STAR WARS: the Old Republic...Anyone Playing?
POSTED BY: HKCavalier
UPDATED: Monday, April 23, 2012 01:53
VIEWED: 16284
PAGE 9 of 13
*wheeze, wheeze, huff, puff*...
I should NOT find that as funny as I did.
Oh, just in case anyone else is crazy enough...
Server: Keetael
Republic
Kettra - Scoundrel
Fremdfirma - Vanguard
Kamiketh - Shadow
Empire
Mollyanna - Sith Marauder
Katiekaboom - Bounty Hunter
ETA: One solution I've found to pain in the ass judgemental companions like Mako is conveniently sending them off Treasure Hunting before any conversation likely to upset her pathetically weak stomach - honestly, how did a total wuss like Mako ever get involved in this in the first place, did she think it was gonna be all fluffy bunnies and happy rainbows ? 
Corso is something of a straightlaced bonehead as well, seriously, we're CROOKS you naive chump, get with the program!
-Frem
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I think it's funny how powerful that little "-1" at the bottom of the screen can be. I figure, I give Mako a present worth 54 affection and I'm good for 54 disappointments. Thing is, she may be "judgemental" but she's also a push-over, no companion seems to be even half as interested in what I say as Mako. I opened her 30th level loyalty quest line at 18 pretty effortlessly. All ya gotta do is expect to be paid for what ya do, engage in some light hearted snark and inquire after people's health and she'll give you rivers of affection. That and give all the "right" answers when she wants one of her private chats.
And Corso has a dark side, you just need to find it and fan the flames. He's given me some pretty high approvals for taking darkside points in Corascant.
I think my favorite companion is Kaliyo 'cause she just cray-zay. You want somebody who isn't rainbows and lollypops, Kali's your girl. With a name that reverses to "Yo, Kali!" one would think you'd be all over that, Frem!
HKCavalier
Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
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I dunno, I kinda like the -1. My highest character is my smuggler and she's still on Coruscant, so you know what that means. But my own nature is working against me. I really haven't done much besides lie once or twice (darkside points) and I've only raised my voice about three times total (harsher dialogue choices). It's approaching the point where all of my player characters belch rainbows.
But I can't really bring myself to be any worse, it kinda makes me cringe. So yeah, whenever I resolve to myself to be more evil, or at least amoral/neutral, I usually end up doing what I do anyway.
I guess at least when I unlock light side gear I'll get some nice bonuses. But it would be nice if I could be a bit more pragmatic. And the other downside is that there's seemingly no consequences sometimes for doing the right thing. NPCs will still pay you if you come back and tell them truthfully that the situation wasn't what they thought. Since when does ANYONE do that? I should be penniless, seriously.
I picked up underworld trading, so I'll probably start taking advantage of that sending my companions away on trade skill missions tactic. But the few times the glitches have struck and left me without one have been kind of a relief.
It's interesting how the female versions of the classes have a much less developed storyline. The male versions have a lot more interactions available with both NPCs and their companions. I guess Bioware figured most people would only play the guys.
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Catching up on looking at the youtube videos. That bounty hunter one was pretty good. Always fun to see Force Persuasion backfire.
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Really, -1 eh ?
My Bounty Hunter managed to score back to back -30's off Mako and get called stupid and evil in the same conversation!
Really, she whinges that we're desperate for cash, and there's a ripe juicy bounty sittin right there and what, imma let it just walk out the door ?
Hardly.
Speakin of really upset, there's a Grand Moff out there who is now totally pissed at my Trooper and a pair of Jedi who shall remain nameless.. 
Trashing his ship real bad mighta had a little something to do with it. 
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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Ha, yeah. That was a fun flashpoint.
I've been tinkering with making a Bounty Hunter and a Sith Warrior myself. I'm modeling them after two characters from a Final Fantasy game.
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Oh it was even more fun cause we went through that completely in roleplay character - which isn't much of a stretch with a character based on your own younger self - at one point he starts having a bit of a meltdown about how corrupt everyone in the Republic seems to be, and was all but grinding his teeth half the time since Jedi as a rule don't seem to know anything about tactics beyond a headfirst rush.
And that ship was seriously trashed, given that he had a plasma emitter on his rifle and no qualms about using it on anything that looked important or fragile, had he the chance he would have blown their engines too and called in a Republic task force to bat cleanup - as it were, getting to rifle-butt a Sith in the face and then pound him into the floor was, for a grunt soldier, enormously satisfying, as was mauling some puffed up mercenary and THEN taking his gear as a final post-mortem insult.
Alas, snarky and arrogant as he is, the character really does come acrpss as a pure old-school hero, he seems to have even developed his own catch phrase - "Tough missions are what I do best!" - and in a storyline sense has nudged many away from conduct unbecoming, some with a quiet word, some with a boot up the arse, but overall your basic gentleman-soldier, mainly cause if the Republic stoops to the same levels as anyone else, what betterment of the situation do they really offer?
Far as the female storyline being less developed, from what I hear its just that the payoff comes a little later due to which people you meet when.
Once you start nearing Lv20 though, it becomes obvious the abilities system could use a little simplification, on top of some abilities being confusing, poorly explained, sharing cooldowns, it's so tricky to keep on top of it that you usually just find one thing that works for you and do that instead.
Oh yes, the senate hearing for my Trooper was a slam-dunk, because without factual, accurate information the people as a whole and their representatives cannot effectively decide and present their interests, which is the PURPOSE of a Government and something I have a big issue about in real life, since when the military/intel keeps Congress in the dark or even outright lies to them, it begs the question of who is really running things and why bother to pretend the people have any input at that point - ergo duty required the straight, whole truth - and that this annoyed Garza and Jorgan made it that much more satisfying, cause if Jorgan had spent less time trying to make me look bad he might have caught them out, and my job isn't to make Garzas job easier, it is to enforce the will of the people as a whole and their representatives, with force if necessary, as well as defend their rights, persons and property.
And anyone in the Republic who loses sight of that, will without fail, shortly thereafter receive one standard-issue to the posterior!
That said, gamewise my Trooper is pretty awesome, armor plated, heavy shielded, HE-slinging steamroller he is, average baddies are like wheat in a combine when he shows up. 
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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The best part I've seen with the trooper is that missile AOE you can open with, seems to take out most baddies in seconds.
My brother and I had a little bit of trouble with the mercenary since it was just the two of us, but we eventually figured out that we did have to try to take out the minions that spawn. Since then, I've also figured out the proper use of my interrupts - they're so you can heal everyone up before continuing the fight, provided everyone stops attacking so the effect can last for the whole timer.
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Yep, pick off the minions first, then gangbang the boss, and yes, stuns are great for buying time to heal, *IF* your companions (lookin at YOU, Jorgan!) didn't have a really bad habit of immediately breaking them.
Seriously, you hit someone with a cryo-grenade, 100% Guaranteed the first damn thing Jorgan will do is shoot at them, defeating the purpose entire.
And agreed, the mortar barrage is downright awesome in a carnage inspiring way, but even BETTER is the Bounty Hunters DEATH FROM ABOVE, quickly followed by a double-blaster smackdown - hotkey one, drop the circle and then hotkey the other and drop THAT circle just offset to where they landed, and hoo lordy they are dead, dead DEAD, especially since you have, yanno, a flamethrower.
I was thinkin about the events of the Trooper storyline which are coming to light, and imma spoiler this bit...
Select to view spoiler:
Okay, so Havoc Squad was on Ando Prime, got in over their heads and the Civvie authorities refused to extract them - but I notice nowhere whatever did they have authorization to BE on Ando Prime, nor was their mission authorised...
Which leads me to conclude that just like a lot of our own actions during the Cold War such as IVY BELLS, the Republic military/intel was hell bent on scorning the will of the people and their representatives and trying like hell to PROVOKE a war in clear defiance of the civil authority they were supposed to answer to - this is at best insubordination and at worst, downright treason, and one notorious way to start a conflict in defiance of the will of the people is a flat-out setup, either by deliberately provoking an attack while offering up your own as sitting ducks (Pearl Harbor), faking an atrocity (or committing one and blaming it on the enemy), or other chicanery such as deliberately leaving a famed commando unit swinging in the breeze and then sending in a task force to extract them, which is IMHO, rather much EXACTLY what they were trying to pull on Ando Prime.
And from all the info so far it seems Havoc Squad was knowingly complicit in this and less angry about not being extracted as they were pissed that the civilian command structure didn't take the bait, fall for the ploy, and commit to a war the people they represent DID NOT WANT.
AGAIN: It comes back to who is in charge and who is supposed to be.
So, IMHO they were off the rails to begin with, and frankly if I had been in command of the craft they managed to extract to I would have blown them out of space when they asked for clearance to land and felt fully justified in doing so - the military exists to serve the people, NOT vice-versa, although one could make a certain case for it here in america and elsewhere, the INTENTION is *NOT* that the people exist and serve only to support the rule and intentions of the Military-Intel-Industrial Combine, and any military, intel, or industry official who forgets this should be dragged out back and shot, period.
As one can imagine, viewed in that light - if and when my Trooper DOES catch up to Havoc Squad, there's gonna be a certain hell to pay, and given General Garzas obvious sympathies and repeated attempts to go easy on them and slip them off the hook, AND her willingness to order deniable atrocities, I suspect she too is/was complicit in the whole mess as well, and you know what that means, right ?
That means, much as I might prefer to - none of them bastards will be taken alive.
Think it through, we get them back, and with a little coverup, blackmail and threats, any real punishment falls by the wayside, and since their plan to provoke a war discretely failed, the NEXT step would be a military coup, quietly or otherwise, with Havoc Squad front and center leading the charge into war, war, war, running roughshod over both the will of the people AND their purpose.
That's not even assumption, although I wish it was - their motives here are so transparent they might as well hold it up over their heads in neon signage.
Remember what I said about ugly decisions having to be made by the individual
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Ha, it just occurred to me, you're on an RP server. I bet those Jedi you were playing with at least got an earful about actual military tactics, and maybe even learned something.
As for the rest, with a name like Havoc Squad... Kinda says it all, what they value.
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