Hey everyone! Thanks for all the great feedback and thoughts in this thread! I believe Keith is working on his post to put up later this evening, after which I'll see how much thunder he's stolen before I make my own If he and Eric have got the "how" of feedback pretty well covered, I may just dive into some of the more specific questions I'm seeing here in the thread. Sound good?

Yep, this is what I intended to say - sorry for any confusion! For the record, Musco is not involved in story brainstorms

The love for Scourge and Arcann is noted and appreciated! In terms of new characters vs returning ones, the team is 100% prioritizing returning characters for the time being, but that doesn't mean we could never introduce someone new, especially if it helps to solve a major gap like this. And no, characters who can die depending on decisions aren't out of the running Keep the great ideas and discussion coming!

I'm not Keith, but I'll hop in on this one! You're definitely right - our goal was absolutely to encourage Open World PvP on Iokath. One of our main motivations for including stuff like playable vehicles and Op bosses and Player loot was to make PvP on Iokath a unique and interesting experience compared to Outlaw's Den or Ilum. And, yeah, it just doesn't seem to have grabbed folks' interest. I don't think that forcing Players to participate in PvP is the answer - SWTOR just isn't that kind of game - so we need to look elsewhere for solutions. Presumably better incentives would be a great way to start, but I'd love to hear your thoughts (and everyone else's) on the subject. In the coming weeks one of the discussion topics we will make is on this very topic!

This has been on my mind a lot - it's definitely a huge oversight that I want to fix along with all the characters that are still missing. If folks want to share more of what they'd like to see from a character like this, we're all ears

I think the first backstory you have there is more likely than the second, personally - as brutal as the Sith are to one another, there must be cases where a powerful Pureblood Sith is overthrown and their surviving family members enslaved. It would certainly be quite the trophy for the Sith who overthrew them; if Purebloods are held to be the most powerful, then defeating and enslaving them must be seen as an impressive display of power indeed. Perhaps the victorious Sith had intended to keep his Pureblood victim's family in slavery permanently, but was overruled and forced to send the Force-sensitive ones to the academy as is tradition? Now he/she is constantly trying to find ways to undermine or kill the Pureblood covertly, before they can become powerful enough to exact revenge. Could be some fun RP opportunities beyond what the storyline brings

It's so great to see everyone's awesome ideas and enthusiasm in this thread - keep 'em coming! Honestly, it comes down to priorities - we've been very focused on features that supported story chapters and gameplay, so this didn't make it to the top of the list. But this year, we've shifted some of our focus to broader features that improve the overall gameplay experience and add better customization and convenience options. So with that in mind, it makes sense to see if we can add weapons to Outfit Designer this year. This is an entirely fair critique; I have always read the forums daily, but it's silly to have gone so long without actually posting. I promise be more talkative in the future. Keith definitely sets a good example in this regard

We've been discussing this one a lot recently, and we're working on how we could fit it into the schedule for this year. Once that gets firmed up we'll let y'all know

Possibly...

Hey folks! Seeing all of the discussion around our Knights of the Fallen Empire announcement has been awesome! It means a lot to the writing team to see how much y’all care about the details of the story and characters of SWTOR, and all of the insightful questions and debates that flow from that. I’m here to hopefully shed a bit of light on a few of the most common questions I’ve seen. Up front, I think the best answer I can give to any story question is that it’s always best to wait and see how the story itself will answer it. I personally just hate giving out spoilers, so I won’t be doing that here. I promise, the main storyline of KOTFE is all about the things y’all have been asking, and October is going to be here very soon. In the meantime, though, let’s see if we can’t at least clarify a couple of things now: The Outlander: your character’s past will be a key part of their identity as the Outlander moving forward. The choices you’ve made, romances you’ve pursued, your class, etc are all a part of who your character is, and those decisions will be honored in KOTFE; often in unexpected ways. How that works for characters who are created at level 60 is something we’ll dive into in the future, but we will not be setting a “canon” version of any class or world storyline. Your choices matter – that’s at the heart of our storytelling philosophy at BioWare. Companions: there’s a ton of stuff going on with companions in this release, and we’re not ready to dive into most of it just yet. What I can say is that past companions will return in the story, sometimes as very critical parts of the overall story shared by all Outlanders. Which classes can recruit which characters, who can be romanced, who can you kill and who might betray you? You’ll have to play and see Finally, I’ve seen a lot of people referencing the KOTFE page’s character list as a list of companions – not everyone on that list will become a companion, and not every companion in the story is included in that list. Valkorion: who is this guy? What happened to that other Emperor? Aren’t they both actually Jadus, who’s secretly Kephess, who’s actually a mutated clone of Kai Zykken created by Fez Burba for the Star Cabal’s secret war against the Shroud? OK, so I actually haven’t seen that theory, but IT’S ALL TRUE TELL EVERYONE BEFORE IT’S TOO LA---- [Charles had to take a few days off to relax, but he’ll be back in time to answer more questions at our Community Cantina event at San Diego Comic Con next month! - Musco]

I was at the Best Buy on South Mopac here in Austin for the midnight launch event. We had tons of players there, members of the 501st Legion, and even one nice gentleman who offered to train me in lightsaber combat Getting to spend that moment with our awesome community is something I'll never forget. Thank you all so much!

It's been long enough since that one first came out that I don't mind answering, if y'all really want to know When the Player strikes Soverus down, he mentions a vision relating to his death, but is initially confused when the details don't match what was foretold. Upon seeing Jensyn, he seems to make sense of it, and says "The old man was right about me--was he right about you, too?" So, an "old man" foretold the circumstances of Soverus's death, including some special detail about the man who would kill him, Jensyn: But who is this old man? Is there some character somewhere who's described as a "prophet" who has interacted with powerful Sith like Soverus? Maybe someone located on Korriban, since that's where all of this is taking place?

This contradiction stood out to me as well, to be honest! It came from a brief passage in the Journal of Gnost-Dural. I've quoted it below, with a bit of emphasis added: As I wasn't the author of the journal, I can't speak to their exact intent. It's a very short passage, so there's not a lot of room for expressing nuances of Mando culture, and I'm loathe to "overrule" someone else's work just because my initial interpretation of it is contradictory. So, I gave it another look. I think the most important factor to consider with the Journal is that, like Bedtime on Concordia, it's written to present the views of specific characters in-universe --characters other than Shae herself. We aren't getting Shae's own thoughts or words about her actions, so it's all effectively hearsay. But if we look at the sequence of events--brother killed, challenge issued and refused, assault on Jedi Temple--it's easy to see how the narrative of revenge and a personal grudge against Jedi would end up as a common assumption in-universe. To my mind, Shae probably did care very much about her brother; as this story exemplifies, family is very important to Mandalorians. She was still young when he died, and I think that led her to fixate on Jedi not just as a personal challenge to her own family and clan, but as a challenge to all Mandalorians. So she looked for opportunities to win victories over them, to prove that the Mandos' strength doesn't end where lightsabers begin. Once that was done, she moved on; given that she's made no special effort to hunt down Jedi for several decades by the time of Shadow of Revan, it seems safe to say that she holds no specific enmity toward them anymore. That challenge has already been beaten, and now she's looking for something bigger, as Galron theorizes. All that's to say that it's something I've definitely thought about, but that may never get fully nailed down in-game. I'd love to hear what you folks think on the issue!

Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone! Glad y'all enjoyed the read. And vor'e for sussing out the occasional bits of Mando'a in there, I promise I actually toned it down.

Just an honest oversight! The text will be updated to correct the issue in a future update. It is possible that someday far from now, a future product may depend on setting canon versions of some events, as happened with KOTOR and KOTOR II. Nobody can say for sure. But we do not have any plans to ever declare the "canon" version of any decision your character makes while the game is live. That's up to you.

The Wookiee and droid in the screenshot are new characters; we weren't trying to subtly imply playable Wookiees. Sorry for any confusion there.

Hi folks! I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I do read all of your feedback, and apologize if yesterday’s blog felt repetitious or unnecessary for you. I’ve seen some posts and comments around the web over the last few months where folks didn’t seem to know we’d started a new ongoing story, didn’t know there were more than two conversations in the Tython & Korriban Flashpoints, didn’t know when to expect the next chapter, etc. Obviously I’m super enthusiastic about story in our game, so I leapt at the chance to make extra-sure everyone knows where to find the latest stuff. I’m definitely sorry if my zealousness frustrated more folks than it educated. If anyone wants to register their displeasure with me in person, or talk about anything story-related, I’ll be at our Cantina Event in San Diego tomorrow – come down and give me an earful! Otherwise, I’ll go back to lurking here, as I always do.

Hi folks! Just wanted to drop by and let you know that we have heard your feedback about voice actor variety over the last few releases, and it's something we're already addressing for future content. We aren't recasting any current roles, but we will be using some new (or at least, new to us) talent for a lot of upcoming characters. All that being said, we record most of our voice acting pretty far in advance, so please be patient with us And if you have any other feedback about the voice acting and story, keep it coming!

There was a great interview I once read with Willem Dafoe (which I'm sure I'm going to paraphrase horribly) where he was asked how he felt about playing "good" characters compared to "evil" characters. Dafoe said something like "It doesn't matter. Everybody thinks they're righteous." And that's really stuck with me.

Great catch! I'll make sure this gets corrected in an upcoming patch. Thank you!

A very valid question, with a two-part, spoilery answer.

Hi Costello, I would disagree with the assertion that Imperial players' actions were pointless. While the Empire as a whole is in a tough position at the start of Rise of the Hutt Cartel, it's likely that they'd have been completely obliterated without the actions of the Imperial players who eliminated a number of massive threats both internal and external. Without the players, it would be impossible to act on the opportunities Makeb presents, and if the Empire is indeed going to strike back, it will only be accomplished through the leadership and battle prowess of the players.

Hi Xorcist, While there is no native sentient species on Makeb, the planet's flora and fauna are quite unique and exotic, and the sentient population is definitely not exclusively human. Twi'leks, Zabraks, Nikto, Weequay, and many other species make their home on Makeb. Thanks for your question!

Clearly, M1-4X would charge directly through any doors, walls, or guards between himself and the prison cell, singing the Republic anthem the whole way.

Forumers, your bizarre poetry makes it all worthwhile!