The Old Republic Review

When expectations meet reality.
During last Gree event the amount of sales significantly increased during the 2nd half of the event.
This time however I couldnt observe such a development.
I assume that this is related to the long easter weekend where people have more time to grind and dont have to rely on market sales.
Only yesterday I noticed a slight increase in sales (not enough to make my excited).

However, expectations vs reality can also work in the opposite way.
My massive investment in large amounts of specific commodities (which so far I couldnt sell back with profit) has lead me to the expectation of roughly 20 mio credits losses.
While I was cleaning my inventories and organizing the special items I also transfered the money that was spread over the 12 chars to my main char just to notice that instead of 20mio losses I made 25mio profit over the past month. A welcome surprise.
I lost a bit the overview since I always was buying commodities with one char but transfered them to the other chars so I can sell more items (by bypassing the sales limit per char).
I knew that I made a few very good deals but thought that the continious investments would have eaten up all the profits.

I am wondering if I should try to get an unstable lightsaber (they cost almost 70mio credits now).

Well... maybe I will just wait and hope that someday they are for sale at the cartel market. 70 mio is too expensive.
When they are for sale on the cartel market I give my lightning tuning back and use the cartel coins for that light saber. The lightning tuning is worth less than 70mio credits on the GTN.

I had a bit time to try the the Sith Inquisitor storyline (Lightning Sorcerer). I am always surprised how different these classes are and how different the storylines feel.
The dark side usually isnt something I would identify with but its really fun to play.
My Sith lady is really badass. Not many quest NPCs survive the cutscenes. Everyone who disagrees with me gets electro-shocked or struck down by my lightsaber. Vader never was such an evil bastard.
Its also interesting that my master tried to kill me but failed. Now she has to follow my orders. The next higher ranked Sith lord wants to kill me now.
The Sith Inquisitor storyline makes you paranoid.... either you kill or you get killed and potentionally everyone is a threat.
Oh, and I meanwhile have a Jedi padawan after I killed her master. She still believes in the light side but her anger grows. Ill give her some time, she will taste the darkness.

Generally I am very surprised that the class stories never get boring. They so far have very different styles and offer different motivations to play.
The Jedi Knight is the great hero who challenges the emperor and fights his way though the imperial forces.
The Jedi Consular on the other side goes the more diplomatic way and tried to find allies which fight together for the republic.
The Smuggler is the troll who constantly makes bad jokes and poses while chasing the guy who stole the smugglers ship. Smartass holo chats with the enemies and some illegal activities included.
The Soldier is driven by duty and the task to catch criminals and traitors.

And now the Sith Inquisitor is driven by gaining more power and trying not to loose it.

Didnt have much time to play this week.
Just finished the Sith Inquisitor storyline which was the most intense one so far.
It was dark, violent and full of distrust.

Having a member of the Sith counsil as enemy didnt seem to be hard enough.
Having a master that wants to kill you.... a Jedi padawan which could turn against you anytime... and a new Sith apprentice that probably would do the same.

So far the end battle of the Sith Inquisitor also was the most intense one. Becoming a Darth and member of the Sith counsil isnt that easy.
Playing the dark side was a bit unusual for me... but I got along with most dark side decisions because they mostly were directed at bad guys. Only once I felt sorry about a required decision... when I had to torture a Selonian.
They are cute.

Putting that storyline aside I just got a bit into crafting, which so far I ignored (bad mistake).
I still have much to learn.

This week is another Rakgul event but well... just like the last time I will ignore it.

Again not much time past week.
I focused a bit on crafting and leveling companions but thats it.

I got the Imperial Agent story started but didnt get far with it.
Without the XP bonus the progress is very slow and I dont really have the feeling that the story of this class is that good.
Maybe that will change... dunno.

Past week I make some good progress with the Imperial Agent class storyline but decided to stop when I reached level 70 (in the middle of chapter 3).
Reason for that is a bonus XP week and after level 70 I simply dont get XP anymore. So I decided to focus on a low level char where I can make use of the bonus.

I will finish the agent storyline somewhen next week (when the bonus doesnt matter anymore).

About the story I can tell so far that in the beginning it was pretty boring.
Terrorists destroyed a star destroyer and killed 3000 people.
I was appointed to investigate and kill the terrorists.
The first chapter was all about this topic and everything felt a bit enacted. And it was that way....
At the end of that chapter you have to make decisions which turn the story into a different direction.
You become a double agent and do jobs for the republic and the empire.
Very soon you notice that people of both sides try to manipulate you but you get help from an ex-agent that is seaking revenge.
The story gets pretty complicated and its hard to trust anyone.
In the end you find out that there is a 3rd faction in the game manipulating the others.
Since I didnt finish the last part of the story I have no idea how this will end. At least I can tell that the weak story from the first chapter did spice up.

AND

The imperial agent definitely has the coolest ship in the game.

I guess the next story class will be bounty hunter.
Fits well since currently there is a bounty event running.

Another week passed by and unfortunatly RL made my gaming plans a bit tricky

I didnt manage to get the imperial agent story finished (or even touched for a single minute) but I at least was able to use the XP bonus to level the bounty hunter char a bit.
Story wise (I only played a bit of the story) the bounty hunter is pretty interesting in the first chapter.
You take part in a bounty hunt competition that periodically is held by the Mandalorians.
Also non-Mandalorians can take part to prove their skills.
Task is to find and kill a specific target to gain points in this competion while a 2nd bounty hunter also has to kill that target. In the end you need kill your target and prevent (kill) that the other bounty hunter makes a point.
At the end of the competition you join Mandalore and the winners of the past years. Eventually you become member of Mandalores clan and his representative while he leads his troops into war.
From that point on you have access to a black list. The best bounty contracts available.

The bounty hunter story definitely feels more motivating than the imperial agent one.

While focusing on making use of the XP bonus as bounty hunter I also took the chance play a bit the bounty hunt event that was running that week.
I still required to do a few more bounty contracts (just a few) in this event to max out the bounty hunt reputation.
So now I have finished my 2nd reputation (Gree + Bounty).
There are still many other reputations to finish but I wont push on that. I made some progress on the other reputations by playing the regular game content so there currently is no need to focus on that.

I want to keep my focus on the story and there is still much to discover.

And... the imperal agent aswell as the bounty hunter storyline are done.

Imperial Agent ended as boring as it started. Dunno, I was missing something during this storyline.
Bounty hunter on the other side was alot more enjoyable eventhough the whole story is just driven by revenge. Well, why not.
It at least did fit.

Now I still have the Sith Warrior story. I assume after playing ranged weapon classes for such a long time now the step to lightsaber combat wont be easy.

yeah but thats the key problem actually
a lightsaber practically is a large stick.... not a boomerang

you have one throw

yeah but here its an ability that has a pretty long cooldown so only something you will use in special situations
Melee classes simply have to be played at close range and require a good positioning.

as smuggler or solder you dont need to care about such stuff
if its in range, its probably dead soon.

there are ranged jedi and sith disciplines but lets face it... if you have a lightsaber you want to stick it into something

And done.
I am meanwhile through all of the 8 class specific storylines.
The last one was the Sith Marauder, which was pretty interesting.
First serving my master and then being betrayed by this ass. During the end the story is driven by revenge. Pretty fun actually.
The ending however was a bit too short and too easy. The Sith Inquisitor ending had a bit more action to offer.

Overall I can tell that SWTOR offers alot of story content.
Ive started playing early January and now after 6 months I am done with the class stories.
Putting aside the time that ive spent with trading, taking part in events, hunting datacrons etc. the game still offers many months of story content.
And that is just the Class storyline stuff which you can play for free (without subscription).
I havent even touched any of the expansions yet nor have I played all of the flashpoints and operations.
I also havent played all of the side missions on the imperial side yet.
Practically I rushed through the first part of the game and there is still much to discover.

I still have three chars that I need to level to 70 but that shouldnt take long.
After that I could increase my reputation levels, play the free story content that comes after the class storyline, do flashpoints or try out the two expansions.
Yeah, I guess thats enough for the rest of the year.

The only thing I did regret a bit so far is that I didnt took the chance to buy an unstable lightsaber when somebody was offering for 60mio credits a few weeks.
Now they cost somewhat between 130 and 150 mio credits and from what I was able to find out there was a direct sale of these lightsabers in March where Bioware wanted about 60€ for one.
Thats a bit too much. I mean... paying 60€ for a game item that has no other benefit than the cool look... or buying Mass Effect Andromeda which cost about the same. Digital item vs. full price game.
Bioware should better think about a new price policy on SWTOR.
But ok, maybe I have luck and somewhen in the next weeks or months the price is falling again to acceptable levels on the ingame market.
(Its not that I cant afford it. I meanwhile have 240mio credits. But I simply dont want to spend that much on a single item.)

But the price policy on special items wasnt different in Star Trek Online.
There were ships worth 700mio credits on the market (and not even worth that by their stats) while they were also sold on the c-store for 30-50€.
SWTOR does a few things better than STO.
There are by far not so many bugs in SWTOR... and there is a relative consistent game design. Also is the balance much better for the fact that the items have standardized stats. Usually only the look of the items is different.
That has the benefit that you dont need to chase for that special item that is 0.1% better than what you already have.
In STO you already have the feeling that you miss something when you cant take part in an event that offers new items.
In SWTOR you can skip the events and do them a few weeks later if you want. The rewards are the same. There is no pressure to get a special item now or never.
It is alot more relaxed gameplay than in STO because you decide what you want to do and when you want to do it.

Many features I knew from STO are also in SWTOR in pretty much the same way, but in SWTOR they are working better, less complicated, less grindy and much more comfortable.

playing lightning sorcerer is somewhat cool