I've got a serious question for the people who are complaining that KotFE is "smaller/shorter" than previous expansions (particularly Makeb and SoR). How do you figure that? Other than dribbling it out over a year instead of dropping it all at once; I'm not seeing how it is any "smaller" than the other two major story expansions. Short of spacebarring and stealthing, each chapter is ~1 hour of playtime; not inclusive of the alliance grind elements (alerts and HSF). That's going to end up being ~16 hours of core storyline play, which stacks up at least as well as my estimate of the solo mode of SoR from the Forged Alliance flashpoints to the end of Ziost; and probably longer than Makeb (it's been a while since I've run the storyline of Makeb.

As for repeatable content; enough people didn't do Makeb's staged weeklies that they converted them to standard dailies; and the HSF are at least as interesting as the umpteenth run of Yavin, Oricon, CZ-198, Black Hole, or Section X; or even Belsavis or Ilum's dailies. Plus the heroic grind for alliances - it's not new content, but, seriously, how many people ran most heroics anything close to weekly prior. (I would occasionally grind Trouble In Deed back when 3 basic comms was a lot, but nothing else).

Post-Ilum repeatables were not really faction-specific (you have slightly different skins on effectively same content), and from Makeb onwards, even that pretense went away.

Show me the beef here, folks

I'm pretty sure the complaint is more it's smaller in how many different content 'types' it puts out. Other expansions came with a new PvP map and FP's/Ops (In SOR's case, it came with both) upon release (Thought feel free to correct me if, like KOFTE, these came out AFTER the X-pack). Kofte came with just the main story, some side quests, no new planets (As in, the size of Rishi or Yavin) or areas that are really THAT big. So while KOFTE does have a lot of content, it's not as... spread out as people would like. I think?

Thing is.. they do a smaller expac roughly every year, for roughly one third the cost of a classic MMO expac (such as a WoW expac which typically comes out on three year intervals). The difference being, SWTOR tends to focus heavily on a segment of content in any expac, rather then working on all facets for an expac. They sort of look like they are on a three year plan to push new content across all facets of play, but it takes three yearly expacs to do it.

So the net content over time is probably about the same. You can have 3 expacs, over 3 years, for roughly the same cost as the old school approach of a large expac every 3 years. But some veteran MMO players seem to get major gas pains over this approach, as they want it all in one large expac. But they will just consume it and be back complaining in 4-6 months.. and then have to wait more then 2 years for another expac.

Which approach is better? The answer will vary by player. There is no pleasing a diverse player base... so no matter what they do, people are going to dish the hate on them on behalf of which ever special interest group feels ignored.

I'm pretty sure the complaint is more it's smaller in how many different content 'types' it puts out. Other expansions came with a new PvP map and FP's/Ops (In SOR's case, it came with both) upon release. (Thought feel free to correct me if, like KOFTE, these came out AFTER the X-pack).

Release cadence - we just got a new PvP game type and map, they just didn't launch with KotFE. There is an admitted lack of Ops, but the effort that would have built an Op or two (10 mechanics bosses; you could populate 3 Ops with that) went into TEC instead. For better or for worse. It's not an Op; it's something different entirely. And as I keep saying, a new op that is a successor to Rav/ToS would be inaccessible to the majority of the player base. Certainly to anyone who used a Start-at-60 token. If TEC can serve as an Ops boot camp, in place of the old fp->ops chain->Rav/ToS, then a successor to those two is possible. I think they've got slightly different plans; but something along the lines of TEC being an Ops boot camp is part of it.

(Thought feel free to correct me if, like KOFTE, these came out AFTER the X-pack). Kofte came with just the main story, some side quests, no new planets (As in, the size of Rishi or Yavin) or areas that are really THAT big. So while KOFTE does have a lot of content, it's not as... spread out as people would like. I think?

That goes back to our previous discussion about "side/filler content." You're not forced to travel to open world or engage the mobs therein; and there are less chapters (and they're longer, and can't be sidelined) than there were missions in previous expacs. Instead of coming up with new planets, they recycled existing ones. I personally think they should have set more content, including chapter content, on existing iconic planets. It always seemed a shame that they "used up" planets as you went along the storyline, and level sync is a tool that would allow them to set relevant content in amongst the existing locales. And you wouldn't have the oddity of "the outlander is always sneaking back onto Zakuul." It's easy enough to handwave, but the writers haven't bothered to do so.

I'm pretty sure the complaint is more it's smaller in how many different content 'types' it puts out. Other expansions came with a new PvP map and FP's/Ops (In SOR's case, it came with both) upon release (Thought feel free to correct me if, like KOFTE, these came out AFTER the X-pack). Kofte came with just the main story, some side quests, no new planets (As in, the size of Rishi or Yavin) or areas that are really THAT big. So while KOFTE does have a lot of content, it's not as... spread out as people would like. I think?

This would be correct if you asked me.

Of course it is all a matter of taste, but there is just no replayability IMO. I really have to force myself to go through it with my chars as it's so very linear and tedious. I already know by heart where and when Skytrooper No.546 will spawn...

Then there are the side activities like SFs, alerts and alliance rep. They all feel like incredible, legacy unfriendly grinds to me. It was Ok on my main, but I already know that I'll never do another SF again or get all of the companions on my 24 chars. EC was quite nice and I'll do it once per class, but after that there is just no reason as the rewards don't interest me.

 

Then there are the side activities like SFs, alerts and alliance rep. They all feel like incredible, legacy unfriendly grinds to me. It was Ok on my main, but I already know that I'll never do another SF again or get all of the companions on my 24 chars. EC was quite nice and I'll do it once per class, but after that there is just no reason as the rewards don't interest me.

For the alliance rep stuff, I don't think it's legacy unfriendly unless they reveal that it actually matters more then just getting an achievement and that there's a reason to do it on other characters. Aside from the bonus you get in the Star Fortress.

The lack of legacy friendliness on the Alliance grind is a strike against. OTOH, that's balanced against the shortness of each character's grind. It hurts the big legacies, helps the smaller ones.

Also, the alliance crates are legacy bound, shortcircuiting some of the legacy grind for later characters.

Thing is.. they do a smaller expac roughly every year, for roughly one third the cost of a classic MMO expac (such as a WoW expac which typically comes out on three year intervals). The difference being, SWTOR tends to focus heavily on a segment of content in any expac, rather then working on all facets for an expac. They sort of look like they are on a three year plan to push new content across all facets of play, but it takes three yearly expacs to do it.

 

So the net content over time is probably about the same. You can have 3 expacs, over 3 years, for roughly the same cost as the old school approach of a large expac every 3 years. But some veteran MMO players seem to get major gas pains over this approach, as they want it all in one large expac. But they will just consume it and be back complaining in 4-6 months.. and then have to wait more then 2 years for another expac.

 

Which approach is better? The answer will vary by player. There is no pleasing a diverse player base... so no matter what they do, people are going to dish the hate on them on behalf of which ever special interest group feels ignored.

True enough. The main reasons I'd prefer traditional expansions are scope and replayability.

With scope I mean creating a huge new experience complete with acompanying group content, minigames, new features etc. Also I'd prefer to get new expansive areas to quest in as opposed to the small maps of KotFE.

As for replayability, with a traditional expansion I'd expect there to be a storyline + sidequests for each faction, so I can alternate playthroughs. So when I'm finished with the first two chars, it will still feel somewhat fresh by the time I start the third.

With KotFE, when I start the newest chapter on the third alt, I still know exactly what will happen at any given point which makes the whole thing extremely boring IMO.

I like how they bring out something new every month right now. It's not just been a chapter but also things like QoL updates, new warzones and such. That by itself is a good thing.

The tough thing is that a lot of resources went into redesigning the game as it was. A lot of work was not put into new content but into revamping the game, overhauling it if you prefer.

Now the issue is of course timing. The decision was made at a time that people were already waiting for new endgame content, operations. PvP is still something that could have a lot more going for it also. These areas are currently lacking sorely in newness. A lot of people who have been playing for a while are getting a bit bored or quit out of boredom and also players that haven't been around that long will be seeing some wear as well.

I do agree the game needed the overhaul but it has been a long time for group content. Star Forge was fun for a bit and building your alliance as a character rather than legacy also lost their shine quickly. The story is pretty cool, but it is one size fits all and I dread the idea of getting tech classes through there. The other thing is that I only run two characters through the story currently (1 imp, 1 rep) and that's it. I do not wish to bring others through them because I don't know where the story is going yet and that doesn't work for me. So there the replay value is currently also low.

So all in all I don't have a problem with what we got, except that missed opportunity with alliances, but there are a number of things we didn't get and those are clearly noticeable.

Actually, I need to do some math on the alliance rep grind vs classic rep grind. It might not end up being so bad.

As for repeating content, I noted that there really hadn't been much factional difference post Ilum. The names and the quest givers change, is all. And KotFE has much more "story" content if measured by cut scene length, it's just visible on one play through instead of requiring two.

 

As for repeating content, I noted that there really hadn't been much factional difference post Ilum. The names and the quest givers change, is all. And KotFE has much more "story" content if measured by cut scene length, it's just visible on one play through instead of requiring two.

I thought Makeb still did very well on that front. I loved the interwoven story arcs where one side tries to keep the other in the dark and such.

Back then I already thought Makeb to be too short, but now I think it was actually a very nice compromise inbetween classic expansions and episodic ones.

It's tricky I think. Yes each chapter can be completed within an hour and then you have to wait a month for something new yet if you add it up, KotFE (once S1 finishes) will have offered about 16 hours (estimate for new/casual players who haven't done the content yet) of game play through chapters. Add in the time it takes for Alliance Alerts, if you choose to do them, and you'll near 20'ish hours of game play. Though people aren't thrilled with it, they did add in new PvP content too. KotFE did come with a level and gear increase and the Star Fortresses which again may not be the content you seek but it is content. And don't forget the EC. In all fairness all that's missing is a new Operation but when you add up everything else it's a pretty decent expansion package and it's about a years worth of 'new stuff'.

Now look at WoW. 60 bucks for the expansion which will last about 2 years before the new one comes out. It offers new PVP, new raids, a flexible questing system so you're not on a loop per say (Legion will allow you to choose where you wanna start and travel next rather than force you into zone A or B depending on your level), new zones, raised level cap etc. Throughout those 2 years though there's no new expansion, they do continue to update the content and add to it via patches (ie; adding new raids and end-game zones) so new things continue appearing into the game.

Both approaches have their appeal and I'd enjoy both. Heck I have and do enjoy both.

Now for me personally.. for RotHC/SoR vs. KotFE.. my first run through RotHC took me 2'ish hours. SoR including preludes & Ziost took about 4-5 hours on my first run through just taking it easy, figuring out what's what, where everything was etc. Total of 7'ish hours combined.. nowadays that's more like 4-5 for those 2 xpacs, story wise only. KotFE chapter 1-9 takes me about 2 hours on average and each following chapter about 45 mins/an hour at first though easily 20-30 mins once I'm used to it. I'd say once Chapter 16 has been released, it would take about 5 hours to go through all 16 chapters which ends up being the same value at RotHC and SoR combined. I actually feel like we're getting MORE out of KotFE than we did with those two, story wise.

It's tricky I think. Yes each chapter can be completed within an hour and then you have to wait a month for something new yet if you add it up, KotFE (once S1 finishes) will have offered about 16 hours (estimate for new/casual players who haven't done the content yet) of game play through chapters. Add in the time it takes for Alliance Alerts, if you choose to do them, and you'll near 20'ish hours of game play. Though people aren't thrilled with it, they did add in new PvP content too. KotFE did come with a level and gear increase and the Star Fortresses which again may not be the content you seek but it is content. And don't forget the EC. In all fairness all that's missing is a new Operation but when you add up everything else it's a pretty decent expansion package and it's about a years worth of 'new stuff'.

 

Now look at WoW. 60 bucks for the expansion which will last about 2 years before the new one comes out. It offers new PVP, new raids, a flexible questing system so you're not on a loop per say (Legion will allow you to choose where you wanna start and travel next rather than force you into zone A or B depending on your level), new zones, raised level cap etc. Throughout those 2 years though there's no new expansion, they do continue to update the content and add to it via patches (ie; adding new raids and end-game zones) so new things continue appearing into the game.

 

Both approaches have their appeal and I'd enjoy both. Heck I have and do enjoy both.

 

Now for me personally.. for RotHC/SoR vs. KotFE.. my first run through RotHC took me 2'ish hours. SoR including preludes & Ziost took about 4-5 hours on my first run through just taking it easy, figuring out what's what, where everything was etc. Total of 7'ish hours combined.. nowadays that's more like 4-5 for those 2 xpacs, story wise only. KotFE chapter 1-9 takes me about 2 hours on average and each following chapter about 45 mins/an hour at first though easily 20-30 mins once I'm used to it. I'd say once Chapter 16 has been released, it would take about 5 hours to go through all 16 chapters which ends up being the same value at RotHC and SoR combined. I actually feel like we're getting MORE out of KotFE than we did with those two, story wise.

You might want to double your value for Makeb though as it has two destinct story arcs. Also 2 hours for a first play seems a bit short to me. Did you do the heroics, Toborro's Coutyard and what about the macrobinocular and seeker droid questlines?

And the original Makeb had quite tough mobs on every street corner, path and shortcut yelling "Engaging the Enemy!" at you and fighting you, which made every mesa take 5-10 times as long in travel times.

And there were 2 datacrons - and one was pretty challenging when you were on your own trying to figure out how to get to it.

The staged weekly was about 1 - 1.5 hours depending on the missions you chose. - and the gear was worth having if you didn't have BiS by that point.

Thing is that there is probably more per month time-wise than there was, but there was still a lot to keep you occupied outside the story. - now that a lot of people have completed a lot more of the game, there's not so much to fill the in-between time without repeating yourself over and over.

I'm sorry Ian I can't show you the beef because I ate it.

I agree though I might not like everything about KOTFE but I've certainly enjoyed several chapters, the new warzones, star fortress,and to some extent I like the EC I just think the rewards are trash. When I look at all things considered I saw someone say that if they released new HM flashpoints and one OPS this would arguably be the best expansion since vanilla and I'd agree. KOTFE isn't perfect but if it's generating the money then I'd say the chapter release is safe bet going forward.

I'm sorry Ian I can't show you the beef because I ate it.

 

I agree though I might not like everything about KOTFE but I've certainly enjoyed several chapters, the new warzones, star fortress,and to some extent I like the EC I just think the rewards are trash. When I look at all things considered I saw someone say that if they released new HM flashpoints and one OPS this would arguably be the best expansion since vanilla and I'd agree. KOTFE isn't perfect but if it's generating the money then I'd say the chapter release is safe bet going forward.

I'd agree with one exeption, the unified story. If there only were two story arcs or at the very very least a few quests that are class specific...I'm so sick of being the outlander! I want to be a valiant Jedi again, an (in)famous bounty hunter or smuggler, a cunning agent, striking from the shadows, a loyal soldier of the republic or a slave turned sith lord...etc.

And the original Makeb had quite tough mobs on every street corner, path and shortcut yelling "Engaging the Enemy!" at you and fighting you, which made every mesa take 5-10 times as long in travel times.

 

And there were 2 datacrons - and one was pretty challenging when you were on your own trying to figure out how to get to it.

 

The staged weekly was about 1 - 1.5 hours depending on the missions you chose. - and the gear was worth having if you didn't have BiS by that point.

 

Thing is that there is probably more per month time-wise than there was, but there was still a lot to keep you occupied outside the story. - now that a lot of people have completed a lot more of the game, there's not so much to fill the in-between time without repeating yourself over and over.

I ground the staged weeklies to get the gazebo when they announced the retirement of that mode. It had a little more variety than 6 different Star Fortresses. Once. The second time around, it was just inconvenient. Also, see below. I don't count gear stat rewards because they're always at risk of being obsoleted. Cosmetic rewards are good - and HSF/Heroics reward plenty of them. Plus they award mods and comm crystals.

You might want to double your value for Makeb though as it has two destinct story arcs. Also 2 hours for a first play seems a bit short to me. Did you do the heroics, Toborro's Coutyard and what about the macrobinocular and seeker droid questlines?

They didn't do new heroics, but by making the rewards for the old ones worthwhile to your level, it opened up the entire menu of them. I'm curious how many people regularly played heroics they'd overleveled prior to 4.0; and, at any rate, the old heroics are "new" content to start-at-60s

Torborro's courtyard is the Op, whose lack I mentioned. For everyone but the Ops community, there's TEC. Good point about the bonus questlines - while the HSF "storyline" checks that box, it's a good deal less varied that those two. OTOH, they appear to have been a failed experiment; one not repeated in SoR, and one that most people have difficulty finding the requisite groups to do.

They didn't do new heroics, but by making the rewards for the old ones worthwhile to your level, it opened up the entire menu of them. I'm curious how many people regularly played heroics they'd overleveled prior to 4.0; and, at any rate, the old heroics are "new" content to start-at-60s

 

I did them on all of my chars while leveling them up, so quite a lot. Now I don't do them any more often than before, they're reduced to a pretty boring grind IMO.

4.0 is great for new players in general I think, not so much if racing to max level is not your thing, but there sure is a lot for them to do.

I did them on all of my chars while leveling them up, so quite a lot. Now I don't do them any more often than before, they're reduced to a pretty boring grind IMO.

 

4.0 is great for new players in general I think, not so much if racing to max level is not your thing, but there sure is a lot for them to do.

Everything gets reduced to a pretty boring grind. It took me a lot longer than it could have to max my Section X rep because I got to the point where I literally could not bring myself to do the weekly more than once a week, maybe twice, and I was already at Champ when that happened. I still haven't maxed my Voss, Yavin, or Oricon reps. At least with the heroic grind I don't have to do the same 4 missions over and over and ... - I can pick different heroics off the menu, and the heroics themselves are factionally different, and easier to get to and do.

The entire paradigm of the rep grind changed - we didn't get new content, but we got a lot more variety of content that can be used to grind "rep." And while the rep meters are per character instead of per legacy, the "tokens" are still per-legacy. It's like they moved from using a weekly rep cap to contribute to your rep to a character rep cap to contribute. Which reminds me, I still need to do that analysis of old-style rep vs alliance influence grind.

Well their goes a half hour of my life, thing closed my comment and I was almost done. To lazy to type it all up so I guess ill just slop it in together.

Makeb for the most takes roughly 5 hours, not to mention their was two stories together to make to a equivalent of 10. KOTFE only had 9 at launch which roughly took a hour, and unless you want to nickel and dime the entire KOTFE story, Oricon would of been released by the time of chapter 14 launching.

Ill admit I haven't completed Oricon on my imp, so I don't know how different it is, but surely it can't be as bad as KOTFE is with alts. Probably takes roughly 2-3 hours for each faction side, if you don't take the scenic route, and in the end probably evens with out with KOTFE, the only difference is their is no repeatable content once KOTFE is done.

Ill admit the staged weeklies and Oricon isn't exactly the best daily zones, but I imagine they probably even out with the alliance alerts if you would run them over and over again. Running around for Yuuns stuff for his creation is no difference then searching for evidence of the imperials for the staged weekly. Going around scanning the land on perketa mesa is no different than scanning the tunnels for Lokin etc. etc.

PVP isn't my thing, so I can't say to much, but I presume Hutt ball evens out with the Alliance Proving Ground, but I believe the PVP balance wasn't as whack as it was back then.

Now we move onto the TEC..... to seriously say its the equivalent of three ops??? The TEC is roughly equal into the production of a single operation, yes... while it has 10 bosses, the first four bosses are incredibly simple. The arena is also a stagnant area so less work for the design team compared to having to make dread fortress or dread palace. Only the last 4 bosses feel like it would take awhile to make, but even then their still dumbed down compared to what we had from previous installations of other bosses. Can we really say that the Doom Droid or Zotar is mechanically equivalent to Brontes? even combined?

I apologize for the slopped up message and if I seemed rude... but to type it all neatly (which I don't normally do) and go into depth into everything and for it to be deleted, is infuriating. However, in the end, for the most part, KOTFE as of yet, is roughly the same amount of content we had in the 2.0-2.4 cycle, besides operations and the design teams efforts, however the 2.0 cycle spread out their content to all classes, compared to KOTFE were its 90% single players. However I expect more since this is the most profitable expansion as of yet.

You might want to double your value for Makeb though as it has two destinct story arcs. Also 2 hours for a first play seems a bit short to me. Did you do the heroics, Toborro's Coutyard and what about the macrobinocular and seeker droid questlines?

Forgot about the double story, one per faction so yeah fair enough.

Otherwise though I was purely speaking in terms of the base story line progression, not the extras. I see the Heroics and droid stuff you mention as additional so I didn't calculate those in.

Well their goes a half hour of my life, thing closed my comment and I was almost done. To lazy to type it all up so I guess ill just slop it in together.

 

Makeb for the most takes roughly 5 hours, not to mention their was two stories together to make to a equivalent of 10. KOTFE only had 9 at launch which roughly took a hour, and unless you want to nickel and dime the entire KOTFE story, Oricon would of been released by the time of chapter 14 launching.

I looked up the length of cutscenes in Makeb - each faction has roughly 1h:30m of cutscenes, judging from youtube runtimes. Dulfy conveniently toted up the cutscene lengths for ChI-IX as 3.3 hours and playtime roughly double that - estimating 6-7 hours of watching cutscenes or half that spacebarring. Each subsequent chapter has run ~1 hour of play+cutscene for me. Makeb's "open world time" is structured rather differently that KotFE; see my discussions with Codedrago for details and implications thereof. Oricon adds possibly 2 hours per faction worth of play+cutscene (not inclusive of the ops). And we still have 2-3 chapters to release. Core, story cutscene+playtime is bigger in KotFE, and while some of that is the more extensive cutscenes, it's not THAT big a difference.

Ill admit I haven't completed Oricon on my imp, so I don't know how different it is, but surely it can't be as bad as KOTFE is with alts. Probably takes roughly 2-3 hours for each faction side, if you don't take the scenic route, and in the end probably evens with out with KOTFE, the only difference is their is no repeatable content once KOTFE is done.

Ill admit the staged weeklies and Oricon isn't exactly the best daily zones, but I imagine they probably even out with the alliance alerts if you would run them over and over again. Running around for Yuuns stuff for his creation is no difference then searching for evidence of the imperials for the staged weekly. Going around scanning the land on perketa mesa is no different than scanning the tunnels for Lokin etc. etc.

Agreed. The grind is apportioned differently at the character and legacy level (no weekly caps to rep, but you can't "sub in" work on another character for the per-companion missions (though you can for their influence).

PVP isn't my thing, so I can't say to much, but I presume Hutt ball evens out with the Alliance Proving Ground, but I believe the PVP balance wasn't as whack as it was back then.

I'm no hardcore PvPer, so I can't judge the balance complaints; just that they put in a new map and new mode

Now we move onto the TEC..... to seriously say its the equivalent of three ops??? The TEC is roughly equal into the production of a single operation, yes... while it has 10 bosses, the first four bosses are incredibly simple. The arena is also a stagnant area so less work for the design team compared to having to make dread fortress or dread palace. Only the last 4 bosses feel like it would take awhile to make, but even then their still dumbed down compared to what we had from previous installations of other bosses. Can we really say that the Doom Droid or Zotar is mechanically equivalent to Brontes? even combined?

In development, testing, and QA, not in player difficulty. Difficulty of implementation and balancing is not proportional to difficulty of play. I've actually played SP a couple of times, and the "puzzle" mechanics features are relatively simple to develop, test, and QA, compared to balancing the combat mechanics of, say, Conraad and Chompers, the Breaktown Brawler, or Little Gut. 3 Ops worth of development difficulty may be a tad overstating things, since the individual bosses are not as hard to balance, nor is it as hard to balance vs single players than vs groups. (But, again, the difficulty in non-linear compared to player count). This is someplace I have domain knowledge - I've done game design and balancing before.

I apologize for the slopped up message and if I seemed rude... but to type it all neatly (which I don't normally do) and go into depth into everything and for it to be deleted, is infuriating. However, in the end, for the most part, KOTFE as of yet, is roughly the same amount of content we had in the 2.0-2.4 cycle, besides operations and the design teams efforts, however the 2.0 cycle spread out their content to all classes, compared to KOTFE were its 90% single players. However I expect more since this is the most profitable expansion as of yet.

No offense taken, no apologies necessary.

The existing Ops players got a box of rocks out of this expansion. IMO, because the effort needed to soft reboot the game (all the mechanical changes in play rules in 4.0) and the effort spent on TEC squeezed out Ops development. Why that decision was made is unknowable to us. I can make some guesses, at least one of which I pithily and (overly) harshly summed up as "BW to raiders, drop dead." I don't think large-group-PvE is going away entirely; but I don't think it's going to be built in the classic format when they do build more, either.

I'd agree with one exeption, the unified story. If there only were two story arcs or at the very very least a few quests that are class specific...I'm so sick of being the outlander! I want to be a valiant Jedi again, an (in)famous bounty hunter or smuggler, a cunning agent, striking from the shadows, a loyal soldier of the republic or a slave turned sith lord...etc.

Yeah, it would be nice to at least have force-user and non-force-user story arcs. My merc is not at all interested in Val or Zakuul. Arcann just needs to die because of the whole popsicle incident, but building an entire military Alliance is not how that would be taken care of.

On the other hand, this falls right in line for my Sin, because it is the path to more power and eventual control of the universe.