more Q&As

not sure which of the recent ones have been posted, but heres a few.

http://betacake.blogspot.com/2011/06/star-wars-old-republic-exclusive-tester_17.html

SWTOR Tester Q&A #7

Q. Can you give a general consensus of the testing forums as to how responsive the development team were to people discussing issues and bugs? Did it seem like there were less and less as testing went on? Or was it constant right up until the Alpha 2 phase ended this week?
A. They answer things very quickly. They are responding every hour or every half hour to different bugs, issues, comments, etc.


Q. Is there any indication that the newest build published this week will lead to larger-scale beta testing invites in the coming days/weeks? And what does it mean in relation to a release? Are we looking at 3 months? 6 months?
A. The game feels pretty much done. If anything they are just working on their server infrastructure. There aren’t really any game breaking bugs, and it could ship right now. They are doing another stress test at the end of the month, so that may be what John Riccitiello meant by increased testing.


Q. What about end game is it Raid centric like WoW? Is there an end game for those who don't Raid or PVP?
A.There is other stuff you can do, you can craft, do space combat, dailies, etc. But you won’t be rolling through raids solo in some kind of solo mode or anything silly like that.


Q. Can you shed any light on the lightsaber upgrade/crafting system? How components and crystals work?
A. Basically, you get a lightsaber and it has slots that are called item modifications. I have run into five different types:

1. Power Crystal
2. Focus Lens
3. Color Crystal
4. Hilt
5. Emitter Matrix

You can put different mods into these slots and sort of tailor the item to your advanced class or spec.


Q. Do Jedi Guardians and Jedi Sentinels use the same gear stats for DPS?
A. I’m not entirely sure on the specific itemization for those classes, but stats don’t do different things for different classes. Strength gives melee damage and melee crit, for example, so any melee DPS will want to stack that to some extent. When you choose your AC (as a Guardian) you should be wearing heavy armor, even as DPS, so you really do not compete for gear.


Q. Have you seen other types of personal mounts besides the speeder-bike from early leak photos? Can you ride beast/type mounts Like Dewbacks or Tauntauns?
A. No. There are only vehicles at the moment.


Q. About how long do the companion missions take? 10 minutes? 10 days? Does this seem too fast, too slow, or just right?
A. Companion missions seem to be just right. They can range from 12 minutes and 30sec, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. From what I seem, it gets longer the higher up you get in that profession.

Q. Does the lightside/darkside points have an impact on the quest you can get?
A. No.


Q. Are characters with a lot of points in dark side or light side characters are more powerful when neutral characters of the same level?
A. No, alignment does not effect your stats or the strength of your abilities.


Q. How does the group dialogue system work? Is it the one with the highets dice score who get the choice even if all the other characters choose otherwise? Or its more a democratic vote with the help of the dices if there is a draw?
A. I have never seen a draw. It is the highest dice roll. You can stay in your group and choose not to engage in it or you can start it by yourself and have the conversation be just with you and the NPC.


Q. If I'm playing withe a character of the same classe who is doing the same class quest. Do we have to play the quest for each one or only once even if one of the player didn't like the moral choices that have been played?
A. You cannot do the class quest conversation together. The phase will block Trooper 2 out if are doing Trooper 1’s quest. Though you can do the quest together.


Q. Have you played as a trooper or with a trooper? Are they just as powerful as the jedi or do they need more balancing?
A. I have not played as a Trooper, but if they are anything like the Bounty Hunter class then trust me the non-Force Users are plenty powerful.


Q. Did you encounter any of the pivotal NPCs (Satele Shan, the Sith Emperor, etc) during your playthrough, and if so, who were their voice actors?
A. I do not know the voice actors, but you definitely encounter Satele very early on. (No spoilers though).


Q. How do story areas work when in a group? How is the "owner" decided? Do other players get to take part in the owner's conversations?
A. The owner is the first person who runs into that phased area. As for group conversations, it is the same as stated above. You can do it with the group and have a dice roll decide who talks, or you can do it by yourself.


Q. Are there are any unannounced playable species in the beta?
A. Technically Cyborg as it has not been announced, though that is old information as it was “learned” from the U.K. press event. Cyborgs are basically humans with a choice of cybernetic bits and pieces they can add to their face.


Q. How does Bioware manage it to avoid the appearance of two charakters of the same class and gender in one group sounding the same? Knowing that f.e. male jedi-knight has only one voice, doesn't that feel strange in multiplayer-dialouge?
A. They don’t. Each class only has one male and one female voice actor. There are no voice sliders or anything like that.


Q. Hi, i would like to know how does combat mechanics works.
A. There is no auto-attack, and it is all ability based. As a Sith Warrior Juggernaut, you use attacks to build up your rage, and then you use a “heavy rage” attacks, use CC, AoE abilities, etc. Each class has their own mechanic, Troopers have power cells, Bounty Hunters need to manage heat, and so on. It plays like any other hot-key MMO, just without an auto-attack. This means you need to be actively engaging in combat and paying attention.


Q. In many videos i've seen that seems to be auto-facing (wich i don't like it) is it true or not?
A. It is in the game but not for PvP. Previously, I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world but I have really grown to like it.


Q. While you're fighting can you move/circle strafing while performing spells? i mean not spells with cast or channeled time of course, i intend the instant one, (to be clear) you can move like in wow with instant spells? for what i've seen it seems that If you're not moving your character will do some kind of repositioning while fighting, but if you're moving then it will let you the freedom to move freely while casting instant spells like wow. Thank you.
A. Yes, you can move/strafe while using instant casts.


Q. What, if any, systems are currently in place for guild bases? Fortresses on a planet, capital ships in orbit, etc???
A. Nothing as of yet. They’ve said publicly that this is something they really want to do, but nothing has been put into testing at the moment.


Q. can your lightsabers be permanent? what i mean by that is, do you get to upgrade it like in kotor? so you can keep a hilt you like throughout the entire game by upgrading it. Instead of tossing your current saber over another one that has 3+ more strength.
A. You will want to change your lightsaber. You can upgrade your lightsaber to an extent by upgrading components, but you will eventually outgrow it just like any piece of gear.


Q. Any abilities that you earn through your alignment? For example gaining a new ability if your LS/DS jedi knight? vice versa
A. I have not run into that yet, but I do not want to rule it out either. I do know for a fact that your alignment will award different titles.


Q. Any novel characters from the TOR novels make any cameo appearance in game ?
A. I have ran into a few from the novels, as for all of them? I am not sure.


Q. Question was already answered but i was curious as well if this other tester knew since deebo wasn't really looking at this topic, but do your abilities look and sound more powerful as you level?
A. Yes on both counts.


Q. Have the Trooper and Bounty Hunter healing trees gone live yet? What is the healing mechanic for these classes if so? (kolto darts, droids, medpacks, etc)
A. There was a Bounty Hunter healing me once, I think she was using darts. I thought I saw some type of ray heal me, not sure what it was.


Q. My question concerns the imperial agent operative advanced class, if i choose this advanced class i get stealth and loose the sniper rifle, but will i be forced to use melee, or can i simply dps with some sort of long range blaster?
A. The Operative does use more melee based attacks if you go down the Concealment tree, though you are not required to always melee. Keep in mind though that some abilities will require you to act as a rogue of sorts. As an IA you are still a mid-range type class for damage. Think of the Operative as using the “Crotch shot” for Smugglers, while they are ranged it may be necessary to be melee at times as well.


Q. Is there lightside looking armour/gear for the Sith Warrior? If I want to be a lightside sith and look like a dark Jedi, without horns and shit sticking out of my armour etc.
A. Yes, there is lightside gear for the Sith Warrior.


Q. Do all Inquisitor and Consular armor sets include a skirt or is there cool, higher level gear with pants too? (like Satele in the Hope trailer for example)
A. I have not seen skirts, but they do have robes and pants.


Q. Could you go into more detail on crafting. For the various "gathering" skills how much diversity in resources did you see (ex. was there a great deal of different types of ore or was it basic start with copper go to tine to iron, so on and so forth). Were there special components/rare resources that would drop that you would need to create better items?
A. For gathering and crafting even early on, I have received blue and purple items and materials. For Diplomacy you get lockboxes, storage cases, etc that can also vary in quality. As for gathering, it is varied somewhat in terms of resources. Instead of just seeing (As an example, all copper) you see copper, tin, and iron all over the place.


Q. Could you use any enhancements on items in the crafting process like Rift allows you to add different Planar essence? Something that would be a permanent increase to the crafted item and could only be added during the initial crafting phase?
A. I am not sure, I have not delved very far into crafting. I will look into at some point and try to get a more detailed answer later.


Q. How many datacrons did you come across? If any, were they fairly difficult to reach? What stats did they increase for you?
A. I got all of them on Hutta. I found one by chance, and people were making parties to go and find them. The devs have been changing the location with every build, as they do not want people knowing the exact location all the time. As for stats, they will be related to what class you are, and the main stats you use.


Q. What dates did you beta test between?
A. Currently in testing. No end date has been announced for this phase as of yet.


Q. How much of the game was available for testing? Could you reach the level cap? Were all 17 announced planets available?
A. Start to level cap, raids may even be available though I am not positive.


Q. I know you said that everyone played on a PvP rule set server, did you indulge in the warfronts at all? How quick were the matches and were they consistently fun for you?
A. I have not done any, but from what I have heard Warzones are amazing. They really enjoy them, and they are supposedly more fun than Battlegrounds from WoW.


Q. How would you describe your gameplay type? From your description of yourself it seems that you are focused a lot on the end game of most of the games you have played.
A. My gameplay focus for WoW was end-game raids, for this game I want to do EVERYTHING, it is that good.


Q. Was there any mention of end game in the beta testing?
A.Yes, the game has PvP and PvE end-game. For the PvE side of things you have Operations (Raids), for PvP you have Warzones.


Q. How many flashpoints did you know of while you played? How many did you experience, how was their overall feel?
A. By the time I got to level 20, I had the opportunity to do at least 20 flashpoints. You have flashpoints in space, on Korriban, all over the place. As for the feel, they are great. There is always a reason for why you are doing them and they are really fun. If you have a hard time learning the mechanics, getting rid of trash, etc, you are in for a rude awakening. Flashpoints can be difficult, even with experienced MMO players.


Q. Does the game have a Star Wars feel to it or did it feel more like a MMO?
A. Both. These are not mutually exclusive.


Q. Were there any zones that had open world PvP objectives?
A. I have not seen anything as of yet.


Q. Do you plan to buy the game and pay the monthly fee even after doing so much game testing? Why?
A. Yes, Yes, Yes. This is the best game I have ever played.


Q. Will Jedi Knights be able to wear robes or cloaks that are separate from chest armor pieces? I planned on playing as a Guardian and was wondering if one could play with just armor showing, or combine armor with a cloak/hooded robe. Is there a back slot or head slot that would allow for a cloak/robe, or is it part of the chest armor itself?
A. They said they have an option for hood up/down.
Slots include:
1. Head
2. Chest
3. Hands
4. Waist
5. Legs
6. Feet
7. Weapon(s)
8. 3 relics
9. Ear piece
10. Implant
11. Wrist


Q. I know Deebo had previously mentioned LS/DS points affecting gear. Just wondering, as I'm hoping to walk the middle ground - if there is any gear to staying "Gray" -- or would you assume I'd be gimping myself doing so?
A. There is plenty of gear for “Gray” players. You have light side, normal, and dark side gear. There is no alignment attached to “gray” gear, it is just the normal gear that has no alignment requirements.


Q. The leaked footage by Trantice shows him looting a "Prototype Cinnagar Sport Snipe" from the Forge Guardian. Is it possible for Troopers or Smugglers to use sniper rifles? If not, is this evidence of a neutrally-run Galactic Market (possibly the Hutts or Exchange)?
A. Typically each AC has a certain type of weapon they get, and one Trooper AC uses rifles. As for Smugglers, I don’t think so, but I’m not 100% on that.


Story/Companion related


Q. What Gender and Species is the Jedi Knight's Padawan?
A. I do not know.


Q. Are full romance arcs (not flings) only possible with companions?
A. As far as I’ve seen you can only have the real relationship stories with companions. And there are no same gender romance arcs. Confirmed. Sorry Altyrell.


Q. Do all force users get an apprentice as a companion?
A. Yes.


Q. Are there any Togruta companions, or NPCs in game?
A. Togrutas are NPCs within the game. Unsure about companions.


Q. What happens to companions when you get on your mount?
A. They disappear.


Gameplay/Item related


Q. How are lightsabers handled as loot, particularly with the color? is it like kotor where it is a purely cosmetic crystal choice, or do the stat crystals, Alignment, or lightsaber itself dictate the color?
A. Color crystals have stats on them, and there are some restrictions. There is actually a post on the public forums from Emanuel Lusinchi regarding this. Check the Dev Tracker.


Q. Did you notice any abilities that attacked player skill resources?(Like a mana drain style move)
A. The abilities I have so far do not do that, but it’s possible they exist.


Q. Are there any Mortal Strike(Healing Reduction) style moves in the game currently?
A. I haven’t seen any like that, but they may exist.


Q. The official website shows us a few of the current professions. Could you tell us about the unknown professions? And what abilities they have in short terms?
A. Gathering
Scavenging
Archaeology
Slicing
Bioanalysis
Crafting
Artifice
Armstech
Armormech
Cybertech
Synthweaving
Biochem
Missions
Diplomacy
Investigation
Treasure Hunting
Underworld Trading

As far as what each one does or gives, they don’t really have super helpful information on that in-game yet.


Q. Dark side and lightside points are they only useable when it comes to gear or does it help something else?
A. They are used for gear, titles, and possible story impacts when it comes to conversations.


Q. Are " dark side " only pieces of gear more dps or tank oriented vs light side or neutral? Do they seem balanced, or do you foresee people having to sacrifice story to make the " best " ( from a min / maxer perspective )?
A. No, alignment of the armor really only determines who can wear it, and what it looks like. You are not pigeonholed into an alignment no matter what spec you are, as far as I can tell.


Q. What happens to you if your talking to a NPC and a player attacks you?
A. When in conversation you gain a buff that makes you immune to damage. The buff is called “Conversation Neutrality”.


Q. I am a guild leader in waiting for the game and am curious as to how the ranks will be, whether we are getting more ranks than the initial 3 given, and if you have experienced any of the leadership abilities, what insight can you offer?
A. You can make as many ranks as you want, just like WoW.


Q. We have seen a lot of gameplay from the origin worlds but planets like Alderaan etc, there’s being nothing of the sort. Have you played on these planets and are they real unfinished or are they ok?
A. The planets are finished and are amazing.


Q. How much of the beta did you test? Could you theoretically get to max level 50? Or could you only test to a certain level?
A. You can reach level cap.

Q. Do they have a defensive target and offensive target. Similar to Warhammer online and Vanguard saga of heroes?
A. There is a Focus Target option like WoW that can be turned on or off.


Q. Could you post patch notes on betacake? So we can see how the game is progressing?
A. No. Patch notes are only available when updating the client. They cannot be highlighted or copied at all. Screenshots could be taken but the list is very extensive, and the window very small. And I’m not typing all that out.


Q. So for the lightsaber restrictions is purple going to be restricted to blacks only? thats all you see in the movie with purple sabers.
A. That’s racist.


Q. So Deebo has mentioned the epic leveling armor set. So my question pertains on how do we get it? Is it a reward for a group quest? A drop from a world boss that requires a team of players of that planet's level? And is that mob on a very big respawn timer? (sincerely hope its not a world boss since they will be camped so much, most of us wont even get a shot at it.)
A. I have not obtained a single epic from quests, so I would assume it would need to be from a world boss or something. They should be on a decent respawn timer, nothing too harsh.


Q. They have mentioned the Legacy System before, what exactly is this?
A. I have not seen anything on it as of yet. It’s possible it may only be visible when you reach level cap, or it’s simply not implemented yet.


Q. In various videos i've seen, some questing areas are 'phased' behind a green coloured wall (that you can walk through), Can you still quest with party members in them or are they unique? Will it be possible to level with friends effectivly.
A. Yes, leveling with a group is more effective. Group members can also enter phased doors together.


Q. What happens when you enter a multiple choice conversation with a quest NPC in a PVP zone, and what do the players of the opposite faction looking at you see?
A. You. With a chat icon over your head.

http://betacake.blogspot.com/2011/06/star-wars-old-republic-sith-warrior.html

http://betacake.blogspot.com/2011/06/star-wars-old-republic-exclusive-tester_20.html

SWTOR Tester Q&A #8

Q. My question is, are there racial traits or abilities like in wow? If so what are some?


A. No. At least not currently.




Q. Any cool bosses to fight in the class stories?


A. They are a lot more liberal with having cool boss fights throughout the game. You don’t have to wait for Flashpoints or level 50 to see them.




Q. Are emails generated in the game accessible through one of the game directories on your computer the way they were in SWG?


A. Nope. Strictly in-game.


Q. Does the game allow read receipts or something like that?


A. Nope.




Q. Is there a modding system in game, and what language is being used?


A. Nope. No modding currently.




Q. Both the Imperial Agent and Smuggler have stealth abilities, do you know if their stealth abilities is restricted to only one of their ACs (Scoundrel and Operative) or does Snipers and Gunslingers have stealth too even tho their play style wont depend on it.


A. I know Imperial Agent can stealth in both ACs currently. But only the Operative gets the Concealment tree which has a lot of bonuses to stealth in it. I’m not 100% on the Smuggler, but I assume it’s true for them too. To my knowledge this info is already public though, so there’s info out there on it.




Q. How often do you run into characters around the same level who look alike, gear-wise? Wondering if the gear really is so different that you don't see a lot of 'clones' of yourself.


A. I have not run into a single-person with the same exact set of armor as me. There are more armor sets than I can count.




Q. What are your impressions of any/all of the classes and AC's so far? Are there any that really stand out as cool/boring?


A. Well I haven’t played the Republic classes, but all the Imperial classes have been fun.
None of them seemed particularly boring compared to the others.




Q. Can you interact with the world such as sitting down in a cantina booth?


A. Nope. I haven’t been able to interact with any of the chairs or anything.




Q. Which world do you think explorers will love the most?


A. All the worlds are pretty well designed with a lot to see. Some are bigger than others. Some are actually really painfully big if you don’t have a mount.




Q. Are there any speeder vehicles that look different from the segways? Ones you can actually sit on like a motorcycle maybe?


A. The one I have currently is a Segway thing, but the icon for it looks like a speeder bike. I don’t know if that implies there are full speeder bikes somewhere. I doubt I’ve seen every vehicle in the game however.




Q. Could you go into any detail regarding how guild management system works? When you can start one, what are the requirements, what kind of administrative powers you have, any indication of guild halls etc?


A. You need to get a full group (4 players) together, and send one person to the guild formation NPC to pay 5000 credits. No minimum level currently. Nothing on guild halls, but it has the basic stuff you’d expect. Create ranks, etc.




Q. How would you rate the character creation system for TOR out of 10, if ten were something like APB's character creation and 1 were WoW's?


A. 5/10 or 6/10. APB is amazing, but there is quite a bit more choice than WoW.




Q. Can you go into any detail regarding starship upgrades you can get that BioWare has only hinted on?


A. Starship upgrades as far as I have seen are just for space combat. Not like player housing type stuff that people talk about. Your starship equipment and stuff shows up on your character sheet.

• Beam Generator
• Beam Charger
• Ship Armor
• Energy Shield
• Shield Charger
• Missile Magazine
• Photon Cannon

Q. What would you say is the most popular class being played in beta? Any classes dominate in population while others are really low?


A. The /who command syntax is either incomplete or undocumented, so I could only display 50 players at a given time per-planet. So these numbers might not be super accurate. Note that no “Vanguards” showed up in who, but there were “Specialists” showing up in the who list. This is either a bug or Vanguards have been renamed, though there haven’t been any posts about that, so it’s probably a bug.

• SI Sorcerer | 31 | 19.4%
• SI Assassin | 29 | 18.1%
• SW Marauder | 37 | 23.1%
• SW Juggernaut | 22 | 13.8%
• BH Mercenary | 16 | 10.0%
• BH Powertech | 7 | 4.4%
• IA Operative | 9 | 5.6%
• IA Sniper | 9 | 5.6%

Empire Total [ 160 ]

• JK Guardian | 28 | 20.9%
• JK Sentinel | 33 | 24.6%
• JC Sage | 22 | 16.4%
• JC Shadow | 8 | 6.0%
• T Vanguard | 7 | 5.2%
• T Commando | 16 | 11.9%
• S Gunslinger | 12 | 9.0%
• S Scoundrel | 8 | 6.0%

Republic Total [ 134 ]






Q. If there were ONE thing you could change about TOR, what would it be?


A. More Medium Armor rewards please!




Q. What are the biggest topics on the BETA forums?


A. Server status is the big one as you might imagine But the threads are pretty varied. Nothing really stands out as a huge hot topic.




Q. Do you find soloing to be a viable option at all level ranges?


A. It’s viable, but you’re going to level more slowly. There are a lot of group quests which give great XP and loot and they can’t just be solo’d at an appropriate level. You have to basically come back 10 levels later if you want to solo those. I tried skipping some group quests and really regretted it later when I fell behind on levels. You absolutely want to group up and knock out every group quest in each planet.




Q. If you're in a group with someone, and that player initiates a conversation, I know you can join in the conversation via "holo-phone." What happens during actions? Let's say you and cyborg Jedi Knight Bob have a choice to kill a sith apprentice or redeem him. If you're on the holo-phone and you win the roll to kill him, what happens?


A. When you’re participating via the holocom you can’t choose options that require a physical action.




Q. What are the system requirements of the game, what is your spec and how well did the game run on it. Could you also list some of the available gfx settings? I'm certain a lot of people are curious about it, especially those who are building a new pc.


A. I’m still rocking a sub-3.0ghz dual core and an older Nvidia card and the game runs great.
The options for video right now are pretty basic: Resolution, Refresh, Windowed Mode, Gamma, Clip Distance, Shadow Quality, VSync, Texture Quality.




Q. Are the Flashpoints repeatable in a "heroic" version at level 50? It'd be a shame to let all those Flashpoints go to waste later in the game...


A. I’m not 50 yet, but I haven’t seen or heard of anyone talking about heroic versions of low level flashpoints, so I’m going to assume they don’t exist.




Q. Do all of the Jedi Guardian armor sets basically resemble the stuff we saw in the progression video, or are they more iconic looking sets as you progress (specifically, I mean to say sets that emphasize robes and tunics over heavy plates, etc)?


A. Some armor sets look more armory than others, but heavy armor is always going to look fairly heavy. There really is a huge variety of armor though. More than I’ve seen in any other MMO.




Q. You mentioned that people are rolling on heavy armor out of kindness, but that the combat stats Sentinels and DPS Guardians look for are the same. Is there any real purpose to the increased armor rating that heavy armor provides? Does it somehow add to DPS output through a Guardian talent (gain +X Attack Power for each Armor point you have, for example)?


A. There is no benefit to DPS from armor generically. But I don’t have a Jedi Knight handy where I can look at their exact talent tree and rule out a talent like that.




Q. The DPS Scoundrel, if you played one -are they using the cover mechanic and their normal blaster a lot, or are they almost entirely focused on the scattergun? Or something else? How "Han Solo"ish do they actually feel?


A. I haven’t played one myself, but the weapon you use is based on the ability you’re using. Both Smugglers primarily use blasters, the Scoundrel with one, the Gunslinger with two, but the Scoundrel mixes things up quite a bit more.




Q. Are there currently any major PvP imbalances between classes?


A. Not that I’ve seen. I’m sure there are issues, but I don’t see a lot of griping.




Q. It has been mentioned that the Smuggler tends to make the wisecracks, the Jedi Knight is more rigid when it comes to the multiplayer dialogue. Have you ever noticed if a Smuggler was ever serious on a winning roll for the option to speak?


A. Haven’t really played Republic too much so I can’t say specifically for Smugglers, but there are definitely differences in tone between classes.




Q. Is it possible to see your taget's target, and if so is it possible to automatically cast offensive, or defensive abilities on your targets target automatically as in Rift?


A. No TOT right now. But there is a focus target option.




Q. How many different flashpoints can we expect in the final game? Or how many are currently in the build you're testing.


A. I’m not sure. To be honest most players are low level so the amount of information available on mid to high level content is pretty low. Where most players are at sub-20 they have only seen one or two flashpoints.




Q. Can Inquisitors be Sith Purebloods? If so do you know anything about their story background?


A. Currently yes. It’s actually funny, Bioware was quite vocal that the race/class combo list published in PC Gamer being “inaccurate” but even months later, the race/class combos available in testing are the exact same. No idea on their story. I imagine it’s the same as other Inquisitors. Race only plays a minor role in your story, an occasional mention basically.




Q. Do advanced classes have any effect at all on the storyline?


A. As Daniel Erickson has mentioned publicly, occasional mentions are all that exist of your AC in the story.




Q. Do flashpoints have any interplay with your class quests?


A. Yeah. For example the Black Talon flashpoint basically occurs on your travel to Dromund Kaas. You can take a normal shuttle, or you can take the flashpoint and also end up there.




Q. How "epic" does the story get? Is it where you save the galaxy for another day from some villain or do we get to decide on the fate of worlds? Are there meaningful dialogue choices like this?


A.There are big decisions and smaller decisions, but your class story is primarily about you. They don’t have everyone saving the entire galaxy, but you definitely feel like Big Damn Heroes.




Q. Are the romances well suited to each class?


A. I’m not entirely sure what you mean. Each class has a unique set of companions designed just for them, so I guess the romancable ones would be pretty hand-tailored to fit with your story. I haven’t done a lot of romancing though.




Q. What do you spend most of your time doing? Does anything feel like it takes too long or there isn't enough of it?


A. Right now, questing. Everything is pretty well-paced. The worlds are big so travel time can be a problem prior to getting a speeder at 25, but that’s about it.




Q. There has been a lot of talk about gear requiring alignment, either Dark or Light. At higher levels do you know if these requirements are "pushed" to the extremes?


A. So far I’ve seen only gear that wants Dark 2 or Light 2. The amount of points you end up with is roughly based on how far you’ve progressed through quests, so at higher levels they expect you to have higher Dark or Light side leanings to get the Dark or Light side gear.




Q. Are class quests enough to get you to lvl 50, or can you do a lot of the world storylines and normal quests without overleveling?


A. Not even close. You have to do the world and normal quests if you want to level at an appropriate pace, or find some other way to supplement your XP. I even found that skipping group quests was a mistake.




Q. How many different lightsaber colors are there ingame right now?


A. So far I’ve only seen Blue, Green, Red, Orange and Yellow. There’s probably more. I know there’s Purple out there somewhere.




Q. Which storyline have you liked the most so far? Has any been disappointing?


A. Sith Warrior is my favorite so far. No real disappointments yet.




Q. How is the resource usage with different classes? Is the combat more 11131111214 or 142532153123? Assume that 1 would be a basic attack that costs little resources or generates some.


A. Each class is different. For a Sith Warrior you build up, and then unload. Other classes work differently.




Q. Can you confirm or deny any specific voice actors for the classes? For example Claudia Black for female Sith Warrior? Speculation at : http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=180513


A. No list of voice actors anywhere and I don’t really know voice actors well enough to be able to tell you my opinion.




Q. What are the race/class combinations currently available in the beta?


A. Identical to the PC Gamer list we’ve all seen. Again, that’s funny because Daniel Erickson told everyone it was inaccurate. Obviously this could change between now and release, but currently:


Empire:


Sith Warrior: Human, Sith Pureblood, Cyborg, Zabrak
Sith Inquisitor: Human, Sith Pureblood, Twilek, Rattataki, Zabrak
Bounty Hunter: Human, Chiss, Cyborg, Rattataki, Zabrak
Imperial Agent: Human, Chiss, Cyborg, Rattataki, Zabrak


Republic:


Jedi Knight: Human, Miraluka, Twilek, Zabrak, Mirialan
Jedi Consular: Human, Miraluka, Twilek, Zabrak, Mirialan
Trooper: Human, Cyborg, Zabrak, Mirialan
Smuggler: Human, Cyborg, Zabrak, Mirialan, Twilek




Q. Do you know of any companion characters that have not been officially announced already?


A. Lots. Here’s a copy pasta from the testing forums.


Trooper:


(1) Aric Jorgan -Ord Mantell


-Ranged, Sniper Rifle
-Heavy Armor
-DPS Companion
-Starting Kit: Concussion Round
-Gifts: Ammunition Belt, Survival Gear, Padded Weapon Case




(2) Elara Dorne -Taris


-Ranged, Blaster Pistol
-Heavy Armor
-Healing Companion
-Starting Kit: Medpack
-Gifts: Republic & Imperial History Holo, Hutt Data Library, Republic & Imperial Banners




(3) M1-4X -Nar Shaddaa


-Ranged, Blaster Rifle
-Heavy Armor/Droid Parts
-Tank Companion
-Starting Kit: Flamethrower
-Gifts: ??




(4) Melee Tank, Heavy Armor, Tanno Vic, Balmora
Notes: Rifle, Suppression, Grenade


(5) Melee Dps Medium Armor, Bug Dude, Hoth




Bounty Hunter:


(1) Ranged Healer, Medium Armor, Mako, Hutta
Notes: Blasters


(2) Ranged DPS, Medium Armor, Gault, Tattooine
Notes: Riffle


(3) Melee Tank, Heavy Armor, Torian Caldera, Taris
Notes: Mandalorian, Ground Slam Kit Default, AOE flame swipe taunt special.


(4) Ranged Tank, Heavy Armor, Blizz, Hoth
Notes: Suppressive Fire Special (Taunt), Default kit ???, Jawa




Imperial Agent


(1) Ranged DPS, Medium Armor, Kaliyo D'jannis, Hutta
Notes: Dual Wield Pistols, Grenade Kit Default


(2) Melee Tank, Medium Armor, Vector Hyllis, Alderaan
Notes: Vibrostaff, AOE Swipe Taunt special, Gound Slam Kit Default


(3) Doctor Lokin-??? (bugged) Taris


(4) Ranged Healer, Medium Armor, Ensign Temple, Quesh
Notes: Pistol and Shield Generator, Med Pack Kit




Smuggler:


(1) Ranged Tank, Heavy Armor, Corso Riggs, Ord Mantell
Notes: Uses Blaster Pistols and Blaster Rifles, has a Taunt ability


(2) Melee Tank, Heavy Armor, Bowdaar, Nar Shaddaa
Notes: Wookie, uses vibroswords/blades/whatever


(3) Ranged DPS, Heavy Armor, Akavi Spaar, Balmorra (Republic Side)
Notes: Mandalorian, has a Flamethrower move


(4) Healer, Medium Armor, Guss Tuno,-Hoth
Notes: Mon Cal, uses blasters




Sith Inquisitor:


(1) Melee Tank, Khem Val, Korriban
Notes: Da Shade(Force Eater)


(2) Ranged DPS, Medium Armor, Andronikus Revel, Tatooine


(3) Mele DPS, Unknown, Unknown, Taris
Notes: Dual Light Saber


(4) Ranged Healer, Unknown, Unknown, Hoth




Jedi Consular:


(1) Qyzen-Fess, male Trandoshan, Melee Tank, Heavy Armor, on Typhon
Notes: Toggleable taunt-mode "lightning whip", Electrostaff or Vibrosword
+5 BioChem, +15 Archaeology


(2) Theran Cedrex, male Human, Ranged Healer/Techie, Medium Armor, on Nar Shaddaa
Note: Pistol, toggleable healing mode
+10 Cybertech, +10 Slicing


(3) Zenith, Twilek male, Ranged tank heavy armor, sniper rifle, aoe ammo kit.
Awarded toward end of Balmorra class missions.


(4) Lt Iresso, Human male, Ranged tank, blaster rifle, taunt ranged skill.
Awarded at the end of Hoth class storyline.




Jedi Knight:


(1) Ranged Tank, Heavy Armor, T7-01, Typhon
Notes: Astromech Droid, Blaster Rifle, Grenade (AOE damage), Suppression


(2) Melee DPS, Light Armor, Kira, Courscant
Notes: Dual lightsaber, AOE sweep ability, AOE with a brief stun to surrounding enemy


(3) Ranged healer, Unknown, Doc, Balmora
Notes: Pistol, Special skill is healing


(5) Ranged Tank, Heavy Armor, Unkown, Hoth
Notes: Twilek, sniper rifle




Sith Warrior:


(1) Ranged DPS, med Armor, Twilek female, Korriban
Notes: Dual Pistols


(2) Ranged Healer, Malavi Quinn, Balmora


(3) Mele DPS, Light Armor, Unknown, Hutta


(4) Ranged Tank, Heavy armor, Unknown, Taris


(5) Melee Tank, Heavy Armor, Unknown, Hoth




Q. When levelling a character from 1 to 50, are you expected to see every single planet, barring the other 3 origin worlds and opposite faction capital world? In WoW, you generally have a choice of 2-4 zones for where to level next, and one zone alone is usually enough to push you to the next level range. Is that option available in TOR, or does every zone have a smaller level range so you hit them all on the way up?


A. You pretty much see every planet that is available to you during the leveling process. The story kind of leads you along.




Q. Going off that last question, could you give us a general idea of which planets are which level ranges?

A.

• Tython: 1-10
• Ord Mantell: 1-10
• Korriban: 1-10
• Hutta: 1-10
• Coruscant: 10-16
• Dromund Kass: 10-16
• Balmora: 16-20
• Nar Shaddaa: 20-24
• Tatooine: 24-28
• Alderann: 28-32
• Taris: 32-36
• Quesh: 36-37
• Hoth: 37-41
• Belsavis: 41-44
• Voss: 44-47
• Corellia: 47-50
• Ilum: 50

Q. What can you tell us about light saber color restrictions? For example I want to be a JK but lightside, is it possible for me to use a purple saber?


A. Emanuel Lusinchi made a post about this on the official TOR forums which can explain it better than I can. Check it out.




Q. Did you ever kill one of your companions? If so (or even if not) did that put you at a disadvantage crafting wise to only have 4 companions instead of 5?


A. No, but I wish I could end Vette. No chance to do so yet though.




Q. As we know, each class has an equivalent on the other faction, Bounty Hunter -Trooper, Smuggler Imperial Agent and so on. How different are they from each other? Do they basically have the same abilities just with different names, or are they truly distinct from each other?


A. They all play very differently, with different abilities, The idea that they are “mirror classes” is a fallacy.




Q. How many GB is the current beta client?


A. ~30GB.




Q. Are there any surprises in store for space combat, or is the PAX demo that Daniel E showed us a good representation of what's in the game?


A. Haven’t played it yet, but as far as everyone else is saying, it’s Starfox. Do a barrel roll.




Q. Do you know the name or basic theme of any multiplayer dungeon/flashpoints that Bioware has not revealed yet?


A. I don’t know. People are still mostly below level 20 so available info on what all exists at higher levels
is pretty low.




Q. Have you heard of any other raid/operations besides the Eternity Vault?


A. Don’t know of any, but that’s not to say they aren’t there or won’t be added prior to launch.




Q. Can you think of anything else that Bioware has not revealed yet that will have people doing a happy dance (or an angry dance)?


A. Off the top of my head, no. Bioware’s talked about the vast majority of the mechanics now. At least the ones I have access to at my level and in this phase of testing.




Q. How different are each advanced class? What is the approximate number of abilities you get from the base class, and what is the number from the AC? Do they play like different classes rather than different specs?


A. There are a ton of abilities from base class. A lot of these are basic core class features like buffs, stances, and what-not. There are attacks and stuff too, that you’ll use in both ACs, but the ACs add abilities of their own, and how you spend points in your skill trees makes a big difference in how they play.




Q. Not sure if you'll know this, but is the leveling in pvp on par with the leveling through the story line?


A. Haven’t done enough PvP to be able to tell you with 100% certainty. I don’t get the impression they intend for people to purely level in PvP though, so don’t expect it to be quick.




Q. Is the guild system still just basic like WoW pre Cata or do they have something more.


A. It’s pretty basic stuff. No guild levels, advancement or guild halls at the moment.



Q. Your rough guess on how long it takes to go from 1-50?

A. A lot longer than 1-85 in WoW currently. We’re not talking EverQuest levels of grind here, but the leveling pace is slow. But it’s packed with content. There isn’t a lot of filler.




Q. Is the combat more challenging than what is shown in videos from E3 and other conventions?


A. Hell yes. They either have some kind of cheats on in those demos or have things tuned down, because you can get utterly destroyed if you’re at all careless. You gotta be on top of things if you don’t want to die a lot. You can’t just herpaderp your way through the leveling process like in WoW.




Q. I plan on playing a Smuggler at launch. I plan on going Sawbones. What is combat like as a healing Smuggler? Is it viable solo? Does it use the cover mechanic? Is the class restricted to the shotgun or can you still use pistols?


A. Haven’t played the Republic classes extensively so I can’t give you any personal impressions on that.




Q. What lightsaber colors have you seen? Orange/Yellow? Any more eccentric ones? Also-how hard is it to keep a color you like? Say, I just want an orange lightsaber. Will I have to use a blue one because that has better stats, or is it easy enough to get the stats you want with the color you want? Via crafting or otherwise.


A. Already answered about colors, but yeah if you find a blue saber with better stats you’re going to have to track down an orange crystal to put in it. You can’t transfer the crystal from your old saber.

Q. How was your experience with open PvP? Any stories to share? Overall impression?


A. Huge worlds, and not a lot of testers, so I haven’t world PvP’d yet.




Q. Any comments on that "color-matching" thing we've heard about? Is that even still in the game?


A. There’s an option where you can match the color of your armor to your chestpiece color. That’s it for now.




Q. Population-wise: is everyone a force-user? How's the balance?


A.It’s about like it breaks down on the forums. Force users are about two thirds of the population.




Q. Are there any abilities that set apart the Sith Juggernaut and the Jedi Guardian? Such as Sith warriors only have force choke, and their Jedi counterpart does not. Or how about debuffs and buffs, are they different, like Sith Warriors only have debuffs and the Jedi Knights only buff? Does the Sith Juggernaut have any +DPS abilities?


A. Don’t know the specifics on that. I’m not going to be able to answer a lot of these super-specific fiddly class things because there are a lot of classes, leveling pace is slow, and available info from other players is slim because they are almost all low level.




Q. to my understanding, the starter levels are instanced, how about the rest of the planets? does it keep the immersion that WoW has (where all the players on the server are on and can be seen) or will there be multiple instances of the same server (LOTRO) or Age of Conan, STO(Where you can switch instances) -which kill how immerse/high traffic the game is?


A. For all worlds, some parts are phased, others aren’t. Starter world is more heavily phased than other worlds though. They don’t have hard instancing like “Korriban 1, Korriban 2” There aren’t a lot of testers right now, but with a higher population you’d definitely see lots of other players. They haven’t really abused the phasing in my opinion.




Q. Is there cross-faction communication? Meaning, can Republic talk to Empire?


A. Currently yes, but they’ve already said publicly that this is something they are still trying to decide on.




Q. The Lightsaber hilt customization was mentioned last Q&A. Does that mean a small change if hilt aesthetics or the entire hilt design itself?


A. The appearance of the hilt is decided by the base saber. Modifications are all under the hood. If you want a different hilt, you have to get a different saber.




Q. Can you name your starships?


A. Nope. Your ship has a name that’s given to it by the story. But I haven’t heard any NPCs refer to starships by name yet in the voiceover.




Q. Could you describe your classes "shared" tree? What shared trees resemble for a particular class could give a good idea about what they're about.


A. The shared trees are a pretty solid mix of skills that have a lot of appeal for both ACs. At least for Sith Warrior.




Q. Are last names in?


A. No surnames. Various titles you can earn, though.




Q. How about the the shared trees -Is it viable to spec fully in one for either AC such as Balance for Jedi Consular. How does it work for the Sage and Shadow?


A. Can’t speak to those specific classes, but for Sith Warrior I would grab just some stuff out of the shared tree. Trying to fully traverse the tree wouldn’t be something I’d do. Obviously that’s going to vary from class to class though.




Q. Are there any aditional Blur (or blur trailer style) cinematics in the game? If not in the form of epic story moments atleast in the form of cinematics for when you transit (arrive/depart a planet/station) as it was in the kotor series?


A. No cinematics that I’ve seen. When you take off in your ship there is a cut-scene but it is rendered in-game.




Q. Do you have any indication on the beta forums, that the animations are still going to improve or change?


A. All that sort of stuff is constantly being tweaked and improved, but if you’re expecting a complete revamp or something, no.




Q. Do they plan to revamp some of the effects that some abilities use? like the consular for example.


A. It’s possible they might replace a graphic here and there, but nothing seems like an obvious placeholder.




Q. How many vehicles (mounts) models did you saw till now?


A. There are three that I know about. Not sure what else is out there.




Q. Can you say anything about the galatic trade network (auction house), does it have anything unusual?


A. Lots of search and filter options like you might imagine, but that’s about it. Works basically like WoW with a little better searching.




Q. TOR devs have said that it's a lot to do in the endgame. Do you got enough information to confirm if this is right or wrong?


A. Nobody really at 50 yet, so it’s hard to say.




Q. Is the flashpoint you have diverse? I'm thinking about in looks, in boss fights, in story, in conversations.


A. All the flashpoints are unique.




Q. Have you played the vengeance tree of the Juggernaut, and if you have: was the DPS competitive with a marauder?


A. Haven’t grouped with any DPS Juggs so I don’t know.




Q. What is the population on the servers like at this moment? Are there tons of Jedi running around and very little force users or is it pretty evenly distributed? Any insight on what opening day faction populations will look like using beta as reference?


A. Not a lot of people on, but the distribution plays out exactly like you see on the polls on the official forum.




Q. Have you dueled anyone as the class of your choice yet? If so, was it fast paced or a slower fight than WoW ? (using it as reference is easy.)


A. Haven’t dueled anyone yet.




Q. What is your favorite planet so far?


A. Tatooine easily.




Q. How has cross faction communication worked out so far? I would assume it would be fairly cooperative in beta but I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the subject?


A. You can’t even tell who is who in chat right now without doing a /who on them, so not much e-peening between factions. Who knows what’ll happen at release.




Q. Please elaborate on why it is the "best game you've ever played."


A. Uh, a billion reasons really. I suppose I could write an essay, but the basic reasoning here is that I have a lot of games I can play and things I could be doing, but the only thing I want to do is play this game.




Q. Based on what you've played so far, what is your prediction for the release date of the game?


A. October 4th.




Q. Are all classes really equally viable in dps as the devs have stated? For example, is a dps Juggernaut just as good as a dps Marauder?


A. Pretty balanced as far as I can tell. No DPS meter or anything obviously, so I’m just eyeballing it.




Q. What are your impressions on the Shadow and Assassin ACs?


A. Haven’t played these.




Q. Could you tell us a little bit about the third/unrevealed warzone?


A. The Pit on Nar Shaddaa. You join one of two teams in a kind of big epic game of hardcore rugby.
There’s a ball in the middle and your goal is to grab it and dump it in the opponents goal. There are pits of fire, buffs you can pick up. Bunch of ramps, platforms, etc. Best of all, this warzone isn’t based on a Faction vs. Faction story. It’s like a sports game. Mascots, team logo, etc. You can actually end up with Imperial team vs. Imperial team, or Republic team vs. Republic team. I don’t know why no one has leaked this yet, because it’s epic as hell and way different from any PvP I’ve ever seen in any MMO.




Q. Hey i've been wondering for a while now about the shared tree of some of these classes. Specifically the force users. For example, lets say i wanted to make a Sith Assassin, but i would really prefer to use a single saber (but i dont make a sorcerer because i dont want to be a caster, nor want to use heavy armor as a juggernaut).... SO, i was wondering if you could ask the tester if there is some extent of viability in putting points straight up the shared tree (as an assassin/shadow) and using a single saber? would this even work? and what kind of function role does doing this give you?


A. The weapons you use are determined by your AC, period. If you’re an Assassin, you’re using a double bladed saber.




Q. I was wondering if Rick Ross would be down for leaking talent trees. I know he doesn't want to post screenshots and that typing them out would be quite an undertaking, but I know the community would appreciate it!


A. I’d have to level every class to 10 to do that, so it’s not really feasible.




Q. BioWare has already confirmed that day/night cycles won't be handled like they are in most MMOs, and will be used for narrative purposes. Have you noticed any changes in day/night when you travel across a world (for instance, is one section of Coruscant day, while another section is night?), or is it always one set time of the day all across a world?


A. No time of day changes that I’ve seen. There aren’t any loading screens or anything when you’re traveling around a world so it’s all one big world in one big time of day. I’ll keep my eyes open though.




Q. How is EXP given when multiple people attack the same mob.
Does the first one to attack "TAG" the mob for quest credit and exp?


A. Works like in WoW. You hit it first, and it’s belongs to you and your group if you’re in one.




Q. In PvP how is kill credit given? Most damage ? in the area? healing someone?


A. Last blows give you badges, they are worth 50 valor and one token. Kill credit is given to anyone who participates in the fight.




Q. Has anybody complained much about specific advanced classes in PVP?


A. Not really.




Q. "Color crystals have stats on them, and there are some restrictions. There is actually a post on the public forums from Emanuel Lusinchi regarding this. Check the Dev Tracker."


Are you sure? From all i have heard and seen of (leaked screenshot) it seems, that colour-crystals and stat-crystals differ from each other. It would not appreciate it, if i could only use purple LS by accepting possible bad or useless stats.


A. As I said, color crystals have stats. I’m looking at mine right now and it’s got Endurance, Strength, and Willpower on it.




Q. As i seen mentioned in the recent Q & A is that by lvl 20 there were up to 20 flashpoints available.Is that true?


A. The 20 Flashpoints thing was my bad. I misunderstood the question. I was including phased group quests too.




Q. How long on average do flashpoints take to complete for a competent group ?


A. It’ll vary from flashpoint to flashpoint. Black Talon was pretty quick for me, maybe a half hour. But Bioware has already said that something like Taral V is a 90 minute+ affair.




Q. Is it possible to "program" the companions like in Dragon Age, where you tell the companion to heal if player is below 25%, attack target if player is above 75%, use granade if target is belov 25% and so on?


A. Nope. Companions have preset behaviors you set them to. No fancy Dragon Age stuff.




Q. Can you tell anything about pc requirements to play the game on “max detail”? or about the detail they had on e3?


A. I don’t run on max, but it won’t take a very powerful rig.




Q. Is there anything you know about how the sound is selected? i mean can you change the different languages of the voice over locally or is it server dependent?


A. No idea. Right now they only give us the English voice assets in the download.




Q. Do you know if there is any plan on tuning the robe animation of those rubber tubes the SI seems to wear? it didnt look as finished as the other classes skirt animations to me (e3 gameplay)


A. Uh, no clue. People in testing don’t really obsess over every little animation like the public forums do. Bioware polishes stuff all the time, and they don’t put out a 5000 item to-do list about every tweak they are going to make.




Q. No spoilers plz but would you say the class stories are more like “ah, ok, nice to know *yawn* “ or more like “damn, i wanted to sleep 5 hours ago but i need to know juuuust a little more” ?


A. It’s really hard to put the game down.




Q. We know almost nothing about Vanguard Tactics AC. We know that it's a melee/mid range class and there is a knife in the arsenal. That's it. Could you tell us about its mechanics, what sort of fish is it? Is it a full dps AC and if it so, can a Vanguard Tactics trooper wear the heaviest armour ?


A. No idea about the fish you’re talking about, but AC determines your armor proficiencies and weapons, not your skill trees.




Q. Can you give us more information about titles ? Will we have some intermediate titles like "Padawan", "Apprentice"or will we have only the "final titles" like "Dark" or "Master" ? When you have the title like "Dark" do you haveto choose a nickname ? Or do they just pick your name and add "Dark" in front ?


A. There are a ton of titles and you start getting them at low levels.




Q. Devs have commented that it is not likely an appearance tab will ever be implemented within SWTOR. They have also said that they have their own "Bioware" system for customization that they will be using and not to worry about it. Has this been implemented within this build and if so what or how is it done. ( to put into context i was wondering if i could "keep" a look if i liked it for the duration of the game ie. Bits and parts from factional armor and etc. without being punished stat wise) I understand that the a-tab is the lowest denominator for customization and if Bioware has a better system awesome i just want to know if i can look like how i want to look like in game without being horrible equipped.


A. You look like what gear you have equipped. There is no way to swap appearance from one item to another currently or anything like that. You can put on the color matching, but that’s it.




Q. What kinds of stats do tanks want? Is it just Endurance or are there other tank stats (like dodge and parry in other games)?


A. Endurance for HP, Armor for mitigation, and then a mix of DPS stats I guess. I haven’t seen any dodge or parry rating or anything like that yet.




Q. Is there still a lockout on the flashpoints where you can only do the same flashpoint once per day?


A. Not that I’ve seen. I ran Black Talon twice the other day. I don’t know if that’s just for testing or what.

Q. Do you know anything about variable difficulties for anything (e.g. harder mode flashpoints or quests)? What about something akin to heroic-mode instances in WoW (max level versions of the flashpoints with harder mechanics/better rewards)?


A. No “heroics” that I’m aware of. Currently the raid UI displays 8 man Normal and Hard and 24-man Normal and Hard. But I don’t think those are final.




Q. Do NPC's in the game have any sort of "resolve" bar where they become immune to the CC's overtime or can you just keep using them to chain-stun/cc the npc's?


A. No diminishing returns on NPCs.




Q. If you've done any PvP yet or have spoken to anyone who has: How does bolstering work (the powering up people to 80% for lower level/undergeared people -does it just raise stats or give abilities or what)? Do you think it works well or not?


A. Just cranks your stats up. Didn’t get exact percentages, but you don’t get extra abilities or anything.
Seems to work pretty well though. Balances things out nicely.




Q. Does it seem like there is a specific tree for the classes that is more focused on PvP type abilities/
utility or are those kinds of talents spread out pretty evenly?


A. PvP talents are spread out. There aren’t PvP-centric trees.




Q. Have you run into any sorts of vanity items like pets? Can you give a couple examples?


A. One guy had a mouse droid, another had a probe droid.




Q. Is swimming in the game?


A. Like BioWare has already stated, no swimming.




Q. Are achievements implemented?


A. Not yet.




Q. What does the "Shield" stat do? Does it replace "Deflection" or does it do something different?


A. Honestly I’m not really sure what it does. I don’t have anything like that on my gear though.




Q. Is there a "Dodge" stat? I.e. attack hits, you have X% chance to dodge?


A. No dodge stat on the character sheet anywhere.




Q. Personal Shield Generators. Is this still an equippable item, and if so, can Guardians/Marauders still equip them? Does it add to armor?


A. Shield generators take up a weapon slot. I think they are just for tanks.




Q. Roughly how much mitigation do you get from equipping heavy armor?


A. Don’t know. I can’t equip Heavy on any of my current characters.




Q. How will items be repaired, by crafters? Can items break beyond repair and be useless?


A. Any vendor NPC can repair gear. No perma-breaking.




Q. Can we decorate our ships OURSELVES by dropping and dragging any items we want or will BW go the simple, boring, trophy collecting route as seen in Mass Effect 2?


A. No decoration I’ve seen, other than collecting companions to sit around.




Q. How will TOR encourage player interaction and gathering in cities such as at cantinas? specifically, are there are mechanics in place such as the Battle Fatigue system seen in SWG?


A. Not much reason to go to a cantina really, other than to have a conversation with your companions.




Q. Is there a system for small player made camps as seen in SWG?


A. No.




Q. How are new lightsabers acquired? looting, crafting through crew skills?, or created through a cinematic(seen in released video) by ourselves or mini game?


A. Same as any other weapons. Loot one, get one from a quest, buy one off the AH whether it be BOE or Crafted.




Q. How will lightsaber crystals be acquired? looting, cave explorations and gathering, crew skills gathering?


A. Haven’t run into a color crystal yet, other than the one that comes with my sabers, but power crystals you can buy off commendation vendors, auction house, etc. Like any other items really.




Q. Can we get mods for our guns such as extended clips for Troopers or larger gas tanks for Bounty Hunger flame abilities? or mods for better shielding abilities on armor? or do the mods simply affect accuracy, damage, etc.


A. Equipment has mod slots, but they just modify stats that I’ve seen.




Q. How many raids are in the game roughly?


A. Only know about the Eternity Vault right now. Don’t know what else they have in store.




Q. How does stealth work for the Sith Assassin? Such as, is it a % based roll off affected by your agility rating or based only on proximity to hostile targets?


A. It works like in WoW.




Q. Is there a "deathblow" after defeating a player or do they immediately 'die'?


A. Your HP reaches zero, you’re dead.




Q. What are the rewards for Space Combat, wearable armor/weapons?


A. The rewards for space combat are apparently just equipment for space combat. Haven’t messed with it personally yet though.




Q. Do you think a hybrid would be as valuable in a group as a pure dps or pure tank built AC in TOR? for example, a Firebug BH.


A. You’re probably better off just bringing specialized characters. DPS specs for DPS, tank specs for tanking, heal specs for healing. But there isn’t any in-depth theorycrafting yet.




Q. As we all know, the choices have an impact on the story. It's pretty important for some of us. Seeing the consequences of what I've done would be great. But what happens when your choices are different from those made by other players and you team up as a group to do a new story-based quest? Do the NPC's in conversations only mention the decisions of the leader? Are there any other problems with continuity in story-based quests that you could mention?


A. What you choose affects your story. It’s kind of hard to explain. It’s actually pretty complex the way they have it set up.




Q. How many lightsabre forms (Ataru, Shii-Cho and so on) have you seen and for which ACs are those forms?


A. I’ve seen Ju-Yo, Ataru, and Shii-Cho. Don’t know what else is out there.




Q. Can you have multiple chars on one account crafting, while offline?


A. Yes.




Q. Can you give an example of high end crafting items?


A. Nope. No high-end crafters yet, really.




Q. I was wondering if there's any indication as to how many characters we'll be able to create on one server. What's the limit in the beta currently?


A. 8 character slots.




Q. Darth Hater reported that there was no natural cover on Tatooine when they tested the game, and that holding down shift and hitting "r" like you are supposed to got an error message. They said only the portable cover worked. Can you confirm that natural cover is still in the game? Is it everywhere?
Thanks!


A. Daniel Erickson already answered this on the public forums. Tatooine hasn’t had full cover passes yet.
But it’s coming.




Q. In games like WOW, some areas are reused, such as cave interiors and buildings. Is there anything like this in TOR or is everywhere unique?


A. So far every single area, phased zone, building, etc. has been unique and hand-crafted. None of that copy-pasted cave crap like in WoW.




Q. What happens to a phased area after you have completed the quests involved with it? Does it just stay empty forever?


A. Most of the time the Door turns red and you can’t go in again.




Q. Are cover reliant Smugglers and Agents now viable in PVP or are they still having problems balancing them?


A. I haven’t really seen people using cover in PvP. I imagine in some scenarios it could be useful, but people seem to prefer to stay mobile. As to whether that’s the smart thing to do, I don’t know.






Companion Questions




Q. Do you know if there is a male and female romance option for every class? What classes do you know that they are available for?


A. No idea on the specific companion romances available to each class.




Q. Have you heard of or met any annoying companions or are they all really cool so far?


A. Vette needs to shut up and die. I didn’t join the Empire to hold hands and sing songs.




Q. Supposedly, each class only gets 5 unique companions. Have you found any companions that are available for anyone?


A. 5 unique companions for each class. No selection of generic companions.




Q. Would you say that the amount of dialog from your companions is similar to the amount of dialog with your companions in Dragon Age or Mass Effect?


A. There’s a pretty solid amount of dialog with them. Similar to other Bioware games.




Q. For the character that you have gotten the farthest with: at what levels did you get your companions? Do you feel like you get them at good intervals or does it take a long time to get new ones?


A. Pretty evenly spread out, about every 10 levels.




Q. Do you know if Shae Vizsla is a possible companion? Have you met Shae Vizsla?


A. Don’t remember who that is. Haven’t run into them.




Q. Does every class have a big hulky companion, a droid, a cute companion, and a male and female love interest?


A. Companions are pretty varied.




Q. Don't tell me what it is, but have you ever seen any companion that is cuter than Blizz?


A. No.




Q. What are your thoughts on the female smuggler's voice?


A. Haven’t spent much time around smugglers.




Q. Are you allowed to have more than one character or do you just have to play one from start to finish in testing?


A. You can do whatever you want. I don’t know what past phases were like, but this is like any MMO beta you’d expect. A really complete version of the game where you can just do whatever.




Q. I know you haven't been able to play the Trooper, but did you happen to see any Commandos who are able to hide their weapons when out of combat? If yes, is that ability available to all classes?


A. Weapon goes on your back, or on your waist, or wherever your class keeps it.




Q. What is the difference between Armormech and Synthweaving? Is one for Heavy and one for Medium/Light?


A. Armormech is armor for non-Force Users, Synthweaving is for Force User armor.




Q. In your opinion, are you likely to get ganked a lot on PvP servers? What would you say is the biggest difference between them?


A. You’re going to get rocked on a PvP server. Prepare accordingly.




Q. I probably don't want to know the answer to this question...but do you know if Beta Testers will be given any special bonuses as thanks when the game launches? As if the rest of us didn't envy you enough already


A. Our special bonus is that we get to play the game before everyone else. Come release everyone is equal as it should be.




Q. Have you guys been given any information on when they might be bringing in more players to testing, even rumors?


A. Nothing official. I’ve heard the same rumors you have.




Q. Any idea what the recent survey-then-invite event was about, or what their role will be?


A. They haven’t told us anything about it.




Q. Tell me about the mail system. I would assume there is a way to mail other characters items, if so do they call it anything fancy? How frequent are mail boxes and what do they look like? What is the cost to mail items?


A. Mail is like WoW. Mailboxes have a little hologram envelope floating above them. It costs 5 credits to send a mail, 10 if you’re sending items.




Q. Any clue on how cross faction communication will be solved?


A. It’s not really an issue in testing, but Bioware will do whatever they decide to do.




Q. how many emotes are in the game?


A. There are quite a few.




Q. Can you set different moods for a different facial expression, walking and standing style ?


A. No.




Q. can you create chat channels on your own ?


A. Not right now.




Q. Can you make/write some "custom emotes" (with no special animation) ? like for example "Luke points at the the wookie next to han solo" which are in a different "emote-color" in the chat system? (like typing in swg a : and next to it your "emote")


A. If its in, it doesn’t use the same command as WoW. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use it.




Q. How many people can you invite to your ship


A. Just your group.




Q. Can you "launch" the ship into space with some others players and then play inside the ship or do you have to stay on the ground?


A. You can travel from planet to planet with the people in your ship, but no you can’t just park in space somewhere.




Q. Are you able to interacte with many people or are they just stuck in there own instances?


A. There isn’t really any instancing outside of flashpoints. Just occasional phasing.




Q. When you are on nar shaddaa or the other multi-faction-planets. are there areas only for imperials and only for republics or can you actualy be in the same area with the other faction?


A. No faction restricted areas on those planets.




Q. Is clothing restricted? I mean can a jedi wear smuggler clothes? Or can your class only equip the class clothing?


A. You can wear whatever you have the armor proficiency for.




Q. Is there neutral social clothing? Some stuff that looks like "everday normal guy" clothing? Not heroic? Clothing with no stats?


A. No social clothing that I’ve seen yet.

My Fave 2 Q&A's

Q. Have you heard of or met any annoying companions or are they all really cool so far?

A. Vette needs to shut the fuck up and die. I didn’t join the Empire to hold hands and sing songs.

&

Q. Did you ever kill one of your companions? If so (or even if not) did that put you at a disadvantage crafting wise to only have 4 companions instead of 5?


A. No, but I wish I could end Vette. No chance to do so yet though.

I did find her fucking annoying in various trailers.

So, only warfronts and no world pvp objectives ... Rift all over again?

i think there will be plenty of world pvp but afaik there are no world objectives yet. Rift was extreme, i did not see a member of the opposite faction until i was like lvl 40 something

really stupid design there sending the factions to different zones. But it is said that is not that way in swtor

We all know its a WoW-clone, now stfu about the PvP we know won't work, and hope PvE raiding with lightsabers is fun enough to get people hooked already.

The Q&A was tooo long, didn't read.

There will be meaningful open world PvP, Hoth and a few places will have meaningful objectives, they wont talk about it, because those worlds are not finished in terms of design yet and world PvP and where they put the objectives will be in for release.

Gabe Monty-whatever has mentioned that World PvP is the focus for the pvp developers, but the process starts with the instanced battlegrounds, Placing objectives and using meaningful mechanics, is a lot easier than designing Warzones, hence why all we have seen so far is Warzones.

well atleast a time waster until 40k dark millenium

Yeah I can't WAIT for silithus style world pvp in swtor.

It's going to be amazing.

lets hope for wow style pve!

Interesting answers tbh, other then that it'll definitely be a WoW Vanilla (Not expansion thank god) like game play. I wouldn't expect too much from the PvP department and just instead enjoy the PvE like I did in WoW.

how big will boon control be tho? i cant imagine u going big time like rift with 60 people if we gonna pve

yeah, almost Blood Bowl style \o/


Q. Could you tell us a little bit about the third/unrevealed warzone?


A. The Pit on Nar Shaddaa. You join one of two teams in a kind of big epic game of hardcore rugby.
There’s a ball in the middle and your goal is to grab it and dump it in the opponents goal. There are pits of fire, buffs you can pick up. Bunch of ramps, platforms, etc. Best of all, this warzone isn’t based on a Faction vs. Faction story. It’s like a sports game. Mascots, team logo, etc. You can actually end up with Imperial team vs. Imperial team, or Republic team vs. Republic team. I don’t know why no one has leaked this yet, because it’s epic as hell and way different from any PvP I’ve ever seen in any MMO.

Aye, certainly makes a change from the bog-standard Battlegrounds from WoW and the like

I like the sound of a lot of the stuff from the articles, just hope that one of the vehicle mounts is a proper Speeder Bike.

empire need those dinosaur looking things as mounts from one of the movies if its only speeder bikes its gonna be lame

Sadly theres no "Animal" mounts at launch at least. Which is a shame as I wanted a Bantha mount.

I'm not sure which animal you're on about, could be a Fambaa but they'd be a bit out of scale with players (in SWG they were huge compared to players)