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Nbr post: 214
Register: 11/20/11
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Posted: 4/9/12, 2:00 PM
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Patch brings new features, class overhauls
 With a lot of talk on the horizon about the exciting new features in SWTOR Patch 1.2, the community reeled in excitement when James Ohlen (Lead Designer) announced to PAX-East convention attendees and our friends at Massively that the major content patch will release this week.
Ohlen told the Boston-area convention attendees, "We have our update 1.2 coming in the next week, and then after that, it's going to continue to roll out month after month. It's exciting."
This update brings many features and major content releases announced during BioWare's Guild Summit as well as several blogs on the SWTOR Community Website.
So what exactly is being released with this patch? We delve in for a brief overview of key features and updates.
Legacy System
 This is a feature which has received a lot of speculation since the game's release. First announced at the SWTOR Guild Summit to release with Patch 1.2 , this new feature allows players to include all of their played characters into a single bloodline and even to pass down abilities and emotes.
William Wallace, SWTOR Senior Game Designer explains:
"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."
Characters will be automatically added to the Legacy Tree upon completion of Chapter One, regardless of faction. After Chapter Two, characters will begin passing down special emotes as well as certain special abilities. Players will also be able to unlock role-specific unlocks for completing companion quests, the ability to unlock unique class combinations, ship unlocks and many more milestone-based unlocks.
Some unlocks will also be purchasable. According to Daniel Erickson, Lead Game Designer, alternative methods will be available for species unlocks. These type of unlocks will utilize Legacy Level as well as currency.
PvP Changes
 Several changes are also being made to PvP and Warfronts with Patch 1.2. The most notable of these features is the addition of a new Warfront called Novare Coast. In this new zone, players will battle for a strategic beachhead by gaining control of mortars which bombard the enemy.
The mechanics of this warfront differ from those of the Alerdaraan Civil War. In this warfont, the time required to capture a mortar is based upon a sliding timer based upon the number of players involved in its capture. Enemies may stop the timer and gain movement toward their capture by defeating all enemy players and interacting with the mortar.
Leaderboards and Ranked Matches will also be introduced with this update. 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
The rated warfront system will also include its own tier of PvP gear. Called Rated War Hero Gear, this tier will be available only to the higher rated players. This gear will have the same stats as the War Hero gear, but with what BioWare calls, "a more prestigious appearance".
An AFK Vote Kick system will also be employed. This is rather a misnomer as the system was explained to be similar to the Report AFK feature of other games, where a number of reports initiates the system. There is no word as to if the Deserter system (already in place during warfronts) will be revamped or removed in the future with the implementation of this system.
Explosive Conflict: New Operation
 A new operation entitled "Explosive Conflict" will be introduced with 1.2. BioWare reveals some of the lore:
"The Trandoshan mercenary warlord Kephess has seized the planet Denova, a world rich in resources valuable to the war effort. Players must assault his war camp, situated atop a mountain in densely-wooded terrain, fighting Imperial defectors and heavy war machines along the way. 8- and 16-player Story and Hard Modes are currently available for this Operation."
Lost Island: New Flashpoint
 A new flashpoint will also be added to the game. BioWare describes this new level 50 adventure:
"Having uncovered the sources of the Rakghoul plague outbreak in the Tion Hegemony, players must travel to Ord Mantell and confront Dr. Lorrick, the mad scientist who engineered this horrific biological weapon."
Guild Features
There are several features which will be implemented over the course of the releases for Patch 1.2. Immediately with the content release, players will have access to a Guild Bank, which will allow players of the same guild to enjoy a common storage unique to the guild.
There are several other features which BioWare intends to implement later in this patch cycle. They include:
- Guild Calendar
- Guild Capital Ships
- Guild Emblems
- Guild Advertisement
- Guild Progression
UI Customization and Improvements
 Starting with this update, players will be able to fully customize their user interface. This will include the ability to completely resize as well as move all elements the UI. There are also several quality-of-life improvements:
- An "Awareness Radius" option will be added. This will allow players to avoid that ghastly lag on board their Fleet Ships and elsewhere across the galaxy by tuning down the radius at which players and NPC's appear.
- A new preference, "Character Texture Atlasing," will be available. Enabling this option increases the texture quality used when rendering character models.
- Vehicles will now be able to be used in Spaceports and Orbital Space Stations
- Players will now have a "Customize" feature added to their character sheets. This will provide some options to customize the appearance of their character, including to color-coordinate their gear to their equipped chest piece.
Crew Skills and Gathering Professions
To be included with this patch are several sweeping and quality-of-life changes to both Crew Skills and Gathering Professions. Many of these changes were announced in the SWTOR Crew Skill Blog. Here are some of the highlights:
- Characters with the Armormech profession will be able to learn Aim, Cunning, Shield and Absorb augments schematics, which may be reverse engineered for a chance to research their prototype and artifact variants.
- Characters with the Armstech profession will be able to learn Endurance, Surge, Critical, Accuracy and Power augment schematics, which may be reverse engineered for a chance to research their prototype and artifact variants.
- Artificers will be able to craft top-end crystals for all available colors, as well as schematics for PvP crafting.
- If your character has the Cybertech profession, you will be able to sell any of the vehicles you create on the Galactic Trade Network, as we have removed their binding restrictions from the game.
- Players with the Synthweaving profession will be able to learn schematics allowing the creation of Strength, Willpower, Defense, Alacrity and Presence augments, which may be reverse engineered and researched into their prototype and artifact level variants. As with Armormech, a critical success crafting custom (orange) outfits will add an additional augment slot to the resulting item.
- Augment Slicing missions will become the source of Sliced Tech Parts - the main material component used in the creation of Augments by Synthweaving, Armstech and Armormech crafters.
Class Changes
Sweeping class changes have been made to all classes, many of which are balance-based. As a result, most skill trees have been re-worked and most classes will log in post-patch to skill point resets.
The changes are far too numerous to name here, but may be found on the patch notes. For those who are unfamiliar with where to locate the patch notes currently in testing, fear not! The rather lengthy but informative notes may be found on the SWTOR Community Website.
Please remember that all changes are in testing and may be subject to change before going live!
We will continue to provide updates and announcements as they become available.
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