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[Spiritreaver]

I think removing the light/dark restrictions on everything is a good thing. I don't like how they punish players for being neutral.

Why not just give people within say, the first two tiers, access to both and restrict higher tiers? Seems like it would give people more incentive to be neutral, but at the same time still give that lore-ish feeling of alignment.

I really liked having a crystal that signified what alignment I was which it why it disappointed me to see that the PVP weapons didn't have a removable color crystal. Now I'm stuck with that red/black bolt for my light side sniper.

And I do realize they aren't restricting my use of color crystals, but there's no way to differentiate someone going light/dark from someone who just picked a nifty color. Aside from inspecting them.

 

[Tess3ract]

The alignment system was stupid from the get go anyways. It doesn't do anything of value.

 

[BattleMonkey]

The alignment system was stupid from the get go anyways. It doesn't do anything of value.

Of course, because they are giving all the cry babies everything they want. They want it to mean something, they need to buck up and stick to their guns, give the whiners the middle finger. Make really unique and exclusive content for all alignments, and tell people tough when the other alignment has something unique.

 

[Tess3ract]

Not really interested in that kind of stuff.

Alignment should only change conversations and companion alignments ala kotor2, not customizations.

 

[gatti-man]

Not really interested in that kind of stuff.

Alignment should only change conversations and companion alignments ala kotor2, not customizations.

Dude no. I disagree with practically everything you post.

 

[Tess3ract]

Sorry. I like customization over all other things. It's 90% of the reason I like mmos, that and progression.

 

[CzarTim]

Once you orange gear becomes useful for late game, alignment gear will be cool.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Why on earth would you tie in-game rewards to your role-playing choices, it basically destroys the whole foundation of the dialogue choices (envision a character of your own and play as he or she would act. not "do X for points".)

The more they remove that the better. The light side and dark side points should be entirely meaningless.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Why on earth would you tie in-game rewards to your role-playing choices, it basically destroys the whole foundation of the dialogue choices (envision a character of your own and play as he or she would act. not "do X for points".)

The more they remove that the better. The light side and dark side points should be entirely meaningless.

Why can't my trooper use a lightsaber!? That's how I roleplay!

Why even have points? Why even have alignments? Real world doesn't have alignments.

Course real world doesn't have arbitrary numbers like experience. I can't use that speeder till I've killed my 150th womp rat! Roleplaying video games are all about choice and consequence, and turning the most simple of things into a numerical tiered system.

 

[Jomjom]

Why can't my trooper use a lightsaber!? That's how I roleplay!

Why even have points? Why even have alignments? Real world doesn't have alignments.

Course real world doesn't have arbitrary numbers like experience. I can't use that speeder till I've killed my 150th womp rat! Roleplaying video games are all about choice and consequence, and turning the most simple of things into a numerical tiered system.

I totally agree with everything you've said.

Adding to your post, "Why can't my jedi wear Sith equipment!?" Sith equipment looks way better right now and maybe I want to roleplay a jedi going undercover.

"Why can't my jedi use blasters???" because everyone knows the jedi knight class is the weakest of the DPS classes right now.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I totally agree with everything you've said.

Adding to your post, "Why can't my jedi wear Sith equipment!?" Sith equipment looks way better right now and maybe I want to roleplay a jedi going undercover.

"Why can't my jedi use blasters???" because everyone knows the jedi knight class is the weakest of the DPS classes right now.

Why can't my male Sith wear the metal bikini? Facists

Metal bikini Sith, with the Gunslinger cowboy hat, and dual wielding pistols. That's how he would roll.

 

[Isaccard]

Is wanting to change the way my character looks a dumb reason to re-roll?

 

[Miletius]

What I don't like is removing the light/dark restrictions on crystals, it was fluffy to restrict the colors and players are going to be rocking much more of a mixture now, meh. Though hopefully as they say it's a temp thing and expensive as heck, and that afterwards the alignment restrictions go back up for the colors.

And white crystals are going for 2.5mil on PTR



Players at max level are hoarding money and most feel they got nothing to spend them on, it's just going to continue to grow. They seem to want to make a bunch of collectibles that players will want to dump their big wads of money on in a buying frenzy and create things that down the line will always be highly sought after by the OCD collectors who will toss around big money. These are just certain color variants of speeders you can get elsewhere it seems though.



The license fees for many players as they level is pretty hefty, the biggest money sink when leveling is all the stupid training costs. Once your at end game money is no longer an issue though. I always thought it should be the other way around where the speeders themselves were expensive, not the training. Pay over 300k for speeder license to drive a 35-50k speeder?

To me the real problem is that careful management of your resources while leveling up can easily get you the 310k needed for max level speeder plus all your skills and a speeder at 50. Then once you have that what is left to spend your credits on? The cost of maintaining your gear and short term consumables aren't enough to keep the economy healthy. Plus they dump credits on you for everything you do at 50 aside from participating in the economy. That is to say, playing the AH is the least profitable venture you can do at 50 unless you have something rare and unique.

So anything good is already inflated in price -- makes sense that these crystals are going for insane amounts, since that's the only worthwhile thing to craft for a lot of people.

 

[Tess3ract]

Why can't my trooper use a lightsaber!? That's how I roleplay!

Why even have points? Why even have alignments? Real world doesn't have alignments.

Course real world doesn't have arbitrary numbers like experience. I can't use that speeder till I've killed my 150th womp rat! Roleplaying video games are all about choice and consequence, and turning the most simple of things into a numerical tiered system.

Om nom nom delicious hyperbole

 

[Draxal]

Alignment Issues suck, game forces you to play a character a way instead of letting you play your character the way you want to.

Especially with how arbitrarliy Bioware decides dark and light side points.

 

[CzarTim]

Diplomacy can max out your alignment in a week. Play how you want to.

 

[gatti-man]

Sorry. I like customization over all other things. It's 90% of the reason I like mmos, that and progression.

You can have customization and specialization too. Its bad enough most people look alike. Having exclusive items keeps things unique and adds variety. You just don't like rules. Want everything there for you when you are ready for it. I mean on one hand you say points are meaningless and don't do anything then say you want less lightside/darkside restriction. Choices have meaning in this game. I like it that way and it fits in the star wars universe. Making everything easy mode in an already easy game just seems lame.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Diplomacy can max out your alignment in a week. Play how you want to.

Doesn't change the stupidity of the system.

A game full of meta-gamed extreme dark/light characters instead of a game full of at least somewhat nuanced characters.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Om nom nom delicious hyperbole

Poor deflection.

Alignment Issues suck, game forces you to play a character a way instead of letting you play your character the way you want to.

Especially with how arbitrarliy Bioware decides dark and light side points.

Compared to the rest of the MMOS that give you absolutely no choice outside the character creation screen? All the whining is also about cosmetic issues, since anything of value is mirrored.

The only ones who are suffering any kind of penalty are those wanting to be neutral. It was silly to launch without Neutral player options since it puts a clear disadvantage to those players who while leveling don't have access to relics.

Doesn't change the stupidity of the system.

A game full of meta-gamed extreme dark/light characters instead of a game full of at least somewhat nuanced characters.

MMOs are nothing but meta gaming, sadly this isn't SWG or old school social based games anymore where people didn't care about the meta game. Again it's mainly an issue of them giving no middle ground option, forcing players to an extreme of good or bad. They need more range options to be able to appease all instead of forcing you to go full on one direction. I would like to be dark, but not comical cartoon muahahah villain who probably punches kittens. But it's pointless to go only in little in game if you want anything. At least offer unique rewards for all levels of character alignment.

 

[gatti-man]

Doesn't change the stupidity of the system.

A game full of meta-gamed extreme dark/light characters instead of a game full of at least somewhat nuanced characters.

Yes please show us all an mmo with that design. One that actually exists please. Edit: I mean actually has a retail release.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Yes please show us all an mmo with that design. One that actually exists please.

How about this one, once Bioware removes light/dark restrictions from all gear. People play character as they see fit simply for the pleasure of role-playing.

 

[Draxal]

Poor deflection.



Compared to the rest of the MMOS that give you absolutely no choice outside the character creation screen? All the whining is also about cosmetic issues, since anything of value is mirrored.

The only ones who are suffering any kind of penalty are those wanting to be neutral. It was silly to launch without Neutral player options since it puts a clear disadvantage to those players who while leveling don't have access to relics.



MMOs are nothing but meta gaming, sadly this isn't SWG or old school social based games anymore where people didn't care about the meta game. Again it's mainly an issue of them giving no middle ground option, forcing players to an extreme of good or bad. They need more range options to be able to appease all instead of forcing you to go full on one direction. I would like to be dark, but not comical cartoon muahahah villain who probably punches kittens. But it's pointless to go only in little in game if you want anything. At least offer unique rewards for all levels of character alignment.

The alignment problem isn't unique to this game, it's a problem that I have with all Bioware games, that games of similiar scope(say Witcher 2) in a much more subdued manner.

I mean can you explain to me why the choice to capture and interogate the guy in Black Talon is a light side choice?

 

[gatti-man]

How about this one, once Bioware removes light/dark restrictions from all gear. People play character as they see fit simply for the pleasure of role-playing.

This isn't blank space adventure mmo its star wars. People have light and dark alignments. Also taking out light and dark side requirements doesn't make swtor any better according to your prior criticism.

 

[cpp_is_king]

How about this one, once Bioware removes light/dark restrictions from all gear. People play character as they see fit simply for the pleasure of role-playing.

let's take it to the next level. Don't put good gear behind raid bosses either, because hey i don't want to raid, but I still want the best gear in the game. After all, i wanna play how I wanna play. Actually I don't want to do anything for the gear, I just want to go buy it from a vendor, and I think BioWare should accomodate all different kinds of playstyles.

I also want to be able to respec for free whenever I want because I'm just crazy like that. Plus I should be able to change my advanced class to the other one after I hit level 50 because I dont' want to go through the exact same content and story all over again just to try a different advanced class.

In essence, what I'm saying is that I want BioWare to abandon their entire development philosophy of choice actually making a difference, for me.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Why can't my trooper use a lightsaber!? That's how I roleplay!

"why don't Hutts have feet, that's how I roleplay". I don't think every random string of words becomes valid, but you can ask for it.

Why even have points? Why even have alignments? Real world doesn't have alignments.

You tell me, I'm perfectly happy without either.

 

[FieryBalrog]

This isn't blank space adventure mmo its star wars. People have light and dark alignments. Also taking out light and dark side requirements doesn't make swtor any better according to your prior criticism.

Does Star Wars lore mandate "Star Wars videogame must have gear accessible only to those with Light/Dark Level 5"? I actually don't know that much about Star Wars lore, please tell me if that's like a law of the lore.

Yes, taking out the requirements addresses my criticism. Removes the metagaming tension between playing the character as YOU want- making choices that reflect the personality you designed for your character- and spamming a single type of dialogue through your playthrough because that's what Bioware officially sanctions.

 

[Draxal]

let's take it to the next level. Don't put good gear behind raid bosses either, because hey i don't want to raid, but I still want the best gear in the game. After all, i wanna play how I wanna play. Actually I don't want to do anything for the gear, I just want to go buy it from a vendor, and I think BioWare should accomodate all different kinds of playstyles.

I also want to be able to respec for free whenever I want because I'm just crazy like that. Plus I should be able to change my advanced class to the other one after I hit level 50 because I dont' want to go through the exact same content and story all over again just to try a different advanced class.

In essence, what I'm saying is that I want BioWare to abandon their entire development philosophy of choice actually making a difference, for me.

My argument is this, the light/darkside is a dumb metric for what they are trying to implement, and they do it poorly compare to other developers (see Witcher 2).

And I'm pretty sure they just kinda abandoned their style, because they realized it was not working out as well they thought for this game. I mean you did read the patch notes?

 

[gatti-man]

Does Star Wars lore mandate "Star Wars videogame must have gear accessible only to those with Light/Dark Level 5"? I actually don't know that much about Star Wars lore, please tell me if that's like a law of the lore.

Yes, taking out the requirements addresses my criticism. Removes the metagaming tension between playing the character as YOU want- making choices that reflect the personality you designed for your character- and spamming a single type of dialogue through your playthrough because that's what Bioware officially sanctions.

Pick up dilpomacy and you control your alignment. I use it to maintain my Lvl 5 dark.

My argument is this, the light/darkside is a dumb metric for what they are trying to implement, and they do it poorly compare to other developers (see Witcher 2).

And I'm pretty sure they just kinda abandoned their style, because they realized it was not working out as well they thought for this game. I mean you did read the patch notes?

Are we seriously comparing witcher 2 to swtor? Why not compare street fighter to it then? I want my merc to have reversals and hit boxes! SF does it!

 

[Draxal]

Are we seriously comparing witcher 2 to swtor? Why not compare street fighter to it then? I want my merc to have reversals and hit boxes! SF does it!

I hate to break it to you Witcher 2 and Swtor are both RPGs with narratives as their strong point. I mean you do realize you pretty much can play Swtor as a single player game right?

And this is a critique of all Bioware games, Mass Effect had pretty decent story dilemnas, and I thought adding paragon/renegade to that effect pretty much made those situations not as fun.

 

[Spiritreaver]

I wonder how much people would bitch if color crystals were tied to faction and not alignment.

 

[Jomjom]

Om nom nom delicious hyperbole

Yeah I honestly don't get how this is hyperbole. Every MMO I've ever played allows a class to use more than 1 type of weapon. What, does the force make it so that my Jedi forgets how to hold and fire a blaster? Rather than asking for restrictions to be gone, maybe a better request would be for Bioware to just make more sets of armor for light/dark side, or more armor that has no restrictions that appeal to you aesthetically or functionally.

I think you just want to draw your own lines for how much flexibility you can take before you feel it is not "Star Wars" anymore.

"why don't Hutts have feet, that's how I roleplay". I don't think every random string of words becomes valid, but you can ask for it.

I don't get how you can be so against the light/dark restrictions, but somehow allowing classes to use different weapons is not valid? There are many instances in SW of Jedi using blasters and non-Jedis using lightsabers. This is not even close to your ridiculous "Why don't Hutts have feet" failure of an analogy.

 

[gatti-man]

I hate to break it to you Witcher 2 and Swtor are both RPGs with narratives as their strong point. I mean you do realize you pretty much can play Swtor as a single player game right?

And this is a critique of all Bioware games, Mass Effect had pretty decent story dilemnas, and I thought adding paragon/renegade to that effect pretty much made those situations not as fun.

Swtor and the witcher couldn't be further apart. One is a single player mature adult title with active combat the other is an mmo for 12 and up. Your comparison is totally invalid. The only similarity the two games share is light or dark choices. You say they are better done I say they are all boiled down to the same thing. The witcher 2 is just tailored better which is completely understandable since its a single player game with only 1 branched path to take.

 

[FieryBalrog]

I don't get how you can be so against the light/dark restrictions, but somehow allowing classes to use different weapons is not valid? There are many instances in SW of Jedi using blasters and non-Jedis using lightsabers. This is not even close to your ridiculous "Why don't Hutts have feet" failure of an analogy.

If you read the text he facetiously asked for troopers wielding lightsabers. Are there several instances of that?

It's too bad you didn't like my analogy, I thought it was as clever with its stupidity as his.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Actually if troopers often wield lightsabers in Star Wars lore (I thought they didn't, but like I said I don't know that much) then I'm all for letting them have it.

 

[Draxal]

Swtor and the witcher couldn't be further apart. One is a single player mature adult title with active combat the other is an mmo for 12 and up. Your comparison is totally invalid. The only similarity the two games share is light or dark choices. You say they are better done I say they are all boiled down to the same thing. The witcher 2 is just tailored better which is completely understandable since its a single player game with only 1 branched path to take.

I'm talking specifically how they handled branching choices. I don't see how the combat/polygon sex matter in this regard.

In all honesty, this part kinda contradicts what I stated a couple posts before, but I wasn't exactly clear in stating what I wanted before.

I think the cosmetic rewards should be a result of what you choose in each part of your class storyline, for example since I think you played an agent.

Spoiler

What you do with Jadus

should count much more, and the overall metric of light and dark side should be disregarded in the rewarding of cosmetic gear or in Witcher 2

Spoiler

What branch you take in the game

. Especially, when this game adversely punishes you for not going pure light or dark.

 

[Tess3ract]

I wonder how much people would bitch if color crystals were tied to faction and not alignment.

I'd still bitch for lore reasons because you can equally make an argument that my dude killed a jedi and fucking took his stupid crystal by force from a lightsaber I picked up.

Being dark side has nothing to do with an actual ABILITY to use a green crystal. It's fucking retarded.

 

[cpp_is_king]

I'd still bitch for lore reasons because you can equally make an argument that my dude killed a jedi and fucking took his stupid crystal by force from a lightsaber I picked up.

Being dark side has nothing to do with an actual ABILITY to use a green crystal. It's fucking retarded.

The crystal's power is only activated in the hands of the correct wielder. This particular crystal reacts only to light energy, and as such being evil you will gain no power from the crystal.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Actually if troopers often wield lightsabers in Star Wars lore (I thought they didn't, but like I said I don't know that much) then I'm all for letting them have it.

Anyone can use a lightsaber. General Grievous was not a force user and had 4 of them for fun. Several bounty hunters also would keep them and use them as well. Same thing with Jedi using blasters, which they are shown capable of doing so, but game won't let you. It's all just restrictions put on to you by the game, many of which you will find also placed upon you in many other non MMO roleplaying games even. Remember the old days of D&D when a Wizard literally could not wield a sword? Pointy end goes into fleshy bits, but that's too complicated for the old smarty pants.

RPGs are chock full of silly notions of meta, the alignment system in RPGs have always been a bit silly but it's a long standing tradition. Putting numbers to it doesn't really have much affect and it really doesn't even in this game, but you see all the nonsense to come out of it. It's not a big deal at all and hopefully doesn't become a waste of time as they flip flop to some vocal minority, the game has more important issues that need concentrating on.

I'd still bitch for lore reasons because you can equally make an argument that my dude killed a jedi and fucking took his stupid crystal by force from a lightsaber I picked up.

Being dark side has nothing to do with an actual ABILITY to use a green crystal. It's fucking retarded.

The red lignan crystals used by the Sith do basically require a dark side user. It's a major reason why Sith use red sabers, as when the Sith adopted the lightsaber from the Jedi, they retooled them and improved the design ( to not require battery pack) and for the crystals to channel their dark side power. The lignan crystal became the main power source used by the Sith as it's natually attuned to the dark side and became the crystal of choice. Different colors and types of crystals have different natural atunements to various natures of the force. It's not a requirement that a force user use a type of color, but it's supposed to be optimum usage of the saber and helps the force user become one with the saber, like how they can oh so naturally deflect blaster bolts.

There has been Sith and Dark Jedi that used different colors, the game hasn't introduced the black sabers either to the game, but it's just again part of the visual identity of the universe. The dark siders and Sith are generally represented by all Red, and the good guys by blue/green. I don't think the colors should be restricted, but they should be limited in certain forms, if not by alignment, make them obtainable through other in game means that made a person work for it.

 

[Anbokr]

Is wanting to change the way my character looks a dumb reason to re-roll?

Depends, most of the endgame armor has some cool hoods/masks that will cover you up so...

 

[Zafir]

I think it would have been better if they'd have just introduced some neutral only stuff instead of getting rid of the requirements entirely. That was pretty much my biggest issue with it, it forced you to go to an extreme if you wanted to be able to use certain relics and crystals.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I think it would have been better if they'd have just introduced some neutral only stuff instead of getting rid of the requirements entirely. That was pretty much my biggest issue with it, it forced you to go to an extreme if you wanted to be able to use certain relics and crystals.

The removal of alignment restrictions sound like it will be temporary only.

 

[CzarTim]

How about this one, once Bioware removes light/dark restrictions from all gear. People play character as they see fit simply for the pleasure of role-playing.

Alignment doesn't affect anything except give you access to a store that sells cosmetic items. If you care about your choices, then pick the ones you want.

The only thing BW did wrong was imply that alignment is more important than it is.

 

[Wallach]

Alignment doesn't affect anything except give you access to a store that sells cosmetic items. If you care about your choices, then pick the ones you want.

The only thing BW did wrong was imply that alignment is more important than it is.

Well no, they also should have had neutral alignment gear in at launch. That's pretty much the only reason people feel like they need to be at one extreme or the other.

 

[CzarTim]

Well no, they also should have had neutral alignment gear in at launch. That's pretty much the only reason people feel like they need to be at one extreme or the other.

If I recall, there's only light armor anyway. And until you can take mods out and put them in orange gear, the point is moot.

 

[StudioTan]

If I recall, there's only light armor anyway. And until you can take mods out and put them in orange gear, the point is moot.

I recall them saying there will be adding medium and heavy social gear with 1.2.

 

[StudioTan]

This weeks Q&A is up:

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-march-2nd-2012

1.2 certainly sounds like a massive patch.

 

[BattleMonkey]

So sounds like Legacy will have unlocks for adding functions to your ship like possibly mail boxes or such perhaps...

If I recall, there's only light armor anyway. And until you can take mods out and put them in orange gear, the point is moot.

Yea they confirmed in recent Q&A that med and heavy armor is being added, though I think it's mostly focused on Social vendors which only currently sell light variants of armor.

I want my Imperial Trooper uniform damnit!

 

[CzarTim]

Ask Mr. Robot now supports SWTOR:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/

 

[HarryDemeanor]

BioWare has put up the schedule for Monday's livestream of the Guild Summit. I'm really looking forward to this.

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20120302-0

Next week, representatives of over 150 guilds from around the world will be coming to Austin, Texas to take part in BioWare’s inaugural Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Guild Summit. During the summit, guild members will have the opportunity to speak with the development team, and see a preview of what the future holds for the game.

When the Guild Summit was announced, we received thousands of applications from passionate fans who were willing to travel from all parts of the globe to take part. While we were humbled by the overwhelming response, we couldn’t accept every application for space reasons. However, we don’t want any of you to miss out on the details either. That’s why we are excited to announce that portions of the Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit will be streamed live!

On Monday, March 5th, we will be hosting a livestream of the Guild Summit, which you’ll be able to watch by visiting www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/GuildSummit. Here’s our full schedule of events for the livestream:

10:00AM CST (4PM GMT) – Welcome and Introductions
10:30AM CST (4:30PM GMT) – State of the Game and Game Update 1.2 Presentation
Break (Livestream offline from 11:00am to 2:00pm)
2:00PM CST (8:00PM GMT) – Operations and Flashpoints Discussion
2:45PM CST (8:45PM GMT) – Player vs. Player Discussion
3:30PM CST (9:30PM GMT) – Legacy Presentation
4:00PM CST (10:00PM GMT) – Economy and Crew Skills Discussion
4:30PM CST (10:30PM GMT) – Roleplayer's Discussion
5:00PM CST (11:00PM GMT) – Guild Features Discussion
5:30PM CST (11:30PM GMT) – User Interface Presentation
6:00PM CST (12:00AM GMT) - ...And The Rest

Throughout the day you will be able to not only watch each of these discussions, you’ll also be able to take part in them. We’ll be taking questions from the livestream throughout the event, although we will have to limit the number of questions answered for time. You can also discuss the Guild Summit on Twitter using the hashtag #SWTORSummit, and we’ve created a Guild Summit Forum for you to discuss each of the sessions with other viewers.

If you’re unable to watch these livestreams on the day, we’ll be providing recorded versions of each presentation and discussion after the event.

Whether you’re attending in person or will be watching online, we look forward to your comments during the Guild Summit!

 

[Jomjom]

Actually if troopers often wield lightsabers in Star Wars lore (I thought they didn't, but like I said I don't know that much) then I'm all for letting them have it.

Yes there are instances of force-sensitive troopers in SW. So I say let any class use any weapon, just make them not be most proficient at the weapons they don't generally use.