Well, as anticlimactic as this proved to be, it was definitely the last thing I ever did in SWTOR. The way they implemented this reunion and Arcann romance is pretty good indicator that the quality of story content will not go up anymore. Goodbye guys and be good to Ashara!

So... That was brief. And vague. I would appreciate at least some cheesy line about ruling the galaxy together, as my Inq is an Emperor.

Well, the one counter-argument I would use is that in SWTOR we can easily imagine that the story simply skips the tedious state-running stuff, and only shows us the moments when the Commander is personally involved in some action. Obviously, it makes more sense for some characters than for other - the Sith and Jedi PCs are powerhouses and are invaluable on the battlefield. They can do stuff that hardly can be trusted to any of their minions (like dealing with the Machine Gods). Agent would most likely not mind leading an infiltration mission to capture Theron too. The rest of them... Much less sense. But it was like that during the whole KotFE/KotET. Who's in charge when you're gone though? Inquisition had a pretty clear command chain, with you at the top and your non-party-member advisors being in charge of Military, Diplomacy and Intelligence. Alliance command chain is confusing as **** TBH. Lana should be the official second-in-command and never leave Odessen/Zakuul when you're not around. Talk more about administrative stuff. It would make the whole thing more believable.

I think this is not out of the question if they made an actual effort with the reunion quest. After all, even Master Zanos' flavour text about Ashara told about her acting both as a hero and as a villain. I can imagine her being hesitant to come back to Inq while he's commading the Eternal Fleet and Zakuul military that did so much harm in the Galaxy and the player having to convince her that their philosophy is the right one. That is, choosing a neutral path she was already on, or pushing her more towards the Light or Dark. But, who am I kidding right now, it'll be just three mins of generic dialogue, maybe with a few complains if you're an outright mass murderer. xD

Yup, I think the ability to send her away would make more sense, unless she does something really stupid upon returning to a super-DS character. There's just nothing to gain by randomly killing her, she's not a jedi anymore and doesn't have any leverage that the Inq would worry about. Unless you RP your character as a total psycho, but I wouldn't expect Bioware to go in that direction, they only seem to give you option to kill a companion when you might have an obvious motive for doing so (like with Quinn or Broonmark).

Hahaha, well, she seems like a good buddy for such work. Not afraid of dirty work and you can chat with her about the nature of the force on the way.

I wonder about that a bit too, my Inq is nearly pure LS, but still proclaimed himself Emperor (because it fits his reformist ambitions). I hope they don't mess up the choice-related flags, if they bother to include those. Ashara doesn't seem like someone who would be bothered by a "benevolent tyrant" type.

I guess her character can only be bearable for LS Inqs...

TBH, I just kept playing for the longest time waiting for some companion reunions. I've moderetaly enjoyed the content I was getting, but that detail was the thing actually motivating me to play since KotET at least. Now that I'm getting what I wanted, I came back briefly and will say this game a lovely goodbye, with no regrets and full appreciation for the quality time I had with it (unlike my earlier ragequit). My point being, unless there's something you're specifically looking forward in the forseeable future, don't torture yourself. MMOs are huge timesinks, they're not worth it unless you really enjoy it. Give yourself a week to say goodbye to guildmates, give your assets to people that might have a use for them and tell the game goodbye while the momeries of good times are still strong. Seeing it devolve further into state of decay will only make it sad and frustrating.

Hello there! Some time ago I made a ragequit from SWTOR, gave all my stuff away etc., but Bioware came up with two things which were simply the last two pieces of story I wanted from this game - Ashara coming back for my Inquisitor and Arcann romance for my female Warrior. Last piece of closure I needed in this years-long journey and thus a last month of sub to give myself the opportunity to say goodbye to this game on good terms. I wonder though, is anyone else really excited to get Ashara back like I am? For me, she was a quintessential part of my Inq experience, as someone who desires power to make real change and create an empire worth existing and Sith that would be about real freedom, rather than slavery to lowest passions and selfish treachery. With all her flaws and desperate clinging to Jedi teachings she was the kind of character that really fitted my vision of searching a way beyond simplistic dogma of Light and Dark. And the romance has some of the sweetest lines of any route in SWTOR, like the one where Inq basically offers to go to Tython and ask the Jedi Council for permition to marry her. I feel a deep connection to my Sith mains, as those are characters I've spent years crafting and was always very serious about their story choices and romance. Without Ashara, my Inq's story simply felt incomplete. I honestly don't care what happens after he claimed the throne of Zakuul, this is exactly the high he was aiming for and the power to forge a different future for the Sith and the galaxy as whole, my imagination can do the rest. But the lack of Ashara by his side was simply not right. So, does anyone feel similarly hyped for this reunion, or is it just a unique quirk of mine, as a hopeless quasi-RPer?

I'm a founder (player very irregularly, but since the very beginnings) and it's definitely the first and only time I'm writing something like that. ^^ A whiner? Maybe. Not usually, but needed some venting this time around. I'm trying to cut on video games anyways so it was a good opportunity to follow "unreasonable" impulses. With SWTOR and maybe Bioware stuff in general, it's becoming less and less worth the time it wants you to invest into it...

Ah, TBH, I should've given my stuff to the guild or something, there was quite a lot of credits there at least. I guess I've rage uninstalled a bit too fast, probably won't bother with getting the client running again... If someone wants my stuff feel free to PM me, we might be able to sort something out. EDIT: All my chars are on Darth Malgus BTW

Hey there dear devs, I've just wanted to stress how nice it was to lose 1,5h doing a nice looking, but boring as hell "story flashpoint" to realize it's the wrong type of solo version that doesn't progress the story. This was an amazing feature that really made that long-coming subscription cancellation much easier. Obviously, I'm overreacting. But really there was that much still holding me in this game. Occasional story content that sometimes was of poor quality, but didn't waste my time completely. Now I don't even care any more. I can't force myself to play through this slog of an FP another time to progress. There's just not enough in it and not enough I can reasonably expect further down the road to justify it. Bye bye everyone. It was fun 6 years, but I think it's the right moment to move on. Done in a moment of fury or not, it was long coming.

I hope that the "double agent" explanation (Theron trying to infiltrate this "Order" thing) is true. Because while him betraying my chars (both LS Sith) made some limited sense, as they support the Empire and killed his father, for many others it didn't and most of what he said was just over-the-top ********. Also good job achieving "peace" by provoking a full-scale war on Iokath, I'm sure that will help with everything. If it's not a ruse it's some of the worst writing ever.

I was going to say Skadge, but TBH he's just a minor annoyance. Koth is a huge one and I wanted to throw him out of the airlock even on my most LS characters. Valkorion fanboy is something none of our Player Characters should be able to stand after Ziost, maybe other than most stoic Jedi. And only reading this topic I realized why so many people hate Ashara, I guess her story is completely out of place for pure DS characters. For my LS inquisitor she felt like a truly appropriate companion, someone who can be trusted and who understands his agenda in the treacherous world of Sith. The occasional tension and misunderstanding only made it more believable.

I think romancing Nadia Grell on Consular is the biggest atrocity out there, for multiple reasons, grossly violating the Jedi code being the least important one. ;p More seriously, I will agree that some extreme DS choices in Warrior storyline are the worst ones out there. Mostly those connected to Vette and Jaesa storylines. I remember a scene when you greet DS Jaesa on your ship and you can let her play with Vette's shock collar remote - seeing someone who was a jedi not so long ago torturing a slave for fun is super-disturbing. Also, as Warrior you can let romanced Vette be killed by Vaylin on Odessen. The scene is brutal and some dialogue options afterwards add to the messed up vibe of it.

Oh, I won't argue with that. It didn't bother me that much because I played the characters that somewhat fitted the story anyways (Warrior and Inquisitor) and managed to create fairly in-character paths for them, but I know it's more a coincidence than actual good effort from the writers. What I referred to in my post was people saying the story was incomprehensible or that they couldn't understand the Vitiate/Valkorion dynamics. I think KotET made it clear enough that Valkorion was still the same homicidal tyrant he always was and his whole "change of heart" was a trick, a mask. The player, Zakuul, Eternal Fleet, all were either toys or tools in his grand scheme, and while people point out to the problems with nature of Vitiate and his strategy (how many bodies he can possess, how much weakened he was when killed by JK, what stopped him for using Eternal Fleet earlier etc.), I don't see his character as that strange or inconsistent. He was exactly what I expected him to be after experiencing JK and SW stories. Many other complains are either hard to argue with or are up to personal taste. At first I also felt that Zakuul didn't "feel SW", but I think it got better in KotET and Iokath is actually quite cool and atmospheric, you have multiple cases of such technological utopia/dystopia solely in the Old Republic lore and I don't see it "not belonging" in SW story. The latest story bit being a train-wreck is a separate issue. Things like that are noticeable problems, but I don't think they're as crucial as some make them to be. The story of KotFE and KotET wasn't bad by itself or that confusing IMO, the real problem is the lack of skill and resources to implement it properly and that's the true curse destroying TOR - the ultimate example being in parts interesting, but rushed and borderline broken War on Iokath story. As money and time don't grow on trees and no one will ever invest huge sums into a game in this state, expect it to either get worse when it goes to quality issues or the pace of significant updates getting slower and slower.

You didn't? I got to all of this that you wrote here just by playing through KotFE/KotET twice. To be fair, I've also played though all the class stories and saw everything up to Ziost from both Republic and Imperial side. I think if you have enough background knowledge and think a bit about the new storylines it's quite easy to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. The only part I have a problem with is the claim that Valkorion intentionally got killed by us, from the last chapters of KotET I've rather interpreted it as an effect of a miscalculation on his part and everything that happened after as emergency plan to reclaim his power. After all, he had 5 years to set it all up while we were in the freezer, for me it makes more sense than risking so much just to claim a new identity. On the other hand, you can argue that he was arrogant enough to attempt something like that without expecting failure to be a possibility. But that's from the perspective of a lore-nerd. People that don't give that much attention to the story can easily get lost here I guess. I still don't agree with much of the criticism the story got here, everyone was provided with means to understand it IMO.

The game would be on E3 if there was anything new to announce - does the current roadmap look like something to be promoted on a game show? "This year SWTOR will bring you a single raid instance, released in parts, hopefully within next 6 months. Forget the Tomb of Sargeras, immerse yourself now with our consistently more broken story and first real boss encounter in three years!". BTW, I find it funny that people see hiring Keith and better communication as some big effort on part of EA. It costs nearly nothing (or maybe less than nothing) to replace a bad lead developer who loses subscription money with his misguided decisions. On the other hand, it costs money to actually invest in a game and give it some life after it reached a low point and I see no signs of that happening - and would be very atypical of EA, that seems to prioritize short-term gain most of the time. So far, apart from Keith entering a dialogue with players and having good ideas when it comes to balance/quality of life improvements that aren't hard to implement, nothing actually changed. We have the same lack of actual new content and very vague idea on what will come past the next (somewhat minor) update in July. All that was announced so far is the same stuff we could reasonably expect from the previous management, with some tweaks here and there. Important tweaks maybe, but it doesn't change the fact that the game is expiring and something amazing would have to be done to revitalize it. I'm not in any way negative about Keith BTW, it seems he does anything he can to make this work again. But I don't believe he'll ever get the resources needed to actually do it. Playerbase doesn't help much either, many crucial changes that are necessary to make the game work again (eg. server mergers) are opposed by vocal minorities. Hopefully he'll have the courage to not only talk with players but also to do the right thing even when he meets opposition. Otherwise, he'll be just a friendly nurse tending to this game's life support and slowing down it's decay. Better than an obnoxious, negligent one, but the end effect is similar.

Like it was said above, I wouldn't expect any special dialogue from him, but when it goes to influence gain, I would try it in story flashpoints like Boarding Party and The Foundry.

As Arcann is now in the Alliance Base, I start thinking this might actually happen... While I previously didn't think about it and it's probably mostly female players interested in this option, my female Wrath actually had her original romance bugged and Arcann would be a perfect fill for her story. So, suddenly I want this to happen VERY MUCH. Please Bioware, be kind to us.

Yes and no. There's a dialogue in Warrior's class mission on Rishi where Vowrawn ask him/her what his/her ambition is and one of the options is proving oneself in battle and destroying Empire's enemies. Power comes in many forms and while running a state goes with many perks, it also brings many burdens and it's not necessarily every Sith' ambition to become an Emperor. Especially when being on top also means sticking a big target on one's back. Not always the best self-preservation strategy.

I would somewhat agree, although it depends on the alignment and how you would organize your rule. The case is that no player character had a choice when it goes to claiming the throne, only on how to use it - and it's somewhat believable, there are very few people who could be trusted with such power and even a Commander that didn't want it would have hard time to pass the power to someone worthy. Beside that, for LS Warrior claiming the throne would be an opportunity to put stop to the war and influence the change he/she always wanted. With Vitiate out of the picture and Acina being a rational ruler, the new power dynamic makes it possible to push the Empire in the right direction while also preventing another total war between the Sith and the Repiblic. Siding with the Empire on Iokath wouldn't change that really, the conflict would most likely be contained to a few local confrontations and would cement the Alliance between the Wrath and Acina. For DS Wrath, claiming the Throne would be a vessel for gaining personal power and wealth, while he would leave the everyday issues of governing to trusted advisors such as Lana. If he/she was still loyal to the Empire and Sith ideals, he could use it as a weapon against the Republic and the Jedi, ensuring the Sith supremacy in the galaxy. If not, he/she would most likely limit its use to defending his/her small empire and claiming the benefits of being a monarch.

So... We're getting the mythic Manaan stronghold after all? I'm nearly excited. Also, the Roadmap is definitely underwhelming. It's nothing beyond what was already promised and confirmed, doens't even provide extra details (apart from the stronghold - which is cool, but really quite low on the "what actually matters" scale). I will stick to the end, because that's the kind of sucker I am with Bioware games. But if you want to make people happy and keep this game from dying, you have to try harder Keith. The lack of actual insight into the companions coming back, the flashpoint and whatever content might come in fall makes even me apathetic, and I'm not easily discouraged when it comes to SWTOR. :s

Man, I'm heavily light-side on every character, but I would chop the Scions into pieces on all of them anyways. After what Heskal did I have no tolerance for them.