Creature Handler Archive

Ah, you never know, I have a pretty good memory.

Too tired to write todays exploits (no, not really exploits, duh) so I'll write tomorrow.

Ah, my day off, it's 7:30 AM, and for the life of me I can't fall back to sleep. It SUCKS. But my daughter has gone on a field trip with her preschool group so I have the whole day to play SWG.

The night before it had hit me as I was falling asleep that if you gain wilderness XP for crafting traps, I should just ignore that I have finished Trapping IV and just start adding my trapping XP for the first box in Ranger. I know, you're all thinking that would be common sense and whay kind of an idiot wouldn't think of that instantly, right? Well, remember, the ONLY professions I've ever had beyond Basic were CH and BE, both of which you needed Novice in in order to gain the appropriate experience. I'm thrilled that I can pretty much ignore that I need wilderness XP, because probably by the time I'm maxxed in trapping I'll be close to finishing that last scouting box.

Ans since I have nine hours of playtime, I figure it's the perfect time to REALLY do a rare hunt. So I head off to Corellia for the Great Plains Stalker.

I walk around for a good four hours, doing some light trapping, getting some decent experience off of some sharnaffs, and basically horsing around while chekcing my radar. I kept all of my animals stored, pulling them out only at lairs for fear that a baby might be out there and rush in for the attack before I noticed it, so I really don't have any "so and so did this" tales about them. I had loaded up the waypoints off of swgcreatures, and was using them as a guideline for my wandering when I see that single red dot in the distance. I still love that jump in your chest when you realize you have definitely found a spawn. It was only about 75m from one of the waypoints, as well.

I pull out Naiikin, knowing that I only have one shot. I don't carry pet stims with me, because I've never made enough money to justify buying them in big enough doses to be effective. I know I can probably keep Naiikin alive, barely. Or at least, I hope I can. Even if he's down to one point, if that stalker falls, I can it last see if the next one will be a baby.

"Chorr". Naiikin runs in, and I start hurling trap after trap. If I'm going to lose my pet, I'll at least gain XP off of it. And I was getting almost 900 XP per glow-wire!

A minute into the fight and I check out Naiikin. Huh, he's not doing half bad, only down about 1/3 HAM. And I realized the stalker was down by half. On a whim, I walked up and whacked the stalker with my pike, and missed. A few times I missed, but when I connected I took out a pretty decent chunk for Polearms IV vs. Lv 50 or whatever critter. Those traps really worked! I started whailing on the stalker myself, throwing a trap for every two hits. Finally, he goes down. I skinned him quick, and ran to hide behind a hummock, panting. Naiikin padded along behind me. I looked, and he was down by just about half. Before the next one could pop, I stored Naiikin, and watched. *pop* Red. But I realized, that for the first time, I really have a chance here. I pulled out Rrr'kii who until today I had forgotten I had. He was 27k off of someone giving up CH, a kliknik with strong poison, light armor, 40ish kinetic, and just under Naiikin in HAM, and a CL 55. Actually, he's a better pet than Naiikin when you come down to it. Shame I had forgotten about him. He was down quite a bit from being used to tank the sharnaffs earlier, and we'd probably taken out a good 15 of the things, but after seeing what Naiikin and I were able to do as a team, I thought he could handle it. I sent him in, and for the first time since before the nerf, I ran right in behind my pet without hesitation.

Stalker two went down two minutes later. Rrr'kii held up fine, I hardly had a scratch, and I got more hide. But I knew Rrr'kii wasn't going to be able to take another one, so I stored him and analyzed my pets while I waited for the next one. I decided to try an experement and use a natural pet, of which I had three to choose from that would work: my RKPL baby, who I didn't want to risk, Huchorr, my rancor and my big baby, and Zifnab, my wild-caught blurgg, at 96/96 and had been my traditional sacrifice to the GPS on a few occasions.

*pop* Red. Out comes Zifnab, and I could almost see him thinking "oh great, meesa gonna die". (I have no idea why I would think he would soiund like a Gungan if he could talk, beyond that whine they make.) I send him in, and again run right in behind. GPS number three goes down, and we go back into hiding. Zifnab still has over a third of his bars left. This is a HUGE improvement over the last time we went hunting GPS, where I dropped 18 stim packs on him in one fight to keep him alive, he STILL died, and I had to run off and then throw two other level 35's at the panther to bring it down, losing one of them as well.

*pop* Red. I'm out of pets. Who cares, lets really test this out. Out comes Naiikin, still half damaged from before, and raring to go. With a wookiee battle cry I charge in behind him, trapping my brains out and swinging for all I'm worth. Two traps in I max out on trapping XP. The GPS goes down, and Naiikin is still alive at about 1/4 HAM. WOOT! From someone who a month ago thought it a massive accomplishment to bring down one GPS, the ability to bring down all four is exhilerating.

I know four is the magic number, but I think we all do this sometimes, sitting and watching and hoping maybe the game will screw up or something and place just one more. But sadly, a wrix lair appears, and I know that (this would never happen) even if another GPS spawn happened right now in the same location, I'd never kill the wrixes in time to save a baby. We ride off to Coronet. I had a great time, but now I'm stuck. Maxxed out on trapping XP, I'm back where I started from, with a long grind for that last stupid box of wilderness XP. I figure I'll just *sigh* fish. But first I'll go and just relax at the starport and people watch for a bit.

I walk in and pull out my grassland thune guardian (thanks again, mars!!!!!) who is one point from full grown now. Yeah, I can be a show-off. I'm not there for five minutes before someone asks what I have for 24 and below animals. Whenever a non-wookiee asks this question, I've learned to automatically deduct the 10 points for aggressives, or it just ends up being a headache. So this put my answer at a very quick "just bantha mounts, and they are not fighters". I still had three grown ones in my pad. He asks what their HAM is . . . I swear, people think I'm joking when I say they are NOT fighters; each of these animals has at max, 200 ham. These happened to be 85 HAM. I told him, he boggled, and I reminded him I had said they were not fighters, they were just for riding. He still wanted a bantha to ride around on, so he asked how much and because I didn't want to ruin my good mood, I said 3k. Immediately someone else said he would take it if this guy didn't. No problem, I had two, and sold them both. They had a blast doing handstands and making them headbang, and I made the thune dance and shake the ground a few times (they get the same thunder out of a rear as a fambaa). I think the earthquakes attracted the next guy, who asked if I wanted any free pets. I almost automatically said no, because I'm constantly turning away dozens of useless mid-levels from people who start CH and give it up. But something held me back, and I asked what kind. "rancors and kimos", he said. I blinked, surprised. I said I had plenty of rancors, but I've never had a kimo and if he was giving one away I'd gladly take it. He traded over "Jeep", who I had actually seen in the starport several times, and thanked me for keeping him from being destroyed. I checked his stats . . . CL 60, 12500 HAM, Light armor, 40% kinetic, and his stats against PvP were the best I had ever seen, and a sharp looking dark grey with red fringe. This boy was NICE.

We ran down to the beach by the starport and I pulled him out and retrained him. First, Jeep needed a new name. I couldn't think of anything, so I gave him the temporary name of Takhisis until I think of something better. I put him through his paces, and got to see the kimo tricks for the first time. I was surprised he wasn't a groundshaker, but I suppose that would have been just TOO annoying in starports. I wanted to leave him out for a little bit, but needed to start on my fishing, so I pet him to get him to lie down. He did a head bob like most do when they like something, then did his "c'mere" act, which I'd never seen before. That was it, I was in love. Here's a big guy who acts smart.

Finally I got him to lie down, and as he lounged and occasionally snacked on a crazed durni I power-fished. I have no idea what I got for XP because that bugged out again, but all in all it was a good day.

Curse you, you're making me miss CH!

I think my name back then was JRA_Ace, but I'm not positive.

----------Auriga Starlighter----------

I vaguely remember a JRA_Ace or something similar . . . early dev board, talked to Mara a lot, if its the one I was thinking of.

I'm sorry I haven't written, but finances have dictated I have to take a break from the game for a while again. As my account will only be open for one more day, I haven't been playing. Heh, no point in torturing myself when I just got Novice Ranger, coincidently 8 hours before I realized the bills were so tight.

I'll see you guys in a couple of months or so, maybe. /bye

Yep, lotta time on the dev board. Can't say i remember a Mara, though. Shame to see you go.

----------Auriga Starlighter----------

BH Informant List. Condensed from a previous thread I made a few months back

/frown aww I was enjoying the stories

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Okay, since I'm back sooner than I thought, WOOT! LOL.

I decided to take a break with Shabhaii on Scylla for a while. I've been playing her for a very long time with no real break, and although she's a fun character and all I really needed to stop staring at the back of her head for a bit. I decided to make a couple of alts and see which one "stuck": one was another Shabhaii, a female wook on Lowca with redder coloration and an eventual TKA/CH, and my other one was Kleylli on Shadowfire, a tiny male Bothan who will be a Pike/CH (which incidently was Shab's original template, which I had to give up when Politician ended up taking real skill points). Kleylli ended up being the one. Seeing the world through a completely different perspective is a blast and is just enough of a change to make it really fun to explore again. Shabhaii, for example, was slightly taller than a carrion spat. Kleylli comes up to its knee. A nightspider in attack position comes up to his shoulder, a nuna to his waist. While Shabhaii looked eye to eye with dappled gualamas, Kleylli can practically run under their stomachs. It really makes you think about what's going to be a fun pet to hunt with. Kleylli is actually going to end up looking best with gurrcats and jax models, since they'll be in scale to him what a grand wrix would be to a wookiee.

The new missions for newbies were actually pretty fun, and they even give you a starting weapon that's relevant now! Haha, you can't believe how psyched I was that I didn't have to run a few missions as Unarmed or One-Handed in order to get enough money to get a staff to work on Polearm. That damn droid can get INCREDIBLY annoying, though, because it keeps popping out every five minutes.

One of the first things I did was get ahold of Who, (yes, that's the character name) who had recommended the server. I like getting to know people quickly, and I was in dire need of a mount. He was kind enough to give me a grown but unsaddled wild carrion spat, which is more than enough for a newbie. Of course, he's getting paid for it as soon as every penny isn't going into training or weapon upgrades. Later that day I met a wookiee hamed Harmkraka, who was able to put a saddle on it for me. As of yet it's still unnamed, and doesn't even know any tricks so I have to be careful, but its already saved my hide more than once.

It was a blast getting back in there and fighting chubas and rills and the like again, and actually having to watch your HAM. I got out of Mos Eisley as quickly as possible, and set up base in Theed. Theed is much busier on Shadowfire than it is on Scylla, which was a pleasant surprise. I had to log for a bit, but when I played again that night I got to talk to Pem for a long time about all different kinds of CH subjects. He's a great guy.

It seems like leveling is going slower this time than it did my first day in the game, but I don't remember what changes came through since then. I'm currently at Polearms II and Explore I, almost ready to get Explore II, which will boost me in the Mask Scent department, thankfully. I don't think I'll get to play much tonight, but I'm looking forward to playing with the little fuzball again.

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Visit www.swgcreatures.com for all your creature needs.
Tell 'em Lantyssa sent you!

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I unfortunately had a very nasty run-in with a large group on Starsider pre-release that soured me to ever going there, sorry.

Ah, the fun of being new all over again! I hadn't realized how tough it is for new players to get their money to start. With so many people providing bulk resources, there's just no market for small amounts of hide and meat, which is of course all a starting Scout can get. All of my money from missions is going straight into training (there's so few people with Polearms, and I'm actually surprised how few have Scout now!) and upgrading my weapon. Thankfully I'm almost at my third box of Polearm so I can get my Long Vibro-axe cert, which will hold me over just fine. Even so, I'm actually really enjoying the challenge of making due with what I can get on my own; several people have tried tipping me money to get started, but I keep tipping it back to them.

My carrion spat is as of yet still unnamed, and I'm trying to think of a good one for him. I think I'll keep him unnamed until I can teach it to him myself. I'm also trying to think of good, RP commands for my pets. All of Shabhaii's animals understood Shyriiwook, and so now I have to make up some Bothawi for Kleylli's animals.

Last night, after treating myself to a couple of necklaces (Kleylli truely is quite thehandsome deviland deserved them) I ran some more missions out of Theed. The spat kept disappearing, but that wasn't that big a deal since I had to keep dismounting anyways and I don't hunt with him; I'm sure this will piss me off royally again when I need my animals to stick around for good. I have noticed though that he actually KEEPS HIS DISTANCE on Shadowfire and will only come and stand on top of me if I stay in the same spot for one minute or more! This is a huge improvement over Scylla, where your mount will come and stand on you after three seconds max. However, I have also noticed a huge jump in lag on Shadowfire as compared to Scylla, so I'm not sure if that has something to do with it. I can't wait until I'm actually working pets again so I can see how non-mounts do.

On a RL-CH note, my ferrets Sully and Boo escaped from their cage today while I was at work and my husband and daughter were at the zoo, thanks to my cat Quid (yes the one named for the old board admin). Two ferrets on their own can be very, very messy, believe me. Thankfully they didn't completely trash the house.

I'm lumping these two together because I only got to play for a very short time last night, and didn't do anything more than packing up my character on Scylla *snuggles Arrican - I'll be back someday* and a little shopping.

On Aniversary Night, I was very disappointed that the developers had not added any celebration content for people of any class, just high-level combat. Originally I had planned to take the evening off from work to celebrate with friends in Coronet, but I'm happy now that I took the hours instead.

I wandered around doing some basic leveling, and contemplated how the game had come along in a year. I would love to say that I looked back at my mounted carrion spat with pride, that we had gotten something useful that I could depend upon, but whenever I looked back he wasn't there. He was either stuck on a rock, or back in my datapad. I fell to two nunas, because of the insanely low hit percentage on polearms, still. I also fell to arawl that warped from about 125m to land on top of me, and of course it instantly went aggro. I think it had innitially been chasing someone else. I sat in the camp of someone who was working on getting Ranger for a while, and we kept sliding out of it. Last night I went to buy a new weapon, and when I turned on my waypoint to the shop I'd found a couple of days before, realized it was bugged and had set on 0,0. People in Theed were complaining about all kinds of problems with Shadowfire being laggy and bug central that night, but as I had just come back from Scylla five minutes before (where shuttles were invisible and people were ghosting continuously) I knew it was just another day in the lives of Patch Time Players, and steeled myself for the incredible load of crap we'd have to deal with for the next week so that some characters that don't even belong in the timeline could monopolize another 80% of the ED team's time.

I thought back to my time in Beta, especially the day we got the Gold date announcement. Back then we screamed our heads off that the game was not ready to launch, it needed a few more months of dedicated bug-squashing. The sad thing is, on that day I think the game worked better than it does now.

In all, Aniversary Weekend just made me really, really depressed.

I thought I'd share with you a couple of screenshots from Kleylli's point of view. If you've never played a Bothan, the world is a different place when you're as tall as a clump of grass. Sorry that I'm no good at HTML links.

The first is Kleylli next to a flesh-eating chuba; note the clump of grass directly in front of him. That's actual size compared to him, not in the very immediate forground:

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=89728&poll_id=0&warned=y

Here is the little stud-muffin with his carrion spat. And for all you wookiees out there, that's a NORMAL carrion spat, not a giant, to which a wook would be on the same scale:

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=89725&poll_id=0&warned=y

If only he stayed that small while riding without blowing up into a giant.