Old Republic Log XI

I got Kelynn up to level 11 last night.  Originally I was going to say that since her new armor was identical to her old armor, I was just going to rotate her portrait so you could see her cyberware a little better.  But then I remembered that I had some Ord Mantell commendations to spend, and when I had, I ended up with Kelynn's shiny new suit.  Still, I had both pictures, so here they both are.

First, Kelynn's old armor and a better look at her implants, such as they are:

I'll give you Kelynn's new pic before the spoiler section.

Matt and I also got some Sith time in over Ventrillo.  We decided to give Hammer Station a try to see how it goes from the Imperial side before we do it Republic style on Monday.  Turns out that we couldn't get the big boss down with just the two of us and our companions.  Hopefully, we'll have better luck with the Midnight Runners, but I have my concerns.  After all, Tasia and Mal'drak are level 18 and 19 respectively, and we never did better than getting him down to half.  I'm hoping that people have time to level up before we hit Hammer Station, because I'm not sure four level 13 characters can get the job done.

For the rest of this entry, I'm going to talk about the Republic Trooper storyline, so I'll catch you on the other side for the spoilers.

Tasia, Level 18 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Fleet

Alia, Level 12 Jedi Shadow, Republic Fleet

Kelynn, Level 11 Vanguard, Ord Mantell

The following section is classified as SPOILERS.

If you are not cleared for SPOILERS stop reading now.

This was, of course, the second time I've been through this story.  The first time was in the beta, and really, not all that much changed, despite my going with pretty much all Dark Side choices.  The tale is that of a stolen Republic nuke.  They don't call it a nuke, but if it can blow up the whole island and is highly radioactive, it's a nuke.  For all that I said during the beta that it was a war story, on reflection after the second time through, it's sort of a military/spy hybrid.

That's because your main mission is to find the bomb.  And to do that, you do spy things.  You try to get information from a Republic agent and you coerce information out of Separatist sympathizers. You infiltrate enemy bases.  It's all James Bond type of spying where it always leads to a big firefight.  Except you're in plasteel armor and carrying an assault rifle rather than a tuxedo and Walther PPK.   

The side quests, on the other hand, are all out of the war story handbook.  There's quests involving a thief who took medical supplies to help the refugees.  There's the one with the war correspondent.  Several about purely military objectives like taking out a Separatist communications network or dealing with enemy missile launchers.

That dichotomy makes it less interesting than either of the Sith starting stories.  Too often I felt like I was being pulled away from something really important.  I mean, sure, there were side quests on Korriban.  But in those cases it made sense.  You're a dipshit little acolyte.  When a big name Inquisitor pulls you a side with a job, you do it or eat lightning!  It's all a matter of staying alive by serving everyone above you, while plotting your revenge, of course.

For the Trooper, though, it felt kind of off.  I'm searching for a fucking nuke in the hands of terrorists who might use it to kill thousands if not millions of people.  Do I really have time to fuck around looking for this lady's necklace, or that family's lost son?  And yet, if I don't do it, I won't have enough experience points or gear to actually storm the enemy base at the end!  It felt more "gamey" to me, and took me out of the story in a way that the Sith storylines did not.  

So now I've got a Vanguard on my way to the Republic Space Station and then to Coruscant as I try to level up in advance of our Guild game on Monday.  Let's see how far I can get.