Brian A. Thomas .com » General

Hopefully in SWTOR Friday

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:00:18 +0000

Well, not that they fixed my pre-order registration issues (I still can’t post to the official forums, but that is a fairly minor annoyance at least until I get in for early access and won’t be a “real issue” until the game launches), I can look forward to Early Access. There was official word posted about the remaining Early Access times:

Posted by: Stephen Reid

A quick update on today’s invites, and a little preview of tomorrow.

Today, we invited people who had pre-ordered up to the very beginning of October (roughly). Tomorrow, we’re going to be inviting the same number of people again; that will take us up to the last week or so of November. On Friday, we’ll be inviting even more, and we’ll give you an update on that tomorrow.

You’ll see more servers coming online tomorrow, and almost certainly there will be some queuing. That was always expected. As a reminder, our plan here is to maintain healthy server populations post launch, and during the excitement of launch that will mean queues. That said, we’ll be working hard to keep those queues reasonable.

We’ll check back in tomorrow with another update.

So people who ordered up through November should be in today (Thursday, 15 November 2011) and those of us who ordered after that should be in Friday (assuming that the invites go out the same day you can get in)… of course work will cut into that time a great deal, but Sunday I am largely free.

SWTOR – After Launch

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:26:31 +0000

Like most MMOs, Star Wars: The Old Republic will need new content after launch to keep players in the game. World of Warcraft regularly adds Content Patches. These expand the content of the game… sort of mini-expansions, and at least in the case of WoW, adds up to nearly a full expansion by the time they do release a new expansion the players have to pay for. Seems SWTOR is going down the same path, which is good news.

Posted by: James Ohlen

I think so. Right now, we have a legacy system in place to encourage and reward players for trying out new classes and seeing new storylines. So there’s a lot of content there to entertain those players who like to play the “level-up game.” On the other hand, there are high-level players who are focused on bringing one character to level 50, and those guys are going to be our main focus for new content. We’re going to be producing new flashpoints, new operations, new warzones, and even new single-player content for our highest leveled characters. We already have multiple teams working on that as we speak, and they’ve got a bunch of flashpoints and operations in the can.

We’re also not shrinking the content team at all, and we have a huge content team. Our content team is essentially bigger than… well… I’ll just say we have a big content team, how about that! [laughs] We have a very big content team and those guys will continue to work on delivering a regular cadence of high-level content. I can’t talk exactly about our delivery schedule, but I can say that within a month of shipping the game, we want to have more high-level content being delivered into the game. We’re going to continue to deliver high-level content after that and for the foreseeable future, basically. It’s obviously important to us. We want to keep people playing the game, so it’s in our best interest to keep doing that.

Of course I’ll likely not be a high level character myself by that point as I tend to be an altoholic and level several characters up to a point then do another and another, switching “mains” and never getting any up to any high levels… Hopefully that changes this time.

SWTOR Legacy Names

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:32:57 +0000

So now serious thought has to be given to a Legacy name.

Posted by: James Ohlen

“This build has our first iteration of the Legacy System! At its core the Legacy system is about allowing players to create a family tree of characters. Family is pretty important to the Star Wars universe, with the Skywalker family having one of the most interesting dynamics in movie history.This version is just the foundational components that we will use to build upon in the future. Here are the features of this iteration:

Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy Last Name. This Legacy Last Name must be unique and is shared across all characters on that server – so choose carefully!

Once you have unlocked your Legacy, any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal experience points, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase your Legacy Level.

We already have plans for how we will expand the functionality of the Legacy System in one of our major post-ship patches. This will include being able to shape your Legacy’s family tree, and give you a reward for all those Legacy Levels.”

So all your characters on a given server will earn the Legacy name. The issue is more that it isn’t race restricted, or even faction restricted. Not being faction restricted is okay, after all, some people fall to the Dark Side, and some are redeemed from it, so that doesn’t seem odd. In WoW, I typically kept my Horde characters on one server and my Alliance characters on another, and originally was planning on doing the same here. The Legacy system has no bearing on that decision for me. Heck, look at the Skywalker family and the ups and downs of them, with two of them earning the Darth title.
What strikes me as odd is being cross species. A human Jedi and a Sith Pureblood Sith Inquisitor both having the same Legacy just doesn’t fit. It is more a clan then than a Legacy. Even if cross species mating is possible in the Star Wars Universe (given that Twi’lek’s are sexualized there must be at least some… compatibility… but that doesn’t mean there would be viable offspring), it really just doesn’t seem to fit the idea of Legacy.
Still I like the idea of building a Legacy, but I think they really need to restrict the cross species to certain limits… what those limits are I don’t know. Humans and Cyborgs could be part of a Legacy, Twi’lek and Human or Chiss, possibly, but the Sith Pureblood and Human… no…

EDIT: Seems the same basic idea is shared by Republic Trooper which wrote Always In Motion Is The Future – The Legacy System: One More Reason To Alt, a very good take on the whole thing.

Game Moments that Stick with You – Zaalbar kills Mission

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:23:35 +0000

Back on the old original XBox is where I played the predecessor to Star Wars: The Old Republic came out, the original Knights of the Old Republic. It was a great game that would help setup (or at least popularize with the non-comic Star Wars fans) a regular Star Wars era that is super popular to this day, and the era the new game takes place in. Your character could go down a light sided path or a dark sided path, and my character went down the dark sided path. You have a couple of companions through the game, Zaalbar, a Wookiee, and his best friend, Mission Vao, a young Twi’lek. They help you through many missions, but near the end of the game, you can force Zaalbar to kill Mission, which I did… got lots of dark side points for it as one would expect… and that moment would stick with me years later. I sometimes feel guilt over going that far overboard. And that is the hallmark of a great game, that moments from the game will stick with you years later, that you make an emotional connection to the game that deeply.

Wishlists Updating for the Holidays

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:10:10 +0000

It is nearly Christmas (and soon after the kid’s birthdays) and time to start updating the wishlists. Remember, if you buy something on this list, buy it online from the links here, not at the local big-box store. You save money this way, and it removes the item from the list (I won’t see stuff coming off my personal list until after the holidays so it is a surprise for me, which may make for myself off the list, so hold onto all receipts in the event I need to trade in)… also Amazon kicks back some… so even if you are buying for others from Amazon, use the Amazon link on the right (on the main home page) and buy your stuff.
Recall with all lists to arrange by priority as the default listing method is by when it was added which has zero baring on how much it was wanted. Even within a priority they are by time added, which again might not be fully where they would be if there was an ability to slide them around personally…

My personal list is presently split between two primary lists:
My primary list: Brian’s Wishlist

My Board Game list which was separated from the main list so I could manage the list better: Brian’s Boardgame List

Ari’s list: Ari’s Wishlist
Mostly Ari is wanting Halo Mega Blocks. I put a lot of them up as examples, but not all of them. He has also started liking Goosebumps books, but I didn’t put any on the list.

Sidd has a list, but it doesn’t have much yet: Sidd’s Wishlist
He loves hotwheels at the moment, but he has a TON of cars already, so no more cars. Boardbooks would be good as he likes looking at those… Movies and TV shows. Usual Pixar/Disney stuff (on dual disc Blu-ray please, so the Blu-ray for my home, the DVD can stay with them at their mom’s). For shows he likes Thomas the Tank Engine and Dora the most… of course Thomas stuff would also be good. He likes trains overall, but Thomas especially, and we don’t have room for an HO scale set, if we did I’d pull my stuff out from my moms….

The Critical Thinking list are books and the like dealing with critical thinking skills and related topics mostly for the kids, especially Ari since he likes science and stuff: Critical Thinking List

Farewell Old Friend

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:46:10 +0000

Today I said goodbye to one of my oldest and dearest of friends, Lisa Kohn. I’ve known Lisa since somewhere around ’95/96. We became really good friends, eventually she was one of my first loves… She wasn’t the first girl I was attracted to, nor the first girl I ever went out with, and we were never really a fully official couple so far as I know, but she was a very vital part of my life, and I am the better for her being in my life. I remember fondly a great many times together, running around having a good time, going to her parent’s home, or my parent’s home and on one occasion even taking her with me to Minerva for the extended family.
Just days before she passed, we had exchanged messages on how we would see each other again soon. I was looking forward to hanging out on occasion, seeing her friends and family again, and just remembering the good times together. She has been robbed from me… us… and perhaps this says a lot, not that she is simply gone, but robbed from us and that spot in my heart and mind that she occupied will now have to be content with just the memories, but they are good memories and they shall be cherished forever.
This was perhaps the second biggest loss of my life. Losing my sister was number one, and now this. It is sad to lose a grandparent or aunt/uncle, but when they have had such a rich full life, I don’t know, the loss doesn’t seem the same. Perhaps the fact that all those earlier losses were when I was much younger also accounts for it.
My dear Lisa, I hope you are happy and at peace and I thank you for every moment we had together. For all those fond memories. For helping change me into a better person and being a light for me at a dark time of my life. You will always have a very dear and special place, not only in my mind, but my heart as well. I morn your loss and celebrate your life. And while it pains me to think that we’ll never be able to hang out again, or I won’t hear your laugh, I will cherish all those times we did have together, and remember there once was a girl, a very special girl who forever changed me.

Crazy Mashup

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:09:26 +0000

Crazy mashup. I had two songs stuck in my head at the same time while at work today, The mariner’s revenge song by The Decmeberist and Danger! High Voltage! by The Electric Six. My brain kept trying to mash them up… I don’t know how well that would work in real life. Here they are just for reference (if the video’s don’t load just refresh the page they should load then):

… and Danger! High Voltage may be considered Not Safe for Work…

Would be interesting if somebody actually did make a working mashup.

Wishlists Updated

Brian A. Thomas — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:55:05 +0000

I’ve done some updating of some of the wishlists. If you don’t have my address, don’t worry, Amazon does so they’ll get them to me.
Brian’s Wishlist
From that one, note the XBox 360 games and Blu-Ray movies/shows… Just sort by priority.

Critical Thinking List
From that one the Evolution book would probably be first.

Apologies for all the Political Posts

Brian A. Thomas — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:05:22 +0000

Here I said I was going to slow down the political posts, and I went on a rampage. I’ll try to get back to other topics soon. They should be off the front page now…

Possibly the Worst Headache of my Life

Brian A. Thomas — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:24:22 +0000

I got Sidd down for a nap, and being tired myself I also lay down. I wake up an 1 1/2 to 2 hours later with a one of the worst pains I ever had in my head. It wasn’t like any headache I’ve had before, it was like just tiny pea sized point of pain in my head. If I had a job (still trying on that front, the job situation in Canton is really bad) and insurance I may have gone to the ER just to be safe.
I took some Tylenol and went back down and had a 5 hour nightmare of pain, throwing up, and from the way I was alternating between sweating from being so hot and freezing from being cold, probably a fever… which I guess shows it wasn’t a stroke or aneurysm which was what my main fear was. Thankfully the Republicans stopped all us Americans from having a nationally provided Health Insurance like every other civilized nation so I couldn’t go to check it out and be safe at the start of it all so they may have saved me $50…
I mean this thing was painful and highly localized, at least at the start, the last couple hours it was all over like most of my headaches, but this one, as I said was pea sized and tended to roll a bit back and forth… I could nearly feel it moving past stuff… at times I was having visions of numbers of the pain scale (I was between 8 and 10 for the first couple hours of it) and just… well, this thing had me freaked out for a while.
After reading the symptoms of a Brain Aneurysm, I wonder if I possibly did have a small one? But would I be functional now? I think not. However the medical guides all say see medical help right away on those sort of headaches to be safe… too late now. Plus I am feeling normal which I wouldn’t think I would if I had had one.
I do need to see a doctor soon for a physical. I haven’t had one in over 12 years. Lots of heart disease on both sides of the family, prostate cancer and skin cancer (I don’t know of other cancers off hand). I sometimes can feel my heart beating hard without putting my hand to my chest and without having done anything to cause stress beforehand, normally this doesn’t come with chest pain, though sometimes it does. The last time that happened I did have insurance so I could have gone to the ER to get tests done but was afraid, at my age, it is more likely indigestion or something, and again I recovered fine so I skipped it, plus there was no pain in the arms or any of the other symptoms so I guessed it wasn’t a heart attack at that time.