...okay let me get the timeline here
, 23 years ago the DC act was enacted, by then Apollo was 3. Apollo says he lost contact with Dhurke at age sixteen...was he still living with him? I mean, Apollo had a best-friend he knew in grade school, was said friend also Khur'ainese? Its not THAT much weirdness, but still pretty there.
Just going to take a minute here to do a little ranting about SWTOR and companions. In particular, missed opportunities and glaring omissions.
1) This is a big one: Your companions are completely meaningless through Shadow of Revan. They have no dialogue and don't interact with anyone. Why is that so glaring? Well, for the Bounty Hunter or Smuggler, for example, it's no big deal, but when you play through as a Jedi Knight, one of your companions is Lord Scourge, the Emperor's Wrath. He is literally the Sith that killed The Exile and helped defeat Revan 300 years ago. He should be a fairly major player in the scenario, but he isn't. I mean, he actually ought to show up in all classes going through Shadow of Revan as a special NPC.
2) Companions that even the people making the game didn't really give a shit about. In particular, Xalek and Tanno Vik. Xalek gets basically no character development and he's essentially a trophy for your Inquisitor. Tanno Vik is just a hired thug with some useful demolition skills for the Trooper. Hell, as for Fallen Empire, Vik just goes back to running a gang and even if his old leader shows up, he doesn't give a fuck. Xalek at least gets some development, having become a Sith Lord in his own right in the meantime.
3) Companions that suddenly change skillset once recruited. Broonmark starts off using a stealth infiltrator device, like an Operative. Once you recruit him, he doesn't. Gault Rennow uses pistols and grenades like a Scoundrel (which, since he's a con artist, makes sense). Once you recruit him, suddenly he's using a sniper rifle. Torian Caldera starts off using a sniper rifle and acting as a tracker. Recruit him, and he focuses instead on using an Electrostaff. Skadge uses a blaster pistol until you recruit him, when it's suddenly all about techblades and other melee weapons.
1) This is a big one: Your companions are completely meaningless through Shadow of Revan. They have no dialogue and don't interact with anyone. Why is that so glaring? Well, for the Bounty Hunter or Smuggler, for example, it's no big deal, but when you play through as a Jedi Knight, one of your companions is Lord Scourge, the Emperor's Wrath. He is literally the Sith that killed The Exile and helped defeat Revan 300 years ago. He should be a fairly major player in the scenario, but he isn't. I mean, he actually ought to show up in all classes going through Shadow of Revan as a special NPC.
2) Companions that even the people making the game didn't really give a shit about. In particular, Xalek and Tanno Vik. Xalek gets basically no character development and he's essentially a trophy for your Inquisitor. Tanno Vik is just a hired thug with some useful demolition skills for the Trooper. Hell, as for Fallen Empire, Vik just goes back to running a gang and even if his old leader shows up, he doesn't give a fuck. Xalek at least gets some development, having become a Sith Lord in his own right in the meantime.
3) Companions that suddenly change skillset once recruited. Broonmark starts off using a stealth infiltrator device, like an Operative. Once you recruit him, he doesn't. Gault Rennow uses pistols and grenades like a Scoundrel (which, since he's a con artist, makes sense). Once you recruit him, suddenly he's using a sniper rifle. Torian Caldera starts off using a sniper rifle and acting as a tracker. Recruit him, and he focuses instead on using an Electrostaff. Skadge uses a blaster pistol until you recruit him, when it's suddenly all about techblades and other melee weapons.
Apollo could have gone to school when with Dhurke, he didn't have a name that would have been shunned.
1.) The only people who know that Scourge did this that AREN'T dead already are ether on the Sith or Jedi Councils, the fate of which is unknown after the events of Fallen Empire, want him dead, or served with him.
2 and 3.) These tie together. The reason you get 5 companions is because each companion used to fill a role: Ranged Tank, Ranged DPS, Melee Tank, Melee DPS, or Healer. Some of these characters were entirely tacked on to fill this arbitrary headcount and thus use different weapons than they did during the story for various reasons related to this.
Sure but that doesn't mean they make sense for the character or the mechanics.
I like Gault. He's funny. But he also seems like he could very well have been a "mission control" type character or a contact rather than a full companion. Personally I see no reason why Torian couldn't have been the ranged DPS character, and then maybe instead have the option to recruit Thana Vesh as melee DPS or melee Tank. Think about it - you constantly show her up on Taris, and it gets under her skin: how can this non-Force user defeat Jedi Masters, slay terrifying beasts, take down armies of droids, and constantly best a Sith? So she starts to follow you, and on one of the interlude planets, she challenges you again. If you win, you get the option to recruit her. Dark Side romance option.
I always assumed this was a product of the game going through like 10 different development teams because people kept quitting
It does feel that way frequently.
I like the game. I like enough to be a subscriber. But damn if there aren't some times when it just leaves you with major questions.
Also, the Eternal Championship is annoying. But I realized a very large part of my problem is that my influence levels with my crew aren't very high, which means presence is low, and thus the companion isn't as effective as they need to be. For example, my highest 2 with that character are Lara Beniko and T7-O1, at level 18 and 17 respectively.
Oh yeah... that's an issue. It's doable with someone at 20, but much easier with someone at 40+.
I tried the Pokemon trading card game online after I got myself some booster packs etc that had code cards in them. I'm hooked! Can't stop.
Hmm.
You asked about possible effects of beta blockers, but I don't know what all medications you are on, and you might want to ask your doctor about the possibility of some other potential side-effects of your other meds, if they're related.
Note that these effects are tied to the medication, not the disease. This was just the first site I hit that mentioned it.
--Patrick
I'll have to google the one I'm on and check. Some of the meds I'm on have the weirdest side effects. The IV infusion I'm on has some super scary ones and some really embarrassing ones that kind of terrify me.
I've only been on them a short while and I've had plenty of video game obsessions before. Like Diablo
I've only been on them a short while and I've had plenty of video game obsessions before. Like Diablo
By IV, are you making a reference to the Pokemon term for Inherent Values, or what IV normally means?
... you probably mean the second one.
I mean an IV treatment at an infusion clinic. I go there and they hook me up and monitor me for a few hours while the IV runs.
fade
Staff member
I am getting burned out on SWTOR. I subscribed, mostly to try the different classes. I finished the Consular class story, and switched to a trooper. I also tried a Knight, and my original smuggler. Geez, the smuggler gunslinger is way overpowered compared to the rest of these. Even the trooper, which was a bit surprising. But I guess that class focuses more on survival. Most fights with the smuggler are resolved in one turn with the blaster sweep.
This will be true, right until it isn't, then you'll understand why Gunslingers still get some of the Scoundral survivability stuff. Personally, I prefer being able to stealth in and out of fights, especially the tough one on one battle sin Fallen Empire.
What Troopers/Bounty Hunters give up in damage, they get back in mobility and surviability. They get barriers, knockbacks, stuns, pulls, grapples... it's lots and lots of control and it's great. Commandos/Mercaneries are inferior to Vanguards/Powertechs in basically every way except range though.
And range is never as much of a benefit as you'd think, because things are CONSTANTLY getting in your face at high level. And while gunslingers do huge damage early on, their lack of armor and shields later on does present a problem with certain elites or bosses. Mercenaries do have a good rotation with tracer missile and rail shot though.
Also the Consular story really dragged early on, to me, and the Trooper just kind of doesn't have much of a story. With the Trooper they basically sprung a twist WAY too early, and then kind of coast from there. I mean, you're literally halfway through the prologue when *BAM*
the guys you've met like 20 minutes ago are traitors, half-assedly try and kill you, and leave to join the Empire
play Ord Mantell completely straight, giving you a full world to bond with Havoc Squad, then as you do missions on Coruscant, have the dissatisfaction with politics and butting heads with General Garza start to show. When you get send out to Taris, the pointless fight over ruins there lets the bitterness overflow and illustrates how the Republic fails to value its best soldiers. Between missions on Balmorra, you find the other members of your squad making secret arrangements and keeping you out of things. By the time Havoc Squad defects, it actually means something to you, instead of being "Mustache guy, obviously evil guy, big black guy, other guy, obviously evil chick", probably at the end of Chapter 1. The interlude would be a court-martial type scene to show your character wasn't part of the defections, then Chapter 2 would be recruiting a new squad capable of taking down the defectors from the Republic's Special Forces, and then doing so, then Chapter 3 would be stopping the superweapon and turning the tide of the war.
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The Delusions of Von Sottendorf and his square mind
Despite having the graphics of a glitchy PS1 game, I fucking LOVE this! You play as an insane toy-baron trying to escape his own mind, via a mix of platforming and puzzle solving in rearranging where the squares are. I also love how they explain timed levels, where its the Baron's screaming fear of time catching up to him and if he doesn't complete the level he'll be lost in time forever!
Minor complaint, SOME monsters are really confusing to kill, but it adds to the challenge so I'm cool.
Despite having the graphics of a glitchy PS1 game, I fucking LOVE this! You play as an insane toy-baron trying to escape his own mind, via a mix of platforming and puzzle solving in rearranging where the squares are. I also love how they explain timed levels, where its the Baron's screaming fear of time catching up to him and if he doesn't complete the level he'll be lost in time forever!
Minor complaint, SOME monsters are really confusing to kill, but it adds to the challenge so I'm cool.
Lords of the Fallen: Think of Dark Souls. Then make it look like Warcraft, act like Call of Duty, and have a generic as hell world and class set-up, with no impact from colliding objects and a hit box that is essentially a sphere around the enemy.
Bleh.
Bleh.
It's also horribly unbalanced.
Didn't get far enough to find out. 10 minutes was enough to see it was trash.
Eh, it's not really bad, it's just Great Value Dark Souls
Basically this. It's worth a single run through, but it's not quite the excellency we're used to from the Souls series. The upcoming Nioh however... that's looking like it has potential, if the demo was any indication.
If the combat is crap, that's going to be a big turn-off for me nowadays since that's what you do in the majority of a game (if it's that kind of game). And this floaty, no-collision detection combat where the targeting decides to fuck off if you so much as touch a wall, isn't something I want to put up with for 12 hours of the game's running length. It reminds me of Dragon Age combat, without the stuff that made Dragon Age worth playing. Maybe it's better on PC.
Every time you post something like this, all I can think of is "Didn't you love the Godzilla game?!"
But I honestly have no room to throw shade, because two of my favorite games from last year were Dragon Ball Xenoverse and WWE 2K16, both merely mediocre games if I'm to be honestly critical, but saved because I love the themes.
Godzilla had collision detection. Godzilla PS4 > Lords of the Fallen
.I liked Xenoverse too; its gameplay and character creation were great. I just couldn't get over how grindy it is.
figmentPez
Staff member
I started playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer
The link has a program that creates a ROM of ALttP with the location of most chests semi-randomized (among other things). Any given seed should be able to be completed, but beyond not placing key items in chests you can't get to without that item, and each dungeon still having it's keys, map, compass, & big key, you can end up with items scattered in wild places. In my run thus far I've found the Hookshot before the Boomerang, and I found it in a chest in Kakariko village. I've also got the Moon Pearl, Magic Cape, and L2 Shield, but I haven't even finished the first dungeon yet.
I found out about it when YouTube suggested a video that's part of this Let's Play:
There are also randomizers for the original Zelda, Super Mario World, and Metroid out there, that I know of.
The link has a program that creates a ROM of ALttP with the location of most chests semi-randomized (among other things). Any given seed should be able to be completed, but beyond not placing key items in chests you can't get to without that item, and each dungeon still having it's keys, map, compass, & big key, you can end up with items scattered in wild places. In my run thus far I've found the Hookshot before the Boomerang, and I found it in a chest in Kakariko village. I've also got the Moon Pearl, Magic Cape, and L2 Shield, but I haven't even finished the first dungeon yet.
I found out about it when YouTube suggested a video that's part of this Let's Play:
There are also randomizers for the original Zelda, Super Mario World, and Metroid out there, that I know of.
ProJared always finds interesting things to play, that seems kinda neat.
GasBandit
Staff member
He was one of the better things about Screw Attack before it started to suck. Him, Brentalfloss and Kieth Apicary were tons of fun.
I picked up Pokemon X for my 2DS. It's so cute!
Still playing Dragon Quest 8 in my off time.
Man, grinding is strong with this one. It's a very relaxing game to listen to audiobooks while playing.
Also, I fucking LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the monsters. Hipsters are the greatest monster design in any video game ever.
You let your down, down, you thrust your pelvis HUAH, you thrust your pelvis HUAH, you thrust your pelvis HUAH!
Man, grinding is strong with this one. It's a very relaxing game to listen to audiobooks while playing.
Also, I fucking LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the monsters. Hipsters are the greatest monster design in any video game ever.
You let your down, down, you thrust your pelvis HUAH, you thrust your pelvis HUAH, you thrust your pelvis HUAH!
figmentPez
Staff member
Been playing more of this game, and it really turns a lot of things on their heads. I have six hearts and I've yet to even gain access to the second or third light world dungeons, but I have:
- Both glove/strength upgrades
- Flute/ocarina
- Hookshot
- Hammer
- Magic Cape
- Moon Pearl
- Flippers
- Bombos
- Two Bottles
.... as well as the Bow, Lantern, Red Shield, Bug Net, and Boots you'd expect to have around the time you finish the first dungeon.
What I'm missing, most notably, are the magic mirror and the Book of Mudora. Without them, I don't know how to get into the second and third light world dungeons. Thanks to features of the randomizer, I can't get stuck in Dark World, because a death or reload will bring me back to the light world, but without the mirror I can't travel back and forth on command.
I've done a fair bit of exploring of the Dark World dungeons, though. I think I've gotten all the chests from Blind's hideout, and most of the chests in the dark forest dungeon, but I haven't been able to even come close to beating either boss. I've explored maybe half of Misery Mire, but it's brutal with my amount of hearts, basic sword and green tunic. I've made even less progress in the Ice Palace.
Not sure what my next step is, maybe using the magic cape to bust my way into the palace to fight Agahnim? In any case I'm having a lot of fun.
EDIT: Killed Agahnim, didn't really do anything. Beat the first dark world dungeon, more hearts is good, cane of Byrna is not bad. Finally thought to check the flute kid in the dark world. He gave me the Book of Mudora. Second light world dungeon here I come... tomorrow. Now I need to get some sleep.
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SWTOR fashion update, I guess:
Remnant Arkanian and Dreadguard Inquisitor Gear looks awesomely creepy.
No more creepy mask for Verdugo
New Character: Smuggler Pilara Torgrena, a Republic Sith.
Mahavir in his PVP gear. Cost a lot of data crystals.
Other new Character: H'rrao Mreran, Republic Trooper (will be Vanguard)
Remnant Arkanian and Dreadguard Inquisitor Gear looks awesomely creepy.
No more creepy mask for Verdugo
New Character: Smuggler Pilara Torgrena, a Republic Sith.
Mahavir in his PVP gear. Cost a lot of data crystals.
Other new Character: H'rrao Mreran, Republic Trooper (will be Vanguard)
You have GOT to up your graphics settings.
What graphics card should I get for a 5 year old Dell Inspirion?