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

[GiusVel]

I have notice in the last week or so that alot of the servers are low on population including mine and was wounderin if any merging of them would be possible. More people in PvP server would be fun.

[DarthMahan]

How is the writing time planning to incorporate all the various player choices and storylines into the future? Are they going to canonize certain choices over others? Will we possibly ever see different class storylines interacting with each other, for example, a dual-class questline?

[rnmedic]

Will you be adding additional content outside the usual FP, Ops, PVP. Maybe additional chapter beyond chapter 3. That provides class missions to continue our story.

[Lyncoln]

This may have already been answered, are there plans to continue the class quests beyond act 3 in further expansions and how long till swtor is finished playing catch-up with its own vision of where they want the game to be?

[Crazyhooligin]

Hello!

 

I apologize if this question has been asked before. Are there any plans to include a feature to change a character's name anytime in the near future?

 

Thanks!

[Darth-Malkaevian]

First off LOVE LEGACY!!!!, its Awsome!!!! And the Game is Great!!!

 

 

I have a serious question about aesthetics and armor design/looks. (Please note this post only concerns the armor "Looks".

 

First a little History:

 

I have played multiple MMORPG games, Beta tested Swtor, Aion and even WoW. So this post comes from someone with vast experience in aesthetics.

 

1. My problem is that it seems all of Swtors armor (Vender wise PvE and PvP wise specifically). Needs a serious overhaul looks wise. I find myself making sub 50 Synthweaving gear and armor gear for my characters and then butchering the L50 gear for the mods because the L50 gear is just Hideous looking and completely Un starwars Related in most cases.

 

* Much of the Vender gear for PvP and PvE, looks like it was designed by a 3 year old with no concept of "The Star Wars Universe".

 

* A Jedi for example looks regal and noble with robes and a hood and finely scrolled and detailed armor, Not like a White armored, Green and Orange Trooper with an astronauts helmet....

 

* A sith inquisitor looks like a robed dark lord, not like an Assassin from Aladdin's magical lamp or 99 nights.

 

* An imperial agent should not be wearing Bright orange and white..ever ... This is not tactical. yet it seems Level 20 PvPers must wear the Orange and white gear...

 

* Take a look at the forums, a vast majority of people are complaining about how ugly and un starwars like the High level armor sets are. And No one ever wears the stuff in game (I see maybe1 or 2 people out of 500 wearing any of it). (This more then anything should tell you someone messed up in its design). As I said before Stats are not the issue, its simply the looks.

 

While this does no apply to All high level gear as some of it does look decent, Almost everything L50 sold at the vendors should be redone. L50 Gear should not look like it was designed for a Level 10 form a non starwars game..

 

So my question is:

 

Does Bioware intend to fix the not only insulting but egregiously un-starwars armor looks in the future and provide it's customers with gear which can be proud to hold the Star Wars name, instead of gear which frankly is an Embarrassment to look at?

Edited May 6, 2012 by Darth-Malkaevian

[Slaydizy]

Is there any chance that you are working to save world pvp? I would really like to enjoy the world pvp areas, but there is never anyone there. I think a big reason why is that most people don't really know where these areas are and they are a pain in the rear to get to. I personally would be much more likely to go to the world pvp areas if I had a quick travel feature that would let me go to the pvp area and have fun with my guildies/friends for a good time killing some imps and then quick travel back to where ever I was prior.

 

Also, since there is a galactic war taking place, place the world pvp objectives around the map within reasonable distances of each other in "high traffic areas" and force the war on people that maybe wouldn't necessarily get involved in world pvp otherwise. I'm saying this mostly from a pvp server perspective. It's war, you don't always get to choose when the fight starts, you just defend yourself and your allies. Isn't this what the war was supposed to feel like for players? I say bring the warzone feel to world pvp and make pvp servers a bloodbath. Likewise, give rewards equal to or slightly better than warzones to encourage people to participate. World pvp is probably the main reason people play on pvp servers. Besides waiting in a q to pvp gets old.

 

Anyway, I love the game, stories are great, easily the best MMORPG ever, but it needs to put the "War" in STAR WARS.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Slaydizy

[ObiJuanShenobi]

Hello,

 

Server Transfers vs. Server Merges.

 

Which method do you feel will best solve the low population issues on a lot of servers?

[Leskit]

When will we see any mention of the forgotten rated warzones ?

[LUCASCASADEIS]

Of all the aspects in an MMO, the social aspect is the one I love the most. So far, TOR seems to be lacking in this respect. Everything a player can do seems based around either leveling or gearing up. Any word on future plans in this department?

 

On a related note, are there any plans for implementing player housing? I'm aware that our ships are intended to be our homes, but we are unable to choose our ship, or even decorate it. Perhaps new, large zones could be added into the game, for player-placed cities on various planets? Any response would be greatly appreciated.

 

yeah yeah i want this as in swg, we need a plant or planets for build houses, please bioware put this we need this, for this all love swg and now you need put this

[MCerberus]

I remember a while back stating that the system is 'in place' for neutral awards. Is my gray Inquisitor going to get some goodies in 1.3?

[Warierz]

Are you guys planning on having more species added to the game? and by that i mean playable. and not the system like WoW that you have to buy the next expansion. one that i really wanna play as is a Nautolan.

[Slaydizy]

yea, some pazaak tournaments or something might be kind of a fun change of pace for some people. and a good way to win some money. I wouldn't mind some swoop races either. People could compete to be the best swoop racer on their server. get titles, special speeders and other goodies. Heck, some guilds could become swoop gangs even. Just throwing it out there:) Edited May 6, 2012 by Moitteva
removed quoted post that was previously removed

[pyrobot]

Regarding legacy gear, I was wondering if there are any plans to implement 'heirlooms', ie gear that will scale with your level and provide a fair XP boost (somewhere between 20 and 50%)?

[OmoveAbril]

Current system dose not permit for Defensive to be as rewarding or statistically advantageous to use in the current build of “Player vs. Player” environment. Given that Tech/Force skills nullify our chance to roll, I know that this was done to prevent Tanks from avoiding Interrupts and crowd Control skills. Is there something in the works to encourage tanks to equip gear made for tanking in pvp over the current trend of tanks in “Dps” stat gear?

[Rhoark]

It makes sense that sages don't rely on their lightsabers as much as knights, but its somewhat disappointing that after level 15 the lightsaber is totally decorative. Perhaps the lightsaber could find a use for some niche non-rotational ability? Or some existing abilities could switch to lightsaber animations when the target is close?

[Bonsaikitten]

Currently our server, Uthar Wynn, has around 25 level 50 reps (even less imps) online at prime times. Because of this, we cannot do more than 3-4 warzones per day, find anything on GTM, or gather enough people for raids, and hence we are not enjoying the "multiplayer" part of this game. People are either quitting because of this, or rerolling on Tomb of Freedom Nadd. I will not leave a level 42 legacy, so what can I do? When will we see a server merge for european servers? We need help..

[BJWyler]

Let me say I am enjoying this primarily PvE centric game, and thank BioWare for taking the direction they have in development. As normal for any new game, there are bugs and areas for improvement, and we can see progress being made in both areas. I also know that additional content, server transfers, and many other interesting things are on the way, so despite my undying curiosity of when, will not ask those questions (when they are ready is good enough for me).

 

I have a question about the design of some items that are dropped in the world. I know it's a fine balancing issue on being able to create items that are useful for characters at certain levels between mob drops, quest rewards, crafting, and vendors, but it seems that some neat items that are lucky enough to drop are useless at the time the character acquires it or becomes useless in a short period of time. There also doesn't seem to be enough items tradable for the starter world commendations - I have a ton of Tython commodations between my Jedi characters that are usless as well.

 

For example, my Knight was fortunate enough to have Sovran's Lightsaber drop for him on Tython, but in order to use it, he needed to be Light I, which does not happen until Tython is completed (or Chamber of Speech is run multiple times). In either event, once being able to use the lightsaber, it becomes useless (from a stats point of view) once the class story is complete and the modable lightsaber is awarded from the class quest.

 

I was just curious about the thought process for designing the requirements for some of these items, especially ones that might be usable for companions, but drop with a different primary stat (like my Consular continually getting electrostaffs and the like that Qyzen can't use).

 

BJ

[Darth-Malice]

Any plans to promote role-play or add more role-playing mechanics to the game in the near future? Example sitting in chairs. Doing live events on servers for players to participate in.

[MarcSh]

When are you going to consolidate servers, or allow people to migrate to more populated servers (hopefully without paying for it)?

[Styxx]

Are there plans to make columi / tionese comms Legacy wide? If not, what is the reason behind it?

 

Background: Those are earned comms, not drops. So, it makes sense to have them shared among characters into a Legacy, since it is assumed the same owner. And it seems really counter-productive to outfit a companion and not an alt.

[BenjaminminU]

Can we please get some info on game update 1.3? I said please bioware

[sithheroes]

While questing I find myself constantly being frustrated by my companion standing in enemy AoEs and dieing really fast . Any plans of implementing a system to reduce this from happening? I.E. Making it so we can command where our companion stands, or reducing the amount of damage companions take from AoE effects, or making them smart enough to move on their own.

[Staris]

My question is what are your plans on balancing warzones in regard to potential gear imbalance and to a degree why for warzones at 50 you aren't doing an expertise bolstering.

 

Something like get the average expertise level for both sides of the warzone and if the player has less than that value then the average is that player's expertise for that warzone. This should still mean the better geared side still has the advantage without the lesser geared side from occasionally feeling completely ineffective.

[g-himi]

Is there any plan to allow characters who don't use lightsabers to show a graphic or coloring that's determined by their color crystal? Currently characters that use blasters or rifles only get to see their color crystal on a select few of their attacks which really does not offer much of an incentive for roughly half the character classes to look for or care about color crystals beyond it's stat.

 

Could we have certain noticeable animations reflect the color crystal that is equipped? For example have the cover screen on sniper/gunsligers be the color of their crystal, or the death from above animation on bounty hunters be the color of their crystal.