I'm just returning to the game and I really don't understand the game mechanics involved in racial choice. Is it all cosmetic like female vs male?

There are no positive, or negative consequences for choosing any particular swtor race.

There are no positive, or negative consequences for choosing any particular swtor race.

Thank you for the quick response. Happy hunting.

You do get slightly different dialogue options based on race, though.

Yes, and it has to be noted that in addition to be rare, it doesn't change nor the outcome nor rewards of the dialogs.

That's just for flavoring them.

Only differences in dialogue ive noticed:

Sith Pureblood vs human vs others: you will sometimes get a response about your sith pureblood blood or how there are alien scum (if you are human), or another alien may suggest something about humans (if you are alien)

Race has no affect on gameplay.

while you didnt ask for it gender will get different romance arcs with your companions, which while it wont affect the storyline as a whole, you could have minor differences between genders

I thought this was the case but I was really hoping it wasn't. I'd like to see some racial/species bonuses for certain classes or even negatives. The closest thing to that is the bonuses you get on companions with crafting skills. Just a thought anyway.

Thats the thing though, when games put in racial bonuses that apply to classes even if its marginal to no real effect players become very aggressive to having a character/race in a group that wouldnt be the supreme choice, you have it in some games already with just being a different spec than the supposed "best" spec for a certain AC

In some stories it may be altered such as a chiss agent vs a human agent. On my chiss IA it seems the entire class story was written specifically for his race with watcher two calling you a dirty alien and Darth Jadus mentioning your status.

yea, but it wont exactly be a gamechanging experience. i recall a mission on hoth where you can either put a chiss guy in charge of operations or not, and based on if you are an alien or not you have some different responses that you can choose, such as something like "fellow aliens..." or "you alien scum" and something to that degree

I'm just returning to the game and I really don't understand the game mechanics involved in racial choice. Is it all cosmetic like female vs male?

If you are a brand new player, then the first human you get to level 50 will unlock a +100 presence bonus. That bonus will apply to any other character on your legacy...regardless of faction, race, and class. Presence will boost your companion stats, causing them to do more damage, healing and have more health. I'm not in game right now so i dont know the exact text, but you can mouseover presence to see how much it gives you.

If you are a brand new player, then the first human you get to level 50 will unlock a +100 presence bonus. That bonus will apply to any other character on your legacy...regardless of faction, race, and class. Presence will boost your companion stats, causing them to do more damage, healing and have more health. I'm not in game right now so i dont know the exact text, but you can mouseover presence to see how much it gives you.

in addition to the 100 bonus from humans (which can also be bought thru the legacy panel for 500,000 credits if you dont want to be a human but still want the presence), for each class' companions' storylines you complete (most will be able to be done by act 2 with enough affection) you will also unlock 10 presence.

so for each class you can unlock 50 presence, so 200 for each faction. so in all you can have a total of 500 bonus presence from human unlock (100) and the 40 companions (400). you may not notice a huge performance difference as you start to unlock presence but once you unlock a lot at lower levels your companions will be able to dominate.

i have 39 companions and the human unlock (so i get 490 bonus presence, need kira for my jk which needs act 3 to be done), so when i start new characters when i get my first companion, they will usually have almost double the health and damage that i will. im able to do black talon/esseles at level 9 usually with just me and my comp, im able to do all heroics usually on dk/coruscant (depending on the class i can solo H4s)

yea, but it wont exactly be a gamechanging experience. i recall a mission on hoth where you can either put a chiss guy in charge of operations or not, and based on if you are an alien or not you have some different responses that you can choose, such as something like "fellow aliens..." or "you alien scum" and something to that degree

I would like to add that if you're a Chiss agent, one of the conversation with Kaliyo is she ask you where you learn to shoot or something and you said you're from the Ascendancy. The cover up quest on Balmorra also allows you to say something like "You want me to betray my own people?" You won't get the line if you're a Chiss bounty hunter.

Apparently there is none for being a Cathar. I slaughtered 100's of Cathar on Taris and nothing was said.

Probably because Cathar is a new race that came out recently and you are doing an old quest. I doubt Bioware is going to update an old quest to reflect if you are Cathar or not.

Dialogue options are changed in some places. Mostly you're either an "alien" or "human" as far as most quests are concerned but there are a handful of combinations that give you nice flavor dialogue in certain moments of your class story:

- Miraluka Jedi Knight

- Chiss Imperial Agent

- Pureblood Sith Warrior

and there is one line for Cathar when talking to Captain Hanthor on Makeb.

Also here are some romances you can't initiate if you are an alien, such as Skavak and Watcher Two, if I recall correctly.