What what in the Hutt
So! Aside from a few notes, here and there, I haven't really checked in on SWTOR since I began playing. Executive summary: it continues to delight me, and I continue to play a lot of it.
Everything else? Wall of text time!
- Matt and I found out this weekend that Aric Jorgan, the first Trooper companion? Is voiced by Timothy Omundson. As in Lassiter, from Psych. It explains so much! The character matches that personality, too - he likes weapons and military gear, and is continually surly that he used to command Havoc Squad and then got demoted and now you're his CO. And if you promote Elara instead of him?--as Matt did with his Trooper--man, he hates that. (In all fairness, Aric, she is sleeping with your commander. She's filed the paperwork and everything!)
This one left out of the cut for the edification of people who watch Psych but don't play SWTOR.
- Jjaro and Durandal finished their act 1 and got their legacy this weekend. I was very, very ready for the act to be over. Hell, I wanted it to be over on Tatooine. At that point we were overleveled for the content, nothing was a challenge, and at least for the smuggler, it devolved into silly little quests. Once you finish what you've come to Alderaan for, it just continues.... Pointlessly. For a while. "Oh, help those Alderaanian nobles fight a duel! Now go help one of Risha's friends! Oh, finally, meet Risha on Nar Shaddaa! Now go fight your way through this derelict ship!"
That said, I do love my smuggler, and the act had a satisfying ending. If the gameplay through level 30-35 or so hadn't been so uninspired, and I hadn't been expecting the end of it to be any minute now omigod I might have enjoyed the journey more.
I chose "Emeraldskye" as my legacy name, which hearkens back to a series of stories I wrote in my youth. I do worry it's too girly-sounding, and since a large goal while playing these games tends to be Avoiding Being a Girl on the Interwebs, that's dismaying.
- Speaking of gameplay, the best advice I can give anyone who may be going through the game like I am - duoing with an S.O. - is: don't do the bonus series quests. Each of the planets you come across after Coruscant (Republic-side, at least) has a "bonus series" of extra quests you can do once you've finished your class quest and some core ones. We did them on Taris, to be completist, and boy howdy, 1) did we kill a lot of rakghouls, 2) were we hideously overleveled for Nar Shaddaa. Then we continued to do the bonus series on Nar Shaddaa, making us EVEN MORE overleveled for Tatooine and Alderaan. For me, challenge = fun, so this just ended up being very unfun.
And I have to say... while the class quest storyline is inspiring, and I enjoy the moral choices inherent in almost every quest, the tasks themselves are bland. They are ALL "go to this place and click this box/talk to this person, and while you're there, kill X rakghouls (substitute colicoids, Geonosians, Imperials, etc, as necessary). Say what you will about WoW, at least in BC and beyond there were quests that were more than this. The vehicle control quests, for example! I'd kill for a vehicle control quest. Well, I guess that's space combat?
After finishing act one, I decided I needed to do something different for a while. So Matt and I rolled a Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent respectively - both Chiss, his male and mine female, also on Giradda the Hutt. (He made a last minute gender change for the romance options). We played them to level 13 or so, where he branched to Mercenary and I branched to Sniper, just for a total change of pace from our Trooper/Smuggler.
I have to say, I really really like her- her name, btw, is Val'sharess, a reference which you will get if you are EXACTLY AS DORKY as I am. I have a clear concept of her as a spy who's very career-oriented. She's not the puppy-kicking, baby-eating evil that Empire-side seems to give you the choice to be, but she will lie, cheat, sleep with, and murder to advance her career. She has a loyalty to her handlers, and admires the Imperial army--for the time being, at least, since it benefits her career--but she FUCKING HATES the Sith, who in her mind are psychopaths who are always making more work for her.
(It helps that one of the first quests you do as an IA involves getting in the good graces of one of Nem'ro the Hutt's lieutenants... and then all your hard work is thrown out the window when some Sith comes along and JUST RANDOMLY murders the dude's son).
So in keeping with this, I made the choice to let the guy with the Force-sensitive son (whose mother wanted to send him to Korriban) escape, because fuck that noise, the world doesn't need more Sith. Val also slept with Dheno, the guy who recognizes she's not really the Red Blade, rather than any of the more violent options. She did, however, opt to follow Keeper's orders and kill Karrels Jarvic, because letting him go into hiding didn't really seem like a good long-term solution to the containment problem. I did feel icky about it, though.
I'm talking about my IA without mentioning Kaliyo. Kaliyo! Who I met and then immediately regreted I hadn't rolled a male character. Her Rattataki appearance + her anti-authoritarian personality make her this delightfully androgynous, punky companion, which I am ALL OVER. It also helps that EVERYTHING she says is a sexual innuendo. When she joins you as your companion, she makes a comment about "riding you to the top." As soon as Bioware implements same-sex romance, Kaliyo. Just you wait.
Then I did Black Talon with Kaliyo. And I- I think Kaliyo is convincing Val to be a terrible person?
Val's first inclination would have been to be all polite and deferential to Grand Moff Kilran, but those little -1s of shame made me snark at him, instead. I SEEK YOUR APPROVAL, ANARCHO-RATTATAKI WOMAN.
The choice at the end of Black Talon is... really typical of Imperial-side choices. "Kill someone now for dark side points, or ensure them a painful, torturous future, for light side points!" I did end up going lightside there, because Val clearly realizes what an asset the General would be to Imperial Intelligence. Even if that intel has to be obtained... under duress.
Side note: Matt noted that Kilran has a scar across half of his face in Black Talon. I didn't think this was the case in Esseles, although--as I learned later this weekend--it is definitely true of him in the Maelstrom flashpoint. Is there a story there, or are we just unobservant? Did Satele Shan bitchslap him in the meantime?
At the end of all this, Val was solidly neutral, with a total score of 450. Maybe I'll keep her that way, even though I really see her alignment as more lawful or neutral evil. But I'm not going to go making stupid choices just for a very small subset of aligned gear.
I did more with Jjaro this weekend, but first, a brief digression, to talk about my guild, and how awesome it is.
The guild is Blue Sabers of Tanaris, and I came to it via Bernie, who plays board games with Mike XIV. It also contains teenyweenyowen and a bunch of WPIers I vaguely know. (I think Chris W? If "Chrisco" is Chris W. I always forget), and a large number I don't. The "of Tanaris" part of the name comes from the guild they had in WoW, on the server Tanaris. They also have an Imp-side guild, Red Sabers of Tanaris, but it's much less active.
Since I've arrived, other Brandeis/Boston LARP folks have joined the group, such as Mel and Will, and of course lightgamer. Even morethings5 has been playing a little on Bernie's account. I was worried that a bunch of us descended en masse and took over the guild, so I talked to Jeremiah, the GM, about it, but he seemed happy about it, saying that the guild had needed an infusion of fresh blood.
What I think makes this guild unique is the family-like nature of it. I mean, lots of guilds say that, but here it's especially relevant. We come from a couple of geek communities in one area of the country, and the recruitment rule is "the more the merrier, so long as you can show up on that person's doorstep if they do something stupid" - i.e. you know them in real life. For the most part, we call each other by first names. (Okay, I call Jeremiah "Aryeh" and his wife Joanna "Arali" because it's easier to type). There are quite a few married couples in the guild.
Being largely WPI grads, the level of discourse is pretty high. I've spent a while chatting with Monica, who plays a female smuggler, about the difference in the romance options between male and female smugglers, and Corso's problematic behavior. Last night, lightgamer and John and I had a chat about the moral choices on the Imperial side of things, and how often they do turn out to be like the Black Talon choice I mentioned above. We discussed what a parsec actually was at one point. Kamm, perhaps the biggest EU nerd among us, regales us with stories about Twi'lek culture.
Plus, everyone I've played with seems to be pretty skilled at their class, even though we're all still newbs at this particular game. Matt and I have been playing a lot with Jeremiah and Joanna, because they're about the same level as us and as a Jedi Sage and Jedi Guardian, complement our Vanguard/Scoundrel pretty well. We recently did Taral V together, and as that leads you directly into Maelstrom, we did that together last night.
I... think Maelstrom may be my favorite flashpoint so far? It has a high level of challenge--one of the bosses in particular, Colonel Daksh, took a few wipes before we learned what we were doing--and story-wise, it's a real treat for people who have played KOTOR. Or, just people who hate Grand Moff Kilran! Which, if you've done any of the Republic-side flashpoints before this, is probably everyone.
The most hilarious part of Maelstrom--and Taral V, for that matter--has to be Master Oteg. He's the Yoda race (which I don't remember the name of), with a voice like Winnie-the-Pooh. Throughout both instances he's cheering you on and giving you instructions, and every time he does it cracks me up. Eventually we rewrote the Winnie-the-Pooh song for him: "Yoda the Pooh/Yoda the Pooh/funny little Jedi all stuffed with Force."
I felt a little bad for Jeremiah and Joanna, because all the gear that dropped in Taral V and Maelstrom was smuggler or trooper gear. I got two lovely orange chest pieces, one in Taral V and then a few levels later in Maelstrom. But that's the way the RNG crumbles, I guess...
Well, I think that's enough digression on my diversion of the moment.
Everything else? Wall of text time!
- Matt and I found out this weekend that Aric Jorgan, the first Trooper companion? Is voiced by Timothy Omundson. As in Lassiter, from Psych. It explains so much! The character matches that personality, too - he likes weapons and military gear, and is continually surly that he used to command Havoc Squad and then got demoted and now you're his CO. And if you promote Elara instead of him?--as Matt did with his Trooper--man, he hates that. (In all fairness, Aric, she is sleeping with your commander. She's filed the paperwork and everything!)
This one left out of the cut for the edification of people who watch Psych but don't play SWTOR.
- Jjaro and Durandal finished their act 1 and got their legacy this weekend. I was very, very ready for the act to be over. Hell, I wanted it to be over on Tatooine. At that point we were overleveled for the content, nothing was a challenge, and at least for the smuggler, it devolved into silly little quests. Once you finish what you've come to Alderaan for, it just continues.... Pointlessly. For a while. "Oh, help those Alderaanian nobles fight a duel! Now go help one of Risha's friends! Oh, finally, meet Risha on Nar Shaddaa! Now go fight your way through this derelict ship!"
That said, I do love my smuggler, and the act had a satisfying ending. If the gameplay through level 30-35 or so hadn't been so uninspired, and I hadn't been expecting the end of it to be any minute now omigod I might have enjoyed the journey more.
I chose "Emeraldskye" as my legacy name, which hearkens back to a series of stories I wrote in my youth. I do worry it's too girly-sounding, and since a large goal while playing these games tends to be Avoiding Being a Girl on the Interwebs, that's dismaying.
- Speaking of gameplay, the best advice I can give anyone who may be going through the game like I am - duoing with an S.O. - is: don't do the bonus series quests. Each of the planets you come across after Coruscant (Republic-side, at least) has a "bonus series" of extra quests you can do once you've finished your class quest and some core ones. We did them on Taris, to be completist, and boy howdy, 1) did we kill a lot of rakghouls, 2) were we hideously overleveled for Nar Shaddaa. Then we continued to do the bonus series on Nar Shaddaa, making us EVEN MORE overleveled for Tatooine and Alderaan. For me, challenge = fun, so this just ended up being very unfun.
And I have to say... while the class quest storyline is inspiring, and I enjoy the moral choices inherent in almost every quest, the tasks themselves are bland. They are ALL "go to this place and click this box/talk to this person, and while you're there, kill X rakghouls (substitute colicoids, Geonosians, Imperials, etc, as necessary). Say what you will about WoW, at least in BC and beyond there were quests that were more than this. The vehicle control quests, for example! I'd kill for a vehicle control quest. Well, I guess that's space combat?
After finishing act one, I decided I needed to do something different for a while. So Matt and I rolled a Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent respectively - both Chiss, his male and mine female, also on Giradda the Hutt. (He made a last minute gender change for the romance options). We played them to level 13 or so, where he branched to Mercenary and I branched to Sniper, just for a total change of pace from our Trooper/Smuggler.
I have to say, I really really like her- her name, btw, is Val'sharess, a reference which you will get if you are EXACTLY AS DORKY as I am. I have a clear concept of her as a spy who's very career-oriented. She's not the puppy-kicking, baby-eating evil that Empire-side seems to give you the choice to be, but she will lie, cheat, sleep with, and murder to advance her career. She has a loyalty to her handlers, and admires the Imperial army--for the time being, at least, since it benefits her career--but she FUCKING HATES the Sith, who in her mind are psychopaths who are always making more work for her.
(It helps that one of the first quests you do as an IA involves getting in the good graces of one of Nem'ro the Hutt's lieutenants... and then all your hard work is thrown out the window when some Sith comes along and JUST RANDOMLY murders the dude's son).
So in keeping with this, I made the choice to let the guy with the Force-sensitive son (whose mother wanted to send him to Korriban) escape, because fuck that noise, the world doesn't need more Sith. Val also slept with Dheno, the guy who recognizes she's not really the Red Blade, rather than any of the more violent options. She did, however, opt to follow Keeper's orders and kill Karrels Jarvic, because letting him go into hiding didn't really seem like a good long-term solution to the containment problem. I did feel icky about it, though.
I'm talking about my IA without mentioning Kaliyo. Kaliyo! Who I met and then immediately regreted I hadn't rolled a male character. Her Rattataki appearance + her anti-authoritarian personality make her this delightfully androgynous, punky companion, which I am ALL OVER. It also helps that EVERYTHING she says is a sexual innuendo. When she joins you as your companion, she makes a comment about "riding you to the top." As soon as Bioware implements same-sex romance, Kaliyo. Just you wait.
Then I did Black Talon with Kaliyo. And I- I think Kaliyo is convincing Val to be a terrible person?
Val's first inclination would have been to be all polite and deferential to Grand Moff Kilran, but those little -1s of shame made me snark at him, instead. I SEEK YOUR APPROVAL, ANARCHO-RATTATAKI WOMAN.
The choice at the end of Black Talon is... really typical of Imperial-side choices. "Kill someone now for dark side points, or ensure them a painful, torturous future, for light side points!" I did end up going lightside there, because Val clearly realizes what an asset the General would be to Imperial Intelligence. Even if that intel has to be obtained... under duress.
Side note: Matt noted that Kilran has a scar across half of his face in Black Talon. I didn't think this was the case in Esseles, although--as I learned later this weekend--it is definitely true of him in the Maelstrom flashpoint. Is there a story there, or are we just unobservant? Did Satele Shan bitchslap him in the meantime?
At the end of all this, Val was solidly neutral, with a total score of 450. Maybe I'll keep her that way, even though I really see her alignment as more lawful or neutral evil. But I'm not going to go making stupid choices just for a very small subset of aligned gear.
I did more with Jjaro this weekend, but first, a brief digression, to talk about my guild, and how awesome it is.
The guild is Blue Sabers of Tanaris, and I came to it via Bernie, who plays board games with Mike XIV. It also contains teenyweenyowen and a bunch of WPIers I vaguely know. (I think Chris W? If "Chrisco" is Chris W. I always forget), and a large number I don't. The "of Tanaris" part of the name comes from the guild they had in WoW, on the server Tanaris. They also have an Imp-side guild, Red Sabers of Tanaris, but it's much less active.
Since I've arrived, other Brandeis/Boston LARP folks have joined the group, such as Mel and Will, and of course lightgamer. Even morethings5 has been playing a little on Bernie's account. I was worried that a bunch of us descended en masse and took over the guild, so I talked to Jeremiah, the GM, about it, but he seemed happy about it, saying that the guild had needed an infusion of fresh blood.
What I think makes this guild unique is the family-like nature of it. I mean, lots of guilds say that, but here it's especially relevant. We come from a couple of geek communities in one area of the country, and the recruitment rule is "the more the merrier, so long as you can show up on that person's doorstep if they do something stupid" - i.e. you know them in real life. For the most part, we call each other by first names. (Okay, I call Jeremiah "Aryeh" and his wife Joanna "Arali" because it's easier to type). There are quite a few married couples in the guild.
Being largely WPI grads, the level of discourse is pretty high. I've spent a while chatting with Monica, who plays a female smuggler, about the difference in the romance options between male and female smugglers, and Corso's problematic behavior. Last night, lightgamer and John and I had a chat about the moral choices on the Imperial side of things, and how often they do turn out to be like the Black Talon choice I mentioned above. We discussed what a parsec actually was at one point. Kamm, perhaps the biggest EU nerd among us, regales us with stories about Twi'lek culture.
Plus, everyone I've played with seems to be pretty skilled at their class, even though we're all still newbs at this particular game. Matt and I have been playing a lot with Jeremiah and Joanna, because they're about the same level as us and as a Jedi Sage and Jedi Guardian, complement our Vanguard/Scoundrel pretty well. We recently did Taral V together, and as that leads you directly into Maelstrom, we did that together last night.
I... think Maelstrom may be my favorite flashpoint so far? It has a high level of challenge--one of the bosses in particular, Colonel Daksh, took a few wipes before we learned what we were doing--and story-wise, it's a real treat for people who have played KOTOR. Or, just people who hate Grand Moff Kilran! Which, if you've done any of the Republic-side flashpoints before this, is probably everyone.
The most hilarious part of Maelstrom--and Taral V, for that matter--has to be Master Oteg. He's the Yoda race (which I don't remember the name of), with a voice like Winnie-the-Pooh. Throughout both instances he's cheering you on and giving you instructions, and every time he does it cracks me up. Eventually we rewrote the Winnie-the-Pooh song for him: "Yoda the Pooh/Yoda the Pooh/funny little Jedi all stuffed with Force."
I felt a little bad for Jeremiah and Joanna, because all the gear that dropped in Taral V and Maelstrom was smuggler or trooper gear. I got two lovely orange chest pieces, one in Taral V and then a few levels later in Maelstrom. But that's the way the RNG crumbles, I guess...
Well, I think that's enough digression on my diversion of the moment.