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extrapenguin) wrote2021-04-13 11:53 am
extrapenguin) wrote2021-04-13 11:53 am
Entry tags:
SWTOR: Makeb + Rishi, Republic side
(Is anyone even interested in this, or should I take my SWTOR blogging to some other platform?)
Kurebir Krait, Jedi Master, continued the plot! Screencap album. We last saw her at the end of ch 3.
Makeb! The Rise of the Hutt Cartel has one planet, Makeb, and that planet has no class missions but rather an Imperial and Republic storyline. I went through Imp-side with Midwan earlier and thought it was "mostly unmemorable" then, but tbh, it's not that bad! The Imperials saving the planet is cool. Though Makeb, like Belsavis, seems to be a planet designed to be played Republic first, since both of them have the Republic characters uncovering a mystery that's told to the Imperial characters right at the beginning. Here it's the fact that the planet is exploding.
The start cutscene is great, though – Kurebir trains and thwacks up some holo opponents
The Republic storyline itself is a fitting response: let's evacuate the planet! Isotope-5, the center of the Imperial questline, makes a small appearance as the power source for the huuuge ark the main Hutt occupier commissioned for his personal evacuation. Of course, we appropriate that. It's pretty standard heroism fare. Some of the NPCs were hilarious, like the mayor of that town we were sent to rescue, and we get to flirt with and kiss with Dr Lemda Avesta, the one who discovered the planet's gonna blow!
It all felt kinda OOC, though – I'd have thought that the dialogue options would be class-dependent, so that while the dialogue wheel gave the options "Yes, I'll do it", "I suppose I must", and "Your plan is crazy!", all of the classes would say something slightly different when selecting e.g. the "I suppose I must" response. As it was, a lot of the options other than the "Yes!!1!" option at the top – especially the flirt options – felt kinda OOC for my Knight. IDK. Well, I guess Kira now knows Kurebir's into women and they can bone when reunited post-Onslaught.
I think this is the point where I dinged 75 and sent over all of Midwan's iLvl 296 gear for Kurebir to wear? Kurebir wears the Onderonian Force-Lord's stuff better, though. The four flashpoints, albeit in a different order, were same enough. The frame story hit the same beats IIRC – it's been a while since Midwan vroomed through it – but a Jedi's reaction to Sith Lord Lana Beniko vs a Sith's reaction to SIS Agent Theron Shan is really different.
Waiting for Theron
Then it was time to start Shadow of Revan! The intro cutscene was nice, again, with Kira and Scourge sparring together and Doc being all "why do you spar with lightsabers, I can't reattach limbs with this equipment" before we headed to Rishi.
Also I figured out the outfit editor and put a less imposing coat on her plus a belt that didn't clip.
Rishi was really interesting in that while the plot was the same, the Republic side got way more explanation over what the fuck was actually going on wrt the Emperor and Revan (seriously, would it have been that hard to add that line of Marr's dialogue to the Empire side?) and Lana came across really differently to someone who disagreed with her on principle. Really manipulative. I like it, in a way. Even if we basically have no choice but to go along with her plan. I'm not taking any flirt dialogue options here – Kurebir is a lesbian with standards, and one of those is Sith Lords need not apply – so no kissing. Also, the dialogue options seem less OOC here, even the ones where I get to doubt something, so yay!
Walking away from an explosion like a very cool person.
Rishi also had a very small class mission! The Force Ghost of Master Orgus Din called, and told us to improve Rishi, which was his homeworld. I'd say this was my favorite Knight-specific quest in the game. I suspect I'm just really not into generic heroism stories so the focus on making the common people's lives better, with the Force Ghost of your Jedi Master giving commentary on how this small action will improve the world, really pushed all my buttons. It was a) a nice quest about actual Jedi stuff like helping people, and b) super heartwarming! Being me, I of course roleplayed a bit and had T7 as my companion for the repairing things, Doc as my companion for the healing people, and Kira as my companion for the Force usage. For a quest that mechanically is just "click on 13 things (combat optional)" it was really great!
I'll miss you, Master.
(As a side note, I hope Ossus has at least one quest that is similarly meditative! Maybe collecting soil samples?)
Then I found out that Theron got kidnapped by Revan due to Lana's treachery, and getting to talk to Theron and be all "nope, never trusted Lana!" was a novel experience. Haven't headed to Yavin yet. I like Yavin more as an environment, so let's see what it looks like now that I have my graphics update!
Gratuitous shot of the same scene as in the icon.
Speaking of graphics updates, I heard that Coruscant also has a planetary questline that I'd missed: the Gree droids. I swanned into the Senate Tower and WOW it looks pretty now that I've upgraded the graphics setting from Obsolescent Potato to Medium (without Bloom). The quests themselves were a bit basic, but great at delivering T7 influence (Someone: "I have a problem!" Me: "I will help you!" *T7-01 approves.*) and the contrast between the Senate Tower and the various ganglands really drove home how bad income inequality is on Coruscant. Especially with the Ugnaughts trying to keep the air filters going in Justicar territory, and the utter lack of social services. Anyway, this is what Kurebir looks on Medium graphics:
She's a bit shiny, but at least she doesn't look like she's made of plastic, unlike poor Midwan. The Togruta montrals/silhouette reminds me of Horus, though – especially with the Sun god like Senate Tower as a background:
I also started recording my play sessions – idk yet for what purpose. I'd say Let's Plays are dime a dozen, but sort of as a memento, or vidding purposes for the cutscenes, maybe? Hm. Anyway. Next up postwise is my smuggler's prologue (Ord Mantell + Coruscant); gamewise my smuggler's off to Taris, Kurebir's going to Yavin and then Ziost, Ziran is going to either go to Oricon or Makeb, or work her way through the planetary questlines (all of which she skipped), and Midwan's doing bonus series (next: Nar Shaddaa) and heroics (next: Corellia and Makeb). Still hoping to get the Remnant Arkanian Smuggler's Boots from a locked supply crate.
I've made the executive decision that my Smuggler's skipping the planetary questlines and Makeb for now. Maybe I'll do the planetary quests after I'm done with my class mission, like I'm doing with my Agent. I'll have to pick who's doing KOTFE+KOTET and who's skipping it, though, as I found it excruciating. Based on some poking around the Agent gets some unique dialogues so Ziran's going to go there, maybe (but I'll definitely pause after Ch 9 to do non-KOTFE stuff), but due to the way it borks companion influence gains from the old stuff I'm in no hurry. Everyone does Shadow of Revan for the little class quest there, but after that, I think I'll have to see whether taking my Smuggler in makes sense.
Kurebir Krait, Jedi Master, continued the plot! Screencap album. We last saw her at the end of ch 3.
Makeb! The Rise of the Hutt Cartel has one planet, Makeb, and that planet has no class missions but rather an Imperial and Republic storyline. I went through Imp-side with Midwan earlier and thought it was "mostly unmemorable" then, but tbh, it's not that bad! The Imperials saving the planet is cool. Though Makeb, like Belsavis, seems to be a planet designed to be played Republic first, since both of them have the Republic characters uncovering a mystery that's told to the Imperial characters right at the beginning. Here it's the fact that the planet is exploding.
The start cutscene is great, though – Kurebir trains and thwacks up some holo opponents
The Republic storyline itself is a fitting response: let's evacuate the planet! Isotope-5, the center of the Imperial questline, makes a small appearance as the power source for the huuuge ark the main Hutt occupier commissioned for his personal evacuation. Of course, we appropriate that. It's pretty standard heroism fare. Some of the NPCs were hilarious, like the mayor of that town we were sent to rescue, and we get to flirt with and kiss with Dr Lemda Avesta, the one who discovered the planet's gonna blow!
It all felt kinda OOC, though – I'd have thought that the dialogue options would be class-dependent, so that while the dialogue wheel gave the options "Yes, I'll do it", "I suppose I must", and "Your plan is crazy!", all of the classes would say something slightly different when selecting e.g. the "I suppose I must" response. As it was, a lot of the options other than the "Yes!!1!" option at the top – especially the flirt options – felt kinda OOC for my Knight. IDK. Well, I guess Kira now knows Kurebir's into women and they can bone when reunited post-Onslaught.
I think this is the point where I dinged 75 and sent over all of Midwan's iLvl 296 gear for Kurebir to wear? Kurebir wears the Onderonian Force-Lord's stuff better, though. The four flashpoints, albeit in a different order, were same enough. The frame story hit the same beats IIRC – it's been a while since Midwan vroomed through it – but a Jedi's reaction to Sith Lord Lana Beniko vs a Sith's reaction to SIS Agent Theron Shan is really different.
Waiting for Theron
Then it was time to start Shadow of Revan! The intro cutscene was nice, again, with Kira and Scourge sparring together and Doc being all "why do you spar with lightsabers, I can't reattach limbs with this equipment" before we headed to Rishi.
Also I figured out the outfit editor and put a less imposing coat on her plus a belt that didn't clip.
Rishi was really interesting in that while the plot was the same, the Republic side got way more explanation over what the fuck was actually going on wrt the Emperor and Revan (seriously, would it have been that hard to add that line of Marr's dialogue to the Empire side?) and Lana came across really differently to someone who disagreed with her on principle. Really manipulative. I like it, in a way. Even if we basically have no choice but to go along with her plan. I'm not taking any flirt dialogue options here – Kurebir is a lesbian with standards, and one of those is Sith Lords need not apply – so no kissing. Also, the dialogue options seem less OOC here, even the ones where I get to doubt something, so yay!
Walking away from an explosion like a very cool person.
Rishi also had a very small class mission! The Force Ghost of Master Orgus Din called, and told us to improve Rishi, which was his homeworld. I'd say this was my favorite Knight-specific quest in the game. I suspect I'm just really not into generic heroism stories so the focus on making the common people's lives better, with the Force Ghost of your Jedi Master giving commentary on how this small action will improve the world, really pushed all my buttons. It was a) a nice quest about actual Jedi stuff like helping people, and b) super heartwarming! Being me, I of course roleplayed a bit and had T7 as my companion for the repairing things, Doc as my companion for the healing people, and Kira as my companion for the Force usage. For a quest that mechanically is just "click on 13 things (combat optional)" it was really great!
I'll miss you, Master.
(As a side note, I hope Ossus has at least one quest that is similarly meditative! Maybe collecting soil samples?)
Then I found out that Theron got kidnapped by Revan due to Lana's treachery, and getting to talk to Theron and be all "nope, never trusted Lana!" was a novel experience. Haven't headed to Yavin yet. I like Yavin more as an environment, so let's see what it looks like now that I have my graphics update!
Gratuitous shot of the same scene as in the icon.
Speaking of graphics updates, I heard that Coruscant also has a planetary questline that I'd missed: the Gree droids. I swanned into the Senate Tower and WOW it looks pretty now that I've upgraded the graphics setting from Obsolescent Potato to Medium (without Bloom). The quests themselves were a bit basic, but great at delivering T7 influence (Someone: "I have a problem!" Me: "I will help you!" *T7-01 approves.*) and the contrast between the Senate Tower and the various ganglands really drove home how bad income inequality is on Coruscant. Especially with the Ugnaughts trying to keep the air filters going in Justicar territory, and the utter lack of social services. Anyway, this is what Kurebir looks on Medium graphics:
She's a bit shiny, but at least she doesn't look like she's made of plastic, unlike poor Midwan. The Togruta montrals/silhouette reminds me of Horus, though – especially with the Sun god like Senate Tower as a background:
I also started recording my play sessions – idk yet for what purpose. I'd say Let's Plays are dime a dozen, but sort of as a memento, or vidding purposes for the cutscenes, maybe? Hm. Anyway. Next up postwise is my smuggler's prologue (Ord Mantell + Coruscant); gamewise my smuggler's off to Taris, Kurebir's going to Yavin and then Ziost, Ziran is going to either go to Oricon or Makeb, or work her way through the planetary questlines (all of which she skipped), and Midwan's doing bonus series (next: Nar Shaddaa) and heroics (next: Corellia and Makeb). Still hoping to get the Remnant Arkanian Smuggler's Boots from a locked supply crate.
I've made the executive decision that my Smuggler's skipping the planetary questlines and Makeb for now. Maybe I'll do the planetary quests after I'm done with my class mission, like I'm doing with my Agent. I'll have to pick who's doing KOTFE+KOTET and who's skipping it, though, as I found it excruciating. Based on some poking around the Agent gets some unique dialogues so Ziran's going to go there, maybe (but I'll definitely pause after Ch 9 to do non-KOTFE stuff), but due to the way it borks companion influence gains from the old stuff I'm in no hurry. Everyone does Shadow of Revan for the little class quest there, but after that, I think I'll have to see whether taking my Smuggler in makes sense.
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