Good afternoon,

 

Many of you already know who I am, but if not then please allow me to introduce myself. I am Sir Marty the Magnificent. I'm a professional gamer and Gaming Legend who's been competitively gaming since 1996. Now that the introductions are over let's get onto business.

 

Ever since I can remember BioWare heavily promoted this game as being "story-driven", and if that is the case then why in the world can I not switch factions when I please? This completely ruins my immersion in a Star Wars game.

 

For example, if I'm in Warzones on my Jedi Guardian, witnessing the deaths of my fellow friends and comrades, why can't I gain Dark side points? I want the option to be able to gain Dark side points and then eventually switch over to the Empire after these traumatic Warzones.

 

Or what if I'm on my Juggernaut? I see Jedi healers using the Light side of the Force to keep their comrades alive, safe, and protected from the power of the Empire. I want my Juggernaut to gain more and more Light side points until he betrays the Empire and becomes a warrior for the Galactic Republic.

 

It's inexcusable. Bioware please implement this mechanic because it would make for a more immerse feeling in this already fantastic Star Wars game.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Sir_Marty

Because switching factions means unlocking the opposite side's planets on your map, voicing for opposing side cutscenes, not to mention it would cost an enormous amount to implement the mechanic. While City of Heroes did something similar to what you want(going from Hero to Vigilante to Rouge to Villain & vice versa), there was basically no voice acting in that game. SWTOR has full dialogue voice acting, unlocking the opposing side would mean bringing in Imperial VAs to voice Republic quests & vice verca. The class stories are the main plot for levels 1-50, switching sides would mean having to put in Imperial & Republic stories on both sides. Which is a coding nightmare I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Then if we're talking just about PVP, if you could join the opposing faction in a match whenever you want, what's stopping your whole team from jumping ship & joining the enemy because your team is losing? Warzones need to have 8 people on both sides, if you can swap whenever you like that could go down to 0. It quickly becomes unbalanced because I guarantee you there will be people who abandon ship simply because they don't like the other people on the team or they think the others on the team are idiots that don't know what they're doing or because the enemy assembled a dream team. It simply won't work. Edited April 4, 2014 by Sangiban

Then again, what's the real difference between, say, a Sage and an Assassin? Maybe if your Sage gained enough dark side points, they would "convert" into Assassin. Granted, it'd still need a lot of work, but you'd basically just swap out Sage quests for Assassin quests. Maybe limit it to "dramatic moments" like the ends of Acts?

 

Never gonna happen, but I do like the idea.

Because switching factions isn't part of your character's story. There. I said it.

Because switching factions isn't part of your character's story. There. I said it.

 

Basically this.

 

In RPG parlance the story is "on rails"/players are "railroaded." The GameMaster (GM) - namely the game designers and developers - have a specific story in mind for all eight classes. As a player while you do have choices to make those choices are largely irrelevant; the path you take is fixed.

 

examples:

 

The only time it "matters" is at the end of your class story journey where the story concludes a certain way based on your alignment, but even then there is no game mechanical difference:

 

 

 

 

All that being said, if after your class story was done, you wanted to switch sides, it would not be a big problem but for one glaring issue: COMPANIONS. What do you do with companions? Do your companion switch with you? If so then their stories are totally irrelevant

 

 

Getting back to the beginning. Playing an RPG takes Player Buy-in: whatever the game is going to be about and how it is going to play out, takes the player acceptance to be doable. If you buy-in to the railroading then there is no problem. If not, then maybe this game is not for you.

Edited April 5, 2014 by psandak

Then again, what's the real difference between, say, a Sage and an Assassin? Maybe if your Sage gained enough dark side points, they would "convert" into Assassin. Granted, it'd still need a lot of work, but you'd basically just swap out Sage quests for Assassin quests. Maybe limit it to "dramatic moments" like the ends of Acts?

 

Never gonna happen, but I do like the idea.

 

The difference is that Sages don't use double-bladed weapons

Go back to General forums

Then again, what's the real difference between, say, a Sage and an Assassin? Maybe if your Sage gained enough dark side points, they would "convert" into Assassin. Granted, it'd still need a lot of work, but you'd basically just swap out Sage quests for Assassin quests. Maybe limit it to "dramatic moments" like the ends of Acts?

 

Never gonna happen, but I do like the idea.

 

It would make more sense if they did this that your Sage would be an Sorcerer as those two are mirror classes. Assassin would be more like a Shadow.

Guys, it's Marty. We all know he's a troll so just stop feeding him.

Because Marty, from a technical standpoint it's a damn nightmare. There's no established storyline for a warrior on pub side. No trainers, no class missions, and vice versa. Not to mention the utter confusion that such a system would create when if you mouse over a Jedi when you're on pub side you can go "Oh, he's on my side. He won't gank me." vs. having to see if every. last. person. you meet is on your side or not.

 

So no. A thousand times no.

 

BTW? Never heard of you. And I've been gaming for a long time myself. So check your ego at the door "Mr. Legend" lol