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

[maritimeman]

Are you ever or planning on adding swimming to the game because it is kinda stupid how all the water in the whole galaxy is ankle to knee deep. Also if you do add swimming will only be on new planets or will it be added to previous planets?

[CitizenFry]

The time to load in on certain planets seems very long. I've especially noticed this with Corellia, because I have to travel through there every day to get to the Black Hole for daily quests. Are there any thoughts to improving load times and/or providing a way to access the Black Hole without having to travel through Corellia first?

[Gavin_Kelvar]

I really enjoy doing flashpoints but I've noticed that the social point rewards don't actually seem to reflect the difficulty. For example, the Esseles (which has lots of dialogue) can potentially net me more social points even at level 30 than doing a level 30 appropriate flashpoint with less dialogue. Will the system for earning social points be expanded so killing quest/flashpoint related enemies that are level appropriate also grants social points? It just seems a bit underwhelming to get a measly 20-30 social points doing level appropriate flashpoint where it was a constant fight for survival but steamrolling the Esseles at level 30 nets me 150+ social points.

[Legendoom]

I have a few questions about the Legacy system:

1) Can we gain the ability to show that we've married our companions on the family tree?

2) Can we gain the ability to add more then one link between our characters (IE: My Sage can be both daughter to my Guardian and rival to my Assassin).

3) Can we gain the ability to write up bios for our characters in game that others can see? I'm a writer and I'd love to write some sweet backstories for my character that I can share around.

[DarthHoob]

I could ask a hundred or so questions about the current game. But what I really want to know is how George Lucas feels about this game? We as fans have so many questions about this galaxy far far away, and what he's got planned for the future. Obviously we'd all love more SW movies, or to see StarWars again in any format. The live tv show, more Clone Wars, or DARE I ASK... The Old Republic tv / movies?

I personally think anything would help boost SWTOR. I'd love to see more SWTOR-based movies/clips/infofeeds.

We as fans spent months watching them (Loved Lance Henriksen's input). And suddenly... game released..... end of.

 

The bottom line; are we gonna see anything to boost the SWTOR MMORPG in the form of... anything? We all lapped up the trailers released before SWTOR went live. I don't think I'm alone wishing for more. Especially if it's tied into what goes on in the future of SWTOR.

Your doing great so far SWTOR Dev team. Keep it up

[Atzoski]

So in the GTM there is a rarity option that is a darker purple and is called Legendary. Is there items currently in the game that are this quality, and can we expect some in the coming patches?

[DarkKnyght]

As a guild leader I find the guild contents in this game to be lacking. I've heard about feature guild ships which I am very excited about and small guild emblems on our armor coming which concerns me that it'll be too small for anyone to even notice. What I would really like to know is are there any other guild features coming like 4man guild flash point quests, guild story quests, guild vendors with exclusive guild gear armor sets and items, ability to set guild armor theme color, or basically anything that promotes more guild activities?

[stiksen]

When are you going merge servers or give us free character transfers?

[Darth-Malice]

Care to comment on the 25% in subscription declines now public knowledge? How will this effect the development teams goals and motivations? Can the player base expect too see more content rolled out faster as a result of this development? Edited May 8, 2012 by Darth-Malice

[Iwantthisgame]

This is a VERY important question that has a few HUGE threads on the forum at the moment.

 

Is there a plan to separate 4 man queues and 8 man queues (once available) from regular PuG groups? And will this be for non rated WZs only or both rated and non rated? I know alot of people do not have the time to make a full group or play at odd hours when guildies are not on and have to solo queue or duo queue, and nothing is more disheartening than getting steamrolled by a premade guild/group. This is a VERY important thing to me and others and a statement on this would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[QuiQuaeQuod]

A frequent criticism one sees of the game is that the environment and NPCs are largely static decorations that are there purely for decorative purposes; this is especially felt on Balmorra, Ilum, Corellia et cetera where inter-faction NPC clashes are just infinitely long sessions of shooting to look at, but also on other worlds where the NPCs are largely just there to stand around, and shopkeepers are always 1 per planet per generic 'category' as everywhere else in the galaxy selling from a similarly generic planet-specific list (hence the replication of planet commendation vendors on the fleet)...

 

This is a wider game-design observation that will hopefully improve over time as more is added to the universe and it is perfected, so I will narrow my question down to one specific area: can we hope to see better inclusion of active NPCs in quests? Both single-player and group quests/flashpoints (and even warzones and ops) are virtually entirely player content - even those throughout the game when one is allegedly leading troops into battle or in command of a squad (both Jedi classes and the Trooper class I know full well are frequently in this position due to their seniority. In virtually all of these cases, however, it's a matter of talking to a static NPC who gives some excuse about why you're entirely on your own (or don't even bother with an excuse) and thus the 'forces' that you lead are once again just eye candy who turn up and look pretty at the end of the mission to decorate the cut-scenes.

 

Can we hope for better integration of active NPCs into newer content (and maybe one-day revamps of mid-game content)? It seems sad that a Trooper who is a captain or a high ranking Jedi Master who has command of a small army of his own (re: Consular story) never gets the chance to put these forces to use, instruct them on tactics and genuinely lead them into battle in order to defeat appropriately numerous and powerful enemies in game; and likewise much end-game content could benefit from actually leading your faction into war, instead of just having animated props! The heroes of the SW movies, of course, were just the tip of the iceberg in the wars - though Obi-Wan took down platoons of battle droids single-handedly, he was supported by thousands of clone troopers who he personally led into battle; despite being at war in much of swtor, we never experience this.

 

Thanks

 

QQQ

 

 

 

Post Scriptum: I also heartily endorse this player's message:

 

Why are speeders so slow?

Edited May 8, 2012 by QuiQuaeQuod

[leandrodam]

One of the best things in this game is to kill jedi, if you play as empire or to kill sith if you play as republic.

At level up we have a nice fight in Mandalorian Raiders or even the fight against Darth Malgus in False Emperor Flashpoint.

I must admit that the operations have been very creative so far, but fighting rakatas, hutt cartel and trandoshans isn't so fun.

Can we expect an operation in the future where we have republic or empire as focus of the operation, depending on your faction? It would be great to fight against the Dread Masters, for example.

 

Sorry about my english.

[DarthValtrix]

Hey Bioware, I have a serious question!

 

Is there any chance you can increase the time a dead mob stays before fading away?

Often when I am raiding me and my guild mates rarely get to harvest droids and animals for their respective materials. Making it possible so you can loot during a fight wouldn't be smart, but extending the time the mobs stay there would really be awesome and make players not get irritated.

[EPCOT]

In the April 27th Q&A Patrick Malott (Systems Designer) provided some very useful information regarding the crit chance for crafting items. It would be extremely useful to have similar insights on the crit chance for crew gathering missions. I have Artifice, Archaeology, and Treasure Hunting, all at 400. I have one companion with maxed out affection, and the rest are above 50%. I would love to know the baseline crit chance for gathering the "Purple" materials. Does it vary depending on the Grade of the material? (i.e. Grade 1 Gemstone vs. Grade 6 Gemstone) It seems like I send mission after mission without success sometimes. What factors modify the baseline chance? I try to craft Purple items for the GTN for various levels to help fill the gap as people level. But the amount that I spend just to get the mats seems enormous. If you do manage to crit, how is the quantity determined? Thanks for any insights that you can offer.

 

EPCOT

[Ogi-Wan-BG]

What are you plans for the new future PvP content ?

[Bolognawan]

Have you said if and when we'll see cross server LFG for war zones and flash points?

[silky_soft_]

Ranked warzones and cross server queing, what is the eta on those?

[Thuggery]

Is there any plan to extend the listing times on the Global Trade Network?

 

The current 2 day listing as a maximum seems woefully short for listing slow moving items, like armor for lower levels, or lower level mods e.t.c

[chimpanz]

:sy_darkside:Question about Server Transfers.

I have 3 lvl 50 toons on a dead server, what will happen when transfers are available but your toons names are in use by someone on a server that you want to transfer to?

[corbanite]

If any what are the companies plans for MT and if MT are planned what sort of in game items can we expect to see for sale?

[Crezelle]

Are there any plans to customise the interior of your ship ( aka vanity furnishings ect? I love showing off my ship to party members, and the idea of customising it accordingly would be awesome- throwing parties after raids, hanging out with friends, ect )

[theblaznee]

How do you balance the different gameplay types?. One thing is the pure numbers a certain class can put out, but another thing is how much work they need to do that.

An example.. Sage healing has the big glowy circle that people see and can run in to, and it can heal up to 8 people. It's static and has a long cast time. Compare that to Smugglers instant cast Kolto Cloud that is "invisible", has little control over who besides the primary target it hits, and only affect up to 4 people - combined with their HoT that is really energy intensive to keep up.

How on earth do you balance that? On paper they look very similar, but they can vary wildly in performance due to a lot of factors. In flashpoints and pvp the Smuggler seem to really shine with their aoe limit of 4 for flashpoints, and their instant casts for pvp. But Sages shine in Ops where it's really obvious with the "go here to heal" circle of goodness.

[DarthCasual]

Greetings & Salutations Bioware SWTOR Team,

 

My question is based around color crystals and RP aspect. I am a Lightside Sith Juggernaut my goal was to get a white crystal in order to give to my toon and then his look and feel would be complete. This was not a problem until 1.2 came in. Having been here since Beta and only recently attaining a level 50 I've never been able to make the funds to buy from the "crystal vendor" that was there. So for us loyal customers who have been here since the beginning. Could you bring back the "crystal vendor" ?

 

You could use the "Founder" title as the key for being able to use this vendor. On top of that make the items sold from the vendor bound to legacy so that you would be able to help yourself but not be able to terrorize the market place with thee items.

[Iklo]

Will the number of auctions EVER be able to exceed 50? being able to only have 50 auctions requires me to toon hop on 4 characters just to post all of my stuff, and with a dead server with a dead economy..... it make me doing this even more of a hassle.

[Thraze]

What was the logic behind making masks, like the rebreather that Malgus has, invisible on some races like the sith pureblood? I understand tendril clipping was an issue, but if it really bothers us, isn't that the point of the hide helmet feature? It's very unfortunate to lose the option altogether and there have been forum posts from the community about getting the visible helmets back. Can we expect BW to at least take another look at the decision to completely take away helmet graphics? Edited May 8, 2012 by Thraze