EDIT: In the Stronghold section I mentioned that I thought we could have five active Strongholds. That’s not correct. We can have four as noted by my astute readers and this statement from Eric Musco back in July. Sorry for the mess.
I meant to post this two weeks ago, but you know – busy. During the PAX South Cantina Tour there was a reading of Bruce Maclean’s upcoming Producer letter which highlighted key features coming to SWTOR in 2015. All of it subject to change by the way.
Apparently not everyone has seen or read a transcript of the letter, and this has led to some folks having delusions of grandeur on what to expect in 2015.
Shintar from Going Commando took the time to explain why swtor probably won’t have two expansions this year. Not to spoil too much of what she wrote, but the reason why is because they never said that there were two expansions coming.
Remember, rumors are the path to the darkside. Rumors lead to false promises. False promises lead to broken promises. Broken promises lead to nerd rage.
Youtuber Physics Mcawesome (I don’t make names folks), posted a video of the letter being read so you can see first hand what’s being “promised”. Please watch the video, and let’s talk about what’s coming to SWTOR in 2015.
A New Stronghold
Galactic Strongholds was released right around the time I was easing back into World of Warcraft so I haven’t spent much time with it. I own one of each stronghold, but I haven’t done any sort of decorating. Right now they serve as a more convenient version of my ships. I setup my Dromund Kaas apartment and Tatooine estate with a mailbox, cargo hold, legacy storage, and GTN kiosk in close proximity to one another.
I’ve unlocked a few rooms, hung a few paintings, and acquired an enormous appreciation for the folks whose job it is setup the world environments in the Old Republic. That’s a post for another day though.
I really like the strongholds, but find them overwhelming, and thus I’ve been hesitant to invest any real time with them. That said, I’d be happy to own another one, and if my math is correct we’re able to have five active strongholds, and this would be number five, so no need to deactivate one.
New Species Torgruta
That’s right, we’re getting a new playable species later this year. I’m betting they’ll do the same thing they did with Cathar and it will be a Cartel Market unlock.
I wasn’t a big fan of Cathar, and I’m not that excited about Torgrutas. Ashara Zavros is a Torgruta and she’s my least favorite companion. I would have much preferred Nautolans as a playable species.
Still I’m glad to see them go with a more alien looking species this time. It’s definitely an improvement over human, blue human, green human, red human, pale human, spikey human, blind human, robot human, and Twi’lek that launched with the game.
Outfit Designer
This featured is targeted for patch 3.2 which they plan to release on April 28th (subject to change of course). No details have been provided on this feature, and I think it behooves BioWare to give the community some information before speculation runs out of control.
It’d be a shame to convince yourself it’s going to be transmogrification like system, only to find out it’s an equipment manager. I’ll be more than happy to speculate, but I’ll keep my expectations in check until I hear something official.
Major Updates and Story
There was mention of two major updates, one in the Summer and one at the end of the year. I have no idea what defines a major update. Part of me wants to think it’s something along the lines of Galactic Starfighter or Galactic Strongholds. Another part of me wants to thinks it’s a patch that introduces a new Operation and new levels of gear and more story.
Patch 3.2, which I mentioned is slated for April 28th is introducing the Outfit Designer and a continuing story arc on the planet Ziost. Sounds like a pretty major update to me, but April is not Summer.
I’m hoping BioWare will publish the letter this week along with more details on what to expect. I’ll be writing about some of these features in more detail this week, so stay tuned.
Not to spoil too much of what she wrote, but the reason why is because they never said that there were two expansions coming.
So much more concise than me! 😀
I’m pretty sure we can only have four active strongholds…
I would have preferred Nautolan over Torgruta as the new species as well, but I’ll probably buy it and make a new alt anyway, just to encourage them to add more aliens.
I wonder if I’m the only one who’s hoping that the outfit designer will be an equipment manager, I could definitely use that to easily swap between PvE and PvP gear. And I like the current system of shells and mods; I’d hate to see it get thrown overboard three years in.
You’re right about the Strongholds, and I’ve put a note at the top of my post to indicate as much.
Regarding the Outfit Designer, my hunch is it will be an equipment manager and not much else, but we’ll see.
Only four active strongholds… only five active strongholds… how do you guys tell? I never remember seeing that anywhere. If it’s only four, I certainly do hope they’ll change it to five. I’m really enjoying the stronghold system and would hate to miss out on any of them. It’d be easier if they’d just make it “max one of each type”. That said, I’m excited about a new stronghold.
And about the outfit designer, I for one hope it has a hood-down option. I’ll try not to expect too much, since they’ve never done anything with it before even though so many people have asked for it. But hey, one can keep hoping… 🙂
Thanks for commenting. I did a quick lookup, and I believe that Shintar is correct and we are allowed four active Strongholds per legacy and not five.
Obviously that would mean if you have all four, you’ll need to retire one if you want the new one. Boo.
Here’s a link from Eric Musco stating as much.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7534157
I’ve been thinking about it a bit and I think it’s very likely they will change it to 5 when the new stronghold is released. I can’t imagine they’d want to miss out on all that income generated by people wanting to decorate their new stronghold with cartel packs. So I’m not too worried. 🙂
Hmm, but now that link makes me doubting again. :/