A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 70: Taris Pt. 2 (Knights of the Old Republic 02)

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Join us as we continue our journey down into the depths of Taris, a city so bad that it hasn't really gotten that much worse under Sith occupation! Sure, there's a rampant plague of not-zombies spreading through the dark fantasy undercity. And a traitorous swoop racing gang has started killing people in the streets. And, well, I guess there's the matter of the Rancor.  But somehow, most of that would've happened even without Sith influence. As the wisest Jedi master of our times, bowing his head solemnly, said: "mmm, actually zero difference between good & bad things, there are. imbecile, fucking moron, you are. " Next Time: Finish Taris and Land on Dantooine!   Show Notes     Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Ricardo Contreras (@a_cado_appears) Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)    

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakeney, joined by Ali Akampura, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners, via patreon.com slash civilized. So head over there if you'd like to support the show and get access to all our Q&A episodes. Austin, in case people have not caught up on this, what should they be? be reading to prepare for this month's Q&A since that is also going to be a little shifting direction that's a great question I mean this comes out after they've already read the first part that's true so what they should be reading sorry I'm sitting back

down I was going to get up to go grab my iPad and I turn off my my camera so I could go do that um they should be reading let me type in omnibus and you're going to hear me type the tales of the Jedi the tales of the Jedi tales of the Jedi Volume one and two. Well, so I guess the actual thing they'll be reading is Tales of the Jedi One through Five, which is the end of the first Dark Horse Omnibus. So, I mean, let me just, let's just roll this out because this is the first main episode where we talked about this, right?

Over on the Patreon, instead of doing Q&A and we're still very early in Cotor and there's not much to Q&A about, there will be eventually. We're reading the Tales of the Jedi Dark Horse comics, and you can go here as talk about what the setup to those was and what the history behind them was over in the Patreon feed for the first episode. And the first episode of it, we covered the first. It's not actually the first. We covered two arcs.

We covered the golden age of the Sith and the fall of the Sith Empire. Those are listed first in the Dark Horse omnibus, but they are not chronologic, or they are not in production release order, the first ones that get made. But Dark Horse put them there in this way. It's easier for it. It was easier for me to just be like, hey, go read this. Go read the first two chapters of this. We'll pick it up from there.

So, and that was the tale of, what the fuck's his name? Nagasadal. Gavin Jory? No. See, Gabby, yeah, I guess Gavin Jory are in there, right? Yeah, they matter. I don't know that Gavin Jory are ever going to get mentioned again, but Nagasadal will. Dark Lord of the Sith.

I want to say, is it Marka, Ragnos is his master, something like that, right? Those motherfuckers get named all the time. And so get ready to hear more about them in the future. We only read those two first two arcs inside of the collected omnibus, the dark horse omnibus, which again is golden age of the Sith and the fall of the Sith empire. Next time, we will be reading Tales of the Jedi 1 through 5, which is also in that first omnibus. And these are available in other places, to be clear, also that you don't, I think it's kind of hard to get the physical copy of this omnibus at this point.

But then the second omnibus picks up with, where is the, why do I not have the obvious next button on this page? I'm just going to do a search for it. Two, here we go. Volume two then picks up with the Friedan Nad Uprising and then Dark Lords of the Sith. So we're going to do Tales of the Jedi 1 through 5, then Tales of the Jedi, the Freed and Nad Uprising, then Tales from the Jedi Dark Lords of the Sith. It's three arcs. The Friedenad Uprising is only a two-parter, so it's short.

And that will leave us with the following the month doing the Sith War and redemption. There are some really fun connections between those comics and Cotor. Most obviously, the word battle meditation originates here. I was pointing my finger. I was saying, I know I've seen that before. I've heard of that. And there's other connections that we will come to see between the ancient Sith lords,

between what the hyperspace war is, which, by the way, if you ever want to learn, you want to know what is up with that mural in Palpatine's office that we used to talk about a lot. Those are the events of that comic that we read for this past month, Patreon, the first for the, the, that's that shit. The Golden Age of the Sis and the Fall, the Sith Empire.

That's what he has a mural of. Gavin Joryer on his wall. They should have known. They should have known. We'll talk about that over on the Patreon episode, so you can go hear us. If it sounds like Natalie's reacting to this in live in real time, it's because we haven't actually recorded the first of those Patreon episodes yet. Our scheduling is fucked right now. Surprise, it's us.

So yeah, go read those Star Wars Tales of the Jedi Comics in a broader way. They are really a huge set of source material for Cotor in terms of vibe and time setting stuff. I'd say the stuff that we read for this first month, less so than the ongoing stuff because it's a little more like fucked up and Bronze Age and like fantasy shit. Once you get into the tales of the, once you get into the Nomi Sunrider stuff, it starts to appear more and more like Cotor. But the cool thing is the Golden Age of the Sith and the Fall of the Sith Empire stuff, the BioWare was looking at some of that stuff directly in terms of what came before, you know, what was up with the Sith before. So when we start getting into some other places, you know, it'll pop up.

And speaking of getting into other places, we went down the elevator in Knights of the Old Republic to the lower level of terrorists. Not the undercity. Well, we also went to the under city. But first, we stopped off at the lower level. So picking up from where we left off, we'd sort of, you know, come to grips with the setting of terrorists, the like tripartite divided city of the upper city where the shitty little like Eloi live.

And then, you know, the under city where by the city where, by the city where by the city, law of all the aliens and lower classes are supposed to be and then you know we learned that in the undercity where like you know basically are the slums uh you know they've also got a zombie plague that is that is running rampant it turns people into just wild monsters that'll just like kill you on site uh and we and a few things were sort of a few threads were sort of cast out there to see you know give you some dilemmas uh you might need to resolve. Oh, I was, I was saving and scumming and saving and scumming. Let me tell you. Interesting. Actually, you know what? That's a great place to start because so I remember

before the show a couple weeks ago, I was chatting with Austin. I was like, it's so, it's so weird playing this. It's the backdrop of Starfield and Walder's Gate. And from a minute there, I was like, man, this is so refreshing. It's just so simple and straightforward. And that's kind true, but also, uh, there is a lot of like, go here, talk to this person. Better say before you, you don't know what level of these guys. I don't know. You just save before you actually investigate that encounter. Uh, you can talk to someone. Maybe you just want to save before you actually talk to that person. Uh, so I have definitely like it has been a, in some ways, it's like, ah, they don't make them like they used to. And on the other hand, I am taking 10 steps,

opening a door and being let me just pop a save down real quick. I got the space for it. My Xbox says I have 15,182 save units, so I think I'm good for it. The nice thing for me about that, there was a moment in the end of this where you get into the actual sewer system and it's just like, oh, I'm just here to attack shit for the next 25 minutes. Brain off. Time to just go a while with these, this, a Chani dual blade. I'm just going to mow these dudes down.

It's dungeon time It's dungeon time And it's about to be dungeon time Next time for real for real So that's exciting to me too I like it a lot I like that part I like when you're just

It's I feel like there's more Of a balance between Okay Doing a lot of questing stuff And making And decision making is happening And maybe your choices matter And it's changing your path

And you're getting some light side points And then just approach these, you know these battle encounters got to go and you know what they all went

every single one of them that I saw has gone so the sewers are clean the high level rob that you just laid down is we started by going down into the the under city the lower city the alien zone

slash the crime zone which has recently gotten to be the crime war zone as the two major criminal factions. There's three major criminal factions, really. It's the three, it's where like, wow, you really created a whole little like criminal ecosystem for this game, which is that, you know,

you've heard on the upper level all this talk about the lower level has just gotten so bad because of the swoop gangs. The swoop gangs have just gone berserk down there. They're finding a gang war and it's just so dangerous. And everyone has a name. So, like, you get downstairs. And you learn that, um, it's a war between the, uh, blackville car.

Yeah, uh-huh. And the hidden backs. Hidden backs. I was, I, I, I stuck on backs. I was like, B-E-E-K-S. I think I'd rather be on the blackville car from just going by name. By name, the black-vac-car. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The hidden backs is like, oh, Beck. The musician. Oh, I see. He's hiding down there. Yeah, yeah. But it turns out, like, so the Blackville car are in this war with the hidden backs. The hidden backs are kind of, well, they're hiding, kind of. They are.

They're driven into a stronghold. And they're led by an old swoop bike, gang leader. Garen? That sounds right. Or is, or is Garen the one in the lowest thing? The traitor. Let me look at my notes. Let's see if I wrote this down.

No, no, no. The traitor is, I guess. You know, no, no, I gear is the one in the undercity. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But who's the guy who's running the black Volkar who betrayed? Oh. The back. We haven't met him yet, like in person, you know what I mean?

We haven't met him. So we've even gone into the black Volcker. I should have taken notes. But anyway, he used to be the second in command of the hidden backs. And the hidden backs have a little, is the way this is supposed to work. Uh-huh. If you get leader of the pact. in a swoop race.

Right. But somehow you survive. You should step down. Like, I'm sorry, but we can't have, we cannot have our motorcycle gang, our swoop gang, led by a guy who was blinded in a swoop race. I don't care if he got bionic eyes, that everyone's like, your eyes look so weird. And I'm like, there's the most normal-looking eyes in this game. Just how the textures look in this game. I'm like, this is the first character.

I was like, okay, yeah, looking good, man. Gat-on. Gat-on, theft. The leader. And yeah, his eyes look great. His eyes look fantastic. He got Starfield eyes. You can get those eyes in Starfield.

So Gaden was like, I'm going to stay in charge of the hidden backs. And so his lieutenant, did you get that name, Austin? B. Regic. Grechick. Brechick. B. So it was Brejik.

Yeah, Brejik. Yeah. I think that might have been, I think I might have said something close to that. Brajick. I don't know. Brejik. Brejik. He was like, the hell with this.

I'm going to join our rival. gang, the black vulcar, immediately goes there with a bunch of hidden backs that are loyal to him, takes over the black, the black wakar, starts a gang war to take the hidden becks back over and wipe out all the people who are loyal to Gatten. All of this is happening beneath, not beneath the notice, but both gangs sort of pay up to Davick, who is the crime lord from the exchange who is effectively running all underworld activities on Terrace

but is he still in charge because what boundaries does Brejik's ambition know? And so you get... And of course Davick is cut off in the exchange right now because of the Sith blockade. So it's not like he could call in exchange

I mean he's already called in some exchange help is what it actually looks like. We've come to learn that he has some he has some fucking shooters down here. There's a lot of cool guys. There's a lot of fucking cool guys in the Lower City. There are some real 1994 comic book ass guys down there with weird goggles and broad shoulders. All sorts of shit going on down there. Ron Perlman's there?

He does have a Ron Perlman vibe. I don't know how I didn't pick that up. I guess I didn't know who Ron Perlman was the first time I played this game probably. But now it's just like Ron, your agent needs to. We got to get the Candorous Ordo film once we're out. of the strike you know we need to i want to know more about him there's what do they say recently there's lots of ways to lose a house to lose a house that's a candor's ordo line yeah um yeah so we got him and then we also have um god this is fucked up because alley the other day i pulled

this name out of my ass like like it was nothing i was like oh yeah that other guy what the fuck is his name um cal nord cal is it just cow nord the goggles guy one one two you didn't get you have to run in this guy who's in the canteena downstairs he has i'll show you a picture of him i'll give you a picture of him and you'll know immediately don't google anything as always don't google anything also like it's so funny because this is his reputation he's hard as how and he'll tell he comes three and then he just like takes you out but the way he's depicted in the game he just kind of this odd little character model like sort of stares at

he was like one yeah and it's like if millhouse was about to kill you it is kind of like that the thing is he will fucking get you though I was sure to talk to him and he was not oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I like him he's a final fantasy character he is he's like yes yes

100% this motherfucker is in Final Fantasy he works for the for Sid's Iron World or whatever. He's with big and, and, uh, what are the two guys? Wedge.

Wads and wedge. Bigs and Wedge. Star Wars. It's a circle is complete. Exactly. It loops. It loops around. Um, so yeah, we have those guys down there doing work, you know, uh, for David.

There's a canteena. There is a canteen. There is a lot like you have a canteen. Actually, there's a lot of, uh, this is an efficiently made game, let us say. You know, why, why send two or three character models to do the work of one? You know, for real. You get a whole second under, you, this is the only way you can do upper city, lower city, under city is if you had the upper and lower, have some shared content. Like the apartments are very similar, if I remember right, too.

Though the lower city apartments are more fucked up, right? They're like. They're like falling. Also, you get jumped. You get jumped constantly. It is, it is on site down there. there's no like hey guys

they're just ready to kill you immediately which is not worked that well for my boy Duff's Polo How's Duff's doing? I bet Oh yeah How's your build going

So here Okay but here's the weird thing It was doing really poorly And now it's like Trivially easy And I don't fully Like know how this all went down So you go down the elevator

To the lower level And immediately you walk in the middle of a gang gang fight and you see the Blackwell car just waste a bunch of hidden backs and then they're like oh another stranger to deal with and they attack you and they

knocked Dops so fast and like Carth gunned them down and everything like thank God for thank God for that guy yeah I guess it's like a PubG encounter you're getting he's had to throw you the chug jug jug I kept thinking I would

surely somewhere I would talk my way out of a fight with the Blackwell car That's just not happening. That's not this game. No. The entire lower level is like an XP farm. I just saw what I've been worried about. There are times, the charisma, oh, the charisma's going to come back for you in a good way shortly.

But not yet. No. And so, like, the lower level was probably the most brutally. Like, this is where I just started saves coming constantly. Because the only thing Dup's is good at is grenades. So. Which are good. Grenades are good.

I started trying to arrange. fights in a way that like I'll just like hit these guys with grenades or like I'll hit the I'll throw a grenade at the lead one and the explosion will maybe catch one in the back as they run toward me but then these the way your characters run around is like MMO mobs where they just like their agro gets pulled you see them racing toward the grenade somebody else just through and you're like please don't do that and et cetera and so it was a real slog down there let me tell you those apartments were not a good scene um burned through a ton of grenades tons of med packs going broke on med pack costs Yeah. There's a way to get cheap med packs. You can get some cheap med packs before we leave this, before we get off this planet. Let me tell you.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, like, maybe Rob won't because I don't know, Rob, we'll have to get there with the serum later. Yeah. If you gave the serum to the doctor, he'll sell you cheap med packs. Not cheap, like 31, like 31, like 31, like 30, you know? Yeah. But the guy in the lower level says up for 30. Well, whatever. I'm going all the way back upstairs. Wait, the time of the lower, I-Gere, that guy. Yeah. So here's the thing about him. He sells you stuff cheap, but he pays less for everything, which is weird. Oh, when you sell to him? Yeah.

Well, come on. Look at him. He doesn't have a lot. You think he's getting a lot of people coming through buying it. He doesn't have a lot of, a lot of... The same $5 go back to the floor. It's true. They're all Venmoing the same $5 down there.

Can we make money? Can we start? Is there we to buy cheap from him and sell somewhere else? Hmm. I don't know. I don't think there is. Money machine. Yeah, yeah.

But here's the weird thing. So across the level, there's so much, there's so much fighting happening on that lower level that I got a few levels under my belt. Yeah. I put one point of strength into dups. I bought some heavy blasters for Carth. Yeah. And then I got it.

I found a cool armor. Echinace Armors It's like the Achani The Achani Echani armor Yes The Atchani armor

Yeah And so I put that on With a mod And now like Dupp's not getting hit And it's starting to do like reliable damage But it doesn't matter

Because now everyone in the party is just hitting like a wrecking ball It is like I'm like This game went from like Eking out every encounter Like sweating it out

to my squad just rolls up now and the game's like very careful is a real big group of dudes and then it's just like boom boom boom it's somehow I've got like a child soldier in my in my party now who's like the deadliest character ever seen we're talking about mission we have to talk about mission veo mission veo 14 years old 14 years old the first osoka I like to say is not a Jedi but like I don't know how I'd be with a shotgun huh NAMI with a shotgun. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Yeah. You went into Mission in the lower canteena first. Is that the first time you bump into her? Her and Big Z. Natalie, you made a tweet that was like my life for Mission and Big Z or something. What did you say? Well, that's when I met them in the canteen. I was just immediately enamored with Mission and Big Z.

I was like, these two. These two have something special about them. I don't know what it is. I think you just met them in the sewers. No, you could meet them in the can't Yeah, Big Zee's got a big meal he can't finish Mission's giving it a hard time about it. I never met them in the can'tina.

I got down there and people were like Maybe Mission can help you find Gad was like any mission can help you get into the Volcar base But I never met them. Did you go to the Hidden Beck space before the canteen? I did. Oh, yeah, my bad.

Interesting, they may have already that might that'll do it that'll do it because they leave the canteena they do they like run out of the canteen and head to the under city just have a long play of this game that no one should click around in but you should click play at the timestamp I've sent but you know what let me look at the fucking I gotta send this to myself to look at the the the what's up thumbnail yeah stream it to us I'll just stream well I'm not gonna be you don't have to watch though yeah I'll stream it I'll stream it let's watch Cotor together just watch Cotor together just watch Cotor together This is good podcasting, right?

The people love this. I'm not going to turn the... This scene is worth it. I'm sorry. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, Rob should see this. Rob should see this. All right, so then let's share screen.

Let's make this big. Let's go over here. Let's go live. I would die for both of them to play. Here we go, yeah. There you go. They're walking with some, some gritos. What do they call?

Roeans. I told you to leave alone. You did it. I did it. Your breath smells like Banta Poodoo. Begin with the brown. Mm-hmm. Little girl should not be in bar.

This is no place for little girl. Little girl's smart. She run away home now. They don't speak grodian. Yeah, they don't speak grodia. Who you call a little girl, tuba face? Little girl needs lesson in manners. Just a sec, boys.

Sawbar, a little help here. I need to rip the legs off. The music is so good. Mission, I'm busy. They just brought my food. Quit complaining, you can finish eating later. Besides, you need the exercise. Chill.

The shit is just roasting Bigsy. You're on no trouble with Wookie. I'm following with you, little girl. Little girl. Then you got a problem with Bigsy. Wow, this kid writes some checks. Little girl lucky she has big friend. They don't have articles in Rodion, and then they leave.

And then you can run up and talk to her and Big Z. Oh, is this the, like, PC interface? I guess. The PC you are? Why are you bothering me? No need to be rude. Sorry about that. But whookies ain't much for conversation, you know?

Say, I don't recognize you, and I know pretty much everyone in the lower city you must be new down here i guess that makes me and big z your official welcoming committee the options here are hey we speak the same language or that's weird a twillac who speaks galactic basic most aliens can speak basic they just prefer to use their own language but i grew up yontar so i just sort of got used to speak in the name you showed a lot of guts dealing with those vulgar's kid you got a name the carth mission energy is also terrible Terrible. Terrible.

I'd offer to give you a tour, but the streets down here aren't safe. But if there's anything else you need. I don't like this main character's face. Yeah, no. Oh, I hate his face. He just looks like Carson, too. We just kind of fell in the nuts. It ain't easy on your own beyond the lower city.

Everyone's always looking to push you around. So we noticed, still you seem like an odd pair. When I met up with Zobar seemed like a pretty good match. I knew we could look out for each other. My street smart This is like the greatest pair Race me Mm hmm

Well you came to the right person She brings the smarts He brings the muscle That's exactly And then she gives you the rundown We don't have to keep watching this Yeah yeah She then gives you the rundown

Of what's going on down here Which we all know from other ways You know Yep Yep Has anyone had Mission and Carth In their team for a little bit? No

Wait what You basically have to You have to Oh yes But as soon as I got Big Z, I went home. I got rid of Card. Didn't stop them having extensive conversations the minute they got in a party together. They didn't talk to each other at all.

Let's companion update then. Yeah. What, Rob, which companion? Or is, Allie, you introduced this. Which companion? What was the conversations you got with Mission and Carth? So just a lot of, it's Carth being like, how do you handle it down here? seem pretty young. And Misham being like, fuck off.

Yeah. Just immediately like Carth trying to be dad about it. And I, my character, what was the option? There was one where like, um, Carth went really in on like, I don't think that you can, you, a little girl, like, you shouldn't be alone down here. Um, and him being like, you know, you can't, you can't rely on that bookie or whatever. And her being like, I, we help each other, man. Like, we have each other's bags. So I was like, you're just going to let him say that to you. Damn, Instigation Olympics Alley. I also chose that option.

Beautiful. Oh, yes, I did have this interaction. Okay. I did. I think I said, let's all settle down for a second. Save it for the Sith. Yeah, save it for the Seth. I'm not a fan of Carth, but in his defense, the other part of that conversation that sets her off,

she opens it up with, hey, you've traveled a bunch. What do you think of terrorists? Yeah. And he very diplomatically is like, not great. The apartheid is less than ideal. And the classism is pretty awful. And I'm not a fan, really. And she's like, oh, come on.

Like, it's not that bad. There's tons of places that are worse. He's like, yeah, there's worse. And there's better. There's a bit where she's like, well, that's just because the sith. And then she's like, oh, you know. I guess it was all kind of like this before the Sith got here. Whoops.

In my play-through, they did squash the beef eventually. They kind of did some joking around about it. He calls her kid again, but he basically calls her Snips. It's all here. I had a couple weird bugs with just like skipping dialogue, and then I'd end up in, like, it would skip dialogue. between them and then I would be in the in the like my response screen like what do you want to say so I there were a couple couple which I think were a part of like walking around moments that so this is probably what I miss that makes sense is it just because my charisma through the roof that the walking around moments happened like immediately like she makes a lot of sense because it is car every five minutes that's awesome looks like he has something he wants to say you learn a about Kart's feelings

is about the war and his Yeah, I learned the secret of his lack of trust. His lack of trust, yeah. Say more. Well, so as we all know, Carth has trust issues

and that's why it's not a personal player character, but I'm just never going to trust you. I'm not going to tell you, I don't ask me. Okay, I'll tell you a little bit. Some stuff happened during the war, but no, I couldn't say more.

I couldn't say more. I keep my secrets private, I don't trust you. Okay, well, here's a little bit more. I can tell you. His name was Saul. Yeah. I had a best friend and a mentor.

He was awesome. He was great. And the thing that I really hate the Sith for is they brought, like, I understand, like, maybe, you know, those guys going bad, but it's all the people who join them who should have known better. Like my mentor, Saul, who was like the fleet admiral for the Republic and taught me everything I know about fleet admiraling and starshipping. And so the reason he doesn't trust is because this guy basically goes to Carth right before. he defacts and it's like, hey, maybe you should, maybe we should defact. What do you think? What do you think about like, you know, some of the stuff that the, uh, Revin's putting down? Maybe we should, maybe we should turn against the Republic. And Carth's like, nah, I don't think so.

And so I was like, okay. And then leaves and defects. It's like he killed him. You know what I mean? No. Well, didn't he, didn't he, didn't he like, he? Then he Pearl Harbors the Republic of Fleet. Yeah, that's why that's, that's the offer he's making. He's like, listen, man, I'm about to go, I'm going over there. You don't want to be here. Come with me. The Reverend Malick seemed like they got that Mandalorian shit settled, you know? It is very funny the way Carth describes it because he's like at the base as like the

Battlestar Galactica massacre thing is happening. And he wakes up as like just ships are being blown up in port and he's like, oh. Saul, right. He has the, right, he knows. He knows how to turn off the shield array or whatever. And then we get a very melodramatic. I could have stopped him.

I should have done something. And it's like, I don't know. Should you have? Could you have? Anyway, that's why he doesn't trust people. I do like the note of him being like, it's not the dark Jedi who piss me off. Because they fell to the dark side.

That's magic. It's the grunts that piss him off. And it's his mentor. And it's like the regular people who made the active decision to turn on the Republic. Forget about the Sith shit. Who cares? You are my brother in arms. You know, you were my comrade. And now you wear this slick silver or red we've learned armor. And I'm stuck wearing a canvas jacket until Austin puts me in some other shit. Yeah. That's Carth. I haven't gotten this yet. Interesting. Oh, okay. Yeah. Carth.

it's such a rough break um just the way that the like game because like a thing that sticks out with this game the more that I play it is um Natalie pointed out that you don't have like the mass effect wheel and that means that like in these dialogue options instead of having like maybe three sometimes five if it's a really special engagement like you can really go through the list and all of the conversations you can have with Carth can really get in a circle of you just being like, well, why don't you trust me? Or like, you know, you're going to have to open up to me sometime or like, you know, um, just like you can really needle him on this stuff that makes it seem like your character is the more pushy one. And it's, it's just, well,

they hadn't worked out exactly that it's, it's, it's from the era of these games where it's just like, Well, the player's going to hit, tell me more. Please tell me more. And we're going to let them do that. And that's never going to cause a problem. They're never going to actually, like, you know, get rid of the relationship between these two characters. Because we don't want to, like, we don't want players not to see our content. So even if you push him on it, he'll start the next dialogue by being like, I was being, I was being kind of harsh on you back there.

I know you were just looking out for me. I know you just wanted me to feel better about everything. I had this with Mission and her brother's story where I was like. asking her about it and she's like hell no I don't want to talk about this and then two seconds later I I like prompted her again and she's like okay I'll talk about my mother's like takes through that brother story what do you think of that backstory well yeah what's up with mission so mission got came to Terrace originally with her brother as stowways on like a cargo in like

some sort of cargo situation. And her older brother seems like, you know, Mission had to get it from somewhere. And it seems like her older brother really had the lay of the land when it comes to scheming and plotting. Do you have his name? Anybody remember his name?

His name... Griff. Is Griff. Oh, man, my first D&D character ever. Really? Yeah. Wow. Wow.

You're always meant to play Cotor. A very cute Orange Garfield Aw Very good Well Would your roommate's cat Abandoned their little

Sibling to run away With What Their What mission so lovingly Calls A space tramp A space tramp

What was it Intergalactic Pussy? Something like that too Like really going in It's like We're in Star Wars So we put

Space intergalactic skank. That's good. She says, I can't be worrying about my brother running off with some intergalactic skank. That's so 2000s. Nobody has used the word skank since the 2000. Because we used so perfectly here, the word was just sealed under glass. It was like we can just, we don't need to use this word anymore because Mission Vayo used in the ultimate.

Yeah. Retired like a jersey. So, yeah, so they, Mission and Griff, you know, run around in sort of the lower, lower rings of Terrace for a while. He shows her how to, you know, how to get her street smarts up, how to gamble, how to, there's one specific thing where it was like how to identify, like, rich people you can scam. Real shit. And then he runs away with a woman named Lena who Mission has a lot of disdain for. But she believes that Griff will be back. Griff will come back for her.

And while she was sort of holding out on her own, she ran into Big Z. And Big Z, he was like in a, wasn't he in a fight or something? He was getting, she was, yeah, he was getting jumped by Hidden Becks, actually, right? Or was it by Black Velcar. I think it was Volkar. I think it was Volkar. And then he, like, just won because he's big and strong. Because he's big and strong.

And so they kind of look out for each other. They've looked out for each other ever since. Oh, right. They were being shitty to him. She intervened. And then they were, like, going to get violent with her. And that's where Big Z. He wouldn't, like, go nuclear to defend.

himself, but when they looked like they were going to hurt the kid, he immediately was just like, oh, by the way, I'm a wookie. And, like, grabbed one by the throat and kind of ragdled him and the other guys ran off. Quick question, though. So she's like, my brother's coming back for me. Let me just go around the room. Do you think her brother's coming back for her? I mean, if the brother's gone, there's a Sith blockade between her and the brother. So, let's say, you know what, even if it weren't there. Do we think, so it, do we think this child's recollections of her brother and the mentorship he provided are accurate. There's lots of ways to come back to someone, you know?

I think he did show her the ropes, but she does describe him as an alcoholic person with a gambling addiction. He could come back a decade later. Do you know what I mean? He's cleaned up. He's in a program. He's working through it. in recovery.

You know what I mean? And everything that shows has strong, like, I need an accomplice vibes. Oh, yeah. Another problem is like, that's the actually he'll come back.

He'll come back because he needs her help with like a scam. And he's run. He's burned all his other bridges. Yeah. You know, I'm back for real this time,

Mish, you know? Yeah. I was just listening that conversation. I was like, oh, yeah, no, your brother sounds like a character. Yeah.

No, I can see it's so bad that he's not here for you anymore because he would definitely be taking and you were how old you left you were 12 10 something like that you made sure you were ready though for sure yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah slicing slicing terminals uh you know running running games on marks yep that's that's all you need to know it's okay big z is going to step in the second time be like right she's better off with that few man let's get let's get the big z like when we get to the undercity a bit more. But going back to the lower levels a little bit,

there's some SideQuest stuff. There's another hut issuing missions out here, rather than running fights. He is issuing bounty missions. Interesting ones. There is, there is an assassin on the loose. There is an assassin on the loose.

Yeah. I name something like Slevin or X versus Sever or something like that. She's out there. And she, like, killed off the entire Olgos family. They were a big, like, wealthy, important, like, semi-legitimate aristocratic family. Killed all of them. Yeah. And then the Urgana family was like, we got to do something about this assassin.

None of us are safe if this assassin's on the loose. But the hut who holds the bounties is like, yeah, a bunch of people kind of think the organas actually are the ones who paid off the assassin do all this. another just covering their tracks by having her killed. And she's not good news. If you open, so she's hiding where every character in this game is hiding, which is behind a locked door in the circular concourses of the apartment buildings. And it's like, how did you find me? How do you find me here in this?

Behind this side, the door was locked. But she absolutely nuked me and Carth repeatedly. Yeah. I was not able to complete this until we went back with a. full with a full boat and a lot of gear but like she's bad news and she's oh you got her yeah let's go dups damn i i said i'm so sorry ma'am i i apologize i was just exploring i like to explore and i will leave you goodbye she's dangerous she's so dangerous she killed my The first time, well, the first time I was like, I'm just exploring, and then I walked away.

And then I, like, walked back to see if I could just, like, go loot the room. And she was like, oh, now you've done it. And then just immediately sniped me. Damn. You got to take her down. You got to take her down. And you can. She's a bit of a pain in the ass.

But, like, yeah, once you get that full crew going, and there is a place. in our next section where you'll have all the characters you're going to recruit on Taurus or Taurus. The different characters say it differently, I've noticed. Because, like, Mission says Tarras, but I think people up top might say Taurus. Maybe that's an accent thing. Maybe imperial accent says Taurus. I don't know.

But where you'll be able to go and go, you know, complete all the side stuff that you want to before you activate the big final confrontation, you know? There's another person in hiding down here. Yeah. Who else is down here? There's, I think it's, is he down here? Is that Matrick?

Matrick, the guy who fucking, who turned state's evidence, quote unquote? Is that him or is that somebody else? Yeah, that is him. Yeah, he's a snitch. He's a snitch. It's wild to me that they use the phrase state's evidence. That feels like a thing that you say in New York, not in Taurus of the Star Wars galaxy. What state?

Yeah, yeah, which state specific? is it is it uh he's a snitch yeah that's his whole thing he was like he was a gangster and he was like i feel like what we're doing is wrong killing a lot of people and so he yeah black dynamite he was like i'm gonna i'm gonna go to the go to but there are no feds but anyway he went to whatever their equivalent of the space feds is yeah uh and turned space snitch and got space immunity uh and now has a space contract out of his life uh from the exchange strange. So he needs to, he's like, I can't run. They're going to find me. If only I could fake my own death. Or your character is like, well, you fake your death. And he's like, that occurred to me, but there's no way I could do it. Unless I had a permacrete detonator, no way to get one of those. Well, I just happen to have one of my inventory, because I reflexively pick up every piece of trash on the ground throughout the city of Terrace. Uh-huh. This I think I bought from someone for 50, credits, which is so low that you'd have to start to wonder, why am I not throwing

permacrete detonators like grenades? Give me some more of those. I'll have this whole situation worked out. So you're like, here, please, I insist, use my permacrete detonators. And he blows up his apartment, which basically means you see some explosion animations, and then we get a cut to the door is blocked with rubble. And he's like, all right, thank you. I'm going Now nobody will ever believe him alive. You can turn into my bounty for money. And I did. And then I told the hut, I need more money.

And the hut was like, oh, ho, ho. Human negotiates. That's cool. Here's more money. But don't tell anybody. That's that dumps money. Dumps can negotiate with huts.

What? Dup's the hut negotiator. Wait, the downstairs hut is more willing to give you an extra cut than the upstairs guy? You got to work downstairs. The downstairs guy, I feel like I guess he's working with slime balls all the time. That's right. Yeah, he's more of a chump.

Like, he's very clear that he's like, basically a job done. And I feel like most people aren't. I guess upstairs, it's all performance fee. Everybody gets a flat fee. I can't have favorites. Upstairs, it's like you're dealing with, like, actors. Like, like, you're just like, just do the. Did either of you, did any of you go back up to the duel?

and the dual ring? I haven't finished it. I did go up and have a little conversation with StarKiller. And I told him I'm coming for him. As soon as I fit it. As soon as I climbed these rings, I'm going to get his ass. I got that fight on the books. They're sending it up for me.

They're getting a death match together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I managed to somehow get through those fights. It was a pain in the ass. Remember last week I was like, now you'll read from people who say, what you need to do in this game is only get to level four on Taurus because then when you get to the next planet

you unlock your next class and your class selection you get some bonus classes and that those are way more powerful and you should save your classes for that and I was like fuck that don't do that I've never done that it's not worth doing level up on Taurus you need to level up

it's important to get through this content for some fucking reason then it got in my head that was like what if I tried to get through Taurus on level four? four. I'll upgrade my, the rest of my crew can get higher level than that. But, uh, Kellen Kallon is stuck at level four. I'm not hitting that level up button. I'm not getting that free HP that you get when you level up, even in the middle of a fight where you're like, oh, I can just hit that level up button, get a free HP re-boost right this second for, without spending a med pack. I'm not doing

that. And I'm going through the duels. And they are fucking hard as shit at level four. But I got through ice. I got through what's his name? Marlock, Matlock Mern, Merle, Merle, Marl, Marl, Marl. And I got through Twitch, the quick-shooting

Rodian. And it was a pain in the ass, Marl specifically, because I'm a melee guy and Marl is a melee guy and he's a better melee guy than me. And I had to like put on the shield and put on the damn, you know,

So the, whatever, the adrenal strength booster to get my strength up. So I'm hitting harder and hitting more. And I use some other item at some, maybe I threw started by throwing a grenade at him. But I managed to pull that out. That was real tough. Twitch was not as bad because I think he's mostly a guns guy. And up close, he didn't have as many tools. But now I get that Bend deck Star Killer match coming up.

And like, you can't just go do it. They tell you like, oh, yeah, it's going to need, this is a death match. We have to set this up. This takes a little bit of time to get going. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. They got to get the contracts right. They got to contact the canteen a landlord.

Now, I remember beating him the first time I ever played this game, and I did it by putting mines all over the place, which, by the way, is the second best thing about mission. The first best thing is just like you get another body, and she's a beast in combat, which we'll get to. Or she can be a beast in combat. But the best thing is she just gives you free mines. She can recover minds nonstop, and you should be doing that. Instead of disabling minds with her, whenever you see one, it's fine. You will get so many minds. You will not know what to do with them.

Button over and hit recover mine, because her skill is high enough to do that, especially on Taurus at this point. I see, I see. This is a problem right. In this game, there's so few skills, really, that there's very few of my characters who are, like, particularly distinguished. wished at any one thing, because if you've got a couple different, like, the, of the main classes in your party, uh, it's just, you can easily max out like, oh, I've got max, uh, you're a

scoundrel too, right? Which means you have a ton of skill points, right? Explosives, uh, security, you know, all this stuff. But like, so between me and, uh, well, honestly, like, between me and mission, uh, like, it's a lot of redundancy, but she's a really good shot. So I'm kind of keeping her. But also, Big Z is a really good technician. So it's like all the like door opening, trap disarming stuff is like covered. And there has been a lot of cause for other stuff. Other stuff down here. Did you all dance?

Did you all help this lady dance? Oh, yes. What's her name, Lynn, Liv? I don't remember what her name is. I remember her name, but I did a bad dance with her. She sucks. or do you mean she sucks. Oh, well, the entire story of like,

well, what happened to your dance partner? I just told my dance partner she sucked and wasn't any good. Oh, yeah, this is true. She's never going to make it. And, you know, then she quit. That upset her for some reason. She made some points, you know?

You don't know this other dancer. Some people just can't handle the truth. Yeah. And then she picks you up to be her partner. She doesn't even vetted you. She's like, I guess you look like you could dance. Well, she does give you, I had to per se. assuade her.

Okay. She was like, I'm not, I don't know about this. This is my one big shot. Yeah. I don't think this is a good idea. I think this is someone who's like kind of a jerk in over, you know, who thinks she's about to go be a big star, but is about to have the worst time of her life. Yeah.

You know what I mean? She just earned a one way ticket to hell. Yeah, 100%. She's going to be, she's, first of all, you're auditioning in the lower city can'tina on Terrace where there's a fucking Sith blockade. You're gonna be, the other people there are literally like

this band has been playing here for weeks because of the blockade. Like, aren't we so lucky? Like, you're not leaving Terrace for a minute, man. Like, this is it. This is the big time. This is the city of lights. This is the stars.

Get ready. Here's your stage. You're part of a traveling dance troupe. And so, but it's just It's going to be in places like this. You're going to be, like, playing other clubs. It's like being in, it's like being a mobile MRI center, but for like strip joints. It's, it's like, I don't know that it's going to be a great gig. But either way, like, if you help her, she's like, oh, thank you so much.

I guess I can't really talk to you anymore because I'm above you and I'm off to be a star. But have a nice life. That's it for her. I don't think we get more of her. I don't remember her ever popping back up. I hope she crops up again, though. I hope it's like... Do you not see her on stage, or is that somebody else?

Did she just go on stage? Yeah, I feel like a second woman shows up. Oh, interesting, maybe. I could be wrong. I mean, speaking of bands, there's also the... We also learn the twisted tale of the twisted rancor trio. Yeah. Bioware puzzle time.

Some, yeah. It is kind of fun, though. You got to read the history of the band penned by the manager. And basically, the band is just like, I wanted to create a band for my girlfriend. And so, like, I'm here the lead singer of a band and then hired some. It's like, first you hire, it's, okay, so you go to an apartment building. He's like, Bith are good jazz folks, right? And they aren't.

The original band is not jazz folks. It's like, it's like that bit and party down where the dude plays Amazing Grace at like the funeral for like the black family and he's like you're an old time blues man and he's like teach me like the little actor's like teach me to sing the blues and of course he's just a guy can play Amazing Grace

he's a dentist or something but it's that logic applied to like what we need here is some jazz Biff and as we all know all Biff are masters of the clarinet space clarinet and they weren't

And then later replaced them with real musicians. And then the sister wanted to quit, and then they replaced, or the singer wanted to quit, and they replaced her with her sister. And then this, of course, is the puzzle solution for a chest that has good armor in it, because it's an RPG. You go to an apartment building, you find a locked chest that is surrounded by four, five, or six, six hollow projectors, and a note that's like, oh, yeah, I left the stuff in the chest for you.

And just activate the holograms in the order that the band members join the band. Since you're their manager, you of course know, you would know that. And of course, there's just a data pad nearby that is the bio, like VH1 behind the music on this band where you have to read it and do your little like third grade reading comprehension test to get the Achani fiber armor. Well, it's tricky because they like a bunch of them have names that overlap. Yeah, she's like Ujah and Uji and Lupa, et cetera, you know. I really liked that. Yeah, it's fun. I also dig the, the lady quit the band because she was like, I don't want to go to this war zone.

Like, are you nuts? Like, I don't want to play Terrace. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck that. I'm staying out of here. And you know what? She might have been right.

Yeah. That was probably the right call. Fucking, um. Terris seems bad in so many ways. Terris is so... I brought Mission and Z back up to the upper level

and ran into the Preacher Bigot guy and he was like I can't believe you would bring this disgusting aliens up here. And I was just like, fuck you. And then Zee was like

fuck you! In Wookie and and Mission was like fuck you in like 14 year old you know candor so it's it's terrible there's so much

did you run into the other alien situation of there that we missed last time the authoritarian the authoritarian situation yes and the first time oh I have a funny story about this actually okay so when you run back if you go back up to the upper city at some point after you've been to the lower city

you will encounter an a thorian just minding his own business just trying to get home to his life partner and he is being attacked and bullied by a bunch of Upper City Terrace kids who are being children literal children who are like basically throwing rocks at this poor this poor authoritarian

and the authoritarian reaches out to you and it's like human please like can you help me with these children I you know I just want to get home I had business up here and I just I'm just trying to get back I'm just trying to get back home and you can go and intervene and the first time I did this I was wearing the Sith armor because I had just come from the from the elevator and so so I was like of course I'm going to help this Thorian and I was like kids stop it like fuck off and the kids were like well we hate aliens and aliens shouldn't be up here on the upper city and da-da-da-da it's like great great to see that the racism is is starting young but then when the Thorian was leaving the Thorian it's like

yeah I'm gonna go home to you know my life partner you know I I guess not all Sith or bad like thank you for helping me and I was like oh hell no and I reloaded like whatever save I had and it was so far back and I was like I don't even care I was like I do not want this authoritarian to think that a Sith would help would help them in this way so I reloaded it and then did it again and took off my my armor before approaching but it was I didn't it's really funny how the game like when and when the game does and doesn't, like, take into, yeah, notice, like, what you're wearing or notice, like, who you're with or things like that. Often it's much more perceptible than, or perceptive than I would, that, than I'm expecting

in the moment, but it threw me off. I was like, what the fuck do you mean a Sith, a Sith, like, kinder than you'd expect? I was like, I'm no Sith, because I'm pretty decidedly light-side at this point. point, my scoundrel ways. I'm curious to see if things change. I'm curious to see if that sticks. Yeah. Right now on Terrace, I'm just like, shit sucks here.

Like, I just want everyone to like, everyone's just like being super, like, racist against aliens here. And I hate the humans. You know what it is actually? You talk about that. Just put it in a focus for me. in a lot of these games the good options are just variations on being a normal person

because everyone likes to think themselves themselves as good people and so like just do like what's the normal like you know properly socialized human response to a variety of situations

that's good that's light-sighted that's et cetera but then to juxtapose that you've got to have like needless baby eating where it's like no I'm going to take everything you've got And if you don't do that, then you're just a good person.

But none of the good options actually carry with them much cost. Like it's a very frictionless, like, no, I'll say the nice thing. I'll do the nice thing or whatever. But there is no, no, no, no, no. We're not the, maybe the boundary isn't what's like the normal like, damn, that sucks, bro? And the game being like, wow, that's so compassionate of you to say, damn, that sucks. And if it was instead more of a, well, what would somebody who wants to be canonized as a saint do? this situation.

Or that dark side could be also be scaled down to be to look the other way as something bad is happening and don't get involved. You know what I mean? Well, there's a lot of that option, but that's usually just disengage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just disengage with this encounter. Exactly, exactly. And imagine if that started giving dark side points, which it won't because they need

dark side points to be you've turned in, you go beat up the authoritarian with the kids, you know? Hey, kids, check this out. I call this a roundhouse kick. I used this against Twitch and the duels. This is our problem with Mortis. Yes, yes, yes. This good sister and the evil brother.

The good sister was just like, she was like too, like, nice. There wasn't like anything. Yeah. For Lightside, like the extreme of Lightside should be like almost like martyrdom. Like somewhat like. sacrificial like somewhat like like I don't you have to like also take an L to to be giving so much instead of just like doing the normal well-adjusted person who participates in a society normally and this game is mostly that frankly it isn't going to be continued and that is the

canon right or that is the canon that is just the way that Star Wars thinks about light side dark side often, which is a bummer. There is some stuff that we'll get to that I think encourages you better to specifically say fuck off light side or like I've been, I have been being light side has not gotten me anywhere, you know, that we'll get to. I don't want to say more than that at this point. And I think that if we get to Cotor 2, Cotor 2 is very, it's frustrating in a different way sometimes. Um, it's not as, um, it's not as save the cat kick the dog, but it is still,

there are times when it's like, yeah, but if you save the cat, you prevent the dog from eating. And so therefore the dog starves to death. So is it really light sided? 12 light side points. And like, like it's still, you know what I mean? Like it will undercut, it will try to undercut the thing, but it can't because it's fundamentally a game where your character either like puts their chest out and blue glows behind them or they get like crumpled and pale and evil-eyed you know

and they're even the red background and it's like you can't get away from that binary Kotar-2 still does some more interesting things with some light-sided characters that I think are like all-timers but we'll get there. I think this game does too we just haven't gotten there yet so I definitely said I was like I'm going to be a little

little bit scoundrely and every time I'm just like I just can't be this weird about these situations I just can't do it um so the other thing just on the lower level i do like that i can't tell to me they have party member energy are those two those two mercenary bounty hunters the oh sure sure candoros and collo yeah they're so cool uh you know the the the one is just mowing down uh you know gangsters and collecting bounties and doing the doing the count and then the oh yeah so is candoris who's got the uh the he's the he's the mandolian he's the he's the mandolian

He's the best Mandalorian bounty hunter in the sector is what they've now said, which is interesting. And he just walks around with a giant, like, mini gun type thing, just, oh, yeah. Looking like Ron Perlman. Yes. He's real cool. It was really, he scares me. I, well, I can't get into Canada's Odo right now, but I was a little shocked going back to it and being like, for 20 years, I've been obsessed with Duke Duke, of like this is really who he is this is what he looks like

oh wow this has been the love of my life Ali with the fucking bus guy the red shirt but you can dress him up later you can dress him up later you can look better you can't change the haircut

yeah seeing his face again after all this time I was like god damn sorry oh my god I think I think we just found something very funny I thought something very funny in this in this in this play through that I I just have this play through running right you know this I've been to this earlier

and I looked up and I got to take a screenshot it doesn't say what I thought it said I thought it was something different because it could this is only on the screen for two seconds and it's the player has switched over to their cart to like slice through a door you know how you do that in the early game and it popped up

the main character's name because he was standing near the door and it's Luke Vacanta and I thought it was Luke Vegeta and I almost died anyway it's not but Luke Vigita if anybody wants a

Cotor name out there that's really good try Luke Vigita anyway there is another important thing the canteena down there. We get a little freak.

Oh, yes. I love him. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, wait, yeah. Yeah, both of them. Yeah, gotcha. It's such a weird encounter. Like, it doesn't, it doesn't open a quest.

No, it's just, it's just you walking up to a guy and being like, hey, you're weird looking, right? What's your deal? And I'm stuck here. Please don't talk to me. Like, people are so mean. I don't want to do this. Did someone play this game and go There's not enough little freaks

Let's just throw We got an empty little corner right here Let's just throw one Standing in the corner Staring at the wall Yeah Star Wars is about Go into a canteen and seeing guys

You'd never seen before You ain't never seen the guys That are in this canteen before We got to get some of them in here And so what they made was like It's like a big lurched over guy Who's all pale yellow Big face

arms down and then on his back coming out of his back is a little green guy who's strapped on slash growing out and that's the one who talks to you

it's the little guy it's not the big guy and you're like well what's your name buddy you're rude as shit to this guy right? There's no way to be chill about it

there's sometimes like there's sometimes that the game wants you to be a racist terrorist citizen. Because like any type you approach them. It's not racism if you're just curious. You're like, uh,

you're a Twilett that speaks basic. What the fuck? Or like, Hey, why are you on the pole? Yeah. What the? Jesus Christ.

Yeah, that is how it is though. It is how it is. There's like no like good option. And when you approach him, your options are like, um, uh, are do you have two?

Like, why aren't you talking out of your other head or something like that? And he says it from the first, he's like, oh, let me guess. You're just going to freak out about, like, the way I look. And your character's like, no, I promise I'm not. But seriously, what the fuck is up, man? Where are you from? What's your planet like?

How do you get like this? It's so best up. But this is all the good things. He's so happy to, so happy to deal with someone who's sensitive about all this. It's bad. And all your dialogue options are, but you've got two heads. I just want to be like, yo, I like your vibe. There should be a button that's like, do the quick little up nod that's like, yeah, see you.

Just like I was some. Taris, am I right? You know what I mean? I wish I could have been an alien so that I could like just be of the, like, not be some fucking weirdo, like, voyeur every time I, I encounter an alien. I wish I could have told him, too It's like, no, no, no, you understand You bring me back fond memory Is my favorite two Dark Jedi

From Dark Forces 2 Jedi Night Where there was a big and a little And you had to fight them Yeah, then he'd jump around It was a whole thing What? Yeah, Dark Forces 2 is wild One day, one day

There's got some good weirdos in it There's got some weirdos in it For real Also, you meet the dude Who put the contract out on the girl That he harassed and cut him with a knife I didn't have. Did you persuade him? Adopt it. You duped it. That's what we're talking about. I was just like, hey, man, like, this is just bad vibes if people get worried that you're out there, just like putting out contracts on girls who disrespect you. He's like, you know, that's a good point. All right, I'm pulling the contract. I did the same thing. Yeah. And I'm like, I guess probably you just like killing the guy is not going to make things better over.

all for Dia on the upper level, but, you know, it would have been cool to see some sort of, hey, hey, you're a creep and the sex pest and you use your power to, like, you don't have people killed if they don't give in to you. So let's take the trash out here, but that's just not how this, this encounter is going to go. Though I guess I used Persuade, and I figured maybe there'd be cool options there weren't. He was just like, okay, I'm going to pull the contract. I failed the Persuade the first time. I didn't have it. I couldn't get him to, get him to agree. And I threatened him a bunch and he was basically like, I'm not, you're not going to do shit. You're not going to do shit. And I wasn't going to do shit. But what I did do is go and level up and

come back and hit persuade again and it worked that time. So I don't know if he just saw the muscles rippling or what. I think I just paid him off. That's what it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can pay him off. That's what it is. Yeah. He wouldn't take my money the first time. He's like, no, I want to, I want to prove a point or whatever. Oh. Damn. I don't remember if that's true. I'm trying to, I'm trying to find it right now, you know. But there is no, like, just gut him down to the bar. I don't think there is. You can, like, tell him he sucks, I'm pretty sure.

I was afraid of causing a ruck. I just got to Zach's canteena. Yeah. I wasn't, you know, I liked Zach's vibe. I didn't want to cause a ruckus in his canteena. So I persuaded the man. Yeah. So if you could threaten him, but he'll be like, I work for Davik.

they'll kill you in here. Like, what are you talking about? But yes, you can also you can also offer him the 200 and that'll... I might have done that. I can't remember. That's what it is. You can offer him the

200 or you can persuade him and the persuasion thing that you say to him is, listen, if you hire someone to kill Dia, it'll look like you weren't man enough to do it yourself. And then he'll take the thing off. He'll take the bounty off, which is what Dup's did.

It's a weird way to convince someone of a thing. Because it could break real bad in real life. Hey, you should kill her yourself if you're a real man is not really the way I would try to go about this. You know? I'm trying to think. I think that's basically, I mean, we touched briefly on the conversation with Gatton. Yeah, we did. He's cool.

The gang does not seem cool. He seemed cool. Yeah. there's a last thing in the one one last thing in the canteena so I was playing this game on the way back from a trip at 4 a.m. and a red eye flight and I think I spent half of that flight maybe not half a third of that flight uh playing Pazok down here that guy that guy fucking cheats that there's no way those card flops is legit no fucking way and I here's the fucked up thing Rob I beat him the first time I went up against him I beat him the first time I went up against

him. I beat him and I forgot to save. So I was like, let's just roll into the second one. And I lost the second one. I was like, that's all right. Let me load my save back. I'll just beat him once again. I didn't beat that motherfucker for an hour. I don't know how I scam that first dove, but after that, I could not. And it was one of those fucked up things where it's like, I beat him once. I know it's doable. And so it's just, it's just a matter of time. I'm going to beat him again. He has to cheat. he's a cheater he's been he kicked out of the upstairs canteena is he's the only place he's allowed to play pizzok is here because he's a cheater you're right this is why i don't fuck with pizoc

it really soured me on pizok playing this guy soured me on pizok for his like stupid he i really do think he's cheating i really do he has to be why else would he get banned yeah yeah and you're down here wasting time with a I was on a plane. I was tired. What else was like, you know? Just clicking buttons.

But yeah, the sheer number of times. My note here is buying new Pazak cards and playing Gellrude. This is the hardest I've ever worked for 40 credits. It's not even like a big bet. You can't even go all in. You know what I mean? There are other people. There are other Pazok tables.

Yeah. No, I can't stand there. There's other Pazac players in the downstairs canteen. Isn't there? No, it's just him. You buy cards down there. Oh, yeah, you get your plus one minus ones finally, you know, but. Yeah, I'm not bothering with that for now.

Yeah, that's fair. It's good for when you need money to go buy a special thing, and you're like, eh, I'm a little short, you know? Yeah, I'm starting to feel the, well, I have a lot of credits right now, but if I were to buy anything, I would have no credits. It's expensive. Yeah. The economy's bad.

Yeah. Inflation's crazy on terrace. It's blocking. And nothing has resale value. It's absolutely criminal. The one thing Gannon does is he takes the armor off your hands, but it gives you the Sith papers. Right. And that'll give you, like, unfettered access to all the places you might run into Sith, at least in the city.

And with that way, I headed downstairs to the undercity. And with the papers, I was able to bypass the guard and go down there and started to really, soak in the vibes of the undercity, which are bad. It's bad. It's not sort of like a different genre down there. I mean, it completes the time traveler upstairs, downstairs, you know, the elevated people above and the mutated, what do they call it in the Morlocks? The Morlocks down. No, sorry, we're talking.

In Time Traveler, there are two cultures that are separated and the ones who live underground are Morlocks and the ones of Popper, the L-L-E-L-O-I, never knew how to pronounce it. And they, you know, a million things just still do that. That's just a thing that just happens again and again in genre fiction. But yeah, the outcasts down here. It's a different genre because you're like, and here's Rookill-Rinkle skin, who wants everyone to go to the promised land. And it's like...

Well, right when you get out of the elevator, we're in two identical character models because there's like, there's one, there's one woman. and one guy down here that you're just going to see again and again and again with like rag clothes. But with the textures,

it kind of just looks like someone threw up all over the character model just because this is how clothes look in this era. So rags tend to look really, really shabby because it's just like a smear of different, different colors.

But you run these two dudes and it's just like classic, you know, deranged weirdo talk of, oh, you're in our elevator. Give us money. Elevator, money, you're in our elevator. Gotta pay the toll.

Elevator. That is what's happening. They're like bad witcher NPCs. Yeah. Like, boy. Yeah, uh-huh. It's very weird. And then, yeah, you learn.

But they're only asking for like five credits. Uh-huh. It's no money. I gave them five. Maybe giving them 20. I don't, maybe with somebody else. I did the light side thing. I was like, okay.

You know what? Take 20. This is the thing. It's so easy to do the light side thing. What's 520? What's 20 credits? There's just five and 20 credits does not exist for me. You know?

No. But they're so annoying. There's a party that's like, or. Fuck them. Or. Cut them down on the street. Yep. So what's up with the, what's up down here?

I mean, I guess you kind of get it slowly, right? Because your first impression of it is, oh, there's outcast down here. That's a shame. This sucks. It sucks for them. They describe themselves as just like criminals and outcasts. Um, this is a thing that Taurus does. It sends people down here.

Oh, wow. It's weird. There's some people who've been down here for generations. That's wild. But if you collect all of the journals and you start to, and you talk to the right people, you learn the history of what actually happened down here and what happened on Taurus a hundred years ago. Do you all get that stuff? So I got a bunch of the promised land stuff.

I haven't gone back to talk to Ruckel. Okay. Yeah, I haven't gone back yet. Go turn that in. Go turn that stuff in once you're. Yeah. Because he'll explain what happened on Taurus. which is a hundred years ago, there was civil war between the rich and the poor, all over Taurus.

There was global class struggle leading to revolution, and the poor people died and lost generally. The classic revolutionary thing happened, you know. You get the people who were the true revolutionaries were turned on, and they were, and they were are the original outcasts. And so the people who are down here, millions died, also this was about a specific thing, which is Taurus doesn't have land. It has cities and it has oceans, and all the food comes from the oceans. And a hundred years ago, what happened is the corporations poisoned the oceans. And that is the thing that caused the civil war on Taurus. It caused the working class to finally revolt, was like, we can't make our own food here anymore because you poisoned our

oceans. They don't get into the bit that we've talked about a lot on this show with Rhodia, right? Which was like, oh, that means we have to rely on the Republic for all of our food. But the fact is, you ruined our fucking food sources here. And so they, they tried to do an overthrow and they failed. The Theresean nobles put them down. And then all of the original people down here, the original string of outcasts are not just generic criminals. It's not like, oh, you stole a sword from the shop or whatever. It is specifically the leaders of the revolution, got outcast. And it's like four or five generations down now that they're all here.

And the promised land was originally something that the old dude, Rook Hill's grandfather claimed he knew about, which was a place on Taurus where the water was still clear, where grass still grew because the corporations didn't know where it is. It was like deep enough down some caves or whatever that like everything was still pure enough to live on without importing stuff. So like that's what's going on down here. And so he had like an apprentice that he sent out to or investigate it or whatever. And then he had an apprentice and then he had an apprentice. And now we're in the final last stages of it. Sorry, that happened generationally. And now the most recent guy's apprentice has gone missing.

And so you have to go try to find them. I think we all found them. We all found them. Yeah. The apprentice is dead. The apprentice is dead. Yeah. Unfortunately.

But you got her notes. Yeah, we got our notes to bring back to Ruckel. Yeah. Yeah, Ruckel is an interesting. He's like, everyone's like, there's this, the oldest man you've ever seen is down here. You need to like. There also keeps saying, like, he's wandering around here somewhere. He's just standing across from you.

What are you talking about? He's wandering around. His hut is next to your hut. What are you talking about? He's directly in front of the leader of the undercity. Yeah, this whole area has kind of a, like, you can feel the limits of the early 2000s, Xbox. Because they talk about the under, first of all, it's not, you have to remember, the idea is that like, Taurus is a huge planet that's covered in oceans and cities. and, like, this is supposed to cover the undercity of the whole planet?

What are you talking about? It's five feet big. Yeah, there's like six people here. The serum is right there, guys. If you all had sent one dude out, if you, if all of you together had picked up sharp sticks and walked to that corpse, you would all be healed from the rackwell stuff because the serum is right there. You can see it from your front gate.

He's going to go out and around the corner a little bit. And it's like the scale just doesn't match, you know? Yeah. But I will say that I found, I had found the serum by going through the sewers and then I went out the other side and then ended up like where that body is. So to me it was like, oh, it was kind of like this long excursion. And then I turned around and realized, oh, the booking front gate is right there. But, yeah, no, that's just like, you know, use your imagination. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

You can go to Taurus in Star Wars, the Old Republic, the MMO, and it's huge and annoying. So this is better, you know. I've heard that it's actually a good thing that I have not played the Old Republic because there's a lot. There are some big Taurus spoilers of the old Republic. Yeah, that's what I've heard. So I'm glad I. When you talk about those once you're off Taurus and you have some context for it, you know. Cool.

You also need some rackables. So you need the, you meet the healer. And she's like, things are bad down here. We got people on the other side of this wall and they're a racooled up. Don't go in there. And you open the door and there's a bunch of people are like, please, we got the rack cool thing. And then immediately turn to rackholes, which are not what I was expecting. They're weird.

The rackules? They are. What's weird about them to you? I don't know. They're just kind of wet. Is it because they're wet? Yeah, they're pale and wet. I think it's the wet.

well it's fresh it's fresh skin fresh you know that just changed if I were being if I were to imagine

somebody being born out of somebody else say more I'm putting my imagination to it yep yeah okay

it adds up like I I imagine kind of wet and gross, wet and gross situation, you know. Rob, did you do this after you found the serum or before? Oh, boy. So I did not. You didn't get the serum. You gave the serum.

I saved some people. Okay. Okay. Did you? Who'd you save? So you go into the recool holding pen. Yeah. Three people are going to turn no matter what.

Yes. Yes. I redid that like four times before I read. Okay, so those other two do hold out for you to come back with the serum. They held out. Now, who did not hold out was this dude by the crash escape pod, who you go out there, and first you run into the Mandalorian guy again, and he's coming back with it from a salvagement.

He's got a whole crew. I didn't, for a minute. I didn't trigger this down there. Oh, interesting. Oh, wow. So he's got a whole squad of guys, and then they're attacked by Rackwels, and all his dudes are wiped out, basically, in that fight. Yeah, I definitely waited to jump in there until most of his guys got caught.

Trying to seem like a hero, or are you just trying to make sure he couldn't, like, get one up on you? I just want to make sure that the odds were even, you know? Interesting, interesting. Yeah, sure. In case things went a different way. I don't know, I don't know this guy. I don't know. I really wanted him to like me.

He keeps threatening me. Yeah, I get you. So I was like, I'm going to help out. And he was like, you don't seem so bad. I'm like, I'm not. I'm not. Join my party. I would do anything

to have you journey with us but he wanted it off but he's contracted right now you know what I mean he has a job so but you go exploring and there's a few directions you can go one of them you find the crash site

and there's this Republic soldier or something who's like please help something my insides and I was like can you hang on I bet I can find a serum and they turns out of a raccoon and you kill him so there's another thing Good news.

Yeah, Natalie, go ahead. So when I first encountered him, I was like, just hold on one second. Let me ask you a question. And he was like, ah! And then he just turned into a wreck. Wow. And so I reloaded. And I was like, I bet I can save him if I have the serum on me.

So I came back after I had the serum. And I was like, hey, wait, I can heal you. And so he heals himself. and he tells you, yeah, Bastilla crash landed, you know, somewhere else. We're not sure. And then he's like, I hear something. I hear something. And I was like, just chill.

I was like, there's nothing going on. Just answer my fucking questions. And he was like, ah. And he like runs. It's so funny. What? He runs like 20 feet away from you. And then immediately gets one.

One hit, K-Oed by a rackul and dies. And I was just like... After you gave him a serum. After you give him the serum. Twelve light side points. The dog got to eat. I got the light side points. You do.

That's what I'm saying. But you can't even loot his body. I don't know. But it was just extremely funny to me because I had reloaded that specific instance. I reloaded that specific instance a couple of times to make sure. that I could save the Republic Soldier and to watch him run in a straight line

and then a rackle just come at the perpendicular angle and just just punch him straight in the forehead and kill him immediately was just one of the funniest things I've ever seen happen in a video game that guy wasn't cut out for

he was a weak link I'm not going to lie. Damn. Yeah, everything's working on different on the end of our spire if he'd be able to pull his weight. Yeah, maybe.

Maybe if he wasn't getting scared by noises and then running off alone when we got, I got a lookie and a kid with me. Okay, well, you have me in the first half. We got this. We got you back. Did you go running to the Sith Patrol

with the Red Sith guy? who I I don't know I don't know if I did y'all didn't see the Sith patrol leader where I talked to a Sith patrol leader

but he's all in red he's in red armor where down there no walking around walking around you could talk to him

does he have the whole conversation about how like we're looking for a lost patrol but yeah what do you mean he wasn't what are you look normal to me he was just the guy

in red armor I did not see this guy a shader glitch man no I'm playing on Switch, and also I can send you a screenshot. This guy. Y'all didn't see this? There were three of them.

They were all wearing silver armor for me. Really? I was on an Xbox version. Huh. Maybe you had a shade or glitch. Are they out in the, like, open area? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you run into them, give them shit and fight them because that's XP that I didn't

get because I, like, I, like, I talked to them as if I was allowed to be down here, and in retrospect, I should have killed them. I thought they would just wander around some more, and I could get to them I got to them, but they're just gone. Were they on the right side when you leave the gate? I don't remember. I went southeast, yeah. Yeah, that sounds right.

I cleared the whole, that whole area and I never ran into them. Didn't trigger. Huh. I wonder if there are ways to get them to, like, disappear. Do you know what I mean? I had some weird. I accidentally triggered the candorous cutscene while I was inside the village somehow, because I was, like, standing on the side closest.

to where they were. So, like, I guess the proximity triggered the, and then I heard them fighting, and I, like, had no idea. I was running around the, trying to find them. It's funny. So I reloaded, and then I ended up meeting them where I was supposed to meet them. But maybe because I did the sewers already, the patrol guy. That's my guess.

Yeah. If you do the sewers first, maybe they disappear. These guys look sick. I would have loved to have gone. I'm mad that I didn't fight him because that's free XP. that I didn't get. Yeah, I think I just, I was just like, good to see officers. Yeah, everything, all coast is clear, guys.

Yeah, mm-hmm. You all see any rackles around here? All right. Be on the lookout. I, speaking of Seth, I also love how much the elevator guy hates doing his job now. Because if I ever talk to him instead of just going straight to the elevator, he's like, I've seen your papers, all right? Leave me alone. You're clear

He's got a podcast on in there for sure He's vibing He's not even yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah He's chilling He has other worries Well, it is funny How many of the Sith soldiers Not having a good time here anymore

They're like, we can't rescue our buddies Because we got to find other stuff It's a high priority mission They're just letting us get killed down here This place sucks Indeed Yeah, that's what the leader The patrol leader is basically like

because you can make, look, I have the security papers. The guy's like, oh, you're one of the trackers that the commander said they were going to send down. Weird. I didn't think they would actually do that. Like, I thought they were just going to let this patrol die. Huh. All right, cool. Search and rescue.

I guess that's wild. Okay. All right, guys. Dismal vibes. And that's why I found the serum, like on a corpse nearby. And then I went to the upper city to give it to the doctor. You did give it to the doctor. You did give it to the doctor.

She didn't take the cash. Am I going to kick the dog? Yeah, I got you. I got you. Yeah, maybe I got to go dark side so we can get some dark side story in here. Maybe it's time of evil. I don't know, maybe other planets will have some options.

Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure, sure. I was thrown off by the way the serum works, by the way. I saw Natalie. It's fair to have doing this. I was so thrown off by it. I need like 50 of these to save. the people. Yeah, I was like, I got to bring it to all of the outcast. Yeah, I didn't realize

it was a multi-use serum, but, you know, that's, that's, because the doctor's like, I got hellless serums now. Like, he's like, I can make, I can make hundreds of these all for a very low price. And so then you talk to him and you buy the one for 50 credits or whatever. And I was like, okay, where, where's the hundreds of these you're boasting? And I, and I, I, like, quit the game. I thought I had a bug. I quit the game. I, like, reloaded.

I was like, you only need the one. You only need the one. And you can do all the stuff with it. Yeah, that makes sense. What's all the stuff that you can do with it? I went to the doctor. I went to the doctor in front of the, the infected cage. Yeah.

And I was like, listen, I got a serum. Let's let me help you out. And she's like, one serum isn't going to do anything. These people are already sick. What's done is done. And I was like, hey, I'm going to go in there. I'm going to go help them. I go in there, I did not help them.

Well, those three. Wait, none of them? None of them. They transform immediately. There's those two other guys in there. They're hiding in the world. You got to go back. You got to go back immediately.

Oh, you just left them there. They watched you come in. They watch their friends transform and look all wet. Like a being that just emerged from another being. Uh-huh. And then you just left. And they closed the gate behind you. Well, I was scratched up.

Zalzabar was poisoned. I had to go. You can just talk to that lady and she instantly heals you too. She doesn't heal poison though. Oh, she's not heal poison? I have been abusing the shit out of going to the hideout. I just go home. Every time I'm not doing well, I'm like, I'll go home. I think it's time for a nap. My mom is called. Six rackules. I got to take a little break. It's so convenient. It's also a really convenient way to just get back to the Upper City quickly. Then you got to run all the way

back down. But yeah, there's, there's, I had the same thing, because I thought there was some way I could save those three people, so I reloaded that a few times. And then Austin was like, there are other people in there. I was like, oh, I see, I see. That's it. It's them, and then it's the one republic guy who dies. So, I guess, you know, theoretically, by giving it to the doctor, you've given it to the world,

you know? Yeah. But you don't get to, you don't get to reap that benefit. Inside the back to tank or whatever, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. And then you go into the source to find Big Z, who has been kidnapped by Gimorians slavers. Just like the Bith are born to do jiz.

The Gimorians are born to be slavers, I guess. And they've kidnapped Big Z. I thought Gimorians were born to be like grunts for huts. Yeah, I think that's actually right, yeah. I thought they were going to be Trandotions. Right, sure, sure, no, Gimorians. Like pig guys, the green pig guys. They look like, like, orcs in like an 1987 JRP.

Yeah. Big green pig guys. And you kill probably three or four dozen of them down here. along with some rackwools They're fighting rackules There's some droids maybe There's one droid I remember There's some vulcars

There's some vulcars With the fucked up faces Yeah And you find Big Z eventually There's nothing to talk about With the sewer Like there's not like a puzzle There's lots of minds I guess

But there's no like There's a couple tough fights Is there a puzzle? No There's a mission can open doors Sometimes for you That like including one door that is like, oh, this is a weird door.

It doesn't have a regular keypad. Good thing I know how to open this door because Big Z is behind it. So if you'd gone there without her, you couldn't have gotten him, you know? Right. Yeah, there's some fights, but that's kind of it. Yeah.

And then Mission being really weird about Big Z's breath. So you rescue Big Z. Yeah, well, something big happens when you rescue Big Z. Oh. Well, it seems to always happen when you meet a Wookie. It didn't happen for Mission. Yeah.

That's true. Well, because honestly, he probably thinks she goes him a life dog. Right. Save your ass, kid. You don't even have a courtesy to swear your life to me. But she's the one who gets you to come help. Why didn't this end with him being like, you know what, mission? You and me forever.

Life debt to you, mission. Can you imagine being mission and you're like, you've been worried about Big Z all day? And finally you save him and you're like, oh, there you are, you big galute. And he goes, who's the stranger? I owe them a life debt. Which is the most sacred thing. in my culture. Bigsy is trying to get out

of a situation ship. He doesn't to get out. He knows that he wants to get a can't sit down and finish his soup, man. He's had this fucking punk kid. He's sick of being called fat. He's sick of being said that he has bad breath. That his fur is matted and disgusting.

Every time you turn around. That he needs to put clothes on. Every time you turn around, she's like, you're not talking to that way. or my friend Big Zee is going to fuck you all. And you're just like, you're just like, you're just got the soup halfway to your mouth.

Yeah. I'm going to be the fucking big guy now. Yeah. You both have told a story on this podcast of little guys getting, getting y'all into confrontations that you did not ask for. And I have a feeling that Big Z is one of those guys.

100%. Big Z is one of those little guys. Yeah. Big Z doesn't even have a hard vibe. Like Chewy does. Like Chewy, you feel like is capable of doing some dirt, right? Yeah, yeah. Big Z feels like the bookish, wookie in a lot of ways.

Like quiet, just kind of wants to like tinker on stuff. Is really like, because you can, you see his words translated. Yeah. It's comparatively like really soft spoken and polite compared to like the baseline way of interacting with people. Yeah. And there is a sort of strained patience in all his interactions with mission. Because there's this moment where she's like, your breath stinks. What were they feeding you?

And he's like, they weren't feeding the mission. I wasn't their guest. I was their prisoner. I don't think they cared what happened to me. So they didn't feed me. And she's like, well, whatever it is, your breath is worse than usual. And that's saying something. You got to brush your teeth.

And he's like, we don't do that. He's like, we don't brush teeth. This is not a thing we do. Yeah, you might be right. You might be right. And as soon as Big Z swears the life debt, Mission's like, well, you got me with you because I go where Big Z goes. So maybe I should split up Mission and Big Z for a little bit.

Maybe I should bring Carth back into the break. Carth and Big Z. I mean, they must have conversations, right? Yeah. I don't know, does Carth speak wookie? Carth probably don't speak wookie. Definitely not. Right? And, you know, Carth is on a thin enough edge.

I don't want to hear the shit that he's going to be asking Big Z about. You know what? Good fucking point. It might just be me and Big Z going for it. I don't know. Carson, I don't trust people. Why are you always being enslaved by the Sith Empire? Huh?

What's up with that? I wouldn't work for the Sith Empire. Even their whole thing got on me. So why so many wookies end up in their work camps? Let me tell you about Saul. Let me tell you something I learned about what people. Look, nothing happens that people don't secretly

on some level want to happen. It's like, thank you, Carth. All right. Take five. Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot bad vibes in the party. Yeah. Like, Carth and Mission have a weird

inter, like, weird by-play of just like, you're so old. Well, you're an annoying kid. And then Mission's just mean to to Big Z all the time. And I'm like, I'm just going to take, is, the problem is.

mission's just my killer like she's walking around with a blaster rifle now and she's just putting people down and I'm just like basically standing behind her and just be like mission you want to initiate with a slap a shot boom

yeah dead yeah well she has like sneak attack or something right so I don't know if it works if you're just out of combat if you have to be stealthy or it might be if you're behind someone sneak attack triggers also she can be very strong if you line it up right So you'll get some more killer soon. But yeah, sneaks, yeah, go ahead.

Speaking of Sneak's, how are we doing in those sewers? Great. You're talking about the rancor? You're talking about the rancor? Yeah. Yeah. I have a memory of being a kid in fighting this rancor. Which I try to fight the rancor.

You get a lot of XP if you do. Did you do it? Did you do it? No, I, I very careful. Well, because I got confused. Oh, my God. You cannot Google shit. I know, I know.

I think I was spared. I don't think I saw anything. I think you were spared. You would know. Yeah. You would know. Yeah. But you do get a lot of XP.

Because I was confused because they were like, you go down this one like little hallway in the sewers. And there's a severed arm with the hidden Beck Strat for how they're going to get into the Volgar's base, which is they have these smelly. They have these yummy smelly vials that they can plant and essentially the plan was to poison the rancor guarding the entrance to the Volgar base. And so I saw the corpse pile. I had my smelly stuff and I was like, where do I find the poison? I was like, do I have to go back to the hidden Beck's base and like go tell Gander that, what's his name Gandalf, it's Gandalf

Okay And tell Gandalf that Like I got the plans and give me the poison And so I looked up like Rancor poison question mark And then it was like Game Facts Like ancient game facts that were

That were talking about forums That we're talking about How you can basically just set up You can stealth like a ton of minds or you can kind of cheese frag grenades. And if you kill the rancor, instead of feeding it a frag grenade, which is what I ended up doing,

you get like 700 XP, just a lot of XP. But I just, I did it the normal way. So I planted a forest of mines around the rancor the first time because I recovered all these mines and like we're in open fire and he's going to just get fucked up.

up is going to be able to feel the rakes. And he's just going to keep walking and know it's going to be great. And mission's going to initiate. She's going to do the sniper shot. And then the rancor's going to charge and settle whole the mine's dead ranker. And the first part of that worked well. Like shot drew the rancor straight through a huge minefield. It's just getting demolished.

Like half its health is gone before it's closed within range. And then attacks once, missions down. Attacks twice, dups is down. Attacks third time. Big Z. Down. And I was like, okay, we're not fighting the rancor. And we're going to instead.

So then I waste a bunch of time. I was like, how do I make the bait serum interact with like the gamoreans who are down here? Oh, so I like, lead them in somehow? Yeah. And it's like, this, I was like, this game doesn't seem to support this interaction. This isn't, this isn't working. So I had to look up and it's like, no dummy. Just put it in the corpse pile.

Yeah, it's a lock and key solution here. You put it in the corp file with a grenade. One grenade is enough. Yeah. And it kills it. Yeah. I thought, oh, maybe it's the poison grenade because that you get, you pick that up down here. Yeah.

But I was like, let me just try a frag since I have a billion of them. And I don't want to waste the one poison grenade I found. And it works. So it works. Yeah. I think it has like a wild, like, armor class difficulty to hit thing. It's just like you're not going to hit it in melee combat basically at all. unless you've stunned it with something.

So you can do it, but it seems really fucking hard. And yeah, there's XP, but like, there's XP. You're going to hit level 20 in this game. It's fine. You're not going to, you're going to be okay, you know. I wasn't really concerned about, I'm not really concerned about, like, min-maxing. Yeah, you'll be fun. Like, the game has a recommended button.

It will, you can't, you can't design a game with a recommended. thing and that not be able to take you through to the end of the game. Like there's just no, this isn't like Final Fantasy Tactics. Right. Yeah, yeah. You can't get like hard locked because you didn't spend the right amount of time grinding or like put people in the right classes or whatever. Exactly.

You're going to be fine, generally speaking. There's enough like OP equipment specifically that is just like you will be okay by the end of this game. Cool. And then you get past the rain core And the elevator of the Volcar base And that's where we left off And then we'll finish off Taurus next time And get to the next planet

Oh, because we left out the key thing Why are we doing all this? Oh We have to fix a swoop bike race Oh, the Jedi Shroop bike race Fuck So yeah, sorry

Key set up just to let you know What kind of game we're dealing with The machinations of these underworld gangs Yep. So they find a, they find an escape pod with a Jedi in it who can do battle meditation. And they're like, well, the swoop tournament has a trophy now. It's this Jedi. Yep.

Yeah, the Black Volcker's like put her up as their ante, basically, for this year's swoop bike, you know, torny. The Volkar are going to let themselves lose the swoop bike race or something so that like the other gangs will win, like their other gangs. So the Davik gets it, right? or aren't they doing it so that I thought it was just that by putting it up they looked you know I'm not generous but you know they look like they are playing ball

either way it brings all the other swoop bike unaffiliated gangs onto their side exactly so what you have to do can we just bust in there and rescue the Jedi no she's probably too well hidden we can't just do that what we have to do is we have to get the prototype swoop

from the Volcar base so that we can enter it and win the swoop race and free the Jedi so that and then you know that'll let the hidden backs sort of even up the war and we get a Jedi and that'll be it but either way so we are we're going we went to all this trouble because we need a fast bike

yeah that's it that's it that's it and the right the Volcar stole the the bike like the prototype bike from the from the hidden backs right for the engine or whatever so go get it back we got some bike racing in the future we got some we got some battle meditation Jedi in the future awesome is there a mode seven flight sequence with the uh with the swoop there are i will tell you there are things that you do in this game that are not uh RPG combat um and maybe one of them is riding the swoop bike it's not the thing you might think it is now I'm real curious

I guess we will get to that in a couple weeks Because in my mind I'm thinking N64 Shadow of the Empire I don't know if you played that game But there's like a swoop bike

Sequence and that That fucking rules Where you're going through Tattoine On the swoop bikes Trying to get to Luke And it's dash Rendar Obviously And you

You have full control over your bike And you're like dodging and stuff And that's just not that's not what they're doing down here. You will learn more next time about soup bike racing. I figure it was like a pod racer situation, but. Sure. Yeah.

Well, we'll see. And there's a lot more to go on Terrace. There's a, there's some, there's like a couple of big dungeons. And there's some more, there's some more folks to recruit. So we're very more characters to talk about next time. All right. So, yeah, next time the, the end of, the end of terrorists, the rescue of the Jedi. And then I guess we'll be on the cusp of what a lot of folks have said is where the real Cotor kicks off.

A few people I've talked to about this are like, Terrace is not our favorite. It's not anyone's favorite part of the game. Yeah. And like the good stuff really begins to cook after Terrace. It's so funny is it's like in my memory I hate Terrace. Because that's not the game. The game starts after Terrace.

But I'm having a good time. I'm like, I'm kind of Cotor Club right now. I kind of want to, Natalie, you and I were talking about this. where we started where it's like, I want to just play Cotor. I just want to just play. I just want to like go fucking do shit. I want to keep going. I'm playing Starfield.

I want to kill the preacher guy. I want to just like, yeah. It's funny, I mean, it is funny that we're playing Cotor in this time where Starfield is out, Baldur's Gate 3 is out. But there is such a like a beautiful straightforwardness and simplicity to Cotor that makes it feel so approachable and I can just sink my teeth into it and not worry too much and just like take it in and I have that I have that itch to just yeah it does not feel like a game nine years in the making it feels like a game three years in the making and they fed those years pretty good

making a game you know and that feels good the funniest thing about playing starfield right now is you get a companion early on named Sarah Morgan who is you know you got to give it to Bethesda, they cracked that glass ceiling, they finally made girl Carth. They finally made the most annoying woman in space. Whoa. A win for women. She sucks so bad. She sucks so bad. But it's just, I don't know. I mean, like, Sam Coe is also like Carth's like. Oh, Sam Co has a little kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, what if Mission turned out to be Carth's daughter is the vibe Sam Coe gives me in Starfield. So, uh, but also. Also, he sounded like the guy from the new day as X games, because that's the same, that guy.

And he's just doing that voice. Anyway, this is not a Starfield podcast. Yeah, we are. We're getting a feel. But didn't mean to do that. That's just unfortunate. Yeah, so next time, we'll finish up things on Terrace and see what the rest of, see what the next stage of Cotor holds for us.

But we look back in two weeks, and we already outlined the plan for the comic moving forward. Yeah, Patreon.com slash Civilized to hear us talk about the tales. of the Jedi comics, which are a fucking blast. So I don't know if they're good, but they're a blast. All right. So until next time, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. And remember, you don't need to pledge yourself to a teenage kid out there. You can just leave.

You can just bounce. If a little kid is out there, like, continually putting your body and welfare on the line because they want to talk shit, you don't actually need to be the one to get hit. Also, listen, Mission, his name's Zolbar. It's not Big Z. He didn't say, call me Big Z. Maybe he did. Maybe he said that.

I don't know. No, but he actually, it doesn't seem like that'd be his kind of nickname. He doesn't seem like he'd be like, call me Big Z. Yeah. It's just like she's handing out nicknames. She's handing out nicknames. I hope she doesn't nickname us. I like Mission, but sometimes I don't know.

We're going to be. Thank you.