Changes and New Features in 7.0

[MikeTheDuke]

I am simply disappointed with this news. We are looking to have potentially the smallest expansion to date (I would love to be proved wrong on that) and on top of that we have had 1 delay and feature dropping (an a feature that has been hotly requested for a significant amount of time now).

 

The team, I am sure, are under possibly a decent amount of pressure, they are, what seems like, excited for the 10 year anniversary and they are wanting us to be excited at the 10 year anniversary but it just seems each piece of news we get just add to the disappointment.

 

Yes, we want a release that is the best it can be, but right now, I am possibly not the only one, significantly disappointed with what is happening thus far and with 7.0 now releasing into almost 1/6th of the year, and sans features, give us some hope. There is little to be really excited about since the news of late is has certainly extinguishing that fire we might have had when LOTS was announced.

[Akushii]

I can be open minded about delays to make sure things work right; I appreciate the thought behind that detail. Where I find fault with such expansions is the level cap increase, they basically nerf all of our gear making it useless.... the credits, time and effort put into perfecting our gear and all of the expensive extras become useless. It's a very cruel thing to do to people, it's like being punished, especially those who have many toons fully geared at 306. Thats a lot of hours/days/months of grinding! With nothing to show for it now....

 

Our gear during every expansion->

 

That's how most MMORPG works bud. Usually there is an expansion cycle of 2 years, after which the level cap increases and gear cap increases. It gives a sense of progression for your character. Otherwise these games wouldn't last for 10 years if you never progressed your gear.

 

On a separate note, wasn't the weapon outfitter originally supposed to come out with 6.1? I remember when 6.0 was launching, they said in one of their livestreams that weapon outfitter was planned and would come a little bit later. That it wasn't going to be with 6.0 but will be here 'soon'. Now we are one expansion in, and we are still not getting it. I wouldn't be surprised if this feature is forgotten once again until 8.0.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Akushii

[Rolodome]

I am simply disappointed with this news. We are looking to have potentially the smallest expansion to date (I would love to be proved wrong on that) and on top of that we have had 1 delay and feature dropping (an a feature that has been hotly requested for a significant amount of time now).

 

The team, I am sure, are under possibly a decent amount of pressure, they are, what seems like, excited for the 10 year anniversary and they are wanting us to be excited at the 10 year anniversary but it just seems each piece of news we get just add to the disappointment.

 

Yes, we want a release that is the best it can be, but right now, I am possibly not the only one, significantly disappointed with what is happening thus far and with 7.0 now releasing into almost 1/6th of the year, and sans features, give us some hope. There is little to be really excited about since the news of late is has certainly extinguishing that fire we might have had when LOTS was announced.

Maybe morale among the dev team is as low as it is among the players. Something is definitely wrong, in my assessment, even by BW austin's standards and the community team posts feel like they're on auto pilot PR mode, like they're trying so hard to share the least they have to in the most bland PR way they can, without acknowledging the discontent with things too directly. To me, it feels like that PR thing where there is a crisis, but they don't want to acknowledge the crisis because that would upset people, so they end up talking about it in this almost robotic way. I mean, if I was putting something out there and I had to cut one of the few star features of it and on the same day, tell people I can't do anything about an issue with perks that affects their guilds for another few weeks, I'd be pretty anxious they are going to wave bye bye. If I were in BW's position, I'd be thinking compensation somehow someway to keep people happy and get ahead of word of mouth dismal talks between people, but this team's upper management seems to be too stingy to think that way.

[HaoZhao]

https://blog.bioware.com/2022/01/06/state-of-bioware/

 

Near the beginning of the year, the GM of BioWare said that one of his priorities is rebuilding the company's reputation. The Austin studio doesn't seem to have gotten this memo. Unlike most people, I wasn't too bothered by the lack of moddable gear at the beginning of 7.0. It was a strange change but it wasn't a deal breaker or anything. But now you're telling us that there is no moddable gear AND there's no weapons in appearance designer. What this means is that everyone in the game is going to be using the same handful of generic looking end game weapons.

 

Do you guys not have any professional pride? How is it that no one who makes decisions is capable of anticipating these near universally negative responses to these decisions?

 

This expansion is 2 hours of story and "combat styles" which is a quality of life feature, not an actual gameplay feature. Being able to change from operative to powertech doesn't actually give us new content to play. This is already the weakest expansion in the game's history as far as actual content goes, and it gets lighter on content, every few weeks.

 

This expansion at launch has:

 

-No new daily areas

-No new operation

-No weapons in appearance designer

-Nothing for PVP

-Nothing for GSF

-No new crafting

-No actual new combat styles, just the ability to swap between two old ones

-No new strongholds

-No new species

 

Thank goodness that you guys actually have enough shame to not charge us extra for these "expansions". BioWare Austin's idea of an expansion is a middle of the year, generic content update in other MMOs.

 

Just give in this one time. Make all weapons moddable. Just the weapons. It's a compromise. Show us that you're capable of good faith, please.

[Gibonski]

https://blog.bioware.com/2022/01/06/state-of-bioware/

 

Near the beginning of the year, the GM of BioWare said that one of his priorities is rebuilding the company's reputation. The Austin studio doesn't seem to have gotten this memo. Unlike most people, I wasn't too bothered by the lack of moddable gear at the beginning of 7.0. It was a strange change but it wasn't a deal breaker or anything. But now you're telling us that there is no moddable gear AND there's no weapons in appearance designer. What this means is that everyone in the game is going to be using the same handful of generic looking end game weapons.

 

Do you guys not have any professional pride? How is it that no one who makes decisions is capable of anticipating these near universally negative responses to these decisions?

 

This expansion is 2 hours of story and "combat styles" which is a quality of life feature, not an actual gameplay feature. Being able to change from operative to powertech doesn't actually give us new content to play. This is already the weakest expansion in the game's history as far as actual content goes, and it gets lighter on content, every few weeks.

 

This expansion at launch has:

 

-No new daily areas

-No new operation

-No weapons in appearance designer

-Nothing for PVP

-Nothing for GSF

-No new crafting

-No actual new combat styles, just the ability to swap between two old ones

-No new strongholds

-No new species

 

Thank goodness that you guys actually have enough shame to not charge us extra for these "expansions". BioWare Austin's idea of an expansion is a middle of the year, generic content update in other MMOs.

 

Just give in this one time. Make all weapons moddable. Just the weapons. It's a compromise. Show us that you're capable of good faith, please.

 

A bump from me. Now we don't get any new feature apart from class pruning which could have been added in pre patch for the expansion, not being the main feature. Where is new stuff?

 

Where's Manaan, operation even at story mode?

 

And now this ******** wirh weapons?

 

Come on, as I was really excited for gearing changes this again brings me down to where I was: ready to unsubscribe

[Mevan]

This is just getting sad. No A-tab for weapons, no operation. I heard the daily area won't be available at launch either? 10th anniversary and this looks to be the weakest expansion in the game's history (Manaan, again?).

 

Really doesn't inspire much hope for this game's future.

[Flying-Brian]

So, it seems like there like the main alternative available would be, just make all weapons that drop be modable. You can have the mods be locked to main hand/off hand (as not be used in other gear). This would allow everyone to continue to be able to use their favorite weapon.

 

Otherwise it is clear that BW does not care about player imput, qol, or the real money that has been spent on CM items in game. Hell even in 1.0 at launch, when everyone was limited to the same look (per class) for endgame armor, you could at least change the mods in the MH/OH to use the weapon you liked the look of.

[TrixxieTriss]

Hey folks,

 

Quick update on one of the features slated to launch with Legacy of the Sith; Weapons being added to Outfitter. Unfortunately, this feature will not be shipping alongside the expansion and instead will be coming in Game Update 7.1.

 

We have made this decision due to the feature not being ready for PTS testing this week; it is important to us that we get your thoughts on it before it goes in-game, especially since we know how excited everyone is to see it come to life in SWTOR (as are we!). You shouldn’t have to wait too long before seeing it though! Our goal is to get 7.1’s PTS started in February; we're currently targeting the week before, or the week after 7.0’s launch.

 

Thank you for your patience. We know you are just as eager as we are to enjoy this added level of character customization!

 

-eric

 

Do you have a guesstimate of when 7.1 itself is due for release.

[TrixxieTriss]

can I have ur stuff?

 

He did say until they fix it. So there’s an assumption they will return when BioWare works out how to implement it properly

[TrixxieTriss]

so if weapons are not added to the outfitter, could you explain how we are supposed to be able to use cartel market weapons as we do not have access to moddable gear? like what features do you need our feedback on, how it works should be in the exact same way as the already working outfitter works no?

 

Maybe BioWare have decided to include moddable gear after all the bad feedback they’ve got about removing or limiting it to operations players in 7.1

 

I wonder if Eric or Jackie would mind commenting on this before 7.0 is released. It would certainly settle some peoples nerves about the expansion driving more players from the game.

[winpersec]

Delay the expansion please.

Otherwise there will be nothing to play and to pay for.

 

No new PvE content, old stuff is barely doable in this new non-moddable gear, nothing new in GSF (yet this mode is playable without sub) and nothing new at all, just two hours of story.

 

Basically not gonna subscribe back after this sub runs out in the early February if 7.0 is pushed at its current state.

 

There is nothing bad in delaying! Current state of the game is just fine to wait couple of months more, don't ruin it just for changing 6 to 7 without any other content.

[Eli_Porter]

I went on the PTS to see how the weapons look like, the lightsabers at least aren't as ugly as the current ones we get from renown crates.

 

This is rough. But as someone who cares more about systems than content, playing around with combat styles, gearing and loadouts will probably keep me engaged for what I assume would be two months of 7.0 until 7.1.

[Gyronamics]

There is nothing bad in delaying!

 

Easy to say when it's not your bonus that gets affected if patch 7 in name only doesn't launch on 15th Feb

[winpersec]

Easy to say when it's not your bonus that gets affected if patch 7 in name only doesn't launch on 15th Feb

 

What bonus do we speak about?

 

Considering my main dps is the same IO merc as yours and we do share at least one guild atm

[ZUHFB]

I don't want more delays, the class changes and all the balancing changes go live it will be different and it would give people the time to adapt and get used to the class/gear systems. I don't think that the changes are bad at all, if you give players time to figure it out before. So I am against delaying the expansion further, on a different note if they would delay it the weapon outfitter etc. would get even more delayed since they already said it won't be in launch.

 

Anyway, please don't delay the expansion any longer. Even though a lot will be delayed at least we got something

[Lichtfaengerin]

So I get the feeling the 10th anniversary plan for the year will probably be parts of 7.0 delayed and stretched till 2023.

[cjzin]

Imagine the lose of income just because of packs and individual weapons not being sold at 7.0 launch. If indeed this is a manpower issue, the most logical step is to delay 7.0 by at least 2 weeks.

Otherwise they will lose on all the subs and whales that keep the servers running. Looking at my 20 saber staff cartel market collection:(

[Kalnarius]

A bump from me. Now we don't get any new feature apart from class pruning which could have been added in pre patch for the expansion, not being the main feature. Where is new stuff?

 

Where's Manaan, operation even at story mode?

 

And now this ******** wirh weapons?

 

Come on, as I was really excited for gearing changes this again brings me down to where I was: ready to unsubscribe

 

R-4 Anomaly has already been pushed back for 7.1. Basically wondering how the new version of manaan is going because that is actually a daily world like Onderon, Ossus, Oricon and so on after you complete the storyline. But no idea how buggy that is they are even more in the dark about how that has improved during the timeframe of annoucement of 7.0 til now. I know we never get to see the story we actually did get to see Onderon in 6.0 PTS for a long while and some of the dailies even without the storyline actually being there. We did not get to see the new part of Manaan at all in any of the 7.0 PTS phases.

 

Honestly weapons in outfitter I am almost certain of will be either scrapped altogether or delayed til 8.0. There has been already 3 times they have attempted it before 7.0. They tried when they first did outfitter and couldn't get it work. They tried again in either Kotfe/Kotet and couldnt get it working right. Was planning on it for Onslaught and the virus pushed everything back on every1. Now its getting pushed back in LotS so really where is the optimism that it actually ever is fixed to begin. Sure it would probably be easier to give weapons their own outfitter feature but that probably has its own flaws to actually deal with. But if it would actually get around the whole combat style weapon swaps a lot easier.

[Gyronamics]

What bonus do we speak about?

 

Considering my main dps is the same IO merc as yours and we do share at least one guild atm

 

Management performance bonus to deliver the promised expac

[Pricia]

Delay the expansion please.

Otherwise there will be nothing to play and to pay for.

 

No new PvE conten

 

Sorry, what? Story is PVE content. The only content that some of us actually care about.

 

What I don't understand is why they left the same PTS version for close to 3 months if they really wanted us to test the weapon outfitter. There's still 3 weeks to the expansion too, they could patch it now and still give us plenty of time to try it.

 

Not really buying that excuse.

 

But I'm not surprised it's a huge mess to do, considering that weapons would be attached to an outfit but won't work with some combat styles. Honestly I don't even know how they COULD make it work, unless they tie the outfits to the combat styles somehow.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they can't get it to work and are forced to give us moddable gear again (which I'd prefer, frankly).

Edited January 26, 2022 by Pricia

[Kalnarius]

So I get the feeling the 10th anniversary plan for the year will probably be parts of 7.0 delayed and stretched till 2023.

 

Honestly considering most expansions are a yr to 3 yrs only kotfe-kotet i think may have been within a yr I cannot fully remember how long it took for that. But most of the stuff probably will be scattered throughout 22 and 23. Thats is not even including some of the patches they planned for later may actually now be pushed back because they had more flashpoints planned, the PVP overhaul patch, the UI/graphics patch may now not see the life of day until november or december if not march 23.

 

But this is not really unexpected its unfortunate because of how highly requested weapons in outfitter was since the outfitter was first implemented they have had issues with it since trying to implement in Shadow of Revan, Kotfe/Kotet (cant remember which they tried it in but it was suppose been released again in there) and it was listed in Onslaught was suppose to have happened but the virus pushed and delayed everything so work then was not happening on it. Another delay now are we even sure that is ever going to happen at this point. I am not certain of it at this point I think the chances are it ends up in the scrap pile never to be attempted again. They could surprise me with that but I am not holding my breath that it will be implemented anymore.

 

As for other features what other features are they going to delay and how many delays will R-4 anomaly take its already had 2 delays because it was not ready for december and it got pushed back again because 7.0 was not ready so it could be maybe june instead of april timeframe that we are looking at for it atm.

[Kalnarius]

Sorry, what? Story is PVE content. The only content that some of us actually care about.

 

What I don't understand is why they left the same PTS version for close to 3 months if they really wanted us to test the weapon outfitter. There's still 3 weeks to the expansion too, they could patch it now and still give us plenty of time to try it.

 

Not really buying that excuse.

 

But I'm not surprised it's a huge mess to do, considering that weapons would be attached to an outfit but won't work with some combat styles. Honestly I don't even know how they COULD make it work, unless they tie the outfits to the combat styles somehow.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they can't get it to work and are forced to give us moddable gear again (which I'd prefer, frankly).

 

That is easy to explain with the same PTS up for 3 months. Holiday vacation was from basically week that expansion was suppose to launch until last week. And what many people forget is Disney still has its decree that no new star wars content (movies, games, expansions, shows) will be released in the same timeframe as another star wars content. Book of Boba Fett was going on from Dec 30 to the week before the expansion is atm still slated for Feb 15th. It is very much a thing they did with other star wars games, swtor, the films and even the disney+ serieses. Very much a real aspect to it. Disney I would assumed actually laid into Bioware and EA in december forcing them to delay release. Bioware decided it would take a christmas vacation that was a month long to spend with their families and fix the minor bugs rather than the major bugs. Which translate in 3-3 1/2 weeks of work before expansion rather than the full 2 months of work that could have actually been done.

 

To think we were going to get a better finished product than what we would have gotten in december had the released it was fool's gold at best. Minus weapons in outfitter and the already pushed back R-4 anomaly that was delayed twice already because it was not ready for december to go with 7.0 and then it was delayed again because 7.0 got delayed which was obvious but still we are virtually getting the same unfinished product we were going to get in December. People will just have to come to terms with that in whatever way they see fit. Played many mmos over the yrs and been with Swtor since before launch this is really nothing new for us. And if you think paid Subscriptions would have helped guess again because we had the same thing with RotHC and Shadow of Revan both were paid expansions and people were actually complaining back in the day that you actually had to pay for them. They wanted WoW like expansions and paid for minor DLC at best. This is who Bioware is, sucks but it is what it is at this point. Unless they get bought by another company or another company takes over thats the only way things are going to significantly change the way people want them to change. Right now the only companies that would possibly buy EA/Bioware would be Sony, Disney and Microsoft and you really think those companies would vastly improve things?

[TrixxieTriss]

Delay the expansion please.

Otherwise there will be nothing to play and to pay for.

 

Basically not gonna subscribe back after this sub runs out in the early February if 7.0 is pushed at its current state.

 

There is nothing bad in delaying! Current state of the game is just fine to wait couple of months more, don't ruin it just for changing 6 to 7 without any other content.

 

It wouldn’t affect me personally if they delay (it will give me more time to try out FFXIV now they have APAC servers).

But it may do more harm to the game if they delay again. More people will accuse BioWare of failing to deliver or lying etc.

Personally I’d be ok if they delayed if they used the time to wind back all the negative changes they want to implement in 7.0.

[GeneralGyro]

It wouldn’t affect me personally if they delay (it will give me more time to try out FFXIV now they have APAC servers).

But it may do more harm to the game if they delay again. More people will accuse BioWare of failing to deliver or lying etc.

Personally I’d be ok if they delayed if they used the time to wind back all the negative changes they want to implement in 7.0.

 

FFXIV is incredible. i used to play this religiously, now i play that religiously

[JaeOnasi]

If you can't manage to get the weapon outfitter to work, and you can't allow us to even mod our existing weapons to upgrade them to 318 and above, CANCEL THE UPDATE.

 

I do not want to carry around some fugly-arsed lightsaber when I've spent hundreds of dollars on this game to unlock all the weapons and other items I like. The vendor 318 double lightsaber looks like crap.

Edited January 26, 2022 by JaeOnasi