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

The Rules of Engagement is the column that provides Republic Troopers with highly detailed intel on everything a Trooper needs to know to adapt and overcome on and off the battlefield.

Our resident Commando goes in-depth in discussing changes to the Advanced Class in Patch 1.2: Legacy

Earlier, I had given a review of the Trooper changes in Patch 1.2 concerning Combat Medics. This week I’d like to take a look at the Gunnery tree and analyze the changes we find there.

As before, let’s look at each change separately.

Charged Barrier now provides 1% damage reduction per stack

Pre-1.2: Provided 2% damage reduction per stack (5 stacks)
Change: 50% reduction in damage reduction (5% now vs 10% at 5 stacks)

Tags: Advanced Class, Ammo, Bioware, Charged Barrel, Charged Barrier, Charged Bolts, Combat Medic, Commando, Concussion Charge, Curtain of Fire, Demolition Round, DPS, EA, Electronic Arts, Energy Cell, Full Auto, Grav Round, Gunnery, High Impact Bolt, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Muzzle Fluting, Patch 1.2, Plasma Cell, PvE, PvP, Republic Trooper, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, tank, Tenacious Defense, TOR, Trooper, Warzones

Republic Trooper hosts Fan Fiction Mondays every week and recently we had the opportunity to sit down with a few other prominent Fan Fiction writers in the SWTOR community. We asked them to share their thoughts on writing and what brought them to a Time Long Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

This week we were priveleged to talk to Dimbo from Dimbo the Trooper. If you don’t already read about his exploits, you can do so here.

Republic Trooper: How did you get into writing? What was the earliest thing you can remember writing?

Dimbo the Trooper: I entered a writing contest from Mos Eisley Radio that involved writing a back story for your main character in SWTOR. After I posted mine I got several emails and comments asking when the next episode was. My initial response was ‘um never?’ It really kind of took off from there. I started to think about Dimbo adventuring through the Star Wars galaxy and it came so easily [that] I had to write it down.

Tags: Bioware, Bootleg media, community, Corellian Run Radio, Dimbo the Trooper, EA, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, Galactic Republic, Keyboard Heroes, LucasArts, Mandalorian Girl, Mike Kern, Mos Eisley Radio, Nothing Gaming, Republic Trooper, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWATH radio, SWTOR, The Cantina Cast, TOR, TOR Syndicate, Trooper, Wookiepedia, Zotta

The Rules of Engagement is the column that provides Republic Troopers with highly detailed intel on everything a Trooper needs to know to adapt and overcome on and off the battlefield.

Our resident Combat Medic goes in-depth in discussing changes to the Advanced Class in Patch 1.2: Legacy

In Patch 1.2, Medics face a change in their deployed abilities. Now that we’ve gotten our hands on the live patch, here is what we’ve found.

Let’s look at each change separately.

Tags: Advanced Class, Advanced Medical Probe, Aim, Alderaan, Ammo, Bioware, Combat Medic, Combat Support Cell, crit, EA, Electronic Arts, Field Aid, Field Training, Field Triage, Flashpoints, Gunnery, healing, Hutt Ball, Kolto Residue, Kolto-Bomb, LucasArts, Medical Probe, Novare Coast, Operations, Patch 1.2, Psych Aid, PvE, PvP, Republic Trooper, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Supercharge Cells, SWTOR, tank, TOR, Trauma Probe, Trooper, Voidstar, Warzones

Always in Motion is The Future is our column that deals with general news and information regarding The Old Republic based facts and finally spiced with the unique perspective of Republic Trooper.

The Legacy system was one of the core features which were highlighted by BioWare long before The Old Republic found its way onto millions of PCs spanning the globe. A system that builds upon each character’s achievements to pass down power, knowledge and items to later generations…

The Legacy system is a treasure trove for players who enjoy playing several different characters. There are some problems inherent with the system however. Most notably is the fact that nearly all of the features currently implemented with the Legacy system are tailored only for that single purpose of playing multiple characters, colloquially known as “alts” in the MMO-space.

In my opinion this accentuates an already common problem with The Old Republic, and that is the fact that players don’t feel particularly invested in any single character. Roleplaying games often build community around a player playing a particular character, and even when alting many players are still referred to by their “main” character’s name. Alting has become more and more common over the evolution of the MMO however, and The Old Republic seems to be the first title to take such a keen focus around the idea with the Legacy system.

Tags: AoE, Baldur's Gate, Bioware, David Souza, Dragon Age, EA, Electronic Arts, EverQuest, Fortification, Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic, Legacy System, LucasArts, Mass Effect, Millenium Falcon, MMOs, Slave-I, space combat, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR, Trooper