Galactic Strongholds Adds Epic Housing To Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Andy Chalk]

Galactic Strongholds Adds Epic Housing To Star Wars: The Old Republic

​

Hey, even a Dark Lord of the Sith needs a place for his stuff.

This is what it's come to. Star Wars: The Old Republic, the mighty MMO about the greatest, most famous battle between the forces of good and evil that the galaxy has ever known, has announced its next big expansion - and it's houses. No capital ship battles, no unexplored sectors of the galaxy, no exciting new playable races or large-scale fleet action; just a place to put your stuff.

Galactic Strongholds will allow players to purchase "prestigious apartments" on multiple worlds and customize them with hundreds of unique decorations, crafted furniture and trophies that will also boost their Prestige score and allow them to vie for top ranking in the Stronghold Directory. And what's the point of a swanky pad if you can't have people over to hang out? Players with Strongholds will be able to invite friends and instantly transport them from any in-game location for exciting virtual socialization!

Guilds get a boost too, with the debut of Guild Flagships, although they can't actually engage one another in battle, so I'm not really sure what the point is. It's a place for your stuff in space, I guess.

[gallery=2226]

I don't play Star Wars: The Old Republic so I don't have anything invested in it one way or the other, but isn't it sad that the big news in the big game about the greatest intergalactic conflict of all time is that you can buy a house? It all seems so much smaller than what was promised.

The Galactic Strongholds expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic goes live for Preferred Status players on July 29 and will open to the free-to-play public in August.

Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.swtor.com/galactic-strongholds]


Permalink

 

[INVALIDUSERNAME]

Yup. Promises of warfare on a grand scale, epic battles between the Empire and the Republic, and the ability to experience the soundscapes and vistas of the Star Wars universe.

And we got houses.

GG

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

This is just sad. SWToR is boring enough as it is and it doesn't need more gimmicks, it needs more content. Well it needs a lot of things, but lets keep it simple for now.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

Star Wars: SIMS

Wait, can my character chill while playing vidya games!?

<_<

 

[Hagi]

I'll actually go ahead and disagree and say this is exactly what SWtOR should have.

Or rather, should have had because this is way, way too late.

It's a crappy raiding MMO. Never was any potential there. It makes a halfway decent social cooperative online game, even though it's extremely obvious that aspect has been grossly neglected in favor of all the 'big' (and empty) MMO stuff.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

The free ship you get is more than adequate for keeping all your stuff. These houses seem to be nothing more than money sinks.

 

[Barbas]

I can't make a joke about The Sims...I just can't do it.

'Galactic Strongholds' is somewhat misleading, since there will be no sieges or large-scale battles involved - a better title would be 'Galactic Homes' or 'Galactic Abodes'.

Yup. Promises of warfare on a grand scale, epic battles between the Empire and the Republic, and the ability to experience the soundscapes and vistas of the Star Wars universe.

And we got houses.

GG

Do you mean that the developers promised those things, or that the Star Wars setting was promising in those regards?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

KOTOR 3-10 people! This is what it comes down to: the final battle between the True Sith and Darth Revan... over who gets dibs on the bathroom first after Blue Milk night.

 

[INVALIDUSERNAME]

I can't make a joke about The Sims...I just can't do it.

'Galactic Strongholds' is somewhat misleading, since there will be no sieges or large-scale battles involved - a better title would be 'Galactic Homes' or 'Galactic Abodes'.

Yup. Promises of warfare on a grand scale, epic battles between the Empire and the Republic, and the ability to experience the soundscapes and vistas of the Star Wars universe.

And we got houses.

GG

Do you mean that the developers promised those things, or that the Star Wars setting was promising in those regards?

A mix of the two. Ilum was supposed to be their idea of "grand scale warfare" which ended up being a pretty abysmal experience and, as far as I understand it, was effectively disabled maybe a year after launch. It ended up being maybe 100v100 and even then you were lucky if the game didn't completely die at that point.

The soundscapes and vistas on the other hand were clever marketing more than anything. The planets were made to look big and explore-able, and there was even a quote way the hell ago where a developer said that one panel for a building in Nar Shaddaa was the size of a map in some games. Alderaan was said to be the size of seven WoW zones. It sounded like this huge, amazing Star Wars game.

Instead, the planets were boxes that sequestered off into semi-linear questing hubs, and there was no other way to level. It would always be Starter Planet -> Dromund Kaas -> Balmorra -> Nar Shaddaa -> Tatooine, etc. No different quests, no alternative questing hubs. You were stuck.

Ultimately, the game they seemed to be exhibiting and promising was a lot smaller in scale and scope than they let on, which was a pretty big let down. It was a mixture of clever marketing and PR speak that led a lot of people, myself included, into believing we were getting a pretty big game. Instead we got one of the most linear MMOs I've played in a long time.

The fact that three years down the line they're getting an expansion pack centered entirely around housing is disheartening.

 

[Barbas]

Spoiler: (Snip).

I can't make a joke about The Sims...I just can't do it.

'Galactic Strongholds' is somewhat misleading, since there will be no sieges or large-scale battles involved - a better title would be 'Galactic Homes' or 'Galactic Abodes'.

Yup. Promises of warfare on a grand scale, epic battles between the Empire and the Republic, and the ability to experience the soundscapes and vistas of the Star Wars universe.

And we got houses.

GG

Do you mean that the developers promised those things, or that the Star Wars setting was promising in those regards?

A mix of the two. Ilum was supposed to be their idea of "grand scale warfare" which ended up being a pretty abysmal experience and, as far as I understand it, was effectively disabled maybe a year after launch. It ended up being maybe 100v100 and even then you were lucky if the game didn't completely die at that point.

The soundscapes and vistas on the other hand were clever marketing more than anything. The planets were made to look big and explore-able, and there was even a quote way the hell ago where a developer said that one panel for a building in Nar Shaddaa was the size of a map in some games. Alderaan was said to be the size of seven WoW zones. It sounded like this huge, amazing Star Wars game.

Instead, the planets were boxes that sequestered off into semi-linear questing hubs, and there was no other way to level. It would always be Starter Planet -> Dromund Kaas -> Balmorra -> Nar Shaddaa -> Tatooine, etc. No different quests, no alternative questing hubs. You were stuck.

Ultimately, the game they seemed to be exhibiting and promising was a lot smaller in scale and scope than they let on, which was a pretty big let down. It was a mixture of clever marketing and PR speak that led a lot of people, myself included, into believing we were getting a pretty big game. Instead we got one of the most linear MMOs I've played in a long time.

The fact that three years down the line they're getting an expansion pack centered entirely around housing is disheartening.

That's pretty damning. I played the MMO for a little while and left feeling somewhat underwhelmed, considering the history behind the developer and the title. With what you mentioned about the development, though, I'm beginning to get a better idea of why the negative response to it was so strong, and why the words "missed potential" come up so often to describe The Old Republic.

 

[Saviordd1]

Jesus.

I mean at least galactic starfighter was trying to be good, this is just....bad.

This is just Embarrassingly Bad.

 

[Chessrook44]

Housing. One of those things that, if you don't include it, everyone cries that it should be in it. And if you add it later, everyone screams that it's a waste of resources.

There's really no winning for that unless you have it at the start.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Even though I sadly never got the chance to play the game, it sounds like Galaxies had a better version of player housing many years ago.

 

[kael013]

Oh man, another SWTOR article written so that it bashes the game. We get it, the game isn't as great as it could have been (and as a player I agree), but can we move past that and act professionally?

[quote/]I don't play Star Wars: The Old Republic so I don't have anything invested in it one way or the other, but isn't it sad that the big news in the big game about the greatest intergalactic conflict of all time is that you can buy a house?[/quote]
No, no it's not. Why? Because a big part of the player base has been asking for this (among a myriad other things) for ages. Guild capital ships have been asked for pretty much since [i/]launch[/i] - the TOR team is providing what the players want. How is that bad?

[quote/]It all seems so much smaller than what was promised.[/quote]
Agreed, but this isn't the first time a QoL (quality of life) has been the focus of a Game Update. 1.2 added the Legacy system and 1.3 expanded on it and added Adaptive gear; and that's all those updates did, no new story, flashpoints, raids, etc. If you want something more focused on the conflict, Game Update 2.7 (April 8th release, so it's actually the next big thing) is a series of Flashpoints about invading/defending the Sith or Jedi's planet (Korriban and Tython respectively). Beyond that, half of the previous Game Updates have been focused on epic conflicts (against a 3rd faction, but still). So that we're getting 1 update that isn't about that is actually refreshing just for the change of pace.

 

[Dendio]

The writer constructed this article with such a negative tone. I think this looks very cool. If I were to play an MMO it'd be swtor

 

[Andy Chalk]

Oh man, another SWTOR article written so that it bashes the game. We get it, the game isn't as great as it could have been (and as a player I agree), but can we move past that and act professionally?

I don't see it as "unprofessional" to question the state of the game and particularly the downgraded expectations people now seem to have for it. SWTOR was an unmitigated disaster for EA and in my mind, this is a big part of why: The player base might be interested in something like this, but the much bigger non-player base is far more likely to look at it and think, yeah, great, I can have an apartment, but what about those epic, star-spanning battles? We can have guild capital ships... but we can't actually do anything with them? What then is the point?

It's easy enough to say that it's coming, that first we get the capital ships and then we figure out how to make them fight, but it's been well over two years since SWTOR launched - this is the kind of stuff that should have been in place on day one for an "ultimate Star Wars MMO." (Remember that [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88177-First-Look-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic]? "The best thing BioWare has ever done?") As an outsider looking in, which is the demographic EA needs to attract (well, needed to), at best I greet this news with a yawn, and at worst I find it both inexplicable and embarrassing. You can have your own star destroyer but you can't blow shit up with it? Seriously?

 

[kael013]

Oh man, another SWTOR article written so that it bashes the game. We get it, the game isn't as great as it could have been (and as a player I agree), but can we move past that and act professionally?

I don't see it as "unprofessional" to question the state of the game and particularly the downgraded expectations people now seem to have for it. SWTOR was an unmitigated disaster for EA and in my mind, this is a big part of why: The player base might be interested in something like this, but the much bigger non-player base is far more likely to look at it and think, yeah, great, I can have an apartment, but what about those epic, star-spanning battles? We can have guild capital ships... but we can't actually do anything with them? What then is the point?

OK, "professional" isn't exactly the right word, but it's the closest I can think of. Basically, to me, this [b/]news[/b] article read too much like an opinion piece and that kinda ticked me off. Sorry.

As for the rest, I can understand and respect that. I haven't played the game for months because all the new content has been reskinned/useless stuff for the cash shop with no story updates or anything epic to do except raiding (which I hate). I was ready to delete the game when the new Flashpoints were announced, now I'm waiting at the door hoping BioWare's finally gotten it.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I actually don't think this is a bad thing. While not the most expansive or "exciting" content expansion, it adds depth and personalisation which I'm sure many players will enjoy and sink time into. It's an entirely new feature, rather than more raids/story arcs, zones or instances and could very well evolve into more exciting things in the future.