February 10th Community Q&A
This week marked the first of BioWare’s promised “Community Q&A” blogs where the developers answer various questions posed to the by members of the SWTOR community. They orignally stated that they would be answering 10 questions a week but the players must have hit them with some good ones because they went ahead and answered 15 of the biggest questions concerning the community.
You can read some of the highlights after the jump.
Alkapwn: Could you elaborate about what specific benefits the Legacy will offer? I know that I am not alone in the fact of putting off making an alt (and hence losing out on gameplay) because I wish to know what kind of character creation options will be available. All we have to go on now is “The legacy system will unlock new character creation options, including new species.” Does this mean species that have been unavailable for that specific class, or that have been unavailable to play in the game as a whole?
Daniel Erickson: Game Update 1.2 will bring you the first big step in the Legacy System but it’s important to understand that the Legacy System will continue to grow, bringing new options to new characters (alts) and some fun options for elder game players as well. Legacy is definitely not just for new characters! The species that will be unlocked in Game Update 1.2 are species currently in the game that will become available to classes and factions where you haven’t seen them before. New species are in consideration for the future but we don’t have any details to share right now. Look for more specific details in the near future as we head toward Game Update 1.2.
Always nice to get new info on the Legacy System, and it sounds like we can expect to see the new species for classes option unlocked soon. Great news for all the players who have held off rolling and alts because they want to see what this system has to offer.
Jeunedorsk: What will happen in the future for PvP (Ilum, new Warzones ?)
Daniel Erickson: We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how popular PvP is in The Old Republic and we’ve been doubling down on our efforts to bring exciting new content and systems to the PvP community. Right now there’s a new Warzone planned for Game Update 1.2 which we’re already testing internally and really enjoying. We can say it’s enabled for same faction vs. same faction play, so if you’ve been playing a lot of Huttball, expect some variety soon! Also coming in 1.2 is the pre-season of our Warzone ranking system, bringing better matchmaking which means better PvP. In the future expect a ton more PvP news as we expand and polish what has proven to be one of the most popular aspects of The Old Republic. We’ve got big plans.
Hard to complain about a new faction vs faction enabled warzone, especially for the Imperial players who have already seen far more than their fair share of Huttball.
Shotgun-clavy: When are character transfers going to become available? And are server transfers a real possibility?
Daniel Erickson: Character transfers between servers are definitely going to be available in the future and we’ll announce details as soon as we have firm dates.
Well at least we know it is coming, even if we don’t have a solid date on it. With any luck this move will end up helping to balance out some of the faction imbalances that we see on some servers.
DarthNhiilus: Are you going to implement housing and guild features (like guild banks, guild ships)?
Daniel Erickson: Guild banks are coming in Game Update 1.2 and like PvP, guild features are a priority for the development team with a strike team focused on nothing but top guild concerns and requests. Guild capital ships are a huge undertaking, though, so expect to see more quality of life style guild features roll out before you and your allies start building your destroyer….
I think I can safely speak for all those players in guilds when I say “Give me these features ASAP!” Guild features have been somewhat lacking up till now and any improvements will be quite welcome. Though I want my guild capital ship soon Mr. Erickson!
Aurozia: Will there be a dual specialization system in the future? Will there be a possibility of changing advance classes as well?
Daniel Erickson: We have no plans for switching advanced classes – which we see as fundamentally different class designs- but dual spec is in the works and coming soon.
You want dual spec? You got dual spec! Though I must say it is great to see that players will not be able to switch their advanced class, something that many players were worried about when it came to the aspect of dual specing.
Many people asked: How are you planning on expanding the endgame experience?
Gabe Amatangelo: We are going to continue to introduce new Flashpoints, Warzones, and Operations on a regular basis. The story line will continue with all of the above as well as in solo-able missions. We will continue to evolve Crew Skills and crafting. We’ll be introducing the Legacy System soon, as Daniel mentioned. Additionally, we have exciting PvP features planned, the first of which includes pre-season Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.2.
Many of the more hardcore players have been screaming for new and improved endgame content, as well as a polishing of current content. BioWare is going to have to really shine in this area if they want to keep the hardcore raiding guilds around.
This is but a small sample of all the new info released in this week’s Q&A session. You can hop over and read the full blog post here.
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