[A plea to Bioware writers - improve the story in future updates. Significantly.]

Is it our job to tell writers what we think is good? Was it our job on the PTS to engage in professional testing? We're the player base with our own opinions of what is and isn't a good story, but most of us aren't professional video game writers-- so far as I know, anyway. Every single time someone doesn't like something, gives some critique that isn't glowing, this line of thinking comes up. It's straight up invalid. Critique and feedback comes from all sources, and we're all entitled to state our likes and dislikes as paying customers of Bioware and EA.

 

That said, what I'd think would be interesting:

 

We've been told everyone is short on resources like food and fuel. So why isn't anyone actually investigating? Why aren't we as a third party, engaged in that line of inquiry? I'd like to see some detective work. I'd like to visit resource-heavy worlds and find ways to court their influence. Help build decimated worlds, engage in diplomacy or subterfuge to sway their allegiance.

 

So, go in depth on Onderon. You've got twin societies of Beast Riders and city folk. Find ways to influence and sway them to your side. Or choose one of the two and find a way to build them into allies, either with a major storyline or a smaller series of side quests that helps either or both sides with their biggest struggles.

 

Do something similar on Mek-Sha. Develop the worlds and the politics like the old planetary questlines used to.

 

Throwing away resources on war in a time of massive scarcity including basics like fuel is complete stupidity. Lay some groundwork first. Figure out what's really going on. Maybe have the war begin on as a tangential activity while we're trying to find the story behind the story. Or maybe let our actions in building what's been broken serve as an economic or social foundation for a new war.

 

Through in a third option too where you can take said resources for the eternal alliance and say suck it to both sides xD

[A plea to Bioware writers - improve the story in future updates. Significantly.]

I've told this to Charles and I'll say it here. The new story is 3 dimensional. I literally have sat on a LS/DS choice screen actually contemplating instead of button smashing LS.

 

My LS (I'll call her chaotic good because she means well) operative has been a double agent. She's in it for the good of the people but her definition of good isn't always being Mary Poppins.

 

The new story:

 

First big choice - Do you kill the King on Onderon? Letting him live sees the Republic backed lady taken into custody. Killing him stops him from continuing to be a pawn for the Empire. As a LS character, this is a deep, impactful decision. Do you kill someone who is stupidly innocent so he can't be used as a puppet so you can protect the masses and also work towards your goal of helping the Republic? Or do you stay true to being a good person by letting more bad things happen.

 

Mek-Sha and Shaar. Slavery, bullying, you name it. Shaar is nice. Getting her darling letter post after what I did to her made me feel a bit bad. Do you let her live so the Empire can bully Mek Sha and use it as a refueling station or do you kill her to aid the Republic?

 

At the end of this, taking a look at what my LS character has done, I'm now seeing a character going down a dark path, killing people along the way to achieve goals of aiding the Republic. She's changing. This story is changing her. How far will she go to help the Republic, how far is too far? Where does it stop? Will she lose who she is in the process?

 

Each decision on my saboteur character has been thought out at length. If I do this, what's the consequences, if I don't do this what's the consequences. Will she get caught going too far? (eh, probably not, and someone replied to my thread previously that maybe the Emperor knows her deceit already and is using her as the invisible hand to eliminate his competition.

 

 

So for that reason the story is intricate, interesting, and fun. I've only played it on a saboteur operative . If I get a chance to get Nathema done on my JK, then I'll move ahead to the new stuff with my Jedi Knight to see the Republic side of things.

 

 

Depending on how you play your toon your imp A can be like that throughout their whole story at least it was for me. My Imp who is a patriot believing the sith shouldn't rule over the empire and that the empire does need to change to survive has made LS and DS choices throughout their story, My imp (aninus) believes that innocent causalities is absolutely a new go and that the empire's citizens need to be protected however they're also not against putting a cap in some republic soldiers or anyone who tries to harm him or the empire he wishes to protect.

[Account disabled. Please help]

He said he bought cc and his sub time from Amazon. Those are legit items sold by Amazon's digital services. I buy my cc there every single month, and I've purchased cc and time card codes for others through it. And even if it was some random seller with a store selling "time cards" or codes all he'd end up with is a code that didn't work, not a banned account. You seem more to be referring to buying CREDITS, which is way different than purchasing cc. There's a lot of players who sell credits on various sites, and all of those are a good way to get your account locked.

 

I don't know much about buying sub time outside of swtor website but if the codes are region locked and he buys a code that was meant for a different region then it could have flagged something in the system.

[Could someone explain whole Saboteur option?]

I missed that option on Ossus.

 

I have a LS wrath, and I sided with the empire, but I though I could sabotage the empire from within. And I didn't know how to go to sabotage . So now, my character is being called a LOyalist and had an option that say so in the little I did (havent finished it yet) in the new expansion.

 

 

Is killing say the king on onderon (and the lady with him, and the king relatives) part of the sabotage (On Imp side) ?

 

 

cose those choices confused me . Usually I don't have no problem figuring out the dialogues options...

 

It's not really made clear. Throughout dialogue you learn that the dark council knows that they can manipulate the king, gaining control of onderon through a puppet leader where the leader of the resistance on the planet has ties to the pub. What I did was killed the king, essentially making the empire loose their hold on onderon and making it so that the resistance leader ( forget her name ) has really no opposition. If you kill both and the relatives it would kind of seem that it would open up a struggle for power. But who knows? No one not until the next expansion

[What will happen to Zakuul in the story?]

Wait, the eternal fleet was all gone in the fight VS Izax?

 

Nope it wasn't all the eternal fleet just the majority of it. I'm guessing it was just the ships that were piloted remotely or by droids. The eternal alliance still has a fleet ( if you can call it that) but it's that small that they don't really stand a chance by themselves considering the grave stone and the fleet were what made the alliance big shots in the universe

[A plea to Bioware writers - improve the story in future updates. Significantly.]

I very much disagree. In my opinion, the story nadir of SWTOR was Iokath, by a mile. (Reasons in spoiler tags, to avoid going too much off-topc.)

 

With the exception of Theron's interactions with his father, which I found very human and sympathetic, Iokath was a disaster. The worst culprits were identical lines and behaviour in many instances between characters who are otherwise opposites (Quinn/Dorne, Acina/Malcom); the PC, who at this point has reached their highest level of galactic power, being dispatched as a minion by people who came to us in a position of weakness and desperation; and a sense that the conflict is very forced (which, of course, it is - but it feels forced both in-character and at a meta level). Unless you are a trooper or a warrior, there is no joining cinematic for Quinn or Dorne, just a system message that they have joined us as a companion. And every time I replay it, it reminds me of dropped threads from KotET that were never satisfactorily addressed (like the questionable morality of using the eternal fleet when its gemini captains have been stripped of free will, an issue that gets just a passing mention on Nathema, and then in a recording - not a dilemma our PCs are ever forced to struggle with).

 

By contrast, I felt that Onslaught storytelling was a return to form. There were many callbacks to previous plotlines and characters, in such an affectionate way that I felt sure that the writer(s) must love the story of the vanilla game as much as we do. I love feeling connected with characters we met before. However, they weren't used just to say hello, as mere cameos, but to particular effect (sometimes to tragic results). Spoilers follow in my particular comments on the story, so I will spoiler-tag those as well.

 

 

There are twists. If you play Republic first, I think it comes as an interesting surprise when you try the Imperial story that the Empire wanted us to win the refuelling vote. Malgus taking the opportunity of his injury to break free was not necessarily expected this soon. I don't think many people imagined we would be able to kill as many dark councilors as we could. The opportunity to return properly to our original factions, and resume our original roles, is very much welcomed by me - but I found it unexpectedly difficult in some cases to give up the independence of the Alliance, a choice I think not everyone imagined would be so hard. And the turn you can take if you decide not to be a saboteur after all I definitely didn't foresee. Certainly some people anticipated the various developments in the story, but not everyone did - and I doubt many people saw them all coming.

 

The opportunity to be a saboteur to one's original faction is something new for many classes, yet can be a continuation of an old story if you're an SIS-aligned agent - so depending on one's background, this element strikes new ground or links back to one's origins. And while we did start this path before Onslaught, I think this storyline is showing us for the first time how meaningful our choices can be (since we actually get choices of which things to sabotage or not, unlike Ossus).

 

Thematically, we explore the repercussions of trauma with Tau and Arn - and also with Savik (on the Republic side, anyway). Given how much combat happens in the game, to the extent that most of our characters have literally killed tens of thousands of opponents by this point, the consequences of combat are often treated in a very blithe manner. But here, with these characters, we see the physical and emotional scars that brushes with death can leave behind. And frankly I wish some of the master/padawan relationships of our actual characters had scenes like Tau's mentorship of Arn.

 

As for Anri, her success in the military is contrasted with her powerlessness to stop the Empire working with the Brothers on Mek-Sha. She's not just unable to stop them working together in the sense that she doesn't have the authority... she's also conflicted within herself about whether she should even want to stop it. Her rank and responsibilities show that the Empire is changing, but will it ever change enough to value all its people equally? Or will it just do a better job of co-opting some of them to keep the rest bowed down?

 

All in all, I am more interested and even excited to see where the story goes next than I have been in years. I pretty much couldn't disagree with you more. I want more and more of what the writing team is doing in this update, developed and explored, to eventually result in rich payoff.

 

Have to agree with the new expansion sucking. This is the first expansion I've played for swtor where after beating I couldn't remember most of it after two days because it was so mediocre. I think they should have bundled jedi undi siege and onslaught together to actually make it feel somewhat like an expansion. The whole idea of being a spy working for the other faction seems interesting ( my LS sith Inq went this way) but other then that am curious what's going to happen to the eternal alliance. I would have much rathered there be an option then rather being a spy you can procure things for the alliance eventually building it back up to a force where you can keep peace between both factions. I mean are they going to completely ignore the eternal alliance now I mean what's the point of it now other then just to be there, to be there.

[Account disabled. Please help]

Yeah I bought cc and my subscription from amazon since the site won't let me buy anything for some reason

 

Now am not 100% sure about amazon but was it actually amazon selling it or a seller just using amazon. It might even be that your account was logged in from another location and that's what triggered it

[What will happen to Zakuul in the story?]

this is confirmed

 

Because of the crimes Zuukul has committed against the galaxy each year a male and a female from each district will be picked to take part in a fight to the death that will be broadcast across the entire galaxy.

 

xD

 

In all seriousness theres not much they could really do with it it's the same with the eternal alliance. I mean its just one of those things where it's just there

[Account disabled. Please help]

Right now they are swarmed with tickets. It took one day for me to get a response for an issue i had and two days after that for them to resolve it. Have you purchased credits from third party websites? or maybe even CC?

[Story is the only reason I come back.]

How long have you been around. I've been on and off since about 2012 and if you think the combat is slow you wouldn't survive back then. ( I sound like an old man reminiscing about old times on these forums. xD I do enjoy swtor still however.) Back then you would need to do every quest available and sometimes would even still need help on some of your story line bosses and side mission ones. I love the story and the combat compared to other MMO's like Lotro the combat is alot faster and imo better.

[Gold sellers]

Enlarge the chat window by dragging the bottom-right corner, so that their name at the top of the message doesn't flow off the top of the window.

 

But yes, I'm with the others. It's much more gold-spammy than in the past.

 

Never even knew about that thanks!

[Gold sellers]

Things are worse in starter planets. cant even talk without getting pushed in chat.

 

That's the truth hutta was a mess. They have just enough words in their messages now that you can't actually see their names. I find i've been getting mail from gold spammers as well.

[CS is replying with wrong information]

I've had the same issue kind of. Deleted a level 75 toon by an accident. Submitted a ticket got an email saying that it was also replied to in game and that additional info was required for my toon to be restored. I checked in game and it hadn't been responded to and I wasn't able to update my ticket with the appropriate info

[Lack of Interaction with Your LI in expansions.]

I wanted to see how Ashara would react to Imp saboteur.

 

Glad I'm not the only one.

 

I actually didn't think this thread would get this many responses and am glad it did. I'm happy to see am not the only person thinking this. I'm currently playing a IA and skipped romancing kayilio and temples because I plan on romancing lana so that there would be some interaction with her during the expansions. I can also understand the whole hiring the voice actors thing but I mean why couldn't they do what the did with alot of the alerts and go KOTOR and have it all through dialogue with no voice I mean at least then we would get something,

[more add on expansion]

I too agree they should add more to the story cause right now to me this is not an expansion and should not have been called an expansion, it is way to short.

 

It really shoudln't have. I understand with all the stories it would be prettylong ( imp , pub, imp sab, pub sab) But as a story just for one character it seems extremely short I mean I think there were only two side missions in the entire expansion both of which you get off datapads. The best thing we can hope is that they do monthly releases or dumps the rest of it on us soon but from the way I hear of it its that SWTOR isn't getting much funding which is a shame considering swtor seems more active then lotro and lotro is releasing an actual expansion next month I believe.

[Sith Inquisitor - Kill Anathel as Saboteur?]

My main is a LS sith assassin. I chose all the saboteur option but decided to act like I did during the original story up to the point where I met Ashara and that is to be a dick to everyone and act power hungry. The reason why is because for some reason I keep thinking that certain dialogue options might make you cover blown. I personally threatened anathel the first time with my meeting during the dark council then killed him. My whole thing was to make the imp and the pubs get along while I had the eternal fleet now it's to ensure that the least amount of damage happens because of this war and I believe that the sith would be the cause of millions of deaths. Personally I'd love a chance to screw over the republic too and be like " Nah I rule the galaxy now , be good or your going in the corner" But we all know that won't happen.

[What are the chances there's going to be a double XP event this year yet?]

I'm going to be 100% honest. We don't need double xp anymore. I hate how easy it is to level up compared to years ago where you had to do everyside quest and heroics to be on level for the next planet, where leveling up actually gave you a sense of accomplishments and where boss fights took at least 5 minutes to do. Leveling up is so damn easy now theres no need for double xp

[6.0 Expansion. Huge dissapointment.]

I'm with you. I was really disappointed. I was hoping for more and that the ending would have made more sense rather then scourge/Kira telling you to go talk to them when you have a chance about a certain somebodies body. The only reason they released the previous expansions on a monthly bases was for the money. Why release an expansion all at once and have someone complete it within a week when they could release each part of it monthly and rack in that extra dough. I mean it's 15 dollars compared to 180 dollars they would make. I'm hugely dissapointed to with the lack of interaction you have with your LI if they are from your story class. I wouldn't even consider onslaught as an expansion. If that's all they have for the story so far then it is what it is but if they have the whole story done for the imp vs pub then they should have released it at once. I can't get behind the monthly release for some games it works like for TTG (before they went bankrupt) but for MMO's it shouldn't be done. I would be able to put up with a weekly release where they release a new part every week but a month to me is to long of a wait for an MMO. Hell if they are doing monthly I'd rather an option where I can buy the expansion right out rather then having to sub for twelve months

[Lack of Interaction with Your LI in expansions.]

Is anyone else disappointed with the lack of interaction you have with your LI from the base game, in the expansions? I mean I waited around on my sith assassin to get ashara back and made my own character arc type thing where after my character met her he started turning towards the light side of the force and wanted peace between the empire and republic. Anyway You wait around for what 2 expansions to meet back up with certain LI just to have them ask if you want to keep the relationship going or not then that's it. I was hoping for some interaction with them during onslaught. I mean their your LI I think they would be a big supporting factor for the outlander. Anyway I am just really disappointed that there isn't more interaction. I'm I the only one feeling this way?

[In pvp when someone force leaps me i get dragged back.]

I find when am play pvp in warzones and am running someone will use the attack force leap on me and what ends up happening is i get dragged back. Not sure if its my computer or something but i want to know if there is anyone else having the same problem.