Starting out in Star Wars Galaxies
By Writer: JEST3R
Well, if you're like me you did it to lead the pack - to skill up as fast as possible and achieve your own personal ultimate combat profession set-up as fast as possible. By now you have heard the cries of lots of down time from healing the various wounds and battle fatigue and the severe interdependency on other players. Do you want to know the key to be able to be self-sufficient right from the time you first feel your starting planet's dirt under your feet? Well, read on my fellow players, here is a little beta secret for you.
NO MATTER what combat type profession you play to choose, DO NOT choose it as your starting profession. Each profession type starts with specific gear aimed at that profession. There are TWO pieces of gear that will make your life a lot easier to start and that's the General Crafting Kit and the Mineral Survey Device, only available to you from the start if you choose your starting profession to be an ARTISAN. Yes you heard me correctly, if you wish to be the first high end killer on the server you need to start out as an Artisan.
Why? Almost every profession starts with a CDEF pistol, and if you wish to pursue Brawling you do not even need a weapon to start. Every character starts with 250 credits. All basic profession Novice skills cost 100 credits and all the basic profession trainers are located right near the star port, no matter which planet you choose or which city on the planet. You start off with 250 skill points available and can surrender any skill at any time to reclaim skill points from the skills you choose in the beginning. The Artisan gives you the critical GCT (Generic Crafting Tool), which is the tool needed to make anything in the game. The Mineral Survey Device allows you to pluck inorganic resources from the ground, which is required for all Stimpacks and wound packs.
So you selected Artisan, now what?
When you land at the star port head over to the Marksman or Brawler trainer to learn the combat skills of your choice, then spin by the Medic Trainer and spend another 100 credits for Medic. Quickly run to a Mission Terminal and grab a delivery mission that ends in nearby town (or the same town you're in). Before you leave your town for that few hundred credits in payment opportunity, survey with your Mineral Survey Device, scroll through all the resources listed on the planet (until you find metals) and go to the highest concentration, continuing to survey until you hit a spot for 75% or greater. Now hit sample, and keep sampling until you extract 200 units of metal. Now open your GCT and build yourself a Flora Survey Device. Go to the highest concentration as before and sample 200 units. Next look under your GCT chemical tab and make 2 Stimpack A's (each stimpack requires 8 organic and 8 inorganic resources). Now you have all the combat skills and resources, and the ability to heal yourself. You're ready to roll. Do your delivery mission to grab a couple hundred credits.
You have 250 skill points - make them work for you! Use your newly found cash to train Novice Scout and Novice Entertainer. Now I know your saying, "but hey, I wanted to be a Bounty Hunter or Teras Kasi Master!" The majority of downtime generated in Star Wars Galaxies comes from healing your various wounds. As you may know already, there are three types of damage you can take in the game to over 10 different areas. Firstly, there is battle fatigue. This accumulates slowly over time and makes it harder for you to heal yourself. The only way to heal it is to watch an Entertainer dance or play music; all mind wounds (to include focus and willpower) are healed in the same way. Normally you would go to the local Cantina and hope an Entertainer player is there performing, or you're basically stuck with these wounds and must sit in the Cantina to watch them heal at a very slow rate over a long period of time (up to an excess of 1 hour or more when you have no entertainment). Being able to heal your own battle fatigue when no Entertainers are available is a critical ability if you wish to spend more time playing then waiting.
Selecting Medic is an obvious choice, you can use Stimpacks in battle to help you solo that tough even con to get better experience. Also, very shortly you will have enough skill to heal your own health and action wounds (that mysterious black that slowly builds at the end of you health bars which lowers your maximum attributes). Players in beta often times spent hours trying to find a Medic to heal their wounds, now when no Medic is available you can heal yourself.
Finally, Novice Scout allows you to harvest resources from your animal kills to provide you with a steady stream of organics which you can use to make medicines or even a Scout's basic camp. The camp is the final tool you will need to be completely self sufficient in the beginning stages of play.
The last complaint of downtime had always been how often players had to return to town to heal their wounds. You can heal all wounds except battle fatigue while in you're camp! Now your character - less then 2 hours - old can heal their own battle fatigue and mind/willpower/focus wounds by dancing, heal your own wounds and damage to your health and action stats (by either using crafted meds or the /tend wound, /tend damage commands), and even build your own camp, carbine, rifle, or knife. When skill points start becoming tight? simply surrender all those extra Novice skills... they served their purpose!
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