"An Overdue Perspective on..." is a new post series intended to allow me to explore the various updates and activities for SWTOR which I had not commented on prior to the blog's face-lift. While a couple of these will be based on post-6.0 updates, this will also enable me to focus on some of the topics which I had originally intended to cover as part of my Thoughts on 6.0 series.
Swoop biking has been a common request among SWTOR’s player base. It is easy enough to see why, as both KOTOR games featured the sport as a minigame and podracing remains to this day one of the most popular and memorable additions to the franchise from the prequel era.
Nine years after SWTOR
launched, BioWare created their fifth "traditional" recurring event which was themed
all around swoop bikes: The All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally, hereafter AWUSR. Its
title is a bit of a misnomer, as rather than being on “all worlds”, it is only
available on three: Dantooine, Onderon, and Tatooine.
The event itself takes the form
of obstacle and time trial tracks on each of the planets, with three swoop
gangs asking the player to do different things. As the player gains reputation
with them, three story missions per gang will gradually make themselves
available.
This event apparently has a
fascination with the number three…
Overall, I really like this one. It is just nice to have an event which is not themed around killing the latest bunch of mutants, pirates, droids, and so on that just so happen to be around for that given week. It is just a fun, relatively stress-free, little activity. The commentator droid could certainly be less annoying, but I can see why some people might find him fun.
The swoop bikes themselves operate similarly to the GSI speeder from Ziost: as soon as you board it, the bike takes control. Additionally, the bike will do a little jump if taken over certain bits of terrain or structure. Unlike the Ziost speeder, the ones for the UASWR can be slowed and have various abilities tied to them. These range from doing a sort of handstand, firing explosives, and speed boosts depending on what gang’s bike you are riding.
While I can understand that people are disappointed that there is not even a whiff of competition to this rally, I for one do not really mind this. SWTOR’s engine just would not be able to handle actual proper racing. It suffers from desync in PvP matches, so there is every reason to assume that it would plague this event at times too. While some players may be the kind to shrug off losses because the game detected that that player in second place was really in the lead, not everybody will be so forgiving. Easier for BioWare to just make this a little personal event rather than anything flashier.
This is not to say that “actual” races
cannot happen, as it is very possible for players to just host their own little
races as an organised group. It would still probably need to be done with the
official event mounts just to make use of the jump ramps, but it could still work.
I like the fact that they made
good use of the local environments when designing the tracks, particularly
the area around the wreck of the Stardream on Tatooine. That said, I am not a
huge fan of this track also being the same location as a seeker droid dig site. It gets
a bit annoying to be told that the seeker droid detects something when you are
busy trying to get that booster or make that jump.
Of all three gangs – Blatant Beks,
Horizon’s Razer, and Pit Screamers – my favourite is the Horizon’s Razor. Their
tracks are all about speed rather than blowing stuff up or doing flashy tricks,
and their story is decent as well. It is an awfully close call between the
other two in terms of my least favourite. Gratuitous destruction is never
something which I’m a fan of even in games, so the Beks are my least favourite
gang for the actual tracks, but I feel that the Pit Screamers has the least
satisfactory story of all three gangs.
Speaking of story, I am not too
sure what to make of this apparent trend-in-the-making which is tying story to
reputation progression. This is the sort of thing that would work well in some
instances but not too well in others. In the case of the AWUSR, this is one
instance where I feel that this does not work.
The main reason for this is
because the stories for all three gangs will happily send you on jaunts across
the galaxy, including trips to Alderaan, Corellia, Mek-Sha, Nar Shaddaa,
Onderon, and Tatooine. Some of these journeys are for slightly more substantive
reasons than others, such as having a conversation and then fighting a pack of
mobs or finding numerous things to click on. Other times it is just to have one conversation and then move
straight on to another area, which may again just be for only one conversation.
This makes it something of a pain to consider repeating, although at least once you have done it on one character you can begin to map out the quickest ways of doing it for others.
The stuff you can get from the reputation
vendors is also quite interesting. There is the usual stuff you would expect
from an event: clothing for each of the gangs, decorations themed around the
courses, and the event’s mounts in two distinct variants. However, they also include
special tactical items which enable a player to spruce up their own standard
mounts through various means. These include bursts of speed, fancy mounting animations, and sparkly lights whenever you dismount.
They of course have no combat
advantage, but I love the fact that BioWare are taking advantage of this
new item slot to create fun little items that have a cosmetic effect. I personally
do not use any of them as I do not believe they suit any of my characters, but
I am happy for anyone who enjoys using them for whatever reason. It has, however, got to the point where some of my guildies have ended up engaging in Operations fights without unequipping them first. Eek.
I also feel I must comment on the
achievements for this event. While I have no issue with them in terms of what
they ask you to do – fulfil all bonus objectives, hit all obstacles on a track,
jump the Sarlacc pit, etc. – I have to say that I am especially disappointed
that you get no legacy titles from accomplishing these. One of the achievements
is called “Perfect Idiot”, which I think would make for a brilliant legacy
title!
Although I am mainly saying that
as, right now, I like using some of the more self-detrimental or ironic legacy
titles for my main. Perfect idiot would suit me perfectly.
I am quite pleased with SWTOR’s
answer to swoop biking. It takes a familiar part of the franchise and just does
its own thing with it. While not by any means perfect, it is still an
interesting and, in my view, welcome addition to the game. I like the fact that
we are getting more events which are not directly themed around any form of
combat.
It is interesting to note that
although this is only BioWare’s fifth “traditional” recurring event,
this is their second in two years. The Dantooine event launched only last year,
so it is possible that next year we may get yet another one. I personally hope
so, as I am not really a fan of these events recurring as frequently as
they have been over the past few years.
We do already know that we are getting a new event in 6.1.4: The Festival of Splendour. However, I do not view this as one of the “traditional” recurring events, as much like the Nightlife and Life Day events this is designed to be on a seasonal rotation rather than a bi-weekly one. We will thus soon have an autumn event alongside the summer and winter ones, so it is also possible that we may get a spring event as well at some point.
While these seasonal events will not have an associated Conquest week, it is worth noting that the Festival of Splendour will be the first seasonal event to have specific Conquest objectives as part of the newest overhaul. There have been a lot of overhauls for Conquest recently, and there are more hinted to be on the way potentially looking at shifting around the dynamics for the yields.
We shall see what happens, but it will be some time until we know exactly what BioWare have planned.
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