The Fanatical Swordsman

There are so many wonderful features of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I got the immense pleasure of playing the Beta this last weekend, and I want to share some screenshots and opinions. I will be putting out a series of posts with the Top 4s of the many things I got to try, including the classes, the PvP, the systems, and the experience in general.

Space combat is a fun mini-game. It is definitely a diversion, not necessarily a full-blown flight simulator like X-Wing Alliance or TIE Fighter. Still, it is fun, it gives you something to do while crafting, and it isn’t a bad source of XP.

Here are the top 4 reasons to have a ship in SWTOR!

1. Missions
   There are some really fun mini-game style space combat missions available from the control panel immediately to the left of the galaxy map (in the smuggler ship, at least). These missions are repeatable, and they reward XP just like a normal mission.
   I played several, and my favorite was (no surprise) one where I blew up a bunch of stuff. There was also an escort mission, which I failed about 7-8 times. You can upgrade your ship, which makes the missions easier and gives another area to feel character progression, and the modifications are not that expensive to start collecting. There was a vendor specifically for that on the Fleet stations. The starting mods were somewhere in the area of 200 credits apiece.
   

   The Cybertech crew skill is also responsible for some of these, as I have heard.

2. Storage
   Your ship also contains your vault, which increases in size with your level (first upgrade is at level 20). It is about 1.5x the size of your bags, which never fill up much anyway. The thing I really like about the ship vault is that you can craft straight out of it. That’s right, no more carrying mats in your bags. Your companions will pull stuff out of the storage automatically.
3. It’s just cool
   Having your own ship just makes you feel epic. It is about 1.5-2 times the size of the Ebon Hawk in the Knights of the Old Republic games, if you remember that. The first thing I wanted to do was to walk around it and take pictures.
   Of course, I was a smuggler, and a good ship is an integral part of that. Still, it is a really fun thing, kind of like buying your first car. You can also visit other players’ ships, and they can visit yours, which brings in a cool social aspect.
   

   Just chillin' on my couch...

   They can also travel in it with you to other planets. Just make sure you don’t leave your socks just lying wherever in the cargo hold.

4. Companion storylines
   Your ship is where you get to hang out, relax, and talk to your companions, which all have stories that go along with them, especially if you have a high affection rating with them. If you try to talk to your companion in the field, they will say something like, “I need to talk to you. In private.” Unlike in Chuck, where the main characters Chuck and Sarah are always having deep, emotional talks right in the middle of saving the world, kicking bad guys, and defusing bombs, ships and cantinas are the only places that a companion will open up to you. I guess all that trust has to be stored with the crafting materials.

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