SWTOR’s First Major Content Patch Revealed

Today, EA and BioWare pulled back the curtains a bit on the first major patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic, patch 1.1, and detailed two of the major pieces of content, Karagga’s Palace and Kaon Under Siege, being introduced in the patch.

The update, now dubbed “Rise of the Rakghouls“, introduces a number of new features and fixes in addition to the new Kaon Under Siege Flashpoint and the extension to the Karagga’s Palace Operation. As previously reported, the patch (finally) introduces anti-aliasing support in the game, a revamp of Ilum’s PVP quests, level 50 brackets for PVP Warzones, and a few balance tweaks here and there.

The heart of the update, however, is the new PVE content, and here’s the lowdown on Kaon Under Siege and the new-and-improved Karagga’s Palace:

• Flashpoint: Kaon Under Siege is a completely new and unique group combat experience located on Kaon, a planet in the Tion Hegemony, a strategically important sector of the galaxy that has remained neutral, groups of up to four Republic or Imperial players must race to Kaon to eliminate the Rakghouls outbreak, securing the allegiance of the Tion Hegemony for their respective sides. This Flashpoint will be available for level 50 characters only and will feature Normal and Heroic modes.

• Operation: Karagga’s Palace, is a continuation of the game’s second launch Operation. In the Operation, teams of 8 or 16 players will face off against Karagga and the Hutt Cartel after the Hutts abandon their famous neutrality and breach agreements with both the Republic and Empire. Concerned by the threat of another combatant in the war for galactic control, both factions send teams of their most powerful heroes to confront Karagga and determine his intentions. This Operation will feature Normal, Heroic and Nightmare difficulty modes.

BioWare says that the “Rise of the Rakghouls” update is due for release next week on January 17. The next major content update is planned for release at some point in March.