Category Archives: poll

The Reconsolidation Begins!

19 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in opinion, poll

≈ 9 Comments

It’s been pretty quiet around these parts. But yesterday, the blog saw a small flurry of visitors, looking for assistance from my post with its resources for (re)naming your SWTOR characters, and ideas for (re)naming your guild something clever.

That’s because with less than a day’s notice, SWTOR did another server consolidation, moving all the origina server folks to a new server, but in some cases, additionally moving destination servers from the round 1 consolidation to a new server as well.

The 3 that specifically affected me were:

Jedi Covenant Destination
Includes: Jedi Covenant, Canderous Ordo, The Constant, Krayiss Obelisk, Kathol Rift, Whitebeam Run, Khoonda Militia, Ki-Ta Kren, Kaas City, Fort Garnik, Hanharr, Sedyn Kyne, Keetael, The Corsair, Nathema, Zez-Kai Ell, Shii-Cho, The Courageous, Assassins of Sion, Eidolon Security, Axial Park, Keller’s Void, Master Dorak, Juyo, The Defenestrator, Telos Restoration Project.

The Ebon Hawk
The Ebon Hawk, Kath Hound, Rubat Crystal, Lord Adraas, Sanctum of the Exalted, Shien.

The Bastion
The Bastion, The Crucible Pits, The Maw, Rakata Mind Prison, Nadd’s Sarcophagus, Infinite Empire, Daragon Trail, Warriors of the Shadow, Black Vulkars, Shadowtown, The Swiftsure, Dark Reaper, Wound in the Force, Mandalore the Indomitable.

Wait, no I’m wrong I also have characters consolidated over onto The Harbinger too, from Space Slug…

The Harbinger
The Harbinger, Drooga’s Pleasure Barge, Fa’athra, Veeboo Lunx, Master Gnost-Dural, Darth Xedrix, Gauntlet of Kressh, Zakkeg Beast, Perlemian Trade Route, Zaalbar, Empress Teta, Namadii Corridor, Kaiburr Crystal, Krath, Wall of Light, Vornskr, Soresu, Lord Praven, Master Zhar Lestin, Space Slug, Darth Sion, Hyperspace Cannon, Mask of Nihilus, The Jekk’Jekk Tarr.

I had an OK time of it in that I didn’t lose any of my level 47+ names. I lost a number of my placeholder names, and on Jedi Covenant, I now have 3 characters with the same name times 3 if I recall, which means having to figure out a slew of new names, or, more likely just deleting some of those alts after checking their bags for shiny crafted gear made by Anexxia.

I still need to log in and actually rechoose my legacy name and clean things up. It was just too overwhelming last night, after seeing all the characters crammed together on Canderous Ordo, to get it together and sort it all out.

I’m hoping that now that we went through this additional consolidation, paid server transfers will be on the horizon so I can finally do my own reunification and consolidation and no longer have my favorite character on a PvP server as I am just not feeling that environment.

How’d you fair?

How Was the Grand Acquisition Race?

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in In Game Events, poll

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I expected to be doing my own write-up of the race today, but that is not to be. You see, dear reader, I was out on vacation all of last week, with my game playing time during the Race being limited to Sunday. And although I logged in on Sunday morning, raring to go, I did not end up making it through much of the Race, which was very disappointing, especially considering that I spent several hours working at it.

Here were a few things that tripped me up:

  • “Bonus” quests weren’t actually optional. They were, in fact, how you obtained the item. I thought the items were in fixed locations, and the bonus quests just were an alternate way to get them at first, and thus I ran off after getting a bonus quest in an area swarming with others attempting to do it.
  • Other players could sabotage your quest. I found this out on DK, while fighting off 4 baddies, when some jerk came up and repaired my droid, thus FUBAR’ing my quest. As I learned later, I could have abandoned the entire Race quest chain, backtracked to Nar Shadda and gotten it again without losing my progress to reset it. But at the time, how to go about resetting it (I abandoned it and went back to the area I picked up the droid hoping that would do it to no avail) was not obvious.
  • Some quests required using an item, and a dozen people were already waiting to use the item. The droid race area was swarming with people battling it out to get the fastest click. The standing around and waiting got old after about 5 minutes for me.
  • Looking for and looting boxes to procure random items was not appealing for me on a PvP server, alone. I had 2 or so guildies on at any given time, and friends who were interested in doing the Race had already done so at this point, leaving me to group up with strangers, which I did some. But for random items to loot, that would not have been a good strategy. And at some point it just seemed like a lot of time/effort/work and not so much fun. Which is why I didn’t just start over and try doing it on my PvE server. At the end of the day, I just don’t think that would have boosted my enjoyment.

And this is why despite having sunk a few hours into it, I logged out yesterday afternoon, without having completed the Race. And I’ll admit it: I was bummed out about it. I’m not a quitter. Or a slacker. But at the end of the day, I play these games to have fun. And this event just…wasn’t fun for me.

Was it just me? Was this some sort of post-vacation inability to get back into the swing of the game?

Let me know your thoughts on the event in the comments!

SWTOR Goes Free to Play

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in free to play, official announcements, poll

≈ 31 Comments

Tags

, ,

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the gaming sites today, the big SWTOR News is the announcement of a free-to-play game option starting this Fall. And all around the twittersphere and blogosphere 800,000 or so subscribers cried out: Noooooooooooooooooooooo! Or did they?

The official press release said:

Starting this fall, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars: The Old Republic:

  • Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, Subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins*, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.
  • Free-to-Play –The first 50 levels will be free-to-play, with some restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

For additional context, and in light of the 300k plus subscriber decline last quarter, today’s developer blog on this topic notes:

Since launch, our team has spent a lot of time trying to find new ways to be able to bring the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ experience to as many potential players as possible. We quickly became aware that our subscription only model was a major barrier for a lot people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic universe. In fact, many players who have left the game said they would happily come back if they could play without the commitment of a monthly fee.

We feel that flexibility and choice in playing our game is important for all current and future players. For that reason, we began the exploration of expanding the game to include a Free-to-Play option.


Free-to-Play Restrictions

  • Character Creation Choices
    Some character creation options, such as species, are limited to subscribers.
  • Warzones
    Free players are limited in terms of how many Warzones they can play per week.
  • Flashpoints
    Free players are limited in terms of how many Flashpoints they can play per week.
  • Space Missions
    Free players are limited in terms of how many Space Missions they can play per week.
  • Operations
    Only Subscribers may complete Operations.
  • Travel and Transportation
    Subscribers have access to all travel functionality, making getting around the world easier, while free-to-play players have limited access.
  • Game Login
    Subscribers will always be in login queues ahead of free players.
The free-to-play option also introduces a new currency, Cartel Coins, used with the microtransactions vendor, that will be used to purchase convenience items, boosts, visually unique gear, collectibles, and more. Like this Kowakian Monkey Lizard mini pet. And starting today, subscribers will be earning rewards as part of anew rewards program:
  • Current and lapsed subscribers will earn 200 Cartel Coins for every paid month prior to today (July 31, 2012) and until the Free-to-Play option launches.
  • For those who purchased the Collector’s Edition, we have an additional bonus reward of 1000 Cartel Coins for you.

Although the coverage has stated that there will still be a subscription option with full access to everything, that’s may not exactly the case if you read the Subscription versus Free-to-Play comparison chart:

Galactic Trade Network
Subscribers can post up to 50 auctions for sale.

>What remains to be seen is if that is a reference to the existing 50 auctions per character limit that is in place on live servers, or if it is a per-account or per server restriction. Once I know for sure, I will update this post.

Now, those of you who don’t enjoy the GTN mini game as I do might think to yourself, so what? 50 is plenty! But here’s the deal: I have very frequently hit that 50 item # on one of my characters on one of my servers. And I play both side on three servers, and have a ton of crafters who peddle their wares on the GTN. That means I have, on occasion, had up to 75 auctions going at any given time.

UPDATE: I’ve gotten confirmation that it is indeed the same 50 GTN auctions per character limit we have in place now, not a new restriction. Huzzah! Color me happy as a clam!

Unlike certain other games that caused subscribers to have to deal with the in game currency as a condition of their subscription, it seems like it will on the whole be more or less business as usual for subscribers. Which is exactly how I’d like to see it. Because managing tokens for game play is not how I want to spend my MMO play time.

Share Your Thoughts

How does this news affect your SWTOR playing? Leave a comment and take part in the poll:

A few other blogosphere reactions to the SWTOR F2P news

P.S. Comments are screened so if you just post a “Free-to-play=SWTOR has failed” comment it’s not going to show up here.

P.P.S. I also highly encourage you to leave a voicemail at 616-666-6778 with your POV on these changes– we just might include it on the next Tor Reporter podcast.

More info on Patch 1.3, Server Transfers Incoming!

21 Monday May 2012

Posted by in official announcements, poll

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Today is our lucky day!

We started off with Dulfy posting a compilation of all the details we know so far about SWTOR’s upcoming Patch 1.3, then IGN released their official 1.3 interview with Bioware lead game designer Daniel Erickson!

The interview has a wide range of information about upcoming quality of life improvements, including a note that the Looking for Group functionality will be server-specific and not cross-realm. I am a HUGE fan of keeping LFG server-based, having had numerous not fun cross-server LFG experiences. Now, before you start hitting the comment button to complain that your server is so low pop that this doesn’t solve anything for you, the interview also notes that there will be server transfers coming soon (presumably at or before Patch 1.3) to help alleviate the low population server issues.

So, for those of you on low population servers with the opportunity of server transfers on the horizon, what are you planning to do? Take the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments!

4 Tips to Keep From Crafting Your Way to the SWTOR Poorhouse

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in crew skills, poll, screenshots

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear someone in the SWTOR community say with the utmost conviction: “Crafting is broken. It’s just a huge money sink.”

And while I can certainly understand that the individual making this statement has apparently bankrupted their virtual selves through their pursuit of crafting, I know from my personal experience that statement isn’t a universal truth.

Those of you who listen to me on the TOR Reporter podcast already know that I’ve been able to finance my characters across 4 servers solely through my crafting. While most of them have yet to attain the dizzying heights of Galactic Trade Nexxi, who is so rich Chuck Norris comes to her for loans (thanks Silent!), they have all helped keep me from resorting to grinding dailies or bonus series quests to keep fiscally afloat.

Not surprisingly, I’m often asked what my secret is to having profitable crafting. And thus, I’ve compiled these 4 tips to help you attain a positive crafting cash flow.

Crafting Tip #1: Learn Complimentary Gathering and Mission Skills

I’ve frequently heard people say things to the effect of not wanting to take a gathering skill other than slicing so they can make lots of credits, or not wanting to level underworld trading as a mission skill yet taking synthweaving as their crafting profession. Unless you have landed on a busy server where supply for your crafting materials far outstrips the demand, it is unlikely you will be able to purchase your crafting materials from the GTN more cheaply than running missions on your companions for them.

Further, with an appropriate gathering skill, you will readily pick up a good amount of the base materials for your your profession as you go about your daily activities. Before you snatch up 6 rubat crystals in the GTN thinking you’ve gotten a great deal, remember that you could have gotten 2-3 crystals from a 95c mission, or better yet just from walking around. Not sure which professions go together? Check out this crew skills overview which explains them all in detail, and includes pairings at the end of the post.

Crafting Tip #2: Craft as You Go

I know many folks like to wait and slam through all their crafting en masse, after they hit 50. And these are most often the same people I hear complaining that they are broke and it’s all crafting’s fault. But here’s the thing: crafting didn’t smack you over the head and steal your wallet.

You can train up your crew skills on your first trip to the Fleet, in the level 7-10 range. You can start your gathering profession immediately thereafter.  And as soon as you obtain your first companion, they can be sent to craft for you, or to execute crew skills missions.

If you keep a sharp eye out on your mini map, you can make sure to travel from quest area to quest area via gathering nodes. Or if you are lucky enough to be able to recover materials from your slain foes, you can make sure to always kill an extra few silver mobs instead of sneaky past them to ensure you are keeping up your materials base.

Crafting Tip #3: Give Yourself a Set Crafting Budget per Day

It can be tempting to start sending your companion out immediately to level up your crew skills, but you are honestly better off in taking a look after an hour or two of play at what you’ve gathered, then filling in some missing crafting materials and sending your companions off to craft overnight while you’re safely logged off.

Alternatively, if you want to be sending your companions out on missions to obtain specialty crafting materials as you play, be sure to give yourself a set budget then do not exceed it. Once you get up into missions costing 1500c+, times 4 or 5 companions, you can easily blow through your savings if you are not disciplined about your budget.

Crafting Tip #4: As You Level Your Profession Make Either Cheap Items to R/E or Items That are Hard to Come by

And as you level your skills up, try to strike a balance between crafting inexpensive items you can R/E for mats while obtaining skill points, and the occasional leveling item to sell. I’ve previously covered my strategy for inexpensively leveling synthweaving, so be sure to check that out for ideas.

To identify the leveling items you should craft and sell, go to the GTN and do some searches for the crafted items you could, in theory, make. I bet if you make armor, you’re seeing a ton of items, frequently those for level 43+, in the under 5k range. Maybe even up for the cost of the mats or less. Put these items on the list of things you do not want to be making. Being in a price war on the GTN with someone who prices like Walmart is a great way to go broke fast.

Instead, look for gear that you can make, that players are asking for in general chat or on the forums, or that you don’t see up for sale very often. Now, if you make consumables of some sort, you’ll need to modify this strategy a bit, to be looking for items you see for sale pretty regularly but that sell out quickly.

Each server’s economy is different, and there will be many nights when you have all of your GTN sales returned to you in the mail. That is to be expected. So don’t give up! Learn over time what your personal best sellers are, and focus on making those items. You don’t need to have a discount superstore’s level of selection up for sale to be successful in your crafting!

Share Your Experience with Crafting in SWTOR — Take My Poll:

And please share your favorite crew skills tips, or ask your crafting Qs in the comments!

Finding Your SWTOR Guild (an Update)

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in guilds, poll

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , ,

One of the hardest things to do in any game — unless you are lucky enough to be part of a multi-game guild whose members’ interest in MMOs aligns with yours over time– is to find a guild that’s the right fit. But that’s where this guide comes in.

Before launch, it was, in theory, pretty easy to find a guild thanks to the guild recruitment functionality on the SWTOR website. With that handy tool removed, it is a little more arduous a task to find a guild that’s a good fit, but it truly can be done. Though it may take some trial and error– including joining a few guilds that turn out to be duds.

So, how do folks find guilds? A few of the more common methods include:

  • Word of mouth–asking your gaming buddies if they’d recommend their guilds as a good fit
  • Joining a guild affiliated with a blog you are a fan of or a website you’re a member of
  • Scanning Kristin Archer’s guild profiles on TORwars
  • Perusing the guild list on reddit or Ten Ton Hammer or TOR Syndicate
  • Eyeballing the guild recruitment posts in the server forums on SWTOR.com
  • Joining a guild that is advertising in trade or general chat on your server
  • And if all else fails and you can’t find quite what you are looking for, you can always start your own guild

At this point in my gaming life, I’ve pretty much done all of the above, EXCEPT for joining a guild that was advertising in chat for members. Call me old fashioned, but I would like to think I’m joining a guild that is more discriminating about creating a positive and collegial guild culture than by inviting all comers via a mass chat channel.

Before you jump in and start applying, make sure you know what you are looking for!

Before you start checking out guild recruitment posts, however, I think it’s a good idea to take a few minutes to think through what you are looking for in a guild. When I sit and think through the most important qualities I look for in a guild, a few of the top things that come to mind are:

  • I’d prefer West Coast, PvE. I’ve played on East Coast servers mind you, but I’m never home before 6PT, so unless the guild is a bunch of East Coast night owls, it doesn’t usually provide enough to do w/others.
  • I prefer a guild ruled by DBAD. In the guild’s overview in one form or another, I need to see that they don’t tolerate D-y behavior. Of course having it in writing is not always a guarantee the guild isn’t being run by a bunch of D’s but it’s a good ground floor.
  • I like a guild to have 15-20 people on per night minimum. This means there is a high likelihood of Operations and Flashpoint groups forming. Raiding has been one of my favorite activities in MMOs, so I like to see at least a glimmer of hope that there can be such activities in the future.
  • I prefer a diverse guild. What I mean more directly is: I don’t want to play exclusively with a bunch of teenage to 20-something dudes. It’s not that that demographic can’t be fun (I have enjoyed playing with so,e folks who fall into that category), but I get the most out of a guild when there is a solid mix of older professionally employed people, including a solid group of ladies. In fact, some of my favorite raid teams had a higher than average percentage of couples. I think that led to the high degree of coordination amongst the team.
  • On SWTOR specifically, I prefer the Empire. Because they have the purple lightning. I’m addicted, what can I say??? When searching, you want to make sure you only look for a guild that actually is the faction you want to play –ty to @Asros for making me realize I left this out.

So now that you’ve made your list, get out there and start hunting for your ideal guild! And let me know in the poll and the comments how you found your guild.

Have You Started Planning Your #SWTOR Alts Yet?

11 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in alts, poll

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

So far, I’ve definitely identified a couple of classes I want to play through after my Inquisitor hits max level. And I am definitely one of those alt people who likes to have a self-contained crafting army of her own, so I inevitably continue to level up alts until I feel I have all my necessary crafting bases covered.

As of right now, I am thinking I’ll want to level a Jedi Consular and a Bounty Hunter (because I want my own Jawa companion). The rest remain to be seen, since I haven’t actively delved into all the classes yet.

Right now, while we’re playing the waiting game, it’s fun to sit and imagine our bright and shiny alt future…what are you thinking you’ll be doing alt-wise?

One Size Does Not Fit All: What’s Your Ideal #SWTOR Guild Fit

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in guilds, poll

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , ,


I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to what I want to be doing guild-wise when Star Wars: the Old Republic comes out. There are so many options — join a guild that’s forming now, play with one of my World of Warcraft guilds that’s planning to start a SWTOR guild, or even start my own guild.

I’ve given them all a serious amount of thought since I put up the guild poll here a while back. And I think that alt creation capabilities willing, I’ll be doing a little of each of those.

In a perfect world where I had unlimited free time, I would have gone with starting up my own guild. But this year has been anything but that. So although I do have plans to create a little alt guild with some of my favorite gaming people, I am not going to try to do that as a serious full-time endeavor. I simply do not have the time I would want to allot to it (which I think is also the case for most of my buddies, truth be told.)

Instead, keeping in mind my favorite WoW guild of all time, I decided to look for a nice big, boisterous guild that would hopefully be teaming with folks who want to be out and about and raising hell for the launch. I also wanted to think about doing something a little different from my usual PvE raiding focused recent past. And thus, I sought out Coconut Monkeys, the PC Gamer SWTOR guild.

We’ll see how I do in a PvP environment. It’s a big change, but PvP, and specifically world PvP, was a key part of what I really enjoyed about my favorite WoW guild. I’ve already raised my hand to help out with whatever needs doing in building the guild for launch. As a bonus, something about having an active guild forum to go and chat in has gotten me just that much more revved up about the game.