Because they provide an automatic ally until they prove sufficiently awesome to actually endanger you. Also, as the current Sith aren't using the Rule of Two, Apprentices are not obligated to try to kill you. Having apprentices is a sign of status in the Sith Empire. They provide part of a Sith Lord's power base and reputation. A Sith who successfully trains multiple apprentices without getting killed is a force to be reckoned with.

These are mine. Agent - Female Chiss all the way. Started out a little too mouthy for her own good, and ultimately loyal to the Chiss Ascendancy, not the Empire. She works for the Empire only for as long as doing so is in the Chiss Ascendancy's best interests. By the end of the original chapter two, the Sith can burn for all she cares just as long as they don't take the Chiss Ascendancy down with them. Somehow managed to end the original story at Light III, and kept the Black Codex. Married Vector (and the Voss guy) in the vanilla game, romancing Lana in KotFE. Bounty Hunter - Light-Side Chiss (Female Merc on The Red Eclipse, Male Powertech on Progenitor). Spent most of chapter one wishing for pro-Republic contracts, then got forced into being pro-Imperial until Corellia whether I liked it or not. Male Hunter is the cousin of my Agent, and will marry Mako. Female Hunter married Torian. Jedi Consular - Light-Side female (Chiss Sage on TRE, Twi'lek Sage on Progenitor, Miraluka Shadow/Visas clone on Progenitor with start-at-60 token). Although the game wouldn't let me, in my head-canon, my Chiss Sage was quite taken with the idea of being Herald of the Scorekeeper and dressed the part, wearing clothes fashioned from the hides of worthy creatures that she and Qyzen killed. Jedi Knight - Female human (the same one on both servers). Light V but not a perfect dutiful daughter of the Council. In love with Kira and married to her no matter what the game says Sith Inquisitor - I have four across the two servers, but the only one I actually finished the story with so was a female Rattataki Assassin on the Progenitor. Dark V (with Diplomacy to avoid the more ridiculous Dark choices). Sith Warrior - Male Cyborg (TRE) and female Zabrak (Progenitor), both Juggernauts, leaning slightly Light Side, or "pale grey" as I call them. As I was still neutral when my Zabrak got Jaesa, I let Jaesa go Dark, which became one long, hilarious exercise in "Oh Gods, what have I done?" Married Quinn but cheated on him with Pierce after he betrayed me, and may or may not romance Theron Shan in KotFE. Smuggler - Female Twi'lek (TRE) and male Mirialan (Progenitor). Both Light-ish, and not so much pro-Republic as anti-Empire. Barely started chapter 2 of the original story, so a lot more to learn about who they will be by the end. Trooper - Female (Mirialan Vanguard on TRE, Cyborg Commando on Progenitor). Both heading Light, both patriots, but neither are the type to blindly obey unethical or stupid orders. Telling Saresh off for her idiotic suggestion at the end of chapter 3 was great fun

Well, each rank boosts your effective Presence stat when using that companion, improving their performance. It also improves their time and crit chance of crew skills. Is it strictly necessary? No, not really, but there are "rewards".

You got the gsi god-mode droids in tactical mode? That's not supposed to happen. They're only meant to be there in solo mode. You are correct that Tactical Mode is meant to be normal mode. In theory, tacticals are "role neutral". In practice, having a dedicated tank, dedicated healer, and two dps people is nearly always the best combination as that was how flashpoints were originally designed. I hate solo mode on my tanks and healers because we can't set the god-mode droid to full damage mode and let me feel useful in the way my character is built.

Generally speaking, radically altering an individual's midichlorian count is considered impossible. While the leaders of the Jedi (and possibly the Sith) may already know techniques for determining Force Sensitivity by checking midichlorian counts, the chances are that they haven't found a safe way to artificial improve them, which (if memory serves) is what the Inquisitor was getting at. To the best of my recollection, no-one in-game even mentions midichlorians anyway. In the old continuity, the nobles of Vjun tried to artificially enhance their midichlorian counts around fifty years or so before the Empire, and it went horribly wrong... or horribly right depending on your perspective. They managed to improve their connections to the Force, but they were all driven mad in the process.

Yay! Someone else liked the RTS idea

I couldn't care less what's between another player's legs. All that matters to me is what's between their ears. Whether it be pvp, flashpoints or roleplaying, I hope that the other people involved have the maturity and/or skill to make it enjoyable. All other concerns are tertiary at best.

I'd like a Star Wars RTS like Empire at War (only with better ground combat) set in the Yuuzhan Vong war... heck just give me an NJO Expansion to Empire at War. I want to fight the Vong. Better yet, a Jedi Knight IV set during the Vong war where we get to choose from various NJO characters (most likely candidates would be the Solo kids, and maybe some of the other young Jedi Knights like Tenel Ka, Lowbacca, and Tahiri) though playing a more experienced Jedi like Corran Horn or Mara Jade would be awesome too.

For the Empire it seems to be the principle of the thing - "Taris must not be rebuilt by the Republic, ever". Personally, I'd just wipe out the resettlement outposts (and everything else) from orbit. The only reason to bother with mounting a (ridiculous) ground campaign to wreck the resettlement process is if it is part of the overall provocation plan that the Empire seems to be using throughout Chapter 2 - trying to make it appear to the rest of the galaxy that the Republic are to blame for the war kicking off again.

Yeah, but that would make sense. Vector should be the easiest companion for Agents to recover. As you said, we know exactly where we picked him up and because he's a Joiner it should be simplicity itself to get his location from his Nest. It's not as if they have any reason to not be in the same region where we met them.

No. I mean that you almost certainly can't take them with you into the chapter 10 story because chapter 10 doesn't think you have them yet. The actual story chapters of KotFE so far have dictated which companions you can actually use. In chapter 4 for instance, you have to do a section with Lana, a section with Koth, and a section with HK-55 in order to progress the story, you just chose which order to do them in. The basic story chapters will likely continue to insist that we use the so-called main characters in them while allowing us to use anyone we have for alliance stuff and repeatable content.

My understanding of it is that if you use the terminal, you get the companions back, but no conversations acknowledge their presence and they cannot accompany you into Chapter 10. I know for a fact that you can't talk to a companion that you regain via terminal. You can do Heroics with them, Weeklies, Dailies, Star Fortesses, and so on, but as far as the story is concerned, you don't have them until the story officially gives them back via Alliance Alert or in-chapter recruitment.

Personally I think they should re-instate the old "Kill Quinn" option from Beta. Now that any companion can fill the healer role, the mechanical reason to spare him ("Oh no! My Healer companion is gone forever!") has been invalidated. Personally, I'd also much rather toss Skadge into the lava flow on Belsavis instead of being forced to hire him, but c'est la vie. My hit-list for returning comps is as follows. Lord Scourge - absolutely must kill his sorry arse. Skadge - ditto Tanno Vik... well, I shot him as my Agent, and never found an option to hire him on my Jedi Knight anyway. I haven't decided if any of me will try to recruit him. I'm not sure I want Zenith, Quinn, Doc, or Gault back... though letting Hylo get her revenge on Gault could be fun. I also have nothing to go on regarding any Smuggler companion who isn't Corso so I have no idea who I'd like from that crew... not that anyone cares.

Not sure if they still count (as they're old EU, i.e. "Legends") but there was a pair of Mandalorian men in the Legacy of the Force books who were in a same-sex marriage. Every [flirt]able character since Rise of the Hutt Cartel has been bisexual. I just wish they'd make those changes retroactive so female Jedi Knights could romance Kira, female Sith Warriors could romance Vette, and... well, those are the only lesbian relationships I personally want to explore, but I've heard calls for practically every companion to be romanceable regardless of whether the player character is male or female

It's a transparent ploy to make the strike team doubt each other... even if I'd join him anyway

During 'False Emperor' he says "One of you has vowed to join me. But which one? I'm certainly not telling" My response (in chat) as my Agent is always "Me! Me!" So, yeah, my Agent would join Malgus given the choice, as he's much more sympathetic to aliens. Of course, that must be balanced with my Agent's driving question of "Is this the best thing for the Chiss Ascendancy?". My in-character loyalty is to them first.

I like having the choice of every single flashpoint at endgame - makes for nice variety. Still, the issue of getting a team without the necessary abilities needs to be addressed What I think they should do is essentially the middle ground between what we had before and what we have now. Esseles/Black Talon was, and still is 10-14 Instead of unlocking everything at 15, it should just be Hammer Station and Kuat that unlock then, as it was before KotFE. Athiss should unlock at 19, Mandalorian Raiders at 23, etc, etc until you get to 55 and you have everything unlocked. Then again, perhaps Blood Hunt and Battle Of Rishi could unlock at 56. That would fix the issues of "Oh crap, that one doesn't have the right abilities so we have to boot them" and reduce the chances of wipes... in theory. I'm probably tempting fate by saying this, but how hard could it be to implement?

Sure you would, but you'd have an in-character outlet for your feelings