Despite being a Fan Friday, this Friday update also brought us another Q&A with the developers section. Along with that, the developers have been very active on the forums lately and they have been answering various questions from the fans. Here’s a compilation of the most interesting Q&A from all of these sources.

Q: I would like to see an option to merchant sell all gray loot items in your inventory at once. Going a step further, if there was a way to mark items in your bag as you loot them so that when you sell them off everything that was marked is sold.

A: In TOR, you indeed have the option to command your faithful (or scornful) companion to make a trip to the nearest market to lighten your backpack and fatten your wallet by selling objects of purely monetary value.
Answered by: Georg Zöller, Principal Lead Combat Designer
Source

Q: I really hope they give us access to on-ship storage. Our personal vault should be there rather than some imaginary bank system for items that we access from everywhere in the universe.

A: Your ship’s cargo hold is, indeed, your bank.
Answered by: Damion Schubert, Lead Combat Designer
Source

Q: I hope Bioware has a Beta test just for PvP, I’m worried about balance…

A: Have no doubt, we aim to ensure every Advanced Class has at least one spec that has its place in competitive PvP. The PvP team is already diligently tuning classes based on testing results and will continue to do so as new functions come online. By functions, I mean things like enabling Smugglers in cover to be immune to ‘charge’ and ‘pull’ abilities.
Answered by: Gabe Amatangelo, Lead PvP Designer
Source

Q: Will armor be HP based? wich means you can loose your armor due to wear and tear?

A: Armor takes damage during gameplay, but still offers full benefits until such time that it is completely broken. Armor can be repaired for credits. No, we are not looking at permanently destroying items.
Answered by: Damion Schubert, Lead Combat Designer
Source

Q: In this game, we know the reasons why the Jedi hate the Sith so much. And most of us recognize that the Jedi are a pretty “good” organization. But what hasn’t been talked about a huge amount is why the Sith hate the Jedi. How do the Sith view the Jedi? Why do they think they would make better rulers? Do the Sith actually think that the Sith themselves are “evil”? Do they believe that Force has two sides, a dark side and a light?

A: Sith are evil.

The Sith philosophy is evil and encourages evil in its participants. We can get into endless philosophical discussions about whether anything is actually evil or actually good but if we are speaking from our modern, western view on the concept of evil then the Sith clearly qualify. They are encouraged to put the personal over the group, power over compassion and to judge everything’s worthiness to survive on its ability to fight for that survival. Mercy, sympathy, generosity, these are seen as weaknesses. Anger and rage are seen as strengths. These are not people most of us want to work with or have as neighbors.

That does not mean, however, that the Sith see themselves as evil.
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In the Star Wars universe, followers of the Sith philosophy genuinely believe that these things we deem evil, are actually in the best interests of a society. They look at the disorder, corruption and infighting of the Republic and they scoff. “What those people lack,” an Imperial thinks, “is strong leadership.”
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It’s equally important to remember that you don’t have to believe in any of this to play on the Empire’s side in The Old Republic. You can be the exception to the rule. You are merely making a choice to be someone who was born on that side of the fence. Or, in the case of the Bounty Hunter, someone who tends to work in that part of space. The light side Sith who works tirelessly to make his Empire a better place is a deeply compelling character.
Answered by: Daniel Erickson, Master of the Universe
Source
Editor Note: I highly recommend you go and read all of Daniel’s answer because, as always, he was very detailed in his explanation.

The following questions were answered by Rich Vogel, Executive Producer of The Old Republic and you can read the original page these were posted on here.

Q: I‘m worried that Force powers may be overpowered in comparison to non-Force users… Will this be a problem? (asked by Luke)

A: Every character class in The Old Republic will feel heroic. No matter what part of the game you’re playing, from Warzones to Flashpoints, there will be good reasons to play every class – it’s our intent that no one feels punished for playing the class they love.

Q: So far the Consular seems to be coming across as more of a support/healing role. I’m worried that the class will take the boring back seat in group battles. Will Consulars be pigeonholed into one role? (asked by Brian)

A: Consulars, like our other classes, will have more than one viable role to play. One of our goals is to provide players multiple options within their classes – you’ll be able to take your Consular in several directions, and you’ll be able to be useful in each role the class can play. We’ll have more information about the Consular (and the other classes) coming online soon!

Q: How friendly will this game be for solo players in the endgame? (asked by Benjamin)

A: The Old Republic has a lot to offer to players with many different playstyles, and we want to make sure there’s something fun in the game for everyone. Even if you don’t want to join a guild or participate in Flashpoints or other multiplayer content, we’ll have plenty in store to keep you entertained!

Q: Will players ever be able to make storyline decisions so radical that it changes their Faction alignment? (asked by Aaron)

A: At this time, we don’t plan on allowing characters to change faction as part of the class story. One of the main reasons for this is that it would interfere with your class story’s continuity. Every class has a detailed story that they progress through from level one until the level cap, and players will want to see how those stories unfold. That said, there is quite a bit of room for players to make dark and light side decisions throughout the game that affect your experience.

Q: Will TOR be designed to run on a broad range of hardware? (asked by Kes)

A: It’s important to us that The Old Republic can look great and run well on a wide variety of hardware configurations. To that effect, we’ve done as much as we can to create a compelling, detailed world that can scale easily based on your hardware’s abilities.

Q: Is there a jump button? (asked by Phillip)

A: Absolutely! Exploration and basic movement in the world definitely have to be fun on their own. Obviously, we expect players to be engaged in Combat and Story for most of their game time, but you will still need to get around and figure out how to get places. If you can’t jump, that takes away a lot of the “realism” of exploration.

Tags: Damion Schubert, Daniel Erickson, dev, developers, Gabe Amatangelo, Georg Zöller, Q&A, questions, Rich Vogel