With a new year coming, Star Wars the Old Republic is following the public’s desire for new strongholds, and in 2020, the new stronghold will be on Alderaan. The developers have re-opened the Public Test Server, or PTS, for subscribers to test the stronghold and give feedback.
Strongholds are a form of player housing. Players will need to purchase a stronghold from either the vendor on the fleet or on the planet the stronghold exists on, and will then head into the stronghold to unlock rooms and decorate them.
Each stronghold has a different cost to purchase and to unlock rooms. The cheapest strongholds are the Coruscant and Dromund Kaas ones, as these are the capital worlds of the factions, though they have a downside that players cannot travel to them across factions without paying a “smuggling cost”. This is why all other strongholds are cross-faction, with them costing considerably more than the capital world strongholds.
Each stronghold has a unique look to it, as well. Coruscant and Dromund Kaas look like an apartment somewhere on the planet, whereas Nar Shaddaa looks like what the developers call a “sky palace”. And the same goes for the other strongholds too; Yavin IV is a Massassi temple, Tatooine is a homestead that has a “Skywalker Ranch” feel, and Manaan is an apartment that starts on the surface and heads into the depths of the ocean.
The other remaining strongholds are Umbara and Rishi, and both are unique. Umbara is based on the Crisis on Umbara Flashpoint and is an apartment inside a moving train. And Rishi is based on the pirate town on the planet of the same name. That stronghold is massive and has a lot to offer players.
And it with this mindset that the dev team goes into their Alderaan stronghold. And thanks to a forum post by Community Manager Eric Musco, we have an idea of when the stronghold is coming, as well as a request for feedback.
In Musco’s forum post, he proposed a series of questions for players to answer after testing the stronghold. In the post, he asked what the player’s general feelings on the stronghold are, and if there are things they do and don’t like about it. He asked if the stronghold felt too small or too big and if players could change anything about it, what it would be.
But to many players, Musco asked about the hooks in the stronghold. Hooks are what players put decorations on, and he asked if the density of the hooks felt too cluttered, or if their placement felt restrictive given the stronghold’s current cap for decorations.
Strongholds were a great addition to the game, and if a player has a character on the PTS, they’ll definitely want to check out the new stronghold and give their feedback. Musco has asked that feedback be given on the PTS bug forum, with the thread for the Alderaan stronghold located here.
