The story-driven aspect of SWTOR is what drew me in and kept me playing all this time. Then, I was given the opportunity to flirt with Lana in "Shadow of Revan"...

"They're letting me play a same-sex romance?? This is freakin' AWESOME!"

I looked forward to flirting with Lana every chance I got, got teary-eyed over the cutscenes together, and got to where I just loved hearing Lana's voice (I could listen to Lydia Leonard read the ingredient list from a box of crackers and be perfectly happy). I cried when we kissed goodbye at the end of Revan.

Into KOTFE... again flirted every chance I got. Almost kissed before Koth interrupted us. Kissed before I went off to the trap on Asylum. Lana saved me again when Arcann impaled me.

The infamous Chapter 9... At this point, I don't remember what actually happened in the cantina after I said I needed to speak to Lana alone, but I definitely chose Lana to speak to. I always chose Lana to speak to and flirt with, whenever the opportunity came up. I was a bit puzzled that there were no more flirting options after that point in the story, but I had no idea what the problem was (or even that there WAS a problem) until a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled on videos of people PROPOSING to Lana.

***? What happened??

That's when I learned about the "Lana Romance Bug", and that my romance flag had either never been set properly or had been erased. Customer service will only say "We can't fix it", but don't say WHY they can't fix it. (They got T7 back for me when he disappeared from my companions list, with no fuss. Makes it hard to believe or accept that they can't fix my romance flag.)

I was never offered the "An Error in Alliance Records" mission, because apparently to even get it, the romance flag had to be set properly. Mine wasn't.

I've been back and forth with customer service several times over this. They refuse to help, or to explain why they can't.

This is killing my enjoyment of the game and the story, and I am beginning to consider dropping my subscription and moving on to another game.

Come on, management! This has apparently been a major issue since 2015! I want my Lana! FIX THIS!

I love Lana too, and was so happy to finally get to play a SGR with her in SoR and onward. I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. It's ridiculous that bugs with the romance are still a thing, and I've heard of it happening to a few people with Theron too.

What I would suggest is reaching out to one of the devs. They've been able to fix things in the past when customer service has not.

If you play any more characters through the story I'd suggest:

1. Make sure you play chapters 3-9 in KOTFE in one sitting or in any case, BEFORE a patch or any maintenance. Lock that romance in and make sure your character has progressed to chapter 10, because the maintenance/patches have been known to erase the romance flag for Lana.

2. Take screenshots/video of any lock-in sequences and take a screenshot of Lana's companion notes, with the entire screen (including your character and the date/time stamp on your computer) visible. In chapter 9 you should get the "this will start a romance" pop-up and then you should have a note about the romance in Lana's companion notes. If you take a screenshot of that with the date/time and your character visible, if the romance disappears again, there's proof that you had it in the first place that you can show to customer service.

Where can I find a list of devs, and/or how do I contact one?

The devs are the ones with gold posts and the Bioware logo. I'd suggest trying Eric and Charles. I'm not sure who Matt is and Keith hasn't been around in a while. If you click on their user name you should be able to follow the usual steps to send them a PM.

Mind you, I don't know that they will be able to fix anything, but it's worth a try to reach out.

Eric here: http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php

Charles is here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=952374

The devs are the ones with gold posts and the Bioware logo. I'd suggest trying Eric and Charles. I'm not sure who Matt is and Keith hasn't been around in a while. If you click on their user name you should be able to follow the usual steps to send them a PM.

 

Mind you, I don't know that they will be able to fix anything, but it's worth a try to reach out.

 

Eric here: http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php

 

Charles is here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=952374

Eric is a Community Manager.

Charles is a creative director / head writer kind of guy.

Keith is project director or something similar.

Not one of them is a "dev" => developer.

The infamous Chapter 9... At this point, I don't remember what actually happened in the cantina after I said I needed to speak to Lana alone, but I definitely chose Lana to speak to.

Choosing Lana to speak to is not, by itself, enough.

There are two problems with the notorious cantina wheel:

* It is bugged in certain conditions. See below, part 1.

* It is atrociously unclear if it is not bugged. See below, part 2.

Part 1. The bug.

If there is a patch between you beginning Chapter III and you beginning Chapter IX, the game for some reason loses track of the romance flags for Koth or Lana, so the notorious wheel becomes:

1. I'd like to speak with one of you.

or for some characters:

1. I'd like to see one of you.

That's the bugged state. Apparently, if you take the [Flirt] with Theron when you see him outside, the game manages to remember the Lana/Koth romance flags, and you see the proper wheel:

1. I'd like to speak with one of you.

2. [Flirt] I'd like to speak with one of you.

(Possibly with the alternative wording "see one of you", but in either case the wording is the same on both options.)

If there's no patch during that time, you're OK, and you will see the two-option wheel.

And that brings us to...

Part 2. Unclear options.

So what do those options mean? Well, in terms of what happens afterwards, option 2 is:

2. [Flirt] I'd like to flirt with one of you.

it is not:

2. [Flirt] I'd like to talk with one of you right after I flirt with Theron.

So when you see the two-option wheel, pick option 2 if you want to lock in your chosen romance.

And if you do so, you'll have almost the same conversation, except that one of the wheels has a [Flirt] option that will pop up a "you're about to start a romance with ((name of companion))" warning. If you get that, "confirm" it and you're golden, and if not, Esc out of the conversation and re-play one of the earlier chapters so that you can begin IX again, and this time, pick the [Flirt] with Theron to "recover" the flirting flags. Under no circumstances should you let Chapter IX finish if you want to recover the situation.

The reason that nobody ever reports this bug for Theron is that Theron's only [Flirt] before the buggy wheel is *in* Chapter IX, so you can't be interrupted by a patch, and the confusion noted above has no net effect on you (you're trying to flirt with him, so both interpretations of the two-option wheel will lead you to choosing option 2 anyway).

And yes, I know that this doesn't help the character who was affected by this. I had the "confused about the two options" thing happen to one of my characters, but in my case it was a "dry run" character that I created (with my free insta60 token) right after KotFE was released, so nobody knew any of that stuff I've just described, but I'm fortunate that it wasn't a "main" character.

Eric is a Community Manager.

Charles is a creative director / head writer kind of guy.

Keith is project director or something similar.

 

Not one of them is a "dev" => developer.

*sigh* and their posts are all followed in the 'dev tracker' and they are all colloquially referred to around here as devs, so the pedantic "correction" is quite unnecessary.

*sigh* and their posts are all followed in the 'dev tracker' and they are all colloquially referred to around here as devs, so the pedantic "correction" is quite unnecessary.

*Sigh* and that's because they are the communication between us as players and the developers. If people are choosing to make the mistake of calling or believing they are devs that's the players fault. Also if you look at any of their posts and read their signature it tells your their role. Maybe they should rename dev tracker to communication tracker instead so it's less confusing I guess

Eric says in his signature "Community Manager"

Keith says in his signature "Game Producer"

The new person Matt says in his signature "Designer".

Not one of them says "dev" or "developer". The closest is probably Matt but he is a Designer which is a broad term. He could just be in charge of designing and planning but not the actual programming and developing. Also Developer is a broad term as well.

However Eric and Keith are definitely not developers and if people are making that mistake for one reason or another that's the players fault not Eric or Keith's. People shouldn't make assumptions on what a persons role is and actually "read" what they have listed as their role in every single post.

*Sigh* and that's because they are the communication between us as players and the developers. If people are choosing to make the mistake of calling or believing they are devs that's the players fault. Also if you look at any of their posts and read their signature it tells your their role. Maybe they should rename dev tracker to communication tracker instead so it's less confusing I guess

 

Eric says in his signature "Community Manager"

Keith says in his signature "Game Producer"

The new person Matt says in his signature "Designer".

 

Not one of them says "dev" or "developer". The closest is probably Matt but he is a Designer which is a broad term. He could just be in charge of designing and planning but not the actual programming and developing. Also Developer is a broad term as well.

 

However Eric and Keith are definitely not developers and if people are making that mistake for one reason or another that's the players fault not Eric or Keith's. People shouldn't make assumptions on what a persons role is and actually "read" what they have listed as their role in every single post.

I'm sorry, but this is the most ludicrous nitpick I have ever seen on this board. They're using the name themselves and their posts are identified by this board as 'dev posts.' In their article for the livestream cantina, they referred to Eric and Charles as the 'dev team.' They've been identified as "SWTOR devs" by numerous influencers and gaming sites (example https://www.mmobomb.com/news/swtor-devs-talk-roadmap-returning-companions/ https://vulkk.com/2018/09/05/swtor-5-10-jedi-under-siege-will-have-different-storylines-for-empire-and-republic/). Take it up with them if you don't like it.

Not to mention that countless posters, as well as influencers, use the term that the devs have put out there and use themselves, so nitpicking at me about it, and not the literally thousands of other posts and articles that use the same terminology, is a little weird. Or is it just about micro-correcting me, specifically?

Also not to mention that the point of the post was to tell the OP who might be helpful and give the OP a way to contact them, so coming in and lecturing about semantics is unnecessary. Not going to waste any more time on this nonsense.

Choosing Lana to speak to is not, by itself, enough.

 

There are two problems with the notorious cantina wheel:

* It is bugged in certain conditions. See below, part 1.

* It is atrociously unclear if it is not bugged. See below, part 2.

 

Part 1. The bug.

 

If there is a patch between you beginning Chapter III and you beginning Chapter IX, the game for some reason loses track of the romance flags for Koth or Lana, so the notorious wheel becomes:

1. I'd like to speak with one of you.

 

or for some characters:

1. I'd like to see one of you.

 

That's the bugged state. Apparently, if you take the [Flirt] with Theron when you see him outside, the game manages to remember the Lana/Koth romance flags, and you see the proper wheel:

1. I'd like to speak with one of you.

2. [Flirt] I'd like to speak with one of you.

 

(Possibly with the alternative wording "see one of you", but in either case the wording is the same on both options.)

 

If there's no patch during that time, you're OK, and you will see the two-option wheel.

 

And that brings us to...

 

Part 2. Unclear options.

 

So what do those options mean? Well, in terms of what happens afterwards, option 2 is:

2. [Flirt] I'd like to flirt with one of you.

 

it is not:

2. [Flirt] I'd like to talk with one of you right after I flirt with Theron.

 

So when you see the two-option wheel, pick option 2 if you want to lock in your chosen romance.

 

And if you do so, you'll have almost the same conversation, except that one of the wheels has a [Flirt] option that will pop up a "you're about to start a romance with ((name of companion))" warning. If you get that, "confirm" it and you're golden, and if not, Esc out of the conversation and re-play one of the earlier chapters so that you can begin IX again, and this time, pick the [Flirt] with Theron to "recover" the flirting flags. Under no circumstances should you let Chapter IX finish if you want to recover the situation.

 

The reason that nobody ever reports this bug for Theron is that Theron's only [Flirt] before the buggy wheel is *in* Chapter IX, so you can't be interrupted by a patch, and the confusion noted above has no net effect on you (you're trying to flirt with him, so both interpretations of the two-option wheel will lead you to choosing option 2 anyway).

 

And yes, I know that this doesn't help the character who was affected by this. I had the "confused about the two options" thing happen to one of my characters, but in my case it was a "dry run" character that I created (with my free insta60 token) right after KotFE was released, so nobody knew any of that stuff I've just described, but I'm fortunate that it wasn't a "main" character.

You've explained this much better than I could. I tried on another thread and massively failed, lol.

This also happened to me, I was heavily involved in a relationship with Lana on my main and all of a sudden it stopped, Bioware/EA needs to give us the option to reset it.

I was pretty disappointed in the fact I couldn't continue it, I made sure I selected my options carefully when I had to speak to her, I always hit the *flirt* option.

I'm sorry, but this is the most ludicrous nitpick I have ever seen on this board. They're using the name themselves and their posts are identified by this board as 'dev posts.' In their article for the livestream cantina, they referred to Eric and Charles as the 'dev team.' They've been identified as "SWTOR devs" by numerous influencers and gaming sites (example https://www.mmobomb.com/news/swtor-devs-talk-roadmap-returning-companions/ https://vulkk.com/2018/09/05/swtor-5-10-jedi-under-siege-will-have-different-storylines-for-empire-and-republic/). Take it up with them if you don't like it.

 

Not to mention that countless posters, as well as influencers, use the term that the devs have put out there and use themselves, so nitpicking at me about it, and not the literally thousands of other posts and articles that use the same terminology, is a little weird. Or is it just about micro-correcting me, specifically?

 

Also not to mention that the point of the post was to tell the OP who might be helpful and give the OP a way to contact them, so coming in and lecturing about semantics is unnecessary. Not going to waste any more time on this nonsense.

The articles are using developers in a broad sense to describe what content is being delivered. If an assumption is made out of the article that Eric is a developer when even in one article he is referred to as community manager that's not the author's fault for someone mis-reading. They can do their best to be as descriptive as possible but that's it. Even in live streams Eric says that he is "Community Manager". That doesn't translate to developer. Also I'm not nit picking you or micro-correcting you specifically. I'm merely pointing out that just because devs or developer is used broadly, doesn't mean everyone is a developer.

(snip, whatever)

I'm kind of stunned that you're attempting to keep this going. You do realize I am not listening and don't need your explanations, right?

Now, do you have anything that might actually help the OP or more nitpicks of semantics?

Choosing Lana to speak to is not, by itself, enough.

 

There are two problems with the notorious cantina wheel:

* It is bugged in certain conditions. See below, part 1.

* It is atrociously unclear if it is not bugged. See below, part 2.

 

Part 1. The bug.

 

If there is a patch between you beginning Chapter III and you beginning Chapter IX, the game for some reason loses track of the romance flags for Koth or Lana, so the notorious wheel becomes:

1. I'd like to speak with one of you.

 

or for some characters:

1. I'd like to see one of you.

 

That's the bugged state. Apparently, if you take the [Flirt] with Theron when you see him outside, the game manages to remember the Lana/Koth romance flags, and you see the proper wheel:

1. I'd like to speak with one of you.

2. [Flirt] I'd like to speak with one of you.

 

(Possibly with the alternative wording "see one of you", but in either case the wording is the same on both options.)

 

If there's no patch during that time, you're OK, and you will see the two-option wheel.

 

And that brings us to...

 

Part 2. Unclear options.

 

So what do those options mean? Well, in terms of what happens afterwards, option 2 is:

2. [Flirt] I'd like to flirt with one of you.

 

it is not:

2. [Flirt] I'd like to talk with one of you right after I flirt with Theron.

 

So when you see the two-option wheel, pick option 2 if you want to lock in your chosen romance.

 

And if you do so, you'll have almost the same conversation, except that one of the wheels has a [Flirt] option that will pop up a "you're about to start a romance with ((name of companion))" warning. If you get that, "confirm" it and you're golden, and if not, Esc out of the conversation and re-play one of the earlier chapters so that you can begin IX again, and this time, pick the [Flirt] with Theron to "recover" the flirting flags. Under no circumstances should you let Chapter IX finish if you want to recover the situation.

 

The reason that nobody ever reports this bug for Theron is that Theron's only [Flirt] before the buggy wheel is *in* Chapter IX, so you can't be interrupted by a patch, and the confusion noted above has no net effect on you (you're trying to flirt with him, so both interpretations of the two-option wheel will lead you to choosing option 2 anyway).

 

And yes, I know that this doesn't help the character who was affected by this. I had the "confused about the two options" thing happen to one of my characters, but in my case it was a "dry run" character that I created (with my free insta60 token) right after KotFE was released, so nobody knew any of that stuff I've just described, but I'm fortunate that it wasn't a "main" character.

Thank you so much for this explanation, i'll keep this in mind for the next time i reach that point. It triggers me because the bug happened to me on my main, out of my 26 toons, it was my main Sith Sorcerer the one that suffered the bug, and now i'll never be able to romance Lana on her anymore.

Still, the paramount aspect imo is to finish chapters 3-9 in one go, and that's what i'll do from now on whenever i reach that point in the story.

Moot point. I've deleted my character.

Shoot, I'm sorry it came to that in the end.

I'm a huge Lana fangirl as well and I know how disheartening it is to lose all your progress like that.

If you ever do decide to have another go at Lana's romance though just remember to a) make sure that you finish chapters 3-9 BEFORE the next patch (preferably in one sitting but who has the time, right??) and b) make sure that when Theron asks if you want to speak with anyone, choose the flirt option. It's extremely unintuitive, because it makes it look like you're going to flirt with only Theron, but if you pick the non-flirt choice then the game thinks you don't want to romance anyone!

Best of luck to you in the future!

-

If you ever do decide to have another go at Lana's romance though just remember to a) make sure that you finish chapters 3-9 BEFORE the next patch (preferably in one sitting but who has the time, right??)

I actually did just that on two different characters, at two different times. (That is, I did one sitting for Tela(1), and then a week or two later, another for Tikreva'tarsil, not one big huge sitting where I did them both one after the other.) It takes five or six hours from when you begin Chapter I to when you get the cantina wheel in Chapter IX, less if you spacebar through the cinematic sections.

And yes, I started the sittings around 9:30pm, so I did, indeed, finish around 3am. Fortunately it was 3am on *Sunday* morning.

(1) It turns out there's an in-game thing called this, but it's a slightly obscure geographic feature in a part of Voss where hardly anybody goes, so I think it's not covered by the naming policy.

Still, the paramount aspect imo is to finish chapters 3-9 in one go, and that's what i'll do from now on whenever i reach that point in the story.

The key point is not "in one go", but "without a patch in between". You *can* do it in one sitting (and on two of my characters, I did so), without logging out, but you have to have a block of five or six hours of continuous play-time available, or somewhat less if you spacebar through the conversations.

In general, though, there won't ever be an emergency patch between the close of business on a Thursday and the opening of Bioware's normal business hours on the following Tuesday, so it's OK to spread those hours through Friday evening and various bits of Saturday and Sunday.

The key point is not "in one go", but "without a patch in between". You *can* do it in one sitting (and on two of my characters, I did so), without logging out, but you have to have a block of five or six hours of continuous play-time available, or somewhat less if you spacebar through the conversations.

 

In general, though, there won't ever be an emergency patch between the close of business on a Thursday and the opening of Bioware's normal business hours on the following Tuesday, so it's OK to spread those hours through Friday evening and various bits of Saturday and Sunday.

Could this be a random type bug? Because I played three characters - slowly through over the course of 2 weeks. My smuggler flirted with everyone and in the cantina she got the wheel of flirt options with all three of them. But prior to that, I played a jedi over the course of about 4 days and had to redo chapter 9 to flirt with Theron in order to get the Lana flirt to appear.

Could this be a random type bug? Because I played three characters - slowly through over the course of 2 weeks. My smuggler flirted with everyone and in the cantina she got the wheel of flirt options with all three of them. But prior to that, I played a jedi over the course of about 4 days and had to redo chapter 9 to flirt with Theron in order to get the Lana flirt to appear.

It could be, but:

* Flirting (intentionally because you want to bed him, or intentionally because you're paranoid about the cantina bug or unintentionally because your finger slipped) with Theron (as you did on your smuggler) will "fix" the bug (i.e. repair the damage).

* If those four days on the Jedi included a patch day, then for sure you got the bug, but you also repaired it.

* If not, then you found a different way to trigger the bug(1), but at least it's still repairable.

(1) I'm not really sure that's something I'd want to be congratulated for, so I won't congratulate you.