SWTOR 5.10.4 Changes Overview and Patch Notes

On Tuesday July 16 BioWare is releasing Game Update 5.10.4 to Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is a rather small patch in terms of content and because of that it bears no title. The highlight include a secret surprise on Odessen and the previously announced F2P and Preferred Players Changes!

Not long ago BioWare announced the upcoming changes to Free-to-play and Preferred players. In the eyes of someone (me), who has been a subscriber all these long seven years (and a half), these changes seemed quite big and positive. The community countered me pretty well, though. The Credit cap limit being moved up to 1 million credits is nice on paper, but today’s game economy will swallow that “upgrade” in no time. The other two new features you can read about in the linked news article above, but it turned out that they too don’t seem too appealing to players to make them return and give another try.

Now, the interesting part of 5.10.4! Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about it at this time, because we still have a good 20-ish hours until the patch goes live and the patch notes list the second highlight of this update in the most curious and bold way: ” ????? –There are reports of mysterious observers being spotted around the Odessen base…”. Go figure, mm?

In my opinion this is going to be another small and short cinematic experience that will play the role of a filler while we wait for the big stuff happening in Onslaught.

I will have more detailed information for you about this secret event (?) on Odessen tomorrow after the servers go live. Stay around or take the easy approach and sign up to receive notifications for new posts on VULKK.com.

A very good bullet-point, that is easy to miss, is the announcement of shortened respawn timers for some of the achievement-related items on Dantooine. After the patch it should be a lot easier to get them all, following my Dantooinian Culinarian Guide. Speaking of Dantooine, a new achievement has been added. I will add it to the complete guide very soon, so you don’t have to trouble yourself finding its objectives.

A long-standing issue (since the very release of the game) has been finally fixed! A while ago BioWare revealed that the Ranged Companions not attacking their targets and not behaving properly in combat to assist the player, has actually been a bug present since 2011. Community manager Eric Musco stated that this is likely to be fixed in 6.0 Onslaught, but later corrected himself updating the statement that the devs might have a fix for that issue sooner – in 5.10.4. Well, this is a fact and after tomorrow your loyal Ranged followers should not slack any more!

The rest of the changes are pretty standard and generic. They are ordered in the old fashioned and well-established categories, so I will leave them to the more curious of you, who are interested enough in the smaller details and want to check out the full official patch notes:

Highlights

• Free-to-play and Preferred Status changes – More hotbars, increased credit caps, unlimited medical probes, and unlimited quick travel for all F2P and Preferred status players!
• ????? – There are reports of mysterious observers being spotted around the Odessen base…

General

• Players can now move items within Guild Banks as intended.
• The fog of war has been lifted on Balmorra; Imperial and Republic forces will no longer appear to be fighting members of their own faction.
• Reduced the respawn timer for a number of the items required for the Dantooinian Culinarian Achievement.
• A Conqueror of Dantooine Achievement has been added.
• Imperial guard turrets on Ossus will no longer appear to hover above the ground. All turrets also now have stealth detection.
• The Achievement for defeating Izax on Master Mode difficulty now properly awards the Master Mode Trophy (was previously rewarding the Veteran Trophy).
• Corrected an issue where brand new accounts that boost a character using a Master’s Datacron are unable to create a Legacy.

Classes +Combat

General

• Ranged companions should no longer refuse to attack if they are too far from an enemy when the attack action is issued.

Sith Inquisitor

Assassin

• Corrected an issue where Assassins would not play an attack animation when destroying destructible objects.

Flashpoints + Operations + Uprisings

Operations

Dread Palace

• Assassin and Shadow tank players can no longer use Deflection to prevent adds from spawning during the Dread Master Bestia encounter.

Items + Economy

• Players who acquire the Vulptilla mount will now also receive the Vulptilla decoration as intended.
• The Medical Droid (Imperial) Stronghold Decoration now animates as intended.
• The Nathema Sanitarium Brazier Stronghold Decoration now smokes as intended.
• The Dantooine Stone Wall (Damaged) Stronghold Decoration can now be placed on Large, Floor Medium, and Floor Narrow hooks.
• The Sith Sacrificial Pool Stronghold Decoration now bubbles as intended.
• The Dynamic Underworld Ceiling Light (Yellow) is no longer misaligned when turned on.
• The Flair: Sign of Carnage once again displays as intended.
• The Vintage Brawler and Expert Fighter Harness will now maintain their current color in the preview window and cinematics.
• Corrected the size of the Makeb Canopy Stronghold Decoration.
• The Bounty Tracker helmet will no longer stretch during cutscenes.
• The Vinn Atrius Stronghold Decoration now displays properly.
• The Refugee Camping Kit Stronghold decoration is no longer floating.

Missions + NPCs

• Corrected a variety of typos in Mission descriptions.
• The Nar Shaddaa Weekly Heroic Mission will no longer auto-complete upon pickup.
• The Introduction to Conquests Mission once again completes when a player’s Personal Conquest target is reached.
• The walker required to complete the [HEROIC 2+] Shiny New Toy Mission on Dantooine will now always spawn as intended.
• Corrected an issue where the Balmorra and Taris Conquest Objectives were not able to be completed during the Pirate Incursion Event Conquest.
• During the Bounty Contract Week Event, using the Interrogation Probe will no longer make Shady Characters invisible
• Players can once again reach Grim Tooth to earn progress towards the Monsters of Makeb Achievement.
• Aric Jorgan can now be returned via the Companion Locator Terminal in all situations.

Warzones

• Players will no longer be able to gain an extra, unintended 15 ranked rating in certain situations.
• Corrected an issue where in rare situations Ranked Arena matches would be 5v4.