Seven Days of Herping and Derping In Space: Let's Play TOR!

[Commissar Draco]

Chis Imperial Agent, and 4.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Chis Imperial Agent, and 4.

Voting for class and race is already over (though we are going to be an Imperial Agent), also you need a secondary personality choice for when the game just doesn't have any herp to derp.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Chis Imperial Agent, and 4.

Voting for class and race is already over (though we are going to be an Imperial Agent), also you need a secondary personality choice for when the game just doesn't have any herp to derp.

Its is Bioware game it has to have Herp Derp Galore... but OK 4.2

 

[Krraloth]

4.2

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

After finishing the trial, I spent awhile playing around with new Champions on rotation in League of Legends, desperately trying to ignore the 750+ mb of of pictures in my Fraps folder. There's a lot of sorting, tossing out duplicates and editing in my future. But I guess it can't be avoided forever. As a bonus, you get two entries for the price of one!


Alright chums, let's do this.

"Like the dreams of a million Talimancers, our logo has burst into flames."

"We'll be doing this long after most of you are dead. Go ahead, enjoy your mockery."








The Intro




-Smuggler=Cowboys in SPAAAAAaccccccccceeee

-Gone for a millenia, and the Zabrak Jedi *still* knows exactly who's jumped onto their doorstep. Crazy leap of logic or bullshit Force precog?

-I'd laugh at Empire troops being just as haphazard as ever when it comes to aim, but I'm about to join their ranks.

-3500 years before Luke and Vader, or maybe 20 years before the Clone Wars in an alternate reality? I get wanting it to look similar to the films for people unfamiliar with the expanded universe, but FFS they have droidekas minus the force fields. The trooper is in Clone armor, etc.

-Those double-bladed sabers still look ungainly as ever. Guess you need a partner to cover your ass when you use one.

-And it's even worse when part of a dual wielding scenario.

-Sith retirement plan sucks.

PvE? Pfft.

I believe we've found our server.

WE ARE WAR, WE DO NO HAVE TIME FOR YOUR SECOND GUESSING SOLDIER! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, CRY HOME TO YOUR MOMMA AND SIGN UP WITH THOSE FAGS AT STARFLEET!

Speaking of bloated, namby pamby organizations...

Which leads into the Sith intro;





28 years of war after their reemergence, the Sith sack the capital of the Republic, Coruscant, and force a cease-fire. The Jedi get blamed, they don't take it well and run off to Tython to sulk.

Could kill you with a spork, but prefers thermal detonators.

Only level 10? Huh, guess I will get to play around with one of the Spec classes.

I was kind of expecting the Cyborg to be more...Gunther Hermann. This is clearly a JC.

My vision is augme-



Yes, yes I know the joke.

I think you need some good ol' fashioned space steroids, son.

...maybe that was a bit too much.

Now you're just being silly.

Yeah, this is more like it. He looks like a government spook, yet cultured and unlikely to snap and burn down a spaceport.

T'was going to name him Caius, but someone had beaten me to it. Still, our favorite fake Skooma addict got his tribute.

Remember when this was still novel? Yeah, me neither.

Welcome to Hutta, adopted home world of the Hutts. The moon to the left is Nar Shaddaa.

"Glorious jewel" my ass.

Wait for it, wait for it-

He really should have known better.

Nope, no one's looking. Feel free to duck into an alcove.

No, we're not talking to a wall. For awhile I honestly thought that due to this being a black op, communication was restricted to an audio-only transceiver, and not the blaring obvious holo technology. Wasn't till much later that I realized one of the client's settings doesn't play nice with my card. Gave Bioware too much credit.

Sith Empire= Imperialist Britain with high tech and even fewer moral qualms. Take the first posh, controlled yet slightly condescending english accent that pops into your head, and you've got Cosades.


Oh, and from now on I'll be posting the number I pick next to the resulting dialogue.

Don't get cute, and don't waste my time. You're here to work. You were chosen for this operation because of your exemplary performance during training. Imperial intelligence needs agents capable of working independently in the field.

(2) Give me background. What are we working from?

Jiguuna is an industrial town, and Nem'ro runs most of the industry. The Hutt plies weapons, drugs and raw materials--but not to us.

(3) And I'm your means of making that happen.

That's correct, agent. We need to know what Nem'ro and his advisors are thinking before we can act. I want you to obtain access to the Nem'ro clan's inner circle.

(1) How do I find him?

(1) Are we sure this contact is trustworthy?

Jheeg won't betray us; whether he succeeds at his assigned tasks is another matter. I'd be more concerned with the rest of the populace. Most of Jiguuna is caught up in a turf war. Some of the gangs involved belong to the Hutts; others are independent. Your combat training should see you through, but expect brutality and expect to be targeted. Jiguuna isn't friendly to strangers.

What a delightful man.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

One of the first things I do is turn off the alignment change indicators in conversations. We're talking to people, not navigating dark/light point totals.

As Cosades walks around, NPCs will have conversations you can listen to. This one's hard to miss, blocking the main path and all.


"You get those supplies the boss asked for?"


"Fa'athra's goons are out there puttin' holes in anything that moves! I'm not going anywhere!"


"This your first turf war? You want to get paid or not?"


"I want to keep breathing more."


"Breathing the air is as likely to kill you as Fa'athra's boys are. Buy a blaster, learn the routes through town. Just don't let the boss hear you dodging work because of a few gangsters."



So the chances of us getting to Jheeg peacefully are pretty much nil.

Alright, I heard you the first time.

How cute, the cut rate T3-M4 has its own generic Tri-Force. Let's see what it wants.

(2) You must be looking for someone else.

(1) I'll see what I can do.


If we're looking for an in with the old slug, it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of his dirty work.

Sitting opposite the mouthy little trash can...

(2) You make Hutta sound like such a wonderful place to be.

(2) Of course, there's always a catch.

Huttist!

(3) Some big, tough gangster you turned out to be.

We don't really need him to help build up a reputation, seeing as we're here to co-opt someone else's. Not to mention this involves potentially fighting some of Nemro's own men if things go down wrong. Hardly the best way to start things off. Pass.

(3) I have more important things to do.

(3) I told you already, I have better things to do.

The rest of the rooms in the starting building are just fluff and a useless store.

Every time we hit a new area or meet someone important, Cosades gets a bit of XP and a new codex entry.

The Codex is already open, so let's see if there are any other entries.

So that's what he looks like. Y'know it's kinda weird...Keeper is most likely supposed to be reminiscent of the Grand Moffs, but I can't help but remember the control crew from the 'The Last Starfighter' instead.

After we've found some of this guy's friends, we can use speeders to zip around instead of backtracking on foot. Even at the beginning of the game, the credit amount paid is piddling. 10-20 at the most.

Three things;

-Sure enough, as soon as we went a bit further along the path, the hordes appear. Little trash mobs all over the place.

-And what do you know, crates just left out in the open. In defense of the cover mechanic, at least its restricted to Agents and Smugglers, and optional. Though some of an Agent's abilities can only be used while hunkered down.

-Such as the one that called down an innocent little probe at the Fa'athra Gangster's feet.

And reacts explosively when you shoot it, which kills anything not a boss character at this point. Pretty fun to play around with.

Though my other cover skill, Snipe, isn't too shabby either.

Here's a rundown of them. Rifle Shot is your basic spray-and-pray auto-attack. Something I didn't learn until much later is that TOR isn't like other MMO's when it comes to AA. If you remove Rifle Shot from the ability bar to free up room, your AA no longer works. You actually need to keep it there. Kind of backwards in design these days.

Nothing special about Take Cover, it makes you do just that. Though I do like that when you toggle into it, the ability bar automatically shifts specialized skills to take precedent. It's not obvious now, but when my abilities start piling up, it become really handy.

Combined with a certain AOE attack you get later on, Agents are pretty competent at keeping enemy groups corralled and off their feet.

Hold on a minute, got aggro'ed.

Bit austintatious for a black op, eh? Why not have a full blown Imperial March blow through the ruddy streets of Jiguuna every time I level?

Get enough of these things on a planet/location, and you can go to special vendors for items quite a bit better than the normal stuff. Each hub has its own commendations.

Anyway, Snipe is what I used to pop that thug's head like a zit awhile back. Much quicker cooldown than Explosive Probe.

An Agents' group buff, more useful later on when we're not by ourself. The only other occupied keys are a Quick Travel (seperate from the speedsters), and Recuperation.

Phase locations are color-coded according to character type. If this store were something from the Sith Inquisitor storyline, the barrier would be red, and I wouldn't be able to pass.

I don't think that'll be an issue.

(3) Talk fast, I don't want to be seen with you.

Very fast, very good. You know the Red Blade? Small-time pirate. Rich. Mysterious. No one knows true species, gender, color.

The Red Blade has enough street cred that the mere rumor of him coming here can get Nem'ro's attention? Doesn't sound small time to me. And while no on knows his (or her) true appearance, people with names like that usually carry signature items or calling cards. This whole thing sounds shaky.

:3

(1) I'm not going to like this, am I?

Very likely, no. Gang steals from docks. Dangerous men, unaware of us. Nem'ro's tribute taken. But I saw everything--I observed well, yes?

(1) Let's make this fast and quiet then.



Not going to bother asking about buying the gifts back, Cosades has nearly nothing at the moment, and it might attract attention from people who actually know the Blade. We'll just wipe out anyone involved.

Gangsters are nearby--this is why we meet here. But advise significant caution. Targets are excellent shots. I will communicate plan to our handlers. Speak again once Nem'ro's tribute has been recovered.

Once outside, I decide to explore that suspiciously re-garrisoned building next door. In hindsight, a speeder probably wasn't the best form of cover when energy bolts are flying around.

But it did the trick. If dropped enemies have loot, their corpse does a little light show.

An alcove to the left contains a security chest you'll be seeing quite a bit more of while Cosades is still on Hutta. It refills regularly and typically contains a cache of credits and decent items. The force protecting it numbers about four, and at higher levels they die in one hit to even AA, so it takes no time at all to reach this thing and ruthlessly exploit it.

Speaking of better equipment...

The guards do reappear quickly though. Becomes a nuisance.

Oh well.

When I bring up the map to look for something, I notice a new quest marker's appeared in the starter area and make the trek back. The exterior looks a lot more colorful now than it did in the beginning cutscene.

Well well. Guess she has something to say to me now. Also, I remembered the Cyborg's unique ability 'Scan' at this point and play around with it a bit.

Far as I can tell, it doesn't do anything besides producing lensflare and bad FX.


Forget Gunther or JC, I...I'm beginning to think I'm the equivalent of Jojo Fine. Decorative augmentation.

(3) To be fair, you do seem a touch...hostile.

Dat Force Potential!

It's probably written somewhere that I'm obligated to direct Potentials towards a place they can be trained, but 'd like to have see the whole picture here. Only one way to do that.

(1) Let me go talk to him.

And since he trained trained to be a Sith once upon a time, I understand why even someone as driven as her decided not to be directly confrontational. She'd probably be in pieces on the tarmac.

If we don't want to end up the same way, this calls for a gentle touch.

But first, there's the matter of getting back all those opulent gifts meant for a fat, corrupt slug.

Not what I meant. Nice try though.

....moving along.

Looks like this is the place.

A guess immediately confirmed by half a dozen screen choking notices.

Plasteel Restraints belong to a category of items that are useful for nothing other than hawking wholesale to stores for a couple credits. Droids drop motivators and other parts, mercs drop blaster components, etc. If this were Star Wars Galaxies, there'd be professions for turning this stuff into new speedsters or other goods. But nobody would care, cause hey naked Twi'lek dance off by the Cantina!


Yes I do miss SWG. Why do you ask?

Taller, thicker, much better armed and armored. He's a boss. Wonder if I can give him a good "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!" and make him back down?

The plasma bolt eating through Cosades' head says no.

My skull has been au-



Shut it.

The bigger they are, the higher the XP multiplier when they die.

You'd almost think they didn't want me coming back at a higher level to kill indiscriminately.

Whatever.

This place has much better comps for return guests.

"In the untamed wilds that is Jiguuna, the intrepid hunter stalks his oblivious prey, lurking in the bush and watching for the right time to strike!"

"Triumphant, the hunter tends to wounds while guarding the spoils of his kill."

Truthfully I just like the Recuperate animation the Agent has, and wanted to show it off. Far as I can tell a probe projects new information files for him to comb through while Kolto heals wounds. Better than a static crouching animation at least.

All witnesses eliminated? Gifts recovered. I will examine.

What exactly are these "gifts"?

Frivolous, expensive. Aurodium idols from Republic Royalty. Tarul wine from Naboo. Tomuan wool Hutt robes. I contacted Imperial handlers. As assured, yes? The call is arriving now.

Jheeg. From this point forward, operational security will be at a premium. You will not contact us from this terminal again.

(2) Acknowledged and understood.

Your next task is to access Nem'ro's inner circle. Present yourself to the Hutt as a fellow gangster--The Red Blade--and offer him Jheeg's gifts.

(2) If someone suspects me, what should I do?

Use your judgement--silence them or allay their suspicions, as appropriate. But keep this in mind; at this juncture, our primary goal is to find weaknesses in Nem'ro's organizations. Even if the Hutt won't join us, we might influence his lieutenants.

(1) In that case, I better watch my mouth.

I expect my ears can handle it, "Blade." Be careful what you say, and lose the accent. When you're in the Hutt palace, you're no longer an Imperial. Contact me from the cantina once Nem'ro has his "presents". Keeper out.

That's great and all, but where are my new skills? Cosades want fancy tricks!

Hello combined AOE+Crowd Control. I think we're going to have a beautiful relationship. Now we just have to track down the elusive man who can teach us how to throw things at people, then stab the survivors with pointy objects.

There you are you little bastard.

 

[Storyfag]

Sith Empire= Imperialist Britain with high tech and even fewer moral qualms.