Brannoc - Welcome to another great Stratics house of commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of Starwars Galaxies! The topic will be general discussion so any questions about the game are welcome. But please try to hold your questions about JTL for now.
Brannoc - Please send said questions to [QT]^J^ or [QT]GD or [QT]Tabrizia - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to myself or the developers will not make it into the lineup, so don't bother. Full logs of the chat will be up on www.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brannoc - So without further ado we'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
ronda_lucasarts - *pokes the devs
Runesabre - Hello and welcome everyone. I am Kirk Black, Live Lead Designer
justG - oh
Haden - Hi. I'm Haden Blackman, aka Shug_Ninx, Producer for LucasArts on SWG and Jump to Lightspeed. Welcome!
ronda_lucasarts - There they are!
justG - hi, I am Gary Gattis, SOE Sr. Producer
TH - Hello folks, its me, TH, the Community Relations Manager
TH - I hope everyone is doing well tonight
Brannoc - *Illian[Eclipse]* Many players feel the new combat timer (for switching weapons and armor) has hurt combat (both pvp and pve) more than it has helped. It has removed a level skill from the game, adjusting your equipment to fit immediate situation, which separated the great players from the good players. It is also a nuisance waiting /at least/ 45 seconds for a suit of armor to equip. Are there any hotfixes planned to resolv
Runesabre - The timer is needed to facilitate combat balance and ensure that tactical choices are present in the system.
Brannoc - *Ryeo* Question: With all the changes happening to bounty hunters, will they be seeing any more little fixes? or revamps, especially to jedi rewards?
justG - Yes we will.. we are going to revamp the jedi bounty rewards soon
justG - as well as look into other methods of controlling jedi >:-)
Brannoc - *Soltanus_Tarquinas* What plans do you have to fix many of the jedi problems introduced with publish 9? Namely the FRS system exploits, no resists on robes and all the TEFs that BH are abusing to grief young padawans?
justG - We just put the new jedi system in... we are definately going to be doing incremental balance passes all along the way
Brannoc - *Twister* Question: Can you enlighten us on the 5th part of the jetpack in the DWB. Does it drop or not?
Runesabre - Yes this component does drop. It is not an easy component to get but I have verified drops of this component in Live.
Brannoc - *Jordan|Starsider* i got a question to submit.. Don't you Feel it ruins the Star Wars feel along with the sync of the timeline to have Player Jedi ingame?
Haden - No. We feel that Jedi are uniquely Star Wars.
Haden - Becoming a Jedi is one of the core fantasies of the Star Wars universe.
Haden - We have worked very hard to put in a system that fits within the context of the timeline, while still providing that fantasy fulfillment.
Brannoc - *Blue_Harvest|Vhaal|Chimaera* Are there any plans for more creatures to be mountable? IE Rancors? (THere is a sweet piece of art depicting a load of Nightsisters going to war on the backs of Rancors :) )
justG - we are definitely going to be adding new creatures some time. We are also looking into ways of making them much more viable in combat.
Brannoc - *Edea* Will the be a color option for the Manolorian armor, at the moment the colors are random and from the looks of it we will currently get some kind of clown suit.
Runesabre - The original design for the DWB called for replayability factors. One of those factors would be completing the adventure multiple times in order to get a matching set (or trading with other players)
Runesabre - We are continually re-evaluating the DWB as we see how players participate in the adventure.
Haden - Really, it was our intent to dress you all up in clown suits to distract from the hot pants.
justG - thats HAWT pants haden
Brannoc - *Kaessa* Will player cities become more effective? i.e.: make /citywarn work again, fix the workarounds for /cityban, give mayors a chance to resign?
justG - We are currently concerned about mayor resignations and city turnovers, so we are looking at that soon. As to citywarn and cityban, there are some larger issues surrounding griefing with these commands that are being looked at too
Brannoc - *Meparch* Question on the new jedi unlocking system. - What form of credit do those that have not unlocked will recieve for the professions we have mastered?
Runesabre - Jedi will be given credit on quest advancement based on how many of their Jedi skills they have unlocked. The more jedi skills you have successfully mastered, the more quests that will be unlocked for you.
Brannoc - *Quantix* Question for chat: Currently Jedi versus melee is somewhat of a joke in regards to the melee class dominating the Jedi. I know "continuity" isn't the keystone of things, but isn't it more sensible to see Jedi more effective melee opponents due to the close range and ease of attack. Ranged opponents in the films always faired better than melee (poor Gammorean Pikeman in ROTJ). Any comments or insight would be appreciat
justG - This is exactly the type of thing that we are looking at with any and all Jedi Balance issues.
Brannoc - *Utess* The Musician and Dancer professions are currently the only professions in game who's every function can be played 100% afk all the time. While Hologrinding is ending, this has given rise to a new generation of buff bots that are just as bad, if not worse, to these two professions. Do the devs have any strategies being worked on to resolve this problem? And, if so, what are they and when will we see them.
Runesabre - We as a team feel that AFK macroing is harmful to the game, especially to Dancers and Musicians. We have had a lot of discussions internally on how to solve this problem without hurting the professions at the same time.
justG - We don't like AFK either.
Runesabre - It's not an easy problem to solve but we definitely wish to find a solution.
Brannoc - Please remember to send questions to [QT]^J^ OR [QT]GD OR [qt]tabrizia and not myself or the developers
Brannoc - *IntrepidJedi_Everlast* With the current publish , the Bounty Hunter TEF stays active on his mission Jedi after the mission is over. If the BH looses or the Jedi looses , the TEF is still there. It remains active if the BH dies and looses his mission, and if the Jedi dies and the mission is complete. This is causing problems. One problem is with the dead Jedi getting a rez , or useing the force to recover, the BH us able to kil
justG - Yup - that is a bug.
Brannoc - *Tonma* With the announcement of Ithorians as the new species, many people are worried about the limitations of the species, that they will just 'become another wookiee'. What do you have planed as far as these limitations are concerned?
Haden - Ithorians will have tons of special wearables, including armor and other gear.
Haden - We wanted to include them because they are a fan favorite, and so we dedicated a ton of time to developing them, both from a customization and a wearables perspective.
justG - and they look cool!
Haden - (As a side note, one reason we limited wearables for Wookiees was because they were viewed as very powerful, physically, so we didn't necessarily want them wearing armor).
Brannoc - *Groworrk_Sunrunner* Question: Many combat classes have had fixes delayed for months, with the statement "Wait for the combat rebalance." Why, then, is a single profession that should be rare & obscure in this time period getting 2 publishes back to back, when a much-needed fix is delayed AGAIN?
TH - Well, the thing is that while the idea of playing a Jedi in the game appeals to some and not others, the original Jedi system was effecting everyone in the game. The change effects not only Jedi, but all the professions.
justG - The old system was very unhealty for the game, and it needed to stop. But people wanted it badly, so we HAD to revamp the system in order to stop the hologrind.
TH - Its important to remember than different professions mean they are different playstyles in many cases and there was a clash between players who wanted to play in those playstyles and those who didn't. Changing the Jedi system changes all of that.
Brannoc - *KingMob* Question: Why has so much attention been given to Jedi when there are not supposed to be any in this timeline?
Haden - We do know that some Jedi exist during this period in our timeline. We wanted to give players an opportunity to become Jedi because it's one of the core Star Wars fantasies, and feedback from many, many community members (since we launched the official site so long ago) has always been "I want to play a Jedi." We worked with Lucasfilm Licensing to ensure that we could include Jedi who have survived, in secrecy, and have made fiction
Haden - Basically, this is a case of us working with the continuity carefully to ensure that we provide the *players* with a fun experience that fits within the context of Star Wars.
Brannoc - *TK-231* Can you elaborate on the waited Music "revamp"? As I heard the troubles are now how to get the bunch of music to the players without too much hassle. Runesabre - Adding new Music is very patch intensive so it's something we will have to do sparingly and over time. We do plan on adding new music over time, but, it probably won't come in big packages all at once.
Brannoc - *Ryeo* with all the changes made to bounty hunters, can we expect any other changes? - especially to the jedi missions which seem pointless to doing atm.
justG - ryeo - yes the missions are going to be fixed.
Brannoc - *TA|Havox* For armorsmiths-What changes are you doing to the proffession and will your nerfing armor make everyones armor the same reguardless of those of us who spent 40mill+ on an armor experimentation suit?
justG - All armor is being rebalance. Your top-of-the-line armor will still be near the top of the power band.
Brannoc - *Rothin* Question: There was a poll asked on the official forums asking whether we wanted the path to force sensitivity known or myserious. Over 53% of the people voted to make it known. In a recent reply to a thread by Thunderheart it was said the path will be myserious. Why did the developers decide to go against the wishes of the majority of the community?
Runesabre - This hasn't been decided yet and we are discussing it internally. We would love your continued feedback on what you feel the final decision should be.
Brannoc - *Minerunner* Question: With the Combat Revamp being reschedualed, what for example could the players look forward to in the interim, to adjust the current imbalance?
Haden - (On the previous Jedi question) There will be a known path for progression very early on in the Jedi experience. In addition, we'll be posting details about the revamp to the In Concept too.
Haden - Very soon, for your feedback.
Brannoc - *LordSeckmoth* With the current announcement of the CB being pushed back, approximatly how many temporary fixes can we expect the Devs to try for?
TH - With regards to the Combat Rebalance rescheduled (which was a very difficult decision), we are working with the community and correspondents to develop a list of fixes in the interim. I will post those lists on the boards to get feedback and put together a solid list
justG - LordSekmoth... as many as humanly possible :-)
Brannoc - *[RS]GizBelden_Starsider* As stated today, the CB, GCW and other publishes have been postponed to after JtL is released and in the mean time you will be working with correspondents to get some fixes made pre-Combat Balance. Will you be focusing more on those professions that seem to have the most need of attention, with many broken specials etc., or will changes be made across the board?
TH - Gizbelden - Absolutely we are going to do that, but we will be working off of community lists. Doing everything will require the Combat Revamp.
Brannoc - *RaziEL07-LOWCA* Is the rumor about a new type of holocron true? or just a rumor?
justG - First I have heard of that one myself... would like to see the design :-)
Haden - We are looking for ways to incorporate the *current* holocrons into the Jedi system, but no details yet.
Brannoc - *Blue_Harvest|Vhaal|Chimaera* Can you give us a rough estimate of when the 75 additional emotes will be going live?
* justG wakes up *
Runesabre - You can expect the additional emotes before JTL ships.
Brannoc - Please remember to send questions to [QT]^J^ OR [QT]GD OR [qt]tabrizia and not myself or the developers
Brannoc - *Leava* What can us wookiees expect from the 2 new wookiee armours due in publish 9.2? Our HAM bonuses are of virtually no use in a world of doctor buffs and composite so will we be able to compete in PvP and not die instantly?
* justG loves wookiees *
Runesabre - The two new Wookiee Armors are being modeled after Ubese and Composite. Once these new armor sets are released, Wookiees should be on equal footing as all other races in terms of combat.
Brannoc - *Wolf-dc[Flurry]* Will we ever have the ability to have casinos in Player Cities? Our town on Flurry called Mos Vegas sure could use that. Perhaps Master Politician could allow that, considering currently there is no reason to become one.
Haden - That's something that we really want to do, but we just haven't had the opportunity for it yet. It will probably be part of a future expansion.
Brannoc - *Blade310* is there any chance of making diseases and poisions so that they do not cause as much damage, were it is at now if you run into a cm your dead plain and simple
justG - There are 2 things we want to fix to counter CM's... inoculations and Area Heals. They are in the works.
Brannoc - *Bukan|Chimaera* Will we be able to change our species when the new two species are coming in with JTL ? i think no one wants to delete his char (especially as a jedi)
Haden - Nope. The only two choices in SWG that are irreversible are your gender and your species. We encourage you to make new characters with the two new species, though. :)
Brannoc - *hal* Will there be any future plans to expand the PVP aspect of the game, to get more people into PVP to come back to the game?
justG - Yes - we are looking into how to technically promote more people in one area for better PvP, and we want to include those types of players in alot of our future plans
Brannoc - *Chianti* myself and others have prepared proposals for FRS systems that could potentially replace the wildly unpopular current implementation. Have the devs read any of these proposals, and is there any thought being given into changing the current FRS system?
justG - Chianti - believe it or not, we DO read these things. We want to get the FRS populated and going before reevaluating the mechanics
Brannoc - *zephyruo* Not sure who to direct this towards but, jedi's have lots now and cant place structures, a common practice is to have a friend place a stucture and transfer it to your own lots, is the not being able to place a bug, or us having lots at all a bug?
Runesabre - After Publish 10, Jedi will be able to place structures just like any normal character.
Brannoc - *ClonerStive* Is there any future plan to keep jedi rare? As said before, in this time period, Jedi are almost extinct. However, there are many jedi and they are commonly seen.
justG - Alot of people want to play Jedi. But we want to find different ways to control the population and keep them hidden. Maybe a visit from Vader would do the trick... >:-)
Haden - (Or other nasty characters...)
justG - muhahahahaaaaaaaaaa
Brannoc - *just`Stryfe* Now that the holocrons don't work, will the sith holos be able to be removed from the inventory and bankbox to be used in decorating your house?
Runesabre - I would recommend hanging on to your holocrons even though they are silent at the present time.
Brannoc - *[TGi]Morrek* Are you going to be doing any major fixes in the interim before the CB, or will the fixes just be the minor issues(ie softball issues)?
justG - Alot of effort is going to be involved in integrating Ground and Space. But we also want to look at putting things in the game that YOU want us to, and interrim combat fixes to tide folks over.
Brannoc - *DeadlyBlue* What will the Smuggler Revamp Include? Anything that will involve...smuggling?
Runesabre - GreenMarine (internal SWG designer) is leading up the charge with the Smuggler Revamp. He is currently taking a lot of feedback from the players from the Smuggler Forums as well as presenting a lot of "In Concept" ideas on the Smuggler Forum. I highly encourage you to visit the Smuggler Forum and be involved with the exciting proposed changes coming!
Brannoc - *Gryn* Will we ever get to play the loveable Jawa race? Please say you have considered it at least.
Haden - We've considered Jawas as playable, along with a lot of other species... Stay tuned for more info on the second species in JTL. As we add more species to the game over time, we'll definitely be looking at all your top choices.
Brannoc - *[Avian]Warnel* It seems like the same few planets are getting all of the new additions of content, while others are being left out. Do you have any plans to be focus on some of the lesser traveled planets (mainly do to their lack of stong content) like Talus or Rori in the near future?
justG - Talus and Rori are prime space that we want to use. No to NEAR future but we definately want to revamp them with something special.
justG - soon (tm)
Brannoc - *Deceit* Being able to hit mind is probably the biggest incentive on what professions to take in pvp. What plans are there to change this and how soon would we see them?
Runesabre - Publish 10 is strictly focused on the unlocking force sensitivity of your character. It's a very exciting, large amount of content that we will be sharing the details of in the "In Concept" forum soon.
Brannoc - *Fenix* OT question: does mr. blackman drink coffee, tea or jolt cola? :)
Haden - Vodka, mostly.
justG - lol
TH - heh...
ronda_lucasarts - He's not kidding.
justG - it's true, it's true
Haden - That explains my gamespot interview...
* justG wonders if that is true now? *
Brannoc - *RaziEL07-LOWCA* Do you plan to re-do the executioners hack? maybe a different damage type and AP3?
* TH *nerfs Vodka* *
Runesabre - We don't currently have plans on changing the executioners hack.
Brannoc - *RaziEL07-LOWCA* What are the plans on adding vehicles with weapons?
Haden - Definitely in the works for a future expansion.
Brannoc - (to correct a mistake earlier in the chat) - *Deceit* Will current jedi(padawan and higher) see much in the way of content with pub 10 or will it just be focused on unlocking?
Runesabre - (correct answer) Publish 10 is strictly focused on the unlocking force sensitivity of your character. It's a very exciting, large amount of content that we will be sharing the details of in the "In Concept" forum soon.
Brannoc - *neinnunb* In a recent interview on gamespot, there was mention of a loot revamp. How extensive will this revamp be and in between what other revamps can we expect it?
Haden - We recognize the need for more loot in the game. There's something special about going out and beating stuff and getting something cool in return.
justG - The loot kits have been very successful and we want to expand that principle as well.
Haden - Any loot we add will be done in a sane way, though...
Haden - We don't want to cut the crafters out of the mix.
Haden - So, we have LOTS of brainstorming to do to determine what to add as "loot."
Brannoc - *Boene* Will there ever be an option to add roads to Player Cities and take away the Decorations limit. Alot of our cities are pretty void of decorations and dark. Even taking the streetlamps off of this limit would help.
justG - Roads are technically not feasible because of the buildings that exist... or rather technically VERY challenging. We are looking at DB limits to see if we can expand the number of decorations.
Brannoc - *Harm* why is it not possible to transfer leadership of a guild as the guild halls take upso much space it leaves u with very few plots for a home or factory etc...also wot if the leader wants to leave but keep guild alive.
justG - We are looking at ALL lot limits, and the exploits that allow you to have access to many many many lots. Once we get this figured out it may not matter.
justG - But yes, you should not be penalized for having a guild hall.
Brannoc - *Kagomi* How are the non-combat type professions like entertainers and artisans supposed to do the Jedi trials to unlock their jedi slots?
Haden - We have taken the non-combat types into account...
Haden - When you become Force Sensitive, you path to becoming a Jedi starts in what we're calling the "Village."
Haden - The village has a whole background that ties into the history of the Jedi, and is populated with NPCs that give you quests.
Haden - You don't have to complete all of them, and there are quest progressions for different types of players.
justG - Look for more info on the village soon on In Concept
Haden - So, combat-heavy players will be able to go on combat-centric quests.
Haden - And artisans will have crafting quests, all tied into a storyline revolving around this village.
Haden - Again, we'll be posting more info on the In Concept page soon.
justG - So stay tuned, folks, for more info on The Village
justG - haden likes to repeat me
Haden - Yes, the Village will be on In Concept.
ronda_lucasarts - Except you followed Haden, Gary
justG - And we will put more info in In Concept
TH - Actually thats In development :)
Haden - DOH!
Brannoc - And that's it folks! I'd like to thank everyone for attending, especially the developers! The logs will be up shortly on www.stratics.com
justG - thanks everyone.
