SWTOR’s recent livestream detailing the upcoming changes in Knights of the Fallen Empire was probably the best update since July for current players. Musco covered a variety of topics, ranging from crafting to groupfinder overhauls, as well as some very small but heavily requested quality-of-life updates. In the next 3 weeks, there will also be several posts expanding on some of these features.
Crafting & Gathering
There are a lot of changes coming to crafting, although none of them look like they’ll completely change the system from the one currently in place.
- Green-quality schematics will be removed – only items that might be useful (blue, orange, etc.) will be craftable from now on
- Old schematics that you’ve already learned will go into an archive section (presumably the green-level schematics)
- No more tiers required for gathering materials – tiers are gone. Instead, your level will determine how much you bring back. For example, if you’re level 500 scavenging and send a companion out for grade 1 materials, you’ll receive more materials than if you were level 1 scavenging.
- All missions will be available for each grade.
- Some pieces will require parts to be crafted first; that is, you’ll have to use your raw materials to make a part, which can then be used to make an item.
- Don’t trash/sell your old materials! The ones that are being removed will be changed into a usable crafting material.
I have mixed feelings about the crafting overhaul. It’s good that they’re addressing it now, before the bloat gets to be too huge. I also like that all tiers and all grades of materials will be available from the start (never understood why restricting material gathering missions was implemented in the first place). Crafting pieces to be used for final products adds some depth, although I suspect that it was implemented to put a speed bump in place to prevent players for churning out items too fast. Additionally, it’s also wonderful that the outdated mats will be converted into something useful rather than just become scrap.
My biggest concern is that none of the suggestions add obvious value to crafting. The commendation price changes for mods and enhancements hurt the value of Cybertech, Armormech, and Armstech, and the introduction of collections/legacy crystals decimated Artifice. Conquests boosted the value of crafting briefly, but with the incoming limitations when 4.0 drops, its value will be reduced once more. With the changes already made to the cost of commendation gear, as well as the upcoming change that companions won’t need gear except for aesthetics, is there any point to crafting except at endgame?
Legacy Datacrons
I’m very happy that the developers were able to make legacy datacrons work. There’s much more incentive for players to seek them out because they’ll now provide stat boosts across all your characters. Additionally, it’s great to see that they’re adding another feature to the legacy system, which is one of those little things that I think is underused by the game. Musco said that he was 99% certain that these datacrons will be applied retroactively – here’s hoping that in one of the upcoming blog posts, this is confirmed! Even if they aren’t, I won’t mind collecting them again because it will be the last time I will ever have to do ridiculous pipe jumps….
The New Leveling Experience
The new leveling experience will make it possible to level solely through class stories and the main planetary mission arcs. The other side missions aren’t being removed, but they’ll be reclassified as exploration missions. You’ll still get XP for them, but they won’t be necessary for the leveling process.
What I’m really excited about is something that the community seems to be pretty divided on – level sync. Many are bemoaning that you’ll have to kill mobs on low level planets rather than cruise by them on your mount, but I don’t think it’s going to be a lot of extra time. For starters, level syncing down puts you at the highest level available for that planet – and you can sometimes walk by mobs at that level anyway. Additionally, all abilities and utilities, which will make killing mobs fast as well, and you’ll be harder to knock off at Speeder Level 3 anyway.
Quality of Life Improvements
Click to view slideshow.These are small improvements but some of them have been heavily requested or will be beneficial to the game as it grows:
- You’ll be able to whisper guildies from the guild window
- Cape clipping has been eliminated on most mounts
- There will be new map icons to help differentiate between content
- There’s a new Weekly Heroic mission terminal that gives rewards and provides auto-transportation to the mission
- The weekly commendation limit has been removed
- Collections will have a search feature and better sorting/filtering options
The update to the collections interface is long overdue, but the change that I’m most excited about is the removal of the weekly commendation limit. The overall limit is fine but the weekly limit seemed like an arbitrary restriction. Some players are only comfortable playing one role or class, so allowing them the chance to acquire more commendations per week in the playstyle they’re most comfortable with seems like it will work out better for everyone in the long run.
Minor Additions
- You’ll be able to buy pets that will fight with you (as opposed to your companion)
- There will be a “summon random mount” and “summon random pet” button, for free
- Legend status – if you complete all 8 class stories, you get a special little mark next to your name
- A new merchant will sell some Chevan event rewards and other old gear, as a way to use up event currency
The addition I am still scratching my head over is the Legend status…title? I’m not sure how to describe it. Why do other players need to know I’ve finished all 8 class stories? With a summer of 12XP and the new streamlined leveling process…big deal. I’m also at Legacy Level 50, which gives me the title of “Living Legend” – the only way this could get a bit more ridiculous is if they made a character title, “Legendary”. So I could walk around Fleet looking like:
Legendary Minju, Legend
Living Legend
One final thing that was hinted is that there will be some Cartel Market changes that will make it easier for you to obtain items you want. Musco didn’t go into detail about that (probably wise of him), but I’m hopeful that they’ll put out more individual items and fewer pack items. I have never bought a hypercrate and I rarely buy/spend Cartel Coins because I can’t stand the possibility of getting something. I’d much spend 1,000 Cartel Coins on a mount and be certain I was getting it…I’d be more inclined to purchase something in the future if I could be guaranteed that I was getting it.
This livestream has done more to make me excited for Knights of the Fallen Empire than most of the official SWTOR blog posts or datamined information. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about this expansion but after Musco’s presentation (despite all of his flawed button mashing), the majority of the changes Bioware’s been working on look like they’re going to improve the quality of the experience for both new and veteran players alike.