PvP in Game Update 1.2

Fellow PvPers,
We believe competitive measure is an important part of a complete PvP experience. As such we are excited to be introducing the first phase of that to Star Wars™: The Old Republic™’s PvP gameplay in Game Update 1.2: Legacy, with Pre-Season of Ranked Warzones. We want to emphasize this is Pre-Season while the community and development teams collect data and refine the system in preparation for Season One, which will begin with the inclusion of cross-server Warzone queuing. The Pre-Season ratings will be reset when Season One officially begins.

Ranked Warzone Queue and Matchmaking

In Game Update 1.2, any level 50 player will be able to queue up for Ranked Warzones by themselves or in a group of any size up to eight players. Performance will be tracked on every player who participates, as a rating that will be adjusted with every match won or lost (leaving counts as a loss and prevents you from re-queuing for several minutes) considering the ratings of all other players in the match. In other words, if the enemy team has an overall much higher rating than you and your team, your rating would only go down a small amount if you lost. Players will have a separate Solo and Group rating, meaning only the rating for which the player queued will be affected by each match.
The Ranked Warzone matchmaking system will match full groups of eight against one another, solo players against one another, players with similar ratings, etc. However, in order to ensure that players won’t have to wait too long for a match to occur, the system will become more ‘flexible’ over time. Solo and group queued players might be pulled together after a while if needed to launch a match. If a match cannot be made for extended periods of time, then Normal and Rank queued players (except those who queued as a group of five or more) might be pulled together to launch a ‘mixed’ match. Players will always be notified when a mixed match is made on the Warzone enter prompt. The rewards received in mixed matches will be based on how the player queued (type of commendations, rating adjustment if any, etc.).
We know that the flexible matchmaking and mixed matches are not ideal. They are only in until cross-server queuing is available and are the primary reason Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.2 are Pre-Season, along with the opportunity to collect data and refine various systems in preparation for Season One.
Note, Rank queued players will never be prompted to backfill a match. So you’ll never be placed in a match that is about to end that could cause you to suffer a negative rating adjustment. Additionally, the Group rating is adjusted regardless of the size of group you queued up with and groups of five or more players are never called into mixed matches. So for complete control over the fate of your group rating, we suggest you queue up with your seven closest buddies that are good at PvP!

Warzone Rewards

Game Update 1.2 will include several changes to round out the Warzone reward system. They will affect both normal and Ranked Warzones.
Continuing on the changes introduced in 1.1.5, normal and Ranked Warzone Commendations can now be used to directly purchase gear. This is to help ensure commendations maintain their value throughout progression and thereby the inherent Warzone reward mechanics.
Ranked Warzone Commendations in tandem with the equivalent Battlemaster piece can be used to purchase pieces of the brand new set of PvP gear called War Hero. There are no other requirements for purchasing or equipping this gear.
Additionally, there is a set of Rated War Hero Gear and mounts which do have Highest Rating requirements to purchase and wear. Rated War Hero Gear has the same stats as regular War Hero Gear, except with a more prestigious appearance.
The final score for your team at the end of a match now always directly affects the rewards of all players on your team. So, high scoring games will reward more. Thereby better preserving reward meaning for continued good team performance - even if it looks like your team is losing. Experience reward is an exception to this. It will be a factor of time in the Warzone and participation.
Players who earn few to no medals will have their overall rewards reduced. For example, if a player goes ‘AFK’ for some reason and gains no medals, they will receive no rewards.
There are twelve new objective medals awarded for thresholds of objective offense and defense points which are earned for various objective accomplishments and participation (e.g. help defend a door in Voidstar, passing for score and scoring in Hutball, heal allies near an objective in Alderaan, etc.). These medals are intended to add to the objective oriented incentives as well as ensure players of all classes and skill levels can earn at least the minimum for no reward reductions provided that they participate in the objectives for the duration of the match.
There are several new medals awarded based on how quickly your team won the match. This combined with the medal reward cap introduced in 1.1.5 incentivizes winning matches as quickly as you can.
Level 50 Warzone quests now award a handful of commendations but the bulk will be earned by performance in Warzones. This ensures the focus remains on the direct Warzone reward mechanics.
Note that all rewards are still not given until the end of the Warzone.

AFK Vote Kick

Players will be able to vote to kick AFK players out of a Warzone. Any player can vote to kick a player through the group context menu. This will not initiate a vote prompt, but rather must be actively sought out by multiple players. Once a player has received several votes they will receive a prompt indicating that they’ll be kicked from the Warzone in a few seconds if they do not engage in combat or defend an objective. A player who is kicked from the Warzone in this manner will be returned to their original location before they queued, and will not be able to queue up again for several minutes.

PvP Stats

In addition to Ranked Warzones Solo and Group Ratings, players will now have several other PvP stats tracked including:

• Player Kills
• Medals Earned
• MVP Votes Received
• Total Warzone Wins
• Solo Ranked
• Wins
• Losses
• Highest Rating
• Current Rating
• Group Ranked
• Wins
• Losses
• Highest Rating
• Current Rating

Players with high Highest Solo and Group Ratings will be visible to other players on inspection and on the Who List. We intend on making the other stats visible to other players in a future update.

New Warzone: Novare Coast

Republic and Empire are locked in a brutal conflict by air and sea on the new planet, Denova. An Imperial drop ship has crash landed near the Republic coastal base and quickly established a fortification. The teams will need to turn the mortar cannons on the opponent’s fortification to bring it down. However, both fortifications are shielded. One mortar cannon is not enough to purge the shield. A team will have to control at least two to inflict any damage on the enemy fortification.
This is a majority three-point domination map with a tug-of-war style objective control. Control progress is saved when interrupted and then can be resumed by a player of the same team or worked back through by player of the opposing team. A training simulation themed variant of the Warzone supports same faction vs same faction matches.
Hopefully this gives all of you some insight into the changes we’re making in Game Update 1.2. We’d love to hear your feedback on the changes and hopefully we’ll see many of you on the Public Test Server. Don’t forget, the details given here may change slightly before Game Update 1.2 reaches the live servers, as we react to feedback from testing!
Gabe Amatangelo
Principal Lead PvP & Endgame Designer

Originally posted here.

New 1.2 PVP Gear Info

Hey everyone, your old Champion/Battlemaster/Centurion are no longer being used in patch 1.2. They do not disappear, you just can’t use them to purchase armor anymore (they are no longer obtainable either). So the question is – what are they being used for now?
March 27: As of march 27 PTS patch, the exchange change between Warzone and Mercenary Commendations is now 10 Mercenary Commendations for 10 Warzone commendations. (Previously it was 30 Mercenary Commendations for 10 Warzone Commendations)
March 29: As of March 29 PTS march, Ranked Warzone Commendations can no longer be exchanged for normal Warzone Commendations (i.e. you can’t skip unranked warzones now in your PvP gear progresssion)
March 29: New expertise Crystals added to the PvP items vendor, price for Longspur Recon changed to 1500 Warzone Commendations

• Centurion PvP gear is no longer sold by vendors.
• Champion PvP gear is no longer sold. Instead, vendors now sell a set called Recruit which is blue quality with a rating of 126 (essentially Champion armor downgraded in stats but has more expertise). These pieces no longer have any moddable slots and can be purchased from vendors for credits. Your existing Champion pieces will remain the same (fully moddable, including the armoring)and not changed to Recruit.
• Warzone commendations now caps at 2000 and is used to purchased the Battlemaster gear, which no longer have a valor requirement. You can still purchase the Mercenary Commendations at a rate of 10 Mercenary Commendations per 10 Warzone Commendations but they no longer have any use in directly purchasing PvP armor.
• The new tier of PvP Armor – War Hero – is purchased via Ranked Warzone Commendations, which are obtained via playing warzones.

So the question you are probably wondering, what are your Champion/Centurion/Battlemaster commendations now used for?
There are now two PvP vendors near the PvP Terminal, the vendor for PvP items is the guy/gal you are looking for. He/she will exchange your old PvP commendations items. The exchange rate are as follows.

Crystals (March 29)
Advanced Black-Blue War Hero’s Crystal (+41 expertise)	150k credits, 1950 Warzone Commendations
Advanced Black-Orange War Hero’s Crystal (+41 expertise, 1500 PvP rating)	200 k credits, 1500 Ranked Warzone Commendations
Advanced Black-Purple War Hero’s Crystal (+41 expertise, 2000 PvP rating)	250 k credits, 3000 Ranked Warzone Commendations
Advanced Black-Red War Hero’s Crystal (+41 expertise)	150 k credits, 1950 Warzone Commendaitons
Advanced Green War Hero’s Crystal(+41 expertise)	500 Warzone Commendations
Advanced Red War Hero’s Crystal (+41 expertise)	500 Warzone Commendations
Item Boxes
Ancient Premium Storage Box	12 Centurion Commendations
Ancient Premium Storage Box	7 Champion Commendations
Ancient Prototype Storage Box	20 Champion Commendations
Ancient Prototype Storage Box	30 Centurion Commendations
Black Market Premium PvP Box	120 Warzone Commendations
Gilded Premium PvP Box	120 Warzone Commendations
Standard Premium PvP Case	120 Warzone Commendations
Jeweled Premium PvP Box	120 Warzone Commendations
Credit Boxes
Heavy Small Credit Box	1 Champion Commendation
Standard Small Credit Case	1 Centurion Commendation
Crafting materials
Baradium Flux*	1000 Warzone Commendations
Baradium Flux*	1 Battlemaster Commendation
Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box*	30 Champion Commendations
Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box*	1 Battlemaster Commendation
Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box*	45 Centurion Commendations
Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box*	1000 Warzone Commendations
Schematics
Schematic: Advanced Blue Eviscerating Crystal	450 Warzone Commendations
Schematic: Advanced Blue Hawkeye Crystal	450 Warzone Commendations
Schematic: Advanced Blue Indestructible Crystal	450 Warzone Commendations
Schematic: Advanced Yellow Eviscerating Crystal	450 Warzone Commendations
Schematic: Advanced Yellow Hawkeye Crystal	450 Warzone Commendations
Schematic: Advanced Yellow Indestructible Crystal	450 Warzone Commendations
Commendations
10 Warzone Commendations	10 Mercenary Commendations
Adrenals/Medpacs
Warzone Expertise Adrenal	20 Warzone Commendations
Warzone Expertise Adrenal	20 Mercenary Commendations
Warzone Medpac	20 Warzone Commendations
Warzone Medpac	20 Mercenary Commendations
Vehicles
Longspur Recon (valor50)	1500 Warzone Commendations
Ubrikkian War-rider (2200 PvP Rating)	1000 Ranked Warzone Commendations

Baradium Flux, a grade 7 PvP crafting material used in the construction of Blue, Cyan, Purple, and Yellow Expertise color crystals
Grade 6 crafting PvP box that randomly rewards crafting materials as well as Mission Discoveries and Expertise color crystal schematics.

In summary (inspired by this)
Centurion Commendations

• 1 Centurion –
  
  Standard Small Credit Case
• 12 Centurion –
  
  Ancient Premium Storage Box
• 30 Centurion –
  
  Ancient Prototype Storage Box
• 45 Centurion – Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box

Champion Commendations

• 1 Champion –
  
  Heavy Small Credit Box
• 7 Champion –
  
  Ancient Premium Storage Box
• 20 Champion –
  
  Ancient Prototype Storage Box
• 30 Champion – Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box

Battlemaster Commendations

• 1 Battlemaster – Baradium Flux
• 1 Battlemaster – Grade 6 Crafting PvP Box

Mercenary Commendations

• 20 Mercenary –
  
  Warzone Expertise Adrenal
• 20 Mercenary –
  
  Warzone Medpac
• 10 Mercenary – 10 Warzone Commendations
• 750 Mercenary & 750 Warzone – Longspur Recon (Valor50) 

Originally posted here.

Updated PTS Patch Notes for 1.2

These notes detail changes made to the PTS server on 3/29/2012. These changes ONLY apply to the PTS server.


Classes and Combat

General

• "Unknown" is no longer displayed as a target or source of damage in the combat log or chat window.
• The combat log now includes abilities that generate threat.
  

Jedi Knight

General

• Force Leap now places a "root" visual effect on the affected target.
• Master Strike damage has been increased by approximately 15%.
  

Guardian

• Forceclap has been removed.
  

Sith Warrior

General

• Force Charge now places a "root" visual effect on the affected target.
• Ravage damage has been increased by approximately 15%.
• An issue that prevented Force Scream from affecting Weak and Standard enemies has been corrected.
  

Juggernaut

• Crash has been removed.
  

Jedi Consular

Sage

Seer

• Valiance now reduces the health spent by Noble Sacrifice by 2% per point (up from 1% per point).
  

Sith Inquisitor

Sorcerer

Corruption

• Dark Resilience now reduces the health spent by Consumption by 2% per point (up from 1% per point).
  

Smuggler

Gunslinger

Saboteur

• Shock Charge now resets its cooldown if the target is defeated while under its effects.
  

Dirty Fighting (Gunslinger)

• Nice Try is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces damage taken from periodic effects and gives Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed).
• Quick Getaway has been replaced by Hold Your Ground, which additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape.
  

Scoundrel

Dirty Fighting (Scoundrel)

• Nice Try is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces the damage taken from periodic effects and gives Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed).
• Quick Getaway has been replaced by Smuggled Defense, which additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape.
  

Imperial Agent

Sniper

Engineering

• Interrogation Probe's cooldown now resets if a target is defeated while under its effects.
  

Lethality(Sniper)

• Lingering Toxins is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces damage taken from periodic effects and gives Corrosive Dart and Corrosive Grenade a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed).
• Vanish has been replaced by Hold Your Ground, which now additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape.
  

Operative

Lethality (Operative)

• Lingering Toxins is a new Tier 6 skill that reduces damage taken from periodic effects and gives Corrosive Dart and Corrosive Grenade a chance to apply a weaker version of the same effect when they end (even if they are cleansed).
• Vanish has been replaced by Escape Plan, which now additionally reduces the cooldown of Escape.
  

Bounty Hunter

General

• Jet Charge now places a "root" visual effect on the affected target.
  

Mercenary

• Onboard AED is a new level 50 ability that allows the Mercenary to revive an incapacitated ally. It is usable in combat.
• Power Surge can now be trained at level 46.
  
  Bodyguard
  
  • Critical Efficiency's buff description now properly refers to Rapid Scan.
    

Trooper

General

• Storm now places a "root" visual effect on the affected target.
  

Commando

• Emergency Medical Probe is a new level 50 ability that allows the Commando to revive an incapacitated ally. It is usable in combat.
• Tech Override is now trainable at level 46.
  

Crew Skills

General

• Droid companions now use the correct voice processing when being dismissed or sent on Crew Missions.
  

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

General

• The Cademimu and Colicoid War Games missions now update properly for the entire party when speaking to the Flashpoint Courier Droid.
• Corrected an issue that caused some bosses to display an incorrect amount of total health after being defeated.
• Players no longer receive mission credit for some Story Mode Flashpoint or Operation missions when completing Nightmare Mode.
• Emergency Fleet Passes can no longer be used in Flashpoints or Operations.
  

Directive 7

• Corrected an issue that could prevent Mentor from becoming vulnerable in the final phase of this fight in Hard Mode.
  

Kaon Under Siege

• KR-82 Expulsor Droid now uses his grapple ability correctly.
  

Lost Island

• Scientists in the Dr. Lorrick encounter no longer appear in their tanks after being released.
• Energy Coils no longer persist if the LR-5 Sentinel Droid resets.
• Sav-Rak now resets if attempting to pursue a player beyond the confines of his platform and tower area.
  

Operations

Eternity Vault

• Killing Soa in Nightmare Mode now grants the correct Codex entries.
• An "Emergency Reset" button has been added to the Ancient Pylons encounter.
  

Explosive Conflict

• Corrected an issue that caused a continuous sound to play when triggering Kephess' cinematic.
• In Hard Mode, the tooltip for Charged Burst in the Hovertank encounter now correctly indicates that it can be dispelled.
  
  Toth and Zorn
  
  • Several changes have been made to Toth and Zorn to improve the encounter.
  • The visual effects for Toth's berserk phase have been improved.
  • The cooldown of Toth's Area of Effect Smash ability has been increased after he leaps to Zorn.
  • Zorn's Embolden buff now more clearly indicates who is affected.
  • Players now receive the correct Codex entries upon defeating Toth and Zorn.
  • Knockbacks have been removed from Toth and Zorn's Area of Effect abilities.
  • The radius of the ground target for the Rock Spire attack has been increased.
  • The visual effects for the Fearful debuff have been improved.
  • The enrage timer has been increased in Story Mode.
  • Zorn now chases players if there are none in range of his rock toss.
    

Items

General

• Modifiable items now have repair costs based on the level of their base modification.
• The color palette for new endgame Bounty Hunter armor has been brightened.
• Corrected an issue that could prevent Augment slots from displaying properly.
• Commendation costs for Battlemaster and War Hero offhand weapons have been adjusted. They now cost 3,475 Battlemaster or War Hero Commendations, respectively.
  

Vendors

• Color crystals have been added to the PvP items vendor.
  

Legacy

• Deleting a character from the Family Tree no longer causes errors in the Family Tree display.
• Players are no longer incorrectly granted access to some Legacy features before their Legacy has been unlocked.

Missions and NPCs

General

• Items that are usable from the mission tracker now appear correctly when the item is obtained.
• Addressed an issue that could cause text in the mission tracker to overlap.
• Audio for several intro cinematics now plays correctly for distant sound sources.
• An issue that could cause client crashes during a few specific conversations (ex: a conversation with General Threnoldt) has been fixed.
  

Missions

World Missions

Corellia

• Chasing the Shadow: Koric's Hypermatter Grenade now correctly deals damage over time.
• Control the Battlefield: This mission now updates correctly in the mission tracker.
• Counter Eco-Terrorism: Irradiated water that the player must walk through now consistently causes damage.
  

Hoth

• Aratech Coral: Players now properly receive credit when they defeat Snowblind.
  

Class Missions

Bounty Hunter

• Hail the Conquering Hero: Players can no longer become stuck in a looping conversation during this mission while talking to the Huntmaster.
  

Trooper

• Catching Up: Players who missed this mission will now have it granted if they are eligible.
  

NPCs

• When fighting the Nightmare Pilgrim, Paranoia now stacks to the proper amount on players.
• Enraged Gore and Reload are now activated at the same time during the Nightmare Pilgrim encounter.
  

PvP

General

• PvP daily and weekly missions no longer provide obsolete rewards.
  

Warzones

• Players can no longer purchase Warzone Commendations by trading in Ranked Warzone Commendations.
  

  
  
  Novare Coast
  

  • Bunkers now look damaged regardless of how far the player was from the bunker when it was damaged.
    

Space Combat

General

• Activating Space Combat abilities with keyboard hotkeys no longer incorrectly displays a "no target" error message.
  

UI

General

• Players can now invite guild members to a group from anywhere in the galaxy by right-clicking the player's name in the guild window.
• Corrected an issue that could cause numerical information to include decimals.
• Several graphical issues with the item modification UI have been addressed.
• Players can no longer save and exit the interface editor without selecting "yes" or "no" on the pending changes prompt.
• Corrected an issue that caused the interface editor and pending changes prompts to remain open if secondary UI windows were open.
• Disabling "Enable Movable Secondary Windows" while the preferences window is open no longer prevents the preferences window from opening again.
• The Response Wheel can no longer be disabled via the interface editor.
• Paging a hotbar up and down no longer dispays hotbars that are already displayed elsewhere.
• The ESC key now properly cancels timer dialog windows.
  

Galactic Trade Network

• GTN filters for companion characters (specifically some Droid companions) now return the correct results.
• The "Search" button in the GTN is no longer available if only a category (and not a sub-category) has been selected. Players do not need to select a category or sub-category if searching by entering text.
• Corrected an issue that caused search text to be ignored when category and sub-category settings were active.
  

Guild Bank

• The Guild Bank ledger now sorts alphabetically by name by default.
• Guild Bank logs now properly reflect the number of items removed from a stack.
• The number of guild members required to purchase a Guild Bank has been reduced to 12 (from 15).
• The cost for Guild Bank tabs 5-8 has been increased significantly.
  

Groups and Targeting

• Class icons that appear on nameplates now represent the player's correct Advanced Class.
• The option to enable or disable class icons now has the correct label in the preferences window.
  

Maps

• The minimap now updates properly when players leave or are removed from a group.
• Corrected an issue that could cause framerate performance to degrade while using the Galaxy Map.
  

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Several text errors throughout the game have been corrected.
• Jedi arriving on the Republic Fleet from Tython now appear at the shuttle doors.
• An issue that prevented emote animations from playing while the player had one of their mini-pets targeted has been corrected.
• Corrected an issue that caused some audio to repeat itself when changing rooms.
• The game camera no longer moves itself when Smart Camera is toggled off.
• Several audio issues have been corrected.
• Corrected an issue that could cause the game to crash when specific NPC animations were played.

SWTOR Legacy Dev Blog

Where would you start if you were constructing the Skywalker family tree? Let’s start with Anakin. If you ask me, Anakin is a level 50 Sith Warrior anchoring the top of the family tree. He’s married to Padme Amidala and they have two kids, Luke and Leia. Luke and Leia were both strong in the Force, like their father before them. Leia ends up marrying Han Solo, undoubtedly a level 50 Smuggler, and they have three children who all turn out to be Jedi. Luke marries Mara Jade, and they in turn have Ben, who is also a powerful Jedi Knight. Looking at their family tree, it’s clear that the Skywalker legacy produces powerful Force users and great heroes.
From the very beginning of development on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we felt that the idea of familial bonds was a cornerstone of the Star Wars™ experience. In this blog, I’m going to explore what that means and what rewards are waiting for the characters in your Legacy, as well as exploring the design philosophy behind the changes we made.
You may have already started your Legacy by picking a Legacy Name. This happens when you finish Chapter 1 with your first character. From this point, all of your characters on that server are now considered part of your Legacy, regardless of faction. This means that any existing characters which have not been played past Chapter 1 will gain a Legacy Name, and any newly created characters will also have their Legacy Name available from character creation.
From Game Update 1.2: Legacy, unlocking your Legacy grants you access to a newly expanded Legacy Panel (accessed, by default, by pressing the ‘Y’ key) where you can modify your family tree, and see what Legacy Rewards you have unlocked.
Your Legacy’s bloodlines are constructed on the family tree page, where you can see all of the characters that are part of your Legacy, and drag them into place according to their relationship to each other. Want your Smuggler’s father to be your Sith Warrior? Maybe your Agent is a noted rival of your Trooper? Your Consular’s brother is an Inquisitor? It’s all possible, as your characters can be linked together in any combination as siblings, spouses, adopted children, children, rivals and allies. We hope that players use the family tree as a way to better roleplay their characters, visualize their relationships, and craft stories about their lineage.
But what do your characters learn from each other? Fathers pass family knowledge down to their sons. Allies share information with each other. Even rivals must learn everything about their foes in order to know their enemies. Likewise, the characters in your Legacy will be able to earn global unlocks, which are abilities, emotes, and other rewards shared across all characters in your Legacy. If one character unlocks something, all characters, regardless of familial relationship, earn the same unlock. Let’s look at different categories of unlocks.

Class Unlocks

When characters in your Legacy reach important story milestones, they can pass down special emotes and abilities to other characters in your Legacy. On completing Chapter 2 with a character, your characters gain the use of an emote unique to that class. For example, if you finish Chapter 2 with your Inquisitor, you unlock an emote which causes your character to throw lightning between his hands. Again, all characters in your Legacy can use this emote. Likewise, at completion of Chapter 2, your characters unlock the ability to apply that class’ unique buff along with their own. For example, if you complete Chapter 2 with an Agent, and then create a Bounty Hunter, when you use the ability Hunter’s Boon it also applies the effects of the Agent’s Coordination buff.
After one of your characters completes Chapter 3, that character gets to pass on a special ‘Heroic Ability’ to all the characters in his Legacy. Powerful Sith Warrior in your Legacy? His Jedi children can "Force Choke" enemies. Father was a high ranking Imperial Agent? Call in some old favors and request "Orbital Strikes" from Imperial warships. Your sister is a notorious Smuggler? She taught you that… special… kick that only Smugglers know.
Some of you may be concerned about Heroic Abilities making the game unbalanced or just looking wrong if used frequently. We had this in mind during development, so as a result Heroic Abilities can only be used while you are using your class’ Heroic Moment ability. These are abilities you already have that require an active companion to use and that currently boost your regeneration while active, allowing you to take on tougher opponents.
By requiring you to use these abilities with a companion present, we ensure that people who play multiple characters do not gain an advantage during the end game or in Warzones. By also only allowing Heroic Abilities during the brief window of time that a Heroic Moment ability is active, they remain a relatively rare occurrence. You won’t see Jedi running around spamming Force Choke all the time.
Heroic Abilities are very useful for leveling up new characters, for taking on tough bosses and PvE content as well as being handy roleplaying additions. Our intention is not to upset end game balance with them, and hopefully you will agree.

Companion Unlocks

When you complete all possible conversations and quests with a companion, you receive a companion unlock that is granted to all characters in your Legacy.
The first companion you unlock of each companion combat archetype (ranged tank, ranged DPS, melee tank, melee DPS, and healer) gives you a unique unlock for that companion type that grants a passive stat bonus. These first-time archetype unlocks also modify the duration and cooldown times for your Heroic Moment ability. This ensures that a single character can potentially attain the full range of companion stat boosts and Heroic Moment modifiers, while also ensuring that a player who has severely mistreated one companion can get that unlock by playing an alternate character.
For example, a Sith Warrior who has mistreated Vette may find it extremely hard to get her unlock, but unlocking any other ranged DPS companion on any other character will grant the same archetype unlock. Additional companions unlocked beyond the five combat archetypes grant a passive bonus to your Presence stat, increasing the power of your companion characters.

Species Unlocks

Can Sith Purebloods ever find a path to the light side? Is a Miralukan’s Force sight good enough to fire a sniper rifle with any accuracy? Do Mirialans make for good Sith Inquisitors as well as Jedi Consulars? With Legacy species unlocks, you can tell those stories with your own characters. Playing a character of any species to level 50 unlocks that character’s species as an option at character creation for all classes. All combinations of class and species are now possible given the right unlocks. Opening these new combinations gives much more freedom at character creation. By having to earn these unlocks, instead of just allowing all combinations by default, we ensure that combinations like Jedi Pureblood are still uncommon, and require someone to have invested time in a Sith Pureblood Legacy to attain them.
Additionally, if you unlock a species like Cyborg that has unique customization options per class, you open up all possible customization options for every class. Your new Cyborg Smuggler can have the Agent’s cybernetic eyepieces, or the sinister looking facial cybernetics of the Sith Warrior.
If you have enough credits and a high enough Legacy Level, you may also unlock additional species combos by purchasing them for a large number of credits. The cost for bypassing the unlock requirements is high, but it allows players who may have played a human to 50 and beyond a chance to start their next character as the species and class of their choice if they have the credits to spare.

Ship Unlocks

By attaining high enough Legacy Levels and spending credits, players will be able to purchase unlockable items for their ship. Wish you could pick up your mail on your ship? There’s a mailbox you can purchase if you are the right Legacy Level and spend a few credits. Neutral Galactic Trade Network Terminal? Better be ready to shell out some credits for that one! Wish that you could love your ship’s protocol droid even more than you already do? A new astromech you can acquire for your ship sells unique sensor modules for your beloved C2-N2 or 2V-R8 that give him crafting specializations, just the same as your other companions. In case that’s not enough, the astromech also repairs items and buys your junk!
As with all unlocks attained through the Legacy System, when you acquire something on one character, you acquire it for all your characters. That means what a new character in your Legacy gets their ship, they will climb on board for the first time to find all of your purchases already in place and waiting.

Other Unlocks

Unlocks are also awarded for reaching important alignment milestones, hitting different valor and social levels, and others are purchasable just by reaching a given legacy level and spending credits. Players unlocking Valor rewards will get some new, special unarmed combat abilities used for dueling other players. Players unlocking Social rewards will be dancing the night away with their companions using the new Companion Dance ability, and will receive new emotes that will have your characters using tools and tech devices. Players with credits to spare can buy down the cooldown time of Quick Travel and Emergency Fleet Pass for added convenience, or get the "Rocket Boost" ability that gives their characters an additional very fast sprint. (Hint: Rocket Boost is just a poorly scrambled anagram of Rocket Boots. If you’re sporting a jetpack on your back, the jets will fire out of there instead!)
The Legacy System does not end with Game Update 1.2; we’re already designing new Legacy additions for future updates. The first of these will arrive in Game Update 1.3, when we will be introducing an extension of the system that adds per-character perks that are not shared globally amongst your Legacy. These new perks will allow players to customize the way their characters progress, as well as new rewards, conveniences, and all kinds of other fun surprises.
We won’t stop there, either. The Legacy Team is already looking to future Game Updates. We will continue to expand and build upon the Legacy System for years to come, just as you continue to expand your family tree and build upon your own Star Wars legacy.
We look forward to hearing your feedback on Game Update 1.2 and hopefully we’ll see many of you on the Public Test Server.
William Wallace
Senior Game Designer

Community Q&A: March 23rd 2012

We’re back with some answers to your questions from the development team. As always, in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one. We have also edited some questions for clarity.
We’ve seen lots of questions throughout the community focused on the release of Game Update 1.2, especially after its release to the Public Test Server. To help answer some of those questions, next week’s Q&A will be devoted to Game Update 1.2, with questions drawn from across the Forums. With plenty of questions to choose from, we won’t be opening a dedicated Q&A thread for the subject. After next week’s Q&A, we’ll open another thread as usual.
Looking forward to future Q&As, we had some feedback from the development team which we wanted to share. While questions about future potential features in the game are always welcome, many times the answers will be non-specific, as development is always fluid. We don’t want to disappoint you with continuously saying ‘soon’ in reply to these questions.
Instead, the development team would appreciate more questions about features or systems currently in the game, or questions about the philosophy behind why development decisions were made. The development team feels they can really give you some in-depth answers to these sorts of questions, and overall we feel they will be more interesting answers than talking in vague terms about future features. This is not an attempt to shy away from questions about any aspect of the game, but rather a request to delve deeper into design philosophies and to get some more information on how things currently work in-game.
To sum up: a special Q&A next week drawn from existing Game Update 1.2 questions and back to the usual Q&A format the week after. As for this week, if you want to discuss any of the answers in this Q&A, please use this Forum thread!

Mksaccount: Are there any plans on adjusting rage timers in hard mode Flashpoints?
Gabe Amatangelo (Lead Endgame & PvP Designer): The team continues to tune Flashpoint bosses based on metrics and feedback. Bosses that are a ‘spike’ in the progression curve (e.g. when a second boss might be more difficult than the last) are being addressed in one way or another, be it increasing their enrage timer, decreasing their health, extending the cooldown of control abilities, etc.

Bendog: Are there any plans to make the lower level planet commendations ‘Bind to Account’? It would be nice to hand them off to another character.
Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): We've talked about it, sure. It's something we considered as we added in the Legacy System. However, right now we know that other aspects of the Legacy System will act to speed up the leveling experience for alternate characters. We want to see the state of the game in terms of leveling speed and itemization power after the core Legacy System goes live with Game Update 1.2 before we potentially make that change.

BurdoThePious: Is there a reason why the Commando / Mercenary Advanced Classes do not have an interrupt ability (eg. Mind Snap, Distraction, Force Kick)?
Georg Zoeller (Lead Combat Designer): Yes. The lack of an interrupt ability on these Advanced Classes is a purposefully designed weakness in their ability arsenal. At the current time, adding an interrupt to the Commando/Mercenary would increase their combat utility, especially in PvP, beyond what we are comfortable with.
That said, this issue is one we’ve re-evaluated with every major patch and will likely continue to revisit in the future. It is not inconceivable that an interrupt may be added to these Advanced Classes in a future update, especially if more PvE content is introduced that relies on a certain number of interrupts being available in a group.

Niktika: Can you please explain some of the reasoning behind the healing nerfs? It almost seems like every healer is up in arms regardless of their class.
Georg: Sometimes it's hard to hear this, but the change to healers you're referring to was, quite simply, a result of them being too good. When one healer is close to target performance and the others aren't, it's natural to think that the logical course is to buff the underperformer and leave the over-performers alone. I want to dispel that notion and explain why it isn't always possible.
All specs for all roles have a target performance. This is what drives the balance of the game: soloing, Heroics, PvP, Flashpoints, Operations... everything. When those targets aren't hit, we can't just ‘bring everyone up’ to the highest performer without negatively impacting the balance of the game and creating unsustainable inflation in our combat system. Frankly, it's also a lot more work to change all end game content in the game to compensate for an over-performing role than to bring the role back in line. The hard but simple truth is that Sorcerers and Sages had better Force management than we intended (e.g. a well-played Sage was almost incapable of running out of Force) and Mercenaries and Commandos were significantly over target in their healing performance.
After considerable testing, we're more confident than ever that all healing roles are both closer to target performance and closer to one another than ever before, leading to a much tighter balance on end game content. The community will be able to confirm this using the new combat logging feature in Game Update 1.2.
I know trying to ‘sell’ a downwards adjustment (AKA nerf) to anyone affected is like selling the need for a tax increase to people. When you are on the receiving end of it, you're not going to be happy about it. It may appear massive to you, even if the overall impact is limited. You likely won't care that it's 'for the greater good of the game' and, if you decide to disagree with our action, there's little we can do to sway you.
Based on the feedback brought to us so far from testers playing on PTS along with metrics and combat logs gathered from our guild testers, we are going to make additional adjustments before Game Update 1.2 is promoted to the live servers. For example, we reopened the internal debate about having an in-combat resurrect ability for Mercenaries/Commandos based on PTS feedback regarding the new Operations, in light of the higher utility value this ability brings to the table in 1.2. We're listening to your feedback, too, and rebalancing some of the changes made to healing based on data gathered from PTS. Look out for a future update to PTS for more details.

Pzljug: When are you guys going to finish the Timeline on the Holonet?
Stephen Reid (Senior Community Manager): When the Timeline series was begun we weren’t entirely sure how many timelines would be needed to detail relevant backstory for The Old Republic and left ‘blank spaces’ on the Timeline that, we thought, would all be filled in with Timeline entries. Ultimately, we feel we’ve detailed all the relevant backstory required, so no more Timeline entries going back into earlier history are planned. However, we know how much players enjoyed the lore details, style and presentation of Timelines, so we’re planning to continue that with a different series (currently unscheduled!) which will detail other aspects of the lore of The Old Republic.

Suzume_Bachi: If I unlock the Pureblood Sith species for all my future characters via the Legacy System, will I be able to create a Republic Pureblood Sith Smuggler, and will that Smuggler have Punish to I can smack around Corso Riggs?
William Wallace (Senior Designer): Players creating characters with the new species/class combinations allowed by Legacy will get that species’ unique ability. So yes, your new Sith Pureblood Smuggler will have the Punish ability, and can use it on Corso Riggs as much as you like. Poor Corso....

DevTheSith: Can Bounty Hunters get a [Name] The Mandalorian title (or if it’s already in game, where is it)?
Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Currently, there is no such title available for Bounty Hunters. It may be added as part of a future content update, but we’ve got no current plans to add it to the existing game.

Alericus: I am wondering how the ‘vote to kick’ system for PvP matches will work. I have a concern it will be abused by pre-made teams who want to control the team. Can you clarify how this system will work?
Gabe: Any player can vote to kick an AFK player through the Ops frame context menu. This will not initiate a vote prompt, but rather must be actively sought out by multiple players. Once a player has received several votes they will receive a prompt indicating that they’ll be kicked from the Warzone in a few seconds if they do not engage in combat or defend an objective. A player who is kicked from the Warzone in this manner will be returned to their original location before they queued, and will not be able to queue up again for several minutes. We’ll continue to fine tune the detection logic, but gradually, with an eye towards protecting the innocent bystander player.

Mataoh: A lot of guilds have a second alt guild for the opposite faction - is there any plan to allow some sort of cross-faction chat so both guilds can communicate with each other in game?
Damion: This was something that came up a lot during the Guild Summit and is an idea we're taking seriously. However, no design is locked down in stone and I don't have any sort of ETA as of yet for when something like this might happen.

joetacticSW: Can we have a ‘Loop music’ feature or some other way to make our experience less quiet?
Damion: Interesting idea. Let me give it some thought!

Thanks for all of your questions, and thanks to the team for answering them. Remember you can discuss this week’s Q&A answers in this Forum thread.

Originally posted here.

Legacy vendor info for patch version 1.2

Are you one of those people farming orange bracers/belts for your characters? Or maybe you are a marauder/sentinel and wondering why there isn’t any orange bacers/belts for you! Have no fear! Legacy vendors are coming in 1.2 and they will solve all your problems! (ok maybe not all).


Legacy vendors are a set of four NPCs newly added to Dromund Kaas and Coruscant in patch 1.2. They each sell 2 sets of orange gear (including orange belts and bracers) that require legacy level 10/20 and also gear in the range of 14-16 and 29-33 that you can trade via tokens obtained as drops. All of them are Bind to Legacy (BTL)
NOTE:: To provide you with the highest renders, some of the images are quite large and can take a bit to load
In Coruscant, you can find the legacy vendors here.

In Dromund Kaas, you can find the legacy vendors here

There are 4 vendors, one for each class and they each sell 4 sets of armor.

• Inheritance: Level 14-16 armor with stats – purchased with Inheritance item construction kits (these are likely obtained as world drops). These are Binds to Legacy (BTL)
• Birthright: Level 29-33 armor with stats – purchased with Birthright item construction kits (these are likely obtained as world drops). These are Binds to Legacy (BTL)
• Renowned: Orange armor without stats- purchased with credits but requires legacy level 10 to purchase. These are Binds to Legacy (BTL)
• Exalted: Orange armor without stats- purchased with credits but requires legacy level 20 to purchase. These are Binds to Legacy (BTL)

Yes for you sentinels/marauders out there, this will make you very happy!

I don’t know if these orange sets have new models or not but it is still worth a look! (will take a bit to load, large image)

Oh I know some of you are not happy with the previews and want ultra high res, “cinematic” quality renders (oh also the male version) of these armors. Luckily the vendor selling them is wearing some of the legacy armor so I will take some pictures of them! (high quality images, take a bit to load)




Oh one last thing, maybe some of you would like to see the stats on those Inheritance/Birthright sets! Here is one for inquisitior, but other classes have similar stat ranges.
Inquisitor Inheritance set – level 14-16

Inquisitor Birthright set – Level 29-33