Grooving in the Old Republic – Part I: The Collector’s Edition Soundtrack

Join me for a trip across the galaxy to hear some of the best music around! But, you have to pay for your own drinks! And keep your feet off the console of my ship!

Greetings and Salutations, all! It’s been several Fortnights since I’ve last written a blog post, and I think we can all agree the less said about that previous post, and perhaps the feeling in the community in the few months post Legacy of the Sith’s release the better! If you know me, you know that one of my favorite things in The Old Republic is the music, specifically the stuff composed for the game. And with work being a little less busy and stressful, and having some more free time, I’ve decided to finally get around to writing a blog series about the official soundtracks for The Old Republic.

I mean... It's accurate.

Now, I’m sure what many of you, especially those of you who follow me on Twitter are thinking: “Really? It took you THIS long to finally get around to writing a blog post about the music releases?” And in my defense, I had wanted to do it months ago after looking back at some tweets, I saw one from Jackie (TOR’s fabulous community manager) that was a reply to me mentioning that anytime new music gets published on YouTube, she always seems to think of me (Or braces herself for my tweets of “More music when? D:”). Sadly, with most blog ideas I have (And never seem to get to writing), twelve different things happened all at once in my life, so it kind of got forgotten until recently.

I wonder what her reaction will be when she sees I've started an entire blog series about the music in the game?

Looking back, obviously, my first thought was “Hey, Senpai SWTOR noticed me!”, followed by “Oh, wait… I had hoped they equated me with my KotOR armor’s thread on the forums (Hint for anyone from the Dev Team reading this, we still need Bao-Dur and The Disciple’s armors from KotOR II *HINT HINT*!)”, then finally “Might as well become known as THAT player! :D”

Just an aside, these two are the only KotOR II companions whose armor sets are not in the game! Seriously, what the Kriff??

And so, several months later, I finally got around to it! instead of one long dissertation on the music releases (Which no one will want to read), I’ll be splitting it up into 6 blogs; one for each release, except for the Knights of the Fallen Empire & May the Fourth releases, those will be in two parts; the KotFE Soundtrack, the two tracks from Rise of the Hutt Cartel, and the Knights of the Eternal Throne soundtrack from May the Fourth will be part one, then the second part will be the Jedi Under Siege, Onslaught, and other assorted Tracks that are part of that release.

Before I sat down to write this, I went and rewatched one of the old SWTOR Developer Dispatches from 2010: “Music of the Old Republic”, and “Composing the Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic” from the Gamespot YouTube Channel to get into the right mindset of writing this, and one of the things I noticed was the that the impression of the music and making it personal to the player was a big part of the work of the composers. And I think we can all agree that, for any personal problems players might have with the rest of the game, the score is always a fantastic part of any release.

And as of this writing, at least FOURTEEN different composers (Gordy Haab, Samuel Joseph Smythe, Marco Valerio Antonini, Yitong ET Chen, Vincent Oppido, Jesse Harlin, Mark Griskey, Wilbert Roget, II, Henri Wilkenson, Madison Denbrock, Lennie Moore, Peter McConnell, Jared Emerson-Johnson, and Steve Kirk) have worked, or are currently working on the game over the last 12+ years.

But, before I get to the review, I thought I’d brag about… eh, I mean, go into the custom album art I made for each release, and how I’ve named and organized each release.

The custom album art I've made for the releases, including two versions of the KotFE soundtrack.

I like to have album art for my music, but since there was no “official” album art available for the other releases, and the scan I made of the CE Soundtrack sleeve was too dark, I made my own album art in Photoshop. I wanted to keep the look of the CE Soundtrack sleeve but use different logos for each release:

• The Republic Logo for the CE Soundtrack (Basically, it was a recreation of the CE’s Soundtrack Sleeve)
• The Sith Empire logo for the Website Soundtrack
• The dual-faction logo for the Fifth Anniversary Soundtrack
• and the Eternal Alliance logo for May the Fourth. I’ve been thinking of updating the May the Fourth album art with the Tenth Anniversary logo since that might fit more for the May the Fourth soundtrack.

For the KotFE & LotS Soundtracks, I decided to use the loading screen key art for those, however since there wasn’t any art for LotS that matched the previously released “Boxart” (As seen when you search for the SWTOR Amazon premium pack), I had to make my own. It was a lot of work in Photoshop, and while I like what I’ve made, I keep wanting to go back and tweak it or add things from the 7.2 loading screen.

Thankfully, the naming convention I use to keep it all separate is self-explanatory:

• The CE Soundtrack is what came with the Collector’s Edition in 2011 (And hasn’t been officially released elsewhere, not even on the official YouTube channel)
• The Website Soundtrack is everything released in December 2011, during the leadup to the game’s launch.
• The Fifth Anniversary Soundtrack is the five tracks released in 2016 for the fifth anniversary (Notably missing from this release was music from RotHC, but at least we got Makeb’s theme four years later!)
• The KotFE Soundtrack is the ten tracks released in 2016, leading up to the release of the Knights of the Eternal Throne Cinematic trailer.
• The May the Fourth Soundtrack features nineteen tracks from RotHC, KotET, Jedi Under Siege & Onslaught, which were released on May 4^th, 2020 (A nice gift, in the middle of that crazy year), and then seven tracks released over the next two years. I had made a notepad doc that split up each track from the May the Fourth Release, matching it up to each expansion release.
• And finally, the LotS soundtrack is everything that was released in May and June of last year, plus the two R-4 Tracks released this past January, and (Hopefully!) anything new released in the 7. x cycle!

The one downside of the recent releases is that they have only been released on YouTube, which is a win in itself, but the fact that they are not available to download (Other than downloading them straight from YouTube, and converting them to FLAC or MP3 like I did). I’m not sure what behind-the-scenes stuff prevents them from being available to download, but I hope that changes one day.

And now into the good stuff! Just an FYI, it may be a rough read, I haven’t done any… “reviews” of music since I wrote for my high School Newspaper in 2010/2011, so please keep that in mind.;

• The bombastic “Clash of Destiny” (Mark Griskey – 2:20) starts us off. I have to say that this is my second favorite track, mostly because after hearing it nearly every day since I first started playing at launch (Longer if we count my time in the beta) it’s become ingrained in my mind as the theme for TOR. There was a brief time from 2019 to 2022 when it was replaced by “The End in the Stars” (Jesse Harlin) as the Character screen music, until Clash of Destiny made a grand return with the launch of Legacy of the Sith and the tenth anniversary!

• The second and third tracks: “Glory, The Galactic Republic” (Gordy Haab & Wilbert Roget, II – 6:03), and Domination, The Sith Empire” (Mark Griskey & Gordy Haab – 5:52) are basically the “faction themes” for the Republic and Sith Empire and tell the listener/Player that you are seeing both factions at the height of their glory and power, but underneath that, tensions are brewing, and the cold war between the Sith and Republic will soon turn hot. You hear parts of them throughout the game, from the Class Origin and Planetary stories to the expansion content. For example, the openings of both tracks play when you first arrive on the Republic and Imperial fleets after the Starter Planets.

Before I go into the Class/Origin story themes, I did want to mention something I noticed when listening to these. You hear the parts of these at the start of the first cinematic on each starter world; for some, it’s the very first part of the theme (The Warrior, Agent, and Hunter for example, for others like the Inquisitor or Trooper, it’s from later in the theme.

• The first Class/Origin story theme on the Soundtrack: “Justice, The Jedi Knight” (Lennie Moore, Mark Griskey, & Wilbert Roget, II – 5:40) starts off slow, but builds up, much like the Knight’s story. As I’ve listened to these more while writing them, It feels like each theme seems to be telling the story of each class. For this track: A padawan in the height of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order is thrust into the middle of extraordinary events, and now must fight to stop a “Rogue” Sith from reigniting the Great Galactic War (I never believed that Darth Angral went rogue, and totally had the backing of the Dark Council), only to discover that there is a more insidious enemy waiting for him: The Sith Emperor. And after a brush with the Dark Side, can defeat the Sith Emperor (Or so he believes).

• “Bravado, The Smuggler” (Mark Griskey & Gordy Haab – 5:26) is probably my favorite track in not just the CE Soundtrack, but every SWTOR Soundtrack release. The Smuggler has always been my favorite Origin Story, all the way back to when I first saw the Return Cinematic. When I first played the Beta and saw that beautiful XS Stock Light Freighter flying at the start of the Smuggler story, and with this theme playing, I knew it was going to be my favorite piece of music! From running a shipment of blasters to Ord Mantell, finding a lost treasure, then working with the Republic as a Privateer, and dealing with having a bounty on his head, this theme, like “The Adventures of Han” from the Solo: A Star Wars Story Soundtrack does for Han, fits the Smuggler story like a nice, comfy vest (Or in the case of my smuggler; a trenchcoat).

• “Deception, The Sith Warrior” (Mark Griskey & Jessie Harlin – 5:10) starts off strong, and keeps going, just like the Warrior’s story, and while it slows down about two minutes in, that also fits with the events of the Warrior’s story. It’s like the opposite of “Justice, The Jedi Knight”, which starts out slow but builds up. Like the Sith/Dark Side themes in previous Star Wars Soundtracks, both of the Sith Origin Story themes use choirs, which fit perfectly with the Dark Side.

• “Scum, The Bounty Hunter” (Mark Griskey & Gordy Haab – 4:38) There aren’t many pieces of music in Star Wars that I think fit the archetype of a Bounty Hunter. There are plenty that fit a Mandalorian, but very few that fit a generic Bounty Hunter, and this is one of those pieces of music. The Bounty Hunter story can be about “Credits, pure and simple”, “I’m a Hunter, but I have a code”, or “I’m a Mandalorian, it’s what we do”, and the theme fits all of those.

• “Hope, The Republic Trooper” (Mark Griskey & Gordy Haab -5:12) The Republic Trooper’s theme would be perfect as the Republic’s Military Anthem. When I’m listening to this, I want to say “FOR THE REPUBLIC!”. When the music speeds up, it matches how tense things get in Act II of the Trooper story, when you have to make some “Needs of the Many” choices. And the last minute or so of the theme also fits really well with the events on Ord Mantell during the Trooper story.

• “Villainy, The Imperial Agent” (Mark Griskey & Lennie Moore – 4:12) While not as bombastic as the Trooper’s theme, the Agent’s theme is perfect in its own way, and actually is the opposite of the Trooper theme. Quiet, sly, and hidden in the shadows, just like the Agent is. Until halfway through the track, and then everything speeds up, just like the Agent’s story does. Double Agent, then Triple Agent, being manipulated from all sides: Hutt’s, Republic, the Star Cabal, even the Empire. Who can the Agent trust?

• “Peace, The Jedi Consular” (Mark Griskey, Lennie Moore & Wilbert Roget, II – 5:28). I love the rendition of the Force theme in this track. It fits the Consular’s story perfectly, especially the Prologue and Act I of the Origin story. I know some players find the Consular story boring compared to the Knight, but I’ve always loved it (I think having a Pureblood as my Consular helped a little). Like with the Sith Themes and their use of choirs, the Jedi themes use string and woodwind instruments, and it especially fits with the Consular. The first half of the track starts out optimistic, much like the Tython Story for the Consular, then just like the way Act I of the Consular story goes, the middle part of the track gets darker and more unsure, but like a phoenix from the ashes, the last half of the track switches back to that optimistic tone, but more experienced, older and wiser, which I would say fits Act III of the Consular Story.

• “Treachery, The Sith Inquisitor” (Mark Griskey & Jessie Harlin – 5:40) like “Deception, The Sith Warrior”, makes use of a choir, and may well be one of the best pieces of Sith/Dark Side music in all of the SWTOR Music releases (Maybe second best after “Splinter of the Minds Eye” from the May the Fourth Releases). Like the other tracks, it matches up with the Inquisitor’s story: Not as bombastic and strong as the Warrior, but like the Agent. The Sith Inquisitor works from the shadows, and in Act I, you are doing the work of Darth Zash, and then as the story progresses, you are dealing with the fallout of that work, until you become one of the most important and powerful Sith in the entire Empire.

The final six tracks are some of the Cantina music from the game. I wasn’t sure about writing reviews for each one since they all follow the same inspiration as the Cantina band from A New Hope. Now, If people really want to hear my thoughts, let me know in the comments, and I’ll go back and edit this with a review of the Cantina music. But, I did want to note that two of the tracks: “Smeeleeya Whao Tupee Upee” [Smile When You Say That] and “Shapa Keesay” [Shape-Shifter] are in Huttese, but also have English translations, as seen here. Now, I can’t say if the translations are correct or now, but It’s nice to have them!

• “Shake That Wampa Down (Peter McConnell – 2:37)
• “See You on the Dark Side (Jared Emerson-Johnson – 2:25)
• “Smeeleeya Whao Tupee Upee” [Smile When You Say That] (Peter McConnell – 2:50)
• “Run Kessel Run” (Steve Kirk – 2:34)
• “One Chuba Too Many” (Peter McConnell – 2:38)
• “Shapa Keesay” [Shape-Shifter] (Peter McConnell – 3:01)

And there we go! As I said, it’s been more than a decade since I’ve written a music review, and while it’s not the best in some areas, I really like how it turned out. I’ve already started on the rest of the series, and I’m hoping to have “Grooving in the Old Republic – Part II: The SWTOR Website Soundtrack” out sometime next week.

Now, I could use some advice on a location for my Smuggler to /groove at for next week's post. I was thinking of one of the 1.0-era planets, or making an imperial character that looks just like my Smuggler, and recreating the above photo on the fleet.

So, until then, /groove across the galaxy, and May the Force be with you!

"Over the line? You... you... you're so far past the line that you can't even see the line! The line is a dot to you!"

Now, I hadn't actually intended this to be a separate blog post, but part of my overall 7.0 blog, so it will be shorter than my other blogs. But I saw some "Players" crossing the line from criticizing things they don't like in 7.0 to personal attacks on the Devs, and I decided "Screw it. My overall 7.0 blog is on hold until I can finish Elom on my LS/Saboteur Warrior, and I had a rough time actually finishing it with my Smuggler. So, I might as well post the one thing I actually have fully finished."

This isn't the best blog post I've done, it's kinda rough, and not one I had hoped to write when I said I was going to try and start posting more, but... sometimes, you get inspired. I'm expecting to get a few negative comments, but if you get mad at me for saying that I've said, then... maybe there is something to it?

Yeah, I used a Friends quote for the title. It works.

I'm sure this will not go over well with some players in the SWTOR community who reads this, but it needs to be said. A lot of the complaints about 7.0 are legitimate concerns, believe me, I've got more than my fair share of complaints, but, it seems like a lot of those concerns are being drowned out by the small number of people that are using their dislike of 7.0 as an excuse to attack and insult the Devs and community team and, and demand they be "fired", which is a line you just do not cross. 

You may not like the changes, and you may not like 7.0, but the people that are working on the game are fans of The Old Republic like the rest of us and people too. Maybe think about that before you decide to act like a bigshot behind your keyboard and spew nonsense at them on the subreddit, the forums, or Twitter, just because you don't like the changes, or you are still mad about something from MONTHS AGO. I would say I am surprised to see this happening in our community, but I remember this incident from 2015 when some players decided it was a good idea to dox and start a witch-hunt on one of the class combat devs because they didn't like the changes, and then rightly called out by Eric on the Forums.

Now, do I think that Keith should post something on the forums, or even do a Livestream and talk about the reception to 7.0, as people have suggested online? Sure. The overall communication does leave something to be desired, and I miss those days when there was at least a monthly live stream from the community team. But, personally, I would rather the devs focus on bug fixes, instead of wasting time trying to placate the players, many of whom will still be mad about 7.0, regardless of what BioWare says. They aren't going to roll back the changes, we are stuck with them, whether we like them or not.

Just because you happen to have the "founder" title doesn't mean that BioWare is going to treat you like royalty, and it doesn't entitle you to anything. If it did, I'd have asked for more KotOR armors, to put the unreleased Cartel Coin and cross-promotion pets on a vendor, to release a good looking fedora for my Smuggler, or even give me the fifth anniversary Alliance statue (Which I still think I should have gotten, but that isn't the point of here). 

Look, we all love The Old Republic, some of us more than others, and we want to see it keep going for years, but doing shit like attacking the devs, and thinking it's a perfectly good and legitimate way to express your displeasure? That isn't love. That's being mad about something and taking your anger out for no good reason.

For those who are still reading this, and haven't thrown your device across the room after reading this, and/or have decided to shun me from the SWTOR community, I hope to have my 7.0 blog posted sometime later in the week, most likely Friday or Saturday, when I can devote time to finish Elom with my Warrior.

Ten Years of playing The Old Republic

It's been a long road...

Greetings all!

It’s hard to believe that we are about to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of The Old Republic, and the impending release of the Legacy of the Sith expansion! It’s kind of funny that the last time I posted a blog on here was a little over two years ago, and it was my reaction to the Onslaught expansion announcement. And I hope to eventually start doing this more, and/or revitalize my SWTOR YouTube Channel (Work permitting, of course!)

But, the main reason why I am writing today's blog? I thought that, with the 10^th anniversary at the end of the month, and my personal 10^th anniversary of playing TOR in both October (Beta), and December (Early Access), I wanted to look back at how I came to play The Old Republic, how it would eventually become a pretty big part of my life, and help me get into video editing, and even graduate college! Now, I might be a little fuzzy on some of the details, as it has been over twelve years, but I think it’ll be a good read.

The Gallifreyan Legacy. Or at least the main characters in The Gallifreyan Legacy.

A long time ago, I had just started my Junior Year of High School when The Old Republic was announced, and I'll be honest... I was very, very unhappy that instead of Knights of the Old Republic III, we were getting an MMO. I know that is a surprise to anyone who follows me on Twitter and knows how much I love TOR, but it's true. The very idea of it; that instead of finishing out Revan and The Exile’s story, we’d be getting an MMO, that most likely wouldn’t even have any connection to KotOR I and II were enough to make me mad. It’s funny to look back at the various connections to KotOR I and II in-game (from the Revanite questline on Dromund Kaas, The Jedi Prisoner, and Foundry Flashpoints, to Shadow of Revan, and Echoes of Oblivion), and see how wrong my seventeen-year-old self was.

Of course, High School was already rough for me, and 2008 was the start of a stressful few years, and so, I was just stressed/grumpy in general. But I was so mad about not getting a KotOR III, I decided to write my own KotOR III fan fiction (Well, actually THREE KotOR III's; Part one set between KotOR I and II with Revan, the second set after KotOR II with The Exile, and then 'KotOR III' with the “True Sith Empire”), and I got pretty far into the planning and writing the first few chapters, but school and getting my graduation requirements finished took priority, so I put that on the back burner.

By the time that The Threat of Peace comic was being posted to the SWTOR website, I had, for the most part, forgotten about TOR, and my initial dislike of it. I still wasn’t sold on it, but I was willing to give it a chance, especially after I saw the Deceived Cinematic, after which I made my forum account, and registered for the beta. And a year later, in 2010, I won a signed (But non-personalized) copy of Fatal Alliance from Del-Rey books, and while I liked it, it didn't grab me as much as the other TOR novels eventually would.

Now, I was laser-focused on graduating High School (Which for my High School was a lot of work, as we had to do a certain number of Shadowing and Internships, PLUS a Senior Project), so I completely forgot about TOR, and my prior feelings towards it. But that was about to change.

I was hanging out with my two (or three, I kind of forgot who was all there) best friends, and we were watching either the G4 or Xfinity coverage of E3 2011, and I saw something that said "Star Wars", and said "Huh, Star Wars? I wonder what that is. Let’s watch it.”

It was the “Return” Cinematic… And that was when I knew that A) I was going to be playing TOR, and B) that my main would be a Smuggler. Out of the six Cinematic Trailers released (Yes, I am counting the HK-51 Revealed trailer as a cinematic Trailer), Return is my favorite one of all, and I love that BioWare has rereleased those Blur cinematics in 4K! Nico Okarr is one of my favorite characters, mainly because of his ship, dual-wielding blasters, and his outfit, which inspired a lot of outfits that my Smuggler wears, and his outfit, and ship look FANTASTIC in 4K.

My Smuggler's Original outfit when I first started recording the Smuggler story in 2013, and his new outfit this year 

I know, it’s a heck of a turn to go from hating TOR to wanting to play it. But I wasn’t at the point I am now, where I love the game 110% (Most of the time). I started down that path after I read the Deceived novel (My second favorite TOR novel), but what turned me to eventually love the game was (Finally) getting a beta invite.

Getting this email turned that day into a fantastic one.

Monday, October 3rd, 2011 at 11:38 AM; I was in my English lit class when the email came in, so I didn't see it until I got out of class a half-hour later. I was very surprised to have gotten in the beta, mostly because I totally forgot I had even registered for the beta test! The only downside was that I wouldn’t be able to get home until 4:30PM, and back then, I didn’t think the IT department would have liked me installing and playing the game on their network. (Now that I’ve worked here for three years, it might be a different story…)

By the time I went to bed that night (Thank the Force my class the next day wasn’t until 3:30 in the afternoon!), I had just finished Ord Mantell, with my Smuggler/Soon-to-be Gunslinger, and was ready to head off to Carrick Station, and then to Coruscant. And after playing it for a few days, I knew I was going to be playing TOR for a long time!

I started listening to TOROCast & TOR Wars, downloaded and was watching the different dev videos and trailers from the website, and my laptop background was a rotating selection of the wallpapers, and concept art from the game. Suffice it to say, I was obsessed with TOR.

About two weeks later, after going to nearly every GameStop in town (We had four GameStop’s in my hometown in 2011), I managed to grab a pre-order for the Collector’s Edition from the local Best Buy (Even though I had to go to the next town over to get the CE when it was released). Every day from when I got into the beta, to launch, I was following the stuff on the official forums, and the SWTOR Subreddit, working my way through the three SWTOR novels, while also spending most of my free time (After homework and classes) checking stuff out in the beta, and listening to the different fan run SWTOR podcasts. Speaking of, who else remembers the video “review” that Gamepro released before launch, and how… bad that video was?

Even though I had played the starting planets with all eight classes, I knew that the Smuggler would be my main class. The Male Smuggler VA is fantastic (And does the sarcastic lines perfectly. One of my favorite Smuggler specific sarcastic lines was in the most recent Flashpoint; Secrets of the Enclave), the companions are funny, and the XS Stock Light Freighter is beautiful (I mean, she’s the lovechild of the Ebon Hawk, and the Millennium Falcon. What’s not to love?)

I had a very “SWTOR Heavy” Christmas and Birthday in 2011; I had ‘gotten myself” the CE for Christmas (With a little help from my parents, so it was a birthday gift from them), and grabbed the Prima Explorer’s Guide (Which I was kind of disappointed in, as I expected to be a strategy guide with stuff about the various quests and such), and the Blood of the Empire and Threat of Peace Trade paperbacks, and my dad got me the Art & Making of Book for my Birthday.

Even though I was a full-time student for half of the time I was playing SWTOR, I have been subscribed pretty much since launch, except for a small week or two gaps in October of 2014 where I had to buy a textbook and software for a class instead of my Sub, which then I fixed that issue and resubbed as soon as I  (Which came back to bite me in the butt and caused me to miss out on the Fifth Anniversary Galactic Alliance Statue during the fifth anniversary, and if the rumor I saw is accurate, will bite me in the butt again this year).

While not playing TOR, I was working towards an Associates in Theater Arts degree at my local Community College. I was a theater kid in High School, and when I needed to figure out my degree path in College, Theater Arts made sense. Until a year later, at the start of my third semester when I realized that while I love theater... I don't love it enough to get a degree in it! So, I worked on my General Ed stuff for the next few semesters and had hoped I would find a degree path that I would love. Eventually, I found the degree path for me, and, it was all because of TOR!

The first trailer (And video) that I ever edited. Still proud of it to this day!

In mid-2012, during the “Dark Times” just after the big layoffs at BioWare Austin, I had started seeing rumors everywhere online ranging from TOR was going to a free to play model to TOR was going to be shut down, and fearing the latter option, I decided to start recording the Smuggler story (With hopes I could record the other seven class stories), as I wanted to have some memory of my characters in case the game went bye-bye. As I was recording and editing those separate cutscenes into their own videos, I found that I really enjoyed video editing. My first few videos were rough, as you can see if you look at my YouTube Channel (Insert Shameless plug here) but I started teaching myself new techniques, read some editing tutorials online, and slowly branched out into making things like trailers for the class stories (Like above). A year later, I found out that my college offered a Video Editing degree, and I switched degrees, and started working towards my associate's degree in Video Editing & Effects Production in the spring of 2014.

The best thing about taking the Editing classes required for my degree was that I was able to make whatever video I wanted for the final, and so two of the three final videos were SWTOR related (And one was Mass Effect related). The first one I did was a tribute/fan trailer for Revan, to celebrate the release of Shadow of Revan, and the second one was a class story trailer for the Jedi Knight Class story. Although it took longer than I expected, since a handful of my classes actually transferred between degrees, my grandma moving in with my mom and I, and a few unplanned breaks during my college career (I wasn’t always the best student at the start of my college career), but I finally Graduated College in May of 2018, and, other than my own hard work and dedication, it was mostly because of TOR!

And, in a roundabout way, if it wasn’t for TOR getting me into video editing, I most likely would not have gotten my current job at my Alma mater. Ok, maybe my previous Call Center job, and computer knowledge helped too, but… I like to think it was because of that.

Those Heroic Space Missions were a pain...

It’s funny to look back at the last 10 years and see how far I’ve come from the MMO newbie I was when I started to a… well, not sure I’d totally call myself an MMO Veteran, as I still haven’t done an Operation, though I’ve done my fair share of World Bosses. But… now that I found a guild, maybe that will change in 2022! Of course, I just have to be more social in said guild! Ha-ha

I mean, when I first started out, I would never have been able to beat those Heroic Space Missions, or had the patience to go around and use the Seeker Droid to complete the Dreed Seed and Star Forger armor sets. Ten years later, I did both, along with other various achievements (Although, working from home in 2020 gave me extra time during the day to do that stuff). And now I’m in the process of getting the remaining Renown Achievements before they are removed in 7.0. I did the same back before 6.0 with the Galactic Command Achievements before that was replaced with Renown. Thank the Force 7.0 got pushed out to February of next year, and there is a Double Rewards Event starting next week!

And of course, there is the “SWTORFamily” over on Twitter! Until recently, I never was in a guild; not for a lack of wanting to, but I haven’t found the right guild, and when I joined a few guilds at launch, they all pretty much died two weeks after I joined (It felt like I was a Black Widow when it comes to guilds! Ha-ha), and apart from a few times a year, usually around my birthday, my friends don’t really play TOR, So I am pretty much a solo player, or as I like to say a “Carebear PVE player who occasionally does Warzones and Flashpoints. But, the #SWTORFamily on Twitter are a great… well, SWTOR Family; lots of cool players and content creators over there (Even a Dev or two)! I may not always agree with some of their takes, but

Me with a few of the BW Devs. Not sure any of them are still working on the Game...

And speaking of Devs, I was able to go to the one Community Cantina that was held in Colorado in 2014. And that was a great time! It was nice to know I wasn’t the only person playing TOR in Colorado, and I got (Yet another) SWTOR T-Shirt. Sadly, it was the only in-person Cantina I was able to go to, since the rest have been held at Conventions that I can’t afford to go to. (Seriously, BioWare, if you want to do another Cantina event in person after COVID, we can hold it in my backyard. I’ll bring snacks!)

Happy Life Day!

Ten years ago today, was when I got into Early Access. And looking back at the last ten years; the ups and downs in 2012, the seven (soon to be eight) expansions, staying up late those first few weeks after the game launched and playing my first Smuggler, and everything I’ve done since… It’s been a hell of a ride, and I can’t wait to see where this ride goes next!

The Onslaught begins! The newest expansion for Star Wars - The Old Republic has finally been announced!

After a lot of teasing from the developers for months, the newest expansion for Star Wars - The Old Republic has finally been announced! Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught will be coming in September of this year!

Interesting name. And the first one-word Expansion title. But not the first one word
patch title, however.

As a die-hard player of The Old Republic, I am so excited for this. I mean, the player-base knew it was happening, we just didn't know when and what its name was. But before I get into my opinion on this announcement, I'm going to share the main blurb about the expansion from the official site.

"War between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire blazes across the galaxy. Crucial resources dwindle as piracy and crime escalate dramatically. Amid this chaos, the Alliance Commander has the chance to tip the scales in favor of either faction, committing their elite forces to decide the fate of the galaxy. 

As the Sith Empire prepares to make a decisive strike against a newly-constructed Republic shipyard on the planet Corellia, members of the Dark Council see victory on the horizon and begin plotting against one another in anticipation of the spoils. Meanwhile, Republic forces must race against time to muster reinforcements from across the galaxy in order to defend Corellia from the Sith."

And so begins Galactic War #3 between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire. The seeds of which we saw planted on Iokath in the 5.2.0 patch; The War for Iokath, and came to fruition in the 5.10.0 patch Jedi Under Siege (Which is a great story).

So, here is what we know so far about the expansion from the cantina announcement, and the official announcement on the website:

• A new Storyline which will take place on two new planets, as well as a new flashpoint.
• If it's anything like the JUS story-line, we'll (hopefully) two story-lines, one for each faction. Along with side-quests, dailies, and such. My pipe dream is that we see a return of the planetary story arcs, especially for Onderon, but what we are already confirmed to be getting is great enough!
• Two new planets: Onderon, and Mek-Sha.



Onderon!



Mek-Sha

• Firstly... Onderon! As a huge Tales of the Jedi, and Knights of the Old Republic Fanboy, seeing planets from those comics and the KotOR games being added to the game makes me so happy. But, what I really love is seeing Mek-Sha. It's a completely new planet made by the Dev Team, and I really like the look of it. I get a Peragus Mining Facility vibe from the Mek-Sha concept art.
• A new Flashpoint on the planet Corellia, which serves as the finale for the story.

  

  I hope this is the new arrival cutscene for Corellia, because it looks great!

• There is something about Corellia that the Sith Empire just loves. Not sure why, considering the last time they made a grab for Corellia, half of the Dark Council was killed, and began a dark time for the Sith Empire, that took them a while to break out of. But, I always love flashpoints, especially now that BWA has added a solo (AKA Carebear PVE Story player) option, for people like me! Also, it sounds like BWA is finally going to go back and update a lot of the planetary arrival cutscenes so they are more cinematic! As someone who uses those cutscenes as intros in videos, this made me very happy! I really should type up a list of which planets have the original 1.0 era arrival cutscenes, and which have the newer "cinematic" cutscenes.
• A new Operation on Onderon's jungle moon of Dxun.

  

  Czerka Corporation. Their logo usually means something bad is about to happen.

• Jungle beasts, Czerka, and Trandoshans, oh my! But, will there be any Mandalorian on Dxun? Maybe some remnant or part of Clan Ordo that still makes a trip to Dxun? Now, as people who follow me on Twitter know, I'm not an Operations player. Not for lack of wanting to, of course, but every time I've joined a guild, it always ended up dying sometime after I joined, but I think that might actually change with the Dxun Operation.
• Level Cap increase to 75, New abilities for all advanced classes, and changes to Gear itemization and customization.
• Most of this stuff is nothing new for MMO Expansions, as anyone will tell you. However, the changes being made to gear is an interesting thing, even if most of it is going over my head. So, if you want more and better-detailed opinions about this change while I try to wrap my head around it (One thing I know and love is that change is giving a lot more love to the Legacy system, which it feels like it was mostly forgotten about), head on over to YouTube and checkout Kid-Lee's video, as well as Boomy's video, they both go in-depth on these changes, and do a better job of explaining it than I could!
• New species - Nautolans.

  

  I wonder if I should make a Nautolan Sith...

• FINALLY! After waiting for nearly four years, we have a new species. You may know the most famous Nautolan in the Jedi Order; Kit Fisto, now you can create your own! I'll admit, I was hoping that we might finally get Bothan's as a playable race, but... I can keep waiting.
• Updated music for the Character select screen.

New select screen music pic.twitter.com/Lx5fUh18hG

— The Council (@TheCouncilSwtor) April 14, 2019

• Now, this one I am unsure of. I LOVE 'Clash of Destiny', and that might be because I've been listening to it since I started playing TOR. And it sounds good and fits with the theme of the Republic and Empire returning to war, I think listening to it in-game may help. I just hope that BioWare Austin will release any new music that is made for Onslaught officially, but that is another blog for some other time.

Of course, we have a few more patches between now and 6.0's release in September. First up is 5.10.3: The Dantooine Incursion, which is coming out sometime this month, and will be on the PTS (Public Test Server for those not in the know) sometime later this week, most likely after BioWare's Celebration follow up livestream, which is suppose to happen sometime today, but nothing has been mentioned at the time I posted this.

The Dantooine Incursion will feature the sixth (Or eighth if you count the Original Rakghoul Event, and The Grand Acquisitions Race) recurring in-game event, which will take place on Dantooine, which fans of Star Wars are already familiar with. We don't know what else will be coming in 5.10.3, other than what has been datamined from the PTS server. I'm still trying to figure out my stance on sharing datamined stuff here, so far it has been "Only share stuff that has been cut/removed from the game, or stuff from before the current patch cycle", and never any story stuff.

And for after that, well I figure we'll find out more during the livestream this week, but I can figure that we'll most likely get the Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event during the summer, as is the tradition. Along with another patch or two, before September.

So, what do I REALLY  think about this?

Uh, finally! I've been waiting for a new expansion since the end of the Jedi Under Siege story. Although I am one of the rare people who actually enjoyed the story-line that started with the Knights of the Fallen Empire and ended with The Nathema Conspiracy (Cue the sharping of pitchforks and lighting of torches!), I am really looking forward to how the Republic vs Empire story-line will progress, and maybe find out how Darth Malgus survived The Battle of Ilum and his attempted coup (We all know that someone who falls down a pit in Star Wars tends to return. But, as long as Malgus isn't a clone like Palpatine was in the Dark Empire Comics, I should be happy).

However, there are a few things I hope we get between now and Onslaught's release. One of which I already mentioned above (Return of Planetary Story arcs):

1. The return of the six missing class companions: Charles Boyd, the Creative Director for The Old Republic, has said he has plans for how to bring back the six missing companions, so I am holding out hope. For those who don't know, those companions are: Kira Carsen, Lord Scourge, Zenith, Doctor Tharan Cedrax (And his Holo-friend; Holiday), Tanno Vik (This one is weird, because his original Voice Actor passed away, and while there is a replacement, I am not sure if he is going to return.), and finally, for those Inquisitors who made the choice in Khem's Companion story; Khem Zash.
2. More Class flair/mentions: I know that the return of the class stories is out of the question, but mentions to our past deeds or even our old story companions that have returned can pop up in a cutscene or two. Heck, even being called some of the titles we earned in the early days (Like Captain, Master, Lord, Darth, etc) instead of 'Commander' would be cool.
3. More Lore armors from the pre-TOR era: As the person who created the "List of KotOR I and KotOR II Armors Currently in Game/Coming soon/not available ATM" thread over on the official forums, I and many others would love to see more lore armors from the Dawn of the Jedi comics/novel, Tales of the Jedi comics, and the Knights of the Old Republic games/comics. In particular, Bao-Dur and Mical (The Disciple)'s armor sets are the last two KotOR II companion armors we still need.
4. More romance scenes between the player character and the companion they are having a relationship with: A majority of the companions, like Koth have been pretty shortchanged when it comes to romance scenes since 4.0, and that, sadly has to do with the fact that BWA allowed us to be able to kill/exile certain companions. Thankfully, the dev and writing teams seem to be fixing that, but I know a lot of people (myself included) would love more romance interactions with their companions, and especially a wedding scene.
5. Bug and QoL fixes: I have a list of bugs that I report every patch, a number of them have been fixed, but most have not (I'm looking at you, "stretchy armor on the Remnant Underworld Smuggler's Jacket", among others). And more Quality of Life fixes/changes, like continuing the cinematic changes that were done for the introductory scenes for the original eight class storylines throughout the rest of the class stories, and other content. Of course, something like that is a major job, but... never hurts to hope!

Also, If you were unable to attend the SWTOR Community Cantina at Celebration (Like I was), you are still able to get some in-game rewards by going to the SWTOR website, logging into your account, and in the "Code Redemption" tap, enter: SWCELEBRATION19.

In-game, you'll get four Stronghold posters (Darth Malgus, Imperial Propaganda, Republic Propaganda, and Tau Idair), and a character flair. These rewards are ACCOUNT-WIDE, so if you play on a US server, but decide to create a character on an EU server, these rewards will be there as well!

If you can't read Aurebesh, the translation for these are "Fight For The Empire", and "Defend the Republic"

And these are "Cantina Chicago '19", and "SWC '19".

My SWTOR Fifth Anniversary Blog Series idea/plan

So, right now I'm on campus, between classes and sitting in a corner (Like I always do because I am... who I am), listening to Star Trek Music (It's the fiftieth anniversary after all). And I decided I wanted to write a blog post about SWTOR's fifth anniversary. Tiny problem was, I had no idea what I wanted to write. Which for me is no real surprise, as I have incurable Writers Block. (Yes, I made that up, but it's what it feels like).

I had an old WIP post about the toxicity I see in the SWTOR community.  (Mostly on Reddit) Then I realized I am too old to with any potential fall out from that, and it wouldn't have been appropriate for the fifth anniversary. So. I thought about writing why I play SWTOR... and that snowballed into the story behind my Legacy characters in the game, my SWTOR YouTube channel, and my wishlist of things I'd like to see, both small and large either added or fixed in the game. However, it became clear that a blog like that would be about as long as War and Peace. So, like George Lucas did when he first wrote Star Wars, I took each part and instead of one LONG blog, I split them up into three or four (Depending on how things go) parts.

:POSTING/WRITING ORDER NOT FINAL:

Blog #1 - Solo mode Shroud/Seeker Droid and Oricon (I suppose this could be part of blog #2, but since I recently "soloed", IE, multiboxed the three 4-man puzzles in the final Shroud heroic, I felt like I wanted to write about that, and why/how I think they need to tune both Heroics to serve as solo mode for those that want to learn more about The Shroud, since he is featured in the bonus chapter in Fallen Empire; Shroud of Memory. (And...if people want to know more about the Dread Seeds.) As for Oricon, I was going to talk about why I feel like there should be a solo mode for the ending of the Dread War story. And some people may not like the idea, but I feel like throwing it out there.)

Blog #2 - My SWTOR wish list/reasons? (So, you know, QOL stuff, More KotOR Armors, ect.)

Blog #3 - The history and future of the Gallifreyan Legacy (Pretty much my RL reasoning behind the characters, and their in game history and information)

Blog #4 - Why I play SWTOR (This is pretty self explanatory.)

Now, I can't be sure i'll post this over the entire weekend, since i have to actually WRITE more than the layout I have.  I was thinking of maybe saving the fourth blog for December, when TOR's anniversary actually is. But, I might see what the reaction is to my series, and post it sooner.

Which reminds me, I need a name for this series, if you have any ideas, PLEASE comment below or tweet them to me!