Well, servers down for maintenance, that means idle hands, and idle hands are someone's tools or other. So, welcome to another edition of "Walkiry has a Rant." I'm your host, Walkiry Unlike previous rants, this one isn't going to be full of anger and fury. Well, mostly. I say this because my problem this time is that I'm confused as all hell. I'm confused by the consistency of the writing, or the lack of thereof. Let's recap for a moment. As far as we know, the story has been put together by a team of a dozen writers or so (and editors, I hope... assume... imagine... okay, maybe not), working under the guidance of one, or maybe two people, whose job is to create the general plotlines and keep some sort of consistency. That's of course my assumption, I have no idea how things have been done or what the process entails. My confusion, however, comes from the, for lack of a better word, irregularity of the writing. Not just between quests, or classes, or factions, but often inside quests themselves, and sometimes even from one paragraph to the next. It's confusing as hell, and really throws me off when the story jumps from a high to a low, to a high again, and just doesn't seem to know where it's going. I have ranted before about the Bounty Hunter and one of his companions, and let's not forget the now (in)famous line: Why is this happening? Are there too many writers and not enough editors? How is the writing process? Are there cliques that made some writers have more weight than others? Seriously, all the good lines mixed with bad lines mixed with good plots mixed with idiot balls only come together into one whiffy ball of confusing awesome when one plays the one and only Raving Lunatic class: The Inquisitor. Hat tip to Fabint for the suggestion of playing the Inquisitor as a bat-**** insane lunatic for maximum enjoyment. From now on, everything I'll say will be passed through the WWTLIMD: What Would The Lunatic In Me Do? [Rant and Spoiler Mode On] [Rant and Spoiler Mode Off] Seriously, what the hell is going on here? It's the same pattern over and over and it's so worn out it left the running joke station a planet ago, yet there's someone talented enough in there to toss lines at the fourth wall that crack me up and work in context, and I swear I don't know whether to cut my veins or grow them long. Listen, Bioware, I know you think you have some overall vision for the game story. Really, I sympathize. But it ain't working. You're killing me here, and you're killing the writers too. Here's my advice: 1) Find who that writer is. 2) Have an earnest, sincere, open-minded discussion about why he's so disgruntled and address his concerns. 3) Once that is done, LET HIM WRITE THE WHOLE DAMN THING! There is an alternative explanation of course, and it's that the writer is actually young and inexperienced, and thus the level of writing varies a lot. If that's the case. 1) Find an editor, a good editor, willing to work with him. 2) Get them together and do whatever it takes to make sure they understand each other, and the editor helps the better ideas flourish, and that the writer improves in selecting good ideas from the slush pile of bad ones. 3) Put THEM IN CHARGE OF THE WHOLE DAMN THING! And whatever you do, I recommend you: 4) Get him a gosh darn sandwich, because it's clear as hell he's *********** hungry.

You could make a planet where an ancient race of former lab rats built everchanging labyrinths to live in so that they could feel at home, and no matter how well you write it, it's still going to be a pain in the butt to navigate and play.

I spent so much money in materials Reverse Engineering the level 49 hilts to get the purple one on my Jedi Knight artificer (it has since been stated that RE at higher levels isn't "working as intended"), started at level 46 to make sure I had it RE'd and ready when I got to 49... Then I got to Ilum and saw the level 50 purple hilts sitting at the vendor for a measly 8 commendations. I died a little that day

Well, I made it to 50 and am halfway through Ilum, but I can't bring myself to finish the planet.... Ilum bores me :-/ So, in the interest of continuing this series I've re-rolled. I was going to put it up as a poll, but obviously precious few people really care, so I did a random thingy based on the available choices. Female Inquisitor. Oh this should be fun...

A cross-server queue builds a sense of being able to actually run the warzones/flashpoints. I'd take that over a nebulous sense of "community" built upon holding grudges between a handful of people from a couple of big guilds.

The less populated side feels more mature because there's less people in your zone to mouth off like a rabid teenager It boils down to probabilities

*Facepalm* Blizz is the name of the Jawa companion, and he is the one who makes that gun (if you follow the dialog, he says he'll tinker with your blaster... After picking it off your pocket and giving it a once-over).

Actually, orange pistols come with +48 tech power too (I just checked, I had an orange I no longer use stuffed in my cargo hold, removed all 4 mods and it still had +48). The reason this one's Legendary is because Blizz gives it to you

Well, at one point they claimed they didn't need any open beta from us because they had internal testers to do the job properly. Try not to be overwhelmed by the Schadenfreude.

Voss *shudder*

You were already dead. What you see is the client catching up to where the server was, and realizing you were faceplanted (the client thought you had so many HP and the enemies so many hitpoints, and suddenly the server sends a "you're dead!" flag). The big freeze is everything that happens when you die (companion unsummoning, mobs rushing back, "you've faceplanted" window, etc.). It'd be hella easier to see if we had combat logs. Hopefully that'll come soon. Sorry, I mean Soon™

Oh I wouldn't want to spoil it. I'd recommend you do the planet again if you passed it already, and make sure you pay attention to all the quests and side-quests, on both sides if you can (Empire and Republic).

So, in your relativistic mind, Belsavis = Guantanamo? I am not defending Guantanamo, but holy crap, do you realize what you just said? No wonder everything looks so "nuanced" to you.

Well, if you think the Republic in this game is "nuanced" then I seriously hope we never get your version of "nuanced" in the democracies of the real world. Good grief. I don't expect a faction full of angels, by the way, you're the one who's constantly pinning this mischaracterization on me; and quite frankly I'm tired of your constant pushing of this strawman. Have a nice day.

I take it you're enjoying the whooshing sound then?

Dude... You're doing it again. Did you read my post? I said "Han Solo came around too, and we loved the fact that he shot first and went and joined the rebellion too." There is plenty of room for all sorts of character development in a larger story. That is still not the point. First off, have you heard the phrase "iconic classes" in SWTOR before? Yes? Good, that's what it refers to, and it came from Bioware. The iconic Star Wars story. There may be more to Star Wars in the EU and all the rest than that, but the original work is the iconic work. The iconic Star Wars is a space opera. The Republic in this game is not grey. It's black. There's nothing grey about what's going on in Belsavis, there's nothing grey about all the corrupt politicians that practically stomp over each other to be the first ones to sell their mother to the Empire all over the gosh darn galaxy, of which Corellia is a fine example, or Alderaan for the matter. It's as black as the Empire. And the link is completely relevant. It became relevant the second Bioware decided story was the fourth pillar. Narrative is narrative regardless of medium, form may change but ideas and structures stay the same. There is no door for having someone good take over and win this war, because there's nobody good left - except your character, if you play it that way.

I mentioned "original", as in "original trilogy". Luke, Leia and the rest. Han Solo came around too, and we loved the fact that he shot first and went and joined the rebellion too. Anyway, you're getting too bogged down in trivia in an attempt to misunderstand my point. See: http://deplumedimension.bravehost.com/rambles/doors.html There's nothing "grey" about the Republic. That's the point. Attempting to replicate only the worst of real life and setting the narrative for us to have to go along with it in one way or another, with no way out, leads to apathy. And apathy leads to the dark side, where I can shoot lightning and have a laugh, at least. If at least they were self-aware enough to play it hammy I'd give it a pass, but they don't.

If I wanted real life... Well, I'm sure you can finish the phrase yourself. A treatise on societal maladies and a deconstruction of the real life mores is all well and good, but it's not the kind of thing one will do when trying to get the audience involved in the story (like, say, in a videogame), or hammer into what originally was a very straightforward good vs. evil narrative, the original Star Wars. Attempting to engage the player with limited choices (because, obviously, we'll never have a wide array of choices in a game like this, it's simply not possible) into a conflict where I can't see a side worth defending and where I don't actually have any stake in (unlike real life, for obvious reasons) leads to nothing but apathy. That's the critical thing all this moral decostructoninst writer wannabes miss - if it's not real life, you have a much harder time to engage the audience, and if everyone's rotten and there's nobody to root for, you're screwed. At that point all you have to go on is whether your narrative is interesting in itself, not the characters or situations you're presenting. You can have both the deconstruction and the engagement, but it requires a much higher level or writing than the fanfic-like content that's on offer here, if one wants to avoid coming off as a pretentious git. This is pulp fun, and should be written as such. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, the current crop of writers are too "hip" for that. Too cool for school, like, they know real art, you know? At this point, I don't see much difference to be honest. If we go by Star Wars lore, a few thousand years from now an Emperor will take over the rotten republic, and at that point the systems will realize how awful the whole thing is and have a proper uprising against the oppressors (and you get to play a proper good side too!). Better? Quite frankly, it may be better in the long run, since at least the Empire is more open about its intentions.

You realize what you just said? You are basically stating that margin compression, through inflated commodity prices (that's what crafting materials are), is profitable for everyone. You didn't happen to learn Economics from a guy called Ben S. Bernanke, did you?

That's a good way of putting it! My solution has been to pretend my characters are high on Spice whenever they're doing something massively idiotic, but I still want to nuke the Senate building from orbit. Ah, to find a time machine and go back to the Sacking of Coruscant, to make sure it was done properly...

I'd kill Bowser's ugly sibling because In the very same storyline that the same writers have concocted for us, I've killed people for any of those offences, nevermind a combination of all of them. Similarly, the Sith Warrior It goes not just against the story, it goes against the very essence of Sith behaviour in the Star Wars Universe. Sure, my Jedi Knight may not kill the annoying Sith companion (well, she would, but that's another story, she has issues), but would very firmly invite him to leave the ship and never come back. Jokes about shoving companions into the airlock are there because being forced to take a companion that one detests or just doesn't jive with the character one is playing breaks the whole story-immersion so badly that it's simply not possible to take it seriously anymore. It's like killing everyone for a laugh when you've grown tired of a game and just don't care anymore.

Well, it's just harder to rant when something is not painful. It's all for the sake of my dear audience! Thinking about it, my Jedi Knight had quite a problem with Lord Scourge as well (as it's been mentioned already), but as I was just coming out of the Voss wreck I simply lowered my head and bulldozed to the end like a rabid pitbull, so I didn't rant as I should have.

Rant

*Laughs* Thanks chaps, I was rather enraged when I wrote this up, it is kind of cathartic to put it all down on paper (or electrons, as it happens) and let it all out... Incidentally, my next alt may end up being an Inquisitor, so thanks for the tip Fabint, playing him like a bat-**** insane lunatic sounds like a plan!

Well, this thread sure grew overnight, thanks for all the compliments! It's good to see there's no lack of support for some solution to remove unwanted companions! Getting them in carbonite wouldn't be bad. Replacing them with droids would work too. Even better, there could be generic companions tied to all the factions and groups that you find along your trips. Finish the Voss Bonus Series, get access to generic Voss companions, finish Corellia's, get a Green Jedi or a Corellian assault droid or something (make them mercenaries, 100,000 credits upfront, so that you can't just kill them to avoid paying them). I'm nearing 50 with my BH now. I was hoping the Legacy system would be implemented before the next alt, but at this rate it may not happen. So it seems it's going to be either an Inquisitor or a Consular... I think I have self-loathing issues. Or maybe I like pain.