[SWTOR] Imperial Agent companions pics

I have friends now!

*SPOILERS* : Ignore this posting if you want the identity of your companions to remain a surprise to you while playing the game.

Kaliyo Djannis

Vector Hyllus [left], Dr. Lokin

Vector

Dr. Eckard Lokin [at left]

Kaliyo

Dr. Lokin and I dressed as gay biker life partners

HRP-DRP
Just kidding. I wish HRP-DRP was my companion.
The next guy here is your ship droid, 2V-R8.

SCORPIO

Dr.Lokin in monster form

Ensign Raina Temple

Thoughts:

Kaliyo will be your go-to companion until you get Dr. Lokin. She's good at gaining and holding enemies' attention, but she starts to falter and dies more regularly as you level up. She's a ranged tank, but I prefer to have her do her charge-in attack to quickly grab aggro and hold a pack together in one place as I burn them down with grenades and suppressive fire.

She uses a blaster rifle and wears Aim-based heavy armor -- Bounty Hunter gear. I like her, but she's a bit shallow (her life goals seems to be "fuck and/or fuck over everything"). If you want to score points with her you'll need to question and disdain all forms of authority and embrace greed, violence and cynicism.

Your ship droid, (edit: 2V-R8), isn't that helpful at all until he gets more abilities and a little droid gear equipped. He actually becomes fairly useful at healing, until you get Lokin, who's flat-out better at it.

Vector isn't a companion I use much - he's decent melee damage but doesn't really compare to having a tank or healbot. He's probably more useful to healing-spec Operatives, I suppose. [*Edit: he's the guy I call on if I'm solo kiting a tough melee champ - I don't need Lokin healing or Kaliyo tanking, but Vector will snare and add some needed punch). He uses an electrostaff and wears Willpower-based light armor -- Inquisitor gear.

He has a weird backstory - a combat-trained Imperial diplomat who's now part of a bug alien species hive-mind. If you like dudes with glossy black eyes who refer to themselves as 'we', you'll love Vector. If you want to score points with him, solve problems diplomatically and generally be a goody two-shoes.

Dr. Lokin is an excellent healer who has a monster form that you can toggle on and off. The rakghoul form is very useless melee dps at this point and it looks pretty stupid, which makes me sad. He uses a blaster pistol and wears your hand-me-down Cunning-based medium armor and vibroknives.

Lokin is a pragmatist. Being selfish, selfless or otherwise short-sighted will piss him off. Quick thinking and problem-solving impress him.

Raina is a ranged gunslinger that can toggle stances to emphasize her area-effect attacks. Useful only for burning through packs of weak trash mobs. I like to squint and pretend she's Halle Berry. And she's my girlfriend. She dual wields blaster pistols and wears your hand-me-down Cunning-based medium armor.

She is a loyal, duty-bound Imperial soldier, so playing with that in mind will make her adore you. Being a greedy, violent shithead will turn her off.

GW2 Q+A highlights

I realize that this is almost 2 weeks old now, but ... hey, I was swamped with the holidays and the SWTORPOCALYPSE.

Wondering why I haven't been talking about SWTOR PvP?
It's clown shoes. That is why I'm not talking about it. Nice game, but Huttball can suck a lightsaber.

Bright. Shiny. Awful.

Anyways.

First, here's a look at the Mesmer.
Not really my ideal choice of a warrior, but that's just me. I'm not real into making glowy violet butterflies with my brain magic.

And this is some of Jon Peters + ArenaNet devs answering questions at Reddit:



Q: So lets say I play an Elementalist and I throw down a firewall and then want to switch to water attunement to heal some of my buddies, would I experience a kind of global cooldown from when I throw the firewall before and can switch to water attunement and then heal my buddies?

GLOBAL COOLDOWN! UGH please no. I hate global cooldown with the passion of 1000 fiery suns. In fact attunement swapping is instant so you can do it mid cast!!!

Q: I have heard rumors that organized pvp gives players a default set of gear for their class so everyone is on an even playing field. Can you confirm this? If not, will players have to grind for sets of pvp gear as they do in WoW?

Absolutely NOT!!! No grinding in PvP.

Here is how it works. You press a button that says go to PvP. You end up in the PvP lobby where you are max level, all skills and items and traits are unlocked and you make a build and go play in a hot join server. When you are done press the button again to return to PvE. It's that simple. Why anyone would want to spend time unlocking skills or leveling up in PvP is beyond me. :) If you want PvP with power creep and ganking and massive battles we have that too. It's called WvW.

...

No OPEN PvP in PvE, it doesnt make sense with how events work. However I think people who like Open Gank PvP (like myself) will REALLY love WvW.

Q: In WvW what is the maximum number of players allowed on one given map? Or what is the most people you've seen in a WvW at the office?

At least 500.

SWTOR Screens of the Day

My Imperial Agent is specced deeply into Engineering and Pizza Delivery.

Trooper with brand new Super Soaker 5000

[SWTOR] Datacron Location Walkthroughs

My guildies keep asking for a good reference for finding datacron locs, this link has some excellent guides with pictures and directions. Helpful stuff. Thanks, Swtor-Spy.com!

I'm also going to put their companion guide to use trying to figure out who likes what, as far as gift preferences and crafting stats.

SWTOR Screenshots: Week 1

On very low settings, sorry. (I PvP! Having high settings on my POS computer is a drag.)

Quite fun, dicking around with crafting and space missions, lots to keep me busy.

... the great wait ...

i'll check my mail to see if i got into SWTOR early access yet and when i see that it's just a coupon for cheesy bread from Domino's, I just lose my shit and start screaming cursewords at whoever is e-mailing me, fucking Geico assholes gonna stab you in the face with these fucking Christmas cards from assholes i dont even like fuck

Video: some SWTOR speeders [mounts]

HD quality, via YouTube of some of the newer SWTOR vehicles.



I'm partial to the sporty ones - I liked the bee-striped guy and the cherry red fella, they're like mid-life crisis I-have-a-small-penis speeders.

That picture makes me want to throw gliders around at a playground.




~


Favorite bits from Ohlen's IGN interview:

 [W]e have new War Zones planned, we have new open world PvP planned, and we have a team on that as well.

 and

[A]nother thing that we have a team working on [is giving players] more power to essentially adjust their UI so they can move UI elements around, they can change the size or the alignment of it, and essentially customize how they get to play the game.

Star Wars Style

An addendum to my previous suggestions.

[SWTOR] I am your father

Yes, Star Wars pre-orderers will start getting early access next week, so get your shit together if you have not yet already. You should have the game installed and ready to rock. You should have your poo bucket at the ready and your cabinets lined with enough Chee-tos, Doritos and Scotch to last you through the rest of the month.

Don't forget to check your e-mail for the invite, they start going out Tuesday.

If you haven't seen them:
The ubiquitous 12 Days of Smack Talkin'
What Is Love
(I feel like those are both pretty bad, but hey, at least they aren't 'arrow in the knee' or 'fus ro dah'  videos.)

Darth L. Jackson (not safe for work, motherfucker)
Al Pacino as Scarth Vader ( ... wow ...)
SNL Star Wars Auditions
Nick Nolte as Han Solo
Star Wars DeMotivational Posters
Bad Chewy!

This just in:
Warhammer Online is officially whittling down to a single server. ...Sad, funny, and probably long overdue again. Merry Christmas, Mythic.

more junk after the jump:

For Mykiel

Just noticed this, our old friend Mykiel fighting the good fight trying to explain how it's possible Wrath of Heroes could make any f'ing sense at all, lore-wise.

TL:DR version: magic rocks did it.

I'll write up my own ridiculous fanfic here, but you'll have to click through to read it because I'm already sure that it will be long as shit and twice as pungent.

The Christmas Tree Dance Party

It's a good time of the year for me to re-tell this story.

It's April, the guild needs me to tank some dungeon in Rift. I hate tanking. I've been drinking profusely. I can't remember what my abilities do and I'm somehow missing about 20% of my health for some reason.

No matter. We most forge on.

Then I start noticing what look like trees around the corners inside the dungeon. Trees do not belong in cavernous dungeons. Not this one. But there's trees peeking from behind pillars, watching me.

Me: [mumbling] "Huh? Trees."
Guild: "What?"
Me: "The trees. In here."
Guild: "..."

Okay, let's change the subject and move on.

But... I can't. I'm being followed by weird evergreen trees hiding in the shadows, biding their time. It's maddening to me. No one else is even acknowledging their existence! Is the guild in on it? Is this all a clever ruse? Is this an elaborate trap?

Me: "What's up with the trees?!"
Guild: "Huh?"
Me: "There's ... trees."
Guild: "..."


Good lord, there's going to be an ambush. My guild planned this all. They're just waiting for the right time to strike. To turn on me.


I clumsily tank my way through the dungeon, waiting for the hammer to come crashing down on me. I can see the writing on the wall - they've waited for the final boss. They've weakened and exhausted me, confused me, and now I would stand no chance to fend them all off - the boss, the turncoat guildmates, the lurking trees.

Guild: "Are we ready?"
Me: "I - I can't even really see him. He's in a huge Christmas tree."
Guild: "What?"
Me: "It will be difficult for me to kite him through the tree, it's filling up a lot of the screen."
Guild: "What tree?!"
Me: "The giant fucking Christmas tree right in front of us!"
Guild: "There's no tree anywhere."
Guild: "You've gone crazy!"
Guild: "He's hallucinating!"
Me: "I swear to god, there is A TREE."

Guild: "There's no tree, you liar."
Me: "There is a tree, I'm taking screenshots. Get in the picture, damn it."

Tyanon refuses to see The Tree.

Me: "Everybody dance."
Guild: "Dance! It's a Christmas miracle!"

Guild: "Just shut up and tank it."
Me: "I will try. I will try my best to hold them both off."
Me: "I can't really see anything but Tree. I think it's eating me! Tyanon, help!"

Guild: "We did it. We beat the tree!"
Me: "No, Kranon, don't get too close! Dear god, no, The Tree is eating Kranonnnn!"

Wrath of Biscuit

 Is it a good sign for your game when a well-liked and respected game previewist like TotalBiscuit calls it no fun at all, disgusting and disgraceful?

Probably not. Those aren't things you put in quotations on a movie poster. Well, maybe if you film episodes of 'Bang Bus' or something. But my point remains. I'm going to assume Mr. Biscuit thought there was room for improvement in WOH.

Now, to be completely honest, this isn't the first time I've seen someone playing a Mythic game and sound like they were having their testicles forcibly stomped upon. That exasperated exhale of disdain you hear in that video was like the soundtrack of my guild many nights while playing WAR.

But here's the weird twist - even with my general lack of faith in the competence of the studio at this point and my painful burnout from the game after playing beta from day 1 - the things he brutally slams the game for are the things I, and a really good hunk of WAR PvP'ers, specifically want out of a game.


There's a few obvious things to note here.
One, this isn't a game for TotalBiscuit. Obviously. It's not a game for a lot of people. To quote myself:

 It is a lobby game with instanced PvP -- if you liked to queue up for battlegrounds and scenarios in other games, that's all this game is. I'm sure some people may find that notion repellent, but I think it's a beautiful thing.

 TB dismisses the game as 'microwave pvp', a game that you play at lunch, like it's the worst idea he's ever heard. Like that idea killed his whole family, and now he will stop at nothing to destroy that idea with fire.

The irony is, that's exactly what I, and a lot of guildies, are looking for in a game. I don't want to play a "quick" 55 minute game of keepaway capture the flag. I don't want to farm an entire continent of salamanders before I can even think about becoming a burden to my friends. Quoting myself again:

The nice thing about it is that you can just log-in for 15 minutes, a half-hour, whatever, play with your buddies and have some fun and not have to grind 500 hours to hit rank XX or do 8 hour raid runs that require homework. That's really all I want out of the game at this point. The strategy will never be about using a small handful of abilities, it's about synergy as a group and figuring out what the other 2 groups are doing. And killing them.

He was quite right that this game is in bad shape right now -- it does really reinforce the idea that it's not a game of nuance and teamwork when he literally finishes at the top of leaderboard in his second match after doing nothing but randomly key-press a kill streak on the Black Orc.

It is hard to like a game that's literally all about trying to be the become the best on the battlefield when, as TB pointed out, anyone with the most hazy understanding of MMO games can let his cat prance around on his keyboard and somehow get a gold star for being Match MVP.

That's a legitimate concern, people were screaming at Mythic to bring faceroll characters and shallow, skill-less abilities in line. Now a problem they should have seen miles away has been excruciatingly highlighted by one of the most popular game reviewers berating their game to 200k+ views already. There's just no real rhyme or reason to playing if characters buttonmash through matches like that.

And, again, it wasn't hard to figure out there was a problem there.

That said, I still really think, even as I've become more and more jaded with recent iterations, that WOH is a game with promise for many of you guys that read this. TotalBiscuit can malign the game for not having skillshots, but if there was a system of Morale ability skillshots and CC breaks implemented in a coming patch (like I've been fucking asking for) does that suddenly transform the game from being a disgrace to being a legitimate pro e-sport?

Probably not, but there are people who want different 'jump in and fight' arena PvP games like this.

TB laughed at the idea of boys and girls who just want to kill / crit / dmg / pwn, but I'm really not ashamed in taking pleasure in that, and I'm not against people that don't want to grind or quest or jungle or lane or deal with tiny cartoon blobs in wizard hats in games that look far worse than WOH.

It's not a sparkling product by any stretch of the imagination in its current state, but I really do want the best for Mythic and WOH.

"[T]he next version will build on the strengths of the game, address some concerns and introduce a new progression system." It also will also introduce at least one new hero, a man named Tobias.

No, that's David Cross in Arrested Development.

No, that's Beecher from Oz.

I'm going to guess that 'Tobias' is a Witch Hunter. It would be cool if he was a Never Nude or a cracked-up prison inmate, but Witch Hunter would be OK.

Rage of the Ewoks and more

The SWTOR forums are going to undergo a great cleansing by fire - all posts and private messages will be deleted as they re-launch a newfangled message board.

I felt I had to try to save my plans for the next expansion and a few of my more poignant observations before they got thrown into the trash like so many used sanitary wipes.

(My rough outline for a 3-way RvR expansion)

 My suggestion is that BioWare plans an expansion that revolves around an epic Realm vs. Realm storyline that introduces Ewoks as the 3rd Faction in SWTOR.

- The expansion would be entitled "Forest Moon Rising: Rage of the Ewoks"

- Four new Ewok faction character classes would be introduced:
Ewok Chief (Mirror to Knight/Warrior)
Ewok Shaman (Mirror to Consular/Inquisitor)
Hunter Scout (Mirror to Smuggler/Agent)
Rock Thrower (Mirror to Trooper/Bounty Hunter)

- Plotline: Ewoks magically appear on the planet Arvee'Ar using a time-space wormhole they opened using Soul Tree magic. The Ewoks have come from the future to save their world because it is sick with world sickness.

The Arvee'Ar world quickly becomes torn by war, as elite Imperial forces move to enslave the Ewoks and Inquisify them about their time-space wormhole magic. The Republic sends it's veterans to Arvee'Ar to thwart the Sith and also to fight Ewoks because they appear to be bloodcrazed bear monsters that savagely kill people with rocks and logs.

- New World: The new endgame RvR planet, Arvee'Ar, will have it's vast territory fought over by the 3 competing factions. Crucial battlefield objectives must be taken and held and massive, fortified player encampments can be attacked and defended.

- Epic storylines: Playing a brave Ewok Rock Thrower will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you learn about yourself.

- New mounts: Ewoks use hang gliders to get around in style.

- New companions: Teeks, Duloks, Yuzzums, Gupins, small curly-haired Human children, possibly a Space Kitten named Rodrigue'

- This all fits into lore perfectly and if certain Lead Writers can't understand things like Soul Tree magic and time-space wormhole travel then they need to learn how to Lead Write better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyanon My only comment really is on the shaman class. It is important to me that the Ewok have a true Jedi type class, complete with single or dual wielded lightsabers. ... This expansion would be a great step forward for SWTOR and the Star Wars universe.

The Ewok Shaman, as the mirror to the Consular / Inquisitor classes would have its playstyle dictated by the player's choice of Advanced Class. A Spirit Healer Shaman specced in Fur Mending would be very mystical and use a single stick as a weapon, but a Beastmaster Shaman specced in Wood Fury would fight quite furiously using a double-stick stick-staff augmented with Spirit Jub Jub.

Ewoks do not use lightsabers as this is beneath them.

They use sticks augmented with Spirit Jub Jub.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone I'd rather they didn't do that as there isn't a Organization that would be big enough to take on both the Republic and Sith Empire at the same time.

I wholeheartedly believe that there is an Organization capable of fighting a 2 front war on such a scale and that Ewoks are that Organization.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone Can Ewoks have romance arcs?

Ewoks most certainly would have available romance arcs. Look at the lust that burns in their eyes. Ewoks are an extremely sexual species, their carnal desires are surpassed only by their ferocity in combat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone Do you see problems with Ewok classes being overpowered against Troopers?

Skilled, high level Troopers landing on Arvee'Ar are the elite of the Republic's military forces, I could easily see them withstanding several rock or even stick crits before dying.

~ other non-Ewok-based musings ~

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone A simple question, if we will be able to jump? Look around on the forum and didn't find an answer to my qustion.

No, you have to push the world down using the Force.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone How will this game handle removing players from the group in an instance?

You have to get the player to stand in the right spot and then Right Click -> Remove Player and a trap door opens underneath him. Then, the Rancor eats him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone Dirty Kick: A quick kick between your opponent's legs... Will rolling a female character give me immunity?

I know I accidently kneed my girlfriend there and she was only like an 8 on the Wong Baker, but I know everytime I've even been slightly dinged in the gonads I'm like a solid 46 on that scale.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone Another question: Would dirty kick work on animals?

I don't know how it would work on every species in SWTOR, but it's been confirmed it works on wolfmans

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone You should replace the animation for females and make it a face slap.

Wow, that would be hysterically offensive.

"Hey mom, look I can be Han Solo!"
"That's nice, dear, what does he do?"
"SLAPS WOMEN."

Originally Posted by Someone Do the probe droids an Engineer-spec Agent have make him a 'Pet Class'?

I'm going to think of them as my little babies; they're not just pets, they're like family members.

(Speculating on Smuggler's skill trees)

Scrapper is like, someone who uses metal scraps as melee weapons in close melee range, so, like, you do a lot of Metal damage that would cause Infections and you'd have abilities like "Pipe 'Em!" and "You Just Walked Into a Bar ... of Iron!"

Dirty Fighting is totally like, using mud to stealth yourself like Arnold Schwartzenegger in Predator and you get trap abilities like "Come On, Do It" and "Kill Me, I'm Here!"

(Suggesting tactics for Smuggler's Dirty Fighting tree)

0/3 Steel-tipped Boots: Dirty Kick now explodes your target's crotch into a bloody mist, slowing their run speed by 99% for 2 / 4 / 6 days.

0/2 Low Blows: You aim your mid-range shots at your targets' genitals, increasing scattergun attack critical damage by 300 / 600%.

0/3 Trash Talk: You verbally abuse your target while you are behind Cover, making them mad / cry / run away.

0/2 Banned Substances: Your use of illegal supplements provides for a powerful home run swing when using Pistol Whip, knocking your target back 150 / 300 meters.

0/2 Kidney Shot: Your Cheap Shot has a 50 / 100% to be followed up by a second kick to the target's kidneys, making him pee blood / die.

(The superior wisdom of a Smuggler with the 'fat' body type)

Fat Smugglers are funny

Also, fatties have all sorts of hidden compartments on their bodies to smuggle stuff

(How I'd make 'Kill Ten ____" quests more fun)

I want quests where you kill 10 questgivers.


(What we need more of is science)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Someone Wouldn't a planet with 2 suns cast 2 shadows?

I put so many lamps in my room that the room filled with shadows and actually negated all the light, leaving me in total darkness.

I then said "Bloody Mary" three times, and saw a ghost.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the TOR

3 things I did in beta that allowed me to just try to enjoy the f'ing game.



1 . I let go of any preconceived notions

I didn't compare it to some Fantasy Sandbox Game that will never exist. I didn't just blindly complain that every single aspect was directly copied from World of Warcraft.

"LOLOMG, UGNAUGHTS ARE CLEARLY JUST RESKINNED MURLOCS. FAIL."

 I enjoyed the game for what it was - a game I can play with friends that I actually find playable and fun.


2. I tried to maintain a sense of childlike awe and wonder

When I got my starship, I ran through it's corridors screaming 'EEEEEEEEE!' like a kid on Christmas morning. There's a lot of discovery in this game, a lot of gifts under the tree - learning to kick people in the balls, finding new companions, stacking up achievements in a Warzone, etc etc.

If you don't stop to smell the roses kicked-in testes and appreciate all the myriad little details in this game, you're missing out.

3. I tried a character that makes decisions that I would make

I wound up mostly playing a blackhearted Smuggler, because I wanted him to be as a dark and cold and self-serving as humanly possible. Or, in his case, Zabrakly possible. But this really locks you into your decisions playing the game - I'd just choose whatever route seemed to be the most dickish, whatever choices scored the most dark side points.

While I still plan to have a pure evil Smuggler, it's even more interesting to just play off-the-cuff and let the chips fall where they may. Maybe the road will lead to light, maybe I'll wind up leaning to be kind of shadowy neutral grey. We'll see.

All the rage

HATERS GONNA HATE.

I think it was Yoda who said "“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to shitty blog postings." Yeah, it was either Yoda or the Pokemon movie, but it was a pretty good quote.


Here's a good rule of thumb for criticizing games:

Saying you don't like something is worthless, shitty critique. I don't care what you like and don't like.

Tell me what works and doesn't work and why. Otherwise, up the shut fuck.

Too much TOR

You know you've been playing too much of the game when you go to sleep and have an x-rated dream that involves those little pop-ups notifying you that you've gained dark side points and companion affection.

WOH: The New New Guy

Wrath of Heroes Beta 3.0.2b-III-()() is running now through Sunday night (8pm EST).

They quietly added a new hero to the mix, a fellow named Albodi.

...No, wrong dude.

...Getting closer.

There ya go.

Albodi is a hulking Chosen armed with a vicious greataxe and the ability to double his target's cooldowns.

He doesn't hit particularly hard but he can cast an area-effect dread-spell that negates nearby foes' chance to dodge. So, he's a tank that can deal with a typical tank weakness - the untouchable Korelei the Witch Elf. The problem is that he appears to me to be way too much of a one-trick pony and just doesn't compare at all to Bax the Black Orc's toolbox (long knockdown, sprint, big self-heal, burst damage + survivability).

I'd try to get some more time in with him, but I really can't stand the new map they added and that's all I've been getting queued for.