#swtor critical

[sith-shenanigans]

I have all these long mental litanies about what could be done to improve Kira Carsen’s character, but all them boil down to “she needs to be like 300% more kriffed up.”

#you don't understand. i love her. that's why i'm incoherent over the wasted potential #the writer committed the cardinal sin: he made a ridiculously interesting character and then just wrote her as an archetype #swtor critical

[nateofgreat]

By far, I think the stupidest thing SWTOR's ever done storywise (and there's a LOT to pick from) has to be the time they made killing SCORPIO a dark side decision. Like she has any redeeming qualities whatsoever that'd make it wrong to kill her.

This glorified tablet backstabbed the Alliance and seized control of the Eternal Throne. If she had a single iota of decency in her she could've done anything from ending the war to freeing the GEMINI while simply telling them not to keep oppressing the masses. Instead what she does she do?

She puts Vaylin the psychotic lunatic who even Valkorian was scared of in command and does everything she says, including bombing entire planets.

Oh and she gave Arcann the Alliance's position too, but feel bad for her because the writer's robot waifu wants to be free :(

Listen game, I don't care that the tin can says she wants to be "free" because she spends the whole rest of her screentime bragging that she already has free will. So, knowing her she's probably lying about that anyways.

Also she pulled the same old, "you can't destroy me because you need me to X" like six different times over the course of three missions. So, rather than a genius supercomputer she comes across more like a defective computer stuck on a line of code.

I always play light side characters and I happily chose to kill her right in front of her precious dream of controlling a planet. Like anyone should ever trust her with that.

#anti SCORPIO #SWTOR critical #SWTOR criticism #Star Wars

[kemendin]

From the PTS notes for 7.4:

Sigh.

I am really, really hoping they don't go ahead with this, because many of my outfits rely heavily on these 'random' pieces that I find on the GTN. I spoke up saying what a terrible change this would be, so did quite a few other people, but I guess we'll see.

On the assumption that this will in fact be a thing, and given that I intend to at least take a new Caspian through the story again to experience the upcoming cutscene lighting changes, I'm snatching up duplicate pieces from the GTN as I write this, so that I can have them in storage and then properly recreate Cas' main outfits on the next version of him. Cargo space is tight, but after putting so much thought and care and effort into these outfits, I really don't want to have to 'make do' with substitutes when the time comes.

I hope the devs mean it when they say the appearances will be made available again, but given the track record, I don't have much confidence it will be anytime soon. So here I am, hoarding. If anyone else is like me, likes to run duplicates through with the same outfits, or just has some of these world drop pieces they really like, I'd lightly suggest grabbing 'em while you can.

#swtor #star wars the old republic #swtor 7.4 #swtor critical #kem rambles #pls don't kill my space barbie adventures ))):

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR sent out a "since you've been gone we've made updates" email about a week ago. Unfortunately, it had nothing in it that was in any way motivating to even peek at the game again as a free player. 

Now that I'm out of SWTOR and in a game where the devs don't treat the players like complete shit and try to emulate Game of Thrones - I'm far happier. From what I know of the complete clusterfuck that is now the story, even more so.

As much as I miss Viri and Lana running around and some of the planets, I don't miss most of what SWTOR was or is. 

Here's the letter I would have loved to have seen, though. 

*** Note - this is a satire/wishlist written by me, NOT an actual email from SWTOR ***

Dear Former SWTOR Player, 

We miss you! Since you've been gone, we've been making major changes. Most importantly, we're now committed to the best player experience we can give you! Check out the changes we've made:

The Return of Play Your Way!

Solo player? Small groups? Love to raid? Don't worry, we've got you all covered! No matter how you want to play, you'll have full access to everything SWTOR has to offer. In line with the Play Your Way philosophy, we are also introducing easy, normal and nightmare modes for all content. Play as you wish!

Expanded Accessibility

In line with our enhanced Play Your Way philosophy and our commitment to inclusive gaming, we are now introducing more features to make your experience accessible, such as a toggle to disable flashing/strobing lights, several caption size/font choices and color contrast options for colorblind players and migraineurs. 

Find Out What Happened!

Did you miss part of the story? The three raids on Oricon and Iokath and the final mission of the Macrobinoculars quest chain will now have tourist mode. You will not get XP or any mission rewards from tourist mode, but you'll be able to watch the story cut scenes associated with these raids to complete your Oricon, Macrobinoculars and Iokath adventures. 

Dedicated Story Updates!

Tired of waiting months and months for the tiniest story updates? So are we! We've invited back some of SWTOR's best writers to update the story far more regularly. We will also be introducing the Alliance Fork, to allow Alliance Commanders who have chosen to remain independent or act as saboteurs to strike out on their own. 

Companion Packs!

Want more time with Vette, Lana, Torian or Quinn? We've got you! Companion Packs contain hours of stories, quests and features with your companions of choice, whether they're romantically involved with your Commander or platonic friends. Earn access to Companion Packs by getting your companion's influence to level 50 and completing their combat achievements. 

Gearing for All!

Whether you raid or solo, you'll be able to earn moddable gear again with a simplified gear system. 

Rolling Back Prices!

Travel costs for quick travel have been rescinded. Costs for augmenting gear and removing mods have been significantly lowered.  

Toxicity Not Welcome!

We will be actively working to create an in-game environment that is welcoming to all players, including increased monitoring and action against griefing and bigotry in chat channels.

#swtor #rain talks swtor #swtor critical

[eorzeashan]

swtor really needs to improve its mobbing above all else. the game is extremely unenjoyable when you don't have stealth and have to kill the same 23 enemies that respawn down a hallway. even if you have good aoe it just takes so long because tanking doesn't exist in this game and neither does being able to clear more than 6 enemies at a time whilst other mmos allow you to clean up to 400 enemies by yourself in less than half an hour, or in its 3D cousin's arena, ffxiv, at least lets you gather mobs comfortably and kill them quickly rather than having to stop every 5 steps to fight something. then there's the problem of enemies either being too easy (go down in 2 seconds) or too tedious (only difficulty is an enormous health bar and a bunch of annoying adds) and nothing in between. I love the game, but the combat especially for a mmo leaves a lot and I mean a lot to be desired.

#swtor #ooc #swtor critical #i could kill 400 enemies in MS and feel like i'm having a lot of fun #i can't even kill 40 in swtor without it feeling like i'm pulling teeth #combat system is incredibly outdated regardless but it's just. god you're there forever

[grandninjamasterren]

So has anyone else playing consular tried to get their companions back using the terminal during kotxx and been able to get everyone but zenith?

Im 2 support tickets in and they basically said claiming him through the terminal wouldn't work and that I should just keep doing the story to get him. Which- why offer the option if it doesn't work?

#star wars #swtor #swtor jedi consular #swtor zenith #swtor critical

[tishinada]

Just when I had some lovely comments on Dance that made me want to start writing Dance again, I am reminded of why I haven’t really missed playing SWtOR. Especially the virulent and more subtle racism and other bigotry rampant on the fleets. And why I try to keep my remaining contact with the fandom in a carefully curated space. Unfortunately, shit still gets through.

In FFXIV, I have regularly had people compliment my non-white NPCs’ appearances. And ffs, the Black and other non-white npcs don’t have to be nonthreatening and completely inoffensive to be tolerated and even beloved fan favorites. Not that the game is perfect: it’s particularly notable that not a single major Scion is non-white. Though even that might be changing (fingers crossed that someone we saw in the Dawntrail trailer ends up joining us...)

I’m going to go dance with the moogles and Vanu and Vath and get back my perspective lol.

#swtor #swtor critical #fandom critical

[blightedhamster]

its insane to me how the jk story would be one of the best if not for this

forever salty how much it focuses on her lol

#so salty in fact i refuse to talk to her lol #ready to just jump into the expansions so i just can ditch her #swtor #swtor critical #swtor jedi knight

[tacogoats]

I keep thinking about this.

so I need to test this on another char to see what happens too as I am in the middle of doing another redeemed Durge run, but I find it super fun (but wait there's more) how my pro-bhaal durge got a different narrator bit in the Orin confrontation, But my redeemed/rejecting bhaal one got a much longer one. the video looks like it was cut fast because I noticed it was different IMMEDIATELY. more under cut. rambling.

This is where I start ranting despite being happy it was different.

Like, having done my redeemed durge run first it's kind of insane doing the evil-er route and seeing just how much the game lacks in content for an evil run. I've seen ye olde 'but Larian said evil players would get rewarded materially!' and oh my god that is a fuckin' lie. You get way more goodies for doing quests with surviving NPCs most of the time lmao. I apparently will not get an epilogue with this dark urge in the above video because I plan to do the evil ending as well. I get why, but it still sucks the evil runs are basically given nothing.

Coming from SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic) it kinda drives me nuts with how some games tackle morality systems - SWTOR also fell victim to the same thing sometimes, but overall I liked seeing what the writing team noted as 'evil' and 'good'. Even when it was just plain weird and frustrating it was fun to pick at.

My most favourite examples are the Black Talon flashpoint.(flashpoints are basically dungeons - so instanced areas that you play with others. Black Talon is also the first flashpoint for Imperial players.)

The jist of Black Talon is that you are on a ship (named the Black Talon lol) that is a transport ship, but you are called upon by the Grand Moff (basically big naval military leader) to board a Republic ship and capture a defector who is going to spill lots of beans. The Moff basically doesn't leave you the option to refuse, and the crew doesn't like this at all. You fight your way to the bridge and can commandeer the ship by a) killing the captain who disobeyed the Moff's order or b) basically telling the crew and captain to listen Or Else

This is obviously a dark/light option but it's not the one I'm about to pick at. The one I want to pick at is after you've basically ripped your way through soldiers boarding the Black Talon, AND boarding the enemy ship yourself, you find the defector.

He is a high-level military leader (simply named 'The General' by the Moff. The name is apt as he tells you he was a general once) who defected because he's 'seen too much' and realized both sides in this war were going to destroy each other. He gives you a lot of cryptic words about and even adds if you'd seen what he's seen you'd understand. He thought that he would perhaps be able to cause a stalemate, but it's too late, actually. He is also actively dying.

He tells you he won't get to an escape pod in time with his stomach bleeding out, so what will you do with him and his cybernetic implant full of secrets? (This is important for later!)

You have two choices.

a) Take him into custody. Where, he remarks, 'I'll be tortured and executed" and if he's lucky, he may instead live the rest of his life in a cell.

b) you can kill him.

Guess which side is the Dark, and which is the Light?

There are options that happen sometimes where you are performing a mercy-kill, they're rare, but they happen. This is not one of them lol.

I would really argue that taking him prisoner is the much worse option here. The more you play of the game, the more you learn that handing him off to Imperial Intelligence (which is basically secret service of the Empire) is the worst possible thing you can do to someone. You learn this especially quickly if you play as an Imperial Agent, one of the four starter classes SWTOR's Imperial faction offers.

If you know anything about Star Wars - even if you just know the movies - you know the Empire is pretty brutal, but honestly it's a whole different degree of insane when you go to Old Republic era because you get all that additional context *playing* as someone part of it. You see what your own Dark vs Light decisions are and what tools are available to Imperial Intelligence.

Remember I said the cybernetics was important for later? In the Agent storyline you come across a young man who has cybernetics, and you have the option to basically crack them open and grab what you need directly from his brain. This is after you bring him near to death and he very briefly begs you not to; but... someone else who just wants the job done - a man who used to work with Intelligence and was subsequently discarded by them - just wants you to do it because it's quicker and he can do the hard work, anyway. He will actually say that it's lucky they found a cyborg.

Dark options are often 'do bad thing, get reward faster' in SWTOR. Sometimes they'll make your job harder because you did a stupid thing, but usually it's the former.

Anyway, it's absolutely horrifying how you can literally just jam a USB into this guy's *brain* and basically grab what you need - all the while the victim is in excruciating pain - and it does so much damage you basically turn his brain into mush. Again, you can leave him like this or mercy kill him. I have to go back and look because I don't remember what was Light or Dark in this. IIRC, your companion is very unsettled by it. (Kaliyo, the companion, is a violent anarchist and is very 'Dark' leaning but IIRC this upsets her.)

So knowing this; and knowing the General has cybernetics... The Light option being to spare him sounds bizarre, doesn't it? The Moff actually gets very annoyed at you when you simply kill him, but overlooks it because at least the military secrets aren't in enemy hands, and he's in a good mood so why not.

SWTOR often has the ye olde "Save someone's life so it's the good option" but rarely takes into account the morality issue of prolonging their death - which is interesting, because obviously there's the whole question of someone *asking* to die or not, which is probably part of it honestly.

Situation two also has to do with cybernetics and is a bit juicier.

Once again in the Imperial side of things: you are tasked with storming a rogue Sith's compound to find a missing unit of soldiers on the capital world of Dromund Kaas. The sergeant pleads with you to find them, and she adds she's quite close to 'her boys'. She wants them home safe.

You do not find them in any thing resembling being able to come home 'safe'.

Grathan, the rogue Sith, was conducting experiments on them. Specifically, stuffing their brains into cyborgs - and he had succeeded. I have a video of this I myself recorded (11 years ago, wow):

You find the last of the unit, somewhat alive. He has also been shoved inside a machine and remarks he can see his corpse across the table. He explains to you that despite having no will of their own anymore (which he stammers out between fighting the programming trying to squash whatever is left of his free will), they are all very much *awake* and aware; so you are given two options as always. Light: Kill them. Dark: Have them be taken by the Empire and used as soldiers anyway.

So this is a mercy kill for obvious reasons - and the remaining soldier *asked* you to put an end to them. The sergeant later will be upset but thanks you for not letting them suffer if you do this. If you do the dark option, she is also upset but for different reasons and remarks she will have to contact the families.

So these are just two options in a massive, MASSIVE game but I find it interesting that BG3 kinda follows the same idea of 'do bad, get quicker reward' but the reward is. just. moving to the end of the game faster. I really can't think of many instances where the 'Bad' option nets you a better reward than the good option either, except like... Getting the +2 STR potion for making Astarion bite Araj, or letting Ethel live if you choose to confront her. Or the Slayer form, I guess. Which isn't that great depending what class you are anyway...? (I definitely don't need it on a cleric lol)

Also let's look at Minthara for a second. You are trading Halsin for her, and if you continue doing Evil route options - you also lose Jaheira and Minsc. It's weird. BG3 makes me feel like I'm having a shorter, less content filled run by playing evil - and while SWTOR's morality is mostly on par, it never made me feel like I was missing out on content by doing the evil run stuff.

Part of that is probably due to it being a MMO but man.

I've been hammering this out at work so I may add more to it later but I am really itching for games to tackle morality systems with more branching options than this. KOTOR 2 did some fun things with turning your allies to the Dark side but it was still very 'I kick puppies' levels of evil choices.

If you have suggestions please leave any :)

#bg3 critical #sorta #like it's a gameplay difference but im also shaking my fist #bg3 dark urge spoilers #swtor critical #just lots of rambling sorry adkjfhdafh

[sealeneee]

not tagging or showing the op because i don't want to beef with them specifically

but this is such a dumb sentiment. how DARE people want the content to make sense and actually progress the story and not just cum in their panties at the sight of a character cameo amidst a very bad ""storyline"" consisting of side quests that make zero sense given your character's status. do you want to have no progression -- because that's what 7.3 gave us -- and run side quests that aren't even part of a new reputation track or a daily area? please, be my guest, i'm not here to tell you what to enjoy. but don't pretend that the criticism is unfounded. it was a terrible update. not to mention the people who have torian or arcann or both dead. by op's logic these people just have nothing to enjoy about the update -- why should they be happy about this?

anyway if you liked 7.3 good for you but don't tell people who have reasonable dissatisfaction with it that their complaints are dumb or unfounded.

#swtor critical #sealene talks #i don't usually rant here and i'm pretty positive about the game in general but this was such a brain dead take i just had to

[sith-shenanigans]

I love Kira Carsen but she is written like such a Cool Girl and it annoys me. Where is the Trauma? Where are the scars of a childhood fending for herself, hiding things from the people who rescued her, wondering if she actually chose to run away? Instead she has the vibes of the side character/love interest who is cooler and more competent than the protagonist except that they’re the Destined Hero and so now she’s a subordinate and oh, that’s how Karpyshyn actually wrote her, isn’t it.

(We know he was writing m!knight as default.)

#swtor critical

[nateofgreat]

Every single SWTOR Republic mission

Game: Alright, the Sith are planning to attack Corellia's shipyard. We've known this for at least weeks now and thus had plenty of time to prepare.

Me: Great! Sounds fun, so let's get on with the battle.

Game: BUT WAIT!!!!! The Empire's attacking civilians you'll never see, meet, or hear from ever again! And the ONLY WAY to help them is to let the Sith blow up a bunch of Republic ships and endanger the whole war effort!

Me: Seriously, again with this? How many freaking times are we going to contrive this dilemma? Can I just fight a battle normally for once?

Game: But you don't understand! Darth Malgus' last plan was so feeble and pathetic we need to force some kind of victory for him to brag about when you confront him later!

Me: But this is the most predictable plan he could've possibly used. How on earth can the Republic have not seen this coming? And wait a second, if we knew about this attack in advance why didn't we evacuate the civilian populace? Heck, Correllia's been the frontline of the whole war so far, aren't there shelters, orbital cannons, shields, anything?

Game: Nope, the whole thing's completely undefended and the Republic put all their Navy on one side of the planet and didn't take advantage of the opportunity Malgus stupidly dividing his fleet would create.

Me: For crying out loud, why is every superweapon, military advantage, and resource the Republic finds locked behind one of these dilemmas while the Empire just gets to crap out new ones every other week?

Game: Uhh...

Me: The Null Cannon, the Barrager, special droid designs, the Powerguards... Can we just get one for once without some contrived reason for why that'd be the dark side option? Heck, why are we even doing yet another "defend against the Empire" mission? They never matter anyways because every time you cripple them they somehow just spawn another giant army out of nowhere. Five years ago they were almost crippled completely, can we go back to that? How about the Republic attacks them for once. I want to liberate some Imperial worlds, how about it?

Game: Nope, just the same old dilemma over and over again. Are you going to yet again let the Empire win or be a bad mama jama and let the civilians who should've been evacuated and that you'll never hear from again die?

Me: ... Whelp, I think that's enough SWTOR for the year.

#SWTOR critical #anti SWTOR #I have a love hate relationship with this game #Love for the class storylines and hate for everything after the Eternal Throne #BioWare critical #The Empire can go from being nearly destroyed to building the largest fleet in Galactic history in five years #And the Republic isn't even allowed to fix a prototype weapon or secure a planet on the frontlines of the war #I'm sensing a bit of favoritism from the writers #The Old Republic critical #anti the Old Republic

[kemendin]

Man this fee for giving items to other players is gonna get old REAL fast, I just wanted to send my friend a couple of decorations. Spent about 10 mil on them, it cost me another 2 mil just to mail them.

I can understand taxing GTN listings, absolutely, but it makes me angry to be penalised for just giving things to friends.

#swtor critical #kem rambles #honestly this is bullshit #i can even come around to the quick travel tax if some of the numbers made more sense #but making folks pay through the nose just for gift-giving is absurd

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR "redemption arc" vs. FFXIV atonement arc: SWTOR Villain: But I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry! I had a magic ceremony! Let's be friends? SWTOR Villain's friend: Come on! Give him a chance! Forgiiiiive! SWTOR PC: Sure thing! Come right into my high-security base and work with me and my friends! In fact, *boots longtime friends* take their place on critical missions! You're redeemed now! Other SWTOR NPCS: Sure, we're all cool with that. Welcome to the team, bro! or: SWTOR PC: Actually I'm not cool with that. I don't want you on my base. GAME: MONSTER! DARK SIDE! EVIL SITH - oh wait, you're a Jedi? EVIL JEDI WHO HAS OBVIOUSLY FALLEN! SWTOR PC: I actually don't necessarily want to kill him. Just not be his BFF and have him on my base and all. GAME: Nah. Your only choice is the ole slice n' dice! Enjoy! Oh and you're a monster. SWTOR PC: But you didn't give me another option! GAME: MONSTER!

***

FFXIV Villain: Fuck all of you. I want nothing to do with any of you. Let me die in this jail cell.  FFXIV NPC: Or, um, you could use the powers you actually have to help people.  FFXIV Villain: *sigh* Fine.  FFXIV NPC: Thanks. Back in your jail cell now. We might let you out again, but we don't trust you as far as we can spit.  Other FFXIV NPCs: Yeah we kind of hate you. You massacred our families.  FFXIV Villain: ....... can't disagree there. I did.  (much later)  FFXIV NPC: So you've done well in a lot of these missions. Well done. BTW, we still don't trust you and people still hate you.  FFXIV Villain: Yep. They do.  FFXIV Villain: ...but maybe something I do in this world could mean something.  FFXIV NPC: True. And if you die now, people will remember only the evil. If you keep atoning maybe they will remember the good? FFXIV Villain: I...can work with that to move forward.  Other FFXIV NPCS: So can we. We don't forgive you.  FFXIV Villain: I'm not asking you to. Back to my cell now? FFXIV NPC: You know what? Maybe we can give you a room and not a cell.

#ffxiv #you can do atonement arcs right #it's just that swtor didn't #swtor critical

[swtorpadawan]

I Recently Learned Of The Death Of Xalek's Voice Actor

I know this is not news to many of you. It came over a year ago. But somehow, it escaped my feed.

I wasn't familiar with his other work, but regardless of how I felt about the character, Tony Armatrading (November 30, 1961 – May 10, 2021) was certainly talented. That voice he used for Xalek was delightfully cold and inhuman.

Xalek... is not one of my favorites. Part of that is that he was given less screen time to develop.

The first time I played a Sith Inquisitor, I started being nice to him. He disapproved. Then I tried being mean to him. He disapproved. Then he asked me for time off to go to his father's funeral. I said "sure".

I once had a roommate / landlord who owned a (rather feral) house cat. That cat decided to bond with me.... by regularly presenting me with dead birds and mice, often leaving them just outside my door.

So... yeah. It never worked for me.

His introduction in KOTFE/KOTET was much better. The character was given a relatable introduction that didn't compromise his previous characterization. You could say what he did to those miners was wrong, but you couldn't say he didn't have a legitimate grievance. That's storytelling 101.

I wish he'd gotten some more screen time with better writing. It in unlikely they will recast the role, and they probably shouldn't.    

Regardless - R.I.P. Mr. Armatrading.

#swtorpadawan talks #xalek #Xivhkalrainik #Tony Armatrading #sith inquisitor #swtor critical #Kaleesh

[birues]

A bit of a hoth take maybe but I think sith inquisitor storyline would've been sooo much better if we had more agency on the main storyline quests instead of doing what Zash tells us to do. Imagine it's our own character who's doing research, consuming books, weighting options and deciding what to do instead of following instructions all the time. It would've been so much more compelling and it would've made sense.

#swtor #swtor critical #sith inquisitor #idk idk #i love having smart player characters who have agency and do their own shit #but swtor really isn't delivering on that in any of the classes #and especially not on the expacs #had to rewrite sm shit at this point bioware should hire me