Community Q&A – May 11th, 2012 Blog Discussion

[JovethGonzalez]

Discuss this week's Community Q&A blog in this thread! Edited May 11, 2012 by JovethGonzalez

[Celwinn]

At least I know why the warzone vendors were taken out.

 

Here's an alternate suggestion for the repair:

 

Why not use Warzone Commendations for the payment of the repairs? I'm not talking about 100 comm repairs, but a simple 10 commendations would work right? That's basically a match right there, would make sure people actually play the match.

[grezgorz]

At least I know why the warzone vendors were taken out.

 

Here's an alternate suggestion for the repair:

 

Why not use Warzone Commendations for the payment of the repairs? I'm not talking about 100 comm repairs, but a simple 10 commendations would work right? That's basically a match right there, would make sure people actually play the match.

 

That would require advanced 'tech'.

[Gnoblesse]

There were multiple questions asked about PvP healing, and the TTK since 1.2. None of which were really addressed. *le sigh*

[Lord_Karsk]

Apart from the alacrity question the Q&A as always was useless.

As the poster above said, nothing on TTK and the death of PvP in swtor.

 

And nothing on dead servers etc. Keep ignoring reality bw...

[DesonEQ]

Deewe: With the locked companion specs, some of us feel like being forced to use specific companions versus choosing them for their personality and look. Is there in the works any kind of feature mitigating this issue (hint: companions kits)?

 

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Companions in BioWare games have always been fully developed characters with their own backgrounds and skills. While you can change between a couple different approaches with each, we do not presently have plans to make Companion Characters interchangeable.

Develop some then because your design made all that effort a waste. In your single player games, while there may have been optimal choices, usually you got to use more than one and picking the ones you liked most didn't affect gameplay so dramatically. Speaking as a Sith Warrior player that loathes Quinn, it's completely impractical to use any other companion because Quinn as the only healer so dramatically improves survival and downtime. Same goes for a Powertech Bounty Hunter. The mechanics force the choices unless you want a much less enjoyable play experience.

[Kourage]

All boring questions that have nothing to do with my game play.

[JohnnyVelocity]

Thank you for the answer about orange craftable gear and the technical problem with recipe limits. That explains a lot - I hope you find a workaround.

[Deewe]

Deewe: With the locked companion specs, some of us feel like being forced to use specific companions versus choosing them for their personality and look. Is there in the works any kind of feature mitigating this issue (hint: companions kits)?

 

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Companions in BioWare games have always been fully developed characters with their own backgrounds and skills. While you can change between a couple different approaches with each' date=' we do not presently have plans to make Companion Characters interchangeable. [/color']

Not sure we are on the same page here. You are speaking about swapping companions while I was speaking more about swapping their skills. And if I get it right it's really disappointing and certainly removes the fun to playing with companions.

(edit: forgot to thank you for the answer. Even if I don't like it and disagree with your design orientation: it's appreciated)

 

 

Develop some then because your design made all that effort a waste. In your single player games, while there may have been optimal choices, usually you got to use more than one and picking the ones you liked most didn't affect gameplay so dramatically. Speaking as a Sith Warrior player that loathes Quinn, it's completely impractical to use any other companion because Quinn as the only healer so dramatically improves survival and downtime. Same goes for a Powertech Bounty Hunter. The mechanics force the choices unless you want a much less enjoyable play experience.

Interesting, I was totally thinking about Quinn when writing the question. He also really annoys me, not to say a stronger word.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Deewe

[Allyhoo]

I'm disappointed there will be no Q&A next week...I also couldn't tell from the post if the switch to once every two-weeks is permanent or just for this next time. I hope it isn't permanent

[JovethGonzalez]

And nothing on dead servers etc. Keep ignoring reality bw...

 

We actually addressed server issues in a previous Q&A and will have more information on character transfers very soon.

[DarthDemens]

Deewe: With the locked companion specs, some of us feel like being forced to use specific companions versus choosing them for their personality and look. Is there in the works any kind of feature mitigating this issue (hint: companions kits)?

 

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Companions in BioWare games have always been fully developed characters with their own backgrounds and skills. While you can change between a couple different approaches with each, we do not presently have plans to make Companion Characters interchangeable.

 

Every other Bioware game with companions allows you to:

A) Bring more than 1 companion with you at a time

B) Adjust (within reason) the skills of your companions.

 

TOR does neither of these, meaning that if I want to bring a Healer, I have exactly one option. And with certain classes, the Healer companion has a story that doesn't mesh with the playstyle. The most egregious example being the Sith Warrior and Quinn.

 

More specifically, both the Inquisitor and Warrior are given the choice of either bringing their Healer companion or of drastically increasing their chances of defeat, should they choose to bring their Apprentice.

 

Options to solve include:

A) Allow limited customization of Companions, similar to the skill points of DragonAge or KOTOR, possibly through a Companion Talent Tree.

B) Allowing multiple companions to be used at any time. 2 companions at minimum, 3 would be ideal for Flashpoints and Heroics.

C) Create multiple versions of each companion, similar to Jaesa. The companions personal story could change based on the decision, to more appropriately mesh with the players choices.

[JovethGonzalez]

I'm disappointed there will be no Q&A next week...I also couldn't tell from the post if the switch to once every two-weeks is permanent or just for this next time. I hope it isn't permanent

 

The reason (as stated in the blog) is so that we don't end up with a Q&A with the same questions asked over and over and the same responses from the devs about features coming soon. We've taken your feedback and we wanted to be able to choose new questions that result in in-depth answers from our developers. This way, we can accumulate questions for two weeks and choose from there.

 

We'll definitely monitor community reaction to this and then decide from there if we want to continue to do weekly or bi-weekly Q&As.

[Jandi]

You. once again, pick questions that have already been answered yet nothing on twi'leks and hoods and if you guys will ever enable twi'leks to wear hoods without the lekku clipping through the back by making the hood force the lekku to be pinned to the chest. It's been asked in every Q/A thread yet *nothing*.

[Thaladan]

Rickety: I'm currently the Division Captain for The Old Republic within The Older Gamers community. I am responsible for multiple guilds spanning all three regions. Several of our guilds have issues with the current guild limit of five hundred Characters. Are there any plans to increase this limit or alternatively, to introduce an in game 'Guild Alliance' system?

 

..... what a joke....

 

several servors are under 150 connected and i read that

 

that's too much

 

ps : seriously..is it a joke??

Edited May 11, 2012 by Thaladan

[Nyteblades]

What they should say is we are waiting every 2 weeks to get enough questions on anything besides what needs to be addressed. Because thats basicly what they are doing.

[gibmachine]

When I saw SW storyline spoilers I was so hopeful that here will be something about Quinn and what MAY OR MAY NOT happen in regards to him and one particular situation. Meh, maybe somewhere down the road.

[Dracosz]

Not a word on ranked warzones or premade queues, just a little tidbit mentioning class balance and huttball and how we'd have to wait for matchmaking. My guild and I are getting fed up and we're bleeding absolutely phenomenal players. Dancing around the issue isn't helping, so let me pose a simple question to you.

 

WHEN?

[Jauhar]

The reason (as stated in the blog) is so that we don't end up with a Q&A with the same questions asked over and over and the same responses from the devs about features coming soon. We've taken your feedback and we wanted to be able to choose new questions that result in in-depth answers from our developers. This way, we can accumulate questions for two weeks and choose from there.

 

We'll definitely monitor community reaction to this and then decide from there if we want to continue to do weekly or bi-weekly Q&As.

 

IMO, that is impossible to do since there are alot of questions you are not answering that are being asked over and over. So I think it is more the case that you are avoiding the players' important ones and that it is getting harder and harder for you to answer the easier, not so important ones.

[Cupelixx]

Maybe in 2 weeks, you guys can come up with some real answers on the game's abysmal performance problems. Especially when it comes to PvP/warzones. Are you ever going to answer these questions with something other than "we're looking into it"? Or are you going to keep taking the coward's way out and pretend the questions aren't being asked over and over on the forums?

[Miorum]

Smuggler-Scoundrel, here, with a few points I'd like to comment on:

o) Alacrity is confirmed to be useless for my class until further notice. Good to know.

 

o) I find it somewhat baffling someone wants to switch their companion specs around. There's already buttons to do that (Quinn can go full Healer or 'DPS' mode). Agreed, though, having a bit more say in the matter would've been nice -- but none of my (Smuggler) companions other than Guss are 'fit' to play a Healer role. They're designed that way.

 

o) Interesting that some Guilds pile over to have 500 characters in them, especially since the whining masses report empty servers, even at peak times. Must be a regional thing, perhaps.

 

o) Finally, an answer to why I am not allowed (yet) to have a moddable Scattergun. I was getting annoyed at it being the only thing in my character window with static stats.

 

o) Saddened by the fact not all gear can be Reverse Engineered, yet. I've seen some stuff on the GTN that I would love to get, but it's unmoddable. Here's my fingers crossed.

 

o) Do people read? The Augment Slot Implementation was handled last Q&A and if it wasn't in the Q&A itself, then it was further in the thread. I already knew about how they were going to tackle it - so that question in this week's Q&A was a bit redundant.

 

Other than these comments, I'm sad to see that there's no update on hoods and hats on several races (though that doesn't have to be Q&A), or using Colour Crystals as underglow for your Speeders ( )

 

My question for next time, if you'll even accept them right now:

Jedi Shadows and their Imperial equivalents are able to equip Electrostaffs, but cannot use them effectively because some skills say they're exclusive to Lightsabers. Is the Weapon system still being looked at so these problems are fixed and Techblades/staffs have more use in-game than being Companion fodder?

[Lakhesis]

I didn't think much of the response to Deewe's question on locked companions.

 

The actual content of the reply was reasonable - you want each companion to be special & stay true to your concept. I can strongly empathise with this... but...

 

I question to what degree your concept actually matters to us as players. Deewe's point that most players feel locked into one companion is quite reasonable. It is possible to do content with other companions, but it's often sub-optimal to the point of being a dangerous hindrance. There are certain companions which we virtually never see in fleet, and I'm betting that if you analyse your data to sort for player spec + companion + time-in-combat-together, you'll see that players are ignoring more than half your companion concepts en masse.

 

This is a player "choice", but a choice between "Works Well" and "Works Badly" is a false choice, and I'm not convinced that conceptual-purity is sufficient justification for forcing that sort of choice.

 

In my opinion, you'd be better off making the companion stories even richer. Why can't Mako decide to emulate your BH, keep practicing her shooting & have the option of getting a DPS spec? You could do a character quest to get any of the droids an upgrade module to swap roles ("The Republic wants you to Heal M1-4X! Here's a Heal-o-Tron 3000 attachment!"). Maybe Kaliyo starts liking punishment games a little too much & wants to take up tanking

 

In a single player game, you can reasonably hope people will voluntarily go back and "complete all the achievements" with different characters & approaches. Even if they don't, it doesn't matter, because you only need to keep them entertained enough to feel like they've got value for money anyway. You don't need to convince them to buy the game again next month - there is no subscription. IMO that's not how MMOs work though.

 

MMO players look up websites for the optimal approach and try to do things the "right" way. Any facet of their character which leaves them feeling gimped is "Bad" rather than "An Interesting Variation" - we're measuring ourselves in relation to the herd of other players, not an abstract single-player concept of "is this fun?". So this means that you're locking most MMO players out of questing with 4 of their 5 companions. It doesn't matter how good your companions are if they're not explored beyond conversations in a cantina - all that effort making cool stuff is wasted.

 

Possibly you can try & make better MMO players, but it'll be a long, slow & hard process if you think changing humans is simpler than adjusting design to fit them.

 

As a bonus, adjusting design allows you to make things richer & more multi-faceted - which are the sort of values that Bioware really should be standing for. Bioware should not be about conceptual-purity, Bioware should be about compelling player-driven stories.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Lakhesis

[danpen]

I didn't think much of the response to Deewe's question on locked companions.

 

The actual content of the reply was reasonable - you want each companion to be special & stay true to your concept. I can strongly empathise with this... but...

 

I question to what degree your concept actually matters to us as players. Deewe's point that most players feel locked into one companion is quite reasonable. It is possible to do content with other companions, but it's often sub-optimal to the point of being a dangerous hindrance. There are certain companions which we virtually never see in fleet, and I'm betting that if you analyse your data to sort for player spec + companion + time-in-combat-together, you'll see that players are ignoring more than half your companion concepts en masse.

 

This is a player "choice", but a choice between "Works Well" and "Works Badly" is a false choice, and I'm not convinced that conceptual-purity is sufficient justification for forcing that sort of choice.

 

In my opinion, you'd be better off making the companion stories even richer. Why can't Mako decide to emulate your BH, keep practicing her shooting & have the option of getting a DPS spec? You could do a character quest to get any of the droids an upgrade module to swap roles ("The Republic wants you to Heal M1-4X! Here's a Heal-o-Tron 3000 attachment!"). Maybe Kaliyo starts liking punishment games a little too much & wants to take up tanking

 

In a single player game, you can reasonably hope people will voluntarily go back and "complete all the achievements" with different characters & approaches. Even if they don't, it doesn't matter, because you only need to keep them entertained enough to feel like they've got value for money anyway. You don't need to convince them to buy the game again next month - there is no subscription. IMO that's not how MMOs work though.

 

MMO players look up websites for the optimal approach and try to do things the "right" way. Any facet of their character which leaves them feeling gimped is "Bad" rather than "An Interesting Variation" - we're measuring ourselves in relation to the herd of other players, not an abstract single-player concept of "is this fun?". So this means that you're locking most MMO players out of questing with 4 of their 5 companions. It doesn't matter how good your companions are if they're not explored beyond conversations in a cantina - all that effort making cool stuff is totally wasted.

 

Possibly you can try & make better MMO players, but it'll be a long, slow & hard process if you think changing humans is simpler than adjusting design to fit them.

 

As a bonus, adjusting design allows you to make things richer & more multi-faceted - which are the sort of values that Bioware really should be standing for. Bioware should not be about conceptual-purity, Bioware should be about compelling player-driven stories.

 

I do not like the way you have done this sorry mate.

[Lakhesis]

I do not like the way you have done this sorry mate.

 

In what way? Curious to know which parts you disagree with & why.

[Lord_Ravenhurst]

I see the QA is about answers for existing game mechanics, not for future plannings. When they have news we will get them by an announcement I guess.