Council Chambers: Finding Space In Space

Council Chambers is all about the ins and outs of guild leadership in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Each week, we’ll look at running and managing a guild through good times, bad times and everything in between.  

It is hard to believe that Early Access began almost two weeks ago. Where has the time gone? For me, I cannot claim any level 50s yet – I’ll confess to being a bit more of a slow leveler, especially in this game – but I have definitely tried to take my time, explore the galaxy, and more specifically scout out some potential guild or event meeting locations. This week’s question comes from Joey, who asked,

“Do you have any recommendations for large scale grouping in the game? Coruscant seemed as if it had a good deal of room, but I was wondering if there was something that could specifically be used for a guild hall, for example. Similarly, if other planets had conducive areas, Alderaan in particular, I’d love to hear of any information you had there.

Second to this; as I understand it right now, it is NOT possible to form groups with other players and gather on your respective starships. Can you confirm that this is in fact the case? Further, do you know if Bioware has any plans to change this, or dare I dream, implement some kind of guild capital ship system?”

These are both great questions, and something I have been looking for myself as a guild leader. Ideally, for events like meetings where members may be either high or low levels (and if they are anything like ours, have a slight tendency to run a bit late and need something close to the Fleet), you will want to scout out areas that are easily accessible to both high and low level players. In particular, I have looked to Tython and Coruscant for meeting locations, as both of these are fairly easy to get to for anyone as low as level 10, and so should provide fairly convenient access for members of any level.

Republic Locales

On Tython, the most promising location seems to be the Jedi Temple. The first floor is largely taken up with class-specific quest rooms for either Knights or Consulars, but the second floor has some nice, unreserved open areas if you do not mind some background NPCs in the room. There are two large, circular rooms on the second floor – one is the library and training room, but off this one is a smaller, square room that does not seem used for any specific class quest or purpose other than atmosphere. The second circular room, just past the flight hangar, also seems to be a nice, open location for events and gatherings. Again, both rooms do have some NPCs present, but they do not seem to particularly interact or be part of a quest chain, which means you should not be running into players constantly running through the area to turn in or pick up quests.  The unfortunate part is that there is no seating in either area (chairs have been an ongoing debate in the community), so people will either need to stand or sprawl a bit on the floor. However, both areas should provide a decently open area for private events for guilds or groups.

The second promising area is in Coruscant, in the Senate Tower. For roleplayers, you may need to think a bit creatively about what your organization is doing using rooms in the official Senate building, but I am confident people can find a good reason. Again, head up to the second floor and scout around a bit. There are four corridors on the second floor – two of these are used for class quests, which will be designated by red barriers outside of those rooms – but the others are available for player use. These rooms are generally smaller than those of the Jedi Temple, but still more than large enough for groups of perhaps 50 or so. As with the Jedi Temple, there are NPCs in all but one of the rooms, but they do not seem to be quest givers or prone to interaction as much as just added there to create the illusion of occupied space in game.

Imperial Locales

I have yet to roll my Imp character in the live game – I have plans, but not enough time! Fortunately, the Spousal Unit has a Bounty Hunter and so I contracted his services for a little site exploration. The best starting area would be Korriban, with the Sith Academy and its roughly equivalent layout to the Jedi Temple. As with Ord Mantell, the ongoing rebellions of Hutta make meetings or social events a little less ideally suited to the region, unless your idea of a guild meeting involves participating in some local insurgencies. The atmosphere and architecture are of course radically different, as befits the Academy, but in terms of space layout and usage you will find similar options. Again, you will notice some areas gated off for class quests so you will want to avoid those. However, a couple rooms are open and not occupied by quest givers or class quests. One or two of the rooms have lore objects in them, so exploring players may wander through from time to time tracking these down – but overall, the non-occupied rooms on the second floor should provide a decent option for meeting locations and other events.

On Dromund Kaas, your best bet is going to be the Imperial Citadel. The layout of the Imperial Citadel is quite a bit different from the Senate Tower, divided into three wings. From my surveying, I would say your best bets are either the second floor of the Mandalorian Wing, which provides a straightforward, single room with training dummies, or the left wing of the first floor Sith Wing.  The second floors are reserved for Darths, and a number of the back rooms are closed for Imperial Agent or Sith quests – but there is a wing to your left as you first enter that has a couple smaller, open rooms that would provide a good alternative setting to the room in the Mandalorian Wing.

Buy You A Drink?

The final options are cantinas – these are spread throughout the world, and every planet I’ve been to so far has at least one fairly large-sized cantina. Given the size of the cantinas, it would be easy enough to head to one section of it for your social gathering. I have not yet mapped out how far the range of say extends, to be able to say how much your group may be overheard by other players while congregating, and of course as with any bar or cantina, other players will come and go through the area. For parties or tavern nights though, this is not a bad thing – it helps to create the sense of being in a fairly busy area with a lot of patrons. (For instance, think about how many “non player characters” are in the Mos Eisley cantina scene with Han, Luke and Obi Wan Kenobi!) My favorite cantina in game so far is the VIP lounge – but this requires that all participants have the Collector’s Edition, Digital Deluxe, or a hefty pile of credits to buy a wristband.

I have not yet tested whether a security key also grants access to the VIP area, as all my friends seem to have either the Digital Deluxe or Collector’s Edition. (One of the few benefits to being an older gamer – more disposable income! Now get off my lawn. ;) Anyway – it would definitely be worth finding out if having an authenticator also grants access to the VIP area, as this would potentially open it up for many other players and guildmates, as well. The benefits are that the area is fairly well removed from other parts of the Imperial or Republic Fleet, so it provides a nice area to host guild events and parties away from people running to and fro through the area. Also, it has lovely views of – well, the Republic or Imperial Fleet.

Guild Housing: The Future

The final part of this week’s question concerned player ships or opportunities for guild ships. The short answer is, unless your event is only yourself and three of your friends, ship housing is not a viable option at this time. Ships are limited by party size, the same as flashpoints. However, the developers have talked about adding guild ships to the game at some point in a future content expansion or patch, so this is definitely something on their radar and that we will hopefully have at some point in the game. Specifically, in a recent developer post on the official TOR blog, the authors stated, “Eventually we even want to deliver on the promise of the long hinted at “Guild Capital Ships”. So yes, the idea is out there and part of the options they want to offer guilds in game, but not present yet. No ETA on when this will be implemented yet though – but stay tuned, and as soon as we know more, you will too!

I have not yet fully explored the higher level planets or worlds of The Old Republic, though I certainly intend to do so in the coming months. Obviously, you will want to think about your target population when evaluating guild event or meeting sites – as your guild members level higher into the content, then locations such as Alderaan or Hoth become more viable, whereas guilds with a lot of lower level members will want to stick with areas like Dromund Kaas or Coruscant.

So, Then.

What about the rest of you, dear readers? Have you found any favorite in game sites or beautiful locations for hosting guild events, gatherings, or meetings? Please post below and share your personal favorites! Or perhaps, as the case may be, share your second favorites and safeguard your favorites for your own guild. ;) In the meantime, I encourage everyone to continue scouting out those fantastic, out of the way little places for meetings and gatherings for their guild mates.

Got a question for Council Chambers?  Drop a line to ladyoftherepublic@gmail.com or post a comment here, and you may see your guild questions answered in a future column.