Last week, we talked over our preview of SWTOR's 1.3 Allies content patch with BioWare's Daniel Erickson, where we discovered what to expect from The Old Republic in the near future. But some of the biggest fan concerns weren’t addressed; the fate of Ilum, the delay of ranked PvP and dwindling server populations, for example. So this week we sat down with lead technical designer Emmanuel Lusinchi to clarify a few points, as well as find out what direction The Old Republic is headed.

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“ The mega server would allow us to make the game better across the board.

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“ Do we want a few selected players working hard and getting all the rewards or do we want most people that participate to get the reward?

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Many of the changes we’ll be seeing in 1.3 and beyond are inspired by players’ worries, and Emmanuel stressed that this is deliberate. He and the team are very aware of the expectations that come with a subscription fee, as he emphasised: “It’s a game, but also a service; we have a commitment to bring you new updates and new stories.” As a result, the fact players are upset about dwindling server numbers is currently the company’s main focus. We explained last week that character transfers and the Looking for Group tool are the first steps towards solving this problem, but now we know a bit more about Bioware’s plans.Firstly, the transfer service will be completely free. If you have friends on a different server and want to move to join them, you can do that without paying the one-time fee many other MMOs charge. Coupled with this, the new Looking for Group tool will work for planetary content, flashpoints and operations, as well as give you a random daily reward for using it.Whilst this sounds promising, many fans have claimed that it’s just a stalling tactic, and that server merges are desperately needed to raise populations. Emmanuel refused to be pinned down on potential merges, explaining that “the concept is great, right; every social phenomenon benefits from having more people involved. It’s true for Facebook, and it’s true for any MMO. The mega server would allow us to make the game better across the board; more players involved, more players that can connect directly to each other, it’s just good stuff. So it would make a lot of sense, that’s all I can say about that.”But beyond 1.3, there are other worries that continue to bother players. The PvP section of the game has been plagued with problems, from Ilum to the delay of Ranked Warzones. When the game launched in December, Ilum was planned to be provide a space for open-world PvP, but a series of bugs and design errors meant it was swiftly abandoned. One team was often massively overpowered, and players achieved more working on their own than with others. Emmanuel freely admits it didn’t quite work out as they hoped saying, “I played on Ilum and it was…not good.“So we’ve kind of deemphasised it, and it doesn’t serve a lot of purpose right now. We’re rebuilding it from the ground up based on sound principles, like working with friends giving an advantage and enemies always being enemies. The exact format I’m not going to talk about because we may implement it and find out it doesn’t work very well - and we know better now, don’t we?”That’s not the only lesson taken away from the Ilum-debacle, though. It also affected how Bioware handled the discovery that Ranked Warzones, which were slated to go live in patch 1.2, were not in a game-worthy state shortly before the update was deployed. Rather than put them in and hope for the best, they’ve held them back and spent a lot of time iterating to make sure the system works fairly. Emmanuel doesn’t know if it’ll make it into 1.3 or if it’ll come in 1.4, but the legacy of Ilum is apparent in the lengthier development cycles and extensive testing between patches.For PvE players, Emmanuel and the team are committed to creating vibrant planets that encourage exploration. So far they’ve done this through hidden rewards for those who venture off the beaten track and that’s not about to change. Like the magenta lightsaber crystal, there’s a wealth of less obvious treats set to appear over the coming months, though Emmanuel wouldn’t be drawn on specifics. Players can also expect more events, like the recent Rakghoul Plague, only with one crucial difference.Lots of subscribers felt that the event didn’t last long enough, and Bioware’s internal metrics reflected this. People who took part in the event loved it, but not that many completed all the available quests, so Emmanuel and the team are currently in talks to make the next one more accessible. He explained, “That’s something we are taking a hard look at it because we have to define for ourselves, what do we want to achieve? Do we want a few selected players working hard and getting all the rewards or do we want most people that participate to get the reward?”Rewards, ultimately, is what the team seems to be focused on. As Emmanuel stated, it’s a service as much as a game, and customers and players alike enjoy being rewarded. Whilst he resolutely refused to divulge which new species may appear shortly (“Maaaybe, have we said they’re coming?”), he did give us one tantalising hint ahead of last week's E3 reveals . When asked whether the persistent reports of getting KOTOR character HK-47 as a companion had any basis in reality, he teased, "It’s not HK-47…and it’s a rumour! And we don’t comment on rumours…it’d be cool though, wouldn’t it?”There are quite a few meatbags over here who’d agree.