After a lot of teasing from the developers for months, the newest expansion for Star Wars - The Old Republic has finally been announced! Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught will be coming in September of this year!
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| Interesting name. And the first one-word Expansion title. But not the first one word patch title, however. |
"War between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire blazes across the galaxy. Crucial resources dwindle as piracy and crime escalate dramatically. Amid this chaos, the Alliance Commander has the chance to tip the scales in favor of either faction, committing their elite forces to decide the fate of the galaxy.
As the Sith Empire prepares to make a decisive strike against a newly-constructed Republic shipyard on the planet Corellia, members of the Dark Council see victory on the horizon and begin plotting against one another in anticipation of the spoils. Meanwhile, Republic forces must race against time to muster reinforcements from across the galaxy in order to defend Corellia from the Sith."
And so begins Galactic War #3 between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire. The seeds of which we saw planted on Iokath in the 5.2.0 patch; The War for Iokath, and came to fruition in the 5.10.0 patch Jedi Under Siege (Which is a great story).
So, here is what we know so far about the expansion from the cantina announcement, and the official announcement on the website:
- A new Storyline which will take place on two new planets, as well as a new flashpoint.
- If it's anything like the JUS story-line, we'll (hopefully) two story-lines, one for each faction. Along with side-quests, dailies, and such. My pipe dream is that we see a return of the planetary story arcs, especially for Onderon, but what we are already confirmed to be getting is great enough!
- Two new planets: Onderon, and Mek-Sha.
- Firstly... Onderon! As a huge Tales of the Jedi, and Knights of the Old Republic Fanboy, seeing planets from those comics and the KotOR games being added to the game makes me so happy. But, what I really love is seeing Mek-Sha. It's a completely new planet made by the Dev Team, and I really like the look of it. I get a Peragus Mining Facility vibe from the Mek-Sha concept art.
- A new Flashpoint on the planet Corellia, which serves as the finale for the story.
I hope this is the new arrival cutscene for Corellia, because it looks great! - There is something about Corellia that the Sith Empire just loves. Not sure why, considering the last time they made a grab for Corellia, half of the Dark Council was killed, and began a dark time for the Sith Empire, that took them a while to break out of. But, I always love flashpoints, especially now that BWA has added a solo (AKA Carebear PVE Story player) option, for people like me! Also, it sounds like BWA is finally going to go back and update a lot of the planetary arrival cutscenes so they are more cinematic! As someone who uses those cutscenes as intros in videos, this made me very happy! I really should type up a list of which planets have the original 1.0 era arrival cutscenes, and which have the newer "cinematic" cutscenes.
- A new Operation on Onderon's jungle moon of Dxun.
Czerka Corporation. Their logo usually means something bad is about to happen. - Jungle beasts, Czerka, and Trandoshans, oh my! But, will there be any Mandalorian on Dxun? Maybe some remnant or part of Clan Ordo that still makes a trip to Dxun? Now, as people who follow me on Twitter know, I'm not an Operations player. Not for lack of wanting to, of course, but every time I've joined a guild, it always ended up dying sometime after I joined, but I think that might actually change with the Dxun Operation.
- Level Cap increase to 75, New abilities for all advanced classes, and changes to Gear itemization and customization.
- Most of this stuff is nothing new for MMO Expansions, as anyone will tell you. However, the changes being made to gear is an interesting thing, even if most of it is going over my head. So, if you want more and better-detailed opinions about this change while I try to wrap my head around it (One thing I know and love is that change is giving a lot more love to the Legacy system, which it feels like it was mostly forgotten about), head on over to YouTube and checkout Kid-Lee's video, as well as Boomy's video, they both go in-depth on these changes, and do a better job of explaining it than I could!
- New species - Nautolans.
I wonder if I should make a Nautolan Sith... - FINALLY! After waiting for nearly four years, we have a new species. You may know the most famous Nautolan in the Jedi Order; Kit Fisto, now you can create your own! I'll admit, I was hoping that we might finally get Bothan's as a playable race, but... I can keep waiting.
- Updated music for the Character select screen.
- Now, this one I am unsure of. I LOVE 'Clash of Destiny', and that might be because I've been listening to it since I started playing TOR. And it sounds good and fits with the theme of the Republic and Empire returning to war, I think listening to it in-game may help. I just hope that BioWare Austin will release any new music that is made for Onslaught officially, but that is another blog for some other time.
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| Onderon! |
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| Mek-Sha |
New select screen music pic.twitter.com/Lx5fUh18hG— The Council (@TheCouncilSwtor) April 14, 2019
Of course, we have a few more patches between now and 6.0's release in September. First up is 5.10.3: The Dantooine Incursion, which is coming out sometime this month, and will be on the PTS (Public Test Server for those not in the know) sometime later this week, most likely after BioWare's Celebration follow up livestream, which is suppose to happen sometime today, but nothing has been mentioned at the time I posted this.
The Dantooine Incursion will feature the sixth (Or eighth if you count the Original Rakghoul Event, and The Grand Acquisitions Race) recurring in-game event, which will take place on Dantooine, which fans of Star Wars are already familiar with. We don't know what else will be coming in 5.10.3, other than what has been datamined from the PTS server. I'm still trying to figure out my stance on sharing datamined stuff here, so far it has been "Only share stuff that has been cut/removed from the game, or stuff from before the current patch cycle", and never any story stuff.
And for after that, well I figure we'll find out more during the livestream this week, but I can figure that we'll most likely get the Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event during the summer, as is the tradition. Along with another patch or two, before September.
So, what do I REALLY think about this?
Uh, finally! I've been waiting for a new expansion since the end of the Jedi Under Siege story. Although I am one of the rare people who actually enjoyed the story-line that started with the Knights of the Fallen Empire and ended with The Nathema Conspiracy (Cue the sharping of pitchforks and lighting of torches!), I am really looking forward to how the Republic vs Empire story-line will progress, and maybe find out how Darth Malgus survived The Battle of Ilum and his attempted coup (We all know that someone who falls down a pit in Star Wars tends to return. But, as long as Malgus isn't a clone like Palpatine was in the Dark Empire Comics, I should be happy).
However, there are a few things I hope we get between now and Onslaught's release. One of which I already mentioned above (Return of Planetary Story arcs):
The Dantooine Incursion will feature the sixth (Or eighth if you count the Original Rakghoul Event, and The Grand Acquisitions Race) recurring in-game event, which will take place on Dantooine, which fans of Star Wars are already familiar with. We don't know what else will be coming in 5.10.3, other than what has been datamined from the PTS server. I'm still trying to figure out my stance on sharing datamined stuff here, so far it has been "Only share stuff that has been cut/removed from the game, or stuff from before the current patch cycle", and never any story stuff.
And for after that, well I figure we'll find out more during the livestream this week, but I can figure that we'll most likely get the Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event during the summer, as is the tradition. Along with another patch or two, before September.
So, what do I REALLY think about this?
Uh, finally! I've been waiting for a new expansion since the end of the Jedi Under Siege story. Although I am one of the rare people who actually enjoyed the story-line that started with the Knights of the Fallen Empire and ended with The Nathema Conspiracy (Cue the sharping of pitchforks and lighting of torches!), I am really looking forward to how the Republic vs Empire story-line will progress, and maybe find out how Darth Malgus survived The Battle of Ilum and his attempted coup (We all know that someone who falls down a pit in Star Wars tends to return. But, as long as Malgus isn't a clone like Palpatine was in the Dark Empire Comics, I should be happy).
However, there are a few things I hope we get between now and Onslaught's release. One of which I already mentioned above (Return of Planetary Story arcs):
- The return of the six missing class companions: Charles Boyd, the Creative Director for The Old Republic, has said he has plans for how to bring back the six missing companions, so I am holding out hope. For those who don't know, those companions are: Kira Carsen, Lord Scourge, Zenith, Doctor Tharan Cedrax (And his Holo-friend; Holiday), Tanno Vik (This one is weird, because his original Voice Actor passed away, and while there is a replacement, I am not sure if he is going to return.), and finally, for those Inquisitors who made the choice in Khem's Companion story; Khem Zash.
- More Class flair/mentions: I know that the return of the class stories is out of the question, but mentions to our past deeds or even our old story companions that have returned can pop up in a cutscene or two. Heck, even being called some of the titles we earned in the early days (Like Captain, Master, Lord, Darth, etc) instead of 'Commander' would be cool.
- More Lore armors from the pre-TOR era: As the person who created the "List of KotOR I and KotOR II Armors Currently in Game/Coming soon/not available ATM" thread over on the official forums, I and many others would love to see more lore armors from the Dawn of the Jedi comics/novel, Tales of the Jedi comics, and the Knights of the Old Republic games/comics. In particular, Bao-Dur and Mical (The Disciple)'s armor sets are the last two KotOR II companion armors we still need.
- More romance scenes between the player character and the companion they are having a relationship with: A majority of the companions, like Koth have been pretty shortchanged when it comes to romance scenes since 4.0, and that, sadly has to do with the fact that BWA allowed us to be able to kill/exile certain companions. Thankfully, the dev and writing teams seem to be fixing that, but I know a lot of people (myself included) would love more romance interactions with their companions, and especially a wedding scene.
- Bug and QoL fixes: I have a list of bugs that I report every patch, a number of them have been fixed, but most have not (I'm looking at you, "stretchy armor on the Remnant Underworld Smuggler's Jacket", among others). And more Quality of Life fixes/changes, like continuing the cinematic changes that were done for the introductory scenes for the original eight class storylines throughout the rest of the class stories, and other content. Of course, something like that is a major job, but... never hurts to hope!
Also, If you were unable to attend the SWTOR Community Cantina at Celebration (Like I was), you are still able to get some in-game rewards by going to the SWTOR website, logging into your account, and in the "Code Redemption" tap, enter: SWCELEBRATION19.
In-game, you'll get four Stronghold posters (Darth Malgus, Imperial Propaganda, Republic Propaganda, and Tau Idair), and a character flair. These rewards are ACCOUNT-WIDE, so if you play on a US server, but decide to create a character on an EU server, these rewards will be there as well!
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| If you can't read Aurebesh, the translation for these are "Fight For The Empire", and "Defend the Republic" |
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| And these are "Cantina Chicago '19", and "SWC '19". |
