Lana is nice and all, but... More girls to romance, please?

[Kiesu]

I respectfully disagree. I'd want both, especially following KOTFE/ET. Granted, we did have romance in KOTFE/ET but at the same time, many players felt left out in the rain by their original LI due to the way companion returns were handled. Quite a few also got the shaft with short and lackluster (imo) reunions. To follow that travesty up with an expansion that focuses solely on good storytelling but no romance would be gutting for a player such as myself. I don't want romance to be the heavy overtone, there should be a balance, but I don't want to see it wiped from the expansion either.

 

You can want both all you want, but lets remember SWTOR isnt making a lot of money and the active dev team is very small currently. So if you want a lot of romances, its gonna have to cut content from somewhere else. And if you ask me we should ditch romances for a bit and throw a bone for raiders and pvpers who have gotten basically nothing for several years in a row. I guarantee you, a new operation or a pvp map will get a LOT more attraction and replay than a 2 minute romance scene. Game has incredibly low pops already.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Kiesu

[JennyFlynn]

You can want both all you want, but lets remember SWTOR isnt making a lot of money and the active dev team is very small currently. So if you want a lot of romances, its gonna have to cut content from somewhere else. And if you ask me we should ditch romances for a bit and throw a bone for raiders and pvpers who have gotten basically nothing for several years in a row. I guarantee you, a new operation or a pvp map will get a LOT more attraction and replay than a 2 minute romance scene. Game has incredibly low pops already.

You might be underestimating how many players would make alt after alt and run them through both old and new content just for that one romance or cutscene and a good story. No doubt we run in different circles but I'm constantly seeing players make yet another Trooper and wrestle their way through KOTFE just to have that Aric reunion. With current rumors regarding Lord Scourge, players have been creating new Knights to take through both the old and new content, just to finally have a chance with him. If someone such as Jonas Balkar or Vinn (or any female equivalent, a saved Jaxo?) was to be introduced as a romance option in 6.0, I guarantee that a lot of players would roll new characters to get them. Perhaps that doesn't count as attraction and replayability of content in your mind but in my opinion, that is as valuable as a player who runs a slew of Ops every week or puts themselves through one PvP map after another.

 

I'm well aware that over the course of KOTFE/ET, Ops-lovers and PvPers were left out in the cold for the longest time and only received new content recently in terms of Ops. PvPers had small updates and will be getting some attention in the upcoming month. I'd also never say that their preferred content should be sacrificed for mine, which is what you are implying (unless I misunderstood your post)--that romance should be sacrificed in favor of good story, Ops and PvP. You may not value romance as much as I do and therefore feel it could easily be neglected in favor of other aspects but personally, I'd rather have a bit of everything than to take one form of content away from other players entirely.

 

In any case, the argument that I responded to here was romance vs. good story, nothing to do with PvP or Ops and neither of those contribute a whole lot to good storytelling.

[JamagsAwesome]

 

I agree with this. There are things I hate about KOTFE and KOTET but overall I enjoyed them.

 

I think that even Lana, Theron and Koth need those companion conversations. We see them a lot in the context of the missions, and Theron has extra media outside of the game, but we never have a chance to really sit down with them and just talk about something that has NO relation to the Alliance or the missions.

 

With the class companions and love interests those conversations meant that you really knew a lot about them by the end of chapter 3. You might have been on some fun quests with them. They need that same chance for Lana, Theron and Koth and they need new convos for the older class love interests.

 

if they did an expac that was nothing but companion stories or you could buy extra LI or companion quests, I'd happily pay for it.

 

I don't want this to turn into an off-topic argument about KotFE KotET, especially since that's all water under the bridge at this point, so I'll just concede the point.

 

In terms of the conversations, though, you're exactly right. I'll use Lana as an example.

 

What's her homeworld? Who trained her? Why'd she leave Sith Intelligence? Is Darth Zhorrid still in charge of the Sphere of Intelligence? Why's she so quick to work with Republic agents like Theron or pub-aligned player character when the average Sith probably wouldn't be caught dead doing so? I mean, even Darth Marr took a lot of convincing, and he's one of the more reasonable Sith you can meet. Why doesn't her dark side corruption show up the way it does on most people (I guess by gameplay terms maybe she's just Dark I and only has the eyes)? And most importantly, what product does she use to make her hair stay all fluffed out like that?

 

These are all things that we don't know because they couldn't be worked into the main narrative, but could easily be explored in separate conversations.

[GreatRicktator]

You can want both all you want, but lets remember SWTOR isnt making a lot of money and the active dev team is very small currently. So if you want a lot of romances, its gonna have to cut content from somewhere else. And if you ask me we should ditch romances for a bit and throw a bone for raiders and pvpers who have gotten basically nothing for several years in a row. I guarantee you, a new operation or a pvp map will get a LOT more attraction and replay than a 2 minute romance scene. Game has incredibly low pops already.

 

You got it backwards, the raids and PvP junk should be what gets gutted. Would mean less story content gets wasted on that stuff too

[Eshvara]

You got it backwards, the raids and PvP junk should be what gets gutted. Would mean less story content gets wasted on that stuff too

 

No content should be gutted. Raids, story, PvP and other forms of PvE are important for the game. I know things have been rather "tight" and we all get very little, but I rather have that than nothing at all. But I don't think PvE should get no content at all, even if It's not what I'm into.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Eshvara

[JennyFlynn]

No content should be gutted. Raids, story, PvP and other forms of PvE are important for the game. I know things have been rather "tight" and we all get very little, but I rather have that than nothing at all. But I don't think PvE should get no content at all, even if It's not what I'm into.

This. ^^

 

For just myself, I'd want nothing other than story and romance and preferably, with the least amount of pointless fighting and trash mobs along the way, but I'm not the only person playing this game. Everyone should get some content and while the team may be small and the resources low (as speculated), they should strive to offer something for everybody.

[Eshvara]

This. ^^

 

For just myself, I'd want nothing other than story and romance and preferably, with the least amount of pointless fighting and trash mobs along the way, but I'm not the only person playing this game. Everyone should get some content and while the team may be small and the resources low (as speculated), they should strive to offer something for everybody.

 

Eeeyup!

For me it's PvP and story, but other people's needs are as important as mine.

[Damask_Rose]

You can want both all you want, but lets remember SWTOR isnt making a lot of money and the active dev team is very small currently. So if you want a lot of romances, its gonna have to cut content from somewhere else. And if you ask me we should ditch romances for a bit and throw a bone for raiders and pvpers who have gotten basically nothing for several years in a row. I guarantee you, a new operation or a pvp map will get a LOT more attraction and replay than a 2 minute romance scene. Game has incredibly low pops already.

 

Did you not notice that raiders got a full raid and the only content for this summer is pvp content? They were neglected awhile ago, but that was then. In the this is now most of the focus is on group play with story taking a back seat. And that shift in focus did not seem to bring in or retain any more players than any other content added to the game.

[Kiesu]

You might be underestimating how many players would make alt after alt and run them through both old and new content just for that one romance or cutscene and a good story. No doubt we run in different circles but I'm constantly seeing players make yet another Trooper and wrestle their way through KOTFE just to have that Aric reunion. With current rumors regarding Lord Scourge, players have been creating new Knights to take through both the old and new content, just to finally have a chance with him. If someone such as Jonas Balkar or Vinn (or any female equivalent, a saved Jaxo?) was to be introduced as a romance option in 6.0, I guarantee that a lot of players would roll new characters to get them. Perhaps that doesn't count as attraction and replayability of content in your mind but in my opinion, that is as valuable as a player who runs a slew of Ops every week or puts themselves through one PvP map after another.

 

I'm well aware that over the course of KOTFE/ET, Ops-lovers and PvPers were left out in the cold for the longest time and only received new content recently in terms of Ops. PvPers had small updates and will be getting some attention in the upcoming month. I'd also never say that their preferred content should be sacrificed for mine, which is what you are implying (unless I misunderstood your post)--that romance should be sacrificed in favor of good story, Ops and PvP. You may not value romance as much as I do and therefore feel it could easily be neglected in favor of other aspects but personally, I'd rather have a bit of everything than to take one form of content away from other players entirely.

 

In any case, the argument that I responded to here was romance vs. good story, nothing to do with PvP or Ops and neither of those contribute a whole lot to good storytelling.

Not at all. I completely understand replaying story (except KOTFE, i skipped those on as many characters as I could... not much replayability there), and I have 5+ toons for every class so I've replayed a TON. And I enjoyed the origin stories, I did. Just not the newer story content. I found the replayability there was very low and kept my insterest for only a few plays. And even though Risha is best waifu, I havent even ran KOTFE on my smuggler at all because I just cant do the grind to justify 2 minutes, when i know its not gonna be anything like in the origin story.

 

So yeah, I think everyone whos favorite waifu/husbando wasn't a main character got burned real hard by the halfassed reunion alerts. To be quite frank, I'd much rather not get my waifu back at all and keep hoping for an epic reunion, than to settle for the fans demands to get companions back asap and get a 2 minute "hey heres your follower back now kiss and be happy" scene. I'm a D&D guy so I have no issue making up my own reunion, and I'd rather make it up myself than have.. whatever those were.

 

Anyway, that just demonstrates what "trying to do too much for too many people with too little time and personnel" looks like. And I'm not into quantity over quality. I would have happily waited years for a good romance reunion. I'm in no hurry. The only good romances were on the main characters who they actually thought out from the beginning rather than the alert guys who were just there because fans were having fit over their lost pets like they'd own them. Hell, if you're proper roleplayer you accept that even fictional characters have lives and might want to move on, even fictional world lives on its own without the PC having to be involved in it all the time.

 

 

Now, we've had a story expansion for two years. And it totally did sacrifice content from group content seeking people. All I'm saying, its time to rotate back to the other democratic, dont you think? Quality over quantity. Cant please everyone all the time every time.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Kiesu

[Joluka]

Not at all. I completely understand replaying story (except KOTFE, i skipped those on as many characters as I could... not much replayability there), and I have 5+ toons for every class so I've replayed a TON. And I enjoyed the origin stories, I did. Just not the newer story content. I found the replayability there was very low and kept my insterest for only a few plays. And even though Risha is best waifu, I havent even ran KOTFE on my smuggler at all because I just cant do the grind to justify 2 minutes, when i know its not gonna be anything like in the origin story.

 

So yeah, I think everyone whos favorite waifu/husbando wasn't a main character got burned real hard by the halfassed reunion alerts. To be quite frank, I'd much rather not get my waifu back at all and keep hoping for an epic reunion, than to settle for the fans demands to get companions back asap and get a 2 minute "hey heres your follower back now kiss and be happy" scene. I'm a D&D guy so I have no issue making up my own reunion, and I'd rather make it up myself than have.. whatever those were.

 

Anyway, that just demonstrates what "trying to do too much for too many people with too little time and personnel" looks like. And I'm not into quantity over quality. I would have happily waited years for a good romance reunion. I'm in no hurry. The only good romances were on the main characters who they actually thought out from the beginning rather than the alert guys who were just there because fans were having fit over their lost pets like they'd own them. Hell, if you're proper roleplayer you accept that even fictional characters have lives and might want to move on, even fictional world lives on its own without the PC having to be involved in it all the time.

 

 

Now, we've had a story expansion for two years. And it totally did sacrifice content from group content seeking people. All I'm saying, its time to rotate back to the other democratic, dont you think? Quality over quantity. Cant please everyone all the time every time.

 

I honestly don’t play this game for anything but story. I’ve had upwards of hundreds of characters that I’ve played throughout this game’s life for the story and the interactions and the choices. I would be 110% in board for the game to stay away from PvE and PvP content and just keep putting out good stories like it has been. For raiding and PvP, I just play WoW.

 

But that’s just me, I guess. I just get a little disappointed every time story is locked behind an Operation that I can’t solo. It really is a shame, imo.

 

This game’s unique selling proposition is its story, and it would really suck if we dropped the story in favor of gameplay again. Yes, the gameplay has to be good, but the story has always been the backbone of this game, and I think it should always be its focus, with PvE and PvP sprinkled on the side, but never leeching from what it really is.

[IoNonSoEVero]

SWTOR is self-described on their Twitter as a story-based game. Story, not raids or PvP, were the backbones of the class stories and expacs.

 

This past year the devs did focus on group activities. They've done things with PvP and are about to add more. They released an Op (which admittedly shouldn't have taken a year, but). They released the uprisings, which were short and apparently not very satisfying to group players, but they were put out there. They sacrificed regular story to shoehorn a few cut scenes into flashpoints. They merged servers, which seemed designed to help group activities flourish. It certainly didn't help story players, and it drove RPers away reportedly.

 

The population is perhaps lower than it has ever been, with longtime players leaving.

 

Sacrificing story is not the answer.

[Eshvara]

SWTOR is self-described on their Twitter as a story-based game. Story, not raids or PvP, were the backbones of the class stories and expacs.

I think that's to point out this game is a little different than the usual MMORPG's. But I don't think that means that story only matters or mostly matters. When you focus on one thing, you get burned, or well so it seems anyway.

[Paulsutherland]

Haven't they already sacrificed on the story by reducing KOTET and whatever the third expansion would have been called, both with 16 chapters each into 9 chapters and three flashpoints?

[IoNonSoEVero]

I think that's to point out this game is a little different than the usual MMORPG's. But I don't think that means that story only matters or mostly matters. When you focus on one thing, you get burned, or well so it seems anyway.

 

I never said group content should be left out, but when the game is described as story-based, the main game depends on story and so do most of the expacs, it's ridiculous for anyone to suggest that story should be sacrificed in favor of raids or PvP IMHO.

[Eshvara]

I never said group content should be left out, but when the game is described as story-based, the main game depends on story and so do most of the expacs, it's ridiculous for anyone to suggest that story should be sacrificed in favor of raids or PvP IMHO.

 

I don't think I accused you of saying that.

[JakRoanin]

Well I was Livid when

I discovered Shara Jenn gets axed if you chose to be a double agent.

Yes, I'd like more female romances for Male characters (especially for my gunslinger) but I am patient I think that people need to do what they like in-game. I like story the best, but I found that doing other things can be fun, and lucrative.

[Kiesu]

This game’s unique selling proposition is its story, and it would really suck if we dropped the story in favor of gameplay again. Yes, the gameplay has to be good, but the story has always been the backbone of this game, and I think it should always be its focus, with PvE and PvP sprinkled on the side, but never leeching from what it really is.

Yes I agree that the unique selling point of this game was the full voice acting and large branching storylines. But swtor have not been that since the initial launch. Every story that came with expansions did not offer a class-pesific storyline with branching storylines. Makeb, Czerka, Kuat, Dread War, Alliances and Shadow of Revan all had smaller linear stories and new group content that came with them, and the player counts were healthy even in between expansions.

 

KOTET and KOTFE came in with big adverts and hype winging the new Disney movies, and we had a sudden burst of players at launch... and then they very quickly left after experiencing the chapters. There was nothing there to keep majority of people playing because there was nothing to progress. People quickly understood that after the first epic chapter overload, the next updates were 30 minute stories with nothing else added, so they left(majority of the player base is not alt-holic replayspecialists ). As you accurately proved this, they moved to other games for their social needs, such as WOW. Losing paying customers that quickly is nothing to brag about on a subscriptin based game that was designed to sustain subscribers, rather than have them pop in twice a year to "play trough the chapters they missed and move on again".

 

Since your personal preference is all story, you probably know pretty much all story games sell in pay- more-once-to-play-forever format. It is for this reason. People generally play Telltale games trough once and move on to the next game, even if there is different solutions and outcomes they could potentially play trough. Thats why these games cost more than a one month sub, because there is a high chance the player isn't sticking around to replay and pay another month. These are all common knowledge statics and economic.

 

The reason why there is so many story and solo people commenting on the forums, is because majority of the social players have left. They are not paying customers anymore. The tight knit community of replay specialists and altholics are dominating the social side because the only content there really is to play atm, is the replay content, which most people don't subscribe for.

There is also the common PVP community who will keep subbing till the end of times because pvp and lightsabers is an attracting combination to them, but it's usually the same faces you see in PVP every week. And since you run into the same people all the time, that community isnt terribly big either.

The current smallest nice community is raid community. Most serious raiders clear new content the same year it comes out. For other it takes longer and they might keep grinding for that dream achievement for years to come. Or just grind credits and buy a run from a dedicated guild. Most raiders (including me) have no drive to keep raiding because you get nothing for it. You get the same gear from grinding solo missions on Black Hole day in day out and you would from the hardest raiding content in game, so why would anyone bother raiding?

Edited June 30, 2018 by Kiesu

[Joluka]

Yes I agree that the unique selling point of this game was the full voice acting and large branching storylines. But swtor have not been that since the initial launch. Every story that came with expansions did not offer a class-pesific storyline with branching storylines. Makeb, Czerka, Kuat, Dread War, Alliances and Shadow of Revan all had smaller linear stories and new group content that came with them, and the player counts were healthy even in between expansions.

 

KOTET and KOTFE came in with big adverts and hype winging the new Disney movies, and we had a sudden burst of players at launch... and then they very quickly left after experiencing the chapters. There was nothing there to keep majority of people playing because there was nothing to progress. People quickly understood that after the first epic chapter overload, the next updates were 30 minute stories with nothing else added, so they left(majority of the player base is not alt-holic replayspecialists ). As you accurately proved this, they moved to other games for their social needs, such as WOW. Losing paying customers that quickly is nothing to brag about on a subscriptin based game that was designed to sustain subscribers, rather than have them pop in twice a year to "play trough the chapters they missed and move on again".

 

Since your personal preference is all story, you probably know pretty much all story games sell in pay- more-once-to-play-forever format. It is for this reason. People generally play Telltale games trough once and move on to the next game, even if there is different solutions and outcomes they could potentially play trough. Thats why these games cost more than a one month sub, because there is a high chance the player isn't sticking around to replay and pay another month. These are all common knowledge statics and economic.

 

The reason why there is so many story and solo people commenting on the forums, is because majority of the social players have left. They are not paying customers anymore. The tight knit community of replay specialists and altholics are dominating the social side because the only content there really is to play atm, is the replay content, which most people don't subscribe for.

There is also the common PVP community who will keep subbing till the end of times because pvp and lightsabers is an attracting combination to them, but it's usually the same faces you see in PVP every week. And since you run into the same people all the time, that community isnt terribly big either.

The current smallest nice community is raid community. Most serious raiders clear new content the same year it comes out. For other it takes longer and they might keep grinding for that dream achievement for years to come. Or just grind credits and buy a run from a dedicated guild. Most raiders (including me) have no drive to keep raiding because you get nothing for it. You get the same gear from grinding solo missions on Black Hole day in day out and you would from the hardest raiding content in game, so why would anyone bother raiding?

 

Right, but the game hasn’t been doing too hot focusing on anything other than story either. And I am pretty sure the people holding it as it is are the hyperaltoholics, like me.

 

Granted, neither of us have facts to back up our claims, so we’ll just have to leave this argument where it is. You have your stance and I have mine, but this thread is about discussing and brainstorming new female companions, not much else...

[Kiesu]

Right, but the game hasn’t been doing too hot focusing on anything other than story either. And I am pretty sure the people holding it as it is are the hyperaltoholics, like me.

 

Granted, neither of us have facts to back up our claims, so we’ll just have to leave this argument where it is. You have your stance and I have mine, but this thread is about discussing and brainstorming new female companions, not much else...

Even though I dont have SWTOR stats to pull out of my purse since EA is really protective over their numbers, we can still refer to global sale statistics of other company titles and how they sold. And this isnt even counting the whales who buy their single player story games in bundles or sales and never even play them, they just collect. You cant collect a subscription item, another customer base dodged. That is a lot of customers lost on an DLC that should have been pay-full-DLC-price-to-play-forever rather than pay-fraction-of-the-value-to-play-limited-time.Their business model really burned SWTOR this expansion, because they couldn't sustain their subscription model customers. Those left subbing between this expansion is a niche audience, and while I'm sure they're greatful you like replaying KOTFE, for most MMO players once or twice was enough, and they moved on.

 

Since you dont enjoy MMO content anyway, I'm sure you agree this expansion was directed more towards you (the solo content guy) than the average MMO audience. KOTFE would have done a lot better as a single player game, rather than an MMO expansion, I'm sure you can see that.

Edited July 1, 2018 by Kiesu