Things to do before Fallen Empire

We've got about 50 days before early access starts for the SWTOR Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion.  Doesn't seem that far away actually.  Things are going to change quite a bit for level 60 characters once they accept the quest.  Rumor has it some content will become unavailable at that point.  So, what should we be doing before that happens?

1)  Companion Quests.  You know, the ones we get through affection.  Since companions will be lost, now is the time to do them.  I'm grinding out companion gift missions to get this done.  Of course, BioWare said there will be a non-story way for us to access some old companions, so these *might* still be available.  I'm not going to take that chance though.

2)  Solo Flashpoints.  They are making the Flashpoints all adaptive, so that likely means no more soloing the old underlevel instances.  HOWEVER, they are adding Solo modes.  So if you want to do it the old fashioned solo way, now is the time.  No solo Operations, so if you still want to try those, do it soon.  Might want to try and solo those older Hard Mode flashpoints now.

3)  Makeb Gazebo.  They are removing the achievement that nets you this decoration.  It's part of an effort to make the Staged quests more like the rest of the quests.  Read more here:  http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8407161#edit8407161

There is probably a bunch of other stuff, but we still know so little about what's happening with the leveling experience.

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Companions and their Gear

One of the big announcements to come out of the SWTOR livestream was that companions will no longer gain stats from the gear you give them.  They will still use the cosmetics though.  Instead, they grow in power as you level.  Right now, you gear them as you would yourself.  At first, I was a little worried about this change.  But, now I think it is a good one.

On the surface, gearing your companions is neat.  I like party management.  However, it quickly loses its luster.  If you have one character, you could have around 8 companions.  Ok, that's manageable.  Have an Alt?  That's 16, have 5 alts?  That's 40.  It quickly becomes unmanageable.  You end up only really using one maybe two of your companions because they have gear.  The rest just sit around.

One thing BioWare did not mention in the livestream is that individual characters are going to have more companions than ever.  We'll have 5 story companions, that's known.  We can also reclaim our classes old companions in a non-story way.  We can also get some other classes companions.  We will also be able to get companions from the Cartel Market.  It's becoming more of a collectible system than the static system we had.

I certainly don't want to spend the majority of my time collecting modules so I can use this myriad of companions.  Now, I'm sure some people do like that.  Someone always likes something you wouldn't expect.  Honestly,  these days I don't even care how my companions are geared, just that they are at level and look decent.  I'm sure I am not alone.

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SWTOR Livestream Impressions

No Spoilers here.  Last night SWTOR had their first real showing of the Fallen Empire expansion.  Overall, it was good.  There were some technical difficulties which caused an outage, and some volume issues.  The stream quality was not great either, but I don't think that's a big deal.  I can certainly wait to see it for myself.  Now, on to the actual reveal.

Demo.  They showed ~10 minutes from Chapter 3.  This looked really good.  The art and world team  did an amazing job.  BioWare seems to be continuing their focus on quality.  The cinematics were top notch.  The world we saw was detailed and expansive.  Gameplay was what you would expect, nothing new there.  So yeah, it was really cool.

Companions.  They answered a few of the most common companion system questions (no spoilers).  Now, if you already read the data mined information you probably didn't learn anything new.  If you didn't though, this was good information.  It was nice to hear BioWare come out and say it.  You can check out the official wrap-up at:  http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=832008

I'm sure some people will be disappointed with the presentation, not me though.  Saw some cool stuff, and am still excited for October 20th to get here.

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Zakuul Mount

Yeah, I bought it.  Who cares if it makes little sense lore wise?  Like the armor, it looks cool and is fun.  That's good enough for me.  Surprisingly it was only 1,500 Cartel Coins.  I was expecting something north of 2,000.  I gave it to my Zakuul loving Bounty Hunter, and he was putting around Hutta with it.





Tonight is a big night, the Fallen Empire live stream!  Normally, this would not be a big deal, but it's the first time we are really going to get non-marketing info about the expansion.  Less than two months until early access starts too.  It happens at 8pm EDT.  There is a chance I may miss it due to a family comflict, if so I'll watch it in the morning.

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Prologues

I recently started up a Bounty Hunter in SWTOR.  I played one a little bit back in beta, so it is mostly new to me.  The main reason he was created was so I could wear the Zakuul Knight armor, and also drive the Zakuul Dropship mount being released today.

I think the Prologues are some of the best parts of the game.  Everything feels so new, so many possibilities.  The stories are mostly pretty good on the starting planet.  They are not too big either.  You only have a few abilities, you pick your advanced class, you get your first companion.  It's just a great time.

There are still two stories I have never seen any parts of:  Sith Warrior and the Smuggler.  I'll likely get to these in the coming year.  I'm definitely going to wait until Fallen Empire streamlines the leveling process.  This Bounty Hunter will join the chapter rotation eventually.  Right now, the Jedi Knight is the true character I am working on in Chapter 2.

If only we could have even more prologues.

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Enter Camelot Unchained

Late last week, I finally got around to backing the Camelot Unchained project.  It's been around two years since it started.  Wow, has it been that long really?  It has gone quick.  Anyway,  the main reason I didn't back at the start was the sheer amount of time it takes to make a MMO.  Putting money up for something I may not get to play (in any form) for several years is a tough proposition for me.

However,  the game is going strong and beta is coming up soon.  There was a delay, and the new date has not been announced yet.    However, it is a timeframe that I am more comfortable with.

Long ago, when Warhammer Online was still alive and kicking, I had a plan.  I've always been a two subscription MMO kinda player.  I wanted them to be WAR for PvP and SWTOR for PvE.  I've been missing the front part of that equation though.  With Camelot Unchained on the horizon, I will hopefully be able to fix it.

The thing I really like about CU is their philosophy of not pleasing every MMO segment.  They want a RvR focused MMO and that's what players are going to get.  It's all about that.  No PvE areas like we had in WAR.  That's fine with me as I never really ventured out of the RvR lakes.

The development team is quite open, so that should keep me busy until Beta happens.

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SWTOR Happenings

A couple of SWTOR things.  Have a nice weekend!

Livestream. Eric posted some information about the August 26th livestream on the forums yesterday.  It will all be going down at 5pm PDT.  As always with any time, there was much complaining.  He also mentioned we will see parts of Chapter 3, which is mostly about us escaping from Carbonite.  Finally, we'll also hear details about how companions will work!  Will be nice to get some context around the datamined information.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=830838

Interview.  The folks over at Jedipedia were able to interview Charles Boyd, lead SWTOR writer, recently.  It was decent, and the format was cool.  Not too many new facts, but interesting background information none the less.  I think the biggest piece of info was that Satele Shan is involved, somehow.  That's not a big surprise, but glad to know the Republic is in there somewhere.

http://jedipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jedipedia:Interviews/Charles_Boyd-en

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Punting

BioWare has still been pretty quiet this week.  Eric came on to the forums to say we'll get more detailed information... soon.  I know, surprising.  On the positive side, the PAX Cantina substitute live stream is going down next Wednesday!  They really have no choice but to show us something then.  I shouldn't say that, they could just end up showing cut scenes or something.

With this weeks patch came new collection images for the Wild Space Explorers Pack.  I have to say, this one is looking to be one of their best yet.  I'm already considering buying my first Hypercrate.  There are a lot of cool items to be had.  Go check it out:

https://torcommunity.com/database/cartel-market/shipment-seven/wild-space-explorers-pack

Also, still loving the Zakuul Knight armor set.  Best 1,400 coins spent.

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The Spoils

"Well, it's about time." said Tirvix as a figure walked through the doorway.  The old gangster had his back to the door but could hear the new arrival come in.  His attention was currently in an old Plasteel crate.  It had certainly seen better days, as it had numerous scratches and dents.  A gold reflection appeared on the wall, which the new arrival couldn't help but notice.

"I was starting to think The Five weren't going to follow through with their threats." continued Tirvix, with amusement in his voice.  He then glanced over his shoulder to identify the intruder. He then let out a rather insulting laugh and went back to looking in the crate.  The figure in the doorway remained still and silent.

"This is who they send?  A nobody?  Do you know who I am, boy?  Why don't you turn around go back to your masters.  Tell them to send a professional if they want to scare me.  They will never sell their junk here!"  All amusement was gone from Tirvix's voice.

"I'm not here to scare you."  said the Human in the doorway.  He was average by all accounts, in shabby clothes.  Clearly, one of the dregs of this world.  The only thing notable about him was a scar covering a sizable portion of the left side of his face.  In his hand was a blaster, which was now leveled at the gangster.

"Oh" said Tirvix, whose voice was now calm and reflected the realization which had just come over him.  He started to turn and speak, "Well then..."  Suddenly, the blaster came to life, striking Tirvix in the gut.  He crumpled to the ground, writhing in pain.  The human started to walk over to Tirvix, but made his way to the crate he noticed earlier instead.

"The names Orbavul, by the way."  he said with a hint of amusement in his voice.  As he rummaged around in the Plasteel crate, Tirvix lay on the ground next to him holding his stomach.  "You made your point, go get help!" he managed to say, barely.

"Where did you get this?" Orbavul asked about the contents of the crate.

Tirvix angrily, "Get help, quick!"

The blaster which Orbavul held was not pointed at Tirvix again, "Where", he repeated.

"The Outer Rim, it was salvage from some wreck.  I bought the whole lot. Now will you get help?"  Tirvix pleaded.

Without a word, the Bounty Hunter fired his blaster, striking Tirvix in the head.  Turning his attention back to the crate, he said to the empty room "Yes, this will do nicely."

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Ok, that's enough of my horrible fan fiction.  I had to come up with a good reason my Bounty Hunter had Zakuul Knight armor, didn't I?  I'm really happy with the armor set, it looks awesome.  Costs 1,440 CC on the Cartel Market.

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Exciting Patch Day

There is a minor patch today for SWTOR, but it's a good one.  Which is nice since BioWare themselves aren't giving us much to talk about lately.  It's also a long maintenance period, but who knows what else they are doing during that time.  So what are the changes I like?

The Bounty Holding Cell Decoration now displays the force field by default, and turns off when interacted with.

This makes the decoration much more usable.  Your prisoner will actually be locked up, instead of just hanging out there when you enter the Stronghold.  Now, if they just make a layout that has a small hook inside of a medium hook, we'll be able to put this in more places.

The Zakuul Knight armor set is coming to the Cartel Market today.  link

It might even be a straight-up buy rather than in a Cartel Pack.  If so, I'll buy it instantly.  I really like the look of this set.  I'm even going to roll a new character, Bounty Hunter, to wear it.  Sure, it doesn't really make much sense lore wise.  But it looks cool, and that's enough for me.  

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