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[SWTOR] A new chapter is out

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  • Commodore75Commodore75 gothenburg.seRegistered User regular
    Strikor wrote: »
    Nico Okarr is now unsummonable and unassignable. Guess who my main uses for his companion!

    Found this link on reddit.
    Not saying they should have fixed it before roll-out, but a big heads-up would have been nice.
    I can't even find a "known issues"...

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    I really liked that chapter. But I think I'm fonder of Aric than maybe a lot of people are. Also it seemed obvious they were doing
    Star Wars Garrus!

    So it was extra cool when my Fem Shep Trooper met up with him again. The romance was handled nicely as well.

    "If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    edited March 2016
    One of the neat flavorful things in TOR was the crew skill missions. They put in a surprising amount of time into writing out descriptions for when you send your companions out for materials, including resolution messages when you got critical successes. It was like a few hundred little seeds for mini-adventures and I've always planned on poaching them the next time I GMd a Star Wars RPG. Some of the mission descriptions even tied into planetary or class stories or specific questlines, like the Shroud missions or the invasion of Corellia.

    With Rise of the Hutt Cartel, they continued to add new missions, but the critical successes just gave you a "[companion] has achieved extraordinary success and returned with a bonus reward!" This was annoying, but at least they still gave new descriptions. This state of affairs continued with Shadow of Revan: new missions, but no new success messages. The reworking of crafting for Knights of the Fallen Empire meant a new tier of missions wasn't needed, but the old ones were still there.

    Then came the new crafting tier. The new mission skill missions are not, in fact, new. They just take old mission descriptions and repurpose them, occasionally with some rewriting, which tends to make them as generic as possible. (For example, the Underworld Trading mission Discreet Exit used to only be for Imperial characters, as it was about a spy who had been left on Coruscant after the Sacking. Now it's just about a spy in need of extraction; it doesn't even give a location.)

    Whoever "wrote" them was apparently so rushed or unfamiliar with the crafting system they forgot or didn't know that the rare and epic fabrics are called luxury fabrics, not underworld fabrics.

    I understand this is a very unimportant issue, and that every minute someone isn't writing descriptions for yet another crew skill mission that probably one in ten people will read beyond what the mission will give them is a minute they can spend working on something more important, but it's still got me feeling some type of way to see a really interesting if minor feature be slowly turned ever blander.

    Shadowen on
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    I stopped paying attention to the descriptions awhile back, but that is disappointing--the descriptions were certainly a nice fun little bit of flavor in the world.

  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    The new crafting tier is also weirdly disjointed in other ways, flavor-wise. e.g. The new green mats are literally just improved versions of old ones ("polished aluminium", "fresh red goo"). One of the blue mats is too ("charged hypercloth"), but then you have stuff like "vandinite" and "glasteel" and "singing stone".

  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    I like that the level 9 mats are prefaced by a unique identifier--that's helpful for searching for mats. So you have 4 different kinds of crystals, but they're prefaced by a level-specific identifier. There's only one kind of blue underworld metal, so no identifier is needed.

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    So who all gets this early access? All subs? Does it just enable automatically?

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    So who all gets this early access? All subs? Does it just enable automatically?

    It's only 2 days of early access and it almost always serves as a paid beta for all the game breaking bugs. But if you want the early access you generally have to be subscribed by a specific date.

    "If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    edited March 2016
    So Bioware has released a teaser for the next chapter, due to release April 7.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8QUKZzRa4

    And I finally got around to doing chapter XI as a bounty hunter.
    “You, with me. We’re covering the retreat.”
    “It’ll cost you.”
    >:-|
    “Joking, Major.”

    Who's a grumpy widdle kitty? Who iz? Who?

    EDIT: Also I just discovered that my GM is, I think, a Trump supporter, and at least one of the guild members is a full-on racist.

    Shadowen on
  • Commodore75Commodore75 gothenburg.seRegistered User regular
    Nico update
    Hey folks!

    Good news on the Nico front. We believe we have isolated the cause and are working through testing a fix for it. Things are looking good right now that we will have a downtime and patch this Thursday to fix Nico. Tait will follow-up with maintenance times, etc. Thank you all for your patience as we worked through fixing this!

    -eric

  • StrikorStrikor Calibrations? Calibrations! Registered User regular
    I'll believe it when I see it!

  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    Strikor wrote: »
    I'll believe it when I see it!

    Basically what most TOR players say on reflex now when the devs say "It'll get fixed we promise".

  • finnithfinnith ... TorontoRegistered User regular
    That Acklay in the upcoming cartel pack looks really inviting....

    Bnet: CavilatRest#1874
    Steam: CavilatRest
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    "I have evolved beyond light and dark"

    I dunno dude

    You seem to do a lot of dark stuff

  • NEO|PhyteNEO|Phyte They follow the stars, bound together. Strands in a braid till the end.Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    "I have evolved beyond light and dark"

    I dunno dude

    You seem to do a lot of dark stuff
    Sounds like a perfectly normal Grey Jedi to me!

    It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
    Warframe/Steam: NFyt
  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    edited March 2016
    I'm not sure why resisting the Emperor's control has to necessarily give light-side points.

    Maybe I'm not letting you take control because it's the "good guy" thing to do - maybe I'm just not letting you control me because fuck you.

    Donnicton on
  • StrikorStrikor Calibrations? Calibrations! Registered User regular
    Yeah, remember when Jolee Bindo was talking about murdering billions of people to fuel his immortality? Me either.

  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    Donnicton wrote: »
    I'm not sure why resisting the Emperor's control has to necessarily give light-side points.

    Maybe I'm not letting you take control because it's the "good guy" thing to do - maybe I'm just not letting you control me because fuck you.

    Well, once you see what happens when you let him take control, resisting him is kind of a good guy thing regardless.

  • EnclaveofGnomesEnclaveofGnomes Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    "I have evolved beyond light and dark"

    I dunno dude

    You seem to do a lot of dark stuff

    It feels like his only "proof" of that claim is that he wasn't killing millions of people in his true form.

    Everything else was just make believe...including all the evil things he did in his true form.

    And then you've got his whiny children as the villains...it's all pretty underwhelming.

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    I think the Emperor is a great character in terms of performance and presentation, and I like any moment when he's onscreen. He's just... not morally complicated and it's a bad idea to present him as that. He's a bad guy who kills people to gain power. Maybe he uses that power to be nice sometimes! Doesn't really matter.

  • Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    I think the Emperor is a great character in terms of performance and presentation, and I like any moment when he's onscreen. He's just... not morally complicated and it's a bad idea to present him as that. He's a bad guy who kills people to gain power. Maybe he uses that power to be nice sometimes! Doesn't really matter.

    But see, I'm a bad guy who kills people to gain power. That's the moral dilemma. Do I let this other bad guy boss me around, when I know it's what I want to do? Do I try to fool myself into thinking he isn't controlling me for his own ends? Do I try to redeem myself and be a better person out of sheer spite?

  • MorkathMorkath Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    Shadowen wrote: »
    Donnicton wrote: »
    I'm not sure why resisting the Emperor's control has to necessarily give light-side points.

    Maybe I'm not letting you take control because it's the "good guy" thing to do - maybe I'm just not letting you control me because fuck you.

    Well, once you see what happens when you let him take control, resisting him is kind of a good guy thing regardless.

    That's...not really how morality works though.

    The reasons you are doing something is far more important than the actual outcome.

    The emperor is an evil monster, killing him to take over his empire doesn't make you a good person.

  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    I think the Emperor is a great character in terms of performance and presentation, and I like any moment when he's onscreen. He's just... not morally complicated and it's a bad idea to present him as that. He's a bad guy who kills people to gain power. Maybe he uses that power to be nice sometimes! Doesn't really matter.

    Yeah, he's muscling in on my territory. That's a problem.

  • HalfmexHalfmex I mock your value system You also appear foolish in the eyes of othersRegistered User regular
    Two quick questions for any subscribers who have purchased this bundle from Amazon:

    1) I'm seeing conflicting reports on the total amount of gametime offered if you are already subbed. Do you indeed get 90 days if you have an active subscription or is it only 60?

    2) Re: the Cartel Coins it gives, I know that the package comes with 2400 cartel coins, but do you also receive CCs for the gametime you purchase (ie. 500 per 30 days of gametime bestowed, or 1500 additional coins) or is it just the flat 2400 that you get total?

  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    You get 500 per month as per normal for a subscriber. I don't remember how much game time I got.

    I will say that you can only ever use a bundle once--it's wasted money if you were to buy two of the bundles, and apply the second code after the first has run out. Someone here ended up wasting their money on that.

  • HalfmexHalfmex I mock your value system You also appear foolish in the eyes of othersRegistered User regular
    Ah, nice, thanks for the info. I'll go ahead and pop for this bundle once then, sounds like it's a pretty good deal.

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    for comparison, if you bought a three month sub from the site it would cost USD$42 and give you 1500 coins (over the three months); with this pack you save two bucks and get 900 more coins.

    so, it's a little bit of a deal.

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    for comparison, if you bought a three month sub from the site it would cost USD$42 and give you 1500 coins (over the three months); with this pack you save two bucks and get 9002400 more coins.

    so, it's a little bit of a deal.

    Basically, you save a few bucks on the subscription and get $20 worth of CCs for free.

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    Does the prepaid time give you additional monthly coins? The Amazon page made it sound like 2400 was the total

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    Does the prepaid time give you additional monthly coins? The Amazon page made it sound like 2400 was the total

    It's 2400 up front, plus your usual 500 (or 600) CCs per month.

  • JimboJimbo down underRegistered User regular
    Yep, your account gets subscriber status for the 3 months, which entitles you to the monthly sub CC grant for the duration

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  • OwenashiOwenashi Registered User regular
    While I haven't been able to play due to a hard-drive death, I thought I oughta still pass this bit of news along to those that haven't checked out the patch they're testing out on the PTS. Apparently a new vendor will be added to the Fleets to sell armors that became unavailable since Fallen Empire's launch, each piece of the armor-sets costing about 20-30 Common data crystals. To see what's available so far, check out Dulfy's report on the vendor here.

  • FairchildFairchild Rabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?" Registered User regular
  • EnclaveofGnomesEnclaveofGnomes Registered User regular
    edited April 2016
    That wasn't a disappointing episode. Some of the dialogue felt inconsistent with what we've seen so far, the trash mobs/story ratio was better all in all it was good.

    It does end abruptly and the preview for the next episode doesn't show any sign of concluding what should be a very urgent plot point.

    EnclaveofGnomes on
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    In unannounced changes, 4.3 makes the GTN sales messages completely anonymous and doesn't even list the item you sold or the price.

    Well, gee, thanks for that one hour notification, that's incredibly useful.

  • kmzkmz Registered User regular
    edited April 2016
    Were those items listed before the server maintenance? There's some kind of caching they must use for GTN messages where item details are lost after a server reset, though they can still be bought just fine.

    kmz on
  • OwenashiOwenashi Registered User regular
    https://youtu.be/CucCqQ2ixqk

    Here's this month's livestream. Chapter 13's title is...
    ...Profit And Plunder where players can help Vette and Gault steal a massive fortune from the Eternal Empire. Devs also stated that decisions made in previous chapters 'will come together starting at the end of Chapter 13'.

    And May's Subscriber Reward continues the HK-theme.

    yTcf3AY.jpg

  • StrikorStrikor Calibrations? Calibrations! Registered User regular
    Finally found a use for the cartel coins I had been saving up!
    7pFAWSy.jpg

    Eat a dick, Hydra.

  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    So having finished Chapter XII, my thoughts...
    To use pen and paper terms, really interesting fluff that feels completely out of place with what's happened before, and the crunch is complete bullshit.

    First, fluffwise, I specifically ain't buying what they're selling about Arcann. Arcann has not rid himself of passion or morality. He's a fucking arrogant, temperamental child, and, let's be clear: he's a moron. There's a concept I was introduced to a while ago, that being that powerful people are stupid because they can afford to be stupid; if you're weaker you have to be smarter. This of course doesn't fit in every case in the real world, but it often does. It's an application of "when all you have is a hammer". If you have a really good hammer, you can actually treat things that aren't nails like they are nails. If you have a real shitty hammer, or no hammer at all, you have to develop an alternate tool set.

    And Arcann, as supposedly the most powerful being in the galaxy at this point, is a goddamned idiot. What he is is the scion of two extremely powerful Force-users and a lot of rage and hate and resentment and envy to tap into. (I actually have a theory that being a twin made him weaker--he sort of had to share power with his brother. Maybe he's even become stronger, not just in terms of skill but actually might, since killing Thexan, although his being partly-cyborged still limits him. Meanwhile, Vaylin, who is not a twin, is clearly described as the most powerful of the three children in terms of raw might, and she's a kill-happy psychopath, without even Arcann's sense of subtlety...or so it appears, anyway.)

    Speaking of Vaylin, her boss fight! And for that matter the fight with Valkorion! STOP WOWING YOUR GAME UP, BIOWARE. Between this chapter and all the times you beat Arcann in the I-IX content only for "You activated my MERELY A SETBACK card" to be activated, it reminds me of the worst aspects of Warlords of Draenor's storytelling where at least half a dozen times you encounter an enemy who you beat only for them to retreat and sneer "Come face me with ten friends if you really want to see what I'm capable of" and at least one where you get full-on orcblocked and the death of one of the most despised characters in the franchise comes at the hands of another of the most despite characters in the franchise after the player did all the work. And you haven't even announced operations where we'll get to kill these motherfuckers yet. So WoW is actually ahead of you on that score.

    Also speaking of mandatory meaningless combat, just take stealth abilities away from characters on story missions if you're going to keep this shit up. Give, like, a minor damage buff or a constant regeneration thing or something, because there's clearly no use for stealth in the story chapters anymore when literally every mob automatically knows where you are and attacks. FFS the mandatory trash mobs in chapter XII don't even drop any loot to pay for repairs.

    All that said, I really like the explanation for why the Knights of Zakuul are so dangerous. Basically...it's faith. Not just willpower or self-confidence or belief in the Force but faith in a set of ideals. Since the Force is at least partly "your mind makes it real" then really unshakeable faith should make someone really powerful.

    But while it has neat unique buffs, the fact that the epic weapon of legend starts with level 200 mods is a fucking joke. I get it, the system is different in TOR and you can spend some credits to swap out better mods, and it does give you unique buffs depending on the choices you make, but it's still kind of stupid that you collect all this rare or even unique advanced tech and a Jedi Master, a Sith spirit, and a being who's been given power by what's basically a demigod results in a weapon with less "real" power than something you could have gotten within the first week of KotFE's release.

    Still, a pretty solid entry, for all that, but they really need to look at these design flaws for future entries.

  • EnclaveofGnomesEnclaveofGnomes Registered User regular
    Shadowen wrote: »
    So having finished Chapter XII, my thoughts...
    To use pen and paper terms, really interesting fluff that feels completely out of place with what's happened before, and the crunch is complete bullshit.

    First, fluffwise, I specifically ain't buying what they're selling about Arcann. Arcann has not rid himself of passion or morality. He's a fucking arrogant, temperamental child, and, let's be clear: he's a moron. There's a concept I was introduced to a while ago, that being that powerful people are stupid because they can afford to be stupid; if you're weaker you have to be smarter. This of course doesn't fit in every case in the real world, but it often does. It's an application of "when all you have is a hammer". If you have a really good hammer, you can actually treat things that aren't nails like they are nails. If you have a real shitty hammer, or no hammer at all, you have to develop an alternate tool set.

    And Arcann, as supposedly the most powerful being in the galaxy at this point, is a goddamned idiot. What he is is the scion of two extremely powerful Force-users and a lot of rage and hate and resentment and envy to tap into. (I actually have a theory that being a twin made him weaker--he sort of had to share power with his brother. Maybe he's even become stronger, not just in terms of skill but actually might, since killing Thexan, although his being partly-cyborged still limits him. Meanwhile, Vaylin, who is not a twin, is clearly described as the most powerful of the three children in terms of raw might, and she's a kill-happy psychopath, without even Arcann's sense of subtlety...or so it appears, anyway.)

    Speaking of Vaylin, her boss fight! And for that matter the fight with Valkorion! STOP WOWING YOUR GAME UP, BIOWARE. Between this chapter and all the times you beat Arcann in the I-IX content only for "You activated my MERELY A SETBACK card" to be activated, it reminds me of the worst aspects of Warlords of Draenor's storytelling where at least half a dozen times you encounter an enemy who you beat only for them to retreat and sneer "Come face me with ten friends if you really want to see what I'm capable of" and at least one where you get full-on orcblocked and the death of one of the most despised characters in the franchise comes at the hands of another of the most despite characters in the franchise after the player did all the work. And you haven't even announced operations where we'll get to kill these motherfuckers yet. So WoW is actually ahead of you on that score.

    Also speaking of mandatory meaningless combat, just take stealth abilities away from characters on story missions if you're going to keep this shit up. Give, like, a minor damage buff or a constant regeneration thing or something, because there's clearly no use for stealth in the story chapters anymore when literally every mob automatically knows where you are and attacks. FFS the mandatory trash mobs in chapter XII don't even drop any loot to pay for repairs.

    All that said, I really like the explanation for why the Knights of Zakuul are so dangerous. Basically...it's faith. Not just willpower or self-confidence or belief in the Force but faith in a set of ideals. Since the Force is at least partly "your mind makes it real" then really unshakeable faith should make someone really powerful.

    But while it has neat unique buffs, the fact that the epic weapon of legend starts with level 200 mods is a fucking joke. I get it, the system is different in TOR and you can spend some credits to swap out better mods, and it does give you unique buffs depending on the choices you make, but it's still kind of stupid that you collect all this rare or even unique advanced tech and a Jedi Master, a Sith spirit, and a being who's been given power by what's basically a demigod results in a weapon with less "real" power than something you could have gotten within the first week of KotFE's release.

    Still, a pretty solid entry, for all that, but they really need to look at these design flaws for future entries.

    I had to stop and make sure I'd heard right when they mentioned Arcann. Sorry game no ones going to buy that.
    And valkorian+the dynamic duo running off to deal with some other thing makes me think the way they're going to make zakuul fit into the universe is just have the empire separating itself and dealing with unexplored parts/threats from elsewhere in the galaxy...which works I guess.

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