Patch 1.2, tomorrow or next week? + Plans

Apr9

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t stressed or worried. While there has been mixed things about tomorrow (Said in the video then said that wasn’t true on the forum then apparently told it was true at PAX East?), it’s also been said that if it’s not tomorrow, we should expect 1.2 next week. (Edit: Apparently we may even expect it Wednesday, Thursday, or even Friday…or well, any day this week)

While I’m sure most people are excited, I’m just worried because I still have so much to do and despite all those numbers and things, that is actually the short version and already prioritized.

For example, some things I’d like to do are get all the codexes from bosses and flash points and hard modes. I’d like to get Battle of Ilum done (on both difficulties) along with Esseles and Directive 7’s hard modes plus False Emperor on Normal. Not to mention the vehicles that drop from certain bosses and the daily commendation ones (unfortunately, I do not have enough time to get 400 daily commendations for them :/)

I’d also have loved to get full Rakata gear. While gear isn’t my focus at all, I do like getting everything done before something big is to happen. Think of it as an expansion in a game–I’d like to get all goals and things out of the way so I can focus on the new content, rather than constantly feel like I’m backtracking.

As it is, other than money earning and codexes you can get from the planets, the only real goal I’ve had that fits into those kinds of things is trying to get the M0GUL-Thrall Droid, which is the gold Minimech that drops from Karagga. Considering you can only do it twice a week (and I’m lucky if I ever get to go at all. Another big thank you to Bad Motivator Units for letting me go with you guys T~T), it’s definitely not likely…but I really do want it. However, I’m sure Karagga’s will be canceled completely as our guild will probably just focus on the new Operation coming.

But I suppose I’ve spoken a lot about what I want to do before 1.2…what about after though? Beyond all the Legacy stuff I want to buy, of course 😛

Well, I do plan on essentially putting myself in Alderaan to grab that Orobird egg. Then, I’ll go and buy the NVSCCS from that one vendor in the mountains and head to the fleet and buy Taunta. After that, I’ll probably either:
A. Head to Corellia for the new quests and to Voss for the open world Voss Heroic. Plus pick up the special Vehicle quests.
B. Check out the new flash point–I’m so tired of having the quest for it and not being able to do anything since it’s not our yet 😛
C. Try and fight some mobs on Hoth to find out more about the Tauntaun mystery and/or find the jerky that people are guessing may have something to do with it. Not to mention the incubator for the Orobird egg.
D. Work on Synthweaving and getting new gear and pulling out mods to put in my Elegant outfit.
E. Stalk the Market for things like the Cybertech Speeders and some other stuff…maybe find someone who wouldn’t mind if I stalked their neutral ship GTN thing.

Most likely I’ll be doing a mix of these things. Regardless, I expect the Corellia and Voss quests to be first after pet stuff (IE: If the incubator and/or other egg locations are found before then, I’ll probably be doing those things first). I’ll probably also keep my eye out for the other Orobird eggs that supposedly exist too. While the special vehicle quests are high up there, considering their requirements, it’ll probably be a while before I earn them, unfortunately.

But yes, I’m definitely excited and have a lot I want to do. And out of stuff I listed, if I did want to go all the way with getting things done before 1.2, getting all the Rakata stuff would be last, of course.

I just hope I can get most of it done and save up a good amount of money. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if any will be 🙁

“What can I do for you, sir?”

Apr9

“How about not calling me sir? :|”

Despite knowing this is just a thing with Star Wars and not something wrong on BioWare’s part, it is one of those things that just bothers me. Is it correct? Yes, it is technically correct. But not all ladies want to be called sirs, okay?

Heck, I’d love if there was a “Lady” title instead of Lord. I think that’d be awesome for my Sith character. Right now, I don’t know if she’ll use any unless a Princess title suddenly appears.

But yes, it’s probably just one of those minor things that constantly gets to me in the game, even if it is accurate to the series.

Making our way on the test server + PVP Changes.

Apr7

Maybe because I enjoy torturing myself, I decided to make things a bit more difficult (or really, I just miscalculated) and essentially try to more or less just rush through my class quest.

Of course, near the end of Taris (at level 14), that finally came to bite me in the butt. Despite finally deciding to ask for help (something I really dislike doing), nobody cared to bother. Eventually, I just ended up finding a way to defeat the Master on Taris as part of the Sage story quest and continue along to Nar Shaddaa.

Only I couldn’t do much of anything. So, once again, I tried asking for help…and after many ignores and even trying to PVP to earn experience…someone did eventually offer to help.

But before we get to that, I will talk about PVP briefly. Novare Coast is very nice and interesting. I enjoyed it. My main issue is that if you get less than 4 medals, you get absolutely nothing. 0. Fine, if you can’t get your max awards unless you get 8 now, I can deal with that, but no experience, no money, no valor because I got 3 or less medals? Seriously?

We got into many matches with imperials of much higher level (and thus, more skills) and while there were times I could hold my own, almost every Civil War map (which is partially due to nobody trying to really chat with one another) ended up being them getting all 3 turrets and then mercilessly killing us over and over. I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do to earn medals like that. And it’s stupid that, regardless of how hard we try, we get absolutely nothing if we don’t reach some standard. I think that’s really poor planning. And while I can usually make it to 4 medals, I definitely have trouble getting to 8–hopefully it’ll be easier on my main character.

Heading back to PVE and Class Story-ness, we began to make our way on Nar Shaddaa and then even one of their friends from their guild came to help too 🙂 And that friend continued to help even after the original person had to go. In the end, we got through a little of Tatooine before they had to go too and well, it’s fine as I probably need to rest anyway. I’m so sick of allergies this week 🙁 But yes, I am also level 17 now~

But yes, hopefully I can finish up Tatooine and even Alderaan soon and thus, hit legacy! I’m looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes 🙂 And seeing if a certain legacy name is allowed.

TaunTaun Fawn achieved! …Just not usable yet.

Apr7

Well, I managed to get a code for TaunTaun Fawn! 🙂 However, after waiting about an hour, I decided to send a message to support to see just how long it took to arrive so I knew I did it correctly (Even though according to the website, I did successfully enter a code for “A black and white colored tauntaun mini-pet”.).

To my surprise…they responded immediately–and not just that, but in a live chat! I never had a live chat experience with the game so it was quite surprising. They were very nice and kindly let me know that apparently TaunTaun Fawn will actually not be available until 1.2. I mean, you can get her now, but you will not actually receive her until 1.2 goes live.

I was a bit disappointed by this as I was really looking forward to her (and a bit confused as why they’d put a code out for a pet that can’t even be given to you yet), but was also grateful that she should arrive perfectly fine 🙂

But yes, so if you managed to score a code for TaunTaun Fawn and are wondering where it is…fear not! It’ll just be a while longer before you can roam around with her ^^; On the bright side, if you are on the test server, you can play with your new pet there!

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.