Jump to content

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ - Road Map 2017


EricMusco

Recommended Posts

We are monitoring, but as someone pointed out, there are a lot of questions and we may not directly address each one. For the most part, if the topic is about something in the roadmap or our plans, this is the right place to ask those questions. In some cases, we will take it up in our weekly discussions, and in others, just address it right away. With respect to longer term plans, if we haven't already discussed it openly, we likely will hold back any real response until a later time.

 

---Keith

 

It is extremely reassuring to see that you are reading this thread. Thank you for your time and effort. The changeover in leadership has already been an improvement. Keep it up!

 

Cheers,

Vidnyl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 991
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hi Keith, is there any update on what this week's weekly discussion post will be? I think the class changes discussion and the combined server merger threads have been the past two discussions. I'm crusio to see which of the players' concerns are currently high enough on the priority list to make it into the weekly discussions.

 

(I hope this week's discussion isn't Ranked rewards, because that sounds less like a discussion and more like you telling us what's already happening.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Keith,

 

#populationproblems

 

Still no word about the Dinosaur in the room (it's so big now it squashed the elephant). Lots of people on lots of servers and in lots of time zones cannot play group content anymore because of lack of population on those servers or in those times zones.

I hope this is going to be one of the first topics your weekly "player communication" includes.

 

 

#crossfactionpvp

 

It's time for crossfaction pvp. Players such as myself can't pvp at reasonable times (our time zones) because of lack of population. At 9pm AEST last night there were 68 players in the imperial fleet on Harbinger. There were 24 on TEH.

 

Keith, I'm glad you were able to get the roadmap out on time. It looks like a good start. Let's hope these weekly communications will address the other tough issues listed above.

 

This should be number one goal for this game to prosper through the next years. Merge east coast servers, leave harbinger and merge eu servers. There is nothing more disappointing than waiting 45mins in que for master fp's or GF ops on a so called "populated server" only to give up. I pay a subscription to play the content in the game and currently it is not delivering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are monitoring, but as someone pointed out, there are a lot of questions and we may not directly address each one. For the most part, if the topic is about something in the roadmap or our plans, this is the right place to ask those questions. In some cases, we will take it up in our weekly discussions, and in others, just address it right away. With respect to longer term plans, if we haven't already discussed it openly, we likely will hold back any real response until a later time.

 

---Keith

 

I will admit though that it would be amazing to get an answer on additional character customization options for non-Human species, an aspect of the game that hasn't been touched sadly for a while, mainly on the question whether the team is considering adding new appearance customization options for races like Twi'lek, Cathar, Zabrak, Miraluka, Chiss, Togruta and so on. People have been suggesting that there could be bundles released each month or two, containing various new customization options for one particular species and the bundles would come out until all the species have had their options in the character creator updated. To start off, it would be great for example to see the four additional Eye Colours we have, Yellow, Blue, Green and White, to be made into Cathar models, so that their eye design could fit those as well :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is nothing more disappointing than waiting 45mins in que for master fp's or GF ops on a so called "populated server" only to give up..

 

Yes, there is. Losing the Millions of Credits and CC invested in Stronghold (Personal & Guild) and Guild Flagships. I've already lost two Legacy names, and 6 Character names due to server mergers, if I lose anymore I'll not be sticking around.

 

You could, for example, join a Guild. When the guild I am in wants to do Master Mode FP's we queue for all of 3 seconds and then we are in, because there's a full group signed up and ready to go.

 

If Mergers can happen without the need to lose investment in SH, Flagships, and without the need for Legacy/Character name changes then I am all for it - if they can't then it would be a game killer for me.

 

Why should players who have, so far, had no real issues with queue times lose out just become some players are impatient?

 

Why should players who have made the effort to form a guild, invested in Guild Strongholds and Flagships, and personal Strongholds (5 needed at 100% for full Conquest Bonus) lose all of that effort because some players are too impatient, and refuse to use the existing server transfer service offered by Bioware?

 

This should be number one goal for this game to prosper through the next years. Merge east coast servers, leave harbinger and merge eu servers.

 

BTW, you are aware the most likely route to rebalance server populations would be to close Harbinger ans distribute its population to the currently under populated servers; same with TRE in Europe. The small servers will not be closed, the bigger ones will - because the same desired end-goal can be achieved by closing less servers that way.

 

All The Best

Edited by DarthSpuds
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This should be number one goal for this game to prosper through the next years. Merge east coast servers, leave harbinger and merge eu servers. There is nothing more disappointing than waiting 45mins in que for master fp's or GF ops on a so called "populated server" only to give up. I pay a subscription to play the content in the game and currently it is not delivering.

 

They can't simply merge all servers. RP needs to stay separate. East and West Coast needs to stay separate. EU needs language based segregation.

 

Imo they should have two east coast and two west coast servers, and two EU servers (two = RP and not-RP). The EU servers however will need English, French and German instances for everything in them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They can't simply merge all servers. RP needs to stay separate. East and West Coast needs to stay separate. EU needs language based segregation.

 

Imo they should have two east coast and two west coast servers, and two EU servers (two = RP and not-RP). The EU servers however will need English, French and German instances for everything in them.

 

The language issue alone is enough to make a three-server EU solution more palatable. But even cutting to seven servers would be a massive shot in the arm for queuing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, there is. Losing the Millions of Credits and CC invested in Stronghold (Personal & Guild) and Guild Flagships. I've already lost two Legacy names, and 6 Character names due to server mergers, if I lose anymore I'll not be sticking around.

 

You could, for example, join a Guild. When the guild I am in wants to do Master Mode FP's we queue for all of 3 seconds and then we are in, because there's a full group signed up and ready to go.

 

If Mergers can happen without the need to lose investment in SH, Flagships, and without the need for Legacy/Character name changes then I am all for it - if they can't then it would be a game killer for me.

 

Why should players who have, so far, had no real issues with queue times lose out just become some players are impatient?

 

Why should players who have made the effort to form a guild, invested in Guild Strongholds and Flagships, and personal Strongholds (5 needed at 100% for full Conquest Bonus) lose all of that effort because some players are too impatient, and refuse to use the existing server transfer service offered by Bioware?

 

 

 

BTW, you are aware the most likely route to rebalance server populations would be to close Harbinger ans distribute its population to the currently under populated servers; same with TRE in Europe. The small servers will not be closed, the bigger ones will - because the same desired end-goal can be achieved by closing less servers that way.

 

All The Best

 

Please don't make the issue into "players are impatient". It's far more than that. Plenty of servers (like my old home, JungMa) just don't have players queuing up for content, period. They don't have active guilds, period. It's not about impatience, it's about unplayability. Some of us may not want to server transfer for the EXACT reasons you're against merges.

 

If our issues with queue times are caused by "impatience", your argument of not losing your investments can be termed as "greed" can they not? And the same way you dislike your playstyle being affected by our "impatience", we don't want our playstyle affected by your "greed".

 

I know you offered the reasonable compromise that you're for server merges as long as investments aren't lost, and that's probably the best outcome for everyone involved, that most of us would willingly support. But please don't deconstruct other players' very valid concerns into issues of "impatience" because they are so much more than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please don't make the issue into "players are impatient". It's far more than that. Plenty of servers (like my old home, JungMa) just don't have players queuing up for content, period. They don't have active guilds, period. It's not about impatience, it's about unplayability. Some of us may not want to server transfer for the EXACT reasons you're against merges.

 

Well surely the solution here is to bite the bullet and those people stuck in inactive guilds form a new guild with enough players to punch through the FP / Ops queue?

 

There is NO solution to this issue that is going to allow all players to keep everything - Guild Names, Legacy, Strongholds, etc.

 

So the ONLY fair solution is one that a) negatively impacts as few players as possible, and b) targets most of those negative impacts on the people demanding action.

 

All The Best

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This should be number one goal for this game to prosper through the next years. Merge east coast servers, leave harbinger and merge eu servers. There is nothing more disappointing than waiting 45mins in que for master fp's or GF ops on a so called "populated server" only to give up. I pay a subscription to play the content in the game and currently it is not delivering.

 

It is being discussed here http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=923727 but just merging is not an easy solution since not all servers have a population problem. Ebon Hawk is one that has a very good population and does not need to be merged not to mention the problem merging will cause with guild assets (ships, strongholds, banks) and person assets (outfit changer, strongholds, banks) and the possibility of losing command ranks (as command tokens do not transfer at the moment) so not something that is easy done.

 

Does some servers need merged, yea especially the old pvp servers but do they all , no.

Edited by casirabit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Dev Post
Hi Keith. You mentioned wanting to improve communication, as well as this:

 

"We know bringing back your old Companions is extremely important so expect to see more of them returning throughout the year. "

 

"We will continue to provide regular improvements for companions this year to enable you to increase their influence by doing in-game tasks you typically do when you play. Companions remain an important part of SWTOR and we look forward to introducing improved ways for you to engage with them."

 

Would you mind if I messaged you here regarding a problem a lot of people have been facing regarding companions for a while that we're hoping will be fixed or adressed? Especially if companions are of great importance of BioWare.

 

Thank you.

Sure. We just released some changes for companions with today's update, but let me know what's on your mind.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not Keith, but I'll hop in on this one!

 

You're definitely right - our goal was absolutely to encourage Open World PvP on Iokath. One of our main motivations for including stuff like playable vehicles and Op bosses and Player loot was to make PvP on Iokath a unique and interesting experience compared to Outlaw's Den or Ilum. And, yeah, it just doesn't seem to have grabbed folks' interest.

 

I don't think that forcing Players to participate in PvP is the answer - SWTOR just isn't that kind of game - so we need to look elsewhere for solutions. Presumably better incentives would be a great way to start, but I'd love to hear your thoughts (and everyone else's) on the subject. In the coming weeks one of the discussion topics we will make is on this very topic!

 

I am glad there is no intention to force PvP. There are far too many @sshats for that. On that note, however, a suggestion. If it is the intention to "encourage" players to participate, perhaps granting extra CXP, or additional unassembled components for PvP on Lokath, or perhaps making PvP on Lokath a requirement in a larger event, much like standard PvP was a requirement for advancement during the DvL event a year ago. That was why I started playing PvP, I stayed for the comps to gain better equipment, and discovered I like it. Maybe more people would play if it was worth their while. Just a suggestion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Dev Post
It is being discussed here http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=923727 but just merging is not an easy solution since not all servers have a population problem. Ebon Hawk is one that has a very good population and does not need to be merged not to mention the problem merging will cause with guild assets (ships, strongholds, banks) and person assets (outfit changer, strongholds, banks) and the possibility of losing command ranks (as command tokens do not transfer at the moment) so not something that is easy done.

 

Does some servers need merged, yea especially the old pvp servers but do they all , no.

If possible, let's try to keep all server population/merge thoughts in that thread. I'm not ready to discuss this topic, yet, but having it all in one place will be very helpful.

 

---Keith

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A suggestion for a future update. How about adding a drop down menu to the Planetary Missions box in the Galactic Command Interface? I can't tell you how long I spend declining missions, just to get the planet I want to do. If there was a drop down menu, allowing me to just choose that planet, it would be a tremendous time saver. People are cherry picking anyway, why not make it convenient. Thanks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yah, I owe you that! Let me track this down and get the information posted. But when, Keith? Good question - if I say today or tomorrow, and not make it, then I'll be in the dumper...uggh, ok, let's say by Wednesday next week, after the Patch! That's it - Wednesday, uhh, late!

 

Patch is out so I'm just checking in :p

Is it still looking like ranked rewards will be good to go by Wednesday?

(As you can tell I reeaallyy want to see the rewards >_<)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keith,

 

is there a Fix planned in 2017 for the Nightmare/Master Loottable? We are raiding Nightmare/Master on a regulary Basis. Getting no Tokens compared to Veteran / HC is an issue that should be adressed. I know, nightmare guilds are rare, but playing and conquering the highest difficult Level of Gaming should be rewarded in a proper way.

 

Thx in advance for your answer.

Edited by Oeconomicus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Dev Post
Patch is out so I'm just checking in :p

Is it still looking like ranked rewards will be good to go by Wednesday?

(As you can tell I reeaallyy want to see the rewards >_<)

Yes, Musco has the details and will be making a post about it by tomorrow. I told him no donuts until he gets it done!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We will regularly look to offer more customization improvements such as adding Weapon Tuning enhancements to player collections, and we will continue to seek your feedback on other customization options you would like to see!
- SWTOR Roadmap 2017

 

Customizable Dark Side corruption added to Outfit Designer? For example being able to pick Dark Side Tier I for outfit number 1 and Tier V for outfit number 2? Would be great to see and solve the issue that players don't want the corruption appearance to go beyond Tier I but do want to advance to Tier V for rewards or titles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure. We just released some changes for companions with today's update, but let me know what's on your mind.

Here's what I was wondering: Since Companions seem pretty important, can we expect the KOTFE Chapter 9 Bug to be fixed at some point? Maybe by lettting us toggle Companion Romances manually or by letting us alter previous KOTFE decisions by replaying Chapters 1 to 9? Might be the wrong place to ask, but it seemed relevant since in the Road Map, you mention how companions are pretty important to BioWare.

Thank you

Edited by Swedguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the big problems I see is the lost jaesa willsaam. I have read posts in many different places with people upset (especially people who developed a relationship with her) that she is totally Mia and when asked if she is returning we get a snide answer. I would have to agree that this is a good possibility that the outcome of this could effect my decision to stay subbed also.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, Musco has the details and will be making a post about it by tomorrow. I told him no donuts until he gets it done!

 

I'm curious, going forward in season 9, what are the intentions for season duration? Surely it has to be noticed of how stale ranked pvp becomes with a season that drags on for 7,8,9 months. From the stand point of competing for a top 3 title, I just can't see grinding that long to keep up with front of the pack. Especially through the mid season when it's at it's lowest participation points on some servers. I find myself anxious and excited for which character I'm going to roll when a new season starts, just to get burned out 3 weeks into and settling for an 1800 rating. Towards the end i'll roll a few other toons through there first 10 just to see if a quick T1 is doable.

 

My opinion would be a shorter (3 months?) season would probably be more enjoyable. I understand there would be logistics with pushing rewards out if seasons were that short. I wouldn't be as upset with maybe just a title, or just a weapon box, or just a mount for each season if they were on an expedited timeline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keith,

 

Thank you for the Tier 1 bonus gear. I was able to get 4 gears (though 2 of them didn't need much) with the tokens I had so that gives me a little start and thank you for being able to customarize Theron. His clothes were beginning to stink so I burned them.

 

Question: Is there a customization kit for him? If so, where?

 

Have a great day.

Edited by casirabit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...