Much was heard about the changes that came to the Phantom and Spymaster gear sets in yesterdays 1.6.2 patch. Players on both sides of the changes seem extremely unhappy that the looks aren’t what they expected.
This is what we all hope our gear to look like one day…
Joveth Gonzalez attempted to answer questions yesterday, however this issue seemed important enough to BioWare to warrant a post by Lead Designer, Damion Schubert.
Hey, guys –
We care a lot about the fact that you care about the appearances of your characters. In fact, the Mod system is my baby, largely because it allows players to customize their appearance to your liking. We have another, similar, one of my babies coming in the near future, which will allow even greater customization (you guys may have seen me hinted about it in recent interviews). Short form: this is real important to me, and we’re not happy that we’ve created a situation that makes people unhappy. We didn’t think through the ramifications of the bugfix that we’ve made, and we’re acutely aware of the financial angle (cartel coins as well as in-game credits on the GTN) involved.
We are still discussing potential fixes to the issue — and there will be fixes — but there are ramifications to all fixes. Players should keep in mind that previously, we had players who were upset in the other direction. We have a couple of directions that we can go, but we need to explore a couple of things, and regardless, it is not a fix that can happen instantaneously. I do think we can get something in a patch very soon.
We are pretty sure we can avoid a solution that forces players to spend additional cartel coins, and I’m not interested in letting a situation linger that leaves the player’s faith in what we are offering on the cartel market in a reduced state. It is incredibly important to me, and the rest of the SW:TOR team, that players have a high degree of confidence in the market as a whole, and how we deal with issues like this. This has been a learning experience for us, and won’t happen again.
In short: we’ll fix this. Give us a little time to do so.
Damion Schubert
Lead Designer, SWTOR
So there you have it, TORWarriors! Not only an answer on the issue but a hint to the armor dye feature that is in the works! Does this help put your mind at ease?
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Not sure what the issue is here… The Phantom Chest looks WAY better than it did. The Spymaster Head also looks great. I’m not sure about the Spymaster Chest, though…
I would like to “dye” my armor invisible please.
-Force Boobs
I totally disagree, Lanier. The Phantom chest was awesome before the change! Now, it’s just another hood-and…life preserver, I think I’ve seen them called. Your are right about the Spymaster chest, too. It’s awful now.. =)
But that’s why we have this solution, so people who like whichever version can get they look they prefer.
I can see both sides to the arguement. I can understand why people want the flat, “slick” black top with no “life preserver” on it. Having said that, I also see why it was “fixed” to match what it showed on the cartel market. A fix to make both sides happy would be ideal and it looks like thats what they are going to do.
They also changed the Trailblazer gear – the jacket is a major change (I’ve got one) but for the most part I like it better, although it has some odd clipping and I don’t understand the insistance on adding off the sholder armoring on everything!
Dont forget about the trailblazer jacket! They stuck an extra collar on it that is not attached to anything! Its held up by the force!!!
The modifications made to the trailblazer helm affected one of my toons. Previously, it was one of the few helms that looked decent on my Twi’lek assassin, giving him an almost ninja-esque appearance. Now, however, he randomly has goggles attached to his helm. Hide Head-Slot option, I make my return to you…sigh.
What I like about this is that Mr. Schubert gave an answer that was clear, concise and humble. It was real information that acknowledged the problem, the validity of players’ concerns while explaining the situation. I also like that he promised that they would fix it.
I hope we see more of this kind of response when things go wrong. I hope it is the beginning of a new kind of helpful dialogue between producer and player.
I totally agree. I love the fact that they actually acknowledged a mistake and said they’re are going to do something in the future to correct this issue. They need to acknowledge things more often and give us more information as to what they are working into.
I have to hand it to Damion. He doesn’t give it to us in Corporate suit speak, which is a plus. I am not affected by this appearance change, other than Revan’s robes. Great look now btw. But I am very passionate about the appearance of my character in a big big way. So I can understand everyone’s frustration.
Appearance Tab!! >.>
The only solution is to have both sets of items available. Give players the choice of which one they want. I don’t know what they can do about people that already bought them. Maybe give them a refund of Cartel Coins, so they can buy the ones they want.
It is good to see a response this quickly from Damion, but I think they put too much on his shoulders. They really should have a few different people available to make these statements. It doesn’t have to be people on the development staff. Community managers should be having meetings with the developers every few days.
I agree. The trailblazer helm was perfect for my assassin main. With the goggles it looks ridiculous. Guess I’m in the market for a new helm…again.
THE GOGGLES! THEY DO NOTHING!
Seems pretty clear what the answer is. Make a new addition to the market which is the old incarnation of the sets. Then send a copy to anyone who has the current set. They would be losing money if the gear were real, but since it doesn’t have any actual value that’s fine. Just make the version that is sent out bind on pickup without an expiration. That way they can’t make any money off of it if they’re one of the ones that doesn’t want it.