Another interesting part of the Summit was panels on Roleplaying, Guilds and the UI changes. We concluded with the “all the rest” section that was whatever hadn’t already been covered in another panel. More than 18,000 people were watching along by the end of the livestream and some livestream questions were also asked in the Q&A session.
RP discussion Legacy features:
- RP emotes, family tree, social unlocks, alignment unlocks
- Chat bubbles – we had a performance issue so we had to remove it previously.
- More orange gear with viability at end-game – wear what you want, wherever you want
- Dynamic events: NOT TALKING ABOUT IT – serverwide limited time events
- Improving spawning techs – NPCs that you can’t click on – they will increase or decrease depending on your system – we will populated the more empty areas.
- More ambient creatures
- Legacy: how does it affect roleplayers? What you like to see?
While the Legacy system will be intertwined in every other aspect of SWTOR, as mentioned before, it will also have a big impact on Roleplaying within the game. Whether you play on an RP server or just like to RP on your server or occasionally for fun, there are aspects of the Legacy system that will help with this.
Roleplaying Q&A
Q: Beast mounts?
A: On the list.
Q: Clothing restricted by class
A: In the future all cosmetic gear will work for all types and we will get a ton of it.
Q: Custom-emotes cross-faction
A: In the Works.
Q: Type 4 Sith, we want an equivalent male slave outfit.
A: It’s coming.
Q: Re-enter class quest areas to RP
A: No, but we will give you some RP space in the future.
Q: People with un-RP legacy names – dude, bro legacy, any chance for tighter RP naming policies?
A: More ways to adjust what you see in other people’s nameplates. Can’t really restrict naming rules.
Q: More variety of ambient content in populated areas.
A: In the Works.
Q: Squad inside a guild system – like a guild inside a guild for people that don’t want to leave their old guild?
A: Why can’t you do it with private chat channels?
Q: Cut/paste chat lines to allow RP off the game.
A: No answer at this time.
Q: Legacy system- not blood related?
A: Yes people in your legacy can be allies etc, does not have to be in a family.
Q: Attach other players to your legacy?
A: It is coming but it is tricky- something in the future.
Q: Companion ride along with taxis – ride shotgun –
A: we had something implanted before, but M1-4x came along.
Q: Name a companion for RP purposes.
A: No Answer at this time
Suggestion: Ignore turn off their nameplates too.
A: We love it – good solution to people with weird Legacy names.
Q: I don’t like a companion, can I kick him/her out?
A: No, we originally allow you to kill companions – people abused it and kill off all their companions and got mad.
Suggestion: Biography sheet in character window to help with role-playing.
A: you carry a huge amount of data – companions, quests etc we are trying to reduce it but you can comment on your friend list with 1.2
Suggestion:Will we see a possibility of a 2-seater mount?
A: we would love to but it is way down the road. You will ride a tauntaun mount first.
Guilds
The guild section was of course, one that all the present guild leaders and representatives were anxious to learn more about. One impression that I definitely got from the Summit was that staff does care about us and the future direction of the game. They want to make a great game and they want to give us as much of as many things that we want as they can. The cliché says “you can’t please all of the people all of the time” and that is true but in SWTOR, BioWare is coming as close as they can.
Here’s a recap of some of what was said on guilds:
- We think guilds are very important to us and we have a roadmap for improving the guild experience.
- Guild UI is functional but could use more features.
- Guilds want tools to make coordinate easier and ways to show off what they do and where they place.
- Guild banks: they work and they are awesome. Up to 7 tabs you can buy, each tab goes up in price. Guild leaders can allow access to certain tabs or demand authenticators for certain tabs
- Guild bank is the hardest feature for 1.2
- Guild bank: you can repair using guild funds
- Guild leaders will have controls over the guild banks and can change and adjust settings
Post 1.2 stuff that will come “soon”
- Guild calendar, guild emblems – show off your guild on your armor. It’s a toggle on/off and show on certain hotspots.
- Guild advertising – make it easier for players to find & join your guild.
- Guild progression is in the world – very large project – not something you will see soon guild capital ships design exists
- No timeline for these features
Guild Q&A Section
Q: Guild mail/newsletter system – work in conjunction with guild calendar system?
A: We are hoping guild calendar will solve that but it involves a lot of storage space and can involve spam potentially
Q: What kind of guild UI improvements do you have?
A: Fix mouse scroll in guild UI and allow you to invite people to groups from guild UI.
Q: Look at guild list and check people’s crafting skills
A: Happening sometime after patch 1.2
Q: Plan for a tax system?
A: That is in category of well – duh moments. ya I just realized we didn’t have it – we will get it in now that we have a guild bank. no ETA.
Q: Off-game approval of guild members like we had it pre-launch?
A: Maybe, but it’s a lot of work – too much stuff to do.
Q: Allowances by rank – does repair take away from guild allowances?
A: Yes, and you can also re-spec from guild funds
Q: Any plan for logs to see g-invites and g-kicks?
A: Yes, no ETA
Q: Invite people from guild list?
A: It’s done in 1.2
Q: Able to see if someone is grouped in guild chat and change colors if the group is already full?
A: Interesting idea, I will write it down.
UI discussion
- Only 1/2 of the features present here will come out with 1.2
- Retro mode: chat box down bottom left
- Edit mode: blue signify that this is a feature on that is not always on, you can move things anywhere you want
- You can scale all the UI elements individually.
- Red will signify things not turned on.
- Only 4 quickslot bars.
- Target of target is in 1.2
- Allow you to have more than two windows open at the same – especially useful for crew skill missions
- You can save your UI setups and swap it with other people.
