BioWare (almost unwillingly) announced an upcoming Double XP event in April as well as the targeted release date for the next game update 6.1.1, which will deliver the Master Mode of The Nature of Progress operation, a whole bunch (again!) of Conquest changes and… no story! A small bugfix patch was also deployed to the live servers today. Want the details? I’m sure you do. Let’s get going!
Update 6.1.1 Status Update
For about two and a half weeks now BioWare has been running the Public Test Server for SWTOR. It is currently online and allowing you to go on and test the upcoming Nightmare Mode of the Dxun Operation, also known as Master Mode of The Nature of Progress operation.
PTS (only available to active subscribers) opened up on March 6 with the initial 6.1.1 new set bonuses and first set of class changes. Each class got new armor sets with new set bonuses, which will drop from Dxun NiM and will have a very small chance to drop from the Fleet vendors and their RN boxes with gear.
Next update came on March 14 and brought the first Conquest changes along with some Dxun operation tweaks.
Round 3 of PTS patches came last Friday, March 19, with even more Dxun encounters tweaks and updates. It also delivered a few more class changes. BioWare also revealed more of the Conquest changes planned for the live 6.1.1 release by sharing the full lists of Conquest objectives for one of the events. In short – the number has grown quite a bit.
Release date for 6.1.1 and Double XP Event
Recently players started pushing for a Double XP event. This popular demand on the forums resulted in Keith giving an explanation of what the studio’s plans were and how they changed with the “working from home” situation.
With the current situation – pretty much the full staff and all developers working from home – some delays had to be expected. BioWare’s Keith Kanneg (game producer for SWTOR) explains that ” having to get all the development environment set up in a collaborative way has taken a bit of a focused effort”.
As tradition dictates, Double XP was supposed to be deployed for May the 4th. Due to popular demand and to attempt to provide an incentive to the players to stay at home and play more video games, BioWare wants to deliver it sooner and extend it to last longer.
“We discussed offering it sooner, but with everyone having to work-from-home, we needed to spend the time getting the Dev Team set up to work remotely. So, instead of providing you with one week, we’ll be extending Double XP to around four weeks, starting with Game Update 6.1.1 currently scheduled to be available on 14-Apr-2020. The planned end date for Double XP is 12-May-2020.
UPDATE: The Double XP event actually started on April 21, because of the Patch 6.1.1 release delay. After some issues with the Bounty Contract Weekly Event and the mission terminals, BioWare announced that the Double XP will now end on June 16. Learn more in my SWTOR 6.1.1 Overview. END OF UPDATE
Some things are still being developed. We can see that on PTS – the Dxun Operation still needs more work and additional tweaks to its current encounters. The Conquest system was announced to have more changes introduced to it, which I expect to see in a later PTS patch (probably this Thursday aor Friday, based on previous activities from BioWare).
“With all that’s going on these days, the dates could change, but we’ll keep you apprised. But, if it does, we’ll continue to offer the 4-weeks of Double XP (I figured someone was going to ask).” – Keith added.
The Game producer also reminded us all that Double XP is just the popular name of this event. For a brief time in the past it was pushed as “Double Rewards”, but Double XP is just shorter and easier to use. This event actually doubles not only your XP earned, but also Valor, GSF and Renown. It does not boost Conquest points, however.
This gives us the currently targeted release date for Game Update 6.1.1 – April 14 (Tuesday, of course). We also have a confirmation that no matter when 6.1.1 is released, the Double XP event will run for four full weeks following that release date.
With this announcement for a release date in mid-April, I can safely assume that the PTS will stay open for at least another week or so. This would probably mean that we will see one or two more patches if BioWare continues with the same pace. As usual, I will make sure you get all the news as soon as they are revealed/announced.
SWTOR Update 6.1c Patch Notes
In other news – today BioWare released a small patch to SWTOR. It is labeled 6.1c and fixes a few bugs and one exploit.
“With today’s maintenance we addressed an exploit involving the Scum and Villainy Operation. Players were able to intentionally evade the effects of Revolster, which made the Master Mode difficulty far easier than intended. As a result, some players were able to acquire a rare helm, title, and codex entry all which were removed from those players today. We will be doing a follow-up investigation this week to wrap up any outstanding actions.” – SWTOR community coordinator Daniel Steed explains.
Here are the patch notes as published on swtor.com today:
- Due to being over hunted, many of the enemies found around the entrance of Karagga’s Palace have run away.
- Fixed an issue where players were able to intentionally evade the effects of Revolster, allowing them to be level 75 in the Scum and Villainy Operation when the intended player level is 70.
- This made the Master Mode difficulty far easier than intended. Players that obtained the unique item drop, title, and codex entry from Master Mode Scum and Villainy by taking advantage of this issue have had them removed.
Find out everything you need to know about SWTOR 6.1.1 from my collective preview article.
