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Producer's Road Map 2014


CourtneyWoods

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Also - from my perspective, they focused on "raiding type" content (ops and FPs) waaay too much in the past, at the expensive of other types of content. We got no meaningful continuation of the story content, no player/guild housing and too few new open world areas/planets to really matter. SWTOR's endgame is the typical "go raid or go home" stuff, that leaves PvE players who don't wish to participate in mindless farming of scripted bosses mainly with rolling yet another alt. I realize that some people love raiding, and there is nothing wrong with that. But they really should find a balance between different types of content and story/open world PvE clearly got the short end so far.

 

This game is Star Warld of Warcraft, down to the copied abilities. That's okay with me, I like it, but I'm not sure why you'd think SWTOR's end-game would have any sort of single-player focus when it is emulating a game whose main focus is on group content at end-game.

 

FWIW, SWTOR solo player have still gotten things like new daily areas and events like the gree, bounty and rakghoul events to participate in, which isn't half bad all things considered.

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I hope the performance improvements are really noticeable. Besides that, i am really excited to see what we will be getting in the coming months, I am really excited about the new FP's on Korriban and Tython, and the new expansion that will be similar to Rise of the Hutt Cartel, i am guessing it will be a new level cap! up to 60!
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This game is Star Warld of Warcraft, down to the copied abilities. That's okay with me, I like it, but I'm not sure why you'd think SWTOR's end-game would have any sort of single-player focus when it is emulating a game whose main focus is on group content at end-game.

 

FWIW, SWTOR solo player have still gotten things like new daily areas and events like the gree, bounty and rakghoul events to participate in, which isn't half bad all things considered.

 

I am aware that when they designed SWTOR they sat down and copied every single aspect of WoW, because they thought it's a surefire recipe for success (and we all know how well that worked out for them!). But even when you look at WoW: Raids, raids, raids isn't the -only- thing they added. If I am not totally mistaken, they added significant open world content with every expansion too, much more than we saw added to SWTOR so far. When I look at the 2014 roadmap...it's still an awful lot about "instances with scripted boss fights" (both operations and FPs fall under that category).

 

I don't claim this to be representative at all, but I know a lot of people who quit SWTOR. And every single one of them I talked to (yes, is in 100%) named the endgame as one of the major reasons they left. I know that a lot of people love raiding and there is nothing wrong with it. I am not saying "stop adding raids". But I -am- lobbying for a more balanced approach. To me, SWTOR's biggest strength was always the story content, and in in particular the possibility to play it with friends in a meaningful way, thanks to the multiplayer dialogue mechanism, that to the best of my knowledge is still unique in all MMOs out there. I don't quite understand why they don't add more of what they're really good at and instead add content they're competing against 20 other MMOs with, but maybe it's just me.

 

(PS: I love the Bounty/Rakghoul events you named as an example. That's the stuff I'd like to see more of. Right now there is quite frankly not enough non-raiding content around to keep a non-raider busy, these events are still too far and between.)

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TY Bruce for update and eric for getting the ball rollin on getting it out . it is greatly appreciated ..

 

 

My guess on the New Rise of the Hutt Cartel type expac will poly be around August and the next PVP EXPAC / update Nov or SO ..

 

A question I all ways have and one of my BEEF how are trades and RE ? i mean whats the state of them gonna be like . DO you all care about them any more can we expect something exciting with trades ( I hope ) ?.

 

When the first NIM comes out . How Will trades work ? . Will 78s be reable , should I keep saving up 78 's to re etc , I know some of it will have no value ( because 75 can not be REED ) and may be hilts .relics, Enhancements will have a nice value.. I won't add ears, implants to the list for reason we all know . notice not asking on any cybertech stuff it's gone imo ..

Edited by tanktest
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I hope the performance improvements are really noticeable. Besides that, i am really excited to see what we will be getting in the coming months, I am really excited about the new FP's on Korriban and Tython, and the new expansion that will be similar to Rise of the Hutt Cartel, i am guessing it will be a new level cap! up to 60!

 

 

Like adding the mantle API and D11 Support they have hinted at one time or another no Support for D11 may ever come or 64 bit for that matter . that would be so awesome other wise if it happen . but I'm not counting on it , just something i dream about i know never will never happen in this Version of SW the next MMO SW to come out will or should have all the things that should be any MMO starting with new ideas coming .

 

 

IF EA learned any thing i would hope that was a listen learned .

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I am aware that when they designed SWTOR they sat down and copied every single aspect of WoW, because they thought it's a surefire recipe for success (and we all know how well that worked out for them!). But even when you look at WoW: Raids, raids, raids isn't the -only- thing they added. If I am not totally mistaken, they added significant open world content with every expansion too, much more than we saw added to SWTOR so far. When I look at the 2014 roadmap...it's still an awful lot about "instances with scripted boss fights" (both operations and FPs fall under that category).

 

I don't claim this to be representative at all, but I know a lot of people who quit SWTOR. And every single one of them I talked to (yes, is in 100%) named the endgame as one of the major reasons they left. I know that a lot of people love raiding and there is nothing wrong with it. I am not saying "stop adding raids". But I -am- lobbying for a more balanced approach. To me, SWTOR's biggest strength was always the story content, and in in particular the possibility to play it with friends in a meaningful way, thanks to the multiplayer dialogue mechanism, that to the best of my knowledge is still unique in all MMOs out there. I don't quite understand why they don't add more of what they're really good at and instead add content they're competing against 20 other MMOs with, but maybe it's just me.

 

(PS: I love the Bounty/Rakghoul events you named as an example. That's the stuff I'd like to see more of. Right now there is quite frankly not enough non-raiding content around to keep a non-raider busy, these events are still too far and between.)

 

 

Wow's next expac is adding HM as a group thing with a higher mode for guilds like SW does now ( unofficial in SW ) but pug's do HM a lot sometimes like guilds run them , I've done a few Pug's in HM and impressed how well they do and a few in NIM to see how Pug's do in them which OFC Is not well .

 

AS for me and SW I play it to have fun . i do what i want when i want some days or weeks i just do daily's . and some days or weeks i raid HC. I enjoy the whole game .

Edited by tanktest
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Because the real chairs are broken. If you didn't notice, they've been adding chair emotes for a few months now. There you go.

 

I bought the chair emotes. I HATE that they sell them, but I bought them for my friends and didn't tell them the cost.

 

It's a basic MMO feature, being able to sit in chairs. We use the emotes daily now, because that's how you sit down with your character. Having to pay to be able to sit down is weird, but you should probably do it if you want to enjoy the game in the ways you do in other games. Such as going to the cantina and sitting down. Sitting down at a meeting. Sitting down while waiting for someone. Sitting down at a table while AFK or eating in real life.

 

If they make us pay to lay down in our bed and take a nap, I'll pay for that too. Or unsub.

 

It's like paying for the cardbord boxes they put your groceries in at Cost-co. You don't expect to pay for basic packaging anymore than basic emotes. The most used emotes, the most wanted, should absolutely be free. Emotes are the words of your vocabulary.

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I would really like to see something this year about classes being able to use more weapon types. I know some are harder than others, but in that kind of case they could gradually implement certain classes at a time. For instance the Scoundrel/Operatives and Vanguard/Powertechs don't really even have that many animations using their blasters, so I don't see how it would be hard to give a PT a rifle, an Operative a pistol, etc. . Not to mention there are already plenty of animations in game that would work fine for most of the the skills.

 

Having a unique appearance for your class was lost a long time ago with adaptive armors, and weapon choice and their varieties have always been something that Star Wars was great with. There have been multiple threads and a lot of support for this so some official word on it would be nice.

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Still no even little info new playable species?

 

No, they probably want it to be a surprise, but pretty sure I read somewhere that there IS going to be one... honestly I am thinking it might be Bothans... because... they have never had a bothan in the game before (mentioned yes, but never seen one), and now suddenly there is one? I just think that if they actually took the time to create a bothan model, it HAS to be for more than just one NPC that you only see for one single conversation.

Edited by AbsolutGrndZero
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If it's 1 thing I hate it's the stupidity of games that raise the lvl Cap, but don't really give any1 any real reason to raising the lvl cap with exception of it's just being because of a stupid expansion. What did we get, nothing but 1 STUPID extra skill. If the Devs would've used their minds they would've taken' the skills we already have and amped them powerwise, whether it's offensive skills or healing skills, then also add the New Skill as well, but they didn't do that.

 

This 2014 roadmap comes out as Elder Scrolls Online and Wildstar Online will be coming. ESO on 4/4/14 which is around the same time 2.7 comes out? Gee, I wonder why. Right now I don't really have an incentive to stay on this game as i'm not playing it at all, don't have a good Guild, not doing Ops, and unfortunately have never done Ops, which i have always wanted to do, but i'm old now, and my sicknesses keep me from playing this game as well. But it's also because "this is not Biowares game anymore", it's EAs, and they have really crapped a lot of it like putting most good thing on the Cartel Market which i refuse to waste money on and other things.

 

Just the Cartel Market alone easily pays EA for a free Expansion with all the money they get from it. I did like the GS expansion, but should've kept the other map/maps in their and adding more more often. Also us PvP'ers don't have much reason to play for Pvp gear/armor whem it's 3 to 4 classes down from the best gear we need to get from stupid Pve. EA doesn't give a real rats azz about Pvp'ers whatsoever, till I see 6 more maps for 8v8 Ranked maps, along with Pvp'ers being able to get the same Ultimate gear/armor that Pve'ers can get, til' then we will always be getting a slap in the face.

 

As for the new lvl cap being raised again, I won't be a part of that crap unless EA also powers up our damage and healing abilities we already have with maybe a new ability worth grinding another 5 lvls for. But their is still /bugs and Profession balanceing that needs to be done, that has needed attention since launch, Right now I don't see a bright future with the so-called roadmap that has been released, but mostly mumbo-jumbo that EA has put out because of ESO coming out, and Wildstar along with the MMOs that are already out their

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No, they probably want it to be a surprise, but pretty sure I read somewhere that there IS going to be one... honestly I am thinking it might be Bothans... because... they have never had a bothan in the game before (mentioned yes, but never seen one), and now suddenly there is one? I just think that if they actually took the time to create a bothan model, it HAS to be for more than just one NPC that you only see for one single conversation.

 

Not to be a downer, but the Bothan doesn't look that different from the Cathar. In fact on PTS I just thought it was a deformed Cathar.

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They have already said for over a year now that they are not continuing the class stories

 

You may not give two cents about Galactic Starfighter, but many people like myself are greatly enjoying this new content, giving us something to do other than the typical mmo things.

 

Then it proves how bad EA has done things to what this game could be. The original regime, that was Bioware, and not EA always said the story was the Main driving force of this game, and that no other MMOs would have as much storytelling as TOR. Story was the 3rd pillar of this game. I don't know if you have been around here since 2008 when these Forums first opened, and how the original devs said how important storylines foe every character would be. Also the original devs always said that their would always be storylines added to the game.

 

Unfortunately Bioware doesn't really exist, as EA just uses Biowares name as a tool.

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Then it proves how bad EA has done things to what this game could be. The original regime, that was Bioware, and not EA always said the story was the Main driving force of this game, and that no other MMOs would have as much storytelling as TOR. Story was the 3rd pillar of this game. I don't know if you have been around here since 2008 when these Forums first opened, and how the original devs said how important storylines foe every character would be. Also the original devs always said that their would always be storylines added to the game.

 

Unfortunately Bioware doesn't really exist, as EA just uses Biowares name as a tool.

 

I wouldn't be so quick to say that. True, story is the main focus of this game, but that doesn't mean that class story is the only kind of story. I've also never seen any official word on whether the class stories are actually ending. On the contrary there were some rumors of a new planet for Imperials and a separate new planet for Republic players both continuing the class quests. It's true that these rumors date back a long time, but you know what rumors date back even longer? Korriban and Tython flashpoint rumors.

 

On the other hand, looking at this road-map in particular, they said that they are bringing the entire story to a close. This of course makes sense from a Developer and Story-writing point of view. After all, you can only draw it out so long before you finish it. But the interesting part about that announcement is that, along with the whole Republic vs. Empire story finishing, they said they would be making a 'big announcement'. It's pretty clear to the attentive reader that the face of the game is going to change when the story is done. Does it mean more roleplay? More planets? Player-created custom content? I don't know. But what I do know is that something big is planned, and I think that premature condemnation is best kept to ones-self until we know just what this big announcement really is.

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Personally, I wish they would give just a fraction of the attention on balancing shadow and assassin DPS to make them more desirable in high-end ops as they do creating new cartel packs / cartel items, designing more difficult ops (like Nightmare mode DF and DP), and even higher tiers of gear than we have (78's are fine until another expansion that raises the cap to 60, they are almost overpowered for soloable content, much "2-player" content is very possible and in fact easy to solo with 78 gear). Then again, as Jayne Cobb said in Firefly, "If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak."

 

We are almost given new content TOO fast, EA games and Bioware give SWTOR players content 2 - 3 times faster than Blizzard gives WoW players content and 7 - 8 times faster than SOE used to give SWG players content. Unless someone has absolutely no life outside SWTOR so they can play 16 - 18 hours a day and play a tank, healer, or gunslinger / sniper as their main, they can't possibly exhaust the content before new content is released, it's overwhelming actually, especially if you are trying to level multiple alts for buffs, heroic moment abilities, buffs, and achievements! Why, pray tell, do we need NiM DF and DP before the new expansion? TFB HM was in original SWTOR when the level cap was 50, and although it was not live, S&V HM was on the test server, but TFB NiM and S&V NiM were not released until a good bit AFTER Makeb. And why do we need 81's or whatever the higher tier would be? What can you not do in 78's now that you would like to do? Solo level 55 HM FPs or 8M SM ops completely by yourself? Granted, Athiss is probably the easiest 55 HM FP, but I once two-manned HM Athiss with a healer who was LESS geared than I was, and I'm NOT a tank, I'm DPS! I was in 78's, my Nadia at the time was in 72's (she's in 78's now), I think the healer was in 72's and the healer's companion was in 69's or 66's. Granted it's level 50 content, but I have soloed the heroic 4 in the Black Hole region on both my shadow and my assassin with Nadia and Ashara as companions respectively, my shadow and assassin were in full 78's except the mainhand hilt, Nadia had some 78's but was mostly 72's, and Ashara was only in 72's. Yes, that's right, no healing companion! If someone who is NOT A TANK can 2-man HM Athiss with a less geared healer than himself, or one can solo the heroic 4 in the Black Hole region using a DPS companion instead of a healing companion, why in God's name do we need a tier higher than 78 right now?

 

And yes, the Cartel Market is EA Games's and Bioware's way of creating addition revenue besides subscriptions, and it (more than) reimburses the extra electricity, server bandwidth, and hardware needed for the free to pay and preferred players to be able to enjoy the game (to the limited extent they can without buying passes). And no, I'm not whining about F2P not getting enough, I am a VERY proud subscriber and I buy cartel coins occasionally as well. But why do we need so many new costumes from cartel packs? I can get the iconic characters from the original KotOR as well as Darth Revan who was in Star Wars lore long before Bioware developed KotOR. And I can understand an even skimpier bottom for female characters / companions than the slave / dancer outfits that is the first skimpy bottom ever for male characters / companions and the covert energy outfit to match for all but the top on women (slave and dancer outfits' tops are skimpier there than the covert torso is). But do we really need 200 or 300 different SETS of 5 - 7 armor pieces? Yes, I admit I'm a reputation addict, I've advanced all three cartel coin factions to legend, the first two from hypercrates I purchased with millions of credits from other players, the most recent one that I spent over $200 on cartel coins on, but I have so many pieces of armor that I've not been able to sell yet, even though my prices are almost always the lowest on the GTN on my server, simply because the market is oversaturated! I am planning on creating MORE characters to advance to level 9 or level 10 merely to get them to the fleet to give them cargo bay access for the items I can't sell! I would destroy some of them, but with my luck, the item(s) I destroy would be the most valuable items come next embargo.

 

They need to figure out some way to increase shadow and assassin DPS 20% or 25% on specials and auto attacks and 33% - 40% on abilities with a 15 second or longer cooldown without upsetting the PvP community too much by making them "overpowered". A couple weeks ago I suggested two different modes that can be instantly switched between, a PvE mode that deals the extra damage that would make them more desirable in ops and would make them unable to ATTACK other players in said mode (although they could still be attacked by other players, this mode would NOT make them immune to world PvP), and if they wished to PvP, they could switch to PvP mode and deal reduced damage but actually attack back if someone else attacked them. This would be a viable solution and (I'd think) fairly easy to implement. So why can't it be implemented? Add clickable buttons on the character portraits or something. My favorite characters to play are my shadow and my assassin, they are so much fun to play, and I don't think I should be forced to play on my characters I don't enjoy playing on as much and frankly aren't nearly as skilled at playing at since I don't enjoy them as much if I did wish to join more high-end ops than I do.

 

Then again, I guess the shadow and assassin community does not matter, we've taken a backseat for so long. I will be attending the Atlanta cantina tour, largely to ask the devs why they've given shadow and assassin the shaft since at least last April when they released the Makeb expansion, and I will request that they to slow down (not completely stop, just slow down) on creating more challenging ops, new tiers of gear, and new cartel packs / items so they can re-allocate some of their team to fixing giving DPS shadows and assassins the buff they need to be more desirable in ops. Since gunslingers and snipers deal so much more DPS than shadows and assassins and are easier for the tanks and healers to deal with since ranged DPS are not peeling aggro off the tanks as often or exposed to as many mechanics that could wipe a raid as melee DPS are, the only asset we can offer is stealth rezzing, which, if we fail, we can try again in 90 seconds (which often there are raid-wide AoEs by the boss or adds which cancel a stealth rez before it can be completed), if we do succeed, that will be the only time that fight unless the group wipes since non-combat resurrection of players is on a 15 minute timer for non-healers.

 

My account is a Collector's Edition account, I've played (and paid my subscription loyally without any lapse whatsoever since December 20, 2011, and have purchased at least $300 if not $400 in cartel coins. My opinion SHOULD matter. And therefore, I feel that, since my primary and favorite characters are indeed my shadow and assassin, the shadow and assassin community SHOULD matter.

Edited by Lord_Noch
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but TFB NiM and S&V NiM were not released until a good bit AFTER Makeb.

 

RotHC was released April 9th, 2013.

TfB NiM was released June 12, 2013.

S&V NiM was released July 10, 2013.

 

So both modes were released within 3 months of Makeb, while DF and DP are having to wait 6 and 8 months, respectively, for their NiM modes. So if you think that Bioware has been releasing content at too quick a pace, it seems that Bioware agrees with you.

 

As for the rest of your post, I certainly agree that shadow/assassin DPS could use some love, particularly in the utility area. Letting the phase walk of a shadow DPS buff damage dealt by 2% for anyone standing inside it would be a nice buff to include with the new expansion and level cap increase.

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RotHC was released April 9th, 2013.

TfB NiM was released June 12, 2013.

S&V NiM was released July 10, 2013.

 

So both modes were released within 3 months of Makeb, while DF and DP are having to wait 6 and 8 months, respectively, for their NiM modes.

 

Within 3 months of Makeb, yes. However, if you count the time S&V was on the public test server, it would be more like 4 or 5 months, and if you count the time HM TFB was a level 50 op, it would be more like 10 or 11 months, until they had to wait until their NiM versions. Also, EC had to wait 7 or 8 months for its NiM version as well. So the wait for the Oricon NiMs is not out of line at all. Especially compared to EC and TFB. In fact, for the release of NiM DP NOT to be too early, compared to the level 50 ops when they were developed, a new expansion with a new planet and level cap to 60 would have to be released in March or April, at the very latest May.

 

As it stands, I'm predicting the new expansion to be sometime in either very late July, August, September, October, or November. August would make approximately 16 months of the level cap being 55; and the level cap was 50 for 1 year 3 months and 20 days. So, going by that, July 29 would be the date the level cap was 55 as long as it was 50. However, if they wait until November, EA Games and Bioware will have something to offer as their Black Friday big release. Personally though, I'm thinking in the middle of that range. Dragon*Con in Atlanta is the second-largest science fiction convention after only the International Comic Con in San Diego, and it will be held around Labor Day weekend (August 29 - September 1), and that event would be a great time for them to promote the expansion for release in late September or early October.

Edited by Lord_Noch
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Within 3 months of Makeb, yes. However, if you count the time S&V was on the public test server, it would be more like 4 or 5 months, and if you count the time HM TFB was a level 50 op, it would be more like 10 or 11 months, until they had to wait until their NiM versions. Also, EC had to wait 7 or 8 months for its NiM version as well. So the wait for the Oricon NiMs is not out of line at all. Especially compared to EC and TFB.

 

Both TfB and S&V NiM were also on the PTS for several weeks before their release. They got substantially more difficult when they hit live, but they were there. But let's just focus on when things hit the live servers,ok, since most people don't bother with the PTS.

 

In both the TfB and EC cases, while there was a long delay before their NiM releases, there were also new ops (and new levels of gear) to do in the meantime. TfB HM came 4 months after the release of EC HM, and EC NiM was out 3 months after that.

 

Sticking to Bioware's 9-week schedule means there will be game updates in August, October, and December. Since they are already hyping 2.8 as "their biggest update yet", August seems likely to be a minor update. I'm guessing/hoping the expansion will be in October. But that means DF and DP will have been out for one full year. Never before have we had to wait a full year between brand new operations.

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