I know that this doesn't have much importance to do with the game. But shouldn't a Jedi Knight or Sith Warrior be able to wield a double saber. I mean if you watch the Clone wars TV series there is a character named Savage Opress who isn't much of a force wielder. Savage is more of a Warrior Juggernaut than a Shadow Tank. I just think the class between Consular and Knight or Warrior and Inquisitor shouldn't dictate the saber you wield.

As much as I would love for the game to be more "open" when it comes to things like which saber you use and the ability to pick and choose which Jedi abilities I have, unfortunately this is a game and not a movie/cartoon. So they have to do things to make it work from a "programming" stand point and game mechanic standpoint. They also need to do it to make the classes unique. Other wise you have one Jedi/Sith class.

Good Point. Although there could be things that completely set them apart. Like still Force wielding abilities and Saber. But you're right. We have to look at it from their point of view.

This has been a hot topic since early testing.

 

Bioware really should have allowed non-locked saber types, but emphasized that certain play styles would have been more beneficial.

Yeah, I keep thinking a skill system like Path of Exile would have been completely awesome for this or any Star Wars game. Allow the players to select which skills/abilities they want. So each character is unique.

 

Unfortunately in the modern MMO it is all about "game balance" and not player creativity/uniqueness. Oh well guess we can dream.

Yeah, I keep thinking a skill system like Path of Exile would have been completely awesome for this or any Star Wars game. Allow the players to select which skills/abilities they want. So each character is unique.

 

I'll admit that Path of Exile has some of the best customization I've seen in a shared-world RPG.

 

It also has the biggest problem with drastically over-powered builds. In some cases, the builds are almost ridiculously imbalanced to the point of being a mockery of normal RPG practices. I know they've been trying to control those a bit, but it's not a coincidence that the game has a ton of player customization and drastic game imbalance.

 

Even then, if you really look at Path of Exile, you'll find that a large group of people are still just copying a small number of popular choices. It offers something more than the simple illusion of choice, but if you want to have anywhere close to the highest performance, skill can't get you there. You need to use one of the current best-in-class perk combinations. So, it gives you choice, but the choice is between feeling unique or being as effective as people who use cookie-cutter builds. That's the sort of thing that most MMO designers are trying to avoid.

Good Point. Although there could be things that completely set them apart. Like still Force wielding abilities and Saber. But you're right. We have to look at it from their point of view.

 

make it another point is that its also based on animations unless you want generic animations for every skill. the animations are chosen for a given skill based on the weapon. A shadow can't have the same animations using dual sabers as one using a staff. a sentinel can't have the same animations as a guardian using one. It just isn't possible to animate every possible animation based on if they have one, two or staff.

 

and beyond the animations you have the ability damage tied to weapon use as well. so a person using dual blasters will have a different damage calculation (to account for off hand) than someone using a rifle. same with sabers two sabers different calculation than one saber.

 

If you want to use two become a sentinel, if you want to use a staff become a shadow. simple as that.

Edited September 18, 2015 by DOHboy

I'll admit that Path of Exile has some of the best customization I've seen in a shared-world RPG.

 

It also has the biggest problem with drastically over-powered builds. In some cases, the builds are almost ridiculously imbalanced to the point of being a mockery of normal RPG practices. I know they've been trying to control those a bit, but it's not a coincidence that the game has a ton of player customization and drastic game imbalance.

 

Even then, if you really look at Path of Exile, you'll find that a large group of people are still just copying a small number of popular choices. It offers something more than the simple illusion of choice, but if you want to have anywhere close to the highest performance, skill can't get you there. You need to use one of the current best-in-class perk combinations. So, it gives you choice, but the choice is between feeling unique or being as effective as people who use cookie-cutter builds. That's the sort of thing that most MMO designers are trying to avoid.

 

Oh I completely agree. One of the downsides to the "open" systems is that once someone finds the "best buld" everyone copies it.

 

I personally have no issues with imbalance. I think it was AO (could be wrong..too many games...too long ago) that had some class imbalance and they said straight out..so what...game balance came about because of PvP and what I refer to as the new casual game style that was brought about because of WoW.

 

But it is what it is and it is what we have to deal with these days. So we must accept it as it is.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Nireos

Bioware really should have allowed non-locked saber types, but emphasized that certain play styles would have been more beneficial.

 

I would have preferred a different form of the "stance" system where each force user could use any of the three lightsaber styles (plus vibroblades, I guess...), with various tradeoffs. Some of the combos, then, would have poor performance, but the choice would be on you (and it would be obvious what your stance was).

 

However, the original design of the game was based on some other UI design ideas which were very popular at the time. These stated that games felt more natural if their opponents (in PvP or PvE) exhibited easily identifiable shapes. Even the difference in posture between a mercenary and a powertech would evoke this response. The count and orientation of lightsaber achieved the same thing.

 

It's a nice thought, and games like TF2 have proven it to be both true and stronger than people initially thought. However, it does also encourage game design with static roles and appearances. Pretty quickly, the ideals were broken. Guardians/Juggernauts were giving better DPS, and it became harder to tell the difference between a defensive class and a strong DPS class. Then Shadow/Assassin tanks came along, looking just like our bursty-stealth force classes. The desire for armor customization tossed aside the old patterns of armor appearance as a cue for class behavior. In the end, these were all good things overall, but to understand why we have weapon restrictions, you need to look back at the psychology behind the separation of classes.

 

Perhaps sometime we'll have another revamp which gives us more choice over weapons. At the moment, this is largely prevented by the lack of animations for other weapon types. But maybe some day....

Yeah, now that any class can wear armor to make them look like any other class (or wear skimpy outfits), weapons are the only things that remain (mostly) unique to the classes.

 

Thing is, they opened up the armor for cartel market purposes.

 

Weapons do not have near the same upside in terms of getting people to spend money in the cartel market, though, and it would cost them money to make all new animations for every ability, and then further complicated by balancing the offhand options (shield, generator, or weapon?).

 

Just for a vanguard trooper they would need new animations for using a sniper rifle, a cannon, and a pistol at a minimum. Whether they wanted to try and figure out how to let the DPS disciplines use a second pistol instead of just single pistol with generator (presumably the tank would still need to use a shield generator in their off-hand).

 

Now maybe they could "borrow" existing animations from other classes. It would save them some time and money, but it wouldn't always be possible.

If i decided to let my sniper or gunslinger use a cannon, for example, then all of the crouching animations would have to be all-new for those weapons. There are no animations for that weapon which fit with the cover mechanic that those classes use.

 

Ultimately? Too much work for too little payoff.

 

Maybe they could make the ability to use these a cartel market permission, but they would still have to do the work up front.

They spend all the time and money now, and while they will have built in a way to make money off of this there is no guarantee that they will get even a fair percentage of their cost back, never mind actually turn a profit, however modest that may end up being.

While I enjoy the play style of my Infiltration Shadow (and enjoy the consular story more), if I could make a Knight with a Double Bladed Lightsaber, I would switch mains, just so I could lunge with my double bladed lightsaber

I'd like to have a trooper or bounty hunter that can use a tech blade. Maybe for vanguard or powertech.

The problem with people thinking that someone's build is stronger is than their's is ridiculous. Every one's build is unique so every one is equal.

I'd like to have a trooper or bounty hunter that can use a tech blade. Maybe for vanguard or powertech.

 

This all day long. Same for operative, why give a melee dps class a ranged weapon; it just confuses new players.

 

I know that this doesn't have much importance to do with the game. But shouldn't a Jedi Knight or Sith Warrior be able to wield a double saber. I mean if you watch the Clone wars TV series there is a character named Savage Opress who isn't much of a force wielder. Savage is more of a Warrior Juggernaut than a Shadow Tank. I just think the class between Consular and Knight or Warrior and Inquisitor shouldn't dictate the saber you wield.

 

I think they could have been smarter about weapon implementation. When the game launched there were three trees per class, and three ways to use a light saber. But in the end, you can't please everyone. Even if they had assigned light sabers by tree, someone somewhere would want their spec-x to be able to use something designed for spec-y.