The Legacy system in Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of its crowning features, but in many ways, it is a frustrating experience for veteran players. The benefits it offers are plenty, varied, and useful, but a lot of the unlocks are gated behind high credit costs, rather than the actual Legacy levels.
“A legacy level?! WOOT…I think.”
Today, though I am normally confined to writing Smuggler articles, I want to start a discourse on the Legacy system, and talk specifically about a few of my wishlist items for changes in the expansion or otherwise.
Current Problems
Like I said, though in general the Legacy system is helpful, it does have a few issues. Here are some of my main beefs.
Nothing Over Legacy Level 25
It is fairly obvious to most people that after you get to Legacy level 25, there are absolutely no rewards. It was really exciting for me to reach Legacy level 50 for about 15 seconds. Then I remembered that I don’t get anything for 50, just like I didn’t get anything for Legacy levels 26-49.
Now, we heard from Damion Shubert through Joveth Gonzales that they were “exploring” options for this, as you can see from the quote below.
Hello! So I spoke to Principle Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert about this, and he feels that with some of the Legacy rebalancing that has occurred recently, he definitely agrees that there is a need for more rewards for players with Legacy levels 25 and higher. The team hasn’t made any decisions yet, but it is something that they are exploring.
That is a nice sentiment, but it has been five months. Hopefully, we will see something in the expansion that improves this situation.
Family Trees Are Not Visible To Others
Legacy family trees are great for roleplayers who want to sketch out their characters and how they relate to each other. It would be really nice if other people could see how our characters are set up. I remember back in the day when I played Lord of the Rings Online, there was a “Description” section on your character sheet that people could see when they inspected you. This description area was used by many players to list their alts so people would be able to see who their mains were. The family tree could be used for a similar purpose, but there needs to be a way to display it to other players first.
The Legacy family tree in all of it’s wonderful glory.
Legacy Gear Drop Rate Is Too Low
I have played for hundreds of hours since the addition of Legacy gear into the game through seven level 50s all the way to Legacy level 50 and beyond. I still have only had two (2!) pieces of Legacy gear drop. I know the drop rate should be low, but I have literally killed legions of enemies.
I should have seen more than two pieces.
Legacy Perks Are Still Too Expensive
I have griped about this since day one of the PTS patch for Update 1.3. Legacy Perks are per-character buffs, so if you want them on all of your characters, you have to pay for it on ALL of your characters. In the original blog post on this topic, Senior Game Designer William Wallace explained the following:
The most obvious difference is that while Legacy Unlocks apply to all characters in your Legacy, Character Perks only apply to a single character, allowing you to customize that particular character. Also, while most Global Unlocks can be earned through normal play or can alternately be purchased for credits, Character Perks can only be purchased using in-game credits. As Character Perks apply only to a single character, their credit costs are significantly lower than most Global Unlocks.
This makes sense on paper, but the original intent of the Legacy system was to do something for all of your characters. This system is fine, but parts of it need to be substantially cheaper, or at least there needs to be an option to purchase it account-wide if desired.
Experience Bonuses Are Not Powerful Enough
The purpose of the Experience Bonuses are to provide alternate methods of leveling besides world quests. Along with the Class Experience buff, any of the other buffs should make it possible to do this. The Exploration buff should be increased by 300% to start with, since it is dependent on a very experience-deficient system. The PvP buff should be larger as well, to counter the fact that queue-times and short Warzones can lead to a slow and painful XP grind.
Possible Solutions
All of these issues have complex solutions, I am sure. That being said, there are some things they could do to increase the usefulness of the Legacy system that seem to be relatively easy to implement. As usual when talking about proposing changes, there is no way to know how feasible a solution is. These are just some wish-list ideas.
Allow Legacy Level To Be Displayed
If Legacy level 50 were something I could wear, it would be more cool. Right now, it is just a number at the top of a panel that I would have to brag for people to know about. I want to brag a lot more subtly! Since there is already a way to wear the Legacy name as a title, there should be a way to add the level to it.
Shared Currency Pool
This would make leveling and crafting a lot easier. If we were able to access planetary commendations from any character, it would make leveling through different paths a lot easier. The main issue I have with leveling just through PvP is the fact that class missions out-level gear that you acquire. If you don’t do the planets, you really have the PvP sets at level 20 and level 40 to keep you caught up, plus any greens you get in the course of class missions. A shared Legacy currency pool would solve this problem.
Grant Legacy Gear With More Legacy Levels
The Legacy main hand that you get for completing Chapter 1 is really cool. I love sending that down for my alts. I would love it if there were more Legacy-related sources of Legacy gear. Maybe they could send a mail every ten Legacy levels with a few pieces.
Decrease Costs Incrementally
This might be a lot harder to implement, but I would absolutely love it if the pricing for everything in the Legacy system would scale depending on your Legacy level, finally becoming free at Legacy level 50. This would solve several issues simultaneously.
Auto-level Alts
Another interesting idea (probably hard to implement) would be to allow a single auto-level for an alt (with maybe more uses of this ability available in the Cartel Market). The level to which you could auto-level would be equal to your Legacy level at that time. Also, it would only be an option for a mirror of a class you already have, like a Sniper if you already have a Gunslinger. This would make sure that you could actually play the class.
What Now?
Currently, after you reach Legacy level 50, it seems like all you have done is eliminate the Legacy XP bar. I sincerely hope that Bioware looks at their already-great system to make it even better, and more importantly, makes it worth it.
As always, we here at TORWars want to hear your thoughts. What changes are on your wishlist? Let us know in the comments below!
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I wish the legacy tokens could be used to buy the custom gear as well, rather than strictly a high credit cost. I will never buy the un-moddable gear since turning a rare token into something that has a limited use doesn’t seem like a good investment.
A better option would be to make the token gear into the ‘empty’ custom gear. The second tier option could provide purple moddable gear with high-level augment slots and some appropriate purple mods built-in.
Regarding Legacy levels and perks, I would award 1 ‘free unlock’ token every 5 legacy levels earned. That way it’d be rewarding you for continuing to level it.
also: Legacy level should also affect your skill trainer costs, across all legacy characters, as it increases. Future alts pay less for new skills than their ‘relatives’.
If you want legacy gear drops, try the Ancient Artifact Storage Boxes you can buy with the Tionese crystals. I would put the drop rate on the legacy gear (inheritance/birthright) at around 30%. I’ve probably got close to two full sets in the 2 dozen or so boxes that I’ve bought.
Here’s a solution I’ve had in mind for a while, specifically to the point of experience bonuses, first time I am putting it down in text.
The experience bonuses are nice, but inadequate when it comes to I want to see a new class or even replay a class I love for different branches in their story, spec, companion used the most, and male/female. I need to be able to start at an increased level and path through with experience and power modifications so that it takes around half the time it otherwise would to replay the game, as an option to allow me to enjoy more of different classes I haven’t had a chance to advance much and re enjoy my favorites.
They could be creative with the bolstering concept, and allow you to play an alt starting from approximately a level 36-42 (depending on how advanced your legacy is) point in character progression, presenting you all 3 chapters of your character story in similar amount of playtime as the current 35-50 experience, if you wanted to. You could still start from 1 if you wanted to, but honestly this is the kind of bonus option that a well advanced legacy should provide. I do enjoy clearing some of the optional missions and some of the planet Main story sequence that gets handed to you in the space port or orbital station. But I hit a point I’m doing everything I like and end up 4 levels or 5 short of being in orange range for the next planet. My sentinel well boosted hit clear of nar shadda just past hitting 20. Couldn’t go on to tatooine.
My main point in how it would work if your character started at level 38 is that the story missions wouldn’t give experience, but at the end of a chapter or planet you would be granted levels, so if you weren’t quite up there (like when I clear ch2 at 38) you’d hit the level you needed to move forward in the next class mission. when you gained experience through other missions/activities it would be boosted to be useful to your level, similarly your strength would be reduced in the lower than your level areas you needed to pass through as a legacy character.
The Legacy tree is stupid unless you have intentions to make everyone a single degree of connection. I wanted to make my Jedi and my Trooper cousins. Nope. I wanted to put my smuggler as the Jedi’s aunt. Nope. I wanted my Conselor to be an advisor to the Jedi’s father, an NPC. Nope.
I wanted my Sith Iniquisitor to be the servant of the Sith Juggernaught, and the bounty-hunter the employee of the Agent. Nope.
So until it becomes a more useful tool for actually bridging real relationships between toons, it’s kind of a useless toy.
Felt the same way when I hit legacy 50 (and to some degree with valor ranks).
Some perfect benefits that could fit in at 25 + would be: Global Pets, Achievements(Datacrons), Speeders, Currency(including planet coms and warzone coms), Cargo Hold, Crew Skill access.
I personally thought they would of implemented the decreased costing already as it seems like an easy win to the problem people complaining about high prices. “play more and it becomes cheaper + you earn more credits”
Also more custom gear sets, even if paid for with credits in the same way, that give some reward for achieving higher levels of legacy.
It would be great to see rare family pets/ speeders. For instance older versions of a pets like a junior tauntaun instead of a fawn.
Or speeders/gear which can be customised / repaired / painted with family colours etc…
I’ve been legacy 50 for 6 months – updates to the legacy system are long overdue.
A lot of ways to make legacy better:
-Make all pets, vehicles, & achievements legacy-wide (similar to the new reputation system being legacy-wide)
-LEGACY BANK
-If we can’t have a legacy bank, then have characters from our legacy auto-fill in the mail like it does with guild members
-Unlock additional character slots at legacy 25 & 50, or if you want to be generous at 20,30,40 & 50.
-Make all cartel items legacy-wide
If you add one of your legacy alts to your friends list, it will autofill in the mailbox at the top of the list. I know it’s just a workaround, but it works pretty well once you set it up. (You have to add all your alts to every character’s friends list to keep up consistency between them.)
The Legacy system sounded so impressive and innovative… It turned out to be over-hyped and a step in the wrong direction in my opinion. It was never fully realised and never fleshed out.
With the news of the reputation system recently released, I suggest the following way to synergise both systems or atleast give the Legacy system a more functional role.
The Legacy system – this feature/mechanic aids and supports progression to endgame, assisting or making the journey to 50/cap easier. And allows for an immersive organisation of characters on an account with titles and ways to include other players (possibly passing on benefits). Perhaps tieing into an image customisation feature for the player (full detail recustomisation every 10 levels?)
Reputation system – Focused mainly on the elder game, this really needs to provide the alternative high-end gear, vanity and fluff items/vendors we are used to seeing associated with reputation content (speeders, weapons, schematics, crystals, titles, companion customisations)
Atleast this way, neither system is made defunct by the other?
Just my garbled thoughts on the matter!
Great podcast as always guys, rock on!
The legacy system isn’t even half-baked. It’s still dough. How come I don’t even get a darn title for legacy 50. Not even that! But before thinking of the veterans BW needed to built a reputation grinding system. Awesome.
For the love of god , legacy unlocks account wide for datacrons .
Nothing gets my blood up quite like a mention of the Legacy System.
I quite like the notion of a server wide system of rewards and unlocks, although they’ve failed to follow through on many possibilities.
However, I loathe with an unbounded burning passion the moronic decision to tie character surnames to your legacy name. I could rant a bit more… but then I’d have to play another game for a couple days to re-balance my psyche.
I love the legacy idea. It just feels to me like they have the skeleton up but haven’t had time to flesh it out into something that’s truly meaningful. I’d also like to see multiple degrees of connection, like my smuggler being an ally to a Jedi, husband to a trooper, foe of an Inquisitor, and sometimes-does-shady-deals with my Bounty Hunter.
Think of all the cool awesome role-playing options that expanding the system could add. It’s something that BioWare could add as a significant game feature if done right.
I’d also like to see costs for legacy unlocks go down as your legacy goes up, and a very nice set of armor, custom legacy crystal, or available mount or even mini-pet for reaching 50. There should be some incentive for maxing it out, after all. Right now there’s approximately nothing.
Legacy Perk that allowed you to use your alts as Comps
Every Comp allowed would be modeled after existing comps (skills and abilities wise) ie. Your healer Alt would act like “Doc” or the Your ranged Tank would act like “Corso”
Exploring… they are also exploring chat bubbles. Since beta.