Quote by DakonKor

Thanks for the post Jon. Even though I'm aware that SW:TOR is the first MMO for many Stonewallers, it's easy to forget this basic information should be shared when you've been involved with these games for over a decade.

I would add that I use Avast! Anti-virus.

It is always highly reviewed by respected PC magazines and sites, and even the free version usually outscores Norton or McAfee due to lack of bloat, stability, ease of use, and the speed with which new threats are added to the protection.

It's been a few years since I've dug into the adware/malware issue, but my plan of attack continues to be both the free version of AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy. I run them, one after the other, once every 3-4 months and have had no issues with malware or adware in over 8 years.

Yeah being in a house full of gamers in different age ranges it's a wake up call to always remember the basics. Thanks for the link I added it to the list.

Thanks for the post Jon. Even though I'm aware that SW:TOR is the first MMO for many Stonewallers, it's easy to forget this basic information should be shared when you've been involved with these games for over a decade.

I would add that I use Avast! Anti-virus.

It is always highly reviewed by respected PC magazines and sites, and even the free version usually outscores Norton or McAfee due to lack of bloat, stability, ease of use, and the speed with which new threats are added to the protection.

It's been a few years since I've dug into the adware/malware issue, but my plan of attack continues to be both the free version of AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy. I run them, one after the other, once every 3-4 months and have had no issues with malware or adware in over 8 years.

Interesting Jon. I remember before the last Turkey day weekend beta we had AA but then it was removed in one of the later builds. I was hoping to see it come back. Do you see a visible difference when you enable it? This may just be an incorrect tool-tip text. I can't wait to get home from work and try it out.

@Seannewboy - That's not a dumb question. Basically it makes everything look smoother (but can reduce performance depending on system resources and configuration. AA reduces the amount of jagged edges you see on all the models. I'm gonna really geek out here :P , here's the definition from Webopedia:

In computer graphics, antialiasing is a software technique for diminishing jaggies - stairstep-like lines that should be smooth. Jaggies occur because the output device, the monitor or printer, doesn't have a high enough resolution to represent a smooth line. Antialiasing reduces the prominence of jaggies by surrounding the stairsteps with intermediate shades of gray (for gray-scaling devices) or color (for color devices). Although this reduces the jagged appearance of the lines, it also makes them fuzzier.

Quote by Justjon

I will continue to look but my assumption would be it will always be grainy as a gif is automatically limited to 256 colors where a normal screen shot has more than that. If I do happen to find a solution I will pass it along though!

Quoted for truth.

GIF compression works based on color where JPEG works based on pixel data. GIF will only ever allow 256 colors max, which is what causes the graininess. JPEGs by comparison can reproduce three times that (256 each of red, green, and blue at 8bit) at a minimum, and as many as 65k colors (in 16bit).

The only way that I am aware of to do animation without the limitations of GIFs would be HTML 5 (which I know nothing about) or using a Flash animation. I'm not sure if either would work in our forums though.

Dumb question of the day: just what does Anti aliasing do? :blink:

I'm patching!!

Quote by Kirian

I slept :laugh:

Good morning and oh yeah

Servers Up! :woohoo:

I slept :laugh:

Quote by kiddkasper

"What have you done while the servers have been down?"

"Patched the others games that I haven't played since SWTOR has been out"

:lol: :whistle: :huh: :P :cheer: :)

I stalked our forums while the game was down. Click home it looks like the Justjon show! lol

So the patch notes said that Anti Aliasing was added to the preferences. So I figured I'm bored let me go look at the preferences to see if anything else changed. When I mouse over Anti Aliasing this is what it says!



I'm really hoping this is major overlook and that they really didn't take time to add the drop down but the feature isn't officially in the game yet.

"What have you done while the servers have been down?"

"Patched the others games that I haven't played since SWTOR has been out"

:lol: :whistle: :huh: :P :cheer: :)

Quote by Halish

Great job, Justjon. It looks great!

When I try to use screenshots in my animated gifs they go grainy as well. If you work out a way to fix that, let me know pleaaase!

I will continue to look but my assumption would be it will always be grainy as a gif is automatically limited to 256 colors where a normal screen shot has more than that. If I do happen to find a solution I will pass it along though!

This is a bit of information that I compiled in order to help people better protect themselves. When playing an MMO there will always be people that want to trick you so they can steal or hack your account. There are plenty of steps you can take to keep yourself protected.

So why bother?
Well you spend hours working on your characters. Even though this is a game it is also an investment of your time. When someone is hacked it can truly feel like a violation of privacy as if someone had broken into your home. I have also seen where in some situations on other MMO's people would get hacked and in turn empty complete guild banks which in turn affected 100's of people.

This game should be fun but the need to protect yourself should also be remembered.

Anti-virus/Firewall
There are many free/inexpensive anti-virus programs out there to scan your computer for malicious software.

• Malwarebytes
• Avast! Anti-virus

Security Key (Authenticator)
Adding a security key to your account is a great added layer of security. If you have an Iphone or Android there is an app that you can download (for free). For people ordering the key chain it will cost $4.00(USD) plus shipping and handling.

• Physical Security Key
• Android App
• iPhone App

Emails and Communication
Email is the number one way of contact for most companies and Bioware is no different. If you receive an email from them that seems out of place then the best you can do is manually open your browser and visit swtor.com. Any information that they may send you as far as alerts and information will also typically be found under your My Account section.

When in Doubt
If for some reason you feel your account may be compromised for any reason the best thing to do is immediately log into the website and change your password.

If anyone else has anything else to add please feel free to let me know and I'll add it.

I do have to say it gives a lot of hope for further fixes rather than what previous patches have been where they fix like 2 bugs it left people wondering how hard they were trying lol. Now at least we know where the effort was.

Quote by Justjon

• Companion healing abilities no longer apply a permanent green effect on the character.

buh-bye green butt!

Quote by Justjon

• Fixed a bug that could cause Crew Skills a character didn’t have to appear in the Crew Skills window.

Thank the gods!

Quote by Justjon

• Sorting now works correctly in the Guilds tab.

I've heard this before. We'll see.

Quote by Justjon

• A Datacron on Coruscant is no longer blocked by unintentional collision.

But, no love for the door crack on Alderaan?


There was some other info on the dev tracker in the swtor forums. They were intending to modify Biochem and Cybertech to bring a couple of the products more inline with other things made. Even though, I have these professions, this wouldn't really affect me as I wasn't making/using those items yet. I'm fine with it because usually companies hit hard with a nerf bat when they do this kind of thing, but apparently, they slightly adjusted these values.

Overall, I think some good improvements and hope to see many more soon.

Quote by DuncanHaldane

Well I'd like to read what the changes are, but the website is also down.

Yay I got it! Here you go!


General

• Anti-aliasing is now available and can be enabled in the preferences menu.

General

• Healing caused by crowd control abilities no longer generates threat.
• Tooltips for abilities modified by skill points now display correct damage values.

Guard

• This ability now transfers to a new friendly target without requiring deactivation on the previous target.
• Activating this ability while targeting a guarded or invalid target will still toggle the Guard ability off.
• A distinct visual effect is now present on characters using Guard on another character, and another effect is now present on the guarded character if they leave Guard’s range.

Taunt

• A new visual effect has been added to the user and the target of the Taunt ability for the duration of its effect.

Jedi Consular

• Project: This ability no longer shakes the screen of onlookers.

Shadow

• Battle Readiness: Now allows Combat Technique to trigger once every 3 seconds.
• Combat Technique: Healing received through Combat Technique has been increased, scales properly at higher levels, and can only be triggered once every 4.5 seconds.
• Slow Time: This ability’s damage has been increased by 15% and it now slows the movement speed of all affected targets.

Jedi Knight

• Force Leap: This ability no longer functions on Portable Holo Dancers.

Sith Inquisitor
Assassin

• Dark Charge: Healing received through Dark Charge has been increased, scales properly at higher levels, and can only be triggered once every 4.5 seconds.
• Overcharge Saber: Now allows Dark Charge to trigger once every 3 seconds.
• Wither: Damage has been increased by 15% and it now slows the movement speed of all affected targets.

Sith Warrior

• Intercede: This ability no longer functions on Portable Holo Dancers.
• Shatter: this ability’s tooltip now correctly reflects its damage; damage from this ability has not been adjusted.

Imperial Agent
Bug Fixes

• Corrected an issue where activating cover, using Explosive Probe, and then using Snipe could cause Snipe to be interrupted.

Bounty Hunter
General

• Incendiary Missile: This ability is no longer misclassified as an Area of Effect ability.

Companion Characters
General

• C2-N2 and 2V-R8 no longer vocalize crafting commentary during combat.
• The Carbonized Stream companion ability no longer breaks prematurely.

Kira Carsen

• Fixed an issue that caused players to be unable to progress in Kira’s affection conversations. Players previously affected by this issue can now speak to Kira and progress normally.

Bug Fixes

• Companions will now sell trash items when requested, regardless of group size.
• Companion healing abilities no longer apply a permanent green effect on the character.
• Fixed an issue that caused Companion Characters to sometimes have the incorrect appearance in cinematic.

Bug Fixes

• Corrected an issue that prevented recently completed Crew Skill missions from showing up in the next list of available missions.
• Fixed a bug that could cause Crew Skills a character didn’t have to appear in the Crew Skills window.
• Players can no longer loot harvesting nodes they do not have the appropriate Crew Skill for after a group member harvests (but does not loot) a node.

General

• A new level 50 Flashpoint, Kaon Under Siege, is now available for play in Normal and Hard Modes!
• The Gav Daragon and the Ziost Shadow have been expanded to accommodate the Kaon Under Siege gateway.
• The difficulty of some non-boss enemies in Flashpoints has been adjusted.
• Enemies now drop credits more frequently in Flashpoints.

Cademimu

• General Ortol’s rocket fire damage no longer occurs when the rocket is not active.

The Black Talon

• Some enemies in this Flashpoint are no longer invisible.

The Foundry

• Corrected an issue that could cause the final boss to become stuck at 10% health.

The Battle of Ilum

• Krel Thak’s Allied Weequay Pirates have had their toughness reduced in Hard Mode.

The False Emperor

• The Sith Entity’s affliction ability now properly deals damage in Hard Mode.
• HK-47 now has the correct amount of health in Normal Mode.

Eternity Vault

• Players are now able to successfully loot the chest after defeating the Infernal Council.
• Perimeter Defense Cannons have been re-tuned and have improved targeting behaviors.
• Soa’s Mind Trap and Force Throw abilities no longer target the same player multiple times; they now target every player in the group once.
• Ball lightning enemies summoned by Soa deal damage in a smaller radius.
• The Annihilation Droid’s rocket burst attack no longer deals double damage in 16-player Operations.
• Soa now summons fewer ball lightning enemies during the final round in 16-player Operations.

Karagga’s Palace

• Four new bosses can now be battled by players in Karagga’s Palace!
• Players no longer get stuck attempting to exit the Karagga’s Palace phase.

Bug Fixes
Flashpoints

• Corrected an issue that prevented some enemy NPCs from spawning in Flashpoints.
• The correct error message now displays when a player attempts to enter a different Flashpoint than the rest of the group.
• Flashpoint gateways no longer display as orange in incorrect circumstances.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Flashpoint difficulty from being set properly.
• Fixed an issue that caused mapnotes directing players to some Flashpoints to not appear correctly.
• Corrected map issues that made locating mission objectives on the Gav Daragon difficult.
• Fixed an issue preventing some players from opening a chest after a boss fight if the group was previously defeated by the boss.

Items

General

• An Item Modification Table has been added to the Supplies areas of the Republic and Imperial Fleets.

PvP

• Battlemaster Gear Tokens have been converted into Battlemaster Commendations, which can be used to purchase any Battlemaster gear. This allows players to purchase any piece of gear instead of requiring them to purchase the piece indicated by the token.
• Battlemaster Bags now contain Battlemaster Commendations instead of Battlemaster Gear Tokens. They still also contain Champion Commendations.

General

• All Bonus Series missions and their required missions can now be abandoned.
• Certain Wampas on Hoth that were preying on lower-level characters have had their level reduced.

Missions
Imperial

• Pressure Points: The Lerantha Lurker no longer engages players in combat before completing its spawn sequence.
• Geroya be Haran: Objectives related to this mission now glow when selected.
• In Cold Blood: Enemies that use Armor Piercing Cell during this mission no longer each stack a debuff on the player.
• Shadow Spawn: The Sith Spawn no longer knocks players down for longer than intended.
• Thuggish Behavior: Corrected an issue that could cause the player to remain stuck in combat during this mission. The required kills to complete this mission have been reduced.

Republic

• Climbing the Ladder: A conversation related to this mission no longer ends prematurely.
• Droid Clean Up: Corrected an issue that caused the bonus mission to persist in the player’s mission log.
• The Summit: The difficulty of the encounter with Sidone has been reduced.
• Vivicar Awaits: Lowered the amount of enemies that attack the player during the step “Find a Way Past the Force Field.”

NPCs
Bug Fixes

• Jilcoln Cadera’s abilities now correctly take into account whether a player is immune from knockbacks.
• The “Primal Destroyer” World Boss on Belsavis is now “Overwhelming” as intended.
• The World Boss “The First” on Dromund Kaas no longer inhibits Bounty Hunter’s Rapid Shots, and Imperial Agents will no longer be knocked out of cover during combat with it.

PvP
General

• The shuttle room in Dorn Base Command Center on Hoth is no longer considered contested territory.
• Ka on Voss is now a PvP Sanctuary.

Warzones

• Level 50 players now participate in their own Warzone bracket and will not be matched with lower-level players.

Ilum

• The daily and weekly mission objectives in Ilum now require defeating enemy players and/or collecting armaments from the center objective.
• Players now gain increased Valor from player kills in Ilum.
• Players now gain increased bonus Valor for kills based on the number of objectives controlled by their faction.
• Increased bonus Valor is now granted for player kills when defending an objective your faction owns.
• A notification is now displayed when a player gains Valor.
• Three new respawn points have been added for each faction.
• Companions are now restricted from the PvP objective area on Ilum.
• Notifications are now displayed when enemy players are close to an objective.

Bug Fixes
General

• The scoreboard value for “Highest Protection Per Single Life” now functions correctly.
• Players who have left a Warzone can no longer receive an MVP vote from teammates.
• Your PvP status will now be toggled automatically upon leaving a PvP region.
• Additional feedback is now provided when a player attempts to toggle their PvP flag.
• The Bolster tooltip now more accurately represents the buff’s effects.

Huttball

• Corrected a rare issue that could cause the Frogdogs to be declared the winner in a 0-0 match even if the Rotworms held the ball last.

Ilum

• Mountable turrets in Ilum no longer deal damage to targets behind them or outside their range.
• Turrets no longer immediately dismount the player after use.

UI
Maps

• Fixed a bug that prevented the minimap title from displaying when loading into the game or refreshing the UI.
• Corrected an issue that caused some mapnotes to disappear from the minimap when other mapnotes were updated.

Items

• Item hyperlinks now display stats for crafted research items properly.
• Item hyperlinks no longer display erroneous additional information relating to schematics when examined.
• Attempting to place a non-mission item into the mission inventory now displays an error message.
• Dragging equipment onto the character paper doll no longer prompts an item deletion notice. Items dragged to the paper doll are now equipped if possible.
• Item set bonuses now appear on the tooltip when viewing an item on a vendor.
• Items that can be modified now display with the correct loot color in the loot roll window.
• Comparative tooltips now correctly display stat differences when mousing over items in the Crew Skills window.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the tooltip display for ability cooldowns over one hour in length.
• The interface for splitting stacks of items now displays correctly.
• Servers that are online now always display on top of servers that are offline in the Server Select screen.
• Corrected a typographical error in the “Additional Commands” context menu option.
• Players nearby a player who achieves a new Legacy level no longer receive the Legacy level-up notification.
• Legacy name display preferences now persist when travelling between planets.
• A new confirmation dialogue now appears when submitting spam reports in game.
• Sorting now works correctly in the Guilds tab.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• The owner of a holocall conversation is no longer shown in the last frame of the cinematic.
• The spacebar button is now recognized when a player presses it to progress after a loading screen even if the spacebar button has been re-bound.
• Additional issues that could impact performance on Taris have been addressed.
• Vanity pets can no longer be considered targets for any abilities.
• Corrected an issue that could cause some preferences to reset to defaults upon area transitions.
• An Aim Datacron on Ilum is now accessible and no longer repeats its initial cinematic once used.
• A Datacron on Coruscant is no longer blocked by unintentional collision.

Source

Yeah I had a site with all the change on it that wasn't swtor site but for some reason I can't pull it up. My internet is seriously on strike from everything other than this website and twitter lol. I can't even get google to load.

Great job, Justjon. It looks great!

When I try to use screenshots in my animated gifs they go grainy as well. If you work out a way to fix that, let me know pleaaase!

Episode 497 - Voyager - "Deadlock" - 03/18/1996

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=4221

A duplicate Voyager is created after it passes through a spatial scission.

Enjoy!

Hello everyone!

We wanted to let you know that we have rescheduled weekly maintenance for eight hours on January 18th, 2012 from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) until 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET). This downtime is in preparation for our first major game update, Rise of the Rakghouls! All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than eight hours, but could be extended.

Read Full Article

With this update a lot is going to be happening to update the system to 1.1. There will be some class changes, bug fixes, and graphic performance updates.

So what is everyone's thoughts on the upcoming changes? Are you happy for them?