At this point I think they need to introduce just FOUR new companions ever... Melee Tech, Range Tech, Lightside Force and Darkside Force. Give each all the appropriate weapon proficiencies (ex. pistols, rifles, sniper and assault cannon or lightsaber, double lightsaber) and allow them to be fully customizable in the appearance designer. If you’re really feeling ambitious, let us type in a name we can see when we select them as a target, give us a choice of voice options with mouths that move when they speak and a spot on the bridge of our ship so they’re actually BETTER than all the other companions. Even if they only speak when you click on them they’re still as or more interactive than just about any of our current companions. Throw in a generic “let’s be a couple” scene for each and you’ll have matched or exceeded every companion since the vanilla stories that isn’t Theron or Lana. If you want “take my money!” levels of interest, assemble the voice options from lines spoken by the class lead voice actors so you could build your custom companion to be one of your alts.

How about some more non-bricked and generally interesting male LIs for the ladies while you’re at it? In addition to Theron (killable and also unavailable at several points; like star fortress runs), Koth (killable and disappears from relevance completely after the Gravestone ET mission) and Arcann (killable and not even an option until post ET in, like one conversation) that EVERYONE has we have; JC - Felix (zzzzz) JK - Doc (skeevy) Tr - Jorgan (furries...ack) Sm - Corso (hick) IA - Vector (bug boy) BH - Torian (bland boy) SW - Quinn (backstabber) SI - Andronikus (if you’re into pirates). Which is why all my ladies end up with Blizz (who at least plays a role in two alliance alerts when he comes back) or HK-55 as their primary “male” companions.

I liked Anri so I hope my Imp saboteur never runs into her or Moff Pyron again (unless they’re defecting). She did a good job of setting up the difference between the Imperial line soldiers; those who see military service as a way out of the crapsack conditions they were born into and appreciate the personal benefits of finally being able to be promoted; and the leadership who are (with rare exceptions like Moff Pyron) as psychotic and willing to throw away their people’s lives as ever. For those who’ve decided to be Imperial loyalists, she’d be a wonderful morality pet, particularly for those who are more classic Imperial lightside (i.e. back when putting the good of the Empire first and avoiding unnecessary mayhem vs. being a violent psychopath was the defining trait of Imp lightside choices). By contrast, I found Tau extremely annoying, particularly when old companions Nadia and Doc are RIGHT. THERE. (I didn’t mind her quite as much when my Smuggler ran it, but it got super annoying with my Consular). Imagine if Consulars got to go out with Nadia and instead of hearing Tau’s story you spent that time actually catching up with her and the same for Doc and a Jedi Knight. It just felt like such a wasted opportunity and I can’t help but hold that against Tau (her personality being basically “I have a charicature of survivor’s guilt-based PTSD” when I’m friends and associates with several vets who live with the real thing didn’t help either). It also didn’t help that she also felt like a bad stereotype designed to check off a whole bunch of minority categories at once like some token hire. I honestly had flashbacks to the punchline from some 90’s John Larroquette show where everyone was fighting over a job opening until in rolls a blind black woman in a wheelchair and they all throw up their hands because there’s no way the company isn’t picking her to meet multiple minority quotas at once. Any one of the things rolled into Tau would have been interesting on its own; but instead it all got lost in a bad soup of inclusivity where all I can see is the checkboxes they were trying to tick off using as few characters as possible. So I want Tau to never be seen again for a completely different reason. The tea-loving literature-quoting spikey reptilian admiral on the other hand is welcome to show up whenever he wants. That was an excellent use of playing with the expectations of appearances (i.e. the large spikey reptile must be a warmongering brute, but is actually a cultured gentlebeing). Let us hang with our old companions. I’d honestly take hanging out with my LEAST favorite vanilla companion (even Tanno Vik and Zenith) over these new ones. I mean, I was pretty okay with Gus’ Alliance Alert return (with cameo in Blizz’), but imagine if instead of Tau you had come across Nadia, Doc, Gus and a Tanno Vik who turned up on Ossus after escaping Asylum and then whichever one was your old companion went along with you on your missions instead? That would have felt a LOT more meaningful. The only reason that wouldn’t work Imp side is pretty much all those companions were back already. I’m pretty sure Jaesa and Khem were the only two Imp-side comps still outstanding... while Kira, Scourge, Theran/Holiday, Zenith and Tanno Vik are still outstanding (though to be fair they established why it’d make sense for Tanno to never come back just like it makes sense why SCORPIO would never come back to the Agent after the Iokath arc ended... both returned; they just didn’t stay returned). But maybe they could have brought in some supporting cast member from the Agent, Hunter, Trooper and Smuggler stories instead (say Beryl from the Smuggler who’s been the Ossus’ colony’s one point of contact with the outside world and the commander of one of the other units the Trooper worked with when they stormed the Bastion on Corellia). I mean, if you’re going to go all nostalgia-fest with Gnost (last seen handing out a mission on Tython), Pyron, Melora and Malgus anyway... go all out with it.

For Kira I vote “trapped in carbonite” and you have to go rescue her. Maybe she didn’t escape Vaylin after all (or Vaylin hunted her down again later) and Vaylin thought it would be cruelly ironic to imprison her in carbonite on the other side of the galaxy from the Knight. Have the alert be a vision from Sona-Rae of a companion lost in darkness and now they’re dying (the same sort of carbonite poisoning you had is reaching a critical point) and that they’re lost on a dead world. Have the player go to an instanced mission door on Ziost where the knight has to fight the automated defenses and maybe solve a puzzle Vaylin put in place to reach her. Then her first words coming out of carbonite would be “No fair. I was supposed to be the one rescuing you.”

My plan is do what I like and grab whatever new 260+ rated green/blue gear drops when 6.0 hits. This whole current grind will be irrelevant soon enough. Heck, just a few months back it was a fairly hefty gear climb from 230 to 248 (246 via purchasable purple gear/mods is where most of my 70s were), now you can skip right from dirt cheap 228s or token bought 230s to 252s so damned quick your head would spin. I’m pretty sure I saw a vendor on Ossus who sells “white” 240-ish rated gear for a couple thousand credits each. It’s only BIS that’s a ridiculous grind... BIS-1 (252’s currently... a barely noticeable drop for anything less than the highest grades of content) has always been stupid easy to acquire.

Only true from a certain point of view. Here’s the actual entry... “Eternal Alliance - State of the Galaxy News of the near-total destruction of the Eternal Alliance fleet has spread quickly, leading to renewed fears of a reignited war between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire. Both factions have reportedly redoubled their efforts to hoard supplies, munitions, and fuel in anticipation of renewed hostilities. Resource shortages, already a common occurrence on many core worlds, are becoming a daily reality across the galaxy at large. With no single unifying threat to motivate their continued cooperation, these tensions have led many of the Alliance's forces to return to their original sides of the age-old conflict, rejoining their longtime allies and waiting with grim certainty for the war to begin anew. A hardened force of dedicated troops and staff still maintains the Alliance base on Odessen, however, and a small fleet still patrols Wild Space on their behalf. The Commander's closest allies remain loyal to the leader who helped unite them during one of the galaxy's darkest times--whatever path the Commander chooses next, they will most certainly follow, potentially tipping the scales of any conflict....” The question is what does “Many” mean. To me “Many” doesn’t mean almost everyone left. Heck, “Many” doesn’t even mean “most” of them left. What is canon from the entry is that we have a hardened force of troops and staff, a small fleet (which gets bolstered by the Twillik’s pirate fleet if you let him join) and our companions (around 50 by my count) who will follow where we lead and that this force is sufficient to tip the scales of any future conflict. Funny... that sounds exactly like what I said... The Alliance is more trouble than its worth for the Pubs or Imps to try and eliminate if they’re fighting each other (two front wars being bad) unless the Alliance starts something first and that while they couldn’t wipe out the Pubs or Imps on their own, they’re a big enough force to tip the balance to whichever side they choose to throw in with. * * * * As to “the Empire was my home and my brothers.” I was a SLAVE of the Empire for most of my life until a Sith Lord who wanted to take my body for her own had me inducted into an abusive Sith training program and had me struggle to assemble all the things she needed to kill me. Then her boss tries to kill me because I’m unclean or something. I manage to get a spot on the Dark Council mainly because I took out the Darth trying to kill me. That lasts for maybe a year where I see that Marr is literally the only thing keeping the Empire from eating itself until Marr is killed and I spend 5 years as a popsicle. You know who my Inquisitor cares about in the Empire? The slaves they spent most of their life among. We tried it from the inside. The only reasonable authority figure in the entire place died six years ago and psychopaths are running the show. Sure they’re more open to aliens... because they’re desperate for manpower. They still rely on slave labor as the backbone of their economy and only Sith get to actually call the shots on anything that matters. So what’s the best way for the ex-slave to help their brothers? Burn the Empire to the ground and salt the earth. Honestly, they’re probably more zealous about destroying the Empire than the Republic actually is (the Republic would probably settle for the Empire not being able to threaten the Republic, my Inquisitor wants the Imperial system utterly destroyed). Sure some idiot Jedi will create his copycat Banite version in a few thousand years that spends a thousand more years plotting only for their new Empire to fall apart in less than a generation with the last Sith thrown down an elevator shaft by his redeemed apprentice (who then proptly died and became a Jedi Force Ghost... like Darth Marr), but that’s a problem for my great^100 grandkids to deal with. The point is the Sith Empire sucks... it’s heyday was being the unwitting tool and dupes for a Force monster who wanted to eat the galaxy. Marr tried to hold it together for as long as he could after that, but that was only a few years until the Force monster killed him. Even Marr realized he was wrong about everything and start quoting Jedi teachings as a Force Ghost. It’s a lunatic asylum built on advancement through backstabbing, treachery and raw power. Malgus tosses a member of the actual Dark Council to her near death because he wasn’t happy with her rate of progress. Neither Sith on Ossus showed any regard for the troops under their command to the point that Moff Pyron went to the Alliance Commander for help keeping his troops safe because he knew the Sith didn’t give a frak. Frankly, my Inquisitor isn’t a Sith. Never in any way that mattered and not even in name since they came out of their carbonite vacation. For them Force Lightning is just a tool like it was (will be) for Kyle Katarn. They long for the day they can publicly declare for the Republic because that’s one step closer to freeing their people... the Imperial slaves... from the Sith Empire’s tyranny. My bounty hunter alt took the Republic pardon and has no true loyalty to anyone except his crew. He generally screwed over people who were clearly darkside whenever there was an option to. He’d probably sleep better limiting his client list to the Republic anyway. My Agent alt became a free agent because Imperial Intelligence was monstrous. They’d be the one most likely to just stay the frak out of any new war (their mission for their loyalists: find and remove all records of Odessan and its coordinates from every Pub and Imp database you can find. Let the galaxy forget we exist and hope the leaders of both sides kills each other). I never played past vanilla with my Warrior alt because having seen all the other stories by then, I figured he died ignominiously fighting Zakuul and is dead in an unmarked grave because even the lightside version of the Emperor/Empire’s Wrath was an elitist and stupidly loyal to a horrible idea. He’s the only one who might side with the Empire if I had the slightest desire to ever play him again... which I don’t. So no... I see no reason for any character who isn’t a psychopath to rejoin the Empire. Picked every darkside option for kicks and giggles? Sure, it’s right up your alley. Power hungry thug who thinks they can usurp Acina/Vowron and rule in their stead? Yeah, the Empire might make sense. Sadist who uses raw power and fear to make people bend to your every whim? Yup, you could call the Empire home. A remotely sane individual with even an ounce of compassion for anyone other than yourself? There is no way I could ever see them siding with the Empire. My Ossuss trip to see Malora and Malgus in action and how they’re treating those under their command (not to mention considering a farming colony a valid military target because some Jedi are there) made my decision to side with the Republic damned easy.

If my Inquisitor had no choice but to rejoin the Empire, I’d delete them (and they’re my main). I was actually unhappy that Ossuss required you to play double agent from all the reports that you basically accomplish nothing in doing so. However, when I actually played Ossuss I not only sabotaged the Imp fighters to protect Republic pilots, I also undermined morale for the Imps, didn’t destroy the colonist farms, kept the food technology out of Imperial hands and (via extensive stealthing) limited the casualties to about six Jedi (three during the recovery of Malgus’ pod and the three required targets in the temple assault)... all of whom I dropped using lightning so I can pretend I just left them stunned instead of dead). In short, I actually felt like I’d done my best to covertly undermine the Empire and aid the Republic with minimal damage to the Jedi (and no damage to the colonists by me). That said, all the letters from my most valued companions saying they’re uneasy and might jump ship due to my “helping” the Empire makes me hope a real public change of allegiance is coming. Jorgan specifically was my preferred companion for my Inquisitor during the 4.0 era (and Qyzen before chapter 11 dropped). The idea that I’d lose him as a companion even as I’m actually working undercover for the Republic is quite maddening. I could care less if I lost Xalek (I never wanted him in the first place), Darth Hexid, Lokin and Major Pierce, though Talos leaving would make me sad (though at least the Reclamation Service isn’t likely to be on the front lines... and as a class companion for my Inquisitor he might stick around anyway). I can’t save people from themselves and any Imps who want to go back to a system where Vowron, Malgus and probably Jadus are in charge are too stupid to live.

To those saying “Your Fleet is Gone.” No, only the Eternal Fleet is gone. All the Pub and Imp warships that showed up at the end of Fallen Empire (and which were ceded to you after Saresh’s attempted coup still belong to you. The new Twillik companion also brought a pirate fleet with him as part of the bargain. It’s not a curbstomper like the Eternal Fleet, but if your only intention amounts to “stay out of my yard” it’s more than sufficient. Especially since Odessan is actually on the opposite side of the Republic from the Empire. Basically, taking out the Alliance is more trouble than its worth unless the Alliance starts something first. This isn’t to say the Alliance shouldn’t pick a side for the long term. Whoever wins if you stay out of it may not be all that interested in your desire to remain independent once the other side is wiped out and while you may not be able to take out the Pubs or Empire yourself, the addition of your forces to one side could throw the war in that side’s favor and they’d owe you for the win. And frankly, unless you’re a psychopath, there’s zero reason to actually pick the Empire. As proven by the Rift Alliance in the Consular story, the Republic favors voluntary admission rather than conquest and is more than willing to allow semi-autonomous regions to call their own shots within their territories and other perks as incentives for joining. In other words, the best bet if your goal is long term independence is to side with the Republic because they won’t try to conquer you afterwards the moment they sense weakness. They’ll tolerate monarchies and corporate oligarchies as planetary governments so unless you’re literally sending people to death camps even your moderately darkside Commander/Emperor should be able to maintain their sovereignty.

If I were to expand the existing planets I think I’d start with the faction exclusive ones to create Iokath-like cross faction areas. I think you could probably write the first half of a “Shadow of Revan” sized expansion around just the home politics on Coruscant/Dromund Kaas of the Alliance/Commander joining/returning to the fold as the two factions gear up for war. You could reuse the core maps (Senate Tower/Kaas City) and update some of the other areas (ex. rebuild the Jedi Temple instead of redoing Tython/tear down the Collossus and remove the barricades around Lord Grathan’s estate). The second half would involve a part of opposing faction’s capitol world (ex. the Undercity or the old Revan Encampment) where covert missions are being conducted to undermine/gather intel on the opposing side (thereby allowing each map to do double duty). Then the next expansion could be an updated Taris or Balmorra as the first front in the new war. Lather/Rinse/Repeat until you’ve revisted most of the vanilla planets it’d make sense to revisit (Corellia and Alderaan would make sense as fronts in the war; but Hoth should have long since been picked clean and the prison break on Belsavis should have ended a half decade ago... it makes no sense for those places to be front lines for a new world). If you were to do a new planet I’d actually suggest taking advantage of the massive time gap and present the still verdant Jakku and perhaps some precursor of the Emperor’s Observatory as a plot point (maybe even tie the story to what transformed Jakku from verdant to desert world ignored for the next 3500 years).

My preference would be to eventually do new updated max level versions of all the vanilla story planets set up rather like the Black Hole or Section-X (i.e. actually a separate zone, but “fluff-wise” on the same planet. The main reason I’d like to see this is that it would be a work around for faction switching since the zones could be built from scratch like Iokath where your choice determines whether Pubs or Imps are flagged as hostile or allies. So if your Sith has joined the Republic, they can travel to the “level 70” instance of Coruscant where the mobs and missions have been updated to reflect the post-Ossus state of the galaxy while leaving the original 10-16 Coruscant for Pub-only story missions and side-quests. Heck, you could even reuse the existing maps and just add new mobs/quests to them for all I care. The key thing for me is that existing tech (Iokath) could be used and existing resources (maps) might save some production time. If we’re getting a new war, it would make sense to revisit some of the old battlegrounds that might become hot again. For example, let’s have a level 70 Taris that is open to both factions because both sides have decided they want to fight for it. Make the time of day twilight and start the Pubs out from a new landing zone as they attempt to retake Taris from the Imps. Doing one or two planets per expansion would be a great way to progress through the new war.

I suspect you’re going to get your wish... and all the more reason for my Inquisitor to jump ship to the Republic. Jadus is the sort of evil for evil’s sake monster who’s going to make it near impossible for anyone not playing Dark 5 psychopaths to justify doing missions for the Empire.

Why downgrade Marr that way? The guy became a full on Force Ghost, not some Sith Spirit tied to his tomb or some relic. He ended up chilling with Satele only because no one was left in the Empire worth his time (and Satele left the Republic because there was no one there worth her time. The moral of this story is that both the Republic and the Empire suck and they’re about to go and start a new pointless war while both sides are still in a resource crisis from losing the last war and waging the war against each other before that... both of which were instigated by the psychopath whose goal was to eat the galaxy so he could transcend and rule some other galaxy as its god. Frankly, the idea that you need to join either faction at this point is stupid. You’re more competent than both sides put together, could pretty well mop the floor with whichever one decided to actually pick a fight with you, and have a much better recruiting message than either faction. “Join us and we won’t get you killed in stupid pointless wars because whenever a threat comes up I always take care of everything personally (Lana and Theron sometimes get to help too) so all you’ll ever have to do is make pithy comments while lounging around in my base and applaud when I return from yet another successful mission to save the galaxy.”

Point of correction; Saresh was always an opportunistic *****. She routinely used regulations to force people to risk their lives in order comply with what she wanted done because she wanted to be sure Taris would be HER big success she could leverage. I remember back when I was first starting the game voicing a hope after doing Pub-side Taris that hopefully the Imp-side story would let me murder her because she was already a scumbag and it would be cathartic only to be told “LOL, no. Suck it up. She becomes Supreme Chancellor.” Getting to thwart her coup attempt and then throw her in prison (because death is what she’d do and lets her off too easy) was immensely satisfying. I’ve never been particularly enamored with the Empire though. I rolled up my first Imp-side because all my RL friends were playing on that side and to date have never made an Imp-Side who didn’t try to undermine the system. I think my Assassin is my favorite simply because I was able to stealth past and avoid all but the mission required killing of Pubs and innocents; though starting out a slave and then playing full lightside made it look like Marr and I were the only sane people trying to manage the insane asylum that is the Sith Empire. If Marr were still alive and he and Lana were still both actually part of the Sith Empire I might have had some reservations about deciding to defect to the Republic. But with Vowron as Emperor, Malgus as his Wrath and hints of a third party (probably Darth Jadus) behind them both it’s clear the Empire is going to have the Chaotic Evil party in charge and I can safely say “Frak that! I’m out.” I kept Moff Pyron’s people alive because he was an old ally, but otherwise my goal is to cause as much damage to the Empire as possible on my way out while limiting casualties to the Republic. Frankly, if it were up to me I’d broadcast a galaxy-wide message of... “Your idiot leaders are gearing up for another pointless war again... if you’ve had enough of fighting other people’s wars and just want to be left the frak alone, The Alliance will accept you with open arms. “If you’re worried we can’t protect you because we don’t have the Eternal Fleet, remember that we took down Zakuul, the guys who curbstomped the Republic and Empire simultaneously, without the Eternal Fleet. “And to the leaders of the Republic and Empire... stop with the stupid before I’m forced to take steps. Do you think you’re a bigger ******, more conniving or better protected than Saresh, Acina, Arcann, Vaylin or Valkorian? The only ones of those who are still alive either work for me now or are rotting in my prisons. Behave or I’ll put you in the cell next to Saresh and you can spend the rest of her life listening to her *****... or I can be merciful and kill you instead.”

For my Pub main (jerk with a heart of gold) Smuggler: “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas. For my Imp main (Light 5 Goth-chick in a hoodie and leather pants) Inquisitor: “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence. Imp Main alternative (if she’s actually allowed to officially join the Republic): “Let it Go” by Demi Lovato.

I dunno who I was supposed to lose, but my Inquistor played through everything (class, Ilum, Hutt, Prelude, SoR, KoFE/ET, Iokath, Traitor arc) and sided with the Republic at every opportunity not only kept everyone but I also got Quinn added to my list (and could still summon Elara Dorne). I know my past choices were recognized because Theron was alive, I recognized that Melora owed me a favor yet, Vowron was Emperor and Malgus recognized me. I dunno when the loss was supposed to happen, but the only companion letter I got was from Master Ranos reminding me that not all Jedi are as closed minded as the ones I fought on Ossus (to be fair, I run a tank spec assassin so I only fought mission required targets, used “exit to stealth” as soon as the mission advancing target was dropped in the final mission... and since half my rotation is lightning I like to pretend I’m shooting to stun... I think my total Jedi “kill” count was seven during the whole arc). If it matters I completed the sabotage the fighters bonus mission, but skipped the “destroy the farms” mission (and the “you’re demoralizing the Imp troops by dismissing their suggestions” and “you sent the farming data to the Republic and kept it out of Imperial hands” messages also made me feel like I was doing more to help than hurt the Republic during the missions while still doing my best to protect Moff Pyron’s team that was on planet). I dunno if skipping the excess carnage against the Jedi and colonists from mattered in terms of keeping Republic companions or not, but I haven’t lost anyone yet.

I can all but assure you they are not. MMOs aren’t where the money is at these days... certainly not for EA. Sorry, but SWTOR is the end of the line for Star Wars MMOs; if it fails there will never be a replacement (the earliest development could even be started for such a thing would be after the unlikely event that EA loses the license and the ink is dry with a new developer). The closest you’ll ever get from EA if SWTOR folds would be a mobile game with multiplayer elements and endless popups for micro transactions to “enhance your experience.” So enjoy SWTOR while it lasts. If it does reach an end of development, my hunch though is that it stays on in maintenance mode until the EA license expires without renewal or the maintenance costs get close to the revenue of those still subscribing/buying. The only reason SWG had a hard shutdown was the license got pulled.

Frankly, getting depredating bolts and keeping your basic lightning attack are a big part of why I go tank in alacrity dps gesr for my spec. Since I don’t do PVP or high end raiding I’m willing to trade some damage to actually feel like a proper gish (i.e. a class that uses a mix of melee and spellcasting; excelling at neither, but gaining advantage through their flexibility). My true preference would be an actual dps version of the darkness spec; just scale the acc, damage and defensive buffs to be in line with dps instead of tank (so the passive debuffs it applies with attacks would be to defenses/healing instead of to acc and damage, you’d need accuracy since you’d not get the +10% from tank spec, but wouldn’t get the damage penalty either, etc.).

My outfits tend to be meteorologically appropriate variants or otherwise appropriate to the situation. Troopers generally get the least outfits... though whatever I end up with gets duplicated onto the rest of Havoc Squad (I’m fond of the Zakuulan pistol and rifle because they’re the same mesh and the only difference is how they’re held and whether they go on the back or the hip... thus a vanguard, jorgan and elara can all have the exact same gear). Bounty hunter seems to get the most earliest since I like to have both the “on the job” combat armor and one for where full armor wouldn’t make sense. Conversely they also tend to lack the cold-weather costume since their battle armor feels heavy enough to keep them warm. My Sith by far though end up with the most outfits which they basically don at my whim. The exception there is that one of my Sith Inquisitors keeps things ridiculously simple... they’re the least pretentious Sith Lord ever wearing basically a black hoodie (with hood down), black leather pants and comfortable boots. The other major outfit change that my characters get is a distinctive pirate outfit for when I arrive on Rishi... the more ostentatious and provocative the better... particularly the Pubs what with all the “cannibal” bits in their dialogues. It’s particularly fun when you’ve been playing a very straight-laced Jedi who then plays the pirate role to the hilt. It typically goes away once you take out the Nova Blades, but it’s fun while it lasts.

I think it will really boil down to whether they can actually do faction swapping for 6.0. If they can deliver that you could pretty easily converge everything down to a Pub-side and Imp-side plot. After proving yourself to your new faction/burning your bridges to your old faction, Acina is assassinated (if she isn’t already dead) and Vowron replaces her. Malcolm steps down as Supreme Commander (if he isn’t already dead) and a new person steps in. You either stick with your existing faction or get exposed and jump to your new faction and then you’ve got just the Pub-side and Imp-side stories. If they can’t deliver and the only way they can make it feel like you’re helping your preferred faction is via a never-ending saboteur storyline then you’re going to be stuck with four ever diverging stories... Pub loyalist and saboteur and Imp loyalist and saboteur. I suspect the real issue is whether it’s more cost effective to have the main voice actors do only one faction’s lines with variations and extra side-quests programmed in for saboteurs -or- have all the voice actors do both faction’s lines but then not need to program in any special saboteur sidequests/extra dialogue segments. In other words,which costs more; extra voice work or extra programming? My hope is that the extra programming (i.e. making sure your flags trigger the right set of conditional dialogues/scenes/missions/bonus missions) costs more than extra voice work would since that would make real faction swapping with two straight forward stories the most cost effective option. Frankly though, I’d accept even the “classic” conversation scenes where the PC never says a word if it meant we’d get faction swapping. This is one of those matters where making the game fully voiced makes things harder than it would be if the PCs lines were text only... like allowing faction swapped PCs to run heroics/flashpoints where you have actual dialogue trees is harder than it needs to be because you’d have to go back and re-record all those lines with the opposite faction voice actors (or make those heroics into “classic” convos for swapped PCs... which I would accept as the cost for faction swapping personally, but not everyone is likely to agree).

I haven’t started my Imp main through yet because I keep hearing about various choices overridden and every choice I made going through FE/ET was opposite of the Imperial default choices (Koth is one of my highest ranked companions, I saved Vette not Torian, I spared Senya and Arcann and sided with the Republic every chance I got) so I don’t plan on taking them through until those bugs are guaranteed fixed. The one thing that will probably make the Saboteur story palatable once I do run it is that, as an Assassin I’ll be able to stealth past as much of the trash mob slaughters as possible and just hit mission objectives with minimal loss of life. Heck, I might even respec to tank, grab my old tech-staff and limit myself to lightning attacks only so I can pretend I’m just stunning those I do have to fight (basically the same methodology that makes a scrapper Scoundrel one of my preferred Pubside classes).

What is this clicking of which you speak? I started playing PC games with the original Mechwarrior, then Doom and later the Dark Forces game... I have a hard time even using ASWD to steer (I still use the actual arrow keys that line up properly instead of the misaligned abomination that is ASWD) much less using a mouse. I praised the Lord when they added the ability to center the click-placed AoEs by double-tapping the activation key and would love some sort of way to tab-target or something on the doors and NPCs and glowies so I don’t have to use the mouse at all. As a result of my odd playstyle though I’ve got a ridiculous amount of efficient keybind locations. The Six-key block (and the / and backspace just to it’s left) just above the direction keys is my go to bind location, with the numeric keypad providing 16 more easy to hit with a pinky options. Then I’ve got the entire main keyboard available for binding any number of other abilities.

Yeah, I remember that particularly sticking in my craw. The guy even acknowledged that he didn’t sense the dark side in you (if your alignment is light 1 or better) and then attacks you anyway. I think it would have been a lot more interesting if they’d just allowed it to work; highlighting means like deception and manipulation are also tools of the Sith (I mean, Palpatine was the biggest baddest Sith of them all and he conquered the entire Republic with nary a direct act of violence on his own part). I chalk it up mostly to the need for the Jedi to be scary dogmatics in order to make it clear why your Sith can’t just go defect to the Republic like what happens a couple times in the Jedi stories when you show mercy to a Sith. The Sith PCs have to face off against the most fanatical Jedi so even those who’d objectively be more true to the light side than a Jedi running through on the dark side track of their stories would be don’t really get a real opportunity to question their place in the galaxy. Which is honestly why, unless they seriously intend to allow faction swapping down the line, I think FE/ET allowing LS Sith to start interacting with non-fanatical Jedi is probably going to be the hardest thing to write around in the future. My Light 5 Inquisitor who played through saving Makeb, played well with Satele’s Forces during Shadow of Revan, went full on heroic during FE/ET (Koth stuck around and is one of my preferred companions during those stories) and then sided Republic every chance I got thereafter. The idea that the Sith Empire would even want to call me for help on Ossus is kind of immersion breaking on its own (Vowron is an idiot who deserves his inevitable ignominious demise for having called me up for help). Basically, after seeing how the other half really lives my Ex-Sith would either just try to remain independent or, if they have to pick a side, would try to leverage a Rift Alliance type deal with the Republic rather than become a Sith vassal state.

Alternately, they're ignoring it because 95+% of the player base doesn't care one way or another because they already faceroll the content they actually play in 230-ish gear and barely touch regular PVP, much less ranked PVP. Do not mistake "loud" for "numerous" when it comes to the player base. Personally getting some 252 something or other (probably a weapon or offhand if its using stuff I'm choosing since those have the biggest effect on tech/force power) just from doing regular content will be a nice bonus, but I honestly couldn't care less about gear that's going to be obsolete the moment 6.0 drops with five more levels and minimum 260 rating green quality drops for the new content.

In terms of Corso and Risha, I found the most useful course is “Why not both?” Help the Republic and the little guys, just make sure to charge through the nose for it. Honestly, in terms of light vs. dark choices, Smuggler is one of those stories where a little of both is probably the most interesting. One thing I highly recommend is that I think the story works immensely better with a Scoundrel than a Gunslinger, particularly the Scrapper spec. By using stealth/tranq darts whenever possible and then punching/dirty kicking those you have to fight you end up with a ridiculously low body count for an MMO and a lot of the mooks you can pretend you’re just knocking them out like a traditional action hero. In short, you’re able to feel more like a normal human being than some sort sociopathic murder hobo with a four-to-five digit body count. Conversely, their attacks in general also make a lot more sense for someone who has to fight Sith. Scatterguns and thermal detonators can’t be parried with a lightsaber. Find some good armored gloves (I went with ones with the hydraulic cables so it gives the impression they’re powered gauntlets) and say they’re Cortosis and now you’ve got justification for blocking lightsabers. Throw in tricks like Blood Boiler, Bushwacked Drones, Flash Grenades and the like and it feels like you’ve got just the sort unconventional sort of weapons/tactics to take on a Sith in ways that “shoot at it with blasters a lot” (i.e. the gunslinger approach) just doesn’t (this is also why vanguard with its focus on electrical arcs, plasma streams and similar non-blaster attacks makes more sense to me for those stories where you’re fighting Sith/Zakuul Knights). But those are just my opinions.

It depends a bit on how high in rank you got your four sub-commanders on Odessan, but if you were at max rank with them various Imp and Pub volunteers make various side comments about how they hope the Alliance isn’t just a temporary thing because they’ve accomplished more together than the Republic or Empire ever did. Also, we may not have the Eternal Fleet, but various emails and the opening sequence of KotET establishes that the Alliance does have a number of Republic and Imperial capital ships in its personal fleet; ownership of which was ceded to the Alliance. In other words... you may not be able to take on the whole Empire or Republic, but you’re big enough to tip the balance if you pick a side to aid. Frankly, my Sith Inquisitor would sooner become a Jedi than rejoin the Empire (not that they’d be super psyched about that, but it’s runner up to the current Alliance middle path over Sith sadism and insanity). They were already Light V before going into FE/ET, saved and showed mercy to everyone they could and picked the Republic over the Empire every time it came up. They no more fit into the Sith Empire than Satele Shan would.