Drop In: Mek-Sha

Every Galactic Season so far has had a repeatable objective that only existed during that season and related to its companion or theme. Season 1 asked us to kill insectoid mobs because Altuur is a Kubaz and they like eating insects. Season 2 had us dressing up as members of the Syndicate and killing Black Sun on Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa to please Fen Zeil. Season 3 required us to catch cheating gamblers with PH4-LNX by our side, Season 4 had the meditating with Amity, and Season 5 the mouse droid mini game in cantinas.

This week was the first time we got to check out Season's 6 unique objective, and I've got to say it's extremely clever. It's not a new activity, but it fits the seasonal theme to a T and encourages players to use an in-game feature that doesn't see a lot of use and that many probably don't even know about: all you need to do is visit another player's stronghold. In GS6 week 2, it has to be a Mek-Sha stronghold in specific.

I completed this objective on all servers on day one and really enjoyed it. I'm not really a huge housing enthusiast, but once you've gone through that loading screen to travel to another player's stronghold, you might as well have a look around, right? So I took screenshots of some of the things I saw.

On Darth Malgus, I simply travelled to the first stronghold on the top of the list, which was called "Zalashia's Hideout" and also the only one showing 100% completion at the time. Considering that the Mek-Sha stronghold is pretty compact, I was curious what filling it to its maximum capacity would actually look like.

The answer is... it's a lot. It does kind of fit the general aesthetic of Mek-Sha to have a really cluttered hideout in there, but the number of small lights on the walls was still a bit overwhelming in my opinion. 

I made a note to myself to go for strongholds with a lower completion percentage next time to see how people were using the space when not filling up every possible hook with something or other.

On Leviathan, I therefore ended up choosing to visit a 68% complete Mek-Sha stronghold called "Perial Khill's Stronghold". This one was probably my favourite among all the strongholds I visited that night, as the main area looked like a really great place to party, with a stage, musicians, dancers, seats and tables for spectators and a big pool in the middle, plus some Talz bouncers (?) watching from the sidelines. It just seemed cool.

On Tulak Hord I visited "Yvische's Syndicate Never Center" at 80% complete. This was competently done but nothing really stood out to me personally in the main area. My personal favourite bit about this stronghold was actually the two guys brawling next to a trash fire on the landing pad, which is the first thing you see upon zoning in and which definitely sets the mood.

On Star Forge, I ended up visiting "Lazarillo's Smuggler's Haven" at 50% completion. This was a more utilitarian and more sparsely decorated place with a row of vendors and some fairly basic decorations, but what threw me for a loop in this one was that when I went up to the balcony to overlook the main area from above, I found my way blocked by some of those walled window decorations. I was rather confused the first time I saw one of them because I wasn't quite sure how to use them, but turning that balcony into a walled-off room was an interesting use case.

On Satele Shan, I stopped by "Rhroadhouse's Dark Alleyway" at 79% completion, which I thought had an interesting concept as it turned the side room into a cantina-like area, while the main space was taken up by what looked like a fighting ring or something? Interesting idea.

Finally I logged onto Shae Vizla, where I only saw three public listings on Mek-Sha, which is when I was reminded that you can only visit the strongholds of players that are currently online. I guess it wasn't doing this at a good time for the APAC region. The open listings all had really low completion rates as well, with 15% being the highest available, so I went to that one, called "Butch Cassidty's Stronghold". This was kind of what I'd expect from someone who isn't really into strongholds big time and/or doesn't have a lot of decorations to work with, as it was very spartan with just some utilities like vendors and a few crew skill decorations. However, I appreciated that it was open for me to visit, and it was still an interesting contrast to all the other strongholds I'd seen that evening.

Have you come across anything you found interesting during your visits of other people's strongholds?