Star Wars: The Old Republicis gearing up for the launch of its sixth expansion pack,Legacy of the Sith, this holiday season. A new MMORPG expansion pack means new high-end content, but this time,Star Wars: The Old Republicis changing things around with how it approaches Operations, the game’s version of raids.
Legacy of the Sith’sfirst new Operation, called the R-4 Anomaly, is changing in two ways. First, the Operation will only have an 8-man version, while previous Operations had both 8 and 16-man varieties. Second, the R-4 Anomaly won’t be released concurrently withLegacy of the Sith, and will instead come a few weeks later in January 2022.
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SWTOR’sreasoning for making these changes are simple–the majority of groups that historically try Operations since the game launched 10 years ago have done the 8-man versions, rather than the 16-man ones. As for delaying the raid’s launch,Star Wars: The Old Republicwants to let players finish the storyand begin gearing up for the Operation at a leisurely pace, so as not to force hardcore content clearers to rush gearing up and blasting into the raid.
These changes to Operations inStar Wars: The Old Republicbring the game in line with other top MMORPGs on the market today.Final Fantasy 14’smost difficult raid content is 8-man as well, with its 24-man raids being relatively casual.World of Warcraft’sendgame raidscome in 10-man and 25-man varieties. WhileWoWhad 40-man raids during Vanilla, it abandoned that formula 15 years ago. BothFF14andWoWstagger raiding content as well, unlocking raids 2 to 4 weeks after an expansion or patch’s launch.
The Operation changes inSWOTRwill ultimately be a good thing. WhileThe Old Republicstill has about 200,000 players, the population is comparatively small enough that focusing on smaller groups is a wise idea, especially since most players already do so. Staggering the raid is also a good plan, as it gives players the chance to experience the excellent storytellingThe Old Republicis known for without feeling rushed, and for players to get used to thenew gearing system inLegacy of the Sithand get their hands on legendary equipment.
Some longtime fans ofStar Wars: The Old Republicwon’t be releasing any more 16-man Operations in the future. These players fear the lack of these larger-scale Operations will make it harder to find a group, and will make the gap between elite raiders andcasual players ofStar Wars: The Old Republiceven larger. Players will have to see what kind of precedent the R-4 Anomaly sets forSWTORwhen its Story and Veteran modes release in January, or when the Master mode releases some time after that.
Star Wars: The Old Republicis available for PC.Legacy of the Sithis slated to launch sometime in December.
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