Darth Hater

Grab your lightsaber as this week’s DevTracker Highlights is all about PvP. Associate Online Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez hints at future updates to game’s launcher. Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid addresses concerns about stifling the community’s voice during server maintenance and patching. Senior Community Coordinator David Bass assures players that discussions at the Guild Summit will be in-depth, unlike those at conventions. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller talks PvP bags and the rate at which players acquire PvP gear. Lead PvP, Operations & Flashpoints Designer Gabe Amatangelo follows up and attests that players will see a less sporadic rate at which gear is acquired. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

Everything’s coming up Zoeller in this week’s DevTracker highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller covers everything from cooldown readability, protocol droid maintenance, and the Legacy system, to modification workbenches, speeders, and Rakata-level items from Nightmare mode Operations. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

Today's small patch included improvements regarding character ability delay. Georg Zoeller jumped into an already hopping thread on the official forums with this feedback:

Georg ZoellerAs you guys have noticed (and probably read in the patch notes), one major part of our series of ability delay improvements was patched onto the live servers with the maintenance last night (patch 1.1.0b). We decided that the improvements seen with this fix were significant enough for us to roll this patch out as quickly as possible instead of waiting for the next scheduled patch.

Your feedback from the servers so far indicates that this change has had dramatic, positive impact on combat gameplay.

That said, we're not done improving combat responsiveness!

• As mentioned in my blog a few days ago, there are some additional fixes currently on our public test server as part of patch 1.1.1, which will roll out as soon as we're satisfied with that patch. 
• We've heard your mixed feedback regarding the new cooldown animation that was part of patch 1.1, and we have improvements to the readability of that UI coming down the pipe. 
• We're looking into improving the accuracy of cast bars. Their behavior should already be significantly improved with today's patch, but we believe there is still room to improve. 
• We're also working on improvements to the responsiveness of individual ability animations, including faction specific timing differences and issues where shortening an ability activation time does not properly shorten it's animation.

Again, thank you for your constructive feedback on this issue, it has been vital to us in identifying and resolving this situation.

 

Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller posted an update today about the character ability delay issue that players have experienced since the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a blog post, Georg thanks the community for their feedback to help track down the cause of the issue, and notes that a fix is scheduled for the public test server in the next update. He also mentions other fixes that should help PvP combat with both player responsiveness and hardware configuration. You can read the full blog post below.

Georg Zoeller

Hi everyone; I wanted to give you all an update on the ability delay situation.

Thanks to constructive feedback from the community, including some great videos, we were able to identify an issue that could cause abilities on global cooldown to appear available to the player, resulting in unresponsive/ignored player input. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

Additionally, we have located an issue that would cause player input for certain instant abilities to fail in frantic combat situations, resulting in unpredictable and frustrating gameplay issues for the affected player. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

Finally, our engineers have identified an issue introducing a significant delay between player input and ability execution in certain game situations, most notably (but not limited to) fast paced PvP. The magnitude of the delay varies with a number of factors, including processor hardware, but can, especially on dual core CPUs, result in a very perceivable reduction in game responsiveness. We are in the later stages of testing a fix for the problem and hope to be able to roll it out to the servers very soon.

We're still investigating a number of additional issues, along with some usability and quality of life improvements for responsiveness regarding player input, but the above mentioned developments should provide a very measurable improvement in combat responsiveness.

Thanks again for your patience and support and we hope to see you on the public test server to help us validate these improvements before pushing them to the live servers.

Georg Zoeller
Principal Lead Combat Designer

 

With patch 1.1 coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic next week, Georg Zoeller stopped by the official forums recently to shed some light on changes coming to two of the most popular Crew Skills. In his post, Georg explains why some items created through the Biochemistry and Cybertech Crew Skills have been rebalanced for the 1.1 release. 

Georg ZoellerTL;DR: Fancy words for ‘we nerfed BioChem and Cybertech endgame products’ because they were so good that players started considering them mandatory. Your choice of profession is not supposed to be the deciding factor for participation and success in endgame content. We still believe that BioChem and Cybertech are very worthwhile Crew Skills, especially considering the significant fortune players with these professions are able to realize on the GTN... they are however no longer the ‘golden ticket’ into endgame content.

The full post and related section of the patch notes follow the jump.

The amount of yellow posts from BioWare are staggering, but this week’s DevTracker Highlights will give you a breakdown of the important parts, straight from the mouths of the developers themselves. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller covers the illusive magenta crystal, Galactic Trade Network kiosks, moddable end-game gear, and a bug with the Smuggler’s Accomplished Sawbones ability. European Community Manager Chris Collins address concerns that patches are happening too often. Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi updates the community about character responsiveness issues. Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert discusses mission discovery items, a looking for group system, and the economic concerns of slicing. Senior Community Coordinator David Bass seeks feedback about Star Wars: The Old Republic events through the year 2012. Lead Writer Daniel Erickson confirms that there is no HK companion currently available in the game. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

MMOs are by definition dynamic creatures. There is no such thing as a perfectly balanced, perfectly functional game. That means sometime, somewhere there will be classes, abilities or encounters that need improvement. Right now in The Old Republic the popular choice for "needs improvement" is the Jedi Knight / Sith Warrior class. Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller took to the forums not long ago to share some details about changes coming to these classes to give them a helping hand, and further took the time to lay out his team's philosophy when dealing with class balancing.

Georg ZoellerWe make our balancing decisions based on a combination of internal and external testing and metrics. We don't make decisions based on who is the loudest on the forums. Community feedback is valuable in bringing issues to our attention and even to highlight possible solutions, which means that well written, constructive posts are the most effective way to communicate your wishes and feedback to us, rather than petitions and calls to nerf specific classes.

 For the full text of Georg's statement, read past the jump.

BioWare is hard at work addressing issues and gathering feedback in this week’s DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller covers tactics for higher-level combat, character responsiveness issues, character level progress, how moddable items work, vehicle damage ceilings, and the illusive magenta crystal. Assistant Designer Chris Schmidt asks for feedback concerning the final class mission for the Jedi Knight. Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid breaks down the procedure for addressing bug fixes and game issues. Associate Online Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez clarifies the rumor entailing players being banned for not taking advantage of special dance zones. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

It’s been a week since launch, and though BioWare is still addressing launch issues as needed, they found time to provide feedback to players in this week’s DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller covers skill respecs, the number of low-level abilities, and the thought behind Trauma. Community Coordinator Allison Berryman expands on the possibility of new forum sections in the future. BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk assures players that the BioWare Live team is working hard to reduce queue times to allow more people to play, and thanks the already over one million registered players for a successful launch. Senior Writer Alexander Freed shares glimpse into the process for creating new content with such a heavy focus on voice acting. European Community Manager Chris Collins affirms that shared maintenance times for both US and EU servers will create less downtime as the lifespan of the game grows. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

This week’s DevTracker Highlights covers everything you need to know for the less-than-a-week-away Early Game Access and launch. Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid reminds players that MMOs change, gives the status of a Walmart system error, and reveals details about Early Game Access. Senior Community Coordinator David Bass illustrates the kind of achievements that will be available in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Community Coordinator Allison Berryman details upcoming forum changes for launch and how to determine if you have the right game client for when the game goes live. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller covers the challenges around balancing for one on one and group combat. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

This week's DevTracker Highlights are like the main course of a full-course meal; small in comparison, but full of meaty goodness. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller talks about different classes going head to head in PvP combat, and illustrates how each class brings their own flavor to the battle. Community Coordinator Allison Berryman lets players know that despite what they may have heard, Star Wars: The Old Republic will not require Origin in any fashion. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

During this week's Fan Site Summit, BioWare held several Q&As with the community there at the event. Developers such as Gabe Amatangelo, Georg Zoeller and James Ohlen all gave their own unique Q&As. Thanks to BioWare, we now have some very swanky audio to listen to and enjoy. The Q&As are consolidated on this page for your convience.

In an interview with Republic Trooper, BioWare Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller discusses the Trooper class in great detail. Among the items discussed are differences between the Trooper's different skill trees, how ranged tanking works, and unique aspects of the Trooper as a healer.


Republic Trooper: What were some of the challenges of developing ranged tanking for the Vanguard Advanced Class?

Georg Zoeller: Since this is a Star Wars game, and most enemies in Star Wars utilize ranged weapons such as blaster rifles, cannons or grenade launchers, the Vanguards ability to draw attention from range also emerged as a distinct advantage over melee bound classes like the Jedi Guardian, who have to close from range to create initial threat.


For more be sure to check out the full interview at Republic Trooper.

After last week's notoriously light post count, BioWare returns for a full helping in this week's DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller touches on speculation, cover for the Smuggler and Imperial Agent, Jedi Sages survivability in melee, and realism vs. gameplay. Senior Writer Alexander Freed talks about how Jedi and Sith correlate to ranks in military roles. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.

No doubt you've read some of the impressions released earlier today, so why not take a break with this week's DevTracker Highlights? Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller takes over as he discusses his GDC Online presentation, playstyle and how it relates to playtime, racial abilities, visible dark side corruptions on characters, and tanking as a Jedi Shadow or Sith Assassin. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.

After you read this week's DevTracker Highlights, be sure to check out our coverage of Star Wars: The Old Republic at New York Comic-Con and BioWare's presence at this year's GDC Online. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller talks PvP incentives, the pitfalls of translations, and out of date gameplay. Community Coordinator Allison Berryman discusses iterative development and how feedback plays it's part. Writer Charles Boyd clarifies details about companions and their motivations. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.

Today's GDC Online 2011 coverage kicks off with a live blog of the 'Rapid MMO Content Iteration and Validation with Spatial Analysis in Star Wars: The Old Republic' talk with speaker Georg Zoeller.

• Georg Zoeller - Rapid MMO Content Iteration and Validation with Spatial Analysis in Star Wars: The Old Republic Wednesday 1:30PM - 2:30PM CT

For the live blog in full, hit the jump.

Why scour the official forums when you can get this week's DevTracker Highlights right here. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller talks about the Jedi Consular's Project ability, naming policies for roleplay servers, Force Leap tactics, global cooldowns, and class design. Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid announces RP-PvP servers for launch. Senior Writer Alexander Freed discusses planet locations in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Writer Drew Karpyshyn explains some decisions he made with the upcoming novel Revan. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.

Did you know that Star Wars: The Old Republic has a release date? It's roughly three months from now, so in the meantime, here are this week's DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller discusses meshing PvE and PvP specs, the strength of stealth, and damage-over-time abilities. Environment Artist Aaron Canaday reminisces about receiving games for birthdays and Christmas. Lead Writer Daniel Erickson reminds players that male companions are romance-capable too. European Community Manager Chris Collins shares news about EU Game Testing. Hit the jump to see all the highlights.

GameSpot posted an interview with Game Director James Ohlen about the role and function of companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Mr. Ohlen reveals that companions will function similar to other classes in the game, leveling up alongside the player and unlocking skills as they progress. Additionally, he talks about a new system that will allow players to set up companion behaviors in combat beforehand, managing which abilities they do and do not use.

Along with the exclusive interview comes a second one in the form of a Developer Dispatch video on companions with the team from BioWare. Lead Writer Daniel Erickson talks about hitting the cornerstones of Star Wars with companions such as droids and aliens. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller shows how companions level-up and unlock new abilities just like players. These features along with their unique storyline makes them effectively more than just pets. Art Director Jeff Dobson explains how the team carefully crafted each companion to evoke some element of their story and how those stories can change. Those changes are based upon the affection system, where gifts can be given to companions opening up new conversations and quests.

Dissection of the developer dispatch is in the media gallery below. As with all of our dissections, we do not note things mentioned in prior dissections. If you find something, feel free to let us know if the comments section below and if we decide to use it - we will credit you.