Class Changes in 5.4 - We will make posts around each of the upcoming Class changes, akin to what we did with 5.3. My hope is to start those next week. Either way I will give you a better idea of timing next week.

Are you going to address how more than one class is now no longer NiM viable? How many more won't be able to put out the required DPS of HPS once you're done?

Follow-up on Bolster discussion[/u] - It was clear from the discussion thread that most of you would like to see Bolster go as high as possible, while still meeting our teams goal of having gear progression be relevant. We will be increasing Bolsters to 242 in PvP for GU 5.5 as well.

This sounds like Ben's idea of "listening". What we've said is PVP should be skill based, not gear based. Bolster should put everyone on an even playing field. Your proposal ignores that . Good job "listening" to just what you want to hear.

Don't pretend like you don't have some idea of the cost reduction already ...

 

It's going to need to be seen as significant in regards to other stronghold costs otherwise this plan will backfire on you in regards to player good will.

 

It wouldn't even hurt to take a tiered approach with your starting points above as the minimum to get the key and the largest cost and then more grind to get credit cost decreases from there - heck even have it so people could ideally get a free stronghold and then you're looking at some goodwill.

 

I think it's a solid plan if you do it well, if you just knock 500K off the price and room unlocks cost the same ... prepare yourself for the nuclear fallout.

This. A good cost reduction would be to have a stronghold usually valued at 10 million credits now purchaseable for 2 million credits. But reducing to only like 8 million credits would be too little.

With the mention of credits going legacy wide, It's sad that my first reaction is wonder if anyone left on the skeleton crew actually knows that an unsigned 32bit integer will only hold from 0 to 4,294,967,295.

I was going to ask the same. 32-bit integers are one such "major obstacle" that could prevent this from happening.

credits

I never saw that one coming ^_^ thank you!!!!

Suggestion: consider giving subs a summon group skill (like guilds have). It'd make pugging world bosses or even TC or the monolith (just a few examples) WAY easier.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

I'm hoping credits will become legacy via a manual 'guild bank' type Legacy bank feature vs the way tokens are - Otherwise f2p and pref will be doubly SOL, and transferring a toon with starter credits or simply bouncing servers to buy something might cause issues. Also, I like being able to hide credits on an alt so as to not overspend on (say) nightlife... and would hate to be forced to pool them into one big number.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Keith. My dude. Have my babies. It's 2017, we can make it happen. The science is there. First, legacy credits. Then, pure man-man babies

Seriously, this is legitimately the best news I've heard about this game since 2015. I just spammed this link in like, three Discords, so you best make this happen, too

I'm hoping credits will become legacy via a manual 'guild bank' type Legacy bank feature vs the way tokens are - Otherwise f2p and pref will be doubly SOL, and transferring a toon with starter credits or simply bouncing servers to buy something might cause issues. Also, I like being able to hide credits on an alt so as to not overspend on (say) nightlife... and would hate to be forced to pool them into one big number.

Hopefully not. Otherwise it will be a cumbersome system adding more unneeded clicks and waste of time.

I'd suggest some spending therapy for you though

I'm hoping credits will become legacy via a manual 'guild bank' type Legacy bank feature vs the way tokens are - Otherwise f2p and pref will be doubly SOL, and transferring a toon with starter credits or simply bouncing servers to buy something might cause issues. Also, I like being able to hide credits on an alt so as to not overspend on (say) nightlife... and would hate to be forced to pool them into one big number.

Lol they offer legacy credits and there just has to be someone who can find a negative in it "oh no please don't force me to have all my credits in one place because I might spend them!"

Real world problems.

1. does the swtor dev team believe that we will ever see a return to form for operations? ex: an ops with lets say 5 bosses ON LAUNCH opposed to 1 boss every month.

2. will the game ever return to its more MMO roots? ex: having explorable planets with questing like in the revan expansion, vanilla or (my personal favorite) oricon? NOTE: im not referring to video cutscenes at all either. i like it exactly as is, the traditional kotor style

1. does the swtor dev team believe that we will ever see a return to form for operations? ex: an ops with lets say 5 bosses ON LAUNCH opposed to 1 boss every month.

2. will the game ever return to its more MMO roots? ex: having explorable planets with questing like in the revan expansion, vanilla or (my personal favorite) oricon? NOTE: im not referring to video cutscenes at all either. i like it exactly as is, the traditional kotor style

Yes if there's more money flooding in the game. Much much more money, or a will from EA.

Goddamit, Jerba, stop reading my mind

I hate legacy-wide credits because if I misclick in the GTN or accidentally buy a 9999 stack from a vendor, I can easily lose all of my credits with zero chance to get them back. Right now, when I lose all my credits on one character, at least I still have some credits on my other characters and don't have to start again at 0. With legacy-wide credits, this safety net does not exist anymore, which makes me wary of it and I'd rather have a way to turn it off because for my playstyle, legacy-wide credits are not needed.

THIS! Misclicking something in the GTN is also my big concern. Right now i'm safe, because my "bank-char" doesn't actually buy stuff. With legacywide credits, they could fastly be gone.

I do hope that you will not convert all currency-type items into real currencies. For example, Completed Bounty Contracts are a great way for new players, or players who don't care about cosmetics, to earn credits. This is possible because they are in your inventory/bank, but won't be possible if you put them in the currency tab.

Not every player likes cosmetics, and giving players a way to convert tokens into credits should be included. For example, I've had 100/100 Light Side & Dark Side Tokens on my main for months now, because I don't care about any of the items sold by the vendor.

So please keep the existing currencies and do not convert other non-currency items into currencies, then I'm fine with this change.

And THIS too^^. I'm a very busy (well that's a lie, i'm just lazy af), so i like to just buy completed Bounty Contracts, instead of actually chasing the Bounties. So please, leave them as they are, Same applies also for Recovered Relics

With the mention of credits going legacy wide, It's sad that my first reaction is wonder if anyone left on the skeleton crew actually knows that an unsigned 32bit integer will only hold from 0 to 4,294,967,295.

TBH, i'm not a coder, but if we had an 64bit client, an unsigned 64bit integer would be from 0 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807, right? Problem solved!^^ Ya ya i know, we're probably not getting a 64bit client, but a Jawa might dream...

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

With the change to legacy credits, it seems like it might be an idea to reconsider the caps on F2P and Preferred players. Especially given the market changes over the last few years since it was introduced kind of like a Cost of Living Adjustment.

THIS! Misclicking something in the GTN is also my big concern. Right now i'm safe, because my "bank-char" doesn't actually buy stuff. With legacywide credits, they could fastly be gone.

Whilst I missed Jerba's post this response ideally should be directed his way too ...

So those who really want this QoL improvement should miss out solely because some people just aren't careful enough? Considering the billions ( yes billions ) I've spent and made on the GTN I don't think I've ever managed to purchase something at some insane millions of credit price ...

In saying that legacy storage of credits is all we would need to solve your issue i.e. you take out what you want per toon from your legacy storage.

Great questions. As I outlined in the Roadmap, we are returning to our MMO roots, but as everyone knows, we were focused on story development and left most MMO content alone for the past couple years.

 

To change our direction, we had to retool, reorganize, hire new talent, and get everyone on board with the changed direction. That takes time, so we made a choice and decided to release the Operation Boss encounters one at a time. This gave us more time to design, polish, test, and get insight directly from players, versus making everyone wait all year before we released 5 new bosses.

 

It wasn't an easy decision, as we knew we were going to be criticized while impacting progression efforts. But, honestly, it was the right call. We're discussing future content, how to release it, what's going to be included, and when, but we won't be ready to disclose our next year's plans for a while.

 

I know that's vague, yet it gives you an idea of where we're headed.

 

---Keith

I think I can see what you are eluding to here and I just hope that indeed you're not pulling the wool over our eyes and this is the case (not that it would matter if you were, if people left they either would or would not come back when there is or is not new content to do - no harm to them).

It would be great if we had to put up with a year of minimal content this year to get a year like the 2.0 cycle next year. Something like another 2.0 cycle would really pull this game back out of the slump it currently finds itself in.

By 2.0 cycle I just mean with the vast amount of content we got during that period, something for everyone really.

With the change to legacy credits, it seems like it might be an idea to reconsider the caps on F2P and Preferred players. Especially given the market changes over the last few years since it was introduced kind of like a Cost of Living Adjustment.

Those players don't NEED more credits so there is little reason for this.

What I would like to be reconsidered for them though is access to MMO content just so those of us who pay and like to pug have more people to actually play with, that would be great.

I think the idea with the currency regarding the Umbara stronghold is pretty neat! Good idea! Able to reduce the price of the stronghold by doing in-game activities is definitely a good Thing. Not sure why some people here are not happy with this.

And depending on the amount of unassembled currencies to the NIM OPs, this might also be better than gear drops but I don't do that kind of progression PVE Content so I might not be the best person to judge this.

Also! Cool to see from Keith that they do plan on going back to more explorable zones like the times of Makeb and Shadow of Revan. Great to hear.

Though I don't think legacy credits are nessecary. Not everything does have to be legacy wide and I personally see no reason to make credits legacy wide. But that's just me.

Please ... please tell me that we'll have to defend our trains from masked bandits mounted on steeds of some biological or mechanical variety. We need a whole mini game where we ride Collicoid-Games-Esque turrets mounted on the tops of our Stronghold-Trains, and when we get overwhlemed and the masked bandits board, we dismount and defend the train with our sabers and blasters.

 

Rewards? I think a weekly crate with a guaranteed 248 sounds about right. A SELECTABLE 248.

 

Also, please PvP this too.

 

I don't think that's asking too much. That's like, what? A few days of development? At MOST?

 

Oh, almost forgot, guild stronghold trains can be used for guild-v-guild PvP for like a dozen crates of 248 gear per winner per week. That's like, a few extra hours of dev time.

 

I'm looking forward to this content. Thank you!

 

EDIT: ALSO, the reward crates should be delivered by a swooning companion of the player's choice. This needs a whole unboxing interface of epic companion swoonage, like the new unboxing interface you guys unveiled a while back. That's like another few hours dev time. Totally.

Keith Et al: MAKE IT SO NUMBER ONE!!!

So those who really want this QoL improvement should miss out solely because some people just aren't careful enough? Considering the billions ( yes billions ) I've spent and made on the GTN I don't think I've ever managed to purchase something at some insane millions of credit price ...

 

In saying that legacy storage of credits is all we would need to solve your issue i.e. you take out what you want per toon from your legacy storage.

Well, it depends how they implement it. For example, if they add a panel to the legacy bank where you can deposit and withdraw credits, and whenever you try to spend more credits than are on your character, it would take them from the legacy credits, that would be perfect. Then the legacy-wide credits are optional.

However, if they just add up the credits from all characters and you can no longer store some credits separately, then this system is forced onto everyone, even players who don't want to have legacy-wide credits like myself.

Also, as someone mentioned on Reddit, this would be a huge issue for server transfers. If your credits are only on your legacy, you'd no longer be able to move your credits to a different server.

Well, it depends how they implement it. For example, if they add a panel to the legacy bank where you can deposit and withdraw credits, and whenever you try to spend more credits than are on your character, it would take them from the legacy credits, that would be perfect. Then the legacy-wide credits are optional.

 

However, if they just add up the credits from all characters and you can no longer store some credits separately, then this system is forced onto everyone, even players who don't want to have legacy-wide credits like myself.

Also, as someone mentioned on Reddit, this would be a huge issue for server transfers. If your credits are only on your legacy, you'd no longer be able to move your credits to a different server.

This right here. I keep 1 character with most of my credits for the sole reason of I CAN'T WASTE THEM on meaningless stuff if I don't keep them on the characters I play. I truly do not want legacy credits. I see it as a waste because it is not difficult to get credits from one character to another if you need to anyway. I would never use a withdrawl/deposit option personally but just tossing all my credits into one pool would be unacceptable to me.

This right here. I keep 1 character with most of my credits for the sole reason of I CAN'T WASTE THEM on meaningless stuff if I don't keep them on the characters I play. I truly do not want legacy credits. I see it as a waste because it is not difficult to get credits from one character to another if you need to anyway. I would never use a withdrawl/deposit option personally but just tossing all my credits into one pool would be unacceptable to me.

So Jerba doesn't want legacy credits because of fear of a careless mistake. You, on the other hand, don't want it because you're afraid you lack self-restraint. Sorry, as much as it pains me to say it, I'm with Menace on this one.

Incompetence and lack of willpower are pretty poor excuses to punish / inconvenience the broader population.

Dasty the Hutt

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

You being in charge ha seriously revived my hope in this game and the direction it's going in. Seriously, keep up the great work and thank you for the consistent updates.

Are you kidding me? Unassembled components?

 

Why are you making it so hard to get gear for NiM players? You need the 248 gear to progress in these ops. You can't hope to take on the last boss without full 248 gear.

Brontes (and it is not the only one) was down first week 5.0 launched?

Brontes (and it is not the only one) was down first week 5.0 launched?

There were some people who did it in 224 gear.

Not saying it wasn't hard as hell, but it's definitely doable without BIS gear for people skilled enough, which admittedly, are few and far between, but still.

Please ... please tell me that we'll have to defend our trains from masked bandits mounted on steeds of some biological or mechanical variety. We need a whole mini game where we ride Collicoid-Games-Esque turrets mounted on the tops of our Stronghold-Trains, and when we get overwhlemed and the masked bandits board, we dismount and defend the train with our sabers and blasters.

 

Rewards? I think a weekly crate with a guaranteed 248 sounds about right. A SELECTABLE 248.

 

Also, please PvP this too.

 

I don't think that's asking too much. That's like, what? A few days of development? At MOST?

 

Oh, almost forgot, guild stronghold trains can be used for guild-v-guild PvP for like a dozen crates of 248 gear per winner per week. That's like, a few extra hours of dev time.

 

I'm looking forward to this content. Thank you!

 

EDIT: ALSO, the reward crates should be delivered by a swooning companion of the player's choice. This needs a whole unboxing interface of epic companion swoonage, like the new unboxing interface you guys unveiled a while back. That's like another few hours dev time. Totally.

As long as it is optional. Some of us don't like pvp.