Continuation of past realtions is something I was really missing playing through the post-vanilla content. Maybe this impacted me especially because I played as a consular for my first playthrough, the only interaction from old companions that I got up until Nadia finally turned up was a extremely half-hearted Qyzen reunion where it basically goes "wanna rejoin me?" - "eh, ok. My Trandoshian buddies got nothing better to do anyway." and a single scene with Iresso. To be completely honest I don't see why there couldn't be a bit of both? We already got the basic formula to program it: scenes that involve companions of two classes: The first one should just be romance options, that's what most people care about anyway. Personally I'd also like to see the old "first companions" as the other class, those that haven't really been featured in the story yet (Khem Val, Qyzen, Mako etc.) just because they are supposed to be your oldest and bestest buddies. Besides that, I think it would suffice to just have quest commentary for the rest and not necessarily fully written and voiced conversations with them. I also think it would be nice if your "quest giver" could be someone that's not Lana and Theron. If not your romance, why not just let the player pick a "assistant" character between those two and any active romance options? It'd be nice if my Bounty Hunter could go back to working with Mako again. This way characters like Arcann and Koth could also be put into use again, somewhat.

This also kinda annoys me because it could so easily be fixed by just letting you be at the final stages of your padawanship or what you'd call it instead of at the beginning of it. Instead of the story framing it as your introduction to the jedi life, it's your final "exam" where you go through the works of what you have "learned" and how you are almost a fully trained Jedi.

On that note, just in case anyone knows; do you ever get to call anyone a racist ***** for picking on aliens as a human? I've played through trooper and SW story as human, and it always seem to me that you can only protest racially charged dialogue if you are an alien yourself. As human you always either ignore the comment or reinforce it, don't you?

I've restarted the SI story after initially getting to Quesh (just because I needed to unlock Rattataki and this class seemed the best fit). While I do share your sentiment that rising in the ranks, as far as I got to the story, is satisfying I really do wish specific parts of the story weren't written as if my hand is being held.

You aren't weird for having a preference. I have a hard time really picking a favourite, but I think it's hard for any of the other class stories to beat the consular for me, just because that was the first one I completed. I suppose the parts of SW I like are the role you are given as a reward for completing the story, even if it just isolated to dialogue, but also the companions. I also think SW characters make sense for the role that are put on them in the expansions. With my BH I couldn't really care that much about the other companions, I even argued against bringing on Gault, even though I actually like him as a character, just because I didn't get what my bounty hunter would do with this dude who had dubious loyalties. I felt the same way with all companions that wasn't Mako, I understood her role on the ship and quite enjoyed her partnership with the BH. I also feel like quite a few stories suffer from chapter 1 completionism. BH was actually the first class I took beyond chapter 1, but after winning the great hunt I sort of lost interest in the story for a while. I can't really say I loved it once I picked it up again either, I felt like it was a story that could have really used some branching paths just because of the freelance nature of it. I'm glad I was given one in the end. Other stories I feel suffered from completing goals early was smuggler and the two jedi classes. One of the strong points of the sith's are that the general goal of optaining power remains regardless of what allignment you play for. For the same reason, I actually think Trooper and IA are the strongest class stories seen overall; but that's just because of the structure of intelligence and military operations. It makes it easier to get behind the turns the narrative takes from chapter to chapter, since it's just your job. Trooper is also helped with the early pace of optaining companions, you already have three options halfway through chapter 1. I understand why some prefer BH and smuggler just because of the more grounded narrative background, but for me it sort of loses its charm when the story restricts you along a certain path. This is true of all classes, but only BH and smuggler feels to me like they pretend that you had a choice of direction.

For some reason I can't open just the general discussion at all, when I'm on the english language site. If I switch to French up in the top corner, then I have no problems.

I really do hope Bioware will consider including your romance options more in future content. It could be an easy way to program a story that doesn't rely solely on Lana Beniko to deliver information, and would serve to validate our choice and enhance replayability. I'm glad Arcann isn't just a one time thing, I might roll a character for his romance in the future.

By the way, just out of curiosity, since I haven't ever romanced him myself: Is there any more content to his romance besides the one flirt option you get in the alliance prompt to chat with him on Odessen? I remember him appearing during the betrayal story, so I'm assuming is any additional scenes exist, one would play here?

That usually happens to me if my wi-fi fails momentarily or the router needs a reset.

I don't subscribe to this notion, although you are right; that is ususally the road writing takes. It should only be a matter of writing ambition and revision to make better excuses for why someone can or can't be engaged. Buried traps, figures that turn out to just be holographs, smoke bombs, hostage situations etc. There's a lot of tools a writer can use to make a stay of execution in a otherwise direct confrontation. Them just walking off is the worst scenario because it's the writer not even trying.

Agreed. My hope is that development will be turned towards making story content with the companions we already have over any other fluff.

Malgus was a chum on a space station who failed and Arcann was powerful "because story." Which means, any one of them could win depending on the writer. If we go solely by what we've been shown of them in SWTOR, then Arcann would wipe the floor with Malgus.

My only interpretation is that they take place within the timeframe where your class story brings you to a planet where you can pick it up. So, after completing Balmorra/Taris for your example. I pick it up on the way off world.

He does? I must not have paid enough attention or thought it was just general dialogue. Do you remember what he says exactly? I actually kinda like balancing neutral, but I wish I could switch off the d/l side point rewards for quests entirely. I think I'd like to balance neutral characters more if it depended solely on my choices.

Not that I am aware of. Twitter?

I don't view any government as "the good guys," I think the abuses of the empire firmly rules them out of being anywhere near good, as a general statement, though. That said, the republic contains its share of abuse as well, the difference is usually that it's done behind closed doors though, which is why certain types of idealists can operate to its benefit.

Maybe I'll just pick for my first character, female consular. I'd have to go with two personal picks first. Nadia. Her romance interest. Qyzen. Her oldest and most loyal friend. Plus he's muscle for when that's needed. Then I'd go with T7 who has proven itself extremely useful on several occasions. It's also got the morality of a jedi so it's a nice fit. Then I'd pick Yuun simply for his unique view of the world. He's an asset on any team that has the patience to suffer his cultural quirks. Lastly I'd have LS Jaesa Willsaam. Her special ability would be useful to any great diplomat, such as the role of the consular often turns out to be.

My smuggler's been the only class character where I could kinda get behind koth, but I play her as generally flirty so I think at the end of the day she'll just never settle for any one person and keep flirting with all. I could imagine he fits decently well with other characters that are of a more freelance nature too, like the bounty hunter or the agent-gone-rogue.

Really? I always pick all the heroics I can on new characters going through DK and never have any problems with them, perhaps except the one where you have to pick up all those tablets. That usually just involves a minute to wait at one of the containers - usually just the one in my experience though.

Can't trust a Hutt mate.

Lol, most of the dudes. Especially since some of them are ill matches for the classes that I picked with female genders. Doc and Corso are seriously full of themselves, were they swapped for their classes maybe they'd have had a chance given the nature that I see in the jedi-k and the smuggler. Aric I just couldn't take, I was playing a very by-the-books kind of trooper for my first female, Jorgan is just way too impulsive and emotional for what she would see as a proper soldier, or just as a man. Iresso I just found kinda bland, but even then I had planned to romance Nadia, since she became a option to female consular right when I started playing the game. No reason to settle for bland. As for the female options I suppose it depends. I wasn't very much into Kira so I'm not sure I'd have romanced her even if I had played a dude with that specific class. Kaliyo I don't necessarily dislike, but I think even the most chaotic aligned male Agent I could imagine playing, would see her as a flirt and not a person to settle for. That romance also suffers from having a really attractive second option. The romance options I'm kinda indifferent towards are Andronikos, Hyllus and Torian. I think it'd depend on how Andro and Torian interact with the flirtations for a female characters of their class. I've only played male characters in those instances, except for Agent where I always planned to be a open flirt in the vanilla story and settle for Theron the SIS-wonderboy - I just felt like it would be a neat twist given the nature of the work the agent is involved in. I actually like Hyllus, I just don't really see him as someone I would want to flort with, too alien in a way.

My problems with the expansions had more to do with the specific characters and story elements that take up focus rather than the alliance as a central plot tool. The only characters I kinda liked were Senya and Arcan and Arcan is only a tiny bit interesting because he gets magicked into goodness. (It would have been better if it was a change he wasn't literally healed into). I don't really mind the idea of the alliance to consolidate the different character classes into a more overarching story direction, I just wish we were given more choice within the narrative to decide what "the alliance" is precisely, and still had some specific quests to each class to keep them interesting.

Alright, it sounds like I haven't been an accidental jerk then! I just play for the story content and the side quests so I'm probably good.

I have interferred in battles, but only ever against what I assume are normal mooks while exploring. Can those be bounties to people? I've only played since December, but just from playing I got the impression that attacking a occupied target wasn't at all noteworthy, unless you count quest targets like the republic quest to collar a joiner on Alderaan for example. I feel like I've even come across situations where it was appreciated. I'd prefer not to annoy anyone, we're all playing the game to have a good time after all, so is this issue something that someone new to the game might not be aware of?

There are quite a few points in the game where I feel like a third, very obvious, choice would be warranted. It's rare that we get more than two, which are usually light/dark side alligned. I'd also like to see more choices that don't necessarily result in a specific moral allignment. The best example I can think of is Trooper mission on Coruscant. You get the choice to obey Garza and kill suspected cyborgs or don't and release them. In this instance I don't understand why the 'borgs can't just be left and some specialists called to investigate the claim about their implants. There are a couple of times in the game where I feel like two choices don't cut it, and they aren't necessarily major story choices either.