Jump to content

Ardrossan

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,057

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Ardrossan

    The perspective from a returning player.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    OP,

     

    Do you read this far down into your post? If so I'll tell you that your replies are the typical 'Plato's Cave' defending the image projected on the back of the cave. Know that a good number of forum dwellers (subscribers) have rarely stepped out of this game and into another over the years. Your suggestions will immediately be rebuffed. Don't feel bad I had a similar suggestion regarding the guild system and why can't it work more like ESO's being legacy based (2-3 guilds per account).

     

    1. Skill Tree - Yes it used to be more in-depth. You need only look at the players back then. Nightmare raiders and super competitive pvp'ers. They have been replaced by a more fashion conscience RP bunch that pines over companion romance.

     

    2. $15 A Month - Sensitive subject. Outside of Plato's Cave other games seem to be able to get all of their revenue charging for either Expansions (Real Expansions) or Cosmetics. SWTOR cant' seem to do either of these right. One needs to only check Dulfy for the meek weekly updates which are usually recycled random loot crate items from the past.

     

    Plato's Cave is not synonymous with the rhetorical fallacy of groupthink, nor is it particularly similar to being in a cultural bubble. You pulled a philosophical concept out of your rear end for little more than to condescend to the forum because your ideas [and OPs] didn't get the instant agreement you were hoping for.

     

    Spare me from PHIL 101 students who think they're philosopher-kings judging the herd by the end of the course.

    What do you spend your Ziost tokens on?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Simple question. I've got a little over 300, and they don't seem to be worth much. The gear rating is quite low even for where you'd be by the time you ordinarily hit Ziost, and I'm told one of the two decos is bugged. That leaves just the mount, but it would be hard for a new player to get to it, and it's BOP. Anyone find a good use for these things?

    Grim Star Wars Fanfiction - by me

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    I'd like Fanfic to do a contest of sorts. We all agree [most of us] that Revan got handled rather badly in this game and the eponymous novel, and you see a lot of people saying 'they should have done this' or 'if only...' I'd like to see a competition for the best Revan SS that explains what happened after he left Republic Space at the end of K1. Non-canon, obviously.

     

    We could call it: 'Can You Write Revan's Fate Better Than BioWare?'

    Class Stories (personal opinion from what I played so far)

    in Story and Lore

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    I probably like SW the best of all of them, with Smuggler running up as the best pubside story.

     

    Smuggler has the best Act 1, imo. The villain is someone you love to hate, and there's a lot of fun comedy going on that livens up the worst planets [ie. Alderaan]. SW also has a very good Act 1, but the second half is significantly better than the first.

     

    All the Act 2s are kind of crappy imo, but the best story of the bunch is the IA for the dramatic reversal of fortunes - there seems like a lot more going on in this Act for IAs than for other classes. The JC storyline in Act 2 is also surprisingly good, as you come into some real power and ditch the straitjacket plot you were forced into in Act 1.

     

    SW has the best Act 3, I think, as you finally devote all your resources to killing your old master and everyone connected with him. Most of the other classes stories don't really shine until Corellia, but on the pubside I did also like the JK's Act 3 most of the way through.

     

    OTOH:

     

    Trooper has a really good Act 1, but the rest of the story isn't very good. BH has an almost identical problem, but it's a little ahead depending on your choice in the class story finale, and it has a better crew.

     

    I thought SI is generally awful the whole way through. You're mainly playing to show how crazy your character is, but it's hard to roleplay crazy people. The best is probably Act 2, as alone among the classes, you don't have a class story questgiver.

     

    As mentioned, JC has a truly terrible Act 1. It's as if the writers peeled this storyline off of a branching class story that was solely lightside, because there's really no rationale to be DS here. JK doesn't have a bad Act 1, but the plot of finding superweapons and destroying them is something that really should have gone to the Trooper instead. It's also a bit repetitive, since it re-occurs in Act 3. The Hoth mission for JKs is also the worst of any class, period, and Hoth is pretty terrible for every class.

     

    IA's Act 1 has a good beginning and ending, but the stuff in the middle is hit and miss. The good thing is that unlike a lot of the classes, the story gets better from Act 2 onward. Contrast this with the BH, where Act 1 is the high point of the story, it's all downhill from there. With the possible exception of Voss.

    Class Stories (personal opinion from what I played so far)

    in Story and Lore

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    If you're like me, you'll end up wondering why your character no longer has his brain installed at the beginning of JK Chapter 2. Almost the entirety of JK Chapter 2 is blindly fatuous optimism and blatant gross stupidity, on the part of *all* participants, from the JK himself all the way up to Grand Master of the Jedi Order Satele Shan.

     

    The JK at least can be skeptical that this is a good idea.

     

    I think it's intended to be reminiscent of K1, where the Jedi sent a strike force to CAPTURE Revan on his flagship. As it already happened by the time the game starts, it's a bit hard to appreciate how strange that mission would be - or how easily it could go off the rails - until you do JK Act 2.

    The perspective from a returning player.

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    I would prefer to have the skill trees back; mind you, it's A LOT easier to respec for pvp/pve under the current system. I would also prefer the AAs to be voiced, but tbh, the AAs are frequently terrible anyway. I did them three times apiece for three characters, and that's more than enough. I don't GAF about the trinity system, but as others mentioned, it makes more sense for queues and the disparity between healers, tanks and dps.

     

    As tahol said, these are rather minor complaints which don't adequately justify the textwall it took you to highlight them. The game is worth paying for, however, I also feel that the game can be played just fine as a pref, so I see no reason to continue to sub indefinitely. Note that I saw no particular reason to sub when you were originally around either, meaning that my reasoning to pay a sub or not doesn't depend on these critiques, or anything other than my own playstyle.

     

    I find it...ironic [Well, it's one word to describe it] that you would end your OP with this

     

    What do you guys and galls think?

    Am I right or just over analyzing?

     

    ...Which suggests you're interested in feedback, even if it disagrees with you, and yet you respond to said disagreements with this

     

    I barely played at that moment in time and never got around to address these points.

    Besides that they're not complaints they are things I noticed why do people always enter anti-social flame mode when some one shares a different opinion or view.

     

     

    So think before you speak.

     

    Query google for tips on how to communicate on a socially accepted level.

     

    Protip: This is the internet. If you post a thread, expect disagreement. These other posters are not being anti-social or flaming. They are critiquing your criticisms. If you want to criticize without getting critiqued, start a blog.

    The Empire are the good guys?

    in Story and Lore

    Posted

    That's simply a matter of choosing the right options.

     

    I had another idea too - in one of the swtor books, they mention this IA, Stryver, who apparently went undercover with the Mandalorians [but was actually Star Cabal]. I thought it would be an interesting idea to make a bounty hunter who is an undercover IA or even SIS, and whose mission is to win the Great Hunt in order to get access to the Blacklist. I think it would work better as an IA for Act 3, not just the dubious idea of attempting to kill the Supreme Chancellor just to keep their cover, but also with the dissolution of Intelligence, he'd lose the ability to come back to the fold. But there are still issues - iirc Intelligence has access to the Blacklist already.

    The Empire are the good guys?

    in Story and Lore

    Posted

    In the empire there is a birthright chain of command. If you aren't lucky and born as a non-force sensitive slave, then you are gona have some hell of a life. And majority of the empire are like that. If you are force sensitive, then you get to Korriban where you have a good chance to die during trials. And even if you survive, then Siths kill each other all the time. Just play the Sith Inquisitor's story and you see just how lucky you must be to stand a chance. Last but not least their army. In the Empire there is no such thing as "retreat", or "mission fail". Failure means execution.

     

    So no. The Empire is certanily not "good guys". If you randomly born into the Empire, then great chance, that you gona have a miserable, and short life.

     

    What about Bounty Hunters?

     

    So here we have guys who often have republic accents, who don't have to be Mandalorians to be accredited professionals in the Empire, and who are, in many cases, able to assume command level positions temporarily in order to achieve x result.

     

    LS Smugglers are often roleplayed as Republic patriots who don't want to go through the bureaucracy of serving in the military to serve their government. I did the same thing with a DS bounty hunter who wants to serve the Empire but wants the freedom to pick assignments and go where he's needed. It works surprisingly well. It would be better if you could choose to have an imperial accent, but there's probably lots of Republic planets that got absorbed into the Empire during the first war, and newly made imperial citizens who have real patriotism to the Empire.

    • Like 1

    Question KOTFE - warning spoilers

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    If you're an IA that went Hand of Jadus, or a BH that sided with Tormen, or even a SW that told the truth to the Hand on Rishi, I don't see why you wouldn't kneel. Smugglers don't have quite the same narrative arc, and maybe are rebellious enough not to bow even though it's suicide. SIs might bow if they see it as a necessary step to fulfilling their ambitions. Likewise, troopers are certainly dead if they don't bow, but there's probably very few of them who would want to.

     

    Whereas JKs should get an extra line of dialogue if they bow, like 'you've finally learned from the examples of your fellow Jedi' or something. JCs should get a nod as well, maybe a reference to Bakarn.

    The Empire are the good guys?

    in Story and Lore

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    I'd say the Republic (at this point in the story anyway) is probably more "good" than governments on Earth, quite frankly. Whenever Republic players encounter corruption or moral failings in the Republic, we are very often given a chance to correct it. That seems more efficient than how we deal with corruption in real life.

     

    Mostly. Did you do the mission on Ord Mantell with the bomb race? That was a great mission. Most of the times I played it, it was either to bet or run. Then once on my super LS trooper I chose to report them to Ord Mantell's Ethics Officer. I think that guy is a pretty accurate representation of the Republic.

     

    Is there any point in being neutral?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    Really? What are the options that lead to what he says? For every LS Smuggler I've seen, Rogun says "I'm just glad the good you did was real and not another set up."

     

    All the Darkside Smugglers I've seen just kill him before he gets to that line.

     

    I'm not 100% certain, but I had two neutral smugglers: one gave the weapons shipment on Balmorra to the Republic, locked up Ivory, handed over the psychic kid from Hoth to the Republic and...I forget about Voss. I think he took the walk-out option for the trial, and he didn't take over the business. He got the LS line. The other one sold the shipment piece by piece, let Ivory steal the ship [was that it? You either lock him up, put him to work, or let him do his original plan for a bribe], allowed the Voss chaperone to screw himself over, didn't take over the business, and I forget what he did on Hoth. He got that neutral option.

     

    I think it depends on two specific narratives: either help the republic as much as you can, or form a gangster empire. If you do DS stuff but don't use it to control the underworld, you get that neutral option, because the game reads it as inconsistent play between the two narratives. Taking over the business with the Gormak isn't DS, but it does make more sense if you're playing DS.

     

    *You also have a choice not to kill Rogun, but that requires taking the LS option to call a truce with him, iirc. There's also an every man for himself neutral option, but I forget what that does; I think maybe he loses his plot-character immortality and the Sith kill him.

    You Have Been Replaced

    in Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    You are completely right about this

    I live in a city where protests are very common--and there's no easier and quicker way to piss off the people who would actually agree with your point than to block them in their vehicles in any way on the street/highway. They're actually more likely to run you over at that point without a care in the world than even mutter "good for you for standing up for your convictions"

     

    Same deal here--blaming/hating/minimizing the person complaining or the argument they're making, even if you agree with it, simply because they're doing it in a way that you don't agree with. In this case, you don't like the "spam" in the discussion threads (that move less and less frequently every day, so...what's the problem for you?) much like the driver in the luxury SUV doesn't like being blocked from their ten-minute drive to McDonald's by people protesting fairness in whatever social issue that actually has importance in the real world, and will literally start pushing people with their vehicle and get cheered on by idiots watching that on TV.

     

    Now I know this is just a discussion forum for a game that isn't real life and you might personally never actually cheer for the ******* "pushing" protestors out of the way, I'm just saying it's a similar situation where everyone starts ignoring the argument and it gets minimized and forgotten and never solved in a vicious cycle that is perpetuated more by the person willfully getting angry over inconvenience/method of the messenger rather than the problem itself.

     

    *I'm using "you" generally, because this phenomena is hardly unique to you

     

    Not really sure how I'm completely right when your argument is the total opposite.

     

    So tell me, how often has a ragequit thread spurred BW to fix x issue? A discussion forum is not real life, and doesn't behave according to real life rules. It's one of the things that pisses me off when people make analogies to restaurants or shoe stores as some kind of comparison to videogame developers. There's no comparison.

     

    The pvp spammers MAY have a viable strategy, though I'm highly skeptical. What I think spam threads mainly do is draw players' attention [rather than the devs] to x broken thing, persuading them not to bother with it until it gets fixed. That's the main thing I took from the many Ossus threads: hold off on playing it until BW fixes it, whenever that might be. Of course, this is a subset of the players who actually read this forum, meaning it's probably not enough to form a statistical blip big enough to concern BW.

     

    I think there's an irony here to call for better communication from the devs [which I certainly agree with], but to excuse and minimize rage threads. Player communication evidently doesn't need to be improved, eh?

    Cool Reception Mission: Just When You Think The Writing Can't Get Any Worse

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I think I can remember a few like that in some of the Sith stories where some nobody underling out in the middle of nowhere holds you hostage for something, forcing you to do some stupid fetch quest when you could just zap or choke them on the spot and take the thing off their dead body.

     

    I'm reminded of the SI mission to get the CN-12 Chip on NS. A tech-gang has it and says they'll give it to you if you give them control of your cult. You can, of course, torture them until they give it up, or just kill them all on the spot. It doesn't make a lot of sense to give them your cult - they claim that you can summon them to battle or something but that never went anywhere. The only reason to take that option at all [aside from player perversity] is that if you spared Rylee and Destris in Act 1, you can go back and kill them yourself, which was certainly satisfying.

    Is there any point in being neutral?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ardrossan

    Rogun the Butcher, for example told her, "You've walked a hell of a line to help the Republic and claim the throne of the underworld."

     

    oh yeah, I forgot about that one. His line actually changes here not so much based on neutrality but on what specific choices you make. In that sense, it's more like the JC Act 2 finale - doesn't matter how LS you are, if you threatened Director Fenn on Balmorra or hired Valon on Hoth, the Royals will still sic their guards on you.

×
×
  • Create New...