[Bioware, please stop making ridiculously large lightsaber hilts]

And while you're at it, you can make assault cannons scale to body size, too. I always find it hilarious when body type 1 female characters lug around assault cannons that are literally bigger than themselves.

[E3 is coming soon]

The new Mass Effect looks really good

 

At least they could have announced the name if nothing else. I doubt it'll be a generic Mass Effect 4.

 

Also, cool new galaxy map. Really shiny and 3D.

[Time to vote for Gunslinger/Sniper Q&A (due for 6-6-2014)]

Ranged > melee.

 

Sniper > other ranged.

 

This is true, but only in PvE. Assuming you want to keep a semblance of balance in your ops team (taking equal melee and ranged DPS into an operation), the versatility of the Gunslinger/Sniper in my opinion trumps both Sages and Commandos. While it is true that Gunslinger damage lags behind the DPS of melee classes, this can be said for all ranged DPS really and I think they should be evaluated separately.

 

Gunslinger burst spec (Sharpshooter) does similar or slightly higher damage than comparable ranged burst specs (Gunnery, Telekinetics - the burstiness of which is up for debate). Gunslinger sustained DoT spec (hybrid) does similar or slightly more damage than comparable ranged sustained DoT specs (Assault Specialist, Balance). However, I believe the difference in terms of raw damage numbers is small enough for player skill to be the major determining factor.

 

Where Gunslingers do have a noticable advantage over other classes is the fields of mobility, utility and defensive abilities:

- Hightail It provides mobility similar to Force Speed for Sages and flat out trumps Hold the Line. They have the same cooldown I think (20 seconds) and while the movement can be executed with one button, it does not allow for directional change. Sharpshooter Gunslingers, however, have further access to passive speed boosts (e.g. after Hunker Down ends). IMO, this makes SS one of the most mobile specs in the game.

 

- Hunker Down makes the Gunslinger immune to physics and lasts twice as long as Hold the Line in Gunnery spec. Snipers have a definite advantage here over both Commandos and Sages, especially considering that Force Barrier's cooldown is 3 minutes and forces Sages to completely stop any previous activity.

 

- While it is not % based, the cooldown of Defense Screen is essentially nothing (20 seconds), as opposed to Reactive Shield's 2 minutes. This allows Gunslingers to use it very often and requires far less conscious timing. Activating it during the fight is not a strategic decision (like Reactive Shield or Force Barrier). While it absorbs less, you can use it more often, which should equal to more damage being mitigated in the long run. Dodge can act as a self-cleanse and fully mitigated melee/ranged damage. Gunslingers have access to further damage reducing talents in Sharpshooter tree (Holed Up, Ballistic Dampeners). Because Crouch is not on the GCD, the perpetual crouch/uncrouch every 6 seconds can indefinitely maintain Ballistic Dampeners for a continuous 15% damage mitigation. Furthermore, the strategic cooldown of Scrambling Field reduces party wide damage by 20% for 20 seconds. Lastly, the careful use of Hightail It can also act as a defensive ability, negating all damage for the duration.

 

When you take all of this into account, I'd say that Gunslingers are more desirable than either Sages or Commandos but not primarily because of their damage. They have very good effective DPS but they bring considerably more mobility, utility and defensive abilities to the table. The only notable disadvantage is that they don't have on demand, instant heals (like Force Mend or Kolto Bomb) and they cannot cleanse themselves as frequently as Sages and Commandos can. The former issue is almost non-existent if the operations group has competent healers, while the latter only applies on one boss (Nefra).

[Sage Top 3 Questions - Answered]

I'm indifferent about new animations. I don't care.

 

What i want is animations that reflect the lore part.

 

If you insist so much on the TK part, then you are clearly not playing SWTOR for its lore. To you, at least i get this impression, and to so many other players, SWTOR is merely the x-th MMO, which you will play no matter what. Only damage numbers are of interest to most here, it seems to me. And not at all how the game looks like, how it plays.

 

Me, I'm interested in the lore. IF they do an Star wars game, THEN I want it to be as close to the movies as possible (because OT & PT have the highest priority in terms of lore). Next would come comics, novels, etc. .

 

With this, we have 2 entirely different factions within the player base - and thus within the forums :

 

- Those who don't care at all how a game looks like, the only thing that matters to them is the - cynically put - hack & slay part. SWTOR could be ANY hack & slay game they'd discuss about - and about damage numbers within the game.

 

- Those who don't care about how the mechanics are. All they care about is the look, is how it feels, is how it plays. For them, it is important that they can have immersion and that, if the game is tied to a franchise, that it looks as closely as possible top that franchise.

 

And their entirely different approaches of how to play SWTOR can be very clearly in this "TK olr Jedi Lore" discussion.

 

Don't make assumptions about stuff you no nothing about. What makes you think I'm not interested in SW lore or that I'll jump ship when X MMO comes out? I said nothing about that. I care about lore as much as anybody else, in fact I played through all 8 class stories (4 of them twice), because I wanted to see what individual classes were about. This is a very generalized and distorted view of the player base, lore and mechanics are not mutually exclusive.

 

I just merely think that SWTOR lore does not have to be an exact copy of what we've seen in the films because I enjoy some variety now and then. I also recognize that SWTOR, being an MMO game, has to consider balancing mechanics top priority to retain long-term survivability. It's not that I don't support the changes people were asking for in the third question, I just don't think that was the proper place to ask that question.

[Sage Top 3 Questions - Answered]

Now I am thinking that maybe BioWare is challenging us Sages to just simply be more skilled than players who play the other classes.

 

Well, they said as much...

 

 

Sorcerers are an “easy to play, hard to master” class, in that most of their abilities are rather straight-forward and easily understood, but getting the most out of those abilities may require a higher skill level than many players are comfortable with.

 

It looks like the developers really meant this.

[Sage Top 3 Questions - Answered]

Then, please, why is the stat stick used in Sage animations at all ???

 

Is it such an overwhelming concern, though, that alternate animations have to take precedence over ANY concern TK or Balance Sages might have?

 

If the unused lightsaber annoys people so much, you can make a simple thread in the Suggestions forum to allow using healing and DPS skills while it is holstered and deactivated.

[Sage Top 3 Questions - Answered]

I only have one question about this, which I'm sure was asked already somewhere.

 

 

We are mostly satisfied with Sage/Sorcerer survivability in Operations. If you are a Sage/Sorcerer that specializes in dealing damage, we do not expect you to use Force Armor/Static Barrier on yourself or others in an Operation.

 

If this is the case, then what is the Telekinetic Defense talent doing in the Telekinetics tree?

 

If we're not supposed to be using Force Armor as a DPS at all, shouldn't it be moved to the Seer tree? Swap it with Pain Bearer maybe, so that DPS can have access to a passive healing bonus?

[Sage Top 3 Questions - Answered]

But you asked for more melee damage. I mean, that's what sages need right? More melee damage. And being in melee range will help with the glass cannon part also. New ability when level increases they'll give you Super Saber Strike.

 

But seriously, no health loss on noble sac would be kind of OP. Maybe when NS is used give a 15 second buff that doubles force regen in addition to its current benefit? Would still need to use it but would be needed a lot less... at least every 15 seconds and use it as a pre-cast ability to begin fights.

 

I am confused a bit as to why they would ever ask such a question, especially when they're limited to 3 answers only. You already have two Jedi advanced classes that use lightsaber attacks exlusively (Guardian and Sentinel) and one that combines lightsaber attacks with Force powers (Shadow). I really don't see why you would need a 4th lightsaber-using Jedi AC.

 

I think the 3rd question should have gone to TK or Balance.

[So what happens to the Dread Host now that their masters are defeated?]

This particular question always bugged me. I'd like to know what happened to the Dread Masters' army after their defeat on Oricon. Because, to my knowledge, the Dread Host was large enough to invade and conquer entire planets.

Sure, we killed a lot of them, but there are still presumably many thousands of them roaming around.

 

Do they die without their masters' guidance? Do they go on a murderous rampage throughout the galaxy without guidance? Or do they recover their free will and rejoin whatever faction they deserted? Or are they waiting around idly for new instructions that will never come? Are they even aware of their masters' defeat?

 

I don't really like loose ends and the Dread Host seems to be a pretty big loose end to me. I'm hoping Bioware will tell us their eventual fate sometime.

[Reasons why you prefer either Republic or Empire.]

If it actually learned the Empire's lessons about not squabbling amongst its own or ignoring disadvantaged beings who could be easily made ready to serve, it would crush the Empire easily.

 

The Empire teaching the Republic lessons about not squabbling amongst its own ranks? That would be a fun thing to see, considering that the entire Empire and Sith Order are built upon internal power struggles. I mean from the start of Korriban to the end of Ilum, on every single planet, the Empire is fighting itself from within. Look at the mortality rate at the Sith Academy or just how many Sith Lords you slay as a Sith Warrior. By the end of the storyline, you probably murder more fellow Sith than Jedi. I mean in the tomb of Naga Sadow alone, you single handedly massacre about a hundred fellow Sith Acolytes whose only fault was that their masters had sent them to the same tomb as you had been.

 

The Bounty Hunter summed it up very well when he talked to Marr about going after the Dread Masters on Oricon:

 

BH: - You know, if you'd send me out to hunt Jedi just half as many times as you send me out to kill Sith, maybe you'd actually be winning this war.

Marr: - Indeed.

 

And worse, power plays between Sith Lords are causing Imperial soldiers to perish by the thousands in pointless infighting and internal skirmishes. How many loyal Imperial soldiers and Sith did we massacre on Dromund Kaas in Grathan's estate? Or how many thousands of soldiers perished aboard the Carnage when the Sith Inquisitor destroyed it with the Silencer just to make a good show for the people observing it? Or when you can condemn the entire Imperial task force on Oricon to death just to show the Dread Masters that you don't care about them. Or how many Dread Guards did we kill, not once pausing to consider that eliminating the Dread Masters might break their hold over them and that they might be able to rejoin the Imperial army once their masters are defeated?

 

The reason the Empire is losing the war is because Sith are needlessly wasting thousands upon thousands of Imperial lives on a whim, without any remorse or consideration for the overall strategic goals. The Empire cannot afford a war of attrition against the Republic, but the Sith are doing it anyway, heedless of the consequences. Every Empire built and run by Sith so far has destroyed itself in the end in pointless infighting. The way of the Sith is perpetual struggle and fight ("through passion, I gain strength"), if they don't have a common enemy, they turn on each other and destroy themselves.

 

The Empire would destroy itself eventually even without outside influence. So, yeah, I'd like to see the day the Empire lectures the Republic about the pointlessness of infighting.

[Lore Fact of the Day]

Back with a more difficult trivia question for y'all today!

 

Balmorra was orginally discovered by colonists of what planet?

 

Vulcan?

[The Making Fun of Darth Baras Thread]

Lore Fact of the Day:

 

At the conclusion of the Great Galactic War, Darth Baras single-handedly crippled and destroyed the Republic's fast-food industry in the infamous Snacking of Coruscant!

[The Making Fun of Darth Baras Thread]

Darth Baras was banned from Dread Palace because the tiles in Raptus' room kept crashing to the floor under his weight.

 

Also Baras can't do 8man operations because he takes up sixteen ops frames.

[Lore Fact of the Day]

It always bugged me that Soa talks to us in the third person ("They come, marching,....") in our presence. I've always found it rude that he address us like that.

[Lore Fact of the Day]

We have a pretty easy trivia question for you today I think.

 

Who is the father of Luke Skywalker?

 

Can these questions get any easier?

['Wings of the Architect' headed to the Cartel Market?]

I should be able to get a color variation of a NiM exclusive mount I didn't earn in the same way that everyone else is able to get a color variation on the mounts we won.

 

Just curious why exclusive warzones mounts are headed to the CM in 45 days time and exclusive NiM operations mounts are special snowflakes?

 

Thanks to the dev team for chiming in here and clarifying why this decision was made so that warzone players can better understand why the two groups of players are not treated equally.

 

Thanks!

 

I never understood the fascination with such an ugly-looking mount. It looks so utterly ridiculous that in my opinion it shouldn't even be in the game. It even looks worse than the Solus Secant, which, at first, I thought would be impossible to overcome.

 

If a recolored mount on the CM is what people really want and what's going to make them happy, by all means, do it. I wouldn' care because I wouldn't buy it in a million years.

[Add New Flashpoints, Operations and Warzones to the Website.]

I just noticed that the Star Wars website that is supposed to showcase content is woefully out of date. Don't you want to add all released Flashpoints, Operations and Warzones there as an incentive for people to try out the game and possibly even subscribe? I don't know about you guys, but my boss would surely fire me if I did not keep his company's website up to date about the products and services we're selling.

 

Just to illustrate what I am talking about:

 

Flashpoints missing from the Flashpoint section: http://www.swtor.com/holonet/flashpoints

 

- Czerka Corporate Labs

- Czerka Core Meltdown

- Kuat Drive Yards

- Assault on Tython

- Korriban Incursion

- Level 55 versions of Hammer Station, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders, Cademimu, Czerka Corporate Labs and Czerka Core Meltdown

 

Granted these are tactical flashpoints but they should at least get an honorable mention, no?

 

Operations missing from the Operations section: http://www.swtor.com/holonet/operations

 

- Scum and Villainy

- The Dread Fortress

- The Dread Palace

- various instanced bosses with weekly lockouts (Golden Fury, Xenoanalyst II, The Eyeless)

 

I would hazard a guess that the majority of subscribers at level 55 mostly subscribe because of Operations and Warzones. So the more you showcase on your website, the more incentive they'll have to subscribe. It would be also nice to list the available difficulty of these Operations:

 

Warzones missing from the Warzones section: http://www.swtor.com/holonet/warzones

 

- Space Station Arena

- Tatooine Canyon Arena

- Corellia Square Arena

- Makeb Arena

- Quesh Huttball Pit

 

Given how important Arenas are at the moment in the game and the fact that they're the only grounds for ranked PvP, I find it unbelievably strange that you don't mention Arenas at all here or the existence or ranked warzones. Given how we're already in the second season, this should definitely be mentioned on your website.

 

TL;DR: So, yeah, spend an hour to bring your website up to date, if only for marketing reasons. It'll pay off in the long run, trust me.

[No More CM Support Until You Implement an Appearance Tab]

Let me apologize in advance if I repeat something that's already been said. Don't have time to read through 18 pages of discussion. I think the request is reasonable, I'd love it and support it. It would be awesome to change your looks without completely overhauling and remodding your gear. We know this, we want this and I think Bioware knows and even wants this.

 

I think the reason they're not going to do this is not because they're worried about losing a credit sink. I think it's about the data they need to track per individual character. The engine of the game is a load of crap, they blew it big time when they chose an unoptimized Hero engine. Hero isn't a terribly bad engine, other MMO games have used it as well with some degree of success, but it is not optimized for the requirements this game has.

 

Each time they add a further degree of customization to individual characters beyond the ones we already have (Name, Legacy name, Armor, Mods, Dyes, Titles, Abilities, Mounts, Pets, Codex entries, Achievements, Starfighter upgrades, Collections unlocks), they increase the drain that character generates on the server. Throw many such characters together and it will negatively impact performance for everyone.

 

At least they said as much when they denied requests to unlock individual pieces of CM armor in the Collections. They claimed the engine would be unable to handle the excess data generated this way. They also said this a while back when we asked them about the possibility of a customizable Biography page. I'm not saying it's not possible to increase such data in the future, but Bioware has to be really careful how they choose to go about it.

 

I'm also not saying that it couldn't be done. Technology certainly permits such a feature in many other games. But for some reason, the peculiarity of Hero engine impedes this at the moment. They made a spectacular mistake by not optimizing, fine-tuning or (dare I say) developing their own engine for the game, which would have allowed for future upgrades. Now it comes back to bite them in the *** at every turn.

[Star Wars Episode VII Cast revealed]

Can't really say that it's an impressive list of names (aside from the original cast) as some of them don't even have Wikipedia articles. I hope their faith in these "rising stars" is justified. Though even if they act terribly, they might achieve worldwide fame anyway, just by being in the film.

[Corsec Electrobaton]

Not sure if it's a bug or not, but from what I have seen, this item switches into a double bladed lightsaber while hiting a target.

 

This enchanted shapeshifting weapon demonstrates its fearsome magical prowess by suddenly turning into a lightsaber while thrown and changing its color to yellow. Scared the hell out of me.

 

Also the animation of Master Strike seems wrong to me. Not sure if you're supposed to stab somebody with a mace.

[Faction specific capital ships?]

Since when was a cruiser a capital ship? If, as the internet says, the Valor is the heaviest Republic ship, why is it designated as a cruiser? Is a cruiser the biggest thing they can afford?

 

I like the Valor, actually, I think it is pretty cool. And I hate your idea. Seeing everyone dressed as Emo Sith on the Pub side is annoying enough (though I am not advocating rolling the clock back on that - folks should be allowed to dress how they like), but now we want to remove any visual distinction between the factions' ships too? No thanks.

 

To my knowledge, Star Wars categorizes all significant frontline warships as "capital ships" regardless of their function in battle. Hence all destroyers, frigates, cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships, carriers and dreadnaughts are referred to as "capital ships." A likely oversight on the developers part, they used ship designations interchangeably because I would assume they forgot to look them up. And yeah, the republic is pretty strapped for cash, I doubt they can afford many ships above cruisers. (Look what happened to the one superdreadnaught they built.)

 

The designation of the Harrower is particularly chaotic because it's referred to as a dreadnought in the Codex entry, but as a battlecruiser on the map of the Imperial fleet. Furthermore, when you do the old Republic space missions, companions sometimes shout "Destroyer on sensors!" when you get within range of it, adding to the chaos of ship designation. Likewise Bioware seems to use the words "corvette", "destroyer" and "frigate" interchangeably, because all three are used to refer to the Thranta-class in the game.

 

At any rate I am not suggesting that they do not give the Valor-class cruiser to Republic guilds. By all means, it should be the baseline ship. All I'm asking for is that guilds be allowed to choose their capital ships from a variety of designs (including captured Imperial vessels). If you don't want it, you can always stick with the bland flying bathtub.

[Faction specific capital ships?]

The devs' recent post about Galactic Strongholds said that each side would have access to one guild capital ship, the Valor-class cruiser for the Republic and the Harrower dreadnaught for the Empire. While I understand the reasoning behind this, I feel somewhat disappointed that (again) the Imperials are getting the cool-looking stuff. They already have a better-looking fleet, better animations and some cooler armor. I feel guild capital ships are going to encourage new guilds further to play on the Imperial side.

 

I'm not saying that the Valor-class cruiser looks terrible, it's an average-looking ship, but it looks old, clumsy and ungainly like a flying bathtub. In contrast, the Harrower looks sleek, modern and deadly, like a real warship should be. Obviously, it's a purpose-built war machine designed to annihilate enemy vessels and it shows really. I asked around in my guild and in other guilds and many people on the Rep side share this sentiment: they would choose the Imperial ship if given an option.

 

So could you make it possible to use the enemy faction's capital ship in Galactic Strongholds? Say, we captured one in battle and kept it around as a trophy? I'm not saying right away or for the same amount of money. Or even if could capture the enemy guild capital ship in guild vs guild space battles.

 

It would be so cool if both sides had access to the Harrower dreadnaught!

[New Ability Suggestions (all advanced classes accounted for)]

The E-Web cannon is riduculous but long as we're speculating, I'd like to add two abilties to the list:

 

Commando / Mercenary :

 

Fragmentation Mine / Shrapnel Trap :

 

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 1 minute

Cast: 3 seconds

Cost: 25 Ammo / Heat

Damage: Moderate / Weapon

 

Lays an anti-personnel mine / trap at your location that detonates for X damage when an enemy steps on it. Hits targets in a 10 meter radius. Has 3 charges by default, charges can detonate once every second until exhausted. The mine is undetectable by default but is revealed once the first charge explodes. The mine cannot be detonated with damage and disappears after one minute. Does moderate, white, weapon damage (similar to the damage of Hail of Bolts).

 

Modifier Talents:

 

Tungsten casing / Tripwire : Gunnery/Arsenal; 2 pt talent

 

Each point increases the number of charges your Fragmentation Mine / Shrapnel Trap can hold by one to a maximum of five.

 

Incendiary explosives / Phosphorous charge : Assault Specialist/Pyrotech; 2 pt talent

 

Each point adds a 50% chance that mine's/trap's incendiary explosion catches targets on fire and places an elemental DoT effect on them that deals low damage and lasts five seconds. Can enable a High Impact Bolt / Rail Shot.

 

This would finally give Commandos/Mercenaries some much needed utility in PvP and could situationally be used in PvE as well by cunning players. Also, because it's not directly targeting enemy players, it wouldn't upset the existing DPS balance. It would be really easy to spot and interrupt a Commando/Mercenary trying to place the mine/trap, but once set, it remains undetectable until somebody steps on it.

[What if you took the Sith race and the Protheans from Mass Effect and switched them.]

The thought has been going through my mind and I thought I'd get some people in on it.

 

They Nihlus would say in ME1:

 

"Their legacy remains, the Citadel, the Mass Relays, your ship drives....they're all based on Sith technology."

 

Also the Sith would have exterminated the Hanar on the stop, not taught them how to speak.

[KDY Starship Assembly - Not enough information]

I've come across this minor bug in Kuat Drive Yards a few times this weekend. At least I assume it's a bug and not intentional.

 

Basically, at times, you'll come across only 4 datapads on the table in the Starship Assembly Scenario in the Kuat Drive Yards Flashpoint. Those four datapads do not contain enough information to puzzle out which starship components should be mounted for the bonus mission.

 

You can deduce which weapon system should be mounted but for Electronics and Propulsion, it's a gamble between the Long Range Sensors and the Rapid Recharge System and the Czerka and Volkoff propulsion systems respectively. Another datapad with more information would be appreciated.

 

P.S.: Or is there something I'm missing? Also if you fail the bonus mission and kill the elite droids, they do not award any experience points.