And if I get the opportunity, there's several existing companions I'd like to kick off my various ships.

Skadge.

Corso is on thin ice as well.

The idea of an all female crew for my Smuggler is appealing, though. A Padawan who couldn't make it through the "serenity" portion of the training or an Apprentice whose Master died on a backwater planet and was left to fend for themselves, yeah, I could see that working.

Pull into port, get a few guys in the cargo hold, drop off them when we next need supplies... Lovely Ladies Leisure Lounge.

Skadge.

 

Corso is on thin ice as well.

 

The idea of an all female crew for my Smuggler is appealing, though. A Padawan who couldn't make it through the "serenity" portion of the training or an Apprentice whose Master died on a backwater planet and was left to fend for themselves, yeah, I could see that working.

 

Pull into port, get a few guys in the cargo hold, drop off them when we next need supplies... Lovely Ladies Leisure Lounge.

I was so psyched and ready to romance Corso and then...gaaah! At least I like his combat lines. Torian and Andronikus > Corso :/

Not that I'd want him off my ship. As part of the crew I like him fine but Darmas has been so much more fun to flirt with...

Skadge.

 

Corso is on thin ice as well.

 

The idea of an all female crew for my Smuggler is appealing, though. A Padawan who couldn't make it through the "serenity" portion of the training or an Apprentice whose Master died on a backwater planet and was left to fend for themselves, yeah, I could see that working.

 

Pull into port, get a few guys in the cargo hold, drop off them when we next need supplies... Lovely Ladies Leisure Lounge.

How could you kick out Bowdaar though?

While not strictly on-topic, the PAR report did another article (I love those guys <3) about trans* individuals and games:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/video-games-showed-me-who-i-could-be-transgender-gamers-share-their-stories

It touches on importance of player choice in games and how safe environments that encourage such choice, allow people to get a better idea of who they are - or they want to be - without the very real threat of violence that might come from experimenting in meat space.

Also, I thought you guys might enjoy the article.

Edit: Ohmasie - Bowdaar can stay

While not strictly on-topic, the PAR report did another article (I love those guys <3) about trans* individuals and games:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/video-games-showed-me-who-i-could-be-transgender-gamers-share-their-stories

 

It touches on importance of player choice in games and how safe environments that encourage such choice, allow people to get a better idea of who they are - or they want to be - without the very real threat of violence that might come from experimenting in meat space.

 

Also, I thought you guys might enjoy the article.

 

Edit: Ohmasie - Bowdaar can stay

Very interresting read. Thanks for the link.

Thank you for that link, a great article that somewhat hit home.

Any news on the SS romances in SWTOR? Haven't been in this thread for about a year.. (since v2).

Any news on the SS romances in SWTOR? Haven't been in this thread for about a year.. (since v2).

The next expansion (coming out next week for some) will have two NPCs that are tied to the faction-based storyline and players can have an SGR with them. The Republic side has the female/female option while the Imperial side has the male/male. I wouldn't expect these to be as involved as companion romance but they will probably be more involved than a one time [Flirt] option for a quest giving NPC.

There are also some [Flirt] options appearing in one of the new daily quests, I believe, but I doubt these will be substantial.

The next expansion (coming out next week for some) will have two NPCs that are tied to the faction-based storyline and players can have an SGR with them. The Republic side has the female/female option while the Imperial side has the male/male. I wouldn't expect these to be as involved as companion romance but they will probably be more involved than a one time [Flirt] option for a quest giving NPC.

 

There are also some [Flirt] options appearing in one of the new daily quests, I believe, but I doubt these will be substantial.

From the looks of it, the new romances are on the level of the storyline romances we've seen. Akin to the Smuggler and Bounty Hunter on Alderaan, in their class storylines.

Thinking about it though, it's made me think, those romances weren't that much less than the companion romance storylines. The big difference being that the companions stay with you and can run the missions with you. But their romance storylines aren't much more detailed than the previously mentioned class storyline romances I've seen.

....so my male Jedi Knight will just have to go without romance...again?

Who thought of that brilliant idea to make male/male for Imps and female/female for Republic?

Of course - because lesbians are good and everyone loves lesbians but gay men are ick and obviously the bad guys...

Of course - because lesbians are good and everyone loves lesbians but gay men are ick and obviously the bad guys...

Though I somehow doubt that that's Bioware's reasoning, it would be nice to know why they chose to separate the romances as they have, but considering they never will talk to us about the romances (it's almost as if Bioware are ashamed by the fact they have romances in this game), that's a good enough assumption as any, though it does imply a mix of misogyny and homophobia hitherto... actually... hm :/

We could decide stupidity rather than malice, but saying that Bioware are so stupid that they can't foresee their actions having consequences doesn't exactly bode well.

Though I somehow doubt that that's Bioware's reasoning, it would be nice to know why they chose to separate the romances as they have, but considering they never will talk to us about the romances (it's almost as if Bioware are ashamed by the fact they have romances in this game), that's a good enough assumption as any, though it does imply a mix of misogyny and homophobia hitherto... actually... hm :/

 

We could decide stupidity rather than malice, but saying that Bioware are so stupid that they can't foresee their actions having consequences doesn't exactly bode well.

"It took us five months to write, we thought it would take five months to play through." Futurama quotes aside, I'm just going to call it 'incredibly naive to MMO-locusts' rather than stupid. They over-estimated their lead-in window, and had nothing ready to plug the gap once people burned through the launch content.

Now everything's got to be run by the bean-counters, who also don't understand the market-base.

Though I somehow doubt that that's Bioware's reasoning, it would be nice to know why they chose to separate the romances as they have, but considering they never will talk to us about the romances (it's almost as if Bioware are ashamed by the fact they have romances in this game), that's a good enough assumption as any, though it does imply a mix of misogyny and homophobia hitherto... actually... hm :/

 

We could decide stupidity rather than malice, but saying that Bioware are so stupid that they can't foresee their actions having consequences doesn't exactly bode well.

I'm being partly facetious to be honest.

I trust Bioware enough that they are pretty inclusive as far as developers go. I wouldn't say they're ashamed - it maybe that they are under directions to be DL about the content. Star Wars is a pretty mainstream title with various markets. It's not like other Bioware games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age which are rated M. So I guess I don't trust the now defunct Lucasarts to be open about it. Thats me rationalizing for Bioware being tight lipped. To put it plainly: Lucas has them scared of backlash.

As for their lesbian/gay based on faction...I do think it does have something to do with the fact that lesbians are more...marketable and I feel that in society, it's easier to get away with female/female then male/male. I wonder if they have demographics on who plays Republic/Imps. Perhaps more older players play Imps and there a much younger demographic that plays Republic.

I'm being partly facetious to be honest.

 

I trust Bioware enough that they are pretty inclusive as far as developers go. I wouldn't say they're ashamed - it maybe that they are under directions to be DL about the content. Star Wars is a pretty mainstream title with various markets. It's not like other Bioware games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age which are rated M. So I guess I don't trust the now defunct Lucasarts to be open about it. Thats me rationalizing for Bioware being tight lipped. To put it plainly: Lucas has them scared of backlash.

 

As for their lesbian/gay based on faction...I do think it does have something to do with the fact that lesbians are more...marketable and I feel that in society, it's easier to get away with female/female then male/male. I wonder if they have demographics on who plays Republic/Imps. Perhaps more older players play Imps and there a much younger demographic that plays Republic.

While I'd agree with you on the likelyhood of F/F being more marketable/accepted by society. And while I'm also not suprised by someone saying "Gay must equal darkside" I'd say the reasons for the split are much simple and nowhere near as bad as the reason people think or get all hurt over.

Makeb is still a TOR planet, that follows the some design as all the other TOR planets. There's planet quests, and then there's the little side quests.

The planet quests have their NPC quest giver, who gets fleshed out more than any of the side quest NPCs. So, they made romances based on the planet quest giver as the big romantic storyline (I say big, not knowing just how big any of these romances are, btw, though I figure they're likely to be on par with any other romance storyline we have in game that doesn't involve a companion...which isn't that big of a difference really).

That means the Republic got the F/F romance and the Empire got the M/M romance. They could have given both side a F/F or M/M romance by making the NPC Quest giver the same gender on both sides, but then people would have complained about that.

My guess, is with the next planet, expect to see a switch in genders of the planet quest givers.

What I'm still curious about, since I haven't heard a deffinent on it yet, is if the male NPC is romancable only by male PCs or if the female PCs can romance him as well.

The next expansion (coming out next week for some) will have two NPCs that are tied to the faction-based storyline and players can have an SGR with them. The Republic side has the female/female option while the Imperial side has the male/male. I wouldn't expect these to be as involved as companion romance but they will probably be more involved than a one time [Flirt] option for a quest giving NPC.

 

There are also some [Flirt] options appearing in one of the new daily quests, I believe, but I doubt these will be substantial.

Yea what are factions? I don't recall there being any last time I played...

Yea what are factions? I don't recall there being any last time I played...

The Galactic Republic and Sith Empire.

The Galactic Republic and Sith Empire.

lol ok, makes sense. I suppose they were there last time I played XD.

Do we have anymore information on these characters? I still wont be buying this dlc until I here lots of feedback about it.

lol ok, makes sense. I suppose they were there last time I played XD.

 

Do we have anymore information on these characters? I still wont be buying this dlc until I here lots of feedback about it.

Dulfy has the videos up, I believe, they're linked a few pages back (or just go to dulfy.com). The Republic romance is with a female human scientist and the Imperial is likely the Sith Lord- the two on the Hutt box art.

I've got early access and may be doing the Imperial line with my Agent, so if anyone wants screens, just say, but I think the Beta videos are what you're after.

anyone else think that they are planning to make homosexual companions, one for each gender, for all classes, and they wanted us to see if it works in general.

I hope they provide backwards compatible romances with existing companions first.

I hope they provide backwards compatible romances with existing companions first.

I think this is unlikely for a couple of reasons:

1. The dialog would need to be re-recorded in many cases, as it wasn't written with that in mind. Corso Riggs romancing a male companion with his "little lady" dialog, for example, would just come across as a lazy attempt at fulfilling the idea of a gay romance.

2. Most players that have been asking for SGRs have already completed their companion conversations to the end. "Hey you need to level another toon to see these conversation options which are mostly the same but just a little bit different ..." seems to me would not really handle this situation either.

Mind you, I'm not opposed to the idea, I'm just saying it isn't likely. It seems more likely that new characters would be implemented.

Would still be nice..

Jeff Hickman's words in the state of the game make me hopeful it'll be there someday, and until then I have two characters who haven't finished their class stories yet and two who haven't been made yet so that they don't meet the companions I want them to be with and break anything behind the scenes. Of course, two of them may already be broken but I couldn't help it.

Until someone official comes out and says it's not happening I'll keep waiting, but given how long it's taken to get this far that may be a while yet either way.

I think this is unlikely for a couple of reasons:

 

1. The dialog would need to be re-recorded in many cases, as it wasn't written with that in mind. Corso Riggs romancing a male companion with his "little lady" dialog, for example, would just come across as a lazy attempt at fulfilling the idea of a gay romance.

 

2. Most players that have been asking for SGRs have already completed their companion conversations to the end. "Hey you need to level another toon to see these conversation options which are mostly the same but just a little bit different ..." seems to me would not really handle this situation either.

 

Mind you, I'm not opposed to the idea, I'm just saying it isn't likely. It seems more likely that new characters would be implemented.

I used the term "backwards compatible" as it refers to things we have already discussed in this thread, as well as others.

I'm one of those who has leveled to 50 and maxed companion affection. The romance dialogues are separate from the companion's basic storyline - they are opened only when you [Flirt] with said companion. To make ti backwards compatible, Bioware would have to add in a conversation for 550's/those with maxed affection that essentially starts the romance dialogues and then the romance can proceed from there.

Mr. Hickman has already stated, in his State of the Game address (I linked it a few pages back) that creating the companion romances for SGRA's is proving more difficult than they initially thought. This says to me, and many others, that they are in the midst of creating companion romances with existing companions.

In fact, I'll find my posts on the matter, one moment.

Here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6048925&highlight=companion%3B+difficult#post6048925

Let's assume that by "existing storylines" they mean backwards compatible romances and throwing SGR [Flirt]s into the pre-50 planetary and story content (former being companions and non-companion romances that exist, latter being stuff like that cute guy in the Nar Shadda bonus series), then that's "not so bad" - not great, but not ultra-terrible either.

 

That being said, the phrase was "bit difficult" not utterly impossible. Hopefully that means they're working out the coding and pacing and whether or not making these romances available to +10k companion affection players is possible and then, presumably, how to proceed from there.

Edit: I must also reiterate that Mr. Musco is hoping to have more information to give us sometime after Makeb hits live, however given how they've handled the SGR's in Makeb (not well, it would seem, given that they've divided sexuality by faction for some unknown reason), it is possible they will work very carefully on their wording.

Sate of the Game #2

Topic #4: Same Gender Romance: Any news on this front would be great… Answer: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. As we have said in the past, allowing same gender romance is something we are very supportive of.

(Emphasis mine.)

1. The dialog would need to be re-recorded in many cases, as it wasn't written with that in mind. Corso Riggs romancing a male companion with his "little lady" dialog, for example, would just come across as a lazy attempt at fulfilling the idea of a gay romance.

Well I am probably not alone in saying that I hope additional dialogue is recorded. I also hope that the dialogue is not identical to existing OGR dialogue with the pronouns/endearments changed.

2. Most players that have been asking for SGRs have already completed their companion conversations to the end. "Hey you need to level another toon to see these conversation options which are mostly the same but just a little bit different ..." seems to me would not really handle this situation either.

This is probably the trickiest problem they're facing with regard to retooling existing companions for SGR. One suggested solution in this thread was a way of resetting companion conversations - whether as a freebie or as something to buy on the cartel market. I think logically it would also have to strip xp and affection from players, but I suppose not rewarding xp or affection for the second go through of the conversations might work as well.

Mind you, I'm not opposed to the idea, I'm just saying it isn't likely. It seems more likely that new characters would be implemented.

Everything we've seen out of Bioware: Austin seems to indicate that they're at least considering the possibility, but they can't say definitively nor can they give us a time frame for this to occur. They have also said it would be very difficult. It may end up with them giving up on the idea - in that case, I'm sure we'll see new companions eventually. Actually, I think we'll see new companions eventually regardless.

Edit: I must also reiterate that Mr. Musco is hoping to have more information to give us sometime after Makeb hits live, however given how they've handled the SGR's in Makeb (not well, it would seem, given that they've divided sexuality by faction for some unknown reason), it is possible they will work very carefully on their wording.

Where has it said they divided sexuality by fraction? It's been said they have M/M Flirts on Republic Side and F/F Flirts on Empire side.