So I came back to game from a long hiatus and one of the first things I did was tackle building a stronghold (seeing the Manaan stronghold trailer is what made me come back), something I wanted to do way back when they were first implemented. My question is--is there a reason or benefit to making them public? I was tossing it in the ol' Google but not coming up with a definitive answer. Just lots of things about prestige.

There's some stuff about prestige, showing off your handiwork, but there also achievements for when people visit your stronghold while you're there. I was in mine one day just moving stuff in and out of my legacy hold, and suddenly, completely out of nowhere, an achievement popped up because some random person came to visit. (There is also one for havng 10 guests all at the same time. That one's a little harder to get if you don't have a friendly guild handy.)

There's some stuff about prestige, showing off your handiwork, but there also achievements for when people visit your stronghold while you're there. I was in mine one day just moving stuff in and out of my legacy hold, and suddenly, completely out of nowhere, an achievement popped up because some random person came to visit. (There is also one for havng 10 guests all at the same time. That one's a little harder to get if you don't have a friendly guild handy.)

Oh yeah, and when the Manaan one went live, I bought it as soon as I could and set it public straight away. I couldn't turn around but for seeing some random person visiting, although they may have been instance-leaks rather than actual visitors.

Apparently there's an achievement for getting 50 visitors to your Stronghold as well.

I think the main benefit for setting it to public is that if you're proud of your work, setting it to public lets you show it off. My main Stronghold is Nar Shaddaa, and I've crafted a very careful Light/Dark theme to show that it's a shared stronghold between my Pub & Imp characters. It's "only" 96% decorated, because I want it to be natural and attractive, not cluttered. I visited a former guildmate's stronghold, and it was just stuffed with Metal Couches, Chairs, and Junker's lights... he said it was because the Prestige is dictated entirely by how full the stronghold is. An utter junk yard can have more prestige than a proverbial Taj Mahal.

Real Prestige is when someone mails you out of the blue, says they visited your Stronghold, and that it looks amazing.

Real Prestige is when someone mails you out of the blue, says they visited your Stronghold, and that it looks amazing.

Oh, absolutely. I was talking about "prestige points" which are gained by methods that are almost completely unrelated to actual prestige.

I'm waiting until I finish both my Capital SH's before I decide if I want to show them off. But they need to remove that hook limit!

The capital SHes are hopelessly crowded if you fill them to 100% of the hook limit.

Well, I think so, anyway.

The capital SHes are hopelessly crowded if you fill them to 100% of the hook limit.

 

Well, I think so, anyway.

I wish I had more hooks on the Capital SHs to be honest - my DK balcony needs more plants!

It's "only" 96% decorated, because I want it to be natural and attractive, not cluttered.

You've probably already thought of this, but just in case: you can get to 100% fairly easily by hiding pets inside of things -- walls, tables, computer terminals, whatever. I try to always hide my "completion pets" in the same spots so that I can find and remove them later if I need more hooks available.

I wish I had more hooks on the Capital SHs to be honest - my DK balcony needs more plants!

I totally agree with you. I'm glad they added more hooks, but I would LOVE it if they increased the limit. Most of all, I wish the limit would increase on Flagships. There is so much space to fill, many rooms look stark!

You've probably already thought of this, but just in case: you can get to 100% fairly easily by hiding pets inside of things -- walls, tables, computer terminals, whatever. I try to always hide my "completion pets" in the same spots so that I can find and remove them later if I need more hooks available.

I did get my Nar Shaddaa stronghold up to 100% (Wretchen's Starfighter Academy on Bergeron Colony) and I'm quite happy with it. Yesterday when I popped in to visit my utility room (cargo holds, fabricator droids, and GTN terminal) I had a moment of "wait... I didn't put Too-Vee there...." and then realized that I had just missed a visitor to my stronghold.