#I know we have swtor and the Kotor games

[hawkeinthecitadel]

I would sell my left kidney for a modern Star Wars RPG

[winntir]

The "The Jedi were wrong to go to war" narrative appears in Star Wars a lot. A lot of fans probably know this best from Rebels as it pertains to the Clone Wars, but it’s appeared in the Knights of the Old Republic series as well. It seems that Jedi can’t go to war without it being criticize by their own Jedi Masters, but why? Why is it wrong for the Jedi to go to war?

In the case of the Clone Wars, it’s for reasons that go beyond the rhetoric of protect the Republic or defeating the Separatists; it was because the whole thing was a trap. When Yoda looks back, it’s easy to see that the whole thing was to bring the Empire into existence and to destroy the Jedi. It was to draw out their ranks from the temple, separate them from each other while surrounding them with cloned soldiers that will betray them when ordered to, and scapegoat them so that the galaxy see them as the enemy.

Would that have changed if they chose not to fight, to stay in the temple? Perhaps it would’ve been easier to defend the temple, and there wouldn’t be thousands of knights alone when their men betrayed them, but Palpatine would've had a different script in mind. Instead of calling it a war perpetuated by the Jedi, it’s a war the Jedi refuse to end. We may have seen different knights turning against the order than Barriss or Pong Krell in that case.

And we may have seen many disobey the council and go to war anyways, like in the case of the Mandalorian Wars mentioned in Knights of the Old Republic. To any who played the games or read the comics, you know that the council opposed joining the war because they didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of a previous war with the fallen Jedi Exar Kun, and that they sensed something wrong about the war. Young knights and padawans didn’t see the same thing, so disobeyed them and joined the war.

Turns out, the reason they had a bad feeling about it was because the Sith Empire from SWTOR was behind it. For whatever reason, they wanted the Republic and Jedi tested or weakened. I'm embarrassingly not as familiar with the lore as I should be, but I believe the Emperor sent out Revan and Malak to find the Star Forge and bulk up his own military for a swift invasion. Then they just decided to do it themselves, so that was thrown out.

And this isn’t some retcon from SWTOR; the implications of this are present in Kotor II. It’s likely that Kotor III would've followed up on these implications had it been made, but that’s neither here nor there. The whole point of the Mandalorian Wars was a scheme that played into the Sith's hands. Must be part of the Sith playbook, and you don’t get a religious order last ten thousand years or more without knowing what your self proclaimed sworn enemies tend to do.

But at the same time, there’s a reason it’s hard to sympathize with the council in this case. The Mandalorians weren’t just fighting for resources; they committed genocide when they didn’t get the fight they wanted. The Separatists attracted a lot of people who opposed the Republic, and for every Mina Bontari or similar idealist, you get one or two Nute Gunrays. One opposes the corruption, the other is the corruption. To anyone who didn’t know the Sith were involved in either conflict, it would’ve been simple, but with the Sith in mind, you have no idea which victories are yours alone and not the Sith's.

It’s that thing about Star Wars where it seems uncomplicated and without nuance to its ideas at any expense, but once you dive into it, it really is more complex than you give it credit for. There’s a lot more to Jedi being wrong to fight than a vague anti-war notion.

[greyias]

I really don’t want swtor to shut down it’s the only eu thing that’s active we have left

I knew these asks were going to start coming in.

So for those who haven't heard, it was reported, and then later confirmed by Keith Kanneg on the forums, that EA is "selling" SWTOR to another developer, Broadsword. For those who want to read the article discussing it, you can read here: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware

TL;DR -- It's not shutting down. The servers are going to stay active for a while

There's a few points to note here:

If I understand things correctly, EA actually owns Broadsword. So EA is in fact not actually offloading a property, I think what's actually happening is BioWare Austin itself is being divvied out and would not be surprised to see if that branch is shut down

At least half of the SWTOR dev team is part of this move, so the key things to keep an eye on is which members of the dev team are moving. If the narrative staff is kept intact, then we have more story ahead of us beyond what's been written, and they've confirmed we're getting 7.3, 7.3.1, and 7.4. It's important to note that their production timeline is generally a year out from things being written, so story-wise, if they have narrative staff, we'll likely still have some story drops ahead of us

SWTOR is profitable (it hit over $1 billion in profit several years ago), and I will admit I don't have the best understanding of video game finances, but my impresion it was far into the black and maybe not an enromous cash cow, but a decent consistent revenue stream. EA is a publisher that is about profits, so as long as the game is profitable, even if there's not new story drops, the game will stay online

Disney has seemingly taken a recent interest in SWTOR after mostly ignoring it after its acquisition of Star Wars, even going so far as to finally acknowledge the general KOTOR/SWTOR era in their presentations last year at Celebration. Does this ultimately mean anything? I don't know, but SWTOR is one of the longest running current properties with a stable player base. They're just as interested in profit as EA. Probably another indicator that the game will keep running for a while.

Other properties that Broadsword operates, such as Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, are old games. Ultima Online was released in 1997, and the servers are still active. So like, I think regardless of what happens in regards of the story, we're not losing the ability to log in and play the game

Long term subscriptions - I remember reading, and forgive me, because I've long forgotten the source, that a key indicator if the servers are going offline is to also keep an eye on the six-month subscription option. Basically, if suddenly the only option for subs goes down to one month, that's when to worry about being able to actually play the game.

This is probably not about SWTOR, but BioWare as a whole. It seems there's a leadership issue at the main Alberta office that's causing issues. This is likely an Anthem issue all over again, but Anthem this time happens to be the Mass Effect and Dragon Age properties. Unfortunately, BioWare Austin looks like it's going to suffer the consequences of that, even though they've been running a tight ship overall compared to the rest of the branches. I feel for them. This sucks.

Now I'm not an oracle, I have no idea if this is ultimately a good or bad thing for the game itself. There's a lot of evidence for both sides of the coin, so right now the best thing is to wait and see. We at least have the promise of the next two patches. Let's focus on enjoying that, and celebrating what we love about our silly space game.

If you love the game, keep playing it. Spend money on it, and keep it profitable and it will stay around. Be kind and supportive of the devs, who regardless of how this shakes out, are going through a major transition. But immediately decrying an active game's death and going into doom and gloom is not going to help things.

Will we get more story beyond 7.4? I do not know one way or the other. I hope we do, but it's hard to say for certain on that front. But I do believe we'll still have our toons and be able to replay all of the released content for quite a while to come. Again, for now I'm just going to enjoy my favorite game, and support it as long as I have it. Even if this inevitably means it's going to change.

[dirtybiowareconfessions]

i wonder how often you get confessions that aren't about bioware's main two game series. i know ppl sent in swtor stuff sometimes and even kotor but do you get bg1&2 stuff. jade empire. nwn. did anyone get horny for anthem?? probably not but idk

i doubt the mods keep track in any way but if you have any vague idea about non DA/ME related confessions frequency i wanna knowww

Not often at all. The chief games are DA and ME and people have been obsessed over those games for well over 10 years (yours truly included.) Even if we *did* get confessions for BG and NeverWinter Nights, it's damn near impossible to get screenshots for those games.

Anthem's pretty much dead so it's normal to not get confession for it. But we do have a tag for it, just look it up!

-R

[mandalorianhistorian]

I know that Mandalorians and Jedi don't exactly get along, but are there any EU Mandos that were sympathetic to the Jedi Order, or at least potentially saw them as allies rather than enemies?

We have a few examples from kotor all the way up to legacy of the force

( a lot of the Jedi they do befriend don’t really follow the code fully so it makes sense they do get along)

Wellll the first most obvious one is revan of course ( I still think revan is Mando but that’s a whole other can of worms) revan and canderous working together from the beginning of kotor and the mentions of it in kotor 2 is brilliant ( I will not mention the dam novel it’s insulting to the game) (kotor 1+2)

In the mandalorian wars we also have zayne carrick he got taken into the mandalorian ranks which wasn’t the best situation but he did befriend a mandalorian family (mandalorian wars comic series)

In swtor we have shae vizla and torian if you play republic side (being a Mando though is the best in swtor)

Well obviously we can count etain and bardan aswell and all the surviving Jedi that joined clan skirata (republic commando)

You can also count fenn shysa with leia Han and Luke and the rebel alliance

And durning the vong war boba and his mandalorians fought beside a Jedi in secret

Well obviously Jaina solo with boba fett mirta gev and bevin and Medrit and their daughter and her children so Jaina kinda wins lol she got a whole load of mandos she worked and talked with lol (sintas kinda counts) (legacy of the force)

I may have missed a few pls correct me if I have

(Sorry this took a while was trying to remember who worked with the mandos)

[sith-shenanigans]

Introduction and Masterpost

Hello! I’m Io (with an i, not an L), they/them, enthusiast of evil space wizards and other assorted terrible people everywhere. This is primarily a SWTOR blog, but I post about other fandoms occasionally, and have recently fallen down a terrible hyperfixation hole about Fallen London. I write longfic, on a somewhat inconsistent schedule; chronic illness makes it difficult to put out chapters consistently.

I don’t have a DNI, but I block bigots and anyone whose posts I’d prefer not to see. I don’t do shipping discourse, and I don’t necessarily care what you ship, but see the previous sentence; if it makes me uncomfortable, and there are definitely things that make me profoundly uncomfortable out there, I’ll probably block you. (This has much more to do with tone than content—I have triggers, I’m all for people experiencing unpleasant things in safe ways, but the moment it feels like they’re being written as good and sweet and normal I’m going to nope on out of there as fast as I can. For my own mental health, and because the alternative is me biting someone’s head off.)

For my own part, I often write about dark subjects (especially in regards to my SWTOR OCs), and this blog may contain untagged discussion of fictional slavery, speciesism, systemic child abuse, state violence, toxic and abusive relationships, and similar topics. Mentions of sexual assault are generally tagged as “sexual assault cw.” I try to tag discussion of parental or school-based child abuse as “child abuse cw,” as well as in-depth descriptions of it in general, but I can’t 100% guarantee it. I try to remember to tag what friends ask me to tag, but if we don’t know each other well, I may not be able to manage it.

For neurodivergence reasons, I find it extremely difficult to describe images most of the time, but I’m trying to include alt text on screenshots of tags more consistently, and I’m attempting to tag my own posts with undescribed images as “undescribed.” (This includes most of my Fallen London posting, because there’s just enough formatting to poke me in the “cannot easily transcribe visuals to text” issue.)

Liminality/Discontent (SWTOR):

Liminality Main Cast:

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Discontent Main Cast:

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Sunlight (SWTOR):

[placeholder]

Other/Miscellaneous (SWTOR):

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Fallen London:

Amias Arling, the Calescent Inquisitive. Heart’s Desire. A former freelance detective with a few unfortunate soft spots, who came to the Neath for a case and ended up framed for something their target did. Extremely clever and extremely driven, but embodies the maxim that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Practically allergic to the direct route, unless it seems like no one would ever expect it. And even then, they’d rather take a convoluted way around.

SWTOR:

Liminality/Discontent, a sometimes-AU SWTOR novelization in multiple parts. Has a heavy focus on the implications that the game didn’t go into, the politics of the galaxy, and the pressure the protagonists go through.

like a moth to you, sunlight, a collaboration with my sibling @azems-familiar. Not very much is written on it, because collaboration is hard even when both people involved aren’t chronically ill (and our hyperfixations are largely elsewhere right now), but we love our terrible children anyway.

Liminality/Discontent:

The Dead Star; The Ruin, a prologue of a sort. As yet unpublished. Also works as a standalone work.

Anamnesis, a KOTOR novelization with a certain amount of playing with the format. A tragedy, if a bittersweet one, and a case study in why villains with good motivations are still villains. On hiatus.

Liminality, my pride and joy and occasional mortal enemy. The first and primary of two SWTOR base game novelizations, covering the Sith Inquisitor, Smuggler, Sith Warrior, and Jedi Consular storylines. It deals heavily with loss and family—the latter both by blood and by choice, and sometimes unexpectedly uncovered. It’s also about history, about the boundaries between past and future and life and death—and the things that survive when someone is gone. The galaxy is full of dangerous secrets, and cycles that seem inexorable; in the end, though, what matters most are the choices you make and why.

Discontent, the fic I will someday definitely write. Covers the Jedi Knight, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter, and Republic Trooper. It’s about war, mostly, and cleaning up other people’s messes. Nobody gets to step off a battlefield as the same person who walked onto it, if they make it off at all, but there are reasons to keep trying—even if only some of them are good ones. And somebody has to be the one to chase down the conspiracies in the dark.

Sacrifice, as yet not even started, which will cover the portion of the game running from the end of the class stories to Ziost. There’s a fourth fic for the Alliance era, tentatively titled Conviction, but there’s less in my head about how that one’s going to go.

Sunlight:

still my heart is heavy (with the hate of some other man’s beliefs), about spies and loyalty and people making slightly better decisions than they could have. Written primarily by @azems-familiar, who Illami belongs to. (I helped write Ardun.)

Other/Miscellaneous (SWTOR):

your last serving daughter, a collaboration with @reconstructionlegacy. Our silly little AU about Empire and the people who wish they didn’t live in it. Also infrequently updated due to the trials of life and coauthorship.

Fallen London:

None, yet, but it will happen. I can feel it.

The organizational banners used can be found here.

[iconac]

so i know i have this blog listed as canon-divergent, but i don't think i ever stated why. mostly because i think the majority of you all have it figured out, but over the course of writing revan on here i've had a few encounters where someone didn't really get what was going on with my blog in terms of canon. so, to prevent further confusion;

revan started out as a blank-slate customizable player character in the 2003 knights of the old republic rpg [which is just dnd with a star wars skin, complete with modifiers and skill checks], much like commander shepard in mass effect, where you can pretty much make them into whoever you want. the knights of the old republic comic run continued with this concept by giving revan only three appearances in the whole series and making their face/identity a complete mystery. then in 2011, a revan novel was released that 'canonized' revan's appearance, gender, personality, choices, etc. [douglas adams voice] this has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. this new 'canon' revan [a forty-year-old white guy that for some reason a bunch of people want to have keanu reeves cast as] then went on to appear in the star wars: the old republic mmo, further cementing this new 'canon' revan in the expanded universe. 'canon' revan is where the grey jedi/using the dark side and the light side at the same time comes into play, and it contributes greatly to his popularity in some circles of the star wars fandom. he also married bastila shan and had a kid [named... vaner... anagram of revan...] and his eventual descendants in swtor are satele and theron shan, two npcs that have major roles in the game. i write revan like they're still a customizable rpg protagonist. partially because i am old and i played the games back in the early 00's and my revan originates from that, partially because i think the revan novel [and revan in swtor by extension] is kinda shit. this is why i disregard almost all canon about revan that came out after kotor 2. if we get other revans in the rpc, you'll likely see similar decisions made and some considerable variation in depictions, especially along the axis of how much of the novel/swtor canon they want to include in their portrayals.

so what does this mean? i'm less canon-divergent and more non-canon, if you want to be technical about it. disregard 70% of wookiepedia's revan article. in general conversation, i refer to 'canon' revan as swtor revan.

[kaxtwenty]

I’m kinda tired of SW stories that focus on “challenging what we know about Jedi/Sith/The Force.”

This isn’t just me being a certified Jedi-Appreciator™️, this is mostly me just being bored with the concept.

Despite coming from a place of wanting to be “different,” we’ve had so many of these kinds of stories that the premise is ironically unoriginal.

I think part of the problem is that it also leads to a weird feeling of… unintentional inconsistency? Like, we’re never given a solid enough foundation on what the fuck the Jedi even are to the wider galaxy anymore because we’re constantly debating if the obvious good guys are really the good guys.

It gets to the point that some of the stories bend the established worldbuilding backwards so that they can continue to keep up these same debates despite having already done this a million times (see: Ahsoka).

Or will retcon each other to tell the exact same narrative over again (see: Tales of the Jedi vs Dooku: Jedi Lost).

Or try to approach the Jedi (space monks literally powered by good vibes) in bad faith while trying to approach the Sith (magical space fascists) in good faith (see: SWTOR).

I just look at the hype for the Acolyte, seeing people argue about it with, “well we already know the Jedi are flawed, so what’s the issue?”

Well *my* issue is that yes, we are already well aware of the Jedi Order’s flaws, we’ve had like 12 different projects that go over that shit in the last 8 years alone.

Excuse me if I’m a little bored and skeptical of what number 13 can add to the conversation at this point.

A story showing the Jedi Order through the lens of someone who genuinely doesn’t have issues with the sacrifices the lifestyle asks of them would feel fresher.

(Plus no one will ever be able to challenge Star Wars as well as the Kotor games did)

[sleepymarmot]

NPC: Three centuries... Jedi Master... Discovered an ancient space station of untold power... Built by a species that once ruled the galaxy... Me: I Have A Bad Feeling About This

[Major spoilers for KOTOR, major spoilers for this accursed pair of flashpoints in SWTOR, and a lot of vitriol]

One point for authenticity, I guess: the Foundry is just as awful of an experience in SWTOR as the Star Forge was in KOTOR. No, that's not fair: it's worse.

I thought I had a bad time during Boarding Party, crawling through an endless dungeon full of dull trash packs, all the while dreading what the not-so-subtle hints are supposed to mean. I'd let my guard down after the surprisingly respectful Revanite cult quest; I didn't expect to meet the imposwtor (bless whoever coined that name) until the expansion titled with "his" name.

You know what's an even worse experience? Spending an hour and a half in a dull ugly dungeon that exists only to shit on everything about an iconic, beloved character from a different game.

Revan in KOTOR (light side): On second thought, perhaps using weapons of mass destruction isn't the best way forward. "Revan" in The Foundry: Nevermind.

Revan in KOTOR (dark side): Fuck this, I'm not a Jedi. "Revan" in The Foundry: Nevermind.

A Revan who is proudly a Jedi and also proudly into genocide now is the opposite of where my own character was going, and incompatible with either of the paths the original game offers. It's the opposite of fanservice. I have no idea who this mission was for. Was it for ten year old boys who haven't actually played KOTOR but are excited to earn bragging rights of knowing who Revan was so that they could earn clout on message boards?

Not only is "Revan"'s personality an insulting caricature of the character we knew and loved, not only his appearance has nothing in common with what the majority of players must have picked during character creation back in KOTOR (how many different presets are for the male PC alone?) — we also have to kill him.

And to add insult to injury, we have to kill HK-47, too. My heart sank when I heard the word "meatbags" over the intercom. Well, at least he killed me twice in a row, and forced me to look up the mechanics of the fight, like it's a real dungeon or something. That's my boy! Very proud of him.

I went through all of this shitshow with my "Revanite" title equipped, by the way. And took it off after the end. I don't want to be associated with this. Don't remind me.

Well. To look on the bright side — I got like three level ups out of this. The one and only benefit.

Anyway, I have no idea whether to integrate this into my personal canon or not. As a KOTOR player, I want to forget about this like a bad dream. On the other hand, if taken seriously, the psychological impact on the player character should be immense.

The last thing that happened before this story was a Jedi padawan telling my PC that she wants to kill every single Sith. Now she meets someone claiming to be a Jedi who intended to kill every single citizen of the Empire. Was her opinion on the Jedi very abruptly and violently turned from "pretentious, hypocritical windbags with bad metaphysical opinions" to "immediate existential threat to everything and everyone she's ever known"? Are these just a stupid kid and a madman — or is this something to be expected from any and every Jedi? From the Republic? Did Revan keep his plans of genocide a secret, or did the Republic know and still allow it?

Additionally, what happens to her opinions on the Force that have been influenced by the Revanites? Does she feel disillusioned, even personally betrayed? Does this wound her confidence in her beliefs about the Force?

Actually, this is bigger than the player character's feelings. Why is the Empire not publicising this?! Doesn't even matter whether the Republic and the Jedi knew of Revan's plan or not. Can you imagine the impact on the public, in both factions? "Revan" just gave the Empire the biggest propaganda piece in galactic history on a silver platter. They want to escalate, and this is a perfect inciting incident. In the story order guides, this flashpoint is placed immediately before Quesh; on the Foundry you encounter an open act of extreme violence by the Republic against the Empire, then half an hour later you land on Quesh and immediately get tasked with provoking the Republic into violence as an excuse to start the war. I can't believe this stupid flashpoint breaks the story not only of KOTOR, but of SWTOR itself.

[sheyshen]

7.3 thoughts under the cut, pubside theronmancer through first.:

-some animation glitches on the first big cutscene, glowing where there shouldn’t be and clipping issues but honestly nothing too unusual for this game at this point. -Tau flirts!! i wonder if we’re going to get a full romance for her or if it’s just going to be a friend you flirt with kinda thing. -RIP to Bask. wonder if you take the dark side option during the duel does he live here? -flirting with theron in front lana continues to be funny. -i do find it funny that shae’s just allowed to wander the fleet. i mean good i just find it entertaining cause it always seemed like mandos weren’t allowed since they weren’t republic aligned. -malgus continues to be cryptic as always. -kara’s headband went away so we might have a smoochy with arcann?? -”in the years since vaylin’s attack”... man. how long has it been since kotet?? like what? 5 years? wiki says ossus took place 2 years after kotet so maybe 3? -my regret at not taking my arcannmancer version of kara through first is being overridden by the fact i’m taking screenshots of the convo to compare. it’s just day 1 of the patch i don’t need to rush it. -unvoiced kotor-style cutscene >:( -how maton-ja says “do not worry” makes me worry more sir -seems a little awkward having to do the side quest to progress the main quest but i get why they did it. just. probably would’ve made more sense to just make it a main quest?? -”they say the shrine of silence is cursed” and then the whole screen started shaking and i feel that wasn’t actually related but the timing was great. -i don’t know if i need to do the flashpoint to progress just yet but if i do that’ll happen after i eat dinner. -I honestly forgot how much i love the companion system in swtor. wow and xiv need this imo. the outfit tool too (but with wow collection system) -i know it’s a distant hope but man i still hope we see some of the voss from the class stories whenever we have to come out here. lokir!! i miss you!! -took a dinner break and back to checking out the story. first things first. i feel i shouldn’t be surprised czerka’s still being a pain -the scaning the water lines for clogs sucks man. -i don’t think we get the date nights in this patch do we?? -looks like the FP is not required to do the campaign! i am not complaining -”this honor is rare for my kind” weren’t these the same guys that gave me a hard time for ‘corrupting’ lokir? man it’s been so long since i played the smuggler chain. actually since i did any of the class stories. -all that and they gave me.... a table. thaaanks. -i think that’s it? i’m sure there’ll be mail so maybe i’ll pop on my arcannmancer and then do the fp. cause i’m kinda itching to see that cutscene on a romanced version  >:3

[teeseven-fanclub]

disappointed but not surprised if the broadsword move does mean the game drifts into maintenance mode, it's felt like recent news has been chipping away more and more at that high level endgame content (ranked, poor efforts fixing bugged out r4, no r4 nim) - and though these are things that people stay subbed for, they're also the things that mean a lot more work for devs...versus something like seasons which was built as a player retention scheme. when my main experience these days come as a raider, I have close friends I have met through raiding and guild activities and the like, news like this makes me worry about the longevity of the kind of player base I'm surrounded with and the things I want to achieve in the game...and in terms of story, we're already getting less and less, will that continue to be the case? will it be more of the 'kotor style' dialogues and less VAs? I know swtor is unique in terms of the amount of voice acting in an mmo but still, one of the joys is that there is such a big solo story experience, especially entering at vanilla.

I know the move isn't imminent and we still have 7.3 and 7.4 to get through first, and the end isn't nigh when there's still content I have to complete, but also. this game is the source of a lot of joy and love for me but also a huge amount of anxiety, I managed to fight through 7.0 and the damage that did to the player base (and probably also the game as a whole) but I have that same brand of anxiety again now...like, what does this mean for the future?

I could be jumping to massive conclusions when there's no actual news about What This Means and just lots of fearmongering, but I'm an anxious lil bean and um yeah

[tiredassmage]

2,7,23,25,27,31,35,40,47

nfadsnfldsf I love you, too <3 [swtor asks!]

2. Who's your main?

Will Smith showoff.meme. Why, my sonboy, of course!

It's Tyr, lol. My bestest double agent son. He's who I do everything with first, generally speaking; my initial playthrough for him on Star Forge is where I currently have him at pace with the story patches, and, ofc, when I decided I was going to replay him on Satele Shan, he's... the favorite child. I'd tell you not to tell my other ocs, but I think we're all well aware he's the chosen son, lol.

7. A class you haven't played (much) of yet?

In my heart, I want to say Trooper, but technically I suppose it's really Bounty Hunter. I never actually completed BH's vanilla story on Star Forge before I started up my Satele Shan playthroughs, but I have, technically, done Trooper's 1-50 twice because I have one on each server. Then again, Len (my SS BH) is in the early chapters of KOTET, so I've actually done more content with him, but I'd probably have to pull play-time in game to give you an accurate answer.

I've not been much of a military action enthusiast, so Trooper's story, while still par for the rest of the class stories, is way more of a slog for me, so if we flip this to which one am I going to play more readily? Bounty Hunter. So, eventually, it'll likely leave Trooper here.

23. One item not in-game that you'd like to see?

Well, topically, yesterday I was poking around at the lightsaber pikes available and I could have sworn we had a Zakuul-style one available, maybe Senya's? Searching for it tells me I'm not losing my marbles, it must just be out of rotation at the moment, but I'd like to get that and maybe put together some Zakuulan armor for Rhystyl when I get him a bit further into KOTXX, since he'll be the primary face of the Alliance between him and Savosta.

And at least so far I haven't run into quite what I'm looking for, but something like the Remote Outcast's headpiece, but... just the lower face covering. Similarly - and I know this one risks clipping issues, but stick with me a moment - I've also kinda itched for a pair of goggles that sit a little higher, like Koth wears his more as a headband piece than over the eyes. Short of a helmet toggle like in FFXIV, lol, I'd like that as an option. I wanna see my character's faces usually because I love them, hence the goggles, but there's also a few looks I'd just like the more subtle covering for. I have too many Agents.

25. One species not playable that you'd love to play?

I have two thoughts, but topical to GS4 just releasing, I'd like to see more of the Selonians. They don't really fit to the whole 'more or less human with some tweaks' theme for playable races, so playing as one is probably a stretch and I bet it'd take Work, but what I've seen so far of them in-game is neat and I wanna know more.

27. Favorite companion?

I mean, probably Theron. :P My endless excited tippy-taps when I get to play Shadow of Revan are largely because that's when I get Theron back, lol.

31. Best class storyline finale?

I'm biased, absolutely, but it's Agent. And I have played all of them, lol. Like, please, I am absolutely biased, but I do also genuinely believe Agent has some of the best consistency and carry-over between chapters of all 8 classes. The multiple variances to the ending based on your previous choices, the little hazards/puzzles... I could be here for a while, but if I had to boil it down, it feels very Agent - not that the Sith stories don't know how they end, but Agent benefits from me liking the dramatic spy action movies, lol.

And it just. factors in so much of your previous experience. It genuinely feels like the ultimate of Nine's career. Everything has lead you here. Nothing is ever going to be the same. Even if you win, even if you walked away, nothing is the same. It absolutely recolors the entire rest of the game viewed through the lens of the Star Cabal. That's fucking epic.

35. Thoughts on Revan?

I don't have KOTOR context, so SWTOR Revan's all I've known. I generally skip the mid-late game flashpoints (Taral V/Maelstrom, and Boarding Party/Foundry, particularly the Foundry) after just. How much I play and how many characters I have, lol. The Foundry I avoid mostly on the grounds that HK's fight is a pain in the ass. Anyway, off-topic.

I've overall enjoyed him. I don't think he overstays his welcome in the narrative and Revan's story is definitely one I'd fall in love with. The only thing that holds me back from going to do KOTOR myself is I already have such a cranky time trying to run Dragon Age Origins, lol, and also I'm a creature of habit so I already have SWTOR, lol. I have fond, if slightly muddled, memories of doing the Republic FPs with my Jedi Consular for the first time and it being kind of big for me because Revan's struggle is so big and you get the impression that so much rode on his decisions either way, and my Consular was just like '... let me help. Let. me. help.' (He's like that.)

Anyway, I guess sorta... long story short, Shadow of Revan is one of my favorite expansions, I never fail to find it interesting regardless of which class I tackle it with. It's not necessarily all because it's Revan and I'll cede that I generally agree that Star Wars as a whole is a bit obsessed with legacies and I think sometimes that's detrimental (and sometimes completely counterproductive to all you work for, looking at things as a Cipher agent, lol - stop telling everyone I'm alive challenge @ the Imperial Military).

I will look forward to a KOTOR remake if it ever does actually come? I keep hearing rumblings about it, but the last few times I've followed game releases to the letter it's been a Process, lol. so I'm coasting on the fringes of whatever's up with that.

40. Favorite world boss?

I'd say I've never done world bosses, but there is a fun story I can share. When baby didn't know what a world boss was, I did once sneak over and poke the Lance Squadron Command on Yavin IV and, predictably, got melted in like less than a minute. So, technically, I've seen them, lol. Oh and Lucky was hanging around on Corellia that one time I was doing Dread Seed stuff and I was praying to whatever powers that were listening I'd get very lucky and would go unnoticed, ha ha, which, yes. I survived that encounter with Lucky none the wiser. Tell Acina she owes me hazard pay. Anyway. xD

Choosing on looks alone then, I like the snow kitties. I'd like to pet Snowblind if I didn't think they would nuke my flimsy little Operative ass in like a minute.

47. Your greatest moment in-game to date?

Hmmm... that's a tough one? There was this one time I was on one of my lower level characters doing Hammer Station in group finder and I totally forgot about the Rocket Boost thing to get over the gap as groups usually skip certain trash packs there, so I went plummeting to my death in front of 3 total strangers and I could NOT stop laughing because one of them made like an 'ah wayward padawan' comment and explained stealth or rocket boosts and it was. I just had a good laugh, lol.

Uhh... silly stories aside kind of though, probably @captainderyn and I having flashpoint adventures together with Era and Tyr? xD We did Kuat Drive Yards together last which I don't think either of us had ever done, so we mopped the floor of most of the dungeon and then we got to the boss lol and we had a moment trying to piece together the mechanics and then we kicked absolute ass and it was just REALLY fun to no pressure explore and learn and conquer - part of what I did enjoy about doing extreme fights in FFXIV when I did was having those moments where you all compare your mental notes and getting that aHA of figuring out the mechanic, but also we just had. a really good time about memeing on the final hallway because we had some uh... some big guy with bombs and a small army of reinforcements as our final encounter and we'd been largely two Operatives stealthing around to our objectives before but that hallway before the boss had nothing. And you just knew.

So, long story short, we joked the hallway was empty because the boss had to pull all the reinforcements back to deal with us and that they were all busy hiding in the ceiling, lol. I sadly don't have anything from inside our Kuat adventures, but I do have Tyr and Era slaying in one of the initial cutscenes.

Flashpoints are more fun with friends. xD Hoping to do a lot more silly flashpoint shenanigans in the future : D

[oncetherenowhere]

Finally downloaded SWTOR today. It only just finished, so I haven't done anything yet, but I'm excited! I figured this was the next step, now that I'm in my KOTOR era.

I've been in a post-KOTOR 2 RPG for almost a year now, with some of H's friends. It's part of why I've been replaying the game recently, I just love the Old Republic time period. Stuff has really been popping off, and it gets me jazzed to have a good narrative going. More than that...when I first started this blog, one of my biggest problems was loneliness. I feel, recently, like I've been getting a little closer to the people around me. Work has still had its...issues, but I still adore my primary coworker, and the temp summer crew is fantastic. I'm starting to be comfortable with the RPG crew, and we want to start doing other hang outs and stuff too, which makes me a little excited. I'm still nervous when it comes to interacting with people, but I think things are getting better.

It's my birthday tomorrow. H and I are visiting my grandparents in my home city. I can't state this enough, I really dislike going back to my home city, but I think it'll end up being fine. I've got a cute outfit picked out. I never dress up these days, so I think that'll be nice.

Then, when we get back on Saturday, I plan on spending the day getting stoned out of my gourd and writing.

Side note...I can't describe how many Boston cream donuts I've eaten throughout the course of my life. SO many. And you know what? Something about the Dunkin Boston cream continues to entrance me above all others. Is it the best? No. I've had donuts of far better quality. But man, it's still my favorite.

[tiredassmage]

Ouuuggh. I feel like if I dig too much into this one, I might get myself tripped up somewhere, but... it Is kind of interesting to see this be a debate when... even single player games still have some back and forth on whether or not a protagonist should be voiced. And by 'interesting,' I... generally find this kind of tail chasing exhausting which is... why I love to avoid the actual forums, lol.

I feel less that I have specific feedback on the matter rather than... maybe I'd just like to chip something a little more positive into the endless void, so this is... probably mostly opinion and can just be treated as such. Just your tired mut wanting to have a little faith in devstreams and posts from the team, I guess. xD

I sorta already pitched my thoughts about 7.5, but since that's relevant again here, I'm just gonna throw gumballs at the wall about it, I guess.

Most of the ~feedback of it being "why is this encroaching more and more on msq" feels... maybe bad faith to me, I guess. SWTOR's dev communication could possibly benefit from being a bit more proactive and in-depth with the community; FFXIV's already name-dropped in here and the live letters and whatnot are kind of my primary yardstick for judging the few ongoing live-service games I do play. Then clarification and follow-up still happens when necessary, but maybe it clips a bit of speculation in the bud. I really wouldn't mind them including more technical stuff even if it's not language that's readily understood at a glance (ie, what are they up to with the graphical work) because I enjoy knowing what the team's working on, and I think that level of communication benefits FFXIV, and I think it might do SWTOR some good, too. Of course story details and all still wouldn't be a 'before their time' kind of thing, but more of this about what the team's working on I think would help ease a little bit of some of I guess the other thing that tends to get wrapped up in this discussion that wears me out fast - whether the game's going into maintenance or downhill or whatever else the doomsday assessment of the time might be. You'd think I'd be better acquainted with navigating this given most of my online game experience are all games around 10 years old and older, yet here I am anyway akdnfl;sadf.

But. Anyway. I saw enough of their vision with their inclusion of the KOTOR-style cinematics in 7.5. The spirit of including a broader berth of options than being limited to the infamous three I think was beneficial to the story they were trying to tell in this update. Widening the focus area by reducing some of those black bars I think would be helpful, especially as they focus on upgrading the graphical appearance of the game. It's refreshing to hear a suggestion on the matter that I can actually get behind. Those scenes might include less of an animation and scene load for the devs as described in their post, but I'd still love to be able to admire as much of their work as possible, lol. Especially when it does involve any kind of action. (A side scene from the... Voss update? Old Wounds, was it? Comes to mind - the confrontation with Czerka, I believe. And I think a scene from GS 5. Sometimes those black bars cut off a little bit of the action they do show and that's not always as fun as it could be with a wider frame.)

Which really I guess... what compelled me to add thoughts to this post is really just the sentiment that I don't mind. I like the idea of the devs being able to add more variance to the story. Up to 8 dialogue options giving more room for class-references and other minor decision alterations we can make along the way is good flavor. Voiced to un-voiced isn't... really that jarring to me when it does good for the story. BG3 sports a protagonist whose only voice clips are for some interactions and movement around the map and it's been a thoroughly enjoyed game by myself and plenty others, clearly enough. I understand it breaks the mold of what SWTOR did in vanilla, but it was also hugely fucking ambitious of the game to be like that, especially as an ongoing game, I think.

So the 'argument,' if you will, presented by the devs checks out to me. If it's more sustainable for their workload and allows them more nuance in the story, I'm all for it. And I think the graphical updates and recasting a player character voice actor (even if the handling, I will give, was a little... interesting of them to not announce sooner than they did or in a clearer fashion, but that's not this post) tells me, at least, that the team's still dedicated to working on what's here. They want to continue and I don't think any of that is a sign of the game going anywhere away any faster from a dev standpoint.

But that's why we're all hidey-holed on here in a tumblr corner than out in big swathes of fandom life, after all.

I'm mixed on the KOTOR cutscenes myself, and a lot of what people are saying in the forums is reasonable (reduce black bars, make it more visually appealing and less stiff) but I'd rather, for lack of elegant metaphors, navigate Makeb without a map than go back to dull voiced cutscenes of 30 second PR meetings where Lana reads your itinerary for you. I don't really understand the sentiment that you want less story when other MMO's get to have tons of content unvoiced (see FFXIV, etc.) and people praise it up and down-- if voice work is holding it back, then I'm for less rather than more. We've been getting better story steadily, and I'd hate to see that change back to what we were given at the beginning of LotS, which people seem to forget quite easily.

I think what it could use as a compromise rather than alignment dialogue is class specific dialogue, if they're able to implement that many choices from 3 to 8. Then it'd be less of a yes - neutral - no situation, and players might feel satisfied that it's not just the same responses dressed up. But that's my opinion on it, and it's a small niche issue at that.

Also, unintentional comedy at being able to rate a team response like UberEats???

[rainofaugustsith]

On SWTOR and canon

So the Star Wars Celebration was this past weekend. SWTOR was there, sort of. They sent in a few of the writers and devs - conspicuously, the devs who were NOT responsible for the horrifying overhaul to the game and the discord drama - but they didn't have a table or cantina. They had to hang out at the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes table and had no fanfare, no signs, nothing. 

It's sad. It's really, really sad that for the tenth anniversary, this is where it is. But I think EA and Disney have given up on this game entirely. I think they knew that if they had a cantina they'd likely be fielding a lot of comments from angry fans. But I also think they didn't get the funding to do a cantina, and I don't think they had exciting plans for the future they could share. 

One thing that was brought up on the official forum is that SWTOR is the last bastion of Legends, and that Disney likely would like to make that go away. We know they are willing to discard literal decades worth of comics and novels - they did that with the EU established with Mara Jade, the Solo kids and the New Jedi Order. They just threw every bit of it away. Given that, I think they'd have little trouble throwing away SWTOR, even though it's ten years old. 

I think Disney is focusing on things like the Mandalorian, Doctor Aphra in the post-A New Hope era and Kenobi before the Battle of Yavin for a really good reason: they know the post-RoTJ stuff they've done has not been well received. They wasted the EU and its rich characters; they wasted the talented actors who appeared in the sequels; they wasted characters who frankly could have been amazing, like Finn, Rey, Rose and Poe; they wasted cute characters like BB-8 and the porgs; and they wasted the potential for great new relationships, like Finn/Poe/ They threw every bit of it away. 

But they are still fucking with old properties, and KOTOR is supposedly getting a remake that will likely be Disney canon. From there...will SWTOR be up next? I hope not with every fiber of my being. +

I don't accept the Disney canon post RotJ. 

In this house, crystals are not bled. There's no such fucking thing. They're attuned, and the red ones are synthetic and a little more unstable. 

In this house grey areas of the Force are entirely possible and exist. 

In this house, Luke married Mara Jade and had a son and a New Jedi Order that worked. 

In this house, Han and Leia had three kids and a granddaughter and a hell of a different life from the sequels. 

In this house, I don't want Disney's Star Wars to touch the SWTOR universe. Even if they taint KOTOR, please, for God's sake, stay away from SWTOR. Please. I'm begging you, Disney. Frankly I hope they will do what they did to the extensive, awesome extended universe: ignore it and walk the other way, because if they touch it it will not be good. 

Given the multiple different pathways characters in SWTOR can take, it would be plausible not to touch it. For real. They could be smart enough to crib from Final Fantasy XIV's reboot: "oh, the Sith Warriors and Jedi Consulars were there, so many warriors, but the records were all destroyed and their faces and names aren't known now!" ;) Say it was a fever dream. Say it happened in an alternate universe. Anything but making Lana, Darth Marr, Satele and the other beloved characters into...whatever they did in the sequels. 

[sullustangin]

Forged Alliances Part 3:  Check In and Rakata Prime

Eva (internally):  I have made bad, bad choices in regard to this guy, and will probably continue to do so. 

Theron summons the player to Carrick Station for a brief update after he and Lana apparently meet up with Jakarro’s smuggler hook-ups. Since I play a Voidhound smuggler, I squirmed around this one by having Jakarro not be in Voidfleet (and unaware as to who Eva is when she’s ‘on the job’).  

It’s at this point Theron explicitly reveals in game that he’s Revan’s 10x over great-grandson or something like that.  Now, this is interesting from a SWTOR canon standpoint.  The novel Revan came out in 2012, a couple of months before Annihilation, Theron’s solo novel.  Vaner Shan, Revan’s son from whom Theron, Satele, and all Shans descend, is only made canon in Revan in 2012.  Satele entered canon in 2009 in a SWTOR teaser webcomic, and Theron became canon in 2011 in Lost Suns.  Both times, it’s only teased at that these Shans are related to Bastila and possibly Revan (because, in KOTOR, you can make Revan who you want them to be).  Vaner enters canon after Satele and Theron, and it’s only then that it is clear that SWTOR-verse Revan is a dude (Keanu Reeves) and did hook-up with Bastila... 9 years after KOTOR came out and over 3 years after establishing Satele.  A little weird, but this is Star Wars; it’s all in the family...

...and that doesn’t just end with the Shan family set-up. As Pubs, you might have rescued Revan from prison and sent him off to Tython, so good for you....but the Imps do get him. As Jedi Consular, you actually talk to Bastila (or her noetikon) several times.  For the Jedi, depending on how you respond to Theron, he’ll comment that Master Zho had said something similar about the Force guiding them -- no further explanation, but a nice throwback to the Lost Suns.   (I decided to make this nice and awkward for my smuggler by selling the info about Revan and his planned travels to the highest bidder, after the Pub didn’t pony up for busting him out of Maelstrom Prison.)

One of the interesting differences between Theron and Lana here is that Theron only makes one off-hand comment about you being interested in Lana, if you flirt with him again after flirting with her... but it’s a whole to-do with Lana. Meanwhile, even if you pick every flirt option with Theron, the best he offers is “I might like teams.”   The Pubs get family history with Theron and the general idea of “let’s spread the risk around so someone will survive to fix this problem.”  The Imps get “do you likey-like him or do you likey-like-like me?” and “in theory, the Revanites are interesting as a third way between Jedi and Sith, but they’re doing it wrong.”  As I mentioned in my Lana post, Lana is driven by her passion for the Empire (and if romanced, the player) -- as well as a rather robust pragmatism that doesn’t jive with some Sith tendencies.  She gets into philosophical discussions with Gnost-Dural later in Onslaught.  This is a trait carried over from her earliest appearances.

The Rakata Prime briefing on both ends is pretty direct.  Interestingly, Lana acknowledges that she asked Theron for help in order to decode transmissions.  There is an ongoing theme here of Lana being the less experienced spy, although she’s the more serious person in terms of temperament.  Granted, the Imperial responses to Arkous’ betrayal tend to be more furious and bloodthirsty compared to... well... this:

Eva:  On a scale of one to ten, how suicidal is this one going to be?

Theron:  No worse than usual.  So maybe a twelve?

There’s also a nice reference back to the Rakata tech the Pub player fooled around with on Tatooine.

Theron:  I’ve seen Agent Fauler’s reports on that one.  It’s good to know we’re bringing along an expert.

On Rakata Prime, we get to have one of the two LS/DS decisions to engage in spy games with Theron or Lana.  Impside, Lana wants that cyborg tech for the Empire.  The LS decision is to fight them for the data for the Empire.  The DS decision is to fry them as suggested by Theron. This comes off to me as “DS stupid,” since one would rather spite Lana than do something useful.

And the choices are the same for the Pub:  LS fight, DS fry.  What’s the justification?  The difference is, the Pub fights them because they’re ‘being killed in their sleep’ otherwise, while the DS decision is done to screw over any ambition Lana has for collecting them.  Never mind the fact they’ve already been altered and become zombies, sort of like what we saw on Tatooine.  Apparently, Zombies are People Too.  Lana plays off her attempt at subterfuge much better than Theron, who is so damn smug if you fry the borgs.  

And then Revan reveals himself as ... somewhat alive-- and our heroes are put to flight, splitting up to meet at Carrick/Vaiken....

EDIT:  Part 1 and Part 2