Developer Q&A - 04/23/2020
Hi Holotable Heroes, The team is getting ready for the Q&A at 12:30pm PT today. We've got a bunch of questions that we answering already from the survey so post your questions in the thread and we'll...
Forum Discussion
TOPIC: Content
Q: With the Mandalorian coming to the game soon, can we also expect the addition of his ship the Razor Crest, and if so, are there any plans in the future for a larger bounty hunter fleet or a scoundrel fleet?
Q: Why is Greef Karga going to be light side instead of neutral? Considering he was a secondary antagonist throughout most of the first season I really expected a neutral tag.
Q: Do you plan on adding any more divisions to GA? The top divisions have a wide range of power levels and I'm bound to come across some with GL Rey or Kylo sooner or later even thoug I'm still working on them.
Q: What is the thought process behind giving Cara Dune the "Rebel" tag?
Q: Why do some feats that are earned during attack phases of GAC end during the set up phase? I would ask that the timers be adjusted, either to last an extra attack phase (preferred) or to end when an attack phase ends. There is no point for a feat (example, the need for speed feat) to continue another 24 hours during the setup phase when there is nothing we can do to complete it.
Q: Grand Arena Championship is a great mode. But it is only 5v5 and 3v3 with or without ships. Are there plans on adding more variety in GAC? Interesting examples would be 4v4 or 6v6 (Maybe with two leaders?) and even a mix of different squad sizes. Also, with now 8 capital ships, wouldn't it be cool to set 2 fleets? You could even implement special systems like duplicating characters ( of course limited and not for galactic legends ) or giving certain factions certain bonuses. Also, the territories could have some special functions like giving a small speed or tenacity boosts that way placing defenses and attacking would be even more strategic. GAC is such an awesome mode, I hope you keep improving it! Stay healthy!
Q: We have had several light side Geo TB’s now, previously you had said the team wanted to see the data for progression and decide if any adjustments needed to be made. Now that you have seen the data, are there any plans to rebalance the TB? Or can we expect some power increase for our characters to make this mode more enjoyable? Even in a top 50 guild in the game from our perspective the guild really dislikes LS Geo in the rotation, we need fun added to it.
Q: With the new and final season of the Clone Wars coming to an end soon, can we expect in the future to see some new/returning characters introduced into SWGOH, like we are starting to see for The Mandalorian?
Q: Are there plans to give us 8 full fleets worth of ships? There are currently 8 capital ships, but only 41 smaller ships. At the 7 smaller ships per fleet, we would need 56 ships to round this out. It might be a great opportunity to add value to generic pilots such as TFP and Resistance Pilot by giving them more than one ship to pilot. We need more ships and more opportunities to use ships in non-PVP modes.
Q: Are there plans to rework some of the Galactic Republic jedi with dated kits like Mace Windu?
Q: Many players didn't find the duel between Rey and Kylo very compelling. Do you have plans to use this mechanic again? Are there any changes planned to make it more interesting to play?
Q: Will we ever see an arena fleet without Bossk? I'm so sick of him in fleets!
Q: Now that you are starting to introduce content from the Mandalorian, it is planned to introduce the Mandalorian tag?
Q: Why is GL Rey not tagged as a Jedi?
Q: With the Mandalorian coming to the game soon, can we also expect the addition of his ship the Razor Crest, and if so, are there any plans in the future for a larger bounty hunter fleet or a scoundrel fleet?
- A: CG_Miller - Bounty Hunters do have a lot of ships don't they? We're trying very hard to make sure that fleets contain ships within their own faction, but in some cases like Resistance there just isn't enough to go around. This isn't the case with Bounty Hunters so they are definitely a faction worthy of getting a "build around" unit.
Q: Why is Greef Karga going to be light side instead of neutral? Considering he was a secondary antagonist throughout most of the first season I really expected a neutral tag.
- A: CG_Miller - Greef's look doesn't really change throughout the series so that makes it incredibly difficult to make multiple versions of him. His kit takes inspiration from all the Chapters of The Mandalorian that he appears in, so we decided that his alignment should be lined up with what he displayed in the final chapter of the season for the sake of capturing the whole of the character and looking at where we'll use him in the future.
Q: Do you plan on adding any more divisions to GA? The top divisions have a wide range of power levels and I'm bound to come across some with GL Rey or Kylo sooner or later even thoug I'm still working on them.
- A: CG_Miller - Yes, we've got some work to do in order to add those new tiers, and we're waiting for a critical mass of players before we commit to that task.
Q: What is the thought process behind giving Cara Dune the "Rebel" tag?
- A: CG_Miller - Cara's skills come from her time as a Rebel Shock Trooper, and we really wanted to capture that in her kit. Making her work with things that look for the Rebel category was an additional way we could bring out the bad-ass Rebel soldier she is meant to be.
Q: Why do some feats that are earned during attack phases of GAC end during the set up phase? I would ask that the timers be adjusted, either to last an extra attack phase (preferred) or to end when an attack phase ends. There is no point for a feat (example, the need for speed feat) to continue another 24 hours during the setup phase when there is nothing we can do to complete it.
- A: CG_Miller - This is entirely on me, and before I answer this I have requested a tech solution to the problem. The reason this happens is that once a Feat's timer expires you can no longer claim the reward for the feat even if you accomplished it. The reason the feat runs an "extra day" is so that players have an additional 24 hours in order to claim a feat they have accomplished. It's not the most graceful of solutions to the problem, and I agree it does look weird, especially if you didn't complete the feat.
Q: Grand Arena Championship is a great mode. But it is only 5v5 and 3v3 with or without ships. Are there plans on adding more variety in GAC? Interesting examples would be 4v4 or 6v6 (Maybe with two leaders?) and even a mix of different squad sizes. Also, with now 8 capital ships, wouldn't it be cool to set 2 fleets? You could even implement special systems like duplicating characters ( of course limited and not for galactic legends ) or giving certain factions certain bonuses. Also, the territories could have some special functions like giving a small speed or tenacity boosts that way placing defenses and attacking would be even more strategic. GAC is such an awesome mode, I hope you keep improving it! Stay healthy!
- A: CG_Tophat - Unpacking this: 1) We're working on expanding the number of fleet defenses. 2) We have no plans at this time to introduce anymore permutations to GAC at this time. When we were doing all of the experimentation in the different TW bonuses and changes, one of the common complaints we heard from players is that it was hard to plan for as a player. Now even those bonuses were very distortionary of regular play patterns, there's a key lesson in there for us: change things, make sure players have time to develop new strategies, and don't change it too often. At the moment, we think there's a stable enough play pattern around 5v5 and 3v3 that's still interesting enough to excite players. At sometime, we'll likely look back into changes we could make into GAC, but not at this time. 3) Thanks! I hope you and yours are staying healthy too!
Q: We have had several light side Geo TB’s now, previously you had said the team wanted to see the data for progression and decide if any adjustments needed to be made. Now that you have seen the data, are there any plans to rebalance the TB? Or can we expect some power increase for our characters to make this mode more enjoyable? Even in a top 50 guild in the game from our perspective the guild really dislikes LS Geo in the rotation, we need fun added to it.
- A: CG_Tophat - Sorry to hear you aren't enjoying it. There are no plans at this time to change the balance of the Geo LSTB.
Q: With the new and final season of the Clone Wars coming to an end soon, can we expect in the future to see some new/returning characters introduced into SWGOH, like we are starting to see for The Mandalorian?
- A: CG_Tophat - Not in the near future.
Q: Are there plans to give us 8 full fleets worth of ships? There are currently 8 capital ships, but only 41 smaller ships. At the 7 smaller ships per fleet, we would need 56 ships to round this out. It might be a great opportunity to add value to generic pilots such as TFP and Resistance Pilot by giving them more than one ship to pilot. We need more ships and more opportunities to use ships in non-PVP modes.
- A: CG_Tophat - We're releasing all sorts of ships. We don't release ships to the idea of having x number of complete fleets. We release them in response to the meta to drive changes in the meta. My hope is that we have many full potential fleets in the future. Regarding more opportunities to use ships, agreed - we're looking into adding more defenses to GAC and we're working on creating some more spaces to play with them.
Q: Are there plans to rework some of the Galactic Republic jedi with dated kits like Mace Windu?
- A: CG_Tophat - None at this time, unfortunately. We hope to circle back to them at some point.
Q: Many players didn't find the duel between Rey and Kylo very compelling. Do you have plans to use this mechanic again? Are there any changes planned to make it more interesting to play?
- A: CG_Miller - The feedback on this feature has been fantastic and we are reading all of it. We definitely like the new way to engage with the game, and if we return to the Duel as a mode in a future event you can rest assured that it won't be an exact carbon copy of the way we did it in the Rey and Kylo GL events.
Q: Will we ever see an arena fleet without Bossk? I'm so sick of him in fleets!
- A: CG_Miller - While we love the Hound's Tooth, we agree that its presence is a little too ubiquitous for our tastes. This is why you've seen the new Capital ships look for specific factions for bonuses, and why the last two ships we added were tanks (the Hyena bomber and Republic Y-wing). As a matter of fact, you can probably put money down that any bombers we add in the future will be a Tank first and foremost in an effort to pry that slot away from the Hound's Tooth.
Q: Now that you are starting to introduce content from the Mandalorian, it is planned to introduce the Mandalorian tag?
- A: CG_Miller - Mandalorian is a very difficult category name to throw into the game. For one it could refer to the race of humans from the planet Mandalore. For another it could refer to the creed by which Mandalorians stand. And then there is a third reference and that is the show called The Mandalorian. If we were to add it, it would probably be in the definition as the first example (someone from Mandalore), but Jango Fett and Boba Fett are not Mandalorian which would exclude them from getting the category. This would be confusing to a lot of people while at the same time being canonically correct. Since there's no real pressing need or mechanic we want to tie around being Mandalorian, we're keeping it out of the game for now.
Q: Why is GL Rey not tagged as a Jedi?
- A: CG_Miller - This is a two part answer. The first is that while Rey identified herself as "All the Jedi" at the end of Rise of Skywalker, up until that moment she was on a unique path all her own, and can be argued isn't ever a Jedi in the traditional sense. Second is that after Jedi Knight Revan we have to be incredibly careful about who gets the Jedi category, as he is always looking for another Jedi to strengthen that team even more. When taken together I hope you can see our reasoning behind not giving Rey the Jedi category.
