Coming up.

[rynnor]

maximum of 50 active sales on the AH? wtf is that all about? I am usually selling 500+ items a day in wow.

How am I going to make my millions

Slowly

On a more helpful note I have just started cross faction trading using the Nar Shadaa AH as my transfer point and the profit opportunities are huge!

The Republic sides AH is poorly developed on my server so certain things are very cheap that are expensive on the Imp side - MmMmm...

 

[Nate]

Slowly

On a more helpful note I have just started cross faction trading using the Nar Shadaa AH as my transfer point and the profit opportunities are huge!

The Republic sides AH is poorly developed on my server so certain things are very cheap that are expensive on the Imp side - MmMmm...

Hmm so that's why I couldn't see my sales on the Nar Shadaa GTN when looking from Imp Fleet?

 

[Soazak]

Hmm so that's why I couldn't see my sales on the Nar Shadaa GTN when looking from Imp Fleet?

Yea, Nar Shaddaa is a cross-faction AH, while the Fleet is your own faction only. Is the one in Nar Shadaa actually active? Didn't think it would be used much but might give it a go if it is.

 

[rynnor]

Yea, Nar Shaddaa is a cross-faction AH, while the Fleet is your own faction only. Is the one in Nar Shadaa actually active? Didn't think it would be used much but might give it a go if it is.

No its dead but its the only way to share resources over your republic/imp characters.

 

[Ctuchik]

maximum of 50 active sales on the AH? wtf is that all about? I am usually selling 500+ items a day in wow.

How am I going to make my millions

There isn't 500 things in this game that is worth putting up on there, so your problem are solved before it began.

 

[rynnor]

There isn't 500 things in this game that is worth putting up on there, so your problem are solved before it began.

Heh well if you were to start selling item mods like Armoring/mods etc you would get there in no time - up to 7 armoring mods for a single buyer x the multiple (8? types) x 20 odd versions would soon add up. Thats 56 to supply enough armoring mods for 1 person of each of the 8 types at one level - god forbid you want to supply multiple people - that would mean thousands.

 

[Raven]

That's basically all I sell in WoW. Cut gems and enchantment materials. One bit of armour takes 3ish gems in wow so they sell like hot cakes. I imagine its the same for SWTOR with mods. Like any MMO I plan to be self sufficient eventually, I just need a nice steady income so that I can grind crafting on alts and I will be happy.

 

[Mabs]

That's basically all I sell in WoW. Cut gems and enchantment materials. One bit of armour takes 3ish gems in wow so they sell like hot cakes. I imagine its the same for SWTOR with mods. Like any MMO I plan to be self sufficient eventually, I just need a nice steady income so that I can grind crafting on alts and I will be happy.

do dailies
90 mins of belsavius + ilum = 200k + , once per day

 

[Raven]

Yeah, only 44 on my main at the moment. Taking it easy and enjoying the story

 

[Bahumat]

I made 900k selling old craft materials. I have an alt on the go so I send my main out farming materials and after a few nights throw it in the gtn

 

[svartalf]

http://www.swtor.com/node/313694

It’s that time again! Last week we asked for your questions and this week we have some answers. Once again, we had planned on answering 10 questions but in the end, got 12 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 21st (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!

DarthBelkar: Can we look forward to server-wide special seasonal / short-term events?
Daniel Erickson: Yes! Expect them to fit into the world and setting, involve a fair bit of discovery, and offer special rewards that will be there one day and then gone forever. And expect them soon.

Darthinfimus: Do you plan to implement a /roll or /random command for use in master looter situations?
Damion Schubert: Diceslingers of the world rejoice! /roll has already been implemented on our internal development servers and should be coming to you guys Real Soon Now (in an upcoming weekly patch).

Relayinabox: Are there any plans for a show/hide companion headgear option?
Damion Schubert: Yep, we have plans. It won't be in Game Update 1.2, but is currently in the works.

NiklasWB: When will you make it possible for Force-using characters to pull up/down their hoods on their robes?
Damion Schubert: This is in the works now. It won't be in Game Update 1.2, but should get done in the next major update after that. And yes, we will extend this functionality to your Force-slinging companions as well.

ehlnofey: Will there be any changes/improvements made to the Galactic Trade Network system, and when will it be implemented?”
Damion Schubert: We know that the GTN needs a lot of love, and work is currently underway to improve this. Watch this space for more news!

GnovaD: Are there any plans to introduce mobile apps to the game? Eg. Use smart phone/tablet to send companions on missions while offline.
Damion Schubert: Let's just say that this has always been a dream of mine for crew skills - it's almost as if this design was created specifically with this in mind, doesn't it? Good news, sometimes dreams do come true! The bad news is that I have no ETA for you, though, as this is a significant technical endeavor.

Bobonar: Will we be able to take the modifications out of our endgame pvp-sets and put them into a set that we like better (design-wise) and keep the bonuses?
Emmanuel Lusinchi: Yes, the set bonus will be carried by Armoring mods that work just like regular mods except that they only fit into specific types of items, such as chest items or boots items. So, for example, the set bonus from a chest piece can be moved to another chest piece, and the set bonus from a helmet can be moved to another helmet.

HollowPoint: There has been a large push in the community for chat bubbles, especially with a toggle option for those who don't want them. Is a chat bubble system in the works? If so, when can we expect it to be implemented?
Damion Schubert: They're definitely on the list. We’ve got many active roleplayers in the dev team and chat bubbles have always been important to us. We actually had chat bubbles in beta, but there was unfortunately some serious performance issues that our implementation caused that, for example, made things really suck in warzones and the fleet. They’ll be coming soon, but in priority, the GUI team is focused first on GUI customization. I'll have a better idea of timing once we get past that. And yes, for people who hate them, whenever we do them, they'll be toggleable.

RuQu: Can you provide some details on Healer class design philosophy? Commando/Scoundrel AoE does not scale with group size due to player caps. Are they not intended to fill the raid-healer role? Scoundrels can be highly efficient, but have no tools for doing a short burst of healing.
In short, what is the design intention for each of the healers, and is it intended for them to be balanced so that any possible combination is competitive in Operations, or is a certain mix expected?
Georg Zoeller: Our stance is that all full healer specs should be viable for all type of content, which is the case, even for 16 man Operations. Our own players have no issues clearing any of the content in the game, on all difficulty levels, with any healer spec. Data from the Live game shows Operations, at all sizes, being successfully run with Commando and Scoundrel healers. It is expected for certain Operations bosses to create challenges for different healer archetypes (e.g. due to mobility requirements), but overall, every healer archetype is capable of successfully healing through any Operations and Flashpoint content in the game (currently and in the future).
With regards to your question about Commando/Scoundrel Area of Effect healing not scaling to group size, please understand that no heal, on any class, scales with group size. The most powerful Area of Effect heals in the game (Salvation/Revivification) affects up to 8 players, but does not scale with group size. These abilities are very costly, have an activation time requirement and require the targets to stand in a localized area for ten seconds to receive the full benefit. We plan on improving the overall Area of Effect healing performance of the Mercenary/Commando in the next major Game Update (1.2) by increasing the number of targets affected by Kolto Missile/Kolto Bomb.
As for Scoundrels having no tools for short burst healing, we don’t agree with that assessment. A scoundrel, for example, is capable of producing rather significant burst healing output by using Upper Hand gained from Underworld Medicine or Kolto Injection to trigger an instant Emergency Medpack or Surgical probe when needed. That said, we certainly think there’s room for improvements (and our upcoming Game Update 1.2 has a sizeable chunk of such improvements). For example, we are shifting the healing created by the Kolto Cloud ability to be front loaded in 1.2 to allow it to act as an emergency Area of Effect healing tool.
Finally, the perception of a specific class being not desirable can also be affected by the desirability of other classes. For example, Sage/Inquisitor healers are currently able to exceed our intended healing performance at times by affecting multiple heals with the same Conveyance/Force Bending buff. Game Update 1.2 will remove the ability to do so.

Fu-bear: Can you please confirm the exact mechanics behind Taunts? The tooltips purely state that it forces a mob to attack for X seconds, yet I've read reports that the skill appears to equalise threat like a traditional taunt. Can you clarify this?
Georg Zoeller: Taunts work in two ways. First, they instantly put you on top of the target’s threat list. Then, they place a short duration effect on the taunted target forcing them to attack you. Assuming that you then lose threat (say, you just stand there) the NPC will be forced to attack you for the duration of the Taunt. Afterwards, the AI will resume attacking targets based on threat order. If another Taunt is applied after yours, the most recently applied Taunt takes precedence.
Please note this is assuming regular threat rules – there are certain situations in the game, especially unique boss fights, which may cause NPCs to specifically ignore targets. In these cases, an ignored target will not be able to gain threat even with a taunt. In general, these situations are messaged to the player through effects on their buff bar – something we’re looking to make more visible in the future.

Gladoss, titdiscus, Leoran: What do you plan to against Warzones’ AFK, more particularly about players who leave Warzones ? Will there be sanctions for this type of behavior?
Gabe Amatangelo: It is not sanctioned behavior. In Game Update 1.2 we will be making changes to the Warzone rewards system, which will de-incentivize this type of behavior. This will include the removal of the interim bag/quest system, the introduction of the direct purchase of gear from Warzone and Ranked Warzone commendations, 14 new objective-based medals and participation scaling the rewards. Additionally, players will have the option to vote kick idlers. Kicked players will not be able to re-queue for several minutes.

Lexiekaboom: 16 man Operations are much harder than 8 man Operations (to the point where most guilds can easily clear hard mode 8 man before being able to clear 16 man easy mode) but there is no loot difference at all to doing them. It's better to send your 16 man raid force to clear two 8 man instances .Is this oversight or design? What will be done to offset this in the future?
Gabe Amatangelo: This is not per design. The teams have been addressing this in the weekly patches to some degree and more so in Game Update 1.2. It is intended that 16 player mode is slightly easier than 8 player mode due to the fact that getting and coordinating 16 players is a larger hurdle in and of itself.

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

 

[Soazak]

Some good changes in that, specifically the 16 man operations being looked at, and the PvP changes to bags/AFKers.

 

[rynnor]

Heh - option to vote kick idlers - that wont be abused to eject level 11s in warzones - certainly not

 

[Raven]

Getting sick and tired of Hutt ball. Can't seem to find any way to enter other instances though.

It is a very cold hard wall you hit at 50. Will most probably sub another month and level something else but can't see it holding interest for long.

 

[Bahumat]

I quit today. Even using a bot to join warzones could not save it for me. I hate having to do a dungeon over and over to get gear which enables me to get the next set. I loved spending time in gear bunny finding items to get those last few resists in a template.

I think letting the player use his own initiative to come up with a template is how things should be done. Pvp itself is ok, but ilum and warzones are so boring

 

[Raven]

Yeah. I came very close to re-subbing DAOC today.

Shit no, I think I need to see a doc!

 

[Raven]

urg. Found my log ins and found a free 14 day trial.

Oh dammit, I could just take a look. a look wont hurt!

 

[Hawkwind]

Getting sick and tired of Hutt ball. Can't seem to find any way to enter other instances though.

It is a very cold hard wall you hit at 50. Will most probably sub another month and level something else but can't see it holding interest for long.

Huttball should be avoidable when you queue. I don't want to play that WZ as a Gunslinger. But getting banned for a time from other WZ's just for bugging out before it even starts would be painful. I would like to know the WZ I am selecting to enter and have the choice of entering or waiting for a different one. Or the queue system changed to allow you to select which WZ's you want to queue for.

 

[Raven]

I cancelled mine today, 3 days left on the free trial. Most of the people I started playing with are binning it too, of the 20 or so from my WoW guild that bought it, only 5 are staying another month.

 

[Mabs]

of the 30ish people in our guild, 2 have quit, one due to RL stuff, one cos hes bored

rest are still enjoying themselves, go figure

 

[Raven]

I guess they must like 24/7 huttball then

It's too similar to WoW really, obviously not the lore and the classes but the pvp style. instanced battle grounds and expertise chasing. Except WoW has the ranked arenas too. If people want a gear grind based pvp game then wow offers more choice.

 

[Mabs]

nope, but then swtor isnt 100% pvp is it
theres other stuff to do

 

[Bahumat]

Yeah but neither is wow...or were you being sarcastic?

The pvp is better in star wars in terms of how the classes work, however the bgs and ilum is utter turd

 

[leviathane]

lol so after all the qq and them saying it was rubbish they then put this in the patch fix

Alderaan Civil War

• • The Eastern Turret no longer fires twice under some circumstances when it is captured by the Imperials.

 

[Turamber]

lol so after all the qq and them saying it was rubbish they then put this in the patch fix

Alderaan Civil War

• • The Eastern Turret no longer fires twice under some circumstances when it is captured by the Imperials.

Indeed. The number of Imps saying it was a graphical glitch etc was unreal. Ridiculous how long they have taken to get it fixed.

In other news I'm not surprised to see people quitting. The end game is very reminiscent of every other MMOG out there, albeit with lightsabres. I am not a huge fan of end game but will stick around a while longer to try out the other storylines.

They'd certainly keep my interest in end game PvP if gear was not the be all and end all of the game. Realm abilities were much better in my opinion as if the person was unskilled and high RR they could still be beaten by a lower RR skilled player more often than not. But the expertise stat gives you a huge advantage, and the other person a huge disadvantage, making PvP rather dull at maximum level until you get geared.

Meh, I'd rather roll an alt and explore the storyline. But if they're going to keep me long term they'll need to change the end game substantially.

 

[BigE]

majority of my guild have now quit.. theres only so many times you can do the same quest / wz day after day to gear up

 

[svartalf]

Interesting stuff. I'm particularly interested in the Alterac-Valley-esque thing they are working on.
http://toroz.com.au/2012/03/interview-biowares-gabe-amatangelo-on-pvp-server-transfers/

Gear/Warzone/Commendation Changes

• Lesser end-game commendations (Champion, Centurion, etc.) will not be exchangable.
• There will be two levels of warzones. Regular and Ranked warzones.
• Regular warzones will give out regular WZ commendations, and Ranked warzones will give out ranked WZ commendations.
• New intro PVP set for new level 50 players to fill gap in gear.
• There will be some “fun” uses for commendations you dont need anymore.

Ranked PVP

• Phase one will be server specific.
• Phase two (coming in the future) will have cross-server queuing.

General/UI Changes

• Combat log coming soon.
• DPS meters/Parsers will be done by 3rd party addons via combat log.
• Free/Paid Server transfers are being worked on but no date provided. They want to make sure the process is perfect before releasing this.

Cross-Server Queuing

• Coming in phase two of pvp changes (later than 1.2)
• Priority is on playing with people from your own server.
• As soon as you start choosing certain things (which warzone, ranked, etc.). It becomes more difficult for you to get a WZ with server players so you go into the cross-server queue.

Also this:

Economic upheaval is coming to the galaxy in Star Wars: The Old Republic's patch 1.1.5. A series of rumors and announcements from major organizations across the galaxy have been published on the official site in order to give players some insight into the upcoming changes. From all of the delicious lore tidbits, we find out that the speeder manufacturer Korrealis is retiring its Sovereign, Prince, Baron, and Commander speeders, while the Tirsa Industrial Consortium has quietly removed its Prime model speeders from the market. As a result of this decision, all of the aforementioned models are now steeply discounted, so grab them while they last.

Meanwhile, the Republic Senate's Committee on Transportation and Public Safety has decided to lower the cost of speeder licenses. Speeder purchase taxes, however, are being raised in response to this move. The Imperial Transportation Authority recently passed a similar law. To top it off, the Republic has recently come into possession of some previously Empire-owned purple color crystals, and both Republic and Empire merchants have some into possession of some very rare -- and very expensive -- white color crystals. Market speculators, start your engines; there's money to be made![/url]

• Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic -- Economic Changes in patch 1.1.5
  
• More coverage: Star Wars: The Old Republic official site
  
  
  

 

[Raven]

Let me know when they have fixed the endless, tedious Huttball and removed game breaking pvp stats.

 

[svartalf]

More guff:

Hello and welcome to this week’s Community Q&A blog! This past week we asked for your questions and today, our developers have answers for you. Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity.

This week is a bit short on answers, but we’ll definitely make up for it with the upcoming Guild Summit, which is going to be packed full of information! So much, in fact, that we’re going to postpone our next Community Q&A blog until March 16th in order to allow for all of the new information to sink in. We’ll open up the official forum thread for the March 16th Q&A on Tuesday afternoon (CST).

So, don’t forget to check out the Livestream for the Guild Summit on Monday (more information will be coming very soon) and we’ll see you all here again on March 16th!

Be sure to discuss this blog here.



JediCarve - Will our ships ever get upgraded to include mailboxes and the Galactic Trade Network so that we will be able to access those without having to go through the process of load screens and Orbital Stations/Spaceports?

Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer): On one hand, we really like making the ships richer and more useful, and on the other hand, we also want to be sure that the fleets feel like vibrant centers of the game community. So the answer is... Yes! And this feature is coming as soon as Game Update 1.2 ... as ship features you can unlock as part of the Legacy system. Watch for more information about Legacy unlocks coming in Game Update 1.2 - we should be dropping that Real Soon Now.



spcdog - When will we be able to add people to our Friends List who are not online? The main point of the Friends List is to let you know when friends are online. Right now, I have to already know when friends are online to add them, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Damion Schubert: This is a bug - thanks for calling my attention to it (this issue is somewhat sporadic, so it fell through the cracks). We are getting this into the pipe to get fixed, most likely for Game Update 1.2.



ThtreLady - Can we get character achievement announcements in the guild chat channels? I.E. Krysari is now level 39, etc? I'd love to be able to congratulate my fellow guildies, but I have no way of seeing when they level up or kill something spectacular.

Damion Schubert: This is a good idea - cheap but effective features like this are, as a designer, among my favorites. I'll bring this to the Guild Team, but no telling when they will prioritize it compared to the other guild love they are working on.



Arodin - Characters with a neutral or "grey" alignment are at a disadvantage because there are almost no Relics that they can equip until endgame. This forces players to stick with either light side or dark side dialogue options exclusively, limiting freedom and roleplaying. Will Relics be added that can be equipped by neutral-aligned characters, and are there any other plans for neutral gear?

Damion Schubert: Grey alignment is in the pipe - we have a design, and that design includes a plan to make the itemization fair for light, dark, and grey. I do not have an ETA for this feature at this time, but can't wait to announce one.



Evilvision - Any chance of getting the ability to lock our camera angle? I probably spend 20% of my time during PvP adjusting this when I should be well.... PvP-ing.

Damion Schubert: The ability to turn off smart camera is in Game Update 1.2 (this is what makes the camera swing behind you when you start to move).



Rtwozero - Any plans to implement region by region maintenance times?

Blaine Christine (Sr. Producer, Live Services): At this time there are no plans to implement separate maintenance times by region. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a global service with no restrictions on a player’s server choice.

Unfortunately the trade-off is that we have to maintain a single service environment, which leads to global maintenance periods. We are very sensitive to the fact that we are limiting play time once per week with a global scheduled maintenance.

We have carefully examined global peak times and the number of players affected by our planned downtime. Those of you that have been with us since launch may have noticed that the first few patches were scheduled at 4 AM CST; we very quickly adjusted to 2 AM CST. The reason for this adjustment was an analysis of the peak time play patterns by region that resulted in the current start time.

We understand that this is especially concerning to players in the European and newly opened Asia/Pacific server regions. We will always do our best to minimize the downtime, but it is the only way that we can perform critical service updates on the game client and on the game’s network infrastructure, underlying platform systems and so on.

Thank you for bringing your concerns to us – we will always listen and do our best to make adjustments when possible, but at this time, we have to move forward with a single global maintenance period.



CaptainJammo - Can you clarify the role of the Accuracy stat? Right now, it seems lackluster and/or unnecessary for many classes, yet it appears on all of their end game gear.

Georg Zoeller (Principal Lead Combat Designer): Accuracy counters your target's ability to defend (dodge, deflect, etc.) against your attacks. You are correct about the accuracy budget on the current end game gear being too generous for most scenarios - unless you are a dedicated tank killer in PvP, you probably do not need as much as you get from Rakata gear at the moment and you should consider swapping out some mods to support your preferred playstyle.

For the upcoming tier of new gear, we have an improved distribution of stats for both PvP and PvE gear.



Gidoru - In last week’s Q&A, you detailed upcoming changes to the Crafting System with crit crafting orange gear and removing base mods from purple gear. I think that this issue needs some clarification, as what was stated essentially suggests that orange crit crafted gear will always be superior to either PvP or PvE gear. This is because players will be able to simply remove the mods in their PvP or PvE gear and place it in a piece of crit crafted orange gear that will additionally provide extra stats as a result of the augment slot. Is it your intention to make crafted gear superior to gear obtained in other ways?

Emannuel Lusinchi (Technical Design Director): Yes, for Game Update 1.2, this is correct. Crafted gear is, in theory, superior to endgame gear obtained in other ways. However, it is worth pointing out that putting together crit crafted gear, including item modifications, requires more effort, not less. Now, the reason I specifically mention Game Update 1.2 is that we will introduce new mechanics in a future update that, without diminishing the usefulness of crit crafted items, will bring some interesting changes and that’s all I will say about that!

 

[svartalf]

Yet more guffanation:

Guild Summit Begins Monday

Next week, representatives of over 150 guilds from around the world will be coming to Austin, Texas to take part in BioWare’s inaugural Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Guild Summit. During the summit, guild members will have the opportunity to speak with the development team, and see a preview of what the future holds for the game.
When the Guild Summit was announced, we received thousands of applications from passionate fans who were willing to travel from all parts of the globe to take part. While we were humbled by the overwhelming response, we couldn’t accept every application for space reasons. However, we don’t want any of you to miss out on the details either. That’s why we are excited to announce that portions of the Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit will be streamed live!
On Monday, March 5th, we will be hosting a livestream of the Guild Summit, which you’ll be able to watch by visiting www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/GuildSummit. Here’s our full schedule of events for the livestream:

• 10:00AM CST (4PM GMT) – Welcome and Introductions
• 10:30AM CST (4:30PM GMT) – State of the Game and Game Update 1.2 Presentation
• Break (Livestream offline from 11:00am to 2:00pm)
• 2:00PM CST (8:00PM GMT) – Operations and Flashpoints Discussion
• 2:45PM CST (8:45PM GMT) – Player vs. Player Discussion
• 3:30PM CST (9:30PM GMT) – Legacy Presentation
• 4:00PM CST (10:00PM GMT) – Economy and Crew Skills Discussion
• 4:30PM CST (10:30PM GMT) – Roleplayer's Discussion
• 5:00PM CST (11:00PM GMT) – Guild Features Discussion
• 5:30PM CST (11:30PM GMT) – User Interface Presentation
• 6:00PM CST (12:00AM GMT) - ...And The Rest

Throughout the day you will be able to not only watch each of these discussions, you’ll also be able to take part in them. We’ll be taking questions from the livestream throughout the event, although we will have to limit the number of questions answered for time. You can also discuss the Guild Summit on Twitter using the hashtag #SWTORSummit, and we’ve created a Guild Summit Forum for you to discuss each of the sessions with other viewers.
If you’re unable to watch these livestreams on the day, we’ll be providing recorded versions of each presentation and discussion after the event.
Whether you’re attending in person or will be watching online, we look forward to your comments during the Guild Summit!