Knights of the Eternal Throne (KotET) - What I Would Love to See

So we’re now in between expansion packs in SWTOR. Knights of the Fallen Empire has closed after The Battle of Odessen with a shift in power from Arcann to Vaylin (with SCORPIO alongside). For whatever reason BioWare stopped us killing Arcann with Senya declaring that it is “time for redemption”. With that non-ending we are now anticipating Knights of the Eternal Throne (KotET) sometime in Autumn (or “Fall” for my friends over The Pond). So what am I hoping BioWare do as part of KotET?

Please Return Our Companions in KotET – Properly

Due to the Alliance system of companions, followers and contacts, the number of companions we can use has mushroomed. The thing is that we have spent however many years getting acquainted with, sometimes getting married to class-based companions. Deep connections, story writing and some quite simply awesome interactions mean we ‘get’ the companions.

To name a few: Kira, Nadia, Doc, Mako, Andronikos, Khem Val (which may not happen as we have a fake-Khem Dashade), Jaesa Wilsaam, Risha, Lord Scourge, Corso Riggs, Zenith, Felix Iresso, Akaavi Spar – all are still missing-in-action. This isn’t a complete list! And I’m trying to keep almost up-to-date my post on Companions in KotFE if you want to see when/how companions are recruited or re-recruited!

Although I’ve enabled some of these via the Alliance Terminal on Odessen but it’s not the same.

When Knights of the Eternal Throne kick-starts we need to see our ‘old’ companions returned. But not just by making them active again, but actually writing them in. As Chapter 1 of KotFE wrote out your companions, BioWare need to take time to write them back in again.

A Broadening of Romance Options

Not all characters find love during their class story – and those that do may not commit for life. So entering Fallen Empire opened up deeper romances with Theron Shan, Lana Beniko and Koth Vortena. But that’s a small sample of the galaxy’s population. There are many companions who have joined your Alliance and the story now, why can’t love be found with any of those? So it would be nice to have options, please BioWare.

Balance against Ranged Non-Forcies Addressed

I don’t know if others have found this a challenge but I’ll try to explain. I’ve struggled in SWTOR KotFE with ranged DPS (e.g. sniper) due to interrupts or the need to keep moving. KotFE was so much about The Force that non-forcies can feel sidelined. I have found combat with ranged DPS (with channel times) to be really difficult under KotFE, so I hope they can tweak this for Knights of the Eternal Throne.

A General De-Emphasis on the Force

Yes that’s rich coming from me, who got into Star Wars due to the Jedi. But it’s time the non-Forcies had a say in the Galaxy. We’ve already gone one step in a new direction – a female main foe. Most of the ones leading to this point were male: Darth Thanaton, Darth Baras, the Void Wolf, Rogun the Butcher, the First Son, Revan, the Emperor, Arcann. I’m glad we finally have a female lead. Maybe now we can also show that not having the Force can be just as much a strength as having it?

Decisions that Actually Matter

This may be a contentious issue! In my opinion most decisions taken throughout 16 chapters of Knights of the Fallen Empire, have made no impact on the galaxy. The biggest one is probably whether or not you kept Koth in your Alliance. If you got rid of him, he has the Gravestone and knows too much about your Alliance to be ‘safe’ roaming the universe. Aside from that there are few decisions that actually matter.

I don’t like to moan. I think the world designers and script writers pull off a really great job. But way back at the start of Fallen Empire, we were told that decisions would really matter. But in the end, the most important decision was taken away from us.

We have spent most of 16 Chapters of KotFE building towards defeating (and preferably killing) Arcann. The most crucial decision of the whole story is then wrested from the player. I’ll be writing a post about that moment in more detail later this month. But I hope that Knights of the Eternal Throne pulls on decisions made throughout KotFE so we can feel the true impact of decisions made, maybe even as far back as “Do you kill Tanno Vik on Asylum or not”?

From the last Producer Live Stream: the developers inferred that there would be more resolutions in KotET (link to that below). So I’m hoping this “choice frustration” will be resolved going into the new expansion.

Group Content

Not for me, but for the many people who have been asking for a very long time for a new Raid/Op. The developers said in August’s Live Stream (skip to 13:55) that they were working on ‘group content’ but wouldn’t be drawn on what that means. But they’ve been saying that for a while and I think the gamers who have gone to other games for decent raid need honouring. Even LotRO beat SWTOR on new group content by adding a brand new raid recently.

Even I, with Dark vs Light and to some degree getting Alliance Crate Missions done, I have engaged more in group content, albeit no more than once/month. So if I can gradually pick it up, the those who prefer to do Group rather than Solo Content should be well served.

No More Random Companions Please!

In order not to be hypocritical, I do want class companions to come back in the story. But having 10-20 companions is a wee bit unsustainable. You can’t get high influence on them all, even with the Character Perk enabled in Legacy. So, while I want to grow an Alliance, I don’t think they all need to be accompanying companions.

When Do We Find Out More About KotET?

Health-permitting, as news comes out about KotET, I will morph this post from being an aspiration post to a what-we-know post. In the Live Stream they said more information would begin to flow at and after New York Comicon, which happens 6th-9th October. So hopefully we’ll see more Podcasts, press releases and preview trailers after that!

TL;DR Looking Forward to Knights of the Eternal Throne / KotET

Honestly, although I will be playing it with fewer characters, I am looking forward to KotET. I think the designers and voice actors/actresses have done an amazing job. I will be doing my best to keep up with it as I have with KotFE.

But I think BioWare need to address people’s concerns and gripes (when they are rational anyway). And they should be looking at what people care about in-game not just the new chapters.

What would you like to see from KotET? Feel free to post them in the comments!