Official Q&A Thread for July 20th Blog Post

[jedimaster-mde]

is there a chance of seeing more new companions in the future?

[YTPeregrine]

Greetings Devs,

 

The general consensus amongst the Scoundrel community is that the Dirty Fighting and Scrapper specializations are extremely underpowered in PvP, and even more so in PvE. Is there a plan to change these specializations and make them somewhat viable?

 

Thanks for your time.

[whyteshark]

Would Bioware ever consider swapping classes from one faction to the other? I am thinking that the Republic will get the Bounty Hunter and the Empire will get Smugglers (since these classes can be easily cross factioned). The stories stay the same, just change factions.

 

On that note, you need to increase character slots too (try 16 slots instead of 8).

[GooseGrims]

What was the reason for using the "Holy Trinity" system instead of something that would feel more like Star Wars?

I never read the books so not sure if they did thier, but i never saw any jedi magically heal a friendly in the movies.

Also are there any plans to make the Op's feel more like Star Wars? In the movies they would always split up to achieve different goals, i didnt see Luke, Laya, Han, Obi-won, and chewy all beating on Vader at the end.

[Soyuz]

Will we see some Server Faction events? such as planetary objectives that when seized by a faction will bring said planet under faction control, granting like a buff or maybe access to vendors? I feel like you guys have done a really good job separating the faction quest zones. something like an event like the one previously suggested I feel could ramp up world pvp participation.

[venomlash]

I'm a fan of the clean, well-matched appearance presented by crafted sets of orange armor. Can we expect to see more such sets coming out in the near future? Would be nice to have more options...

[TheTheifLord]

Will their be any new color crysrals added to the game? Like maybe gray, viridian, rainbow, clear, brown, gold, black, and maybe have all these be schematics for artfice crafters? Also, will their any events like maybe a dueling tournament, pazzack, and speeder or pod racing? And when we remove anything from armor why do we have to pay to remove that mod/crstysal/armoring/misc? Since the stuff in the armor is bound why should their be a cost to remove the piece you want to put into the orange gear you want?

[Rogoo]

What's the status of engine optimization ? I'm asking specifically about high-end rigs.

[Comstrike]

When will space combat, quests, and content be seriously discussed.

 

Or if that isn't politically correct enough:

 

Please justify why the existing space combat is superior to a more robust system, such as was featured in the previous Star Wars MMORPG?

[scullzomben]

With the numerous amount of daily, weekly and achievement quests building up in our logs, as well as other miscellaneous bits and pieces, my quest log fills up nice and quick, making it difficult to do dailies. Are you looking at expanding on the current limit of 25 quests? Possibly to 40?

[drwranck]

Are there any plans for allowing training in different weapon types?

 

Considering weapons are really just shell you put your mods into, none are more powerful than the other, the system is skill-based. I would love to see my Powertech wield a Blaster riffle, my Operative a blaster pistol (like in all cinematics) my Vanguard a Techsword, my Mercenary a Techstaff..... you get the point, more versatility!! And for those saying that it would not fit the lore or the actual content, think about all our companions; Kaliyo =blaster riffle, Malavai=blaster pistol, Vector=electrostaff, Torian=techstaff, Skadge=techsword......

[Aidalyn]

Would it be possible to keep a new questions thread open at all times instead of leaving it closed for the majority of the week? For instance, you closed last week's questions thread on Monday afternoon, but you didn't open a new thread until you posted the completed Q&A late Friday afternoon. This schedule ends up excluding your weekday forum audience (myself included) from stopping by to ask questions.

 

So when you close this July 20 Q&A questions thread next Monday, would you please consider immediately opening a new July 27 Q&A questions thread on that same Monday? That way, your Monday-Thursday night forum audience doesn't have to set a weekend alarm clock reminder just to be a participant in this exercise.

 

Thanks!

[ArdoNorrin]

With Windows 8 only 3 months away (October), I have two questions: 1) Will SWTOR support Windows 8 at the new OS's launch? 2) Windows 8 is designed to take advantage of touch-screen PCs (desktops in addition to tablets). Will there be any UI options for touch devices in the pipe?

 

Thanks!

[clearsighted]

Do devs believe that the Merc version of the Pyro tree and the Powertech version of the Pyro are roughly comparable? It seems to most players that there is a fantastic gulf between the utility of flame burst, in its auto-application of a damaging DoT and proccing rail shot, compared to the uselessness of power shot. Especially on a 2 second cast.

[MimicUnleashed]

Last time you'd mentioned the role you saw for the Deception Assassin. As my main is a Vigilance Guardian I was wondering if we're in line with how you see us. I ask this because a lot of Guardian tanks I see are using Vigilance as the majority of their points, and during such encounters as Toth and Zorn I take a lot more damage than other melee because of no AOE damage reduction. With that in mind, is the spec performing properly as a DPS spec when it lacks a usual DPS tool for survival and appeals so strongly to tanks.

[cs_Kimmo]

I don't see how Deception Assassins could be a problem to anyone, when, for example, I can just use anti-CC, pop Freezing Force and Force Push 'em and be on my way, (or pop Enure+Blade Warding+Combat Focus+Sweep+Awe+Take Leap distance -> Dead Assassin) Not so with operatives who can burst me down to half heallth before I can even move, because even if I use my anti-CC on operatives, half the time because of this game being married with animations rather than the actual casts, my Guardian just stays stuck, disoriented.

 

Since Deception Assassins only have one ability to close gap with, they are a joke in PvP are a joke. What's the idea of only having high burst DPS when you have no utilities besides it? Stealth doesn't help much, it lets your opponent get out of combat and get full health before round 2. Every other high burst DPS class has other tricks in their sleeves, Sentinel/Guardian can leap. Powertech can grapple, Operatives stealth to you, getting the opener 99% of the time and have too many excellent CC abilities, which bug half the time, rendering the opponent's anti-CC useless.

 

I wonder if BioWare ever tests these specs out themselves, or if they just watch normal PUG WZs and try to figure out what to do based on that.

 

TL;DR: Deception Assassins are currently a joke in high-end PvP, and they either need more CC, or something besides Force Speed to close gap with.

Edited July 14, 2012 by cs_Kimmo

[LilTsar]

what determines the op leader in a pvp pug?

[fujeo-finel]

Are there any plans for players to be able to use Tracer Missile with the old pre-1.2 animation?

[wallywaffles]

Does the development team feel that tank gear is appropriate for PvP?

 

Currently it seems more popular to wear damage gear while in a tank stance, and my own experience seems to confirm this. The last time I tested it I got 300k damage and 120k protection in damage gear and 120k damage 150k protection in tank gear. There is a noticeable (small) increase in survivability, but with ranked teams now becoming more established that extra damage is really helpful; taking out an opponent quickly can save more damage than staying alive a bit longer, and it seems like the biggest factor affecting survivability is expertise rather than tank stats.

[Izorii]

Question: You have stated that future species will be comunity decided, with pros and cons for each suggestion. I am guessing it will be time frame, locked romances, locked classes and possible subtitiles instead of voice over. Have the Dev's seen the poll already in place http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=479757 and what do they think about the top 5 choices would these all be possible and do we have any hope of seeing them before the end of the year.

 

Extra info: I am sure I am not the only one who feels in limbo where I dont want to make any new characters because I dont want to ruin the class story if a species I want to play comes out, and I also dont see much point in doing much grinding of end game content because I would lose it all if a species I want comes out I will re roll and lose everything. I know this makes me the perfect player a guy who pays but hardly plays eventually I will wise up and release there is no point in paying if there is no chance a species I want to play will be introduced.

[ARRGGHHH]

Do you have any plans to make hard mode versions of all flashpoints? Simpliest ones could go to the tier 0 for exmpl.

[Grinstone]

Do you have any plans to do something like turn spaceports more into living entities? In this specific example I envision something like direct spaceport to spaceport transportation (for people who don't want to continually bounce onto and off their ship) and ships & passengers coming and going, so it looks more like an active spaceport rather than a fancy PC-only car park.

[Goldenstar]

Will we be getting any sort of update on the status of the super secret space project in the near future? Edited July 14, 2012 by Goldenstar

[SwordSaint]

I would really want to know if you want to change bound to legacy bound cause it'll be nice to give alts some gear that main used then lvling (ex. Blaster that faithully served father will be given to son ) and those items from hm fp and ops is bound on pick up so it cannot be given to alt so it's worthless(especialy schemantics).

P.S. I really don't like the idea to grind for gear with 8 alts to have possibility fill any role on any side in groups with different chars.

[Parthenon]

A while back, after the backlash Bioware got from a multitude of players who found the armors that were introduced with 1.2 pretty disappointing to say the least, you guys stated that you realized the players were more interested in simpler, more "Star Wars" looking armors at high levels and that you planned to shift your focus for armor design in the future, but it would be a while before we saw the changes implemented. It's been a few months, so can you provide us with any updates on the new direction the art is taking? Some concept art, maybe?