Punting just a bit, I admit

This post, as the title says, is me punting just a bit. I don't have anything too important to talk about, but I want to move these image files out of the folder I'm keeping them in, so I'll post them.

"My" old D&D version is B/X, but I admit to a certain strong nostalgic attachment to the Larry Elmore covers of the BECMI line. Here they are in low resolution. Most of them can be bought as reasonably priced prints from Larry Elmore's online storefront, the exception being the Companion cover. Which, sadly, is probably my favorite of the bunch. That can be bought as a giclee high quality print, but it's no longer reasonably priced if you just want some framed posters to throw up in one of your rooms as decoration.

In the correct BECMI order... although I also have to admit that the I set has no nostalgic (or other) resonance with me at all. I just don't care about that paradigm or that art all that much. So, BECM—?

If I were decorating a game room, I'd replace that weird superhero image with one of Elmore's more "traditional" pieces that I have more connection to. I also think that this would fit well in the series, just based on subject matter, although I know that it's an old Dragonlance module cover, so quite a different product.

On a totally different topic, one of the very welcome changes SWTOR made was to take a step back from trying to be WoW, and instead being an Old Republic game that happened, this time, to have some online grouping capability. The reality is that the majority of the playerbase was more interested in the solo story play than "dungeon raiding". As part of this change, there were a number of the old group content "flashpoints" that had a solo mode added to them; they did this by reducing enemy health by (I imagine) a certain percentage, and then giving you a fairly effective "extra" companion in the form of a tank robot fighter. 

Unfortunately, they only did this for about half of the "classic" flashpoints; primarily ones that had some story implication and that you were really expected to play. However, as you play through the original story mode, you get a lot of flashpoint prompts that you can't really do unless you enter a groupfinder queue. 

Then there's just a few from the very first expansion that are still on the same paradigm as the original flashpoints; these aren't really soloable either. But after that, ALL Flashpoints had a solo mode, because the paradigm had change. 

By my count there are 33 flashpoints (although a few are faction specific) and of them, 11 still have no story mode. It would have been relatively easy and should have been a priority to offer a solo mode for all of them, and I still think BioWare should allocate a small amount of resources to create such an option while the game still has some life in it left. Here's my list of flashpoints in order and where you'd pick them up, both those you can play solo already and those that you should be able to. I highlighted the ones that need a solo version in red.

The Esseles (Republic) and The Black Talon (Empire) After doing your first starter planet, you travel by shuttle to the fleet, pick up a few things, and then move on to another shuttle that will take you to the capital plant; Coruscant and Dromund Kaas respectively. While you can skip these flashpoints and take a non-event shuttle, you probably need the XP, so I almost always do with my new characters. Sometimes I even run them through it a few times, because each time gives low level PCs ~3 levels worth of XP, if you have the XP bonus turned on. This was already seen as an "essential" Flashpoint, so there's a solo mode available. It's the two that I've played (by far) the most.

Hammer Station Both Republic and Empire have (with slightly altered cutscenes) access to Hammer Station right freakin' there on the capital planet, and it's clear that it's meant to be played either while on the planet, or at least before you leave it. It isn't a particularly story-heavy flashpoint (I've done it with a group a few times) but then again, neither are the heroics on the capital planet, or most of the exploration missions. It's a bigger side-quest than most of those, but it isn't really that much bigger than, for instance, the Imperial "Friends of Old" Heroic mission.

Athiss The Republic and Empire go to different planets to start their Act I following the introduction; Taris for Republic and Balmorra for Empire. There's not a flashpoint associated with these planets until you hit them later in the story (in reverse order; Taris for Empire and Balmorra for Republic) so you go instead to Nar Shaddaa. As part of that planet, you get the Athiss Flashpoint. Athis is a cool planet that's a little bit like a slightly more forested Korriban; or maybe a Korriban merged with a Tython, or something. Slap a red filter on it and give it the red sky and red lighting, and it'd be a great stand-in for Dathomir too. Like Hammer Station, it's just a side quest, and it's basically the same regardless of faction.

Mandalorian Raiders After Nar Shaddaa, which both factions do at the same point, they both go to Tatooine, where there's another non-story mode flashpoint, Mandalorian Raiders. This is another side mission, so you don't miss too much by not playing it. As an aside, there used to be a weapon drop from this flashpoint that I would really have loved to get my hands on, but it's no longer available. Sigh. Why in the world would BioWare take assets that are already in the game and make them unavailable? There should be some way to still get that stuff. 

Cademimu is the last flashpoint for Act I and is doable on Alderaan, the next planet after Tatooine. It's another "strike team goes and deals with a side quest 'emergency'" style story, but that's OK. After... four in a row, however, the formula is getting a little stale. I like the landscape of Cademimu; a reddish Corsuscant, or more industrial Nar Shaddaa. It's not original, but it's pretty cool. However, the "Governor Chornarov" who in spite of his Russian-esque name is portrayed as a bizarre Yankee caricature of Robert E. Lee—which I admit I personally find a bit offensive—is a strange antagonist. Although he's also portrayed as a coward that you never actually meet; the real problem is a bunch of asylum-granted war criminal milita from the Ord Mantell separatists, which is actually kind of an interesting callback to the smuggler and trooper story start.

Taral V→Maelstrom Prison (Republic) and Boarding Party→The Foundry (Empire) These four flashpoints; and you'll play two of them back to back, but they differ substantially between factions, are the next ones that actually have a significant story element to them, and both revolve around discovering that Revan is still alive, having been kept in some kind of stasis prison for 300 or so years, but now he's free (or you're supposed to free him, depending.) The landscapes are interesting; Taral V looks like a small section of Dromund Kaas that wasn't used previously, the Foundry has a kind of Rakata structures on Belsavis look to it, and the other two are just inside spaceships, and have either a Republic or Imperial ship/fleet look to them, as appropriate. They're both already playable, and you'd probably be pretty confused during the Shadow of Revan expansion if you didn't. You take these up on the first planet for Act II, which is different depending on your faction; Balmorra for Republic and Taris (nighttime) for the Empire.

Colicoid War Games is a flashpoint that you do after Hoth, the last planet of Act II. The very short planet Quesh doesn't have a Flashpoint associated with it. The story involved is a little bit different, although a little hoaky. It's totally optional from a story point of view, but we should still be able to play it solo. So are all kinds of other missions. The order on the flowchart is a little weird here. They suggest that after finishing Hoth, you'd go back to Alderaan and do the Bonus Series, and then go back to the fleet to pick this up. A little unusual.

Red Reaper is notorious as a flashpoint that hardcore people, usually with a stealth class, would solo. Stealthing a mission like this isn't too hard; I've stealthed the Heroic 4 on Section X many times, but actually having to fight the boss by yourself is challenging. But this one was famous for having some sick loot and being relatively easy to stealth/solo compared to the rest, so it used to be spammed a lot. I'd like to see it with a proper solo mode. It's meant to be played between Voss and the Voss Bonus Series.

Directive 7 is yet another weird side quest, where you're on a carbon copy of Balmorra fighting an army of renegade droids. For whatever reason, it got a solo mode, though. Probably because there was a lot more dialogue and cut scenes that most flashpoints, but not at all because it's central to the story, because it very clearly is not. It's a late game addition, though—according to the flowchart, it's meant to be played after Corellia, which technically makes it after the main story is over. The level requirement means that it's concurrent, I suppose, with Corellia, though.

The Battle of Ilum→The False Emperor These two are essential to the epilogue story on Ilum after your class story is actually over. Ilum doesn't have a class story at all, although there are Republic and Empire specific faction stories, a fair bit of exploration, and a big recurring event area. After this are the last hurrahs for grouping content. I could add some of the Operations in here too, including several that are linked together to make for an interesting side story, but that'll be for another post.

Kuat Drive Yards is a weird one. It was released late, right in this section, but it can be picked up and played earlier, and dialogue makes it possible to interpret its place in the story in various places. As part of making this one solo, they should anchor it at a particular point in the storyline too.

Kaon Under Siege→The Lost Island These two linked flashpoints are not soloable, but should be, and they deal with a rakghoul kind of thing. (I wonder if back in the day they were released to coincide with the first rakghoul recurring event?) In any case, they're both pretty cool; Kaon Under Siege in particular is a dark, moody piece with a good zombie apocalypse vibe going through it. 

Czerka Corporate Labs→Czerka Core Meltdown are two more linked flashpoints that are on the small daily area planet CZ-198. These are the last released flashpoints to not have a solo mode. All of the remainder are part of expansions, so I won't talk about where they fit, other than to place them in order. In fact, I doubt I'll offer much commentary on them at all, other than that flashpoints—by this point—had become integral to the way the story was progressed. All of these flashpoints are necessary to actually proceed with the story, but they're less open ended than just running around and picking up story missions, as you did before. Many of them are on planets that you otherwise won't see at all. This is true for a lot of prior flashpoints, like Cademimu or Athiss, but because they're part of the story, it's a little bit too bad; you'd like to actually see some of these planets a bit more.

The Shadow of Revan expansion had four linked flashpoints as it's "prelude" before you went and did the new planet Rishi (with faction only, not class story missions.) The prelude flashpoints are a bit unusual in that they differ somewhat by faction, and the order is reversed on the first two, which are also not really the same (defending vs raiding Tython and Korriban respectively). Then there's some callbacks to Knights of the Old Republic with a flashpoint on Manaan and the Unknown World, i.e., Rakata Prime.

Assault on Tython→Korriban Incursion→Depths of Manaan→Legacy of the Rakata

Blood Hunt is a flashpoint on Rishi where you go fight a bunch of Mandalorians, and then after you kill a bunch of them and beat up their leader, who's now the middle-aged Karen from the early Deceived cinematic trailer, then they join you as friends and allies. Quite honestly, the EU version of Mandalorians is pretty stupid. The Clone Wars did them right, but then Filoni did everything he could in the next series; Rebels and The Mandalorian, to restore the stupid EU incarnation of them back to the canon. 

The Battle of Rishi is near the end of the Shadow of Revan expansion, and certainly the end of the Rishi section. You still go do the daily area on Yavin IV, and then fight Revan himself as a big bad boss, but that's content that's not flashpoint-like.

Crisis on Umbara is a cool location and a fun flashpoint, with a traitor/mole in your organization coming out with a side story that runs for a little while. 

Traitor Among the Chiss is the same traitor, but now he's got the backing of a rogue Chiss element. Another interesting planet that you can't see otherwise.

The Nathema Conspiracy is another interesting planet, and an important part of the Valkorian/Empire story.

Objective Meridian has you going back to a newly interpreted Corellia (different time of day too) and dealing with yet another Imperial incursion. It's part of Onslaught, though, not the original Corellia stuff, or even the Black Hole epilogue on Corellia. 

Spirit of Vengeance is a Mandalorian themed flashpoint that ends on a cliffhanger. Upcoming game update 7.2 promises to finish the story started in this flashpoint, which is a big raid on a rival Mandalorian clan's fleet, or ship or whatever. 

Secrets of the Enclave is another callback flashpoint. BioWare had already added Dantooine as a daily area and recurring event planet, although its kind of small and if there isn't the pirates event going on, there's not a lot to do there (when it is going on, for whatever reason I get a lot of lag on this planet. I guess I get a lot of lag on Ilum when the Gree event is going on too.) But for this flashpoint, however, you leave that area behind and explore the ruins of the Jedi Enclave that was a major part of the Knights of the Old Republic story. It is kind of a shame that BioWare is reduced to callbacks to KOTOR and "hey, remember this stuff, when you used to like us? Well, we've brought it back for you in the hopes that you'll like us again." Then again, Star Wars is doing that more broadly, so... eh. 

Ruins of Nul is on a new planet, and is a pretty cool looking one, actually. It's got this dark Sithy kind of vibe to it, it looks cold and there's a light dusting of windblown snow, and weird reddish plants, as well as a solar eclipse that lasts the entirety of the flashpoint. However, the flashpoint itself isn't that interesting; its got grindy trash mobs and sub-bosses that are basically giant puzzles. I consider this one a pretty but disappointing one, but about where BioWare is these days.