Elections anyone ? XV

FM: City Hall
Obj: Election won
Date: Sat. Feb. 21st

Congratulations, Mayor Tarn Pagott!

The populace of Twin Mountain Base has elected to retain you for another term. Your rights and privileges as Mayor have not changed. The next mayoral election has started and the results will be tabulated in three weeks' time.

The city thanks you for your continued service.

City Maintenance XXXIII

From: City Hall
Object: City Maintenance
Date: Sat. Feb. 21st

Mayor Tarn Pagott,

A total of 53350 credits has been paid from the city treasury for maintenance and upkeep of structure.

Accounts woes

Well, it seems that this time, the account is fixed. This comes as a relief. Will enjoy 1 year of play. Thanks to all those that expressed support and / or partook in the solution.

City Maintenance (XXXII)

From: City Hall
Object: City Maintenance
Date: Sat. Feb. 14th

Mayor Tarn Pagott,

A total of 53350 credits has been paid from the city treasury for maintenance and upkeep of structure.

Poll Results

The results for the poll regarding which planet / space sector is your favorite are out: Lok comes first, with Kashyyyk second. Next time, I hope then more than 3 ppl will answer, but so far, there's a consistant voting pattern, so let's not ditch it!!

Ithorian morpholgy

For those wondering how an Ithorian skeleton looks like. This one was found on Yavin IV.

Corellia Times

The Corellia Times has gained an increasing visibility recently. With three articles receiving major viewings, "Who are the Meatlumps?, part I & II", Corellia Times Exclusive "Life Day Revealed", and Corellia Times "Consumer Reports: Vehicles".

Behind these successes are the efforts of the team of journalists, Halden Was (Coronet), Vani Kor (Coronet), Marles Jacobe (Restuss) and Hol't Deb Orah. In addition, the journal has a network of various invisible hands: a Corellia Times vendor (Coronet), a Corellia Times Reporter (Coronet), two Corellia Times Investigators (Coronet and Tyrena), all under the direction of Finn Shalo, the Corellia Times Editor.

The Corellia Times building is located in Coronet, we will have to wait for the next major article. Until then, writing will remain under the logo shrouding in secrecy the crypted datapads the journalists use to write their articles...

Tribute to Pex

In Tyrena's theater, the storyteller vendor's name is Pex. It is highly likely that is a tribute to the former Community Relations for Roleplay and Storytelling.

When he left SOE to brighter skies (hopefully), his departure was widely regretted and the farewell bash was well attended - even on Scylla (see post).

I was quite glad to see a tribute to his work and efforts. With luck, he'll be included in the official canon thanks to this vendor.

Restuss Chronicles (VI)

It is a slow period in the Galactic Civil War. Restuss, usually a den of confronting special forces is really quiet. It is a moment to gain commendation medals and evaluate the amount of destruction that the city suffers.

In other parts of the Galaxy, on Talus, Corellia and Naboo, the various factional locations have been in Imperial hands for a while. So much so, that rallying banners and stimpacks E have been delivered.

Sales Report

So Free CTS is raging...Ibaoki's sales report show the exodus from the Scylla server. No sales at all. Not resources, no RE, no bits and pieces from the Small Shop of Wonders. Tough month.

Museum of Natural History (XVIII)

With the Ewok Love Festival going on, it has been an opportunity to expand the collections of the Museum of Natural History.

Native Endor camby berries and flower bouquets have been added into the Flora Room. The camby berries are part of the traditional Ewok diet. During the Love Festival, they are dipped in chocolate to enhance the flavor. Camby berries come the Cambylictus tree

The flower bouquets are illustrative of the Ewok floral displays arrangements. These arrangements tend to be monochromatic (red or yellow), which may indicate a cultural bias against color mixing. In turn, this choice of arrangement may be illustrative of the Ewok flower symbolism. In this particular case, the colors / types of flowers are given during the Love Festival, thus linking their meaning to the event.

Finally, the Museum's collection is honored with a truly rare display. A heart drawn on a bit of bark from the Great Tree, symbol of the Festival of Love. The Great Tree occupies a prominent position in the Ewok belief system - and may be considered as a direct reference to the Living Force, as in the case of most naturalistic cults. The symbolism is therefore very strong with this item, suggesting the direct gift or origin of love from the Great Tree, the source of life itself. This could imply that in the Ewok psyche, love is the product of life - not a sentiment born by people - but rather, some sort of natural law.

All these items are on display at the Museum, so make sure to come and visit!

Spy Revamp

Chapter update 7 brought up the Spy profession Revamp. A lot has been said about it on the various threads relating to the profession or the update. It seems that the new abilities will give the spy profession a welcome DPS boost (coming out of shadows and in regular combat) and a greater useful when grouped (savagery expertise). All in all, a better spy in PvE and instances. As far as PvP is concerned, I can't really give an evaluation, I don't PvP enough. Looks promising so far.

Ewok Love Festival

As far as zany festivals can go, the Ewok Love Festival is probably the winner.

For the second edition of the Festival, celebrations are taking place in Tyrena, Kadaara and the southern Ewok Lake Village. Silliness was expected - after all the Galactic Moon Festival was quite silly too - but this one is beyond silly, it's downright absurd.

Chocolate fountains, flowers, flying hearts and winged Ewoks make it all quite syrupy. Yes, love in the modern depictions is quite syrupy, but the stories associated with the Festival are plain cheesy. So much so, that being used to a more vibrant storytelling the obvious answer to all quests is hard to find (I confess to using the guide). The obvious answer ? Love, of course, as a cure to all issues.

When, on the hour, Kyoopid (sic!) appears at random and asks for a commitment to Love (/cry), the pain is almost unsufferable. SWG writers are usually much better than that; introducing Cupid into the SW lore portrayed as a flying Ewok is really hurting (hopefully, it will not reach cannon level) especially since the Cupid mythos is not as cute as contemporary descriptions show. Cupid a.k.a. Amor, born of Venus and Mars (or Jupiter, depending on the author) is the Roman myth of the Greek myth of Eros and the Indian myth of Kama...So far so good. Kama, however, is extremely well known in the Western world because of the book with which it is associated, the Kama Sutra. I don't know about anyone else's feelings, but I really can't bear the image of Ewoks practicing the Kama Sutra. At least, it explains one oddity in the flying Ewok costume, the heart-shaped tattoo on the right buttock. Naughty Ewoks...

This posts looks a bit like a rant, in a way, it is. I will however grant the Festival, three redeeming features : there are three badges to get (and I'm a badge-whore), and four items that will go into my personal collection, the two flower bouquets, the heart shaped chak from the Great Tree and the camby berries (see the Museum of Natural History post). Finally, when the winged Ewok familiar is summoned, the chocolate-dipped camby berries eaten and the costume donned, it is possible to have a pinkish buff line. It's silly, but it made me laugh.

Account issues

January has been quite unnerving as far as logging into the game was concerned - hence the little amount of posts. Since January 5th, I've been repeatedly barred from accessing the game, because I couldn't renew my subscription. Several tickets and phone support later, I found out that my account was locked, because I attempted to pay with my credit card and SOE's secure payment flagged the transaction each time...

So, a first set of tickets and chats granted me a Three Days Pass (Jan. 20th - Jan. 23rd) during which I was able to renew my subscription...only to see it gone after the three days. A new set of tickets, chats and phone support, granted me a 10 Days Pass (which is currently in effect).

In theory, I should now wait for the 10th day to elapse, wait one day to make sure that my account is closed and I shall be able to renew my subscription. I'll wait to see that...

In the meantime, I have discovered that the 10 Days Pass is a Trial Account, meaning, I have no access to VoiceChat (there's no one in Scylla, atm so that's not really an issue) and limited Spatial Chat, with the odd consequence that I had to finish a conversation using /tell and /reply.

The real unfortunate consequence of all this, is with the Demolition Day Sarlaac Trash Can Deluxe version of the reward, which is likely to be downgraded to the regular version since my account has not been active during the identified windows of time. Obviously, I've prepared for a new set of tickets, to petition the issue. More soon...

Elections anyone ? (XIV)

FM: City Hall
Obj: Election won
Date: Sat. Jan. 31st

Congratulations, Mayor Tarn Pagott!

The populace of Twin Mountain Base has elected to retain you for another term. Your rights and privileges as Mayor have not changed. The next mayoral election has started and the results will be tabulated in three weeks' time.

The city thanks you for your continued service.

City Maintenance XXXI

From: City Hall
Object: City Maintenance
Date: Sat. Feb. 07th

Mayor Tarn Pagott,

A total of 53350 credits has been paid from the city treasury for maintenance and upkeep of structure.

City Maintenance XXX

From: City Hall
Object: City Maintenance
Date: Sat. Jan. 31st

Mayor Tarn Pagott,

A total of 53350 credits has been paid from the city treasury for maintenance and upkeep of structure.

City Maintenance XXIX

From: City Hall
Object: City Maintenance
Date: Sat. Jan. 24th, 2009

Mayor Tarn Pagott,

A total of 53350 credits has been paid from the city treasury for maintenance and upkeep of structure.