Hyperspace Beacon: There is no try
Before getting to the meat of this article, I want to give a shout out to Sam, Musco, Kimi, Fo, and even Brandon of TOROcast. This week marked their 100th week of recording a podcast dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I am extremely excited for them; I know they put a lot of work into their show each week. The team there has created a community of gamers you will find no where else. Congratulations, guys -- I cannot wait for your 200th episode. Hopefully the game will be released by then. (Crap, I forgot I'm supposed to hate these guys. Nevermind what I just said!)
As we get closer to the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I am suddenly hit with the fact that I will have to nail down exactly what I want to do when the game launches. I mean, I spend so much time talking about it that you'd think I'd have it narrowed down, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. The more I talk about the game, the more I find that there are some really incredible things I can do when the game actually launches.
What I figured I would do in this article is talk about some of the more off-the-wall ideas I'd like to try (I mean, do. Do or do not; there is no try.) Let me know if you think any of them are any good. Maybe you'd like to try them out yourself or even join me when the game launches. Follow me after the break and we'll talk about them.
Really quick question before getting into rest of this article: What do you think of the new headers? I wanted to get that SWTOR feel to them. They are modeled after the in-game UI, but I did them in all sorts of colors because I'm goofy like that. Make a comment about them if you like them -- or don't.
I've had this Republic-commandos guild idea for -- well, since the introduction of the Trooper class. However, when the class was later introduced as a tank or DPS class, it became clear that having a guild made up of all Troopers would not be viable, especially when you consider that this game is heavily built around the classic trinity. Without a healer in the group, we would fall flat rather quickly with every instance we attempted. But when Bounty Hunters were announced as having a healing specialization, I knew immediately that the Trooper would be spec'd similarly, given the class mirrors.
Forgive me for being a roleplayer in a roleplaying game, but I believe this would be one of the greatest ways to experience the game. Narrow the focus of the guild very tightly and only allow Troopers in. Employ a tight ranking system, or even a canon-esque naming convention, like TK-421. After that, you can make everything in-character, even voice chat. I don't believe there is any way that I could lead a guild like this because of the amount of dedication it entails, but I would definitely be interested in joining one.
We have been told by several SWTOR writers that the light-side Sith Inquisitor is one of the hardest playthoughs of a class story. Of course, because of the kind of twisted person I am, it sounded like a challenge to me. I mean, when I heard someone say that you cannot win at Mass Effect 2 by staying neutral, I had to give that a try. Granted, in that attempt, I lost a couple of key crew members and nearly lost loyalty on more one of my friends, but I did beat the end boss, and the majority of the Normandy crew survived. I count that as a win. However, I'd like to see if I can make a light-side Sith work better.
I do question whether it's going to be as easy as choosing the bottom choice in every dialogue wheel. We know from past discussions that the choice most optimal to the character will be at the top, the neutral choice is in the middle, and the bottom choice will be the unconventional one. I do hope that it's a little more complicated than that. Maybe there will be other ways of getting light-side or dark-side points that are not directly related to the dialogue tree. We'll see, because I'm definitely going to try it.
Similar to the Sith, we know that the optimal choices of the Smuggler class will be the top choices in the dialogue wheel. However, unlike the Sith, the top answer for the Smuggler will not be "evil" and will instead be a snarky or smart-alec answer. He was modeled after Han Solo, after all, right?
What would it be like if the Smuggler were all business? Can he be straight-laced and all about getting the job done all the time? The biggest question for me is this: Would he still be able to have a good romance arc -- or even a romance arc at all -- if he weren't wily? You have to admit that part of the reason Han Solo and Lando Calrissian were such great characters is their charm and wit. However, I hope there is another option built into the Smuggler story.
Above we restricted a guild by class, but what if we went the other way and restricted a guild to one species? I guess we could make an all-human guild, but that doesn't seem like a lot of fun. An all-Twi'lek guild, on the other hand, does have some appeal. Twi'leks have pretty much been confirmed for all Republic classes but the Trooper, so all the classic trinity roles will be filled. Hopefully, there will be some sort of traditional Twi'lek garb you can outfit everyone in -- like a specific bone crest or lekku wrap. Being the roleplayer that I am, I would also attempt to figure out a backstory for this group of Leks. Maybe we all are on a mission from the Goddess! We could all be Rutian Twi'leks and call ourselves the Blue Brothers!
Those are my silly ideas. What are yours? Let me know in the comments. Or maybe you'd like to join me in one of these wild adventures; let me know that, too. Until next time, may Kikalekki be your guide.
The Hyperspace Beacon by Larry Everett is your weekly guide to the vast galaxy of Star Wars: The Old Republic, currently in production by BioWare. If you have comments or suggestions for the column, send a transmission to larry@massively.com. Now strap yourself in, kid -- we gotta make the jump to hyperspace!
