Diggo11 just posted this in the beta forums.
http://forum.beta.the-west.net/showthread.php?t=2393
"Howdy!
We promised to show you the roadmap for 2014 as soon as possible and finally we're done and proud to present to you the results of all our planning. We are posting the roadmap instead of a community report this month but we're sure you'll find it just as interesting. The roadmap below is a best case scenario but we're confident we'll be able to implement most of it this year. We do have concepts prepared for most of the planned features already; some are even in development right now and one, the level cap raise, has been rolled out to all worlds already. We don't have detailed concepts for all of the new features, however, and therefore we cannot share much with you on those yet. We'll provide you with more information as soon as the concepts are prepared.
Moreover, tonnes of new quests and events are awaiting you in 2014. They are not explicitly mentioned in the roadmap below but remain an important point for us in 2014, so don't worry – there will be plenty of new content for you.
We believe that this roadmap will be able to push the game to new levels of fun, quality and variety so we're very excited and already looking forward to all the changes. Please let us know what you think of it, feel free to ask questions and share the information with your town and alliance members.
Let's go!
Level Cap Raise
Raise the maximum level to 150
New content (Items, Quests, jobs)
Reveal the middle of the map as a high level are with 30 new jobs
Shop
Small version for small screen resolutions
Several small improvements for the Screendesign
Automatic discount and event mechanisms
Event Fort
Controlled by the Community Management and Event team and will be used for Community fort battle events and contests
Several extra configs like default takeover protection, faster fort battle starts, possibility to add NPCs, special rewards
Will be located in the middle of the map
Multiplayer Instances
Fort-battle-like missions for around 5-20 players (For example Bear hunt)
Special rewards
Can be played while doing other stuff in the game
Speed and Event worlds
Time-limited Event worlds
Special objective to reach (Last man standing, finding an item first, Reaching Level x first)
One event world per language version and/or one global event world
Ranking enhancement
Balancing improvements (For example for the town ranking)
New rankings (Crafting, fort battle, construction)
Time-based rankings
Duel System
Evaluate different concepts
Push the interactive duel system prototype we did already
Improve Balancing
Blackboard
Solution for spies and players that are not actually interested in staying in the town
Usability and UI improvements
New Forum style
It's about time, eh?
New layout for the Community forum
Upgrade to vbulletin 5.1
P2P Trade
Make it possible to transfer or trade items directly between 2 players
Push the friends bar by allowing to directly trade items only with friends/town members
Crafting enhancement
Raise maximum crafting level
More recipes
Implement usability improvements
Travel Time (Railroad)
Make travelling on the map faster
Possibly via stations that can be built in towns
New Game Page (Game start page)
Modern design
More information and media about the game
As always, plans might change, features may be added or removed. Everything is subject to change."
I'm really liking what i see here. Direct trade and railroads are a really neat concept. I think dueling would really gain from being interactive, but i do hope it is not made so that a player has to be online all the time to be an effective dueler. The MPIs will be a great addition, it will be nice to have a good team PVE event. NPC dueling just isn't that fun :P
Looks to me like the biggest incoming change is the potential speed/event worlds. Those sound incredibly fun! I'll certainly still play my main/persistent world, but having a race with others to hit level 120, or duel everyone till 1 person is left sounds really fun.
One thing i really hope inno does a lot, lot more of this year is advertising. I haven't seen many the-west ads, and that's how i found this game in the first place. Those ads will pay for themselves in a big hurry- one full premium player can pay for a month of ads.