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[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Will Galactic Strongholds Be Your Star Wars Home?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Ever since February, we knew about Galactic Strongholds as 'SWTOR Does Housing', but we really hadn't seen many details on how it will work, what it will entail, or perhaps most importantly, how much it will cost. BioWare Austin recently announced their plans to do a weekly livestream on http://twitch.tv/swtor on Thursdays to go over the features of the new expansion between now and when it soft launches in August.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Will Galactic Strongholds Be Your Star Wars Home?
Comments
just to give a heads up, the next livestream is today at 1:30pm pdt / 8:30 pm gmt
http://www.twitch.tv/swtor
apparently it will take place in the coruscant skyrise apartment
Housing will never replace the fleets.
As i've said since swtor's launch, they need to fix all the zoning and traveling issues, otherwise players aren't going to bother traveling to their instance, especially when you have to go through several loading screens, and multiple button clicking on switches and doors. Traveling perks, such as Fleet Pass and Ship Pass doesn't help either, since their cooldowns are still too long and they should just finally get rid of coolodwns, and as a f2p player, this makes it even worse, because it makes it harder for them to purchase GTN and Mailbox unlocks, due to the 350k(?) credits limit. (i'm not really sure if those can be unlocked for Strongholds?)
Nice column. Liked that you mentioned on the second page some of the boons of the ""very limited" LotRO system
(with the different wall surfaces and patterns, with color options where the dyes are crafted by the players. There's also the housing ambience music as well)
There are a few more of those, like the chest in the house which comes free with the house purchase and not hidden behind some (most likely) rare and grindy crafting mechanic - also it's not simply account shared ("Legacy storage"), it has a nifty, chmod-like permission system and you can share it with anyone else, friends, kinship members, etc... Not to mention a lot of housing and yard items are use-able, with the afforementioned permission system so you can set who can for example lit and unlit your candles, or drinking from your keg
"Want to put a rug under your expensive casino table? There's a separate rug hook." see, just like in LotRO.
Don't get me wrong, as an overall picture TOR's system will be more flexible than LotRO's (and I'm talking in favor of a housing revamp in LotRO since years), just the "very limited" part seemed simply unfair to me
Btw, comparing and flexibility: "The only major themepark MMO whose system blows this one out of space is WildStar at this point." and later "a proper apples/apples comparison (i.e. WildStar or EverQuest II)" am I the only one who's missing the mention of Rift? The Dimensions system is much more flexible than the Strongholds...
Anyways, for the thread title: Will Galactic Strongholds Be Your Star Wars Home? - sure it will. Even with my grudges against TOR's f2p system I subbed back for the Palace, and (mainly because of the very same f2p) I'll probably sub back again after Strongholds goes live, to unlock everything with credits instead of CC. Somehow I have a hunch, and could bet my favourite lightsaber on it that Peferred players will be hammered down with the restrictions in Strongholds... it's still EA, right?
(and I have a spare one, I mean lightsaber)
Every time I hear about Twitch I shudder, swallow a bit of bile, and close the tab. Maybe I just hate getting old... or maybe I just hate watching some other self-entitled twats play my games. Either way, I dont care what anyone says, but dedicated "pro" gaming streaming is kinda crap and a bit sad... if you really must there is a youtube.
Regarding SWTOR I am kinda glad they seem to be doing okish? and adding new things unlike GW2 for example. I do look forward to trying it all out.
People's fascination with player housing in these zone loading theme parks just kinda boggles my mind. It may be neat for storing all your crap you gathered and cant be shagged to sort thru, but really there are probably much more better "features" one could focus on to improve actual game play. In a sandboxy game it makes sense... someone could perhaps break in and rob you, and you could perhaps find out who it was and hunt them down for revenge... old school MUD style. Or is it a trend thing? Rly? Are all game columnists/critics/internet personalities etc. little crying tween fan boy bitches now? Yeah the Landmark comparisons are great but lets just see how that works out once it goes live in 2020 or whenever... LOL or more like ROFL... seems like more pandering to the farmville crowd.
For the record, I do like SWTOR do play it on and off basis casually for the story (not "comptetively" or "on twitch" or "hardcore leet" /scoff).
My 2 cents.
I don't understand the need for strongholds, my ship has everything I need; repair / merchant droid, cargo hold, guild bank, practice dummies plus it's mobile and most travel points have a quick travel option to go to your ship.
With the several and looong loading screens just to get down to a planet I just don't see the need for it. If anything, give us the option to upgrade or purchase / earn new personal ships.
It has indeed, I recently went back and it was actually fun. I would still be playing but better things are on atm for me.
Rift?
I fear for my wallet. Might be a blatant cash grab. Hopefully not.
And still waiting for an open world space sim universe in SWTOR, or Star Citizen will be my new home
When I played SWTOR I was a big supporter. I loved the stories and each of the 8 characters I created. However, as I reached level cap with each, I found that I less and less to do in game. Sure, I could do routine and repetitive tasks as part of "end game", but they simply over time were not fun. At least the stories were relatively fresh for my play time investment. The boring repetitive stuff just pushed me away. While these new "strongholds" may hold some interest for a SHORT while, I am sure they too will be old fast. Sorry to say it now, but SWTOR in no longer MY game.
Let's party like it is 1863!
I love SWTOR but hoping for open world anything with relation to SWTOR only seems like a path to disappointment.
people are still upset at the fact that swtor still has not "died" smh.. horrible. the game will continue to grow and they will add things that make the game more enjoyable regardless if its "too late" for you or not. +2 TOR this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully they make the planets more explorable at some point.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
Open world Star Wars game? Yes.
Star Wars space sim? hell no.
star wars isnt just about space. SWTOR implemented it in a mini game way then the recent pvp thing.. but it would be great to have it all be open world.. i want to pilot my starship from Korriban to Hoth and blow up some republic dogs on the way there. But i do not want the game focus to be space. hell no not in star wars.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
I'm looking forward to it. After watching the devs play around with it for a while yesterday during the stream, it does look pretty detailed.
I also liked the quick travel options that are available when exiting your house:
1) Exit to the planet the house is based on.
2) Go back to your last known location.
3) Go straight to your ship.
4) Go to the Fleet.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Has SWTOR come a long way since launch yes it has but it still has its biggest problem and that is it still does not have a steady flow of expansions. Now when I say expansions I mean a real expansions like ROTC that actually adds new missions, planets, characters, races, and etc to the main story and PvE of an MMO and not galactic star fighter ( new mode of space missions basically) and galactic strongholds ( homes fall under vanity more then anything) that they call expansions and more like fillers that they hope will keep us happy and really just a new mode of play and the ability to have homes. Basically just new content like that of new flashpoints, operations, and warzones that it has regardless in the same way other MMOs do besides expansions.
Now we were told we would get 2 major expansions this year in 2014 one similar to galactic star fighter which must be this galactic strongholds and one similar to ROTC which is what I can't wait for and matters most to me but by the looks of all the delays and how long Strongholds is taking I am not sure we will have that other Expansion this year which would mean another year of no true expansions. Now don't get me wrong new content like galactic strongholds and all the new Flashpoints, warzones, operations, and events is great but its to be expected and not a problem for SWTOR now having another real expansion now that would be a big deal and make a lot of swtor fans happy and even bring back ones that left due to this lack of steady flow of expansions and maybe even bring in some new players as well.
If I wasn't playing FFXIV, I would be playing this or Wildstar.
I think it is awesome that all these mmos are getting housing now. That was lost for a while there. Great to see it making a comeback and I hope it becomes a standard feature in mmos from here on out.
I play several different MMOs that I enjoy. Wildstar, Rift and SWOTOR being 3 of them. I will however say that in all of the years I've played MMOs ( EQ 1999) only Star Wars Galaxies had truly great player housing and guild halls. No instances, just planets. Friends could just stop by, and customers could walk in and purchase items you crafted from vendors. Folks that say players are not interested in player/guild housing, never played a game with SWG style housing.
MorBlade
www.epicgamerradio.com
After having had fun in WS for while, I had to put it aside and redownloaded SWTOR - and having a blast. One of the reasons most likely is that I don't rush through the content as I did in my first two attempts (though I do skip some of the voice-overs, but never for class quest line).
So at this point in time, I am looking forward to the housing.
And contrary to what some people might think - the servers are pretty busy (yes, there aren't that many, but better that way than too diluted).
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Youtube newb:
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