BioWare have finally released the full development roadmap for the rest of 2017 in Star Wars: The Old Republic. There are a lot of changes for players of SWTOR coming over the next few months, so lets dive in.
One of the biggest changes to the game is the announcement of server merges that will affect all players. The various regional servers are being combined into singular mega-servers for each region. Now don’t freak out, this isn’t happening for a couple of months and when it does, the mergers will occur in batches over extended downtimes.
The mergers themselves will begin when the “United Forces” update gets pushed out in November. Below you can find the details of what the new servers will be like as well as a timeline for the rollout of mergers and other game updates:
| Existing Servers | New United Forces Server |
| Harbinger Begeren Colony Bastion |
The Hot Prospect: (North America) |
| Jedi Covenant Shadowlands Ebon Hawk Prophecy of the Five Jung Ma |
Star Forge: (North America) |
| Progenitor Tomb of Freedon Nadd Red Eclipse |
Darth Malgus (Europe – English) |
| Mantle of the Force Battle Meditation Darth Nihilus |
The Leviathan (Europe – French) |
| T3-M4 Vanjervalis Chain Jar’Kai Sword |
Tulak Hord (Europe – German) |
Here’s the upcoming rollout schedule:
- October 10, 2017 – Game Update 5.5 – United Forces Foundation – in addition to a variety of Quality of Life (QoL) improvements, this update includes the underlying foundational structural changes needed to support United Forces.
- October 24, 2017 – United Forces Formation – on this day, the game will be unavailable for an extended time as we’ll be setting up the formation of the campaign, replacing existing hardware and software with all the new Game Servers and supporting components. It will also include additional changes needed to support the deployment of the United Forces update.
- November 8, 2017 – United Forces Update is rolled out and everyone moves to five new servers with new names as follows: Two servers in North America and three servers in Europe – one each of English, French, and German. You can expect extended downtime as we make the final improvements to the Server environments. Check the blog and FAQs to discover our new Server names.
- November 28, 2017 – Game Update 5.6 – A Traitor Among the Chiss becomes available and includes something new for everyone!
There is a whole lot of potential for chaos when server mergers happen in MMOs, so it’s best to check this post for details on how you’ll be affected now so you’re prepared ahead of time.
What Else is Going On?
Server mergers aren’t the only big news in the roadmap. Game updates 5.5 and 5.6 will continue the Traitor story introduced in Iokath’s updates , although it won’t be concluded until early 2018.
A lot of gearing and QoL improvements are coming this year as well. According the roadmap post here, BioWare are introducing an easier path to endgame gear, and some revamps to Legacy banks as well. The new Banks will allow players to chare credits and items across their Legacy even easier than before. It’s also going to be possible to transfer Unassembled Components between Legacy characters soon.
Crates and the Command Rank reward boxes are also getting a buff, so new gear and more overall items are being added. Although CXP ranks are not being increased, so the 300 rank is to remain the current cap. As a bonus; if you retroactively reach rank 300 before the future, or in the future, you gain a 25% buff to CXP gain PER CHARACTER!
Speaking of gear, a new tier of gear isn’t being implemented with 5.6. Rather, a new tier of augments for existing gear are being used as the rewards for the new 5.6 Flashpoint in the “Traitor Among the Chiss” storyline.
Based on your most recent feedback we are going to make additional changes which include the following:
- Galactic Crate content improvements – we’re adding another slot in each crate that, no matter what Tier you’re in, grants a small chance to receive a higher tier Mod/Enhancement, Grand Chance Cube, CXP Buff, or CXP consumable.
- Legacy Perk – For each character that reaches Command Rank 300, we will automatically add an additional 25% bonus CXP to your entire Legacy up to a maximum of 100%. You do need to purchase the initial 25% perk, but the additional 75% will be free. And, YES, this Perk is retroactive, so you will immediately benefit once we deliver United Forces Foundation.
- CXP for all areas of the game is in review – as some players experienced with the Planetary Daily Areas, increased CXP makes us happier, so that’s our plan for all areas throughout the game and will coincide with A Traitor Among the Chiss update.
- Also with A Traitor Among the Chiss, we’re changing how Disintegrate works – instead of receiving more CXP, we will provide you with Unassembled Components for armor and weapons. In addition, you can send those components to any character in your Legacy as we’re changing these to be Legacy-bound consumables.
