SWTOR Patch 7.5b is unprecedentedly large for a lettered hotfix patch. It retouches almost all aspects of the game that were touched or added with 7.5, including the Basilisk Prototype Venture, Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival, and Hutta. This patch also bring with it the Nightlife Event and some visual enhancements to Nar Shaddaa.
Nightlife Event and Visual Modernization
Hot on the heels of the Dantooine Abundance Festival, we’ve got another seasonal event coming in a couple weeks. The Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event will begin on July 9th, and while there was no mention of an end date, it lasted nearly 6 weeks last year.
The event takes place on Mek-Sha and the Fleet as well, but the devs also wanted to announce that these are the beginning of the visual enhancements for Nar Shaddaa, though it will only be for slot machines with 7.5b.
I’m quite excited about the visual modernizations coming to Nar Shaddaa in particular because lighting was always one of the weakest points in SWTOR. They’ve been making improvements, but Nar Shaddaa is where you’d notice them the most.
Most holograms in the game, signs especially, don’t emit light. It’s just bloom and neon colors that make them feel brighter despite not illuminating anything around them.
If Broadsword plans to make those lights emissive in an upcoming patch, that would be a pretty huge difference.
And who knows, with SWTOR moving to DX12, what seems to be a brand new shader, and a materials-based approach to textures, I wonder if ray tracing support is on the horizon…
Iteration and Polish
Both 7.4.1 and 7.5 felt like they were a bit rushed out the door. The former was larger than usual for a minor patch and delayed by a month, while the latter didn’t have as much time if the devs wanted to get back on schedule and release the spring event before the solstice.
As a result, 7.4.1 got 3 substantial hotfix patches, and 7.5 is getting its second, that is super beefy. I get the impression that what we got with 7.5.0 was what the devs are capable of with 1 less iteration than we’re used to, and now we’re getting it with 7.5b.
Basilisk Prototype Venture
The issues pertaining to RNG with the Basilisk Prototype Venture are getting fixed, so you’ll be able to purchase specific training modules. In addition, there are a lot of bug fixes for all the missions and ability tooltips.
Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival
The major bugs with the Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival, like achievements not working and temporary abilities being present are getting fixed now, though the event won’t come around until next year, likely earlier.
I hope they expand on the missions with more dynamic events and variety next year. Everything was cute, but felt way too repetitive and static.
Maybe the Orokeet doesn’t have to break its wing every week. Maybe we can go get a Womp Rat so we can study Womp Rat Fever. What if there’s a baby Savannah Vorantikus, but the Voss demand that we can only provide palliative care?
Desperate Defiance Storyline
The Desperate Defiance storyline is also getting a bunch of fixes, including with issues related to missions, combat, Hutta and the Minboosa District visuals, and the cutscenes.
I want to draw special attention to the cutscenes though. It is unacceptable to have them in such rough shape at release. In that state, it is effectively unplayable because our choices are supposed to matter, but bugs invalidate them and break the immersion.
This has been a common occurrence all the way back to KotFE days in 4.0. Sometimes a character shows up to a meeting in their underwear. Sometimes a character like Theron or Koth will show up, or their voice line will play as the camera pans to nothing.
This time around, it was worse than I’ve ever seen, as Ri’kan’s face was not animated. I’m gonna say it again for those in the back. The main antagonist of the chapter did not have an animated face while he was saying his lines during the climax of the story.
I didn’t much care about the stuff with Shae and Malgus because my experience was already completely ruined by that. Would you watch a movie where you could see the green screen because SFX and VFX weren’t done yet? If you said no and you’re here for the story, why are you still subbed to this game?
Broadsword, the story has been in the game for 2 months. Delay the update. Delay unfinished part of the story (release it Ziost-style if necessary). Even release it, but warn players in-game to wait until it’s finished.
7.5b Full Patch Notes
Here are the full patch notes for 7.5b:
Highlights
Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Event
- Test your luck at the exotic Star Cluster and Club Vertica Casinos with the return of the Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event coming July 9th!
Nar Shaddaa Modernization
- Modernization has begun on Nar Shaddaa! The first updates are to the slot machines around the planet, in the Nightlife event, and even in your Strongholds if you have them as Decorations.
Basilisk Prototype Venture
- New Daily Area specific Training Modules are now available to purchase from HK-24 in Lane’s lab.
- Basilisk Training Missions can now be completed while players are mounted or transformed.
- The Collected Research Item for the Basilisk Prototype Venture can no longer be used if all granted currencies are capped.
- Bonus Missions will now be properly granted after players pick up Heroic Missions for Oricon, The Black Hole, and CZ-198.
- The Bonus Mission, “Basilisk Prototype: Combat Training” will now be granted after picking the Colossal Threat Daily Mission from the terminal.
- Combat Training Modules for Iokath can now be used as intended when the only remaining Iokath Dailies are Faction specific Missions.
- The Mission Complete Windows for “Starting Out”, “Stabilized”, and “Memory Chip” now have icons.
- Training Missions now properly progress when the CZ-198 Heroic Mission is complete.
- The Mek-Sha training Mission descriptions and Mission steps will now indicate when the player can complete Heroic Missions.
- Training Module items can no longer be used once the training Mission daily limit has been reached.
- The icon for “Training Mission” in the Mission tracker window is no longer missing.
- The “Training Reminder” Mission now scales properly with the player’s character level.
- The Support and Defensive training Missions for Yavin 4 now scale properly with the player’s character level.
- TheHeroic Training: Section X (Bonus) mission now scales properly with the player’s character level.
- The tooltip for the “Discharge” ability now displays the correct damage value.
- The tooltip for the “Pulse-Fire Cannon” ability now displays the correct damage value.
- The tooltips for the original and upgraded “Regenerative Burst” ability now display the correct healing values.
Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival
- The “Scan for Tauntaun Nests” ability will now only be visible when players need to complete that step as intended.
- The “Pet” ability now stays visible even if players jump from one enclosure to the other during the “Creature Rehabilitation” Mission.
- The “Pet” ability will no longer appear during the “A Real Fixer-Upper” Mission.
- Fixed an issue where environment assets near the Mission Terminal in Blba Groves would disappear when viewed at certain camera angles.
- The Gentle Heart Hidden Achievement now works as intended.
- The Zap a Fish Mission rings now indicate how long they will remain active.
- The Blba Groves and Dantooine planet area will now use the same chat channel.
- The plate art for the Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival codex entry is no longer missing.
- The red lighting VFX for the Westar 19 Sniper Rifles now properly aligns with the weapon texture.
Desperate Defiance
- The jetpack used in the mission “Sundering” will now disappear when players clear the gap and approach the door to escape.
- In the mission “Sundering”, players who may get stuck inside the Holocron Machine during the first phase of the fight will now be teleported outside of it once the second phase begins.
- Sa’har will now respond appropriately according to the decisions players made regarding the prisoners during the mission “Sundering”.
- The Hidden Chain and Refinery enemies in the Minboosa Shipping Facility drop loot as intended.
- Fixed an issue where a player could end up blocked from progressing during the “Defeat the Hidden Chain Guards” step in the “Sundering” Mission.
- Proximity, combat audio cues, and dialogue now work properly for the Hidden Chain Leader NPC in the Shipping Port.
- Adi Vonapa’s codex entry now uses the intended icon.
- Fixed typos in the “Enter the Factory Through the Tunnels” Mission description.
- French Client specific: NPC audio lines heard when obtaining the Industrious Medicine mission and investigating the Shipping Port’s Warehouse no longer cut off abruptly.
Cinematics (Desperate Defiance)
- Ri’kan now becomes neutralized during the second phase of the “Sundering” mission, allowing Sa’har to drop from combat and not interrupt the cutscene.
- Fixed Sa’har’s facial expressions and animations in various cutscenes.
- Sa’har no longer remains idle when the player character and Adi run toward the exit in the Mission “The Path Below”.
General
- It is once again possible for players to have a flying mini-pet and ground mini-pet active at the same time.
- Defeating enemy NPCs in the Minboosa District now progresses the “Minboosa District: Defeat Enemies 2” Conquest objective as intended.
- Missions with conversations triggered by interactable objects now start for grouped players as intended.
- Hidden and uncompleted Achievements/objectives can now be removed from the Tracker on the main HUD.
- Fixed missing mountains along the Hutta skyline.
- Fixed shading issues on various armors and a mount. The following items now apply lighting and shadows as intended:
- Cybernetic Varactyl Mount
- The Light Devotee’s Robe
- Arctic Trooper Helmet
- Discharged Infantry Boots
- Patient Defender’s Armor Set
- Exiled Padawan’s Armor Set
- Republic characters can now only travel to their ship when using the Minboosa Imperial Shuttle.
- Fixed the textures of the stairs in the Blaster’s Path Cantina on Rishi.
UI
- The maps for the Bastal Family Farmhouse now have their intended background images.
- The extra Player Icons have been removed from the Map window icon Legend.
Cartel Market
- The Cartel Market and Collections images for the Fieldtech Gunner Armor Set now feature the correct belt.
Items
- The Refined Mentor’s Dualsaber no longer clips with the character’s left hand.
- The Refined Mentor’s Lightsaber no longer clips with characters that use female body type 2 or 4.
- The Refined Mentor’s Bracers are now visible on characters using female body types 1 and 2.
- The Matte Black and Metallic Black Dye Modules now drop in the Ultimate Cartel and Ultimate Cartel Platinum Packs as intended.
- VFX for the Serpent’s Tongue is no longer missing.
- The Double Agent and Shady Gambler dye modules have been added to the Golden Certificate Vendor.
Achievements
- The “Rampage Achievement Boost” item now works within the Minboosa District on Hutta as intended.
Patch notes are sourced from swtor.com
The next update after 7.5b will likely b 7.5.1 in September and come with Galactic Season 7, a couple of Date Night cutscenes, and some sort of mystery meat. Stay tuned for all the details!
