213374U

Lol, you talk like it actually matters whether the jet actually flew into Turkish airspace. Each side will claim the other is to blame, people will believe what they want to believe, great powers will act according to their interests, and the victor's history will settle the matter after the smoke clears. As always.

brb getting 2 million sunblock

I had an ops group fail "Mutations" due to people getting tired of waiting for the respawn and leaving. And ninja stealthers "stealing" kills. It was a hair-pulling experience that I haven't tried to repeat. The corpse despawn thing was fixed from what I saw after today's reboot, on TRE at least. I'm curious what could have caused it.

So you're taking Ernst Junger's example and assuming it was representative of everyone else, while dismissing the factual arguments I made and the rest of the contemporary examples of the consequences that resisting conscription had (i.e. deportation to a concentration camp and death by firing squad). Was it an ideological struggle? Perhaps, though the line separating ideology and outright propaganda is blurry at best. Was there a safe alternative to being forcefully sent to die in a battlefield? Not really. "Ideas worth dying or killing for"? Such as? In what context? This is the sort of grandiloquent ideological hot air that is only good to engage people on an emotional level, to stop them from thinking critically and make them easier to manipulate for whatever goal the ideologue has in mind. Funny thing is, it's precisely the fact that these people believe in "ideas worth dying or killing for" that is a big part of the problem. Because it's your ideas that are worth killing and dying for, and not anyone else's, right? And killing others on ideological grounds has a great track record of solving problems permanently, yes sir. How about we try discussing the issue with arguments beyond anecdote and how everyone but you is blind and stupid. As an aside, if these ideas are worth dying and especially killing over, why aren't you, you know, killing and dying for them instead of strongly advocating that others go do it? Are they only sometimes worth that? Only worth that for someone else? How does that work exactly?

What a bizarre thing to say. You do realize that the legal framework that allows for refugees to flow en masse to other countries without fear of being persecuted or immediately turned back was developed as a direct result of WWII, right? Not to mention the fact that during WWII, there weren't that many places to flee towards, it's called a world war for a reason. And, oh, the levels of mobilization reached meant that conscription was at a level unseen before or since, thankfully. This was not the best and bravest gallantly fighting the good fight as much as it was an entire generation of men being thrown into the industrial meat grinder of WWII because there was simply no escaping it. Many others just accepted the fact that their countries had surrendered and tried to make the best of a ****ty situation under German rule. And while we're discussing history: Germanic tribes pushed into a declining Roman Empire in large numbers because their lands were being overrun by the Huns. So yeah, basically war is bad news and if you're smart you'll try to avoid it as best you can. On the other hand, I hear disposable heroes are always in high demand...

It's also the same people who were throwing a hissy fit over Bioware "ruining their fun" when the slicing nodes were nerfed. Where is the fun in making millions just by walking around, breaking the economy in the process? Presumably it's the same "fun" as AFK'ing your way through content. Ah, but who cares. Here's the datamined buffs So assuming these numbers hold, we're looking at a final 45-50% nerf over the 4.0 baseline. Most likely still unacceptable to the /unsub crowd.

Musco specifically stated that some heroics would indeed be "more challenging" after the patch. The SFs are still technically soloable, but then again, so are HM Flashpoints. The fact that there is a [sOLO] version of the instance should be a good indication that the H2+ version is on the harder side by design, but people who were clearing it by relying on massive companion overheals and now can't are understandably pissed. Still, it's hard to dispute that "bait and switch" is a good way to describe the way this has been handled. They only came out with an announcement previous to the patch because dataminers had discovered and made public what they said amounted to a 70% nerf in companion heals. BW really needs to work on the way they engage the community. And this is coming from someone who actually doesn't mind the changes.

Unlike planetary heroics, I don't think the H2+ SFs are meant to be done solo as a matter of course: that's why there's two achievements for it, one with buffs and one without. With anoher player it's a 20' run, which isn't so bad. I did two unbuffed runs on a jugg with a mix of craptastic 186-216 gear, had to switch from Vengeance to Immortal for the final segment (from the ambush in the holo room on), otherwise damage and threat become unmanageable. I died a few times because I'm a baddie and kept resetting the encounter with the Exarch in the third room until I realized I need to kill the elites first. Funny, neither the Exarchs, nor the Paladins I've encountered hit nearly as hard as the single-saber Zakuul Knights. Took me a good long hour for each run, but I had a lot of fun. Not something I intend to do on a regular basis, though.

My bad, I wasn't clear. The "pact" I was referring to is domestic rather than at the EU level and galvanized support behind the government's "gag law" (which I've already discussed) and other reforms such as bringing back life in prison sentences for ill-defined "terrorism" crimes, prison terms for "receiving military training with the intent to commit terrorist acts including doing so through content hosted on the internet", automatic deportation of illegal aliens, etc. These were conceived as the government's way to quell domestic unrest resulting from the economic crisis, but the attacks in France were the perfect excuse to bring more "democrats" behind it. Because, why the **** not. Oh please. Spare me that conspiracy theory notion of capitalism as some kind of mythical cabal acting as a single entity. We have access to hundreds (thousands?) of competing news outlets. The idea that collectively, they give us less full and fair access to information about world events, than a centralized state-sponsored media would, is absolutely ludicrous. Is labelling anything that doesn't agree with your world view a conspiracy theory something you do deliberately to help cope with uncertainty or is it a subconscious reaction? Your ideal media landscape is as unrealistic as your ideal conception of "free" markets, and is to the real world what ideal gases are to real gases. In reality, it's a matter of exposure. More resources and a bigger market share means more exposure and the ability to influence more people. I'm sure I don't have to explain how Alex Jones will never be able to compete with FOX. Your reasoning is also internally inconsistent: in a perfect world where free markets ensure that different viewpoints are all afforded the same exposure (ha!), a state-sponsored perspective would be just another voice, and could pose no threat to the ability of citizens to form opinions critically. Nobody has argued for nationalization of all media, and suggesting that it is the ultimate goal of those warning about the pitfalls of a media landscape dominated by a few private individuals is an outlandish theory... you are not suggesting a conspiracy, are you?

As opposed to corporate-sponsored "education" by the economic elite? No, state-owned media isn't ideal and the potential for abuse is enormous. But at least they can be kicked out every 4-5 years, in theory. Good luck getting rid of the influence the likes of Carlos Slim, uncle Rupee, or Il Cavaliere have on the media. Fairness and ethical journalistic standards are second to market forces, as you well know. With the Charlie Hebdo attacks in january, we got an "anti-jihad pact" that consolidated repression and undermined civil liberties. I can't wait to see what they come up with now, with general elections in less than two months. I just hope the French don't allow something similar to happen, what with nobody batting an eyelash at Hollande stating that France is now at war, and all...

Depending on what time of day you play at, Qyzen's quest may range from undoable to trivial. I only managed to complete it by camping a target-rich area late (think ~4am) at night, in an instance with just 5 other imperial players in it. And I still had to join a pug to take down Snowblind. I'm in the same boat as you regarding Pierce. The whole alliance thing seems like a humongous grind if you want to get any kind of completion for more than one character. Just thinking about doing 6x Star Fortress heroics per character makes me want to start deleting a few, and that's without factoring in the influence grind which, outside of specific cases of crafting, seems practically pointless. Regarding the game essentially playing itself outside of HMs, the forums seem to be divided between the people who suggest that a game by definition requires gameplay, and people lashing out against those who want to "take away their fun" and "make the game worse for everyone". I'd like to be wrong on this, but I expect the next balance pass on the issue (assuming there is one) to please no one.

Must be facetank spec mara gear. That's my spec in warzones.

Yeah, like having to deal with that annoying Twi'lek hypocrite bitch for 60+ runs. Ugh. spacebar pls

I haven't done PVP in a long time, but I know the feeling. PVP in this game can be pretty fun, but it can also suck major ass if you are the only mara/sent in a team with no healers, for instance. No matchmaking in regs is a terrible decision, but it's the price we pay for quick pops. I guess it must be even worse now with people who would never otherwise PVP being "forced" into warzones for the alliance thing. And not just any PVP, but the 65 bracket, where they will be pitted against the fully geared premades and various regstars. Meh.

Act III is more or less that, they just couldn't use Malgus and I'd much have preferred that Malgus play a more central role in the BH story, at the expense of an otherwise hard to justify plot branch. Can't please everyone though. Beyond that, I really enjoyed the BH story. Much like the JC, it felt like the kind of story you'd expect in a PnP campaign. None of this destiny, chosen one, save the galaxy stuff.

Well, the man wasn't necessarily killed. At least in the original version of the instance, anyway. The other high-profile character that is defeated in a FP and whose body was never found, ended up returning as a major player in a certain expansion... Further, they haven't released Malgus' armor in the CM, and we got even Satele's. And then there's this, in case you missed it. So yeah, I think the odds are good that he'll make a (predictably lame) comeback. I wish they just had got it right the first time, dammit. Darth Marr is basically Malgus 2.0.

So this happened when I tried logging in. I mean, what the actual ****...? edit: hilariously, the estimated wait time went up, to 1h 10'. edit 2: ah, it seems the queue was mostly F2P and pref players, the wait for subs turned out to be ~10'. Still, I didn't see this with either RotHC or SoR, so I guess it's working for them...

Regarding the first question, this is the closest I've come to achieving a complete droid look: However, since Bioware insists on randomly hiding headgear during cutscenes for that "cinematic" feel, the whole get up is sometimes fail. I wonder why don't they also hide, say, Darth Malgus' breathing mask during cutscenes? As for the second question, that seems to be the direction they are going in, because everyone seems to have a NPC they want to kill badly.

Come on, just an itty-bitty spreadsheet doesn't make me a big fat MMO nerd, right? Right? Yeah, that too. Corso can't use Torchy, Kaliyo cannot use pistols either. Nadia and Kira can no longer use single-bladed lightsabers. Andronikos cannot dual-wield anymore. Tanks can no longer equip shields, which means that despite having a shield rating, their shield chance is 0%. Not that they need shield procs as they just facetank to great effect, but eh. I really hope they give it a few passes and bring back some of the flavor, but as you say, they really have their work cut out for them without even thinking about cosmetic/lore stuff. As for HM FPs, I'd say, enjoy it while it lasts. Next week you're going to have all the scrubs queuing. Like myself.

So I ran into another rather hilarious crafting bug. Turns out that reverse-engineering the old Anodyne implants (168 greens) has a chance to return a Hemostatic Gel (Grade 8 Medical Supplies), despite the fact that no such thing goes into its construction. Moving on. Much to my surprise, I got my ticket answered, less than 48 hours after opening it. I got a canned response explaining the requisites for Early Access, so I'm guessing the extra character slots are considered a part of the KotFE content, despite being in a different item of the patch notes and being totally unrelated to new content. Kudos to CS for the quick (relatively) response, boo to biower for misleading patch notes. Companions. I'm ambivalent on the changes. On the plus side, Xalek is no longer broken and is now an effective tank (and healer, and...). On the minus side, they are OP as ****, and have lost their identity. I started handing out gifts to Khem as per this. With the affection and legacy unlock crit bonuses, he's netting me purple sliced parts and extra aug kits like nobody's business. He's now officially both the brawn and the brains of the outfit and I'm thinking of retiring. Not to mention the fact that since all companions of the same type now share the same abilities, some plot-related ones are lost: /rant edit: aaand fail. I just realized that Khem's "love" gift type (Cultural Artifact) are worth 10 CDCs each for rank 5 blues, as opposed to 5 a piece for every other type. 1.3k CDCs later, I'm too invested to stop, I think. Will have to crunch some numbers.

Official 4.0a Patch Notes Some seemingly undocumented changes (datamined) Heh, noticed this, but didn't actually go check the new planets out. I assumed I would be locked out or something. Apparently not...

Regarding gifts: Me, I'll probably shuffle basic comms around to get at least one character to 50 so I can benefit from the staggering (+30%) crafting crit chance. Other than that, I'm not really going to bother with the grind because I can see a nerf coming and I refuse to literally waste hours away clicking like a moron. Maybe when gifts are no longer channeled and they don't trigger a GCD (much like decorations). Other than that, I'll just keep leveling my old 55s, take the chance to re-learn the post 3.0 specs. It's pretty sweet that the old Devoted Allies gear is no longer companion-only. Full legacy 192 sets @ 55 is not too shabby. I wish I had done a few more of the Yavin weeklies now. Re: Flashpoints. You cannot queue for "normal" Flashpoints anymore. Apparently it's too much to ask that people learn other roles than deeps during leveling, so tank/healer/dd is now a HM/Ops thing only? I've done the Ilum arc and, while my experience wasn't as bad as Gorth's (no wipes), I was still pretty disappointed at how badly it went. We had a level 15 join in for the HK boss fight, auto-attacked his way to a glorious victory. I wonder if the poor guy had even seen the FP before? As for aug kits, yep, I screwed up. Before the patch I sold them for ~50k a piece. Now they are going for ~80-90k...

Thanks Shady, much appreciated. Do you qualify for Early Access? I've opened a ticket now, but I'm not expecting it to be fixed in any reasonable amount of time, considering the amount of issues people are reporting. Oh well, it's the first problem I've come across, I shouldn't complain. In other news, I just spent a small fortune re-learning schematics. Cybertech was especially painful. The whole "archive" thing is a real mess now. Funny, though — I can craft the old green relics, whose schematics are no longer available, and they still provide MK-8 aug kit components at disassembly. Unlike the new schematics, they don't require gems to craft. Perks of having played for a while I guess, but I'm not a fan of unfair advantages.

Alright, quick question. One of the patch notes bulletpoints said: All Subscribers have been granted an additional two Character Slots per server. However I'm still sitting at 12 slots. Can someone confirm that the new baseline should be 14? This isn't part of the KotFE content, so it should be effective immediately, not on the 27th.

Haha, turns out I didn't pay attention and didn't maintain a constant subscription through the required period to qualify for early access. The SWTOR forum front page is full of people reporting issues, much in line with my own experience during SoR early access. One of my favorites: spoiler tagged for size