How much would I pay?

Yesterday, I wrote about SWTOR's 12x XP bonus for class missions.  In that post, I mentioned that I'd like to see that boost in the Cartel Market.  So the question is, how much is it worth?  I'd like to see it at 1,200 Cartel Coins per character.  That comes out to be around $10.  Not coincidentally, it is around the same price as a book.

BioWare could also go the route of rewarding the boost in the game.  On Twitter, two different ways were mentioned.  One was the boost could be a legacy level 50 reward.  My only problem with this is that a lot of folks at that level may already have full grown alts.  So it may not be very useful.

The other idea was to split the bonus among leveled classes.  So when you reach 55 on a Trooper, you get a 3x boost.  Once you level four, you have the full 12x boost for the other four.  I think this is a better idea than the Legacy level, but it still wouldn't benefit me fully.

So I am going to be selfish and stick with the Cartel Market.  I estimate BioWare would get $60 worth of Cartel Coins from me if they added this to the store at $10 a pop.

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It's Raining XP

One of the perks of being a subscriber and pre-ordering the Shadow of Revan expansion is that you get a 12x XP bonus from now until December 1st.  This bonus applies only to class missions, but is enough so that you can level solely by doing them.  This is a pretty amazing bonus.

I'm the kind of player who only likes doing content once.  The same goes for books and most movies.  Once I see or read them, I don't really go back to them again.  The same goes for the majority of quests in SWTOR.  I go through the content once and have a hard time doing them again on alts.  That's the beauty of class missions, it provides a new experience.

With this boost, I can just do new stuff.  That is pretty awesome.  It's not perfect though.  Since the boost has an expiration, I feel rushed.  I don't want to force all of the class stories into a tight window.  Instead I'd like to take my time. During this bonus XP period, my goal is to get my Imperial Agent to 55.  If there is time left, I'll start on another character.

I really hope BioWare puts this bonus in the Cartel Market.  That way I won't be rushed to take advantage of it, and BioWare will make some extra money.  Sounds like a win win to me.

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Episode 12: Endless Legend

This week I decided to switch things up a bit.  I was in the mood for a strategy game, and Endless Legend was recently released.  I went with the Founders Pack on Steam since it provided some more in-game content.  Overall, it is a pretty decent game.  It feels very polished and the in-game interface is impressive.  The video below provides an overview of the game, hopefully it proves a little useful :)

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Is Disciplines good for SWTOR?

As I mentioned yesterday, Disciplines is taking the place of skill trees.  There are three disciplines per Advanced Class representing each of the former skill trees.  Once you choose a discipline, you gain skills from it as you level.  All of the key abilities from the previous tree are contained in the discipline.  You also gain Utility Points which you can spend on a common pool of skills for your class. That last part is where the customization comes in.

Hybrids are Dead.  This is true and the developers said as much.  You will no longer be able to obtain key abilities from other skill trees.  I hate to see choice taken away from the player, but the fact is that some of the hybrid builds were never meant to be and that causes balance issues.  Players will still be able to semi-hybrid based on the Utility skills that they take.

The Long Run.  Skill trees just don't work as the game advances.  It's not that the developers are lazy,  it's just not a sustainable model.  There is a reason why WoW and even Rift moved away from expanding skill trees.  Making the skill trees larger with every level increase just doesn't work.  Can you imagine what it would look like 5 years from now?

The Future.  With this new model, BioWare can expand our options by simply adding skills to Disciplines or to the Utility pool.  No rebuilding and expanding of skill trees necessary.   Balancing should be easier from now on as well.  That benefits us all.

In the end though, this change will be a tough pill to swallow for people who played hybrid builds.  I can't blame them for being upset at this new direction.  For me though, it will open up more possibilities.  I never played as a hybrid, so the new Utility pool will offer me more options.  So yes, I feel this is a good change for the game.

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SWTOR Disciplines

TL;DR:  Skill Trees are going away.  All key choices from the trees are going to be baseline depending on your choice of Discipline.  You gain points to spend as you level on a pool of 21 Utility Skills.  That is where your customization comes in.

Yesterday,  BioWare did a live stream which detailed how the new Discipline system worked.  It was very nice to see it in action and get an idea about the types of abilities they are adding to the game or making into Utility Skills.  The stream is an hour long and can be found below.



Watch live video from SWTOR on Twitch

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Shadow of Revan Revealed

Yesterday, BioWare surprised us all with announcing the details about the upcoming Shadow of revan expansion.  They had just delayed the announcement a week ago, so I don't think anyone was expecting an information drop so soon.  I'm not one to complain :)  So what does the Shadow of Revan have to offer?

• 5 new levels
• 2 new planets:  Rishi and Yavin 4
• Skill trees are getting blown up, Disciplines replacing them
• 2 new Tactical Flashpoints
• 4 Hardmode Flashpoints.  These are likely existing Tactical's being upgraded
• 2 new Operations

Pretty much what I was expecting, except I figured there would be only one Operation.  That's not all the news though.  Subscribers who pre-order get a 12x XP boost to class missions.  That means you can level just by doing class missions.  This starts immediately and ends on December 1st.  

Of course, I pre-ordered right away.  Can't wait to get some leveling done with the 12x bonus.  

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Endless Legend

On Friday, I gave into temptation and purchased Endless Legend on Steam.  It is a 4x fantasy strategy game kind of like Civilization.  I am a huge Civ fan, so the comparison made me take notice.  There are some pretty big differences between the game, but at their heart they are similar.  It was my game of choice over the weekend.

Overall, it is pretty good.  I still like Civ 5 better, but it is a decent game.  The graphics are quite nice and detailed.  The interface is very crisp/sharp,  if that makes sense.  You really do have all of the information ready and waiting.  Of course, the developer did the same for Endless Space.  I also own that, but it never grabbed me.  I think their combat system was the main reason why I was never hooked to the game.

I sprung for the Founders Pack (extra $10) because it had some added in-game items.  In total is cost me $45, so it is definitely not a cheap game.  You get what you pay for though.  Endless Legend is a polished, quality title.   If you like games in the same vein as Civilization you may want to consider purchasing it.  This weeks Werit at War will be about the game too if you want to wait and see it in action.

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Episode 11: Arena

In this weeks episode of Werit at War, we fight in one of the arenas.  It was actually a pretty decent match.  They had stealthers, we had healers.  Who will emerge victorious?  This video is a bit shorter than previous ones.  My time was a bit more limited due to family obligations.  Next week I am going to change things up a bit and cover a different game.  Have no fear SWTOR, it is just a week break.

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When to start over?

I've been thinking about blowing up Sites with Benefits and starting over.  It's actually a couple years old now.  Overall, I wouldn't really call it a success though.  At times it has shined, other times not so much.  Technically, it works.  However, the administration side could stand to see a lot of improvements.  It's a big obstacle to other people using the system.

It is currently written in Python on Google's App Engine.  Lately though, I have been working with Node.JS and MongoDB, I feel they would be a better fit for the app.  Moving to Node would also let me rewrite the Twitch bot so it is hosted on my server instead of the users machine.  It would be pretty much a complete rewrite though.

Another feature I could add with a rewrite is to make use of PassportJS.  This library would let people log in with their Twitch account, among others.  Since Twitch and Youtube are two groups I want to focus on, it would be quite useful.

It would be a lot of work, but I'm not sure it is worth the effort.  The original version never took off, what makes me think the new version would?   Of course, I'll never know unless I try.

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SWTOR and Data Mining

Some of you might remember that I used to do data mining for Warhammer Online and more recently, SWTOR.  I stopped doing it a while ago for a couple of reasons.  One,  I was just running out of time.  My interest was also waning at that point.  The second reason was there really wasn't a need.  swtor_miner, from Reddit, was doing a better job than me.  No need to duplicate efforts.

Recently,  some news broke that swtor_miner was put on BioWare's 'blacklist'.  Any fan sites that promote his work would also loose their 'official' status.  Oddly enough, I too received a bit of backlash, but not from BioWare.  I was denied entry to a guild because of my past data mining efforts even though it was a year ago.

I don't think BioWare took this step because just because he was data mining.  This all happened around the time he was making known possible ways to abuse the Conquest system.  In fact, he was on podcasts talking about how to do it based on data mined information.  Whether or not he should be punished for making these flaws known is a very old argument.  My personal opinion is that he should let BioWare know, but not make it public.

Swtor_miner is a valuable asset to SWTOR.  Where the community teams hands are tied to talk about upcoming plans, his are not.  We MMO players love our information about the future.  So in between official announcements, we have bits and pieces from data mining.  However, it also means that some discretion  must be shown by the data miner.

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