Ancient Hypergate is a unique warzone map in Star Wars The Old Republic. Essentially it is the closest map we have to deathmatch in instanced 8v8 PvP. Over a year ago, the developers ‘revamped’ PvP in SWTOR changing how players are rewarded. Ancient Hypergate is the only Warzone Map with no medal revamp since the PvP Revamp started with Game Update 7.2.
The Game Update 7.2 PvP Revamp Refresher
For context, the developers, wanting to force more objective gameplay into Warzones, took away most role-based and all kill-based medals from Warzones without replacing them with other medals. This made it difficult for players to reach the 8-medal threshold for maximum rewards (Valor, Comms, XP etc.) and conquest objectives in most matches. To address this, the developers have gradually made changes to each of the different map types to increase opportunities to gain medals with a focus on making objective gameplay more rewarding. They also decreased the number of medals needed to gain maximum rewards to 7.
The last medal revamp occurred with Game Update 7.3 in June 2023 and covered multiple maps including all the Huttball maps, Novare Coast and Voidstar. Now it’s Ancient Hypergate’s turn to get a Medal Revamp and it would seem the developers have forgotten about it.
Ancient Hypergate – A Unique Map
What makes Ancient Hypergate unique compared to other Warzone Maps is that killing players is a key mechanic to gaining match points. I would like to see this unique mechanic remain in place despite it contradicting the developers ‘objective play’ philosophy.
It also features unique objectives beyond the standard control points (pylons). The central area of the map, while not technically a control point, has the traits of one. The team that controls mid, controls access to orbs. Orbs when taken to a control point your team owns, grant match points. Controlling mid also allows your team to safely shelter during the pylon explosion phase.
Proposed Ancient Hypergate Medal/Objective Point Changes
Here’s what I would do to improve medal-making opportunities in order of priority.
- Everyone in the vicinity gets points for a teammate capturing a pylon (this was removed when 7.2 launched for some reason).
- Bring back kill and role medals since kills contribute to the score.
- Mid should give some objective points – Since orbs are a key mechanic, the area where they reside should have some objective points associated with it. Controlling Mid can often mean the difference between securing victory to prevent the enemy team from getting orbs and sheltering during the explosion phase safely.
- Teammates in the vicinity of someone picking up an orb should get a small amount of points, if you kill an enemy with an orb, friendlies in the vicinity get a small amount of points.
I believe these changes would make it easier for players to be rewarded without diminishing the map’s unique mechanics. DPS output is so important and very commonly makes the difference between winning and losing and it should be rewarded accordingly.
Concluding Thoughts
All we can do is wait and see if the SWTOR Developers do anything with Hypergate. That being said, I am concerned that they might decide to change or remove the key mechanic of the map (killing players for points) and change it to be more objective-based. If they are not willing to play into the existing map mechanics, then they should just leave the medals as is and not change anything.
What do you think? Do you like Ancient Hypergate? Would you like it if earning medals was easier?
The heavy focus on kills is actually one of the reasons Hypergates isn’t one of my favourites. ???? But I do think that all your suggestions for improvements to medals sound good!