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robiwan
Moderator
1035 Posts |
 Posted - 12/03/2008 : 21:32:25
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Star Wars Galaxies Exclusive Interview 1st Part
The following questions were answered by Tim Temmerman, aka Neif, associate producer at Lucas Arts.
Paaar: What would you consider your team's greatest strength- in terms of creativity, dedication- etc?
Neif: Our team’s greatest strength is easily our commitment to Star Wars Galaxies and delivering the ultimate Star Wars experience to our players. Each bit of content we develop is another step towards giving players complete immersion in Galaxies, and that’s what we pride ourselves on. It’s why you’ll see a range of content, from spy additions to further customization of entertainer instruments.
Paaar: Would your team place Profession changes or Bug fixes higher on your priority list?
Neif: Everything from new content to bug fixes makes the game a better place to play, which is why we’re focused on two development tracks this year – Updates and Chapters – to address everything. The updates will cover balance changes, bug fixes, and small day-to-day features, while the Chapters will bring us big new content – new heroics, new collections, and new weapons and armor.
Paaar: How many combined hours does your department work every day?
Neif: Too many? Not enough? It really varies, depending on the part of the Update and Chapter cycles we’re on.
Paaar: When considering changes for SWG, do you listen more to Senators or the community majority?
Neif: We consider the Senators the voice of the community majority, but we definitely note any inconsistencies between the two. If you look at the SWG forums, you’ll see that we quite frequently poll the community majority on a variety of topics. Our community group does a great job of assembling data from all over the forums, giving us a macro view of the playerbase opinion.
Paaar: Does everyone on your team have player characters in SWG?
Neif: Of course! But we don’t reveal where we play. I do, however, have a fondness for Starsider.
Paaar: Would your team undo any past changes if given the opportunity?
Neif: Well, we definitely could have communicated changes better in the past, but we’ve always done what we thought was best in terms of development for the game. We’ve enhanced our communication between the dev team and the community, and we really feel like we’re on the same wavelength as the players.
Paaar: How often does your team search the forums for community and Senator responses?
Neif: Weekly, and on special requests – for example if we’re discussing a particular issue as a team and have trouble agreeing on a solution, we’ll often turn to the community team to gain insight on the players’ suggested solutions.
Paaar: What's your team's goal for SWG in the next year or two?
Neif: We’re continuing to listen to the community and want to develop content they want to see. We want to further flesh out the Star Wars universe in Galaxies, and really give players the tools and content that allow them to make the game their own.
Paaar: How would you gauge the response for Game Update 1, to the Spies and Smugglers?
Neif: While the reaction was generally positive, this definitely falls into the "could’ve communicated better" category. We didn’t properly explain what was coming down the pipeline for smugglers, so naturally there was some disappointment when we didn’t deliver a full smuggler system, which is what the players were envisioning.
Paaar: Even though their update has passed, are the profs still undergoing changes and balances after the community response was taken?
Neif: Yes, we are always adjusting the professions beyond the release of the update. Our team is still looking at the spy cloak breaking too easily, for example, and hope to hotfix that issue.
Paaar: What do you consider to be the greatest quality of Star Wars Galaxies itself- player kindness, interactivity, craft, etc?
Neif: The game really allows players to connect with the Star Wars saga the way they want – community, role-playing, storyteller system, everything. It’s a full-immersion Star Wars experience, and I think that’s something only our game can provide. We’ve got years of content built up, and from it, a game so deep that players and designers alike can get lost in the intricacies each system.
Paaar: In terms of the SWG's status right now, is the glass half empty or half full?
Neif: Definitely half full. We’ve added a lot of great content over the past two years, and we’re continuing strong in 2008 with a ton of new features, content, updates, etc.
Paaar: Why are the restrictions on the Ewok Flower Bouquet set so players cannot drop it in their house?
Neif: We’ll look into that. As it is, the flowers were simply meant to be a celebratory piece to carry around for the holidays, but we can check into making them a droppable decoration.
Paaar: I'd like to thank Lucas Arts for taking the time for this interview!
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I have waited and planned and built my strength for fifteen thousand years. I have evolved. It is time.
(Omnius Evermind)
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Feyd'Rautha Saresh (Medic, Rebel Alliance, Europe-Chimaera), Robe Saresh (Force Sensitive, Rebel Alliance, Europe-Chimaera)
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robiwan
Moderator
1035 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2008 : 21:32:56
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Star Wars Galaxies Exclusive Interview 2nd Part
The SWG Stratics series of exclusive interviews continues with Tim Temmerman, aka Neif, associate producer at Lucas Arts!
First, here are some screenshots of the Valahorn and the Metal Fan.
http://swg.stratics.com/content/news/images/3118.jpg
http://swg.stratics.com/content/news/images/3781.jpg
http://swg.stratics.com/content/news/images/3782.jpg
The SWG community had several questions about the next update and other areas of concern within the game. See what was on their mind and what Neif had to say.
RainStar: The Metal Fan looks awesome! Who designed it?
Neif: Our brilliant artists, of course! We expanded our art team recently, and they’ve been doing some great stuff (remember the mutated creatures?)
RainStar: The fan is currently a right hand only prop. Any chance the entertainers could get this as dual wield?
Neif: There is a left-hand fan coming, but we can’t tell you how to get it! Rest assured though, entertainers will be able to dual wield.
RainStar: There is a great deal of unrest within the Trader (mostly Munitions) and the Entertainer profession communities. While it is understood that combat is the straw that stirs the drink, are you still committed to non-combat professions and non-combat play styles?
Neif: Yes, absolutely we are committed to the trader and entertainer professions. Indeed, combat is the straw that stirs the drink, but the entertainer and trader professions are like the ice -- a necessary part of the community and a staple of the profession interactions.
RainStar: How often will we see continued work on the professions, like Entertainer, outside their update windows?
Neif: As I mentioned before, we want to give something for everyone beyond just the profession updates. In Chapter 9, for example, we’re looking at getting chefs into the mix for some collection items. For entertainers, we’re working on an instrument for a later release.
RainStar: Medics who are CL 80+ report that the DoT from Neurotoxin have a slim chance of applying. Shouldn't higher CLs have a greater chance to apply the DoT?
Neif: Hmm, interesting. Our QA team did not find this happening. In fact they noticed a 100% proc for the DoT. Nonetheless, we’ll keep our eye on it.
RainStar: Will Medics be able to apply serotonin purge to the list of debuffs fired with the Doom special?
Neif: Currently no, but it’s something we’ll consider.
RainStar: Is it intended that buffs of other group members don't show up in the group window anymore?
Neif: We just tested this, and the buffs indeed show up in the group window. One note though, only a maximum of eight buffs will show per character in the group window.
RainStar: There are times when heals as well as specials in other professions are not firing. Will this be addressed in the update?
Neif: This is an ongoing issue we are making headway on, but will not completely resolve for this Update. That said, we haven’t noticed it happening as much as it used to.
RainStar: The 57th Vet reward is very nice! One thing though, the community would like it so that this is a travel option instead of having to launch their ships. Any chance you can make the change?
Neif: Ah, glad you like the reward! We’d actually like to keep it as a pilot’s reward – we like the sense of immersion that comes from flying to the system with your house, and touching down there from orbit. Also, we don’t want to devalue our current personal transport vehicles (ships that a player can call down anywhere for an instant lift to a Starport).
RainStar: Will you delay the Update launch until you are sure all the fixes are working?
Neif: Yes! We are striving for quality on all of our releases, and if there are any fixes that are not working as designed, we will delay the patch. Hopefully this sits well with the players – we’d prefer to launch quality content a little later rather than put out mediocre content to meet a date.
RainStar: The new poll seems to have many thinking that the SWG Devs do not play the game. Would you please clear up the confusion?
Neif: Quite the contrary, we feel this poll speaks to the connection our players feel with the dev team. Because our dev and community team play the game and constantly post in the forums, we’re not surprised players would most like to hang out with us in-game. Hopefully this is something we can do in the future -- we are looking into it now.
RainStar: The announcement regarding CSRs and the AFK issue didn't go over too well. Will you still be looking at ways to reduce or halt AFK play?
Neif: We’ve made a decision to no longer spend valuable CSR time chasing down non-intrusive AFKers. The keyword here is non-intrusive. We are dedicated to busting and banning credit farmers and exploiters. However, if a player wants to level up their new beast and is not harming other players by being AFK, we will not actively pursue them with CSRs. This should free up more time to go after the intrusive farmers and exploiters.
RainStar: The announcement of Exar Kun being added goes against the current timeline which is aggravating the community. What is your response?
Neif: Have no fears, the continuity of the SWG timeline is not disturbed by our Exar Kun heroic. I can’t reveal how he makes his appearance in-game, but it fits in the continuity of him binding his spirit to the temples on Yavin IV. As a general comment, I’d like to say that there are certainly times when we have to bend the timeline continuity to fit the gameplay of the player base. However, NPCs like Exar Kun we keep in strict guidance with Star Wars canon. In fact, any time we use key characters we have a strict submission process through Lucas Licensing that basically has to pass through the top Star Wars fiction gurus.
RainStar: As it is now, the spoken text from both Sean and Victor indicates that the Bestine election quest is repeatable. Players report that they have tried voting in these elections after receiving an award from a previous election but it appears to be bugged. Those of us with more than one account have tested it and it still fails, when the election is over the bug shows up. Players are told by Sean or Victor they are greedy and refuse to give the reward for voting for them.
The Bestine Museum quest is bugged as well. The painting schematic is bugged on several servers whereas players do not have the option to buy it even after the vote is over. There is supposed to be a different schematic every time yet some servers have received only one since the quest started. Are you looking into the Bestine Museum bugs?
Neif: Thanks for the heads up on these. We haven’t seen this occurring but I’ll be sure to work with SOE to investigate them right away.
RainStar: All in all, this update looks great! Anything else you'd care to add?
Neif: On behalf of the whole team, I just wanted to say thanks to the community for playing, and we hope everyone likes our upcoming content. Expect to see more frequent releases through Updates and Chapters, which means less downtime between new fun stuff and fixes. As usual, we have our ear closely tuned to the forums, so please feel free to voice your opinions and ideas there.
RainStar: Thanks again for answering another round of questions!
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I have waited and planned and built my strength for fifteen thousand years. I have evolved. It is time.
(Omnius Evermind)
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Feyd'Rautha Saresh (Medic, Rebel Alliance, Europe-Chimaera), Robe Saresh (Force Sensitive, Rebel Alliance, Europe-Chimaera)
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Edited by - robiwan on 12/03/2008 21:35:27 |
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