Star Wars Galaxies: WarCry.com interviews Grant “Rogue 5” McDaniel

After the Fan Faire, multiple conferences, SWG Community Summits and working on the game, SOE finally gets a chance to answer a few questions.

I have to apologize, because this interview was actually sent to SOE in March and we just got it back so some of the answers may not be new information anymore. Some questions weren't addressed, as in the case of why one players's monthly subscription is worth more than another's. It was stated several times that Pre-NGE Jedi would NOT get another slot. Otherwise, I think that it's good to see that the SWG Team is committed to making the game enjoyable. And here's the interview with Grant "Rogue 5" McDaniel:

WC: With Character Levels 1-30 covered by the Legacy Quests, and Character Levels 80+ covered by the Trials of Obi-Wan, how are the Quests being designed for the Mid-Levels coming along? How soon can we expect to see some information about them?

Rogue 5: First of all, let's not forget one of our best expansions ever, Episode III: Rage of the Wookiees, which is aimed at the mid-level player. This expansion, which is set in Kashyyyk, is full of exciting quests and missions and targets the players at levels 30 - 60. We have gotten great feedback about this expansion and highly recommend it as fun to explore and a great way to level and gain experience.

However, with respect to the second half of your question about quests for the mid-level player -- yes, we are working on those as well. We will be adding mid-level content in every publish, building up by level, focusing on 3 - 5 levels per publish. For instance, Publish 29 introduces additional content for levels 37 - 41. And we will continue in that manner, moving up the levels throughout the rest of this year, as well as making enhancements to several of our "adventure" areas as well. Adding additional content level by level and building more opportunity for both advancement and differentiation are two of our highest priorities this year.

WC: Since the NGE made Jedi common and no longer an end-game activity, it seems that Mando armor and Jetpacks are the new end-game status symbol. Sadly, these items have reached a point where they are being farmed at an assembly line rate. Will the DWB be overhauled to make them more difficult to attain, or are there plans to introduce some more challenging end-game content?

Rogue 5: One of our main goals this year is enriching the quality and quantity of content at the high-levels. We currently have people on the team dedicated to developing challenging high-level content on a regular basis as part of our live updates this year. It is possible that this new content will give rise to other new high-end items that will also become quite desirable and collectible.

With respect to your question about Death Watch Bunker (DWB) specifically, it is one of our most popular areas and we have no plans to revamp it at this time.

WC: Traders right now feel like they are unwanted in the NGE. Are there any plans to make them worth playing? Can you give a specific example of a change that will be made or provide other details about where their Class Revamp may be headed?

Rogue 5: We have definitely heard this comment from our community and we do have plans to address it. We are making several enhancements specifically aimed at Traders this year, I can't say what the specifics are right now as much of this is still in the development phases, but just know that we are making it a focus - no promises on delivery dates.

WC: The Character Transfer Service seems to be a very useful tool, unfortunately the process is very confusing, and the site giving details is not very easy to understand. In one portion of the page we have this entry: "The Service is currently offered as a character only transfer with or without items, structures, pets or credits being transferred: if you transfer a character without items your character will lose all its items, structures, pets or credits (including anything that may have been in the character's bank) once a transfer is made, and you will not be able to retrieve them." Yet in another part we see this: "* Characters moving WITH items will NOT be allowed to take their factory crates, resources, items in datapad (vehicles, mounts, pets/droids, factory schematics and packed up houses), bank contents and structures. The override function will allow the move to proceed even if those items exist on the character." Are pets and structures allowed or not? No vehicles? Some of them are pre-order and vet rewards. Mounts? With no more creature handlers, those are important, along with the Lava Flea. Oh yes, the question: Could we get an FAQ that is visible without having to be a current subscriber which covers the Service in more useful detail?

Rogue 5: We do have plans to expand the features and functionality of our Character Transfer Service to include more of the items that our players find valuable. I understand your confusion with the information explaining the details of the current system and we will review those directions and the information that accompanies to make it clearer and more user-friendly. Also, we will look at the web site and see if we can link a FAQ about CTS to our site in a relevant location. Thanks for the feedback!

WC: One of the changes with the NGE was that every account would get 2 characters per server, regardless of Pre-NGE status. Of course, when the change was made to the database, "slot=slot+1" was applied to all accounts, again creating some with more than others. When are you going to either give every account 3 characters per server, start charging extra for those accounts that currently have 3 characters per server, or start charging less for 2 character per server accounts?. Why is someone else's $14.99 a month worth more than mine?

Rogue 5: One of the player bonuses we offered when we added the New Game Enhancements to recognize and reward our players was the addition of another character slot. At that time, there were already players who had advanced in the Jedi profession to the point at which they had unlocked a second slot. That was an "existing" condition that had been present in the game since launch which we grandfathered in as part of this program. What we did was simply give all players another character slot on top of their current status.

WC: What is the current view of how the species stack up? When the game launched, all the species had different advantages, and suffered penalties. After the NGE, all of the bonuses are gone, while the penalties remain. Trandos need some boots and gloves.

Rogue5: I can understand how you might feel that some species are at a disadvantage, however, they are more balanced than ever. For example, while Trandoshans can't wear boots and gloves, they receive the same armor benefits as all species who can wear them. Our goal is to balance the experience overall and that means that some of these types of features are changing to ensure that both different species and professions have unique strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone has a role to play in-game.

WC: Any details on an expansion? Will we ever see player controlled Capital Ships? Hoth? Dagobah?

Rogue 5: Actually, we are not going to put out an expansion this year. In fact, based on player feedback, we decided to forego an expansion in favor of focusing on key game enhancements which will go live through our publishes. The primary focus areas include: character differentiation, content expansion, bug and infrastructure improvements and new systems. This focus will deliver more clearly defined roles across professions (making professions more unique and distinguished from each other), new profession-specific, story-driven content, continuous new content additions that further define and expand the content path for each level, renewed focus on bringing the Galactic Civil war alive in-game through exciting adventure experiences, an enhanced PvP system that increases the level of fun and excitement and includes things like PvP battlegrounds and a bounty hunter PvP vendetta opportunity for players. All of these are the things we know our players want and that is where we are spending our development time this year!

WC: One of the criticisms over the years has been that too much has been added without fixing what is already there. Right now, what is the focus of the Dev Team? Fixing Bugs or New Content?

Rogue 5: As per the comment above, the focus is on quality! We want a game that our players are proud to play and bring their friends into with them. We are focusing on improving the core game and the overall gameplay experience.

WC: How long does a smoking harvester really need to stay? I've seen some that are well over 18 months old, and I know for a fact that the player who put it there has cancelled and is never coming back. Will you ever address the huge problem of abandoned harvesters and structures littering the landscape?

Rogue 5: Yes we want to address both harvesters and structures; the question is how much of a priority it is compared to our other high-priority game content additions. This structure issue is on our list though, so rest assured that we are aware of it. The smoking harvesters will start going away when we turn maintenance back on in the next week few weeks.

WC: What is the most exciting thing you can think of that players will have to look forward to in the next 3 months? 6 months?

Rogue 5: I am happy to say that I can think of several things that I think players will be excited about that are coming this year. First of all, our priority is on adding new content by level and profession, while at the same time eliminating virtually all the pesky bugs that interrupt our play. Therefore, we are spending a lot of time adding specialized content for different professions and different levels with a goal of providing a very robust and polished advancement path that will enable players to continuously progress, earn Experience points (XP) and have a lot of fun doing it. We are doing this by putting more story-driven adventures for all the levels and continuing to focus this content on increasing the differentiation of characters. At the same time, we are putting in a lot of fun new systems including: PvP, heavy weapons, reverse engineering for traders and even a military rankings and ladder system, to name a few. We want happy players who are excited to log in, we want a game that represents the Star Wars experience with the same level of quality as the movies and other games - and we are doing everything in our power to get there. So, we hope our players will stay with us and enjoy this renaissance of our game and realize that we are one community on a mission - it is our destiny!

And that's a wrap! I'd like to thank Rogue 5 for his time, and the rest of the SWG Dev Team for their hard work on the game, and I wish them luck in their efforts.

- JR Razor Sutich, WarCry.com