Star Wars: The Old Republic Unveils Big Plans For 2014

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Star Wars: The Old Republic Unveils Big Plans For 2014


Electronic Arts says two more major expansions are planned for Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2014.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Senior Producer Bruce Maclean revealed some big plans for the game in 2014 in a new "Producer's road Map," which includes two digital expansions to the game, "one similar to Galactic Starfighter in scope and one more closely resembling Rise of the Hutt Cartel." On top of that, EA is also "actively developing" new Flashpoints, Operations, PvP Seasons, equipment, class changes and more, and while nothing is carved in stone, the intent is to get it all out by the end of 2014.

Another big change is in the timing between minor patches, which is being expanded from two weeks to three. Maclean acknowledged that the lengthier development time will mean a "nine-week cadence for major updates" but said the benefits of improved quality control will justify the extra wait.

In other bits of note, two new Flashpoints on Tython and Korriban that will force direct confrontations between the Empire and Republic are scheduled for April 8, new ships and a new Ship Role for Galactic Starfighter will hit on June 10 and, speaking of Galactic Starfighter, it is open to free-to-play players as of today.

All the dates are subject to change, which should come as no surprise to anyone, but Maclean said these are the "best estimates based on what the teams are shooting for as of right now." To get the full lowdown on what's in store for Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2014, hit up swtor.com [http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140203].


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J Tyran

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Dec 15, 2011
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No matter the problems with the game you have to give them credit for sticking with it and trying to improve it, so many flagging MMOs would have been either neglected and receive very little in the way of updates or even completely abandoned. Some just get shut down too.
 

Quiotu

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J Tyran said:
No matter the problems with the game you have to give them credit for sticking with it and trying to improve it, so many flagging MMOs would have been either neglected and receive very little in the way of updates or even completely abandoned. Some just get shut down too.
Truthfully I don't give EA any credit for flubbing the MMO and trying to bring an ancient model back. No matter how many people think they want another WoW, they don't want to pay for it. I will give them credit, however, for finding a F2P model that seems to work... and clearly it does, otherwise they'd have pulled the plug on it long ago.

And while it does seem like EA's not helping lately with trying to do more with less, part of the blame would have to be on Bioware as well. They're not above scorn, they've made a few odd mistakes lately, and I wouldn't doubt if they were at least on-board with the failed model they originally tried with TOR.

And before people start up on the new model, yes it's not QUITE F2P, and there's a paywall to a certain extent. But it's an incredibly cheap paywall; you only need to spend a few bucks to consider your account 'preferred' and gain MOST of what's left in pure Free Mode. Five dollars and most of what's locked for a sub is released to an extent... that is hardly unfair.
 

templar1138a

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Whatever. When I get my characters to level fifty, then I'll consider getting RotHC to raise the cap. *goes back to playing TOR as single-player as possible*.
 

kael013

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So basically: A new minigame, another planetary story touted as a new chapter (seriously, I'd wish they'd give up this whole Avengers-esque idea since so many plots were left dangling at the end of the Chapter 3 and companion storylines), more Flashpoints (yay! No, really, this part's cool. I love Flashpoints), more Operations to grind for gear that's more powerful than the level cap should allow(55 DPS with starting raid gear and I can't complete the Oricon daily area solo. WTF), and more PvP stuff(don't care as I PvE, but this is good since PvP hardly gets anything). New equipment and class changes are so common as to be irrelevant.

Personally, I think their content release model is hurting them. They say that they can't do story chapters or continue companion stories (these two things are half the reason I bought the game) like they did in the original game because it's too much work and too expensive. Then they release 3-5 content updates a year for free, along with a "minor expansion". This means a lot of dev time is being funded by the CM and subs without generating a profit once released. They need to either fully commit to the WoW model they were originally shooting for and reduce the amount of free content updates and release a bigger expansion every year for, like, $20 or something, or improve their cash shop to Guild Wars 2's level so it can fund everything. Right now they are trying to have it both ways and it's just hurting them.
 

TimeLord75

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Sep 3, 2009
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So here's a question: Why the hell can't they just adopt the space model SWG used? There was PvE, PvP, exploration--hell, there was even at least 1 ship (a yacht of some kind, I forget the name) that could only be used to bop around & see the sights. It had no weapons & couldn't get shot at, you could decorate the interior (which was HUGE) like you could your planetside house & bring a bunch of friends along to see the sights!

As many bugs and issues as pre-CU SWG had, it remains an overall vastly superior game to TOR. ESPECIALLY where the space content is concerned.
 

the27thvoice

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Aug 19, 2010
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Finally making a Mac client would win me over. Seriously, that's mostly what keeps me subscribing to WoW at this point.