Let's talk SWtOR!

[SapphireIce101]

Some interesting news. Icewind Dale is getting an Enhanced Edition!

http://icewinddale.com/

 

Back to SWTOR news, I almost got all of the Satele Shan set. I got all of Reaver's, and a lot of blue crystals. Also, my dad is playing now. Between his IA, JK, and SI, he likes the IA story the most.

[Twani]

Thanks, Domi. I freely admit I reuse names a lot- so far Aamaranth's That I Currently Mess With is a stubborn neutral-leaning Sith Lord (SWTOR), a plant person who makes dead creatures out of living flesh, bones, and blood (GW2), an eternal vampire who's lived for centuries who's caught in another war with another vampire who's lived for centuries and neither of them care about making Shibuya in Tokyo their battleground (Vampire the Requiem), a Lunar Exalt who spends most of her time turning in to plants instead of animals and makes all the other lunars laugh at her (Exalted), a Dalish Elf plotting to ruin every civilization but her own (Dragon Age 2).... I'm probably forgetting something.

 

(And that's not even starting on my go to for male names, Aanan (or Aaran if I need something more 'real' sounding). The Academagia kid and the Chiss Agent are just two recent incarnations of the five million characters using the names, all tracing back to an Air Aspected Dragon-Blooded (with Demon blood, too, because he's that special/screwed) who may have sold his soul to evil Buddah who is occasionally the setting's Satan named Leedal Kebok Aanan (though, honestly, I usually write about the adventures of his long suffering boyfriend, who is generally more sane and doesn't sell his soul).

 

(The Chiss borrows a lot from him, actually. HEY LET'S SELL OUR SOUL TO JADUS. THIS IS A BIRILLIANT PLAN, KALIYO, TRUST ME. Plz still sleep with me afterwards! Threesome with Watcher 2? No? How about Temple? /broken)

 

 

So, other then goofing off with names, I went over what I have for my BG1 mod. (NWN2 Mod, AKA 'that dr00d thing' (druids were once a powergaming class of awesome back in the early Everquest days, where their haters called them dr00ds to mock them sitting around camping all the good mods) is still on the backburner.

 

What I have for Ayberk works. His background is complicated, but simple enough if I pretend: he grew up in a relatively abusive environment that he generally protected his two younger siblings from, after the death of his parents (counting his mother's husband as his dad, rather then the elf- unlike Altan, he has little issues with this) he basically raised his siblings. Unfortunately, he raised his sister a bit too well (as in, she turned out entirely too much like him), and she united with some higher level people and cast a Banishment spell. Oops. Since then he's basically been running to try and get back to Calimshan so he can kill her for first) betraying him and second) betraying him without actually killing him, which would have been the smart move and was totally how he taught her to do things, damn it. He's had horrible experiences with love (if you ask him his type, it's 'Charming bard's with no common sense who think they're revolutionaries and then try to kill me. Maybe I should try redheads.'). In BG1, he can form an 'understanding' with CHARNAME, in which it's understood he's completely out for himself, understands nothing of this adventuring business (annoying to him, as his superb social stats means he understands almost everything else), but he's willing to help him/her anyway as long as they understand as soon as this silliness is over he's heading south, damn it.

 

It's more complicated then I'd like for BG1 (planar travel! Horrors! THAT'S SCARY BG2 STUFF), but it seems to work. He spends most of BG1 antagonizing non-Calishite party members, complaining about wilderness tracking, refusing to wear boots (people should wear sandals), being grudgingly awed by snow if you bring him along for Rasaad's quest, and generally being annoying. Writing him actually falling in love will be hard, but... that's BG2 stuff. Whatever. What I have so far works.

 

Then I looked at my stuff for Altan and cringed.

 

General ideas: Altan is supposed to hit that Adorakble meter some gals like. He's genuinely a good guy, but sort of ranged neutral evil in his past and thus has some sort of atoner thing going on. He is a priest of a fairly forgotten god (seriously, the highest leveled priest of his god in the setting is like, 10- by BG2, even dual classed, he will be the most powerful priest of his god in Toril, which is sort of scary), and tends to deal with problems by running away rather then confronting them. He can be sort of spacy, has Elven Issues, generally wants to do good but is sort of indifferent on how good is done, and doesn't Approve of Killing Drizzt for cool gear.

 

That's nice, I suppose.

 

But there are certain aspects of what I've written so far that are just- ugh, got of change out. The flirtation with Faldorn: ugh, no. Altan can barely spit it out to Female CHARNAME, and Faldorn is (as the NPC project made her, anyway) way too young for really any sort of relationship. Any fliration between the two: A) takes away from the Altan/CHARNAME relationship and B) reinforces the 'guys and gals can only have sexual relationships with each other rather then actual friendships' cliche that I hate with a thousand suns. So need to rework all their banters to be friendly and awkward, but not flirtatious. (Also, cutting out the Neera fliration, because, well, it's dumb. And Neera is dumb. /BIAS)

 

Second, romance talks need to be written to be both more awkward and yet more adult at the same time. How am I going to do that? I DON'T KNOW, but it's necessary. Right now they feel too Garrick-y, and while Garrick is nice enough, that's... not what I'm looking for. Altan is supposedly be reasonable attractive, not permanent 'lightly flirt with, find real man' territory.

 

Third, more hostile banters. As it is, he bitches with Dorn and Viconia, gets bitched at with Eldoth, and basically NOTHING HAPPENS for anyone else. That's not very interesting, and needs to be played with. Hostilities aren't required, but some sort of 'conflict', even if it's tiny.

 

 

Yeah. NWN2 planning is more interesting, honestly.

 

So, PAX announcement: IWD EE! Kuylok, be prepared for a lot of people on your mod forums, I think.

 

 

Also, me being bitchy: Everyone wants to do stuff Tonight and Not Let Me Sleep. Mom swore up and down she'd cook for us tonight, but it's basically 9:30, and well, no food. I'm like "I need to eat and sleep so I can play SWTOR tomorrow! (/also, cook for this labor day cookout everyone seems to think *I* should cook for)". No one seems to care. Argh!

[Twani]

Okay, I'm like, alive and here, but... patching. Very slowly. I forgot to update tomorrow.

 

I'll be on as soon as the patch finishes. ._.

[Kulyok]

ok, waiting!

[SapphireIce101]

Oh Kuylok, I have some good news for you. Solas is romancible by female elves only.

 

Now, I hope I'll be able to finish chapter 1 on my DS Sniper today.

[Twani]

Yep, Solas for female elves! Woo!

 

(On the other hand... people have raised the point that he might be 'female elves only because he wants elven babies' and if so, uh, no thank you, not touching that.)

 

For some reason, they haven't announced Viv, frustrating the hell out of everyone. (I mean, it's going to be Viv as straight, right? Not that I wouldn't romance her if she's available for gals, as she seems awesome. Straight guys only have two versus straight gals having three, they're going to even it out, right? If they suddenly say it's Blackwall, their straight male playerbase is probably going to pitch a fit.)

 

And supposedly, there's one more companion who's race gated as well, and it's not going to be the last one announced. That could be tricky. We know it's not Iron Bull. I doubt they're going to pull it with Sera or Dorian, as the only gay interests. Cullen has already proven to crush on human's and elves, though I suppose he could be no Qunari/Dwarfs. Cassandra? Joesphene? Hm. I'm thinking not Cassandra, but maybe Varric pissed her off so much that she hates dwarves forever. I don't know.

 

 

Also, I hate labor day and am never cooking out again. Ended up hiding in my own house in my room with a bottle of rum reading femslash manga trying to avoid the gazillion people I didn't care about that invited themselves over. Ugh!

[Kulyok]

Myahaha! Solaaaas! Yay.

 

And, no, no babies for me, elven or otherwise. Thank you ever so, both of you, for the good news! I like Solas, and since Mordin writer wrote him, it's yay-yay-yay. Though his Orlais book was horrible, I never even finished it midway, it was so boring.

 

So, IWD:EE, huh? That sure means more work for me adapting the mod to the new conversion - I will do my best to manage on my own, but I might indeed need help; but, well, we'll see.

I hope the same sort of conversion would come for IWD2: I can't stand that new half-2E-half-3E IWD2 engine, truth be told, but I'd happily play it in BG2 engine.

 

I'm spending millions on my lovely Dromund Kaas apartment. I want to really make it home. For example, I made those little "corners" where I do things. One is particularly poignant: a bar set, a small loveseat facing the rain - and the pictures of Darth Serevin and Darth Malgus. I think about them and drink myself to... well, half-oblivion, probably. It's really so sad - for an Empire patriot and for a human being. (Though, naturally, the portraits of the traitors are probably forbidden, but who would say this to the Wrath of the Emperor)?

 

I also have the throne hall, the garden, a casino room(don't mind the Rancor - ha, I bet nobody would cheat with the Rancor in the room!), and other such stuff. Lots and lots of Empire banners, because I have almost nothing else for the walls(a few monitors, one picture, and I don't like trophies).

 

I wish people sold more plants for cartel certificates.

 

I played Manaan once for the Republic, and I'm still about to play it for the Empire. Will try soon. I want that data thingy! It's expensive, 'cause everybody's buying those swords and submersibles, but I just want my plants.

 

 

@Twani - that sounds like a LOT of cooking! Well, I just hope you are going to have a great time.

 

(Vivienne might be humans-only, I think. But I don't know - I never paid attention to other romance interests, just Solas and Dorian(I think I'm going to download the first cheat mod that would make him available for gals, heheh)).

 

I finally finished Voss bonus series(they're a bit boring now, having done them twice or thrice), and my Shadow is about to do Corellia. Maybe during the weekend - it's a huge planet, so I'll need at least three hours straight.

 

We watched the first half of Shrek yesterday - was so sweet and suddenly poignant. I have completely forgotten how beautiful the melody was.

[SapphireIce101]

Personally, I kind of wanted Solas to be a LI too. Considering that I'm a huge fan of elves..So I'm happy, I get both Sera and Solas. I think Bioware said that one of the LIs aren't in the Inquisition.

 

As for IWD NPCs, Liam and Camdawg say that it'll be rather straightforward to convert it if its the IWD-in-BG2 version. Since IWD:EE uses BG2:EE code and such.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/34134/speculations-and-wishlists-for-new-iwd-ee-content

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/34134/speculations-and-wishlists-for-new-iwd-ee-content/p2

 

I also hope for that IWD2 gets EE-ified. I really don't like the UI as much as I like the BG2/IWD UI. I hope that they don't touch PST. I hate PST with a passion of a thousand suns!

 

Oh, and my DS Sniper got to the end of Chapter 1. He sided with Darth Jadus, and gave Watcher Two to him...Only to find out that she still becomes Keeper in Chapter 2. Har!

[Kulyok]

Wait, you can give Watcher 2 to Jadus? I tried, but it never worked. And, yeah, that w-woman is still Keeper. Not for long, though. (grins)

[Domi]

Hi folks

 

Just wanted to pitch in on Faldorn's romanceability, since I thought about it at some point The problem is that she has no concept of romantic love whatsoever, it is all about procreation.

 

With all the convos about the DA, I am starting to get curious. Maybe I should cancel my sub in January, when the end of this cycle rolls around, and play all 3 DA games in a row, then resume sub. Unless it is a relatively small time investment. How long is a DA campaign for one class/race? Is it a normal ~ 50 hours? Is it Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Inquisitions, or is it a more complicated pattern?

 

Apparently, I finished Ilum's planetary story-line on Tishujen. And, yeah, now FPs. Damn. Why did they integrated FPs in the story, oh why?! I guess it's Makeb now.

[Kulyok]

DA is about ten days, if you play in the evenings, I think. But then there's the expansion and the second part. A month is enough for all three.

 

Ilum FPs are good, honest.

[Jab]

Kulyok I just used you referral link! It gave me free character transfer (along with the 7 days of subscription, unlock additional inventory and crew skill), which I desperately wanted. Now all my characters are on the Red Eclipse. So thank you very much, you have your amount of good deeds fulfilled for today. So you really dont need to help that old lady to the next side of the road!

 

Btw lets have a small poll. Who would be your favourite companions (because of their personality, dialogues, quests etc) for the main team roles?

 

For me its:

Melee DPS - Kira

Ranged DPS - Vette, Gault, Aric Jorgan - Vette is first though. Best character in SWTOR

Ranged Tank - 4X, Kaliyo

Melee Tank - Tanno Vik, Khem Val

Heal - Elara

[Domi]

Zenith is the Beloved Companion for me. I always have one in any game I play. The second place so far is shared between Vette, Guss and Pierce. The hate 'em goes to Qyzen, Nadia and Kalyio.

 

EDIT: Oh, and Jaesa. How could I forget DS Jaesa! Can't stand her.

[SapphireIce101]

Well, I've heard of people taking about 200hrs just to do DA:O, and that isn't including Awakening. I think DA2 is kind of shorter, only takes a couple of days imo, and Inquisition, rumor says its supposed to be at least 100+ hrs.

 

As for Faldorn, I just don't see her being the romancible type either. Imo, Safana would be better. She's sultry, seductive, and well, she's basically CN Coran as a female human. Ah, CN Coran, you're an awesome dude and you should never change.

 

Now, favorite characters that I know of so far:

Melee DPS: Kira.

Ranged DPS: I think T7 is Ranged either way, its the best Jedi Fanboy EVER.

Tank: Khem Val, Kaliyo, and Treek.

Healer: Talos, and Treek.

[Twani]

DA is interesting- it's probably one you'll want to play more then once, as there's a pretty good amount of choices. On the other had, DA2 seems like it has a lot of choices, but everything ends in tears and occasionally muder-knives: who you're sleeping with may be the biggest choice in the game, honestly (or which of your siblings lives). DAI looks like it's going to have a lot of choices that actually matter, though, like Orgins.

 

DA:O you'll want to mod up with the dialog fixes before you play; game gets really buggy in some places if you don't (things like triggering poor Leianna (I typed Liara, heh) romance by choosing the 'I'm glad you're my friend' option, for instance, resulting on you having to dump and break her heart and get affection loss no matter what you do, Zev and Morrigan losing complete conversations, and the game automatically thinking you're Dalish and giving the Dalish boon when you're, uh, not). DA2 doesn't have as many mods: just clothes and appearance stuff.

 

You'll want to do Dragon Age (with Return to Ostigar, the Stone Prisoner, and Warden's Keep installed) -> Dragon Age Awakenings -> Golems of General Stupid Crappy Annoyingness (...I just hate that last boss fight) -> Witch Hunt. You could probably skip all but Dragon Age, the Stone Prisoner, and Awakenings if you really wanted to, but they all tell a story of sorts. Then Dragon Age II with the Exiled Jer- er, Prince, Legacy (which is awesome), and the Adventures of Felicia Day staring Felicia Day's Mary Sue (also known as Mark of the Assassin). Dragon Age Inquisition will inevitably have DLC as well, too, sigh.

 

The official boards are in a total wreck right now, as usual. In general, things were pretty well divided- Cass, Jospheine, and probably Viv for straight guys, Cullen, Iron Bull, Solas for straight gals, and then if Solas and Viv were both bi, there would have been Dorian, Iron Bull, and Solas for gay guys, and Joesphine, Sera, and Viv for gay gals. That would have been a nice, even split and everyone would have 'won'. Solas being straight means gay guys are getting less options then straights yet again, and after the disasters of ME for male gaymers and we're not even going to mention SW:tOR, there's a lot of wailing, gnashing of teeth, angry letters, and general hurt feelings. Then you have the crowd who are completely paranoid about Solas only liking fem elves meaning 'I WANT ELVEN BABIES' because that's such a big deal in DA-verse (and it's not live there's elven bonds, lifespan issues, or human and elves look all that different in this setting now that they're going back to old designs, so... why is he elf only?).

 

On the other hand, it does get rid of the 'ALL (male) ELVES ARE BI' sterotype, which is probably a good thing.

 

Personally, I never change the sexuality of written characters who have a set sexuality in games/fiction- it makes me really uncomfortable, because so many people in this world want gay/bi/lesbian people to change their sexuality and I find it ew. I tried doing Morrigan with a female, but I ended up just feeling like I was ruining her character, and the ritual stuff made no sense anyway. So I'll just play a guy for Dorian. Gals for Cullen, Sara, and Solas. I'll probably get around to Iron Bull and Cass and Jo eventually... Viv I'm more interested in.

 

(But now I have to think of what setting goes with what characters. For my Dalish Inquisitor, definitely going to go with my male Dalish elf and then my mage Hawke who romanced Merill. But who goes with what? Probably going to make a female Amell/female Mage Hawke/female mage Inquisitor to go for Cullen, but I just might go Qunari for the amusement of being taller then my boyfriend. And I loved my completely evil Sanara, who I guess can go with my jackass templar supporting male Hawke who went with Isa... maybe save that for Cass? Hm.)

 

(Then again, maybe I want an Anders romance to go with Solas, because I'LL SHOW YOU WHY MAGES ARE FEARED and I have a feeling Solas is going to turn out to be DAI's Anders and probably cause mass destruction somehow.)

 

Weekes, besides writing Mordin, wrote Garrus in ME1/2 (passed it on to someone else for 3), I believe he did 3 Tali, he did the part on Wrex's planet for 3 and helped a lot with Tali's planet's arc, he did Traynor (who is adorable beyond adorable), and he seems to have done Thane in 3 and maybe Legion in 3, and then wrote the Masked Empire (which I didn't mind).

 

...Aimo's (excellent artist, although her specialties are dwarf noble/Alistair and then male Hawke mage/Fenris, which got her a lot of flames sadly from jackasses) going to be so disappointed, as she seems to love the idea of fem!dwarf and Blackwall, which I don't think is going to happen, boo. But Viv will be awesome. Hopefully.

 

(And that's another square of worms: if she is romancable, that means every female companion is a romance option, which is kind of creepy in the SW:tOR way, and plays in to all woman are sexual objects (though at least Sara is a lesbian). If she's not romancable, then that means the only female not-romancable is Bioware's first female black companion and plays in to a whole lot of ugly American sterotypes about black woman 'who need no man' and that that's the only way they can be powerful. Lose lose either way. Yay. They really should have had more female companions. We needed another Aveline.)

 

 

My favorite SW companions...

+ Ranged Tank: Kaliyo, definitely. This is a no contest. Okay, and the Trooper's crazy DS droid.

+ Ranged DPS: I like a lot of them- Andry, Gault, Aric, Temple and Risha to a slightly lesser degree... not Vette, though, hate Vette.

+ Melee Tank: My morose monster <3 Scorpio's badass, too. Xalek and Scourge I won't turn down. Sparr is cool.

+ Melee DPS: Vector is adorable. Grudgingly and against my will, I also like Ashara (the rest of the cutesy padawan girls are sadly not insane enough for me, though).

+ Healer: Guss is probably my favorite (I HEAL YOU WITH JEDI POWERS!). Quinn is nice and my lordy. Talos is adorable. Elara is professional and cool. And Lokin rocks, even if I think he might be trying to date my boyfriend.

 

 

Man, I got a lot of agrees/likes saying I hoped IWDNPC would work in IWDEE. Hee.

 

 

So, um, Sims 4 coming out. I may disappear in to a world of digital nonsense for a bit. But NO CREATE A STYLE, WTF, EA. So mad! That was like, the best feature of Sims 3!

 

 

Right now, back in to trying to write Exalted stuff. Which Never Ends Happily. In my defense, the first paragraph of the first book produced for the setting ever described the world burning as everyone danced with fiddles, so I figure my lack of happy endings works well enough for the setting. (Also, I'm just bad at writing happy endings.)