If anyone who reads these happens to be going to the London cantina event, this is a list of questions I have been wanting answers to for a while now. I feel like Bioware has been giving little but canned answers, half-answers, and deflections so far to these questions, and based on past events I believe they might be more likely to give candid responses in person then they would be otherwise. I fully realize it is very likely they will give the same responses they have been giving, but nonetheless I would still appreciate these being asked if anyone who reads these will be in be in London for the cantina and is curious about these things as well. Feel free to add other questions to this thread that you would like asked.

1) Through the entirety of 4.0 and a good portion of 3.0 there has been no new group PVE content. A good portion of players and communities have formed guilds and stayed subscribed to this game over the years to play operations and group content. The current sentiment you see among many of these players and guilds is that they feel abandoned by the development team and the community team. A lot of these guilds have been slowly dying out throughout 4.0. Would you recommend that players and guilds that are primarily here to play progression content and care little for the story find other games to play? If yes, any recommedations? Do you expect progression ops players to be satisfied with the new group content being worked on?

2) One of the best aspects of SWTOR is the combat system. In the first developer stream you stated that you were increasing the time between class balance patches in 4.0. This has allowed class imbalances to linger for many months before being are adjusted, which has negatively affected both PVE and PVP gameplay. Looking forward do you plan to increase the frequency of balancing updates? If no, why not?

3) In Ben's open letter to the community he said, "BioWare supports this game. EA supports this game. Lucasfilm supports this game. Disney supports this game. In fact, for a game that has been live for almost 5 years, we are receiving an incredible amount of support from all of our partners." Keeping that statement in mind, can you explain the reasoning behind the decision to develop only story content for 4.0, and not both story content and operations/group content? In your personal opinion is EA's budget for this game enough to properly support development for an MMO of this size?

4) With the current state of several low population servers, particularly the former PVP servers, have you resigned yourselves to the fact that server mergers are necessary? If no, why not? Do you feel that the current state of server populations and current player morale is a referendum on the new focus on story development?

5) Prior to 4.0 if ever a game-breaking bug found its way in to the game, you would occasionally hotfix that issue fairly quickly after it was identified. We have seen very little of that in 4.0. Any issues not related to chapters, such as the bolster bug in pvp and the nightmare loot drops, have been left in the game until the next or even the following monthly patch, allowing the bugs to be in the game for months before they are fixed. Can you give an explanation of the lack of response time to these game-breaking bugs, also while keeping in mind Ben's statement on the amount of support this game is getting? Do you expect the response time to potential future bugs to improve, specifically bugs unrelated to chapters and companions?

One last question I had:

6) If there are no more new operations, how are new tiers of gear going to work?

I have a question...I have completed everything I need for all the tiers I wanted to complete of the current event (DvL) except playing chapter 16. I am not interested in the highest tier because it requires me to do a lot of a few things I really don't like doing (24 HM FP's and leveling 8 characters to 50 come to mind).

So when chapter 16 is out and the event has done what it can for me and adding that operations have grown stale even for me....can you give me a reason to stay subbed? Because right now I would need something new to do as I've regurgitated old content as much as I can make myself do. If not that's cool but then I'll know and I can do something else for a while.

My sub won't run out for a bit yet, that's not the point but I really just want to know if there's something new I can look forward to beyond the end of this month.

1) Through the entirety of 4.0 and a good portion of 3.0 there has been no new group PVE content. A good portion of players and communities have formed guilds and stayed subscribed to this game over the years to play operations and group content. The current sentiment you see among many of these players and guilds is that they feel abandonded by the development team and the community team. Alot of these guilds have been slowly dying out throughout 4.0. Would you recommend that players and guilds that are primarily here to play progression content and care little for the story find other games to play? If no, any reccommedations? Do you expect progression ops players to be satisfied with the new group content being worked on?

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my own guild has almost completely fallen apart over it. i don't even know any guilds that are pulling 16 man nim's anymore. most nights we can still get an 8 man together, to go kill bosses we have already killed, but nobody is happy about it. honestly, if it is anything other than 2 new ops, i am probably done myself.

If it were me...then I would follow this script:

Question #1 should be repeated until answered. A strong, vocal majority of the group should repeat this question as to not give them a reason to dismiss it.

And, don't ever use the word "group content" around them because this is just a means to give a vague response. Ask specifically about "operations" and do not accept an answer that does not specifically address "operations."

We don't necessarily need to know where, what it's about, and any of the fluff. Do not ask about any of that. It's just a diversionary avenue for them. Ask them if they plan to create one, and if so...roadmap it's tentative release.

We're down to a yes/no situation. It's sad, but it is what it is.

This is what I would ask. I'm not telling anyone that they should do it. But, if it were me and assuming most Cantina attendee's are not casuals, I'm guessing that this is the ultimate question on everyone's minds. It's certainly on mine.

Someone needs to force an answer, because clearly they believe stringing us along or creating vague anticipation is still a viable means to keep the raiding community subbed. Unfortunately, it is not.

If it were me...then I would follow this script:

 

Question #1 should be repeated until answered. A strong, vocal majority of the group should repeat this question as to not give them a reason to dismiss it.

 

And, don't ever use the word "group content" around them because this is just a means to give a vague response. Ask specifically about "operations" and do not accept an answer that does not specifically address "operations."

 

We don't necessarily need to know where, what it's about, and any of the fluff. Do not ask about any of that. It's just a diversionary avenue for them. Ask them if they plan to create one, and if so...roadmap it's tentative release.

 

We're down to a yes/no situation. It's sad, but it is what it is.

 

This is what I would ask. I'm not telling anyone that they should do it. But, if it were me and assuming most Cantina attendee's are not casuals, I'm guessing that this is the ultimate question on everyone's minds. It's certainly on mine.

 

Someone needs to force an answer, because clearly they believe stringing us along or creating vague anticipation is still a viable means to keep the raiding community subbed. Unfortunately, it is not.

I am not sure it's the ultimate question on "everyone's" minds... since it won't be long before a "You don't speak for me!!!" reply appears, but it's certainly the only piece of information literally everyone I know in game is waiting to hear.

But I guess the question I am just as interested in hearing an answer to - and one I know will never get answered - is why? Why do they believe this approach to endgame raiding (and PvP for that matter) is healthy for the game? Because it literally makes no sense to me to kill guilds in an MMO.

while I would love to hear the questions on the list asked, I cna't think the reply you'll receive will be anything other than the company line they've all had to tow: "we know you all want to know more on this. what we can say is soon, but that's all we can say for now."

maybe ask if there will be a weapon designer like outfit designer. It would def increase cartel weapon sales/packs if they did.

maybe ask if there will be a weapon designer like outfit designer. It would def increase cartel weapon sales/packs if they did.

EASY money!!! One thing I want very much. Since the outfit tabs, I've spent 100x's more on packs and GTN sales than before it.

Any chance we can get absorb mods back ? I'd love to get rid of some defence but i realise that changing stats on enhancements probably wont happen. Mod's on the other hand..... I dont see why not.

Also, any plans to make tankstats worthwhile in pvp ?

is there going to be registration for this cantina tour like the previous tours? I do not see the info in the community tour registration section.

If I am remembering right from the stream, no. I think you can just show up.

So, from sound of it Q&A didn't really get off the ground?

Yeah that what is seems like. From what I could find on Reddit, there were too many people for the size of the venue to have a proper Q&A.