Star Wars: The Old Republic

To be honest, what bothers me more is how the Eternal Empire has an arbitrary technological edge over both the Republic and the Sith Empire without having contact with the larger Galaxy, and no war spurring research. They're a complete backwater; honestly, it should have gone the other way.

What's more worrisome at a meta level is that Bio Ware seems to want to do away with the Republic vs. Empire, Jedi vs. Sith, democracy vs. totalitarianism conflict that was at the heart of the game's story, and the franchise at large, and basically make the plot a clone of Dragon Age: Inquisition. In other words, they're trying to mold Star Wars to fit into their storytelling comfort zone.

The latter question is answered over the course of the expansion. The former... well, it's implied that he deliberately prevented the two groups from encountering each other, and he had the means (also explained in the expansion) of preventing people from accidentally wandering between the two if he wanted to.

Answers for those who don't mind spoilers.

For the first question: the Eternal Empire's main advantage in its conflict with the Republic and the Sith Empire is the Eternal Fleet, a mysterious armada of unknown origins that is controlled by the Eternal Throne (the giant chair in the big spherical room seen in the Sacrifice trailer). It appears to be semi-autonomous — as in, the fleet must be directed by whoever's sitting on the Throne, but it doesn't need crewmen or subcommanders of any sort. It seems likely that Valkorion had the Eternal Fleet, or at least part of it, patrolling the edges of the Eternal Empire to kill or capture anyone trying to enter or leave that region of space.

As for the latter question: the mother of his kids is a Knight of Zakuul (the Eternal Empire's home-grown order of Force users) named Senya who was originally assigned as part of his bodyguard. They drifted apart after the kids were born, and eventually she requested reassignment after Valkorion completely locked her out of the loop as far as influencing their children. After Valkorion is killed and Arcann ascends to the throne, she defects and joins the Alliance against the Eternal Empire because she's finally realized that both her surviving kids are bugfuck insane and need to be stopped. She's one of the new companions you get.

What pissed me off was how Darth Marr was treated at the beginning of the expansion.

so does the expansion go live at midnight?

No, it'll go live after patching and server maintenance. Official word is that servers will be down from around 2:00 AM to 7:00 AM Pacific time, but it's not unusual for them to go live earlier than scheduled.

so tommorow morning before work I can play. yay

Man, I want to try the Sith Warrior and Imperial Agent for the storylines (heard they were the best in the game) but I can't stand Imperial NPC's... they're so... ugh.

And Kaliyo is the worst.

On the bright side, now you can routinely annoy Kaliyo and still get affection. Which I wish was a thing back with my Imperial and Sith-loyalist Agent.

I wish Teeseven was available to all classes. He's awesome.

Anyway, it's not my fault that I can't bring myself to have my IA be the bastard Kaliyo wants him to be. I mean, I feel awful when I see the screen go red when I do something bad.

At least the Sith Warrior is really interesting as DS but the Empire seems so, I don't know, depressing. I mean, it's like every Imperial is a bastard so there's no point in trying not to be one.

Maybe I should just buy a level 60 token and skip all of it (also, so my PC can romance Theron >.>).

*coughs gently*

Anyway, what I was referring to, was the companion affection got a overhaul. You have Influence instead of Affection to unlock convos, which goes up for disapproval as well as approval, so there's no need to toady up to your companion for stats, etc. Kaliyo can disapprove of everything you do, and it'll work out. it can get a bit weird for the original companions, though, since I think there's still only the original friendly conversations. "Your mastery of compassion and kindness is a true inspiration to me, player, like how you just burnt down an orphanage and pissed on a dog."

I don't really remember all the Imperial people being bastards, at least not in the main storylines (though Warrior deals with a lot of Sith, so, yeah). There were a lot more overt really-evil sidequest people, much more than Republic, but I remember a fair amount being nice. Though it starts out especially dark while you're on Dromund Kaas and even more especially Korriban. I haven't tried it out yet, but I think the quests got an overhaul so you could skip most sidequests. You do get asked to do some pretty dark things, both in and out of them.

The second Agent companion is practically pure LS.

edited 2nd Nov '15 5:26:31 PM by Lavaeolus

Unfortunately, the IA also gets their second companion the latest of all classes.

I've found that no matter which class I play, there's always somebody that I like.

Bounty Hunter: Mako and Blizz.

Imperial Agent: Vector and Temple.

Sith Warrior: Vette and LS Jaesa.

Sith Inquisitor: Talos! Talos Talos Talos!

It's weird how all the companions joining is so scrambled between classes.

If there's one DS choice I don't regret, it's the one on Belsavis for the Sith Inquisitor.

edited 4th Nov '15 5:55:48 PM by Ekimmak

Is this game still popular? I've been thinking about playing but if no one's playing it then maybe not.

There's an active player base, and a new expansion's been released, with roughly seven monthly "chapters" upcoming, starting in February. The game's still alive.

Yeah, there's definitely still a solid player base. Always the usual group of idiot and assholes in the fanbase, unfortunately, but

I haven't been SWTORing much recently. Partly because of the holiday season, partly because I needed a break after marathoning through the last few class stories I hadn't done yet and then doing KotFE with my main, and partly because I've been playing other games (*cough*Fallout 4*cough*) instead. I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually, though — not planning on cancelling my subscription or anything.

So Firebrand and the next few chapters are just gonna be Reintroducing the old characters but Timeskipped i assume

Since Firebrand is very OBVIOUSLY someone else that I'm not even saying it cause just watch the trailer

So, what's the expansion like, anyways? I don't have a subscription, but I have been watching LittleKuriboh snark his way through the first half an hour or so and I'm amused enough to be curious.

Its an interesting story, but it kinda peters out once you run through the 8 or so hours of story content.

If you like the story content, then it's probably worth subscribing for the new stuff. The KOTFE story is equal or better than anything that's been released since launch, in my opinion. They've also updated basically all existing group content (all the flashpoints, operations, etc) for the current max level, so there's a ton of stuff to do if you like to just jump online and run some random stuff. Previous expansions had issues where they only updated some of that content, so at the level cap, you'd only be able to do like six of the 20+ flashpoints, for example, meaning that running the same handful of level-appropriate things got old really fast. Not a problem this time.

They also pretty much completely revamped the levelling experience. Missions are now divided between (I can't remember the terms they use, so this is me making up names for them) "essential missions" that you need to do to advance the story, "side missions" that can be done once but aren't mandatory, and "repeatable missions" that can be done once a day (ie, all the old daily and heroic missions). All planetary heroics have been re-tuned as Heroic 2+ missions, meaning that they're much easier to do now that you don't need to get a full group together. Two players can do them easily on-level, and a single player and their companion can solo them by the time they're at the planet's level cap. Planet level caps are actually enforced now, rather than just being suggestions — if you're too high level for the planet you're on, the game "level syncs" you to whatever the level cap for that planet is. There was some outcry when this first came out, but as I mentioned, it's entirely possible to solo pretty much any content on a planet at that planet's level cap — you just have to actually play it, rather than rampaging your way through content you're 50 levels too high for and roflstomping all the way to the bank.

The main downside to 4.0 is that the story content was the only genuinely new content. Meaning, basically, no new flashpoints or operations. If you like MMOs for progression raiding, then you're not going to be impressed with KOTFE.

There was also a raft of mechanical changes with 4.0, mostly in the form of simplifying stats. The four main stats (one for each class) were all converted to a single state ("Mastery") that applies to all four classes, and the separate "surge" stat (which affected the power of your crits) being rolled into the "crit" stat (which previously only affected how often you critted). Crew skills were also tweaked to make levelling more consistent, and make endgame crafted equipment not useless (like it was before) but not making raiding pointless either (BIS equipment is still loot from the hardest operations). They also simplified crafting, getting rid of a bunch of mats that were essentially superfluous.

They also completely changed how companions work. Basically, all companions are mechanically identical now, and can be shifted between roles (tank, heals, DPS) at will. All companion equipment is now purely cosmetic (though they do still need to have a weapon of the appropriate type equipped), with companion stats determined solely by your level, your presence stat, and your influence level (which replaces the old affection). Influence is gained by any interaction with them — even if you did something that pisses that particular companion off (which would have reduced affection), their influence goes up. The influence cap is also much higher than the affection cap was; affection was capped at 10k, influence is capped at 250k. There's no real point in deliberately grinding it, though — it just means that your companion continues to get better the more you use them. Companion conversations are no longer tied to influence at all, so you unlock them purely by going through the class story now.

The upshot is that you can use whatever companion you want to, without having to worry if they're geared or the right role for you. In the new KOTFE story content, you can get a shitload more companions (of varying levels of plot-relevance; some are basically random NPCs that exist solely to be new companions, some are major characters in the story, and some are actually companions from other classes) as well.

edited 8th Feb '16 3:47:38 PM by NativeJovian

I think the goal is to merge at least all the "major" companions from across the classes into the Outlanders party

New expansion Knights of the Eternal Throne is set for a Fall 2016 release. No real details, but datamining of "Fallen Empire" shows references to a "Knights of the Fallen Empire Season 2", so this is probably just a continuation of "Fallen Empire"

So I've been thinking of getting into this game, mainly for the class stories; they seam interesting.

Having not played an mmorpg before what can I expect form this?

SWTOR is mostly based around it's story. As of late, they've mostly given up on PVP or endgame raiding to focus on churning out single-player stories.

People recommend for a starting class, you go with Sith Warrior, Jedi Knight, or Imperial Agent, since those have the most popular stories. Probably don't start with Jedi Consular, after the first act, the story is probably the weakest out of all classes.

Companions at the moment, are absolutely broken, but I don't know if it's companions in general, or how unbalanced the presence/influence system is. If you're going to play, you might as well subscribe, because the model is a bit unfriendly to premium/free players.

If you're primarily interested in the class stories, then you can pretty much play it as a single-player experience and not miss out on much. There's a few flashpoints (read: stand-alone missions that you need a full four-man player-character party to complete) that are story-ish, but they've added a "solo mode" for flashpoints so you can play them without having to deal with other people if you want. There are also Operations (larger, more difficult group content that require eight or sixteen players, depending on which version you're playing) that act as story bridges between some of the expansions, but in plot terms they can basically be summed up as "and then they defeated the bad guys", so you won't be confused about what's going on or anything if you skip them.

Don't listen to anyone about which class stories are good and which are bad — opinions differ radically depending on taste. You'll pretty much know which you want by which Star Wars archetype appeals to you. On the Republic side, Trooper is the military special forces badass, Smuggler is the Han Solo style dashing rogue, Knight is the classic heroic champion charging-into-danger-with-lightsaber-drawn Jedi (and is the closest to the older KOTOR story, if that's what you're looking for), and Consular is the more reserved jedi with an emphasis on wisdom and diplomacy over being an asskicking badass. On the Empire side, the Bounty Hunter is if you wanted to be Boba Fett, the Agent is about a non-force user delving into politics in a society that considers people who can't use the Force disposable minions at best (Agent is also the least Star Wars-y of the storylines, so people single it out a lot), Warrior is about being a Vader-style badass that wrecks every obstacle in their path, and Inquisitor is about being a Palpatine-style political chessmaster.

Whichever class you pick, I'd recommend using a DPS discipline. Tanks and healers are more in demand for groups, but DPS will make the story a lot faster, as story stuff is tuned for one player so mostly involves hitting stuff until it falls down (which is DPS's specialty). Now that every companion can do any combat role (they used to be locked into one each), you can just set your companion to tank or healer for tough fights and leave them on DPS the rest of the time. Every class and advanced class has at least one DPS spec, so no need to worry about that.

If you expect to play for a significant amount of time, it's probably worth paying some money to get at least a "preferred" account. There are three types of accounts — free (which you start with), subscribed (if you have an active subscription), and preferred (if you've spent at least $5 on your account, either through buying stuff a la cart or having subscribed and then cancelled at some point in the past). Preferred accounts get some nice quality of life boosts over free accounts, but still have some restrictions compared to subscribed accounts.

If you're willing to go preferred, I'd recommend subscribing for one month and then letting it lapse. Subscribers get access to all the expansions (there are currently three, with a fourth on the way) and they retain access to the expansions even if their subscription ends and they drop back to preferred status.

Anyway, that's the basics. If you have any more specific questions, then I'll be happy to answer.

You can listen to *some* opinions on the class stories. The Imperial Agent's story isn't much like the movies, but if you ever played Dark Forces or Jedi Knight, it's a little reminiscent of those. It's also the storyline with the most branching paths, for what that's worth— as an MMO the game is fairly linear, but there are dark and light side paths to finishing most quests, and sometimes those decisions do pay off or come back to haunt you later on in the game. This happens the most with the Agent and Sith Warrior.

Jedi Knight probably has the closest ties to the overall main story of the game. The Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Trooper do a pretty bang-up job of making you *feel* like Han Solo, Boba Fett, or a pre-Order 66 clone trooper if that's your thing (minus the clone part). Sith Inquisitor has some of my favourite companions, and while the Consular is the only one whose full story I haven't finished, and there are reasons for that, it's not as bad as everyone says. Though I'd still recommend making your first playthrough something else.

If you're in this for content tourism, as I was, do the purple missions, class and planet arcs, but if you have time, I'd say running through the other missions at least once can be worth it— there are a lot of them and some are pretty good. There's an option on the map screen to enable quest givers for non-critical missions which won't show up on your map otherwise.

The class stories all being unique, there's really a pretty incredible amount of story content in the game. If you've never played an MMO, you'll quickly figure out whether or not the combat is something you enjoy. If it's not, Stealth and DPS are your friend.

I would say that Jedi Consular while mostly about diplomacy and alliances the character is pretty awesome when it comes to chapter 3 for the story arc. Solo Mode for the flash-points will allow you to complete them without needing other people. Especially when the story uses a few of them.

Sith Warrior was enjoyable and I had just recently finished chapter 3. You build an interesting team of comrades through the adventure. Bounty Hunter does have an interesting feel to it. I have not quite finished yet since I have only done chapter 1 so far, but the great hunt makes for a good story in my opinion.