8/31/09 4:22 PM -
Questions for PAX 
by sado
, posted August 31st, 2009 at 4:22 PM
We're putting this out a little early to get as many people under the post as possible. If you would like to see your question asked at PAX put it in the comments section of this post and we'll try our best to get your question asked during PAX.

Update: We bumped this post to try to get more people to get their questions under the thread after the newest update.
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45 Comments
DH Team
Comment by sado made on September 8th, 2009 at 3:52am
We were able to ask a few of them at PAX. :)
 
Comment by Raithnor made on September 3rd, 2009 at 3:11pm
Of the base 8 classes how many are force users? 2 or 4?

Will players be limited to the specific faction planets except in specific insstanced adventures? Can the Smuggler go to Korriban, Can the Sith Warrior go to Ord Mantell? Are additional planets going to be added before the game's release or will they be added after through a series of updates? Will certain planets be "Contested War Zones" by which I mean PVP areas?

Will a character's outfit/weapons/gear have the capability to have color customization at all? Or will armor suits of the same type be identical? Say for example I'd like to have Heavy Trooper Armor that's Blue and Grey as opposed to White with Orange or Red.

The Crafting system, will it resemble anything like KOTOR2. Where you have a base item that has certain "Upgrade slots" for components which add specific bonuses. Will we have the ability to create base items or upgrade components?

Does the skill system resemble the Quasi-D20 system from KOTOR1 and 2? Where characters have access to more mundane skills like Repair, Computers, Medicine, etc.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on September 2nd, 2009 at 8:11pm
And another question: how frequently will we be doing flashpoints? Every level, every few levels, or what? Basically that question would be about what their idea is on how frequently we're going to be in flashpoints.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on September 2nd, 2009 at 8:47pm
To bounce off of this: Will we have repeatable content while we level, such as instances? (WoW style)
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on September 1st, 2009 at 3:11pm
Here's another one: what sort of content can we expect after launch in patches? Do they have any ideas on that?
 
Comment by Kellaris made on September 1st, 2009 at 11:32am
Collision Detection in PvP. Is it possible to walk through another player character or they will collide??
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on September 1st, 2009 at 10:42am
Are you guys making any major new lore as in a new planet or species?
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on September 1st, 2009 at 12:29pm
What happens if you drop group or disconnect during a cut scene?
 
Comment by Chasted made on September 1st, 2009 at 10:13am
Because I would like some fishy love, will there be any "Selkath's" wandering around?
 
Comment by Dalton made on September 1st, 2009 at 9:07am
A lot of these questions are good. The main one I'm concerned with (I'm sure they'll do a good job on everything else):

Will Republic and Sith be able to communicate with each other?

Through lore, there seems to be no boundary to make the two unsuccessful at communicating with each other. A human is a human no matter what, afterall. I'm concerned for the sake of Roleplay, the depth we had in SWG was tremendously helped by cross-faction communication.
 
Comment by Toki made on September 1st, 2009 at 7:42am
Will there be mounts, vehicles (like Speeder bikes)?
 
Comment by Raul made on September 1st, 2009 at 6:25am
Though I have a lot of questions most of them probably can't be answered; Here's a few I think might get some results:

Of all original trilogy good guys, we got Han Solo the Smuggler, we got Luke the Jedi, we got Chewie, R2D2 and C3PO the companions, really all we're missing in Leia. Will we be seeing a class based on her in the game or perhaps see her in the form of companions like Chewie?

Other one:
We already know 2 of the 4 Sith classes the Bounty Hunter and Sith Warrior and 3 of the 4 republic classes, Smuggler, Trooper and Jedi, though the actual Jedi Class has not been announced yet. Will Jedi be the next one to be announced or will you announce a new class for the Republic or Sith next?

Will grouping while leveling give any benefits over Soloing, or the other way around? In World of Warcraft leveling seemed to favor the solo player. Is that what we can expect of SWTOR as well?


Good luck at PAX and keep up the awesome dissections :)
 
Comment by Sedit made on September 1st, 2009 at 5:54am
I've asked many times and it's been anwsered somewhat, but not to my satisfaction. Basically all I want to know is if the Bounty Hunter Jetpack will be a combat only thing or can we use them outside of combat as a quick for of travel, maybe like a sprint in other mmos.
 
Comment by Ben Kenobi made on August 31st, 2009 at 8:24pm
Q) Are the currently announced planets (Tython, Korriban, Ord Mantell Nal Hutta) the starter worlds for all eight classes?
 
Comment by zgmg made on August 31st, 2009 at 9:33pm
I'd like to second this one.
 
Comment by Ayane made on August 31st, 2009 at 6:57pm
My question would be: How can one be a Light Side Sith Warrior if "The Warrior channels the destructive emotions of fear, anger, and hatred" and all that, considering that Light Side users can't give in to such emotions?
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 31st, 2009 at 7:31pm
They recently made an analogy of a Light Sith being like a Nazi who chooses to try to assassinate Hitler rather than obey him, while still not defecting to the Allies.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 31st, 2009 at 6:29pm
I would love to know why they dropped the "Nal" from Nal Hutta. Nal Hutta actually means something('crown jewel' I think), so losing part of the name just loses the context. They already have 2-word planet names(Ord Mantell anyone?), so it's not like it'd be that confusing. I don't see them dropping Ord Mantell to just "Mantell", so why do the same thing to Nal Hutta?

So basically a question about Nall Hutta not having Nal in front.
 
Comment by nedostup made on August 31st, 2009 at 6:13pm
This is a relatively minor UI question, but will there be equipment hotkeys, so one can switch from a set of equipment for range to one for melee on the fly?

Also, as to crafting, will it be applicable to droid companions?
 
Comment by SiriousBlack made on August 31st, 2009 at 5:52pm
Just one question. I'm from Argentina, South America, so...will there be a Latin American Server or we will just log to the American One?
 
Comment by Ellos made on August 31st, 2009 at 5:25pm
Erm...how about instead of asking them to help us with the never ending speculation we could maybe ask them to RELEASE CONTENT information on say things they have already talked upon previously like erm....companions!! Or npc enemy factions like the separatists on Tython... Thatd make for good reading

/nod
 
Comment by Darth Hater @ PAX | Darth made on August 31st, 2009 at 4:45pm
[...] Questions for PAX [...]
 
Comment by zgmg made on August 31st, 2009 at 9:32pm
Question: Will there be disadvantages to playing without a companion? Companions are optional but beneficial. So, why would you ever play without one?
 
Comment by DirectX made on August 17th, 2009 at 3:28pm
Will there be a way for fans to pull data from the game? For example, say we kick Billy from our guild... then he automatically disappears from the roster on our guild website.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on August 17th, 2009 at 9:26am
Make sure you throw in a few questions about story and voiceovers, so you get some guaranteed real answers other than "We cant tell you yet."
 
Comment by Star Wars: The Old Republ made on August 12th, 2009 at 3:20am
[...] darthhater.com szerkesztői kilátogatnak a szeptember 4-6 között zajló PAX-ra. (Penny Arcade Expo) Ha minden [...]
 
Comment by PurpleCliff made on August 11th, 2009 at 2:32am
You must clear your throat and straighten your tie before asking this important question:

Will there be player housing?

I also suggest buying a few roses and giving them to the person you are asking.
 
Comment by nevi made on August 11th, 2009 at 12:07pm
i too suggest bringing flowers. ;o
can't hurt.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on August 17th, 2009 at 9:25am
They will also be in a cantina, get them some booze.
 
Comment by PurpleCliff made on August 11th, 2009 at 2:35am
Oh and sorry I forgot:
- Will Guilds have to be faction specific?
- How much communication can be had between factions?
- If you get lots of dark side points, do you begin to 'look evil and ugly'?
 
Comment by Spacefish made on August 10th, 2009 at 10:00pm
People per server?
Open endedness, in % how much of the content is instanced versus "persistent world"?
Whats planned for the end game once you play through the story line with one char, ie "max" it?
Level caps? Skill caps?
Elaborate some more on crafting and player economy if there will be one, is most good stuff looted or crafted?
Are you forced to play through the story or can you ignore it completely and do other things? grinding as an example.
Will there be a lot of zoning for story elements or do you simply "phase out" other players/surroundings versus having a loading screen appear?
What's being done to combat gold farming and other types of abusive behaviour/griefing/cheating?
What's the plans for player housing if any?
Can you setup your own vendors/shops to sell your presumably crafted/looted phats?
What's the itemization system like, do you generate stuff on the fly or you have a very specific set in stone hand crafted items ingame?
Can you click-through the voice acted stuff or are you forced to listen to the NPCs until the next "Dialog" box appears?
What about the previous talks of a microtransaction based revenue model, are you still doing that or are you focusing on a subscription based model, or a combination of the two?
What kind space are we talking in terms of square meters for the various planets, can one planet be compared to a "zone" in WoW for example, bigger/smaller?
What levels of customization will the UI have, do we get to fiddle around with our own scrips aka LUA or something more static?
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 11th, 2009 at 12:27pm
That's A LOT of questions. I bet with that many, they'd at least answer 2 or 3.

I imagine the Conversations will be like Mass Effect, where you can hit Spacebar to skip the current sentence(say if you've read the subtitle already and are waiting on the voice to finish), which would go to the next sentence, and on until you get a Conversation Wheel.

I hope Storyline is not skippable. If you make playing and leveling require thinking(like storylines with dialogue wheels and a karma system), it'll be harder to bot, since bots love to do nothing but grind. I can only hope grinding is simply not a option. Maybe the lack of "Kill 10 Pigs" quests will mean it's not very possible.

For BioWare's sake, I hope they buy up every URL even remotely resembling TOR's name. Look at WoW, with all the gold sites like "4wowgold" and such. Or how ffxi.com is owned by a gold site(now cleverly disguised as a blog site that still shows gold-selling/buying bias). FFXI.com being owned by a gold site is the best/worst example of a company being outsmarted by gold sites. One big reason I recently quit Wow is because there are so many bots in it, many that aren't dealt with even after multiple reports. I don't want TOR to go the same way.

If TOR's UI is good enough, I wouldn't mind a lack of addons. It'd be nice to have Skins though, like SWG's interface did.
 
Comment by Some-Brazilian made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:25pm
I hope they talk more about the combat system... hopefully it's more like WoW and not like KOTOR cause I have no idea how that would work in a PvP environment O.o
 
Comment by nevi made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:22pm
With pax about a month away, and knowing how tight lipped bioware is being, it seems almost futile to poke and prod at them. But I also respect their desire to only present something to the community once its finished, and to not promise things they can't deliver on. *cough*blizzard*cough*

either way, the issues most prevalent in my mind are as follows:
1. Travel - As the blood elf said above, how will we be getting between planets? How will we move between cities? and How will we be moving around inside these beautiful cities?
2. PvP - ANYTHING you can squeeze out of these guys as to how the game pertains to PvP. They've already said PvP is important to them, so I'm holding out for announcements between now and Pax. Doubtful though.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:27pm
Blizzard is like Bioware when compared to Molyneux.
 
Comment by Feo made on August 10th, 2009 at 9:01pm
Molyneux and to an extent... Mythic. I really hope Bioware doesn't pick up any nasty diseases from those guys.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:17pm
I'm not helping by adding this non-question stuff, but when are PAX and GamesCon? I forget.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:28pm
http://swtor.com/events For those and any other future events, as well as ComicCon at the moment.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:21pm
GAMESCOM, AUGUST 19 – 23, 2009
PENNY ARCADE EXPO, SEPTEMBER 4 – 6, 2009
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 10th, 2009 at 7:46pm
I'll have to think up questions later, but knowing how vague BioWare has been so far, we'll only be able to ask the vaguest of questions if we want an answer. Just look at the QAs in every interview with them thus far. You'd have a better shot at pulling teeth with chopsticks than pulling out some info that they don't want leaked.

Plus we'll have to consider their announcements at PAX and GamesCon so as not to be redundant with questions. :)
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on August 10th, 2009 at 8:01pm
I'm waiting for GamesCon to finish before I submit my questions, mostly because I cant think up of any that havent been asked 20,000 times.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on August 10th, 2009 at 7:51pm
Well that's why we choose or omit ones due to relevance. ;)

Either way were hoping to be able to ask at least a few of the questions we get here. They are showing a demo walkthrough so I would have to guess that they'll be a little more open to talking about more content either way.
 
Comment by Feo made on August 10th, 2009 at 7:27pm
Ask all questions like you already know the answer and like you don't believe the answer you're being given. Ask stupid questions that may offend them so they will try to impress you and give you give you more info than they normally would. If they say something that seems new, make them repeat it and explain it - to ensure correct context. Most importantly, don't leave without getting yourself a hug smooch from a booth babe on camera for proof.

1. Do Troopers or any other class on the Republic have access to the same cover system as Smugglers?

2. Line of sight is in game, correct?

3. What about Stealth? The Smuggler's dev diary can be read in a context that hints at a stealth ability.

4. We know PvE is being balanced for fun, but what about PvP balance? Bioware's reputation with PvP is pretty much nil. Are you prepared for a mass exodus from one profession to another? Are you prepared for the massive amount of QQing? Do you have a plan or is it the make it up as we go, screw people as we go, create a flavor of the month as we go... system?

5. Will we have a base of operations like the Ebon Hawk or the Normandy where all of our companion characters will just be chill'n? Will we see other players with the same exact companions running around in the world? Like zomg, my romantic interest is cheating on me with... Every dude on the block?! You whore!
 
Comment by Onassi made on August 10th, 2009 at 5:44pm
1. Interplanetary travel, do we get our own shuttle/x-wing/star destroyer to travel between planets or will it be like a "Flight Path"
 
Comment by smugglerfrtyto made on August 10th, 2009 at 5:42pm
My question would be about the crafting system. Would it be class specific? meaning that would each class be able to make things specific to themselves and modify them accordingly or would it be just a general crafting system to create a varied economy.