SWTOR Journal 1/23

Let's be honest; what I'm really using this for lately is as a journal about what I've done in game and what I plan to do in game. I made a big, ambitious plan for the weekend (considering, dubiously, yesterday as part of the weekend) and already did a few things a little bit differently.

First off; I have a bunch of stuff for sale. I didn't actually sell much of it, at least not much that was worth anything. We'll see if the surge in players over the weekend gets me some hits, or if I'm just asking more for these things than they're worth. I think I've probably tossed a lot of perfectly good and maybe even lucrative fitted pieces over the years that I can sell. Not really the bracers, gloves, boots or even pants; the pieces that seem to actually be in demand are torsos, heads, and weapons. Everything else can be sold to an in-game vendor, I think. Or maybe the gloves, boots and pants can be thrown on the GTN at a minimal price, but if they don't sell, then it's not worth trying to move them anymore. After getting a really good price on a crafted Defiant MK-16 pistol, I hoped for better luck with two more that I'd crafted, plus a Defiant MK-26, but so far no bites. Otherwise, I kind of forgot about trying to get my biochem stuff moving, and didn't feel like doing grenades again, so I just left those be. It's a little interesting, but every time I log on, I spend at least some time on my "SWTOR business"; trying to hustle for more credits in game. Those expensive GTN wants take some grinding, after all. I need to get more tech fragments too; I'm close to selling those for a big bundle of OEMs, which I can also sell for a decent amount of money.  With any luck, in a few days, my ~300million will be more like ~400million.

Other than spending some time managing my "business" I decided to play both Gael Heckett and Mirabeau Tane, take them to the fleet, pick up the Ord Mantell and Coruscant Heroic missions, do them, but do it kind of like I'm redoing the past, with a Esseles run in between the two planets. This was a little time consuming. I don't play for speed runs, I play for low effort runs, sometimes, but I did all of this with two characters in, I dunno, two hours or so. Including all of the running around, selling crap I picked up while playing, etc. Got some improved gear and both of them went up two levels, and probably half of another one. Gael is now level 69, I believe, and Mirabeau is level 66. If I remember correctly. 

I also picked up a couple of the world drop versions of the Defiant MK-5 pistols while doing this; basically the same pistols that I mentioned above, but all in silver gunmetal rather than two-tone silver and dark gunmetal. I also reworked one of Mirabeau's more dubious outfits, which was a similar one to one that lots of other characters have anyway, to be something else, so he could use those guns with them (he's a gunslinger playing the trooper story, as a reminder.) I do get kind of annoyed with the people who flippantly talk about "space barbie" but honestly; there's something to it. Then again, was Ralph McQuarrie's concept art "space barbie?" Doing what you can to get good visual design isn't a game, it's an important part of successful science fiction, and always has been. 

Hutran Thanatos (above) and Saxon Hettar showing off their Red Blade disguises

Although in SWTOR, maybe it's more like a game. And you're not creating exactly; you're mixing and matching elements that already exist. It's not quite the same, but y'know. You see what I mean. 

Then I picked up Phovos Maledict and did most of the stuff that's out in the Duros sector of Nar Shaddaa, which is where I am. I have one more mission on the Flame storyline to do before I move completely to the next sector for exploration, faction and class story, and I was tempted to finish it before bed, but it was already getting late and honestly this has been an exhausting week, and I didn't feel up to staying up an extra half hour or so. I did get some good video; I need to probably spend a little bit of time this weekend editing some of it too. I've got a lot of raw, unedited video since I OBS up cutscenes fairly frequently. Maybe too frequently, honestly. I think I sometimes spend too much time worrying about recording and not enough worrying about just playing. Otherwise, my goals are still pretty similar for the remainder of the weekend; get Phovos through Act I, if I can, and do a bit more with Mirabeau and Gael. I'm a bit less concerned than I was about getting all of the wave 2 characters finished before I finish wave 3 characters; if Mirabeau and Gael are the next closest, then they should feel free to keep going and lap some of the wave 2 characters. Whatever. If it happens, it happens. 

Mirabeau in particular is fun for me to play. He's a saboteur gunslinger, and I'm really liking that combat spec. I realized that I don't have a gunslinger bounty hunter, so wave 5 will include another saboteur bounty hunter. Gael is a pyrotech powertech; another fun one. I think that's how they got ahead; I just like playing with them and their combat specs. I didn't really need another smuggler playthrough, while I was still doing Anstal Tane, but I did kind of need another trooper. I've only finished one trooper all the way through. Maybe instead of worrying so much about Revecca Arden and Elemer Kell, I'll do more of these three; Phovos Maledict, Mirabeau Tane and Gael Heckett. The latter two can probably hit max level in the next couple of weeks at most, and if I play plenty of Phovos, he will too. Plus, I'm enjoying my second playthrough of a Sith Warrior. I've only ever played one of them through the story before too. I think I may have somewhat under-rated the warrior due to my tech class bias. It's a really good story. By far, the best of the force users. 

Although two of the four force user stories are the lowest rated two in the game, so maybe that's not saying that much. I like the warrior better than the Jedi Knight, at least.