World Bosses and Flash Points

Today was an addition to Flashpoint and World Bosses.  There is now a list of the world bosses, location, level, etc.  I plan on adding strategies for Flashpoints in the future.

Maps and Planets

Today I found some great links for maps. I added the to the Maps and Planets section.  There is one for each planet and where all the points of interest, and the other gives you information on how to find the flashpoints.

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - 1.1.4 Patch Notes (ON TEST SERVER)

General
The key formerly bound to /bug can now be mapped to any action and no longer opens the /bug window. The command is no longer able to be bound to a quickslot, but player can still type /bug in chat to open a new bug report.
Classes and Combat
General
Using abilities with indirect targeting (such as area of effect abilities) will no longer cause players to be flagged for PvP if a PvP-flagged player from the opposing faction is within the ability’s range, and the ability will have no effect on the PvP-flagged player.
Imperial Agent
Operative
Medical Therapy: Kolto Probe and Recuperative nanotech will now properly benefit from this skill.
Bounty Hunter
Powertech
Carbonize: PvP armor for Combat Tech will no longer prevent this skill from stunning enemies.
Flashpoints and Operations
Operations
Eternity Vault
Casting Mind Trap will no longer cause Soa to lose threat against his primary target.
Karagga’s Palace
G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator now has fewer hit points in Normal Mode.
Items
Vendors
“Show Usable” now properly filters to only show equipable items.
Missions and NPCs
Missions
Republic
Unlikely Allies: Resetting no longer requires players to abandon and re-acquire the mission in order to complete it.
PvP
Warzones
General
Fixed a queue interface exploit that allowed players to bring additional players into a warzone. While imbalances can still happen under specific circumstances, the issue can no longer be intentionally triggered by players in this way. *UPDATED*
Alderaan Civil War
The Eastern Turret no longer fires twice under some circumstances when it is captured by the Imperials.
UI
General
Added a /version command.
Added several new preferences for cooldown appearance:
Show Ready Flash: Toggles a bright flash when an ability finishes cooldown.
Show Global Cooldown Ready Flash: Toggles a bright flash when an ability finishes global cooldown.
Cooldown Style: Changes the art style for the cooldown graphic.
Global Cooldown Style: Changes the art style for the global cooldown graphic.
Show Cooldown Timer: Toggles cooldown time text on top of the ability icon in the quickbar.
Bug Fixes
Sorting will now function properly in the Guild Window.
Items placed in a quickbar are no longer removed when training abilities.
Using Shift + Right Click to split a stack of usable items will no longer cause the item to be used.
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
Players will no longer experience occasional disconnection when purchasing Crafting Materials from the GTN.

Star Wars - Cops

This one had me laughing so hard.

The Piano Guys

This is one of the best versions I have ever heard of the Star Wars Theme and it has an awesome video to go with it. I just love the Cellos to boot.

The Star Wars Cello Wars

Jedi Knight - Tanking

Doing some research last night on my role as a Jedi Knight/Guardian Tank I decided to post this link so that others may use and abuse it. I also posted this in the Jedi Knight class section.

Jedi Knight - Tank

Loot / Gear

I added a Loot / Gear section to this blog today.  Thank you Muz for the great link, and thank you
TOR-Loot for the link.

http://www.tor-loot.com/

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - 1.1.3 Patch Notes

Classes and Combat
General
•Surge rating has been re-balanced. It now reaches diminishing returns the same way as other damage ratings, and its per point damage contribution has been reduced by approximately 10%.
Bounty Hunter
Mercenary
Arsenal
•Stabilizers: Correctly adds pushback resistance to Unload.
Trooper
Commando
Gunnery
•Steadied Aim: Correctly adds pushback resistance to Full Auto.

Companion Characters
General
•Some taxis that failed to re-summon companions upon reaching their destination now properly re-summon them.
•Companions no longer indicate they wish to speak with you when you are not yet eligible for their next conversation.
•If a player is invited to a nearly full group and declines, that player is no longer prevented from summoning a companion.
Crew Skills
Crafting Skills
•Non-stackable crafting materials are now refunded if the crafting assignment is canceled.
•The number of non-stackable crafting materials a player has is now correctly reflected in the crafting UI.
Biochem
•Exotech schematics will now function properly. - Updated 2/10
•Crafting Exotech consumables now results in three items with a chance of one additional item on a crafting critical.

Flashpoints and Operations
General
•Conversation rewards like Social and Alignment Points and Companion Affection are gained more consistently during Hard Mode Flashpoints.
Flashpoints
Boarding Party
•In Hard Mode, players are no longer blocked from re-entering the Flashpoint in some circumstances when the group is defeated during the encounter with Jorland.
Kaon Under Siege
•Expulsor Droid now drops the correct loot.
Operations
Karagga’s Palace
•The chest in 8-man Nightmare Mode now spawns properly after defeating Karagga.
Items
General
•Unique items can no longer be traded to a player that has the maximum number of that item in their inventory.
•A confirmation dialog is now displayed when purchasing items with commendations or tokens and when purchasing expensive items.

Legacy
•A confirmation dialog is now displayed when choosing a Legacy name. The UI has been updated to better communicate Legacy name decisions.

Missions and NPCs
General
•Small amounts of Social Points are no longer lost in some circumstances (rarely at the beginning of a Flashpoint or in some mission conversations).
•Bonus Series missions on Tatooine (Republic and Imperial) can now be abandoned.
Missions
Imperial
•Eve of Destruction: This mission progresses properly even if the player does not immediately travel to Corellia.
Republic
•Need to Impress: Resolved a dialogue issue with Ambassador Jannik that blocked progress in this mission.
•Rapid Response: This mission can now be failed if the player leaves the mission phase while attempting to destroy the Bomb-Carrying Droids.
•Taris Bonus Series: The cinematic for the objective "Return to Storm" now completes properly even if the player has not finished Reconstruction Efforts.

PvP
General
•Fixed an issue causing players to not receive Warzone Win mission credit upon winning a Warzone match when the first player to enter the zone leaves the zone before the match concludes.
World PvP
Ilum
•Players are now notified when they kill a player but do not receive credit due to rate limits.
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
•Players are no longer occasionally disconnected from the game when interacting with a mailbox.
•Players no longer lose mouse click functionality in some circumstances after pressing multiple mouse buttons.

Some Star Wars 'esk Space Balls Moments

Some of my favorite scenes.

awesome cartoon for SWTOR Cool Downs

I had to chuckle on this one.

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/

The Emperor Gets a Job

I had to laugh over this video.

Back by Popular Demand (Ventrilo Normalization)

I am adding this to my pages section. To make it easier for people to find.

• Go to Setup
• Enable Direct Sound
• Select the SFX Button
• Select Compressor and click Add.
• Under Compressor Properties use the following settings:
  Gain = Adjust for how loud you want people to be. (I use 15)
  Attack = 0.01
  Release = Around 500
  Threshold = Around -30
  Ratio = 100
  Pre delay = 4.0
• Done!

SWTOR - 1.1.2 Patch Notes — 2/7/2012

Classes and Combat
Combat Ability Responsiveness
•Further improved response time for ability activation requests, especially in low-framerate situations.
 •The activation bar now appears at the correct time (when the activation of an ability begins) and disappears when activation is complete.
 •Instant combat abilities no longer occasionally start their combat animations twice, resulting in jerky behavior on the executing player's client.
 •The display of the floating text from instant healing abilities is no longer delayed by the animation on the client and now properly reflects the time the effect happens on the server.
 •Abilities on cooldown are now more easily distinguished from abilities that can be used.
General
 •If Sprint was active when a player died, it now remains active when the player is revived.
Jedi Knight
Sentinel
 •Pacify: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.
Watchman
 •Plasma Blades: Now increases damage dealt by burn effects by 5% per point.
 •Searing Saber: Now correctly modifies the critical damage dealt by burn effects.
 •Changes to Searing Saber and Plasma Blades result in an overall increase in Damage Per Second.
Sith Warrior
Marauder
 •Obfuscate: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.
Annihilation
 •Hemorrhage: Now increases damage dealt by bleed effects by 5% per point.
 •Bleedout: Now correctly modifies critical damage dealt by bleed effects.
 •Changes to Hemorrhage and Bleedout result in an overall increase in Damage Per Second.
Jedi Consular
General
 •Unity: Now properly provides damage reduction when used.
Shadow
 •All Techniques now cost 100 Force.
 •Force Technique's Force Breach now also deals damage when applied. Overall damage dealt by this ability has not changed.
Kinetic Combat
 •Technique Mastery: No longer increases the duration of Force Technique's Breach effect. It now increases the damage dealt by Force Technique.
 •Particle Acceleration: This skill now also triggers from Spinning Strike. It now triggers from damage dealt (rather than ability use) such that each hit of Spinning Strike, Double Strike, and Whirling blow have an individual chance to yield the Particle Acceleration buff. The chance to trigger has been reduced to 30% per hit, and it now properly increases the critical damage dealt by Project when a Force Potency charge is consumed.
 •Harnessed Shadows: Stacks of Harnessed Shadows now last 30 seconds. Using Slow Time now yields a stack of Harnessed Shadows.
Infiltration
 •Circling Shadows: Now requires the purchase of the Shadow Technique skill. Shadow Technique must be active in order to trigger the Circling Shadows buff. This skill now also triggers from Spinning Strike.
Balance (Shared Tree)
 •Force Focus: Now additionally lowers the cooldown of Force Breach while Force Technique is active.
 •Force Strike: Now triggers from activating melee attacks that hit a target affected by Force Technique's Breach effect. This effect now triggers more easily but cannot trigger as frequently.
 •Force in Balance: Heals the caster for 1% of maximum health for each target struck. This healing effect can no longer crit and no longer consumes Force Potency charges.
 •Psychic Absorption: Now doubles the amount of healing generated by Force in Balance and Focused Insight.
Sith Inquisitor
Assassin
 •All Saber Charges now cost 100 Force.
 •Lightning Charge's Discharge now also deals damage when applied. Overall damage dealt by this ability has not changed.
Darkness
 •Charge Mastery: No longer increases the duration of Lightning Charge's Discharge effect. It now increases the damage dealt by Lightning Charge.
 •Energize: This skill now also triggers from Assassinate. It now triggers from damage dealt (rather than ability use) such that each hit of Assassinate, Thrash, and Lacerate have an individual chance to yield the Energize buff. The chance to trigger has been reduced to 30% per hit.
 •Harnessed Darkness: Stacks of Harnessed Darkness now last 30 seconds. Using Wither now yields a stack of Harnessed Darkness.
Deception
 •Induction: Now requires the Surging Charge skill to be purchased and requires that Surging Charge is active in order to trigger the Induction buff. This skill now also triggers from Assassinate.
Madness (Shared Tree)
 •Crackling Charge: Now additionally lowers the cooldown of Discharge while Lightning Charge is active.
 •Raze: Now triggers from activating melee attacks that hit a target affected by Lightning Charge's Discharge effect. This effect now triggers more easily but cannot trigger as frequently.
 •Death Field: Heals the caster for 1% of maximum health for each target struck. This healing effect can no longer crit and no longer consumes Recklessness charges.
 •Devour: Now doubles the amount of healing generated by Death Field and Parasitism.
Smuggler
Gunslinger
Sharpshooter
 •Diversion: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.
Imperial Agent
Sniper
Marksmanship
 •Diversion: This ability can no longer be used on Operation Boss enemies.
Bounty Hunter
Powertech
Advanced Prototype
 •Hydraulic Overrides: Visual and sound effects are now easier to recognize.
Trooper
General
 •Troopers can now access their ship after leaving and returning to Corellia within 30 minutes.
Vanguard
Tactics
 •Hold the Line: Visual and sound effects are now easier to recognize.
Companion Characters
General
 •Companion Characters no longer occasionally appear unclothed when summoned.
Companions
Doc
 •Crazy Talk (mission): Male characters can now complete the conversation related to this mission.
Crew Skills
General
 •The message "There are no missions defined for the Crew Skill: [Crew Skill Name]" is no longer erroneously displayed.
Crafting Skills
General
 •Crafting skills no longer inform the player that no missions are defined for the Crew Skill.
Biochem
 •Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals no longer require Biochem to use.
 •Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals are no longer bound, allowing them to be traded or sold to other players.
 •Rakata reusable stims and adrenals have been reduced in power, providing buffs equal to Energized stims and adrenals. However, the tooltips for these items have not been updated and will still display old values.
 •The Exotech Med Unit schematic obtained from the Eternity Vault Operation now functions properly and can be learned.
Gathering Skills
 •Harvesting nodes in Ilum no longer spawn in friendly bases.
•Slightly lowered the amount of resources gathered from harvested droids and creatures.
Flashpoints and Operations
General
 •Players are now able to obtain destined loot from chests when Master Looter is enabled and they are not the Master Looter.
Flashpoints
The False Emperor
 •Jindo Krey's ship no longer occasionally enters a state that prevents it from taking damage.
Kaon Under Siege
 •Infected Mercenaries can no longer permanently stun players.
Operations
Eternity Vault
 •Soa no longer resets if he uses Mind Trap on the main tank.
 •Soa now frees all players in mind traps before transitioning to his platform phase. Players will no longer be stuck in mind traps during the platforming sequence as a result.
 •Players released from Soa's mind trap after he is defeated are now teleported to the appropriate location, allowing them to claim their loot.
Karagga's Palace
 •The chest that is awarded for defeating Karagga on Nightmare Mode no longer appears partially inside a wall.
 •Foreman Crusher's Perforating Rend now correctly applies itself to targets caught within the conical attack.
 •Jarg & Sorno: The Carbonizer Probe no longer disappears if all of the players who attacked it died before the Carbonizer Probe was destroyed.
 •Karagga no longer appears above portions of the walls during the fight.
 •Karagga's chest no longer spawns after defeating Bonethrasher in Nightmare Mode.
Items
General
 •Rakata weapons are now correctly rating 140 and are fitted with mark 25 modifications. These items were previously less powerful than intended.
 •Champion bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations and 7 Champion Commendations, and the chance to obtain a direct trade item token has been reduced. Battlemaster bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations.
Vendors
 •It is no longer possible to purchase items while holding down the Shift, Alt, or Ctrl keys.
Legacy
General
 •The Legacy Experience required to advance to Legacy Levels beyond 20 has been increased.
Missions and NPCs
General
 •Commendation rewards for Hard Mode Flashpoint daily and weekly missions and Operation weekly missions have been increased.
 •Players can no longer accept missions from mission boards if they have reached the pending mission reward cap.
•Resetting a mission that is dependent on completing other missions no longer prevents players from receiving mission credit.
Missions
Imperial
 •Fifth Time's the Charm: Gholan no longer grants experience when killed.
•General Faraire: Khourlet's Elite Guards no longer hide behind a door, preventing progression in this mission.
 •A Last Stand: Players are now able to complete this mission as long as the Voss Scholars are inside the prison cell.
 •The Big Show: Using Force Cloak, dying, or leaving the phase while on the step "Defeat the Screaming Blade Cultists" can no longer cause the necessary NPCs to disappear and prevent mission progress.
Republic
 •Leave Nothing Behind: The Frozen Biomass Container now remains lootable if the loot window is closed.
 •Most Wanted: A mission item can no longer be rolled on if it is looted while the player is in a group.
 •Need to Impress: Players can now speak to Ambassador Jannik if they have already completed the mission Gormak Country.
 •The Lightspring: The toughness of Vaverone Zare and Nariel Pridence has been decreased. This mission can no longer be failed.
 •The Shadow Fist: Mission progress for players who are on this mission has been reset to the first step. Players can no longer become locked out of the stealth generator room.
PvP
Warzones
Huttball
•Class abilities that pull a hostile target (like Grapple, Harpoon, and Force Pull) can no longer be used to pull enemies onto the spawn shelf.
•Players standing in the spawn area no longer catch the Huttball when it is thrown, and will no longer immediately be killed for having the ball in an illegal position.
World PvP
Ilum
 •Chests on Ilum now respawn less frequently to reduce potential gains from farming.
•Particle Cannons can no longer be permanently disabled.
 •Implemented safeguards to address a Valor exploit.
Space Combat
General
The speed of enemy Ion Cannons has been reduced to improve balance in high-level Space Combat Missions.
UI
General
 •The reverse engineering button no longer occasionally disappears after a crafting skill is initially learned.
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
 •Loading screens no longer appear in low resolution if the player selects the low-resolution texture option in preferences.
•Facial animations no longer fail to play correctly in some instances.
•During brief teleports, the splash screen does not appear incorrectly over loading screens.
•Players will no longer experience limited audio, black portraits, or the inability to initiate conversations when they reconnect after being disconnected.
•Fixed a rare crash when updating inventory items when the player loads into the game.
 •The loading screen no longer appears during "fade to black" sequences.

New Look to our Blog

To go with the wonderful website that Coyote created, for our guild Squirrel Squadron, I have updated my blog to reflect some of its style. If you are interested in joining our guild we are on The Ebon Hawk. Republic side.

Squirrel Squadron Guild Link

Things I wish I knew in SWTOR

Conversation

• Hit [ESC] to exit a conversation before its done allows you to rechoose moral choices, or avoid getting an affection-penalty from a companion.
• [Spacebar] allows you to skip dialog scenes with NPC's.
• If you expect a conversation to turn into a fight, static barrier (or similar defensive ability) yourself before conversations begins. Ability timers seem to freeze during interactive dialog.
• You can turn on light/dark enabled on choice, so you don’t have to mouse over to see which points you get.
• You can actually press 1,2,3 etc for the choices in conversations.

Social

• Searching with "/who" shows who is "LFG" (Looking For Group).
• While chatting, use the up and down arrows to scroll through what you've previously written.
• Galactic Republic and Sith Empire characters can communicate, but only in local (/say).
• /clubdance is cooler than /dance.
• To keep from getting a bad reputation when grouping, only choose "Need" on an item if your character can use the item. If your companion can use the item, choose "Greed". Thanks.
• You can create a new channel by typing "/cjoin channelname".
• RP servers tend to do a lot of RPing on the RP channel which can be joined anywhere by typing /cjoin RP.
• Don't spam lfg every 30 seconds and everyone won't ignore you.
• Press z to run with weapon out.
• To find out the class/level of someone -that is for instance looking for group in the General Channel- Type /who, then in the Search field of the window that pops up, type their name. It will return the class and level of the person.
• Stating “I got a bad feeling about this” is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

UI and game preferences

• Hit [Ctrl]+U twice to reset the User Interface.
• [Alt]+Z hides / shows the User Interface.
• Clicking on stairwells and entrances on the map allows you to browse those areas.
• You may turn the nameplate tags of various mobs and player types on and off in your preferences.
• Going into 'Preferences' and then 'Controls' you can change the max camera distance (it’s default is pretty close).
• [Ctrl]+[Shift]+F shows your frames per second. It appears as very small green numbers in the bottom left corner of your screen.
• Preferences -> Controls -> Combat: Adjust your Action Ability Queue Window time to meet your playstyle.
• To set keybinds, look for the tab at the bottom of your Preferences window.
• Right click on your general chat tab to open up chat options. Then you can select chat options, click on the chat channel color box to open up the color scheme window.
• You can turn on auto loot/loot all in same area via the options. The Area loot option is amazing.
• Reward windows that dissapear are waiting for you in the upper right hand corner of your User Interface (Pending).
• Under preferences there is an option to set advanced tool tip information.
• To move the chat window: Mouse over the General Tab at the top left corner of the chat box. Left click, hold and drag to anywhere on your screen!
• You can change the rotation speed of your mouse in preferences.

Commendations

• Commendations can be worth hoarding as they can help not only you, but also your companions. Additionally items gotten from lockboxes are not bind On Pickup but bind on Equip, so they can be sold or given to alts.
• Warzone commendations max at 1000.
• Warzone commendations can be converted into mercenary commendations at fleet pvp vendor. 30 warzone for 10 mercenary.
• There are commendation vendors for every planet at the fleet.
• Fleet Commendations (those tokens you get from completing space combat missions) are turned in for ship upgrades at the same place where the starship upgrades vendor is on your fleet.

Vendors, GTN, inventory and equipment

• You do not need a mod station to modify your gear.
• There is a cross-faction Republic / Imperial Galactic Trade Network located on Nar Shaada.
• You may split stacks of materials by holding [Shift] and dragging the item with your left or right mouse button. Using the left mouse button also links the item in chat.
• You may purchase multiple amounts of an item from a vendor by holding [Shift] and dragging the item with your left or right mouse button.
• Using an alternate character parked at the GTN and the mail system can help reduce travel time.
• [Ctrl]+Left Click an item allows you to preview how it looks on your character.
• [Ctrl]+Left Click a customization mod allows you to preview how it will look on your companion.
• You can [SHIFT]+Left Click to link an item into whatever active chat channel you have selected.
• You can Left Click an item that has been linked in chat to view its stats.
• You can upgrade mods in Orange and Purple gear. Useful if you like the look of an item.
• When using the GTN, right clicking item in your bag moves it to sell window and inputs a "suggested" price; does not change default length of sale from one day.
• Low level orange gear is priceless. It has a base level restriction only viewable with empty mods. Otherwise its level is altered by the level of its mods. Only its armor type or class restriction information stops you from using it.
• You can get "slave/dancer" armour from Nar Shaddaa cantina, it requires soc lvl 2. (HOT TIP)
• Once you reach light/dark side lvl 2 you can buy artifacts from the light'dark vendors on the fleet.
• You can activate gear with "Use" bonuses by dragging the item into a quickslot.
• Prototype (purple) items with only mod and enhancement slots can have an armor mod added to them. If you open the Customization window of the gear and right click the armor mod it will allow you to add it to the piece of gear. The only thing you cannot do is view the current armor mod or remove it but you can add a new one to it.
• PvP gear at lvl 20/40 can be better than regular gear early on.
• When sending items by mail, you can just right-click on them in your inventory to have them added as attachments. You do not need to click and drag.

Crafting

• You may craft with materials stored in your ships cargo.
• If your inventory becomes full while crafting, items will be mailed to you and sent as attachments.
• The color of the little circle next to the item determines the crafting difficulty, and how much skill will be gained. You can sort by "Difficulty" or you can sort by "Rating".
• Reverse Engineering your crafted items has a chance of learning the "Blue" version of that item which is better than the normal version and has a higher threshold of leveling your profession.
• A critical craft will yield an item with a mod slot. The item is labeled (Exceptional). Biochem items can’t get a slot for obvious reasons; a crit will instead produce multiple stims.
• Companions can craft and run missions when you are logged out. Send them out to work for you before logging out of the game!
• Companions can also craft while you are PVP’ing or while running a flashpoint or operation with a full group.
• When using your companions to craft, you can queue up to 5 crafted items per companion.
• If you want to cancel a companions Crew-Mission, clicking the X to the right of the progress bar will cancel the action currently being done, while right-clicking the tiny icons underneath will un-queue those particular actions.
• If you cancel a crew skill mission midway through (including crafting), you get a full refund (and all materials back).
• Several companions may use the same crew-skill at the same time. So, for instance, all of them could be out Scavenging at the same time.

Companions

• Companions have their own Codex entries explaining likes, dislikes and stats. It does not state which gifts they like directly, but read this thoroughly it might give hints.
• The 'N' key opens your companion window when you are on your ship. Use the arrows next to the companions name to browse all your different companions.
• If a companion wants to talk in private, visit either a cantina or your ship. (Sometimes your ship is required).
• You can open your companion's skill tab by pressing ` (tilde).
• Your companion gains new skills with levels, but sometimes forgets to use them. You have to enable them manually. Remember to check once every couple levels if there's something new. For instance, if you thinks your DPS companion isn’t really doing good DPS, you likely forgot to turn on his AOE abilities. Some even come with abilities turn off, so always check them out.
• Dismissing a dead companion and summoning them back restores them to full health. So does mounting and dismounting your mount.
• In the preferences, you can enable the tooltip comparison for equipment/gear for your active companion.
• You can quickly target your companion (for healing etc) by double tapping F1.
• Gear bound to you can also be used by your companions (if they meet the other requirements such as Armor type, etc.)
• The droid you get with your ship is a healing companion. Just remember to gear it up.
• [Ctrl]+Left Click a customization mod allows you to preview how it will look on your companion.
• Right click - companion gathers.
• [Shift]+Right click - your character gathers.
• If you have a companion out and you see a gatherable at any distance, you can right-click on it and your companion will go over to it and loot it so long as he can walk over to it. (The companion will still aggro mobs though).
• You can also gather another node yourself while your companion gathers theirs.
• Med Units not only heal both you and your companion, but will revive your companion in combat.
• Don't forget Command Stims (the once boosting Presence). They really boost the effectiveness of your companions.
• If you don't want to anger your companion, send them on a mission before dialogue.
• Companions will never leave you no matter how bad you treat them.
• Companions never come fully equipped and often lack easy-to get items, such as a pair of gloves or a wrist item.

Space combat

• [Spacebar] makes your ship do a barrel roll in combat.
• You can use the WASD keys to manually pilot your ship instead of your mouse.
• You can fly around using BOTH keyboard and mouse. Helps navigating while shooting.
• You can and absolutely should buy a power converter module (cost: 30 commendations, req. level 25). It allows you to switch between more firepower and more regeneration.
• There are a lot of bonus missions in most of the missions, but in order to see them you need to destroy the first objective, so remember to shoot one of all sorts: special ships, capital ship turrets, capital ship shield generators, capital ship engines.
• You can shoot enemies you don't see even through obstacles (like meteors or whatever). All you need is your crosshair to turn red.
• You can shoot objects outside your range of vision (especially capital ships). Point your guns towards the enemy ship and wait for the crosshair to turn red, then fire.
• Hold down the right mouse button to 'paint' multiple targets for missile attacks (up tp 4), release and fire on multiple targets simultaneously.
• Shield does not regenerate when you are firing.
• Upgrade your ship! You can buy parts at the Starship Upgrades vendors, found on most planets.
• You get fleet commendations for completing space missions, which can be spent for some ship upgrades as well as orange pilot's gear.
• Fire your blasters in short bursts of three to four shots. That's usually enough to take down a small ship and lets your shields recharge.
• Blaster shots will travel through solid objects, but missiles will not. When firing missiles, make sure you don't target something on the other side of a ship or asteroid, as your missile won't reach its target.
• Try to take out capital ship turrets early. Most capital ships will show up multiple times in a given space mission.
• If you take out a capital ship's engines, it'll veer around and won't be able to fire at you as readily. Sometimes the ship will even wander off course and plummet in flames, though you can't outright destroy capital ships yet. Plus, hey, it's fun.
• As you level up, you get new space missions, and you also get new optional objectives in your old missions. Try destroying one of everything early on to see what has bonuses attached.
• Missiles do more damage than blasters, so you might want to save those for harder targets until you get a larger missile magazine.
• For Empire, all enemies’ haves yellow trails. For Republic, all enemies have red trails.
• You can rotate the galaxy map with mouse2 button pressed down / move.

Combat and Abilities

• [Alt]+F sets your focus target.
• [Ctrl]+F targets your Focus Targets Target.
• Your focus may clear during a conversation. To get it back, hit the focus swap button twice.
• Static barrier yourself before mounting your speeder helps prevent being dismounted from attacks.
• The 'Emergency Fleet Pass' is located under the 'General' tab in your 'Abilities' window ([Ctrl]+P).
• You may use this once every 18 hours to travel to the fleet. Your ship will travel with you and be docked there.
• You may buy single use Fleet passes from the Security Key vendor at the fleet for 1,000c each.
• If you have used a Fleet pass and cannot leave the fleet, relog to regain the ability to leave again.
• Combat fly text has different colors and sizes. White is normal weapon damage. Yellow is tech damage. Grey is companion damage. Green is healing. Red is damage taken. Small text is damage over time. Medium text is a regular hit. Large text is a crit.
• You can solo Flashpoints that are grey in your quest log (below your level range) to easily obtain Orange gear, now simply replace the low level mods with some that fit your current level.
• Anyone can place marks/icons on targets (even party members). To do so, right click the targets avatar-image.
• There is also a social item you can buy that lets you put a mark on your enemy target.
• In Settings you can set tab targeting to select the enemy in the center of your screen.
• When taking cover the vertical angle of the enemy also counts, not just horizontal.
• There is an option you can uncheck to stop auto-target on nearest enemy.

Moving, exploration and datacrons

• There are 3 Datacrons per starter world that give permanent stat bonuses. There are other Datacrons throughout every other planet.
• [Spacebar]+W allows you to perform a short, controlled jump. Useful for acquiring Datacrons.
• The /stuck command teleports you backwards a few steps, but has a cooldown.
• The /stuck command will kill you when in a flashpoint.
• Do NOT jump while moving down on an elevator!
• You can quickly exit a flashpoint using an icon on the top of your minimap.
• Logging out in your ship gives rested XP. Rumor has it reduces login times.
• A Sith Inquisitor can jump slightly higher and farther by using the ability 'Overload' while jumping.
• Don’t roll a size 3 or 4 character if you want all the datacrons. Size of body affects hit box and can prevent you from making it through some gaps.
• In the fleet, there are elevators going directly to your classes starship hangar.
• When reading maps, the lighter blue areas are higher than the darker blue areas.
• If stuck and nothing else seems to work, try opening fire on a mob. It will turn on your combat stance animation and sometimes unsticks you. (Pressing Z will also put you in combat stance).
• Duelling a friend means that you can use move combat abilities, such as force-jump to get quickly to your friend or cable-pull to get your friend to where you are. Very useful for helping out a friend with datacron hunting.

Other hints

• The official game manual is online. Good for digital owners: http://www.swtor.com/gamemanual/how-to-play
• All heroic quests are daily quests.
• In the Warzone with the three turrets there are boosts (speed boost ftw.) under the middle turret.
• You can check an option to click ground to remove target instead of [Esc].
• There are fleet shuttles on many planets that instantly send you to the flashpoint transfer area on the space station.
• When you select your advanced class, you get a gear bag. Open it, use it.
• Higher level speeders lowers the risk of being thrown off when aggroed, this is an unlisted bonus that means you get more than the +10% speed increase for your money.
• There's a button at the top-level of the mailbox window to loot all items and credits from mail.
• Running SWTOR.exe as an Administrator fixes many issues with mouse and keyboards.
• If you get killed near a green zone(group or story quest) you can stealth in, but you can't go in during combat.
• If you can't figure out how to activate a quest objective, it might need you to use the item in your mission gear (second tab in the bag.)
• [CTRL]+S mutes all sound.

Flash Point Link

Vansen my Senior officer on SWTOR sent me an awesome link for flashpoints.
I  added this to the planets section.

http://www.oldrepublic.net/star-chart.html

New Link Section

Added a new link section for Voice Programs.  Enjoy.

SWTOR - Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit

Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit

Today, we are pleased to announce the first ever Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Guild Summit, being hosted in Austin, TX in March. Over the course of a few days, guild leaders from around the world will gather together to discuss the state of the game with the developers from BioWare Austin. Guild leaders (or a designated officer in the event of a guild leader being unable to attend) will participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions, and will get a preview of some upcoming game features.
The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the game design team. This event will provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their feedback directly to the teams responsible for the design of Star Wars: The Old Republic, hear the team’s thoughts and reasons behind design decisions, and discuss the current direction of the game.
The Guild Summit will be hosted from March 4th – 6th, 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel Austin. Due to space limitations, the event will be invite-only. We've already invited guilds of various backgrounds and sizes to the Summit, from Endgame to Role-playing to PvP guilds, but we've got some space left for additional guild leaders who wish to attend. We ask that interested leaders submit an application, which can be found at this link.* Guild leaders will be evaluated based on the information provided in their application.
While we welcome applications from guild leaders from anywhere in the world, please be advised that the Summit will be conducted entirely in English. Applications will be accepted until 11:59PM CST (GMT -6) on February 10th. If you have any questions regarding the event, send us an email at guilds@swtor.com!
*Must be 21 or older to attend. Guild leaders selected to attend are responsible for all of their travel, food, and lodging expenses.

How to get the best of your FPS

Having a hard time with your graphics in game?  Here is a web site I found that might help a bit in the graphics part of your game, in relation to FPS.

How to get the best of your FPS