I know I'm not the first person to notice that a the storyline for a Bounty Hunter is completely incompatible with a Lightside character. But I don't think even I realized just how badly the storyline makes no sense until I reached the Act 1 finale. There was already an increasingly jarring feeling when it comes to gameplay vs story, seeing as a Lightside Bounty Hunter still helps the Empire do all the terrible things across Tatooine, and Balmorra for no reason other than money. But the entire first act is nothing but the Bounty Hunter hunting and murdering people for sport. There's no way this makes sense for anything but a darkside Bounty Hunter or an honorable darkside Bounty Hunter.

"Noble" BHs look like insane psychopaths or characters who make no sense. But it's not only the PC that no longer makes sense. Mako also makes no sense, she's supposedly this sweet person who disapproves of excess violence and cruelty but she leaves a literal mountain of corpses in her wake while helping to assassinate a Jedi Master because... she's competing in an assassination contest for personal glory. The entire first Act builds up her desire for revenge against the people who murdered her adoptive father but she killed hundreds of innocent people herself without a second thought. And assuming the families of those hundred or so Republic crew we slaughtered on the way to Tarro Blood don't spend all of Act 2 and 3 plotting their revenge, I will assume it never comes up again. It's like she doesn't really understand what her profession is.

I've played a villain twice in the game with TOR's story (my Warrior and Inquisitor) and liked it but those were characters which I knew and intended to be the bad guys. Sure they might be worse than my Bounty Hunter and

Mako objectively speaking, but they both know they are darkside monsters. Mako and a Lightside Bounty Hunter are murderous scumbags who don't seem to realize it. I honestly found my sympathy evaporate for both of them as I neared the end of Act 1. There are some sidequests that I decided I could skip because they crossed a line but this was the necessary finale for the class quest in Act 1.

Probably the moment that sums it up the whole disconnect between character and story and gameplay was one scene in Nar Shadda when the Hunter breaks into an office murders everyone there and then can spare the last survivor say "What do you think I am, a psychopath?" I actually began to wonder if that was intentional.

I get that maybe Lightside might mean different things for an Empire character than it would a Republic one but Why would MAko and a Lightside Hunter have any sort of moral standards when they thoughtlessly kill hundreds of others every day? The ones that either of them do want to spare seem totally arbitrary in the end.

The storyline makes so little sense that it makes me wonder why Bioware even gave me the option to be Lightsided. It just feels so sloppy.

I totally agree with you on this. Though my wondering about this inconsistency with a light side character killing 100s of innocent people started with the Jedi Knight; the case with the JK may not be as bad as the Bounty Hunter as the end goal in the JK storyline is not money and personal glory. But still; traditionally, JKs don't kill unless that is the only option. And during the JK story you also get to choose to spare the life of NPCs. Yet for most quests you kill dozens of human beings without blinking.

And the issue exists for the SW as well; I don't want to post a spoiler, but generically speaking a light side SW spares the one NPC after the other and even promises one of his companions that they will be working for the light side. And at the same time he constantly helps fulfill the goals of the Sith.

How utterly lame and ridiculous this makes e.g. light side choices of sparing NPCs lifes aside, I guess it is simply impossible to make an Action MMO without having PCs kill.

Tbh, this is just one out of several things that have made me come to the conclusion that the Star Wars universe is - contrary to popular belief - NOT a suited universe for an MMO.

Just to mention a few other problems;

-the lightsabers becoming lightbats. Sure, we've gotten used to the fact that an officer wearing a black cotton uniform can withstand several hits with a lightsaber before he goes down, but you really have to suspend your disbelief for this not to totally take you out of the SW-universe.

-on the same note, the SW universe is filled with granades and laser weapon. In the game this translates into even people wearing cotton uniforms withstanding several direct hits with explosives, often without taking any visible notice of it - even though they are surround by explosions, fire and smoke.

-then there is the matter of 50% of the entire population in SWTOR being Jedi or Sith lords. SWG found a way around this. But then again; if one is going to play a SW game, you will want to be able to play as a Jedi or Sith - even if you're just a casual player.

These are just a few examples.

But when that is said, as I've stated before in the forum, generally speaking the narrative side of SWTOR is disappoiting and underwhelming. Which is why I am in no way sorry to see Daniel Erickson leave Bioware and SWTOR.

I played my BH as someone who started out as a neutral but mostly selfish thug who gradually morphs into someone somewhat honorable and a bit disillusioned with his whole profession. I feel like the story played kind of well into that arc, but you're right, playing as LS through most of Act I makes little sense.

All BH's have to be a bit selfish and brutal to even participate in The Great Hunt in the first place. Of course, I find it hard to understand a character that was full-on pacifist LS even becoming a BH in the first place - if your BH is that character, honestly its motivations are probably poorly thought out. The best I can come up with is the BH being an unfortunate Hutta native who is only hooked into The Great Hunt for a chance to get off Hutta, but otherwise doesn't care about the credits or glory. Even then though, why would a nice guy become a good enough BH in the first place for Braden to notice him?

Also, I'm not really sure you can count trash mobs that we kill on our way to objectives as any sort of moral indicator. For one, those guys are automatically hostile, so there is no choice to kill them. Also, these mobs and their placement and their auto-hostility is not very realistic and is just an MMO-standard. If you add them to your conception of your character's morality, the gentlest and nicest Jedi Consulars would be disgusting killers. Everybody's gotta kill those things.

I do agree though Mako makes no sense. It might have been interesting if the story acknowledged her major cognitive dissonance problem and her story arc was her toughening up a bit in response, but instead it's presented that it's normal to be a totally nice kind person who doesn't like hurting others but is also a big fan of human bloodsport and abets murders.

It's not that I thought of my Bounty Hunter as a pacifist, but I did think of him as a harsh but noble vigilante. I thought of him as an honorable warrior who wanted to make the galaxy a better place by catching or killing people who deserved it. I don't think that's an unheard of attitude for people in the galaxy or an unreasonable concept for a character to want to play. After all, the very thing I did right before the killing spree on the Aurora was have a respected Mandalorian tell me "There is no finer thing than the blood of an enemy righteously slain."

But the game's story doesn't really seem to support that type of character in the long run. At first I didn't have too much of a problem because Hutta and Dromund Kaas have no shortage of people like that, but it got harder and harder to justify all the Hunter's clearly dishonorable actions (murder, theft, treachery) as time went on. And it was made all the more jarring and bizarre by the fact that we were supposed to hate Tarro Blood for being a dishonorable murderer.

I'll admit, most of the time I agree that the mobs aren't really an indicator of morality but there are exceptions, when they insert themselves into the story (like the Sons of Palawa or the Organa guards protecting the Willsaams for instance). Most of the time, they are people you are forced to kill in self defense and that is fine, but with the Act 1 finale it got me thinking why I was fighting them. They asked you surrender and you could say "Nope," "No," or "Hell no" respectively and then they are the ones defending themselves from you. But even beyond them, I found the image of the final boss stuck with me even more. For Bounty Hunters, Act 1 has only a darkside ending and a more darkside ending. The game obviously considers murdering a Jedi Master in front of his Padawan without killing her the Lightside choice, but you're still essentially playing the role of Darth Maul killing Qui-Gon.

It was pretty clear to me early on that an MMO is not the best format for telling a story, but despite that TOR has managed to provoke some genuinely powerful emotion in it's story a few times. The Knight storyline had the strongest ones for me, but with the Bounty Hunter, they actually managed to create the exact opposite reactions it needed to. After the slaughter on the Aurora the game seems to present a feeling of triumph and relief. Mako and Gault did too, but after such a huge bloodbath (there were SO MANY of them) I felt like my Lightside Hunter should feel like broken horrified man, slowly coming to the realization that he had become everything he ever hated. But instead I was paraded down around while the Huntmaster praised me as the greatest homicidal maniac of them all. To compare them, the lightside ending of the Jedi Knight story on Voss left me genuinely moved. The lightside end of the Bounty Hunter story on The Aurora left me horrified at the people I killed and more so because of all the praise I received for it.

And where do I go after this? Straight to Taris where the missions given to me are to A) Hunt down the Mandalorians who had the courage to follow Canderous Ordo's vision, B) Destroy a planet's peaceful reconstruction efforts because they are "an affront to the Empire" C) Find and kill Revan himself.

I felt completely disconnected from the story and character by this point. All while Mako and her otherwise fun romance arc kind of starts to become slightly creepier because she seems so convinced in her delusion that she's a good guy and not a killer.

At times the whole thing felt like such a twisted parody of a hero's journey that it seems almost impossible that it was written this way unless that was the intent. So I'm forced to conclude that while parts of it are fun, the Bounty Hunter class quest is all but terribly written. All Empire Lightsiders are kind of on questionable ground because they still serve the bad guys, but with the Bounty Hunter it's the only one where I feel like I'm forced to played a true villain no matter what. Honestly, it seems like my choices are a sadistic assassin for hire or a hypocritical assassin for hire. At least with an Agent or a Sith story I can conceive of them being an anti-hero or a noble person caught in a bad situation.

When Mako first asked if we were the bad guys I didn't feel like it was the case, but after killing a Jedi Master and over a hundred of his shipmates for sport I think it's undeniable: We are the bad guys.

Destroy a planet's peaceful reconstruction efforts because they are "an affront to the Empire"

Not to mention contaminating medical supplies with the rakghoul virus, sabotaging the Republc's efforts to control the infection and testing biological weapons on Cathar settlers, amongst other things. My agent had a hard time actually fitting most of what Taris quests involved into her personality, act two agent story events and your general stance of being under the Sith's thumb nonwithstanding. My Bounty Hunter practically skipped the entire planet.

Empire quests are problematic like that, sadly. Belsavis was pretty absurdly nonsensical too, and I agree it's even worse as a Bounty hunter in particular.

Mandalore: We're Mandalorians. You know, those guys who act like psychopaths in every game we're included in, and are effectively Sith without the force powers. You should join us.

Bounty Hunter: Absolutely. I would love to become a Mandalorian, despite repeatedly stating previously how I prefer my independance, am in no way interested in become officially connected with the Empire and my personal belief that your methods are barbaric.

Me: （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Imperial Guard: So, there's these Sith. They're called the Dread Masters. They radiate fear like you cannot comprehend. Whole armies fall before them in terror. We're trying to spring them from Republic custody. I'm also implying that if you fail to assist us here, we'll have you killed.

Bounty Hunter: Cool. I'll go free them then, despite being only losely affiliated with your Empire and capable of walking away any time I want to.

Me: （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Skadge: I love killing people! I'm a barely constrained homocial maniac, and I threaten you repeatedly. Can I join your crew?

Bounty Hunter: Sure thing, buddy.

Me: （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

So on and so forth.

Not to mention contaminating medical supplies with the rakghoul virus, sabotaging the Republc's efforts to control the infection and testing biological weapons on Cathar settlers, amongst other things. My agent had a hard time actually fitting most of what Taris quests involved into her personality, act two agent story events and your general stance of being under the Sith's thumb nonwithstanding. My Bounty Hunter practically skipped the entire planet.

 

Empire quests are problematic like that, sadly. Belsavis was pretty absurdly nonsensical too, and I agree it's even worse as a Bounty hunter in particular.

 

Mandalore: We're Mandalorians. You know, those guys who act like psychopaths in every game we're included in, and are effectively Sith without the force powers. You should join us.

Bounty Hunter: Absolutely. I would love to become a Mandalorian, despite repeatedly stating previously how I prefer my independance, am in no way interested in become officially connected with the Empire and my personal belief that your methods are barbaric.

Me: （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

Imperial Guard: So, there's these Sith. They're called the Dread Masters. They radiate fear like you cannot comprehend. Whole armies fall before them in terror. We're trying to spring them from Republic custody. I'm also implying that if you fail to assist us here, we'll have you killed.

Bounty Hunter: Cool. I'll go free them then, despite being only losely affiliated with your Empire and capable of walking away any time I want to.

Me: （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

Skadge: I love killing people! I'm a barely constrained homocial maniac, and I threaten you repeatedly. Can I join your crew?

Bounty Hunter: Sure thing, buddy.

Me: （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

So on and so forth.

You can refuse being a Mandalorian you know.

The Skadge thing is pretty spot on though.

Really? Because I'm pretty sure I tried and got slapped with a 'you will do it anyway' style response.

Hrmmm. In that case, fair enough.

It's not that I thought of my Bounty Hunter as a pacifist, but I did think of him as a harsh but noble vigilante. I thought of him as an honorable warrior who wanted to make the galaxy a better place by catching or killing people who deserved it. I don't think that's an unheard of attitude for people in the galaxy or an unreasonable concept for a character to want to play. After all, the very thing I did right before the killing spree on the Aurora was have a respected Mandalorian tell me "There is no finer thing than the blood of an enemy righteously slain."

How would a 'noble vigilante' even get off Hutta? You'd have no interest in The Great Hunt and would refuse Nemro's first contract. Actually a Hutta vigilante would likely have his hands full trying to kill all the Hutts and their goons. He'd be living with the Evocii, plotting raids.

Also, why would someone who cared about justice become a BH? I'd assume he'd refuse contracts unless the marks were someone he considered bad? You realize that bad people are the ones that typically employ bounty hunters, and the marks are usually just unfortunate victims?

At the end of the day a bounty hunter is someone who is OK with killing/capturing people for credits. One that was constantly refusing contracts on moral grounds would seem very unattractive to the types of people in the market for shady thug characters to off someone for them.

It's not as bad as a pacifist BH. But I have trouble understanding the motivations behind a vigilante becoming a bounty hunter. Wouldn't a bounty hunter be a typical target for a vigilante? It's not an unreasonable character to play as another class - actually I'd say BH is the worst for it though since the BH is by definition a criminal of a much higher order than the Smuggler.

That said, playing LS in Act III is good. In fact my BH probably ended up being a lot like your vigilante in the end. I had no idea I'd make him so LS as he started out Act I with motivations appropriate for one who picked 'bounty hunter' as a profession. The type of guy who says, "If they money's good, then so am I," when asked to kill some poor sap. Of course I might spare the sap when I get there, but simply agreeing to go in the first place I can't really see a vigilante type doing.

Wow, what a great discussion.

I have both Empire and Republic toons, but I have to say I prefer Empire; it's fun to be the bad guy. In real life, I regularly make ridiculous amounts of self-sacrifices to benefit people I care about.

I say this because if you selected Empire, even if you somehow against all logic end up Light V, you're still the bad guy. Sorry.

George Lucas has never wavered from this point. Empire=Antagonists. I always giggle when I see the pages and pages of forum posts citing justification after justification for why MY Imperial Agent or Sith Warrior is a really good guy who loves butterflies and puppies and he is the exception to the rule. "I and I alone will make the Empire a better place..."

Respectfully, cowchips.

Of course, not every Imperial Citizen (or affiliated ally) is an evil bastard. But YOU are not every Joe Shmo Imperial Citizen. YOU, Mister Cipher 9, Emperor's Wrath, Darth Nox and Grand Champion of the Great Hunt, are four of the most efficient killers the Empire has to offer. You're a big deal, and that's why you get thrown at every big problem the Emperor has.

And this is especially so for the Bounty Hunter. Light or Dark, the BH is a hired killer. He or she selected a line of work at some point after puberty that lends itself to routinely killing innocents without much, if any reflection. If you listen to the whole of your story dialogue, you see in your responses (I'm not talking light or dark here, just denouement of plot) that you aren't very good at long-term planning, you have really short fuse, you don't much care for making allies, you barely tolerate your crew, and you routinely insult very powerful people at every opportunity not only risking your life, but the life of anyone within a kilometer radius of you. But you don't give a damn, as long as the price is right. You're crass, you're flippant, and you're pretty much a mindless thug. And that's just fine with you.

In fact, I would submit that the BH is actually the worst in terms of psychopathic killers out of the 4 classes. Why? He's an unconflicted killing machine that has a reputation for killing the unkillable and carrying out his missions to the letter for piles of credits. It's also why:

When I played through Act III, I was like, is this kind of sick joke where the BH is the guy that arguably makes the most dent in Republic Operations? But if you look at where the other classes are in Act III of their own stories, it makes perfect sense. The Empire will always be too busy fighting itself to make any real progress. That's why the Bounty Hunter is needed as the ringer.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking anyone for chosing to play Light Empire toons or Dark Republic toons. But if you do that, there will be breaks in the logic of your story. I made a few light choices on my Inquisitor, and good god what a mess the story turned into. I've heard the same said for Dark Consulars, but hey, if you're having fun, go with it.

The Light and Dark selections for players to "choose their destiny" is simply a mechanic of the game to give players more feelings of control over their story. Also, choosing "Light" doesn't mean you automatically made a morally acceptable choice, and choosing "Dark" doesn't always mean you just boiled a live kitten and ate it for brunch. The choices to me seem to be passion vs. rationality, or self-interest vs. greater good. But ultimately, I agree with the OP. Personally, I played a mostly Dark BH, with light choices here and there. After finishing the Agent story, I had really low expectations for the BH and ended up pleasantly surprised.

But I'm pretty sure I would make a lousy hunter IRL

******

It's been awhile since I finished the BH story, so I'm not going to be able to provide a lot of specific examples, but I guess I didn't share the problem some of you ran into while playing a light side bounty hunter. I think it's largely because my justification was a little different - I was the new guy on the block with few connections in the larger world. I saw the Great Hunt as a way to get out of the hole I was in, which is why I needed the original team to help make me look more important than I was. Would I have preferred to take jobs from the Republic? Probably. It would have been less messy. But I didn't have any contacts there, so there wasn't much I could do.

When I finished chapter 3, I had barely reached light IV, so there were certainly a lot of dark side choices in there when it was necessary for it to be logical. And a lot of those dark side choices did come in chapter 1 as I was fighting to make a name for myself, doing what it took to gain a reputation and gain credits. As my options expanded, though, I felt like I had the ability to make coherent light side choices more often. I declined several of the more objectionable side quests. Did I do things along the way that I didn't like? Yes. Did I do them anyway because I felt like I had to? Yes.

How would a 'noble vigilante' even get off Hutta? You'd have no interest in The Great Hunt and would refuse Nemro's first contract. Actually a Hutta vigilante would likely have his hands full trying to kill all the Hutts and their goons. He'd be living with the Evocii, plotting raids.

 

Also, why would someone who cared about justice become a BH? I'd assume he'd refuse contracts unless the marks were someone he considered bad? You realize that bad people are the ones that typically employ bounty hunters, and the marks are usually just unfortunate victims?

 

At the end of the day a bounty hunter is someone who is OK with killing/capturing people for credits. One that was constantly refusing contracts on moral grounds would seem very unattractive to the types of people in the market for shady thug characters to off someone for them.

 

It's not as bad as a pacifist BH. But I have trouble understanding the motivations behind a vigilante becoming a bounty hunter. Wouldn't a bounty hunter be a typical target for a vigilante? It's not an unreasonable character to play as another class - actually I'd say BH is the worst for it though since the BH is by definition a criminal of a much higher order than the Smuggler.

 

That said, playing LS in Act III is good. In fact my BH probably ended up being a lot like your vigilante in the end. I had no idea I'd make him so LS as he started out Act I with motivations appropriate for one who picked 'bounty hunter' as a profession. The type of guy who says, "If they money's good, then so am I," when asked to kill some poor sap. Of course I might spare the sap when I get there, but simply agreeing to go in the first place I can't really see a vigilante type doing.

I didn't say he was a revolutionary plotting to bring down the entire Hutt Cartel, but someone hoping to make any difference from his position. There are simply some people that he believes should be killed or captured and he believes you can be the one to do it, but he does have some standards. I don't think that's an unreasonable concept for a PC's motive, at least among all possible concepts for all possible classes and characters.

I believe The Great Hunt is the only reason that the Bounty Hunter even came to Hutta in the first place. A Lightside Bounty Hunter wouldn't even be interested enough to need to get off Hutta. So that's why I said the storyline was poorly written, the Great Hunt (at least the way it is written now) should not have been how the story starts off.

There's no shortage of evil people in the galaxy. Bounty Hunters with some level of moral code should still be able to find work if they are effective or competent enough. Maybe a Bounty Hunter who refuses some contracts would be less likely to thrive and so exist but, so what? If Bioware could stretch the story to allow a good natured Sith or an evil Jedi, then why not a Bounty Hunter too? It should be easier considering they are more independent and should be free from direct Imperial Authority. You might as well ask why Darth Baras would not only tolerate but promote an apprentice that often refuses his direct orders to harm and kill people. It's like saying the all Sith PC have to be characters that OK killing for pleasure and giving the Warrior only the option to execute Noman Karr. Similarly, going full darkside for the Jedi Knight will shift the character from an anti-hero to a pretty full fledged villain. Yet the Jedi Council doesn't seem to take the slightest bit of action against such a Jedi. I don't think they even threaten to do so either.

My problem with the Bounty Hunter is that even compared to an Agent, Warrior or Inquisitor, the story fails to passably create even a sort of Lightsider story. And I don't understand my own character anymore. My darkside Sith Warrior will sometimes spared people for one reason or other, but unlike my Bounty Hunter I didn't feel like there was no rhyme or reason to them anymore. The writing about the Bounty Hunter claims some of them follow their own code of honor, but the game ensures you cannot. You cannot have any moral standards, not even strict interpretation followiong of a contract on someone. You can tell the Jedi Master that your code is to always bring in the contract (it's the lightside option) but that kind of rings hollow when I have a guy on my ship that I let live just because I could and he might be remotely useful.

I've never thought of the light and darkside choices as honorable choices or not honorable choices, but more of levels of rutthlessness.

A bounty hunter kills and captures people for money there's not a lot of nobility in that decision.

May bounty hunter was more light side then dark because there was no profit in killing everybody, and no threat from that person. Or by showing mercy I might gain from it, but the choices remain very self centered. I didn't kill the Supreme Chanceller because at the end of the day there was no benefit. I did kill the Sith that hired me because he was basically never going to let me go and he was a threat. Plus he was a jerk.

With my Inquisitor, this was a young man who had been raised in a slave pen and someone who didn't matter all that much until he became a Sith, he was the trappings of power, and the fact that becoming powerful would ensure that he would never have to return to his old life and would be able to gain a level of revenge by becoming more feared, more powerful and more ruthless then the people that used to call him a slave. There's a simple pleasure in making people submit to your will.

He's pure darkside because his path to security and power means everything. He kills to remove threats, and loose ends and simply because the power of life and death is the greatest power of all.

My Sith Warrior was very neutral in his choices. He wasn't as much about power as he was about vengeance. His decision to make a dark side or light side choice is based around the simple question, can they help me gain revenge and execute the desires of first my master and then the Emperor himself. The Warrior is actually the most loyal and duty driven toon on the Empire side (I haven't played IA yet). I spared a squad of Rebel Commanders in exchange for help against a more powerful Sith. I spared miners because there was no reason to kill them. But I killed a female rival Sith because she was incompetent and was hurting the ideals of the Sith and because she was a future threat to me.

On the republic side my Trooper was pure lightside, because while I had my enemies lives in my hand, I wouldn't kill a beaten foe because I was a solider not a judge and jury.

But I don't think Light and dark relates to nobility.

I have a fairly young hunter. I hate playing Dark Side, so I ususally go with the light side choice, but my hunter will do the job you hire him for. You want him to kill your daughter? She's dead. You didn't tell me to freeze her and bring her back. She's dead. You want me to kill your boss? No problem. But I'm not killing his secretary unless you pay me to.

Nice guy? No. But unless he's paid to kill you, he won't. I'm starting to think I'll never get to use any relic, though.

This is truly a great discussion.

See for me I like being the bad guy especially with my Empire toons. But my BH was the first toon that actually made me question my choices. Like on my Jugg and my Sin they are both full darkside and that is fine by me as I could justify their actions for their own personal reasons and for the Empire. I did not mind the darkside choices even if some made me cringe. Now on the other side I also made my commando full darkside too as I wanted to make a real hard as nails no prisoner solider who only cared about getting the job done no matter the task. But my Guardian and my Mara are both full light side. See to me it is always about perspective and how I want my characters to grow.

Now as regards to the BH ,although I believe that the job does entail a killer for hire and that taking life is part of the job, for some reason when dealing with some of the similar moral choices that I already knew it just did not sit comfortably with me. I will elaborate a bit further. For example on Hutta the side quest that involves the woman wanting her husband removed because she wanted her son to be Sith and the options were to either kill him in front of his son or lie to his wife that they escaped. Initially I thought well he is getting paid for the job so why not kill him but then it struck me at how nasty and cruel it is to murder a father like that even if it involves profit. Since then while leveling I tried to in the best way possible choose outcomes that were both profitable and to a degree honorable. Now that does not mean my BH was a pushover, in fact quite the contrary if you betray him, use him, or endanger his allies or loves for that matter you will be very much dead. But if he will not go out of his way to murder innocents and will only truly execute people who deserve it.

After progressing through the rest of the story I did find the end of Act 2 a bit distasteful because even though I understood my BH reasoning, the final outcome darkside option was also nasty and the light side was not much better but the lighter side was to me the lesser of two evils.

Overall I felt very connected to my BH as such i really enjoyed pondering the outcomes of the quests with my own morality and making a decision based on that. So although I understand how you feel OP I tend to think the story line was quite good with choices.

On a relatively lawless planet like Hutta, I think a Bounty Hunter is probably viewed favorably by many people; he's sort of like a force for justice, because he tends to go after dangerous people who make their lives worse. Not only that, but he gets to travel the galaxy and dish out justice all over the Empire, rather than being stuck on that stinking mudball. He makes good money doing it, and he's his own boss.

How could a good-hearted denizen of an Empire slum not dream of being a Bounty Hunter when he grows up?

I had no trouble reconciling being a decent person with doing what the Bounty Hunter does. I also had no trouble being loyal to the Empire and opposing the Republic, and even seeing the Jedi as bad guys after the events of Chapter 2...

Of course, it's also true that those were mostly situations where the Dark Side option struck me as the right thing to do. But there were more situations where the Light Side option seemed right to me, as you might expect. And I generally tried to do what was right. Usually, this was right in line with the contract, but there were a couple of exceptions...

OK, so I my main is a Shadow Consular. I've had a great time with her, going from planet to planet defusing political situations about to go nuclear, gathering an army, rolling into Corellia like a boss to put the smack down on the Emperor's Manchurian Agent network, and generally being Ambad*ssador. But, I've hit Level 50, maxed out affection with most of my crew (Zenith is hard to pry anything from, Tharan was shockingly easy to max out), got to the end of my class quest, and the HK-51 quest required an Imperial alt. But, I check the boards here for ideas, and they're all "Consular story stinks! The Republic is a bunch of stinking hypocrites and incompetants! Play a Bounty Hunter or Imperial Agent."

I figure, let's go Hunter. Ever since Canderous, I've got a soft spot for the Mando'ade, and my relationship to the nutcases running the Empire would boil down to "You di'kute pay me." And that Act 3 option? Yeah, I think I want to go there. There's also that cameo appearance Mako makes in the consular's story and the fact Qyzen used to be one of Braden's crew. Figured if the old man employed the big guy, and the big guy still speaks of him fondly, then he couldn't be couldn't be too bad.

So, I already walked in planning to play a LS Hunter. Not Light V, mind you, but still as decent/honorable as you can get while still being a gun for hire. I rolled her as a Miraluka (same as my Consular) to boot. I came up with a backstory; her colony is in contested space, and got caught in Republic-Imperial crossfire. Worse, the Exchange has decided the planet was theirs, since the superpowers can't make a decision one way or another. She was part of a vigilante group that decided to shoot back after the Exchange hassled them one too many times. It got her exiled (because non-Jedi Miraluka tend to be pacifists), but she found she was good with a blaster. Working as hired muscle on smuggling boats, she eventually got Braden's attention. Now, if Mako and Qyzen are any indication, the old man ran as clean of a shop as you could get for mercenary work. And while the Hutts are scum, the Cartel and the Exchange are rivals, and she just hates the Exchange a tiiny bit more. As for the Great Hunt? Well, the old homestead might not want her back, but they might not argue with a stack of credits that could go a long way to buying food, medicine, and support. After Braden gets killed? Well, she'll follow through to honor the old man and to smack Blood into the next sector. And Mako's a good kid; if she insists on joining the profession, might as well teach her the ropes and set the same good example Braden would.

So far? I hate playing Imperial. Hate it, hate it, hate it! I figured hearing their side of the story would make me more sympathetic to them. WRONG! If anything, they're a bigger sack of crazy nutjobs than I took them for. Blatant racism, not so blatant sexism, noses so high in the air they ought to drown in the shower, paranoia and backstabbing as standard operating procedure, treating the common people and enlisted men like crap, the Sith unaccountable to anything, corruption that's even worse than the Republic, an untenable reliance on slave labor...So far, Braden, Mako, Crysta, the Revanites, and "the Duchess" are among the few characters I haven't wanted to introduce to my blaster and/or an airlock.

Now, playing a light-sided Hunter? Well, I get to troll these idiots mercilessly and get paid for it. That young and stupid Sith? What's more humiliating; killing her outright or beating the snot out of her, carbon freezing her, and sending her back to Daddy for a spanking? That spook that wanted me to take out his boss? Figured he would double-cross me because the Imperials are just that way. So might as well leave his boss in that temple - his mind's gone anyway. If he snaps out of it, then that junior spook deserves what he gets for not taking care of it himself. That twit on Balmorra that wants you to do his dirty work? Oh, you can screw him over every step of the way and his boss will thank you for it. Granted, things will get a little more troubling later on; I'm on Balmorra at the moment. But I do the minimum required to get my bonus XP, and I've refused a couple jobs that cross the line (you want me to poison the water suppy of those "alien" slaves so they die horribly after you just called me "alien scum?" Do it yourself, jerk).

Bottom line: I'm not an Imperial. I don't even LIKE these guys. But Mako and I gotta eat, and Republic's not hiring (yet). They make an offer and I'll totally be willing to talk.

seeing as a Lightside Bounty Hunter still helps the Empire do all the terrible things across Tatooine, and Balmorra for no reason other than money. But the entire first act is nothing but the Bounty Hunter hunting and murdering people for sport.

here you have it:

A bh does things for money, it's his job to hunt bounties it doesn't matter if he's a light or dark side character

The difference between this two is, that the light side bh does only kill achieve his goals while the dark side bh will kill and torture with pleasure.

Both kill for their money.

here you have it:

A bh does things for money, it's his job to hunt bounties it doesn't matter if he's a light or dark side character

The difference between this two is, that the light side bh does only kill achieve his goals while the dark side bh will kill and torture with pleasure.

Both kill for their money.

Yeah, based on the movies, Bobba Fett is most likely light side guy, how ironic

There's a lot of confusion here. The light-side bounty hunter isn't a psychopath. You don't take missions to find little Susie playing with her friends at the school yard followed by killing her and the witnesses. The people you're given bounties for during the class story are typically scumbags. They're people that The Punisher would take out. The light side hunter is someone who is ridding the galaxy of its worst criminals and making money along the way. Even during the great hunt, your targets are criminals.

The problem is that people only seem to be able to define "light side" from the context of the perfect Jedi Master model. Light side and dark side should always be contextually applied to the class in question. A bounty hunter is someone who hunts people for money. Therefore a light side bounty hunter HAS to be someone who still hunts people for money. If you don't collect bounties, you're not a bounty hunter.

Probably the moment that sums it up the whole disconnect between character and story and gameplay was one scene in Nar Shadda when the Hunter breaks into an office murders everyone there and then can spare the last survivor say "What do you think I am, a psychopath?" I actually began to wonder if that was intentional.

 

I get that maybe Lightside might mean different things for an Empire character than it would a Republic one but Why would MAko and a Lightside Hunter have any sort of moral standards when they thoughtlessly kill hundreds of others every day? The ones that either of them do want to spare seem totally arbitrary in the end.

1. Kill 200-300 soldiers, lackeys, subordinates, mind-controlled allies, confused pets, etc.
   
2. Confront the mastermind.
   
3. Beat him to 1 health point so he drops to his knees and grows a green triangle out of his head.
   
4. Spare his life to show you are Light Side.
   

The BH story is no different in this manner.

If it upsets you sufficiently you can refuse to attack anyone until they've beaten you to < 50% of your Health. Then you can react in self-defense. Bonus LS points for spending the time pre-50% attempting to negotiate with "Eidolon Security Overseer" via /say to put down his weapons and surrender.