Mar 3, 2012

Posted by in News | 12 Comments

Community Q&A For March 2nd: Legacy Unlocks Include Mailbox & GTN; Crafted Gear Rules All

While there were fewer questions than usual answered in this week’s community Q&A, there were definitely some interesting ones. For example, we learned from Damion Schubert that part of the Legacy system will unlock things like a mailbox and GTN terminal on your ship:

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.

This is an interesting decision, as those are the 2 primary functions you would need to go to the fleet for. Would be interesting to hear more of an explanation on how this reconciles with the idea the fleets are supposed to be commerce and social hubs.

Technical Design Director Emannuel Lusinchi also provided some insight into the idea that, at least in the near term, crafted gear should be superior to endgame gear obtained in other ways:

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!

It sounds like Game Update 1.2 is shaping up to be a pretty interesting patch, and with the guild summit starting on Monday, we’re no doubt about to learn more! Ask A Jedi will be at the summit and will report back with any news!

  1. “Commerce and social hubs”?! The Fleets are practically dead, even on a busy day. They should have just let the capital planets (Coruscant and Dromund Kaas) stay as the main cities. We’d probably see a LOT more players (take Stormwind and Orgrimmar for example)

    Just my opinion anyways :)

    ~Finchyy

    • Lord_Paladin says:

      I dunno, ours is pretty lively.

    • Darkthunder says:

      What i’d like to see is a Transport “Hub” at Coruscant/Dromund Kaas which allows access to all of the Flashpoints and Operations. Part of the reason for the performance degradation in the Republic/Imperial Fleet, is that you shoe-horn everyone into a rather confined area.

      Adding additional transport hubs to the Flashpoints/Operations, would certain alleviate some of the performance issues.

      That being said, I look forward to getting a mailbox and GTN access from my ship. Still waiting on personal ship customization, and an ability to “Fleet Pass” directly to your ship.

    • Ugh, please don’t force me to navigate DK’s horrible spaceport more often. The class quests that repeatedly rubber-band back there are annoying enough.

      And yeah, empty Fleet is probably symptomatic of an empty server, rather than a problem with Fleet design.

      That said, it would be nice to have the hub in an open air zone, Fleet gets claustrophobic sometimes :D

  2. On the surface, that wouldn’t be the worst idea, however in playing SWG and having to wade through the bogged down Theed and Correllia main cities, I don’t think that’s the best route. This takes the strain off of the performance for those areas, and people who are looking for commerce and epic quests will go to fleet. That being said, the only thing that DK does not have are some of the vendors on fleet. It’s got its own GTN, crafting trainers, so it could easily be changed to something like this in the future if they wanted.

  3. This is an interesting decision, as those are the 2 primary functions you would need to go to the fleet for. Would be interesting to hear more of an explanation on how this reconciles with the idea the fleets are supposed to be commerce and social hubs.

    You have this marked up as part of the quote from Schubert, but it looks like your commentary on his quote?

    On point, meh is what I say to mailboxes/GTN on our ships. And people will still be going to the fleet…for daily mission pickups, FP entrances, gear purchases, etc.

  4. In my opinion making crafted gear better then endgame pvp/pve gear is retarded, and i don’t think i need to point out why.

  5. must….have…..patch….1.2

  6. Darth Diabolus says:

    I think that crafted gear being BIS is a fantastic idea only if the schematics and/or materials are acquired thru Nightmare Mode Operations or having the top tier Valor rank.

    • Darth Diabolus says:

      Maybe in the future, they’ll really make crafting epic by introducing missions that you have to complete in order to craft truly rare items. Ones that’ll send you through a whole epic journey into ops and other planets to gain the materials in order to complete them. Like journey to tatooine and collect the eye of a giant krayt dragon that requires 8 people to kill and then bathe it in the blood of a sith lord to capture his darkside essence …..or something cool. And that would only be for one mat required to craft the item. I can see them making crafting an entire game of its own.

  7. Override says:

    The patch sounds like there will be a lot of good features added to the game. I would like to see the general chat from the fleet always be connected to the general chat of your ship if they add GTN and mailboxes. It will still feel like you are at the fleet. And maybe even find groups for flashpoints a little easier. What do you guys think?

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