SWTOR - Live summary: update 5.10

Today ... finally in the night ... a SWTOR developer livestream took place (replacing the Cantina Tour), and for once, it was very long, since it lasted more than a hour and a half, much more besides than what the developers had envisaged. Speaking of the developers ... Present as usual, we had Eric Musco, community manager of the game, as well as Charles Boyd, main writer of the game since Rise of the Hut Cartel. In addition, for short appearances, we also got to see Keith Kanneg, the game's producer from Iokath, and Matt Pucevich, level designer for operations.

Although very long, it was well worth it since there were many announcements, some of which were the most interesting!
On the program: update 5.10 of course, change in operations and master mode for Gods born of the machines, improvements for guilds, new planet to come, return of companions, and lots of cool features, some of which will be available today. 'hui or early next week on the PTS (public test server). In principle, we will also be entitled to class balances, rest assured, at least according to a message from the Twitch channel in the chat.

 

Cellar

• Since this live was a replacement for the cantina tour, there is therefore a cantina item to collect.
• The code to retrieve this object is: SWCANTINA2018.
• Available to anyone in-game.
• The code will expire at the end of 2018.
• This entitles you to a character style (character icon frame) that has Livestream Cantina '18 written on it.
• On the bar is written ATX'18. After asking Eric Musco what it means, he tells us what it means: Austin, Texas 2018. FYI: Austin, Texas is where the studios are located.

 

Update 5.10: Jedi Under Siege

• Available in December (exact date to be determined)! It will also be the 7th anniversary.
• Master Mode for Machine-Born Gods. 
• Masterwork armor: not only crafting but it's included too.
• Group PvP challenges (a pretty cool thing, see details below).
• Guild upgrades.
  • Improvements to the guild system with several functions.
  • Guild management.
• New planet and daily zone: Ossus, as I had estimated during the summary of the last live.
• New story arc, based on the rivalry between Sith and Jedi.
• Return of the companions: Doc, Nadia, Khem Val and Jaesa (dark and bright!).
  • We can romanticize Khem Val! (well ... maybe it was a joke ... not sure about that!).

 

Machine-Born Gods Operations

• Will be available on the PTS, both in Veteran and Master mode for testing.
• Change in veteran mode:
  • Current state of the operation: It is much more difficult than all the others in Veteran and requires a rank above in terms of equipment.
  • New objectives in terms of difficulty: similar to other operations since there will be master mode.
• Master Mode "Gods born of machines".
  • Not originally planned for this Master mode, but Keith decided to change that, so it happens!
  • Its addition doesn't mean that future group content has been pushed back, and it's coming sooner than you might think ...
  • In terms of difficulty, the idea is that for the veteran mode we can know the things that can happen and where they will happen ... The master mode will be more random insofar as we will know more or less what can happen. happen in front of a boss (type of attacks, etc.), but we will not know where it will fall or in what order (no cycle a priori?). Groups will need to be responsive, because the developers assume that in master mode people know each other, are used to playing together, and are probably vocal, so they need to be organized or master mode will sanction their lack of organization.
  • Tyth is a little lower in difficulty than the other bosses in the operation, it will take 240-248 to defeat him, and it will surely take 252 gear for the end of the operation as the difficulty will gradually increase.
• PTS open for Gods born of machines.
  • If all goes well (but not 100% sure) it will be available today, if not early next week.
  • Each starting planet in the PTS will have a terminal that takes us directly to Odessen.
  • The Odessen landing pad will have:
    • A terminal to boost the level to the maximum.
    • Easy entrance to directly access Gods Born of Machines, just a bridge to cross with a dimensional portal.
    • No worries about the money since a terminal will give by 10 million if necessary.
    • There will be many vendors for different things: high level equipment (different third parties to test the feasibility of various modes with different equipment), components, consumables, upgrades and kits, etc.
  • There should be a full patch note for all upcoming changes to the operation.

 

Masterwork armor

• New system to create armor of rank 5.
  • Level 252 Artifact with set bonus.
  • Level 258 Legendary with set bonus.
  • Binds by picking up or equipping (see details below) so we can craft it and sell it.
  • Same distribution of stats as previous armor sets.
• How do I get it?
  • Binds when equipping.
    • Buy the plans from coaches.
    • Requires Crew, Ossus, PvP, Conquest, and Operation Machine Gods skill materials (in master mode).
  • Binds while picking up.
    • It can be bought from reputable sellers with shards of masterwork.
    • These shards can be earned in a new "special" weekly mission, on Ossus, with disassembled components, and in command crates.
    • Equipment 252 will also, very rarely, drop into Rank 300 Command Crates or with the Ossus World Boss (s) Weekly.

 

Guild upgrades

• Guild progression.
  • Guilds now level up.
  • Guild experience will be based on conquests.
• This will give guild benefits.
  • These are temporary perks available through the guild ship.
  • (There will be adjustments to the pricing / how to get guild ships to be more accessible for smaller guilds).
  • To be purchased with credits + a new guild currency.
  • The different benefits available will change over time (one set of benefits one week, then others the following week, etc.).
  • An example of advantages: having more objectives of a given type for conquest (more PvP or crafting objectives for example).
  • Guild currency will be earned by guild levels, and conquest (you must complete the conquest objective, not necessary to earn it).
• Conquest improvements.
  • More balanced objectives between the various conquests and planets.
  • Less emphasis on daily repeatable goals to focus on weekly or endlessly repeatable goals.
  • The goal of Conquering is not to win it, but to complete its weekly goal.
  • The goal is to reduce the disadvantage of small guilds in conquest mode.
  • There will be a lot of other changes to the Conquest, which will be on the PTS by the way.
• Heraldry won't be in this update in the end, but it will come anyway.
• Guild Home Page
  • New interface to show all guild info at a glance.
• Guild management
  • Inspection of another player's guild. In particular, we will be able to see a message chosen by the guild when someone inspects the guild of one of your members (recruitment message for example).
  • Creation of logs on what happened in the guild (eg who contributed to conquest, over an hour).
  • Guild messaging.
  • Ban from the guild by inheritance. But no possibility to ignore by inheritance (it works differently but they are also working on this for the future).
  • More guild ranks available (with more options on the advantages of different ranks?).
  • Always the same maximum number of players per guild. For the moment at least.

 

Group PvP challenges

• Will be on the PTS, not necessarily in a complete or super beautiful way but it should be there.
• We can launch group challenges to other groups of players, we can see who is in the group, etc. before launching, there will be an interface to choose the type of game for the challenge, etc.
• These challenges can be for Arenas, Warzones, or the Galactic Starfighter.
• Works for groups or guilds.
• A minimum of 2 against 2, and the maximum depending on the type of game.
• No reward for the ranked, but statistics for guild groups (you can choose to deactivate it for a match), and potentially a ranking?

 

Ossus

• Historically, it was a very famous Jedi temple, which was devastated in the time of Exar Kun, by exploding supernovae. Almost all life and structures were destroyed from its surface.
• An unsavory place during the last centuries.
• Two different stories depending on the Empire or the Republic and at the end of the story this unlocks a daily / weekly zone.
• Unlocks after a critical story portion.
• More than 10 daily missions per faction.
• Shaped after their past design experience.
• New reputation.
• Two new world bosses, with cool loot.
• New datacrons to discover!
• New locations to scan with the Seeker Droid.
• Lots of new decorations to collect.
• The concept art below shows an attempt at terraforming the place.
• New story
  • Watch out for spoilers with the PTS! With the PTS there will surely be data mining, so watch out for spoilers (they reminded us in passing that data mining is prohibited).
  • The rest of this article contains spoilers as well.
  • We can automatically complete the story along a specific line, to get directly to the story of Ossus (you still need at least level 57 for that). Be careful, this will also automatically do companion returns and romances in a predetermined way if you haven't done them yet.
  • Alliance alerts to come as well.

More info below, but there are spoilers (character names etc. it stays light), so don't click if you don't want any spoilers.

Attention spoiler on the story ... We will have warned you! Click here if you want to see the information:

• We can play the loyal subjects or the saboteurs.
  • We will not be able to change faction but work for the opposing camp as a double agent ... or even triple agent if we were already a double agent.
  • Even if you have previously "betrayed" your faction, you can swear loyalty to them again.
• Ossus will be a "heavenly" place, radiation, inaccessible, etc.
• The Jedi are trying to rebuild their order there, etc. and established a small colony there. As a Republican, we will try to protect them.
• It doesn't please the Sith of course, they have heard about it and the war looming around the corner, they are going to want to destroy them and ask us to help them.
• Unless you're a traitor / saboteur of course ...
• Several companions return, most of them in the story of Ossus except Jaesa.
  • Doc serves as a medic for the Jedi colony, and he's been there for a while.
  • Khem Val, he will only be available if we sided with him during the main class quest / story and not with Zash.
  • Nadia is part of the colony as a Jedi. It can be romanticized.
  • Luminous Jaesa will be met on Ossus and can be fictionalized.
  • Obscure Jaesa will be encountered on another planet during an Alliance Alert and may also be romanticized.
  • These three romances will be possible with characters of the same genre. They hope to add this for other original companions later, but these will be the only three by the time of 5.10.
  • Although some characters like Doc and Nadia appear in several class stories, companions will not be able to be obtained if they are already companions in our main class quest.
• New characters
  • New "key art" which will be the new loading screen from this update.
  • Jedi versus Sith therefore as shown in the background.
  • On the republic side, we will have a character named Tau Idair, she is the head of security for the Jedi colony.
  • Her skull tattoo is an ancient way of portraying the bright side: Ashla.
  • On the empire side, it will be the return of Darth Malora (in a very nasty way they gave hope to Darth Malgus ... who could always be the character in the center of the image ... we can always dream). Who are you wondering? You know this apprentice that we meet on Korriban at the start of the game ... She is now on the black council, specializing in biotic sciences.
  • General Daeruun, general of the Republic's infantry, in command of Ossus and who will recruit the Republican players. This is a new species: the Krex. Only one member of this species had appeared very briefly during the nights of Nar Shaddaa, and he did not even speak.
  • Major Anri, an Imperial Special Forces Twi'lek Commando, with another Commando by his side in the picture. As a twi'lek and high-ranking officer in the Empire, this shows the evolution of mentality within the Empire (One more clue of Malgus returning ?: P)
  • Jedi master Gnost Dural (a Kel Dor). The archivist well known to players, at least to those of the early days. He is in charge of the colony, had the idea been proposed and he is finally in the game?
  • None of these characters will be long-term companions for now, only for the duration of the story. Depending on the characters liked or not, some may be long-term companions in the future.

 

PTS

• Not everything will be directly available.
• Upon launch, adjusted Veteran Mode and Operation Master Mode will be available.
• Then there will be:
  • The daily area of ​​Ossus, but not the story.
  • PvP group challenges.
  • Guild upgrades.
• Ideally, there will be an update of the PTS (and therefore adding some of these elements) every one or two weeks.

 

Diverse

• A priori we will be able to use heraldry on the PvP battlefield, but as a reminder that will not come with this update.
• Halloween week: probably a Rakghoul event.
• New armor set and weapon customization available during the rakghoul event.
• They are discussing the possibility of offering the chapter of HK, since it has been 2 years since it was released.
• Blogs will be coming regularly to the site by December.
• They are working on a trailer.

So what do you think of these numerous announcements?

To review the livestream: