Old Republic patch 5.3 drops on July 11th and it’s not getting here nearly fast enough; I encourage you all to write your congressperson. In the meantime, I figured I could pass the painful days thinking about what I’m looking forward to and reflecting on the previous content.
Screenshot abuse
I take screenshots while I play, constantly. It’s an obsession that’s cost me about 150gb of hard drive space so far. Sometimes, though, it’s all worth it because of all the subtle little details you can discover when you go back and review a scene at your own pace. Continue reading →
New Stronghold and Dev Roadmap thoughts
The Dev Roadmap for 2017 has been released. This is purportedly part of a new initiative to keep the players more informed about future plans, which I’m 100% okay with. One thing that has my lovely gaming partner and I both excited is the incoming ability to outfit our new companions from the new storylines, so prepare yourself now for the flood of Lana Benikos and Senya Tiralls running around the fleet station wearing metal bikinis. This, I’m told, is progress.
The only other thing that really jumps out at me is the cryptic note that there’s finally a new stronghold coming, with “a great view of the Ocean.”
That frelling figures. I just one week ago finally decided no new Strongholds were incoming, and I was free to spend a few million credits opening up some rooms in my Tatooine farm. Spent ten millions credits on new decorations and rooms, and then immediately afterwards I have to decide if I’m going to keep Tatooine or give it up in exchange for this new one.
See, dataminers have been claiming they found evidence of a new stronghold for quite a while, but it was supposed to be a Zakuul palace. The little description from the dev roadmap makes it pretty darn clear it’s more likely to be Manaan. And that’s awesome for me, since I’ve been wishing for a Manaan stronghold ever since the planet was added to the game and really don’t think much of the whole Zakuul thing.
Seriously, Manaan makes more sense. That planet’s been part of the Old Republic mythos since the very first KOTOR way back in 2003. And the scenery is tons better. We can only hope, I suppose.
Oh, and the Iokath expansion is really great… I hear. Since I can’t find an Op group to save my life, I can’t really progress the story and see for myself. Sticking a 16-player mission in the middle of a single-player expansion just… really ticks me off. What the hell?
Characters and Quick Thoughts on SP Chapters
Kicked off a year and a half of dust on this site, and added some new content. This site’s clearly going to be less a blog and more a place where I put up roleplay and game information for my teammates and fellow players. So if you fall into those categories, check out the renovated My Characters menu up above! Four of the characters I play so far and way, way too much roleplaying information about them, hopefully with more to come. Maybe even some of Tohru’s characters too, eventually.
The truth is, I’ve been enjoying the game a lot but the new single-player content’s left me cold. I created this blog in anticipation of all the things I’d have to say about the story, and… well, it turns out it’s barely a story at all, so the blog hasn’t really been necessary. The basic premise behind these chapters is a great idea but the execution, in my opinion, was sloppy and passionless. There just wasn’t anything there for me to sink my teeth into. As a quick amusement it was fine, but as the self-proclaimed successor to Knights of the Old Republic, these Eternal Empire, Eternal Throne, and Iokath yarns disappoint. It’s a shame because they had the opportunity to do something really fun and new for an MMO here, and instead they seem to have just phoned it in.
It’s not like they were concentrating on the multiplayer content instead. PvP and Ops haven’t gotten much of an update in more than a year now, though I grant that the revamped Flashpoint system (story mode, stuff like that) has been a very welcome addition. I love this game because it’s a fun space to meet and spend time with my friends, but these chapters that the devs seem to be funneling all their resources into just aren’t doing it for me.
Senya’s lightsaber and polesaber both rock, though. That needs to be stated.
On a totally unrelated note, I’ve also started disabling comments on these posts because I’m sick of the spam. Maybe I’ll leave comments open for a week or two and then close. It’s not like the reader comments are just flooding in or anything, so really it’s a moot point.
KotFE – First Week’s Impressions
First-week impressions of the new expansion.
Okay, I’ve finally been able to give KotFE the once-around with my Jedi Shadow Drae’den, and I gots opinions. I’m going to talk technical parts first and then put all the spoilery story stuff at the bottom of this post with a big, easily-identifiable warning separator to protect people who haven’t played through the new content yet. Consider yourself warned.
KotFE – first non-impressions (or QQ for long patch times)
So by 11:30pm last night, Knights of the Fallen Empire finally finished downloading and installing. I’d already prepped the first L60 I wanted to take through the new content, so I was expecting to be able to get a good hour or two into the new storyline before it was time to shut down for the night.
No dice. Continue reading →
Deep thoughts while waiting for KotFE to download
[ Warning: deep-rooted philosophical discussion to follow. ]
Waiting for KotFE, much QQ
Well, I meant to post some first impressions of Knights of the Fallen Empire this evening, but I hit a little snag…
The KotFE Livestream thing
No, I didn’t forget about it or anything. Just takes longer to put my thoughts together on it than just for the Cartel Changes. But honestly, Dulfy did such a good job of summarizing the whole durn thing I really didn’t think I had much to add. Seriously, check out their commentary. I do have some opinions to share, though. Read on:
Cartel Market Changes
The Sting:
Just yesterday Bioware broke silence on the details of the changes they’re bringing to the Cartel Market and related Collections system. Here come my angry-man comments on the whole sheebang. Continue reading →