Game Update 2.8.1 was deployed this week with a number of quality of life bug fixes. We also discuss the huge amount of detail released about Galactic Strongholds!

1. Introduction

2. Tip of the week

Congratulations to this week’s winners, Kujodaddy and Quickbunnie! Thanks to Thundergod, Jay Connell, Bara-dur, Maara and Carnz for entering.

Please send your tips to ootinicast@gmail.com by next Wednesday for a chance to win a M8-R3 code, courtesy of BioWare, and an OotiniCast-provided Cartel Market pack from the latest shipment.

3. Holofeed

Game Update 2.8.1 was deployed during a long maintenance on Tuesday. It included a slight change to the new Shadow Map settings in the Graphics preferences; you can read more about the theory behind cascaded shadow maps here (PDF).

The new Club Vertica Nightlife Pack can now be purchased.

Double XP week has begun! It concludes next Tuesday 8 July at 2am CDT (8am BST, 5pm AEST).

Bounty Contract Week will return next week, running from Tuesday 8 July.

4. Community

GasGuy provided the following description about how to collect the CZ-198 codex entry:

To collect the codex you need to use your Macrobinoculars to scan the connecting bridge between two “twin tower” buildings on the south side of the main landing platform. You need to stand in just the right location. For the Republic try coordinates -547,40, and for the Empire try 36,36. I had to scan multiple times before my macrobinoculars would activate and register the scan.

5. Force Feedback

We discuss tweets, emails and comments from Moff Chong (@EmpireDivider), Aaree (@AramonNoir), Gerald, @Ben_b55, Reindeer86, Bill (@BillLentz), Arron (@arn2911), @Darklighter159, @Ahsh_13, Thomas Midena (@Thoroughmas), @VanguardKarego, @Jayconnell and Salla (@conscioushours).

You can find Thomas Midena’s video about why he’s still playing SWTOR here.

Reindeer86’s thread on our forums about how to cost items when placing on the GTN, including Bill’s response, is here.

Where is Darklighter this week?

6. Sarlacc Digest

We discuss the latest details revealed about the upcoming Galactic Strongholds, including the developer blog by Jesse Sky (Lead Designer), and the first in the series of Twitch streams, this one covering the layout editor and decorations. It was hosted by Eric Musco (Community Manager), Toby McCall (Associate Designer) and Jack Wood (Producer).

A video walking us through the Tatooine Homestead was shown at the end of the stream, and subsequently released on YouTube.

7. Outro

Thanks to Marshall Carr (@DarthPops) and Redna (@R3DN4, twitch.tv/r3dn4) for joining us this week.

Information about our guilds on The Harbinger, Ootini Knights (Republic) and Ootini Rage (Empire), can be found here.

You can email questions and comments about the show to ootinicast@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter via @OotiniCast. Check out our website, ootinicast.com, which has links to our presence on Google+ and Facebook. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, and listen to us on Stitcher and Spreaker. We record the show live every Wednesday at 4:30pm Pacific, goto ootinicast.com/live to find out how to join in!