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Thread: Star Wars: The Old Republic

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    Default Star Wars: The Old Republic




    Introduction:

    Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is the spiritual successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The game began development several years before it was officially announced in 2008, and the initial release cost over $150 Million USD, and possibly as high as $300 million, making it the second most expensive videogame ever made, surpassed only by Grand Theft Auto V. That of course does not count further development costs of expansion packs and other content released over the past 5 years of its existence. It was officially recognized as the largest entertainment voice-over project ever in 2012. It's estimated to have made $139 in profit million in 2013, and $24 million from subscriptions that year, shortly after the release of its expansions Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Galactic Starfighter. It has repeatedly recieved awards for its cinematics, voice acting, and has also been named game of the year for 2012. It has recieved overall reviews ranging from 8/10, 4/5, to 93/100 and 5/5.

    Storyline:

    WARNING: SEVERE SPOILERS


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    Class Stories:

    SWTOR has 8 Class Stories for the first 50 levels of gameplay divided between the Republic and Imperial factions. These are the Republic Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, and Bounty Hunter. These stories have recieved wide criticism, with the popular opinion being the Imperial Agent Story (which has 5 different endings, a double-agent storyline, and involves the takedown of the Star Cabal) being the best, followed by the Sith Warrior Storyline. Trooper and Jedi Consular are widely regarded as the most repetitive and most boring, as well as the worst written (Consular, for example, was plagued by a change in writers resulting in a discontinuity between chapters 1 and 2-3). The other storylines are usually placed somewhere in the middle.

    Canon Storyline: Lightside, Male, Jedi Knight

    Prolgue and Chapter I:

    SWTOR's plot begins with the arrival of the Jedi Knight on Tython, the homeworld of the Jedi (originally called Je'daii) order and rediscovered by Satele Shan (great-great-something granddaughter of the legendary Darth Revan and Bastila Shan) during the Galactic War, to train under Jedi Master Orgus Din, in 3643 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin, i.e. Episode IV: A New Hope). He is sent on a mission to stop a former padawan of Orgus' from destroying the Jedi Order by creating an army of the native flesh raiders and destroying Tython's ancient lightsaber forge. Upon his success, the Knight is then sent to Coruscant, where the Sith have infiltrated Republic Military R&D and stolen several Superweapons including the Planet Prison, the Shock Drum, and the Power Guards by agents of Darth Angral, who sacked Coruscant during the Great Galactic war. After retrieving Dr. Godera in the ruins of Taris, who designed these weapons, the "Hero of Tython" races across the galaxy to destroy these weapons on Nar Shadda, Tatooine, and Alderaan, while Darth Angral has taken the Planet Prison and converted it to a superlaser to mount on his Harrower-Class Star Destroyer, that ionizes the atmosphere of planets and incinerates them. Darth Angral kills Master Orgus Din on his Star Destroyer above Alderaan, who managed to plant a beacon on the ship so it could be tracked and destroyed. After testing the weapon on the agricultural center of Uphrades, he locates and launches an attack on Tython. The Hero of Tython proceeds to board the Star Destroyer and kill Darth Angral, only for it to be revealed that his padawan, Kira Carsen, is a "Child of the Emperor," who managed to break free of the Emperor's mental domination during the battle with Angral.

    Chapter II:

    As a result of his experience with the Emperor and his success against Darth Angral, the Jedi Knight is put on a team to capture and attempt to convert the Sith Emperor Darth Vitiate (formerly Darth Tenebrae) to the lightside. To do this, they need the ability to find and infiltrate the Emperor's cloaked personal space station, which is located above the Sith Capitol of Dromund Kaas. The Knight first heads to Balmorra where the Republic has attempted to retake the droid foundries in the opening moves of the Galactic War, where they recover a prototype stealth system which can be used to find a way to detect the emperor's space station. The Knight then proceeds to Quesh, where he encounters the Emperor's executioner and wrath, Lord Scourge, who had slain Meetra Surik (the Jedi Exile) 300 years earlier and imprisoned Darth Revan. Around this time, the Jedi Knight participates in a strike team with the help of the spirit of Meetra Surik to retrieve a Gree computer on Taral V, and then proceed into the Maelstrom to free Darth Revan from captivity. Revan, however, goes insane and attempts to use one of the Rakatan Star Forges known as the Foundry to create an army of Rakatan battle droids to exterminate the Sith Species, but is slain by the strike team of Darth Malgus, one of the Empire's foremost Sith Lords. The Knight then goes to Hoth to recover the technical readouts of the Emperor's space station from a crashed Imperial Shuttle. Tol Braga, leader of the strike team, then launches an assault with the Knight and others on the Emperor's fortress, in which all are dominated by Vitiate, who takes control of their minds and turns them into weapons and agents to use against the republic. The knight, however, manages to break free and escapes with the help of Lord Scourge, who explains he had a vision 300 years prior that the Knight would kill Vitiate, which was why he betrayed Revan and the Exile.

    Chapter III:

    Scourge reveals that the Emperor intends to eat the souls of every living thing in the Galaxy in order to become immortal, like he did on Nathema approximately 1400 years prior. They immediately rush to the Republic and Rakatan ancient prison of Belsavis, which has been discovered by the Empire who are attempting to destroy the prison's Rakata power core which will destabilize the entire star system and take out several systems nearby, which would give the Emperor the power he needed to begin the process of devouring the Galaxy. After rescuing two of his brainwashed teammates on a Sith space station, the Knight proceeds to the neutral world of Voss, a planet known for its visionary mystics, to stop Darth Fulminiss who intends to release an insanity plague on the world that will cause everyone to kill each other, achieving what failed on Belsavis. After foiling Darth Fulminiss' plot on Voss, the Knight proceeds to the front lines on Corellia, where he spearheads the Republic attempts to defend the world with the help of his companions and people he has encountered throughout his travels. Master Tol Braga, brainwashed by the Emperor, is attempting to destroy Corellia using experimental Turbolasers and detonating the Hypermatter Reactor of his Star Destroyer, but the Knight stops the self-destruct and redeems Master Braga.

    After consulting with Republic High Command and the Jedi Council, they decide the only way to turn the tide of the war is to kill Emperor Vitiate, and the Republic Fleet makes a direct assault on Dromund Kaas to cover the Hero of Tython's landing. The Hero of Tython confronts Emperor Vitiate and slays him in the heart of the Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas, although Lord Scourge reveals that the Hero of Tython merely slew the Emperor's body, and that his spirit remains alive, incorporeal, waiting to return.

    Interlude: Ilum

    On the world of Ilum, Darth Malgus, the arch-nemesis of Grandmaster Satele Shan, manipulates the Republic and Empire battling for control of the world into allowing him to sieze large numbers of Adegan crystals, which he is using to build a stealth armada. Malgus has captured the Foundry from Revan and the Emperor's space station and proclaims himself Emperor, building a new empire that's more tolerant of aliens and reformed to prevent the betrayal and infighting that plagued Vitiate's empire and the dark council. However, at the Battle of Ilum, The Jedi Knight kills Darth Arho and Darth Severin, dark council members, and steals a Stealth Fighter to sneak on board Malgus' space station. Confronting Malgus after shutting down the Foundry and turning the station's cannons on the Stealth Armada, Malgus is thrown off the edge into the abyss and the Jedi Knight escapes before the Station self-destructs, ending the threat of Malgus.


    Chapter IV: Rise of the Hutt Cartel (ROTHC):

    In the interlude, the Hutt Cartel has blockaded the world of Makeb, where it is revealed that they were mining Isotope-5, an experimental fuel source, to the point where it destabilized the entire planet. The Republic must evacuate the entire world, and the Hutt Cartel promises the Republic their support as an ally in exchange for their assistance in stopping one of their own leaders. In reality, Makeb is restabilized by Imperial agents, who are able to retrieve the Isotope-5 for their warships in secret.

    The Dread Masters (Side Story, not an actual expansion):

    On the world of Belsavis, in the maximum security prison of Section X, the six Dread Masters who tortured Darth Revan, Brontes, Bestia, Styrak, Calyphaus, Raptus, and Tyrans, have been released from the Republic's maximum security prison, and without the Emperor constraining their power, intend to drive the entire galaxy insane through fear (for reference the Dread Masters were created out of Dark Council members with 3 powerful Sith artefacts called the Phobis devices which allow them to control fear itself). They escape Section X on Belsavis and flee to the world of Oricon in the heart of the Sith Empire, where they create an army of insane soldiers and intend to release their plague across the Galaxy. However, after loosing first Styrak on the World of Darvannis, and failing to destroy the Gree world of Asation, they are pushed back on Oricon and Brontes is slain by a strike team at the Dread Fortress, while the other four are slain at the Dread palace.



    Shadow of Revan: Prelude

    The Jedi Knight is contacted by Theron Shan and Colonel Darrock, the former of which is the son of Satele Shan and the SIS agent who destroyed the Ascendant Spear, an Imperial Destroyer retrofitted as a superweapon. It's revealed that they are mounting an attack on the Sith homeworld of Korriban using SIS data on the Imperial patrol patterns to exploit a gap and raid the Sith Libraries. The Jedi Knight leads the assault and slays a member of the Dark Council in the Sith Academy, securing the library temporarily for the Republic SIS. However, the Empire launches an attack on the Jedi world of Tython, and the Knight is sent to retake the Jedi Temple from the Empire, who are retreating from the world, where he slays another Dark Lord. It's quickly revealed that the Jedi Temple was attacked under the orders of a Dark Council member named Darth Arkous, who was raiding the Temple Library. The Knight returns to the Republic Fleet and is awarded a medal by Colonel Darok under recommendation from Chancellor Saresh, and heads to meet Theron Shan at the fleet bar. They are both convinced the attacks were not a coincidence and Theron begins using his SIS resources to find that both Arkous and Darok have been visiting a research facility on the world of Manaan, and that they were after Rakata artefacts from the Star Forge (destroyed by Revan 300 years prior). Shan and the Knight head to Manaan and discover that Darok and Arkous are Revanites, members of the Order of Revan established after his disappearance on Dromund Kaas, that are building an "Infinite Army" by using regenrative Rakata nanotechnology and implanting it into their members. After attempting to stop the Knight in the research facility by sinking it, the Knight is rescued with the help of Theron Shan's imperial contact: the Sith Lord Lana Beniko. The three of them, with the help of the rescued Wookiee Smuggler Jakarro (who had been imprisoned after delivering materials to the Revanites) and his droid C4-D4, pursue Darok and Arkous to Rakata Prime. They destroy the Infinite Army foundry in the Temple of the Ancients (where Revan had disabled the shield surrounding the Star Forge 300 years prior) and the Knight slays both of them, only for their team to be ambushed by the Revanite Fleet led by none other than Darth Revan himself, who survived his supposed death on the Foundry 2 years prior. They escape as Revan glasses the island with his Star Destroyer, and the Revanites force Theron Shan and Lana Beniko into hiding, while the Knight remains untouched.

    Chapter V: The Shadow of Revan (SOR):

    Beniko and Shan secretly send the coordinates of the world Rishi to the navicomputer of the Knight's personal starship, who follows them to the pirate haven. There he poses as the leader of the "Red Hulls", a fictional gang of literally bloodthirsty pirates created by Lana Beniko and disseminated amongst the local population. The Knight backtracks Beniko's setup by killing a local scumbag and finding out that he got the information on the "Red Hulls" from Kai Zykken, who got it from a crier droid in the city. The Knight finds a crier droid who directs him to Lana and Theron's hideout, where he finds out that a local Pirate gang called the Nova Blades has been working with the Revanites by raiding trade routes through the edges of Wild Space. The Knight raids the Nova Blades' databanks and slays their leader, posing still as the Red Hull pirate gang, trying to find the Revanite's plans. The Knight then heads to the island of Shae Viszla's mandalorian clan, who reveals that she had been working with Revan and that the Revanites had been attempting to redirect Republic and Imperial patrols in the region to force the two sides into a confrontation. Meanwhile, Lana lets Theron be kidnapped by the Revanites and their team pursues them to an island north of the city, only to find Revan himself had left Rishi. After saving Theron from the Revanite camp, the Republic and Empire jump into the system, and the Revanite Fleet ambushes them during the battle. The Knight, with the help of Beniko, Shan, and a strike team, attacks the Revanite communications tower to stop the signal jamming and warn the Empire and the Republic that the Revanites have infiltrated and are sabotaging their fleets. The Republic and Empire capture the traitors and turn on the Revanite fleet, destroying it.

    After Darth Marr, leader of the Dark Council, and Satele Shan meet with the Knight, Shan, and Beniko, they pursue Revan to the world of Yavin IV, where the Revanites have taken up residence in the Sith Temples, including the ancient temple of Sacrifice which contains an ancient Sith Superweapon from the days of Tulak Hord. The Coalition of Marr's and Satele's forces set up camp and reach the Imperial Guard training grounds, under siege by the Revanites. The surviving commander of the Imperial guard, after coercion and interrogation, reveals the Emperor's Spirit is there on Yavin IV, and that Revan intends to ressurect it so he can kill Darth Vitiate like he had tried to (twice, notably) 300 years ago. The Knight penetrates deep into the Revanite's territory to use the relics that unlock the enterance to the Temple of Sacrifice, and in one of the outlying temples is contacted by the spirit of Revan. Revan reveals that when he was freed from the Maelstrom prison, his mind was split into light and dark halves from 300 years of constant torture, and that when he was slain on the Foundry his Dark half refused to die and was totally insane, leaving his light half in limbo as a force ghost. His dark half is convinced it is his destiny to destroy Vitiate, but he cannot actually defeat the emperor. The Republic and Empire launch a massive attack and the Knight leads a strike team into the temple of sacrifice, destroying HK-47 (again), the superweapon, and defeating Revan who flees to the arena outside Exar Kun's temple. There the Knight, Lana Beniko, Theron Shan, Jakarro and C4-D4, Satele Shan, and Darth Marr confront Revan and defeat him. Revan's spirit appears, and the Emperor makes his enterance, revealing that the death and destruction wreaked by the war between the Republic and Empire as well as the Revanite conflict allowed him to regain his strength, and he disappears. Revan's light half confronts his dark half and the two rejoin, becoming one with the force, leaving only his mask and lightsaber behind. The coalition breaks up, and Marr and Satele go back to war.

    Shadow of Revan: Epilogue

    The Knight is again contacted by Shan and Beniko, who reveal that Lana has been appointed head of imperial intelligence and sent to investigate the Imperial world of Ziost, a major population center. Shan, meanwhile, sent SIS contacts and a group of Jedi Knights known as the "Sixth Line" (named after an unofficial 6th line of the Jedi Code regarding Justice) to assist Beniko, only for them all to be brainwashed by the plague sweeping across Ziost. Shan and Beniko contacted the Knight for help, who arrives to find Darth Vitiate is taking control of the civilian and military population to make them slaughter each other. Beniko, Shan, and the Knight devise a plan to disrupt the emperor's control, but are interrupted when the Supreme Chancellor Saresh orders a full scale invasion of the planet despite being strongly advised not to. The death and devastation fuel Darth Vitiate, and when Beniko, Shan, and the Knight leave the surface the Emperor consumes all life on Ziost like he did on Nathema over a thousand years prior, before disappearing across the Galaxy.



    Knights of the Fallen Empire (KOTFE):

    Darth Marr makes it his personal vendetta to find Vitiate, and with token assistance from the Republic, ventures into wild space. He senses the Emperor and contacts the Knight, who meets Marr in Wild Space ont he bridge of his personal destroyer. They are quickly ambushed by a fleet of warships of unknown design, who board Marr's ship and destroy the assisting Republic and Imperial corvettes, while the Knight's ship escapes. Unable to restore full power to the hyperdrive, the Knight resolves to divert power to briefly restore the shields and attempt to allow the ship's remaining crew to escape, before the ship is destroyed by the enemy fleet. The Knight and Darth Marr are presumed dead, but are recovered by Arcann, who was leader of the unknown enemy force that had raided Imperial and Republic worlds and sacked the Sith Academy prior some months prior to Marr's foray into wild space. Arcann, after arguing with Heskal, brings Marr and the Knight to the world of Zakuul, seat of the hidden Eternal Empire, and before his emperor and father, Valkorion. Marr and the Knight both realise that Emperor Valkorion is Darth Vitate, and Darth Marr refuses to submit to him, attempting to break free by grabbing a lightsaber pike and killing several Knights of Zakuul before being slain by the Emperor. The Knight also refuses to kneel, but Arcann attacks Valkorion after feigning the execution of the knight. While Valkorion is focused on brushing aside Arcann's attacks, the Knight stabs Valkorion through the chest, slaying him. Valkorion's body collapses and his spirit is released in a shockwave, entering the knight's body. The Jedi Knight is blamed for the Emperor's assassination by Arcann who siezes the Eternal Throne and takes command of the Eternal Fleet, the invincible armada of alien warships, and freezes the unconscious knight in Carbonite for 5 years, while he conquers both the Republic and the Empire and vassalizes both nations as "justice."

    After a 5-year dream where the Knight and Valkorion converse in his mind, and Valkrion attempts to assure the knight that he is not evil and wants to help the Knight, the Knight is awoken in a daring mission by Lana Beniko, his droid T7-01, and a Zakuulan defector named Koth Vortena, who attempt to rescue him from the world of Zakuul. However they are pusued by the Emperor's daughter, Vaylin, who damages their shuttle during the escape and they crash into the Zakuulan swamp. While attempting to find a means of escape, they come across an ancient legendary warship known as the "Gravestone", which was the ship that in legends defeated the Eternal Fleet when it was rampaging across wild space exterminating life in that region of the galaxy. They repair the ship, but before they manage to get it operational are found and attacked by Arcann's knights and skytroopers. While defending the ship they meet up with the former head of the Knights of Zakuul, and Valkorion's ex-wife, Senya Tirall, who Koth does not have fond memories of. Valkorion offers the knight the ability to use his power to save Lana, but the knight refuses and Koth instead saves her from death. They get the gravestone flying and break through the Eternal Fleet, fleeing to the hidden station of Asylum on a Gas Giant in wild space. There they repair the Gravestone and use a shuttle to head back to Zakuul to find the information broker "The Lady of Sorrows" who turns out to be the Imperial Agent's sentient droid SCORPIO, who joins their cause. They return to Asylum which comes under attack by Arcann and the eternal fleet after they are betrayed in their location by Heskal and the Scions, who saw it as part of their destiny. Vaylin confronts her mother Senya while the Knight, now widely known as the Outlander, confronts Arcann. After Arcann destroy's the Outlander's droid, HK-55, Valkorion offers the knight his power to defeat Arcann, but refuses and is defeated, being stabbed and nearly killed by Arcann but kept alive by Valkorion. The outlander is found by Beniko, who shut down the locks on the Gravestone's drydock and they escape the Eternal fleet as Asylum is destroyed. They flee to the world of Odessen, which Beniko located, and build a base to begin a Rebellion against the Eternal Empire. There they also meet up with Theron Shan, who has found the Outlander's personal ship and started intelligence operations across the Galaxy.

    As recruits flock in from across the Galaxy, the Outlander goes to recruit important figures such as the Imperial Agent's personal terrorist Kaliyo Djannis, and the republic spec-ops team Havoc Squad led by Aric Jorgan. After an interlude in which Valkorion seemingly leaves the Outlander to attend to other matters and in which he encounters Satele Shan and Marr's force ghost in the wilds of Odessen, the Outlander then launches a raid on the Eternal Empire's treasury ship on the Gas Giant of Vandin, acquiring funding for the alliance with the help of Gault Rennow and the Twi'lek Vette, former companions of the Bounty Hunter and the Sith Warrior known as the Emperor's Wrath. Meanwhile, Jorgan and Kaliyo launched an attack on the "Gemini Frequency" control center at the base of the Eternal Throne Spire, but fail to capture it and acquire the signal, but do acquire information about the GEMINI droids that command the Eternal Fleet warships. Using this information, SCORPIO tracks a prototype to the world of Darvannis, and teaming up with Shae Viszla and the Mandalorians, they infiltrate the factory and capture the prototype, which SCORPIO can reprogram to take control of the Eternal Fleet droids if she can get access to a warship. The alliance ambushes a warship with the Gravestone, freeing the captive members of the Republic Rift Alliance, some Zakuulan Political Prisoners, and Imperial Admiral Zasha Ranken while on baord, but are secretly betrayed by SCORPIO who takes command of the Eternal fleet and fakes Arcann into believing he has control of some loyal ships still. Arcann launches an attack on Odessen, and the Outlander and his companions board Arcann's ship with the intent to kill the Emperor of Zakuul, but SCORPIO, believed to be dead, takes control of Arcann's warships and fires on Arcann's ship attempting to kill both the Outlander and Arcann. Senya rescues Arcann from death and flees in a shuttle, and the Outlander lets her go, while SCORPIO uploads intelligence protocols to the GEMINI droids and gives them free will, ending the battle.

    Knights of the Eternal Throne (KOTET):

    SCORPIO, having set Vaylin up as Empress, now commands the Eternal Fleet via her now-sentient sister GEMINI droids. Vaylin goes on a personal vendetta tracking Senya and Arcann to Ord Mantell and then Voss to kill them. However, Theron Shan is on Voss at the time of the Eternal Fleet attack, and summons the Alliance to help defend the planet. The Outlander, at the head of the Alliance fleet, jumps out of hyperspace and lands Alliance troops and Mandalorian Supercommandos on Voss, defending the capitol and punching through Zakuul lines to the Shrine of Healing, where Senya and Arcann are hiding. After Senya gives most of her life force to save Arcann with the help of the Voss mystics, and Arcann escapes on a shuttle after seeing Valkorion is still with the Outlander, Vaylin orders the Eternal Fleet to glass the planet. However at that time, the Sith Armada shows up commanded by now-Empress Darth Acina, and the GEMINI droids of the Eternal Fleet retreat before suffering any further losses, against Vaylin's wishes. Empress Acina wishes to meet with the Outlander and ally the Sith Empire with the Alliance to overthrow Vaylin. They meet on Dromund Kaas where they encounter former Moff Lorman, now minister, who was commander of the Ascendant Spear that Theron destroyed. Acina and the Outlander take off in her personal shuttle to discuss a treaty, but the shuttle is sabotaged by Lorman and they are believed dead. Theron and Lana know something is up and attempt to leave to find the shuttle crash site, but are "imprisoned" while trying to sneak off. Meanwhile, former Chancellor Saresh heads to Odessen where she intends to take over the Alliance in the Outlander's "abscence." Meanwhile, Acina and the Outlander are traversing the wilds of Dromund Kaas through one of its fierce thunderstorms, being hunted by the infamous GenoHaradan, a group of secret assassins that had been around since before Revan's time, who Saresh had been working with. After fleeing into a Sith Temple and defeating the leader of the Genoharadan, and imprisoning Minister Lorman who had come to see why the bodies hadn't been found, they meet back up with Theron and Lana, who take the Outlander back to Odessen. They arrive at Odessen and imprison Saresh for life, before meeting once more with Acina and agreeing on an alliance.

    However, Vaylin and SCORPIO have been up to their own devices in the mean time, posing as a freighter fleeing the Eternal Fleet patrols in order to get onboard and capture the Gravestone. Koth sends a distress call to Odessen and the Alliance Fleet rushes to engage, while the Outlander boards the gravestone. There they find out that Koth has placed Quantum Bomb on the Gravestone that Vaylin and SCORPIO triggered when trying to take control of the ship, and have to diffuse it. SCORPIO gets Vaylin off the bridge, knowing about the bomb, because she knows the Gravestone, GEMINI droids, herself, and the Fleet are all somehow related, and wants to preserve it, allowing Koth and the Outlander to diffuse the bomb. They pursue Vaylin, who is fighting Beniko, to the bomb location where she sets it off in her rage, and confronts the Outlander in combat. During the battle, realizing she is loosing, Vaylin manages to trip the Outlander and keep him from retrieving his lightsaber, but Valkorion intervenes and cages Vaylin's power using the phrase "Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul" which he had secretly conditioned her to respond to when she was locked away on Nathema as a child. Vaylin flees and Koth and the Outlander stop the bomb from detonating, but Vaylin sends the ship into hyperspace after attempting to destroy SCORPIO, who had locked in the coordinates of the Gravestone's and Eternal Fleet's origin world into the computer. They jump to the Dyson Sphere of Iokath, where the Outlander is forced to leave the bridge and prevent Vaylin's troops from sabotaging the Gravestone, while she captures the Outlander's companions. However, before killing them, the Graveston enters Iokath and a pulse fires that renders them all unconscious.

    The Outlander wakes up on Iokath and traverses the unknown world until stumbng across a "Technolith" where he encouters the world's caretaker, ARIES. He also meets up with Torian, leader of the Alliance Mandalorians. They manage to contact Theron who has gotten past the jamming signal on their comms and meet him at a "museum", where Vette has accessed ARIES and discovered that the Eternal Fleet, SCORPIO, Gemini Droids, and Gravestone were all created by Iokath's creators for experimental wargames many tens of thousands of years ago, conducted in Wild Space. SCORPIO contacts them and confirms their suspicions that they are part of an experiment by ARIES, and wishes to help them destroy ARIES. Meanwhile Vaylin, realizing that ARIES' projection of her dead brother Thexan is a fake, breaks out of her solitary confinement cell and meets up with some of her soldiers, and attempts to free her fleet. The outlander and his team go through the necropolis of Iokath, where the dead bodies of its creators are stored, and SCORPIO explains ARIES is fully sentient and is going to kill them all since he has decided none of them are worthy of inheriting Iokath or its creations. The Outlander meets back up with his team after being cut off, and Theron summons his shuttle to their location, where they find out there is a shield preventing them from escaping the world. Instead, they meet up with SCORPIO at ARIES command tower to disable the same pulse weapon that knocked them out, this time set to kill, while Theron and friends go to free the Gravestone. SCORPIO and the Outlander destroy ARIES and the Outlander allows SCORPIO to merge with Iokath, taking control of the planet if she promises never to leave. They escape the Dyson Sphere as the pule weapon overloads, while Vaylin escapes with her fleet and uses one of Iokath's droids to reset the GEMINI droids to factory default.

    The Outlander returns to Odessen where he is contacted by Vaylin's personal Imperator of Revelry, who has a plan to sneak the Outlander and Theron into Vaylin's party before her speech so they can confront her on television across the Galaxy, and simeultaneously rescue the Zakuul rebels she's captured. They get into the palace and confront Vaylin using the Dragon of Zakuul phrase to humiliate her, before freeing the rebels and killing a Rancor and other beasts sent to eat the Rebels. Arcann, however, returns and lands his shuttle and some loyalist troops at the palace, and the Outlander is forced to fight his way to Arcann where he confronts him. The Outlander manages to recruit Arcann to his cause, who has been redeemed thanks to Senya and the Outlander's choices. They fight Vaylin's executioner squad and fleet Zakuul, while Vaylin heads back to Nathema to break her conditioning. The Outlander and Lana follow her there, but Valkorion is detached from the Outlander and is only able to shield them, since the world is devoid of the Force. While attempting to find Vaylin, the machine that is freeing her overloads and sends out a massive pulse that they are only safe from by hiding in Valkorion's vault. In the vault, they encounter a Sith Holocron which contains the spirit of Valkorion's father, Lord Dramath, who states that Valkorion is his illegitimate son Tenebrae who he wishes he had drowned as a child. He states that the Holocron is the only way to defeat Valkorion, and the Outlander takes it and Dramath's spirit, without Valkorion knowing, giving it to Lana to hold on to. However, free of her conditioning, Vaylin leaves Nathema and orders the Eternal Fleet in a full scale attack on Odessen, while the Outlander and his compatriots race to return to the world. They land on the surface and fight their way through Zakuulan lines to reach the Gravestone and prevent Arcann, Senya (who has woken from her coma), and the ship from being overwhelmed and captured. The Gravestone is freed from drydock to join the battle against the Eternal Fleet, but Vaylin has captured one of the Outlander's companions (Torian or Vette) and threatens to kill them, and the Outlander forces Vaylin to meet for a confrontation. In the conversation before the fight, Vaylin breaks the neck of the Outlander's companion and fights the Outlander, Senya, and Arcann. On the verge of defeat she unleashes all of her power, but the Outlander breaks through the force storm and kills her, absorbing her spirit which disappears. They know Valkorion is up to something, but can't deal with it because the Eternal Fleet has gone back to factory default and is beginning an extermination campaign on all life in the Galaxy, and the Outlander must take the Eternal Throne.

    Arriving on Zakuul and breaking the blockade, the Outlander lands on the devastated surface of the world and breaks into the Eternal Throne Spire with the help of the Zakuul rebels. With the support of Senya and Arcann, he takes the Eternal throne and the fleet goes Silent, but Valkorion takes control of his body and the Outlander is unable to use the Holocron against him. Valkorion attempts to destroy the Outlander's mind but the Outlander survives by taking Valkorion's place in his mind, being sent to the shattered remnants of his psyche. The Outlander has to rebuild his memory and personality, and finds his way to the Eternal Throne in his mind, taking the Holocron and restoring himself. There Valkorion's spirit confronts him, and releases Vaylin's spirit, who he sends against the Outlander. The Outlander summons Lord Dramath and they defeat Vaylin's spirit, but Valkorion ressurects it. Dramath unleashes his spirit against Valkorion, piercing his armor but not doing any significant damage, and killing himself in the process. However, the Outlander uses the holocron to break Valkorion's control of Vaylin's spirit, and Arcann uses the real life holocron to join the fight against Valkorion. They fight him and push him back, but he is more powerful than Arcann and Vaylin and the Outlander combined, and forces them into stasis. Advancing on the Outlander, the Outlander establishes that its their mind and their rules, and uses the "Dragon of Zakuul" phrase on Valkorion's spirit, crippling him. Retreating, Senya comes in and slices down Valkorion from behind. Valkorion proclaims he is an immortal God, and that he cannot be defeated, but the Outlander destroys his spirit permanently, releasing a blast of force energy that ripples across the Galaxy, killing him once and for all. The Outlander then takes control of the Eternal Throne and uses the Eternal Fleet as a peaceful armada to carry supplies accross the galaxy to rebuild it from the decades of war that Valkorion has torn it apart with, both with his Sith and Eternal Empires. The "Eternal Alliance" out of Zakuul and Odessen are now the supreme power in the Galaxy, although the Sith Empire and Republic both still exist.



    Gamplay:

    SWTOR has a relatively highly customizable UI, has keybinding, area looting, and a variety of other features that make gameplay rather easy. They have also been consistently simplifying the classes, rotations, and abilities, to the point where it generated player outcry that the game was too easy, resulting in more difficult mechanics being added back in alongside 5.0 (Knights of the Eternal Throne or "KOTET"). SWTOR features 4 vs 4 Ranked PvP, 8 vs 8 and 4 vs 4 regular PvP, Galactic Starfighter which can have as many as 12 vs 12 players, 4-man "flashpoints" with varying difficulties, 4-man "uprisings" with 5.0 on varying difficulties, and 8-man or 16-man operations on varying difficulties (with nightmare having been removed with Shadow of Revan operaions). Some of these Flashpoints and Operations are directly tied into the secondary or primary storylines, although the flashpoints can be done solo to get around the group requirement. Worlds are open-world but not anywhere near to the extent of Star Wars: Galaxies. The game also features crafting and a Galactic Trade Network economy for each server.

    The game features 16 classes (8, with imperial-side clones) and 24 total specs (technically 12) divided into Tanks, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, and Healers. The game is notorious for having fairly horrendous class balancing, with 4.0 notorious for nearly invincible "Sages/Sorcerers" and "Scoundrels/Operatives", while other classes like "Shadows/Assassins" are notoriously left neglected. Furthermore, the boss mechanics of the game pretty heavily favor ranged DPS over melee DPS, and there is usually a very wide spread in DPS parses from class to class (currently at about 1200 DPS~ish with "Sages/Sorcerers" and "Operatives/Scoundrels" at the bottom and "Gunslingers/Snipers" and "Commandos/Mercenaries" at the top.) The game is based on Trinity gameplay but the developers have slowly been attempting to remove this outside of Operations with the creation of Tactical flashpoints, which has resulted in problems for some of these gamemodes due to the lack of a tank or healer and that the content was originally designed to have one of each. PvP usually heavily favors the imperial faction, while starfighter (GSF) is rather balanced with one side winning depending on the time of day. However, GSF is notorious for being extremely difficult to learn and suffers from horrible balancing, with one class of ships (strike fighters) being totally unusable.

    Community and Percieved State of the MMO:

    The community for SWTOR is largely represented by a dwindling "silent majority" and a "vocal minority" of subscribers who represent the PvP and PvE community of the game. The game has had to merge servers twice as active playerbase slowly declined, especially on the PvP-only servers. PvP servers have now been replaced by PVP and PvE instances on each server, which had the side effect of "eliminating" the Role-Playing server designation. With 5.0 came more in a series of largely poorly-recieved changes including the return of RNG (random drop) gearing from a "Galactic Command" system, a gearing style which has been removed from most MMO's and was removed from SWTOR in the first patch to the game due to the outrage over it. Furthermore the community is still largely disappointed in the lack of new group content, particularly in the area of Operations, as well as the severe lack of bugfixes, lack of updates to Starfighter, and poor communication between the developers and the playerbase.

    Factual State of the Game: Development and Finance


    Q4 of EA's Financial reports for 2016 revealed that a declining subscription income and cash-shop income from SWTOR is beginning to offset the profits of Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and their other "MMO" and Cell-Phone Game genre of Star Wars media. SWTOR originally went free to play after loosing half of its one million subscribers a few months after launch, which resulted in an increase in subscribers to 1.1 million by the time of the release of Shadow of Revan in 2014. In 2015 with the release of Knights of the Fallen Empire, it was claimed that SWTOR has the highest subscriber base ever, although no actual figures were released. The SWTOR development team has been getting continuously cut since release, with the firing of most of Customer Service and the QA department shortly before the release of Knights of the Fallen Empire. It's also well known that many of the Operations team left to work on Mass Effect Andromeda, and EA has reshuffled the Development team of SWTOR many times, a problem associated with all of EA's prior MMO endeavours.

    New Player Experience:

    For a new player, this game has a ton to offer. It is unique in that it is probably the only MMO with a good storyline, having switched from the traditional MMO quest experience to something more akin to Mass Effect, with instanced chapters and more straightforward paths to follow. It also offers the ability to start at level 60 or 65 and hop into the Knights of the Fallen Empire or Knights of the Eternal Throne, and skip the earlier content (which is well worth a playthrough, at least once).

    Subscriber Rewards:

    Subscribers get a monthly cartel coin (cash shop) grant of 500 cartel coins and an additional 100 if they have a security key. Over the course of KotFE, Bioware attempted a series of HK-55 themed subscriber rewards, which quickly became a joke amongst the playerbase and even the devs themselves. With KotET they offered a fairly decent recon walker (think AT-ST) "mount" and Shae Viszla, the infamous Mandalorian, as a companion for subscribers. Subscription to the game is not mandatory but is more or less required to be able to do anything outside the level 1-50 story, to the point where most of the game's features are not accessible without being subscribed, and now with the launch of KotET, end game content requuires subscription to be able to do, and you can no longer buy content passes off the SWTOR cash shop. With the requirement of subscription for the Galactic Command system, SWTOR is effectively "subscribe-to-win" although I wouldn't really call it "pay-to-win."

    The Cartel Market:

    SWTOR is known for the cash shop, which has become a feature of most MMO's and their primary way of making money. The cash shop offers unlocks for free-to-play players, but primarily features custom armor sets and other cosmetic items. Complaints about it have steadily been on the rise, as many custom armor sets that dropped from in-game activities were removed, they attempted to increase "crate" prices, random drops of desirable items are far lower, and the majority of cosmetic items are simply poor reskins of previously released sets. With KotET, they have somewhat attempted to fix this as it was clear it affected profits, particularly from the so-called "whales" who spend hundreds of dollars each month on the cash shops, and crate prices have remained the same and they have attempted to make new models of cosmetic armor and weapons.

    Personal Views:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    I do need to include this since I have been playing this game for years now. Several of my friends have been playing since beta (and are even closed beta-testers for the new expansions). I have also been active on SWTOR's official forums and in the game community for a year now, especially regarding Galactic Starfighter. The developers of the game are largely uncommunicative, to the point where illegal hacking and datamining of test releases of the game is considered a more reliable means of finding out about upcoming features and changes to dev announcements. In fact, a leaked private conversation with the developers revealed that player outrage over announcements around the release of Shadow of Revan is the reason for their lack of communication (although, from first-hand experience, that outrage was over the fact they went almost 2 months without correcting game-breaking bugs in the expansion because it was released just before the Christmas holiday). Content for the endgame is severely lacking and stale for the veteran playerbase, and lack of quality control for bugs and inability to fix them in a timely manner has in fact led to singificant loss of subscribers. Declining activity has left many of the servers dead, some on the verge of dying, and the game is in need of server mergers once more, unfortunately. The game is built on a pre-release custom version of the hero engine which is significantly defective and doesn't even properly utilize the hardware of modern PC's, drawing off of one CPU core and relying on the RAM and CPU an order of magnitude more than GPU's, which would significantly decrease the load the game places on the PC. Bioware has been responsive to extreme feedback, such as that over the removal of nightmare-level gear from nightmare-level operations in 4.0, or the removal of phase walk crippling the "shadow/assassin" class (my favorite class which is notorious for being nerfed into oblivion and neglected by the developers), but the majority of feedback goes un-noticed. Galactic Starfighter has not had a bug fix in 2 years, let alone new content. Ops are coming up on the 2-year without a new op date. The veteran playerbase is dying leaving new players confused and the remaining veterans without competent players to recruit, and many who are unwilling to learn content. SWTOR struggles to hold subscribers, most players subscribing for a month at the expansion release, due to said lack of endgame content.

    The game is fun, and totally worth it if you're completely new with a lot of content to play through. But it is certainly on its way out, and the newest story seems like a finale for the Old Republic era as a whole. It is known Disney and Lucasfilm are not happy with the continued existence of this game, and that EA siphons off its alleged immense profits for other projects, as well as its development staff. This game has failed largely due to poor management.


    Information Sources:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_W...e_Old_Republic

    SWTOR's 2013 income: http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/20/592...t-old-republic (and also Wikipedia)

    https://www.ea.com/news/-electronic-...ancial-results (This was broken down by someone on the forums, trying to find it)

    Rating:

    Story: 8/10 (B). This game's story has gone up and down with each expansion in quality, and opinions vary wildly. Out of the 8 class stories, 6 were well recieved. Rise of the Hutt Cartel is largely skipped by most players although the Imperial side version of the story is decent and worth a playthrough in my opinion. Shadow of Revan is rather controversial, I found it quite good and the best way they could end Revan's story after what had been done to him, although many will say otherwise. Knights of the Fallen Empire was widely recieved as having been good for the 9 chapters released right at the beginning, with the monthly chapters having largely been disappointing. So far, Knights of the Eternal Throne's story has been very well received, solving many issues in storytelling and continuity with Knights of the Fallen Empire and the prior stories.

    Gameplay: 7/10 (C). The game is fun to play, levelling has been made faster and easier since Knights of the Fallen Empire, it's not terribly difficult to learn like some MMO's, and not as grindy as many MMO's (particularly "Asian MMO's" or the Dilithium grind in "Star Trek Online"). However, it has some drawbacks, and the return to RNG gearing and drops with Knights of the Eternal Throne has made the game grindy once more.

    Community: 7/10 (C). Most MMO communities are terrible right now, and the community of players on the forums and reddit aren't a whole lot better than most, but somewhat. In game, there's some people who are unfriendly particularly towards new players, but that can depend on the server. Jedi Covenant, and the RP servers are notoriously more social. Server activity, however, is low and continuing to decline. However, there are lots of friendly community members that have tons of great guides, like Dulfy, SWTORista, TORcommunity, etc.

    Music: 8/10 (B). The music for this game has been both on-point and off-point. The music with the original release, Knights of the Fallen Empire, and Knights of the Eternal Throne falls more in line with KOTOR and Star Wars' music than Rise of the Hutt Cartel, the Dread Masters, Ziost, or Shadow of Revan, however that's not to say those soundtracks are bad; they are quite the opposite and are enjoyable. Overall, Jesse Harlin et. al. have done wonderfully with the soundtrack.

    Development: 3/10 (F). Unfortunately, this is where the game totally fails. The development of this game has gone from decent to abysmal since the release of Rise of the Hutt Cartel, with the team being reshuffled and cut by EA and proper communication intermittent at the best of times. Furthermore, the ability to maintain the playability of the game is clearly a struggle, with everything from Bastila Shan's armor being black instead of orange to the fact many missions don't work right being a problem with the game right now, and there are a myriad of bugs that have been in place since launch. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate any improvement here any time soon.

    Overall Verdict: 6/10.

    Worth playing for the storyline, but lacks MMO content.



    Last edited by Magister Militum Flavius Aetius; December 05, 2016 at 12:23 PM. Reason: fixing errors

  2. #2

    Default Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic

    Great summary. The final verdict is spot on. SWTOR has a great setting, it has some great story moments, playing is fun most of the time but the game dev communication and lack of new mmo content will kill it sooner then later. I'll probably hang on for one month more and then will give it a rist till they bother to add something worthwile. KOTET was fun tough.

  3. #3
    Magister Militum Flavius Aetius's Avatar δούξ θρᾳκήσιου
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    Default Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic

    Agreed, I predict the game will probably shut down late 2017 or sometime in 2018. The storyline ending of the most recent expansion along with the nature of the 5th anniversary decos seem to hint at this expansion being the last.

    That being said, I've also heard a rumor that the game has a contract until 2020 when the exclusive Star Wars license expires. But they could very well keep dragging it out until it sputters its final breaths, that just wants to be put out of its misery.

  4. #4
    Swaeft's Avatar Drama King
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    Default Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic

    It's still alive, and it's 2019! But I'm just here to say it's still not worth your time, unless you feel like throwing a lot of money at it. It's really just an extended, drawn out single player experience. There's a new update called Jedi Under Siege, check that out if you want!

    Swaeft's Scribblings (Library)| Swaeft's Snaps (Gallery)| My Blog (The Lensation)

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic

    If you've never played it before it is most certainly worth your time. Paying 15 bucks for 1 month of subscription is enough to play through all 8 class stories plus get a few through the expansions.

    For returning players? It depends on how long you were away from the game.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic

    I really miss that game, it was awesome

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