Get the girl, Kill the baddies

A lot’s changed since I first wrote about my initial impressions of crafting back in January. Firstly, I’ve switched mains and levelled up a new Crew Skill (Armormech – hit 400 last night) so I feel in a better position to know what I’m talking about. Secondly, patch 1.2 came out with some significant changes to the crafting system.

A quick overview of the changes:

1. The chance of researching schematics via reverse engineering has been significantly increased
2. On critical successes, crafted Custom (orange) gear now receives an Augment slot.
3. Augments can now be crafted by several professions.
4. Players may now reverse engineer many endgame items to research schematics for items and mods.

The most significant change to Custom items is, to my mind, being able to add an Augment slot means that they have the potential to be as good, if not better, than Purple gear of the same level. As mods from the new tier of end-game mods can be extracted and put into other gear (while retaining set bonuses), this increases the possibility of being able to outfit your character exactly as you want. (The available options can only increase as the Devs have said they are looking at a way of making social gear – currently only available in light armour flavour – be adaptive to whatever armour type you need it to be. So my female Trooper might be able to wear the slave bikini as heavy armour if she wanted. Not that she would, I hasten to add).

I’m also pleased with the change to augments. Originally they were next to useless because they were randomly received from Slicing missions but now they can be RE’d into schematics and Slicing can be used to provide materials to make them. There’s also a rumour or two that the ability to add augment slots directly to items will become available at some future point. (Source – hat-tip to Shintar for pointing it out to me.)

There have been some changes to Reverse Engineering too, primarily the chance of learning a schematic has been “significantly increased”. This chance is now available on the tooltip of researchable items and seems to be 20% on all the armour items I’ve been crafting so far – although I’ve been unlucky with learning schematics from them. (As and when I get enough crafting materials to hand, maybe I’ll do some probablity verification testing of my own.) Unfortunately, I think it still relies far too heavily on the Random Number Generator (RNG) and the nature of upgrades still hasn’t been changed (Epic level 9 items? Why?) Having to get a critical success for an augment slot is still annoying too.

While these changes are welcome and improve the crafting section of the game, I do feel that all three of my suggestions from my last post still stand (although one will be crossed out as and when it gets added to the game – that being the ability to add augment slots). I’ve also been doodling around with ideas about another method of being able to learn new schematics and bring the “skill” back into “Crew skill”. That’s for another day though.

It’s been a busy week. Apart from anything, I have a new PC with a fresh install of Windows 7 and a copy of SWTOR running on an SSD which means that, finally, I might be able to visit and explore the wonders of Alderaan without either graphics lag or screen freezes every couple of minutes.

Of course, I might just be cursed in which case, expect a rant and a /ragequit some time over the weekend.

Seriously though, I’ve got an 3.1Ghz i3-2100 CPU, 4Gb RAM and a new Radeon HD 6850 card so hopefully that’s a common enough – and up-to-date enough – build to handle the game. I’ve also only got a monitor with a maximum resolution of 1280×1024 so I’m not really going to be making much demands on the system until I get that upgraded.

Other than that, I’ve been popping in as and when I can this week to take part in the Rakghoul pandemic world event. Occasional events can, inevitably, be either fun or tedious. WoW’s Seasonal events had a mix of both and LOTRO’s – well, the one or two I tried just annoyed me like a lot of the rest of the game. So far, this new event is setting itself apart for a couple of reasons:
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My suspicions that there would be an official announcement regarding the whole “30 days for level 50s” situation was right. A post was posted this evening by Dr Greg Zeschuk himself, addressing the issue. The two main points are:

1. 30 days will be given to players with either a level 50 or who have reached Legacy level 6.
2. Players have got up until the 22nd April to meet one of those criteria.

This is a brilliant solution. Why? Because (according to the post) a player who has been at level 50 on one character for a bit will have got to Legacy Level 6. However, other players who have played just as much but not got a level 50 will also have reached level 6. Not only that, but, given that this patch was all about the implementation of the Legacy system and rewards, it’s actually a blindingly obvious and relevant solution and, to my mind, a fair and equitable of awarding all veteran players for their “support and loyalty” irrespective of their playstyle.

I’m glad I didn’t ragequit this morning so I don’t have to crawl back here with my tail between my legs – I trusted that the issue would be addressed. It has, I’m satisfied and still willing to give them my money and loyalty.

Well done Bioware.

(I still won’t have a level 50 by the end of the week though – but hey, thems the breaks. What can you do?)

I want to talk to about the couple of hours I spent trying out Update 1.2 last night and give you my initial impressions of the new Warzone, Novare Coast. But I’m not going to because after logging out of the game and glancing quickly at my Twitter feed, I noticed the announcement about “Thank You” gifts in appreciation of “support of our community throughout the development of the Legacy game update”.

I’ll be blunt – it pissed me off.

I write this at the risk of being hypocritical in sounding like a whining, self-entitled gamer who is throwing his toys out of the pram because he didn’t get something that he wanted. That’s something I’ve always despised about gaming culture and one reason why I rarely interact on official forums. That doesn’t assuage the feeling of annoyance I’ve got.

My beef is with this specific sentence in the press-release (emphasis mine):

As a thanks for being one of our most valued players, every active account with a Level 50 character as of April 12th, 2012 at 12:00PM CDT / 5:00PM GMT, will receive thirty (30) days of game time in appreciation for your support and loyalty.

“Our most valued players.”

I make no bones about the fact that I’m a slow leveller. Last night I got my Trooper to level 39, matching that of my Smuggler and making her, officially, my new main but I’ve still got a way to go before the magic five-oh. I signed up for a six-month subscription from the off and I’m in no rush. As evidenced by this blog, I really enjoy the game – in fact the main reason that I don’t blog more often is because I’d just end up sounding like some gibbering Tellytubby on a roller-coaster, shouting “WOOOO!!!! Again! Again!” with all the constant posts enthusing about how much genuine fun I’m having playing SWTOR.

I recently mentioned that there was some disquiet in my guild about the game and a long thread (based on this post by my GL) about the issues people were having with the game. I ran the risk of becoming the poster child of SWTOR fanboys – sorry, fanbois – everywhere with my exuberant posts. I also agreed with the observation made that those who are still having fun were those still levelling after all this time – and those who weren’t having fun had reached level cap. Perhaps that’s at the heart of what’s happening here.

Psynister wrote about this topic too and in the comments, Liore pointed that this free month is likely to be a “holy crap we need to improve the retention of level 50s” move. (She also blogged about it too). It’s true as well. Update 1.2 is pretty hefty but, at the last minute they cancelled the release of ranked Warzones (only available to level 50s) and sidelined the open-world PvP on Ilum (only available to level 50s) because it’s in need of a rethink and redesign so, in many ways, this can only be seen as a salve to temper the frustrations of those who have already reached level cap.

Level 50s: Bioware’s “most valued” players.

I can see the point. I’m looking forward to trying out ranked warzones myself (have I mentioned how much I adore playing warzones yet? I mean, aside from every other post!) and this delay works in my favour. I can sympathise with the poor level 50s. After all, what have they had to do since the release of the game? I mean, apart from two patches that extended an existing Operation, added a new Operation, added two new level 50 flashpoints and a legacy system that has a lot of rewards for level 50 players?

Obviously level 50s are Bioware’s “most valued” players – look at all this stuff they’ve gotten already.

Would it be churlish to point out that Update 1.2 also removed several items from the game (vehicles and crystals) that were largely unavailable to any player who was not yet level 50? Yeah, I know if I really wanted those items then I should have levelled faster but, hey, in all honesty they weren’t my priorities. Yeah, it probably would be very churlish. Forget I mentioned it.

I can only agree with Liore that, really, the 30 days free reward is a thinly veiled retention bonus that’s targeting players like her – already level 50 and, in her own words, someone who “had kind of wandered away from SWTOR over the past month or so”. That’s the “most valued” player Bioware is rewarding for their “support and loyalty”. It’s sound business acumen – entice those likely to wander off somewhere else by offering them a carrot to stay.

That wording though – well, that, if you haven’t guessed by now, is what really fucks me off the most. By exclusion, I am not “most valued”. My “support and loyalty” is not being rewarded except for a mini taun-taun pet. Oh… wait, that’s not for loyalty because anyone who signs up for a sub in the next 8 days will also get one. It’s not even that I really begrudge anyone like Liore who’s eligible for it – I mean, what are we talking about? A months free access, worth about £7 or £8? If Bioware had said “Here’s a reward for sticking with us even though we really fucked up end-game content and had to delay ranked warzones!” I don’t think I’d even be writing this post.

But they didn’t say that.

Their choice of wording – describing players who’ve reached level 50 as “most valued” – makes me feel like a second-rate citizen. It implies that the metric by which loyalty is determined is based on character level rather than, say, length of subscription. It makes me feel like a sucker for planning to commit to the game long-term, for trying to encourage other players to stay when they had doubts about it – even for starting this blog to share my enthusiasm.

I’m a player who, as Liore rightly surmises, would probably not need much to encourage retention. I’m probably also the sort of player who will pay more by way of subscription fees than the level 50 who subs after a content patch, completes the new raid and then unsubs for a couple of months until the next update. But the message I’m getting here is “Yeah, we don’t really care about you. You’re not our ‘most valued’ player.” Yeah, well, that’s fine – but you’ve now actively discouraged my retention.

I despise the fact that I feel so strongly about this matter. I loathe the fact that I feel hypocritical writing a post that could – correctly and justly – be described as needy and entitled. I’m angry that, through what I think is a poor choice of words, Bioware evoked this response from me.

I will be interested to see how this plays out. Despite an extremely long thread on the forums about this topic (170+ pages when I looked this morning), there has been no direct response to any of the long-term-but-not-yet-50 players (that really needs a better acronym or something but I CBA to work one out) despite some other posts from Stephen “Rockjaw” Reid and others. It makes me wonder if they’re working out how to deal with this and putting together an official response. I’ll wait and see.

Incidentally, Novare Coast is… interesting.

A strangely worded official poll was posted on the SWTOR forums last week asking, essentially, what vehicle related madness players would like in the game (my paraphrased interpretation). The choices were:

1. Full 3D space battles
2. Vehicle combat (eg. AT-ATs)
3. Pod/speeder racing
4. Capital ship battles

As of right now (11-Apr @ 13:13BST), there have been 2993 votes in total and the first option, 3D space battles, leads with a tally of 1391. I don’t know if this actually means anything though but I thought I’d capture the information for posterity anyway.

I should also add that one of those votes is mine.

The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1

Funcom’s new MMO, The Secret World, is being released in June and pre-orders for the game became available this week (including the option to buy a lifetime subscription for an extra £160 over the cost of the game itself). I’ve been keeping half an eye on this game for a couple of reasons – partly because of the leveless/classless level progression and partly because of the real-world setting but mostly because of the heavily Lovecraftian and mythology influenced setting and themes.

Then I watched a video (embedded after the link) from Funcom’s 2012 GDC presentation and I’m sorry to say that my interest declined dramatically. Why? Because of something they appear to have messed up that, in retrospect, SWTOR did very well.
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When it comes to bandwagons, I always feel it’s best to jump on rather than get run over (or fall off in the case of that other wagon) so after Kristalys started the ball rolling and others have followed suit, I’m going to give my own thoughts of the first three months playing SWTOR. As a bonus, there will be some poor quality screenshots thrown in as well.

I don’t think it’s going to be any surprise that I’m loving SWTOR so far and, importantly, I am still having fun playing it. Pretty sure I say that in every post! I’d be lying if I said it’s been a turbulence free journey and there are some disappointments I need to mention (although they may be a little surprising.)
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Update 1.2 is only a couple of weeks away and the biggest selling point is the Legacy system. That’s aside from introducing a new level 50 flashpoint, a new Operation, a new Warzone, UI customisation and a massive load of updates, changes and fixes.

I find the Legacy system interesting because it’s very much geared around playing alt characters which suits me down to the ground. The general idea behind the Legacy experience is brilliant – achieve things on one character to pass around benefits to your alts. Most of these benefits are unlocked when you get a character to 50 – for example the class buff will be castable by your alts (level 4 different classes to 50 and get all the buffs!) You don’t have to be 50 for everything, though, as some of the extra benefits, like getting a repair droid on your ship, only require you to have a specified Legacy Level (8 for the droid, 10 for the mailbox and training dummies etc.)

The big visual selling point of the Legacy system is to do with family trees, based on the idea that Star Wars focusses on one family and their close associates. That’s all well and good but absolutely doesn’t appeal to me. I’m a closet RPer, sure, but my alts all tend to be seperate and have nothing to do with each other. Rouf may well have three failed marriages (including a brief couple of months with a Zeltron tabledancer that ended very, very badly) as result of BSOCKing his way around the galaxy but none of those background people will become one of my alts. All in all, I’d much rather be able to give each of my characters their own surname, just like I could in LOTRO.

But the family tree is just fluff and that’s fine, if not for me. I am just pleased that I will be rewarded for playing multiple characters and that one alt will benefit from anothers progress or achievements. It’s more than just BoA heirloom items. There are also implications for future developments (some of which were discussed at the guild summit):

- Cross-faction mail (coming in 1.2)
- Cross-faction communication (no ETA but obvious move if encouraging alts across factions)
- Shared Legacy storage (no ETA)
- Sister/Adversary guilds (something we could have done with in our guild from the start)

Oh yeah, there’s also unarmed PvP brawling skills that can be unlocked (with the right pre-requisite Legacy and Valor levels). That is awesome and will definitely make me revisit Rouf’s PvP levels. Perhaps I can even start an underground Fight Club on Nar Shaddaa or something.

So roll on Update 1.2 and give me a good reason to play some of my languishing Imperial alts.

I’m playing my Vanguard Trooper a lot at the moment. I’m playing her to the tune of it becoming my new main in 8 levels time (nope, still not 50!) and at the rate I’m levelling, that might not take very long. Rouf is in a cantina somewhere, drunk and under a table and has probably lost the keys to his XS-Freighter.

Two reasons for this transition:

1. PvP. I was wrong when I said changing to Scrapper spec made life more fun in warzones. Turns out I’m still rubbish. My Vanguard, however, regularly gets 6-8 medals, has started topping leaderboards and is sheer joy – not to mention easy – to play. Faceroll to victory!
2. The Smuggler story was irritating me. Prologue was Episode IV Han Solo awesome and chapter one was full of Firefly-esque goodness. Chapter two seems to have gone back to being more based on Han Solo – unsurprisingly given he’s the archetype for the Star Wars smuggler – but it’s the lacklustre and dull Episode VI/EU version.

The Trooper story has been critiqued for having a) a slight military bias and b) being not so much special as stupid forces. Or “special” with inflated quote marks and possibly even asterisks for emphasis. And italics. This doesn’t seem to bother me in the slightest because a) I’m playing a female Sheph… um, Trooper, voiced by the fantastellous Jennifer Hale and b) I walk softly and carry a big fucking gun. If there is one complaint I do have, it’s that I haven’t got enough screenshots (well, any, owing to an annoying bug) of my Vanguard walking away from explosions. Without looking. In slow motion.

I get that the whole reason the Trooper is the leader of the Republic Special Forces “Havoc Squad” is beause Elites are more glamorous but I have no problem with that as long as I get to explode ALL the things. And I do with pleasing frequency.

Shintar gives a lot of good reasons as to why the the Trooper is awesome to play and I don’t find much to disagree with. I elected to spec Vanguard rather than Commando and I will admit that I do harbour some weapon envy as I’d really like to be wielding an Assault Cannon rather than just a rifle but that’s okay and I’ll live with it. In terms of story, well I find it far easier to be a devoted Republic stooge and doing what’s right and in the best interests of the Republic as a Trooper than I ever did as Rouf the Smuggler (who’s entire life philosophy was unironically stolen from Mal Reynolds – he aims to misbehave). It’s a little RP thing that I just couldn’t quite get my head around.

So yeah, I play trooper now. Troopers are cool. Expect to hear more about them soon.

I haven’t given up here, merely had an enforced sabbatical as a result of a) moving house and b) getting a bad case of proper ‘flu which wiped me out for a week. Seriously, I have never felt so exhausted and out of sorts. I can run 20 miles in a training run and don’t feel as bad as I did last week. As a result, I am way behind on blogging, reading blogs, training and work. I didn’t even manage to make real inroads into powerlevelling in SWTOR either.

But I’m back now and catching up.

A few weeks ago (on the day we moved house), I got tagged by Njessi in a screenshot meme, the rules of which are to get the 6th picture in the 6th subfolder of your screenshots folder and post it. Or something. Well, I’m at work (shhh! Don’t tell!) and only have five folders in My Pictures, the last of which says SWTOR and the 6th image of which is really, really boring. But the 7th is this:
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