So from what I have seen on the forums there seems to be several people who have not yet seen the Bad Feeling Podcast Buvette with Charles Boyd and Eric Musco, which is a very interesting and fun little interview about 5.10 Jedi Under Siege as well as things that we can expect and see in the future.

Some subjects that are discussed are for example: the continued merge of the Alliance into the Empire/Republic, the bugfixes that are incoming, the gearing issue, conquests, the future of the story and how the loyalist/saboteur narrative will continue to play out and lots more! Oh yeah, there is also talk about... a 6.0 ~hypothetical~ expansion

You can watch it here, it's really fun and worth it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/348746660

question : is this game will be base on more or less grind ?

From the sound of it there will be continued gear progression changes in a potential 6.0 expansion. Charles Boyd hinted at the fact that, if a hypothetical expansion would come out, the max level of 70 would be increased to (presumably) 75 and thus new gear would be released as well. Whether or not there will be more gear changes before the expansion isn't mentioned. I have a feeling that the Ossus Masterwork gear is to keep us busy until then.

I listened to it and I banged out a transcript of the bit about the proposed merger--for complete accuracy please listen to the actual podcast. This is my hopefully mostly accurate version below:

Brian (guy asking question): …The Alliance is merging back into one or the other, the Republic or the Empire, how thorough is that going to be? So if you have a warrior that was formerly the hand of the Emperor, will that warrior be able to be the wrath of the emperor again, under Acina? Is that going to be like that, or is your chacter…

Charles: Certainly not in 5.10, right, you are just kind of establishing a more formal alliance. So you are a very, very valued friend…(laughing, jokes)…I could see us going that way eventually, um, I couldn’t like speak to an exact time frame where it would happen, right, and I know…because there’s a lot of players who don’t want that…they very specifically want to keep that degree of separation because they like that autonomy, so trying to find that right balance. So if we could, I think, for me the thing I would need, is either a really really great reason that everyone merges back to the factions, or a really really good way to keep it going either way, right? We are still friends but we’re not that friendly. (laughing) “I’m back in, I want my Dark Council seat, forget the Alliance ever existed,” I know there’s people who want that direction, it’s tricky because we want to please all masters as best we can.

That sure doesn't sound like a definite merger to me. I'm thinking a compromise looms.

From the sound of it there will be continued gear progression changes in a potential 6.0 expansion. Charles Boyd hinted at the fact that, if a hypothetical expansion would come out, the max level of 70 would be increased to (presumably) 75 and thus new gear would be released as well. Whether or not there will be more gear changes before the expansion isn't mentioned. I have a feeling that the Ossus Masterwork gear is to keep us busy until then.

Wait, wait.... so 6.0 is hypothetical now? Was that their words?

Wait, wait.... so 6.0 is hypothetical now? Was that their words?

By the sounds of it there will be more 5.# releases.

By the sounds of it there will be more 5.# releases.

Well I've said I fully expect a 5.99 because I don't think there is an expansion coming. All the grind they've introduced, nerfs, etc are all designed as time wasters. The word hypothetical only confirms my beliefs that the state of the studio is in such a way they can't confirm or deny an expansion.

By the sounds of it there will be more 5.# releases.

I assumed there would be. All the talk of Kira and Scourge didn't sound like it would be in a full fledged expansion. But it still does raise the question of whether they have one officially planned or not.

I assumed there would be. All the talk of Kira and Scourge didn't sound like it would be in a full fledged expansion. But it still does raise the question of whether they have one officially planned or not.

Uh? I think it was during the Interview with Vulkk where Eric and Charles confirmed 6.0. As long as they don't seriously say that 6.0 is in doubt again that's what's gonna happen. Considering all the necessary bugfixing post 5.10 it may be delayed.

Well I've said I fully expect a 5.99 because I don't think there is an expansion coming. All the grind they've introduced, nerfs, etc are all designed as time wasters. The word hypothetical only confirms my beliefs that the state of the studio is in such a way they can't confirm or deny an expansion.

Listen to the entirety, the way they are speaking about 6.0 evidently suggests there is an expansion in the works and several Bioware Influencers are confirming the devs are working on a 6.0 expansion. They just can't release the timeframe yet, that's all. They used the "hypothetical" in a joking sense because it is obvious that an expansion is in the works.

Here's the notes RikuvonDrake made on reddit, I also added some other notes. Keep in my mind if you want a more in depth answer you need to watch the stream. I would recommend you watch it.

Notes from the Bad Feeling Buvette with Community Manager Eric Musco and Creative Director Charles Boyd, the buvette is an hour and a half but here are some notes from it if you don't have time to watch to the full video!

 

TLDR

 

5.10 Story is the first step of the next Arc

 

Potential gearing updates in future

 

Few more patches before 6.0

 

No more server merges:, the servers are healthy.

 

 

 

 

Story

5.10: backstory and multiple perspectives on storyline, two separate storylines was the intention based on player feedback and made sense after 4.0 and 5.0.

 

Choices made before and in 5.10 will matter in future, considering the option to swap faction at a later point but depends on storyline development.

 

There could be a small additional patch with story before 6.0

 

Companions

Players have many companions making it difficult to introduce story for each one, Charles wants to tie returning companions to story in a realistic way and include existing companions. The recent State of the Galaxy, for example, has parts about Zakuul which could potentially have Koth dialogue and other related characters.

 

Also Charles said a comp having the option to die is NOT a factor on being included in the story or not. He believes it's worth to have those companions included.

 

Kira is coming back, Keith really wants her back, difficult to make the story fit due to high expectations. However asks players if they would want a short return that would come very fast or would rather wait for a satisfy return.

 

Vaylin unlikely to return as a companion, despite the requests from players to be able to romance her, weird from a story perspective.

 

Future story has the potential to include droid romance.

 

Unlikely to introduce kill companions option, such as Lana, without any justification based on clear choices in the story.

 

PvE

Gearing is complicated and could be adjusted in upcoming patches, the new gear was mainly meant for Nightmare Gods from the Machine bosses as the raid is balanced around those stats.

 

Some bugs will be fixed in upcoming patches (Eric references to his forum post) but due to holidays, most things will have to wait until after new years to avoid repeating the Ravagers exploit a situation.

 

PvP

Difficult player base to make happy, in 5.10 PvEers have an advantage and that is partly intended as so much of the new content revolves around Ossus.

 

PvPers should be able to gain new gear through reputation tokens from ranked/unranked weeklies and the masterwork data crystals using components.

 

No intention to put bolster at 258, would remove the gear progression and it would complicate potential future PvP updates like if they want to reintroduce expertise or change gearing.

 

Ranked Weeklies require 50 warzones played (wins counts as x5), many players did ranked and just died/contributed nothing to gain the rewards, this update is a first step and devs will monitor and adjust in future updates if required.

 

Conquest

Small vs Big guilds isn’t as easy to balance, large guilds are more or less just doing what small guilds are doing but with more people. That comes with challenges like harder to organize events and direct many players, part of the guild perk system is meant to help this as all guilds have the same possibilities and potential to reach the higher perks, just at a different pace.

 

Opening more planets per week to allow more winners every week is something that the developers are considering and discussing but no comment at the moment.

 

Future things

5.10 isn’t the last update before 6.0, there will be more updates before and the next one will be 5.10.1 which will include the Ossus instanced boss Geonosis Queen, that boss drops 258 weapons as well as a related vanity item.

 

Guild Heraldry is coming, might not be ready for the next patch (5.10.1) but is being developed.

 

No comments about 6.0, but what you would expect to be there is most likely going to be there, such as a new tier of gear and new level cap.

 

Other things

Introducing big beard customization is difficult due to how it would clip with outfits.

 

New Playable Species is talked about, not part of any future update at the moment. Developers are looking at customisation options (skin colour, face masks & face features) and human structure for animation purposes, as well as talking with Disney/LucasArt etc.

 

Desync, being worked on and the developers would like to hear more (detailed) reports about when it occurs, what the setting was and as much information as possible.

 

A new game engine is basically impossible at this point and it becomes a prioritization question between creating new content or a new engine, make a guess what players would be likely to prefer.

 

More Twi'lek customization options are coming, in general, more eyes, skin colour and similar options for alien classes.

 

Enable dynamic mount colours, uses the colour of the colour crystal in your mainhand weapon and applies it to the Koensayr Dart mount, only for this mount at the moment but this will be expanded upon.

 

Heroic dialogue, make some noise about which ones that you would want to return, explain why and Charles will take a look.

 

No EU Server Merges, the policy of EA/Bioware to have one German and one French server so neither will be removed or merged into the English one for the moment. No server mergers in general planned as all servers have health population.

Here's the notes RikuvonDrake made on reddit, I also added some other notes. Keep in my mind if you want a more in depth answer you need to watch the stream. I would recommend you watch it.

Thanks for that, it's hugely appreciated!

I think one thing should be highlighted from the stream which is really important, namely: the servers are healthy.

Charles Boyd near the end of the stream, along with Eric as well, tells us that from the data Bioware has and sees (personal addendum: which is a million times more than what we have and can get our hands on) the servers are healthy and thus they see no reason for future server merges. I think that's a very important bit of information because some posters here love professing their own warped doom and gloom views on server health. Thankfully we got an answer from Bioware disproving what those players are saying

Gearing is complicated and could be adjusted in upcoming patches, the new gear was mainly meant for Nightmare Gods from the Machine bosses as the raid is balanced around those stats.

So we can excepted less grind around 258 gear ?

So we can excepted less grind around 258 gear ?

I believe that until the 6.0 Expansion there won't be any further gear grinds, but that is my personal speculation based on what I heard Charles and Eric say during the Podcast, they didn't say so explicitly.

So from what I have seen on the forums there seems to be several people who have not yet seen the Bad Feeling Podcast Buvette with Charles Boyd and Eric Musco, which is a very interesting and fun little interview about 5.10 Jedi Under Siege as well as things that we can expect and see in the future.

 

Some subjects that are discussed are for example: the continued merge of the Alliance into the Empire/Republic, the bugfixes that are incoming, the gearing issue, conquests, the future of the story and how the loyalist/saboteur narrative will continue to play out and lots more! Oh yeah, there is also talk about... a 6.0 ~hypothetical~ expansion

 

You can watch it here, it's really fun and worth it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/348746660

Watch it --- but be ready for a lot of junk -- non SwtOR junk before it gets serious and iinteresting .... <sigh>

Listen to the entirety, the way they are speaking about 6.0 evidently suggests there is an expansion in the works and several Bioware Influencers are confirming the devs are working on a 6.0 expansion. They just can't release the timeframe yet, that's all. They used the "hypothetical" in a joking sense because it is obvious that an expansion is in the works.

Dreamer - there is Nothing in work, they are just kidding.

Is the sound bad on this bad for anyone else?

I got TOR on as well and to get the podcast to a point I can hear it properly makes TOR very loud

So they said they will not fully go back to rep/imp storyline cuz of how many ppl want the alliance-crap? I am right with that?

Nope. You are not correct. They stated that 5.10 will not see the Alliance completely merge with either faction, but instead become an ally to one or the other. Charles said that he recognized that there were many who did not wish to return to their faction, but many who did. He said he would like to do his best to please both sides ("all masters" as he put it). IF he were to get rid of the Alliance entirely and merge them with the two factions, there would have to be a very good reason. IF he were to keep the Alliance as a separate faction, there would have to be a really good reason.

In other words, nothing has been decided or announced as 100% "going to happen" in the story line with regard to the Alliance merging or remaining separate. He simply recognized that there were players who wanted both of those options. But they have said nothing definitive, and I think it's safe to say they are already returning to Republic vs. Empire in the story, from what I understand (I haven't played it myself)... so you are worrying over nothing here.

Like everyone else, we will have to wait and see where the future story takes the players. Until then, just play and enjoy if you can.

.

Nope. You are not correct. They stated that 5.10 will not see the Alliance completely merge with either faction, but instead become an ally to one or the other. Charles said that he recognized that there were many who did not wish to return to their faction, but many who did. He said he would like to do his best to please both sides ("all masters" as he put it). IF he were to get rid of the Alliance entirely and merge them with the two factions, there would have to be a very good reason. IF he were to keep the Alliance as a separate faction, there would have to be a really good reason.

 

In other words, nothing has been decided or announced as 100% "going to happen" in the story line with regard to the Alliance merging or remaining separate. He simply recognized that there were players who wanted both of those options. But they have said nothing definitive, and I think it's safe to say they are already returning to Republic vs. Empire in the story, from what I understand (I haven't played it myself)... so you are worrying over nothing here.

 

Like everyone else, we will have to wait and see where the future story takes the players. Until then, just play and enjoy if you can.

 

.

Yea that's why I pretty much decided that my main characters will probably retire and ride off into the sunset with their lovers. I think it would be an issue for my republic spy husband to merge well into Imperial life so that being said - their chapter has come to a close. I have some lower level characters and ones I never brought through KOTFEET so I think I will focus on them for future content. Then this way I am not having to worry if certain people will up and leave my characters because of who they align with. Now if things change and that doesn't happen then I will start playing my original mains again. Like you said - it's really just wait and see what the future brings us.

From the sound of it there will be continued gear progression changes in a potential 6.0 expansion. Charles Boyd hinted at the fact that, if a hypothetical expansion would come out, the max level of 70 would be increased to (presumably) 75 and thus new gear would be released as well. Whether or not there will be more gear changes before the expansion isn't mentioned. I have a feeling that the Ossus Masterwork gear is to keep us busy until then.

Why do you keep saying “Hypothetical expansion”?

Are they the words they used or your word?

Because as far as I know, they said previously there was definitely going to be a 6.0.

If theyve changed their terminology, then you can bet there won’t be a 6.0