When you're talking with Valkorion in your mind at the beginning of the Fallen Empire, he tells you to let the past die and be reborn. Well I was ready to do just that and was looking forward to new worlds to explore and new people to meet. However, then they started to bring back ALL the old companions (which simply felt like unnecessary fanservice to me). At the same time you no longer got any conversations or companions quests with Lana, Theron and Koth (or introduce any actually completely new characters to your crew).

They bring them all back even though most of them have no real meaningful content or even a reason to there (for example why on earth would Aric Jorgan or Sergeant Rusk ever willingly serve the Emperor's Wrath?) I'm NOT against bringing back some of the old companions when it makes sense (like Kaliyo and Scorpio) but not at the expense of getting new companions and actually meaningful content (not just these gosh darn mute conversations).

I fully support returning companions being class bound. It just makes far more sense. I like that you can kill some of the companions now who really deserved it (*cough*Quinn*cough*) but overall I just think that if they bring back companions at least make it meaningful and give them some content. Their stories were already heard and resolved in the vanilla game, so that's why I would like to see more new companions and new stories.

This doesn't mean I wasn't happy when my Warrior was reunited with Vette or being able to recruit Zalek - or that I wouldn't be disappointed if my Inquisitor didn't get to be reunited with his loyal Dashade - just that bringing back every single companion in the game for every Outlander doesn't seem like the best idea.

As of now we've not got them all back and not many of the alerts have been that memorable.

I for one would like a whole chapter, like the one where Vette and Gault ( HK and Z0-OM) come back, but with meaningful fully-voiced conversations, and varying options to fully recruit/partially recruit/ leave on the staff/ reject/kill or swindle them out of their ill-gotten gains.

However when all this was dreamed up, they didn't have the budget to bring them all back in a meaningful way and in a way that was a natural extension of the vanilla stories. - But we could see that when there was a 5-minute interlude during the Rishi story arc. but they apparently didn't listen to the fans/players then either.

How they dropped the ball so terribly over this will probably forever haunt this game.

Even though there is a new person at the helm nowadays, the legacy of this decision will last many years, and it doesn't seem to have improved much since the change.

- Butt IMHO they should have a whole chapter per companion + new companions with their own chapters. No alliance alerts to fetch n number of things or kill x number of mobs. - In a timely fashion - such as 1 or 2 per month.

- That's what keeps people subbed, playing and interested. Promising the earth and seeing the development cupboard is bare is a good way to trash what good reputation you might once have had.

- Butt IMHO they should have a whole chapter per companion + new companions with their own chapters. No alliance alerts to fetch n number of things or kill x number of mobs. - In a timely fashion - such as 1 or 2 per month.

- That's what keeps people subbed, playing and interested. Promising the earth and seeing the development cupboard is bare is a good way to trash what good reputation you might once have had.

Uh I don't know if that's such a good idea. Entire chapters just to bring old companions sounds like something that would really derail the story. Better to introduce them in a way that feels natural - like with Kaliyo or Torian. I don't really see a way to bring back all the old companions in a satisfying way - nor should they all be brought back since that doesn't really make sense either.

Uh I don't know if that's such a good idea. Entire chapters just to bring old companions sounds like something that would really derail the story. Better to introduce them in a way that feels natural - like with Kaliyo or Torian. I don't really see a way to bring back all the old companions in a satisfying way - nor should they all be brought back since that doesn't really make sense either.

The romance options should be brought back. The others ... I like some of them but they tend to not be as important to a PC as the romance options (headcannon/RP notwithstanding).

Uh I don't know if that's such a good idea. Entire chapters just to bring old companions sounds like something that would really derail the story. Better to introduce them in a way that feels natural - like with Kaliyo or Torian. I don't really see a way to bring back all the old companions in a satisfying way - nor should they all be brought back since that doesn't really make sense either.

I don't think Kaliyo's introduction was any more natural than anything they could come up with for the others. Her's couldn't have been more tacked on and nonsensical. There is no way any alliance needs a mass murdering sociopath in it's ranks no matter how they tried to spin in. Why would a light side character let her walk free?

A decent writer could bring back any and all love interests in satisfying ways if they had the budget to do so. And the story is already completely derailed.

Too bad they didn't stick with the vanilla method of having side-quests for companions. That would have spared them the mess of trying to shoe-horn old love interests into the main story, which they have clearly given up on. Now we get a handful of companions with great returns and the rest get crap.

Uh I don't know if that's such a good idea. Entire chapters just to bring old companions sounds like something that would really derail the story. Better to introduce them in a way that feels natural - like with Kaliyo or Torian. I don't really see a way to bring back all the old companions in a satisfying way - nor should they all be brought back since that doesn't really make sense either.

It wouldn't derail the story if it was meaningful. Trying to bring them all back to the exclusion of other aspects of the story might be disruptive.

If they'd let the story play out and make a chapter for a few companions to return as (maybe) side-quests, then it'd fit.

However, having to build the alliance quickly and try to shoe-horn all the companions in on a shoestring budget was too big a mountain to climb..... People got bored of waiting with very little content to keep them amused.- Old heroics with cookie-cutter companions doesn't really excite many people.

Which makes me wonder why they decided to remove them in the first place. - The story would have been fine with 1 or 2 of the original companions rescuing you and taking it from there.

- Lazy story-telling and over ambitious promises is what really broke the game. It was such an idiotic thing to do.

Chief dev: "I know, lets remove the things people like about this game, and make them work hard to get back what they had originally- while we dangle new content in front of them, but not actually deliver content or return of those things."

- Yeah Good luck with that.

However, having to build the alliance quickly and try to shoe-horn all the companions in on a shoestring budget was too big a mountain to climb..... People got bored of waiting with very little content to keep them amused.- Old heroics with cookie-cutter companions doesn't really excite many people.

 

Which makes me wonder why they decided to remove them in the first place. - The story would have been fine with 1 or 2 of the original companions rescuing you and taking it from there.

 

- Lazy story-telling and over ambitious promises is what really broke the game. It was such an idiotic thing to do.

 

Chief dev: "I know, lets remove the things people like about this game, and make them work hard to get back what they had originally- while we dangle new content in front of them, but not actually deliver content or return of those things."

 

- Yeah Good luck with that.

If I remember correctly in one of the streams for KOTFE they said they wanted to return all the companions in a meaningful way like Kaliyo, Jorgan and etc...but instead Elara/Quinn/Raina Temple/ had 1-2 minutes of cutscenes and 2-3 lines of dialogue. Others it looks like are going to be alliance alerts...

If I remember correctly in one of the streams for KOTFE they said they wanted to return all the companions in a meaningful way like Kaliyo, Jorgan and etc...but instead Elara/Quinn/Raina Temple/ had 1-2 minutes of cutscenes and 2-3 lines of dialogue. Others it looks like are going to be alliance alerts...

There are no "meaningful" ways of bringing back old comps because of Lana/Theron show. For example:

Lord Scourge could have been hiding on Nathema, and when you go to confront Vailyn you also get to recruit him - he wants revenge and plans to kill Vailyn himself.. Meanwhile, Lana is busy fighting zealots,failed experiments and w/e might roam around.

It seems like the returning companions, be they love interests or not, are going to get less and less attention from developers. It's a pity, this is clearly something many players want. I like Theron, can't stand Lana, she is my nemesis, lol. I wouldn't mind if some of the non-romanceable companions didn't return IF that meant the extra creative energy went into proper reunions with love interests. I don't think that will be the case. I'm trying to be patient and optimistic, and give them the benefit of the doubt that they're working on something worthwhile, but even an optimist like myself gets discouraged.

Time will tell, maybe these Alliance Alerts will prove to be more diverting than the ones we've seen in the past. Maybe it will end up being a nice reunion. Maybe, . . .maybe . . . for the love of god just bring Vector back so I can finally run my agent through stuff past SoR, or make the choice to retain her gaming innocence and never take her through KotFE.

Which makes me wonder why they decided to remove them in the first place. - The story would have been fine with 1 or 2 of the original companions rescuing you and taking it from there.

 

- Lazy story-telling and over ambitious promises is what really broke the game. It was such an idiotic thing to do.

 

Chief dev: "I know, lets remove the things people like about this game, and make them work hard to get back what they had originally- while we dangle new content in front of them, but not actually deliver content or return of those things."

 

- Yeah Good luck with that.

This is one part of why KotFEET sucked so hard for so many people.

At first, it seemed okay. I mean, we'd all be able to recruit all classes' companions, and on top of that, get other, as yet unknown, companions too. We'd be able to pick the one that really resonated with our character's personality and past, and it would be glorious.

...and then faceplant. Then it turned out we didn't really get to choose which companion to use, because in this chapter you have to use Lana. In that chapter you run around with a lunatic, so you have to use her as a companion regardless of the utter idiocy for anyone at all, including the Imperial Agent, to have anything but a swift death in store for Kaliyo. She was a complete liability to the Alliance, and must have been doing more glitterstim than food after Ziost.

I don't have anything personal against Kaliyo-Vanilla, mind you, but the way she came across in her recruitment chapter was just horrible.

And that was/is the biggest problem with having the companions as heavily involved in the main plotline as they were - at least if it's not handled well enough. If the player questions why s/he has to recruit this despicable madwoman at all, and if the alliance wouldn't be better off just putting a lightsaber through her or using her as target practice.

Anyway, that little rant isn't really on topic. so, on topic:

I don't want any new companions at all until all the old ones are back. And I don't want the old ones back unless they're truly given the attention they deserve. Aric Jorgan, Torian, Vette+Gault - those made sense, both in the KotFEET story and in light of the comps' Vanilla personalities. (I'm on my first coffee, still, so I can't even think of more properly returned comps except for SCORPIO, and, well, the less said about that the better.)

I'm waiting for next week's update both eagerly and with trepidation. I'm hoping Risha/Corso and Andronikos get proper mini-chapters - they can't advance the main plot unless we're about to go back to proper class stories as only smugglers and Sith inquisitors can get them.

I wouldn't mind if some of the non-romanceable companions didn't return IF that meant the extra creative energy went into proper reunions with love interests.

I do mind! Why would my comps be sacrificed just so you have your dream reunion with your LI, let me guess, DS Jaesa?

I do mind! Why would my comps be sacrificed just so you have your dream reunion with your LI, let me guess, DS Jaesa?

You’d guess wrong. She’s a Vector love bug. She even mentioned him in in the post you quoted . There aren’t very many women who like DS Jaesa...

You’d guess wrong. She’s a Vector love bug. She even mentioned him in in the post you quoted . There aren’t very many women who like DS Jaesa...

I admit, i do not like DS Jaesa, but still i'd recruit her as a BH, would be cool to have my own psycho sith enforcer, someone to never nag me about my DS choices the way Mako nags me.

On topic now, why would my companions be sacrificed so she can have her dream reunion with Vector?

After all, he will be class-only recruit, so i not only lose my original comps but get nothing at all, at best some boring and bugged flashpoint where i learn that my ex-LI Theron jumped in bed with yet another woman. Life is sooo beautiful! Peace,love and namaste and a big fat nothing for the Cinderellas of this game, JK and JC.

Who in their right mind would rather have Doc than Lord Scourge back? LI's should not take priority in my opinion. Especially since the romance options for female characters have been so notoriously awful in this game. I do look forward to the reunion between Kaliyo and Cipher Nine or Quinn and Wrath though.

Would've been nice if the old companions would've sent messages to the Commander once they learned he/she still lives. Could've explained why they can't or won't join them right now. Missed opportunity?

Who in their right mind would rather have Doc than Lord Scourge back? LI's should not take priority in my opinion. Especially since the romance options for female characters have been so notoriously awful in this game. I do look forward to the reunion between Kaliyo and Cipher Nine or Quinn and Wrath though.

 

Would've been nice if the old companions would've sent messages to the Commander once they learned he/she still lives. Could've explained why they can't or won't join them right now. Missed opportunity?

Haven't you done it yet as Quinn has returned.

Why not both?

While I do realize not all the voice actors/actresses are still alive... one could still bring them back without the voice acting and put in some "traditional" text based conversations like old school mmorpgs had. It wouldn't be the end of the world given how some players feel about continuing to flesh out the story of their companions.

One thing I have liked about FEET was the additional companions. I really do wish this is what the game had launched with in addition to having dialogue options available for every class to interact with them.

I would concede though that we didn't get that because the idea seemed to be that players that killed off most of the companions would be at a disadvantage over players that recruited everybody. You know, without knowing such a large selection pool would be there to negate concerns.

Added Note: I still say we could return to an older method game production and allow those working at the company to provide some of the voices as well. What do you say, Musco? Fill in for Kai Zykken?

Added Note: I still say we could return to an older method game production and allow those working at the company to provide some of the voices as well. What do you say, Musco? Fill in for Kai Zykken?

Nearly fell under the table laughing ! :D:D

When you're talking with Valkorion in your mind at the beginning of the Fallen Empire, he tells you to let the past die and be reborn. Well I was ready to do just that and was looking forward to new worlds to explore and new people to meet. However, then they started to bring back ALL the old companions (which simply felt like unnecessary fanservice to me). At the same time you no longer got any conversations or companions quests with Lana, Theron and Koth (or introduce any actually completely new characters to your crew).

 

They bring them all back even though most of them have no real meaningful content or even a reason to there (for example why on earth would Aric Jorgan or Sergeant Rusk ever willingly serve the Emperor's Wrath?) I'm NOT against bringing back some of the old companions when it makes sense (like Kaliyo and Scorpio) but not at the expense of getting new companions and actually meaningful content (not just these gosh darn mute conversations).

 

I fully support returning companions being class bound. It just makes far more sense. I like that you can kill some of the companions now who really deserved it (*cough*Quinn*cough*) but overall I just think that if they bring back companions at least make it meaningful and give them some content. Their stories were already heard and resolved in the vanilla game, so that's why I would like to see more new companions and new stories.

 

This doesn't mean I wasn't happy when my Warrior was reunited with Vette or being able to recruit Zalek - or that I wouldn't be disappointed if my Inquisitor didn't get to be reunited with his loyal Dashade - just that bringing back every single companion in the game for every Outlander doesn't seem like the best idea.

I BW think fully intended old (original) class companions to be irrelevant & have no further part in future storylines, but they hadn't considered that a number of players (see the companion threads) would be rather pissed off that their companions were removed from the story and demand them back. I think once BW realised that many players were quite attached to their companions (primarily the romanced ones and the ones with complex storylines such as Khem Val, Scourge & Zenith) they decided they had better return them, but the KOTFE and beyond stories just didn't accommodate the original companions that well. So yes, I agree it was fanservice but necessary in order to keep people like me subscribing. However you also rightly point out that many of the original/old companions just weren't needed and like you I'm glad they had switched finally to class only returns. I think before deciding to return so many companions to everyone they should have done a survey on which non-romanced companions players considered ditch-able (Tanno Vik style) and which might work in a crossfaction storyline. I have to say I found the alliance alerts mostly tedious because of their format and some companions just didn't make sense (my Sith Inq has no need of a Qyzen other then to use skin for handbag). They could have had many of those companions appear on the alliance base like Treek and HK-51 did.

I think BW originally intended (or thought) that all of us would be happy to let our character's old life die and embrace the new Empire and new companions (Koth, Lana, Senya, Arcann, Theron); they just didn't anticipate the mad companion nutters (I include myself here ). Remember when the game went south not long after GC and they sent out random questionnaires to subscribers? One of the most fed back comments they mentioned in subsequent info and livestreams related to loss of original companions (I fed that back on my questionnaire) so they underestimated the impact of the original story on many players. I think this is the biggest reason that there are no more new companions or worlds for you to explore as per the conversation answer with Valkorion.

The companion issue must have raised a number of problems among the BW writers as its over 2 years later and some of the best companions are still missing.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

IMO they should have either fully embraced some sort of SWTOR 2.0, with actual engaging and ongoing stories for each class where old companions may have been lost and new ones found (with actual stories), or just left the the old ones in place and not screwed them all up as they did with the one generic 'commander' KotFE story.

Also the current content and companion systems is all kinds of fubar.

IF you start KotFE, all previous uncompleted original story missions and expansions through Revan are set as completed, and all original companions are lost until you make it to the base in a later chapter and then you can click a terminal and get them all back (or you can wait and use alerts or other chapters to get back ones that return - though they usually come back as mute clones of the originals).

It is possible to infinitely replay the KotFE / KotET stories (which are the most generic and least engaging of anything in the game), while none of the original class based stories - either those originally completed or those auto completed by starting KotFE, can be replayed.

IF you skip KotFE, you can't access any of the KotFE or KotET stuff, yet you can do Iokath (even on a boosted 70 with no class story completed at all), play a few boring missions with Theran as your companion, and end up with Dorne or Quinn as a permanent companion.

Zones like CZ, BH, Sec X can be accessed once the character is at the right level (including boosted characters), Oricon and Iokath require doing the intro story chains, while Ziost requires playing through all of Revan (or starting KotFE and having it auto complete, which locks a player out of the old original class story content as well).

Haven't you done it yet as Quinn has returned.

Not yet with the character who romanced him. My other Wrath just killed him. That was nice too.

Not yet with the character who romanced him. My other Wrath just killed him. That was nice too.

Oh, I see! Well I hope you find the return nice too.:)

I do mind! Why would my comps be sacrificed just so you have your dream reunion with your LI, let me guess, DS Jaesa?

LOL, no, I haven't even played through the whole SW story. I'm trudging through it one mission at a time. I just got Jeasa and don't find her particularly interesting. In fact, she seems kind of weak minded and too easy to manipulate for someone who can supposedly see a person's true nature. Also, I'm a straight woman and typically play light side. I'm genuinely curious, why did you make that assumption? Is this a common thing for fans of DS Jeasa? But, if you'd like to know, the comp I really want back is Vector.

I think you misunderstood my intentions. I do think all the comps should be returned. Taking them was not a well thought out move. I'm just trying to be open to different scenarios. However, if they end up leaving some comps missing they will likely be the non-romance options. I would not agree with this decision but have no control over it. The only way I think it would be even remotely acceptable is if they put actual thought and effort into the returns that to come. I hope that's not the case though, Zenith was the only consular comp I actually cared about and he's still missing. So, take a breath, I'm not suggesting they keep anyone's companions away. I firmly agree with bringing them all back.

LOL, no, I haven't even played through the whole SW story. I'm trudging through it one mission at a time. I just got Jeasa and don't find her particularly interesting. In fact, she seems kind of weak minded and too easy to manipulate for someone who can supposedly see a person's true nature. Also, I'm a straight woman and typically play light side. I'm genuinely curious, why did you make that assumption? Is this a common thing for fans of DS Jeasa? But, if you'd like to know, the comp I really want back is Vector.

 

I think you misunderstood my intentions. I do think all the comps should be returned. Taking them was not a well thought out move. I'm just trying to be open to different scenarios. However, if they end up leaving some comps missing they will likely be the non-romance options. I would not agree with this decision but have no control over it. The only way I think it would be even remotely acceptable is if they put actual thought and effort into the returns that to come. I hope that's not the case though, Zenith was the only consular comp I actually cared about and he's still missing. So, take a breath, I'm not suggesting they keep anyone's companions away. I firmly agree with bringing them all back.

I'm really sorry, my mistake, i'm really used to people saying "s***w Zenith, kill him" - he's my favorite ever - you actually not saying that is quite a pleasant surprise .

And no, i'm not a big fan of DS Jaesa, i see her as a potential decent replacement for Skadge, that's all. About Vector .. my IA is a bit confused when it comes to Vector, he is nice but kinda strange, i'm sure you understand.