Official Q&A Thread for May 11th, 2012 Q&A Blog Post

[CaiphasCain]

As a member of a large guild, after transfers we've run out of space to hold our alts together in the same guild, having to create an "alts" guild to accommodate everyone. With TOR being such an encouraging environment to level alts this is a frustrating and disheartening restriction on developing our guild community.Can we get the maximum guild size increased? or the way size is measured? such as 500 accounts instead of characters or 500 legacies?

 

TL;DR Can we get an increase in guild sizes? 500 members is too small.

 

:rak_02:

Edited May 7, 2012 by CaiphasCain

[SteveGarbage]

I'm one of those people who likes crafting, but one issue that I have is certain materials that don't seem to drop in any logical ways, especially when the "rare" collect is for lower-level crafts. For example, Level 5 Artifact Fragments, I usually get like 3-to-1 Alien to Hypertech fragments, even though Hypertech is used for the *lower* level schmeatics. Can drops be evened out a bit?

[EicyLightrider]

Can we hope to see more character slots with 1.3? Maybe 9 at the start and more unlocked via legacy?

[g-himi]

One of the things that I loved the most about past Bioware games is the back and forth banter and conversations between your companions. While there is a very small amount of this in the class quest cut scenes, for the most part we never see our companions interact with each other. A lot of this is due to that we can only have one companion with us at a time. However there is a place where we can interact with all our companions at the same time and that is on our ships.

 

The way things are now though, our companions are in their own little rooms on the ship and never move and except for the ship droid never talk. I would like to see something where when we zone into our ships our companions are placed in random parts of the ship, and if two or more companions happen to get placed in the same room they have a random conversation as we walk by, much like how the ship droid randomly says something if we walk by. To make it even better the conversations can change as we progress through the character and companion story lines; and if we stop and click on the companions we can join in the conversation with the choices that make affect companion affection levels.

[DrillThrall]

Are questions about frame-rate performance (the game's "elephant in the room") ever likely to be discussed openly by the devs?

[Packersfan]

Question:

 

Many subscribers (myself included) are looking for some more sandbox elements to be added onto SWTOR. We're not talking anything extreme like SWG-esque, but just some small things like housing, or even many of us would settle for the ability to decorate our ships. We are indeed excited for the "Secret space project" that we hear is coming, and are really hopeful that it will greatly expand upon space in a significant way.

 

So overall, what are the chances of even just a few (big or small) sandbox elements being added?

 

We feel as if this will greatly expand on the longevity of the game.

 

Thanks!

[Packersfan]

Also on another note (out of curiosity, not being critical), Why is it going to take until early summer to get server merges?

[Magaman]

Two questions:

 

Is there any plan to expand the gear comparison tooltips to include ALL companions not just the one you have summoned? I would love to gear my other companions but it's to much of a task to summon them one at a time to compare, especially when they are off on missions.

 

When is the Collectors Edition Vendor going to get actual good stuff to buy?

[Ebena]

What's going on with player titles? In Beta players were given a title for each tier of Alignment and Social, as well as one per planet for a heroic of some kind. Since release a lot of the titles are no longer obtainable. Some are awkwardly placed as well like Tier 3 and Tier 5 of Light/Dark Alignment. Was this intended? If so why does the planet codex still show 0/1 for obtainable titles(Like "Venomus" for Quesh)?

[qmidget]

I chose cybertech on my main and have been helping to outfit my alts with blue mods for their level/spec to make it easier to quest/pvp. Only I have hit a snag with my current alt. My Vanguard is tank spec and as a cybertech I cannot learn any recipes for tanks from my crew skill trainer and I can also not learn any recipes from reverse engineering tank mod/armoring found on vendors or as quest rewards.

 

Why are there no mod/armoring recipes for tanks?

Is this intended or an oversight when you were expanding the crafting system in 1.2

[Vodkaz]

Can we get an update on how Ranked Warzones are progressing and how long can we expect (just a ballpark) on when they will be released? Will they be released after server transfers? and if so, when in "early summer" could we expect those?

[stephenalandavie]

What different types of Warzones may we see in the future?

 

King of the hill?

 

Capture the flag?

[Threatcon]

Really need cross server pvp. Just saying. Republic side on Darth malak is really really low. 14-20 people on the fleet at any point. 30mins to 1 hour ques now. The problem is getting worse as time goes on.

[Nilthien]

Before patch 1.2 I remember reading that we would be able to toggle our hoods and helmets separately, as well as those of our force-using companions. When can we expect to see this? It's a shame to see my juggernaut's armor has a hood, but he never wears it. On that note, will twi'leks be able to use hoods? Perhaps with their lekku coming down the front?

[Evgen]

In 1.3 social armour will change to the optimal armor type for the player, so we will see troopers in dancers outfits, Sages in the Rackghoul event containment armour, etc.

In short, people will be able to look however they want.

But there are still many armour pieces that have class restrictions on them.

I'm almost 40 on my Jedi Knight and I have yet to find a circlet that Kira can wear, because the nun type consular hats that are available for her really don't match her personality.

That is just one example of course.

Even the armour pieces made for one factions class, Consular's headgear for example, actually have both a Republic and Empire appearance built into them. So except for the name, there shouldn't be a problem if anyone can wear them.

I have spent credits, commendations on an item, only to find out it is class restricted a couple times. My own fault for sure, but they were for companions, so the normal shading of unusable items doesn't help.

My question is, can the class restrictions on non PvP armour also be removed?

[Knightless]

It is clear that beyond stat based items, a tier exists of legendary effect based items and force crystals... As a part of the system of account bound or awarded equipment is this intended to manage local IP property, or only selected individuals?

May the force be with you<...>

[-Korrak-]

Alright, finally deciding to chime in on these topics..

 

First off, I was always wondering why we can't visit the 'hostile' planets [iE. an Imperial landing on Coruscant or any other Republic planet and vice versa for the Republic]. Its called Star Wars for a reason, I figured that at some point maybe it would be possible to infiltrate and have some sort of open world PvP that goes above and beyond finding a random player to tag on one of the questing planets. Perhaps some sort of Capital City raid and protection type events on the capital planets. Is there some significant reason why you don't want us landing on each other planets? Or is something like this just on hold until later? Especially for the PvP servers, this would be pretty cool.

 

And second, I wanted to take a question a step further based on a question asked for the May 4 Q&A.

 

cycao: I was wondering if there is any plan to implement dueling on the fleet. I feel if you remove the restriction on dueling on the fleet it will be a nice way to pass the time.

 

Daniel: This is a popular request and one we’re actively looking into. Right now we’re making sure performance will stay solid if the fleet breaks out in a duel-fest so it may be restricted to a certain area when/if it comes.

 

Although I'm not totally against Dueling on fleet, I think that I would much rather have an arena type area on the Guild Starships once they are implemented. Even if its just some sort of Deathmatch Ring where guildies can make bets on each other or just watch 2 or more of their fellow guild mates battle it out. I was discussing this idea with my guild a while back and we decided this would be awesome.

 

As always, thanks for everything and keep doing what you do

[Vedano]

My question is about the Guardian class. I have some questions about it as it seems to get little love in this game. I hardly see any juggernauts or guardians in pvp anymore but as I play a level 50 guardian I can see some of the reasons. Now tank wise, we are alright, but nothing special to be sure. Kinetics and Vanguards can put out more damage and mitigate more damage than we can so taking one would be handicapping yourself on purpose. The cooldowns aren't terrible, but I can't kill anyone as a guardian so it's kind of like a game of can I outlast you till someone comes here to help me that can kill you.

 

2ndly, the 2 dps specs that we have are a bit at odds with each other. One is low dmg but good survivability, the other is high damage, but low survivability. Vigilance seems to be geared well toward pvp survival with Unremitting and Commanding Awe. I can go in and atleast live for a while, but for an example; In a Civil War battle I went mid to try to cap, only one person was there, operative heal spec. He had enough time to type to me how what I was doing tickled him and carrying on a conversation with himself about how guardians are terrible. His health never went below 75% health. This went on for well over a minute, I just kept attacking and attacking but with little effect.

 

With Focus, I can put out some nasty crits with powered up sweeps, but I get torn apart like I was wet toilet paper. For a 3 minute cd, saber ward is a bit of a joke for a cd. 25% dmg mit against force abilities is like using a wind breaker to keep warm in a blizzard considering how much dmg force users do. Other than that one 3 min cd, we have no other way to mitigate force damage, and I'm sure everyone has seen how many sorcs/sages and sents/mara's there are out there, lots of force to go around. In a regular warzone if I can get off more than 2 powered up sweeps before I die, I consider that a good life cause I dont last long at all.

 

So basically, with all this being said, are Guardians going to be getting any kind of buff to make them more viable in this game? I ask because it seems to becoming a less and less popular class considering you are basically a handicap to any group you go with. Heavy armor or not, we are terribad right now. Thank you in advance.

[JayReaper]

In order to avoid the mundane look of each lightsaber "blade" as the game progresses (which at the moment is limited to with/without black center), perhaps in the future, would it be possible to implement the look of the "blades" to something more reminiscent of those in the Force Unleashed games? Such as the compressed or unstable versions of the saber crystals?

[TethAdam]

Story is the main reason I enjoy playing SWTOR. The planet story-lines, the class story-lines and so forth. So far patches have only added to the story-line of endgame operations, flash-points and daily missions. When will we receive new planet story-line missions or even more importantly class story missions?

[Jetgrindgarn]

Currently my main character uses the crew skills for Cybertech, Scavenging, and Underworld Trading. so far the schematics I have received are for Earpieces, Speeder Bikes and Spaceship upgrades. Artifice has received new schematics for +41 Crystals and wondering why Cybertech Armoring and Mod schematics are limited to "Advanced ____ Armor/Mod 22"

[mandoforlife]

Ever since it was said that there would be new species options coming this year, I've been wondering one thing: Will we be given some sort of one-time option to change the species of our toon/s to one of the new species? Or will we have to re-roll a whole new toon? Will you be adding some sort of barbershop or plastic surgeon to the game perhaps?

Thanks BioWare!

Edited May 7, 2012 by mandoforlife

[RoninEdge]

When can we expect to see new space missions? Is there any plan to add free-flight space missions, like those in most space simulators, in addition to the current on-rails missions?

[badernet]

I believe I remember seeing a question at the guild summit about Ready Checks. Can you provide an update on this?

[Lovethebeard]

Are there going to be any plans for paid services in the future using real money, eg; paid Advanced Class change or paid Race changes? If so, how will they work? I've got a lvl 50 Jedi Sentinel and really wish and would do almost anything to play a Jedi Guardian instead, but really don't want to delete my sentinel nor re roll and Guardian and fill up my character slots, because I would eventually like to play each class.

 

Thanks