SWTOR is known for incorporating story threads of varying lengths in its operations content, with frequent connections between other operations and planetary storylines. For example, the Dread Master storyline concludes in Dread Palace, but this is actually the eighth part of a long storyline that begins all the way back with the Belsavis planetary storyline, with the planet Oricon being the only other part of the chain which is set outside of an operation instance.
In recent years, the trend has shifted to operations being more of their own thing, with any connections being between the instance and the story of the planet they're set on, and even then the connections might not be deeper than surface-level. For example, Ravagers is connected so loosely to the story of Rishi that you do not need to complete the planetary story quests to get useful context to understand what's-what. Your stopping the Ravagers does not depend on you having (in-theory) stopped the Nova Blades first, while the Nova Blades' presence is not noted to increase if you clear The Ravagers first.
Otherwise, Temple of Sacrifice follows on directly from Yavin IV's wider story, and Gods from the Machine follows on from Iokath's wider story. Point is, since Dread Palace ended the Dread Masters arc, operations have not been connected together for many years. That is, until 2022.
With the culmination of Nature of Progress, if you spare Trey Adelair, you are treated to the revelation that not only did the AI of the Dxun research facility, ARIA, invite the trandoshans to the facility in the first place, but that she somehow escaped. Immediately upon hearing that, I guessed that it would lead to another operation's story, although seeing how convoluted 6.0's story became after that point in opening several doors that may not be explored for many more months to come, it was also perhaps reasonable to believe that following ARIA would just be another one of those "potential" stories.
The newest operation, R-4 Anomaly, does prove to be a direct successor to Dxun, but the connections are not quite as important as BioWare initially makes it seem. You can only pick up the quest if you've completed Dxun, suggesting that maybe Trey Adelair - who you can kill - makes an appearance if he survives, but he's nowhere to be seen. Best guess is that Mex, who you do meet in person after only seeing him as a holo before, mentions Trey's fate if he dies, but since all of my characters thus far have spared Trey I am in no position to confirm.
Not even knowing how the Nature of Progress operation concludes is entirely useful here, however. Sure, it at least sets ARIA up when she returns, but there's really very little that directly depends on clearing Dxun. Indeed, R-4 continues a trend that was previously seen with Gods from the Machine - that trying to make sense of the actual ongoing story in the operation itself is very, very confusing.
For Gods, the best that I have managed to work out is that SCYVA is keeping the final boss, IZAX, asleep. Because she doesn't want him to be awoken, lest he strikes out and brings about a new galactic holocaust, she encourages the rest of the godkin to kill the invasion team before they get to her. Of course, they fail, and we kill her, resulting in IZAX awakening.
This then leads to SCYVA helping us at points throughout the final fight, since she evidently sees it as her duty to prevent IZAX from escaping Iokath, and indeed she is a crucial ally throughout.
However, this is barely explained in the instance itself. In the IZAX fight, she speaks up about how she's created drones and the like to help us, yet it's not explained how she survived the previous encounter. Considering that her "death" woke IZAX in the first place, could she not have just created a backup program that was dependent on her "actual" death, and not just the death of her chassis?
So for the most part, the team is left with this voice just saying "do this, do that" but never exactly why we're doing this and doing that beyond "it'll kill IZAX". It's all down to implication, which can be fine... but there's a difference between audience interpretation and being left clutching at straws to make sense of several disparate elements.
That said, for some reason there are many lines within the IZAX fight that do not play. I'm wondering if SCYVA had some extra lines in the fight that would help to explain exactly why she's around and still helping us, but if only IZAX is rendered mute then the lack of full context behind SCYVA's defection is apparently intended. Not helpful.
Moving on to R-4 Anomaly, the setting itself is established fairly well. It's a Sith research facility constructed around the mass shadow generator, when three Sith Lords followed hints provided by ARIA following her discovery hiding amongst Sith Relics by Lady Dominique. That in itself is not a significant problem, as it does at least set things up reasonably well. Admittedly, I had initially been under the impression that it was a Czerka facility, not Sith, but it's at least established for definite in a Codex entry and not left to (mis)interpretation for all time.
However, where things begin to fall apart a tad is with the actual stuff leading up to Dominique in the operation itself.
To begin with, ARIA seemingly speaks with two voices. When she speaks up the first time, it's in a much deeper voice which is immediately not "her", and yet Mex is somehow immediately able to identify her (update: note that this comes after he claims that he can only see us, not hear us - so how can he hear ARIA?). I first thought that this was a case of the actress for ARIA being recast between 6.0 and 7.1, much like how Heta Kol was recast. Yet partway through the watchdog fight, a facility survivor speaks up, and her voice is much more familiar...
The reason for why ARIA speaks with a deeper and noticeably harsher tone is not given, but after many mental gymnastics my belief at the moment is that, if it truly is her, she was impersonating Lady Dominique (or her new AI partner; I'll get to that in a minute) to 'pacify' the watchdog. Best guess is that in-universe, the watchdog would probably be a lot more deadly if it believed that its master wasn't watching over it, indicating that something had happened to her. Hence, the impersonation.
Since watchdog apparently turns up to help Dominique in veteran mode, this certainly indicates that the dog is a very loyal 'creature' and wants to know that its master is safe and well.
However, this also assumes that somehow ARIA was able to lock Dominique and her fellow Sith out of the system, as ARIA's is seemingly the only voice that we hear of the R-4 inhabitants outside of boss rooms. If it was just Dominique by herself, this would perhaps be a reasonable assumption, as a gifted AI is going to be very difficult to work around.
Yet ARIA isn't the only AI on the station. Another AI, named EVE, is mentioned just as you approach the mass shadow generator, and her presence is completely unexplained. Was she the AI integrated into the facility, much like ARIA was on Dxun, or was she an AI found within the mass shadow generator? All that's stated in a Codex entry is that Dominique tried integrating with artificial intelligence, and based on the mechanics of the fight and how ARIA is helping us, it's apparent that this AI is EVE. We learn literally nothing else about her, with her in-operation introduction coming literally out of nowhere in an expository speech by ARIA.
If EVE was the station AI, how can ARIA seemingly lock her out, if that really is what has happened? Surely she would have greater priority in the system than a 'stranger' AI? I can therefore only assume that EVE was an AI integrated in the mass shadow generator, explaining quite nicely how Dominique can tap into its power so effortlessly and where EVE disappears off to when the two separate. Also, were Dominique's extensive cybernetics (including her hands, legs, and apparently even her throat) part of her before she started the experimental merging process, or did they become a part of her afterward?
Update: I'm now of the opinion that 'mean' ARIA is an impersonation of EVE. Additionally, to add to the confusion, EVE describes ARIA as a "copy-error" when telling her to buzz off in the final fight, and we have absolutely no idea what this means. Joy!
On top of everything else, Lord Valeo was meant to be the operation's third boss before he was cut. It's possible that extra dialogue would have been implemented that would provide a more seamless transition between 'mean' ARIA and chirpy 'normal' ARIA, and maybe explained more about EVE. As it is, it just goes from 'mean' ARIA to her providing help happily with little justification other than "I can't explain now".
Or ever, as it turns out.
Once all is said and done, in the closing cutscene you seemingly never learn what became of ARIA. Did she escape yet another facility, perhaps embedding herself in Jaca's ship's computer? Was she destroyed during the fight with Dominique, or was she another casualty of the station exploding? She just disappears during the fight after slicing the two conduits, and that's the last we see of her, although she does at least provide hints for how to use the Grey Swarm detonators to advance the fight. After that, poof, gone, seemingly forever.
Oh, and we also never learn why she invited the trandoshans or what she sought by escaping. Maybe she felt that her talents were restricted by being a 'mere' facility AI in a Czerka station, or she just really disapproved of their morals, and so invited the trandoshans to cause chaos, hopefully stop Czerka being Czerka, and escape unnoticed to a hopefully kinder master? This would certainly synchronise with her helping us to kill Dominique once she realises that she's inadvertently helped her to find a(nother) galactic superweapon.
Until we know for definite, my belief is that she chose to go down with the facility to atone for the chaos and the deaths she's caused. She's certainly racked up a bit of a body count!
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On the whole, this sort of thing is still fairly rare among all the operations. Most of them are set up very well either through earlier storylines (Dread Masters being dangerous and ancient Sith Lords who have been terrorising the Republic for centuries before going their own way with Vitiate's supposed death) or being simplistic and easy to follow (a pirate mutiny leading to the vengeful captain finding another crew to get his own back).
Story elements within Gods, R-4, and the conclusion to Nature of Progress are more vague than they need to be, and considering how intricate a lot of SWTOR's stories have tended to be, that is disappointing and at times infuriating. I feel that the Gods case is still the worst example, since that's still not entirely clear to me even four-and-a-half years later. I'm hoping that any subsequent operation stories will be more concise and easy to follow.
Additionally, the Gods case still ticks me off because there was a golden opportunity for BioWare to tie it into the main story with 5.9's Nathema Conspiracy flashpoint. You discover the existence of ZILDROG, the last surviving machine god from the Zakuul pantheon, and your only reaction is "there's another machine god!". Even if you've cleared the entirety of Gods, that's the only reaction you get. No "we stopped the rest, we can stop this one, too!" or anything of the like, which, considering how integral the pantheon of gods had been to several of the prior updates, just makes it seem like the game doesn't want to give you closure about your accomplishment in killing the rest of ZILDROG's kin.
This is especially disappointing since BW have previously demonstrated the ability to reference operation clears in later story content: on Oricon, Dread Master Raptus has three different lines to cover the death of Dread Master Styrak. The first two are generic "the Empire / Republic slew our brother" lines to provide context if you've never cleared Scum and Villainy on a given character, but if you have cleared Scum, Raptus specifically states that you slew Styrak. Would it really have been too much to ask for just one extra bit of dialogue per character in Nathema to reflect on the other gods dying?
Anyway...
Even though Nature of Progress and R-4 aren't connected together all that well, I am pleased to see operations being connected again. That said, I don't think there's much else BW can really get out of the Czerka story following this, unless they decide to bring ARIA back for a "surprise, I lived!" moment and somehow find something to build from there. I kinda hope they just leave it here, to be honest, but we'll see what happens.
I just hope that they add in just a bit more additional context to these goings-on in future. It'd be nice to not feel a bit lost with story elements of content, y'know?
