The Winter/Spring Roadmap of 2018

The Winter/Spring Roadmap is here. This is the third Roadmap from Producer Keith Kanneg, and unlike the previous two, Keith chose to take a different approach and deliver it via the forums.

The good news is this allows him get information out to us a little faster, the downside is it’s lighter on some of the details we’ve gotten in the other Roadmaps, and covers a shorter period of time.

Those details will be filled in via blog posts as well as direct answers from Keith and Eric to the questions that players ask in the Roadmap post.

In a post I wrote on February 14th, I said that I had low expectations for the Roadmap because I thought it would cover a lot of things we knew were coming. I like it when developers surprise us with things we didn’t know were possible and we didn’t know we wanted. Alas, it was mostly a confirmation of things we knew were coming. That said, I am excited about what’s planned for March and April with Game Updates 5.8 and 5.9.

GAME UPDATE 5.8 – COMMAND AUTHORITY

Operations

So no Master mode Gods From the Machine after all. As Keith wrote, “based on what we’re planning for this year and beyond, it’s better to focus on the upcoming group content”. Master mode Operations never quite fit after the changes made to the game in Knights of the Fallen Empire. They had this “it goes to eleven” feel to them.

I’m just imagining the planning meeting for Izax where someone finally said “why don’t we make Veteran mode a little harder and make Veteran the top mode and make that a little harder?” I don’t know if this means the end of Mater mode for future Operations, however I’d like to believe sacrificing Master mode for the earlier bosses was done to focus on a future Operation.

Conquest Revamp

Conquest changes were teased in the Autumn Roadmap, so it’s no surprise to see that they’re finally happening.

I like Conquest and participate in it every week. I’m fortunate that I’m in a guild that consistently tops the leader board each week, however, I would love to see changes that make Conquest more competitive for everyone.

The Commander’s Compendium, which allows you to instantly boost a companion’s influence level to 50 might just get me running Conquest non-stop on multiple toons. I doubt if the item will be BoE, but I do hope that it is legacy-bound.

Companions

I’m a little surprised that the Arcann Romance is coming in 5.8 and not 5.9. I thought they’d want to return as many romance-able companions to us as they could before allowing us to seduce Arcann.

The other returning companions, Vector and Ashara are Imperial Agent and Sith Inquisitor only. Vector is the final missing companion for the Agent, and the return of Ashara just leaves Khem Val for the Sith Inquisitor. I think it’s safe to say that like Andronikus, Corso, and Risha, you’ll need to complete Chapter Nine of Knights of the Eternal Throne to get these alliance alerts.

GAME UPDATE 5.9 – THE NATHEMA CONSPIRACY

Raise your hand if you shunned all of the “we’re going back to Oricon” theories and instead insisted that we’d be returning to Nathema for the exciting conclusion to traitor storyline. You can’t see it, but both my hands are raised high in the air right now.

Now if you’re interested in knowing why I felt so strongly that the story would take us back to Nathema, be sure to check out Episode 62 of my podcast (starts at 23:37). As someone who is often wrong and never in doubt when it comes to predicting things, I was ecstatic to nail Nathema’s return.

I would’ve preferred to get the story as part of Game Update 5.8. Two months is a little far out and it feels like they’re just trying to stretch out the content.

I was surprised to see that they’re adding yet another tier of augments. I haven’t even tried to get any of the ones that were added in Game Update 5.6. With more on the way, I may have to do that now. I’ll be curious to see if they make the “older” ones easier to get.

Three more companions are coming back, this time Felix Iresso returns for the Jedi Consular. Mako returns for the Bounty Hunter and Akaavi Spar returns for the Smuggler, but with a twist. Because Mako and Akaavi have been working together the Bounty Hunter and Smuggler have the option to get both companions.

If you’re keeping count this is the last of the missing companions for the Bounty Hunter and Smuggler. This still leaves Nadia Grell, Theran Cedrax, and Zenith M.I.A. for the Consular.

I’m a little surprised that no returning companions were mentioned as part of the Nathema story. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but they weren’t shy about announcing Temple’s return for Copero. I had thought maybe Scourge or Kira might return as part of the story, but that seems unlikely now.

BEYOND GAME UPDATE 5.9

We now know what is coming Game Updates 5.8 and 5.9 and when it will arrive. What will happen the rest of 2018 is difficult to see. As Yoda said, “always in motion is the future.”

BioWare is struggling to figure out what what the right release cadence is for their content. As Keith mentioned he prefers “having updates released regularly versus waiting long periods of time in-between patches. Although this remains our current plan, we are also laying out what we’ll include in a 6.0 Game Update.” 

I have to agree with Keith, getting something new every month or every other month is nice, but that doesn’t work for everything. Getting a new story chapter each month like we did with Knights of the Fallen Empire is perfect. Releasing an Operation over the course of a year is utterly absurd.

I assume that when Keith talks about 6.0 he’s referring to a new expansion, and not a Game Update that’s tied to Knights of the Eternal Throne. If 6.0 is the next the expansion, then we probably won’t see it until Fall or Winter. Unless they plan to release a series of 5.9.x patches it will be a long gap between updates.

That’s the Winter/Spring Roadmap. I liked the new format of posting it on the forums, and I hope that Keith continues to do this, especially if it means giving us information sooner. I’m looking forward to Game Updates 5.8 and 5.9, but I was hoping for a few more surprises. The Commander’s Compendium, a new set of augments, and no Master mode for Gods From the Machine were the only things that I didn’t see coming.

The Conquest revamp, the Arcann romance, returning companions, and Izax, were all hinted at before. Even Nathema was solidly on my radar.

The coordinates are locked into the navi-computer and we know where we’re headed for the next couple of months. Let’s reunite with some old friends, spark a new romance, and see what fate has in store for us on Nathema. We’re going on the next road-trip.