So I got through KotFE twice now with two characters making polar opposite choices. And there was really no difference by chapter 9 in outcome. The same characters died, the same characters were saved regardless of what choices I made, and in the end, it all was about the same. I really hope that with the introduction of new chapters the choices I made in KotFE have an actual impact, because the whole selling point of this expansion was "your choices matter", and so far, they don't , at all. You can be the most evil bastard in the galaxy and the nicest white knight on the planet and the outcome is nigh identical. I really enjoyed the story, I really did, but if the choices don't have a serious impact by the end of the future releases, the replayability will be just about 0.

 

Also, for the people that have imp and republic characters, don't bother playing a light side imp and a light side pub, or a dark side imp and a dark side pub, there is no difference with factions except for one alliance mission.

Influence with companions goes up regardless of what you decide as well, it just slightly varies the amount.

 

I've not come across any choices that matter.

Influence with companions goes up regardless of what you decide as well, it just slightly varies the amount.

 

I've not come across any choices that matter.

 

I was really hoping there would've been a palpable difference in outcome, but I guess not.

 

I really enjoyed the story, it was very well written and much better than the vanilla game, but the outcome differences really disappointed me. I doubt I will play through with more than 2 characters.

I recall how some people in my guild worked hard to finish Ilum, Makeb, etc. on all their characters to not miss any impact those might have on KotFE. I also recall reading on the forums quite a bit about how people would make new characters and carefully go oveer the choices in just about everything, and some would make light side characers on imp side and stuff like that, all in order to see how their choices would play out. Well, joke's on those people.

You're thinking of single player games. In an MMO everyone eventually ends up with the same ending. If there were five different endings to the original story, and three endings to the first expansion... eventually it just gets to be an unmanageable mess.

 

SP games can do this because each character "lives" in its own world. So you can defeat the evil overlord in one world, and replace him and be more evil in another. But in a shared environment you can't have 100,000 players doing one thing and 100,000 players doing the other at the same time.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Tolunart

Really thought that those choices they showed us during all the streams would matter, but they seem to have even less significance than the ones from level 1-50.

You're thinking of single player games. In an MMO everyone eventually ends up with the same ending. If there were five different endings to the original story, and three endings to the first expansion... eventually it just gets to be an unmanageable mess.

 

Except the story line is single player, and it is pretty clear BW is aiming for a single player game with multiplayer aspects. With a punch line like "This is your personal story and choices will have consequences" it is not unreasonable to expect choices to actually have palpable consequences.

I recall how some people in my guild worked hard to finish Ilum, Makeb, etc. on all their characters to not miss any impact those might have on KotFE. I also recall reading on the forums quite a bit about how people would make new characters and carefully go oveer the choices in just about everything, and some would make light side characers on imp side and stuff like that, all in order to see how their choices would play out. Well, joke's on those people.

 

Yeah, when I heard you could make a lvl 60 character right off the back, I knew previous choices would not matter.

Influence with companions goes up regardless of what you decide as well, it just slightly varies the amount.

 

I've not come across any choices that matter.

 

The influence goes up either way, but they will react differently towards you based on choices.

 

 

 

You're thinking of single player games. In an MMO everyone eventually ends up with the same ending. If there were five different endings to the original story, and three endings to the first expansion... eventually it just gets to be an unmanageable mess.

 

Indeed. And I laughed silenty at the people who though planets would somehow change because of the invasion, that the fleets would disapper. There is no way these thigns would happen, ever (look at Korriban and Tython in the flashpoints and the actual planet when you travel to it). However, and I'm afraid I'm repeating myself here, you do not have your entire marketing campaign hinge on "choices matter", when they in fact do not, or, perhaps more specifically, matter in insignificant degrees.

Yeah, the first "big choice" in the expansion results in a slightly different cut scene, but with exactly the same outcome. Since nothing changes in the story, you can just hit any random conversation option and spacebar through the cut-scenes after the first time through. That would reduce the expansion down to about 1 hour of actual gameplay.

However, and I'm afraid I'm repeating myself here, you do not have your entire marketing campaign hinge on "choices matter", when they in fact do not, or, perhaps more specifically, matter in insignificant degrees.

 

Yeah, that's more of a general problem, marketing guys have a tendency to write checks the product can't cash.

The influence goes up either way, but they will react differently towards you based on choices.

 

 

In chapter 9 at the companion cantina scene Koth told me he hated me and didn't want to be my friend because of choices I made on my Sith Warrior. Apparently I pissed in his corn flakes every chance I got. And to that I say good!

 

Yes, there is the odd line of companion dialogue which is different because of your choices. You can tell which choices matter after the fact as the Influence confirmation message is accompanied by "XX will remember this decision".

 

But, at least in what we've had so far, it doesn't actually change what they do or where they do. Koth is still there for you whenever you need him.

 

This to me, feels like the Quinn situation all over again. BioWare have finally relented and let us kill off companions, but only companions that are unlikely to have any future value. So, if you wanted to kill Koth for example, you won't ever get that option until BioWare decide to write him out of the story. At that point, they will either kill him themselves, or give you a choice, where if he dies, he's gone and if he lives, he never has any more story dialogue.

 

The choices BioWare talked about are just illusions, none of them are meaningful and I never really thought they would be, but they made such a huge noise about the story in KOTFE.

Yeah, that's more of a general problem, marketing guys have a tendency to write checks the product can't cash.

 

I mean, it makes you wonder where the limit is. Can I advertise that I'm making an expansion all about new ops and new fps, and then deliver, say, one new ops? Or perhaps something that only resembles an ops but really isn't?

Edited October 23, 2015 by masstan

You do choose which among several npcs you can begin a romance with.

 

You do choose which companions to recruit ( some are automatically added, some are not ).

 

Your choices there to make a difference.

Good point...

 

But honestly at this point, theres nothing anyone can do about it.

 

Besides the White Knights will be in soon saying "OMGZ HOW INNOVATING, CHOICES THAT ALMOST MATTERZ, BUT DONT....BW RULEZ"

Except the story line is single player, and it is pretty clear BW is aiming for a single player game with multiplayer aspects. With a punch line like "This is your personal story and choices will have consequences" it is not unreasonable to expect choices to actually have palpable consequences.

 

I was here at launch, and while I don't expect anyone from BW to ever admit it, it was pretty obvious that the game started out as KOTOR 3 and some exec who never played a video game in his life decided to get a piece of that MMO action. But in a shared environment like an MMO there just isn't the same opportunity to program many different paths without breaking up the world into many different maps each with a tiny fraction of the whole population, which defeats the purpose of a shared world.

 

 

choices do matter.

I mean, it makes you wonder where the limit is. Can I advertise that I'm making an expansion all about new ops and new fps, and then deliver, say, one new ops? Or perhaps something that only resembles an ops but really isn't?

 

You could probably get away with saying things like this expansion focuses completely on how important we think operations are, we're working to make operations fun, engaging, exciting, yada yada and not specifically say you are delivering more than one if you aren't while also not saying how many you are delivering.

 

Distract people with the new ways an operation boss or encounter will work or how loot rolls will go on, scaling lower level characters, the trash mobs, cutscenes etc.

I mean, it makes you wonder where the limit is. Can I advertise that I'm making an expansion all about new ops and new fps, and then deliver, say, one new ops? Or perhaps something that only resembles an ops but really isn't?

 

You never know where the line is until you cross it...

You do choose which among several npcs you can begin a romance with.

 

You do choose which companions to recruit ( some are automatically added, some are not ).

 

Your choices there to make a difference.

 

There is a difference between choices in general (which you have been able to make since the start of the game to one extent or other) and the actual repercussions of these choice. I cannot help but be reminded of ME3 where I for the first time played multiplayer on the xbox just to max out your reputation or influence in the galaxy, or whatever it was called, because they said it would lead to different endings. It really didn't change much at all in the end, and it caused a huge uproar among the custumers. they did change it later slightly (not very well to my mind).

You could probably get away with saying things like this expansion focuses completely on how important we think operations are, we're working to make operations fun, engaging, exciting, yada yada and not specifically say you are delivering more than one if you aren't while also not saying how many you are delivering.

 

Distract people with the new ways an operation boss or encounter will work or how loot rolls will go on, scaling lower level characters, the trash mobs, cutscenes etc.

 

You make an excellent point.

I don't mind major changes not happening due to your choices as Bioware needs the story to end similar for everyone but some of the smaller choices could have different outcomes. On my first play through I chose to kill that knight early on and when his partner turned up in a later chapter to get me I was pleasantly surprised as I thought it was a consequence of my earlier action. I have just gone through as a different character and chose to spare the knight early on and yet his partner still comes after me and blames me for his death which makes me feel the earlier choice was rather pointless. I would have preferred if after choosing to kill the knight early on then you get his partner after you and if you choose to spare him you just get a random knight after you instead. Edited October 23, 2015 by Infidelious

Right now the choices affect little aspects of the story (Like, who's the one comes to rescue you at the end of cahpter eight? Is Tanno Vi, a friend or a corpse? Ect) Though if you're an absolute bastard, Koth does hint at chapter 9 that he and others might leave if you don't start being a better person.