SWTOR game producer Keith Kanneg was a guest in the newest episode of Bad Feeling Podcast, where Brian and Chuck got to ask him a few questions about the 5.8 and 5.9 Roadmap, the Cartel Market and upcoming content in 2018.
Bad Feeling Podcast, Episode 190 – Keith Speaks
In episode 190 of The Bad Feeling Podcast the two hosts Brian and Chuck offered a 40-ish minutes long interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic game producer Keith Kanneg and community manager Eric Musco. The main topic was the recently released Winter/Spring 2018 Roadmap and what’s coming to the game in 2018. Keith explained in the very beginning the main reason why this roadmap was delayed – it’s his first time being a game director and all these never-ending meetings and conferences related to the end of the fiscal year for EA and Bioware completely took all of his time. He also made it very clear that he’s happy with the direction of the game. His plan is to follow what he started with in 2017 and continue delivering more of the same in 2018.
PvP NEWS
As Keith has stated several times in the past – PvP is one of his personal big passions in SWTOR and he would love to see more content added to that part of the game in 2018. In fact, he hinted a couple of times of a new upcoming Warzone (possibly more than one) in 2018. He reminded us of Game Update 5.6, where we got to see several segments of the game receiving new content with the Copero Flashpoint, a new GSF map and the Yavin 4 warzone. He said the studio is aiming to deliver more updates like this one – various aspects of the game covered at the same time by offering new stuff for players of all sorts.
New gearing options for PvP players is something the developers are also considering for 2018, but no details on what exactly we could expect and when. The end date for Season 9 is still unclear and expected to be “some time in the Summer”. Rewards have still not been shown or even announced either.
PvE HINTS
On the PvE front Keith was a lot more talkative (though, not nearly as much as we all need him to be). He confirmed that the new tier of Augments are indeed a brand new pattern for players to earn and craft – they are higher and even more expensive than the ones we got in 5.6. These new items will be only required for players, who aim to defeat the most challenging content in the game – the new upcoming final Gods from the Machine Operation Boss Izax in its Veteran Mode Difficulty. As previously stated, this boss will be much more challenging to defeat than any other encounter in the game. Keith also acknowledged that once a new piece of gear is released, everybody wants to have it and some degree of protests from the PvP community (being forced to farm PvE for their high-end gear) is inevitable, but that’s the decision Biware has taken and Keith believes it to be the right one.
A lot of new story is coming too, likely in the same style and manner – segmented across game updates and featuring new Flashpoints. That’s what was happening since the beginning of The War For Iokath and Keith seems to be happy with this direction. Let’s not forget that what he personally is happy with, doesn’t exactly have much of a say in this as this game, much like any other MMO out there, has enough metrics to help point the developers in the direction that’s best.
6.0 TALK
We know it’s coming, it was confirmed even before the roadmap already. Several times during the interview Keith mentioned that 6.0 is coming, but the studio has not yet decided what exactly will be included in it and how the update will be delivered. Keith prefers small incremental updates being delivered more frequently, rather than a big gap and an expansion to follow after it. He refused to speak of any time frame regarding 6.0, but was more free with his explanation as to why the Iokath Operation’s Master Mode was canceled. And here comes the biggest hint he gave us – he wants more new Multiplayer Content to be worked on for 2018 and his Operations Design Team to focus on new Operations, rather than going back to re-calibrate the existing one for a new difficulty mode. Keith didn’t forget to mention that he is very aware of the prevailing opinion among the community that an operation should be released as a whole, instead of being delivered one boss every few months.
How to Get a Cheap SWTOR Subscription
Everybody knows that in MMOs the biggest influx of new and returning players is when a new expansion or big update is released. Keith, however, doesn’t believe in this as he is certain smaller and more frequent updates can also serve as an appeal to new players and returning veterans to check out what Patch X is bringing.
CARTEL MARKET
During the interview a discussion revolving around the direct sales on the Cartel Marked sparked and Keith explained the reason why Bioware refuses to put all items for a stand-alone price to be sold constantly all the time. It’s simple – while this would be a great rise in earnings for the company in short-term, their research shows it will not be profitable in the long run. Direct Sales are going to continue the way they are – for a limited time and with a carefully calculated price by the CM team.
SWTOR Weekly Cartel Market Items Changes Peports
Non Cartel Market unique items such as the upcoming special reward from Izax and the Wings of the Architect will remain InGame only and will not be brought to the Cartel Market. In fact, Keith hinted at more new and interesting items coming to the game soon that will not be replicated and re-skinned for the Market.
CONQEUST REVAMP
At the end of the interview there was a Conquest segment, where Eric Musco explained what can we expect from the newly revamped Conquest system coming with Game Update 5.8 on 13th of March.
I wont go into details about this one, because it didn’t offer much outside of what we already know from my detailed coverage of the recent forum posts describing the upcoming changes.
That’s my summary of what I heard and the way I heard it during the interview. I did my best not to include personal thoughts and expectations. My visions for the game don’t exactly match with Bioware’s fans and I would prefer more resources to be dedicated to it so the team can afford regular small updates + a big real expansion at the end of the year.
What do you think? Don’t forget to check out The Bad Feeling Podcast’s episode 190 (and all others, these two guys are great with what they do and how they do it!). After you get the full picture, I would be interested to hear your personal thoughts on what Keith said.
