Beta Q&A

[thomasden2]

So now the newest Beta tester Q&A is out, hope you like it





SWTOR Game Tester Q&A

Q: I was wondering if Sith Marauders get a kick ability like the Jedi Knight seen in the JK class video were she kicks the guy off the floating air barge. It was knockback kick, and if the Marauder does get a knockback kick ability what does the animation look like for it? I and some others are hoping the Marauder has a similar martial arts looking kick.

A: They do have a knockback, but it's not a kick cant remember seeing any martial arts like attacks for any SW.


Q: One of beta-testers said that we can keep a sword we can grab everywhere and if we like it. We need just to modify it and can use it everytime we want. Can we do the same with vibro-swords? Could it be a good substitute for a lightsaber?


A: You can do that with any item that is based on modification slots, instead of static mods. You certainly can use vibrosword instead if you want.


Q: Could you describe the difference in playstyle between sith warrior specced on DPS and the sith assassin? Which one feels "better" regarding style and power. Can you also tell me which one is more "evil"?

juggernaut - warrior

marauder - frost dk

assassin - rogue-ish

A: I prefer juggernaut, but mostly becaused the armors looks totally awesome.

The main complaint against assasins is that they have too few melee abilities, and combat feels very repetitive.


Q: Between the Sith sorcerer and assassin (if you have played both) which in your opinion is the better for casual solo play? Mean better survivability ?

A: Sorc has better cc abilities and heals, and khem val is a bitchin' tank if you keep him geared. a tank specced assassin is pretty bad ass too though so wouldnt worry either way. pick the one you like.


Q: Can you confirm if Anti Aliasing is supported in-game (via the in-game options)? If not, can it be forced via the video card settings? I ask because some games (like Mass Effect) do not have this option for ATI cards (it can be forced in the video card settings, but it will not get rid of the jaggies in-game)

A: Not currently, people are suspecting that it's just disabled for the beta, some people claim that overriding it from gfx card settings work.


Q: Can you please confirm if how many CPU cores the game will take advantage of? Will it only use two? four? etc?

A: Seems to me to use all 8, but im really not much of a computer guy. but looking at task manager, it looks that way to me


Q: Not all stories are equal. We've heard a lot of hints about the quality of the various class stories. One contributor mentioned that the Jedi Knight story seemed quite bland and repetitive, especially compared to the Bounty Hunter plot (his favorite). We've heard similar references by other contributors, and even occasionally the developers. Could you talk a bit about which are your favorite/least favorite narratives and why? Are there any that are, objectively and critically speaking, lacking?

A: I liked jk better than bh. they're both kinda predicatble though. jk is saving the galaxy. bh is, well, hunting bounties. my least favorite would be trooper and smuggler. favorite, probably sith warrior or agent.


Q: The various class stories all seem to have different styles, revolving around unique characters. Could you please tell us a bit about the themes of the various stories? For example, I'd heard that a large part of the Imperial Agent's story was like playing Tomb Raider, just set in a social shark-pen. And what sort of protagonist is featured in each of these stories? I've heard that the smuggler wisecracks and smooth-talks his whole way through. Even the smuggler's shared lines (dialogue with identical effects in group quests) is snazzier than his peers'. Does that mean, for example, that our trooper (if we play one) is a no-fun, all-business thug no matter how we play him/her?

A: Nope, i dont like giving actual story spoilers. some of you want it, but for the majority, it ruins the game. if you dont want to experience the story, dont bother with this game. it isnt wow in space.


Q: One of the Testers mentioned 2 flashpoints for each side at around level 30 and two at level 47. We know about Taral V and Boarding Party and Directive 7. What are the other flashpoints?

A: After black talon, flashpoints come in pairs. around 30 you can do boarding party, and that unlocks the foundry. directive 7 stands alone. on level 50, you get battle of ilum, which essentially closes the storyline that runs through all the flashpoints.


Q: Do stimulents have a cooldown?

A: Healing stuff, yes. buffs no, since it wouldnt make any sense spamming them.


Q: Does the duel wield accuracy debuff impact tech damage (such as missles, flamethrower, railshot, etc)?

A: It only affects ranged/melee damage, a.k.a. white damage. but there are abilities that use that as well, not every ability is force or tech.


Q: Does blaster top damage improve tech damage (such as missles, flamethrower, railshot, etc)? In other words, does improving your blasters also boost your tech damage?

A: Weapons have a modifier called +force damage or +tech damage, which does.

The weapon damage in itself does not


Q: Is there a penalty for overheating? As such, is optimal dps obtained by using heat immediately without overheating?

A: Both yes and no. there is no "crash" feature like ICC lootship.

The various regens work in phases though.

Heat has 2 phases. if you keep it below the treshhold it dissipates really fast. if you get it too high, it dissipates slowly. So to do max dps, you need to balance your heat level, not just max it out. Imperial Agents energy works similar, but in 5 phases instead of 2.


Q: Do slicing missions provide straight credits?

A: Different things. you can get boxes that contain credits, you can get boxes that contain items, you can get tech parts (used for cybertech at least) and you can get mission discoveries. that is, special missions for other gathering/mission skills.


Q: Does slicing missions provide schematics for all crafting skills, specifically biochem? Or are biochem schematics learned from analyzing rare beasts?

A: Slicing does not give you schematics to anything. You train green schematics (and some blue) directly from your trainer. By reverse engieering green items you've made, you can unlock the blue schematic for that same item. By reverse engineering blue items you've made, you can unlock the purple schematic for that same item.


Q: Do you foresee resource nodes being camped or farmed? Or would zone instancing address this?

A: There's way too many of them to make sense right now, so im guessing it's balanced for significantly higher number of players.


Q: Is there a talent path which improves BH blaster firer, specifically the no-heat 'filler'?

A: Not specifically, but anything that improves your ranged damage goes directly to improving the filler, obviously


Q: How does the efficiency stat improve crafting or gathering? How does the critical stat impact crafting or gathering?

A: Efficienty stat decreases the time the companion takes to complete the mission. Crit is mostly speculation at the moment, it is assumed it gives better/more loot, but it's really hard to measure that.


Q: Hi, can you tell us, how many time do you have in group conversation for choosing response? Is it any timer who obligate you to choose some in X seconds, and if so have much time do you have, and what if you don't choose in that specific time?

A: 10 seconds. if you don't click anything, you just roll a 0 in practice, and guarnateed to lose.


Q: Could you please tell me how many alts you can have. For example, if I would like to experience all 8 classes and their subsequent 2 advanced classes is there enough room for me to have 16 alts?

A: Right now you can have 8 characters on each server.


Q: Do you get heavy armor that looks like robes?

A: Not that i've seen.


Q: I have heard that of the mission skills, slicing is the only one which does not give companion gifts. Is this accurate, and if so, do we get anything instead of companion gifts that the others do not?

A: Correct. rewards for slicing missions mentioned above. if you want to actually make a profit you shouldnt do the missions too much, use your own gathering skill out in the world.


Q: Are companion gifts tradable person to person or via the Auction House?

A: Yes.


Q: How do healers do in world pvp?

A: When hell freezes and someone actually does world pvp, i'll let you know.


Q: If using a tank companion will it use the guard ability in pvp?

A: Companions do not have the guard ability, that is only for player tanks.


Q: Can a player tank use the guard ability on their companion?

A: Yup. although if you are tank specced, why would you let your companion tank?


Q: Regarding Assassins and Shadows: 1. Do they wear medium armor or light armor? 2. How is their tanking ability as compared with the Juggernaut/Guardian and Powertech/Vanguard? Can you see them being a viable option for typical end-game environments?

A: Light armor, but they have buffs to compensate. Currently seems to be the best tank in the game.
I would certainly imagine so, there's no obvious weaknesses to their toolset.


Q: Do you think the game will be ready for a october release? with early access starting mid october?

A: No chance. even november is optimistic in my view.


Q: stress testing in september have they told you anything about it like when they send out invites how meany and if you get picked is it only for 3 or so days or longer?

A: Nope, know nothing more than you do.


Q: from a leaked screen in players inventory i see expand inventory module 5000 credits does this give you 20 more or 40 more slots? and is that it you can only have like 80 slots in inventory or could you have more?

A: Each upgrade gives you +10, so 80 in total when maxed

5,000

25,000

100,000

250,000


Q: Can you give us a list of all crew skills and alittle info on what they are about and used for?

A:


armstech - weapons
armormech - non-force-user armor
cybertech - non-force-user armor inlays & droid parts & gadgets (bombs) - and a few armor pieces
synthweaving - force-user armors
artifice - force user armor inlays, force user off-hand item, lightsaber crystals, couple of armor pieces
biochem - stims, implants
diplomacy - companion gifts, rare armor items + DS/LS points
underworld trading - companion gifts, rare armor items
slicing - listed above
treasure hunting - companion gifts, rare armor items


(starting to see a pattern here?)

Gathering skills are simply that; ability to gather resources for the crafting skills. no vanity / random loot here, just resources.


Q: how is the new beta build they gave you as of 07-20-11 you notice alot of things fixed? does the game feel like its done?

A: A lot of issues have been addressed, none of the features we've heard about from SDCC seems to be in though.


Q: would really love to see bounty hunter mercenary and powertech skill trees

A: At work, no access to the game, but i'll see if i can mail a list to cake later


Q: Overall, which faction feels as though they level faster, and why? Similarly speaking, which class/advanced class in each faction is most efficient at leveling, and why? If other factors (solo/not solo, gear/build, etc) come into play please elaborate.

A: No idea, in the prior build, both sides had planets that were broken and became bottle necks. hoping those issues have been fixed now, but not reached that level yet (belsavis for empire and hoth for republic).

A: All classes solo just fine imo, but as always, tank survivability certainly makes soloing easier.


Q: Are there any useful tricks or quirks to leveling in TOR separate from the typical MMO, and if so what are they?

A: Not really, the story based nature of the game makes it pretty straight forward. a bit too straight forward perhaps.


Q: As far as capability in soloing goes, are there any classes capable of dealing with content meant for multiple people? If so, which classes and how effective are they?

A: There's group quests that are soloable for anyone. only significant benefit i could think of, is the classes that have 60 sec CC abilities (sage, sorcerer, mercenary, one of the trooper specs, could be others i dont know about)


Q: Could you please ask you sources if they would send some screenshots from the different clothes and armors? Iam realy interestet in the Jedi Sage clothes. I would love to see as many as possible. For the other players the other armors for the other classes would be interesting too i think

A: I dont do screenshots, sorry. im paranoid. I dont care how much everyone else tells me there's no chance of getting banned.
Im sure cake can find someone else to take some though


Q: From what you've seen; How well do the cover centric classes/AC's (Gunslinger/Sniper) fair in PvP?

A: Not well. mobility is key in pvp. im sure good pvpers are going to find a way to make it useful though


Q: How do Troopers seem to stack up to their mirror class the Bounty Hunter? Does the Ammo pace mechanic seem to do as well as the Heat pace mechanic? Do Troopers have and equivalent to the BH's heat signature?

A: I only have a mid level trooper, the ammo mechanic seems to work better. it regens faster and doesn't get stuck as easily.
Troopers also have the benefit of getting full auto as part of their base class / pre level 10. which is a completely bitchin' ability. the bh equivalent (appears to be) Unload, which is a high level mercenary ability. this sucks for bhs.
Otherwise, they play very similarly.


Q: What are the current naming guidelines in the game?

A: Absolutely none. teamed with a dude named DarthMorpheus a while ago. that made me die a little on the inside.


Q: Juggernaut vs Maruder. From what i hear, Jugg has it all, tanking, high dps, cc. So what is the reason to play Maruder besides aestethics (dual wielding looks cool), as Jugg does all Maruder does, and more.

A: More dps, looks better, different playstyle.


Q: I was looking for a class that lets me stealth, go for soft enemy healer/nuker, burst him down fast and escape. Just like Witch Hunter in WAR. Is there any class like this in TOR? I was hoping Sith Assassin, but then i saw he is pseudo tank and whatnot, so i'm lost.

A: Shadow/assasssin have both tank and dps spec. both work really well for pvp. operative also have stealth spec, and i scoundrel also does, for sake of mirroring, but i dont know.


Q: If i start to play on Korriban, and my friend on Nar-Shadaa, how fast can we join our adventures?

A: He can't start on nar shaddaa. you dont get to pick planets.

Korriban - SW & SI

Hutta - BH & IA

Ord Mantell - Trooper & Smuggler

Tython - JK and JC

After these planets, you go to your home world (dromund kaas and coruscant), and you can group there. you should get to (or at least very close to) level 10 before leaving starting planets.
Try not to fall behind on levels on early planets, its a pain catching up later.


Q: Do the various planets have a full day and night cycle? All the screenshots I've seen all appear to be day shots.

A: Nope, planets are time-frozen. same light and everything all the time


Q: Can you invite other players onto your starship to hang out and travel with you?

A: Yeah, although its a bit buggy. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.


Q: Is it possible to reuse a name of a character you've deleted? When you delete a character, can anyone immediately make a character of the deleted character's name, or is the name account bound for a period of time?

A: Yes to the first. No idea to the second, you'd have to ask bioware about that.
I would imagine it's instantly available to anyone though.


Q: Do the starships have windows, besides the cockpit, to look out into space?

A: None of the ones i've had at least.


Q: Is there a general arguing session between testers about Mouse-overs (Healing mainly), macros/ADDONS/ Damage meters and are the Devs putting in their own feedback on how they feel about these game mechanics?

A: As far as i can tell, any clickers in the beta are smart enough to not tell anyone about it, since they know they suck.


Q: Are the beta testers okay with the current Character Creation and are they voicing their opinions for change? From the videos I've seen, the choices are miniscule compared to the likes of Star Trek // APB. Not having a height/weight slide bar seems to be a big concern amongst the General Discussion postings.

A: Creation is better than wow, but worse than STO / AoC / APB. some people complain, others dont care (surprised?)
I would like sliders, but im not sure i'd be willing to hope for it


Q: At E3 we have seen an armor set with each piece being gotten at different levels with a gap of at least 19 levels between the first and the last piece. We have also heard from leaks that armor pieces only have armor ratings on them. This both begs the question does the armor rating on the armor set in question scale to level of the highest piece of gear or does it scale based on the level of the modifications or doesn't it scale at all? Also, do the bonuses for owning more pieces of the same set scale to level of the modifications or doesn't it scale (either)?

A: You can upgrade your armors by using inlays from cybertech and artifice, or bought from vendors, quest rewards etc.
If you upgrade your armor, it can stay current on mods despite being old items.


Q: We know there is a Cowboy set, a Lando set, etc for the Smuggler which I will refer to as themes. It also seems that each set has different stages with the last stage showing the most elaborate look of a specific theme, does this mean we can choose to look like a cowboy all the way till end game?

A: Sure, if you have absolutely no trace of creativity in your body, you can do that.


Q: Even with the answer in Q&A 12 about armour customization, I fear armour rating scales and set bonuses will hinder it somewhat.

A: Obviously they do not WANT you to use the same armor pieces from level 1 to 50. how boring would that be.
The ability to keep and upgrade is meant as a back up solution, if you can't get a piece to fit - or really hate the looks of something.


Q: I am planning on playing a Sorcerer Corruption, and I am afraid that even specc'ed as a healer, I will have too many lightnings endangering the variety. What is the ratio of lighnings/non lightning abilities?

A: Its extremely hard to level as a healer, so i can't specifically speak to corruption. but there's a good few abilities to choose between. if you think lightning spam gets lame, go madness. it rapes butts.


Q: Can you redo flashpoints just to keep getting more dark or light side points?

A: Yes, and commendations.
It is highly inefficient in terms of farming DS/LS though. pick up diplomacy if you want to max out side rating.


Q: I'm curious on what style of tanking the consular shadow/sith assassin take when diving into the tanking trees. Is it mainly an avoidance tank? or is it closer to something like a paladin in world of warcraft with lots of force buffs, shields and AOEs. Or maybe something completely different?

A: I've been thinking more dk, but paladin might not be entirely wrong. you have buffs to increase your armor, so although you're wearing light armor, you're not a actually a squishy. also seems like assassin / shadow tanks have more hp than the other tank classes.
Maybe feral druid is a better comparison. actually, lets just call them shadow / assassin, andleave it at that.


Q: Assuming you've played several classes, which of the classes / advanced classes is the most complex one to play right now?

A: None of them are really tricky, cover system is an annoyance to me, so that's the closest i come to answer that question.


Q: A few people in the Q&As have asked about titles, but the testers have never given actual examples. Could you please name some of the titles that are in the game right now?

A: Sure, the unyielding is one of the LS titles i've seen. the destroyer, the loathsome are dark side titles. Enemy of the Republic is the world quest title from hoth for imps. scorcher of worlds is the world title from taris. warzone hero you get from winning a warzone three times.

Beyond that, there's lots of class titles. obv, sith classes have Accolyte, Apprentice, Lord and eventually Darth, among others. Jedi have Padawan, knight of the old republic, master, etc. trooper titles generally follow military ranks (duh?), bh has a hired gun title. that'll have to do for now.

Every class gets a title at the end of the level 30 class quests. Jedi become Masters, Sith become Lords. BH becomes Grand Champion. I dont really remember the others.


Q: I'm pretty sure you won't be able to, but because the consular and sith inquisitor have dual sided sabers, do you get to put in two color crystals, or more power crystals? Or will classes who mainly use 1 weapon get more powerful crystals than someone who can use two weapons / dual wield?

A: Nope, the double bladed sabers only have single set of crystals.


Q: Another question about the consular. I see the last companion is "Nadia Grell". I assume she will be female, as teh others are male. Could you tell what race she is? Could you also provide screen shots, if possible? Also, is she good, evil, etc?

A: Sorry, no idea, i dont have a JC. i asked in general, and was told that she's "annoying", for whatever that's worth.


Q: Are companions currently usable in flashpoints?

A: As long as your team isnt full, yes


Q: What are the major updates for the new build for testing?

A: A lot of issue fixing, none of the new announced content yet, but alot of the world appears to have been fixed. i'll see if i can write down the patch notes later, the lack of copy/paste is driving me insane


Q: Is one of the announced planets the supposed fully open world PVP planet, and do testers have access to it?

i have not seen any new planet in my galaxy map


Q: If I joined up with someone in the middle of a story arc, and he had made entirely different choices to me earlier in said arc, who's would the game treat as the choices made, and how does it decide?

A: Do you mean if you join a flashpoint after they've started?
When you enter a flashpoint, you get a warning telling you that your quest will be synched to your leaders quest.
Similar to wow in that "accept or leave" button you get when entering a saved instance


Q: Have the new vehicles recently seen at comic con been implemented yet?

A: Not as far as I can tell, but i havent traveled the galaxy looking for them either


Q: Could you please the list all the flashpoints you know for both sides and where they are set?

A: I dont remember the names of the goddie-two-shoes ones.

Black Talon - spacestation between starting world and home planet

Boarding Party / Foundry - White Nova (spaceship)

Directive 78 - Some spaceship, don't remember which

Battle of Ilum - Ilum. Duh.


Q: For Alderaan, Voidstar and Nar Shadaa warzones, what are the objectives and team sizes?

A: Alderaan is a capture and hold scenario. there are three massive cannons in the world, and the side that holds the cannons, uses them to shoot down the other party's ship. ship dies, you win.

Voidstar is essentially about taking over a spaceship. think isles of conquest. you fight your way from the landing dock to the control room. whoever does it fastest wins

Nar Shaddaa is about a flying ball of light and running around like a decapitated chicken. if anyone knows the purpose of this place, let me know. i just run around farming kills.


Q: Roughly what percentage of your quests are class quests after the capital worlds?

A: Less and less the further you go. overall for the game, I would estimate less than 10%.


Q: Are there any lightsaber/blaster colors other than Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Purple, Orange and 'Gold?'

A: Probably,but cant say ive seen any others yet.


Q: Would the group missions be relatively easy to complete with 4 DPS? What about flashpoints?

A: The ones before level 50, yes. at least doable, i dont know about easy.


Q: Bioware said that with enough light or dark side points you would get special force abilities. My question is will the non-force users also get new ability when they get really dark or light, and what are these?

A: I have maxed out both light and dark side on my chars, and they do not unlock any abilities at this point.
In fact, they dont unlock anything other than lame titles, and allows you to use sided equipment


Q: In a few of these Q&A's it was said that the gear doesnt have as much stats and the modification slots is where you get your stats. My question is where do you get the stuff for the slots, is it drops, vendors, crafting or all of the above. Also if it is crafting is it just one profession that makes them or item specific mod slot items from different professions?


A: Cybertech crafts for non force users, artifice crafts for force users, also from vendors and quest rewards.


Q: It was mentioned in the last Q&A that the IA Operative AC is broken. Could you expand on this? I read somewhere that Operative heals are OP, so does this just mean the Operative dps builds are broken or was that information incorrect? If it is just dps, is only broken because it isn't comparable to the Sniper AC which is supposedly OP currently?

A: The class is not broken in itself, but A LOT of the skills you pick up in the "talent tree" doesn't do anything. that's all.
This isn't unique to IAs, they just seem to have more broken shit than the average.


Q: How effective is the lobby-based system when it comes to forming flashpoint groups?

A: It isn't. expect a lot of time to get a group together, and even more time for everyoe to get their asses TO the flashpoint.


Q: More questions regarding the Sith Sorcerer. Talent trees, we know corruption is the healing tree and lightening is DPS (I think). The madness tree, is that PvP or an augment tree?

A: Its pretty hard to tell what it is. its sort of a caster/melee hybrid, and it's a shitload of fun to play, but i'm not sure i'd want to be melee in pvp if my class actually has ranged options.


Q: In the Q&A No.12 the tester explained that a sorcerer specced in Madness was awesome, if you can are you able to be more specific please as to why?

A: Mostly because lightning = standing still and spamming shit on a pack where you've CCed everything. Where as madness goes toe to toe and just rapes shit. a lot of the talents are used for changing cast time abilities to instants, so they're more useful in melee combat.
All in all, its good times.


Q: Is there a way to type Aurebesh characters in-game? This would be a sweet addition to the game imo.

A: Well, i've already screwed up a aurebesh question before, so I'm gonna say "dont know" on this one. i havent seen any way to do it, but who knows.


Q: For non-force user classes such as Bounty Hunters and Troopers, what does LS/DS gear look like for them. Maybe it's just me but it seems rather hard to envision what a DS trooper would look like (in that a trooper, darkside or otherwise, would probably wear the same style of armor). Same goes for Smugglers, Agents and Bounty Hinters Force users on the other hard have a very distinct look (you can easily tell a light sith from a normal sith).

A: So far it just seems to be color hues - light side = bright, dark side = well, dark.


Q: I was just wondering do certain class quests have impacts on other class stories? For example Im playing on a class mission for my imperial agent but the effect of my mission is mentioned to another class through his class quest even just a short remark from a npc like " Make it quick soldier, I have to head over to *insert name* and see if we can salvage anything from destruction of our southern facility, bloody agents keep getting in" (of course this would be scripted and not refer to any specific imperial agent character but still refers to the other class and how they impacted the world)

A: No they don't. however, the information you learn in the different quests do form some kind of "total" story combined, so if you play two different classes, you can get some "aha moments" from info you got that fits into the others. But no, your story only affects you.


Q: Can you go in detail about the skilltrees and playstyle from the sith marauder and sith assassin?
So far we know that the SA has one tree for tanking but what about the other 2 and how are they different regarding the play style?
Is one for kinda let me say pvp, focus in stealth and ambush people and the other one for pve?

A: Yeah, you pretty much got it spot on. all classes seems to have 1 tree that is at least tilted towards pvp; which typically means reducting of survival cooldowns and burst damage.
Then you have tanking + a regular raiding dps tree. the raiding dps trees typically add stuff like damage over time and armor debuffs etc to your abilities.
The same for marauder where are the differences, cause i cant decide between those 2 classes.
Maybe you can kinda compare them to the classes from wow most people will know what you are talking about.
Its hard to compare, but my general idea has been marauder = frost DK. its hard to peg down assassin, its easy to say rogue because of stealth and backstab, but it still plays very differently. a bit lich-like, if I can go into general fantasy instead of MMOs.


Q: How do attributes apply to certain AC's? So if i have a Juggernaut or an Assassin, will I need willpower to increase my Force ability damage, or does strengh increase thoose aswell (force scream, shock came to mind). Or as an operative, will I need Cunning for droid dmg, aim for blasters and strenght for my knive (which would be a bit odd imo)?

A: Yes you do. every class needs 3 abilities. you balance them towards how you want to spec your char. i'll use my merc as example;
Because i've stacked a shitton of +accuracy, my blasters do wicked damage. because of that, i prefer Aim over Cunning (but I still want as much as humanly possible for both).
If i had ignored my hit rating, and just focused on missiles and boombooms, i'd pick cunning over aim.
Same thing for force user classes, although i think it is a little bit more pre-defined. but yes, your warrior/knight still wants willpower, just not quite as much as an inq/consular do.


Q: I love stealth. One tester mentioned that an operative is horribly broken. Can you give us an insight how much broken it is? Is it useable, especially in pvp? And if not, is BW aware of this?

A: Already answered above


Q: Would one of you be kind enough to leak Assassin and Operative skilltrees, fully at best?

A: As said above, i'll see about it when i have a lot of time to spare. takes a while to write down full skill trees.


Q: Is open pvp rewarded? Is it competitive to instanced pvp, so does BW emphasize people to do open pvp?

A: All beta servers are pve. there doesnt appear to be any rewards as far as i can tell


Q: Revan has been mentioned in different Q&A. My question is : do Revan has a voice in TOR ? If yes what does his voice sound like ?

A: Yes he does, i seriously do not know how to describe someones voice. he sounds like a dude, that's kinda pissed off about us killing his companion.


Q: Can you tell us some of your best moments in the game ? Is the story captivating ?

A: Yeah, the level 30 class story quests are, for me, the first massive highlights. they're pretty spectacular for every class.


Q: Do the beta tester will receive some in-game bonus when the finished game is released ?

A: I hope not. there's three ways of getting into the beta;

1) random selection

2) friends at bioware

3) bought account/key

Neither of those should be rewarded.


Q: How many characters can you create on an account ? Enough "space" to create one for each class ?

A: 8 at this time.


Q: If you are a Dark Side character can you corrupt you re light side companions? (or the other way around) For exemple if my Jedi Knight character goes to the Dark Side can he turn h's Jedi compagnon to the Dark Side?

A: It doesnt appear like they have any LS/DS rating... I do feel like their attitudes change a bit with higher affection, but you're never going to make Vette a mean bitch.


Q: In SWTOR, have you heard of someone or played the game on 3 monitors using Nvidia Surround or AMD Eyefinity?

A: Nope, i've seen people on forum saying they play with dual monitors, but i have no idea what kind of setup they're using.


Q: Is there any official talk about player bounties being made a part of the game for the bounty hunters?

A: Nope. i wouldn't expect this to make it into the game ever. if it does, not for a long time.



Q: I think a lot of us planning to buy a new PC/laptop just for SWTOR.
What system specs will be required to play for max graphic for a higher resolution (1280x1024, 1920x1080 etc.)

A: I can do 1280x1024 on a macbook pro, and 1920x1080 on an i7 with gtx 460.


Q: In your experience from PVP, which faction is more dominant?

A: There's no real faction bias. 90% of the people invited to the beta are bad at playing. so if you're lucky enough to have a good group, you'll win.


Q: As of right now, we know that you can have two hot bars on the bottom, one of the right, and one on the left of the screen. Can you not have all four on the bottom of the screen? Have many people expressed their (dis)pleasure with that UI decision?

A: Nope, you can't. As far as I can tell, almost everyone hates the UI.


Q: How much of the UI can we customize? Can we resize/move most of it?

A: Not customizable at all.


Q: So apparently Ilum is now a solo planet. Could we get a tester's opinion on why this change was made?

A: God knows, seems they just scaled down the content to make it soloable. it makes very little sense to me.


Q: Any chance of getting the patch notes from the new beta client that was put up on the 20th?

A: Can you ask bioware to make the launcher copy/paste-able? i'll see about doing it when i have some more time


Q: How is Trooper gameplay (preferably Commando)? I haven't seen any videos or information about Troopers recently. Are the animations clean? How is the ammo system?

A: Brutal damage, a gun that means you just HAVE to have a small penis. the ammo system seems to regenerate better than heat. for whatever that's worth.
Haven't played much trooper, but commando seems badass. they hurt in pvp.


Q: I've seen a lot of people wondering about the size of this game, and it often factors into the "How linear is this game?" debates. So, hopefully with your help we can resolve this.

A: From 1-50 it isnt just linear, it's on rails. it plays like a single player rpg.


Q: What, of the planets you've seen, is the absolute BIGGEST planet? And how big is it?

A: They seem to get bigger the higher level, so i'd guess i'd say corellia. hard to tell though, since corellia is a rampacked city planet, where as hoth is pretty much deserted. so its really hard to compare the two.


Q: Please don't refer to "your average WoW zones" when describing the size, because that just gets grossly misinterpreted by everyone. I'm assuming you've played WoW; I haven't, but it's the MMO standard and is a good way to translate for people. If possible, describe which WoW zones you could put together to get a zone about the size of (biggest planet). If you're feeling generous, could you do that same rough equivalency for as many other planets as possible? Hopefully this will give the MMO vets out there a pretty accurate idea of the size of this game, or at least of specific planets.

A: Its really hard to answer, especially when you take away my scale of reference. what should i compare to? SWG? everything is tiny compared to swg. but that could be said about every mmo not named EVE online.
Up to level 25-30, the planets feel a bit packed and small. post 30, it opens up, and you have fairly considerable space to play with.
Zones aren't huge, but they're large enough i'd say. except taris. taris is small.


Q: Is the Exile from KotOR II mentioned at all or often? Does her story play even a minor part in any character quests?

A: Not that I've noticed. Kotor 2 wasnt a bioware game, for all i know, they dont even have the rights to use anything from that game.


Q: Not sure if this will be the same tester as the last Q&A, but are you certain the Agent companion Ensign Temple is male? Because I was snooping around on IMDb and on the TOR page it shows the name "Ensign Raina Temple", and the first name (Raina) sounds very feminine to me. Add to that, Ensign Temple has a female voice actor listed.

A: I am the same, and no, i could very well have switched a couple of them, i'm not intimately familiar with IA. i've only actually played ia with kaliyo, and the ia i usually group with always uses scorpio.


Q: I saw a leaked pic of a Jedi with a single saber in one hand and a double bladed on the other. Have you seen anything like this on the beta?

A: Its a bug. same thig that allows a mercenary to equip both 2 guns and a shield, i suspect.
I haven't seen anyone doing it in this patch, so I'm guessing its fixed.


Q: When creating a character, can you pick a surname for your character, like Anakin Skywalker, or would you be stuck with Anakin for the whole game? Are spaces counted as legal characters, so that even if it doesn't let you pick a surname, you can give yourself one anyway?

A: No surnames, you can only separate names with - and '.


Q: Will there be any sort of gimping caused by what alignment you are? My specific worry is, because a lot of gear is alignment specific, minority players who go against the alignment norm of their faction (lightside Empire/darkside Republic) will have a better chance at getting group item drops. To clarify, if I'm the only lightside Sith in a group of four and two items drop, one lightside and one darkside helmet, I will be the only one needing on the roll for the lightside helmet. Can you shed any light on this?

A: I think you would definitely be rewarded by playing a light sided sith, yes. they almost confirmed that at least some raid loot also has LS/DS requirements (certainly not all of it). im pretty convinced that both Republic and Empire will have a HUGE majority of dark sided chars because HERP DERP I KILL EVERYONE is funny to most kids. so yeah, you want easier loot, go light sided.


Q: I know in a previous Q&A you gave the game a rating of a 6.5 but i saw that you took many factors in that will most likely have been fixed when the game is released so i was wondering what would you rate the game 1-10 if you where to think about the game without any noticeable problems/bugs? (think how the game would be on release day)

A: I kinda answered this last week, but i'm giving it a hella good rating as an RPG. If it was kotor 3, a 9.5.
As an mmo, i really don't want to pass judgment. they have fixed A LOT of issues, but i'm still not convinced there's much to do on 50


Q: I was searching around and looking for what types of 'pull'or 'initial engagement' type abilities the Assassin has vs. the other tanks.
For example:

A: The Juggernaut has a force leap, force pull, and saber throw with which he can use to engage mobs or a boss and establish initial aggro.
The Powertech has a jetpack assisted charge, rope pull, and rockets(with added threat) which he can use.


Q: What does the Assassin use? The obvious one is a medium? ranged

A: Lightning attack. I haven't found another? Is there an expectation. That they should stealth and then sprint in for one? Something else?
You wouldn't pull as an assassin. the huge advantage they have, is being able to stealth up, sap an add, and open the fight directly on the boss, or at any location in the room they want.