[Does lightside Jaesa ever come to accept the Empire?]

The fallacy here is that the empire is a dark side entity and any form of light side choices/etc. is complete and total subversion.

 

It isn't.

 

Jaesa does not think you are an enemy of the empire. The light side choices you are given are generally about rational thought or compassion. Dark side is all about blind hatred and killing everything you can. Something to be said for each, but if you DO pick light side choices or even just HALF lightside choices it could be said you are trying to reform the empire. Light side teaching is all about reason winning over passion, so to use the example given by a previous poster, keeping the slicer dude alive is the RATIONAL thing to do. Killing him is giving into the passion/rage/whatever.

 

But we have to make a distinction between pragmatism and the force here, even if Bioware doesn't. A rational decision need not involve the force at all -- in the instance we're talking about, my motivation to spare the slicer should have everything to do with assisting the Empire (which, it could be argued, serves my darkside goals regardless -- I am A) enhancing my prestige withing the Empire, and B) assisting in strengthening the Empire itself, which, as any Sith worth his or her salt, I have amibitions of one day ruling).

 

Killing the slicer, on the other hand, displays a complete disregard for all reason. And, again, I'm not so much certain that that's an indication of darkness as it is stupidity, and an utter and complete lack of foresight on the part of my character. In the very least, it reduces the character a kind of animalistic buffoon only interested in slaughter. At the worst, the character is betraying not only the Empire, but their own best interests.

 

I choose not to defend Bioware when it comes to the darkside. They've been on this silly, 'DAH DARKSIDE IS ABOUT KICKIN' DEM PUPPIES' bend since the days of KotOR, and here were are nearly a decade later, and they appear to have no better understanding of the force as a whole. As explained in the core canon, the darkside isn't just about evil; it is about emotional attachment of any sort. Good, strong emotions like love and devotion are still, technically, darksided, even if they have a 'light' tilt to them.

 

What's more, the current alignment system makes absolutely zero allowment for any kind of proactive plotting on the part of our characters. A perfect example would be the decision to spare Overseer Tremmel on Korriban. Now, yes, Baras ordered me to kill Tremmel, but what if I'm a smart Sith who recognizes that Tremmel -- while certainly not my match with the force -- is an excellent strategist, and could be useful one day if called upon? When viewed in this manner, the decision to spare him is hardly light -- it is but a small part of my master plan to overthrow Baras; a plan which will require many allies spread across the galaxy.

 

But is that the case in TOR? Absolutely not. In TOR, if I spare Tremmel, I'm some bleeding heart who doesn't understand the Sith Code, and clearly would have been better off as a Jedi. This is the real peril of us being force-fed a story like this, particularly when it comes from writers who clearly took a passing glance at Star Wars lore, decided that the darkside revolved around a singular objective -- evil for evil's sake, and nothing else -- and ran with it. But I'm telling you that rampant destruction has much less to do with being an adept Sith than it does with being a lunatic. The best Sith are planners, thinkers, and individuals who know how to call upon a well-placed ally. That doesn't make them lightsided -- it makes them smart.

[Does lightside Jaesa ever come to accept the Empire?]

I don't know what it's like on republic but empire LS choices are basically not about the choice actually benefiting the empire or showing rational thinking but more like coming from the goodness of your own heart. Which while possibly present for the empire, is more rare than for the republic (if we stick to archetypes).

 

The problem is, so many of the darkside choices are just complete and utter crap. Like, for example, one quest that comes to mind is the one late in Nar Shaddaa when you are tasked by a Hutt and an Imperial Intelligence officer to infiltrate a kind of network hub and see what's going wrong inside. Upon entering, you discover an NPC who has tapped into the network. You can leave him alive, at which point he will feed the Empire a constant stream of valuable information (LS)... or you can kill him because... I don't know (DS)...

 

And so many of the DS choices are like that -- they are just asinine and incredibly stupid. I understand that the darkside is a power based on emotions, but that doesn't mean pracitioners need to be on some kind of constant, totally-amoral crusade of bloodletting in order to be strong in the force. Our objectives -- control, power, and, ultimately, galactic peace through subjegation -- should always be front and center. If evil comes, it should come as a direct result of the fastest path to those objectives.

 

And that's what Bioware doesn't seem to understand. They looked at the Sith in the films and make the most basic (and wrong) assumption of all -- THE SITH ARE EVVVVILLLLLLL. But the Sith aren't evil -- their methods are. It is an important distinction, but one that is made throughout the canon. Hell, even Yoda points it out. Luke: "Is the darkside stronger?" Yoda: "No! No. Quicker, easier, more seductive." The darkside is about passion, but it's also about expediency -- the route of least resistance to the objective. And that is where the evil comes into play.

 

But if evil was the sole objective of every cliche Sith in Star Wars, then the Sith Empire could never function -- it would fall apart immediately. Because if every Sith's action was wholly self-serving and focused entirely on random, wanton violence, then there could be no Empire. It'd be a fairy tale.

 

And thus, darkside Jaesa is symptomatic of a larger problem -- Bioware's inexplicable obsession with evil rather than the core pillars of the darkside; emotion and speed. I want a dark apprentice, but gosh darn it, darkside Jaesa is the "Id" come to life -- she's an almost inconceivable incarnation of carnal whims. Lightside Jaesa is an oblivious zealot, and darkside Jaesa is some otherworldly vampire, and it's Bioware's fault that we have to pick between the two.

[Darth Baras: Proof that the Darkside does have cookies]

Is it me, or am I the only one who can't take Baras seriously?

 

The overweight Darth who is only useful for telling me where to go. It's like every cutscene solidifies how useless he is. I even keep insulting him every scene and he always just takes it.

 

I wish he looked more like in the comics.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Baras

 

Baras is, without a doubt, the coolest character in this game. If you can't take Baras seriously over something as superficial as his weight, maybe you shouldn't be playing TOR at all.

 

Frankly, I think his paunch just adds to a sense of power. He's like a Sumo of the Sith -- powerful and large.

[Does lightside Jaesa ever come to accept the Empire?]

I simply do not know what to do about this.

 

Darksided Jaesa is a loyalist to the Empire, and, what's more, I do feel like it is the natural conclusion to chapter one -- that she becomes your apprentice, and turns to the darkside. I never even entertained the idea of 'reforming the Empire' until LS Jaesa dumped it into my lap, and then, suddenly, there is my character, awkwardly claiming to 'believe in the light' and urging Jaesa to 'seek others who walk the light path.'

 

Having said that, I feel like this is yet another example of how Bioware simply does not understand the force -- that the 'dark' side is as much about passion (passion that can even be motivated through empathy and genuine love) as it is about destruction. Just because my Sith isn't one minor step up from a serial killer doesn't mean she isn't a practitioner of the dark arts, or doesn't believe in the entirety of what the Empire is. She's just a plotter; a thinker. She bides her time, and keeps all avenues for progress open. In many ways, she's closer to Sidious than Vader -- Sidious who attacked from every angle, and used kindness and effection as viable weapons in his greater goals of conquest.

 

The problem in this is that both Jaesa's are wrong for me.

 

1) LS Jaesa is more level-headed, and that's good. However, she's a psuedo-Jedi, and actually believes we're on a quest of reformation. What's more, she forces my character to act in ways I don't agree with, and is an open traitor to the Empire. Whatever this future is that lightsided Jaesa believes in, it's something my own character would fight to prevent.

 

2) DS Jaesa is a loyalist to the Empire, and that's also good. However, she's like a 16-year-old on a bender when it comes to the darkside, and that's not what my character is like at all. I'm not interested in overt displays of evil if they serve no purpose -- I commit evil acts all the time, but I don't do them for no reason. Darkside Jaesa is like some vicious harpy, leering over everything I do and waiting to leap onto the bloody scraps. This is not an apprentice I would train -- ever.

 

Anyone else out there who has been in this boat? And what direction did you end up going in to reconcile this issue? Thanks also to those who posted already.

[Red Sabers.....]

Not sure why anyone would want to use the red crystals in this game. They are incredibly lackluster compared to purple, green and yellow. Those sabers are about 10x brighter than the red in TOR. It looks shabby by comparison.

[Liutenant Pierce...]

If you're looking for a tank, it's Boon.

[Does lightside Jaesa ever come to accept the Empire?]

So I am playing a fairly neutral Sith Warrior right now. I have seen Jaesa from both sides thanks to beta -- the blood-sucking, pseudo-vampiric, 'whoa, she's waaaay darker than me' Jaesa, and the wannabe-Jedi, hates-the-Empire, 'you are sooo boring' Jaesa -- and now that I am playing a Jugg for real and occupying a rather center-based position, I was wondering what ultimately happens with Jaesa?

 

I'm play a female character, so romancing her doesn't really affect my decision here. Having said that...

 

 

... I distinctly recall several occasions with lightside Jaesa in the beta where she harped on my character about 'taking down the Empire,' or, in the least, changing it.

 

My Sith is neutral, and that's only because so many of the choices in this game that show loyalty towards the Empire are lightsided. Thus, I have absolutely no desire, either as a player or a character, to damage or significantly change the Empire -- that's allllll coming from lightsided Jaesa.

 

I mean, where she got the idea that I wanted to do that, I'll never know, because when I recruited lightsided Jaesa, there was never some moment where I was like "oh, by the way, I'm on a crusade to topple my own faction." It never happened. We just got back to my ship and suddenly she was like "oh master, we're totally going to change stuff!" and I'm like "????"

 

Having said that, darksided Jaesa is almost too dark. Like, I hate the sensation that I am toting around this little mass murderer all the time. While my Sith is hardly a saint, she understands the value in moderation. Darksided Jaesa doesn't even seem to know what the word moderation means. I can see her now, trying to stumble through even saying it... "Mo.. moder... mod-her-haytion? Is that right master? Now can we get back to killing children and skinning cats?"

 

So, right now I am kind of leaning towards getting lightsided Jaesa despite her basically being a traitor. Does she ever moderate on this 'reform the Empire' bit? Is there any way to tell her to shut up, or to get off this high horse regarding 'change?' I'm not interested in what she's peddling, and she needs to understand that she's working with a Sith and get with the friggin' program.

 

 

Any and all help/opinions/thoughts would be much appreciated, as I am rapidly approaching the end of chapter 1, and need to decide which direction to grind ~1000 points of LS/DS.

[Companion weapon freedom is screwed up.]

Get up there.

[Companion weapon freedom is screwed up.]

Vette can equip blaster rifles.

 

However, no intelligent Sith Warrior would ever do such, because 90% of Vette's offensive abilities require dual blasters. So while Vette might look cooler with a rifle (and, let's face it, pretty much everyone does), she's stuck with blasters for the duration.

 

Vette is hardly alone in this 'can equip but can't actually use' category amongst companions. Almost every class has one companion who has 'variety' in what they can equip, but not effectively. The Inquisitor's Andronikos Revel is, I believe, in precisely the same boat as Vette.

 

Bioware, if you're going to let a companion equip multiple weapons, then allow them to use those weapon classes effectively. If not, then please, by all means, remove the options. But this 'in the middle' business is just stupidity.

[BW went backwards in space combat?]

Yeah, the space combat is a mess. Most true gamers hold out hope that it is a placeholder.

[Purple crystals/curved sabers avail. on Republic?]

Everytime I see the magenta blade I think it's a washed out red hehe. As a DS Jedi I'd love to see the addition of a purple crystal.

 

My guild calls them 'pink.' They are an eyesore.

[Purple crystals/curved sabers avail. on Republic?]

Magenta and purple are not the same colors. And yes, at the cap, almost all Sith sabers come with purple crystals already slotted.

[Best And Worst Class Story?]

I played Jedi Knight up to 30 and was bored to tears. Destroy this super weapon, stop that doomsday device, etc., etc. Not only was it not engaging -- it had very little to do with the force, or being a Jedi, for that matter. I never really felt like I was accomplishing anything that you couldn't send your average soldier to go do. You don't develop a relationship with a master; you get handed a Padawan like she's yesterday's news, and you work for some guy who wishes he was Admiral Ackbar, but can't quite pull it off.

 

Sith Warrior, on the other hand, is excellent (just superb, really), up until the end of Chapter I, then falls off like a rock.

 

Consular has my vote for worst story, although BH has to be up there with it.

 

I have heard IA is the best, hands down, but at level 18, I guess I just haven't seen much to rave about yet.

[Purple crystals/curved sabers avail. on Republic?]

Simple question: are purple crystals and curved-hilted sabers available on the Republic? And, if not, why? I've been browsing the vendors in the Republic fleet and cannot for the life of me find an example of either -- are they available through raids, or are there simply none at all?

 

Frankly, if the answer is no, it makes very little sense. Curved-hilted sabers were invented for practitioners of Form II, Makashi, which was hardly unique to the Sith. Furthermore, since when is Purple a Sith-only color? And, what's more, if the desire was to keep purple crystals rare, then why the hell are they slotted into nearly every endgame Sith saber?

 

I'm just baffled at the reasoning (or lack thereof) at work here.

[Single-saber build?]

the pure definition of marauder is dual wielding dps

 

leave the single sabers to the juggs.

 

asking maras to all of the sudden go one handed is as out of character trying to get a bounty hunter to dual wield vibrosknives.

 

It funny how you regurgitate something that was told to you as if it was law. If you stole a lightsaber away from, say, a Marauder in actual Star Wars, would they suddenly forget how to fight? Would they immediately suck, and be forced to surrender? I mean, look at Darth Maul with the double-bladed saber. When Obi-wan cut it in half, did Maul simply nod solemnly and stab himself in the chest with the remaining blade, admitting defeat?

 

The thing about both dual wielding and double-bladed sabers is that you have to possess a degree of mastery over the single blade before you can take up any kind of specialized wield. It's the reason why, when Maul's saber got chopped, he barely blinked. He knew how to use a single saber with just as much accuracy and prowess as a staff.

 

Oh, and your BH example? Totally fail. This is the equivalent of asking for BHs mercs to wield just one pistol. Or, if you want to get picky, it's like asking for BHs to be able to wield a single carbine -- which, frankly, would make a lot of sense.

 

Variety in MMOs is good. There is no reason to rally around this crappy system and praise it as the end-all, be-all of weapon restrictions in MMO when plenty of other games offer real choice. What you are calling a 'perk' or a positive attribute is actually just the result of extremely lazy design.

[Single-saber build?]

I still think that there should be an option to be a marauder and single-wield. Simply bake "if wielding one saber the ability deals x additional damage" and so on into exisiting talents and we're a go.

 

For me single > dual when it comes to swinging sabers (I find it more practical with other hand being free to do some Force tricks, acrobatics etc - some rp right there but it's a story game after all) but if the only option allowing me to single-wield means becoming a heavy armor clod without any utility, I'm gonna pass unfortunately.

 

That's where I am at. My Jugg is bogged down in the early 40s and feeling just... wholly unfun.

 

Having said that, I am just not a fan of dual wield at all. To me, the iconic Star Wars 'look' is the single saber... and, in practice, it's simply the most practical wield.

 

Now, you could make a strong argument for a single saber and a shoto offhand saber, which would essentially turn the combatant into the Star Wars equivalent of an 18th century duelist (and which would, I might add, mesh up quite nicely with the original KotOR, where the short, offhand sabers were common). But using two full length sabers not only feels clunky in real life, it looks clunky in the game.

[Single-saber build?]

I'd still like to try to coax one of these marauders into speaking up.

[Single-saber build?]

I'd be willing to take a slight DPS hit -- albeit slight -- for appearances sake. I guess I was just hoping to see if any of these 'single blade Maras' were willing to speak up for their build and justify it a bit. Frankly, I think this is something a lot of people would like to see work, as I have been wholly unsatisfied with Jugg DPS/endgame appearance.

[Single-saber build?]

I've been increasingly bumping into single-saber Rage-based Marauders at level 50 who swear by using a power generator rather than a second saber. They appear to do quite well, too -- the ones I have seen in WZs are actually some of the top killers.

 

Is this a viable build? I don't like dual wielding, but if I could get away with one saber and a quirky build at the cap, I think I'd reroll from Jugg to Marauder in a heartbeat.

 

*Edit* I mean, just giving a cursory glance at the rage tree for Maras, I can kind of see how this would work. Crush, for example, doesn't even require the use of a lightsaber, let alone two.

[Two things that need to be fixed tonight or my guild is leaving.]

can I has ur stuff?

 

Can you read? Apparently not. Life must be hard for you.

[Two things that need to be fixed tonight or my guild is leaving.]

Care to be more specific? I've yet to encounter any of this.

 

There is now intermittent white flashing going on in the game in some areas. I was leveling an alt all day and didn't encounter it at all on Korriban or the station, but once I arrived on DK, suddenly my screen started flashing white from time to time while moving. It is apparently worse for some players than others.

 

The micro load screens occur if your game stutters in a high lag or highly populated area. Suddenly a zone-style load screen will pop up for a second or two. It is immensely distracting, and game-breaking in PvP.

[Two things that need to be fixed tonight or my guild is leaving.]

When there are bugs that render the game unplayable -- that cause certain people to develop headaches while playing -- I would expect immediate satisfaction.

[Two things that need to be fixed tonight or my guild is leaving.]

1) The 'white flash.' Several players in my guild are being made ill by this bug. It needs to be fixed immediately, even if that means rolling back 1.1.

 

2) The 'micro load screens.' I have never seen an MMO with this. Was it intentionally added to the game? And, if so, why is the person behind this position still employed by your company?

 

Every other problem right now is secondary to these two issues. Either fix them tonight, or the game is self destructing. I am a loyal supporter and plan to resubscribe, but my guild is going to be down most of its best players (who were, up until today, still going to be playing next month) if these problems aren't fixed RIGHT NOW.

[Anyone else feel weaker as they level?]

Obviously, this is a post about sensation. I'm not going to toss numbers or gear at you, although I will say that I am absolutely dedicated to keeping me-and-my-primary-companion's gear up to snuff, and I upgrade it with mods every time I complete zone. Having said that, at 37, Jugg is starting to feel really... weak.

 

I've primarily played warrior/tank classes in other MMOs, and have never encountered a phenomenon this pronounced before. LotRO's guards and WoW's warriors also each caught a bit of a case of the 'mid level blues,' but what is happening to my Jugg is just unbelievable. With each passing level, I feel equivalently weaker -- almost like I'm accruing negative stats, or leveling in reverse. Packs of non-strong mobs that should be relatively easy are no longer so, a point that is made even more glaring when I see a nearby assassin, sorc or operative tear through them like he/she was still level 10.

 

To be honest, this is killing the appeal of the class for me. I want to reach the cap, but those last 13 levels are starting to look like the face of Mount Everest, particularly when I have dipped a toe into both Assassin and Sniper via alts and found their playstyles marvelously enjoyable.

 

Does this situation get any better? Is it all in my head? I simply do not feel 'strong' anymore, and that's a real problem as a tank.

[Legacy names -- allow us to change them]

Just allow us multiple last names. It's not a hard solution.