I'm not sure what's holding them back. The hands/claws? Romance scenes?

A bit of both. Their hands aren't like human hands, and the kissing scenes *would* look a bit strange.

I would love it if they would add a Kel Dor or any number of more Alien species. I think Kel Dor were the 4th most requested specied and the other three have been added.

Personally the issue with Kel Dor bveing ugly or having a mask doesn't really both me, my Nautolan has tenticals which went through clothing and weapons but I just ignore them. Plus I think the cyborg can have a mouth breather any way. As for Romance I am not sure there is that much Romance in this game and most of it is just a flirt option and the words "maybe later" from the NPC so yo will go off and complete their mission.

I would love it if they would add a Kel Dor or any number of more Alien species. I think Kel Dor were the 4th most requested specied and the other three have been added.

 

Personally the issue with Kel Dor bveing ugly or having a mask doesn't really both me, my Nautolan has tenticals which went through clothing and weapons but I just ignore them. Plus I think the cyborg can have a mouth breather any way. As for Romance I am not sure there is that much Romance in this game and most of it is just a flirt option and the words "maybe later" from the NPC so yo will go off and complete their mission.

Depending on how randy your char is, there's quite a bit of kissing, some classes more than others....lol

Would love to have playable Kel Dor species.

I was thinking about the voice modulation for the mask and was thinking that could actually be one of the customizations - have a small handful of different modulation options (including a none, preferably.) You'd obviously need to be able to hear the voice to make that decision, but it's pretty easy to get the character to speak during creation. All that would be needed would be to add some manner of hearing a voice clip during instances of the Appearance Customization Station.

Would love to have playable Kel Dor species.

I was thinking about the voice modulation for the mask and was thinking that could actually be one of the customizations - have a small handful of different modulation options (including a none, preferably.) You'd obviously need to be able to hear the voice to make that decision, but it's pretty easy to get the character to speak during creation. All that would be needed would be to add some manner of hearing a voice clip during instances of the Appearance Customization Station.

Regardless of the "official" lore, the SWTOR version of Kel Dor get poisoning and/or chemical burns from exposure to oxygen (although their skin seems to resist it)(1). As such, removing the mask to kiss a romanced companion would cause problems, and leaving the mask in place would cause other problems. (Is the companion kissing the Kel Dor player's *mask*???)

Given that sort of thing, the voice modulation is the least of anyone's worries.

(1) Ref Doctor Archibald Kimble's comments on a certain someone's wounds at the end of a certain recently-released episode.

Kel Dor are weird to make out with, get over it. Give us all the species.

^ This

Also, if the romance is the only thing stopping their release as a playable species, there's a simple solution - auto flag characters of the species as "no Romance" from the outset and make it overtly obvious to the player when choosing the species that they would not be able to romance any companions.

A slightly more complex solution would be to include flirt and romance options as normal but find a way to skip the make-out scenes. I can think of ways to do this, but it would require an extra line or two of dialog from the 8 Class VAs and a little creative splicing in of scene switchouts for those characters which might be more work than they'd want for a single species release, but would have the option available for any future species with similar concerns.

Point being, solutions can be found to the "problem" if they wanted to.

and make it overtly obvious to the player when choosing the species that they would not be able to romance any companions.

History shows that "make it overtly obvious" things *always* fail. Look at the number of posts we've had from people who complain about having discovered after the fact that starting JUS completes earlier content. Er, that is, the number of such posts is not zero.

A slightly more complex solution would be to include flirt and romance options as normal but find a way to skip the make-out scenes. I can think of ways to do this, but it would require an extra line or two of dialog from the 8 Class VAs and a little creative splicing in of scene switchouts for those characters which might be more work than they'd want for a single species release, but would have the option available for any future species with similar concerns.

 

Point being, solutions can be found to the "problem" if they wanted to.

Of course. I don't think anyone's saying that it *absolutely* can't be solved. I'm certainly not claiming that. What I am claiming is that it is known (BioWare has admitted it) that the original class stories are a tangled and poorly-understood mess of tangled tangledness, and modifying them to accommodate species-specific behaviour is not going to happen.

Alternatively, think about it this way: do we really want them spending time and effort shoehorning this sort of thing into the original content, or do we want them making interesting new stories without new species? I know which I'd rather have.

do we really want them spending time and effort shoehorning this sort of thing into the original content, or do we want them making interesting new stories without new species? I know which I'd rather have.

Why not leave it weird with proper notification or have weird species opt out of romances with proper notification. leave the old stuff be and maybe include them in new stuff but find a way to give us interesting new story and interesting new species?

Always with you what cannot be done.

Why not leave it weird with proper notification or have weird species opt out of romances with proper notification. leave the old stuff be and maybe include them in new stuff but find a way to give us interesting new story and interesting new species?

That sort of notification is useless. It's just another panel that pops up and won't go away until you click CONFIRM.

Leaving the old stuff be would attract lots of adverse comment of the same sort that Cathar (especially) and Togruta attracted, but in spades. The addition of Cathar was accompanied by comment on various missions scattered around the game where NPCs don't recognise that you are one (notably Stolen Medicines, which is on a starter world), and a whole companion romance storyline reduced to gibberish (F!Trooper and Aric Jorgan, who insists on talking to a Cathar Trooperette as if she's not one).

The only way to do both (add species *and* add more content) is to get lots more funding so they can hire more people to work on it because some of the work would be done by the same staff, and therefore if they don't hire more people, the total work would take longer. That sounds ... unlikely. Not impossible, but not at all likely either.

It's not about "what cannot be done", mind you, but "what can or cannot be done at reasonable cost in reasonable time and without having too much adverse impact on the game".

That sort of notification is useless. It's just another panel that pops up and won't go away until you click CONFIRM.

 

Leaving the old stuff be would attract lots of adverse comment of the same sort that Cathar (especially) and Togruta attracted, but in spades. The addition of Cathar was accompanied by comment on various missions scattered around the game where NPCs don't recognise that you are one (notably Stolen Medicines, which is on a starter world), and a whole companion romance storyline reduced to gibberish (F!Trooper and Aric Jorgan, who insists on talking to a Cathar Trooperette as if she's not one).

 

The only way to do both (add species *and* add more content) is to get lots more funding so they can hire more people to work on it because some of the work would be done by the same staff, and therefore if they don't hire more people, the total work would take longer. That sounds ... unlikely. Not impossible, but not at all likely either.

 

It's not about "what cannot be done", mind you, but "what can or cannot be done at reasonable cost in reasonable time and without having too much adverse impact on the game".

I disagree, you point out how this has been done before and people complained but it works just fine and the game survives and I believe a majority believes is better for the flawed addition. I think they should do more like this.

I dont think they need to hire more people, and make the total work take longer. Possible.

You are about what cannot be done, all about it all the time. I, on the other hand, am about what can be done. Im fine with it not being perfect, I like additions to the game, and believe me I think many have been very flawed. I dont believe the cathar backlash had an adverse effect on the game.

If we had Kel Dor, I wouldn't being doing a romance anyways. Unless they added some Kel Dor companions.

But anyways, Yes add them please, with lots of customization options in all categories.

If we had more races to play as, perhaps more people wouldn't be running around as humans.

I quite like Kel Dor, but i think they'd work much better for a non-romanceable companion that it would for a PC. As that species poses a few issues with mostly the mask, the fact we've never, ever seen a female one, or the shape of their hand being different than human's.

So, on a personal level, i'd much rather have "easier" species like Echani, Zeltron, Kiffar, Tholothian or even Nikto (these being the most alien looking of the bunch), that would require less work to implement, as they're, at least on the outside, much closer to regular human's anatomy.

Ya know, as much as I would love to create my Kel Dor OC in this game, I'm with a ton of people on the whole Kel Dor being companions thing. Heck, I would love to have someone like Tol Braga or Gnost Dural as my companion (mainly because I'm curious to how much they would approve or disapprove of my choices, lol)!

I'm not romantic in the game, anyway, so having a Kel Dor playable character is definitely a-ok in my book xD! I see other people's points on that, though.

Hopefully, we will be able to create our own Kel Dor characters in the future. Just not right now. Although, I do wonder what plans the people in charge have for the game, character creation-wise.

I doubt we'd get this any time soon but I would really like to see Kel Dor as a playable species. It would be really interesting to see different kel dor faces, masks, etc. (and female ones as they're not in the game atm.) The voices could sound as they do when other species wear helmets, since they're wearing masks.

Due to scene animations they already said no to non humanoid nor human faced species. That includes Keldor, rodians, jawas, Talz, wookies, etc.