I've kept mostly silent regarding the myriad of Companions we can now potentially recruit as of Fallen Empire. I personally like seeing all of these characters play some part in the overall story, although I will concede that limiting which Companions are eligible to be summoned or sent on Crew Skills would be a welcome feature in the future. Having 25+ Companions when we used to have a maximum of eight is just ridiculous over-inflation.
In spite of our massively-inflated Companion lists, we can only decide the looks of so many; this is either due to the lack of outfit slots or, depending on faction, any number of customisations beyond the Cartel Market and Soovada and T.H.O.R.N vendors.
At present, only eight Companions can have their gear customised in any way. Although this number will be bolstered by at least another five Companions - I won't say which here but previewing Customisations will already reveal who these Companions are - by the end of this first season of Fallen Empire, this number is still worryingly low considering that by this point in time players could have a maximum of roughly thirty-four Companions available to them.
Having considerably improved in the creation of outfits since the last post I made on this matter some time back, I thought that I would take the time to show off outfits which I have devised for my main Pippera's slew of customisable Companions. They're stuck with us for the foreseeable, so why not work to make them more visually appealing?
14/03/2016
09/03/2016
Thoughts on 4.2 [Spoiler-Free]
4.2 launched just yesterday, bringing with it a myriad of decent changes and annoying bugs. Continuing this apparent monthly trend of mine from last time, here are my thoughts on what was included.
13/02/2016
Thoughts on 4.1 [Spoiler-Free]
After a lot of hassle, 4.1 and Chapter X finally launched earlier this week, setting in motion the final 'half' of the first season of Fallen Empire. It also brought with it a few other things, including two Alliance Alerts, and some very welcome Quality of Life change. I already touched on the crafting changes when they were first announced and there is no reason to touch upon them once again.
Without any significant spoilers, how do these hold up?
Without any significant spoilers, how do these hold up?
27/01/2016
The Upcoming Crew Skill Changes
We've known for very nearly two months now that, come 4.1 in February, Crew Skills would be getting another shake-up. We'll be seeing another 50 levels added to the total, and with them a whole new grade of crafting materials, schematics, and general crew skill missions.
Yesterday, BioWare posted specific details on these changes; I shall only cover a small fragment because I have never been entirely au fait of how each and every single Crew Skill 'works'. I mainly just craft Adrenals!
For me, there are two specific changes which really shine above the others. The first is that Artificers will be able to craft the "standard set" (Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange) of Rating 136 Crystals which have no Level Requirements. At long last, low-level characters will be able to benefit from a wider range of properly-decent colour crystals and not have to worry about upgrading stats when they can. The second is that Operation Relics are gaining an integrated tertiary stat; DPS and Healing Relics will trade some Endurance for Critical Rating and Tank Relics will trade some Mastery for Shield Rating. That's fantastic, it really is.
As much as increasing Crew Skills three-and-a-half-months after a total expansion sounded like it was going to be tedious, there is a generous amount of stuff in these changes to ease the transition. I love the fact that we will be temporarily able to convert Grade 8 Materials directly to Grade 9s at a 1:1 ratio and that the new Materials will also be immediately purchasable from the Jawa vendors.
On the whole, I'm "okay" about these changes now that we have more details. They sounded tedious at first, but it does seem like they're doing what they can to make the transition as seemless as possible, something which hasn't been done with an entirely new grade before now. Whether or not these changes will totally "revolutionise" crafting is another matter entirely, and I'm very much the wrong person to theorise about that..!
~~~
Additionals
I'm curious to know how certain Alliance missions will adapt to the increased number of Material Grades, if at all. Currently, two Companions have missions which require one to trade in Grade 8 materials, and there is a very good chance that this will be repeated in the future. It will be interesting to see whether these missions still require Grade 8 or whether they will have been boosted to cover Grade 9.
It will also be interesting to see whether the new Accuracy/Critical stim becomes an 'advised' replacement for the Mastery/Power stim, and the appropriate number of Accuracy Augments, in Raiding environments. For the moment, I'm sceptical of just how worthwhile it will be, but we'll have to wait and see when we know for sure what the numbers are.
Yesterday, BioWare posted specific details on these changes; I shall only cover a small fragment because I have never been entirely au fait of how each and every single Crew Skill 'works'. I mainly just craft Adrenals!
For me, there are two specific changes which really shine above the others. The first is that Artificers will be able to craft the "standard set" (Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange) of Rating 136 Crystals which have no Level Requirements. At long last, low-level characters will be able to benefit from a wider range of properly-decent colour crystals and not have to worry about upgrading stats when they can. The second is that Operation Relics are gaining an integrated tertiary stat; DPS and Healing Relics will trade some Endurance for Critical Rating and Tank Relics will trade some Mastery for Shield Rating. That's fantastic, it really is.
As much as increasing Crew Skills three-and-a-half-months after a total expansion sounded like it was going to be tedious, there is a generous amount of stuff in these changes to ease the transition. I love the fact that we will be temporarily able to convert Grade 8 Materials directly to Grade 9s at a 1:1 ratio and that the new Materials will also be immediately purchasable from the Jawa vendors.
On the whole, I'm "okay" about these changes now that we have more details. They sounded tedious at first, but it does seem like they're doing what they can to make the transition as seemless as possible, something which hasn't been done with an entirely new grade before now. Whether or not these changes will totally "revolutionise" crafting is another matter entirely, and I'm very much the wrong person to theorise about that..!
~~~
Additionals
I'm curious to know how certain Alliance missions will adapt to the increased number of Material Grades, if at all. Currently, two Companions have missions which require one to trade in Grade 8 materials, and there is a very good chance that this will be repeated in the future. It will be interesting to see whether these missions still require Grade 8 or whether they will have been boosted to cover Grade 9.
It will also be interesting to see whether the new Accuracy/Critical stim becomes an 'advised' replacement for the Mastery/Power stim, and the appropriate number of Accuracy Augments, in Raiding environments. For the moment, I'm sceptical of just how worthwhile it will be, but we'll have to wait and see when we know for sure what the numbers are.
09/12/2015
The Brewing Turbulence
Over the previous week various points of conflict have started rearing their heads. First was the reveal of the "unprecedented" subscriber rewards and more recent was the clarification of how Nightmare Operation loot is "supposed" to work in 4.0.
07/12/2015
The Companion Comparison: HK-51 vs. HK-55
It's official: HK-55 is returning to our sides!
As excellent as this is, it does set up an interesting conundrum. Many Subscribers will, as a result of this, have not one but two HK Droids in their Companion rosters. The question remains; which is better?
There's only one way to find out!
As excellent as this is, it does set up an interesting conundrum. Many Subscribers will, as a result of this, have not one but two HK Droids in their Companion rosters. The question remains; which is better?
There's only one way to find out!
03/11/2015
4.0 Impressions: The Characters
One of the strongest anchor points of any BioWare RPG, alongside the story, is the cast of characters thrown into the mix. The character list of Fallen Empire is no exception to this, providing a slew of decent, entertaining, and interesting characters onto the already quite sizeable pile of characters one can encounter in this game.
Before I begin, this list is only looking at the main characters/followers and villians in order of appearance; the various Alliance Specialists and related Companions will get their own post next week.
Before I begin, this list is only looking at the main characters/followers and villians in order of appearance; the various Alliance Specialists and related Companions will get their own post next week.
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