[Am I just too stupid to understand Force Stasis / Force Choke?]

I think you generate focus / rage all the same. Anyway, that does clarify it. Thank you very much indeed.

[Am I just too stupid to understand Force Stasis / Force Choke?]

Good ol' times. Where you would wait 3 seconds, impatiently, for your choking adversary to be released from his pain, just to continue lacerating him with your beloved lightsaber.

Now, however, I don't get the point of this ability. Or I've played the last few weeks / months SW:TOR drunk, which is perfectly feasible.

I can move those 1.5 seconds while I am channelling the ability. All right.

Stun continues for another 2.5 seconds after that channel. All right.

I can interrupt the channeling, stop it prematurely and the enemy is still being stunned and still receives damage. All ri-- no, not all right.

Did I just wrongly perceive it and there is a difference when you stop channeling? Do I have the eyes of a mole?

Please don't judge me. As Miley tells you, "Only God can judge you", right before I undress and start riding a wrecking ball.

[A Secret Desire of the Sith Inquisitor?]

Anyway, if that was correct and Thanaton genuinely felt like that about the Inquisitor (at least for the most part), even though there was not much reason for him to feel that way, it would kinda make sense for the Inquisitor to reciprocate those feelings in some way.

 

That might just as well be the case. I forgot the fact that those dreams are the closest thing to the authentic visions. In that sense, it does beg the question whether Thanaton respects Occlus more than is made apparent.

 

By the way, I initially thought it was "Occultus". So I've had luck to be neutral when I finished the story.

[A Secret Desire of the Sith Inquisitor?]

Before I begin philosophising about a possibility that came to my mind after I've played the Inq story again just recently, I want to emphasise that

a) following contains spoilers (I'll wrap it with spoiler anyway).

b) this accumulation of thoughts is merely a theory of mine, perchance silly. I thought it would be worth sharing for people interested in engaging with the personality of the Inquisitor a bit more thoroughly.

c) this theory is highly experimental. If you advocate sound evidence and dislike far-fetched stories and wild speculations, you might want to skip this.

 

So let's get started.

 

 

 

Overall situation in Chapter 2 & Chapter 3

 

As you might well know, the Inquisitor's plot revolves around the aftermath of Zash's death and his power play with Thanaton. Here in bold, because he is one of the main parties in my theory. From the very beginning, we get to know that, although he raised Zash to the title of Darth, he ardently loathed her for her audacity to tinker with rituals and ignore the traditions of the Sith. This behaviour also tarnished her most important apprentice, Occlus (as I will refer to the Inquisitor here). Having spoiled the purity of Occlus, Thanaton quickly decided that he, as a blight in the Sith Order, has to die. We know that. After all, he tried to kill Occlus when he returned with the writings from Darth Andru's tomb. But I conjecture, despite all the insurmountable disagreements there are between Occlus and Thanaton, there is a special bond between them. A bond, a connection, more than just the relationship between Lord and Darth. I have reason to presume that Occlus, somewhere deep inside of him, there is something looking at Thanaton as father.

 

Indicators

 

The very thing that triggered this assumption was when I did my quests on Voss. Again, as you might recall, Occlus seeks mental healing with a specific ritual of the Voss. For this, he had to become a dreamwalker, the "outlandish" Force users among the Voss. Whether it was in this dream or in the Dark Heart, I do not know. But I do distinctly remember Thanaton saying in Occlus' dream: "I love you like my own child...". In all of his dreams, Thanaton has a calm and relaxed voice. In real life, Thanaton speaks in a more 'rigorous' manner so to speak.

Does Occlus wish for his voice to be that?

Sure. Might have been futile gibberish Thanaton uttered to be polite. But let us expand on this. While Sith have been never known for their sentimentality (and hardly ever flinch from killing their own family if need be), Occlus, having been a slave, must have learned to cope with his fate. 'Course, even as slave, you might very much prefer to be a lone wolf but by no means is it improbable that you will be attached to your family at least a bit in such dire circumstances.

"But we don't know anything about his family!". Correct.

However, it does not matter whether he has been with his family until he was chosen to be an acolyte. I will explain why. Let's assume he and his family have been separated early on.

You do get to know anyway that everyone has a father and a mother, and it is the nature of beings to receive guidance by figures like these. It is unlikely that Occlus was chosen for outstanding ambition. Part of it might have just as well been sheer coincidence. It was noticed he was capable of using the Force, using it more effectively than others. That is why he was special. But being special among slavery is hardly worth anything. You are one of many. And there you are, thrown into the unforgiving, merciless, relentless and ghastly world of competition with others yearning after your life. Whatever mask you put on, it strains you.

As slave, you can escape into the trance of executing your monotonous duties. Think your past and your feelings away. But then, out of the blue, you have the chance to become Sith, obviously, the passionate and emotional side of the Force. Anger is your fuel, and anger is what Occlus might have suppressed all his life long. The life as acolyte, it stirred it all up. "Who is my father, who is my mother?". Having been deprived of knowing what family means, you usually search replacement. Fall into idolatry. And at some point, Occlus found his father. Or the person that most resembles it. Thanaton. A Dark Council member, proud, assertive. Even if intransigent and slightly narrow-minded, he is someone an acolyte, a Sith, a Lord of the Sith can look up to.

Also, let's contemplate another thing.

At the beginning of Chapter 2, Thanaton asks Occlus to retrieve the writings of Darth Andru. Foolish, as we know, as it proves to be merely a death trap. But Occlus nevertheless ventures into it. Why? Later on, Kallig even puts emphasis on how light-heartedly he entered the tomb. You could assume a Sith Lord might know better. In all likelihood, he would. Apparently, there is something that made Occlus want to do it. His admiration for Thanaton. This is self-evidently only a possibility, but there are few other reasons why someone would be trusting a rather remote man so quickly. Occlus hankers for a father role in his life.

From the perspective of Thanaton, there is nothing like that. He might be railing against Occlus slightly reluctantly. "It pains me to do this...", he reacts at the baffling return of Occlus from the tomb.

Ultimately, however, he displays a good deal of determination to kill Occlus. Almost tragic.

 

 

 

Golly, that was a bit more than I intended to write. Anyway, those of you who doubt, no worries. I think the likelihood of this thin myself, but I do genuinely believe that there has been left room for such presumptions. Thanks for reading and I hope you have something to contribute.

[SWTOR is not Star Wars]

For me, Star Wars is the story of the Empire vs. the Republic, the Jedi vs. the Sith. Why does/should the Empire take a "step in the right direction?" Because in end-game raiding, the empire and republic are fighting the same enemy, because that's what WoW does, and in the Star Wars universe it seems misplaced to me.

 

I (and I believe many others) play this game because it is Star Wars, which I reiterate means Empire vs. Republic, Sith vs. Jedi. And yet outside of Warzones that happen outside of the story, where is the Empire vs. Republic content, especially at endgame? It's not there, which in my opinion makes most of the story meaningless in a Star Wars context.

 

First of all, you should clearly seperate raiding from the actual plot. While operations do, no questions asked, bear a story-forwarding role, their main purpose is to entertain those who want to challenge themselves alongside others in this game for gear, honor and glory.

What I particularly referred to was the story on Makeb for the Empire. It was this conflict that initiated a turn of tables concerning the structures inside the Empire. Darth Marr himself, more or less the highest authority at the very moment, does realise that powerplays amongst the Sith and a mindless dictatorship have direly exacerbated conditions (which in my opinion is a subtle wish to be marginally more benevolent). Do not misunderstand me, the moment the Empire turns into a wanna-be Republic is the moment I completely stop respecting the plot and I do reinforce the wish to annihilate the Republic alongside its by this time duty-blinded Jedi.

(Just a little partisan here.)

However, where you are right (and what I must also criticise) is that the "shared-enemy-policy" not only starts to grow boring, but is misplaced right now, especially after we already had to endure that with Revan's utter insanity. Likewise does the importance of the battle between the Republic and the Empire begin to diminish. Something I admittedly find regrettable.

Eventually, I would not narrow down Star Wars to Empire vs. Republic only though, not as it currently stands. In any case, you are right with the actual war slowly fading from sight.

I myself by the way did begin to play this game because it was Star Wars, yes.

But by the time I learned to distinguish between aforementioned trilogy and this game, I started to enjoy it much more.

[SWTOR is not Star Wars]

To deepen this examination, why is the dark side even a viable option to begin with? The dark side and the Empire are EVIL. They stand for slavery, torture, exploitation, murder, racism ... Why are we even able to choose such a faction and make dark side choices that support the things listed above? Because this game is a COPY of WoW. But in WoW, the Horde is not EVIL. The Horde races may be more tribal or militant than the Alliance, but they are not evil and do not seek "the dark side" as a means to power.

 

All of this coupled with the fact that lightsabers are just glowing sticks destroys any real connection between SWTOR and that which makes Star Wars Star Wars.

 

Bet you're one of those Republic RP fascists ey?

I must admit that I am deeply concerned about your perception of games. Whilst I can at least rudimentarily understand your struggle, your arguments are far from convincing. They actually anger me, but I want to deal with this objectively.

 

The moment you ask why we are able to play "for the evil ones" is the moment you question quite a substantial part of gaming industry nowadays. How can you not understand that people are self-evidently thrilled when they can legally murder, cheat and enslave? Whether this happens in front of 0s and 1s or in real life hardly matters. (As far as I know though, there is no real possibility to murder legally in civilised regions of this world anyway (death penalties and dictatorships excluded)). Being evil in games is a wonderful chance given to players to also experience the meaning of our own caprice, and that is most fantastic. I also do not see at all why you have to be penalised when doing so! You stultify yourself by saying that there should be consequences for being evil in the Empire. Of course, being evil in the Republic is just as well contradictory, but this bunch of rookies eventually rely on you, no matter what you do.

 

Moreover, the Empire makes a huge development towards the right direction in the course of the game's plot. It starts to comprehend that blind murder and the reign of an apathetic Emperor are fairly useless and actually detrimental. The fact that the Empire desires to let ruthless slavery fade makes me favour it so much, as you know that there is being taken distance from "inconsideration". Yet, you may still be pitch-black dark if you wish to be. Without consequences.

 

I confess that SW:TOR has little to do with the original iconic Star Wars films. But does that make the game any bad? Not at all. It makes this game have it's own atmosphere and taste, which fortunately does not require you to "find ultimate redemption in the light side".

[The most profitable Crew Skill (by tendency)?]

I must say, I have been contemplating whether I should put this into New Player Help or not.

Eventually, I decided not to, because I felt like it was an understatement for the two years I play

SW:TOR now.

Ever since I started to play I have been a rather... reserved () player in matters of using Crew Skills to earn money, but... no, to cut it short, I was a lazy moron all along.

My way however has led me here, to ask this question, as I grow sick of doing Daily missions all the time for...

some kind of steady credit income.

Which Crew Skill would you consider tending to be most profitable, and ideally "easiest" (when selling crafted stuff on GTM)?

I do know of course that there are naturally variances between servers and its GTM prices, but I want to assume

there is a relation that enables to tell an answer to this.

[Legacy of the Rakata - first impressions]

Hm. As for my part, I do think this flashpoint is a tremendous enjoyment.

I must negate assumptions at this point you may have: the encounters are indeed meant for making some coffee meanwhile. But I'd have to lie saying I care.

I take the whole Forged Alliances story as what it is. A story.

I would have enjoyed being challenged by the flashpoint, but it matters not as long as I get entertained

all in all. Most of the people do like the story very much - as such I would not try to consider all those flashpoints

namely Korriban, Tython, Manaan and Rakata Prime as content that is about to be exhausted. I would not pay a visit to Rakata Prime to finish the bosses as fast as I can but let the atmosphere melt in my mouth.

As for my opinion, just turn up the music and let the epicness off the final encounter astonish you - even without unbelievably difficult mechanics - it is enjoyable so long as you let it happen.

And the rewards, sigh. Could have been better but I take the story as reward... somehow.

That's actually just how everything else like Story Mode OPs can still have an entertaining effect, even if you got through it in Nightmare.

I love being humiliated by mechanics.

But I also appreciate frothy fights. It's what is behind you got to enjoy, not what you can see solely.

[Events - What's the point of it?]

Well met and all that,

 

I've been thinking and complaining about the current application of events within SW:TOR for quite a long time already.

And my humble opinion is - You can't possibly be serious!

What system should this be?

 

Great, you've given us a bounty hunter week every month. Routinely meanwhile. Every. Month.

The same monotony.

Isn't the actual meaning of events the alternation players need to maintain fun continuously?

Don't get me wrong, I do like the thought of having something steady. But where's the surprise?

 

The very best example is the so beloved Relics of the Gree event.

Of course, its sparsity makes it so treasured. Anyhow you cannot expect us (least you cannot expect me) to suffer this huge intervals between whose schedule I have not yet determined. So many people would gladly see returning this event more often, not only because of the alternation, but more of the gear you can get.

 

The Rakghoul Event requires more time - logical, considering (as far as I've understood) the fact that this event always occurs on another planet. So it shall be but looking into the future - to the Nar Shadda Nightlife Event the quantity of a event gets even more scarcer.

What do events mean for you? It's the upkeep of having fun while playing a game for me. There is a lot of another content, I know that pretty well yet events provide the possibilty to do something apart from routine.

 

You think there's some change to expect?

[Kartellmünzenkauf mit Credits]

Nunja, ich finde du relativierst dieses Problem viel zu sehr. Es gibt nach wie vor Leute, die auch Creditprobleme haben, sprich oft an einem Minimum sind, so gehts mir auch oft. Nicht weil ich schlecht wirtschafte, sondern einfach keine Lust hab zu farmen.

Wie auch immer, beachtet man die Tatsache, dass die Kartellmünzen an und für sich als Geldeinnahmequelle seitens BioWare gedacht ist, denke ich, dass solch eine Funktion weder implementiert wird, noch von Nöten wäre.

[Wartungsarbeiten am 6. September 2013]

Tja Leute, ich schätze mal wir sehen uns um 21 Uhr wieder.