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Normal Battle of Ilum and onward

Apr21

If there’s one thing I rarely ever see, it’s Normal Battle of Ilum and Normal False Emperor (Also Normal Kaon and Normal Lost Island). I can at least say I’ve seen Normal Kaon once, but as for the other 3? I have yet to.

The reason why is obvious–when you hit 50, you can do hard modes and that is what people run to. But I still don’t understand exactly why people skip normal.

Yes, you get better gear when you do them. But there’s still stuff to learn! Not to mention normal is still part of it. Plus there’s codexes and you have to do the normal versions for the final parts of Ilum’s planet story quest.

Now if only other people felt that way too 🙁

Time, Random Event Rambles, and Characters

Apr18

If there’s one thing that the game manages to have me think a lot about, it’s time. If you play both the Imperial and Republic storylines, you will get to a few instances where the planet you end up visiting takes place before or after the other faction has been there.

For example, you end up seeing Balmorra much earlier in the Imperial Storyline while you see Taris much later. It is reversed in the Republic Storyline. The effects of those earlier story lines end up being part of the later ones and the connection is very neat.

We had just finished Balmorra on the Imperial side so it was interesting to see the differences. Cessik, in particular, made me feel really bad about the Colicoids. I can’t help but wonder what happened to him.

But I remember watching my boyfriend go through the Jedi Knight Storyline during when he gets his last companion, the timing was very vague. It wasn’t stated just how long he was there–it could’ve been weeks, maybe months, and that is another aspect of just how time is.

There’s also instances where you may see companions of other classes featured while doing stuff with your companions on your character, for example in Qyzen’s story, there is actually a scene with him and Mako. I do wonder if you get Mako up, if you can find out why she owed Qyzen by any chance, as it’s not really detailed how she owed him a favor.

Similarly, for Jedi Knight’s, Doc ends up having Kaliyo in his storyline. Does Kaliyo ever vanish in the Imperial Agent Story line? Just all kinds of interesting questions.

Though, one that made me sad is that Vette never interacts with Risha. If you have seen Vette’s storyline, you will understand why this is pretty depressing.

I guess I’d love to get an idea on how the timing goes. I mean, when you’re doing the consular’s storyline and if all classes end up on Ilum at the same time, where are you while the Knight is being brainwashed? It’s just a lot to think about. Especially if you’re playing with each of the classes on your journey. For example, I totally ended up finishing off the Emperor when I was helping my boyfriend in his story. It’s not ever mentioned because technically there is no consular in the story–I was an unseen presence mixed in who totally replaced Kira.

I don’t expect them to make it recognizable–that’d be far too much work, but I think seeing some mixed things would be neat. I know there were occasional mentions of Player-Player romance and remember thinking that it’d be neat if each player had a few choices to pick from in those environments to kind of show what happened rather than just going into a family tree and setting spouse or something.

Speaking of family trees, I ended up remaking my Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter. I had yet to do anything on either of them (besides pick up my mail) and had wanted to remake them for a while. I’ll hopefully remake my Smuggler soon, but that’ll cost 1.5 million and I do not have that… (Similarly, my Trooper which I do not have yet will be 1.5 million as well)…and let’s be honest, if I had 1.5 million, it’d be going to ship stuff.

…I really want the ship stuff 🙁 Why must dailies be the only way to get a nice amount of money T__T

Going back to the topic of family trees, I did end up making my Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent sisters. I’m not really a big RPer, but it’s sometimes fun to think of character’s backstories. (Similarly, my Sorcerer and Sage are cousins, as will my Smuggler and Trooper be). Especially intertwined with the class stories.

And heading back to the original subject of time, that brings up a good idea of the event. Just how long does it last? Was the crash really that Sunday (ignoring that the area showed up earlier than that) or did they just finally get out Sunday? If the latter, why wasn’t it inspected earlier? How long exactly was the Shaman looking for a cure? It sounded like a long time, but it didn’t happen that long ago. Was there another incident? Just how does a day in RL translate to the time going in the game? Or does the time depend on just how much you do in the game? (and yes, I know I’m probably overthinking it)

Regardless, there is a new daily today, following the format. I expect the top to be out tomorrow unless they do end up giving everything (bracers, belt, weapon, etc.), but something tells me they won’t. Also, for those who also did not get their title, you’ll be happy to know it’s “fixed” now. In order to get your title, you must re-defeat the Infected Bantha in Outlaw’s Den. While I am happy it’s fixed, I really wish it could’ve been ANY of the infected bosses and not the hardest one considering that needs the biggest group and for crying out loud, it’s the one in the PVP area 🙁

Finally, to end this off, after talking to someone with the gold minimech today *ENVY*, it hit me the other big reason why I wanted to get it before 1.2. As with any big patch of new content…that’s what everyone wants to see. Thus why so many people on Tatooine (I hadn’t seen multiple instances of it in a very long time) and on the fleet trying to do the new flashpoint and operation. Ignoring who they will probably do the new content with….the old content is, well, old, and if you didn’t finish it before, it’s going to be even harder to find a group now 🙁

The Raghoul Pandemic Continues: Teamwork and New Quests?

Apr16

So, after the initial rush of the event, it was nice to see people working together. Everyone was at the vendor just blowing up, infecting people, and letting the other side kill them when they were feverish in order to halve the time to get more DNA Samples and also to help with the quest that requires you to infect 10 people.

It was nice to just see people talking and working together. Unfortunately, we had a few people who just felt like jerks and tried to kill everyone regardless (More republics tried to kill the imperials which was actually a bit surprising) despite everyone telling them not to. Thankfully, everyone helping was nice and still continued to do so.

I kind of wish we could’ve taken turns with the World Boss and stuff too, but I guess some people really like to be server first *SERVERFIRSTOROKEET/UNUSUALEGGOVERHEREPEOPLE* though, in all seriousness, I didn’t actually get to it to be first on Corellian Run (although, a nice bonus), but just because I love pets and wanted to get it ASAP.

Anyway, the quest still seems to be on today! But what really surprised me was a piece of Escape Pod Depris (X: -793, Y: -1754, Z: 464). It was blue and had a little quest marker above it and I swear that wasn’t there yesterday. Will there be new quests added as it goes on? That is the big question lingering over my head right now. I really dislike repeating things (especially something that is like a Star Wars zombie invasion and dear god do I hate zombies), but I may have to keep checking back. And it makes me wonder if there’s other quests spread around too. Other than the main area quest, all the others are essentially “unlocked”

The Blood Sample quest is only if you get a certain drop while doing the main daily. From there, you get the bonus while taking care of whichever option you pick.

The Infecting quest you only get after you blow up on someone who wasn’t infected.

The Tracking the Origin Quest is just a huge mix of buffs and clickable things to activate the ability to get the quest.

And I highly doubt I’d have missed a glowing piece of debris with a quest marker on it. But it makes me wonder, just how many other quests could there be? Did I really miss something? The new quest DOES seem to give the Containment Officer Gloves, however, to go along with the one quest from yesterday (which is still around). It’s possible it will be a new quest a day (completing the outfit set) and thus, the event may last 5 days. Or maybe a week with all of them at the end? If it really is limited anyway.

In a different note, I really liked saving up to get the Pale Rakling (and being able to work together for people) and the crazy quest with getting the buffs and then hunting for the ship parts for the Crimson Rakling was also a lot of fun. Helped clear my mind off all the random drop pets. Now, if I could just figure out Taunlet and get more info on the Wonderous Egg…

Going back to the event for a second, if you haven’t read the codex entries for the Event (In a handy new “Events” section), it does tell you the story of, well, the Crash of the Stardream. Which, I shall now talk about momentarily.
Continue reading →

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?

First real entry.

Mar24

Well, I’ve been wanting to write for a while and Guild blogs have been down so this is kind of as good a time as any. Even though I can easily keep track in my head, for some reason, I just like to write things down too.

Currently, our days on SWTOR involve doing PVP dailies (as we try to get to 65 Valor) and then sometimes a few other misc. things. Plus a raid if there is one. I don’t care for PVP, nor does my boyfriend, but I do like collecting things and with the Korrealis speeders discontinuing…we do need to get that out of the way. Of course, I still have two others to get. The Baron, which costs 2 million credits, and the Prince, which is an Imperial PVP speeder. I do not see myself getting that, so my hopes are currently lying with one of our guild mates…otherwise, I’ll have to stalk the market and save up even more money. And getting money has never been easy for me.

While it’s true that dailies do exist… they suck and I hate them XP Too repetitive and just not worth it for me. Unless I could like easily get them done in 10 minutes or something. As it is, I’m still having issues with space dailies. I’m just not very good at them.

But yes, for now, my main focus is to make sure I get the Sorveign and Baron speeders before 1.2 at the very least, plus have 200K on hold for Taunta (from the Collector’s Edition Vendor) among a few other things. I’d have liked to get a white lightsaber crystal for Nadia and maybe a purple one for Zenith, but that’s an extra 2,750,000 and I just can’t afford that and I mean they’ll be back eventually (well, white in a few months and purple somehow? Still kind of iffy on the details there).

Other things I’d like to do before 1.2 hits that probably won’t happen:
1. Get as much lore and map clear-ness as possible.
2. Buy some more Advanced Resolve 22 Augments.
3. Maybe Buy some Enhanced Insight 25 stuff. (Critical+Alacrity stuff)
4. Get full Rakata Gear
5. Finish Eternity Vault on Hard Mode (Just Soa to go) and Nightmare mode (Everything but pylons and Solo fight)
6. Finish Karagga on Normal (Fabricator onward), Hard (everything), and Nightmare modes (everything)
7. Do Battle of Ilum, False Emperor, and Kaon on normal.
8. Do Esseles, Directive 7, and Battle of Ilum on Hard mode.
9. Get Legacy to at least 35–preferably 50.
10. Save up to about 10 million or so for various legacy things. (Specific prices will be up on the “When it comes to Collecting” page.)
11. Get the Gold Pet from Karagga’s <--- Pretty much priority along with getting 65 valor and at least about 2,300,000 credits~ (2 million for Baron, 200K for Taunta, 100K so I'm not super poor and can afford repairs) 12. Finish class story (at least the first part) on Test Server for title (already hit level 10). 13. Finish Hoth Bonus Series (About the only main quest series thing I still have v-v; ) 14. Finish up Space Missions and have all the Ship parts. 15. Completely open up all my Storage Bins I will probably set up pages either later today or sometime this weekend regardless. They will mostly be used for checklists, but I suppose the pet page will be helpful to people regardless. Anyway, there isn't too much to say...but my plans for 1.2 at the moment are currently to log off by the Collector's Edition Vendor to immediately buy Taunta then rush over to Voss to try and find the Voss World Boss due to the Mastercraft Magenta schematic...as I want my upgraded pink lightsaber. Also, a little down as this adorable Tauntaun is being given out at PAX East. I will most likely not be going :/ As 3 day tickets are sold out and I can’t justify the price for the hotel, gas, and tickets if I’m just going one day. It’s also Easter weekend which is a big deal in my family. I just hope I can get one somehow.

Now that most of that is out of the way, I will say that the Sorcerer story is interesting and less creepy than the Sage one can be at times, though, I do still prefer my sage. Sorcerer’s grandfather is pretty cool though (I know he’s like a great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather, but I could care less and just saying grandfather is shorter). It’s too bad Lord Zash is going to betray you (too many people say it at this point and I read enough so yeah), but it’s not too surprising I suppose. But she was so nice 🙁 Though, I totally called Syo being the first son in the Sage storyline too (okay, maybe not exactly the first son, but I was suspicious of him being evil).

On the bright side, this totally makes my character a noble and thus, I proclaim them Princesses. Because I can.