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Changes and New Features in 7.0


EricMusco

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Hey folks,

 

I wanted to share some of the new features and changes coming in 7.0 that we haven’t talked about yet. There is a lot to share and the team is really excited to share them with you, some of these we have been eager to talk about for quite some time! Read on :).

 

Daily and Weekly Mission Reset

First, we’re making some changes to how Daily and Weekly Missions reset. Currently, uncompleted Daily and Weekly Missions sit in that character’s logs until the Mission is completed. Once the Mission is completed, that character can no longer pick up the Weekly again for that week (or daily for that day).

 

In 7.0, uncompleted Daily and Weekly Missions will be removed from players once the Daily or Weekly reset time passes (currently Tuesday, 12:00am UTC). The primary reason for this change is that we are restructuring the way we present content each week. Weekly Missions will rotate in availability each week in 7.0, and we want to ensure that all players are on the same Weekly Missions each week in order keep those Mission areas feeling dynamic and filled with other people to group or share Mission credit with. This should result in content like Heroic Missions being completed more quickly and efficiently. You can still access Missions that aren’t a part of the rotation if you choose, they will just have reduced rewards.

 

Alongside this change we will also introduce a number of quality of life improvements, including auto-completing Missions where we are able to when characters are on the turn-in step.

 

Economy Adjustments

We have been studying and measuring economic indicators around the game’s economy, specifically in regards to Credit inflation. What this means is that more Credits are being created in the economy than are being spent, which drives the GTN prices upwards over time on all items. One of the steps we’re taking to address this is the reduction of credits awarded by completing Conquests.

 

We’re also planning on removing Solid Resource Matrix items from Conquest rewards and instead putting them on Jawa vendors available for purchase with Jawa Junk.

 

This will help address Credit creation issues in the economy. We will be sharing more details on these changes in a follow up post in the near future.

 

Shared Tagging

Another big improvement supporting the new weekly content rotation is Shared Tagging.

 

When we refer to ‘tagging’, we’re talking about who gets credit for defeating an NPC (Mission credit and ability to loot primarily). Currently, the default tagging behavior is tied to whether or not the player is in a group or not. So if you are grouped with other players, and someone in that group does damage to an NPC, credit is shared for the entire group.

 

For 7.0, we are changing this default behavior to be tied to the faction instead. So if a player is attacking an NPC, and another player of the same faction helps kill the NPC whether grouped up or not, both players will share Mission credit and loot on that NPC.

 

In some cases, we will allow credit to be shared with any player regardless of faction. The first content that will take advantage of this ‘open tagging’ will be World Bosses. This should minimize griefing opportunities and really encourage players to help each other out in order to defeat these bosses!

 

As an added bonus, we’ve also updated the rules for tagging to include healers. In addition to dealing damage to an NPC in order to tag it for credit, healing another player who has damaged that NPC will also grant credit.

 

Combat Change - Vanish

Currently, Vanish allows players to circumvent intended game mechanics, especially ones that require a target. It also allows for players to revive out of combat, and change their ability/discipline in the middle of an encounter. Vanish abilities are being slightly redesigned to remove unintended use, specifically dropping from combat and reviving in specified situations.

 

For all Flashpoints and Operations, Vanish abilities will instantly drop all threat and allow players to enter stealth at max level, however, players will no longer exit combat. This restriction does not apply to the open world PvE/PvP or Warzones.

 

We understand the benefit of resurrecting more frequently in group content, so we are removing the Operation wide lockout timer from combat rezzing. As a balance measure, we've made it so only healing disciplines have access to combat revives. We'll be monitoring this and will adjust the cooldown as needed.

 

Weapons in Outfitter

Finally, we’re excited to share details with you around one of the most requested features of the past several years: Weapons in Outfitter!

 

Beginning in 7.0, you’ll now be able to use Weapons in a similar way to Armor in our existing Outfitter system. This means you can have one weapon equipped which will determine the stats applied to your character, and stamp the appearance of another weapon of the same type via Outfitter.

 

Weapons have several properties that are unique to them as compared to Armor. They can have unique audio, Color Crystals, and Weapon Tunings. The weapon assigned to the Outfitter slot, or slots for dual-wielding combat styles, will determine which of these customization options are seen and heard in the game. If a weapon is not assigned to an Outfitter slot, the game will use the options from the currently equipped weapon instead.

 

The team has been working very hard to make these features a reality, and we’re eager to get them into your hands! You will be able to check some of this out on PTS in the next patch, keep an eye on the PTS forums for more details.

 

-eric

Edited by JackieKo
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Heroic resets:

Eep, well there goes my habit of spread Heroics across two days. Probably fair, though.

 

Conquest credit reduction:

I'm not sure how much difference that'll make, but it's worth a shot.

 

Shared tagging:

Sounds great. Heck, I don't see much reason to faction-lock it either, but hey, it's a nice start!

 

Vanish changes:

You had me scared there until you mentioned it's Flashpoints and Ops only. Seems fair. We'll see how it plays out.

 

Outfit weapons:

And here comes my one question: how does this interact with combat styles that use different weapons.

If I, say, have a Juggernaut and Assassin Combat Style on a character, can I stamp both a single saber and a dualsaber on the same outfit? Or will I default to the equipped weapon if I use it with an "invalid" outfit?

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The team has been working very hard to make these features a reality, and we’re eager to get them into your hands! You will be able to check some of this out on PTS in the next patch, keep an eye on the PTS forums for more details.

 

Would be nice to have some updates on what's already on the PTS as well. There hasn't been a single dev response in the PTS forum since the day of the last patch almost 3 weeks ago, and one of the classes has major differences between the Republic and Imperial mirrors to the point that people have actively questioning if they will, in fact, still be mirror classes at all. There's a lot of ambiguity and question marks on the PTS right now, so if we're already just moving right along from class balance I'd like to see these questions answered first.

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Eric

Thanks as always for keeping the lines of communication open.

Here are my thoughts for whatever they are worth.

 

Daily/Weekly resets

if the quest carries over you should leave it. Some quests take a fair effort to finish, and those of us that play multiple characters will have issues fully completing some within a given week.

For example the PvP weekly, it isnt always done within the week, resetting it makes us lose progress for a quest thats going to still be there week to week to week, unless this would be exempt as a pvp quest?

 

Economy adjustments

This isnt the issue in my opinion at all. Giving lower rewards only punished those that never did any exploits as we will now be poorer which the rich shrug and move on.

Why does any item in the game need to seel for billions of credits? Limit the GTN cap, make items more affordable, and make the credits people have increase in value. Those with billions upon billions upon billions will still have 100 times what most of us have and the rest of us will get to actually have some cool stuff.

 

Shared tagging

Nice, Its about time :) Thank you

 

Vanish

Interesting, have to see how that works. I get the idea behind that discipline change prevention, im just not sure about dropping combat, i mean isnt that kind of the point?

 

Weapons in outfitter

Nice, very helpful

 

RE the new Legendary items per the twitter post

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20211027

I like this idea although i wonder if it will work with tacticals the same as the current sets do? i assume?

 

Loadouts

Finally do we have any info yet on the loadouts? For example how many will we get? Im hoping to have a setup for all 6 specs from the two master styles, plus i will want some pvp centric with different stats, maybe some other specialized ones.. im hoping we will have as many of these as we want similar to the current outfitter? Maybe start with at least 6, 8, 10 and be able to add more if we wish?

Edited by Floplag
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I don’t like the weekly changes. From the way I read it, that will include the area ( aka Black Hole, Onderon, Ziost … etc) weeklies. I will run a few different areas to get conquest points since the area conquest reward is only available once a day. Additionally, I sometimes choose an area that doesn’t have a lot of people so that I don’t have to worry about too much competition.
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I don't really care about the changes done to weeklies or dailies, though I do think its a good way to incentivize certain areas that may be forgotten by players the fact the rest of the missions aren't being removed during that rotation is great though since it allows us as players to still do those missions. Not of a fan of the quests automatically being removed after the weekly rotation though.

 

While I appreciate something being done about the economy I'm not sure just making it so we can only get the Solid Resource Matrix from Jawa vendors will help that much, at the same time I can't think of a solution that is not extreme (IE credit resetting or higher and higher taxes on GTN or some kind of credit sink so stupidly ludicrous that it would be more punishing to poor players than to rich players).

 

Shared tagging is a great idea, I'm so glad this is being implemented I remember hearing it long ago from someone who played ESO and they spoke about how the tagging system worked there. I think this is a great change and I hope it improves cooperation between random players.

 

Combat vanishing are also interesting, on one hand I don't like not being removed from combat (though at least its only in dungeons and warzones) but no timer for healers may actually be a good compromise. I do think resurrection abilities should still be kept for DPS though, perhaps with the 5 minute cooldown while healers don't get cooldowns similar to how classes that have a healer discipline can revive players out of combat without a CD where as classes without healing disciplines can't.

 

Weapons in outfit designer is something I've been craving for years! Finally I can use just a single lightsaber for all my Sith Assassins for stats of having to equip one per Assassin.

Edited by FlameYOL
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- Weekly Resets=

If I have "" [WEEKLY] Galactic Conflicts "" on 2/3, will that quest reset back to 0/3?

 

- Conquest stuff=

No issues there.

 

- Shared "Tagging"=

Does that mean, that if a party of 16 people is farming a certain material/item from a world boss, and they are about to kill it, I can come in, shoot it, and I will automaticaly enter into the RNG table and be elegible for that material/item despite not even joining that party? That is literaly stealing, I don't think that's a good idea...

 

- Vanish changes=

I don't see a point here besides now Operatives and Assassins will have to pay repairs on Ops wipes. Also, you should remove Assassins ability to use Vanish to ignore Boss mechanics (e.g.: Dread Master Brontes' Arcing Assault or ), this change to Vanish feels 100% pointless and useless as of now.

 

- Outfit Weapons=

The only good thing I've read in this post.

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Hey folks,

Combat Change - Vanish

Currently, Vanish allows players to circumvent intended game mechanics, especially ones that require a target. It also allows for players to revive out of combat, and change their ability/discipline in the middle of an encounter. Vanish abilities are being slightly redesigned to remove unintended use, specifically dropping from combat and reviving in specified situations.

 

For all Flashpoints and Operations, Vanish abilities will instantly drop all threat and allow players to enter stealth at max level, however, players will no longer exit combat. This restriction does not apply to the open world PvE/PvP or Warzones.

 

We understand the benefit of resurrecting more frequently in group content, so we are removing the Operation wide lockout timer from combat rezzing. As a balance measure, we've made it so only healing disciplines have access to combat revives. We'll be monitoring this and will adjust the cooldown as needed.

 

What about the cooldown reduction of force potency/recklessness on Infiltration Shadow/Deception Assassin upon Vanish? It is currently tied to exiting combat.

 

Regarding "only healing disciplines have access to combat revives": Does this mean that only heals are actually able to combat rezz? In other words, in case in a usual 8-man operation group one healer dies, the only player able to revive this player is the other healer? Who then needs to simultaneouly heal the group and rezz the player?

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I don’t like the weekly changes. From the way I read it, that will include the area ( aka Black Hole, Onderon, Ziost … etc) weeklies. I will run a few different areas to get conquest points since the area conquest reward is only available once a day. Additionally, I sometimes choose an area that doesn’t have a lot of people so that I don’t have to worry about too much competition.

 

well since enemies can be shared for credit without being in a group, competition shouldn't matter

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Shared "Tagging"

Does that mean, that if a party of 16 people is farming a certain material/item from a world boss, and they are about to kill it, I can come in, shoot it, and I will automaticaly enter into the RNG table and be elegible for that material/item despite not even joining that party? That is literaly stealing, I don't think that's a good idea...

 

 

its not stealing. We all have personal loot now so it's not like there are rolls on said items

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What about the cooldown reduction of force potency/recklessness on Infiltration Shadow/Deception Assassin upon Vanish? It is currently tied to exiting combat.

 

Regarding "only healing disciplines have access to combat revives": Does this mean that only heals are actually able to combat rezz? In other words, in case in a usual 8-man operation group one healer dies, the only player able to revive this player is the other healer? Who then needs to simultaneouly heal the group and rezz the player?

 

seems worth it to have only healers have rez if there really will be no cooldown on it

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- Shared "Tagging"=

Does that mean, that if a party of 16 people is farming a certain material/item from a world boss, and they are about to kill it, I can come in, shoot it, and I will automaticaly enter into the RNG table and be elegible for that material/item despite not even joining that party? That is literaly stealing, I don't think that's a good idea....

 

Flipside, group farming a mob doesnt let anyone else ever get a chance to kill it.

In those spots where this happens and someone gets loots for minimal effort, who cares, its better than the alternative.

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Flipside, group farming a mob doesnt let anyone else ever get a chance to kill it.

In those spots where this happens and someone gets loots for minimal effort, who cares, its better than the alternative.

 

Honestly this is a change that should've been done long ago.

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One added question RE weapons in outfitter...

what requirement swill this have?

Will it only work for moldable? Blue quality or better? will greens work?

 

You should also consider revamping world drop loot rules.

I really like many of the lower level more simple/realistic looking skins over the more elaborate ones we get later, but they are nearly impossible to get today due to loot rules working on actual level over anything else.

 

I might suggest in conjunction with this to remove that and let us farm those skins using whatever level toons we have. I have tried to farm a blaster pistol off Drommund Kaas so many times and it just never drops till i level out of the zone. This shouldnt be the case. Either remove the level requirement, or increase the drop rate.

One of the reasons the GTN and economy is so messed up is stuff like this.

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Thank you for all of these changes that are being made. While I do appreciate the attention BioWare is giving to credit inflation I'm wondering what proof there was that Conquest Credit rewards are a significant part of credit inflation?

 

My purpose with this post is to inform, not complain or otherwise define how big a problem may be in the eyes of BioWare. You have access to more economic information I may have on the back-end, I can only tell you how the players I know make millions or billions.

 

I am one of the gtn sellers that will sell war supplies, prefabs, or flip low-priced items on the GTN in order to make a profit. I can make several million in a matter of a few days and the Conquest Credit rewards whether small, medium, or large are insignificant compared to what I've seen others do for income.

 

I can see that BioWare might not want to adversely impact the rewards subscribers get and the crafting that they do, but when it comes to real credit earnings and profit, it's CRAFTING for Conquest and End Game which is one of the biggest sources of revenue. The second that I've seen is the over-pricing of Cartel Market Items or drops from Flashpoints and Operations.

 

Cartel Market Items that Generate Significant Credits

 

Most of the billionares I know of sell Hypercrates, individual loot crates, Legacy or Character names changes and similar items. Others are the ones that craft the end-game gear, which is understandably worth a lot of money. I don't see that the end-game gear is really a problem for inflation, although I mention it because it IS a much better source of income than Conquest credit rewards. The thing that stands out the most when it comes to crafting are the War Supplies.

 

Conquest Crafting Prices/ GTN

 

If I can make a crystal capacitor and sell it for 1-3 million each depending on the going gtn rates, when invasion forces that require multiple war supplies are selling for the exact same average price on the gtn. Dark Projects also go for 3 million or more. These are more subscriber-centric crafted items as the time and amount needed to make a significant profit is eminently more feasible for those with subscriptions that can send up to 8 companions at a time to craft.

 

Decoration Drops, Recovered Relics,

 

The last thing I've seen which I know can net me nearly 50 million to 100 million in a week if I try are the decoration drops from Flashpoints and if I can flip or acquire a Recovered Relic to resell. While I understand you want to reward players for doing content repetitively, I wonder if the drop rates on the items which sell for millions (30 - 45 mil for Recovered Relics, FP items vary but rare ones can be up to 200 mil or more) are any more incentive than the Conquest Point rewards for doing these Flashpoints. (I'm purposefully leaving out Operations as those are already somewhat balanced in terms of rewards for items/ drops, etc, and being Subscriber content have to be approached differently). Would increasing the drop rate for some of these items help reduce the amount of credits in the hands of the players whom are already having significant incomes from crafting and playing content?

 

I find that those that need the end-game armor and other things that are significant credit sinks already have ways to earn credits that far exceed conquest rewards.

 

My purpose of mentioning these factors, I don't think the solution would be to reduce the amount of rewards for Conquest Credits. This may adversely impact preferred and free-to-play players who don't have the capability to craft the same quantity or quality of items to sell or otherwise can't afford to buy cartel market items on the gtn.

 

While I am a subscriber who adores having millions to spend on decorations due to crafting, I don't want to see the players limited by their own financial or other circumstances that prohibit them from playing extensively or otherwise being able to subscribe regularly to be able to have the capability of crafting extensively. In the past few years of playing I find that SWTOR is one of the most accessible and friendly to the widest range of players including the non-neurotypical and disabled which aren't always capable of the kind of game play or cartel market item selling that allows them to amass hundreds of millions to spend in the game.

 

I apologize that I can't write a short reply to save my life and I appreciate that you are listening to feedback so much this past year.

 

While I am a frequent seller of items on the gtn, and a subscriber, I'm genuinely concerned about credit inflation and the ability for BioWare to make sure this is wonderful gaming community for the majority of players.

 

Thank you.

 

[update]

 

I must retract this post because after discussing the SWTOR economy with various members of the guilds I'm in, I realized the extent of my lack of knowledge and understanding of the credit inflow of the gaming economy that BioWare is addressing. I don't have the knowledge or understanding I need to really discuss the matter and that my original point was more focused on the exchange of credits that did not address the real issue of how the initial credits that amounted to the 1 Billion someone can spend on a Hypercrate occurs in game (just an example, I have no problems with 1 billion being spent on a Hypercrate as I don't care to judge the CC per in-game credit ratio that fluctates depending on the desirability of CM items being listed in on the GTN).

 

However, I feel like deleting or removing this post my adversely impact those who replied to it and wanted to use it as a sound board for further discussion regardless of if they agreed or disagreed with me. I haven't had a chance to read the replies yet, but I appreciate the input given so that a better objective view of this situation and BioWares changes can be discussed among all players.

 

Thank you for taking the time to address my concerns and point out any fallacies.

 

I regret not having thought it through enough and discussed it with other gamers prior to posting it. I'll endeavor to keep this in mind if I have any future questions regarding BioWare's changes.

Edited by cacophonycat
Need to Address my lack of knowledge
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Weapons in Outfitter

Finally, we’re excited to share details with you around one of the most requested features of the past several years: Weapons in Outfitter!

 

Beginning in 7.0, you’ll now be able to use Weapons in a similar way to Armor in our existing Outfitter system. This means you can have one weapon equipped which will determine the stats applied to your character, and stamp the appearance of another weapon of the same type via Outfitter.

 

Weapons have several properties that are unique to them as compared to Armor. They can have unique audio, Color Crystals, and Weapon Tunings. The weapon assigned to the Outfitter slot, or slots for dual-wielding combat styles, will determine which of these customization options are seen and heard in the game. If a weapon is not assigned to an Outfitter slot, the game will use the options from the currently equipped weapon instead.

Without wishing to seem rude or anything, but you (the studio collectively) suck. Weapons, as I've been saying ever since Outfit Designer was released, should be in a separate system *like* Outfit Designer, but selectable independently of it.

 

Why? Because my characters' weapons are not part of their outfits.

Edited by SteveTheCynic
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A whole lot of waste of time and unnecessary changes. Some are actively against the interests of players. They could've spent this time on content. The only good things are:

 

- The tagging business

- Weapons in Outfit slots

Edited by mike_carton
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well since enemies can be shared for credit without being in a group, competition shouldn't matter

 

Because, of course, none of those quests involve interacting with objects that disappear and/or go on cooldown. Unless just getting near the object will satisfy the requirements

Edited by Darcmoon
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Economy Adjustments

We have been studying and measuring economic indicators around the game’s economy, specifically in regards to Credit inflation. What this means is that more Credits are being created in the economy than are being spent, which drives the GTN prices upwards over time on all items. One of the steps we’re taking to address this is the reduction of credits awarded by completing Conquests.

 

We’re also planning on removing Solid Resource Matrix items from Conquest rewards and instead putting them on Jawa vendors available for purchase with Jawa Junk.

 

This will help address Credit creation issues in the economy. We will be sharing more details on these changes in a follow up post in the near future.

 

Shared Tagging

 

If you want to get more money out of the economy spent you need to add more items to buy with credits, not reduce availability of items being sold to other players or reduce money rewards.

 

Rotate Cartel Market items in and out of a Credit shop. Convert some items that are on reputation currencies or Tech Fragments to Credits. In general add more cosmetic items for Credits.

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its not stealing. We all have personal loot now so it's not like there are rolls on said items

 

That's not what I mean. While we have personal loot, some items are still given RNG-like, like decos, pets and mounts in operations.

 

Example: 10 people doing the Worldbreaker Monolith world boss who can drop a decoration of himself because one of the players from that party wants the decoration, or they are farming to add the decoration to the Guild Ship. Does that mean that I can randomly go to Shoot a couple times that boss while they are fighting without even being in that party, and now I'm automaticaly in the loot pool with them, allowing me to have a chance of getting that decoration even tho I did nothing? Is that what is it going to be?

Edited by HunterSpetsnaz
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