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This week @AIESema, @MaxTheGrey and Astromech EPC-31 collect all the news and rumors about the Galactic Stronghold hosing announcements and comb through them for everything we can find. We also cover news for the week from SWTOR in general and from AIE in SWTOR. Of course, you’ll also hear what we have been doing lately.
Space lie of the week: With the Galactic Stronghold expansion, Agents and Smugglers will gain the Burgle ability. This will allow them to break into strongholds, ransack decorations, and rummage through your personal under armor drawer. This can be countered through the use of Guard Akk Dogs.
On Jedi Covenant, find Max playing as: Imperial (Max’z, Mhax, Mhaxs, Mhaxz) Republic (Maxz, Maxxz, M’axz) and Sema playing as: Imperial (Maurienne, Enne) Republic (Semaperdu)
Podcast theme music by Dan-O at DanoSongs.com
We know that Subscribers are getting a House on Nar Shaddaa automatically, but remember that Coruscant and Dromand Kaas we’ll have to get/but on our own if we want MORE than 1 house. So that’s what they’re talking about when they say you can have multiple houses across your legacy, is how I interpret that.
Also, I’m gonna guess that Your Imp toons won’t be able to Access your Coruscant House. And your Pub toons won’t be able to Access your Dromand Kaas house. BUT that all of them might be able to access your Nar Shaddaa house.
As for Guildship speculation….I think a Quest similar in style to the type of stuff you had to do to get HK-51 would be excellent for getting your Guild Ship. Give guilds something to strive for a little where they have to work together….without making it impossible at an Ops Nightmare level. Devs could even make an additional variation on Kuat Drive Yards FP as one of the steps you need to take to get it. That would make sense story-wise.
Also the MacroBinoculars & Seeker Droid quests and mechanics would be another great way. Gather lots of items/parts/loot/mats and credits from various missions together in order to make a Guild ship.
Also, it should be something where the guildies have to work together. Not something that just 1 person could do by themselves for their whole guild. Though I do think that since you need 4 people in order to start a guild, this hypothetical “guild ship quest” shouldn’t take more than 4 people to achieve. Both big and small guilds should be able to achieve this Guild Ship.
Both Guild Ships and Player Houses should have a unique reason for you to use them too.
So what’s the incentive?
Everyone wants their own castle. It doesn’t matter that everyone else has one, because you want one too. The same incentive that makes a small guild want one a guild ship, will probably also entice a large guild. “Size matters not” to quote Yoda.
It’s possible that certain additional New guild communication and functionality options will be tied to the ship. Additional reputation/xp bonus? All guilds get XP bonus, but only the larger ones get maximum bonus….the Guild Ship might operate on those same principles.
Maybe achieving completion of an Operation at a certain level of difficulty by a guild will unlock a mission door, so that guild can use their guild ship as a staging point in the future, instead of the Fleet.
Also, I’m gonna guess that a lot of the actions, abilities, functionality and decoration that you can have in your New Player Housing, will also apply to Guild Ships, except the view is from space. It makes sense that Guild Ships would just be bigger versions of Houses from a development stand-point. Going further with that….it’s probably the largest guilds that will be able to Afford maximum potential in the guild ship. Just like Guild Banks….each new Inventory Tab/slot (?) gets significantly more expensive….and most small guilds don’t have all they could.
What do you think Max and Sema?
Interesting summary. I could see them adding more housing locations over time as well. As for which characters can access which houses, I’d prefer there would not be faction restrictions. I don’t expect you can actually step out of your Dromund Kaas house onto Dromund Kaas (rather arrive and depart via “shuttle” to fleet or something similar) so faction may not matter.
I like your speculation on Guild Ships. The key point of making it interesting to group up and go after a guild ship as a guild is a good one and I think that instituting benefits of having a guild ship is critical to their success. A place to gather and display items is merely interesting. A place where you do that but also gain bonuses, have access to additional services (I like the Ops portals) etc. makes them much more interesting.
Making Macro/Seeker interesting again is another great idea. Housing related or not, that needs to happen!
I love the idea of there being something the guild gets to do together or build toward together to get a guild flagship. Also, maybe take a page from Everquest Next Landmark’s book and have some small maintenance that is required to keep the galaxy free of defunct guild flagships. Because yes, I am going to go ahead and hope that we can see them in some view from the fleet. I know, I know. Poor expectation management.
I loved the macro/seeker quests when they are all puzzly and interesting. However, I cannot face more digging. Ok, maybe minimal digging to find a part that you need later for a puzzle….
I really love the idea of unlocking a mission door if the guild has done that particular operation. Some people have speculated that the guild flagships open the way for guild achievements. If BW is doing that, then missions doors could be a by-product of that.
I am expecting that my Empire characters will not be able to get into my stronghold on Coruscant. No matter how unlikely it would be that they could walk out into the hallways and start shivving people, I totally see a “You cannot travel there” message if I ever tried it. Or something equally flowery.
I’m also hoping that the strongholds will be a shot in the arm for crafters and crafting. It’s a small hope, hiding inside afraid to come out, but it’s there. More likely, the cool stuff will be drops or purchases made with cartel coins (and subsequently the GTN) and crafters will be able to make hard cots and desh sofas.