What happen to our love interested in Onslaught

[darkdoctor]

Hi All and Devs: I like to asked what happen to our other love interested then Lana and Theron in Onslaught story? Don't they get love too? I thought Arcann or Jaesa would be part of last bit. I hope the devs will add our other love interested in patches, for me I wait to play Onslaught when the devs do add them I hope

[Estelindis]

I hope the original class-story LIs will make some appearances in future story content following Onslaught. Torian and Akaavi got a couple of lines on Mek-Sha, and there was mention of Jorgan if you're playing Republic, but (as far as I know) that was it. Hopefully we'll see more than this going forwards, and attention will rotate so that all original LIs get attention sometimes. Edited November 4, 2019 by Estelindis

[JakRoanin]

Mr. Boyd, are my Trooper and Elara divorced now? They haven't spoken since they agreed NOT to break up in Iokath. Does Vette still want my SW's babies? Poor Vector, has he settled in nicely in the Alliance doing his diplomatic magic happily beside his beloved wife? Will we ever find Watcher 2 and free her from her programming? Will my Jedi Knight ever kiss Kira again? Will Arcann ever propose to my JC? And in the non-romance area will my PC's ever talk to their friends again?

[ShieldProtection]

Mr. Boyd, are my Trooper and Elara divorced now? They haven't spoken since they agreed NOT to break up in Iokath. Does Vette still want my SW's babies? Poor Vector, has he settled in nicely in the Alliance doing his diplomatic magic happily beside his beloved wife? Will we ever find Watcher 2 and free her from her programming? Will my Jedi Knight ever kiss Kira again? Will Arcann ever propose to my JC? And in the non-romance area will my PC's ever talk to their friends again?

 

I want to see Watcher Two aka Shara jenn so bad, she was my romance in my male agent and I'd love to see her again in my female agent. I did got a stupid SIS director on that console on Nathema so I guess she is alive in my save. Hopefully I see her again and the former minister in future content, I don't know how much I can wait anymore.

[OlBuzzard]

Hi All and Devs: I like to asked what happen to our other love interested then Lana and Theron in Onslaught story? Don't they get love too? I thought Arcann or Jaesa would be part of last bit. I hope the devs will add our other love interested in patches, for me I wait to play Onslaught when the devs do add them I hope

 

IMO … before too much can be done the team will have to sort out the dead bodies .. Theron included !

 

I'll go out on a limb here (at the risk of disappointing some ) … but for those who do have "fond memories" of their companions.. many of those same companions have been partially (if not in their entirety) written out due to the story options which allow MANY players to execute or just simply kill (for whatever reason) … thereby changing the various stories.

 

I'm not sure how the story writers will finally reconcile Lana … is she DS or LS ? Most will want her to return to being a Sith. YET MANY (like me) … see her as one of the most faithful companions in the game. She has been with us as long OR LONGER than even KIRA CARSEN!! IMO … Lana is just as faithful as Kira ! I wish that Lana had been able to receive some additional "customizations" for facial and hair styles as Kira … IMO that should be made available any way … at least hair designs !!

 

At any rate: … IMO .. companions need to make a come back. ( … as soon as the development team sorts out the dead bodies)

[Goreshaga]

IMO … before too much can be done the team will have to sort out the dead bodies .. Theron included !

 

I'll go out on a limb here (at the risk of disappointing some ) … but for those who do have "fond memories" of their companions.. many of those same companions have been partially (if not in their entirety) written out due to the story options which allow MANY players to execute or just simply kill (for whatever reason) … thereby changing the various stories.

 

I'm not sure how the story writers will finally reconcile Lana … is she DS or LS ? Most will want her to return to being a Sith. YET MANY (like me) … see her as one of the most faithful companions in the game. She has been with us as long OR LONGER than even KIRA CARSEN!! IMO … Lana is just as faithful as Kira ! I wish that Lana had been able to receive some additional "customizations" for facial and hair styles as Kira … IMO that should be made available any way … at least hair designs !!

 

At any rate: … IMO .. companions need to make a come back. ( … as soon as the development team sorts out the dead bodies)

They should never have given kill options on LIs.

 

And anyways, killable LIs are not the only problematic ones. The ones locked behind class specific AA are as much a problem as the killable ones, if not more as they only exist for 1 (2 in case of Mako and Akaavi) class, and they even have kill / reject options.

 

So unless they decide to focus only on Lana who is the only LI who is available to all classes and doesn't have a kill / exile option, they'll have to give some love to other LIs too or it'll be seriously boring and may piss off a fair amount of players.

 

That being said i already appreciate that they gave some lines to Torian and Akaavi and mentioned Jorgan as being part of the battle of the Corellia FP.

But a sweet letter from our LI, especially if they're not part of the plot would be nice too.

[Ryu_Wanderfalke]

Jup, this was quite a bit of a letdown, noticing that neither the old LIs nor the new ones (Lana!) got any lines that even remotely hinted at there being a relationship. Wait, not quite true, I remember Lana kissing my SI exactly once right at the beginning, which did however almost came out of nowhere situational-wise.

[casirabit]

They should never have given kill options on LIs.

 

And anyways, killable LIs are not the only problematic ones. The ones locked behind class specific AA are as much a problem as the killable ones, if not more as they only exist for 1 (2 in case of Mako and Akaavi) class, and they even have kill / reject options.

 

So unless they decide to focus only on Lana who is the only LI who is available to all classes and doesn't have a kill / exile option, they'll have to give some love to other LIs too or it'll be seriously boring and may piss off a fair amount of players.

 

That being said i already appreciate that they gave some lines to Torian and Akaavi and mentioned Jorgan as being part of the battle of the Corellia FP.

But a sweet letter from our LI, especially if they're not part of the plot would be nice too.

 

And if the only LI companion is Lana then they may have a problem. Lana is not everyone's choice.

[JennyFlynn]

I'm not sure 'killable companions' is a reason. All Mando companions have unique dialogue in the expansion...

 

 

Shae, Torian and Akaavi when going to meet Indigo after the auction

 

 

All three of these guys depend on whether you recruited them, and on who ended up killed by Vaylin so they're not exactly guaranteed companions yet BW went through the trouble of creating some unique lines for them.

 

And obviously Torian's VA, for example, was around and on the job. Not sure then why there's no LI scene with him.

[JakRoanin]

I want to see Watcher Two aka Shara jenn so bad, she was my romance in my male agent and I'd love to see her again in my female agent. I did got a stupid SIS director on that console on Nathema so I guess she is alive in my save. Hopefully I see her again and the former minister in future content, I don't know how much I can wait anymore.

 

YES YES YES! Finally someone who understands!

[Tohmas]

Will my Jedi Knight ever kiss Kira again?

 

 

Well, have you played your JK through Onslaught yet?

 

[DuchessKristania]

I miss Vector's odd poetic comments, and his dry humor. I really wish they'd do more with all the LI's. We're not even getting letters from them, and that would be some serious minimal effort. Including more vanilla comps, especially LI's would be a good way to bring back some of the flavor of the original game.

 

That being said, I really think at this point they ought to just put all the companions in the terminal and let the players pick who they want to grab and who they don't want. I mean, it's all so jumbled and confused anyway, why not let people just build their own team? If they use the terminal then it need not be written into story. Then people can get the comps they want on the characters they want, but it doesn't force any comp on people who don't want them. (Also I fully admit that I really just want to have Vector for every character in my stables, lol.)

[JakRoanin]

Well, have you played your JK through Onslaught yet?

Yes doesn't mean it'll happen again:p

[americanaussie]

I miss the flirty lines that were throughout KOTFE and KOTET. Not just a little bit at the end, but I know others just like the combat and not the story. I really liked that team feeling in KOTFE and KOTET...but people needed to kill team members so now we need team members to go along that are not possible to be killed off.

[mhobin]

What happened to your old love interests? EA is not paying to bring the voice actors back. Too many companions to voice act. Pick a main character as a love interest if you want future content.

[Darth-Obvious]

The big problem with the original companions coming back, them having more dialogue, etc, is the sheer number of them.

 

In the vanilla game there are 8 classes with 5 companions each. That's 40 companions in total. Of that 40 there are 7 companions that don't require new dialogue to be recorded - T7, Khem, Qyzen, Broonmark, Bowdaar, Blizz, & Yuun.

 

With the exception of the Imperial Agent each class has 1 non-English speaking companion basically. 40 - 7 = 33. That's still a lot of actors, especially since none of the actors repeat. In other words, no one actor voices multiple companions in that original set of 40. On top of that, the game is recorded in 3 different languages, English, French, & German, so multiply 33 x 3 & that's 99 actors you need in order to add new dialogue to the original companions.

 

Even if you restricted the number of actors to just the love interests, it's still a large number. You've got 8 classes. Each class has at least one romanceable option per gender. That's 16, but the Warrior, Smuggler, & Agent all have 1 additional romance option, so that brings the total to 19. 19 x 3 (languages) = 57. Still a large number. Just per language it's still a lot.

 

On top of all that keep in mind that every story update is going to require the actors for the player characters. 8 classes, each with 2 voices, Male/Female, which is 16 in total, and beyond that you've got all the NPCs, quest givers, etc, that require voices as well for whatever new story update.

 

When you consider how many actors they need to record & across multiple languages it's not surprising how long it can be between updates sometimes given the large cast of actors they need to assemble every time.

 

The thing that really "broke" the original companions was the class stories not continuing. Once the game got to the point where it technically or economically wasn't feasible to continue the class stories the class companions also fell by the wayside. It's an unfortunate result of the game not being as successful as they initially planned on it being.

[Gelious]

I thought people have figured that part ages ago.

 

If you want your love interests to receive regular content, romance Lana or Theron. That's all. If you choose literally anybody else, be prepared to never hear from them again after their Alliance Alert ends.

[Sinhammer]

Well, have you played your JK through Onslaught yet?

 

I specifically didn't

take the Flirt option with Kira

because of this topic. I know the romance with original LIs is essentially dead game-wise, so there was absolutely no sense in continuing it. I just stuck with Lana.

[Ciarayn]

The big problem with the original companions coming back, them having more dialogue, etc, is the sheer number of them.

 

In the vanilla game there are 8 classes with 5 companions each. That's 40 companions in total. Of that 40 there are 7 companions that don't require new dialogue to be recorded - T7, Khem, Qyzen, Broonmark, Bowdaar, Blizz, & Yuun.

 

With the exception of the Imperial Agent each class has 1 non-English speaking companion basically. 40 - 7 = 33. That's still a lot of actors, especially since none of the actors repeat. In other words, no one actor voices multiple companions in that original set of 40. On top of that, the game is recorded in 3 different languages, English, French, & German, so multiply 33 x 3 & that's 99 actors you need in order to add new dialogue to the original companions.

 

Even if you restricted the number of actors to just the love interests, it's still a large number. You've got 8 classes. Each class has at least one romanceable option per gender. That's 16, but the Warrior, Smuggler, & Agent all have 1 additional romance option, so that brings the total to 19. 19 x 3 (languages) = 57. Still a large number. Just per language it's still a lot.

 

On top of all that keep in mind that every story update is going to require the actors for the player characters. 8 classes, each with 2 voices, Male/Female, which is 16 in total, and beyond that you've got all the NPCs, quest givers, etc, that require voices as well for whatever new story update.

 

When you consider how many actors they need to record & across multiple languages it's not surprising how long it can be between updates sometimes given the large cast of actors they need to assemble every time.

 

The thing that really "broke" the original companions was the class stories not continuing. Once the game got to the point where it technically or economically wasn't feasible to continue the class stories the class companions also fell by the wayside. It's an unfortunate result of the game not being as successful as they initially planned on it being.

SWTOR subscription costs between $156 to $360 per year. Even at the lower end, that is over the cost of two AAA games per year. Even if the class stories can't continue, Bioware should at least be able to afford content with the class LIs in expansions.

[OlBuzzard]

The big problem with the original companions coming back, them having more dialogue, etc, is the sheer number of them.

 

In the vanilla game there are 8 classes with 5 companions each. That's 40 companions in total. Of that 40 there are 7 companions that don't require new dialogue to be recorded - T7, Khem, Qyzen, Broonmark, Bowdaar, Blizz, & Yuun.

 

With the exception of the Imperial Agent each class has 1 non-English speaking companion basically. 40 - 7 = 33. That's still a lot of actors, especially since none of the actors repeat. In other words, no one actor voices multiple companions in that original set of 40. On top of that, the game is recorded in 3 different languages, English, French, & German, so multiply 33 x 3 & that's 99 actors you need in order to add new dialogue to the original companions.

 

Even if you restricted the number of actors to just the love interests, it's still a large number. You've got 8 classes. Each class has at least one romanceable option per gender. That's 16, but the Warrior, Smuggler, & Agent all have 1 additional romance option, so that brings the total to 19. 19 x 3 (languages) = 57. Still a large number. Just per language it's still a lot.

 

On top of all that keep in mind that every story update is going to require the actors for the player characters. 8 classes, each with 2 voices, Male/Female, which is 16 in total, and beyond that you've got all the NPCs, quest givers, etc, that require voices as well for whatever new story update.

 

When you consider how many actors they need to record & across multiple languages it's not surprising how long it can be between updates sometimes given the large cast of actors they need to assemble every time.

 

The thing that really "broke" the original companions was the class stories not continuing. Once the game got to the point where it technically or economically wasn't feasible to continue the class stories the class companions also fell by the wayside. It's an unfortunate result of the game not being as successful as they initially planned on it being.

 

Like or not .. this is the more probable cause for the decision to affectively remove "LI" from the game. There are all sorts of results / side stories ….etc. But just the shear numbers indicate that having that many detailed interactions to keep track of … plus the expense was getting out of hand.

 

IMO... narrowing the field to just Lana and Theron is not the best decision either. Both are great characters (from a strictly story line point of view). But Lana is not Kira … nor Theron [/insert favorite male character image] . And there are some (like me) that have at least 4 characters out 12 (light side only) … that are hoping for a new companion.

 

There is no easy answer right now. But I do know that having an assortment of "companions" to travel with in the stories as well as "in game experience" with has made the game a LOT more fun. As for LI's for many that is a part of the game too. I can see where having 100 + actors all doing their part to insure cut scenes for the game can be an issue.

 

I wasn't trying to be rude earlier about so many of them being killed off. But … this also must be taken into account.

 

Companions … having fun with and interactions with is still a part of the game. It should always continue. Some tough calls to be made ahead.

Edited November 5, 2019 by OlBuzzard

[Darth-Obvious]

SWTOR subscription costs between $156 to $360 per year. Even at the lower end, that is over the cost of two AAA games per year. Even if the class stories can't continue, Bioware should at least be able to afford content with the class LIs in expansions.

 

Not if they also want to develop new story content, planets, flashpoints, Ops, etc, and that's not even factoring in behind the scenes costs of maintaining servers, paying employee salaries, etc, etc.

 

Bioware has the player character voices under contract because they know they're always going to need them for every significant story update. That's 16 actors x 3 languages. That's 48 actors they basically always need, & that's not counting whatever characters they need for story (Malgus, etc) Then on top fo all that they need 57 additional voice actors just so that the LI can have lines of dialogue.

 

I don't think you understand how much it actually costs & how much time & resources you have to devote to something you think is relatively simple.

 

 

 

AN EASIER SOLUTION FOR COMPANIONS WHILE STILL WORKING WITHIN THE RESTRICTIONS

 

What they could/should have done with the vanilla companions at the start of KOTFE was given them new stories, new purposes, and new positions within the galaxy outside of your character.

 

For example if you were playing as Jedi Knight, your character in the opening narration would explain...

 

"With Jedi forces decimated by the Zakuul, Kira was called away by the Jedi to train the next generation of padawans."

 

"Doc's medical services were required on the planet of X"

 

...and so on with each companion. That sort of thing would only require the player character voices, who they already have under contract & need anyways for the story.

 

You give every companion a reason why they are no longer by your character's side from the outset of KOTFE, which was already/always designed to separate you from your companions anyways & at least that way you know where the companions are, what they're doing, etc.

 

It's not an ideal solution or exactly what people would want, but it fits better with the restrictions Bioware has with the companions better than what they actually ended up doing with them in KOTFE.

 

Whenever said companion eventually shows back up in the storyline they could've done something similar with them like that of the Alliance Contacts (or companions in older Bioware games) where it's the black bars bordering the screen with looping dialogue trees. That way you can visit/talk/kiss with those characters as much as you want. The dialogue would obviously be limited & loop, but it's better than the nothing you have & will no doubt continue to have.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Darth-Obvious

[casirabit]

Like or not .. this is the more probable cause for the decision to affectively remove "LI" from the game. There are all sorts of results / side stories ….etc. But just the shear numbers indicate that having that many detailed interactions to keep track of … plus the expense was getting out of hand.

 

IMO... narrowing the field to just Lana and Theron is not the best decision either. Both are great characters (from a strictly story line point of view). But Lana is not Kira … nor Theron [/insert favorite male character image] . And there are some (like me) that have at least 4 characters out 12 (light side only) … that are hoping for a new companion.

 

There is no easy answer right now. But I do know that having an assortment of "companions" to travel with in the stories as well as "in game experience" with has made the game a LOT more fun. As for LI's for many that is a part of the game too. I can see where having 100 + actors all doing their part to insure cut scenes for the game can be an issue.

 

I wasn't trying to be rude earlier about so many of them being killed off. But … this also must be taken into account.

 

Companions … having fun with and interactions with is still a part of the game. It should always continue. Some tough calls to be made ahead.

 

This when you have alts you don't want to romance the same person over and over on a different character. Each one of my characters has a specific personality (I'm a roleplayer) and Theron or Koth doesn't always work for their personality. I only have three characters that don't have a different romance and for them I didn't do one as I am hoping for Arn for my JC and I would like Jonas for one non-chiss agent and would love the romance to continue with Sangrau with my chiss agent.

 

Regarding Arn there is a possibility of him becoming a romance character due to this tweet by Charles :https://twitter.com/Charles_Boyd/status/1190704974067576833 (Thanks Jenny)

Edited November 5, 2019 by casirabit

[Trobon]

This still comes down to an allocation of resources. Regardless whether you think Bioware has a lot or a little in terms of development resource, we can all agree the pool is finite. So you have to divide the pie in some way.

 

Now there are 25+ LIs in the game. If Bioware gave each a two minute cut scene at the end of Onslaught that would have been an hour of cutscenes. And that would have been for a two minute scene where the LI doesn't recognize your choices. Throw in choice recognition and it goes higher.

 

So the question is would people have been okay if Onslaught was half an hour shorter per side in order to accommodate every romance option with a 2 minute scene? That's not a judgmental question. It's the reality here. If people are okay with that then that's what they should tell the devs, but enough people need to recognize that and affirmatively tell the devs that. Because right now you have people who are already saying Onslaught was too short and then people who are asking for development in a different area and somehow the devs have to split up their development pie

Edited November 5, 2019 by Trobon

[Goreshaga]

This still comes down to an allocation of resources. Regardless whether you think Bioware has a lot or a little in terms of development resource, we can all agree the pool is finite. So you have to divide the pie in some way.

 

Now there are 25+ LIs in the game. If Bioware gave each a two minute cut scene at the end of Onslaught that would have been an hour of cutscenes. And that would have been for a two minute scene where the LI doesn't recognize your choices. Throw in choice recognition and it goes higher.

 

So the question is would people have been okay if Onslaught was half an hour shorter per side in order to accommodate every romance option with a 2 minute scene? That's not a judgmental question. It's the reality here. If people are okay with that then that's what they should tell the devs, but enough people need to recognize that and affirmatively tell the devs that. Because right now you have people who are already saying Onslaught was too short and then people who are asking for development in a different area and somehow the devs have to split up their development pie

Not necessarily for every LI everytime,.

But for instance, Torian and Akaavi had specific lines on Mek-sha, maybe they could've added a short romance scene for each one.

And then next time they do the same for other LIs, give these ones a little bit of romance content, and give a romance mail from all LIs, especially when they're not involved in the storyline (mails should not be very expensive and they're usually nicely done).

 

That would already be better than nothing

[Lhancelot]

I miss Vector's odd poetic comments, and his dry humor.

 

I am surprised at how many people love Vector, I mean he always annoyed me a bit with his weird speech habit of talking in plural.

 

One day on DK, many players and myself had this discussion about annoying/awesome companions, and what I found was Vector had a ton of fans. One woman went in great detail on how great Vector was lol, for an hour at least.

 

What I also noticed was people who loved Vector seemed to dislike Kaliyo. I always found Kaliyo interesting whereas Vector bored me.

 

 

My opinion on Kaliyo, one of my favorite companions.

 

 

I view Kaliyo as a damaged soul, who just needs a better life support system than what she has had since she was a child. Kaliyo is simply a product of her environment, a lifetime of abuse and neglect, but I believe she has a heart of gold! Her heart is just protected in layers of barbed wire and a foot of concrete around it, to prevent her from anymore heartache and hurt at the hands of other lifeforms.