Episode 125: Preparing for 7.4.1

On this week's show, I'll preview Galactic Seasons 6, the Copero Stronghold, season rewards, Date Night with companions, and other things coming in Game Update 7.4.1 - Building a Foundation.

A new rewards track called Ancient Armaments is getting added to the Daily Login calendar rotation. I’ll tell you what we’ll be getting from it – Spoiler Alert – its weapons and armor.

Transfers to Shae Vizla are opening with 7.4.1. I'll review the special rules regarding transfers to this server.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:37 Galactic Seasons 6
• 9:24 Date Night
• 12:28 Ancient Armaments
• 16:01 7.4.1 Miscellany
• 18:45 Transfers to Shae Vizla
• 25:33 Wrap-Up and Outro

Transcript

INTRODUCTION

Episode 125 of the State of the Old Republic Podcast was originally recorded on March 11th – 2024.

 It’s the State of the Old Republic Podcast. 

 Buckle up everyone, because tomorrow we’re going back to Copero! I’ll tell you about that and everything else coming in Game Update 7.4.1.  

A new rewards track called Ancient Armaments is getting added to the Daily Login calendar rotation. I’ll tell you what we’ll be getting from it – Spoiler Alert – it’s armaments.  

And finally, transfers to Shae Vizla are opening with 7.4.1. I’ll review the special rules regarding transfers to the server.

And with that it’s time to make the jump to lightspeed…

Gualt Speaking – And cue the moron.

Welcome to Episode 125 of the State of The Old Republic Podcast, I’m your host Ted, and as you heard in the opening, I have a great show lined up for you today.

Well, it was just under a month ago that Game Update 7.4.1 was announced, and now here we are – it’s about to go live.

There’s a lot to be excited about in this update, but perhaps none greater than Galactic Seasons 6 – Building a Foundation.

Segue Music Playing

GS6 – Building a Foundation Segment

As soon as the servers come up, your gonna wanna logon and jump straight into Galactic Seasons 6, and that’s because this season’s main reward is the Copero stronghold, which you’ll get – at level 1 on the Galactic Seasons rewards track.

Now if you’re like me you may have been thinking, that while the idea of a home on Copero is awesome, why the heck would the Chiss allow us to establish a stronghold there given all the trouble we caused the last time we visited?

Well, we got little more background on the story from the official Galactic Seasons 6 article, which states, 

In this season’s story, “Building a Foundation”, players will be connecting with the Inrokini Chiss family. Historically the Chiss Ascendancy forbade outsiders from accessing their worlds, as well as shunning the use of the Sight (the Force) among their own people. The Inrokini family sees the changing times across the galaxy and wishes to learn what strengths the other sentients of the galaxy possess, including the Sight, so that they can better prepare their own people. 

Secretly, and without the knowledge of the rest of the Ascendancy, they set up a remote facility in the mountains of Copero, and discreetly invite the player to recruit experts from other species. They offer the use of Chiss technology and a safe haven to pursue various kinds of training, in exchange for observation.

It’s important to note that the stronghold isn’t just a simple reward – It’s tied to the Building a Foundation story, and that means you’ll only have access to part of the stronghold when you first get it, and you’ll have to play through the Season to unlock the rest of it.

In the initial area of the stronghold, you’ll find a mission NPC, and this is who you will work with for the first part of the story. 

When you reach level 15 on the rewards track, you’ll unlock a second area in the stronghold, and then at level 40 you’ll unlock a third area as the story concludes. 

For each part of the story, you’ll work with different narrative characters. And yeah, I think all of these characters are permanent residents in the stronghold.

In addition to the three story related areas, Subscribers can unlock three more areas from the Subscriber rewards track. These will be available at level 42, 67, and 94.

And if that weren’t enough, all players will have the option to purchase three more areas in the Stronghold using Cartel Coins or Credits. 

As to when you can purchase these areas, we don’t know. It’s possible they’ll be accessible with the initial Stronghold unlock, or they may be connected to one of the other story-related areas, meaning you won’t be able to purchase these until you progress through the story. We’ll have to wait and see.

Now, as to who gets what? I’m going to do my best to describe which areas of the stronghold you get through story, which ones are available to subscribers, and which ones you can purchase.

The Stronghold is quite vertical, and it’s built on the side of a mountain, and it essentially has three tiers.

The initial area that you’ll get is on Tier One. It’s a little landing area with a walkway into the main building. 

This building has a couple of staircases that lead up to Tier Two. On Tier Two is a balcony on the main building. And that balcony is one of the Subcriber only rooms.

Also on Tier Two, there are two buildings one to the right and one to the left of the main building and these are tied to the story. You’ll unlock one of these at level 15, and the other at level 40. 

And then way out to right on Tier Two is a building that’s available to subscribers only. And then way out to the left on Tier Two is the final building that’s available to subscribers.

Moving on to Tier Three, there are two buildings with paths that lead to gazebos and amazing views, and these are available for purchase.

The final area that you can purchase are the docks which are below the Stronghold. Presumably you would take an elevator down from the main building to get to this area.

I know that’s very hard to visualize without seeing an image of the stronghold.

If you happen to be Twitter or X, or whatever the heck it’s called now, Jakie Ko, aka @geekyfriedrice posted a small video explaining the areas of the stronghold. 

So just to recap, the Copero stronghold has a total of nine areas. Three are granted from the story. Three are granted to Subscribers only, and three are available for purchase by anyone.

Now most of us are going to play through season and unlock everything we can. But what happens once the Season is over? Will we still be able to get the stronghold and unlock the rooms?

Here is what Jackie Ko said about this on the forums.

We intend for the Stronghold to be available after the [season] ends and purchasable with Galactic Seasons tokens. 

The Subscriber room unlocks will be available for purchase via Galactic Seasons tokens after the season ends; however, they will still only be available to players who are Subscribers. 

In the case of transferring a character to another serve, like say, Shae Vizla, Jackie wrote,

The rooms will not transfer over. However, players who unlock additional rooms in the Copero Stronghold and transfer a character to a new server will need to get a key unlock from Collections and use it at the doors to reactivate them.

And lastly in case you were wondering – the Copero Stronghold cannot be used as a Guild Stronghold.

Of course, what’s a Stronghold without decorations? If you’re like me, you’re now tired of running the Traitor Among the Chiss flashpoint and looting everything that isn’t nailed down to floor.

You can put a pause on that as the Galactic Seasons rewards track will offer a variety of Copero themed decorations, I believe 15 in all.

These include banners, signs, fountains, an umbrella, several arrangements, and an Industrial Forklift decoration which looks like it’s the reward for completing the Galactic Seasons Meta achievement.

And there is a Copero themed Utility Bundle that you can purchase from the Cartel Market. These are things like Cargo Holds and GTN Kiosks.

Other rewards from Galactic Seasons 6 include the S-1000 Boxxer Mount and the S-1000 Turbo Boxxer Mount. 

And I have to say that both of these look awesome. They’re a beautiful shiny purple, have a unique design, and the Turbo model’s jets match the color of your weapon crystals.

There is a Pearlescent Purple and Metallic Gold Dye, which also looks incredible. In fact it matches the color of the Boxxer mounts. It’s not clear how many Dye packs we’ll get, but I really hope it’s more than just one.

There are the eyto eyto creature mounts. They look similar to Tauntauns, but I think they look better. I really like these.

This season’s armor sets are the Builder’s Apprentice Armor Set and the Master Builder’s Armor Set. Apart from the helmets I like the look of both these sets, especially the Builder’s Apprentice Armor.

The weapons are… okay. I like lightsabers more than I do the blasters.

All and all this looks like a great set of rewards coming in Galactic Season 6. I almost wish I had a giant stack of Cartel Coins so I could just buy level 100 and casually work on the Meta Achievement. That’s how much I like what I’m seeing here.

To see the full list of rewards and upcoming objective be sure to check out the Galactic Seasons 6 article on swtor.com.

So, there you have it. You’ll be able to move into the new Copero Stronghold on Tuesday, and maybe spend the first night there with that special someone.

Date Night Teaser Trailer Playing

Date Night Segment

That’s right Date Night with Companions is part of Game Update 7.4.1. 

For those characters that are eligible you will receive an Alliance Alert where you can go on your Date Night. These Date Nights are cinematic only missions, and they are repeatable. You can do them once a week, and in fact, you are encouraged to do so.

In 7.4.1 you can go on a Date Night with Lana Beniko, Theron Shan, Koth Vortena, and Arcann. Individually, no freaky stuff. 

So why these four?

Ashley Ruhl, the Narrative Director for SWTOR, explained on Twitter, or “X”, or whatever the heck they call it, why they chose Lana, Theron, Koth, and Aracann as the first companions. She wrote,

…We've chosen to debut these four companions since they're romanceable by every gender AND every class, but the plan is to roll out 1-2 Date Night new missions (featuring companions who don't have them yet) alongside each Galactic Season.

Caitlin Sullivan Kelly, the Lead Writer for SWTOR, clarified a few things on Twitter, or “X”, whatever they heck they call it. She wrote,

I've seen a couple of people ask when they can actually start the Date Night missions once they go live, and the answer is that they'll be available once you reach the point in the story to confirm a romance with that companion!

She went on to add,

Keep in mind that after this point, the companion has to still be available to you to access the Date Night missions (sorry, no ghost dates).

I don’t know, Date Night with Force Ghosts sounds kind of cool.

Ashley Ruhl, went on to praise the voice actors when she wrote,

All the voice actors (both companions and players) did such an incredible job with Date Night content, I defy you not to squee when you hear it.

And Eric Todd Dellums, who voices Arcann wrote in response to the Date Night teaser,

Damn, I sound SEXY!!!

Anyone thirsty?  

Arcann is ready!

Well, okay, then.

Date Night with Lana, Theron, Koth, and Arcann. Individually. No freaky stuff is coming in 7.4.1. Date Night with other companions, perhaps with freaky stuff, coming with future Galactic Seasons.

 Segue Music Playing 

New Logon Rewards Track

 Back in 2020 the Logon Rewards Calendar was introduced into the game and has largely remained untouched since its launch.

 In 7.4.1 it’s getting an update, well, really an addition. It turns out that there are a lot of weapons and armor sets that were once readily available to players that are now difficult, if not impossible to obtain.

 In an effort to resurface these items, The Ancient Armaments Login Rewards is getting added to the rotation login rewards calendars. 

 And through this track we’ll be able to earn weapons and armor sets that we can use for outfits.

 Joe Stramaglia, a Systems Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic took to the forums to explain what they’re doing.

 These Armors and Weapons are new versions of existing ones that had randomized stats and that there was no other way to acquire their appearance in the game aside from existing world drops. These were no longer available to trade on the Galactic Trade Network due to the backend changes, but there are others that may not have been tradeable at all. There are a lot of them! Hundreds of weapons and over 2000 armor pieces. 

 This reward calendar will operate very similar to our 3 existing reward calendars, complete with Achievements and various items available on the track. This has been added to the rotation of login calendars so it might not show up right away. The big change to this one is it will include a chance to get some of these new versions of previous appearances. There will be a Weapons Pack and an Armors Pack on the calendar, the weapon pack will give you a Fitted Weapon from the list of new Weapons. The Armor Pack will give you one complete set of one of these armor sets. The packs will be legacy bound but the contents will be Bind on Equip!

 The Ancient Armaments Login track won’t be the only way to get these weapons and armor sets. We can also get through world drops.

 Joe wrote,

 Many of these have been difficult to acquire due to requiring specific levels or planets or various other rules. These new ones can drop in any world drop. World drops will be single pieces of armor or a weapon. You can still get the normal randomized stat world drops, these drop in addition to them! However, because we’re adding all of these new items to the normal drop pool, they have no vendor value, so if you want credits for them you’ll need to do some trading. If you don’t want to bother with all of that, you can always destroy them (though they will not disassemble).

 And like other loot items, these armor sets and weapons will have different levels of quality and rarity.

 According to Joe,

 In both cases of the packs as well as the world drops higher quality items will be rarer. Premium is the most common, followed by Prototype, and then Artifact. Because they can drop at any level they should appear a bit more frequently than many of our other armor world drops.

 Joe went on to say that the items will not be available in Collections. So, if you need them for different characters, you’ll have to get lucky with World Drops or buy them from the GTN.

 I think this is ultimately a good thing. But I do wonder about it. I’m not familiar enough with these items, so I don’t know what they look like.

 Are these armor sets and weapons that people will want to use? Will people want to buy them on the GTN?

And then what about inventory bloat? Will my desire to hoard everything kick-in, and will this be another set of junk that takes up space in my inventory? Or will this become a situation where I’m constantly destroying items?

I won’t really know until I see it, but I hoping there are some rare treasures out there that I’ll want to use for my characters.

Coming up, I’ll talk about transfers to the Shae Vizla server, but first here are some of the other features and random fixes coming in Game Update 7.4.1.

Announcements

Cantina Music Playing

A new Character Convenience unlock has been added to Legacy Perks! Once unlocked, players will be able to reach the GTN at any time without needing to travel to the Fleet, their personal ship, various planets or Strongholds!

The perk grants you a GTN droid.

For Level 1 the droid has a 60m cooldown, Requires Player level of 20, and costs 3.5 million credits or 400 Cartel Coins

Level 2 lowers the cooldown to 45m, required player level 50, and costs 7 million credits or 250 Cartel Coins.

And Level 3 lowers the cooldown to 15m, requires player level 80, and costs 15 million credits or 250 Cartel Coins.

Utility decorations are getting an art update in 7.4.1. And don’t worry. If you already own some of these, they will get updated automatically. You won’t have to repurchase or reacquire anything.

There are some new items coming to the Cartel Market, including a new Green/Gold Metallic Dye. 

And there are some new armor sets and weapons inspired by the Ahsoka Series on Disney+.

There’s the Prime Centurion armor set based on the character Enoch, and the Gothic Master armor set based on the characters Marrok, Baylon and Shin.

The weapons that you can get are the Gothic Master Dualsaber and the Gothic Master Lightsaber.

Other Random fixes coming in 7.4.1 include a fix to the Unread Mail UI icon so that it once again properly updates when new Mail is received.

The Repair tab on vendors and repair droids can once again be accessed.

Reduced the required missions to complete [WEEKLY] Daily Area: Kessan’s Landing to 8 (down from 10).

Updated the Imperial arrival cinematic for Voss.

Regeneration Toys will correctly regenerate resources for all origin story and combat style combinations.

HK-51's Scoped Assassinator rifle can no longer be equipped on player characters.

The Mek-Sha Safehouse Stronghold unlock is now properly displayed in the Legacy window.

Companions will now join in the first boss fight in Objective Meridian on Solo–Story mode for Imperial characters.

And finally, the Overlay Map will now be correctly updated when Quick Traveling from an exterior to an interior location.

Be sure to check out SWTOR.com for the full list of patch notes for Game Update 7.4.1.

Transfers to Shae Vizla

I mentioned earlier that the first thing you’ll want to do when 7.4.1 goes live is hop right into Galactic Seasons 6, but perhaps, before you do that, you might want to transfer some characters to the Shae Vizla server.

I talked about this back in January, but it’s worth going over again, as transfers can be tricky and there are special rules that apply only to Shae Vizla.

So, this is how it’s going to work.

For the first 30 days after the transfers open, players who have an active subscription, and who have been an active Subscriber since January 2, 2024, will be able to transfer up to 16 characters for free. Free is good.

For the first 90 days after transfers open, all Subscribers will receive a 50% discount – that’s a cost of 500 Cartel Coins - on transfers to Shae Vizla.

In other words, if you don’t meet the criteria for the free transfers, you’ll have to pay to transfer a character, but at half the price.

Now, if you’re a non-subscriber you too can pay to transfer a character to Shae Vizla, however, you’ll have to pay the full transfer rate, which is 1000 Cartel Coins.

Now there are some other restrictions as well.

First, your characters must be level 20 or higher. And second, there is a credit cap of 15 million credits per character.

So, free transfers, up to 16 characters and 15 million credits per (that’s a total of 90 million credits if you do all 16). That’s a pretty good deal.

If you were looking to make Shae Vizla your main server, and you had the characters to move, this would give you a pretty good start.

Those are all the Shae Vizla specific rules, let’s get into what happens when you transfer a character. Some things transfer, and some things don’t. But all-in-all it’s setup pretty well and there are more positives than negatives here.

Let’s start with your character’s name. When you transfer a character to a new server, if your name is taken, you will have to choose a new one, and you won’t be play with that character until you do.

One way to find out if your character’s name is taken is to create a new character on the server you’re transferring to and try to give them your character’s name. If it works, you can hang onto that character and then delete it when you’re ready to transfer.

On the flip-side, if you’re transferring a character whose name you don’t like, this is a way to get a free name change for your character.

Your loadouts will transfer with your character, as will your equipped gear, items in your inventory, and items in your Personal Cargo Hold.

Starting with game update 7.4.1 – Outfits will now transfer over with your characters.

That said, if you have an outfit that you’re particularly fond of, make sure you have the armor pieces, and weapons, and anything else you need to recreate it. Especially if you put a dye module in any of the armor pieces.

You’re in-game mail, and GTN listings will not transfer with your character. So, make sure those are all clear.

Legacy currency will not transfer – think Tech. Fragments, Conquest Commendations, and the like. You can always purchase an item and transfer that over. 

Items in your Legacy Cargo Hold will not transfer. Items in your Materials Storage will not transfer. If you need crafting materials, you’ll need to pull them out of storage and put them into your personal inventory or personal cargo hold.

Items in your Item Stash, the storage allocated for items you get from opening Cartel Packs will not transfer.

Bottom line here - if there are items you want to take with you, make sure they’re in your personal inventory or personal cargo hold.

So, what about Legacy, Achievements, and Strongholds? Well, there’s a lot of good to be had here with transfers.

And I think for a lot of people, this will be the main reason to transfer some characters to Shae Vizla.

Transferring a character to a new server is more than just moving them to a new home. If you have a strong legacy on the origin server, you can really boost your quality of life and gameplay experience for all characters on the new server. It’s definitely something to consider even if you don’t plan on making Shae Vizla your main server.

When you transfer a character to a new server, your entire Legacy comes with you. This means all legacy unlocks and achievements.

If you already have a legacy on the server, the Legacies will merge. And they will merge in your favor. To put it in simple terms – highest legacy wins.

All of those global legacy unlocks – you know a GTN on your starship, the companion unlocks that grant stats and class buffs. The Dark and Light abilities. Species unlocks, and customizations. Datacrons. All of that conveys when you transfer.

Achievements are transferred as well. Let’s say you’re transferring from a server where you have that Galactic Conqueror title that you get from Conquest? You’ll now have that achievement on the new server.

What about Strongholds and Decorations? Well, again, pretty much good news here. Any strongholds that were available to you on the old server, will now be available on the new server. But here’s the deal.

If you purchased the stronghold with Cartel Coins, you can get it for free on the new server. 

If you purchased the stronghold with Credits, you will need to re-purchase that stronghold. The good news is any rooms that you had previously unlocked will be unlocked. You don’t have to re-purchase those.

Strongholds from Galactic Seasons transfer over. And I’m talking about the two Fleet Penthouses and Mek-Sha. I already talked about how the Copero stronghold will transfer. 

It should be noted that on the new server, your stronghold will be empty, and you will have to redecorate them. 

That said, all of the decorations that you had on the other server will transfer with you. And there is some magic merging that goes on if you have unlocked the same decoration on bother servers, which in the past has led to you being able to go over the cap for a decoration. I don’t know if that’s still the case.

And finally, because you can transfer up to 16 characters for free, you might find yourself transferring characters from multiple servers. And that’s when the streams get crossed, and all hell breaks loose. And you end up with multiple versions of a stronghold (at least you used to), and who knows what other wonky-ness ensues.

So, there you have it, Transfers to Shae Vizla coming when 7.4.1 goes live.

Segue Music Playing

WRAP-UP SEGMENT

One more thing to wrap-up before I let you go today. I saw a nice tweet from Tasia Valenza, the actress who voices Kaliyo Djannis. She wrote,

#TBT to my days as the voice behind the #kickass #KaliyoDjannis in Star Wars: The Old Republic 💫 Navigating the galaxy with Kaliyo was an unforgettable journey filled with mischief, seduction, and some fabulous one-liners! I'm always grateful for a trip through a galaxy far, far away - and for the fantastic #StarWars community, of course! 💙 So, what are your fav Kaliyo moments?

The first character I ever played in the SWTOR was an Imperial Agent, and Kaliyo was the first companion I encountered. I loved her right from the start. I never sat down and ranked all of the companions, but She’s definitely top 10 for me, if not higher.

I often wonder if for the actors if this is just another job, or if they bond with these characters that they help bring to life. 

I think it’s safe to say that after 12 years Tasia still has a fondness for Kaliyo. Can’t wait to see what they do for Date Night.

As for my favorite Kaliyo moment? Obviously, there are too many to choose, but this one always brings a smile to face.

Kaliyo Skytrooper Clip Playing

Kaliyo Djannis Speaking – About five levels down there’s this one skytrooper. Totally wrong program – likes to give backrubs. Best thing Zakul ever did.

Theron Shan Speaking – Well, I know where I’m going next.

OUTRO

And that’s the state of the Old Republic for today. Let me cut in the sub-light engines and cue the music and congratulate you on surviving another 1/2 hour listening to Episode 125 of The State of the Old Republic Podcast. 

 I’m your host Ted and I thank you for tuning in.

 You can find this podcast on Buzzsprout, and iTunes, wherever else you find your podcasts. I’m also back to putting these on YouTube.

 You can listen to the show directly from the show site which is sotorpodcast.com, and there is an RSS feed where you can subscribe to the podcast directly.

 If you have a question for the show, you can e-mail me at sotorpodcast@gmail.com.

 Thank you so much for listening, and -  

 Until next time, remember the Sith Code - Cake is a lie.