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.

So, in advance of 5.3, the latest cartel pack has hit and its overpriced items are already sitting inert on the Galactic Trade Network, their owners wondering to themselves without a trace of irony why no one wants to buy their useless Phantom Vrake for the mere 100,000,000,000 credits they’re demanding.  Certainly this is a leftist conspiracy.

The new Bowcaster weapon looks great and all, but its rarity has assured that it’s valued way too high to be an impulse buy off the GTN.  I’m not sure why they made it so rare, to be honest.  I don’t even have a toon who would use a Bowcaster, in-character.  Bounty Hunters can’t carry a rifle weapon, a trooper would prefer standard-issue over some exotic weapon, and I just don’t see an Imperial Agent using a big bulky bowcaster instead of a sleek modern blaster rifle, so who exactly is this weapon for?  Even the smuggler’s Wookiee companion can’t use it.

I like the new Inscrutable Lightsabers in the pack, though; both single and double-bladed flavors add a nice option for a lot of characters.  These new sabers look very sturdy and utilitarian, something that a hermit Jedi or exiled Sith (like, oh say, the Outlander) would build for themselves out of salvaged parts.  Lovingly-crafted but not ostentatious, which most of the more recent saber designs were threatening to be.  Less gleaming gold highlights and intricate engravings, more solid construction and leather wrappings.  It’ll give our roleplayers more good options for their characters.

Oh yeah, and Tunings are unlockable now.  Suits me fine, but I expect this to cause the market for Tuning items to either bottom out and collapse, or inflate even higher than it already is now, I don’t know.  I blew quite a few cartel coins doing that before reading that there’s a way to unlock them on all your characters for just the cost of a Legacy weapon and the removal and replace of the tuning item but whatever.  LIGHTNING TUNINGS FOR EVERYONE

 

The new Flashpoint coming in the 5.3 drop is purportedly set on the planet Umbara. A new Flashpoint is exciting to me since it’s likely something I can spend a whole Saturday playing through with my gaming buddy Tohru without having to stress over finding a full Ops crew, because hell is other people.

And the promise of a new Stronghold still has me excited, naturally.  All signs still point to the location being Manaan, though nothing has been confirmed by the devs even at this late date.  Just the same, I’m already collecting decorations and shoring up my Cartel Coin count in anticipation.  I really, really like the idea of living on a remote metal island in the middle of a gorgeous unending ocean, because hell is other people.

 

As far as the previous dallop of content goes, the whole Iokath story part hasn’t really engaged me but I guess that’s no surprise.  I will say that it felt refreshing to finally get away from all the Zakuul-centric stuff for a while, certainly.  It has the potential to be a really fun story but since we only basically got chapter one of it in the last content drop I can’t really say one way or the other.  Ancient, intelligent machines with godlike power sounds like a really good idea for a story in this little microcosm of the Star Wars universe that Old Republic has carved out for itself.  It’s just that I can’t tell if the story stops cold because it’s going to be continued in the next update, or if the story was already continued in an 8-player Ops mission I haven’t been able to run through yet because hell is other people.

It was nice to see a couple of old player companions return, though, even if they had to bend Elara’s character completely out of shape in order to fit her in.  Tohru played through Iokath with her Trooper main and… well, spoilers happen.  Elara does not behave like someone who basically owes her career and her first real friendship to you, is my point of contention.  I realize she’s loyal to the Republic, but I guess I didn’t realize they meant that to be her first and only point of characterization.

Quinn, however, was perfectly in-character as a spineless backstabbing yes-man, so points for that I guess.

Iokath was also the first time in-game we really got to observe the character of Jace Malcolm as well.  We’ve seen him in cutscenes since forever and I hear he was even featured in those Old Republic novels I haven’t bothered to read because I shouldn’t have to do homework to enjoy a game that already costs me $15 a month, but we’ve only ever gotten to interact with him in the game before on a brief set of bonus missions on Alderaan (where he didn’t do anything but stand in front of a big computer and hand out your missions).  Seeing him in action, it’s inescapably clear the man’s a remorseless warmonger.  Based on his behavior in the game, how he deflects any question with accusations of me just being in league with the enemy, it’s clear this man was thrilled when hostilities between the Republic and Empire were on again.  This is the type of General who uses terms like “acceptable losses” very freely when reviewing his updated list of casualties, and preaches about the glory of war to his troops while always assuring he’s nowhere near the front line.  Frankly I’m glad he’s dead.  It takes a special kind of asshole to make Empress Acina look like the rational alternative.

The “theme park” of Iokath dailies hasn’t grabbed me; I haven’t spent any time there at all since my first run-through of it.  I’m not even sure I remember what the benefits are, which says a lot about how interesting I found it.  This is understandable because the whole thing was clearly conceived for groups of players, which is something that people have been asking for.  That’s why I’m still pleased with this last update despite not getting much out of it myself because hell is other people: Bioware’s clearly still trying to give all the different kinds of players something they want and will like, even if it means changing up their priorities from patch to patch.

I also prefer open outdoorsy areas on the whole, which I think is also why I haven’t spent much time on the planet.  Iokath’s metallic claustrophobia doesn’t really come across as pleasing to my eyes the same way that the sprawling forests of Tython, encroaching jungles of Dromund Kaas, unending dunes of Tatooine, or snow-capped mountains of Alderaan do, for example.  Every area looked the same to me, with nothing in the way of interesting geography to help me distinguish one section of this map from another.  That was the point, of course: to make Iokath feel oppressive and constrained despite being a whole planet, and kudos to the designers for realizing it so well.

 

I actually still have a lot of comments about the Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne chapters, especially now that I’m in the process of taking a second batch of characters through this content again.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get down my impressions concretely this time.  For now, though, this is enough.  Looking forward to the new patch, and to finding out if this Iokath thing is actually going anywhere.

And so until then, hell is other people.