Prior to the forum wipe, I had a suggestion thread that I felt quite strongly about despite it only amounting to a very small change in a mechanic. Since there is no longer a suggestion forum, I hope that this is the appropriate place for my particular suggestion. Also, as I have not yet been allowed into the game, I am assuming that a change has not yet been made to the alignment system; I apologize if for some unlikely reason my suggestion has already been implemented.

If I'm not mistaken, right now one's alignment is determined by the sum of their points (where I'll just say that dark side points are negative numbers). With this system and enough time, no one can ever be anything but 100% light or 100% dark. If I average 3 light side points for every 2 dark side points, then I will approach 100% light at a rate of +1 per choice (arbitrary values here of course).

I would rather see a system that more appropriately reflects me and my choices. I suggest that the system use an average of our points to determine our alignment. This would allow us to stay at varying shades of "gray" if our choices were such. Using the above numbers, I would be aligned at 0.5 light side perpetually unless the pattern of my choices changed.

I understand that this is a game and many players would not enjoy being bound to past choices forever. That is why I suggest that the game only average the character's last X number of points or choices (this value could be determined by the devs; the point is that this value would be finite). That way eventually the "bad data" would be left behind and one could change their alignment and even achieve 100% light or dark if they chose to.

If the average only used data from a relatively few recent choices, affecting change would be quite easy; it could even be easier/faster than trying to change from light to dark under the current system. Rate of change could easily be throttled by how far back the average goes. Without the system I suggest, it's virtually impossible to be represented as anything but Light! or Dark! without gaming the system with things like diplomacy or deliberate dialog choices just for certain moral points.