Let's talk SWtOR!

[Domi]

heya, Kulyok, yep, please share the screenshots when you have time.

 

I know, IWD/IWD2 is a yawn fest... oh, well. There are better games out there!

 

Focus target and Target of Target are among the advanced targeting options for your Keybinds. Focus Target brings up a target window for 1 ally. You then have to define a modifier button as well. Now, when you want to send a cast (guard, heal, bubble) to the Focused ally, you press down modifier, and press down the spell. (For example ~ and G for me will Guard my Focus). While you are at it, you do NOT lose the target you had previously.

 

Say, I am playing my Madness Sorc with Eric. I set him (my Tank) as my Focus. I do my DPSing, while watching Eric. His bubble went away? I do ~ and F (or whatever), he is all bubbled up, and just press 4, and my lightening goes right at the guy I was pounding without me having to re-target anyone. If I want to help Khem, I press F2, which is my keybind for companion, do my thing, then I have to retarget. But that way I have a quick access to 2 allies w/o scrolling or mousing over.

 

When I tank in the WZ (and should do the same in the FPS too), if I have a healer, I would Focus the healer, but guard my melee DPS nearest to me. If I notice that healer starts losing HPs or stops healing, I throw Guard on him, turn 'round and start peeling/taunting off him/her. If I don't have a healer, I focus a ranged DPS and Guard Melee. if some annoying someone is pressing the ranged, I would swap guard and see what I can do to give him/her time to break LoS and/or kill the guy.

 

The Target or Target is invaluable when you have someone calling the marks. Then you just click on that ally, then use your keybind, and voila! No guessing game, you are targeting the same thing s/he does.

 

That's in theory. In practice, of course it ain't working smooth like that, seeing I suck

 

And OMG, you made my day! I can save Fuse! I am totally doing it on my Commando. I think he might make it as my head canon RI there, unless Jonas is really something. But Jonas being a human, he really has to be something! I am not sure Aric is my cup of tea. He is about as consistent as Riggs in his writing. Goes from a CO from hells to a subservient subordinate. Eww. Don't like that.

 

EDIT: And, oh, neither Riggs, nor Iresso openly stated that they are actually about to bed the character. In fact, it was so subtle, I missed the clues. I am figuring that it might be to allow the player to interpret that they've just kissed and held hands, and did not become intimate until after the marriages took place. I dunno if Aric is more overt in the "I have absolutely made love to you, Player Character" department.

[SapphireIce101]

Well, I think I might try out GW2 when I get the new power supply for my computer.

 

Mom's laptop makes SWTOR's graphics look ugly, so yeah, I've been mostly playing WoW.

[Kulyok]

I'm sorry to say, but I won't be using GW2, even if it goes free. I saw a few Youtube videos, and I'm rather put off by all the ugly animals. Even if the player isn't one, it's just too... childish? But it comes from the person who put off ME1 for about two years because of how ugly the default female character was(that, and the controls). Still, just don't feel like it. I guess my worldview is very close to the Empire in this regard - concerning fictional character races only, of course. If there was a planet of humans who'd be exterminating all those cartoonish characters, I'd join it.

[Twani]

Hey, I can understand that. Like most games, fantasy creatures are, well, fantasy creatures. I don't really mind it- Ashara are basically gnomes and goblins at the same time (typical fantasy things, also, they're actually pretty darn evil), Sylvani are plant people (and pretty cool at it), humans and norns are normal (the first sort of elfish, the second shapeshifters), and then Charr are... uh. The ones I have a problem with. The gigantic feline people. Of course, a lot of people think they're cool looking. I'm not fond of them. Though rolewise, they're sort of cool: "With engines of destruction, we have killed our Gods." Badass creed!

 

(Then again, I play EQ2, with FROG PEOPLE. Frog people. And their freakin' summersaults when casting. Jackass frog people I hates them I do. Game was better when they weren't put in, grumble grumble. ALSO JEDI RUINED SWG. /hipster)

 

(Of course, I have to tease- isn't your beloved Garrus an ugly bird person? Ah, but I kid. I adore him too. (Salariuns are sort of goofy, though, but Mordin Solas is So Damn Awesome it doesn't matter.))

 

 

I managed to get through the weekend, so plus, and I think I'm basically over the bad sickness (still got the cold, but nothing to do about that but whine). I've been goofing off listening to flik songs. And looking at Sims 3 content (someone made Asari skin (for woman), Drell skin (for both men and woman), Jack's tattoo 'skin' for woman, Ash and Bro!Shep, and the N9 Hoodie). I still haven't installed Sims 4... I don't mind Origins for Bioware's games, but Origins for EA games is a scary thing. Major spyware. Bad! (Honestly, Sims4 looks pretty bad, but eh, I got it.)

 

 

(I talked myself out of buying Inquisition (at least the special edition), too, no matter how much I would love those tarot cards. Someone will scan them eventually and I'll just sigh over them. I'll wait for reviews. Though I'll probably love it- I did love DA, DA2, and all three Mass Effects. Save for what they did to love interests in ME3. (You know, I found an post on what they did with Thane in ME3? The writer for the section where he dies horribly confessed when they planned that part THEY FORGOT HE WAS A LOVE INTEREST. Argh! Headdesk! Multiple headesking!)

 

 

I won't abandon Altan and Ayberk, and they're probably going to stay in BG1, too. (I goofed off with the idea of writing an ancestor of theirs in IWD, though because I'm thinking of female, the last names wouldn't even be the same so it would just be a private joke for myself.) The only thing I might do is cut the romance and make them more standard for BG1 and focus on romance in BG2, and even that is only something I say when I get frusterated with Altan and trying to figure out how I want his romance to go (it should be awkward, in a first romance way, but it should not be anywhere near Garrick awkward, because Wisdom Score and sanity, and sometimes my writing got like that, which creeped me out and needs to change). (Ayberk, honestly, is much easier to write because he's a character-type I often play with. Altan isn't, a sign that I rarely write actually good people (oops?), which he's supposed to be (with bad faults, but still- CG! True alignment!)) I mean, right now, they're almost at the point where I could release them as 'standard' companions- a few standard conversations with the PC, a whole lot of interjections, and Altan has three or more banters with everyone (Ayberk isn't there yet; he actually doesn't have any banters with the lower half of the cast yet). But I want friendship tracks! Romance tracks!

 

I look to IWD, though, because... okay, yeah, IWD is boring. Honestly, I don't even remember being able to get through IWD before your mod released, Kuylok. (I did manage IWD2 before Domi's mod, but IWD2 had interesting villians, and it's a lot better with Rizdar at my side <3.) But- but... all I would have to worry about, at first, is bouncing my writing against my own writing. No freakin Dyna with her horrible faux-English that isn't even correct, no 'what syllable does Khalid stutter on the most', no 'oh god Haer'Dalis I need a stupid bird name give me a bird name', 'no oh great now I have to write a long religious debate here, don't I GOD VICONIA WHY SHAR SERIOUSLY'. I mean, not that I don't love the BG1/2's characters, because I do, for the most part. (And usually, the ones I dislike- Eldoth, particularly- I like disliking.) But... as I said, IWD, I'd only have to worry about writing against myself, for the most part rather then Someones Favoriteist NPC, and then after that, bantering with the two of yous characters, in which I could actually talk to you about banters and characters and not have to hit my head against the wall that is Dyna and her stupid accent. And Monty and his completely non-existent accent.

 

...But I will get it done. In general, I don't give projects up.

 

(And I'm working on that EE thing I talked to you about.)

 

 

I'm eager to see your stronghold decorations, and I'll show you my house decorations, heh. Though I decided I'm going to move my swashbuckler to a cooler house.

 

(She's a cat person. I know, I know, but they're kind of cool, I think. And they're not like the creepy ArcheAge cat girls with the ears and tails but nothing else... she's like, full cat. Though she only has one pair of breasts. (Yeah, I went there.))

[SapphireIce101]

Installing GW2 right now, I have a couple of friends that played it, and I really wanted to try it out, and if I like it, I'll probably get it since its on Sale..Hmm..

 

As for Thane...Really? They forgot he was a love interest? He's on the cover of the ME2 box! I mean, it's like they wanted him and Miranda to be the faces of ME2 along side Shepard! Blargh, Bioware.

 

Hmm, my writer for Adamanta has decided that...they don't want to associate with me anymore, so now, I'm just going to have to try becoming one with my inner CN Half-Orc that is BFFs with Minsc.

 

Also, my computer is fixed! I can now play SWTOR without shuddering.

[Twani]

I hope you like it, SapphireIce! Both GW2, and SWTOR. If you can tell me what WoW classes you like/or whatever other MMO, I might be able to give you suggestions on what classes are similar in both games. Heh, I don't know WoW that well, but I had an ex who was obsessed with it, so he taught me well.

 

(And, hey, I was working on a Morrowind mod with him when he dumped me, and he deleted all our combined work off our shared online storage. (Sadly, he's my best friend's husband's little brother, so I couldn't kill him.) Life is like that, sometimes. If you need a writer for a BG project, though, I'm sure there are a ton of them around.)

 

Yeah, seriously. I mean, my favorite romances are Garrus, Jack and Liara, but I thought Thane, for what he was, was very well done (despite the hurdle of 'past lover that he compares you to', which usually turns me off), and what they did to him in game sucked. (I mean, after he dies, does ANY of your companions even go 'Hey, sorry, your lover died, that sucks?' Geez!) Luckily, they redeemed themselves a lot in the Citadel expansion... of course, seeing Shepard watching his vids makes *me* cry.

[SapphireIce101]

Well, I'm one of those jack of all trades players. I can go from the beefiest of warrior tanks, to those weak wimpy spellcasters.

 

Yeah, my writer was my boyfriend, well, ex boyfriend now. I'm kind of thinking that maybe I should do a mod on Adamanta's ancestor for IWD:EE, and by ancestor, I mean her adoptive family's ancestor, a nice halfling swashbuckler.

 

I haven't even finished my Garrus romance playthrough...I'm kind of more into Liara and Thane. *shrug* I feel bad because Thane doesn't count for the ME3 achievement "Paramour" I think its called. Thanemancers so got the short end of the stick, because what if that Salarian Commander doesn't die in the mission on Virmire? Then, Thane just gets stuck in a bed, and the Salarian Commander dies for the senator instead. Again, poor form Bioware. Poor form. I haven't played with the Citadel DLC. If I ever decide to get the ME3 Trilogy for PC I may try it out.

[Twani]

Heh. I guess that'll teach both of us in working with significant others, huh? I'm sorry about the breakup, unless he was totally wrong with you, in which, woo, he was totally wrong for you, so bah to him.

 

And yeah, IWD modding! It might be fun. I'm trying to decide on whether going the BG route of having companions just... chillin'... in the main town, or Domi and Kuylok's route and having them importable. Hm.

 

And, nah, Thane is the automatic choice for saving the Salarian. If he died in ME2, Kirahhe or whatever the hell his name was (he was cool, though) saves the Salarian. If he died in BG1, then the Salarian dies. Sucks to be... crap, I don't even remember if that character was a him or a her. That's how little I care about him/her/it/Salarian Persona.

 

But Citadel has some nice moments to 'finalize' the Thane romance. Shepard can all be like 'Thane is the only man I'll ever love' (which I think locks her out of the creepy 'so drunk I'll sleep with anyone' scenes with Jacob and Javik), she can watch videos he sent to her, she can have a funeral for him with his son, so on. Citadel is actually really well done, with some sweet scenes for Shepard/any love interest who's not Kelly and Allers (and Allers is Dumb, so who would choose her?). It's probably my favorite Bioware DLC of all times, as much as I liked Legacy in DAII.

 

 

As for GW2, the engineer and the elementalist play different from every other class. (the second especially) All others play similar, to some degree. Also, each race has their own 1-20 (30?) storyline, with achievements relating to their race only, so it's worth playing one of each.

[SapphireIce101]

Didn't think it was actually automatic Thane death, okay then. Thanks for fixing that for me. lol

 

Ahh, there's a rumor floating around that Allers was just a bribe to IGN, so then they could get a good review. I guess it worked. I still feel bad for killing Marauder Shields for he tried to save us from that crap ending. I liked the Legacy DLC for DA2, and I did like MotA too, I mean...MotA is still somewhat better than the DA2 base game. Blargh.

 

I like the idea of importable NPCs a lot more than sticking one in a random spot. It just works a lot better for the IWD series, imo. Hmm, maybe someone will want to make an IWD:EE RE. Heh.

 

Hmm, I see. Seems interesting! I wasn't really a fan of the first GW games, and I just felt bad after one of my friends took 15 platinum from another friend and used it on the guild house that we would never use again.

[Kulyok]

(Of course, I have to tease- isn't your beloved Garrus an ugly bird person? Ah, but I kid. I adore him too. (Salariuns are sort of goofy, though, but Mordin Solas is So Damn Awesome it doesn't matter.))

 

I know, I know! I'm surprised, too. But somehow, I fell in love with turians the moment I saw Nihlus. Maybe it was the fact there were humans all around, and suddenly there's this gorgeous... mmmm. But I'd have fallen in love with Aric, too, if only he was written more badassedly.

 

Congratulations on getting better!

 

Sims with ME skins sounds cool. I never played the Sims - maybe I should try it, when I'm done with all the SWTOR housing. Not very soon, though - just bought the Holocron of the Ancients, and I'm looking forward to decorating that virtual brothel.

 

Made one or two screenshots yesterday, but I was a bit too tired after work to play. I did go through the Mage Tower in Dragon Age, though. Somehow, DA is so much better if you only play the main story without the side quests "click four statues, then click nine items to summon a demon". And Cullen is still adorable, even with a Dalish protagonist.

 

Domi, how's your DA playthrough doing?

 

 

 

(You know, I found an post on what they did with Thane in ME3? The writer for the section where he dies horribly confessed when they planned that part THEY FORGOT HE WAS A LOVE INTEREST. Argh! Headdesk! Multiple headesking!)

 

HAHAHA! Facepalm.

 

But, yeah, they probably are in different departments, story guys and romance guys. Um. Probably.

 

As for preordering Inquisition, I think I'll do it - DA2 had bad plot, but awesome romance, and I pre-ordered DA2(but I never ordered DA, and it had awesome plot and bad romance. Though I'm thinking about romancing Zevran in this playthrough... ). And Varric, Aveline, Anders, Carver - that's four good companions! And, okay, Fenris, but he's a bit too stereotypical and Sten-y with all that "Murder and mayhem await!" but without the Inquisitor's self-irony.

 

 

Good luck with IWD! And, yes, absolutely no crossmod with any bird manes, faux Olde English and Jan's stories(I CAN'T WRITE JAN STORIES WELL!) sounds great. I think the more independent mods for IWD we have, the better.

(Writing the banters is, I confess, my least favorite part)

 

I'll just play devil's advocate a bit and point out that writing two BG1->BG2 NPCs and a cadre of IWD chars at the same time is a bit... too much? I just hope you won't burn yourself out if you decide not to do stuff one at a time. But that's just my experiences. But since you're finishing projects, I know everything would be great.

 

 

@SapphireIce101 - gratz on playing SWTOR again! I mean, on fixing your computer.

(I miss my vacation, when I woke up and could play SWTOR all day or go to the park, if I wanted to (sighs wistfully))

 

 

Co-writing is a tricky business. I do respect Domi and SisterV a great deal, especially since they both are better writers, but I feel more comfortable when writing alone, because when I don't, I feel like I'm not writing well enough, like I have to be on top and do my best, and that's when my writing becomes stilted and mechanical. Sigh. (but it becomes mechanical anyway when I'm not interested in writing at the moment, so I got to watch that, too. Interestingly, if there's flame and trolling and scandal, that's kind of inspiring. I'm a sick person, I know.)

 

 

 

 

(which I think locks her out of the creepy 'so drunk I'll sleep with anyone' scenes with Jacob and Javik),

 

Hey, Javik scene was priceless, and one of the best in the whole Citadel! (but, yeah, you know my tastes). And I love Javik. If Garrus wasn't available...

 

(But I really felt uncomfortable with Garrus going all domestic and planning about traps with Zaeed and saying the dreadful word "baby/babe". Ugh. But them trapping my bathroom was kind of nice).

 

 

And, yes, I, too, adore the Citadel and think Allers was a horrible addition.

 

 

 

 

Hmm, maybe someone will want to make an IWD:EE RE.

 

Uh-oh. I would be careful about that one!

[Kulyok]

I'll tell you some stuff about SWTOR and decorations, while I still don't have the screenshots:

 

- plants are ridiculously expensive. One Rakata Palm costs 700k plus on GTN, and in all my Rakata Prime runs(four or five), I only seen it drop once - and, of course, I lost the roll. Autumn trees cost a lot, Manaan ferns cost two manaan research data(~180 k each), Oriconian stalks cost 90-100k. If you want to have at least two gardens, like me, and some nice plants in strategic places, you got to spend a fortune.

 

- the system of hooks isn't perfect, especially in small DK/Coruscant rooms. You can't even put a bed next to a wall sometimes! And some open spaces(Tatooine, looking at you here!) don't have enough hooks to make the space look _filled_. But overall, it's workable.

 

- it's very easy to spend all your cartel coins on luxury and cantina decorations. Each costs 90-115cc, and they're all much more beautiful than regular ones. Spacer lounge, cantina lounge, cantina bar table/cabinet, fancy cantina chairs, loveseats, luxury chairs - for four storngholds, that's thousands and thousands of coins, alas.

 

- the system of decorations isn't very nice, because there's no search, and it tries to "remember" your last hook of the same size. It means that if you're decorating your small hook with "environmental, plants, show all unlocked", and then swithc to a medium narrow hook, your selection is immediately erased, and you're back to "furniture, table, show everything". And that's for 400 hooks in a row. Grrrrrr. Also, if you choose a plant that is a tree, it automatically switches to trees, hiding all other plants for this hook. Annoying, isn't it?

 

- crafted decorations are actually quite cheap. Universal prefabs 3 go as low as 59k now, which means that it's almost cheaper than crafting them from scratch(because purple grade 9 mats aren't easy to find, except for luxury silks, which are quite cheap). But you got to have a lot of them. For example, need ten bookshelves for a library? That'd be about 600k if you're buying the prefabs, and many, many re-loggings on your crafters, if you want those prefabs for yourself.

 

- conquests help. On flashpoint week, people get lots of decorations, and most of them sell, so it means prices go down - Cademimu rocket missiles are ridiculously cheap right now.

 

- I'm really disappointed that some decorations can't be sold on GTN. Ancient hypergate, huge blaster turret, Karagga's statue, oriconian warrior, rakata mind trap. These are sellable, but you have to use trade chat, and obviously, that's harder than GTN. I don't know if it was intentional or not - and I don't know where to place a hypergate, anyway, but I'd have loved that huge blaster turret.

 

- I don't even want to know how much I spent, but I like the result so far. And my recommendation would be buying decorations from each pack one or two days after its release, because afterwards the supply goes down, and those droid workbenches and slicer's tables will rise in price, just like Oriconian torches did.

 

- decorating is awesome. Seriously. I'm waiting for the queues and re-sending my comps on grade 2-3 missions, and time just flies.

[Domi]

Happy you are getting better, Twani!

 

My husband is decorating non-stop, so I am playing a Trooper. I am starting to wonder if we have a fighting chance to possibly play at least 1 character to completion at that pace together. Well, it is not a biggie now, but when I run out of solo, I guess it might become a problem. Luckily, I have a room at the server to run 3 more solos, and stuff, but I dunno. If that's the case, Legacy gear will be paramount.

 

Okay, SWTOR is down, maybe I will go open DA for a few minutes and see what's what there. I haven't touched it yet SWTOR is too time-sinky

 

Okay, I am confused. I checked out the Basic Comm vendor on Makeb right before the game shut down, and the Arkanian pieces that are sold are really no better than my 156/158 gear. They all drop my cunning, while increasing my armor? So, the only thing I can possibly do to have a chance to do anything is 180'ies?

[Kulyok]

162 pieces are a bit better than 156 ones. Armorings and hilts/barrels, mostly. I think there's no real need to replace 156 with 162's, especially if you have augmented 156's.

But if you have a 140 piece, you can use 162 as a good upgrade.

 

180's are the best for now, yes(they won't remain the best after the expansion hits), since few people can get 186 content for running high-difficulty ops. But 180's are really expensive on GTN, and without GTN, you have no chance to get them without being carried(though 55 HM FPs or SM ops). Honestly, I saw only one 55 with 24k hp and low-level gear whose performance was truly fantastic(he was a healer) - other people with bad gear really don't help - too little DPS/aggro. You can be "carried", if you're with a nice group(say, guildies), but otherwise you might be asked to leave, if it's a random GF group. (I played with poorly geared dps a few times, we finished the run, but the run was thrice as long as the result.)

 

So, I think your best bet for now, as a step to 180's, is 168's. Elite commendations, not basic/ultimate ones. It's easy to acquire via tactical flashpoints - and there's an additional reward for weekly tacticals. KDY is easy; Czerka has some tactics, but you get used to it. New flashpoints are okay, too - generally, people will explain tactics if you ask(you need it, say, on Manaan's second boss). You can also do Czerka dailes and two Czerka flashpoints for the weekly elite comms. And Oricon weekly(one heroic, easy to find a group) will always get you some extra elites.

 

Once you hit all or mostly elite gear, you can start OPS and HM FPS 55 for 180 gear - that's much cheaper than buying it!

[Domi]

Thank you, Kulyok. I was thinking about it on the bus ride - I stopped reading on the bus since I think I need to rest my eyes, and here is what I can up with, in view of the expansion hitting us by 2015.

 

1. Since the level cap is likely to increase, I do not want to grind anything on a L55 character - I will do it when the level cap increases so I can earn XP at the same time.

 

2. I am going to focus on bringing my Trooper to the end of Chapter 2. I will start doing a Weekly Flashpoint on him on the weekends and I will have to maintain 2 sets of 5-piece gear for him, I think. One Endurance based for PvP, one - Aimed Based (and heavier on Defense) for PvE with Sh/Def/Abs augments. If I do FPs and PvP, the comms will be easy to come by, and with the markets stable enough, I should be able to afford augmenting additional 5 pieces. Swapping gear may be a pain, but whatever I can also swap the suits for harder leveling battles when I need to do more damage instead of having my health pool.

 

3. Once I get my class Buff, I will work on my Mara to get her to L55 and to hopefully have her in 156/158 gear as cheaply as possible - which means not screwing around and running Oricon in 148's. At least she is a DPS, so her gear will be the same for PvP and PvE. Meaning when I run her, I will have to run FPs and Dailies on a level. I'll start her with a Grand Tour of Datacrons from Korriban onward, hopefully that finishes off Broonmarks' 1000 kills, and I can start working her way from L44 to L55.

 

4. Then, if expansion is there, I will start mixing in the end game as Kulyok suggested by working on 168 set for my Gunslinger, and finally doing Oricon, Forged Alliances, all that + leveling her. if not, I will complete the Trooper, and start the Imperial Agent.

 

EDIT: Oh, and banter writing is my favorite, TBH. My least favorite is Random Flirts. I also love(d) cooperation (I still have fond memories of writing those banters via chat with Merja, and that line about Faldorn making Imoen to eat a cockroach popping up & making me laugh like mad), but yeah, writing an IWD2 set of chars was a pleasant break when I had the complete free hand. One thing I regret is never managing to build a complete story-line mod, even the tiny RIP Deathstalker. I found writing quests and the story a more interesting undertaking than just NPC work. Oh, well, good times.

 

Oh, and I am calling BS on Kulyok's whole better writer thinggie.

[Kulyok]

Oh god, random flirts! Yeah, fifty more pieces of "hug Xan", dear me.

 

I'm thinking that they probably won't give out 180 gear in the very beginning of the expansion - that would anger too many people. But they might start with free 168 gear or thereabouts. So it might be possible that you won't have to grind. But you'll have to wait for two months or so - the expansion usually ends up on the PTS two months before the release, so we'll get lots of info then.

 

(Right now people are anxious for details. I'm not - still hung up on conquests and other such cool stuff. Especially decorations. I want more jukeboxes! I have four of each kind, but I would dearly love to see more.)