SWTOR Character Tales KOTFE Profile and Picture updates: Curoda

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Today, Curoda gets her updated profile!

Name: Curoda
Gender: Female
Species: Mirialan
Age: 37 standard years
Homeworld: Mirial
 Class: Smuggler/Scoundrel Stealth focus
Personality Profile: "The Port Nowhere Pirate Fleet would have descended into chaos were it not for you.  With the galaxy in its current state, these pirates would have started attacking ships from all over the place without you keeping them on track and directed at the place that would make them the most profit; the Eternal Empire.  This has also given your ships and blasters a LOT of upgrades that Sith Empire and Republic aligned vessels couldn't dream of.

But for you, its as much of a moral thing as it is a profit one.  The Republic has brought a LOT of peace and prosperity when the galaxy was not at war, and you're not certain the Eternal Empire would offer the same thing.  In fact, due to what Master Ragdat has told you, they're likely as bad as the Sith Empire, due to the man ruling it now being the son of Vitiate in a different body.  And the son of a man who wanted to consume all life in the galaxy is not someone who would rule the galaxy fairly."

And here's Curoda's old outfit.

The reason she doesn't get an updated look is because, after playing through the game with her again, I've seen her fighting style, in both cutscenes and in engine.  Lightsaber resistant material isn't going to help a dirty fighter like her, but she did take some upgrades to her ship and blaster.

Also, you'll notice that I've added 7 years to their ages instead of just 5. I had to factor in two years of war between their factions before the five year time jump.

Anyway, look forward to the Force user members of the game canon universe cast starting tomorrow, and see why certain characters wear their new outfits.  And just before Ragdat, I'll be doing profiles on the side characters I introduced before.

Once that's done, I'm bringing the White Knight Universe characters' updated profiles and pictures, the side characters (two of which will be brand new on this blog) and Mamine herself.

But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales KOTFE Profile and Picture updates: Amelisan

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Today, we get the update to my cyborg trooper, Amelisan Strannos.

Name: Colonel Amelisan Strannos
Gender: Female
Species: Human Cyborg
Age: 30 standard years
Homeworld: Coruscant
Class: Trooper/Commando DPS Focus
Personality Profile: "They say rank has its privileges, but it also has its responsibilities.  And it is these new responsibilities that have made your career a living hell. You hate being stuck behind a desk, but with General Garza's court marshal and the new General in charge of SpecForce not having nearly as much experience in the field, Supreme Commander Malcom ordered you to advise.  You only agreed on the condition that you could activate Havoc at a moment's notice to do a mission that only Havoc can do.  Unfortunately, this has yet to happen, and you've been stuck behind a desk, running your regiment while the rest of Havoc is off performing their own missions, like training others or using their special skills for the benefit of the Republic.

But Ragdat's alliance needs the best, and Havoc is the best.  You're bringing your regiment of SpecForce soldiers into his alliance, but when the call goes out, you'll be back on the ground, leading from the front, and doing the job that only Havoc can do."

As for Amelisan, there's a slight problem with her new look at the start of KOTFE; since she's stuffed behind a desk, she's not in armor.  She's in the dress uniform.  As such, I'm going to post her head shot, and General Garza's concept art.

So just imagine Amelisan's amazon like body with Garza's uniform.  But for now, look forward to more profiles, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales KOTFE Profile and Picture updates: Allisani

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks! It's time for another SWTOR Character Tales KOTFE Profile Update!

Name: Allisani
Gender: Female
Species: Chiss
Age: 41 standard years
Homeworld: Csilla
Class: Imperial Agent/Operative Stealth Focus
Personality Profile: "The Sith Empire is falling, but Csilla is not yet safe.  The Eternal Empire is a greater threat to your homeworld than the Sith Empire ever was.  And not the Jedi, not even the Republic seem to have enough strength to take them on.

Luckily, not only does the network you've built since going dark survived, its grown.  You not only have agents in both the Republic and Sith Empire, but you've also got agents in the Eternal Empire.  And it is this information that you readily give to the Alliance Commander Ragdat; only he seems to have enough strength to combat them."

And for Allisani, I've got a brand new outfit!  For this, she wanted to maintain a similar look to what she had as a Cipher Agent, but adding some armor bits for the increasing danger she's faced in the time jump.

I'm personally not a fan of the eye piece, but it fits her persona as an information broker who takes the field.  The brown bits are armorweave, a lightsaber resistant, though not to the extent of bes'kar, material.  This means that, while she's not going out of her way to fight one of the Zakuul Knights, but she's not completely screwed if he's ambushed.

Come back tomorrow for another updated profile, but for now, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales KOTFE Profile and Picture updates: Maircus

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!  With SWTOR Character tales about to tackle Shadows of Revan and break into the new stories, Rise of Mamine and Ragdat's Darkest Days, I thought it important to update the profiles and pictures of the characters who will show up, as well as add some profiles for the side characters as well. I'll be doing one a day, since that's the easiest for me.

Name: Maircus
Gender: Male
Species: Human
 Age: 38 standard years
Homeworld: Telos IV
Class: Bounty Hunter/Mercenary DPS Focus
Personality Profile: "All you want is a safe and orderly galaxy.  As the Grand Champion of the Great Hunt, the Mandalorian who killed Darth Tormen and a Republic Federal Marshall, you've got what you need to keep the worst criminals off the streets and either behind bars or taking a dirt nap.

Or at least, you used to.  With Arcann's invasion of both the Republic and the Empire, you've lost your two biggest clients; they can't pay you like they used to.  And you don't have sanction to hunt bounties in Zakuul territory either, and your targets know it.  The worst of the Blacklist ran right into the Eternal Empire's boarders and either operate their criminal empires there or operate as they had before.

Luckily, the Jedi Master Ragdat is gathering an Alliance of Republics and Imperials to do what they can't do alone.  And with his efforts to fight back against Arcann, you'll get the chance to show the worst of the galaxy that they can't escape the arm of the law forever."

And since it's been a while since I posted pictures of him, here's a repost of his Mando look.  I figure he'd keep this armor in the five year time jump due to it being made of lightsaber resistant bes'kar.

Stay tuned for the rest of the updates, but for now, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Shadows of Revan plans

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!  Today, I'm going to talk about how the events of Shadows of Revan are going to go down for my SWTOR Character tales characters.

First off, the game canon universe.  In that universe, I'm going to focus primarily on the interactions between characters; both player characters and companions, as well as their personal stories.  With that in mind, during the Rishi section, I'm going to tell the stories of their personal side quests, as well as the interactions between the characters and their companions, characters and other characters, and companions between companions, with a couple exceptions.  First off, Vette and Risha will not interact, due to Risha being on Dubrillion and ruling there.  Second, nobody's going to interact with Vector, who won't be there at all, though the reason why will show up in the story.

Now, obvious interactions will be the Jedi and Sith cast and their companions, of course, but some of the more interesting interactions that I can think of are Amelisan and Pierce, Qyzen and Bowdaar, Qyzen and Mako and Curoda and Maircus. 

The White Knight Universe, however, will be slightly different.  Where as the game canon universe will be focusing on the characters, the White Knight Universe will be focusing on the game's story, with Mamine's personal story being the exception; where as Anstrisil, Yokonari and Casek's class story moment on Rishi will be pretty much the same as their game canon counterparts, the way the Knight's story will affect Mamine will be very different than it will affect Ragdat.

That doesn't mean that the game canon universe won't focus on the story.  Darth Nox will have some very interesting interactions with the ghost of Revan on Yavin, and again when she faces his Dark Side version with the other members of the main cast later.  But there are a LOT of chapters that focus on Yokonari and Casek already there, and Mamine's redemption is the more interesting story in their universe right now.

Once Yavin is done, I'm skipping Ziost (since what happens there is more important than what how the characters react to it) and rolling right into KOTFE with the two universes.  And it is that where the focus of SWTOR Character Tales changes. 

With KOTFE, I'm breaking the two universes into their own stories; KOTFE: Rise of Mamine, and KOTFE: Ragdat's darkest days.  At that point, the central narrative will be around two characters, Ragdat and Mamine, since they become the Outlander for their respective universes.  The other members of their universes will show up, though, and they will get their time to shine, but the narrative will focus primarily on the Jedi Knights, as I feel that the one who killed Vitiate back on Dromund Kaas being the ones to have him stuck in their heads to be the best focus.

As for what that means for SWTOR Character Tales, it means that incidental characters, like Chas'Raan, Tavella, Gentugo and the others that I introduced into the game canon universe for character building for the main cast will have some time to shine during KOTFE.  I'm also going to introduce a few into the White Knight Universe as well, and two might be familiar to people who have been reading the story for a while.  Hell, one of them already has a profile on this very blog!

For now, look forward to what's to come, and stay beautiful freaks!

Dragon Age Retrospective: Finish

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!  Today, I finally complete my Dragon Age Retrospective.

Now, the reason it has taken so long is because I have completely and utterly lost interest in the franchise.  My loss of interest is so complete that I've actually sold my games.  Even the ones that I used to like.  Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Awakenings, Dragon Age 2...all sold because I just don't like the franchise anymore.

And the reason why? Inquisition.  I didn't like it before, but when EA decided to cut off DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3, it gave me a reason to stop liking the franchise.  And while the Titan DLC had a good story from what I saw on youtube, what really turned me against the franchise is the final DLC. Vivienne, Sera...even the characters that I used to like, like the Iron Bull and Blackwall, now piss me off to no end.  And don't even get me started on Solas' genocidal BS.  Whether you were on good terms with him or not, whether you romanced him or not, he shows how much of a real bastard he is when you finally met him and get his answers.

And the bad thing is that I sort of liked him before. I knew he wasn't telling us the whole truth, but I never thought he'd turn out to be doing that.

I had planned on comparing the Mass Effect trilogy to the Dragon Age one, their DLC story arcs and the gameplay moments, but I can't bear to compare a series I like to one I so ardently despise.  I can't bear to speak of Commander Shepard's efforts and what I had to put up with for Inquisition in the same post.

And the worst part is that Solas had planned spoiled the lore of the previous 2 games for me.  I used to love the Dalish origin in DAO, but now, my hatred of Solas' plans have spoiled my roleplaying mindset for that character.  I can't help but make a Dalish Warden utterly despise the Dread Wolf because of Solas.

So yeah, fuck you Solas.  You made it nearly impossible to enjoy the story that came before.  You've reminded me that Bioware's great game days are numbered thanks to EA's control of their company.

Don't get me wrong, though. I am still enjoying SWTOR KOTFE, still looking forward to what's to come there, and I am still looking forward to ME:Andromeda when I finally get my PS4.  But I won't be buying another Dragon Age game.  To much anger at that franchise.

But for now, look forward to picture updates to my SWTOR characters, as well as pictures of companions that I have some great new looks and weapon loadouts, and stay beautiful freaks!

Assassin's Den Reviews: SWTOR Knights of the Fallen Empire Expansion

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Today, I'm going take a look at the latest expansion to Star Wars: The Old Republic, Knights of the Fallen Empire.

KOTFE is a return to the story driven aspect of Bioware game making that has been sorely missing over the last two expansions.  It introduces a time jump very early on, which allows for a LOT of leeway in storytelling possibilities.  You begin as the Outlander, who is the class you have chosen to go through the expansion, and take on the role of the hero of the story.

Now, KOTFE is planned for a year long narrative in 2016, and had 9 chapters dropped on release day.  There is a LOT of story to go through at the start, and each class has different aspects of what happened in the 5 year time jump.  You are also introduced to 6 new active companions, and once you reach chapter 9, you start to get back old companions are both specialists and as combatants.

Now, I got early access to this, so I've been able to play it for some time.  I really enjoyed the story, as well as the consequences of my actions within it.  And I'm liking the new antagonists that are Arcann and his sister whose name escapes me at the moment.

KOTFE also introduced some changes to the core gameplay.  First off, all the old combat stats, Aim, Strength, Willpower and Cunning, have been folded into 1 damage stat, Mastery.  That means you can no longer have the wrong stat for your class.  So now, for example, a bounty hunter and a smuggler can use the exact same blasters, since they share the same damage stat.

Companions have been changed, too.  Some have had weapon changes, like Jorgan now being a sniper rifle user to fit his story better and Corso being a pistol user now to let him use his blaster Torchy, but there are two massive changes that have been made to them.  First, their stats no longer matter; their stats are based on your level, your presence score and your reputation with them.  That means all weapons and armor are completely cosmetic.  And for me, this means "go hunting on the GTN for gear to give them a specific look". 

The second biggest change is the fact that all companions can now perform all roles.  Every single companion is now a healer, tank and damage dealer.  You simply have to change their role in combat to whatever you want it to be.  And they're all good at their jobs now, too! So that means that, since you don't have to drag along a character you don't like simply because you want their role in combat.

They've also modified the influence system and how the conversations work; you don't need to make them happy to talk to you.  Once you reach a certain point in the story, they flag as active for conversation.  So now, influence is used solely for boosting companion combat effectiveness and making them better at the crew skills.

Lastly, they introduced level sync, which caps your stats at two levels above the planet's maximum.  However, this doesn't change the way you'll play, since you retain your higher level abilities, so you're still stomping mobs into the ground.  The second upside to this is that you no longer have diminishing return on experience and drops from mobs.  So a level 60 character could go to the starter planet and still get level 60 tier experience from level 1 mobs.  But don't story bosses on low level worlds; they're synced to the level of the planet, just as you are.  So, in effect, level sync only changed the background math, but not the way we play the game.

All in all, KOTFE has made the game slightly easier, which means it is FAR more marketable for EA.  And with it being far more marketable, that means it will be much easier to keep new fans who will, and are, coming in due to the new movies.  I can see a LOT of growth in the next several years, and these changes will make it so the game will remain profitable.  And that means more great content from Bioware to come.

But for now, stay beautiful freaks!