Were plans to make "Same sex companion romances" canned?

[Palar]

If you engage in critical rather than wishful thinking they were saying "we are not going to do it because we want to do more than change gender pronouns."

 

They never... ANYWHERE... said that they were going to go back through the COMPANION stories and change any of them to same gender. They simply said they were going to allow for same gender romances. There is a difference. Why do you think there is now an option for player characters to "cheat" on their spouses? Because this is how they are doing it, new romance options with new NPCs.

 

No, but they did say it would be with new companions. Since, though, they've tried to pretend that was only an assumption we made.

[Ghisallo]

I think you're probably right there.

 

Yeah I get that people wanted to be able to have same sex romances with their "real" companions but they never said they would redux all of that, anny interpretation that they ever said that was in the eye of the beholder. Not saying BW's decision to NOT redux is good or bad mind you... just calling it like it is.

[CelCawdro]

Yeah I get that people wanted to be able to have same sex romances with their "real" companions but they never said they would redux all of that, anny interpretation that they ever said that was in the eye of the beholder. Not saying BW's decision to NOT redux is good or bad mind you... just calling it like it is.

 

They were actually pretty candid about revisting existing companion romances pre-release (back when story content still mattered). Different ball game, now. Plans changed. Feasibility changed. But let's not pretend that those plans never existed.

[Baalzie]

Actually, they said explicitly that it would be future companions ONLY. Multiple times, every time the question popped up they said: "IF it gets done it will be on new companions only, not already existing ones!"

They didn't even promise it WOULD get done, they just said it MIGHT, and that they were working on possible implementation.

Ffs it's all archived here on the forum, and on Twitter and whatnot, go look...

Edited May 8, 2015 by Baalzie

[CelCawdro]

Actually, they said explicitly that it would be future companions ONLY. Multiple times, every time the question popped up they said: "IF it gets done it will be on new companions only, not already existing ones!"

They didn't even promise it WOULD get done, they just said it MIGHT, and that they were working on possible implementation.

Ffs it's all archived here on the forum, and on Twitter and whatnot, go look...

 

Post-release, this is accurate. Pre-release? Not so much.

[Palar]

They didn't even promise it WOULD get done, they just said it MIGHT, and that they were working on possible implementation.

Ffs it's all archived here on the forum, and on Twitter and whatnot, go look...

 

Yeah, about that - here's the old Stephen Reid quote they used to trot out. "Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options."

[sinisterwaffle]

Yeah, about that - here's the old Stephen Reid quote they used to trot out. "Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options."

 

Yes i remember this quote quite vividly, they DID say "WILL" be a post launch feature, never did they say "might" as much as they maybe wish they had or people here insist they did.

[Wittand]

"Topic #4: Same Gender Romance: Any news on this front would be great… Answer: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. "

Jeff Hickman. State of the Game #2, 01.02.2013

 

So 2013 SGRA´s with companions were still planned.

 

And Shadow of Revan actually made me believe that SGRAs with existing companions are not too unlikely. All the LI voice-actors got called back so there are no new external costs (that is if they planned accordingly) and now with the Epic Story XP Boost even the re-leveling an already played class is a minor inconvenience.

[Xilizhra]

"Topic #4: Same Gender Romance: Any news on this front would be great… Answer: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. "

Jeff Hickman. State of the Game #2, 01.02.2013

 

So 2013 SGRA´s with companions were still planned.

 

And Shadow of Revan actually made me believe that SGRAs with existing companions are not too unlikely. All the LI voice-actors got called back so there are no new external costs (that is if they planned accordingly) and now with the Epic Story XP Boost even the re-leveling an already played class is a minor inconvenience.

Argh. I wish that they would tell us if they were planning this, as I'd rather know whether my options are open to Ashara as well as Lana, or only Lana, before I cross the point where I ever could have romanced Ashara.

[Ghisallo]

They were actually pretty candid about revisting existing companion romances pre-release (back when story content still mattered). Different ball game, now. Plans changed. Feasibility changed. But let's not pretend that those plans never existed.

 

Well link then please because I did a metric ton of digging and all I ever found were statements that were clearly read into far too much.

[Ghisallo]

"Topic #4: Same Gender Romance: Any news on this front would be great… Answer: First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game. I realize that we promised SGR to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. "

Jeff Hickman. State of the Game #2, 01.02.2013

 

So 2013 SGRA´s with companions were still planned.

 

And Shadow of Revan actually made me believe that SGRAs with existing companions are not too unlikely. All the LI voice-actors got called back so there are no new external costs (that is if they planned accordingly) and now with the Epic Story XP Boost even the re-leveling an already played class is a minor inconvenience.

 

What he is saying is "we made a promise before we actually knew how much work it take...time for plan B".

 

Making a promise and having a "plan" are two different things. A plan is something that can be realistically executed. They found out it could not be realistically executed, so they moved onto what we have now, plan B.

 

This is what I mean by people reading too much into things.

 

Also I will bet ya that each time those voice actors get called in they get a new check cut...so each time there is a new external expense. Voice actors in video games get retainers at times BUT they also get paid by the job.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Wittand]

What he is saying is "we made a promise before we actually knew how much work it take...time for plan B".

 

Making a promise and having a "plan" are two different things. A plan is something that can be realistically executed. They found out it could not be realistically executed, so they moved onto what we have now, plan B.

 

This is what I mean by people reading too much into things.

 

Also I will bet ya that each time those voice actors get called in they get a new check cut...so each time there is a new external expense. Voice actors in video games get retainers at times BUT they also get paid by the job.

First, "will" implies that the plans did not change, if SGRAs with companions were completely canned at the time of writing he would have used "would". (Though considering that in the two years since plans might have changed without communicating this change to the community).

 

Second, I am well aware about the costs of VO. That is why I found it rather strange that (with the two exceptions of Talos and Zenith) only romance able original companions talked in SoR. Calling only those actors back even when other companions have far better reasons to talk during SoR, like Scourge, Jaesa ... ,is a rather odd choice.

I find it highly likely that the lines needed to adjust existing romance arcs for a player character of the same sex have been recorded at the same time. Otherwise the intro and the few planetary remarks would hardly have been worth the effort and cost of bringing all those voice actors back.

 

Third, changing the existing companions is the cheapest way to go address the issue, since the VO costs are already covered by point two. Two new companions would be impossible to fit into the old game (see Treek and HK ) and require much more work both in programming, voice recording and design (unless existing companions remain as indifferent about new companion RAs like they are about Theron and Lana).

 

So I would not be too surprised if SGRAs with companions will be included in an 3.x update this year, especially since the issue of having to level a class again has been addressed with the 12xXP boost for class missions.

[Aumvaar]

I'm pretty bummed that my Bounty Hunter can't engage in a hot girl-girl romance with Mako.

[LhuthienTinuviel]

Um... how about some of us want to be able to play a character like ourselves in a ROLEPLAYING game? Y'all are talking about us like we don't exist, and like it isn't frustrating as hell to never see ourselves in media. It's not like it's a hard thing to add, you just don't make the gender of the player's character a factor in the romance options in the first place? Literally that simple. We aren't asking for much, okay- if you saw nothing but gay romance in EVERYTHING, with maybe an occasional straight couple as side characters (if you're lucky), then you'd be throwing a fit. It's not ridiculous to ask that we be included, when including us actually involves LESS work than what they've put into the straight romance system the game currently has.

[SithKoriandr]

Um... how about some of us want to be able to play a character like ourselves in a ROLEPLAYING game? Y'all are talking about us like we don't exist, and like it isn't frustrating as hell to never see ourselves in media. It's not like it's a hard thing to add, you just don't make the gender of the player's character a factor in the romance options in the first place? Literally that simple. We aren't asking for much, okay- if you saw nothing but gay romance in EVERYTHING, with maybe an occasional straight couple as side characters (if you're lucky), then you'd be throwing a fit. It's not ridiculous to ask that we be included, when including us actually involves LESS work than what they've put into the straight romance system the game currently has.

 

I want to ROLEPLAY! MYSELF! >_> So you want to play yourself in the game? YES! So, what exactly is the role you're playing? MYSELF! So you're not roll playing, you're playing your self.

 

What's frustrating is most people who say they want to roleplay, aren't really saying they want to role play, they're saying "I want to play myself in this game." If you wanted to roleplay, you could easily do that, just by going with the tools they give you.

 

Now all that said, we have no idea what they're going to do with companions in KotFE so it's a bit of wait and see. Everyone just might get lucky with their companions. Personally, I think we'll see all the LI's become herosexual and those will be the returning companions, because I can't imagine them forcing people to give up their characters possible spouse.

 

Won't mean you can romance them in the 1-60 game, but 60+ I think you will.

[warshan]

I would personal say that this hasn't been canceled, i think Bioware just wants to keep this quiet so when Kotfe comes out in October they say then and it helps with sales. Now going to another one of Biowares tiles Mass Affect. In mass effect (note I'm referring to the whole series) their were female only, male only, and both romance options. With that being said they could do something like this or just make all companions in Kotfe romanceable.

 

Looking at what they did with Dragon age, the latter might be more likely happen but, i personally don't think our old companions will be made same sex romanceable. This is entirely from a logistic point and a bit of a story one. The story aspect they way i see it they established the current cast of companions as straight, this ties right into the logistic part. swtor is a product of Bioware making money weather they view it worth the time and money to go back and add more dialog to the old companions in old world content rather than work on the news ones has to viewed in a realistic light. However i would say that any companions we get back are decadently likely to be same sex romanceable.

 

While it would be nice to see this here, I don't see it happening for the old content but in kotfe i would say it's very likely that it will happen. I think that it is likely because this will result in good publicity and good publicity results in more money for Bioware.

Edited July 31, 2015 by warshan

[RichardAlam]

It would be nice, since all the male companions for females are plain *** boring.

[LordDelectus]

It would be nice, since all the male companions for females are plain *** boring.

 

LOL! These guys are so bad...maybe the grass is greener on the other side?

[SithKoriandr]

It would be nice, since all the male companions for females are plain *** boring.

 

Agreed on most of them, but I got to really enjoy Vector. Keeping him with me for all the missions after obtaining him, and not switching to Lokin (DPS who loves a healing companion), likely helped find him even more charming