Star Wars: The Old Republic - Onslaught Expansion Release Date Announced
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When it was originally announced, the upcoming Onslaught expansion for BioWare's MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic was eyeing September 2019 as its tentative release window. However, this new announcement pushes the actual release date to October 22, 2019. The announcement also lists a number of changes and adjustments we should expect from the expansion. Check it out:
We know you have all been eagerly awaiting to hear when we plan to release our Onslaught expansion. The feedback from our Public Test Server (PTS), along with the data from our internal play tests showed us we need more time. We haven’t released all the changes to PTS, and we want time to make adjustments based on your insight. It was a difficult decision but with our commitment to delivering you a quality experience, we’ve decided to push the release date for our new expansion to October 22, 2019.
We have been gathering your feedback both in and out of game since late June and we have already made sweeping changes to a number of systems, especially Spoils of War. Our new Operation, Dxun, should be ready for testing in a few weeks, and we’re making significant adjustments to set bonuses, tacticals, and amplifiers, which are key to our new gear progression system. For example:Also, the Nautolan subscriber reward was previously announced to be given to any player who is a subscriber on launch day. As a special thank you for all of your efforts with Onslaught on the PTS, we have decided to give the Nautolan species to everyone who is a subscriber anytime between September 1, 2019 and October 22, 2019. There has never been a better time to be a subscriber in The Old Republic and we can’t wait for you to experience Onslaught with us in a galaxy far, far away!
- We used our initial Class offerings (Inquisitor and Warrior) to hone in on what makes set bonuses and tactical items exciting.
- PTS testers may have noticed we already applied these learnings to the Bounty Hunter (and soon on Republic Classes including Troopers), and we’re making further changes to existing sets and tacticals.
- New gear bonuses appearing only on the 6-piece set bonus were not satisfying, so we went back and adjusted every 4-piece set bonus in Onslaught to make them much more appealing.
- As we apply level-sync to our existing Operations, we’ll continue weekly refinements to improve the experience for everyone.
Thank you.
Keith Kanneg, Sr. Producer, Star Wars™: The Old Republic™
And if you're interested in something more detailed, you should read the latest Public Test Server notes. An excerpt:
Spoils of War Acquisition
As we’ve previously discussed at cantinas, on livestreams, forum posts, and our Reddit AMAA, there are a lot of aspects to the “Spoils of War” changes for gearing. Increased loot drops across the board, Amplifiers, deconstruction, a slot-targeting vendor, and Galactic Renown changes are all now live on the PTS! Are some of these changes news to you? If so, here’s a quick breakdown:
In general, a lot more loot will be dropping at a faster rate. Amplifiers can now be found on all newly acquired pieces of gear that are eligible. For example, for an Amplifier to appear on a Shell piece, the Shell must be Premium quality or above. Amplifiers have a lot of different effects, but if you don’t like which effect you rolled, you can re-roll them for credits. Rerolling will give you a selection of three different Amplifiers to choose from. If you prefer your current Amplifier over the new options, you can simply stick with what you already have. The cost for rerolling an amp increases each time you reroll in succession on the same item, so it may be more effective to go find some more gear in the world rather than burning all your credits on a single item!
With the increase in loot drops it’s a safe bet that players will find themselves with loot they don’t need. Thanks to our new deconstruction system, players will now be able to break down items into either crafting components or Jawa Junk depending on the item type. If a broken-down item was crafted, and you have the required Crewskill to reverse engineer that item, crafting materials will be gained. If the item is either a world-drop or you don’t have the needed Crewskill, Jawa Junk will be granted instead. Jawa Junk can be turned into a special vendor, granting either crafting materials or randomized gear for a specific slot. You can throw as much Jawa Junk at the vendor until you get a piece that meets your needs, allowing you to really hone-in on what item you’re trying to get.
Lastly, the Galactic Command system will be reset and rebranded to Galactic Renown. Renown will essentially function the same way as Galactic Command, by earning Renown Experience through completing various tasks (killing certain enemies, completing activities etc.) The main difference is, this won’t be the main way for players to attain gear. This will be a supplemental system that rewards players as they complete group activities, PvP, and more!
