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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Never Say Never

I may have mentioned it in the past, but Scooter's computer hasn't been handling games very well for several months, hampering our ability to play games together. This is especially frustrating because she bought it specifically for playing games, but apparently her technical difficulties are a fairly common development for this particular model. I've dabbled in a few different things, and while enjoyable, it just isn't the same without her. In any event, we managed to pick up another gaming laptop due to the generosity of one of my coworkers. I presented it to Scooter just before traveling to Korea, but our differing time zones precluded much dabbling while I was gone. Now, my coworker happens to be an avid SWTOR player, so even though he'd cleaned the computer of any files, the client was already installed when Scooter decided to test out the computer's performance.

I didn't leave SWTOR in August of 2012 with the best of feelings about the game, and more specifically about the community management. The one class story that I finished (Imperial Agent) was less than satisfying, and BioWare had made several missteps regarding "most valuable players," server mergers that were called anything but that, and (initially) unexplained player bans. But I was careful not to say I'd never be back. Since 2015 seems to have turned out be my retro gaming year, and Scooter has caught the bug again, here I am.
A new server and a new Warrior, Buloke.
Even now, having transitioned to free-to-play for several years, SWTOR has one of the worst F2P schemes on the market, charging not only for fluff cosmetics or bag space, but even for things as simple as hiding headgear. Knowing that the first time I encounter something like that would cause a ragequit, I went ahead and did the non-recurring 60 day subscription, encouraging Scooter to do so, as well. Then on Monday, May the Fourth, Amazon was running a sale on this SWTOR bundle—still a value at $39.99, but 25% off on Star Wars Day. We picked that up, too, and got an additional 60 days, so we're both paid up well into August. But now it's recurring, so I'll have to opt out if I'm tired of it by then.

My Holosuite friend Galactrix is over on Begeren Colony, so I decided to reroll my Sith Warrior there. He'd just started a new Inquisitor, so we were able to play through the first planet together on Sunday. I doubt he's waiting on me—at least, I hope not—so he may far ahead by now, but it was a fun few hours. Unfortunately, Banyan was unavailable, so I'll have to be Darth Buloke.
My reborn Trooper, Achillea.
Scooter and I both wanted to start over with new characters on the Republic side. I lucked out her, picking up my original Trooper name, Achillea, and pasting it onto a level-1 clone. Scooter went with a Smuggler, calling her Harllie. Going through Ord Mantell was fun; it's nice to be reminded of the excitement we had way back in December 2011, when we first stepped out from our ships and shuttles into that galaxy. I think our gunslinger and medic commando will do just fine, especially with Korso and Jorgan in tow. Thinking about it, it would be funny to see those two interact, the by-the-book soldier and the chivalrous farmboy.

I guess there's a 12x-XP thing going on, enabling folks to level from planet to planet only doing Story Quests, and skipping the planet quests. I don't know much about it; we're coming off Ord Mantell at about level 13 or 14, instead of barely hitting 10, so I guess it's working. On the other hand, we did all the planet quests, partly because it's been so long, and we ran mostly Imperial anyway. If we had only done the Story, we'd probably be lower, but still ready for Coruscant.
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9 comments:

  1. The bundle is a non-recurring sub (basically a 60 day time card) - I bought that back in March to get caught up. My brother and I are on Ebon Hawk as well, though we are currently 12x-ing our way through our Imp characters to start with.

    I do have a level 15-16 Sentinal on Coruscant, I'll keep an eye our for you. Morthylla is her name, IIRC.

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    1. After submitting the key, I got an email from BioWare that my subscription had changed. "Your subscription will continue to automatically renew until cancelled." I had made any changes other than redeeming the bundle key.

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  2. Oh, and....welcome back. (-:

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  3. Well, you certainly managed to surprised me! And you're right, the story quests are enough to level from planet to planet. Be sure to get some new gear for basic comms on the fleet every now and then. They made that a bit easier by getting rid of the planetary specific comms (was already a while back, but not sure how much you missed) and you'll get loads of basic comms to spend for the class missions, as I'm sure you noticed.

    I don't know if the refer-a-friend thing was already around when you quit, but that's another thing that's handy. You can probably refer each other even.

    Okay, that was all the advice stuff. Looking forward to reading about SWTOR here once more. :)

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    1. Uhhh... the refer-a-friend link gets messed up somehow. So here's the not so fancy raw link: ravalation.blogspot.com/p/referral.html

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    2. Sweet, I'll check it out this evening. Not sure if it will count since we're using the same accounts we had at launch.

      I think the key this time around will be expectations. We went into the launch with such high hopes, having bought into quite a bit of hype. Now (I hope) we're a little more realistic in what we want from our experience.

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    3. Should work, unless you've already done it before (you can only use one referral code per account). And yes, I can see how high expectations can lash back at you. The game is a bit better than back in 2012, the rough edges smoothened (is that a word?). Will see what you think of it!

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