Category Archives: General SWTOR

November 19, 2024 · 9:01 am

Pets of the Old Republic: #4. Orosquab

To mark the arrival of Life Day and Thanksgiving, the next featured entry in the Pets of the Old Republic had to be, of course, the most turkey-like of SWTOR’s pets, the Orobird.

Orobirds have a long history in Star Wars: The Old Republic, debuting in the game’s first major update after its launch. The first two Orobirds introduced into Star Wars lore were the Orochick, which could drop as loot from Gargath, a World Boss found on Hoth, and is also now available from the Light Side Token vendor on Fleet, and the Orokeet which hatches from eggs found by players exploring hidden corners of Alderaan, Republic Taris and Imperial Balmorra. The third Orobird pet, the Orosquab, subject of this post, debuted shortly thereafter as a rare reward from the flashpoint Lost Island. The fourth and final Orobird pet, the Crested Orokeet was later added to a vendor in the Cartel Bazaar of both fleets. If you want an Orobirb of your own as a pet, you won’t need to spend a single cartel coin, and if you’re willing to seek them out yourself, three of the four won’t even cost you a single credit.

Players first encountered fully grown Orobirds in the wilds of the planet Rishi during the Shadows of the Empire expansion. In addition four varieties of Orobird mounts can be acquired from the Cartel Market and the GTN for players to roost upon. If you have sufficient reputation with the Underworld Exchange, you can purchase the Fawn Orobird mount for a handful of credits and a pair of Cartel Market Certificates on the Cartel Bazaar deck of the Fleets.

This type of large, flightless bird appears to be very common across fantasy settings from the Axebeak of Dungeons and Dragons and the Chocobo from Final Fantasy, and the reason for that is because they are all based on extinct varieties of creatures colloquially known as “Terror Birds” from the Earth’s distant past. The “Terror” in that name is apt because many could tower over a human and, based on their fossilized remains alone, all must’ve been impressive sights to see! SWTOR‘s Orobirds seem to have been based in particular on species known as the Phorusrhacos and Dromornis.

Phorusrhacos

Although not all Terror Birds are believed to have been meat eaters, I cannot imagine any of them would be safe to encounter outside their enclosure in an out of control dinosaur theme park or by a time traveller stranded millions of years in the past. Indeed their modern descendants should not be trifled with either! The Cassowary of Australia, which seems to be the direct inspiration for the Crested Orokeet is notoriously dangerous to provoke. And even the wild turkeys of North America are prickly and ill tempered. I myself have encountered them both in the dark woods of Vermont and on the mean streets of Boston. I once walked out the front door of my apartment and came upon a half-dozen Turkeys pecking around my front yard. I turned around and went back inside. It was their yard now.

Boston Turkeys

So know that if you adventure in the Star Wars universe with an Orobird at your side, you are protected by one of the fiercest creatures in both a galaxy far, far away and the one significantly closer to home!

Next time: Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with.

 

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November 1, 2024 · 9:01 am

Pets of the Old Republic: #3. Fiery Grophet

With the Feast of Prosperity event active in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Thanksgiving season in full swing in North America, I decided the next subjects to depict in my Pets of the Old Republic series ought to be seasonally appropriate and perhaps even delicious!

Grophets were introduced to Star Wars during SWTOR’s Shadow of Revan expansion as wild animals found on the planet Rishi. Grophets are omnivores that combine the qualities of the wild pigs, the size and temperament of hippopotamuses with a dash of armored dinosaurs like the Ankylosaurus. Grophets are renowned as delicacies in Hutt cuisine, but they have proven difficult to domesticate. With their long sensitive ears and reinforced skulls, grophets are stubborn and formidable enemies, difficult to approach and dangerous to provoke.

The most notable grophets in SWTOR are the only know named examples in the lore: Straugh, Wudd, and Breck, three very large, rare spawns necessary to unlock Rishi’s datacrons. These grophets are named after the building materials used in the fable of the Three Little Pigs. If you’re curious who the bad guy is in SWTOR’s version of this story, well, it’s us. We’re the Big Bad Wolf.

If you need proof, look no further than the expression on the tiny grophet in my portrait. It is not the product of my imagination. Get close to any grophet and you’ll see they do not ever seem to be in the mood to be trifled with. Grophets are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore.

The reason for that rage could very well stem from SWTOR’s Galactic Command gearing system from the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion. Galactic Command was, in my opinion, SWTOR’s worst gearing system, so absolutely egalitarian that it frustrated casual players, hard-core raiders, sweaty PVPers and everyone else in between. Among the wardrobes of useless gear we acquired from the Galactic Command loot boxes, were occasional cosmetic items like pets and mounts. Players who advanced their Command level to the highest tier could loot this week’s pet: the Fiery Grophet.

If you were like me, you probably quickly ran out of characters to whom to give these orange space piggies. Unwanted loot from Command Crates could be converted into Command points towards more Crates, and many players were all too eager to “recycle” their poor unwanted grophets. But not me. I just couldn’t do it. Every single Fiery Grophet I received was saved. During KotET, I rescued nearly one thousand pets from the Galactic Command incinerator. Over the years I’ve given many away or auctioned them off to good homes, but I still have dozens and dozens left.

If you are on the Star Forge server and would like a Fiery Grophet of your own, leave a comment below with your character name (be mindful of spaces and special symbols) and faction, and I will mail you one free of charge. This offer is good while supplies last and I don’t expect my supply to be exhausted any time soon!

Sadly, I cannot extend this offer to players on other servers, but there are other grophet pets available from the Rishi reputation vendor and the Cartel Market; the Fiery Grophet itself can still be acquired using tech fragments and 75,000 credits from the Spoils of War Pets vendor on both Fleets.

Finally I want to give thanks to the great and powerful Shintar who suggested the Fiery Grophet and my co-guild leader Galaxiya who would taunt me every time she’d grind a grophet into CXP. I still wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the grophets.

Next time: birds of a feather.

 

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July 30, 2024 · 7:01 pm

The Acolyte Review

While it is still fresh in my mind, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the recently concluded Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte. Beware there shall be spoilers ahead!

Overall, I thought it was very good and very interesting to watch, especially as a long time Star Wars fan. If Andor and Rogue One are the Star Wars stories for people tired of the Jedi, The Acolyte is the complete opposite; it dives deeper into the questions around the Jedi than any other live action or animated Star Wars story. It poses questions I’ve asked myself, and it goes to places about which I’ve long wondered.

The Acolyte was created by Leslye Headland whose last show Russian Doll I really enjoyed, so I was prepared to give The Acolyte as much space as it needed to tell its story. The cast is very strong, with a diverse group of actors bringing to life an era of Star Wars previously unexplored in live action. Amandla Stenberg does a good job in her dual role and I really like how you can tell Mae and Osha apart without difficulty, until, of course, you can’t. Lee Jung-jae is terrific as Master Sol. The entire show would fall apart if all of Sol’s strengths and weaknesses aren’t given an empathic and relatable face, and he expresses the flawed, beating heart that holds all these contradictions together until it breaks. The cast is rounded out by faces familiar from Russian Doll and other popular media, but I want to single out Dafne Keen who makes Jecki instantly likeable and wise beyond her years and Manny Jacinto who is clearly reveling in the role of the sneering villain and chewing just the right amount of scenery.

Many of the Disney+ Star Wars series have been rightly criticized for their smaller and confined settings, but I think The Acolyte, and Ahsoka just before it, show that they are working to broaden the scope of their environments in post-lockdown Hollywood. Neither show quite matches the reach of Andor, but it feels much more expansive than the recent Mandalorian seasons.

Otherwise the costumes, special effects and set design is as excellent as you’d expect from a modern production. I’m always happy to see another Wookiee, and Bazil the Tracker feels right at home in the Star Wars universe. Something about the prequels that always disappointed me was that the Jedi’s costumes embraced the brown bathrobe aesthetic a bit too much, depicting the Jedi in their prime as rather more drab than I’d always hoped to see. The Acolyte’s Jedi garb follows the tone set by other High Republic stories and the characters’ costumes display more color with vivid gold accents, bright white cloaks and individual expression.

I’ll go into more depth below about the things I found interesting about The Acolyte, but it’s not perfect. There are moments that the show just races by that I wish it had lingered on more: Mae’s arrival on the Stranger’s planet at the end of the first episode feels abrupt, and I wish young Osha’s interactions with the Jedi on Brendok were explored more fully, for example the scene in which she meet Kelnacca the Wookiee feels like it needed at least one more beat to show the characters actually connecting.

Some of the action of the first episode feels unnecessary; the prison-ship sequence shows Osha’s resourcefulness and kind heart I suppose, but it also feels like it just serves to delay the reunion of Osha and Sol, which is when the show’s story really gets into gear.

I also found the season’s ending in which Osha and Mae are separated again somewhat contrived. That Osha would choose to go with the Stranger and leave her sister behind didn’t quite work for me. Clearly the story is not over yet, but splitting them up feels like an awkward reset of their journeys, even if they have swapped their relative places.

Cinematic Influences

The Acolyte has a whole raft of influences many of which are familiar to Star Wars fans. The Acolyte fully engages with the messy practices of the Jedi as seen in the prequels and the history of the Jedi from both the High Republic and the Old Republic eras.

The Acolyte draws on a wealth of Star Wars lore, but in a way that feels unobtrusive to me. As a Star Wars nerd, I had many moments of recognition. “Hey, did he just quote the Sith code?” “Wait, is that Cortosis?” “Ooh, I bet I know who that creepy dude in the shadows is!” But here’s the thing, you do not need to be in on the jokes to understand the show’s meanings. The Stranger’s identity was not meant to be a surprise. You don’t need to read a decades old novel to understand how the metal helmet works; it’s clearly communicated in the action of the show. And, look, the creepy dude lurking in the shadows is just some creepy dude lurking in the shadows. You should be able to draw your own conclusions on what he is without having someone on the internet explain it to you.

Star Wars traditionally has been inspired by samurai movies, but The Acolyte also draws on influences from Chinese action cinema and “Wuxia” stories of fantastic martial artists. I’m sure it’s no accident that Carrie-Anne Moss, the star of The Matrix, the most famous American film influenced by Chinese martial arts movies, was cast as Master Indara. Moreover, The Acolyte’s very first action scene was a loving tribute to the teahouse battle from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Acolyte‘s young protagonists being torn between and forced to account for the mistakes of the older generation is a theme very similar to Ang Lee’s movie.

These influences mean that The Acolyte‘s action choreography is very good, especially for a TV show. If you’ve always wanted more Kung Fu in your Star Wars, you’ll enjoy the fight scenes in The Acolyte. The centerpiece of the series is the battle in the woods on Khofar in the episode Night; it is as absolutely thrilling, tense and heartbreaking a set piece as any similar sequence you might find on any TV series or even in most action movies.

Some of the influences go even deeper and farther back. Twins and siblings, both literal and metaphorical, are important in other Star Wars stories, most famously Luke and Leia, but also the Dyad of Ben and Rey in the sequels or Arcann and Thexan from SWTOR. But the exploration of twins and the strength of their bonds goes back thousands of years into the myths of our cultures including Castor and Pollux ancient Greek heroes with divine parentage and a bond that transcended death, or Romulus and Remus, the contentious twins central to the stories of Rome’s founding.

Likewise the stories of twins from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to the modern classic The Parent Trap also play with twins and mistaken identity. The Acolyte embraces this whole-heartedly. Both Osha and Mae pretend to be the other sister, but the theme of opposites and dualities as reflections are baked into every aspect of the show from the titles of the episodes: Lost/Found, Revenge/Justice, Teach/Corrupt, Day and Night, Destiny and Choice to Osha’s tattoo, which I interpret to be a simplified and abstracted depiction of the butterfly from the girl’s favorite tree on Brendok, but it is split in two with the wing shapes reflecting their opposite sides. The metaphor is very much on the nose.

Likewise the Stranger and Master Sol are reflections of each other, they both have two faces, one of which they struggle mightily to keep hidden. The story reaches its climaxes when their masks come off, and their roles are reversed. Master Sol’s two faces aren’t quite as obvious as the Stranger’s, but the show does suggest that he is not quite the flawless hero you might assume he is. Several times during the season, The Acolyte alludes to key moments from the original trilogy, and in each case Sol is cast in the part of Darth Vader. On Carlac, Sol reaches out to catch a falling Osha as Vader reaches out to a falling Luke Skywalker on Bespin. During Sol’s duel with Mae on Olega, he can sense that Mae’s thoughts turn to her sister; Vader sensed the exact same thing from Luke during their duel over Endor. Back on Brendok, both Mae and Osha’s final confrontations with Sol directly echoes the climax of Return of the Jedi with Luke, Vader and the Emperor. Heck, even Sol’s hair flares out around his head to give a similar silhouette to Vader’s helmet. None of this strikes me as accidental. The Acolyte suggests almost from the get-go, that Sol is tinged by darkness. He’s not a Dark Lord of the Sith, but he’s hardly pure of heart either.

As for Osha and Mae, they are more than just twins; Sol argues they are one person split in two through the power of their mothers and the Vergence in the Force on Brendok. While they briefly exchange identities early in the story, they completely swap their positions relative to the light and the dark sides of the Force during the finale. This is overtly foreshadowed through the poem the two have shared with each other since childhood, and made explicit when Osha’s droid companion Pip and the tracker Bazil begin treating Mae as they would Osha. In the finale, Mae abandons her quest for revenge which kicked off the story, only to have Osha turn to the dark side before our eyes and complete her sister’s mission.

What is it with the Jedi, Anyway?

I’m certain I’m not the only Star Wars fan that has wondered about the practices of the Jedi when it comes to how and when they recruit new members. I remember being confused that Anakin, a nine year old, was considered too old to join the Jedi in The Phantom Menace.  “How young are they taking these kids?” and “What about their parents?” were common questions that came up in conversations around the prequels. And for the most part, Star Wars stories since then typically steer clear of those issues, because it is weird no matter how you answer those questions.

When thinking about them and wondering about the emotionally stunted upbring most Jedi seem to have experienced, I’ve often been amazed that the Jedi weren’t producing Darth Vaders at a record pace. As we’ve seen in Star Wars over the years, they kind of were. Fallen, disgraced and expelled Jedi are all over the place, from Count Dooku and Baylan Skoll in live action to the corrupted Inquisitors of the Dark Times and Revan of the Old Republic.

The Acolyte dives head first into the murky waters around those questions. How can any child possibly have the understanding and experience to make the life altering decision to become a Jedi at such a young age? And what if the parents disagree? What if one parent disagrees with the other? What if the Jedi disagrees with any of the involved parties?

These are tough questions. The Acolyte asks them all, and the answers are messy, unsatisfying and tragic.

It’s not cut and dried. The coven on Brendok is not identified as being Dathormir Witches, but they are coded in such a way as to cause viewers familiar with the villains of The Clone Wars and Ahsoka to make that association. The leaders of the coven, Mothers Aniseya and Koril act to protect their family and their community, but they are very, very aggressive in their reactions to the Jedi.

The Jedi are hardly without sin. Even given the benefit of the doubt, they are presumptuous, and they trespass and intrude uninvited. Moreover, I think The Acolyte argues that the Jedi are raised in a way that they simply cannot properly process their feelings or soothe them in others. Torbin is homesick. Who can’t relate to that? Apparently, the Jedi can’t. Sol is worried about Osha. That’s a good thing. But he isn’t able to step back and see the big picture before he draws his lightsaber.

The tragedy is that the Coven and the Jedi were drawn to Brendok for the exact same reason. Something miraculous happened there and instead of seeking common ground, the Jedi over-reached and the Coven over-reacted.

The Jedi compound tragedy with obfuscation and arrogance. The show draws a bold, straight line from the events on Brendok to their self-inflicted fall in the prequels. Ki-Adi Mundi appears on The Acolyte not to break continuity but to be as wrong about things here as he was in The Phantom Menace. Vernestra is hiding things from the Senate in exactly the same way Yoda did in Revenge of the Sith. In the finale Senator Rayencourt lays it out in no uncertain terms for anyone who missed it the first time.

As a long time fan, I find this interesting. Not many Star Wars stories choose to fully engage with the strangeness of the prequels, perhaps for good reason. But I always like it when Star Wars is strange. Strange creatures, alien planets, and space-magic, I dig it all. I don’t think The Acolyte fully succeeds, but I appreciate that it tries to embrace the weird and uncomfortable aspects of the lore. So many Star Wars stories take themselves too seriously and to my tastes, they come across as dry and lifeless. The Acolyte is messy and alive, and I’ll take that any day.

Old Republic Influences

I’m not saying Leslye Headland mains a Consular in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it kind of feels that way. My favorite SWTOR character is my Consular, and maybe my bias is showing, but there were many aspects of The Acolyte that I recognized from SWTOR. Both Osha’s and the Consular’s stories are set in motion by their masters’ expeditions to mysterious Force-shrouded worlds that end in death and tragedy. In both cases the Jedi conspire to keep the truth of what happened secret and years later the next generation must face the consequences of those actions. There are significant differences, of course, but the similarities don’t end there.

On Tython, the Consular witnessed an apparition turn to smoke and vanish in a manner not unlike the Mothers demonstrated on Brendok. Likewise, Kelnacca is controlled by the Coven and made to attack his allies; while it probably wasn’t caused by Terrak Morrhage’s dark plague, Master Indara does use the Force to free Kelnacca of the domination in a way that to me specifically recalls the Consular’s shielding technique that is central to Act One of their story. And that suddenly breaking the connection has violent and tragic implications recalls a certain infamous Dark Side choice players can make after their confrontation with Lord Vivicar.

It doesn’t stop there. both Revan in Knights of the Old Republic and Mae in the finale seem to have their memories erased in similar ways. And finally, after the disasters that turned Brendok and Nathema into wastelands, mysterious Force empowered explosions of life has somehow rejuvenated both worlds. These are just the similiarities I noticed, but I suspect there are more.

I’ve seen some fans react negatively to the Jedi in The Acolyte being portrayed as flawed and imperfect. But as a SWTOR veteran, that’s old hat to me. Jedi doing the wrong things for the right reasons or the right things for the wrong reasons are all over the game. My Consular has great fondness for Yuon Par, but if she’d told someone, anyone, what happened on Malachor Three, so many lives would’ve been saved. On Hutta, the Sith Warrior can shatter Jedi Master Nomen Karr’s facade of self-righteousness with just a few words. And anyone who’s played the Bounty Hunter story knows that Jedi Jun Seros is just as vengeful and violent as any Sith.

And I’m not even considering the choices players make for their own characters. SWTOR is all about exploring shades of grey in the Star Wars universe.

But SWTOR is not just about falling into darkness. It’s also about the struggle to make it back to the light. Tau Adair is haunted by her actions in wartime, but grapples every day with her demons to find a new path. Darth Marr, one of the most powerful Dark Lords of the Sith in the game’s canon, turned to the light in his last moments and his spirit persists as a Force ghost. Sol, for all of his faults, explains it simply to the Padawans he teaches on Coruscant: the Force is as powerful and raging as fire, you find balance in the Force not when you quench or control the flame, but when you respect its power, weight and uncertainty. Sol claims he made his peace with what happened on Brendok, but his fear of the spark he lit there never left him, and in the end it consumed him.

The Acolyte‘s ending is a bit of a bummer, but clearly its story is not over. A second season has not been announced, but I feel like it’s bound to happen. Will Osha and Mae’s split spirits unite into a single whole like Revan’s did in SWTOR‘s Shadows of Revan expansion? Probably not, but I do hope they find their balance. Their journey is just beginning and I’m very curious to see where it takes them.

 

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July 26, 2024 · 3:30 pm

Strike

Today SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents performers who work on video games called for a strike against many game companies including Disney Character Voices Inc. and Electronic Arts Productions Inc. For now, I am assuming that this includes Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I don’t believe anyone can argue against the importance of voice actors to the success of SWTOR. Debates about which player character or companion or villain is our favorite are inextricably tied to the performers whose voices helped bring those parts to life.

I strongly support the union’s efforts to protect its members against large corporations’ efforts to exploit performers and replace them with lifeless AI shortcuts. I have no illusions about the scope of my reach and influence, but until the strike is resolved, I will be taking a break from this project. I have one more post, a review of The Acolyte, set to go up Tuesday, but after that I will step away from this blog.

I will not stop playing SWTOR or discontinue my subscription or stop supporting my friends in the community. If you are enjoying the game, then I encourage you to do the same. Our subscriptions also pay for all the artists, writers and developers who are not striking, and I am happy to support them and their hard work which has brought me countless hours of joy over the years.

I have no reason to believe that the SWTOR team has any plans or intent to replace its voice cast with AI substitutes. In fact, I hope the opposite is true. Nevertheless, corporations like EA and Disney are so large and powerful these days, that I believe unions, collective bargaining and labor actions are an effective tool to help ensure the rights of workers. If I can show some support in affected areas related to this blog, I shall.

 

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July 11, 2024 · 3:00 pm

Living Life a Quarter Mile at a Time

This week, I’d like to take a deep dive into the iconography of the All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally, one of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s recurring events which is active in the game as I post this article. The Swoop Event remains a favorite of mine; I appreciate that characters of most levels regardless of their gear can fully participate in the event. Completing the races is not especially challenging at their most basic level, but finishing off a course and all of its bonus objectives does require extra attention, and I still cheer when I manage to beat the Horizon Razor’s course bonus timer objective on Dantooine.

The Swoop Event consists of completing rally courses on three planets for three different swoop teams. The courses each have their own objectives and obstacles and each team’s speeder has their own special abilities for players to use on the course.

Likewise each team has their own personality and flavor, and this is best embodied in their team logos which can be seen emblazoned on their banners, jackets and speeders. So let’s take a moment to look at these logos and explore their connections both inside and outside the Star Wars universe. Even though there is no text to translate, I have also attempted to re-contextualize these symbols in a way that might make them more familiar to people from our own galaxy.

The Blatant Beks

Although apparently not directly connected to their namesakes “The Hidden Beks” with whom Revan teamed up during Knights of the Old Republic, the Blatant Beks were perhaps named by their founder Bangcap with aspirations that this team would be as famous as the one from ages past, but with even more explosive power. Clearly subtlety was not one of his goals.

The most prominent feature of the Bek’s logo is the targeting reticle, and, during their rallies, the objective is to detonate as many eplosives as possible along the way. The crosshairs are framed by a roughly triangular shape. Within SWTOR this shape has at least two meanings that spring to mind.

First and perhaps most obviously to myself and regular readers of this blog, the triangular shape closely resembles the Aurebesh letter “X”. I don’t know if it was meant to be taken this way, but overlaying crosshairs with an X marking the spot feels like a neat connection. However, this shape is more commonly seen in the game as part of warning signs and holographic indicators for explosive devices or spots for players to place explosives during their adventures around the galaxy. In this case, I definitely think the association is intended.

Finally, the Bek’s shield-like shape might also remind us of one of the most iconic super-hero logos in pop-culture. To bring home this comparison, I thought I’d add Superman’s colors to the Bek’s symbol, and I think it works quite nicely.

The Pit Screamers

Next up we have the Pit Screamers, a team focused on coming out of pit stops with sound and fury to show off their skill as they maneuver through slalom-like courses filled with hoops and gates and huge jumps. The Pit Screamers logo is the most abstract of all three team’s symbols. At first glance I thought the hook shaped curves that make up their logo shared more than a passing resemblance to the letters of the Huttese or Outer Rim Basic “language”, and it makes sense that the Pit Screamers’ logo would share a design aesthetic with text and glyphs used by the podracing teams first seen during the Boonta Eve Classic in The Phantom Menace.

But I don’t think these shapes are meant to be taken literally or can be translated. Rather, I think we can look at the symbol in a context more familiar to us as players. All it takes is a dash of fiery colors or some gleaming chrome and this symbol would look right at home on the hood and side panels of a hot rod from American Graffiti or a souped up street racer from any of The Fast and the Furious movies. I am certain the Pit Screamers would appreciate either association.

The Horizon Razors

Finally, let’s take a look at the logo of the Horizon Razor’s whose name tells you everything you need to know about them: they want to slash across the sky. The strength of their logo is that it can be interpreted in many ways, any of which feel appropriate to the team.

The symbol could be the wings of a bird in flight, it could be streaks of clouds moving quickly across a wide open sky, it could be the contrails of dust and exhaust left in the wake of their swoops, it could be the tails of a rider’s scarf fluttering in the wind behind them as they race across the landscape, or it could be quite literally a zoomed in view of a pair of razor blades. It’s cool to me that such a simple shape can be credibly read in so many different ways.

In addition the Horizon Razor’s symbol shares similarities that I believe are intentional to a pair of logos from both within the lore of the Star Wars universe and around the people who bring it to life.

To me, the pair of sweeping speed-lines recalls the logo used by Skywalker Sound, the division of Lucasfilm responsible for sound and music effects and design and recording. Iconic sounds from the hum of lightsabers, the howls of TIE Fighters to the sonic booms of Seismic Charges to BB-8’s beeps and chirps all came to life thanks to the talented artists at Skywalker sound.

Although the Skywalker Sound logo seen here has since been updated, I think it’s fair to say that the Horizon Razor’s icon takes some inspiration from it. However, the symbol within Star Wars lore that shares the most DNA with the Skywalker Sound logo is the one seen on the back of Ezra Bridger’s jacket in the early seasons of Star Wars: Rebels. The wing shapes and bounding arc from the original are clearly transposed onto Ezra’s version.

That said, I’ve never quite been able to interpret Ezra’s logo. Is it a bird lifting off to the left or a ram leaning down and charging to the right or something else altogether? I really can’t say. In my research, I’ve seen it most commonly referred to as a “starbird” which is vague enough to not really mean anything if you ask me. If you know what this logo symbolizes, please let me know in the comments below. I’d love to see this mystery solved!

Blazing out of the Gate!

If you have not yet tried out the All World Ultimate Swoop Rally event, I encourage you to give it a shot. To make it worth your time, there are many fun rewards including decorations, mounts and SWTOR’s only non-combat Tactical items usable by characters of any level.

I hope that the Broadsword team expands this event one day. There is room in the pits for another team, maybe one inspired by the Mods from The Book of Boba Fett or perhaps the teams could establish rally courses on other planets around the galaxy: Taris seems like an historically appropriate choice, but I can also imagine it might be fun to race over the shark infested waters of Manaan or leap across Ruhnuc’s yawning canyons. The sky’s the limit!

 

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May 3, 2024 · 9:01 am

Good Riddance to the Yellow Filter

Wednesday’s SWTOR Livestream previewed the new additions coming to the game with Game Update 7.5, Desperate Defiance, but I want to focus on just one: the visual change to Hutta’s environment. One of my goals with this project is to examine the symbols in SWTOR, but not just their literal meaning, but also their connections to the worlds inside and outside of the game. The changes to Hutta does not involve fake space letters, but the meaning does involve something symbolic that I think is worth exploring: the “Yellow Filter”.

Color is an extremely powerful tool in visual storytelling. It can be used not only to differentiate locations, but also suggest a mood and meaning to places and the people in it. Within Star Wars lore, The Empire Strikes Back best demonstrates the use of color as a means to enhance the story. Hoth is “cool” white and blue; Dagobah is covered in “lush” greens and earth tones; and Bespin is primarily lit in reds that swing from “passionate” to “hellish.”

SWTOR is often staged in a similar way, but over the years it has also been influenced by other cinematic techniques popular at the time. Hutta is a case in point. The Hutta players have experienced since launch is bathed a bright yellow color grade. But why? Yellow can mean different things in different contexts, but I think we can agree Hutta is yellow to suggest the world’s corruption and pollution.

If we take a step back and look at how yellow grading is used in other media, we can see that SWTOR was likely inspired by movies and TV shows like Traffic and Breaking Bad which applied a yellow color grade to scenes set in Mexico. In those cases, this effect serves to make the action set there among the drug cartels feel not only more arid and hotter than scenes set in the United States, but corrupt and rotten as well.

So, of course, I can see how the SWTOR of 2011 might have been inspired to use a similar visual shorthand for Hutta. But in the years since, the meaning of the yellow filter changed, and in many case it has become known as the “Mexican Filter.” Even if we leave aside the fact that casting locations in a yellow color key does not accurately represent their actual appearance, the filter has become used to imply that a location was not only hot and arid, but foreign, poor, different. And it did not go without notice that people who lived in the locations that get the yellow filter treatment from not only Mexico but also the Middle East and Asia almost always have brown skin.

I am not saying that Yellow Hutta is racist and that the devs who made it are racists or anyone who prefers the original version is racist, but I do think that SWTOR is an evolving thing, and new players are experiencing aspects of its game for the first time well over a decade after it launched. I am glad that the team at Broadsword is willing to make changes and updates to the game, even after all this time. I believe that Hutta’s yellow filter has not aged well. It is at the very least clichéd and at the very worst reminds players of a filmmaking trope that has become lazy and often racist itself.

The updated Hutta of 7.5 shifts the color cast towards the earth toned end of spectrum. Certainly there is still plenty of yellow, but a bit more reds and browns instead of orange as well. In addition the cloud cover is now at ground level and the entire environment feels murky and clammy. I can see how many people might prefer the first iteration of the world. Certainly the strong primary color cast of the original Hutta is very dramatic and immediately marks it as an alien world, but, to me, the new Hutta feels sticky and I can practically smell the swamps and polluted air. And when we do see different colors, whether they are the nameplates of enemies or the neon sign of the cantina or an oil slicked rainbow, they pop a bit more.

I think the muted color tones and smog of the new Hutta does a better job of implying that the current environmental catastrophe is something that has been done to the planet by its Hutt overlords and not simply how it has been all along. To me that is more interesting symbolically than a hackneyed yellow filter that these days just says “hot and poor.”

 

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April 30, 2024 · 9:01 am

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

This week, while we await news of SWTOR’s next major update, I thought I’d take a beat to catch up on a few topics in the game that I’ve missed in the last few months.

Lighting in a Bottle

Let’s start with a change rolled out officially as part of Game update 7.4 that adjusted the way cinematic interactions are lit, “using environment lighting for more accurate shadows, detailed self shadowing on characters, and more custom lighting control in cinematics.” This new approach to lighting had already been introduced without fanfare in the stories from recent updates, but it was retroactively applied to the origin class stories and expansion content where it had not been used.

I’ve been playing through some Origin Stories and Fallen Empire chapters lately, and for the most part the change is very positive. Generally the lighting feels more natural since scenes are lit using ambient sources and not direct overhead lighting in each scene. Occasionally some shots seem a bit on the dark side when our character’s back is to the main light source, but overall, even run of the mill cutscenes feel more visually alive. The difference is especially noticeable in Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne. Several of the characters in those expansions have custom models, which did not play well with the spotlighting used in the dialogue scenes. During my playthrough, I’ve noticed that Lana, Vaylin and Valkorian look much better without harsh highlights on their faces.

This change can be subtle, and you might not even notice it without a side-by-side comparison, but it’s a positive one that improves the overall cinematic quality of all the game’s stories.

No Free Conquest Lunch

An unannounced change in 7.4.1 was the large reduction in the number of Conquest points awarded from the daily Reputation objective. A single level 50+ character could with a single click-a-day of a reputation trophy easily complete not just their personal Conquest goals, but very nearly even a guild’s small yield invasion target, all without ever stepping outside their stronghold.

Last year when discussing gameplay loops, the World of Warcraft Youtuber SoulSoBreezy remarked that MMOs need to provide players with two things when they log on: “Things to Do” and “Things to Work Towards”.  While there is overlap between the two, especially in SWTOR, I would say that Conquest, Daily Areas and Heroics are essentially “Things to Do”. If you complete Conquest on one character, you can switch to another. If your guild reaches their invasion goal, well, it will all reset next Tuesday.

“Things to Work Towards”, however, tend to have conclusions or at least breakpoints. Players can work towards completing Class or expansion stories, gearing, filling reputation bars, clearing Operations, ranking up in PVP, unlocking Achievements or collecting various rare cosmetic rewards.

Players tend to “Work Towards Things” at their own pace, or the pace of the groups with whom they play, buy “Things to Do” are meant to fill the gaps and time so that a player feels like their time isn’t wasted if they aren’t engaged with their favorite form of gameplay. Conquest, for example, rewards currencies that can help players advance towards their other goals.

When Galactic Seasons were first announced, my fear was that it was going to be just another “Thing to Do”. To my surprise, I’ve really enjoyed the system. I don’t disagree that Galactic Seasons share DNA with Battle Passes with a healthy dose of FOMO, but it’s also something that gives me different options when I play, and often helps guide group activities for my guild which remains the best part of my SWTOR experience. On reset day during the Seasons, I check out what rewards I hope to earn that week, and it’s satisfying when I do.

Until the current season, SWTOR’s Galactic Season also came with a Reputation track associated with each season’s theme. There was criticism that it was just a progression track on top of a progression track, and that Reputations that go away after the season ends are kind of pointless. But I didn’t mind because I knew I could complete the daily Reputation objective and not have to worry about Conquest at all while a Galactic Season was active. It’s not even a close call for me: I’d rather spend ten minutes mediating on Voss or exploring someone’s stronghold as part of Galactic Season objectives than running heroics or daily areas for Conquest points. And as someone whose every other reputation track is maxed out, this was a nice luxury during the Season.

However, by logging onto one character on each server and clicking a reputation token once a day, I was also able to complete the bulk of the previous Galactic Season reward tracks with quite literally minimal effort. It also made me want to delay completing the Reputation track as long as possible so that I could continue to take advantage of the daily reward. On my home server, I did the math and worked out how to complete the Reputation track during the very final days of the season. Shintar amusingly called this “degenerate gameplay” and speaking as someone who took full advantage, I won’t fault Broadsword for the change. Part of the goal of the Galactic Season is to reward players for engaging in different types of activities around the game, and popping on only long enough to click a Rep token is probably not what they had in mind.

Ever since coming out of lockdown, I’ve become less interested in SWTOR’s “Things to Do”. I still complete Conquest on multiple characters, but my goal is to expend as little effort as possible in the process, but I still feel like there are plenty of “Things to Work Towards.” Nevertheless, for other people and guilds, Conquest is a bigger deal, and the Reputation change negatively impacted a lot of players. To compensate, Broadsword came around and essentially doubled the rewards for completing Heroic missions, and players without a lot of free time can still put up a fair number of Conquest points in a short gameplay window. I think this is a fair compromise. Nevertheless I would also like to see the Conquest reward for completing a Galactic Season objective be a little more generous, and the objective for completing multiple Season objectives be reduced from four to three so that it can be achieved twice each week.

A Night on the Town

In addition to the current Galactic Season, Game Update 7.4.1 also came with a dash of story content for players. Ever since unfinished “Date Night” souvenirs found their way into the decorations list last year, players have known something was cooking on the romance front. All credit should be given to Broadsword for waiting for Valentine’s Day to roll out this addition.

The Date Nights are romantic encounters with Lana Beniko, Theron Shan, Arcann and Koth Vortena available to players in relationships with those characters. These four companions were logically chosen because they are the only four which can be romanced by every character regardless of their Origin Story or gender. And based on my experience on social media, Lana and Theron are by far SWTOR’s most popular romances making them natural choices for the initial batch.

As of this writing, I’ve only played Theron’s and Arcann’s Date Nights. My flings with poor Lana never make it past the return of my character’s original romances. As for Koth, while I honestly do like him; I can’t say I like like him, but they’ll get their shots sooner rather than later.

These interludes are short and sweet. Theron’s datapad is the perfect metaphor for everything that is charming and infuriating about the guy, and the conversation it sparks feels true to both his character and mine. As for Arcann, I don’t think we’ve ever seen him this relaxed at any point in the story. It’s a revelation to see in a character mainly known for his self-pity and brooding. Good for him!

There are achievements related to completing the Date Nights for each character multiple times culminating with a decoration related to each encounter. Arcann’s souvenir is a pair of wooden training sabers, mounted with a romantic Aurebesh inscription flanked by crests from Zakuul. This recreation was not complicated to make, but it was my most requested translation in a very long time and I’m always happy to oblige!

But, yes, I did describe these scenes with the words “dash” and “short” for a reason. These are conversations akin to the dialogues scenes characters have with their companions between each planet of their class’s origin stories.

When it comes to story, SWTOR players are like Kylo Ren demanding MORE, and I’m no different. I can’t deny that these feel very short. When the Date Nights were announced, my hope was they’d be something like the Class specific interludes on Rishi during Shadows of Revan. Those weren’t much longer, but still felt more satisfying. On the one hand, I’m not too upset. Lana, Theron, Arcann and even Koth have had lots of time in the spotlight in the last several expansions, but the same can’t be said for many of the original romantic companions. I don’t imagine Mako, Felix, Risha and Andronicus stans will be satisfied by a cut scene that takes less time to play than to read this post.

I don’t know what my conclusion is. The Date Nights I’ve played had nice character moments and are absolutely sweet. Would I have preferred a single ten minute mini chapter featuring one of those companions to four two and a half minute scenes with each of them? Maybe.

Going forward, we’ll be getting one or two more Date Nights with each Galactic Season. I am eagerly anticipating the return of some of my favorite companions, and that maybe, just maybe, their dates have a little more meat on their bones.

 

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March 8, 2024 · 9:01 am

This Droid Is Your Friend

This week, let’s take a step back and revisit an older recreation of mine and, in the spirit of last week’s post, take a closer look at the context of its inspiration from the real world. The decoration in question is the Propaganda: Fight for the Meatbags poster that players originally collected as a log-in reward during Knights of the Fallen Empire, but it can now be purchased from the Galactic Seasons tokens vendor. I’ve covered many of SWTOR‘s propaganda posters over the years, but I want to dive a little deeper this time.

Recently, quite by accident, I encountered what was likely the direct inspiration for at least the text of the HK -55 decoration: a series of World War II posters. The reason they did not come up in my initial research was because these posters were not meant strictly as propaganda, but as informational signs designed to help American troops entering the war recognize their fellow Allied forces. There are variants of the poster for Australian, Canadian, Chinese, Dutch, English and Ethiopian soldiers and sailors but the most well known version depicts a Russian soldier. If you click the image below, you’ll find it alongside an additional poster that I created in a fit of whimsey, which characters in the Star Wars galaxy could have discovered on a trip to Copero.

SWTOR’s poster sports a very different graphical design, but the text clearly is a playful riff on the message of the original. Given the intended use of the wartime poster, it’s amusing to think that anyone would mistake HK-55 with his bold yellow paint job and unambiguous in-combat declarations for anything or anyone else. That said, when it comes the various HK model droids, we can never really be sure whose side they are on until they pull the trigger.

The poster’s graphic design draws inspiration from classic propaganda posters of not only World War II, but also from those of the post-war Soviet Union and China during the time of the Cultural Revolution, and I’d like to highlight a few here.

The most distinctive propaganda posters typically feature illustrations of heroic soldiers or workers or political leaders. Over the decades, the artists and designers of these posters demonstrated great skill at working within the limitations of these cheaply printed and mass produced posters, and they created images famous for their bold sense of design with flattened, halftone color palettes. In particular, the element of the radiating lines of a sunburst behind the protagonist has become almost a clichéd aspect of these propaganda posters, and clearly SWTOR’s HK graphic shares in that general aesthetic.

Finally, I’ll just finish on a quick note that a second HK-55 poster “Propaganda: Victory Protocols Activated” has long been included in the game’s data files, and you can even look it up in the Decorations interface, but it was never made available to players. This one has a design closer to the Allied posters of the Second World War, and I hope that one day it might find its way into players’ Strongholds.

 

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February 29, 2024 · 9:01 am

Action Figures Each Sold Separately

When considering topics for this blog, the translation of Aurebesh is often the easiest part of the process. Beyond the literal meaning of the words we see in the game, I also aim to consider their context and meaning within Star Wars: The Old Republic or within Star Wars lore as a whole. This week’s project’s context is different than any I’ve discussed before, and while the translation was indeed straightforward, my recreation led me to a different corner of Star Wars history.

The first time I saw this decoration in a friend’s Stronghold there was something vaguely familiar about it, but I couldn’t quite place it. Only when I looked it up in the Cartel Market and saw its name did I recognize what inspired this addition to SWTOR. The decoration, the Vehicle Maintenance Energizer, shares its name with a toy created by Kenner in 1982 as a part of its Star Wars action figure line. The toy was meant to function as a tool shelf and refueling station for the lines’ various vehicles and spaceships from Luke’s Landspeeder to his X-Wing Fighter.

Like many, many members of that first generation of Star Wars fans, I grew up with Kenner’s Star Wars figures, and discovering that this decoration pays loving tribute to the vintage toy made the kid in me very happy.

SWTOR’s version of the Energizer was designed by Tanner Hartman, and he has shared views of the decoration and higher tech update of the Energizer that clearly shows fidelity to Kenner’s original. The decoration is interactive and when clicked opens up in the same manner as the toy. Among the decoration’s many details are the tools left on the table and in the drawers that are based on the actual accessories included with the set. Each of the decoration’s tools are stamped with the Aurebesh letters “CEC”. This is a clear indication that the Energizer is a product of the venerable Corellian Engineering Corporation, maker of many fine starships including Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon and the Smuggler’s very own XS Freighter.

This decoration has been on my to-do list for a long while, but I wasn’t sure how to cover it in a way that does justice to its source material. Typically I try to present Aurebesh elements from SWTOR in a context where modern players understand it as their characters would. But in this case, I realized the point of view this item really needs is that of a kid wandering the aisles of a Sears or Toys R Us store in 1982.

I should also mention the very off-brand SWTOR logo that I placed on the box. Kenner’s Star Wars toys typically featured their own versions of the Star Wars movie logos in their packaging, and I wanted to make something along those lines. My faux design of the logo is bad, and close to unreadable, but I don’t think it’s so far off from what Kenner might have actually produced back then.

I hope you’ll forgive this indulgence in a different kind of recreation. That said, if you came for some Aurebesh, I won’t leave you hanging! When activated the decoration opens up and activates monitors one of which has Aurebesh text. The translation reveals that they are diagnostic displays that are entirely appropriate for the Energizer’s intended purpose. While including a dash of inspiration from Back to the Future, the technical readout does a very nice job of striking a balance between seeming both realistic but not quite mundane, and fantastic but not quite ridiculous. When it comes to technobabble, this is a remarkably difficult line to toe. The vehicle seen in the top display is the Jan-Tan Dualray speeder, which Tanner Hartman also helped create for SWTOR; in addition, part of that speeder’s engine can be seen on the Energizer’s table, ready for repairs!

Cop-Eras Tour

Finally, I do want to briefly touch on the SWTOR team’s latest livestream, which introduced the content of the next game update, 7.4.1. Despite being a .1 patch meant to serve as a bridge between major updates, I was impressed with what Broadsword had to share.

Since our first visit during the Traitor Among the Chiss flashpoint, I’ve hoped we’d find a reason to return to Copero, a world overflowing with picturesque beaches and snowcapped mountains. There is no way I would’ve predicted that it would be the location of the Stronghold Keith Kanneg teased late last year. That the next Galactic Season is structured around unlocking a stronghold that based on the preview seems so very breathtaking, exceeded my wildest expectations.

The other significant addition coming next month are the Date Night missions. For many players, romances are as an important part of the roleplaying experience as galaxy shaking conflicts with epic enemies. Based on my social media feed alone, I sometimes wonder if Baldur’s Gate 3 might be less a Dungeons and Dragons game than a dating simulator, and that is true of SWTOR as well. And yet there hasn’t been a ton of action for our characters in the area of romantic entanglements during Legacy of the Sith.

My guess is that since there are so many potential romances available to players, it must be a challenge for the developers to find spaces to fit those characters and interactions within the main story. As a result, there have been a few flirts here and there, but probably not as much smooching as many players would like. The Date Night stories should help to address that. Ashley Ruhl and Caitlin Sullivan Kelly fairly addressed why the Fallen Empire romance companions are the logical choices with which to start. Simply by the numbers alone, I am certain that Lana and Theron are SWTOR player’s two most popular romances.

There are many, many other companions for our characters to fall in love with, and the team indicated that each will have their moment to shine. That said, it will take a while to get to them all. As with all things SWTOR, patience is a virtue.

I am not expecting the “date nights” to be full blown chapters with action and adventure and multiple encounters, but I do hope there is some depth to our interactions that will make them satisfying to revisit again and again. During the Fallen Empire era, numerous major companions were shoe-horned back into the game in very brief recruitment missions, and I hope that when their turns come up Risha and Mako and Vector and Felix and the rest get the attention they missed last time around.

Finally the team closed out with a preview of the next major update, 7.5, which will see a return to Hutta as part of the main story, the conclusion of Lane Vizla’s quest to rebuild a Basilisk droid, as well as the debut of a new springtime event. Given that we are on the cusp of Spring already, it suggests to me that SWTOR’s next major update will be sooner rather than later.

After last year’s drama, it’s nice to hope that there will be lots to do and explore in SWTOR in the months ahead.

Graphic Design in My Passion

Returning or new visitors to this entry may notice that the SWTOR logo on the toy box in the thumbnail above does not match the actually readable one in the final version of my mockup. I have long been accused of having a dry sense of humor, but this visual joke landed face flat in the coarse, rough and irritating sand, and I received some truly negative reactions to what I intended to be an obviously bad joke. Chastened, I have gone back and adjusted the logo to be in line with Kenner and Hasbro’s actual house style. In an act of defiance, however, I’m leaving the original design in the thumbnail as a warning to future generations.

 

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January 24, 2024 · 9:31 am

Can’t You Hear the Thunder?

This week, as I await the next game update, I thought I’d check in on my Hardcore challenge one last time. First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who entered my Shae Vizla raffle. Because the raffle required an extra step of including a screenshot of their player’s story progress, most of the entries I received came to me via email, but it also allowed folks to share with me their experiences on SWTOR‘s new Asia-Pacific server. Hearing people’s stories about how much fun they had starting fresh on Shae Vizla was very cool to see, and I was especially impressed to learn how many people attempted, failed and triumphed at my hardcore challenge. It’s gratifying to know that I’m not the only one who gave it a go! Everyone who entered received a prize, and if you haven’t heard from me check your email or the in-game mail of the character who entered. Otherwise, leave me a comment below and I’ll track you down!

As Shae Vizla entered its third month, we received an answer from Broadsword to the hotly debated question about whether server transfers would be allowed to the new server, with the confirmation that they will be coming sooner rather than later. I think this is very good news for players in the region who want to make the server their home. Yes, it will affect the economy, but I don’t think that is sufficient reason to not allow transfers. I know I’m not alone in being very attached to the characters I’ve played the most over the years, and allowing players access to their main characters is an important part of making sure Shae Vizla has a chance to succeed.

I’m also glad to see that free transfers will be included for subscribers as well. If you were transferred off an APAC server during the old server mergers, it’s only fair that you shouldn’t have to pay to get back now that one exists again. Broadsword has indicated that they will limit the number of credits that can be transferred, and I concede that is a reasonable step to control the economic impact transfers will have on the local economy.

The question of what the future holds for Shae Vizla is a fair one to ask. My general impression is that older MMOs tend to close down servers, not open new ones, and I imagine Broadsword is closely watching Shae Vizla’s progress. I very much hope it finds a large enough population to sustain a reasonable amount of endgame activity. Xam Xam and Shintar report that now that the excitement of the launch has cooled off, and we find ourselves between Galactic and PVP seasons, things are quieting down on Shae Vizla, and I hope transfers help the server find a stable population of players and an identity of its own.

The move to the Amazon cloud services gives Broadsword the ability to more easily set up servers these days, but I doubt we will be seeing an explosion of new servers. I think it’s possible that we might see some limited time “event” servers akin to what Classic World of Warcraft has done with their Hardcore and Seasonal servers. I’ve watched the WOW Classic community bounce between Classic and Hardcore and new Season of Discovery events, but I don’t know to what degree SWTOR would be able to chase those fads. Could Broadsword try? Sure! I would absolutely give an official hardcore server a go, but I don’t think I’d want to see the SWTOR team devote the kind of energy that goes into something like WOW‘s Season of Discovery if it comes at the expense of content on the live servers.

Overall, I think the addition of Shae Vizla is a good sign for the health and future of the game, and I look forward to seeing what else the game might “serve” up.

 

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