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Title: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Pennilenko on August 21, 2013, 06:11:42 PM
I completely ignored this game because EA, however with all of the lively MMO discussion going on recently I decided to give a whirl since it was free.  I liked the story bits and decided to throw a sub on it for a few months so I could play without stupid ass restrictions.

I am using this thread to openly solicit advice on anything that I should know that might make the game a more streamlined experience for me. What are some things I should look out for or avoid?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 21, 2013, 06:21:38 PM
- Don't try to gear up all your companions while leveling, there just aren't enough quest rewards and you won't be able to afford doing it through other means on a first character. Focus on one or two. If you're soloing that probably means the healer, if you have one available, otherwise a dps companion is normally a bit better than a tanking one for solo stuff in my experience.

- Crafting isn't really necessary, you are probably better off grabbing a couple gathering skills (slicing is always good) and a mission skill and just selling stuff on the GTN for money unless you intend to be some kind of endgame crafting dude. Possible exception is biochem since you can make yourself healing/buffing stuff that can be useful.

- For that one mission skill, level it up with companion gift missions, they're the cheapest to run, they take the least time, you can use those to get your relationship up with the companions you aren't using in mission dialogues, and they also reliably sell on the GTN last I looked.

- Trooper and Jedi Consular have the most boring stories overall, so if you picked one of those first and are like "this kind of sucks" consider giving another class a try before you punt the game. (Just my opinion, some people are irrationally in love with the Trooper story, like Fordel.) Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior are the most traditionally Star Wars-y of the storylines in my opinion. Smuggler and Sith Inquisitor are the funniest.

- I know you've mentioned that you play games with your wife/girlfriend/SO/whichever frequently, so note that this game is excellent in a duo, as you + friend + 2 companions is a full party of 4 and you can do heroic missions pretty easily that way. Make sure you play different classes, the class story missions don't work so well with 2 of the same class.

- Low level battlegrounds (er, warzones) are pretty fun and largely free of huge gear imbalances and such. Endgame PVP is more WoW-like, but the low level stuff is pretty good and can supplement your XP if you decide you hate a planet and don't want to do side missions there.

EDIT:

- If you think you might level more than one character all the way up, make your first one a human. Humans give a +100 presence bonus to all your characters once you get one to 50 which is a big, big boost in the effectiveness of companions for future characters. Other races just let you unlock them for use with classes they couldn't be originally.

- Don't sweat Dark Side/Light Side points too much, nothing important in gameplay terms is gated by them so you can freely do what you think makes sense for your character without worrying about consequences as far as gear or whatever.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Morat20 on August 21, 2013, 06:23:53 PM
If you're on Ebon Hawk, I'm Acica


I dunno, it's been fairly fun. Combat's already getting a little repetitive as a Jedi, my smuggler's a little more fun. I'm not enthralled by the talent trees, but I DO like the upgradeable gear a lot.

Pick-up groups seem fairly interesting (most are quite competent and good natured, at least on Ebon Hawk). Whomever hides the datacrons needs to be beaten with a stick. A stick on fire. "Out of the way" is fine.

 Fucking jump puzzles from hell are from assholes.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Pennilenko on August 21, 2013, 06:27:30 PM
Thanks for the tips. I will have to check, but I think I picked an east coast RP server.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 21, 2013, 09:22:37 PM
Cybertech is a good crafting skill to grab cuz it allows you to make mods and armorings for gear.  

Also I've ran every story but Jedi Knight and Sorc.  I think Agent is my favorite.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: ajax34i on August 22, 2013, 08:29:23 AM
Use the bonus (free) cartel points you get to unlock account-wide things, such as more inventory slots, or various races that you don't feel like playing to 50 to unlock.  Keep in mind that you have to initiate the unlocking purchase from the pertinent window (inventory screen or your legacy screen for example), because a lot of these are not specifically offered in the cartel market browse window.

Purchase a speeder from the GTN rather than the NPC trainers, as it is much cheaper.

Companion healer and/or tank may be needed to complete certain harder quests (or a certain companion may be forced on you by the story line).  They will function just fine if you simply buy some level-appropriate green gear from the GTN to outfit them with, just before the quest; you don't have to keep them geared up as you go.

The first companion you get (or the romance interest) can typically be chatted up in affection levels via dialogue choices as you play the game.  Later companions, you may have to start by giving them the cheap NPC vendor gifts to bring them up to 3000 or so, before you use your conversation options with them for affection increases.

You can definitely skip planets, if you get XP elsewhere.  As soon as you get your ship, doing a few space missions is a solid chunk of xp that can allow you to skip the next planet, which may be one of the sucky ones.  

Your rails in the game consist of a chain of "personal" quests, which send you to each planet with a specific task.  These you must do in order, if you wish to progress your story.  The starter planet typically establishes some NPC as your boss, and the personal quests come from him/her/it.  However, as soon as you land, each planet also hooks you via someone waiting for you at the docking station, to tell you to go see the planetary governor for an issue of importance.  That's the planetary quest chain, and it's long but can be skipped, if you're too high level for the planet.  You also get unrelated quests from NPCs on the planet, also optional.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 22, 2013, 11:02:02 AM
The planetary main quest chains are all worth doing at least once, and note they tend to give oranges out at the end. They also generally have more interesting dialogue options than side quests, more options specific to the class you're playing, and often at a point during them will let you choose between a couple different ways of completing a step (like, dark side, go murder these guys, light side, go disable these access points, or whatever). The side missions that come at each hub are usually more traditional kill X guys or collect Y things type quests.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Pennilenko on August 22, 2013, 10:48:36 PM
I settled right into my sith sorcerer, and am getting right down to being the biggest asshole the sw has seen. (storyline wise). Just got my ship. I think my sith lord boss, zash, is planning on screwing me over.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 23, 2013, 01:06:30 AM
- Trooper and Jedi Consular have the most boring stories overall, so if you picked one of those first and are like "this kind of sucks" consider giving another class a try before you punt the game. (Just my opinion, some people are irrationally in love with the Trooper story, like Fordel.) Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior are the most traditionally Star Wars-y of the storylines in my opinion. Smuggler and Sith Inquisitor are the funniest.

The JK is the most StarWars'y because it's the original Starwars story with planets and characters renamed.  :oh_i_see:

The JC story is nothing but Jedi Bullshit layered ontop of Jedi Bullshit.

The Smuggler is a random collection of Han Solo tropes.

The Trooper has the best set pieces but some of the worst filler. It suffers the most from the only 1 companion at a time limitation of the game.

The SW story is like, the evil mirror to the JK story.

The SI story is basically retarded, but totally carried by it's Voice Actors and dialogues.

The BH story is just sorta there.

The Imp Agent story is the best story in the game, easily.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on August 23, 2013, 03:37:43 AM
I played Trooper, Consular, and Agent to 50 -- and yeah, I'd say agent is the best. The one redeeming feature of the consular storyline was the (PlayerName) Tours The Galaxy With His Amazing Friends In The Magic Consular Bus setup of ... act 2 I think? The end-of-Act missions from the trooper storyline were really good, the others were kinda meh.

The Trooper has the best set pieces but some of the worst filler. It suffers the most from the only 1 companion at a time limitation of the game.
This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that after you get M1-4X, the other companions may as well not exist*. Do you not love the Republic with all your (flesh or metallic) heart, citizen?! :drill:

* well yeah, if you play Vanguard, you pretty much have to go with Elara 99% of the time. Details!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 23, 2013, 04:39:21 AM
The trooper story sucks hardest. There I said it. The filler is god awful, the non-filler is excessively same-y after Act 1, and the companions (except for Forex) are not particularly interesting (I liked them, but they're dull). It is the only class I am evidently incapable of leveling a second one of past Coruscant/DK, because I find it so boring.

IA is the best story if for no other reason than it has the least "okay we're going to have you tread water for a planet or two before we get back to the action" bullshit, but I also enjoyed it immensely because it has a shout out to pretty much every other class storyline in the game.  :heart:

Also, because I could sleep with almost anyone I ran across.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on August 23, 2013, 06:49:22 AM
I was thinking of playing again a bit, I love Sithy goodness and thought I was over the whole 'pay a buttload for early access, secure all my awesome names, then have them taken away. Twice.' thing. Turns out it still pisses me off to be named Håruspex and Sk˙.

I had to log in because someone tried changing my password. It still amazes me the horrid security of mmo admins, email as username was bad enough, but now they're giving away the username by using the forum name? How do these people have jobs? Luckily I caught the email and have a security key, but sheesh.

They try so hard to make me dislike this game that I really friggin' liked when it came out.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Mosesandstick on August 23, 2013, 11:00:56 AM
Are the travel times still awful?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 23, 2013, 12:51:40 PM
They lowered the level you can get speeders at some point - although maybe that's only for subscribers? I don't remember. You also get sprint from level 1 now. There are also priority transport terminals that let you teleport around between the various endame daily hub type spots. That was the only time I ever felt like the travel times were obnoxious though, when they only had a couple of those areas and it took a long time to go from Belsavis daily land to Ilum, or whatever.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Nebu on August 23, 2013, 11:31:33 PM
I just resubbed for a month as well.  I wanted to see the expansion and get my pvp fix.  The WoT community was starting to wear on my nerves.

I'm on Jedi covenant with two friends if anyone is also playing there.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Pennilenko on August 25, 2013, 06:27:35 PM
All of the problems (which can be glaring sometimes), I am having a hell of a lot of fun playing a game that I never intended to even try.

I love my Sith Inquisitor (Sorcerer) so much.  He lets me be the biggest asshole in the universe and still sleep with randy sith lord hotties. Also I love Khem, I play my relationship with him all like, "keep talking shit to me slave, I'll mop the floor with you again..."

My favorite part of my Inq is that I am always like, "don't waste my time...hold on, what did you say you can do for me...okay, kill everything, got it...be right back."


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 25, 2013, 09:12:02 PM
Sith inquisitor is one of my favorite voice actors in the game. He knows precisely what a goofy-ass universe he is in, and he will happily shovel scenery into his gaping maw for my entertainment.

Force lightning being a dialogue option as often as it is helps too.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Hawkbit on August 01, 2014, 11:34:34 AM
Going to put this here instead of making a new thread. 

I'm playing this casually for the story, Republic Knight.  I finished Corusant and I'm lvl 17.  However, it seems like the next step up is a level 20 zone.  What am I missing?  F2P XP seems to lag behind the story.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Paelos on August 01, 2014, 12:03:02 PM
You're supposed to go to Taris.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 01, 2014, 12:18:40 PM
Yeah, Taris is your next step. I know they let you go to Nar Shaddaa too, but that's because chapter one is weird and really probably shouldn't do that.  :why_so_serious:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 01, 2014, 11:07:34 PM
I have zero idea as to why they even give you that option. 


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Paelos on August 02, 2014, 07:35:14 AM
I have zero idea as to why they even give you that option. 

Because if you're subbed and use the xp boosts, you can get pretty close to 20 if you do everything on the other planets, along with some dungeons and space missions. I've just done Taris story and moved on most of the time.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 02, 2014, 12:00:22 PM
I have done that too (in fact, it's my standard leveling procedure), but I don't think that's the reason, as you still have to do Taris for your story, and at level 20 you'd still get real XP instead of mere-technicality XP. I think it's just to give you the illusion of choice.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 02, 2014, 08:33:18 PM
I suspect it's an artifact of some early design that they changed before any of us got into the beta.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 05, 2014, 09:28:12 PM
Alright, I'll give it a try. After all, F2P.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 05, 2014, 10:23:41 PM
Rakghoul event is going right now btw.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 07, 2014, 11:53:11 AM
I found that out the hard way. "Oh, I'm infected." "Oh, I blew up."

I find the game charming, and enjoy the character I'm playing (Thank you for Imperial Agent suggestions), who is done with formalities, wants people to get to the point, and is trying to work her way into Kailyo's pants. Because, of course. Even if cutscenes take longer than it takes to complete the quest, I'm enjoying the opportunity to interact and realize when I chose an option that is Sith-appropriate or when I'm just being a bitch. I *greatly* enjoy that they added a Legacy system for account-wide character unlocks through playthroughs, and find the Social system a nice incentive for group play. My first couple Flashpoints went well. It has its quirks and mirrors the WoW model closely, but it scratches that itch and does it well.

I feel like I'm in an RMT Business Man's Utopia. I've never seen "Only for Subscribers" so interwoven in the user interface. I feel like a second-class citizen, and, well, I am, but it wasn't nearly this bad in Planetside 2. Besides completing large quest chains, is there any other F2P way to earn Cartel Coins so I can at least start unlocking things like Crew Skills? I expect my first playthrough to be gimped.

As a Sniper, I'm encountering difficulty with hot bars. I've only got two, and I've set up abilities I use between cover and non-cover on the second bar. However, it auto-switches back to the cover hotbar when I don't want it to, and when I hit "First Hotbar", it takes me to my non-cover hot-bar. Is there a way around this?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 07, 2014, 12:39:07 PM
You don't necessarily need Cartel Coins either.  People will sell them for credits on the GTN.  You also get coins for finishing achievements though.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 07, 2014, 12:46:46 PM
I found that out the hard way. "Oh, I'm infected." "Oh, I blew up."

I find the game charming, and enjoy the character I'm playing (Thank you for Imperial Agent suggestions), who is done with formalities, wants people to get to the point, and is trying to work her way into Kailyo's pants. Because, of course. Even if cutscenes take longer than it takes to complete the quest, I'm enjoying the opportunity to interact and realize when I chose an option that is Sith-appropriate or when I'm just being a bitch. I *greatly* enjoy that they added a Legacy system for account-wide character unlocks through playthroughs, and find the Social system a nice incentive for group play. My first couple Flashpoints went well. It has its quirks and mirrors the WoW model closely, but it scratches that itch and does it well.

I feel like I'm in an RMT Business Man's Utopia. I've never seen "Only for Subscribers" so interwoven in the user interface. I feel like a second-class citizen, and, well, I am, but it wasn't nearly this bad in Planetside 2. Besides completing large quest chains, is there any other F2P way to earn Cartel Coins so I can at least start unlocking things like Crew Skills? I expect my first playthrough to be gimped.

As a Sniper, I'm encountering difficulty with hot bars. I've only got two, and I've set up abilities I use between cover and non-cover on the second bar. However, it auto-switches back to the cover hotbar when I don't want it to, and when I hit "First Hotbar", it takes me to my non-cover hot-bar. Is there a way around this?

Just as a heads-up, the companion romances currently in the game are opposite sex-only so if you're looking to romance Kaliyo you will want to start over with a dude.

On the hotbar question, you should probably embrace the cover hotbar. You'll eventually have enough abilities that you're going to want your second hotbar filled with utility powers that are usable in either stance, and as a sniper you'll want your primary DPS abilities to be on your cover hotbar so you can access them via number keys without extra clicking or modifier keys. I think you can disable the cover hotbar somewhere in settings but once you get used to it I think you'll find it a superior option.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 07, 2014, 07:03:22 PM
Thanks for the tips, it's improved my play experience. I've enjoyed playing in the different modes, but I am getting absolutely wrecked in Galactic Starfighter. The most shocking thing was that there is an ability that prevents you from maneuvering.

I can't even figure missiles out. While Warzones, Flashpoints, and the on-rails space battles were all picked up, Starfighter ... ugh.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Tannhauser on August 07, 2014, 07:28:43 PM
You 'paint' your target when a big yellow reticle appears, then fire the missiles.  You can paint multiple at once and then fire and hold the missile button to blast the group.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on August 07, 2014, 07:37:43 PM
The RMT in TOR doesn't bother me because I really consider it a subscription game.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 07, 2014, 11:02:39 PM
You 'paint' your target when a big yellow reticle appears, then fire the missiles.  You can paint multiple at once and then fire and hold the missile button to blast the group.

This is advice for the rail shooting space stuff, not Galactic Starfighter.

GSF is the 'real' PVP space game.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 08, 2014, 12:02:05 PM
Speaking of GSF, had a match end 1000-999 last night, it was a fucking blast even though my team was the 999 side.

I don't know about other servers but Ebon Hawk has custom chat channels (called "GSF") on each side where you can get tips from people that are good at it. (Although thinking about it, custom chat channels might not be a F2P feature?)


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ginaz on August 08, 2014, 05:30:37 PM
Speaking of GSF, had a match end 1000-999 last night, it was a fucking blast even though my team was the 999 side.

I don't know about other servers but Ebon Hawk has custom chat channels (called "GSF") on each side where you can get tips from people that are good at it. (Although thinking about it, custom chat channels might not be a F2P feature?)

I actively avoid anything GSF because I am awful at it.  Like really, really bad. :ye_gods:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 10, 2014, 03:04:55 PM
Oof. It was not a pleasant discovery to find out about the 200k credit cap on F2P accounts, with only a Cartel Coin purchase to raise the cap.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 10, 2014, 03:10:11 PM
You keep collecting money I believe, but only have access to 200k at a time.  You can buy an item that unlocks a portion of that money though so you can buy more expensive things.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 10, 2014, 05:20:57 PM
Do you know the item? That one element was the straw on the camel's back. I could deal with other caps including Weekly play limits, but removing my ability to buy most Cartel items on the AH due to most items being over 200k hindered my long-term plans.

After 5 days of playing, I got my Imperial Agent up to Lv. 30, and was about to finish Nar Shadda. They have a good, solid core product. Whereas I felt WoW was getting increasingly stale because of its limited core content, this game has 8 separate alt storylines to go through, cross-character achievements, a Legacy system for persistent progress over all characters, interesting alternative gameplay mechanics, good party and dungeon system, and a tie-in to an IP that has large appeal. It says something that I'm looking at its positive design decisions and don't feel terribly compelled to point out flaws. Whatever this thing was at launch, the product as it is has staying power. I can foresee this game being worth trying for someone ten years from now due to the strength of the total package.

Though, I'm not sure obtaining Legacy Level 50 is something to be proud of. But hey, rewarding all types of players.

I have spent enough time with this where I feel like if I want to be serious about playing I'd have to get a subscription just to remove all the restrictions. As it stands, I've got college and other priorities.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: ajax34i on August 10, 2014, 08:03:13 PM
Subscription removes the restrictions AND gives you 500 cartel coins per month (basically, $5 back to you), so not having the restrictions is worth the subscription cost to me, even if I'm playing casually a few hours each weekend.  Going through story line for character 6, two more to do after this.  Takes me about 3 months each, because, again, casual.

Not sure I could play with the restrictions, especially since 6 characters mean 300 total sell slots for the GTN, and selling gathered/crafting mats was lucrative enough to get me 1 million (plus gear) by level 30 on my first character, and by now 55 mil credits and all the mounts, armor sets, weapons, and crystals that I wanted.

EDIT:  The item is escrow transfer something something.

EDIT2:  Nar Shaddaa has orange modifiable off-hands (shields, shotguns, knives, etc) for sale for planet commendations.  It will be hard to find good off-hands on the GTN for you and your companions at higher levels.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 10, 2014, 10:16:48 PM
Got'cha, I looked it up. Excess credits go into an inaccessible escrow account. So I could rack up 600k in excess -- but I'm still looking to pay a huge credit cost to be able to get that 600k. They do stack though, so I can live with that. They'll eventually get me with purchasing to access Lv. 55 content, if I were to keep going.

It seems there are ways to get past all the restrictions put in place, they only require a huge percentage of credits on top of whatever it is you're doing.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Paelos on August 11, 2014, 01:07:38 PM
I can say right now the Hutt Cartel stuff was straight awful. Like beyond what I expected awful.

You think you're going to get more of the same, but instead you get endless kill 50 of this quests that send you back and forth to the same shit with no real story point. It's a low point.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 11, 2014, 01:36:59 PM
Do you mean Makeb? It's not especially different than any other planet quest. There's a main quest with some objectives and usually an instanced area and a conversation, and then little side quests with kill 50 type stuff that you pick up along the way. It's not as in depth as the personal storylines, but it's pretty much just like the planetary storylines.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Paelos on August 11, 2014, 01:39:59 PM
Yeah Makeb. My friend and I duoed it and it was so different to us it was horrible. YMMV, but I didn't care for it at all.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 11, 2014, 04:58:29 PM
Do you mean Makeb? It's not especially different than any other planet quest. There's a main quest with some objectives and usually an instanced area and a conversation, and then little side quests with kill 50 type stuff that you pick up along the way. It's not as in depth as the personal storylines, but it's pretty much just like the planetary storylines.


Makeb's problem is mob density. They forgot most classes don't have stealth to avoid the 5 billion trash packs in between everything.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 11, 2014, 04:59:28 PM
It's really only the one giant mesa with the mining drill control platforms or whatever where that really wears on me, personally. But yeah it's quite bad there.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 11, 2014, 08:40:04 PM
They are going to be boosting players for Makeb soon as well as lowering mob density.  I assume because of whatever is coming in 3.0.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 12, 2014, 01:16:42 AM
Does a one-month subscription get you permanent access to Hutt Cartel? It seems doubtful given $14.99 vs. $19.99.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Paelos on August 12, 2014, 06:10:34 AM
Does a one-month subscription get you permanent access to Hutt Cartel? It seems doubtful given $14.99 vs. $19.99.

It gives you access while subbed. I don't believe it's available if not subbed.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 12, 2014, 05:44:17 PM
Though, I'm not sure obtaining Legacy Level 50 is something to be proud of. But hey, rewarding all types of players.

If you do any amount of shit at level cap, the Legacy Levels come pretty fast. I hit Legacy 50 ages ago.  :why_so_serious:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 12, 2014, 05:45:57 PM
I just finally hit that myself.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on August 19, 2014, 06:23:33 PM
Has anyone checked out the housing yet? I was subscribed last month so I got the freebie stronghold. It's nice looking and maybe someday I'll have decorations for it but honestly I like it just for the easy transportation it provides. I can teleport to the house any time I like with no timeout and from there I can exit to my ship or the fleet. That alone makes it worth staying subscribed IMO.

The cartel has a bundle of utilities on sale right now as well that'll let me install a mailbox, a GTN terminal, and some storage.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 19, 2014, 06:25:13 PM
It looks fairly awesome. Reminds me of DAOC housing, in a good way.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 20, 2014, 12:01:52 AM
You can get a mailbox and legacy storage for free, by the way, by doing the intro-to-stronghold quest. You get it from a holostatue near the stronghold kiosks on the fleet, the reward is some basic decoration stuff plus the mailbox and legacy storage. Don't worry if you unlocked your stronghold already, you just need to visit your stronghold and walk two or three steps for it to complete. You can do it on alts, too, so you can have a billion of the basic rugs and stuff if you really want. :P


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ginaz on August 20, 2014, 01:40:34 AM
You can get a mailbox and legacy storage for free, by the way, by doing the intro-to-stronghold quest. You get it from a holostatue near the stronghold kiosks on the fleet, the reward is some basic decoration stuff plus the mailbox and legacy storage. Don't worry if you unlocked your stronghold already, you just need to visit your stronghold and walk two or three steps for it to complete. You can do it on alts, too, so you can have a billion of the basic rugs and stuff if you really want. :P

I bought a few things with my cartel coins to pimp out my stronghold and I've got everything except the balcony and solarium unlocked.  That shit's expensive. :ye_gods:  Some how I'm the top 10 for prestige, whatever that means.  It's open to the public so check it out if you want (listed as Ginaz's Stronghold or something), not that I'm any better decorating a house in TOR than I was in swg.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 20, 2014, 04:35:08 AM
Another major credit sink, looks like. Fun.

Is Galactic Starfighter a huge grind to get decent ships? It seems that way. I've started to get the hang of it, but I think I need like a tens of thousands of Fleet Points to get things unlocked.

Edit: OK, one benefit to this patch is that the market on Tier 6 Slicing Trade Goods were averaging 200 / unit prepatch, forcing me to stockpile -- and I'm now selling them for 3250.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 20, 2014, 10:44:56 AM
The unlockable ships are not better than the ones you start out with, they're just different. The basic starfighter and scout are very good, versatile ships. One of the unlockable gunships is pretty bad compared to the others but otherwise what ship you use is more a matter of playstyle than when you get it.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 21, 2014, 02:05:32 AM
I was pretty excited to get a Weekly Space Mission pass from finishing my Agent's story, but supposedly the item has been broken since launch? What's up with that?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 21, 2014, 10:59:40 AM
I didn't know the space missions (rail shooter ones) were even restricted, so no idea.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Paelos on August 21, 2014, 11:58:12 AM
I didn't know the space missions (rail shooter ones) were even restricted, so no idea.

They are yes.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 22, 2014, 03:00:32 AM
I unlocked the Top Tier and was pleased to find a new variety of missions but also slammed by their difficulty.

I've been having trouble with Galactic Starfighter. At certain times the number of people playing drops to below the numbers required for *one* match, indicating the server is interested in accomplishing other activities. Several Aces queue up, and decimate the opposing team who has underwhelming firepower (two starter ships).

It's frustrating. I thought they had something different + interesting, and it's being undermined by the power imbalance. One player said "So get better" as one brilliant solution to the problem.

Is Galactic Strongholds inspired by Wildstar? What they're doing is an excellent server-wide resource sink.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 22, 2014, 10:34:50 AM
GS has been in the works since before Wildstar released so I doubt it. It's like any MMO housing system, really.

All I know is I have a fucking sweet cult church thing with giant torches started in my Dromund Kaas apartment, and it's awesome.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 22, 2014, 12:25:00 PM
Unlock the center piece square and I'll put down my giant Emperor Doom Statue for you too.


I spent way to much on boots.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 22, 2014, 01:23:46 PM
I don't think you can share your decorations with me sadly.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ginaz on August 22, 2014, 03:10:28 PM
GS has been in the works since before Wildstar released so I doubt it. It's like any MMO housing system, really.

All I know is I have a fucking sweet cult church thing with giant torches started in my Dromund Kaas apartment, and it's awesome.

I turned part of my Nar Shadda palace into a mini casino with two wet bars and two HK-51's as security.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 22, 2014, 03:13:32 PM
ME TOO

Except instead of HKs, I have mini-probes running the Pazaak tables. And a jukebox I could have sold for 4 million credits but fuck it, I'm not having a cantina without music.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 22, 2014, 07:48:49 PM
I don't think you can share your decorations with me sadly.

Can't you give me the good key or whatever? I don't know how this works.


Whatever though, I'm going to have my balcony in another like 5-10 daily quests, it will be displayed gloriously at my apartment instead.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 23, 2014, 11:47:37 AM
Gold keys are the decorate other places keys, and I believe they only work for guild strongholds. When I gave my sister a key to my private ones, I could only give her bronze or silver.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on August 23, 2014, 12:23:11 PM
Is there an Empire guild you guys play in on Ebon Hawk? I've been playing for the last couple of months and just bought another 60 days. Any chance of getting an invitation?

It's a juggernaut named Viletek (formerly Reg). I actually got "Reg" back on my smuggler but I'm not bothering with him until I get Villy to 50.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 23, 2014, 12:55:55 PM
Yes, although we're not super active on that side. Guild name is "Bot Country".


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on August 23, 2014, 01:05:16 PM
That's fine. All I'm looking for are people to chat with while I play. I don't need to be involved in 40 man raids every night.  :grin:  Do I have to be signed on to get the invitation?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 23, 2014, 03:21:01 PM
Well, that's the thing, there might not be anyone on when you are. :P But yes, you need to be logged in for a guild invite (alas).


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on August 23, 2014, 04:43:33 PM
Oh well, no biggy. I got my own character name wrong anyway. It's Ziletek not Viletek. :)


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 24, 2014, 04:11:59 PM
I'll be online tonight after 9:30ish eastern, I can invite whoever wherever.




Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on August 24, 2014, 06:02:26 PM
Good stuff. I'll make sure I'm signed on as Ziletek.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 24, 2014, 06:03:52 PM
GSF strategy guide has helped me understand the fundamentals and progression path better for better play. Proton Torpedos with 10k range appear critical, as well as quickly developing the missile dodge maneuver. It seems there are must-haves to be competitive.

I finished the Imperial Agent story and had to put the game down. It was taking up too much time. Maybe in October when Strongholds become accessible to F2P players. It would, admittedly, save me an immense amount of trouble to subscribe for one month and use the time to acquire all the Account unlocks.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 25, 2014, 09:01:09 AM
Annnd I picked it back up and bought game time. I may have a problem.

The barriers subscribing removes are ridiculous. All the problems I was having vanished -- it is much more pleasurable to play. Strongholds and Conquest are fun incentives.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on August 25, 2014, 09:11:58 AM
I'm impressed that you lasted as long as you did as a free to play guy.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 25, 2014, 10:49:40 AM
As much as I wanted to figure out a way to circumvent the system, this game is deserving of some money, bugs and all.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on August 25, 2014, 11:32:31 AM
I'll probably be subbing in another week or so as my Rift patron pass expires soon. I love the combat and souls in rift, and it's got so many QoL things going for it, but the generic world finally brings me down as I get too disconnected from what quest I'm on. TOR is a nice complement as I tend to play it 'slower' and savor the quest stuff a bit more.

Not sure which character I'll start with, but I'll probably be hitting up my Bot Country assassin for money soon enough, he's 55?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 27, 2014, 05:47:49 AM
Level 55 Warzone PvP is extremely frustrating. I'm cannon fodder.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 27, 2014, 12:40:39 PM
55 PvP is a crapshoot. If you're the right class (my operative and scoundrels strolled right in gear-free without much issue) (hell one of my scoundrels' gear was shitty even for PvE and he still did alright), and you're not facing endless premades, it can be okay. One thing you should do, assuming you want to keep at it instead of just going "fuck it," is prioritize getting the PvP weapons so your expertise hits the cap, as bolster doesn't hit the cap without them.

Really depends on your class, though, I happen to be really, really good at healing as a scoundrel (and they're really good at PvP in general because of their TOOLS). I did alright as a healing sage. I would be an embarrassment as just about anything else, I am sure of it.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 27, 2014, 01:58:28 PM
If you are gonna pvp you have to get the expertise gear.  It's a bunch of grinding and just hoping you get dropped into good groups.  It can be pretty brutal though til you get some gear, and even then it can depend on your class.  I play DPS Merc and Commando.. I get lit up pretty bad even with gear.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 27, 2014, 04:30:33 PM
What's the expertise cap?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 27, 2014, 04:32:37 PM
2018 iirc


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 27, 2014, 04:33:03 PM
Umm 2018?  Something like that I can't remember off the top of my head.  You get full expertise from getting all the first tier pvp items.  You don't need to get the higher ones to reach cap.  Even then the 2nd tier isn't a huge jump, but the hardcore pvp'ers have gone beyond that and bought pieces to get the perfect selection of mods and stuff. 


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 27, 2014, 07:23:03 PM
Because of bolster, you can cap your expertise without the full set, you "just" need to get the weapons to hit the cap. You still want the expertise shit eventually, but if your goal is "cap expertise," buy the weapons first, then fill in shit afterwards.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 28, 2014, 01:47:46 PM
If you are gonna pvp you have to get the expertise gear.  It's a bunch of grinding and just hoping you get dropped into good groups.  It can be pretty brutal though til you get some gear, and even then it can depend on your class.  I play DPS Merc and Commando.. I get lit up pretty bad even with gear.


You're braver then me.  :why_so_serious:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 28, 2014, 01:50:37 PM
If you are gonna pvp you have to get the expertise gear.  It's a bunch of grinding and just hoping you get dropped into good groups.  It can be pretty brutal though til you get some gear, and even then it can depend on your class.  I play DPS Merc and Commando.. I get lit up pretty bad even with gear.


You're braver then me.  :why_so_serious:

I also solo queue.   :awesome_for_real:  I can hold my own, most of the time, and if left to my own devices i can pump out dps.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 28, 2014, 11:01:19 PM
I also solo queue.   :awesome_for_real:  I can hold my own, most of the time, and if left to my own devices i can pump out dps.

So never then?  :why_so_serious:


All of the drawbacks of a Sniper/Gunslinger with none of the benefits.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 29, 2014, 12:03:14 AM
It's less horrible as a merc (imo) because people don't see your GIANT FUCKING GUN and go "omg might be a healer GET 'EM" as often.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on August 29, 2014, 03:13:40 AM
I like doing objectives but I'm torn apart solo. However, I've found that I do great defending objectives in large groups -- hang back, pick out anyone below 50-75% health, and start pounding. Still, I've seen some ridiculous differences in power where I'd be torn apart like tissue paper.

I'm slowly unlocking gear. I find the grind's better if I do my Dailies and prioritize other things while the points accrue.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 29, 2014, 01:20:03 PM
Or be a Sniper, do all that AND have protections against interrupts, sneaks AND CC.  :why_so_serious:

Commando's and Mercs are not in a good place, haven't been for awhile. PVP Wise at least. Not strong enough stationary to hold a position and not mobile enough to avoid the train. Like you'll probably reach a point gear wise where you aren't being torn apart like paper anymore, but you still won't gain enough effectiveness either. Being alive isn't the same as being useful.

I find the class incredibly frustrating in that regard. Even healing wise, I'd rather fight a healing Merc over one of Sjofn's fucking scoundrels/operatives any day of the week. At least the Merc will stay still.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 29, 2014, 03:06:29 PM
I find the class incredibly frustrating in that regard. Even healing wise, I'd rather fight a healing Merc over one of Sjofn's fucking scoundrels/operatives any day of the week. At least the Merc will stay still.

Don't hate, man.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 29, 2014, 05:31:14 PM
Do you still have reverse execute on the operative? As long as the target is below X Hp I can heal it forever instantly for free.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 29, 2014, 06:46:30 PM
No, they nerfed that.  :heartbreak:  Still hard to kill me though.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on August 29, 2014, 09:10:41 PM
It's really strange how reluctant they are when it comes to nerfing obvious OP-ness like that. Is lolsmash still in the game?  :awesome_for_real:

Anyway, I'm thinking about checking SWTOR out again (getting to 55, etc) and completely ignoring pvp, since it made me rage so badly last time around for various reasons. We'll see....


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 30, 2014, 03:19:35 AM
lolsmash got nerfed a while ago!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on August 31, 2014, 11:46:32 AM
Random musings after a few days of playing (ended up subbing because being a PlebeianPreferred Player sucks), spoilering it because it's sorta offtopic.

ANYWAY, I'll be playing my sage quite a bit in the next few days/weeks/months [?], so if anyone on Ebon Hawk wants someone to throw debris at them and/or pretend to heal them and laugh as they die, add Zefir as a BFF.


edit: Also, I'm away on a_business_trip_01 until Wednesday, so if I don't respond to friend requests / mails etc, it's not that I'm a jerk*, it's that I don't have swtor installed on my laptop.

* I lied, I totally am a jerk


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 31, 2014, 12:43:52 PM
I play so many different people on a whim at this point I feel awkward giving out a name, because nine times out of ten the name I pick is someone I decide not to play for a while. With that in mind, Siala  and Dorvin are my likely 55's to play, and Rekor is my latest Republic leveling project.

Operatives/scoundrels are hilarious in PvP, yes. They used to be even stupider. They're not quite as silly at 55 (because in the 30-54, you'll wind up against people who have not yet learned how to deal with an operative/don't have a thing TO deal with you yet/etc), but I suspect you now understand why a fresh 55 operative/scoundrel healer can blow into WZs and it not be quite so depressing as some other classes. Who you play in WZs depends on what time of day, how many premades are out and about (yes, some sad people do premades for baby PvP, which is ~hilarious~ if you stomp them), and if one side is absolutely wrecking the other.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on August 31, 2014, 12:59:58 PM
I'm afraid to ask how healer sages fare in pvp, because I don't think the answer changed from ~1.5-2 years ago when I last tried it.  :ye_gods:

It's ok though, I'm very satisfied with sage healing in pve, and that's going to be my focus. Leveling seems decently fast even without hitting up Makeb -- I got to 52 just by doing the corellia planet quests (I skipped those for some reason), doing a full run of the black hole stuff except for the heroic+4 one (that one's going to taunt me from my questlog forever...) and a kuat drive yards scaled flashpoint thing. Is it preferable to do Makeb for gear, or can I just run a few easy FPs after hitting 55 to gear up fast-like?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 31, 2014, 01:36:38 PM
Once you hit 55, there is a planet called ORICON that will shovel FREE PURPZ at you for going through the planet quests once (they turn into dailies after you do them, btw). If I remember right it gets you purple pants/boots/chest/gloves/hat, which is a nice start for a fresh 55.

Makeb's quests give you shitty green rewards for gear. I can't remember what types of comms it gives you. So Makeb is more for doing once to see the story (if you feel like it) and then never worrying about again, imo.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on August 31, 2014, 01:37:38 PM
The hat comes from a Heroic 2, mind you. You can usually find someone to do it with though.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 31, 2014, 01:47:07 PM
I'm afraid to ask how healer sages fare in pvp, because I don't think the answer changed from ~1.5-2 years ago when I last tried it.  :ye_gods:

It's ok though, I'm very satisfied with sage healing in pve, and that's going to be my focus. Leveling seems decently fast even without hitting up Makeb -- I got to 52 just by doing the corellia planet quests (I skipped those for some reason), doing a full run of the black hole stuff except for the heroic+4 one (that one's going to taunt me from my questlog forever...) and a kuat drive yards scaled flashpoint thing. Is it preferable to do Makeb for gear, or can I just run a few easy FPs after hitting 55 to gear up fast-like?


Healing sages are fine in PvP, they are just a poor man's healing operative though. Anything you could do, they could do better.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 31, 2014, 01:56:56 PM
I wouldn't go that far. I haven't sage healed in a WZ in a while, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well I did (and Siala was COMPLETELY WZ-gear-free). I didn't feel like "ugh I could do better as my scoundrel," I felt like "well this is different but HAHAHAHA I totally healed for 700k in this WZ awesome."

Commandos are the ones that I feel like I'm the worst of both worlds, but I know they do pretty well too.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on August 31, 2014, 02:07:25 PM
For me Sage healers are easiest to kill.  Then commandos and fuck operatives.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 31, 2014, 02:16:38 PM
<shrug> I've been on the losing end of a healer of every kind, and I have the hardest time staying alive as a commando. People pick me out way faster, and I don't feel like I have nearly enough mobility. I've seen healers of all kinds do amazing, fuck you die already things, I've seen healers of all kinds melt immediately to the assist train, and I've seen healers of all kinds be kind of average. Operatives are awesome, it's true, but at this point I wouldn't say the gulf is particularly wide between it and the others.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 31, 2014, 03:11:12 PM
Something a over powered Op healer would say!  :why_so_serious:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sjofn on August 31, 2014, 03:20:07 PM
When's the last time you even played in a WZ, anyway!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on August 31, 2014, 03:25:23 PM
Whenever they broke the video game for me and Blue Screened my computer.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 02, 2014, 05:56:54 AM
Buying a Stronghold Pack felt way too good. I'm talking Pack of Magic Cards good.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on September 02, 2014, 10:06:19 AM
Buying a Stronghold Pack felt way too good. I'm talking Pack of Magic Cards good.

They can be addicting especially if you want something in particular.  There are a few people i know that buy at least a couple of hypercrates whenever new packs come out.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 03, 2014, 08:46:40 AM
I had an interesting quest experience today. With the Makeb daily missions, you have a Weekly that operates in Stages. You only need to complete three of, say, 7 quests to move onto the next stage, with options for solo and group content. The people who'd normally check the thread know this, but I thought I'd lay the foundation for the uninformed.

Anyway, during one of the quests, it forwarded a bonus objective based on one of the previously completed quests. The order I do the quests mattered for creating additional content. I thought that was very cool.

I got the hang of Starfighter and my initial bitching has subsided, which was really about being dropped into the playpit without support and getting smacked around by the bullies. Warzone PvP has gotten a tiny bit better once I started rolling with the group and acting my role.

I'm looking forward to the next expansion.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on September 03, 2014, 11:40:26 AM
With as many people who are buying crates and stuff, I wonder why they bothered crippling the core game so much. All they had to do was go the Rift route and make subbing a value add rather than the only way to de-cripple the game.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 03, 2014, 12:00:19 PM
Well, when they made that decision I suspect they didn't realize just how crazy the pack stuff was going to get.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 03, 2014, 12:26:35 PM
They've obviously never paid attention to Magic, Pokemon, any established TCG, or, shit, Legend of Zelda. People like opening chests. It's about as holy a moment in gaming as you can get.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on September 03, 2014, 01:05:01 PM
'swhy we keep putting 'roguelike dungeons' mod in minecraft. Random loot chests!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 03, 2014, 01:08:14 PM
Lockboxes are -everywhere- in f2p MMO cash shops... and I ignore all of them. It just seems like a way to exploit players' gambling tendencies, to me...

On a more relevant note: I just hit 53 on my sage after finishing up section x and the belsavis bonus series, I also did that System Shock-esque spaceship sequence. The next part for assembling a HK unit (it's a companion, I take it) seems to have eleventy billion steps, including FP runs and requiring several lv50+ empire/republic characters. Is it worthwhile to do all that, assuming I'm not particularly interested in having a HK companion (yeah yeah, I'm an incorrigible meatbag)?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 03, 2014, 01:16:42 PM
The only reason to do those quests from a rewards perspective would be if you want to unlock HK as a companion option. (You only need 1 50+ character, though, the character on the other side only needs to be high enough to get to Coruscant/Dromund Kaas and then survive in the last area while searching for the thing, so 14-15ish.)


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 03, 2014, 01:26:15 PM
Word. I have a 50 operative, so that part is covered. I did some reading, though, and it seems that I'd need to run hardmode Foundry (level 50, I assume) on the imperial side to do the unlock. Do people run level 50 HMs much nowadays (preferably in dungeon finder) and are there any itemlevel / quest prerequisites to running Foundry on HM? My operative basically has green leveling gear, and I sorta put him on the backburner, OP in pvp or not.  :awesome_for_real:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on September 03, 2014, 01:29:28 PM
I would really like to unlock HK, but it seems to be a thing not for people like me.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 03, 2014, 01:37:42 PM
You only have to do the instance run on whichever side you're doing the initial unlock. IIRC it is Maelstrom Prison instead for pubs.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 04, 2014, 10:33:34 AM
Oh, is the Scavenger Droid to get the HK parts Legacy bound? I hadn't noticed. It would expedite getting my opposite faction HK parts.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 04, 2014, 10:35:22 AM
Yeah you can mail it to your alts.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 04, 2014, 11:44:28 AM
Is there any trick to make the survey/scanning process go by quicker -- such as visual cues, background objects to look for, anything? I just spent 1 hour on Taris with zero results... most of that hour was spent watching concentric red-yellow-green pulses. It felt worse / more obnoxious than WOW archeology, and THAT's an achievement!  :awesome_for_real:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 04, 2014, 11:45:25 AM
IIRC you can do it in a group? Everyone splits up and it goes faster. Not that it's a very viable way to do it *now*.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 04, 2014, 11:55:15 AM
It appears the trick was "whine on f13 about it", because I got a bite 5 mins after I posted (the triangulation part is actually kinda interesting, it's like WOW-arch without the markers). Then I couldn't loot the item because I was on my imp character and the container on Taris is BOP instead of legacy bound... which is odd since the tatooine piece and the lowbie piece imp/pub pieces are all legacy bound, and the droid is not bound at all!

Time to do it again on my sage.  :why_so_serious:

edit: component was still there. CRISIS AVERTED


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 04, 2014, 05:19:27 PM
Triangulation helps but I've noticed the signal gets lost sometime -- I wonder if spawn points move.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 05, 2014, 10:49:14 AM
You definitely have to do the investigation of any location in one sitting -- if someone else discovers the part, it'll move.

That said, I found it odd that when I found the thing on my operative and switched over to my sage, I rediscovered it in the same general area, but not at the exact same location -- it was about 15m away. I assume Taris has separate zones for imperial and republic players, instead of just phased? (I also noticed that the spaceship wreck on Hoth has different coordinates for imperial and republic players) Oh yeah, I now have my own HK unit, woo!

Query: Does HK-51's mission efficiency / crafting critical apply to everything? Because dayum (in a good way).
Amendment: Is spending 1mil worth it to unlock HK for a lowbie alt (over regular companions)?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 05, 2014, 10:53:57 AM
Imperial Taris and Republic Taris are entirely separate planets, since they happen at different times in the story and the geography changes a bit. Same goes for Balmorra. I think all the other shared planets are actually shared.

And yes, HK/Treek's crafting bonuses are generic. They're typically not as good as the focused ones, but it's still nice to have a 2nd person who can crit craft a little more often or whatever. Note that if you have a companion with a full affection bar, that adds 5% crit right there, so HK won't actually be better than a regular companion unless he's at the same affection level as them.

I wouldn't spend to unlock HK for a lowbie, especially because you can get Treek and then unlock her as a legacy collection thing and then spawn her for all your alts for 'free', and it's typically more useful to have a tank/healer NPC available than a tank/DPS one. HK is pretty nice for doing dailies at max level (I know you hate those) because of his auto-kill thing that you can use to blow away a silver every so often, he speeds it up a bit.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 05, 2014, 11:05:47 AM
Theory: I've been mostly thinking about using him with my sage as I level/quest because silvers are annoying. My next character is going to be a sentinel, so healer would work better there. I'll look into that Treek character, thxinfo.
Evaluation: It's easier to gear ~spoiler~ (the last consular companion) with hand-me-down gear, and my cybertech isn't maxed yet... also, I actually hit 54 while doing the HK51 quests due to the flashpoints and whatnot. Decisions, decisions!  :awesome_for_real:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: ajax34i on September 05, 2014, 09:10:33 PM
Sage was my most powerful character, heh.  You get a tank companion to start with, AND you have a 1 minute sleep ability (use it).  Seriously, I soloed that heroic area on Nar Shaddaa where the datacron is, at equal level, and it's full of groups of 2 gold+1 silver or 2 silver + 3 minions; it's just a matter of having the DPS tree and using the tank and parking one of the golds or silvers until the other dies.  I actually did the heroic quest (almost died but got the boss); could not do that with my Guardian in tank mode no matter how hard I tried, due to lack of a "park for one minute" ability (Guardian's only works on droids).


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 06, 2014, 12:12:37 AM
How easy/hard is it to find groups for the final microbinoculars / seeker droid missions [the heroic 4 ones]?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 06, 2014, 06:17:15 AM
I'm having a bitch of a time finding one. It's unlike any other quest that requires a group. Ilum you could theoretically find a group to help because it's a high level area, but Nar Shadda?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 06, 2014, 08:44:01 AM
Some doods in fleetchat were saying it took them 5 months to get a group.  :why_so_serious:

e: You are on EH, right? We should totes group up for this! As soon as we find 2 more suckers helpful souls, that is.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 06, 2014, 08:17:24 PM
No, Harbinger. West Coast PvE. I realize I've shot myself in the foot if I ever wanted to complete PvP Achievements.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 06, 2014, 08:40:53 PM
I still need to do the H4 steps of the seeker/macro quests, and I'm on EH, so I'd be up for it some time.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 06, 2014, 09:27:02 PM
I still need to do the H4 steps of the seeker/macro quests, and I'm on EH, so I'd be up for it some time.
Word. I'll be playing as Zefir (healer sage, republic side) if you are up for said shenanigans!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 09, 2014, 07:32:25 AM
New Flashpoint is good. "You're not even the 20th person to underestimate me." <3 imp. Agent

I like Theron's voice actor in Depths of Manaan and Legacy of the Rakata -- he brings a real sense of urgency to the tense moments. It wasn't like anything else I heard before.



Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on September 09, 2014, 01:02:34 PM
He might be the old one, I don't remember which one came first.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 09, 2014, 02:16:10 PM
Thrall was around long before Revan but didn't obtain his Green Jesus / Metzen Mary Sue status until Cataclysm. Old Republic's Thrall, by comparison, looked to have been brought in as a boss and Old Republic throwback complete with his robot sidekick for extra fanwank in the original release. Cool, but not overly significant. I thought his death was a positive development -- so to have him come back comic book style as the New Threat feels like a step backwards, like WoW is doing with Warlords of Draenor.

Still, Lana Benko and Theron are good characters to advance the story with. And hey! I can have a same-sex relationship with Lana! Light-side Sith has far more attraction than Kailyo, anyway.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on September 10, 2014, 10:31:36 AM
I wouldn't say *long* before Revan, KOTOR and Warcraft 3 came out within a year of each other IIRC.

Anyway, I don't think the comparison makes sense. Thrall is frustrating because he's an infallible spotlight-stealer from the players. This isn't really that kind of situation, and they've done a good job with the NPC allies in these things being secondary to the PCs.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 10, 2014, 10:52:43 AM
I'm somewhat disappointed my character didn't get the option to

BTW, the NPC allies in this storyline remind me of the "new-school" GW2 story NPCs for some reason (Braham, Rox, etc).


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 15, 2014, 01:12:27 PM
I'm glad people are dropping Hypercrates on the Auction House worth about $50 in Cartel Coins. 3.6 million credits comes quick from the lucrative Prefab market and my stockpiled resources.

Conquest has been a powerful form of in-game economic consumption. The top tier guilds would be consuming massive quantities of resources for their war, giving someone like me who's on the side of things (though seriously considering switching guilds for a Conquest one, our guild doesn't even have a Flagship *scoff*) to pull in a tidy profit.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on September 21, 2014, 04:59:32 PM
Annnd I'm done. Deleted all my characters and uninstalled. I was up to the point where all my free time was satisfying Dailies, Weeklies, and Conquest objectives, repeatedly grinding all the reputations, and generally preparing myself for... I don't know what. A fancy house. Were I in an active guild involved with higher order objectives, I would probably still be going. But as a solo player, with a casual guild, facing non-group Warzones & Starfighters (being crushed by any half-decent coordinated team) ... yeah, it wasn't worth it anymore.

Besides I have to focus on college.  :awesome_for_real:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Reg on September 22, 2014, 02:20:39 AM
Well you got a good few months of entertainment out of it and most of it was free. I've burned out on it again myself. I doubt I'll buy another time card for it for a while.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on September 22, 2014, 10:50:39 AM
I am done til 3.0 myself. 


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Zetor on September 22, 2014, 12:51:13 PM
Ditto. I'll probably give it another month when the new content hits... until then, I have approximately eleventy billion singleplayer RPGs that came out in the last few months. Also, WOD.  :why_so_serious:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on September 29, 2014, 09:35:55 PM
Strongholds are really amazing if only for one reason: legacy vault.

YE GODS it's so much easier to have crafting alts now!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 02, 2014, 07:20:45 PM
Anyone active so I can get invites?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 03, 2014, 10:48:40 AM
I just dl'd this.  I've never played it before.  Not sure what anything means because I haven't read anything at all about it and didn't bother to read any of the f13 threads, either.  I don't know what a stronghold is, I'm guessing it's like a guild house or sommat?  I want one but I don't know why.  What sever do you people use?  Is it a PvP one?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on October 03, 2014, 10:51:26 AM
Ebon Hawk, it's an RP server. I might be around tonight for invites if I can stop playing Wasteland 2.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 03, 2014, 11:27:19 AM
I've got four bands at three venues to see, might be a late night for me. Depending on things, maybe not though. Oh, the schedule burden of the single man.

Signe, at level 15 you can buy a stronghold in the faction's home city for 5k. At a minimum, it's worth it for the legacy storage across all your characters in one vault. You also get a free mailbox. I added a GTN and Cargo Hold with some cartel coins I had sitting around from last time I played (I also subscribe, because this is still basically a sub game). You can port to your stronghold from pretty much anywhere from the menu.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on October 03, 2014, 11:28:38 AM
A late night for you means you might actually be around at the hour I normally play.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 03, 2014, 11:31:01 AM
Win! Also, possibly tipsy, though I don't drink to inebriation so not as fun as it would've been twenty years ago.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 03, 2014, 12:21:11 PM
Thanks for the info!   :heart:  I probably won't be around tonight because of stuff.  Does it matter which side your on?  I know, I know, I should just look this stuff up like a normal person.   :oh_i_see:


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 03, 2014, 12:46:05 PM
I don't think it does anymore, I haven't really paid attention to guilds since the more verbose ones seem retarded.

I've been playing my newb Sith Marauder badass chick.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on October 03, 2014, 12:47:36 PM
You'll still want to be on the side where the guild is though.  If that's what you are looking for.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 04, 2014, 10:04:20 AM
Why is the UI font so fucking small?  It gives me a headache trying to read it!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 04, 2014, 10:21:25 AM
Get a bigger tv!

Yeah, it was too late last night.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on October 04, 2014, 02:05:31 PM
You can make the UI bigger and customize pretty much everything about it.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 04, 2014, 05:21:45 PM
I can make the UI bigger, but I always keep it relatively small.  Unfortunately, making it bigger doesn't change the font for inventory text.  A bigger monitor would be awesome but I'm sure I'll be finished with this game before I can actually afford one.  I'm fickle that way.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Hawkbit on October 04, 2014, 08:53:03 PM
I appear to be the guildmaster for Bat Country Ebon Hawk Imperial.  Not sure how that happened.  Does anyone still play?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on October 04, 2014, 09:14:06 PM
That's the old guild that didn't move on the first server merge or whatever. The 'real' one turned into Bot Country because of some name collision shenanigans with the old one.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Hawkbit on October 04, 2014, 09:16:48 PM
Nothing to worry about then, I suppose.  Bot Country on Ebon Hawk is Imperial?  I might have to bring one of my low levels over.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 05, 2014, 06:35:00 AM
Imperial is the bad guys, right?  I'm playing one of those.  Her name is Murkywater.  Is there a guild bank?  I'm assuming there's some sort of crafting in this game because I keep seeing ore crates and stuff like that.  I like to have a place to dump resources if people can use them rather than selling them.  In this way, only, am I nice.  Also, I like to watch people say silly things in chat although you lot are very anti-chattable.  Well, so am I, I guess.  I just like to watch.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: ajax34i on October 05, 2014, 07:48:36 AM
This game is a WoW clone, but set in the Star Wars universe.  You can pretty much expect everything that WoW has:  guild banks, leveling up to max then raids / ranked PVP, tiers of gear, crafting, pets, mounts, auction house, two sides (one good one evil), etc.  The one thing that sets it apart from being just a bland WoW clone is the fully voice acted class quests that you go through as you level up; some of the story arcs are pretty good/hilarious.  Personally, I'm playing the game just for that; I'm leveling up one of each character to 50 (not even max) to see the story, then I'm moving on.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on October 05, 2014, 08:23:38 AM
Imperial is the bad guys, right?

Nuh uh! They're just misunderstood!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 05, 2014, 09:18:25 AM
Thanks, Ajax.  I kind of wish I had tried it when it first came out now.  Ebon Hawk seems to be moderately populated which is a lot better than most games I've tried late.  I do like some of the voice acting but the Twi'lek chap with the hillbilly accent has GOT to go! 

Imperial is the bad guys, right?

Nuh uh! They're just misunderstood!

Like me!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: ajax34i on October 05, 2014, 04:06:59 PM
It's much improved now, compared to when it came out.  Fewer bugs, no login queues, and vastly easier to twink and level up your alts because of the Collections and Legacy systems they implemented, which give xp bonuses and other perks and make gear free account-wide (if you spend some cartel coins to unlock it).


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 07, 2014, 07:31:10 AM
I finally got a character to level 10 and could there be more types of gear to figure out???  Sheesh.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on October 07, 2014, 07:48:28 AM
Depending on your advanced class you'll get gear for the roles within them.  So if you are say a Bounty Hunter you'd get heals and dps gear to choose from for quest rewards.  Also remember to gear out your companion with hand me downs and such if they are better/can use it.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on October 07, 2014, 08:27:09 AM
Their gear system is pretty straightforward. You just need to learn what item name adjectives are for your class. The stats will be aligned to your class after that. For example, Oberon Professional for Snipers.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 07, 2014, 08:45:40 AM
I did figure it out.  When you first get to Dromund Kaas and see the shops, it's a bit alarming.  I did start passing things along to my companion which is kind of cool.  It would be nice if the comparison tooltip would compare for her, instead of for me, when I have her character chosen.  What can I say?  I'm lazy about that sort of stuff.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on October 07, 2014, 09:03:01 AM
I did figure it out.  When you first get to Dromund Kaas and see the shops, it's a bit alarming.  I did start passing things along to my companion which is kind of cool.  It would be nice if the comparison tooltip would compare for her, instead of for me, when I have her character chosen.  What can I say?  I'm lazy about that sort of stuff.

You can set the game to that in options somewhere.  When you hover over an item it will pop up with comparisons for you and the companion you have out.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 07, 2014, 09:55:43 AM
I didn't know that wasn't the default!


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on October 07, 2014, 11:04:01 AM
You do have to dig around the interface a bit. Also, I agree with Signe that it's, for me, becoming increasingly more intimidating and overwhelming to enter a city area in these games and understand everything. It was the same way with something like Galactic Starfighter where I'd initially bitch about getting slapped around by the experienced players until I found my legs and started topping score charts in PUGs.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 07, 2014, 12:59:11 PM
Thanks for the tips!  I'm really beginning to like the game quite a bit.  I only allow myself one sub at a time and I took the plunge.  I might even stick with this for a bit.  It surprises me because I get disappointed so easily.  With age comes the need for very nearly almost immediate happiness. 


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Lantyssa on October 07, 2014, 04:48:44 PM
Alright, I'm at least trying to wrap my head around all the changes that have occurred.  I logged in once after f2p, but wasn't that interested in playing an all the changes were just not worth figuring out.

I have 2800 cartel coins, plus a few hundred thousand creds across various characters.  What are the must-have legacy unlocks?  I like inventory, storage, and crafting.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 07, 2014, 06:03:01 PM
I put a cargo hold and GTN in both my strongholds. Also expanded out the legacy vault a bit to fit in crafting materials.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on October 07, 2014, 06:43:17 PM
If you're patient or rich, Cargo Hold / GTN can be crafted / bought.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Evildrider on October 07, 2014, 07:03:33 PM
Thanks for the tips!  I'm really beginning to like the game quite a bit.  I only allow myself one sub at a time and I took the plunge.  I might even stick with this for a bit.  It surprises me because I get disappointed so easily.  With age comes the need for very nearly almost immediate happiness. 

Story wise and fun wise I still think this is my favorite leveling experience in an MMO.  Although The Secret World gets a nod too. 

Actually I am going to run the last two archetypes I don't have pub side now that I can just do the class missions. 


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Signe on October 07, 2014, 07:17:10 PM
I loved The Secret World.  I only stopped playing because I ran out of world.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Lantyssa on October 08, 2014, 10:52:22 AM
Already defeated.

How do I buy an unlock, say for crew skills or using artifact equipment, account wide instead of for a character?

In the cartel store I select the item I want, and it has icon for personal and account unlocks but they're not selectable.  Showing details just gives a single item showing a single character unlock, and the single price of 1200 coins and "buy now".

Rather than select two crew skills, on the crew skills screen it has a button for purchasing an upgrade (no mention of whether character or account), but clicking it does absolutely nothing.

Help.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 08, 2014, 11:16:18 AM
....just sub. It's a sub game.

Rift has a great f2p, TOR doesn't. Subbing also saves your cartel coins for better things than unlocking basics, like the additions to the stronghold I mentioned.

I don't know the answer to the specific question beyond that, sorry.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Lantyssa on October 08, 2014, 11:18:19 AM
I'm not interested in subbing because I may play this all of ten minutes once I get my skill trees in order.  I'm jumping around in games far too much right now to sub to anything, and the majority of what I want can be gotten by unlocks.  It's just their system is friggin' obtuse.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on October 08, 2014, 11:37:01 AM
I think account-wide and individual character unlocks are just different store items? Can't look at the store from work.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Maven on October 08, 2014, 11:39:09 AM
The Cartel prices initially quote the single price. Clicking on the item and attempting to buy it will list the Account-wide prices. I don't even think you can view account-wide prices without having the funds to purchase individual.

Items you obtain for your collection require an extra fee to be able to withdraw them account-wide. Got a nice lightsaber color crystal? 200 Coins, please. Some of the systems are extortion, but in this F2P game any transaction is an area for extracting from the economy.

In fact, I'd say this entire game is all about using extremely large money sinks to keep the economy in check. Throw in Conquest's material consumption and I don't see inflation as a problem anytime soon.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on October 08, 2014, 11:53:54 AM
Maybe not from the typical mmo type. For me, the inflation is outrageous and I can't really buy stuff for my alts, nor can I afford to buy mats. It's all grinding, all the time.

I guess I could grind my 1 level 55 dude but I'd rather play a new character than run repetitive dailies.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Lantyssa on October 08, 2014, 12:53:51 PM
Oh, see, the Cartel window doesn't even indicate there is a further screen.  It just looks like I click on it and "buy now".

Does everything go into the collection, or just certain cartel items, because I haven't see a way to put the outfits I like most in there.  All that show for me are the pre-order color crystal and a tauntaun.  It doesn't look like they ever responded to my ticket about not getting the party jawa, either.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on October 08, 2014, 12:59:01 PM
Only the Cartel-sourced stuff goes into Collections for the most part.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: ajax34i on October 08, 2014, 07:45:15 PM
You can also buy account-wide things from the screen that's applicable to the thing.  Like your Inventory window will have a button to expand it and when that pops up with the price, it gives you the option for Account-wide.  So check your Inventory screen, Ship Hangar screen, Legacy window, etc.

Edit:  Party Jawa doesn't go into Collections, you just get a copy mailed to each alt as soon as you create the alt.  Same with the fireworks and the orange pilot armor sets.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Lantyssa on October 12, 2014, 02:41:41 PM
Mostly have my sea-legs back and am just a few good deals away from getting my stronghold to a point I'm happy with.

Is a piece of [prototype] gear of equivalent to the same custom piece if slotted with the same mods?  I found a [prototype] Ancient Paragon's Greaves and just wondering if there's any reason to hold onto them.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on October 12, 2014, 05:42:09 PM
Anything moddable will be the same as anything else once the mods are the same pretty much. Those things with [Prototype] and [Artifact] type tags just tend to not be adaptive and come with mods already in them.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on November 20, 2014, 08:20:48 AM
Finally hit a pretty rough patch with my Operative (dps) mostly due to gear. I've almost entirely stuck to story missions and had to craft myself a suit of greens at 30 and 40, luckily my maxed crafter is an armormech and was a Powertech with Mako primary, so gearing Kaliyo in tank gear is easy enough.

Still wish harvesting wasn't quite as onerous, it's a real pain to keep stocked up on materials. I don't have the money of someone who runs endless dailies or does group content, so the GTN is basically off-limits. And driving around harvesting is exceedingly boring.

Anyway, class quest at level 47 on Voss, some gold mob they pop up with a couple bots. Apparently the people who have complained about him say he heals himself too quickly and it's a battle of attrition. He's tearing Kaliyo and me down in seconds. So I crafted some more greens, but a normal gold is still a pretty chancy fight. Trying to snag a couple levels to get past him at some point, but it sucks that I can't just finish off the quests, hit max and play the characters I actually want to take my time with. (This guy is mostly for the agent buff and missions, and I wanted to see the Agent story before Bioware goes tits up).


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Lantyssa on November 20, 2014, 08:49:09 AM
If I'm on I wouldn't mind helping you get past any quests that are blocking you.  Mostly playing as Hroki to finish her story, but Vhashik, Kylantha, and Jaelleah are my alts for crafting and GTN.  I should be able to invite to Bot Country, too, if you want.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on November 20, 2014, 11:07:55 AM
Which guy is giving you problems? In the dark heart?


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on November 20, 2014, 12:15:12 PM
Yeah, I believe that's where he is. I was starting to zone out as it was the end of a marathon (for me, maybe 3 hours!). I might have missed something easy in the fight, too. I figured best to just snag some green gear and pop a couple levels running Voss quests. Thanks for the offers, though!

My initial plan is to now play a tank Jugg/Guardian. Apparently I'm best at playing a tank PC with a healer NPC. I find other combinations more frustrating than fun. Too bad, I like dps, too; the Operative is pretty cool with all the knife fighting stuff but I can't keep Kaliyo up with my crap heals, it's mostly not even worth dropping my dps to try. And lately she's been aggroing on npcs after I break the combat with my combat stealth skill, which is a lot of fun. Don't think I've died as much with any other character (though of course, gear is an issue).


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Ingmar on November 20, 2014, 12:17:18 PM
I would suggest trying your healer in the tough fights. He can wear your extra gear.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Sky on November 20, 2014, 12:54:09 PM
I wish companions could be dual-spec or something (ditto characters, but eh). But that goes back to some of the core issues of the (otherwise awesome) companion system. Like getting the coolest companion near the end of the game. Maybe that's awesome for people who play at the cap, I dunno. But it would be pretty cool if all companions unlocked by level 15 and all had a backup healer spec.

I know, water under the bridge, but they were so close to getting it right.


Title: Re: Giving this a whirl for a bit.
Post by: Fordel on November 20, 2014, 12:59:29 PM
Just use your healer companion, it's the best choice for almost everyone while leveling in crap gear and stuff. It will work better with your CC as an Operative as healer companions don't have AE attacks.


I'm also betting you are just approaching the fight wrong, it's not a difficult encounter. I blame your sleepiness or whatever. You have enough CC as an Op to shutdown the gold while you clean out the adds.



-fake edit-

In Beta, companions used to have 'kits' that would define what role the companion would play and you could swap the kits so any companion could do any role. They put the kits in when you used to be able to kill off companions, so no one would ever be without a healer or tank or whatever. Then they found that a very large number of people that killed off their companions in story quests ended up regretting it and wasting CS time with tickets to restore/rollback so they just removed the ability to kill companions off and in turn removed the kit option.

Why they didn't keep the kits regardless is a question only Bioware can answer.