Remember who you're talking to...

"You look like you'd be at home in a jungle."

This was far from my first time on Dromund Kaas. Most recently I was there on my Sith Warrior at the end of 2020, and prior to that I've passed through on a number of other characters over the years. Excluding the starter worlds, this is the planet I've spent the most time on in The Old Republic.

On my Warrior I took a completist approach and did all the side missions and Heroics on Korriban, Dromund Kaas and Balmorra. On my Bounty Hunter, I've been more selective. I skipped all of the Heroics on Hutta and most of them on Dromund Kaas, and I also passed up on the Cult of Revan side story on the grounds that my Bounty Hunter isn't interested in Sith politics. I've also been selective about which exploration missions I've done. Partly this was to see if my level stayed a little more in sync on subsequent worlds. It didn't, much.

When I emerged from the spaceport I immediately went over to pick up the mission from Commander Rilan, one of my favorite minor NPCs. The side mission he gives out is nothing special but his delivery is hilariously deadpan, and all the more so because I'm not sure it's intended to be funny.

(SWTOR has a tendency to use specific music for its 'funny' scenes. It's not used here.)

This time I had even more reason than usual to enjoy this interaction, because he wasn't talking to a Sith and his dialogue reflected that. It's not just a case of dropping 'my lord' from his lines either; his entire attitude was different even while conveying the same information. I love this attention to detail, especially for such a minor character and even more especially because it's something that other MMOs often don't bother with.

My dislike of one-size-fits-all dialogue goes back to City of Heroes, where the co-op missions often read as heavily biased toward the heroes; some of that may have been intentional in the Rikti Warzone because Vanguard are like that. Star Trek Online also does this a lot, and less excusably. Ever since the conclusion of the Klingon story arcs a lot of NPCs have talked to my KDF captain as if she's in Starfleet, and a lot of her responses have read the same way. To give STO some credit it does sometimes remember that she's not a Fed, but it goes back and forth on whether it does or doesn't, sometimes over the course of a single conversation.

This same issue can also come up in less story-driven games, such as in Neverwinter when an NPC is talking about how all Drow are despicable bastards... while speaking to a Drow.

At times SWTOR does still struggle with this. A fair amount of the dialogue in and around the Dark Temple felt a bit out of character - making me even more glad that I skipped the Revan stuff - and the game is a lot better at recognizing class than it is race. The Warrior trainer on the Imperial Fleet - a Twi-lek - used to have a line of dialogue along the lines of "Are you surprised to see an alien in the Sith?" which he'd say even if speaking to an alien character. Likewise the Twi'leks on Tython never acknowledge when the character they're speaking to is one of their own species, despite there being times when this would likely be relevant.

Still, SWTOR does deserves kudos for making as much effort as it does. It's a nice touch that can improve even throwaway conversations.