SWTOR Patch 1.6 Livestream Q&A transcript and video. This livestream will be discussing Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergates and the recently launched Free to Play option.

Transition to FTP is going very well – we seem more players using every metric we have. Our expectations were blown away.

Six character slots for preferred players (up from 2). This will come in the same patch that allow players to buy more character slots. Returning players may find the restrictions a bit restrictive but we need to find a balance between making sure subscribers get their money’s worth and making the F2P option attractive. Brand new players may not find the restrictions restrictive as they don’t know what it is like without the restrictions.

There is a thing we are planning for Ilum in Feb-March. It is going to be a revisit to Ilum but it is not going to be just a reboot of the same old scenarios we had there fore. It is going to be more than just PvP and has some of the most amazing world buildings there.

Ever escalating gear spiral, any plans for horizontal progress? For us we want to keep the gap between entry players and top tier players under control. That is important for both PvP and PvE (i.e. raid guild recruiting). We will be doing a redesign somewhere between gear spiral and horizontal flat progression.

Any plans for separate warzones for non elite WH players: we are adjusting the queueing system to better pair elite WH players with elite WH players. That is coming up in the future and no ETA. We want most of the diferenation from player skills and not from gear.
What is the status on mekab and when can we expect it? We just went through a play through the Imperial storyline. More details on this in the near future – pretty darn soon.

Ease our minds of the current team with the restructuring. More bugs seem to rise up? We have a lot of very dedicated people who are very passionate about this game. There is no negative news along those fronts here. As far as bugs – if you look at version 1.1., 1.2, etc. every one of them had downtimes and multiple hotfixes after the patch. In 1.4 and 1.5 you just have seen some bugs that were really in your face that made the game feel a lot more buggy. We are getting better at finding the bugs and fixing the bugs. We take bugs seriously. We have leaderboards and monthly competitions to see who plays SWTOR more in the office.

How is the super space project going? Does it exist? It is so hard being part of the development team is because there are things we really want to talk about but can’t. I just played it, it is a departure from our normal space game but it is also something that is pretty far in the future. We are talking about far out. I wish I could tell you more but you won’t hear it for a while.

With the holidays coming up, how often will we see Cartel market updates? We are looking to update the market weekly, add some new items, change some prices. Before the holidays we got a major update coming to the Cartel Market. We will have a new cartel pack every month. We will also have stuff for the Life day – a lot of items part of the Life Day Cartel Pack. Czerka vehicle, red, festive, you can ride it, and it is super amazing. We are adding stuff that are more archtypcal – i.e. more jedi look etc.

Earlier this year we did the guild summit, guild capitals, guild calenders, chat bubbles, ready check, were mentioned. When is all this coming? The studio has gone a lot of change since the guild summit, we are busy working on a lot of things. We changed some of the things we are working on. Some we are still working on, but some are on the backburner. I love the idea of guild capital ships but these things are abit further out. All of these features on the wall of crazy but it is a ordered by priority.Small things on that wall have a more chance to happen – i.e. inventory sorting.

Any method of copying live characters to PTS? Yes, you should see that before we launch Mekab. We had some character copies in the past but they were manual copies. We are working on a new system to copy characters.

Will legacy perks prices ever lowered, any chance on the character specific perks being made legacy wide. Legacy system will undergo a minor revamp. It is on the list of stuff to think about.

When will we see more minigames. Mekab patch has a couple of new gameplay activities. New ways for you to encounter and explore the world.
CE vendors – any plans to make the items on the vendors available on the Cartel Market. No plans atm.

When is Cathar coming up, any races beyond Cathar. Cathar is coming in the months timeframe. It will depend on how well the Cathar do on the marketplace. Doing a new race and all the customizations is very expensive.

How are we holding to our six week schedule? It is going great right now. We hit that pretty darn well. We might have a 9 week over the holiday to let our guys enjoy the holiday since last year everyone was here. 9 week between the update prior to the holidays and after and then maintain a 6-8 schedule after the holidays.