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BioWare have posted their latest swathe of answers to SWTOR community questions, with an emphasis this week on the imminent 1.2 update and the expanded Legacy functionality in particular.

The response on the SWTOR forums is mixed, with a bunch of people complaining BioWare haven’t clarified their approach to variances in server populations, but otherwise this seems a pretty chock full information update to me. Hell, I’d be a bit worried if the 1.2 update wasn’t BioWare’s primary focus right now.

Read on for the whole Q&A:

 

In this week’s Community Q&A we’ve searched out questions on Game Update 1.2, which is currently available to test on the Public Test Server, and coming to live servers soon.

With so much new content and additions in Game Update 1.2, we found plenty of questions – and got you plenty of answers! However, we’ve got so many questions and answers that we’re going to extend this Q&A into next week as well. After that, we’ll return to taking new questions from everyone. As always, we have edited some questions below for clarity or brevity.

If you’d like to discuss any of the answers in this week’s Q&A, please use this Forum thread.

Clone_troope: I still don’t get how the Legacy system works. I have a level 50 Jedi Knight Guardian and a level 50 Smuggler Scoundrel. With the Legacy system can one ‘inherit’ the abilities of the other and vice versa?

Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Each class has one iconic ability that can be unlocked for your entire Legacy, which means every character on your chosen server. This ability is only available for use during the Heroic Moment ability (which means you need to have your companion with you, and that you only have a limited window to use it). In your case, that means your Guardian would unlock Legacy Force Sweep and your Scoundrel would unlock Legacy Dirty Kick. Each could then use the other’s ability as could any additional Legacy characters you might have, or create.

 

Cylht: I don’t want to have to leave my guild mates and go play Empire to unlock alien species. Will credits be able to purchase all species or will I have to grind them?

Daniel Erickson: All species have an alternate unlocking method that requires a minimum Legacy Level and credits, making them all purchasable.

 

Lstn: If I hit 50 as a human, what benefit do I get with the Legacy system, as humans can be any and all classes?

Daniel Erickson: Reaching level 50 as a human results in a sizable Presence bonus to all of your Legacy characters, making all current and future companions more powerful.

 

Shaynae: Would it be possible to add companion icons to the Legacy family tree?

Daniel Erickson: It is not possible now but is definitely something we want to do in the future.

 

AetherMcLoud: Is the Legacy Rocket Boost usable in PVP? I sincerely hope not, because if it is that would extremely unbalance Warzones between stinking rich people and people with a more moderate amount of credits.

Daniel Erickson: The Legacy Rocket Boost is most definitely not available in Warzones.

 

Wesleycrushers: In terms of Legacy unlocks, what do we get for leveling the ship droid to max affection? Is he considered a healer, or is he a different type of companion? Also, do the unlocks carry across characters, so if I max affection with my companion character healer for one character, will I get that bonus applied when I play a different character?

Daniel Erickson: The ship droid is primarily a crafting tool so increasing his affection results in crafting bonuses, but provides no additional Legacy rewards. He is not considered a healer in relation to Legacy unlocks. Maximizing your first companion character healer – and your first of any of the five companion character types – provides a bonus that applies to all Legacy characters. Maxing out additional companions of the same type provides a small Presence bonus that also applies to all Legacy characters.

 

ViciousFett: Light and Dark active ability Legacy unlocks are obviously Alignment +/- 10000, but what about Neutral? Is it simply a matter of staying between light and dark 1? Or perhaps having at least 5k in each?

Daniel Erickson: The Neutral Legacy reward will not be coming in Game Update 1.2 I’m afraid, as true grey alignment advancement did not make the cut. It will appear as part of the full grey alignment advancement package in a later Game Update.

 

Aymi: You guys are including a whole bunch of things to motivate us to reroll and unlock stuff through Legacy, but if I’m playing on one server because the community is great, I’ll be limited to eight characters. You said during the Guild Summit you were going to think about it at some point, any update on that?

Daniel Erickson: We are 100% committed to providing more character slots per server in the future but unfortunately we’re not ready to talk about how that will work.

Players have expressed some dissatisfaction with endgame armor sets – can you comment on your plans for future endgame appearances?

Daniel Erickson: We have heard the community loud and clear when it comes to armor sets. What we’ve heard the players say is, “I don’t care how high level I get, I still want my core sets to look and feel like Star Wars and like my class – cooler but not crazy. Keep the crazy to optional gear.” I will warn that creating new armor is a part of our game with long lead times so it will take a set or so before players see a strong shift in direction but we’re already working on some stuff I love and I think players will too.

Asphen: Can we get an option to turn off the combat error text in the center of my screen?

Damion (Principal Lead Systems Designer): We will be looking at adding the ability to move and/or turn off banner text and error text (the two kinds of text that appear in the middle of your screen) as part of the GUI customization system in a future patch. This isn’t a trivial issue, however – in some cases, fairly vital information is given to the player here, and we’d need to be sure that in these cases the text gets rerouted someplace for a player to review. So short form, yeah, we’re thinking about it, but no ETA for you at this time.

What rewards do I get from the new dailies on Corellia?

David Hunt (Systems Designer): Daily Commendations, with a weekly quest that gives Black Hole Commendations. Some new items have been added to Daily Commendation vendors, and Black Hole Commendations come from multiple locations as a means of buying high end gear.

Magnalorian: I have been acquiring champion gear pieces for the sole purpose of pulling those nice level 56 mods and enhancements out of them to put in my sexy Jedi Battlelord set, which currently makes it roughly equal to Columni I have kept the hollowed out remains of the champion gear I have pulled these mods from, leaving only the armoring which currently can’t be removed. Will they turn blue right away in 1.2, remain purple as they currently are (cannot uneqip the armor slot), or will they remain purple and allow me to pull the armoring from them as well?

David Hunt: As a general rule for gear updates: Any mods that you’ve changed will remain changed. Any mods you haven’t changed will update if the gear changed.

In this case, it means your currently empty Champion gear will be purple and show a filled/extractable armoring and empty mod and enhancement slots. Those mods and enhancements will still be present in your Jedi Battlelord set.

Exaro – Will crit crafted orange gear with the tier 4 mods in it and an additional augment be required to get the best possible stats or will the stand alone purple tier 4 be just as good?

David Hunt: Augments are required for the highest possible stats, but augmented gear is not required for any existing content. A fully augmented set of endgame gear will put you above the stat curve.

ZudetGambeous – Is it possible to use Reverse Engineering on PvP gear and Operations gear in 1.2 to get the appearance shell for those items? If so, has the ability to trade bound items for Reverse Engineering been added, or can you only use Reverse Engineer on those items if you have them yourself… I.E will my alts have to start rolling need on my main’s Operations gear so I can use Reverse Engineering?

David Hunt: You can use Reverse Engineering on Operations gear but not PvP gear. You can purchase PvP appearance schematics for credits, but the appearance schematics may have additional equip requirements. For example, Battlemaster appearances require Valor even though normal Battlemaster items do not. This is because the recipes to produce Battlemaster appearances do not require PvP activity, while purchasing Battlemaster gear requires PvP commendations.

It is not currently possible to trade Bind on Pickup items for Reverse Engineering.

Arnathis: Can we please get an in-depth explanation of how gearing is going to work in Game Update 1.2? I understand that you can reverse engineer the gear and possibly learn the schematic but is that for everyone or just the people with the appropriate Crew Skills? Will this apply to the tier sets as well?

Georg Zoeller (Lead Combat Designer): This is a very broad question, but I’ll try to answer as comprehensively as possible, as the system is rather complex.

First off, in an ‘under the hood’ change to the game, end game items have more stat variety, allowing for significantly improved item customization for players that like to fine tune their stats.

The most important change for gear in Game Update 1.2 is that all previously modifiable purple gear has all their mods exposed, including the so called ‘base mod’ (Armoring, hilt, barrel). These can be freely moved into any empty (orange) appearance shell, giving you a lot more choices in your character’s appearance.

New end game gear (e.g. “Campaign Gear”) introduced with the Game Update has the added benefit that it keeps information about its set bonus on the armoring – but comes with the limitation that the extracted armoring can only be moved into an item of the same slot type (chest to chest, boot to boot, etc.). The reason for this ‘Bind to Slot’ behavior on armoring is that we do not want players to farm the initial boss of an Operation as the easiest way to obtain a full set of end game mods.

This means you can now take any custom (orange) appearance and imbue it with all the benefits of your end game set. As an added progression option, you can also acquire a critical crafted orange item with additional augment slots for even better stats.

Reverse Engineering has also received considerable improvements with Game Update 1.2.

For one, when attempting to reverse engineer an item (for which you indeed need the appropriate profession) you will now be able to see in the item tooltip what your chance to successfully reverse engineer a new schematic is (or if such a chance exists at all).

Many of the new end game items (and end game items going forward) can be reverse engineered to learn schematics based on the original item:

• Reverse engineering an item with mods leads to empty orange equivalents of the end game items. This can be done after the mods are extracted and used in a different item!
• The item you learn to create is commonly Bind on Equip, as we want to encourage a more lively market on the Galactic Trade Network.
• Many different mods can now be reverse engineered which will grant you a schematic to craft that mod. (This is not possible on armoring that carry a set bonus.)
• Reverse engineering non-modded items usually leads to a schematic for an equivalent item.
• Reverse engineering an end game item also provides materials needed to craft these items. Operations materials are also Bind on Equip now, creating a more diverse market.
• A crafting critical on these schematics will usually lead to an augment slot. For item mods, it results in an extra item.

Effectively, this means you can sell nearly full end game items (including augment slots on a critical success) one component at a time. However, doing so requires a significant upfront investment, it’s certainly not easy. This also means every profession now benefits from Reverse Engineering and can trade items.

• Armormech produces certain Augments, Augmented Tech Armor
• Armstech produces certain Augments, Augmented Weapons
• Artifice produces Color Crystals, Enhancements, Augmented Shields and Relics
• Biochem produces Augmented Implants
• Cybertech produces Mods and Augmented Earpieces
• Synthweaving produces certain Augments, Augmented Force Armor

Augment schematics (green) are found via Slicing missions and blue and purple variants of these augments can be researched via reverse engineering by the appropriate crafters. It is not possible to reverse engineer legacy augments obtained from slicing before the game update arrives, however. These are technically different items.

Because we do not want players to gamble with reverse engineering custom appearances (orange items) which are often unique quest rewards, the schematics for these items are obtained via mission discoveries for various gathering skills and are set to Bind on Equip to encourage active trading.

Finally, a word on augment slots: with Game Update 1.2, crafters are the only source of augment slots in the game, significantly elevating their ability to contribute highly desirable items into the more open trade economy while enabling players to engage in end game using an appearance of their choice.

We have also heard at the Guild Summit and through community feedback on the Forums that many players have built up a significant stack of custom appearances for future use in their cargo holds and would really like to upgrade these with an augment slot to make them fully competitive as end game gear. We absolutely support this and will be introducing the ability to do so in a future Game Update.

Over to you – anything that caught your interest in particular?