I haven't written much about Conquest lately, but it's actually one of the things that keeps me logging in every day. The last time I wrote about the system at length was back in April when Bioware introduced a bunch of new and often very silly objectives, awarding points for extremely common everyday activities such as taking a taxi or giving a companion gift.
My reaction at the time was a mix of confusion and amusement. I found my own ways of using the new system to my advantage, but it did all seem a bit over the top and I kind of expected Bioware to nerf the whole thing again at some point. They did eventually tone down some of the more trivial objectives... but at the same time buffed others to be even more ridiculously rewarding.
As a result, a lot of my more recent, somewhat limited play has been what I can only describe as "passive Conquest point gaining", as I log in once a day to raise a crew skill, complete several crew skill missions, increase a companion's influence level (usually as a result of the former), and maybe re-roll an amplifier. Just doing this and nothing else is already enough to complete my Conquest on several characters every week, and while part of me obviously appreciates this, it also continues to feel slightly odd to me to gain so many rewards for doing so little. One of the characters on whom I've been doing this most regularly isn't actually max level yet, and since Conquest also awards XP, she's slowly been gaining levels without really doing anything. I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the prospect of having her reach level 75 while barely having left her Coruscant apartment.
One thing I haven't been paying too much attention to in the last few months is the meta, even though I've previously written about how it can be kind of interesting/entertaining to watch the big guilds duke it out for first place. One reason for my decreased interest is that the last set of changes kind of put my guild out of the running, making the whole thing less relevant to me - we'd previously been able to compete at least occasionally, but as explained in the post linked in the first paragraph, making Conquest too passive reduces the value of organised effort compared to simply having a large number of active players, regardless of whether they are in any way involved in guild business or not. So while it's easier than ever to hit the five million points required for the large yield target even as a small to medium-sized guild, there's just no way we could ever compete with guilds pumping out literally hundreds of millions of points each week.
Anyway, the other day I actually happened to look at the scoreboard for the first time in a while, and it made my jaw drop:
The infamous Stroke My Wookie [sic] is still around, but all previous competitors have disappeared, to be replaced by a mega guild called Shield of Destiny (Republic side) or Rest in Peace (Empire side). And when I say mega, I do mean mega - a single guild can only hold a thousand characters, and these guys are up to no less than six different guilds with slight variations in the spelling of the name and guild logo.
I'm not sure whether you can even speak of "a" guild in such a situation anymore... with so many thousands of characters spread across different guilds, how much do they even know of each other? And how do they maintain any kind of cohesion? I get the concept of alt/sister guilds, and there's some benefit in spreading out in an organised manner to dominate all the planets, but most weeks there are only three planets anyway, meaning that with six guilds competing, a lot of them don't actually get to claim first place with any regularity even as part of this coalition! I just don't understand what their angle is.
Even more intriguingly, googling the guild name leads to this guild listing from the Star Forge server. Did they move to Darth Malgus? Is it an offshoot? Or just copycats using the same name? Okay, I remember now why I tend to find this kind of thing intriguing...
Unfortunately this situation is bad news for any other guild not 100% dedicated to Conquest ever wanting to win first place. We haven't had a Total Galactic War in months, but at this rate they'll lay claim to a good chunk of the galaxy even then...
I don't know what to make of it.
ReplyDeleteI just recently moved to DM, just in time to read the announcement, that Rest in Pieces will create a fourth instalment of their guild on imperial side.
I like the idea of having some dedicated people in the game, and not only the hardcore casual story gamers. But i really don't understand, why someone is putting so much work into four imperial guilds and three republican guilds.
Am i missing something? I do know you get some crafting materials, that used to sell pretty good and are viable till today, but...they can't make so much credits with it? Or do they? Why on earth are they doing, what they are doing? It's a mystery for me.
Where did you see this announcement? Are you a member? Give us the inside scoop! Hehe.
DeleteHuh, now that you mention it I haven't seen the Shield of Destiny/Rest In Peace guilds around much on Star Forge. I know they were at one point very active in conquest until several other guilds took interest. At the moment Rest In Peace is in control of one planet on SF. It's possible they did move to Darth Malgus, figuring it would be easier to control planets that way rather than competing with the six to seven conquest guilds on Star Forge.
ReplyDeleteIt's very weird only seeing three guilds on the scoreboard. Star Forge is insanely competitive and our scoreboard is more diverse.
Yeah, on the German Tulak Hord Server we have a similar situation... a gigantic 'guild-conglomerate' with at least 4 max-sized guilds, 2 on each side, snatching up planets in the last few weeks.
ReplyDeleteThey wait as long as possible to log in a planet, distributing their sub-guilds so they each have a comfortable (read: unreachable) lead and have taken all three planets in the last conquests.
I hope that this week, with a few more planets on offer, some of the other conquest guilds can take at least one or two planets - I finally relented this month and parked a twink in one of these guilds as there's no other way to get the achievments.
Oh, and because I have a char in one of the 'enemy guilds' of this guild-conglomerate there is NO WAY I could sneak a twink into one of their guilds - apparently their 'CEO' has lists of member-legacies and will ban anyone 'double-timing' him. Some people take conquest WAY too seriuosly. >_>
DeleteWas about to comment on Tulak Hord as well.
DeleteI'm in a guild that was focused on Conquest when I joined in early 2019 and we were doing good. Fairly, in my opinion - doing all the guild activities, and people investing effort in their alts. Normal guild with normal activities though.
When I came back in summer 2020 after a break we didn't have a chance anymore. Sure, activity in the guild was lower but the competition was just nuts, with weekly numbers I'd never seen.
It's weird.
I always thought that it was odd, that guilds and loyalty on Tulak was never a thing.
DeleteEverybody seems to have three or four other guilds, because he once used to raid with them, many years ago. Sometimes i believe, that people, who fully commit to one guild are long gone.
@Anonymous: maybe it is because the server is so small. everybody knows everybody. you might want to see it this way: the whole server is one big guild. :)
DeleteMaybe I'm the odd one out here but server identity does not really exist for me in SWTOR. I created my toon on The Restoration Zone at launch (and played with my guild), we got merged to Jar'kai Sword at some point (the guild was deadm I only played solo+duo), then merged to Tulak Hord. There I joined my current guild and did only guild things...
DeleteMy take is that it's probably largely a bragging rights thing, there are few tangible benefits. For a casual player it makes sense to be in one of these guilds because you get fairly rare achievements without having to do anything. Or at least I assume they are rare, I've certainly never been in a guild that ranked high in conquest.
ReplyDeleteWhether sheer numbers should trump any other consideration is a different story. I thought originally the plan was to have different seasons that emphasized different objectives. I assumed part of that would be some seasons where concerted effort made more of a difference and others where warm bodies on the guild roster was more important. From what you are saying it certainly hasn't panned out that way if that was the plan.
SO, Look, what I'm about to say may be considered as gossip - well, IT IS gossiping, but, who cares?
ReplyDeleteShields of Destiny/Rest in Peace were leaded by one young man commonly known as Kort. Kort's a bit... Over, IMO. I have no clue what he does with his life save for playing swtor, complaining and smoking pot - all of which I'm saying from first hand experience, not hearsay.
So, a few months ago (around February), Kort and some of his closest peeps decided they were SO DONE with The Sanctuary (which is Star Forge's largest guild and was Jedi Council's largest before merger) winning the planet they chose for conquest every week. They just decided they needed to do something about it.
Now, BEFORE this point, they were often involved in denigration campaigns and continuous complaints about The Sanctuary's conquest results... Which made him close to a few other guild leaders that were similarly bothered by Sanctuary's wins.*
*Let me take a moment of pause to say this: I understand the frustration. The Sanctuary - and it's offshoots - will top any planet they choose, 50 out of every 52 weeks, sometimes more. They've been doing this since I first joined the game, almost 5 years ago. They already called themselves a "conquest guild" back then, and no change in system has been able to displace them. What they do or do not may be open for discussion (they DO have a lot of activities that are done together, rampages, flashpoint nights, daily ops, etc). The fact that it is a result of years and years of consistent effort, not as much.
SO, together with those other genius, he came up with a plan to take the Sanctuary down a notch. It involved gathering several really big guilds and its resources to, in the coming crafting-heavy week, come after The Sanctuary... So far, that'd be silly but whatever. But just winning was not enough, no. They'd be creating a guild for that sole purposed, with a mocking name (Spanktuary was suggested), so they'd be publicly beaten.
I have to say, words failed me at the primary level of evil planning here.
In true kid's show's supervillain style, Kort published that idea/call to arms in one of the generic, open to all members, channels in discord.
As conquest resets, there comes from the depths of nowhere, a new guild in the ranks -- called Shields Failling (much less in the nose name, I should say). They quickly top SoDs efforts in winning the planet. And then shit hit the fan, Kort went into rage mode, and, honestly, I took a lot of printscreens to laugh with my non-swtor-playing-friends at how cartoonish the whole thing was. Also, it reminded us of some fandom-wars we were involved in in our teens. So, you know, entertainment value.
... And then they decided to complain about the situation at the Official Foruns, because, ofc they did.
For a while after that, they continued in a warpath. At some point, things were serious enough for Sanctuary's GM (he nick's Sophisticat) to decide to make formal complaints - to SWTOR team, EA and look for a lawyer to protect her (and other guildmates) from slander and abuse - I think this was around April or May? I forget. At about that point, Kort moved over to DM. Spear of Coruscant's leadership, however, seems to still be involved in minor cases of harassment? I'll confess that since I'm active in none of the guilds, I haven't been following.
One of Kort's favourite pastime is to go around flying random invites (mostly in beginner's planet's, but my first was on Yavin...) which means he gets lots of players all the time, not necessarily for long. I've found him doing it in DM too (ofc)
Anyway, that's the story there! I wish y'all luck with *that* one...
PS: real irony is that The Sanctuary's leader living in Europe and plays in the US server, while Kort lives in the US and now plays in the European server... LOL.
Ooh, I love me some good gossip on guild drama! Thanks for sharing, I'll pass this on to some of my guildies as well. :D
DeleteSome history about SoD:
ReplyDelete(Massive gossip spoilers)
Oh The Kort (narcissist) and Destiny (or however that ERP pervert spells it now) show.
I was involved with SoD back when it was on Satele Shan about 4 years ago. Between the little grade-school spats between those 2 "leaders" Kort decided the guild needed to move to Star Forge for better CQ and PvP opportunities. Many players were left behind unwilling to transfer but in "Kort World" that does not matter bc he does not care about most guild members and so he took all the credits and resources with him leaving the guild pretty much empty on SS.
Destiny was a GM and Kort was the "boss" of all the sister guilds Imp and Rep. These two would run hot/cold week to week and if you chose to run in game with one the other would go into tantrum rages, if they were angry at one another at the time. The rage wars were fought in game and on the guild Discord.
My then boyfriend at the time (we're now married) and I made a mistake--we thought it would be fun to watch their swtor reality show for awhile. We also decided through morbid curiosity to string Destiny along and be on "his" side just to watch his trainwreck of a personality. Then we found out he was a male from Australia who was beyond rude and crude and basically cheating on his IRL wife via swtor/Discord. That all came crashing down when--and he knew I was in a serious relationship IRL--he sent me D-pics via Discord. My spouse (who was in another guild btw) then went onto my toons and loaded into Discord on my account and did several activities with them without saying a word. Then he spoke over my account and SoD had a massive collective freak out. We then quit their dysfunctional guild and renamed our toons.
A sideline--Kort would relish bashing and harassing RP guilds on DF. Very unattractive.
We ran a couple of toons over on Darth Malgus too just for the change of community. And we noticed SoD on that server....run by Kort!!!!! He moved again because of spats with Destinee (sp). We found this out through messaging Kort and he said "we have NOTHING to do with SoD on SF!!!" yet they share a website and Discord. Members of SoD on SF informed us Destinee angered Kort into rage spat wars again causing the split.
Back on SF I recently had Destinee proposition my toon (he doesn't know it is me) to party with him and some toon named Neesha to have a "3-way" at his stronghold. This ERP pervert did not learn a thing from before.
Stay away from all SoD guilds unless you want to be involved with these sick freaks.
I'm so entertained by all this that it is almost criminal! Woooow, what a great tale!
DeleteThis is a gift that just keeps on giving!
This post's comment section has definitely turned into the unofficial Kort/SoD gossip corner.
Deletewell as an ex-officer of Rest In Peace/Shield Of Destiny , I can inform you that those guilds go far beyond what is said in the comments...as a matter of fact those guilds are much worse and much more hypocritical than one can imagine.
ReplyDeleteKort decided that he doesn't care about the game anymore so he left Lois'lane in charge of all 8 (maybe 9) guilds on darth malgus
as a former stroke my wookie member he based his guild by antagonizing the SMW guild and the other large (and old) Guild Exsilium , building a mindset of hatred for new players (which make most of the roster) and directing it towards any player not in RIP/SOD.
meanwhile he threatens new player by "being kicked from the guild" while making sure that they believe that this is the only place they can play the game (i have proof of his players begging him to not to kick another player over a simple mistake). he bullies smaller guilds with massive numbers and cuts of their revenue stream (flagship plans) by setting the members to guard the commanders that drop the items for long hours (more than 10 sometimes) and those players thinking that this is the way this game is played accept his abuse in total ignorance.
after thousands of tickets (with screenshots of his whispers...nasty stuff...going as far as death wishes) and ignorance by the community leaders in DM discord a pvp war raged over the commanders (which RIP/SOD also has their revenue based on them) and that war devastated the Shield of Destiny section of those guilds effectively paralyzing them in the matter of active player base (officers and core players left due to frustration and abuse) , basically smaller guilds went out of their way and players sacrificed their time (which they could've enjoyed doing something else) to do the jobs that the devs and the community leaders decided to ignore
this is what happened over the past 3 weeks in darth malgus
this last comment is half true
Deletethe main burden of taking on RIP SOD in commander hunts was done in a combined alliance of Evil Company and the Ex officers of RIP SOD, the Darth Malgus, which is an extended hand of Stroke My Wookie did absolutely nothing.
Our alliance has broken the RIP SOD guild for good reasons. Thanks to that effort several members are now discovering a more free income stream unrleated to guid attachements.
On that account i would also lieke to direct Your attention to the past, and even current situation where the Ancient Dark Guardian guild has been far more present in uarding commander for hours and hours, and the GM is the moderator of said Darth Malgus discord who censors the misshabits of his members whil at the same time keeping up the channel open for "harrasssment"
our alliance will also look into deeper issues of Lois Lane soon, and again the Darth Malgus discord/Stroke My Wookie together with UlaVii has only been a complaining bystander in the whole situation, never an active member in action.
Soon several proofs and evidence will be released by us.
I would also like to point out that we have gathered a following of multiple guilds which allied with us for hunts and also for profit of individual players rather than joining the DM discord "community" hunts which are already controversial in its construct which makes them ineffective as You can see
Welcome to Beos fantasy land where its all a SMW consiparcy lol SMW and DM server have no alliance/partnership and this has never been proven true...cause...well simply put...its bs...that you spread in some weird attempt to drag attention to yourself and your hate you allways shown for SMW (wich hey...you do you)...and NO ONE really cares anymore about you....rip...sod...or all of that tbh you are probably one of the only causese of most of the issues...no one cares or wants to care about your "bragging" campaign or massive trolling attempts (people are even aware about all your little trolls you send around their servers no worries we simply couldnt care less)...there is no alliance/partnership between any staff member of DM server and SMW and i fail to see how this is related to RIP or SOD conquest things...but i will clarify further...it has been over a year now you should have came up with any proof and you plastered forums with so called "proof" holding...where is it?...there is none cause its all fabricated and you want people to back your good but fake story...infact not all the people that lead commander hunts are from SMW...and the application to lead is open to all like clearly stated on their discord...just not to known trolls Beo...by the way...there is no ADG gm or officer in the their team either...not anymore...reason why people did nothing when you spoke? Because you did it ALL wrong...from the recordings of voice convos of other GMs to pass on to GMs of RiP/SoD for troll value with your friend Kort all the way into making offensive meme videos about various members of various communities...so why dont you show this god forsaken evidence and stop accusing people across the internet to poke drama?...its above pathetic that you tied SMW to DM RIGHT AFTER you got banned for what you did in the DM server. None favors other guilds in there...all have the same options and opportunity...no one could care less about commander hunts now you just troll people that are not in EC or tied to your troll brigades...so have fun...enjoy the saturated framework market :) but do so on your own free time without wasting others time...this is to clarify that this person right here...is a liar...a scam and a troll...and that...has been backed up multiple times with REAL evidence :)
DeleteAnd he's scamming how? And who, exactly?
Delete@Beoknez this dude using my name but talking complete shit xD
Deleteye i know mate, this fake Eredin is the same like the fake "UlaVii", GM from StrokeMyWookie, who also uses the name of our trusted member "Ula'Vi" who is the original actually.
DeleteThey try to copy us bcs they are bad af and poor as well
Wow, the last comment is a bunch of BS. I am a new player that joined RIP a month or so ago and I never even heard about any other player/guilds (the point about random invites is 100% true), until some specific players started targeting me for being in the RIP (pretty much daily things that are being experienced by every other member of the guild). To explain, a bunch of us, mostly new people, were invited on commander runs, a few went perfectly, and then so-called defenders showed up and it was fun at first. However, after a week or so, those people started commenting (very rudely, to the point they are not choosing words at all, just spewing everything that comes to mind) on the guild, Lois, and other better-known guild members. This behavior is only getting worst, to this day, which I, as a pretty much casual gamer, find quite unsettling. To summarize, the spats some people are having between them is destroying the game for all the other gamer; and I am not claiming innocence's for any of the sides, I just think that all of them are idiots with no lives, trying to settle their personal vendettas over the backs of casual gamers who just want to have fun and play the game they love!
ReplyDeleteThat BS has over 10 hours worth of evidence backing it (which was provided to the devs in multiple open cases that were open and ongoing against the GM of RIP/SOD before the events of the past month) also main officers of SOD leaving the guild (main reason being fed up with Lois'lane's abusive and rude behavior which is shared by them) also backs up that fact...also those better known members of the guild have been attacking other players on their commander hunts before the events of the past 3 weeks (check Darth Malgus discord...and not the posts but the screenshots...you gonna see a lot of names Arimahz being the one that is most seen) now if you wanna call out someone's comment as BS you gotta do better than just "they're ruining the game" because the other side claims the same thing with and a lot of facts point out that they are right
DeleteWell @Eredin
DeleteAs You can see Your master UlaVii wants me back on the DM Discord with all those fantasies as You call them turned into public truth. It wasnt the mods or admins but UlaVii himself. So yes the DM discord is nothing more but a weak arm of SMW.
The public passive message of defeat from SMW and the immediate retreat of RIP SOD at our appearance, of which there are many SS and memes, is nothing but amusing and a well deserved lesson to those who try but fail to represent the "community".
I would also again like to say that thanks to our combined efforts we defeated RiP SOD and minimised their influence in half. SMW, which the GM or RIP SOD comes from may i outline, has once again proven to be nothing but a club of Karens that are only words, no action.
I think both guilds are now at a low and learned their place, which for us casual guilds is a nice turn.
I would like to extend to every allied guild, ex members of RIP SOD and Ex members of SMW my thanks to the great efforts and billions and soon a trillion in a year we made in the process.
PS
ReplyDeleteThe proof has been removed by the devs because it contained , according to their rules and guidelines, information about the players and guilds, which is forbiden. So if You want proof, just ask.
But the GM of RIP SOD got a warning nonetheless which is why he does not whisper or harrass our players anymore, sadly he is still in the game, but considering the lazyness of UlaVii and Xinovo and their own dirty background, i believe that we will see both parties still belitering the server.
Youre just jealous that we took action and made fun of Your so called "community" group. May i add that allot of my members are ex members lf SMW eho got the same treatment from UlaVii as some members in RIP SOD get from LoisLane. I guess the latter learned from the former.
I think the time has come at last to close comments on this post. For a while it was fun to get a bit of "inside gossip", even if it was from anonymous sources and unverifiable, but more recently things just seem to have descended into confusing allegations seemingly based on personal feuds and also apparently people impersonating each other? Which isn't really what my comment section is meant for.
ReplyDelete