The movies - which this game is based off of, are all about moral struggle. Good vs Evil vs Indifferent. These struggles were packed into to almost every scene and created a drama that has lasted for 40 years. When this game was announced they had real plans for your character's alignment as they did with KOTR before it. For anyone not familiar with KOTR, the game used your alignment to determine how much certain spells would cost. If I was light sided it would cost an astronomical amount to cast force lightning. And while I'm not arguing the same should be done in this game, because mechanically, its just not possible, I still would LOVE to see alignment MEAN something.

Presently, alignment means absolutely nothing. They even took away alignment gear restrictions. You can affect nearly every system in this game based on alignment (E.g. NPC reaction, gear combinations, spell potency, future story resolution ala Jaesa Wilsaam, etc..) and while it would take a monumental undertaking for the developers, maybe its something they could use as a focal point for an expansion. I for one, would welcome such a change, how about you guys?

Not really. I'm very glad they removed the light/dark side restrictions on saber colors. What a pain in the *** that was. Forcing you to choose certain conversation options just so you could use the color you wanted for your saber.

Maybe in other areas if you were to give examples. I certainly don't want any game mechanics as far as spell costs or ability uses to be impacted by the 1, 2 or 3 story options. That's just ludicrous in an MMO.

Not really. I'm very glad they removed the light/dark side restrictions on saber colors. What a pain in the *** that was. Forcing you to choose certain conversation options just so you could use the color you wanted for your saber.

 

Maybe in other areas if you were to give examples. I certainly don't want any game mechanics as far as spell costs or ability uses to be impacted by the 1, 2 or 3 story options. That's just ludicrous in an MMO.

Agreed.

Now the only thing they SHOULD change as well - or rather, remove altogether - is the silly restrictions, concerning lightsabers. Still rubs me the wrong way not being able to access whatever hilt, just because it's walled off behind LS / DS restrictions.

Agreed.

 

Now the only thing they SHOULD change as well - or rather, remove altogether - is the silly restrictions, concerning lightsabers. Still rubs me the wrong way not being able to access whatever hilt, just because it's walled off behind LS / DS restrictions.

"Woah woah woah, what do you think you're doing? You're a good guy, you can't be running around with that lightsaber. It's too mean looking."

 

Maybe in other areas if you were to give examples. I certainly don't want any game mechanics as far as spell costs or ability uses to be impacted by the 1, 2 or 3 story options. That's just ludicrous in an MMO.

Did you ever play the Sith Warrior storyline? One of the companions Jaesa Wilsaam changes based on your light/dark choices. That's the type of interesting choices I'm talking about. Not restrictions so much as choices.

Did you ever play the Sith Warrior storyline? One of the companions Jaesa Wilsaam changes based on your light/dark choices. That's the type of interesting choices I'm talking about. Not restrictions so much as choices.

Oh that's fine, anything in the story is fine. I wish they left in the option to kill a certain companion that betrays you in the Sith Warrior storyline (it was available in beta, and was epic). They've had to balance I guess making things matter with making them impact gameplay elsewhere (in said example, killing off your only healer companion at the time was a really bad idea even if it was fun/made sense in the moment).

Oh that's fine, anything in the story is fine. I wish they left in the option to kill a certain companion that betrays you in the Sith Warrior storyline (it was available in beta, and was epic). They've had to balance I guess making things matter with making them impact gameplay elsewhere (in said example, killing off your only healer companion at the time was a really bad idea even if it was fun/made sense in the moment).

I still think replacement droids / generic companions would be a better solution than making companions unkillable. I'd toss Skadge out the airlock in a heartbeat.

I still think replacement droids / generic companions would be a better solution than making companions unkillable.

I like this idea a lot. You could return to your ship after the "killpoint" (or dismissal cutscene) and have a brief cutscene where the replacement companion introduces themselves "Hello sir, I am the new combat-ready [mercenary you hired / trooper you requested, etc]," then that's the last you talk to them. Same skills as their replacement, easy peasy and not immersion breaking.

Of course, BW seems to have moved on from the main class stories some time ago (rightly so), so this is pretty unlikely.

"Woah woah woah, what do you think you're doing? You're a good guy, you can't be running around with that lightsaber. It's too mean looking."

Yeah, right:

Yeah, right:

That is hilarious...

Not really. I'm very glad they removed the light/dark side restrictions on saber colors.

I'm not. It slays the established lore pretty thoroughly to have tons of Sith running around with glowstick rainbows.

I'm not. It slays the established lore pretty thoroughly to have tons of Sith running around with glowstick rainbows.

Less than having said glowsticks hit like wifflebats IMO.

I'm not. It slays the established lore pretty thoroughly to have tons of Sith running around with glowstick rainbows.

So it's established in lore that my Sith Assassin has to choose between blue and green saber colors?

So it's established in lore that my Sith Assassin has to choose between blue and green saber colors?

I can't imagine the headaches he gets over the dialogue choices and the ability to go light side as a sith.

I can't imagine the headaches he gets over the dialogue choices and the ability to go light side as a sith.

I know right. Every time I've seen his argument brought up (and that's a lot, mostly when they first made the change) I've never seen them acknowledge that you could have dark Jedi and light Sith, which completely ruins the argument.

Having saber colours restricted to *force alignment* -never- made any sense, that's why it was removed.

People up-thread have commented that having Sith running round with glowstick rainbows breaks lore. That's a separate contention, but Jedi - Sith =/= Light side - Dark Side. SWTOR never restricted red sabers to Sith and green/blue to Jedi. That, while a bad idea, might have made a certain sense, if you argued that red crystals were the only ones accessible to Imperial crystal fabricators, and green blue natural crystals were the only ones available to mine for the Republic. That, however, isn't what we had. We instead had "Ohhh you're really evil, the blue and green crystals won't go into *your* saber..." and "Red crystals are mean bad <insert Samuel L.Jacksonism>, they won't go in any weak-willed lightsider wimp's saber"... which made colour crystals seem like some kind of consortium of conscientious ribenaberries with Opinions.

Really, the 'lore' thing on crystals is massively inadequate to the task most people arguing for crystal restrictions put it to anyway. It only says that Sith *tend* to use synthetic crystals which *tend* to be red in colour, while Jedi *tend* to use natural crystals which *tend* to be blue or green. When even your generalisation takes pains to establish that it's not in any way final, it's clear that while the NPC hordes may well usually be using red/purple or blue/green (respectively, sith and Jedi), it's not more than worthy of passing note that four characters in this universe, the Barsenthor, the Knight who was Orgus Din's Apprentice, Darth Nox, and the Emperor's Wrath, just happened to not do so.

I believe that alignment should work in the following ways:

Sith warrior who is light side uses light side attacks for instance, replace force choke with force stasis (the light side equivalent)

Jedi knight that is dark side used force choke instead of stasis.

Repeat for all classes, see the thing is this is sort of in place as all classes are mirrors anyway so it's just about putting animations been dependant on alignment and if neutral then that's based on standard animations for class.

I feel this would add more character depth than what is currently in place and make the storyline and characters feel more inline with alignment options.

I actually really enjoyed the lightsaber restrictions way back in the day. But hey, thats just me. Most people tend to forget that the best crystals in KOTOR 1 and 2 were restricted to alignment as well. Not that they were color crystals, but regardless, Bioware clearly wanted to continue in a similar vein and for the most part I had no problem with that.

In any event, I would really like to see alignment mean something at some point. Unfortunately, whatever they do, people are going to be pissed off about it. Even if its as something as minor as a color crystal they probably wont even use they'll still ***** about not having the right to use it.

I believe that alignment should work in the following ways:

 

Sith warrior who is light side uses light side attacks for instance, replace force choke with force stasis (the light side equivalent)

 

Jedi knight that is dark side used force choke instead of stasis.

This I'd love.

Repeat for all classes, see the thing is this is sort of in place as all classes are mirrors anyway so it's just about putting animations been dependant on alignment and if neutral then that's based on standard animations for class.

This... not so much. There's nothing inherently good or bad about shooting a rifle rather than a pistol.

I've only played light-side characters, so I have a fairly dumb question: do dark-side non force users have dark-side corruption (of their facial features)?

Yes they do, it's...weird.

You can toggle it off, at least.

For some reason that brings back memories of the bug they had at or near launch which made it so that every time you zoned it would reset that toggle to on. That meant that my evil merc would constantly have dark side corruption on. It got so annoying that I completely stopped playing that character until they fixed it.

I know right. Every time I've seen his argument brought up (and that's a lot, mostly when they first made the change) I've never seen them acknowledge that you could have dark Jedi and light Sith, which completely ruins the argument.

It hardly ruins the argument, it simply illustrates another concession made to gameplay over lore. Bioware made a lot of those. I'm pretty fine with recognizing that, but it doesn't change the fact that I'd like it to go back to alignment-based restrictions. I get that a lot of people want to be super-special snowflake light side Sith, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.