SW: The Old Republic Part 4

[Raithe]

Hell, sometimes it just takes someone to try saying "okay, lets group up and focus this way to get ahead" and occasionally do the "if you go solo into a group of four of them, you'll be dead in seconds, wait for a few of us to work together".

 

That can actually start the ball rolling on coordination. Even if it's just a simple thing like someone saying "okay, lets all zerg left from the start" in Voidstar, it can help channel everyone else on the team.

[Nepenthe]

Or maybe your server is just better than mine! Five minutes of imperial general chat on, well, anywhere makes me want to punch my monitor. Poor thing.

[Raithe]

I think there are things that turn up that do make you want to reach across the internet and stab someone in the face... but there's also a lot of pithy comments that crop up on Imp side Corellian Run that provide some general amusement. So I guess it balances out rather then overloads on one or the other...

 

I haven't really noticed it being worse or better then Republic side...

[Nepenthe]

I think there are things that turn up that do make you want to reach across the internet and stab someone in the face... but there's also a lot of pithy comments that crop up on Imp side Corellian Run that provide some general amusement. So I guess it balances out rather then overloads on one or the other...

 

I haven't really noticed it being worse or better then Republic side...

I did, and I'm claiming no bias, since I was totally unprepared for it.

 

That said, I ****ing hate Corellia (the planet, not the server). (Virtually) No QT, missions long and boring and the commendations are next to useless to me (since the mod selection is abysmal, and I have little hope of scoring something worthwhile form my artifact box). Or maybe I've just been playing too much these past few days. :D

[Raithe]

That said, I ****ing hate Corellia (the planet, not the server). (Virtually) No QT, missions long and boring and the commendations are next to useless to me (since the mod selection is abysmal, and I have little hope of scoring something worthwhile form my artifact box). Or maybe I've just been playing too much these past few days. :D

 

Hm, I pretty much loathe Corellia for the grindy-ness and godawful maps.. but no QT? There's a QT station around each monorail station as well as the one in the starport cantina..

[Spider]

Yeah, corellia is kinda dull. Especially the battle of axial park, I hate that mission (on both sides).

[Calax]

The only really "good" piece of it that I can recall is the end of the series where you get a massive "Huzzah" from planetary forces (on imp side at least).

[Raithe]

The Republic side feels like the ending to A New Hope. Not the "Huzzah", but the grand music, and being awarded flashey medal for being a "Big Damn Hero".

 

So far I've done Corellia to completion once as Republic and once as Imperial.. I'm hoping that's satisfied my minor levels of ocd enough that I can now happily skip everything bar the class-story missions in future..

[Calax]

The Republic side feels like the ending to A New Hope. Not the "Huzzah", but the grand music, and being awarded flashey medal for being a "Big Damn Hero".

 

So far I've done Corellia to completion once as Republic and once as Imperial.. I'm hoping that's satisfied my minor levels of ocd enough that I can now happily skip everything bar the class-story missions in future..

And go Scrambling for Illum?

 

...

 

Is it wrong I want to join Malgus?

[Raithe]

Eh, I have to say that I'm not overly stressed on wading into repeat end-game content. I mean sure, every now and then I'll run through some of the dailies to stock up on credits I can use to plow crew missions and craft stuff for my other characters.. and to add some character perks to new characters..

 

But I'm more interested in finishing the storylines and then exploring what the other classes show storyline wise. I just try to balance it out so I don't get burnt out. It's why I did Sith Inquisitor first, then focused mostly on my Smuggler, bounced to the Bounty Hunter... once I wrap this up I'll go back to my Jedi Knight to do chapter 3... then I've got my Sith Warrior to finish off Chapter 2 and then 3.. I've got my Consular at level 10 waiting on fleet, and a Trooper and Imperial Agent shiny at level 1 that I haven't actually played any of yet...

 

So yes, my plan is basically use my "finished" toons occasionally to stock up on cash I can funnel to low level toons, and to use all to gather materials and send them to those with crafting, and do crafting of goods that can be sent back out to my other toons and thus.. create a nice supporting web-work whilst exploring the storylines in a mostly alternating style...

[Cantousent]

Sure there are a few annoying prats who are all "check everyone has pvp gear of x level or we should kick them from the team" and then bitch and whine about things without actually trying to organise what everyone is doing... But I've met a fair few Imperial toons who know what they're doing and actually communicate and try some level of organisation.

Pub players' alts.

 

I think I'm not gonna do any more group content on my imp agent apart from boarding party and the foundry...

I laughed out loud at that. :Cant's guffawing icon:

 

As I play more, it seems to me that I tend to win more than lose as Republic, but it's not a massive difference. Also, I play at night, and I've found, at least in WoW, that some factions tend to do better at different times. Some guilds meet to run BGs at arranged times and stuff like that. In that huge BG, the one where you have to call out the opposing general, you could always tell when you had a large guild run on either side. Alterac, I think. It's been a while. That was the only BG where I thought Alliance actually won more often... other than the BGs to decide who got beneftis for different regions, such as Wintergrasp.

 

Anyhow, after Cal got me excited to try my hand at an Impy, I created a Sith Sorceror. I played her until level eleven, so I got a chance to go to the fleet and learn crew skills and whatnot. I don't like her as much as my commando so far, but I do enjoy that it's something new. I also get a kick out of following every light side dialogue, although I personally think that it's hoakie as hell to get light side points for betraying the Empire. I can understand not torturing that apprentice or taming that freaky looking beast. I can even understand being kind to the Jedi, but actually telling him about the Empire's plans? That makes you a traitor, and there's nothing light side about that.

[Calax]

Honestly, you'll find they had no unified vision for light vs dark. Including the "ripped from todays headlines" quest on courscant.

[Spider]

minor spoiler ahead

 

Or even worse, in the flashpoint kaon under siege, you get the choice to kill an infected soldier or let him succumb to the rakghoul virus. As an imperial, you get DS points if you let the virus take him, but LS if you kill him. As a republic players however, it's the other way around.

[Gfted1]

You guys know you can see what the choice means by hovering over the choices and looking at the symbol that appears in the center? A white thing for LS, a red thing for DS.

 

I didnt figure that out for several levels.

[Calax]

I'd always run off the same concepts as those found in Mass Effect, with top being "good" bottom being "bad".

[Spider]

yep. there's evena setting that alloows you to see without hovering I think

[Serrano]

You guys know you can see what the choice means by hovering over the choices and looking at the symbol that appears in the center? A white thing for LS, a red thing for DS.

 

I didnt figure that out for several levels.

 

You can actually turn that and other light/dark side notifications off from the the options menu, I preferred them off personally because it saved me worrying about whether I'd gotten a conversation "wrong" and also with the light/dark notification sometimes plots were given away by revealing that you were doing something bad before you would have known otherwise.

 

It took me about 6 months to find the VIP area on the station though.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Serrano

[Cantousent]

I know the light/dark side tooltip. Hell, it's the default when I installed. I don't really care about it so much as to see if my 'alignment' makes any difference in the mid to end game. I think the spectrum in the game fails for two reasons:

 

1. It's completely transparent, which means we know what every choice means in the first place

 

and

 

2. the outcome only has an effect on the response, which is minimal at best.

 

What I want to know is if it makes any difference in the least. Will I get any different quests, have any different dialogue, or live with any meaningful consequence as a result of my choices. I doubt it, but I'm curious, so I'm going to play my Sorceror as an all lkight character and I'm going to make a sage as an all dark character and see if it makes any difference. Yeah, I know I'm a lost cause, but that's my intention.

 

As it is, I'm pretty much done for the night, but I will say that Raithie has a point about healers. i've won mvp without earning it, but I will also say that I think I've earned mvp and it's gone to someone else because of the way the game attributes victory points and badges. I don't really care, though. Bragging rights aren't all that important, but I do get to be interested more as I increase pvp play.

 

I will also say that, if anyone does any flashpoints with me, I would suggest relatively early in the evening. I personally would stack my performance up against other folks at any time, but I tend to be a little more lubricated as the evening passes. By the end of the night, I literally sometimes get a little sleepy when I play, especially if I've done the instance more than a couple times. I've literally healed end game raids in WoW without remembering chunks of time, which is purely evidence that most of it is reflex rather than intelligent thought, although I think I tend to do better after I've done a late game raid a few times, but havne't fallen into routines. Peace out.

[Nepenthe]

That said, I ****ing hate Corellia (the planet, not the server). (Virtually) No QT, missions long and boring and the commendations are next to useless to me (since the mod selection is abysmal, and I have little hope of scoring something worthwhile form my artifact box). Or maybe I've just been playing too much these past few days. :D

 

Hm, I pretty much loathe Corellia for the grindy-ness and godawful maps.. but no QT? There's a QT station around each monorail station as well as the one in the starport cantina..

Could've used a few more, the maps are big enough.

Eh, I have to say that I'm not overly stressed on wading into repeat end-game content. I mean sure, every now and then I'll run through some of the dailies to stock up on credits I can use to plow crew missions and craft stuff for my other characters.. and to add some character perks to new characters..

 

But I'm more interested in finishing the storylines and then exploring what the other classes show storyline wise. I just try to balance it out so I don't get burnt out. It's why I did Sith Inquisitor first, then focused mostly on my Smuggler, bounced to the Bounty Hunter... once I wrap this up I'll go back to my Jedi Knight to do chapter 3... then I've got my Sith Warrior to finish off Chapter 2 and then 3.. I've got my Consular at level 10 waiting on fleet, and a Trooper and Imperial Agent shiny at level 1 that I haven't actually played any of yet...

 

So yes, my plan is basically use my "finished" toons occasionally to stock up on cash I can funnel to low level toons, and to use all to gather materials and send them to those with crafting, and do crafting of goods that can be sent back out to my other toons and thus.. create a nice supporting web-work whilst exploring the storylines in a mostly alternating style...

This is my plan, though I want to gear the sentinel up a bit with at least some columi pieces and BH stuff from the comms. I'm only doing my initial round of dailies due to another "academic weekend", but so far the Ilum ones are boooring, while the Belsavis ones have a nice tempo (ie. seem pretty much easymode). Kind of worried how dull the black hole ones are going to be, especially since I'm probably going to have to grind those more than a few times to get a couple of BH pieces.

 

I'd always run off the same concepts as those found in Mass Effect, with top being "good" bottom being "bad".

IME that breaks up the second you go imperial, and even on the republic side they change those up occasionally to mess with you. Cue raised eyebrows and hit escape button.

[Spider]

The black hole ones aren't so bad. As an imperial, it's only one quest that gets annoying, the rest are done in 10 minutes (apart from the heroic). The annoying one is when you have to find a bunch of crates and destroy them, while competing with every other player in the zone for them. When there's 30 or so people in the zone, it can take a long time. Time just spent driving around on your speeder even.

 

But if you're there when it's not overcrowded (I'd stay away on tuesdays after reset if possible), it can be done in about 20 mins.

 

The heroic 4 takes a bit longer, but can be done in less than 15 minutes with a decent team. It also isn't really a heroic 4, it can be done with two players even if they aren't heavily geared, as long as both use their long term cc to the max.

 

One trick you can do is to do all the daily quests in off hours (like tuesdays before reset if you're not at work, or at night), but not turn them in. Then after reset you just pick up the weekly quest (that awards BH coms), then turn in all the ones you completed previously. Just makre sure to pick up the weekly before turning anything in (I've done that mistake myself)

 

Republic side is similar, but has more quests where players are competing for the same objects (three I think), and the final boss of the heroic is tougher.

[Raithe]

Wrapped up the Bounty Hunter storyline yesterday.

Hm, I have to admit it was quite nice to get that option to turn around and punch out Darth Tormen's lights after all his annoying talks. Although just killing the Grand Chancellor after he cleared my record was hella tempting. Then you get the "nice , cinematic" group view of player and all his companions gathering to pose in the ship, watching the Imps and Republic fleets shoot at each other...

[Cantousent]

I've been doing Tattoine. It's a fun place. Because I do the dailies, I tend to be much higher level than the quest areas, which makes leveling slow. Well... that and I accidently did Nar Shadda before Taris. I have to admit that the planets can be a bit of hit and miss for me. Some of them have better quests and some of them have better atmosphere and visuals. All in all, I'm happiest with Tattoine so far. It's simply beautiful. Having lived in and around the desert my whole life, I can't help but enjoy a game that conveys some of the feeling of being there.

 

Anyhow, leveling slowly but surely. I'm level 30 now, and that's just fine.

 

Cal comes online with one of his many toons every now and then. We don't really have anyone at the same level and I don't want to stop playing my troooper, but he keeps giving me great tips on the game. Of course, he also brags about his damned legacy gear, the bastard. :Cant's tongue in cheek grin: The only thing that makes me really jealous is the speeder at level 10. I don't care that much for the swag, but moving where I want to go faster is sweet.

[Spider]

It's interesting what a difference perspective makes. For me tattooine (and hoth) are pretty much the most boring planets. It's just too much traveling around those vast areas that look exactly the same all the time.

 

Leveling will gradually become a slower process, which is fairly common in rpgs. I found it to be a bit frustrating to be overleveled for content, but that has everything to do with crafting. Since the mats you get through your gathering skills mainly exists on planets within a certain level range, if you're not in phase it's hard to craft thing suitable to your current level (since you'll need to send crews out on missions rather than just harvest nodes).

 

So these days when I level a new character, I try my hardest to be somewhat in phase. This means I typically skip bonus series on most planets, since doing them tends to send you out of balance real fast, especially if you also pvp and do flashpoints. And those two are a lot more fun anyway.

 

And yes, speeder at level 10 is amazing. As is sprint at level 1 (when the game went live you didn't get that until level 14). And for those of us with a bit more cash, the rocket boots are also fantastic.

[Labadal]

I downloaded the game (not playing with a sub), but it tells me I need to redeem a code. I don't remember getting one.

 

What is this stupid guy doing wrong. Please help him.

 

NVM, it's working now.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Labadal

[Spider]

Glad you got it sorted. What server and faction are you playing on Labadal?