Well 1.6 is putting in new space missions for high levels, but there is a "secret" space project for the game in the works. They mentioned that it was in the works, that they just played the prototype of it and that it's totally different from whats currently in the game. Though they also said it's some time away in coming so don't expect any major reveals or news anytime soon about it. Details of what this space project is though is up in the air.
Yeah, after I posted that, I went on the read that news post about the Heroic Space Missions that are coming.
But I was more interested in the overhaul part, which as you say, seems to be in the long term pipeline. It's definitely a huge thing to change and add, so I don't expect it anytime soon, but as long as it's on the to-do list, that's what I want to hear.
EDIT: Here's a good summary of that QA if others were curious like me. From
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=564137
Rough Notes
Jeff Hickman & Damion Schubert
Transition to FTP is going very well – we seem more players using every metric we have. Our expectations were blown away.
Six character slots for preferred players (up from 2). This will come in the same patch that allow players to buy more character slots. Returning players may find the restrictions a bit restrictive but we need to find a balance between making sure subscribers get their money’s worth and making the F2P option attractive. Brand new players may not find the restrictions restrictive as they don’t know what it is like without the restrictions.
There is a thing we are planning for Ilum in Feb-March. It is going to be a revisit to Ilum but it is not going to be just a reboot of the same old scenarios we had there fore. It is going to be more than just PvP and has some of the most amazing world buildings there.
With the Mekab patch, we will have slight philosophical restructuring of how our itemization is done that is going to make the itemization more sustainable in the long run. It is somewhere between an itemization spiral going out of control and complete flattening (i.e. horizontal progression).
No plans for making separate warzones for elite PvP players but there are adjustments coming soon to make it so that the queuing system pair up elite players with elite players and non elites with non elites. No time frame on that adjustment. We want to make PvP more about player skills than the gear gap.
No timeframe on Mekab yet but we just did a playthrough of the Imperial storyline internally. So it is far enough along that we are playing it and adjusting it to Bioware standards. Expect it “pretty darn soon”.
Ease our minds of the current team with the restructuring. More bugs seem to rise up? We have a lot of very dedicated people who are very passionate about this game. There is no negative news along those fronts here. As far as bugs – if you look at version 1.1., 1.2, etc. every one of them had downtimes and multiple hotfixes after the patch. In 1.4 and 1.5 you just have seen some bugs that were really in your face that made the game feel a lot more buggy. We are getting better at finding the bugs and fixing the bugs. We take bugs seriously. We have leaderboards and monthly competitions to see who plays SWTOR more in the office.
Super Space Project: It is great, it is something that is a departure from our normal space game. It is something that we have a team right now dedicated to building and working on. It is also something that is pretty far out in the future. We are talking far out.. It is definitely not what we shipping in the original product. It is possible that this is a multiplayer game due to the emphasize on the word together (read the transcript or watch the video).
Our intent right now is to update the Cartel Market weekly and see a new Cartel pack with new rare items every month. Before the holidays, we got a really big cool update coming. With Life day coming up, we will have a new Life Day Cartel pack and cool new items such as Czerka LV-1 Celebrator (you are going to die when you see it), Life Day robes, orbs, holo-tree etc. Going forward, you can expect to see more archetypical gear (i..e more of a core Jedi Knight look etc).
Earlier this year we did the guild summit, guild capitals, guild calenders, chat bubbles, ready check, were mentioned. When is all this coming? The studio has gone a lot of change since the guild summit, we are busy working on a lot of things. We changed some of the things we are working on. Some we are still working on, but some are on the backburner. I love the idea of guild capital ships but these things are abit further out. All of these features on the wall of crazy but it is a ordered by priority. Small things on that wall have a more chance to happen – i.e. inventory sorting that is coming soon.
New system to copy live characters to PTS whenever you want. You should see it before we launch Mekab so you can test out that content.
Legacy system will undergo a minor revamp to make it more important. No ETA on when it will happen.
Mekab will have some some new gameplay activities, new way for you to go and explore the world. Minigames like sitting down and playing cards are on the list of things to do but not at the top.
CE vendors – any plans to make the items on the vendors available on the Cartel Market. We backburnered it until January – no plans as of right now.
Cathar is coming in the months timeframe. How well Cathar do in the Cartel Market will decide if we will get more races beyond Cathar.
We are hitting our 6-8 content release schedule pretty good. There will be a 9 week window between the game update (1.6) landing before the holidays and the update after the holidays (1.7) since we want to give our guys the holiday off since they were all here last year. We will aim for 6 weeks but will go for 8 weeks for quality issues etc.
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