Some interesting stuff in there

[KKND]

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-feb-10th-2012

Last week we asked for your questions and this week we have some   answers! We had planned on answering 10 questions but in the end, got 15   answered by various members of the team. Please note in some cases   we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some   questions for clarity.

We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A,   which will stay open until 2pm CST on February 14th (8pm GMT/9pm CET).   We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the  answers  below. If you want to discuss any of the answers given, please  use this Forum thread!
(For those of you wondering where the  Dev Tracker Summary blog is, we  decided to move it out to Mondays  going forward. Look for it then!)

Alkapwn: Could you elaborate  about what specific  benefits the Legacy will offer? I know that I am  not alone in the fact  of putting off making an alt (and hence losing  out on gameplay) because I  wish to know what kind of character creation  options will be available.  All we have to go on now is "The legacy  system will unlock new  character creation options, including new  species." Does this mean  species that have been unavailable for that  specific class, or that have  been unavailable to play in the game as a  whole?

Daniel Erickson: Game Update  1.2 will bring you the  first big step in the Legacy System but it’s  important to understand  that the Legacy System will continue to grow,  bringing new options to  new characters (alts) and some fun options for  elder game players as  well. Legacy is definitely not just for new  characters! The species that  will be unlocked in Game Update 1.2 are  species currently in the game  that will become available to classes and  factions where you haven’t  seen them before. New species are in  consideration for the future but we  don’t have any details to share  right now. Look for more specific  details in the near future as we head  toward Game Update 1.2.

Jeunedorsk: What will happen in the future for PvP (Ilum, new Warzones ?)

Daniel Erickson: We’ve been  pleasantly surprised at  how popular PvP is in The Old Republic and  we’ve been doubling down on  our efforts to bring exciting new content  and systems to the PvP  community. Right now there’s a new Warzone  planned for Game Update 1.2  which we’re already testing internally and  really enjoying. We can say  it’s enabled for same faction vs. same  faction play, so if you’ve been  playing a lot of Huttball, expect some  variety soon! Also coming in 1.2  is the pre-season of our Warzone  ranking system, bringing better  matchmaking which means better PvP. In  the future expect a ton more PvP  news as we expand and polish what has  proven to be one of the most  popular aspects of The Old Republic. We’ve  got big plans.

AeonKwiz: Are you planning on adding Social Gear for Medium and Heavy Armor characters?

Daniel Erickson: Yes! Expect  to see the first new  gear coming in Game Update 1.2 and some dramatic  changes to the social  gear system just around the corner afterward.

MrGerbz: What kind of measures will you take to improve the community, population, and faction balance of each server?

Daniel Erickson: Faction  balance is always a concern  and something we watch carefully across all  servers. It’s also  something you can never fully account for  programmatically as it is  different on each server. We have many  servers where the differences are  small enough to be negligible and  then others where either the Empire  or the Republic has a huge numbers  advantage. The Legacy System will  take some first steps towards  incentivizing players to look at what the  other side has to offer and  we will continue watching the most extreme  servers to see if additional  steps are needed.

Shotgun-clavy: When are character transfers going to become available? And are server transfers a real possibility?

Daniel Erickson: Character  transfers between servers  are definitely going to be available in the  future and we’ll announce  details as soon as we have firm dates.

DarthNhiilus: Are you going to implement housing and guild features (like guild banks, guild ships)?

Daniel Erickson: Guild banks  are coming in Game  Update 1.2 and like PvP, guild features are a  priority for the  development team with a strike team focused on nothing  but top guild  concerns and requests. Guild capital ships are a huge  undertaking,  though, so expect to see more quality of life style guild  features roll  out before you and your allies start building your  destroyer....

Seltron: What is the preferred method for providing  feedback to the development team, and why (e.g. In-game tickets, forums,  support@swtor.com)?

Stephen Reid: Every method of  feedback you mention  will ultimately make its way to the development  team; we get feedback  from everywhere (including off-site sources such  as Twitter, Facebook,  fansites, podcasts and the like). In-game metrics  are also always being  gathered and analyzed, so that essentially  â€˜passive feedback’ is given  by players every time they log in. With  that said, the Forums are always  a good starting place for feedback;  everything is read (even if we  don’t always immediately respond to  threads) and the Community team  regularly reports out player concerns  and thoughts. As always, the more  constructive your feedback is, the  better for the development team.

Venomlash: I was excited as  anyone about the Magenta  Adegan crystals, but I'm not a huge fan of  magenta. Will there be more  rare items of this nature?

Daniel Erickson: Absolutely.  In the near future  expect to see not just rare items but limited  availability items, more  treasure hunts and some big surprises for the  community to discover and  work together to figure out.

Buddytonto: When you made the  blog post about the  balancing act of what to fix, what to balance, and  when; got me thinking  about how the items are prioritized, as it didn't  really explain that?

Daniel Erickson: How we  prioritize bugs is a  complicated question and one that can be maddening  from a player point  of view. The answer is as complicated as the  question but I can give a  high level view. First comes anything that  blocks the critical path of a  class story for any reason. If you can’t  progress, your game comes to a  screeching halt so that always takes  precedence. Next is the question:  how many people are being affected  and what is the damage being done?  Half the population being slightly  irritated loses in priority to ten  percent of the population having  their game crippled, for example. The  last consideration, and the most  opaque to players, is how hard the bug  is to fix. There are fixes that  look complicated and are nothing more  than a database entry that went  rogue. There are fixes that look easy  and take months of untangling  code. What we can promise is that we never  ignore bugs or decide  something is good enough as-is.

Aurozia: Will there be a dual specialization system in the future? Will there be a possibility of changing advance classes as well?

Daniel Erickson: We have no  plans for switching  advanced classes - which we see as fundamentally  different class  designs- but dual spec is in the works and coming soon.

NommNomm: Are you still planning on giving us an option to make our chest item colors match the rest of our armor?

Daniel Erickson: The new and  vastly improved ‘Hue to  Chest’ system launches with Game Update 1.2 and  there are more  customization and quality of life improvements along  those lines hot on  its heels.
USLeatherneck: Will Bioware implement Target of Target (including a visible cast bar above the portraits) in the new UI?

Gabe Amatangelo: Yes. Target  of Target on primary  target and party frames will be part of Game  Update 1.2.  Primary target  already has a visible casting bar on live  right now.  In Game Update  1.2 target of target frames will have  visible casting bars as well.   Additionally, there will be various  customization features in all of  those frames (e.g. repositioning).

Annexes: In the EU our  keyboards are a little  different than in the US, and I´m wondering if  you guys are going to  make the "bug report" shortcut key unbindable?

Daniel Erickson: Yes! This will be addressed in a weekly patch in the very near future.

Simoon: Will you be adding the option to choose what Warzone you enter a queue for?

Gabe Amatangelo: Not until we  introduce cross server  queuing.  If we were to allow players to choose  their Warzone before  they could queue across servers, then it would  negatively affect how  often every player would see a Warzone â€" and for  every player that loves  a certain Warzone there is another player that  hates it.  The  population would end up divided by their Warzone choice,  negatively  affecting the time it would take for a specific Warzone to  become  available for anyone.  With cross server queuing we will still  have a  preference to match players of the same server, but those  players who  choose specific preferences such as these will likely end  up in a match  with players in the larger Wargroup.

Many people asked: How are you planning on expanding the endgame experience?

Gabe Amatangelo: We are going  to continue to  introduce new Flashpoints, Warzones, and Operations on a  regular basis.   The story line will continue with all of the above as  well as in  solo-able missions.  We will continue to evolve Crew Skills  and  crafting.  We’ll be introducing the Legacy System soon, as Daniel   mentioned.  Additionally, we have exciting PvP features planned, the   first of which includes pre-season Ranked Warzones in Game Update 1.2.

Thanks for all of your questions, and  thanks to Daniel and Gabe for  answering them. If you’d like to put  forward a question for next week’s  Q&A, please visit this Forums thread!

[smilodon]

Nice find, thanks. There's some positive stuff there

[BrotherTobious]

you and your allies start building your destroyer....

Woo hooo

[Lorr]

Great find, 1.2 looks set to be very interesting