Okay, just leveling my first toon that's not a jedi (a smuggler). I'm having a blast (hehehe punny) anyway, I notice in the story line you can make choices that are light side or dark side. I do have points gaining the good side, but I'm wondering what they mean to the character? Is there any difference other than personal choice in alignment?

Depending on your rank you will get titles for being light / dark. You also gain access to vendor on Fleet, who sells relics and the such. There are some dropped items in game that require dark or light side at certain ranks to use them. Darkside people get to enjoy a corruption appearance on their characters that changes as that rank goes up as well.

 

If you want it max fast, pick up the crew skill Diplomacy!

Okay so it does mean something. Thank you for your help.

Oh, yes, and some of those light / dark side choices tend to make your companion happy, or mad at you as well. Some companions love darkside choices, some love light side. It is a good way to get some of them maxed out as well!

Yes, if you learn about your Companions by reading their Codex entries you can learn what they like and what they dislike. Corso, for example, is always positive towards rescuing damsels in distress.

 

Yesterday in the chat someone wrote about having an negative value of one Companions' affection - I didn't know that this was possible.

Edited April 20, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

Yes, if you learn about your Companions by reading their Codex entries you can learn what they like and what they dislike. Corso, for example, is always positive towards rescuing damsels in distress.

 

Yesterday in the chat someone wrote about having an negative value of one Companions' affection - I didn't know that this was possible.

 

 

There was a post on the general section of the forums, someone bragging about being negative, and asking how to speed that up or something. It was amusing.

Okay so it does mean something. Thank you for your help.

 

I am going to disagree with this assessment:

 

• Are there alignment restrictions on relics while leveling? Yes. Are the relics THAT important to get that you have to "farm" alignment points? NO!!! The relics bought from the LS and DS vendor are "meh" at best. Most of my characters have been leveled with no relics at all or LS1/DS1 level relics and I have NEVER felt like, "OMG I wish I had a more powerful relic, so I could defeat X!!!" NOTE: there are two legacy unlocks for having any character in your legacy hit level 50+ and be maxed out in alignment (one for max LS one for max DS). Once you get it once you never have to worry about it again. I think I have used the LS unlock twice and I still do not have the DS unlock).
  
• Are there alignment restricted items that drop throughout the game? Yes. Do they provide any game mechanical benefit that a non-aligned item does not? NO!!! IMO aligned items are stupid because there are plenty of non-aligned items that are equal to the aligned items in stat benefit. The only benefit is that of appearance and considering all of them are lightsabers and usually covered up by character's hands they are often hard to see anyway.
  
• Do certain choices make companions happy or sad with you? Yes. Will "sad" choices affect your companions in meaningful story driven way? NO!!! No matter how much a companion hates you for your choices they cannot leave you; the story is "on rails" and does not ever deviate enough to warrant making sure companions are happy. The only game mechanic that "companion affection" affects is crew skills (positive companion affection increases +crit chance and +efficiency with regard to crew skills), and companion gifts fix all (no matter how much you piss off a companion giving a gift will generate a fixed amount of affection points).
  

 

My advice is to avoid "farming" alignment points and companion affection. Make conversation choices that make sense for your character and situation.

Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the force this morning...

 

Sorry, had to say that

+ 50 darkside points

-1 Riggs

 

I'm making choices on what I feel drives the story forward for my character and the way I envision her. In her case she is Light side. There have been a couple dark side choices, but that's just how I see the character going.

 

I think what I meant was it does mean something if you want it too on a personal (and physical level as characters do change). I've read about the relics thing and I know they mean nothing leveling.

Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the force this morning...

 

Sorry, had to say that

+ 50 darkside points

-1 Riggs

 

I'm making choices on what I feel drives the story forward for my character and the way I envision her. In her case she is Light side. There have been a couple dark side choices, but that's just how I see the character going.

 

I think what I meant was it does mean something if you want it too on a personal (and physical level as characters do change). I've read about the relics thing and I know they mean nothing leveling.

 

LS/DS mean very little in the game.

 

You were asking CAN YOU ASCRIBE MEANING TO IT? Really? You can ascribe meaning to anything you want. Why ask this question? The poster who most thoroughly answered the question you asked wasn't grumpy, and didn't seem like he got out of bed on the wrong side: he was thorough, and clarified what some other posters had left unclear: namely that LS/DS points have almost no effect on gameplay. Then, instead of thanking him for a clear, comprehensive post, you accuse him of being grumpy and basically state that you already knew the answer to the question?

 

*boggle*

My advice is to avoid "farming" alignment points and companion affection. Make conversation choices that make sense for your character and situation.

 

From a role-playing perspective I agree.

 

The only thing imho worth "farming" - apart from Commendations - are Social Points. Because the Social Vendors sometimes offer unique stuff.

Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the force this morning...

 

Sorry, had to say that

+ 50 darkside points

-1 Riggs

 

I'm making choices on what I feel drives the story forward for my character and the way I envision her. In her case she is Light side. There have been a couple dark side choices, but that's just how I see the character going.

 

I think what I meant was it does mean something if you want it too on a personal (and physical level as characters do change). I've read about the relics thing and I know they mean nothing leveling.

 

That's what happens when different individuals read the same plain text; without any emotion or context behind it, plain text can be interpreted many ways .

 

From a role-playing perspective I agree.

 

The only thing imho worth "farming" - apart from Commendations - are Social Points. Because the Social Vendors sometimes offer unique stuff.

 

Unique yes, appealing...no so much (at least to me). When I seek out an outfit for a character I want it to jump out at me. None of the social outfits jump out at me. But to each his own .

Unique yes, appealing...no so much (at least to me). When I seek out an outfit for a character I want it to jump out at me. None of the social outfits jump out at me. But to each his own .

 

I so agree with you. I am having fun with alinement though. I'm glad to hear about the affection point though, I kind of wonder what would happen if you went dark side. I plan on doing that for a character to see how things play out and for the legacy points.

 

Thank you for your help

Well, the female social outfit from Coruscant can be found nowhere else. Not that I know of.

The Tatooine social vendor Sand People armor as well - with the exception of that Cartel Market armor. From a role-playing perspective, it's imho good. I used it for my Sage on Tatooine, class story.

The Taris (republic) social vendor armor reminds me a lot of Dash Rendar. Only recently has it been re-released through the Cartel Market.

Edited April 21, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

Great stories in this game, something I have been missing in games. as I have not played one by the artists formerly known as Bioware * pours out a small portion of 40 ounce beverage* in a while.

 

If we do something like kill an innocent in front of a lightside companion or not slaughter a town in front of a dark side one will that close conversation or romance options?

Companions are not light side or dark side. They simply have personalities. A given companion will like it when you kill the guy sometimes, and in other situations not like it (just like a real person). There is no LS/DS for companions.

 

You can't lock yourself out of any conversations with companions, no matter what choices you make. You can always give more gifts if you do things that lose affection with them. You *can* lock yourself out of romance, but only through conversation options during companion convos.

Well, the female social outfit from Coruscant can be found nowhere else. Not that I know of.

The Tatooine social vendor Sand People armor as well - with the exception of that Cartel Market armor. From a role-playing perspective, it's imho good. I used it for my Sage on Tatooine, class story.

The Taris (republic) social vendor armor reminds me a lot of Dash Rendar. Only recently has it been re-released through the Cartel Market.

 

The Coruscant female set is now sold on Dromund Kaas as well. Discovered that last night and my PT's Mako now runs around in it

The relics that you can get from the Rakghoul event vendor blow the Light and Dark side vendor ones out of the water.

 

So if you're worried about gear, forget about min-maxing light and dark side points and just play as you feel your character would. Get yourself some T.H.O.R.N. rep instead, next time the event comes around. They have the best levelling relics. They are bind-to-legacy too, so you can shunt them around your alts when you grow out of them.

Edited May 5, 2014 by PLynkes