Today, BioWare held their Community Cantina Tour at Mister Tramps here in Austin. In attendance were roughly eighty members of the community as well as several staffers from the development studio. Employees in tow from the studio included Eric Musco, Joveth Gonzalez, Nathan Emmott, Cory Butler, Blaine Christine, Hall Hood, Dallas Dickinson, and more. As with past BioWare events, there were free drinks and food along with a Q&A period. Rounding off the night, BioWare developers spoke with community members and raffled off a few prizes, most of which was Star Wars: The Old Republic swag except for the Star Wars bookends.
To the most important part though, the Q&A was roughly 37 minutes long. At the top, Eric Musco reminded the crowd that questions they could not answer, they would not. Eric suggested instead that the community stick to ones they can talk about if possible. With that, the Q&A started. There were a few things worth mentioning that are available below but to be honest, the crowd was extremely loud, the audio system extremely low, and it made it hard to hear almost anything at all. Although it’s very likely that over the years of standing next to loud speakers at concerts contributed to my inability to hear all that well tonight. We luckily recorded it though by placing a recorder on the table they were at when fielding questions so we can refer to the tape for more. Instead of having you all wait to find out all of the points though, we’re releasing the audio for you all to enjoy now. We will update this post as we dig back into the audio. More to come soon but for now, enjoy the audio. UPDATE: Notes are complete.
- Due to technical constraints, BioWare is not looking at expanding the 500 maximum amount of people allowed in a single guild. Dallas stated that he would ask the team again about it.
- Legacy non-unique names was technically easier to do. Better for roleplayers. Paid name changes coming down the line, no timeline yet. (Corrected, hat tip to Opheron on the heads up)
- Dallas Dickinson admitted in response to a question that SWTOR's engine does not perform well in large battles. It is something they are working on fixing right now for the future.
- PTS transfers/enhancements coming down the pike soon. Looking into an easier solution to bring in characters you currently use, more quickly, and at player will. Referenced as a priority, no timeline, see our call notes from last week for a longer version of this.
- Looking to go back and make old gear moddable in the future.
- Team will continue to improve and expound upon the Legacy system. No specifics on new things they plan to add but more will come in the future.
- Space combat additions coming soon, Dallas and the team kept it vague about specifics. More is coming and they said you should bug some guy named Ross. So if a Ross comes to your town in the future, bug him.
- Looking at endgame boss mechanic bugs, specifically Toth and Zorn.
- Hood toggle coming, no timeline given. Introduces technical challenges which causes problems.
Do note that the audio is pretty peaky at times. I did my best to eliminate most of the background noise but it is just something you will have to ignore. Due to this, I would recommend you keep the volume low when listening. Do not blame us if you blow out your speakers, we warned you. ;)
Pictures are available below as well. To those that I met during the event, it was a pleasure meeting you all.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/19/2012 8:38:56 PMBummer! I didn't even realize you guys were there. I'm the dude in the blue shirt barely in the last image :P
I think this event was better than the Comic-con meet and greet. The drinks were definitely better...
I was hoping that more devs would show up this time, since it was right next to their offices.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/19/2012 4:06:48 PMThis all sounds very boring and a waste of time. I feel sorry for anyone that drove a great distance for this. I'm glad I didn't go.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/18/2012 7:59:11 PMWhy doesnt anyone ask when the issue with combat delay/loss of global cooldowns when spamming your skills gets fixed? =(
Its the biggest issue with the game. The combat needs to be perfectly seamless for the game to thrive on the long term.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/19/2012 9:22:46 AMI've been talking about this since before the game was released. It has gotten better since it used to be but ya, agreed
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/18/2012 5:08:25 PMI am absolutely saddened to see the SAME questions asked a year ago still being asked with no answer yet again. I love this game, I really do. But they need to add content. This last 1.5 update was great for a few days of playing, but they need to add some substantial replayable content.
The space project needs to come out.
PvP needs to be expanded.
The space project needs to include group/pvp stuff!
There needs to be more reason to continue to play this game, never should you be able to say "Welp, ive done everything I can with this character, I'm done." Please, Bioware. I LOVE this game, PLEASE keep it going!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/18/2012 11:41:46 AM"Hood toggle coming, no timeline given. Introduces technical challenges which causes problems."
i would translate this to mean. " right next to never "
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/18/2012 10:23:32 AMWas awesome talking to you the other night. It's even more awesome that I didn't end up in any of the pictures. <3
Njessi
Hawtpants of the Old Republic
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/18/2012 9:43:11 AMThe sad part is, that you could have posted this Q&A one year ago and that entire list of concerns would have still been relevant, even back then.
7 out of the 9 things listed are either labeled as "we have no timeline for this yet" or "is coming in the future".
Glad to see ole' Bioware stepping up their game in the information delivery department. Bravo!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/18/2012 9:24:48 AM"Dallas Dickinson admitted in response to a question that SWTOR's engine does not perform well in large battles. It is something they are working on fixing right now for the future."
What happened to "95% of our players don't have performance related issues" ?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/17/2012 9:54:41 PMSoo basically every question got " It 's coming in the future " anyone feel like Swtor is back in beta Pr mode
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/17/2012 9:06:41 PMI think the hype for the secret space project just lost hype with me. They called it space combat... and that means it could not be something other than the existing iterations of space combat that exists as a mini game.
I feel the devs are wasting thier resources with space missions, and only releasing a few ops/wz/fp, and vanity items.
They should work on things that can be expanded upon, and things that swtor is know for. 1. story, and a lot more of it.... 2. pazaak, swoop racing.
They add space missions and its something that takes resources and is not as interesting or as beneficial to develop swoop racing for example to expand upon.
And developing 1 more wz, or one more fp/ops is just slowly feeding the appetites of long time subcribers.
I hope their expansion of makeb does have class stories, and it offers open world pvp, possibly objectives. And they hope to see them work on some mini games which are meant to be mini games. Space combat should not be a mini game. At lvl 50, or with makeb lvl 55, it should be something much larger.
Well, maybe I am over reacting... maybe its still a 3d space combat 'mini game'.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/17/2012 9:52:53 PMI like TOR's space combat, but I agree on the underwhelmance of the space thing, because that space mission shown off in a trailer a few months back hasn't been put in the game yet, meaning the coming space stuff is just that mission. I have no problem with that mission, and it will probably be fun, but the hype over coming space content is surely limited to just that mission.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/17/2012 2:47:56 PMWhy are the same questions that were asked over 1/2 year ago and the same "soon" answer being asked. Is it people not giving up that they will add these things, or is there really no other good questions to ask? If they say soon for 6 months+ on some of these things, just move on. Do they screen the questions and force them to ask the same things over and over so they can respond with the now iconic "soon" answer?
Can't say I learned anything new, and I can't say we ever learn anything new from Q&A interviews with these Devs. It is just a wait and see.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/17/2012 1:12:02 PMI have a question I have a level 40 toon on a PVP server which im not a huge fan of and its a healer class trooper. I would love to transfer him to my PVE server where i have several other toons but im not getting any end game play cause lets face it if your not a A+ tank or A++ dps no good raiding guild is gonna pick you up or atlest that has been my experience for this game. So i know if i can get my healer to the PVE server just based on the fact im a healer guilds will work with me a bit more cause healers are always short in numbers. (and im a dam good healer too) Does anyone have any idea if they intend to open up transfers all together ? I really dont want to level another healer... i know i know its lazy just curious before i do though thanks for you help
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted 11/17/2012 4:46:51 AMthis is probably a stupid question but, what is the guild limit