chat log - April 19, 2007 - Chapter 6

[Hokum]

http://swg.stratics.com/content/?Cat=264&uid=900

Brekkee: The topic of discussion is Chapter 6, with a focus on Beast Master and Story Teller. We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.

DeadMeat: Hello, this is DeadMeat, I am the SOE producer for Star Wars Galaxies

Blixtev: Howdy Everyone! Blixtev, Lead Designer of SWG here. Lets see some good ontopic questions please!

jneri: Hey everybody this is Jake from LucasArts, thanks for showing up to the chat...Chapter 6 is getting close!

Pex: Hi there. I'm Jason Ryan, also known as Pex. I'm the SOE Online Events Manager. I provide Dev support for player events.

Teesquared: Hello, I'm Tony Tyson, Star Wars Galaxies Technical Director.

Vapor: Hello everyone, my name is David and I am an Associate Producer on Galaxies.

Shadowbrak: Good evening all. My name is Travis Hicks; I am a system designer working on the Beast Master system for chapter 6.

Neif: Hey guys, this is Tim from LucasArts, aka Neif

Tunso: Hello again everyone, this is Mark Halash. I’m a Game Designer on SWG. This publish I’ve been working on the Expertise portion of the new Beast Mastery system.

Loche: Hi everyone! I am Jesse Benjamin (Loche), a game designer.

DeadMeat: I don't have a real name

Acera: when is ch 6 coming out?

DeadMeat: Should be hitting the test center early next week.

Starbuck1771: what will the chapter gift be?

Neif: Hey Starbuck, we don't to give it all away yet, but I'll say this: It's a housing decoration with a twist, something new.

Aedales: It was said on the forums the Beastmaster will be something everyone has but needs to spend Expertise on. Is this true and if so do we have to use our current expertise or do we get a couple of more points to add?

Tunso: Beast Mastery will require a significant portion of your expertise points in order to get the most out of it. There’s two main branches, one for creating and engineering pets and another that deals solely with pet combat. The entire tree will take up all 45 of your current expertise points. However, if you only go down on side of the tree you will have some points left over to buy expertise in other areas of your class.

stiba: a question id like put forward please: The past year we've seen alot of changes within SWG but so little content,are we to see any expansions coming our way this year?

jneri: No expansions are planned for this year, but plenty of chapters are stiba

Kye: How will mounts be handled in the new system?

Loche: You will take the expertise to train mounts; you then mark an egg as a mount. You then sell that egg to other players if you wish.

Shadaw: How long is the hatching process?

Blixtev: Two factors go into the length of the entire incubation process, one is the functionality rating of the station, another is expertise boxes purchased. The full cycle from DNA to Hatchling should take about 2-4 days.

Zeta: Will we be able to rename our currently owned pets under this new system? Without having to take them
through the full growth process again?

Shadowbrak: You can rename your pet at any time via a radial menu option. A pet that your currently have will need to be converted to DNA and taken through the Incubation process.

Jiwarri: Will we be able to chose the color of the pet, like bio-engineers under the old system could?

Loche: Yes, you can color your pet during incubation. Oh and on the color, your pets color will have significance

DalakG: what will story teller actually do?

Shadowbrak: Storyteller is an enhancement on our player event perks. Through this system you can place NPC’s with storyteller determined levels, names and loot items, various props and even special particle effects.

Fariq_Asaka: Is the Rebel Themepark still scheduled for 6 and what info can you give us about it?

Blixtev: Still on track for an updated Rebel themepark, hopefully y'all will enjoy the new quest content! No details beyond play it out.

Kye: What type of pet specials can we look forward to?

Shadowbrak: Standard damage and defensive abilities with a few more utility ones such as chasing down an opponent and even intercepting attacks meant for the master. Currently there are 21 abilities ready to go with more being added.

Askikaga: What are some of the various items/'actors' that will be incorporated into the storyteller aspect?

Pex: Most of the items from the Event Perks will reappear, but we are adding some cool new props such as a crashed transport (really crashed, not just psarking), destroyed podracer, escape pod, etc We are putting in a number of spawnable MOBs of various flavors that you will be able to set the CL. This means you should be able to spawn high-level Tuskens and other MOBS.

Joakizmo: Will we be able to drop one of the new pets in the house like decoration? Or will they go straight to the datapad as soon as we hatch the egg?

Loche: No, only pets from pre chapter 6 can be made into decoration. All new beasts go straight from egg to beast.

Jeram: What professions will make the incubators, I know Structures is final, anyone else needed?

Blixtev: Structures does the final construction of the incubator however most of the sub components for incubators come from Engineering. There is also an additional 12 items scattered out for refining the Hydrolases enzymes with the final combine for the extraction tool being a Weaponsmith combine.

Mathayus: Are there any plans to increase the expertise points as more expertise is added? This would be a good way to head back towards the old sandbox playstyle, guys...

DeadMeat: We do not want everyone to become a full Beastmaster. Players will have to choose how they want to play and what expertise makes sense for that.

Starbuck1771: why did you allow rancors as pets again after say there would be a pet size limit?

Loche: We shrunk the oversized pets down to a more manageable size. Our “beast” rancors will be smaller than their wild counterparts.

telexx: Greetings. I was wonder if this Beast Master profession will be comparable to the first CH that was pre-CU, or the revamped one you released before removing it. I really hope it's the original version. Thanks for bringing it back regardless...

Blixtev: The Beast Master system would beat up and take the lunch money away from the old CH system no matter what era the CH system. The team has done a stellar job creating one of the most in depth systems I've seen in an MMO. Just wait until you see it in action. I'm excited about it as you can tell =)

Aiviak: Are incubators going to be made different qualities based on resources used, similar to crafting stations? Or will these items all be the same quality. Also, if quality does matter, what will it effect in the outcome of a pet?

Loche: Yes, your resources and components will play a big role in your incubators quality. It will effect the stats and mutation probability.

Metar: Will the action costs for abilities that use a percent based continue to use the total amount of action or will they be changed to use unmodified action like it was stated they should a while ago?

Shadowbrak: Beasts have 100 action and the cost of beast abilities are scaled appropriately. The concept is quick drain and quick regeneration.

vimes: hi all any chance we can get a confirmation on being able to pull pets in instances (i.e. vette hk SK etc)

Teesquared: Currently there are some issues with pets in instances. We are working hard on getting these issues resolved but we cannot guarantee it will make it in Chapter 6.

vaygirl: Will there be many creatures that do not yield DNA? For instance, Krayt Dragons and Kimo's... will they be able to be sampled?

Blixtev: There are many of the "cooler" "rarer" creatures that we have made so they can't be sampled but some of them can be earned through mutations in the incubation process. Try and discover all the mutations! I like exclamation points as you can tell!

Jiwarri: Will "your mount slows down to prepare for combat" be removed? It's a relic from the time we could actually fight from our mounts and serves no purpose now.

jneri: That’s a bug and I will see if it’s in the database. If its not there, we will add it.

Askikaga: Will Lava Fleas Obtained From extracting DNA from them be able to go through lava like the ones obtained as a reward?

Loche: Lava Fleas are not currently harvestable.

Knai_Bria What new event perks will there be coming with the new story teller feature?

Pex: The big addition to Storyteller is the ability to spawn attackable mobs and trigger one-time particle effects. You will also be able to move objects in the world similar to inside a house. As for new objects, the aforementioned crashed transport will be available as will the YT-1300, 2400 and more.. We will be adding more items over time.

Izz: Will any significant updates be made to any other professions on chapter 6?

jneri: There are no other profession changes in 6 outside of Beastmaster, but just wait till you get a chance to play it. As Blix said it really rocks and all players can check it out, the expertise is available for everyone.

Noise: Will pets currently in deed form act the same as those currently in the datapad?

Loche: We intend to have the old BE deeds function exactly the same as the old pets converted into a decoration item

Ledford: We haven't heard much about Story Teller, we can we plan on hearing something about it?

DeadMeat: We will be having a Friday Feature on Story Teller soon. Suffice it to say that it is a very flexible system for creating cool stories. Most things are world builders can do, you will be able to do.

Cindal: Must existing pets in the datapad be removed? and if so how soon after C6 hits?

Loche: No, you don’t have to convert them. But if you don’t, you cannot play with them in the new system. They will just stay in your datapad.

Iny: With the options for beastmaster be different with the different Profession. Will the Entertainer and Trader ents be different from normal combat professions?

Blixtev: Our plan is over time to add different abilities for the different Professions, so a Medic may have a unique special to train Beasts vs. a Trader. Not all our abilities will be combat based either. Our current favorite non combat ability is 'Truffle Pig' . I'm sure you all can't wait to find out what it does...

Mathayus: How is the Story Teller being classified, expertise, or just abilities?

Pex: Storyteller is technically item based. Anyone will be able to use Storyteller items. Tokens will be purchased in a similar fashion to the Event Perks. Expertise will not be needed, nor will abilities be put towards this system. We want role-players and combat-oriented players to have the ability to set up their own events.

Jeram Will mounts be tradable?

Loche: yes, in egg form. Once hatched, the mount is no longer trade-able.

Noise: With the new "sub-class" of Beast Master will we see additional sub-classes like this in the future?

DeadMeat: I certainly hope...We have Gardener on our list down the road as something we would like to try. There are a ton of opportunities there, and if Beast Master works as well as we hope, I can imagine others being proposed.

pal: Are the pets perma-death or will they be like current pets and when they die they just say in world and get up or like droids and once they die they get packed up

Tunso: We’d like you to become attached to your beasts so obviously we wouldn’t want to inflict perma-death on them. Anybody that is able to control a beast will be able also be able to revive it should it be more or less killed. Mechanically speaking though, when your pet dies it will stay a corpse until you take the time to revive it. And only the owner is able to revive it.

cerian: once a pet is fully trained will a player still need to have expertise points in beastmaster

Blixtev: The power level of the Beast is always relevant to the expertise of the Master. So if you remove your expertise boxes from Beast Master your pets power level will shrink as well. Yes we thought ahead and knew people would try and game the system by leveling the Beasts and returning back to their old profession with ultimate beast power =)

Cindal: Will specials in existing pets (like disease, dizzy, ranged attack) transfer with the DNA?

Shadowbrak: Abilities from the existing system, even if they have a counterpart in the new system, will not carry over.

Noise: ooooh colors will affect pets? Kind of like color crystals?

Loche: Kind of. The color Hue of your beast will be an indicator towards what type of pet they are. For instance, a warm colored pet was grown to be a more damage-dealing type. The Friday Feature going out tomorrow will explain more about this.

pirate101: The Housing Purge that will take place on June 5th, is that like a 1 time event like restuss or will it be ongoing to prevent dead structures on servers?

DeadMeat: We will continue with purges in the future, but it is not a continuous running process and it may not always involve the type of event (the bombers and all) that we are doing for this first one.

Guest64: What player dropped NPCs and loot can we expect to see with the storyteller additions?

Pex: We don't want Storyteller to be a system that people exploit.. MOBs are meant to be fun combat encounters and not as a way to grind levels. You can add an item from your inventory to a Storyteller MOB, but normally they will not provide XP or loot. If they did you would just grab tokens and gank mobs in front of your PA hall.

Duragoth: Will the "Storyteller" event perks be stackable? (or rather to say, will we be able to place one event on top of the other, or will they have to be placed next to each other like the current event perks)

Pex: The placement restrictions on Storyteller have been loosened up significantly. We do have to check against you losing an item inside another item. Overall, setting up objects should be much easier and similar to placing items in a house.

Rieka: Ok Cross breading, instead of just one strand of DNA being able to but 2 or more in (only if they are compatible together) to make even rarer and more unique creatures?

Loche: Cross breading is not planned at this time.

heightchKETTEMOORDARK: will there be a balance pass on commandos in chapter 6?

DeadMeat: We have been looking at all of the professions since adding the expertise. We have a number of plans here, but will not do them immediately with Chapter 6. It is best to limit the number of changes you make to a system like this, and we want the focus right now on Beast Master.

pirate101: Recently, we were given a poll for pve content with majority wanting highend pve ground content, when will we see come new pve content placed into the game eg. new planet, new high end quests etc

Neif: High end PvE content is definitely something we'll be going for in Chapter 7. As far as next Chapter 6, we're adding a high-end quest series you'll like.

jedicowboy: will we get a incubator that's low stats to start with?

Blixtev: I'm am sure every server will have a plethora of Structure Traders willing to get you as many incubators as you want to purchase =)

Fariq_Asaka: Any hints as to what you have in store for Chapter 7

DeadMeat: Chapter 7 will reflect what we heard in our polling for sure. In fact I can say that it...ahhh......

Teege: Will there be a revamp to current wild creature levels? i.e... Will rancors be scary again?

Shadowbrak: The goal is for a creature to be “scary” for their appropriate challenge level, and not only be somewhat of a challenge when leveled to 90. There are a number of changes in the works that will hopefully make those level 50 Rancor be mighty scary to Level 50 players.

Anon686: How will level 90 crafter fair if he takes up the full beast master line?

Blixtev: A full Trader will do okay in combat if he has full Beast Master Expertise if they get the sudden urge while crafting to run outside and blast something. For the most part their custom abilities for Beasts will be tailored towards helping them do what they do best, craft things.

Rubix3: As far as sampling creatures, with those whose combat levels are above yours, will there be the reintro of camo kits so you can indeed get the DNA?

Loche: You will be able to sample creatures higher level than you. We are not, currently, reintroducing camo kits.

avamie: will the story teller be able to create dungeons to run through? if not, where will they be able to spawn mobs?

Pex: We do not currently have dungeons or bunkers planned for storyteller. The Storyteller MOBs can be spawned in the wild and in areas where you have zoning rights. Basically, anywhere you can place a house.

Brekkee: That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the folks from Star Wars Galaxies for coming!

Vapor: Thanks for coming, see you in game!

Loche: Thanks for coming out tonight, great questions!

DeadMeat: Wow...What a great chat folks! A ton of excellent questions. Be sure to watch the TC for Chapter 6 next week and go hammer it! This is a big system and we will be counting on our testers to help us find the right balance. We will be doing a number of features to give you more detailed info.

Pex: Thanks for all the questions. Come to the Events Forum to discuss player events and Storyteller. Bye all!

Neif: Thanks everybody, goodbye!

Blixtev: Thanks for coming out tonight, I hope you all show up next week on Test and Unleash the Beasts!!!

Teesquared: Farewell all. See you next time!

Shadowbrak: Thanks for making it out tonight everyone.

Tunso: Thanks for coming everyone and thank you Stratics for another great chat!

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