Per

Well, Yva, I'm not Raezu and I'm not sure if it counts as a better game or if the players are cool.. (did I leave anything out?)... but I'll reply anyway :) I'm playing EVE these days. It's not Star Wars, it's... EVE, and that means it's a different vibe / pace than SWG - and at this point, I'm enjoying it. So, I'm taking a break from SWG myself... which is probably why I've not logged on to play for a month or three now. If I do decide to cancel my annual sub (one that I've held since game launch...so it's not an easy decision for me), I'll transfer assets to the guild (like that schweet pimp condo I got in SancTuary city) before doing so. If I don't catch you all in game soon, just let it be known that you're an oustanding group of players, and an awesome guild - most don't even come close in my experience - and you all helped make my short-lived return to SWG more enjoyable. I don't want to mention any specific names because I'll leave someone out by mistake, but what the heck... Thanks to Shawkorr for introducing me to SancT, to Astrus for doing whatever it is that Astrus does to help *other* players enjoy the game more (sometimes to his own disadvantage), to the various incarnations of Marlee for being good people (the type of player that I'd like to be, and the type of player that MMOs in general need more of!), and last - because you're supposed to save the best for last - Yva! Have fun! P.S. And a very special thank you goes to Raezu, for letting me hijack the thread for my own purposes ;)

From the press release... "With Trials of Obi-Wan being an expansion set for release via digital download the same day as the Episode III DVD, <snip>" No box to ship. It's a download like the current RotW+JtL download. I assume that the price you'd end up paying will be about the same as everyone else, aside from any currency conversion charges. Hope this helps.

Exactly true. I do know that the character sheet shows a total set of modifications, but does not account for any caps put on some of those modifications. So what you see on the sheet may not be what you actually get. For example, I believe at one point (and I think it's still in effect) both ranged and melee defense are capped at 250, regardless of what the sheet says. I don't know if there is a cap on either accuracy stat. The Imperial Prototype PSG is an odd duck. Not all I.P. PSGs have the melee/ranged bonus. And those that do sell for between 10k and 250k from what I've seen here and in other galaxies. I tend to pick them up when I find them at reasonable prices, for peace of mind.

I see TeamSpeak as valuable for tactical uses. I can see Astrus' several points as being worthy of concern if we intended to use TeamSpeak as a primary way to communicate for anyone/everyone in the guild. From my own experience, not everyone has or wants to use voice chat as a primary guild communication link, so the guild would split along those lines. I don't want voice chat to be the 'main' comm. But I do want to see see TS used for PvP and Space. PvE group hunts don't really (usually) require the kind of quick response time/coordination a PvP session does, so I'll go either way on that. But for PvP, we do ourselves a disservice by not using TS for base attack/defense missions. Anyway, that's my two cents...is that voice server still up or is it collecting cobwebs?

Yeah, that would have been better if I spelled Llama correctly. But enough of my silliness....did you see the screen shot? The guy incapped a CSR! It made me laugh. "Do not attack me."

I almost registered an account for WoW, just so I could log on their forums and let poor young Brion know that other MMO forums are talking about this.

Alright, yes, I'm geeky, but I have to (mis)quote Yoda now, in something that really struck me as being absolutely 100% true and quite pithy (even for Master Yoda). It's an example of what I think Astrus points out. The scene is where Yoda teases the young Master Obi-Wan about "losing a planet"....and the first thing Yoda does is turn to the 'younglings' to present them with the problem which stumps those two Jedi Masters...and of course, one of the children presents the solution immediately. "Truly wonderous, the mind of a child is." Children know how to think outside of the box - because they've not yet learned about rules, boundaries, and all that other 'baggage'. It's all those hard lessons we adults have learned, that create those walls and boundaries in our minds - and keep many of us from realizing our potential. *sniff* I love you guys! You're all so damned wise.

If it matters to anyone, I ate some pretzels during the few hours I was special forces that day. I find that it helps me to focus my concentration more on the grape juice I was drinking, since the salt tends to make me thirsty. Quick notes on something a bit more topical... 1) Breath of Heaven is nice, as it adds some to each stat, mostly health and action and regeneration for each (which I like). Blob Candy is good too, for dessert and it's ability to regen action. There are many other options out there though. I'm no culinary expert. 2) Per, a full CL80 melee template, ultimately switched to ranged...and even with only 'ranged shot' and a base ranged accuracy of...zero... I did better as a ranged defender overall as I was now actually fighting and adding some damage to existing targets, instead of traveling to and from the cloning center...which is what I did for the first two hours of fighting when I tried to take down all those Jedi. Point being, any help is help -- whether you're the current FotM killer template or just someone fighting for what they believe in. All in all it was a lot of fun, and for someone like me that hasn't PvPd in more than a year, it was interesting. I definitely enjoy PvP when there is an actual objective to be met. Like, base attack or defense, for example. Edited to add minor tactical observations: 1) The imps had a pet killed about 55 meters from the base. It suddenly became the first thing targetted by each ranged rebel everytime we tabbed to a new target. During the Dearic Imp base raid, they had a bike blown up near the river. Same issue there. I seriously wonder they did that on purpose. It probably added a total of 10000 keystrokes for (collectively) the alliance players over the course of those hours. I'd love to figure out how to do this to our advantage one day. 2) The base we defended was near other city buildings (obviously). The Imps had buildings on either side of the base to run around and break LoS. It's hard enough to design a city, but this shows how hard it is to design a city for defense. Something to consider in more detail, perhaps... and try to come up with a base positioning that grants defender advantages versus attacker advantages. Off the top, if that base is ever taken down, perhaps just rotating it around such that the entrance faces outward from the city might resolve that. Or introduce other issues...not sure about it either way. 3) Similar to 2, there's a factory near the base, and it was used to break LoS by the guy that took out the turret. 4) The more successful teams use voice comms, like teamspeak and such. From experience, it makes group coordination a breeze. One keystroke and your in touch with your group..whether they're in your SWG party or not. I can't recommend this highly enough if there's an active group that regularly PvPs (or even PvEs, though it's not as necessary there) in SancT. And if there is a SancT voice server, please let me know...and I'll dust off my headset.

Many players are pretty upset with the XP system changes in Pub 22, even to the point of taking their frustration out on people that have nothing to do with the decision to make this change (the CSRs, for example). Don't give in to the anger. I think it was the Daily Lama that once printed an article that said something like, 'Anger leads to sore knuckles.' Or something like that. [Edited: Yes, I know...it's a screenie from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (Chilestra). The number of people in the group, the old HAM bar, the toolbar icons, and the lack of a CON option on radar are all giveaways....but it still made me laugh].

Eastern Time, GMT-5 here.

Sometime about a month ago, between a publish and a hotfix, there was The Day of Buggy CLs. I got to see what kind of damage per hit CL154 Huurton Howlers (about 5.5k), CL162 Quenker Relic Reapers do (8 or 10k, I can't recall now but I think it was just over 8k). Oddly, I also had an AT-ST spawn on top of me (literally) just as I was stopping to rest from the Quenkers out in the middle of nowhere on Dantooine. It only did 75 damage a hit but I was running to fast to bother enough to notice. I just assumed it would break the 10k mark.

Per is changing his mind again. Short story... Need some healing so probably dropping one or both of the accuracy and defense trees from Fencer to pick up some amount of healing. Medic obviously maybe even sacrifice a bit more accuracy and defense from fencer, pike and swords for some level of CM or Doc... again. I want to keep TKM/Mbrawler though, because they're the cooler.

*said sheepishly* I voted 'eww'. [Hint: Say that out loud] . Truly awful puns aside, I just saw for the first time, Per's guild photo. I can't picture that guy in white, unless it's for a funeral. Unless... he enters into some Jedi order. Then maybe I can see him embracing the law that resides hidden deep within his lawless heart. Time will tell.

SWG took out the weapon certifications listed in the character skills sheet. Really bugged me when I came back that a few of my high-end/priced weapons (and armor) were no longer useable by some of my characters, and more to point, I had to hunt down info about which weapons my characters *could* use. Old news now to many I suppose, but not to me. Anyway, SOE's arguably worthless knowledge base has an article describing weapon certifications within the context of the CU - and references a KB article number that lists the weapons and certification requirements. The article number doesn't exist (the number before and after it do, but not the one that you actually want). That really bugged me. I spent some time on the bazaar terminals today and came up with this list below for my own reference. Others might find it useful (or not, as this type of list has probably already been done by someone else). Sorted by minimum CL requirements... Pistol Certifications: L00: UR-G8 Pistol [unknown requirements] L00: The Black Falcon [unknown requirements] L00: Kashyyk Stalker Pistol [unknown Requirements] L01: CDEF Pistol L01: Corsec CDEF Pistol L05: D-18 Pistol L07: DL44 Pistol L10: Scout Blaster L10: Corsec Scout Blaster L12: DL44 Metal Pistol [Master Marksman] L14: Striker Pistol L14: Scatter Pistol [Novice Bounty Hunter] L14: Launcher Pistol [Novice Commando] L22: DH17 Pistol L30: Tangle Pistol L30: Rhiss Mark-20 [Novice Pistoleer] L30: Red Hydra Z-5 [Novice Squad Leader] L30: Blackhand Annihilater [Novice Marksman] L30: C-10 "Dragoneye Reaper" [Novice Bounty Hunter] L30: Liquidsilver L7 [Novice Smuggler] L30: Geonosian Sonic Blaster L30: Jawa Ion Pistol [bio-link] L40: SR Combat Pistol L40: Power5 Pistol L40: Quicktrigger Countermand [smuggler: Underworld III: Sell Out] L40: Death-Hammer Pistol L50: DL44 "Dosh Special" Pistol L50: Tchotchee Pistol [squad Leader: Strategy III: Volley Fire; Bio-link] L50: Vexa Flschette Pistol [bio-link] L50: Ion Stunner Pistol [bio-link] L54: KVD21 Pistol [Master Pistoleer] L54: Modified Republic Blaster [Master Pistoleer] L54: Perfectly-Calibrated Pistol [Master Smuggler] L54: DL44 XT L54: DX2 Pistol [Master Pistoleer] L54: Featherweight FWG5 Pistol L54: FWG5 Pistol L54: DE-10 Pistol L54: Deathrain D-50 [Master Pistoleer] L54: Trandoshan Supressor Pistol [Master Pistoleer; Bio-link] L54: Renegade Pistol [Master Smuggler] L54: Republic Blaster [Master Pistoleer] L54: Alliance Disruptor [Master Combat Medic] L54: High Capacity Scatter Pistol [Master Bounty Hunter] L54: Intimidator Pistol [Master Squad Leader] Carbine Certifications: L01: CDEF Carbine L01: Corsec CDEF Carbine L05: DH17 Carbine L06: DH17 Carbine [CL6 Required for some.] L10: DH17 Short Carbine L14: E11 Carbine L14: Enhanced E11 Carbine L22: EE3 Carbine L30: Alliance Needler Carbine L30: Rilctur Carbine [Novice Carbineer] L40: DXR6 Carbine L50: Laser Carbine L50: Nym's Slug-thrower Carbine L50: Kalranoos Carbine [bio-Link] L50: Blackscale "Hall Sweeper" Carbine L50: Czerka Dart Carbine [bountry Hunter: Weapons Training IV] L54: Elite Carbine L54: E5 Carbine [Master Squad Leader] L54: E11 Carbine MkII [Master Carbineer] L54: Grievance Striker [Master Rifleman] L54: Proton Carbine [Master Bountry Hunter] Rifle Certifications: L00: DC15 Rifle [unknown Requirements] L01: CDEF Rifle L01: Light Bowcaster [species: Wookie] L05: DLT20 Rifle L06: DLT20a Rifle L10: Recon Bowcaster [species: Wookie] L10: SG82 Rifle L14: Spraystick [Novice Rifleman] L14: Light Lightning Rifle [Novice Bounty Hunter] L22: Rocket Launcher [Commando: Incendiary Weapons I: Rocket Launcher] L22: E11 Rifle L30: Vershyi Sharpshooter [Novice Rifleman] L30: Beam Rifle L30: Corellian Destroyer [Novice Commando] L30: Heavy Particle Beam Cannon [Commando: Beam Weapons II: Heavy Particle Beam] L30: Lightning Rifle [Novice Bounty Hunter] L40: Tusken Rifle L40: Tenloss DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle [Novice Rifleman] L40: Acid Stream Launcher [Commando: Acid Weapons III: Heavy Acid Beam] L40: Berzerker Rifle L40: Light Laser Rifle L40: Nak'tra Crystal Rifle [Rifleman: Concealment III: Defense] L50: Fallann Hyper-Rifle [bio-link] L50: Jawa Ion Rifle L50: Lightning Beam Cannon [Commando: Beam Weapons IV: Heavy Lightning Beam] L54: Heavy Lightning Rifle [Master Bounty Hunter] L54: Covert Retaliation [Master Bountry Hunter] L54: Darksting Assassin [Master Marksman] L54: Dawnsorrow Rifle [Master Squad Leader] L54: Trandoshan Hunting Rifle [bio-link] L54: Trandoshan Laser Rifle L54: T21 Rifle [Master Rifleman] L54: Proton Rifle [Master Commando] L54: Advanced Laser Rifle L54: Assaut Bowcaster [species: Wookie] Some models weren't for sale in the galaxy I was doing my research on, and I list them as level zero. It's highly unlikely that I'll add/remove/correct this list as time goes on, but ...there you go. [Data from 14 July 2005]

An anonymous alliance operative (okay, okay, it was Per, whilst hunting his Warren badges) discovered the design schematic for the Empire's newest secret weapon...a revised all-terrain armored tranport that will (literally) crush the Rebels! The Imperial FAT-AT