This is my favourite of these! It's just the sort of shot I had in my mind for Makeb, but I never managed to find a good spot like this. Really great composition with the path connecting the foreground and background, and it gets the feel of Makeb perfectly.

These are all spectacular! I think your Hutta 2 is second only to the one you actually sent in

Agreed! I never though much of Ossus before but I'm appreciating it a lot more through my own shots and now seeing others'. Nar Shaddaa would have some great shots looking out from a balcony - I like how you can see other areas from the one you're in, like the casinos from the spaceport. Or a busy shot with the giant gold hutt!

I'm loving the shots where people are really using the NPCs. I didn't attempt that at all myself, I mostly tried to get pure scenery shots. But there're some great little characters and interactions that bring a lot to some of these places!

Okay, here's mine! Like Karmeck, I started out by saving some quick test shots from all over (even keeping the UI in so I could see from the minimap where I was), and then going back to redo the best ones. I made sure to try the 4:3 crop on all of mine as well to make sure the composition still worked and I hadn't put the key features across the whole screen. Hutta: I'm not a big fan of Hutta, the only thing that immediately sprang to mind was 'pipes'. But then I realised Nar Shaddaa is right there in the sky, I must have never looked up in the right direction before! So it ended up being a search for the best frame for Nar Shaddaa. It really made me appreciate how much detail they put into the little things - the city lights 'sparkle', so I had to wait for them to light up just right. Some rejects with more of a pipe focus: 1, 2 Mek-Sha: This is actually the first planet I went to for this contest, because I really enjoyed the story and the setting and I knew I was gonna find lots of good shots. I started out with the big vistas, but my final chosen shot was this alleyway I stumbled upon that gave a good composition and shows a bit more of the seedy side. I'm both loving and feeling jealous that a couple of others in this thread found my hidden gem alleyway too! Makeb: What I really wanted to capture on Makeb was the resort-planet landscape, all broken up by the industry. I really love the slanting, cracked ground in the cities. I tried to capture that in a couple of the rejects (still with UI): 1, 2. In 1, I really loved that the fountain itself is slanted but the stream of water is vertical! It's such a tiny detail though, not even visible in this small version I saved. I know it'd get lost. I'd also really wanted to get a shot of the light bridges, they're very iconic Makeb, they scare me so much when I'm playing and need to double-check I'm not walking into a chasm. I found them really difficult to capture though, you can only see them properly when they're slanted away from you. I couldn't get an interesting enough shot with it being that restrictive. Ossus: When I think Ossus, my main thoughts are the farms, people trying to start up something green and new in an inhospitable place. So that's what I was trying to capture here, while still getting the ruins in. This is actually the one I waited longest for, and I STILL didn't get what I wanted! Every now and then there's a flash like lightning in the sky for a split second. Looks great, but I only saw it every five minutes or so. And of course the two times I did manage to capture it, the windmill blades were lined up all wrong... Some rejects still with UI: 1, 2. I really liked both of these, but I figured 1 would be what everyone sent in (this thread is backing that up!), and 2 wasn't Ossus-y enough. Korriban: Like a lot of you I immediately thought of the Valley of the Dark Lords because it's such an iconic location - not only in SWTOR but also throughout Star Wars. I decided against it because I figured lots of people would do that, and get better shots than I could. So second choice was inside the Academy. This is one of the most obvious views, but I waited very patiently to get the guards bowing but also nobody in shot! (This is such a lovely little game detail - I have heard the guards will bow to certain players and not others, based on level or whether they're a Sith Lord or something like that?) Yavin IV: I took a trip around the Yavin IV temple and jungles like you all, but nothing really grabbed me. For me though, Yavin IV is one of the planets that's all about the two factions working side by side, so that's what I tried to capture. I love that this vista also gave me the temple in the distance and Yavin in the sky, and I quite enjoyed picking out which of the many ships flying across looked best. The timing had to be spot on! This was a hard one to get and still work with a 4:3 crop, I really wanted to be able to fill the screen. The other annoying thing was the Taxi marker above the droids' heads - I initially tried to get this shot on a Republic character but switched to an Imp to get rid of the Republic taxi marker. Did anyone find a way to remove these? The nameplates can be hidden easily but the icons stay there. Ord Mantell: I love how so many of us have waited patiently for those same three ships for our sky! This one was annoying to get, a couple of enemies on the right kept on respawning while I waited. In they way of the shot and in range to attack me, but I didn't want to move and lose the shot! Tatooine: This was probably the hardest planet for me. In theory there are some great views, but I found them really hard to capture. I think a lot of the problem comes from the fact that the twin suns are so iconic, so you want to get them in...but that means you're facing into the sun and everything's in shadow. I gave up and went for minimalism. Tython: This was the result of trying to get a shot of the Jedi Temple where I wouldn't need to wait forever for people to get out of shot! But I like that I've got some good foreground interest going on. Zakuul: This is my favourite. I had a hard time on Zakuul at first, because I didn't find much that wowed me in the open-world parts. But then I remembered how we actually see most of Zakuul in the chapter instances like this one (KotET 6, Dragon's Maw - Vaylin's party). No dodging enemies here, so I had tons of fun running around the palace and got some great shots, I wish I'd saved my rejects!

I'd love to ask as well: What worlds did you all wish were included, and what would you have been looking for there? For me, my thoughts went to: Alderaan - The classic planet for gorgeous scenery. Maybe something from, or looking towards the Elysium? The cities are very elegant, but I'd probably avoid those in favour of some mountain scenery. Balmorra - Not sure if many agree with me, but I love Balmorra. Partly I go there because it's got the best music in the game, but I also love the scenery. I remember stumbling across a beautiful view at the edge of the map somewhere, so I'd enjoy trying to find that again. What would capture the essence of Balmorra more though would be one of the open battlefields, I'm thinking looking north-east towards the turrets on the ridge in the Sundari flatlands. Corellia - It doesn't always look great when you're concentrating on missions, but have you ever wandered about fully zoomed in and looking UP? It's got some fantastic cityscapes! I'd love trying to find a shot really encapsulating that feeling of a planet that used to be so prosperous and is now in ruins. The main view when you come out of the Republic spaceport is one that definitely springs to mind, but I'd probably skip it in case everyone went for the same thing, haha. Taris - I'd head straight for the 'Enclave Raid' heroic area in the north-east. I love the view of the ground unnaturally tilted down in front of you, similar to some of the Makeb shots I tried to get. Korriban - I'd be trying to capture that that moody rainy leafy gloom, I'm thinking I'd try to find a suitably ominous statue hidden in the jungle. Rishi - I'd probably first go to the main town and get a market shot with some wooden bridges above. The other locations with some colourful wildlife would be worth exploring again too. Ziost -

Me too, I had so much fun picking out my entries! I've always loved exploring the worlds so I am absolutely loving seeing everyone else's shots, and even more reading through everyone's thought processes. Especially when they sound so much like my experience! I'll post my own entries and maybe some of the extras I decided against. But first I want to add more comments to some of my favourites from this thread! Great thinking, this one is so iconic! I love that you've also gone for the farm shots, I feel like that's a big part of Ossus, and this is a great shot. Wow, I don't think there's gonna be a better Hutta shot than this. Where was this taken from? What a great composition, I love how the rail follows the water's edge and horizon, and the soldier's letting us know we should be looking out at the view, too. Wow, how long did you have to wait to get a shot with no PCs? Impressive. Love these - I hadn't thought to go behind the waterfalls! Another lovely composition. This is understated rather than flashy, but I think it represents Tython really well. Tranquil and ancient. Impressive! Agreed, I tried to stay fairly minimalist with most of mine (though that suits my tastes anyway!) because all we'll see in the game decoration is a tiny reduced shot. I tried for so long to get a shot of Mek-Sha that included those stacked buildings, I'd never noticed them before this! Plus that glowing hexagonal grid that's iconic for Mek-Sha for me. But like you, I just couldn't get a good shot of them, either nothing else was visible or they were fading out awkwardly. I hope a simple view like this wins from Tatooine, endless sands must be the first people think of when they think Tatooine. The work that's gone into this really does show, what a beautiful spot! This is my top pick for Ossus, so atmospheric and also capturing the feel really well. Haha, I love the story behind this, did you manage to recreate it or was this the screenshot you took back then? You're right, it's impressive how much of Makeb you capture here! I'm finding it really interesting reading what feelings other people have about the planets and the locations that are iconic to them. Great shot here that I never would have thought of.