More 1.2 News

[voyak]

and once again everything summed up:

Operations and Flashpoints Discussion

- The new Operation, Explosive Conflict will be the hardest Operation
- Nigthmare mode will have a different loot (gear) post Update 1.2
- Normal mode wil be replaced by "Story Mode", to allow casual players to enjoy the story behind the Operations
- Character copy to PTS will be available soon
- New Flashpoint:

Lost Island continues the Kaon story
- Game Update 1.3 will include a Group Finder (single server only)
- Game Update 1.2 will not come with any in-game combat log or any metrics for that matter but a parsable log will be implemented per class actions (offline, probably disk dump)

Player vs. Player Discussion

- New Warzone: Novare Coast (same faction vs same faction gameplay). It's an objective control type Warzone.
- Game Update 1.2 will bring Ranked PVP.
- Group queue will be available in 1.2 (up to 8 players)
- New PVP dailies in 1.2
- 18 new objective medals are going to be introduced in 1.2
- Winning the games faster is encouraged in 1.2
- Vote to Kick will be added in 1.2
- Players who afk in Warzones or don't do anything (0 medals or objectives), won't receive any rewards in 1.2
- New PVP gear (tier) in 1.2
- New PVP Crafting (expertise crystals)
- Voidstar and Civil War will have a training version which will allow same faction vs same faction battles
- Cross-server Warzone queues will be implemented in the future
- Warzone Tournaments will be introduced post Game Update 1.3
- Persistant groups through Warzones (the ability to keep the current group while queuing) will be implemented with no ETA atm
- Ilum will be redesigned in the near future
- Minor changes to Outlaw's Den (quicker travel route)
- Player bounties are planned in the future of SWTOR (no ETA)
- Warzone challenges are planned (challenging another guild/group directly)
- War Hero commendations will be available only via Ranked Warzones (doesn't require to have Valor Rank 70, it's just named the same)
- The current focus of valor is not to get different gear, it's more of a prestigious thing but it will yield several items/things such as mounts, titles, vanity pets etc.

Legacy Presentation

- Family Tree type legacy
- Once you reach level 50 with a species, you can unlock that species to all classes
- Human species alts give you extra Presence
- Legacy Global Unlocks: - unlock class emotes
- Unlock other class buffs (ex. as a Bounty Hunter, with a Sith Warr alt, you can buff with both class buffs)
- Heroic Moment ability (not usable in Warzones/Ops etc)
- Unlock Heroic Abilities (ex. using Force Choke on your agent - again, not usable in Warzones/Ops and usable only with an active companion)
- Complete all missions for a companion “type” (e.g. ranged tank) unlocks a shorter cooldown for Heroic Moment, a small stat boost and additional Presence buff for all your companions.

Social Rank Unlocks

- Dance with your companions
- Brawling abilities for unarmed combat
- Purchasable Legacy Rewards
- Dark/Light/Neutral rewards
- New "Sprint" ability - short duration buff
- Ship training dummies and Warzones dummies will be available at 1.2 (testing damage etc)
- Ship repair droid that will repair your gear, which you can sell gear to and from you can buy different items
- Ship mailbox
- Ship Neutral GTN (high legacy level only)
- Legacy Weapons and Armor
- Legacy appearances
- Unique orange items only unlockable by legacy levels.
- Multi spec is coming (a type of Dual spec but allows you to save multiple specs - more than 2)
- Voice restraining mod for the ship robot (aka mute)
- Ship droid gains affection

Economy and Crew Skills Discussion

- 84% of players have less than 1 million credits and repair costs are currently seen to high. The developers are working for balance adjustments to correct this situation
- Legacy upgrades for Crew Skills are coming in Game Update 1.2 such as better RE system, crafting Operations gear with critical augment slots and more.
- Armstech and Armormech will be able to make different types of augments
- Slicing will supply augment materials
- Cybertech speeders will become BoE
- The costs of training a level 3 speeder will be reduced
- Shorter cooldowns for cybertech grenades
- New color crystals will become available for crafting through Artifice
- New schematics will be implemented, including for PvP crafting (gained by PvP-ing). Artifice will be the first crew skill to benefit from this
- Overall, efforts are focused to motivate players to become crafters by offering them exclusive benefits that will allow them faster credit gains, better looking gear and performance
- A tooltip will be implemented in Game Update 1.2 that will tell you if you can Reverse Engineer an item and if there is a new schematic that you can learn by doing so
- High-level (purple) missions will no longer have a chance to fail starting with Game Update 1.2

Roleplayer's Discussion

- New possible features include character re-customization and chat bubbles
- Social, alignment and family tree unlocks will be available through the Legacy system
- In the future all cosmetic gear should work for all types (light, medium and heavy armor)
- Animal mounts will be implemented at some point in the future
- More role-play emotes will come and many of them will have lines.

Guild Features Discussion

- Guild banks will come in Game Update 1.2 (with up to 7 tabs that you can buy with a gradually increasing price)
- Detailed guild logs will allow guild leaders to see all incoming/outgoing transactions

Post Game Update 1.2 Guild Features

- Guild Emblem (useable on armor)
- Guild Calendar
- Guild Advertising (to support guild recruitment/joining)
- Guild Progression will be implemented, but not in the near future
- Guild Capital Ships design exists (will also not be available to soon)

User Interface Presentation

- You will be able to move and scale most UI components while in "Edit Mode". Components that are always visible and the ones that are only visible sometimes will be displayed with different colors
- For now only four quickslot bars remain available
- Game Update 1.2 confirmed to bring the "target of target" feature
- You will be able to flip the map axis
- You will be able to move secondary windows anywhere on the screen and have more than one open at the same time
- UI configurations will be save-able as XML files and shared between players
- Macros will not be implemented any time soon
- Spec-specific quickslots will be implemented at some point
- Many improvements to the GTN will come in Game Update 1.2. (such as less mandatory filters)
- You will be able to share UI settings between characters (altough not in Game Update 1.2)

...And The Rest

- The "Unify to Chest" option is being brought back in Game Update 1.2 and it will be toggle-able for each armor piece (default setting "off")
- New daily quests on Corellia will be implemented in Game Update 1.2
- Dual-multi spec is coming in two stages: first you will be able to switch between tree builds; in the second stage switching will also change the gear loadout (not in 1.2)
- Same gender romance will be implemented at some point (quote: "Sometime this year") with story updates included
- Warzone team balancing will be optimized through the improved match-making system and the incentives provided to discourage warzone quitting
- The option to to turn down shader settings that is coming with Update 1.1.5 will make the game playable on lower end machines. However, there is a dedicated team working constantly on optimizations to make the game run better

[Tanales]

looks good, i cant belive they are delaying combatlogs and the LFG tool even more tho...

[Twyst]

looks good, i cant belive they are delaying combatlogs and the LFG tool even more tho...

Do we really need them? It encourages eliteism (comatlogs) and anti-social (LFG).

IMHO ofc

[smilodon]

The lack of combat logs will prevent detailed analysis of raid results. This will mean that raids will have to accept a less exact standard as players will not be able to judge their performance or see where they need to improve with any great detail. This will mean raid outcomes/bosses etc.will need to be more forgiving of less than perfect performance. As a casual raider I'm not too worried about this but I can see our more competitive players being unhappy at the lack of detailed stats and therefore lack of real hardcore encounters.

I'm not sure exactly which direction Bioware plan on going with end game content. WOW did give themselves problems by making the raiding so hard that it was denied to most paying customers. Perhaps Bioware plan on travelling a different road with the raiding and detailed logs won't be a part of that? Time will tell I guess.

[JanuZ]

I think it is fine that it is only in datadumps. people should be able to play without it being updated in real time and out of operation analysis will be possible.

[Penfold]

Not being too shallow about it but I still don't see how I can hide my companion's headgear....

Yes, I know but it's a big thing in my book  :norty:

[Vargen]

Not being too shallow about it but I still don't see how I can hide my companion's headgear....

Yes, I know but it's a big thing in my book  :norty:

For now you can just get a customizable head slot item for them, that doesn't show. The assassin pvp helmet for lvl 40 for example is only a circlet thing.

[voyak]

NDA has been lifted in regards to the Guild Summit Day 2. During that time, those invited got some hands-on playtime with the 1.2 beta. Massively joystiq and DarthHater have done a comprehensive job of detailing the changes.

I have summarized what I personally thought were the most interesting changes. I strongly encourage everyone to read the interview with Goerg Zoeller since I was not able to cover all of the information he discusses in it. I also did not cover the new Flashpoint nor the new Operation in detail to not give away spoilers. You guys should read the Darth Hater articles if you want more details.

(And yes, more details about the BH "nerf" at the end of this post).

Links:

• http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03...ic-update-1-2/
  
• http://www.darthhater.com/articles/s...-on-highlights
  
• http://www.darthhater.com/articles/s...nt-impressions
  
• http://www.darthhater.com/articles/s...-georg-zoeller
  

Legacy:
   Species
   

• Note: All of the values will likely be retooled or changed before the 1.2 patch roll out. Everything here should be treated as such until the final values are updated. Values with * may be incorrect. All species unlocks can be unlocked by getting to 50 with a character of that species.
  
• Chiss â€" Unlockable for 1.5 million credits, legacy level 8
  
• Cyborg â€" Unlockable for 500,000* credits, legacy level 8
  
• Human â€" Unlockable for 500,000* credits, legacy level 8
  
• Miraluka â€" Unlockable for 1.5 million credits, legacy level 8
  
• Mirialan â€" Unlockable for 1.5 million credits , legacy level 8
  
• Rattataki â€" Unlockable for 1.5 million credits , legacy level 8
  
• Sith Pureblood â€" Unlockable for 1.5 million credits , legacy level 8
  
• Twilek â€" Unlockable for 1.5 million credits , legacy level 8
  
• Zabrak â€" Unlockable for 500,000* credits , legacy level 8
  

Alignment:
   

• Legacy of Sacrifice â€" Grants the use of the sacrifice ability to all characters. Injures your companion to instantly heal yourself. Requires level 50, Dark V, 250,000 credits, legacy level 10
  
• Legacy of Unity â€" Grants the use of the unity ability to all characters. Unity reduces damage to you and your companion for a short duration. Requires level 50, Light V, 250,000 credits, legacy level 10
  
• Legacy of Equilibrium â€" Grants the use of the equilibrium ability to all characters. Equilibrium increases damage and healing by you and your companion for a short duration. Requires level 50, neutral, 250,000 credits, legacy level 10
  

Ship Unlocks:
   

• Mailbox â€" Unlockable for 250,000 credits, legacy level 10
  
• Repair Droid â€" Unlockable for 1 million credits, legacy level 8
  
• Operation Training Dummy â€" Unlockable for 250,000 credits, legacy level 10
  
• Warzone Training Dummy â€" Unlockable for 250,000 credits, legacy level 10, valor rank required
  
• Black Market Trade Terminal â€" Unlockable for 5 million credits, legacy level 35
  

Combat:
   

• Legacy of Combat: Punch â€" Unlocks the unarmed combat function. Unlockable for 10,000 credits, legacy level 5, Valor rank level 5
  
• Legacy of Combat: Jab â€" Unlockable for 15,000 credits, legacy level 8, valor rank 10
  
• Legacy of Combat: Uppercut â€" Unlockable for 20,000 credits, legacy level 10,valor rank 15
  
• Legacy of Combat: Bash â€" Unlockable for 25,000 credits, legacy level 15,valor rank 25
  

Convenience:
   

• Legacy Fleet Pass â€" Cuts down the time of the use of Fleet Pass by increments of one hour for each of the levels. There are three levels to it and are unlockable for increments of 50,000 credits, 5 legacy levels (5, 10, 15)
  
• Legacy Quick Travel â€" Same as the above except that it is cut down by one minute each level instead.
  
• Rocket Boost â€" Short duration speed increase. Unlockable for 5 million credits, legacy level 20
  

Achievement Mission Terminals :
   

• Several Achievement Mission Terminals are located in fleets of the two factions that now unlock achievement rewards for doing certain flashpoints, operations, etc.
  
• These feats require boss kills and more to unlock special speeder skins/colors.
  

Warzone:
   Novare Coast
   

• Novare Coast is a majority control Warzone that pits two sides against each other
  
• In order to win, a team will have to control two of the three turret control panels to damage the shielding opposing side’s base
  
• If interrupted, players can also continue the progress where they left off if they are able to get back to the panel before the other side proceeds to capture it in the other direction
  
• The capture mechanic works almost like a tug of war centered on the points.
  

Interview with Georg Zoeller:
   Operations:
   

• We’re not completely happy with the speed of some of the Operation’s fixes.
  
• We know there are a lot of pain points, especially in Eternity Vault with Soa.
  
• We now have a very senior team now dedicated specifically to going through all the Operations to make sure that every single report is verified and fixed
  
• Bugs: there is a dedicated team now dealing with these things and that should hopefully bring the response times more into a realm that we are happy with.
  
• There is a lot more interaction between the core combat, the balance team, and the Operations design team at this point.
  
• There are some pain points with area healing in Operations that we are addressing on the class side
  

Class Balance / Buffs / Nerfs:
   

• Bounty Hunter Mercenary healers or Scoundrel healers: we bolstered their area healing capability with some nice quality of life changes to make their healing output more predictable and overall comfortable to play
  
• We did some improvement on the Sage and the Sorcerer as well, but we also identified some bugs/exploits that we fixed that caused the class to over-perform.
  
• Nerfs: it’s obviously controversial if we decide we have to nerf something. I don’t expect people to throw us a parade. Ultimately, people are going to be very unhappy.
  
• There is the small-minded approach of “so many people play Sorcerer, BioWare is never going to touch them.” No, that is not how it works.
  
• So we did some changes there to rebalance that particular tree to move a bit out of the Tracer Missile, and require you to be more active in your combat style to achieve that kind of effect. You can call that a nerf. I call that housekeeping.
  

*EDIT*
In response to the price tag attached to the various Legacy unlocks, Georg Zoeller took the time to respond to our concerns (you can find his post in this very same thread):

Originally Posted by GeorgZoeller

[...]

And let me make this clear, since there's some confusion about it:

The system allows you to unlock things EITHER via achieving the unlock condition (e.g. reaching chapter 2 in a specific class, reaching a specific PvP rank, etc) OR by paying credits. It is not both.

The credit option exists so players can enjoy content that they know they would never unlock in regular play (e.g. 'I'd love a pureblood Smuggler, but no way I'll level a Sith Warrior just for that').

Some things (like legacy class abilities) cannot be purchased with credits while other things can only be purchased (not unlocked) but are gated by legacy level (e.g. the GTN for your ship requires you to have a high legacy level before you can purchase it).

[Twyst]

• Bounty Hunter Mercenary healers or Scoundrel healers: we bolstered their area healing capability with some nice quality of life changes to make their healing output more predictable and overall comfortable to play
  

I'm quite comfortable with my current healing style on the Operative (Scoundrel mirror) and I love the mini game of managing my resources vs healing.
I really hope the skill factor isn't lost as the Operative is not a push the buttons as they light up kinda play. And I have many buttons to push

[Tanales]

the PTR patchnotes for 1.2
 http://www.swtor.com/test-center/patchnotes

[Sindri]

target of target

[JanuZ]

Mentor's claw previously targeted the group's healer more than intended. It now focuses on its initial target.

Finally

The health of KR-82 Expulser's probe droids has been increased significantly.

is this a joke? I haven't done this in a while but these are the droids that made the boss extremely hard right?

The Stimulant Dart ability used by Attack-Science Technicians and Mechno-Assault Specialists has been adjusted. It is now easier to control these enemies in an Operations group with less than three crowd control abilities.

nice to know

[/COLOR]

• Players may now choose to view victory and defeat messages in the chat window. This feature can be enabled in the new "Combat Logging" section of the preferences menu. This must be enabled for combat messages to appear in the chat window.
  
• The "Combat Logging" section in the preferences menu also allows players to stream all combat interactions originating from or directed at their character to a machine-parsable file. When this option is enabled, time stamped log files are written periodically to the Star Wars â€" The Old Republic\Combat Logs directory in the My Documents folder. Warning: This is an advanced feature. Constant combat logging may use a significant amount of disk space, and players may need to periodically delete old logs.
  

This might mean that everyone in an operation will have to create logs and sent to op leaders for analysis at some point.

[Sindri]

made a char on PTS for testing 1.2

Everything is very good so far, had a look at some of the black hole gear (above Rakata) and the new pvp gear, looks pretty badass for inquisitors and Warriors mainly, bh and agent still look good though.

New textures has made everyone actually look good instead of looking like a poorly drawn a blurry character from some badly animated game.  New textures is by far the best feature by a mile.

things that people should note:

- Legacy characters, if u have a character at 50 of a certain race thn that race becomes available for all your new alts, otherwise it will cost 1.5m creds
- Ziost shadow has had a bit of a change, when you take the life to the mission deck u enter a sort of med bay that splits the ship into 2 parts.  The old area including EV, Kaon and KP etc is to the right, the new area through the door on the left takes you to the new operation.  
- Legacy gear drops are a gold colour gear called 'inheritance gear' which is unassembled.  How you assemble it i'm not currently sure as this new character doesn't have legacy yet or any of the bits, seen other players with these unassembled bits.
- bloom graphics feature makes everything in the game look as if jesus p***** on it.  This is good.

apart from that my level 11 is limited as all the other features are really for legacy characters and so on so i can't find out much more with the character for now.  All I got.

[voyak]

I'll also post later a few things since they've made some minor but nice changes as well. I'm overall very happy with the update!

[voyak]

In depth about Guild Banks and Vehicle achievements:

http://dulfy.net/2012/04/06/guild-bank-and-vehicle-achievements-in-1-2/