Greetings Starfighters!

The Millennium Falcon may not look like much, but thanks to a lot of special modifications, she’s got it where it counts. I am Jason Attard, a Senior Game Designer on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, and today we’re going to take a look at upgrading and customizing your own fleet of starships in Galactic Starfighter.

Components and Upgrades

Components are the basic building blocks of a Starfighter, determining what the ship will be capable of doing in combat. Each ship can be equipped with five major components, which grant weapons and active combat abilities, and four minor components, which give passive statistical boosts. Initially your ships will have one default component in each slot, but every slot has several different components you can unlock and swap between. On top of that, each ship will have a different set of components that it can equip. Your choice of ship and components is about tailoring your gameplay experience, rather than picking the best component for a given slot. For example, would you equip a heavy laser cannon to blast enemies at long range, or a rapid-fire laser that shreds nearby foes in seconds?

Each component also has three to five tiers of upgrades you can purchase that increase the effectiveness of the component, or add entirely new functionality to it. The major components have two upgrades at some of the higher tiers, typically offering different situational improvements to choose from. Once the tier is unlocked, you can swap between those choices at will in the hangar, allowing you to try out the various combinations and find the ones that work best for you.

Galactic Starfighter already has hundreds of components and upgrades waiting to be unlocked, and we’re planning to continually add new ships and new components as we update Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Requisition

All of these unlocks and upgrades will be purchased with a new form of currency called Requisition that you will earn by completing Starfighter battles. All players who complete the battle will earn Requisition for their participation, the winning team will receive a significant bonus, and individual actions that contribute to your team’s effort (capturing control points, destroying enemy players, defending friendly objectives, and so forth) will grant you Requisition as well. These individual rewards are granted to each player who contributed to the action, so that teamwork is never penalized. For example, if you damage an enemy player but a teammate swoops in and finishes them off, you both get the full reward for defeating that ship.

Each ship in your hangar has a pool of daily bonus Requisition, which works similarly to rest experience in the ground game, doubling the rate at which that ship earns Requisition until its pool has been used up. Thus flying a large variety of ships each day will increase the rate at which you gain Requisition. Once you’ve got a fully upgraded component for each slot of a ship, that ship is considered Mastered, and will earn Requisition at an increased rate, providing another reason to keep on flying your older fully-upgraded ships. Completing daily and weekly Starfighter quests will grant Requisition rewards, as will some of the new achievements.

Most of the Requisition earned will be Ship Requisition, which is tied to the specific starship that you flew during the battle, and can be used to purchase components and upgrades for that ship alone. You’ll also earn a small amount of Fleet Requisition which can be spent upgrading any of your ships, or unlocking entirely new ships and crew members. Ship Requisition can be converted into Fleet Requisition by spending Cartel Coins, allowing you to rapidly unlock new ships, or transfer time spent on one ship into upgrades for another.

To Space!

It’s an exciting time for the Starfighter team, as our players will be earning Requisition and building up their fleets of starships in a few short weeks. I know I’m looking forward to customizing my own ships, and I can’t wait to fly them with you all in Galactic Starfighter!

Jason Attard

Senior Game Designer