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Official Page: Knights of the Fallen Empire

Well, figured I'd make this thread to talk about. Since I let myself get roped in thanks to the 12x subscriber class story XP boost, meaning I can now do the only part of the game I give a shit about much easier.

Anyway, their latest expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, is coming out this October. They haven't released a ton of information beyond some pretty promo videos and real basic stuff, but luckily the community has been datamining to fill in the gaps. Oh and if you want to play this expansion you have to subscribe, there is no standalone purchase option.

So this is a thread to discuss what details we do get, and discover whether this might turn the game around or be another chapter in the ongoing train wreck that is TOR.

Also, UNMARKED SPOILERS can and will be posted in this thread, because fuck spoiler boxes. You were warned.

First up, Companions!

Companions in Game Update 4.0 by The Old Republic Community

First, the disclaimer: "Everything you see here is subject to change and will infact probably go through several iterations before live. There are massive changes/updates with every PTS build to this info, so do not assume everything here will make it to the live version.
From what we can tell, the new Companion system is an unfinished work in progress, so take what you read below with a grain of salt."

Followers & Contacts
"Traditional" Companions are now known as Followers
There appear to be several types of Followers and/or Contacts
1.Crafting and combat-capable. - Follower
2.Non-crafting and combat-capable. Contact?
3.Non-crafting and non-combat-capable. Contact


Crafting Bonuses
All new Followers have profession bonuses of 5-10 Mission Efficiency, and Crafting Critical of 1 (see spoiler section below for specifics). Existing followers have retained their profession bonuses.

So not much new, mostly a name change here.

Influence
Influence replaces affection.
Different Contacts have different Influence caps.
Influence with some Contacts can be gained via War Supplies. There are a limited number of these.

Gifts
New companion gift types: Delicacies and Maintenance. (Creature and Droids)
New Grade 6 and up companion gifts.
I don't think there are any of these implemented, but the Follower preferences are there.

Gearing
Companions do not gain any stat bonuses from equipment! They instead gain stats based on your Influence with them.

Combat Role
All companions appear to have their combat role selected from a dropdown. This means that every companion appears to be capable of healing, tanking, or pew-pewing.

So Influence is a rename of Affection, although there will apparently be different caps so you don't have to grind the same. I can dig it.

Gifts is Same Shit, Different Patch. So whatever.

Not sure how this Gearing thing will work. Can we equip them in whatever the fuck we want now? Although I guess spamming Gifts will be more important than ever.

Combat Role seems interesting, and brings some long overdue flexibility to the whole thing. That said I guess it only matters for DPS/Heal/Tank, and not stuff like melee/ranged or weapon choices. Baby steps. Still, if you found your original Healers annoying and/or swapped them in and out for story vs gameplay, now you won't have to I guess. So a good thing there.

Some companions will be available for unlocking via the Companion Return Terminal. The Companion Return terminal will allow you to retrieve some companions you had before that are not involved (there are some exceptions to this) directly in the new story. These are mainly the romanceable companions. Their return will be considered as "non-canon." This may change as the system is iterated upon as we approach release.

Companions who are not unlocked via the terminal appear to be reacquired as they show up in the story.

Cartel Market/Legacy Companions appear to remain, and do not appear to need unlocking.

Some class-specific companions can now be acquired by other classes, even on the other faction. Most of these acquisitions happen after Chapter 9 in the story, and won't be available at launch. These encounters with the companion give you the option of recruiting, killing, or making them permanently unavailable depending on the choices you make. See the "Story-Involved" section below the spoiler line for full list

Emphasis theirs, not mine.

So no surprises with the CM/Legacy Companions (right now HK-51 and an Ewok). They stick around.

But basically, BW says fuck you to the Companions you could romance, aka probably the only ones most people gave a shit about in the first place! I'm assuming this is so they can railroad you into romancing their new, "better" companions for KotFE. And save some money on voice-acting talent.

So this is a major fail, at least for me. Because all the interesting looking ones appear to be non-canon and will probably be, at best, decoration to stand around on my ship or (maybe) send off on Crew Skills. I guess we'll have to wait and see on this; some at least are combat-capable going way back up to the top information I posted, so there's that. But yeah...not happy here.

Click the link for the list because it's rather long.

Apparently there are "Specialists" now but all they know is that they can't craft and can't be summoned as a Follower so not sure what their purpose is yet.

Apparently you can kill two of your Followers and render one forever unavailable (as of now, of course subject to change yadda yadda). For the curious, the killable ones are Skadge and Rusk and the render unavailable one is Qyzen.

You can click the link to see who the story-involved returning Followers will be as well. They're done after the spoiler break. There's also another group of "Special Followers" with an unclear role. Possibly Guests like you sometimes had with your Companions before they became officially Companions?

Finally, the list of the new Followers and their stats (as of now, subject to change, etc.):

Nico Okarr
Underworld Trading Efficiency +10
Investigation Critical +2
Gifts: Courting [Like], Cultural Artifact [Like], Imperial Memorabilia [Like], Luxury [Favorite], Republic Memorabilia [Like], Technology [Favorite], Trophy [Like], Underworld Goods [Love]

Darth Marr
Mission Efficiency +6
Crafting Critical +1
Gifts: Military Gear [Like], Technology [Love], Trophy [Favorite], Weapon [Like]

HK-55
Mission Efficiency +7
Crafting Critical +1
Gifts: Military Gear [Like], Technology [Love], Trophy [Favorite], Weapon [Like]

Koth Vortena
Mission Efficiency +8
Crafting Critical +1
Gifts: Military Gear [Like], Technology [Love], Trophy [Favorite], Weapon [Like]

Lana Beniko
Mission Efficiency +9
Crafting Critical +1
Gifts: Military Gear [Like], Technology [Love], Trophy [Favorite], Weapon [Like]

Senya Tirall
Mission Efficiency +10
Crafting Critical +1
Gifts: Military Gear [Like], Technology [Love], Trophy [Favorite], Underworld Goods [Favorite], Weapon [Like]

Theron Shan
Cybertech Efficiency +5
Slicing Efficiency +15
Gifts: Courting [Love], Cultural Artifact [Like] Luxury [Like], Technology [Love], Trophy [Like] Underworld Goods [Favorite], Weapon [Like]

Notes:
Nico Okarr, according to the Official Page, is essentially a pre-order bonus. You had to be subscribed by August 10 to unlock him. So sucks to be you if you missed that. Also he's a whore who apparently likes just about any Gift you give him.
Theron Shan has a disclaimer by his name: "Conflicting data (these may be miscategorized and/or actually unavailable)"
Darth Marr has the same disclaimer as Theron Shan, with an additional one of his own: "Darth Marr is probably a temporary follower at best (if at all). We'll know more as we approach launch."

You also get some creatures and droids as Followers. Yay.

Akk Dog (MTX Companion)
Note: Creatures probably can't craft
Gifts: Delicacies [Love]

Nexu (MTX Companion)
Note: Creatures probably can't craft
Gifts: Delicacies [Love]

Probe Droid (MTX Companion)
Note: Droids probably can't craft
Gifts Maintenance [Love]

War Droid (MTX Companion)
Note: Droids probably can't craft
Gifts: Maintenance [Love]

There's probably been some other datamined information, but this post is long enough already. Discuss!

Darth Marr Hero of the Empire (And frankly the Republic) glad to see him as a companion. Let me blunt he was the most competent Sith because he was 50% Excellent Bureaucrat 40% A Better Reven and 10% Dark Lord of the Sith. You can read his Wiki history here but I can sum it up here. There is a Dark Council of the Sith, every single member of the Council has their own goals and often they work at cross purposes and against each other as Sith often do.

Darth Marr is above all of that, his goal is simple, the preservation of the Empire and the growing of it's strength. While other Dark Councilors seek strength, or dark artifacts or this piece or that piece of control only Darth Marr seeks the simple betterment of his government. And toss in the fact he's not racist, a bigot, or sexist (Most every other councilor is guilty of one of those) he looks like the best of a bad bunch of people. Also in the various class story lines he's the one common thing on the Empire side who does not look down on the PCs. Trust me on the SWTOR boards having Darth Marr as a companion is proving incredibly popular.

Well, given how heavily disclaimered he is, I'd be surprised if Darth Marr stuck around long term.

Which is probably for the best. Because if he's the All That Sith Lord, playing second fiddle to the Outlander seems like a demotion.

Outlander: "hey Darth Marr go fetch me some durasteel fragments"
Darth Marr: "ok sure lol"

You know?

Meh, while the companion system was cool while leveling, most people have alts and alts and alts. For newbies, they have the x12 xp on class missions that kind of make the need for a companion moot. I'll give them credit for trying to redo the system and make them relevant for a change. Grinding dailies, you see everyone with their Treek out healing them, not that you really need it.

I'm not a huge fan of the whole, fuck the vanilla stuff and try to make it a new game, type thinking. I'll stick it out and see how it goes, but having played this game since early access, I'm about done. Been there seen that. Time to look for another.

Isn't that kind of... disingenuous... to complain about them changing the game while at the same time saying you've lost interest in the game in it's current form?

SAMAS wrote:Isn't that kind of... disingenuous... to complain about them changing the game while at the same time saying you've lost interest in the game in it's current form?

Not complaining, stating a fact. I've been playing for years, seem just about everything to see. I understand they are changing some things radically, which is why I'm sticking around to check it out. If it's good, for me, cool. If not and if it doesn't introduce enough stuff I care about, I'll be moving on. If I go, it won't be a 'grr you all suck' thing, it'll be a liked the game, don't hold my interest anymore, good luck fellows.