Solomace Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 You may be reasonable, but there are many who are not. If they say 2 months, and it doesn't appear in 2 months, then whatever explanation they give people will start speculating on various reason instead ranging from "Devs suck" to "they're secretly never going to implement x feature but don't want to tell us" Every time you see someone posting some tinfoil hat conspiracy as to why X feature isn't in game, or X bug isn't fixed - thats the reason we never get full details from the devs in advance. Okay, so if they are in the position of damned if they do, damned if they don't, why not give courage to their own convictions and give timescales to stuff and if they are delayed, say why knowing that they are going to get flamed either way, but stand by it. Would get more respect from me and it is only me I can answer for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kubernetic Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) First off, let me say that to people arguing that BioWare should release a product roadmap with deliverable dates, or be more specific on when something should show up in-game: There are players on the forums who already start accusing BW of dropping the Q&A session because it isn't out by a certain time of day on Friday. They do it every Friday. If you think this would get any less severe on major game updates, I seriously feel like you should re-evaluate your expectations. I totally understand why they're hazy with actual dates. Programming isn't a science, it's an art. Sometimes things just take a little longer than they were supposed to, and you can run across those situations at 10%, 25%, 50%, 66%, or even 95% of the way through development. When they pop up, you either fix them or yank the upgrade. There is no other option. ___ As to this week's answers, once again I feel really impressed with what we're hearing. OVERALL SYSTEMS I like that there is a strike team working to improve the speed and handling of the game on lower-end systems. I hope this team is also working to streamline the speed and handling across the game system overall, looking for elements within the engine that impose slowdowns and cleaning them up or changing them to react faster. By the way, if the overall game improvements are delayed due to trying to rectify the BW-modded Hero engine with the Simutronics Hero engine so they can start updating the entire engine regularly, I'm perfectly fine with that. Love the idea of the updates to end-game armors and the dyes features that are coming in. Looks like it should also improve crafting across the board. SPACEPORTS, SHIPS, AND TRAVEL Streamlines to the spaceports and orbital stations issues are also welcome. One thing I'd like to say is that they should enhance the use of the Fleet Shuttles which are placed on various planets. I think once you visit a planet for the first time by navigating there, you ought to be able to use one of the Fleet Shuttles (like the one in the main Taxi hub on Coruscant between the Senate building and Port) to navigate to various planets. Instead of just clicking the little terminal next to the shuttle, a pop-up dialogue should appear that lets you choose either from a name list of planets you've been to, or perhaps a galactic map using the same map UI from the ships navigation computer. To balance this they can increase the price for the shuttle trip over using your personal ship. The one thing I'm most disappointed with is the thought that the ships we have are to be our ships for the entirety of the game. I understand there are a lot more high priority issues to be resolved, and I certainly don't want the process to go overboard as it did with a certain other sci-fi game where you barely had time to enjoy your ship before it was outdated, but I'd love to see more variety in the ships over time. One thing the Devs and Game Managers should consider is the possibility of just using "costumes" for the ships rather than a completely redesigned ship. I think a great mid-range option would be the chance to change the entire outward appearance of the ship while still leaving the ship's interiors as they are. That should resolve the excessive (and understandable) needs for re-tooling cutscenes inside the ship for various story triggers, since only the exterior shots of landing, launching, hangar appearances and space combat models would need to be altered. TL;DR All in all, it looks like this game has a bright future ahead of it. To me, it seems like they have a lot of things going on for only the second month. They genuinely appear ready to do everything necessary to improve this game as fast as possible and add the content users want. Keep up the great work, BW! Looking forward to the changes... Edited February 25, 2012 by Kubernetic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petsa Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 dont worry 1.2 will solve any problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deviss Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Everyone who is SO obsessed with the same-sex relationships need to let it the hell go already. I understand you want this, but seriously is this something the is GAME-BREAKING not to have? To the people who are saying the Bioware are homophobic and all that crap you really should move on already. They didn't put it in the game, big deal. Personally if I saw same-sex relationships before LFG Guild UI Updates Ship Customization Warzone Bug Fixes End-Game crafting fixes FPS Issue fixes Hero Engine Optimization Major overhaul of the Galactic Trade Network Cross Server PvP Fix the friends list Or any of of the 1,000 other things that are more important. I WOULD BE PISSED this +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stealthymakoto Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 ...Post-Launch means post-launch, when they are ready to put it in they will let you know. A thousand times yes. As far as SGRAs go, I understand the desire to know things such as timeframe/which characters will be included, but if they're not saying anything, that means they're not ready! They have no reason to withold the information, and they've said it's coming... so clearly it's just not ready to be shown yet! If their answer to the question was simply, "Yes it's still coming, but we have nothing to announce yet." Then we know nothing new, and we've wasted a question. Until they have something to tell us, relax! In all likelihood, this will be added in along with some major patch that's also introducing new companions in general/additional storyline. Maybe 1.3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarka Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Some small good points in the Q+A, but I also notice the glaring hints that some of the sought after things are not on the immediate list of things to do (e.g. minigames to help keep people amused, ship customisation, being able to buy a different ship, etc, etc). Also, the notion of making orange gear even MORE flexible and viable within the scope of itemisation is really not helping the problems that are already associated with viability of the crafting professions that have to compete with orange items. In short, unless you can make mods for orange gear, or the profession is Biochem, then you're profession is essentially screwed. My current fear is that Bioware just appear to be largely content with continuing to follow the notion that throwing more flashpoints, operations and warzones at the game is enough for the immediate future. Whilst forsaking much that would help to actually set this game apart from the pack (in terms of activities that could help keeping players entertained). Btw, VO is nice for leveling but gets damned annoying the nth time you run through a flashpoint. Could you not have a fourth option on the dialogue called "Let's cut to the chase", and if all in the party choose it then the dialogue skips to the next set of dialogue options? Edited February 25, 2012 by Tarka Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spherearrow Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 LthalSavy: Will there be any way to implement a quick travel to your ship? Georg Zoeller: Not in the short term, but it's something we've been discussing on and off. Currently, given how easily available fleet travel passes are on the Security Vendor, we don't think adding this is necessary. The fleet passes are not easily available if i cant set up a security key. Please fix this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalmac Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 My problem is not a bug fix but a design idea gone bad. I am a Scrapper and my mirror class can do 4 actions to my 2 actions in PVE or PVP. This is clearly unacceptable and is unfair to anyone that plays a Scrapper vs a Operative. Being tied to long animations is unfair and makes the game bad for those using the Republic. So again is appears as a favoritism for Imperials as nothing has been said to fix this imbalance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uluain Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Hate to bust the bubble of those hating on posters asking about same-gender content, but Community Service reps have been very plain in encouraging us to continue. And we will, until we have received an update. A lot of other high-volume topics were addressed this week, and that's a good thing. What annoys me far more than people continuing to ask unanswered questions are those who continue to ask questions that have been answered. That is unecessary spam. Also - People who can't count to one. One question. That's what you get. One. Edited February 25, 2012 by Uluain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibmachine Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Frung: Have you considered adding a "companion" loot roll option? Damion Schubert: We've discussed it and have a design for it - when we do this, we will make it so you can only roll 'need' on items that your advanced class is meant to use in one of its specs. I do not currently have an ETA on this feature. In all seriousness, I don't understand the answer here. Forum poster asked about companion rolls and got the answer about rolls only for specific ACs, which is completely irrelevant to the question. Am I the only one who read it this way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpuax Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Crafted orange gear with augments will make all current orange gear, social gear and endgame PVE/PVP gear sub par (with the exception of ripping the mods out of it). Anyone who want to min/max will have to settle for a look of what ever orange gear is craft-able only. Bioware please think about this. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dezzi Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Some good, some bad, some ugly. In general, these Q&As only leave a bad taste in my mouth. This is my stop... May the Force be with you. Always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSleeper Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Re ship customization or new ships: I'm disappointed, but understand there are technical issues involved. However, that doesn't mean you can't provide different interior or exterior looks that don't affect the overall layout of the ship inside or out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayla_Felana Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Crafted orange gear with augments will make all current orange gear, social gear and endgame PVE/PVP gear sub par (with the exception of ripping the mods out of it). Anyone who want to min/max will have to settle for a look of what ever orange gear is craft-able only. Bioware please think about this. Thank you. Just so you know this is a debate about what they have answered, if this is a question for Q&A I'd go post it in the other Q&A thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightfalll Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 The only thing they answer is pre agreed upon items that theyre either working on or will 'do down the road'.. Fail again Bio..... The hits just keep on coming........../facepalm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewser Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Everyone who is SO obsessed with the same-sex relationships need to let it the hell go already. I understand you want this, but seriously is this something the is GAME-BREAKING not to have? To the people who are saying the Bioware are homophobic and all that crap you really should move on already. They didn't put it in the game, big deal. Personally if I saw same-sex relationships before LFG Guild UI Updates Ship Customization Warzone Bug Fixes End-Game crafting fixes FPS Issue fixes Hero Engine Optimization Major overhaul of the Galactic Trade Network Cross Server PvP Fix the friends list Or any of of the 1,000 other things that are more important. I WOULD BE PISSED I agree those other things should be addressed first. I would not be pissed if they put in the same sex romances but I would be wondering where their priorities are given that affects just a small percentage of the players. Edited February 25, 2012 by Drewser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpuax Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Just so you know this is a debate about what they have answered, if this is a question for Q&A I'd go post it in the other Q&A thread. Not a debate or a questions. It is an observation about the answer they gave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ha Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Belthazaar: I like my ships but, I was wondering if or when we will be able to purchase, make, or steal a new and different ship beyond the one that we currently get from our class quest? Damion Schubert: Unfortunately, the nature of our ships as central story areas for all of our class content, and all of the associated triggers and cinematics that must therefore be done on the ships, means that giving players new ship models, particularly interiors, is very, very hard for us. We will probably look at addressing this instead by providing a greater sense of ship customization at some point well in the future. But it’s someplace we definitely want to go! BioWare, what in the Hell is up with this answer? When exactly did you find out that you can't easily give us customizable spaceship interiors because so many triggers & associated cinematics were involved? Why drag people along with hopeful answers when you know you built a cruddy system in the first place & the only way to add or change any of it is to re-build the whole system from scratch? The 1st moment you let us know that "Everybody gets their own playership", the 1st question the public asked you is if we can customize our playerships like we could our playerhomes in SWG? Were you lying to us then the few times one of you said we'll be getting ship customization soon? Those guys had to know that cinematics are tied to ship interiors so heavily, so either they lied or they were answering questions that they had no business answering cause how would they know the actual answer, they are just the Lead Writer? Since your answer is more truthful now because the correct person was asked & answered it, how about thinking of alternative ideas for player housing, of giving us an area in the game world that we can decorate & call our home? How about something like an instanced apartment on Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa, Corellia or Dromund Kass? Plenty of room on the tiny planet maps to put in areas full of player apartments. Or to wrap the idea up in BioWare, how about... Guild Capital Ship apartments that we can customize & decorate? Work on that & ditch trying to allow us to decorate playerships if it's going to be too much work for you guys to fix. Something you want to do, but if it happens it'll be well on years into the future because maybe your programmers just don't know how to make customizable playerships work using the Hero Engine, or any other part of the game work efficiently with the Hero Engine for that matter. I mean really, why would I want to customize my playership anyways? There's no way for me to turn on high resolution textures, what benefit is there for me to look at a fuzzy ship interior full of items I collected & placed allover me & my companon's playerbase myself? Why customize areas around stationary companions that don't actually do anything when they are hanging out doing nothing on your ship. These things have got to change before you can even begin to conceive of how to create customizable player spaces in an MMO. I'm sure some ex-SWG or ex-Everquest dev that is now working for you at BioWare has some ideas. C'mon man, you can't give us customizable playerships or you would've learned a lesson from the other Star Wars MMO & done it already. Here's another shining example of how story mechanics in SWTOR are limiting customization & freedom of choice for players again. I said it enough times post launch that story would be a barrier preventing social features from being in the game, I think I was right. Didn't want to be right... Edited February 25, 2012 by Tricky-Ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizzyMongoose Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Maybe if they stopped working on everything and just worked on a few things at a time it would be better and then people could actually see things being done. How long has it been with the cant abandon quest issue? What fixes have they done? You can abandon the bonus quest on tattoine now. It would be much better if they did one thing and finished it and said ok we now allowed everyone to abandon all quests and are now working on the issue of XXXX. If you work on 1-5 issues at a time you will be able to complete 10x as many issues than if you worked on all the issues at the same time. That's not how software development works. You assign as many people as you need to get a feature working or fixed, and you spread work so people can work in parallel if there's no dependencies. If something needs one extra UI screen, you don't throw two UI artists at it. Plus, a lot of devs specialize, so pulling your elite rendering programmer so you have more bodies to do auction house refactoring is a poor idea most of the time. Simply throwing more bodies at a problem reaches diminishing returns pretty rapidly. Edited February 25, 2012 by dizzyMongoose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarezar Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 First week that I was slightly disappointed. The previous two weeks I really enjoyed the answers. This week, they chose to repeat things they have already said just because it's coming soon - or because people don't know how to read, or don't care to. Still, it was very exciting to read "4 pages of notes just for crew skills". I just wanted to see more information about orange items, receipes and augment slots. Unless they allow every possible design in the game to be learned as schematic, I don't see it working very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Karsk Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 No minigames is beyond braindead for a star wars mmo.There is no reason for players to hang around in cantinas.And if one is a pvp player there is nothing to do at end game. Nothing. Atrleast if there was minigames that were fun and we could bet that would be something.But no, again devs clearly prove that they dont care abput subs in the long run.It's like they actually think we will stick around when we have nothing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimithril Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Everyone who is SO obsessed with the same-sex relationships need to let it the hell go already. I understand you want this, but seriously is this something the is GAME-BREAKING not to have? To the people who are saying the Bioware are homophobic and all that crap you really should move on already. They didn't put it in the game, big deal. Personally if I saw same-sex relationships before LFG Guild UI Updates Ship Customization Warzone Bug Fixes End-Game crafting fixes FPS Issue fixes Hero Engine Optimization Major overhaul of the Galactic Trade Network Cross Server PvP Fix the friends list Or any of of the 1,000 other things that are more important. I WOULD BE PISSED Every single one of those items that you have mentioned, with the possible exception of optimizing the HE, have been addressed either in dev posts, or in the Q&A, that they are looking at and/or working on and/or fixes are on the way. Seriously....what is important to you may not even register on the radar of other people. Relax. Things are being taken care of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyvim Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Chyp: Can we expect to see any animation/damage timing consistency changes between factions? Georg Zoeller (Principal Lead Combat Designer): Yes. The animation team has been working on a new set of animations for abilities like the Trooper's Mortar Volley to provide closer matching of animation timings and improved combat responsiveness. We expect to roll these changes out with Game Update 1.2. Oh god, please let Project be on the list for new, animations... Would it be possible for us to get a list of the skills that are getting their ani's replaced? Please? Or the ones that are in the pipeline? And could we please move the consular classes AWAY from rock and junk throwing, while we are at it? Thx. Project has its delay problems, it takes time to pull up the magic rock, time to levitate and spin it, time to hurl it and travel to target...and it is not popular as a magic junk thrower with many players. Replacement suggestions include a saber throw, or swapping it with the Disturbance animation, which can easily be streamlined to instant cast, and then the chunk a clunker animation can be tied to a skill that has an activation timer, like the animation so obviously needs... Throw is also not popular (pebblestorm) as magic pebble throwing... Together, Project and Throw make the consular jedi caster class feel like a junk/debris throwing shaman that can magically make junk/debris show up anywhere, at his feet or out of thin air. Then you have the obvious problems of pulling up magic rocks out of starship decks, etc. The animations are environmentally ignorant...they cheat. What's worse, for any actual fan of the movies, Sith are the junk throwers. They throw junk 18x (or 6x if you count anakin, but I dont since he was going to the darkside and wasnt exactly the jedi poster boy) more than jedi. Every Sith threw objects at targets in the movies. In fact, Sith throw junk MORE than they use choke or lightning. So the jedi caster class is based on a skill that is fundamentally Sith according to the ulimate canon of the movies. At least ONE of this skills, which define the consular classes, needs to be something other than junk throwing... Edited February 25, 2012 by Dyvim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uteboy Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 BioWare, what in the Hell is up with this answer? When exactly did you find out that you can't easily give us customizable spaceship interiors because so many triggers & associated cinematics were involved? Did you actually read what you quoted? Try to understand the difference between a new interior model, and interior customisation. Imagine you own a house. It's the difference between ripping a wall out and putting up new wallpaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livnthedream Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Belthazaar: I like my ships but, I was wondering if or when we will be able to purchase, make, or steal a new and different ship beyond the one that we currently get from our class quest? Damion Schubert: Unfortunately, the nature of our ships as central story areas for all of our class content, and all of the associated triggers and cinematics that must therefore be done on the ships, means that giving players new ship models, particularly interiors, is very, very hard for us. We will probably look at addressing this instead by providing a greater sense of ship customization at some point well in the future. But it’s someplace we definitely want to go! BioWare, what in the Hell is up with this answer? When exactly did you find out that you can't easily give us customizable spaceship interiors because so many triggers & associated cinematics were involved? Why drag people along with hopeful answers when you know you built a cruddy system in the first place & the only way to add or change any of it is to re-build the whole system from scratch? The 1st moment you let us know that "Everybody gets their own playership", the 1st question the public asked you is if we can customize our playerships like we could our playerhomes in SWG? Were you lying to us then the few times one of you said we'll be getting ship customization soon? Those guys had to know that cinematics are tied to ship interiors so heavily, so either they lied or they were answering questions that they had no business answering cause how would they know the actual answer, they are just the Lead Writer? Since your answer is more truthful now because the correct person was asked & answered it, how about thinking of alternative ideas for player housing, of giving us an area in the game world that we can decorate & call our home? How about something like an instanced apartment on Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa, Corellia or Dommund Kass? Plenty of room on the tiny planet maps to put in areas full of player apartments. Something you want to do, but if it happens it'll be well on years into the future because your programmers just don't know how to make customizable playerships work using the Hero Engine, or any other part of the game work efficiently with the Hero Engine for that matter. I mean really, why would I want to customize my playership anyways? There's no way for me to turn on high resolution textures, what benefit is there for me to look at a fuzzy ship interior full of items I collected & placed allover me & my companon's playerbase myself? Why customize areas around stationary companions that don't actually do anything when they are hanging out doing nothing on your ship. C'mon man, you can't give us customizable playerships or you would've learned a lesson from the other Star Wars MMO & done it already. Here's another shining example of how story mechanics in SWTOR are limiting customization & freedom of choice for players again. I said it enough times post launch that story would be a barrier preventing social features from being in the game, I think I was right. im sorry this isnt the galaxies 2 you wanted or expected. a ton of those things you want or find super important arent important to a large number of people. attempting to claim that the devs are dumb though for not learning from a game that not only has nothing to do with this one (other than a similer ip) but is also a completely different kind of game is ludicrous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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