Why no imperial trooper

[alienstalker]

This says it all regarding the class choice for each side. Take the movies for instant and KOTOR 1 for example and think.

 

Republic is all about deplomacy so leave that to the Senators and Jedi's.

 

Empire is all about deception and brute force and they leave that to the Agents and Sith Warriors.

 

The Sith are the highest political structure in the Empire and has the only political say.

 

The Republic is different and they don't give the Jedi full control of the political spectrum.

 

Its like Communism vs a Republic society.

 

Now with this said the Republic does have agents but what could they really do? I believe the Republic would have anti assasination laws and the Jedi's wouldn't allow it. Imperial Trooper are not important and all they really are is bullet stoppers for the Sith.

 

The jedi are a peacekeeping force, they don't have assassins. But the Republic does, the Jedi are not the only people running the Republic, most of the power is in the senate's hands. And the senate does have assassins. So the Republic does have assassins. As for imperial troopers being bullet stoppers for sith. The entire war wasn't just fought with sith. It was mostly fought with your average trooper. The Sith were the elite force, but the soldiers did alot of the fighting too.

[alienstalker]

"elite" is a relative matter - when you have hundreds of world counting billions of citizens each at your disposal to get your minions an "elite" force can be of several -millions- strong.

 

Well I'm pretty sure there was more than millions in the stormtrooper corp. I'd say they were easily in the quadrillions. As they had at least 1.2 million planets full of people to choose from. And some planets like Coruscant had trillions of people on it, so that adds more. Plus cloned troopers, doubles the army.

[alienstalker]

Main reason you can't play certain types of characters would be so players can enjoy playing classes based on memorable characters from the Star Wars franchise.

 

And after playing the game long enough I felt that the lives of Imperial grunts were very short due to the fact that the Empire sends their grunts to death very quickly or give them a punishment of death so readily.

 

Not everyone's class has to be from memorable characters.

[alienstalker]

Which is still going back to the original story plot numnuts. Everyone starts off as a peasant peon and works their way up. If you are generic soldier 1832701 and kill a Jedi you'll probably get promoted. Soldiers can become Grand Moffs in the long scheme of things as seen by Tarkin.

 

The only feasible way your idea could work is if they have a cut scene for of your quests depicting some act of luck on how you managed to kill a Jedi master or blow up a ship. Like if you tripped and fell and caught the Jedi off guard shooting him in the face.

 

Other than that it would still go back to the same thing where you are weak but grow strong and if you were a ordinary soldier slaying Jedi you wouldn't be ordinary anymore.

 

 

 

Grand moff was a grunt starting off and worked his way up the chain of command. He is no ordinary soldier though, hence why he still lives.

 

I wouldn't mind playing a generic average grunt, but like said story wise it doesn't make very much sense for you to be taking out whole armies alone and the whole point of playing a grunt would be story wise. Each time you go into battle you'd have to come back injured, but coming back time and time again from battles other grunts couldn't do just doesn't fit into the story of a themepark game. Swg didn't focus on story elements as much so it has some leeway being a sandbox everyone created their own destiny.

 

What I'm planning on doing is, you are a private and corporal for alot of the game, about 30 to 50 percent of the game. Eventually you start rising through ranks. This is to compromise between those who want to be generic, like me, and those who want to be more elite.

[alienstalker]

playing through the stories of a sith warrior or inquisitor is going to be totally different from jedis. I don't believe for a second there is the demand for 2 different trooper classes either. I think the way the class mirrors are set up are pretty much perfect. If you want to play a stormtrooper just do it on the republic side.

 

 

Also people thinking it would be simple to change this up are out of their minds, what's bioware going to to do totally change either the bounty hunter or trooper classes on people, transform one of them into a totally different class mechanically?

 

It's just a terrible idea all in all.

 

The Bounty hunter and smuggler will be made neutral, and somewhere in the game you can choose whether to be republic or empire. After all this game is about making chooses right.

[Drakkun-Scar]

As a bounty hunter, besides the story line, I might as well be a simple soldier. I dont really have any quests outside of the norm to hunt anything, guess I'm too used to SWG in that aspect, player/npc hunting was alot of fun.

 

Just as a side, more often than not, some imperial soldiers would make it high enough in rank to become dark honor guard/royal guard for the emperor, although to be the commander of the imperial honor guard, the soldier had to have some sort of affinity for the force.

 

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

 

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

Edited January 15, 2012 by Drakkun-Scar

[Matheren]

The republic troopers is not a special forces! You on drugs or something, there the default trooper. And imperial troopers are no less than republic troopers. And plus as the imperial trooper you'll be trying not to get on the sith warriors bad side, while also trying to help the empire in battles.

 

What the hell are you smoking? They tell you you're special forces (havoc squad) in the first 2 minutes of gameplay.

 

Maybe you should actually try playing the class?

[Matheren]

The Smuggler is NOT identical to the Agent other than the fact that they both operate primarily from cover. Sniper rifle vs. blaster pistol(s)? Seriously, even the skillset is different.

 

The smuggler is absolutely identical mechanically, and yes that means their skillsets. Aside from a couple known bugged discrepancies, they're absolutely the same classes.

 

Yes, one uses a sniper rifle and one uses two pistols, but guess what? They do it from the same range, with the same abilities, doing the same damage. They're different thematically, but that's it.

[Ohoni]

I've said it elsewhere and will say here, they should include Imperial Troopers, SIS Agents, Republic Mercenaries, and Imperial Privateers, basically mirrors of all the non-Force classes. Since there are already "mirror classes" for each of them, they would not need to be perfect mirrors either, they could mix and match some skills, each tweaking some aspects so that the Imp Trooper would be a mirror to the Republic Merc, but not a perfect mirror to the Republic Trooper or Imp Bounty Hunter.

 

Why? Story. You can't have a story as a secret agent that works for the Republic, or a dutiful soldier of the Empire, this would be why. It's not a high priority, but I'd definitely like to see them make this the next round of classes added to the game. I mean what ever would they add? Nerf Herders?

[alienstalker]

I've said it elsewhere and will say here, they should include Imperial Troopers, SIS Agents, Republic Mercenaries, and Imperial Privateers, basically mirrors of all the non-Force classes. Since there are already "mirror classes" for each of them, they would not need to be perfect mirrors either, they could mix and match some skills, each tweaking some aspects so that the Imp Trooper would be a mirror to the Republic Merc, but not a perfect mirror to the Republic Trooper or Imp Bounty Hunter.

 

Why? Story. You can't have a story as a secret agent that works for the Republic, or a dutiful soldier of the Empire, this would be why. It's not a high priority, but I'd definitely like to see them make this the next round of classes added to the game. I mean what ever would they add? Nerf Herders?

 

I want a non priority storyline.

[alienstalker]

What the hell are you smoking? They tell you you're special forces (havoc squad) in the first 2 minutes of gameplay.

 

Maybe you should actually try playing the class?

 

I wasn't talking about the class, I was talking about the military force.

[Lightmaguz]

Bounty Hunters are classically and usually aligned with the Empire (Fett, IG-88, Bossk and many others) while Smugglers like Han typically work for the Alliance/Republic because the Empire is extremely draconian in it's enforcement, it just makes sense. And not wanting to make it all redundant they made 2 different classes with interesting storylines instead of another trooper class, even though it plays almost the same.

[Goreson]

First question obviously: why are Han and Boba err sorry the smuggler and the bounty hunter in the game?

 

Because they are iconic and people would want to play them.

 

So whether BW first created the smuggler and then felt the need to create a mirror class in the imperial agent as the bounty hunter just didn't work (if you go Boba as a template) and then figured that the bounty hunter would actually be suited (pun) to counter the trooper so an imperial trooper was dropped, or something else happened, who really cares?

 

Fact is: 2 icons are in the game...

 

which leaves more icons to fill the list!

 

Well, of course are stormtroopers iconic but they are not Sith Empire.

 

I'd now venture a guess that BW maybe looked (a bit too closely?) at WW2:

 

Let's face it, Sith Empire does have Nazi Germany written all over it.

 

And guess what: the more iconic 'German' of WW2 is the SS. Yes, of course, you may see more pictures of normal Wehrmacht soldiers but these are for most part (going by movie/gaming mentality) just fodder for ya tommy gun.

 

On the other side you obviously have the G.I. - any Allied forces combatant more iconic?

 

S, if you go by that, yes, the imperial agent as well as the trooper are iconic choices, maybe not quite from a SW point of view, but they are if you are working from a slightly less set background than the SW movies.

 

Now, should there be an imperial trooper, a republic bounty hunter, etc.?

 

I'd say no...

 

maybe, if you want a more 'iconic' look for the imperial 'trooper' give the imperial agent medium armour styled after say the Scout troopers in 'Jedi'...?

 

(not played ia yet, so I don't know if that style is actually an option for his clothes...)

 

bounty hunter on the republic side?

 

well, if you've ever played the smuggler you'll know that he can be played all about the money... which in the end matches a bounty hunter mentality to the dot.

 

You want the best of 2 worlds ni.e. a mean arsed money focus guy (or gal) in heavy armour on the Republic side? Go trooper and play him that way!

 

Yes, of course, the storyline won't be a fit, but hey, I think there are more important things to address for BW than giving the 'trooper' a 'switch to republic bounty hunter storyline' option.

 

Rather, I'd say new character class concepts should be what BW should have an eye on instead of modifying existing classes to create class alternatives with a new name...

 

Ever wondered what shape 'summoners' are going to take in SWTOR?

 

Well, on imperial side some droid master, but on republic?

[MareLooke]

First question obviously: why are Han and Boba err sorry the smuggler and the bounty hunter in the game?

 

Because they are iconic and people would want to play them.

 

So whether BW first created the smuggler and then felt the need to create a mirror class in the imperial agent as the bounty hunter just didn't work (if you go Boba as a template) and then figured that the bounty hunter would actually be suited (pun) to counter the trooper so an imperial trooper was dropped, or something else happened, who really cares?

 

Fact is: 2 icons are in the game...

 

which leaves more icons to fill the list!

 

Well, of course are stormtroopers iconic but they are not Sith Empire.

 

I'd now venture a guess that BW maybe looked (a bit too closely?) at WW2:

 

Let's face it, Sith Empire does have Nazi Germany written all over it.

 

If randomly murdering people marks a state as "like Nazi Germany" then I can name quite a few other nations that fit the bill. The Nazi's focused on a few ethnic groups (Jews, gays, lesbians and some others), if you weren't part of any of those and didn't openly oppose the Nazi you were safe, quite unlike in the Sith Empire.

 

By all accounts the Nazi army was one of the most disciplined when it came to committing typical atrocities associated with war (****, pillaging, etc.) in the sense that it didn't happen (or at least, didn't happen much, compared to your usual army and the repercussion for getting caught were quite dire). This fact is often buried under the atrocities the Nazis committed during their reign.

 

If anything the Sith Empire is more like the late Roman Empire with lots of infighting, cruelty towards their own citizens and anyone not of pure Roman blood (read non-humans/Purebloods in SW context) with I guess the one major difference of having an external focus for their hatred (the Jedi/Republic) which the Romans lacked (they were just decadent).

 

And guess what: the more iconic 'German' of WW2 is the SS. Yes, of course, you may see more pictures of normal Wehrmacht soldiers but these are for most part (going by movie/gaming mentality) just fodder for ya tommy gun.

 

On the other side you obviously have the G.I. - any Allied forces combatant more iconic?

 

You mean the soldiers that were sent up the beaches in Normandy to most likely die? Or the paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines of which like 50% was shot down before they touched down. While certainly heroic and we (Europeans, and probably the rest of the world as well) do owe those people a lot more than we'll ever truly realize I don't see how it supports the argument that Republic Troopers were more important than the Imperial Trooper? They're both fodder for the higher ups in the end until you climb the ladder high enough to be one of them higher ups.

 

S, if you go by that, yes, the imperial agent as well as the trooper are iconic choices, maybe not quite from a SW point of view, but they are if you are working from a slightly less set background than the SW movies.

 

I disagree with your take on history as stated above, but whatever.

 

I'd have liked to see an imperial trooper, but from what I know from the republic trooper story I doubt it would have worked, they had to go way over the top in the Trooper ending (as far as it's been spoiled for me anyway) to make them feel like someone. Even though I think most stories have you "rise to the top" way too fast what they told me about the Trooper's was a real "yeah right" moment. Maybe it works better if you actually play it, but it sorta killed my desire to roll a trooper (thanks again to the idiot that posted that spoiler in the Inquisitor forum without using spoiler tags btw)

 

Ever wondered what shape 'summoners' are going to take in SWTOR?

 

Well, on imperial side some droid master, but on republic?

 

Necromancy like stuff isn't exactly something Inquisitors shy away from. That said, we don't exactly need a pet class imho.

 

Oh, and there's always the Imperial Guard, we can all agree that General Hesker is one cool mofo and The Guard is definitely well respected even by Sith. If there's such a thing as Imperial elite commandos, the Guard is it.

Edited January 16, 2012 by MareLooke

[woodwardmr]

I have a feeling they migh release imperial trooper as a later class and release a parallel class with the republic, seeing as imperial troopers are just kinda basic forces though they may not

[Ohoni]

Bounty Hunters are classically and usually aligned with the Empire (Fett, IG-88, Bossk and many others) while Smugglers like Han typically work for the Alliance/Republic because the Empire is extremely draconian in it's enforcement, it just makes sense. And not wanting to make it all redundant they made 2 different classes with interesting storylines instead of another trooper class, even though it plays almost the same.

 

Yeah, but the thing is, the alt classes are in the game already, just not playable. There are Republic SIS agents (like Jaxo), there are smugglers on the Imp side (Mako is one), there are bounty hunters on the Rep side (Qyzen is one), there are Imp troopers( no good examples, but they're obviously around).

 

So there's no real lore excuse for them not being playable. there are good reasons why they aren't playable right now, but lore isn't one of them.

 

Well, of course are stormtroopers iconic but they are not Sith Empire.

 

I'd now venture a guess that BW maybe looked (a bit too closely?) at WW2:

 

Let's face it, Sith Empire does have Nazi Germany written all over it.

 

And guess what: the more iconic 'German' of WW2 is the SS. Yes, of course, you may see more pictures of normal Wehrmacht soldiers but these are for most part (going by movie/gaming mentality) just fodder for ya tommy gun.

 

One thing to note, the "Trooper" class in TOR is clearly not based on original trilogy Storm Troopers. Storm Troopers were chumps, and the Trooper is no chump. The TOR Trooper is clearly more based off of the Clonewars ARC Troopers, which, while clones, were special forces "Havoc Squad material." And they were Republic side.

 

If randomly murdering people marks a state as "like Nazi Germany" then I can name quite a few other nations that fit the bill. The Nazi's focused on a few ethnic groups (Jews, gays, lesbians and some others), if you weren't part of any of those and didn't openly oppose the Nazi you were safe, quite unlike in the Sith Empire.

 

By all accounts the Nazi army was one of the most disciplined when it came to committing typical atrocities associated with war (****, pillaging, etc.) in the sense that it didn't happen (or at least, didn't happen much, compared to your usual army and the repercussion for getting caught were quite dire). This fact is often buried under the atrocities the Nazis committed during their reign.

 

Lol.

[Hyperionthethird]

Yeah, but the thing is, the alt classes are in the game already, just not playable. There are Republic SIS agents (like Jaxo), there are smugglers on the Imp side (Mako is one), there are bounty hunters on the Rep side (Qyzen is one), there are Imp troopers( no good examples, but they're obviously around).

 

Sure but the real reason they aren't playable is to not make the exact same classes on both sides. I mean, of course the bounty hunter and trooper are the same, but they look totally different and have very different stories. Adding imperial troopers that are just the same damn thing down to the animations and type of story is just dumb.

 

At no point should those become playable classes.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Hyperionthethird

[Hyperionthethird]

I've said it elsewhere and will say here, they should include Imperial Troopers, SIS Agents, Republic Mercenaries, and Imperial Privateers, basically mirrors of all the non-Force classes. Since there are already "mirror classes" for each of them, they would not need to be perfect mirrors either, they could mix and match some skills, each tweaking some aspects so that the Imp Trooper would be a mirror to the Republic Merc, but not a perfect mirror to the Republic Trooper or Imp Bounty Hunter.

 

Why? Story. You can't have a story as a secret agent that works for the Republic, or a dutiful soldier of the Empire, this would be why. It's not a high priority, but I'd definitely like to see them make this the next round of classes added to the game. I mean what ever would they add? Nerf Herders?

 

imperial agent is the dutiful normal guy working for the empire.

 

and bounty hunters obviously share similarities archetype wise to smugglers. you don't need to have stories that are even more similar.

[Lightmaguz]

People like to overthink this stuff huh...

 

Sure there are some exceptions but the norm is bounty hunting is evil, any of them portrayed as the good guys in the movies? Now Scoundrels are shown to usually have a good heart beyond all the greed more than once. They didn't want a trooper on this side an agent on this other side and so on, BW was differentiating the sides a bit, is that bad? I don't think so, but for people who wanted to be sith troopers it probably sucks, they are treated like dirty cannon fodder though, so creating a worthwhile story without branching into another class is rather hard.

[MasterKai]

The problem being that Imperial Troopers? Aren't important. At all. It would be hard to make a storyline about someone who has absolutely no power in the Empire at all.

 

Bounty Hunter. No power in the Empire at all, in fact they have nothing to do with the Imperial hierarchy.

 

Smugglers. Same thing in the Republic. In fact if it wasn't for the Galactic depression, the Republic would be hunting the Smuggler.

 

Playing as an Imperial Soldier, witnessing how the world you live in is basically Hell, and at any moment, a single screw up could cost you your life because the vast majority of Sith are near sighted morons with a bad temper and no restraint. I would enjoy that story and it would be something new to witness.

[Noth]

Bounty Hunter. No power in the Empire at all, in fact they have nothing to do with the Imperial hierarchy.

 

Smugglers. Same thing in the Republic. In fact if it wasn't for the Galactic depression, the Republic would be hunting the Smuggler.

 

Playing as an Imperial Soldier, witnessing how the world you live in is basically Hell, and at any moment, a single screw up could cost you your life because the vast majority of Sith are near sighted morons with a bad temper and no restraint. I would enjoy that story and it would be something new to witness.

 

Actually the republic is known for letting individual star systems deal with smugglers for the most part. This make sit rather easy to not get caught. Further even when caught it was rarely a you will be executed or imprisoned for life (which is what it was like for the empire). A smuggler working for the empire is a stupid smuggler.

[Ohoni]

imperial agent is the dutiful normal guy working for the empire.

 

and bounty hunters obviously share similarities archetype wise to smugglers. you don't need to have stories that are even more similar.

 

The Imperial Agent is a spy, he sneaks in covertly and undermines, rather than going in guns blazing. I've played all four "non-force" classes up through at least level 25, so I know how their stories differ, and there's plenty of room for alternatives. I know that they've covered their bases plenty well for launch, but post-launch I think it'd be worth working on the other four potentials.

 

And I agree it'd be a bit of a waste if the new ones were just clones of the existing four, if the Imp Trooper had the exact same powers as the Rep Trooper, but they don't have to. Since the Rep Trooper already has a mirror in the Bounty Hunter, the Imp Trooper can have a completely different assortment of abilities, mirrored in the Rep Contractor instead of in the existing Trooper/BH. Maybe instead of using a Gattling, the Commando equivalent could use a rocket launcher, or a sniper rifle. Maybe they could use vibroblades as a core weapon type, making them much more of a melee/range hybrid. Maybe they could use cover elements or enhanced force fields. They could mix and match powers with the other classes, and have entirely new power effects unique to these new classes.

[Nesta]

The Imperial Agent is a spy, he sneaks in covertly and undermines, rather than going in guns blazing. I've played all four "non-force" classes up through at least level 25, so I know how their stories differ, and there's plenty of room for alternatives. I know that they've covered their bases plenty well for launch, but post-launch I think it'd be worth working on the other four potentials.

 

And I agree it'd be a bit of a waste if the new ones were just clones of the existing four, if the Imp Trooper had the exact same powers as the Rep Trooper, but they don't have to. Since the Rep Trooper already has a mirror in the Bounty Hunter, the Imp Trooper can have a completely different assortment of abilities, mirrored in the Rep Contractor instead of in the existing Trooper/BH. Maybe instead of using a Gattling, the Commando equivalent could use a rocket launcher, or a sniper rifle. Maybe they could use vibroblades as a core weapon type, making them much more of a melee/range hybrid. Maybe they could use cover elements or enhanced force fields. They could mix and match powers with the other classes, and have entirely new power effects unique to these new classes.

 

Nicely put.

 

There is still room for more class archetypes, hopefully we'll see that in some expansion pack.

[smartalectwo]

Playing as an Imperial Soldier, witnessing how the world you live in is basically Hell, and at any moment, a single screw up could cost you your life because the vast majority of Sith are near sighted morons with a bad temper and no restraint. I would enjoy that story and it would be something new to witness.

 

We get to see the state of life in the Empire, the very thing you describe, through the current four classes. We don't always get to experience it first-hand, but we certainly see it all around. I don't think there's any new angle the life of a solider in the Imperial Army would show.

 

I guess there's not much that can really be done with the Imperial Troopers. They're conscripts, they're levies. They're the archetypal Stormtroopers, the guys who show up, fail to to hit the heroes and get killed. That's not really hero material. It'd be an interesting story to READ, but it'd be the odd man out when put alongside the other four classes. The Sith Empire's special forces... are the Sith, that's what the 'Hope' trailer showed anyway.

 

By comparison, the Republic Trooper is the mainstay of the Republic army, and the Jedi Order are their allies, rather than their rulers.

 

It's an overall flavour thing. The Empire has armies of conscripted faceless goons led by powerful sorceror lords, and backed up by sneaky spies and tough, ruthless mercenaries. The Republic has noble citizen-soldiers backed up by the Jedi Order and semi-heroic independent privateers. Messing with that balance too much would hurt the feel.

[Ohoni]

I guess there's not much that can really be done with the Imperial Troopers. They're conscripts, they're levies. They're the archetypal Stormtroopers, the guys who show up, fail to to hit the heroes and get killed. That's not really hero material. It'd be an interesting story to READ, but it'd be the odd man out when put alongside the other four classes. The Sith Empire's special forces... are the Sith, that's what the 'Hope' trailer showed anyway.

 

Well clearly with the Imp Trooper you control wouldn't be one of the faceless mob, he would be a "hero" Trooper, much like the Republic one, a member of a special squad or with some other sort of special dispensation that gives him some latitude to move through the game's content. He might have a more antagonistic relationship with his superiors, then the Republic one would, but he wouldn't be a complete drone either.

 

Unless they went with the direction I originally wanted them to do with the Rep Trooper and made it a pet class, in which the "core" character you play is relatively weak compared to other classes, but you can have multiple companions out at once, an entire active team of 2-3 companions (even in PvP) and your combined capabilities make you equivalent to the other classes (most of the abilities you'd have would instead be issuing commands to your companions). It's always kind of a bummer as a Trooper that they keep making me build up "Havoc Squad" into some bad### fighting unit, and yet everyone but me an Elena spend all their time back on the ship Slicing away like my own crack unit of Chinese gold farmers rather than a crack spec ops unit.