Trandoshan (and other aliens) as a playable race.

[Bielduwyn]

In an interview by TotalBiscuit, Daniel Erickson said explicitly that "Freak races" (Wookiees, Trandoshans etc.) would not be done unless they were their own class, since NPCs would react very differently to those than they would to humanoids (remember, almost no one trusts Trandoshans, not even Jedi masters as the Consular story makes clear), they can't and won't work within the construct of the existing classes.

 

And judging from the tone of his voice, he was in no immediate mood to make Wookiees or Trandoshans their own class in a hurry anyway. Unsurprisingly as they'd have to write two (or more) additional class stories, make their own starter planet, and so on, in short, more effort than it'd be worth because let's face it, take a run around your local fleet station and see how many people there are, and then count just how many of those are boring old (white skinned) humans, if most people can't be as exotic as a Chiss or Twi'lek, only a real tiny minority (but a damned vocal one) would actually roll a Trandoshan or Wookiee.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Bielduwyn

[Shloogorgh]

I see your point. But surely not every freak race is treated differently. I can't imagine npcs treating Mon Calamari too differently (except for the occasional racist remark).

 

And if it came down to it, I'd rather have npcs that don't notice my race than not ever be able to play freak races.

[Bielduwyn]

That might be true for the Republic, but remember that the Sith Empire is a pretty darn xenophobic culture. The reason why (originally) the only Imperial class that could be Twi'lek was Inquisitor is because most, if not all Twi'leks in the Empire are slaves, and the Inquisitor starts as a slave.

 

And well, I'm sure that some players would complain if the real exotic aliens went to the Republic exclusively (or at least until you level one to level fifty).

 

So long story short, I think Bioware basically feels it'll be less hassle to simply have all present and potential future races be mostly humanoid for the reason that they won't have to make an all new class with an all new story as that would keep various teams (writers, designers, programmers, and of course countless hours of testing them for balance in PvE and PvP) busy when they could be making all new content for existing classes/characters.

 

Granted, they're free to prove me wrong, but when all the evidence is put together I really think we won't ever see very exotic aliens being playable, and I'm kinda fine with that myself. I see the reasoning and find it acceptable.

[Akilus]

I'd really like to join a Trandoshan Mercenary Army.

[Skylarke]

Rodian, Wookiee, and Nautolan get my vote.

 

[Acidstrider]

Rodian, Wookiee, and Nautolan get my vote.

 

Really? Rodian? Ah well, to each their own. Once knew a girl who found the Rodians unbelievably attractive. I thought she was joking until she showed me some of the commissions on Deviant art she had paid for.

 

But in any case I am glad to see so many chipping in with their own opinion and ideas. I must say I am a bit ashamed that I have not partaken in a more active role on this thread, but with the recent ops "Explosive Conflict" where they added many new Trandoshan skins, on top of additional body types, I once more feel the fire for this topic burn once more within me!

 

I love this game, I really do. But the inability to play as some of the more colorful races really makes the game feels generic. I recently played me some Guild wars 2 and while I won't leave the SWTOR for it, I loved the fact I could play as races that are not just humans with different colored skin.

 

I know that Bioware have stated that if they add something along the Lines of a Trandoshan, it would be in the form of a unique class, specifically tailored for the more alien races.

 

This however worries me. Don't get me wrong, it is all good and well that they want to put that much effort into it.

But this also makes me afraid, that I will never see it come to reality. Why would they put so much effort into a new class that would probably make things all the harder to balance the classes out that are already in the game? Why would they make unique new maps for questing locations, and hire voice actors when they could instead make a brand new ops raid?

 

I am a huge Trandoshan fan. I would want nothing more than RP as a Trandoshan. I have refused to make a powertech saving it for the day I can make a Trandoshan, I have a alt specifically made to hold the name I want for a Trandoshan.

 

And I say I do not need a perfectly tailored story. I would be perfectly fine with it being little more than a skin. Make it like force unleashed! I played through that entire game as darth maul! It didn't make sense in character, but it made me love playing the game, because darth maul a thousand folds better than starkiller.

 

Make it like a DLC! I would pay real life money for a Trandoshan! Make it like a legacy thing! Lets say for example, finish the bounty hunter story line and you can play as a Trandoshan! Finish the smuggler story line, you may play as a Wookie. Or have it be one of those legacy things you have to pay for! I would do all of this for the chance to play as a Trandoshan! So please Bioware, hear my pleas and remove the one major problem I have with your game.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Acidstrider

[Alaisy]

I agree with the above post, and I hope it gets the proper acknowledgement. I also don't see any reason to add another class, but races are something that give Star Wars its charm.

[OrionSol]

other races is a MUST

[mokkh]

So in the spirit of of this thread, I decided to give you all a taste of what it would be like to have playable non-humanoid alien species (who don't speak basic).

Let the wookiee win.

[Acidstrider]

So in the spirit of of this thread, I decided to give you all a taste of what it would be like to have playable non-humanoid alien species (who don't speak basic).

Let the wookiee win.

Aside from the Talz, I thought that was perfectly fine. Sure the subtitles was kind of crap, not sure who wrote those, or why they'd think it was worth uploading on youtube. But the language itself was awesome. I especially like Khem-val's language. Edited May 28, 2012 by Acidstrider

[mokkh]

Aside from the Talz I thought that was perfectly fine. Sure the subtitles was kind of crap, not sure who wrote those, or why they'd think it was worth uploading on youtube. But the language itself was awesome. I especially like Khem-val's language.

 

I "wrote" them, if by write you mean came up with off the top of my head. The idea was to show how ridiculous it is to have them repeat the same 6-8 lines of gibberish over and over yet get translated into something different. Now imagine that for an entire playthrough from 1-50. They shouldn't add lizardmen or wookiees as playable races and that was an illustration of the biggest reason why.

 

Also: The subtitles were crap. Just like your grammar.

[DaWaffle]

Personally, I'm looking for Chagrians Togrutas and Nautoleans.

[Marklarx]

A major barrier in addition to what's been mentioned already was mentioned during development - the difficulty with making lightsabers deflect blaster bolts. This is why they were stuck with 4 sizes of human models, and why all "alien" races are painted humans. They had to keep the animations consistent. This is also why you will NOT see a non-humanized Jedi/Sith NPC with lightsabers that you can fight, because they won't deflect blaster fire properly. Instead they get vibro-whatevers.

 

Sorry, you're stuck with humans or painted humans (bodies I mean, faces have different issues, and were mentioned previously) - whatever can be humanized and not require additional animations.

 

Cathar could be do-able because they already have them humanized and Jorgan seems to look fine in all heavy armors. Maybe the mouths/eyes were different enough to require a separate sliding scale on the char creator, which would be a "major technological advancement."

Edited May 28, 2012 by Marklarx

[zJulianz]

im right there with ya buddy i thought we would see races like Kel dor and togruta at Launch but sadly i was all wrong

though it seems togruta will be put in at some point Bioware seems to dislike having all the romances working with wierd lookin aliens i couldnt care less about that i just want to play my fav species!!!! but no it wont be emmersive enough for them i guess

 

dont count on really werd lookin aliens bein put in there to play :S

sorry if its not the response u were looking for but it seems thats whats happening

[Acidstrider]

Sorry, you're stuck with humans or painted humans (bodies I mean, faces have different issues, and were mentioned previously) - whatever can be humanized and not require additional animations."

 

Which is fair enough. I know why they were not there in the launch, but sense they have undoubtedly recived a ungodly amount of money, so why can't they do add more animations now?

 

I know, I know this would be to much work....

 

 

WHICH REINFORCES MY POINT! Make them a legacy thing. The Trandoshan can't use light sabers? Well that kind of sucks... Which is why they'd be a bounty hunter race only, if you done all the bounty hunters story quest up to level 50. Let the Jedi have the Togrutas and the Sith the Nautoleans. Problem solved.

Edited May 29, 2012 by Acidstrider

[Crimson_Merc]

I personally think they will have a Trandoshan and Wookiee race, but I think they will talk in their native tongue. Also, I do not think they will be able to become force wielders, but troopers, smugglers, bounty hunters and snipers would be fitting. Maybe some unique NPC reactions to them or something.

[Acidstrider]

I agree. I don't think you'd have to rewrite to much seeing as Trandoshans and such, while weird to us is a common place in the galaxy. Every time I've seen the Trandoshan's in a novel or even in the movie it wasn't really made a big deal out of. Sure that one Imperial gave Bossk a funny look, but they already kind of have that in the game if you are a Alien.

[MrStarkillr]

Yes! PLEASE! make Trandos a playable race! I always wanted to play as once since before the game came out. Give me a Trando Sith Warrior!

 

Of course Trandoshans would make good sith, if Bowser could do it than so can they!

Edited June 14, 2012 by MrStarkillr

[VashaGeish]

I believe Daniel Erickson said something on this matter. I will quote it here

 

In the future I can see a day where we would do a Trandoshan or Wookiee type story but it would have to be just that. Not a simple graphic swap where now your smuggler is a giant lizard man and nobody notices but a full class story where you learn what it means to be this strange alien and deal with the rest of the galaxy and their reactions. For the present, however, our heroes are our projections of self, headed into a galaxy of wonders and adventures.

 

So as he said, since species like Trandoshans and Wookies cannot fit into the current classes because of the armor, romances, etc, he wants to make them their own class. So, in the Wookies' case, you would start out on Kashyyyk, maybe during your tribal thing in the Shadowlands (they mentioned this in KOTOR I believe), and then after level 10 you could go into a life debt or something (or you could also be exiled for attacking someone with your claws), and then your adventure would begin. With a Trandoshan, you would just be racking up points for the Scorekeeper. I have a bunch of other species that I would love this idea to be added to also, like a Selkath on the planet Manaan as a starter planet or a similar aquatic species on an ocean planet where part could be played swimming underwater, exploring the land below the surface, and part walking on the above-water cities.

 

These non-humanoid alien species-classes do seem like a lot of work, them seem like a lot of fun too. Plus, it could reveal a little more what it is like to be an alien and to be descriminated so much, especially on the Empire side. I don't think these classes would be as favorable as the "real" classes though.

 

Source: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/15986-pax-daniel-erickson-clarifies-conversation-with

[Izorii]

I believe Daniel Erickson said something on this matter. I will quote it here

 

 

 

So as he said, since species like Trandoshans and Wookies cannot fit into the current classes because of the armor, romances, etc, he wants to make them their own class. So, in the Wookies' case, you would start out on Kashyyyk, maybe during your tribal thing in the Shadowlands (they mentioned this in KOTOR I believe), and then after level 10 you could go into a life debt or something (or you could also be exiled for attacking someone with your claws), and then your adventure would begin. With a Trandoshan, you would just be racking up points for the Scorekeeper. I have a bunch of other species that I would love this idea to be added to also, like a Selkath on the planet Manaan as a starter planet or a similar aquatic species on an ocean planet where part could be played swimming underwater, exploring the land below the surface, and part walking on the above-water cities.

 

These non-humanoid alien species-classes do seem like a lot of work, them seem like a lot of fun too. Plus, it could reveal a little more what it is like to be an alien and to be descriminated so much, especially on the Empire side. I don't think these classes would be as favorable as the "real" classes though.

 

Source: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/15986-pax-daniel-erickson-clarifies-conversation-with

 

I never know how much of what they said around launch can now be trusted. Origianlly they wanted to not allow Sith Pureblood to be inquistors and now we have pureblood jedi with no change to dialog or anything. I read a lot of the initial info we got as "This is what we will do and people will love it" they now have to be a bit more releasitc and be willing to bend some ideas to make the remaining players happy.

[vingmotor]

the thing about sith pureblood becoming jedi sucks bigtime.

and the lack of fun alien species sucks too.

im slowly getting to not liking this game soon..

and i want to like it again.

 

dont be lazy bioware , you gonna loose hard on that.

Edited June 14, 2012 by vingmotor

[Evil_Jashinist]

I don't think we'll actually get wookies, trandoshans or jawas personally, it would be a lot of work :/ But I WOULD like some of the other less human species to become available, a lot of them can speak common it's just unusual in some cases. I mean devaronians, togruta, kaleesh, kel dor, chagrian, mon calamari, nautolans, nikto, voss, weequay have actually been seen and interacted with in the game, and all of these had characters that could speak common. I would really like it if all of those became playable because I can see pretty much all work with the existing voice acting to at least one class.

 

The animations, gear adaptation and in some cases female models would be all that's missing. My personal favourites are devaronias, nautolans, chagrians and togruta.

[VashaGeish]

I don't think we'll actually get wookies, trandoshans or jawas personally, it would be a lot of work :/ But I WOULD like some of the other less human species to become available, a lot of them can speak common it's just unusual in some cases. I mean devaronians, togruta, kaleesh, kel dor, chagrian, mon calamari, nautolans, nikto, voss, weequay have actually been seen and interacted with in the game, and all of these had characters that could speak common. I would really like it if all of those became playable because I can see pretty much all work with the existing voice acting to at least one class.

 

The animations, gear adaptation and in some cases female models would be all that's missing. My personal favourites are devaronias, nautolans, chagrians and togruta.

 

Yes, I believe that they should add the humanoid species that can all speak basic. Gear adaption is the biggest problem I think for them. Animations too, but they would just do all the same animations that are already present, so I don't think they would have to make new animations. I don't know too much about this technical stuff though so I could be wrong.

[SawneyRath]

Trandoshans and Ithorians please yes.

[Bielduwyn]

I never know how much of what they said around launch can now be trusted. Origianlly they wanted to not allow Sith Pureblood to be inquistors and now we have pureblood jedi with no change to dialog or anything. I read a lot of the initial info we got as "This is what we will do and people will love it" they now have to be a bit more releasitc and be willing to bend some ideas to make the remaining players happy.

I really hope not as is, I really hope we don't see a day where Bioware has as little respect for Star Wars lore as Blizzard does for its franchise nowadays. If something makes no sense in the lore they shouldn't do it, simple as. Sadly enough I probably won't see a day where all Republic Pureblood characters get purged. But hey, as long as they don't make the situation worse.