Developer Dispatch: The Legacy System

[DamonJames]

I love this! I hope some day we can have a cantina or some kind of meeting place where all of our characters and their companions can be together.

[Jett-Rinn]

I started off a skeptic but now I'm pretty excited about the system; so much for people saying BioWare isn't innovating with SWTOR...but as we can see give some folks a bar of gold and they will whine about how heavy it is.

[lightwavejunkie]

The Legacy system in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will allow you to create your very own family tree, connecting each of your characters together and unlocking a host of skills and abilities that would otherwise be unobtainable. Watch this Developer Dispatch to learn about what Legacy is and how it will continue to evolve with the game.

 

Watch Now

 

I have only 1 question....... WHEN?????

[Kindara]

yeeaaah right.

 

what i saw till today is freekin me out. seriously guys?????

mixing the talents from class to class and even mixing the races is just a stupid and bad idea.

there is a history to that game and you guys just can't do whatever you want. an imperial agent or a bounty hunter is using force abilities???

 

THATS JUST SUCKS BIGTIME

 

and a pure blood sith plays a jedi or a trooper??? thats the big hit with legacy system and you are even proud of it???

if a pure bloods son or daughter betrayes the side and go republic the father would hunt him/her down and kill mim/her only through pure pride.

and if a member of a force sensitive family goes bountyhunter than because he isn't force sensitive. i can track und hunt down people as sith as well. but if i can use the force as lets say bounty hunter why would i risk the overheating of my weapons when i can shoot with lightning.

 

i don't konw, i just don't get it what should be fun on that system. epic battles rise between different charakters like the fight between boba fett and darth vader or like jango fett against obi wan.

that fight wouldn't be epic anymore if obi wan had also a jet pack and jango will use force telekinetic don't you think.

 

that would be for me a reason to quit the old republic because this system is just plain stupid. according to the gameplay to the lore, to everything.

what happens is the game becomes a huge senseless sponge where everybody can do everything.

why should i play other classes then?? thats the reason to play it. a chalange!!!! to explore something new.

 

but what i saw in the trailer you guys posted gives me the creeps. a jedi with a flamethrower???

you really managed it to get every fun out of the game. the list is that long so i stay only to that point. all i do is playing the classes through their story because thats just the only thing that makes fun at all.

if its not buggy, its just not fun to play or senseless like for example the crew skills.

 

i am very disappointed in that. i just keep on going playing my story lines through. for that i love you. the voice over story telling class lines are amazing and either thrilling or just fun to play.

long live the casual players because for mmo players this game just don't have anything if the legacy system like it is comes.

 

So its not possible for genes to pass down abilities? Its not possible for there to be a traitor in the family? Odd...Seems fairly ANTI Star Wars that none of thats possible. Thank god the Devs know like anyone with common sense knows its possible.

[Logisitcs]

 

And lastly, why is there a Guardian wearing the space suit? it is STILL light armor in 1.2, only an idiot would wear that right now.

 

They're adding in new social armor in 1.2 that are medium and heavy so everyone can wear it

[Worfius]

Looks interesting.

I would like to see in future it unlocks some class unique species like jedi yaddle or some BH big aliens and cool species like dug and Toydarians. And of course ground animal mounts.

[Lycanthrop]

yeeaaah right.

 

what i saw till today is freekin me out. seriously guys?????

mixing the talents from class to class and even mixing the races is just a stupid and bad idea.

there is a history to that game and you guys just can't do whatever you want. an imperial agent or a bounty hunter is using force abilities???

 

THATS JUST SUCKS BIGTIME

 

and a pure blood sith plays a jedi or a trooper??? thats the big hit with legacy system and you are even proud of it???

if a pure bloods son or daughter betrayes the side and go republic the father would hunt him/her down and kill mim/her only through pure pride.

and if a member of a force sensitive family goes bountyhunter than because he isn't force sensitive. i can track und hunt down people as sith as well. but if i can use the force as lets say bounty hunter why would i risk the overheating of my weapons when i can shoot with lightning.

 

i don't konw, i just don't get it what should be fun on that system. epic battles rise between different charakters like the fight between boba fett and darth vader or like jango fett against obi wan.

that fight wouldn't be epic anymore if obi wan had also a jet pack and jango will use force telekinetic don't you think.

 

that would be for me a reason to quit the old republic because this system is just plain stupid. according to the gameplay to the lore, to everything.

what happens is the game becomes a huge senseless sponge where everybody can do everything.

why should i play other classes then?? thats the reason to play it. a chalange!!!! to explore something new.

 

but what i saw in the trailer you guys posted gives me the creeps. a jedi with a flamethrower???

you really managed it to get every fun out of the game. the list is that long so i stay only to that point. all i do is playing the classes through their story because thats just the only thing that makes fun at all.

if its not buggy, its just not fun to play or senseless like for example the crew skills.

 

i am very disappointed in that. i just keep on going playing my story lines through. for that i love you. the voice over story telling class lines are amazing and either thrilling or just fun to play.

long live the casual players because for mmo players this game just don't have anything if the legacy system like it is comes.

 

 

Two words, Lord Praven

 

 

Also, can't wait for the legacy stuff.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Lycanthrop

[Talorya]

The legacy system is completely flawed as it stands.

It's promoting RMT actions by focusing all the efforts on credits needing to purchase instead of relying on the player achievement (Legacy levels).

 

Yes, there are other "unlocking" methods, but for things like race unlocks you have to carry a race to 50 to unlock that for everyone else? I don't know about you but if I've already played a race to 50, I don't think I'd want that on all my characters. And if I leveled them all to 50, I wouldn't have a slot available to create the new race/class combination or be allowed to change my existing characters' race to use the new unlocks, pretty awesome method BioWare!

 

I've never bought into this whole "family tree" thing, it's an Anakin fetish thing from the developers I get, but what's the point of having different races in the first place if your plan is for people to only roll one race on a server?

 

 

Legacy system should have worked out like this,

-Each legacy level you gain you get 1 legacy token.

-The tokens are used to purchase feature unlocks once the player has reached the required legacy level.

-Stagger out the rewards instead of placing them all at certain benchmarks, major rewards like race combinations can be placed at benchmarks but other minor features should fill in the blank levels.

-Credits can THEN be used additionally to purchase the other features you're currently allowed to based on your legacy level.

-Unlocks that are character based rather than account based will be applied once the other characters have reached the requirement (such as reach story act #, valor rank for pvp effects, or a fraction of the pure credit purchase fees).

-Legacy linked skills should be advanced versions of the current class, or an alternate animation that plays instead of crossing the classes and put it on ridiculous restrictions like long cooldown and requiring an active companion, rendering it useless unless you're just messing around on your own.

-All existing characters (at least legacy 5) are given one re-customization token that allows them to go to the character customization NPC to change their appearance and race. No gender change here.

-Future recustomization tokens can be purchased via ingame credits (say 2-5 millions) or through BioWare points. Completely understandable and perfectly fine for microtransactions to be used on COSMETICS features, but the first one needs to be a freebie, why? Because you forced people to choose what they didn't want, and then promised they wouldn't need to reroll, and now people HAVE TO REROLL if they want to use the new race combinations, you liars.

 

 

As it stands the current Legacy system is going to be favoring RMTs, I'm already seeing an increase in spam mail from them and they know they'll be needed soon with the millions of credits you're demanding from players on top of what they're already spending ingame.

 

The Legacy system is supposed to reward players for their time and effort in the game, NOT punish the players for wanting to experience what your game has to offer.

 

I for one never cared about the family trees, it completely negates the whole point of giving players the freedom to customize their characters and stories that SWTOR is supposed to be about. We're here as the characters and their impact on the SWTOR events, not "but my grandma already conquered corellia, why am I doing this again?". Legacy should have the option of having "Clans" as relationship links instead of having to rely solely on giving birth or blood related.

-Clan Matriarch/Patriarch/Grand Master.

-Clan sister/brother.

-Clansman/woman.

-Clan outcast (someone who gets no linked features but unlocks a title and aura/emote).

 

The current way is completely restricing and insulting to your original philosophy of "be the hero of your own Star Wars sage", we're not our own heroes anymore, just more clones of what you say we "have to be". Not everyone came in here looking to create a "family" with their characters, had this been implemented at launch this might be a moot point. Since this is now 3 months in at least, people have gone through your game several times, having to start over and be forced to now comply with your new "rules" is just plain sick.

 

Legacy system isn't going to save anything, the brutish backward designs are more than likely going to cause people to leave more than keep them around. Forcing people to grind the game out even more with completely cosmetic rewards is ancient practice. We've been paying and playing the game for almost 4 months now and our efforts are being rewarded with "thanks for playing so long for #legacy levels, now pay millions to unlock this feature!".

 

The Legacy system needs to be overhauled, you are building a game YOU want the players to play, NOT a game where the PLAYERS DECIDES HOW TO PLAY. Building a game that you like means that only you and people like you will like it. Having no MMO experience prior and the long development cycle meant that your ideas are out of date for the current generation and it's showing more and more in the recent content updates where the emphasis is based completely on outdated MMO content advancement.

 

So its not possible for genes to pass down abilities? Its not possible for there to be a traitor in the family? Odd...Seems fairly ANTI Star Wars that none of thats possible. Thank god the Devs know like anyone with common sense knows its possible.

 

Because it's really that hard to use a flamethrower...

Genes can be diluted, or skip generations due to more dominate genes, being in a family doesn't guarantee that you'll share everything, just some of the markers, but certainly not govern the entirety of your abilities, we're not clones after all.

If there was a Clan relationship system these can be easily explained and fitted, I'd suggest Clan outcast as an option and it can always be modified to still carry on the Clan traits.

What is "anti-star wars" is that they think this only works if you're blood related, it works in some extent for the force users but even they are not guaranteed to have force using children, Leia couldn't use the force in the movies, so active ability not passed on. The rest of the classes don't rely on genes, so that's half the game down the drain.

If you had a Clan master pass/teach the abilities onto the others in the clan, perfect, everyone is more than capable of learning and mastering at least one skill even if they're not proficient enough to master all of them like the Clan Master.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Talorya

[Infinite_Burnout]

Legacy characters are related?

 

That seems... silly. To me the whole parent/child aspect wouldn't work. SW:TOR feels more like Dragon Age to me where all the stories are simultaneously happening (e.g. one character from a class kills another from the opposing faction). To have them be a parent child relationships wouldn't work.

 

Even if they're distant cousins that raises more questions than answers. The JK and SW were brothers but somehow they're on opposing sides?

 

While combat looks fine, storywise, this is getting really confusing.

[Astralll]

Over all I know your team is working hard and I totally appreciate and respect the work 100%. I am looking forward to this update with legacy and wish us all the best. But for the future I would like to see new playable alien species such as Trandoshans. New PvE content with new worlds to explore. More open worlds. And most of all I do want to be uncle Owen in a BioWare sense. I love this game.

[beefyandbeef]

wow, everyone is saying how this is terrible and it doesn't follow lore, YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE IT, SO QUIT WHINING CAUSE NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR IT......

[BWHORN]

DUDE!!!

 

In order to unlock a legacy species I have to play a character of that species to level 50???

 

Just how many times do you expect me to play the same content over and over and over again???

 

People are already spacing through the voice acting content that was supposed to CHANGE THE MMO.

 

They have played it multiple times already, and they are bored out of their minds.

 

And this game is only 4 months old!!!

 

This is what I call terrible game design.

 

Your assumption that we are going to want to play the same planet and Heroic content over and over again is a fatal mistake.

 

I have 4 characters. They are all human.

 

So now I have to go make new versions of my characters to unlock your new legacy rewards?

 

That's just not going to happen.

 

This is just like Star Wars Galaxies- Release a half-finished game, try to finish it on our dime, then start changing it once the release rush has subsided.

 

You guys are playing with sticks of dynamite.

 

And frankly, you don't look that smart to me.

 

I am so disappointed in this whole experience.

 

I will never wait for another game like I waited for this one.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Notannos
non constructive/language

[AlyxDinas]

The system needs to evolve to allow players to share legacies. The limitations of the system as they currently stand (for instance, two players cannot have official recognition as brothers or, say, the fact that real life spouses cannot take this relationship officially into the gameworld, is an expression of this), are such that the obvious expansion is to stress a tree between players.

 

After, what good is it knowing that so and so was this character's father/mother/brother/spouse, if it really holds no relevance. If BioWare and the developers at Austin want to stress the importance of relationships in this setting, this is the way to go. If the Legacy system were in the movies, Vader and Luke wouldn't be able to have a scene together.

[Costello]

When will we see non canon breaking species added. I understand that allowing pure blood troopers seemed like adding more species but wouldn't that time have been better spent adding species that work for both sides and not rehashing species that will be a real stretch. Even more so when you add them to a family tree which has a Darth Pureblood hero of the Sith Empire (50th level required) has a child who becomes a Jedi Knight? Those must be some real issues.

 

As for the new abilities, having them tied to a 20 min cool down tied to heroic moments can hardly make them overly feasable or worth the work of getting them. Now the 20 mins makes it fairly ineffective but to then tie it to for some people there only chance of a self heal outside of med packs makes it unlikely to be used. My BH is unlikely to use force choke when he has fire and forget stuns.

 

Other than that I hope this is something really special. Its been hyped enough to find its almost completely redudent and we are going to have to wait years for it to be worth while and by then any fans will have all the level 50s they will ever want.

 

From a story point of view which was what TOR brought to the MMO, my character is a child of The Emporers Wrath and Darth Invinisble goes to the accademy as an apprentice is anyone going to threatern him or question his loyalty or right to be there. His parents are both upstairs in the accademy and would force choke and lightning the hell out of Baras or anyone in the place who questioned their child? So how does it fit into the Story?

Edited March 22, 2012 by Costello

[Claymaniac]

It would be awesome if when we get player housing, we can see our alts(from the same faction of course) hanging out in our ship/house just like our companions.

[Wolfninjajedi]

Ok look

 

YOU CAN PURCHASE SPECIES WITH CREDITS, IF YOU DON"T WANT TO LVL TO 50 WITH ONE!

 

YOU DON"T NEED TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTERS RELATED AT ALL, THEY CAN BE ALLYS OR ADOPTED DOESN"T NEED TO BE BLOOD RELATED.

 

Done.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Wolfninjajedi

[BWHORN]

Here's my official response to your official video.

 

I am removing all of my items from the Galactic Trade Network.

 

I am parking all of my characters in cantinas.

 

I am going to go play MLB 12: The Show for a couple of months.

 

I will return when my account is about to expire and see what stupidity you have unleashed in the meantime.

 

I just don't trust you guys.

 

I have seen this movie before.

 

I think you are going to release an update that will destroy this game.

 

I'm not wasting any more of my time on you.

[Kevinamitten]

Cant Wait

[nadokaoh]

glad I joined an rp server

[Ulyanovsk]

To the people that say that this is insane:

 

Luke Skywalker was just a random gunner, yet he still had the force in him, making him able to force his lightsaber into his hands while in the ice cave (episode 5). He had NOT trained any force abilities yet but could still do it.

 

Also, Leia Skywalker could feel that Luke was in danger and where he was (end of episode 5) even though she didn't know the force was strong in her. She was just a NORMAL GUNNER and could still do it.

 

 

This makes COMPLETE SENSE and stop saying it's going against the lore.

 

Also Cade Skywalker. Very strong in the Force. Became a bounty hunter.

[Blackweb]

I can't get over one of the devs (the young guy) has the name William Wallace. I only have one thing to say to him:

 

"THEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES.... BUT THEY MAY NEVER TAKE... OUR FREEDOM!!!"

[Llenyd]

The legacy system is completely flawed as it stands.

It's promoting RMT actions by focusing all the efforts on credits needing to purchase instead of relying on the player achievement (Legacy levels).

 

Yes, there are other "unlocking" methods, but for things like race unlocks you have to carry a race to 50 to unlock that for everyone else? I don't know about you but if I've already played a race to 50, I don't think I'd want that on all my characters. And if I leveled them all to 50, I wouldn't have a slot available to create the new race/class combination or be allowed to change my existing characters' race to use the new unlocks, pretty awesome method BioWare!.

 

Most of those are either/or. You can level a Pureblood to 50 or reach legacy level 8 and pay 1.5 million creds to unlock it.

 

Though, a few have been confirmed as requiring legacy level and credits to unlock, such as the ship GTN.

[BadOrb]

They're adding in new social armor in 1.2 that are medium and heavy so everyone can wear it

 

No they are not , it will be after 1.2.

 

cheers,

 

Badorb.

[Mega_Jamie]

Any chance of having the legacy ssytem span across multiple servers.

 

I would reroll a few characters here and there for different species stuff if not for the the fact that my 50 twilek assassin lives on one server, and my republic alts all live on another (would love a twilek trooper)

 

Yeah I could play another twilek to 50 on that server, or raise some funds and eventually buy it, but why should I when I've already done one of the requirements to unlocking it, punishment for playing too many alts?

[SmugLR]

April fools!