Under the Radar: The Great Heights of SWTOR

Under the radar is simply where I talk about things in SWTOR that I like and appreciate that tend to, well, go under the radar! 

One of the more underappreciated aspects of SWTOR that I don't see mentioned too often, that has a lasting environmental effect while playing the game, is just how BIG and detailed the interior environments are. This was definitely a conscious decision by the development team during the creation of the game, and it really did pay off. Everything is just absolutely massive in the environment, and the sense of scale is immense.

The next time you're playing the game (especially the vanilla planets) and you end up inside somewhere (or even outside most times), just stop for a minute and take a look-up and around you. This sort of design really outshines most of the other popular MMORPGs on the market, like World of Warcraft, where comparatively the buildings and interiors are usually rather cramped and confined beyond a few specific areas.

This sort of design adds depth, vibrancy and mass-scale to the world, it makes you feel small, which sounds like a bad thing, but ultimately is a good thing! It's one of those design aspects, that it's almost good that it goes consciously unnoticed. You want people not to notice without stopping and consciously looking, because that means it's doing its job, it fits seamlessly with Star Wars and it's design.

 

Korriban's Huge Statues

You can see this sort of design everywhere, but the starter planets like Korriban and Coruscant are very strong, early examples. The Korriban Sith Temple reveal as you come out from the initial starter tomb is absolutely enormous, and your tiny by comparison soon to be apprentice has to slowly meander towards this giant structure held up by enourmous statues, like an ant towards its nest in pure awe of the size of it. You're a cog in a very large machine, and the game shows you this perfectly, without having to say a word. (at least, before mounts were usable at level 1). 

 

There are multiple locations like this, even some of the interior class story caves and buildings are absolutely massive in vertical size, for what is usually the player character being there for 10-20 minutes maximum. The amount of work & love that went into these sorts of areas must have been extensive. You'll even notice in some areas, fully detailed ceilings, and sometimes even unique windows and glass ceilings miles above your head, never to be seen unless you stop and look upwards at that moment.

 

Imperial Fleet Ceiling

I could easily list off a bunch of areas here, but just try it the next time you play the game. Just stop where you are, and take a look around. In the real world, it seems that society is so obsessed with constant forward progress and the never ending goal to finish what you are doing to move onto the next thing. Sometimes, it's nice to just sit around for a while, smell the roses and take a look upwards!

Project Rebirth

I've been playing SWTOR since it released in 2011, and over the years I've made lots of alt characters, just like everyone else that plays an MMORPG for a long period of time. The big difference with me, is that I'm what I call a "Serial Deleter". Over the years, I've deleted more characters than I can count for a multitude of reasons. While creators like HazelNuttyGames, and WoWCrendor have shown me that there are times when character deletion is appropriate, I find myself going beyond that barrier more often than I would like, so that's where Project Rebirth comes in.

 

So, what is Project Rebirth beyond the overly try-hard edgy name? It's simply me recreating alts I have deleted over the years, re-experiencing their stories, and then keeping them for whatever activities I need after the fact, while I document about it on this blog. I have a good memory, so for quite a few of my alts, I remember their names, appearance, class and even how I played them. While I won't recreate everyone, It'll be at least a handful of the ones I originally finished stories on and spent significant time playing.

 

Please note: I may mention story spoilers for any of the 8 base class stories.

 

Empire

 

Artisun ~ Imperial Agent ~ Sniper

 

This is one of the deleted characters that I actually finished the class story fully on.  Originally a dark sider, as the story progresses he grows weary of the Empire before eventually fully defecting to the Republic in Act 3. I'm unsure if I'll play him like this again, but the Imperial Agent is one of my least played stories.

 

Eddey ~ Bounty Hunter ~ Mercenary

 

 

Eddey was one of my oldest characters, with only Narhal being older than he. He was made around 2012, when I joined my old Star Wars Galaxies guild Unity and their SWTOR guild. Eventually Unity stopped playing SWTOR, so this character sort of just sat there, and was eventually deleted. He was actually a remake of one of my old main SWG characters of the same name.

 

Agems ~ Sith Inquisitor ~ Sorcerer

 

 

Another one of my oldest characters, created around 2014/2015. Agems is actually the character I got the furthest into the story with, he was up to around Iokath before I fell off playing him, and he was eventually deleted.  I still haven't ever gone past Iokath in the story, as the 1-50 content is my favourite and I tend to just play that on a slow loop. He was a neutral/light leaning Sith who ended up with the rarer Darth Occlus title.

 

Republic

 

Cotarno ~ Trooper ~ Vanguard

 

 

The Trooper is the only class story I have never finished in SWTOR, and Cotarno was originally on Star Forge as a random alt I made. I never made it that far with him, but always liked his look. Unoriginally from me, he's actually a remake of the same Cotarno from the old Esseles Developer Walkthrough video from before SWTOR's release.

 

There may be more added as time goes on, but this is the set of characters for now.

Update 7.7 Livestream Thoughts

I usually try and watch each game update livestream the SWTOR developers do on Twitch. 7.7 was no different, and I figured I'd share some of my thoughts on the most recent livestream. Overall, I enjoyed it, and it was quite a meaty presentation, which was nice. I did notice in the previous 7.6 livestream, some discourse about how the developers don't present in a serious enough manner, which I find weird. I've always liked the more relaxed, chilled out friend vibe the developers put across, real or not. It seems like a fun place to work.

For me, the most interesting part was the new "Eras" tab. This is SWTORs first step into actually documenting where your character is in the story, albeit in a very basic way, it's at least a good first step that I hope they expand upon in the future. I am one of those players that uses a big Excel sheet to track where each of my characters is in the story, and what they've completed. While Eras won't replace that, before I had that sheet, remembering where alts were, especially after taking a break, was a nightmare. This will be a welcome addition, and I'd love to see it expanded to tracking major decisions later on and more minute missions.

I'm not a big end game player, so the new master mode stuff didn't really interest me, but that's good for people wanting that stuff. Same with PvP seasons, although being able to buy PvP season rewards with cartel coins is a nice addition. Furthermore, I can't really comment on the story, as I've never got past Iokath before, so I'm some ways behind on the current up-to-date story. I think everyone knows they are limited at the moment due to the video game voice actors strike, so there isn't really anything the team can do but wait. I do find people saying to "just replace the actors or use AI" as equally funny and sad. Patience is a virtue, I suppose.

The Nar Shaddaa Night Life event returning isn't really news at this point, but it's one of the events I enjoy, despite going slightly insane every year having to hear BOOP DE BEEP BOOP every few seconds on the machines. New rewards are always welcome, although I'd love to see them added to the collections tab.

I welcome the new mission log & map, it looks good, and it'll be nice not having to play find the quick travel icon when I want to quick travel next to quest turn-ins. I'm glad they continue to update the game's UI as time goes on (despite my issues with some of the changes over the years).

 The development team recently added a new "Dynamic Encounters" feature, which is essentially SWTOR's version of WoW's world quest system. It's a feature I enjoy, allowing older planets to feel more relevant again. Furthermore, due to the lack of voice acting and cutscenes, it's content the modern development team can pump out relatively quickly. With 7.7 they've really gone heavy on this system, with dynamic encounters across seven new planets! This will bring the total planet count with dynamic encounters up to nine. This includes the starter planets, with an example provided on Ord Mantell controlling a giant mech walker. My first thought was how amusing it'll be seeing new Troopers or Smugglers come out of their first cutscene only to see level 80s with fancy cartel armours riding around giant mechs to destroy everything, then leaving. They also revealed some of the new rewards from these missions, including some nice mounts.

Default combat changes didn't really do anything for me, as I usually mess with that stuff myself as I level. I do think having it be easier for people that don't want to mess with their combat style choices will be good for those players. The game is already super easy as it is while levelling, so it makes sense they want it to be a smooth as possible for new people to retain them in the long term.

At the end of the stream, we got an extra announcement of new customisation options! It is only skin colours, but it's a huge amount of expanded colours. I'll always welcome new customisations to the game, although as a Zabrak main, I was hoping for some new Zabrak skin options (and a fix to that ancient Empire Zabrak skin bug) but alas, that'll have to wait for now. I imagine they'll expand on this in the future anyway. They also hinted at a new species entirely, which is great to hear. I imagine it'll be a humanoid variant, but there are lots of options they could add, so we will see.

My Characters

This will be a list of my current characters in SWTOR. I'll try and keep it updated as time goes on, but I'll only include characters that I've put a significant enough amount of time into that I deem them worth putting on this list.

As mentioned in one of my About Me post, In the past, I have tended to go on the occasional deletion spree for my account, as a result of this, my character list is actually relatively small considering how long I've played the game for. I'm currently working on padding it back out to how it used to be with my personal "Project Rebirth".

Darth Malgus is the server I spend the most time on. I was originally on the Ahto City server at launch, and then after the initial merge the Red Eclipse, and now Darth Malgus.

Darth Malgus 

Empire 

I'll start with the Empire side, as that's where my main is. While I play both factions nowadays, Empire is where I started, and where I tend to spend more time overall.

Narhal ~ Sith Warrior ~ Juggernaut

 

Narhal is my main in SWTOR, and my longest surviving character, unfortunately he is not the original 2011 launch Narhal who was deleted long ago. Thankfully, I remembered everything about him, so beyond a few tweaks, he's a perfect recreation of the original, and this new Narhal has been my main character for multiple years now. Naturally, Juggernaut/Guardian is my favourite combat style in the game.

Maximo ~ Bounty Hunter ~ Powertech

Maximo is one of my newer characters. I wanted to have a powertech, as it's one of my favourite tech combat styles to play, and I've always found the melee focused gun user style interesting. I also wanted to try and give him a unique look, so I went with one of the big face tattoos, as I don't see many BHs using those. He's not doing much right now beyond slowly making his way through his class story when I feel like uppercutting people. 

Republic 

 

While I spend more time on the Empire side overall, I still enjoy the Republic side (especially the more relaxed fleet chats).

Dirt ~ Jedi Knight ~ Guardian

While the Jedi Knight isn't my favourite class story, I love the fantasy, lore and look of the Jedi. I tend to always gravitate to the Holy Warrior/Paladin class in most RPGs I play, and I've mained a Paladin in World of Warcraft since 2007, so the Jedi Knight does appeal to me in that aspect.

Dirtnose ~ Smuggler ~ Gunslinger/Scoundrel

 

Alongside Narhal, this is one of my oldest surviving characters, and one of the first Cathars I created. He's still only on like Taris or Nar Shaddaa in his story, as I wasn't the biggest fan of the combat styles he has. He's survived previously deletion purges, as I like his look enough to keep him. Furthermore, he's also useful for Galactic Seasons objectives.

 

Star Forge 

Esontrid ~ Sith Inquisitor ~ Sorcerer

 

I made my Star Forge characters to play with some American friends I met during my time on Star Wars Galaxies, they aren't really used beyond playing with them when they play, and grinding Galactic Seasons if I feel up to doing it on another server.

 

Dirtnose - Jedi Knight ~ Guardian

 

Same as Esontrid, you'll notice how original I am with names sometimes.... I do tend to try and stick to RP friendly names outside of Dirtnose/Dirt as that's a name I've used for so long now.

 

Shae Vizla 

Karnus ~ Sith Inquisitor ~ Sorcerer

 

I made this guy when the Shae Vizla server launched, as I wanted to jump in on the fresh server shenanigans. My ping here is atrocious (obviously) but I do play on this guy now and then just to mix things up. It's been fun grinding a Legacy from level 1 again.

 

Last updated: 23/04/25

About Dirtnose

Hello! This post is meant just as an introduction as to who I am, and a brief history of my time with MMORPGs. My SWTOR name is Narhal (pronounced nar-hal), but I've gone by many different names over multiple MMORPGs over the years. The main name that has stuck with me is Dirtnose (or Dirt for short), which I also use in SWTOR, but Narhal is the name of my main character in SWTOR.

A little bit more about me, I'm in my early thirties, and I live in the UK.  I am diagnosed autistic, and my autism has had a significant impact on my life as a disabled adult. Games, particularly MMORPGs, have been a massive mental help for me over the years, and they still are today.

Thanks to my Father introducing me to gaming early, I've been playing games as long as I can remember! I got into MMORPGs starting in 2005 with Star Wars Galaxies, and the genre has now become my favourite in gaming. Since 05, I've ventured into all kinds of other MMORPGs, but the main three that have stuck with me over the years are Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft and Star Wars the Old Republic. Star Wars is actually one of my "special interests", so SWG and SWTOR have really been extra comforts for me over the years.

Historically, I like to play games slowly, and I'm what people would describe as a "completionist". I like to try and do everything, and combining that play style with an MMORPG tends to result in me really get into the MMOs that stick with me. These days, I've toned down my completionist tendencies a tad as I've grown older, and time has become more scarce. I've never had much interest in being efficient or "min maxing" my characters. I like to immerse myself in the world and lore of the games I enjoy, I much prefer the journey rather than the end destination.

I've been playing SWTOR since it's release in December 2011, and while I've taken breaks as the years have gone on, I always find myself coming back to SWTOR vs other MMORPGs. The combination of story, roleplay, Star Wars & at this point, comfort means that SWTOR has become one of my favourite games ever, and a game I've spent thousands of hours playing by now.

Narhal

While I'm mostly a solo MMORPG player nowadays (something that's become a lot more common in the genre as time has gone on), I have been involved in a few guilds/groups over the years. New Valour Corporation & Unity in Star Wars Galaxies, Circle of the Moon in World of Warcraft and I ran the Aftermath and Clone Wars Star Wars Galaxies emulator private servers. My time in SWTOR has been mostly solo, but that hasn't stopped me from joining certain guilds over time, but nothing significant enough that I can remember them to put them here. I'm still hopeful I'll find a true home in SWTOR some day.

Being from Europe, I play mainly on the Darth Malgus server, but I do have sporadically played alts on other servers. As mentioned, my main is my Sith Warrior, Narhal. He's a Zabrak that I originally created at launch as my first character. While I have a defined main, I'm the classic case of an MMO Player with "Altisis", but A LOT of those characters over the years have been deleted for one reason or another (including the original Narhal). I've gone into more detail in another post about this, and my desire to slowly rebuild my old alts that have been lost via Project Rebirth.

If you read this far, thank you!

The Beginning

 Hello, welcome to my blog, Stay-at-Home Warrior!

I've been a blog reader for years now, despite blogs coming across as dated to a lot of people in 2025, I've always enjoyed the more text based format that it provides. It harkens back to a simpler time on the internet for me, and I enjoy it.

Having been inspired by some of my favourite bloggers, like FibroJedi, Shintar & Ask a Game Dev, and having some extra time in my life at the moment, I've decided to start my own blog, about one of my favourite games, Star Wars The Old Republic.

I'm unsure how regularly I'll post here, and my writing skills aren't the best (another reason I want to start a blog is to improve that), but this is more of a personal project anyway, and I am not expecting any sort of minor or significant viewership on my blog posts. 

For anyone curious, the name Stay-at-Home Warrior refers to the fact the Sith Warrior is my favourite class in SWTOR, and due to some circumstances in my life, I'm having to stay mostly at home at the moment.

Note: The layout and theme of the website is still in progress.