So as we all most certainly know it was not stated directly in the Roadmap that a new playable species would be introduced into the game. However, Keith did say in the Roadmap that the dev team would be willing to hear what we players wanted more regarding character customization. In my opinion this should also include Playable Species, as after all they are one of the first steps in the character creator one has to take in creating a new character. It makes sense therefore to see them as Character Customization options and therefore bring to the attention of Bioware that we, the players, would be very happy to see the number of playable species in the game to be increased.

However, I am not making this as a suggestion that Bioware should do this. What I want with this thread is to start a discussion and bring this to the attention of Bioware. So therefore I will present three species I consider to be most likely to be added into the game. Naturally if anyone feels they want to see other species added other than the ones I mention in this OP, then absolutely feel free to do so, as I feel a centralised thread about what species the players would want to see next added into the game might be more beneficial than dozens of seperate posts.

So the three species I think make the most sense to be added into the game and the reasons why are the following:

1. Kaleesh - The Kaleesh mainly have been heavily featured in the Ilum Story Arc where Darth Malgus uses them in his military to further his goals of establishing a New Sith Empire. If you'd ask me this would have been the perfect moment for the race to be added as a playable one into the game. Furthermore we know that Kaleesh can be both Jedi as well as Sith, as in the Consular storyline we have a Jedi named Cin Tykan who is a Kaleesh and of course in the Sith Inquisitor storyline we have our all-time favourite Xalek. This would imply that the species are suitable for both Republic and Empire sides of the game and wouldn't create a conflict lore-wise. The same naturally goes for the other classes as we can see Kaleesh fulfilling various roles throughout the galaxy which also leads me to the point that there are already multiple character designs of Kaleesh ingame. The sole thing Bioware would need to do is expanding the existing customization options for the Kaleesh as well as make female models of the race and they'd be fairly swiftly done I believe.

2. Chagrian - The Chagrians have been less featured in the game than the Kaleesh but they still make a sensible choice as the next playable species. They have humanoid models but due to their Horns and Lethorns they attain a rather 'alien' appearance which would satisfy part of the community that desire to see more alien-looking species among the playable ones, at least I think it would. Chagrians wouldn't require variations to the voice actor's voice as we can see throughout the game they have a human-way of speaking, meaning they speak Galactic Basic without a problem. Regarding lore, the Chagrians were seen on both sides of the galaxy, meaning as well as Empire as Republic. I can't think immediately of a Jedi-example as a Chagrian, but we all know Rusk meaning it's not a stretch for the race to have affiliations to the Republic. On the Empire side we have Morrun Dokaas from the Revanite quest on Dromund Kaas. He was said to have been found by The Master of the Revanites as a larva and was subsequently trained in the ways of the Sith as well as the Revanites. This would show it's also not a stretch to assume there were Chagrians within the Empire with the ability to become Sith. It is likely however the Chagrians would be slaves within the Empire, as most of the aliens and non-Humans were, but that again would suit the Sith Inquisitor storyline for example perfectly.

3. Falleen - The Falleen would be a species that would be somewhat more tricky to add into the game. So far we have not seen a ingame model of this species and they are otherwise rarely if not at all mentioned in the game itself. However, the Falleen were present during this era of the Old Republic as in the SWTOR novel "Annihilation" a Falleen plays a major role in the story, namely Darth Karrid. Regarding lore, the novel states that Karrid started out as a Jedi after she was found to be Force sensitive. Therefore it is safe to assume that the Falleen had ties with the Republic at this time. However, the problem would be whether they were also more frequently seen within the Empire. As stated before, Karrid was a Jedi who was tasked to infiltrate the Sith Order but during this mission she fell to the Dark Side and became Darth Malgus' apprentice. The question therefore is whether this was a one-time, unique occurance of a Falleen within the Empire or whether they were an unusual but not unexpected sight there. Should they be made a playable species in SWTOR, they'd need to get a little but more backstory, perhaps a future part of the main story would involve the Falleen and subsequently with that story the species would be released as a playable race in the game. This one would require more time and effort from Bioware as there is not yet a design for the Falleen ingame, I believe it would still be a very interesting addition to SWTOR nonetheless.

So these three are the species I consider to be most likely to be added into the game. As I said earlier, I hope for this thread to become a more centralised one regarding Playable Species as part of broadening Character Customizations. Comment whether you agree with the three species I described or whether you completely disagree and would like to see other ones added instead. If you even believe that we shouldn't get any new playable species please talk about it as well as I believe all of this is valuable feedback to the Devs of the game regarding what we'd like to see happen in our beloved SWTOR

Let's go over the "rules" for playable species just so that people remember them:

1. MUST speak basic - this serves two purposes: (A) dialogue mapping; if there is any new VA work to be done in existing content it ain't gonna happen. And (B) no poor "translations"; listen to NPCs who speak Huttese (or Jawas speaking Jawa) who use the EXACT same "words and phrases" translated into COMPLETELY DIFFERENT subtitles. Do you REALLY want to hear the same 5 to 10 phrases in every conversation? I know I would get frustrated quickly.

2. MUST be roughly human sized - extraordinarily tall or short species are a nonstarter due to cutscene camera and eye angles...not to mention combat animations (imagine a jawa as a slinger/sniper shooting THROUGH cover or being "hit" by animations that impact the space above their heads). Do you really want an NPC who stares at a wookiee's chest or that same NPC staring into open space over a jawa's or ewok's head? Not to mention that wookiee's head would be cut off and the camera might get an ewok or jawa scalp in most cutscenes when the camera focuses on the Player Character. Again any species that would involve reworking the existing cutscene ain't gonna happen.

3. MUST have a roughly human face - again this serves two purposes: (A) dialogue mapping - even if (for example) a Rodian can speak basic (which we know they can from the Rebels TV Series and from several books) their lips are too far away from the existing layout to make them work properly without significant reworking. And (B) romance - a companion kissing a Rodian would have all sorts of clipping problems. To resolve these types of issues would require too many resources to be worthwhile.

The problems I see with Kaleesh

#1 - their face. As I said in the "rules" a roughly human face is required for a lot of aspects.

#2 - Kaleesh also tend to be larger/taller than humans; not by much, but enough to throw off the camera and eye angles to make cutscenes look weird (NPCs looking at their chins rather than their eyes. Granted, Bothans are supposed to be significantly shorter than humans and have a more pronounced snout, but they have incorporated bothans into SWTOR (KDY and Eternal Alliance Beywan Aygo).

#3 - I do not recall ever seeing a female Kaleesh in game.

Chagrians and Falleen have been requested before and there are no real issues with them: they speak basic, roughly human sized with roughly human faces therefore they could work.

Let's go over the "rules" for playable species just so that people remember them:

 

1. MUST speak basic - this serves two purposes: (A) dialogue mapping; if there is any new VA work to be done in existing content it ain't gonna happen. And (B) no poor "translations"; listen to NPCs who speak Huttese (or Jawas speaking Jawa) who use the EXACT same "words and phrases" translated into COMPLETELY DIFFERENT subtitles. Do you REALLY want to hear the same 5 to 10 phrases in every conversation? I know I would get frustrated quickly.

 

2. MUST be roughly human sized - extraordinarily tall or short species are a nonstarter due to cutscene camera and eye angles...not to mention combat animations (imagine a jawa as a slinger/sniper shooting THROUGH cover or being "hit" by animations that impact the space above their heads). Do you really want an NPC who stares at a wookiee's chest or that same NPC staring into open space over a jawa's or ewok's head? Not to mention that wookiee's head would be cut off and the camera might get an ewok or jawa scalp in most cutscenes when the camera focuses on the Player Character. Again any species that would involve reworking the existing cutscene ain't gonna happen.

 

3. MUST have a roughly human face - again this serves two purposes: (A) dialogue mapping - even if (for example) a Rodian can speak basic (which we know they can from the Rebels TV Series and from several books) their lips are too far away from the existing layout to make them work properly without significant reworking. And (B) romance - a companion kissing a Rodian would have all sorts of clipping problems. To resolve these types of issues would require too many resources to be worthwhile.

 

The problems I see with Kaleesh

#1 - their face. As I said in the "rules" a roughly human face is required for a lot of aspects.

#2 - Kaleesh also tend to be larger/taller than humans; not by much, but enough to throw off the camera and eye angles to make cutscenes look weird (NPCs looking at their chins rather than their eyes. Granted, Bothans are supposed to be significantly shorter than humans and have a more pronounced snout, but they have incorporated bothans into SWTOR (KDY and Eternal Alliance Beywan Aygo).

#3 - I do not recall ever seeing a female Kaleesh in game.

 

Chagrians and Falleen have been requested before and there are no real issues with them: they speak basic, roughly human sized with roughly human faces therefore they could work.

Something very important I forgot to add in the OP. I am glad you posted this however as these are very important rules to the likelihood of a species being made a playable one!

I'd not care for any new playable races, just as I don't care about the non-human ones you can play right now.

Why not? Because there's far too little customizability. I want to create a unique looking toon, but with what you get, all I can make is a generic clone that looks like everyone else's toon. At least with humans and cyborgs you have loads of styles and tattoos and stuff like that, but with the aliens, there is just far too little. They'd have to massively work on that first, in my opinion.

Tthat said, I've always wanted to play a Rodian. You could play one in Jedi Knight: Academy, so they can use the force apparently. And they CAN speak basic, they just seem to prefer hutteese for some reason.

I haven't seen this option said before, and people will likely think they are too similar to Mirialans, but surely the species different cultures are quite different.

I want to pose the Sarkhai, as the next playable species. I'm probably the only one, thus they aren't likely to happen since they aren't popular, but I would be all over that as a playable race!

Why not? Because there's far too little customizability. I want to create a unique looking toon, but with what you get, all I can make is a generic clone that looks like everyone else's toon. At least with humans and cyborgs you have loads of styles and tattoos and stuff like that, but with the aliens, there is just far too little. They'd have to massively work on that first, in my opinion.

I heavily agree with this, there is far too little customization options available for aliens. Cathar for example have the worst hairstyles possible, there are only 1 or 2 that look fairly decent but the rest is completely 'blegh' in my opinion. The same is with a lot of other races, when you're on the Imperial or Republic Fleets it often is Clone Central.

Trandoshan so we can all RP Kephess

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/31/3142435b61094b7d9256ba11fb838f479800bacb3f5e9103ed07951817cf16a1.jpg

I haven't seen this option said before, and people will likely think they are too similar to Mirialans, but surely the species different cultures are quite different.

 

I want to pose the Sarkhai, as the next playable species. I'm probably the only one, thus they aren't likely to happen since they aren't popular, but I would be all over that as a playable race!

You know, it isn't too far of a stretch that they'd be added. Sure they may not be the most popular choice but there are ingame designs for the species. They fall under all the rules posted earlier in this forum and are confirmed to be able to use the Force. It would be a very interesting addition

If we are talking just new playable species Nautolins have been very popular on the forums over the years.

However rather than a new species I would rather see more customization options given to player characters. Such as full body tattoos, especially for twi'leks so you could get more of a Darth Talon look. More marking options for Togruta. I would rather see these things added before a new species. More facial options for all races, especially for the male characters. I am highly unimpressed by all of the facial options for male characters, they all have big lips, gigantic chins, and big foreheads. More facial options would be fantastic.

I'd not care for any new playable races, just as I don't care about the non-human ones you can play right now.

 

Why not? Because there's far too little customizability. I want to create a unique looking toon, but with what you get, all I can make is a generic clone that looks like everyone else's toon.

To be fair I have always though the lack of character creation options has been a major weakness.

Even the majority of human hairstyles look like a stoned intern made them for a joke - and someone greenlit them and put them in the game by mistake.

If I had one "none content" wish for SWTOR it would be two new player races - Weequay and Nautolan - and a lot more slider options for hair styles, tattoos (body and face), cybernetics, etc.

All The Best

I'd not care for any new playable races, just as I don't care about the non-human ones you can play right now.

 

Why not? Because there's far too little customizability. I want to create a unique looking toon, but with what you get, all I can make is a generic clone that looks like everyone else's toon. At least with humans and cyborgs you have loads of styles and tattoos and stuff like that, but with the aliens, there is just far too little. They'd have to massively work on that first, in my opinion.

 

Tthat said, I've always wanted to play a Rodian. You could play one in Jedi Knight: Academy, so they can use the force apparently. And they CAN speak basic, they just seem to prefer hutteese for some reason.

With the current customizations available, I have little or no trouble making a unique face/hair (and let's be honest.. only the face/hair and body type really matter since everything else is covered in armor anyway). Nor do I see clones of my characters around while in game either. The exception being Chiss... as their customizations have always been very limited and have never looked complete since launch.

So I don't buy in to your complaint.

As to the actual topic here..... the only race I would like to see added is Voss. And I would NOT want to see the studio scrimp on head variations either. It's an interesting race with interesting features that do not conflict with the studios self-imposed limits on races. I'm totally uninterested in non-humanoids that some like to cos-play as their dream race here in the forums.... and the studio has already stated that they would not do non-humanoid races anyway.

With the current customizations available, I have little or no trouble making a unique face/hair (and let's be honest.. only the face/hair and body type really matter since everything else is covered in armor anyway). Nor do I see clones of my characters around while in game either. The exception being Chiss... as their customizations have always been very limited and have never looked complete since launch.

 

So I don't buy in to your complaint.

 

As to the actual topic here..... the only race I would like to see added is Voss. And I would NOT want to see the studio scrimp on head variations either. It's an interesting race with interesting features that do not conflict with the studios self-imposed limits on races. I'm totally uninterested in non-humanoids that some like to cos-play as their dream race here in the forums.... and the studio has already stated that they would not do non-humanoid races anyway.

I would adore if Voss were added as a playable race, but, aren't they quite a fair bit taller than humans? That's really the only limitation that I can see.

There has to be dozens of these threads out there about these game species. not one of them has been noticed by anyone in bioware since the togruta. I wonder if Keith will end up bringing a new playable species to the game, be nice to know if there is enough appreciation for it.

It's why I made this thread, with the hopes to unite all the dozens of thread into one. Surely Bioware will have to notice it then ^^

It's why I made this thread, with the hopes to unite all the dozens of thread into one. Surely Bioware will have to notice it then ^^

what i am saying is, why bother if they haven't noticed them before, why make another thread if they won't even acknowledge it. more than anything some reassurance on this would be nice on top of your point.

what i am saying is, why bother if they haven't noticed them before, why make another thread if they won't even acknowledge it. more than anything some reassurance on this would be nice on top of your point.

Well I had hoped that with Keith's new leadership this would be different, I still hope that will be the case Keith has been great at responding to thread and player's concerns so it is my hope that he will respond to this one day soon or at least acknowledge it. But indeed, some reassurance that they noticed the thread/threads would be amazing!

Well I had hoped that with Keith's new leadership this would be different, I still hope that will be the case Keith has been great at responding to thread and player's concerns so it is my hope that he will respond to this one day soon or at least acknowledge it. But indeed, some reassurance that they noticed the thread/threads would be amazing!

Don't be too disheartened if they (Keith specifically) don't reply, though. There are always the roadmaps, and any livestreams they might happen to do.

Don't be too disheartened if they (Keith specifically) don't reply, though. There are always the roadmaps, and any livestreams they might happen to do.

It would be a pity if it went by unnoticed but of course it's not unexpected. But I will be actively trying to raise attention to this matter in streams through chat ^_^ in the past I already got some very nice answers regarding lore that way that helped the RP community so I will be trying

I would say Devoronian

We would get our own "Demon Hunters"... but then I readed that only males are a red demons with horns and females look almost the same like human, with head-thing similar to that what senya have.

I like Voss idea.

I would adore if Voss were added as a playable race, but, aren't they quite a fair bit taller than humans? That's really the only limitation that I can see.

I've wanted to play a Voss since I first went to their planet on my very first character's class mission many years ago. Sometime later I did the agent story on Voss (as a female character) and given that

it seems that any romances would be possible. The only issue would be

This might mean starting a new playable species at a higher level (60+) which would be a money spinner for BW, but pitchfork-rage for a lot of people. Not me - I'd pay to play as a Voss.

I would adore if Voss were added as a playable race, but, aren't they quite a fair bit taller than humans? That's really the only limitation that I can see.

They are, indeed, taller and skinnier than humans. (It's not *just* that they are taller, they are also more lightly built.)

And of course, having the player character being Voss would turn almost all of the dialogue on and linked to Voss into gibberish:

NPC: "You have to go this world we know almost nothing about, called Voss."

Player: "Oh, don't worry, I was born there." <== Line that isn't in the game.

NPC: "You are not Voss."

Player: "Wait! What? Open your eyes and ----ing look at me, stupid! I'm as Voss as you."

And so on.

But if they could resolve that, yeah, I'd like to play Voss, too.

I want a Sullustan, but that is because had a Sullustan Jedi Knight in SWG and would love to recreate him here. Plus they are cool..That little guy from the Smuggler story on Coruscant was a tough little hero. I dont need to here basic lol

I would love Duros and Bith

Since none of those are going to happen I would really like to see Nautolin and Falleen. Zeltronian would be neat as well.

There has to be dozens of these threads out there about these game species. not one of them has been noticed by anyone in bioware since the togruta. I wonder if Keith will end up bringing a new playable species to the game, be nice to know if there is enough appreciation for it.

It's almost 100% guaranteed that they have noticed. They don't *answer* suggestion posts (in the Suggestion Box or not) as a matter of policy. They don't want the problems they'd surely have if they allowed themselves to comment on suggestions, and the forum crowd decided that "That's an interesting idea" means that the suggestion will be delivered in the next patch.