Here's the problem - they're acting as if ROTHC expansion never happened and didn't matter. Like nothing was gained from Isotope-5 (Imp) and Hutt alliance (Rep). Lack of relveance and consequence of previous expansion worries me, particularly now that they only got 1 unified story to worry about.

 

Sweep away both of them easily? Sure, after Corellia/Ilum. But not after ROTHC.

Spoilers below...

There's a lot of room to explain it, the least of which was the fact that both sides had a large number of defectors to the Revanites. The empire was already on the verge of collapse post main story and iso5 amounted to a stealth armada which may or may not have brought them back on par. Aside from this you have continued fighting between the two and finally large losses of both sides on ziost.

ZEmpire

Totally stealing this, so much easier to type than infitine immortal whatever Zakuul empire

...fun fact: Hannibal almost conquered Rome through strategic brilliance... and dude also lost an eye during the invasion...

He did not lose his eye in battle. Neither was he waving sword on the front line.

Besides, considering punicians were a trade empire that mostly used mercenaries, they are more similar to the Hutts if anything.

So, Force-Vision's are out, just me seeing "vision" and getting excited.

 

But the other half of that, the implication is that Blinky-Bro began the invasion himself, against the wishes of the ZEmperor. The campain was in the name of their father, but it was Blinkey's idea, and the ZEmperor is letting it continue either because of eeevul plottings, or perhaps because his hand is force now, can't undo a massive invasion and return to secrecy...

How do you read all that into this little text?

First, it sounded very much like a Force vision to me.

And for your second point, it only says that Valkorion told Arcann to stay behind on Zakuul, not that he was opposed to the invasion itself. Arcann misinterpreted his vision and thought he needed to be there for every part of the invasion, not seeing the wider picture, ignored the order to stay behind, and paid for it.

2) Thexan mentions that the day after the Korriban campaign would keep going, but they are not there, they are in a safe place presumably into the Zakuul Empire if it is not Zakuul itself. Why?? Professional soldiers or warriors (in this parallelism) don´t act like this, they don´t leave the battlefield until the field is taken and assured. Why do they? A military campaign is not like job that you can go to work, then come back home, rest and go back to work the day after.

He's in a tent with the war raging outside. He didn't go home, he went to a base camp in hostile territory.

He's in a tent with the war raging outside. He didn't go home, he went to a base camp in hostile territory.

Yep.[/b]

Though not opulent, the bed seemed inappropriate. Its sleek, simple design was an insult to the war that raged outside.

 

My quarters--a glorified tent--provided a false sense of security. It drowned out the wind and the screams of our injured, but I knew the fighting continued.

Here's the problem - they're acting as if ROTHC expansion never happened and didn't matter. Like nothing was gained from Isotope-5 (Imp) and Hutt alliance (Rep). Lack of relveance and consequence of previous expansion worries me, particularly now that they only got 1 unified story to worry about.

 

Sweep away both of them easily? Sure, after Corellia/Ilum. But not after ROTHC.

The Isotope-5 supply is easy to cut off since there's only one source of it, and the existing stuff is mostly being used against the Republic already. And Hutts make some very lousy allies. They'd switch sides the moment the Zakuul Empire caught the Republic (and Empire) with its pants down.

I seem to recall them mentioning somewhere that we'll see the Shroud again. Odds are that bastard was selling intel to Valkorion the whole time. And I'm pretty sure he knew about Isotope-5 and its source.

How does the Zakuul empire defeat the Republic and the Empire? I shall tell you. Upon awakening from 5 years of carbonite-induced hibernation, the Shepard... er,... Outlander will be treated to about 5 minutes of exposition. In those 5 minutes the Outlander will learn that while he/she was away:

1. Vitiate, using his new strength, went on to consume the majority of the Republic and Empire

2. Having done this, Vitiate is able to take physical form and exercise his final plan, to consume the entire galaxy

3. The Zakuul Empire, being part of said galaxy, did not like this idea one bit

4. The Zakuul Empire invaded the Core worlds, which having been largely consumed by Vitiate, could not put up an effective resisitance, and swept aside the remnants of the Republic and Empire

5. Even though there was a solo-mode option available for them, the 2 princes instead decided to bring along 6 other Zakuul knights, some with heavy defensive capabilities, and some with healing abilities as part of a larger operation.

6. This operation mounted by this elite group of well-geared Zakuul knights was able to defeat Vitiate once and for all

7. Having pretty much conquered the galaxy in the process, Valkorian decided to just incorporate it into his Empire

Thus we have neatly explained why the Empire and Republic were able to be defeated while at the same time wrapping up the story from 3.2:D

Both factions are effectively broken from laying waste to one another throughout countless decades, NOT to mention the ever rising third factions here and there, such as the Hutt Cartel, the Dread Masters and the Revanites. In comes a new Empire, taking both the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire by surprise, quite possibly providing little to no time whatsoever to assemble a proper resistance effort, with both ALREADY strained to a breaking point...

 

And you're surprised the Eternal Empire was able to sweep away both of them? An emboldened enemy with the numbers and element of surprise on their side?

"quite possibly" Two words that signify an indefinite explanation, speculating how this army's conquest made success is still a great mystery even with your good points.

And yes im still surprised the 3rd faction succeed

How does the Zakuul empire defeat the Republic and the Empire? I shall tell you. Upon awakening from 5 years of carbonite-induced hibernation, the Shepard... er,... Outlander will be treated to about 5 minutes of exposition. In those 5 minutes the Outlander will learn that while he/she was away:

 

1. Vitiate, using his new strength, went on to consume the majority of the Republic and Empire

2. Having done this, Vitiate is able to take physical form and exercise his final plan, to consume the entire galaxy

3. The Zakuul Empire, being part of said galaxy, did not like this idea one bit

4. The Zakuul Empire invaded the Core worlds, which having been largely consumed by Vitiate, could not put up an effective resisitance, and swept aside the remnants of the Republic and Empire

5. Even though there was a solo-mode option available for them, the 2 princes instead decided to bring along 6 other Zakuul knights, some with heavy defensive capabilities, and some with healing abilities as part of a larger operation.

6. This operation mounted by this elite group of well-geared Zakuul knights was able to defeat Vitiate once and for all

7. Having pretty much conquered the galaxy in the process, Valkorian decided to just incorporate it into his Empire

 

Thus we have neatly explained why the Empire and Republic were able to be defeated while at the same time wrapping up the story from 3.2:D

Okay, that toally made me chuckle. In all seriousness, though, I think chapters 1 and 2 of KotFE will be dealing with the remnants of the Vitiate story, since it's been confirmed the time skip and waking up from a carbonite nap are the beginnings of chapter 3. My guess would be that in the final confrontation with Big V, you probably have to freeze yourself to survive some catastrophic event, and are likely lost or hidden away for some time only to awaken and find out that this new faction has risen and conquered all while you slept.

I mean, honestly, we're the ones who kept the galaxy from going to hell in a handbasket all this time anyway, so they'd have to take us out of the equation for a while in order for this to happen. And of course, when we wake up, we go about the task of setting things right again, because that's what we do. We save the galaxy...again...and again...and again...and some more just for good measure...

Both factions are effectively broken from laying waste to one another throughout countless decades, NOT to mention the ever rising third factions here and there, such as the Hutt Cartel, the Dread Masters and the Revanites. In comes a new Empire, taking both the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire by surprise, quite possibly providing little to no time whatsoever to assemble a proper resistance effort, with both ALREADY strained to a breaking point...

 

And you're surprised the Eternal Empire was able to sweep away both of them? An emboldened enemy with the numbers and element of surprise on their side?

In short? Yes.

Let me put it in historical terms. This notion is like, in fall of 1944, with the Axis on the full retreat and the allies pursuing, but still heavily worn down, Atlantis rises from the depths of the Mediterranean and declares war on all sides, swiftly conquering all of Europe.

Could it work? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? An Atlantis with the military might of Spain? That'd be laughable, even with all the losses the Axis and Allies took. But an Atlantis with the might of, say, the modern day USA, that'd be a bit more reasonable.

I'm not against the notion that the ZEmpire manages to kick everyone's ***. There's possible reasons, justifications, understandable causes out there...

...but there's a difference between a story that lets you fill in the blanks, and a story that doesn't make sense on its own merits. Even weakened, we're still talking about two massive nations that actively control probably half the galaxy between them, and the conquest has been portrayed so far as a one-sided affair, similar to the initial US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Even if the ZEmpire was as powerful as a pre-Corellia Sith Empire, it feels like an invasion on this scale would take years, maybe decades before they'd be able to conquer Korriban, Tython, Coruscant or Dormund Kaas.

I don't want to hate this story. I want to love every single piece of fiction that I pay money for. But right now, Bioware is not spending nearly enough time even so much as HINTING at the reason for this one sided invasion. Everything you said is inferred based on a tiny amount of evidence, because Bioware has been unable to really delve into the high-level view of the galaxy at any point in the last year, favoring much more tightly focused stories instead.

And don't get me wrong. I like tightly-focused stories. Hell, on balance, I prefer them to wide sweeping epics. But if you're going to tell a massive epic, you need to develop the world/galaxy... and so far, they've failed to do so.

In the setting where you can make troops and massive space ships from thin air, it is not impossible to create a massive army hidden from the sight of the rest of the galaxy. Or perhaps they are from far far away place, that burned brother got his visions and then they arrived in the middle of ongoing war between Republic and Empire?

Maybe they don't have Jedis and Sith, but instead they have cultivated the Force to other direction? Then that dude got visions and they began wondering who are those Force wielders.

If you think about KotOR, there was quite a similar situation.

Or, perhaps the best answer to all these questions: MAGIC

I just had a thought. What if Izax is Ziost and this is some sort of "ancient claim" situation? We never actually hear the emperor when events unfold. We are just invited to put two and two together. Notice there was also no zombie apocalypse when events unfolded.

That would also give your hook from 3.3 to KotFE.

In short? Yes.

 

Let me put it in historical terms. This notion is like, in fall of 1944, with the Axis on the full retreat and the allies pursuing, but still heavily worn down, Atlantis rises from the depths of the Mediterranean and declares war on all sides, swiftly conquering all of Europe.

 

Could it work? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? An Atlantis with the military might of Spain? That'd be laughable, even with all the losses the Axis and Allies took. But an Atlantis with the might of, say, the modern day USA, that'd be a bit more reasonable.

 

I'm not against the notion that the ZEmpire manages to kick everyone's ***. There's possible reasons, justifications, understandable causes out there...

 

...but there's a difference between a story that lets you fill in the blanks, and a story that doesn't make sense on its own merits. Even weakened, we're still talking about two massive nations that actively control probably half the galaxy between them, and the conquest has been portrayed so far as a one-sided affair, similar to the initial US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

 

Even if the ZEmpire was as powerful as a pre-Corellia Sith Empire, it feels like an invasion on this scale would take years, maybe decades before they'd be able to conquer Korriban, Tython, Coruscant or Dormund Kaas.

 

I don't want to hate this story. I want to love every single piece of fiction that I pay money for. But right now, Bioware is not spending nearly enough time even so much as HINTING at the reason for this one sided invasion. Everything you said is inferred based on a tiny amount of evidence, because Bioware has been unable to really delve into the high-level view of the galaxy at any point in the last year, favoring much more tightly focused stories instead.

 

And don't get me wrong. I like tightly-focused stories. Hell, on balance, I prefer them to wide sweeping epics. But if you're going to tell a massive epic, you need to develop the world/galaxy... and so far, they've failed to do so.

The story isn't even out yet. All we have are teasers. Once we get to release we can start a real discussion on if it makes any sense.

The story isn't even out yet. All we have are teasers. Once we get to release we can start a real discussion on if it makes any sense.

I agree with this assessment.

Explanation of how ZEmpire is winning

We've seen battles in SWTOR described as thousands of soldiers vs tens of thousands of soldiers. But governments that span much of the galaxy should have several billion soldiers. Obviously the Empire is actually very small but has a high % of soldiers (3-5% of the population), whereas the Republic is huge but has a small unified military and more planetary specific militaries (CorSec and the like). As a result, the ZEmpire with a population of one tenth the Republic and a military composed of 5-10% of the population is steamrolling the weakened Empire and Republic,

In the NJO, the Vong had a population equal to 10% of the SW galaxy but 1/3 Vong were military caste. So that means that a military equal to 3.3% of the galactic population is massive compared to the New Republic's military. I suspect things are much the same in the TOR time period.

The story isn't even out yet. All we have are teasers. Once we get to release we can start a real discussion on if it makes any sense.

The problem is a few fold.

1: RPers have been asking for details about what the heck exactly happens to the galaxy pretty much ever since the expansion was announced. This isn't about getting spoilers or gamer entitlement, this is about trying to prepare our communities for the change and set our characters on a path that can lead them into the new era.

2: They've released two short-stories so far. One about a character from one of the launch trailers that never showed up in game, and barely told us anything about him beyond "Mysterious-but-capable-smuggler-#412", and this one, a much better story, but still one heavily focused on individual characters instead of giving anything resembling information about the new world state.

3: This is supposed to be an epic. A story with massive impact, massive scope, massive stakes. But the last time we got anything more than a broad sketch of the galactic state was back in April of 2014, here: http://www.swtor.com/info/news/blog/20140407

That was before Forged Alliances.

This has been a frustration in the RP community for a long time, that we're trying to RP our chars out without much real info on how the war and the galaxy is actually going. And now there's going to be this huge shakeup... and there's little actual indication that Bioware is going to do anything resembling exposition about the galactic scale.

That's why I'm bringing this up now. This is a problem that they need to address, if not for the sake of the story itself, than for the players that are trying to RP in their game (...a lot of them paying users, of course). And so far, there seems little indication that they are serious about this problem.

So, yeah. Gonna keep bringing it up, because the RP community needs this info ASAP, otherwise we're walking into the new content blind, with little idea what we're going to do with our characters.

The problem is a few fold.

 

1: RPers have been asking for details about what the heck exactly happens to the galaxy pretty much ever since the expansion was announced. This isn't about getting spoilers or gamer entitlement, this is about trying to prepare our communities for the change and set our characters on a path that can lead them into the new era.

 

2: They've released two short-stories so far. One about a character from one of the launch trailers that never showed up in game, and barely told us anything about him beyond "Mysterious-but-capable-smuggler-#412", and this one, a much better story, but still one heavily focused on individual characters instead of giving anything resembling information about the new world state.

 

3: This is supposed to be an epic. A story with massive impact, massive scope, massive stakes. But the last time we got anything more than a broad sketch of the galactic state was back in April of 2014, here: http://www.swtor.com/info/news/blog/20140407

 

That was before Forged Alliances.

 

This has been a frustration in the RP community for a long time, that we're trying to RP our chars out without much real info on how the war and the galaxy is actually going. And now there's going to be this huge shakeup... and there's little actual indication that Bioware is going to do anything resembling exposition about the galactic scale.

 

That's why I'm bringing this up now. This is a problem that they need to address, if not for the sake of the story itself, than for the players that are trying to RP in their game (...a lot of them paying users, of course). And so far, there seems little indication that they are serious about this problem.

 

So, yeah. Gonna keep bringing it up, because the RP community needs this info ASAP, otherwise we're walking into the new content blind, with little idea what we're going to do with our characters.

Sorry, but this reads a lot like you are basically asking them to tell you what the story is.

They are not going to do that. Period.

It's a very enjoyable short story. It gives further insight into the brothers, and their thoughts on the war they fight, and develops backstory. Now, if only we'd know how long the break is, other than...

Sorry, but this reads a lot like you are basically asking them to tell you what the story is.

They are not going to do that. Period.

As roleplayers, we don't need to know the story, or even want it. We want to know about time, and general events. More the prologue, than anything.