Screenshot Of The Day: My Life Is Now Something, Something Complete

I know this blog has been inundated with other topics lately, but I am subscribed to Star Wars: The Old Republic and still playing. My heart therefore weighed heavily upon me yesterday with the news about another round of layoffs at BioWare Austin, and the departure of the game’s executive producer Rich Vogel. My thoughts are with those affected by the restructuring.

It does sadden me and worry me a little that things seem to be falling apart over there, with the numerous cuts and falling sub numbers. I don’t know about you, but as a SWTOR player I feel in great need of a pick-me-up right about now.

For me, it’s this:

Ever since last June when we first found out about Blizz, obtaining an adorable Jawa companion had been one of my ultimate goals. In a way, it sort of reaffirmed my decision to play a Bounty Hunter.

For the last couple months, playing my BH Xavindria to level 50 has been my project. I think I mentioned recently that she’s on Hoth right now, a bit shy of wrapping up Chapter 2. Well, I still haven’t finished, but what I did manage to do was complete the planet storyline, and you know what that means — I was finally able to unlock Blizz as a new crew member!

I wish SWTOR all the best. But no matter what happens, I know I’ll be okay.

‘Cause I’ve got my own little tanking Jawa. I’ve got Blizz. Xav’s life is now complete.

Screenshot Of The Day: I’m A Townie!

You complete the achievement “Town Council” in The Secret World when you finish all the missions from the survivors in Kingsmouth, and receive the Honorary Townie Cap as a reward. Out of all the clothing items I could get so far, this is one of my favorites.

Yes, those are fishing tackles attached to the side. I love it. It’s so hideous, yet so awesome at the same time.

Well, I guess that’s one way to keep my hair out of my face.

Also, /jazzhands.

The Secret World: Little Photo Album Of Horrors

Note: While none of these screenshots are going to be terribly revealing, I have to say this anyway to cover my ass: some of the following images may contain itty-bitty elements of spoilers. If you have plans to play The Secret World and would like to head in with completely fresh eyes, you may wish to avoid this post. I have also ordered the images from least to most spoilerific.

Wish you were here!

Nick: Look Dear, what a nice, quaint looking town sign.
Laeyn: Oh, oh! Let’s take a photo in front of it together like the annoying tourists that we are!
In the distance: BRAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNNNS…

Zombies and fire, not good bedfellows.

Excerpt from the Templar’s Guide to Zombie Defense Training:

Always exercise caution when encountering a zombie on fire. Flames do not affect the undead as it would for humans in that it unfortunately acts as a poor deterrent; however, given time the zombie will eventually be neutralized due to the normal processes of combustion. In other words, flaming zombie kabob. While not necessarily an unwanted result, it’s what occurs in the interim that poses the biggest problem.

This does not bode well…

Kingsmouth town is full of disturbing images like this one, leading you to wonder what might have happened to the poor, hapless bastard who lost all that blood.

Yes, that WTF expression is completely justified.

The denizens of Kingsmouth — or those who survived, anyway — are a pleasant folk, just trying to make do the best they can in a bad situation. Unfortunately, I think being holed up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse has made a lot of them a little loopy. Though in the case of Scrapyard Edgar, it is entirely possible that he might have been like this to begin with.

I hope to hell that you’re not contagious.

Here’s an interesting article about Ragnar Tornquist and how his film background may have influenced TSW’s direction, which I found very enlightening (thank you to @PaganRites for originally pointing me to the link). From the cinematography and high production values evident in the game’s cutscenes to the quality of the script and talented voice work — it all make so much more sense now.

Mommeeeeeeee!

One of my favorite screenshots, not only because it is visually arresting, but also because the quest itself almost made me wet my pants.

Tarantella: “I’m sure ‘Not waving blades around in aircraft’ is on something like page 2 of The Templar Health & Safety Manual, Laeyn. Didn’t you read it?” Hmm, evidently not.

Guest screenshot from fellow cabal member Solaris, from our all-guild run of the instance Polaris (for quest Dead in the Water). Not much to say about this shot that wouldn’t be a spoiler, so I’m just gonna leave you with “Can you say, Cloverfield moment?”

I call this pic, “The Stand.”

Another shot of our heroes: Thermic, Tarantella, Laeyn, Solaris, and Dutty facing down a boss in Polaris. Being specialized for damage but possessing even just the wimpiest of defense abilities immediately elevated me to the position of main tank. A promotion on the battlefield, as it were. Taking a more focused path to tanking may be in order, but what impressed me was how quickly I was able to move some stuff around and still perform quite decently.

NBI: 3 Little Things

So, you’ve started a blog, and of course now you want people to read it. Blog promotion is certainly important, and those thousands of hits aren’t going to come after just a day. Readership is something that needs to be built from the ground up.

I didn’t plan on this NBI article being the first I write for the blog, but my schedule is so sporadic these days (read: so dependent on the moods of my infant daughter) that I am driven to bang out the words whenever the inspiration strikes. I got the idea for this post talking to my brother, who is studying corporate communications and is playing around with the idea of starting his own blog. The other day he asked me for some advice on getting his blog noticed.

Look around and you’ll see tons of tips for promoting your blog and networking — tips getting onto Twitter/Facebook/Google+, keeping a schedule and posting consistently, being yourself and honest with your readers, etc. etc. etc. — all very good advice, a lot of which I follow myself. But of course, my brother already knows all this; it’s stuff I’m sure he’s studied in his courses on the importance of social media. What he wanted to know was some of my personal experiences, the other things I do on this blog that I feel has helped increase my readership over the last couple of years. The three little things I told him:

1. Ooh, pretty pictures!

Maybe you’ve noticed, but I love me some pictures. With only a handful of exceptions, all my posts are accompanied by one or more images.

As an artist, I understand all too well the way we humans are drawn to visual stimuli. Sometimes, having a picture helps pull in your audience’s attention. Even if the title of the post doesn’t interest the reader right away, the picture might. When adding images, keep things tidy and neat, make sure it’s not too distracting and that it doesn’t make a mess of your formatting. And keep it relevant to your subject! A lot of people do image searches, and when they find your site they might very well read your post as well. Who knows, it might earn you a new regular reader.

And okay fine, it’s also an excuse for me to show off some of my pretty screenies. Screenshot whore that I am.

Tee hee.

2. Keep it clean!

Opinion might be divided on this subject, but I personally opt not to swear on my blog, or at least, I try hard to keep things PG-13. No, I am not a prude; you can ask my husband, who will attest to the way I swear like a sailor when I’m at home in real life. In fact, maybe more than a sailor (something I am striving to change, now with this whole pesky role-model-for-my-children thing and all). I also don’t have a problem with other blogs that let loose; a lot of my favorite blogs that I read do. Swearing is just something I don’t want for my own blog.

Firstly, it’s because it might deter people from sharing your articles. For example, I used to share all sorts of cool things I find on the web with my boss, because she was cool. And yet, probably not cool enough that I would be comfortable sharing with her an article that had a naughty word every other sentence. Like it or not, I also find people are also more willing to heed your opinions when you’re not spouting them off with a potty mouth.

Secondly, I don’t swear on my blog as an exercise in writing. If there’s a better way to express something without dropping an f-bomb, I challenge myself to find it.

3. Reply to comments!

Before I go on, I just want to say that when it comes to replying to comments, I believe in doing it for its own sake. That doing so has had a positive effect on social networking and building readership is just a side effect. A happy side effect. Never mind that if someone took the time to read my writing and leave a comment, I feel I should also take the time to acknowledge and reply. I just love comments, period. And I very much enjoy replying to them, it’s one of my favorite things to do in my day. I’m a little sad that I am not so good with it now, due to time constraints.

Plus, one reason I started blogging was because I wanted to be part of the community. Sharing opinions and having discussions is what it’s all about, and for me that was the whole point of this blog. After all, it’s not as much fun when the interaction is only one way, at least not for me and probably not for the reader as well. I know that personally, I am more likely to revisit a blog again and again when I know the blogger will have a response to any question or comment I might have. I also feel a stronger connection to that blogger.

Believe it or not, I owe many great friendships to those little conversations in comment sections!

SWTOR: Asteroids Do Not Concern Me, Admiral!

Got some decent game time in with Star Wars: The Old Republic this weekend, played both my characters to or past that sweet spot around level 16-18 where they get their ships. You know what that means…

SPACE COMBAT!

I never thought I’d say this but, I’m starting to like it. Starting to like it a lot. Sure, the encounters are heavily scripted and on rails and heck, I even panned it during beta, but lord help me if I’m not finding it terribly addictive right now.

I’ve known for a while that space battles are meant as mini-games within SWTOR, but I don’t think I fully understood the niche they’re meant to fill until yesterday while watching football with the husband. Since most of his attention was glued to the television, questing was hopeless — what with all the voiceovers and story you had to follow while playing. So we jumped into space and did some flying and shooting. As most of these encounters end up being around 5 minutes or so, it was the perfect activity during commercials breaks.

I got really into them. So far, I’ve experienced about five scenarios. The objectives are varied, from straight-forward escort missions to shooting down enemies while dodging asteroids, so I’m never bored. Some of them can be tough, like the Archenar Interception where you do the aforementioned asteroid-dodging. While I’ve yet to fail a single space combat mission, I always, always end that particular one as a smoking ruin with just a sliver of life left on my ship:

Ugh, what can I say, I am no Han Solo. Maybe I’ll make a video of myself doing Archenar one day; I am apparently highly amusing to listen to while doing that one.

That said, the first thing you might want to do before engaging in battle with your ship is to outfit it with some upgrades — even just the rudimentary starter pieces at the ship vendor will help a lot. I was also floored by the amount of experience gained doing space combat, since they are tied to some dailies. If you’re looking to grind out some levels for whatever reason, it’s a very time-effective and entertaining way to go about it.

Those who have tried it, what are your thoughts on space combat? For me, it’s a part of the game I didn’t think I would enjoy at all but now I find myself slowly warming up to it. That doesn’t happen a lot, but it’s always a pleasant surprise when it does. While the space aspect of SWTOR still pales in comparison to the rest of the game, it does serve as a fun distraction when I need it. In that, it does the job really well.

Screenshot: SWTOR End-Of-Testing Dance Party

You know me. It’s just not a real party unless I can dance to the end of the galaxy in a teenie weenie gold bikini. And don’t think I didn’t notice Qyzen the lecherous Trandoshan totally checking me out…

And so ends my six months of  Star Wars: The Old Republic beta. After so long, I have to admit it was quite the heartfelt moment (at least as heartfelt as you could get club-dancing in a slave girl outfit), but as everyone knows, the launch date is almost upon us. On the 15th, early access begins for the first wave of pre-orders. On the 20th, the game will be officially released, and so our galactic adventure can begin in earnest.

What a ride it’s been. My thanks to the BioWare team of course, but I also owe much of my enjoyment to my guild the Republic Mercy Corps/Imperial Mercenary Corps. The pre-launch guild program may be locked now but it’s never too late to join us, and I shall pass on further details such as status of the guild and server info as soon as I know.

Onwards to launch!

Planetary Album

Ever since the NDA was lifted for the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta, my guildies in the Republic Mercy Corps/Imperial Mercenary Corps have been trying to pool together our media and share them with each other. There was a wealth of screenies to go through, mostly because a few of my fellow RMCers have been in testing for almost a year! Some of the gorgeous images I saw gave me the inspiration for this post.

It’s so hard to really say which planet in SWTOR is my favorite. They all appeal to me for different reasons — I love the colors of Nar Shaddaa, I love the beauty of Ilum, I love the history of Taris, I like how BioWare has captured the atmosphere of Tatooine, etc. etc. etc. Thanks to my friend Maric for allowing me to use some of his screenshots here.

Edit: Mild spoilers about the planets, but no spoilers regarding any of the stories.

Coruscant

A Republic character’s first destination after they finish their respective starter planet. The first time I saw Coruscant, I was stunned. After years of playing mostly fantasy MMOs, it’s a nice change of pace to see the hustle and bustle of a sci-fi city.

Funny story: A lot of people I’ve talked to have admitted to “pulling an Anakin” on Coruscant, immediately or soon after they arrive. That is, jumping over a railing to free fall off the side to see what happens. Yeah, I confess, I tried it too. Sadly, no, you don’t get to land safely in the cabin of a hover car.

Dromund Kaas

The Empire city. It’s a little odd coming right off from reading the new SWTOR book Revan and reading about how this planet was shrouded in mystery and far off into the unknown regions of space. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t actually as creepy as everything made it sound. See the lush wilderness and pretty waterfalls!

Taris

Such a treat to land on Taris, to have all the memories from playing Knights of the Old Republic come rushing back…even though it looks nothing like it did before Malak’s orbital bombardment. I liked how there were plenty of opportunities for players to relive the planet’s history, though it feels like you spend forever here, if you’re Republic. Sith get to come here later, and get their own “instance” of the planet.

Nar Shaddaa

Nar Shaddaa has gone through many changes, and with each beta build it seemed to come back seedier and tackier. Huge gold statue of a Hutt in the middle of the Promenade, anyone? There are drunken NPCs playing in the yellow water of the fountain around it, for God’s sake. And all the holo-dancers (though, you would think people would prefer the real thing)!

Nar is still pretty cool though. The first planet where the Republic and Empire get to go head-to-head in the neutral areas, the RMC spent much effort cleaning up the Promenade of Imperial griefers/gankers during that one time almost everyone’s PvP toggle was stuck on permanent flag.

Tatooine

Let’s just put it this way: for me, the sight of the two suns on the horizon was enough to trigger a nerdgasm.

For a desert wasteland, there’s actually quite a lot to see and do on Tatooine. You get a wide stretch of open space for the first time, the Dune Sea being the perfect venue to hold our RMC/IMC Friday Night Fights and naked dance parties on the slow-floating balloon.

Funny story: many players make the pilgrimage out to the north Dune Sea to see the great Sarlacc. Maric and I encountered a level 16 who made it all the way out there, dodging elite mobs 10 levels above him just to hurl himself into the pit and sacrificing himself to his Sarlacc gods. After we rezzed him, the whacko went off in search of a Rancor. Good luck, crazy dude.

Alderaan

Everywhere you turn is another postcard moment on Alderaan, that is when some disgusting bug alien thing isn’t constantly stepping into your frame and ruining your picture. Oh, and you get to ride thranta between the taxi points. So sad, to know that this planet will be blown to smithereens in another few thousand years. Enjoy these alien-free shots:

Balmorra

Empire characters get to come here right after they leave Dromund Kaas, but Republic folks come here much later, and we get our own “instance” of the planet.

Quesh

Probably the smallest zone in the game, and you breeze through it in about a day even at this higher level. Can’t say I was too upset about that — though some parts of Quesh can be pretty, when you think about how it’s all the poisonous gases in the atmosphere, that’s pretty nasty. That, and I was itching to get to Hoth, so I was even more relieved when I found out there wasn’t a bonus quest series.

Hoth

I was dying to get to this planet, and I don’t know why. Maybe because I really wanted to see a wild tauntaun with my own eyes. Hoth is like Tatooine in that it’s huge with wide open spaces, except everything is covered in ice and snow. You get to do some really fun quests on this planet, even enter into some fragile alliances with the other faction, albeit grudgingly.

Funny story: everything’s so blue, I discovered that trying to find quest items or lore objects that are on the ground with the blue sheen on them is a nightmare on this planet!

Voss

There’s something very Trollshaws (if you play Lord of the Rings Online) or Azshara (if you play World of Warcraft) about this planet. It’s SWTOR’s own autumnal zone with the fall theme and fiery foliage. And the creatures on this planet tend to be vibrant shades of blue or violet, setting off the contrast. Very pretty. And the first time I met a Voss (the native humanoid species), it was wild.

Belsavis

Or the “moldy ball of cheese” planet as I like to call it, as that’s what it looks like from space. Not exactly an ice planet, Belsavis has got little pockets of jungle nestled amongst its glacial cliffs. There’s something very “Lost World” about this place, with all its strange plant life and creatures.

It’s also a prison planet, which makes it a pain in the ass to navigate unless you follow the roads, because everywhere you go is another huge wall or fence. Not to mention the transportation technology they use here. A very “beam me up, Scotty!” type of thing.

Corellia

The future birthplace of Han Solo was not what I expected at all. It’s pretty much a bombed-out craphole in SWTOR, but at least the trams are still working great! That is, when they weren’t bugging out and leaving me dead on the tracks, it’s like a fun rollercoaster ride through the city. Not much of a view though, sadly.

Ilum

I ditched Corellia and came here as soon as I reached level 50, and came to enjoy the ice-locked twilit landscape. The mobs seemed to hit harder here, and were more difficult to kill. I also stumbled upon a whole area to the west which was devoid of any hostiles or NPCs, and figured this might be a future zone for PvP.

It might have been a whole lot of nothing — at least when I went there — but I think out of all the planets in SWTOR, Ilum is the most beautiful.