Dear Bioware,

So there is something I wanted to briefly touch upon as I believe it to be an important part of storytelling for the future of the game. I really hope you will take note of this feedback, a reaction would be welcome but is of course not necessary. As long as you take it into account in the future I'll be more than happy.

It surely has been a critique that you heard often about KotFE and KotET, that the choices didn't matter or didn't matter enough. Yet my critique isn't primarily about the choices you make in those two expansions but it's about the choices we make prior to KotFE.

In my opinion the class story "flavour" we get in KotFE and KotET is very underwhelming. I am not asking for 8 versions of the two expansions or future content (would be ideal though), but you can't disregard our original class stories and the choices we made during them like you did in the two expansions.

Yes there were multiple moments where there was a reference made or brief dialogue about it, but it was too little. An easy example, KotET, Chapter 2. The Sith Warrior or Sith Inquisitor come to Dromund Kaas as if they're thinking "cool rock bro, but idc". Where was the moment of recognition, the longing to return home, the anger and rage at what was taken away from them? Especially with a return to Dromund Kaas, the Imperial capital (!!!), the Imperial classes should have had a lot more meaningful moments that had something to do with their time spent there during the original class stories. We should have been given the options to express way more feelings or thoughts about it, instead of being guided as if on a trail run.

And this is only one example of dozens of situations that should have been way more elaborate if played by a specific class. Sure, it should remain within the bounds of it being a flavour instead of its own story branch, but that doesn't mean the flavour has to be bland and underwhelming. I understand of course that doing more than just a flavour is less desirable as now you can maintain 1 story all classes follow with some potential branches in it. I personally will always say the multiple unique stories were a much better way of telling the SWTOR story (which is why I prefer leveling toons from level 1 over and over again as that story appeals to me much more than KotFE and KotET which I only played through twice, one light one dark), but nonetheless, if you do 1 story then please add as much original Class Story flavour as is possible.

We played through original class stories with our hearts, we experienced it and lived the story alongside and through our characters, don't just disregard that all because it doesn't fit in with forcing us into a trail run-narrative (sorry if it sounds a tad aggresive but you can't deny it isn't a bit like a trail run with a few branches that still lead you to the same end point).

Very nicely put. I agree. It would be ideal to have Class and companion stories again. They do matter. But what I'm taking away from all the posts about this over the years, is that they're unable to do all these, either because of the expense of it, or available manpower to make it happen.

Like someone said on another thread...unfortunately I can't remember who it was exactly, but they had the idea that it might have been better to have 3 new chapters for each class, rather than...the larger number of 'one size fits all' that we got.

I suppose a compromise would be to make four stories...imperial/republic force users and imperial/republic non-force user stories, that way there would still be adequate flavour to make it feel more unique to each class.

Very nicely put. I agree. It would be ideal to have Class and companion stories again. They do matter. But what I'm taking away from all the posts about this over the years, is that they're unable to do all these, either because of the expense of it, or available manpower to make it happen.

 

Like someone said on another thread...unfortunately I can't remember who it was exactly, but they had the idea that it might have been better to have 3 new chapters for each class, rather than...the larger number of 'one size fits all' that we got.

 

I suppose a compromise would be to make four stories...imperial/republic force users and imperial/republic non-force user stories, that way there would still be adequate flavour to make it feel more unique to each class.

This! ^^^ At the very least!

Very nicely put. I agree. It would be ideal to have Class and companion stories again. They do matter. But what I'm taking away from all the posts about this over the years, is that they're unable to do all these, either because of the expense of it, or available manpower to make it happen.

 

Like someone said on another thread...unfortunately I can't remember who it was exactly, but they had the idea that it might have been better to have 3 new chapters for each class, rather than...the larger number of 'one size fits all' that we got.

 

I suppose a compromise would be to make four stories...imperial/republic force users and imperial/republic non-force user stories, that way there would still be adequate flavour to make it feel more unique to each class.

I would love for this to happen.

Quoting you from the Cytherat thread where we had some related discussion:

You my friend have pointed out exactly what I believe to be the major flaw of KotFE and KotET. While not specifically with the Trooper, when playing through the chapters on my Inquisitor or Warrior there were so, so, so many times I was like "please say something more than this generic blabbing!". Like Dromund Kaas, I'd expect waaaay more emotion from my Darth Imperius like "how I long to be here again for good" or "all of this was taken away from me! [rage]". Like he was on Dromund Kaas like "cool rock, bro, but idc" like NO. That is not how I played Darth Imperius in my class storyline, he is a diehard Imperial loyalist and the return to Dromund Kaas should have been way more impactful and definitely leaving it. I had expected Imperius to be a lot more torn with having to go again, or having the ability to express to Acina you'd give up everything to be part of the Sith Empire again. It's the major flaw with the two latest expansions and I am sad that it will never be fixed.

I saw this thread you just started first, actually, and I thought "this is exactly what I was thinking when I made that post..." Then I saw your answer in that other thread and grinned! We're on the same wavelength when it comes to this. Anyway, might as well continue the discussion here rather than taking the Cytherat thread even further off-topic.

I haven't taken Darth Imperius through the Zakuul story yet. However, I did take my ruthless male agent through it and I had similar feelings once he got to DK in KotET. He too is a diehard Imperial loyalist, often to a fault (even in the Alliance, he tends to favour Imperials and thwart Pubs wherever possible). Yet, apart from a very small bit of dialogue towards the start of DK, pretty much everything was presented the same for him as it was for my Light V, conciliatory, coalition-building consular. She was stepping into the heart of darkness, but he was coming home - and both situations were shown in almost the same way.

Regarding the sameness of DK, what stood out most to me was how similarly Acina and the main character interacted, regardless of character background. This agent of mine would have knelt to her if he could. Before Acina lost the plot on Iokath, she seemed just like the kind of sith he would've been glad to work with. She presented a welcome contrast compared to most other sith (Cytherat actually being a welcome exception; Lana too).

That said, I appreciate that the story might not have benefited overall from the option to make some kind of public pledge of fealty to the Empire... The Alliance includes plenty of Republic folks who would not be happy with that, and more distractions are hardly needed at this point in the story. Also, at a meta level, the Zakuul arc presents the main character's rise to power and needs to continue to look like a rise to power in order to maintain coherence.

But... what I would've liked... would've been some kind of secret power conference between Acina and the Imperial main character. Acina would state that she understands that public appearances must remain a certain way for expediency's sake (no wish to weaken the Alliance by creating division). To the world, it can just appear that the Empire and the Alliance are, um, allies. But a private agreement between the two of them could allow the Alliance to serve the Empire secretly. The main character would have three options: 1) accept her offer and secretly make the Alliance subordinate to the Empire; 2) say that an alliance is enough for now and the relationship between the Empire and the Alliance can be properly determined once Vaylin is defeated; or 3) reject her offer. A second choice hub would handle the player's intention in making those choices. For example, option 1 could be designated a bluff: a wily sith could pretend to make the Alliance subordinate to the Empire but simply be biding their time until they decide to usurp leadership from Acina. Or, after rejecting the offer by taking option 3, a bold sith could say flat-out that they believe they have a better claim to be Emperor or Empress. Etc! In terms of consequences, nothing much would change on a visible level: like the decision to ally or not ally with the Empire, it'd just be a question of whether Acina thinks the Alliance Commander is on her side or not. A few bits of dialogue could refer back to the earlier decision when Acina returns. And the main character would remain free to stab her in the back on Iokath if they liked, regardless of prior promises.

My feeling is that Acina would not try this scheme with a Republic character, not even if they seemed sympathetic to the Empire, so this'd just be a "bonus" for Imperials. (Maybe Republic characters could get some more fleshed-out options with the Saresh side of the plot.)

What I'm describing might sound a bit odd, but I'm aiming for something that would achieve the storytelling elegance of the loyalty choice in the agent's class story. If the agent actually defects, there are very few callbacks that explicitly refer to their status - which makes sense, because it's a secret! But from the moment I decided that my main agent would defect (this is obviously a different agent from the one I referenced above), everything felt different whenever I played her. "The world" saw that agent just the same way as before, but I, the player, knew the truth.

Unfortunately entirely separate class stories died in 2012, when this game nearly went belly up and much of the development team ended up out of work. Ever since then the game's story continually narrowed, first into two separate faction stories that were identical for each of the four classes within a faction, and finally into one story that was identical for all eight classes regardless of whether Republic or Empire aligned. I have no idea what is going on at Bioware behind the scenes, but given the history of the game you have to wonder if the money and human resources just aren't there for eight class stories.

As much as I'd love to see eight separate class stories with three missions each in the next major update, similar to the old planet arcs, that probably isn't a realistic hope. The best we can probably hope for is a mix of something like Rise of the Hutt Cartel, where there were separate Republic and Empire story arcs, and Shadow of Revan which featured a single unique class quest.

At the very least they need to return to having two separate Republic and Empire stories, with those two factions being opposed. Any story with elements of those two factions being aligned against a third party just does not feel like Star Wars. Jedi and Sith cooperating just does not fit in with the rest of the universe's canon. It's like having Orcs and Elves cooperating in Tolkien's universe, to take on some outside threat to Middle Earth. It just feels like bad fanfiction.

I dunno about story.. I guess you can retcon everything in your head I suppose. The worst thing about KOTFE/KOTET was the actual game play. It was every bit of the word horrible if you looked it up in a Thesaurus! Game play was NOT fun and repeating it was literally slamming my hands on the keyboard getting frustrated because of scripted mobs and endless stupid skytroopers. Terrible (TERRIBLE!!) game play.

It was mostly trying to keep me logged in as long as possible to complete the content. And BW, you know this, so lets not play. Don't try this ploy again. KOTFE/KOTET was the worst gameplay I've ever experienced.

Quoting you from the Cytherat thread where we had some related discussion:

 

I saw this thread you just started first, actually, and I thought "this is exactly what I was thinking when I made that post..." Then I saw your answer in that other thread and grinned! We're on the same wavelength when it comes to this. Anyway, might as well continue the discussion here rather than taking the Cytherat thread even further off-topic.

 

I haven't taken Darth Imperius through the Zakuul story yet. However, I did take my ruthless male agent through it and I had similar feelings once he got to DK in KotET. He too is a diehard Imperial loyalist, often to a fault (even in the Alliance, he tends to favour Imperials and thwart Pubs wherever possible). Yet, apart from a very small bit of dialogue towards the start of DK, pretty much everything was presented the same for him as it was for my Light V, conciliatory, coalition-building consular. She was stepping into the heart of darkness, but he was coming home - and both situations were shown in almost the same way.

 

Regarding the sameness of DK, what stood out most to me was how similarly Acina and the main character interacted, regardless of character background. This agent of mine would have knelt to her if he could. Before Acina lost the plot on Iokath, she seemed just like the kind of sith he would've been glad to work with. She presented a welcome contrast compared to most other sith (Cytherat actually being a welcome exception; Lana too).

 

That said, I appreciate that the story might not have benefited overall from the option to make some kind of public pledge of fealty to the Empire... The Alliance includes plenty of Republic folks who would not be happy with that, and more distractions are hardly needed at this point in the story. Also, at a meta level, the Zakuul arc presents the main character's rise to power and needs to continue to look like a rise to power in order to maintain coherence.

 

But... what I would've liked... would've been some kind of secret power conference between Acina and the Imperial main character. Acina would state that she understands that public appearances must remain a certain way for expediency's sake (no wish to weaken the Alliance by creating division). To the world, it can just appear that the Empire and the Alliance are, um, allies. But a private agreement between the two of them could allow the Alliance to serve the Empire secretly. The main character would have three options: 1) accept her offer and secretly make the Alliance subordinate to the Empire; 2) say that an alliance is enough for now and the relationship between the Empire and the Alliance can be properly determined once Vaylin is defeated; or 3) reject her offer. A second choice hub would handle the player's intention in making those choices. For example, option 1 could be designated a bluff: a wily sith could pretend to make the Alliance subordinate to the Empire but simply be biding their time until they decide to usurp leadership from Acina. Or, after rejecting the offer by taking option 3, a bold sith could say flat-out that they believe they have a better claim to be Emperor or Empress. Etc! In terms of consequences, nothing much would change on a visible level: like the decision to ally or not ally with the Empire, it'd just be a question of whether Acina thinks the Alliance Commander is on her side or not. A few bits of dialogue could refer back to the earlier decision when Acina returns. And the main character would remain free to stab her in the back on Iokath if they liked, regardless of prior promises.

 

My feeling is that Acina would not try this scheme with a Republic character, not even if they seemed sympathetic to the Empire, so this'd just be a "bonus" for Imperials. (Maybe Republic characters could get some more fleshed-out options with the Saresh side of the plot.)

 

What I'm describing might sound a bit odd, but I'm aiming for something that would achieve the storytelling elegance of the loyalty choice in the agent's class story. If the agent actually defects, there are very few callbacks that explicitly refer to their status - which makes sense, because it's a secret! But from the moment I decided that my main agent would defect (this is obviously a different agent from the one I referenced above), everything felt different whenever I played her. "The world" saw that agent just the same way as before, but I, the player, knew the truth.

We are very much on the exact same wavelength I completely agree with what you say especially about the part of Acina and an Imperial Outlander hosting such a meeting. Heck we had ample opportunity for that when both Acina and Commander crashed in the jungles, the inbetween scenes could have each a few dialogue lines abput exactly that issue, the Alliance becoming subordinate to the Sith Empire in secret. It would have given the entire chapter so much more dynamic and would have created a difference between Empire and Republic playthrough which would have resulted in a more veritable "choices matter". Also, what you describe would be perfect and give much more depth to the story as well, especially in the Iokath arc. It is such a missed opportunity there...

But yes the fact that you can play a Republic character and Imperial character and still have almost exactly the same playthrough with both is a major flaw. What is the entire point of chosing a faction at the start of your playthrough, be it at level 1, 60 or 65 if in the end there is no difference? It's something that should be mended and could be if we were given at least 2 unique storylines, one Empire and one Republic, or as I stated before in threads, KotFE and KotET should have had 3 unique storylines, one from the perspective from the Alliance like we already have, one from the Republic and one from the Empire. In my opinion in chapter 9 of KotFE we should have been given three choices, either to form the Alliance as happened, or to return to our original faction, the Republic/Empire, or to defect to the enemy faction, Republic/Empire. That would already have created story diversity and not the trail run-narrative we have now.

I suppose a compromise would be to make four stories...imperial/republic force users and imperial/republic non-force user stories, that way there would still be adequate flavour to make it feel more unique to each class.

You have my full support regarding this. Something like this would be enough to undo the trail run feel with the storyline as well as satisfy the desire for more variety in narrative. It sounds like an easy path to follow and something Bioware really should consider doing as the forced trail run-narrative is becoming bland and boring very rapidly

While I definitely feel like it may be too late now, individual class stories aren't impossible at this point. The key thing here is that the story needs to have a definitive ending.

Consider that if you have a story with a definitive ending, then you can properly budget a class story and have an idea of how much work will go into it. What you cannot have is a class story go on indefinitely and then try to plan for eight of those.

However, even if it took time and if you had to tackle the class stories separately you could take the story resources you would have after completing the main story and then go back and add in class story along the way with those same story resources.

Once the class stories were completed you would then add new stories by way of new daily areas flashpoints and operations.

I am tickled that this thread popped up, mainly because I was writing a similar, albeit longer, thread about this very subject. I really do hope Bioware listens to this constructive criticism and puts forth later expansions that are more class centric.

BioWare really is at a Crossroads with this game.

They do have limited resources. What they can do is either ride out this game giving limited group content until it's finally shut down, or if they chose to be bold they could figure out a way to maximize their story resources in a manner which the players who left the game would have loved and then gone on a complete social media blitz trying to get players to come back to the game.

The key with social media is that you can advertise without spending advertising money. Other games and movements have spread by word-of-mouth this way and gotten popularity. That would be the big thing is trying to win back the people you lost and give the game another chance. However the only way you're going to be able to do that is with class story at this point including companion story.

Frankly to get those people back you would need to remove completely the story from Knights of the Fallen Empire Knights of the Eternal throne and replace it with the class stories.

Since I don't see that happening I think that they are just going to make the best of what they got and just try to keep everyone happy with group content until the game is done.

Because Unfortunately they did try to shut everything down and focus only on story and since the story they packed in with a horrible one I don't think they're going to want another bite at that apple even if they could do it without stopping the Cadence for the group content they are working on.

The thing of it is is that the game is really going nowhere right now. What this also means is if it takes three four or even five years to finally fix the story the right way so long as they are willing to do it in increments and come to an understanding with the player base that by completing class stories 1 through level 100 will take a lot of time and will be piecemealed into the game until it finally is completed.

However doing it that way we'll finally get it done eventually and once it is finally done I would then start the social media blitz to bring people back. By that point due to word-of-mouth and new stories people make start coming back on their own as well.

However I don't think they would do this. Even with a new producer this would mean admitting that they really failed in terms of story before this and wasted all those investment dollars. And I think that's the hardest thing of all is justifying redoing parts of the game where they already spent developmental money.

However if the game is in a soft maintenance mode with only few group updates every so often anyway I don't see the point in having to justify any changes anymore since no new investment money is coming in anyway. It literally is a nothing to lose and everything to gain situation but you need someone bold enough willing to take that risk and change the story fundamentally to bring the players lost back in.

The thing of it is is that the game is really going nowhere right now. What this also means is if it takes three four or even five years to finally fix the story the right way so long as they are willing to do it in increments and come to an understanding with the player base that by completing class stories 1 through level 100 will take a lot of time and will be piecemealed into the game until it finally is completed.

 

However doing it that way we'll finally get it done eventually and once it is finally done I would then start the social media blitz to bring people back. By that point due to word-of-mouth and new stories people make start coming back on their own as well.

 

However I don't think they would do this. Even with a new producer this would mean admitting that they really failed in terms of story before this and wasted all those investment dollars. And I think that's the hardest thing of all is justifying redoing parts of the game where they already spent developmental money.

 

However if the game is in a soft maintenance mode with only few group updates every so often anyway I don't see the point in having to justify any changes anymore since no new investment money is coming in anyway. It literally is a nothing to lose and everything to gain situation but you need someone bold enough willing to take that risk and change the story fundamentally to bring the players lost back in.

What I think would be best for Bioware to do now regarding story, is to take it perhaps slower with new content and take a step back to revamp KotFE and KotET. I know, this may not be the most favourable path to walk but hear me out. In my opinion Bioware should consider revamping the latest two expansions in such a way that they'd add 2 new unique storylines to the existing one, namely one from a Republic perspective and one from Empire. In chapter 9 of KotFE we'd get the ability to chose to go and form the alliance, abandon it and return to Empire/Republic or to abandon it but defect to the enemy faction of our original faction, either Empire or Republic. Then the rest of the story would continue from that perspective and let me write down how I'd envision it:

In the Empire storyline we could have tried to gain the trust of Empress Acina and try to manneuvre to the top of her Imperial court in the first chapters after our arrival. Once we'd have succeeded in that we'd make Acina our pawn, allowing for her to be the public face of the Empire. She'd say the words but the words would be ours. It would fit either of the 4 Imperial class stories lore-wise as well. Darth Nox/Occlus/Imperius could officialy be made an advisor to Acina while the Wrath would publically become her personal executioner, while both in fact controlled her from the shadows. The Imperial Agent could be named her new Minister of Sith Intelligence while the Bounty Hunter could have received the rank of Captain in the Imperial Guard, while both behind the scenes ruled the Empire through her. The subsequent chapters could have been about cementing Acina's rule to have a stronger grip over the Sith Order and Imperial Military to subsequently mobilize them against the Eternal Empire. The last chapter could still have been a great battle and the events would enfold like they did before, but instead over Odessen it could have been over Korriban or Dromund Kaas. KotET subsequently could have enfolded very much like it did but it would have been Sith Empire vs Zakuul from the start. Chapter 2 could have had a slightly different beginning but otherwise it could remain the same. The last chapters would only require some changes, where you battle for the Sith Empire to take control of the Eternal Throne.

For the Republic there would be a different story, where you return as either the Hero of Tython, Bar'senthor, Smuggler or Trooper to find Saresh in control of everything behind the scenes. As either of the 4 Republic classes you'd embark on a mission in the first chapters after returning to gather key figures from the Jedi Order and attempt to rebuild them as you know they'll be the key to fighting the Knights of Zakuul and to help you get Valkorion out of your mind. Subsequently you'd attempt to help the Galactic Senate regain some of their previous control over the Republic and work on stopping and thwarting Saresh's attempts at remaining in power from the shadows. While doing this you'd also work on rebuilding the Republic fleet and army, gathering support in secret to eventually be able to oppose the Eternal Empire. Arcann would take note eventually and launch an attack on either Coruscant or Tython in the last Chapter, where you'd beat him very much like was the case in the original playthrough. KotET again would enfold without any major changes except that it's the Republic leading the fight against Vaylin. In Chapter 2 you'd attempt to form a Republic-Sith Empire Alliance but the same thing happens with the Genoharadan. At the end however you resolve the issue with Saresh and also bring an end to that plotline. The Republic ending of KotET would be them controlling the Eternal Throne but for peacekeeping purposes mainly, while also preparing for the inevitable renewed conflict with the Sith Empire.

KotET could remain very much the same as it is now, only it would require a few alterations in dialogue. I know, going back and redoing stuff may not be a favourable thing to do but in my opinion it would be the best course of action to follow to get the players who left to return. An alternative path would be to implement a return to the Republic/Empire/defect to the Republic/Empire narrative to pop up at a later point in the story, so that we still get the opportunity to return to our original factions.

I suppose a compromise would be to make four stories...imperial/republic force users and imperial/republic non-force user stories, that way there would still be adequate flavour to make it feel more unique to each class.

I cba reading all the blocks of endless text however I do agree that the story content after they abandoned individual class stories is somewhat lacking (& in some instances awful to play through). I do agree that yLunafox's suggestion above this is a great compromise idea - lets hope the devs agree.

(I tried to reply to this before and ended up in another thread, LOL).

Even if they can't do 8 full stories again, adding to the existing personalizations - the little extra scenes, NPC emails and dialogue when you're in a romance or talking to a previous companion - would really help. In Chapter 2 there's a moment of in-game dialogue where Acina and the SW are chuckling because something reminds them of their Sith trials - things like that.

And doing the four variations of the story, for Force and non-Force users on both sides, is a great idea, too.

 

I suppose a compromise would be to make four stories...imperial/republic force users and imperial/republic non-force user stories, that way there would still be adequate flavour to make it feel more unique to each class.

This is my thinking as well.

They can prioritize one over the other, but there should be some distinction.

I dunno about story.. I guess you can retcon everything in your head I suppose. The worst thing about KOTFE/KOTET was the actual game play. It was every bit of the word horrible if you looked it up in a Thesaurus! Game play was NOT fun and repeating it was literally slamming my hands on the keyboard getting frustrated because of scripted mobs and endless stupid skytroopers. Terrible (TERRIBLE!!) game play.

 

It was mostly trying to keep me logged in as long as possible to complete the content. And BW, you know this, so lets not play. Don't try this ploy again. KOTFE/KOTET was the worst gameplay I've ever experienced.

It was both for me.

I don't see any reason to replay the story because of what the OP expressed. And to add to that, I thought the story was a strange combination of too specific for non-force using classes and too generic for any class to fully feel like it was *their* story. I was lucky enough to pick a Warrior as my main, so I think it made more sense for me than many people, but there were times when I was just completely confused and frustrated at why my dude was acting so ignorant.

But it was made worse by the fact that the game play was just amateurish. Long corridors of instant aggro, identical enemies is probably the worst combat experience I've had in recent memory in any game. Just thinking about doing it again on another class is hilarious and that's while I'll only have one Outlander ever. And maybe that was their whole goal, but I seriously doubt it.

Also, I would prefer the Valkorion story be left alone and not revisited or added to.

If only small new chapters for each class were released along with focus on pvp and pve, I feel like that would be a well-rounded approach to getting back to the best of what SWToR is. I feel like 8 smaller stories would give more content to me than one long, epic, one size fits all approach.

Also, I would prefer the Valkorion story be left alone and not revisited or added to.

While Vitiate/Valkorion is one of my favourite characters from SWTOR, I do agree that I think that Vitiate's story should have ended on Ziost in the Rise of the Emperor narrative and Valkorion should have been a different person/being. Maybe a guy with a fascination of the Sith Emperor as he studied him from the dark of the galaxy.

If only small new chapters for each class were released along with focus on pvp and pve, I feel like that would be a well-rounded approach to getting back to the best of what SWToR is. I feel like 8 smaller stories would give more content to me than one long, epic, one size fits all approach.

What a brilliant solution! Really, I wouldn't completely mind if they did something like this. That way we'd have a return to eight class story content and it would be on a smaller and more managable scale. They could even release cartel packs themed with each small class story released, it would be a win-win. Why didn't they come up with this themselves, instead Bioware forced us onto this trail run-narrative? I get that they have fewer resources than at the start but with this approach they could make it work.

(I tried to reply to this before and ended up in another thread, LOL).

 

Even if they can't do 8 full stories again, adding to the existing personalizations - the little extra scenes, NPC emails and dialogue when you're in a romance or talking to a previous companion - would really help. In Chapter 2 there's a moment of in-game dialogue where Acina and the SW are chuckling because something reminds them of their Sith trials - things like that.

 

And doing the four variations of the story, for Force and non-Force users on both sides, is a great idea, too.

Precisely, only they should have added a lot more dialogue. Like, in the Acina and SW scene you describe both of them could have gone more in depth, even if it was out-of-cutscene dialogue. It would have truly added flavour and not just a sprinkle to be able to say "yes, class stories matter too!". If we won't be getting multiple storylines then at least the Devs should throw in loads of class story flavour.

 

 

What a brilliant solution! Really, I wouldn't completely mind if they did something like this. That way we'd have a return to eight class story content and it would be on a smaller and more managable scale. They could even release cartel packs themed with each small class story released, it would be a win-win. Why didn't they come up with this themselves, instead Bioware forced us onto this trail run-narrative? I get that they have fewer resources than at the start but with this approach they could make it work.

 

I know CM is kind of a bad word around here, but I really don't think they take full advantage of it. I don't remember ever buying CC and I've been playing for 5 years. That should make them weep. They need to hire a consultant or something.

I know I would be more likely to pay for a little companion vignette than I would one of the countless and confusing packs of randomized, reskinned garbage they're always releasing.

This! ^^^ At the very least!

I would love for this to happen.

You have my full support regarding this. Something like this would be enough to undo the trail run feel with the storyline as well as satisfy the desire for more variety in narrative. It sounds like an easy path to follow and something Bioware really should consider doing as the forced trail run-narrative is becoming bland and boring very rapidly

I cba reading all the blocks of endless text however I do agree that the story content after they abandoned individual class stories is somewhat lacking (& in some instances awful to play through). I do agree that yLunafox's suggestion above this is a great compromise idea - lets hope the devs agree.

This is my thinking as well.

 

They can prioritize one over the other, but there should be some distinction.

Well let's hope they're reading this thread and that they see this as a fair compromise that they can make possible for us.

Well let's hope they're reading this thread and that they see this as a fair compromise that they can make possible for us.

Very good that you gathered all the voices in favour (I actually only see supporters in this thread so that fills me with joy!) of this idea :3 I really hope the Devs will read this thread!

 

At the very least they need to return to having two separate Republic and Empire stories, with those two factions being opposed. Any story with elements of those two factions being aligned against a third party just does not feel like Star Wars. Jedi and Sith cooperating just does not fit in with the rest of the universe's canon. It's like having Orcs and Elves cooperating in Tolkien's universe, to take on some outside threat to Middle Earth. It just feels like bad fanfiction.

Since you put it that way it almost sounds like they're tying up loose ends. Like they're cutting ties with Star Wars and getting ready to end SWTOR.

Since you put it that way it almost sounds like they're tying up loose ends. Like they're cutting ties with Star Wars and getting ready to end SWTOR.

I really hope that is not the case, but a return to Empire vs Republic is what is needed to get the game back on track. And not just "you can ally yourself with one of them" but "you are part of the Republic or Empire, you help leading them".