How Grey Gear/Neutral Alignment should work.

[Latorn]

Ahh yes, the suggestion forums. Since these forums are essentially a place for players to throw ideas that will never be implemented, just to get them out of their mind I'll do the same. In case you don't know what I'm referring to in the title here's an article that may help: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/11/swtors-alignment-system-will-offer-exclusive-loot-for-neutral-players/. This system is in anticipation for when alignment rewards are expanded upon and actually matter: "However, once we get to the next stage of our light side/dark side system, you’ll see the rewards. Light Side, Dark Side and the grey items will all get more powerful."

 

The current alignment system looks like this (L= Light, D= Dark, N= Neutral):'

 

L V

 

L IV

 

L III

 

L II

 

L I

 

N

 

D I

 

D II

 

D III

 

D IV

 

D V

 

 

In order to have a balanced alignment system, and allow people to have the freedom of making their own choices, the future alignment system should look like this (points of alignment will count for both neutral and dark/light rewards at their given tier):

 

L V + N I

 

L IV + N II

 

L III + N III

 

L II + N IV

 

L I + N V

 

N + N V

 

D I + N V

 

D II + N IV

 

D III + N III

 

D IV + N II

 

D V + N I

 

 

The "powerful" alignment rewards mentioned in the pc gamer article should not require higher than the IV stage of alignment in order to obtain them, V stage alignment should purely be cosmetic (small pet, mount, etc.). This means the only weakness in this proposed alignment system is if the player is at the either of the points L III + N III or D III + N III, but this weakness is counteracted because it is quite simple for a player to slide to L IV + N II, L II + N IV, D IV + N II, or D II + N IV. There you have it, I don't know why it's so difficult to implement. This game prides itself on story and decision making, yet is currently punishing players for making their own decisions (and will continue to do so if endgame alignment rewards are made stronger). When a grey gear system along these lines is implemented, that will no longer be the case.

 

 

TL;DR: Look at the diagrams and try to figure it out.