2nd Digital Expansion

[Krorne]

If the Community Team, or a Dev could answer--is/are there plans to allow use of a joystick or are we stuck with the keyboard/mouse?

[Valdrane]

There will not be a new planet and there is no increase to the level cap with this expansion. We really wanted to focus this expansion around space off of rails where you get to fight your friends (and enemies!)

 

To that point, there will not be any Space based PvE content with the Digital Expansion. It is only going to be PvP.

 

-eric

 

That is all fine by me. MY question is, will it be compatible with flight sim controllers, or controllers in general? Dogfighting with a mouse and keyboard is a pain in the rear.

[Glzmo]

I'm a bit worried about the tiered launch for subscribers, preferred players and free players. PVP queuing are highly dependent on tha amount of players there are, thus when it will be limited to subscribers at first, I fear there won't be enough matches happening for queues, especially on non-PVP servers where currently warzone queues don't pop much either (I haven't even been able to get into one of the new warzones yet, for example, and everybody has access to those). I'd advise the whole expansion to be made available to all players in at the beginning of December, otherwise the "head start" for subscribers will mean very little for they'll have to wait 1-2 months for preferred players and free players to get this content unlocked first before this really starts rolling.

That's another reason why it's so sad there is no off-rails PVE solo and co-operative content or space exploration content that's part of this "expansion", as at least you'd have something to do while waiting for space warzones to pop.

[LordArtemis]

PVP requires [-----------] interactable content to set it off.

 

PVE requires [----------------] to set it off, and [------------------------------------] to maintain the movement through the content.

 

If I were to speculate, I would say that is why there is not PVE content...obviously the framework would likely be friendly toward PVE, but there are three possible scenarios at play.

1) They already have PVE space and do not feel it is necessary to add another.

2) They are waiting to see how popular the new feature will be, how well it will work, and after considering those metrics will decide or not to add PVE elements or create stand alone PVE elements using the setup.

3) They are already working on PVE elements...this is what is ready at this time.

 

I hope it is three, but expect it is one. Hope for the best, expect the worst.

[LordArtemis]

I'm a bit worried about the tiered launch for subscribers, preferred players and free players. PVP queuing are highly dependent on tha amount of players there are, thus when it will be limited to subscribers at first, I fear there won't be enough matches happening for queues, especially on non-PVP servers where currently warzone queues don't pop much either (I haven't even been able to get into one of the new warzones yet, for example, and everybody has access to those). I'd advise the whole expansion to be made available to all players in at the beginning of December, otherwise the "head start" for subscribers will mean very little for they'll have to wait 1-2 months for preferred players and free players to get this content unlocked first before this really starts rolling.

That's another reason why it's so sad there is no off-rails PVE solo and co-operative content or space exploration content that's part of this "expansion", as at least you'd have something to do while waiting for space warzones to pop.

 

It's just a guess, but I do not think this will suffer the same lack of interest that other forms of PVP have. This is a new animal that I expect will have far wider appeal among the playerbase.

[Botho]

All I really want to know is, will I have to wait another 8weeks for class balances after this launches!! Or is it packaged with it, December is pretty much when I'd have expected 2.5. Edited October 10, 2013 by Botho

[Applicator]

I think a lot of the people qqing haven't looked at the data mined info. There seems to be quite a lot of customisation with 5 ships and different missiles, talents, shields etc. This is going to have a lot more to it than just flying around pewpewing.

[morfius]

I don't really understand what you mean by realistic and then saying flying backwards. I don't know if you understand the physics behind flight but I cant think of any time in all my years that I have seen a F-16 fly backwards ... and even if it could it wouldn't be able to do that in space. Air breaks yes ... classic dog fight tactic straight out of top gear ... but flying backwards is not realistic especially not in space.

 

In space you have no gravity to defy so backwards movement is impossible without front mounted thrusters and on top of that it would be more like reverse parking because you couldn't have thrusters as powerful on the front as you would the back or it would heavily limit your ability to control and the speed of your craft.

 

So realisticly there should be no way to move Backwards at all .. simply air breaks for someone directly on your tail and rolls and backflips to change direction quickly to end up behind or simply out of sight or better yet guiding them into the fire of an ally. That is what dog fights are all about.

 

Flying in real space have nothing to do with orientation of object after initial trust, density is near 0 so your inertia will carry your speed very long time, even our level space ships can fly "backward" - they have thrusters and can turn over axis after initial burn. I even think I have seen actual video that show such one using their main drive to slow then turn to dock with MIR station.

But SW flight (fight) is based on airplane one, so I suppose we will not see such things here.

[Karkais]

All I really want to know is, will I have to wait another 8weeks for class balances after this launches!! Or is it packaged with it, December is pretty much when I'd have expected 2.5.

 

Don't worry, the next emergency patch to fix bugs will come the day after launch or day after that.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Karkais

[Tsillah]

I think a lot of the people qqing haven't looked at the data mined info. There seems to be quite a lot of customisation with 5 ships and different missiles, talents, shields etc. This is going to have a lot more to it than just flying around pewpewing.

 

That's one of the things that makes it really exciting for me. I love the idea of cutomisation and having to think about what you bring into battle and having different playstyles like classes almost. I am really looking forward to this.

[Paretheus]

Quite honestly, I don't get what exactly you were expecting.

Did you think they were going to discard the current game and turn it into a Space Sim?

This is MORE than enough.

 

It may be MORE than enough for people who enjoy PvP. But it's effectively NOTHING for people who despise PvP and wanted more PvE space content.

[Andryah]

All I really want to know is, will I have to wait another 8weeks for class balances after this launches!! Or is it packaged with it, December is pretty much when I'd have expected 2.5.

 

If they follow their time track for major patches.... 2.5 should actually drop in mid-November.

 

2.5 and the new Expac are separate events, separated in time.

[Costello]

Quite honestly, I don't get what exactly you were expecting.

Did you think they were going to discard the current game and turn it into a Space Sim?

This is MORE than enough.

 

For a super secret space project that has been whispered about for the last two years I would expect something more than a couple of PvP Warzone maps. The SSSP has no effect on PvE players, it has no effect on PvP players who don't like the space controls and it has no effect on people that were hoping for more story in the 2nd digital expansion.

 

As it stands the SSSP will not improve the current space experience which I think a lot of people might have been hoping for. As it stands the SSSP should never have been labelled as such it should have been made clear that it was only ever going to be PvP. Where SWGs brought in a completely new experience with JTL and allowed people to play a flight sim in the Star Wars Universe and customise it when the didn't feel like the ground game. But also added to the crafting and customisation options and even allowed people to group in large ships. Where as TOR having spent 2 years on the SSSP offers very very little.

 

Which makes it feel that TOR is down to a skelington crew and we wont see any big additions. Which is more of a shame that the result of the SSSP.

[Bstr]

If they follow their time track for major patches.... 2.5 should actually drop in mid-November.

 

2.5 and the new Expac are separate events, separated in time.

 

8 weeks from 2.4 on October 1 is the last week of November: November 26. This week is the week of Thanksgiving in the US.

 

December 3 is just the week after. My bet is that they will just push 2.5 back a week to December 3 and blame the extra week on Thanksgiving.

[idnewton]

I honestly don't think there will be a 3.0 with the xpac. Technically speaking, a 2.0 to 3.0 would be a new product, and I can't see them giving out a new product for free. I think it'll release alongside 2.5, and we'll have additional updates until 3.0. That would make sense, because we've technically just killed off the big villain. There's no pull for people to get a new xpac to continue the story.

 

That, or 2.5 will be remade into 3.0. After all, they originally said no class changes until the xpac. Then they said "2.5", but that may have just been another way of saying "the next update" since they hadn't announced the xpac yet. This could technically make sense as well, because it is not a PAID expansion. During 3.0, they could release new operations to introduce a new villain, etc.

[Andryah]

8 weeks from 2.4 on October 1 is the last week of November: November 26. This week is the week of Thanksgiving in the US.

 

December 3 is just the week after. My bet is that they will just push 2.5 back a week to December 3 and blame the extra week on Thanksgiving.

 

There stated target time interval is 6 to 8 weeks, with 6 being what they shoot for.

 

2.5 and the PvP space expac are two different events.. on two different timelines.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Andryah

[chuixupu]

They have released two updates in a short period of time before. Remember 2.2 and 2.3 were less than a month apart or something, pardon me for not going back and checking the details. I'm assuming that 2.5 will be released on schedule.

[thanosmadtitan]

The actual drop date is not till Feb. 4 the Dec/Jan. dates are considered early access so an update may still occur and then the official date of the new expansion would be in February. the forum acts as though Dec. is the drop date but no one is realizing that is an early access the official drop date is Feb 4.

 

and I know they are just dropping it so early to get more people to sub. but it is still early access!

[chuixupu]

Sub = open beta testers.

[DmdShiva]

I'm rather surprised, if that's true, I thought for sure they'd charge a fee for it up front! I guess they're probably setting up a lot of ship skins and customization to sell on the CM.

 

I'd be willing to bet that the reason it's free is that Bioware doesn't want to have to deal with two consequences of releasing it as a paid expansion:

 

1) Horrible sales as a result of the expansion being PvP-only, with PvE players deciding it's not worth buying.

2) People demanding refunds after having eagerly thrown money at Bioware without bothering to read the description of the expansion who find out after it goes live that it's PvP-only.

[chuixupu]

I'd be willing to bet that the reason it's free is that Bioware doesn't want to have to deal with two consequences of releasing it as a paid expansion:

 

1) Horrible sales as a result of the expansion being PvP-only, with PvE players deciding it's not worth buying.

2) People demanding refunds after having eagerly thrown money at Bioware without bothering to read the description of the expansion who find out after it goes live that it's PvP-only.

 

I doubt those are the main motivating factors for not charging. It would certainly be a first, as I've seen them make one decision after another that has left me wondering if they had thought at all about how people would react negatively to the decision itself or the wording/details involved in the decision.

 

But on a less snarky note, they've probably spent a good amount of time working on the details of how to best monetize this feature and it's probably a lot more numbers and graphs rather than emotional thinking.

[MishraArtificer]

Eric Musco? Big question for you here...

 

Will this be tied to the Imperial Fleet/Republic Hyperspace Armada reputation?

 

(Please say yes!)

[Xakthul]

I read the SWTOR strategy thing.... and we're getting space crew companions?!

 

AWESOME!

[LordArtemis]

I would have liked to see a longer testing period and the ability for Bioware to accept feedback and make changes (they would have needed more time for that to happen perhaps) but I think this might be one way to go....have subs test it first, then a second stage of testing in the live game followed by the normal rollout.

 

I hope BIoware uses this period of time to fine tune the feature and fix any problems it may have before the wider launch.

[Vulcanise]

Hmmm... I've read through all of the posts in this (lengthy) section, I was quite excited on first hearing of a free-flight space model but to be honest on gleaning all that I can so far I'm not feeling that stoked about it.

 

Of course I will give it a blast when it hits but being a pvp only part of the game I don't think I will last long. I've never been a big pvper in fact I have stayed away from it in every game I played.

In my whole life I haven't been a huge "competitor" I like to progress through hard work and the instantanous gratification that most people get from pvp just doesn't hold up for me.

Horse for courses though and some people thrive on it....

 

The idea that it's 12 v 12 now... I'd be interested to know if that's an absolute.. ie if there aren't 24 guys to play in the game it won't start?

 

I have never been a queuer so joining a queue to get into a game just seems to me a waste of my time. I am getting on a bit now, retired and marching quickly to that hole in the ground so I don't have "spare" time to wait for games to start, I want to be in and playing... my gaming time is restricted by family life anyway and firing up the game just to sit waiting to get into the action I don't do anymore.

I know people will say go do something else while the queue runs down but my mindset is such that if I have a goal then I can't just "fiddle" with something else while I wait to get on with it.

 

Also, will you just queue then drop into a game? Personally I'd like to get to know the ship, controls and game model before being asked to fire the weapons in anger... I can't see joysticks/gamepads being in the game as the whole MMO ethos is that you can sit down at any PC with no added peripherals and just play, but it would be nice if support for these was considered as an addition at some point. For me space flight (albeit the airplane model we know comes with the Star Wars idea) isn't the same if you haven't got your hands on a joystick and at least attempting to emulate some realism.

 

I suppose I'll have to wait till it launches to answer some of these questions but if I'm brutally honest I can't see me personally being in there much, I am waiting for Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen to be released for a better space flight/combat experience, hopefully this "expansion" will be a decent game-within-a-game... we'll just have to see in a couple of months how it pans out.