Brannoc: Welcome to another great Stratics house of commons with the developers of Starwars Galaxies! Tonight we'd like to focus on Chapter 2 Jedi and Bounty Hunter Expertise so please try to focus questions around these topics.
We'll begin with a brief introduction from our guests and then proceed with the chat. Now would be a good time to send those questions to [QT]Sprite!
Helios_SOE: Hi! I'm Helios. Lead Designer on Galaxies.
Rogue_5: Hi! My name is Grant "Rogue_5" McDaniel. I am the SOE Producer for Star Wars Galaxies.
Phydeaux-K9: Hello Galaxians, I am Hollis Gray and I am a content designer here at SOE. I help create the legacy quests and other PvE content.
SWGDev-Chrysalide: My name is Jeff "Chrysalide" Carpenter, and I am a Systems Designer
Neif: Hi everyone! This is Tim over at LEC production.
Teesquared: Hello, I am Tony "Teesquared" Tyson, Technical Director for SWG
HanseSOE: Howdy! I'm Hanse. System Designer on Galaxies!
gris: Good evening! My name is Fannie Gunton, and I am an Associate Producer with SOE for SWG.
TH: Hello everyone! I'm Thunderheart, your friendly neighborhood community guy. I'm glad you could make it! You can find info about how to send in questions here: Announcements
jneri: Hi Everybody this is Jake in Production at LEC, THANKS to everyone who is here and who was with us in San Diego last week!
ArkonPhoenix: The elder robe has brought up concern lately regarding expertise; can we please make sure that the Knight Robes are considered the measuring stick and not the Elder Robes or Master Cloaks? I know the concern is about people getting 20k health, but since Jedi are a melee class, trust me they need it and its not like other professions cant do it either.
HanseSOE: We're using opposing expertise classes as our measuring sticks. The robes, while I brought them up for PvP issues, are not being used as a measuring stick.
Havock: Are diffrent Dark/Light Jedi titles in Expertise available to bring an difrence between other Jedi Players and Roleplaying?
HanseSOE: Not at this time.
ArkonPhoenix: I personally feel that the Jedi expertise system is somewhat weaker than the bounty hunter expertise. Will we see an increase in damage potential from the Jedi system either now or once the 3rd PvP tree is released?
Helios_SOE: The first big difference is that the BH trees have more new abilities than the Jedi trees because Jedi revamp happened prior to the expertise additions. That being said, we do intend on continually tweaking the systems on an ongoing basis.
Kelrek: So.. what exactly is this expertise for Bounty Hunters and Jedi about? Like.. ehh.. a skill tree of some sort for individual abilities?
Neif: Good question! The expertise system is a collection of abilities and attribute upgrades -- you get points to spend in them as you level up. Basically, it's an extra way of customizing your character. It's on Test Center right now.
Bex: With the new Expertise added to Test Center I find it difficult to fit all the commands 1 Command bar and when it goes live add the fact people use Grenades and Stims will make it will make it impossible to fit all your Attacks/Heals/Grenades/Stims/Buffs Etc onto a single bar would it be possible to add a Second bar?
Rogue_5: We have plans to implement a second toolbar as part of the upcoming Chapter 3. :)
Anon888: hi i was wondering if smuggler is going to be needed to slice the security terminals etc in the new bases as it has in the past
SWGDev-Chrysalide: Smugglers are not needed to gain access to the control terminals in the new Static GCW Bases. Anyone will be able to capture those terminals.
iconic: any chance to get an option to opt out of the player bounty system? casual pvp'ers would like to be able to occasionally pvp without having their regular gameplay interupted by bounty hunters.
Helios_SOE: Currently there are no plans to allow opting out of the Bounty System.
Anon524: is there a tenative release date for chapter 2 and any word on the gift for this one
jneri: Chapter 2 is coming early august and the gift is one of the rewards offered for holding down one of the GCW bases for a period of time....
SirRafaelBH: Will the Dark Jedi expertise be increase in power to compete with Light Jedi?
HanseSOE: We're not seeing an imbalance, in testing, currently.
Fariq: Can you again explain the reasoning behind releasing the Expertise system two professions at a time instead of waiting until all the professions are ready and releasing them all at once. Thanks.
jneri: We are releasing the Expertise systems 2 at a time to ensure that each one is done with the highest quality possible, doing them in this manner allows us the best chance of success
Rammi: Hi my name is Rammi from the Ahazi Server. My Question is during testing on TC i found that Jedi heals were far over powered or that the timer was set to high. Are the devs happy with the jedi heal as BH have no heal enhancements at all
HanseSOE: We're seeing a very good ratio of wins/losses on both sides of the classes, as far as PvP goes. The Bounty Hunter shield is something you should look into, if you believe the heal is overpowered. :)
Thor79: Is today's fix for Mounts the first step in a (hopeful) return of CH to the game? (in any form)(Please Please Please say it is)
Rogue_5: Based on feedback from the community at the summits, we made the recent fixes to mounts. At this time there are no plans to bring back Creature Handler as a profession.
drakenya: Will there be any BH/Jedi profession missions in Chapter 2 as planned?
Phydeaux-K9: There are no missions for Jedi or BH in chapter 2, but there are plans to release Jedi missions in Chapter 3, and BH in a following chapter.
Agies: I just want to know what is instore for the Officer. if you are breaking up all the profs in this manner what is gona be done to us. we have very little as it is.
jneri: No official plans to reveal on Officer right now, but get your thoughts on what you want to see in the system on the boards now as there is time to get your thoughts into the mix
Iliac: I was wanting to know if there will be an updated publish/chapter plan posted as what is posted is over 3 months old and outdated.
Neif: While our publish schedule is subject to fluctuations, we will release some fairly concrete publish information after we launch Chapter 2. For now, we're running at full speed on the Chap 2 content.
Ka-Shem: The Force Choak line in the Dark Side tree seems VERY underpowered compared to its Light Side counterpart, is anything being done to rectify this?
HanseSOE: Comparison of a combat action over passive procs? The combat action is strategic. Dark Side wins on that one.
Deralus_T-O_Bria: why did soe make the reinforced stormtrooper helmet into a piece of armor but not the reinforced leggings or chestplate?
Phydeaux-K9: We're going to revisit the Imperial themepark, and as a part of that content addition we'll investigate those as rewards.
raiphe_wanderhome: Are there still plans to make faction uniforms and armor craftable in different colors? i.e. Storm Commando scout armor, black officer hats, and Rebel armor in colors other than intestinal leakage yellow?
Helios_SOE: There aren't any specific plans for those colored uniforms, but we are getting ready to work on a "Ranks & Rewards" system that will include a plethora of items that you can earn through GCW related activity, so it's not out of the question.
gadgettek: Can we expect greater foresight into crafting quests in the future?
Phydeaux-K9: As we approach the trader revamp, we'll release more information on the crafting quests.
Ibage: With Jabba's Theme park being Re-done in chapter 2, when can we expect the other themeparks to be finished?
Phydeaux-K9: The Imperial and Rebel themeparks are planned for chapter 3. Others will be addressed in future chapters.
SWGEMUCabro: it was said that the expertise was not going to be taking or dimming down any abilities, so why were jedi's powers dimmed down then buffed in the expertise
HanseSOE: Ah! I was thinking someone else was answering this. Jedi had a pass over their abilities in a previous publish.
To place an expertise system in the game for Jedi, they were already at the level of damage and abilities we were targeting for them coupled with expertise. Thus, some abilities did have to be incorporated into the system to keep them from being overpowered.
Pammie: I wanted to bring up the possibility of multi-classing coming back. Could it happen?
Rogue_5: We have no plans for multi-classing at this time.
Skuv: Hi there this question is for the devs. Looking at the up and coming Bouonty Hunter expertise system I have noticed that it is possible for a bounty hunter have 15000 armor permanantly and 25000 armor for 20 seconds if this will be added into game like it is will any profession be getting armor break so that this wont make Bounty Hunter the god profession.
Neif: Balancing these expertise systems is going to be an ongoing effort -- your feedback is always checked on the forums, and honestly is one of our best balancing tools. We have to make sure we get these Expertise systems right, and will continue balancing them throughout the year.
shinkaiho: is there any plans to add the particle effect back to force run? also has there been any talk about toggling fr on and off like a spy uses cloak
Helios_SOE: We're currently still experimenting with the visuals for force run, but it's very likely we're going to put a running particle in there.
Jeffro: How many months will it take before all combats profs get thier expertise trees
jneri: We will be working on expertise trees in 06 and into the beginning of 07... we are working on getting them right and polished, and frankly Grant said no rushing these or we have to do Real Life PVP in the SOE parking lot
Soldyne-Valcyn: If players are going to be loaded out with their expertise points allocated, will we be getting another free respec from the respec NPC so that we may allocate our points where we see fit without using a respec or paying for one?
HanseSOE: You may speak to a profession counselor for 5 expertise resets, once the system is available for your class.
JerokTalram: Why was armor and weapons specialization moved into the bh expertize and not a general one for all professions?
Helios_SOE: The plan is to have similar specializations for all professions as their expertises come on line. That way, we can tailor armor specializations to the specific profession.
Corbantis-Kud-mar: Do you plan on adding puzzles to the terminals to make it difficult to take over the already-easy GCW Bases?
SWGDev-Chrysalide: There are no plans to add any sort of puzzles to the Control Terminals in the GCW Bases. The challenge of gaining access to these terminals would primarily come from the PvP in the area.
Deralus_T-O_Bria: why is it in a group of 5 or more level 90 characters with varied classes cannot complete....deathwatch bunker....the trouble with hk...coreillan corvette and so on the bosses with thier elite combat macros are unable to be defeated?
Rogue_5: Balancing content like this is a challenge. At the community summit some people mentioned that the Death Watch Bunker was too easy. Ultimately we want there to be some challenging content available for the advanced players. This includes content that should be difficult for a group of 8 level 90s. Right now, the Death Watch Bunker is intended to be the ultimate badge of honor so I don’t expect it to change.
Brannoc: That's it for this one folks! Thanks for joining us here on Stratics IRC, the logs will be up on http://swg.stratics.com shortly. Be sure to come by next time!
Neif: Thank you all -- see you guys in the forums!
SWGDev-Chrysalide: Thanks for stopping by everbody!
Rogue_5: Thanks everyone! See you next month!
HanseSOE: *waves to everyone*
TH: Thanks for coming folks! See you on the boards!
Helios_SOE: Thanks for sitting with us, everyone. It was fun!
jneri: Thanks everyone, most appreciated
Teesquared: Bye All, Thanks!
Phydeaux-K9: Thanks guys. Hope you like the upcoming content.
