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 This post is pretty out of date - there is a new expansion due out February 15th, which will allow you to choose a second class! Maybe I'll make an updated OP, maybe I won't. If someone wants to take on the mantle, just mention it since I don't play much anymore Welcome Steam people! I'll be working on a more up to date OP, but for now if you have any questions please post here or on our Discord, located here - https://discord.gg/SAF5jvZ  https://holy - If you're new to the game or coming back and reinstalling, definitely reinstall via Steam as it nukes the hated Bitraider streaming launcher. Right now the integration with Steam isn't too much, but it does have trading cards and a window to track how much of your life you've dedicated to the game moving forward. This will give you different level of perks depending on your subscriber status – Free to Play players will receive a bundle including some XP Boosts and an inventory unlock while Preferred (Former subscribers) and Premium (Subscribers) receive an inventory unlock along with some customization unlocks. Former subscribers will also receive 7 days of subscriber perks (no restrictions, but no new content)  Is there a Goon Guild? Yes, we have both Imperial and Repbulic guilds on Star Forge. Both guilds are dead at this point, but we have a cool Imperial star ship. To get an invite, ask in Discord (link here), or ask someone in game. Type /who to bring up the Who menu, type Goon and select the dropdown to see guilds. But seriously, if you want a guild to do stuff with hit me up and I can give some recommendations.  Let's be honest though, even with no one else on, we have the best guild ship around with the Solid Gold Goon Dancers™.  Is Star Wars: The Old Republic a dead game? This website tracks that question. Right now is actually a really good time to start up - if it's been a few years, make a new character. Leveling is insanely quick and you can relearn at a good pace. There are only 5 servers now, and queues for PvP and Flashpoints are popping quick. I expect the expansion will bring even more players back. Onslaught is a free expansion to paid subscribers. It includes Nautolans as a playable species “gently caress capitalism, I’m voting for Bernie and he’s giving me everything for free!” Well fine, Bioware is even tossing a bone to Free to Play and Preferred characters – the first two expansions are playable to everyone as of October 22nd, 2019. They also lifted some restrictions, raising the credit cap to a million and getting rid of quick travel and field revive passes. You’re welcome, space socialists. Our guild hasn't exactly been hopping the last few years, but a lot of us hang out in Discord. Click to follow. Click here for Discord  The history of SWTOR Wow! It’s been almost …except the game wasn’t finished at launch, and quickly lost many of their player base back to WoW and other games as people found there was nothing to do once they completed their class story. No raids, few dungeons, no group finder…the game was a glorified single player game at launch. In 2012, at death’s door, Bioware introduced a Free to Play option along with a cash item shop to SWTOR. There’s no doubt that this saved the game and brought a fair number of players back to the game. Quality of life changes were added and endgame activities were polished up, allowing for a fairly complete product, albeit a year later. Here is a really good guide on the limitations of the various models of Free to Play. People call SWTOR's Free to Play model terrible, but I personally think it's very generous - you get the original game class stories, and soon to be the first two expansions, completely free. The cartel market (Cash shop) is 100% cosmetic, there is no Pay to Win in the game.  Since 2011 we’ve seen a number of expansions to the game along with some major changes. 2013 saw the launch of Rise of the Hutt Cartel, an expansion raising the level cap to 55 and introducing players to Makeb. For financial reasons, the original class storylines were compressed into two faction based stories (One for the Republic and one for Imperial).  2014 brought us the Shadow of Revan expansion, which is widely considered the “best” expansion due to the amount of content that was released with it – along with the requisite level cap increase to 60, it brought two new planets (Rishi and Yavin IV), two new Operations (Raids) along with four Flashpoints (Dungeons). The story suffered a bit with the compression of stories into one storyline for all characters, but most still consider it a good, well rounded expansion.  Unfortunately, 2015 did not fare as well. Bioware/EA saw that the game was being played primarily for story with a majority of players not focusing on the MMO part of MMORPG. Deciding to capitalize on this, they released their newest expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, as an entirely single player focused expansion. No new Operations, Flashpoints or group activities in general were available at launch. The focus of the game was a monthly “chapter” of the story being released, with a generic story for all classes. In addition, the story went away from the classic Imperial vs Republic conflict and focused on a 3rd faction created solely for the game. Who would have thought moving away from Sith vs Jedi would be unpopular?  With no new content available, players would log on when the new chapter was released, play through it, and then log off for a month. Though Bioware has noted that this was their most “successful” expansion to date, most vocal players were dissatisfied with the simplification of the game and the focus on casual players rather than the MMORPG aspects of the game. There was a level increase to 65, but there was little reason for it as there was no new endgame content. Additionally, the story was not even a complete story – the original goal was for KOTFE to be the first of three 100% story focused expansions. 2016 introduced the follow up to KOTFE, Knights of the Eternal Throne. Unlike KOTFE, all chapters of KOTET were released when the expansion launched. While this was a good thing, the initial launch of KOTET was a disaster that drove away permanently many of the people who stuck through it at launch. KOTET dramatically changed the method of gearing in the game – where previously the game followed a traditional MMORPG method of “Kill boss in raid, roll on loot piece, harder raids drop better gear”, the then producer of the game decided to go with a loot system that was gaining in popularity in the mobile and console worlds – loot boxes, in this game known as “Galactic Command”. This was universally agreed to be a disaster – there was no motivation to do difficult content as all items came from loot boxes. Though this change was rolled back to an extent within 6 months (Galactic Command remains, but is a supplementary system to raiding), the damage was done and the player base was dwindling. Bioware had lost a lot of it’s goodwill from the player base, and it was conceivable that the game was finally on its last legs. At this point, Bioware was working on their newest project, a little game called “Anthem”, and the RNG happy producer of SWTOR (Ben Irving) left to oversee Anthem  Enter Keith Kanneg. The new producer of SWTOR had a pretty big leg up on the old guard – he played the game. Having an understanding of what players actually wanted in the game, Keith began treating SWTOR as a MMORPG again. Story has always been SWTOR’s defining characteristic, but Keith knew that players wanted to play with their friends and wanted repeatable content. 2017 saw no new expansion. Instead, the team focused on introducing quality of life changes (the game went from around 15 servers to only 5) and tightening up the game mechanics. We still didn’t see any new Operations, but there was a glimmer of hope as one was announced. New content was drip fed throughout 2017 and 2018, new flashpoints (Including one focused on the Chiss home world written by Timothy Zahn himself) and the new Operation was released a little bit at a time. Hints were dropped about a future expansion, but nothing was officially announced. December 2018 had a major update with Ossus, a story that took the players back to their old faction as the Imperial and Republic war heated up again. This continued with a new event introduced in 2019 set on the classic planet Dantooine.   By April of 2019, SWTOR was a “pretty good game” again. Our player base was smaller, but most players agreed that the game was back on track and the producer had a good idea of what players wanted to see. Bioware announced that they’d be a Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, and the scuttlebutt was that they’d be making a major announcement. And they did! Launched in September 2019 – Star Wars: Onslaught. Continuing the Republic vs Empire storyline introduced with Ossus, Onslaught is an expansion more like Shadow of Revan, with a mixture of story and group content. New planets, new operations, and major changes to how characters are designed. And most importantly, why is the lead singer of Nickelback a Jedi?  Medullah fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Jul 6, 2022 |
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Sep 1, 2019 19:37
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Oh hey I hit submit instead of preview. Welp new thread time! New and returning player information SWTOR is great because the barrier to entry is extremely low. You can play the game for no cost whatsoever as a Free to Play player. As a F2P player, you have access to 8 fully voiced 20-30 hour class stories along with a ton of side quests, storylines that take place on individual planets, Flashpoints (group activities that are comparable to dungeons in WoW) and some Player vs. Player Warzones. Simply go to SWTOR.com, create an account, and begin downloading the game. You can actually log in, create a character, and explore the first planet. SWTOR doesn’t have traditional expansions – all expansion content is free to Subscribers, and you hold onto that content even after your subscription lapses. So, if you subscribe today, you will get access to expansions 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 along with the story content that has been released up until this point. Cancel your subscription at the end of the month and you keep all of it! A few things to know as a beginning player – Token Characters - First and foremost, when you log on to create a character you may be presented with the option to create a level 60 or 65 character. DO NOT DO THIS AS A NEW PLAYER. Creating a “token” character bypasses the original class stories along with the Shadow of Revan expansion, and it’s pretty universally agreed that the class stories are the best part of the game. We recommend holding onto any tokens and using them after you’ve played for a while, generally to create an Advanced Class that you’ve already seen the story for but have the opposite. For example, the Smuggler storyline has two Advanced Class options – Gunslinger, a ranged damage dealer, and Scoundrel, a melee class that focuses on stealth. The story for both of these classes is the same, so if you complete the story with a Gunslinger but decide you like the Scoundrel playstyle, a token is perfect for this. Attach a security key to your account! – When you log into your account on SWTOR.com, follow the option to add a security key to your account under “Security”. This has a few benefits – the obvious being increased security, adding two factor authentication to your account means less of a chance you’ll get HAXORED. However, the nicest part is that you’ll get 100 cartel coins each month for having a security key, regardless of whether you are subscribed or not. This isn’t a ton, but it’s good for buying a few things here and there or unlocking items in collections. Don't subscribe through SWTOR.com - There are a number of bundles which are the same price or cheaper than subscribing through SWTOR.com, such as the Amazon 90 day bundle and the Origin 60 day pack. Both are the same as their respective subscription costs, but come with bonuses such as extra cartel coins. Leveling and Experience – SWTOR’s leveling experience is very streamlined. It’s designed that you can level completely through “Story” missions – these are your class stories, planetary storylines, and some Flashpoints that you can do by yourself. Look for the purple triangle to indicate that a quest is a story quest. Gearing – Frequently players ask how to get better gear. The single player SWTOR experience is designed to be extremely easy and forgiving to new players. You don’t need to worry about gearing up like traditional RPGs until you are max level and want to start doing harder “endgame” content. You’ll pick up miscellaneous pieces as random drops or quest rewards, and that’s enough for any story content. So don’t sweat getting the best stats on your gear, and never waste money on the auction house/GTN buying expensive gear. Companions – On the first planet you’ll get your first companion, and you’ll notice something called “influence” happening when you have conversations with them and companions “Approving” or “disapproving” of your choices. Don’t worry about it! Play the story how you want to play it. You can purchase gifts for your companion to raise their influence, so don’t try to game the system to get the “best” conversation choice. A level 1 influence companion is pretty powerful in their own right, and will help you blast through story content. Ironically, a companion “Disapproving” of a choice gives you influence points as well! Dark side and Light side – Much like companions, don’t worry about whether you go Dark Side or Light Side. Your choices in conversations will guide you one way or the other, but what alignment you are doesn’t matter for actual game mechanics – play the story how you see fit. Some of the best stories play out best with multiple choices. An evil Sith Warrior choosing to spare a Jedi leads to hilarious dialogue as the Jedi doesn’t understand why you spared him, and attacks you anyway! What’s the best class? – SWTOR is generally balanced pretty well. This isn’t EverQuest where there are damage classes, support classes, tank classes and hybrids – all classes fall neatly into one of the three buckets of Tank, DPS or Healer. Most Advanced Classes have multiple disciplines where they can be DPS or Heals, or DPS or Tank, but not at the same time. Unless you are doing true endgame activity, don’t worry about which class does the most damage – even at endgame the difference between the top DPS class and bottom DPS class is at most 10%, and there are other factors in play such as ease of use and utility. See the classes post for more information. Play what looks fun to you. What’s the best class story? - Play the class that interests you. There is no "best story", and asking which story is the best will lead to two pages of people arguing. All of the stories are enjoyable to some extent, and some prefer some stories to others. Play what looks fun! For example, many people think the Consular is the best Republic storyline and hate the Knight story. I'm the opposite, I loved the knight storyline and found the consular boring. This is called "opinions" and everyone has them. It’s generally agreed that Agent and Sith Warrior are two of the best stories, so if you’re completely open, I’d recommend one of them. The Cartel Market – The Cartel Market is Bioware’s “cash shop”. Here you can buy a host of items including QOL unlocks, restriction removals for free to play players, and cosmetic looks for your character. And there are gambling packs. Every month or two, a new “pack” is released that has some really cool items in it. All of these items are purely cosmetic – armor that comes from them has no stats, and instead gains it’s stats from modifications you can buy on the fleet or from other players, craft yourself, or pull from other gear that you get with modifications in it. You will be tempted to buy a pack because you want a saber that looks like Kylo Ren’s. You will not get that saber. You are playing the lotto with Cartel Packs – you’ll get a bunch of random stuff that you won’t use, maybe a neat mount or crystal, but almost never get one of the super rare items. If there is a specific item in a pack you want and you have some coins, you’re much better off buying something off the Cartel Market and selling it to other players for credits, then using those credits to buy the particular item you want. Outfit Designer – Found a really cool piece of armor that you want to use, but it’s a level 14 piece and you’re 65? How about that badass Revan armor set you bought? Outfit designer lets you “stamp” outfits on slots (up to 16) so your character can look different than what they are wearing (no weapon slots, unfortunately). This allows you to keep a functional set of armor without changing the way you look. Collections – SWTOR has a collections system for items you buy that originated from the Cartel Market. Once you get a full set of armor, or a mount, or a weapon, or a pet, etc. that is a “cartel item” you can go to your collections screen (CTRL + I by default) and reclaim as many of that item as you want. So, if you’re a Sith Marauder who wields two lightsabers, and you spend a few million on a really cool one, you don’t need to buy a second – once you’ve equipped the first one, you can go and reclaim another one. And, for a fee (60 cartel coins to 600 cartel coins) you can unlock the item for your entire account. Like that Taun-Taun you spent 20 million on? Spend some cartel coins and unlock it so all of your characters can have it. One thing that is very important to know about Collections – it is the only thing in the game that you can *only* unlock with cartel coins. All other unlocks can be purchased with credits. For this reason alone I always recommend not wasting your cartel coins on gambling packs or unlocks. And a reminder, clicking a referral link gets you a few freebies, whether you're F2P or a Subscriber.
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Sep 1, 2019 19:37
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Turbl posted:I've put together a list of all the short stories and story-like blogs that have been posted on the main SWTOR site. For those who don't know, the SWTOR writers sometimes write little short stories that serve as flavor for current or upcoming content and post them on the main site. The problem is that as far as I know there's no specific place on their site to go back and read them all at, you have to sift through all the other news posts to find them. So I made a list containing the links to them since I think a lot of them are pretty cool and newer players might not have seen them.
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Sep 1, 2019 19:38
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I am disappointed by the lack of dancing Skadge.
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Sep 1, 2019 20:04
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Aleth posted:I am disappointed by the lack of dancing Skadge. Skadge had a 2 year run.
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Sep 1, 2019 20:05
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For a game that's fifteen bucks for an expansion now and then and free to play the rest of the time, TOR is just fine as a single player RPG.
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Sep 1, 2019 20:09
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Medullah posted:Coming September 2019 – Star Wars: Onslaught. Continuing the Republic vs Empire storyline introduced with Ossus, Onslaught promises to be an expansion more like Shadow of Revan, with a mixture of story and group content. New planets, new operations, and major changes to how characters are designed. And most importantly, why is the lead singer of Nickelback a Jedi? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNpSuHcM0A8
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Sep 1, 2019 20:11
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The party never ends, friends.
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Sep 1, 2019 20:22
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Sep 1, 2019 20:26
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I rate this thread 7/10...good but not great.
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Sep 1, 2019 20:26
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DrunkenGarbageCan posted:I rate this thread 7/10...good but not great. Post some dancing you dirty space foreigner!
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Sep 1, 2019 20:31
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This is a very good MMO for people like me who don't like MMOs and just want to play it for some Star Wars stories. I've put probably hundreds of hours into this game and 99% of it was solo.
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Sep 1, 2019 20:37
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Aleth posted:I am disappointed by the lack of dancing Skadge. Can't be page 1 without Take My Skadge Away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQQTwQzbGJk
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Sep 1, 2019 20:43
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Getting in on page 1 with some weak rear end posting about how I'm looking forward to Onslaught. Here's hoping they explore the resource shortage angle as more than just some background lipservice. I want to see Star Wars acknowledge the fact that 50 years of galactic war will turbofuck your economy, space magic or no.
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Sep 2, 2019 00:14
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Warmachine posted:Getting in on page 1 with some weak rear end posting about how I'm looking forward to Onslaught. Here's hoping they explore the resource shortage angle as more than just some background lipservice. I want to see Star Wars acknowledge the fact that 50 years of galactic war will turbofuck your economy, space magic or no. Judging by the dosh I’ve collected from thrashing trash mobs, the economy is doing better than ours.
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Sep 2, 2019 01:06
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Oh poo poo I don't think I've ever been on page one. What a great day. Continuing from the other thread: quote:Any thoughts to tiering the FP's? I think the ideal would be doing it the way FFXIV (kind of) handles it, giving variable XP/gear based on how much time/effort the content takes. Dunno if the capability exists today as functional tech but it seems like a good direction to head towards.
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Sep 2, 2019 02:28
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Ground floor posting. I started messing with this again. Running through KOTFE with my mercenary. Story makes questionable sense for a non force user.
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Sep 2, 2019 03:07
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Saul Kain posted:Ground floor posting. I started messing with this again. Running through KOTFE with my mercenary. Story makes questionable sense for a non force user. Yeah I recommend doing KOTXX as a Knight or Warrior. Makes much more sense. Possibly Institutor since he's all about ghosts in the head.
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Sep 2, 2019 03:09
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XBenedict posted:Judging by the dosh I’ve collected from thrashing trash mobs, the economy is doing better than ours.
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Sep 2, 2019 03:50
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Getting in on the first page before the door closes (was secretly hoping to gently caress it up and snype the second page)
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Sep 2, 2019 04:06
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Ainsley McTree posted:Getting in on the first page before the door closes You can't get to the second page, there's no door for you to get stuck on.
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Sep 2, 2019 04:25
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Pryce posted:Oh poo poo I don't think I've ever been on page one. What a great day. I was thinking of gear restrictions and also "Complete X amount of MM FP's, SoR/KotET/KotFE FP's count as two or some midboss counts as 1 and the endboss counts as 1." The second option would be neat on the harder FP's so at least noobies could possibly get some credit even if they get stuck on the endboss or whatever. Medullah posted:Post some dancing you dirty space foreigner! I am protesting dancing until I can do it as a fat purple Rodian.  Or the local teenagers stage a dance off at the prom.
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Sep 2, 2019 05:26
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posting in the new thread that my dream of a new expansion entirely focused on galactic starfighter, the best part of the game, will never die
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Sep 2, 2019 06:25
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Dancing in a thread for a dead game that I don't play anymore. And also posting in remembrance of when we used to have groups that actually did things.  Hmm, Medullah seems conspicuously absent in that shot...
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Sep 2, 2019 08:51
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I heard about the new expansion being more republic/sith focused again, are they doing anything with the fact that your character leads either an independent peacekeeping force made up of both factions, or is maybe even the deadbeat emperor of functionally the whole galaxy with the republic and sith empires as vassal states, or are they just going with "that was dumb let's pretend it never happened"?
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Sep 2, 2019 09:34
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Reveilled posted:I heard about the new expansion being more republic/sith focused again, are they doing anything with the fact that your character leads either an independent peacekeeping force made up of both factions, or is maybe even the deadbeat emperor of functionally the whole galaxy with the republic and sith empires as vassal states, or are they just going with "that was dumb let's pretend it never happened"? I'm curious about this too. I'm guessing they also haven't really updated the combat any? I remember it feeling miserably floaty and unfun last time I played.
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Sep 2, 2019 10:38
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Without spoiling it you end up not being as powerful as all that but still independent, then you are forced to ally with Pub/Imps so you're back to only two major factions.
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Sep 2, 2019 10:43
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Saul Kain posted:Ground floor posting. I started messing with this again. Running through KOTFE with my mercenary. Story makes questionable sense for a non force user. I feel it works if the non-force user's Red Sith and you write it off as they have some force ability but nothing to win a slot machine spin with.
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Sep 2, 2019 11:21
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Reveilled posted:I heard about the new expansion being more republic/sith focused again, are they doing anything with the fact that your character leads either an independent peacekeeping force made up of both factions, or is maybe even the deadbeat emperor of functionally the whole galaxy with the republic and sith empires as vassal states, or are they just going with "that was dumb let's pretend it never happened"? If you want the spoiler version, you're feared throughout the galaxy because you command the Eternal Fleet, and have the Gravestone which is the deadliest ship in the galaxy. In the flashpoints following Iokath, you end up finding out that the Gravestone is actually Zildrog, who awakens and tears the fleet up. You end up blowing him up. It sounds cheesy but I actually kind of dug the direction they went.
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Sep 2, 2019 15:05
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So the big question: is the emperor ACTUALLY dead this time? Because I already killed him once as the Jedi Knight.
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Sep 2, 2019 15:08
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Siegkrow posted:So the big question: is the emperor ACTUALLY dead this time? Because I already killed him once as the Jedi Knight. Well, that's the entire plot of KOTXX.
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Sep 2, 2019 15:15
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Siegkrow posted:So the big question: is the emperor ACTUALLY dead this time? Because I already killed him once as the Jedi Knight. For realsies no take-backsies.
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Sep 2, 2019 15:19
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Is all of Hoth and Tatooine still accepting a quest and sitting on your speeder for 30 minutes to cross a giant barren planet and then doing it again back the other way? That's why I left the game. The planets are huge with nothing in between quest areas and it just got real boring.
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Sep 2, 2019 15:26
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Drop creds on legacy fast travel unlocks. It cuts the cooldown to zero.
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Sep 2, 2019 15:45
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Voss and Quesh still suck. Film at 11.
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Sep 2, 2019 16:00
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bear is driving! posted:Is all of Hoth and Tatooine still accepting a quest and sitting on your speeder for 30 minutes to cross a giant barren planet and then doing it again back the other way? That's why I left the game. The planets are huge with nothing in between quest areas and it just got real boring. All speeder points are automatically unlocked now, so you can take a taxi to the next quest hub. Much quicker than launch.
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Sep 2, 2019 16:13
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Fuzz posted:Voss and Quesh still suck. Film at 11.
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Sep 2, 2019 16:22
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I actually really liked Voss, but Quesh always seemed kind of pointless. Like if they REALLY wanted to include the Space Drugs story bit it could've been on another planet and they reference Quesh or something, I don't know
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Sep 2, 2019 16:53
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I really liked Voss too, I think the theme really fit the Inquisitor story which was my first. I think Quesh may have been added later on to give a few extra levels before the next planet, back when leveling was slow.
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Sep 2, 2019 16:57
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Arquinsiel posted:What was even the point of Quesh? The point of Quesh was to leverage your fame as a bounty hunter to get huge stacks of cash in exchange for endorsing a soft drink.
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Sep 2, 2019 17:14
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