{"id":3827,"date":"2021-12-16T09:01:14","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.generic-hero.com\/ThisWeekinAurabesh\/?p=3827"},"modified":"2021-12-16T11:14:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T16:14:45","slug":"galactic-seasons-interview-with-david-staats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.generic-hero.com\/ThisWeekinAurabesh\/2021\/12\/16\/galactic-seasons-interview-with-david-staats\/","title":{"rendered":"Galactic Seasons Interview with David Staats"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, I have have been given the opportunity to interview David Staats, a\u00a0System Designer at Bioware about the upcoming second Galactic Season, “Shadows of the Underworld” which will begin with the launch of Legacy of the Sith<\/em>\u00a0in February. I want to thank David for taking the time to comprehensively answer my questions and everyone at Bioware who helped make this possible!<\/p>\n

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For readers who might not know, would you mind introducing yourself? What is your role at Bioware and how does it relate to Galactic Seasons?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

David Staats:<\/strong> Absolutely! My name is David Staats and I am one of the Systems Designers here at BioWare working on Star Wars: The Old Republic<\/strong><\/em>. I originally joined the SWTOR<\/strong><\/em> team back in 2014 just after the launch of Galactic Strongholds<\/i> and remained on the team through our Shadow of Revan<\/i> and Knights of the Fallen Empire<\/i> expansions. I rejoined the team again in mid 2020 shortly after the launch of Onslaught<\/i> and have loved being back as a part of this team and part of the greater SWTOR<\/strong><\/em> community.<\/p>\n

As a Systems Designer a part of our job is to create, balance, and maintain the core game reward loops and goals for players within SWTOR<\/em><\/strong> – all the stuff that a player does between their amazing story beats. This includes components such as Guilds, Conquest, Legacy, Crew Skills, Achievements, Group Finder, Strongholds, and more.<\/p>\n

Galactic Seasons is one our newest systems in this nature, and one I have been involved with in every aspect–from its inception and initial development to its continued development into Season 2 and beyond. I work with our incredibly talented team of producers, artists, engineers, UI\/UX designers, and Quality Verifiers (QV) to develop all aspects related to Galactic Seasons.<\/p>\n

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The first Galactic Season seemed to be structured towards completing objectives every day of the week if possible. I have heard players complain that if they simply did not have time to play on a given day or a week, they felt like they fell far behind. Is this something Season Two will address?<\/i><\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

David Staats:<\/strong> Yes! This was a piece of feedback I took to heart and set out to address with Season 2.<\/p>\n

When we balanced Season 1\u2019s Galactic Season Point distribution, we did so with the intention that the average player would have plenty of time to complete the Season. We didn\u2019t want to apply too much pressure on players that they felt like they needed<\/i> to log in every day to make the progress required to earn the full rewards in the time allotted. In fact, the Season was balanced with the notion that the average player could complete the Season by only doing a small handful of days worth of Daily Priority Objectives with the occasional supplemental Weekly Priority Objective, and that player would still complete the Season with time to spare.<\/p>\n

This was the intention, however, the feedback we received from players told a different story.<\/p>\n

We felt this was extremely important to alleviate, so it was the very first and most important design change we tackled when we approached Season 2. Our plan to shift this focus from daily emphasis to weekly emphasis includes a few things.<\/p>\n

A large part of the daily participation feeling was in the number of points a player could earn each week by completing all Daily Priority Objectives (42 points per week potential) when comparatively speaking to the Weekly Priority Objectives (24 points per week potential). Moving into Season 2, the total point percentage for Daily Objectives is now substantially smaller for Season 2 (16%) than it was for Season 1 (57%), while the total point percentage for Weekly Objectives is substantially higher for Season 2 (79%) than it was for Season 1 (32%). Our hope is that moving forward the Weekly Objectives will drive the core participation, with the Daily simply being supplemental.<\/p>\n

Next, we are changing the distribution method of the Objectives such that all players will be provided 10 Weekly Objectives per week and just a single Daily Objective per day. This was done so that players who have time on a certain day could complete more of their Season progression in one go, rather than having it be spaced out over the course of the week. In addition, we also heard feedback that the Season 1 method of Objective delegation was leaving little to no room for players to participate in the Season together, so this change both alleviates the Daily participation feeling while also providing players more opportunity to plan their week with their friends.<\/p>\n

Finally, we are adjusting what that Daily Objective is asking from players. For Season 2, that will simply be \u201cEarn 25,000 Personal Conquest Points across your Legacy.\u201d This would allow players the freedom and flexibility to play however they want while still making Galactic Seasons progress and alleviating that final bit of Daily participation concern.<\/p>\n

Our ultimate goal is to fully relieve the pressure of daily participation, and rather invite players to participate in Galactic Seasons on a week-to-week basis. The feedback we received from Season 1 went directly into informing what changes were needed to meet this goal, and we encourage everyone to continue providing feedback as we progress into Season 2 and beyond.<\/p>\n

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There were also complaints that the objectives felt like \u201cchores\u201d or forced players into gameplay modes like PVP or GSF that they didn\u2019t enjoy. To what extent is Galactic Seasons about encouraging players to try something new or simply allowing them to play however they want to complete objectives?<\/i><\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

David Staats:<\/strong> It\u2019s best to approach this as a comparison between two Systems we have in the game – Conquest and Galactic Seasons. Both are very similar in nature at their core – complete objectives and earn rewards.<\/p>\n

Conquest is a system which we wanted to reward players for virtually anything they did in the game, and have those rewards be meaningful to one\u2019s overall in-game progression (be that monetary, Guild, or equipment related progression). This allows the player to continue to progress through the game by simply playing any content the game offers. Because Conquest is so flexible however, it also has the potential to leave some players with decision paralysis. One could sit and shuffle through the expansive list of Conquest Objectives long before actually going out and doing anything.<\/p>\n

When we set out to create Galactic Seasons we wanted there to be some overlap to Conquest. Seasons was intended as a system which rewarded players with mostly cosmetic items, but intentionally asked players to step outside of their comfort zone in order to obtain those rewards. We want Galactic Seasons to be a more directed and streamlined path to activities, becoming a system which complements Conquest, but not replacing it.<\/p>\n

While the core intent of the systems is different, we still want to give players opportunities and room to progress through their Objectives in a manner they see fit best for them. This was our intent with some of the Objectives from Season 1 such as \u201cDefeat non-player opponents across Belsavis, Hoth, Rishi, or Tatooine.\u201d and \u201cComplete [HEROIC] missions on either Alderaan, Balmorra, or Corellia.\u201d.<\/p>\n

With Season 2, we are continuing with and expanding on this type of Objectives design, while also updating how we present them to players each week. We are adding a handful of Objectives into Season 2 which give the player bonus progression for certain actions. This is intended to further provide ways for players to progress their Objectives in a way they felt best for them, including if a player wanted to further challenge themselves. Here are a few examples of Objectives we have planned for Season 2 which follow this new type of Objective design:<\/p>\n