Fall Roadmap Now Live!

[Andryah]

If tier 5 gear is just for tier 5 rated operations like the new mode for Gods of the Whatever it's Called then that's not so bad. If it's the new minimum for everything then that will blow hard.

 

If they follow pattern, it will be 250-252 gear, with a very modest boost in stats, and if it has no set bonus.. it would be pretty worthless for PvPers who rely on set bonus perks .... but other then that.. it's something for completionists to go after.

 

Most players dismissed the new augments when they released.. as soon as they saw they offered very little of anything beyond the prior set, and were much more expensive. The same will likely happen with this as well.

 

Of course we have some PvPers who will insist they must have them to compete... even though RNG variations on combat cycles would smother any actual benefit in most cases. In other words.. the boost will likely be in the noise.. but some PvPers will insist they cannot compete without them... which is a soloers meme applied to random PvP(whatever happened to skill, tactics, and teamwork?)

Edited September 5, 2018 by Andryah

[Joonbeams]

I can pay money to skip all the work you did in game. So yes that is P2W. I don’t need to spend the hours you did to earn your credits. All I need to do is buy and sell things from the cash shop.

 

But "buy and sell things" is all I did to earn the credits though in the first place, lol. Don't you see? There is no "grind" needed here. No one has to run ops, ranked, content etc. to have BiS gear (again, going on assumptions here). You just need to get mats and craft, or get credits (by any means) and buy from crafters. You will either have the credits already, or need to "earn" them either by: buying and selling on GTN (which can be done with equal speed by crafting or selling CM items), or grinding game content and earning credits.

 

No one is getting an end-run around grinding content, which is the fundamental criticism of P2W. Everyone will have to buy/sell and/or craft like everyone else...

[Joonbeams]

Of course we have some PvPers who will insist they must have them to compete... even though RNG variations on combat cycles would smother any actual benefit in most cases. In other words.. the boost will likely be in the noise.. but some PvPers will insist they cannot compete without them... which is a soloers meme applied to random PvP(whatever happened to skill, tactics, and teamwork?)

 

I very much doubt the market for this gear will be limited to "PvPers," and by a long shot too....

[Andryah]

I very much doubt the market for this gear will be limited to "PvPers," and by a long shot too....

 

Except that is not what I said.

 

Several PvPer have already declared that the tier 5 will be a "must" to compete in PvP. RNG on combat rolls alone will swamp out whatever gain the gear represents.. meaning it is no guarantee on any given combat cycle that it will provide any advantage to have it, or disadvantage to not have it. Plus... being crafted.. it very likely won't have set bonus perks on it.

 

PvEers have so far only casually wondered if this gear will even be needed to deal with the new Master Mode or not. PvEers generally take a different approach to gear. If they do OPs.. they want enough gear to meet any dps checks on a boss encounter. If they solo.. they may feel they must have the best of the best gear in order to do solo content they would struggle with otherwise.

 

At the end of the day.. some players are obsessed with gear.. even when what they play does not actually require the best of the best gear. Others are not, and are able to objectively evaluate the value vs the cost of gear.. before obsessing about it. Not that any crafted gear is generally BiS anyway in this MMO.

 

Now.. they could surprise us and make the tier 5 crafted gear be a notable jump in power and stats.. in which case.. that should also force a bolster change in PvP too and would drive more players to chase the new gear. But there is so far no precedent for crafted gear going that route, as it generally has been tuned to be modestly inferior to BiS drop gear in game (no matter how said gear drops.. from crates, from currency vendors, etc. etc.).

Edited September 5, 2018 by Andryah

[Batwer]

Good:

- new Story

- new Planet (I hope you can then explore and is not too small)

- Separate republican and imperial stories (I hope this is not just limited to the daily area)

- Tier 5 equipment can only be done through construction plans. As long as you can create it without dying a thousand times through the OP master mode. Actually OK.

- New stuff for guilds.

 

Bad:

- The master mode for gods of machines should have been around for a long time. The output now as a new feature is weak.

- Most demanding manager? If it works like the chapter master mode, you can leave it the same. Only heaps of damage and nothing else.

 

"In the coming years". Looks like we still have the game for a while. This is the perfect time to fix bugs that have been around for trillions of years.

[Joonbeams]

Except that is not what I said.

 

Several PvPer have already declared that the tier 5 will be a "must" to compete in PvP. RNG on combat rolls alone will swamp out whatever gain the gear represents.. meaning it is no guarantee on any given combat cycle that it will provide any advantage to have it, or disadvantage to not have it. Plus... being crafted.. it very likely won't have set bonus perks on it.

 

PvEers have so far only casually wondered if this gear will even be needed to deal with the new Master Mode or not. PvEers generally take a different approach to gear. If they do OPs.. they want enough gear to meet any dps checks on a boss encounter. If they solo.. they may feel they must have the best of the best gear in order to do solo content they would struggle with otherwise.

 

At the end of the day.. some players are obsessed with gear.. even when what they play does not actually require the best of the best gear. Others are not, and are able to objectively evaluate the value vs the cost of gear.. before obsessing about it. Not that any crafted gear is generally BiS anyway in this MMO.

 

PvPers == "must" have now! Irrational demands based on a misunderstanding of the benefits. PvErs == merely "casually wondering" and cautiously doing their homework to get just enough of what they need and nothing more. These are tired, played out tropes that don't benefit the community or advance the discussion at all IMO. They don't reflect my view of the same posts you were looking at either. Of course, you're free to project whatever you want of course...

[Lunafox]

Thanks for the heads-up Eric I'm so happy to see this roadmap now that it's September.

 

I appreciated the changes made to the Rishi Stronghold to include the apartment. I'm having a good time with it. Thank you.

 

I'm really excited about the fact we're getting more story and a new planet to explore. I hope there will be a lot to it. I'm also excited about the potential return of Lord Scourge. He's a favorite and I'm ecstatic to get him back. And I'm glad to get Doc back too! Thank you!

 

The new armor sounds interesting and I'm glad it's craftable.

 

Although not all the incoming things apply to me or my interests, I appreciate knowing what's coming and am grateful.

 

Thanks again.

[Andryah]

PvPers == "must" have now! Irrational demands based on a misunderstanding of the benefits. PvErs == merely "casually wondering" and cautiously doing their homework to get just enough of what they need and nothing more. These are tired, played out tropes that don't benefit the community or advance the discussion at all IMO. They don't reflect my view of the same posts you were looking at either. Of course, you're free to project whatever you want of course...

 

So.. you are saying that some PvPers don't feel they must always have the very best gear? Really?

 

As for PvE... different dynamic then PvP.. and you know it. PvEers are very often not caught in a "gotta have the best of the best gear" trope that PvPers seem to be more passionate about. Even the OPs raiders in this MMO are more casual about their gear then in many other MMOs... precisely because there is not that much really hard content that can only be overcome by gear in addition to good solid teamwork and attention to detail.

 

But honestly.. it's academic.. because it won't be BiS gear for the reasons I have already stated.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Andryah

[Ylliarus]

I really not sure what to think of the content this time. I didn't want my characters to have to go back to their original factions but it seems once again I don't get that choice.

 

I didn't want my characters to leave their original factions and be put in a vague weird bland "alliance" that forces choices upon you that you hate. I never wanted to part with my faction, my headcanon is that my characters are diehard loyalists. You had your enjoyment of being in the alliance, now let those that never wanted to be in that damn useless completely unoriginal alliance have their enjoyment of returning to their original factions

Edited September 5, 2018 by Ylliarus

[mhobin]

Except that is not what I said.

 

Several PvPer have already declared that the tier 5 will be a "must" to compete in PvP. RNG on combat rolls alone will swamp out whatever gain the gear represents.. meaning it is no guarantee on any given combat cycle that it will provide any advantage to have it, or disadvantage to not have it. Plus... being crafted.. it very likely won't have set bonus perks on it.

 

PvEers have so far only casually wondered if this gear will even be needed to deal with the new Master Mode or not. PvEers generally take a different approach to gear. If they do OPs.. they want enough gear to meet any dps checks on a boss encounter. If they solo.. they may feel they must have the best of the best gear in order to do solo content they would struggle with otherwise.

 

At the end of the day.. some players are obsessed with gear.. even when what they play does not actually require the best of the best gear. Others are not, and are able to objectively evaluate the value vs the cost of gear.. before obsessing about it. Not that any crafted gear is generally BiS anyway in this MMO.

 

If the new gear does not have set bonuses then this whole conversation is moot because it will not be BiS. I was working under the assumption that the new gear will have set bonuses. They have never announced a new set of gear without having set bonuses attached. Crafted gear has always been used to fill in the slots in between other gear. It has never been top of the table.

 

My guess is that they saw a big uptick in CM purchases when they made the new augments with rare mats. The prices are very high and people needed more credits to get them. So they are extending the practice to all gear because it drives people to the CM.

 

IMO this is fine if the game is F2P. However the only people, using the high end gear are subs. Therefore you are getting F2P practices within the sub portion of the game. That’s shady.

[Ylliarus]

I am not just talking about the faction choice.

 

My characters built an Alliance with members of all factions and that took a lot of time and effort. They are not interested in going back to some petty IMPS R EBIL!!! KILL TEH PUBS!!! war.

 

After building an Alliance and working for Galactic peace they're going to be reduced to attacking Jedi bases again? Really?

 

I never wanted to part with the factions in the first place, I wanted to stay with my original faction. I never wanted my characters to have to join the alliance which is unoriginal, bland, completely un-Star Wars and very annoying. Finally we return to the core of SWTOR, Jedi vs Sith, Empire vs Republic, so please, let people like me finally enjoy that again. Because I had to weather through the entire Alliance-debacle, so now it's the turn of those that want the Empire vs Republic narrative to have enjoyment

Edited September 5, 2018 by Ylliarus

[Syal]

TIER 5... badest news on this roadmap...

[Andryah]

If the new gear does not have set bonuses then this whole conversation is moot because it will not be BiS. I was working under the assumption that the new gear will have set bonuses. They have never announced a new set of gear without having set bonuses attached. Crafted gear has always been used to fill in the slots in between other gear. It has never been top of the table.

 

Absolutely correct mhobin.. and that has been my point in this thread discussion... in spite of some pushback ranting from others trying to push my comments out of context.

 

In the almost seven years of this game in release... crafted gear has always been a bit inferior to the best drop gear. What was notably different in 5.0 is the studio made crafted gear good enough that it gave organized players the ability to not obsess over Command Crates, and just gear up on good crafted gear and go play the game and let BiS drop gear unfold over time just from playing and opening crates (or trading up at the vendors).

 

I expect what will unfold here with the new teir 5 crafted gear is a repeat of what transpired with the release of a new tier of augments (the 240s). A lot of people looked at them, looked at the cost to make or buy them, and said.. meh.. don't really need them. Time will tell on this.. but in the mean time.. we have the usual "the sky is falling!!" role play over the announcement of new crafted gear.

 

And... per Dulfys summary of the stream:

Tier 5 Gear. All Tier 5 gear will be crafted, no detail to reveal yet. We know you got strong opinions about it. Expect to be part of the rewards for master mode operations.

 

Now this... is something worthy of PvPers bending coins over because it requires PvE.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Andryah

[Rion_Starkiller]

My guess is that they saw a big uptick in CM purchases when they made the new augments with rare mats. The prices are very high and people needed more credits to get them. So they are extending the practice to all gear because it drives people to the CM.

 

IMO this is fine if the game is F2P. However the only people, using the high end gear are subs. Therefore you are getting F2P practices within the sub portion of the game. That’s shady.

 

With tinfoil hat firmly ensconced, I once stated that credit inflation on the GTN over the past 2 years was done on purpose to drive up the value of CM items. True or not, it makes you wonder....

 

That said, the people you are talking about that pay2win are called WHALES. Personally, I support whales. They keep my game afloat with their pointless pixel purchases.

 

SECRET: all they really have to do is put a couple of toons in a Conquest guild and achieve their 15k minimum to get rare crafting mats. Or they could grind granked for mats.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Rion_Starkiller

[AureliaSulis]

I didn't want my characters to leave their original factions and be put in a vague weird bland "alliance" that forces choices upon you that you hate. I never wanted to part with my faction, my headcanon is that my characters are diehard loyalists. You had your enjoyment of being in the alliance, now let those that never wanted to be in that damn useless completely unoriginal alliance have their enjoyment of returning to their original factions

 

It's really not rocket science. Three factions comprising two major ones (Republic & Imperials) and a smaller faction (like Hutt/Mandalorian) only it is a player faction (Alliance). Alliance faction operates from an enlarged Odessen base (with associated player housing, merchants, mission npcs, trainers etc) and is allied to either the Republic or Empire depending on the choice of the individual Alliance Commander.

 

It really wouldn't be that difficult to create and would allow players who want to remain Alliance to keep their choice.

[Andryah]

That said, the people you are talking about that pay2win are called WHALES. Personally, I support whales. They keep my game afloat with their pointless pixel purchases.

 

^^ This is worthy of a bit of clarification before the P2W meme gets completely wrapped around the axle here.

 

Whales: generally defined as players who spend real money freely to buy CCs to spend on the CM to obtain cosmetic items they desire, or buy lots of cartel packs because they love opening cartel packs to see what surprises they get. And to note: this studio does not sell stat based armor and weapons in the CM.. so there is no way for a player to directly buy their way to BiS gear.... period.. full stop.

 

Wealthy Players: players who have mapped out their spending needs, built a wealth creation plan that matches or exceeds their spending needs, and actually work said plan over time to be, and stay, wealthy in game. This game is wealth friendly.. so there are a truck ton of wealthy players in this game nearly 7 years after launch. Yet a new player can in fact be a billionaire within 6 months by simply working a wealth accumulation plan as a part time aspect of their total game play

 

It is possible for a whale to also be a wealthy player... but generally it's very inefficient as a method of creating a large amount of wealth in credits in game. It can be a good choice to get some seed capital quickly in order to begin to work the price spreads in the GTNs... but it's a poor way to become an in game billionaire.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Andryah

[Ylliarus]

It's really not rocket science. Three factions comprising two major ones (Republic & Imperials) and a smaller faction (like Hutt/Mandalorian) only it is a player faction (Alliance). Alliance faction operates from an enlarged Odessen base (with associated player housing, merchants, mission npcs, trainers etc) and is allied to either the Republic or Empire depending on the choice of the individual Alliance Commander.

 

It really wouldn't be that difficult to create and would allow players who want to remain Alliance to keep their choice.

 

Sure, keep the choice for those that want to stick with the Alliance if it floats their boat. As long as it's not forced upon me, I want to return to my original faction, either Empire or Republic. My characters have always been played as diehard loyalists and if I had the choice they would never have stuck with the Alliance. I chose my faction at level 1 and that's the faction I want to be. If others want to stick with the Alliance, the devs should give them that choice, but they should also give the choice to the many people like me who want to be part of their original factions once more.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Ylliarus

[Valin_Marr]

My sub has about 65 days left. I have no interest in grinding new gear. Been doing that since December last year. I have to stick to my guns here and say when that when my sub runs out i'm not re-subbing until more pertinent information comes out about 6.0. About all I can say without getting completely irrational and perma banned from the boards.

[Lakemine]

"Crafted Tier 5 Gear – make your own top tier gear after obtaining rare schematics and new crafting materials"

 

seriously? craftable? how the **** schould that work with set bonusses?

do you have to have 7 schematics for 1 spec?

 

you guys should seriously think about the problems that brings for people who have to play different roles in thier particular raid groups... those people will need another stupid grind fest....

havent you learned from the fail that was galactic command... me as an salesman myself i see what you are doing... trying to keep people engaged by giving them smeting to farm but that was your idea behing galactic command, too...

 

did it work out? i guess not... never seen so few people online..

 

craftabble top tier gear is simply wrong.. ..

then you for sure will have to do ranked pvp for mats or wait like 2 years for luck...

(about 60% of the nim raiders i play with wouldnt touch ranked pvp even with a forceps)

 

i guess you dont have a concept yet otherwise you would communicate it.

 

i strongly suggest you to make that gear available by components just as any other gear...

otherwise a lot of people would be pissed for the new grind.. (btw that was the reason you brought out those components, if you remember)

 

dont make that mistake to bring it only craftable... you will lose players...

 

Yep. I am with you, crafted gear is beyond a sad choice to do. The schematics for them most of the time come from ranked pvp (which never pops) or HM or NIM ops (which very few runs of those happen). Then again, why bother with it? Its useless anyways. Just sad they think its something to praise lol. ANY gear in ANNY game I just detest, it ruins balance in pvp and it a waste of time because you spend 3-6 months getting the gear, only for it to be beyond useless a few months later. I really do not get people who "love" that type of content, its a waste of time. (Its a waste of time when your working on HM, only to have to spend the next 3-6 months getting back to the same place because they raised the level cap and made your gear useless.)

 

Farming for something is fine, but grinding and wasting time for such a small reward and not something that is good, is why people leave games and move on to something else. The devs need to find a balance of price, reward and time cost. Issue is, most games put the price of items so high, its not worth for people to spend months to get something (unless its a HM or NIM achievement, that's different because your working with other people.), if it can't be got in a few weeks or a month, most people just move on. Look at Destiny 2, people left because they ran out of things to do, and the grind fest for RNG gear was not worth it to most people.

 

Agreed on components, even though the gear system atm is convoluted and stupid, (before 4.0 was best) it is WAY better then the stupidity that was RNG gamble gear grinding. (Galactic Command) And also way better then crafting.

 

I know I havnt played much because the only thing left to do is OPs, and since those do not happen often, its a waste of money and time to sub. And the only way to get the gear to do said HM and NIM OPs is to craft or hope the gamble slot machine pull of leveling up a new level with Galactic Command gets you the piece you need. I have not cared about any of the new augments because of the cost of them is way to high, and then they add the 242 and make the cost even higher? lol They really think that, that is content people love, like and want more of, but now its not just augments but a entire gear set with "maybe" set bonus? lol lol lol

[Lakemine]

Speaking of QoL, when are we finally going to get 1 friend list that I can see on all my toons?

 

Well since Guilds are getting Legacy Ignore, maybe sometime soon they will add that feature for players to legacy ignore and also legacy friend lists?

[Lakemine]

New gear, woohoo. I haven't even bothered getting all my mains into full 248 gear yet. Now I can leave them where they are. I don't need another pointless gear grind that punishes people with multiple alts and specs.

 

Is the new content an actual storyline or more flashpoints? Flashpoints that you can't stop halfway through and pick up playing later are a terrible way of presenting solo-type stories. (If is real story content, and not just flashpoints, then congratulations on giving me something I want).

 

More class-specific companions. Well, that's great for those classes I suppose, unless you like LS Jaesa, then you played the game the wrong way.

 

Since the only chars I have doing the full story content are a LS fem warrior and DS male warrior and both of them went with LS Jaesa and neither killed Quinn, the new content just reminds me that my story chioces are the wrong ones according to the current writers.

 

Agreed on the gear "hype".

 

It will be storyline like before and not locked behind a flashpoint where if you dc in the middle of it you need to redo the entire flashpoint. Don't worry.

 

This companions being taken away has gone on WAY to long, its taken them 3+ years and they still havnt fixed it. I knew when they said this was going to happen before 4.0, I called it, but a large number of people did not believe me. Oh well, at least they are getting closer to bring the last of them back, which is good. (My Nadia is coming back!!!! So happy!!!) Also I hope going forward we can use whatever companion we want in the storyline and even have some of those little voice lines here and there back again, being forced to ONLY use a specific companion for a mission here and there is fine (heck the original launch game had some of those) but for ENTIRE chapters that go on and on and on? No, they need to end that.

[Lakemine]

Anyone remember all those useless schematics in the command crates?

 

Another gear grind with another currency is just what this game needs.... Not.

 

That's some Jedi mind-trick to had-wave away all the mistakes and mis-steps this game has made in the previous six years, only to repeat them all over again.

 

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

[AureliaSulis]

Sure, keep the choice for those that want to stick with the Alliance if it floats their boat. As long as it's not forced upon me, I want to return to my original faction, either Empire or Republic. My characters have always been played as diehard loyalists and if I had the choice they would never have stuck with the Alliance. I chose my faction at level 1 and that's the faction I want to be. If others want to stick with the Alliance, the devs should give them that choice, but they should also give the choice to the many people like me who want to be part of their original factions once more.

 

Choice is the important word here. Having three player factions gives people a choice. It shouldn't be an all or nothing situation, or black or white when some of us prefer to play grey. As a writer and a novelist it just doesn't fit that something that a character has worked years for, is discarded just like that. Ditto for the new companions like Arcann or Senya who have sworn themselves to the Alliance - I cannot see them easily going to the Republic or the Empire. In fact, if they did they'd just end up in gaol for war crimes. Major plot hole if they follow the Alliance Commander back to one of the two factions. Having three factions makes sense, not only for players, but also for the story. After all, these events happened a long time in the past, and as a real-life historian I know that Empires rise and fall and a third-faction Alliance would be completely believable, just as it is completely believable that it is subsequently lost to history in the time of the movies which inspired this game.

 

At any rate, I hope Devs are reading this thread and taking my thoughts on. I know there are at the time of my posting five other people in this thread alone who apparently would appreciate an Alliance faction. Project that percentage out into the general population who are playing the game and I surmise you'd get a fair number, sufficient to warrant adding this content.

[Lakemine]

Also got a bad taste in my mouth from the gear remark. The rest actually sounded interesting, but just that one thing means that instead of sitting here in enthusiastic anticipation, I am bracing myself for exactly how bad it's going to get.

 

Which is really kind of sad. With new content we should be hyped up and excited for it, yet were not. Same for me with Forsaken (The 3rd Destiny 2 xpac that just came out), I was excited for it to come out, but signed on the day before and saw some of the changes they had done last week to gear prices and pvp, and it ruined and dampened greatly my hype for it. Which is sad, because basically for me now its just finish the storyline, and then im gone. Because the gear grind fest is just a utter waste of time, and the grouping for raids is non-existent, which is pretty much the only reason to stay after your done with the storyline, since you cant do alts.

 

With SWTOR im happy and excited for the storyline (kinda, I will rant later) and the guild QoL updates, but the gear and MM OPs? Nope, and it makes it to where im not as excited as I used to me before. Its sad really since I have been a Star Wars fan since I was 6.

[Lakemine]

I'm just wondering what happens to Command Ranks then...are they now as useless as Rakata gear? Do we need to be CR 300 to use the new tier 5 gear? Where do the mats drop from...command boxes? FPs? Random or guaranteed?

 

My guess is no, you can be GC rank 1 and still wear the new crafted gear. Mats most likely will be from ranked pvp and HM and NIM OPs to make people go in there and get them (since the only content that needs that gear are the places where it drops.) Also another question, will this new crafted gear be legacy bound? If not, I see even people who would want the new gear not even bothering. (I don't use legacy sets for being screwed over with bugs and CS not helping me, but I completely understand why other people use them.)