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 PART 1.5: CRIMESTOPPERS! CONTRACT posted:FILE BBA-723: TAM DARAL, citizen of Coruscant (“Client”), has placed a Collective Bounty Contract with the Bounty Brokers Association (“BBA”) on merciless killers (“Bounties”) acting on behalf of a new Black Sun leader (“Kingpin”).    : Coruscant. City of a thousand sins. No surprise they needed the skills of a pro-hunter like me to clean house. : ...: The rich lived like giants, and the poor like ants. Crime was the string that tied them both together. And I was the scissors.:   : I saw the client across the plaza. A broken down man at the end of his tether. Maybe I could haul him back in.: Talk like this all the time now?: I've got to get into the hardboiled hunter mindset, Qyzen.: Hunter mindset is two questions: can I kill it? and will I be paid? Nothing else.: You're really taking the fun out of semi-professional vigilanteeism. Now...   : Name's Tam Daral. I represent a bunch of folk like myself-- people who lost loved ones to those no-good Black Sun thugs.: I'll make sure these lowlifes are brought to justice.: Justice. A little justice would mean the world to me right now. But a word of caution before you do your thing; some former Czerka exec, Samovan Bann-- he wants to revamp the Black Sun into a galactic franchise. People working for him are brutal. Bounty hunting! This is an in-game event that has been running for one week every month since summer. During that week anyone over level 15 can pick up quests to hunt down lawbreakers on various planets and capture/kill them for money and prestige. Capture/kill enough and you get a shot at the big boss, but more on that later. All the quests follow the same structure- step 1: pick up quest on Carrick Station, step 2: talk to client on planet, step 3: gather intel... A TAXI RIDE LATER...  : This cantina good for informants. Many of dubious loyalty within.: Isn't this the place where we cut open that guy once? ...Sure hope they've cleaned the floors since then.: Unlikely. : Hey you! Spill the beans! Give us the good sugar! Breeze the whispers! : ...What? You need to gather four bits of intel to complete this part of the quest. You get a piece of intel by having friendly chats with “shady characters” in cantinas. They can respond in one of three ways- they give you what you want, they give you nothing, they attack you (and call some friends to help). There's a 1/3 chance of each happening, and it's totally random.  If they do attack you, you can retrieve the information from their cold dead hands. : That... wasn't good.: Maybe try bribery. : Tell us what you know, in exchange for this delicious fruit cocktail. : You're allllright, total-stranger-who-definitely-isn't-a-Jedi. You can buy items to increase the chance of informants handing over the information without a fight. Using a “Friendly Drink” item is a light side action, and summons a little robot to serve a... friendly drink. You can also use an “Interrogation Droid” as a dark side action to electrocute people into submission. You can still get attacked though, even if you used an item. Some people are so ungrateful.  Once you've got all the information, it's time to have a little chat with the local snitch. There are several snitches, and whichever one you get is random. You can retry the conversation and get a different one every time. Some are more... interesting than others.    : Mmm. I knew there was something I liked about you, stranger. Inept flirting: not just for smugglers anymore! Seriously, it's a nice thing that in recent updates more same-sex stuff has been showing up throughout SWTOR.  : ...She stuck her tongue in my ear. Ewww! Why!?: You flirted.: I thought that's what bounty hunters were supposed to do with femme fatales! Ick... Now I'm all... I've got an ear full of spit.: Normal for mammal romance.: Uuuurgh... Thank the force Tharan isn't here.: Now, need to go to Jedi Temple. If Freen right, target is there.  At the location is a beacon. Use beacon, fight bounty.  One of Samovan Bann's henchmen, Novane, is our target. He's burly lump of HP who uses grapples and stuns to disrupt your attacks. He will also summon minions (amusingly named henchmen's henchmen... well, I laughed) during the fight to get in your way. These fights scale to your level, so they will always be a fair challenge, however because Bounty week triggers a mad scramble for targets, you will often find other players near the beacons. Novane was made trivial for me by the helpful intervention of a lvl55 player nearby.  You can kill Novane outright, but use the carbonite grenades you were given when he's at less than 10% health and...  : Those grenades worked better than I expected.: Would look nice hanging on wall outside engine room.: I'm not having a creepy frozen guy looking at me whenever I walk to the bathroom. Let's get him back to Tam. The carbonite box will follow you around like a pet on the way back to the client. Hours of fun! BACK AT THE SENATE PLAZA...  : One less Black Sun bottom feeder off the streets. Works for me. Quest complete, hand it in back at Carrick Station for the reward. One of the prizes you get is a completed contract certificate. Collect five and you can purchase a Kingpin Contract, giving you a mission to fight the planet's kingpin (on Coruscant it's Samovan Bann) for a big reward. The issue is that each character can only do one contract per day, and Bounty Contracts Week only lasts seven days out of every month. Hope you've got the time to play SWTOR every day, else you're going to be waiting a while to fight a kingpin. Anyway, because this update is long enough and the bounty quests are all identical except for the fight at the end, I'll elide the next bit. Jolune fights more henchmen, collects the completion certificates, gets the contract to take down Samovan Bann.  : You haven't heard? Ever since his people were yanked out of the picture, Bann's been stepping up the violence in their place. Raiding local businesses. Firebombing homes. Anything he can do to scare us into submission. And from everything I hear, he's loving every second of it.:  Didn't this planet used to have a police force? JUSTICAR SECTOR...  : Strange place for Black Sunner to hide out.: It's always the last place you'd expect. : Fly my pretties! ...Alright, let's see if this works... Finding Kingpin targets is different than usual bounties. First up, you release probes in a certain area on the map. Then you go to first person view to find and scan the probes randomly scattered around using your “bounty scanner”  If you're wondering how Jolune can do this despite being a Miralukan and therefore having no eyes, then it's because the macrobinoculars have a “Miralukan interface”. Yes, that is the explanation Bioware went with, and it works perfectly well in my opinion.   The scanning minigame is pretty dumb, but anything that breaks up the grind is always welcome. Once you've scanned five probes, the location of the target is pinpointed.    : This is an unscheduled meeting!: Here he comes! Bann's one of the easiest Kingpins, and he's still an absolute tank. He scales to your level and, like Novane, he'll use stuns and grapples to disrupt your attacks. If you're not careful he can knock you over the side of the platform for an instant kill. He will also summon 3 minions every few minutes after the fight begins. Best tackled with a group, but doable solo if you're well geared. And patient.  : !!!: I've taken on assistant managers more worrisome than you!His combat taunts are all... uh... “businessy”.  Like before, I got help from a passing lvl55 which simplified things greatly. God bless you, Party Time Pickford of the Happy Time Fun Squad.  : I can't believe it's come to this. I had such plans... *thud*: Looks like the smoking Bann just got enforced.: …: You see, 'cause I used the Force, and his name's Bann, and he's still... smoking... slightly...:  :  ...I don't think I want to be a bounty hunter anymore.AND SO...  : Samovan Bann will never trouble anyone again.: He's really dead? He's really dead. Him and his Black Sun franchise plans. Good riddance. : You're welcome, Tam. Let's go, Qyzen.BACK AT THE SPACEPORT...   : Oh, there you are.: Tharan! You're back!: And in my absence you've turned into some common thug. Honestly, bounty hunting- only psychopaths, sociopaths, and people who get off on really shiny armor do that sort of thing for a living.: I missed you too.: Yes, well, Syo's been trying to get in touch, but you were busy living out your space cowboy fantasies...: Master Bakarn! [VIDEO: Get Back to Work]  : You're not mad about the bounty hunting thing? : No... so long as you don't go on any drug fuelled murder rampages.: No! No way!: Now, events are moving faster than we anticipated. The Council is calling an emergency conference with the Supreme Chancellor, and we need you to attend.: Whatever the order requires, I stand ready.: Excellent. I knew we could rely on you. The conference is being held on Tython, at the temple. Come as soon as you can. There is also... another matter we should talk of in person. *bzzt* : They've certainly piqued my interest. Guess we're back on the clock.: Council knows of your greatness, Herald. They would not dishonor you.: I'd hope not. But if such illustrious personages demand our presence, I suppose we shouldn't keep them waiting. NEXT TIME: Holiday sorts out her hair. Oh, and the Republic collapses. Inferior fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jan 14, 2014 |
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