Taral V, Ilum, the Black Hole and Section X

Oof! After several hours of playing, I need a break. I took some video of most of my cut-scenes just now, but I played Taral V with Taul Kajak in his original costume, as well as some of Hutran Thanatos in the white ops outfit I showed earlier, picking up the Section X, the Black Hole and Ilum missions. I guess I'm going to keep going with these two green guys for a while after all. And having the cutscene footage will be cool. I'll probably edit literally everything, even the sound out of it, so it's just cut scene fodder for later videos I might make, not to mention part of showing off the outfits someday.

Taral V is really long. I had forgotten how much. I still need to go break Revan out of the Maelstrom prison, which I thought to do tonight, but after Taral V, I needed to not do another such long mission.

An old video game design philosophy or two that sadly plagues SWTOR includes 1) lots and lots of trash mobs so you can't move more than about fifty virtual feet without drawing aggro from someone, and 2) bosses with loads of hitpoints. This doesn't make them more challenging, it just makes beating them take longer and become much more tedious. 

Anyway, that's a problem for the flashpoints mostly, especially the later game ones when you play them solo. The rest of the game doesn't have that issue.

Which is probably why I skipped Directive 7 entirely with Hutran Thanatos. It's kind of tedious, it doesn't have anything to do with the story (I don't know why they released a solo version of it, honestly) and it comes so late that I'm already max level. There's no reason to play it, because it is completely separate from the story and I had no need to grind XP.

Anyway, a few screenshots from tonight. First, Kaliyo is so irritating and unlikeable as a companion, much less a girlfriend, that I let Lord Grathan have a crack at her. This is what he gave me back...

And here I'm bringing back Hutran Thanatos' Hoth uniform once again for Ilum. Seems appropriate; the two are day and night versions of the same environment, pretty much.

What am I doing in SWTOR?

I've kind of settled on who I'm playing and who's waiting. I may ditch the idea to keep most of my characters at more or less the same level and planet, and instead focus on fewer characters at a time. I just finished the story with Hutran Thanatos, my Mirialan Operative class Imperial Agent story. He's max level, and finished with the main story, although I'm considering if I want to do Ilum with him, and maybe even move on towards Makeb before he moves into a more retired retirement. I hadn't thought to focus on Taul Kajak (Mirialan Sentinel class Jedi Knight story) after that, but that does seem to be the way the wind is blowing. I did Balmorra with him recently, including the Bonus series. He's at over level 65, and heading towards almost 70 after I do the back to back Revan flashpoints, which is what's next. 

After that, for whatever reason, I've been playing around a bit with Embric Stane (finished Dromund Kaas, put him on his ship) (Bounty hunter story, Mercenary class). And I've played around a bit with Mirabeau Tane (Cyborg Gunslinger class Trooper story.) I haven't given too much thought to advancing any of the others yet, but it's a bit curious, because Embric and Taul are ones that I long ago "wrote off" along with Hutran, because I messed up their recording. I'm not actually going to bother recording anyone anymore, except maybe to get footage from cutscenes for youtube videos where I'm talking over them, or talking about the outfits, etc. but they're still the ones that I kind of "wrote off" rather than worried about. Which is maybe why I've found them easier to play, because it doesn't stress me out at all. 

I don't know why, but my character limit is 26 instead of 24. I actually have 24 characters, but in spite of the fact that I have too many characters that I'm not even very interested in right now, I kind of want to make two more. I don't know what story I want to play with them, though, so I probably won't be in too much of a hurry either way.

I also finally took an hour or so and grinded with Phillippion so he wasn't the lame original character who was still sitting at level 79. All of my OGs are now maxed out in level, and have at least basic Decurion gear.

Anyway, just a quick progress report post. I'm excited about the game again, I'm excited about the graphic design of creating custom-looking characters, and I'm just in a good mood about SWTOR in general right now.

Here's a few "random" shots I've taken of a few of my characters. Many of these outfits have already been ditched or revised since I took these shots, but they're still fun to look at and hey; why waste a useful image, right?

Elemer Kell's jungle camo on Taris.

Meditating in the rakghoul tunnels of Taris.

Johhn chilling in a nightclub while Elara is no doubt nagging him about folding the laundry or something.

I really like this shot of Codon Veile. This is a real keeper.

An earlier draft of Johhn's droid outfit. I updated the gloves, boots and head since.

The strap is clipping, but this is Taul Kajak working out on the gym in his ship, or something. When I first got this "relaxed jumpsuit" I liked to wear it all over the place with a lot of characters, just because it looked silly to go talk to Jedi Masters or Senators or whatever while not even freakin' wearing a shirt, but I'm kind of over it now. It does have an absolute great pair of boots with it, though, that I could use in a lot of other outfit builds.

Hmm... dead weights, or the machine? What do I want to work out today?

Another batch of character select screen screenshots

Another batch. I changed most of the character's uniforms just to take new pictures. Gandalf Greyhame and Anstal Tane only have one outfit that I'm using (that's not literally true, but close enough), so I didn't include them again.

For the three characters who have planet specific outfits, I'm previewing further ahead than they've gotten. Actually, for Saxon, that's a bit complicated, as he'll start Hutta in his Dromund Kaas outfit, but then play most of the planet in his Red Blade disguise, which I'm including.

An older Johhn outfit. I actually used it with the helmet hidden when I played, but then I turned it on when he "retired" and called the outfit Daft Punk.

A lot of my character looks are about defying expectations rather than being boring and predictable. This was Taul Kajak's second outfit, and although it's slightly less overtly "smuggler" looking, it's still more of a swashbuckler than a contemplative take on the Jedi.

I said earlier that I don't really go in for too many heavy armor looks, but here's Mirabeau Tane showing off one that's kind of a jungle armored trooper look or something. This is the first really cool Mandalorian helmet I got, and although it's not quite as iconic as the Infamous Bounty Hunter, in many ways, I like it better.

I made this on a whim long ago during a Nova Blade pirate event on Dantooine, and, of course, it's Mat Thew; a Sith Lord dressed as a Nova Blade pirate. 

Wulf Hengest's original look, as a slicker bounty hunter. The one I showed before was more "trawling through the back alleys looking for clues" kind of guy.

I'm not a huge fan of the expansions compared to the original story, and it's a bit daunting to contemplate having to grind just to get your companions back, so Maark is the only character who's actually gone beyond Ziost so far. Here he is as the Alliance Commander; a militarized Jedi look, which I quite like.

Luukke is, of course, the discoverer of Nok Drayen's treasure, as well as a profitable "free trader", so I think it's appropriate in late game for him to actually look like he's made some money at all of this.

Another Hutran Thanatos look that I liked, but didn't use too much. It's kind of an "infiltrating the Republic military" look or something. To contrast it to my standard black ops uniform, I called it white ops.

Looking ahead, Beorn Hengest dressed more professionally than he was on Hutta to fit in better and have an easier time doing work with the Imperials and Mandalorians on Dromund Kaas.

Likewise, Gael Heckett looking forward to what he'll wear on Coruscant.

Vant Galaide doing a fringer bounty hunter look.

Phovos Maledict all in white. Although not shown here, he has the rakghoul green crystal in his lightsaber, so it matches his eyepiece.

Elemer Kell's original look, with his black and red lightsaber, which matches very well. This isn't super original; it's just Theron Shan's robe with some red THORN stuff here and there, but I still really like this outfit. Not what the Jedi masters on Tython expected to step off the ship, I imagine.

Saxon Hettar in his Red Blade disguise. I know, of course, that the real Red Blade doesn't look like this, but that's the whole point of him assuming that identity; nobody knew what the Red Blade looked like. This look certainly meets "Red Blade" expectations, though.

Codon Veile who, if you'll remember, is playing the trooper story, but looking about as iconically "Imperial Agent" as it is possible to look.

Embric Stane, my big "football player" bounty hunter, once again.

Graggory is my oldest character, and as such, I thought it appropriate to dress him in what were mostly kind of older high level world drops. 

Revecca, who has a black and purple lightsaber in this outfit, looking good as always.

Phillippion in his "snow trooper" outfit. With a slightly different head, this could almost be a Warhammer 40k space marine too. Hmm... I should make one of those for Embric, since he's big enough to pull off the look right.

Vash Galaide in another take on what is becoming one of my iconic "black ops" outfits.

Haul Romund in a hotrodder or swoop racer (or pod racer) outfit.

Galation was always the most likely to have a heavy armor thing going, and here he is in about as heavy as it gets. I've got another one using that same helmet, but a different chestpiece that is pretty cool, but I'll save that for another time.

UPDATE: I decided that my Saxon Hettar red uniform for early Hutta and Dromund Kaas didn't look quite like what I wanted; it looked more corporate rather than Imperial. So, I swapped out the shirt for one of the Remnant agent shirts; one of my favorite agent looks, actually. Also, I've got a new shot I took of Taul Kajak on his ship in his original swashbuckling outfit and showing off his saber colors.

SWTOR All 24 characters

For the heckuvit, while I was listening to a meeting on mute where they were talking about some stuff that didn't pertain to me, I listened with half or more of an ear, and spent a little portion of my brain on my other computer, taking snapshots of all of my characters from the character select screen. All of these are showing the last outfit that they were wearing; sometimes that's because that's appropriate to where they are, sometimes it's because I was meddling with an outfit, and just left it on the one I was messing with. I also have two bonuses, because there are two characters that I happened to have already taken another similar screenshot with another outfit, but never posted them. There's no reason not to do that here as part of this series, right?

Either way, with some rudimentary commentary:

Gael Heckett is a Powertech playing the Smuggler story. I actually have just started him; he's still on the first mission on Ord Mantell and Skavak hasn't even stolen his ship yet. Gael is one of the characters for which I have a unique outfit for each of the main planets on the main story. This is his Hoth outfit, which I guess I was just creating at the time I took this screenshot. Below is his Ord Mantell outfit, which is a very classic SWTOR smuggler look.

Johhn, enjoying his retirement as a Sniper for Imperial Intelligence posing as a droid. An outfit that I made just because... well, why not? It's a pretty unique look, right? John is also my cybertech crafter, and by default my banker, because cybertech is the only crafting skill that I've been successful in monetizing.

Maark is probably my most iconic character, because he's the Jedi Knight that I first completed the story with, and the Jedi Knight is the most iconic character. As an aside, this view sometimes doesn't work right; if your pants aren't color matched in the game, they usually are in this view. His pants are actually dark gray like his gloves. As an aside, I dislike Jedi in brown robes. That was clearly meant to be Obiwan dressing like the Tatooine natives; Uncle Owen dressed like a Jedi Knight too, when Lucas decided in the prequels to make Obiwan's Tatooine peasant outfit the iconic Jedi look. My Jedi rarely are dressed like that. Maark is also my synthweaving crafter.

One of Johhn's winter looks. It's also a bit unusual, because you don't need a winter coat all that often, but it's still a little less esoteric than his droid look above.

Mat Thew in one of his iconic outfits that I actually did the Sith Warrior playthrough with. I did upgrade the helmet, however. I love the gold plating on this armor, though. Mat Threw is also my artifice crafter. Although he's made a few lightsabers and stuff, I mostly keep him and his crew busy making dye modules and color crystals. Especially dye modules, because I use those things like they're going out of style.

Luukke, my iconic original smuggler, dressed in a very iconic smuggler get-up. Luukke is also my armstech crafter, and I like to make a full suite of firearms for my newer characters during their playthrough so they can always have the most up-to-date crafted armaments in their kit until they get to level 80 and go buy the noble decurion stuff.

Taul Kajak, my Sentinel Jedi Knight, who I'm actually playing through quite a bit right now. He's in a black ops outfit, which is appropriate I think, since I'm sneaking around doing all those kinds of black ops stuff on Balmorra right now.

Hutran Thanatos enjoying his first few days of retirement in a casual Han Solo looking get-up. His pants are actually tan, but see the disclaimer about this character select screen and pants above.

Beorn Hengest. Although it's usually spelled Hengist, Hengest would also be correct for my character to be Anglo-Saxon for "bear stallion." He's a sniper bounty hunter on Hutta, and this is his Hutta outfit, which is deliberately kind of barbaric.

Gael from above in his Ord Mantell outfit.

Vant Galaide. I don't really go in for the heavily armored bounty hunters, especially when they're mercenaries. I like to think of them more like space gunfighters from the Old West... but, y'know. In space.

How's that for a Sith Warrior look? Phovos Maledict has some interesting looks, including one where he's a Saturday Night Fever space disco guy, but when I want to play him straight (no pun intended), this is one of my favorite of his outfits.

Elemer Kell, my other sentinel Jedi Knight, who I thought was funny to make look quite a bit like Darth Maul, but, y'know, a good guy on the Jedi side of things. This is his "fringer" outfit, which I created for the bonus series on Taris, because I didn't really like my swamp camo oufti that he did the rest of the planet in.

Saxon Hettar, a gunslinger playing the Agent story, in a regular uniform of sorts. I have a unique outfit for each planet for him too, but because he'll spend most of Hutta in his Red Blade costume, I actually decided to make this is Dromund Kaas outfit which he'll also wear on Hutta when he's not in disguise as the Red Blade. I haven't even started his story at all yet

Codon Veile, a sniper trooper. I tend to play troopers as if they're more like James Bond and General Garza is Judi Dench's M rather than the oo-rah military type. They're much more independent and resist just doing things because they're told to. Plus, he's a Chiss. The name is recycled, though—at one point, I'd started briefly with a ratataki Jedi consular with this name, but I deleted him and made this guy instead. I'm not 100% sure what prompted me to make this Cad Bane inspired get-up, but I really like it. I even broke for a dye module on the GTN to get it the color I wanted. I'm not 100% sure I like the "ninja cowboy" hat; I may switch to a more regular cowboy version. Or maybe not.

Mirabeau Tane, a cyborg gunslinger trooper, who I play the same way; he just looks different and has different mechanics. This is obviously a cold weather outfit, but I just finished Nar Shaddaa, so I don't need to wear it yet. I'm about to go to Tatooine, fer cryin' out loud.

Anstal Tane (no relation) has worn his "space biker" look the entire time. He's a sith species scoundrel. I made him before 7.0 dropped, so story and mechanics were still bundled together at the time. I do have a Hoth outfit for him when he gets there, just so he doesn't look like he's too cold all the time. But I doubt I'll wear it anywhere other than Hoth and Ilum.

Embric Stane, my only "big boy" character (the body type 2 is the only one that I really like, but this is the only one I could entertain doing otherwise.) He's got the same cyborg sunglasses look as Gael Heckett above. I had actually meant to delete him, but then I started playing him anyway, and decided what the heck; I'll keep going with him. Just finished Dromund Kaas in the last week.

The oldest of my characters, Graggory, in a casual look. He's also got some armored Mandalorian-looking stuff going on, but like I said, I actually kind of like my characters with lighter rather than heavier armor. Graggory also is my armormech, although I don't use crafted armor as much as I use crafted guns. It's just too much trouble to make the full seven piece set for every level-up opportunity that a character would have.

Revecca Arden (last name based on Flash Gordon's love interest) showing off her Hoth, Ilum and maybe Alderaan outfit, which is deliberately modeled on what Princess Leia wore when she was on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. She's also my only girl character.

Phillippion, my first trooper, and a commando. Also, I keep him around because he's a slicer crew skill specialist. He's the only one of my OG characters that I still have where I haven't quite got him to level 80 yet. I should probably just grind a few Heroics and get him done. He is 79 after all.

Vash Galaide, possibly related to Vant (brothers?) a powertech playing as an agent, in his iconic, original outfit. I found a black/black dye module for cheap on the GTN at one point, and held on to it for months until I created him. What a great agent outfit. I can't take credit for it; I saw someone else do it first, but it's just really quite brilliant.

Wulf Hengest (also no relation), another bounty hunter but as a vanguard. His iconic weapon for all but one of his outfits is a bowcaster that I got from the bounty hunter guys. He's got a lot of different looks, but they all kind of tend to have a similar light armor look to them.

Gändalf Greyhame, the only character where I had to make a concession on the name and use a special character. Sigh. Usually I won't type it, though. Obviously, he's supposed to look like an old wizard. Sadly, there is no hat in the game that looks anything at all like a wizard's hat. The choice of robe might have been kind of iffy too. And he does still wear pants.

Haul Romund, who has now become my most iconic smuggler who's still unretired, in spite of actually being a mercenary. This is just what the smuggler looks like to me. 

Galation, another older bounty hunter, and one who is my biochem crew skill crafter, which is probably the crew skill that I use the absolute least. I do tend to put him in heavier armor than just about any other of my characters, except Phillippion.

I've got two slots left, and may yet buy a couple more. I really love playing the tech classes, as you can see by how many smugglers, bounty hunters, agents and even troopers stories I have ongoing, but maybe I need another sith warrior, sith inquisitor or jedi consular; the three classes that clearly I have the least of.