An update on Republic Trooper and a massive thank you to all of our readers!

Written By: Andy Muchmore

This past week, July 2nd to be exact, Republic Trooper turned 1 – happy birthday RT! Although it is our birthday week, I felt it was appropriate to update all of you with the status of RT as a whole. Obviously over the past several months things have slowed to a crawl and I would like to personally address the situation.

Three years ago a very good friend of mine, Dave, approached me with the idea of RepublicTrooper.com. At the time I was neck deep in other projects and I was unavailable to help out, even though I was eagerly following the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Over the years I would get phone calls, emails, texts, and the like asking if and when I would be available to “make it happen.” Around May of last year I was finally in a place where I could offer my services to Dave and help build Republic Trooper from the ground up. After several months of planning and development RT saw its first public reader and we were off to the races!

Since that time RT has seen tremendous growth and acceptance within the overall Star Wars: The Old Republic community – and I have to say, all of us cannot thank you enough for being readers, listeners, fans, and for not only playing the Trooper class in game, but being believers in BioWare and SWTOR to begin with. When RT went live we were woefully late to the game, in terms of established fan sites, but we did this for the love of the game, the love of the class, and to be honest – the love of the company that made it all happen. As long time gamers we had faith that a company like BioWare would, without a doubt, blow our minds with their new MMO.

Tags: Andy Muchmore, Ask A Jedi, beta, Bioware, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, community, David Bass, David Souza, EA, Early Game Access, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, LucasArts, Mike Kern, MMOs, Patch 1.1, Project Titan, R2-DB, Republic Trooper, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Stephen Reid, SWTOR, Titan Everything, TOR, TOR Syndicate, TORWars, Trooper

When the weekend rolls around it’s time to relax, grab a cold one, sit down with your squad, and catch up on some scuttlebutt. RT is here to provide you with some things that are worthy of talking about over a good pint with a few friends.

Hating On 1.3!

The roadmap for The Old Republic relies heavily upon BioWare’s ambitious patch schedule to keep the livelihood of the MMO intact. The first two major patch iterations have, if nothing else, delivered a lot of changes to the game. The nature of the changes that BioWare has included is the topic of much debate amongst the community and the information that’s beginning to trickle out regarding Patch 1.3 is no exception. The evildoers over at Darth Hater have a SUPERB guide—which they will keep updating—regarding any and all information on Patch 1.3.

Tags: Bioware, Corellian Run Radio, Darth Hater, David Souza, EA, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, MMOs, Operations, Patch 1.3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, The Avengers, The Escapist, TOR

Welcome to the Mess Hall, where every other week we will lay bare a new topic to be discussed on the upcoming episode of Combat Chatter. This is the Mess Hall, so eat up, get loud and say what you have to say! There are no ranks here…

Legacy Patch 1.2 was The Old Republic’s first major content patch, and with it came a sizable amount of new things to do and see in BioWare’s seminal MMO. Now that the masses have had a month to consume, assess and digest all that new content people have varying opinions on the current state of TOR, and what Patch 1.2—and future patches—will mean to the livelihood of the game.

I know many people (myself included) have been playing more since 1.2 went live, but the dilution of the population on the servers is unmistakable. It has now been confirmed that The Old Republic has shed about 400,000 of its initial subscriber base which would account for a noticeable lack of active players in game. While early subscriber attrition is to be expected in any MMO the question remains…what will BioWare do about the future health of those of us who are still active in TOR?

So let us know, in broad terms, your thoughts about The Old Republic’s most recent patch and the needs for Patch 1.3. Fire away below!

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, Legacy System, LucasArts, MMOs, Patch 1.2, Patch 1.3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR

When the weekend rolls around it’s time to relax, grab a cold one, sit down with your squad, and catch up on some scuttlebutt. RT is here to provide you with some things that are worthy of talking about over a good pint with a few friends.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Content!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Content is King. I didn’t make that up and I wasn’t the first to say it in regards to MMOs, the guys who started EverQuest were. It’s an axiom that applies to all gaming but is especially important to MMOs, which aren’t supposed to last days, or weeks, or months but years. Everyone has criticisms about what they want in a product, and The Old Republic is no different. One thing that is clear though is that people need more to do in TOR, and Daniel Erickson stopped by over at RPS to talk about that and some other cool stuff.

Tags: Bioware, Daniel Erickson, David Souza, EA, Electronic Arts, EverQuest, F2P, Legacy System, LucasArts, MMORPG.com, MMOs, Rock Paper Shotgun, RPGs, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR, TORWars

When the weekend rolls around it’s time to relax, grab a cold one, sit down with your squad, and catch up on some scuttlebutt. RT is here to provide you with some things that are worthy of talking about over a good pint with a few friends.

BioWare Bringing Down the Hammer!

I’ve always hated cheating. In fact, I think what makes heroes so much more interesting than villains is that they manage to win even without resorting to underhanded tactics. At the same time I’m not a snitch, and I’ve always been more likely to tell someone he’s being a negative member of the community (perhaps a bit more graphically) and let him go about his shady dealings until the real authorities catch him red-handed. Well, BioWare has been gearing up The Old Republic to do just that and I wish them continued success in bringing down all those who knowingly exploit the game.

Tags: 38 Studios, Baldur's Gate, Bioware, community, Copernicus, Crowd Control, Darth Hater, EA, Electronic Arts, Ken Rolston, LucasArts, MMOs, Republic Trooper, RPGs, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR