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Gaijyn

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    Medicine
  1. Yaddle died by sacrificing herself to end a conflict if I recall. This was before the Clone Wars I believe. As for Yoda's species, they were/are rare in the Star Wars Universe. To my knowledge Lucas has never stated the name of the species and has strictly prohibited the expanded universe from touching on the species or creating other individuals (force users or otherwise) of the "Yoda species" In fact I am not certain but Dark Horse Comics and Bioware were the only properties allowed to create/show others of the race besides Yoda and Yaddle (which come from Lucas so they aren't applicable here). This was in KOTOR with master Vanda Tokar. The television show had two more according to wookipedia but I would think that is handled by Lucas Arts and as such is considered from George Lucas.
  2. There was a response by Stephen Reid about this recently in an interview with Reddit.com Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/nty9d/im_stephen_reid_senior_community_manager_for_star/ Basically he said as they went further into it, it became less and less applicable to the the game and world in which the players would be playing and thus the decision was made to shift the focus to the actual game and leave the backstory on hiatus. This was actually one of the few questions he answered pretty straightforward. The link should give you the info. Good read for the few answers that are given to the myriad of questions asked actually
  3. The system was removed because it was not working properly iirc. I know in Beta when I used it, sometimes the gear would come out right in terms of aesthetically pleasing and others it was varying degrees of an eye-sore. Yes, I know there was an option to turn it off and what not, but then you had what we seem to have now. So, I think they took it out to add either depth or revamp it so that it was more than just a static color-palette that was derived from your chest armor. Hopefully this is what they are doing in some small corner of the BW-Austin development offices while the rest of the devs are building, fixing, and testing various aspects of the game. Maybe it would be cool if they gave each class a series of color choices for gear in which they could choose a predominant color scheme. That way it would match but also create a general trend for what the player feels their character should look like. Any thoughts on that?
  4. Like you I dig the idea behind Legacy names and hope that they continue to flesh them out and, allow for one to change them by some means. The RealID feature would be pretty useful and I could see that being a feature that some may like (assuming it was only for friend or maybe guild chat?). I disagree with the Legacy first part though. While your reasoning for this is understandable, and I do agree the varying Races tied to one legacy is slightly confusing from an immersion/continuity standpoint, it would be pretty awkward to do this as some individuals (myself included) use the legacy as an acceptable surname, and still others utilize it as a way of deepening the immersive nature of their role-playing. I think that the different races being tied to the same Legacy is handled continuity-wise at least, by the ability to put it under your name and thus be "Of the Legacy of XXX". This is a guess though. I think there is much they can and *hopefully* will do to incorporate the ideas of Legacies into a meaningful part of the game. Though personally, I would like both the ability to change the Legacy (not mine personally but the option is needed for various and easily understood reasons) and to allow perhaps more than one Legacy per server. I would say a max of 4 Legacies per server to allow for 2 characters per Legacy (if one were so inclined). Perhaps they would allow for the choosing of this Legacy by the character as you level up or even at creation. Again this is just my thoughts on the matter so take it for what it is worth lol
  5. Rhazz thanks for informing about the server aspects. But, how much would you say the costs are? I read somewhere (not that the source was necessarily correct or valid) that MMOs with 200-300k subscribers cover operating costs. Thus by that maybe 400k subscribers would break even for TOR considering the LA deal and overhead. Also, it has been ventured by Eurogamer (how useful is this source?) I believe that LA gets a percentage after the initial costs were recouped by the publisher (EA). If this is true, and it seems a slightly risky choice by LA if they believed the game would fail hard within the first 90 days, it means that most if not all of the investment in the game is pretty much recouped at this point. Also, to add to this, SWG was, until the release of TOR still around. While most considered it to be in shambles post NGE (or whatever the acronym for the update was), people had to have still played it for it to still be around for even 6 months post change. I mean, in terms of people still playing a game, FFXIV is still being played. Though to be fair that game is a complete disaster (hence why FFXI is still played and popular considering its age and mechanics). Last I heard the game was still not charging monthly subscriptions due to it being a wreck on many levels. I played it initially and felt that way at least. So, I think that the game will make money, and further, I personally think that 500k subscribers will be less than the final tally as it is a Star Wars MMO and is well made in my opinion. As for the earlier post about early wow and Devs and GMs being very interactive. You are pretty much correct. But, the game to me had more issues than I have experienced regarding bugs and broken quests, etc. The Devs in here could stand to be a bit more interactive but I would think that much of their time is likely being spent putting out fires and dealing with testing fixes and future content update. It is after all day 6 or 7 since Live so I bet there is much Redbull and Coffee being swilled in the BW Austin offices. haha
  6. Okay. Sorry, Trevalon, I see that you noticed your mistake. I appologize for taking your comments as a slight but I did obviously not enjoy being knocked for something that I did actually address. No worries and no hard feelings I hope.
  7. I think you should have likely kept reading, as in the very next part I ventured, which you you would have seen and I can only guess decided to omit, that they get maybe 30% of that cost. Obviously BW does not get that per box. High School, College courses, or whatever slight you feel you need to apply to my knowledge, the percentage is a reasonable estimate. Perhaps, despite your deep knowledge of business, you may want to at least finish the complete post before quoting the the initial part. But I guess the details were irrelevant in this case no? To the individual that mentioned the upkeep/bandwidth/etc. You are right, I did not factor those in directly. This was not intentional as another poster stated, but realistically, what is that number at? I am not a server guru by any means and any number regarding those costs would be essentially not very well informed. Also, regarding upkeep, is it not the case that as the game becomes established and the client/server/game becomes more and more optimized it lessens the impact upon the server(s) and thus enables more efficient use of them, thereby lessening the costs associated with them? I am asking as I am not entirely sure.
  8. To the individuals saying that this game is never going to make money on 500k subscribers or even at all and predicts a massive failure pretty much immediately: Realistically I agree with the CFO's statement in a general sense. 500k subscribers over a period of time, likely 12-18 months could be able to turn a profit if the so called figures regarding the cost of this game is correct. While this game cost estimated 100-150 million (frankly I doubt and question the source of the 300 million price tag) they still made a significant amount on box sales. Since none of us have direct access to the actually percentage and data from the sales figures a general ball park figure can be hazarded as such. Generalized Ballpark of the Money Made: Box Sells: $60/box * 1.5 million boxes sold (likely semi-conservative estimate) = $90 million assuming they get 1/3rd of the amount (which is plausible after royalties, LA, retail stores cut, etc though could easily be a bit higher) that = $90,000,000 * .33 = $29.7 million this is NOT FACTORING IN DIGITAL DOWNLOADS, DELUXE/COLLECTORS EDITIONS! Now, 500k subscribers would be ~$7.5 million/month. Subtracting maybe 30% for LA fees and the like, is about $5.25 million/month. This is $63 million/year (roughly). So, in 12 months they would have made ~$91 million, which is just about 2/3rd of the high end of the realistic cost of creating the game. Factoring in the fact that it has not yet (to my knowledge) released to Oceania or Asia (both of which will likely sell pretty decently at least), as well as a possible xpac that is likely already in the development pipeline and it is likely that the game will make its money back/turn a profit. Further, as the above scenario is likely more conservative than the actually numbers, it is not hard to see the ability for the game to make money. Remember I did not factor in the money from digital sales (which would be more money for BW/EA as it eliminates the retailers cut) and collectors editions (which obvious produces an increase in funds due to the increase in price) so my estimates are conservative for those very reasons if no other. Further, much of the content for future updates/xpacs is already either worked out or in progress and tested internally. This was stated by both one of the Devs on here (check the Dev Tracker) and also the Lead Writer (Daniel Erickson on Giant Bomb interview). So while haters are going to hate, and fanboys are going to do whatever it is exactly that fanboys do, the truth is likely that this game can easily have some staying power and while people love to compare it to AoC and WAR in terms of launches and promises, having played both of them in Beta through Launch and then a bit after, I can say this is neither of them for a number of reasons. I do believe that this game can be successful if it continues to improve. Now, /rant And last but not least, comparisons of this game AT LAUNCH to WoW...just stop please. Unless you played WoW AT LAUNCH (not sometime in Vanilla) but AT LAUNCH, then do not compare a game that is going on 8 years old and been through uncounted revisions, updates, fixes, overhauls, etc with something that JUST LAUNCHED. WoW at launch, sweet lord it was not pretty in terms of queues, broken quests, or bugs. Not to say it wasn't good in some aspects, but it was not what people who picked it up in late Vanilla/BC/etc make it out to be. So, if you must compare, compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges, or the fruit of your choice. Just make sure you are comparing the same things. /rant
  9. This isn't the upgraded versions of the fighters and the shields show when you hit them with your blasters/lasers. This is the basic fighters that suffer no damage (shield or otherwise) when you hit them with your blasters. I feel that this is, to my mind, a bug. It has happened to me occasionally, most noticeably on the Jahim Escort mission (or whatever the exact spelling is). It does not occur all the time though, hence why I feel it is a bug.
  10. I believe that Tech and maybe Cunning (at least on Quinn) affect his healing. Since Cunning is associated with Tech on mouse-over I would say that both would increase the effectiveness of the companion's healing abilities.
  11. I posted something about this but it got buried due to all the QQ and non-sense trolling. Basically it involved the particular character having to undergo a long and drawn out quest series that caused them to betray their initial chosen side and also having to go back (by acquiring the light/dark side points either during the quest line or prior to beginning the quest line) and then being able to be back on the opposite side, though they will have to start parts of the story (or the whole thing) again and their character converted over. There are of course multiple details that would cause this to be a truly well thought out and planned option on the Devs part but I think this fits best with the LORE aspects with traitors and patriots. EQ2 did/does something like this and it seems to work out well from what I have seen. The betrayal quest line is a pain but in my opinion it should be due to its nature.
  12. I heard only Nar Shadaa was linked between the factions as it is run by the Hutts and thus "neutral". Anyone able to verify this? I only have Sith characters
  13. Also, if you have seen the interview with Lead Writer Daniel Erickson with Giant Bomb Link: At about 12:15 in the interview he addresses the fact that he has been working on future content for quite sometime while there was Beta testing. This, to me anyway, implies that part of the ~150million was also put towards an xpac or content updates beyond what we were given. The interview itself is interesting from a general information sense. But, I think that Bioware planned ahead and hopefully put some serious effort into plotting the game out well and dont just add things ad hoc due to QQ or whatever. LOTRO did something similar and played the story part well. While the game went F2P (and I am not the biggest fan of that even though I have the Lifetime Membership), it kept to the general timeline and story aspects of the books (generally). But, yeah, I think that there is a lot of material already in the pipe that is being internally tested. That being said, I do want to see more customization of characters (both pre and post creation) to include more diverse races. I am cool with the classes though. /end slightly off-topic content reply
  14. Gaijyn

    gtx 460

    I am using this card to play this game and have had no problems whatsoever to date. *Knock On Wood* I would say go for it.
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