Always In Motion Is The Future – The Legacy System: One More Reason To Alt
Always in Motion is The Future is our column that deals with general news and information regarding The Old Republic based facts and finally spiced with the unique perspective of Republic Trooper.
Written By: Vicky Ivicek
This has been a busy few weeks! Amongst information about flashpoints and the NDA dropping developer James Ohlen revealed a new aspect of game play available in The Old Republic. The Legacy System will allow players to create family trees of their characters linked to a unique Legacy Last Name.
The most noted Star Wars family is, of course, the Skywalkers. Now players will be able to create well known game-wide family names and gain prestige or notoriety depending upon the actions of the family members.
Or at least I assume. The details of this system are vague at best, with characters on the server contributing to the Legacy Experience Points which grow your Legacy Level. The far reaching benefits of the Legacy Levels have yet to be revealed, though expanded functionality is promised in post-launch patches. I have a few thoughts on the matter as well as some ardent hopes for this game mechanic.
Grow Your Legacy! Roll An Alt!
As if we needed another reason to play an alt in The Old Republic! We already have the dangling carrot of unique class specific storylines and different morality choices to play with. Now the more characters you have the more Legacy Experience Points you can potentially gain! My inner twink is already mapping out how to min/max on this enterprise and I don’t even have all the information yet. Regardless of the details this concept is a solid one, supported by genre, and encourages the player to play more and varied characters! From a game stability and longevity standpoint I think it’s brilliant. I’ll definitely be following the execution of this new system closely.
Why’s It Gotta Be A Twi’lek Thing?
The first question that popped into my mind, though, was about character race and Legacy Family Names. It doesn’t make sense that a Human would be related by family, and therefore blood, to a Zabrak or Miraluka. It’s not impossible to believe that there would be interspecies marriages in the Star Wars universe but I don’t believe there is a heavy genre history of that occurring. The races all seemed to be rather insular when it came to romantic entanglements so I can’t imagine that cross-breeding would happen often.
My point is if I want to roll a Twi’lek Jedi Warrior and then a Mirialan Smuggler, after my initial Human Republic Trooper of course, they would all share the same last name and Legacy. On an “it’s just a game deal with it” level that’s fine but if you want to delve deeper into the RP aspects of the game things start to come apart at the seams. It seems boring to limit yourself to just rolling one specific species for the sake of Legacy. It’ll be interesting to see how the interspecies Legacy Families are handled once the game goes live and future content patches begin to flesh out the Legacy framework.
IRL Blood Is Thicker Than Water
I’m lucky that I’ve got a few really good friends playing SWTOR with me. One or two of them are part of my guild right now and a few are going to roll on the Empire side of the coin. It would be really cool if I could share a Legacy Family with them, though as it stands right now that doesn’t appear to be an option. I’m hopeful that as the system grows to meet the needs of the players we will be able to merge Legacy Family Trees once a certain Legacy Level is attained. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have your guild made up of one or two large Legacy Trees?!
I wonder what would happen if characters of two different Legacy Trees marry? I remember in Star Wars Galaxies players were able to marry one another. Heck one of my friends staged an elaborate wedding in game which, due to a comedy of miscommunication, the devs took to be a ‘real’ wedding and programmed a fireworks display for the happy couple. I hope the truth of the matter never got out, otherwise that’d be embarrassing. I digress, though. I think character marriage might be a cool way to integrate Legacy Trees between players. That’s something to look out for as the post-launch content rolls out!
The Future Is Wide Open
There is a lot of good potential I see in this game system. Often in the past when playing MMO’s I’ve been frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t give my character a last name. Now my stress has changed to coming up with a good last name that isn’t a rip off of one the Star Wars canon last names and doesn’t sound lame or cheesy. Nothing that involves the words ‘sun’, ‘sky’, ‘walk’, ‘run’, ‘crush’ or any similar adjectives therein. Have you come up with a Legacy Last Name yet?
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Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, James Ohlen, Jedi, Legacy System, LucasArts, Luke Skywalker, MMOs, Smuggler, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR, Vicky Ivicek
December 9th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
I too am eager to see how the Legacy Tree will play out.
I’ll end up using the same last name I usually use in MMOs that allow them. It will be interesting to figure out how to tie together all the races that I plan to play.
All I know is this gives me a great reason to justify being an altoholic.
December 10th, 2011 at 1:24 am
It’s been while since I could have a last name in an MMO (outside of EVE). I am looking forward to it – loving the concepts with it. I expect good things!
December 10th, 2011 at 6:48 am
I am very interested to see how the Legacy system evolves. Yes, I have a name picked out.
December 10th, 2011 at 7:07 am
I most likely won’t be displaying my Legacy last name at all. I don’t RP heavily, but I do like a bit of backstory for my characters, and guess what? They aren’t related… at all. This was a pretty poorly thought out way to introduce last names, and it seems to focus mostly on gameplay advantages over any kind of RP. For instance Chiss don’t really have a “last name.” They’re names are split into three parts and a combination of the last sound in the first part, the entire middle part, and the first sound in the last part would make up a more simplified (and pronounceable name). Thrawn’s full name for instance is Mitth’raw’nuruodo, with Mitth being his family name. The Legacy system pretty much spits on their language and names.
I’ll still be utilizing the legacy system for its gameplay advantages, but unfortunately I’ll have to keep it hidden away.
December 10th, 2011 at 7:55 am
I think an interesting way to look at the legacy system is looking at the Mandalorian concept of clan/family. People are often adopted into a clan/family, leading to a fairly diverse mix of races. While it’s not the exact same concept of family as say, the Skywalkers, I think it might work a little bit for the loreminded.
December 10th, 2011 at 8:51 am
I did not see an option in beta to create a Legacy name though. How did you obtain one?
December 10th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
@Terrantal
The Legacy system wasn’t released in beta and as Vicki so eloquently put it they plan on releasing the legacy system a few patches after launch.
Great article by the way Vick! The legacy system is something I had no idea about and now have a good insight on!
December 10th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Thats a good question Terrantal , I think it unlocks at level 10 ?
Maybe when you make the alt ? or vendor ?
I’m not going to use the last name , not really into RP
But I will use the “of the Tiefighter ” legacy , mainly to tell people who I am
Of coarse the “stuff ” is good there will be “stuff ”
December 10th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
You need to finish your Act 1 story…which is anywhere from late 20s to early 30s in levels to unlock your Legacy.
December 11th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Hi guys! Thanks for such positive feedback on my article!
@Salahdihn – Thank you for the insight into Mandalorian families and clans. iI wasn’t familiar with that part of the lore until you pointed it out.
@Meathooks – I can understand your reluctant stance on the Legacy Name System based on the canon naming practices of the diverse cultures in the Star Wars universe. I’d encourage you to keep an open mind as the game mechanic moves forward. BioWare has been very thorough so far with their attention to detail. It will be interesting to see how the last names are integrated, even if you aren’t a big RPer. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that as things move forward.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:50 am
I haven’t been much for RPing in a while, but I intend to tie in the last name I used during SWG to this game.