Official Kick Off Day of KOTFE 4.0a…My thoughts PT 1.

You know, sometimes there is so much to write you about you start pondering just how you will be able to get all of it out and make sense. For the last week I have been a part of the early access on SWTOR: KotFE and have been having an absolute blast. Key point in this release: STORY LINE!!!! Hmm let me make it clear just in case you didn’t quite get it…STORY LINE!!!!!! There. That should clear up any misconceptions that I have seen amongst the disgruntled Gammorean crowd (best I could think up for trolls…what can I say?). I decided with all of this massive information I wanted to talk about, I would go ahead and break it down in a series. How many parts will largely depend upon what I do or do not cover with each post. This first will deal with the story line and a bit of what I experienced during it’s process. Some game mechanics will be mentioned in the aspect of identified bugs and progression points. So, without further a due…welcome to SWTOR 4.0a! Wait a sec 4.0a already?!? Ya there were some initial mechanical bugs they were working on. Patch notes cover down on the issues, though I think other glitches aren’t completely addressed. We will go further into that a little later.

The Story. It blew me away! I hadn’t expected to be called onto Darth Marr’s fleet and requested to assist with an Immortal Empire incursion. But it continued to get better by the moment. Yes, there is a ton of cinematics and really I felt like I was in a movie at times. There was an immediate urgency to what was going on. And umm having a billion fleet ships appear in front of you with no where to run…ya I was already not liking this Eternal Empire. Now there have already been several walk throughs posted on the internet. If you want to go see someone elses’ game play go for it. I hate following those things because I like to see what happens on my own decisions based upon my character’s personality.  But death for people you know can and will happen. Oh and yes, there are old companions you can put a bolt through. I’ll give an example later. For the moment, I will say it felt like a race against time. I mean your current team is locked into the docking ring and can’t get on board or off. The Eternal Empire is punching through with assault troop shuttles and boarding every corridor. You are trying to make split decisions that affect the lives of your crew and those on board Marr’s ship. It ain’t easy kid! Ultimately it will come down to you deciding whether or not to go ramming speed or evac all the crew out. I’ll let you figure out what happens either way. Remember, decisions have consequences. Down the road, these critical decisions may very well haunt you or …you may gain new allies.

This is the basis for everything that you do throughout the first 9 chapters which have been released. Like I said, there are a ton of walk throughs, but it’s far more exiting if you just experience the whole thing yourself. Plot twists and turns abound. Of course you link up with Valkorian pretty damned quick. You also get to meet his charming children (Vaylin is my favorite Daddy’s little psycho child).  Of course you are offered the world at your feet. But what will you do? Take a knee…or fight? Again, choices my friends. Speaking of Valkorian, Darin DePaul did just an Epic job at voicing Valkorian! Really to the point, every single voice actor who participated in this expansion really really knocked their character’s voices right out of the park. I am truly amazed by what they were able to create. All of the main cast characters just made the Immersion hit right home for me.  So my deepest gratitude for their hard work and dedication. Hat’s off to Bio ware for choosing such fine voice actors. At any rate, you get grabbed into the story line pretty damned quick. Get ready for a roller coaster ride of plot twists back and forth. One thing is for sure, Valkorian (The Sith Emperor reincarnated) seems to be one step ahead of EVERY ONE’s plans. That includes his own family. Some of his lines are epic in nature. It makes you feel like you are dealing with the devil himself. Rightfully so, but again there are many plot twists involved. True to Bio ware’s roots, the story line is engaging and in my opinion some of the best work I’ve ever seen in an MMO. Their ability to blend single story with MMO is really outstanding work.

New Companions:

Well a couple of them are old, but over all new. You get to meet Lana Beniko pretty quickly as you come out of carbonite (a story chapter unto itself). One thing I am very happy with is that Lana got a makeover. Her hair and face were softened up for a bit more realistic appearance compared to her days during the Revan expansion. I’m glad Bioware did this, she just wasn’t very well designed during Revan. T7 comes to your aid pretty quickly too (at least on the Trooper story). But you also get to meet Koth, HK-55, and Sena. These will be your core companions during the story line chapters. Each one with interesting personality traits etc and it becomes up to you to meld them into a team…based on your decisions. But none to worry, you will encounter other companions that you can use down the line as the story progresses. It was a jaw dropping moment of coolness when I found out my Trooper got to use SCORPIO on missions. Ya and she is awesome in the combat zone! Rendering of the new companions was done with precision and realism as far as video games go. No, you don’t get to dress up the new core companions any, but really they aren’t that hard on the eyes. Since they are so involved in the story line cinematics, it probably wasn’t feasible to allow for their appearance to re skin at your heart’s desire. Or at least not cost effective in feasibility. At any rate, they just look so incredible in their rendering and voice acting, I was extremely happy with the results. It was a small trade for me to not be able to mod their appearance.  cool thing is as you gain influence with each of your companions, they become more effective during combat regardless of the role they play. Me, I love them as healers, it allows me to burn through everything on whatever class I’m running.

As time progresses, you really do want to get these people with high influence for you. Their effects in battle are noticeable during heroics and solo missions. Also you will come across some old followers in the first 9 chapters as well as new followers. Build their influence with you and they will back you in every way. As for the new ones, I guess I am most partial to Sena during herioc missions, though Scorpio is my close second. Why Sena? Well, a melee healer/tank makes for fun on my Vanguard DPS. Aside from that, there is always something comforting about her voice (another terrific voice actress) when she reassures you that all will be well during the heat of a fight. It helps her light sabre and her shields are always popping so she can handle herself as well as any if you get separated. Anyways, I guess everyone will have a favorite.  Koth is pretty cool too, reminds me of Han Solo. His outfit is something I would pay Cartel Coins for if I could get my hands on it. To me, that would be a bad ass outfit to own.

Graphics:

In general, the story portion of the graphics is outstanding. I did notice some stuttering on my rig during scenes. Now, I own a mid grade machine (Alienware) and that is something that Bio Ware needs to take into consideration. Not saying to turn down their graphics, but be aware not everyone has a rig to handle the scenes. The rest of the issues were more often inconveniences. The no pants issue and no weapons issue on companions still is happening even after the most recent version so be warned. It is also being noticed on mercenary decorations (personnel) do not have their weapons even though the stance looks as though a weapons is drawn. Some hair cuts are still clipping into heads and clothing. Getting into a taxi and then “zoning” to a new area only to see the bike or taxi becomes invisible. Most of these are not game breaking just annoying. Hopefully future patches will resolve this issue.

Lag on Oddesan:

There were actually 5 instances of Oddesan (the place where you start your Alliance to go up against the Eternal Empire at the end of CH 9) still had significant lag issues and delays between 2-3 seconds. Again, I checked my Internet Up and down just to see if it was on my end or through the router. So such issue. Any other area I zoned through (Planets for Heroics) had no issue with lag. I am theorizing this is because of the huge amount of return subscribers (remember early access time) was more than expected on my server Ebon Hawk. This will be an issue if more players sub to see the content. Again, not game breaking just annoying every now and then.

Over all, the Early Access was a pure success in my opinion. Are there tears and crying out there? Yes, and they have every right to speak their minds. I don’t mind their tears either, they taste like wine to me. The execution of the release is pretty damned good and I consider my monthly subscription as well invested entertainment value with replay-ability. There are things that need tuning, but over all I’m pretty impressed.

Time permitting I will post again in the next day or two on my thoughts about the new leveling rules, Mechanics for Heroics and other sundry areas of interest. So far folks it’s a thumbs up all the way. There is enough to do after the story line that I have no problem logging onto Logan’Varo and continueing his goal to build a kick ass alliance and take down the Eternal Empire!

Till next time, keep your blasters clean and your hyper drives Revved!

DANGER! Opinions will be expressed! Jedi Knight vs Trooper Story

It’s been a bit over a week since I last posted. I started a few different posts but I have saved them in draft for later exploitation. In the meantime, what have I been doing? Well, it all started with me REALLY hating the Sith Warrior storyline with Darth Barfass..err I mean Baras..sorry bout that M’Lordshipness…. while I really enjoyed the Inquisitor storyline with her super evil smexyness Zash.

But I really wanted to get the 4th buff for all of my toons just to say I had it. After burning no less than 5 Sith Warriors and condemning them to death for failing their Master (ME!) I decided to hop on over to the Light Side and see if I could stomach doing the Jedi Knight story. To my surprise, I really did enjoy it! In the beginning the duel wield spec was well not as powerful as I imagined, till I hit in the 30s and then I was just WOW’d! I got all the way through taking on the Emperor and failing and then escaping and moving onto Belsalvus. The twists and turns were really fun to deal with. Normally I’m not into the whole Jedi mystic thing. I prefer guns..or at least being a Sith evil bastard. So I had to ask myself, what really got me involved with the storyline. Then it hit me. Most of the missions were militaristic in style. Everything was about taking down the Empire’s military capabilities and countering their strategies. It was perfect for a Soldier like me. Except one thing…Most of the really cool strike team quests SHOULD have gone to the Trooper storyline. Ya I said it. The Jedi is supposed to go find Sith Bad actors and slice n’ dice them to pieces. Soldiers are supposed to take down strategic enemy capabilities. The reason I liked the Jedi knight story so much is that most of the quests brought out the Soldier in me. Add in the epic set backs of Orgus’ death and then the Emperor turning my Jedi and you had the epic story everyone craves.

And this broke my heart for the poor Trooper. See, I like the concept of the Trooper class wise. You got ranged DPS, Tanks, Medics, and close Assault troops. Everything you need short of sniper crews. But the story did not at all appeal to me. Really, most of the side quests made more sense than the main storyline. I know some people like it. It’s ok. I didn’t because after numerous years working in the military, Having a character with a motley crew go after a rogue squad that was betrayed by it’s own government didn’t make sense. You don’t use a hammer when you need a scalpel. The storyline really is more suited for secret agents or better yet Bounty Hunters to bring these criminals of the state to justice. Troopers should have been used to take down planet destroying weapon systems, sabotaging key critical infrastructures (Anyone remember Guns of Navarrone or A Bridge too Far?). Ambushing advancing columns or destroying factory capabilities would be suited for the Trooper class. Ultimately the adversary would be Imperial Grand Moffs and what not. Escorting refugees, breaking enemy supply lines or punching through enemy forward Offensive/Defensive lines. These are the life blood missions of a Trooper.

Finally, while there is a very very SMALL probability that a Spec Ops squad/team would go rogue after getting burned by their government, most would go free lance, not serve a long standing enemy that goes against every principle they ever stood for. Then a chain of Command ordering that the unit be taken out by all means necessary? Using a former member of the team to do so? NO! Units are created and stay running because of traditions and esprit de corp. You don’t throw that indoctrination away like it’s a used tissue. It takes one ruthless bastard to go hunt down his former team, even if they served for only a short time. Also, WTF is with demoting that poor LT just because he was a part of the unit?!? That doesn’t happen! He would be investigated and then if found innocent, transferred to a different unit. Not to mention, General Garza taking personal interest in a new Sergeant then promoted Lieutenant…won’t happen. If she was involved, she would recruit people extremely loyal to her agenda, people who were ruthless, without morals, and stone cold killers in order to erase the stain of the rogue squad. This poor Trooper is asked to stand in front of a Senatorial inquiry and more or less dance around all of their questions. Again, not realistic in a means shape or form. See this is why I didn’t enjoy the story. It’s like they used absolutely no common sense from a military point of view.

The only time I had fun on the Trooper was with that brief interlude with Jax. Other than that….nope. Who ever wrote the Jedi Knight Storyline should have been the primary architect of the Trooper Storyline in composition, just gear the story towards military operations. So back to the Jedi story. It really was cool from a tactical sense. I actually enjoyed all of my Companions so far (Scourge being the most recent). The Companions really came alive for me from their personalities and yes that means T7 as well thank you very much. The writing makes it easy enough so that either gender can walk in as a Knight and really come into their own.

This is all that should have happened for the Trooper. Instead we get yes sir no sir right away sir..we’ll hunt down the traitors and that’s that. Anyways, the writers for the Trooper storyline could have consulted with real world military folks to get the real flavor of how a very nationalistic military organization would look, act, and feel. Or something as simple as reading a bit. Need really cool ideas for Soldier Class stories? An awesome source would be Caesar’s Gallic campaigns. While it was written from the roman point of view, daily legionary life was included. Political situations were well documented and an over all strategic scheme was identified. That’s just from history and even then a very small sample.

Bottom Line Up Front: Jedi Knight Class Story beats out Sith Warrior and Trooper Class Storyline for me. Hey drop in your favorite storylines and compare them to your least favorite. Let me know why. In the meantime, this week I’ll be attempting to finish the Jedi knight to 60. Hope everyone has fun out there!

To Boost or Not to BOOST…that is the question…..

Since the release of patch 3.2 and the mighty x12 xp boosts for subscribers, I’ve noted a great deal of different opinions on Bioware’s decision to impliment a full summer of fast leveling. Some of my very favorite and very respected blogger’s (https://zerneblog.wordpress.com , https://waitingforrez.wordpress.com , https://partybusiness.wordpress.com , and http://swtorcommando.blogspot.com ) to name a few, have put across the pro’s and cons of this experience boost. I hesitated posting anything about the x12 as I wanted to be sure of my own thoughts on the matter at hand. To be clear, you must know your own motivation when dealing with such fast leveling in context of the game. There are times it is very handy and times when it is detrimental to the experience of the game pending upon why you play. So here is my take on the bonus and a few possible scenarios as to why or why not use the boost:

– I want one of each class on each faction. I want to experience each Class Storyline to completion, not for skill but simply to enjoy the storyline. In this case, I don’t like to be side tracked with a bunch of side quests that take away the pieces of the puzzle for the story itself. x12 XP is very handy for just experiencing the character POV (point of view) within the context of the entire SWTOR story arch. for this, the boost is pure awesome. Oh, keep in mind you get huge commendation bonuses for class storyline completions as well.

– I have a mid level range character where I understand or have studied the necessary builds and skill rotations. however, I want to get it to level cap so I can pitch in further for my guild OPS/HM FP’s. Great idea to get these alts to cap so they can be useful for end game content! Again, minimal time investment, maximum returns.

– I am experimenting with new characters and different class builds but if I don’t like it, it won’t hurt too bad to re roll and start over. This honestly doesn’t bother me in the least, I’ve taken characters all the way to LV 50, felt I didn’t enjoy the class and well…kicked them out the airlock for a re roll. Because the XP bonus is there, trying something new but with the same name or look won’t hurt me too bad, especially if I am not having fun and want to try a different specialty. As a subscriber since November of last year, I get a couple of sets of mod-able gear that while not pretty, still effective with minimal investment. Over time, if I decide to keep the character, I can create different outfit looks through the outfit designer tabs which aren’t nearly as huge of a credit sink as I thought they would be.

– Some of my dearest friends have moved to a different server for (XYZ) reasons. I can’t/won’t spend money for the transfer. But I don’t want to loose connection with all the cool people I’ve met. Easy money here, re roll and fast level. It honestly doesn’t take more than 30 minutes to burn through the first 10 levels. Those who are veterans of the game probably have several account bound items they can pull up quickly to assist them in their goals. By level 15 you can buy your first ride and BOOM! You are speeding through levels faster than Han Solo can make the Kessel Run!

– I love to RP, but some of the places my fellow RPer’s go I can’t get to because of my level. Look once you have experienced the Bioware storyline whether major or minor you’ll  want to start creating your own story if you are an avid RPer. If you already know what you want your character to be involved in, boosting up fast allows you to participate in the higher level events.

OOOORRRRR…..

– I’m new to the game. I don’t understand the how and why of each class. I want to enjoy the ENTIRE story to include all the side quests/planetary quests/Heroics on each planet and get all the possible achievements. In this case, turn off the XP boost once you get to fleet. Then get ready for the long road to High Adventure! Without the XP boost, you can feel you have the appropriate challenge on each planet and the ability to finish every available quest while still earning xp. This is actually important. Part, not all, but part of questing is getting a reward that has meaning.

– I love PvP, but I need to practice my class more and prefer to stay in the War Zones as much as possible to get my twitch down to both science and art. Turn off that xp boost for story classes so you level appropriately and get all the practice time you need killing your fellow players a zillion times over! I did this personally when I rolled my PVP Operative. I am by no means an expert at pvp and need every bit of practice possible with my character to make him the absolute best possible fighter in the warzones. No xp bonus means I can spend far more time in the war zones fighting without worrying about leveling too fast. Conversely I may turn the xp boost back on if say the long haul through Midbie range (lv 30-55) gets annoying. I hit 30, turn the boost back on till I get to say 45 and then turn it back off to get back into the pvp battlegrounds and work from there.

– I’m still an RPer but I want to develop my character’s attitudes/motivations based upon experiences held in game. Each interaction and choice has meaning, even the side quest givers. Hell I even walk from zone to zone instead of speed run or vehicle mount if it’s accessible. Ok, again a case where turning off the XP is a very viable option. This is a long term investment and a serious challenge. I don’t think I’ve run across someone who has actually pulled this off. Variations of this is perma death re rolls…very challenging stuff and very deadly in consequences. But some people like to take it to that level to really immerse themselves into their avatars. Choices they make get more real if a perma death is involved. Now this could be a case of turning on and off pending upon personal progression.

– I’m a crafter and want my crafting to be meaningful to my character. If I out level my skill ability, the crafting means little for me. Well, serious stuff here. If you are boosted in XP and burning through levels, you will without a doubt surpass your crafting skill in ability and make the crafted items irrelevant. In these case, having the boost turned off is preferable.

My point in all of this is whether you choose or not choose to use the xp boost is entirely up to you in personal motivation. Take a moment to examine why you play and quickly you will be able to determine whether the x12 boost is really for you or not. Now I know some hard core end gamers complain that people are leveling so fast that they have no clue how to use their class and it makes doing PUG HMFPs a pain in the ass. True, but then I keep a list of friends who I know will do the job right and a list of people who are useless. To be sure, the standards of my guild are fairly high. I mean they will teach you what you need to know but if you can’t learn you probably won’t be welcome back to any of the OPs events. Not that they are mean, but if you aren’t progressing neither are they. See, that’s how you avoid the speed levelers who aren’t willing to learn thier class, your guild. Get into a good one and you won’t have to worry. But that’s a topic for another day.Till next time, see ya on the high ground!!

Altiholism and a Stand Down

Over the weekend, I did a ton of experimenting with different types of classes. Some made it, some got fired repeatedly. Not out of boredom but more out of getting a feel for things. But let’s fast forward to yesterday for a sec. I promise it won’t take too long.

I Stood Down from gaming yesterday. Kept a couple of beers on the side. For the States, Memorial Day Weekend was observed and a holiday given yesterday. It was my time to remember my brothers and sisters who were no longer there. Look, I don’t claim a status of being a hero. A hero is more often a common person who get’s stuck in some extraordinary circumstances and just deals with them. At any rate, my remembrance wasn’t to go observe some great ceremony. I’ve never been big on them. It was to remember a few friends/comrades that lost their lives over the years I’ve deployed. I’m not gonna get too much into that. Suffice to say, my moments were quiet and had to do more with the good memories, not the bad. Faces sometimes fade. But occasionally a smile, a joke, or conversation comes to mind. I won’t go into the politics behind the losses. In the end, those things have nothing to do with why we fight in the ugliest moments. It has to do more with the people around you, the left, right, front and behind. All the patriotism, the missions the great hyperbole mean nothing when you are sweating your ass off in a foreign land where everyone hates you. It boils down to building relationships with those whom you serve with. They are really the people you do what you do day in and day out. So, with all of that, I spent my day just remembering, not their deaths, but their lives. It’s more important to me that way.

Now, we can rewind on my weekend of altiholism..

I worked a bit on the Sith Warrior under the Juggernaut DPS builds. I can’t say I like them that much. The heavy armor is nice of course…but I just was not feeling the class mechanics up through lv 30. It could have been that I need to find someone who knows the class rotations to get more effective. Of course I know Juggs tend to be tank specced, but I wanted to see what they could do in Heavy armor as a DPS spec. The companions are more interesting than the storyline to be honest. The whole Darth Baras didn’t really appeal to me. For starters…why would I follow this arrogant fat ass? Seriously…from the get go I wasn’t impressed with his rhetoric. I dunno, I will try the storyline again. I like the aesthetics of the warrior I created, made him look pretty hardcore. I may re roll this one into a Marauder, at least it may be a bit more fun while trying to get a hold of the storyline. The one good thing about x12 xp is that it allows me to like or dislike something and reset with minimal time investment.

Further worked Jhexi, the rotation is pretty easy, just getting through the storyline is sort of a yawn to me. I did get little Blizz as my latest companion though. While I doubt I’ll use him much in combat, he is one of those fun companions to have around. Crazy little Jawa makes life so entertaining.

Started an Inquisitor Assassin. I’m still trying to decide if I should keep the DPS spec or if I should go tank mode with her. Both are very appealing and fun to work. I very rarely play tanks in game, but the AOE and threat system for the Inq is pretty entertaining, same as with the Jedi Shadow Tank. If she does remain as a tank, she’ll be relegated to PvE rather than have a pvp role.  More importantly, the storyline has my attention grasped. Now, I read briefly before on how the whole Lord Zash line works out and that’s fine. The interaction is really very entertaining. Even from the get go, I felt there was purpose to the Inquisitor storyline. It was easy to react to situations and I quickly saw my Inquisitor had a very dark and sadistic side to her. Not due to being forced into  situations…but it just felt natural by choice and the story responded in a way that kept me drawn in. I haven’t fired this character yet…we will see where it goes.

Made another agent, this time as an operator for the sole purpose of pvp. I’m on a PvE server, but War Zones pop frequently so it isn’t that big of a deal. The down side though, unless I’m with my guild…pvp is really painful. Pick Up Games are very annoying in the lack of teamwork or even sense of strategy. I don’t mind challenging. Honestly if my opponents are solid players and a good fight is put up, loosing doesn’t sting as much. But sometimes the PUG really is enough to piss off a saint. Still, I did have a lot of fun doing sneak and stabs. Built up enough tokens to even afford a couple of Imperial Soldiers to add into my Stronghold. I like a couple of body guards to add flavor to the place. This one will be a slow leveling process because primarily he will be spending the majority of his time in Warzones and not out doing quests. This allows for time to perfect rotations and individual tactics as well as working with my guild.

Mharius continues to be my raiding sniper character. Sunday night’s raid proved pretty difficult for him. I was just off my game for some reason. Normally I know when to Gun and when to Run. My rotations were good but Boss AOE’s as well as a bit of bad luck with some adds I wasn’t watching for made it a pretty rough run for the evening. Good side is, the only person being critical of me was me. The rest of the group was being very patient. It didn’t help I had a pounding headache that felt like someone was driving a knitting needle into the base of my skull. But I did make a commitment and it takes a pretty hefty reason to not show up when I say I will. All in all, I still had fun hanging out with the Guild for these events, it was just a tad rougher than normal.

Well, that has been my journey over the last few days. Hope everyone who got a holiday enjoyed it. I know I did. Till next time, I’ll see you on the high ground!

Jhexi…Gun For Hire and other Ramblings of and Agent at Large

Mharius continues his personal agendas at level cap now that the Imperial Intelligence is dissolved and the new Sith intelligence Minister is rather…occupied. Don’t get me wrong, Lana is a sweetheart, especially for a Sith. I like her and she is a cutie! Well, you know Mharius will chase after skirts as much as he can, it’s in his nature. Anyways, Lana has a lot of potential, but she isn’t as calculating or cool under fire as Keeper was. Keeper was excellent at his job, and did wonders for the IIS as it’s minister just prior to it’s fall. He knew the real deal and was very pragmatic. Lana, she thinks with her heart, and so more often than not is chasing 50 projects at once. For Mharius, this actually benefits his agenda. Why? It allows more freedom for him to create a personal network of spies, enforcers and assassins. Back on Rishi, Keeper briefly came out of retirement and gave Mharius a list of potential candidates for future intelligence operations. Ya they would make fine lock step cookie cutter candidates for the new Sith Intelligence. But you see, that would not help him. No dear friends, now that Mharius has seen it all to date, it was time to focus on building his own Empire within an Empire.

Why? Well first and foremost the Sith are just absolute fools when it comes to making a long lasting Empire. It’s not that they don’t have the power and the means to defeat all of their rivals, it’s that they keep on letting personal squabbles and power struggles get in the way of true power. The Republic can be defeated and the Empire itself span across the entire Galaxy. But it has to first be unified in purpose and direction. It requires inclusiveness of all planets and races. No, Mharius is not a goodie two shoes, just loyal to the idea of Order and Nationalism. Not so much that he is blinded but enough that he sees the true potential of what the Empire COULD be.

Strategically the first step of course is completely and utterly defeating Vitiate. You know, the Emperor who turned Viost to ashes? Ya, he needs to go. the Sith Lords can have thier counsel. But they need to be removed from political power. Think it can’t be done? Mharius has killed more than a few Jedi Masters and Sith Lords that got in his way. Let them do thier little dark dances, but keep them out of the way of what the Empire can be.

Enough of the Long Term strategies. For the time being it was time Mharius needed to recruit new talent. So for weeks he poured through records and dossiers of potential candidates. Hundreds of possibilities but very few that might even closely qualify. Ah but one Bounty Hunter caught his attention. A Mercenary by trade and very effective in the field. More so, no particular loyalties set in place as of yet. Properly integrated and paid, this one could be the right fit for more forceful resolutions of conflict. A bit on the hot tempered side, but still quite useful. Served in various conflicts, well versed in the use of combined arms tactics. A knack for weapon modifications, and a genius at cracking computer systems. Yes, this Jhexi was the right one, now just to groom her for the position. A few test missions to gauge her abilities and loyalties and then she would be a part of the team. Failure in Mharius’ tests were never options. Failure could only mean sanitization after hopefully a quick death from a target. Still, this young cybernetic enhanced woman seemed to have what it will take to deal with the rising chaos down the road. Only time will tell.

Jhexi is a running alt project of mine that I’ve tinkered with for a few months on and off. I finally rerolled her as a mercenary and spent nearly 500k to outfit her to standard. I have fun with this young Bounty Hunter, not the typical heavily armored Mando style. I designed her with speed and agility in mind. Tradecrafts were set at Armstech, Slicing and scavenging. Fairly typical when you think about it, but quite useful. I’ve never really enjoyed the BH storyline, it’s really only a step up from the Trooper storyline which is something I dread every time I look at the class. The whole Great Hunt seemed like a circus to me, and didn’t really involve Jhexi in a meaningful way as far as storylines go. But that’s ok, I love the BH Merc class, it’s so versatile in nature. And to tell the truth, Jhexi is just…wicked so I like her as one of my many alts to play with. For those who are asking, ya I’m a dude. Ya I play just as many female toons as I do males. Inner nerdiness? Maybe. But then, I am paying every month to enjoy the game my way. The only thing that annoys me is the occasional ERP offers I have to stomp a boot on. I’m pretty quick to give a loud burp and I’m a dude. Usually fixes things up pretty quick.

By the way, what is it seriously with a recent influx of ERP guilds on Ebon Hawk? I get it, everyone enjoy the game their way, it’s just the open advertisement and recruitment for ERP guilds is well…a little unnerving I guess. I mean, do what you will with a little privacy, but seriously, how can anyone RP having sex with pixels that don’t even fully undress or I guess actively engage in the activity? See, I sort of understood those who were into it on Second life because the software allowed for shall we say VERY intimate emotes/actions with full nudity and a plethora of fairly realistic skins to choose from. But in Star Wars: The Old Republic? I’m trying to figure out the allure. I mean there are entire guilds devoted to this on the Imperial Side and most likely on the Pub side as well. I just can’t get my head wrapped around something that you don’t even have partial actions that give the connotation of simulated pixel copulation. Now, I’m not a prude, but it seems strange that an entire RP storyline revolves primarily around ERP. Then again, I figure if an intimate scene cannot assist in story development, it’s not needed. Ah well, just a thought that occurred while writing.

Hey folks, you all have a great Memorial Day weekend for those Stateside and a wonderful weekend for those not. I’ll be pouring a couple beers out for those I remember and are gone and then promptly get back to killing pixels.