioWare gives us the goods.  And this time the goods are "Most Impressive" (that never gets old).

The Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas holds ancient and powerful secrets that Sith Lords have sought to unlock for centuries.

While the text is as always some what Star Wars cheese, its over powered by the sheer quality of this weeks image.  One of our favorites by far. 

So impressive is this image is the need to post other Dromund Kas pictures:

Stop The Press!! GUILD BETA!!!

You pretty much have to less Bass (davidbass) do all the talking with this one:
We are very pleased to announce the start of Guild Testing for STAR WARS: The Old Republic! This program will allow guilds to be considered as a whole for inclusion in the Game Testing Program, allowing us to gather important data regarding how guilds play The Old Republic, as well as how organized groups deal with various mechanics and systems in the game. The program is already underway, as we’ve invited the first wave of guilds into testing, however we’ll be adding more over the coming weeks alongside the general Game Testing invites.

Also you need to be some what helpful in the community.... A very interesting concept:

ll be looking to let in both large and small guilds, so as long as your guild meets the minimum requirement, you have an equal chance of being invited to testing. In addition, we may, at our discretion, choose a few select guilds that are active and helpful in the community, since we could use that sort of helpfulness in-game and on the Testing Forums. Note that this will be done in rare circumstances, in order to reward our dedicated community members. Please do not contact any BioWare staff requesting access to Guild Testing, or else your guild may be removed from consideration.

For all the info head over to David Bass' post on the subject. 

In addition if you spend a lot of time at Shacknews.com.  Their guild can be found:

PvP Guild - Giant Sith Meatbags
PvE Guild - Bad Motivator Units

Fan Friday is Fan Arts and Craft Day

Woah! What's this.... Art's and Crafts! Hell yeah!!  Before we dive into this weeks update....

HEY TOR FANS! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET A HOME RUN EVERY FRIDAY!!!

So back to our update.  It was great to get an update that will only add to our rotating wallpaper in Windows7.  The bonus for us was in the form of some very talented artists that are following TOR.

With each Fan Friday, we feature creations from some of the clever members of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ community. This time around we’re shining the spotlight on some of the incredible artwork done by our fans.

Good old Alyson Bridge.  We think she does a smashing job putting up the Friday updates.  And then in dealing with the abuse of some fans.  We have to be honest here - we enjoyed this update.  We did not expect much today at all given the amount of content that has come out in the last few weeks.  If anything the last few weeks have been great.

So for those that want to update their PC's with some amazing work.  Check out some great fan work of Tatoonie by Alliant.  Our favorite:

If you felt the need to avoid using your PC until the game comes out and want to just update your iphone.  Alliant has a great selection of backgrounds. Our favorite:

And if that is not enough for you!!!  BioWare themselves added three great wallpapers from their 'Return' trailer. 

So while nothing earth shocking in information given the amount in art that we have received is equally impressive. 

Be patient TOR fans! 

Wednesday Wonder Land

Like every Wednesday before this Wednesday a screen shot was bestowed upon the community*.  And this Wednesday was of course no different.  BioWare released this beauty today.

The planet Voss is steeped in war between its native species, the Voss and Gormak.

I am a big fan of this shot.  Something about it.... the planet in the backdrop.  It looks pretty dang amazing.

Good job BioWare.  Hopefully this is some sort of indication of what we will see on Friday.  PvP anyone?

Darth Malgus - Made To Order

Rebelscum.com: San Diego Comic-Con 2011

More from #SDCC!  Rebelscum has a selection of impressive pictures of the Darth Malgus statue that will be included in the CE package of the game.  Retail $150.  You can also get two shots of the $80 Shae Vizla statue.  From what we can tell this Shae statue is very hard to acquire.  As in you can't right now...

But take a look at Malgus.  Not bad at all...

Fan Friday Follow-up: Picture Perfect

Just in case you wanted more from the impressive Consular Fan Friday from last week.  We are posting the screen shots released from BioWare.  Most people usually click right past these.  And while we looked at them we just could not find any love or time for the green skin jedi's that graced this set:

 Honestly... why Mirialans!!?  We wanted Rodians!!!