Friday Update 1/14/11: Studio Insider – Starship Creation and Q&A

For those of you interested in how the Agent starship was created:
http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110114


And

Community Q&A

We took some of your questions from the last Community Q&A thread to Senior Producer Blaine Christine to get answers, and here they are!

Q: How diverse can I expect the enemies to be? (asked by mattjorgdbb)

A: Our Design team and Artists have been putting a lot of time and effort into ensuring that each world has a very distinct look and feel; even specific areas within each world receive this attention. A big part of this is the diversity of the enemies you will encounter as players. We’re confident that as you move through the game, you will be pleased with the progression of enemies – not only from a visual standpoint, but also in the variety of attacks and challenges that they offer.

Q: Will players of one allegiance be able to visit the opposite allegiance’s planets? (asked by DarkLots)

A: There are certain planets within the galaxy that are only available to one allegiance or the other, but the majority of planets are open to the Republic and the Empire, allowing opportunities to - ahem - ‘encounter’ the other side should you so desire.

Q: Will there be specific quests and/or chains within the class quests for Advanced Classes? (asked by ROFLBATLECOPTER)

Advanced Classes do not have a direct impact on quests or storyline. They obviously have a huge impact on your character’s progression and abilities in addition to the weapons and armor you are allowed to use. Rest assured that, this being a BioWare game, there will be plenty of opportunities to make significant and impactful decisions throughout the course of each Class story. So much so that I suspect many of you will want to play individual classes more than once.

Q: What will BW/EA do in combating cheating in-game with the use of Bots/hacking? (asked by Draigon)

A: Everything within our power.

Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome? (asked by valkyor)

A: Oh, YES! As someone who has had the privilege of seeing the armor progression for each class in the game, I can say without hesitation that you will be blown away by the high level goodies for all of the classes. LucasArts has been great at allowing us to really push the envelope here to make sure that the players that put in significant effort will be amply rewarded. I can’t wait to see the diversity of characters in the game after we have a full server that is live for a while. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words…

Q: Can you miss acquiring a companion without realizing it during the game? (asked by DarthPrecious)

A: Generally speaking, these opportunities are all pretty obvious to the player, as they occur along the main path of your Class Quests. We do, however, reserve the right to put some goodies out there for the particularly ambitious player to find.

Q: Will characters from Knights of the Old Republic be mentioned and will events from Knights of the Old Republic II have an impact on the game? (asked by Forcemachine)

A: All I can say for the KOTOR and KOTOR II fans out there is you will not be disappointed. The Old Republic has been written from Day One of development with the idea that it was a true sequel to the original Knights of the Old Republic games. For folks that have not played those games, you will certainly feel right at home as well, but to get the full backstory we do encourage players to play KOTOR I and II. Or maybe at least read the Wookieepedia entries!

Q: Will we be able to queue an entire group for Warzones? (asked by kbrury)

A: Yes! You can queue solo or in an existing group and our dynamic matchmaking system will do its best to find suitable opponents accordingly.

Q: Will you be able to receive special quests via conversations with your companions? (asked by twistern)

A: Yes; as in previous BioWare games, Companion Characters do indeed have quests of their own. Completing these quests can result in changes to the affection level of that Companion and can uncover rewards for both you and your party that may not be found anywhere else in the game. Each companion also has a distinct personality as they interact with you and other characters you encounter throughout your personal Star Wars saga. We have some great personalities that have been designed and written for The Old Republic!

While I always enjoy the updates regardless (love the fan friday and the ship info) the Q&A is a little flat, but that could also be cause non of it was really a concern of mine. It's still nice to see them answering questions to the best of their abilities.

thx Selv' good read!

Quote :

allowing opportunities to - ahem - ‘encounter’ the other side should you so desire.

This can be taken in so many different ways...



And yeah the Q.A. is a bit blah, although having it confirmed that Companions have quests is good, at some point it was a no go from what I remember.

I love the theory of the Q & A but I wish people would stop asking bad questions on it

Quote :

Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome?

No, it's going to be shitty. We should be ashamed of ourselves for putting out such a half ass product, but we are not and you are going to have to live with it. They get awful plastic looking pink polka dotted bikinis...and thats for the guys. The women, however, do get a nice pants suit.

Selven wrote:

Seriously why do the posters in the Q & A thread get me so worked up to violate the spirit of this whole respect thing? I do by default show people respect, but one can very quickly lose my respect by showing stupidity for which I have a very low tolerance.

Lol I'm glad I'm not the only one that looked at that question and went ........uh.............wth

I can't believe they even include the Q&A when it's only silly PR-question-types.

Weak update to be honest. But that's only because I'm waiting for mah Kel'Dor to be announced. Other than that I actually appreciate that we get them at all... and am also a huge starship fan. But I don't like that they only showed the IA-ship.

Horeon, As much as I like Kel Dor, I just don't see them passing the "making out with princess Leia" test. I know I wouldn't want to kiss anything with Mandibles.

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

Horeon, As much as I like Kel Dor, I just don't see them passing the "making out with princess Leia" test. I know I wouldn't want to kiss anything with Mandibles.

Then again, you're not Leia

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

I love the theory of the Q & A but I wish people would stop asking bad questions on it

Quote :

Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome?

No, it's going to be shitty. We should be ashamed of ourselves for putting out such a half ass product, but we are not and you are going to have to live with it. They get awful plastic looking pink polka dotted bikinis...and thats for the guys. The women, however, do get a nice pants suit.

I'm gonna petition we get an answer like yours!

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

Horeon, As much as I like Kel Dor, I just don't see them passing the "making out with princess Leia" test. I know I wouldn't want to kiss anything with Mandibles.

You look deep into his eye masks and tell me, you don't feel that spark!

Kai-Sun wrote:

You look deep into his eye masks and tell me, you don't feel that spark!

Wow, that smiley is disturbing!

I'ma put this here since it doesn't really need it's own post, but

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/01/14/the-jace-hall-show-season-4-episode-10

Has them visiting Bioware, it's funny

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

I love the theory of the Q & A but I wish people would stop asking bad questions on it

Quote :

Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome?

No, it's going to be shitty. We should be ashamed of ourselves for putting out such a half ass product, but we are not and you are going to have to live with it. They get awful plastic looking pink polka dotted bikinis...and thats for the guys. The women, however, do get a nice pants suit.

Seriously why do the posters in the Q & A thread get me so worked up to violate the spirit of this whole respect thing? I do by default show people respect, but one can very quickly lose my respect by showing stupidity for which I have a very low tolerance.

I'm with you Godric. I got all mad and angry when I saw the questions too.

Q: How diverse can I expect the enemies to be?
Q: What will BW/EA do in combating cheating in-game with the use of Bots/hacking?
Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome?
Q: Will characters from Knights of the Old Republic be mentioned and will events from Knights of the Old Republic II have an impact on the game?

With hundreds of pages of good questions why do they choose to answer those? :\ They all have been answered before.
Q&A is just another way of BW saying that they can't talk about gameplay stuff yet.

Actually I'm pretty ticked off that they moved Q&A to facebook only. I have facebook but wth, why would you move something as important as Q&A to a 3rd party site with known security issues?

Mongo wrote:

Actually I'm pretty ticked off that they moved Q&A to facebook only. I have facebook but wth, why would you move something as important as Q&A to a 3rd party site with known security issues?

Ye, that sucked.
I don't have a FB account and I'm not creating one so I can ask a question that probably won't be answered. :\
I already know next month questions...

Q: How many healers will we get per faction?
Q: Will a Smuggler heal as well as a Consular?
Q: Can a single lightsaber wielder be a competitive DPSer?
Q: Can I kill my companions? If I can't, can I have sex with them?
Q: Is the Smuggler armor progression awsome?

Lanius wrote:

Q: Is the Smuggler armor progression awsome?

Yes! This is info we don't have yet!

First off, Bioware has also said that the Q&A section is not permanent on Facebook and they're working on something else for it. And I'ma answer these questions cause I feel like it (and I'm bored), but you're probably right, Lanius! lol

Lanius wrote:

Q: How many healers will we get per faction?

Greg Zoeller has confirmed there are 3 healing classes per faction. Medic Troopers are on their way (this part is hypothesis, but it makes the most sense.)

From Harry_Truman, over on the TOR forums.

Harry_Truman wrote:

This just in from the German forums (roughly translated):

Quote:
Every faction gets four basic classes with two advanced classes choosable at level 10.

Three of these basic classes on every faction gets access on advanced classes which provide a full main healing position if the right skills are choosen.

http://www.swtor.com/de/community/sh...=250151&page=3

Zoeller has officially confirmed that there are indeed 3 classes, not AC's, per faction capable of healing. This excludes the Shadow, and leaves us with the Jedi Knight and Trooper. My bet's on the Trooper, as I've said before.

Lanius wrote:

Q: Will a Smuggler heal as well as a Consular?

Having any healer not able to heal as well as the other is a bad idea, and they've said before that the Smuggler can heal as well as the Consular, so they've answered this.

Lanius wrote:

Q: Can a single lightsaber wielder be a competitive DPSer?

Your heresy shall stay your feet. Bow to us Bioware gods and repent ye silly carbon based life forms! (Or, yes, Zoeller confirmed this too )

Lanius wrote:

Q: Can I kill my companions? If I can't, can I have sex with them?

Can you see it having sex with Leia?

Lanius wrote:

Q: Is the Smuggler armor progression awsome?

They will make Derek Zoolander jealous, and David Bowie will personally be your fashion slave (remind him about the babe.) All hail our Smuggler overlords.

Kai-Sun wrote:

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

Horeon, As much as I like Kel Dor, I just don't see them passing the "making out with princess Leia" test. I know I wouldn't want to kiss anything with Mandibles.

You look deep into his eye masks and tell me, you don't feel that spark!

No, seriously though, they're tusks/extrasensory organs.

Kai-Sun wrote:

First off, Bioware has also said that the Q&A section is not permanent on Facebook and they're working on something else for it. And I'ma answer these questions cause I feel like it (and I'm bored), but you're probably right, Lanius! lol

Lanius wrote:

Q: How many healers will we get per faction?

Greg Zoeller has confirmed there are 3 healing classes per faction. Medic Troopers are on their way (this part is hypothesis, but it makes the most sense.)

From Harry_Truman, over on the TOR forums.

Harry_Truman wrote:

This just in from the German forums (roughly translated):

Quote:
Every faction gets four basic classes with two advanced classes choosable at level 10.

Three of these basic classes on every faction gets access on advanced classes which provide a full main healing position if the right skills are choosen.

http://www.swtor.com/de/community/sh...=250151&page=3

Zoeller has officially confirmed that there are indeed 3 classes, not AC's, per faction capable of healing. This excludes the Shadow, and leaves us with the Jedi Knight and Trooper. My bet's on the Trooper, as I've said before.

Lanius wrote:

Q: Will a Smuggler heal as well as a Consular?

Having any healer not able to heal as well as the other is a bad idea, and they've said before that the Smuggler can heal as well as the Consular, so they've answered this.

Lanius wrote:

Q: Can a single lightsaber wielder be a competitive DPSer?

Your heresy shall stay your feet. Bow to us Bioware gods and repent ye silly carbon based life forms! (Or, yes, Zoeller confirmed this too )

Lanius wrote:

Q: Can I kill my companions? If I can't, can I have sex with them?

Can you see it having sex with Leia?

Lanius wrote:

Q: Is the Smuggler armor progression awsome?

They will make Derek Zoolander jealous, and David Bowie will personally be your fashion slave (remind him about the babe.) All hail our Smuggler overlords.

LOL. Now I may play a Smuggler just to have Bowie making my awsome gear.

Lanius wrote:

LOL. Now I may play a Smuggler just to have Bowie making my awsome gear.

I seriously need to suggest this, he can even go by his nickname of Ziggy Stardust in game!

Kai-Sun wrote:

Lanius wrote:

LOL. Now I may play a Smuggler just to have Bowie making my awsome gear.

I seriously need to suggest this, he can even go by his nickname of Ziggy Stardust in game!

I support this idea!

Lanius wrote:

I'm with you Godric. I got all mad and angry when I saw the questions too.

Q: How diverse can I expect the enemies to be?
Q: What will BW/EA do in combating cheating in-game with the use of Bots/hacking?
Q: Is the Trooper armor progression gonna be awesome?
Q: Will characters from Knights of the Old Republic be mentioned and will events from Knights of the Old Republic II have an impact on the game?

With hundreds of pages of good questions why do they choose to answer those? :\ They all have been answered before.
Q&A is just another way of BW saying that they can't talk about gameplay stuff yet.

Lanius, you inspired me to expand my Q & A answers on the official forums. Check out this thread. I hope you all get a good laugh.

Horeon wrote:

Kai-Sun wrote:

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

Horeon, As much as I like Kel Dor, I just don't see them passing the "making out with princess Leia" test. I know I wouldn't want to kiss anything with Mandibles.

You look deep into his eye masks and tell me, you don't feel that spark!

No, seriously though, they're tusks/extrasensory organs.

So ..whatcha sayin?