SWTOR Autumn Roadmap 2017

[Jursy]

This is what I'm dreading most, fighting 20 ppl to kill 5 enemies for their doodads, heroics or normal questing. After the first mass server cull it was a nightmare.

 

I know, right. Even for pro-groupers you still have to fight to get ur enemies and so forth. I remember the 1st server and ur right, it was a freaking nightmare. I kept my sanity with this game. I guess I'll go insane

[Estelindis]

Update on Strongholds: The cap is being increased to 10 and the Conquest bonus percentage will be hard-capped at 150 percent. Both changes will happen with Game Update 5.5.

Awesome! Thank you so much!

[RiderPale]

How will the Legacy Storages be handled? I imagine most people who have chars on several servers also have their storage there filled up - crafting mats, companion gifts, so on.

Should we players empty one of the storages, say the one on server B, into character inventories to avoid trouble there, the one on server A then being the 'Master Legacy Storage'? Or is there a background procedure planned when migrating to the new server that avoids problems with storage inventory?

Sorry if this has already been cleared up, I checked and couldn't find this question already having been asked.

[Syal]

In the roadmap, it is about a groupe finder improvement. Can you say more about that ?

 

Is there also something in the pipeline to improve the operation story mode search group ?

[santafaye]

Hey folks,

 

Use this thread to discuss Keith's Roadmap, which you can find here. Let us know your thoughts, questions, and more.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

server merge dont care.. legacy currency awesome ..and the only thing to look forward too is NOV 28th ..cant believe but not surprised NO NEW CONTENT ..and even on NOV 28TH WE GET ONE BOSS ONE FP AND ONE COMPANION PLAYERS WANT CONTENT THE NEED TO EXPLORE.. ID PAY 50 BUCKS FOR A NEW EXPANSION RATHER THEN THE WAY YOU DO THINGS.. DOING THE SAME STUFF OVER AND OVER AGAIN WILL NOT KEEP PLAYERS YOU CAN ONLY DO THIS STUFF SO MANY TIMES...sorry some of it is ok and some is just makes no difference to the game your just doing a server merge to do the same stuff we are doing now .GET SOME NEW CONTENT A NEW EXPANSION SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO PLAY .BECAUSE ID RATHER BE PLAYING WOW THERE IS MORE TO DO MORE TO EXPLORE MORE RAIDS AND DUNGEONS .ANYTHING THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS

[DanNV]

I know, right. Even for pro-groupers you still have to fight to get ur enemies and so forth. I remember the 1st server and ur right, it was a freaking nightmare. I kept my sanity with this game. I guess I'll go insane

 

1) It wasn't as bad as everyone makes out. I was there for launch when logins actually queued and for the server merges.

 

2) BW could learn from ESO and change how bosses (and other mobs) work. In ESO if you are fighting the boss or a mob, you get credit for it and loot, regardless of whether or not you are grouped or not.

[SolarSaenz]

 

2) BW could learn from ESO and change how bosses (and other mobs) work. In ESO if you are fighting the boss or a mob, you get credit for it and loot, regardless of whether or not you are grouped or not.

 

/like

[serenitty]

1) It wasn't as bad as everyone makes out. I was there for launch when logins actually queued and for the server merges.

 

It really was that bad. I had to leave quests undone and start the next one because everything would be dead and there would be handfuls of ppl just waiting for respawns. I wasted a lot of xp boosts hanging around waiting to finish quests.

 

You get 30 or so people on Ord Mantel and you know you're going to be there a while.

 

Hopefully they lower the planet population bar for opening up new instances, it might help.

Edited October 3, 2017 by serenitty

[TUXs]

Keith or Eric...

 

When will we start to see the rebalancing of Operation bosses? 5.5? 5.6? Later than that??? I feel like this needs to be a priority issue you address after the nerfs we've had all year.

[KomariJade]

What about unused character slots, currently I've a max of 17 characters on a server, and have used 15 purposefully leaving 2 open for short life characters to play around on. with the merge I'll soon have more than 30 characters on a single server (merging 5 servers tends to compound numbers quickly) will i have any unused slots at the end of the merge? or will i in effect be forced to either buy more slots, or delete characters just to have a little bit of wiggle room on character creation again?

[TUXs]

What about unused character slots, currently I've a max of 17 characters on a server, and have used 15 purposefully leaving 2 open for short life characters to play around on. with the merge I'll soon have more than 30 characters on a single server (merging 5 servers tends to compound numbers quickly) will i have any unused slots at the end of the merge? or will i in effect be forced to either buy more slots, or delete characters just to have a little bit of wiggle room on character creation again?

They addressed this in the blog.

[serenitty]

What about unused character slots, currently I've a max of 17 characters on a server, and have used 15 purposefully leaving 2 open for short life characters to play around on. with the merge I'll soon have more than 30 characters on a single server (merging 5 servers tends to compound numbers quickly) will i have any unused slots at the end of the merge? or will i in effect be forced to either buy more slots, or delete characters just to have a little bit of wiggle room on character creation again?

I'm filling my remaining server slots up with at least lvl 10's now. So what ever the limit is I'll still have plenty of spares on hand.

[Jursy]

1) It wasn't as bad as everyone makes out. I was there for launch when logins actually queued and for the server merges.

 

2) BW could learn from ESO and change how bosses (and other mobs) work. In ESO if you are fighting the boss or a mob, you get credit for it and loot, regardless of whether or not you are grouped or not.

 

Sorry, but I was also there for launch as well a pre-launch and the 1st merge and I too remember the queues Personally I didn't like the overpopulation in regards to objective completing. This was before the interactable thingy to spawn the bosses. I once waited 20 min in line to kill a boss...grouped. But that's just my take on it and it's worth no more than a grain of salt.

[Suzsi]

I'm filling my remaining server slots up with at least lvl 10's now. So what ever the limit is I'll still have plenty of spares on hand.

 

Im actually curious (and concerned) if level 1's will transfer - or all characters under level 10.

 

Ive a tendency to make a characters in advance, gear it up with appearance armor etc then go back to it. Ive a few like this that Ive sunk creds into some a lot of creds by the time I get outfits made and dyed (not to mention $$ on extra char slots ). I don't care if I have to rename them -- but I don't want to loose those characters, the time and creds spent on making them and getting their appearances just right.

 

Ive also now started making new chars so I will also have spares -- do they really have to be level 10 or will they transfer at any level just with a higher risk of name change?

Edited October 3, 2017 by Suzsi

[Sarova]

Questions and comments (probably selfish but meh )

 

Totally hear you on this, and it is a fair concern. We are looking at two numbers to potentially increase. First, maximum chars allowed per server (currently 52) and the amount of "default" char slots a sub has (currently 12). Hoping to have some locked down details to share in the next couple of weeks, with the ultimate goal of largely alleviating the issue you presented above.

 

-eric

 

Player Character Slots

Please because this is not at all clear. I have 18 characters on Red Eclipse, 11 on Progenitor and 9 on Tomb of Freedom Nadd totalling 38 characters. I have 26 Active Character Slots on Red Eclipse, and the default 12 on the other two servers making a total of 50 slots. Are you increasing the character slot availability to 52 or does that number only include those who paid for the additional 40 slots? Does this mean that I once the transfer occurs that All 38 of my characters will be immediately playable and I will still have 12 slots free?

 

Legacy

I have 3 Legacies (possibly 4) that are all at level 50. How will this work with the merger?

 

Strongholds

Update on Strongholds: The cap is being increased to 10 and the Conquest bonus percentage will be hard-capped at 150 percent. Both changes will happen with Game Update 5.5.

Thanks for listening to those of us who suggested this (or something similar) This is brilliant!

 

Solo Content

Not much incoming, but that's no biggie as I will be too busy going additional-strong-hold mad I am hoping that all these game QoL changes are giving the writers plenty of time to come up with an awesome story for the start of 2018....am I right?

 

Lowbie characters & the Mergers

Im actually curious if level 1's will transfer - or all characters under level 10.

 

Ive a tendency to make a characters in advance, gear it up with appearance armor etc then go back to it. Ive a few like this that Ive sunk creds into some a lot of creds by the time I get outfits made and dyed (not to mention $$ on extra char slots ). I don't care if I have to rename them -- but I don't want to loose those characters, the time and creds spent on making them and getting their appearances just right.

 

Ive also now started making new chars so I will also have spares -- do they really have to be level 10 or will they transfer at any level just with a higher risk of name change?

An answer to this please as I do exactly the same. My lowbies are all kitted out in costumes, have bag slots unlocked and have all their individual legacy perks unlocked ready to start levelling them, all of which cost many credits or cartel coins, so this is something that needs clarification urgently. I'm (obviously) a subscriber/Premium player if that makes any difference. I'm hoping that since this is a merger and not a transfer that they will all be safe (I have around 7 level 1s and 2s on various servers).

Edited October 3, 2017 by Sarova

[serenitty]

Im actually curious if level 1's will transfer - or all characters under level 10.

 

Ive a tendency to make a characters in advance, gear it up with appearance armor etc then go back to it. Ive a few like this that Ive sunk creds into some a lot of creds by the time I get outfits made and dyed (not to mention $$ on extra char slots ). I don't care if I have to rename them -- but I don't want to loose those characters, the time and creds spent on making them and getting their appearances just right.

 

Ive also now started making new chars so I will also have spares -- do they really have to be level 10 or will they transfer at any level just with a higher risk of name change?

No absolutely sure if they'll have to be at least lvl 10, but that's usually the lowest safe level when they talk about transfers and things like name purges and stuff.

[Suzsi]

No absolutely sure if they'll have to be at least lvl 10, but that's usually the lowest safe level when they talk about transfers and things like name purges and stuff.

 

Eric should hopefully be able to answer so I know if I need to rush level those chars or not. Especially the ones Ive sunk credits for gear and dyes into that are under lvl 10.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Suzsi

[Transcendent]

Since its introduction back with Knight of the Eternal Throne (Game Update 5.0 – KOTET), ranking through Galactic Command and upgrading your gear has remained controversial.

 

Such a sly understated take on the whole thing.

 

We’ve made substantial improvements such as adding Gear Tokens in Operations, increasing Command XP (CXP) throughout the game, improved the drop rate for higher level gear, eliminated green drops for Tier 4, added set bonus stats to Prototype Tier 4 (Blue) gear, allowed you to purchase a full Tier 1 bonus set with command tokens, and enabled the ability to directly upgrade your gear with Unassembled Components.

 

I still think you're making this overly complicated with having both Unassembled Components and Command Tokens. Ideally it would be just one currency, legacy bound, earned from multiple sources - not just PvP / GSF / Operations. Flashpoints (solo upwards) / Heroics / Dailies should all be a source of earning if you truly wish to cater to solo players.

 

Based on your most recent feedback we are going to make additional changes which include the following:

 

Galactic Crate content improvements – we’re adding another slot in each crate that, no matter what Tier you’re in, grants a small chance to receive a higher tier Mod/Enhancement, Grand Chance Cube, CXP Buff, or CXP consumable.

 

Interesting change. I'm going to take a wild guess that the Grand Chance Cube will be sellable on the GTN? If not, then it's a pretty pointless addition all things considered.

 

Legacy Perk – For each character that reaches Command Rank 300, we will automatically add an additional 25% bonus CXP to your entire Legacy up to a maximum of 100%. You do need to purchase the initial 25% perk, but the additional 75% will be free. And, YES, this Perk is retroactive, so you will immediately benefit once we deliver United Forces Foundation.

 

This doesn't address the fundamental issue though does it? You have to get at least one character to CR300 in the first place, which is a monumental grind considering CXP rates as they currently stand.....

 

CXP for all areas of the game is in review – as some players experienced with the Planetary Daily Areas, increased CXP makes us happier, so that’s our plan for all areas throughout the game and will coincide with A Traitor Among the Chiss update.

 

The devil is in the details as they say. You already know my stance on CXP rates Keith, I think they're far too low across all areas of the game. Incremental or piecemeal approaches to this issue will not really do anything to alleviate the fundamental issue with levelling Galactic Command ranks. When the game has really favoured multiple alts (including the DvL event), Galactic Command detracts heavily from this, or allowing players the freedoms to jump on an alt without it becoming detrimental to playing and gearing other characters.

 

The system as it currently stands is too restrictive to fun gameplay, so I hope you bear this in mind when reviewing CXP.

 

Also with A Traitor Among the Chiss, we’re changing how Disintegrate works – instead of receiving more CXP, we will provide you with Unassembled Components for armor and weapons. In addition, you can send those components to any character in your Legacy as we’re changing these to be Legacy-bound consumables.

 

A good solid improvement (aside from too many tokens making the system overly complex )

 

Overall, the roadmap addresses some of the ongoing issues. Perhaps not as much as some would like, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Transcendent

[SolarSaenz]

Keith, to take you at your word "The next Roadmap update will arrive in the early part of 2018 and will highlight the changes we plan through subsequent months. I’ll leave you with this quote as it sounds like me: “I'm not one to dismiss an idea just because it sounds a little crazy.’ —Sith Inquisitor, in a conversation with Talos Drellik.", I'd like to see these.

 

-A return to at least SOME level of class stories. They don't have to be as big as Vanilla. I was thinking something along the lines of the class stories we got in 3.0's release.

 

-A complete, fully ready operation released all at once.

 

It's a small list, but I think a significant number of players would be happy to see those two things in a roadmap for next year. Of course, Keith could "legalism" his way out of those suggestions by saying "Those suggestions aren't 'a little crazy'. They are huge, gigantic crazy."

[Costello]

Keith or Eric...

 

When will we start to see the rebalancing of Operation bosses? 5.5? 5.6? Later than that??? I feel like this needs to be a priority issue you address after the nerfs we've had all year.

 

I'm wondering this as well.

 

Though I can't see me going back to the old raids, I've done them to death, first when they were launched and then again when they were required for 4.0. So much so I started to resent my guild for continuing to have raid nights where no one had any fun but we did the same old content again and again cause it was all there was.

 

However it seems that most classes are getting nerfed, next up will be the utility nerfs to make content harder and this seems to be some slight acknowledgement that operations are badly balanced. So many of the fights force melee off target or require you to chase adds around that is so much easier when your ranged or require you to have specific skills like a knock back or cleanse etc etc. It seems that rather than take into consideration operation, world and even flash point bosses when balancing the classes this is going to be done as a separate thing, nerf everyone, leaving some classes as dead weight in some fights and then at a later date without changing their effectiveness in the fight make then make all classes equally useful in all encounters.

 

Now the only way it seems that you can do this is if you remove the mechanics. Take the Lurker from SOR, the only way to make melee on par with range is to remove the need to hide out of range behind rocks. As this mechanic causes the melee classes to be unable to dps the target while hiding behind a rock as they are out of range. Made even worse for jedi and sith who need to keep up a constant stream of damage on target to generate resources, at least the other mdps can regenerate resources in this time. And thats just one mechanic in one fight, you have the need to run over to adds that do damage the closer you are to them, which mdps have no choice about in the fight and the list goes on. SO what is is meant by operation overhaul and will it be too little too late?

 

The entire roadmap seems light on details, and could be considered deliberately vague even take the opening line of from the server merger thread.

 

Our primary focus this year for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ has been to build and release multiplayer gameplay experiences that you can play with your friends. We’ve seen thousands of players jump in to join these battles across the galaxy. Your overwhelming response to playing these new experiences has motivated us to continue to pursue more enhancements to making multiplayer the best it can be for you, our players.

 

Thousands of players jump in to join these battles across the galaxy, is that thousands of players have fought the new operation bosses or is that thousands of players have played any of the content that has been added since 5.0. Which could be that customers have logged in to play any new content, which should then be compared to see how many players have quit playing in this period because they came for the story and as it stands this is slow and very drawn out. So is this a very biased reading of any figures and simply means people played new content, the only new content was group content. We are going to add group content (though even then very little of it) so we will say people must want more group content based on they want content and group content fits into that subset. Now as funny as that is, it does feel a little like pissing on people and then telling them its rain. Now some people probably **** stars might like that (joke you don't have to be a **** star) but is it really going to help get people into the game and is it what tor offers that other mmo's don't offer more of and better?

[Guest]

I see on FAQ Blog the picture with the Mini Mogul NM-1 Mini-Pet and beside the dark reaver Armor I hope the armor comes back

[Sargrith]

Some good some bad....

 

I am not a huge fan of the server mergers but a dying game needs to do what it can to keep those remaining capable of playing content I guess. It just seems a shame. I am not looking forward to renaming characters, that will not be a positive event at all.

 

Lots of QoL talk...but not seeing much walk in that list of things......

 

A new FP well its good, even if its only mediocre like the last one new content is still good.

 

Returning one companion....come on enough talk about how to do it, its time to return them, all of them once and for all.

 

Legacy unassembled pieces is nice, good.

 

Legacy money, if it works like guild bank money ok, nothing awesome but nothing bad.

 

Failure to get even one op out in a year is a tough situation. Not a good thing at all.

 

Yet dragging on the balance mess is brutal. You need to finish it once and for all. This constant every release having more is just ugly.

 

RP will suffer unless you actually monitor harassment in game, I hope you intend to.

[casirabit]

I know, right. Even for pro-groupers you still have to fight to get ur enemies and so forth. I remember the 1st server and ur right, it was a freaking nightmare. I kept my sanity with this game. I guess I'll go insane

 

I figured out a system for those I need to loot or click something. I would send my companion in to fight the NPC and I would click what I needed to click. It was getting funny to watch some of the ones standing there waiting to click the object when my companion killed the NPC while I was clicking the object. As far as the black hole area where I needed to kill xx amount I would send my companion to one section and I would do another.

 

I know having more people can be a problem but there are ways to work around it.

[SolarSaenz]

 

I am not a huge fan of the server mergers but a dying game needs to do what it can to keep those remaining capable of playing content I guess. It just seems a shame. I am not looking forward to renaming characters, that will not be a positive event at all.

 

This is the sad reality of the situation.

 

Returning one companion....come on enough talk about how to do it, its time to return them, all of them once and for all.

 

I'm thinking returning companions (those that speak English....errr I mean Basic) has a lot to do with the voice actor/actress being available and if there is a budget to hire them to record additional lines. If a VA is not available for whatever reason, then BW/Ea can't bring them back. I doubt the companon's VAs are all just sitting around the studio going "Man, I wish I could record lines, but they don't want my character back.". I would imagine the two big things stalling returning characters are $$$ (hey, the VAs gotta eat like everyone else) and if said VA is available to record lines/wants to come back. Any focus on returning companions will be on LIs I think with the possible exception of Scourge. I mean, really who wants Tharan Cedrax back? Does anyone really miss him (I'm sure someone out there does).

 

Legacy unassembled pieces is nice, good.

 

Legacy money, if it works like guild bank money ok, nothing awesome but nothing bad.

Agreed.

 

 

Failure to get even one op out in a year is a tough situation. Not a good thing at all.

For me, this painfully suggests a lack of resources for SWTOR. In 2.4, we got 2 full, quality operations. Now, in 2017, we get 3 op bosses. Yeah. It's pretty much just one high level designer and one (part time?) coder working on the game isn't it?

 

Yet dragging on the balance mess is brutal. You need to finish it once and for all. This constant every release having more is just ugly.

I imagine from their perspective, they just want to piecemeal release "class balance" in order to see how those piecemeal changes work out. If they fully implemented class balance all in one lump sum, it could turn out to be a big mess and potentially put them right back where they started. And, if that is the case, they've made 0 net progress in class balance.

Or..... " It's pretty much just one high level designer and one (part time?) coder working on the game".

 

RP will suffer unless you actually monitor harassment in game, I hope you intend to.

I'm not saying this is unimportant or that the game moderators should turn a blind eye to harassment. But, it's a tricky situation. If they "discipline" a player to the point of banning them, they lose potential income. If they do nothing about harassment, they lose potential income from the victim of harassment.

In reality, there should be a zero tolerance policy for harassment. But, if we got bean counters calling the shots for this game, they may see things differently.

[casirabit]

Update on Strongholds: The cap is being increased to 10 and the Conquest bonus percentage will be hard-capped at 150 percent. Both changes will happen with Game Update 5.5.

 

Thank you.