BioWare Announces Guild Summit

BioWare just announced The Old Republic Guild Summit:

Today, we are pleased to announce the first ever Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Guild Summit, being hosted in Austin, TX in March. Over the course of a few days, guild leaders from around the world will gather together to discuss the state of the game with the developers from BioWare Austin. Guild leaders (or a designated officer in the event of a guild leader being unable to attend) will participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions, and will get a preview of some upcoming game features.

The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the game design team. This event will provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their feedback directly to the teams responsible for the design of Star Wars: The Old Republic, hear the team’s thoughts and reasons behind design decisions, and discuss the current direction of the game.

The Guild Summit will be hosted from March 4th – 6th, 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel Austin. Due to space limitations, the event will be invite-only. We've already invited guilds of various backgrounds and sizes to the Summit, from Endgame to Role-playing to PvP guilds, but we've got some space left for additional guild leaders who wish to attend. We ask that interested leaders submit an application, which can be found at this link.* Guild leaders will be evaluated based on the information provided in their application.

While we welcome applications from guild leaders from anywhere in the world, please be advised that the Summit will be conducted entirely in English. Applications will be accepted until 11:59PM CST (GMT -6) on February 10th. If you have any questions regarding the event, send us an email at guilds@swtor.com!

*Must be 21 or older to attend. Guild leaders selected to attend are responsible for all of their travel, food, and lodging expenses.

Sounds good to me. Though I can't help but wonder at their guild selection process. Considering how big TOR is and how many guilds it has they can't possibly invite all of them (obviously) and I'm sure that there are going to be a number of very disappointed guilds. I also fear that this might lead to some elitism as some guilds might consider themselves special for having been invited. But it all depends. In general it's just quite good to see BioWare reaching out to its community like this and trying to get feedback to help improve the game for all of us.

Busting Bugs and Fixing Exploits

BioWare posted another developer blog titled "Busting Bugs and Fixing Exploits". In it Rich Vogel talks about BioWare's process for fixing bugs and exploits. Here's an excerpt from the full blog post:

Let me start by explaining how we go about determining when to fix an issue in the live game, whether it is a bug or an exploit. Let’s begin with exploits – those cases when we determine that a bug in the code can give an unfair advantage to a player. (Remember, not all bugs are exploits!)

If an exploit is discovered that threatens players’ experience in the game or the in-game economy, we will usually try to create an Emergency Patch to fix that exploit. Before we declare something an emergency though, we have to validate the issue with our internal Quality Assurance, or QA team. They gather data working with our Customer Service, analytics, and development teams to determine the extent of the exploit and the steps needed to reproduce it. Once we have the steps, we work on a plan to fix the issue. Depending how long the issue will take to fix and how risky it is, we will decide if we need to temporarily disable the cause of the exploit in the game.

To those more familiar with the process of developing a game most of it probably won't come as a surprise. But even so it's good to be reminded that fixing bugs can be a complicated process. Just because you run into a bug that seems like a simple thing to fix doesn't mean that it'll get fixed immediately. And just because it might take a while to get fixed doesn't mean that they're ignoring the bug. Games are very complicated things, MMOs more so than most (particularly an MMO that's live as you want to avoid introducing new bugs even more than you otherwise would).

They are most definitely fixing bugs though, as anyone keeping an eye on the continuous stream of patch notes can attest.

After the break a number of links from across the web and the developer quotes.

1.1.1 Patch Notes

Here are the latest patch notes, both the 1.1.0c patch notes from last weekend (which I hadn't posted yet) and the 1.1.1 patch notes from yesterday.

1.1.0c Patch Notes - 1/28/2012

General

• Improved service to reduce the number of player disconnections to the character selection screen.

Read on after the break for the 1.1.1 patch notes.

1.1.0b Patch Notes

Here are today's patch notes:

1.1.0b Patch Notes - 1/24/2012

General

• Implemented optimizations to improve performance on Republic and Imperial Fleets.

Classes and Combat

• Significantly improved the delay when activating player abilities, particularly when in lower framerate situations. This allows for improved ability responsiveness in hectic combat situations.

Operations

General

• Operations will no longer allow more than 16 Operations Group members to enter concurrently.



Karagga's Palace

• Operations Groups will no longer be forced to reset the Operation if the group wipes when attempting to defeat G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator.
• Fixed an exploit that would allow players to repeatedly loot the chest after defeating Jarg and Sorno.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause graphical inconsistencies, which most often manifested as random screen "flickering."

Teaching Elephants To Do Ballet

That was too good a title to pass up. The Old Republic is a very, very big game and creating it was a very, very big project with lots of moving part. And apparently what Greg Zeschuk said about that was that: “Coordinating it all is like teaching elephants to do ballet.” There's a bit on that, some stock yo-yo-ing that happened last week, some reviews and interviews, and some barking dogs. But all that after the break, first there's a note on the Community Blog by Jeff Hickman on the Ilum situation:

After Game Update 1.1 went live, we discovered that the Open World PvP area on Ilum was not working as our PvP design team intended. As many of you know, large groups of players began capturing the Ilum control points, then 'camping' at the enemy's base. This led to a very frustrating experience for a number of players who were unable to leave their base and fight back against their attackers. It was not a fair gameplay experience. In addition, some players on the attacking side gained more Valor points than designed for the time they spent in PvP.

The amount of Valor granted from these activities was significantly more than intended and we are now carefully investigating players who were on Ilum during this period, and present at some of these 'camping' events. I can reassure you that those who were involved and who gained an unfair advantage over other players inappropriately will be carefully reviewed and action will be taken to restore game balance. This could include Valor adjustments or account actions in accordance with the severity of the issue.

We have made the decision not to enact a mass 'rollback' of Valor points for all players in the game, or even on Ilum. This would unfairly penalize some players who may not have been present during this event. Rest assured though, anyone and everyone who is found to have exploited the situation to an unreasonable degree will be investigated and actions taken as needed. Our in-game metrics are able to give us precise details on where players were, what they were doing and what rewards they gained.

We take any sort of situation where one group of players gains an unexpected or unintended advantage over other players very seriously and will act to ensure that all players can have a fair and fun game experience.

Thanks for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue. Our team worked diligently to get a patch ready to address this and other issues, and we're already seeing the results in improved battles on Ilum. As always we welcome your feedback and will continue to improve moving forward!

Jeff Hickman,
Executive Producer – Live Services

I'm not sure if this will appease those who ran into the troubles on Ilum. And from what I understand (I don't really PvP and haven't been to Ilum yet) things still aren't quite right there. One of the biggest problems seems to be the faction imbalance where there's apparently (and not altogether surprisingly) a lot more Empire players than Republic ones. So BioWare has a lot of work ahead of them to make Ilum the PvP experience that it should be. Still, at least it sounds like they're trying.

After the list a second Community Blog post, this one by Georg Zoeller about the ability delay some people have been suffering from. Also the aforementioned laundry list of other posts.

Coming Up in STAR WARS: The Old Republic

With Game Update 1.1 - Rise of the Rakghouls released, and patched, BioWare is keeping the pressure on regarding the future with a "Coming Up in STAR WARS: The Old Republic" video. here's the official news:

See what the future holds for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ in this brand new video which showcases some of the new game content and game systems that we will release in the coming months. In it, you will be able to take your first look at upcoming game content, including new Warzones and Flashpoints. You will also have the chance to get a sneak peek at the expanded Legacy system that’s coming to the game, UI customization, as well as new Guild features!

The video talks about the Flashpoint and how part two is coming in the future, it talks about a new PvP Warzone and ranking coming, it talks about the Legacy system showing a Miraluka with a red lightsaber (Miraluka Sith?), it talks about the guild bank and user interface customization. Showing examples of all. And they stress again that they listen to the community.

It's all looking quite good, though if "you can play the faction-restricted races on the other side now" is the main selling point for the Legacy system I'm going to be disappointed. I'll take it more as a sneak peak though. In fact I'll take everything like that. After all, it's all still very much in development I'm sure.

After the break I'll post the most recent patch notes, (hopefully) fixing the mess on Ilum and a few other things.

Become a Founding Member!

THere is trouble on Ilum. Due to a bug Empire players (who seem to greatly outnumber Republic players on just about every server) are massively spawn-camping the Republic spawn points. Today BioWare will issue an emergency patch to fix the issue and soon these troubles too will be behind us. In the meantime we've (well, those of us high enough level to be on Ilum) have an interesting experience to relate. Years from now you can relate to your character's grandchildren "I was there when...".

And to prove it you'll be able to whip out this fancy new "Founder" title that BioWare is introducing:

We would like to thank each and every one of you for helping to make Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ one of the most successful MMO launches of all time. To show our appreciation, from now through March 19th, 2012, 12:01AM EST, we are rewarding early members of The Old Republic community with a unique Founder’s medal* and title.

So how do you earn the “Founder” title? This reward is only available to players who have completed either one of the following transactions (by March 19th, 2012, 12:01AM EST; Pacific: March 18th, 9:01PM PST; European: 4:01AM GMT, 5:01AM CET):

• Billed at least once for an active Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription

OR

• Redeemed a Star Wars: The Old Republic Pre-Paid Game Time Code

Once you become eligible for the title and have surpassed your 30 days of game time included with your official Game Product Registration Code, you will be notified by email. The Founder’s medal will be delivered to all your characters through in-game mail. From the in-game mail, simply right-clicking on the medal to unlock the “Founder” title to your character. This title is permanently bound to your account and will carry over to any character you make in the future. (NOTE: It may take up to 7 days for the “Founder” title to be applied).

TIP: You can choose to show the Founder’s title or any other title you’ve earned in-game by opening your character sheet and selecting a title from the character name drop down. Once applied, the title will show next to your character name on your nameplate.

If you haven’t picked up the game yet or need to purchase a Pre-Paid Game Time Code, be sure to purchase one now! To redeem your Game Time Code, visit the Code Redemption Center. Finally, to sign up for a recurring subscription, log in to www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com and visit “My Accounts > Subscription.” Star Wars: The Old Republic has three recurring subscription plans:

• 1 Month Subscription (automatically billed every 30 days): $14.99 per month (£8.99/€12.99)
• 3 Month Subscription (automatically billed every 90 days): $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
• 6 Month Subscription (automatically billed every 180 days): $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

For more information about how to unlock the exclusive Founder’s Medal and title, visit the Rewards page.

*OFFER EXPIRES MARCH 19, 2012 AT 12:01AM EST; MARCH 18, 2012 AT 9:01PM PST; MARCH 19, 2012 AT 4:01AM GMT; MARCH 19, 2012 AT 5:01AM CET. GOOD ONLY FOR PURCHASES OF STAR WARS™: THE OLD REPUBLIC™ WITH REDEMPTION OF A PURCHASED GAME TIME CODE OR BILLING OF AN ACTIVE GAME RECURRING SUBSCRIPTION WITH AN APPROVED PAYMENT METHOD. VALID WHEREVER GAME IS SOLD. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED, TAXED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW. CUSTOMERS WILL ACCESS THE ITEM IN-GAME. VIRTUAL ITEM ONLY. ITEM WILL BE APPLIED TO ALL CHARACTERS UNDER USER’S ACCOUNT. PLEASE ALLOW 7 DAYS FOR NOTIFICATION OF DELIVERABLES.

I don't think that I'll be permanently sporting the title. "Founder Tricia" just doesn't sound right and I don't think that it'll really fit any of the other characters I'll be playing in the future. But even so I think that it's a nice gesture from BioWare as a "thank you" for being here from the start.