Update on Roadmap

[btmart]

[*]New Character Perks to increase your speeder piloting speed to 120% and 130%

Keith,

 

Hope you spent some quality time with your dad.

 

I would hope that these speeder pilot increases would be via trainer and acquired at a certain level as they are now. I would hope they would not be a per character expensive money dump. Look at the Field Personal and Legacy Gargo Hold's... I have yet to have seen even one deployed. Those should have been account wide, instead of character based.

 

Other than that, just looking forward to more completed ops, and also fixing NiM boss drops so that they drop Tier 4 tokens for each boss.

 

Keep up the good work, and communication!

Edited May 10, 2017 by btmart

[Costello]

Can someone who loves the Nightlife event please explain how, clicking on a box in the hope of getting a decent reward based on rng is vastly different from galactic command which is clicking on a box in the hope of getting a decent reward based on rng.

 

If rng rewarding is exciting and amazing then Ben was right when he made that comment. Is there some quest tied to it that I have forgotten as it has been some time. From what I recall you purchase tokens then click on a box in the hope that it will spit out certificates I'm not sure I see how this is the best event ever.

 

Likewise I'm unclear on how giving everyone a bomber and gunship vastly improves GSF, no new maps, no new ships. This can only really appeal to new players who have not completed the weekly to purchase their own ship. So its a safe bet to say they will still be ganked by people in tier 5 gunships. Rather than return the game to dog fights or give joystick control or improve the experience its just adding more gunships to an experience that is bloated by too many gunships and bombers and no use of strike fighters.

 

People seem to be excited because of a post but I don't see how any of it is really going to help. Harbinger is plagued by more technical issues but that is fine cause we got a yellow post. I'm wondering if Keith posted his shopping list people would be gushing over the post saying how great it was that he was buying lean mince cause real life comes first.

[IanArgent]

QFE Ian!!!! Whether they come back via the story or the terminal, they act EXACTLY the same way...as in...they don't do ANYTHING any longer.

 

You know what? I'm going to continue my heresy. They never did anything outside of their loyalty quests. Your choice of companion mattered very mildly in story, in that they didn't all react the same way to the same choices you made in conversation, but that was pretty much it. And the loyalty quests were all linear. For the LIs, it was linear and ended in a binary choice - marry or not.

 

I mean, sure, you got slightly different reaction chatter to entering zones, and slightly different banter in a handful of cutscenes, but the only differences they had were purely mechanical prior to 4.x (and good riddance to that).

 

I'd love to see more companions return and get more story, but I'm not going to pretend that in vanilla companions were this immersive thing.

[AscendingSky]

Can someone who loves the Nightlife event please explain how, clicking on a box in the hope of getting a decent reward based on rng is vastly different from galactic command which is clicking on a box in the hope of getting a decent reward based on rng.

 

If rng rewarding is exciting and amazing then Ben was right when he made that comment. Is there some quest tied to it that I have forgotten as it has been some time. From what I recall you purchase tokens then click on a box in the hope that it will spit out certificates I'm not sure I see how this is the best event ever.

 

Likewise I'm unclear on how giving everyone a bomber and gunship vastly improves GSF, no new maps, no new ships. This can only really appeal to new players who have not completed the weekly to purchase their own ship. So its a safe bet to say they will still be ganked by people in tier 5 gunships. Rather than return the game to dog fights or give joystick control or improve the experience its just adding more gunships to an experience that is bloated by too many gunships and bombers and no use of strike fighters.

 

People seem to be excited because of a post but I don't see how any of it is really going to help. Harbinger is plagued by more technical issues but that is fine cause we got a yellow post. I'm wondering if Keith posted his shopping list people would be gushing over the post saying how great it was that he was buying lean mince cause real life comes first.

 

I'm not in love with the Nightlife event, but I can easily explain to you why people like that brand of RNG and hated the Galactic Command kind of RNG. It's pretty simple, really.

 

All the rewards from the Nightlife event were purely cosmetic in nature: new weapon skins, new armor skins, new mounts, Cartel Certificates to buy other cosmetic items, etc. None of it affected your performance in game or the game's mechanics in any way. It all just looked good. The event was also entirely optional. If you didn't want to play on a virtual slot machine, you never had to!

 

Galactic Command was (as originally put into the game) the sole source of BiS end-game gear. That affected your performance in game, as well as the game's mechanics (as the only way to get set-bonus pieces was through Command crates). Sure, you could get some cosmetic orange shells randomly too, but the fact they made improving your character's gear completely random is what pissed people off. There was also no way to 'opt out' of GC; unlike the event, once you hit level 70, you HAD to participate in the stupid gear roulette system. That's why people rebelled against GC, but embraced the Nightlife event.

Edited May 10, 2017 by AscendingSky

[XXxherroxXX]

Hope everything went well with your dad Keith!

 

I think these upcoming updates are gonna be great! Super stoked about new speeder piloting speeds and crafting influence.

 

You guys should also consider adding in some cross server PVP! It would help the less populated servers a lot

Edited May 12, 2017 by CommunityDroidEU
Referral link

[fabsus]

summed up:

 

no new content for the next 2 month.

this means, a quarter year from one dlc to the next.

could be problematic to release 6.0 in 2017, with

an completed operation.

 

that opens the question again:

how many people are working fulltime on swtor,

and how many just parttime?

 

for me it really seems the way, that this is no major project

for bioware anymore.

 

but hey. good to know, that i don't need to resub tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

i don't know, if they read it, but again i would say,

that changing the set-items in the crates to operation-like-tokens,

would solve many problems, like opened crates with no chosen

skilltree and of course equipping alts. simple to change.

Edited May 10, 2017 by fabsus

[Icykill_]

lol sure, why not, lets give PVPers 250 bolster, no? No need to gear grind! Why play then?

 

PvPs never really been about grinding gear. Most dedicated pvpers play pvp for the sake of it and dont care about gear at all. We don't need an incentive to play.

 

Even when we had a small grind it was over in 3 weeks, but that didn't stop people from pvping, it actually made them pvp more.

 

I know you like the grind, but most of the pvp community don't. We want pure skill vs skill and not have to worry about gear except to maybe tweak our secondary stats a little to suit our preferred style.

 

We also aren't asking them to get rid of the gear grind in pvp, we are just asking them to make the gear only relevant for if people want to use it for pve.

 

Even when you have Bolster at 250, the people with the highest gear will still have slightly better stats vs the lower gear. That's just the way Bolster works. If you don't believe me go and put yourself in the gear that Bolster is currently set at. Then get someone with lower gear, but the same types of mods, etc, and compare your stats when bolstered. They will definitely be different.

 

Even pre 5.0, Bolster used to be set higher than the 208 pvp gear and the 204 pvp gear and entry level 190 pve gear would always have less stats. The higher your gear, the higher the stats even when Bolster is set above the highest gear.

So having Bolster set higher will not completely diminish the advantage of having better gear, it will just make the gap much smaller.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Icykill_

[tummiswtor]

Can someone who loves the Nightlife event please explain how, clicking on a box in the hope of getting a decent reward based on rng is vastly different from galactic command which is clicking on a box in the hope of getting a decent reward based on rng.

 

This, this, THIS!

Edited May 10, 2017 by tummiswtor

[DarthSpuds]

The last thing this game needs is more story content before fixing the endgame group content. And I say that as someone that only does PvE solo and loves the story content.

 

Letting the endgame continue in its current state while focusing on story again would be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

I tend to agree with you.

 

I too mainly solo the story content. I have just joined a Guild that isn't just a handful of friends from other games, and that Guild is looking at starting on the end-game progression treadmill; but we'll all be starting from the lowest rung of the ladder.

 

From what I have seen so far End-Game Gearing needs a major overhaul, and the Command Token thing is a step in the right direction. But its been a long, long time since there was any significant new End-Game Group content - and there's been lots of story content over the last few years, so much of it in fact that the quality of it has suffered and now barely scrapes by as mediocre; so stepping back from Story Content for a while may well be a good thing, and to use that time to address the end-game issues would be the most logical and effective thing to do IMO.

 

All The Best

[DarthSpuds]

We want pure skill vs skill and not have to worry about gear except to maybe tweak our secondary stats a little to suit our preferred style.

 

Then you are playing the wrong type of game.

 

MMORPGs with varying Skill Sets (abilities) and a myriad of Gear options do NOT lead to skill vs skill pvp. They lead to FOTM Meta builds with BiS gearing to gain advantages over the other player.

 

That's a fact.

 

Old school First Person Shooters - where everyone had the same gear (loadout) and access to the exact same abilities were genuine Skill vs Skill pvp.

 

That said SWTOR PvP is about the only MMORPG PvP I have ever significantly enjoyed - but I do not delude myself it is just (or even primarily) about Skill vs Skill.

 

All The Best

[Icykill_]

Then you are playing the wrong type of game.

 

MMORPGs with varying Skill Sets (abilities) and a myriad of Gear options do NOT lead to skill vs skill pvp. They lead to FOTM Meta builds with BiS gearing to gain advantages over the other player.

 

That's a fact.

 

Old school First Person Shooters - where everyone had the same gear (loadout) and access to the exact same abilities were genuine Skill vs Skill pvp.

 

That said SWTOR PvP is about the only MMORPG PvP I have ever significantly enjoyed - but I do not delude myself it is just (or even primarily) about Skill vs Skill.

 

All The Best

 

I've been playing this game and it's pvp since launch. I think understand what we need in this games pvp. Maybe if you were a dedicated pvper played and understood the gearing system we had prior to 5.0, you would understand the issue.

Giving advice on what game we should be playing to get skill vs skill pvp doesn't help anyone and just takes the discussion away from what the dedicated community is asking for. If you don't have an investment in dedicated pvp, you dont need to worry about what we are asking for and therefore don't have to belittle my post.

[stoopicus]

lol sure, why not, lets give PVPers 250 bolster, no? No need to gear grind! Why play then?

 

Actually, yes. That would be preferable. December and January were awesome for alts. Lol@ your last jab there though, as it implies the only reason you PvP is to gear grind. I have plenty of reasons to PvP myself - I like it

[DarthSpuds]

I've been playing this game and it's pvp since launch. I think understand what we need in this games pvp. Maybe if you were a dedicated pvper played and understood the gearing system we had prior to 5.0, you would understand the issue.

Giving advice on what game we should be playing to get skill vs skill pvp doesn't help anyone and just takes the discussion away from what the dedicated community is asking for. If you don't have an investment in dedicated pvp, you dont need to worry about what we are asking for and therefore don't have to belittle my post.

 

You asked for Skill vs Skill PvP. I have been PvPing in this game and others (including competitive leagues) long enough to know that Skill vs Skill PvP does not exist in MMORPGs.

 

I am sorry that you think that pointing out pertinent facts is "belittling".

 

I too have been playing SWTOR, off and on, since it launched, and I have always dabbled in PvP because (as I said above) SWTOR is the only MMORPG PvP I have ever really enjoyed. I don't need to be a dedicated PvPer (whatever that is) to know that MMORPGs are the wrong platform for genuine Skill vs Skill PvP, I just need common sense.

 

All The Best

Edited May 10, 2017 by DarthSpuds

[Biomild]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like nice updates. But i'm most interested in when pvp components become legacy bound and when 246 craftable gear will be introduced.

[Nefaras]

@Keith Kanneg

 

 

I've been playing since launch, and this is the most open and communicative post I've ever seen a producer from Bioware Austin has make up to date. If the focus of the game now changes back to mmo content (Operations , Class balancing and so on) im totaly happy!

 

In the past years there where many exprierenced players who give BW good informations about how to handle things (balance, content release, game direction ...) in the future. Most oft them are gone, but with you i have hope that some of them return in the future and of course a lot of new players.

[fabsus]

@Keith Kanneg

 

 

I've been playing since launch, and this is the most open and communicative post I've ever seen a producer from Bioware Austin has make up to date. If the focus of the game now changes back to mmo content (Operations , Class balancing and so on) im totaly happy!

 

In the past years there where many exprierenced players who give BW good informations about how to handle things (balance, content release, game direction ...) in the future. Most oft them are gone, but with you i have hope that some of them return in the future and of course a lot of new players.

 

i really don't get, what brings you that hope.

as a long-term-sub over years, the reason why friends left the game was never the lack of communication,

but the lack of new multiplayer-content.

and what they gave us with 5.0+ is not enough to stay in the game, or come back.

 

what i read in his text is:

no new multiplayer-content in the next 2 month,

so no reason to stay or to come back.

[DarthSpuds]

what i read in his text is:

no new multiplayer-content in the next 2 month,

so no reason to stay or to come back.

 

I totally understand your point of view.

But, I also understand there is a new Op on the PTS, so new multiplayer content is clearly in the pipeline.

And the things Keith has said will be changing in the next update are all steps in the right direction.

 

Is it enough steps to get to the desired end-point? Hell no, it isn't.

Is it getting us there as fast as many of us would like? Nope.

 

But it IS steps that are tangibly heading in the right direction. And that IS an improvement on where we were heading under Ben Irving.

 

The day I learned that Keith had replaced Ben as LP I took out a 60 day one off sub. I'm prepared to give them that time to show tangible progress in the direction I would like to see them go. And by that I mean actually delivering to Live what has so far only been mentioned on the Forums or in Livestreams.

 

That said I think Iokath is abysmally designed and delivered. The physical layout of the place is obviously designed to make getting anywhere take as long as possible to give the illusion of "meaningful" content; when all it really is is minimal content gated behind an 60 minute travel-slog. And it is amateurishly obvious that is what it is as well. The actual Daily Missions are 20 mins of content, at best, but take 4 times that because of the layout of the place; lazy and unimaginative game design at its worst.

 

The Alignment thing is utterly infuriating as well. As Republic character temporarily aligned to the Empire I am active in Republic Chat, but can not be invited to Republic Aligned groups, and could (I assume) be invited to Imperial Aligned groups, but can't communicate with them. What idiot thought that one up?

 

But away from Iokath I am enjoying SWTOR in a way I have not enjoyed it for a long time. Maybe five months away from the game is responsible for that. Maybe its the glimmer of hope that things are starting to head in the right direction. But for the record, it sure isn't the "engaging" end-game content - because there isn't any.

 

All The Best

[kodrac]

I get that, but that's not what he said. I agree that we have only been given limited information, but that still means that we only got the part of the news that made him look like a good guy, and the rest of the information was left out.

 

In other words, he gave us a reason for a couple of days of delay, but then told us that it would be a couple of weeks until he delivered what he said he would. In doing so he may have told us the truth, but he did not tell us the whole truth, and that is why I need to see more out of him before I start to trust him.

 

On top of that I still wonder why he couldn't delegate the project to create a draft of the roadmap for his (or whoever's) approval so that his time away did not result in a delay. It would be sad to me if the reason was that he didn't have anybody working for him that he could rely on to assign this type work to in his absence.

 

OK so since you've avoided my questions on your experience within the gaming industry and how studios operate and are staffed, we can all just assume you're criticizing how he does a job you know nothing about. In other words, you're talking out of your ***.

 

I mean, I get it, he didn't say what you wanted to hear, probably the roadmap itself, I'm bummed we haven't gotten it yet too, but since you have no idea of the inner workings of any studio, much less this particular one, where do you get off whining about how he does his job? I find that highly arrogant and hypocritical. Basically, does Keith come to where you work and tell you how to do your job? No? Then get off the soap box.

Edited May 10, 2017 by kodrac

[Exly]

OK so since you've avoided my questions on your experience within the gaming industry and how studios operate and are staffed, we can all just assume you're criticizing how he does a job you know nothing about. In other words, you're talking out of your ***.

 

I mean, I get it, he didn't say what you wanted to hear, probably the roadmap itself, I'm bummed we haven't gotten it yet too, but since you have no idea of the inner workings of any studio, much less this particular one, where do you get off whining about how he does his job? I find that highly arrogant and hypocritical. Basically, does Keith come to where you work and tell you how to do your job? No? Then get off the soap box.

 

Actually, you don't get it, but keep on trying and you just might figure it out one day.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Exly

[Andryah]

In rlf if i told my boss i was gona delay my work to spend time with a family member he would just fire me and contract a new person to replace me. Unless this was an emergency or he was suffering from a terminal disease i don't see this an excuse you can use...

 

I find this comment to be despicable, callus, and insensitive.

 

This is why i think americans have no sense of reality when it comes to work... In Europe something like this would never happen, but hey we should all be happy because he justified himself, this is the reason why no one gives credit to you ppl anymore, he took the jon for what what now? 1 month and half? and has already apologized for not fulfilling his objectives what 3 times? so i guess if he stays there for another 2 years there will be a ratio of 3/4 apologies per month...

 

Complete bovine excrement. Having worked in the tech industry for many years, in companies that had major divisions and presence in the EU...... I can state that it does in fact happen in the EU. Or are we to ignore the 4 week vacations that many EU countries practically force their citizens to take off each year? A practice that works well within the country.... because most people are on vacation at similar times ... but it impacts the rest of the world because people are off on vacation and not available to continue work on a cross functional project.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Andryah

[Costello]

I'm not in love with the Nightlife event, but I can easily explain to you why people like that brand of RNG and hated the Galactic Command kind of RNG. It's pretty simple, really.

 

All the rewards from the Nightlife event were purely cosmetic in nature: new weapon skins, new armor skins, new mounts, Cartel Certificates to buy other cosmetic items, etc. None of it affected your performance in game or the game's mechanics in any way. It all just looked good. The event was also entirely optional. If you didn't want to play on a virtual slot machine, you never had to!

 

Galactic Command was (as originally put into the game) the sole source of BiS end-game gear. That affected your performance in game, as well as the game's mechanics (as the only way to get set-bonus pieces was through Command crates). Sure, you could get some cosmetic orange shells randomly too, but the fact they made improving your character's gear completely random is what pissed people off. There was also no way to 'opt out' of GC; unlike the event, once you hit level 70, you HAD to participate in the stupid gear roulette system. That's why people rebelled against GC, but embraced the Nightlife event.

 

Thanks for the explanation. What follows is not aimed at you as you don't love the event nor have you ever suggested the game would be vastly better with it. So I guess its aimed at Keith.

 

I personally don't see a reskined rancor mount as making the event more worthwile or better than the Galactic Command, in fact I find the idea of 6 hours or so clicking on a box the bare minimum that could be considered content. While the rewards are at best interesting at worst ugly recoloured models. I also don't see who this appeals to, you can only have one mount or pet at a time. If mounts or pets are your thing I'm sure you have some you like that getting another wont matter as you can't ride two rancors at the same time. Likewise if pets and mounts aren't your thing 16 million on rng gambling and 6 hours is not going to come close to seeming like a good reason to stay subscribed.

 

Now I would love it if my guild returned to the game, however going to them and saying New Producer some great things coming, like the Night Life clicking on boxes for rng rewards is going to do it. Hell this year under Keith leadership is looking like its going to have significantly less content than last year, where there were monthly chapters and 9 KOTET chapters in November (I think could have been later with delays). This year we get 5.2 and maybe a flashpoint with 5.3 and a road map for next year.

[Dweessies]

In rlf if i told my boss i was gona delay my work to spend time with a family member he would just fire me and contract a new person to replace me. Unless this was an emergency or he was suffering from a terminal disease i don't see this an excuse you can use... This is why i think americans have no sense of reality when it comes to work... In Europe something like this would never happen, but hey we should all be happy because he justified himself, this is the reason why no one gives credit to you ppl anymore, he took the jon for what what now? 1 month and half? and has already apologized for not fulfilling his objectives what 3 times? so i guess if he stays there for another 2 years there will be a ratio of 3/4 apologies per month...

 

Incoming the overly expensive skll upgrade.... 10 million .... Only good thing here is the rewards, which will be another credit sink ... back when this was released i wasted 13 million to get a rancor, which by 2014 standards was a fortune

 

Dude, in Europe any boss that tried that crap would be out on his posterior before he had the chance to turn around. In the US, we still have some dinosaurs like that, but why would anyone work for a jerk of that persuasion? Get some water in you to dilute all that salt, take several deep cleansing breaths, chuck your entitlement in the trash where it belongs, and relax. Nothing as large as an MMO turns on a dime. Waiting a few weeks for the new guy to get everything lined up is not the end of the world.

[Soljin]

This is why i think americans have no sense of reality when it comes to work... In Europe something like this would never happen, but hey we should all be happy because he justified himself, this is the reason why no one gives credit to you ppl anymore, he took the jon for what what now? 1 month and half? and has already apologized for not fulfilling his objectives what 3 times? so i guess if he stays there for another 2 years there will be a ratio of 3/4 apologies per month...

 

You should really look into this statement. The US is in the low vacation duration and high hours worked zone in comparison to the other countries in it's productivity bracket.

 

Average yearly vacation in the US is lower than Europe and average weekly hours are Higher in the US than Europe. America is actually known as one of the lesser worker friendly countries for it's size and bracket.

 

Americans work more, get less vacation and there are no laws requiring paid vacation... The top 4 most productive countries provide more paid vacation, promote less work hours and generally have placed laws to provide workers with required vacation minimums.

 

Every where you turn in the US these days it's about money and the profit machine... So pardon us if we defend a guy that wanted to hang with his dad and was given the time to do so...

Edited May 10, 2017 by Soljin

[masterceil]

Thanks for the explanation. What follows is not aimed at you as you don't love the event nor have you ever suggested the game would be vastly better with it. So I guess its aimed at Keith.

 

I personally don't see a reskined rancor mount as making the event more worthwile or better than the Galactic Command, in fact I find the idea of 6 hours or so clicking on a box the bare minimum that could be considered content. While the rewards are at best interesting at worst ugly recoloured models. I also don't see who this appeals to, you can only have one mount or pet at a time. If mounts or pets are your thing I'm sure you have some you like that getting another wont matter as you can't ride two rancors at the same time. Likewise if pets and mounts aren't your thing 16 million on rng gambling and 6 hours is not going to come close to seeming like a good reason to stay subscribed.

 

Now I would love it if my guild returned to the game, however going to them and saying New Producer some great things coming, like the Night Life clicking on boxes for rng rewards is going to do it. Hell this year under Keith leadership is looking like its going to have significantly less content than last year, where there were monthly chapters and 9 KOTET chapters in November (I think could have been later with delays). This year we get 5.2 and maybe a flashpoint with 5.3 and a road map for next year.

 

I got multiple chemlizards that I'll swap out depending on the terrain/environment. Another character uses different speeder bikes depending on the location and circumstances (like if we're having a rough run, she's got that speeder bike that's damaged throwing sparks and smoke).

 

There are players that devote entire quickbars to different mounts to fit whatever area or RP story they're into at the time. Just because mount choice ain't your cuppa, don't mean it's nobody else's. You don't think any of the prizes available from Night Life are worth it? Don't participate! I seriously doubt anyone's got a blaster to your head, forcing you to run slots. Don't piss on peoples' parades for something that you're not personally interested in.

[Andryah]

There are players that devote entire quickbars to different mounts to fit whatever area or RP story they're into at the time. Just because mount choice ain't your cuppa, don't mean it's nobody else's. You don't think any of the prizes available from Night Life are worth it? Don't participate! I seriously doubt anyone's got a blaster to your head, forcing you to run slots. Don't piss on peoples' parades for something that you're not personally interested in.

 

I do that! I generally keep 6-8 mounts on a side quickbar so I can run with what is most appropriate for the situation. Sometimes it's just to travel with a mount that adds better protection from knock-offs, sometimes it's just to theme-match the planet I am on at the time.

 

As for the Rancor that drops from the event... meh... not a rancor fan. I do like the blaster rifles though. Very 30s gangland retro, which makes it humorously appropriate for the Nightlife event given it's sponsors by gangsters of the Hutt variety.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Andryah