Darth Hater

Daniel Erickson
BioWare can't really invent anything on their own. Anything they do has to come from LucasArts and get the ok first. So more likely BioWare asked LucasArts for a new planet to add and what they wanted it to look like and this is what they came back with.

Hey Folks,

For clarity, this isn't the way development on The Old Republic works. Lucasfilm is an extremely open and generous licensor and while they do provide feedback and have veto power, all initial design, concept art, etc comes from BioWare.

Lucasfilm is concerned about us staying true to the brand and the legacy of Star Wars. As huge Star Wars fans, we rarely have issues. When we expand worlds that have small or even miniscule pre-existing entries in the official lore (Voss, Belsavis, etc) it's because of the creative direction we decided on long ago, which is basically a love note to everything Star Wars. When we create a world entirely from scratch, as in the case of Quesh, it's because we couldn't find a world that fit our needs exactly.

Yes, that means you can also blame everything on us.

Hope that helps!

Daniel

Stephen Reid
I'd like to see a gameplay demo but viewable from every party member (like the last one but instead of just seeing it from behind the consular, I'd like to see a separate video through the screen of each party member). I'd also like to see a different configuration (such as a smuggler healing and a shadow doing dps) and I'd like to see companions in the mix. Don't care if it's a pvp encounter, a raid or small flashpoint, I just want to see the group synergy from all points of view.

We're thinking along the same lines. Trickier than you might think but fingers crossed.

You will not probably answer me, however I would like to ask you if you dont think its a bit out of place to say "we cant show you gameplay" with only several months prior to launch.

See the next response...

what he meant by that is that you won't get to choose what kind of gameplay they will show you , it might be pvp,raids,high lvl content, or just another class gameplay so you will get to see gameplay but you wont get to choose what kind !

That's correct. Don't worry, you'll see gameplay on video, and even get to game your play... uh... play the game if you come to the show.

I was looking at some, ok all of the video's in the trailer tab and noticed something I would like or would have an oppurtunity to purchase at Pax. Any clothing with the SWTOR logo on them.

We probably won't have anything to purchase, but hopefully we'll have some cool stuff to give away.

Georg Zoeller
At this point in development, the combat design of Star Wars: The Old Republic does not include an auto attack feature and the flow of combat is designed around this fact.

A number of associated facts to help your discussion:

• Basic attack sequences in Star Wars: The Old Republic generally consist of multiple blaster bolts or strikes, so you don't click-spam attacks. We call these attacks 'flurries'.


• The actual number of flurries during a basic combat cycle against a normal creature is generally low, we try to put an emphasis on special attacks instead.


• As a result, an auto attack feature becomes unnecessary, since you chain few flurries together and often switch up your combat routine to deal with emergent issues during a fight.


• You can definitely shoot on the run (or backpaddle and shoot on those following you).


• Fine print: We reserve the right to change this design, like any other, based on feedback from those currently in Game Testing and potentially from community commentary. At this point, such a decision seems unlikely however, as testers have been commenting very favorably on this aspect of the combat system so far.

Thanks for reading.

Georg Zoeller
If someone really wants to play a game, forcing them not to play for a while will eventually kill their enthusiasm for playing at all.

This.

There are definitely penalties to death, but they do not involve 'undoing' a player's previous achievements (e.g. negative XP), hampering future progress (e.g. XP debt) or forcing the player to sit by unable to play the game they have paid for (e.g. forced timeouts).

Sorry if anyone expected us to do something really hardcore here - we just don't believe that punishing the player harshly is good design.

Plus, there are only so many times we can allow players to become 'more powerful than you can possibly imagine' before even our imaginations fail us

Georg Zoeller
Another note:

You are never idle in combat - there is no situation where you just stand there waiting, unable to do anything (unless you are stunned that is).

Damion Schubert
I see a lot of posts saying things like 'death should have sting', or 'players should feel death'. We agree! However that being said, miscalibrating your death penalties can very insidiously destroy your game from the inside out.

We don't want people to ignore the cost of death, but at the same time, we also don't want players to avoid taking chances. We want them to take risks. We want them to try wacky new strategies, and exotic new builds. We want them to wonder if maybe they can solo that boss creature. In the name of creating a sense of fear and risk, overly harsh death penalties can inadvertently make people stop taking them.

To wit: too harsh death penalties can create grinding. If death sucks too much, players will stop taking on higher level creatures or even equal level creatures, and instead only take on creatures that are lower level than them - even though those creatures carry far less reward, the fact that they offer far less risk, might make them seem safer and more efficient to the player. Of course, now the player is fighting boring, ultimately non-threatening enemies, and is being bored to death.

Harsh death penalties can disincentivize grouping. I'm sure we've all been in some pretty bad groups in our MMO playing. How likely are you to group with a healer or tank that you don't know if the penalty for failure is disastrous? How hard is it for new players to learn the skills they need to contribute to groups if other group members feel they can't risk taking on a new guy?

Harsh drop penalties (i.e. you lose all your stuff when you die) can result in players leaving their best epix in the bank all the time. Sure, you'll PROBABLY win fully decked out in ph4t purples, but what if you don't? And just like that, your epic purple lightsaber is something you only ever equip at the bank... just in case.

Harsh death penalties can create flavor of the month builds. If death isn't something disastrous, players will take risks and find new and exotic builds in the skill tree that continue to reinvent the game (and challenge the combat design team). But if death is too harsh, more players will feel they have to go with a cookie-cutter template they found on a website, because it's just not worth the risk if your wacky idea is wrong.

Harsh death penalties can ultimately force designers to make the game easier. If it takes 10 minutes to respawn after a fight or the dungeon becomes inaccessible, for example, it dramatically limits the ability for players to repeat the fight and learn it. This forces designers to make the fight easier so that a reasonable percentage of the players can succeed.

Ultimately, we want players to play the freakin' game. We want them to group. We want them to deck out in their gear. We want them to experiment with builds. We want them to explore the nether regions of all the planets. We want to make really hard stuff for them. And we most assuredly want them to seek out challenges bigger than themselves.

Does that mean we want the game to be a cakewalk? No, we want there to be tough fights. We want there to be complex fights that might take multiple tries to get right. We want to put in challenges for groups of players that require good tactics, good teamwork and flawless execution to pull off. But I would seperate the idea of 'challenge' and 'punishment'. I would rather our challenges be gated by whether or not you have the skill, the gear, and the teamwork to succeed than whether or not you have the credits and/or time to wait out the forced downtime in between, you know, the fun part.