Is there any reason to play as Republic?

[ippollite]

I think being the underdog attracts a certain type of player. I dont like being the zerg, i dont like having a lack of challenge in the game. And if thats as far as it extended, it woudnt be an issue.

 

But i reckon people who roll zerg factions dont understand the scale of the issue.

 

Its not just about being destroyed in world pvp or getting ganked now and again questing by bored 50s looking for rare spawn opposite faction members so they can actually engage and enjoy some pvp.

 

What it does is destroy the economy and progression of the other faction.

 

Premades are easier to form on the zerg faction. Grouping is easier in general on the other faction. And then you come to operations where you have very small pop pools to pull from which obviously causes complications when three of your healers cant make it tonight.

And why roll a healer? Surely on a server with faction imbalance you need a stealth character so you can get your stuff done in relative peace? This means a massive disincentive to rolling any healer outside a smuggler, and any tank outside a consular just for pure survival (saying that though, any character with stealth is at a massive advantage if only because they dont have to fight their way through endless corridors of mobs to reach their little blue glowing switch, but thats for another time).

 

So what you have is not only the other faction gearing faster and organising easier and dominating the world pvp objectives (also helping to gear faster), but also you have them almost exclusively owning access to the top resources and crafting materials and everything else that pushes the economy.

 

I love a challenge, but nothing prepared me for Thaurissans auction house on alliance back in teh day. At level 40 i hit the AH on my warrior looking for some nice plate and found less than ONE PAGE of results for 40-70. So there you are in mail armour you got from whatever you could actually scavenge or scour from the few groups you had that didnt fall apart and paying a MASSIVE premium to access it because theres simply not enough cash in the economy so everyones trying to sell stuff at massive inflated prices so they can afford the other stuff that they might want also at massively inflated prices and theres your rival on the other faction swimming in plate, groups, pvp gear, and above all, money. Stuffs cheap, its bountiful and its easy. You go up against them in a 15 v 15 battleground and the vicious cycle completes.

 

Its the side of faction dominance that people really dont understand until they are on a server massively outnumbered. Youre not just fighting being outnumbered, youre fighting terrible access to resources and an economy thats keeping you miles behind your 'mirror' in the other faction. Theres so many unforseen consequences and so many little ways that work together to destroy your competitiveness that simple population numbers doesnt explicate. You have to see it and experience it to really understand it.

 

Just wait until people really start hitting those world pvp objectives though. Just wait until outlaws den starts forming internal guild alliances inside factions that CAN and will communicate with each other to keep out the other faction completely locked out of it. Just wait until the next set of world pvp objectives help pile on the incentives to roll the dominant faction. Its not even started yet, but when the numbers at 50 start increasing you watch just how bad it gets.

 

Oh, and i forgot to mention inheritance and alts. Wait until your little broke dude is rerolling a different character versus the dude on teh other faction with his plentiful supply of cheap GTN gear, mods, customisables, pots and materials. And your dude is stuck in quest gear from day one and rolling 3 gathering skills because you cant afford to have a crafter making gear that loses money vis a vis quest gear just so you can maybe make some cash at higher recipes. Oh emm gee. Its funny.

 

Still, thats why i roll the lower faction. It gives me even more incentive to laugh at the dudes trying to pretend theyre rolling empire because they LOVE the empires "deeper stories" and the like when its all just a BS smoke screen to hide the fact they rolled the dominant faction because everyone else rolled the dominant faction. It also lets me blame my poor performance in game on circumstances that im powerless to prevent.

 

For the republic and all that. Bioare made an awfuil mistake in assuming the players will sort out the balance. They will, itll just be that theyll go all into the one faction. So be it. Let the dice fall.

[sessava]

The logical response to OP is that it's going to vary on a server by server basis. I know many serves have lots of people on the Republic side at the level cap, and I know many servers have the Republic winning the majority of the warzones, not the Empire. Either way, you at least have a fair chance of winning Huttball.

 

If you don't like your server, re-roll on one in which the Republic is dominate. Or, since you seem to enjoy the Empire more, just make an Imperial. Really, I've played both sides up to the 20's and I notice very little difference in quality. Anything that you perceive as a difference in quality is likely rather just your own tastes. I personally enjoyed leveling my Republic toons more than my Imperial ones, despite my main being Imperial. Tython, Coruscant, Taris, etc, are all fantastic and the storyline for the Jedi Knight at least is fantastic.

 

I'm sure as the game goes on they will begin to merge a number of the servers they created at launch, assuming the player numbers don't continue to increase, and issues like this will be resolved.

[DenimSamurai]

meh, try doing FPs as a non-darkside empire. You can be as motivated as you want to try to get involved in the story as you want but no matter how ridiculous the choice is if it rewards darkside points everyone in your party will choose it.

[Cirraka]

It's not a server balance issue, it's a player issue. OP is bad. OP is upset because OP loses too much. OP comes here to qq about it.

 

Simple facts, it isn't because people choose to go Empire over Republic, it isn't aesthetic, if it were it wouldn't matter, since the numbers are balanced at the start of the PvP match. Mirror skills seem fairly balanced, especially since other servers are reporting differences in winnings as opposed to the OPs experience. This leaves us with the variable of play skill... hence, the OP is bad. Less qq, more pew pew.

[Vonlufia]

Whenever pvp stat tracking and valor for world pvp kills is added you won't regret playing republic, I definitely won't and I don't regret playing it now, I like hutball rarely popping.

[Bating]

On rp servers the republic are more. At least on my server, Lord Calypho, we are sometimes republic vs republic during nights in hutball (happens very few times thogh, so might be 55% republic 45% sith).

 

I play in a guild, and when we premade 4 people we win 4 out of 5 times, only time we loose is versus a empire 4 man premade, and that is like 50% chanse to win anyway.

 

Love this server, and i think empire like it as well. And the community aint rly that hardcore rp yet, but guess they will come up to 50 soon so I dont rp at all, but i accept the rules.

[tokosan]

i wish bioware would come out with census info, because this is crap. i hate 2-faction games because they can never get the balance right

 

wtb gw2!

[Shortwave]

Republic needs cosmetic fixes and mirror fixes. Better looking races, better looking armor, better looking spell effects. All of which are lacking compared to the Empire.

 

The solution will not come about if people reroll from Imp to Rep for the sake of balance. Players cannot fix this problem. Bioware made this problem, only they can fix it.

 

Indeed.

 

I play a Smuggler, but I enjoy the IA much more. Yeah the Empire is all evil and junk, and I do have a problem with them being fascist, but in the end it's just a game and in this game the Empire side, cosmetically at least (imo), is far better than the Republic. The Imperial Fleet looks better, the IA is far cooler than my Smug even if it is a "mirror," and beyond that the IA story is far better than the bland Smug story. Although I will admit pistol whipping people and kicking them in the balls is pretty awesome. What supposedly mirrors a BH, a Trooper? Yeah, imho, a Trooper isn't 1/1000 as appealing as a BH in terms of spells or character aura - and I'd wager a fair amount of people would agree. I mean, as a healer, I think the BH's spells far surpass the Trooper's; besides the BH has a jet pack and shoots friggin rockets out of his arm! The trooper, on the other hand, looks like (s)he's running around with a leaf blower.

 

In the end, though, to answer the question posed in the title of this thread: A reason would be if your wife plays Rep and refuses to go Empire. I fully intended to go Republic before this game was released, but when I hit up that character creation screen, I found the Empire was far more appealing - I tried to convince the wife, but she takes his lore waaaay too seriously. I can't blame her though... if you have a very keen sense of [rl] history the Empire can be extremely unappealing, even if the aesthetics aren't.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Shortwave

[iheartnyc]

With the time I put in to work/education I'll be doing less hours when I go full time, it's not hard unless you are pulling ridiculous hours in your job.

 

 

 

This thread might be out of your depth.

 

Lol at students thinking that they will have more time once they START working full time and actually have a career (which involves far more than just showing up to the office from 9-6 everyday).

 

Weekdays: get in the office by 9. Work until 6-8 (if I'm lucky). Grab dinner/eat at desk/spend time with friends/girlfriend/working out/buying necessities/grooming/washing/cleaning home/paying bills/checking mail/reading mail/reading the news/laundry/dry cleaning.

 

Weekends: maybe work/catch a movie/meet friends/girlfriend/workout/play sports/drinking/church/bday parties.

 

None of this includes playing any of the OTHER great games out there right now (BF3, Skyrim, just to name two).

 

I've had this game for about a month now. I try to squeeze in at least 2 hours a day. I'm only at level 25. I think this is "normal" for a working professional. With a social life. Sacrifice any of the above to make more time if need be.

Edited January 13, 2012 by iheartnyc

[iamzombie]

Personally, this sounds like a case of the grass always being greener.

 

When early access started, I rolled a sith inquisitor on a pvp server, went sorc, enjoyed it and being evil was cool, but expected.

 

Wife decides she wants to play, but doesn't like pvp servers... Fine, reroll (my sorc lvl 46!) republic on a pve server...

 

Ya know what? I don't notice a difference 90% of the time. Most of the classes are direct mirrors of their imperial counterparts. I don't find the spell effects to be any better or worse on one side or the other, I don't find the armor to be all that worse looking. I don't find the storylines to be any better, or worse. I DO find femshep's voice-acting to be worth the price of admission as a female commando, but I also miss the accent of my rattaki sorc :/

 

And ya know what else? being evil as republic is WAY more fun than doing it as sith.

[StormDragonlord]

I guess I don't understand the Sith side mindset. Who watched Star Wars as a kid and wanted to be the Emperor or Darth Vader? I always wanted to be Luke or Han Solo. Republic side lets you live out those fantasies.

 

Oh my god.. they are freaking bland, boring humans! One with a saber and another one with a pistol, what's so good about that? Of-freaking course I would prefer to be The Sith Emperor instead of some guy with a pistol or another guy with a saber. Really it's like someone's giving you the choice to have a lot of power and be ****** and instead you choose to stay human with a pew pew in your hands. BORING!

[Ramayana]

I just wanted to play a Jedi character, preferably a Jedi Knight. The thing that I find strange is that some people purport Jedi being an RL religion, whereas Sith is nowhere to be seen. I truly thought Sith/Empire would be the underdog. My mistake it seems.

 

It's a pity the Jedi (and Republic) classes and story lines are so underwhelming at this stage. I really hope there is some sort of review of this sort of thing, though I doubt it will occur. Playing Empire really isn't all that great in my opinion. It's vaguely amusing playing the biggest *****hole in the universe for a little while, then the allure wears off. I like the Republic worlds/backdrops a lot better.

[redsoxx]

could just be the server u are on i play republic and have only lost 2 pvps but then again i havent played empire yet so idk

[Maximanimo]

Is mathematics not your strong side?

 

60/40 in a handful of games isn't a big statistic, when we talk about thousands of games that is a huge gap between sides.

 

Take a 1000 game sample, 600 are won by Empire 400 are won by Republic, the gap shouldn't be that high in a game that should have a basic amount of class mirroring and the likes.

 

is it like hotdogs and hamburger?

[Slightlycampana]

If you are interested in the whole faction choice issue, you can complete my poll

[SaltAU]

The Empire side was ALWAYS going to dominate this game. I spent 5 minutes look at the information that was around a few months ago, progression videos, etc and absolutely without any question at all decided that the Empire side was going to easily be the more populous faction. I was correct and it was pathetically easy to see, so why couldn't BioWare?

 

Then I actually played the game and realised that even the story quests and quests in general were better also. I really do wonder what BioWare were thinking when they were designing this game. If it fails, they have absolutely nobody to blame but themselves as far as I'm concerned.

[Radmouse]

(don't tell me that people are still leveling, it is incredibly easy to hit level cap while holding down a job and being a university student)

 

I'm unemployed, I play almost completely nonstop. My highest character is level 22.

[racsofp]

I'm an evil person in real life so when I get on here I like to pretend I'm a good guy.

 

Wait...that works much better in reverse when people use that as a reason for playing Imp side.

[Aweus]

Not necessarily, its more due to the fact that evil tends to be portrayed more realistically, with compromises and rationalizations, whereas good comes across as such a monofaceted stereotype as not to be believed that it makes for less compelling storylines and characters.

Evil allows for the gray area that makes for 3 dimensional content and antiheroes, where as ultra good will not allow such compromise.

That is not quite the case in SWTOR however. I tend to play "good" characters but for example in Mass Effect my Shepard is renegade and I love it much more from paragon version. Mostly becouse "bad" choices that Shepard makes are justified by means to achieve the ultimate goal. And when Shepard needs to sacrifice something he/she does that with a heavy heart but knowing that there is no backing away from duty. You are racing against foe who wants to exterminate your civilization. Put yourself in a position of such character (and not a gamer who sits on a couch and knows that "everything is going to be all right no matter what I choose"). In such case bad or even cruel choices can find justification.

 

In SWTOR? My main is republic and now I play an empire alt to get the story. And for me lots of those evil choices are not justified at all. Many times you are doing something just for sake of being a d**k. And in other cases you kill someone for a spare change that would hardly buy you a beer in cantina.

 

Bioware too often gives you a choice like this: "A) Oh, I will save you. And then I will give you all my money so you can start a new life! B) Silence! I kill you!." Exaggerated but you get the idea. My point is, that "evil" can be as much dull as "good" and often is in this game.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Aweus

[Icecrypt]

you barely need to play huttball.

[Caramel_Ham]

Reason?

 

I wants to roll a TROOPER!

 

They look bad *** with the big machine gun.

 

That said, i am very invested in the Imperial side atm (3 toons), so my Trooper shall have to wait.

[ippollite]

Never fear playing a dark side character. No matter what your choice, whether it was for self interest, sadism, or nihilism, it will still be written off in game as an overall great decision by someone or other.

 

There are no dark side choices at all, just varying degrees of light. I just plunged aldaraan into civil war instead of working for a peace that i busted my hump to deliver, but apparently thats for the best Ive killed hundreds of people when prompted, but thats all fine because secretly they either had it coming or it was a necessary sacrifice for a greater long term good. Im level 30, rank 4 dark side. Ive got 850 points in teh light side for saving my jedi buddies (boo! though i had to kill two of them to avoid losing my little red light saber), but no worries. Dark side yay! Even if making that decision gives you shivers and makes you anthropomorphise pixels on a computer screen who have no future life or impact on the world, youll still get a letter from someone with a reward reminding you that all was in fact for the best, in this the best of all possible worlds

 

Its like Dr Pangloss wrote the choices himself!

[krameriffic]

Forgetting about any supposed differences in the quality of stories and questing or any of the minor class imbalances that favor the Empire, the fact that there are more people there simply makes an MMO more interesting to play on that faction. If you're not part of a dedicated guild and you need to form pickup groups with other human beings to accomplish some of the excellent group content in the game, then you need a larger player pool. The Empire provides that, the Republic does not.

[Capthxc]

My reason for playing a pub is to mix up the story and planets so i dont get burned out.

 

The reason why it isnt my main? The gear looks absolutely horrible. I remember BW trying to defend it not to long ago by saying "some" people like it. But the fact still remains that the opinions of many outweigh the opinions of a few. People arent going to play something that they dont like to look at.

[harpuax]

I really don't understand the alure of the Empire faction. I have tried to play each class now on that side and can't stand it. The empire npc's are so over confidant and arrogant it's annoying. I just want to say, you do realize you capitol is in a swamp right? some grand empire you have here. Now the republic are pretty cliche as well but not so pompous as the empire, at least they talk like normal people (and no I am not referring to their accents) for the most part (a few jedi aside). No wonder the sith are so full of hate, I want to force choke every npc (and a few of the the player voiced chars) I talk to

 

 

The pvp imbalance just makes me not want to pvp (at least on my server) You are either shooting fish in a barrel or you are the fish being shot in the barrel, neither is very fun.

Edited January 13, 2012 by harpuax