A/V The Old Republic MMO: The New Official Thread

I did actually once play all the way up to the end of Shadow of Revan as a Sith Warrior once, but I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as the Free to Play storyline. The main reason is that my companions, one of my favorite things about Old Republic, weren't part of the story anymore. Part of what made the class storylines so rewarding was seeing my character's relationship with his crew develop. But after the main class storyline, they became far less involved and it made the story feel less like it was mine if that makes sense.

 

That's true. Lana and Theron are the new companions post-class stories.

 

And I like both of them, don't get me wrong. I especially like Lana. But in the case of my class storyline companions, some of them were with me from almost the very beginning. My character always end up married to one of them. So I will always have a stronger connection to them.

 

So I tried playing TOR yesterday.

Character would randomly be unable to pass beyond sections in open areas and ultimately ended up stuck on some light armor modifier thing after one misplaced jump. Which is a shame because I was kinda getting into the game when it actually worked.

 

That is weird. you can type /stuck in the chat if you get stuck.

 

Wish I could play some later story elements without having to go through all those beforehand first. Back when I actively played a lot more, I wanted to know everything and do every sidequest I could find, but that only lead to not getting far in the story at all, no matter with which class and catching up seems hard if you are lacking time anyway with two kids, third on the way and life as usual throwing you roadblocks into your gaming time.

Guess it is futile.. I mean, do you have an average of how many hours one needs for TOR min/max? Or markers and how many hours you need to get to this or that story element if rushing it? I guess that is one of the turnoffs TOR still got sadly. Especially for those that did not finish the original releases game and all levels before the expansions hit. It needs some options to either skip more, or create characters that start at later points.

 

I know for a fact that there are late game creation tokens. Or something to that effect.
The first 8 characters I created I never moved on to KOTET specifically because I didn't want to lose the companions I grew attached to.
So I used those tokens to create a Jedi and Sith character to explore the most recent content.

I figured that was available to everyone since I never really used the Cartel Market until very recently.
Though I suppose having preferred status at very least is a prerequisite.

 

I never used the market at all, if it even existed when I started TOR with its release, I think that was only added later. So if I understood this right, the only starting points are at the beginning or KOTET and there are no later entrypoints, right? At least that would be something to consider. thx

Another problem is that TOR never released for Mac sadly as they once promised. I played it on PC back then and since then switched devices but would have to either get a PC or reactivate an ancient one if it is still capable of doing magic. Though maybe I rather should throw just Windows on an older mac instead of that antique. life being easy for a change would be appreciated.

 

I've never used a later start but I think there is one for the Onslaught expansion.
Because of the nature of these tokens when creating a new character they have to make certain assumptions about the choices made in past content.
I read somewhere that one of these choices, whether to save Vette or Torian, is dependent on your faction..
(Republic Vette, Empire Torian except for Warrior who defaults to Vette). Which shows there are later starts as well.

 

SWOTOR has implied there many have been Sithly-Jedi encounters before the Great Galactic War before.
(Khem Val in particular seems rather proud of the Jedi he Killed in service to Tulak Hord)

I doubt we'll ever get that information completely elaborated upon, but there is plenty of room to theorize.

 

My personal theory is that the immediate descendants of the Exiles sent scouting parties back to test the strength of the Republic and the Jedi.
(Like, sons and Daughters close as they still remember their parents failures and know the hyper route back to Republic space)
It wasn't a full scale invasion, and they relied a lot on alien mercenaries like the Dashade. At the time the Republic saw them as little more than a Pirate nuisance, equitable to the Nhil in canon. The Jedi sensed the presence of the Dark Side in their attackers but never connected them to the Dark Jedi they drove away.
(At least not until the time of TOR)

These raids quickly fell apart do to Sith infighting, and appear as little more than a footnote in Republic history as nobody really went to the effort of trying to connect them to the Sith menace later on.

 

Dosen't the Secret History of Voss outright state that the Jedi and Sith fought?

I think that is partially true, the exiles split and some went back to fight the Republic and lost the hyperspace routes

 

If you like the Jedi Knight allies, then Onslaught would be something you enjoy, they have big roles in some quests.

 

Was that bit of info about the Dantooine Council having artifacts of his from a recent preview video or some such? I missed it if so. One of the downsides of the MMO nature of TOR is the lore being somewhat inaccessible apart from the Encyclopedia and the various online "electronic copies" of in-game lore. I do try to keep up with it but still miss a lot. I'd enjoy seeing that bit of info.

On a related note, are there any comprehensive or at least somewhat complete and up to date compilations of all the various Sith history related TOR lore?

 

By the time of the Hyperspace War, even the powerful Lords on the Sith Council such as Horak-Mul regarded the Republic as a myth. Various sources indicate that very few, Ragnos among them, actually knew that the Republic was even real. Of the Exiles themselves, only Dreypa and Andeddu ever left Sith Space.

How would Hord have even gotten in contact with Jedi? We already know (from Spiral) that Jedi veterans of the HYD not only knew where the Stygian Caldera was (they just couldn't get into it) but that were waiting to pounce on anything that exited. The jumped Dreypa the instant the familiar tiny craft came into their gunsights, but Hord had nothing to do with that. But even if he did, don't forget that whenever exactly it was the Dreypa left, it was while Pall was still the Dark Lord. TEGttF confirms that Pall was still the Dark Lord for many years after Dreypa (and Andeddu, separately) left.

Now, Hord certainly did eliminate his rivals among the Exiles, but it was after many, many years in a very gradual process. He likely busied himself with the actual military conquests of the worlds in Sith Space, sided with Dark Lord Pall when Dreypa and Syn rebelled over the issue of returning to the Republic, and continued doing the actual work of expanding the Empire. He may or may not have been among the Exile rivals that Andeddu fled Sith Space to get away from (quite separately from Dreypa), but he certainly eventually got strong enough to overthrow Pall. He may have been among the rivals from whom XoXaan hid her body and Holocron in her tiny nook of a Tomb on Korriban (how we know that she couldn't have been the Ambria Sorceress), though we don't know if that was before or after he overthrew Pall.

Muur seems not to have taken any sides at all in the conflicts among his fellow Exiles, and even shown to grow old and die in Sith Space in Vector. It was only sometime after his body gave up the ghost that the Talisman (eventually) ended up on Taris, which also had to have happened well before the time of Marka Ragnos, as Vector also confirms that it had long since been lost to Sith Lords of Sadows generation. The best explanation would seem to be that it was lost somewhere in Sith Space (we never got to know what Planet was ruled by Muur) after Muur "died" but ended up on Taris after the Hyperspace War, probably during the Fall of the Sith Empire. Nothing indicates a conflict of any sort between Hord and Muur, though. Given how strong Muur was even in spirit form (Vader thought him a match for Sidious and he did defeat Krayt, and in life managed to survive Corbos) and that he kept to his own business, it seems likely that Hord had no reason to ever come into conflict with Muur and wisely avoided him.

We know that the Exiles all lived for Centuries, as did their descendants, so presumably Hord also did. It's entirely possible that after many years, with Syn obliterated, Dreypa and Andeddu departed, XoXaan killed and/or forced into hiding, Muur off doing his own thing while eventually dying of old age, and the Throne Figures (from Empire's End) posing no real threat, and the worlds of Sith Space mostly conquered, Hord finally challenged Pall and won. Any remaining fellow Exiles of his weren't strong enough to stand against him, and we know courtesy of their "held dominion for Centuries" line from EE that they must have remained subservient to him once he became the Dark Lord.

We've known since Kotor came out that the Exiles did eventually turn on each other, courtesy of Ajunta Pall himself. He made it clear that they all were envious of the secrets and powers that each other had, and later reference books like Jedi vs Sith and Book of Sith have direct accounts from Pall and Syn that confirm they also fought each other over whether or not to return to the Republic. There were at least a few of these internecine conflicts. Both Andeddu and XoXaan (in the Legacy comics) mention that their brethren were coming after them.

 

I was meaning some exiles came back to fight the Republic. Not other Sith.

 

I was wondering, given the Paecian Empire existing post TOR for some time, how splintered was the galaxy before the NSW? We assume the Republic retook all post TOR before Ruin ruined it all over again. But What if this was not the case and the Republic ever since Zakuul and other factions never regained their full form? Some pre-TOR guides speak of a golden age of the Republic before the NSW, which would suggest it was not reduced unless... maybe it was a golden age because it was reduced and could focus on the local needs without overstretching?

Then again, a splintered galaxy post TOR would not explain why the Chiss had to return home instead of staying galaxywide operating. Was there a potential Chiss purge? Especially in regards to their actions during the war's end? Maybe an Alpha Red kinda situation that backfired and reduced the Sith numbers significantly especially the RED Sith numbers? Kinda like Sith task Chiss to create it to take out Jedi... Jedi mission convinces or manipulates it and some Chiss to turn it on the Sith instead. Hence them Chiss fleeing to hole up in the Ascendancy fearing revenge? Reduced Sith easily dealt with and some going into hiding?

Additionally, with Jedi and Sith overshadowing everything for centuries if not millennia especially recruitment and Forcetesting citizens, an era of a splintered galaxy could let many local Force sects and cults shine on their own free of Jedi recruitment and testing that slowly eroded the individual cults numbers by snatching their potentials away soon after birth already. And we know from the NSW and post NSW times that many cults persisted and flourished on their worlds and sectors and some even dream of galactic ambitions like the Nightsisters, who might have had a wider influence pre-NSW under the Paecian Empire. At least an incarnation of them that existed pre-Allya who only reformed them post NSW. We know Sith Witches existed in the NSW with an alchemy academy on Dathomir already and Forceusers being on site since the Kwa, Zeffo and humans that got deported to Tython. So Dathomir may yet have another chapter in its hidden past and Paecian times.


Thoughts?

 

The long storied history of Korriban is interesting, Moraband has its moments, but what I really want to know more about is the times and tides of Pesegam and how this era connects or has repercussions with all later ones!

 

Which is why I theorized it was their Children or Grandchildren that scouted out the Republic and resulted in the clashes between Jedi and Sith mentioned at various points in TOR (Not to mention the proliferation of Dark Side artifacts in Republic Space).
Most of the Exiles stayed, their children tested the Republic but their efforts quickly fell apart and little evidence connecting them to the Sith from the Republic's perspective remained. A couple thousand years is plenty of time for the Republic to become the stuff of legend to the Sith.

 

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or anything... but I don't like the smuggler class in The Old Republic. I tried the main storyline a few times, but never completed it out of frustration. Honestly, my main issue is that the smuggler is a Republic aligned class. Even when I tried playing my smuggler as an amoral jerk, the game kept pushing me to be a hero. I just didn't feel like I had as much freedom to play my character the way I wanted to.

EDIT: Also, being able to kill Force users as a smuggler really damaged my suspension of disbelief.