Posted by Momus in News | 11 Comments
gamescom 2011: Stephen Reid & Gabe Amantangelo Twitter Q&A
This morning, BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid held an impromtu Twitter Q&A with Gabe Amantangelo, Lead End-game Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Here’s a transcript of the questions and answers in all the glory of their 140 characters. There may be more throughout the day so we’ll keep this post updated but you can also follow then on Twitter with the hashtag #GabeQ by clicking right here!
@Phantys: Are purple lightsabers limited to the Sith?
A: No purple lightsabers are not limited to the Sith. – gabe
@Att1cusPh1nch: Will we be able to test in-game guild functions during the beta weekends
A: yes you will be able to test Guild functions, it is part of the reason we want guilds in testing. – Stephen
@MarkAM93: I was wondering if the loot bags for defeated bosses are a operation only thing, or are they included for flashpoints as well?
A: We’re considering the possibility of loot containers for Flashpoints, but no final decision yet – gabe
@internet_champs: Is your team designing hard-mode operations with more of a challenge in mind or more towards accessibility for all?
A: Operations in ‘hard mode’ will require proper co-ordination and team work from all group members! – Gabe
@Mad_JaviPH: How long do you need to wait until repeating an Operation? One week like other multiplayer games? Thanks :)
A: The length of time for an Op lockout will be on a case-by-case basis, but Eternity Vault is currently 1 week. -Gabe
@slambit: How does BW look upon players killing quest npc’s to block pve players on pve servers?
A: Players cannot kill other players’ mission-giving NPCs.
@joshuajamesbh: Are Operations only limited to normal mode and hard mode or will there be more than two difficulties?
A: yes, we’re in the process of working on additional difficulty modes for Operations.
@Berkilak: Could you provide detail regarding whatever PvP advancement system is in place?
A: we have a Valor Rank system, players earn valor in PvP to rank up. Higher ranks unlock stuff. ;) – gabe
Update: New questions answered! Still more to come however.
@Bel_Garan: Will we see a pre-launch character creation tool like Bioware did with Dragon Age:Origins?
A: a pre-launch character creator is not currently planned. – Stephen
@Xuijing: The game is released in limited numbers.Is this generally limited or more per area?I.E Having 90% of US playing, 10% rest of world.
A: Varies by area, but we can’t talk about specific numbers. Nowhere near the ratio you’re suggesting. -Stephen
@MrWarlock_: With the beta weekends in September will the European contingent be gaining access beta at the same time as those in the USA ?
A: EU folk will be playing in September, however large scale ramp will happen in US first, then EU close after. -S
@libchh: Hi! Any chance you’ll change the animation of the Project ability? Any form of telekinetic mumbo would be more appealing…
A: Check today’s Huttball video update carefully. Like, frame by frame. ;) – Stephen
@DHCatalan: when you design Operations, what are your main inspirations behind the content. From a functional & artistic perspective?
A: our main inspirations are the original trilogy (with a KotoR flair!) – gabe
@mantas91: will Operation of 16 people give more/better reward than the Operation with 8 people
A: there will be more rewards for 16 players than 8 -pretty much double- but ‘better’ is reserved for hard modes. – gabe
Update: Timezones are a real problem! There were some Q&As over the night that I missed, now added!
@NiklasABerndt:we have heard about difficulties on operations but will there be any difficulties on the endgame flashpoints?
A: Yes, there will be a ‘hard mode’ for some early level Flashpoints which sets them to level 50. – Gabe
@DarthRobotik: Can you use the Agent’s orbital strike indoors?
A: yes, the Agent’s Orbital Strike currently works indoors. We’re looking into alternative VFX too. – Gabe
@alexshawftw: Will Ops groups scale from the 4-man comps ie. 8-man Ops=2 tanks-2 healers-4 dps, 16-man Ops = 4 tanks-4 healers-8 dps?
A: roughly, the answer is yes, but Op group comp can be somewhat flexible. — Gabe
@TwoTORGamers: Outside of battlegrounds what PvP opportunities are there on PvE servers if you flag for PvP? Is it most areas?
A: If you flag for PvP on a PvE server, then you can fight other flagged players in most areas. More on this soon! -gabe
We were promised more questions answered later – stay tuned, and we’ll add them to this post!
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- Huttball the new PvP Warzone in SWTOR - [...] a related note, our friends at AskAJedi have posted the transcript to a Twitter Q&A session. During the session,…
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@Phantys: Are purple lightsabers limited to the Sith?
A: No purple lightsabers are not limited to the Sith. – gabe
Sadly that still won’t end debate. People will just argue that it means that Dark Side Jedi are the only Jedi who can use purple. It would have been nice if the answer was “Both Jedi and Sith regardless of alignment can use purple lightsabers.”
I’m 100% positive that I read somewhere that you can change your blaster and lightsaber colors to whatever color is in the game using the crafting skills.
Well that issue that has arisen comes from how purple has been shown so much for SIs. Once Bioware stated that blue and green are limited to Jedi and Light Side Sith, and red is limited to Sith and Dark Side Jedi; people started to wonder about purple. Since film precedent clearly shows Windu with purple, it is silly to imagine Bioware would restrict it like the red saber.
Due to its association with SIs, however, some folks have speculated that will be the case. Personally, i think it was just to make SIs look a bit different in screenshots and such. Only red, blue, and green are signature colors from the films, so hopefully only those will have alignment restrictions.
will it be easy to get a purple light saber crystal for a sith warrior?
Seems like a very weak Q&A, especially when you reach out to twitter for questions.
They might be, but they’re answering what they can – and there’s many, many questions for them to wade through. Here’s to hoping a few amazing questions get answered in the later session! It looks like there’s ~250 questions and they might answer 20 – 30 of them.
I must be out of touch with the QAs. I thought that was by far the best QA they have given on a Friday Update.
Am I interpreting it correctly that Gabe confirmed that 8 man operations wil give same level of rewards as the 16 man versions?
more questions were answered later, possible more after meet and greet, according to SR’s tweet
Yes, we’re adding those currently.. hopefully more later as well!
Just added them!
They shouldn’t even limit color at all, in fact you should be able to build crystals with an RGB function to make your own colors.