PvEers don't want to be there, PVPers don't want them there. How is this a bone of contention for either side? Removing or altering this requirement would be beneficial to both camps; I would think that both sides should be behind it.

Besides my general loathing for how dumb both the Vong and the NJO era in general are....no, just no. TOR is the story of the Republic and the true Sith; the ghosts of the Hundred Year Darkness and the Great Hyperspace War coming back and tying through KOTOR. Introducing a completely unrelated third faction would be just stupid, and diminish the story being told. Leave that Vong garbage confined to its crappy publishing era, please.

I loathe the NJO stuff myself, but if you decide to tackle it, here's the order.

Jedi is upset but has to keep emotions in check, Sith is angry and wants to fight people. Yawn. I don't even know where to start on what's wrong with Fatal Alliance.... Every single character's name is hockey-helmet-wearing, short-bus-riding dumb None of the characters get any development in the whole book--just backstory and doing stuff for no discernible reasons Pretty obvious that each main character was deliberately modelled after a TOR class....and then written as though the game were being played, without bothering to explain actions or motivations--'character x has y in his/her past, but that may or may not have any bearing on why they're doing z right now!' It was very clear that the author was only interested in writing action sequences (which, incidentally, weren't particularly well-written); this meant action sequences that were so unnecessarily long that they became tedious and tiresome. Meanwhile, actual character and setting exposition was relegated to near nothing As a result of the previous point, the book was probably about 100-150 pages longer than it had any need to be. There's nothing wrong with a long book, but it's a different story when it's needlessly long just because the author is hung up on blaster self-gratification The writing style itself is stiff and obtuse The book has literally zero bearing on anything else in the SW universe. Of the 8 main characters (and the villain critters), not one appears anywhere else in the SW mythos, before or since It was a bad, bad book.

Of what I've read: Lost Tribe of the Sith (eBook series spanning from 5000-3000 BBY) -- Okay. Had some really neat stuff, but a lot of really dull points too TOR: Revan (first half set between KOTOR1 and 2, second half set shortly after KOTOR2) -- Decent. But if you didn't play KOTOR 1 and/or 2, it won't mean much to you TOR: Deceived (set on the day of and the day after the Sack of Coruscant) -- Alright. Nothing to write home about TOR: Fatal Alliance (set around a decade into the Cold War) -- Frakking piece of crap. I don't know how anyone ever thought this was a good idea Darth Bane: Path of Destruction (set 1000 years before ANH) -- The best of the Darth Bane books IMO. The rise of one man from mining slave to a lord of the Sith in the Brotherhood of Darkness Darth Bane: Rule of Two (set 990 years before ANH) -- Bane trains his new apprentice and establishes the Rule of Two, which would dictate the nature of the Sith Order until the movie era Darht Bane: Dynasty of Evil (set 980 years before ANH) -- The weakest of the Bane books IMO. Still good, I blew through it in a day or two, but definitely not as good as PoD Darth Plagueis (starts about 35 years before Episode I) -- Interesting story to tell, but it was kind of unfortunately restricted by having to follow the other established canon of the period. So the narrative jumps forward in decades-long hops, instead of being a single steady story Republic Commando: Hard Contact (set during the Clone Wars) -- A good book, if a little self-important. Really does a nice job of humanizing the clones though Republic Commando: Triple Zero (set during the Clone Wars) -- Contributes very little to the overall lore, but it follows on the characters of the first RC book Republic Commando: True Colors (RC book 3) -- I can't even remember what the story of this one was, that's how memorable it is. It's more of the same as Triple Zero, I recall, so if you want to continue to follow the characters here it is Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel (RC book 4) -- I'm sure you can guess what the subject matter is. The Clone Wars draw to an end, and the heroes of this series are suddenly faced with the order Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (set shortly after Anakin becomes Vader) -- Read this one recently...it was okay, but a bit more of a chore to get through than I expected. It's interesting chiefly because it gives you some of the inner conflict he faces now that he's moved into his new life Imperial Commando: 501st (RC book 5) -- The worst of the RC books, IMO. Tells some interesting stories about the early Empire and how much and how quickly things changed from the Republic to the Empire, but the character storytelling completely fell apart in this one Death Star (set shortly before ANH and spanning to Battle of Yavin) -- Surprisingly good. Really gives a wildly different take on the Death Star as a location and a military installation. I was surprised how much I liked it X-wing: Rogue Squadron series (Rogue Squadron/Wedge's Gamble/The Krytos Trap/The Bacta War, set about 2.5 years after Jedi) -- Kind of a neat set of stories, following around the formerly-Rebel, now-New Republic X-wing fighter jocks. It's a little bit obvious that Stackpole was in the mood for some fighter terminology ****, but they're entertaining enough anyway Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire/Dark Force Rising/The Last Command, set 5 years after Jedi) -- Fantastic trilogy of books. Is concerned with one of the greatest of the Empire's naval commanders, Grand Admiral Thrawn, leading an Imperial offensive against the New Republic Jedi Academy Trilogy (Jedi Search/Dark Apprentice/Champions of the Force, set 7 years after Jedi) -- Eh. Should have been a lot better than it was. Has a ton of potential you see when you're reading it, but it fails to realize all its opportunities Darksaber (8 years after Jedi) -- WHYYYY Hand of Thrawn Duology (Specter of the Past/Vision of the Future, 15 years after Jedi) -- Kind of a fascinating story. After so long, everyone's tired of war between the Rebels/New Republic and the Imperial Remnant. Peace is finally on the table

Ehhhh that's overly generous. Revan was alright, but it'll mean a whole lot less if s/he never played KOTOR 1 and 2. Deceived was okay but not much more. And Fatal Alliance was just an absolute abomination. I have no idea how that piece of trash made it to publication. /and yet, I'll still read Annihilation when it comes out

Agreed. The TOR comics are kind of terrible, but Tales of the Jedi and the KOTOR comics are excellent.

Correct, though certainly not on any large scale. Yes there are the native Gungans, but the small human colony is only three centuries old at this point. And considering the planet has pretty much zero strategic value, nor any resources of note, I can't imagine how it would be of any interest in TOR. Besides being able to mercilessly slaughter Gungans, I mean.

And Kamino is way the fark off in Wild Space, far beyond the frontier of settled regions. It's a bit like being in Louisiana Purchase-era North America, and wondering why nothing important to the US is happening on the West coast. Yes, it's there; and yes, some people are aware it's out there. Some Americans have even made the trip out there. But it's of no importance or consequence to anyone in "civilized" territory. That is what Kamino is at this point in galactic history.

Contrarily, I think that would be absurd.

They're finished, #12 was the last one. This was announced some time ago. timmietimmins: Okay, one big question. Why do you think the timeline entries stopped getting made? are they much more expensive than they looked? was no one watching them? did you just not have any more scripts for the earlier (chronological) entries? I was really surprised to see that those weren't working out for you. Stephen Reid: I know exactly why as I was involved in the decision. ("Burn him!") Truth is as we went further and further back in time, the entries would become less and less relevant to the current game. We wanted them to be in some way relevant, so we took the decision to put them on hiatus. It's still possible we'll restart them but it's probably more likely that we'll do something that's 'Timeline-like' but has more relevance to the game as it expands.

Vandar and Yaddle would like a word.

Bizarrely, Episode III actually makes Jedi a better movie.

I don't think there's any real problem at all in the Revan story. In the KOTOR comics, he was a Jedi speaking out against the Order on principled grounds. He did not want any more people to suffer just because his bosses were--to him--either cowards, unprincipled, or both. He and Alek (Malak) take off and fight the war for a number of years, and it changes him. You know how sometimes you talk to guys who have been deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq, and they have zero hesitation or moral qualms about saying things like 'bunch of animals', 'just bomb 'em all', and that sort of thing? That's the sort of man Revan had become by the end of the war. And of course, it all culminated at Malachor V. The last of his Jedi-protect-all morality was gone, and he was set on a course of victory at any cost. So he ordered the use of the Mass Shadow Generator, destroyed a world, and wiped out most of the Mandalorians and many of his own people alike--because he had to end the war, no matter the cost. But in his final one-on-one battle with Mandalore, he learnt that the Mandalorians had been little more than a vanguard. He learnt that they had been tricked by the Sith somewhere out in unknown space--Sith who were supposed to have been extinct for over a thousand years. Even though he was a harder, less-than-Jedi man at this point, he was still loyal to the Republic. So he and Malak set out to find the mysterious threat. Eventually they found Dromund Kaas, and believed they'd bribed their way into the Emperor's Citadel. But they were betrayed and defeated. And because both Revan and Malak were already on a dark path, it was easy for the Emperor to twist them into instruments of his will. Revan and Malak then returned to Republic space, discovered the Star Forge maps (and eventually the Star Forge itself), and launched the Jedi Civil War (Knights of the Old Republic 1). He gets captured, mindwiped, and becomes a Jedi again and defeats the Sith under Malak. In the original KOTOR period, Revan is essentially just Darth Vader plus a mind wipe.

Steam. Full price there is like $10 but it pretty regularly goes down to $5 or even $2.50 during sales.