Greetings All,
In light of some of the recent SWTOR announcements for the new expansion and other events, we've got some guild news of our own to resolve.
This message is about the status of The Exiled Lords, our guild for Imperial alts. With diminished activity the last 2 months, along with the arrival of summer and the recent + upcoming work/vacation/travel plans of myself and other officers and barons, we are ending the current recurring organized activities in The Exiled Lords. Imperial faction activities in Exiled for now will be spontaneous only and not on a set schedule. This really only affects the Thursday Imperial Ops group at this time.
The guild itself is not going anywhere, and will continue as our official guild for Imperial alternate characters, however there are no definite plans at this time for the resumption of scheduled, organized activities on the Imperial faction. Republic activities will continue, on a flexible week by week schedule that we will try to communicate changes as needed through Guild Messages of the Day.
I want to be clear that The Exiled Lords is not the focus of our attention at this time. If you are looking for large guilds with active endgame play on the Imperial Faction on Begeren Colony there are several available and they run the full range of behavior and maturity. I'll not be making recommendations for any particular guild however because I don't think finding a guild is an issue people should take my word on finding. We hold no ill will to anyone who wants to explore other opportunities on the Imperial faction, and I expect all members to be understanding of anyone's personal decision to make a change to seek out their preferred amount and style of game play.
Given the reduction in activity in Exiled Lords, all special guild ranks are being done away with to be replaced by four ranks --> Guild Master, Officer, Standard Member, and Initiate. The ranks will still have in-game appropriate designations.
Next, in regards to future plans for Guild Organization with the announcement of Knights of the Fallen Empire, the current notion is to rebuild our strength in The Order of Sixty-Six on Republic faction first. We will focus our efforts on that rebuilding during lead up to and through the launch of KotFE without duplication of effort on the Imperial Faction until a time we are large enough to effectively support any such possibilities. Members are still welcome to spill over from 66 to Exiled with their alts, but for now it will be clearly stated that it is an alt guild of light activity while 66 is our focus. Key factors informing this decision are three new developments from the forums today -
- The new faction alluded to (or brazenly displayed in the trailer and official SWTOR news announcements) is not playable. This was confirmed by Devs on the forums today. The new faction is a "story faction".
- The two existing factions (Republic and Imperial) are not being merged into a single faction or common pool for shared queues (also confirmed by Devs on the forums today).
- Existing planets and areas will all remain accessible even after starting KotFE story, thus there does not seem to be an indication that there will be a "point of no return" break point between the current content and KotFE content. That said, this particular point still seems to have potential twists to be better explained in the months ahead, so don't take it as the complete gospel yet.
These decisions are not reached lightly. We also understand that emotions can run high on matters such as these, so we ask all members to make the personal decision that suits them best to find enjoyment in the game and to respect any decisions of others. We ask that respect to be maintained for everyone whether any individual's personal decision is to simply continue with The Exiled Lords because a quiet casual space to level alts and experience story is all you need or if it is to remain a member but play in the Imperial community at large, or if it is to leave the guild and seek out a new guild because you desire to play in a much more social and active environment, or anything in between.
Thanks in advance for your understanding,
-Aieranda