Warning a bit long-winded by I'm curious to hear others opinions.

 

Recently, I started a fresh playthrough for KOTFE on my warrior, and I can see why everyone says play a force user, especially knight and warrior. When the 4.0 expansion was released, I only took my two mains through it, smuggler and agent (the rest of my characters have finished Ziost and will never move beyond that point). It was disappointing since, after a certain point, neither felt particularly suitable for the role. I love both characters. I think, for the most part, they worked up to that specific point in 4.0.

 

But what I'm curious about, and I'd like to hear other opinions, is what you think could have kept people interested in seeing KOTET as it was initially intended? 16 or whatever number of chapters, plus the next expansion?

 

Personally, I think a few things could have been changed in KOTFE to keep people more interested in this third party, rather than jumping back into Pub vs. Imp conflict.

 

1. Having either Theron or Lana initiate the rescue during the third chapter, depending on faction and romance. If your pub or romancing Theron, then it's him, and vice versa for Lana. This would have changed around the story; even if everything else was the same, having two different character interactions would have made it more memorable and replayable.

 

2. More comments central to your character to make the expansion feel more unique to your class. So more comments thrown in that fit your smuggler or inquisitor, etc., etc., scattered throughout the story, would have been a welcome addition.

 

3. A reason non-force users were chosen by Vitiate/Valkorion/Tenebrae, outside of being a good leader. This is a big one for me because my mains were gunslinger and operative. I romanced Lana and Theron on these two characters, but overall, like many say, KOTFE, after a certain point, doesn't fit as well with a non-force user. I even heard some different ideas before 4.0 was dropped, your character was a lost child of the emperor or held a piece of Vitiate/Valkorion/Tenebrae soul, etc. Those were just a few that I remember. I know there were more theories thrown out there, and who knows, maybe we might have gotten something different if these expansions were allowed to play out as intended.

 

4. This is more complaint about KOTET/Onslaught, more interactions, and bigger roles for your original crew when they're recruited into the alliance. This was done decently in KOTFE but thrown out the window in KOTET and beyond.

 

Admittedly it didn't help that very little new PVE and PVP content was released, which was a step down from 3.0. I know they made old content viable again, but most PVP and PVE guilds had already conquered it and moved on.

 

So what do you think could have been done to please more fans (I know some fans would have hated the expansions regardless of how much they put in), but what could have kept fans interested? So Bioware released the expansions as they initially planned? If you have ideas, please add them. I'd be interested to hear since after replaying KOTFE/KOTET/Onslaught expansions on my warrior I can't help but wonder how much better it would have been if they'd actually finished the story as planned.

Recently, I started a fresh playthrough for KOTFE on my warrior, and I can see why everyone says play a force user,

I don't say that. I say, "play what suits you," combined with, "Decide for yourself rather than following what other people think is correct," unless you're thinking the same thing that they think because you made your *own* analysis to get there.

But what I'm curious about, and I'd like to hear other opinions, is what you think could have kept people interested in seeing KOTET as it was initially intended? 16 or whatever number of chapters, plus the next expansion?

The word I heard is that it was *two* more sections of Zakuuling around, of sixteen chapters each. And no trace of Imps vs Pubs.

 

Chapter XII of KotFE was originally supposed to have had NFU classes learning some basic Force use, at least for story purposes, and there are still *hints* of that in there, but ...

 

Anyway, I'd have played it anyway to see where they took the story, FU class or NFU class, but I would have liked to see the Force lessons in KotFE Chapter XII.

Personally, I think a few things could have been changed in KOTFE to keep people more interested in this third party, rather than jumping back into Pub vs. Imp conflict.

 

1. Having either Theron or Lana initiate the rescue during the third chapter, depending on faction and romance. If your pub or romancing Theron, then it's him, and vice versa for Lana. This would have changed around the story; even if everything else was the same, having two different character interactions would have made it more memorable and replayable.

Interesting, yes.

2. More comments central to your character to make the expansion feel more unique to your class. So more comments thrown in that fit your smuggler or inquisitor, etc., etc., scattered throughout the story, would have been a welcome addition.

Maybe. I personally feel that from a storytelling point of view, our characters have, to a lesser or greater extent, outgrown the distinctions between the classes.

3. A reason non-force users were chosen by Vitiate/Valkorion/Tenebrae, outside of being a good leader. This is a big one for me because my mains were gunslinger and operative.

Being a good (important, effective, etc.) leader, one whose actions have an influence *hugely* out of proportion with the character being just one person, always sounded like a good reason for TVV(1) to be interested in the character.

4. This is more complaint about KOTET/Onslaught, more interactions, and bigger roles for your original crew when they're recruited into the alliance. This was done decently in KOTFE but thrown out the window in KOTET and beyond.

That's a consequence of the three-by-sixteen story format being butchered into the sixteen-and-nine format that we ended up with.

Admittedly it didn't help that very little new PVE and PVP content was released, which was a step down from 3.0. I know they made old content viable again, but most PVP and PVE guilds had already conquered it and moved on.

That's a fair comment, and I'd argue that it's a consequence of BioWare being BioWare, known for intricate storytelling rather than for group content. Perhaps it's indicative that all those people saying that SWTOR should have been KOTOR 3 were perhaps more right than we knew.

So what do you think could have been done to please more fans (I know some fans would have hated the expansions regardless of how much they put in), but what could have kept fans interested? So Bioware released the expansions as they initially planned? If you have ideas, please add them.

It's hard for me to say, since:

* I would have played the whole thing anyway, if they had released it. Maybe I would have played it *less* or *more* than I did, but I *would* have played it.

* Much of the antipathy arose from the lack of "Imps vs Pubs" in the stories, so no amount of excellence in the storytelling would have helped.

 

(1) He was Tenebrae first, while Vitiate was a title given to him by Marka Ragnos, apparently, and not his name, and Valkorian came later still. For that reason, I call him TVV, by putting the names in chronological order.

Personal bias I have the hardest time convincing myself the Bounty Hunter could lead a galactic alliance. Hire him for a bounty on Arcann's head and he's golden, but not galactic leadership. He was never about that. Trooper easily as a military officer. Smuggler falls into it. It's the biggest con of his career, but the young softy he starts to care when people are seriously listening to him. For the Agent finally he's in charge playing the chess pieces. He answers to no one and everyone answers to him.

there was a lot I didn't like about these expansions; I dislike these expansions to the point only one of my characters have ever completed the story content from them both.

 

But since you asked about story I will focus on that. I lost all interest in the story of Kotfe and Kotet when I learned that Valkorian was the sith emperor what we knew as Tenebrae and Vitiate.

 

The other big story turn off was the game forcing me to play the content with specific companions. the only 2 of those companions that I liked and would have willingly used were taken from me via permanent story related deaths. Look I understand that they wanted fully voiced interactions with companions and it wasn't practical from a cost or time perspective to have every possible companion voiced with lines; but I have no interest in any of the new companions introduced in kotfe and kotet.