January Producer Live Stream Wrap-up

[Barleron]

...

I know you don't want to say anything concrete and such, but we really want to know: Is there going to be an Operation coming out on or before the final chapter of KotFE?

 

^^^ This. And, I would add the question: will there be any new FPs prior to final chapter of KotFE??

[GrandLordMenace]

Hey folks,

 

One of the questions that came up on the stream was around Loot in Nightmare Operations. I said I would post the answer on the forums after the stream, so here is the update that I have.

 

Starting in Game Update 4.1 (with Chapter X) the final boss in a Nightmare Operation will now have a 100% chance to drop a 224 item. All other bosses in the Op will still have a chance to drop 224, but it is not guaranteed.

 

-eric

 

Yo buddy

 

Eric. Do you really think that you making it so that DF NiM can drop anywhere from 1-5 224 pieces is fair when EV HM drops any at all and is 2000x easier?

 

I'll make it simple for you guys and make a loot system that adheres to your philosophy, or a better one.

 

OPTION A: Current Philosophy

 

Highlighted HM and Highlighted Nightmare are now a thing! A second Operations Priority Target Console has been added! Highlighted Nightmare Modes give 224 as well as hard mode, but at double the rate! Additionally, additional Dark Matter Catalysts have a 5% chance of spawning off every boss. Regular Nightmare gives 220s with a chance at 224s. Highlighted Nightmare Modes also prevent the usage of the Gree deep space bullsh it crystal

 

Option B: SANER PHILOSOPHY

 

Nightmare gives 224s. Obliterate Gree Crystal from game. Done deal.

Edited January 15, 2016 by GrandLordMenace

[Nepthen]

Do people actually use that crystal thing? One time use that you can lose if you get DC'd or accidentally rez at the Med Center... and it's a pain to craft.

[Krisma]

Eternal Championship sounds interesting.

[znihilist]

Hey folks,

 

One of the questions that came up on the stream was around Loot in Nightmare Operations. I said I would post the answer on the forums after the stream, so here is the update that I have.

 

Starting in Game Update 4.1 (with Chapter X) the final boss in a Nightmare Operation will now have a 100% chance to drop a 224 item. All other bosses in the Op will still have a chance to drop 224, but it is not guaranteed.

 

-eric

 

Unacceptable, you are 4 bosses short of a better answer.

[GrandLordMenace]

Do people actually use that crystal thing? One time use that you can lose if you get DC'd or accidentally rez at the Med Center... and it's a pain to craft.

 

People have used it, and people will use it. People that have money and want the vanity items were willing to pay millions for a lot of these items, so the crystals aren't exactly super dooper expensive for them if it means making it easier for them to get an item from a sale run or something.

 

Also, Bioware if this game survives you need to hire someone in house who has actual playing experience and understands what the community wants to like, check these things. Then again said person would be so stifled by you guys he/she would become a vegetable.

Edited January 15, 2016 by GrandLordMenace

[Billupsat]

Don't blame the messenger. I hate it as much as anyone else does...but it's not Eric's fault.

 

Precisely. I'd like to see the people clamoring for his head to do his job for one day and not come and post the exact same things. I've got money on all his posts being vetted by marketing before he's even allowed to put them up.

[pooks]

My bet we will see ninja-looters a plenty, exploits of last boss lockouts etc -- please make ignore account-wide

 

hey folks,

 

one of the questions that came up on the stream was around loot in nightmare operations. I said i would post the answer on the forums after the stream, so here is the update that i have.

 

Starting in game update 4.1 (with chapter x) the final boss in a nightmare operation will now have a 100% chance to drop a 224 item. All other bosses in the op will still have a chance to drop 224, but it is not guaranteed.

 

-eric

[Glzmo]

What about chat bubbles? Are they finally in the works and when can we expect them? After over four years, patience is wearing thin...

[Anishor]

What about chat bubbles? Are they finally in the works and when can we expect them? After over four years, patience is wearing thin...

 

Giz, my old friend I think it's time to give up on that one. I think we're more likely to see a swg 2.0 than chat bubbles in tor.

[Rankyn]

Good questions:

• Yes, all crew skills, including Slicing, will have their skill caps increased to 550.
  
• It is you and your Companion.
  

-eric

Will there be achievements associated with these new levels as well?

There always had been before, but then you guys apparently forgot achievements for getting a class to level 65 and crew skills to 500 so will that also be the case for crew skills?

[revcrisis]

On behalf of the entire community: regular, significant class balance updates (monthly or faster).

 

Also, you haven't been experimenting with faster class balance cadence over the past few months. That's a lie.

Yes please. Frequent class balance is a good thing. We'd like significant class balances every month as it makes certain classes viable and increases experimenting with other metas. The current Arena meta is: powertechs, sorcs, snipers, Assassins. That's it. Mercs are not viable, Operatives are not viable, Juggernauts are not viable; if you're playing one of those 3 classes, you're gimping your team. Marauders are viable for hard swaps, that's about it.

 

So yes, frequent class balance is a great thing. We don't need 4 months of over-powered Assassin Tanks using 22k depredating volts that crit with each tick courtesy of Recklessness. How about making the other 2 healer classes viable in Arenas. How about making DPS operative viable. There is literally no competitive Group Ranked team running anything except a Sorcerer healer.

Edited January 15, 2016 by revcrisis

[GrandLordMenace]

Made a post outlining my thoughts and concerns below

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=865801

[FlyingUsPoo]

Hey folks,

 

Thank you for tuning into our Producer Live Stream with Ben and myself. Here is a recap of the things we talked about, for those of you that couldn't tune in.

 

State of the Galaxy

• Group content - We know that group content is something that is very important to you guys. Although we have no further updates at this time on the PvE side, we did talk a bit about the new Warzone which is coming (more on that shortly). Also, we will have even more detailed information on the new Warzone in next month's Producer Live Stream.
  
• GTN Search - Thank you to all of you who helped us gather information on the issue. With that information in hand we were able to resolve the GTN search issues yesterday afternoon.
  
• Events- As mentioned previously on the forums, due to the issues in December we are re-running all three recurring events in January.
  
• Conquest Rewards - By the end of the day today (Austin time) everyone should be receiving their missing Conquest rewards.
  

Changes Since Last Stream

• The Eternal Championship and Bowdaar Recruitment have been moved to coincide with Chapter XI (Update 4.2)
  
• A Blizz Recruitment Mission has been added into Chapter X (Update 4.1)
  
• Reminder that Chapter X is launching on February 11th. Be a subscriber by February 1 to get the HK-55 Jetpack and 2 days of early access.
  

New Information:

Crafting

• Skill increase to 550
  
• New Materials
  
• New craftable Gear and Mods
  
• Mission re-organization
  
• *more details coming via forum posts towards the end of January
  

New Warzone

• Located on Odessen
  
• New Game Mode - King of the Hill
  
• Multiple Hills
  
• Hills randomly spawn
  
• More details coming in the February Producer Live Stream
  

Eternal Championship

• It is a solo challenge
  
• Contains ten encounters
  
• Weekly Missions reward progress
  
• Rare drops from encounters
  
• Recruitment Mission for Bowdaar
  

 

If you have any questions or comments about the things we talked about, feel free to post them in this thread! Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Reported as spam

Edited January 15, 2016 by FlyingUsPoo

[DarthSpuds]

Would it ever be feasible to release content creation tools to crowdsource group content which BW could add suitable ones to the game in a non-canon section? Surely fan made group content which you can look over and add is better than no raid content? Guilds are dying without Ops content, we can't keep players when there's so many other big title games recently released and there's no content for longer term players here..

 

IMO this works very well in games like Neverwinter and STO.

 

In fact the some of the top Foundry Missions in Neverwinter are an order of magnitude better than anything Dev created.

 

Players, especially those passionate about the lore, the game universe and game community, will willingly put in many hours of "build time" for relatively short "play time" payoffs. I know, my best rated foundry mission plays through at approx 20mins (quick) or 35 mins (slow, reading all the lore elements and dialogues) and it took me well over 300 hours build time, in fact one room alone took 60 hours (I then spent another 40 hours systematically destroying it for the next part of the quest chain).

 

Star Wars has tons of "empty space" even on existing planets where PCC (Player Created Content) could be added. Bioware could add a new "Commendation" style token that is rewarded for playing PCC and these could be traded in for Legacy Bound Cosmetics, Stronghold decorations etc. So they would have minimal impact on the existing game economy, but would add many hundreds of hours of content to keep players happy.

 

EDIT: Bioware could even run a monthly / quarterly competition for PCC, with a set theme (as decided by BW), the winner (based on player feedback) could get a Unique Title and perhaps a Mount or something. And it could be monetised - give Content Creators say 4 "Mission Slots" and allow them to buy more with CC. Heck they could even charge a nominal CC Fee for uploading PCC Missions to "Live". Though if they did that there would need to be the ability for PCC to be uploaded to a Test Bed area, perhaps where other Content Creators could help test out the bugs of one another's content (I was part of an informal group for Neverwinter that did exactly that - each of the Authors had at least one "Featured" mission (selected by Neverwinter Devs as being particularly good) and we all committed to playtesting at least 2 "beta" missions for other Authors per week, giving detailed, constructive feedback. This helped drive the Foundry community to be ever improving.

 

All The Best

Edited January 15, 2016 by DarthSpuds

[Eanelinea]

My only guess about why they're meh on Nightmare Ops is because they're actually trying to get people to never do them again, so that they can do to them what they did to EV and KP NIM, completely remove those from them game so they only have to worry about SM and HM.

 

I would assume this is why only the very last boss now will have the 224s guaranteed and the weekly HM will keep giving out 224s like candy.

 

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.

[idnewton]

Hey folks,

 

One of the questions that came up on the stream was around Loot in Nightmare Operations. I said I would post the answer on the forums after the stream, so here is the update that I have.

 

Starting in Game Update 4.1 (with Chapter X) the final boss in a Nightmare Operation will now have a 100% chance to drop a 224 item. All other bosses in the Op will still have a chance to drop 224, but it is not guaranteed.

 

-eric

 

I'm sorry to have to say this, mate;

but in the words of Vemrin: "too little, too late."

The stupidity of this dev team knows no limits,

that conquering Nightmare would yield only tidbits;

why take on an unnecessary load,

when scrubs can outgear us by running Hard Mode.

 

If there's one thing I hate, it's blatant stupidity;

you all know my claims hold substantial validity;

so I don't see why we keep playing this game,

run by fools who tarnish the Bioware name.

- idnewton

Edited January 15, 2016 by idnewton

[Billupsat]

I'm sorry to have to say this, mate;

but in the words of Vemrin: "too little, too late."

The stupidity of this dev team knows no limits,

that conquering Nightmare would yield only tidbits;

why take on an unnecessary load,

when scrubs can outgear us by running Hard Mode.

 

If there's one thing I hate, it's blatant stupidity;

you all know my claims hold substantial validity;

so I don't see why we keep playing this game,

run by fools who tarnish the Bioware name.

- idnewton

 

You think that up all by yourself?

[idnewton]

You think that up all by yourself?

Yep lol, I originally only posted the first two lines (slightly differently) but I decided this hilarious BW response merited more.

[orangenkaiser]

................. Edited January 15, 2016 by orangenkaiser

[Fellow-Canadian]

Regarding class balance changes:

 

Small updates a lot more often is the best approach to class design. Waiting several months for needed class balance changes is too long if you're sitting on changes that could improve the game.

[biffmasterr]

I hope some of this "NEW GEAR" is better than the garbage we got with the expansion.

 

I'M a Trooper and in no way do I EVER need or want a Cape.

 

and we just had the MK kits changed. now we went to MK-8 and your changing them.

 

Great more credits down the drain.

[Xo-Lara]

I hope that with this crafting skill increase comes the ability to run missions for rank 6 companion gifts.

[Icestar]

now we went to MK-8 and your changing them.

 

Great more credits down the drain.

 

Is it actually confirmed that the new augments will be MK-9?

[MuskyBoy]

Hey folks,

 

One of the questions that came up on the stream was around Loot in Nightmare Operations. I said I would post the answer on the forums after the stream, so here is the update that I have.

 

Starting in Game Update 4.1 (with Chapter X) the final boss in a Nightmare Operation will now have a 100% chance to drop a 224 item. All other bosses in the Op will still have a chance to drop 224, but it is not guaranteed.

 

-eric

 

I'm pretty sure the dev team is just trolling us now.