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The Grand Acquisitions Race Follow-up :)

With the event ended technically tonight when the game goes down for maintenance/patching, I figured I’d post some stuff about it 😀 Before I do, I will just say I ended up buying the Automatic Bowcaster for Cellina. I noticed it wasn’t actually shown on her post about the event so I looked it up and it is awesome and totally fits her so I bought it and yeah 😛 I also got my BH Commendations for my Hat so just 1 Advanced Mettle Mod 26, 2 Advanced Quick Savant Enhancement 26, 1 Advanced Resolve Hilt 26, and 2 Advanced Resolve Armoring 26 to go. (Which I can now afford–just need the stupid Grade 8 stuff — And thanks to a very nice friend, got the money to buy from Elidibs so yay T~T Thank you! So, stuff sent off. Gonna see if my boyfriend can lend me 100K-200K so I won’t be completely poor)

Overall, I liked it. I love events though and even enjoyed the Rakghoul event despite zombies and creepiness. However, I will say it felt like there was more effort put into the latter. With all the codexes telling the story, so much to do, and many more dialogue options (sure, you didn’t speak for this event and it made sense not to but…) and things, it felt a bit more fulfilling in that sense.

Regardless, this event was still interesting and while I can’t speak for other servers, at least on Corellian Run, most people were nice, polite, and helpful. I mean, we had organized lines on both factions. That isn’t to say there were no jerks–like I said, most people were nice, but not everyone. I did have one guy race ahead and take my box v-v;

I thought there were quite a bit of fun things as well which was nice. One thing I kind of wish they did was make it so during the event, players would have to go to another’s capital city for some of the items. It could’ve been a safe zone or something and I think that would’ve been a neat effect. I would probably say the biggest different between the Imperial and Republic side would be the puzzle for the Collected Writings of Tiethiagg. The Republic just had you match all 5 terminals (which you just clicked until it was the color you wanted) to the specific color for each circle according to the diagram on the floor. The Imperial’s had you turning mirrors and a laser gun to fire a laser to reflect off the mirrors to hit the crate to open it. It wasn’t hard (very limited moving needed to be done), but it actually took a bit more thought, in my opinion, to do. Of course, I was waiting almost 10 minutes for someone to finish to Republic Puzzle the first time I did it…

The only other big difference was the fight during the introduction quest. The Republic had you kill the droid first while the Imperial had you hit these glowy blue things in front of the guy to get their shields down. Besides the obvious change of locations, there was no difference in mechanics or what you needed to do. Well, maybe slightly with the Plasma-Sealed Jar–for the Republic you just went off those edge-platforms with no barrier (most usually have a taxi a little bit away from them–but there are a few that are empty) and for the Imperial you went up a ramp to get over the barrier. I found the Republic’s more surprising, but that’s just me.

My only real complaint about the event was how hard they made it to get everything. You could earn, at minimum, 105 Tokens if you did all the quests. That is it. Any other tokens would only be if you didn’t get all 6 parts for Vandrayk’s Tuning Apparatus on the first shot (which is rare, but happened–most people could at least get 4-5 easily and the 6th within about 20-30 boxes). The total for actually getting all the items sold by the Vendor is 811. Of course, if you did get lucky and got a pet from one of the crates, it’d only be 561…but that is still over 400 more than what you’d get from doing the quests. None are repeatable, the crates have a 10 minute spawn rate (and have a few difference places each crate can spawn so there’s no guarantee it’ll spawn in the same spot), and you have competition from:
1. People who need the Vandrayk’s Tuning Apparatus parts.
2. People who also want tokens.
3. People looking for the pet.
4. People who are looking to sell them.

That’s…just a huge pain and I feel incredibly sorry for anyone on a PVP server. At least you can open the boxes while being attacked or in-combat, but still. I mean, if you have all your character slots full, if you did the event on each, you’d have enough…but I had a hard enough time doing it on 2 😛

I know a lot of people also complained about the rewards, but I think pretty much all the complaints are silly. If there’s nothing you like, well, good for you? The prizes will probably always fit the event–simple as that. We had crystals for the last event (which, while all classes use, is not as big of a deal for non-Jedi/Sith classes) so… besides that, it was just infected skins (which I thought were horrifying and I hate every time I run into someone using one) for Companions and a pet (at a much more reasonable price). I believe the main issue there was with those said skins as:
1. They were Bound
2. It was random which you got (so you could get one for a class you don’t even expect to ever play)

Going back to the Grand Acquisitions Event, let us go over the prizes:
1. The Bowcasters – We’re doing an event on Nar Shaddaa with things like Smuggler’s Crates and shootouts. I’m sorry, but weapons that are gun-related just make sense. I think my only issue is how few companions use Sniper Rifles (and few specs in general) and I think those are some of the nicer ones. Some of the Blaster Rifle ones are okay too, but not as many there.
2. The Sand People Outfit – Nobody actually really had an issue with this one too much. Not too badly priced and will be Bind to Legacy sometime soon. To be honest though, this seemed more fitting for the Rakghoul Event in my opinion, but it was a nice item to see and a lot of people I’ve seen picked up at least parts of it.
3. Sparkle Powder – I’m guessing this is more of a “if you want to spend your tokens but have nothing else you want” thing, but it’s still cute and people do enjoy having fun with Sparkle Powder. They did mention Sparkle Powder coming out in various colors so it was nice to see it…I just hope it comes in a more permanent way.
4. Hyrotii Scrapper – This probably has a bigger hate than the Bowcasters do. This is because it is 90% like most Rank 1 Speeders over the 110% that Rank 3 Speeders have. People said this wasn’t fair to those who were 50 and no longer leveling to have to get a “low level” speeder. The stupidity in this is that the point of the speeder is for it’s look and effects. It is a broken down, crooked speeder. It sounds like it has fireworks going off, there’s sparks from the motor, electricity sparking under it, a light that is out and smoking which thus, leaves a smoke trail as you drive around. It makes sense that it only goes 90%. It has a neat effect and looks cool and if you enjoyed the speeder from the Jar item quest, well, this is the same one (just 40% faster). I could see this being more popular with RP servers, but I’ve seen a few people (My boyfriend included) who really want this speeder for certain characters as they’d find it fitting. (Unfortunately, my boyfriend will most likely not get one as it is bound and there is no way I can get 1.5 million to make my trooper and get both her and his smuggler to their ships to go to Nar Shaddaa for the Event. Which I feel quite bad about, honestly.
5. Lobelot – I will say it is way overpriced. I am guessing the price is due to the fact that it is possible to get it from boxes, but it is still kind of ridiculous. Most people say it is ugly which fine, whatever, your taste and all ( find all pets cute though) but saying it doesn’t fit is kind of silly. I will just link to this for more information. Also stuff on the Akk Dogs. However, the #1 argument, once people realize or remember there is also a Lobel pet (The Lobelisk) sold by the PVP Items Vendor is that the pet is “just a recolor” in which I kind of just…want to slap them. Most of the pets are recolors. While some of the newer pets (1.2 onward) have individual sounds, what they do is the same per species. There are very few that do anything different or are unique. So, I’m just going to go over it real quick:
—-1. Raklings: All 3 are just recolors. They roar, pace back and forth, and jump twice. They all run with their arms and feet.
—-2. Akk Dogs: All 3 are just recolors. They scratch their face with their left paw, look side to side, roar, and put their head down to the floor (almost as if they were going to eat). However, each one makes a different sound.
—-3. Hutt Observer – The only completely unique pet. The middle of it constantly spins and it looks from left to right. Also hovers up and down.
—-4. Interrogation Droid and The Czerka Eye – Two of the semi-unique pets. They share the same round body with a few changes. They both hover up and Down and look left to right. Interrogation Droid pulls in and sticks back out its long stick…thing that is at the bottom of it and spins it when out. The Czerka Eye Spins it’s long antenna like-thing at the back of it’s head that sticks up.
—-5. Little Sandcrawler and Mouse Droid – Two of the semi-unique pets. Both Little Sandcrawler and Mouse Droid have the same form in a sense, but the top decorations are different (and of course, they are different colors). Bot have the 3 little thingys at the back, but Little Sandcrawler has 3 tall thingys in front of those and then in the little top circle, a block with two sticks coming out of it. Mouse Droid, however, has a blank indented space where Little Sandcrawler’s 3 Tall thingys are and in the circle, a round thing that kind of looks like a camera. It also has a thing that looks kind of like one of those Wind Energy thingys that spins to the left of the circle. Both spin.
—-6. Lobels – All 3 are recolors (though, only 2 can be gotten right now). They lean forward and look back and forth. However, each one makes a different sound.
—-7. Minimechs – Both are recolors. They both spin and the thingys on the top of them go up and down.
—-8. Orobirds – All 3 are recolors (Though, Wonderous Egg/Orochick is still a mystery). They look side to side and open their mouth. Each one makes a different sound.
—-9. Tauntauns – 4 of them are just recolors. The only one not just a recolor is Tauntaun Ram who has two large horns and a backpack. It is the same model otherwise though. They slide their foot across the ground, open their mouth, and look side to side. Each one makes a different sound.

Sure, some of the sounds are similar and/or use some parts from others, but all are unique overall. I went and recorded them here. So, yes, out of the 23 confirmed pets (not counting the Lobelode since it has not been confirmed to be out), 17 of them are just recolors. And personally, I love them all the same~

Besides that, there are rumors going around about something special happening tomorrow for those who completed the event. Good thing I am still on Nar Shaddaa…unless it’ll be on Coruscant. Not I’m panicking. I remember seeing this on Tumblr, but I never got one on Amidaia…and I never got a Republic version. Regardless, I hope that’s not an issue and I’m not sure how to feel just yet.