ChrisSchmidt

Hi folks,

I wanted to follow up on my original post here as I�ve seen lots of confusion around what is and isn�t in the latest patch 7.0.2:

In 7.0.2:

• Companions should no longer miss taunts or heals, and should be performing better overall.
• Players with gear over 326 in PvP Warzones and Arenas no longer have a stat advantage as their stats are now properly synched to 326.

Working as intended:

• The base Presence stat scales when Level Synced, but no bonus Presence scales. Bonus Presence includes all Presence gained through higher Influence with companions, Legacy Unlocks, and Datacrons. This can be observed in the Details button on the Character Sheet.

In a future update:

• Maintaining Accuracy (and additional stats TBD) thresholds in Level Synced content.
• Relic bonus stats when activated or triggered on their own applying in Level Synced content.
• Augments and Color Crystal stats applying pro...

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Hi folks, I just wanted to take a moment and clarify Bonus Presence as I saw several questions around that.

Stats earned from datacrons are never modified in the Level Sync system, including Presence. Presence earned from any Legacy unlocks or a companion's influence level are also never modified. These all count as Bonus Presence, and can be observed as never scaling in the live game. To check this out, you can open the Character Sheet, click the Details button, and mouse over the Presence stat. You can notice Bonus Presence will remain unchanged in all areas, Level Synced or not.

Hope this adds some clarification!

-Chris

Hi folks,

I wanted to chat about the history of Bolster, how it�s evolved over the years into what is now known as our new Level Sync system, and how we�ve been tuning and adjusting Level Sync based on your feedback. One note on terminology: I�m going to refer to Bolster as the pre-7.0 technology and Level Sync as the post-7.0 technology. We�ve used several terms interchangeably over the years, but for the purposes of this post I�m referring to the technology difference between the two.

In the 4.0 release, we introduced the concept of Bolster throughout the wider game. It was previously launched to specifically address PvP Warzone balance in order to help undergeared players, but the 4.0 release brought the feature to PvE content. When your character visited a planet they had completed the story on, we shifted the character level down to a range we expected players to be in for that planet. Bolster enabled the game to give better and more relevant rewards for hig... Read more

Hi folks,

I wanted to follow up on Keith’s post here with a little more context, background, and most importantly some changes you will see in the 7.0.1 release.

First, a little peek behind the scenes in the world of Game Design. When designing changes for a game as large and complex as Star Wars: The Old Republic, there are many things that need to be taken into account. Between the interplay of lots of different systems and features in the game, and understanding how any change to one can affect the experience of all the rest, it’s sometimes difficult to fully simulate on paper how the sum of all the parts fit together in... Read more

Hi all,

I wanted to jump in and try and clarify some of the potential confusion in this thread.

There are two different topics here: The ability for existing players to change the Combat Style upon logging in to the 7.0 Game Update, and the rules around characters with Force Origin Stories when they are offered an option to swap Combat Styles with their opposite-aligned mirror.

Existing Characters and Combat Styles

• As Jackie posted, we fully intended for current characters to be able to choose a preferred Combat Style upon logging in for Game Update 7.0. We have worked for...

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Hi everyone,

I recently did an interview with Max and Sema, the content creators behind SWTOR Escape Pod Cast about Combat Styles. We covered quite a bit of information, including the team�s goals and philosophies behind them. Hopefully this interview also addresses lots of questions that y�all have been asking about Combat Styles in general. Below are some high level points that we chatted about:

• We had the opportunity to take a close look at the state of the game for this release and address things ...

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Hi everyone,

Now that players have had a chance to experience Game Update 6.3, we wanted to follow up on a change we had made with PvP brackets. Currently, there are now two brackets instead of three.

Previous brackets:

• Levels 10-42
• Levels 43-74
• Level 75

Current brackets:

• Levels 10-74
• Level 75

The intention behind the change was to increase the number of PvP players available for the whole queue. We are in the process of analyzing the data for this change and also gathering feedback from players who participate in PvP.

We understand the impact that this had on our PvP community, and will be mindful of communicating changes such as consolidating the number of total queues and their intentions ahead of time before they are implemented.

While we are on the topic of PvP, we are aware of the questions regarding the future of PvP and what that looks like.
... Read more

Hi all,

I just wanted to clarify one point that's come up in this thread: the timer would not start when the patch is released. The timer will start when the item is purchased from the vendor, so I would not anticipate any ability to sell back any items currently being held in this way on alt characters once the patch goes live.

Part of the reason for this post was to give y'all ample time to sell back any items being stored in this manner before the patch goes live.

-Chris

Hi folks,

We wanted to give you an early heads up about a change we�re making in the upcoming game update 6.3.

Previously, the refund timer for items purchased off of a vendor only counted down while that character was in-game. As of the 6.3 update, this will change to real time. What this means is if you purchase an item off of a vendor, and that item has a refund timer on it, the timer will count down whether that character is logged in or not.

This is in-line with how the current timer for Cartel Market items works. The ability to exchange items looted between party members in Flashpoints and Operations, which also uses a timer, will not change and count down via in-game time only.

The reason behind this change is we observed some unintended behavior where the mechanics of the refund timer were being used to store more resources than intended by limits intentionally set in order to balance the game economy�s inflows and outflows.
... Read more

Hi folks,

We�ve received feedback regarding the Mandalorian Battle Ring arena map, and in an effort to isolate a fix for some of the problems currently in the live game, we plan on forcing only this map to fire on the PTS for all PvP modes. We�re looking for some folks to jump in and try it out. Mainly we are looking for all of the various ways players are reporting dying to the map in the live game:

• Running out of the spawn area
• Running against torches on both the interior and exterior of the ring
• Running against crates underneath the center arena
• Running over ramps

If you experience any deaths to the arena map itself, please let us know in this thread. And what was the last thing you recall doing when you were killed.

We do have some new logging implemented on the PTS build in order to allow us to isolate the fixes required before the 6.3 (and Season 14 start) game update, so even just hopping in and play... Read more

Hi folks,

I wanted to pop in here and clarify a few things that have been brought up.

First and foremost, the official forums (where you are now) are the official platform for news and announcements, and are accessible to all subscribers.

Second, it is true I am present in many Discord communities. I do so primarily so I can get a feel for what these different communities are chatting about in an effort to gather as many points of view as possible. I do this in tandem with other platforms where players self-organize that I�m aware of.

I do these things in my personal capacity, however if I interact at all I make it clear who I am in my official capacity for transparency. Since Discord seems to be the primary platform brought up here, I want to address some points..

I started joining Discord communities related to the game when I returned to the team over a year ago. Discord is interesting in that it provides real-time commun... Read more

Hi all,

I wanted to discuss some changes we�re bringing to some crafting objectives in Conquests. The full list is below, but I wanted to share some thoughts as to why, and our goals here.

We aim to create engaging, healthy competition and play. One of our goals for how crafting interfaced with Conquests was to allow crafters to contribute in a meaningful way. We took the approach of allowing many of these objectives to be open-ended (aka infinitely repeatable) since they would still be constrained by the resources necessary to craft.

However, we have seen this in practice turn into unhealthy, and often times problematic, play. Many activities around crafting (gathering, missions, the actual crafts) are very repetitive, and could be automated in ways that violate our ... Read more

Hi all - we really appreciate the discussion! I wanted to let you know we're going to take a look at Reputation rewards for Grade 5 and below missions for a future update.

Thanks!
-Chris

Great discussion in here! I wanted to jump in and let y'all know we're going to take a look at Remote Slicing for an upcoming update.

Thanks!
-Chris

Hello again!

We have had various discussions around toxicity, especially as it related to PvP (previous thread here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=985281). I wanted to let y�all know about an upcoming change that hopefully very few of you may experience.

Currently, the PvP lockout timer triggered by declining matches or leaving early in Ranked modes, and by being vote kicked in Unranked, prevents players from being able to queue for any PvP activity. This includes Ranked, Unranked and Galactic Starfighter modes.

One of the actions we may take on a player�s account due to violations of the Terms of Service is a seasonal queue ban. This prevents players from being... Read more

Nine years is an incredible run for any game, but to see SWTOR still delivering original Star Wars stories set in the Old Republic era the entire time is truly something special. It takes a passionate team, incredible players and fans, and support from too many people to name to accomplish such a feat.

I�ve enjoyed so many lasting memories through the years as both a player and a developer: The Orange Pixel (RIP), double Kephess, light sword in box, dance parties on the fleet, walker parades...the list goes on and on. Some say there�s even an NPC golfing somewhere on every planet. Who can say?

And yet, after all of these years, we find ourselves looking forward still. There are so many more stories to tell...so many more experiences we want to deliver and share with the community. What could be next? We dream big in Texas, so buckle up y�all!

Hi friends,

I wanted to take a minute to talk about the Deserter changes coming in Game Update 6.1.4. As part of our efforts to reduce toxicity, it�s important to understand how game rules themselves can contribute to the problem. I previously talked about how behaviors like declining multiple matches in a row or leaving matches could be used to intentionally degrade the quality of PvP matches, particularly in Ranked modes, and how we planned on addressing the problem.

Unranked:
In Unranked matches, the 15-minute Deserter lockout will still apply for leaving a match. In addition, the 5-minute lockout penalty for being vote kicked will still apply.

Ranked:
In Ranked modes (both solo and group) there are a few changes. First, as previously discussed, vote kick has been removed in these modes. Next, the Deserter lockout timer has been increased to 20 minutes for declining a match or leaving early - the first time. Over time, if a player continues... Read more

Hi friends,

With Game Update 6.1.4 we are introducing a new tier of augments to the game, with materials added to our prestige game modes.

For a little background, we try to strike a balance between the right time to introduce new power to chase into the game and respecting your time invested in getting to the current maximum level of gear. We also want to refresh interest in our prestige modes by adding a very clear incentive while we work on the next batch of new content.

We have a few goals here. First, in PvE, it has been several months since Dxun Master Mode released. Top-end guilds have cleared the content and achieved the timed run achievements. Guilds still progressing in Dxun could use a slight boost to help get over the hill of that next boss, and a slight power bump should help. We don�t want progression to stagnate, and we would also like to make it worth people�s time to farm older Master Modes in order to gear up the next batch of recruits... Read more

Hi friends,

As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to chat a bit about toxicity and what actions we�re taking to reduce friction points in the game that can lead to toxic behavior.

In general, our philosophy in regards to toxicity and harassment is there is no room for it in our service. But it�s not quite as simple as �find the toxic people and remove them�, because there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Often times folks are just having a bad day, and some friction point in the game rules or mechanics can exacerbate this and lead to a negative or harmful social experience.

So we have to take a bit of a holistic approach to toxicity, and remain committed to improving the game and the service over time across several avenues.

Reporting

As a member of the Fair Play Alliance, EA is committed to providing a safe space to play where all are welcome. As part of this, toxicity and harassment actions that the Customer Service ... Read more

I just wanted to update some of the timing around Replica rewards, as promised in my previous post.

As a reminder, we talked about rolling out the remaining replica rewards throughout the course of Season 13 (the current season) and Season 14, with the longer term goal being returning to exclusive, new rewards after Season 14.

Since then, we've identified some additional Replica rewards we would like to add to the vendors. See below for the updated and expanded reward plan:

1. Available starting in Game Update 6.1.3 (Targeting Wednesday, September 9):
   • Predacious Weapon Set (Season 6) - 50,000 pvp tokens
   • Commanding Weapon Set (Season 8) - 50,000 pvp tokens
   • Baron Deathmark's Predacious Wrangler mount (Season 6) - 200,000 pvp tokens
2. Available starting in Game Update 6.2 (Targeting early December):
   • Gladiator Weapon Set (Season 5) - 50,000 pvp tokens
   • Giradda's Acklay mount (Season 7) - 200...

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