Road Ahead: 1/31/2019 [MEGA]

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Sunnie1978
2937 posts Moderator
DEV POST
CG_Carrie wrote: »

Hello Holotable Heroes!

After an exciting end of the year with the release of Grand Arena, C3PO, and Han’s Millennium Falcon, the Capital Games offices are bustling again with plans for the upcoming quarters. We’ve spent much of the past few months focusing on the roadmap, including a bold and somewhat audacious five-year version, but as always, I’m here to talk a little bit about the next couple of months.
When we sit down to plan the next year’s roadmap, one of the key things that we focus on is learnings from the previous one. Since so much of the core of the game is collecting and strategizing with the iconic characters and ships from the Star Wars universe, we are constantly learning and, when necessary, adjusting the way we release them - especially the types of events we run and their cadence. To ensure that we bring you awesome new Star Wars content in a way that feels balanced, fair, and allows you to really dig in and enjoy each moment, we’re continuing to work on the balance between Marquees, reworks, “achievement characters” (more on that in a moment), and Legendaries/Hero’s Journey/Ancient Journeys.
While we are finessing the delivery systems, we also want to try a couple of different formats. To that end, we will be releasing the Emperor’s Command Shuttle in a new event called the Galactic Chase. This event will take place on one of the Cantina holotables, as the Command Shuttle will be immediately released to specific nodes there. This will allow you to earn shards of the ship while accruing other resources and completing daily activities that you would already be doing anyway on these nodes. We hope that you enjoy the way this celebrates the arrival of a new ship - without requiring a separate energy grind.
Alongside this and the more traditional events, we will be introducing more achievement-based characters this year. They may show up as actual achievement rewards or in currency shops (such as Wampa and Hermit Yoda). We’ll be able to talk about that more in-depth in coming months.

Quality of Life
As always, we begin the year with a Quality of Life update. Many of the items that have populated our Quality of Life list comes from things we’ve seen you talk about on the forums, feedback we’ve received from customer satisfaction surveys, and the actual play patterns and feedback we see reflected in how you play the game. We also always look for time saving opportunities as we recognize that subsequent updates often require an increased amount of time spent in the game.

To that end, one of our big QOL features this year is going to be raid simming. If a guild has beaten the Heroic Rancor raid a certain number of times and a (to be determined) number of guild members have Han Solo at 7*, the guild will be able to sim completion of the Rancor Raid and all guild members will receive equal rewards. While we are still tuning the exact rewards, the intention is to keep the inflow of rewards but allow guilds to enjoy the rewards and spend their time on new content without having to repeat the version of an event they’ve mastered. At this time, we are only activating raid simming on the Rancor, but will be able to explore adding it to the other raids at a later date. We should note, that if, for any reason, you don't want to sim the Rancor, you always have the option to play through the way it is currently with the current reward distribution.

To save players time and for convenience of squad selection and management – we will be adding the squad management button to the Character Inventory screen. This will replace the “Buy Data Cards” button that is currently there. Our data showed that was the least used button on that screen. Once on the squad select screen, more information will be surface at the top level, including the character name (in case you’re having difficulty telling your Jawas apart), Gear level, and a brand new “shared” indicator. This can be turned on from inside the character management pages, where you can indicate whether you want to be notified of any duplicate characters being used within a single tab. This will allow you to more easily use the tabs to fill out complete rosters for Territory Wars/Battles/the Raids/etc. We’ve added similar functionality for Mod Loadout management as well.

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We are also excited to bring you changes to the in-combat buff/debuff user interface. A new button has been added to the screen to allow you to quickly turn on or off the full buff display and reveal more of the screen. With it off, a few key buffs (such as Taunt, Foresight, and unique buffs) will be visible, but after a certain number of buffs have been applied, “lower-priority” buffs will be collapsed behind an overall numeric indicator of the number of active buffs/debuffs. You can use the new toggle to expand to the full buff list, or you can keep them hidden. You can also tap to expand or collapse individual character buff/debuff lists. New buffs/debuffs will flash briefly before docking behind the minimized window. This feature is one of the items inside of our beta test that we are asking players to provide feedback on, and we will make modifications to the number of visible icons, which buffs are prioritized, and other factors based on how our beta testers respond. As always, if you’re interested in becoming a beta tester, keep an eye on the official SWGOH forums for when we look for new candidates.

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We are also looking to improve the matchmaking of the Grand Arena. One of the clearest improvements we could make based on the data from the first few runs is that when ships are not used in the Grand Arena, ship GP will not contribute to matchmaking. While we will not reveal all the components of the matchmaking formula, we will continue to adjust certain aspects and explain them when relevant. There are a number of other quality of life polish and bug fixes going into the update, which all be revealed in the patch notes on the official forums.

New Content
February is going to be differently themed than the past two years, as we are VERY excited to bring you Separatist droids! We’ve given a lot of attention to various aspects of the universe in the past two years, particularly the Original Trilogy and The Old Republic. With the return of The Clone Wars animated series (#clonewarslives), we are excited to explore more content from The Clone Wars animated series.
This includes a Marquee for the B1 Battle Droid, who will appear as a single unit on the battlefield, but whose abilities reflect the pervasiveness of the seemingly un-ending units behind it.
Additionally we are going to be releasing the Droideka, the shielded destroyer droids, who, combined with the B1, the rework of the B2 Battle Droid, and rework of the Magnaguard all serve at the behest of one particular droid commander. *cough*

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General Grievous is getting a rework, and we are very excited to tie that into the rest of the Clone Wars droids in a way that fulfills the fantasy of this strategic Separatist battlefield commander.
And that’s all for now! There will be more information as always in the coming weeks if you hop on over to the official forums.
You hear that meatbags? I will be back!

-Carrie Gouskos, Senior Producer





DEV POST

Replies

  • I like a lot of this. Good work.

    Does B1 sound like a droid version of Nightsister Zombie to anyone else?
  • Ultra
    11454 posts Moderator
    Rancor Raid Sim is great. Hope the rewards aren't awful distribution or nerfed

    Now if only the tank raid was given the same extension
  • Love the Separatist droid reworks! Perfectly time for the new Clone Wars content! Hoping the reworks of Grievous, B2 and Magnaguard make them usable characters, finally!
  • Dk_rek
    3299 posts Member
    Its like..... every bad thing EXCEPT ship content not being available i take back....

    Very very interesting love the ship GP, the seps love it

    Thanks team now get on ship content
  • Alot to digest. It doesnt appear that February will be Sith month after all. Do you take the chance and stop farming OR characters and Sith fighter/bomber.... tough choice.

    You kind of hope that GG/droideka/IG100/B1/B2 will be a formidable force
  • I like a lot of this. Good work.

    Does B1 sound like a droid version of Nightsister Zombie to anyone else?

    B1 sounds exactly like a droid version on NS zombie. If they make GG into the jedi killer that was part of the Clone Wars it will help shift the meta in a big way. I am excited and can't wait to see where it goes from here
  • Hypeeeeeeee
  • Ultra
    11454 posts Moderator
    Alot to digest. It doesnt appear that February will be Sith month after all. Do you take the chance and stop farming OR characters and Sith fighter/bomber.... tough choice.

    You kind of hope that GG/droideka/IG100/B1/B2 will be a formidable force
    Why would you stop?

    I mean... who else would you farm instead?
  • Leytuhas wrote: »
    Congrats on posting the road ahead after I already read this in a speculation and leak thread. Real good job being ahead of the game on your own content.

    Wondered how long it would be until the first moan, there really is no pleasing some people! I don't know why you bother coming on here if you already know it all, just to complain?

    A long awaited but very promising Road ahead, good job CG, thanks :smile:
  • Lio
    1003 posts Member
    edited January 2019
    Leytuhas wrote: »
    Congrats on posting the road ahead after I already read this in a speculation and leak thread. Real good job being ahead of the game on your own content.

    Why you gotta be that guy?
  • Alot to digest. It doesnt appear that February will be Sith month after all. Do you take the chance and stop farming OR characters and Sith fighter/bomber.... tough choice.

    You kind of hope that GG/droideka/IG100/B1/B2 will be a formidable force

    It depends whether you're following the meta, or what you love. I'm gonna keep farming OR characters and the Sith ships because OR is my favorite era. I just barely missed Revan last time and got him this time and I am incredibly happy with where I'm at at the moment.

    But if you're chasing meta, go for the Separatist droids. She hinted at HK (You hear that meatbags?) rework so you can look out for that, but I'd say for the time being if you want meta, get Grevious.
  • Ultra
    11454 posts Moderator
    Leytuhas wrote: »
    Congrats on posting the road ahead after I already read this in a speculation and leak thread. Real good job being ahead of the game on your own content.
    I bet you send hate mail to Apple and Samsung when an internal employee leaks the upcoming device a few days or weeks before its announcement
  • Lio
    1003 posts Member
    Ultra wrote: »
    Leytuhas wrote: »
    Congrats on posting the road ahead after I already read this in a speculation and leak thread. Real good job being ahead of the game on your own content.
    I bet you send hate mail to Apple and Samsung when an internal employee leaks the upcoming device a few days or weeks before its announcement

    "Sir.. SIR!! I asked for ketchup but you only gave me TWO PACKETS! SIIIR!"
  • Im disappointed as i was hoping for sith month.
    Nevertheless, this is also good stuff, so thank you.
  • My favorite part of this entire post was the meatbags HK reference at the very end. And what it’s probably alluding to.
  • Anybody know what the emperor’s command shuttle is?
  • I love everything about this!
    Ooba hutar.
  • So excited for this! Can’t wait to see how everything pans out
  • Lio
    1003 posts Member
    Anybody know what the emperor’s command shuttle is?

    You remember that ship he arrives in at the second Death Star during Episode VI? The one with two wings and a fin?
  • Lio wrote: »
    Anybody know what the emperor’s command shuttle is?

    You remember that ship he arrives in at the second Death Star during Episode VI? The one with two wings and a fin?

    Yup. Gotta get people to gear up Royal Guard!
  • Alot to digest. It doesnt appear that February will be Sith month after all. Do you take the chance and stop farming OR characters and Sith fighter/bomber.... tough choice.

    You kind of hope that GG/droideka/IG100/B1/B2 will be a formidable force

    Note the HK47 meatbag reference. Don’t stop farming OR.
  • Awesome awesome awesome! Can't wait for all of it. Every paragraph has something great, looks like 2019 going to be an awesome year for Star Wars. I don't care for the new Star Wars movies but CG has nailed Star Wars in this game.
  • Anybody know what the emperor’s command shuttle is?

    This beauty:
    latest?cb=20150920051331
  • CamaroAMF wrote: »
    Alot to digest. It doesnt appear that February will be Sith month after all. Do you take the chance and stop farming OR characters and Sith fighter/bomber.... tough choice.

    You kind of hope that GG/droideka/IG100/B1/B2 will be a formidable force

    Note the HK47 meatbag reference. Don’t stop farming OR.

    Yeah true. Better to be safe than sorry
  • Raid simming is awesome but isn't the more important metric to raid simming the ability of a guild to clear it easily?

    Example you take 50 people who can beat the rancor on auto in 10 minutes, they start a new guild and can't sim the raid for 6 months.... What the hell is that.

    If the content is trivial for a guild then you should be able to sim it.
  • Looks like AhnaldT101 is going to be doing back flips and cartwheels down the street yelling about grievous getting his rework!
  • A small step for man... i’m excited about the long await release of sepretist droids (who oddly enough played a huge roll in the sequals...) kenobi rework please? Forget the clone wars cartoon ( don’t hate me) it would also be nice to see jedi knight kenobi. If you can give us 5 Han Solo’s without request, how about a Kenobi with request by the community?

    Thoughts? Am i wrong or right on this opinion?
  • Ultra
    11454 posts Moderator
    CamaroAMF wrote: »
    Alot to digest. It doesnt appear that February will be Sith month after all. Do you take the chance and stop farming OR characters and Sith fighter/bomber.... tough choice.

    You kind of hope that GG/droideka/IG100/B1/B2 will be a formidable force

    Note the HK47 meatbag reference. Don’t stop farming OR.
    And the reference is at the end of the blog where she talks about the month of Feb. They don't talk about what's going on in March and Darth Revan is scheduled for Feb 28 / start of March which is after the whole separatist thing
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