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All right, so, let's talk about roleplaying. This is one of interesting ones that means
a lot of different things to different people. So, again, this is a place that I'm really
going to want you guys to be giving your opinions back. If you are members of a roleplaying
guild, if you enjoy roleplaying, it is important for you guys to be calling out the types of
tools that you feel like you're missing. I have always been a roleplayer in MMOs. I feel
like I'm in a 12 step. I have spent all day walking. I've made my own fun and done my
own stuff. But I might not be looking for the same stuff you guys are, especially in
a game that is so story focused and has so much natural roleplaying element that's being
given to you. So when we are discussing roleplaying, let's
be clear, we're talking primarily about ‘make your own fun’ tools. So, current state of
roleplaying: ‘worlds could use more life and ambiance’. This is true. ‘Needs more
options, more variance, more ways to interact with the world’.
So Legacy features, I went into a little bit before, as you noticed, one of the first things
threw in to there was the family tree. We put in the stuff to do -- so you could pretend
that you were brawling. We put in the roleplaying emotes. We put in all that stuff, because
it was the stuff that we had around that were easy, easy wins. Social unlock, same thing.
Alignment unlocks, more stuff to reward you and for you to sort of build the characters
that are how you always pictured them. Re-customization, we already talk about this.
Chat bubbles. Yeah, chat bubbles. So this is one of those weird, like, there are things
and you can always tell from our faces when to talk about it, there are things that are
just kind of embarrassing, like, we had chat bubbles in the game and for whatever reason
there was a really strange technical thing with the chat bubbles that they've totally
dragged the performance of the game down. We were, like, “chat bubbles, really, that's
what's doing it?” And you know, tech came over and turned off the chat bubbles and frame
rate went way up and we were like, oh god, okay, so. We think we've got that workout
though, so chat bubbles, yes. More orange gear with viability at endgame.
This is something you're gonna see pretty soon. We're not talking about exactly how're
gonna do it but all those people were, like, “why would I wear this, it's light?” What
we wanted to do was find a solution that would take care of that without, let's say, having
to put thousands and thousands of new items in the game. So we think we've got a solution
for that. You're gonna come see us soon. I tend to play a heavy tank, so, you know, I
also wanna wear my ridiculous sand person outfit while I'm in the endgame stuff. Yeah,
wear what you want whenever you want. The events team… I'm not sure why this is
on the roleplaying slide. As James says completely not told you about, they're an events team
and we're completely not talking to you about what they're doing. So there you go roleplaying.
Apparently, they're server wide limited time events though.
Improved spawning techs, so one of the things you might already noticed is quite near the
end of development we perfected our lightweight spawners which are, you know, you see MPCs
out in the world you can't click on, that's what those guys are. And they actually vary
up and down dynamically with how good your system is and how many it can draw in one
place. So if you're chugging in an area or if there's a ton of player characters, you're
not seeing a lot of them. What we didn't get a chance to do was populate as many of the
areas as well as we would like to. So there are some places that really feel alive and
really feel dynamic and there's a lot of stuff going on and then there's places that don't,
so we're gonna through and do some of that. More ambient creatures, sense that you’re
actually in there. For me, that's -- we're kinda blending concepts here. We're kinda
talking world immersion as well as roleplaying coz it's not really the same thing. I don't,
you know -- like most of you, like, I don't need that to roleplay either. More moving
parts everywhere, so it's kinda feel better. Yes, there are chairs that you can sit in.
No, there already are now. I don't know if you found them. The ship, up in the VIP lounge
for those of us who, you know, spend our time. The problem was they came in late and we didn't
get to go back and replace all the old chairs. So, future chairs will always sitable, things
we look forward to in the future. Legacy, how does it affect roleplayers? Future
content, what would you like to see? So, this is a big one. This is the big one that I would
really like to hear for this Q -- Like, if you've got questions, ask, and that's great.
But I would love to hear from the roleplayers out there. What are the things that you feel
like you need to see in-game? Damion Schubert: I have the pad, so throw
them at us. Daniel Erickson: Damion will be taking notes.
Male Speaker: Warren from the PHM Dark Ripper Server, and what we would really like to see
are a different kind of mounts, maybe beasts, Tauntauns, Dewbacks, maybe something other
than speeders. Daniel Erickson: And what would you roleplay
with your new animal friend? All right, no answer on that. So not roleplay specific,
but definitely, definitely on the list. Male Speaker: Yeah, how's it going? One of
the biggest concerns that my guild has is not only the variety of clothing but perhaps
clothing that is not restricted by an armor type. The fact that, like, a Jedi Sage or
a Consular can't wear a leather jacket because it's medium armor really limits what they're
allowed to wear short of running around in robes all day. Any development on that?
Daniel Erickson: Yeah, so that's sort of what I hinted out for this one, and again, I can't
talk -- but in the future, all cosmetic gear should work for all types and we'll be getting
a ton more of it. Female Speaker: Hello. I would like to see
custom empte enable the cross action, so that way, when you're roleplaying on Nar Shaadaa
something when you use your custom emote, they can see it on the Empire side if you're
Republic and perhaps reducing the Say range so that if you're on one side of the cantina,
you can't hear people roleplaying on the other side. So if there's 40 people in there, gets
a little hard, created especially without chat bubbles, trying to figure out what you're
saying. Emmanuel Lusinchi: So yes, the custom e-mode
is very simple to implement. There's not a lot of reason not to do it.
Daniel Erickson: Yeah, no, okay, no, you're right, the say is already there so they can
already just tell you what horrible thing they're gonna do to you.
Female Speaker: Right, exactly. Male Speaker: It's a [inaudible] [0:07:21]
Daniel Erickson: Yeah, okay, no, cleared. And the say is a good note.
Female Speaker: Okay, thank you. Male Speaker: Hi, I don't actually play on
RP server but -- over here. Daniel Erickson: Everybody can RP whether
or not you're on an RP server. Male Speaker: No, no exactly, but we have
a couple of guys that are like to kind of dress, people who would like to dress up and,
you know, I don’t wanna say guys -- in different outfits.
Daniel Erickson: You watch it, sir. Male Speaker: One of them specifically wanted
me to ask this question. He's a type four Sith, big red guy type four body Sith and
he would like a equivalent of male, like, a slave outfit.
Daniel Erickson: Hilary, Hilary, are you back there honey? So --
Damion Schubert: Slave outfit. Daniel Erickson: Somebody on our stuff here
has a significant other who apparently consistently ask for our male slave gear outfit. It's coming,
folks, it's coming. Male Speaker: Is there a way to reenter the
class quest areas that you have done? Daniel Erickson: Oh, is there a way to enter
the class quest areas. He say, oh, hey, here's this great space we had, can I go and use
that space? Unfortunately, not, because the trigger tend to be incredibly complicated
and a lot of the times they are spaces we will use again for some reason. So if you
do not have the piece on it, although what I will put there is that we probably should
set aside some good interesting different varieties of straight RP space that would
cover some of those same areas. Male Speaker: Hi. I'm a member of Malum Factum.
We're a pretty hardcore roleplaying guild. And one of the things that really annoys our
members is seeing people like ‘Dude of the Bro Legacy riding around on their speeders
in circles in-fleet. Is there anything you can do about stricter naming policy or something
to that affect? Daniel Erickson: So one of the issues around
the naming policy, especially for something like Star Wars where people are named ‘Gerlon
Two-Fingers’ in canon and ‘Jasper McKnives’ is that the -- one, naming police is an incredibly
hard thing to do in an MMO anyway, right? On an MMO this size, almost an impossibility
besides profanity and that stuff. The other thing for Star Wars is that it's a more modern
setting and people are named ridiculous stuff. You know, we have people in our world that
changed their names to just completely ludicrous stuff. What I am trying to work on is more
ways to adjust what you see in other people's nameplates. So, you know, maybe I don't wanna
see your silly guild, maybe I don't wanna see your silly Legacy. Damion won't ever give
me my ignore all server button, so we'll have to go piecemeal on this one.
Damion Schubert: One of the key things about naming policies is that, you know, what's
acceptable to me might not be acceptable to you. And so coming up with concrete fair rules
is incredibly, incredibly difficult to do, you know. A lot of people might have no problem
with Scoldylocks but it bugs the hell out of me so.
Male Speaker: You brought up ambient, that little plays that sometimes go on in cities
and some of those get stale pretty quickly if there, you know, was a more variety of
ambient content especially in, you know, busy areas. A day-night cycle might help with that,
you know, so you're not going by the same guy whose, you know, doubled over in an ally
outside the nightclub every single time you're going by in a speeder. Probably the biggest
-- Daniel Erickson: There are those guys.
Male Speaker: Yeah. They gotta go home sometime. But probably the biggest thing that I find
as an obstacle is when roleplayers are really attached to their guild but they want to participate
with your guild in most your events. If there was some way to have, like, a squad system
within your guild so that there is small communities actually within your guild, you know, and
this isn't just a roleplaying feature, but for raiding guilds, they could have their
rading teams organized or people who have been identified with, you know, specific sort
of RP event might, you know, have their clique identified within a subgroup within the guild.
Damion Schubert: Do you feel that that -- what do you feel that that squad needs that it
can't do now with, say, a private chat channel? Male Speaker: There's -- that's a good question
but, private chats channels don’t -- a lot of people don’t feel the same sort of identity
around it. They wanna participate as part of the guild but they don't wanna leave their
old sort of guild identity behind. I've been a part of a guild that another guild wanted
to merge with us but, you know, that guild ultimately decided that they couldn't give
up that identity. If we'd had to build it to create a squad of those guys so that they
could still be, you know, the Insomnia crew or whatever.
Daniel Erickson: Cool. Next. Female Speaker: Hi. I have two things. Dn't
worry one of them is very quick. I'm in a roleplay guild and one thing that our guild
has really wanted is to be able to cut and paste the chat log so we can post it on our
friends and continue the stories offline. Small thing do to would be really, really
awesome. The second item is regarding the Legacy system. As an altoholic and a roleplayer,
I have characters of all species. They are not related, they know each other sometimes,
sometimes they don't. Is there any way to kinda game -- game is the wrong word -- but
to implement the Legacy system in such a way that goes along with characters that aren't
blood relatives? Daniel Erickson: Oh yeah, in fact, in the
family tree thing it has stuff for allies, for nemesis, for adopted children, for all
sort of crazy stuff. Female Speaker: And they're all gonna have
the same last name? Daniel Erickson: Well, they're all gonna have
the Legacy tag, and that's the thing is so -- and that's why we give you the ability
to display it as a Legacy tag instead of a last name or just turn it off entirely per
character, right? Female Speaker: I see. Okay, thank you.
Male Speaker: The question I really have was, as far as it goes on the legacy last name
on there, a lot of people when they are doing the RP like to -- such as myself -- like to
RP with another person that they met in the guild as, like, a brother or something like
that and because we can't have the same, you know, Legacy name, was there any plans on
maybe opening that up to where you can, you know, create a brother or, you know, in some
instances, some people like to say that this is my child, you know.
Daniel Erickson: Oh, yeah, yeah, children, wives, siblings, all that, so the -- yeah,
that wouldn't come a little bit earlier so we definitely love the idea of being able
to attach other players into your Legacy. It's gonna be a ways out before we figure
out how to do it. Damion Schubert: But that particular thing
would be something we would try to do as part of that system but, you know, it's a little
trickier because not only do you have to institute the marriage or the name kin be, also have
to have the divorce function as well and so --
Daniel Erickson: And then we got space lawyers and, like -- yes, space alimony. Ooh, curse
skills. Yes, I will train up a space lawyer. Male Speaker: Yeah, with our guild we're not
a roleplaying guild but we love some of the lines that our characters say in cinematics.
We were just wondering if there's a way to have canned emotes that in the world, as we
just use them, have our characters kinda spit off some one liners over there.
Daniel Erickson: That was actually something that was right in the original plans. A big
passion of one of our friends over here. And yes, you'll absolutely see more of the roleplay
modes coming and more of them actually come with lines.
Male Speaker: From a roleplay perspective, talking about companion characters, just a
few quick things. I'd really like to see the ability for companion characters to write
along in taxis, coz there's that chat gone there and they just jump to the trunk and
then back out of the trunk. More importantly, I think that it would be nice to have the
ability to name a companion for our RP purposes because having ten thousand Elara Dornes or
Kira -- whatever is running around, being able to say, you know, this is my Padawan,
her name is such, and have that actually show up would be fantastic.
Daniel Erickson: Good feedback. We actually had the -- there was an original design for
both taxis and I think mounts at one point for companion characters and then the writers,
unfortunately, kept making more and more bizarre companion characters and about the point where
4X showed up. The guys building the taxis went -- still something we'd like to do in
the future, though. Stephen Reid: Okay, we are gonna take a couple
of questions from live stream. I go to Eric. Eric Musco: All right, so I'll start it off
without a question but actually a suggestion from Zanpio that he thinks that for RPers,
ignore should also turn off the players name plate.
Daniel Erickson: Love it. Damion, argue with me.
Damion Schubert: No. Daniel Erickson: Okay, okay. Love it. I've
always tried to convince them the combat guys are constantly telling me why it doesn't make
sense to just turn the player off. But, apparently, that's not feasible. Nameplates it is. That
would be a great solution, sir, for your ‘Dude Killa on your Mom’ name issue for somebody's
nameplate. Slash ignore them, their name plate disappears, they're just another NPC hopping
around pants less. Eric Musco: All right, the next question comes
from -- I guess, the first question comes from Avowen. Regarding companions who my character
feels that they are at odds with or if I feel that a particular companion has no place on
my ship or team, do we have any option to remove that companion from the story?
Daniel Erickson: Oh, this is from a long time back, so, no. We did punt on this one for
a very long time. You could kill companions and what turned out is that killing companions
was fun, so people tented to do it and not having a companion who filled the vital slot
was not fun and then people were very angry. So the amount of CSR requirements that just
would have been evolved as we constantly got people saying, hey, I killed my companion
and now they're dead and now I can't play the game. Then we had to back off on that
one and it's not gonna be a route we go back down.
Daniel Erickson: I am so up for that and I know we have it. If we get -- if we are allowed
to do that, if anybody really wanted to see Quinn bite the dust -- spoiler behind.
Georg Zoeller: What if we gave you a social item to permanently, well not permanently,
temporary carbonize your companion, would that help?
Daniel Erickson: Sold, Mr. Zoeller. Eric Musco: All right, this one is more of
a suggestion than a question, but Declan Holly says, I would like to see a biography/physical
description/profile page in the character sheet to help with roleplaying.
Daniel Erickson: Love it. So this is one of those things that -- we're always trying to
find new ways to save data more efficiently. We have one of the most complicated MMOs that's
ever been done because you were actually carrying your multiple amounts of companion characters
and yourself all as fully vested characters, all with a huge amount of quest data on them.
For people who finished your Jedi Knight and same things come back that happen that you
did on Tython that we had to follow you around the entire time, to where it's been to the
point where things like comments on friends which I think we either got back or I know
it's coming back. Had -- Damion Schubert: 1.2.
Daniel Erickson: -- 1.2, hey, you get to comment on friends again, hey, I like that guy, hey,
I don't like that guy, I don't know why he's on my friends list. This is one those things
that, when we get the ability to save a whole bunch of individually decided text very easily,
I'd love to do it. It's a huge part of a roleplaying coz and then I wanna click on you and read
your grammatically incorrect story. Eric Musco: All right, last question from
the live stream comes from Trestkin. I guess this is a question/suggestion. As far as mounts
go, will we be -- will we see the possibility for a two sitter mount for a driver and a
passenger to play together? Daniel Erickson: Would love too. You know,
and we talked about -- we touched a little bit on we absolutely like the idea of having
your companions there and would love to be able to put other players there, but it's
way down the road. I want my tauntaun first. Georg Zoeller: You're getting a tauntaun pet
in 1.2. Daniel Erickson: Can I ride with pet? Don't
answer that. We end up all the way down this guy's route at this point.
Stephen Reid: I think we came full circle with that last answer. Okay, so we're gonna
wrap it up here on the roleplaying discussion, again, in the attempt to keep us moving right
along, and we are gonna move straight into our guild features discussion with Mr. Damion
Schubert. Sorry, we need one minute to test something here on the projector. So we're
gonna give you, like, a two minute break, bathroom break, and then we're gonna come
straight back. So please be quick.