The Old Republic 1.3 beta test starts tomorrow

The Star Wars: The Old Republic presentation at E3 didn't reveal too many surprises, other than an announcement that the 1.3 Allies patch for the game will be starting its public beta test tomorrow.

James Ohlen, senior creative director at BioWare Austin, told Shacknews that the public beta was green lit about two hours ago and they want to make it live as soon as possible tomorrow, barring any last minute glitches. They will let enough people into the public beta to replicate a fully populated server.

The update, announced last month, will expand on the Legacy 1.2 patch released in April, while adding a dungeon group finder, a new augmentation system, a socially adaptive skill system and a revamped tutorial for new players. The latter is especially nice since BioWare will be opening up the MMO's opening worlds in a free 15-level trial starting in July.

Ohlen also said that free character transfers will be coming soon, and that the team is putting mechanics in place to address issues if too many players transfer off a specific server. He wouldn't reveal any plans to close servers or force player migration, but said that the player experience remains a top priority for BioWare. It has been reported that the average server has fewer than 350 players online at any one time.