I was reading through dulfy's notes http://dulfy.net/2014/07/02/swtor-galactic-living-livestream-notes/ and found the following interesting and worrying note:

 

Upkeep cost to maintain strongholds? Nope but if you deactivate/retire a stronghold, it will cost you to reactivate it if you bought it with credits. If you bought it with cartel coins there is no reactivation fee.

 

Now I've asked in the sticky thread above and during the last livestream but either they just keep missing the question or are unwilling to answer it but really I think with this starting in about a month's time it's not an unfair question to ask.

 

Why would anyone retire a stronghold?

 

The reason I ask the question is because there is a distinction made between buying the stronghold with credits in game or with cartel coins. Now if there is no maintenance cost, I don't actually see a reason why anyone would deactivate it. There just is no need for a player to have that option if it makes no difference to you.

 

So I have to wonder...is stronghold retirment actually an option or is it something that simply happens under certain circumstances? There has to be something, why else make a difference between a credit and a cc purchase...

 

And with that, it just sounds like something that more or less might make people feel forced to buy it with cc in order to avoid any possible negative effects. This is not a nice idea for someone who is subbed either.

 

So really when you put together that there is no apparent maintenance cost, then why would there be a retirement of a stronghold and more importanly a reactivation fee and yes, why the difference between credit and cc purchases?

So I have to wonder...is stronghold retirment actually an option or is it something that simply happens under certain circumstances? There has to be something, why else make a difference between a credit and a cc purchase...

 

I don't know how a stronghold could get retired but it makes sense that if you bought something with CC (i.e. real money) then you get to reactivate it for free should you choose to do so. Credits are "free", CC are not

 

Although, to be perfectly honest, it's surprising that there isn't a reactivation fee of a few CC. It's not like Bioware to give out free things.

Edited July 13, 2014 by TheNahash

I don't know how a stronghold could get retired but it makes sense that if you bought something with CC (i.e. real money) then you get to reactivate it for free should you choose to do so. Credits are "free", CC are not

 

My sub isn't free either. And I don't have to pay a reactivation fee for my individual characters when I resub for example.

 

I mean, I don't know what the deal about this is so at this stage I just don't know. But I would feel that while being subbed I wouldn't have to pay a reactivation fee as I am already paying for the game. There is nothing else in the game that I can buy with credits that can get retired and need reactivation if I don't use it for a while or something.

 

There are lots of unknowns like will it cost more if you have more rooms unlocked etc. but I just want some clarity on the issue. As a customer I think it's fair to know what I'm spending money on before I get it. All in all as there are no maintenace cost I don't see any good reason for a player to retire his stronghold. He can just leave it for what it is. So there's gotta be something more to it.

It is a bit odd to me. I was trying to think of a reason I would retire a stronghold, and I could not come up with on.

 

I considered perhaps the idea that decorations have to be had individually to be used, so perhaps someone would retire one house to push all the decorations to another...but then I thought "why do that, if there is no maintenance cost? You would just leave it empty...".

 

So I really don't know. Maybe they were covering all bases here.

It is a bit odd to me. I was trying to think of a reason I would retire a stronghold, and I could not come up with on.

 

I considered perhaps the idea that decorations have to be had individually to be used, so perhaps someone would retire one house to push all the decorations to another...but then I thought "why do that, if there is no maintenance cost? You would just leave it empty...".

 

So I really don't know. Maybe they were covering all bases here.

 

As I pointed out earlier in another thread, maybe only subscribers can have more that two or three Strongholds activated? Maybe Preferred can have like three and F2P two at most.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Darth_Wicked

My guess is that F2p players can only have so many strongholds active. Subs probably dont have anything to worry about with that. Similar to how many characters F2P can access

Interesting topic.

 

In Lotro, if you do not log for a period of time, you lose access to your housing, but, you can pay a nominal fee to unlock it again. I think the idea behind it being that you sell your house and let someone else get your spot in the neighbourhood.

 

I am almost certain that SWTOR will not have neighbourhoods with different looking homesteads, different spots etc. I full expect every person homestead to be an identical copy.

 

If I am wrong and each neighbourhood, if indeed we have those at all, has different spots, house styles etc, then that would be no bad thing for those interested in housing.

Interesting topic.

 

In Lotro, if you do not log for a period of time, you lose access to your housing, but, you can pay a nominal fee to unlock it again. I think the idea behind it being that you sell your house and let someone else get your spot in the neighbourhood.

 

I am almost certain that SWTOR will not have neighbourhoods with different looking homesteads, different spots etc. I full expect every person homestead to be an identical copy.

 

If I am wrong and each neighbourhood, if indeed we have those at all, has different spots, house styles etc, then that would be no bad thing for those interested in housing.

 

They've already confirmed that to be the case.

 

The only difference comes down to decorations and Strongholds in contested planets being located in different areas.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Darth_Wicked

My sub isn't free either. And I don't have to pay a reactivation fee for my individual characters when I resub for example.

 

I mean, I don't know what the deal about this is so at this stage I just don't know. But I would feel that while being subbed I wouldn't have to pay a reactivation fee as I am already paying for the game. There is nothing else in the game that I can buy with credits that can get retired and need reactivation if I don't use it for a while or something.

 

There are lots of unknowns like will it cost more if you have more rooms unlocked etc. but I just want some clarity on the issue. As a customer I think it's fair to know what I'm spending money on before I get it. All in all as there are no maintenace cost I don't see any good reason for a player to retire his stronghold. He can just leave it for what it is. So there's gotta be something more to it.

 

Basically you're saying because you pay them $15 a month they should hand you EVERYTHING for free? Sounds a little like perceived entitlement to me.

im just stoked there is no upkeep cost which i find surprising to be honest. I cant figure out why you would retire a stronghold but if you have limited number of f2p as has been suggested that would make sense

I may suffer from low expectations, but for $15/month I am happier than a pig in slop. I spend WAAAAAY too much time playing this game, but love (almost) every minute of it.

 

And to be honest $15 won't even get me a lap dance, much less in the door -

It is a bit odd to me. I was trying to think of a reason I would retire a stronghold, and I could not come up with on.

Been puzzled with that also.

 

I'll take LotRo as comparison: unless you are keeping playing the game the upkeep cost makes using housing tedious. In the end, while playing this game from time to time, I ended not caring at all about this feature.

 

A total waste of $$$.

Honestly, this is not about me paying a sub and wanting everything for it. I just don't understand how this works and why. I can't think of a good reason and because of the lack of information it's easy to come up with all kinds of doom scenarios.

 

So I just want to know what the deal is and how it works. If it ends up all being a fair deal then fine but I just simply don't know what I'm up against here and I would like to know. With every expansion there is a question of course if the sub gets a fair deal or not. That's beyond just this topic though and not the aim of the thread, but I do want to know why there is a need for retirement and reactivation in a game that will use an instanced approach.

 

It could very well be that it is something like not logging in for 6 months or longer and then having a minimal reactivation fee but it just makes no sense to me. CM purchases are a one time fee. If it's a matter of archiving for server space or whatever that problem exists just the same and I don't see the CM purchase of a stronghold costing more than a month's sub. I also don't know how much it costs to purchases a stronghold via the CM. If it's very little and you can unlock the rest with credits it will be easy to do with the monthly grant but then again you could then unlock the rest in game and it kinda defeats the purpose of it.

 

All in all I can't put a reasonable logic to this, especially because we simply have nothing more to go on than a reference to it. It probably would've been better they hadn't mentioned it at all or had given a bit more information about it. So here I am asking information about it. Nothing more. I just gave my concerns with it to give it context.

Might be like someone said sub have unlimited number or strongholds and preferred and F2P have limited and will have to deactivate one to get a new one.

 

Might be something they put into place for future use. Adding different layouts for a planets. You would have Nar Shadaa layout 1, 2 or 3 and you can only have one active Nar Shadaa stronghold.

 

Be interesting if we could get some Dev comments.

My sub isn't free either. And I don't have to pay a reactivation fee for my individual characters when I resub for example.

 

I mean, I don't know what the deal about this is so at this stage I just don't know. But I would feel that while being subbed I wouldn't have to pay a reactivation fee as I am already paying for the game. There is nothing else in the game that I can buy with credits that can get retired and need reactivation if I don't use it for a while or something.

 

There are lots of unknowns like will it cost more if you have more rooms unlocked etc. but I just want some clarity on the issue. As a customer I think it's fair to know what I'm spending money on before I get it. All in all as there are no maintenace cost I don't see any good reason for a player to retire his stronghold. He can just leave it for what it is. So there's gotta be something more to it.

 

Actually you just paid $15 to reactivate your characters so I dont see your point.

I dont see your point.

 

That much is abundantly clear.

I think whoever said that this is most likely a limitation on how many strongholds a preferred/F2P player may own is most likely correct. There will probably never be a need to 'retire' a stronghold if you are subbed.

My guess is that F2p players can only have so many strongholds active. Subs probably dont have anything to worry about with that. Similar to how many characters F2P can access

 

Probably yeah. I mean a sub can have 4 individual Strongholds so maybe a F2P player can only have 1 stronghold?

I don't know, maybe there will be some limit on the total strongholds you can have active at a time or something meaning to get a new one you will have to deactivate another one of your strongholds. That is just my guess though.

 

if its bought through cartel coins I can understand not having to pay for reactivation because, well, you already paid money for it ( though honestly this seems like the kind of thing they would put a small cartel coin option on so I don't know)

 

If its bought for credits, well I think it will depend on the credit level, say its like, 350k to buy a stronghold ( they did say something about making it accessible to everyone right? ) then a reactivation of say 50k or something would not be too unreasonable, however it would of course be different if I paid like a mill for one but then again we will just have to wait and see because I got no freakin idea what the actual cost is.

I don't know, maybe there will be some limit on the total strongholds you can have active at a time or something meaning to get a new one you will have to deactivate another one of your strongholds. That is just my guess though.

 

if its bought through cartel coins I can understand not having to pay for reactivation because, well, you already paid money for it ( though honestly this seems like the kind of thing they would put a small cartel coin option on so I don't know)

 

If its bought for credits, well I think it will depend on the credit level, say its like, 350k to buy a stronghold ( they did say something about making it accessible to everyone right? ) then a reactivation of say 50k or something would not be too unreasonable, however it would of course be different if I paid like a mill for one but then again we will just have to wait and see because I got no freakin idea what the actual cost is.

 

they said that the DK and Curo Strongholds will be cheap enough that you can buy the base hold at 15 just from what you earn doing missions, it will be the Nar and tat holds that will probably cost an arm and leg to buy.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Anaesha

NS Stronghold is touted as being a 1.5m (with three rooms unlocked) gift for subs.

So they can't be that expensive, comparable to a cargo hold by the sounds of it.

NS Stronghold is touted as being a 1.5m (with three rooms unlocked) gift for subs.

So they can't be that expensive, comparable to a cargo hold by the sounds of it.

 

yeah but that's just 3 rooms out of 9 total for the Nar Shaddaa Stronghold.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Anaesha

Ever consider there might have a way where you decide you don't want a certain house so you disable it and later decide you want it again so you have to pay to reactivate it.

yeah but that's just 3 rooms out of 9 total for the Nar Shaddaa Stronghold.

 

Based on that number I would guesstimate....

 

750k for the house

250k for each of the 3 rooms

=1.5m

 

So for the other 6 rooms another 1.5m

 

Figuring the cost will be fairly similar I would say it will be about 6.5 to 7m for all 4.

Maybe but they say the tat hold has less rooms then the other 3 but is quite larger in scope so it might actually be more expensive then even the Nar hold.