#I also really want to play swtor

[girlscience]

I HAVE MYSELF STUCK IN A STUPID LOOOOOOP AAAAAAAAA

[chaoticspacefam]

[vespertine-legacy]

Raid tonight was such a circus

Not sure who decided we were going to do ToS. But we actually did have the Saturday team live up to its original purpose a little, with people changing up to roles they don’t do as often. So I got to dps with Princess, which was really fun.

I don’t know how much of it was desync (desync? in my swtor?), and how much was just honk honk clown noises, but we spent so much time on Walkers, and I lost count of how many times Princess and I blew each other up. At least once, while swapping between Walkers, we’d both yeet ourselves over, directly into Ground Missiles, and one or both of us would go splat. For a while though, I must have had a Friendly Fire target on my head - Tom and Suff both killed me with the purple circles after grav well, Ray killed me with a ground missile, somebody killed me with the grenade, at one point Frenzy was like “okay, who killed november this time?!” (Granted, the time in question, it was like Princess and I had stepped on a landmine and just both been obliterated, and while we were both killed by the same thing according to StarParse, we were under different Walkers, and then the bastards threw the grenade at my corpse for good measure).

[gothamcityneedsme]

if arkham knights could crash a little less i would be.  very very happy

[askagamedev]

How expensive is voice acting (assuming professional actors with experience)? What amount of budget goes towards it? If there is a way to determine that, of course. I realize it probably depends a lot on the project. I'm looking at SWTOR which seems to be really struggling to afford VO these days, opting for unvoiced dialogue and even replacements of the main cast. Is it really taking that much of its budget (which is probably on the lower end these days) or is there some other factor at play?

Voice acting has a lot of associated costs. Specifically, getting the voice acting requires us to pay for:

The voice actor's time

The recording studio time

The voice director's time

The developer time

These can add up - we pay union voice actors about $2000 per day each according to the current [SAG-AFTRA interactive media contract rates], and we spend at least that much for studio time. We also need to factor in the time the developers are away from the development studio and are at the recording studio because they aren't doing their normal tasks while taking care of this. It isn't uncommon for voice recording to cost over $10,000 per day, all things considered.

In addition to this, voice actors are often quite busy. They often have many roles already scheduled that they have committed to. This means that they might have only one or two days they can commit to recording, then be unavailable for months after that. In such cases, it means that we can't make any modifications or changes to the script after the recording is done because the voice actor isn't available to do those lines anymore. For example, take a look at [Aleks Le's IMDB page]. He did a lot of voicework for games like Persona 3 Reload, Street Fighter 6, Octopath Traveler 2, etc. I count 18 separate projects he recorded for in 2023 alone. If he's one of my voices, I probably wouldn't be able to get him back in the recording studio for several months since his schedule is so packed.

SWTOR is especially difficult to record for because player voice lines need to be recorded once for each character class. That means aligning eight different actors schedules before a hard deadline, and that can be extraordinarily difficult. Anyone who's tried to schedule events knows this - things happen, people change, agreements fall through, things get pushed back. As such, it's a small miracle they're able to keep putting out fresh voiced content like they do.

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[sullustangin]

Spoiler Free SWTOR 7.5 comments

As it says on the tin.

Honestly, I am really liking the consistent content that Broadsword is putting out. Big patches are 4-6 months apart, little ones are pretty regular. Each patch -- whether it's a big 7.x or it's a 7.5.x -- has something that tries to address a player request/complaint. Since Broadsword took over, the amount of content might be more modest in terms of scale, but it seems like more care has been applied to it. Based upon the player survey and other quality of life improvements -- and even some hasty u-turns--, they are taking player feedback into account. I feel better about the game in Broadsword's hands than I did with Bioware.

Technically, I did not experience major problems with the patch. As reported in the patch notes, there is one cinematic where a key character's mouth does not move. That doesn't break the game, though you may want to wait to record the scene if you're into that. There's another point where you have to hit the right spot on the floor for your jetpack to disappear so you can pass through the next door, but that's an easy fix. Gearwise, I'm seeing reports of being at least in 332 greens, but as usual, player skill may vary.

Patch 7.5 starts the conclusion of the two storylines that have taken the mainstage of 7.0: the Holocron of Nul storyline and the Heta Kol storyline, which started back in 6.2 (pandemic patch). I feel like some of the "huh?" in the plot was baked in from where Bioware started it, so Broadsword is trying its best to finish the story they were given. Is it a busfire? Yes. Is it their fault? No, but they have to finish it.That said, this patch actually makes the player make choices, and you AGONIZE over them. It's not just personnel choices but also diplomatic ones. I haven't felt that way in a considerable amount of time. Yes, you do make choices in 7.0, but it's one person living or dying, be a jerk or don't be a jerk. Lower stakes. The stakes are higher here in 7.5 -- or at least it feels that way. That's an important part of game writing: even if the choice does not matter, there needs to be the illusion that it does -- a certain level of immersion. You do have cascading consequences of choices as well. I'm looking forward to playing this patch on my LS toon to do different choices, more so than I did previously. "Let's not be a jerk this time" is less than compelling than "Can I do it differently, this time?"

Overall, there is progress in the storyline -- this doesn't feel like a "busy work" patch or "here's a new daily area to keep you occupied". (To be clear, I loved the Port Nowhere and Ord Mantell content in 7.4 -- it was a giant love letter to smugglers -- but at the same time, it was a bit of filler, to be honest). The quests you need to do are necessary to gain the trust of a naturally fearful faction of sentients (no spoilers) -- it makes sense they aren't your besties for life right off the jump. You will yell at the screen at the end of the whole thing, because it does make sense and yet it's the worst option for your character, personally, and it's out of your hands. (And it is not out of character for the person who makes that decision...)

No new date night content -- maybe in 7.5.1. There is some romance content for those of us that romanced Lana and Theron.

If you are big into Mandos and have been impatiently waiting for Lane to give you a buzz, this is your time and your hour. If you enjoy training hunter pets in other games, your time has arrived.

There is also a new Spring Festival event on Dantooine. In truth, I find it sort of derivative of the Tillers' reputation you could earn in World of Warcraft during Mists of Pandaria. It isn't exactly the same (we don't have a cooking profession), but the general ideas apply, right down to the dailies involving having a beer and going fishing, as well as scouring the world for seeds. There's also animal rescue built in here as well, so it's a bit of everything for any hero who wants to retire or at least slow down.

But of course, something sinister is on the farm, and so I anticipate Scooby Doo Mystery Hour shall continue as the event carries on.

~~

Given that Broadsword "maintains" games such as Dark Age of Camelot, there has been the fear that they'll move SWTOR into retirement, but I don't think that will happen, as it's still a live intellectual property (Star Wars), they're making gobs of money off it due to Cartel Market, and there's still a player base. (And let's be real, Favereau and Filoni play it, and they do matter to Disney and EA.) I don't know when 8.0 will come out, so we may have another round of storylines in 7.0 -- sort of like how we had an extended 5.0 (Iokath and Traitor Arc) after Bioware was stripped down in 2017. That said, Onslaught was quite good after the KotXX shenanigans and dev changes had settled. I still hold the view that Bioware is a sinking ship, and EA moved the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg to Broadsword for safekeeping. I think we might get an 8.0 in 2025 or 2026, but how that will look or work -- no idea.

[moonlitalien]

I was never quite happy with Tiamat's first (2020) ref sheet, and since I played SWTOR again last month I rly wanted to give her an updated ref sheet!! I love this one a lot more bc I really nailed her body type & also didn't forget her scars this time around!! Also redesigned her main four outfits a bit :)

[greyias]

I really don’t want swtor to shut down it’s the only eu thing that’s active we have left

I knew these asks were going to start coming in.

So for those who haven't heard, it was reported, and then later confirmed by Keith Kanneg on the forums, that EA is "selling" SWTOR to another developer, Broadsword. For those who want to read the article discussing it, you can read here: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware

TL;DR -- It's not shutting down. The servers are going to stay active for a while

There's a few points to note here:

If I understand things correctly, EA actually owns Broadsword. So EA is in fact not actually offloading a property, I think what's actually happening is BioWare Austin itself is being divvied out and would not be surprised to see if that branch is shut down

At least half of the SWTOR dev team is part of this move, so the key things to keep an eye on is which members of the dev team are moving. If the narrative staff is kept intact, then we have more story ahead of us beyond what's been written, and they've confirmed we're getting 7.3, 7.3.1, and 7.4. It's important to note that their production timeline is generally a year out from things being written, so story-wise, if they have narrative staff, we'll likely still have some story drops ahead of us

SWTOR is profitable (it hit over $1 billion in profit several years ago), and I will admit I don't have the best understanding of video game finances, but my impresion it was far into the black and maybe not an enromous cash cow, but a decent consistent revenue stream. EA is a publisher that is about profits, so as long as the game is profitable, even if there's not new story drops, the game will stay online

Disney has seemingly taken a recent interest in SWTOR after mostly ignoring it after its acquisition of Star Wars, even going so far as to finally acknowledge the general KOTOR/SWTOR era in their presentations last year at Celebration. Does this ultimately mean anything? I don't know, but SWTOR is one of the longest running current properties with a stable player base. They're just as interested in profit as EA. Probably another indicator that the game will keep running for a while.

Other properties that Broadsword operates, such as Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, are old games. Ultima Online was released in 1997, and the servers are still active. So like, I think regardless of what happens in regards of the story, we're not losing the ability to log in and play the game

Long term subscriptions - I remember reading, and forgive me, because I've long forgotten the source, that a key indicator if the servers are going offline is to also keep an eye on the six-month subscription option. Basically, if suddenly the only option for subs goes down to one month, that's when to worry about being able to actually play the game.

This is probably not about SWTOR, but BioWare as a whole. It seems there's a leadership issue at the main Alberta office that's causing issues. This is likely an Anthem issue all over again, but Anthem this time happens to be the Mass Effect and Dragon Age properties. Unfortunately, BioWare Austin looks like it's going to suffer the consequences of that, even though they've been running a tight ship overall compared to the rest of the branches. I feel for them. This sucks.

Now I'm not an oracle, I have no idea if this is ultimately a good or bad thing for the game itself. There's a lot of evidence for both sides of the coin, so right now the best thing is to wait and see. We at least have the promise of the next two patches. Let's focus on enjoying that, and celebrating what we love about our silly space game.

If you love the game, keep playing it. Spend money on it, and keep it profitable and it will stay around. Be kind and supportive of the devs, who regardless of how this shakes out, are going through a major transition. But immediately decrying an active game's death and going into doom and gloom is not going to help things.

Will we get more story beyond 7.4? I do not know one way or the other. I hope we do, but it's hard to say for certain on that front. But I do believe we'll still have our toons and be able to replay all of the released content for quite a while to come. Again, for now I'm just going to enjoy my favorite game, and support it as long as I have it. Even if this inevitably means it's going to change.

[three-fulm-thaumaturd]

Dawn? Trailed.

Finished Dawntrail MSQ tonight. Assorted scattershot (and spoiler-heavy) thoughts under the RM.

-I came to DT without much preexisting hype or emotional investment. All I wanted out of this expansion was to have a break from being the main character who has to save the multiverse from extinction, again, and to have some cool scenery to look at and some banger music, and we sure got that!

-There are a lot of things about how this expansion was written that didn't effortlessly or instinctively emotionally appeal to me in specific, but that are, when I think about them, really good, solid workmanlike choices re: how to construct a video game narrative.

-I know J-media tournament arcs are “well worn” in the same sense that the Grand Canyon or the Marianas Trench are, but they provide a plausible pretext for the things that MMOs are set up to do. Better than a host of supposedly highly-realized and virtuous precursor beings insisting that we repeatedly justify our existence by fighting, for sure.

-Being Wuk Lamat's mentor/emotional support Eorzean/800 pound gorilla was an interesting conceit. I think the writers carried off "non-protagonist PC" fairly well, and I've played other games where that was tried and didn't work (lookin at you SWtOR, re: KotFE). Lamat'yi feels like a more competently-written version of Stormblood-era Lyse. She's got both a core personality that remains consistent and a trajectory of increasing competence and maturity. I think she's well constructed as a protag/viewpoint character: she's primed to like things and people, her ethos of addressing conflict by seeking understanding and consensus is a good pretext to deliver exposition, and she feels/empathizes intensely but doesn't get stuck on her own emotional reactions. I wouldn’t say I effortlessly enjoy her as a character, especially early on when the writing leans hard into her immaturity and desperation to be liked and to prove herself, but I understand and respect what that’s for. It’s no different than Naruto or early-OT Luke Skywalker.

-I like the variety of Central/South American cultural inspo (Aztec, Quechua, Yucatec Maya, Pueblo, etc), we got in the setting and culture for this xpac, and the conception of Tural as a very racially/culturally heterogeneous place where power comes from the aggregate of a complicated network of relationships that have to be negotiated on an ongoing basis. It's not zero-sum, and finding solutions that benefit everyone is hard but worthwhile.

-I was excited to be able to bring Krile, my favorite Scion, along this time. I feel like the ShB/EW A-team had enough presence to appeal to people who like them and not so much that they upstaged the new characters or the change of scenery.

-I think there was effort to add cinematographic interest to the many, dense cutscenes other than wide-angle shot/reverse-shot over paragraphs of text. Some of the camera angles (switching between the faces of my minimum-height lalafell and 2m+ Wuk Lamat) and long shots of characters' expressions resulted in...sometimes-intentional uncanniness and unintentional comedy. This probably was not the devs' intention (their intention was probably a performance with emotional subtlety that the graphics overhaul alas still doesn't permit), but my instinctive read was that it felt like unnecessary padding/stalling for time.

-Re: other stuff that felt like it unnecessarily lengthened the playtime and the amount of text to read, sometimes I resent that it feels like I'm being not just spoon-fed, but bottle-fed plot and character beats that are not complicated or hard to understand. Then I see people evincing failure to comprehend what they're reading elsewhere on the internet and understand why it's done that way. :\

-There's basically one trademark Ishikawa conflict: Local man driven to extremes by inability/unwillingness to come to terms with loss, aging, and death. There's also one trademark Ishikawa sin that characterizes all of the ShB-and-after antagonists: a delusional insistence on harming the living to feed the dead. Those come up so consistently that her style is instantly recognizable...and I wonder some about what she's experienced or how she's doing.

-The hairpin turn in the plot about 2/3 of the way in and the by-now very familiar tropes aren't my narrative jam at all, but it was engaging enough to mostly keep my attention until the end. I'm beyond weary of Ascians/Ancients and shard math, so I'm glad those things were referenced (and there's some interesting stuff to chew on re: Lalafell history in particular) but not focal.

-I'm a little mad, because my pre-Heritage-Found speculation that El Dorado was going to turn out to actually be an aetherologic Superfund site (which would explain the security, the giants charging in and coming back dead, sick, or unable to reproduce, the teratogenic effects on eg Blessed Siblings etc and the fight for control of it as a putative military asset) seemed to have a lot of fun possibilities. I guess you could argue that Living Memory might be a very abstracted nod in that direction.

-*Queen Sphene*? Really, you couldn’t have named her anything at all else???

-I'm not at all satisfied that "he felt overshadowed by his father's accomplishments and wanted to prove his worth independent of his unusual heritage" is sufficient justification for how Zoraal Ja was, especially prior to his first contact with Alexandria. I figured based on his behavior and Krile's remarks, that he had to be Tempered, or affected by an equivalent kind of magical compulsion.

-The final trial, and to a lesser extent the last dungeon are an unmitigated (and unmitigatable until mods become available again) accessibility nightmare if you're photosensitive or prone to motion sickness. I hoped the devs would take the feedback they got from the ShB alliance raid series under consideration but they sure didn't give a shit. Guess I'm not doing roulettes for a while.

[bigpuppyroegadyn]

Day 11 - Fave Gear: Body

I may have gotten lost in the swtor sauce yesterday and forgot that maintenance would happen before my bedtime, oops. ANYWAY here it is a day late!

The Ala Mhigan chest of fending is one of my favorite things that Hound has worn, but it's also kind of important as it helped me settle on a more consistent visual for his "combat look", something I'd been struggling with for a while.

He had been wearing a lot of grays prior, and his Heavensward armor was silver full-body armor, and while they weren't bad looks I still felt like I hadn't really found a look that was "his", and I also wanted to be more Hellsguard-y about it. This chestpiece was great for that! It has fur detailing and the arms are partly uncovered. It also began my trend of having him wear ink blue as his main color, and the gold detailing of the sets work wonderfully with ink blue, and give his armor so much more life! His ShB armor and then his current canon armor for EW and DT are still ink blue and gold with a long butt-cape. (and more importantly his current armor also leave his arms uncovered)

I base my idea of Hellsguard armor off two things mainly: WAR artifact gear sets, and the Sohm Al Armor sets. WAR artifact gear because the very first artifact gear is in fact, canonically hellsguard armor! (as well as Bravura). Since most following WAR AF sets follow a similar aesthetic flair, I'm just mentally headcanoning that they are all hellsguard styles. Alas I can't use them on other classes.

It is also canon that roegadyn culture/dress generally favors showing off their arms, so I've tried to go for armors that do so!

The Sohm Al sets I've latched on as being hellsguard style as well due to them having a similar aesthetic, but also because Broken Mountain wears it! Him and Curious Gorge are the few NPCs to be explicitly from the mountain clans. Hellsguard stuff is pretty rare in game and the most we get is from the WAR quests. I've used one of the tops on my brd glamour to try my hand at a "hellsguard hunter" look!

My only minus for those sets is that the *very* wide sleeves have priority over like, every pair of gloves ever. They're somewhat unique in that aspect, I think most other armors will let long gauntlets/gloves have priority. But that means a bit less control over the overall silhouette. But this set is stil lvery important to me and SE still hasn't put another variant in game!

Cough sorry for rambling but I have spend maybe way too much time in my long time playing this game thinking about the hellsguard lmao.

[hapan-in-exile]

Reader Response

Question about the use of Mando lore in my fic Hapan in Exile

@bbyanarchist asked the question:

I’m really curious - so in this fic, Mando wouldn’t take a riduur bc it’s against his creed? I’m not sure I’ve seen it like this before where he wouldn’t take a mate. My understanding from Mando culture is that partners and children (foundling or blood) are very important and integral to the creed

Thanks so much for asking me about this! I spent so much time working on the smut in A Loving Feeling that I didn’t make it clear anywhere that I’m deviating from the show (in as much as the show explains anything about “The Creed” 🫠). I hope the depth of my discussion below doesn’t exceed the scope of your curiosity. 

The short answer is that it's tied to *my interpretation* of Mando’s role in the Tribe. 

This interpretation is entirely mine. It's not based on any "official" SW canon. It's motivated by my desire to explore the Mando we meet in Season 1—the period when my fic Hapan in Exile is set. I’m interested in why, prior to the final episode, he doesn’t seem to have any clan affiliation and has never taken on a youngling/foundling apprentice before now. 

In my fic, I am interpreting that this is tied to his role as a member of the Fighting Core. So it's not that Mando couldn’t take a mate or have children in the future (and I’m definitely not asserting that Mandalorians do not take mates or have children). However, the role Mando occupies within the Tribe when we meet him in Season 1 prohibits these roles of formalized kinship. It's not until the Armorer confers the status of clan leader on him (Clan Din) that he earns this right. Without that, he’s just Mando. 

I haven’t tackled my Mando’s background in great detail yet, so I’m glad you asked this question. I hope this will give you some insight into what’s coming in the series. I’m really excited to delve into his adolescence as a foundling and envision the parental figures that influenced him. I hope readers enjoy that I weave the past and present narratives together.     

I’m deriving my understanding of Mandalorian culture from SWTOR lore because I find the show’s exploration of the Death Watch/Children of the Watch to be deeply unsatisfying.

I prefer SWTOR lore to Filoni lore!

SO much of the tension in this show is invested in the religious tenet that Din Djarin cannot remove his helmet, and yet we’re never given a compelling explanation as to why? Adherents to this Creed are characterized as religious zealots. Okay, that sounds fascinating. What are their unique doctrines or texts? Within this small fundamentalist group, we also have a distinct sub-group, the “Fighting Core.” Tell me more! Do they have unique roles, practices, and/or tenets within this social order?  

None of this gets worked out in the show. There is no internal logic. It's all very inconsistent and contradictory. I want to answer some of those questions with my Mando!

An example of something I struggled with (which I swear is relevant) is the revelation of Din Djarin’s name. When I started watching Season 1, I assumed the helmets were part of this broader subsumed identity—like no names, no familial ties, no hierarchies. In episodes 1-3, the Covert doesn’t use names, not even amongst each other. Just Mandalorians. I thought that was very cool! Radical collectivism! And it made sense to me as an extreme reading of the first “action” in the Resol’nare. 

I’ll pause to clarify that Mandalorian lore is represented across a variety of formats in the Star Wars franchise. I honestly have no idea what is considred canon at this point, but my introduction to Mandalorian traditions was playing SWTOR: Star Wars the Old Republic. For any readers not familiar with that game, a very dreamy Mandalorian named Torian Cadera breaks down the Resol’nare (Six Actions) for you:

Wearing armor.

Speaking the language.

Defending yourself and your family.

Raising your children as Mandalorians.

Contributing to the clan’s welfare.

When called upon by the Mand’alor, rallying to their cause.

To be clear, as far as I know, the Resol’nare is never referred to in SWTOR as “The Creed” or “The Way,” so I’m not claiming it’s referenced in the show. The fact that none of the characters EVER speaks a word of Mando’a is probably evidence that it's not canon. (The principle of fundamentalism as a religious practice is to adopt originalist belief systems, so I honestly don’t understand how the writers constructed a sect of “religious zealots” who don’t incorporate the ancient language of their people. I personally love that the fandom leans so heavily into the Mando’a as a corrective to this!)

I watched most of Season 1, thinking “The Way” was based on the Resol’nare, especially since adherence to the Six Actions is how you become a Mandalorian in the SWTOR game. I thought the tenet of “wearing armor” had been taken to an extreme interpretation by this sect of Mandalorians portrayed in the show. No names, no clans, no individuals—I have become the armor; I am Mandalorian. I thought that was brilliant!     

Okay, so obviously I was wrong. In the last episode of the season, Mof Gideon reveals that our Mando is Din Djarin. (Makes absolutely no sense that a nomadic cult would register their adopted children with the government they are in open revolt against…but I’ve ranted enough). I expected the type of reaction from Cara/Greef that we later get from Mayfeld, that because his anonymity had been violated, they would assure Mando they’d never tell anyone about his true identity. Instead, when he reconnects with the Armorer, she immediately starts referring to him as Din Djarin, using his name in front of outsiders despite the fact that this revelation did not happen in her presence. That's super inconsistent from a writing/plot perspective, but I wanted to give the revelation deeper meaning.

My lore theory

I interpret her use of Din Djarin’s name to be tied to Mando’s shift in status since this happens in the same scene where the Armorer confers his clan affiliation and signet. Prior to this moment, Din Djarin has no clan and no name. In his first interaction with the Armorer back in Episode 1 she asks about the signet—a sort of “are you ready to take on more seniority/begin to craft your legacy” question. Not yet, he says. Soon, is her response. In the final episode, after seeing Mando take on the role of protector for the Child, she deems him ready and makes him clan leader—a clan of two—and uses his name, Din Djarin. 

My fic takes place before these events in Episodes 7 and 8, so my Mando has no name, clan, or status beyond his role in the Fighting Core. I envision them as paladins or Fianna, like the Mandalorian Crusaders.  

Again, this is entirely my interpretation.  

But I honestly don’t think Clone Wars or Dave Filoni know what the Mandalorians who joined the Death Watch/Children of the Watch believe, either. That’s probably why “The Creed” and “The Way” are never recited or explained in the show. And that’s obviously intentional. We get this build-up in the Season 3 premiere when we get see the initiation ritual. It’s like, yes we are going to watch someone swear the Creed, finally! 

“And the words of the Creed shall forever be forged in my heart…” 

Bitch! What are the words?! Someone fucking tell me already!! Also, this is the only religious ritual we see, and not one word of Mando’a is spoken?!

I get why its left vague. Its much easier for the writer’s future plot/character development to be able to have the Armorer say some shit like, “According to Creed...” and then, whatever follows that pronouncement, the audience cannot say fuck all about it since we have no idea what “The Creed” actually entails. Like being baptized (born again!) in the Living Waters. Okay, sure! Why not? 

What I want to explore through my own lore

But, hey! This means I, as a writer, can also make “The Creed” and “The Way” into whatever I want. It’s rooted in the SWTOR Resol’nare but I’m also taking some liberties.

However, I do want to strive for internal logic and make it impactful to my characters and their relationship development. Here are some of the dynamics I want to explore that framed my interpretation of Mando’s orthodoxy. 

An understandably popular trope in Mandolorian X Reader fic is Mando getting the reader to convert so they can marry and raise Mandalorian babies. (Torian also wants to convert you!). But I want to make this a little more complicated beyond the reader making the choice to convert. I want Mando to work through some challenges first. What emotional and social order issues does he have to sort out before he can make that offer to you? What does it take to earn his change in status from "Mando" to "Din Djarin"? 

What does it mean that Mando is clanless? Why wasn’t he formally adopted into a clan? How do clan affiliations work within the Tribe? This is something my Mando has to sort out before he can take a mate/children. 

Mando is a member of the Fighting Core; does that mean there are other “cores” within the Tribe? We have an Aromorer, so I think the answer is yes. Or at least there seems to be some division of labor based on skills. I want to explore how my ofc/reader’s role of “Healer” fits into this Covert's system. Does Mando hope to find a place for you in the Tribe?

My ofc/reader also lost their family at a young age to be raised/trained in service. I want to explore how these shared experiences connect them despite their circumstances being so different. How does your background help you better understand Mando in a way others can't?     

Thanks so much for your question, @bbyanarchist! As I said, I hope this will give you some insight into where I'm going with the series.

[kemendin]

LOTRO venting re the reactions I’m seeing to the new update, with the disclaimer that I’m very very white and obviously can’t speak for any POC:

Man, I gotta say, I am severely disappointed with the reaction of so many people to the new Men options. And honestly, a little shocked. LOTRO has by far the nicest, most welcoming community of folks I’ve encountered in an MMO, and it feels disconcerting to see the ugly underside of that. Like, yes, the Tolkien fandom as a whole has always had that subset of racists, but LOTRO’s always felt much more niche and welcoming. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but - I am, a little.

But seriously - the influx of inanities, the sheer immaturity I’m seeing on these comments. Adding more diversity to the character options is ‘ruining the game immersion’ and ‘an insult to Tolkien’s vision’ and all the other phrases these people like to throw around to cover up the simpler meaning of ‘POC shouldn’t exist here’. It’s the same thing that happened with Rings of Power.

And you know, I can even almost understand the point I’ve seen made several times, that they should have added more actual race options to go along with these new looks - Haradrim, Southron, Rhun, etc. And yes, that would be great! But a) do the people complaining even know how often players have chosen race not based on location, but on the visual options? Roleplayers do this ALL THE TIME. And b) until the devs DO give those options for more race origins, why not just... have the diversity in the character creation anyway? Why does it hurt so much if you can’t actually shuffle them off into another box that’s labelled ‘POC’ in your brain? I really don’t know whether to start Hulk-smashing people in my imagination or just sit here and laugh at their poor offended tears.

And then women with beard options - got to witness those reactions in SWTOR not long ago, and now in LOTRO. Someone quite correctly made the point that if you don’t care for such options, just don’t use them, to which the offended individual responded, in essence, ‘but they’re still being forced on me every time I see someone else playing one’.

Seriously. How is more options EVER a bad thing? How hard is it to just say ‘this is not for me’ and move on with your life? People -

Grow.

Up.

There are legitimate issues with the new update. I’ve seen a lot of general cosmetic bugs reported, and the whole face customisation being reset on acceptance is HIGHLY frustrating, when you have to go back and redo all the sliders when all you wanted to do was change your eyebrows. But MORE OPTIONS is not. An. Issue.

I can’t wait to see what happens if Elves get a revamp with darker skin tones....

(But also lol at all the people throwing hissy fits and saying they’re quitting over this. Trash takes itself out, I suppose!)

[maybeyoushouldletthewookieewin]

Welcome to my exclusively SWTOR Tumblr; which is titled "Maybe You Should let the Wookiee Win"

This is where I'll be showcasing my SWTOR toons and adventures. I'm seeming to play a lot more SWTOR now that my wife is back in the game. Her hard-drive space on her laptop was down to near minimal, so somehow, she being more computer literate than me managed to get her game onto an external hard-drive which gave her space on the laptop's hard-drive to install the latest update and get her running again. She needs a much bigger hard-drive on her computer.

Of course, I'm running down to about 345 gigs of space too now. I really should have gotten a 4TB hard-drive. Will have to consider that later. My main toons are on the Star Forge server but I'm not restricted to that. I've also started making toons for the Satele Shan server (the other North American server) and that's where I've been playing on quite a bit.

My first toon I created on Satele Shan was Kyra. She originated from Star Forge, but I had to delete her and start over. (I didn't want to spend the cartel coins to transfer her)

My second toon was Sarlena Worriz.

Of course I also had to have a Jedi Knight - she's going a bit dark.

Couldn't exclude the Imperial Side either.

This is my wife's Jedi Consular (I'm male but enjoy playing female toons; she on the other hand creates mostly female toons).

I have had fun playing the evil Sith Sorcerer with Kyra. She's always been one of my favorites since I haven't unlocked many of the abilities that I have unlocked on Star Forge server. Eventually, I'll probably migrate to every server listed. Then I'm going to have so much fun trying to keep track of all my toons. Guess I'm going to have to keep a spreadsheet of all my characters and what their crew skills are.

On my Star Forge toons, my crew has 745M credits. My Satele Shan toons are poor as ****. So...back to the beginning, I guess...

[vespertine-legacy]

I finally thought to get a shot of some of the passive dialogue with Mallyx

[tiredassmage]

god i just finished what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck. spoodle talk + pics under the cut for some end of update stuff no peeksies if you don't want that.

oh and obligatory new agent va thoughts as one of ur resident agent posters.

hold on I need about. twenty minutes to process everything I witnessed today holy FUCK. MY GOD.

SHAE WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! SHAE!!!! SHAE PICK THE PHONE BACK UP!!!!!

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. okay look the amount of times tyr was able to basically tell the dark council to go suck a nut was fantastic but FOR FUCK'S SAKE SHAE AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE TIMES WAS FOR YOU. FOR BEING INVOLVED IN SOMETHING HE HAS THOUGHT FOR MONTHS WAS GETTING OUT OF HAND. SHAE!!!!! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!!!!!!

fucking. tyr "everything is under control" deckard lying boldfaced to vowrawn himself. "is there anything else?" to krovos. holy fuck. dude. god. tyr i love you. obligatory blorbo posting.

he really just fuckin said "nah. die mad about it." oh my god. oh my fucking god.

he doesn't know what the glowy fucking box does any more than you do and he's going to keep it that way because [piano keyboard slam] he doesn't trust you at allllll <3

anyway. spent the whole update with the new va for male agent now. I have decided I Like Him. felt a lot better after I found the post saying it was a new va. Probably would've been insanely less jarring on the front end of playing to have known that before I launched the game today because I think most of my initial awkward piano keyboard smash about it was Not Knowing.

No reasons are posted and it is absolutely none of my business, as it should remain so, but I admit I'm not... entirely surprised by the recast. Didn't expect it to show up here, evidently, and I haven't followed anything outside of the game, but the last update or two was a little... rougher around the edges I'd noticed and having another character at max suggested it wasn't exclusively a studio recording-related occurrence, so I wish our original legend the absolute best, but Scolding appears to have had a lot of fun picking up the role here and I applaud that, it's a lot of fun to hear.

And now that I am. a little bit more coherent having discussed something Else about the update, I'll also pitch a chip into the idea that I don't... entirely mind that they used KOTOR style cinematics in sections of this update because it gave us a lot more variance in exactly what to say in those moments and it felt fitting for what they were trying to achieve with Sa'har.

Which. sniffles. Ouuuu Sa'har, idk if I'm ready to get started on that. THIS UPDATE. AND LEAVING ME ON THINGS. THAT ARE CAUSING ME EMOTIONS!!!! DAMN!!!!!

SLAY, GIRL, SLAY!

okay general photodump from the whole update time you know how I am about seeing my favorite barbie kicking ass and being in peril <3

damn this was good. nice outing, swtor. nice outing.

[jolyne-best-jojo]

While my brains still on SWTOR I have to gush about the Sith Inquisitor. The story of a slave rising through the Imperial ranks, growing a powerbase which includes a cult and a Moff with access to a superweapon able to destroy multiple ships in a single shot, killing a Sith traditionalist who wants to kill them just because of their masters actions and then taking that Sith seat on the dark council is so good. Every SWTOR class stories hook me at some point but the Inquisitor does it the best.

Aside from the main story the companions are also great, specifically Talos Delrik and Ashora. While Ashora only works if you play the Inquisitor light side, as otherwise you've got her telling am person who kills everyone they come across that their a good person, I really like how it her conversation helps delve into the Inquisitor's own mind a bit letting you decide if their in it for the power or to change the Empire. Ashora becoming disalusioned with the Jedi and their insistence on inner peace over galactic peace and eventually admitting the Sith tennant of Peace is a lie is really good, although it would've been better suited to the main story where they're trying to corrupt her.

As for Talos his more upbeat personality is great considering the inner turmoil of Khem and Ashora and Xalek's stoicism. The best part of him though is, like Ahorsa, the development given to the Inquisitor in them having an interest in history and knowledge and getting a chance to express that intrigue with someone who shares it, especially fitting considering the Council seat they take is the sphere of knowledge.

Back to the main story and Darth Thanaton works so well as a the main villain. There's the obvious fact that he's a traditionalist Sith and your a slave who previously wouldn't have become Sith if the empire wasn't desperate for soldiers but it's moreso the fact that he, like real world traditionalists, is hypocritical. He challenges the Inquisitor to a fight between their powerbases but when he loses and the Inquisitor is about to kill him he runs away and begs the rest of the Dark Council to help him kill the Inquisitor. While some may argue this is bad writing as you've already beaten him twice, once in the battle between powerbases and earlier using the uncontrolled power of ghosts, it really works for me as the final fight is more so humiliation as you've already beaten him infront of his powerbase and now you're killing him in front of the most powerful Sith in the galaxy beating him into the ground leading to him crawling towards his fellow Councillors for help that will never come. There are only two real issues I have with the story one is how the Inquisitor's ancestor Lord Kallig just disappears after the start of Chapter 2, it would've been so much better if he at least appeared after beating Thanaton for the second time asking the Inquisitor to bind him and use his power to help defeat Kallig. The second is how, unless I missed something, they can't kill Overseer Harkun, the man who repeatedly called them a slave, tried to get them killed, tried to trick their would-be master that they failed the trials, called them a slave to their face again when they've become a Lord of the Sith and cries to Darth Thanaton that your breaking the Sith Acadamy rules by letting Xalek live and become your apprentice.