[2022] 7.0 Follow Up

Hello SWTOR Community,

I wanted to offer some insight about what's been happening since the release of our expansion on February 15th. First of all, thanks to all the players who have shown Legacy of the Sith and our new cinematic trailer a lot of love. Many teams came together and worked very hard to make both possible. A small handful of us were able to spend launch week in an in-person ops room. Watching players react to the trailer and then start pouring into the servers will remain a fun memory for me.

Secondly, we know that 7.0 was not a smooth transition for some players, so we have been very busy since launch day resolving issues, minimizing any downtime, while fixing key issues without requiring a game patch. For example, during our first 72 hours, we identified critical bugs such as the issues with keybinding resets, empty gear boxes, and combat styles on characters not displaying properly and we corrected them all.

Since those initial fixes went out, the team has been reading reports and feedback coming in and making additional adjustments; at this point, further changes will require a full patch. In this upcoming patch, which we are labeling as 7.0.1, you can expect the below changes and much more to be included. Here are some of the most reported bugs we will be fixing in 7.0.1:

• Adjusted contrast in inventory screen
• Rakata Med-Tech’s weapons and offhands can now be upgraded at the Operations Gear Upgrade vendor, as intended
• Rakata Force-Lord’s weapons can now be upgraded, as intended
• The Category Filter in the Ability window is now showing all the categories. The Vehicles category now appears when the list is opened
• The following now contain loot: Tionese Requisition Cache, Noble Decurion Chest, World Boss Equipment Crate
• The Decurion Gear Containers and Decurion Gear caches now contain gear for all combat styles/disciplines
• Unifying colors on individual armor pieces is now correctly saved when leaving the outfitter window
• Galactic Seasons Reward Level 67 for Subscribers now correctly grants the “Sliced Cybernetic Visual Enhancement Implants” Legendary Companion gift for Fen Zeil, as intended
• Fixed an issue preventing players with Ryzen HS processors from viewing the list of available servers
• Companions and invited NPCs no longer despawn during the Graul boss fight in Secrets of the Enclave
• Veteran Mode Flashpoints in Group Finder can now be queued by all players at level 15+. Story Mode Operations in Group Finder can now only be queued by players level 80, as intended

Players can currently preview many of these changes on our Public Test Server (PTS) that was opened earlier this week. We are also working on putting together some preliminary PTS Patch Notes together, so everyone playing on PTS will have an understanding of what bugs are fixed. Jackie will post them in these forums once they are available.

We know that progress for some players is being halted in the Elom Flashpoint when fighting Malgus. Since the initial report that has come in, the team has been looking into the bug to understand why players are experiencing it. Here’s a little glimpse under the hood to give you some insight into why a potential fix is being tested on the PTS.

We have experienced this bug when playing on our live characters, however, this bug does not present itself on our development servers. Reproducing a bug on development servers is step one in resolving any issue as it allows us to dig deeper into the source of the problems.

The biggest offender of this issue is when Malgus is pulling or pushing the player. This creates one of two possibilities: something in the game is causing the player to take a substantial, unintended spike of damage which kills them, or the movement of their character is causing them to hit something we call a “death volume”. This is a space built into all environments that if a player enters, kills them instantly. In this case, this area is used as a mechanism to ensure players don’t ever get stuck in the environment. We have done explorations of the death volumes, combat triggers, the ballistics on Malgus’s attacks, and none of these appears to be the culprit. The bug remains so our hunt for a fix continues. As this issue only wants to rear its ugly head on live servers, we have made a couple of tweaks, most notably to death volumes, which you can help us test right now on PTS!

As of this post, this patch will include at least 200+ fixes of varying degrees. The player facing fixes will be reflected in the patch notes. Because we are implementing all of these fixes in one push, we want to ensure the necessary time is allocated to test them all to quality. We are currently targeting March 22 for 7.0.1, but we will update you all with a confirmed date as we get closer.

7.0 is a foundational update to the game. The fundamental refactoring of all abilities and Advanced Classes into Combat Styles, the addition of the long-requested Loadouts feature, and the beginnings of new UI/UX and Itemization constitute the most significant systemic changes made to SWTOR since launch. These are only the first steps toward the ambitious and inspiring vision we have for SWTOR's future. We are excited to continue bringing this vision to life in the ongoing updates and additions coming to the game this year and beyond. More story will be coming including new locations to explore, a PvP revamp, and more visual and modernization improvements are also underway. It was always intended that 7.0 would receive multiple updates in 2022 and beyond to celebrate ten years of SWTOR.

Not only does the launch of Legacy of the Sith begin the journey into updating the game, but this update also opens the doors to new players who have never experienced SWTOR before. 7.0 is meant to invite new players to the game while also bringing new experiences to returning and veteran players.

SWTOR is a ten year old game that is very dear to all of us, and we look forward to continuing the journey of a series of updates to make the game the best it can be.

- Keith

I agree about wanting to have it already fixed, but I also know we haven't stopped trying to replicate it so we can get it resolved. We have tons of data, but if there's any additional clues you can send us, or possibly a video of your particular encounter, that will help. I am truly sorry it's taking so long to get this and many other changes released. Thank you for your and everyone's help on our Public Test Server.

That's a catchy name. I'll discuss with Charles, but not sure he'll buy into it. In the meantime, we'll just use 7.0.1 for the bug patch update. Which reminds me, it's worth noting that 200+ bug fixes may not be reflected as 200+ patch notes. I mentioned player facing earlier and that simply means the ones a player might encounter. All of these would be in the patch notes.

We also have other issues we fix you may never see/experience, but those are included and picked up during our build process. For example, an internal tool adjustment, or a server side change.

We did make key changes to the way we approach rewards in 7.0. We rotate content (including Flashpoints available in Groupfinder and Weekly missions for Daily Areas) for a couple of reasons. First, it allows all reward calendars to be aligned. Conquests, Galactic Seasons, and the Featured weekly content all line up, which means players can make progress towards multiple rewards at once.

Second, we heard loud and clear from 6.0 feedback that farming one particular piece of content (like Hammer Station, or a particular Weekly above all others) because it was the fastest way to gear up, but it just wasn't fun. In 7.0, we rotate content to mix and match some of the shortest and longest flashpoints and weeklies each week. As a result, there is more variety in the type of content the gearing system rewards players for completing. Instead of gathering a sheer quantity of items to sort through to find an upgrade in 6.0, which required more and more efficient runs to maximize the amount of gear acquired, we moved to a system that virtually guarantees upgrades to gear by just doing the featured content each week. At the end of the day it results in a quality over quantity philosophy.

When content is not in rotation, it is still available and rewards are still offered, but to a lesser degree. For example, all Flashpoints are accessible by walking into their entrance, however since Groupfinder is the delivery method for ensuring upgrade rewards, not all Flashpoints are available in Groupfinder each week unless they are featured.

For Daily missions, we have Weekly mission wrappers ('do 6 dailies') for each area, which are the delivery method for larger rewards. These weekly missions are only available when the rewards are available, which is if they are featured that week. However all of the dailies associated with these missions are still available at all times, and still reward items relevant to gearing or upgrading gear, just at a slower rate than the featured content.

All of that boils down to featured content is about aligning different reward tracks such as conquest and Galactic Seasons, plus mixing up content with short and long completion times together to prevent some of the issues that awarding all content equally brought to the table in the 6.0 era.

I know that doesn't address being shoe-horned into content, but I hope it does provide the insight as to why we decided to make these changes. What I have noticed in-game is there are a lot more players in the areas, and with share tagging of mobs, I'm finding I'm not waiting around for respawns.

Some thoughts:

About companion strength, were investigating why they are underperforming in level-synced content.

With respect to modernizing our UI, we know this is an area where opinions are going to vary widely, and we dont expect that to change. However, these updates are vital to the ongoing success of SWTOR as technology continues to improve far beyond where it was when the game shipped, such as monitor resolutions or GPUs being faster and having more memory. We know UI changes must be evolutionary and we need to ensure consistency, improved experience, and just better overall flow.

We are listening and will continue to make adjustments based on your feedback. We are hopeful as we release patches, well find a balance between updated designs, making adjustments, and ensuring your play experience is enjoyable.

--Keith-

Hi TMasterWind,

We do not have info to share about 7.1 at the moment as there is a lot of focus on 7.0.1. However, once we do have those details to share, we will be informing everyone on the forums/the website and social channels.