Star Wars: The Old Republic has revealed the changes players can expect in its upcoming updates, with weapons, armor, mounts, new overworld missions, and continued graphical upgrades coming in December's 7.6 update, while the continuation of The Old Republic's 12-year ongoing story seems due in early 2025.
First developed by BioWare before new caretaker Broadsword Online took over in early 2023, TOR has always been a uniquely story-heavy MMO, with cinematic cutscenes, dialogue options, and romancable companions. The fact that this story, with its branching paths and relatively high production values —playable Jedi Knights, for example, are voiced by Solid Snake actor David Hayter—is still being told all these years later is extremely impressive.
A teaser for TOR's next story continuation, Galactic Threads, shows a tense meeting between a Jedi Knight player character and a Sith admiral from a prior storyline. Notably, Broadsword has stated that Galactic Threads will be coming out later than the main body of Update 7.6: "While the “Galactic Threads” story chapter is well into production, the SWTOR Narrative team does not currently have all the components needed to deliver high-quality story content that adheres to the team’s standards, as well as player expectations for story. The release date for “Galactic Threads” is currently delayed until this content can be completed."
Update 7.6 will see the expected addition of new premium shop items, as well as three more major inclusions. A new lair boss is coming to Hoth, while some worlds will see the rollout of "Dynamic Encounters," a new type of world event the team hopes will "breathe life into the planets they inhabit, giving players a sense that something is always happening at any given time.
"As players explore planets, they will naturally come across Dynamic Encounters or they can find active Encounters on their map. Missions can range from taking out Hidden Chain forces to herding escaped Banthas running amok in a space port. These Encounters will debut on Hoth and Tattoine with 7.6."
The last major change is an update to TOR's graphics, with texture and lighting tweaks coming to environments and characters throughout the game. A comparison video from Broadsword shows off before and after footage highlighting the upcoming changes.
Update 7.6 is set to arrive in The Old Republic at the beginning of December. I always enjoyed TOR back in the day, and it's heartening to see it get continued support all these years later. I've thought about dipping a toe back in, but MMOs have a way of pulling you in deep no matter what.
