The "BIG" Expansion is Getting Delayed to 2015 Isn't It?

[Dawginole]

Back in March at the Boulder Cantina event two things were stated by the team there:

 

1) The level cap would be going up and we would be hearing about it "sooner than later".

2) We would be getting a new operation this year.

 

http://dulfy.net/2014/03/23/swtor-boulder-colorado-cantina-tour-flashdrive-files/

 

That was all said at the end of March, which was two months ago. Obviously we know that Bruce told us back in February that we would be getting a RotHC style expansion in 2014. (http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140203)

 

We also know that Galactic Strongholds is being pushed back by a little over two months. (http://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20140423)

 

But keep in mind that GSH is part of BW's new strategy of staggering content launches in order to spread content over 8 week periods so that they can essentially release the same content twice to cover the start and end points of an 8 week cycle rather than having new content in week X and then new content 8 weeks later. So the completion of the roll out of GSH will not be until October 14th. (http://www.swtor.com/galactic-strongholds)

 

This puts a new 8 week content window around December 14th.

 

However, I just can't see BW releasing back to back major expansions. The original delivery cycle for these two expansions was to have one in the Summer (June) and then the RotHC expansion in the Winter roughly six months later (Nov/Dec).

 

I think it's fairly obvious at this point that the large expansion will not be released this year because they will want to have both time between large content patches so that they are not dropping too much content in a small window. They will want to spread this out over the year, and additionally, they will just need more than 8 weeks to be pulling people off GSH projects that will need to be moving over to join the team that's already working on the big expansion.

 

Going back to the original part of this post I think that's why two months after the comments about a new raid this year and hearing something about the level cap increase "sooner than later" we have heard nothing about the expansion, level cap, raid, etc, because it's not coming and they don't want to announce the delay yet.

 

I'm thinking we will see the RotHC expansion sometime between March and April 2015 based on the time they were hoping to put between GSH and this big expansion.

 

My big concern with this is that will mean by the time this thing launches, assuming that there are no other raids/etc in the works seperate from that expansion, that it will be 18 months between new Operations by the time this big expansion drops and will also be around 2.5 years with only one new WZ.

 

If that is the case then we are currently looking at a 9 month content gap from this month on outside of doll houses and whatever this Guild Ship support for some type of Ground Battle is going to be. That is a massive amount of time without any traditional content. The bulk of players aren't going to spend hours in their doll house every day for 5-6 months. So the new Guild Ship/Ground Battle thing better hold players attention, or we are going to start slowly bleeding out players over the next 9 months and it's not going to be good.

 

 

CN: Big RotHC expansion most certainly has been delayed to 2015. Potential for 9 months without new operations or warzones or other traditional content. Could cause massive hemorrhaging of subs.

[Darth_Wicked]

The "BIG" Expansion is Getting Delayed to 2015 Isn't It?

That's the vibe I'm getting as well to be honest.

 

Two years or so to get a new planet? My congratulations to Bioware on that front, in case it turns out to be accurate... Unless they're able to surprise me and deliver two or three instead, which I doubt.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Darth_Wicked

[Reno_Tarshil]

I'm waiting till august tbh, before I start questioning the release.

 

But in the mean time.

 

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120815164850/arcanafamiglia/images/e/e9/Virgo_dances.gif

[Darth_Wicked]

I'm waiting till august tbh, before I start questioning the release.

 

But in the mean time.

 

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120815164850/arcanafamiglia/images/e/e9/Virgo_dances.gif

 

Go. Away. Silly. Wrath.

[Reno_Tarshil]

Go. Away. Silly. Wrath.

 

The club can't even handle me right now.

 

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/074/c/b/club_cant_handle_us_by_nothguy-d5y2y6p.jpg

 

But seriously, I would imagine we would get some type of news in August.

[Vandicus]

Well the way I figure it,

 

GSH was originally going to pre-launch in June as a fairly substantial patch, then full launch in August as a relatively smaller patch. I think they've simply reversed the order. 2.8 is fairly small(like 1.6/1.7 size), and 2.9 will be fairly substantial.

 

Now its intuitive to think that delaying some content will mean a delay of all other content by a similar period of time, but from what I understand, they've got teams working on things in parallel(which when you really think about it makes sense). Their PvP warzone design team isn't their PvE operations design team isn't their GSH design team.

[Darth_Wicked]

The club can't even handle me right now.

 

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/074/c/b/club_cant_handle_us_by_nothguy-d5y2y6p.jpg

 

But seriously, I would imagine we would get some type of news in August.

 

And by then, I'm fairly sure whatever interest by the game I had may have waned...

 

No increase in character slots per server, class stories are a thing of the past, eight(!) freaking months without a new operation, a full year(!!!) without any Holy Trinity flashpoints, let alone an HM version of the ones we got in recent months, space missions have pretty much been abandoned and GSF has been shelved - for now - in favor of something we know nothing of.

 

Again, unless Bioware somehow manages to squeeze...

 

Ziost, Bothawui and Sleheyron

 

In 3.0 and have the guts to even talk about it by August, I'm done with this game quite honestly. Forged Alliances was supposed to be a story-arc which would span multiple updates. I'm honestly confused about the word "multiple" and what it means to Bioware... More than two, three perhaps?

 

/rant

Edited May 21, 2014 by Darth_Wicked

[Reno_Tarshil]

And by then, I'm fairly sure whatever interest by the game I had may have waned...

 

No increase in character slots per server, class stories are a thing of the past, eight(!) freaking months without a new operation, a full year(!!!) without any Holy Trinity flashpoints, let alone an HM version of the ones we got in recent months, space missions have pretty much been abandoned and GSF has been shelved - for now - in favor of something we know nothing of.

 

Again, unless Bioware somehow manages to squeeze...

 

Ziost, Bothawui and Sleheyron

 

In 3.0 and have the guts to even talk about it by August, I'm done with this game quite honestly. Forged Alliances was supposed to be a story-arc which would span multiple updates. I'm honestly confused about the word "multiple" and what it means to Bioware... More than two, three perhaps?

 

/rant

 

Sorry, went out to grab food.

 

I can understand your frustration and wouldn't be surprised you weren't here in August.

[Sangrar]

I was thinking that might happen but also they have diverted a lot of work into getting those expansions done right and we know almost nothing about the second expansion, it may be delayed, it may not, my advice, best not to make too many assumptions up until we get a denial or confirmation.

[Superman_AZ]

Hi again everyone!

 

Game Update 2.9 is still on for August 19th with our expanded feature set for Galactic Strongholds Subscriber Early Access. The team is making great progress on Strongholds and we are very excited to share this with you. It’s worth noting that Game Update 2.9 will include the next exciting chapter in the Forged Alliances story arc, and we have a lot of folks working on something very big for later this year that I have yet to give details on.

 

May the Force be with you,

 

Bruce Maclean

 

According to BW, 2.9 is the big content patch. So my guess is 3.0 will be Jan or Feb at the EARLIEST.

[ZionHalcyon]

And by then, I'm fairly sure whatever interest by the game I had may have waned...

 

No increase in character slots per server, class stories are a thing of the past, eight(!) freaking months without a new operation, a full year(!!!) without any Holy Trinity flashpoints, let alone an HM version of the ones we got in recent months, space missions have pretty much been abandoned and GSF has been shelved - for now - in favor of something we know nothing of.

 

Again, unless Bioware somehow manages to squeeze...

 

Ziost, Bothawui and Sleheyron

 

In 3.0 and have the guts to even talk about it by August, I'm done with this game quite honestly. Forged Alliances was supposed to be a story-arc which would span multiple updates. I'm honestly confused about the word "multiple" and what it means to Bioware... More than two, three perhaps?

 

/rant

 

Yep. Exactly. It should have been a promise made to start ramping up content - as in 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, culminating in 3.0 planet expansion.

 

Instead we get a FLASHPOINT for 2.7, another FLASHPOINT coming in 2.9, and likely a delayed 3.0.

 

How much you want to bet they toss in flashpoint hard modes as content to bridge the gap, like the indie-mentality management they have?

[Banegio]

I like to think the devs understand that nim is not much of accessible new content for the majority of players. And hopefully they won't make players wait another 6 months for new operations.

 

2.2 Nim TFB 12 Jun 2013

2.2.2 Nim S&V 10 Jul 2013

2.3 CZ + new FPs 06 Aug 2013

2.4 Oricon + DF & DP 01 Oct 2013

 

Nim S&V -> DF = about 3 months (which was too long imo). And consider if new operations are coming out in Oct 2014, that was 12 months period for two operations (again not good enough imo)

Edited May 22, 2014 by Banegio

[Vandicus]

Yep. Exactly. It should have been a promise made to start ramping up content - as in 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, culminating in 3.0 planet expansion.

 

Instead we get a FLASHPOINT for 2.7, another FLASHPOINT coming in 2.9, and likely a delayed 3.0.

 

How much you want to bet they toss in flashpoint hard modes as content to bridge the gap, like the indie-mentality management they have?

 

 

AAA MMOs pretty much never ramp up content prior to an expansion. Especially PvE end-game content.

[Darth_Wicked]

I like to think the devs understand that nim is not much of accessible new content for the majority of players. And hopefully they won't make players wait another 6 months for new operations.

 

2.2 Nim TFB 12 Jun 2013

2.2.2 Nim S&V 10 Jul 2013

2.3 CZ + new FPs 06 Aug 2013

2.4 Oricon + DF & DP 01 Oct 2013

 

Nim S&V -> DF = about 3 months (which was too long imo). And consider if new operations are coming out in Oct 2014, that was 12 months period for two operations (again not good enough imo)

 

This is surely not the case seeing that both here and here, they seem to be heralding NiM DP as the main thing behind 2.8.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Darth_Wicked

[Loc_n_lol]

How much you want to bet they toss in flashpoint hard modes as content to bridge the gap, like the indie-mentality management they have?

 

I'd rather see them put hard modes and call it new content than drop hard modes altogether...

[Dawginole]

According to BW, 2.9 is the big content patch. So my guess is 3.0 will be Jan or Feb at the EARLIEST.

 

Right, I think that's what we're seeing. 2.9 > 2.9.x will be GSH which as far as content outside of dollhouses will have some sort of ground based content that will affect both factions and continue the new story line. I don't think this will be a new FP. I think it will be open world.

 

Then 3.0 would be the RotHC style expansion, like you said Jan/Feb earliest, though I'm betting dollars to donuts it will be March/April.

[arunav]

I'd rather see them put hard modes and call it new content than drop hard modes altogether...

 

Same here - even though queue times are shorter as DPS, I still prefer trinity FPs over the tactical ones by a long shot. Tactical is just boring, with little chance of dying/challenge.

 

I understand Operations are the most challenging PVE stuff in the game, but as other have pointed out, the same operations have been going for a very long time now, and not everyone is into doing NiM operations. I just don't understand how anyone finds them fun.

 

I would welcome new HMs of Tactical FPs, and even older 50 HM FPs brought up to 55. As unlikely as that is, this would keep me logging in and playing different alts, alongside whatever comes with Strongholds.

 

I'll still be very disappointed if the new planet isn't going to be released in December.

 

That is basically what has kept me playing, and will be a deciding point on whether to stay subbed or stop playing SWTOR. I don't think Makeb was a fair assessment of the current development staff for SWTOR, since large parts of it were done before all the layoffs in 2012, and it was finished before the CM was a sure success. The new planet will reflect the current staff's capacity to match or improve upon past PVE questing and story-telling, alongside what kind of PVE content BW has in mind for endgame at the new cap.

 

This is the only MMO I've ever really enjoyed playing, because it's Star Wars and the good story-telling, but I can't see sticking around doing the same thing over and over, when there aren't substantial new updates.

 

"Cool new armor from the CM? Mount? Awesome! Now what do we play with them?" <---- basically how I feel sometimes when logged in.

Edited May 22, 2014 by arunav

[Zoom_VI]

AAA MMOs pretty much never ramp up content prior to an expansion. Especially PvE end-game content.

 

^^this x1000

[annabethchase]

This is surely not the case seeing that both here and here, they seem to be heralding NiM DP as the main thing behind 2.8.

 

Well, it's basically the only thing in 2.8. That and a 1 button push slot machine.

[MaximusRex]

I like to think the devs understand that nim is not much of accessible new content for the majority of players. And hopefully they won't make players wait another 6 months for new operations.

 

Judging buy the announced changes for Group Finder Story Mode Ops, I thing BioWare is having the same come to Jesus moment that Blizzard and Turbine had a few years back.

 

Operations(Raids) are expensive and time consuming content to make, yet likely only a very small % of the population is even using that content. Blizzard decided they were very dedicated to the raiding game, and created their Looking For Raid system, and greatly increased player participation, bringing the expense in line with the use of the content. Turbine had the same issue, and decided to pretty much drop raiding, which they barely supported anyhow.

 

I imagine that the changes BioWare is making is designed to help get more players into Ops, making it easier to justify the time and resources it takes to keep Ops going. If participation stays too low, I would expect to see the Ops portion of the game become less important.

[Malckiah]

Look to late Nov.

[mpddispatch]

So when they released the roadmap for 2014 we were supposed to get the "Biggest" update yet in SWTOR (I'm guessing 2.9), a Makeb sized expansion, and a "HUGE" announcement at the end of the year. We have a good idea what the biggest update is going to be....Galactic Strongholds. No idea what the Makeb sized expansion is going to be, probably with a level cap increase. Everyone talks about the update and expansion but no one is talking about the HUGE announcement. What I'm wondering is what the "HUGE" announcement is going to be. If its not a big update or a planet expansion.....what in Gods name is it? A boxed sized expansion in 2015? I just find it funny that everyone has forgotten about the announcement.

[Vandicus]

Guild flagships? Maybe?

[annabethchase]

Right, I think that's what we're seeing. 2.9 > 2.9.x will be GSH which as far as content outside of dollhouses will have some sort of ground based content that will affect both factions and continue the new story line. I don't think this will be a new FP. I think it will be open world.

 

Then 3.0 would be the RotHC style expansion, like you said Jan/Feb earliest, though I'm betting dollars to donuts it will be March/April.

 

The content cycle calls for a patch in mid December. Nearly everyone on this board agreed at the time that it was the patch 3.0 was originally targeting.

 

So our current questions are

1) is that patch now delayed 2 months due to the GSH delay?

2) is forged alliances part 2 in August and part 3 in October? Or were we having a 4 month break in between 2 and 3 like we did between 1 and 2. Because forged alliances presumably needs to finish before 3.0.

3) will 3.0 be directly after forged alliances? Or will there be a patch afterwards that is not a story patch?

4) will they stick to the exact promised cadence, meaning we reach a patch in mid-December? Or will they miss by a week or two. Remember with the holidays missing at all likely means 2015

 

My guesses are 1) no 2) October 3) directly after 4) we probably get a short delay to the first or second Tuesday of 2015 due to holiday timing.

[Darth_Wicked]

So when they released the roadmap for 2014 we were supposed to get the "Biggest" update yet in SWTOR (I'm guessing 2.9), a Makeb sized expansion, and a "HUGE" announcement at the end of the year. We have a good idea what the biggest update is going to be....Galactic Strongholds. No idea what the Makeb sized expansion is going to be, probably with a level cap increase. Everyone talks about the update and expansion but no one is talking about the HUGE announcement. What I'm wondering is what the "HUGE" announcement is going to be. If its not a big update or a planet expansion.....what in Gods name is it? A boxed sized expansion in 2015? I just find it funny that everyone has forgotten about the announcement.

 

I don't remember any of it concerning a "HUGE" announcement.