Winter/Spring 2018 Roadmap Update

[ShadowGovernator]

I just logged in to unsub ..... and also spew nonsense on these forums while I'm sick at home lol, but mostly to cancel my founder account subscription.

 

I might resub in the spring sometime or whenever it is that you guys decide what Theron's been up to this whole time. Kinda crazy you didn't even mention that in your roadblock thing but what do I know? It seems like his story is the only one with any emotional labor going into it. The rest of this game feels like you're making it while frowning.

 

I've had some distance from the game these past couple of months and the only thing I find myself missing is the old world of SWTOR, the one before KOTFE. Kind of like how people missed the old Wow so much they're bringing back a classic server. Maybe that's an idea, a classic SWTOR where Valkorion never existed and we start from where Ziost ended with a missing Emperor and a squabbling Republic and Empire and 8 intertwining stories. yeah, I know, but I can dream.

 

Well I understand your confusion - BioWare's delayed 90days Roadmap was only 60days long and not really a Roadmap - so there are lots of information missing from it.

 

But I agree with you totally that would be an awesome idea.

Unfortunately BioWare is anything but awesome these days, so there might be a mismatch at the moment.

[Cawyden]

You know who would make a lot of sense including in a Nathama story? Lord Scourge.

He's always been interested in prophecy, that's where the Scions come in, and he could be looking for a way to end his immortality.

 

Oh - maybe this is a surprise companion return. Wasn't Charles saying something along the lines that he has planned something special for Scourge?

[JennyFlynn]

Shush you... The Bioware writers HAVE to be more creative than this... right??? RIGHT GUYS???

ugh

You mean the writers who took 3-4 months to write about 10 lines for Corso and Risha? Who decided to base an entire expansion on the Emperor and his psychotic family and even now he's dead, even now we've liberated the galaxy and freed ourselves of the Emperor, are using him as a source of inspiration for this traitor arc with Theron? Those writers? Yeah...

[ForfiniteStories]

Pro tip, when letting down your raiding community don't cite a lack of resources as the reason. Especially when you indicate increased resources to conquest. Conquest > operations. This is why raiders leave.

 

If these raiders are so hard core, why are they playing anything other than WoW?

[PennyAnn]

I think for all of us, this Roadmap process we started last year could stand a bit of improvement. Instead of providing information every 90 days or so, it’s taking a lot longer to get you any information about what we’re planning, and honestly, that needs to change. I’m still reticent about communicating details beyond 90 days, but I do want you to be comfortable with our direction and where we are headed.

 

With this in-mind, we’ve decided to use the Forums as the means to get you the information about the next couple months versus waiting for a Roadmap. This will allow us to be more responsive to your questions, address your concerns, and maintain a better dialog going forward. It also helps us (especially me) to stay available and not make it seem like we’ve disappeared into the ether.

I'm glad that you've heard us regarding our desire for better/increased communication. This is something you promised us when you came on board, and I am glad to see you continue to acknowledge it as something that is important. I'll be even more glad to see you actually follow up on your promises for increased communication with us, and that by not doing a "road map" that causes you to disappear and be incommunicado that we will instead see you around here more and feel like we're in a real discussion with you rather than just shouting into an echo chamber.

 

I think the amount of time forward you discuss things is less important than having you be active and involved in the discussion about this game and it's future on (at least) a weekly basis here on the forums, if not more often. Yes, we'd like to know that our game has a future that extends beyond 60 or 90 days at a time, but I also think most of us are not under any illusions that even you cannot promise that is the case.

 

As long as you are talking to us, being as straight forward and open as you can be... even in the short term, this will be a big improvement in 2018 for the morale of your player base.

 

March 13 – Game Update 5.8 - Command Authority

Operations:

• Izax, The Destroyer - The 5th and final boss from the Gods from the Machine Operation. There will be two modes with Izax; Story and Master mode. This also means we will not be offering a full Master Mode for all bosses in the Operation. This was an especially difficult decision for me to make, as I have loved the interaction between developers and our raiding community. Yet, based on what we’re planning for this year and beyond, it’s better to focus on the upcoming group content.
  
• However, we are going to run a special Izax event for those who are worthy enough to defeat him. Everyone who does will have an opportunity to receive a new achievement, a special and unique Title, and a new and very enticing Legacy-based reward.
  
• Note, we’ll deliver the Title and Reward when we launch Game Update 5.9 – The Nathema Conspiracy.
  

In sacrificing the west coast server, you also sacrificed the APAC community. In sacrificing any hope of NiM/MM raids, you are now sacrificing the high end raiding community. This concerns me mainly due to the fact that this will probably be a permanent sever of the ties, and that if you ever want to do high end raiding again, those that you have on the PTS that you've been in discussion with will be long gone, and raiders of their quality will be nowhere to be found to test future content. I suppose it's a small enough community that you consider this an acceptable loss, but for those of us who have ever enjoyed challenging raid content, it is a very sad day indeed.

 

I am confused about a couple of things though:

 

• When you say: "it’s better to focus on the upcoming group content", what content are you talking about? Flashpoints? Because if you are not planning a new raid, or the promised difficulties for the raid you're finally getting around to finishing, what group content do you refer to?

 

• With one boss being of higher difficulty than the rest of a VM raid, this necessarily means that anyone wanting to complete the weekly of Veteran Mode will have to be Master Mode capable. Yes, it's only for a month, but makes the completion of Veteran Mode rather awkward and in some cases impossible until he is moved back to a more "normal" difficulty. It's too late to do anything about this now, I'm sure... but you should have released this "challenge mode" Izax as a single instanced boss and not handicapped Veteran Mode teams from completing this raid for a month while the "challenge mode" is active.
  

 

 

Conquest Revamp:

• We have all enjoyed receiving our rewards each week! Ok, in reality, we’ve had our fair share of issues this past year, but going forward, we want Conquests to be a consistently fun activity for Guilds and individual participants.
  
• As a result, we’ve made substantial improvements to the Conquest system including a new interface, new daily objectives, new missions, and more. Most importantly, we have rewritten the backend system to ensure you benefit from your weekly efforts. Look for details in an upcoming blog or forum post.
  
• A new Conquest Vendor will appear for those who complete their personal conquests each week. It’ll initially have Decorations and a new Companion boost called the Commander’s Compendium which will increase your active companion to influence level 50. More on this below.
  

A revamp of conquest is needed, and I hope this will improve not only the guarantee of rewards being properly distributed at the end of each week, but also in a better/more fair conquest for anybody other than mega guilds. I ran a mega guild for about a year or so. One that conquered every available planet on Harbinger every week and never lost. One that ensured that no one else could get titles. I have since left that guild, but I have absolutely seen what is possible and what is truly broken about the conquest system that this is even a possibility. I hope that the new system will combat some of that and balance the scales somewhat for medium/smaller guilds, especially now that the server merges make cracking the top 10 more and more difficult for many.

 

Questions:

• What currency will be used for the conquest vendor? Will it be a currency that is part of your personal conquest reward?

• Will this currency be legacy-wide to make it easier to accumulate and spend? Not every conquest week sees the same characters competing. A crafting week I might complete conquest on a completely separate set of my characters than if it is a PvP objective focused week. This means that (like the Light and Dark tokens) a multitude of my characters will have tokens that are completely worthless because they can't ever be used. A legacy-wide currency would solve this problem, as I could build up a stack of said currency much like Unassembled Tokens, and spend when I have enough to buy... and with the character I want to use them on.

 

Companions:

Arcann Romance – Everyone’s favorite former villain has had a change of heart and may be more “available” than he was previously.

Returning love interests should have taken HUGE priority over this. You are "THE story-based MMO". Shame on you. Regardless of whether or not people feel like he is a good candidate for a romance, not returning original love interest companions to those that have been waiting for actual, real life years indicates a lack of care or courtesy to those who only play this game for the story. I'm not one of those, but this rubs me wrong none the less.

 

Commander’s Compendium – Personally, I like having various companions with influence level 50 available and depending on the fight, I might want a ranged DPS, or a melee type healer, or whatever. I also like the various animations and barks from a variety of our companions. We are introducing a new companion gift that can immediately raise the influence level of your companion to 50, but it’s expensive, requires some crafting, and requires you to complete your Personal Conquest objectives before you can purchase it from the vendor.

 

Again, this is a wonderful addition, and I'm glad to see it as a non-Cartel Market item... but what kind of currency is going to be required to purchase it? Will it be Bind on Pickup or Bound to Legacy? I think making it a legacy binding item is important, because the characters I wish to use it for are not necessarily going to be the ones who are regularly completing conquest each week and accumulating the currency to purchase this item. I do not believe this item should be able to be sold or traded to others after purchase, but should ABSOLUTELY be bound to legacy to be very worthwhile at all. I would hate to see an idea this good and this valuable be wasted by something as simple as "bind on pickup" vs "bind to legacy".

 

April – Game Update 5.9 - The Nathema Conspiracy

Flashpoint:

• This year’s story has shown the final ramifications of the path that Valkorion first chose when he devastated Nathema, so it’s only natural that we go there to bring that story to its exciting conclusion.
  
• We’ve added powerful new Augments for those who need additional stats to help take down Izax in Master Mode. Or, you simply want to be OP! In this new Flashpoint, we’ll provide legacy-based Crafting Patterns (Bind-on-Pickup – BOP) which will drop randomly off mobs and Bosses. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you may also find a Bind-on-Equip (BOE) version of the same patterns. We’ll follow up with the materials needed to craft the Augments.
  

Another new set of augments?? Wow this is a super kick to the groin of anyone who has been grinding/spending money to get the last (and still pretty recent) set of augments. I cannot believe you're already making that money/time/material investment worthless. This is about the only "what were you thinking?" item in your list for me.

 

And how can Bind-on-Pickup (BOP) be legacy-based?? This makes no sense.

 

In fact, the entire notion of already replacing the only new gear to the system makes zero sense. I dunno whose idea this was, but it's a bad one.

 

Operations:

• Izax offers an amazing new reward
  
• We are providing a new vendor just outside the Gods from the Machine Operation offering special items to those players who have earned an achievement for killing Izax, The Destroyer.
  

What currency will be used to purchase items from this vendor? Will anyone in your legacy be able to purchase them? Since the achievement is legacy-wide it would make sense that the rewards would be also, but some confirmation would be great.

 

Companions:

• Companion Return: Felix Iresso – The Jedi Consular’s loyal soldier has had a rough time these last few years – can the Consular help him?
  
• Companion Return: Mako and Akaavi - Bounty Hunters and Smugglers are reunited with this duo, who’ve been working together during the players’ absence.
  

Are these returns going to be for the original class only? Your wording seems to indicate "yes", but confirmation would be appreciated. I hope the feedback from the other class-only returns has been heard and these will be much more fleshed out if they are indeed class-specific. When you've waited literal years for these returns and claimed that it was to "do it right", then it will necessarily require more than 2 to 3 minutes of brief and lackluster encounter to be satisfying at all. Otherwise, we should just use the terminal in Odessen and get it over with, and those spending time developing these can move on to developing meatier content for main story lines (where the amount of "heft" has also been too lightweight for a "story-driven MMO").

 

Subscriber Rewards: We have a series of Subscriber promotions throughout the next few months… look for details in your email, on the Launcher, or on the SWTOR website. For example, the February Share your Love of SWTOR started yesterday and ends February 27, 2017.

This gets a full-on 100% BRAVO from me. I appreciated you releasing the NVIDIA rewards to the rest of us, as that contest was more than a little uneven. I hope this is where you take some of the feedback of "things we'd like to see return that don't drop in the game anymore" and give us some really nice rewards. Suggestions: Legacy offhand weapons, jet pack style speeders (like the HK jet pack), unique companions that come with a mini-story line that can be played through, and LOTS of stronghold decorations.

 

 

Beyond April – Discussion Topic!

As we look back to 2017 and now beyond the conclusion of the traitor storyline, we are planning to continue delivering content in the same manner throughout 2018. When you look at the total year, you received a wide variety of both multi-player and solo activities including a new story, Strongholds, Starfighter updates, a new Warzone, two new Flashpoints, and a new Operation, along with many Quality of Life improvements.

 

We heard feedback from some of you indicating you missed having a more “traditional” expansion and you’d rather wait so it all comes at once. I like having updates released regularly versus waiting long periods of time in-between patches. Although this remains our current plan, we are also laying out what we’ll include in a 6.0 Game Update. We’ll keep you informed of our summer, fall and winter plans throughout the coming months.

 

I agree that we saw a decent variety of content in 2017, but there was not nearly enough of it. We excused that because you were dealing with sorting out the Galactic Command system (which you did very well, and thank you). And we excused the slow release cadence knowing that merging all the servers took a lot of time and effort. You don't have these things taking you away from releasing more content anymore, and I hope it will mean a much more frequent cadence to your release schedule.

 

The biggest and best thing you can do in 2018 is to improve this release schedule, if you are going to insist on having "regular updates" then it needs to be more regular than 2 or 3 months between something significant. If there was content that was truly repeatable (meaning, storylines that differed even slightly for classes or were tied to certain companions, etc.) then we would have something to do between releases. There is not enough of that to carry you more than a month or two in the game. So as I see it you have a couple of things you need to do differently to make 2018 better and not see the further decline of your population:

a) Increase the trickle rate of content.

• At least one little new thing per month (companion returns, which I'm sorry to say are very small snippets of story)

OR

• A couple of medium sized bits (new stronghold, new PvP/GSF map plus add cross-faction like Yavin, etc) every two months

OR

• Not more than 3 months before at least one significant sized thing is added (an hour's worth of repeatable story block, a single instanced raid boss with SM/VM difficulties, an Iokath sized planet with daily area, etc).

 

b) Improved communication from the developers on the forums here. You've stated this is your intention, but you said that in 2017 also. We really would love it if this was the year it took hold.

 

c) Quality of Life changes and Bug Fixes should be sprinkled throughout the content you release, but not in place of content you release. Even small snippets of content is acceptable as long as you can repeat it on several characters without it being exactly the same each time and there is reason/reward to do so.

 

To close, it would be really beneficial to the health of the game and the morale of the population if you talk about 6.0 at the very first possible opportunity you have to do so. Even just indicate: full traditional expansion or no. We love this game and want reasons to stay, not reasons to leave (boredom included).

 

I hope that anything I've said is helpful when thinking about development for this game, but if not... thanks for reading anyway. May the force be with all of us in 2018.

Edited February 15, 2018 by PennyAnn

[Cawyden]

This times a trillion.

 

Perhaps that April flashpoint will conclude with a cliffhanger. We reunite with Theron who finally explains he was undercover and why thus wrapping up the 'traitor' aspect and story in that regard. We team up trying to stop the Zildrog fanatics from reviving Vitiate/Valkorion but we fail and that's where it ends. Then 6.0 will be yet another "Deal with the Sith Emperor cos lols" story and Lord Scourge and Kira will come running to aid us, having arrived just too late to stop the entire disaster from taking place.

 

Pretty sure it will end with a cliffhanger - ending the traitor story but starting a new one to make us wait for the next FP to continue the new story. Scourge and Kira surprise return would be great though.

[Galahard]

a classic SWTOR where Valkorion never existed and we start from where Ziost ended with a missing Emperor and a squabbling Republic and Empire and 8 intertwining stories. yeah, I know, but I can dream.

I would pay 10 000 Cartel Coins for a token that would undo KotXX and continue the class stories.

[ForfiniteStories]

Looks great Keith. Glad to see small releases during the year. The last 12 months included a lot of content, regardless of what people claim (as you laid out in your post). Looking forward to 5.8, 5.9 and beyond.

 

THANK YOU

 

This guy gets it.

 

People freakin' out over lack of content has been irking me greatly as of late. I've been playing this game daily for three years and I am still not even close to running out of things to do. Heck, I haven't even done most of the achievos for the content that was released just in the past year. What are they smoking?

Edited February 15, 2018 by ForfiniteStories

[ThomasStarWars]

I would pay 10 000 Cartel Coins for a token that would undo KotXX and continue the class stories.

 

im with you

[ThomasStarWars]

THANK YOU

 

This guy gets it.

 

People freakin' out over lack of content has been irking me greatly as of late. I've been playing this game daily for three years and I am still not even close to running out of things to do. Heck, I haven't even done most of the achievos for the content that was released just in the past year. What are they smoking?

 

achievements =/= content

[JennyFlynn]

Pretty sure it will end with a cliffhanger - ending the traitor story but starting a new one to make us wait for the next FP to continue the new story. Scourge and Kira surprise return would be great though.

 

Entirely possible.

 

Or perhaps the Order of Zildrog has managed to secure that carbonite coffin containing Malgus and have brought it to Nathema to imbue Malgus' body with Vitiate's essence, turning the False Emperor into the New Emperor and merging the two entities into a brand 'new' villain.

 

I do have to wonder why, even with Vitiate 'dead', they're yet again, or rather still, pursuing story revolving around Vitiate and his artifacts. I hope it is merely a means to bring Vitiate's story, and his existence, to a definite end by destroying the remainders of his legacy, aka his vaults and the artifacts still scattered across the galaxy.

[DuchessKristania]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing Vector home! I will finally be able to take my make through KotFE/ET. I really hope his return is more gratifying than the Corso/Risha/Andronkos return. I'm still happy to know he's coming back though.

 

I am a little disappointed that we'll continue to see the content trickle, but if you really are working on an expansion I'm happy with a trickle to keep us busy until the main course.

[Tahana]

You mean the writers who took 3-4 months to write about 10 lines for Corso and Risha? Who decided to base an entire expansion on the Emperor and his psychotic family and even now he's dead, even now we've liberated the galaxy and freed ourselves of the Emperor, are using him as a source of inspiration for this traitor arc with Theron? Those writers? Yeah...

 

Not sure how their process works, but you have a point. I guess I would ask is the framework built first or the story. Because if it is the framework then the story guys were simply told 'we've got a 2 minute cut scene, you get 30 seconds for dialog'.. Would be interesting to learn exactly how some of their design decisions are made. .

[ThomasStarWars]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing Vector home! I will finally be able to take my make through KotFE/ET. I really hope his return is more gratifying than the Corso/Risha/Andronkos return. I'm still happy to know he's coming back though.

 

I am a little disappointed that we'll continue to see the content trickle, but if you really are working on an expansion I'm happy with a trickle to keep us busy until the main course.

 

they arent working on an expansion. itll be the same trickle for 6.0 . at least from what kieth posted

[AngFour]

I'm glad Vector's finally coming back but I have a question:

 

Is his model going to be replaced like the other companions have been, or will he remain as the old one (seeing as he's only for IA anyway)? I ask this because the new models, the "pod people," don't animate right. Their mouths don't move and it's creepy.

 

If it is a new model, can you guys PLEASE fix the companions so their mouths move again? Please? It's pretty much the only thing that's making me go "Meh, Vector's returning...yay?" Instead of "WOOOOHOOOOO, VECTOR'S FINALLY RETURNING!"

 

Also, can someone who got Risha/Corso/Andronikous back poke them and see if their mouths move when they say their "You poked me" lines? Because if they do then it just confirms to me that the class only companions are still their original models, and if that's the case, then while it sucks for the other companions, at least Vector will be okay.

Edited February 15, 2018 by AngFour

[ShadowGovernator]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing Vector home! I will finally be able to take my make through KotFE/ET. I really hope his return is more gratifying than the Corso/Risha/Andronkos return. I'm still happy to know he's coming back though.

 

I am a little disappointed that we'll continue to see the content trickle, but if you really are working on an expansion I'm happy with a trickle to keep us busy until the main course.

 

They just said that they are going to release content the same way as they did in 2017 a little bit at the time - tell me how do you think an expansion will work if released in small bits at a time?

[EricMusco]

Thanks for the Roadmap, Kieth!

 

Apologies if this has been asked:

 

Are the companion returns:

 

1. Class locked: only the original class can get them?

2. Story progression locked: similar to Corso/Risha and Andronikos, have to have KotET finished in order to get them?

 

Thanks.

 

I am looking into clarification on these questions. I will get back to you.

 

-eric

[Galahard]

I am looking into clarification on these questions. I will get back to you.

 

-eric

Much appreciated, Eric!

[Rheshalea]

Oh - maybe this is a surprise companion return. Wasn't Charles saying something along the lines that he has planned something special for Scourge?

 

Charles also said they were only going to return the comps when they can do so in a meaningful way.

Meaningful = 2 minutes of pointless cutscenes

Special = ? 4 minutes? 2 minutes cutscene + a fight?

[EarlWhiteHaven]

I am disappointed with this road map. I was hoping they would give some details on why they are making the returning companions class specific and give some details on how they would fit into the story going forward.

 

I really wish we could get some companion related content . Some things like extra conversations and short missions would be great. It wold also be cool if the class specific companions were the briefers for a flashpoint.

 

Hopefully in the near future they go into more specifics.

[curulz]

We just got new augments and now new ones coming out? sounds like they're going to be gated behind the new FP? Same mats as the current 236s? Or new mats?

[_Karlsen_]

I thought you had said that Kira would return soon...

You're breaking my heart, you're going down a path I cannot follow...

[Estelindis]

Companion Return: Felix Iresso – The Jedi Consular’s loyal soldier has had a rough time these last few years – can the Consular help him?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Argh, so many feelings! 1) Yes, finally! Thank you!! 2) Oh no, what's happened to him? 3) I hope the quality of the return does justice to the long wait.

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm pleased about lots of other things you posted, but this is the main thing I've been waiting for since starting KotFE. Thank you. Please make it as amazing as you can.

[LordTurin]

It is not currently slotted into our plans but we still have a high interest in doing it. So no updates on timing just yet! We will be sure to let you all know though should we get it into the plans.

 

-eric

 

Seconded on how important this is. I basically refuse to buy cartel weapons until either they are available in the the weapon manager, or are legacy bound (I have way too many toons that use the same gear across mirrors to double the number of MHs I gear up).

[Eshvara]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Argh, so many feelings! 1) Yes, finally! Thank you!! 2) Oh no, what's happened to him? 3) I hope the quality of the return does justice to the long wait.

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm pleased about lots of other things you posted, but this is the main thing I've been waiting for since starting KotFE. Thank you. Please make it as amazing as you can.

 

Congrats Este! I am happy for you, I hope it'll get a good one.