Top of the Fourth to You!
This week let’s take a quick look at a sign that is quite appropriate for the fourth day of the fifth month. This neon sign glows from many of the cantinas, casinos and skyscrapers of Nar Shaddaa. It is written using the Trade Federation Basic font that has its origins on screen in The Phantom Menace.
I’ve previously translated another display with the same font and similar design that also can be found wherever fine goods advertised around the galaxy. The two graphics have an identical frame and layout, but the one above is animated with flashing lights and pulses between a red and purple glow. Unlike the previous sign, this one can be translated. Does the use of the number 54 refer to May 4th? Maybe, but I’d suggest given its context that it might equally evoke Studio 54, New York’s famous nightclub which was at its height during Star Wars’ initial release in the age of disco. Perhaps 54 is the “top” floor of the most exclusive casino or sky-palace where only the most famous holo-celebrities, crime lords, and Sith boogiemancers are allowed past the velvet rope blocking the blast door to the hottest dance club atop the Smugglers’ Moon!
Conquest Bonanza
I want to comment on the most recent Conquest changes. Where the last initial round of Conquest revisions had us briefly earning conquest points at Ludicrous Speed, I think everyone now agrees that Conquest has gone to plaid!
Last week I scored on my own, more than enough points to meet my guild’s small yield target. I don’t deny this feels extreme, but I did play that character a lot last week, to the exclusion of most of my other characters. And since it was a character I was leveling, I took full advantage of the many Conquest objectives that came naturally with doing the story, heroics and flashpoints along the way.
Of the people in small guilds I’ve talked to, everyone is happy with the update. These are the folks who benefit the most. Nothing will change for the large guilds, they’ll continue to hit their yields, and the same guild that comes in first every week on your server will continue to dominate. But these changes will be huge for small groups of friends who just want to level up their guilds, gain access to perks, unlock their guild ships and earn useful crafting materials.
No one should have to pick between playing content that will benefit their guild’s conquest effort and playing what they want. Now anyone can level a character and still meaningfully help their guild when previously the points gained from basic leveling were not significant.
Are many of the conquest objectives trivial? To veterans, they sure are! But if Conquest allows new players to safely test out systems like Strongholds and companion influence and Amplifiers, I’m all for it. I do know PVPers feel like they got the short end of the stick again, and I think Bioware could add more objectives to reward PVP play without fear of it turning into the new KP or EV trash farm.
When it comes right down to it, if Conquest points are meant to be guild xp, then I think all activity should count towards it, not just a particular set of goals that change from week to week.
The most common remark I hear is that everyone expects this to be nerfed, so I encourage you to take advantage. Ride that speeder! Place those decorations! And pick those flowers while you can!
May the Fourth Raffle Time!
I fully acknowledge that as fake holidays go, May the Fourth is pretty fake, but I think this year we all could use a reason to celebrate, and as a member of SWTOR‘s content creator program, I’m in a position to help make that happen. The good people at Bioware have provided me a code which can be redeemed for 1050 Cartel Coins and I’m pleased to share it with one of my readers! To enter leave a comment to this post below. Do you have any thoughts about the conquest changes? What outfit, weapon or color crystal would you like to buy or unlock in your collection? How many characters are you planning to level during double XP? Comment below! Make sure you let me know how to contact you if you win: include your character, faction and server name and I’ll mail you the code in game. If you prefer twitter, include your twitter handle and I’ll send it that way. If you’d rather not comment publicly, I’ll also accept entries via email at twia@generic-hero.com.
We’re on the honor system here, so one entry per person, please.
I’ll choose a random winner from all submissions during the Conquest reset Tuesday May 12th.
Good luck, and May the 4th be with you!
I have loved the conquest. As a returning player it has helped me tremendously to catch up a little so I can join my guild and help them out, even if I miss which fight we are doing at the time of a raid. — Gonzo Katarn star forge server
I’m using the double xp to do just the class story missions with ever class except my mains ( Knight and Warrior). Dragaron, Republic, Star Forge.
Agree with you on Conquest. As a returning player, it’s encouraged me to on-ramp into expiring conquest and other content for conquest purposes that I otherwise wouldn’t have out of intimidation. Twitter: maff_c_
I like the new conquest changes. Before this current rendition, Generally, I met conquest on several toons, as I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to log in often. This past week, with the new changes, I had to actually search for toons that hadn’t met the conquest. Resulting in my playing toons I have logged into in ages. (they too, have met conquest this week) As the novelty of this version wears off, I expect I’ll got back my favored few, but it was nice to visit some old *friends*.
Thank you for all your posts, I enjoy reading them even if I don’t always comment.
Rye, Takkirie
I love the CQ changes, honestly. It makes it so much easier to kill two birds with one stone, one being to do the story and other, CQ! I also have at least 8 to level up during Double XP so that’ll be fun!
I’m so glad I found your blog, it’s so fun to read through!
Jadi’ra, Star Forge
Spot on in regards to your points on conquest! I love the changes, as I’m in a handful of smaller guilds. Not to mention, but it’s been GREAT to see so much of the game incorporated into conquest. I forgot how much fun the space missions can be!! Great article, as always!
You know how to get ahold of me XD
I never realized this was your blog! I’ve actually been reading your posts for awhile now. One of my favorites is the dumb ways to die in SWTOR. (Specifically the sarlaac pit)
I look forward to future posts!
May the fourth be with you!
I’m looking to finally finish all the character stories with this XP boost. I’ve only completed the Agent storyline so far, so I have a long way to go. Luckily, it’s always a lot of fun.
I’m also taking the chance to complete all the heroics at least once, and find all the datacrons. Almost halfway there, whoo.
The Fourth is with me and I am one with the Fourth. Thanks for this awesome blog post, and for all you do for the SWTOR fam!
Qavi Nyldiri, Republic, Star Forge server
Sometimes, I’d go days or weeks without actually doing anything combat related. I sit on Tython and craft free gear sets for the newbies making their way through, or work on one of my strongholds, or the guild flagship. With the update to Conquest, I don’t feel that little nagging sense of guilt that I’m not doing my part to hit my personal conquest. I can do whatever I enjoy and it’s plenty! I love the space missions, but until recently they didn’t really help in any way, but now they do! Also, it’s a huge benefit to my teeny-tiny guild. Between us, we now feel like there’s no pressure to sink our time into a single character to hit conquest. We can truly “Play Our Way” at a relaxed pace and have a good incentive to play all the characters we’d normally neglect. I’m actually playing my smuggler on the regular now and learning how to DPS properly as a scoundrel! Playing all those characters helps us get multiple encryptions faster, which we can then pool together to finally expand our flagship – something that seemed unattainable until now! ^.^
For double XP, it’s my golden opportunity to get my last class to max level: The Trooper. Something about the gameplay just never meshed with me and I genuinely struggle when it comes to playing one. But I’ve got there now!
I bought a few Cartel Coins this morning and unlocked a couple of the more expensive armour sets (such as Satele’s) across my legacy! I’m the sort of person who unlocks all 16 outfit slots on multiple characters because I like experimenting with designs! Having more legacy options will be a great help. ^.^
May the Fourth be with you!
Character Name: Mahtt
Faction: Republic
Server: Darth Malgus
Twitter: @MagSulDeruyter
I’m still undecided about the new Conquest. It does feel crazy on a gut level, but so far the novelty hasn’t really worn off yet.
I’m no big fan of double XP when it comes to levelling (my lowbies all got their White Acute modules ready), but I’ve been making some slow progress towards the achievement to get renown rank 100 on all classes. A guildie of mine has also been going on about PvP, which made me re-check my Sage and she’s on Valor 97, so maybe I should push her a bit to get myself a second Elite Warlord. 3 more Valor ranks may not sound like much but still requires quite a lot of matches at that level, even with double Valor.
I loved conquest ! Took me a short time to complete it though ? I recently went sub for the first time so I’m low on CC, but I hope to get one of the many badass armors available on the CM!
I finished all expansions with my Sentinel, and started KotFE with my sorcerer. These are great !! I love how we get to see known characters minding their own business in space.
Character’s name : Liwari
Faction : Empire
Server : Darth Malgus
Twitter : @BaguetteMonkey
It took a bit of getting used to the changes to conquest but now I really like it. I have 10 characters on my main server (Star Forge) and before the change I was lucky to get 6 of them to conquest during rakghoul week, the most I’d usually get is 3-4. So full legacy conquest is achievable now for me. I’m hoping to get all my characters to at least lvl 70 during double xp and I’d love to be able to get the resilient warden outfit.
Character: Valkiana. Republic side on Star Forge
Twitter: @vetranix
Recently returned to the game after a 9 year hiatus. I am working through all of the class stories. I am half way through! Double XP has definitely made my life a lot easier ^_^
When I come into a bit of cash, I like to spend it on something that I will remember for years to come. I could spend the cartel coins on a gun or a Lightsaber but, I think I would go for something a little more unique… Something I would not normally buy otherwise. My first inclination is to go for the ewok companion because he looks so adorable ?
Character: Get Kraken
Faction: Republic
Server: Star Forge
Twitter: Spock0
Hi! I love the new conquest system, it’s so much easier for small guilds (like mine), there are so many objectives and you can do your personal conquest on low level characters very easily.
Iraess, imp, Star Forge.
Thank you. ❤️
I appreciate how much easier it’s made things for small guilds, and also gotten more of our returning or new players asking us questions about the system now, It’s given us more chance to teach people about the game and encouraged some of the quieter players to poke their head out, so overall I’d say it’s a great improvement. The one complaint I have? The pop-ups are bigger and can’t be closed or dismissed until they fadeout naturally.
Twitter: @DatAsuna
Talshy’a, Imp, Star Forge
I haven’t had time to dive too deeply into the conquest, but I like that there’s a couple easy daily objectives that I can do while working on something else, that helps it feel more like I’m actively doing stuff on it as opposed to just getting conquest points from whatever activity I’m already planning to do.
Keep up the cool posts on the blog, the variety of interesting SWTOR stuff is great!
Really liking the new conquest points and double xp! Keep blogging, we appreciate all of your had work!! 🙂
The conquest point options now are very welcomed. For very casual players, the old system would push you to certain tasks where this system is open and generous with points. That can be very helpful for those running multiple characters.