SWTOR Roadmap for the Future

[paul_preib]

SWTOR Roadmap for the Future

 

Warning in advance this will be a monolith of text

 

At this point we are all aware of that the game is not the complete success envisioned by EA bigwigs, nor the utter flop the doom and gloomers present it as (reference the first six months of conan or Warhammer). It has its faults but is still very enjoyable and for that I wish it success.

 

There are issues facing the game that do need to be resolved however, the key to the game holding a solid 1 million-esque subscriber base is to identify and resolve those problems currently facing the game in a progressive non knee-jerk approach that will serve to create a solid foundation of retention that will lead to long term viability.

 

This roadmap serves to identify issues impacting the game in its existing form, and rectify the problems in a systematic fashion recognizing the strengths of the game and attempting to play up to those, while serving to adjust the flaws in a functional manner.

 

1.Server Adjustment—Obviously Server population is the primary issue many people currently take with this game. Diffusing people over far too many servers at the outset created a cascade effect where some rerolled to higher populations, some just unsubbed for greener pastures, both effects further depleting into a snowball effect.

 

Overt Server merges are messy painful things that are logistically unlikely to happen, so how then is this resolved? There must be a path to smoothly channel people into servers without forcibly pushing them, or leaving them high and dry if they miss certain openings.

 

This is achieved by opening select servers to free incoming transfers, at a rate of no more than three to four per server type (PVE/PVP/RP/RP-PVP). These servers will continue to be deemed “open”—i.e. free incoming transfers until they reach certain benchmark numbers, at which point they will be removed from the free transfer system and be replaced with another similar server type. At any given point there will always be at least two servers of each type with free incoming transfers.

 

Transfers will be allowed in either legacy or individual formats—Paid transfers can also be conducted legacy-wide or individually as well, obviously the legacy-wide costing more. When transferring to a server if you have a pre-existing legacy the higher of the two will overwrite the lower one. Available character slots will be increased to ten to handle the addition of full legacy transfers, however if a legacy-wide transfer would result in more than ten the player legacy will be split based off of the player selecting which characters to retain on the original server.

Why makes sense—This is serves to create a long-term ebb and flow towards certain servers acting to not only fill them to a more active/accessible level now, but create a long term benefit that would help keep populations filled yet controlled whilst allowing some opportunity to actively have some choice in community selection (without so many being open that it just recreates the problem).

 

 

2.The ease of access and low number of people required for storymode operations makes the traditional flashpoint grind mostly irrelevant.

 

Solution – Tionese Gear can be bartered for daily commendations, tionese commendations in turn can be traded up for columni commendations at a to be determined amount.

 

Why this makes sense—Tionese gear is a virtually skippable step right now, likewise the benefit for the soloer of grinding out daily commendations is quite mediocre right now. The high end earpieces/relics are nice but there needs to be something in the middle ground between rakata quality 120+ commendation items and supplanted within a day or two of being 50 7 commendation armoring mods. Tionese-caliber gear for between 50 and 80 daily commendations bridges this gap and gives worthwhile objectives to those who can’t find a flashpoint group but aren’t geared enough to justify being brought on an operation.

 

The extension of this, bartering up for columni commendations would make hardmode flashpoints (besides kaon/Lost Island) worth running as you can apply your rewards towards picking up columni pieces that are worthwhile for operations.

 

Given the existence of a fourth tier i.e. campaign, it makes sense to shift the accessibility up on tionese and to a lesser extent columni to make it accessible and alt-friendly.

 

 

3.Storylines, legacies, and fairly short (for vanilla) leveling times encourage a significant amount of alt activity, but even the staunchest altoholic will feel bogged down a few characters in especially if they are want to focus on one faction.

 

The solution— Works in a few steps. The first is the inclusion of legacy-related perks that serve to make leveling itself less of a slog. These are varied and include

 

A.Legacy unlock sprint speed increase—three tiers (per ten legacy levels) increase sprint speed by 10% for the first unlock, 5% for the second and third tiers.

 

B.Portable Shelter legacy-bound item— Obtained by reaching 50 and can mailed to other members of your legacy, this serves the purpose of allowing you to activate it when logging out to acquire the ship/fleet/cantina degree of rest bonus anywhere.

 

C.Summon Ship—Working like the emergency fleet pass it gives instant access to your ship from any point on what planet you are on.

 

I do not include things like pvp exp boosts or such as they have already been stated as being included in 1.3.

 

Why this makes sense—The biggest concern as games progress is encouraging smoother leveling for alts while not trivializing it for first time players who deserve to get the full original leveling experience. These help you to progress faster without the simplistic benefit of just increasing experience in a blanket fashion.

 

 

The secondary aspect to leveling quality of life is likely to be somewhat more controversial, this is to allow a character to defect upon reaching 50. This converts the character to the opposite faction as his mirror class.

 

Why This Makes Sense— While people will dabble in both sides traditionally most people consider themselves generally identifying primarily with one faction. This change would allow people the benefit of being able to see alternate faction storylines while being able to apply that character towards guild/endgame activities once they reach 50, it also avoids the issue of separate advanced classes within the same Basic-class blanket from having to repeat the same storyline.

 

The original caveat that would have existed, namely faction-specific races has already been abolished thus paving the way. The transforming into the mirror may feel somewhat awkward but logistically retaining the original advanced class would require a complete rewrite of the voice-acting that is too impractical.

 

 

4.PVP is in need of a pick-me up (blanket term used for the variety of fixes covering various aspects)

Note: I am only discussing blanket items, individual class balance discussions are for their own thread.

 

A.Warzone queuing broken into a battlegroup format of multiple servers bundled together.

 

Why this works— There are two conflicts ideals at play, the first is the capacity for a single server to support varied and active ranked and unranked warzone queues simultaneously, the second is the desire to retain community continuity rather than getting plugged in routinely with faces you will never see again.

 

The battlegroup system takes clusters of 4-6 servers and works as a cross-server queue that is contained within an individual battlegroup. You will still come to know and grow familiar with your battlegroup community while giving a high enough population pool to both improve queue times and justify the inclusion of a ranked warzone system by making it more then 2-3 ranked teams per faction.

 

B.Legacy pvp armor sets obtained by virtue of valor rank one piece each ten valor ranks from 40-80.

Why this works— The obnoxious aspect of the recruit armor isn’t that it costs an outrageous amount so much as it is irritating to justify the price for something you will replace in little more than a week. These pieces would comprise your basic four (helm/chest/legs/boots). These would be a slight statistical boost above the recruit set, primarily with regards to endurance, but not on par with battlemaster as the purpose is ease of access as you take additional characters up, not negating the traditional pvp gear advancement system.

 

 

C.Expertise Diminishing Returns Adjusted to a slightly steeper dropoff at the highest points.

 

Why this makes sense— This acts upon two aspects, the time-to-kill rate and the lack of personal customization (the augment system helps slightly, but there’s generally only 2-3 worthwhile augment choices per class).

 

Damage is not paired significantly down in this change—pre 1.2 the average player had a 10-11% damage boost, at present the average player receives as 20-22% increase. The revamp adjusts in only slightly to bring the average to roughly 18-20% in a standard gear arrangement. It does not radically change metrics, only slightly increases average survival time across the long term.

 

This also improves the ability for someone to add their own bit of personalization to their gear, allowing room to mix one or two pve pieces into the equation without concern for sacrificing too much expertise (while still emphasizing it too high enough levels that the pre 1.2 “can wear half rakata” argument remains invalid). This just allows the odd rakata earpiece or matrix cube to be paired with a still 90% pvp alignment.

 

 

5.Improve Guild Functionality— Right now guilds boil down to a guild bank and a chat channel, the ultimate functionality of guild systems are somewhat limited by and large. The solution to this is creating a guild advancement system that allows different access points to be gained by the guild advancing in level.

 

This advancement can be achieved in multiple different ways. There is a natural progression simply from being an active for different time durations to actual guild accomplishments (obtain X number of warzone wins, totaled from all active members, slay final bosses in different ops/at different levels, complete daily challenges (these are different items from certain specific heroic quests to downing a specific world boss, to completing certain flashpoints—randomized to what the challenge will be on a given day).

 

This advancement serves to unlock different benefits starting with items such as additional titles, access to a more diverse ranking system, guild ships, benefit unlocks accessed on guild ships (ranging from mailbox/auction house to a cantina in the ship’s mess hall, and designable Guild insignias (not displayed overtly on gear it shows up on areas such when opening the guild social window, onboard your guild starship, etc.

 

External to the advancement system is the existence of a guild calendar and guild alliance interface (allowing certain items such as a /alliance channel separate from user created channels).

 

Why this would works—This is about instilling color and variety to the game helping with the issue that at times it can come off as flat and lifeless. Guild progression (in a non raid progression context) gives the social aspect of the game an added dimension while the advancement system helps make the resource load dedicated to these items be funneled into a moderated system.

 

 

 

7.Crafting reworking.

 

Right now crafting is very niche within this game. The orange mod system and relatively easy segue into tiered gear (pve or pvp) make it difficult to justify certain professions while making 15 of a single orange item to try and get an augment is no one’s idea of an enjoyable crafting system.

 

The idea is to increase the viability/desirability of those that feel limited right now while those that are over-valued get tempered to not be the end-all. This is achieved by

 

A.Reusable stims and medpacks being BOE crafted by biochem have their biochem req. removed, in exchange BOP biochem consumables are still reusable, but contain a statistical increase over there BOE equivalents.

 

B.Crafted Orange Armor sets now contain their own set bonuses

 

C.Artifice given a greater variety and quality of boe crafted relics

 

D.Cybertech—Given the capacity to craft boe 23/24 armorings.

 

Why this works—While an entire thread could probably be dedicated to craft revamp ideas this acts as a base that serves multiple purposes. Allowing reusable consumables to go into the trade network without the biochem requirement both gives a solid stable higher-end product and reduces the overvaluation biochem has now compared to other professions, Adrenals are notably excluded to retain a constant-demand type item for trade value.

 

The set bonuses on orange crafted pieces balances out the fact that the combination of social armor, mod system, and incoming augment tables all serve to negate most of the value in armor-crafting professions. Rakata belt/bracers with biometric alloys being BOE are decent enough high-end benefits right now, but small set bonuses (tuned to be less valuable then most of the tier armor ones) give some market value and allow the crafted orange to mean something.

 

Artifice and Cybertech boosts are intended to give them a more marketable product while also serving the purpose of improving that segue from your 126 rated items to operation gear. Just as tionese was made more open, near-tionese quality armoring helps bridge that gap as well.

 

 

8.Datacron hunting is not to everyone’s taste but the cumulative statistical bonus can be quite significant

 

The solution to this is to make datacron achievements legacy bound, applying to new characters at a predetermined rate upon completing each story chapter.

 

Why this makes sense—Even those that enjoyed datacron hunting are unlikely to feel like going through the entire process repeatedly, yet the stat boost when they are all added up is fairly significant. By making these datacrons legacy bound you eliminate the redundancy, once again play to the alt-friendly nature the previous legacy perk bonuses mention, and generally make it more desirable.

 

The progression via story chapter unlocks serve to meter how those bonuses come, getting them all at the outset would trivialize lower level content, but a blanket at-50 boost is too backloaded. Breaking them into segments at chapter points (with the exception of starter-planet ones unlocking upon selecting an advanced class) allows them to be given at a more viable rate.

 

9.To Be continued.

[paul_preib]

Reserved

[darthstinji]

I totally agree with this post. Maybe the mods can move it to the suggestion box so the devs will see it.

Very well written, well laid out, no bashing, no complaining.

 

Nice post.

[Aus_Jedi]

Wow, I agree with everything in this post:)

[omNOMNOMinator]

Congrats, nice post. Thanks.

[paul_preib]

I totally agree with this post. Maybe the mods can move it to the suggestion box so the devs will see it.

Very well written, well laid out, no bashing, no complaining.

 

Nice post.

 

Glad you like, never saw a point to overt "this is terrible make it good" kinds of posts as they leave no real room for anything constructive to occur.

[Samoth_Nomad]

Agreed. great post. A lot of common sense upgrades.

[kriegheld]

Vangaurd, STO, and WAR.

 

That's the roadmap.

[ItsThatGuyAgain]

There are some solid, constructive suggestions in this post. Very comprehensive list, at that. Good work.

[FormlessOne]

First, nice post - well articulated, and while I don't agree with every single point, it's close enough.

 

It won't matter. MMOs aren't new, and most of the things for which you're asking have been available for some time in other games - if BioWare was serious about it, they would have rolled that stuff into place on day one. The simple fact is that BioWare dropped the ball here, and I'm not sure if they're capable of picking it back up. They created a rich, interesting, fun experience for leveling, and apparently had no clue as to what to do with us after we completed the leveling process.

 

In other MMOs, leveling is just that - a stepping stone to the rest of the game. Hitting max level is like getting your black belt - it's not the end, but the beginning of a new and exciting journey. Max level just means you know what you're doing. In this game, it's a wall - there's nearly nothing after 50. Sure, we can extend datacron benefits to alts, and merge servers, and so on, but without additional, accessible content that appeals to both casual and hardcore PvE and PvP players, the exodus will continue. Content is king, but BioWare's still trying to get basic functionality in place.

 

There's no content in 1.3 - just features that should've been present in RTM. Meanwhile, features & functionality that have been broken since RTM will remain broken, because they think getting the Group Finder in place will stem the tide of unsubscribers. Heck, you can't even automatically test 1.3 because they haven't finished writing & testing their Character Copy functionality - you have to actually take a friggin' survey, and then hope that your character can be copied over, because they're just not sure it works yet.

 

We bought an unfinished game, and they're hoping to finish it before too many of us up & leave, plain and simple. We can suggest, cajole, demand, beg, plead, whatever - it won't make content appear, and it won't change their bug priorities. They're running on a script that doesn't really involve us.

Edited May 28, 2012 by FormlessOne

[Itukaaj]

decent positive post

[Morrolan]

Great post OP.

[Tiaa]

All the roads on my SWTOR map have detour signs which say "Coming Soon".

[Sacrilage]

nice:)

[Goretzu]

Most of those suggestions are pretty decent.

 

 

I do think SWTOR really needs RvR (and a JTL space expansion) though, as a matter of urgency (and maybe RvRvR).

Edited May 28, 2012 by Goretzu

[MXIII]

First, nice post - well articulated, and while I don't agree with every single point, it's close enough.

 

It won't matter. MMOs aren't new, and most of the things for which you're asking have been available for some time in other games - if BioWare was serious about it, they would have rolled that stuff into place on day one. The simple fact is that BioWare dropped the ball here, and I'm not sure if they're capable of picking it back up. They created a rich, interesting, fun experience for leveling, and apparently had no clue as to what to do with us after we completed the leveling process.

 

In other MMOs, leveling is just that - a stepping stone to the rest of the game. Hitting max level is like getting your black belt - it's not the end, but the beginning of a new and exciting journey. Max level just means you know what you're doing. In this game, it's a wall - there's nearly nothing after 50. Sure, we can extend datacron benefits to alts, and merge servers, and so on, but without additional, accessible content that appeals to both casual and hardcore PvE and PvP players, the exodus will continue. Content is king, but BioWare's still trying to get basic functionality in place.

 

There's no content in 1.3 - just features that should've been present in RTM. Meanwhile, features & functionality that have been broken since RTM will remain broken, because they think getting the Group Finder in place will stem the tide of unsubscribers. Heck, you can't even automatically test 1.3 because they haven't finished writing & testing their Character Copy functionality - you have to actually take a friggin' survey, and then hope that your character can be copied over, because they're just not sure it works yet.

 

We bought an unfinished game, and they're hoping to finish it before too many of us up & leave, plain and simple. We can suggest, cajole, demand, beg, plead, whatever - it won't make content appear, and it won't change their bug priorities. They're running on a script that doesn't really involve us.

 

 

I do agree with some of what you and the OP are saying, while there are some features I dont want to see, like faction swapping etc. However I have one question. How is this game unfinished? I personally do not feel like I was given an unfinished product, and let me tell you there were some products I purchased that were most definitely unfinished (APB, Sword of The Stars II< Stronghold Kingdoms III, etc.). This is an MMO, and like an mmo it will evolve, and grow, with new features, bugs fixes, tweaks, and content that will eventually make it an entirely different game in some aspects to the vanilla release. However the class stories are finished, the classes are complete and fleshed out in their entirety, the Pvp is completely implemented...Yes Legacy didnt come out at release, but now that it IS out, it hasn't really affected the game in anyway, that made me feel like "Oh my god finally I can finish my game now that legacy is released, without legacy I was unable to fully explore the main features of the game."

 

This of course isnt the case. Legacy is just another feature added on in an attempt to increase the replayability of an already finished game. In fact many of us have Finished the majority of the Vanilla content in SWTOR< before Legacy was released. Everything Bioware wanted us to experience in their saga was readily available to us at launch. Everything that is coming down the piep are just added features, and new content to extend the life of the game.

[westrunzil]

Good post

[Cerdo_hormiguero]

I was expecting to hate the post. But instead I agree with most all the recommendations.

 

However: expertise already drops off enough at high amounts (by around 1200-1250). And high-end PvPers are already back to mixing in some PvE gear, just like they did pre-1.2.

 

Moreover, Battlemaster gear takes only a few days to get and results in close to 1200 expertise. Full War Hero doesn't give much more (most pieces have only +2pts of expertise). So the issue is really just that people are whinning about having to spend a few days PvPing to get BM gear and be competetive; they are right that Recruit gear gets stomped by War Hero gear, but that only lasts a couple of days till they get BM gear. But people want competitive gear instantly without earning it . . .

Edited May 28, 2012 by Cerdo_hormiguero

[turjake]

I was kind of expecting to read what SWTOR developers are planning this year and maybe next. This is what we need more than a list of minor adjustments to what we have at the moment. I dont necessarily disagree with the points the original poster made (or agree with some of them either )

 

Anyway it is nice to see people still thinking.

[Lord_Ravenhurst]

I don´t know. Sounds like some minor adjustments to what´s already there, nothing really of a big impact. BW might like the ideas to sell as another fabulous innovative update.

 

Summon ship? Great, more immersion breaking stuff outside the Star Wars reality and lore. Like pulling out mounts from your pocket, companions appearing out of thin air and "Scotty beam me to my next quicktravel point". Oh and the great idea of waving to my invisible shuttle! Meh. Not my cup of tea.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Lord_Ravenhurst

[paul_preib]

I don´t know. Sounds like some minor adjustments to what´s already there, nothing really of a big impact. BW might like the ideas to sell as another fabulous innovative update.

 

Summon ship? Great, more immersion breaking stuff outside the Star Wars reality and lore. Like pulling out mounts from your pocket, companions appearing out of thin air and "Scotty beam me to my next quicktravel point". Oh and the great idea of waving to my invisible shuttle! Meh. Not my cup of tea.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I actually deliberately kept to that degree you deem "minor adjustments" for an express reason, viability of implementation. A large-scale rework or any wholesale re-imaginings unfortunately lack in actual viability and are limited in any practical application.

 

 

These changes were selected because of the impact they would bring to overall quality of gameplay relative to the development intensity they would require.

 

 

As to the break decried by the ship aspect, I would content this is simply an extension of the emergency fleet pass already in existence, merely taking you to your ship instead of fleet. One could content that it is actually less immersion breaking because you will always have some member of your crew shipbound, so requesting they pilot the ship for an emergency pickup seems somewhat more plausible then an instant teleport to the galactic fleet.

 

At the end of the day however both fall under a similar idea-- In some aspects quality of life implementations outweigh pure depth and immersion. Quick travel is another example that is going to remain in the majority of MMO's going forward regardless of its impact on immersion simply for quality of life reasons.

[paul_preib]

I was kind of expecting to read what SWTOR developers are planning this year and maybe next. This is what we need more than a list of minor adjustments to what we have at the moment. I dont necessarily disagree with the points the original poster made (or agree with some of them either )

 

Anyway it is nice to see people still thinking.

 

Sorry if the roadmap definition seemed a bit misleading, just sounded less ostentatious then "my plans for SWTOR's future" or such. As to the minor degree of it, that was done deliberately. Large-scale development intensive plans or actual additional content (in terms of new planets, operations, warzone maps) are likely already basically set up and being worked on for the next year+ worth of patches already.

 

 

Most of these are designed to be small changes that are relatively easily implemented (server transfer planning aside) while cummulatively adding up to a considerable quality of life boost within the game, these target certain specific facets to help retain and increase playerbase (such as ways to smooth alt leveling without trivializing one's first character or giving something generic such as an inherent XP boost).

 

I realize not all will be to everyone's liking but I feel the way they add up, especially heavy utilization of the legacy system will alter the overall scope in such a way as to have a strong impact.