I think to salvage what's left and to continue in a satisfying, consolidated way Bioware should do the following (writing as someone who actually likes the Alliance, who doesn't want to become a servant to some leftovers from the war again but understands the reasoning behind going back to Empire vs Republic)

1) What was introduced during 5.10 must continue, meaning the dismanteling of the Alliance. We should get at least a flashpoint with additional cinematics that show us how alliance personal turns on one another over what happened on Ossus. I am not talking about named companions, but basically faceless troopers from the opposite faction rampaging on Odessen, forcing the commander to crush the uprising. Their leaders (throwaway named NPCs) can then either be killed or imprisoned. It doesn't matter, the choice is for DS / LS and roleplay reasons only.

Then we get another flashpoint (or rather 2 in a way) in which the faction we allied against invades Odessen to finish off what is left of the alliance. The faction we allied with comes to our aid and in the end we defend Odessen together, but the Alliance is gone and now becomes a part of the faction we sided with. Odessen from then on becomes it's most forward outpost in wild space. The PC gets a new title, depending on the side he/she is allied with. For example the rank of general as a rep player (shoutout to the Jedi generals from clone wars). Empire side is a bit more difficult, even with a free seat on the council after Malora's "resignation" only Sith can take on the vacant seat. So we can't just be a new Dark lord / regain a seat. Maybe the title of Moff? Or Grandmoff?

2) To further strengthen the impression of Odessen as a forward outpost we get a Rishi sized stronghold on Odessen.

3) In 6.0 Darth Malgus seizes power again and kills Acina / Vowrawn / both. This step is neccessary to consolidate the story. After that the story is once again all out war between the Empire and the Republic, with story flashpoints and the several battlefields as new daily areas.

4) No more kill / imprison options for relevant named NPCs / companions. We may be allowed to execute irrelevant NPCs for roleplay reasons, but aside from that the most relevant story aspects / aka story writing aspects can not be touched by the player to prevent further excessive story branching and bricked companions.

5) At least unvoiced scenes with our LIs and ingame mails to prove that our characters are indeed in a relationship. Example: A questgiver walks towards the PC who is sitting on a couch, hugging it out with the LI. No voiced lines needed, but maybe an ingame mail after the quest from our LI demanding some shared downtime without any interruptors.

6) Make content replayable again. This is a must since the story content is very sparse to say the least. If we can replay the previous content before the next story update we can get into character again instead of playing the new story completely unimmersed because we just had to wait 6 months.

7) Give the PC a purpose again. Since the defeat of the Eternal empire we are basically dead in the water. Sure, we became either a peacekeeper or emperor, but i never got the impression what my characters were actually fighting for after they defeated Valkorion. To get a new sense of purpose we need extended dialogues with several options. For example: Let us gather our remaining companions in a meeting on Odessen and explain them what we are fighting for. a) Help the empire to conquer the galaxy b) Protect the Republic c) Keep Odessen as independent as possible, a place for those who don't want to get into the same neverending war again (and that's why we return to the frontline so others won't have to)

A shoutout to our class stories would be nice at this point.

8) I understand that creating class specific content is expansive and not a priority compared to other content. But why not get some occasional ingame mails from our class companions talking about the old times and how current events remember them on the old times or how things have changed?

Effectively with 6.0 the story needs a reboot to move into the future, consisting of two story lines: Imperial and Republic.

In addition I recommend the writers to share their opinion about the different classes' motivation and how they think their involvement in the galactic affairs plays out. For example: Why should a smuggler, who was all about being independent, even as a republican privateer, and enjoyed just doing his thing to get rich team up with the republic again? Old habbits die hard? Is the rum gone?

Or why should a Sith Inquisitor, most likely the most powerfull single living being in the galaxy post KOTET, decide to serve some leftover Sith again? Why should a Sith warrior, who was betrayed by his masters over and over again, become someones servant once more?

I'd like to hear the devs thoughts on such topics and i think it could be quite fun to share ours and the devs views on the several classes and propably turn out to be quite entertaining / enlightening.

What do you think? And more important: What do the devs think? I hope we can get into some mindsharing, so please stay civil and don't scare Eric, Charles and the team away in case i get lucky and they indeed read this topic

1) Won't comment much on that one, i'm clearly not for that, i'd like my characters to stay as independant and neutral as possible, especially those who want nothing to do with their original faction anymore.

2, 4, 5 and 6) Completely ok with all of that.

3) I'd rather see Jadus come back than Malgus. Have a feeling that the droid's master is actually him, preparing his grand come back, but can be completely wrong on that one.

1) Won't comment much on that one, i'm clearly not for that, i'd like my characters to stay as independant and neutral as possible, especially those who want nothing to do with their original faction anymore.

I totaly understand, i have several characters myself who have no interest in returning "home" (especially the imperial ones). That's why I recommend the big table with our companions / allies and the attack on Odessen by the faction we decided against. We as commander fight at the side of one faction to secure the Alliance remnants neutrality / survival. But from a roleplay perspective we need the chance to clearly point that out, otherwise at least me as a pro Alliance player would be mad and the reunion with the old factions seem too forced.

One story fits all didn't do well for SWTOR and having a third story aside from Empire or Republic is unrealisitic considering the limited ressources. So i think the best way to appease neutral players like me is to a) explain why we team up with our old faction again in more detail and b) give us neutral represantation via cutscenes, dialogue options ans ingame mails.

Even such simple things as agreeing to other faction's plans begrudgingly and letting them know that we hate what they are doing helps. I absolutely HATED how imperial characters told Acina how glad they were to serve the Empire on Odessen. I had to sing loud and ignore what was going on.

A big problem storywise IMO is the lack of motivation for why our characters do what they do. Why should my LS Sith Warrior (he had to become somewhat light side due to the KOTFE story arc) and learned to work together with the Jedi and republican troops on Odessen suddenly decide to start slaughtering them again just because Acina, the leader of a different faction, decides to go to war again?

But if a vast majority of the Alliance troops with Republic origin decide to either leave their posts (named NPCs / companions that wrote ingame mails) or openly revolt and try to take over Odessen by force, then I'd totaly understand why he would fight them.

And to protect what is left of Odessen and the Alliance he'd fight the invading republican military in the next flashpoint.

As long as i get the chance to shout at them for being so god damn stupid and ruining everything at the end of the respective flashpoints for example.

FP1: You damn idiots ruined the Alliance

FP2: You damn Reps made me your enemy once again, the force curse you all!

Of course die hard imperials would have the dark side option in both cases:

FP1: Traitors! I will drown you in your own blood!

FP2: Thanks for saving me the trouble to come looking for you, now die!

I understand the reasoning behind the Alliances' dismanteling from a development point of view. But right now all we know is that we lost our automated fleet. I strongly believe we need at least 2 more flashpoints to have a clean transition from "cross faction third party" back to "empire vs republic". After that we either

1) Work for our old faction because the cross - faction Alliance essentially is no more and we become our original faction local leader in wild space. Despite being part of the republic or the empire, we still have a certain level of influence and independence. Just think of Thrawn's empire of the hand in Star wars legends as an example if you want (either strengthening or sabotaging our original factions war efforts)

2) Declare Odessen's independence and the Alliance's duty to defend it. For our original faction to accept this independence despite their past efforts defending it, they insist on the commander to officially rejoin their ranks, essentially stepping down as Alliance commander. We can either accept this "offer" gladly (LS) or threaten whoever makes it (DS). Either way, we are no longer the Alliance commander and back as a minion of our original faction (again either strenghtening or sabotaging it)

Option one would offer third party players like me a believable way why the cross - faction Alliance ended and why the player returns to the original faction without making us a simple servant again. We'd become a SWTOR version of Thrawn, Tarkin, a republic military leader or Jedi lord.

Option two would be the way to go for the hardcore "I want to screw everything about KOTFE/ET" players. They'd be done with the Alliance once and for all.

The main question is voice acting. How will the PC be addressed in the future? Almost everyone hates the generic title of commander. Every Alliance hater does for sure and even among pro Alliance players like myself are many who'd prefered the title "emperor / empress" but didn't get it.

So, how streamlined will the story be in the future? If Bioware insists on keeping the one name for the PC they'll have to keep the Alliance around, no matter if it makes sense or not. But it'd be a poor choice imo. Rather have four titles by which to address the PC in the future:

1) General (Trooper and smuggler)

2) Master (Jedi knight and Jedi consular)

3) Moff or Grandmoff (Agent and Bounty hunter)

4) Dark lord (Sith Warrior and Sith inquisitor)

"Hey, what if i want to stay neutral, become an independant businessman again?" (Bounty hunter / smuggler) Well, tough love. Class stories are over and won't be coming back ever again. The class stories are our PCs origin stories. Of course you could imagine the titles of General or Moff in a more loose way, mattering only when dealing with officials and the need of pulling a rank is necessary ("try to check my cargo bay, just try it...but first you will run around the base soldier")

3) I'd rather see Jadus come back than Malgus. Have a feeling that the droid's master is actually him, preparing his grand come back, but can be completely wrong on that one.

Yeah, if it isn't Jadus then a) Bioware have missed a MASSIVE opportunity and b) it will be a huge let down.

If it is yet another incarnation of Valkorian, of any of his dysfunctional family, this game will be dead to me.

All The Best