My friends, you all know that I am a Bioware Fanboy. I love this game. I rabidly defend the developers on these very forums.

But this game will die for one reason.

The factions are unreasonably unbalanced. Not in player numbers. The Empire faction flat out is better. The story is better. Not just because its "dark". The voice actors are better. The dialogue wheel choices are better (not obvious light-neutral-dark options).

The Ability Delay is worse on Republic. The pvp is baised towards the Empire. The gear for the Empire is more varied and actually looks like it was based on star wars.

The Empire gets 1000000000000000 times deeper and more thought provoking companions.

Like, the empire toons can have converted jedi, and "good companions".

A quick search om SWTOR wiki will show you that there is ONE sith/darkish companion on the entire Republic list.

This game is two games. It is a sloppy, unpolished MMO when you play Republic with unbelievably obvious or ludicrous dialogue choices and busted abilities. It is a polished, balanced mmo if you Play Empire, with warzones designed to allow you to play when Republic cant, a Dialogue wheel you have to think about, Companions who might disagree with you, and more Empire only features already on the way.

At first I thought MAYBE Bioware thought Republic would overpopulate so they decided to try to avoid it, but a simple google search can show you that 6 months ago people were begging bioware to cap empire numbers to make the game fair.

So I just hope when it hits full circle and the game is 98 percent Empire, just like Aion was 99 percent Elyos, Bioware at least lets me transform my trooper into a Bounty hunter and have people to play with.

maybe most of the dev play or like empire more then rep but for me i have made a decision cause of this problem.

I dont blame you for playing Empire.

If they placed caps on the Empire faction that would be a travesty because they are depriving new players from the best part of the game.

This is why split faction games generally don't end well.

I look forward to a game where I don't have to fight with my friends about which faction to roll.

having played both sides I disagree.

I only like empire because bounty hunter armor looks cooler, if I thought the trooper did I'd be on the trooper side.

Really has nothing to do with abilities, quest lines, etc..

I've played both sides in beta and enjoyed them all.

If they ever implemented a faction change where I could go neutral or republic I would probably run that quest

Your numbers are just so exaggerated man.

Empire has the majority, this seems true based on the WZ numbers we were given. I think republic is doing just fine. People can play both

Not you Halofax, not you!

I actually have heard that the Republic stories are great.

I'm sure the Dev team is working on the ability delay and the animation time difference between certain republic classes and their mirrors.

I do not know what "Empire only" features you are talking about, seeing as I am on Empire.

The smugglers get a ship that looks just like the Ebon Hawk from KoToR = Win!

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that my guild (including my brother) is all Empire and I have been playing with them for a very long time I would have chosen Republic.

Only thing about Empire that I consider special compared to Republic is that the Bounty Hunters get a freakin Jawa

But the Smugglers get the Wookie, so we are even.

I have a few Empire toons. And yes, I have felt that the story and companions and everything about the Empire side is AWESOME..

So, I rolled a Republic Trooper (Commando).... Why? Because:

A) want to see the story from the other side

B) want less competition when questing

To be honest, I really am enjoying the Trooper and its accompanying storyline quests. However, I very much agree that the companions are not nearly the quality or as enjoyable as on my Operative, Bounty Hunter, or Warrior.

Give Republic an OP PvP racial for humans! Problem solved.

Ugh I cant believe I just said that and honestly within my own mind, cant tell if troll or serious.

But the Smugglers get the Wookie, so we are even.

The ONLY reason I want to play Smuggler is so that I can try to push that darn hairball out the airlock!!!!!!

maybe most of the dev play or like empire more then rep but for me i have made a decision cause of this problem.

This is actually true, almost all the developers have stated their favorite faction is empire......

But i dont think they even care tbh. did you read the arcticle over at gamespy other day? their lead developer talks about how cool huttball is and when hes asked about pvp hes clueless. And he dosent even mention the huge unbalances.

We started out as republic but a few of us goit bored and quit, the remaining have already rolled up new chars on empire and given up on republic. Why? because when even the devs have given up on republic why should we care?=P

Not you Halofax, not you!

 

I actually have heard that the Republic stories are great.

 

I'm sure the Dev team is working on the ability delay and the animation time difference between certain republic classes and their mirrors.

 

I do not know what "Empire only" features you are talking about, seeing as I am on Empire.

 

The smugglers get a ship that looks just like the Ebon Hawk from KoToR = Win!

 

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that my guild (including my brother) is all Empire and I have been playing with them for a very long time I would have chosen Republic.

 

Only thing about Empire that I consider special compared to Republic is that the Bounty Hunters get a freakin Jawa

 

But the Smugglers get the Wookie, so we are even.

Check this out. On my trooper, i dont have to bother looking at the dialogue wheel.

1 my toon agrees

2 my toon asks a question

3 my toon shoots a guy

I rolled an empire toon the other day, i pushed three without looking, and she begged her master to spare someones life. I got light side points for disobeying my own faction, and almost had to kill the quest giver.

Which one is better written?

This game will NOT DIE for me and me only because I dont speak for others.

Not until the servers shut off, OR the game goes free too play.

1. But this game will die for one reason.

 

2. The factions are unreasonably unbalanced. Not in player numbers. The Empire faction flat out is better. The story is better. Not just because its "dark". The voice actors are better. The dialogue wheel choices are better (not obvious light-neutral-dark options).

 

3. The Ability Delay is worse on Republic. The pvp is baised towards the Empire. The gear for the Empire is more varied and actually looks like it was based on star wars.

 

4. The Empire gets 1000000000000000 times deeper and more thought provoking companions.

Like, the empire toons can have converted jedi, and "good companions".

 

5. A quick search om SWTOR wiki will show you that there is ONE sith/darkish companion on the entire Republic list.

 

6. This game is two games. It is a sloppy, unpolished MMO when you play Republic with unbelievably obvious or ludicrous dialogue choices and busted abilities. It is a polished, balanced mmo if you Play Empire, with warzones designed to allow you to play when Republic cant, a Dialogue wheel you have to think about, Companions who might disagree with you, and more Empire only features already on the way.

 

7. At first I thought MAYBE Bioware thought Republic would overpopulate so they decided to try to avoid it, but a simple google search can show you that 6 months ago people were begging bioware to cap empire numbers to make the game fair.

 

8. So I just hope when it hits full circle and the game is 98 percent Empire, just like Aion was 99 percent Elyos, Bioware at least lets me transform my trooper into a Bounty hunter and have people to play with.

1. So it will die for one reason, followed by several other single reasons. Right off the bat, your judgment is already questionable.

2. So your opinions on things like aesthetics means the factions are unbalanced? The voice acting...what?!

3. I play both factions and it's just as bad for marauders as it is for sentinels. PVP favors Empire often because Imperial players are more numerous and more PVP-minded players flocked to that side, the moment they heard how OP the Sorcerer was, never mind that Sage can do the same stuff, but most Sages are healing specced, and thus, never see it.

4. According to you. I'd take Kira Carsen over most of the Imperials for depth any day. Oh and the Jedi Knight gets

as a companion.

5. Can't really say much about this as I haven't explored them all.

6. Clearly you haven't played much of the republic side if you never had to think.

7. Yes because forcing people to play characters they don't want to, is just a brilliant idea. Why not just have them limit the number of jedi too.

8. Right..and you said you were a fanboy at one point? So basically you loved this game to an extreme before you even played it, now you hate on a ton of it. Yeah you're a virtual font of wisdom and sound, rational judgment. Which on of the above was the ONE thing that was going to "kill" swtor?

Check this out. On my trooper, i dont have to bother looking at the dialogue wheel.

1 my toon agrees

2 my toon asks a question

3 my toon shoots a guy

 

I rolled an empire toon the other day, i pushed three without looking, and she begged her master to spare someones life. I got light side points for disobeying my own faction, and almost had to kill the quest giver.

 

Which one is better written?

Hate to tell ya man, but at level 44 most of the dialogue options for BH are the same way.

1 my toon gives a polite/agreeable/lightside response.

2 my toons asks for more information/gives neutral response.

3 my toon insults the NPC/shoots the NPC/Slaps the NPC (if on Alderaan)/Other Darkside response.

8/10 are like this. As for the companions, I honestly couldn't tell you cause the only one I spend any time with is Mako (Lacey Chabert...drool).

OT: I honestly don't think this game will die. Yes the factions are a bit imbalanced, no it is nowhere near 80% to 20% like people think otherwise WZ queues would take forever. The Huttball constant is exaggerated, I get Civil War and Voidstar just as much as Huttball on my server (Iron Citadel). From what I can tell on my server the factions seem to be doing well for themselves. At most the imbalance is 60-40. This happens with every game, I don't know a single MMO that's 50-50. I'm gonna feel like a troll for mentioning this but honestly I think it needs to be said: WoW still has faction imbalance, has since Vanilla.

Faction imbalance can be fixed (or at least dealt with). And yes, I agree it needs to happen.

Is it enough to kill the game? I seriously doubt it.

Check this out. On my trooper, i dont have to bother looking at the dialogue wheel.

1 my toon agrees

2 my toon asks a question

3 my toon shoots a guy

 

I rolled an empire toon the other day, i pushed three without looking, and she begged her master to spare someones life. I got light side points for disobeying my own faction, and almost had to kill the quest giver.

 

Which one is better written?

I've had many jedi knight options, do the same thing. Some are straight forward, some are not. and depending on your current companion, you may wish to rethink your answers anyway. It's the same for all classes.

On my Sentinal, I've had options like:

1. DARK CHOICE

2. LIGHT CHOICE

3. LIGHT CHOICE

SI- we get conehead helmets and rediculous shoulders, our endgame pvp outfit makes us look like a peacock- which, btw, was the object of months of scorn for how awful it looked on the forums back when those screenies first surfaced.

Our companions are awful- an ugly brute, another ugly brute, a really really really annoying robot... an archeologist? Seriously?

I don't buy it that one side is 'better looking' that the other- one side looks like sith, the other like republic. If you think the sith look better, then yes, of course you would- but that's a problem with the IP not the game itself.

I mean, look at all the fat sith lords we have, it's rather ridiculous.

SI- we get conehead helmets and rediculous shoulders, our endgame pvp outfit makes us look like a peacock- which, btw, was the object of months of scorn for how awful it looked on the forums back when those screenies first surfaced.

 

Our companions are awful- an ugly brute, another ugly brute, a really really really annoying robot... an archeologist? Seriously?

 

 

I don't buy it that one side is 'better looking' that the other- one side looks like sith, the other like republic. If you think the sith look better, then yes, of course you would- but that's a problem with the IP not the game itself.

 

I mean, look at all the fat sith lords we have, it's rather ridiculous.

Darth Baras, i can't stand him as my master. Can't wait for that, you know what, day.

While the Bias towards Empire is abundantly clear from a pure ability stand point, and I LOVED my sith inquisitor story line, I am playing a Trooper and my Trooper story line is the best one I've played yet.

But yeah who the hell is responsible for the horrible ability balancing between empire and republic?