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


EricMusco

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I hope you are keeping cool in Austin, Keith! It's hot here in Colorado, but I can only guess it's like Tatooine in Austin.

 

First Just a few questions, based on some replies you've made this afternoon, Keith.

 

1) In 5.2, the team updated the Intro cinematic for the Eight Class stories. I loved that QoL change (Mostly because it gave me a nice intro for my SWTOR Videos!), and I've been wondering if there were any plans on continuing this and updating the rest of the Class story cinematic (As well as the Ilum and Makeb cinematics. And the Planetary arrival/departure scenes, since a lot of those are outdated.) in the same way? Or was that a one time thing?

 

2) Will we see other Flashpoints have a "Solo/Story" mode added? Also... why give Directive 7 a Solo mode? I was always wondering about that....

 

 

We absolutely have a Master List of bugs in our internal database and virtually every day, we triage the list to determine what's included in the next patch. When we do QoL changes, we review areas that will be changed and see if there are bugs or enhancements we can make within those same areas. With all the recent issues, I can see why we get hammered when problems arise, but I think everyone also knows anytime you change something, you increase the risk of breaking something else. We test extensively, yet, stuff still happens.

 

 

Seeing this makes me happy, Would it be possible to have a scaled down version of that Master List as a stickied post in the Bug Report forums? I know a lot of people, myself included would like to see that, and make some of us feel better that the bugs we've reported are at least acknowledged.

 

And... My offer of a crate of Wookiee Cookies for the studio still stands if we can get more Knights of the Old Republic items in the game! :rak_09:

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Maybe consider *not* having each Planet being treated as a Level Zone ? Rather, I'd hope for each Planet to able to " Stand-Alone "

 

For each Planet to have activities that you won't find any other Planet. Sure, each planet is unique, but not enough well-rounded activities that'll give Players further incentive to revisit those Planets. And thus, Low-Level & High-Levels won't have a " sense of segregation ".

 

In other words, add more " depth " to each planet.

 

Thanks

Edited by Vlanzche
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I'd be very much for revisiting old planets, old areas in the form of daily zones or perhaps even make warzones out of them. The Imperial Citadel and Republic Senate would make for excellent maps you could develop a fun and nice map out of for a warzone. Or perhaps make a daily zone on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas or go even further back and make a daily area on Korriban and Tython. Such iconic planets and we get sadly very little out of them once we finished our missions there at the start of our classes... and that flashpoint but sadly nothing more.
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Another thing ... ( despite it being a " Force-Sensitive-Only " Suggestion )

 

I think it'll be really nice if the " Forms " were more broad:

 

 


Ataru Form is only for Sentinels / Marauders ; its only available for Dual-Wielding ... but why can't it be used with any LightSaber ? Same for the other Forms

 

(Hence: Qui Gon Jinn & Shaak Ti )

 

a bit more Freedom - making it reminiscent to Legends-Lore / Canon

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

EDIT: Something else i thought i should mention ... admittedly, i do not like CXP. As mentioned before, it was a nice attempt, but it incentivizes players in wanting to " Speed-Up " & Rush-through content. The RNG is okay, but *not* entirely RNG ; there's too much emphasis on RNG

 

( too much emphasis on Random-Drops / Random-Loot )

Edited by Vlanzche
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Unless this is an intentional misunderstanding (evasion), I believe the developers may be experiencing some confusion with regard to ensuring that we have new "boss encounters." Many of us (who used to be on prog teams and now hardly play) don't want a new single boss. We are not the majority, perhaps, but there are ways to make everyone happy here and we might become the majority if we had content. We want an operation of the quality of DF, DP or even RAV and TOS. We greatly appreciated these two new ops a great deal. We don't need a new op with every update but giving us one boss + a bunch of adds may not be a great use of your resources. I understand even this feat isn't an easy one, but why not use some creativity in terms of storyline and mechanics, and give us a couple of real, substantive new ops per year involving several challenging bosses with their own idiosyncratic mechanics?
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Could we finally have an operative healer who is also viable in Master mode and NIM HM ops? I really miss playing mine and it is demoralizing to take a great toon through story only to have to abandon it once s/he is put to the test in HMs and flashpoints. We need an unchanneled big single-target heal with less of a cooldown or a utility that will make it so, just like the other 2 healing classes. What happened to balance? Any hard content requires serious tank healing and one instaheal isn't going to cut it. Area heals are typically for group members who are making mistakes and standing in the wrong place. Hence operative,scoundrel healers have become the kindergarten class/spec. This really doesn't do the class justice.
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Could we finally have an operative healer who is also viable in Master mode and NIM HM ops? I really miss playing mine and it is demoralizing to take a great toon through story only to have to abandon it once s/he is put to the test in HMs and flashpoints. We need an unchanneled big single-target heal with less of a cooldown or a utility that will make it so, just like the other 2 healing classes. What happened to balance? Any hard content requires serious tank healing and one instaheal isn't going to cut it. Area heals are typically for group members who are making mistakes and standing in the wrong place. Hence operative,scoundrel healers have become the kindergarten class/spec. This really doesn't do the class justice.

 

What did I just read? Operative healers are very strong if played well, tho they are arguably harder to play well than sorcs or mercs. Yes operatives have weaknesses, but they are more than viable in any content. Pretty sure as of right now Merc/Op combination is the preferred duo for healing NiM ops. Also if you read the forums just a little bit you'll see healing changes are coming for operatives (dunno what they are yet).

 

The have a big stun weakness in PVP, but your comment seemed aimed at PVE, and to be honest it's sounds like a learn to play the class issue than an issue with the class itself.

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" ... We want an operation of the quality of DF, DP or even RAV and TOS ... "

 

DF, DP had a build-up from past content. They were first introduced in the Sith Story-line, then teased in Section X, and even Scum-&-Villainy. Thats probably why those 2 OPS had more impact. RAV & TOS argueably had a build-up from Rishi and other parts of SoR Expansion .. which is also probably why those had impact too

 

In short, while i do believe more group content should be added, i think other Areas of the MMO is needed to be

re-worked in order for other OPS of the MMO to " flourish " ... because Heroics used to Group-Related Content too, now its " optional "

 

( hence: Heroic 4 no longer exists )

 

Including how Planets are practically treated as Leveling-Zones as opposed too each planet being a ... " Stand-Alone Planet " ; each planet having Content & Exploration to appeal for all Levels.

 

( Above the shorten answer . Below is just examples )

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

 

Example:

 

While Tatooine states that the recommended level is ... Level 25 - 28 ( i think that's it ? not logged atm )

.... it shouldn't have a Level Requirement. More like ... each planet being Level 1 - 70. And since Planet-Level Sync prevents the NPCs from being weak ... other elements needs to be brought into the MMO in order for more challenging Content. rather than just Gear dictating every Confrontation in PvE & PvP.

 

EXample:

 

Smuggler has an ability called " Slippery Devil " ( Operative has it too ) ....well thats an Action-Combat Ability.

Maybe implement more " Free-form-less Abilities " ( Action-Combat Abilities ) to other Classes that still further emphasizes / expresses their Class .

 

 

Such as Jedi & Sith being able to freely interact with the Environment ? [/u][/i]

i.e. Lift Rocks, " a wave of sand " ( from Tatooine ) , Force-Persuasion of NPCs, Manipulating Water, Breaking Tree Barks ( as shown in one of the Original Trailers ) etc ....

 

But they won't actually be an ability, just ... well, it'll make it more realistic.

Edited by Vlanzche
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@KeithKenneg

Going to use a Visual Example to try and explain. ( Going to use Nar Shaddaa as an Example )

 

Nar Shaddaa is know for many " illegal deeds " transpiring. There's gambling, Slaving Trading, the Home for many Bounty Hunters ( not the Class, but in general ) & Smugglers , and other Criminal Activity - if you wanted something illegal, everyone knows to head to Nar Shaddaa.

 

With this in mind, you'd imagine that they'll be tons of things to do on an MMO thats specifically about Nar Shaddaa ( ( and other planets ) - so many people to talk too, so many places to explore, So many crafting materials to find

( etc ... ) ... never knowing who you could run into. But instead ... everything is practically closed-off.

 

https://s1.postimg.org/61kkpug3j/Screenshot_13.png

 

in image " Screenshot_13 " ... there's also a Store Front / Entrance to a Vendor thats always closed off

( seen on the Right of the image )

 

... why aren't they open ? ... Or are they closed-off areas to other parts of the Map ?

 

https://s2.postimg.org/82a23bb49/Screenshot_17.png

 

For " Screenshot 17 " ... yeah that same Elevator goes to somewhere up ... yet Plaayers can never go Up - there's not even a Elevator Buttom / Switch that goes up. The only Elevators that does have it are the Instanced Areas. Such as Heroics & Other Missions

 

https://s1.postimg.org/8wmbexc3z/Screenshot_19.png

 

The ONLY time when you have even the slightest bit of Exploaration is ... when you're at the

" Industrial Sector " Taxi Area:

 

https://s1.postimg.org/wjf46zhwf/Screenshot_20.png

 

In the image above, on the Republic Side, if you were to look up - " that " ( the image ) is the Imperial Speeder. And you can actually get over there.

 

https://s2.postimg.org/qoc3iie7d/Screenshot_23.png

 

Likewise, in this Image, on the Empire Side, if you look down - " this " ( image above ) is the Republic Side. Which you can also get over there.

 

Then we have the " Un-used Areas on the Map " ...

https://s2.postimg.org/u4g446f15/Shaddaa_error.png

 

EDIT: but there's other areas that can also be added into. But these was just an example

 

The area that i " painted red " , is the Area that is never used - its just ... never used.

DO SOMETHING WITH THIS AREA - use it, expand upon it. And when you do, put activities within that Area for

ANY LEVEL to do. You can add more exploration, allowing Players to go " up-&-down " and actually explore a

" Planet-like " places. Nearly every Quest is instanced, thus not having any other Player interaction ... possibly only asking for " help " from other Guild-mates.

 

Don't just put Repetitive Missions either.

Edited by Vlanzche
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@KeithKanneg ,

 

But you also see this in other Planets too ( going to Use Hoth & Tatooine as a Visual Example. )

 

https://s1.postimg.org/qyvvscaq7/Screenshot_24.png

I'm sure that amidst all of this sand, there is something to be found ( Far-off in the distance, the Mountains )

whatever " that " is ... the Devs can implement them. You'll basically be allowing for more content to be implemented because you'll have more material to work with. Same thing goes for Hoth too

 

https://s1.postimg.org/qto80pre7/Screenshot_27.png

 

The Area thats Outline Blue ... why is this area never used ? ( below. Look at the Map )

https://s1.postimg.org/xkxnrq7vz/Tatooine_Map_Altered.png

 

https://s2.postimg.org/lhz3w34ih/Hoth_Segment_Altered.png

 

https://s1.postimg.org/f47uenhbj/Hoth_Map_Altered.png

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

But these are just examples

 

EDIT: The main thing to keep in mind is ... the Global Map of each Planet is really only a small part of the rest of Planet. But if that's " too much " ... then at least Semi-Open World. I'm not asking for a " Real " Open-World.

 

But it'll be better than whats currently there - add on to it in order for more content

 

Btw, the reason i believe this will be do-able because this MMO is most funded out of any MMO. So thats why i know this MMO has the most potential. Unless most of the Funding went to Voice Actors ( doubtfully ) ... then this should be fine ... right ?

Edited by Vlanzche
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Unless this is an intentional misunderstanding (evasion), I believe the developers may be experiencing some confusion with regard to ensuring that we have new "boss encounters." Many of us (who used to be on prog teams and now hardly play) don't want a new single boss. We are not the majority, perhaps, but there are ways to make everyone happy here and we might become the majority if we had content. We want an operation of the quality of DF, DP or even RAV and TOS. We greatly appreciated these two new ops a great deal. We don't need a new op with every update but giving us one boss + a bunch of adds may not be a great use of your resources. I understand even this feat isn't an easy one, but why not use some creativity in terms of storyline and mechanics, and give us a couple of real, substantive new ops per year involving several challenging bosses with their own idiosyncratic mechanics?

 

The troubling part is this has been communicated to the dev team, and they have not released a statement other than these things take time... Pretty sure it didn't use to take this much time to produce a full operation.

 

The matter at hand is this development team is undermanned, and it seems that they don't want to admit that this is fast as the game will release content now. I don't buy however that they couldn't release an ops faster but they seem to be afraid to show that and get people to raise expectations.

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I was wondering whether there is a chance we'd see more companion interactions added in future story content or retroactively into KotFE and KotET? The companion scenes namely we got in the original game is something that is heavily missed by the players, especially such dialogue scenes with our love interests. It would have been a nice thing to have inbetween chapters these short little scenes that would allow us to get to know our companions better and truly build up a relationship with them.

 

Also, sidenote, will it be possible for our characters to marry the romance options from the latest two expansions such as Lana, Theron or Koth? It was a very nice story element of the original companion romances and it would be amazing if it could be continued with the new romance options that came in KotFE and KotET. Perhaps a thing to consider for future story content along with adding short companion dialogue scenes inbetween chapters?

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I was wondering whether there is a chance we'd see more companion interactions added in future story content or retroactively into KotFE and KotET? The companion scenes namely we got in the original game is something that is heavily missed by the players, especially such dialogue scenes with our love interests. It would have been a nice thing to have inbetween chapters these short little scenes that would allow us to get to know our companions better and truly build up a relationship with them.

 

Also, sidenote, will it be possible for our characters to marry the romance options from the latest two expansions such as Lana, Theron or Koth? It was a very nice story element of the original companion romances and it would be amazing if it could be continued with the new romance options that came in KotFE and KotET. Perhaps a thing to consider for future story content along with adding short companion dialogue scenes inbetween chapters?

 

I really like this idea, it seemed like at 5.0 they planned on making companions more involved but it really seems like after so long they just completely stopped the idea of having 1 on 1 interactions with your companions. Its so disappointing that we don't get to learn more about the new companions and learn about what previous companions did for the 5 YEARS the outlander was in carbonite.

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Would be nice if the interaction system from the vanilla game would be used , where the companions did give theyr opinions on quests and choices the player made .

And an interaction quest like every 10 lvl since there are 50 lvl

 

I personally hope they will bring some event like DvL again , so people who didnt had the time to get some rewards have the chance to get them , or at least bring some event ingame to get the companion in the end .

 

I know its hard for the people who played all the time and worked for the Rewards , but at least the companion should be available for everyone to get , through a hard challenge ofc :)

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Use this thread to discuss the 2017 road map from Keith, which can be found here.

 

-eric

 

I don't have any complaints with the game except Iokath was a disappointment. Takes 40 to 50 minutes to complete the story and then nothing. Run dailies or go back to grinding heroics. I was really hoping for a new chapter this summer. Any estimate on when we will get another chapter to move forward with the story?

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Keith,

 

I'd like to see in game items be slightly cooler than CM items. I'm not saying everything. But you would think that if dropped or rewarded items were more rare than CM items maybe some people will play the game. At a bare minimum its disrespectful to subscribers to make everything pale in comparison to this next packs items. And the following months and the following. Just look at this season ranked rewards. Its **** compared to weapons and flairs dropped in every pack since the start of the season. You guys make it pretty clear you don't give a **** about subscribers. Hence the barely alive populations on all but a few of your servers. You guys can claim that the last two expansions were the most successful. But i asked the other 4 people on fleet and we all agree we think you're all full of ****.

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When it comes to Story based content I do not want chapters or anything based upon Vitiate. Rather story involving known characters such as Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Nihilus, Cassus Fett and the Mandalores.

 

I must be one of the few that enjoyed the Malgus and Revan portions of the game.

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When it comes to Story based content I do not want chapters or anything based upon Vitiate. Rather story involving known characters such as Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Nihilus, Cassus Fett and the Mandalores.

 

I must be one of the few that enjoyed the Malgus and Revan portions of the game.

 

Malgus was under utilized and should have been an ops boss

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Malgus was under utilized and should have been an ops boss

 

I still don't get to this day why he was put in a FP.

 

When it comes to Story based content I do not want chapters or anything based upon Vitiate. Rather story involving known characters such as Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Nihilus, Cassus Fett and the Mandalores.

 

I must be one of the few that enjoyed the Malgus and Revan portions of the game.

 

Malgus is awesome!

Edited by Eshvara
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return to massively multiplayer and group-based content

 

While I support this, since I mostly do operations, I think your group-based content focus should not be completely separate from story. While I'm not here to criticize story, PVP and GSF have never had a strong link to story as compared to flashpoints (frequently used to actually advance the main story) and operations (entire story arcs like the Dread War told primarily through operations; apexes of shadow of revan, etc.).

 

More flashpoints and operations linked to the story! Less group content that is peripheral and just diluting our your limited resources. Unless you can get more resources and do everything.

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I really like this idea, it seemed like at 5.0 they planned on making companions more involved but it really seems like after so long they just completely stopped the idea of having 1 on 1 interactions with your companions. Its so disappointing that we don't get to learn more about the new companions and learn about what previous companions did for the 5 YEARS the outlander was in carbonite.

 

Aye I agree, it is such a pity that there isn't more interaction with companions. I realise it would be difficult to do scenes for every single new companion we get, but at least the major ones or the love interests should get their own one on one moments, that would be really a neat feature and add to the story immersion and depth of narrative of both KotFE and KotET.

 

Also a question @CharlesBoyd: would you consider making the previously-romanced companions a romance option for all characters in the future? So that for example a male/female Sith Inquisitor could romance Torian Cadera or a male Smuggler romance Vette, Jedi Consular romance Jorgan and so on? It would really expand the romance options in the latest two expansions as currently I feel romance is limited in KotFE and KotET.

Edited by Ylliarus
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When it comes to Story based content I do not want chapters or anything based upon Vitiate. Rather story involving known characters such as Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Nihilus, Cassus Fett and the Mandalores.

 

I must be one of the few that enjoyed the Malgus and Revan portions of the game.

 

They may have been enjoayble for more if they included interactions with our companions but they did not, thus did not hold as much interest for many story players as they could have.

Loved Kotfe and Kotet because we get more companion interactions, at least with those who've returned. Any additional story content needs to keep that up. Its no fun when our companions are ignored as the first game expansions did.

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This is awesome, when are we going to get new content for Galactic Starfighter? Or space missions? GSF needs a little bit of balance. New players are constantly being placed against veteran players and they just get absolutely destroyed. I don't think there's much you can do about that though, unless you change the system of those who play longer have objective statistical advantages with upgrading their ships and all that. But Gunships need to be balanced. You will often get games where gunships have 80% of the kills and one or two people can carry an entire team to victory. That needs to change somehow. I love galactic starfighter and I hope that you guys give it the attention it deserves, and do something to grow the GSF playerbase. New ships would be amazing, as well as maps. Growing the mode into something like the game Dreadnought would be very cool. Having capital ship combat with frigates, destroyers, fighters, etc. would be AWESOME. But that wouldn't happen. It'd take too much time and money. Edited by StevenSmiley
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