Community Q&A – May 4th, 2012 Blog Discussion

[bobamech]

Please no dueling on the fleet. Make a dueling chamber or something with it's own chat channel.

 

What are you talking about? you cant duel in the fleet. You can duel on people's ships though.

[Gurpsmeister]

As far as gear goes, I really think the #1 problem is that Bioware eschewed the 'appearance gear tab' that many other MMOs implement, and tried to do something new with the custom gear. In doing so, they really made several crew skills largely useless, and made it almost a given that, when given the choice in quest rewards, people will always pick the commendations, since the green/blue items themselves won't be of any use.

 

Many of us asked for appearance gear in beta. Appearance gear (wherein any piece of gear can be put in an appearance tab and override the appearance of the equipped item) results in a much broader range of looks without negatively impacting new gear acquisition (which is, after all, one of the driving forces of any MMO). Instead, we launched with a limited # of custom gear sets, limiting customized appearances AND crippling several crew skills (necessitating the addition of augment recipes for those crew skills in the hopes of making them even moderately useful)

 

Sigh.

 

This!

 

It's almost like Bioware were so intent on doing their own thing they tried so hard..desperately so...to avoid any comparisons to any other game! Instances? No they're flashpoints. Raids...no, they're Operations. Auction house..um..no..that's the GTN now. Appearance slots? Nah, here's some customizable orange stuff instead.

 

It's like they're very first thing when making a decision was to decide if it was different enough. Frankly who cares, if it works there it'll work here. Appearance tabs are a very easy, simple solution. The modable gear idea is thus far a semi-fail.

 

It's killed the economy, no reason to buy anything when everything is handed to you from a vendor or a quest reward. Heck even if you got rid of the commendation vendors you'd still have quest rewards that were superior to the crafted equivalent. I say this not because stats are better, but that they're the same, thus no reason to buy anything at your level when you're just going to get it for free.

 

Yeh, games trying too hard to be "unique" and not spending enough time going with what works.

[Aram_Darksun]

Does it bother anyone else when they answer questions that are just common sense or could be found out with a quick google?

 

The GTN definitely needs some work beyond just linking the 2 factions. It's almost...not quite...but almost entirely useless at this point. Perhaps linking between servers?

 

Sorry your not even close to correct. I agree it could still do with work but even before the recent changes it was useful.

 

A simple 'No' would have done, lol. I wish I asked a better question now, he made that 1 sound stupid.

 

And can you imagine the whining ***** fest if they just gave a simple 'no'? Bioware already can't do anything good or right in many peoples opinions.

 

Btw +1 for the appearance tab support above. It is such an elegant and powerful system, what they have now is twice as complex and gives you half as much utility.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Aram_Darksun

[Rogoo]

Those Q&A's look like this:

 

Q: Will we be able make our pets dance and dye them and make them jump, and interact with them and have some storylines for them ?

 

A: Definitely a great idea! However it's further down on our priority list, but it will come to the game at some point!

 

EVERYTHING is coming to the game ? o.O

 

Stop playing SoonTM with us. It's actually bad PR.

[ArenRakescar]

Effort vs Reward. That's where mid-level crafting fails miserably.

 

There are too many 'caps' on the reward side of things for proper market forces like supply & demand to even come into play. These caps include previously mentioned mods vendors or other alternate sources for mods (like stripping them out of orange gear). There's also a soft cap on what people would reasonably be willing to pay for something that'll need to be replaced in a couple of levels.

 

The effort, or actually the time, required for materials acquisition is a serious deterrent to broad-based crafting. There are literally dozens of ways to make more profitable use of your time than dedicating it to mid-level crafting - which I personally consider charity work (and a massive time sink).

 

I would like to see further expansion on the number of 'custom' schematics available to all professions and spend my time crafting for aesthetic appeal, rather than consumption. Alternatively, or perhaps in conjunction with that, perhaps craftable mods can be generified into a modification 'kit', which players can redeem for a variety of items, depending on what they need.

[kiwinaman]

Couple ideas on improving the economy

-I think the biggest problem is credits aren't really all that important. Right now, there just isn't a lot to spend money on (endgame credit sinks) or reason to do so (no reason to purchase multiple mounts/not many of the expensive ones even look that great/other vanity items). The legacy unlockables were a good start. Achievement system with rewards would be awesome though so there is incentive to collect. And currently, if you're trying to gear up as a fresh 50 for endgame, would you even bother heading to the GTN for anything or just buy a set of recruit gear? If there isn't a DEMAND for credits, no high-level crafters will SUPPLY goods to the market

-Cool very rare World Drops that are either aesthetically cool looking or equippable for combat that people might keep an eye out for on the GTN

-Not 100% positive I'm right on this point since I haven't played much aside from pvp since 1.2 but can crafters even make good-in-slot endgame mods/hilts/armoring/enhancements/etc now? I leveled my artifice to 400 and never even bothered to craft the highest level enhancements I could make at the time because I could just do dailies and get better ones. Makes sense that you need to run endgame ops for best-in-slot gear, of course, but as a crafter I wouldn't even craft my highest level recipes for myself let alone anyone else. Maybe for Qyzen...but I hate Qyzen

[Zeez]

I agree with what most people are saying here. Biochem is what I end up using while leveling because of the cost of reusables vs non reusables. Gear choices are horrid because of RvR. It takes a while to get something good and then its outdated in 2-4 levels (those levels fly by) then your stuck with a nice piece of gear on a character that is basically worthless because even your companions can use better.

 

I understand you dont want to just make level adjusting gear sets because your worried it would ruin that crafts income but the legacy stuff was a step in the right direction.

 

I would like to see everyone be able to craft level 50 biochem items, You can make a set of recipes for each class using that crew apropriate or a special mission that everyone can get that gives universally used items, but that option is a lot of extra work.

 

My favorite option is complete all 2-4 special missions and you get a set of goodies like 10 medpacs, 10 adrenals and 5 stims(that persist through death). You can put like 72 hour timer on them so people dont just hoard them after 72 hours they dissapear you can call them "Unstable Medpac" etc and make the 2-4 quests related to rakghoul or something or integrate the drops into all the new daily quests. You could even make the final combine in a workbench recipe.

 

As of right now the ingredients cost too much to get (even while getting them yourself) This causes people to have to sell them for outragous prices IMO (I know I have to just to cover my costs). You have already totally nerfed biochem why not just make it so everyone can use the benefits.

[Cegenaus]

i bet everyone is wishing they had the SWG crafting system right about now

[SciFiGeekette]

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): ...a key part of selling your wares in any MMO is understanding supply and demand. In most MMOs, the economy flattens out because all the crafters take the 500 pairs of boots that they craft and plop them on the auction house, which drives the supply wildly way above demand, which pushes the prices down to be below the cost of materials and makes it so that selling stuff isn't economically worthwhile - which kind of destroys the 'I'm a successful shop owner' vibe that aspiring crafters are hoping for. A huge part of the reverse-engineering feature is that it encourages players to remove these excess goods from the economy, which hopefully will bring supply and demand closer to what they actually should be, and should create more space in the GTN without lots of competition. That being said, we can always do better, and I'm sure this will be something we will tweak further in the future.

 

Ha! That's a laugh... The problem is it's easier to loot stuff than for a crafter to make. Case in point: i RE'd green enhancement 22 schems until i got a blue. Then i RE'd that until i got a purple 22. Most of the mats are easy to get except the Corusca Gem... takes 4 to make one enhancement. They cheapest they are selling for 10k a piece... so 40k to make one purple enhancement.. THE SAME ENHANCEMENT THAT YOU CAN GET IN A FEW MINS DOING A DAILY! And by the way, players sell the one they loot for 40k on the GTN. No point in going through all the hassle of RE'ing and crafting when you can get it so much easier as an easy daily mission reward.

 

There will never be a good strong working economy as long as it's possible to get the same stuff by looting or mission rewards.

[Khoryphos]

Stop replying to stupid questions that anybody could ask on the forums and get an answer to. Waste of every persons time.

 

Basically, you're working on everything mentioned. but we still don't have the core features from 1.2 that we were looking forward to. Nobody asked the tough questions like "Are you going to address the server population concerns" or get rid of the ludicrous instancing on planets when the server population is crap? Free transfers for low pop servers at all?

 

 

They answered that last week.

 

The real question is "Why are you dragging your feet until summer to implement character transfers? Did you really roll out that many servers without any contingency to help control populations?"

[Sathid]

I certainly would like more info on the cheating going on in WZ's and what is being done about it.

[chaosdefined]

Don't really know what the point in these Q&A's are...the majority of answers given are just "We're working on it." with no ETA.

[code-maker]

I am one who has taken the time to RE items so I can craft purples in the cyber teck skill set. I can craft anything anyone could want up to level 49. That being said, I can't make any money off the items. The problem is stated well in the above posts. It is too easy to get the gear from vendors or drops. This game is designed to be a MMO. If you are playing a MMO, you expect to need to interact with other players, to buy and sell on the market, run missions with other players to earn cash and items that are low level drops, or even run operations to gain some high level items. That being said, what do I think needs to be done to fix the economy? How about the following...

 

1. Venders do not sell the items themselves; they sell the mats to make the items.

2. Flash Points and Operations drop mats to make items that can be sold on the GTN. (not bound on pick-up)

3. Drops from fights should be at least 5 levels lower than you. (stated in a post above)

4. The best items should come from crafters who earn the mats in opperations or flash points.

5. The GTN should have an option to bid on an item not yet posted for sale. (I as a crafter then know what is wanted)

6. The GTN should allow us to post an item for up to a week so we don't need to keep reposting an item every other day.

7. Remove the penalty for taking an item down early.

8. Make all GTN's cross faction and cross server as soon as possible.

9. Commendations can be used to purchase rare crafting materials.

10. Orange crafted items can only accept mods of equivalent level or lower.

 

If the above steps are implemented, the GTN would thrive and the game economy would fix itself quickly.

Edited May 8, 2012 by code-maker

[Aram_Darksun]

Alexander Freed (Lead Writer): As you mention, some of the choices were obvious--we wanted a Wookiee, and it was an easy choice to give him to the Smuggler.

 

I have to ask why was that choice so obvious? Solo was a smuggler who had a Wookie companion, should all smugglers have a Wookie? Are we trying to emulate that story and relationship? Is that why the smuggler ship is so obviously inspired by the Falcon.

 

I think that is one of the problems with this game, that it is trying TOO hard to be the original trilogy. The Sith Empire is apart from the Sith themselves, exactly like the Galactic Empire, oh wait, they wear their rank badges vertical instead of horizontal, that makes them totally different... TIE fighters, Star Destroyers, they are all there with minor aesthetic differences. The Republic is even worse.

 

Of course there should be some similarities, of course there should be a lot but this game goes beyond trying to be inspired by a deep, rich and characterful galaxy into emulating what should just be one story (though I admit probably THE biggest story).

Edited May 8, 2012 by Aram_Darksun

[Oxiiimoron]

@DarthZaul - Yeah, I agree, he did make your question sound stupid. That wasn't your fault though... I think Damion Schubert responded in poor taste. Your question was a valid one... in hopes of addressing issues with the GTN. Like Dezzi said, he completely side-stepped the question and, to put it bluntly, sounded like a smart ***.

 

@Sithhelmet - Nicely said. The Vendors were a must when we first started out on ToR as we were all leveling our characters and our professions. With the cost of the Speeder skill/vehicle being so high, as well training skills at each new level, you knew you had to make sure you had enough saved, instead of blowing all of your money on Missions to then be able to Craft.

 

Now most of the Original players since launch (and even those who may have started up fairly recently, depending on their play time) have a level 50 (or 2, or 3) and can feed money to their alts. Heck, you don't even need to level a character to 50 to max your gathering & crafting professions to 400. You just need credits.

 

The only plus to crafting Orange gear now is in hopes of Crit'ing and getting an Augment. I agree with lowering the quality of items the Vendors sell. Supply and demand needs to be in the players favor. Especially if they want to keep the Economy balanced. Any lower level crafting I do is just vendored. It's not worth my time to put items up for a few credits here & there if they aren't going to sell anyway.

[Geawiel]

Any plans on making it so that we can automatically put a percentage of credits from loot drop into our guild bank?

[Windova]

With 1.3 bringing the legacy XP boost via warzones and flashpoints, how will we obtain this xp boost? Will people who have achieved a high legacy level be rewarded as a point system for which xp boosts to choose? Or will it cost extremely to much for the very few to afford it?

 

I ask this question because I'm legacy level 31 and love this game and love playing my alts via warzones, however I have no where near the amount of credits to buy anything via legacy system which makes me wonder. Whats the point of having a legacy system if you have to purchase every upgrade via credits instead of legacy level achieved?

 

Please make legacy xp boost be a legacy unlock not a "Requirement Legacy level 15 and 1.5 million credits for the xp boost".

[Tauntaun_Herder]

I am one who has taken the time to RE items so I can craft purples in the cyber teck skill set. I can craft anything anyone could want up to level 49. That being said, I can't make any money off the items. The problem is stated well in the above posts. It is too easy to get the gear from vendors or drops. This game is designed to be a MMO. If you are playing a MMO, you expect to need to interact with other players, to buy and sell on the market, run missions with other players to earn cash and items that are low level drops, or even run operations to gain some high level items. That being said, what do I think needs to be done to fix the economy? How about the following...

 

1. Venders do not sell the items themselves; they sell the mats to make the items.

2. Flash Points and Operations drop mats to make items that can be sold on the GTN. (not bound on pick-up)

3. Drops from fights should be at least 5 levels lower than you. (stated in a post above)

4. The best items should come from crafters who earn the mats in opperations or flash points.

5. The GTN should have an option to bid on an item not yet posted for sale. (I as a crafter then know what is wanted)

6. The GTN should allow us to post an item for up to a week so we don't need to keep reposting an item every other day.

7. Remove the penalty for taking an item down early.

8. Make all GTN's cross faction and cross server as soon as possible.

9. Commendations can be used to purchase rare crafting materials.

10. Orange crafted items can only accept mods of equivalent level or lower.

 

If the above steps are implemented, the GTN would thrive and the game economy would fix itself quickly.

 

^^^ This. ^^^

 

Of all the responses I've seen, despite many insightful ones, this is the best, succinct list of recommendations on fixing GTN. To that, I'd add:

 

11. Eliminate the 50 item max. (If I am willing to keep reposting the !@#$ item, why is the cap needed?)

12. Make sure the cost to make your mid-level items (especially from mission acquisition) is reasonable compared to what characters of that level can afford.

-------

I'm trying to fill that "enterprising" role on my server. I'm only getting into the 30ish gear on my highest of 6 crafters (yes, six)... and I can say that I'm trying to stock one of the key blue items for artiface at every level since nobody else is doing it enough to make the GTN a reliable place for people to find what they need. Even prioritizing only blue items, skipping most of the <10 stuff, and keeping things like enhancements to 1 or 2 options (crit and power, for example, at the expense of some of the others) - I hit the 50 item limit too quickly. Restocking every 2 days those items that happen to not sell is annoying (softened only by the fact that a lot of my gear I selected to stock sells). Plus I'm having to charge costs to give me any kind of profit for the time spent that I think pushes away all but alt/legacy character who are bankrolled.

 

Another challenge is that you've made too many recipes (again, ESPECIALLY for the 50 item limit + 2 day repost). All the wieldable artifice items? I don't bother making an of them - I'd go nuts trying to stock all the variants. Even then I hit the limit covering about a 20-level range from 10 to 30 while posting none of that category. They'd sell so rarely that they're not worth filling up my cap and re-posting every 2 days.

 

My armormech and synthweraver's recipe problems? Forget it - I pick one blue per item type. If you want Level 13 +def and I chose to RE and stock the +crit for that level - you're SOL because I'm the only one supplying L13 gear on my server. Supply and demand won't MAKE someone supply it because we can't prove supply (See #5) and because demand vanishes at some point as junk greens/questing/leveling past becomes more reasonable (See #'s 1, 2, 3, 9, and 12.)

 

This has been a labor of love, and though I'm probably one of the richest level 25s around, it hasn't been really worth it. I've kept at it, drawing inspiration from filling the unmet need, but the 50 item limit made me regret my subscription tonight when I hit it.

 

/rant off.

[Narfirill]

In the past you have declared that you have numerical (i believe) targets for all classes and that you twig accordingly based to the numbers you get back.

How can you describe the current architecture of the system? or

Which AC over/under perform compared to the archetype?

[Fallensbane]

How much longer till 1.3 Edited May 9, 2012 by Fallensbane

[MrSchmo]

Hello.

 

Do you guys have any plans to add separate key bindings for space flight? As of right now if you unbind WASD you lose the ability to move your ship using these keys. I dont want to have to rebind everytime I fly missions and return to normal movement. As of right now I mastered all the missions with only moving using the mouse, but would live to use WASDs. Thanks!

[danpen]

It will not be as good with WSAD ok.

[Narfirill]

Some of the users of older pc still face sound problems in their class spaceships is there any ETA for a fix on that bug?

[Sammm]

Do you plan to implement legacy trees linkings (i.e. 2 players who decide to marry ingame and link their trees)? If so, would we get lovers abilities and bonuses? Thank you.

[Aram_Darksun]

I am one who has taken the time to RE items so I can craft purples in the cyber teck skill set. I can craft anything anyone could want up to level 49. That being said, I can't make any money off the items. The problem is stated well in the above posts. It is too easy to get the gear from vendors or drops. This game is designed to be a MMO. If you are playing a MMO, you expect to need to interact with other players, to buy and sell on the market, run missions with other players to earn cash and items that are low level drops, or even run operations to gain some high level items. That being said, what do I think needs to be done to fix the economy? How about the following...

 

1. Venders do not sell the items themselves; they sell the mats to make the items.

2. Flash Points and Operations drop mats to make items that can be sold on the GTN. (not bound on pick-up)

3. Drops from fights should be at least 5 levels lower than you. (stated in a post above)

4. The best items should come from crafters who earn the mats in opperations or flash points.

5. The GTN should have an option to bid on an item not yet posted for sale. (I as a crafter then know what is wanted)

6. The GTN should allow us to post an item for up to a week so we don't need to keep reposting an item every other day.

7. Remove the penalty for taking an item down early.

8. Make all GTN's cross faction and cross server as soon as possible.

9. Commendations can be used to purchase rare crafting materials.

10. Orange crafted items can only accept mods of equivalent level or lower.

 

If the above steps are implemented, the GTN would thrive and the game economy would fix itself quickly.

 

I was with you until that last one. Please no, that would massively restrict you choice in appearance end game for no good reason. Who cares if the shell of your best item was crafted at level 10, to be that best it needs end game mods x4 inc an augment slot. The fact that the appearance was a low level combine means nothing and ultimately, that is all custom gear is is an appearance. Almost all of the stats come from the mods the only exception being the light/medium/heavy mitigation modifier.

 

I think people are so hung up on the idea of a 'low' level item being good enough for end game. I don't get it, because to be comparable in stats it needs all end game mods anyway. Think of it as building an item up by components and the custom shell is merely the glue which holds it together. Does it matter that one part of the combine is a low level recipe? I reiterate, it still needs end game content in the form of mods to be comparable to any other end game piece.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Aram_Darksun