Dec 29, 2011

Posted by in News | 8 Comments

Reddit AMA With Stephen Reid Transcript

Earlier this evening, Senior Community Coordinator Stephen Reid took to Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session with the passionate and vocal Reddit community.

Stephen didn’t shy away from anything, including the very hot current topic of the “delay” in combat abilities that is causing concern. There wasn’t necessarily any new info here, but the answers are as complete as can be, and there are a lot of them!

Take some time to fish through it, maybe you’ll find something interesting we missed!

Stephen Reid Reddit AMA – December 28, 2011

Q: Ability Delay. Have you guys discussed this internally, and if so, is there an ETA for a fix on this issue?

Hey! It has been discussed internally, and we’ll talk about it publicly soon. It’s not a simple issue so we don’t want to issue a quick, off-the-cuff response.

Q: Can you tell us what your plans are for guild banks and guild capital ships?

Guild banks and guild ‘housing’ (of some type; ships are most popular as people know) are both on the list for future development. As always it’s a question of priorities and so on, but they’re definitely discussed. I will say that guild banks are higher priority.

Q: What is your favorite MMO (besides this one)?

Used to be City of Heroes – first MMO I worked on.

Q: Any idea if the space sections will expand to include PvP or grouping?

I have an idea. Can’t share it though. ;)

Q: What aspect of your job is most entertaining/disheartening?

Entertaining: Interacting with fans in person. Disheartening: Random anger over things I have no control over. I always want to help more than I can.

Q: Can I have a job?

Check bioware.com/careers :)

Q: I’d love to know tons more about the legacy system.

We absolutely know people want to know more about the Legacy System and when the time is right, you’ll know. :)

Q: How much of a priority is the Mod API to bioware?

The UI team is going to work on improving the existing UI first before we look at modding it. Modding may happen, but we have no ETA on ‘when’ that we can share right now.

Q: Any thoughts of letting us play “sabaac” or “pazaak” against others or a house for credits?

Those games are fondly remembered by many team members from KotOR. :)

Q: Lots of PVP questions for you Stephen:

Gabe and his team are working hard on PvP and have plenty of tweaks and changes in the works. We’re going to try and share some of their thoughts and objectives soon if we can. Also while I know it’s a pat answer – please do post feedback like this in our Forums. We read them and the development team reads them. :)

Q: Can we please get a more functional AH/Galactic Trade Market?

Improvements will come to the GTN in time, definitely.

Q: are there plans to add more vanity pets and non-mechanical mounts to the game?

More pets – yes. Non-mechanical mounts – maybe, it’s a technical challenge, I’ve been told.

Q: Will there be the ability to raise/lower hoods on Jedi Robes via a command?

We know this is wanted, but it’s more work than you might expect. It may come in the future.

Q: What will it take for us to get offical server forums?

Send a stack of unmarked bills to… ;) We were talking about this just today; it’s still under discussion. From our perspective there’s no easy solution but we have ideas.

Q: Do you know if the Devs currently feel Huttball is balanced?

I haven’t asked specifically but if the devs felt that Huttball was unbalanced I’m sure they’d look at that as an issue; I haven’t heard much on that, but they still look at metrics very carefully.

Q: Any updates on improvements to the LFG system, or an ETA on when we might see them?

No updates on that.

Q: Any updates on this ‘secret’ improvement to Space combat or any hints you might want to ‘accidently’ drop?

No (although see another answer above). I don’t ‘accidentally’ drop hints. :)

Q: What upcoming feature are you most excited about that you are allowed to talk about?

Legacy System. Well, I’m allowed to say I’m excited about it…

Q: I was wondering if you could shed some light on neutral gear

As I understand it neutral gear was harder to implement than first thought, and was unfortunately moved out of the launch window. It’s not ‘dead’, and James Ohlen brings it up as something he’s a fan of quite often, so.. chances are pretty good it’ll make it in someday.

Q: The camera doesn’t have an option to disable the auto-follow function

No insight on that beyond what you already know, but we (Community team) are aware that it’s a request/concern, and we’ll raise it as such.

Q: How do you feel about being the bulwark (as the manager of the community team) against which things like bugs and game complaints come to?

Being the bulwark (AKA ‘Chief Whipping Boy’ which is what I signed on a box at our launch event in Austin) is just part of the job. Some days it’s fine, other days it gets to you. The latter days involve beer. ;) Nonetheless, it’s an important part of the job, so we spend a considerable amount of time reading, noting, assessing and performing triage on bug or game issues. Unfortunately with all the development team power in the world we can’t fix every bug instantly, or make every change everyone wants, so it’s always got to be a matter of priorities. We try our best.

Q: Also, what adjustments have you had to make since you arrived in America?

I have adjusted in many tiny ways I guess – I did change my spelling pretty early on, to ease confusion through email with people who didn’t know I was English. I also added about 20lbs. :(

Q: Has there been much discussion of implementing an “Armory” like website?

We’re aware of that sort of thing. :)

Q: Is community management entirely managed by you and your team or is Lucasarts involved in some capacity?

We work closely with LucasArts as our partner, so we talk a lot. On-the-ground decisions, day to day, are generally made by us, but they have a voice in many discussions.

Q: It’s been a bit unclear on what the future of space combat in SWTOR is.

changes to space combat will happen over time, we’re sure, but don’t expect a whole new game to suddenly appear in a matter of months.

Q: Ability Delay & Character Responsiveness / Empty Maps While Questing / UI / Camera / Graphics / guild window …

I will say that there isn’t much here I haven’t heard discussed, or that the development team is unaware of, but I can’t give you ETAs. Why? Because development is complex, things change over time, and giving out ETAs just leads to RAAAGE when we don’t hit the original suggested date (as people tend to forget what the ‘E’ stands for in ‘ETA’). Anyway – everything you say we’re aware of, that much I’ll say.

Q: hopefully that will get some wheels turning at BW if they aren’t already.

Well, so far I’m seeing many of the same questions we get on the Forums, and that’s fine. :) I assure you that wheels are always turning here!

Q: Are there any plan on updating the website, bringing it out of the design it had three years ago into a more modern design?

Yes

Q: And is increased website interactivity (posting as your character on the forums instead of a screen name, Armory features, etc.) anywhere on the horizon?

maybe!

Q: We’re interested in stuff like more emotes with animation, different sit animations, being able to lounge in a cantina, etc. We also like to plan RP events and love large, open spaces that can hold lots of people.

It’s very possible that some or all of what you’re asking for will potentially be put into the game… but as you can tell I have no ETAs on that. I hate to be vague, but it’s always going to be a matter of priorities.

Q: will there ever be galactic-scale events in the game

World events might happen at some point, but not, say, by next month. :)

Q: Many if not all AAA MMO’s have server forums

Replied above; it’s still being discussed.

Q: Can you tell the people who worked on the timelines and stuff on the website they are super awesome?

They already know. :) Thanks tho’!

Q: What is your european strategy? Will you keep putting maintenence on day / primetime for europe?

The unfortunate reality of maintenance windows is that someone, somewhere, is always going to be affected.

Our European prime-time – which is when we have our highest PCUs across all servers – has actually not been impacted by our current maintenance windows. It’s later in the evening, not during the day.

That said, this week we did overrun, and we know that many EU players were on holiday too, so that wasn’t good. We’re taking steps to address that.

Q: On the dev team, are there ‘experts’ in certain areas like racial cultural differences, Mandalorian lore, galactic history, the Chiss Ascendancy, lightsaber combat, ship design etc?

Experts… not really, that I’m aware of. Many of the writers are experts but we don’t have a ‘Lightsaber guy’ (well except Brad who makes them..).

Q: Was there a single team responsible for this or did people just make suggestions as they thought of stuff they wanted to see?

The writing team was solely responsible for what we call ‘ambient dialogue’.

Q: How many writers were there for the class storylines? How much did they work together?

Class storylines – most class storylines were written by one or two writers, as I understand it. The development went on for a decent period of time, so in many cases some parts were written by one writer, some by others. That said, we can generally point to one writer as having written the ‘bulk’ of a class.

Q: Hi id like to ask if you aware of the fps issue many players even with high end pcs are having ?

We’re aware and are looking into it – it’s not something where we’re expecting to find a ‘magic bullet’ solution as ‘FPS issues’ can cover a wide range of problems. That said, we’re working to improve the client where we can.

Q: Do you actually enjoy the forums right now or have you aged significantly as a result of having to be a part of that whining drivel?

That sounds a lot like you just described our Forums in similar terms to standing next to a nuclear reactor. Are you saying I won’t be able to have children now?

Q: What are some of your favorite British tv shows?

Doctor Who. :)

Q: Has the team considered additional “content” for those who choose light side or dark side? Specifically non-armor related items.

Interesting idea! The obvious issue is that at a rough guess, you just potentially tripled the amount of content in the game… even if it was just activated at certain points. :)

Never heard something like this discussed but you never know!

Q: as a Brit how can you spell in an American fashion!!?!?!?!

Spelling ‘American style’ makes things easier when you’re mostly dealing with Americans. That said I can change my colours on the fly when required. :)

Q: do you think that alternative specs will be allowed at some stage in the future? Also, legacy system, any further insight you are willing to share with us at this point in time?

Dual specs could well come at some point in the future – it’s been discussed for sure. Legacy System… will be cool? :)

Q: What roadmap can we expect for future content patches? New planets? New dailies? More story chapters?

‘What players want’ varies radically; some players don’t want us to add any new content, but just want bugs fixed instead, for example.

I will say that production times – especially regarding writing, casting and doing VO – are not a major concern. We’ve been planning the future of the game (in broad strokes!) for quite a long time. We’ve had actors in recording studios for quite a while recording stuff. So, we’ve planned ahead.

We look at the overall spread of players through the game very carefully and will continue to look at that going forward.

Q: Is there any information you can provide regarding the user interface in terms of making it more user friendly or with more customization options?

UI customization is coming for sure. :)

Q: Earlier today you tweeted that you guys are “looking into” the issue of level 50 players overpowering lower level players in Warzones. What are some potential solutions we could see?

I’ll leave that to Gabe to reply when he has time – we plan to expound on that soon enough.

Q: I read your tweet regarding same gender romance. If it is added in the future will it be available to current companions or limited to future companions.

As it’s a future feature, I’ve got no info to share on that right now, but I know that the question you’re asking will be considered by the developers.

Q: Will community response be swift on important yet tough issues? For instance the ability delay.

Commented on that very issue right near the top of this page. :)

Q: Is there a schedule that will try to be followed for putting out new patches including fixes and/or new content

There’s a schedule for ‘big’ content patches, but we’re not talking about what it is publicly just yet.

For smaller fixes, we are rolling many of them into weekly patches (you’ve seen the first) and others may get rolled out as needed.

Q: Will you make pvp brackets?

That’s something I’ll be getting Gabe Amatangelo to talk more on, but we’re definitely looking at that.

Q: How much can you control the way the developers/designers interact with the community…?

Primarily I want the three people named to spend the majority of their time making the game. :)

That said we speak to all of them regularly and they contribute where possible.

Q: Regarding the Horrid FPS, what’s the priority and status on fixing these issues and working on optimization?

We’ve been looking at that closely and will continue to do so.

Q: Will players be able to romance existing companions, or will new companions be added?

Sorry, I’ve got no updates on that right now.

Q: “Green line bug” or what to call it, is that something the team is aware of?

That is something we’re aware of and the visual FX team are looking at.

Q: I noticed the robes for the Jedi Knights had oddly proportioned butts.

I think the word you’re looking for is ‘bustle’ (the thing at the back of a Victoria era dress). Perhaps you can keep your Lightsaber in there?

We’ve raised that one as an issue.

Q: Sometimes during briefings characters appear 6 inches tall. Never fix the aforementioned bug.

We might disappoint you on that. Point taken, though.

Q: Why have the server maintenance and web site maintenance at the same time?

Well, we made the decision that we didn’t want to have two maintenance periods per week (if required) so decided to bundle them together. The two aren’t joined at the hip, however; we will have maintenance periods in future where we’ll just have the game in maintenance mode and not the webservers.

Q: what would you recommend to someone who knows they have the talent to work in their “dream job” like say Bioware, but has no idea on how to get there or where to even begin

First of all: it’s not as black as you might think… although the market is damn tough right now for sure.

Second: while self-belief is enormously important don’t assume you’ll get straight into your dream job… it can take time. I’d been working for (counts fingers) 16 years before I took the job here, with about 10 of those in games. (I’ll admit BioWare was never my ‘dream job’ but it’s been pretty good to me. :))

Third, the general advice: separate yourself from the pack by making the effort to show that you’re an ‘easy hire’. What that means is, focus on what you want to do and learn how to do it. Don’t give up and assume that when you get hired then you’ll learn; that’s not how most jobs work (at least not in games). Learn by yourself. Be ready to be the guy that on paper looks like a good fit.

If all else fails – make your own game. :)

Q: What’s it like being the community manager for such a large game.

What’s it like? Bewildering and overwhelming and exciting and demanding, all at once, all day long (and often into the night). I had some idea what I was getting into but it was bigger than expected. I’ll stay as long as I’m wanted. :)

Q: Is there going to be a more staple system in place for raising community discussion on issues with the game?

Raising community issues – you’d be surprised how many eyes we have on the Forums (even now) but we’re looking at other systems, yep. Dev blogs and general dev interaction, yes, we want to continue/expand that.

We also have plans for patch notes – stay tuned. :)

Q: If you can generalize, how much new content is intended to be patched instead of an “expansion pack.” ?

We have a lot of content intended for interim patches before any future potential expansions.

Q: What are the expectations of a successful “year 1” for bioware and swtor? Goals you want to meet?

Expectations for me are just to stay alive. :)

Q: The in-game ticket system has been quite slow on getting responses

In-game tickets – we do get a very high volume, if you’re talking about bugs, those do get passed to our QA team to look at and to triage.

Q: Also, do you plan on having any type of ranking system in the future for player vs player combat / warfronts / arena’s?

Ranking is something that’s been discussed on the PvP team.

Q: Are you cooking up anything special for this SWTOR community that might be unique or innovative?

I think the Guild HQ and pre-launch placement was pretty unique. :) I don’t have any projects with my name on it yet.

Other stuff… yeah, we have ideas!

Q: Do you have any insight on the Legacy system and what perks we can look forward to?

Legacy System – nothing I can reveal yet. Plans are cool though. :)

Q: How did you get this job?

I was asked if I wanted to apply, applied, interviewed and voila. I like to think I prepped for my whole career though. :)

Q: Do you actively play SWTOR, and if so, what Class/Advanced Class?

I’m actively playing a Smuggler/Gunslinger right now!

Q: What is the dress code like a bioware?

At last a question I can answer in full!! (Joke….)

It’s very casual. T-shirts and jeans are the norm. Many, many Star Wars and/or SWTOR shirts on a daily basis. :)

Q: Why do you think the timeline entries stopped getting made?

Truth is as we went further and further back in time, the entries would become less and less relevant to the current game. We wanted them to be in some way relevant, so we took the decision to put them on hiatus.

It’s still possible we’ll restart them but it’s probably more likely that we’ll do something that’s ‘Timeline-like’ but has more relevance to the game as it expands.

Q: Will it be possible to give us more information on exactly what we can get out of the legacy system?

Without revealing more details I do want to point out one thing: don’t assume that there’s another, ‘secret’ character creation system that we’re going to allow for those who have unlocked their Legacy.

The Legacy System will allow you to have more options at character creation, but it’s not like “Oh, you unlocked your Legacy? You now have 50 more beard types available to you!”

Q: I was just curious what the faction split around the office is? A lot of us saw the tattoo Bioware employees got

I’ve never done a formal count. The Republic tattoo in question was on one of my team members – he’s very much ‘Republic 4 Life’. Almost everyone else did the formal ‘icon’ tattoo which shows both sides. :)

Q: What is Bioware’s current stance on Advanced Class respeccing?

Currently AC respeccing is not ‘on the table’ – ie, it’s not seen as being a feature we’ll be adding in soon. It’s back at the philosophical discussion stage, AFAIK.

Even if you’d need to reroll, having been through the story once (and I’ve been through Ord Mantell a few times myself!) you’ll go through a lot faster. Experiment with different moral choices, I enjoy it myself. :)

Q: Can we get more badass cinematics?

If you mean CG cinematics a la ‘Hope’, ‘Return’, ‘Deceived’ – we save those for big events. What’s the next big event after launch? Hmmm…

Q: Are there any plans to add more Heavy Armor options on the Republic side that would be visually similar to darksider/Sith armor?

I haven’t heard of too many plans to make JK armor that’ll basically make a JK look like a Sith. We do feel that player classes should be able to be identified from their look, to a degree. But never say never…

Q: Is the team aware of the large number of quests showing up here and there that simply can not be abandoned?

Double-checked and it’s definitely something that’s being tracked towards a resolution.

Q: What are the long term development plans to ensure that people stay interested in the game?

Long term – yes, we’re planning to add more high-level content, among other things. We’re not committing to a specific schedule yet though.

Q: How many units have been sold??

More than I could fit in my house. I live in a decent sized house (thanks Austin rental prices!).

Q: Will we be able to remove the Authenticator from our web account settings and avoid the unnecessary phone call?

We’re working on that, it’s a high priority for the team involved.

Q: What emotions/feelings do you have now that the game has finally launched?

It doesn’t quite feel real. That’s not being coy or evasive, it just doesn’t feel real – I’m sure it doesn’t for many others here too. I go to work, do my thing, I see numbers that are large. I think over time it’ll become more real as the job changes and the demands of the community evolve, but it’ll be a slow progression, not a sudden change.

Q: Any plan to implement some kind of in-ship customizations?

Ship customization is definitely something that’s wanted at some point. :)

Q: Zone Loading stuck at 50%…

That issue has had a lot of developer attention too and a fix is coming soon.

Q: There must be some good behind the scenes stories. Will you share any?

Oooh. I’d love to. I’d probably get people in trouble and/or embarrass folk though.

I’m trying to think of one that would just embarrass me…

Q: Do you have any other details about the upcoming Oceanic servers?

March 1st was an estimated date as we said. :)

No more info than that right now, when we have it, we’ll get it to you!

Q: Does community outcry affect the priorities of your team?

It’s a daily balancing act. I think it’s important to realize, however, that we do listen, we are reading, and we do want the feedback. We’ll definitely come out and say “This is not going in the game” or “This is not going to change” if that’s the case. (ed: Stephen provided a lengthy and interesting reply to this question.)

Q: Are there plans to hold Q&As with a representative of the various departments?

We’ll see how this one ends up. ;)

Q: How do you manage to deal with the stress of being a community manager? I’m assuming you drink heavily.

I drink, just not heavily.

I find vigorous swearing to help too. :)

Q: Which race and class are you playing? What alignment are you?

Human Smuggler, mostly Light Side with a lot of neutral mixed in.

Q: Are you going to let australians transfer our characters when you release australian servers?

As we said in the announcement we’re looking at ways to allow players to continue to play their characters on the local servers.

Q: What would it take to get you out to a convention to discuss game development?

Every possibility if it’s easy for us to get to. I guess it depends how small. Your front room? Not likely. :)

Q: Is BioWare’s stance on no APIs, no mods firm?

It’s not firm as in ‘THOU SHALT NOT HAVE THIS’ – it’s just not top of the priority pile right now. It may happen in future.


8 Comments

  1. Alendar says:
    December 29, 2011 at 4:28 am

    So that’s why Rockjaw sounded so familiar. He’s from City of Heroes too!

  2. Wishshow says:
    December 29, 2011 at 9:53 am

    i like how they are atleast responding to the community, next thing to do is act or give us solid yes or no. I’m glad they are working on the UI and keeping an open mind about addons and Mods DPS meter is what i need right now. thanks for this

  3. Skott says:
    December 29, 2011 at 10:55 am

    Smuggler/Gunslinger FTW!

  4. charlie says:
    December 29, 2011 at 10:59 am

    Although I am a big fan of the game and of his efforts for the comunity, I don’t see the point of this. He deflected just about every question asked and gave no real new insight that I am aware of.

    But hey, if it helped relieve some peoples tensions, than good job

  5. Spark says:
    December 29, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    This really didn’t answer any questions for me, but it was nice of him to take the time to tell us that their working…

    sigh…

  6. Meh says:
    December 29, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Reddit. Why would you do that?

  7. championjrp001 says:
    December 29, 2011 at 11:45 pm

    I played hero city. for less than a moth i think but i played it.

  8. daniel says:
    January 4, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    whole lot of stock answers, but I appreciate the gesture.

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