Celebration VI, like Celebration V two years ago, is in Orlando.  Starts on Thursday, ends on Sunday.

www.starwarscelebration.com

Who will I see there?

After talking with a few people, I understand that there is a growing group of people who would like to do raid content during the week but for various reasons cannot raid with the current group.  I've created this thread to gauge interest, and see if there are enough people to get this started.

To avoid conflict with the current weeknight raid group, I would ask that if you're a permanent member or a regularly used alternate of that group you please steer clear of this group.  This may change, pending what is decided is the best time to do this.

Group 1 used to run from 8:00PM Eastern/Server Time, 7:00PM Central/FA Time until 11:00PM Eastern, 10:00PM Central.  That gave us three hours to raid, but often ended up being less actual raid time due to people being late or having to leave early.  We would do that Tuesday-Thursday every week.

That schedule would mean we would be running one hour past the start of the current weeknight raid group's start time.  We would also be running an hour into the Thursday night Ranked Warzones time slot.

If that doesn't bother anyone, then good.  I know I'd like to start running Ranked Warzones as soon as I'm geared enough for them, so I have two suggestions to combat this.  The first being to start an hour earlier at 7:00PM Eastern, 6:00PM Central until 10:00PM Eastern, 9:00PM Central.  The second being to just raid for two hours a day and continue starting at 8:00PM Eastern, 7:00PM Central.  As an extension, even open the possibility to raid more than 3 days a week to make up for lost/needed time.

I would like to state that both alternatives would allow alts of the current weeknight group members to run with this group, giving us a much better chance of having 8 people every night.

I feel like I'm putting the wagon before the horse here though, so I'll stop typing and wait to see how many are interested.  If this seems like something you'd like to do, post up and say what your availability is and what would work for you.

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20120705

07.05.2012
Earn Rewards for Free Character Transfers
The response to the Free Character Transfer Service so far has been fantastic. Hundreds of thousands of players have already taken advantage of this free service to move their characters to new servers where it's easier to find groups and play with friends. This initial service is still available and allows qualifying characters to be transferred at no charge from selected origin servers to selected destination servers.

In appreciation for the community's support of the Free Character Transfer service, we are giving all characters on qualifying servers (including all destination servers) an in-game pet, the Gannifari, and 25 Black Hole Commendations to help purchase high level gear. Visit www.swtor.com/transfer for a list of qualifying servers.

If you haven't moved your characters yet, it's not too late. Transfer now to receive these in-game rewards!

IN-GAME REWARDS*

THE GANNIFARI
Endearing and curious, the Gannifari makes a great sidekick!

25 BLACK HOLE COMMENDATIONS
Intimidate enemies equipped in high level gear purchased with these commendations!

   
 

Both rewards are granted to any character that meets the following criteria:

Your character(s) must be on a qualifying server (which includes destination servers) and your account must be active by July 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM CDT / July 31, 2012 at 4:59AM GMT.
Your account must not be banned.
If you do not have a character on a qualifying server by July 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM CDT / July 31, 2012 at 4:59AM GMT, then you will not receive any rewards. The rewards will be sent via in-game mail by August 7, 2012 at 11:59PM CDT / August 8, 2012 at 4:59AM GMT.

To start the character transfer process, login to your account, click My Account and then click 'Character Transfer' in the left hand menu. From there you will be able to select "Start a Character Transfer" to see if you have any characters eligible for transfer to pre-selected serves.

For more information on this program, please visit our Character Transfer FAQ and be sure to look at all the eligible origin, destination and reward qualifying servers at www.swtor.com/transfer.

You can also keep up to date on the latest news and updates about Star Warsâ„¢: The Old Republicâ„¢ by visiting www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com as well as joining us on Twitter and Facebook.

Another pet, and 25 Black Hole comms.  We qualify, since Jung Ma is a destination server.

Yes, I said it.



Star Wars related deals: http://www.starwars.com/news/maythefourth2012_deals.html

Amazon's 12:00 PM PDT Lightning Deal is the SWTOR Razer Mouse for anyone interested.  No idea what the price will be until that time, though.  

Their Deal of the Day is the Complete Saga on Blu-ray for $79.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/

As Mharz and I found out yesterday, set bonuses are not attached to the Armoring pieces as it was assumed they would from the original patch notes.

After looking around on the SWTOR forums today, I found this thread:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=402764

According to the Devs, this information was posted in threads in the PTS forum but apparently was never properly reflected in the Live Server Patch Notes.  That is being rectified.

Below is a quote taken from the thread I linked, and is originally from a Dev post that was in the PTS forum.

Hi,

There have been quite a few threads where you have voiced confusion regarding the end game itemization in 1.2 and I want to take the opportunity to clarify what you are going to see in the game when Game Update 1.2 goes live on Thursday.

One of the issues we are dealing with on the PTS Forums is that we are not only introducing changes from the current state of the game (1.1.5x), but also several changes a week. Without wiping our Forums weekly, it is inevitable that these updates cause significant confusion about what it is in the game, what is intended to be in the game, etc.

So, without further ado....

PvE

Tionese / Columi / Rakata Gear

These sets are not changing. Their stats have not changed from their pre 1.2 state and they are acquired in the same way as they were before 1.2, except for the following changes:

- The drop rate for Tionese commendations has been increased from all the existing sources.

- Columi can now be acquired, in addition to the existing sources, from the new Lost Island Flashpoint (Hard Mode) and their distribution rate has been slightly increased, mostly through weekly quests.

- Rakata can now be acquired, in addition to existing sources, from the final Boss of the new Lost Island Flashpoint (Hard Mode) and the story mode of Operation: Explosive Conflict on Denova.

A temporary change on PTS that modified some existing rakata gear has not been taken into the final version 1.2 based on testing feedback.

"Campaign" and "Black Hole" Gear

Campaign gear is the new tier of PvE set items we are rolling out with the Explosive Conflict Operation. It shares the set bonus with Rakata, allowing seamless equipment upgrades and is acquired through tokens acquired in Hard Mode of Operation: Explosive Conflict and the new World Boss on Belsavis.

All Campaign gear can also be reverse engineered for a chance to learn the associated schematic. For armor, this means a chance to learn the custom (orange) appearance of item, for implants, earpieces, mods, etc. This means learning to craft the item itself. All of these may be crafted critical for an additional augment slot or, in case of a mods, additional resulting items.

Campaign gear uses a different stat distribution from previous sets with greater variety of available stats and better base stats.

Unlike Rakata, Columi and Tionese gear, Campaign gear carries it's set bonus on the armoring of every piece. This means that players may transfer all mods and armoring out of campaign gear into any custom (orange) appearance available without losing the benefit of the set bonus. Please note that moving an armoring with a set bonus into a pre 1.2. item shell with a set bonus (e.g. a Rakata Shell) will be resolved with the armoring taking precedence (Sorry, no stacking here )

As mentioned previously, all armoring found in endgame gear now 'binds to slot' upon extraction - Armoring removed from a pair of gloves will only fit into another set of gloves. However, there is the possibility to acquire 'universal' armorings that fit into any slot through direct drops (e.g. not contained in an item). Those however will never carry a set bonus.

Black Hole Gear is similar to Campaign gear, but lacks the set bonus. It does however offer additional stat distribution options not available on Campaign gear. It also cannot be reverse engineered into appearances (although mods / earpieces, etc. can be learned).

Black Hole gear, unlike Campaign items, is acquired from trading in Black Hole Commendations found through weekly quests in the new Corellia area as well as the weekly quest for the Rise of the Rakghoul flashpoints (Kaon/Lost Island). It also drops on bosses in Operation: Explosive Conflict on all difficulties.

Two new color crystal variations may be found as part of the random drops in the new Operation: Black Core Purple and Black Core Orange. These colors are introduced separately from the weapons, which now come by default with more traditional colors available. It is worth noting that we are not extending the stat progression on crystals, meaning the existing +41 crystals found in 1.1.5 continue to be the top end of the crystal progression.

With that being said, there are people in the thread I linked claiming that older gear (NOT Campaign) they have purchased AFTER the patch does have the set bonuses linked to the Armoring.  Since I can't get into the game right now and check for myself, I'm taking these posts with a grain of salt but does seem like something that should be looked into.

I miss you every day.

Happy birthday dudes!

Edited for correctness.