From Hoth

It starts in Dathomir, where expecting members of the Alliance and the Empire wait by their respective briefing instructors. It somehow looks like the prom ball, each group standing on one side of the room, waiting for the group to fill up (min. 4 to get in, but 8 is better) ; "LFG" is the chorus.

Then, comes the much awaited jump to Hoth, as our group went in on the first day, we pretty much had no clue about to do. Mission instructions appear on screen, jump into an ATST and protect 3 ATAT, get a Hoth exploration badge (yay), unable to protect the ATAT, proceed to the generators, enter the base. New mission updates, locate various items, fail, keep on moving through Echo Base. Get the Echo Base Location Badge (yay). Needless to say that we failed all missions, so 1 token (out of nine). Meager results, but it's the discovery, when you're guessing whether to turn left or right, it's pretty difficult to achieve much. Practice makes perfect.

There's still some time left on the counter, so go to Wampa valley. It's a nice place, desolate and cold. Here too, to make it short, unable to spawn the boss mob, so we'll skip that part, it'll be for another time. Here, it's more about collecting, Hoth Meteorite, Frozen Corpses, Malfunctionning Probe Droids, Slaying wampas and tauntauns. Perhaps there are more, who knows. At any rate, it'll be a place to return, the collection rewards are great for the Twin Mountain Base Museum of Natural History (hunting trophies, holograms, displays).

Beyond the collections, some of the junk loot was quite attractive too, icicles, skulls and bones, wampa liver, unknown bones, and so forth. Plenty of nice things. There must have been other good things, crystal fragments, Hoth cables and isomerase enzymes among them.

It was a good moment to explore and discover, thanks Iur, Sethhaca, Inuno, Romac, Karnage, Dzenkl and Soca ; it was also a moment to enjoy cross server cultural exchanges as the group was partly from Bria.

From Mustafar...

A good moment to spend with friends on the arid Mustafa plains, in the Decrepit Droid Factory and in the Kosayet miner village.

While the Decrepit Droid Factory was a walk to the park thanks to a great group, the destruction of the miners' village could not be prevented.

It nevertheless remains a great scenario that heralds the Tusken King instance - except that this one is closer to the seven samurai or the magnificent seven in spirit. In a short time, the Hoth instance will come out and be an opportunity to see if SOE pursues that spirit - perhaps with added complexity.

From Mustafar

What started as a shameful moment ("Hey, wanna join hk?", "sure" says I...travel, buff, enter, not flagged...), ended up as a great moment, spent with friends in various Mustafar locales.

First, to Malfosa for a short but intense, err, discussion with the creature, who, thanks to Kohaeg persuasive arguments, thought better to hand (I mean we gutted her) her "warmly poison gland".

Joined later by Quazare and a levelling Sethhacca, travel to the Kubaza Beetle Cave went smooth with great tanking and healing from party members. Next, to the Old Republic Research Facility and some running in the confusingly designed building (HK's right, deal with architects first).

This concluded a good run with an excellent spirit of cooperation and fun, and some real rewards: levelling for Sethhacca, two foraged treasure maps (gotta keep busy during downtime), and of course, two shiny new badges.

From Tatooine to Ord Mantell to Ord Mantell to Lok to Dathomir

This was a busy instance run week end and it was good. It started on Friday evening with a successful Tusken King instance. The group was good (special kudos for Enkarn who teamed with yours truly in the Slums near Wattoo's), though we made it through phase II by a thread (1 citizen left). Phase III was a breeze.

Ambiance was good and the constituting group enjoyed a good silly moment at Dantooine Mission Outpost to rebuff and replace those that left (see this dancing pic, notice the flourish :).

With such a good moment, about half of the group signed up for ISD and other good friends (Kohaeg and Brite) joined up. With some lazy flying with the yacht we arrived undisturbed aboard the ISD and painfully moved from the landing bay to the corridor. After that corridor, it was mostly a piece of cake.

24h later, new ISD run, again, from Dantooine Mission Outpost as a starting point, the group took a little moment to constitue, but what a group! The fastest ISD run I was given to do (less than 50mns, the "forced entry" buff was still on for a good moment when we were dividing loot at Coronet Spaceport). Needless to say that all went well.

How to resist doing some more ? Not possible, and off to Lok for the IG-88 instance. With a meticulous clearing of the droids outside, it was time for all to go in...all but one who dropped group just outside the instance. Not a good idea really. Still, we perseverance, IG-88 was defeated but that was a bit exerting.

Still, not exerting enough, so we thought, for a third run. By then, daylight saving kicked in in Europe and granted this avid player an extra hour of gameplay (yay), and we launched to the bowels of Dathomir. There, however, tiredness, uncoordination, bad luck and miscommunication took the better of an otherwise good group. It was a good moment, intense and really, to be redone.

Overall, it was also the opportunity to add 4% of various skills, get 4 tokens and get closer to those prized jewelry sets.

Thanks for the runs all!

Hunting Krayts

It was a good moment to spend with friends in Tatooine's most famous POI. Eweev, Kohaeg, Brite, Aemep, Tarn, two Droidekas and a Separatist Droid, few pets...a large hunting family. A collecting family would be a better term as almost every one was attempting to complete (or start) the Krayt slayer collection.

On the menu, a couple of hours worth of fun hunting Juvenile and Ancient Krayts (among others). With a camp located nearby and an ent at the ready for the unexpected cloning trip, that hunting session went particularly well. Officer support in the form of stim delivery via Lambda shuttle gave the expedition a definite well planned moment...the only difficulty really resulting from low batteries for a Droideka. But, heh, even that contingency was planned for.

Cheers guys, let's do that again soon!

Treasure Hunting (III)

Treasure hunting is always a fun game element. There's the foraging part (duh), with the dedicated food since the last publish, then there's a corny storyline, then the travel to the waypoint, the searching the area, the extracting the treasure and finally...killing everyone. all those parts are really nice - to me at least - but the favorite is when a Force apparition, well, makes an apparition.

So far, it's only the second time I witness it. And it seems that Jedi with cybernetic limbs spawn them (with a great statistical sample I have). I hope I'll be able to get a good screenshot someday.

Also, I think I'll use this tribune to write a lil' something based on those game sessions...

At any rate, today's pickings were slim. With eight maps, few crystals, plenty of weapons, armor parts and various junk. So no mask, no rare weapons or pearls. Better luck next time.

Azure Cabal

This scenario is quite nice to play. Although it has the usual amount of running and shooting, there's an effort to delve into the sw lore and have some interesting interactions with the universe. I should have taken screenshots. I'll do that next time.

Nicer with the screenshots...

While the Azure Cabal (so far) doesn't ring a bell in the general lore, it meshes interestingly with unusual background elements. The Nikto Blood Cult (Cult of M'dweshuu) is not very well known in the general public. Yet, it is as important as the Eyes of Mesra for the Weequay.

Similarly, the encounter with Frosch Industries fleshes well into the sw universe. Clearly a world were corporations behave as small government. Absent from Wookieepedia, Frosch industries and their research on bacta may be an addition to the lore. A welcomed one, since other producers of bacta are not so well known (there's a producer in tapani and there's the planet Thyferra).

Somehow, the Azure Cabal seems to be penned by the same writer as the Legacy quest. Thanks.

Ragtag goons macro'ed

This could sound like the name of a dish, but it's only a looting macro in order to get junk loot from Ragtag loons outside Coronet. Hardly a difficult job but a lengthy one. Suffice to say that it could be entirely macro'ed. But for the moment, keeping with the spirit of hard work, only the looting part is macroed. Unlikely to remain like this for the coming days, but heck, at least at the moment, it'll remain this way.

So where's all this loot going ? Well, obviously, for crafting purposes. While Tarn is surely not a crafter -- although in his youth he did an apprenticeship and was quite a good surveyor, and later, crafted his own traps -- he knows of several. So there's an activity.

Treasure Hunting (II)

A small band adventurers (Tarn Pagott, Skedra, ImAWhat Owoiry, Tarnn Laffar) travelled the reaches of Talus to uncover lost treasures.

The mysterious datadisks containing the information needed for the coordinates were found along the Restuss river banks.

If the hoard was relatively meager, it was nevertheless an enjoyable moment to spend among TMB community members and new acquaintances. Thanks for the group!

Kashyyyk

The Midryyyl Caves or the Ryatt Trail's Shadowed Land, the Katarn or the Queen Mother, no matter, it was just for the pleasure of visiting these areas - and help complete some missions - that a duo from the TMB community travelled to Kashyyyk, and, when needed, had the support of another TMB community friend, Kohaeg Noubat.

One question should be asked though...how come three "y" often appear in the shryywook language...

Meanwhile other TMB community members were busy collecting holocrons (Af-ro), trading to get some quality equipment (Revelations), or space collecting (Kohaeg).

Lumps

From Tatooine to Rori to Lok and of course Corellia, the Intergalactic gang of Meatlumps has been keeping everyone busy. With the many puzzles to solve for, oftentimes, scant rewards, emerges a curious sub-culture. Vani Kor and the Corellian Times reporting team fail to answer at least one major question : how are they funded ? While the gang is known for destroying private property, mostly in relation with technology, such vandalism does not generate the kind of money required to produce uniforms, travel from planets to planets and maintain equipment and facilities (well, maintain may be too strong a word...). Meatlumps assets are pretty impressive and their ranks are quite high, if their King seems quite aloof, some directions still must be given - if only to run the daily operations.

If time allows, it's nevertheless a great opportunity to look into Meatlump assets further and also into other criminal / gang organizations, such as the Rag-Tags or the famed Hutt and Black Sun criminal empires...

From Mustafar to Tatooine to Lok

On Sunday, what started as a simple Mustafar trip - a visit to the Blackguard camp to, ahem, discuss with their leadership and to help solve an archeologist's problem, ended as a galactic trip to save Mos Espa from the Tusken King and to enter IG-88's factory compound. While the first lag of this trip - a pure TMB two man team (Enkarn, Tarn), met with success, the remaining mixed group failed in both heroics (phase II and phase III respectively). It was nevertheless an opportunity to meet and work alongside new people and to have an overall good time. More success next time !

Chamber of Banishment

On Monday evening a mixed group of Rebels and Imperials fought its way down the Nightsister Cave to enter the Chamber of Banishment. Despite skills, experience and spirit, the group met with demise as opposition refused stubbornly to be subdued. While it could be looked as a shame, it was actually due to a bug and hope it will be soon fixed.

Meanwhile, rumors have it that Darkossk is hoarding on Meatlump chests in order to find caged animals, an endeavor for which we wish him to find success - and as a matter of fact, laud his trailblazing spirit as a ranger highly interested in gaining identical treasures will soon follow suit...

From Dathomir to Dantooine to Dathomir

It was an opportunity to complete the flagging process, this time for Enkarn and Axkva Ming. Traveling back and forth to Dathomir and stopping via Dantooine, it was also an opportunity to catch up on some roleplaying storyline.

Enkarn's comeback from the depths of the Kashyyyk forest where he hid from Order 66 to after the destruction of the first Death Star over Yavin. Catching up with a longtime friend, former Republic then Imperial Scout and then retired. Founder since of a chapter of the Antarian Rangers.

What are you up to ?

This seems to be the most frequently asked question (oftentimes the answer is "nm") when running into friends or in the chat tabs. So the answer would have been tonight, Meatlump Theme Park and some RP, while for others, Looser in this case, a strong case of interplanetary shopping spree.

Nightsister Funtime

The Nightsister Stronghold POI truly has an amazing dark building, and it was an opportunity to visit it. Enkarn and Tarn traveled there for an enjoyable ride deep in the lore of Dathomir's best kept secret...Or at least, officially so, since Dathomir is quite off limits until the Courtship of Leia. But, heh, it doesn't mean that no one had knowledge of the planet's existence and of all its secrets. Or does it ?

At any rate, it was a good opportunity to just go out in the wild and enjoy the scenery, while also getting some equipment and loot.

Waiting for Obi-Wan

On Monday evening, I finally had the chance to meet with the etheral form of Obi-Wan Kenobi and trailblaze one last time on Mustafar...One last time, because I have my hands on the lava skiff and thus won't need to take the longer road to any point. It comes as a relief...

Elsewhere in the Galaxy, Darkossk was frantically chasing Mantrigues. Anyone interested in joining in this wild hunt, contact him.

From Mustafar to Endor

The TMB strike team (Darkossk, Vewock, Iascoeto, Blaster, Tarn) struck again yesterday, still in the process of tightening those loose ends, it ran from Mustafar (Sickness of the Storm Lord, Slayer of the Sher Kar, Fragments of the Past, An archeologist problem) to Endor (Star Destroyer Location). It was also the opportunity to team again with Doman (Blaster), hoping to see him more and more often.

From Kashyyyk to Mustafar

Strolling down from instances to instances, it was an opportunity to haphazardly stumble into NK-Necrosis' cave, HK-47's cave, Malfosa's cave and the Storm Lord's temple. A very good moment indeed, despite the odd track record in each instances. For some unexplained reasons, it ended up in a widespread failure. Not entirely surprising for HK-47's cave as the team had neither doc, nor buff, nor a full group, but completely faced with the Storm Lord who floored the five-members team.

Tonight, will be the revenge, setting the record straight.

Endor Fun Faire

The Death Watch was the site of an impromptu fun faire with a group of friends. A nice place where Super Battle Droids tend to gather for everyone's enjoyment. It was nice just as a shooting party, and actually leaving the place in one bit is quite a challenge, but an interesting one.