And then the next time you talk to him he's all talkin' poetry and shit. Mixed signals much?
Of course, it turns out he's married, and she may be a bit of a cad but she's no homewrecker...
...but then if you keep flirting he seems to still be interested and mentions his wife is one of the people investigating her for the crime that Rogun's agent framed her for.
Oh, that poor boy is messed up. I might actually have to listen to Corso this time...
...but then you can keep going. The topic comes up because he's giving you his wife's holorecorder that she uses on the job, and because of the way the Voss mindset works, this will make the information provided more trustworthy. Flirt option!
Her: "I'm glad she's willing to share."
Him: "She is virtuous."
:winky: And Operation: Kiss A Voss is back on!
EDIT: I just realized: Corso is dumber than a dog.
A dog supposedly stops shitting indoors once you rub its nose in it. A female smuggler can mount a guy in full view of him and he'll get angry but then he'll be all "I will love you forever" the next time they talk. Take. A fucking. Hint.
Seriously. I'm starting to think Corso, if your smuggler is female, is worse than Skadge. At least you're not meant to find Skadge charming.
"I need some time alone."
"Alone? Alone, I wouldn't worry about. You know he’s going to be nothing to you. You’ll leave him here and slink back to the ship and expect me to be there waiting. May not always be the case.”
IT HAD BETTER BE.
BECAUSE YOU'RE MY EMPLOYEE, YOU SLUT-SHAMING FUCKWIT, NOW GET BACK TO THE SHIP SO MAMA CAN GET HER VOSS ON.
I pull out all my companions through most class quest dialog so I don't miss what any of them have to say--it's one reason it takes so long for me to get through each story the first time--and in Corso's defense, even Bowie seems to be getting tired of finding an excuse when my smuggler turns into a snuggler. But Corso's reactions to flirts get ever more odious. I wouldn't be harping on this, but she broke up with you before you even touched down on Belsavis, you fucking hick.
So... I, uh, slept with Rylee. At least, I think I did. I'm not too sure, cause Rhaevos had his lightsaber in his hand as they were walking back from her room.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
So... I, uh, slept with Rylee. At least, I think I did. I'm not too sure, cause Rhaevos had his lightsaber in his hand as they were walking back from her room.
nameless, faceless, possibly lifeless grunts
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
I never slept with Rylee. I think that's for the best, because if I had there's no way her image of me could have remained at the level it appeared to be during
the Voss trials.
It would have been more like, "My lord, I...think you're kinda okay?"
DaimarA Million Feet Tall of AwesomeRegistered Userregular
My most hated planet was Hoth, after the first time I did it I just did the minimum story mission and skipped all the planetary quests. Voss I didn't mind, reminded me of a nice fall day.
I just love how Nar Shadda tickles my Deus Ex and Blade Runner nostalgia.
All future dystopia 'n shit.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Voss as a planet I don't mind, but the quests really have a problem of: drive out for a long time to an area that has no quick travel nodes, then drive back to base, then drive out for a long time to an area that has no quick travel nodes, then drive back. Repeat on all missions. Add to that that a lot of areas had canyons or mountains making a lot of dead ends, and you have frustration.
ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
Has anyone ever encountered a Champion-level enemy with the Champion class that had "champion" in its name?
Just curious.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
My favorite enemy is the Assassin Ultracommando you can fight as part of a republic quest on Tatooine
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
Ugh, speaking of Voss, I just reset a class mission cause I changed my mind on how to handle it. I thought it would just let me redo the conversation, but instead it started the whole thing over, so now I have to run back out to the middle of nowhere again. Lesson learned about mission resets I guess.
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
Ugh, speaking of Voss, I just reset a class mission cause I changed my mind on how to handle it. I thought it would just let me redo the conversation, but instead it started the whole thing over, so now I have to run back out to the middle of nowhere again. Lesson learned about mission resets I guess.
Yeah, it's horrible when that happens, but sometimes it's a major conversation choice or you just wanted to see what happened and the convo ended too quickly for you to escape out...I'm glad the option's there, even if it does feel like a hassle.
Confession time: I actually like Voss culture.
I mean, it's stupid and leads to a people that are by turns emotionally repressed, incredibly gullible, remarkably deceptive, ridiculously naive, and stupidly confident.
But that's why I like it.
Imagine if fortune-telling was real. Now imagine it was 100% accurate, to the point where an aircraft carrier had been taken out by a lost tribe that made use of such techniques. Now imagine that tribe re-ordered itself around taking the predictions without question.
You get the Voss. And I hate Voss society but I love that it's so fucked up to our senses, because it should be.
Shadowen on
+2
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Yeah I think the Voss are a really interesting addition.
ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
edited May 2014
So Commander Tainor's first maneuver in combat was not a smart one. He used a knock to throw me away, and I ended up on top of a big cabinet or console or something. I could have easily rushed back into the fight, used Backblast and Blaster Whip and such, but I had such an excellent vantage point I decided to just drop medpacs on Bowie and pewpew the Commander.
Silly Commander Tainor. You forget the first thing anyone in a Star Wars movie learned about fighting.
Have left PA forums.
If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
Is there a greater reward to the seeker droid/shroud quests? Or is it just comms/credits? The Shroud story seems interesting, at least
Completing the quest makes binoculars a permanent skill on your character. If you just start the quest and don't finish it, you can still use the binoculars, but then you keep the quest on quest list forever, which is annoying. And the binoculars are used for other things in the game (like dailies and FPs)
Is there a greater reward to the seeker droid/shroud quests? Or is it just comms/credits? The Shroud story seems interesting, at least
Completing the quest makes binoculars a permanent skill on your character. If you just start the quest and don't finish it, you can still use the binoculars, but then you keep the quest on quest list forever, which is annoying. And the binoculars are used for other things in the game (like dailies and FPs)
You also get a chest piece that looks kinda cool, although its probably a pain to find a group to actually finish the chain.
Is there a greater reward to the seeker droid/shroud quests? Or is it just comms/credits? The Shroud story seems interesting, at least
Completing the quest makes binoculars a permanent skill on your character. If you just start the quest and don't finish it, you can still use the binoculars, but then you keep the quest on quest list forever, which is annoying. And the binoculars are used for other things in the game (like dailies and FPs)
You also get a chest piece that looks kinda cool, although its probably a pain to find a group to actually finish the chain.
Oh yeah! I forgot about that, the chest is a legacy piece, and basically the only legacy piece that looks appropriate for smuggler style. It's really hard to gear all my characters out in the style I want for them, so having that piece was really cool.
The other style of chest you can get is way more sith style though.
ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
edited May 2014
So, thoughts on the Smuggler, now that I have finally finished it.
Mechanically, Î played as a Sawbones Scoundrel. This was really only a problem when I was trying to get Guss his 1000 kills. For comparison, it took my Immortal Juggernaut all of Belsavis to get Broonmark his 1000 kills. It took me until the Nightmare Lands to do the same on my Scoundrel.
Story-wise, I enjoyed myself. It was not without problems, though.
Chapter 1
I've stopped judging class stories as a whole so much, because they're usually not one story. They are, mostly, a true trilogy: three stories that happen to the same person.
The prologue, which I count as part of Chapter 1, got a little tiring, if amusing, with the refrain of "Where's my ship?" and the final encounters in the Works and the boss fight to get said ship back strained suspension of disbelief, but otherwise it was good. Darmas was an interesting character, especially since flirting with him got Corso's hackles up, which was amusing before it became tiring. Chapter 1 as a smuggler is a lot of fun. It's a scavenger hunt, and like a proper scavenger hunt, it's implied to be a race with Skavak, whom the game has given you every reason to hate, with the assistance of Risha, a mysterious young woman who provided the motive for Skavak to steal your ship in the first place but has no love for him and is quite happy to work with you. Not only that, but it's not just macguffins--you're getting components for your ship that are necessary to find the lost treasure of Nok Drayen, which is implied to have been hidden in a difficult region of space. Plus, unlike the other ships, what's in the ship (aside from people) changes as you progress through the chapter. You also encounter more and more reasons to hate Skavak, not that you needed any.
Finally, you find out that the final object, the dude in carbonite, is in fact Nok Drayen himself, who froze himself because he had an incurable terminal illness and he wanted to be there for the moment when his daughter, Risha, took her inheritance--the crown of the Drayen dynasty, the rightful rulers of Dubrillion. The ship at the Long Shadow is suitably creepy, and there are enough permutations with the final confrontation with Skavak that it's very satisfying. There's one last twist, which I was expecting having played the Agent storyline first, with Nok Drayen telling Risha to kill you and keep the wealth to fund her bid for queen of Dubrillion...and Risha refuses, and Drayen dies, his plans having gone awry at the last second. Risha then joins as a full companion instead of an NPC.
Weirdly, Risha starts out with 0 affection, despite defying her dying father's final wish, but then you don't get an influx of ten million credits or however much was in Drayen's fortune, so eh.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 is easily the weakest part of the Smuggler's story--I haven't done the Consular chapter 2 yet, so it might even be the weakest Chapter 2--but I have a theory on why that is.
There's nothing unified about what you're doing as a Smuggler in chapter 2. It keeps to the structure of: do a thing on Balmorra/Taris, side thing on Quesh interrupts you, continue with the thing on Hoth, but in the Smuggler's case the thing itself is barely defined. At the behest of Darmas Pollaran, a Senator has decided to offer you a commission as a privateer, but by definition privateers are basically government-sponsored pirates. The reason is because of an infamous slaver, nicknamed the Voidwolf, has been made a Grand Admiral by the Empire, but because of the way the game works, you're more of a government-sponsored ground-based thief. And that's okay; I don't expect them to implement AC3's ship battle system for a single chapter of a single class story. Though that would be cool. But compare to virtually every other class. Probably the least-well-defined class story for chapter 2, aside from the Smuggler, is the Imperial Agent, and even then you have a specific end goal from the very start; the tension comes from not knowing when and how you're going to be able to pull it off.
For the Smuggler, you're just a privateer with no defined mission. But on Balmorra, you steal a bunch of advanced weapons from the Empire. That's fine. Then you go to Quesh because you intercept a random distress call from someone under attack by the Voidwolf, and rescue some smugglers. Questions about the logistics of a distress call from Quesh reaching you at Balmorra aside, that's weird, because the obligatory aside to Quesh is, if not obviously connected to the overall story, at least important to you. For example, the Bounty Hunter chapter 2 story has no obvious connection to what happens on Quesh--though Quesh is probably more important for the Bounty Hunter than any other class--but it's not just a random aside. You're going there for a purpose that is important to you personally. But Quesh is just random for the Smuggler, though at least the people you're rescuing are under attack from the Voidwolf. Because of the stupidly cruel lightside/darkside choice, I just asked for money, but in my head she told them to make their deliveries and remember that they owed her.
Then on Hoth you're sent after some revolutionary new cloaking device, which leads to what I admit is a very interesting end; in a vacuum that part of the story is good, but as part of a larger story it's just as random as the other parts. My Scoundrel decided to just let Trick and the surviving members of that branch of the White Maw go, on the premise that it's good to have a small pirate fleet that owes her.
Finally, at the behest of Darmas, you go on a heist. That's it. Just a heist on a treasury ship. Completely unconnected to what happens on the other three parts of the chapter 2 story, except that the Voidwolf shows up to blow the ship up, as he is allowed to do under the Imperial rules of engagement now that the war is back on (DUN DUN DUN), which incidentally allows him to kill three members of the Imperial establishment he doesn't like. It feels like an unnecessary attempt to mimic the Long Shadow raid at the end of Chapter 1.
But then you come back from the heist, and things start to pick up in literally the last few minutes. If you've played another character through chapter three, you recognize the monsters sent after Senator Dodonna as being most prominently from Voss...and indeed that's where they're from. You move on to Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 is much stronger, because it starts out with a defined goal--get Rogun the Butcher and the Voidwolf, because they're stepping up their attacks and the war is back on. In fact it feels like you should have been going after them, or at least Rogun, throughout Chapter 2, making Chapter 2 feel like even more of a holding pattern.
If, like me, you left Smuggler to nearly last, what might be the final piece of the puzzle clicks in on Belsavis--it was Ivory, Rogun's old mentor, who called the Empire to Belsavis. Still, my character is pretty skeptical of the premise of Belsavis to begin with, so she doesn't blame him too much--she more blames the Empire for recklessly fucking things up. So she gets Ivory to work with her, giving her information on Rogun's safehouses and fortresses, with the implication that once things settle down she's the young boss and he's the wise old master who stepped aside.
After that, you get a request...from a most unusual Jedi Master. I was confused for a minute, because Master Sumalee has the same VA doing the same voice as she did for Bela Kiwiiks, and they're both Togruta, but their face markings are different. This particular Jedi Master knows Risha, which is interesting, and moreover a friend of theirs who joined the SIS is in trouble and needs your help. This feels a bit random, but it sets up an important relationship--you and Sumalee work together later.
Then, on to Voss, now that clearance has finally been achieved, to track down the monsters that Rogun sent after Dodonna. Like the Agent, the Smuggler quests neatly shatter the illusion of Voss as a perfect and pure society, uncorrupted by outsider influence; there is crime and cultural exchange going on, often at the same time. It made the usual Voss insufferability more amusing and bearable. I was disappointed that Jela Renake, Rogun's henchman on the planet, turned out so one-dimensional--though I think as a male smuggler you might be able to sleep with her before the inevitable betrayal, that's really not an improvement--and there's no way to spare her, given that it's clear that after her betrayal and trip to Nightmare Lands she went insane and needs help. Otherwise, though, you dismantle another part of Rogun's network. Voss also has another interesting bit, where you can do the Trials, which results in you getting a vision of Rogun...calling you a traitor.
Darmas calls you then, saying Rogun has retreated to an underground base on Tatooine and now you can raid the place and take him down. You meet up with him, and the Voss vision suddenly makes a lot more sense. Rogun was a smuggler and pirate, sure, but he was broadly pro-Republic all along. His grudge against you was purely because of the weapons shipment Skavak stole--he had a reputation as The Butcher to maintain, after all--but Darmas has been an agent of Imperial Intelligence and a citizen of the Empire from day one. After cultivating a reputation as a dilettante and information broker, he crosses paths with you and helps you out, but presumably thought little of you until it came out you'd discovered Nok Drayen's lost fortune. An easily-manipulable person with that kind of luck and determination would be the perfect patsy. He had already subverted Senator Dodonna before you met her with promises of power, so it was a simple thing to get her in on the deal. Rogun the Butcher already hated you, so it was simple enough to spin any attacks as retaliation against you, and of course they were in league with the Voidwolf the whole time.
At this point Chapter 2 makes a lot more sense. It felt unconnected because it was supposed to--to you. The Voidwolf was maneuvering you like pieces on a board, and if you bought it, well, you were never really an Imperial anyway, so what did it matter? He could just try again. At this point, looking back, it's easy to see the connections, even without your companions pointing out the parts they were most closely connected to. It's also a reason why, even if it seemed relatively harmless, getting someone to work with Darmas Pollaran on your behalf counted as dark side points. Chapter 2 wasn't very impressive because it wasn't really a chapter--it was like the prologue to the real Chapter 2. In fairness, because they're trying to mimic the ANH->ESB>ROTJ structure, the Chapter 2s almost always feel like an unfinished story, but the lack of obvious connection makes the Smuggler's Chapter 2 feel, at the time, even weaker than the Bounty Hunter's Chapter 2.
Anyway, you can spare Rogun or not, but if you do spare him he quits on his vendetta against you, as you save him from the Sith assassins the Voidwolf sent to kill you after you'd killed Rogun. At that point it's all about tracking down Darmas, Dodonna, and the Voidwolf--and glory be, they were also involved in engineering the attack on Corellia.
Step 1 is getting the word out--Darmas is the real traitor, and you were his patsy but now you know the truth and you're gonna hunt him down and eat him raw (or whatever). Having the word of an unconventional Jedi Master helps, as Master Sumalee guides you through the Corellian conflict, as does being one of the fastest and most charismatic talkers in the galaxy--once you get people to think about what Darmas is trying to get them to do, it's actually quite simple. You can also just kill 'em all, but my Scoundrel is more of a lover, not a fighter. Hence why I went Sawbones--look at all the double entendres you can do just with the names of abilities in the skill tree.
Step 2 is hunting down Darmas himself. My character had flirted with him before, but mainly because he flirted with her first, and so she did it to keep in practice--and also because it seemed to annoy Corso--so there was no broken heart to avenge or cloud her judgement. You catch him just before he's about to go in for facial reconstruction surgery, talking over holo with one of the Corellian Council, Caicos, about the next step. Interestingly, I think I found the single best dialog in the game for companion affection at this point: +120 affection, base (so closer to 360 by this point in the game), for each companion (not counting Treek, 2V-R8 or HK-51), when you barge in to the scene with gun drawn saying,
A pleasure to meet you, Mister Soon-to-be-torn-apart-by-his-own-constituents.
I can see why it appeals to all five companions, though I didn't think it was +120 base affection funny. Maybe if it was followed up with, "Quick question: are you of the Coronet Soon-to-be-torn-apart-by-his-own-constituents?" or something.
Anyway, I went with giving Darmasto the Republic, because as good as pulling the trigger might have felt, she needs information more than anything at this point. The real person responsible for fucking her over is still out there.
Step 3 is catching Dodonna--who, amusingly, has been rendered into a servant for all her troubles, scrubbing the floor in a POW camp. You can kill her, let her go (I think you can also ask her to come away with you if you were a dude and had a romance with her), or have her arrested. Again, I went with the arrest option, this time because she volunteered the information.
Step 4 is getting to the Voidwolf, which involves getting into the household of Councillor Caicos, one of the Corellian Councillors who was most enthusiastic about inviting the Voidwolf to join. You get some really fun conversation options with him, and the light-side option gets affection from all five companions, feeling light-side while at the same time feeling very appropriate for such:
I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to free your slave, steal your ship, kill your boss and leave you for the Citizens of Corellia.
Step 5 is hitting the Voidwolf himself.
The Voidwolf's ship seems pretty small, although I guess you could imagine that you went from an officer's bay (because the Councillor was supposed to meet him) straight to the command deck. The fight was good, too, although at level 54 it was understandably easy. Too many non-Sith/non-Jedi fights come off as pretty boring because the enemies are just pew pew pew.
And then Chapter 3, which had been great up to this point, came crashing down.
The occasional bullshit LS/DS decision I can put up with because it's bound to happen in a game this big. What I find unforgivable is when the final decision of a storyline or questline has a nonsensical decision, even if the mechanical reasons are obvious. You are told by the pirates that the fleet isn't going to stay together very long because of old grudges and the notoriously independent streak of pirates, smugglers, and other criminal elements. So your options are:
You're part of the Republic fleet now. (LS) How would this even fucking work? Implications are it's just for the duration of the immediate space battle, because the Voidwolf brought a small Imperial force with him to keep watch over the pirates, and the implication is the pirates get to take revenge on their overseers. But still, saying to a bunch of pirates, "You know those authorities you habitually flout? You answer to them now" is more likely to inspire mutiny than obedience.
I'm in charge! Piracy! Rape, pillage, burn! Republic or Empire, it don't matter, let's kill things! Raaaah! (DS) How would this even fucking work? You were just told the fleet isn't going to stay together very long. Is it just telling them to act naturally but they all answer to her that makes it work? Because this one doesn't even come with the out of "implied to be temporary".
Everyone sends me money and goes their own way. This one makes a little more sense, because it gives the pirates what they want, and you are in a huge warship, so they want to give you what you want. It's still disappointingly small-scale, short-sighted, and boring, and one of the pirate captains even calls you on that.
So to reiterate, the options are: pirates become part of legitimate authority; I suddenly become an asshole and in charge of a massive fleet of brutal pirates; pirates pay me and bugger off.
None of these are exactly well-suited to my character, but I went with option 3; option 1 was okay, but the implications were just confusing. And she doesn't even get to call herself "Commodore" or keep the Voidwolf's ship because load-bearing boss lol.
Chapter 1 is obviously you taking after Han Solo, but chapter 2 and 3 made it seem more like Talon Karrde, an EU character who quietly rose to become most of the most powerful underworld figures in the wake of Jabba's death. But no, you end up with a single ship and a pile of money to your name, no grand ambitions or even great plans. So far, a lightsided or neutral smuggler ends up in basically the same position they started in, just with more friends and money. Given that the other six classes I've played to completion end up in some position of power, authority, or freedom they didn't have when they started, it's kind of annoying.
Again: I get it. The mechanics of the game limit it. But there was so much promise...and nothing. Unless you want to be an asshole, and my smuggler can be a vindictive bitch when she's crossed, but she's not evil.
But then, during the ending award ceremony, the things Guss and Risha say indicate you basically are an underworld kingpin, and the email you receive from one of the pirates makes it sound like it's inevitable...it's very weird, is what I'm saying. Almost as smushed-together and nonsensical in the ending as some aspects of the prequels.
That said, hell of an ending shot, with the six just before they go up the ramp.
Also, as an aside, aboard the Voidwolf's ship I came across what I guess was a sort of officers' rec room with a lot of booze bottles and stuff and a dancing holographic Twi'lek girl in it. The only person there was a female elite enemy. By my count, the sole implication of non-heterosexuality in the vanilla game belongs to a minor nameless villain. Good thing they changed that with the expansion.
Overall, based on the weak feeling of chapter 2 and the scattershot feel of the very end of chapter 3, I'd rank the story (I know I said I don't do that, but taken as its own trilogy compared to the other trilogies) probably 5th in terms of writing, but 1st in terms of fun dialog.
Shadowen on
+2
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Anyone who's on Jedi Covenant, my guild is about to do a 16 man story mode on one of the Oricon ops. If you have a level 55 character and at least have the basic gear that you get from Oricon story missions, you're welcome to join. We're starting in about 30 min.
Also for anyone already in my guild interested in ops, make sure to sign up at dominusnihil.com forums and let me know when you sign up so I can request forum access for you.
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Thanks for putting up with my noob-ass tanking. Got a heck of an introduction this weekend, between running a couple hard modes yesterday and the operation today!
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Thanks for putting up with my noob-ass tanking. Got a heck of an introduction this weekend, between running a couple hard modes yesterday and the operation today!
I don't know if you'll be available next monday, but we'll probably do dread palace for comms in the same way and that will let you complete your story mission on Oricon.
Thanks for putting up with my noob-ass tanking. Got a heck of an introduction this weekend, between running a couple hard modes yesterday and the operation today!
I don't know if you'll be available next monday, but we'll probably do dread palace for comms in the same way and that will let you complete your story mission on Oricon.
Probably not, unless you're going to start at ridiculous-o-clock Eastern.
Edit: no weekend runs?
Orca on
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
We don't have an official one, but tell me what time you'll be on on the weekend and I can probably pug something without too much trouble.
Posts
My Scoundrel's not one to give up after one try--that's how she got to where she is. So she tries flirting with her native guide again.
Him: “You have long been immortal.”
Ouch.
And then the next time you talk to him he's all talkin' poetry and shit. Mixed signals much?
Of course, it turns out he's married, and she may be a bit of a cad but she's no homewrecker...
...but then if you keep flirting he seems to still be interested and mentions his wife is one of the people investigating her for the crime that Rogun's agent framed her for.
Oh, that poor boy is messed up. I might actually have to listen to Corso this time...
...but then you can keep going. The topic comes up because he's giving you his wife's holorecorder that she uses on the job, and because of the way the Voss mindset works, this will make the information provided more trustworthy. Flirt option!
Her: "I'm glad she's willing to share."
Him: "She is virtuous."
:winky: And Operation: Kiss A Voss is back on!
EDIT: I just realized: Corso is dumber than a dog.
A dog supposedly stops shitting indoors once you rub its nose in it. A female smuggler can mount a guy in full view of him and he'll get angry but then he'll be all "I will love you forever" the next time they talk. Take. A fucking. Hint.
Seriously. I'm starting to think Corso, if your smuggler is female, is worse than Skadge. At least you're not meant to find Skadge charming.
"Alone? Alone, I wouldn't worry about. You know he’s going to be nothing to you. You’ll leave him here and slink back to the ship and expect me to be there waiting. May not always be the case.”
IT HAD BETTER BE.
BECAUSE YOU'RE MY EMPLOYEE, YOU SLUT-SHAMING FUCKWIT, NOW GET BACK TO THE SHIP SO MAMA CAN GET HER VOSS ON.
I pull out all my companions through most class quest dialog so I don't miss what any of them have to say--it's one reason it takes so long for me to get through each story the first time--and in Corso's defense, even Bowie seems to be getting tired of finding an excuse when my smuggler turns into a snuggler. But Corso's reactions to flirts get ever more odious. I wouldn't be harping on this, but she broke up with you before you even touched down on Belsavis, you fucking hick.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Talk about them cult leaders, jeez...
nameless, faceless, possibly lifeless grunts
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
It would have been more like, "My lord, I...think you're kinda okay?"
I read this in George Takei's voice.
All future dystopia 'n shit.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
But on top of that I found voss mysticism/religion/culture to be extremely annoying.
Just curious.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Yeah, it's horrible when that happens, but sometimes it's a major conversation choice or you just wanted to see what happened and the convo ended too quickly for you to escape out...I'm glad the option's there, even if it does feel like a hassle.
Confession time: I actually like Voss culture.
I mean, it's stupid and leads to a people that are by turns emotionally repressed, incredibly gullible, remarkably deceptive, ridiculously naive, and stupidly confident.
But that's why I like it.
Imagine if fortune-telling was real. Now imagine it was 100% accurate, to the point where an aircraft carrier had been taken out by a lost tribe that made use of such techniques. Now imagine that tribe re-ordered itself around taking the predictions without question.
You get the Voss. And I hate Voss society but I love that it's so fucked up to our senses, because it should be.
Silly Commander Tainor. You forget the first thing anyone in a Star Wars movie learned about fighting.
Let the Wookiee win.
Khem actually said that to me. It's like my words are becoming truth!
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
Completing the quest makes binoculars a permanent skill on your character. If you just start the quest and don't finish it, you can still use the binoculars, but then you keep the quest on quest list forever, which is annoying. And the binoculars are used for other things in the game (like dailies and FPs)
You also get a chest piece that looks kinda cool, although its probably a pain to find a group to actually finish the chain.
Oh yeah! I forgot about that, the chest is a legacy piece, and basically the only legacy piece that looks appropriate for smuggler style. It's really hard to gear all my characters out in the style I want for them, so having that piece was really cool.
The other style of chest you can get is way more sith style though.
Mechanically, Î played as a Sawbones Scoundrel. This was really only a problem when I was trying to get Guss his 1000 kills. For comparison, it took my Immortal Juggernaut all of Belsavis to get Broonmark his 1000 kills. It took me until the Nightmare Lands to do the same on my Scoundrel.
Story-wise, I enjoyed myself. It was not without problems, though.
Chapter 1
The prologue, which I count as part of Chapter 1, got a little tiring, if amusing, with the refrain of "Where's my ship?" and the final encounters in the Works and the boss fight to get said ship back strained suspension of disbelief, but otherwise it was good. Darmas was an interesting character, especially since flirting with him got Corso's hackles up, which was amusing before it became tiring. Chapter 1 as a smuggler is a lot of fun. It's a scavenger hunt, and like a proper scavenger hunt, it's implied to be a race with Skavak, whom the game has given you every reason to hate, with the assistance of Risha, a mysterious young woman who provided the motive for Skavak to steal your ship in the first place but has no love for him and is quite happy to work with you. Not only that, but it's not just macguffins--you're getting components for your ship that are necessary to find the lost treasure of Nok Drayen, which is implied to have been hidden in a difficult region of space. Plus, unlike the other ships, what's in the ship (aside from people) changes as you progress through the chapter. You also encounter more and more reasons to hate Skavak, not that you needed any.
Finally, you find out that the final object, the dude in carbonite, is in fact Nok Drayen himself, who froze himself because he had an incurable terminal illness and he wanted to be there for the moment when his daughter, Risha, took her inheritance--the crown of the Drayen dynasty, the rightful rulers of Dubrillion. The ship at the Long Shadow is suitably creepy, and there are enough permutations with the final confrontation with Skavak that it's very satisfying. There's one last twist, which I was expecting having played the Agent storyline first, with Nok Drayen telling Risha to kill you and keep the wealth to fund her bid for queen of Dubrillion...and Risha refuses, and Drayen dies, his plans having gone awry at the last second. Risha then joins as a full companion instead of an NPC.
Weirdly, Risha starts out with 0 affection, despite defying her dying father's final wish, but then you don't get an influx of ten million credits or however much was in Drayen's fortune, so eh.
Chapter 2
There's nothing unified about what you're doing as a Smuggler in chapter 2. It keeps to the structure of: do a thing on Balmorra/Taris, side thing on Quesh interrupts you, continue with the thing on Hoth, but in the Smuggler's case the thing itself is barely defined. At the behest of Darmas Pollaran, a Senator has decided to offer you a commission as a privateer, but by definition privateers are basically government-sponsored pirates. The reason is because of an infamous slaver, nicknamed the Voidwolf, has been made a Grand Admiral by the Empire, but because of the way the game works, you're more of a government-sponsored ground-based thief. And that's okay; I don't expect them to implement AC3's ship battle system for a single chapter of a single class story. Though that would be cool. But compare to virtually every other class. Probably the least-well-defined class story for chapter 2, aside from the Smuggler, is the Imperial Agent, and even then you have a specific end goal from the very start; the tension comes from not knowing when and how you're going to be able to pull it off.
For the Smuggler, you're just a privateer with no defined mission. But on Balmorra, you steal a bunch of advanced weapons from the Empire. That's fine. Then you go to Quesh because you intercept a random distress call from someone under attack by the Voidwolf, and rescue some smugglers. Questions about the logistics of a distress call from Quesh reaching you at Balmorra aside, that's weird, because the obligatory aside to Quesh is, if not obviously connected to the overall story, at least important to you. For example, the Bounty Hunter chapter 2 story has no obvious connection to what happens on Quesh--though Quesh is probably more important for the Bounty Hunter than any other class--but it's not just a random aside. You're going there for a purpose that is important to you personally. But Quesh is just random for the Smuggler, though at least the people you're rescuing are under attack from the Voidwolf. Because of the stupidly cruel lightside/darkside choice, I just asked for money, but in my head she told them to make their deliveries and remember that they owed her.
Then on Hoth you're sent after some revolutionary new cloaking device, which leads to what I admit is a very interesting end; in a vacuum that part of the story is good, but as part of a larger story it's just as random as the other parts. My Scoundrel decided to just let Trick and the surviving members of that branch of the White Maw go, on the premise that it's good to have a small pirate fleet that owes her.
Finally, at the behest of Darmas, you go on a heist. That's it. Just a heist on a treasury ship. Completely unconnected to what happens on the other three parts of the chapter 2 story, except that the Voidwolf shows up to blow the ship up, as he is allowed to do under the Imperial rules of engagement now that the war is back on (DUN DUN DUN), which incidentally allows him to kill three members of the Imperial establishment he doesn't like. It feels like an unnecessary attempt to mimic the Long Shadow raid at the end of Chapter 1.
But then you come back from the heist, and things start to pick up in literally the last few minutes. If you've played another character through chapter three, you recognize the monsters sent after Senator Dodonna as being most prominently from Voss...and indeed that's where they're from. You move on to Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
If, like me, you left Smuggler to nearly last, what might be the final piece of the puzzle clicks in on Belsavis--it was Ivory, Rogun's old mentor, who called the Empire to Belsavis. Still, my character is pretty skeptical of the premise of Belsavis to begin with, so she doesn't blame him too much--she more blames the Empire for recklessly fucking things up. So she gets Ivory to work with her, giving her information on Rogun's safehouses and fortresses, with the implication that once things settle down she's the young boss and he's the wise old master who stepped aside.
After that, you get a request...from a most unusual Jedi Master. I was confused for a minute, because Master Sumalee has the same VA doing the same voice as she did for Bela Kiwiiks, and they're both Togruta, but their face markings are different. This particular Jedi Master knows Risha, which is interesting, and moreover a friend of theirs who joined the SIS is in trouble and needs your help. This feels a bit random, but it sets up an important relationship--you and Sumalee work together later.
Then, on to Voss, now that clearance has finally been achieved, to track down the monsters that Rogun sent after Dodonna. Like the Agent, the Smuggler quests neatly shatter the illusion of Voss as a perfect and pure society, uncorrupted by outsider influence; there is crime and cultural exchange going on, often at the same time. It made the usual Voss insufferability more amusing and bearable. I was disappointed that Jela Renake, Rogun's henchman on the planet, turned out so one-dimensional--though I think as a male smuggler you might be able to sleep with her before the inevitable betrayal, that's really not an improvement--and there's no way to spare her, given that it's clear that after her betrayal and trip to Nightmare Lands she went insane and needs help. Otherwise, though, you dismantle another part of Rogun's network. Voss also has another interesting bit, where you can do the Trials, which results in you getting a vision of Rogun...calling you a traitor.
Darmas calls you then, saying Rogun has retreated to an underground base on Tatooine and now you can raid the place and take him down. You meet up with him, and the Voss vision suddenly makes a lot more sense. Rogun was a smuggler and pirate, sure, but he was broadly pro-Republic all along. His grudge against you was purely because of the weapons shipment Skavak stole--he had a reputation as The Butcher to maintain, after all--but Darmas has been an agent of Imperial Intelligence and a citizen of the Empire from day one. After cultivating a reputation as a dilettante and information broker, he crosses paths with you and helps you out, but presumably thought little of you until it came out you'd discovered Nok Drayen's lost fortune. An easily-manipulable person with that kind of luck and determination would be the perfect patsy. He had already subverted Senator Dodonna before you met her with promises of power, so it was a simple thing to get her in on the deal. Rogun the Butcher already hated you, so it was simple enough to spin any attacks as retaliation against you, and of course they were in league with the Voidwolf the whole time.
At this point Chapter 2 makes a lot more sense. It felt unconnected because it was supposed to--to you. The Voidwolf was maneuvering you like pieces on a board, and if you bought it, well, you were never really an Imperial anyway, so what did it matter? He could just try again. At this point, looking back, it's easy to see the connections, even without your companions pointing out the parts they were most closely connected to. It's also a reason why, even if it seemed relatively harmless, getting someone to work with Darmas Pollaran on your behalf counted as dark side points. Chapter 2 wasn't very impressive because it wasn't really a chapter--it was like the prologue to the real Chapter 2. In fairness, because they're trying to mimic the ANH->ESB>ROTJ structure, the Chapter 2s almost always feel like an unfinished story, but the lack of obvious connection makes the Smuggler's Chapter 2 feel, at the time, even weaker than the Bounty Hunter's Chapter 2.
Anyway, you can spare Rogun or not, but if you do spare him he quits on his vendetta against you, as you save him from the Sith assassins the Voidwolf sent to kill you after you'd killed Rogun. At that point it's all about tracking down Darmas, Dodonna, and the Voidwolf--and glory be, they were also involved in engineering the attack on Corellia.
Step 1 is getting the word out--Darmas is the real traitor, and you were his patsy but now you know the truth and you're gonna hunt him down and eat him raw (or whatever). Having the word of an unconventional Jedi Master helps, as Master Sumalee guides you through the Corellian conflict, as does being one of the fastest and most charismatic talkers in the galaxy--once you get people to think about what Darmas is trying to get them to do, it's actually quite simple. You can also just kill 'em all, but my Scoundrel is more of a lover, not a fighter. Hence why I went Sawbones--look at all the double entendres you can do just with the names of abilities in the skill tree.
Step 2 is hunting down Darmas himself. My character had flirted with him before, but mainly because he flirted with her first, and so she did it to keep in practice--and also because it seemed to annoy Corso--so there was no broken heart to avenge or cloud her judgement. You catch him just before he's about to go in for facial reconstruction surgery, talking over holo with one of the Corellian Council, Caicos, about the next step. Interestingly, I think I found the single best dialog in the game for companion affection at this point: +120 affection, base (so closer to 360 by this point in the game), for each companion (not counting Treek, 2V-R8 or HK-51), when you barge in to the scene with gun drawn saying,
I can see why it appeals to all five companions, though I didn't think it was +120 base affection funny. Maybe if it was followed up with, "Quick question: are you of the Coronet Soon-to-be-torn-apart-by-his-own-constituents?" or something.
Anyway, I went with giving Darmasto the Republic, because as good as pulling the trigger might have felt, she needs information more than anything at this point. The real person responsible for fucking her over is still out there.
Step 3 is catching Dodonna--who, amusingly, has been rendered into a servant for all her troubles, scrubbing the floor in a POW camp. You can kill her, let her go (I think you can also ask her to come away with you if you were a dude and had a romance with her), or have her arrested. Again, I went with the arrest option, this time because she volunteered the information.
Step 4 is getting to the Voidwolf, which involves getting into the household of Councillor Caicos, one of the Corellian Councillors who was most enthusiastic about inviting the Voidwolf to join. You get some really fun conversation options with him, and the light-side option gets affection from all five companions, feeling light-side while at the same time feeling very appropriate for such:
Step 5 is hitting the Voidwolf himself.
The Voidwolf's ship seems pretty small, although I guess you could imagine that you went from an officer's bay (because the Councillor was supposed to meet him) straight to the command deck. The fight was good, too, although at level 54 it was understandably easy. Too many non-Sith/non-Jedi fights come off as pretty boring because the enemies are just pew pew pew.
And then Chapter 3, which had been great up to this point, came crashing down.
The occasional bullshit LS/DS decision I can put up with because it's bound to happen in a game this big. What I find unforgivable is when the final decision of a storyline or questline has a nonsensical decision, even if the mechanical reasons are obvious. You are told by the pirates that the fleet isn't going to stay together very long because of old grudges and the notoriously independent streak of pirates, smugglers, and other criminal elements. So your options are:
So to reiterate, the options are: pirates become part of legitimate authority; I suddenly become an asshole and in charge of a massive fleet of brutal pirates; pirates pay me and bugger off.
None of these are exactly well-suited to my character, but I went with option 3; option 1 was okay, but the implications were just confusing. And she doesn't even get to call herself "Commodore" or keep the Voidwolf's ship because load-bearing boss lol.
Chapter 1 is obviously you taking after Han Solo, but chapter 2 and 3 made it seem more like Talon Karrde, an EU character who quietly rose to become most of the most powerful underworld figures in the wake of Jabba's death. But no, you end up with a single ship and a pile of money to your name, no grand ambitions or even great plans. So far, a lightsided or neutral smuggler ends up in basically the same position they started in, just with more friends and money. Given that the other six classes I've played to completion end up in some position of power, authority, or freedom they didn't have when they started, it's kind of annoying.
Again: I get it. The mechanics of the game limit it. But there was so much promise...and nothing. Unless you want to be an asshole, and my smuggler can be a vindictive bitch when she's crossed, but she's not evil.
But then, during the ending award ceremony, the things Guss and Risha say indicate you basically are an underworld kingpin, and the email you receive from one of the pirates makes it sound like it's inevitable...it's very weird, is what I'm saying. Almost as smushed-together and nonsensical in the ending as some aspects of the prequels.
That said, hell of an ending shot, with the six just before they go up the ramp.
Also, as an aside, aboard the Voidwolf's ship I came across what I guess was a sort of officers' rec room with a lot of booze bottles and stuff and a dancing holographic Twi'lek girl in it. The only person there was a female elite enemy. By my count, the sole implication of non-heterosexuality in the vanilla game belongs to a minor nameless villain. Good thing they changed that with the expansion.
Overall, based on the weak feeling of chapter 2 and the scattershot feel of the very end of chapter 3, I'd rank the story (I know I said I don't do that, but taken as its own trilogy compared to the other trilogies) probably 5th in terms of writing, but 1st in terms of fun dialog.
Also for anyone already in my guild interested in ops, make sure to sign up at dominusnihil.com forums and let me know when you sign up so I can request forum access for you.
My widescreen 23" monitor died.
I do have another monitor I can use.
It is twelve years old. It is a 14" square monitor. It requires an adapter. Its max res is 1024x768.
This game is ugly at low res.
Runs nice, though.
I don't know if you'll be available next monday, but we'll probably do dread palace for comms in the same way and that will let you complete your story mission on Oricon.
Probably not, unless you're going to start at ridiculous-o-clock Eastern.
Edit: no weekend runs?
Earlier than that and I'm still imbibing my coffee and trying to wake up.
It's cool though. I got to level 31 as well and upgraded my gear. Now it's time to feed Khem...
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Do you mind if it's later in the day than that? Like maybe 4p eastern?
Not at all, that was just my lower limit for start time.