I’ve begun to think about what to do with my stronghold- after all, i have the Nar Shaddaa stronghold “for free” and housing is one of the features in an MMO i’d consider important, but until now, i’ve been questing happily. Questing-wise it seems i can ignore everything except class story missions on Nar Shaddaa, because i am already level 24 and it seems that’s the “max level” of the planet- by all means, i should be on Tatooine right now. I’ve also respecialized my Commando and have gone for the Gunnery tree, because it seems my newest companion, Elara Dorne, is a medic commando, so i don’t need to do much healing for myself. It also allows me to queue up as damage dealer for Flashpoints without lying.
Nar Shaddaa
I like the place as a home for Soofoo- she might be a republic commando, but she’s not exactly as formal as Elara Dorne and seems to be accumulating Dark Side points at an ever faster rate. Also, i think she needs to be the “lively” one, since my coming Jedi Consular will be more of a calm nature.
Regarding the stronghold, it’s tough to start out with this one, because Soofoo is basically pretty low on credits (~10k) after spending some money on the GTN for crafting material. And Nar Shaddaa is a palace.
I have 5 of the 9 available rooms unlocked, and so far i’m thinking: library/office, living/dining room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen would be appropriate. Yeah, it’s pretty much planned as a normal appartement, but reflecting the growth of the character. After all, if i want to go for other types of strongholds, like a cantina, for instance, i can just buy another one.
The trouble is that the stronghold doesn’t consist of those 5 rooms only, you are bound to have to access them.
I took those screenshots when almost nothing was placed- there’s a metal couch in the living room, but everything else is in its raw state. The room above is the first room you’ll enter when leaving the landing pod.
I think i can access all rooms of this floor- there are four of them and one is the staircase for the lower floor.
There are two rooms like the one pictured above, the other one on the other side of the lobby.
Then there are two bigger rooms that count as rooms- i think one will be the office/library, the other one i don’t know yet. The kitchen will be put into a room that doesn’t count as one on the second floor.
The highlight of the stronghold is the living room.
As i said, it’s big. There’s even a balcony somewhere to be unlocked. Buying all unlocks will cost 6.5 million credits. Yeah, only 6.49 million to go! Also, one has to decorate this stuff, as well. To be honest, i don’t have an idea of what is available as decoration in SWTOR- it might be that my plans don’t work out because there aren’t any decorations for a bathroom, for instance. Or a kitchen. I guess i’ll see about that.
And i thought i had nothing to spend my cartel coins on
Of course, a lot of decoration seems to be available on the cartel market (ingame shop). I haven’t looked at it very closely, just glanced at the possibilities of the strongholds in general. SWTOR doesn’t only give you a list of all potentially available items, but also lists the way to get it – and i read “cartel market”…very often. Also, lockboxes. It seems i needn’t worry about not “being able” to spend the cc anymore.
Party Business 
Ya decorating is SWTOR is pretty basic in nature. Sorry, no Kitchen and no bathroom. Apparantly no one in Star Wars needs to take a shower or go pee lol. BUT, there is plenty to decorate with…hey you can have your own cantina with stocked bar! I was contemplating getting Nar Shaddaa because it’s just plain cool, but I’m hearing that the next expansion will get us a Yavin Stronghold…OH YES…I’ll be blowing every last cred on that!
Well, i’ll see if i can make something similar to a kitchen/bathroom. Maybe there are pools, fountains or something? A cantina could serve as a kitchen, as well. I’m all for basic, it’s easier to select from a few options than to stand around in the landscape and wonder what to do and how to do it.
I just learned there seems to be a limit of four strongholds (per character?). Yavin looks nice, from what i saw….not much of a SW geek here, so i didn’t know what kind of planet it was until i searched for it. Nar Shaddaa seems great, as well. Really curious where the balcony is- maybe behind those bars in that ugly room?
I think the balcony is behind the bars, there are pools btw
I really like the “hooks” in the strongholds, rather than having complete freedom as in WildStar or Rift which can be paralyzing. However there are so many hooks even before you start unlocking the additional rooms (I’m 5/9 as well) and I do not seem to be accumulating deco items very quickly. It appears to be more of a credit sink for veteran players which means it will be a while before I can do anything meaningful with my stronghold. That’s a bit of a disappointment, but not unusual for housing features and it’s something to work toward as a long term goal. I’m looking forward to what you come up with, you’ll have to post your progress!
There’s a credit vendor on the fleet- those items don’t seem to be over-the-top-expensive. The crafted ones, though…well it seems they are quite costly. And of course, there’s the cartel market, some achievements and other opportunities. Dulfy has a good overview: http://dulfy.net/2014/07/27/swtor-galactic-stronghold-decorations-list/
I agree, though, most of it seems to be geared for veteran players/characters. But Nar Shaddaa might not be the correct stronghold to try and build up for newbies- after all, we couldn’t afford to buy it if we wouldn’t have been subscribers at a certain date. That actually works in SWTOR’s favour from my perspective- there’s something “to do” at endgame besides raiding and flashpoints.
The crafted ones are expensive…until you start making your own prefab kits. then its just a time sync until you get the right mats. OCCASIONALLY they will drop in instances. I got a Republic Computer station once from a drop on KDY. But that is so rare you might as well look for them on the open market. Most of my stuff right now is the very basic stuff and really it doesn’t fill more than a couple of rooms. In time, Ill be able to set in more. I think the one thing I wish they would do is make crafted furniture a little easier to make. Instead of going through the hassle of making kits, then buying furniture pieces I think you should just be able to craft the item and install it like you can on EQ2. But hey, occasionally I get around to a new item. I agree though it seems more like a credit/time synch for the end gamers. I have way too much to do as it is with regular crafting/gathering and adventuring and events and instances and tacticals.