Last year in April, we had a Q&A by the developers where they answered sith ton of questions that are still repeated in the forums, and elsewhere. So I decided to compile all the useful answers we had from the previous Q&A, and hopefully if we do get another Q&A with the developers, we can avoid repeating the same questions and focus on newer, more relevant questions
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Replies
drklrdbill: Can we get a practice arena mode?
1. There are other features that, we feel, are higher impact/priority to the playerbase. We know this is a common request, but we think there are some more "fun" things that we can produce instead. If we ultimately find that we have room and nothing competing in priority, we'd consider picking it up.
2. A practice mode (at least what we see commonly requested for) would be unbounded in its time commitment (meaning you could play it all the time and unlimitedly). We are aware of the current time the game requests of player, we are hesitant to add more to it at this time.
3. Having added Simming to Galactic War, we are looking at how much people play through it voluntarily, as it is a leading indicator of how much people want to play something like a Practice Mode.
Animefangod1: I was wondering if it was possible and if you guys ever would add a feature where you could watch your battles with other players so you could see where you are having trouble in things like arena and TW?
Sparrow: You mentioned battle replays are still a ways off, as a stop gap would it be possible/easier to let us see the team that attacked us in TW and its end state?
[QUESTION: Darth_Ouchilus] Why can we not change/edit/move Defense squads in TW during the setup phase?
[Darth_Ouchilus] Thanks for answering my question, but I was asking about changing TW defense squads DURING the setup phase, not after it has concluded.
Characters lock at the end of the preview phase, so there would be no way to move mods, upgrade toon, or things like that. I think we all understand why that's important.
I'm asking about changing squad lineups/positions on the field during the setup phase BEFORE offense phase starts. Can we not get the ability to move or change squad lineups?
I don’t know but I think it was something we didn’t think of before TW launches (it’s not always easy to think of all the ways people will use or have issues with a system. And since then it hasn’t surfaced to be a pervasive issue. I’ll put it down on our QoL list though and see how much work it would be (it would require client work to select and undo a squad and possibly some other edge cases I’m too tired to think of right now.)
I’m sure you saw we did take defaulting most powerful squads into the TW select squad screen because we saw a lot of people accidentally hitting deploy with the wrong squad autopopulating. That is the first step to this fix and is an indicator that we will continue to improve this system.
Thanks for the clarification!
-C
legitimationcrisis: What happens when there is an odd number of guilds participating in TW?
[QUESTION: modbot] Is TW on the verge of going away?
If it is staying for the long haul, are you open to player input about the match making and rewards structure?
The ties solution had the objective to be granular enough to really address ties. Some suggestions we pulled from our beta team had different solutions but weren't granular enough to knock them out completely. Ties, btw, are basically gone at this point - but we expect them to come back as players get better and better.
That being said, we are open to player feedback for sure, and part of our communication strategy is going to be about how we can better create two-way dialogue on topics like these.
[QUESTION: Minowara] Hello!! Can you provide any clarity on why a more complex TW pairing method is superior to simply matching closely on GP of participating members? Shouldn't GP capture additional factors like # of G12, rosters, etc...?
catharsis478: Are there any plans to add a review period to Territory Battles?
QUESTION: Rak_Frondar] Can you guys talk about your plans for ships?
Nauros: What is your policy concerning Legends/Expanded universe characters? Obviously, KOTOR is an acceptable source of new content, but what about the older novels and all the other stuff that is outside the official canon?
DoomAkaStarkiller: Is Porkins coming to the tables?
lester68: Where is Padme?
BellamyNao: When rework jedi, when shaak ti ?
Viserys: While I know there are a great many characters people want, I’m a big fan of some of the recent comics for Star Wars and wanted to know what the prospects for characters originating from the comics might be (Terex, Aphra, Sana, etc)?
TheMegaSage: Are there any plans for more Last Jedi characters, and more specifically for "meta defining" First Order characters?
Barashin_Mokushi1: Is there any plan in the future for the TIE Defender to be added to Ships?
lovemat: Any plans to add 4lom and /or Zuckuss in future?
[QUESTION: JohnTrollsen13] Also are you guys done with the new Star Wars movies, what I mean by that is are we going to get more First Order/Resistance Characters in the game (Ex: Snoke, Husk, etc.)?
[QUESTION: LenoraLupin] just putting it out there that with the show Rebels ending, we're missing main/recurring characters such as Kallus, Azadi, Hondo, Old Man Rex, Pryce, and others I can't think of off the top of my head. We're also missing key TLJ characters such as Hux, Paige Tico with her bomber, Snoke, his guards, the Finalizer, and DJ. When can we expect some of them to come to the game? Or will they be a surprise like the vets were?
Barik_Edo: Any plans on slightly increasing the amount of Omegas that drop from the Omega Battles?
Neo2551: Why are the gear requirements so unbalanced? Mk3 Carbanti, Mk5 stun guns, mk3 cuffs, mk8 biotech balls, mk4 comlink? Are there any plans to relief the burden in the short future?
dogwelder79: Are there any plans to alleviate the gear crunch problem?
[QUESTION: zakore] Are 7 dot mods and level cap increase coming? We have several people dedicating a lot of resources and time into upgrading the already existing content, I believe it is a warranted question to ask to know if this is going to cripple us in the long run.
[QUESTION: Iy4oy4s] Here is what I would like to know about:
Any plan for gear that we have THOUSANDS of piled up? Sell back? Trade up? Something?
[QUESTION: Varaben] What’s the philosphy on characters being harder to farm than others? For example, shoretrooper is much harder to farm than most characters. He’s been in the game over a year. Is there a cadence at work here or is he so good that he will stay hard to get? That’s one example of many (nihilus, baze, etc.).
However, as the game changes, power levels change and desirability can change. It's difficult for us to update locations of nodes because a variety of players may be actively farming a location and then be upset if we change the rules around it. It's something we'd like to tackle though and are actively thinking about it. I don't have a schedule yet, but we're looking into it.
[QUESTION: John1969] It's not really a question, but more of a beef. I hate the way drop rates change on needed characters for events. Pretty greedy, guys.
GoldieJames: can CG do something positive in regard to secondaries of speed being made decent and having an increased chance to roll?
[QUESTION: Rubberb0y] Why do I have so much bad rng in this game? I know how to play it (3.2 million gp) but I constantly have REALLY bad luck when it comes to for *e.g. in raids I Solo the Pit and end up way down the bottom of the payout list (worst prizes) every time.* Can’t seem to get good stats on mods either just to name a few. I contacted EA about this and they said they’re aware of this and gave me 200 crystals (which I never received) I don’t care about the crystals, I do care about this problem though. Please can something be done.
Prudkoan: Do you plan to renew the graphics engine in the future? Or is it will be only in the Galaxy of heroes 2?
Goodgil: Between events, TB, TW, two arenas, and 3 raids, the amount of time needed to play this game <seems> to always be increasing. What are your plans on this subject?
Can you please release a public API so that we can build other community tools around the game?
egtrip: Have you considered adding a players Personal Daily Raid Tickets, xxx/600, to the screen with player level, in game name, energies, credits, crystals, to help a player know when they have completed the daily 600 and help guild leaders mange the 30,000, players who have not completed the 600 are missing 10-50 tickets?
QUESTION: AaronBurrSir] Is there a technical reason in why we can't do Bronzium multipulls?
What precautions will you put in place to protect players, especially minors, from the gambling aspects of the game...particularly anything where the odds aren't clear and money is involved...crystal drops for characters, etc?
Dr_Alan_Grant: Is there any thought about having a players highest rank throughout the day count for their payout?
NovaPrime: Are you aware of what many consider "Arena Mafias" that basically kill competition at the top 50 and people outside of those groups to be specifically targeted and excluded, forcing them to waste more crystals than they should due to their skill level just because a group of people want the easy way of getting those rewards?
WhatIth: Will either arena ever be reworked?
[QUESTION: Collin] *Can you add crystal payouts to the fleet arena for all ranks, instead of just the top 20?* The squad arena has this in place since the beginning and I feel that should be mirrored in the fleet arena.
TheChode: With the upcoming changes to raid rewards is there any possibility of fixing the ties?
[CVG] We have explored a number of different solutions but they were all exploitable and/or encouraged behavior that doesn't work for everybody or all playstyles.
Yarrg: Is there a plan in the works to "sunset" the older raids for veteran players to reduce time spent?
[QUESTION: medetec] If we can only get one question, I’d like to talk through raids. Questions in order of priority for me if you can grab more.
1) What is the plan to address raids going forwards, and the time commitment required? As we continue to stack more raids onto our plates, all of which as still have much needed rewards, they become harder to schedule and more time consuming to deal with. An eventual 4th raid and onwards would be even more difficult.
Beyond that, we are talking about other ways to make Raids easier to manage for the guild leaders and the guild members. We've just posed a question to our beta testers about an idea we have for raid management auto-join and auto-start. This doesn't mean that work is imminent, but usually when we feel good about something we want to do, the next step is to ask for feedback from our beta group and influencers, and then we go about figuring out when it's going to be in the game.
Also we are reviewing Raid rewards, but are not ready to share any changes there.
[QUESTION: Whazn] what is the point of boosting "galactic hero" potency by 30% when the raid boss stacks 50% each turn? Doesn't this make the bonus a total waste? Why not just make all the bosses immune to tmr like sion. That would open up raid strategies for many more squads as well.
Indominable_J: Now that GW can be simmed, is there any plan to either revert the difficulty, or to offer a "hard mode" for those who want the challenge back?
Teague: Any changes intended for Galactic War? Specifically, I'd like to see it be hard again after the sim option is unlocked. This would give me somewhere to test new teams I'm building. It's far too easy to test anything currently.
Abysmal_Void: You mentioned previously that you would not add "new" characters into the Galactic War, Cantina and Squad stores so it could serve a source of Shard store currency - truly appreciated - but would you perhaps consider refreshing farming spots for certain characters?
Destrix: How is price for shards in Shipments determined and how will it look in the future?
HK22: One of the things that you guys released recently were the five dollar Lightside and Darkside Starter Packs. I know that I purchased them because it was a great value and I could support a game that I enjoy. My question is simple are there any more plans to release these type of packs such as a Fleet Starter Pack, or maybe a five dollar character of the month pack?
[QUESTION: DarthJJ] Is the daily crystal booster ever going to be brought back or replaced? If so, when? And if it will be replaced, what will replace it?
[QUESTION: Boomer8800] As a person who has literally invested thousands of real dollars into this game, I would like to know how many folks there are actually invested in this game with their own money and I mean thousands not just a few hundred.. do they play and devote the time and grind to fully understand the player frustrations? One of those frustrations is having not enough separation between the P2P and F2P player in the game.. So when will there be a cap increase?
Speaking personally, of the five people in the room right now pulling questions and answering them, one is an intentional free to play player, and the other four of us have spent thousands of dollars of our own personal money.
TeshKarhann: It seems like a lot of your jobs overlap, like how is "Live Producer" different from "Lead Producer" and all the other titles? Do you all stick to your lanes at work, or do you all tend to have a culture of getting in each other's business to help out wherever you can? Can you share a story (just for funsies) of a recent argument about a new piece of content and how it got resolved?
In all seriousness, there are over 50 developers on this team, most of whom have practical skills like design, art, engineering, QA. Producers (and at EA we also have Development Directors) are responsible for the vision of the direction of the game and then ensuring the team is supported to get that execution done. It also means that sometimes we bump into each other because we all sincerely care about what we're doing and we want the game to be as good as possible. Each of the Producers that work for me own a space - from Feature to Live to Lifecycle, and then it's my responsibility to help support them and make them stronger, but to also roll my sleeves up and help where I can.
As for a recent disagreement - one of the biggest ones that ever happened on this team was the fight over TB having 12 hour or 24 hour phases. The initial intent of the feature was for it to happen over a weekend and be six phases that are 12 hours each. After testing with the beta group, it became very clear to me that we couldn't go under 24 hours per phase. Now, I will say that despite being happy with where we ended up, some of the original people in the 12 hour camp were fighting for TB/TW not to take up the whole week, so by making it 24 hours we are contending with them taking up more of your time and need to reflect on that.
Achilles: Does a department checking/testing updates - before release - exist?
jeffnorth86: There seems to be a disconnect between the EA help bug reporting and the actual Dev team. I reported the Hermit Yoda Zeta bug a week ago and was told the Dev team wasn't aware of the issue even though there's been a thread about it open since February on EA Help. When can we get some updates on these glaring and costly bugs?
[QUESTION: zakore] Can we please get a constant flow of professional communication? There are various times when we can’t get an answer to important community questions and issues for months. Even if we could just know it’s getting worked on or receive an update once a week on things being addressed/worked on we would all be extremely grateful
[QUESTION: KP67s] There are a few bugs and AI issues that have been present, both in the past and currently, which I believe should be addressed.
[Bugs]
So Q:
What exactly is the timeline in how an AI issue is evaluated and approached? From the time a bug or AI issue is posted on Answers HQ or here, what would be the expected turnaround time for the issue to be fixed?
2. RE: AI Evaluation Generally: It varies, honestly. Length of time depends on if we have a big piece of content we're working on in the background (like the Sith Triumvirate) and whether it is an issue from a design intent perspective and a system capability perspective. So the answer is ultimately it depends, but we largely treat them alot like other bugs. How many people are affected? Is it outside our design? Etc. I can tell you that the design team and I regularly talk about AI priorities and issues on a weekly basis, so it's not something we ignore.
[QUESTION: Hynes81] Erik Larsen as the Player Lifecycle Producer, *can you give us some insight to where we are in the life cycle?* It seems to me we are in the declining stage as many players are feeling burnout from too much content being
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
I didn’t add stuff they answered that ended up happening, such as mod management.
Didn’t see the point of compiling stuff that is no longer relavent (feature doesn’t exist anymore) or upcoming content that exists in the game unless it’s asked a lot even today such as mod selling feature
They don't like him.. I don't like him either..
Maybe Hootkins bought the character rights and banned it 15 years ago...
I doubt it though or he would have had to biy the island of dr moreau.
Spoiler
[NR] The answer is no. This sort of system ultimately doesn't reward the play pattern we believe drives competition, which is players should battle for the top spot at a specific payout time. This also likely facilitates collusion behavior that we think is detrimental to the game.
And yet collusion behavior is EXACTLY the outcome we have from NOT having this system. I believe they way overestimate the collusion that would take place with the suggested change, and that it would certainly be less than that in the top 10 or 20 with the agressive arena mafias we currently have.
By “facilitates collusion behavior that we think is detrimental,” they mean that more than 24 people would receive first every day. With enough coordination you get could the top 100 or even 200 to all get first place rewards.
Under the current system, it’s a much smaller amount of collusion lol.
Lets compile questions in advance, and avoid repeating the same questions, and post the best of those prepared questions.
The Q&A lasts for a few hours and not everyone can be active or online during that time. So its best if we can all get together and compile a list to ask them as soon as Q&A starts
I always assumed his name and appearance was too PC unfriendly.
Ultra, how and where would you like questions compiled for the next Q&A? I suspect there will be tons of questions around new TW field, GA tourney and future releases and game balancing. Thank you, as always.
Can you add that question to the list please?
https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/199186/a-legendary-event-to-save-the-rec-center#latest
Are there any plans to touch, tweak, rework GG led sep droids?