Swiftwind's Blog

One of the things that I've always appreciated about SWG is it clear and concise user tutorials... I mean it's amazing, in a mere 13 months I learned how to use my droids! (file under :Sarcasm)

Over the last week or so I've had a real revelation about droids, and I really owe all it to Mr Bubbles. It was either at the last party, or when it was being setup, that I noticed Mr B sending out his droid to take out a couple banthas. I'd always like the idea of droids in the game, but I never really could figure out what to do with them... and I'd certainly never attacked anything with them. For laughs called my droid out and sent him after one of the banthas. The banthas in the area were in the CL25-30 range and as Mr B is lucky enough to have of the coveted high CL droids I wasn't surprised to see his droid dropping banthas very rapidly, but as my droid was only CL 30 I figured it would either be a much longer fight or that he'd get his metal butt kicked... and I really wasn't sure what that would mean for my droid. So, off I sent him, and with in seconds, the bantha was on the ground! I was really amazed, the droid took the bantha down as fast as I could of at CL 76. I thought it might have been a fluke so I tried it a number of time... and the same thing happened ever time: Droid went out, bantha went right down.... “Hmm, this warrants further investigation” I though.

A few days ago, I was Grinding spiders on Yavin 4 for the XP when I though that I would do some experimentation with my droid and see what he was capable of. I'd never used droids much in the game, in fact I was in the game 8 months before I figured out how to even program them, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen if I sent him out to attack things... would he become badly damaged and be “disabled” like speeders?... a sparking, smoking lump of metal the just sits there and makes little explosions once and a while?... or would it just blow up and vanish from my inventory? I'd had the droid pretty much since I started my toon on Valcyn... picked him up in a vendor raid, with is another fun topic I'll have to talk about some time... and I'd gotten rather attached to the stupid beeping lump, so I decided to start out small and see what he could do before I risked sending him to any “droid heaven” that might exist in the game.

Test one: The Nest

I thought a good first test would been the nest from a creature spawn point. They always take me a couple minutes of firing to bring down so it seemed that it would be a good indication of the droid's attack power. As the droid is half the combat level of my best weapon, I thought that it would probably take him something around 1.5 to 2 times the time for him to knock down the nest as it would for me. After I cleared out the CL 83 NPC's from the spawn point (to point they're not respawing) so that is was safe to send the droid in, I commanded him to attack the nest. Well, off the droid went and to my amazement, he brought down the nest in under 30 seconds. I was amazed, while the droid was only CL 30, he more them makes up for it with an amazing DPS (Damage per Second) potential... in fact he was doing several time MORE DPS than ANY of my weapons.

Test Two: CL 30 Droid VS CL 83 Spider

The next test was to see how well the droid did on his own against a much higher CL opponent. I was fairly certain that the droid would be disabled or destroyed fairly quickly, but this was to test both how much damage he could do and take, and what would happen to him when he lost a fight. I really didn't know what would happen if the droid's health reached 0... would he need repairs? would he be permanently destroyed? I had to find out, so I reluctantly sent the little droid out after a CL 83 spider.

The fight went pretty much as I'd predicted, the droid did some damage, but was quickly dispatched by the much higher level NPC, so the only question left was about the damage the droid sustained in loosing. When I opened the datapad and examined the droid he looked in good condition – no damage listed, he hadn't lost battery power. I then called him as the final check and when he came up, the only thing that was different was that his health was empty but it was building back up... Hmmm interesting.

Test Three: Droid as Combat Support

In the second test I'd established that the droid would not take any permanent damage as a result of combat and that while it has a high DPS rating that it's not very effective by itself against higher level NPC's. The last question I had was how it would fair as an “assistant” in combat. I'd expected similar results to the solo test and the would take out the droid fairly quickly, and that itwould only have time to inflict limited damage. My plan was simple, When I found a suitable CL 83 NPC I lauched an attack, the after a few seconds call in the droid to assist. I wanted a easy and fast way to call the droid into attacking, so I created a simple attack macro and put it up on the button bar and it ended up working rather well.

Much to my surprise, the NPC spent most it's agro against me and barely damaged the droid, which gave to droid, with it's high DPS rating, opportunity to inflict massive damage to the NPC. The droid assist significantly dropped the kill time

The Results

1. Droids have very HIGH DPS ratings

2. The droid can take easly take on NPC around it's level , by itself, the droid can not last long enough to do significant damage to a high level NPC's
3. Droids do not sustain damage during combat, and are only temporarily disabled.
4. Droids do not cause hostile NPC's to agro against it or it's owner unless it attacks first.
5. Droids can attack NPC spawn points like nests or lairs without drawing agro to itself or it's owner from the “protecting” NPC's. they completely ignore it and at worst will attempt to “heal” the spawn point.
6. When used after an attack against a NPC is initiated, the NPC tends to focus the bulk of it's attack on the first attacker, and generally only lightly damages the droid, giving it time to deliver massive damage.

The Revelation

God, I'd wish I realized this sooner... It' s so obvious... it's got to be a throw back to the original SWG MMORPG! Somewhere in the original design of the game, back when it was an real RPG, someone must of recognized that droids played a huge part in the “Star Wars Experience” and that they should have major assistive role in the game.... but like so(e) much of the game, the good ideas seems to have gotten lost

While everyone and his brother has been complaining about “too many Jedi” , all the NGE issues, and dealing with the game becoming PvP based, the role of Droids in Star War has gotten over looked. Droids are EVERYWERE in the films, expecially in the prequils, and should be as big a part of the game as Jedi, the Empire, or the Rebellion... they work side by side with the sentient being of the galaxy, they are major player it the conflict... yet now they're appear to be in the game in such a superficial way!

Yet remnants still remain... some that SOE hasn't gotten around to destroying yet ... My Little CL 30 droid has a higher DPS then ANY of my weapons... Alone he's easy to destroy, when we work together, we kick serious ass!!! If I'd known just how much help this little droid could be, I'd of reached CL 90 months ago!

As a result, I've developed a new play strategy, I go nowhere without my droid! I bought at least 100 recharges worth of batteries! With new combat toon I create, one of the first things they get is a combat droid!  I've notice a couple other interesting aspects of droids that I'll be experimenting on with what's left of my crafter... God I hope SOE doesn't “improve” them out of the game before I have a chance to find them!

(See the message forums for further discusion) 

One of the things I've hate about most PC games is that the keyboard input schemes have changed very little since the Commodore 64 days. I've never liked the Q-W-E,A-S-D left hand movement combos that are common in PC gaming, so I'm perpetually hunting for better ways of dealing with game controls.

In SWG I've been incaped and kill more times simply because I'm fumbling around the keyboard trying to juggle moving, turning, keeping a lock on the target, trying to switch specials...if I had a couple extra hands this wouldn't be a issue. SWG has become an awkward hybrid of FPS and MMORPG.... Unfortunately they didn't change the input scheme sufficiently to adjust for the new combat style.

Because I play several MMO's, I've tryed to keep the keyboard arrangements similar to help avoid the enviable confusion that comes from trying to remember a dozen different key schemes... of course this doesn't always work, especially in very complex games.

The problem with the keyboard input in SWG, particularly since publish 29, is that combat requires a lot more switching between different weapons and specials. This is SWG's RPG heritage showing through and in the old Pre-NGE combat mode this wouldn't be a problem, but because LA/SOE didn't adequately adjust for the FPS elements, it is difficult to shoot, target, move and change special attacks all at the same time... changing weapons/specials require either losing movement or targeting for a few seconds... which, for me at least, can be critical in combat. I've been checking out what alternatives I could use with SWG, and here's what I've found so far.

In the Air

Fortunately, Space is the one place in SWG were I'm fairly happy with the input system. I've been using a Saitek X45 stick and throttle and have it configure so that it's easy to fly and control weapons and targeting. The one place I've deviated from the standard stick layout is that I've switched the roll and yaw controls. On the X54 Throttle there is a rudder bar, which is controling roll, and the stick now controls pitch and yaw (pitch=up/down, yaw=left/right) While this may go against the instincts of flight purists, personally the dynamics of space flight are such, especially in SWG, that for me it feel more natural to use the stick to point the ship in the direction I want it to go, and use the rudder bar to change my orientation to the environment.

Any good stick will greatly enhance the game play experience in space, and there a number of reasonably priced 3D joysticks with throttle controls that would be great for SWG in space.

On the Ground.

Joysticks

Sometimes I really think SWG is such a kludge. While SWG has two distinctive environments, space and ground, it only allows for ONE joystick selection. SOE managed to get it right with PlanetSide, you can configure multiple joysticks for different situations, so you can have separate sticks for ground, vehicles, and flight. With SWG, If you don't do much in space, this isn't as big a problem, but otherwise it's a real pain.

I've tried to configure a joystick directly in SWG for FPS style ground combat, and it wasn't a great success. Thou LA/SOE has attempted to turn SWG into an FPC, the input scheme is still setup for a traditional MMORPG, and as such lacks several options that would make combat simple with a joystick:

• There are no options to use analog axial controls for player or camera moments. The only way around this is if the joystick you are using comes with a background driver that will allow you to reconfigure the analog sticks on the joystick into digital button press or keystrokes.
• Lack of a “next” or “previous” weapon select. As the game was designed as a RPG, there was never a need to include functions to scroll up and down through weapons options... which is a common feature among FPS style game.

I've played around with a Logitech “Duel Action” PS2 style PC joystick with limited success... and as I do use the space portion of the game, I find that it's just too inconvenient to have to quit the game, restarted it, reset the joystick option and then renter the game.

Keyboard Extensions

One on the easiest, and cheapest, solutions is using a simple USB key pad. I picked up a foldable silicon keypad (Staples $9 Iconcepts on clearance... this is a relabeled from some Chinese manufacturer so a number of companies are offering them) and a stand alone keypad, from of all the places “BigLots” (a closeout/discontinued/cheap discount store chain) for $8.

The foldable Iconcepts keypad replicates the entire right section of a standard keyboard (keypad, arrows, insert,delete,end, etc) plus the tab, backspace and escape keys. I really like the overall idea, but the but because the pad is entirely made of silicone, the key press is REALLY mushy... the old rubber Timex-Sinclair 1500 keys have a better feel... and it's hard to get a good key press all the time.

The other keypad I picked up was packaged under the “Travel Solution” brand.. which means nothing as this is also another generic product from a Chinese electronic manufacture, hence the $8 cost, and is available under a number of different brand names. I've seen these type of keypads at various outlets, typically ranging from $14 to about $30 for a wireless version (Staples) The feel of they keys on the stand alone are much better, but I miss having the arrows and other functions. I've only run into one “solid” version of the silicon pad, and that was close to $60... which is almost twice what you pay for a dedicated game pad.

The main benefits of these keypads are that they're inexpensive, they don't require any special drivers, they're a great little extra if you have a laptop, and they are extremely simple to configure though the game. I've tried redefining my key lay out so that all the movement controls are on the keypad (2,4,6 & 8, strafe on 1 & 3) with the camera pitch controls, with I use a lot during travel, on 7 and 9. It works out well, but I'm still stuck with having to with have to let go of either the keypad or the mouse to hit the function keys for specials and weapon changes. One solution to that is to just dedicate the keypad section to combat. The way the keypad is laid out I could dedicate the first 3 rows for the 12 button bar slot (specials and weapons), and use what left for running and turning.

The downside of this is that I've really become attached to the logic of my keyboard layout and when I've just using the keyboard, I still prefer that layout to even the slightly altered layout that I created for the keypad. On the plus side, for some other games, these cheapo keypads, once relabeled, make inexpensive dedicated quick pads... Halo is one example that I've tried this with and it works out well.

Angel Kitty USB keyboard.

Probably one of the most unique keyboard enhancements I've ever come across... If you can get it “equipped” then it would render most gaming issues moot.... Trust me, you'll have to look it up for yourself :)

Game Pads

The primary advantages of dedicated gaming keypads and keyboards are that they generally have a better physical layout for gaming and most are customizable and support macros. The down sides is that is that the most of these devices will require at least a little user programming, and several will require extensive programming, before they're entirely usable.

Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad n50 & n52 ($30 & $40 respectively)
http://www.belkin.com

The Beklin speedpads are similar in design to the Saitek pads. The n52 version has about as many keys as the Saitek and both the n50 and n52 includes a scroll wheel and a directional thumbpad instead Saitek's 4 way hat switch. Both speedpads are programmable and allow for macros. The n50 is the “little brother” design of the n52, and has about half the keys and is slightly cheaper, but all thing considered the n52 is probably the better option.

Cyber Snipa Game Pad (Aprox $30-$33)
www.cybersnipa.com

The Cyber Snipa pad seems like a slightly cheaper version of Zboard's Fange or Wolf King pads, but without as many keys. This may be a really “el-cheapo” product as I had a hard time finding anything close to a legit online or brick & mortar outlet that carried it. Ebgames apparently carried it at one point but dropped it and is now carrying the Zboard version.

Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard $70
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard $100

(18 custom keys * 3 shift states = 54 key combos)

Both the G11 & G15 keyboard offer 18 custom game keys with three shift variations for a total of 54 key combos, all of which are programmable and macro capable. The biggest advantage of the G15 is it's LCD display. At one point SOE mentioned supporting it in SWG, but I haven't hear anything further about that... though FRAPS, the game video recorder, does utilize it. While, Logitech does produce a good product, and G15's LCD keyboard does appeal to my high-tech gadget addition, I can't really justify it high cost.

Saitek Pro Gamer command Unit - $40
http://www.saitek.com

(20+ button * shift * 3 Modes = 144 key combos)

I'm a big fan of Saitek and I've used their X series flight sticks and throttle combos for close a decade, and the company definitely produces a good quality produce. With the mode and shift combinations, there are 144 possible key combination available that can be programed or assigned a macro, and the pad comes with a 4-way hat switch.

Both the Saitek and Belkin pads differ from Zboard, Wolf King, and Cyber Snipas pads in that both have the “movement” controls moved to the thumb positions, neither appears to have an the standard WSAD movement key pattern defaulted, and there is no labeling of game functions (jump, move, reload, etc.) on the keys or pad.

Saitek Gamers Keyboard - $60
(9 button pad * 2 shift buttons = 27 key combos)

A rather cool looking design, and slight less expensive then the Logitech version, the gamepad portion seems bit understated and unimpressive. There's a second version of the keyboard coming out and it'll be interesting to see if there's a “gamer” version at some point.

Wolf King Warrior – gamepad - $35
Wolf King Timber Wolf - keyboard with pad -$55
www.wolfkingusa.com

Simular to the Zboard pad but with a few more buttons (55 total keys), it is the only pad with a full set of 12 function keys. The layout is interesting, but it feels a bit cluttered and just is labeled as standard keys (“A”,”B”, "C" etc) The Keyboard Pad combo contains all the keys of the standalone pad with the exceptions of the function keys which are returned to above the keyboard.  I'm less then trilled about the keyboard which appears to be a compact laptop style (missing keypad) I also wasn't thrilled by the lack of details on the wolf king site. Of biggest concern was the lack of any mention as to whether the gamepad was programmable or essentially just a repackaged keyboard.

Ideazon Zboard MERC Gaming board- $40
Ideazon Zboard Fang Gamepad - $35
Ideazon Zboard Gaming Keyboard (Keyboard available as USB or PS2) - $50
www.zboard.com

The Fang was originally designed as a combat training pad for the U.S. Military and is now declassified for non-military use... and it's definitely is a very nicely designed, ambidextrous, 41 Key gamepad with good key layout and labeling.

The biggest down side of the Zboard line of products is that programmability has just become available for the device and, while the software is available, it is still in a beta state.

The Merc is Zboard's pad & keyboard combination. The pad portion is laid out in a similar manner to the Fang pad, thou with fewer buttons. The keyboard seem a bit stuffed in, but it does appear to have a full set keypad and option keys (insert, home, page up, etc.)

The Gaming keyboard is something else...If you play a game that a “limited edition key sets” is available for, then it's definitely worth it... but for SWG, which doesn't have one, and which I doubt ever will., it's looks way too awkward for the $50 price tag.

High end solutions

This is for the (way too) serious player... these devices range from simply expensive to absolutely outrageous. The advantage to these devices is that you will get the must “customizable” solution possible.

DX1 Input systems  - $140 (available through thinkgeek.com)
www.ergodex.com

What makes DX1 unique, and very cool, is that it is COMPLETELY custom configurable, both in terms of key function and lay out.... you can lay them out anyway you want! You simple place one the keys on the keypad surface and it sticks there. I can see the losing keys as a problem... and the inevitably event of stepping on and breaking them as the bigger problem.

PI Engineering
www.xkeys.com

The “X-Key” series offers a range of programmable input devices ranging for 16 to 128 buttons and ranging in cost from $80 to $350.  They also offer a project usb/ps2 matrix board ($60) for creating your own custom input device.

These guys would be my first choice for either a first rate “super-pad” or DIY key pad. The keycaps are transparent and removable so you can create and insert your own custom key faces... I've done this for other devices and it's really quite effective. For SWG, I'd likely go with the $140 58 key X-Keys Professional.

The down side with these devices, is that they are serious pieces of hardware meant for people that know how to use them... It's not a plug an play solutions that the average "end use" is going to be comfortable configuring... Believe me I've seen people buy uber devices just to let them gather dust because they can barely handle turning the things on much less using and maintaining them... fortunately I'm a tech masochist and enjoy setting up these kind of devices!... However, once set up these devices would offer a serious advantages to the hardcore MMO player!

Wish List Items

Optimus OLED keyboard
www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/press/

I'm positively sure that someday ALL keyboard are going to be like this!!! This thing is honestly the first real innovation in keyboard technology in decades! The mother of all keyboards, each key has it's own color OLED display matrix and is completely reconfigurable and programmable!  Don't like where the delete key is move it... want another language, change it.... Set icons instead of text... show what the keys do when ALT is pressed....I MUST HAVE THIS KEYBOARD!!!!!

The only problem is, according to it's creators, that it appears to be hung up on patent issues (they're waiting to be granted one). That issue, and the “just too good to be true” nature or the thing, have caused many to wonder if the Optimus keyboard is ultimately destined to be vaporware. If it does ever materialize, expect this to become the Tech nerds uber “must have” item. The possibilities of what you can do with this thing are as mind numbing as the price this it's going to fetch!

The down side of cutting edge technology is that it comes at a price. The current OLED displays they are using have an life span of approximately 8000 hours(333.33 days of continuous use) , which is an improvement as the blue elements in earlier OLED devices had a lifespan of approximately 1000 hours. A rough life expectancy of the key displays at an average daily usage of 8 hours it's 2.74 years, at 6 hours it's 3.65 years, and at 4 hours it's 5.48 years. Of course being “bleeding edge” technology expect there to be a lot of design and manufacturing defects, like dead pixels, which could seriously shorten the lifespan of the keyboard. Also as OLED technology is VERY sensitive to moisture, with can seriously damage or destroy the elements, if they are not sealed sufficiently, or the seal is incomplete or damaged, liquid spills or even condensation could be serious threats to the keyboard. The price of this device is going to be VERY steep! They currently have a 3 key versions that is being sold for $140... if we work that out it comes to $46.67 a key. The full sized prototype keyboard they display has about 123 keys, so using the cost of the three key device as a rough per key cost estimate, we're talking about a keyboard that would cost something like $5740.41.

Lemur Multi-Touch Touchscreen
www.jazzmutant.com

The only thing that's possibly cooler then the Optimus Keyboard is the Lemur Touch screen... The thing is right out of Star Trek: The Next Generation... and starts at a 24^th century price of $2500. This is a “someday” wish list item. Right now the device appears to be intended for musical applications, thou someday I see this sort of technology as being fairly common, supporting a wider variety of applications, and I hope a lot cheaper.

DYI

This option is for the those that really want more of a game immersion effect... like some flight-sim fans who build cockpit mock-ups with full controls and functional instrumentation. I've seen some F-15 fan build cockpits that are amazing... or players that are looking for a very personalize input layout. This isn't an option that most should consider unless they have a very specific need, such as a disability that restricts their ability to use conventional input devices, or you have a very specific layout need and understand exactly what you want to accomplish, and if it's at all possible to do... not just something you'd “like to do” and “think” can be done... because it's very easy to end up with a very large pile of very expensive junk.

One of the simplest, and possibly oldest DYI options is to strip an old keyboard and use it's hardware in a custom layout. This is something of a “down and dirty” solution, and I really don't recommend this unless you've had experience working with and modding electronics hardware at the board level... there is the potential to cause some SERIOUS damage to your PC.

There are a number of different commercially available devices that will allow you to build these types of devices.  Because a custom SWG interface would be a keyboard interface and benefit from macros, the PI Engineerings USB keyboard matrix control board would be the best option I've seen so far.

The disadvantages to building a your own custom input devices are that it may take quite a bit of time to build and prefect, if you are unfamiliar with electronics there is a good chance you'll accidentally destroy some of your more expensive components... including your PC... and, unless your trying to build something like a space shuttle simulator, the total cost may be as much, if not more, then one of the pre-existing commercially available high end devices.

What's Next

With the return of auto fire to the game, in whatever upcoming publish/chapter, my problem may “fix itself” to some extent, but I still plan on using the gamepad to assist and simplify some aspects of SWG gameplay.

What I'm planning on doing is getting the Ideazon Zboard Fang, and the Saitek Saitek ProGamer. Command Unit. The Belkin n52 and Saitek pads are very similar, and I like elements of each of them, so I may end pick up the n52 as well. The Zboard Fang is really much more geared towards playing FPS games, but it is layed out well and I can see how I could use it with SWG. I do occasionally play FPS games, including PlanetSide where this gamepad would work extremely well, so I can justify picking one up... But still, the problem of using the left hand for moment and weapons switching remains... which is where the Belkin and Saitek pads come in.

The advantage of the Saitek and Belkin is that you could set the thumb controls to handle movement while your fingers selected items off the button bar, or ever switch between bars. Unfortunately these are much more generic devices, so you'd either have memorize the layouts you create, or label the keys, which they aren't really designed for.

I really don't see the gaming keyboards as a good solution, unless you're playing one of the “bigger” MMO's like WoW or EverQuest... Then Ideazon's Zboard custom keyboards are the way to go. For other games, and in general, it's better to go the component route and get a good keyboard and a good game controller rather then a mediocre combination.

If you've got any ideas or recommendations, please let me know!

As a I rule I've played solo... give me good stack of weapons and a root beer and I'm good! Honestly, I don't have anything against guilds, and I've hear of some great one that are supportive and do some great fun things... Problem is I've never been in one of then. In the Three MMO's that I've seriously played over the last four years I've yet to be in one guild that wasn't primarily about supporting high level players. That really drives me nuts... I never, either for a quest or when got myself stuck in some sticky situation, ever had one request for help answered... but damed if I wouldn't catch hell for not forking over my “tribute” to the guild bank or for not helping elder “so-and-so” to level up his alt after several weeks of them either ignoring me, or being “too busy” to help me out. *sigh* yoda's voice: relax... fear, anger these are the path toward the darkside.

With some guilds it's all about ego I think... We all need a little of it, but ego is like the dark side of the force... it's easier more seductive. It gets to be all about the “elder” or “in” group... they solicit new members to keep themselves alive but don't welcome them into the fold. I understand you can't give the keys to the kingdom to the new guy until he's earned them, but there's got to be some encouragement, support and inclusion... I've been in guilds that no matter how long your a member, or how much you contribute, you're always going to be the “outsider” or considered a “peasant.”   These guilds tend to be top heavy and when the “major” members leave they either disband the guild, even if there are 150 other members, or leave it to implode... I've been in more then one of these.

My last serious guild imploded after the NGE:

• November 13, 2005 – Guild Alive,well, very active. Got yelled at for not chatting with guild while online.
• November 14, 2005 – Guild Message: “Nobody panic yet, the elders are looking into the situation”,
• November 15, 2005 – Wave of emails notifications that most elders members have left the guild
• November 16, 2005 – Guild chat is dead, no responses to ingame mail.

The guild was entirely ego driven and when the top guys left all they're minions followed, leaving 70+ “new members” stranded and confused. What happened? Was this a glitch? What about us? I waited weeks to see if it picked up again... but guild mail went unanswered, and chat channel stayed quiet, and just as quietly I left.

I generally like newbies... as long as they act like they're older then 8, are relatively polite, and not incessantly needy or “Trash Talking Elmo's”, but Newbie guilds are something else. I feel bad about not excepting invites, but most of the newbie guilds I've joined to “help them out” usually end up folding within a week or two because of a lack of planning, no focus, short attention spans, or ego spats. Sometimes they start out with really noble intentions but die soon after birth or get quickly pulled down into the gutter.

Someday, once I max out a character and if I find like minded players, I'd love to form a “Schooling” guild... in EQOA, I often joke about starting a “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” guild for new magic players... take them up through a a quarter to a half of the levels, show then the ropes. Invite them to stay on as “teachers.” Hold “classes”, have “Field trips”, hand out “rewards”

I guess what I'm missing is the sense of community that I always hear about in MMO's. Blind Guild invites are like junk mail, most of what comes to you or the “current residence” is just crap. Occasionally something legit comes in among them, but because my internal “spam filtering” cuts them out, I miss them. Maybe I should “Shop” for a guild, rather then hope a good one stumbles upon me as I'm exiting a starport.

I've got 4 sets of the junk dealers kits brewing (on top of the first set.)   I used to just storing the parts, but that eats up lots of slots, but then it occurred to me that I could get the equivalent of more then 180 slots for the cost of 20 by picking up the kits, dropping them in a room, adding the new parts as I find, and selling off the surplus. It works out great!

Since weapons stats count again I though it was time to do a little shopping.  Maybe it because I haven't been paying much attention, given that weapons stats haven't matter since the NGE, but I've just noticed that the Damage Per Second (DPS) listing was showing up again.  I'm not really a stats player and SOE does a really poor job of explaining things... it was 8 months before I stumbled on a random forum post explaining how to program a droid... so I'm a bit confused as to whether I should be looking for weapons just with a high DPS, or weapons with a good DPS and a high damage range... Well, until I figure that mystery out, I went out and picked up some high DPS weapons, in the 950-1000+ DPS range, for when I hit the high CL 80-90 level.  I also upgraded some of the weapons for my current CL... Found a really nice rocket launcher! Nice being able to blast the hell out of things again!!!!  In the process of all this,  I cleared out a large portion of my weapons stash... I had such a hard time parting with them... I'm sure that one day 75 meter weapons will be back and I've have sold off all the good ones!! 

I must have a hundred schematics squirreled away, and then today I finally got the last pulverizer I needed for my full set of recyclers! I got to spend some time working my crafter alt up so that I can make start making a few of them, and then start farming out the ones I can't make. I've got so may dupes, that beyond the decorating my houses, I keep thinking once they're made, they'd make great in game Birthday/Christmas/Thank You gifts.

I've started saving armor... I really should nip this addiction in bud and just focus on one or two sets that I like, not the six or seven variations that I've got pieces of now.

The single class of  "not really sure why I'm keeping them" items in my compound are creature resources... hide, bones, meat, eggs and milk... before publish 29, I did a lot of fast leveling and build up some nice piles of creature drops... 6k-18K per! So I must have 80+ stacks saved up for the (imaginary) day my crafter might need then, or for when I finally get sick of looking at them and setting up a vendor to attempt selling the stuff off. I've been half debating whether to just dump as much as I can into my creature recycler (when it's built) and making 100K piles of generic stuff... which might be fine for the furniture crafting (which is about all he's doing) but some have some really high “quality” stats and I'd hate to blend them down to generic oatmeal.

Well, in the end I did get rid of a lot of old junk, and finally got my self to part with a butt load of “glowing” items i picked at a 1 credit sale... really cheap, but equally pointless as I don't have the faintest idea how that cube thingy works... thou when I figure it out, I'm probably going to kick myself... but hey, 50 slots is 50 slots! The downside is I added another at least another 10 spare recyclers parts to the pile... they must of goosed up the drop rate on them, that or I got really lucky today.

I also learned that I can't drop rings on the floor of a large generic house... I dropped 2 (they were old “no trade” items) and and they vanished into the floor never to be seen again! Forget the “find item” option, it just moves them up under the floor by the admin terminal. Finally had to call in a CSR to retrieve them, thank God he could do it... the rings were not as important as the 2 slots they took up! I have to remember to “bag” them when I want to store them... Everyone probably knows this trick, but in case you don't, if you want to store “No Trade” objects in a container in your structure, rather then all over the floor, put on a spare backpack, put the “no trade” items into the backpack, and then drop the back pack (which you can then “hang” on a wall)