And why their returns are usually dissapoiting and very short?

I know its a big thing to do, there is so many companions to think of and all of them need to be placed into the story somehow and all that, but seriously, you cant tell me that Bioware planned to keep us away from some of our companiosn 3+ years, what sense does that make.

The biggest and most obvious reason, to me at least, is that something went wrong with kotfe/kotet and many things got cut and shortened so the companions that should have had bigger returns, like Vette had for example (even tho it still could be better) simply didnt happen.

Our companions, or some of them at least, simply were not important to this plotline and were totally put to the side due to budget or time restraints even if it would make sense to have them back at certain points.

Second reason and the one that would piss me off the most, their voice actors were not available. I have no clue how this business works but its possible right? Even if they were under contract some of the voice actors are very busy these days and getting them to come back and voice swtor again could have been a hassle and so it was simply put of more and more, it can easily be one of the reasons why Kira Carsen isnt back yet, Laura Bailey is very busy with both work and personal life, so this could be a thing.

At which point I would really like to know, why not recast? Cmon its not such a crazy thing to do, recasts happen all the time, especially in such long projects like swtor, just get someone newer but good and try to have them match the previous voice actor, there are many taleted people who are able to imitate others very well.

What other reasons do you think are holding it all back? Is it the general state of things of swtor?

And do you think things will go back to more party oriented storyline with the next expansion? I like many of kotet/fe characters, but I would not mind AT ALL to leave them all behind and just mvoe on to the next adventure with my original party... even if it makes less sense that they would still join me after nearly seven years o.O

1. because some voice actors are really expensive

2. some companions are unpopular

3. some might, just might be kept for 6.0

4. some VA might be busy with other projects or real life or have no interest to return to SWTOR

5. this game has a very limited budget

These are the reasons I can think of for now.

IMHO the short answer is because the KOTET arc was cut short. They'd originally planned out three seasons, with 'meaningful' companion returns. IIRC Charles Boyd said that the original plan was for every companion (at least the LIs I guess) to have a chapter where they'd return.

They ended up slicing and dicing it, KOTET went from 16 to 9 chapters, and the third season was axed entirely. So that didn't happen. They've lost writers, too. So IMHO what we're seeing with the two-minute returns is them trying to do damage control and bring back companions any way they can.

I have not liked the two-minute returns at all. IMHO they feel very hastily slapped together and have been OOC for both PCs and the companions in some cases. I'm sorry we didn't get to see what those full chapter returns would have been like.

Removing 1/3 of the story is the obvious answer however considering the number of companions (at that time) still estranged and amount of story "Axed" it couldn't be many, not many at all. Getting closer to Valkorian in the last bits logically I would think the comps most associated with the Emperor (Scourge, Kira and possibly DS Jaesa), These are the three they're talking about now infact. As for the others I entirely believe they were put on the back burner (way back burner) and due to ...

1 Everything Eternal Stopped (Everything BW had scheduled for months thrown in the trash, start over at day 1)

2 Customers have nothing to look for (stagnate game, Theron bits (BW was dead in the water, making up new content impromptu) pleased nobody and seemed to seemed to inflame that

3 Customers very upset Over the lack of companions

B.W. moves them ahead in schedule in "We needed them Yesterday" mode. I'm very sure most V.A.'s had dropped out of contact years earlier. E.A. was specifically mentioned multiple times during the strike. Small budget split 20 some ways. Everything quality wise was below grade for BioWare unfortunately. Many (Probably most) got their companion(s) and HeadCannoned *How it Happened, several stories came from that.

Well if there is so many issues with getting the original VO's back and paying them, than, like I said, why not recast? Its not like there wont be plenty of people wanting to be in freaking swtor and be put on Bioware's VO list.

Why the hell did so much of kotet get cut? I heard that people were unhappy with the lack of end game content and in general how the story was no longer class specific, it seemed to fit only force users and such, but if they had nothing else planned why would they scrap work that has already been done?

And why in the hell does swtor have such a small budget? I honestly have no clue how much that would be but I dont believe that even now swtor is not profitable and if EA actually put money into it to revive it I think great amount of people would come back.

Swtor is generally loved for the story and characters, justs the MMO aspects were never that great and imo that was mostly because of the way expansions and patches in general were handled, not enough to do and too long between content drops, why not simply fix that?

Well if there is so many issues with getting the original VO's back and paying them, than, like I said, why not recast? Its not like there wont be plenty of people wanting to be in freaking swtor and be put on Bioware's VO list.

 

Why the hell did so much of kotet get cut? I heard that people were unhappy with the lack of end game content and in general how the story was no longer class specific, it seemed to fit only force users and such, but if they had nothing else planned why would they scrap work that has already been done?

 

And why in the hell does swtor have such a small budget? I honestly have no clue how much that would be but I dont believe that even now swtor is not profitable and if EA actually put money into it to revive it I think great amount of people would come back.

Swtor is generally loved for the story and characters, justs the MMO aspects were never that great and imo that was mostly because of the way expansions and patches in general were handled, not enough to do and too long between content drops, why not simply fix that?

I don't necessarily think there were any problems with the voiceover artists. As I understand it, the contracts they sign for the games are for the duration, so they come back when needed, and many of them have been doing other work for EA games and other studios. The only exception would be the actor who voiced Tano Vik because he passed away.

Also, the voiceover artists' strike didn't affect games and contracts that were already under production, so it didn't affect SWTOR. That is why there were new story segments of SWTOR being released all through that. However, it did mean they couldn't hire any *new* v/o artists under new contracts for the game during the strike, and of course it had a financial impact on the gaming studios.

Right now EA seems to be devoting all of its resources toward Anthem, and what's left over for SWTOR is minimal. I think a lot of players are having difficulty understanding why they're doing what they're doing with SWTOR.

Why the hell did so much of kotet get cut? I heard that people were unhappy with the lack of end game content and in general how the story was no longer class specific, it seemed to fit only force users and such, but if they had nothing else planned why would they scrap work that has already been done?

IMO, they should have just left it as originally planned. KOTET should have just been the full 16 chapters. In fact, in Ch. 12 of KOTFE the story was supposed to be very different than what we got. Originally the plan was Satele and Marr to re-train force users to use this new way of the force to fight Arcann and train non-force users on how to use the force. Like we were to actually do training out there with them concerning holocrons and maybe other stuff. All characters were tied to Valkorian's power so non-force users were to learn how to use that power. I listened to the cut audio clips and honestly I really liked the direction with that, plus the lines from the non-force users were classic. The smuggler one was funny and the agent was classically snobbish. And the end when back in the war room "oh yea and apparently I am force sensitive now." The VA's said these lines good. But apparently too many complained that this idea was ludicrous and stupid so they cut all of that out and we were left with - make a weapon and listen to how Satele and Marr failed....

They kept putting emphasis on choices matter but in the end they didn't really. It started out like that especially with Koth and Senya, but it didn't affect anyone else. I bet they originally were going to have it that Theron would do something like Koth if you kept doing things he objected too. The original Umbara and Iokath cut dialog indicates something way different than what we got.

As far as companions taking so long would most likely have to do with these cut out chapters of story. Then there was the issue with one companion that had the same VA (Theron and Zenith). I guess that's why we didn't get Zenith back, but the others - who knows?

As far as companions taking so long would most likely have to do with these cut out chapters of story. Then there was the issue with one companion that had the same VA (Theron and Zenith). I guess that's why we didn't get Zenith back, but the others - who knows?

I think Zenith is kept for 6.0 because of his personality and intense hatred of Sith & Imperials. Can you imagine him joining the Alliance & playing pazaak with Sith & Imps? I cannot.

I think Zenith is kept for 6.0 because of his personality and intense hatred of Sith & Imperials. Can you imagine him joining the Alliance & playing pazaak with Sith & Imps? I cannot.

Zenith didn't really care for anything other than Balmorra. My Sage sided with the Empire, so I think he's going to take a shot at me.

Zenith didn't really care for anything other than Balmorra. My Sage sided with the Empire, so I think he's going to take a shot at me.

His devotion to Balmorra is a big problem and makes him one of the most difficult companions to work with. Let's hope he calmed down and will not lash out at any of my Sages ( all devoted Pubs) just because some of them followed the Light path till the end.

Out of game answer: because the game developers decided to rush through the story and a great deal was cut that wouldn't have been otherwise, which is a shame because I actually liked the chapter driven storyline companions got to themselves for their reintroduction. Another thing is getting voice actors/actresses back, I don't think they will ever really give this game the funding it deserves (all our cartel money is lining someones pocket, not going into the game, as unfortunate as that is) so corners are cut, and content is harder to get out than it should be.

In game reason:

Because none of them actually like us, seriously.. try talking to almost any companion you have. Most of your vanilla-kotfe companions want you to go away, or at least not talk to them casually, or literally want to do anything besides chit chat with you.

Serious lore based answer:

Everyone had to move on with their lives in a galaxy without you in it, there was too much to do for them to keep looking for you and even the ones who knew the outlander was alive had reached a point where they couldn't just drop everything to go to you because their own work/lives were too important.

Some amazingly didn't know you were alive (Mako... seriously.. you have the Internet built into your head, no way you didn't know Vatani was still around there have to be a thousand vids of the outlander shooting up zakuul on holotube.. I swear she just hooked up with Akaavi and forgot about us... which is understandable... because Akaavi)

Some of the others have loyalty conflicts twards what you're doing like Elara or just plain don't want to risk ending up falling into complacently following you around again like Ashara.

Some amazingly didn't know you were alive (Mako... seriously.. you have the Internet built into your head, no way you didn't know Vatani was still around there have to be a thousand vids of the outlander shooting up zakuul on holotube.. I swear she just hooked up with Akaavi and forgot about us... which is understandable... because Akaavi)

I don't blame Mako one bit for going off with Akaavi. From a story point of view, IMHO it's realistic that after so many years, even if they were friends with the Commander, they would have needed to move on and find their own lives. And they might not have wanted to drop everything to rush back to the Commander's side because they might have been perfectly happy with whatever life they'd established for themselves.

The "I didn't know you were still alive/I didn't know you were the Alliance Commander" routine has to be one of the silliest plot holes ever, though. They've used that excuse with a number of companions now and it doesn't make any sense. As you say the Commander has been all over the Holonet. In the game alone it's mentioned multiple times. Ships come to Odessen in droves after KOTFE 16. When they go missing on Dromund Kaas in KOTET 2, it's galactic news. They can do another Holonet broadcast in KOTET 5, and then there's the one at Vaylin's palace in KOTET 6 and the one at the end of KOTET 9 where they take the throne, and the one after Umbara, and Darth Hexid mentions that they are on the Holonet...and...yeah. For several of those it's also mentioned that there's been a galactic channel cleared for the Commander, so it reaches the entire galaxy.

But all these companions apparently were living in the same cave where they had no Holonet access and never interacted with the outside world enough to know that their old colleague was leading the galaxy.