Why Swtor is so much fun

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I finished up Ilum on my Imperial Agent the other day and I dinged level 56. Now, when Ilum was released the level cap was 50, it was raised to 55 for Rise of the Hutt Cartel. I’d accidentally leveled past a whole expansion worth of content.

This really made me think. Sure I watch the XP bar sometimes because I like the whoosh of the ding, I also like to make sure I’ve not screwed up somewhere and I am the right level for the planet. However, aside from that I quest for the story and the levelling is very much a byproduct. That explains how I managed to accidentally level a lot higher than intended.

Now I am a subscriber. I know that the xp is throttled somehow for preferred/f2p and so their experience would be different. However, from my perspective since the launch of Fallen Empire I get experience from everything and it’s awesome. The bar just jumps and it’s effortless, I’m just playing the game and the level is secondary, it’s unimportant, it really ceases to matter.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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I saw this film yesterday. I had deliberately managed to avoid spoilers as I wanted to watch it fresh and that was definitely the right way to go. I was suitably shocked by some events (no spoilers above the cut) and I didn’t have any preconceptions going in.

I remember when I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness, I’d watched the trailer so many times that I had an image in my mind of how the movie would play out. In actual fact the movie plot was not what I had imagined and it took me several viewings before the disappointment faded.

With this Episode 7, I had no theories or whispers of what happened, I didn’t have anything but “It’s Star Wars” and that was good, and that also was bad. I suppose I did have some preconceptions because I had a wishlist, I had some things that I hoped I would see, things that I hoped had happened and there was a twinge of disappointment there.

Under the cut for the full review. Spoiler warning, spoilers inbound.

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Dark Swan Falls

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This will be my 8th post about 5A, the first half of Once Upon a Time’s Season Five. It’s been a roller-coaster ride, with each episode twisting in ways I didn’t expect, blowing theories out of the water and generating new ones.

The journey is now over, the arc for 5B has been set. We know where we are going, or at least the main destination. The next new episode won’t air until March 6th, it’s going to be a long hiatus as despite the arc being wrapped up there are still many questions, some of which I rate as quite important. We all have our favourites and this mid-season finale made for a lot of uncertainty, and a fair bit of doubt, regarding the happy ending of my favourite character.

I will go along with the writers on most things because I don’t mind angst, I don’t mind the journey, so long as it ends up making everything right in the end. Now obviously I don’t know how long this show will go on for, if there are several more seasons (I can only hope) then if the journey is a long one then I can accept that. However, sometimes some things can not be undone, people can cross the line and go too far and then they can’t come back. So long as there’s hope I’ll go along with it, but if there is no hope that things will end how I want then I won’t be happy.

However, for now I’m willing to see where the writers are going to take this. I have some hopes and I have some suspicions, see under the cut for the Swan Song.

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NaNo 2015: Retrospective

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It’s December 1st so November and NaNo is officially over for another year. There is of course Camp NaNo next April and July, but let’s forget that for the moment.

Before the month started I had two clear goals:
– Have a completed first draft by the end of the month
– Write every single day

At the start of the month I admitted that I would ideally like to go further:
– Beat last years total of 61k at a minimum
– Finally crack triple figures (100k) to make a good lifetime achievement total

Well how did that go? The answer is pretty clear if you take a look at the widget on the sidebar to the right. The total – 55,618 words. Do I have a complete draft? No. Did I beat last years total? Nope. Which obviously means I didn’t get my 100k. Did I write every day? Well, that depends on your definition, more on that under the cut.

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Revelations, Questions and Frustrations

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This week there was a double bill of Once Upon a Time to watch. Episode 8 and Episode 9, Birth and The Bear King and the first episode contained a shocking plot twist, the second was any of the main characters actually really in it?

The revelations sparked questions and the frustrations come from the message on the netflix site. The next new episode will be “January 1st” – excuse me? Now Once Upon a Time has a really long hiatus, three months from December 6th to March 6th. That is expected, that’s why they split the season into two story arcs A and B. They wrap up one story arc so people aren’t mad as hell for three months waiting to see how it ends.

Netflix have been brilliant, putting up the new episode on the wednesday, after it airs in the US on the sunday. Why are they suddenly breaking from form? The last two episodes of 5A and saying we have to wait 6 weeks for them. Have to wait for the episodes that will wrap up the story arc, explain everything and bring resolution to the conflict which has ramped up over the previous 9 episodes. Why do that? That is mean, that is cruel and unusual and mean and very, very frustrating.

Alright so let’s talk about the episodes that have aired and that shocking plot twist. Obviously massive spoilers below.

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NaNo 2015: Midseason Update

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Apparently skipping all normal NaNo rituals results in it not really feeling like NaNo. The magic just disappears, or never appears, it’s like a regular day with all the regular annoyances and distractions.

  • I didn’t stay up till midnight and write a few lines before I went to bed.
  • I didn’t complete my outline.
  • I didn’t have a title, series title, universe title.
  • I didn’t create a temporary cover.
  • I didn’t have an opening line so I was stuck at the start line.

All told it was not the best start to the month. However, I dutifully started writing the prologue and I reached the 50k pace for the day (1667 words) before the prologue was finished. That I hoped boded well for the length of the rest of the story but only time would tell on that front.

I finished the prologue and I was feeling good. However, I’m familiar with the emotional highs and lows of writing a first draft. I knew that high wasn’t going to last, the same as I know the inevitable lows will end. It’s a rollercoaster journey every single time.

What is somewhat miraculous is throughout the whole process, while there are parts of the draft I dislike, I don’t loathe anything AND I still absolutely love the idea. That’s new, usually I wind up hating everything and want to kill it with fire. Perhaps it’s just a matter of time. We’ll see how I feel when I reach those immortal words – ‘The End’.

Word of warning about this post. I wrote it in 5 separate updates over the course of the beginning of the month. Therefore I can’t vouch for how understandable it is, think of it as a live blog almost of the writing process.

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A New Hero Rises

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I missed writing a post about last weeks episode. I had a cold (man-flu) and I felt really tired, then NaNo started and too much time had passed. However, the episodes did sort of lead from one to the other, or at least when it came to the important part – Rumplestiltskin of course!

My friend just asked me what I thought of last nights episode (5.06 – The Bear and the Bow) as they thought I would really have liked it. They know I’m a big Rumple and Rumple/Belle fan and this was a centric episode for them, they finally got their moment in the spotlight. When it came to my answer I was a bit more conflicted than I think either of us had expected.

The problem with head canon is that then on screen things happen that don’t seem right. I agreed with a lot of what happened last night, likely all of it but the episode was only 40 minutes and they had to show a transformation in that time. I suppose it’s no surprise that it came across a bit false but more on that under the cut.

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All NaNo-Eve

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The 31st might be Halloween which is important to some people. However, for me it’s important because it’s NaNo-Eve, the day before NaNoWriMo begins again. I know it’s not the 31st yet, I may do another post before then, or maybe I’ll do a mid month post. Last year I forgot to do a pre-NaNo post so I did one on day ten, that could work for this year too.

Anyway, last year I wrote a NaNo retrospective, as I often do, and I listed some goals for myself.

The Writing Plan
– To write a minimum of 1000 words, five days a week.
– To finish Book Two by the end of January
– As a bonus work through the flash fiction course
– Make plan for February at the end of January, probably in my new house.

How did that work out for me?

Well consistency has gone out of the window completely. Forget that, even when I was writing it wasn’t on a regular day to day basis. The first draft of book two has been completed – this month. Yup, I didn’t finish that until October. I also haven’t touched the flash fiction course.

All told those goals didn’t happen. Ok, so what did happen?

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The Fallen Empire

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I haven’t blogged about swtor since April, when I said that the 12x boost was coming into effect for subscribers. I thought that I would be playing a lot of swtor this past summer. I only wish that could have been true. Instead I was rather ill and not in a good way, the sort of illness where you feel too bad to even play games.

In my post about the 12x boost I said I was “wary but excited” as I worried what the boost would mean for the games longevity. I thought that if I played through all the class storylines, then I would be ‘done’ with what I loved most about the game.

I need not have worried. I only took one class through their storyline – Imperial Agent. I started another – Jedi Consular – but I’m only level 21. That is all I managed. I have yet to touch the classes of Sith Inquisitor, Smuggler or Trooper and my Sith Warrior is still on level 17 and due for a restart as it’s been so long. I didn’t even max my Jedi Knight, which is now on level 47 so very close to the end.

The release of the next expansion reminded me it’s been a while since I played. I actually forgot to cancel my sub so I have another six months as it renewed by accident. So what are my current thoughts on the game?

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