March 23rd Q&A

[Arlee]

Originally Posted by SWTOR

Mksaccount: Are there any plans on adjusting rage timers in hard mode Flashpoints?

Gabe Amatangelo (Lead Endgame & PvP Designer): The team continues to tune Flashpoint bosses based on metrics and feedback. Bosses that are a ‘spike’ in the progression curve (e.g. when a second boss might be more difficult than the last) are being addressed in one way or another, be it increasing their enrage timer, decreasing their health, extending the cooldown of control abilities, etc.

Bendog: Are there any plans to make the lower level planet commendations ‘Bind to Account’? It would be nice to hand them off to another character.

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): We've talked about it, sure. It's something we considered as we added in the Legacy System. However, right now we know that other aspects of the Legacy System will act to speed up the leveling experience for alternate characters. We want to see the state of the game in terms of leveling speed and itemization power after the core Legacy System goes live with Game Update 1.2 before we potentially make that change.

BurdoThePious: Is there a reason why the Commando / Mercenary Advanced Classes do not have an interrupt ability (eg. Mind Snap, Distraction, Force Kick)?

Georg Zoeller (Lead Combat Designer): Yes. The lack of an interrupt ability on these Advanced Classes is a purposefully designed weakness in their ability arsenal. At the current time, adding an interrupt to the Commando/Mercenary would increase their combat utility, especially in PvP, beyond what we are comfortable with.

That said, this issue is one we’ve re-evaluated with every major patch and will likely continue to revisit in the future. It is not inconceivable that an interrupt may be added to these Advanced Classes in a future update, especially if more PvE content is introduced that relies on a certain number of interrupts being available in a group.

Niktika: Can you please explain some of the reasoning behind the healing nerfs? It almost seems like every healer is up in arms regardless of their class.

Georg: Sometimes it's hard to hear this, but the change to healers you're referring to was, quite simply, a result of them being too good. When one healer is close to target performance and the others aren't, it's natural to think that the logical course is to buff the underperformer and leave the over-performers alone. I want to dispel that notion and explain why it isn't always possible.

All specs for all roles have a target performance. This is what drives the balance of the game: soloing, Heroics, PvP, Flashpoints, Operations... everything. When those targets aren't hit, we can't just ‘bring everyone up’ to the highest performer without negatively impacting the balance of the game and creating unsustainable inflation in our combat system. Frankly, it's also a lot more work to change all end game content in the game to compensate for an over-performing role than to bring the role back in line. The hard but simple truth is that Sorcerers and Sages had better Force management than we intended (e.g. a well-played Sage was almost incapable of running out of Force) and Mercenaries and Commandos were significantly over target in their healing performance.

After considerable testing, we're more confident than ever that all healing roles are both closer to target performance and closer to one another than ever before, leading to a much tighter balance on end game content. The community will be able to confirm this using the new combat logging feature in Game Update 1.2.

I know trying to ‘sell’ a downwards adjustment (AKA nerf) to anyone affected is like selling the need for a tax increase to people. When you are on the receiving end of it, you're not going to be happy about it. It may appear massive to you, even if the overall impact is limited. You likely won't care that it's 'for the greater good of the game' and, if you decide to disagree with our action, there's little we can do to sway you.

Based on the feedback brought to us so far from testers playing on PTS along with metrics and combat logs gathered from our guild testers, we are going to make additional adjustments before Game Update 1.2 is promoted to the live servers. For example, we reopened the internal debate about having an in-combat resurrect ability for Mercenaries/Commandos based on PTS feedback regarding the new Operations, in light of the higher utility value this ability brings to the table in 1.2. We're listening to your feedback, too, and rebalancing some of the changes made to healing based on data gathered from PTS. Look out for a future update to PTS for more details.

Pzljug: When are you guys going to finish the Timeline on the Holonet?

Stephen Reid (Senior Community Manager): When the Timeline series was begun we weren’t entirely sure how many timelines would be needed to detail relevant backstory for The Old Republic and left ‘blank spaces’ on the Timeline that, we thought, would all be filled in with Timeline entries. Ultimately, we feel we’ve detailed all the relevant backstory required, so no more Timeline entries going back into earlier history are planned. However, we know how much players enjoyed the lore details, style and presentation of Timelines, so we’re planning to continue that with a different series (currently unscheduled!) which will detail other aspects of the lore of The Old Republic.

Suzume_Bachi: If I unlock the Pureblood Sith species for all my future characters via the Legacy System, will I be able to create a Republic Pureblood Sith Smuggler, and will that Smuggler have Punish to I can smack around Corso Riggs?

William Wallace (Senior Designer): Players creating characters with the new species/class combinations allowed by Legacy will get that species’ unique ability. So yes, your new Sith Pureblood Smuggler will have the Punish ability, and can use it on Corso Riggs as much as you like. Poor Corso....

DevTheSith: Can Bounty Hunters get a [Name] The Mandalorian title (or if it’s already in game, where is it)?

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Currently, there is no such title available for Bounty Hunters. It may be added as part of a future content update, but we’ve got no current plans to add it to the existing game.

Alericus: I am wondering how the ‘vote to kick’ system for PvP matches will work. I have a concern it will be abused by pre-made teams who want to control the team. Can you clarify how this system will work?

Gabe: Any player can vote to kick an AFK player through the Ops frame context menu. This will not initiate a vote prompt, but rather must be actively sought out by multiple players. Once a player has received several votes they will receive a prompt indicating that they’ll be kicked from the Warzone in a few seconds if they do not engage in combat or defend an objective. A player who is kicked from the Warzone in this manner will be returned to their original location before they queued, and will not be able to queue up again for several minutes. We’ll continue to fine tune the detection logic, but gradually, with an eye towards protecting the innocent bystander player.

Mataoh: A lot of guilds have a second alt guild for the opposite faction - is there any plan to allow some sort of cross-faction chat so both guilds can communicate with each other in game?

Damion: This was something that came up a lot during the Guild Summit and is an idea we're taking seriously. However, no design is locked down in stone and I don't have any sort of ETA as of yet for when something like this might happen.

joetacticSW: Can we have a ‘Loop music’ feature or some other way to make our experience less quiet?

Damion: Interesting idea. Let me give it some thought!

(Source)

[ihyln]

The response to the healing nerfs is ghostcrawler-ish. Game has been out for what 4 months? If healing was so OP why did they wait till 1.2 to nerf them all? If healing was such an obvious problem why wasn't it dealt with earlier? Or are they just simply incompetent?

[kenn9530]

The response to the healing nerfs is ghostcrawler-ish. Game has been out for what 4 months? If healing was so OP why did they wait till 1.2 to nerf them all? If healing was such an obvious problem why wasn't it dealt with earlier? Or are they just simply incompetent?

they need to balance out healing so all classes are even and also to keep it a challenge as what is the point if if the role is too easy, your post is not very constructive at all, this game has not been out long and there has been major patches and extra content added very quickly, when balancing classes and such it takes time to figure out what to do as to not create a further problem, sounds to me your just QQn because you are getting a slight nerf.

[ihyln]

they need to balance out healing so all classes are even and also to keep it a challenge as what is the point if if the role is too easy, your post is not very constructive at all, this game has not been out long and there has been major patches and extra content added very quickly, when balancing classes and such it takes time to figure out what to do as to not create a further problem, sounds to me your just QQn because you are getting a slight nerf.

I don't play a healing class. I have a jugg tank. Also if you think my post wasn't constructive you must be staggeringly stupid. Let's not pretend bioware knows what it is doing since they mainly listen to whines and don't actually test their patches.

Don't call other posters "staggeringly stupid"

[Koalachan]

I don't play a healing class. I have a jugg tank. Also if you think my post wasn't constructive you must be staggeringly stupid. Let's not pretend bioware knows what it is doing since they mainly listen to whines and don't actually test their patches.

Which is why there's so many people on the pts.

[Jalek]

The response to the healing nerfs is ghostcrawler-ish. Game has been out for what 4 months? If healing was so OP why did they wait till 1.2 to nerf them all? If healing was such an obvious problem why wasn't it dealt with earlier? Or are they just simply incompetent?

lol. Maybe because his comments make perfect sense. It's almost always better to nerf overperformers rather than buff all the underperformers for the exact reasons he listed. They waited until 1.2 because there is now plenty of data at max level and they have a better understanding of all of the respective power levels off the classes.

Personally I don't whinge about things being OP or UP and just get on with the game. Buff/nerfs happen and the good players just ride through it. I've played a shaman (mostly ele, some resto) in WoW for 7yrs and I know what it is like to be underpowered for the majority of that time. Just get on with it an enjoy the game.

[Svifnymr]

The response to the healing nerfs is ghostcrawler-ish. Game has been out for what 4 months? If healing was so OP why did they wait till 1.2 to nerf them all? If healing was such an obvious problem why wasn't it dealt with earlier? Or are they just simply incompetent?

Perhaps they simply wanted to give it time to double check their numbers after 1.1? It's not like healers were all underperforming and folks couldn't play the game, so what's the rush?

[Armourboy]

I would rather they take a bit more time to rebalance things than to do what Blizzard is notorious for, snap nerfs that end up leaving that spec in shambles for the next 6 months or year until they decide to get back to it.

Personally I think it was wise to wait this long as it allows more of the community to get max level to have a better cross section of the populace giving you data, and secondly it allows you to make sure the data tells you that the crying is indeed true and not just people wanting their particular spec to be OP.

[Deleted]

It's also partly due to the content pre-1.2 being too easy and people kicking the crap out of it far too quickly. Because this was the case it meant that many found out quite quickly that they had very little to do.

This is a typical MMO thing to do and will no doubt work for them in the long wrong I expect.

[Bugg]

too many **** answers that tell you nothing:

Currently, there is no such <stuff> available. It may be added as part of a future content update, but we’ve got no current plans to add it to the existing game.
or
However, no design is locked down in stone and I don't have any sort of ETA as of yet for when something like this might happen.
or
Interesting idea. Let me give it some thought!
or
this issue is one we’ve re-evaluated with every major patch and will likely continue to revisit in the future. It is not inconceivable that an interrupt may be added to these Advanced Classes in a future update, especially if more PvE content is introduced that relies on a certain number of interrupts being available in a group.

summary: emmm not now, maybe later.


very few clear answers for clear questions. But that`s just me.

[kenn9530]

I don't play a healing class. I have a jugg tank. Also if you think my post wasn't constructive you must be staggeringly stupid. Let's not pretend bioware knows what it is doing since they mainly listen to whines and don't actually test their patches.

Don't call other posters "staggeringly stupid"

so your post means even less since you dont have a clue at all about the healing classes, i have played wow since vanilla and i have way more fun playing this game than i ever did with wow, i have never been able to lvl in wow as it took 6 years to get 5 chars to max lvl, in 4 months i have 4 chars to max level and will lvl even more after 1.2. If you dont like the game then leave as we dont need players that dont have a clue about mmos.

you also have to take in the fact this is the first mmo that bioware has done, the team actually listens to the players to what they actually want, things dont just happen over night as it takes time to develop and introduce the features that are wanted.

bioware is constantly adding in extra content and working on future features that the player base wants. Blizz for one takes forever to add in content and it took up till now for all the features it currently has, yes some features in wow would be nice to have but i dont want the game to be made as faceroll as wow became.

the game was made a little too easy to begin with so patch 1.2 is making things slightly harder, whats the point in having a class thats more overpowered than another, all classes need to be as equal as possible.

before you can QQ about the healing classes you have to actually play one to even remotely know what you are talking about.

[gualdhar]

too many **** answers that tell you nothing:

Currently, there is no such <stuff> available. It may be added as part of a future content update, but we’ve got no current plans to add it to the existing game.
or
However, no design is locked down in stone and I don't have any sort of ETA as of yet for when something like this might happen.
or
Interesting idea. Let me give it some thought!
or
this issue is one we’ve re-evaluated with every major patch and will likely continue to revisit in the future. It is not inconceivable that an interrupt may be added to these Advanced Classes in a future update, especially if more PvE content is introduced that relies on a certain number of interrupts being available in a group.

summary: emmm not now, maybe later.


very few clear answers for clear questions. But that`s just me.

The reason they word things that way is because its an MMO, and conceivably, things might go in a different direction down the road. So if they say "No, never," to <XYZ> and suddenly two years from now they decide to add <XYZ>, and some enterprising forumgoer hates <XYZ>, they're going to find that quote, hold it up in the forums and go "YOU SUCK YOU WENT AGAINST YOUR WORD" yada yada yada and finally the forums erupt in chaos, people start quitting, baby Jesus cries, etc.

So, if the devs say "We have no plans for <XYZ> at the moment but it may be added later," its simply dev-talk for "no, go away."