Posted by ReDDoT in Blue Milk & Cereal, Columns | 37 Comments
Blue Milk & Cereal: Should Beta Characters Be Allowed To Transfer At Launch?
No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal. Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!
Now, before you hit the “no” button on the poll, hear me out!
I’m not talking about transferring beta character levels or gear. There’s no question that most players would be against allowing that sort of thing. But rather, be allowed to carry over the settings from the character creator – eyes, hair, species – all of the things that make your character unique.
We’re roughly two and a half months away from the launch, and we’re seeing a lot of yellow posts talking about expanded beta testing. It seems that a good chunk of the registered community will have a shot at participating in at least a weekend of testing The Old Republic. Assuming everything goes as planned, any potential beta perks would be available to a solid majority of the community.
There have been threads on the official forums before, asking if BioWare would release a character creator for TOR ahead of time, as they had done for Dragon Age. Alas, they stated there weren’t any plans for doing that. Perhaps using the beta character data, they could meet players in the middle.
What do you think? Should BioWare allow testers to transfer their characters to live servers at launch? Let us know below!
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This is actually a really good idea… I hope people read it and understand it before voting.
A character creator would be nice – but as someone who spends like 5 minutes max finding a look I can live with, it’s not a big deal. I live with someone who would spend all day on a robust character creator, so I understand those who would like to find a way to make their character appear, and would go to great lengths to save it.
But I voted “no” because, frankly, it’s unnecessary in the list of things to get done before release. I’d rather have another flashpoint or operation ready at release than a character creator outside of the game which already exists inside of the game.
I voted no, primarily because it would just be another timesink for BioWare that they could spend on something useful.
How long does it take to create a character if you already know how it looks anyway?
Agree fully with you. Not to mention it would give Beta testers an advantage with naming that I want reserved for early access players :-)
I think just like in ME2, there can be a generated face/body code that you can copy paste to save the looks of your character.
I have a friend in Beta who says he wrote down all of the numbers in the character creator, so every time the beta servers reset he can recreate his character exactly as he liked it.
Agreed…having played on a friends beta…CC isn’t as in depth as other Bioware games
Nope – nothing gets transferred!
Especially since it’s not an open beta!
Character creation could change in the final version – they don’t need beta testers to test that out ;)
Write down the values of your Beta Character if you liked the looks (Face 3, Hair 8 etc)
Everyone gets a clean fresh slate when the Real thing starts.
You want to get in earlier than others? Preorder yesterday ;)
I voted no across the board on principle, with one caveat.
If it’s as simple as saving the appearance settings and then uploading them again, I’d have no problem with it if people were able to do that. If the character creator/editor has no such function that’s unfortunate, and at that point I’d have to say you’re out of luck.
Anything more and there’ll be real problems. Being in the beta is a privilege to begin with. Handing out extra freebies or turning it into a pre-head start head start will not go over well.
No is the only way to vote. Got into beta on an invite at random. So because you got that you should have a head start over everyone else who has been waiting just as long if not longer then you? Don’t think so. I would guess also that 90% of the people that vote yes are in beta already.
He said specifically in the post that it was not at all about having a “head start”. He’s basically proposing transferring just the character’s appearance itself. So if you’re someone who’s figured out your exact look you want, you can say “Hey, I’ll save this template so I can choose it for my class at launch”. Where’s the advantage there?
Nope this is a bad idea because it makes name saving a issue also. Even if the name isnt transfered all the user has to do is name them and bam he/she’s locked that name on every server without giving us a chance.
No way ! I don’t like that idea at all !
in my opinion, to transfer everything (including lvl and gear) has some advantages and disadvantages. Think how many people will play the game when it lunches. It is going to be very difficult to level up with so many people. I know it is not fair to transfer everything from the beta but it is going to be easier for us to level up. I just pointing something to think about ! :)
Ok, to all the no voters not reading the question – would it be a different answer if we said “Should BioWare release a character creator ahead of launch”?
I’ll answer no to both. To the original question, first. If you allowed beta characters to be transferred, you’d have a lot of people clamoring for new content quicker than those who are just starting out, even if they were to make another character. I think it would just be a better idea to keep it simple, and have everyone start on the same level.
For the character creator, I could understand that. It would just allow people to make the guy how they want and essentially, name bank their character names.
Please READ the article. The article is specifing characters appearance ONLY. LVL and equipment will not be transferred.
One of the voting options is: “Yes – everything about your character should transfer, including level (5%, 47 Votes)”
Maybe before you jump somebody you should do your own reading of an article.
They will be releasing it ahead of launch, the Early Access will take care of that.
My answer to the original question was No.
By it’s very nature, people should not expect to get their eventual character out of a testing program. You’re in there to test the game and squash bugs, not trial your perfect avatar.
If it were me, I’d test using a throw away character and create my real character in Early Access. Especially since playing the class in testing that I want to eventually play after release would spoil the story.
I voted no. There are so many great idea out on the wall of crazy that would benefit the whole community, why spend time on such a limited impact item?
Sure the ppl in beta deserve some extra love for the effort they have put into the game, and they get it by playing the game. Playing beta with a character named Voss should not guarantee get you dibs on that name on what ever server you start on.
Well …. the question changes slight but my answer is still the same but with slightly different.
What doe we get from having he creator early? Who worked on it instead of polishing the sand people movement? if we have the creator, then does the name being saved matter? How can it matter if you don’t know what server people are split on? Like my early example, sure I can choose a toon named Voss and save my character but if you can’t which server set I am on versus the on that Lethality is on then the name has to be blocked or has no original value. Both create more effort to be managed by somebody who could be working on more important (at least on my wall of crazy) items.
I’m with Zlatto on that one.
You could also ask, “Should BioWare release a character creator ahead of launch instead of Feature X?”
Or you could ask, “Should BioWare release a character creator ahead of launch instead of moving the launch date up a week?”
If anyone is that concerned about their character’s appearance take down some notes, as others have suggested, or just take a screenshot. Let’s not forget that there’s also a non-zero chance that by the time of launch they may have added more options to the character creator.
Really the character creator is already done, it just needs to be repackaged into a smaller standalone program. It’s not worth the time or effort to do so though, as after release it’s basically useless.
Nothing should from beta. It is a beta after-all, don’t believe it will be in its “final state” until we reach release. Either way, I think what happens in beta should stay in beta.
As for the character creator, it would be cool to have that in, but I imagine it will take a good bit of effort to get it at Bioware quality and then not have issues transferring to the live servers. I feel it would add more problems to Bioware.
I think with Blaine’s comments from PAX:
“if you are signed up for testing, and you don’t make it in this weekend, you should make it in very soon”
That implies that everyone who is registered is going to have an opportunity to take part it at least 1 beta weekend by the time the game launches. Which means everyone has access to the character creator.
Those characters are tied to your account already, and I’m not saying it would be simple, but to bring that data into your account when you create one in the game would be fairly straightforward.
So, I say if everyone had an opportunity to create a character, and take the time to get it exactly how you want, you should be able to “Save” it somehow and bring it into the live game.
I voted yes (People, please read the article before posting stupid replies about unfair advantages. It’s stating appearance only.) for the fact that it gets [some] people into the game faster.
There are a few caveats, such as there being better things BW can spend their time on. Though admittedly this could be as simple as a character transfer (which they MUST work on anyway) with a temp setting to reset the toon. The other being name grabs which can also just force a random name and then allow for a toon rename once logged in.
Admittedly, it’s not like it takes a long time to customize a toon so I really don’t see it being done.
its not about unfair advantages but about wasted resources for me. Its beta, you are playing on an etch-i-sketch and should accept it as so.
What difference does it make? So someone got to save a name you wanted to use. Seems to me if your name is something largely contested its probably a rip off from something else, be original. Someone else already solved the other issue, white down your character’s appearance numbers or take a picture. =/
There are to many people that want in beta, and haven’t got in, and may not get in despite the fact they say they are trying to get everyone in. I am not sure they can unless they really ramp up the size. The realistic numbers (though I am just guessing on them) are they would need to average 250,000 people per beta weekend if they started next weekend. That is assuming they have one every weekend until early launch. The point being if everybody can’t get in and get the benefit no matter how small or trivial it will be bad,bad PR.
“No” vote from me. Half the reason I preordered as early as I did was to get higher odds of getting the name that I want with my character. If someone from beta (which has no requirements at all, just random picking) got my name I would be miffed. If Bioware does something like this I will be a very vocal protester.
Just because people are in beta doesn’t mean they should be able to reserve names.
While I’m not fussed about appearance, as another poster said, I don’t think BW should spend time developing a way for BETA characters – that can already be wiped without notice – to have their looks saved. That would be a waste of resources, IMO.
I picked other, mainly because for Beta (like beta testing weekends) then no nothing at all should transfer. But for early game access (which they already said you can do, but it could always change) I want it so you can transfer EVERYTHING over, seeing that it will be about a week or so before launch which isn’t too bad.
There’s nothing to transfer over from early game access because we’ll be playing the live game. It’s called early access because those people who pre-ordered will have access before the announced launch dates.
I’m fairly certain BioWare doesn’t intend it to be a beta period for which we have the privilege of paying.
Saving a name would be the only advantage to this. And that would not be fair to the people not in the beta. And Im in the beta and most of the names I see I hope people are not wanting to keep.
I voted Other –
because i don’t particularly care either way, Firstly i am going to be playing a BH as my main, i don’t want to spoil the story so i will be going to the polar opposite if i get a beta invite and be playing a Jedi Consular. Secondly i dont care if others have a head start, i intend on lapping up the story and wont be rushing through content.
So Bioware do as you please :)
I’m with some of the others, voting “No” because it’s a waste of time.
If you found a look that you like, it’s going to take you even less time that it takes the rest of us to redesign your character and get started.
I’d rather millions of players waste a few minutes each designing their characters than having Bioware programmers/datamonkeys waste their time setting up something like this with so little in valuable return.
I don’t especially care one way or another if this feature is there, I just don’t feel like this is something that should be pushed for at this stage in development. I wouldn’t bother using it even if it did exist as each character I make is unique, even between beta and live versions.
I voted no. Nothing from beta testing is ever set in stone. They can have a new build or want to try something different and wipe characters, change player levels, etc. The idea is you are helping them test, not playing your character.
This is not against anyone in testing, that is just how testing works. I think a character creator would be neat, but hard near impossible if you included the naming process, because of not having servers set or how early game access will work etc.
Testing is testing and that should be wiped clean once game is launched. Now post-launch testing, might have a character copy feature to bring your character over if you are helping test future content, talents, skills, combat balancing, etc.