Community Q&A – April 27th 2012 Blog Discussion

[bloomfireblade]

No, that's not it.

 

As we said, we'll have more details to share closer to launch. Between Group Finder and a Character Transfer Service, our plans are designed to allow more players to play together more often.

 

then you better start with putting your plans into motion then talk about it people are leaving because of the constant situation is getting worse from month to month 4 months and it does not get any better

You need to find a solution and that soon if you can hope SWTOR to survive

[Geawiel]

Well that's the thing.

 

Contrary to what you may think it's easier and cheaper to implement a non humanoid specie (voice wise) than English speaking ones.

 

Let me explain: with human voice you have to record every single dialog lines with a new male and female actor. Now with a humanoid voice, like Wookiees, you have to record a few "emotes/moods" and then you can buillt sentences melting them.

 

Note: that if if you don't agree with Daniel Erickson stance stating people can't relate to non humanoid species.

 

 

Now, graphically speaking new non humanoid models would need to have all gear redone for them. So far the devs aimed at skinning humans because you don't have to redo the gear.

The step after is to have humanoid species with different heads, for these you have to duplicate all head related gear and eventually code lekkus or other "moving" appendices.

 

So one could say Wookiees are a long way, still it could be one of the easiest non humanoid specie to add.

1. The underlying skeleton is humanoid, just taller and thinner = no need for new skeleton nor animations
   
2. It doesn't really speaks = less recording and you can change any text line without recording, ever.
   
3. It's a furry specie = most of the gear don't need to show as you don't wear gloves or boots or pants on Wookiees = it would be like Bowdaar, Broonmark, Khem Val... : You don't display most of the gear, so no need for new meshes or textures for most of the gear.
   

 

These were my thoughts as well. They should even have the basic sounds ready/saved from building them for companion and quest giving npc "dialog".

 

It's been stated plenty of times that playing as a non human skin player and, not "getting into it" for the story line is just wrong at best. I'm playing a consalor and I'm already empathetic toward Qyzen's plight with the score keeper. As well as the way he says his species is treated, galaxy wide. I would love to play and see how that story would play out as a player character (Tandoshian is actually the very top of my list for species I would want to play.) There are other species as well that peak my interest on their story lines and, npc reactions to them.

 

NPC reactions to those "odd" species is the only thing I can see holding up the works, so to speak. Having to change their reactions to seeing/speaking with one of the species not usually seen or, generally misunderstood. This goes for class specific as well. It is stated early on that Trandoshian are not all that liked by the Jedi and, I get the strong feeling that they would not be welcome as Jedi very easily. No idea what the reactions would be on the Imperial side. I would think that it wouldn't be as strong but, still present. Especially when it would come to the force side of the house.

[MefuneAkira]

Arymono: When will character transfers be available for everybody?

 

Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date.

 

Bioware just killed it for me.

 

A blatant show of greed over loyalty. After the servers fill up, new players will get to chose a full server for their new characters, but players who prepaid for the game will have to pay to chose theirs.

 

I would have come back if it was free. Shame.

Edited April 29, 2012 by MefuneAkira

[Vicelord]

No pvp questions answered? Not one? Again, it becomes more and more clear that pvp seems to be an afterthought for your team. There is no difference between a pvp and a pve server at this point. Both have WZ's. Both have Ilum. Why did I even chose a pvp server? Where is the open world action?

[Impericus]

Have to say that I am disappointed that a companion's specialty has so little impact on crit chance, relatively speaking. With Mako and Kaliyo both at max affection, there is not a significant distinction between which I send on a slicing mission and which I send on an underworld trading mission.

 

I think Bioware should consider boosting all of the crit modifiers to +5 minimum on all companions that have them.

[LeonBraun]

So wait, if I want to transfer from a dead server to another dead server I can do it for free, but if I want to transfer to a server where there are people playing I have to pay? Is that it? If so, you really need to re-evaluate your strategy. Fewer servers, bigger playercaps and merge servers. Shouldn't be so hard.

 

Likely this will be the same as most MMO's... Transfer from a dead server to a normal server for free, from high pop to med pop for free, and to high pop servers for a cost.

 

We all want healthy servers, not just a few.

[Jakoby]

"Caizic: In the 1.2 Legacy patch notes there is a section under Items and Economy and General that says "Loot drops from endgame activities, such as Operations and Flashpoints, now take group composition into account." Can someone please clarify what this means/how this works exactly? Thanks in advance!"

 

"David: Throughout the game, the composition of your group impacts the loot you get from defeating enemies. For the majority of content, the drops are skewed to favor whatever classes are present. This is a bias, but not a guarantee. In leveling Flashpoints, that bias is very strong, and will almost always give loot for the group. However, in endgame Flashpoints, there was no bias – drops were completely random. We’ve added a strong class bias to the loot drops for the endgame Flashpoints. In most cases, this guarantees a drop that can be used by someone in your group. The bias is an “opt-in” system for each character present. That means that you have the same loot playing as a solo Jedi Sentinel or a full group of Jedi Sentinels."

 

Let me be clear we were not confused by the note, the overwhelming perception is that we were simply lied to. This is something that is high on the community list and will remain high on the list. Right now we all simply look the same... To simply brush it off as tou did angered alot of people.

[LeonBraun]

For those that played Star Wars Galaxies, the final mass loss of subscribers started with the free transfers. What happened there was that everyone transferred to the fad Server of the Moment and they the lag drove many of them from the game. I can very easily see this be repeated if SW:TOR were to add free and regular server transfers like SWG did and Rift does.

 

This. ^^

 

Transfers have to be moderated. Period.

 

If everyone had the option to transfer for free anywhere, they would, and mayhem would ensue.

 

If a transfer to a heavy server is important enough to you, you will pay for it. For those that need to move for quality of life issues, like dead servers, they will likely get a moderated choice of a healthy standard server to choose from for free.

[Jakoby]

Likely this will be the same as most MMO's... Transfer from a dead server to a normal server for free, from high pop to med pop for free, and to high pop servers for a cost.

 

We all want healthy servers, not just a few.

 

I had the exact same perception. Bioware really needs someone to read over their answers before they incite a complete rebellion.

[LeonBraun]

This community Q&A looks like a Joke, they choose the question that they want to answer....

Nothing regarding PvP improvements,or better World PvP.

There is a Big part of player that want world PvP at least on the PvP server, something different than farming wz.

 

1.2 brought PvPers a new Warzone and the Rakghoul world event... That's a lot more than many MMO's get in a patch; for many MMO's that's a once every expansion kind of thing.

[LeonBraun]

People will abuse the transfer system if it's just completely free. It's just the reality of human nature. Even with a 30-day transfer "cooldown", they will move all over the place to the "fad" server and further complicate things.

 

They have the correct idea - implement free transfers that aim to fill more empty servers, and paid transfers for anyone who wants to.

 

The free transfers, if done like WoW and logically, would allow people from 3 or 4 servers to transfer to a single one, "filling" that one up. Of course, they might as well merge servers instead of doing this, but some players might then ***** about not merging into the server they wanted.

 

The timeline does seem too far off. If it's something like late June (start of Summer), they have been sleeping on it for sure. Transfers should be their highest priority, and should have been ready for early May.

 

What you do here, is slate the dying servers that intend to be merged or phased out and give players on those servers a good window to move their toons for free to selected healthy (normal pop) servers, or to high pop servers for a cost.

 

That ensures people have a choice of moving to new servers to keep toon names, then you merges and phase out those empty servers after that.

[Kilikaa]

When will we see expanded character creation and will there be a vendor to go to for all existing characters? I will once again point out that Bioware has better systems in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games.

 

Nissing are facial features, including eyes, cheeks, nose, chin ect adjustments. Zabrak headbone formations need to be separate from hair styles. Zabby facial markings should also be colorable and have ore varied designs. Twi'leks should have lots more skin colors. Lekku markins should not be tied to cosmetics and should also be colorable. Female hairstyles are mostly horrible. Bodies should also be adjustable beyond picking one of four types.

 

Why are these not even options yet?

[LeonBraun]

So since PvP got the 1.2 shaft, and the 1.3 patch is about 'more legacy', when exactly were you guys going to tell us that the PvP department got laid off?

 

In 1.2 PvP got a new Warzone. Most MMO's get a new map once an expansion. PvP also got new world bosses and the Rakghoul plague event.

[LeonBraun]

It would be great if there were only a few missing "unanswered questions", but they are treating pvp questions like the plague

 

Speaking of the plague... What do you think the Rakghoul event was? I recall quit of bit of PvP there... A whole event that was big for PvP... Not to mention the new Warzone in 1.2

[WNxAbaddon]

Goto say this weeks Q&A just more of the same...... Wait and we will give you everything you want.

But when time comes for players to get it, all we get is, sorry its been delayed.

 

The lack of rated war zones, the lack of orange gear LFG tool and dont even get me started on server transfers am really losing faith in this game and Biowares skill to keep it going.

[Vicelord]

1.2 brought PvPers a new Warzone and the Rakghoul world event... That's a lot more than many MMO's get in a patch; for many MMO's that's a once every expansion kind of thing.

 

Says the guy with 8 toons from 2 different PVE servers. Mind your pve business. 1.2 brought a new WZ, but got rid of Ilum, the only place where you could get into "open world" fights with rewards. PvPers have many legitimate questions that are pressing. Many of us will be leaving if Bioware doesn't show some effort in creating a more robust PvP system.

[StrykerOne]

What are these PvP questions that people are complaining about not getting answers to?

 

Ranked warzones? They're coming as soon as possible... that's been stated multiple times. A date will be announced when the devs themselves know one.

 

Open world PvP? Play on a PvP server and you can gank enemies while they quest all you want. You'll have to hunt for them, since planets are pretty big and there aren't going to be huge hordes of enemies on one planet (usually) but I certainly get ganked from time to time on PvP servers so I know there are people looking for open world fights.

 

If you're wanting revamped Ilum or objective based open world PvP then that's not something you can expect the Q&A to address, because they're trying to talk about current features and things that are in active development, not stuff they'd maybe like to eventually do some day. PvP is about warzones and occasionally ganking someone on a PvP server (either deliberately or during the occasional run-in in a shared quest area). That won't change any time soon other than having ranked WZs added in... 1.3 is going to be more legacy stuff and grouping aids (and it's going to be a smaller than usual update). 1.4 will almost certainly be story and content based since 1.3 will be light on that. If you're very, very lucky then 1.5 might have some sort of non-WZ PvP content, but that's the absolute earliest I'd expect to see it and I don't see the devs spending much Q&A time about features that they probably haven't even started doing preliminary design on and which could easily be a year or more away.

[Vicelord]

What are these PvP questions that people are complaining about not getting answers to?

 

Ranked warzones? They're coming as soon as possible... that's been stated multiple times. A date will be announced when the devs themselves know one.

 

Open world PvP? Play on a PvP server and you can gank enemies while they quest all you want. You'll have to hunt for them, since planets are pretty big and there aren't going to be huge hordes of enemies on one planet (usually) but I certainly get ganked from time to time on PvP servers so I know there are people looking for open world fights.

 

If you're wanting revamped Ilum or objective based open world PvP then that's not something you can expect the Q&A to address, because they're trying to talk about current features and things that are in active development, not stuff they'd maybe like to eventually do some day. PvP is about warzones and occasionally ganking someone on a PvP server (either deliberately or during the occasional run-in in a shared quest area). That won't change any time soon other than having ranked WZs added in... 1.3 is going to be more legacy stuff and grouping aids (and it's going to be a smaller than usual update). 1.4 will almost certainly be story and content based since 1.3 will be light on that. If you're very, very lucky then 1.5 might have some sort of non-WZ PvP content, but that's the absolute earliest I'd expect to see it and I don't see the devs spending much Q&A time about features that they probably haven't even started doing preliminary design on and which could easily be a year or more away.

 

I expect them to address the fact that there is currently no difference between pve servers and pvp. The questing areas between teams are far apart so very rarely do you have any fights while questing. There are no rewards for open world pvp. Why not? What ways are they going to increase pvp encounters in the open world? What are they doing with ilum right now? How soon for new huttball arenas? This game is supposed to be a universe at war and instead it doesn't feel that way at all. I think the game is very good looking and the controls play well but as an avid pvper I am disappointed. I expect bioware to address the disappointment that I and others feel and tell us what their plans are. I pay 15 dollars a month for this and expect good pvp content. If not, then I will tough it out until Guild Wars 2, where the pvp seems highly ambitious and not a throwaway afterthought

[Oscibi]

Speaking of the plague... What do you think the Rakghoul event was? I recall quit of bit of PvP there... A whole event that was big for PvP... Not to mention the new Warzone in 1.2

 

The rakghoul event was pve. and yes pvp got 1 new warzone. and nerfed the daily/weekly/warzone rewards. pve content? gayacey, fp, operation, more gayacey etc etc

[Oscibi]

In 1.2 PvP got a new Warzone. Most MMO's get a new map once an expansion. PvP also got new world bosses and the Rakghoul plague event.

 

a PVE PVP world boss? wow..go pvp....

[Moofausa]

When will we see expanded character creation and will there be a vendor to go to for all existing characters? I will once again point out that Bioware has better systems in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games.

 

Nissing are facial features, including eyes, cheeks, nose, chin ect adjustments. Zabrak headbone formations need to be separate from hair styles. Zabby facial markings should also be colorable and have ore varied designs. Twi'leks should have lots more skin colors. Lekku markins should not be tied to cosmetics and should also be colorable. Female hairstyles are mostly horrible. Bodies should also be adjustable beyond picking one of four types.

 

Why are these not even options yet?

 

Out of all the things wrong with this game your biggest complaint it what your character looks like?

ugh....

[pattymcfatty]

No, that's not it.

 

As we said, we'll have more details to share closer to launch. Between Group Finder and a Character Transfer Service, our plans are designed to allow more players to play together more often.

 

Finding a group to play with isn't too terrible if you're social and a decent player. However, finding the goods you want or selling goods on the GTN for a low population server can be quite difficult.

[KnightOfDaTable]

I am very happy to see so many good questions answered from you guys. It gives me so much hope for the future. I liked most of the answers too. Plus with the additions to the codex such as rewards in some way has me super excited since I am more of an explorer than anything else.

 

Keep up the great work guys!

[StrykerOne]

I expect them to address the fact that there is currently no difference between pve servers and pvp. The questing areas between teams are far apart so very rarely do you have any fights while questing. There are no rewards for open world pvp. Why not? What ways are they going to increase pvp encounters in the open world? What are they doing with ilum right now? How soon for new huttball arenas?

 

If you want open world PvP then hang out in the enemy's territory. I seriously doubt Bioware is going to make it harder to level up by moving quests to force more encounters... PvP servers are designed to give you the option to hunt other players, not have an endless stream of them come right to you. If you want that, play warzones... otherwise go hunting in enemy territory if you want fights.

 

As far as better open world PvP at 50, I'd love to see it. I still have hopes for DAoC style mass battles some day, but I would be utterly shocked if any open world PvP changes happened within the next 6 months. I remember the devs saying something like "we want to change it but we haven't decided how yet" a couple of months ago in regards to Ilum, and I am going to assume that until they say differently that answer still holds true. It's not that they don't want to add more open world PvP, it's that they have probably 9-15 months of stuff that's higher priority to do first. I'm hoping for a non-warzone PvP revamp some time in 2013 but I mainly play TOR for PvE (even on PvP servers) so I'm content to wait. If you want open world PvP soon, you may want to find a different game.

 

I generally assume that "ignored" issues in the Q&As are simply not yet in preliminary development and therefore there is no information to report (hence the lack of answers). So assume any question that is consistently asked and never answered has the answer "not anytime soon, but maybe in 3+ major patches" and you will probably not be far off...

[Kelrift_Deago]

Arymono: When will character transfers be available for everybody?

 

Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date.

 

 

 

DrakeAssaShin: What is being done to address low population servers?

 

Dallas: The Character Transfer Service, as mentioned above, will be offering free transfers from/to specific servers. This should allow the most motivated players to get onto a higher population server.

 

Im on a quite sever right now and Warzone ques are taking forever during (what I would say) peek times. I know the work load to get this ready is tough, though im unsure ill hold on for 2 to 3 more months.I know more details will be revealed about Transfers close to when you guys are ready to release them but ATM Im not happy with this comment "or paid transfers to the server of your choice," meaning either i can transfer to another server or pay to go anywhere ... I wont pay for a transfer at all and im sure their are a lot of others that feel the same. I dont have any suggestions other then free transfers all around for a limited time. Im worried that ill transfer to a high populated server and things wont work out then ill have to pay to move to some place i scouted out and like.

I guess if their was cross sever PvP this wouldnt be a issue for me

though it would be nice to be able to get a group together in less then 30 mins to a hour to do a Hard mode flashpoint.