Official Q&A Thread for June 15th Blog Post

[MasterKhan]

Has any thought been given to creating dynamic environments, such as changing weather, sunrise and sunset?

 

Whether the idea has been considered or not, here's some of my ideas: 1) sand storms on Tatooine and blizzards on Hoth that are roaming exhaustion zones that travel across the planet's surface on a cycle, 2) rain and/or fog on the more temperate planets, like Taris, Alderaan, and the outdoor areas of Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, that could limit visibility and/or ranged accuracy, and travel on a similar cycle as #1, 3) night time on planets that are not one big city results in increased wildlife activity, or at least makes fights a lot flashier as weapons light up the night, or reduces visibility.

 

So, yeah, anything like that on the table as having the potential to show up on a server near us?

[Jinxblog]

What is the major difference between Smuggler/IA and Trooper/Merc healing roles? The Sage/Sorc stand out but the other two healing classes are practically clones. They both sport quick, burst heals, moderate heals over time, and very limited AoEs. There are of course, slight differences. For example, the trooper can provide a defensive buff with a certain healing combo. But what is the intended difference between these two healers? What are the roles of each?

[DARTHbeTa]

Will the Augmentation Slot Component Kits (MK #1-6) be able to be attained by RE-ing pieces only crafted in 1.3 or can they be attained on crafted pieces regardless of when they were crafted? Thank you Edited June 10, 2012 by DARTHbeTa

[Vitas]

Currently there's no way to distinguish whether a quest given by an NPC is either a normal one or a heroic until after ontaining it. Could there be a much simplier way to help players keep track of heroics? There could be a blue icon above an NPC which denotes a heroic and even better, a green one for previously completed ones.

[Jerro]

So whats up with the free transfers from RP servers? You cant really be serious do you? I mean basically there is two kind of servers PVE and PVP. I havnt noticed any different kind of ruleset on RP servers, only the different tags?

[Kozzmozz]

I would like to know some upcoming stuff about companions and if the system will change i.e. like the affection system? will this be more random or will it keep static at certain points like it is now? Will we see stuff as divorces, more dialogue options after you reached maximum affection , generally some more love there would be great!

 

thx

[MostWantedJedi]

Will there be a fix implemented for players who join PVP in a 'party' to automatically rejoin the 'party' after the PVP? It is frustrating having to re-invite players after each match.

[Forthepie]

Are players who decided to "reroll" on different servers going to have to pay to unite their characters or are you going to allow them one move after the first phase of transfers?

 

I'd like to know the answer to this as well. I have an Imperial Server (my main server) then I rolled my Republic side characters on another server. The problem I have is I want to move a high level character from the Republic server, to the Imperial, so this answer is important to me.

 

Also, I would like to hear the answer to this one:

 

Is there a plan on making legacy items and birthright items actually useable and worth 200 daily commendations? They are set for a specific narrow level range and should either be moddable or scale with level to become useful as far as I see it.

 

In its current state these items doenst make any sense.

 

As someone with lots of alts I want to be able to gear them with the stuff my level 50's have access to, so spending credits and/or commendations on something that is useless after a couple levels makes me sad.

[applekirks]

I briefly recall that there was some works about datacron being legecy wide. Is that coming in 1.3 or still in the process ?

[Staris]

It had been mentioned early on that server transfers where going to start out free with limited options like it has be stated recently as being the case and a paid transfer later that had less restriction, is this still the plan.

 

Another thing to clarify though it hasn't been stated the assumption being that servers will combine based off or server type (pve, pvp) and region (west, east, etc).

 

The reason I ask is I have characters on a west coast server and the server I want to transfer to is part of the east coast meaning with the assumption stated my characters will unlikely be able to get to the server I want as a part of the free option.

[Sorus]

When can we expect more diversity with playable races in game? Models for droid, wookie, and many other races are already available for player companions and NPC's, why not for players as well? These races should have been offered in the Legacy unlock instead of the current race unlocks available.

[DarthNuke]

- Will players that have been stuck on dead servers be given any free play time?

- How do you explain the PTS debacle blaming your players for filling out a form wrong?

- When can we expect a nerf to Pyro Powertechs?

- When can we expect a nerf to Marauders?

- Why didn't youse guys manually transfer people from epically low server pops?

- What is the justification for the Tank Shadow/Sin nerfs?

- When will Deception/Infiltration trees be fixed/reworked?

- Is there a plan to allow Sin/Shadow the ability to trade in their tank PVP gear for DPS gear due to the nerf?

- When will youse guys give Scoundrels/Operative their giggle back?

- Why so many same faction warzones? This does not promote faction balance.

- Are we ever going to get real "speeders"? In their current state, I call them "slowers".

[Vangg]

Hello. It was announced recently that we can look forward to a new planet to explore in the near future! With that in mind, I am wanting to ask: Do you have any plans to update/fix the current codex system? It would be great to have the ability to locate and unlock all of the current planet codex entries (Bestiary, Titles, Species, etc.) before we are given a whole new planet to explore with its own codex entries.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my question!

[Celise]

Selection of questions;

 

1. Will space combat be expanded on from a sort of 3d scroller to something that can used in PVP fights?

Edited June 10, 2012 by Celise

[lexiekaboom]

16 man operations are still much harder then 8 man, and drop no better loot. In the first (or maybe second) ever Q&A you answered a question about this (by your truly) by saying you had plans to re-balance the operations and the design goal was for new operations to be easier in 16 man (given the inherent difficulty of finding a 16 man group) but that answer doesn't even appear in the official Q&A summarize

 

With "the next operation" now live in game and MUCH harder on 16 man then 8 man, can you please talk about what the goals behind this is, why 16 people have to try harder to get the same loot as 8 people, and what happened to that Q&A? Thanks!

[beelzebram]

I have noticed the implementation of some customization options to blend the look of gear to a color pallet, in a few other games they have a dual color option for each piece of gear and costume or tailor shops where you can go to make these changes. Will we ever see a variable customization option for color and or general look control for our gear?

[Alodar]

There is an age old question for Hybrid Guardians: "Which mitigates more damage: Commanding Awe or Blade Barrier?"

 

They keep changing so we still get to discuss it.

 

Patch 1.3 changed Blade Barrier so that "The amount absorbed by Blade Barrier now scales properly based on character stats."

Commanding Awe when fully specced absorbs 4% of all damage plus an additional 15% of (all?) damage when Focused Defence is active. (Does this still work if you don't have the focus to maintain the healing effect?)

 

 

My question for the fine BioWare folks who are reading this thread:

 

Could you please fully explain the mechanics of Blade Barrier and Commanding Awe and its Focused Defense bonus under 1.3 so I can make an educated decision on how to spend the last 2 points for my hybrid Guardian?

 

 

 

Still having a blast with this game,

Alodar

Edited June 11, 2012 by Alodar

[CountPrinky]

A set date on server merges?

 

Social gear schematics?

 

PvP Legacy unlocks?

 

Heritage classes (Advanced classes "Jedi/Bounty Hunter")?

[DarthSabreth]

Is there any chance that BW will add single player dailies to the game? i really liked the Rakghoul dailies but they were only temporary. dont take this the wrong way the heroics are great but i would like some single player dailies just to fill in the blanks of the day.

 

BW SWTOR is an awsume game, keep up the great job

[SAtaarcoeny]

Is there any chance of you guys making the win loss stats view-able by everyone?

 

I have asked around and it seems to be a big want among the community. only seeing a rating is not enough. thank you and i hope it wont be hard to implement.

[Zarathrus]

Are there plans to release another build of the 1.3 patch to the PTS before it goes live?

[jdawgcool]

If you can't reveal info for the July free trial now, when CAN we hear more info about the July free trial (like release date, or what limitations will apply to the July free trial)? Please let us know.

[MusedMoose]

I apologize if this has been asked before; I didn't read through the whole thread.

 

Will anything be done about random item drops with inappropriate stats? I keep getting medium armor drops with Cunning along with Shield and/or Defense rating, and those last two are stats a Smuggler doesn't use, as the class can't tank. I also get assault cannons with Cunning on them, which makes no sense at all. I understand that random drops are indeed supposed to be random, but drops like these might as well just be grey items with a higher value.

 

Thanks for your time.

Edited June 11, 2012 by MusedMoose

[Eshalant]

I've been following the community news "Class changes and balance in Game Update 1.3" and I would appreciate it if someone could explain the reasoning for the following...

 

We’ve spent a lot of time playtesting and investigating the concerns of the community, and while Commando/Mercenary damage is largely on target, prior to Game Update 1.3, resource management made performance streaky and a little too unreliable.

 

We’ve made the following changes to the Commando/Mercenary for Game Update 1.3 to improve resource management and simplify stack upkeep for Gunnery/Arsenal specs:

 

Cell Charger/Terminal Velocity has been redesigned to passively restore 1 energy cell/vent 8 heat every 6 seconds.

 

Right now Cell Charger generates 1 ammo on critical hits with rounds and full ammo every 3 seconds. My critical chance is currently ~30% without the smuggler buff (35% with). Applying a little basic probability...

 

I have a 57.75% chance of generating an ammo in 3 seconds and a 82.15% chance in 6 seconds OR LESS. (This is only on single hit 1.5sec cast rounds only; the probability goes up if you consider the use of full ammo)

 

In short, some 80% of the time I would expect to be worse off with the new Cell Charger change. This means I will be using hammer shot MORE OFTEN and "Curtain of Fire" will proc full auto LESS OFTEN.

 

I'll admit that some of the other changes appear to be slight buffs to damage, but my worry here can be summed up in one short thought...

 

Isn't this exactly the opposite of improving resource management and making damage less streaky?

[Desoull]

Any new plans for expaniding guild options? the guild features when the game was launched, was so high, but it still feels like any other MMO, where the guild is "just" a huge group chat. Really would be nice to see a lot more features for the guilds.

 

Are the unused commendations earned from the different planets ever going to be usefull, for something fun? If i remember corect, one of devs, Said we would be able to Exchange Them into something fun in the later patch or updates?

Edited June 11, 2012 by Desoull