Darth Hater

Ask us anything ...

1... champions online now has personal vehicals that can fight, as opposed to vanity vehicals that merely travel from point a to b. Is there any thought about following in this direction (presumably the specifics will be different from them...but vehicals with weapons  ? We gonna get that ? )

2...Both Everquest and champions online have player housing, housing you can furnish and decorate , as opposed to star ships that just kind of sit there with no way to move anything around. Will you be moving in that direction any time soon  ?

3... All equipment seems to have statistics on it and nothing else. Coming from the Kotor Background where equipment has things like bonus's to stealth , 10% damage resist vs fire , extra damage vs droids, things like that ... any thoughts on adding more abilities to equipment other than stat bonuses ? Even if those abilities only work PvE ?

Dear Bioware,

     I love your game, I am a devoted fan of Star Wars and its Universe and therefore i appreciate all the lore and backstory the game has brought.  But I must ask as a dedicated PvPer with an active 200  player guild on the Bastion. 

Questions: Why has there been only 1 new PvP map in an entire calendar year? When will new maps be released? Why can't i get valor for open world PvP kills? Can you please Bring Illum back? Are you going to release more than 1 new Warzone map a year because if not as a PvP player why should i play your game?

... I want to LOVE THIS GAME WITH ALL MY VIDEOGAME HEART!!!!... but it is very hard with what seems like a lack of attention or any attention to PvP content expansion.

Please Give us NEW PVP MAPS ...Please Bring Back Illum and valor for Open World PvP kills... Please Please I dont want to have to leave this game for Guild Wars 2.

Thank you for your consideration of my questions.

Most respectfully,

GreenEyedDevil - The Bastion

Hey DarthHater

Good work on the site and keeping up the effort. On to my question: SWTOR has recieved a lot of flak, in many cases rightfully so, in others less so. The launch of F2P has been getting mixed responses as well. I fully expect the results of F2P to be similar to other games converting to the model: An upturn in new players and increased profitability for Bioware. In other words, a success.

(TL;DR version, so you don't have to dig through it all if you use it on the show): With launch of F2P I think all players should take a step back from old grudges and things that are (or are thought to be) wrong with the game, in order that they not sour the new playerbase with complaints before they have had a chance to become invested. Would you say that is worthwhile, or would it be better to keep the pressure up on Bioware to make good on their promises?

Longer version follows:

If that success comes to pass, would you say all the player base, the old guard included, owes it to the new players, and to some extent the idea of a revitalized game, to take a step back from the old complaints and wipe the slate clean in terms of grudges? I realise that F2P will not magically fix some of the more common issues, like people looking for more complex (or simply more) raid content. Bioware should not be exempt from making good on those promises, but in fairness converting to F2P was necessary and has likely taken considerable resources; Resources that are now free to do these other things. Is it worth an attempt to encourage patience here, or would the game be better served by those familiar with it to keep the focus on their issues (chiefly end-game related), in the hope that something is done by the time the new players catch up?  

My stance is that it is worth it to make this a fresh start. I think it would be doing the game a disservice, if the old guard stays stuck in their trenches of what could or should be better, and in turn pass this attitude on to the new players before they even get a chance to become invested in the game, and thus stick around. A F2P player has a much easier time walking away from a game, and it is in the subscribers own interest to let the new players become fond of playing the game, rather than scaring them away by constant reminders of all that is (at least percieved to be) wrong with the game. A succesful F2P conversion will both improve the grouping side of the game from the start, and give Bioware the inspiration (and possibly corporate political leverage) to get some quality content going through the pipeline towards us. 

If you had your time over again, would you still have devoted the same time, energy and money to following the game so closely pre-launch?

also a second thought i just had.

Gabe Amatangelo hinted not to long ago about an event that would happen on Iium of early 2013. perhaps to give ilum a point or just to spark the lack and incentive to world pvp.

Do you guys think that B/W is making circles to run a straight line?

and what i mean is do you think it would easier to just put new flash points,raids and even new warzones on to planets we already have? giving players a reason to go back to planets. giving them a sense of population and a feeling of a living breathing universe. 

and this would not discontinue a reason to go back to fleet because only the gear vendors are settled there. but what it would do is move players off the fleet and on to the planets adding more of a chance for a world pvp outbreak with out the help of what feels like a once in a life time event.  what are your thoughts?

love everything you guys do here...keep up the kick   " A"    job.

have intention to give more liberty for the creation of addons?

Hello Darthhater,

Really appreciate all the work you've done and continue to do. Thanks for being a voice of the SWTOR community.  Pretty much what I want to know, atleast the bigger issues, have been brought up by other members/posters, so this one is 'minor' really, but have been asked ever since.  Any update on when we'll see hood toggle? and as my main is a Twi'lek, I'm really sick of seeing cool looking robes with hoods up, but when it's on my Twi'lek consular, it looks like crap because of it. 

Thanks DH!

Justin,

You have hosted the podcast with a variety of people over the years, I've always enjoyed listening to the discussions held by the podcast team and guests.

I am interested in learning why past members (Colm, Sleeper, Dover, and possibly Pete?) stopped contributing to the web site and/or playing SWTOR and (in comparison) what keeps you and the current podcast team motivated to provide content each week as well as what excites you about the game.
 
Also, with regards to fan sites and news sites, do you see any simple actions the Bioware Austin Community Team can take or practices that can be implemented which will improve communication Between the Austin Office and the fan sites/news sites - maybe send out a weekly news letter or interview availability times for Bioware Austin staff?

Thank you to all the Darth Hater Staff for your commitment to the SWTOR community and also for continuing to produce quality content on a regular basis.  I think this web site is a great resource and I benefit from the information it provides.

What are your thoughts on the "Secret Space Project"?

After equipping my tinfoil space helmet I'd like to speculate. Obviously Bioware's plans have dramatically changed over the last six months, but what do you think about a space focused expansion?

I've considered that a revamped space game for 2.0 could be an excellent foundation, and most importantly a fresh start for this game. This could put less emphasize on your character's personal stories and more focus on exploration, gearing up your ship, pvp, guild progression ( constructing and gearing guild capital ships ). In other words branch out your existing characters and gameplay in a totally different way. In addition I think it could be implemented in a way that still provided interesting content, however might not not require time consuming voice over work and other tasks that may have contributed to some of Bioware's missteps. 

What are your thoughts?

Do you honestly think this game can continue?  The PR Spin that I still see in full effect to this day leads me to believe the Developers, the ones that are left anyway, seem to think that the Subscription fee was this massive barrier to entry and that somehow alleviating it is going to cause an influx of new players, and I'm just not sure that's true.

What about the players that like me, left the game already for reasons like class balance, class mechanics changes, PVP issues like lack of Open World PvP - That they rarely seem to mention or acknowledge these major issues says to me they really don't understand what the problem was/is and that also signals to me that the game isn't about to magically become the game I hoped it to be.  It's just gonna be free, and to me, that's not compelling enough to pick it back up.

Did bioware confirm yet whether the new hyper gate war zone will be coming finally with 1.5 and F2P next week? Also do you anything about server transfers....there is a rumor cartel coins can be used to pay for that?

Bioware confirmed that the Hypergate warzone will NOT be coming with the release of 1.5. It will be coming soon after. Do a search of the Dev Tracker and you could find the post.

Quote from joeymagz »

Bioware confirmed that the Hypergate warzone will NOT be coming with the release of 1.5. It will be coming soon after. Do a search of the Dev Tracker and you could find the post.

Thanks for the info, no thanks for the content though.  I run a PVP guild that's basically sick of the current PVP content.  We need that new one like a MONTH AGO, not to mention some new Huttball maps :(

I don't even PvP and I completely agree with you. On the off chance that I actually decide to PvP, I hate seeing the same maps over and over again. So, I can't even imagine what it's like for PvP guilds... lol  A new huttball map would be awesome too because that is by far my favorite warzone.