146: Masters of the Force

This week, we knew a lot about the features in 8.0, but the one thing that was missing? Well, that was the name. It’s been revealed. 8.0 is now Masters of the Force. I’ll have a roundup of everything we know about this next era of SWTOR.

Details on the story are lacking, and we likely won’t find out much until it launches. But there are a few hints that tell us where things are headed beyond just going to planet Ryloth.

Finally, this week, Galactic Season 11 is underway. I’ll talk about my experience so far and some important things you need to know about the Meta-Achievement. 

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Episode one hundred and forty six of the State of the Old Republic podcast was originally recorded on september eighth, two thousand and twenty six.

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It's the State of the Old Republic podcast.

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This week, we knew a lot about the features in 8.0, but the one thing that was missing, well, that was the name. It's been revealed, 8-0 is now Masters of the Force. I'll have a roundup of everything we know about this next era of Star Wars The Old Republic. Details on the story are lacking, and we likely won't find out much until it launches. But there are a few hints that tell us where things are headed beyond just going to Planet Rylo.

Finally, this week, Galactic Season 11 is underway. I'll talk about my experience so far and some important things you need to know about the meta achievement. And with that, it's time to make the jump to light speed and cue the moron. Welcome to episode 146 of the State of the Old Republic podcast. I'm your host, Ted, and as you heard in the opening, I have another great show lined up for you today. Quick update before we get into this.

Since I recorded this episode, Broadsword ran another Let's Play livestream. Classic Ventures are now live on the PTS. The second Children of Knull boss dropped, and Scoundrel Assassin and Shadow joined the class balance testing. I'll dig into all of that properly next episode, which means the information in this episode isn't necessarily out of date. It's just not up to date. Masters of the Force. That's the long name for Edo.

As for the short name, well, there's Moff, then there's Motif, as Broadsword is calling it internally, and then there's what Shintar from Going Commando called it, Mother F. And having tried difficulty modes on the PTS, that one might be the most appropriate because that's what I found myself saying out loud a lot, especially with master mode. So 8-0 has a name, but you know what? We're still not calling it an expansion.

Even though that's exactly what it is. Let's dive into Masters of the Force, take a look at all the features, and what you can test right now.

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If you head over to Swotor.com, you'll find an article and a website dedicated to Masters of the Force. They're both good. The one thing they reveal without explicitly stating it is that we now know everything that's coming in Masters of the Force. It no longer looks like a Death Star under construction. The exterior is done, the pieces are in place, but it's not fully operational. There are a lot of details missing. So let's run through the gamut of features.

Level cap increased to 85. And this time around, that might mean something, because Broadsword is improving the leveling experience. In the 791 livestream, they talked more about leveling on the original planets. The main story will not be enough to get you to 85. They didn't say anything about what it would be like getting from 80 to 85. If you recall, in Legacy of the Sith, you went from 75 to 80 within minutes of stepping on Manan. At least that's what it felt like.

After that, any character you were leveling that wasn't on the legacy of the Sith story would hit 80 well before you got there. In Masters of the Force, the overall leveling curve is getting adjusted. Not quite to launch day numbers, but slower than it is today. And you would presume this philosophy would apply when starting out at level 80 and playing the new story. Of course, while you're leveling, you'll be able to slow things down further by adjusting the game's difficulty.

This is the big feature of Masters of the Force. And according to the official Masters of the Force article, difficulty modes allow you to choose your challenge and customize your SWOTOR experience like never before with story, veteran, and master difficulty modes available throughout the overworld. Decide whether you want a cinematic, story-driven journey, a more demanding combat experience, or the ultimate challenge. Increase the difficulty for greater intensity.

Take it easy as you explore and group up with friends, regardless of their selected difficulty. One thing we learned about difficulty mode from the play with the devs livestream is that the onus is on you to ramp up the difficulty. It's your choice to do it. Not because of better rewards and loot, there aren't any. You're doing it because you want the personal challenge. If you want to be rewarded for your efforts, well, that's where ventures come in. Two of them.

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16 depending on how you look at it. Here is what the article said. Create classic or expert venture characters and experience Star Wars the Old Republic in a bold new way. Designed to evoke the feel of the classic SWOTOR experience, Ventures invites players to embark on a familiar but challenging journey with new goals, meaningful progression, and unique rewards. Test your mastery, prove your dedication, and earn recognition for your accomplishments across the galaxy.

There are still a lot of details missing about ventures. We do know that ventures are a subscriber-only feature. You must have an active subscription to play the venture. Ventures require you to create new characters and lock them into a difficulty mode. Classic is veteran, expert is master. You can't change it either. Once you're in, you're in. No taking an expert venture character, realizing you're in over your head, and moving them to classic.

There are objectives and achievements for playing each class, so 16 reasons to keep playing ventures if you're a completionist makes that legendary achievement seem like kitty play. We also learned from the play with the devs livestream that ventures will have some other restrictions as well. It was mentioned that your character can still have two combat styles, but they will be limited to the combat styles available to the class you choose. Play a Jedi Knight, and you can only be a Guardian or Sentinel.

And there go my plans to play every force user as lightning sorc and every tech user as Arsenal Merc. Ventures are not on the PTS, but difficulty modes are. I've given it a look, I rolled a lightning sorc on the PTS, and I gotta say, it's no joke. You definitely want to keep your gear up, raise the influence on your companions, have a steady supply of med packs, and know what all your defensive abilities are and be prepared to use them. I spent some time on Koriban in veteran mode.

For the most part, it was fine. I got the sense that I could navigate through the combat just fine. Then I tried to take on a gold elite and failed hard. And I wouldn't call it a lack of skill. I only had three DPS abilities, one med pack, and no other defensive capabilities. and no companion. Would a companion, more gear, and a couple of more abilities help? Probably. But for that one mob, I switched to story mode and killed it, then went back to veterans.

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That's the nice thing about this system. You never have to feel gated, and switching between modes is just a simple toggle. I'm excited about both features. The current game is too easy and even dull at times, but I'm someone that needs a little push, a little incentive to turn up the difficulty. So I'll be watching for ventures to hit the PTS with great interest. I do worry about the lack of rewards and incentives outside of ventures. I'm just not sure players will be motivated to ramp up the difficulty.

and stick with it. It has a I once stood in the fire to see what it felt like vibe to it.

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I'll give you some thoughts on the story in just a minute, but first I want to talk about some more features coming in Masters of the Force.

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Combat in Gear. Both of those will see changes in Masters of the Force. Very little is known about the gear system other than new gearing system. I don't think it will be a complete overhaul or something entirely new. Hopefully just an improved version of what we have today. And during the play with the devs live stream, Eric Musko mentioned that expertise is coming back for PvP gear. No other details on gear or PvP.

There will be combat balance updates and the combat disciplines will get some new abilities. Each discipline will get a new active and a new passive. The active ability will be an upgraded version of an existing ability so you don't clutter up your toolbars or mess with rotations too much. If you hop on the PTS, you can test Marauder and Sentinel, Powertech and Vanguard, Sorcerer and Sage, and Sniper and Gunslinger with more to come. Of course, you'll need all these abilities as you tackle the Children of Null.

A three boss operation coming in Masters of the Force. According to the official article, Darth Knoll, the ancient master in Dark Lord, once eliminated by the Emperor, may be gone, but her influence still lingers. Gather a group of eight players and return to the mysteries surrounding the Enigma as you explore abandoned sections of the ship and confront the dangerous experiments left in Knull's wake. The Children of Knoll operation introduces a new three boss challenge.

Launching with story in veteran modes with master mode coming later. The first boss of the operation, the null acolyte, is available for testing on the PTS in both story and veteran mode. If you fought the Null Acolyte on the PTS and are wondering if your feedback is just going into a black box, good news it isn't. Martin Smith, the operations designer for SWOTOR, posted on the forums about the Null Acolyte. He wrote

In the first few days of testing, there were roughly 1800 attempts on null acolyte across story and veteran mode with 104 kills. There have been more attempts since then, but that was the most recent point I had checked earlier this week. That comes out to about a 5.7 success rate, which is lower than intended, especially for story mode. Since we had a quick turnaround for this PTS update, I did not have time to make sweeping changes or do a full data pass.

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But I did make some initial adjustments to overall health and damage. These changes are closer to where some groups are finding success using the M4RTN droid. If you're not aware, Martin is a special droid, the M4R TN, and I wondered why it was given that name, and now we know it's named after the developer. The droid lets players tweak the encounter by adjusting the null acolyte's health and damage. Martin, the person, not the droid,

Went on to post a lot of information about the encounter, abilities, and more. Perhaps the most interesting thing he wrote was at the end of his post. A note about operations going forward. If my name sounds familiar, it may be because I was part of the original launch team and worked on operations until I left BioWare in 2016. Broadsword brought me back to focus on operations content. My goal is to make the best operations content I can.

But to do that, I need your feedback. I want to know what you want from future operations and what you would most like to see fixed or changed in existing operations. I am working on improving the process of making new content and building better tools to help design, build, and balance operations more effectively. That is great news. Yes, he's only one person, and I don't know if he's the only person on operations content, probably not.

And I don't know if he's replaced someone on the team, that's a definite maybe. But the fact he's focusing on the tools needed to build, design, and balance operations is great to hear. Those are the kind of things that can speed up the development process and lead to building more operations, or perhaps even bigger operations at a steadier pace. Other things coming in Masters of the Force, quality of life changes, toys are becoming abilities, fitted weapons and armor will be available in collections.

And the state of decorations will remain persistent. That means if you have some lights that you turn on when you leave your stronghold and come back, they will still be on. Legacy is getting 10 new levels and two new perks. Medical Probe Affinity grants your character the ability to call the medical probe an additional time without incurring a timer penalty. Each rank grants an additional death before the timer increases. Improved rest and recharge.

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Reduces your other ability cooldowns after you complete the channel of a rest and recharge ability. At maximum rank, this reduces all your cooldowns completely. That perk does not apply in PvP, by the way. And each of these new legacy perks has three ranks. Broadsword is also making some adjustments to the existing legacy perks. In a forum post, Jackie Co. wrote, Over time we've released many perks at various breakpoints in our leveling journey.

This led to perks being highly concentrated in the original legacy levels and sparse otherwise. There was little consideration for where you would be in your overall journey from a level and reward perspective. As such, we've adjusted many of the perks' costs and level requirements. Now you should be getting access to a new legacy or character perk at every legacy level. This will not affect your character or legacy if you've already acquired these perks prior to 8 0.

That's a current look at Masters of the Force, the latest expans, mother F. I mean era of Star Wars, the Old Republic.

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Masters of the Force wasn't the only name revealed in the article. We also got the name of the next story chapter in Star Wars The Old Republic, Galaxy in Chaos. I want to talk about upcoming story from Masters of the Force, but before I do, spoiler alert. I'm going to talk about some details from Legacy Reborn and how it may tie into where we're headed in Masters of the Force. If you haven't played Legacy Reborn yet and don't want to hear any details, especially about how it ends,

You can skip over this segment and come back later. On a side note, I do add chapters to each episode, which should make skipping over things quite easy. With that, let's begin. Here's what the article said about this next chapter. Darth Malgus's legacy has been broadcast to every fourth-sensitive being across the galaxy, sowing chaos and unrest in its wake. Will this message inspire hope, fear, or vengeance for good or ill?

The Galaxy is forever changed. Galaxy and Chaos explores the consequences of Malagus' actions and the rising unrest spreading across the Republic, the Sith Empire, and beyond. This account lines up with the in-game interlude loading screen, which I thought was better written than the article. Darth Null's machine, her life's work, has been activated. Darth Malagus sits upon its throne. His words echo in the minds of billions of force users.

The reckoning triggers shockwaves across the galaxy, your alliance, the Sith Empire, the Galactic Republic, and a multitude of other powerful factions brace for the approaching storm. A new era dawns. And this is an interesting setup. Legacy Reborn ended in a cliffhanger. You're standing over Malagas as he completes his broadcast. Depending on the choice you made, your character may very well be brandishing a weapon ready to take him out.

By all accounts, though, it looks like Malgus got his whole message out. If you were playing a non-forced character, you saw them use the force as a result of Knold's machine. The article says Galaxy and Chaos explores the consequences of Malchus' actions and the rising unrest spreading across the Republic, the Sith Empire, and beyond. It makes me wonder where, or should I say when, is this story going to begin? Will there be a time jump?

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Will we find ourselves on Odessian grappling with this new paradigm and piecing together what happened after the credits rolled? Or will we start back in Naga Sidow's temple face to face with Malgus? I don't know at this point. But whatever happens after the credits roll, it sounds like the damage was done. I certainly can't wait to find out. The story won't be on the PTS, but I do believe that Ryloth will. That's obviously going to be an important setting for Galaxy and Chaos.

And by the way, I wonder if Galaxy and Chaos would have been the better name for the Legacy of the Sith finale and Legacy Reborn the better name for the opening story in Masters of the Force. Just a thought.

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Galactic Season 11, Light and Shadow is now in its fourth week. Yes, it's flying by. This is a combination of seasons 2 and 4. The big rewards from those seasons were the companions, Fenzale, and Amity. And if you don't have them, you'll want to earn them quickly because there are objectives and achievements that require you to play with them. The good news is that their companion gifts only cost you credits and are available from the season vendor, and they are highly discounted.

There are some new rewards this season, most notably the Sapphire City and Emerald Land Mounts. Both are companion enabled. As for the objectives, no dark and light bosses this season. Hooray, we needed a break from that. Last season they introduced an objective that required you to earn 200,000 conquest points using a seasonal companion. That's still there, but the old March Across the Galaxy objective that just requires you to earn 200,000 conquest points is back.

However, it's not available every week. Well, let's get into the meta achievement. This season rewards you with the Amity Penumbra customization, the Penumbra armor set, which you can wear. You also get Fenzale's Blaster Twirler customization and Fenzale's Headhunter customization. So, how do you get all that? Well, that's where this season becomes interesting. Let's start with the basics.

You have your usual reach level 100 on the rewards track. Then you have to kill 1250 enemies with Benzale and kill 1250 enemies with Amity. Those two are easy. You can do them in your sleep, which is good because if you choose to focus those down, you'll fall asleep doing it. Then there's the big pole in the tent, which in the past was complete 100 weekly objectives. This time around, it's complete 130.

weekly objectives. That's quite a jump. Well let's do the numbers and see what it means. The last day of the season is February 15th, 2027. It's a long way off, but by that time you'll be screaming at the devs asking when is game update 801 coming out? Now you can only do seven objectives per week. If you start week one and power through it every week, you'll hit 130 in week 19.

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That means you can only skip seven weeks this season. And that assumes you're completing seven objectives in all the other weeks. If you don't do seven objectives per week, the minimum you could do each week is five. That means you can't skip any weeks and it will take the full 26 weeks to get to 130. Now what if the achievement stayed at 100 for this season? Well, you'd complete it in 15 weeks, which means you'd have 11 weeks that you could skip.

and the minimum that you would need to do every week drops to four. It really is a season extender. As for how this season is going for me, it's fine. I like that every week feels a little different. Some are harder, or should I say, take longer than others to get things done. I liked going back to Dantoine, but twenty five dynamic encounters was a bit of a grind. This week had sparks of war, and I don't know what happened, but my group struggled with this. It was

A very uncoordinated and sloppy run, but we got it done. There's still a long way to go with this season, but with Masters of the Force releasing in December, so we think you might want to push to get this season out of the way so you can just focus on all the new stuff when it arrives.

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If you're like me and have been playing Galactic Seasons since day one, you expect things to be routine at this point. Simple pattern of logging in each week, completing objectives, and progressing through the rewards track at an almost calculable rate. What you don't expect is to do something as mundane as visiting a planet or stronghold and having your entire season's progress wiped out. Which is exactly what happened to some players on the Starforge server.

Rishi has always been known as a pirate's paradise. Emery really did give it to the Nova Blades during the hunt for Revan all those years back. Well, now the Nova Blades have seemingly got their revenge. Some players who traveled to Rishi or entered a Rishi stronghold found their galactic season, and I believe PvP season progress reset to zero. As soon as Broadsword realized what was going on, they stopped the bleeding by disabling all traffic to Rishi. They investigated the problem.

and implemented a real fix and ensured that players affected by this bug were made whole again. However, as of September 1st, some players still reported that their progress has not been resolved. Hopefully it's just down to a handful of players that need their progress restored and the wider issue has been resolved. The good news, Broadsword acted quickly, found the issue, and ultimately put in a real fix. The bad news is before they got to that fix,

They had to block people from going to Rishi and ask them not to play Galactic Seasons, which is not easy to do, as some objectives just require you to earn conquest or run an operation, which maybe you do with friends. Most objectives just ask you to play the game. The stopgap really was a scary moment. It meant that Broadsword didn't know the root cause and they weren't sure if they could restore progress for players. Sounds like this worked out.

And if you play on Starforge, you're free to go to Rishi and remind the Nova Blades just who they're messing with. I wasn't affected by this, but I can imagine for those who were, it wasn't the excitement you were hoping for from Galactic Season 11.

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A couple of items before I let you go today. If you're having problems making progress on Galactic Season 11 and getting your rewards, well, that's not the only source of loot out there. You can get the Galadopodling minipet by going to Swotor.com forward slash redeem dash code and entering the code GETREDEFOMOTIF. That's G-E-T-R-D-Y, the number four, M-O-T-F.

The Gladio Podling minipet is available until December 26th, a possible hint at when Masters of the Force might release. And if you log into the game between now and September 17th, you'll get the BR0 Astromech Mini Pet inspired by BR1 from the new game Star Wars Zero Company. I don't know about you, but when the new ventures go live, my entire first play session is going to be spent opening that character's email.

I have a little time to wait before I have to worry about that. What you don't have to wait for is whatever you have planned next. Because that's the State of the Old Republic for today. Let me cut in the sublight engines and cue the music and congratulate you on surviving another half hour, give or take, listening to episode 146 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's 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 email me at SotorPodcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, remember the Sith Code - cake is a lie.