Archive | April 2012

Prices, revisited!

Apr6

Prices, are of course, still unstable right now and subject to change (well, most anyway), but I decided to take some time and update the prices since my last post–not just to keep track of things, but also update on where I am (hint: not far).

Currently, I need roughly 2,220,000 to get all the Speeders before their prices rise. Considering 1.5 million of that is the Exchange Bandit, That leaves just 720K for all the other speeders.

Besides that, the only thing left is for me to get two more Sorveigns from friends (though, a friend of mine thinks I should get a bunch to sell or something–I’d feel bad though) and save up money to actually be used in 1.2. I mean, obviously, there is still the 2.5 million for the white light saber crystal and the 250K for the purple crystal…but I don’t think that will happen. And considering the white would go to Nadia and the purple to Zenith, they’re not as high priority-wise. I also still need that bank slot.

So, before 1.2 totals:
2,220,000 – Speeders
2,500,000 – White Lightsaber Crystal
250,000 – Purple Lightsaber Crystal
+ 400,000 – Bank Slot
———–
5,370,000

So about 5.4 million. And of course, I still want the 200K to make sure I get Taunta (and maybe 100K for repairs and just to have) so that brings it up to about 5.7 million because even though Taunta is technically 1.2…it’s too big of a priority to wait 😛

But yes, if I had to narrow it down… it’d be the 300K (Taunta + Safety), plus the 2,220,000 for speeders and then the bank slot for priority. After that, probably either saving up for 1.2 stuff (specifically the ship upgrades) or trying to get those lightsaber crystals.

Going into upcoming 1.2 stuff (minus Taunta):
1,000,000 – Ship Repair Droid
500,000 – Ship Mail Box
1,000,000 – Both Training Dummies (500K each)
5,000,000 – Neutral Trade Terminal
600,000 – All 3 Emergency Fleet Pass Cooldown time Reducers
600,000 – All 3 Quick Travel Cooldown time Reducers
2,000,000 – Rocket Boost
2,500,000 – Both Rocket Boost Cooldown time Reducers
310,000 – All 4 Social Emotes Free!
+ 250,000 – Alignment Ability Free!
————
13,260,000 12,800,000

Yep… Expensive. I don’t know the price on the valor rank stuff that lets you attack without a weapon (I believe in PVP only), but I don’t really care either. I’ll probably get them eventually though, just to have.

So, priority order:
1. All ship stuff
2. Social Emotes
3. Rocket Boost Unlock

Then probably a tie between the Cooldown Reducers (Probably Quick Travel + Rocket Boost first followed by the Emergency Fleet Pass) and the Alignment Ability.

Regardless, I don’t think I’ll have 13,260,000 (or the roughly 20 million total with both added) before 1.2. Unfortunately.

If I had to pick, I’d probably like at least the 7.5 million for all the ship stuff…and maybe the Social emotes too.

But yes, so if we go with just priority:
2,220,000 – Speeders
400,000 – Bank Slot
1,000,000 – Ship Repair Droid
500,000 – Ship Mail Box
1,000,000 – Both Training Dummies (500K each)
5,000,000 – Neutral Trade Terminal
310,000 – All 4 Social Emotes Free!
+ 300,000 – Taunta + Emergency 100K
————
10,730,000 10,420,000

…Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen 🙁
(And if I really had to narrow it down, I’d probably remove the bank slot, as much as I need it, 3 of the Social emotes (so just the dance one left which is 10K), and the Training Dummies (probably the one I’d want to remove the least, actually) which would only drop it to 9,030,000 🙁 (And if I kept the Dummies, just to 10,030,000)

…Blah T___T Being poor sucks. And these don’t even count the price of races! (Which is still like 3 million last I heard so that’d be about 23 million here)

—————————–
Progress/Amounts Achieved:
300K – Taunta + Emergency 100K – Achieved!

Finally–Karagga’s!

Apr6

So, Bad Motivator Units invited me to go on a Karagga’s normal run today 🙂 While neither the pet or car dropped, I’m just happy I got to go and finish the normal version! I got the last two normal codexes I needed and even finished Hutt Hospitality.

It was a lot of fun and I said Thank you a bazillion times and I’m just so happy I could go. Totally made my day T~T

I also got a schematic, some Tionese gloves, a Columni belt (both went to Nadia), and the Perpetual Healing Device which I am using! 😀 It’s so awesome. They said it’s the second best one for me ^_^ …I wonder what the first is. (I’m guessing the Relic of Residual Mending with an augment slot though).

Progress vs. Gear

Apr5

Now, I’m a very organized person. I like going in order and don’t like skipping ahead (I do not care how hard this quest is–I want every quest in the area done before moving to the next one) and want things done a certain way. That’s just how I am. That doesn’t mean I never cut corners (Space Missions and PVP stuff I obviously put off until the end), but in general, especially with PVE, I liked to do things in order. Planets, quests, flash points…and that includes difficulty levels.

That doesn’t mean it’s been completely followed (For example, I did Kaon Under Siege on Hard Mode before Normal Mode), but that was never my choice to do it. And despite doing False Emperor and Kaon, I still have yet to do Battle of Ilum on either difficulty because I can’t find anyone to go with. And I’d be lying to say it didn’t bug me.

I don’t really care too much about gear. I know it’s important, but when it comes to priority…it’s probably 3rd or 4th on my list. 4th if I count Codex Entries and Lore as a separate thing. But yes, so in order:
1. Completion/Progress
2. Collecting (Codexes included)
3. Gear

I do know better gear will make certain things easier…but only harder versions of raids. The level cap isn’t rising yet. The new quests that are coming in 1.2 are just level 50 dailies. Sure, it still makes things easier, but it shouldn’t be priority at this point.

And that is part of why it bothers me so much that the guild, while thankfully finally doing Karagga (even if they still aren’t listening to me completely), seems to just care about gearing up (and more so than not, the ones who are already geared to some extent. Those in the Green/blue gear? Go have fun.). I do have a good amount of Columni–in fact, all I still need are the offhand and main hand. I do not care too much for the main hand as I like my Pink Crystal, but the offhand would probably be helpful. Regardless, since we have Columni, we should apparently just go for Rakata.

But it bothers me that we’re skipping a normal difficulty mode for that kind of reason. What about learning the fight? What about codexes? What about actual progress? Can you really say you just did everything if you skip normal mode? I don’t think so.

And it could be practice. To get the titles from those, you need to be able to down them on Nightmare mode within 2 hours. While you may be the time to just rush into things on the hardest difficulty, isn’t that kind of rash?

You could learn the fight and then learn the new mechanics. Or you could learn everything new while dying much more. We’ve gotten to the 4th boss on normal. We KNOW what we need to do, but they haven’t tried. Do you really expect me to believe you’re going to want to do it on Hard Mode? Are we even going to get there with such few practices on normal?

Target of Target isn’t needed, despite pleas of saying things. Will it make it easier? Sure. But it is not needed.

And the giant fight against normal (soon to be Story mode) not only takes away from some of the experience and learning, but also from the chances to earn things. Some people DO still need Columni even if Rakata is better. And some people just want the experience or the codexes.

Why should everything constantly be put behind the “priority” of gear? Maybe it’s just me, but I’ll always find that a silly concept–after all, what’s the point of better gear if you’re not trying to complete that story in the first place?

MMORPG Terms

Apr5

If there’s one thing I learned over the time I played this game, I learned there’s a lot of “lingo” to it. And while I think some are stupid, it does help to know what they mean. Most I knew from old IM days, but some were just completely knew for me and a few came from WoW, which just made….no sense to me.

For example, “Squishy” which apparently is used to mean you get killed easily and can not last long. When I hear that term, I think of Jello or maybe a giant plushie, not someone’s character’s gear. The term actually really annoys me, if anything, because it seems stupid to reference such a thing. And Jello can be pretty durable when it wants to be.

The other term that really catches my eye is “Toon” instead of “Character” (Or “Avatar” if you prefer). While I understand Avatar not being used with so many series using the term now, Toon…Why? Whenever I heard that, the game that comes to mind is ToonTown (which also did dancing before WoW for all you people who feel WoW did everything first) which you really do make “Toons”. It seems silly not to call them characters and I can’t really take people seriously when they are referring to their “toon”.

But yes, here are a list of some other terms I learned throughout playing these games (maybe so I can remember them):
Zerg – Rush/Charge
LFG – Looking for group
mt – Mistell/Mistype
LF#M – Looking for however many members to join a group.
omw – On my way
r – Ready
g2g/gtg – Because Got to Go was apparently not good enough for this, it had to also be used to mean Good to go.
Pat – Patrol/Enemy walking/passing by
CC – Stuns.
Kiting – Essentially making the enemy or whatever chase you around. Similar to tag–except them catching you usually leads to death.
Pulls – Enemy Groups/Groups that aren’t bosses
Adds – Additional enemies–usually referred to ones that spawn after you hit the initial group or ones a boss spawns.

I’ll probably add more of them as it continues…let’s just hope there won’t be too many.

Orobirds (Continued) and PVP

Apr2

So, to start, the Orobird mystery has gotten even bigger beyond just the incubator issue. There has been a confirmation for more than one. I’m guessing besides the Unusual Egg, it’s also the Wondrous and Mysterious Eggs. The Orobird egg is most likely just a data-mined thing. I mean, obviously, it could just be one other egg, maybe not both, or it could even be an egg that’s not even known yet.

The question now is if the eggs are all on Alderaan or if the other one(s) are on [a] different planet(s). Regardless, I had enough mysteries with the incubator and Tauntaun–knowing there’s more Orobirds (and on 8 hour times no less) just makes me more stressed. On the bright side, they are tradeable, so hopefully I could get people to camp places.

Moving on to PVP, I’m 64 and slowly making my way to 65 today. I need to get a total of 4 of the Sorveigns (1 for myself, 3 for friends) which will sadly take a bit due to commendation caps (otherwise I’d surely have enough) and the fact that Mercenary are a pain to get in themselves.

While I’m not a PVP expert, I’ve noticed most losses are due to either being put against people who are obviously better geared and/or should be on a PVP server or silly mistakes. I don’t think I’m good at PVP, but I’d like to think I’ve improved in these last few weeks of grinding the horribleness that it is. So, I decided to put up some things I’ve learned in each of them.

Hutt Ball:
The main issue with Hutt Ball is the fact that it’s incredibly hard to earn medals while actually trying to follow the objectives (Thankfully, this changes in 1.2). Because of this, people have the tendency to forget the actual point of the game–to get the ball to the other team’s goal and score a total of 6 points or just have more points than the other team before the match ends.

Helpful tips:

  • Keep an eye out for team mates. While Passing is hard (so many stuns), it can sometimes help a lot, even if it’s just to allow you to heal back up.
  • Similarly, it doesn’t hurt, if you know your team is following the next bullet on this list, to throw your ball to absolutely no one.
  • Control the middle and where the ball spawns. When a team scores and/or when a pass fails, the ball is respawned by at center. You should always have 2-3 people in the middle. When one takes the ball, have someone replace them if there aren’t people still there and have that one person switch out whenever the original instated middle-people have the ball. (Obviously, if they pass, they can always run back) There is no reason every single person needs to run after the ball carrier. And if the middle is controlled correctly, someone could get a complete scoring streak just by having that one person on the team grab it and continue a chain before someone else can.
  • If possible, make a chain of people to throw to. This isn’t always possible (pushes and death don’t really help), but if people are quick enough, passing along to the goal can be a huge life saver and make things go very quickly (but you probably won’t get many, if any, medals this way until 1.2).
  • Look out for sages! Not only to push them if they are on the other team (unless it’s me. Be nice to me. PVP is like torture to me), but because they could pull you. However, remember it has a 1 minute cooldown so it can’t just be used whenever.
  • If you fall into a pit, your focus’ (after doing your best to stay alive) should always be if there is a sage around to pull you or if someone is near the endzone before trying to walk all the way back. It’s not always necessary and can cost the ball.

Civil War:
This is probably one of the games where you need to move around the most. It’s not necessarily hard, but it really puts a lot of stress into speed and making sure you can take on people properly.

  • The best plan is to send 2 left (right if Imperial), everyone mid, and maybe 1 person right (left if Imperial) to help stall. Obviously, if you know your players are geared enough, you can experiment.
  • The best group to go cap is a Jedi Consular (Force Speed) and someone with a speed boost (For example, Sentinels have Transcendence). Have the speed booster use it near the consular, then jump off and use Force speed to head towards a ramp leading up to the platform. Jump over the little fence and keep your cursor out until it’s yellow letting you know you can click and click ASAP. This should usually help you get the turret before the other side so if middle is a complete stalemate, you should win. (If the other team is ahead, the pressure is on you to get middle as otherwise they will win by just a few seconds) This is why the second person needs to make sure they can stall and keep the others off the consular claiming.
  • You do not need to be right up next to the turret to claim. While it may seem safer and less easy to get hit, which are true in some cases, sometimes doing it a bit away from the turret will cause you to avoid some attacks and still be out of sight.
  • Always fight and keep your eye on the turret! DO NOT CHASE. Last thing you want is someone to sneak in because you are focused on an enemy in the opposite direction or decided to run out and get your kill.
  • If you do manage to get 2 turrets (or even all 3), the best thing to do is have 4 middle and 2 on each side. The 4 can be in the tunnel if you have right over middle, but it helps if people can run back and forth as needed. If you have middle and a side, 2 people should be on the side and at least 3 middle with once again, others just running as needed.
  • Sneaking isn’t bad. If you see them all rushing to help grab something, trying to sneak off towards one they have isn’t bad. Just do your best to sneak in and maybe you’ll score a surprise victory.

Voidstar:
This is probably the smallest warzone and also the shortest when it comes to lasting the full time (though, it’ll probably go even quicker when 1.2 happens unless you’re just doing crazy speed runs in Hutt Ball). It has two rounds–one with you attacking and trying to plant the bombs and the other with your team trying to prevent them from planting the bombs.

  • If you are attacking, always try to plant (unless you see someone doing it already–then try stalling). Maybe try switching sides. It helps to tell most people to go one side while others (usually stealth) can sneak to the other. If you don’t try and just focus on killing all the time, you won’t progress and that puts a lot more pressure on the defense phase.
  • If are defending, keep your eyes on the door at all times. It also helps to fight on it as they can’t plant if they are getting hit.
  • If only one bridge is up, try running under the stairs on the other side and heading towards the other door. Sometimes it can slip someone’s mind to protect it and that could score you a quick bomb planting.
  • It is possible to jump the middle gap using force speed (though hard) and possible to hit the terminal for the bridge from nearly any part of the terminal.
  • Like with the turrets in Civil War, you do not need to be right up next to something in order to plant or use something. And in this case, it’s usually a lot more helpful not to be right there next to it.

But most of all, and this is for all of them, DON’T GIVE UP. Them scoring once/planting once/grabbing a turret or two does not mean the end of game. I’ve seen people get all 3 right when the other team was about to win and turn it around. It’s not impossible if you keep putting the effort into it.

Ship Droid Minigame

Apr1

I hate April Fool’s Day. A lot. Regardless, they put a lot of effort into their “joke”, but I have to say. I do think some things would be interesting.

I’d like if I could pick the greeting, for example, from the robot or if I could have him interact with my companions. While I don’t think I have any I could romance him with (Only one that comes to mind is Holiday and then maybe Tharan would be romanceable instead of the stupid one night stand (more info below) people currently get?), I still think C2-N2 making friendships would be cool.

The robot becoming the master thing was just creepy though and straight out of Directive 7.

I don’t know, I just think it’d be neat to see stuff from companion point of views in some cases. Like when you do some class missions, they run off by themselves. Wouldn’t it be neat to momentarily get to try their class and actually go as them? On the otherhand, I like most of the companions personalities and I wouldn’t want to change them with my choices.

The Jedi Consular does get some interesting companions though.

First, there’s Qyzen. He’s a bit kill-happy, but that’s part of his culture. I think for me, if there’s one thing I regret with him, is maybe during his companion quest where you have the option to make peace or kill the Wookie. I tried to make peace and would’ve liked to arrest the guy, but anything other than kill made Qyzen lose 160 points. Despite being my first companion, he was one of the last I got up to 10,000. This Herald is a bit too peaceful, I suppose. His story is pretty interesting as you get to learn more about his culture and kind of get him to less be solo-loner man which is neat. Lots of character development for him.

After him, you receive Tharan who is a flirty-ladie’s man and also a genius. Who may or may not be dating a hologram named Holiday. His story also has some neat character development among other things and the end even shows he may not be as selfish as you’d expect, and despite how he is, he’ll be there for a friend. Despite his flirting though, he is not actually romanceable. If you do try and go that route, there is a point where he pretty much says you’re his muse/inspiration and you can sleep with him. If you choose yes, you are told the next day things have to end as Holiday is shocking his bed. If you choose no, however, he actually gets quite sad and says how he thought the two of you had something special. After that, Holiday shocks his bed regardless (not sure if that’s a glitch or not), but yeah. Sadly, that’s about all you can do with Tharan.

The third companion you get is Zenith, who is also a bit kill-happy. He’s essentially been full-blown assassin due to what the Imperials did to his home. His story involves politics after being screwed over by the guy you help get elected (Essentially, he promised Zenith a spot and then said no. I do understand why–Zenith is more than a bit overly scarred from the incident and bias due to it as well). It’s very black and white with him talking about people he worked with and then finding out some darker secrets of it. It’s not horrible, but it’s a bit saddening and kind of just drops off. But I will say he arrests people who could’ve been followers and I believe he successfully becomes a political man…somehow. But yes, due to what he had to deal with, he’s ruthless and just loves killing everything.

Your fourth companion is Lieutenant Iresso. Who is also probably my least favorite. He is the romanceable companion for the consular and 2 conversations after you get him on your ship, he hits on you quite hard. If you tell if you’re uncomfortable with his ship analogies, he says how he’ll just have to watch from afar. So he’ll be stalking you for the rest of your travels. Have fun. His story is also pretty sucky. You find out he has this imperial data cube in his head and doesn’t remember a week of his life, his friend went insane, and it’s why he won’t get promoted and is constantly moved around. You learn this, you learn who did it…and that’s it. You don’t try to get him a promotion, you don’t try to see if you can remove it, you do pretty much nothing. And his military-ness also makes him very “kill kill kill”.

Your final companion, despite meeting her at the beginning of your second story, is Nadia. She’s a girl who managed to have force powers and becomes your Padawan. Her conversations do not have much of a story (possibly due to her involvement up to you actually getting her as a companion). Her mourning is barely there and most of it is just her training her powers. Just casual conversation rather than much of anything.

But yes, I think it’d be interesting to do more. Though, preferably, I wish you could meet all the companions (of other classes and stuff too) and actually decide who you want. I miss having my ship full with everyone during my story. That was cool 🙁

But yes, my favorite companions:
Qyzen (Jedi Consular)
Tharan (Jedi Consular)
Nadia (Jedi Consular)
M1 4X (Trooper)
Bowdaar (Smuggler)
T7-01 (Jedi Knight)
Mako (Bounty Hunter)
Torian Cadera (Bounty Hunter)
Blizz (Bounty Hunter)
Vette (Sith Warrior)
Ashara Zavros (Sith Inquisitor)

I also heard good things about Elara (Trooper) and Risha (Smuggler), but I’d have to get a better idea of them besides clips on Youtube.

Karagga’s, Karagga’s, Karagga’s

Apr1

This weekend has been pretty bad. And even when the day momentarily looked up (I was invited to a Karagga’s Palace/Hutt Hospitality group!), it ended miserably. While I did get invited, the people they were waiting on finally appeared and I was kicked.

Which sucks.

I have yet to find a group. People either have done them already and/or have no room for me.

And my guild doesn’t want to do it. In fact, that is why a huge fight broke out. Which ended up in a whole mess of things.

And while in the end, we are still in the guild…it sure doesn’t feel like we’re part of it anymore. I almost wonder if I should’ve just made my own guild.

…but I don’t think anyone would want to join it anyway.