05/03/2020

Visiting Kai Zykken

In the most recent episode of OotiniCast, Chill and Dr SWTOR had Charles Boyd and Eric Musco tune in for a chat/interview. One thing they talked about was Spoils of War and I thought it was interesting that Eric made a point of how happy they were with the way it had turned out - of course the system is not perfect, but considering just how many things they changed about gearing with 6.0, he thought it was quite miraculous that it turned out as well as it did. I can't really disagree (though I did find it a little concerning how surprised he seemed to be by this pleasant outcome)!

He also talked about Kai Zykken, whom I haven't really mentioned before. Previously a highly inept (and amusing) smuggler/pirate that you encounter on Rishi during the Shadow of Revan story, he has set up shop on the fleet as a vendor since Onslaught. He only has stock on the weekends and it consists of a random selection that rotates every week, but the items he sells are cheaper than from the regular gear vendors plus he has some exclusives that you can't buy anywhere else.


My interest in gear has slowed down at this point, which is to say that I'm not specifically saving up tech fragments for gear anymore but still earn a few thousand per week more or less incidentally and have plenty of alts that could use an extra set or two. Decision-making is hard though, so Kai is my main destination for spending my tech fragments every week simply because his limited selection makes it easier to pick something to buy before I hit the cap. The exclusives and lower prices are mostly just a bonus as I get even more bang for my buck that way.

It just tickled me that the way Eric described the system matched my own experience so well: that he wouldn't want people to hold off on buying things from the regular vendors in hopes of getting the item cheaper from Kai instead (when I was hitting the cap for tech fragments more frequently I certainly didn't wait for him to show up before spending them), but that his weekly stock rotation should make players go: "Oh yeah, Kai's got fresh stock again, let's see what he's got this week." It certainly works to keep me coming back.

4 comments :

  1. Oh yeah...Kai Zykken.

    Honestly, i never paid much attention to him.

    At first, because i was constantly capped with tech-fragments. I had to get rid of them as fast as i could. No time to wait for the weekend. I had seven different sets, before i had the chance to optimize my main.

    After that...well... weekend after weekend i heard, that he sold nothing useful. The schematics he sold, are just ridiculous expensive to craft. All set-pieces he sold, i already had them, or they were not the to-go-set for the classes i played.

    So...it turns out, that i visited him just twice and never came back. Even now -after month-, i only heard once, that he sold something useful. The best in slot tank-tactical for juggers?! I don't tank in nightmare...so whatever.

    So...yeah...he is just a vendor i can ignore.

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    1. I admit the crafting schematics are mostly terrible but I still like buying them for completeness' sake, plus you never know whether Bioware won't make them cheaper/useful at a later point.

      In terms of regular gear sets I find at least one useful piece in his selection almost every week.

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  2. It's like going to a local farmer's market, because you never quite know what's going to be there.

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  3. Oh, I think I was lucky - one week Kai had BOTH a piece I still didn't have of Death Knell and one which I think was my first for aggressive treatment. In fact, I think he sold all Death Knell pieces through nov/december.

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