Stormtrooper Detachment Epsilon Dev Team Q&A

1. There are many, many iconic clothing and armor items that are missing from SWG. Will we be seeing Stormtrooper scout armor, commando armor, shoulder pauldrons, desert backpacks, black Imperial uniforms, AT-ST driver uniforms, Rebel flight helmets, Rebel gunner helmets, or others? Many of these are already in-game on NPCs, and I will refrain from commenting on the Imperial command cap :)

This is a great question. I know the idea of having more iconic clothing in the SWG universe is at the forefront of all player's minds. The challenge here is that creating one "wearable" in the game for players is a more intense process than it seems. Sure, you may see these outfits on NPC's, but NPC's as you see them are all crafted as you see them - - that means everything automatically fits. A player, on the other hand, can be one of 8 possible species, has custom body measurements and so on. That means that player wearables in the game need several versions of each item to accommodate all the different possibilities a player may choose for their avatar. Big, small, short and tall and most importantly, alien heads, the wearable has to adapt to the form the player creates with their avatar. This effects the priority list of what we create and when. There is also the consideration that anything iconic has to approved by Lucasarts and all of those variables effect the final outcome. We want these things in the game and players can expect these things being added to the game after the Jump to Lightspeed.[/b]

2. Everyone who plays SWG notices more and more, that the game is starting to look like "Composite Wars", with composite armor everywhere, and it wasn't even in any of the films! You can barely distinguish a rebel or Imperial or even neutral in the "clone chaos", as all look alike. Faction armors today, cost 17,500 FP or more to get from a recruiter. That means you spend a million or more if you buy FP from a smuggler, or spend a week grinding FP. This for an armor that has almost no resistances, too many weaknesses and decays fast because of this. This makes faction armors "useless", as you can get a set of "failed experimentation" composite for 50-100k.and it will still have more resistances than faction armors. When are we going to see faction armors with better stats or craftable or cheaper to buy?

The team agrees that a single type of armor is not the direction that PvP should take. Composite Armor needs to be adjusted and that will change in the Combat Balance the team is planning. One thing the developers are considering is improving the effectiveness of faction armor. This would improve the perk and make effective armor accessible to all players.

3. What are the devs planning to do about superior rebel numbers? Currently if we look at the astromech, there are nearly 2 rebels per 1 Imperial. That's a lot. At the moment, there are no incentives to join the Empire, only penalties, as you will be outnumbered, and if you are alien, you will pay double or triple for items that usually armies provide for free. If every story arc is based on "whichever side completes the missions more will win" then rebels are guaranteed to win every time. What are your plans to counter the rebel superiority?

There are two important sides to this issue. On one side, there is PvE or "Player vs Environment" and PvP or Player vs Player. Addressing the PvE side of the faction issue, the astromechs statistics reveal a raw slant in the numbers of Rebels that implies a superiority of numbers, while in actuality, many of the covert Rebels are players who play strictly PvE as coverts because they want to have the "feel" of being a Rebel in the Galactic Civil War. When looking at the game practically, many "coverts" prefer not to engage in the PvP playstyle which changes the idea that there is a PvP rebel superiority.
The other aspect is that for those that play PvP, good game design demands that both sides be equal in ability, but different in implementation. That is to say that both factions need comparable abilities, but that the context of those abilities should be wrapped in a "Star Warsy" context. In the end, a player's choice to join either faction must be their own choice and those choices have to be equitable.

4. There are constant problems with the AT-ST. I'm sure you've heard complains from both sides, either that they are overpowered, they are not attacking TEFed rebels, or other issues. Are there plans to make the AT-ST a vehicle as it should have been, and if so, will it be part of the release of multi-passenger vehicles?

There are plans to both re-balance the AT-ST and make it a vehicle, but we don't know when we are going to make those changes.

5. How do the devs feel about the current "Star Warsyness" of the game vs. the atmosphere in the films? Did they anticipate Jedi running around in composite, perma-afk entertainers, medics healing no one but tumblers and people endlessly shouting at starports? Are there any plans to fix these immersion issues as well as adding more Star Wars music to the game?

We definitely want to improve upon the Star Wars feel of them game. A major topic of internal conversation continues to be how we can do that. Remember though, that the atmosphere in the films is on a scripted set that is very controlled. In an MMO as opposed to a game with a linear design, players have many freedoms to do what they want and to play the character they want to play. As such, there will always be some friction because there are players with so many different play styles under one big virtual roof. While I would disagree that all entertainers are AFK and all medics heal tumblers, these are play habits that we want to address. It takes time though because the change should be brought about by good game design and not just stop-gap measures to prevent these types of in game activities. The dev team wants to make changes towards these types of things, but it must happen by offering ways to accomplish player's goals in game so that the choices are more appealing. And yes, there are plans to add more music to the game.[/b]

6. Are you planning on giving Politicians any ability and/or option to add NPCs throughout a player city to give it a feeling of greater population? Currently the only way to do this is to make vendors as stand around NPCs. Unfortunately there is always that annoying 'vendor' tag on them.

The idea of politicians adding NPC's to their cities was an exciting discussion during the SWG Fan Fest. It is something we are planning on adding as a Master Mayor perk, but here again, this is something that would be developed post Jump to Lightspeed.

7. AT-ATs were tested out on the Test Center a few months ago. Are the plans for them to be part of the Battlefield revamps, player-owned or as part of the upcoming Strategic Bases?

AT-AT's are most definitely in the future plans and will be added to the game, though we won't discuss the details at this time.

8. Are there any plan to add a move along emote instead of us always using waft stench away or any plans of adding some new visible emotes to the game?

Having a "move along" emote is something we have talked about. There are plans to add emotes to the galaxy very soon ...

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