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Let's talk SWtOR!


Twani

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Playing KOTOR2 made me nostalgic for this game.

 

I was once upon a time a pay-to-play player (I even bought that ridiculously expensive Collectors Edition with the stupid statue of Darth Malgus that stands over my desk and watches figurines of Disney's Stitch most dubiously), so I find that now with free to play, I have preferred status. What I do not have is the Hutts expansion or the twenty dollars to pay for that, but, eh. I can play very well without it.

 

I first logged in my Agent, my one and only 50 and my most decorated character to find that the legacy system has been completely redone, with all sorts of achievements and craziness (though some are clearly not registering- she has 10000 affection with Vector and Temple, but neither are showing up in her achievement file). And there's all this pay-to-get-cool-appearance items stuff. I had to reskill my character, and retool my legacy (level 17- not all that high). There's some sort of Rakghoul plague going around, the announcer on the Imperial fleet helpfully informs me every three minutes, but Aa'lynne, famed rogue Chiss Agent, already dealt with that on Tantooine a while back and exploded in a pile of green goo repeatedly. She's not going back to that life, man. She already has zombie Vector on call if she really needs him, as well as a smelly minature Rakghoul that can follow her around.

 

Without Rise of the Hutt Cartel or whatever it's called, though, there's very little for her to do- she's not decked out for either PVP or operations (or even flashpoints), as I only did that stuff casually, and I don't know how that 'limited access' for them thing works.

 

So then comes the hard part, in which I find I have only six slots as a preferred customer (though that's better, then what, the three just free to play players get?). This means character deleting. My horde of A names sadly diminished, I keep my 48 (almost there!) Smuggler, my 35 pure darkside Inquisitor, and my 25 noble demon Sith Warrior. I think I remember enough of their stories to go on.

 

But considering all the changes to the game, I feel like I should start out as a newb again and get used to the game again. And I don't feel like playing a Bounty Hunter- that's what I played during beta, and Mako's 'cute little sis' act sort of grated on me. (Sorry, Mako.) So... here's the main question. Trooper, Jedi Warrior, or Jedi Councilor?

 

I played Trooper till around 13 or so. I remember finding it interesting enough, Aric amusing enough, and your commander psychotic enough to be fun. I played Knight till 11, trying to play darkside, but I know it's the continuation of the KOTOR story and that you get to fight you-know-who. I played Councilor till 17, and just remember finding it very, very boring, and your first companion not all that interesting (to the point in which I can't even remember his name).

 

Anyone played those classes and have any input on which story is the best? I don't really care about class mechanics: I can play any class in this game, so it's all good to me. Does the Councilor story get more interesting? Is the Jedi Knight really that great? Does Trooper ever get to do anything about their superior?

 

...And should I actually try playing a male character? Are any of the romances for females awful enough that it's worth playing a guy to save myself from them?

 

Hm, decisions.

 

Anyone else have any thoughts about the game?

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My first and main character was an Inquisitor and it's the only one I got to 50. I levelled to 50 in maybe a month right around launch and did PvP, HM flashpoints, and raids for about 3 months. I spent some time trying other characters, but most of my time was spent on my main. I had an Agent at 27, plus a Trooper/Warrior/Knight in the 15-20 range. I previously had a Bounty Hunter in his teens as well. I thought all of the stories were pretty decent, but it's been a while so I don't really remember specifics.

 

I've been considering getting back into it now that Galactic Starfighter is available to preferred customers. I think I'd probably prefer to start from scratch or one of the low-level alts rather than play my old main. I am curious to see what they've added since I unsubscribed. I loved the content they had, but they weren't releasing it fast enough for me. The legacy system was just getting off the ground and item appearance customization was kind of limited when I left.

 

I think my characters ended up on The Bastion server (PvP West), but I could start a new character on any server. I'll download the client for now and maybe look into it next week.

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Ooo, Galactic Starfighter is available to preferred customers? I did not know that. Need to figure out how to get in to it on my Agent; she always liked space missions.

 

My main and crew are on Beregen Colony, but I just found I have a level 22 trooper randomly hanging around on the Ebon Hawk server. Didn't know about her. Guess I played Trooper a bit further then I thought. But I'm alright with trying any server, if anyone wants to try and play together so we'd have grouping for flashpoints.

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Galactic Starfighter is not just space - it's PVP, so be warned. :) Pity we're on different servers - I'd like to play with you, but I'm on Red Eclipse(PvE, English, Europe).

 

All my characters are females, so I can't really advise about male ones - I have a feeling I wouldn't carry a male char all the way to lvl50. I think preferred access is cool - I subscribe, but I visit Galactic Trade Network regularly and I see you can buy all things you need(extra inventory slots, experience bonuses and so on) via in-game currency, not real money. But the subscribers get one advantage - resting XP points(double XP) - which allows you to level the character doing class quests only and maybe an odd space mission here and there. This is important, I think.

 

As for the stories, I'm enjoying all Empire stories very much. My main is Sith Warrior lvl48, my Agent is lvl40(amazing story!), and I'm levelling a Sith Inquisitor lvl27/Bounty Hunter lvl18.

 

I've joined the Republic and created a Jedi Knight(lvl21), because it's kind of KOTOR3, and Trooper-femShep(lvl16), because she's Femshep. I'm going to take them all the way, and they're fun. But - it might be just me, but I'm so used to the Empire I can't play Republic as engagingly - I feel like I'm going against my own people. Neither my JK nor my Trooper are big fans of the Republic. :) They do what is right, blahblahblah, but I'm an Empire girl through and through.

 

 

So, your question. Trooper, Jedi Warrior, or Jedi Councilor?

- Not many people are fans of Jedi Councilor and the story or romances. Especially romances for the female Councilor. I'm not starting the character, because I find the class not very engaging to play(my Sith Sin is very squishy, alas).

- Trooper has a Garrus-like romance(not Garrus, alas, but it's okay), and the story's surprisingly nice - plain military, and I still like Empire stories better, but it's solid(well, you've got a lvl22 Trooper, and I'm lvl16, so why am I even talking?).

- Jedi Knight is probably THE most popular one(I play heroics with four Guardians/Sentinels in group, heheh). Doc romance is not on par with Vector or Malavai, but it has its moments. I'm on Taris, and I like Watcher 1 story, it's intriguing enough. Also, Sentinels/Mara are great and deal super damage.

 

But... honestly? Yesterday I spent two hours on Taris with my JK, playing good, decent quests, and I was bored out of my ears. I've switched and played Bounty Hunter on Balmorra(class quests only) and had enormous fun. Mako grates, yes, but I just kick her out when it's time to get dark side points. I want to play neutral, but the game gives you dark points every time you do a bounty. Logical, I guess, but a bit silly anyway. You can't very well break the contract and let the target go, can you?

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I can play PVP, with... some amount of skill. I'm not sure how much, but some. (Well, okay, I enjoyed below 50 PVP immensely. Once I hit 50, though, the gear race got too much for me and I decided screw it, basically.)

 

I'm probably with you on not being able to carry a male character to 50, truthfully. After some thought, I think there's only one class I could do it with- the Agent, where I like both male romance options tremendously (...though no one is as cute as Vector, no one!), and I love the story enough that I could play the whole thing again (maybe this time going Dark Side and all Jadus-yay- my main occasionally took DS choices if they helped the Empire, but mostly lightside). But that will have to wait for another day.

 

Today is the day of Aaliah (as all my characters start with double AA names), the not-quite-yet Jedi Knight. I plan to play her as impulsive, righteous, and a bit naive- a good person at heart, but tends to trust her own judgement above all and thus may occasionally make dark side acts because of that righteous nature (I know she's going to sabotage the plans for a certain planet leaving the Republic on Corasaunt, probably to T7's approval). So she'll end up light side, but probably not maxed, as she's going to make some dumb decisions on occasion. I'm going Sentinel, definitely, because I cannot play tanks and duel-wielding is awesome. I can play healers easy, but not tanks. No idea why.

 

...I also made her a Chiss. Because that's the race that popped up when I first clicked on the Jedi Knight icon, and the idea of a Chiss Jedi Knight amuses me. I figure she's the youngest sister of my smuggler and agent, for legacy purposes.

 

Now it's time to write some flirts and kill some flesh raiders.

 

 

...I am going to miss rest XP. I always had characters on full rest XP, and often switched between my Inquisitor, my Warrior, and my Smuggler as their rest XP ran out to get them more rest XP so I was always leveling. But I just don't think I can afford a MMO subscription at this time. Hm. We'll see next month, if it continues holding my interest.

 

...I have no idea why I'm on RP servers. I don't really RP that much...

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Okay, I am downloading something gigantic, don't think I can actually try it today, work and all that RL stuff that gets in the way of computer gaming, you know.

 

So, Consular is not a good idea? I will give a knight a try, I guess. Do you actually save a game in MMO or just start over every time?

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So, Consular is not a good idea? I will give a knight a try, I guess. Do you actually save a game in MMO or just start over every time?
No to both, when you enter the game, you create the character the first time, then you play the game a bit and you exit out of it when you like, then when you load the game again, you can select any of the previously made characters or to make a new, and it will load it and place it back at the point of exiting... so you can continue right from there... unless you are on a restricted(guest) zone during the exit, in which case you are just portal-led to the entrance.

Also when you die, you get to choose if you wish to revive at the point or at a medical station(the free to play kindahaveto do so in the nearest medical station, as the reviving cost a droid, and that costs way too much).

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Thank you, I guess it will make sense. :)

 

EDIT: Counsular's companions look more interesting than JK (though the choice of the RI is perplexing given the other two choices, but BioWARE is BioWARE, or maybe I am the only player who always wanted a Twil'ek romance but I can make do as usual). Hard to say from a quick summary like that. I am a bit worried because one of the companions for JK has the same name as my kiddo. Imperial Agent sounds actually the most interesting off hand. I might try that instead.

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Try any class but a Councilor. I mean, I got one to sixteen, but... every other prologue, and prologue alone, is like a hundred times more interesting. If you want to play a Jedi, go with the Knight. And Imperial Agent is by far the most interesting/best story in the game, no matter how you slice it. If you're kid is watching, though, definitely go full light side. The Imperial Agent's dark side evil's are generally very pragmatic 'reasonable' evils that somehow make it seem darker then the over the top 'SHOCK EVERYONE!' of say, the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor Dark Side feels almost dark humor at times. Imperial Agent dark side is just *real* evils, the kind that people in real life make and do horrible things about. Well, save for maybe Act I's finale. That's just crazy evil.

 

And what Jarno said. Where you log out will be where you log in for SWTOR, unless you logged out in someone else's class quest, in which you'll log in right outside of it. When you die, you'll revive at the nearest medical center. There's no needing to go find your corpse or experience penalty, so don't worry about dying too much. All it costs is a run back to where you died if you want to continue from there.

 

 

Jedi Knight thoughts:

 

"T7 = part of Jedi Order // T7 = wants lightsaber upgrade"

 

YES. A hundred times yes. I see no way in this would not be the most awesome thing to ever happen to the Jedi Order.

 

Normally I hate getting non-English speaking companions for your first companion (cough, Councilors, cough... though Khem grew on my Inquisitor after acting as her herald and her cute referral to him as 'my morose monster'), but I'm sorry, T7 is fifteen kinds of adorable. He's R2D2 and T3 from KOTOR, only in an even cuter package. He's so enthusiastic about helping the Jedi and idolizing the Jedi Knight that I just want to hug him and squeeze him and keep him forever and forever... problem is, I already have a ranged tank (Corso)'s affection maxed, so it makes more sense for me to bring along Doc, as I don't have a healer maxed (have Vector for Kira's roll, too). Hm, I honestly don't know who the Jedi Knight's other companions are- well, I know the last companion, but I don't know who's in the middle. A surprise! How nice.

 

(Then came the crew skills tutorial, which ruined it as it showed who it is. Feh.)

 

I bought the preferred package with my collector's edition coin stock, giving me three skills. Going bio for the Jedi Knight. My Agent has cybertech maxed- will have to get mods and droid equipment from her (she's the only one with any money), the two Sith have synthweaving and artificing covered, and my Smuggler is really, really, really behind on her Armstech, having her two gathering skills maxed but her Armstech only 100. Sigh.

 

Random thoughts: going off just the prologue- the starting planet only- I have to say Inquisitor is my favorite. Snarking at Harkon and Fface the whole time and generally being a mouthy little Sith is great fun. And I'm not sure what's better, the dark side torture scene in which you force the poor guy to sing, or the light side scene where you get the information without any torture and the head torturer is fascinated and confused by this strange interrogation method you use. Only disappointment is just getting handed a lightsaber with an 'oh, by the way'. Agent's prologue is also excellent, but Agent's *everything* is excellent. Trooper has the hardest beginning of them all, taking the Base all on their own while Smuggler's got Corso with them. Smuggler has a pretty good start too, actually.

 

The Jedi Knight prologue? Just average, I think. I just hit the capital, and... it's not bad. You get the coolest making lightsaber scene in the game, first of all, and your Master is a pretty decent character. The dark side choice to make Bengel your herald was very, very, very tempting to me, but I resisted it as I have the policy that I must redeem EVERYONE I meet. I did take one DS- informing the tw'lik who lost his father that yes, I took revenge for him rather then urging him to seek peace and that revenge was not the way. Dirty Flesh Raiders are not most excellent Chiss. If the option had come up, I would have taken the 'sisterhood' option with Reena or Renna or whatever her name is (which may just be code for 'lesbian sex' before Lucasarts allowed us to put it in, but hey), but for some reason that didn't come up. Probably because I was totally all lightside with her. Managed to grab two others to do the Heroic with, though after thinking about, I'm pretty sure if I had went to the fleet, got my Advanced Class, then went back down with T7, I could have soloed it.

 

Used one of my weekly flashpoints to play Esseles or whatever it's called. Went through it with a Sith tanky councilor and a healing Smuggler: we actually didn't use a companion, though we could have. Honestly, it's a shame that the first flashpoint Esselis/Black Talon is the one with the most 'story/dialog'. I wish all flashpoints were more like that. Still, if anyone makes characters on Bastion, I'll play flashpoints with ya if you want.

 

Still haven't gotten through the que to try Galatic Starfighter yet.

 

Anyway, now on to exploring the Capital with my Jedi. Annoyed that they still haven't fixed missing codex entries... I'm missing a beast on Tython because it's simply not there.

 

Also sort of annoyed that achievements aren't backlit. Like, I did all the Agent story missions- I've finished the class. Boom, done. But it doesn't count in the rulebook. I'd have to create a completely new agent and go through it all again to get the achivements. I say bah to that.

 

...Bioware has been very weird about making male romance options that aren't human. Your only two choices are Imperial Agent and Trooper. It feels like males get more- Inquisitor, Warrior, Agent, Councilor, Scoundral all have female non-human romances. If you play (especially) a Smuggler or Imperial Agent you'll get the chance to sleep around with non-human romance options if you so choose, though.

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Still, if anyone makes characters on Bastion, I'll play flashpoints with ya if you want.

Are you on The Bastion now?

 

I'm participating in a game jam this weekend so I'll probably start up during the week. I've got the client all downloaded. I haven't seen much of the content past level 20 on the Republic side so I'll probably play one of those classes - maybe Trooper or Smuggler (I want to see the Smuggler story but I also love being able to tank). It might help if I checked out some info on companions first.

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GSF is fun. Ebon Hawk (PvP/PvE mixed RolePlay server, US/East). Current balance is that Imps rule PvP combat, Pubs rule and dominate Starfighter (except for the odd game here and there). So far, all storylines Pub-side seem quite fun, but lightside only for me (Female Smuggler is actually really fun - nothing like a female Han Solo acting snarky!). Flashpoint runs you occasionally run into a jerk, but since I usually play healers, the answer is simple - heal the real players and leave the obnoxious ones at the last of the list to heal. PvP in Starfighter is way different than PvP combat. The only pain-in-the-arse issue that I have run into is that AoE can accidentally flag you PvP, and a small subset of Imperial players somehow find it fun to go outside questing spots and try to get low-level Republic players flagged, then kill them ( I suppose "farming" them for valor points). Luckily, on Ebon, an all-call on general will bring PvP folks to assist, and you can report them by clicking on them and sending the report.

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I'm on the Bastion, yeah. Though I do have that trooper on Ebon. Might set her and a Bounty Hunter up over there.

 

Smuggler is a good choice for a male, as they're one of the lucky ones who get two romance option. Wish females got that... grumble.

 

 

Spent a frustrated morning standing in front of workbunch clicking it exasperatingly only to realize that workbenches aren't required anymore. They weren't even required when I stopped playing. Right. I'm dumb.

 

Got my Jedi Knight over to Taris. Ah, Taris. My least favorite pub planet. As someone on TV tropes put it, "On republic side, you dig a hole. On Imperial side, you fill it." All your doomed actions on Balmora as an Imperial don't really bother me, because none of your characters are really that invested in the war on Balmora- it's a side to the great hunt/finding terrorists/doing missions for the masters, and even though I played my Imperial Agent as an Empire loyalist (but not a Sith loyalist- very important distinction to her), to her the loss of Balmora was a 'shrug, oh well, not too great of a loss'. On Republic Taris, the whole thing is just a giant Shaggy Dog Story: *everything* you do is doomed to complete failure once the Imperials come around.

 

Yet with my limit of three space missions and warzones and flashpoints and all that (I basically already used them all), I can't just skip everything on Taris but my class quest. I'm going to have to go at it full. Booooo.

 

I found Galactic Starfighter fun, and think that's what space combat should have been in the first place. You can move! On things that aren't rails! It's amazing! I heard the PVP crowd bitching about how much they hate it on the boards, but people are always doing that on the boards.

 

With my Jedi Knight finally heading to Taris, I have thus completed all of the class missions to the third planet. I'm not sure who really has the strongest 'capital' story. Inquisitor was my favorite prologue, but despite the hidden legacy find out on DK, I didn't find their capital story the best. Not the worst, but just not the best. Councilor may have been the worst. But best? Hm. Bounty Hunter gets to steal their own ship; that's pretty cool. Smuggler gets to steal their ship back; that's pretty awesome, as well. Agent gets to deal with incredibly engaging NPC's (Keeper, Watcher One, Jadus), which gets them I think the most points. Jedi Knight deserves something for getting another companion this early. I had to wait till freakin Alderran to get Vector on my agent! Gar, rawr, grumble, mumble.

 

 

EDIT: thing I miss most about pay-to-play to preferred (besides the unlimited space/pvp/flashpoints): HIDE HEADGEAR. All my Jedi Knight has so far is a headband, which doesn't bother me, but my Agent and Inquisitor have on full face masks (meaning no facial emotions can be scene), my Sith Warrior is walking around in this idiotic feathered thing that deserves to die an ignoble death, and my Smuggler has on a freakin cowboy hat. Ugh!

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I'm on the Bastion, yeah. Though I do have that trooper on Ebon. Might set her and a Bounty Hunter up over there.

Oh, I thought you said your guys were on Begeren Colony. Bastion or Ebon would be a good place to meet - with limited character slots available, you don't want to spread out over too many servers.

 

Smuggler is a good choice for a male, as they're one of the lucky ones who get two romance option. Wish females got that... grumble.

That is interesting. I wonder if you can romance both at once. I checked out the companion pages and smugglers have a pretty nice list. It's kind of disappointing when the really cool ones don't show up until level 40+ (*cough* romance option for male Consulars). Yeah, I think I'll play a male smuggler. I must resist the urge to tank!

 

Jedi Knight deserves something for getting another companion this early. I had to wait till freakin Alderran to get Vector on my agent! Gar, rawr, grumble, mumble.

I remember that being a thing for my Assassin as well back in the day... OK, I'm a tank... my only companion is a tank... this is not very efficient.... I wanted a healer for a long time but when I got Ashara I realized DPS wasn't too bad to have, either.

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If CMorgan's on Ebon, then we might as well meet as Ebon, as there would be at least three of us there if we ever wanted to meet up. I can definitely play healers- if neccessary, I can start a Councilor if my Trooper's not heal specced. Can't remember if she is or isn't.

 

As for romancing both at once, you kinda can. If you get someone's affection to 10000 and go through the marry sequence before going through the flirt sequence with the second companion, supposedly you can sort of skip around the usually confrontation conversation. That's not intended behavior, and it doesn't seem to work every time, but I've heard enough people reporting they've done it that it seems possible. I've never done it, because, well, no such option for females. :( ...and yeah, as for late companions: my smuggler. Healing companion. Guss, got on what, Hoth? I needed him so badly in the 20's and 30's, but noo, had to be the last companion you get. I ended up doing a lot of hiding behind Corso.

 

My Jedi Knight's pure dps, so I've been testing it out: with Kira, we kill things faster, but there's a greater risk in one of us getting killed and we spend more time after battle healing. With my cute little droid, I usually come out full health, him a bit less, but no deaths. So for now, droid's in, Kira's out. I'll still try to bribe her with gifts when I have the chance to win her over, but until I get Doc, I think I'm running with T7.

 

 

So, my daily updates:

 

Someone was giving out preferred player packages: apparently they're referrels you get if you subscribe long enough? They only work for former subscribers, but they give you one week free subscription. So for one week, I have unlimited flashpoints, warzones, space combats, and the ability to hide my hat. Sweet! This is going to put me behind in modding, studies, and probably my social relationships, but me disappearing for one week to be obsessed with a video game is not unusual for me and I don't have any work this week, anyway (of course, that's actually a bad thing...).

 

Aaliah finished Taris. I did the bonus missions for the first time: on my Smuggler she was too much like "REVENGE! NAR SHADAAR! HERE I COME!" to care, and for my Trooper *I* was too much like 'omg, eff this planet' to bother. They weren't as much of a hassle as I expected, but man, I already had the rakghoul max kills republic achievement before I even started the bonus series! You kill way too many rakghouls in this game. So sick of them and their stupid faces. And of the knowledge Taris is DOOOOMMMMEEED. Nice KOTOR references, though.

 

I actually enjoyed Taris Jedi Knight quite a lot- one of my favorites. Conflicting loyalties hit me hard, though: my Agent is my main, and so Imperial Intelligence has all my love and hearts. Fighting against them was a bit unsettling. Cheers to Watcher One, for being a respectable opponent- Cipher Nine would give him a salute and a place aboard her ship, anytime. I had fun.

 

I hate companions that don't have a loved gift. Kira is one of them- she only develops one if you romance her, in which luxury gets the up. So my tier one gifts with her only got 54 affection or whatever. Bum. Ashara is the same way (annoyingly, it seems to be only female companions that do this, too). So far though, I think I like her. My Jedi doesn't, though. She's not respectful enough for a padawan.

 

My Jedi is a bit of a snot.

 

Took one DS decision on Taris (plus an accidental 10 DS for hitting the wrong mission in Diplomacy): I forced the AWOL troops to go back to their posts. That was the only option that really tempted me, to be honest. Taris was pretty 'easy nice choice - hit the light side button' for me and my character. No major moral conflicts.

 

Going to run a few more space missions, then call it for a night. Phew. One planet a day- I don't think I can keep up that pace. The planets just get too big.

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