Friday, January 25, 2013

Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part Seven)

Datacrons
SWTOR - DatacronSWTOR - Touching Datacron
Datacrons are these small tiny glowing cubes which supposedly is a form of technology left behind by an ancient race called the "Infinite Empire". They are usually found hidden in all sorts of hard-to-reach places, on planets all over the SWTOR universe.

Upon finding one of them, you must first strive to get close to it (within touching distance) and activate it. Once activated, the datacron would grant the character either a one-time permanent bonus to one stat (strength, presence, aim, cunning, endurance or willpower) or a colored matrix shard.

Ignoring the stat-increasing datacrons (as what they do is fairly straight-forward), I suppose you should be wondering what those colored matrix shards are for, right?
SWTOR - Red Matrix Shard
First of all, you ought to know that there are four kinds of colored matrix shards, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. Next, you will actually need to collect at least three colored matrix shards before they become useful.
SWTOR - Matrix Cube AssemblerSWTOR - Input Shard
After gathering them, you should then head to a "Matrix Cube Assembler" like the one shown. And for your information, this "Matrix Cube Assembler" can be found inside the Jedi Temple Ruins on Coruscant (for Republic characters) and near the Sith Temple on Dromund Kaas (for Imperial characters).
SWTOR - Assembling Matrix Cube
SWTOR - Matrix CubeSWTOR - Assembled Matrix Cube
Once inside, start placing colored matrix shards into each of the three "Shard Input Panels" and then start the assembling process via the terminal in the center before finally touching the finished object to retrieve your assembled matrix cube.

Basically, as far as I know, the stats of the finished matrix cube actually depends upon the color of the matrix shards you use when constructing it (the order does not matter).
  • Level 15 Matrix Cube
    NameShard ColorStats
    Matrix Cube M2-W01 Blue
    1 Green
    1 Yellow
    11 Strength
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M2-W11 Red
    1 Green
    1 Yellow
    18 Willpower
    8 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M2-W21 Red
    1 Blue
    1 Green
    15 Aim
    10 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M2-W31 Red
    1 Blue
    1 Yellow
    18 Strength
    8 Endurance
  • Level 24 Matrix Cube
    NameShard ColorStats
    Matrix Cube M3-J11 Blue
    2 Yellow
    19 Aim
    24 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-L11 Green
    2 Yellow
    28 Cunning
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-O11 Red
    2 Yellow
    28 Strength
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-A21 Green
    2 Blue
    28 Aim
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-J21 Yellow
    2 Blue
    19 Strength
    24 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-V21 Red
    2 Blue
    19 Willpower
    24 Endurance
  • Level 32 Matrix Cube
    NameShard ColorStats
    Matrix Cube M4-L01 Yellow
    2 Green
    29 Strength
    33 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-A11 Blue
    2 Green
    29 Aim
    33 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-B11 Red
    2 Green
    39 Cunning
    23 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-V11 Blue
    2 Red
    29 Willpower
    33 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-B21 Green
    2 Red
    39 Aim
    23 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-O21 Yellow
    2 Red
    29 Strength
    33 Endurance
  • Level 50 Matrix Cube
    Character TypeNameShard ColorStats
    Force UsersMatrix Cube M7-G03 Green66 Strength
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-B33 Blue66 Aim
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-R33 Red66 Willpower
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-Y33 Yellow59 Strength
    68 Endurance
    21 Defense Rating
    Tech UsersMatrix Cube M7-G03 Green66 Strength
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-B33 Blue66 Aim
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-R33 Red80 Cunning
    54 Endurance
    8 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-Y33 Yellow59 Aim
    68 Endurance
    21 Defense Rating
And from what I can tell, this finished matrix cube is actually just a stat-boosting equipment that you can equip into any of your "Relic" slots. And while it does offer way much more bonus to your stats when equipped, it does not offer any temporary boosting effect like that of relics.
Furthermore, regardless of how many matrix shards you may have found, you are only allowed to create and own one matrix cube. Therefore it may be more advisable to leave these shards alone until you have found more of them and have sufficient level to equip the high-leveled cubes.
SWTOR - Matrix Cube DisassemblerSWTOR - Reconfigured Disassembler Core
But in the event that you have already made a cube, you can always make use of the "Matrix Cube Disassembler" (which is also found nearby) to disassemble the matrix cube back into shards so that you can remake another better one. However, this process requires you to have a "Reconfigured Disassembler Core" in your inventory.

For your information, this "Reconfigured Disassembler Core" can be bought at 10,000 creds from a Jawa named Kitpth (2127, 438), north of Anchorhead, on Tatooine if your Republic or a Jawa named Pitkth (626, 2788), in Mos Ila, also on Tatooine if your Imperial.

Finally, to make your datacron hunting easier, you can visit this website - SWTOR Datacron Locations. The website not only tells you the coordinates of the datacrons, but also provides you with a detailed walkthrough (with screenshots) to help guide you to them.

Conversations & Alignment
Do you remember that in Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part One) that I mentioned about conversation choices?
SWTOR - Conversation 1SWTOR - Conversation 2
Now the thing with them that I've discovered is that while most of the option choices you get would lead you towards the same outcome at the end of the conversation regardless of your selection, there are some times where you would get to make a difference.
SWTOR - AlignmentSWTOR - Light V Relic
The greatest tell-tale that you've encountered these life-mattering conversations is when the choices you make affects your "alignment". And the way it is set is that when you make a "righteous" choice, you will gain light points which shifts your alignment slightly towards the "Light" while doing something "sinister" would net you dark points instead and moves you closer to the "Dark" path.

But overall, this "alignment" thingy can be considered as somewhat of an "aesthetic" feature...something that's more in line with a person role-playing and "sculpting" their own character rather than anything that could be considered "life-threatening". As far as I could tell, the only thing that appears to be affected would be a restriction to equipping certain items (like weapons or relics), but please be rest assured as SWTOR has prepared "equivalents" catering to both sides of the alignment.
SWTOR - Conversation Choice Outcome
The last thing that I would like to commend is the way they made the system send these simple pre-programmed messages (via the in-game mail) that appears to be from the various NPC characters that we've encountered or helped in our class and side quests. In my opinion, this small gesture or act simply makes the whole questing and role-playing experience that much better as the characters seem more "alive" compared to other MMOs.


Previous: SWTOR (Part Six)Next: SWTOR (Part Eight)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part Six)

Equipment
SWTOR - Green Equipment
As mentioned in my previous post, the bulk of your stat increases do not actually come from leveling up but rather from the equipment and items that you wear upon your character. There is armor that you wear to defend yourself, main weapons and off-hands (weapon, focus, generator or shield), earpieces, implants and relics. But regardless of how numerous they may be, all you need to remember is equip yourself with the items that give you boost to your primary stat, your endurance and armor rating (defense) and you will be relatively safe.

However, I think there are still some minor aspects that I wish to briefly touch upon.
  • Armor Types
    There are four types of armor, light, medium, heavy and adaptive. With the same "rating", light armor will provide the least defense while medium armor will provide more defense than light followed by heavy armor offering the most protection.

    Adaptive armor, like the name suggests, adapts itself according to the best armor that one could wear. What this means is that, if your character can only wear medium armor, then the adaptive armor (when worn) will offer you protection that is equivalent to that of medium armor with the same "rating". If you can wear all three forms of armor, light, medium and heavy, then the adaptive armor will become "heavy armor-like" since that is your best protection outfit.
  • Earpieces & Implants
    SWTOR - EarpiecesSWTOR - Implants
    These slots merely provide more avenue to increase your stats and nothing more. You can start to equip earpieces and implants at around levels 15 and 20 respectively.
  • Relics
    SWTOR - Relics
    Relics are slightly more interesting because apart from serving the same purpose as earpieces and implants, they are also able to provide a temporary boost of power when you need it (such as to your critical and defense ratings for example). To use them, just click and drag the equipped relics onto your hotkey bars and you can use them like your using abilities. Relics can be equipped at around level 20.
  • Custom Equipment
    These equipment can be easily identified by their orange name and border. The primary purpose of using them, in my opinion, is when you wish to maintain your character's or companion's outfit or appearance while at the same time being able to keep your equipment up-to-date with your levels.
  • Rarity
    All items found in SWTOR are graded with a color coding system that is much like those found in other games we've played such as DC Universe Online. Starting from the most common, we have "Gray" (Cheap), "White" (Standard), "Green" (Premium), "Blue" (Prototype) and "Purple" (Artifact). And in the same fashion, items which are more rare would provide better stats and bonuses, however I must remind you again that the funny thing in SWTOR is that artifact level equipment cannot be worn by non-subscribers unless they've acquired an "Artifact Equipment Authorization" pass.


Item Modifications
Item modifications are a set of items made almost specifically for custom equipments...all except for one which can be used on all sorts of equipment if the conditions are right.
SWTOR - Custom WeaponSWTOR - Custom Chest Armor
The item modifications for custom equipment consist of Armoring, Barrel, Color Crystal, Enhancement, Hilt and Mod these six types. Each of these can only fit in their own specific slot and depending on the equipment, the slots available might be different. For example, a custom weapon will have slots for a color crystal, a hilt or barrel, a mod and an enhancement while a custom chest armor would only have slots for armoring, mod and enhancement.

And as far as I know, apart from giving extra bonuses to your stats like primary and endurance, a few of these item modifications also serve an important alternative purpose. For instance...
SWTOR - Guardian Armoring 5SWTOR - Hardened Terenthium Vest
Armoring also plays the role of modifying the defense provided by your armor pieces. With a higher armor rating, the armoring modification would offer more armor protection compared to one with a lower armor rating.
SWTOR - Color Crystal
A color crystal plays the role of changing the color of your lightsaber, beam fired from your ranged weapon or the color of your shielding.
SWTOR - Virtuous Strategist Lightsaber 1SWTOR - Virtuous Strategist Lightsaber 2
Hilt or barrel modifications alter the damage range of your custom weapon. With a higher power rating, your custom weapon will deal much more damage.
SWTOR - Extracting Item Modification
And since these custom equipments are made to be "update-able", you can actually swap the outdated modifications with newer and better ones easily (so long as you have enough credits and the right level requirements for them). To do so, just "ctrl + right click" on the custom equipment, right click on the outdated one to free up the slot and then put in the new modification.
SWTOR - AugmentsSWTOR - Augmentation Slot MK-1
Now Augments are the only item modification that can be used on all kinds of equipment regardless of whether they are customed or not. However, this is only based upon the condition that the item has an augmentation slot available.
SWTOR - Item Modification StationSWTOR - Augmentation Kit MK-1
From what I heard, these augmentation slots can appear on your crafted items during a crafting run if your lucky enough. However, since the chances are low (and even lower for free-to-play players), we can't really depend on luck for them now can we? So the more common method of obtaining an augmentation slot is actually through the use of the "Item Modification Station" and an augmentation kit.

SWTOR - Unaugmented CostSWTOR - Upgrading Augment Slot Cost
There are six "levels" of augmentation kits available, MK-1 to MK-6. Each of these kits when used will give your item an augmentation slot of the corresponding "level". The catch now is that an MK-6 slot can fit all levels of augments as long as your character level is sufficient for the augment while an MK-1 slot can only fit in low-leveled augments. Furthermore, regardless of whether your item is augmented or not, you will always need an augmentation kit and the same credit costs to make or upgrade your slot. Therefore, it is much more cost-efficient to just go for an MK-6 slot and pay 45,000 creds in one shot rather than work your way up from MK-1 to MK-6, all the while paying for the kits and upgrading costs (which would certainly be more than the cost of one MK-6 + 45,000 creds).

And just in case you were wondering, these augmentation kits can be made if you have sufficient skill in any one of these three crew skills, Armormech, Synthweaving or Armstech.

As for the important ingredient in making them, Augmentation Slot Components, they can be gotten from "reverse engineering" (dismantling) certain equipment (depends on your crew skill). For example, with Armstech, you can reverse engineer weapons to obtain them while Armormech and Synthweaving will require you to break apart armors instead.
Previous: SWTOR (Part Five)Next: SWTOR (Part Seven)

Monday, January 14, 2013

Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part Five)

Stats, Level & Fighting Ability
From the encounters and experiences I've gained throughout my roughly one to two months of playing in SWTOR, I seem to have come to this understanding that one's ability to fight against any opponent largely hinges upon two critical factors, namely "Stats" and "Level". Now although you might be thinking "Well, duh? Isn't it the same like most MMOs?", I still have to explain how they work here in SWTOR.
SWTOR - Stats
First of all, if you bring out your character's stats window (press "C"), you will see quite a few stats like "Strength", "Presence", "Aim", "Cunning", "Endurance", "Willpower" and "Expertise". Now if you hover your mouse over them, you will see that
  • Strength increases your aptitude in melee combat.
  • Presence increases the effectiveness of your companion.
  • Aim increases your aptitude with ranged weapons.
  • Cunning increases your aptitude with technological abilities.
  • Endurance increases the amount of damage you can suffer before being defeated.
  • Willpower increases your aptitude with Force powers.
  • Expertise increases your effectiveness in PVP combat.
However, these are merely general explanations that are good to know, but can be forgotten. This is because from the way things are in SWTOR, you will only need to focus your attention on two stats at best or maybe three (if your into PVP).
SWTOR - Jedi Knight Primary StatSWTOR - Trooper Primary Stat
The first stat you need is called your "Primary" stat. This is the stat that you will depend upon for your damage output. Do note however that this so called "Primary" stat would differ from class to class (as well as companion to companion) but can be easily identified by inspecting which of them grows the fastest as you level (I'm referring to base stats of course, ignoring the bonus part which comes from equipment and datacrons).
SWTOR - Endurance
If you still have not guessed it from the pictures, the second stat would naturally be "Endurance". This stat needs to be increased in order to improve your character's survivability. And as far as I know, although each point in Endurance only increases your max health by 10 points and health regen by a speck, it is however still imperative that you not ignore it.
SWTOR - Medpacks
This is because SWTOR combat mechanics dictate that you can only pot once per fight (not to mention that its cooldown between uses is 1.5 minutes). This means that you cannot "potion spam" yourself during a fight and thus if you do not have enough health, you will become very squishy and cannot handle sudden adds.
Since the third and final stat (that I have mentioned) will only become important when your doing PVP, it should be a no-brainer for you to have guessed that its "Expertise". But generally speaking, this "Expertise" stat increases your PVP effectiveness via enhancing stuff like your damage output, damage reduction and healing against other players (by percentages or so I heard). So in other words, it is sort of acting like a bonus and would be relatively useless if your original stats sucked.
SWTOR - Ranged Jedi Knight?SWTOR - Force Sensitive Smuggler?
As for why the other stats can be totally ignored? This is because improving them would have no benefit whatsoever due to weapon restrictions and ability differences between each class. Just think about it...would a Jedi Knight need "Aim" when they can't even equip and use ranged weapons? How about a Smuggler increasing "Willpower" when he has no Force abilities?
SWTOR - Level 28 vs Level 10
Next, the reason why "Level" plays an important part in fighting ability isn't totally due to the variances in one's stats compared to the opponent. In fact, if you strictly compared just the base stats, you will notice that the stat increases you get when you level aren't really a lot. It is roughly 4 points per level for your primary stat, 3 points per level for endurance and presence, 1 point for the other non-critical stats or something like that.

But yet, from what I could tell, whenever I encountered a particularly hard to beat opponent in one of my quests, all I had to do was to level myself such that I was equal in level or one to two levels higher than him and then I would be able to defeat him with relative ease compared to the earlier encounter even though there were no changes in my equipment and ability setups.
SWTOR - Level Gap Experiment
To verify my observation, I did a tiny experiment by removing all my armor so much so that I reduced my stats to the range I had back when I was about level 10. Then I jumped back into the flashpoint I had trouble with (back in the past) and stood there letting two level 10 drones pummel me. And interestingly enough, the drones had difficulty killing me as most of their attacks were either deflected or dodged and those that went through did pretty low damage. So I guess there should be some innate system coding that sort of scales the balance of a fight according to the level gap.


Previous: SWTOR (Part Four)Next: SWTOR (Part Six)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part Four)

Combat
SWTOR - Melee CombatSWTOR - Ranged Combat
Although there is melee and ranged combat in SWTOR, I'm afraid that I didn't find them to be that much different from each other mechanics-wise. In essense, regardless of it being melee or ranged, all combat in SWTOR turned out to be a skill-spamming fest and frankly-speaking, I was a bit disappointed that it was neither a hack-n-slash nor fps (or a mixture of both) type of combat.

But nonetheless, this doesn't mean that fighting in SWTOR is typical and mindless. In my opinion, there is still a bit of difference in terms of the fighting styles of the various different classes and your ability to grasp and adapt to their differences would determine whether you have the upper hand during combat. However, since I'm no guru, I would rather not go into that and only touch on some general aspects of combat that you would need to know.

Resource
If you've read my previous article on SWTOR's Character Creation, then no doubt you would have come across this term called "Resource".
SWTOR - Jedi Knight FocusSWTOR - Jedi Consular Force
SWTOR - Smuggler EnergySWTOR - Trooper Ammo
Basically from what I can tell, this resource-thingy is something that is needed when you use your various class abilities during combat. And for each class, the way it is needed and used may be somewhat slightly different.
SWTOR - Zealous StrikeSWTOR - Blade Storm
For example, the Jedi Knight starts with zero "Focus" when he enters a battle. And as he uses his class abilities to deal damage, some of them will generate "Focus" resource while some others (the harder hitting ones) would consume them. Then upon finishing the battle, the Jedi Knight would slowly lose all the "Focus" resource he had gained during the fight.
SWTOR - Explosive Round
The Trooper on the other hand, enters combat with full "Ammo" resource and needs to rely upon the system to "regenerate" his resource over time before he can use more of them. And although there are certain abilities that do not need "Ammo" to cast, most of them do and with the high damage abilities needing more.


In short, the fundamental difference is that the Jedi Knight builds his resources during combat and uses them while the Trooper needs to rely on how fast his "Ammo" resource regens. And from what I've noticed, the Trooper's "Ammo" regen rate is dependent on how much "Ammo" he has left (low "Ammo" level equals low regen rate).

So with this difference in the way resources are generated and consumed, there is a difference in combat style between a Jedi Knight and a Trooper. Theoretically, the Jedi Knight can continue to use skill combos endlessly as long as he is still alive by juggling the resource building and resource consuming abilities and their cooldown times. However, the Trooper's problem would be in "controlling" his rate of consumption of "Ammo" so that he does not empty his "Ammo" resource pool. For once he does empty it, his damage ability will be seriously hampered.
SWTOR - Smuggler Cover SystemSWTOR - Jedi Consular Force Usage
As for the Smuggler, while his "Energy" resource shares a somewhat similar behavior to the Trooper's "Ammo", he alone gets access to a unique "Cover-based System" that provides a strong defensive bonus as long as he is "in cover". However, the way this "cover" bonus works is not absolute and will only apply if the enemy does not get close or flank him. And if my memory serves me right, while being in cover, the smuggler will be able to see a certain icon (a shield if I'm not wrong) on top of the heads of those whom he is "in cover" against.

Finally, the Jedi Consular's "Force" resource behaves most similarly to that of a magician's mana in regular MMOs. As far as I know, its regeneration rate appears to be unchanged whether it is in battle or not. But combat-wise, the Jedi Consular is far from being the "squishy" type mage as its fighting style incorporates a balance of melee and force-based attacks.

Abilities
Another thing that I reckon you might need to know about would be how to identify the various types of abilities found in SWTOR.
SWTOR - Abilities Window
Generally, abilities can be classified into three types, namely passive, active and toggle abilities. And while you can supposedly identify them easily via their descriptions in the "Abilities Window" (press "P"), I found that amongst these three types, it can be slightly difficult to differentiate between active and toggle as the descriptions do not state so clearly.

However, as I played on and gradually learnt more about the game, I discovered that toggle abilities can be easily recognized by a slightly elongated hexagon at the bottom-center of their icons. For example, if you refer to "Ataru Form" and "Juyo Form" in the picture on top, you will notice that both of these are toggle abilities and if the "hexagon" is lit up, it would mean that that ability is currently "active and in use".

Last but not the least, one final thing that you might be interested in learning would be how to make your Companion AI start using all the skills and abilities that they have in their arsenal.
SWTOR - Companion Power Strikes InactiveSWTOR - Companion Power Strikes Active
To do so, you will first have to press the "tilde key" (~) to bring out your companion's hotkey bar. Once it is out, look for all the abilities with a box at the top right corner that is not lit and right click on the boxes to light them. This is to actually instruct the AI to include the ability into its fights.
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