I Sacrificed My Character So You Don’t Have to...Or How Autocomplete Really Works

[Lunafox]

You've put a phenomenal amount of effort in this to help us out. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it.

[LadyAdmiral]

This is an amazing post thank you for sharing your research!!

[CloudCastle]

Thanks everyone! I do hope people find it helpful. I just wish I knew more about how the romances pan out with using autocomplete. I encourage people to keep posting their experiences, so we can pool our knowledge!

[Hudlar]

Thanks for the very detailed post! I'm not planning to skip anything at the moment, but it's great to have the information available.

 

I really want a Plot Summary sheet for my character that is a terse list of all the decisions and romances my character has made.

 

Did my agent join SIS? Did she go to Oricon or Ziost? Did she kneel to the Emperor? You get the idea.

 

After I don't touch my alts for long enough, I forget which specific decisions and romances I pursued on them.

This would be a huge help to allow me to pick them up again later and continue to play them consistently.

Part of the reason I do this is roleplay, but it's also partly to have a character available with each major decision set, so that I see how the story unfolds for them later on.

 

Perhaps such a summary window would be useful for keeping track of characters that jumped around?

 

I would love something like this as well. However, based on the issues people have had with the relationship descriptions, I suspect it would be more difficult than it seems to set up an accurate plot summary sheet.

[tahol]

Ossus is so bugged that we can't take anything happening with companions when starting it, as intended or as evidence of how things are saved. For example, my main Inky killed Kalio. Just yesterday I realised I have her available in my companion list again. I'm not happy about it, but obviously I can't summon her and then kill her again, so I just have to pretend she isn't there. I have two Andronikos too, happily running crafting missions. I thought my Andronikos was missing, and went and got him from the terminal, only to realise that now I have two of them. I haven't checked where Koth is for this character, my Agent who romanced him had to get him back through terminal. I haven't even checked what is going on with companions I don't use. I just checked that Theron and Inky are still happily married and they were, no sudden divorce.

 

I have no idea how Bioware will ever fix this mess. There is too many companions and too many variables and every update will break them more and more. Their combat behaviour is also broken now.

[Dekibra]

Thank you so very much for your willingness to test this extensively!!! Much appreciated!

 

So after reading your post is it save to say:

My Slinger romanced Corso and is now somewhere in KotFE beyond #9 (she is in KotFE chap. 11 now I think...) so I could now skip to Ossus and still would get the return Alliance alert for Corso, right?

 

Another thing happened on my SW that skipped to Ossus (after only doing class, Ziost, Makeb and damn, I wish I had read your post before skipping - of course she lost the Quinn romance, my bad ): she cannot access the Iokath dailies/weekly. I think this was already mentioned somewhere and I hope it gets fixed at some point...

[Everrgreen]

You're right that others have been wondering about these things; me, for one. Thank you so much for working through these areas of concern and then sharing your results in such a well-written post!

[DawnAskham]

Random observations...

 

Lokin (Imperial Agent) is NOT available from the terminal - you must complete the 'To Find A Findsman' AND the alert which will require completing a task only available when Rakghoul event is running (annoying AF given my agent's Lokin was rank 50).

 

Some companions may end up as duplicates based on getting them from the terminal and then auto-completing to Ossus (same IA above has two Riana Temple companions).

[Swingkittie]

I wish we had a reliable means of checking the story flags our characters have accrued as well. I've had to use a spreadsheet to keep track of all of mine!

 

 

 

The Arcann and Senya thing sounds buggy to me probably due to the fact that you are a saboteur. I mean, once those characters are dead they shouldn't pop back to life, you know? Another thread here describes having the same problem with Theron.

 

I would guess that keeping Khem Val is the default state, which is also probably why people with ZashKhem are getting bugged. I haven't heard if anyone has tried this yet though.

 

There are major bugs with Khem Val if you kept Zash. My SI got the Khem Val reunion and he's supposed to be dead for her.

 

Theron is dead on my male Sith Assassin. I don't want to talk about how that happened:(....curiosity killed the cat I guess you can say - or killed him anyway.... but regardless I can summon a naked dead Theron now and all the gear I had on him has completely disappeared, along with his guns.

 

I am very apprehensive to skip story content until the bugs associated with 5.10 are sorted out. At least the major bugs anyway.

 

I am really glad this was tested. It's great information for all of us.

[jediloki]

If you skip straight to Ossus and do not do the Iokath story line first, are the dailies on Iokath available to you after completing Ossus?

[Dekibra]

If you skip straight to Ossus and do not do the Iokath story line first, are the dailies on Iokath available to you after completing Ossus?

 

I jumped straight to Ossus (without doing Iokath) and I CANNOT access the dailies but have Quinn back as a companion

[lupegaru]

I decided to move my lvl 52 Imp Sniper to run Ossus, and skip the outlander stuff, since I had already done it with sooo many other characters. (Sniper and 1 or 2 others was one of my lesser faves done mostly to complete the set, but I wanted them all current and reunited with their original comps as soon as they can be)

So I used the Master's Datacron and moved this blue dude (Chiss) to lvl 70, and began the Ossus stuff, waiting for an Alliance alert to get reunite with Raina Temple... nothing. Noticed she was in my Comps list, but didn't even get back her armor or customization.. clicked on it, to find out that my Sniper and Raina were unable to rekindle their romance.

Really unhappy about how that turned out, but can't do anything about it. I bring it up here just in case someone else is thinking of doing it, here is a very specific thing that (can) happen to your character, so make sure it's what you want to do, and it may not turn out exactly how you want.

[TrixxieTriss]

SNIP

 

What really annoys me about this system is Bioware could have easily made each chapter a hard save. Every chapter ends before you start a new one.

Why not make each point a hard save like “every other game” thats ever had save points (going back to Mario Bros).

This should have been taught to them at game developing 101 classes. If not, experience in games growing up should have instilled this philosophy.

So often Bioware make nonsensical choices or mistakes in swtor development that you question if some of them have ever played any video games or have they just left college, gone into game development with no gaming experience at all. It would certainly explain a lot (not saying that’s what happens, but you can see how one could get that impression)

Edited January 8, 2019 by TrixxieTriss

[tigrina]

Thanks for all the work, CloudCastle!

 

The problem is that non-smart decisions where made early in development that can't (easily or at all) be fixed now That would be a major overhaul they don't have the manpower for.

 

Anyhow, I have an alt that didn't start KotFE or KoTET, but did do Iokath, then skipped to Ossus and can no longer do Iokath dailies. That was fun. No romance so nothing broken in that regard. This is an additional clue for the "Iokath limbo" I think. Its save is so soft it doesn't even remember itself.

 

I did notice a Darth Hawhatshername in my list, but I'm not supposed to have her (and had never seen her listed before). I can't summon her tho.

 

I have plenty of double companions, but never quite realised that they are 'old' and 'new', even with their updated looks. Makes sense!

 

~

On a related note: I wish we had the option not just to skip to Ossus, but also pick dark or lightside defaults, at the very least (as Imp or Rep). Alas, I'll have to run too many alts through this mess now

Edited January 8, 2019 by tigrina

[arunav]

It's completely absurd a player has to catalogue this for EA/BW.

 

What's worse is we can't even be reasonably assured the bugs will even get fixed.

 

Ossus is the best daily area in the game, in my opinion. It wasn't worth breaking more than it added, however.

Edited January 8, 2019 by arunav

[Zandilar]

Thank you so much for doing this. I now have a better idea of how this all works.

 

I am rather disappointed to see that they still haven't fixed the KotFE Chap 9 Lana romance bug after all this time, though.

[jediloki]

 

Anyhow, I have an alt that didn't start KotFE or KoTET, but did do Iokath, then skipped to Ossus and can no longer do Iokath dailies. That was fun. No romance so nothing broken in that regard. This is an additional clue for the "Iokath limbo" I think. Its save is so soft it doesn't even remember itself.

 

Iokath is tied into the two story lines, so was hoping they would allow you to complete dailies and would just be forced into default decisions on who you supported. But based on what you and others have since noted, not only does that not seem to be the case, but even if you took the time to do Iokath, not doing the others locking you out of the dailies with no way to gain them seems to be a major oops. I am fine with forcing the person to do the story line to open them up, but to lock them out of it...

[CloudCastle]

It is difficult at times to figure out what is a bug and what is an intended feature of autocomplete.

 

I believe the fact that the Iokath dailies aren't accessible to people after using autocomplete is a bug. I can't recall if the devs actually came out and said this somewhere, but it does stand to reason since I believe the Yavin dailies unlock. (Yes?) Seems odd if they would intentionally lock people out of those.

 

I decided to move my lvl 52 Imp Sniper to run Ossus, and skip the outlander stuff, since I had already done it with sooo many other characters. (Sniper and 1 or 2 others was one of my lesser faves done mostly to complete the set, but I wanted them all current and reunited with their original comps as soon as they can be)

So I used the Master's Datacron and moved this blue dude (Chiss) to lvl 70, and began the Ossus stuff, waiting for an Alliance alert to get reunite with Raina Temple... nothing. Noticed she was in my Comps list, but didn't even get back her armor or customization.. clicked on it, to find out that my Sniper and Raina were unable to rekindle their romance.

Really unhappy about how that turned out, but can't do anything about it. I bring it up here just in case someone else is thinking of doing it, here is a very specific thing that (can) happen to your character, so make sure it's what you want to do, and it may not turn out exactly how you want.

 

I'm so sorry that you lost the romance after all this time. That does sound like the autocomplete is working correctly though according to the rules we think it is using. Raina is not an alliance alert, she gets returned ina chapter, so once you skip Copero, you lose that lock-in and receive the default. Quinn and Elara are in this category as well.

 

I think all the companion weirdness being seen after Ossus are acknowledged bugs that will hopefully be fixed soon. (These include the double companions and the Khem Val bug.)

 

What really annoys me about this system is Bioware could have easily made each chapter a hard save. Every chapter ends before you start a new one.

Why not make each point a hard save like “every other game” thats ever had save points (going back to Mario Bros).

This should have been taught to them at game developing 101 classes. If not, experience in games growing up should have instilled this philosophy.

So often Bioware make nonsensical choices or mistakes in swtor development that you question if some of them have ever played any video games or have they just left college, gone into game development with no gaming experience at all. It would certainly explain a lot (not saying that’s what happens, but you can see how one could get that impression)

 

I wish they had done it this way too! What makes it so confusing for people is that up until KOTFE and beyond the game didn't have any save points, because it was constantly saved in live time, you know? So then players get thrown into this new system and of course confusion and sometimes heartache results.

[anthemsong]

I recently played through KotFE on one of my least favourite characters, just to ensure the romance with Torian. After reading this post I decided to experiment a little too and completed chapter 1 of KotET choosing to allow Senya to heal Arcann instead of the default Imp-side kill-Senya autocomplete, and then skipped ahead and started Ossus. My Bounty Hunter is dark side, but I was curious. The autocomplete didn't override my chapter 1 decision and I kept Senya and even got lightsided Arcann as well. Koth was still autocomplete-killed for me though.

 

Just thought I'd pass it on for you research!

[Noerra]

Here is some of my observations of starting Ossus story both on skippping toon and some that did not skip.

 

Jedi knight, light side, romanced Theron. Did KOTFE then jumped to Ossus:

 

• Theron romance is sort of there. I did get romanced cutscenes but on contacts it says on Nathema part that I forgave him but nothing about marriage.
  
• I have gained Raina Temple, Elana Dorne and Malavai Quinn as summonable and usable companions.
  
• I don't have Acina or Malcom at all on my contact list so can't say if they are dead or alive
  
• Koth is alive and summonable.
  

 

 

Trooper, light side and chose republic on Iokath, played whole story trough and started Ossus without skipping:

 

• Comps and romances she had seem to be ok, class comps double listed.
  
• Her decisions seem to be like they were before.
  
• Malavai Quinn appeared on contact list with text "Quinn reunited with you on Iokath but you chose to go separate ways". He is not summonnable which makes sense but text itself sounds weird since my trooper swears iokath was first time she ever met him.
  
• Koth is alive and summonable.
  
• Acina is dead, Malcom alive, just like my trooper chose.
  

 

 

Sith inquisitor, dark/grey side, sided with imps on Iotkath but went saboteur, did not skip anything:

 

• romances and comps seem all be ok alltough class comps are double listed
  
• Arcann and Senya are alive just like she chose them to be
  
• Acina is alive and Malcom is dead just like she chose them to be
  
• Koth is totally gone from my companions list even she used to have him alive and as companion (didn't piss him off)
  
• Gained Quinn as summnable companion, no flavour text.
  

 

 

Sith warrior, ligh side, chose reps on iokath and went saboteur. Did not skip any story:

 

• Romances and comps mostly ok, class comps double listed
  
• Acina and Malcom are both listed dead even Malcom should be alive.
  
• Koth is listed as unsummonable character, should be normal comp
  
• Quinn is listed as unavailable comp and not summonable (this is right, did put him into prison)
  

 

 

As you can see above, some things get messed up weather you skip to Ossus or not, just different ways. It seems that especially imperial characters who do light side acts or support republic get messed up even they do not skip story. It seems to keep at least some of the choices you made but also stamps on dark side choices too you did not make.

 

I got some dark vs light characters dusting up I can still run skipping tests but I am saving them now for testing when they release "fix for the current problems".

 

Oh and regarding Jonas:

 

Why do you ask flirtingly all my republic characters for a drink later except my trooper (who you were in romance with in class story and happily flirting even now)? Is it because of my troopers (now revealed) secret past with Quinn? She swears it was nothing and wished to continue where you left in class story.

 

[TrixxieTriss]

It's completely absurd a player has to catalogue this for EA/BW.

 

What's worse is we can't even be reasonably assured the bugs will even get fixed.

 

Ossus is the best daily area in the game, in my opinion. It wasn't worth breaking more than it added, however.

 

I don’t know. section X was pretty good when first released.

[DawnAskham]

What really annoys me about this system is Bioware could have easily made each chapter a hard save. Every chapter ends before you start a new one.

Why not make each point a hard save like “every other game” thats ever had save points (going back to Mario Bros).

This should have been taught to them at game developing 101 classes. If not, experience in games growing up should have instilled this philosophy.

So often Bioware make nonsensical choices or mistakes in swtor development that you question if some of them have ever played any video games or have they just left college, gone into game development with no gaming experience at all. It would certainly explain a lot (not saying that’s what happens, but you can see how one could get that impression)

 

Most of the issues and problems go back to the design decision for KotFE to remove the original class based companions and replace them with shared story based companions (mostly Lana / Theron with some chapter specific companions here and there and a few original companions returned as part of the story).

 

They only added the terminal to Odessen as well as a bunch of alerts for original companions as a way to try and mollify the player base, who was generally not very receptive to the idea of losing their original companions.

 

It makes sense that developers clueless enough to feel they could force players to use a handful of new companions over their original class story companions would also design a forced move in such a way that makes it difficult for them to keep track of the new stuff while allowing players to access original companions.

[CloudCastle]

I recently played through KotFE on one of my least favourite characters, just to ensure the romance with Torian. After reading this post I decided to experiment a little too and completed chapter 1 of KotET choosing to allow Senya to heal Arcann instead of the default Imp-side kill-Senya autocomplete, and then skipped ahead and started Ossus. My Bounty Hunter is dark side, but I was curious. The autocomplete didn't override my chapter 1 decision and I kept Senya and even got lightsided Arcann as well. Koth was still autocomplete-killed for me though.

 

Just thought I'd pass it on for you research!

 

I was planning on doing this same test next, but with an Inquisitor. I wasn't in any hurry though because I assumed it would be the same Empire side as it is on the Republic. What exactly does your "companion interactions" panel say for Senya and Arcann? I'm not sure what to make of what happened to you at all! I may have to test this too to see if I get the same results on the inquisitor. If autocomplete treats Republic and Empire characters differently that would really throw a wrench into things. Did you get the Arcann personal quest autocomplete message with the armor reward item? Both Senya and Arcann are summonable for you and Arcann is not wearing his face mask? Thanks for posting your experience!

 

Here is some of my observations of starting Ossus story both on skippping toon and some that did not skip.

 

Jedi knight, light side, romanced Theron. Did KOTFE then jumped to Ossus:

 

• Theron romance is sort of there. I did get romanced cutscenes but on contacts it says on Nathema part that I forgave him but nothing about marriage.
  
• I have gained Raina Temple, Elana Dorne and Malavai Quinn as summonable and usable companions.
  
• I don't have Acina or Malcom at all on my contact list so can't say if they are dead or alive
  
• Koth is alive and summonable.
  

 

This sounds like what happened to my trooper. He also appears to be still in a relationship with Lana but with no marriage.

 

Both my trooper and my consular can summon Quinn and have odd messages about him "reuniting" with them as well. Trooper used autocomplete, consular did not, both never supported the Empire. So...going to assume this is a bug.

 

Acina and Malcom are both listed dead even Malcom should be alive.

Koth is listed as unsummonable character, should be normal comp

 

Acina, Koth and Malcom issues appears to be bugs affecting character who both skipped and did not skip. So, probably not related to autocomplete. Sure complicates things though.

 

Most of the issues and problems go back to the design decision for KotFE to remove the original class based companions and replace them with shared story based companions (mostly Lana / Theron with some chapter specific companions here and there and a few original companions returned as part of the story).

 

They only added the terminal to Odessen as well as a bunch of alerts for original companions as a way to try and mollify the player base, who was generally not very receptive to the idea of losing their original companions.

 

It makes sense that developers clueless enough to feel they could force players to use a handful of new companions over their original class story companions would also design a forced move in such a way that makes it difficult for them to keep track of the new stuff while allowing players to access original companions.

 

Totally agree with you here. I've wondered so many times, Why didn't the devs just give us back our old companions in exactly the same way they were before? Why couldn't they have kept their old mechanics, etc? And I come to the same conclusion that they were dead set on allowing all classes to access all companions and recreating the companions from scratch was the only way to do it. The fact that Lana and Theron have moving mouths when you click on them though, implies that taking that away from all others was either an oversight or a cost-cutting measure that was never corrected.

 

If I had known...if in some alternate universe the devs had come to me and said, 'Hey, which do you want more? 1) Companions for all classes but with noticeable mechanics missing, or 2) same exact companions returned but only for the original class that had them?" I would have picked 2, no question. I know not everyone would have made that choice. But it still bums me out that they made it for us. It has caused so many problems. I know they were responding to some player requests on that, but it feels like the consequences were bigger than I would have wanted to pay. Give me companions that still chat on planet landscapes, that aren't buggy and that still use their facial customizations in cut scenes any day.

Edited January 11, 2019 by CloudCastle

[anthemsong]

I was planning on doing this same test next, but with an Inquisitor. I wasn't in any hurry though because I assumed it would be the same Empire side as it is on the Republic. What exactly does your "companion interactions" panel say for Senya and Arcann? I'm not sure what to make of what happened to you at all! I may have to test this too to see if I get the same results on the inquisitor. If autocomplete treats Republic and Empire characters differently that would really throw a wrench into things. Did you get the Arcann personal quest autocomplete message with the armor reward item? Both Senya and Arcann are summonable for you and Arcann is not wearing his face mask? Thanks for posting your experience!

 

Interactions panel for Arcann is empty, I did get the Arcann personal quest autocomplete with chest piece reward. Both Arcann and Seyna are summonable, Arcann with his visible, scarred face (no mask). "Senya recovered from her coma and has rejoined the Alliance--and her healed son, Arcann--to join the fight against the Eternal Empire," is the last entry under Senya's interactions, all previous ones having come from KotFE not KotET.

[Scyion]

Sorry to necro this, but my question is;

 

1. Non-boosted Jedi Sentinel, did not romance anyone in Ch. 1-3 of vanilla

2. Romanced Theron in SOR

3. Declined Lana/Theron romance in KOTFE

4. Plan to romance Doc in KOTET when he comes back...?

 

Is this possible?

 

Thanks,