Damion Schubert: Chat Channels & Mission Cancellation

BioWare Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert treated TOR followers today with some Thanksgiving Eve goodness in the form of a few forum posts – both of which provide some solid new information.

In a thread entitled No World Chat, Damion responds with a very interesting description of how the chat channels in the game work (and specifically their reach:)

Each planet has chat channels that allows you to communicate with other players on the same planet. Yes, we have different channels for general, pvp, trade, etc. You will be able to turn off the channel, flag another player as a spammer for Customer Support’s review, and ignore problem players.

Disregarding whether or not they are realistic (and the presence of technology makes them much more realistic here than in fantasy games – you only have to look at a CB Radio for an analog), chat is very good for the community. Of particular note, some of our best content areas are the awesome multiplayer fights our worldbuilders have been setting up. If to fight those, you had to go to town and wait for someone else to wander by, life would suck, and this content (which I want to stress, in my opinion, is usually wicked fun) would never get done.
We currently don’t have any global channels that cover the whole game. General rule of thumb in an MMO is that if your chat channel has more than a certain number of participants, it becomes spammy and unusable (something that we’ll be keeping an eye on in our earlier planets).

Considering “planets” as an analog to “zones” in other popular MMOs, this makes a lot of sense, and should side-step the type of player communication problems Warhammer had at the outset.

Damion also provided some insight as to companion options and Crew Skills in a thread entitled Crew Missions: Emergency Recall?!:

Currently, you can recall your companion at any time from a mission. You lose any progress he has made, as well as any upfront costs, but he returns immediately. This may be adjusted as we test further, but it seems to offer a decent balance.

You can also have a companion stop crafting an item at any time. In that case, you lose no materials (but all progress will be lost).

So ultimately, there will be some risk involved if you send a companion off on a crafting task or mission, and decide later that you need him back. The penalty of losing progress on the mission, in addition to the up-front cost, seems to be in line and not too steep.