Choose My Adventure: Awestruck by Star Wars Galaxies’ crafting and housing potential

This week has been something of a rollercoaster for me. Of emotions. Of discovery. And, slowly yet surely, of deeper appreciation and enjoyment of Star Wars Galaxies.

By the slimmest of margins, setting up some housing beat out digging into crafting in last week’s poll, but I soon started to discover that they absolutely both held hands. My first task was finding out what kind of house I wanted to build and where – an open set of options that, frankly, I hadn’t really felt in MMORPG gaming before; sure, I’ve had housing in other titles before, but the variety of options and customization wasn’t really something I felt was attainable for a very, very, very long time.

For a little while there, though, the systems behind crafting seemed like they were keeping my dream out of reach. While I had gotten the very basic routine of crafting things down as I leveled up my Structures Trader to cap, the actual work of putting together a house had layers on top of layers to it. I needed to build a bunch of wall sections, which in turn needed their own set of materials, which in turn could really best be put together using a factory.

Mercifully, I had access to a factory thanks to Bree’s incredible levels of generosity, but the whole thing felt like it was pointlessly obtuse in the beginning. It took me roughly one hour to figure out how to make just one wall piece, using four different UI windows and a calculator. And I was still screwing things up regardless.

I admit that I can frustrate pretty easily, but when I do, two things tend to happen: I either storm off and roar about it, or I angrily bulldoze forward, stubbornly adamant to not have something beat me. Luckily for me, this is what happened as I finally began to piece together how to make a schematic, put a schematic into place, set up materials, and fire up the factory. Though I’d be remiss if I didn’t grant the lion’s share of the credit for figuring this out to Bree, as she very patiently guided me through things in spite of my rising agitation.

Soon enough, I was starting to get a little deeper into the crafting hole. I set up a factory run of materials while I went about the task of wandering Dantooine for the right type of gas I needed to start making power cores. Tasks started to line up, goals slowly became reachable, and I started finding myself become both accustomed and addicted to a deeper crafting and gathering loop. Granted, I was only really using one factory to make wall sections and was using hand sampling instead of a harvester to gather materials, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Naturally, it occurred to me that this was going to take far too long. Bree to the rescue once again, as she provided a frankly obscene number of materials to put together some house holdings. This woman is like a cheat code for this game, I swear.

On top of materials, Bree further suggested that I plant roots on planet Lok, owing to its close proximity to a bazaar and spaceport, which would in turn make it easier for me to keep eyes on the market and make planetary trips for resources. As intrigued as I was to dig into all of that, though, I was more eager to plop down my freshly created houses. Apparently, I could own my own guild hall despite not being in a guild and I had visions of creating a spacious business front with a luxurious house nearby.

I found my spot. I used my deeds. I placed them down. And then stood in absolute slack-jawed awe at the size of the things I had put down.

I’m not sure screenshots do this justice. These things are huge, with an absurd wealth of rooms just waiting and eager to be filled with stuff. I had no idea they would be so big, so spacious, so full of potential. Astonishing, terrifying potential. And yes, I do mean terrifying; now that I have a closer understanding of just how much goes into building literally everything in SWG, I have a new appreciation for the amount of things that people have put into their houses. This stuff doesn’t just happen immediately but is the result of months of gathering, factory running, crafting, playing the market to keep lights on and power running… it’s a lifestyle.

It also means that all I’ve really gotten to do is put down are a couple of crafting stations. Every journey starts with a couple of steps; these are mine.

I probably have bitten off more than I can chew, but damned if I’m not going to slowly try now. The sense of immediate ownership that doing this has provided is palpable. This is why I rage against the stupidity of badly applied housing systems (or in some games the full lack thereof) in MMOs. Because as insane and unlearned and very likely unprepared as I might be, I want to make this a home. I’m going to dig into crafting more. And by God, I’m going to become a shipwright. I have a long-term goal now. And no amount of crappy AI, obtuse crafting mechanics, or weird requirements are going to stop me. I will wrestle this bear and wear it like a coat.

That sort of leads into this week’s polling question, but just like last time I don’t want my excitement around crafting to steer the polls. Because, just as I promised, I will be putting to two losing poll choices up against one another, and just like before I am genuinely eager to try both of these things. So let’s close out this month in SWG Legends strong, friends.

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Did I say “close out this month”? Yes, yes I did. I am pretty well invested in this game now, and while we’ve still got one more week of things to experience in this game to go, it’s about high time I look towards next month’s gaming adventure. Here are the choices I’m considering.

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As ever, polling will close up at 1:00 p.m. EDT this coming Friday, June 25th. In the meantime, I’ve got a whole mess of furniture I’m going to have to look into creating.

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.