Let's talk SWtOR!

[Kulyok]

I'm kind of tired of the grind, too. But I never got the Coruscant datacrons, should be fun! Heh.

 

I'm spending my time decorating and running tactical flashpoints. I should go and run some normal stuff- Taris bonus on the Empire, Voss bonus for the Republic, something slow and meditative. GTN alone can't sustain me.

 

Though I do want to get 10 contracts for that decoration.

 

I don't think you need to grind for that bowcaster - Nar Shaddaa casino weapons are much cheaper for moving barrels, I think. That's just me.

 

I bought my skill augments for 72k! Heh, 53k sounds great. I did buy two Imperial banners for 90k and two more holo-trees for 100k.

[Domi]

Yeah, but Nar Shaddaa is gone, and I need a couple of weapons for Treeks to rotate through the Legacy. Anyways, just about to go get my mom and kid I doubt I will have much time for the game till Tuesday, so maybe I will get a nice break Just ran Black Hole twice yesterday, once with my husband and the second time with my solo Gunslinger (that one w/o the Heroic). I think if I get any play time, I will just go and finish Ilum on my Gunslinger or Hoth on my Mara and screw the grind. Credits are much easier to get now, with all my UWT alts, so... yeah, good times. Gotta enjoy putting things on the GTN and actually selling it (wow!).

 

I really want to visit some of the better decorated Strongholds. Gotta ask on the fora if there are really famous ones on the Harbinger. Can't do a thing myself, but wanna see what other people do!

[Twani]

Nah, my friend can't breastfeed- she (and I, actually, though it doesn't bother me) both got these weird blisters from a long walk that haven't healed for over a month, and her doctor is afraid her's *may* be or be becoming infected, and you're not supposed to breastfeed with an infection (I actually didn't know that (maybe it's obvious knowledge), but apparently the same thing happened to my own mother). I think she's actually kind of relieved, though, as she did miss those margaritas. It costs more, though, but... her money. >.> I've been making and buying food for both of us, but she's paying me back more then I spend, even adding time in. I told her that, but apparently she's fine with it. Again, her money, I guess?

 

(Oh, and the family friend with breast cancer? She's moving to my little in the middle of nowhere town! She and mom went to collage together, so mom is super happy. I am too, I think. Heh. Her husband is really, really nice to me- as in, I went to a bar once with him and he paid for all four of my drinks, and then I did it again and he paid for everything I drank. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't hear it. He's also teaching me to dance, oddly. Mom teases usthat I've stolen her husband, though he's definitely too old for me- I think I just get along well with Irish guys. Heh.)

 

I'd loved to see some fully decorated strongholds, myself. And eventually fully decorate mine... but I'm such a cheapstake. I can't justify spending cartel coins on anything but legacy storage- no decorations. And I just don't have the money (or am unwilling to spend it) to buy the major decorations. I'll... get there, eventually. Right now, though, mine is empty.

 

 

Okay, so: Guild Wars 2. Going under spoiler tags again, as this is REALLY REALLY REALLY long and I think only you care, Kuylok. (THIS IS SUPER LONG. It's sort of like me gathering my thoughts for my actual review. Feel free to actually not read this and read the review I finally make on my blog as it will be A) more coherent B) more concise. Even though I suck at being concise.)

 

 

(I'm probably going to do a full review of the 30- levels on my blog once I hit 30 and do my first dungeon, with pictures to make this make more sense. 28 right now!)

 

First, let me say this: it is probably the most convenient MMO I have ever played. I don't quite mean casual (although it comes close in some places), but just simply logging on and getting right to what you want to do- it is very easy. Maybe too easy for some. Examples:

 

Your bank is automatically shared between all characters on your server (by default five- you can buy more at the Gem Store (cash store), but you don't get free Gem's like you do cartel coins (however... you can buy gems for in game gold, IIRC, it just costs a ton)). Harvestables of any type go in to a different shared bank that holds *every* harvestable in the game (as well as some intermediate pieces for crafting- to make a ring, for instance, I take harvested copper, turn it in to copper bars (which can be stored), turn it in to a copper setting and a copper ring (which can't be stored) and then add the setting and ring to a jewel) in, I believe, a stack of up to 99. As there's a ton of resources (mostly chef stuff- there are gazillions of chef ingredients), this is a good thing. And this collectable shared bank? Automatically used when crafting, and you can put stuff in it WHEREVER by just clicking on an icon in your inventory 'store all collectables'.

 

Similarly, pick up a rifle you can't use? Just right click on it from anywhere, and mail it to a friend. No mailbox! Or, right click on it and sell it on the trading post. No running to a terminal. And don't worry about having to type in the name of your item or drag it to a box to check what price it's going for. The game automatically has buttons that let you A) sell to the highest 'bidder' (you can put up a bid on the trading post- 'I need 100 pieces of copper ore, paying 22 copper for each'- that people can fill), or B) match the lowest seller. You do need to run to a trading post person to pick up your money (which is grouped by all your characters, I think), but that's not too inconvenient.

 

(Oh, yeah, did I mention the rifles? And pistols? My warrior usually uses a gigantic warhammer, but switches to a rifle at a distance. My thief has a dagger in her right hand and a pistol in her left. Engineer's basically only use rifles and pistols; sadly, some classes can't use either. (I don't think my necromancer can.))

 

Travel? Easy. All over all the zone maps are bronze/blue squares. Run up to it, and you unlock a waypoint. From it, you can travel across the zones (and world) in moments- for cheap. (So far, around 30 copper for teleporting three zones away- we'll see how it goes up when I get even further.) Sometimes, a certain waypoint will be unavailable due to dynamic events (more on those later), but you can usually get pretty close (and waypoints in the city are always available). Oh, and you get XP for discovering these, too.

 

Actually, you get XP for doing a lot. Killing monsters and finishing quests (renown hearts- more on that latter), obviously. But also discovering waypoints, and clearing vistas and skill challenges (more on that later, too). Harvesting (oh, and you can harvest all resources, no matter what your crafting class, and multiple people can harvest from the same node). Crafting! (People often suggest craft grinding to make up for being underleveled for the personal story- you start with 1 gold piece (I think that's 1000 copper) so you can buy some ingredients to suppliment you.) Both PVP events (WvW- world versus world- is another great way to supplement levels). Doing events, of course, even if they fail. And- to the surprise of everyone- rezzing.

 

As in, raising people from the dead.

 

As in, EVERYONE can raise ANYONE from the dead (including NPC's, many who wander the wilderness and end up dead). So if you're in a crowded area or doing an event, you don't have to recall to waypoint- just wait, and someone will get you back up. There's no timer on this: after a large event, you (and probably a dozen other people) will run around resurrecting the dozen or so who died (and, yeah, multiple people can rez one person- it makes them get up faster). I may be overselling this feature, but after SWTOR's no in-combat rez save for lvl 50 and timer on your non-combat rez, this is one of my favorite Guild War 2 features.

 

And then the other really convenient thing: quests.

 

Let's say you start a human. Your starting zone is Queensdale, which is 1 to 15 or so. That means there are 15 reknown hearts in the zone. What that basically means is around four tiny quests grouped in to one, fifteen times. One of the first ones you get (I think the second or third) is at a quarry. You can get 'credit' for the quest/fill the heart by doing one of a few objectives: kicking/smooshing 'earth elemental piles' that have spawned on the ground, killing earth elementals that spawn from those piles or elsewhere, killing harpy's that are spawning on the top of the quarry, resurrecting miners that have died to said earth elementals or harpy's and... plugging leaks (aka, going up to a leaky pipe and hitting the F button- ta da, leak plugged). Later on, at 11, you're at a monestary/brewery. You can get credit for the quest by killing centuars (there's a lot of killing those guys in Queensdale), pulling grub tails from where they're growing hops (and killing the grubs that spawn), killing brew thieves and bringing the ale they drop back to one of the monks, and... tasting the brew. Oh, and resurrecting monks that get killed.

 

In general, every action makes the heart fill up a tiny bit. Doing enough actions fills it up, and gets you a letter that has coin and karma. It also turns the person who had the renown heart to a merchant who only sells items you can buy with karma- occasionally, they have nice weapons/armor, but mostly I use it to buy harvesting equippment and salvaging packs.

 

(Like in SWTOR, you can 'dissect' an item to get basic materials out of it- but everyone can dissect everything. Good way to get junk out of your inventory: dissect it (they call it recycle, actually- whatever), and then put it in your collectables bank thing. (Or you can sell the item on trading post, but, eh.))

 

Other cool things:

+ Vistas. Little two red triangles on the map. They're generally jumping puzzles, but unlike SWTOR's datacron hunt, the focus of them is generally figuring out where to start the jumps then difficulty of jumps themselves. (There are harder jumping puzzles hidden in the game: I haven't tried them.)

+ Skill challenges. Little blue triangles on the map. You either fight a mob, commune with a place of power, or use an item and woo, you get a skill point! Sadly, skill points are in the iffy section of this review.

+ Completing maps! Once you discover every point of interest, every waypoint, every vista, every skill challenge, and I think complete every reknown heart, you complete the map and get a nice message as well as a chest (which generally has an XP booster and some karma in it). So there's a real advantage to exploring *everywhere*.

+ World Vs World PVP. I actually haven't tried the five versus five or whatever it is PVP: it doesn't seem as popular. World Vs World is much more entertaining to me. And chaotic. In general, you zone in to one of four maps from anywhere, in which your server is at 'war' with two other servers. Mostly, honestly, it involves an army of around fifty people gathering and going around chasing another army of like fifty people from another server (I know you said you don't like PVP because it feels like killing players, Kuylok- GW2 sort of helps in that in that first, a lot of PVP is also killing NPC's (to take a location you have to kill NPC Guard's and the Tower Lord), and second, the other players are not named. You'll fight <Server Title> <PVP Rank> <Guild Name>, so they don't feel as real.) More importantly, there are towers, castles, keeps, mercenary camps, and ruins: the idea is for your server to 'claim' it, and build siege engine's to keep it or take other towers/castles/keeps/camps/ruins, and then gather supply so you can repair this stuff. Oh, and everyone is boosted to level 80, so it's all good.

+ Dynamic Events. One of the coolest things: Warhammer was well known for them, but, well, byebye warhammer (it got shut down, didn't it?). There are all sorts of kinds of events, but generally they involve killing something or protecting something. They can be simple 'Kill the toxic spider queen' or 'escort bob and his pack donkey to the next town over'... or a bit more complicated (go in to this camp, kill all the centaurs, break all the weapons and supply items, kill a boss, then hold the camp for so many minutes while centaurs keep respawning to try and take it back). This can cause traveling issues, though- if, say, the 'bandits build a roadblock event' spawns right next to Waypoint Bob's Home, Waypoint Bob's Home will become 'contested' and you can't directly teleport there until the roadblock is cleared. (There are simple events, and 'Group Events'. Group events will almost ALWAYS require more then one player (note I'm not saying group- see below) to complete; generally at least three or four (I've managed to solo one group event, and it was an escort quest, and I died once). Simple events... sometimes are easily soloed, and sometimes they require a group, too, which is incredibly annoying. HOWEVER- even if the event fails (or if the event can't 'fail', instead you abandon it and wander away to do other things), you still get XP/gold for what you did.

+ NO HOLY TRINITYYYYYYYYYYY. NO HOLY TRINITY. THERE IS NO HOLY TRINITY HERE. Yeah, that's right. Be it tank/healer/dps or the traditional tank/healer/enchanter, it is not required for anything, not even dungeons. Go with five warriors, have fun. Warriors and Guardians (the heavy armor classes) are sturdier then the other classes, yes, and can take more hits, but there are very few 'taunt' like abilities (I don't know if the warriors even have one- I think the guardians do, but they're basically paladins). And every class, from level 1, has a heal (and can switch it for other heals as they level up). Almost every class has some from of crowd control, and everyone can DPS. This makes the game, in my opinion, more fun- there's no wait for dungeons in 'oh noes we need a healer/tank', and you can be confident that no matter what your build, you're generally going to be doing fine damage-wise.

+ And... this is my list of good stuff, so this may not be good for you, but: no groups. There are basically three groups in game: groups doing dungeons (which start at 30 and I don't really know much about), groups doing level 80 stuff (which I think are dungeons? 'fractols'? I don't know, I'm not near there), and small 'strike forces' (oh, City of Heroes) in World vs World that are running behind enemy lines to commit some sabotage (like shutting down enemy supply lines) that would be too noticeable if the main 'zerg' group did it. What does this mean? No kill stealing, for one. EVERYONE gets XP for killing an enemy, and everyone can get loot from it. So if you're fighting something and someone else runs by, they'll probably shoot at it or swing at it once as they go. No big. XP for everyone! Help out everyone you see!

 

Phew! That's... a lot of awesome, actually. So let's mention the not awesome.

 

First, as you've probably noticed, no trial. It's still going for 50 dollars. That's a lot to pay to just 'try' a game. Now, there is no subscription fee (and that's promised), and the cash shop is relatively clean of 'things you need' (it sells XP boosts, more bank space, and unlimited harvest equipment- those are the things I'd consider sort of pay to win. There's some convenience things, like summon a banker or merchant to your location, but they don't break the game. Then it's new faces and hairstyles, dyes, miniature pets, clothing to just wear around cities... nothing super important).

 

Second, it's owned my NCSoft. This is an issue for one reason: NCSoft does not have the best record with games, as I will gladly rant and cry about them shutting down City of Heroes when City of Heroes was actually making a fair bit of money (ironically, because they wanted to focus on the Korean market and specifically Guild Wars 2 (and Aeon or whatever it is). They've also had quite a few other games fail and get abandoned, so... I wouldn't count on this being like EQ and being around forever (even though they're working on EQ3 now). It'll probably be shut down eventually.

 

Third, as said... NCSoft is a Korean company. It has thus some elements of a Korean MMO. The grind is much less then in any other Korean MMO I've played (they're generally known for huge grind and pay to win cash shops), so that's not a worry. But if you don't like the aesthetic, it won't work for you. In particular... (more on races later) Asura and Charr share the same skins for armor. The other three races don't: so see the male Norn Pheonix armor and the female. Some cases are better then others (heavy armor is almost always okay, medium armor usually covers quite well (and has lots of badass longcoats), light armor... not so much), and you can always find some sort of full covering armor, but some female stuff is basically 'boob plate and loincloth, plus shoes and gloves' while guys usually at least get pants. On the plus side, guys are generally quite pretty if you go for that (rather then buff). Also, the Ashara females (the males look more goblin-esque) are definitely inspired by manhwa (which is generally inspired by Japanese anime), with big eyes and a whole anime deal going on.

 

Fourth, as said... sometimes you sort of miss that holy trinity thing. I like playing healers, for example... occasionally a class will have a small circle 'heal' of sorts, but not all. (That's how all buffs are distrubted, if they activate on others- you activate it, and it buffs all in a small radius around you.) Sometimes there's a health regen buff on someone. Woo. Not much to go on. And people who love grouping will be disappointed- from what I understand, dungeons are generally ran in less then 45 minutes, and no one really groups otherwise. In fact, once I played with my ex and we grouped for my personal story... and he found that he couldn't even fight with normal skills, just do things like throw rocks at my opponent or throw potions at me. Grouping and healing/tanking aren't that good, even if you want to do that.

 

Fifth, races. The races are sort of odd. Asura are these short geniuses with arrogance out the wazoo that probably compare most traditionally with gnomes. Small noses, though, along with huge floppy ears and huge soul stealing eyes. The females are generally sort of adorable, and while the guys can be, they also can be very creepy looking. Charr are the race I have the hardest time playing (I need their personal story achievements, arghhh... but... not cute!); they are WARRRRRiors who like WARRRRRR and are feline (no breasts!) with huge muzzles, hardly any hairstyles, horns, and they lope around on four legs. I guess they're like werepeople? Only they're that way all the time. Sylvari are plant people who are born fully grown from the great tree and tend towards everyone is bi (of course, we never see male gay people- only female); they're very alien looking (often with little noses/no noses and strange long ears), with leaves for hair and barkish skin (that occasionally glows in the dark, which is kind of cool). On the plus side, Jennifer Hale is the female player character. Then there are the two more familiar races: humans, which actually fulfill the place of elves in the timeline (outdone by young races, lost all their kingdoms to young races/drama, are the seemingly only race with a monarchy which is like, sad and lonely and only two people are part of it) and look normal (if pretty and perhaps a bit Asian). Then there are the Norn, who are taller and tattooed. Yup. (Blah blah live in snow culture blah blah can shapeshift to animals blah blah have moots and are basically Norse.)

 

Sixth, and most important so far... abilities. You have 11 of them at once (Elementalists are weird and we're ignoring them.). From 1 to 80, you have 11 of them. (It's like DC online!) Or, to put it more simply: 1 is autoattack with your current weapon. 2 and 3 (and 4 and 5 if you're using a two handed weapon) are unlocked very shortly while using your weapon. 4 and 5 are unlocked by what you're using in your offhand. (Often, 4 is some sort of ranged attack- throwing your sword or dagger. I don't know why that works.) 6 is your heal ability: there are generally six different heals for each class (two of them are actually set by race), and you unlock the others with skillpoints (IE, my warriors started with a general 'emergency heal' that would heal around half health, but I went and bought a 'siget of regeneration' instead- it automatically gives me 50 HPs every few second, or I can dismiss it to get a medium heal). 7, 8, 9 are unlocked as you level up (9 is unlocked at... 20), and you 'buy' with skillpoints various skills. My warrior, for instance, usually has one that removes stun and conditions (poison, bleeding, etc), one that rushes to a target (good if the target is a distance away), and one that immobalizes the target (good if I want them a good distance away). Sometimes I switch to kick, which kicks a target away from me and interrupts, in events I often switch to a banner (summons a banner that goes and buffs everyone around it- you can set it down somewhere and everyone crowds around it). My thief has one that summons a giant worm to eat people (I have no idea why, either) and one that gives everyone a tiny heal and puts them in stealth in an area of effect. Your last slot- 0- is an 'epic' skill, but that unlocks at 30 and I'm not there yet. (I said 11- F1 is a super special skill. You generally have a bar you build up by killing other mobs or some such condition, then when it's full, you can activate your F1 skill. For warriors, it's a super weapon attack (rifle it's this 'kill shot' that can take half off a normal creature, woo!- but you have to stand still and uninterrupted for like two seconds). For thieves, I think it puts you in stealth and has you do some weird flash step backstabbing. For necromancer, you turn in to a wraith and kill people better. I dunno. (Long paragraph!)) You can change out the 6 to 0 skills at any time that isn't in the middle of combat, I believe, but coming from a game where you might have six hotbars full of skills, it's... sort of a let down.

 

Seventh, underwater. Oh, underwater. This game has beautiful underwater areas for you to explore (and that you have to explore to get the full map credit, usually), full of pretty wrecks and seaweed and dumb quaggans and FIVE MILLION BARRACUDAS AND SHARKS THAT WANT TO EAT YOU. You get something that gives you unlimited breathing, at least, but you have to use a special underwater weapon that's probably not nearly as good as your regular weapon. No one seems to like underwater combat: mobs tend to swarm you, no one else is around, And barracuda's can summon another of their kind. Screw those guys. (I think wolves and coyotes do it too, but they're ON LAND.)

 

Eighth, and this is actually sort of good: combat is a bit like ESO, in that it's partially reactive. If you see a character hold up their shield, they'll block any attacks you send at them, so don't hit them with anything but autoattack or an interrupt. If you see a character start to become blurred (especially their weapon) or rear back, they're about to do a special attack- roll (double tap w, s, a, d) out of the way of it. Two handed weapons can and will hit multiple creatures at once if they're all in front of you: aggroing a bunch then killing them all with greatswords is common. Shooting with a rifle or longbow and a mob walks in your shot? You're probably going to hit them instead, and get that aggro. Bad? Lag, of course. Not rolling away from a special attack can be very deadly at times: champion (group mobs) can take half your health easy with a special attack like that.

 

Ninth, the personal story. They... tried. When you make your character, each race chooses various options (human example: you're nobility, you're middle class, you're on the streets- this will influence which friend gets in trouble with bandits during the first ten levels). This first choice you make influences the first ten levels, the next choice you make influences the 10-20 region (the last choice you make just changes some dialog). 20-30, the story narrows down to five (one for each race) as you're introduced to three factions who are trying to save the world by helping a threat to your home region- at 28, you finally join one. Then the story narrows down to three, as you do stuff with that faction. The story continues like that till level 80, at which the Living World story starts (free updates). The Living World Season 1 is lost: it happened, you can't play it anymore, tough luck. Season 2 looks like it's playable at 80, but you might need to pay real cash to unlock it (joy). Things actually change due to this (SWTOR example, it would be like after they released False Empire, Malgus disappeared from the game and you got all his quests from Marr instead as Malgus was totally dead... or the City of Heroes example of Statesman dying and everything being replaced by Postrion/Ms Liberty). Honestly, though, this 'personal story'? Well, they tried. But it sucks. (Lvl 19 or so, I found my lost long sister! Who NEVER APPEARS AGAIN. Ever.) Especially compared to SWTOR.

 

Tenth, which leads to the basics: the story is just not that interesting. Your character is voiced, but 'cutscenes' involve your character standing on the left and the NPC standing on the right of an artistic background talking. You never get to choose what your character would say outloud. Occasionally you get tiny choices (or one big one- which of the three factions will you join): like, I had 'go infilitrate a mansion' or 'go to a party' (I went to the party). Weirdly, there's some personality system with replies of 'charm, dignity, and aggressive' that seems to do absolutely nothing: occasionally when talking to a random person you get a choice between those three options, but nothing seems to happen. Your character is standard I Am Good Person. The story itself is generally pretty black and white: the Order of Whispers tries to be a bit gray, but doesn't really succeed at it. (The Sylvari only opponent (at least at first), the Nightmare Court, actually brings a bit gray in to it... but it's very dark gray, so I'm not sure how much it counts).

 

Twelfth, for all this personal story and various non-combat options during quests... just hanging out in your home area doing quests (and discovering the map), the occasional event and the personal story will put you behind in levels. Although there are some really interesting non-combat options during quests (I've baited traps to attract rabbits to make ettins more friendly (yeah, seriously), I'm healed wounded soldiers, I'm trained with a sword, I've cleaned graffiti off of walls, I've encouraged lazy people to work, I've cleaned up goop from labs, I've turned in to a hound and played with puppies, I've quizzed people on Norn lore...), in practice, you always want to be doing the combat stuff, as you need that XP! You will have to craft, WvW, or travel to other zones of the same level (there are five 1-15 zones, for instance, one for each race) to keep on 'level'. Or else you'll have to sit around and kill a *lot* of random mobs. (or, you know, use XP boosters, which is probably what they want.)

 

Thirteenth, and... this is the interesting part. You can't outlevel stuff. My Warrior is 28. Yet if she decides for some reason to run all the way through Queensdale to travel rather then waypoint it, she'll be lowered to 'effective' level 15 at the edges, and even down to level '3' at the very beginning of the zone. Now, if I'm effective level 3, I'll get XP from those level 3 mobs like I'm level 3 killing an equal level mob (though my XP bar is still the 28 bar). It makes doing other zones a lot easier, as you'll always be of the right level for them. It makes grouping easy as well, as you'll all be of the right level for that part of the zone where you're hanging. But... it means if something is hard for you, you can't out level it. I had trouble on my Norn thief with part of her personal story, twice: once when I had to deal with turrets that did over damage (thankfully, that got nerfed in one of the first patches of the game), once when I had to do arena combat. I couldn't out level it- I could improve my armor (yay?) and try new skills, but I would forever be reduced to 16 or whatever. This also means that running in to a Veteran mob in the wilderness is a pain in the ass. A twinked out character can solo them fine, but a 'new character' is going to have trouble with them, and they can't out level them. I found a veteran toxic kwait thing guarding a skillpoint I needed... and I resorted to five gazillion different tactics to try and pull it away, as even dying and resurrecting (vengence) couldn't kill it. Not fun at all. (Thankfully, two characters are all that's needed to take a veteran, usually. Champions, on the other hand... four or so.)

 

OMG am I done? I THINK I AM DONE.

 

(In brief: graphics, certainly not ESO pretty (THAT GAME IS SO GORGEOUS I WANT TO DATE IT.), but not bad: characters are generally the best looking things, along with armor, but Sylvari areas can be very pretty (they have swampy stuff with pretty flowers and fantasy stuff as opposed to human generic fantasy, norn snowy snow, Charr desert, and... I don't remember what Asara areas looked liked). Probably a bit less then SWTOR, over all, but it's not like LOTRO or anything bad. Classes- probably more variety overall with nine of them; different weapons and different skills (and then traits, which is a 30+ thing I don't know) can make each class very different, but they aren't anywhere near as strategic as SWTOR. Races, much more interesting, if nothing else, but probably not as attractive over all (however, they each have cities, culture, lore all acknowledged rather then one line from Kaliyo of 'HEY YOU ARE BLUE'). Enemy variety is probably better, but it's a fantasy game as opposed to a SW. WvW is more fun from a distant perspective then Warzones, but not as strategic. Nothing approaches space combat. No houses or mounts, but much better travel and general convenience- trading post is much better then SWTOR trading (and easier); I like being able to advertise 'I need this stuff, someone make it for me' (and likewise, be able to look- 'Oh, people want this, I should make it'). Raise dead +++++. Crafting giving XP is nice, and much quicker. I miss companions: every class but warriors can get an AI controlled companion of sort (mesmers and necromancers in paticular), and rangers can get a companion they have some control of (they have to hunt down companion animals through the wilderness- sort of fun play): however, in general, they're stupid as anything. NPC's and story of SWTOR is so much better I couldn't even begin to explain (though I tried!). The living world is sort of interesting, though. Not needing tanks and healers: +++++. In honestly, Guild Wars 2 is probably more fun to simply pull up for an hour, goof off, and play (and much easier to do so): but SWTOR is much more engaging as in 'I care about what is going on'. Both are good at 'single player game', but SWTOR is more 'strict roleplaying' and GW2 probably has 'action RPG' written on the side of it.)

 

Oh gods I'm done that was too longgggg must shorten and pare down for actual post.

 

 

Back to trying to make Oblivion cooperate. My friend does not understand the craziness involved in making a modded Bethseda game cooperate. She thinks it's like Baldur's Gate (she loves the NPC mod, btw (she's just not an internet poster), although she wants you guys to add dialog for the EE NPC's... I'm like 'I think most people have loooong moved on'). I'm like 'No, this involves tears and head banging'. I think after all this work, I'm going to end up writing a guide "How to make your Oblivion game as crashfree as possible". Honestly, part of it comes from the fact that Oblivion's engine sucks. Morrowind's and Skyrim's are a lot more stable: though one's older and one's newer, on both of them I can run heavier script mods and better graphics mods. On Oblivion, it throws temper tantrums. Thanks a lot, Oblivion. Your engine sucks.

 

I went to this local vegetarian buffet for lunch today- they were serving South African cruise, and it was delicious. Eggplant in peanut sauce especially (though I think that's more Thai then South African). And they had delicious chilled chai tea (although again, I think that's more Asian then south african). So goooood. Don't think I could give up fish, though.

[Kulyok]

Twani, THANK YOU for such a lovely and a detailed guide! You totally should post it as a blog entry.

I love the convenience features so much! Underwater sounds especially cool, and no trinity, and reactive combat, and convenient trade/auctions. But paying up front, no free trial and no good personal story... sigh. Yeah. Have to think about this.

 

I think EE NPCs are being written about on SHS now... or is it BG2EE only? Anyway, a separate mod would work just as well. Heh, I think BGEE NPC should absolutely have more content, but only if it's written by people who love them. (I can't say I love Neera - mostly, I don't care about her; then again, there's a lovely Neera Expansion already).

 

I played a bit with auctions yesterday and did one KDY flashpoint. Got 160elite(finally!) on my main and spent them on 168 belt and bracers for my Sniper. Now she's only missing head(156 for now) and pants(162 for now), her chest is 180, the rest are 168. I might need better mods for the main hand and off-hand.

 

Also I completed Taris bonus series with my merc. I really miss stealth on her - it's way too cooler to sneak by mobs with your assassin or an operative. Then again, Merc is perfect for flashpoints.

 

Bought 12 imperial banners for 1070000 credits. Gosh. Also I bought a few rooms in the Coruscant apartment - I think I'll buy everything but the balcony(don't need it here) and the garage, soon. Really, Coruscant has the best windows - it's almost like you're standing outside. Nar Shaddaa windows are horrible; maybe that's why I don't want to decorate that stronghold as much.

 

Got to write more reviews. Hope to play a bit more tonight - just casual play.

 

Also, I think these gathering nodes are absolutely cool. Imagine: you can log on, keep looting your node until you get the "no looting gathering nodes" debuff, switch to an alt, loot the node until the debuff, repeat until you run out of alts. Cool, huh? Free stack of materials.

[Domi]

Well, we have full house. If you gals wanna play this weekend, it will have to be Sunday for me, mom's staying till Saturday night and we are going mushrooming in the morning (or attempting to; last weekend the mushrooms did not show up yet).

 

My kiddo loved GSH, so I let her decorate Bayar's place on Progenitor. Not that the guy got much stuff, compared to my other ones from Bio, and I think I will sell everything he's got for unlocking DK. I finally gave up and took her character through the end of Ord Mantell. She was super-happy she's finally got to talk to Corso, and Corso 'likes her'. Oh, boy. Again, good thing it's Riggs the Wholesome. So, now I have a Shadow that did not finish Tython there, maybe I should do this one day. Or buy a server slot and play a Shadow on my home legacy. Only, who has the time?

 

What else? I PvPd myself into the 3rd piece of Obroan while my mom napped and my kid was taking a long bath (and did a full run of Black Hole - disappointed because apparently Classic Gear only comes in your char's variety. I hoped to get a suit for Treek ). Now I need to get my butt off the Black Hole, and start fitting in the Illum-Oricon, as switching to the PvP gear will slowly erase my PvE stats advantages.

 

So, this morning, I made a super-logical decision to just relax & play with my M!Trooper Tageren on Coruscant and forget about the grinds of every kind. I can't believe how easy it felt. The mobs just obligingly die the moment I start shooting. It used to be much harder... I saw the Taris Trooper story anyway already so it will take some time before I get off the beaten track with him. Unless there is some different stuff to see for a male on Cor/Taris. But I am starting to itch to play my parked Mara too.

[Twani]

If you give me an extra hour (so 10AM rather then 9AM), I can do Sunday. I need to run out to the farmer's market (which is only open till 10) and the local store Sunday morning, but I should be back at 10.

 

Ended up playing Guild Wars 2 basically all day today, going from 28 to 36. A lot of it was done PVP. I am desperately wanting to spend real cash to expend my bank, but... I can't quite bring myself to do so. I suppose I could think of it like buying an expansion to a game I already own, but I don't like the idea of spending cash on a game I'm 'paying' for. Especially as I remain suspicious; it could go out of business any day! (Okay, that's unlikely, considering Guild Wars 1 is still around, but...)

 

I just can't get in to the Charr. I think I'll play one up to level 20 to get the two 'Charr personal story achievements' and then I'll delete the character and make another Norn. The Asara are grudgingly cute and their sheer arrogance is sort of adorable (the Sylvari are a new race (25 years old, in fact) and the Asara found them first- and refused to believe they were sentient and totally experimented all over them; when they couldn't hide it anymore, they basically shrugged their shoulders and said 'Well, all other races are stupidheads, anyway'), and the tiny race is good for jumping puzzles, but... Charr are just 'WE LIKE WAR and are feline and wear boring clothes'. Also, I'm not too fond of the engineer subclass.

 

As for SWTOR, I feel like getting on one of my characters who are in a guild and trying some of this guild conquest junk. Though of course it's all doom and whine on the forums. Also, apparently 3.0 will be about Revan according to the forums? I hope not. Let him disappear in to the aether. I still think giving him a face/voice was a huge mistake (and I would have preferred they didn't give Revan a gender, either...); it doesn't feel like Revan anymore. And honestly, unless Revan is the most powerful person in the world and super special snowflake awesome, the rabid fanbase won't approve... and that makes for a boring character.

 

Trying to find a vampire mod that doesn't suck (ha, ha) for Oblivion. It's harder then I expected: there are a lot of them, but I'd like one that adds quests, and that's hard.

[Kulyok]

I can make it on Sunday, just let me know when. 10am - that's 18pm my time, right? (sorry, I suck at this)

 

3.0? It's absolutely about Revan, yeah. I don't think it'll be too bad, though.

 

The current conquest objectives are easy: I ran Esseles once in 20 minutes, and got 2000 points. Though I don't want to run flashpoints this week - kind of tired of them. And Esseles is boring. So, no conquest points.

I think I'll just finish that Voss bonus storyline and enjoy myself on my way to Corellia - it's past time I got that char to the end of her class story and to level 50. Syo is waiting!

 

I do love decorating, and I spend lots of money on that. Some utility decorations, some holo-trees, and such. But I need many more decorations to truly make my place look livable.

 

Gratz on the Obroan, Domi! You can buy gear for Treek, but classic gear is bad, bad gear(there's a classic trader in the Fleet Supplies for every class, though, if you want). You need basic/elite gear - for that, you need Oricon/Makeb dailies and heroics. And tactical flashpoints - those are easy even in the PvP gear.

 

I admit I haven't bought a single centerpiece/ship decoration. I have my eye on the Hypergate, but I haven't seen it on GTN, and I haven't seen Rakata mind trap, either(I'm willing to pay, but alas). Mat prices are through the roof - I'm running out of my stockpiles. Crafting no longer makes sense - I can sell and profit right away. I do like crafting, but it takes too much time. Hmm.

 

Anyway, yeah, I really think I need a break from the conquest stuff - just want to relax.

[Domi]

Hi ladies, I will be excited to play on Sunday, but let's just do Tat? I haven't played Bayar at all, so I will be too rusty for anything more complex. It will give us a shot at the FPs latter. So, it's 8 am, 10 am and 6 pm then?

 

Oh, I did not realise there is more than one Classic gear vendor on the Fleet, thank you for the tip! I will go find him. I am really too afraid to get into the FPs, but I am planning to start running Illum-Makeb-Oricon, on Tishujen instead of the Black Hole, and I will do dailies while I am at it.

 

Looks like the folks are not doing much conquest this week, yeah. Or maybe the market is super sat with mats. All the blue mats are back to the 150-500 range on harbinger, but purples are still good and high, so I am making a little credits. I even lucked out a few times on buying purpl mats low, and selling high (2-8 sheets, so nothing spectacular). Still, how do people end up with 99 stacks of L9 purple mats? Do they have life? Run missions while they go around their daily business? Still need a LOT of L3-4 gifts for all the Treeks, though to keep it coming. I am tempted to start crafting for the conquest, with the prices going so low, but I don't understand the mechanics of it yet, so I will look it up. Particularly if I run Tishujen, as I can's run Treek for purples since she is fighting with my toon, so the crew can craft.

 

And, aww, patch this morning, no play-time. And, it was a GTN re-login only yesterday, because I was held-up at work. Fingers crossed I get a bit more time... soon? Anyway, with Eric starting to work, I am going to have more solo time, so probably will re-start on solo stories, as well as play the elder game on the Gunslinger.

[Kulyok]

The bio mats are through the roof on my server - they don't sell very fast, but the prices are very high. I think that's partly because casuals don't farm planets any more - they run fps and such.

 

I have about ~20 stacks of L9 purple mats for my crafting, and I just go and spend millions to buy them. There's no other way, I fear - farming via crafting would get you some, but very slowly.

 

The conquest has changed mid-week - patch 2.9c removes repeatable flashpoints, which is a big ouch for PvErs - only Starfighter/PvP farming would give you fast points now. (Btw, Domi, check your conquest points - your regular PvP farming might mean you're at ~20-25k regularly.)

 

As for gifts, I would recommend running level five mission gifts, because that's the most profitable one - you'd be able to sell what you don't need. But-but-but gift prices are really down since the last month, so maybe it's worth it to just buy Technology for your main's Treek instead. (I have 22 Treeks, and only three are maxed out, though).

 

Flashpoints: if you want, we can do the first Revan flashpoint next time(not this week), when we've levelled a bit. And then there's the second Revan flashpoint, and we'd be fine. I've only done Colicoids and Red Reaper once, but with time we'll get to it, I'm sure.

[Domi]

No, I checked my conquest points, and I was well under 10,000 last week the way I play the game. I do a weekly on the PvP, but I don't end up doing the 2 dailies (or even one) every day. I don't think I can meet personal goal and tbh, I dunno if I would like to. I will take a look at crafting points, and if I stand a chance, but what the heck do I do with those war things? Give it to the guild? Nevermind.... PvP farming means though that there will be some really bad matches and some really good matches. But, whatever it is, it's going to be fast pops

[Kulyok]

It's probably not worth it: some credits, some scraps and three random gathering decorations. I tried to sell mine beyond 300 k, didn't work; sold two for 200k each, though. Still, doesn't look remotely like enough for one week of not enjoying the game - that, and I make enough money crafting.

 

Looks like the guilds are interested in conquests and crafting for those purposes only(they're not using ALL of these war supplies, I hope?), which keeps the prices high. I don't know - a part of me thinks that the inflation is rising again, since people are making more money crafting and selling mats, and there's more credits in the game. Or maybe those credits come from the rich guilds who are emptying their coffers or doing dailies non-stop(no, wait, no dailies - conquests!) We'll see, I guess.

[Kulyok]

Aaand I'll just confirm that Sunday 8 am, 10 am and 6 pm works for me.

[Domi]

Yay! Tatooine cantina, ladies?

 

And, yeah, I think the best thig for me to do is to just grind and sell mats while they still sell instead of chasing the Conquest points. They should have implemented a long-term sweet reward for meeting Conquest points, then it would have been good. Like a Chiss Character Customization for Quinn

 

AND, OMG, we got an early dismissal at work for the long weekend, so HURRAY, I think I might even, like play this afternoon. Though with the full house... who knows. Of course I am meeting for lunch with an old friend for the first time in like 5 years, otherwise, I would be running for the bus now. I dunno, I see all these unhappy people saying this is bad, and that is bad, and I am like... I don't CARE, I just want to play the game! In its current state! NOW!

[Twani]

Yep, Aamaranth will be in the Tatooine Cantina at 10AM EST Sunday. (I named my Sylvari Aamaranth, too... plant people should have plant names!)

 

I made it to 41 in Guild Wars 2, but I think it's time to take a break from it. Still, I've done everything but: Living World (seems to be a level 80 thing), Fractols and Dungeons (I've heard they're quite hard (fractols especially), though they open up at 30, I was told that there was no way a level 30 group could defeat the first dungeon (especially if a troll spawned or something)), and arena fiveVSfive PVP (World Vs World seems a lot more fun and less confusing). I think I can write a pretty decent review of it. I just need to start uploading my pictures and stuff and then being coherent. Which is booooring.

 

Announcements have been made about Dragon Age Inquisiton's multiplayer- it will be co-op, like ME3, and it won't influence the main game, unlike ME3. So I'm all for it. ME3's multiplayer was surprisingly good; one of the better things about it when it first came out and had those endings of horribleness. (Congrats, you are in love with LIARA. YOU ARE. TRUST ME.)

 

I found a fanartist who does some beautiful Joker/EDI stuff and who did a comic on the destroy ending and WAH. Never choosing it.

 

I'm partying tonight, which probably means mostly drinking, come to think of it. Oh well. I'm not complaining! I'm cooking, too... a Greek dish tonight. (When there's a Greek restaurant right down the street that's cost affordable and will surely make anything and everything better then me (they're baklava is to die for, ahhh)... sigh.) Let's hope it works anyway.

 

Quinn (and Temple) would make good Chiss. There really should be a Chiss companion in the game. I hope they add one.

 

 

Apparently, you can find a microbionoculars point in the Mananan (yeah, spelled wrong) flashpoint. What. Interesting. I wonder if I'll ever get to run it.

[Domi]

Okay, Cantina, 8 am tomorrow.

I like the name for the character, Twani, and it makes sense. Have a great night out!