Star Wars: The Old Republic Official Podcast Episode I

[Teefal]

Loved the podcast. I think Bioware is doing a great job. As a software developer, it's great to hear some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, like their approach to feature teams, etc.

 

For all the QQ'ers ... we *hear* you already, as I'm sure they do too. Seriously, my 6-year-old has more restraint when it comes to repeating "I want this, I want that." Server transfers are coming early summer, ranked warzones are coming "soon", and it seems like both are coming before 1.3.

[MrSIlverSurfing]

What supprises me about this game/development team is they actually think anything in 1.3 is what we want? If they think this is what we want they are seriously more out of touch then I originally thought. Edited May 9, 2012 by MrSIlverSurfing

[MrSIlverSurfing]

Honestly sounds like the augment thing is very very very similar to what they have in Tera. Hey if it works use it. Thats what Microsoft did.

[Bonezmccoy]

Another vote for RSS link please!!

 

Aye, an throw my voice in fer yonder shores of iTunes and a sturdy sail about me old ship, the RSS Feedburner!

 

(It's pirate week where I live. No, really)

[LarryRow]

Our inability to get endgame characters on PTS without having to fully grind them out is what is hindering the testing of new releases. Sure, you manually copied a few guilds over, but as we have seen time and again, it takes a much larger sample size to catch a lot of the issues. Right now the choices are:

 

1. manually copied guilds and people who ground out a level 50 on PTS

2. The game's full population after a patch goes live.

[Ganjimon]

ohh wow no wonder game is complete crap, yet again you have devs in complete disconnect from what actually happens in game .

[CKNairb]

Galbatorixx -

Yeah, because they didn't give any useful info to current subscribers, like how the LFG will work and also the tidbit about being able to add an augment slot to any moddable piece.

 

Yea I'll file that with all the talk of Rated Warzones in 1.2. As well as host of other things EA/Bioware has changed at last minute, or without telling the population that it changed

 

I stand by my opinion of the podcast is nothing more then marketing

Edited May 9, 2012 by CKNairb

[metalgearyoda]

Hello everyone! My name is Eric Musco and I, along with Brooks Guthrie are happy to bring you episode one of the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ podcast, “Rocket Boots”. You can listen by using the embedded player, by downloading and listening on your preferred MP3 player, or check it out on our

.

 

In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Erickson and Damion Schubert to talk about what we saw in Game Update 1.2 and what we can expect as we look forward to Game Update 1.3. Also, David Bass stops by to tell us about how things went at PAX East and share some of our convention plans for the rest of the year. If you have any questions or comments about the show, feel free to let us know in this forum thread.

 

Thanks for listening!

 

Read more.

 

Thank you for the info and updates.

 

Really happy about the up coming changes.

 

Very excited about the group finder.

 

My only question about it is; will it work as a queue system like WoW third iteration of group finder or like a lobby like WoWs second iteration of group finder?

[grandmthethird]

LOL That was a total oversight. Guess they expect us to just use legacy respec and make everyone wait 10 mins while we move our UI around.

 

i think this is in preparation for duel spec, which we know is coming in the future

[DavidBass]

Great to hear this podcast. Was a little disappointed to hear you won't be going to RTX this year. I would figure that you would, considering both Bioware and Rooster Teeth are in Austin, and members of the TOR team have been on the RT podcast.

 

The events I mentioned on the podcast are just the ones we've committed to so far. We're still looking into returning to RTX, especially since it's right next door to us. At the very least, I'll be there on my own. Come say hi! I'll bring Taun Fawn codes!

[CKNairb]

I lost it at the " high commitment to quality " " wasn't good enough for a Bioware game "

 

Sounds still bugged, cutscenes are still bugged, took 2 patches to fix the companion item bug, ashara model still isn't complete, as well as host of other things present since before launch

[SirksVZ]

i really enjoyed the podcast, hope to hear more.

 

ive been playing mmos since 1999 and if i learned anything, its that haters are gonna hate. you're never going to make everybody happy when everyone wants something different. i don't think the game is perfect, but it sounds like there's a lot of good ideas in the works, and i'm looking forward to seeing them.

 

that being said, i think some server merging and some cross server pvp queues will go a long way.

 

and stop listening to anyone that is crying about wanting to tank in a bikini.

 

<3

[Dragonexadon]

The events I mentioned on the podcast are just the ones we've committed to so far. We're still looking into returning to RTX, especially since it's right next door to us. At the very least, I'll be there on my own. Come say hi! I'll bring Taun Fawn codes!

 

Shameless post here but what about going to less public events? Our guild is currently hosting a LAN party / summit and it would be so awesome if someone from bioware could drop by and say hi.

 

Or even a Taun Fawn code or two for prizes

Edited May 9, 2012 by Dragonexadon

[silent-sniper]

WAIT! I want a scooby-doo mystery machine speeder bike!

[Mrip]

Only 25min? That barely qualifies as a podcast. Perhaps add some time to talk about info that hasn't already been available on the site for weeks, or play tips, or something useful.

[MrSIlverSurfing]

The events I mentioned on the podcast are just the ones we've committed to so far. We're still looking into returning to RTX, especially since it's right next door to us. At the very least, I'll be there on my own. Come say hi! I'll bring Taun Fawn codes!

 

Thanks for the feedback. The community needs more feedback. Who knows after a few weeks they may not be so filled with rage. lol

Edited May 9, 2012 by MrSIlverSurfing

[Rutrict]

It's good to see you guys wasting time on Podcast and not focusing more on merging the servers. Love your approach to the loss of 400,000 subscribers. Maybe losing another 400,000 will get your attention.. probably not.

[Celwinn]

The events I mentioned on the podcast are just the ones we've committed to so far. We're still looking into returning to RTX, especially since it's right next door to us. At the very least, I'll be there on my own. Come say hi! I'll bring Taun Fawn codes!

 

David, any chance Bioware (TOR) sends a team up to Canada for a show please?

 

IE: Fan Expo Canada (In Toronto) http://www.fanexpocanada.com/

Edited May 9, 2012 by Celwinn

[Bomyne]

No iTunes link?

[Bomyne]

It's good to see you guys wasting time on Podcast and not focusing more on merging the servers. Love your approach to the loss of 400,000 subscribers. Maybe losing another 400,000 will get your attention.. probably not.

 

Why would they merge the servers?

[Tiars]

I want to comment on the testing statements that were made.

 

I started testing games in Austin in the early 1980's both working for companies and as a consultant. Later I worked for IBM and HP on operating systems and later for companies doing massive real time network operations. I eventually retired as a Software QA executive. So with this background and experience I have some statements to make.

 

To get the type of testing mentioned done the following needs to be done.

1. Major changes need to be done on a clean system. To have the results of past bugs and removed projects persist through retaining past characters only makes the results less and less reliable as time progresses and these build up.
   
2. Players need to be able to clone their current characters to the test server. This can be abused to bring over clones of items if not restrained. The most effective way to constrain potential abuse is wipe the server at each major patch as noted and limit the number of copies per test cycle.
   
3. If the testing emphasis is to be on end game content, players need to be able to also use standardized "Premade" characters with equipment of the type the the developers are designing the content for.
   
4. Since it is easier to get people to place characters on the test realm for major changes the server should not be wiped for minor update testing. So clean server for 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 but not 1.2.2, 1.3.1 and so on.
   
5. Incentives are not needed to get people to test. Generally the best results come from those that do not need incentives. But if not enough players are using the test servers then some incentives are useful.
   

 

SW:TOR is not is a state to implement this yet so how close is it on each of these points.

1. The SW:TOR development team is on record that they do not plan on wiping the test server. In the long run this will be a problem but until they have implemented the automated character move/copy between servers they are correct in not using clean servers. However, when EA can offer character copies they need to reverse this policy and start using clean servers for each major patch.
   
2. SW:TOR currently only has the ability to manually copy or move characters from server to server. This can not be used repeatedly for the test server due to costs and time to do it. Since EA is working on implementing this feature, the ability to do this should be added about that time. It would be at this time that using a clean server at each major update is implemented.
   
3. While it is easier to code the generation of "premade" characters, there is no reason to do this. The most cost effective way to implement this feature is to "copy" from a static character each time. So after the previous bullet is implemented you also manually created these static characters that have the gear and abilities that the developers are designing the content for.
   
4. This is a policy so it is easy to implement and is the current state of the test servers.
   
5. The current incentives are a start, but are probably not enough if clean servers are used to test major patches. Additional limited availability items like those added for the recent plague event could be rewards for testing.
   

 

As I see it the developers are doing the best that they can but the testing will be inadequate until this summer when character transfer is implemented. At that point it can be improved.

 

I would also like to comment on the "invitational" character copy that was done to test 1.2. It has been my experience that invitational testers have a tendency to play the game and therefore test the game just like the developers and internal testers would. They generally will not do the unexpected testing that the developers stated that they need. But given the nature of 1.2 and the lack of an automated copy it was the best that they could do. In the future though testing plans should not be built around repeating this.

[MandoArc]

Nices not we get sith on panties and bounty hunters on panties have to love it god damn kill the damn ip more **** go go go kill it some more how about we get some sith lord ewok plzz theres no damn point ont he lore /ip of this game this game is not Ip heavy

[Deewe]

Now some time has passed since I read that podcast here's some more input.

 

First the podcast felt as:

1. Self congratulation and mention of how great are your ideas
   
2. Blaming players for not being able to deliver good features due to the poor feedback
   
3. No acknowledgement of current issues nor plans to address them
   

 

Here's how it should have been:

 

A) Let's talk about 1.2:

- Legacy was the biggest feature

- Guild banks

- GUI

- Content...

 

We think while not perfect we set up a good ground for future extensions with all the above... more on that later.

Then to start with the legacy we noticed a few things, first some players felt it was hurting the lore to have cross class skills and it really saddened us to see an intended fun feature divided the player base in two. (Explanations and future mitigating tweaks here)

It's also pretty clear some players wants to have the legacy cross server (insert plans or explain issues here) or (hint?) linked to others players characters

We also noted the mandatory legacy name & associated popup was mentioned many times along having separate last names for characters (comments, plans here)

 

Guild banks... is just a start for guild features

 

On the UI part now it seems the team job was really appreciated. While we are very proud of it we are fully aware there is still lot of room for improvement (separate buff bars, more quickslots, save/load keybindings...). Mention of flip UI feature as kind of topping you are looking towards to make TOR shines more.

 

Mentions content... and PvP

...

 

B) Moving forward. 1.3: Features and conveniences patch

- LFG

- Gear customization

- Legacy

- Alts leveling cross paths

 

LFG mentioned as one side of the coin for population balance, mentions character transfer in the works for summer.

Gear customization, talk more freeness to gear up, certainly don't mention tanks in hot pants. Speak augments and immediately explain impact on crafters.

Legacy: last names, rename legacy, more unlocks (avoid non SW features), species switch unlock for vets...

Alts: items sharing convenience why not even heirlroom items.

 

C) Always in the works

- Engine optimization (FPS, shadows, draw distance...)

- World PvP (throw a bone or two)

- Game immersion (NPC AI, environmental sounds, critters, more dynamic world...)

- Improving exploration & incentives

- RP tools (seats, emotes macros, appearance tabs, gear dyes, chat bubbles, barber shop...)

- Bugs fixing

- And much much more SW feeling!

 

 

D) Rakghoul plague

All that was said plus, apology for those who felt griefed either by the

........PvP flagging on PvE servers

........Plague tagging on PvE servers

........Ganking on PvP server due to faction imbalance

........Impossibility to buy rewards due to the vendor being camped on PvP servers or vendor being removed after the event without enough time of announcement.

........Or missed the event due to the short notice of announcement

 

Add something along the lines overall seems the event was well perceived and we'll make sure to take into account all the above for the next event. +throw a bone about the vendor or the event coming back soon...

 

Then next event will feel much more SW...

 

 

E) Speak about misscommunication about "most loyal customers", apologize and mentions in the works, in game, veteran rewards based on subscribed time (vs played or legacy level)

 

F, G, H... etc.

 

Z) General mood:

• Certainly don't mention how great are your features. (If so players will tell you for true.)
  
• Don't mentions how you work (ex: strike teams) especially as long as you under-deliver. (You look like giving lessons to others MMO as citing you in example)
  
• Tune down your tone, be more humble. (People will respect that)
  
• Never ever mentions players on forums are trolls, ... or give poor feedback. (Note would you have actually listened to the constructive posts and discussed with them you would not have that much vitriol in their tone)
  
• Don't try to avoid the issues, come up front to them. Start to acknowledge them then at least hint at solutions or plans (never hide in the shadows)
  

Edited May 10, 2012 by Deewe

[Tiars]

 

D) Rakghoul plague

All that was said plus, apology for those who felt griefed either by the

........PvP flagging on PvE servers

........Plague tagging on PvE servers

........Ganking on PvP server due to faction imbalance

........Impossibility to buy rewards due to the vendor being camped on PvP servers or vendor being removed after the event without enough time of announcement.

........Or missed the event due to the short notice of announcement

 

Add something along the lines overall seems the event was well perceived and we'll make sure to take into account all the above for the next event. +throw a bone about the vendor or the event coming back soon...

 

 

E) Speak about misscommunication about "most loyal customers", apologize and mentions in the works, in game, veteran rewards based on subscribed time (vs played or legacy level)

 

 

You may have been a bit harder on them than I would be. But I want to add something to these points.

The Rakghoul plague at the very least should have lasted longer. Since to complete it you had to add a piece every 24 hours it almost forced you to be working on it on day one or two and stay at it every day. For those that have a life and can not play every day they were excluded by the combination of the event structure and the short period of time from completing it. So bad design and implementation part 1.

 

Now to what you comment on. Forced PvP flagging to complete a event that has no inherent PvP theme on a PvE server will never be looked on in a positive manner. If the bulk of the players are on PvE servers, doing things like this is a sure fire way to upset them.

 

Plague spreading to those that did not want to participate was also a predictable way to upset players. All one needed to do to predict this was to look at the plague spreading event in WoW prior to the release of the Wrath of the Litch King event. The developers did it because they wanted players to experience the hopelessness that the characters in Warcraft III felt with the original spreading of the plague. They achieved the goal, but also learned that the average player was not interested in it. This was compounded by players abusing the mechanism to deliberately interfere with the game play of others. So players not liking this aspect on both PvE and PvP servers is to be expected and something that should be avoided if a game is bleeding subscriptions.

 

Ganking during the event on PvP servers. Well this is a problem because of why some players play on PvP servers and is to be expected. The only ways to avoid this is to make the event areas sanctuaries with no PvP or to extend the time to give people more opportunity to complete it. This is something that easily should have been foreseen and plans put in place to deal with it.

 

On PvP servers players camping the vendor is also something that should have been expected. This could have been minimized by replacing the one vendor with one in each factions starport.

 

On top of this you forgot to mention that for many people the jump in populations on Tat created severe lag problems for many people. I was not able to complete the two level 50 operations bosses because I lagged out and DC'ed during both of them. From talking with people this was a common problem on my server. I also had an alt that was at the right level for Tat and I could not play him during the event due to the lag on the planet.

 

The way that the Rakghoul Plague event was presented implied that it went smoothly and was a great success and enjoyed by all. This either shows a total disconnect between the developers and what is happening in the game or that they must tote the company line that everything is going great in anything they say about the game.

 

The "Miscommunication" that you mention was probably the most damaging thing that they did recently. If they had granted 30 days of game time to everyone when they got their first level 50 it would have been seed a lot differently. As it was with level 50 by a certain day and eventually Legacy 6 to try to minimized the damage, many players that were enjoying the story for their character and taking their time to level simply interpreted this as Bioware only caring about players that leveled quickly, spent lots of time in game and worked on many alts. Many that I have talked to as they cancelled their subscriptions said that this proved that the proclaiming that SW:TOR was innovative by focusing on Story was not true. Bioware was clearly, to them, rewarding players that did not take time to enjoy the stories and be immersed in them.

[silky_soft_]

in future is it possible to give us some dot points? (ie. just like patch notes). most of us dont have much respect for the people in the podcast and would like not to scan through all the dribble on the transcript.