Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid took to Reddit yesterday to answer anything he could about Star Wars: The Old Republic, his role at BioWare, and his experience with the game's launch. After the jump are highlights of a shortened recap of the Q&A, thanks to Reddit user Chossi_lah. If you would like to see the discussion in full, visit the AMA post on Reddit.
Highlights
Hey! It has been discussed internally, and we’ll talk about it publicly soon. It’s not a simple issue so we don’t want to issue a quick, off-the-cuff response.
Q: Can you tell us what your plans are for guild banks and guild capital ships?
Guild banks and guild ‘housing’ (of some type; ships are most popular as people know) are both on the list for future development. As always it’s a question of priorities and so on, but they’re definitely discussed. I will say that guild banks are higher priority.
Q: Any idea if the space sections will expand to include PvP or grouping?
I have an idea. Can’t share it though. ;)
Q: I’d love to know tons more about the legacy system.
We absolutely know people want to know more about the Legacy System and when the time is right, you’ll know. :)
Q: How much of a priority is the Mod API to bioware?
The UI team is going to work on improving the existing UI first before we look at modding it. Modding may happen, but we have no ETA on ‘when’ that we can share right now.
Q: Any thoughts of letting us play “sabaac” or “pazaak” against others or a house for credits?
Those games are fondly remembered by many team members from KotOR. :)
Q: Lots of PVP questions for you Stephen:
Gabe and his team are working hard on PvP and have plenty of tweaks and changes in the works. We’re going to try and share some of their thoughts and objectives soon if we can. Also while I know it’s a pat answer – please do post feedback like this in our Forums. We read them and the development team reads them. :)
Q: Can we please get a more functional AH/Galactic Trade Market?
Improvements will come to the GTN in time, definitely.
Q: Are there plans to add more vanity pets and non-mechanical mounts to the game?
More pets – yes. Non-mechanical mounts – maybe, it’s a technical challenge, I’ve been told.
Q: Will there be the ability to raise/lower hoods on Jedi Robes via a command?
We know this is wanted, but it’s more work than you might expect. It may come in the future.
Q: What will it take for us to get offical server forums?
Send a stack of unmarked bills to… ;) We were talking about this just today; it’s still under discussion. From our perspective there’s no easy solution but we have ideas.
Q: Do you know if the Devs currently feel Huttball is balanced?
I haven’t asked specifically but if the devs felt that Huttball was unbalanced I’m sure they’d look at that as an issue; I haven’t heard much on that, but they still look at metrics very carefully.
Q: What upcoming feature are you most excited about that you are allowed to talk about?
Legacy System. Well, I’m allowed to say I’m excited about it…
Q: I was wondering if you could shed some light on neutral gear
As I understand it neutral gear was harder to implement than first thought, and was unfortunately moved out of the launch window. It’s not ‘dead’, and James Ohlen brings it up as something he’s a fan of quite often, so.. chances are pretty good it’ll make it in someday.
Q: It’s been a bit unclear on what the future of space combat in SWTOR is.
Changes to space combat will happen over time, we’re sure, but don’t expect a whole new game to suddenly appear in a matter of months.
I will say that there isn’t much here I haven’t heard discussed, or that the development team is unaware of, but I can’t give you ETAs. Why? Because development is complex, things change over time, and giving out ETAs just leads to RAAAGE when we don’t hit the original suggested date (as people tend to forget what the ‘E’ stands for in ‘ETA’). Anyway – everything you say we’re aware of, that much I’ll say.
Yes
Maybe!
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 8:32:41 PMThe UI is a broken piece of crap. It's beyond insane that they aren't just pressing the API so the community can fix what they clearly can not.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/31/2011 3:49:21 PMBut that then doubles BioWare's load, with them having to fix addon holes and "breaking" addons that do unacceptable behavior in addition to adding new UI content and such. Best to leave the addons Pandora's box closed while they simply add new UI features themselves without the distraction of needing a new sub-dev team just to keep an eye on addons, to open up new APIs with each new content patch and to break addons that exploit and whatnot.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 1/1/2012 3:37:56 PM@Perkunas
But Blizzard also had to add a sub-team of devs just to deal with ading APIs and whatnot. They've only publicly broken a few addons, but they've modified APIs countless times over the years to work and against certain addons.
When addons become mandatory for people to even play(see how useless some people are on patch days when their Auctioneer and whatnot haven't been patched yet), or even detrimental to the community(Gearscore), that's when they definitely do more harm than good. Successful addons just show where the base UI fails. I myself would like a threat meter for tanking, but I don't want to open that entire Pandora's Box just to get it. You can add UI scaling and movement without having to introduce addons for it. LotRO did it just fine.
Maybe addons are standard for one AAA MMO, but that doesn't mean ALL AAA MMOs have to have them. Variety is the spice of life, different games have different features.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/31/2011 7:37:36 PMIn 6 years of playing Warcraft I think Blizzard killed like 3 mods... You're psychotic if you believe that it's a Pandora's box. It makes the game better and it's a standard feature for a AAA MMO, further they've long stated that mods are coming.
It's like you have Asperger's syndrome...
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 5:39:27 PMThat was a big wall of maby, cant say, possibly, I dont know.
Ask me anything - I answer nothing.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 7:23:44 AMPolitician-esque, but I'm not surprised. I would've liked to see him reveal something in more detail that they are working on though. At least he did acknowledge several of the bugs issues plaguing folks and that they're working on them. Besides, as much as revealing something new would've been cool, it will be cooler when they fix the stuff that's currently screwed up before they add something that potentially adds more bugs to the game.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 2:34:14 AMI think the FPS issues should be at the top of their priorities list. Warzones are almost unplayable D:
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 11:44:20 AMHave the same issue and I would agree. 10-15 FPS in Warzones on a rig that eats Crysis 2 and BF3 for breakfast, yay.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 9:57:27 PMI tend to agree. The FPS issue is puzzling to me. My rig also handles all games on high, and most games on ultra if I push it. Meanwhile, there are times when SWTOR lags like a bitch (like in warzones). That simply should not be.
I hope they get on that quickly. It isn't enough to scare me off, but I should be getting smoother framerate with my current setup (I should add that my fps issues are almost exclusively in warzones. I get better than average fps in most other areas - but better than average is well below what my computer can usually handle from most games).
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/29/2011 9:53:46 PMThe fact is, what do people think will happen. If you ask questions about future content...you will never get a answer. I would think it was obivious but people folllow the same train.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/29/2011 11:06:37 PMI think the point is, what do people think will happen when they ask stuff that the man himself has already stated in the initial disclaimer as being unable to answer. Too bad that wasn't included here.
I was glad, however, that we finally got a more definitive answer on the Timeline situation. I can see the point he makes. And from a financial standpoint it can't be cheap to hire Lance Henriksen for something that is little more than simple icing on a cake that doesn't really need it. Too bad that this means it is basically the end of one supercool feature of their site.
Though I must admit I thought they would just have done one long session with Lance and be done with it. But apparently the higher ups didn't want to pay for that and went with the usual smallest sum NOW.
Charming... yes? http://imgur.com/r6WrI
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/29/2011 9:08:38 PMyeah that was pointless, as devolpers I'm very quickly losing faith in them.
They don't share any bits of information at all about anything. I really hope legacy gets release soon, cause they shouldn't have even put it in game if they weren't going to tell anyone a damn thing about it.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/29/2011 9:26:43 PMThe game was rushed into release to have better sales due to christmas time in case you didn't notice.
Graphical options that were in beta and didn't make it to release, same as legacy, same as lack of optimization that causes huge losses of FPS's when it shouldn't happen and the list goes on.
I have a high end PC same as a lot of people that probably upgraded their rig for these new games and the fact that I have no option to reduce the insane pop-in the game has is very much annoying.
I love the game so far but it cries out "rushed release" everywhere and it ruins the experience sometimes. All eyes are on Bioware now to see if they can make up for it and keep delivering fixes regularly in order to keep the game flowing instead of frustrating people out of it.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 8:08:47 AM@gurv75 - They are not taking it lightly, what gives you that idea? Them not saying a ETA on a lot of stuff, that points to taking it seriously and not just throwing out a date and never meeting it. And as for being rushed, prob, but their stance as with any MMO maker, "it can be fixed later in a patch". This is not like they just through out KOTOR 3 or 4 as a finished project they have time to fix things later on. Most of the latest MMO's and even some in the past were rushed out not finished.
Bottom line people, give them a little bit of slack, this is their first MMO. They have a major steep learning curve. They can't have everything done all at once. They have to look at what is wrong weight the priority's of things. I mean do you want them to fix something major like companions not working correctly, or a UI interface glitch first. And I for one knew this would be a Ask anything, but get little answers. (see my comment on the first article on this). Why, cause they have a lot to look at and are still trying to get their ducks in a row. You can not have one person, even a manager, know exactly what every single DEV is working on and the timeframe of completion. They only like to annouce or talk about things in next patch just like everyone else.
So people, take a chill pill, go play some SWTOR, and if you get stuck, make a new character and enjoy the new storyline and character. Or work around the stuck issue. You being stuck will be fixed soon. Soon maybe a week, or a year, but let them work. Take it from someone who has been playing MMO's since first month of EverQuest, you need to learn patience grasshopper(s)... You newer kids would never gotten through the daily patches, and bugs of MMO's of old.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/30/2011 6:24:11 AMAt least europeans get their own servers, Aussies don't. They're the real ones that get ignored in MMO's on a continual basis.