drug_cartel
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Posts posted by drug_cartel
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At this point, I don't want anything to change the original story. I think it'll cause bugs, and even if it was handled perfectly, it would annoy me to no end when I look at the 18 characters I've already played to cap and think that I might want to have handled some of them differently. Especially when accessing the expansions ended the original companion stories, so there is no way to go back and play them (and in many cases, those companions haven't even yet returned).
Instead, what I would like to see is, as companions are introduced in the future, both new ones and the return of old ones, give them a simple companion quest chain for conversations. Include a romance option for both male and female characters. Maybe your female Bounty Hunter was friend-zoned by Mako for years, but now that you're back together after all that time, she's more open to it. Maybe a returning Doc finally has the courage to confess his feelings to your male Knight. Same companion characters, and I am totally up for opening the door to same gender relationships, but I want it to be done in the new story, not as a rework of the old one.
And while they're at it, there is no reason why certain other characters cannot be romanced at all. My Trooper feels her kinship with Tanno Vik. My Smuggler loves her protective Bowdaar. My Sith Warrior wants to have more than just a one night stand with Lt. Pierce. Why are 3/4ths of companions so stand-offish that they never will even so much as allow you to flirt with them?
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I read an article once which summed it up nicely.
Being Sith isn't simply "being evil". Being Sith is more of a cultural thing. Going Dark Side does not make you Imperial, any more than going Light Side makes you Republic.
If you were Jack the Ripper in London, a horrific serial killer, and World War II breaks out in Europe, the Nazis would not knock on your door and say "we're here to recruit you because you're eeeeeevil." You would still be British. You would just be an evil British person.
A Jedi who wanders down the Dark Path does not become Sith. He becomes a fallen and dark Jedi. A Sith who walks the path of light does not stop being a Sith; he becomes a more pragmatic Sith. And all non-force using classes... well, being a evil Trooper means you sacrifice cilivians, you torture enemies, you engage in war crimes, but none of that affects your level of patriotism or zealotry towards the Republic. Same with an Imp Agent. You might literally get the ending of the story where you are now Republic, working inside the Empire as a double-agent, but that means the Republic is only working with you inasmuch as you continue to be their double agent, so you never actually get to stroll through the streets of Corescant as a hero.
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Storywise, it can be made to work.
First and foremost, you are not actually said to be from an elite bloodline. You are actually said to have taken shortcuts and had advantages given to you by Overseer Tremmel. Which, honestly, you have. You skipped the 'school' part of training and advanced to the trials without ever bothering to learn the Sith Code, and had your judgements flown in from off-world for you. Overseer Tremmel has given you special treatment and your fellow Acolytes are (rightfully) jealous of the advantages and shortcuts you have been given.
Now this gets sometimes cast in a different light because of the statements of Overseer Tremmel. Tremmel makes very disparaging overtones against "impure bloodlines". However, when Tremmel makes those comments, whom is he speaking about? Vemrin. And Vemrin is a white human male without any visible cybernetics. So Tremmel's prejudices run far deeper than just species (although he does also make comments about hating aliens). Some presume that this now canonically implies that, since he likes you, and he hates the impure bloodlines, you must somehow be of pure blood.
Unless...
Recall after Tremmel's defeat, Baras very clearly tells you that Tremmel "thought of you as family". He makes a very sentimental comment, trying to play at your emotions. This could mean that Tremmel loved you and thought of you as his own child, perhaps having even adopted you. This could mean that Tremmel considered you someone of similar beliefs to his, a kindred spirit (maybe you are, in your own way, some form of Cathar nobility who feels that you too are better than your Cathar fellows). But I feel the most insightful and accurate interpretation is revealed by actually looking at what "family" means to Tremmel.
We get to see multiple interactions between Tremmel and his daughter. He has her enrolled as an acolyte; however, he does not trust her to defeat Vemrin. Maybe he's protecting her because he cares about her, and looks at you as potentially expendable. More likely, he looks at you as more likely to be successful, and shunts aside his own daughter in order to accomplish his goals. Tremmel's relationship with his daughter is dismissive and detatched, with him throwing his support towards you, an Alien of all creatures, rather than his own pure-blooded daughter.
And how does his daughter respond when she believes you have killed her father? She stands against you, desiring to fight to the death to avenge him. She cared about him in clearly a way that he did not care about her. Or, in other words, he manipulated her and used her to his own gain. Same as he was doing with you. For Overseer Tremmel, to be "thought of as family" means to be thought of as useful, exploitable, and able to be manipulated, but ultimately another expendable tool in his game and to his ends. Not nearly as flattering a comment as Baras made it out to be, but fitting for an Old Ways Sith.
So as a Cathar Warrior, what we know as canon would be this.
The very openly prejudice Tremmel took you, despite your 'inferior' bloodline, because he sensed great power in you. He intentionally skipped you past all the Sith education that might have prepared you to deal with his manipulations, and dropped you straight into the Trials, where your brute strength and power could potentially defeat Vemrin, but without the tools you would need to ascend much further. Tremmel's fears were not that Vemrin would become Sith; it was that with Vemrin's power and Baras's training, Vemrin could become a Sith Lord, perhaps even a Darth someday, attaining leadership that he was too 'impure' to deserve. You, without that Sith education, a lowly alien, are little more than a dog he sicked on his enemies, using you to kill Vemrin and thwart Baras. He treated you like his attack dog, with every intention that, after becoming Sith, you would ultimately fail to move further upwards because of his intentionally poor training. Training which he had a thorough understanding of, considering he was appointed as the OVERSEER for the Sith Academy on Korriban.
And then, once Tremmel falls and you become Baras's apprentice, Baras has canonically and openly expressed he has no interest in the old ways of the bloodlines, and he is happy to exploit anyone, regardless of race, if they provide power towards his own gains. After you leave Korriban, nobody will ever mention the idea of your bloodline, or the shortcuts you took in your training. Only that you have great power and a strong connection to the force, which has nothing to do with race.
Can a Cathar Sith Warrior work? Yup. You just have to understand Overseer Tremmel's role in things.
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Thana Vesh from Imperial Taris is a great one, because she's on your side but plays as a rival, trying to undermine you at every turn.
I also really enjoy almost all of the original Havoc members in the Trooper story.
Baras and Rakton are definitely my favorite Final Bosses, with Baras having the greatest overall payoff.
My first Warrior was an alien, and from the beginning was offended by Tremmell's racist undertones and celebrated Baras's open-mindedness. I played the whole story as his loyal lapdog, fulfilling every assignment with exactness and praising him at every turn. When he turned on me, it was a harsh reality, and even at the end I fought him, it was a harsh lesson where I finally had to accept that I was serving as the Emperor's Wrath, not Baras's, and I could no longer subjugate myself to him.
Second run through as a Warrior, I took to heart that Baras comment from the beginning about how Tremmell saw me as family. That time I spared Tremmell, sought to undermine Baras at every turn, building up my own network of spies, sparing anyone who made promises or would live in debt to me. Baras hated me, and by the end, crushing him was very satisfying. Both methods of approaching Baras were great fun, which means he is a truly well written story.
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For years Troopers asked for the chance to have Ava Jaxo as a companion. I accept that it way too much work. However, saving her is still the most satisfying moment of my Troopers' careers, and I've gone through that story five times now.
Would it be possible, instead of a generic companion gift in the mail, to have Jaxo mail us a Stronghold Item that is just a character bound Ava Jaxo we can put in her base. That post-saving letter, instead of saying "I quit the army. I'm having troubles dealing with how close I came to dying. Thanks for saving me." Could be "I quit the army. I'm having troubles dealing with how close I came to dying. Can I stay with you?"
It's probably too story specific to ever make it into a pack, but if that was added as a little story reward for certain choices, I would be thrilled with the option of having her set up a room at my base.
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My least favorite companions are the ones who do not speak Galactic Basic. I really do want to like guys like Bowdaar, T7, Qyzen, and Blizz, but the lack of voice-acting makes any time they speak up during a conversation feel kind of flat and neutral.
When I save Ava Jaxo, I want to hear Jorgen and Dorne scream about what a monster I am, or M1-4X tell me how statistically the cost of training a single special forces trooper like Jaxo is higher than the cost of training 300 standard troopers, meaning saving her is a net gain for the Republic. Any of those are far more interesting of conversations than listening to Yuun eat a bucket of marbles.
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I no longer have access to the email address I used back in 2012 to first make this account. Yesterday, the game insisted that I enter my "One Time Password" over again, rendering me incapable of logging into the game. That password is sent to an email that I cannot access.
I can still log in on the website, because it keeps me logged in and never cleared my cookies or anything. I have tried six times now over the past 24 hours to update my email to a different one so that I can get back into my account. Every time it gives me the message "An email will be sent to you confirming this change."
If that email is being sent to my OLD email, then I still cannot access it so I will never be able to do this change.
If that email is SUPPOSED to be sent to my current email, it is not sending. It's not in my inbox. It's not in the Spam folder. It is nowhere. Six separate attempts and nothing has been delivered.
I don't know what else to do. I hate your stupid security authentication stuff. There are more safety procautions in place for my SWTOR account than there is for my actual bank account. You have managed to successfully keep my account so safe that it is "safe" from me even being able to play it. And, while I enjoy the game and I'm not a 'threaten to quit' kind of person, I can say that if I am unable to log into the game and play, I doubt I will remain subscribed just for the privilege of coming to the forums. Being able to play the game is an important part of playing the game.
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I'm not going to be one of these pretentious jack-holes who pretends like they know what everybody else wants, or what will happen in the future. I only speak for myself.
I was subbed to this game for the first year. I quit having completed 4 of the Class Stories. Leveling was just too painfully slow and repetitive through Planetary Missions, Flashpoints, and PvP. What makes those Planetary Missions and Flashpoints and whatnots less fun than the core class story? Lots of reasons, and not simply because we've already done them too often. In those Planetary Missions, they are not customized to your class. It annoys me to no end when my Jedi Knight gets treated like a random bounty hunter just out for credits, or when my Trooper is held to some sort of moral Jedi code. Too many of those missions feel awkwardly shoehorned in in a way that doesn't fit. Second, they break the story. There is this sense of urgency in each of the class missions; people are counting on you. Taking a break to run around Tattooine investigating the old Czerka ruins feels wrong when you know that there is a threat on Alderaan that needs to be addressed immediately. But when your mortal enemy has been sighted, or when there is a powerful weapon being built by your enemies, you still take a few extra weeks to doink around with Sand People because you have to in order to stay with the leveling curve. Oh, and don't forget the fact that no companion says one word during any Planetary Mission. All that great interaction you get to enjoy through your class story; that's all lost on Planetary Missions because they just silently approve or disapprove, often leaving you with no real idea why they feel that way. Ashara always nags me about the Jedi Code, but she likes it when I butcher these scavengers? What's up with that? Sure wish she would actually tell me.
The Planetary Missions were not really that fun the first time through, and they got progressively less fun, while the Class Stories can be enjoyable over and over again. Run it with a different companion, or show a different attitude, and it's a whole new experience. And when all that garbage keeps forcibly interupting the class mission, it breaks the chain of the storyline. It delays stuff to the point where we can forget what we were doing by the time we actually get to advance. It's like watching a television show that has more time spent in commercials than it does the actual show. Interuption after interuption pulling me out of what I actually wanted to see.
I played for the first year, then I gave up and quit. But the second 12x XP was announced, I resubbed and came back. I played for those two months, then quit about 3 days after it ended, because the game was right back into the cumbersome feeling it was the first time around. Now it's been announced again, and guess who's subbed right back up.
I don't pretend to know how everybody else feels. Maybe I'm some sort of special and unique snowflake, and there's nobody else in the world who feels like they want to play this game basically as a form of KOTOR 3, just rocking the class story over and over again instead of getting caught up with raiding and endgame stuff. I don't presume to know. But I can attest that 12x XP has me subbed to this game. I don't play every day. I'm not online all the time. But I'm willing to pay $15/month just to be able to sit down on a Saturday morning or a Sunday afternoon and enjoy a good video game with a compelling story.
I'm going to play every single class story at least two more times, just exploring different combat builds of characters and different story options as I go. And with my casual gameplay attitude, that's going to mean that I'm subbed for easily over a year. I'm not the one in the office crunching the numbers and figuring the budget, but I can say there is at least one subscription to the game that comes 100% because of 12x XP.
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She wants to create a lasting peace in the galaxy, you as a dark side inquisitor will want to destroy the republic (maybe a secondary goal, with your primary goal being to gain as much power with in the empire as possible).
I guess I'm missing the way they don't align.
Her primary goal is to establish peace. She's not loyal to the Republic implicitly; she is loyal to the Jedi Counsel (and she openly admits she questions some of their positions).
The Inquisitor's primary goal is to gain power. We want to gain power and ascend to the highest position we can. We want to rule. When you ask my Inquisitor what she wants, her answer will be: "Everything."
In the words of Doctor Horrible, "The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it." I don't want to ascend to power in order to fight a never-ending war. I want to ascend to power in order to defeat all of my enemies and control everything. And when I control everything, there will be no more war, no more conflict, because I will slaughter all those who disagree with me. No one will dare oppose me.
And then we will finally have peace.
Ashara and the Inquisitor are both looking at the big picture, and she's backing the winning horse. The galaxy can stay at war forever, with countless lives pointlessly dying on both sides, or she can help you to actually WIN and put this whole war to rest.
And as for wanting to destroy the Republic? I don't know where you get that idea. From the very beginning of the Inquisitor Class Story until the very end, you NEVER fight against the Republic as more than a casual speed bump on your quest for power.
Act 1: You serve Zash and gather her artifacts to help her gain power within the Dark Counsel. She is being opposed by Darth Thanaton, and you are helping her to prepare for that battle against the SITH, not the Republic.
Act 2: You gather the spirits you need in order to oppose Thanaton yourself. Everywhere you go, everything you do is to help you fight against the SITH, not the Republic.
Act 3: You act in self-preservation, doing what is necessary to stay alive. Then you finalize your power base and wage war against Darth Thanaton.
Full Class Story, start to finish, you enemy is a member of the Dark Counsel, not the Republic. The only time you ever fight against the Republic at all is a few incidental times when they are in the way of what you need. The Sith enslaved you, tried to kill you, and you dedicate your life into fighting against them.
I don't see how people interpret their Inquisitors as so loyal to the Empire. Look at the story again, look at what they did to you, and how you responded. From birth til death, the Empire has been the cause of all your grief, and the Republic has never done a thing to you.
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I have a question for
people who chose the defect to sis ending
what was your motivation for doing so? Im curious as I wish to do this but can't find a Good enough reason for my character (became an agent to protect the empire and it's citizens)
(I'm a bit late to the thread lol)
Understanding that there are two different groups of people at work: the Sith and the Empire. They may be working together, but they are not the same group. The Sith are essentially an Theocracy, with high ranking members of the Sith Order forming a counsel that will make all decisions. The Aristocrats within the Sith Order will be chosen through treachery, politicking, manipulation, birthright, genetics, and receptivity to the Force.
The Empire, on the other hand, appears to be a Stratocracy, where one ascends in power through a series of military promotions. This means that leaders among the Empire are chosen through a combination of politicking, merit, achievement, and opportunity.
My character liked the Empire. My character never liked the Sith. Sith seemed to play by their own rules, just randomly shocking, choking, and killing people for no reason. Sith also represented a power system where my character, being not force-sensitive, would essentially be considered an animal by default and a "useful tool" at best.
For me, the Sith were disbanding Imperial Intelligence and forming their own Intelligence operation. I would have loved to stay loyal to the Empire, but the Empire is being gradually overtaken by the Sith. These crazy, corrupt religious zealots are taking over the Empire, and forceably subjecting us to their whims as second class citizens to say the least. Imperial Intelligence, the agency which originally would have investigated and stopped this sort of corruption, the way I did with Darth Jadus, was now being destroyed and rebuilt as a system of mindless puppets to further the Sith Agenda. I did not support that.
Staying loyal to the Empire appeared to be a more noble way of describing becoming a Sith puppet. These are the people who kill millions of MY people, loyal Imperials, and not even to do battle with the Republic. They kill us off in order to have their petty squabblings between each other on the Dark Counsel. I see the Sith Order as a much greater threat than the Republic.
My job from the beginning was to stop corrupt Sith from hurting good Imperial people. The new puppet of Sith Intelligence will not allow me to do that. Being retired off and choosing to do my work as a free agent allows me to help a little, but leaves me lacking the power to disrupt the Sith Order power base and restore my glorious Empire. But the Republic? There is a war going on. The Sith and the Republic are coming to a head. I do NOT want to see the Sith win that war. So, much as I have done every step of the way throughout intelligence, I will work with the lesser of two evils in order to stop the real danger to the galaxy.
Double Spoiler from Jedi Knight
The freaking Emperor is trying to kill a galaxy full of his own people in order to ascend to near God-like power. That is the type of corruption we are facing at the very heart of the Sith. The Republic simply reflects a differing set of political beliefs. If the Sith get their way, then me, my family, my planet, and my entire species will die. If the Republic gets their way, I'll be the exact same guy on the exact same planet, but with a different flag at the capital building. The second the Sith destroyed Imperial Intelligence, the Sith drove me to find other allies to oppose them.
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The primary function of the Armor Dyes is to provide Character Customization. While the side benefit of Cartel Market economy is nice, that is not the core purpose of this feature of the game.
Currently there are over 30 different colors that the dye pallets can pull from. When put in the form of Primary/Second combinations, that means there will be over 900 different Dyes.
Currently dyes are being released through Cartel Packs at the rate of 2-3 per Pack. This means that in order to complete all the different combinations of just the existing colors, it will take Bioware's development team over twenty years.
In other words, the current dye system has failed to perform it's primary function. The majority (80% or more) of color combinations will never be available in game. The current system is functionally equivalent to requiring every dye use some shade of Yellow; the combinations that a given player wants may never be made available simply because Bioware has determined that additional color combinations are not worth the investment of resources to be released in a timely manner. New color combinations are barely an afterthought.
While I appreciate the fact that people make money buying Dyes from the Cartel Market and reselling them later, that's not the purpose of the Dye system. The purpose of the Dye system is to permit players to dye their armor and have increased character customization. The current system is not capable of fulfilling that lofty undertaking during the lifespan of the game.
Dye's need to be changed in order to allow them to work as intended. While I don't suggest the same system originally lobbied for here, a change does need to be made. As I doubt a change to the Cartel Packs is going to start bringing in the 50+ dye combos each Pack that we would need to get through all the different options, I recommend grossly simplifying what they have made overcomplicated.
Primary Dye and Secondary Dye should be separate slots. You socket something into Primary Dye, it only dyes the Primary color. You socket something into Secondary Dye slot, it only uses the Secondary Dye color. Then the responsibility falls to the players to obtain the two dyes that they need to make the combination they want. New additions in future packs would be actual new colors (like the "Darker Red" that gets requested).
There will always be Cartel Market stuff that can be bought and resold. That is no reason to leave a clearly broken system broken.
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She is part of building a power base so you can challenge Thanaton.
Having her turn dark and become Sith decreases her value. Sith apprentices are a dime a dozen. Look at how easy it was to pick up Xalek.
Now having a Jedi Knight inside the counsel who is loyal to you, that is a real asset of value. How many other Dark Counsel members have that? Eyes and ears in the Jedi Counsel, that is priceless. I would gladly execute a thousand Sith Apprentices in order to gain one foothold of influence within the Jedi Order.
Ashara has fallen to the point that she is doing terrible, dark acts, and then she entirely justifies herself and makes excuses, genuinely believing she is acting for the greater good. And better still, she thinks that the Sith Inquisitor actually represents the greater good, that she can be loyal to the Inquisitor without having to be loyal to the Dark Counsel.
Again, that is ideal. Any other Sith Apprentice seems to inevitably sell out their master in order to more directly serve a higher power. No other counsel member can sway Ashara, because she believes they are bad, and yet she holds you in a greater esteem, that you are better than your peers and your motives and actions are more justified. Even the Emporer himself could not convince Ashara to betray you, because she does not accept him in the way she does you. And similarly, she has been jaded just enough to the Jedi Counsel that Shan or Karr cannot sway her, because she is convinced their ways are also wrong, and that you represent some better path.
Instead of an apprentice who will follow the path of the Sith until they eventually try to kill you, you have an apprentice who will following whatever path you set out for her, without question, because it is you as an individual and not an entire group of people that she serves.
Being a Sith Inquisitor requires a certain amount of subtlety, much like being an Imperial Agent requires you to lie quite a bit. The Sith Inquisitor is a scalpel while the Sith Warrior is a battleaxe. The Sith Warrior sways Jaesa to the extreme, because those brutes prefer things to draw attention and be noticed. The Inquisitor operates from the shadows, pulling the strings, and if an Inquisitor has done their job well, nobody will ever realize what they have done.
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I came back when my friends told me about 12x XP. Basically every character I've ever played, I've shelved after finishing the class story. I think I did a few level 50 Flashpoints when that was the cap, but mostly I just wanted to play through the story, enjoying the journey.
At the default rate of XP, the leveling curve is just too cumbersome for the Story Mode. I've tried doing it all sorts of different ways. I tried doing all the planterary stuff first, and then completing my class mission all at once in order to not have each planet broken up. I tried doing the class mission first, and then hanging out on the planet doing planetaries until I catch back up to speed on level. I even did an Imp Agent where I bought the Flashpoint bonus XP, and Flashpointed up to 50, then went back to Dromand Kass and did all my class story back to back. Each time I either felt as though everything else that interupts the class story would eventually bog me down and make me forget all the great details that I enjoyed, or that going through it at the wrong level made it an inappropriate challenge rating and soaked some of the fun out of it.
With 12x XP, I came back and I have played the heck out of the game. I'm right now on my 7th time through the class story, just since the XP boost. I'm replaying classes. I'm trying different paths. I'm going through the story with different companions by my side. And I am loving it. Looking at it as KOTOR3, this is the best installment.
Truth be told, I will eventually leave the game once I have exhausted all the content. I'm just not a gear-treadmill person anymore. Getting too old for that. And I'm never going to raid on a schedule; that just makes it feel like a job. But I paid for an expansion I'll probably visit once, and I paid for a subscription that when most of the subscriber benefits (unlimited ops, warzones, tradeskills, etc) are things that I'm not even touching. And if they offered the 12x Class XP on the Cartel Market for $50, I'd drop that in a heartbeat and keep on playing the game for however much longer I enjoy it, even after the new expansion releases.
As it stands now, I'll probably leave after the expansion goes live, because I won't want to grind the endgame, and the leveling experience will return to being cumbersome and unenjoyable. But for now, I'm going to keep playing the heck out of it.
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If they don't change the conditions of the purge, then it's likely to be worthless to you, or anyone else. Sure, maybe a few names, or a few hundred, might come available. What happens if somebody else beats you to that name from your list of baby names, that you don't care about, and you still can't use it?
Then we wait another year. It's not rocket science. It's not brain surgery. It's customer service.
We have asked for the name purge, under the original criteria that Bioware dictated, to be used on an annual basis. Maybe it only frees up a couple names. Maybe a couple hundred. Maybe tens of thousands. Neither you nor I know how many free-to-play people have created accounts, played for a brief amount of time, and then long-since left the game. An annual purge tells the customers that, while we hope former customers return, we also aim to service all current customers and take care of their business.
YOU are the one who is insisting that the parameters of the purge need to be changed. We are not asking for that. If the name that a given player wants does not meet the criteria for a purge, then it means that the player currently using that name is actually using it. A regular use of the name purge isn't just about freeing up names; it's primary purpose is to provide customer service. It's to tell the customers "Hey, we're doing our best. And if you're not allowed to have it right now, it's because somebody else is actually using it."
We ask for an existing feature of the game to be used. YOU complain that it won't work, even though it has worked in the past. Then YOU accuse us of wanting changes to the system, when that is not what we asked for. Then YOU become aggressive towards your own idea of these changes, because you imagine that we have some secret agenda.
Look back at the original post. We're not saying that the Naming Purge criteria needs to be changed. We're saying that the Name Purge needs to be done on an annual basis. It's like spring cleaning. Sometimes it's good to get rid of stuff that nobody uses, that way you avoid getting bogged down with clutter.
Just because you don't think it'll work, doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. If nothing else, a naming purge stops some of the whining for a little while.
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Trooper is my favorite story. And I found a lot more diversity in the Trooper Story than in many of the other classes.
For example, the Trooper can opt to save the Senator or chase Wraith. The Trooper can testify before the senate, play ignorant, or shoot the Senator. The Trooper can save Jaxo or save the nameless drones. Save Fuse or stop the bomb. And so on.
Compared to many of the other class stories, moments like that seemed to feel as though I had a lot more weight, because there was fallout from my decisions each time.
A good story to me needs to have two key elements. There needs to be just enough freedom as you go that you feel like you're genuinely curious what would have happened if you chose another way. When a story gives the option of "Kill them, or just never see them again" it makes for a letdown. If you let someone live or escape, they need to turn up again later. Sith Warrior does a good job of showcasing that, and in doing so, you can feel like decisions have consequences.
Second, a story needs a good villain. That's where I feel a few of the classes fall flat. At the end of Act 3, I should be excited to finally fight my big baddy. After some of the decisions I was put into by the Trooper final boss, I truly hated the man and wanted him dead more than anything. The twist on Correlia as a Smuggler took a pretty bland story and suddenly had me very invested in wanting to get my hands on a certain two people. Baras was easy to hate as a Sith Warrior. The Jedi Knight... yeah, by the end you are definately invested.
The Consular? They needed to do a lot more with building up the relationship there to make you actually care about the final boss, because as it stands, I had never felt very emotionally invested there.
The Bounty Hunter? I can honestly say I held absolutely no ill will towards the guy. The whole story long, I've just been doing my job. He's sent a few people to attack me. I beat them. I would imagine that being attacked by people out for revenge is par for the course on a high earning bounty hunter. It absolutely never felt personal to me.
The Inquisitor? I just think it's a darn shame that we have 2 different Sith classes, and neither of them seem interested in actually fighting the Jedi. I know Sith politics plays a big part, but Inquisitor felt like it was trying to do the same thing that Warrior did, but delivered poorer. Inquisitor should have been fighting against the Jedi Counsel, and in that way it would have been unique and different.
Trooper has plenty of chances to be insubordinate and rebel against a Republic of politicians that "don't get it." But if you're angry that you don't get to betray the Republic outright and join the Empire... well, it is called the REPUBLIC Trooper.
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I think something that a lot of people seem to forget is: not all affection is gained through companion storyline, but all affection is gained through companion interaction.
Put it in some real-world perspective for a bit. You and a friend/girlfriend have a pretty feirce disagreement about something really important to them: politics, religion, whatever. You are really insulting and they should be really offended. Then you proceed to spend a hundred thousand dollars buying them gifts. Eventually you make it up to them and they forgive you for what you said.
That is what you are experiencing. If you do not agree with a companion, then don't agree with them. Your affection will stay low. The conversation chain will not progress further. You will be at a point in the relationship where it "makes sense."
But if you take your companion out on field missions and agree with everything they say, or you buy them piles and piles of gifts that they absolutely love, all in order to mend the damage that you did to your relationship, then you have chosen to mend this relationship. She's not reacting to your actions incorrectly; you are compartmentalizing your actions to pretend as though some count and others don't.
If your Affection with a companion is at 8000, then you agree with them, or you are working pretty darn hard at faking it to convince them. It is entirely appropriate then for the game to process that information accordingly. "Hey, this guy plays his character as getting along incredibly well with Ashara. Obviously he will respond in the positive, because everything else he does seems to be in the positive." It's the same thing people run into when they don't want to romance a companion, but do continue to affection them up by agreeing with them and gifting them. There's only so long you can string them on before they assume you're interested.
If you want them to hate you, let them. I'm having great fun on my 4th Trooper right now where I am rebellious and insubordinate, and I bring Dorne right along with me and tick her off. Affection is at -1000. She doesn't like me. And when I try to talk to her, the game realizes she doesn't like me, which allows it to respond appropriately.
Don't complain that the game breaks the emersion of your roleplay, when you metagame your own loopholes to avoid roleplaying in the first place. Affection is 100% under your control, and nobody will assume you agree with them unless you give them reasons to in the first place.
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How many MMOs have you played? In those, how many times have you actually gone through 30 attempts to name a character?
Guidelines for purges are listed, and they have been listed in this thread. Again, what happens when the name you're clamoring for isn't available after a purge? Again, are you going to push to change the rules so that you can finally find a way to get it?
I've played plenty of MMOs, but SWTOR is the first one that I can use the Random Name Generator supplied by the character creator, with the attitude that I will accept any name that they give me, and get 30 rejections in a row for names already being taken. I'm not trying to be Han Solo or Luke Starkiller or something in violation of the naming policy. Nobody is asking for them to remove the ban on forbidden names. We're talking about acceptable names that we're not allowed use because they are occupied by people who have not played in over a year.
Guidelines for the purge are listed, and they have been listed in this thread. I supported the purge the last time around. We're not asking to change the standards of the purge; we're just asking that it be done again. Same criteria. I do not care about getting a specific name; I'm not chasing down some longtime online handle or something. But it's simple customer service.
I don't want a name that has to be 15 characters long, or a nonsense string of letters. I want something simple and short. I want something easy to remember, and easy to spell, that way sending mail from one character to another, or explaining to my mates who they need to invite, will be as painless as possible. I want it to be a name, and not some stupid looking handle like "DarkCookie" or whatever other nonsense is acceptable through the filter.
Basically, all I wanted to do was pick up my copy of The Big Book of Baby Names and grab a name that sounds like a real person, and uses 6 characters or less. I'm not trying to be Drizzt or Chewie or some garbage, but it would be nice to be Michael, Matthew, James, Robert, Jim, Joseph, Allen, etc. something that sounds like a real name instead of "MMM'Potatoes" like is standing on fleet near me. Sure, these names are not exciting or original. But going page by page through the book, I'm 115 pages in with every single name being rejected.
We're not asking for the conditions of the purge to be changed. We're not whining to free up a specific name we want. We are asking, from the very original post, that the Name Purge which was previously determined by Bioware to be in the best interest of the game, that met criteria that Bioware believed would increase customer satisfaction while minimizing the amount of damage to non-customers who might return, the system that the game designers already implemented successfully in the past... be used again. Same as last time. Hey. Round two. Some more people may be gone now, and if they meet the purge criteria, then Bioware has determined they are not likely enough to return for it to be worth the lost revenue of name-changes that could be obtained through the purge.
We're not reinventing the wheel. We're saying take the exact same thing that worked in 2013, and bring us up to date in 2014. And if somebody's character names are really, really important to them, then they can log in for five seconds so that the character is active again, and be safe for another year.
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Oh, good to know, ty. I went with Elara on a male, just to be on the safe side. I think I am too chicken to risk losing th dialogue.
So, erm, with Jaxo's invite, does that break Lara's romance or is it Okay if she is not in the party?
Does not break the romance. Does not affection hit Dorne if she is not in the party. Does result in Dark Side points.
Dorne will freak the heck out though if you later on
save Jaxo's life
.
Even if she's not in the party when it happens, she will react regarding that once you get back to the ship.
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All of them. I will level up all the alts. I even went to other servers once I filled up on Harbinger, to play through even more characters.
This 12x Experience has been totally awesome, allowing me to play characters through their core story without having to commit really heavily into leveling them. And since I've already capped every class once on my real server, I don't feel obligated to try and babysit the companions or anything.
Right now I'm on my 4th Trooper (my favorite story) and I'm playing as an insubordinate soldier but exclusively bringing Dorne everywhere, watching her freak out by everything I do. There are some shockingly enjoyable moments of ticking off companions you don't like if you actually bring them along and then don't agree with them.
I played through 5 Imperial Agents trying to get different endings for the Class Story, because that one has the most options. I played through Smuggler again just so I could make one minor change at the end of the class mission that would reward me a title I missed out on the first time.
Little known fact: Cartel Coins are global to the account, while achievements are Legacy Specific (and thus server specific). If you bounce over to a new server and play another story just for the fun of it, you unlock Cartel Coins for each chapter and accomplishment all over again.
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A Gamorrean.
HK is a solid DPS. Treek is a pretty good healer. And while Treek does have a Tanking toggle (which the dual roles is why I believe Treek is so popular), a really hearty Tanking companion would be nice.
Gamorreans by lore are frequently taken as slaves or hired up as mercenaries, bodyguards, etc. And since they are a Non-Basic race, they are unlikely to ever be a playable race. Having a big, thuggish goon at your beck and call, would be a great. Especially for situations like Healer Bounty Hunters that get stuck with Mako for so long.
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I went with a Ratataki. In my opinion, the Smuggler works well as a human, or as some of the fringe races that are less frequently seen in the Republic, because you are at your core a criminal in the Republic.
And I also dig the Miralukan Gunslingers, shooting people up while blindfolded. It's just classy.
I do agree with going male. Not that there's anything wrong with females, or romancing, or whatever. It's simply that I found Corso to be one of the most obnoxious, hillbilly morons, and I hated having him flirt with me so badly that I deleted my first Smuggler and made a male just to shut him up. Risha and Akaavi are both cool though, with Risha working well if you're more of a Space Cowboy and Akaavi working well if you're more of a Space Pirate.
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correct, my thoughts exaclty
By the same measure though, you have no idea how many new players coming in decide not to stay when they are rejected in their first 30 attempts to name a character. Or when they can't figure out how to talk to half the people they meet, because so many of them use alt-key codes in order to get the names they wanted.
If I don't know how many returning customers quit becaue of a lost name, then you don't know how many customers are lost because of a lack of a name purge. Neither side is entitled to speculate.
But what we can see quite clearly here on the forums is that the game does have customers right now, and that a name purge affects them in two ways. If they are an active player of the game, paying or not, then they lose nothing. If they are a paying customer, actively playing or not, then they lose nothing. And they gain the potential to use names that were otherwise blocked off from them. Anybody on these forums has an account in good standing and would lose nothing from a name purge.
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Simple fixes: The ability to give multiple gifts at a time. If I have to hand every new companion 166 grade 1 green gifts, why do I have do to those one at a time? You let us buy them in stacks of 99; we should be able to give them the same way.
More conversation hits, both positive and negative. I played Ashara from the moment I got her until the end of the class story, but during the 12x XP only doing Class Missions. I backed out of every single conversation to only say things she agreed with. You know how much affection she gained? 1112. There were quite a few missions where she did not care if I murdered civilians or rescued bystanders. She wasn't being picky or critical; she simply had no opinions, positive or negative.
It's not all about the Affection Bar; I can just gift her up to 10K. But when a companion can go through an entire planet of class missions and not have a single thought or feeling concerning what you've done, it really makes them come off as having a weak personality and being entirely disinteresting.
Lastly, revise Black Talon and Esseles so that they work for ALL companions, instead of just starting companions. Then everyone has an option, no matter how picky a companion is, to be able to grind affection. Seriously, Dorne doesn't care if I airlock eject the engineers? Scourge isn't disappointed if I risk my life to save the old woman? You're talking like 1 day of coding tops in order to add in affection hits for the other companions; lets give our playerbase some options.
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They need to break the dyes into two separate slots. Primary Dye. Secondary Dye. Separate slots, separate consumeables required.
Currently there are over 30 colors being used in dye. Making them as exclusive Primary/Secondary combos means that there are over 900 different combinations. Yet we only get 2 new combinations per Cartel Pack now. At the current pace, it would take over 20 years to get through all the dye combos in order to make sure we can get the ones we want.
I can't argue that one combination is more deserving of another. While I really want White/DeepBrown, somebody else might have been anxiously awaiting that BlazeOrange/PaleGreen that was implemented instead. That's all fine and dandy. But considering that making the combination dyes has proven to be too taxing of Bioware's resources and they simply cannot or will not introduce them in a manner that can get them all out this decade, it seems safe to say the current system was too ambitious and a more simplified system that requires the players to buy 2 separate dyes in order to dye their gear, but to have control of their combinations, would streamline the process and save the development team years of making dye at their current pace.
Rank the Star Wars Movies
in STAR WARS Discussion
Posted
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Rogue One
3. Return of the Jedi
4. New Hope
5. Last Jedi
6. Force Awakens
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. Attack of the Clones
9. Phantom Menace