Plotline/Premise

[Sabretooth]

What do you people think of the whole plotline/premise thing for this game? It's put up here, with detailed info on some planets, factions etc. Here's the basic premise:

 

The Galactic Republic stood for generations as a bastion of peace in a galaxy of warring star systems. Protected by its stalwart Jedi guardians, the Republic held the greatest hope for the progress of civilization and galactic unity.

 

Deep in unknown space, however, a mighty Sith Empire was forged, led by dark Sith Lords who dreamt of galactic domination and vengeance against their ancient Jedi enemies. After centuries of preparation, the time came for the Sith to make their return.

 

With a massive fleet and an awe-inspiring army of fearless troops, the Sith Emperor launched a surprise assault, quickly capturing dozens of worlds in the Outer Rim, and sparking a war unlike any other in the galaxy’s history.

 

From the frozen wastes of Ilum to the desert plains of Dathomir, violent battles killed untold millions. Despite its avowed neutrality, surface structures on the water-covered world of Manaan were completely destroyed, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their ocean underworld. Other star systems fared worse—some destroyed, others left uninhabitable. The carnage concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant and forcing the Republic Senate into the controversial Treaty of Coruscant.

 

In the years since the treaty, fear and uncertainty have gripped the galaxy, enabling the Sith Emperor to pursue his own mysterious purposes while the Republic has made efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and adjust military priorities to the new galactic landscape.

 

Now, tensions between the Republic and the Empire are running high, and a series of border skirmishes and proxy wars have broken out, even on planets as historically peaceful as Alderaan. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms.

 

A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.

 

 

 

I think it's great. It reminds me of both A New Hope and KotOR. The situation in ANH was also similar: a galaxy-spanning Empire and an underdog lightside enemy. I think it's the aesthetics that remind me of KotOR more than anything.

 

For some reason, the game feels extremely fresh, as if it's the first thing Star Wars that has come out after the movies. It's got me excited!

 

I have full faith that BioWare will craft out an awesome story and this premise is indicative of that.

 

And just because I like polls, I'm going to put up a poll now.

[Prime]

It has potential, but it strikes me as kind of contrived so that things are in balance for players.

[SW01]

Yes, it is good in that the story offers us balance in showing that both sides have some kind of power - i.e. the Sith Empire is not an unproven power. Better is that we will not be thown into the middle of a war and have to play catch-up with the story of it: we'll get to see it from the beginning.

 

And yes, it is very similar to other Star Wars stories. But, I guess they think that you should stick with a winning formula!

[Christos K]

KotOR 3 will always have been a beter choice but I have a feeling ToR will be pretty good. Until I get a good genuine KotOR 3 I am going to convince myself of what happened in K3 so far its Exile and Carth/Bastila team up, find Revan, they all go on to find the True Sith, they manage to cause a huge civil war within their Empire that lasts about 100 years... durring that 100 years Revan, Bastila, Exile, etc begin hunting down as many Sith Leaders as they can until they all pass on and become Etheral Spirtis to which they will guide my character in ToR lol... Long Live Revan, Long Live the Exile, Long Live KotOR... But now lets all live ToR. I really really dont care about classes anymore I honestly wont mind being able to choose Jedi first time around I will probably have 1 Jedi, 1 Sith, 1 Normal Soldier or something under the Republic... but I sware to god if that HK unit ends up being HK-47 I WILL KILL THE HEAD DEVELOPER OF L.A.

[Jason Skywalker]

Yoda.

 

It's pretty much every SW formula: devastating war between the Light and Dark Sides (can't be a Star Wars without one), baddies have the upper hand but then good guys win.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Pretty much as every other Star Wars plots out there. But that's not really a bad thing. KotOR started at a similar position and developed the story wonderfully. I haven't got any reason to believe this game won't do so either.

[SW01]

Pretty much as every other Star Wars plots out there. But that's not really a bad thing. KotOR started at a similar position and developed the story wonderfully. I haven't got any reason to believe this game won't do so either.

 

If it isn't broken...

 

I think it will be intersting enough. They can make a lot of the 'True Sith Empire' angle, and this last Emperor will probably have a good, deep story - maybe even with some reference to Revan and the Exile in his story?

[LordOfTheFish]

It sounds very good. As long as it's some what captivating, It's fine with me.

[TKA-001]

This story is too much like all the other Sith wars. A previously-hidden or only recently-formed Sith Empire comes out of nowhere and just about trashes the Republic and Jedi, setting off an epic war again. The Great Hyperspace War, the Great Sith War, and the Jedi Civil War have already happened; we don't need them again. I'd rather they came up with a conflict that's a little smaller than this. I got the impression that the galaxy was supposed to gradually settle down for a little while after KOTOR 2.

 

If for some reason a smaller conflict was undesirable, why couldn't they just take a different conflict in galactic history? It's not like they're short on big conflicts. The New Sith Wars would be better than a totally new devastating conflict, because I can already tell that this "Great War" and its aftermath will not go well with the rest of continuity at all. There's just not enough freaking room from another big Sith war.

 

That aside, why the hell would the Sith sign a peace treaty when they could've just finished gutting the Republic instead?

 

Edit: In fact, there's continuity errors already, mostly involving numerous structures and landmarks being destroyed in the Great War despite being present thousands of years later during the Galactic Civil War.

[Web Rider]

That aside, why the hell would the Sith sign a peace treaty when they could've just finished gutting the Republic instead?

 

I agree. This is one of the biggest flaws I see in modern day writing of villains. They are obviously more powerful. They are very much more destructive and violent, yet, when they have victory in their grasp, they make a treaty. They sacked Courscant, they WON.

 

I'd say the premise works with Courscant and possibly a few other core worlds being the "last bastion" of the Republic. That would make a treaty much more believable.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

That aside, why the hell would the Sith sign a peace treaty when they could've just finished gutting the Republic instead?

Well, yes, if that's all there's to it. The story is so far pretty vague about this point. Apparently, after the treaty was signed, the Emperor has left to somewhere in search of something he wants for himself. those facts might just be connected. We'll have to wait and see.

 

Edit: In fact, there's continuity errors already, mostly involving numerous structures and landmarks being destroyed in the Great War despite being present thousands of years later during the Galactic Civil War.

It's a fricking 4.000 years before the Galactic Civil War. Are you saying places like the Jedi Temple can't be rebuilt on that time?

[TKA-001]

I'm not saying they can't be rebuilt, but they were intended to be the same places throughout the timeline, not rebuilt stuff.

[igyman]

Meh, the story is OK, though it sounds a bit like the original KoTOR story. The main problem for me is that the game is a MMO, because I don't find MMOs particularly interesting. However, if the game doesn't have a monthly subscription, I might consider getting it at some point.

[John Galt]

Nah, the peace treaty makes perfect sense. As long as this Sith emperor keeps an external threat present, internal strife is much less likely to emerge. It also gives the Sith time to "digest" their conquered worlds and set up the mechanisms that perpetuate their rule. After all, it would do the Empire little good if it were to, by treaty, take the entire galaxy when half of it was unconquered in the first place and thus likely to rebel before all the systems could be brought in line.

[Tommycat]

Makes perfect sense to me. As is noted in The Evil Genius Guide to World Domination "The dead are easier to control, but far less fun to do so."

 

And in How to Conquer the Galaxy for Dummies "People fighting to survive generally fight harder than people fighting for lines on a map. Try to convince them you intend on being a neighbor rather than utterly destroying all who oppose you(no matter how fun that can be). An enemy demoralized can be more pliable than an enemy near death"

 

Of course there are different thoughts on the matter, but seems that unless you want to watch your back every second of every day for an attack from within and without your empire, you have to make some semblance of not wanting to kill everyone. Otherwise it tends to make people who are not being conquered more willing to help those that are.

 

 

 

*wondering how many people are searching for those books now*

[Q]

Yoda.

 

After the traumatic shock of realizing that there will be no KotOR3, I'm taking a "wait and see" approach.

[knight 12167]

Maybe a good idea would be create a completly new set of villans.The sith could still be around but they would abe a minor faction compared to another new threat.Possiblythe sith could even join the republic to defeat this threat.

 

But..now the timeline and storymode are set in concrete

[Rev7]

Doesn't sound bad to me.

[jrrtoken]

Maybe a good idea would be create a completly new set of villans.The sith could still be around but they would abe a minor faction compared to another new threat.Possiblythe sith could even join the republic to defeat this threat.

 

But..now the timeline and storymode are set in concrete

Interesting, but it shouldn't be a criminal organization or a shadow corporation. We've had our fill of those in K1 & 2.

[Sharen Thrawn]

For me it's a combination of "Meh, it's like all other Star Wars plots" and "It sucks, BioWare could have done better". I really hope there's sth more to the story that is actually good (not only epic, but then again it's BioWare's favourite word...). knight 12167's idea is sth similar to what I was thinking about. A new force hunting both the Jedi and the Sith thus making the players of different alignments to co-operate occasionally. Both factions would fight with the common enemy and at the same time with themselves. Could be interesting IMO

[Sir Vougalot]

I went with the second option, mainly because they didn't do anything truly creative with the "true Sith" and just made them like all the other Sith we see in the games, as I've been saying. Aside from that, it looks pretty original and potentially pretty great.

[TKA-001]

just made them like all the other Sith we see

What were you expecting? A bunch of Sith ghosts who swim through space instead of using starships?