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Web Content Roadmap


DanielSteed

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Hello everyone!

 

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned an idea that I had about a web content roadmap. Initially I had the idea to break it down month by month, but as I started to build it, I realized that really wasn’t viable. Instead, I have come it with a living format that will serve as a stickied forum post here.

 

Below I will list every idea that I have for articles between now and the release of ‘Onslaught’. I’ll have these broken down by topic and once I start the process of writing them, I will bump them up to the “Work in Progress” section. Then once they get published, I’ll come back to this post and link the articles.

 

Published:

 

‘Onslaught’ Announcement - April 13th

May In-Game Events - May 2nd

Dantooine Tactical Report - May 3rd

New In-Game Event - The Pirate Incursion - May 14th

The Spoils of War - June 3rd

Nar Shaddaa Nightlife - June 20th

Upcoming Free-to-Play and Preferred Changes - June 3rd

PTS Phase One - July 23rd

The Making of Onderon - July 30th

The Making of Mek-Sha – August 23rd

Onslaught Expansion Launches Worldwide on… – August 26th

New Subscriber Reward: Nautolan Species – August 27th

Onslaught PTS: Round Two – August 29th

Behind The Scenes Of World Design – September 4th

Grand Galactic Sale - September 9th

A Day in the Life of Sorcerers and Sages – September 25th

A Day in the Life of Assassins and Shadows - September 27th

Ranked Season 11 PvP Rewards – October 1st

A Day in the Life of Mercenaries and Commandos – October 2nd

Onslaught PTS: Round Three – October 2nd

A Day in the Life of Powertechs and Vanguards – October 4th

A Day in the Life of Operatives and Scoundrels – October 10th

A Day in the Life of Snipers and Gunslingers – October 11th

A Day in the Life of Marauders and Sentinels – October 17th

A Day in the Life of Juggernauts and Guardians – October 21st

Onslaught Launch Day Article - October 22nd

Onslaught Cartel Market Article - OCtober 22nd

 

Upcoming article topics:

 

Planets - With the two new planets, Onderon and Mek-sha, we would like to set the scene with a lore-based article for both. There could also be a backstory blog on Corellia or Dxun. We’re still tentative on how much to reveal about the bosses in the new Flashpoint and Operation as the last thing we want to do is spoil the fun of experiencing these firsthand. Another idea that I have is to do a behind-the-scenes look to show the making of both Onderon and Mek-sha, which could take on several different forms.

 

Nautolans - With Nautolans we would like to cover the history of the species for people that are more unfamiliar with their backstory and possibly a behind the scenes look at the building of them.

 

Classes - The changes to advanced classes with their new abilities, how these marry into the new itemization, and the overall philosophy of these changes are all things that I would like to cover. Tentatively the idea that I have on the table is something akin to a “Day in the life of ____” to paint a broad picture of how these pieces interact to provide an impactful level of gameplay.

 

“Spoils of War” - Our overall philosophy, a breakdown of Tactical items, set bonuses, and all the ways to get loot with ‘Onslaught’ are some of the topics that I plan to tackle. Whether this gets broken down into multiple articles, takes the form similar to the “Under the Hood” article, or another avenue is still being decided.

 

Story - ‘Onslaught’ will have a few key figures in the story and to set the scene there will be several highlight stories featuring these characters. These won’t touch the story in ‘Onslaught’, but will be more on their backstory or history. Also, as we get closer to the release of ‘Onslaught’ we would like to do a blog that will be of a similar style to the “State of the Galaxy” article before the release of Game Update 5.10 ‘Jedi Under Siege’.

 

Now as a disclaimer, none of these ideas are 100% set in stone as things can change in the next few months. For example, once I start writing an article, we could decide it would be better suited combining it with something else, or maybe splitting it into several different articles. I very well could come up with new ideas as well. I am also open to suggestions on topics or formats for certain articles. Over my time here we’ve written deep-dives, interviews, lore heavy blogs and more. Would you like to see another deep-dive? More interviews? If so, with who? For example, for “The Making of Onderon” article would you like another sit-down with Charles, or maybe someone from the art team? Let me know your thoughts!

Edited by DanielSteed
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Thanks Daniel look forward to reading some of this stuff.

 

I tell you what would be excellent a similar format for bug fixes...

 

A formal consolidated list covering:

Known bugs, being worked on, Forget it never to be fixed, etc

 

Thats would be most welcome.

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Thanks Daniel look forward to reading some of this stuff.

 

I tell you what would be excellent a similar format for bug fixes...

 

A formal consolidated list covering:

Known bugs, being worked on, Forget it never to be fixed, etc

 

Thats would be most welcome.

Gotta say that I agree 100% with this, maybe even up to around 473.25% on the bug list part.

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Thanks for keeping us posted, Dan. Very interesting stuff and I'm looking forward the lore posts regarding onderon and dxun, as well as the new planet.

 

I am a roleplayer at heart so I would like to hear more about the stories and the lore surrounding certain planets. Interviews with the people who do the story based are more my cup of tea and would be interesting to me.

 

Same, I would love for Charles and the writers to talk about their inspirations and just the general creative process.

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This is a great idea. If I may be so bold (when am I not)...

 

I think it is strongly in everyone's interest -- including BW's -- for you to discuss both the Advanced Class Abilities and the Spoils of War categories sooner rather than later. Let's stipulate that I have several obvious and notable Hutt-like strengths. One of them, however, is not programming and coding. Reliable sources tell me, though, it takes a while to

do.

 

If you want meaningful feedback on gearing and abilities and time to consider that feedback in a meaningful way such that you could actually incorporate it into 6.0, then you will need time.

 

My hope is that we don't go down the path of 5.0 to 5.6, where it took months of '"feedback" for BW to get it right -- a point essentially acknowledged by Eric and Charles in various podcasts. My profound fear is that when you do post the changes, particularly for Spoils of War, those changes will be locked in. I understand fully that opinions on the changes will vary, but having zero feedback on those changes before implementation is a mistake.

 

Dasty

 

P.S. Please give my feedback priority as it will invariably be the best. <<sips martini>>:rak_03:

Edited by Jdast
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More lore-building articles would definitely be appreciated!

May I just say, if it's not already finalised (I don't know how it is on PTS), can you not lock the Dantooine dailies behind story content? Or otherwise, at least make a future daily area that isn't? So far, the unlocked ones are

  • The Black Hole
  • Section X
  • CZ-198
  • Rishi (kind of, but they're really spread out)

and the locked ones are

  • Makeb
  • Oricon
  • Yavin
  • Ziost
  • Iokath
  • Ossus

Granted, most of these are understandable because they're part of the main plot, but I'd like to do a variety of daily planets without locking myself out of story, or playing through it on the hundredth toon for another 20+ hours.

 

You could make it a small, quick one (like CZ-198) on Manaan, about grabbing a bunch of kolto, which is a plausible scenario regardless of the character's progress in the story. It would also give you an excuse to open up that dead end on the Manaan map AND make it a place to go other than to do 1 story mission (seriously, Quesh is more of a planet than Manaan is).

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Daniel,

I would also suggest that you explain that the event on Dantooine is an event such as Gree, Bounty Hunter and the Rakqhoul missions which will rotate because a lot of people are thinking it will be a daily area such as Black Hole, Oricion etc. This may need to be explained so everyone.

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I like the intention behind this but I have to say I'm a little skeptical. Why? Because this isn't the first time we heard about communication. The past has a pattern and you guys are notorious for starting off strong and fizzling out fast. Let's be honest, sharing information is not your forte. Is this a new new new Bioware that intends to be more open? I'll believe it when I see it. Edited by TonyTricicolo
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This is a great idea. If I may be so bold (when am I not)...

 

I think it is strongly in everyone's interest -- including BW's -- for you to discuss both the Advanced Class Abilities and the Spoils of War categories sooner rather than later. Let's stipulate that I have several obvious and notable Hutt-like strengths. One of them, however, is not programming and coding. Reliable sources tell me, though, it takes a while to

do.

 

If you want meaningful feedback on gearing and abilities and time to consider that feedback in a meaningful way such that you could actually incorporate it into 6.0, then you will need time.

 

My hope is that we don't go down the path of 5.0 to 5.6, where it took months of '"feedback" for BW to get it right -- a point essentially acknowledged by Eric and Charles in various podcasts. My profound fear is that when you do post the changes, particularly for Spoils of War, those changes will be locked in. I understand fully that opinions on the changes will vary, but having zero feedback on those changes before implementation is a mistake.

 

Dasty

 

P.S. Please give my feedback priority as it will invariably be the best. <<sips martini>>:rak_03:

 

For what it's worth, it sounds like Keith agrees with you. According to one of the devs my husband and I spoke with at the cantina, they are planning to put the first iteration of the new gearing system on the PTS as soon as they can. Of course, we'll have to see what ends up being possible with the resources they have, but I think they genuinely do want to collect feedback in time to make changes.

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I would also like specifics on some other issues that frequently wind up being ninja changes:

 

1. With the embracing of legacy gearing, and the new set bonus for every spec rather than advanced class, how are these working together? I.e. do I now need a focus guardian set and a vigi guardian set? Or are you actually going full legacy embracing and letting them transition as needed - i.e. my concentration sent can share with my vigi guardian because the set swaps when I put it on my sent. I tend to think the answer to this is that I will need multiple sets per toon, as they are also talking about "general" set bonuses. If there are general set bonuses, why would the set bonus adapt based on spec and class?

 

2. I assume that, like always with new major expansion, there will be a new tier of special mats used for crafting high level gear. Are you going to pull a change like in conquest where you suddenly make the existing ones useless without giving us any kind of prior notification? All I ask is you give us a chance to sell or use them before making them suddenly useless.

 

3. Will UCs remain as a currency for gearing? If not, will they be refunded like the crystal system was?

 

4. I am assuming because of the massive changes that are coming, and there being a new level cap, and major expansion that there are going to he 3 new gear tiers. If not, will 252/8 remain locked behind Ossus?

 

The information you have provided is nice, but I sense communication winding down once more. I get that we are going into a major expansion in September, but the players would like forewarning of major changes before they are totally finalized, to avoid another GC disaster as we saw with early 5.0. I was one of the ones who, going into that expansion, told you 100% RNG was bad. At that time, I was being incredibly nice about the situation, to the point where someone else said I was someone you should listen to.

 

You didn't listen to the criticism and released it full RNG. Then there was another massive server merge. I sincerly hope, Musco, that you guys learned from this experience. This game is riding on the IP. If it wasnt star wars, or even if marvel had a story driven mmo, I wouldnt be here any longer. Remind me why I have been so devoted to this game for so long.

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Would you like to see another deep-dive? More interviews? If so, with who? For example, for “The Making of Onderon” article would you like another sit-down with Charles, or maybe someone from the art team? Let me know your thoughts!

 

My hope would be to bring back the "Companions 101" series, but I'm not sure how possible that would be. I do love reading behind the scenes articles about the game, so those would be great to see. Maybe something involving the music in the game (With downloads?), or a lore article about the planets and events leading up to and in Onslaught.

 

One thing I know I'd love to see, would be a web continuation of the original SWTOR Encyclopedia, updated with information from the release of RotHC to now. Things like a timeline for events from RotHC to Onslaught, biographical information of the companions and other characters added to the game since the original SWTOR Encyclopedia was released (HK-51, Treek, Theron, Lana, etc), who built HK-55 (Even if it makes my headcanon null and void), information about the planets added since RotHC, why do certain Knights of Zakuul have different colored armor, stuff like that.

 

And short stories, those are always great to read. Maybe something involving the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine being haunted by Force Ghosts, a look into what Satele and Marr, or the six missing companions are up to now, a visit to the long abandoned(?) HK factory on Telos IV?

Edited by LtGeneralGezlin
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This is a great idea. If I may be so bold (when am I not)...

 

I think it is strongly in everyone's interest -- including BW's -- for you to discuss both the Advanced Class Abilities and the Spoils of War categories sooner rather than later. Let's stipulate that I have several obvious and notable Hutt-like strengths. One of them, however, is not programming and coding. Reliable sources tell me, though, it takes a while to

do.

 

If you want meaningful feedback on gearing and abilities and time to consider that feedback in a meaningful way such that you could actually incorporate it into 6.0, then you will need time.

 

My hope is that we don't go down the path of 5.0 to 5.6, where it took months of '"feedback" for BW to get it right -- a point essentially acknowledged by Eric and Charles in various podcasts. My profound fear is that when you do post the changes, particularly for Spoils of War, those changes will be locked in. I understand fully that opinions on the changes will vary, but having zero feedback on those changes before implementation is a mistake.

 

Dasty

 

P.S. Please give my feedback priority as it will invariably be the best. <<sips martini>>:rak_03:

 

I would also like specifics on some other issues that frequently wind up being ninja changes:

 

1. With the embracing of legacy gearing, and the new set bonus for every spec rather than advanced class, how are these working together? I.e. do I now need a focus guardian set and a vigi guardian set? Or are you actually going full legacy embracing and letting them transition as needed - i.e. my concentration sent can share with my vigi guardian because the set swaps when I put it on my sent. I tend to think the answer to this is that I will need multiple sets per toon, as they are also talking about "general" set bonuses. If there are general set bonuses, why would the set bonus adapt based on spec and class?

 

2. I assume that, like always with new major expansion, there will be a new tier of special mats used for crafting high level gear. Are you going to pull a change like in conquest where you suddenly make the existing ones useless without giving us any kind of prior notification? All I ask is you give us a chance to sell or use them before making them suddenly useless.

 

3. Will UCs remain as a currency for gearing? If not, will they be refunded like the crystal system was?

 

4. I am assuming because of the massive changes that are coming, and there being a new level cap, and major expansion that there are going to he 3 new gear tiers. If not, will 252/8 remain locked behind Ossus?

 

The information you have provided is nice, but I sense communication winding down once more. I get that we are going into a major expansion in September, but the players would like forewarning of major changes before they are totally finalized, to avoid another GC disaster as we saw with early 5.0. I was one of the ones who, going into that expansion, told you 100% RNG was bad. At that time, I was being incredibly nice about the situation, to the point where someone else said I was someone you should listen to.

 

You didn't listen to the criticism and released it full RNG. Then there was another massive server merge. I sincerly hope, Musco, that you guys learned from this experience. This game is riding on the IP. If it wasnt star wars, or even if marvel had a story driven mmo, I wouldnt be here any longer. Remind me why I have been so devoted to this game for so long.

 

Oh you naive, silly summer kids. Have you not learned anything thus far? They will nod and be pleasant, and in the end they will do whatever they have already planned.

Edited by Lundorff
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Oh you naive, silly summer kids. Have you not learned anything thus far? They will nod and be pleasant, and in the end they will do whatever they have already planned.

Absolutely no doubt about it.

But we really want so much.

And my two cents...

(1) Give us events... no more daily grind area that dries up in a few weeks/months.

(2) Please, please separate Pvp and Pve gears. Really. Put a game mode lock if you want instead of expertise on the sets.

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My $0.02 (going to say many obvious things, but they're worth stating)

 

Myself and many others STARTED playing this game because of the awesome stories and the immersive SW universe. I played consistently for the first 4 years the game was out as a subscriber the whole time, but I recently came back and re-subbed because of all the great new story content that had been created in the last three years. After having played through it the last few weeks I can say it lived up to the hype. The promise of a new immersive story is going to bring more people back like me, and hyping that up with various articles between now and 6.0's release is a great idea.

 

I KEPT playing for so long because of all of the things to do in the "end game." (also, playing through all of the different class stories) Customizing our character and spec was a great "mini game" through our gear and disciple and other means over the years (there is a delicate mix between individual customization and over complication that I feel has been met). Progressing through different tiers of operations, leveling up our gear, and doing the different daily areas and flashpoints was a central part of the game to me for years and something I found very enjoyable. The Rakghoul flashpoint was particularly awesome (the one where the doc turns into a beast at the end with the really hard robot fight early on) to me because it was hard enough to require a good group with real planning and coordination when it first came out, and it offered very real rewards that mattered to hard mode ops teams and felt appropriate for the challenge of the content. It really felt like a 4-person operation. Showcasing the end game options while highlighting the new choices for gear and specialization will peak people's interest as a game worth playing for a long time.

 

Edit: oh wow, my signature shows just how long it's been since I posted on here! My current "mains" are a Guardian and a Juggernaut.

Edited by Euclidi
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I love the deep dives - I found the "Under the Hood" article to be one of the best, as it helps players know the game is still being developed.

 

Also, more information on Onslaught is always welcome - I know you can't give us everything now, but spreading out the details of things (subject to change of course) would help make the wait more palatable.

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Hello everyone!

 

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned an idea that I had about a web content roadmap. Initially I had the idea to break it down month by month, but as I started to build it, I realized that really wasn’t viable. Instead, I have come it with a living format that will serve as a stickied forum post here.

 

 

I want to encourage you as a new member of the SWTOR team to communicate with us but we have seen devs come in here before, promise roadmaps and then not deliver.

 

I'm already struggling to understand your opening paragraph above but what I think you are trying to say is that because its not possible to say from the outset what will be achieved month by month Bioware will give us information and content as you have it. We are here a long time - we know not to look for specific dates on stuff getting completed - but I hope you have internal targets that you are aiming towards.

 

I look forward to the new content that is coming but please take your time and make any gaming changes carefully. I'm worried as it is that Tactical items has been announced as a new gear slot but nobody seems to know what it will do and VERY worried that when Musco was challenged (over it not going to be any good) its been thrown back to the playerbase as to what WE'D like them to mean!! - I haven't a clue is it going to be something cosmetic, something akin to a stance like we had at launch and which were subsequently ditched, or something that is likely to throw class balance all out of whack and my guess is that you guys aren't sure either - surely we can get the guy who came up with the notion to get on a live stream and explain what was intended. To my mind gear is gear and utilities are utilities - this gear piece seems to be something different.

 

I want to be positive towards what you are trying to achieve and I'm glad to see more communication on the dev forum but I hope we are not going to be kicking ideas around a committee when what I hope you guys have is a solid plan for whats coming in 2019 .

 

Best of luck.

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  • Dev Post
Can you please tell us a release date for 5.10.3 so we know when to expect Dantooine? Thank you :)

 

You can expect to get a release date for 5.10.3 later this month, hopefully with the “New In-Game Event - The Pirate Incursion” article.

 

I think it is strongly in everyone's interest -- including BW's -- for you to discuss both the Advanced Class Abilities and the Spoils of War categories sooner rather than later. Let's stipulate that I have several obvious and notable Hutt-like strengths. One of them, however, is not programming and coding. Reliable sources tell me, though, it takes a while to do.

 

We agree completely with this. Once I’m done working on 5.10.3 related articles, I’ll be laying the foundation for the initial articles of ‘Onslaught’. The first deep-dive that I plan to start working on will be involving “Spoils of War”. We definitely want to keep the ball rolling with open dialogue on this, so you can expect a lot of information on this front. We will be kicking this off with more details via livestream and the forums in the coming weeks.

 

Daniel,

I would also suggest that you explain that the event on Dantooine is an event such as Gree, Bounty Hunter and the Rakqhoul missions which will rotate because a lot of people are thinking it will be a daily area such as Black Hole, Oricion etc. This may need to be explained so everyone.

 

This exact thing will be covered in detail with the upcoming “New In-Game Event - The Pirate Incursion” article.

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You can expect to get a release date for 5.10.3 later this month, hopefully with the “New In-Game Event - The Pirate Incursion” article.

Today is the last day of the month, looking forward to the article later today :)

 

On the off chance you meant May, could you give us a ballpark idea, will it be released in May or early June?

Edited by UlaVii
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We agree completely with this. Once I’m done working on 5.10.3 related articles, I’ll be laying the foundation for the initial articles of ‘Onslaught’. The first deep-dive that I plan to start working on will be involving “Spoils of War”. We definitely want to keep the ball rolling with open dialogue on this, so you can expect a lot of information on this front. We will be kicking this off with more details via livestream and the forums in the coming weeks.

I would humbly request, for all of us who are in timezeones that make it hard to listen to the livestreams "live" that you provide the same information in a written form (e.g. website blog page, forum post, etc.). (And of course some people - myself included - prefer to read such information rather than listen to it anyway.)

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Hello everyone!

 

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned an idea that I had about a web content roadmap. Initially I had the idea to break it down month by month, but as I started to build it, I realized that really wasn’t viable. Instead, I have come it with a living format that will serve as a stickied forum post here.

 

Below I will list every idea that I have for articles between now and the release of ‘Onslaught’. I’ll have these broken down by topic and once I start the process of writing them, I will bump them up to the “Work in Progress” section. Then once they get published, I’ll come back to this post and link the articles.

 

Published:

 

‘Onslaught’ Announcement - April 13

 

 

Work in Progress:

 

  • Dantooine Tactical Report - This is a story-based article that will help set the scene and introduce Dantooine to players.

  • New In-Game Event - The Pirate Incursion - This article will explain everything involved with the new recurring in-game event. Timing, gameplay, rewards, and more will be explained here!

  • May In-Game Events - Basic breakdown of the in-game events slated for May.

 

Upcoming article topics:

 

Planets - With the two new planets, Onderon and Mek-sha, we would like to set the scene with a lore-based article for both. There could also be a backstory blog on Corellia or Dxun. We’re still tentative on how much to reveal about the bosses in the new Flashpoint and Operation as the last thing we want to do is spoil the fun of experiencing these firsthand. Another idea that I have is to do a behind-the-scenes look to show the making of both Onderon and Mek-sha, which could take on several different forms.

 

Nautolans - With Nautolans we would like to cover the history of the species for people that are more unfamiliar with their backstory and possibly a behind the scenes look at the building of them.

 

Classes - The changes to advanced classes with their new abilities, how these marry into the new itemization, and the overall philosophy of these changes are all things that I would like to cover. Tentatively the idea that I have on the table is something akin to a “Day in the life of ____” to paint a broad picture of how these pieces interact to provide an impactful level of gameplay.

 

“Spoils of War” - Our overall philosophy, a breakdown of Tactical items, set bonuses, and all the ways to get loot with ‘Onslaught’ are some of the topics that I plan to tackle. Whether this gets broken down into multiple articles, takes the form similar to the “Under the Hood” article, or another avenue is still being decided.

 

Story - ‘Onslaught’ will have a few key figures in the story and to set the scene there will be several highlight stories featuring these characters. These won’t touch the story in ‘Onslaught’, but will be more on their backstory or history. Also, as we get closer to the release of ‘Onslaught’ we would like to do a blog that will be of a similar style to the “State of the Galaxy” article before the release of Game Update 5.10 ‘Jedi Under Siege’.

 

Now as a disclaimer, none of these ideas are 100% set in stone as things can change in the next few months. For example, once I start writing an article, we could decide it would be better suited combining it with something else, or maybe splitting it into several different articles. I very well could come up with new ideas as well. I am also open to suggestions on topics or formats for certain articles. Over my time here we’ve written deep-dives, interviews, lore heavy blogs and more. Would you like to see another deep-dive? More interviews? If so, with who? For example, for “The Making of Onderon” article would you like another sit-down with Charles, or maybe someone from the art team? Let me know your thoughts!

 

Hello

I would like to know when you are going to solve the problem of tank guards in the PvP, they do more DPS than dps and in addition they do protection.

Thank you for your reply

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  • Dev Post
Today is the last day of the month, looking forward to the article later today :)

 

On the off chance you meant May, could you give us a ballpark idea, will it be released in May or early June?

 

Thanks for catching that, my mind was already in the mindset of May, so you are correct. Keep your eyes peeled on the Forums for that announcement later in the month!

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