I've played as a loyal Pub (Smuggler) and a Saboteur Imp (Bounty Hunter) and let me tell you: Malgus does *not* like it when the missions go south. At. All.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure Vowrawn is onto me; I wasn't even given a choice to join the Empire or not, as he just decreed that I would and my character never had a chance to say nay. When my character is eventually found out she is in for some bad, bad times.

Yeah, on my smuggler i didnt even get the option, cant wait for them to find out tho, i wanna go full Empire on ALL of my Pub characters

I kind of see both sides.

 

Tell you my bounty hunter feels out of place running an alliance. He never signed up for that. He just got swept up into it.

 

Chance to ditch the gig and go back to bounty hunting? Take that all day long. I guess I'll see if I get that option.

i just want to get back to robbing people or being a professional liar

only reason i decided to keep the alliance on my SW is roleplaying, he started off as a saboteur but then changed his mind when he saw the Empire is different than when he left, he's still not all in tho, hence keeping the Alliance. On most of my characters however i'm happy to get back to my old job. That being said i've only done 3 classes so far, on the others i might change my decision based on the specific role im offered

I've played through it on my loyal Knight and loyal Warrior so far and on both I've kept my Alliance. I don't care to become a new Chancellor's puppet all over again, no matter the titles and task forces promised. And my Sith Warrior sure as hell isn't going back to being an Empress' lackey as the Wrath once more, leading the Hand.

Did feel a bit bad for Theron on the Empire side, he didn't take things well. Lana was far more tame vice versa. Also love that Scourge and Kira seem to join all classes because I've long wanted the old Wrath and my own Wrath to team up. Plus their bit of banter was enjoyable, as is Lana's especially toward the Jedi and Padawan.

Been having a really great time so far. Only minor downside is the lack of romantic interaction if you're romancing anyone other than Lana/Theron but that was to be expected. On the other hand, flirting with Malgus and getting an aggrevated 'ugh' is awesome.

so, i decided to keep my Alliance, what are the differences if i rejoin my old faction?

If you are a jedi you are also given a seat on the council (at least mine was)

I've just begun Onslaught with my saboteur Smuggler and I'm already dying from laughter. The tv interview was hysterical, especially that my char is a male Cathar, and he had an evil kitten smile on his face.

I'm also really happy that our Inquisitor can return to the Dark Council. Finally!

I haven't read anything about Darth Zash though. I guess she's not back?

If you are a jedi you are also given a seat on the council (at least mine was)

6 years too late, they tossed me out like a dirty dishrag, now they die with the rest

Don't overlook just how much work it actually took to "rework stuff".

 

Most people wouldn't notice, but I picked up on a lot of "under the hood" improvements that went into this. Lighting for instance is extremely improved, and there are other signs that the engine is being worked on.

 

What all this means I am not sure, other than an incredible amount of work went into what they already did from an engine perspective. The bastardized alpha hero engine they had been working with was a major headache, and there was little effort made to improve it since launch.

 

Since Keith, I can tell now they have done a TON to that engine. As much as we all want new content, the best way to get it in the long term is to finally get the engine to a spot where they can automate generating content as much as possible, vs having to worry that one change will mess up about 500 different things that they had no idea were even connected.

 

Despite the current bugs, overall this has been one of the lesser buggy launches too, which also speaks to the engine work they are doing.

 

This was Keith's big debut. I love the reverence to the vanilla story, I can see the systems we got put in as a starting point (rather than a finished product) that can be fleshed out over the next year to make them more player-friendly, and I like the direction of the game now, having actually played it and gone into it without a preconceived notion (vs some people who even before the expansion launched acted like they were slobbering at the mouth for the chance to rip on it once it went live). The negatives people were afraid of weren't that bad, and the positives ended up being very good. Story was short, but impactful.

 

I'd give Keith a solid B on his first real expansion.

Pretty good on this evaluation... A lot of good detail. I also noticed changes ( good changes) from PTS to release. I have an idea they're not done !

I kind of like where the story is headed too ! They really have the potential of something really nice now !

I just hope that they get the opportunity to flesh this out .. and create what so many of us have been waiting on.

The only negative I saw was the abrupt ending. My first character I ran was my Smuggler (LS). He held out for the top dollar offer (so to speak). Agreed that they keep their independence but have become a part of the alliance. I went to the meeting with Kira and Scourge ! Agree that we should meet and prepare to go take care of the problem they discussed! Frankly as soon as I clicked on and agreed to … I was expecting to receive a mission to go on … but it was not there ??? I thought that was kind of odd ! At any rate. I'm hoping with the next patch there is a brief interlude (kind of like hearts and minds) … that can clean up some loose ends ! That would be really great !

I saw a post on reddit from a dev saying that he has an Alliance Alert coming soon, it just wasn't ready for 6.0's launch.

Thanks, hope it's not too long.

thanks, hope it's not too long.

I missed that post !!

TYVM !!

I really like the 6.0 story - for a Republic loyalist, anyway. I am looking forward to trying Imperial loyalist and saboteur. (Haven't found the right character for Republic saboteur yet.)

There were lots of nice little personal touches with companion writing that made them feel like real people - especially interactions with Lana, who has previously not been a favorite of mine but really shone in this update.

Tau was already great - now we've got Arn as well, and he's awesome too. I really loved everything involving these characters. They are written in such a human, nuanced, sympathetic way.

We got to bring companions of our own choice with us in 90% of the story. On such occasions, I brought my consular's favorite person, Felix Iresso. He was given no lines or content, but I just liked that I could have him there. Made him feel part of the story (even if, from another perspective, he wasn't), which I had missed for so long.

Also, companions back on our class ships. Yes!

We got a ton of in-character mail during this story, all very appropriate and well-themed. I love that stuff. A great way to add more writing without the budget requirements of cutscenes with voice-acting. Hope to see more of this trend going forwards.

Feels like the beginning of something big, new, and epic - yet, at the same time, there were so many callbacks to elements from SWTOR's story up to this point that made it feel really connected. Some callbacks were to very old content (such as the Esseles, or my consular's force plague healing ability), which I especially enjoyed. But it was also fun to continue recently introduced threads, like finally having that famous tea with Daerunn (even if it was off-camera, lol).

I am glad to be back with the Republic. I hesitated for a while over the option, because during Felix's reunion he was very vehement about wanting to be with the Alliance, not the Republic... but I guess maybe the one advantage of him not getting specific content is that he probably won't say he's hurt by this. If it does come up, hopefully my consular will be able to explain that this is about the ordinary people of the Republic needing help and about trying to uphold the values of the Republic vs. those of the Empire, things I hope are still important to him. After all, it was never explained why he thinks the Republic knew what was happening to him as a prisoner and did nothing about it... 'cos I still don't think that makes any sense, and is probably more like something his captors said to hurt him, rather than the truth. (We had so many Republic contacts in the Alliance, including Jace himself, that we should've been able to find out about Felix's fate much earlier than we did if they really did know.)

Just my initial thoughts for now! Of course I always want more, so I could be happier if this was longer, but on the other hand I'm keen to try it out with other characters - so it has greater repeatability than a lot of content before this. Quite happy.

YEA !!

I am happy

Onderon is nice, Mek-Sha is nice. Outside of these, the only interesting aspect of the expansion is the Kira/Scourge epilogue. I'm honestly stunned at just how creatively bankrupt, banal, unintriguing and boring the story of Onslaught was. "Fleet going to defend/take Corellia". That's literally it. All headlined by same-old-same-old Malgus. Half of the time playing the expansion I had deja vu of vanilla content I already beat 8 years ago.

 

Say what you want about the execution of KOTFEET, the Valkorion part in particular, but in comparsion to Onslaught, that story was a tsunami of fresh ideas, massive cast of surprising characters, new cultures & civilizations, unexpected developements, twists & turns, intrigues, mysteries, etc.

 

Seriously Bioware? "Rehashed Malgus Imp vs Rep plot of the day" is your idea of SWTOR's story going forward? You CANNOT blame me for expecting more from professional writers

This sums it up pretty good, yep.

Not to forget about the scourge/kira return (which was *********** bad in itself. I thought they would re-introduce them in a big, meaningful way, maybe while we were fighting on corella but NOPE.) where bioware decided to waste something big like the Emperors real body in a quick 3 min-dialogue. (And what about Satele? I didnt even understood that part)

The only good thing i will remember is that i will get all my titles back and will be one of the jedi high council again.

But all in all this "expansion" is nothing but a dissapointment.

I loved the republic and the empire story, I played as a republic loyalist and a imp sabotage It was fun, I was so excited when I got offered back in the republic and into the jedi council. Interesting that I didn't get the same offer from the empire, I am guessing that because I was playing sabotage imp and the republic won the battle. Very excited and interest to see where the story goes, very interested in the satele story as well

The story seems to be setting up

The exchange growing in there power

Vitiate plague in satele

And if your an imp character, you realize there also setting up something else for malgus

It will be very interested and exciting for me to see where all this goes.

Just played Knight trough and at the end- DAMN. Scourge is THIRSTY. He was practically ready to hump leg the minute the scene started. Hahahaa

Man, I miss the nerves-of-steel Scourge already versus this flustered mess. Oh well. I guess a few centuries of not being able to enjoy banging makes one desperate for booty. And poor Kira who I never even married has been waiting for a kiss for almost ten years. What a weird ending scene, two thirsty companions return ready to bang the same man. Oof.

Oh well. Having some domestic fights now trying to establish dominance with mr. big-bad-sith-burning-for-a-bang rofl

Just played Knight trough and at the end- DAMN. Scourge is THIRSTY. He was practically ready to hump leg the minute the scene started. Hahahaa

Man, I miss the nerves-of-steel Scourge already versus this flustered mess. Oh well. I guess a few centuries of not being able to enjoy banging makes one desperate for booty. And poor Kira who I never even married has been waiting for a kiss for almost ten years. What a weird ending scene, two thirsty companions return ready to bang the same man. Oof.

 

Oh well. Having some domestic fights now trying to establish dominance with mr. big-bad-sith-burning-for-a-bang rofl

Well yeah. Centuries of being pent up....

Just played Knight trough and at the end- DAMN. Scourge is THIRSTY. He was practically ready to hump leg the minute the scene started. Hahahaa

Man, I miss the nerves-of-steel Scourge already versus this flustered mess. Oh well. I guess a few centuries of not being able to enjoy banging makes one desperate for booty. And poor Kira who I never even married has been waiting for a kiss for almost ten years. What a weird ending scene, two thirsty companions return ready to bang the same man. Oof.

 

Oh well. Having some domestic fights now trying to establish dominance with mr. big-bad-sith-burning-for-a-bang rofl

I thought Sourge and Kira might have been involved and that was where the whole convo about emotions was headed, but nope. Instead, old scourge was harboring some closeted fellings for my Jedi Knight, I had to friendzone him on the spot. lol

Glad to have the gang back together again

Played it last night on my LS SI whose going down the saboteur route.

- I liked mocking the "King" on Onderon.

- Enjoyed Jakarro and his droid being back.

- I thought Onderon looked awesome would love to see more.

- In keeping up my Sithy appearance I loved asking for my seat back and then at the very end just taking it anyway.

- Enjoyed both Lana and Theron's appearances, the romance moment with Theron at the end of the FP was cute. Glad to see both hanging around still.

- Really enjoying Anri also, hope to see her back again.

- I liked the shout out on Mek-Sha to my SI being a slave once himself and that entire convo with Anri about it.

- I enjoyed the saboteur moments, I look forward in the future to being caught out (I know it's bound to happen sooner or later) and how that will go down. Malgus is not happy about all this failure, whoops, I reckon he's starting to catch on though.

Overall I look forward to seeing where the story goes. Now onto the Pub side tonight with my JK.

From the perspective of an Imp player--I didn't even hesitate to choose to keep my Alliance. I was given the choice of that or rejoin the Empire as the Wrath blah blah--again. It makes zero sense to take such a massive step backwards. Your character (esp. Force-users) are basically living gods at this point, who have slain other gods. The Emperor consumed the life force of an entire planet, and you put a beatdown on him AND his family. Why in the world would ANYone ever decide to be a puppet lackey for some Empress that you should be able to kill with a flick of the wrist at this point? The only REAL other option at this point would be just backhanding the Empress off YOUR rightful throne.

Exactly.

And when Acina offered to let my Agent be Keeper I wish there had been a lmao hell no option. Like he didn't see exactly what Sith goons did to the last Imperial Intelligence. You can't be serious.

[...]

But one thing they mentioned in the article in March for under the hood - they were working on the engine and DYN placements to allow them to push content out quicker. If they somehow have achieved this or are close to it, I can accept a smaller story for now in preparation for more content more often (meaning BioWare abandons their previously held business ideal of "people can leave and just come back when there is content" and instead work on getting regular content and story out), especially given the sheer number of systems overhauled in this update.

 

Make no mistake - this was a "groundwork" update that fundamentally changed a few systems. Now these systems can be fleshed out from here and built on, which hopefully means over the next year, the team can shift gears once the systems are "complete" to more content creation and less system overhaul.

Story felt like it was a transition-point from all the KotFE/KotET-stuff to (finally) being back to Rep vs Imp. And the end was already like a promise that there was much more story to come. Not like with SoR that ended right there with the defeat of (dark) Revan. More like Ziost but to the size of SoR.

And the often mentioned end of SWTOR by many, that Onslaught would be basically the last content update, is weird when you look at the many changes.

I'll still be observing how SWTOR goes and even if nothing's happening, I'm happy with the vanilla content alone. Not to mention RotHC, SoR, KotFE, KotET and post-KotET content. Don't know how many times I've replayed the class stories with a different character in mind, but I still very much enjoy them.

shortest expansión if this can be called that at all..... i mean this barely have more content than 2 chapters of kotfe, the story is kinda weak and at times boring . There is almost to nothing in content wise, after playing expansións like revans, kotfe, kotet this really seems dissapointing to say the least.

what a shame considering i like the new worlds.

The story has about the length of SoR. Considering there're differences wether you're republic, imperial or saboteur, it might be overall longer. (not counting class differences)

Anyone know why the heck Theron is appearing at the end of my Sorcerors runthrough of Onslaught..? I left him on Nathema, it even says so in the companion window, and there's been no sign of him all through the expansion until now. In fact, there's technically still no sign of him, since he's invisible in the cutscene. But he still has lines :/

LOL, I had that happen too.

Story felt like it was a transition-point from all the KotFE/KotET-stuff to (finally) being back to Rep vs Imp.

 

Very much agree on this. Thank the heavens for that.. My favourite part so far has been seeing my Sorceror tear Anathel out of my seat like he was nothing Calling me Darth Nox again was a nice touch too. Overall have loved how they seem to be calling back to class stories more now, only done JK and SI so far though. On second thought, my favourite moment had to be the long long long LONG awaited return of Kira for my JK.. He played it pretty cool when she showed up though lol, wish she'd gotten a bigger reaction, I've turned down a loooot of romances over the years waiting on her haha. My Knight has been quietly dying inside without her all this time

LOL, I had that happen too.

Sucks, now I won't see what was supposed to actually happen, since I can't replay this later more than likely.. Hope they make the story parts of Ossus and Onslaught and even SoR replayable at some point. Can't be all that different from KOTFE/ET chapter replay can it?

I love the reverence to the vanilla story

Agreed. I remember replying to a tweet on Twitter that was posted on one of Boyd's tweets, saying how I would like NPCs to return one day instead of simply being forgotten as some "one-time, side quest guy who said they will remember me or want to work with me again but never see them again."

We have Savik, Narlock, and if you select a certain dialogue option at the beginning of the Corellia flashpoint (I believe), Revald and the Null Cannon tech. Always wondered when something seemingly so important would resurface again!

Agreed. I remember replying to a tweet on Twitter that was posted on one of Boyd's tweets, saying how I would like NPCs to return one day instead of simply being forgotten as some "one-time, side quest guy who said they will remember me or want to work with me again but never see them again."

 

We have Savik, Narlock, and if you select a certain dialogue option at the beginning of the Corellia flashpoint (I believe), Revald and the Null Cannon tech. Always wondered when something seemingly so important would resurface again!

Who the heck IS Savik? I tried so hard to remember her when I was doing my JK runthrough but failed miserably. What part of the story was she in..?