A bit of a necrothread but it was the first Google result, so... Agreed! I'm going to continue searching to see if this is something they've added in the last year, but so far I haven't found it in any GUI preference areas.

Maybe, but I don't see why disobedience would necessarily be Dark, either. If I were told to kill someone in cold blood and refused, my refusal wouldn't be a Dark act. One could make the argument that the Jedi Code is oppressive since it effectively forbids emotion--a vital component of life--so wouldn't disobeying the Code in this instance actually be a Light act? The Sith feed on emotion; they encourage emotion to be used in negative ways to acquire power. Before the prequels we never had any indication from Obi-wan or Yoda that all emotion is bad; only those more likely to lead to Dark acts. But even then, a properly trained Jedi can make good judgment despite their emotional state. "Fear leads to anger, Anger leads to hate, Hate leads to Suffering." Jedi are taught to control their fear so it doesn't progress to anger, so it doesn't progress to suffering. Sith would encourage the progression. And yet we see Jedi exhibit emotion all the time, in the movies, in the EU novels, and even in SW:TOR. Obi-Wan when Qui-Gon is killed, Kip Fisto smiles after he destroys a few droids, Mace Windu as he fights Palpatine, Obi-Wan when Yoda orders him to stop Anakin, and on and on and on. It's extremely evident that emotion and attachment is commonly practiced. The Jedi even set things up for attachment in their Master-Apprentice relationships. The difference between Jedi and Sith are that Jedi teach serenity and how to make good decisions regardless of emotions, whereas the Sith teach to focus on emotion when making decisions; to use it as motivation. Sounds pretty inconsistent, then. If your Jedi Knight beds or becomes "sisters" with the Twi'lek Matriarch on Tython, I'm pretty sure that alone gives you Dark Side points. Sort of. My argument to that would be that the dialogue options suck. There should be a way to leave the conversation before it gets to the point of them offering a bribe. An option to let them go but warn her of her attitude would also be nice because, yeah... she's definitely exhibiting some nasty behaviors as a result of their love.

I'd still encourage you to start with the X-Wing series. That series will introduce you to the state of the galaxy and some of the pivotal characters you'll encounter in the Thrawn trilogy. You could jump right into Thrawn and it'd make sense and all, but I think knowing some of the characters helps perfect the experience. Since I, Jedi was mentioned I'd just point out that that's my favorite novel of them all, granted I liked Corran Horn from the get-go. I would encourage you to read the Jedi Academy trilogy prior to that, though. I read the trilogy afterward and it was just weird and a little off-putting.

I'm guessing any feedback is meant to go into this forum... So, if you support attachments or get yourself into a relationship of some sort, you get Dark Side points. Based on lore this is just incredibly wrong. Now, I understand that attachments are against the Jedi Code in this era, but the Code is a man-made set of rules separate from the nature of the Force. In both the movies and expanded universe we see attachments of several natures commonplace that clearly don't inherently lead to the Dark Side. Uncontrolled emotion can of course lead a person to the Dark Side but that assumes they're unable to act rationally despite it. Big assumption. The Jedi of this era want to play it safe and ban such attachments, but that doesn't make them inherently Dark. Just to give a few examples of attachments in the movies and EU that turned out fine: - Obi-wan and Anakin (Obi-wan even says Anakin is like a brother to him, but still does what's necessary) - Arguably a great many master-padawan couplings - Luke and Leia - Leia and Han - Nejaa Halcyon married with children (Corran Horn's grandfather) - Many others with Jedi ancestors, including Kam Solusar and Kyle Katarn - Corran Horn and Mirax (+children) - Kam and Tionne Solusar - Luke and Mara Jade In fact it was the emotional attachment between Luke and his father that lead to Anakin's redemption. Point being: emotional attachment isn't inherently Dark. Making poor decisions as a result of jealousy, anger, or sadness, is. If you want the Jedi Masters to scold our characters for embracing relationships, that's fine. That makes sense for the era. But there should *not* be Dark/Light Side points at play with it.

It's a neat point. Frankly I think any character should be able to wear any type of armor, but give them some nasty debuff or handicap the armor's stats. That'd have the added bonus of all equipment being usable in a social capacity, but retain class balance in combat.

When I was young my mother bought me the first of the X-Wing novel series. It was probably the first novel I enjoyed enough to finish, followed by pretty much the entire timeline from that point. Now I find myself going through them all again in order, again starting with the first X-Wing novel. There are some that suck along the way. No doubt about it. I'm looking at you, The Courtship of Princess Leia. But all in all I think they're a good continuation of the original trilogy, starting 6 years after the Battle of Yavin and really beginning the post Ep6 EU. Here's where you'll start to see groups, characters, and events that play a part all the way through to the newest Legacy-era novels. That said, Lucas ****ed a lot up when he made the prequels. He changed some of the nature of the Jedi that kind of makes some EU characters' back stories impossible. You'll also see Jedi living lifestyles contrary to the norm in the prequels and timelines prior to them (including the Old Republic eras). Basically he just messed continuity up and I hate him for it, but Star Wars is "his", or whatever... even though the collective forces of the EU authors have put a lot more time into the universe than he has. But whatever. I'm not bitter. Really. If you can get past that you'll like them. If you can't, well... I'm not sure there's anything in the EU that'll be easier to swallow.