Thoughts on the Fractured exploit

Now killing gold star mobs for fast command experience is nerfed, doing solo ranked PvP and the uprising Fractured is the newest trend among CXP farmers. If you're on the fleet you'll constantly see people advertising for the latter. However, tread carefully if you're planning on taking advantage of the Fractured uprising's length: some pugs are using an exploit to speed it up even more.

My five favourite SWTOR bugs

Reading Shintar's screenshot challenge about bugs made me think of bugs in Star Wars: the Old Republic in general. I only recognized a small portion of the (sometimes hilarious) bugs she mentioned. I could think of so many more... which made me feel like it's a wonder the game is still playable. That said, most bugs are innocent. These are my five 'favourite':

Now where's that wookiee rug?!

We had been stuck on Torque HM (in the Ravagers raid) for several weeks. Not stuck as in the annoying "we don't know how to continue from here" fashion, but in the (maybe just as annoying) "we almost killed it, gah, just one more try" manner.

SWTOR: Defying gravity

Some people are cool, others are just waaay cooler. Sanju Pyne thinks he's the man after BSOCK with Yuniper on Balmorra. He just forgets one tiny detail...

SWTOR: Through the looking glass

One day we tried to proceed an operation at the point we left the day before through our raid locks. But then stuff got warped. Some people got their vitals set to zero while still running around on the fleet, only to get kicked from the servers a few minutes afterwards. They got the everlasting loading screen on the character if they tried to get back in, while other characters were fine. At first we thought the servers were crashing once again, but we soon found out it was only us, so something must've gone wrong with the raid locks.

Me, I ended up here when I tried to enter. I could turn to look around, but I could not move. It was clear to me that I was not supposed to be here, wherever 'here' was. This endless chessboard, is this the grid the fleet is built upon? And are those 3D models of other ships in the fleet? I could not recognize them, but then again, the whole happening was pretty mysterious.

We were unable to proceed the raid that night, but I did get to experience one of the most surreal surroundings in SWTOR.

SWTOR: On customer service and Opses

Since my last report on not being able to subscribe to SWTOR, we managed to get it working after all and I have been raiding with my guild again a bit, hurray!

Customer service

After not getting any answers on e-mails for about two weeks, the trick seemed to be to call the customer service directly. I was actually surprised how easy this was. We could call for free using Google (also possible through Skype) and the issue was resolved within half an hour. We only had to wait for a few minutes, got directed to another person once and both our accounts were fixed within a matter of minutes. Next time something happens, we won't bother with the e-mail and call right away.

Healing in Explosive Conflict

In between the studying and exploring Rohan in LotRO, I've had the chance to raid several times with my guild in SWTOR the past weeks. The only thing we did in that game, was actually running Opses (err, 1 Ops, 2 Opses?). We once did the first three bosses of the new raid, Terror from Beyond (picture above), and that was really cool, but most times we've been doing EC Hardmode. The most fun were the second bosses (the giant turrets), when I was explained how to run around on the floor, removing bad effects on myself now and then, healing left and right while avoiding scary places on the floor. The other healer had been trying the same for the past week, and was totally fed up with trying. We wiped a few times, but I was so happy (and a little bit proud) that we pulled it off afterwards! I've now healed both left and right turret (which is actually different for a healer) - the left one was definitely the most challenging, but both sides are fun.

There are quite some people who play healers as their main in MMOs. Some even write whole blogs about it. I was just thinking about it, and although my heart lies in support roles, healing is not my main delight in life. In LotRO, I'll play lore-master and captain as mains this expansion. I really much like healing on rune-keeper, but minstrels are much more in demand in raids. Poor Ravalinde will have to live with being leveled as third. In SWTOR, there is no other support role apart from healing (you can either pick "tank", "DPS or  "healer" as role), so my choice was quickly made. I only have one level capped character, and that is my Jedi Sage Ravanel. I think healing there makes up a bit for not being able to heal in groups in LotRO for a while.

I learned something new in today's raid. Sometimes, if you don't retreat after a wipe and people come back to revive you, you might not show up on their monitor: you're simply invisible. This is a very common bug. The solution is to right-click the person who is trying to revive you and select "Follow". Unfortunately, you have to wait longer before accepting an in-combat rez if you've been revived before the fight. If it's a hard fight in which it's likely that people will die, it's better to all retreat and travel that annoyingly long path to the last boss.

So far the healer-talk for today.

The times I was in EC HM, we completed everything apart from the last boss. Tonight we came very close. Tomorrow there's another ops planned, so hopefully I can be in the group again. It would be so cool if we'd make it! And after that hopefully Terror from Beyond. Good times.

SWTOR: A short advice

This is why you play SWTOR with drivers installed on your computer.

Twi'lek on my laptop:

Same poor twi'lek on my boyfriend's computer without drivers:

After an hour of handing in quests at eyeless zombies (they were kind and thankful zombies, it has to be said, but still), my boyfriend was very eager to install all proper drivers on his computer. This means I'm able to play Star Wars on his pc again when I don't have the laptop, hurray!

SWTOR: Kneeling, exploration and more tauntauns

A mystery solved

Have you ever had your character kneeling when logging in and did you wonder why? It is almost as if my smuggler Yu'no is proposing to her baby tauntaun, or is she trying to pet it? Whatever it is, the mystery has been solved: this harmless bug is caused by logging in while still having your pet summoned from your last session. With thanks to a clever poster commenting on Xhii's blog Roll one hundred.

Turning Nar Shaddaa upside down

I've told you before that I don't like spoilers. If I'm playing a game for the first time, I don't want to look locations and guides up on the internet. Small downside: I do like finding holocrons. As I've been told that every planet contains at least one holocron, I was determined to find the one on Nar Shaddaa on my jedi knight Haradwen while she was leveling there. If I would explore each obnoxious corner I could see, I should at least be able to find one, right?

I can be so naive at times. 

I'm now level 25. I have not find a single holocron on Nar Shaddaa. What I did learn, though:

• There is no holocron situated around, op top or even in the golden Hutt statue on Nar Shaddaa. Yes, I'm 100% certain. 
• There are very, very many shafts on Nar Shaddaa. None of them contains a hidden lift.
• There are also a lot of crates on Nar Shaddaa. Climbing from crate to crate also does not result in finding a holocron.

Now I heard from someone that there are actually five holocrons hidden on Nar Shaddaa. Not one, but five! How did I miss all of them? Today I learned... that I am not very talented in finding holocrons.

Athiss on alts

To cheer myself a bit up, I took Haradwen to Athiss with a friend and my boyfriend + his tanking droid. I remember that it was pretty tough on level when we did this for the first time on our mains. Me and my boyfriend were a couple of levels too high, so that's probably why it went so smooth this time. It was still much fun, though. I like how crew skills can be used to skip parts or get small group buffs. It's a original mechanic, have never seen anything like it in an MMO before. I also had to giggle at my friend's appearance: I think she is the only one around who still suffers from the Rakghoul disease. It looks so funny! Also check out our baby tauntauns. Don't they look adorable? They can't seem to take their eyes of us. I do think it's a bit creepy how they keep staring at me, though. Perhaps I should keep an eye on them, as well.