Feb 20, 2012

Posted by in Yellow Posts | 7 Comments

Yellow Posts: Closing Outstanding Issues And Companion Equipment: Need Or Greed?

This week we start with Georg Zoeller, Principal Lead Combat Designer, having way too much fun on the RP forums:

Dear Sir,

With much delight we confirm your order for 200 C2-N2 Advanced Spaceship Maintenance Droids. The C2 Droid Corporation is enlightened by your humble request for this superior, Republic technology and is looking forward to replace the inferior R2-V8 units found on these hopelessly outdated spaceships of yours.

regards

The Republic.

Man, if I was the one delivering that cargo, I sure hope the Empire would board my ship so that I would have an excuse drop that shipment….

Ahem…back on topic. User Joaby posted in the official Asia/Pacific region launch thread that he would like to know where exactly the servers for that region will be located. Joveth Gonzalez, Associate Online Community Manager, lets us know that those servers will be placed in Australia.

Hi there Joaby! Just wanted to let you know that the servers will be located in Australia.

In addition, Mr. Gonzalez let us know that the game client will not be region locked so anyone can play on those servers easily (thanks to bahugboto for asking the question):

Hi bahugboto! Thanks for your questions! Yes there will be, in fact, an Asia/Pacific tab under the location selection list and anyone with an active SWTOR account will be able to play on these…

If you didn’t notice, in the upcoming 1.1.4 patch a couple outstanding issues are being addressed. Specifically, using abilities that indirectly target players (like AoE abilities) will no longer damage PvP flagged players if you aren’t PvP flagged. Per Amber Green, Live Community Coordinator:

Hi everyone. Thank you all for your patience and reports. We wanted to post in this thread to let you know that we have made this change with patch 1.1.4, which is now live on Public Test Server! You can read the patch notes here.

I mentioned this a few weeks back, so it’s nice to see this problem finally getting cleared up.

Ms. Green also tells us that the “\” key, which is used to quickly open the bug report submission page, is now re-bindable:

Hi everyone. We wanted to post in this thread to let you know that we have made this change with patch 1.1.4, which is now live on Public Test Server! You can read the patch notes here.

Hallelujah! No more accidental opening of bug reports when typing frantically in PvP or other hectic situations.

Lastly this week is a topic that I am really interested in. Right now, the only options when rolling for dropped equipment in groups are “Need”, “Greed”, or “Pass”. Given TOR’s unique companion system, should I roll “Need” on items that I want to use for my companion or “Greed” since I am not going to use the item on my main character? It’s a dilemma of etiquette since I don’t think an unspoken standard has been set for this situation. I have been in groups where needing on gear for companions was perfectly acceptable and others where players were booted for such behavior.

However, it sounds like BioWare is aware of this confusion and is working to improve the rolling mechanics to make this easier. Damion Schubert, Principle Lead Systems Designer, has some good information for us about Companion needing and greeding:

Need vs. greed isn’t as simple in our game because of companions, as well as Orange Gear and mod extraction. 

We will probably limit the ‘need’ button to only people who match the primary class the gear is meant for, and add a new button in between need and greed for players to choose if they intend the gear for these purposes – this will allow CC users to roll against each other without competing with the guy who wants to sell the gear for credits.

I don’t have a timeline on this for you guys right now, though – certainly not in the next major patch. In the meantime, I strongly recommend that players who care clearly decide the expected need/greed role behaviors (‘no companion need rolling or you’re out!’) when a group is initially formed. In the meantime, I’ll work on getting this feature in the works.

Sadly, this won’t be coming in the 1.2 patch, but at least they are going to start working on it. And please let us know what you think the proper etiquette is in situations like this. “Need” for companion gear, or “Greed”?

  1. Darkthunder says:

    Current options:

    Need
    Greed
    Pass

    Should be:

    Need for Myself
    Need for Companion
    Greed
    Pass

    Limiting “Need for Myself” to restrict gear that doesn’t work for your given spec. I.e no needing on Tank gear, if you are specialized as a Healer or DPS.

    Need for Companion, would be applicable if the gear in question works for one of your companions (generally, should check your “active” companion first). Also, rolls under this would be subordinate to “Need for Myself”, so that people who actually need stuff for themselves, will always be a priority over people who need gear for companions.

    Hopefully something like this, is the route Bioware goes…

    • Xenocerebral says:

      I agree with the prioreties. But I’m not sure the “no roll for tank gear…” would really work. Say I’m DPS and have a really crap belt. A belt drops with only a couple of Defence points and the tank dont want it. Should I be unable to roll?

      Speaking of tank gear. Isn’t there an awfull lot of tanking randoms dropped everywere, like mediums with shield rating and such? Should be fixed imo.

    • I find that needless restrictive. The “need for companion”, placed between the current Need and Greed, I agree with. The rest, not so much. For one, you are restricting people from the option to build up sets for a future spec they may like this way (at least in any expedient manner). If I want to swap to tanking, I probably want a few pieces of tank gear before I start actually doing it, and run as DPS until then. This should be perfectly fine.

      Companion use in groups is also largely disconnected from their use solo: you run with the one that complements your group, so the currently active one may have very little to do with which companion you want gear for. The game shouldn’t prevent you from gathering gear for a companion you are about to unlock either, not to mention that I think there are simply too much variation in what could be considered good gear for a companion, for the game to be able to set up sensible rules for this.

      I like some level of lockout on the “Need for me” thing, but only to the point where you restrict say Assasins from rolling on one-hand lightsabers. There will still be some overlap (Aim/Strength heavy armor f.inst), but let’s leave a bit of control in the players hands as well. Orange gear throws a spanner in the works anyway if you try to restrict it too much.

  2. Even needing on items that don’t have your class stats doesn’t work when you have orange gear. For instance, as a Gunslinger I wore some purple consular boots that I greeded off of the Alderaan World boss (of course, switching out the mods for cunning instead of willpower). It will be interesting to see how they implement this (and don’t allow people to abuse rolling for companions).

  3. Jonas Birk Jensen says:

    If something I want for my companion drop, I usually ask if anyone in my group actually need the gear for their character or companion. If not I see no reason not to take it.

    For instance I like soloing high level heroic quests on my Sith Juggernaut, and therefore I need to gear up my healing companion. However, a lot of players hardly use their companions after reaching endgame, so why shouldn’t I take the gear for my “often used” companion, if the rest of the group doesn’t care about their companions anymore?

    Nevertheless, I like the idea of a “need for companion” button.

  4. I disagree.
    If you put in a bottom “need for companion” then EVERYONE will click it regardless they really need it for companion or just want to sell to vendor for extra credits.

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