Ziost thoughts after finishing it with a smuggler

[menofhorror]

Ok finished Ziost on my smuggler.

Overall I have mixed feelings.

 

Positives:

I actually liked the story even though there were a few hiccups.

Lanas or Therons romance has been remembered and continues on which is great.

The final mission (so far) was pretty great and I love Vitiates mocking of them. Also I really appreciate the fact that the devs still show us that Lana is a sith and behaves like that and the final choice is either, hated by Lana, by Theron or by both of them. I like that. It gives the illusion of consequence for your choices.

Ziost looks pretty neat. The world designs from the planets since last year I dig a lot.

 

Negatives:

More text based quests. *Sigh* I really wish at least one or two side missions got a cutscene.

Lots of auto dialog, one of my biggest gripes. Obviously budget related but it really painfully shows that their budget has been reduced a lot.

Vitiate really does seem like a different character than the one from Jedi Knight story.

Also how is the jedi council not involved in any form? Shouldn`t Theron maybe "perhaps" inform Satele??! No better call up the smuggler.

 

just my opinion on it

[ChaosIsGolden]

I agree with most of your positives and negatives.

 

Liked the story, found it funny on my smuggler and his word choice for telling Vitiate off.

Enjoyed the consequences.

Wish there had been more to Ziost, but I suspect that well come around in a later patch (crossing my fingers that more separate content well be added for each class, but I’m not expecting it.)

And I am interested to see how far the romances go.

[Abvora]

Agreed on pretty much everything, particularly the acknowledgment of the Theron/Lana romance; the initial (cold) reunion had me worried it had been dropped. Vitiate is shaping up to be a fun villain and I enjoyed a lot of the sidequests (speedeeeeeeeer). The visuals are interesting, though I find the maps a little small to my taste. But like you said, the non-Force Sensitive PCs feel really out of place--why the heck would Theron/Lana call them instead of a Jedi/Sith to deal with what's going on?

 

Overall, Ziost was great, but it really feels like it was meant for a Jedi/Sith--particularly the Knight or the Warrior because of their connection to the Emperor.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Abvora

[Ghisallo]

Well just to go on the bit about non force PCs I can explain 2...

 

Imperial Agent

 

he is straight up immune to mind control, period...dead stop, if you picked the right choices in your class story. Even before this happened you fought to a stand still Darth Jadus, the most powerful current Sith, after Vitiate of course. To top it off, being the "Imperial Ghost" it would make sense for Lana to contact him. The last thing she would want is for it to get out to Vitiate's devoted that he is turning Ziost into an abattoir. The Ghost thus has the skill set necessary to assist and their position "outside" the Imperial Power Structure means that operational security is more easily maintained.

 

 

Pub Trooper

 

Theron was doing something as part of the joint Jedi, SIS, Military task force that was set up by Satele, him and Supreme Commander Malcolm (gotta love nepotism lol) at the end of SoR. The Trooper was chosen by the Supreme Commander as the Primary Military Adviser to this task force or as Theron said, "that just sounds better than head bad guy killer."

 

I actually think it makes MORE sense my Trooper got the call vs my JK or Consular. This is clearly a covert Op by a covert task force. The Trooper is part of that task force, my JK and consular are not. Theron takes secrecy VERY seriously and to ring up someone who is not on the "eyes only " list would seem....odd to me,

Battle Master of Council member or not

 

Edited May 2, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Senrie]

Even before this happened you fought to a stand still Darth Jadus, the most powerful current Sith, after Vitiate of course.

 

Highly contestable. Can't take Watcher Two's statement definitively.

[Senrie]

The romance is only continued if you picked the option to kiss them goodbye, by the way. Which I think is highly unfair.

[menofhorror]

The romance is only continued if you picked the option to kiss them goodbye, by the way. Which I think is highly unfair.

 

Well I guess they felt rejected otherwise.

 

But adding up I do have to say (after playing it with an imperial agent) that the low budget is PAINFULLY noticeable.

And even most cutscenes are the same. I even get to choose to kill the two imperial soldiers who we catched as an imperial.

My problem is: Too much auto dialouge, not enough dark/light choices (interesting ones) and less of the quick "Go, do this, do this" cutscene type which brings painful memories of the trooper.

There needs to be more subtleness in this. More explaining in the cutscenes. Theron, Lana and the agent and everyone who is there is so calm lol. "Ok the emperor is here on Ziost, well we should take him on I guess. Yea let`s do it."

I just noticed this. But perhaps its just me.

Now off to play it with my warrior. Lets see how that turns out....

[Ghisallo]

Highly contestable. Can't take Watcher Two's statement definitively.

 

It actually isn't contestable in the least... it was also in they Source book they published for the game. It even states specifically tha he could keep his emotions hidden from EVERYONE, specifically including the emperor. Yeah... the Agent is a bad *****.

 

Also Watcher 2 is likely the ONLY character in the game whose statements can be taken definitively.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Ghisallo

[BrianDavion]

Well just to go on the bit about non force PCs I can explain 2...

 

Imperial Agent

 

he is straight up immune to mind control, period...dead stop, if you picked the right choices in your class story. Even before this happened you fought to a stand still Darth Jadus, the most powerful current Sith, after Vitiate of course. To top it off, being the "Imperial Ghost" it would make sense for Lana to contact him. The last thing she would want is for it to get out to Vitiate's devoted that he is turning Ziost into an abattoir. The Ghost thus has the skill set necessary to assist and their position "outside" the Imperial Power Structure means that operational security is more easily maintained.

 

 

Pub Trooper

 

Theron was doing something as part of the joint Jedi, SIS, Military task force that was set up by Satele, him and Supreme Commander Malcolm (gotta love nepotism lol) at the end of SoR. The Trooper was chosen by the Supreme Commander as the Primary Military Adviser to this task force or as Theron said, "that just sounds better than head bad guy killer."

 

I actually think it makes MORE sense my Trooper got the call vs my JK or Consular. This is clearly a covert Op by a covert task force. The Trooper is part of that task force, my JK and consular are not. Theron takes secrecy VERY seriously and to ring up someone who is not on the "eyes only " list would seem....odd to me,

Battle Master of Council member or not

 

 

actually the JK and JC (as well as the smuggler) are indeed all part of the task force. the Jedi Knight is the aknowledged EXPERT on Vitaiate and has proven himself strong eneugh to resist the emperor's mind control. He should be the first person you call up when you need to deal with the Emperor.

 

Honestly Ziost really comes off even more so then 3.0 as the next chapter of the JK story, that everyone else is along for the ride in.

[Ghisallo]

While your logic that they would be part of the task force makes sense...I have played through on both and no where am I made aware such a task force exists. As such, I assume that for whatever reason Satele has decided not to include them. Maybe it is because of the 6th Line...she likely knows about them but doesn't want it to get around for fear of controversy? Maybe because she doesn't want another Council Member and the Battle Master distracted from the larger issues, her distraction being enough?

 

In terms of Meta though I think the reason is clear. For a while, especially between JK and Consular, there were complaints like "why does the Consular become a Master sooner?". " why does the Consular become a Council member and the JK not"? (Though being made Battle Master at the end of SoR is there to make up for it.)

 

The Trooper being made the Chief Military Advisor to an elite taskforce is the Troopers "reward" after SoR. Being Battlemaster makes the JK special, being on the task force makes the Trooper special. Now in a "real" SW Universe these characters would not need to he made special snowflakes... Players on the other hand tend to need that lol.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Ghisallo

[BenitsubasaChiyo]

So, are we getting to shoot Chancellor Saresh's lekku this time?

[menofhorror]

God its really weird.

 

There are many aspects I really like but also many I dislike a lot.

Many of those are budget related. I mean major players, like the Dark Council, the senate, the jedi council are nowhere to be found in the storylines since Forged Alliances. Yes Satele and Marr were there but they didn`t even think of bringing their fellow members into the conflict against Revan?

Here again, Ziost and yet its just the player char, Theron and Lana against the world. This really bugs me.

This is supposed to be a massive threat and yet due to the buget constrains it often feels like you are dealing with Czerka. Also the many plotholes/plotquestions which likely will never be adressed.

 

How did the jedi council and the Sith learn that the emperor isn`t really dead. Suddenly both Satele and Marr knew it when we met them on Rishi. No explanation on that, not even the slightest.

How the hell did Theron and Lana came into contact? The writers didn`t even try to explain that and were like "yea they met, thats all you need to know." Sure most of it is in the Revan storyline but it shows again here on Ziost.

Why did the Emperor even try to possess the people on Ziost (maybe that will be explained in the next set)

But it seems that the writers have no desire to make the player understand what is going on. Its more of a "This is the new situation, forget what happened previously"

 

I don`t think those problems were as obvious and massive in the vanilla storylines.

[AshlaBoga]

So, are we getting to shoot Chancellor Saresh's lekku this time?

 

Nah, the Emperor will be claiming her as his new Voice in 3.4, and then we'll have her as an Ops boss in 3.5:p

 

 

If she actually gets possessed by the Emperor I want a cookie

 

[Senrie]

Still didn't get to continue the romance in the Ziost finale. Just saw what happens if you can. So very unfair.

[Zekiirah]

I agree with pretty much everything said, and what bugged me most was the dialogue of my character. I play a super light side, nice Jedi Consular and sometimes.. she just seemed really angry or flippant. As others have said, budget constraints or something. It weirded me out to hear her sound close to rude when I chose an option that gave the illusion of being nicer in text than it was in audio. It weirded me out more when auto dialogue came on and hey.. lo and behold, she sounds snarky. Woo. Edited May 6, 2015 by Zekiirah

[Codedrago]

God its really weird.

 

How the hell did Theron and Lana came into contact? The writers didn`t even try to explain that and were like "yea they met, thats all you need to know."

Actually, they did explain it. Lana tells you during the Manaan FP that she 'senses an ally'. Yeah, it's a stupid explanation, but it's still an explanation.

[Ghisallo]

Still didn't get to continue the romance in the Ziost finale. Just saw what happens if you can. So very unfair.

 

Well I did on my Operative... /shrug. Maybe it depends on choices earlier on? I don't do the Romance Pub side.

[Senrie]

Well I did on my Operative... /shrug. Maybe it depends on choices earlier on? I don't do the Romance Pub side.

 

Yeah, if you kissed them goodbye on Yavin you get to continue. I thought that option was too cheesy so I didn't pick it.

 

But it's not like the other option you told them some vile and cruel things. My character just had their heart broken, can they get a minute to breath? Apparently not.