BioWare announced upcoming changes to the SWTOR Galactic Season 2 launching with the Legacy of the Sith expansion! PTS 7.0 update coming soon
David Staats, a system designer at BioWare, posted on the forums what the devs plans are and why. Galactic Season 2 in SWTOR will bring changes to how the Objectives are given to the players as the dev team attempts to make it so you can truly play the game “at your own pace” rather than struggle to meet the criteria to get the points you need.
Priority Objectives Get Their Own Tab
Rather than having the Priority Objectives (the daily and weekly mission things you do for Galactic Seasons points) just be at the top of the list for Conquest Objectives, they will get their own tab within the Conquest Objectives window instead.
Priority Objectives are shifting to Weekly Emphasis, rather than Daily
Currently, there are 2 Daily Objectives and 2 Weekly Objectives, with Season 2, this will be changing to 10 Weekly Objectives and 1 Daily Objective with a huge point redistribution towards Weekly Objectives. This means there is less pressure to log in every single day and aligns more closely with how Login Rewards work where you can complete them at your own pace.
Of those 10 Weekly Objectives, you will pick 7 to complete and the other 3 you get locked out of, rather than rerolling a meh objective into GSF. The Weekly Objectives will change each week, but everyone will have the same set of 10 Weekly Objectives, which allows you to complete Galactic Seasons more easily with your friends. They did not specify what the weeklies themselves would look like.
The Daily Objective will remain constant and is just to “Earn Personal Conquest Experience”. At this point, it is unclear exactly what is meant. Will you have to complete a single conquest objective? Will you have to reach 50k conquest on a toon? Or is it literally just “Earn EXP/RXP”, which you can do by killing a single enemy? It sounds like the daily objective is just geared towards did you log in and do something other than check your mail today?
My Thoughts on These Changes
I’m on the fence. I will support these changes if it means I end up getting points faster, but I would not support the changes if it means that I earn points slower, and it seems that will mostly depend on what the weekly objectives are. I personally don’t mind having to do the daily objectives right now.
I like that there is less emphasis on the weekly objectives because it doesn’t matter that much if there’s one I don’t want to do like GSF or 3 VM Flashpoints and the daily objectives tend to be super quick anyway. I hope that enough of the Weekly Objectives focus on endgame content that I like to do or are at least easy to complete, but that hasn’t always been the case thus far.
The bigger issue I have with Galactic Seasons is the somewhat lackluster rewards, especially as someone who has been a subscriber since launch. I’ve been willing to do them thus far because I want to decorate the new Fleet Strongholds and I liked some of the weapons. The only thing I’m missing from the Galactic Seasons Token vendor is a second copy of the Makeb Gazebo decoration that I missed out on back in 2.0 and the Carrick Station Stronghold, which I should be able to get by the time Season 2 is over.
The “Marked” mechanic on the new companion is neat, but I already have so many other companions I can use and it’s obnoxious that I can only gain influence with him in a specific way.
The Mythran armor sets were ridiculously lame too, so after Season 2, I am not sure if there will be much of a reason for me to participate at all unless they upgrade the rewards. One thing that would keep me engaged indefinitely is if I could trade in Galactic Seasons tokens for Cartel Coins.
When is the next PTS update and what will it contain
Jackie Ko also announced on the forums that Sniper and Operative changes will be the next focus for the PTS, and they should probably be up by the end of August.
I will be covering those changes when they are released, including providing Gunslinger and Scoundrel translations if only the Imperial specs are available, similar to how only the Republic specs were available for Sentinel and Guardian.
Apart from the two Combat Styles previews, BioWare released a Short Story abut Manaan in preparation for the upcoming Legacy of the Sith expansion.
Earlier this week SWTOR game design director Chris Schmidt was interviewed by the Escape Pod Cast and he revealed new insights into the development of Combat Styles for SWTOR 7.0 The Legacy of the Sith Expansion.
UPDATE:
The SWTOR PTS is back up and the new things include a new UI, Sniper and Operative Changes. You can read about them more in-depth in the link above.
David posted a clarification post on the forums answering a few popular questions and giving more insights to the structure and types of objectives you will be given in Season 2.
Q: Will this change the pace at which players can progress through the Season?
A: Generally speaking, no. It is our intention to keep roughly the same cadence as Season 1.
Q: Will this change eliminate the Reroll function?
A: Yes. The Reroll function will not be present in Season 2.
Q: Will Season 2 be available on PTS prior to launching?
A: Yes, we do intend to have some version of Season 2 available for testing, however it will be in a later PTS phase.
The Weekly Priority Objectives for Season 2 will be of mixed complexity and will roughly follow this structure:
- 6 Solo-oriented Objectives
- 3 Multiplayer-oriented Objectives
- 1 Subscriber Objective
David also provided two examples of what the Weekly Objetives for Season 2 might look like (this is not final):
(Week 1 Example) – Complete any 7
- March Across the Galaxy – Earn Personal Conquest Points across your Legacy.
- Utilizing the Shadow – Defeat enemies across the Galaxy with Fen Zeil as your active Companion.
- This Will Do Nicely – Affect enemies with destructible pipes, tanks, canisters, and capacitors found throughout the Galaxy.
- The Coreward Worlds – Complete Repeatable, Exploration, or Bonus Missions while defeating enemies on Alderaan, Balmorra, Corellia, Manaan, Mek-Sha, and Onderon.
- Ace of the Armada – Board your personal ship and complete Space Missions. Earn bonus progress for completing [HEROIC] missions.
- Supplying the War Effort – Assemble materials into any of the following War Supplies: Infantry Supply Kits, Starship Weapons, Armored Vehicles, Crystal Capacitors, or a Holocron of Strategy, then assemble an Invasion Force.
- A Galaxy at War – Complete Flashpoints. Earn bonus progress for completing Depths of Manaan, Assault on Tython, Korriban Incursion, or Secrets of the Enclave (requires content). Earn additional bonus progress for defeating their Bonus Bosses.
- Clashing in the Stars – Complete Galactic Starfighter matches while earning medals.
- Heading the Frontline – Complete Unranked Warzone matches while earning medals.
- Profit and Plunder – Complete Chapter XIII: Profit and Plunder of Knights of the Fallen Empire on Veteran difficulty or harder. (Requires a Subscription or access to Knights of the Fallen Empire)
(Week 2 Example) – Complete any 7
- March Across the Galaxy – Earn Personal Conquest Points across your Legacy.
- Utilizing the Shadow – Defeat enemies across the Galaxy with Fen Zeil as your active Companion.
- Still Got It – Defeat non-player enemies across the Galaxy without the aid of your Companions. (No Companion may be summoned for progression. This does not progress through Warzones, Galactic Starfighter, Flashpoints, or Operations)
- Dealings in Hutt Space – Complete Repeatable, Exploration, or Bonus Missions while defeating enemies on Makeb, Nar Shaddaa, Quesh, Voss, and Ossus.
- Liabilities of Nar Shaddaa – Track down and defeat the following high profile targets on Nar Shaddaa: Kaeden Ta’kor (Republic), Kallik Kan (Republic), Kaemon Zahor (Empire), and Varus Logan (Empire).
- GSI Valued Partner – Complete the Mission: [WEEKLY] GSI Valued Partner Initiative.
- Cartel Warbots – Defeat the Rogue Cartel Warbot World Boss on Quesh and Battledroid R4-GL World Boss on Nar Shaddaa.
- Stay On Target – Earn Offense and Defense Medals by Capturing and Defending Satellites in Galactic Starfighter.
- I Have You Now – Defeat player enemies in Unranked Warzone matches.
- Quelling the Uprising – Complete Uprisings. Earn bonus progress for completing Crimson Fang, Done and Dusted, or Firefrost. Earn additional bonus progress for completing them on harder difficulties. (Requires a Subscription)
UPDATE: Following the announcement of the Legacy of the Sith expansion getting delayed to February, BioWare brought up the SWTOR 7.0 PTS in early December with more new changes. Among them we have a nice preview of the Galactic Season 2 “Shadows of the the Underworld” Rewards and new vendor items.
