BioWare released a new developer blog on what’s ahead in 2017. Check it out: 1j472r
Hi everyone,
Our Star Wars™: The fan sites, and received lots of from conversations at our Cantina events!
This SWTOR Roap offers insight into our direction for the quality of life improvements, and plans for overall gameplay changes.
I have included a section about Communication and how we plan to keep you informed throughout the year. We will unquestionably keep some things out of the spotlight and we may not go into great depth about a change until we are ready to discuss it, but I’m hopeful you’ll enjoy our increased communication.
So, what’s next and what can you expect from SWTOR in the coming months? Where are we headed longer term, and how do we address the myriad of questions everyone wants answered?
We have been saying for a while now our focus this gameplay improvements will continue throughout this year and will include revisiting existing game systems to provide enhancements where needed whenever possible.
OPERATIONS
It’s been far too long since we provided you with extremely challenging multi-player activities. We all know our Operations (8 to 16-player PvE boss fights) are a favorite pastime for Guilds, are the fastest way to gear up, and when done properly, cause all of us to keep showing up every week until we can place that Boss on farm status!
Delivering an Operation is a fundamental change in our direction this year and our plan is to provide you with a new end of the year or for an expansion.
Some of you are already fighting Esne and Aivela on our Public Test Server (PTS) and the has really been excellent. We’re looking forward to July when you can fight these two sisters.
We’ve already changed how our level or ‘Tier’ know which bosses drop rewards and what items you will have a chance to earn.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER (PVP)
We introduced two new update on all the rewards in an forum post.
We know Class balance is a hot topic for our PvP community and the let us know your opinions after each update, too.
We are reviewing ways to improve use of your wide range of characters, and one of our top priorities is to make allows you to play with any of your alternate characters while gaining benefits across your entire Legacy.
The remainder of the year includes a new Warzone, Galactic Starfighter (our space PvP gameplay expansion) changes, changes to Ranked PvP, earlier notification of Season 9 rewards, and continued review/adjustment of class balances.
We will continue moving the ™ Celebration 2017, the next major story update is coming in August with Crisis on Umbara featuring an exciting new Flashpoint on the shadowy planet. We won’t give you spoilers about this new area, but we’ll reveal more as we get closer to general release.
We know companions you received through Alliance Alerts.
We will continue to provide regular improvements for companions this Companions remain an important part of SWTOR and we look forward to introducing improved ways for you to engage with them.
In addition, based on the we received about Iokath, we are exploring options for new Daily areas, adding or updating events, and offering special rewards for a variety of in-game activities.
Quality of Life (QoL) is a term regularly used to reference Interface, simplifying ways to do things in-game, increasing the speed of mounts, adding Legacy Perks, and more.
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 on other customization options you would like to see!
The following is our planned Summer of SWTOR 2017 Game Updates along with highlights of what is included with each release:
NAR SHADDAA SUMMER – GAME UPDATE 5.2.2 – JUNE 13TH
- The return of the Gamorrean Companion!
- Starfighter Improvements – Increased Requisition gains, Gunship and Bomber available by default, some new ship customization options
- Companion Influence earned from Crew Skill Missions
- Command Legacy Perk to increase CXP gains on all your other characters
- The ability to craft Tier 4 armor is now available
- Both Theron Shan and Shae Vizla’s appearances can now be customized
- New Legacy Perks: Mount Speed 4 & 5 (120% & 130% increased movement speed)
- Tier 1 gear can now be purchased for Command Tokens
SISTERS OF CARNAGE – GAME UPDATE 5.3 – JULY
- Gods from the Machine’s second encounter Aivela and Esne in Story and Veteran Mode
- A brand-new Stronghold with a great view of the Ocean
- The ability to search for Stronghold Decorations using new filters
- The start of Class balance changes for the following:
- Sorcerer/Sage
- Powertech / Vanguard
- Assassin / Shadow
- Sniper / Gunslinger
- Mercenary / Commando
- Operative / Scoundrel
- Appearances for additional companions can now be customized
CRISIS ON UMBARA – GAME UPDATE 5.4 – AUGUST
- The story will continue in a new Flashpoint: Crisis on Umbara
- Appearances for additional companions can now be customized
- And more to come…
We want to improve our cadence of releasing information to you. It is important to us that you know your opinions count and you have a serious stake in whatever changes we make to the game. To do this, we must chat with you on a regular basis and with a specific focus in mind – that’s our plan.
Starting this week and weekly thereafter throughout June and July, we are going to be posting on the forums to share specific features we’re thinking about and those already in-process. We want to get your input and talk through the pros and cons of each topic to see how you feel. We’ll set expectations for how we want to interact to keep our engagement productive, but if we all do this correctly, it’ll be a fun and rewarding experience.
We will be posting on a very wide range of topics, everything from new content to the reinvigoration of existing features. Look out for these posts every Wednesday (if that changes, we’ll let you know in advance).
And of course, I will plan to deliver an way you can see not only the direction we are heading, but you’ll know what to expect specifically over the few months.
I look forward to our continued discussions!
Respectfully,
—Keith
