27/08/2018

Rishi Proprietor

While it was another one of 5.9.2's major features, I didn't buy the new Rishi stronghold until about a week after its release. Money wasn't an issue; as I've mentioned previously I just kind of fail when it comes to MMO housing. I like the concept but in practice I don't want to spend a lot of my gaming time rearranging furniture. So the Rishi stronghold can join Yavin, Manaan and Umbara on the list of strongholds I own because I can, but which don't contain anything but a couple of random decorations placed on a whim. Meanwhile, I spend all my idle time in the first room of my Coruscant (Republic) or Dromund Kaas (Empire) apartment.


I did have a bit of a walk around and was astounded by the sheer size of the Rishi stronghold. While I did explore it a little on the PTS, my observations there remained somewhat superficial, and I was honestly shocked by how hard a time I had even finding all the rooms in order to unlock them. At one point I caught myself instinctively opening my map to find the nearest quick travel point, but of course there weren't any because it's a stronghold, duh!

I did find out only today however that you can set different locations as your "loading-in spots" for different characters, which is very cool. If they added something like that for the other strongholds I might actually spend time in more than one room...


Interestingly the thing that eventually pushed me into purchasing the stronghold despite of my lack of enthusiasm for decorating was wanting to take a screenshot of myself with Speedy the turtle. For those not in the know, for purposes of providing ambience a little turtle patrols the beach inside the stronghold, and it looks like the Juvenile Turtle pet that you can buy from the Cartel Market. "Speedy" quickly became a fan favourite, just for a dev to decide to include a cruel joke: a hidden achievement that gets Speedy killed, forever replacing him with a small pile of bones and earning the responsible player the (very appropriate) legacy title "Horrible Person".

Now this has been interesting to me because so far, hidden achievements have always been something desirable - a way to show off that you possessed secret knowledge. But calling yourself a horrible person? Killing an adorable turtle? No, thanks! There may be no special title for it, but I consider myself a member of the highly exclusive club of people who know how to kill Speedy but prefer not to do it.

10 comments :

  1. Ich für meinen Teil bin ein Erfolgs-Jäger. Speedy musste also folgerichtig sterben. Aber...


    … als Republikanischer Spieler, Heiler-Main, und Mensch mit Gewissen, konnte ich das nur übers Herz bringen, indem ich auf meinen fiesesten imperialen Sith loggte.


    Zu meiner Freude konnte ich feststellen, das für sämtliche republikanischen Charaktere, Speedy noch immer wohlbehalten durch Rishi watschelt.

    Während sich also alle meine Gildenkollegen darüber ärgern, den Erfolg mit ihrem Main geholt zu haben, erfreue ich mich mit meinem Heiler daran, Speedy jeden Tag am Strand in der Sonne zu sehen.

    Da fällt mir ein...ich könnte das Kartell-Markt-Pet als Dekoration ebenfalls auf dem Strand platzieren. Dann haben die zwei einander, wenn ich wieder mal -aufgrund der geringeren Ladezeiten- auf Coruscant verweile.

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    1. Wirklich, das funktioniert? Ein Mitglied meiner Gilde erzählte mir nämlich, dass er sich schon so gefreut hatte, Speedy nach der brutalen Ermordung durch seine Revolverheldin auf seinen Alts lebendig zu sehen, aber das "löste" sich nach ein paar Mal rein- und rausgehen und dann erschien er doch auf allen tot.

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    2. Vielen Dank für den Herzinfarkt am frühen Morgen. Du machst mich schwach...also ich habe jetzt nochmal durch einige Chars geloggt...derjenige mit dem Erfolg sieht den Speedy-Ersatz, während alle anderen Chars (auch Imps) Speedy höchstpersönlich sehen.

      Zugegeben, ich bin nicht oft in der Festung, und bin auch jetzt wieder nur rein- und rausgeportet, um zu sehen, ob Speedy noch da ist.

      Im Moment ist das der Fall, keine Gewähr, ob das weiterhin so bleibt. Aber der Erfolg ist jetzt schon Wochen her!!!? Das Spiel sollte registriert haben, das der Erfolg in meinem Vermächtnis geholt wurde. Ich drücke mir mal selbst die Daumen, und hoffe, dass alles so bleibt wie es im Moment ist.

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    3. Sorry, wollte niemandem einen Herzinfarkt verursachen! XD Wenn er noch lebt, ist es ja gut. Wer weiß, warum diese Dinge mal so und mal so funktionieren...

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    4. (Apologies for adding to this chain in English; my German is nowhere near good enough to even attempt communicating using it)

      Based on this comment I figured I'd trial something.

      I was curious to see whether or not it depended on if the character who had caused Speedy's death logged in after a character who saw the little fellow walking around happily caused the Stronghold to do a little update for the second character.

      I sent my Juggernaut and my Sniper into the Stronghold before then logging back to the Juggernaut immediately after; since neither character had seen Speedy's demise beforehand both would only see him alive and well.

      When my Juggernaut travelled to Rishi the second time, Speedy was once again dead. :'(

      So based on these different experiences there is no consistency for what causes Speedy's bones to be present or not. I'm really happy for you - and very, very jealous - that Speedy seems to be permanently alive and well for the majority of your characters! :D

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    5. No need to apologize, Calphy. It is clearly my fault to write a German answer on an English Blog. I'm fully capable to answer in the correct language, but sometimes (late in the evening or early in the morning) i really don't have the time to express myself properly in a foreign language. I know Shintar has German roots, so i use this as an excuse to be lazy.

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  2. You raise a similar concern regarding Hidden Achievements to one I've been harbouring for some time. It seems a lot of the super-secret ones are just being added because they can; 25 Speeder rides in a Stronghold, finding the little cross on Rishi, etc., thus meaning that they hold little real celebratory value.

    Not to say that some of the initial Achievements weren't added for "just because" reasons (*cough*Seeking and killing 500 Bormu because you're a monster*cough*), but at least they were still something to strive towards and could potentially be a massive weight off the mind.

    The simple 'fun' ones are harmless enough, but ultimately there just isn't enough to really celebrate to justify doing them. Clicking on a speeder 25 times and being able to pathfind and jump? Woohoo...

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  3. What lovely pics! Makes me almost want to log in and buy the stronghold, but then by modern standards I suspect my characters are almost bankrupt. I do wonder about the mentality of a subset of players (or devs) that this achievement is in there - doesn't speak that well of the genre...

    Anyway I came by to actually mention how great it is to read that someone else isn't that great with housing - I love the concept. Oh how I agonised over houses in EQ2, Wildstar and Rift: I just lack the "house-decorating" gene. I'm useless at it and haven't the patience to decorate even if I have the drops!

    [und ich soll auch hier Ihnen beiden danken, um die Möglichkeit mein Deutsch ein bisschen zu üben! ;-)]

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    1. O God...what have i done!? I swear to answer only in English from now on.

      ..or maybe i try French next time?

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    2. Lol at the German getting everywhere...

      SWTOR's environmental artists have really been taking it to the next level in the past year or so; I've found it very noticeable.

      You are right that the stronghold would probably be out of your immediate reach as a returning player, as the initial unlock costs 3 million credits and adding all the rooms takes it up to nearly 17 million. Alas, such is inflation.

      And I'm glad you can identify with being bad at housing! I often feel like the only people talking about housing are those who are super into it and decorate a lot, but surely there must be more of "our kind"... we're probably all just a little ashamed of talking about it. XD

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