A few weeks ago Star Wars released their new Galactic Strongholds. This should be right up my alley! Just think about it for a second, I would have the fun of decorating my home like in “The Sims” games without the hassle of dealing with some form of high school melodrama that I would most likely encounter when decorating a home in “Secondlife”. The yummy buttercream icing on this particular cup cake is that when I am done I can go out and quest with friends!
Super excited, I logged into SWTOR to find that I have completely forgotten where everything on the UI is located! Sigh… It took me 5 minutes to remember where my mounts are located. My skill points have all been reset. The UI has changed a bit since I last played about 400+ days ago. I like the UI. I love the ability to easily change where items are located on the ui without needing additional addons. Once I had gotten settled, I gladly accepted the stronghold quest located in the fleet.
Completing the quest provided me with a few items of furniture and decorations that I could use to decorate my stronghold. I purchased all of the available strongholds. I found that I prefer the stronghold located in Dromund Kaas. All of the strongholds seem a bit depressing looking to me. I figured that the Dromund Kaas stronghold would give me the modern chic dark and mysterious look. I decided to open all of the rooms to what will now become my evil lair. The Tatooine stronghold is huge, some love it, and I hate it! I really do not like anything that big as a player home. As you decorate your home, you began to gain prestige points (Great something else to grind). As items are placed, a percentage bar notes your completion of decorating the stronghold.
Bioware instituted a type of hook system to place decorations into the Stronghold. I like the hook system for decorating. I did not find it too difficult to place items. If you would like to place an item be sure to note the size of the hook required for that particular item. I love the fact that the layout of hooks can be changed so that you can insure that you get the size of hook that you need for the item.
I spent a couple of hours playing around with decorating. I even went out to purchase “personnel” for my stronghold. Yes, you can buy people! I will admit that I was entertained for a little while… then reality sank in fast when I realized I would have to spend a great deal of money be it credits or cartel coins to furnish my new home. It is possible to gain items by using your crafting skills. You can also gain items by completing quest and various achievements. The items for these strongholds seem super expensive especially since none of the furniture is interactive as of now. I hope that in the future at the very least if you see a chair you can actually sit in that particular chair with just the click of a button. I do think that the implementation of strongholds is a great idea; but, at this point I am very unsure if it is enough to retain the interest of the current player base, or if it is interesting enough to draw in new players.