I can think of only one MMORPG that has messed in any way with its faction structure, and that was Horizon 2.0 in the web-series NOOB, where they added a faction, and had some systems for changing factions. But don't forget that this was a *fictional* MMORPG rather than a real one.

 

Now there is an interesting idea, we have 4 basic classes and 2 advanced classes for each basic, so why not do that with factions, like in EU, Alliance becoming The New Republic and later Galactic Alliance and Galactic Empire becoming Imperial Remnant, you can keep your original faction and all that came with it and choose a second one based on your choices after Iokath and Nathema Conspiracy. Its just a thought of an idea but if devs can work out all the kinks (like fleet access and diferent gear appearance for different factions) i can get behind that. For all intents and purposes it will look like switching sides without actually switching them, and players only care about how thing look and not how they actually work in terms of game mechanics.

Edited September 24, 2018 by LordDartAnarhist

All that, *plus* forced ejection from the character's guild, forced scrubbing of friend/ignore lists, sudden change of appearance of armour, etc. etc.

Most of which was bad design from the get go. Friend/ignore lists should be account-wide. Guilds should not be faction-restricted (seriously, players have to resort to 3rd party software to TALK with each other despite playing the same game). OF COURSE actual faction swap involves fixing most of that, I never said it didn't. It's actually why I don't expect it to happen, Bioware won't feel like (or be able to) commit time and effort to fix core design flaws of the social/communication parts of the game.

 

All in all, it's not a good idea. It's a bad idea in most factionated games, since there are inevitably:

* Faction-specific maps

* Faction-specific quests and missions

* Faction-specific gear

Things like these are bit different. There's not much issue to prevent faction-swapped characters from attempting to access old missions that were designed for opposite faction only. Especially at late-stage in the game. Not much people complained about not being able to do old missions after launching KOTFEET (which disabled access to majority of core storylines). At say, lvl 75, how many Empire-defectors would regret they can't do a lvl 12 Coruscant side-quest? Maps being accessible to defected player requires likely not much more than faction-flag swap for the specific character. And again, old quests that weren't designed for faction-swapped characters in mind can be simply disabled (for the most part) while key a few repeatable-content missions like Flashpoints would only require some small reworking and some new VOs from the actors who regularly record lines anyway. Chat/guild/ignore systems are the harder issues in this hypothetical scenario Edited September 24, 2018 by Pietrastor

Then you are playing the wrong game, cause they can't do that because of MMO (where you have to interact with other players, choosing not to do so is just an option) part, such swap is global thing which will affect every aspect of the game. 1 scenario where it could be acchieved is to totaly block access to previous content: Chapters, dailies, FPs, OPS and so on, even galaxy map will have to become different with all-new planets, which is pretty much a suicide for the game itself. As i said in previous post, i could be wrong, i'm not a game developer, don't have any knowledge or experience in that area, so don't take my words for an expert opinion.

 

Did you read what I wrote? Because you're not understanding me at all. Again, I want to be able to choose my faction in the self contained single player story going forward. Playing solo in such stories is NOT an option, it's the only way you can play them. You can't play Shadow of Revan, Ziost, KotFE, KotET, or the story version of the traitor flashpoints with a group. You can only play them in single player. Again, I don't care about dailies, flashpoints, guilds, fleets, etc...all of that can and will stay the same. I'm saying that within those self contained single player story areas I want to choose my faction. (In case you didn't notice, we did just that on Iokath and yet that didn't change any of the things you mentioned). Also again, you don't lose access to Korriban or Tython after you do the flashpoints where they're decimated, and the NPCs who died in those battles such as Ragate on Korriban don't disappear after you do the flashpoints. This is no different.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Nefla

Did you read what I wrote? Because you're not understanding me at all. Again, I want to be able to choose my faction in the self contained single player story going forward. Playing solo in such stories is NOT an option, it's the only way you can play them. You can't play Shadow of Revan, Ziost, KotFE, KotET, or the story version of the traitor flashpoints with a group. You can only play them in single player. Again, I don't care about dailies, flashpoints, guilds, fleets, etc...all of that can and will stay the same. I'm saying that within those self contained single player story areas I want to choose my faction. (In case you didn't notice, we did just that on Iokath and yet that didn't change any of the things you mentioned). Also again, you don't lose access to Korriban or Tython after you do the flashpoints where they're decimated, and the NPCs who died in those battles such as Ragate on Korriban don't disappear after you do the flashpoints. This is no different.

 

I did understand, you want the whole game going forward to be a personal phase, just for you. Well, this is simply ridiculous. I understand that people expected another KOTOR, that's why i said you are playing the wrong game. And i imagine you are a in a minority of the players who don't do group content (FPs, Ops, etc.), i enjoy playing solo but even i do group content from time to time, for one because it's required for completing story (Oricon, Iokath), and EA and Bioware won't just drop everything to accomodate you.

Don't even understand why do you guys argue about factions in FPs or OPs. The new ones are either faction-neutral or have cutscenes disabled in group version anyway so factions/allegiances are not an issue.

I did understand, you want the whole game going forward to be a personal phase, just for you. Well, this is simply ridiculous. I understand that people expected another KOTOR, that's why i said you are playing the wrong game. And i imagine you are a in a minority of the players who don't do group content (FPs, Ops, etc.), i enjoy playing solo but even i do group content from time to time, for one because it's required for completing story (Oricon, Iokath), and EA and Bioware won't just drop everything to accomodate you.

 

The fact that you claim I want the whole game to be a personal phase for me indicates that you do not in fact understand me in the slightest. How many times do I have to repeat myself? The single player story instances that are ALREADY single player story instances should give us this choice. For the third time, this will not and I am not asking it to affect prior content, operations, group flashpoints, planetary access, fleet access, etc...When I let Acina die in the single player instance, is she dead in your game? No. Not unless you also let her die. When I choose to spare Arcann, is he then alive for everyone else? On Iokath when you side with the opposite faction, are you then able to do group content with people from the opposite faction? No, because those are self contained single player instances. The choices and actions made within said instances will be acknowledged and reacted to inside those instances and nowhere else. That's how it's been for years. I don't know how much more clearly I can explain this, if you still claim not to understand or still claim that I want the entire game changed (which directly contradicts what I've said in all 3 posts) you're either trolling me or have a brain like a box of rocks.

I did understand, you want the whole game going forward to be a personal phase, just for you. Well, this is simply ridiculous. I understand that people expected another KOTOR, that's why i said you are playing the wrong game. And i imagine you are a in a minority of the players who don't do group content (FPs, Ops, etc.), i enjoy playing solo but even i do group content from time to time, for one because it's required for completing story (Oricon, Iokath), and EA and Bioware won't just drop everything to accomodate you.

 

I'm with this dude. I do not want any and future story to be "personal" phase. I want it to be a group phase. I wanna be able to complete any future story content within a group as I have 3 preferred guildies I always do story with. We all find story much more fun within a group. Especially when it comes to alignment choices.

I'm with this dude. I do not want any and future story to be "personal" phase. I want it to be a group phase. I wanna be able to complete any future story content within a group as I have 3 preferred guildies I always do story with. We all find story much more fun within a group. Especially when it comes to alignment choices.

Caveat: NOT *mandatory* groupness. Auto-scaling difficulty based on the number of players? Sure. But mandatory group? NO. Just no. Mandatory group content in the main story-line is my primary gripe(1) with FF14:ARR.

 

(1) Meaning that that is why I don't play it.

Nefla, fine, i don't inderstand you, and don't give a ****. Legitimate faction swapping in this game at this point just isn't feasible, the way i see it, they will just add 2 new factions which we will choose (it will appear like we choose between Reps and Imps, but in fact will not work exactly that), overall you will stay Imp or Rep, just going forward with story you will be appearing as a defector, but all previous content will still be for your original faction.

Caveat: NOT *mandatory* groupness. Auto-scaling difficulty based on the number of players? Sure. But mandatory group? NO. Just no. Mandatory group content in the main story-line is my primary gripe(1) with FF14:ARR.

 

(1) Meaning that that is why I don't play it.

 

Oh. I was never meaning it had to grouped or nothing. But I'd prefer it to be able to be completed as a group like all the original Planet arcs and side missions where those could be grouped or solo'd. It(for me) is much more fun. Sorry for the confusuon of that. I suck at explaining stuffs...

Edited September 26, 2018 by iFenris