Galactic Command - Dark vs Light Livestream

[bannsider]

Hey folks,

 

Tomorrow will be our overview of the Dark vs Light component of Galactic Command! Tune in at 4pm Central (2PM Pacific) on our twitch channel. Here are the details:

 

When: Thursday, October 20th

When: 4pm Central (2PM Pacific)

Where: https://www.twitch.tv/swtor

 

Ben, Charles, and I will see you there!

 

-eric

 

It was genuinely very thoughtful of you to provide start times for the different US timezones.

 

However I presume you are aware than you have many UK + European subs that have also paid a lot of money to play this game over the years?

 

Virtually all the cantinas, events and most of the promotions (often exclusive to US subs) are US based so I thought I would check that BW still remember about the non US players.

Edited October 20, 2016 by bannsider

[wildantics]

Howdy Eric,

Yupp, me again, but maybe 3rd time's the charm.

(I posted a few more pressing questions in the 5.0 gear discussion thread so I hope that is still being monitored for inclusion.)

 

Ranked PvP will have a valor requirement before one can que for it in Galactic Command. This is an understandable limitation but a great use for CXP reward doubles on gear is a mirrored class in the other faction or an alt of the same advanced class. I would hope that the valor level is set high enough that it limits players to decent skill levels but not so high that an alt will have a extremely long grind to qualify. However, this question is actually about a similar limitation for operations.

 

1. Will there be any requirements before a player qualifies to que for Master Level, Temple of Sacrifice? Would Master Level, ToS, equate to a Nightmare Mode or is Veteran Level somewhere between the former Hard and Story difficulties?

(And does this mean that there technically is new raid content, as all operations have 3 difficulty levels? WHHHaaaaT! /getdown ^_^)

 

2. If Hard Mode and Story Mode are no longer used, will completion achievements be transferred to the new classifications or will they be archived?

 

3. Chapters: Any chance of adding Master difficulty to class story chapters or planetary stories that we can play solo?

 

There is some really great voice acted content in there that many of us spaced through or have never gone back to complete. Personally, I have always intended to go back and actually try to get some immersion but either my toon or their complain being significantly OP has always broken that fourth wall relatively quickly. Fighting big baddy Arcann on Master Level might bring me to run that whole story a second time and actually pay attention for once. The same is true for class and planetary stories. (and they have some of the best best romances /winkwinknodnod)

 

Aloha

Edited October 20, 2016 by wildantics
added a Q

[TheRandomno]

2. If Hard Mode and Story Mode are no longer used, will completion achievements be transferred to the new classifications or will they be archived?

 

If it's just a renaming and nothing else, I think it's safe to assume the achievement will be the same.

[Costello]

Question for Charles.

 

Is Lana a Traitor or grossly incompetent? To illustrate my point:

 

In prelude to SOR Lana is the second in command for a Traitor and supported his efforts. When things go wrong she reaches out to a Republic SIS agent and child of two of the republics greatest heroes (possibly her handler). When accused of treason rather than refute the accusation she goes on the run with the SIS agent.

 

In SOR she works closely with the Republic SIS agent.

 

On Ziost she promotes

a two time Republic Spy

to be her second in command. clearly she is either incompetent or has a thing for working with the republic (perhaps inline with her handlers instruction).

 

In Kotfe, she recruits a traitor to your cause who steals your flag ship

(I understand it no longer matters what choices you make Koth will take the Gravestone at some point in Kotet and there is nothing you can do)

 

 

 

She also recruits a traitor to your cause that saves your mortal enemy and takes him to safety away from your vengeance, betraying you.

 

I am fairly certain she is also supportive of SCORPIO through out and may have been in agreement with her recruitment, who betrays you and tries to kill you numerous times.

 

As you are about to assault the enemy she lures you into a seclude spot to allow Valkorian to attack you, almost getting you killed and ruining the assault. (Is she such a turn coat that she has now thrown her allegiance in with Valkorian and Zakuul rather than her previous masters in the republic).

 

She lies to you about the state of HK-55 saying he can't be repaired when in fact he can, to try and get you to lose a trusted ally and not get him fixed losing a body guard and making you more vulnerable.

 

Of the alliance leaders she recruits to your cause, 3 are known republic supporters and one is a Voss Mystic who is no fan of the Empire. How does she have more contacts in the republic than in the Empire to reach out to. (Is this at her Handlers instruction, at this point it doesn't appear she has thrown in completely with Zakuul).

 

If she is not actively working against you, I don't think she could have done a better job if she was trying. Making her either a traitor or so incredibly stupid and incompetent she is a greater threat to the Alliance than Vaylin. So will she be held to account for her actions?

[DarthEnrique]

Reading is hard?

 

 

 

You just choose whether you L or D before queing (or something) for content. That's it. That D and L character influence has nothing to do with that thing.

 

And story choices meant in KOTFE/KOTET, since all of them not marked neither dark nor light.

 

At least i hope thats how it will work.

 

Read your quote, it says by each server also:

 

These Dark and Light side choices will influence the balance of the two sides of the Force on each server, reflected on the dark vs. light side meter shown at the bottom of the Galactic Command interface. As one side begins to dominate, players will begin to see the impact all around them. For example, if the dark side is growing stronger (i.e. reaching “Dark 4”), suddenly players may see Sith Acolytes begin spawning and attacking Alderaan and Tatooine! Keep your eyes open as your efforts change the galaxy around you.

 

To be declared the winner of the dark vs. light side war, one side must reach “Dark 5” or “Light 5”. Upon winning, a few things will happen on the server based on your character’s alignment. If your character is aligned with the winning side (e.g., your character is dark side, and the dark side won the war on your server), you will reap the following benefits:

 

Bonus Command Experience points earned

Access to a special cosmetic item vendor

If your character’s alignment matches the losing side (e.g., your character is light side, and the light side lost the war), they will receive the following benefits:

 

A bonus to all light side points earned

Your galaxy will remain in a “victory state” for a period of time before the war resets. However, this time, the losing side will have an advantage to try to swing the balance back in their favor.

 

Galactic Command offers ongoing challenges and rewards every time you log in to play Star Wars: The Old Republic. Whether you are playing alone in your favorite gameplay mission to gain Command Rank, or joining with other players or Guilds to win the Dark vs Light side war, Galactic Command will keep you fighting for control of your galaxy !

 

Not cool. This is just as bad as the Dark Vs. Light Event companion where I want the dark sided companion but everyone else is taking that away from me because the light side is winning when it should be whichever toons I made the most dark sided choices on or light sided choices on.

Edited October 20, 2016 by DarthEnrique

[valeita]

It was genuinely very thoughtful of you to provide start times for the different US timezones.

 

However I presume you are aware than you have many UK + European subs that have also paid a lot of money to play this game over the years?

 

Virtually all the cantinas, events and most of the promotions (often exclusive to US subs) are US based so I thought I would check that BW still remember about the non US players.

 

They never cared, for 5 years we begged them to do EU maintenace at a more decent time.

[Xina_LA]

Please mention strongholds, even if the answer is "not yet".

 

Hopefully this new GC and LvD stuff will tie into them somehow, to keep them useful.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Xina_LA

[TUXs]

Fear not, we are reading your feedback and will continue to address it when we can either on the livestream or here on the forums.

 

-eric

That's good to hear. There's no possible way you could have missed the RNG issue, so I look forward to hearing you address that.

[IanArgent]

That's good to hear. There's no possible way you could have missed the RNG issue, so I look forward to hearing you address that.

 

Dunno if they'll address it tonight other than "we hear you."

[DarthDymond]

Dunno if they'll address it tonight other than "we hear you."

^ Almost certainly this.

 

Even if they are taking the complaints to heart, I expect we'll probably have another week or two of "we are hearing your feedback and passing it along" being the only answer they can give while they take stock and come up with potential alternatives.

 

They're not going to commit to dropping any aspect of the feature until they have an alternative to that aspect ready to announce in its place.

Edited October 20, 2016 by DarthDymond

[IanArgent]

^ Almost certainly this.

 

Even if they are taking the complaints to heart, I expect we'll probably have another week or two of "we are hearing your feedback and passing it along" being the only answer they can give while they take stock and come up with potential alternatives.

 

They're not going to commit to dropping any aspect of the feature until they have an alternative to that aspect ready to announce in its place.

 

If they try and substantively answer this, then I'd be worried they're panicking. And if they're panicking, they're not going to be thinking straight, and less likely to deliver a finished product.

[PlasmaJohn]

If they try and substantively answer this, then I'd be worried they're panicking. And if they're panicking, they're not going to be thinking straight, and less likely to deliver a finished product.

If they aren't already in oh-**** mode I'd find that far more chilling.

[IanArgent]

If they aren't already in oh-**** mode I'd find that far more chilling.

 

There's a difference between "all hands on deck" and "oh #$&*!"

 

I've lived that difference at work a couple of times.

[bncsmom]

Twenty minutes wasted. The twitch thing wouldn't work for me so all I had was a bunch of scrolling chatters to watch. Waste of time.

[TheRandomno]

Twenty minutes wasted. The twitch thing wouldn't work for me so all I had was a bunch of scrolling chatters to watch. Waste of time.

 

That sounds like your issue not theirs.

[FlavivsAetivs]

Here's a summary, thanks to Dulfy.

 

http://dulfy.net/2016/10/20/swtor-galactic-command-dvl-livestream-notes/

 

We were planning to do it by having gear drops based on advanced class but we have decided based on community feedback that we would do it based on your discipline instead. When you open a command crate it will now give you loot based on your current discipline.

 

What happens if you keep getting belts? Remember you can pull the mods out. We are not sure if you can rip out the armorings. If you need set bonus you may have to face off against the RNG but we will clarify on that later.

 

Hey Eric, if you're still around, I have a couple questions for you.

 

1. Are you getting feedback on the "RNG" drop rates and loot tables of items from the closed beta, for better balancing of how often items drop?

 

2. Alternatively, is it possible that it might be changed so armorings can be removed and retain their set bonus, as currently they cannot?

 

I look forward to your further clarifications Eric. The change to base the drops on discipline is a step in the right direction.

 

~ Eudoxia

Edited October 20, 2016 by FlavivsAetivs

[Tharandil]

I won the walker in he latest live stream, but so far no-one has contacted me via twitch.

Who do I need to contact to get the reward? @ericmusco

[XhrisShan]

How will we obtain the Shae Vizla and Master Ranos comps? lv1 tokens (like Nico)? Alliance alerts?

[halmc]

Hey Guys

 

I am so fired up about what is coming up in the new future !!! I think I have now about over 20 toons now !!!!! I love the game.... I have only been playing I think about 9 months now. You guys are so informative !!!!!! I am a disabled 20 yr plus vet who spends a lot of time playing on PC. I hope you continue to broadcast live streams. I have a question about the live stream what discussion chat do I get in to win ? Also, my health was bad and I down a couple months so I did not subscribe. I am a great big fan of HK when I found out I missed it and I was so disappointed !!!!!!! I was wondering will you release it for the other subscriber too!!!!! I would also like to see Nico come back since I was not playing when he was released !!!!!

 

Thanks

 

Hal McPherson (USN-ret)

[Tharandil]

How will we obtain the Shae Vizla and Master Ranos comps? lv1 tokens (like Nico)? Alliance alerts?

 

She Vizla is a token but you can do an alliance alert as well, Ranos is probably the same

[Jerba]

My main concern is that - unless I understood it wrong - you must stay logged in when your server is close to winning. On the weekend it may be fine, but when players have work the next day, they can't stay up longer just to get a reward. Or will you have access to this vendor for the whole next day or something?

 

Also, is there an advantage to having your character at Light V or Dark V? To me, it seems like it is better to stay near neutral so that if a side is close to winning, you can quickly change to that side (e.g. via Diplomacy missions) and ensure you will get the CXP bonus. That boost is way more important to me than whether my char is dark or light side; since vanilla I've taken my char from full Light to full Dark and back again a few times just to buy everything from the D/L vendors.

 

Will have to wait and see how the system will play out but I look forward to summoning the guild to a light/dark side enemy and farm tokens (even though most of the time they'll be raiding and don't have time to be summoned).

Edited October 20, 2016 by Jerba

[Reofeir]

My few questions are the following:

 

1: I am assuming bosses will be effected by level scaling? Since level scaling is never perfect, as things designed around this level were in mind for a person having multiple abilities, will the bosses be in higher leveled planets thanks to this or will bosses at least be balanced so even with lower stats they still prove a challenge?

 

2: You said you were still thinking about it but RNG is still a huge factor in gearing. Will you remove the armoring restriction so even if I get a belt i can still put it on a chest piece and get my set bonus?

 

3: I think you answered my question but I'm not sure. Just for clarification if I was to do every content in the game, which is all the SM/HM/NiM ops (meaning doing all the difficulties) and anything else in this game will I hit the cap?

[dipstik]

will alignment override faction in LvD world boss PvP instanced zones?

[XhrisShan]

She Vizla is a token but you can do an alliance alert as well, Ranos is probably the same

Thanks. How do you know?

[Costello]

From the example given in the live stream 'Jedi appearing on Dromund Kass' it sounded a lot like Light and Dark are faction specific. I.e. if an Imperial goes lightside he is supporting Jedi attacking his capital. However you have said that light and dark is not republic vs imperial, does this mean that this example is wrong?

 

I was under the impression that as part of light vs dark, a choice was made to decide which side you were fighting for, from the live stream it appears that it is the characters lightside or darkside score that will determine which side they fight for. So aside from the use of Diplomacy if I wished to side with the Imperial side (Dark) I would be forced to make darkside choices in the story to maintain my darkside score to maintain my alligence to my faction. This seems to trivalise any choices made in the story as I have to pick the choice that maintains my dark/light score which may not be the choice I wish to make.

 

With the 15 min points review and possibly an hour victory, are you tuning dark and light conflict into something of a joke. Oh look Light is winning oh look now dark is winning oh and now light is winning etc etc. Rather than feeling like your in a campaign to change the fate of the galaxy towards the light or the dark it turns out its completely meaningless as the winning faction is so interchangeable as to mean very little and have as little impact on anything.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Costello