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

SWTORista being Event Advisor & Web Dev for Legends Consortium comes to mind as an example.

 

I was talking to this NPC with weird ears and two thumbs yesterday, and was like "I've seen this species... this is one of those deep obscure guys..." Unfortunately I had to look it up because I couldn't remember the species name for the life of me.

Anomid! Sheesh, what an obscure species! And perhaps one of the most realistically-rendered Anomids ever too. Insane!

I am also amused that there is an entire series of quests based on the Evocii. Where has this game been in my life? So much love for obscure aliens!

 

The Jedi Knight Tatooine mission and the main Tatooine planetary quest for the Republic side are very similar. In one you have to stop the Sith from destroying Tatooine with a giant sonic device. In the other you have to stop Czerka from destroying Tatooine with a giant zombie-inducing Rakatan in a mind prison. The dialogue in both quests is remarkably similar (Tatooine will be destroyed!!! ...and then everybody else, but first Tatooine!!!).

In retrospect, these two plots would have been funny if combined. Although that is almost literally like the end of Thor: Ragnarok. Hela is the Sith, Surtur is the giant entraped Rakatan (yes yes, I know he was projecting as a giant hologram, but that's besides the point!). It would have been fun to see them destroy one another.

 

"Oh no, not Tattooine! What kind of monster would want to see a nexus for Exchange, raider, and pirate activities wiped off the map!" My Knight says, as she runs through different scenarios in her head of how to best grab Kira and leave that accursed ball of sand to its fate.

 

there are some good people there. do they deserve to die?

But maybe if they put Hoth and Tattooine togethe maybe they would get a planet with a decent climate.

 

Ok, Warren Sedoru. He became an acclaimed Jedi Knight, did a bunch of stuff, started to lose his Force connection after war trauma, so.... BECAME A PADAWAN AGAIN? Like, you can do that? Like I totally get that in some weird cases like Revan (amnesia), the individual is re-trained as a student. But this dude seems like he was an older fellow and willingly gave up his Knight rank to be a Padawan again.

Gotta say, TOR is definitely one for creativity.

 

Then you've also got Lord Praven.

 

As a side note - we will be getting Darth Malgus figure from the black series line. It will be the first SWTOR figure in that scale.

 

I never buy Black Series, but I'll definitely pick up that Malgus.

 

Hasbro should do a Vitiate, Tenebrae, Valkorion threepack figure Celebration Exclusive... now that would be epic for the ages!

 

New question, and I'm sorting of dreading the answer to this:

So far I've only played as a Knight, but I'm considering something on the Sith side. On Knight there are a lot of dialogue choices for dark side stuff, and I imagine the reverse is true for Sith. You can basically play straight-up Dark Jedi as Knight. I did not do that, but considering all the companions I have so far give me "so-and-so approves" every time I do a light side thing, I doubt they'll do the same and go dark if I say jerk stuff.

Thus my question is: if you play as a Sith character, do you have to be a total jackass for your companions to like you? Like, push little old ladies into the street and steal candy from babies so "Darth so-and-so approves"? Because I'm not a fan of being a meanie. I tried that once with the original KOTOR and it got really depressing.

 

No. Most of them like light stuff in some circumstances. Sith Inq has the most dark ones to start.

 

The companion influence stuff doesn't do anything to the story, I've run every class except Consular as both dark and light and the companion stuff stays about the same. Even disapproving of your actions actually gives you an influence gain now, not like it used to.

 

Huh, that's weird. I was expecting this to be more like the KOTORs, where what characters choose to tell you is largely based on previous conversations (especially KOTOR 2).

I suppose it also seems like the classic Bioware gift-giving trick is a way to pacify folks after an insult. I'm sorry I called you a nerf-herder; here's Ludo Kressh's pedicure set.

That makes sense -- I suspect to get the most out of the Sith dialogue, choosing dark side is the way to go. Especially if it isn't influencing the story at all. And I probably shouldn't be overthinking this. My Knight gives a big speech about pacifism and second chances, then goes on a killing spree.

 

Supposedly the early version of the game did allow for some more drastic companion changes, including the right to kill them, but in the testing phase players went all "Like you would really do it" then "Oh no now I don't have a healer." IMO they overcompensated by removing the flexibility entirely in the main game though it came back in the post-game content which in turn was hampered by the fact that its exactly the same story for all classes which reduces some emotional investment.

 

The only class with a companion who FULLY changes based on your light side or dark side choices is Warrior so choose wisely It also used to be that you had to get their influence up to unlock more conversations but if they didn't like you that got almost impossible so you never got to know them When they overhauled the companion system in 4.0 they made conversations unlock as your story progresses instead. And now you can kill them in expansions but it also does... basically nothing.

 

I think they have maybe gone a bit far in letting you kill some characters. They basically get written out or even just a massively reduced role.

 

I wouldn't let having to dip into the Dark Side dissuade you from trying out Sith characters. I play my Inquisitor as the most unrepentantly evil of the bunch, but even he has a companion who left the Jedi order but refuses to turn to the Dark Side, and you can build a relationship with her. My bounty hunter isn't cruel, but is trying to hold her team together above all else. The Agent storyline has so many twists and opportunities for double crosses that you can basically choose whatever side you prefer. It's all good stuff, and I think the companions that do influence you the most toward the dark side are actually the least interesting, and they're usually balanced out by companions with a sense of honor or pragmatism.

 

So... I kind of stopped paying attention to TOR after the Eternal Empire/Valkorian plot seemed to come to a conclusion. Kind of intimidating to jump back into it now. Can anyone give me a summary of the game updates and plot developments since then?

 

Well the Eternal Empire is gone. Valkorian is dead. The Republic is fighting the Empire. The Mandos have a civil War and Malgus is attacking both sides.

 

So how did the alliance end, Malgus come back (but not with the Empire?), and Mandalorians get involved?

 

With the Eternal Empire defeated the Repbulic and the Empire just got back to it, the war was joined and a lot of people went back to their factions, also a planet was fought over. Once the Eternal Fleet was destroyed you needed to pick a side.

Somehow Malgus returned. Empress Acina, found him and did, something, to him and kept him under the Empires thumb, until he wasn't. Now he is a rouge, seeking force sensitives, it seems. Mados are just Madoing, not enough killing and looting so some decided to fight Shae about it and Shae is you ally.