We recently had the opportunity to head onto the Star Wars: The Old Republic PTS to check out v1.2 which is set to hit live servers later this month. During our time in game, we learned more about the Legacy System. See what we discovered and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

You can now decide how your characters are related, picking from any combination of siblings, spouses, adopted children, children, rivals and allies.  These characters, which can come from different factions as long as they’re on the same server, will then be able to unlock emotes, abilities and other rewards to share between them.  As long as one character has access to it, so will the others, regardless of their exact familial relationship.

Read more of Luke Karmali's Star Wars: The Old Republic - Game Update 1.2 Legacy Preview.

"things have been ticking along nicely in Star Wars: The Old Republic of late"

Is this blog a paid announcement?

A couple points:

1)  Hasn't this 1.2 legacy system been beaten into the ground?  Who cares if you can make your other chars siblings?  I get it, it's for roleplayers, that's great but really pretty uninspiring.  Nothing real ground breaking going on here..you can be blue skinned people as jedi now..cool.

2) they are basically removing race/class restrictings purchasable with legacy points...again..really uninspiring, really only a big deal if you are a roleplayer.

3)  Lastly I'm not so sure I would claim 'things have been ticking along nicely' for ToR...logged into the servers lately?

Originally posted by crysent

A couple points:

 

1)  Hasn't this 1.2 legacy system been beaten into the ground?  Who cares if you can make your other chars siblings?  I get it, it's for roleplayers, that's great but really pretty uninspiring.  Nothing real ground breaking going on here..you can be blue skinned people as jedi now..cool.

2) they are basically removing race/class restrictings purchasable with legacy points...again..really uninspiring, really only a big deal if you are a roleplayer.

3)  Lastly I'm not so sure I would claim 'things have been ticking along nicely' for ToR...logged into the servers lately?

I can't imagine anyone other then roleplayers and young children finding it a worthy timesink or game goal to be able to play different races as different classes.  Enough motivation to re-role when you hit 50?  I don't think so.

When this was first announced I was thinking wow! maybe unlockable races like Wookie, Ewoks?  I dunno, that sounded sweet, not just allowing players to play all their stupid different colored human skin races...

 . . . And another thing about GW2  . . . Oh, sorry, didn't know anyone would actualy be in here.

* backs slowly out of room*

/SARCASM OFF

Yeah its really sad that some (read ALL) of these niggling features weren't in at launch. Guess making that Xmas launch date was far more important than game integrity. Though its nice to see that after failing to add them for five years they were somehow able to crank them out in four short months. All I can say is better luck next game, Bioware.

Honestly, I'm enjoying SWTOR to the fullest. I have a community that keeps things fresh and interesting every step of the way. I have noticed a lot of the people who complain that they are leaving the game either did not belong to part of a competent group/community able to run things beyond the basics or they think everything should be spoon fed to them and not have to earn up to anything.

SWTOR has its rough edges there is no doubt on that; however, I do feel that 1.2 will have some of the stuff that players are craving. Legacy system, yes this has been beaten into the ground by every website out there but everyone needs to remember that this is just a small thing of what is yet to come. World of Warcraft, Rift, Asheron's Call, Everquest and every other great game didn't get developed over night and everyone fell in love with them eventually down the road. (Actually Asheron's Call and Everquest being in the pre-golden era of MMO's where fantastic games with lost of stuff to do pretty early on.)

So every troll that sees SWTOR in the tag somewhere and feels the need to just come around and try to talk crap on it. Go ahead, the numbers you see do not lie the game has lost population and subscription. You however are not missed and I hope you enjoy sitting around not playing a game while waiting on "the next bg game" (thats going to flop just as hard with all these demands the gamer populations put on developers now days).

Originally posted by toljar

Honestly, I'm enjoying SWTOR to the fullest. I have a community that keeps things fresh and interesting every step of the way. I have noticed a lot of the people who complain that they are leaving the game either did not belong to part of a competent group/community able to run things beyond the basics or they think everything should be spoon fed to them and not have to earn up to anything.

SWTOR has its rough edges there is no doubt on that; however, I do feel that 1.2 will have some of the stuff that players are craving. Legacy system, yes this has been beaten into the ground by every website out there but everyone needs to remember that this is just a small thing of what is yet to come. World of Warcraft, Rift, Asheron's Call, Everquest and every other great game didn't get developed over night and everyone fell in love with them eventually down the road. (Actually Asheron's Call and Everquest being in the pre-golden era of MMO's where fantastic games with lost of stuff to do pretty early on.)

So every troll that sees SWTOR in the tag somewhere and feels the need to just come around and try to talk crap on it. Go ahead, the numbers you see do not lie the game has lost population and subscription. You however are not missed and I hope you enjoy sitting around not playing a game while waiting on "the next bg game" (thats going to flop just as hard with all these demands the gamer populations put on developers now days).

 

It is intresting that you can sit here and insult people in all sorts of ways, and at the same time call about 70-80% od the people that bought the game, tried it for a long time and found it lacking "Trolls". That is a LOT of people you call trolls. but you think of yourself as what, the lost member of the carebears? Serriously. You like it. says a lot more about you, than the tons of people disappointed.

I'm looking forward to the update overall but am also disappointed in what they meant as "playable races". I too was expecting new races...not just the same ones. How many of the same class will one play through? Seriously. Maybe one of each advance class ..maybe. Race has nothing to do with the story so ...same ole..same ole.

They should really open up legacy relationships as well. I hope it's not strictly blood. Maybe a nemesis...old drinking buddy. Childhood friend. I know the ability transfer thing would make less sense but so does a Pureblood sith being being a twileks uncle 

I just can't believe 1.2 still isn't out yet. It adds a bunch of pvp stuff, this (to me) pointless Legacy stuff which honestly was a big disappointment in terms of the content it provides, and it's STILL not out yet. I was hoping the Legacy stuff would be either more useful, or more fluff, not this mishmash of halfway stuff. If it were cooler outfit designs, pets, weapon mods, or faster mounts, cool mod chips, but not this character race unlocking crap. That's stuff they should have saved for when they fixed the real issues. 

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by crysent

A couple points:

 

1)  Hasn't this 1.2 legacy system been beaten into the ground?  Who cares if you can make your other chars siblings?  I get it, it's for roleplayers, that's great but really pretty uninspiring.  Nothing real ground breaking going on here..you can be blue skinned people as jedi now..cool.

2) they are basically removing race/class restrictings purchasable with legacy points...again..really uninspiring, really only a big deal if you are a roleplayer.

3)  Lastly I'm not so sure I would claim 'things have been ticking along nicely' for ToR...logged into the servers lately?

 

Surely it penalises role players as they would need to keep the family tree pure, ie they couldn't have the different races related as it would screw up the RP side.

 

People can be added into the legacy as allies or rivals, thus they can be included into their legacy without having to actually relate them to all your characters. Also children can be labeled adopted giving a person another means to add someone to the legacy without actually having to 'relate' them to it.

I think the best aspect of this patch is the new UI because quite frankly the launch UI was the single worst bit of modern MMO coding I've ever seen, it was shocking. The fact this is pretty much a full re-write of the original UI suggests they knew this but still launched.

The rest of the patch sounds solid also, nice update overal.

Originally posted by toljar

So every troll that sees SWTOR in the tag somewhere and feels the need to just come around and try to talk crap on it. Go ahead, the numbers you see do not lie the game has lost population and subscription. You however are not missed and I hope you enjoy sitting around not playing a game while waiting on "the next bg game" (thats going to flop just as hard with all these demands the gamer populations put on developers now days).

They pulled a Bioware - how to piss off as many people as possible! 

Originally posted by evicton

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by crysent

A couple points:

 

1)  Hasn't this 1.2 legacy system been beaten into the ground?  Who cares if you can make your other chars siblings?  I get it, it's for roleplayers, that's great but really pretty uninspiring.  Nothing real ground breaking going on here..you can be blue skinned people as jedi now..cool.

2) they are basically removing race/class restrictings purchasable with legacy points...again..really uninspiring, really only a big deal if you are a roleplayer.

3)  Lastly I'm not so sure I would claim 'things have been ticking along nicely' for ToR...logged into the servers lately?

 

Surely it penalises role players as they would need to keep the family tree pure, ie they couldn't have the different races related as it would screw up the RP side.

 

People can be added into the legacy as allies or rivals, thus they can be included into their legacy without having to actually relate them to all your characters. Also children can be labeled adopted giving a person another means to add someone to the legacy without actually having to 'relate' them to it.

 

Happy for them. Next !

Han Solo and Chewbacca and Palapatine and Jar Jar are part of the Skywalker legacy.  Does that make it weird?

Originally posted by evicton

 

People can be added into the legacy as allies or rivals, thus they can be included into their legacy without having to actually relate them to all your characters. Also children can be labeled adopted giving a person another means to add someone to the legacy without actually having to 'relate' them to it.

 

 

That answers my concerns...cool.  Other wise my legacy "family" would have looked strange lol.

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by evicton

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by crysent

A couple points:

 

1)  Hasn't this 1.2 legacy system been beaten into the ground?  Who cares if you can make your other chars siblings?  I get it, it's for roleplayers, that's great but really pretty uninspiring.  Nothing real ground breaking going on here..you can be blue skinned people as jedi now..cool.

2) they are basically removing race/class restrictings purchasable with legacy points...again..really uninspiring, really only a big deal if you are a roleplayer.

3)  Lastly I'm not so sure I would claim 'things have been ticking along nicely' for ToR...logged into the servers lately?

 

Surely it penalises role players as they would need to keep the family tree pure, ie they couldn't have the different races related as it would screw up the RP side.

 

People can be added into the legacy as allies or rivals, thus they can be included into their legacy without having to actually relate them to all your characters. Also children can be labeled adopted giving a person another means to add someone to the legacy without actually having to 'relate' them to it.

 

 

How do midichlorians pass from adoptive Jedi dad to smuggler son

Who's to say smuggler son didn't have a small amount of midichlorians in him when he was born, thus the reason Jedi dad adopted him. 

It's great to see these changes coming soon to the game.  I was really excited for this game as I watched its development.  I wanted to love the game for many different reasons, and there are a number of innovations that I hope to see incorporated into the MMO RPG genre (i.e. companions, player ships).  Sadly, it seems apparent that this game was gutted and forced onto shelves well before it was ready to be released.  This is going on the 5th month of live servers for TOR, and they're finally adding QOL features that most games launch with or patch in after a few weeks.  While the server stability and overall game performance was above average for a new title in this genre, the design philosophy and content fall incredibly short.

I empathize with people who defend this game, but eventually you have to come to terms with reason by understanding that TOR launched in the post-WoW and Rift eras.  There are features that these games have and new games need.  It goes without saying that this game has some great ideas.  People will play and enjoy this game for a long time if BW is able to swallow their pride and consolidate down to a handful of servers.  Nevertheless, this game probably won't see wipespread popularity and adoration considering EAs approach to the industry and the deflated first impression this game made with the MMO community.  Your first major content patch mainly consists of things that should have launched in the game and an incomprehensibly rich system for leveling alts?  Raiding guilds and pvp guilds are looking for a game with end game.  Bioware is making a KOTOR 3 online.