Edit: as people seem to be reading this OP not carefully enough, I am not talking about the 8 class stories returning. I am talking solely and only about two possibilities: either 3 unique stories, one Alliance, one Republic and one Empire or 2 unique stories, namely Empire and Republic like with Makeb. Nowhere in my post do I consider 8 class stories returning to be even a remote possibility.

 

So yesterday I sent a tweet to Charles Boyd asking whether he'd consider giving us players the choice to return to our original factions in future story content post-KotET.

 

This was his reply and the tweet I just mentioned.

 

Now this raises the following question I wanted to discuss with all of you on the forums: does this answer allude to the fact that we will be seeing multiple unique storylines in future story content/expansions? Because if there would be a choice to return to the Sith Empire or Galactic Republic and abandon the Alliance, the only logical conclusion to me would be that we'll be seeing one Republic, one Empire and one Alliance storyline. Or, the Alliance gets somehow destoyed/disbanded and we'll get 2 unique storylines, one Rep side and one Imp side like with Makeb. I'd definitely see that as an interesting possibility as well.

 

But what do others think or make of this? If indeed we would get the choice in the future to return with our characters to the Empire or Republic, truly return as in become a part of them again like in the base game, what do you think will happen to Zakuul and the Alliance? Would we keep our "Emperor/Empress of Zakuul" as an honorary title if we pledge ourselves once more to serve the Sith Empire/Galactic Republic? Does Zakuul become part of our original faction if we return to them? Or does the Alliance remain intact or at least a remnant form of faction and becomes our enemy as they'd naturally see us as traitors?

Edited September 28, 2017 by Ylliarus

Does This Mean A Return To Multiple Storylines?

 

Nope.

 

Would you consider... Definitely.

 

It's been considered, that doesn't mean it's happening.

 

I do not believe they have the resources for multiple stories.

Then shouldn't he have said "but don't count on it" or something in the sense of "definitely, but not the way we'll likely go/choose"? Of course it is not a hard confirmation if any at all, but I think it definitely could allude to it they might actually do multiple unique storylines, even if it's only 2. Edited September 27, 2017 by Ylliarus

Then shouldn't he have said "but don't count on it" or something in the sense of "definitely, but not the way we'll likely go/choose"? Of course it is not a hard confirmation if any at all, but I think it definitely could allude to it they might actually do multiple unique storylines, even if it's only 2.

 

Would you consider Ziost or SoR to be 2 storylines, or one with slight dialogue differences depending on faction?

Damm, he obviously doesn't even get that the Alliance and the Republic are the same thing and they essentially defeated and removed the Empire.

 

As an Empire player this reduced my hopes for the future to near zero.

Would you consider Ziost or SoR to be 2 storylines, or one with slight dialogue differences depending on faction?

 

This guy knows what's up.

Would you consider Ziost or SoR to be 2 storylines, or one with slight dialogue differences depending on faction?

 

Ziost and SoR definitely are 1 storyline with dialogue variations. But to be frank even if they did that I'd be fine with it, as long as it's the kind of faction and class variation like we got in those expansions. Faction or class individuality in KotFE and KotET was pretty much non-existent so anything that's more than what was in the latest two expansions in that regard would already be a huge improvement in my opinion.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Ylliarus

Hmm lets see CB wrote KOTFE, KOTET, THE WAR FOR IOKATH and this most recent fiasco CRISIS ON UMBARA.

 

Now you want him to create 8 story lines and you expect them to be good and not more poorly written kill fests that we have already gotten from him? Do you really think that anything truly Star Wars will ever come out of CB? I don't....

 

SWToR needs fresh ideas from a witter that understands Star Wars and what the story is not what SWToR has become. Just another Space Fantasy game where you Hack and Slash you way to higher levels with NO dedication to the Star Wars story or ideals.

 

I know that this is harsh but what Charles has given us since the release of KOTFE has been poor to say the least. It has not been Star Wars other than it is played with Star Wars characters and NOTHING ELSE.

 

Charles, I was not here when the game was released so I do not know if YOU had anything to do with the first 8 class stories. If you where than PLEASE go back to that style and loose this current MONO-TONE story line you currently are pushing on us. If you were not then you NEED to learn HOW TO write intresting storys that are within the Star Wars Universe. Not simply a story wrapped up as Star Wars which is what everything from KOTFE on has been.

Definitely maybe,

I would be great If we did go back to Class based stories. I just believe that's way more money then possible. The Returning to Republic and Imperial and leaving the Alliance is good. Returning L.I.'s is also a good thing. More then 200,000 lines of Dialog, over 200 V.A.'s, a fortune. For me leaving the Alliance and getting back my Peeps is good, class stories are something I really don't believe can happen.

I wish that also. I had so much fun in the game until I foolishly joined the alliance. After that, for some reason, the game felt like a Final Fantasy game to me.

 

Heck the SWTOR tagline is "Forge your own STAR WARS™ saga" and my saga doesn't involve an alliance darn it!

Edited September 28, 2017 by TheRobDaCool

I fail to see why they can't deliver them as 4-6 chapters per class in two seasons. 4 classes one year, 4 next year. Would amount roughly to the time / content of Kotfe + KotET and they'd save on voice acting.

Hmm lets see CB wrote KOTFE, KOTET, THE WAR FOR IOKATH and this most recent fiasco CRISIS ON UMBARA.

 

Now you want him to create 8 story lines and you expect them to be good and not more poorly written kill fests that we have already gotten from him? Do you really think that anything truly Star Wars will ever come out of CB? I don't....

 

SWToR needs fresh ideas from a witter that understands Star Wars and what the story is not what SWToR has become. Just another Space Fantasy game where you Hack and Slash you way to higher levels with NO dedication to the Star Wars story or ideals.

 

I know that this is harsh but what Charles has given us since the release of KOTFE has been poor to say the least. It has not been Star Wars other than it is played with Star Wars characters and NOTHING ELSE.

 

Charles, I was not here when the game was released so I do not know if YOU had anything to do with the first 8 class stories. If you where than PLEASE go back to that style and loose this current MONO-TONE story line you currently are pushing on us. If you were not then you NEED to learn HOW TO write intresting storys that are within the Star Wars Universe. Not simply a story wrapped up as Star Wars which is what everything from KOTFE on has been.

 

I nominate Chris Avelone. That guy is a genius the amount of books he read to just craft and deconstruct Star Wars is fascinating to me because no writer has when it comes to Star Wars especially read that many books I definitely feel he is underrated.

Id be fine with republic / Imp / Alliance story lines so long as our fav LI's / companions also play a part and arent forgotten

...Would OP realize that we haven't had 8 classes distinct stories since launch?

 

I mean, i get the nightmare it must be for the writers, so however nice it would be, as a player, i'm not waiting anything like this.Especialy now.

 

Every now and then npc will mention your class and maybe call you commander Emperor/Empress.

The low limit bioware can't afford to get rid off is dark/light and Empire/Republic (although we could argue cause empire has to disappear at some point).

Edited September 28, 2017 by Vodolebon

No, it means they realize they f*cked up and now don't really know what to do, but grabbed onto something someone posted in hopes mentioning it will get people to stop hitting the sub cancel button.

What I need to give up my Alliance is a character who leads the Republic (or Empire... lets switch factions in 2017 for gosh sakes) that I can respect. The ones I've gotten so far have been more of the crazy evil Star Trek admiral than someone I care to follow. I don't want to be pushed into it so I can allow them to gain my respect. Make the character now. Let us get to know them and see how their values align with our own. Then we can talk about merging the Alliance. If they fear the Alliance then we'll tell them they should because we're tired of their crazy crap like Iokath.

 

As it stands, I don't know who is running what exactly and communication between the three factions is solely lacking to just say get rid of the Alliance because we think we're getting class stories again. Nothing BioWare has said leads me to think class stories are returning. There's nothing to miss about the Republic (for me). Its just this thing from my past. Matter of fact, my Jedi was tasked with protecting the Republic but made harder by the Republic. We can protect them just as easily not being under their thumb. I'm not even clear if there is a Jedi order to carry out that pledge. Maybe that is a way to step back. Bringing the Jedi back (yeah, let the troopers and smugglers find their own club). If they want to bring us back into these factions how about start doing some ground work and building it. Not just one day you're back on Coruscant waiting on the next life or death mission some delegate decides to tell you half of.

 

Even though I play a light sided character, I found Arsina (I hope I spelled that right) more entertaining even though I'm sure we don't share values. But we could share trust. I don't trust the Republic. I know I can't trust the Empire (no offense but you guys are a bit blood thirsty). So where does that leave us? Just chilling in the Alliance waiting for someone else in the galaxy to have some decency they don't sell the first sign of trouble.

 

So, class stories yes. Even think about giving (or merging) the Alliance but what we've seen of late doesn't fill me with confidence that I'm not going to simply be dethroned by a BioWare writer instead of giving a story that makes me give the throne up. Make a good story to get us there. Not some Iokath crap of pick a side and "surprise its crazy time. Are we Republic or did you pick Empire? It don't matter cause we act the same and everyone will forget about it tomorrow." To mangle a James Bond title Once Was Enough.

I don't think they have the resources to do too much story diverging anymore but it'd be really cool to split back off into Republic and Empire, this time going to whichever side you picked on Iokath. I think if they did this they'd probably end the Alliance completely somehow. So maybe if we're lucky two different stories like Makeb. But I'd expect something more like SoR/Ziost with the main story being pretty much the same but with some differences.

Hmm lets see CB wrote KOTFE, KOTET, THE WAR FOR IOKATH and this most recent fiasco CRISIS ON UMBARA.

 

Now you want him to create 8 story lines and you expect them to be good and not more poorly written kill fests that we have already gotten from him? Do you really think that anything truly Star Wars will ever come out of CB? I don't....

 

SWToR needs fresh ideas from a witter that understands Star Wars and what the story is not what SWToR has become. Just another Space Fantasy game where you Hack and Slash you way to higher levels with NO dedication to the Star Wars story or ideals.

 

I know that this is harsh but what Charles has given us since the release of KOTFE has been poor to say the least. It has not been Star Wars other than it is played with Star Wars characters and NOTHING ELSE.

 

Charles, I was not here when the game was released so I do not know if YOU had anything to do with the first 8 class stories. If you where than PLEASE go back to that style and loose this current MONO-TONE story line you currently are pushing on us. If you were not then you NEED to learn HOW TO write intresting storys that are within the Star Wars Universe. Not simply a story wrapped up as Star Wars which is what everything from KOTFE on has been.

 

I believe CB did the Trooper story arc, which to me was one of the worst arcs in the original release. Hard to expect CB to give us anything that will bring back multiple arcs, you can't fix the problem when you are the problem.

They don't have the resources for much of anything anymore.

 

What has 5.x produced? Nine chapters, not even half of one operation, and a really, really buggy flashpoint. They did give us 2 strongholds, but one is locked behind the really buggy flashpoint and requires the player to abandon something they already have and the other is rather small for the expense. People aren't going to stay subbed to arrange furniture.

 

They made a tragically bad decision with KotFE. They focused on expensive single-player content without understanding what made Shadow of Revan a success.

 

People cared about both the protagonist and the antagonist in Shadow of Revan. The protagonist was still their own character - Wrath, Dark Councilor, Cipher, Mandalore, Battlemaster, Barsenthor, legendary smuggler, or Major - they were still interacting within familiar frameworks and they were still free to pursue their faction's traditional objectives. Plus, the antagonist was Revan, a suitably legendary opponent everyone knew about, even if they never played KotOR.

 

They tried to make us care about Valkorian by making Vitiate into kind of psychic hitchhiker, but it didn't really work. People could get their heads around a confused Revan divided between his Jedi and Sith nature because Revan always did have problems with that. People didn't know enough about Vitiate to even care what he got up to behind the scenes. Dragging his dysfunctional family into the mix didn't endear him to anyone.

 

So BioWare wasted their precious resources on the most expensive kind of content the game offered: single-player story content, laden with fully-voiced cutscenes, cinematics, and all of the level creation, combat, and special effects that entailed. They would have been better served by fleshing out Vitiate's story through flashpoints and maybe an op or two instead. That would have given us a reason to care about Vitiate and it might have paved the way for a more streamlined Valkorian later.

 

Now, they're releasing snippets, cosmetics, and class balance sabotage and pretending it's content. In reality, they're arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Edited September 28, 2017 by berelinde

Would they like to? Maybe.

 

But they'll never be given the money to do it.

I would love it. The more story variation and reactivity the better but I'll believe it when I see it. Until then I'm going to assume any divergence will be a tacked on line here and there on a story that otherwise makes no sense for certain characters such as a LS peacekeeper on Umbara.

...Would OP realize that we haven't had 8 classes distinct stories since launch?

 

People, people, please read the OP more carefully. I never even mentioned wanting a return to 8 class stories, I am talking about 2 options here... either we get 3 stories, one Alliance, one Republic and one Empire or 2 stories, Republic and Empire like in Makeb. Not even once I said that a return of 8 class stories was imminent, yeah of course I'd love that but it's never going to happen, duh. But I am not excluding the possibility of 2 or 3 unique stories.

Returning to Republic and Imperial based stories is good and I've believed that's where were heading. Most likely similar to a Makeb 1 story with 2 paths (with minor choice differences as per PC) and 2 endings. Getting OuT of that Odessen base is important for me.

Returning to Republic and Imperial based stories is good and I've believed that's where were heading. Most likely similar to a Makeb 1 story with 2 paths (with minor choice differences as per PC) and 2 endings. Getting OuT of that Odessen base is important for me.

 

I definitely agree with that and that is very much what I'd want as well, getting out of the Eternal Alliance even if that means losing my beautiful throne. I'll still have it as a deco in my Yavin SH

 

I will say though that I'd hope for 3 storylines, one that includes staying in the Alliance as well since I have seen several people in my "The Alliance Needs To End" thread who like it. They brought up good points as to why the Alliance suits them and I'd hate for them to have their characters be forced into a narrative that does not lay well with them. I know how it made me feel with being forced into the Alliance with no way out so I'd imagine vice versa for the people who like the Alliance narrative would hate it just as much as I do.