Well it’s official, it’s been official for awhile actually,
the news regarding the fate of the Oceanic servers
has
been announced with further explanation
here.
I’ve got to admit, I was kind of disappointed with Bioware’s decision as were a
lot of other people. Their choice to close down the Asia-Pacific servers and
transferring us into 3 US servers was not well received though their reasons
for not merging the APAC servers were:
- Certain players would lose their preferred gameplay type
i.e. PvP, RP/PvE
- The current population issues would still exist.
I do understand the first reason but I would hardly think
that PvPers and RPers would care that much, as the players on the PvP server
would only lose open-world PvP and the players on the RP server would have to
mingle with people from PvP and Normal and possibly cop some harassment or
abuse but I think that’s completely tolerable.
The second reason, I along with the reason of the Australian
SWTOR community it seems really don’t understand, the representative from
Bioware, Eric Musco claimed the below:
“To clarify a bit more
about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like
to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of
merging all APAC into one. The other option on the table was to merge APAC into
the NA servers. When we discussed the options internally we looked to address
everyone’s primary issues with APAC, low populations were creating a less than
optimal game experience.
We went and looked at
what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it
simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the
population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue
times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we
decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.”
A lot of us were baffled by this, almost all of us were for
the server merge, and as player
keltzy replied:
“So having 100+ on
coruscant, 150+ on fleet, 3 instances of Ilum for gree event is not considered
Population? Each planet while questing had at least 30+ on it and that's just
PUB side on Dalborra”
Which was true in a way that Dalborra never really had that
much of a population problem, it was the other servers which had the issue and
merging the three into one would most definitely fix the issue. But as people
have said it seems this is more a financial move by Bioware rather than a
considered response to the community as I could see how shutting down the APAC
servers would be a more profitable solution then keeping them up.
I decided to stay with Academy Exemplar and move to Bergeren
Colony as I had been with them for a while now and didn’t really mind that much
playing on an RP server, I am not and have never been a Roleplayer but I didn’t
mind it and it’s pretty fun to see in action. We’re all on there now and are
setting up the Guild, getting people invited and organising operation/etc the
ping isn’t that bad (usually around 170ms) and I don’t really have that much of
a problem with it as I used to play WoW and I also don’t PvP at all really
though it is still a shame as the low ping was one of the main things SWTOR had
going for down this end of the earth.
But anyway we can’t dwell on the past and life goes on. I’ve
actually missed a month where I was playing and trying to remember what
happened So if I remember correctly I finished off Voss with my Jedi Guardian
Jxan, reached level 50, got my Tionese gear and was currently up to Corellia
which might be the final planet of the Jedi Knight storyline but was thinking
Ilum might be. I also finally got to grips with the last (non-heroic) space
missions and with the help of my Guildie and friend Nefash’s
Pilot Training school which
has great tips (like using the movement keys to doge enemy fire while aiming
with your mouse) and also I shelled out the Cartel Coins for the three Grade 7
ship upgrades pack which made things much, much easier especially with the
specific functional ones.
Unfortunately though when I tried some heroic space missions, it required you
to have grade 7 ship armor so you can guess I failed hard and pretty much gave
up doing Space missions until I just want to either farm the old ones or try
harder with the heroics but goddamn there SO MUCH STUFF SHOOTING YOU
aaaaaaargh! but anyway practice makes perfect.
Regnant Station Assault - Republic Heroic Space Mission by Nefash, damn he does it well
I had finished off Alderaan and helped House Thul to conquer
this time instead of House Organa and started Taris on my Sith Assassin Kxan.
Taris is interesting on the Empire side as one of the two planets
with dramatically different questing levels
for the Republic and Empire (Balmorra is the other) it seems that Taris though
is in a completely different instance of the world as it contains the same
locations but the npc’s and setup are different and it always seems to be at
night time. The end of the Sith Assassin questline on this planet was quite
important as I finally was able to get
Ashara Zavros
as my companion and could start gaining light side points to my hearts content
without fear of affection loss though recently it put me in deeper thought
about it yet again, it’s becoming the most contentious thing about my SWTOR
playing.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4llDRczhqVLPK-hy2KbS16YjAmCAXJCUzrocTqp1UjyAG7Oq-4Ot0XsZB3fP6eLLYuSmoAGyl_Bk1F8m8UYAew0BIP3nQU5Urq8xaaHOX8WaAzPC07d5uy34g3z7Bdl6c73nwzbljWD2/s400/Taris-Rep2.png) |
Republic Taris, happy days in the ruins |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4PGVAcsskQGJO4109iXxIYYeeEEt6dzCXDm3JSP2V1PbsS0AeBHABJW45nEdNjwdrNmnTvP5XrWNOH1DlrM0ny1Cw-hvTt1mo3JNZofkj9MibrHDEkMVeMaMpGMDupso6fO0fKYQmUMb/s400/Taris-Empire.jpg) |
Empire Taris, moonshadow |
I had a good think about the issue of Dark/Light side
favouring when I was faced with the situation again after getting to 10000
affection with T7 on Jxan as I though the logical step would be for me to use
Lord Scourge as he’s a tank but he does quite a bit of damage too possibly more
than T7 and plus I could make gear for him having the Synthweaving skill, I
then realised though that I was almost full light sided (9650) and It would be
a shame not to get the achievement and see the purchasable items once I was
full light though to be honest I did look at what was available from the
Light Side Vendor but apart from a
vanity pet and speeder that I didn’t want anyway she doesn’t really have much
apart from some pretty good relics.
So the bottom line is I’ll probably just be
striving for full light just to get the achievement which is enough I guess, I
would have gotten it not so long ago had it not been for the time I was trying
to use this Lightsabre that I got which need Dark I (1000 points in Dark side)
and ended up getting 600 points in Dark side which I now regret as before I
even got up to using the sabre I replaced it with something better. I think
that I might just go light or Dark depending on the situation though I’ll still
try and get to full Light or Dark with a character before going back down (or
up) again just for the affection of a companion as it seems the best way to do
things though I get the idea that doing Dark side choices all the time might get
a bit disheartening, and doing all Light side choices would seem a bid bland
and boring but I haven’t really experienced that tbh.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3AONcC-hRT5FqXT1mW1GW5ijG6AGSi5Pqf12lCe50yViPY19PiVOZDGt0ue2RtibElMEpIClxeQUstetFb3bIx7IpzAQhyVu_aomON5ewq5kMWXQuJSxynMd_be2H_64WafH7oo1DuI89/s400/Companion-affection.jpg) |
Is it worth the toll on your conscience and good reputation to gain the affection of some slightly evil or ill-intentioned companions? I'll find out when Lord Scourge is my companion, he even wins the "evil-off" between him and Khem Val |
So my Sith Assassin now has Ashara as his companion and I am
free to choose Light side and the “good guy” number 1 options to my hearts
content though I’ll still have to watch what I’m doing not just blindly pick
good options like I do with T7 on my Guardian. I have some regret that I didn’t
just go Dark as soon as I got Khem Val as now I have kinda decided to just go
dark when he is with me and I lost so many points picking light side options
with him around but anyway live and learn and I’m not going to start my
Assassin over again I’ve done that twice already lol. When I stopped at level
40 I had just completed chapter 1 of the Inquisitor storyline (or 2 I can’t
remember?) and have finished Alderaan and Taris and am currently heading to
Quesh to save my new apprentices.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9-PMyKrMcqYptHQfO7C3l66XJZxFspNscaKS7EuVfP7jVFAeosMR6NRF5tBE0HDDNJCQllJQXYmj4ToMqoxIO7Rv6lIJUI7X9b30fqW9bqmShitQhySu5QJI5XT4enOOTTbd-dnXqIcn/s1600/ashara-pray.png) |
Ashara Zavros, don't make her go against her teachings as she repeatedly says, fortunately I have no intention of doing that. |
I’ve noticed though that lately the Sith Inquisitor campaign
that the character you play is kind of stupid, especially if you pick the Light
Side of the force though it seems you’re forced to do foolish things
regardless, I don’t want to spoil the story but repeatedly walking into Sith
Lord’s Tombs and confronting powerful Sith Lords when you’ve been warned not to
(only to be beat down on) is not a good idea I’ll admit that my preference for
Light Side makes me a bit naive especially when you willingly follow her orders
and never question but I’m not really enjoying the Sith Inquisitor storyline
that much anymore. It was great fun when you started on Korriban as a slave and
I kept humble picking non-threatening conversation options and Light Side
decisions and it was funny to see the reactions to my unusual kindness, but now
it’s all “I’m out there for myself and am going to destroy all opposition: (and
fail a bit too) but nevertheless I’ll see how we go with the rest of the
storyline.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5WNpWd48-bQnkvOVJhKd0uLSnxcNu1ridKzRx52oEfHe4r4RJa0uU8gc_jwzfj3MWjm_nFPTEHGqarRUCRF8GqbePDA-LUc1ufQBZIBWnu8_xOI_NfUiot2QLWciCEo2Tjt3CSF6uMqai/s400/Kxan-Cool.jpg) |
This is an old shot of Kxan, but it's SO COOL |
WARNING: JEDI KNIGHT STORYLINE SPOILERS AHEAD
I finished off Corellia with Jxan and managed to get T7 to
max affection, I also managed to finish off T7’s questline which involved doing
nothing at all really just a whole series of conversations of some kind of
conspiracy in the
Galactic
Republic Senate and then T7 “worked it out” then that was it. It turns out
that Kira is one of the “main” companions or perhaps “the” main companion in
the Jedi Knight storyline, whether or not all romanceable companions have
multiple side quests remains to be seen. After Coreilla there was pretty much
just the finale with the Battle against the Emperor and there was some
interesting conversations with all of my crew members and I had to be careful
not to lose any affection with any of them. The finale of the Jedi Knight
storyline was a pretty easy affair we ended up making a 6 man assault on an
instanced version of Kass City and the Sith Temple which was pretty lame as the
security was very minimal, it’d be funny if they asked you to storm the place
in real-time on the server as you’d have to pick a time where almost no-one
would be online heh.
During this final mission you were forced to use T7 as your
companion as anyone else would fall to the Emperor’s powerful will much to the
annoyance of many players who hasn’t used T7 since level 15 unlike me who had
recently gotten him to max affection and upgraded his gear. The actual fight
with the Emperor was pretty straightforward and kind of un-epic as 1. I had
Epic Tionese Gear 2. I was level 54 and 3. My T7 had up-to-date gear. The
Emperor splits into many clones who attack and I died the first time but the
second time you could actually start with your focus on the real Emperor so you
just attack him and let T7 tank them all and that’s pretty much that though
Lord Scourge gets kind of angsty depending on what you do after you have
defeated him. And so after all that you escape and fly back to a hero’s welcome
about one of the republic starships with Master Satele Shan and a crowd of
other people you’ve met doing the storyline missions in various planets which
pretty much looks like every other ending in the Star Wars movies with you and
your crew being exalted with your efforts, even Lord Scourge your reluctant
Jedi-buddy.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxEh4pd9nvZf-VWzJSaEEFwiw9ntazYwC5H3ZB4wa1yR9NUqh0JMw_D0NK7jx_xhlR9fuBJYZIdXkn39HhCMn0FLXZosgJ6Pg3Gl6ILD49bhk1t8MMdHvltm9g0I6OG7eQgBEiWLH3LZ2L/s400/Jedi-Knight-companions.jpg) |
Unfortunately this isn't me, I kind of forgot to take screenshots during the one-time-only ceremony. go me anyway this is a shot from it. |
The thing I want to know is, if in the Jedi Knight storyline
you’re the one who defeats the Emperor, how the hell do the other Republic
class storylines finish? I suppose they are all separate from each other. Also
I now have 10000 Light side points from finishing the storyline but apparently
you still don’t get the achievement for being full Light side until you
“alignment” is 100% so what that means is I’m going to have to “reduce” my
remaining 550 dark side points which seems to be what happens when you are full
light but not zero dark.
THE SPOILERS BE ENDED
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdphlr0ukMVLh7y1EDw2mwby1V2IrXZF8tXGcHNmADBWIMrFNXEVuXyjF9p7zYGHXC6D1DLaR6tqSQ4P9wLlbWniLSz7CIjIsYmHl8DmXlyZ_UHm7b0OaTdbKCpq1Lj2ahBzBOg_ATLgAd/s400/dark&light-slider.jpg) |
So basically what this thing is saying it, I'm not Light V yet cause I still got some Dark in me but apparently I can fix my "alignment" by doing more "good" things. Who says you can't fix your past? |
So all’s well that ends well, next stop: Ilum and maybe some
actual High End stuff like Operations etc, if I’m going to get all the extra
non-daily stuff done on other planets I’m gonna have a heap to do really, what
I’d give for a larger quest log. Finally in some somewhat related news a US
Academic has
rewritten
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in Shakespearian, which is sure to be a
lot of fun to read plus the illustrations are pretty cool too.
JD
And ever shall the
Force remain with thee