Future content releases, expectations, and you

So…how do y’all think they’ll release upcoming new content? If Kaidan is anything to follow, we’ll get half of a zone to start, and the other half of a zone a few weeks later. If we get something like Venice in the future, that will likely will get released all at once. For their working model, this seems to make sense, but I anticipate some are going to get pretty upset that after waiting all of this time, we only get part of a zone. However, I think the ones most likely to get upset over that are the ones that said we’d never get any new content. What do you guys anticipate for future releases?

I think itll be pt now, bug fixs/patch, then the rest…or another pt like Tokyo…

Given how long that wait really was, I rather hope South Africa will be a finished zone, as in a full Episode 1 of Season 2. If it is not, I’d expect some considerable backlash.

Note I don’t mean it’d have to be as big as Solomon Island; I just mean it should have one villain who is clearly not the season’s main nemesis who actually gets beat by the end of the episode. A Beaumont, Akhenaten, or Mara, if you will, possibly named Marquard.

After that, it’d probably be better to go with more frequent, shorter ‘chapters’ like Kaidan had, 3-4 chapters per episode. That could work to culminate in a Season 2 finale by late 2019.

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This. I would not like to relive the situation with first Tokyo release with empty zone with only 3 or 4 main quests and nothing more. I hope Funcom learned from that backlash.

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I kinda doubt these were learning experiences so much as ‘we couldn’t have done it otherwise’.
I don’t expect too big&frequent of a content update (I’ll be thrilled to be proven wrong tho!) since I recon their rather small team had to do a lot of stuff besides gettinb season 2 issue 1 launch ready.
I’m happy we finally get some content again and the trailer looks promising.
But in terms of hoping: I hope they will be able to release a new content / zone / zone part each few months (maybe a handful quest every 3 months and a medium/big story progression update once or twice a year).

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I know I’m a minority. But I just want a game that’s cleaned up and not so repetitive and grindy. Something I can throw $5/month at and not be frustrated with. Whether that means maintenance mode or a quest every 3 months doesn’t really faze me.

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A big thing I am hoping for is the bringing back of old content from TSW, stuff that I never got to experience as I have only played SWL, but have heard about from veterans and seen screenshots and videos of. I know that there are dungeons/raids/quests, that are no longer in the game. would be cool to experience some of that content, and it would appease some of the veterans who have fond memories of such.

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I think there will be return of some old content later this year as they have to keep people motivated to stay in game and do not have time between release too long. And they are not able to add new stuff only.

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That’s part of what interests me the most about the location, is what does the map look like in terms of size and layout, and would that even warrant being split up like Kaidan.

could be like certain areas of New Jerusalem are only for certain ranks of the Morninglight. would make a lot of sense.

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I actually have no expectations of future content release. I won’t even be surprised if Apr.4th content gets delayed 2 weeks ‘because reasons’.

That way, any content that happens is nice, and anything that doesn’t happen isn’t frustrating.

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I meanly just want a steady stream of content, getting TSW content back in is a must but do things like standalone mission releases, new weapon page (i want my flamethrower back), and such to fill the gap between the issues (which around 4 months seems likely if they did started properly on DotM after the winter event).

What I’d love to see is a huge expansion full of hours and hours of fun, right? What I expect is something like Kaidan when it was released, only less painful hopefully.

What I’d be happy with - regular content releases - like the issues. A few missions/chains in the old zones, season 2 progressing, the old dungeons/raids/seasonal events added back. Just regular additions, even incrementally small ones versus a loooooong dry spell of waiting.

Right now I’m just glad the ‘soon-ing’ is coming to an end. Hopefully we’ll never have a repeat of that.

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I expect it to be somewhat like Kaidan when it releases, what I hope we can get as well with the start of season 2 is just regular updates every couple of weeks, some new missions thrown in and what not. Along with them finishing and release the rest of the dungeons and raids, and of course a new dungeon, raid an lair based off season 2 in between story content releases.

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I was actually massively surprised by the April 4th date. That’s missing the Q1 2018 target from Funcom’s Q4 2017 report by four days.

Given they were so hell-bent on sticking to Q2 2017 for the original release that too much stuff that should have been changed after beta, before launch, instead came in patches within a fortnight, I was rather expecting Q1 2018 to also be set in stone.

I’d like to get my hopes up this means better QA procedures, but I’m guessing it’s probably just management not wanting to compete with Easter by releasing a week earlier.

I expect nothing.

We know there is new zone. And that there will be at least some story quests. With planned release date. I’m looking forward to it.

That’s all we know for now. Building any kind of expectations based on hopes is the cause of all disappointment in the life.

We won’t change the content. We don’t need to make any decision about anything related to it. For that reason I see no point in speculating.

Just remember that every angry post emerging after new content release, may as well begin with “I expected…”.

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Putting any expectations into future FC releases is only setting you up for great disappointment. We dorked around in TSW with the same gear grind added that SWL has now (aegis) with no new content… with dev streams giving us small pieces of hope… then the relaunch… and a 9 month wait in addition for the content drop.

If your expectation is that the zone is anything like a KM/SC/BM… I have a pretty good feeling your going to be incredibly disappointing. If they put in anything that I like, detailed investigations, I have a feeling the majority of people will be upset with how quickly they finished the content… as so many seem frustrated trying to figure them out they jump to guides immediately.

You can read the financial reports and see a little bit into the future on the purpose of these content drops… The agent system is their solution for long term retention. The season 2 drop is geared towards pulling back old players that left, and introduce the game to new players… with hopes, I assume, that the agent system will keep them around.

We know from the financial report that some of the current SWL team will be transitioning to the new NC office game. What we get will probably also be the biggest story focused content drop we see in quite some time.

Its a small team developing content. I enjoy the story… but there is no way you can play this game like a standard MMO. After having a 5 year old base to grab from, it by no means has the chops to hold up to any current MMO. I like the story, but I make sure to expect nothing about the future.

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I’m just pleased we’ll be getting a new zone to explore, and story continuation. :slight_smile: (I don’t say “new content” bc we’ve actually gotten other content since Kaidan, just not another zone.)

The devs have talked a lot about why Kaidan was rolled out in the manner it was, that they wished they didn’t have to do it that way, etc. I guess I don’t automatically assume the circumstances and outcome will be the same now? How they released a thing in TSW years ago and how they release a thing in SWL in 2018…maybe I’ll be happier this time, maybe I won’t be. But I don’t expect it to be the same as Kaidan or Venice any more than I’d expect it to be the same as TSW in 2012.

Is new version of game, who dis? :stuck_out_tongue:

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-More than ‘Venice’, which is a pseudo-zone meant to just be hub of a feature (Scenarios).
-I won’t get angry if its smaller than any previous real zone, but there better be more (like the start of a bigger zone) coming later in the year if so.
-If its just about the size of previous zones, but relatively uncomplicated (yet hopefully with enough uniquely awesome things to feel worth it), then cool, but again, hopefully there’s more intended to come later.

If it is indeed a ‘real’ zone, then:
-there is little to no ‘pacing’ like Kaidan releases. Save future releases for other features, gameplay content, etc. Let us have the zone story fun. We’ll take a gap of time with no or little story (single missions or missionline) for a while afterward. To be clear, I mean the main story. If they want to puff up the zone over this Spring/Summer with other sidestories, I’m not going to riot.
-hopefully it keeps up the Lair format
-its harder than SWL Kaidan, but not a large jump. Save the higher difficulty for zone bosses, lair, particular challenges (note to devs: its cool to have a ‘hard mode’ trigger for certain missions or mission bosses for achievements and/or higher rewards)
-the investigations are interesting; or indeed, even still a thing
-the sabotages aren’t too infuriating; SWL is a bad platformer, remember this
-the story DOES substantially move forward. Can it be less epic than Kaidan? Ugh yeah, sure. Can it be less substantial than a NE/E/T region all put together? Fine yeah that makes sense. But should it uniquely move things forward in an impressive way? Absolutely. If its just a barely-interesting ‘side adventure’, I won’t see the point - unless, I guess, its just the prelude to later Congo or whatever
-I really really hope it is polished enough. Some shots of the trailer looked perfectly fine. Others looked like the lighting may be off, or level design lazy. We’ll have to see.
-My hope (so many hopes!) is that even though people may be moving away from SWL, its because initial SWL release and the Season 2 basics are pretty much covered. As such, its about continued content support this and maybe next year, pacing out story, features, and events already in progress to varying extents. If we only get this zone and its good, that’s OK for this year, but I’d prefer a second.

This year must restore: faction missions (and I’d like the theorized cap off to a new faction system), dungeons (and I’d like one new one for South Africa), raids (and I’d like one new one to show they can do this content), events (more properly totally or almost totally; maybe experiment with a new one?), PVP (at least the basics man! El Dorado, Stonehedge). 2017 had SWL happen, 2018 should let us know we can give a damn about it.

I’d like content updates every 1-2 months but I can easily wait 3-4, maybe 5-6 between the really big things. That is, I want a general support but 2(-3) major updates a year to show that this is a game in active development. The smaller things can be a month where there’s joy that the chainsaw has returned. The bigger things can be something of a zone, or major questline, or impressive feature that affects everything. I want at least 1 zone a year (‘expect’ wouldn’t be the word) but I’d be fully enthused if they could manage 1.5-2 (that is, if only some of a ‘Congo’ happened in 2018, I would accept that).

If they have to stretch things with reputation (like Morninglight rep to access more story), currency, etc grind for weeks at times, that’s okay, but I hope that this is nerfed later on with a mind for not driving players, especially newer players crazy; I want an overhaul of Tokyo containers sometime later on so players don’t have to grind for up to months to get all the achievements, just due to boss appearance RNG.

More than everything, I hope they have the resources to develop any content, and that they have the newer tools and development processes to make easier content faster. If every months brings at least one thing new (even to the scale of a special regional boss, tbh), and one thing old returning (a dungeon, for example), this year, then I’m overjoyed about the content release timing of 2018.

Oh but by the way, all I’m expecting is their smallest zone ever with the least missions ever, with much asset reuse and trivial gameplay. Then months of stringing us along with some returning old content, and then we may or may not get something new by the end of the year.

Surprise me Funcom!

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