Decisions, Decisions

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Thyanel

Today, ladies and gentlemen, it is with a heavy heart that I must confess something to all of you. This hasn’t been an easy decision for me to make, but, unfortunately, it’s one that has to happen. No, this isn’t as serious of a decision as, say, closing down this blog. That’s just not going to happen. I love gaming and talking about it when I can too much to do something like that. However, your intrepid author is going to have cease coverage of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

It isn’t a problem with the game, it’s mechanics, or the content that I never saw. I want to get that out of the way right now. The game was entertaining, and my guildies are all fantastic. However, I’ve hit a point where I’m just not having fun with it any more. I’ve seriously been coming up with ways to avoid the game because of that. It isn’t anything that anybody’s done, mind; it’s just that I’m not having the fun with it that I thought I would.

Not only that, but finances are a little limited for me right now. In the real world, I work a part-time job that currently does not give me a lot in the way of hours and I consider myself lucky that I get the shifts that I do at all. I’m looking for a second job right now (or at least something better), but until that happens, I’m limited in my funding and can only maintain one game subscription at a time. I figure that subscription should belong to a game I still actively enjoy.

So, as of today, I cancelled my SWTOR subscription. Perhaps I might pick it up again in the future, but, for right now, that’s just not in the cards.

A Lesson in Account Security

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Thyanel

After going many months without seeing a single phishing email, I finally got one claiming I was trying to sell my SWTOR account. (Part of me almost feels like there should be an achievement unlock for this.) Those of us who have been dedicated WoW players for years will recall the thousands upon thousands of phishing emails that we have gotten in the past, claiming a variety of things, such as we were attempting to sell our accounts or that we had magically gotten into a beta we hadn’t signed up for. To the untrained eye, these emails do look like we’ve gotten an email from the official source. However, closer inspection will reveal that the email does not originate from where we think it does. Take a close look at the the email address of the person who sent you said email, or, if you can, check out the original header (which might not make sense to you, but you can easily see where the email originated from that way). Also, do not click the links contained within the email. Ever. They will inevitably lead you to a website that looks like the official page, but is not. They’re just trying to get your account information.

Of course, if you’re unfortunate enough to have received an email like this, you might be wondering what to do with it. Blizzard provided us with an email address to forward all phishing emails to, but once I had gotten my first SWTOR phishing email, I realized that I didn’t know what to do with said email apart from deleting it. Did the devs have an email to send all phishing emails to like Blizzard did?

Curious, I scoured through pages and pages of the Customer Service forum and then finally the FAQ when I couldn’t find anything more recent than January before I finally found something of a solution. If you receive such an email and aren’t certain what to do with it like I was, here’s what you do, taken directly from SWTOR’s own FAQ:

Emails sent to you from Star Wars: The Old Republic are sent from the mail domain @email.swtor.com, and this domain should be the only one you see in the sender and reply-to headers in an email that is genuinely from us.

Please also be aware that we will never request your password details or the answers to your Security questions via email.

If you receive an email claiming to be from Star Wars: The Old Republic that asks you to provide this kind of information (either by replying to the mail or by clicking on a link inside it), please do not reply to the mail and do not follow any hyperlinks in the message. We would ask you to please forward any suspect mails to support@swtor.com so that we can investigate them.

With this information in hand, I made certain to copy the full original header and paste it into the email (habit from forwarding phishing emails to Blizzard) before I forwarded my first SWTOR-related spam mail off to the bolded address above. I actually got two very quick responses from the CS team once I did so: one to confirm they had received the email within five minutes after I had forwarded it and one at least an hour or so later confirming that it was, in fact, spam (which I knew already) and tips on how to tell the real thing from the phishers.

Essentially, though, guys, if it looks suspicious, it probably is. Even if you aren’t sure, you can always forward it off to the support team to make sure. They’ll tell you whether it’s official or whether it isn’t. If you’re worried about someone guessing your password and getting into your account, though, make sure you invest in an authenticator/security key. Either buy a physical one or download one from your iTunes/Android app store and get it attached to your account, which makes it much more difficult for people to get into it if they manage to crack your password. There have been many WoW horror stories I’ve heard where guild banks get cleared out, characters get transferred and/or stripped of their equipment just for the gold. Please do not let this happen to you.

The Great Server Transfer

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Thyanel

As we all know, Bioware has been making some interesting changes lately to SWTOR. One of these seems to be making mega-servers, and, to accomplish this, they have been offering us free server transfers to certain destination servers of their choice. Honestly, I didn’t think that Lord Adraas, the server I’ve had since launch in December, would ever be touched. I had been under the impression it was one of the larger RP servers, and, if anything, would have been a destination server.

Turns out I was wrong somewhere, as, last week, free transfers opened up from Lord Adraas to The Ebon Hawk.

Up until my guildies mentioned something to me over Twitter, I honestly had no idea this was something that was open to us. Because I had these strange beliefs about our home server, I didn’t even think it was a possibility. However, we collectively decided to make the leap and move over. To my surprise, the server transfers went through very quickly, despite the quoted time for each transfer being about an hour. In about ten or fifteen minutes, I had all of my girls moved over and everything was just as I had left it. Bioware, if you ever happen to stumble upon this and read this post, thank you again for the speed in which all the transfers happened. I loved that I was able to be online and playing again in a matter of minutes as opposed to a few hours.

There were a few renames I had to do, of course, but that was to be expected. I was saddened that I lost both the unique names I had associated with one of mine, but I was able to claim her surname as her Legacy name on the new server, so I was still able to keep a piece of her (thankfully; she wouldn’t have been the same, otherwise). However, my guild was also faced with the unexpected dilemma of choosing a new guild name. To be honest, though, I like our new name better than our old one. >> Hail to JOUST Squadron!

As of today, new servers are open for transfer, so check the list to see if your server is on there. Yours might become a destination server, so if that’s the case, see who might be coming to join you. If you’ve made the decision about server transferring and are faced with similar problems like my guild and I were, Anexxia of Inquisitor’s Roadhouse has some wonderful tips regarding choosing new names for yourself and your Legacy and some fun ideas for new guild names, so be sure to check those out.

I will say, though, that it’s nice seeing a ridiculous number of people on the Republic fleet. I’m so used to there being only a handful of us there. It was kind of lonely.

Not So Scary After All

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Thyanel

I’ll be the first to say that new things can, and often do, terrify me. Change is something that I honestly find scary, even though I know I shouldn’t. After all, change can be good. Unfortunately, if you were to thrust me into something that I knew absolutely nothing about whatsoever, I’d panic. I’ll admit that right now. I’m a panicker. It’s what I do.

And yet, somehow, when a guildmate of mine and I had been talking about warzones (SWTOR’s version of battlegrounds), I thought diving into one without a friend was a good plan. Now, prior to the other night, I had never even touched warzones. Operations and flashpoints are also things I’ve never really touched, but, you know, that’s something for another time. Warzones, however, are infinitely more terrifying. Now, you have to understand that on the Imperial side, I’m a Sith Inquisitor and a healer, besides. My primary goal is healing people and making sure the people who are qualified to take out the opposing team can actually do it. Unfortunately, being a healer in a battleground is the equivalent of being a giant target. See, once the opposing team knows you’re the healer, you might as well have one of those giant flashing neon arrows over your head. They will come after you, and you may wind up a smear on the floor if you can’t heal yourself quickly enough.

Despite the fact that absolutely terrified me, despite not knowing what the hell I was doing, I thought it was a wonderful idea to queue up for a warzone. It was only when the queue popped that I started to panic. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, what warzone I was going to be thrust into, or even what the goal of said warzone was. Despite this, I clicked the button to enter the warzone anyway, and was faced with a loading screen I did not recognize at all. Now, I know I could have asked what we were supposed to do once we all came into the warzone (that I later learned was the Voidstar), but I decided against it. Instead, I plunged in, taking minimal instruction via BG chat. Apparently, Voidstar’s two rounds: one where you attack and another where you defend, all in the span of a few minutes. All in all, I think things went pretty well, since both sides never let the other near the datacore, and there were victories all around.

Emboldened, I plunged in again. At least if I got Voidstar again, I’d know what I was doing! It was not to be, however, as I found myself in Alderaan. This time, someone asked if we had any healers in the group, and I was brave enough to pipe up and tell them that I was. Someone was kind enough to bubble me, and the battleground began. I had the most fun in Alderaan, I think, and I found it to be a much friendlier experience than the Voidstar had been. As the Empire ran out to claim the center turret, I followed, and there I remained throughout the battleground, keeping everybody alive as much as I realistically could. Some were higher in level than I was, others were lower, but, to my surprise, I helped make some of the people around me unbeatable, and, under my watch, most of us were. In Alderaan, I didn’t die nearly as often as I had in the Voidstar, and, in the end, several members of our little band even voted me an MVP!

I’m not certain what an MVP vote does once the warzone is over, mind, but the fact that people had voted for me at all made me all kinds of happy, and gave me the confidence to dive in again. This time, I got Huttball. I was most certainly not a fan of Huttball. I died many times there, mostly due to not knowing what the hell I was doing, but I tried to heal whoever was carrying the ball as quickly as I could. Sure, I died several times doing it, but, you know, that happens.

In the end, when all was said and done and I returned to the Imperial fleet, I realized I was actually enjoying myself. Sure, I had no idea what I was doing and I had died multiple times, but I was having fun nonetheless! And I was earning commendations I could spend on pretty moddable gear once I hit level 40 so I could finally wear something that actually matched. Long story short, I tried something that honestly scared me, and it turned out that I had fun doing it. I encourage everybody to give something like that a try because it really isn’t as scary as you might think it is. You might even have fun.

Endgame (Sort Of)

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Thyanel

There are spoilers for Chapter One of the trooper class storyline beneath the cut here. You have been warned.

Continue reading →

Learning to Love the Gun

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Thyanel

As I’ve mentioned several times over Twitter, I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate to have gotten in to test Star Wars: The Old Republic not just once, but twice. It has opened my eyes to a wonderful galaxy of things that I never thought possible. The way each quest is presented to you is quite unique, and the things you choose can affect your character one way or the other. Do you allow the person who tried to kill an Imperial to live and serve the Empire or do you kill that person for the attempt right then and there? Upon seeing a woman getting smacked around considerably, do you step in to defend her or allow this to continue? The fact that we have these choices is something unique to The Old Republic, something I love, and seeing it all come together, even in a beta format, is nothing short of incredible.

Quite possibly the best thing about the beta, however, was that it allowed me to test the various classes that I had been waffling between for ages. I did let myself test the Jedi Consular, and I discovered very quickly that it felt like I was coming home after a long time away from it. After coming to that realization, I had to stop playing for fear of spoiling the story for myself and I knew I had to come back to this class after launch. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the same resolve with the Sith Inquisitor, taking the character (not once, but twice) through their trials on Korriban and winding up with my first companion character. I’m planning on taking her a bit further simply so I can explore the talent trees in a bit more depth (and so I can figure out whether or not my Consular will be wielding a dual-bladed saber or a single one).

However, on the last few days of my first weekend in beta, I decided to do something different. I decided to try out a class I had no desire to play come launch, just to see what the story was like. High on my list of classes I was so certain I wasn’t going to touch was the Trooper. In the past, the trooper had been presented to me as a heavily armored tank, the exact sort of thing I swore to myself I was never going to be. I tried that back in World of Warcraft and I sadly came to the realization that tanking was too high-stress for me. Back then, it was the very last thing I needed in my life. However, after exploring the trooper a bit more, I came to the startling realization that if I chose the Commando Advanced Class option, I could heal. Healing I could do! And, from the sound of the things I had heard at the time, it seemed like they would be similar to paladin healing in World of Warcraft. I could do that! Paladin healing had always been my favorite kind of healing!

Armed with this knowledge, but still very certain I was going to hate the trooper in spite of this, I logged into the beta that first beta weekend and rolled myself a trooper based on one of my oldest characters: a paladin from the Warcraft universe named Damaris Vordane (called Vordane in-game). Once I finally adjusted her looks to SWTOR standards, I logged in, the opening crawl rolled, and I was ready. Vordane’s story, same as the story of every trooper in the game, began on Ord Mantell, where the Republic was fighting valiantly against separatist forces. Even as I made my way through the first few minutes of the opening movie, I knew something was something off about the separatists, namely that they seemed to have weaponry and knowledge they definitely weren’t supposed to. By the time the opening movie was over and Vordane was ready to set foot into the world armed with little more than a gun and the clothes on her back. She knew with absolute certainty the separatists had to be stopped before they destroyed everything she loved with a cannon they had stolen from us.

At the time, I had just finished playing a few levels of a smuggler, and I found myself missing having the cover system to hide behind at first. However, the more I played my trooper, the more I realized I wasn’t missing it at all. I had a giant rifle, after all. Four or more average level mobs? No problem with a big-ass gun! A stronger mob and an average one? Also not really a problem once you got the rhythm down. I had an amazing gun, and I was going to use it.

As the story continued to unfold during this most recent beta weekend, so did Vordane: a soldier dedicated to the Republic and doing what was right. She didn’t need the Force or any other fancy gimmicks. She was a soldier. She didn’t need to be anything else. What she had was her conviction and her faith that they would be capable of doing the right thing in the end, and, you know, a big-ass gun. I suspected things were getting bad for me when I discovered I had gotten a gun that I fell in love with before I had gotten the chance to take it anywhere (I dubbed it Bertha), but I pushed it aside, engrossed in the story. By the time I was done with Ord Mantell, I was confronted with several plot elements I had never anticipated, and it was in that moment, faced with that surprising plot twist, that I said something I honestly never expected to.

“I’m in love.”

Vordane the trooper around level 9 or so, about ready to leave Ord Mantell.

That’s right. The one class I told myself I would never like or love was the one I had fallen completely head over heels for. It was the perfect class. I got to stand at a distance and shoot at things, but I was well-armored enough for it to almost not matter if I got hit. I was a freaking wrecking ball with a gun, and I didn’t care what got in my way.

Even now, as a commando that has gotten hold of a cannon (this thing is the best thing ever, I swear) and her own starship, I still love it. I’m still trying to make sense of the abilities I’ve got, but I know I’ll be back. I’ll probably have an all-new character ready to go by then, as Damaris’ proper story lies outside of SWTOR, but I’m definitely having a trooper in my alt arsenal.

Pen and Shield

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